Amen. Our Lord Jesus. Teaches us to pray. In Matthew 6. And we often call it the Lord's Prayer or maybe the model prayer, but in that prayer he teaches us to pray our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. You see the King James coming, that's thy kingdom come. Thou will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And I just want to take that phrase for just a second here as we introduce the text Acts chapter two. I want to think about that phrase, thy kingdom come. And what does that mean? Because I know probably most of you and me, growing up, when I think about, oh, we want the Lord's kingdom to come, we might have thought about just the future thing. Okay, so we're praying for, I guess when we pray for thy kingdom to come, we're praying for Jesus to return. Now, there is a sense that the kingdom will be fully recognized and be a physical kingdom, as it were, when Jesus puts his foot on the earth and we have the new heavens and new earth. So there's an aspect of that, okay? But there's also a very real aspect that that prayer has been answered in a sense and is being answered even this morning. As you come together from all over Perry County and from outside of Perry County and you travel and you gather and you worship, this is God's kingdom, the church. The kingdom has come and is coming. And that's what we're doing in Acts. We're seeing this laid out for us. We've called the shorthand version of our title for Acts is King Jesus Builds His Church. So there's a kingdom. And we don't have a full-orbed ecclesiology in Acts in the sense of like every little detail spelled out for us. But we do have the foundation for our ecclesiology in the book of Acts. As we study this book together, we begin to understand more and more what the church is. and how it is the fruit of what Christ has done as we've already celebrated already the gospel this morning. And you'll hear it again in this message. And so this morning, we're going to take just three verses, two and a half, kind of really, verse 11 through 13. And we're going to explore the mighty works of God. Now, I know we're going slow through Acts 2. I thought about this. It comes as no surprise. I don't know. It surprises me, but I know it doesn't surprise you. But I just think about it. I saw stuff. There's just so many weird views of Pentecost. So I'm OK. We're going to understand this. We're going to do our due diligence. Acts chapter 2. And I'm going to read verses 1 through 13. That's kind of the first section. We're kind of concluding that first section this morning. So Acts chapter 2, verse 11 through 13 is our focus. We'll read the first 13 verses. Would you stand so we honor the reading of God's word. Here we go. When the day of Pentecost arrived, They were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as a fire appeared to them, and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each one of us in his own native language, Parthians and Medes, Elimithites, I always butcher that one, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and Proselytes, Cretans and Arabians." Now here's where we begin in our text. We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, what does this mean? But others, mocking, said they are filled with new wine. Father, help me. Help us, Lord, there's continuing of worship right now. The preaching of your word is worship, it's worship for the preacher, it's worship for the hearers. We haven't started worship and now pause for the preaching and then we'll pick it up again when we sing. Preaching is worship. And so give us ears to hear. Let us respond appropriately. Lord, there are some here who need to surrender to Christ today. They need to repent and believe the Gospel. And as Brother Gunnar has already told us, they shouldn't wait until the end of the sermon to do that. They should do so now. You spare their life. They should do so now before it's too late. We pray that Christ is exalted. Help us to understand the verses, but also the big picture. Help us to understand the Kingdom. Lord, even as we smell the food being cooked and this morning in the kitchen, and it's hard to focus as we think about that, but give us grace to hear what you have to say. Let us be more hungry for the word of God. We pray for our military, their families. The leadership of our military, we pray for wisdom, godly wisdom. We pray for godly courage. We pray for protection. Most importantly, as was prayed in a prayer meeting this morning, we pray that Christ would be shared, that the reality of the brink of war would cause people to think about the state of their soul and that you would raise up believers who are not afraid to tell even generals and colonels and people in the Air Force and Marines and Army. Lord, give them Navy. Give them Christ. It's in revival. What we need in this world, more than nuclear disarmament, what we need more than that is revival. And I pray that you would give us Christ. Help us to navigate these days and stay faithful. Without your grace, we won't. So we plead for it in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. So Acts 2 is commonly called the birth of the church. And if I may, when we talk about the birth of the church, Let me just play on that analogy for just a moment. So we talk about the birth of the church, but this does not mean that the church is not present in the Old Testament, okay? So go with the analogy for a second. You know one thing you don't have to learn here at Providence Baptist Church? You don't have to learn about babies. We got lots of them, right? There are children everywhere. So you ladies and you husbands, you know that life begins at conception. And so just like the church we might say is publicly birthed in Acts 2, does not mean that it's not present and alive in the Old Testament. It's there, but if you want to go with that analogy, it's she's in the womb. Still existing, but maybe not fully understood yet, not fully known yet, not publicly recognized yet until you get to Acts 2. So then in verse 4, it says in Acts 2, 4, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. It's Acts 2, chapter 4, and so there's a question. I hope you have this question. Maybe you don't, but I'm going to introduce it to you. The question is, what do we need to understand about the believers in the Old Testament? There were believers. Abraham, and Moses, and David, and Noah, Isaiah, countless others unnamed. Did they not have the Holy Spirit then at all? Well, I'm going to argue here just for a moment, they did have the Holy Spirit. A few reasons for that. One, you can't be a believer without the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Alright, so there's something different about Acts 2, right? Yes. Yes, there is. And what is different for Acts 2 and us today with the Holy Spirit? Well, I'm going to read a quote from a Baptist theologian, Philip Griffiths, and then I'm going to read a quote from our confession. And I'm just going to kind of give you a pre-sermon sermon. But three kind of overarching points. Okay, so first, Philip Griffiths, he says this, Pre-Pentecost believers were as fully in the covenant of grace the new covenant in Christ as we are today. But it was only at Pentecost they experienced the true liberty of the children of God. I think that's a good statement. I agree with it. Our own confession. You should know this. The 1689 chapter 11, paragraph six says this. In all these ways, the justification of believers under the Old Testament was exactly the same as the justification of believers under the New Testament. That is, under the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit applied Christ to the hearts of believers. The Holy Spirit's active there. And so what is the difference? But there's got to be a difference at Pentecost, right? So let me just give you an overarching. This is not your outline. You can write it down. You can think about it. But just three overarching points about what's different now in Acts 2 and now today for us. What is different for us than Old Testament saints? Well, a couple, three things. There's personal awareness. So, number one, there's personal awareness. That is, now there is a personal understanding of, as Christians, of our adoption in Christ, of our standing with God. Like Romans 8 says, that his spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. So there's that aspect. Not that that is completely missing, but I think there's... More of that. Secondly, there's public attestation. So there's personal awareness. Secondly, there's there's a public attestation. There's a public testimony, as it were, that Pentecost is a public event where the presence of God is undeniably now in the church. God publicly affirms here in Acts chapter two that these are my people. And I am in them and I am with them. And likewise, the church understands its understanding or its standing in Christ and its union with one another through Christ, the head, that this is the people of God. This is eschatological Israel. This is the kingdom. And then thirdly, powerful accomplishments. We're talking about what's different now. So don't forget. Powerful accomplishment. Don't forget Acts chapter 1. We go slow and so sometimes you can be like, well I forget what's happened. Go back to Acts chapter 1 and remember verse 4. Acts chapter 1 verse 4. And while staying with them, He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said, You heard from Me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. And then Acts 1, verse 8, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. I've told you before, that's not like for a cute little mission book or whatever. Rather, by powerful accomplishment, I mean that the Spirit is given to the church in a powerful way to accomplish the Great Commission. Right? That the Kingdom of Christ would extend globally over all the earth. That it would not just include one nation, but that it would include all nations. that by the Spirit of God now present publicly in the church, that He is regenerating hearts, that He's uniting us together, He's uniting sinners to Christ, and all of that comes about through the heralding of the Gospel. So that just sets the foundation, I hope. It helps you to understand what's happening in Acts 2. Let me ask you this question. Let me get make a statement for because understanding Pentecost rightly is going to help us understand and love the church. Just question. Simple question. You got to answer it in your heart. Do you love the church? Do you love? The church. Because all those filled with the Holy Spirit. Will love the church. You've grown up your whole life hearing things like you don't have to go to church to be a Christian. The church is not the building. And and there's we could talk about that. I'm not going to right now. You've been fed a lot of junk and a lot of lies. I believe it's satanic in some ways. But if you're filled with the Holy Spirit of God, if you are a Christian, you're going to love the church. We see that here. So now, in our text, now we get down to verse 11, and really I wrote down 11b because it's that second part here, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. So the church here is speaking in known languages, not made up languages, not angel languages, whatever, known languages of these people, the native languages of these people, and what are they speaking? Well, you heard the ESV, the mighty works of God, or the King James says, if you're using that this morning, the wonderful works of God, The Christian Standard Bible says, the magnificent acts of God, or the LSB says, the mighty deeds of God. But the point in all of this is, in the words of the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, the point here is that these mighty acts of God, that these are those which relate to and consist in the story of Christ. in which form the content of New Testament proclamation. So when they say, look at verse 11, I want you to see it with your eyes there. And when they say, they hear them speaking in their own language, the mighty works of God. I've made this point already by making it again. I've made it in previous sermons that the point of this miraculous event is that it is serving the testimony to the glory of God and what he has accomplished in Christ. This is going to help you in maybe discussion with friends or seeing things for what they are. It's not the act of tongue speaking in and of itself that's being celebrated. The tongues are a means to an end. They're being used to magnify Christ. They're being used to tell forth the mighty works there in verse 11 of God. Now, you already know my position. The special gift of tongues has ceased. But listen to this. its effect hasn't. What's the reason? I think one reason I'm going to argue that tongues is ceased is because we see the effect today. What tongues was foreshadowing and establishing is that one day all tongues would be proclaiming Christ. And guess what? It's hard for you because you just think, you know, you watch a movie or something, all movies we watch are in English. You know, you see these, you think, well, everybody's always spoken English. No, our language didn't even exist then. But in a sense, the effect of what began at Pentecost is continuing on today. What are we doing here at Providence Baptist Church in a foreign tongue, as it were? We're declaring the mighty works of God. This is glorious. So again, there's a lesson I want you to remember. Wherever the Holy Spirit is active, just know this, when you're watching something on television, or when someone tells you about a church service, or you hear, whenever the Holy Spirit is active and working, Christ and His work are being magnified. So if you see a place where a person is being magnified, or listen to this, even this, this is subtle, numbers are being magnified, or a gift is being magnified, or material blessings are being magnified, that's not the work of the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit, it is His joy and glory. As the third person of the Trinity, co-equal with the Father and Son, It is his joy and glory to magnify Christ. That's what he does. Okay. So I do have three points. The Holy spirit magnifies the wonderful works of God and the culmination of the wonderful works of God are the excellencies of Christ and his completed work. Point number one is going to scare you because it's going to be long. The other points are not going to be as long. Don't be scared. Number one, the mystery, the mystery. So look at verse 12 for just a second and we'll do a little background work. That's why it's going to be so long. Verse back background on the mighty works of God. So verse 12 says this and all were amazed and perplexed saying to one another, what does this mean? Perplexed like they don't understand what is happening. So again, I just need to make the point. of the comment here about the gift of tongues. It's not being used here. The gift of tongues is not being used here to convert these people. They don't understand what it means. Like, what's going on here? That's the question. OK, so so you can hold this position, but I would argue you don't have warrant from scripture to hold this position. We do not have warrant from Acts 2 to say that God is using the miraculous work of people speaking in language, languages they've never learned before in order to bring about conversions. Now, can God do that? Amen! God can use a rock to preach the gospel. God has the ability to write the gospel in the sky. God has the ability for a person on an island to see a goat walking by and a goat to preach the gospel. Right? That sounds funny, but God has that ability. So the question is not, what can God do? Or what can God do or not do? Whatever. The question is, what do the Scriptures show us that God is doing? Right? Because God can do all sorts of things that He does not do. You understand? The Scriptures are our only sure and infallible guide to understanding what God is doing. Does that make sense? So if you want to believe, I mean, I would highly recommend you don't believe it, but if you want to believe that God is sending Tide Pods all over the world today, and they explode, and out comes the gospel, you want to believe that? I mean, can God do that? Yeah? I appreciate that, Margie. He can. It's not outside of his power. But is God doing that? No. And I'm like, I'm OK being dogmatic about it. He's not doing that. Why? Because I have a Bible that shows me how God is working. So consider that. Think about that. Now, God can do all sorts of things that he doesn't do. The scriptures show us what he is doing. Now, this miracle of tongues is perplexing to the crowd. And they, verse 12, and they were all amazed and perplexed. OK, it is a mystery. They don't know how to understand it and they won't know how to understand it until Christ is preached by Peter. And that's going to happen in just a few verses. Now, what I want to do for a moment here is we're just going to pull back the curtain and we're going to meditate for a moment on the work of the Holy Spirit. that we see in the scriptures. So the crowd is perplexed about what's going on here. And I'm trying to help us not be perplexed. We want us to know. And so what we're going to do is we're going to build a foundation by considering four aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit. And some of this is just kind of in the background and kind of less relevant, particularly to the text. But we'll kind of move closer to the text. But I want to share with you a quote from Owen, John Owen. And I agree. He said not to avow the spirit of God in his work is to be ashamed of the gospel and of the promise of Christ as if it were a thing not to be owned. In the world. So what do we believe here about the Holy Spirit? We believe he is glorious, he is God, and he is absolutely necessary to the continuation of the work of Christ in the world today. Let me give you four points. There'll be a lot more, but just an overview. Number one, consider his work in creation. Just going to spend a quick minute here. The Holy Spirit, we affirm again, he is God. He's the third person of the Trinity. He is co-equal, co-eternal with God, the father and God, the son. He is not an it. He is a person. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and this includes all three persons of the Trinity. But it's interesting, Job 26.13, I'll quote the CSB, it says, By his breath, the heavens gained their beauty. Or the King James says, By his spirit, he hath garnished the heavens. So these are bringing out the meaning there of Job, I think, better. So two things to consider here. Number one, the Holy Spirit is an active agent, as it were. He is active in the creation of the world. But also, I think there's something that we should learn, and that is he is, in a sense, one who beautifies creation. He took the unformed mass of God, as it were, the mass that God spoke into existence, and he made it into something beautiful. And I'm not separating the person of the Trinity, but we're just trying to contemplate. Much more I could say there, but we just can't spend time there because it's a little less relevant to the text directly. Okay. Secondly, more relevant, but we just got to do some work here. So track with me. Covenant. So, number one, creation. Number two, covenant. Now, the text says, back in verse 11, that they're hearing in their own tongues the mighty works of God. Now, I don't know all that's being said, but I think some of what I'm about to say, at least later on in this point, they do hear. Okay? So, I'm going to get to that, but I've got to lay some foundation for you. I'm trying to argue that the Holy Spirit is not just showing up in Acts 2. Like where's he been? No, he's been active all along. And in fact, particularly right now, let me just say this. He was active as it were, and this is hard, breaks our mind, but he's active in eternity past. All right, so first I want you to consider a verse, you can look this up later, Luke 22, 29. Luke 22, 29. Jesus says, this Jesus says, I assign to you as my father assigned to me a kingdom. What's that tell us? Well, the word for a sign, Luke 22, 29, you'll look it up later. The word for a sign in that text is the verbal form of the word for covenant. So God is saying, or Jesus is saying, I'm covenanting to you, as it were, as the Father covenanted to me a kingdom. Okay, so God made a covenant with Christ in order for Christ to have a kingdom. Now, a kingdom is very important about a kingdom. A kingdom doesn't just exist territorially, but a kingdom is made up of people. So you can't have a kingdom without subjects. So just track with me for a moment, we'll get back to the text, but who are the subjects of Christ's kingdom? Where are these people going to come from? Ah, our confession. Chapter three, paragraph three, says this by God's decree and for the demonstration of his glory, some human beings and angels are predestined or foreordained to eternal life through Jesus Christ to the praise of his glorious grace. Others are left to live in their sin, leading to their just condemnation, to the praise of his glorious justice. That's the Ephesians one, four and five, for example, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. How how how do we get here? How do we venture off into this? I'm making an argument that before you get the activity of the spirit in Acts chapter two, that you have the activity of the spirit, even in the act of predestination. Theologians call this the covenant of redemption. Again, our confession, chapter 7, paragraph 3, says there is an eternal covenant transaction between the Father and the Son concerning the redemption of the elect. And a lot of people, when they talk about the covenant of redemption, they do. They talk about the Father and the Son. But I'm adding here, because I think it's important, the Holy Spirit is not uninvolved in this. Right? So, before the world existed, God had a plan to save a people for Himself. What is all this happening in the world today? Even when we talk about Iran, and Israel, and America, and all these things. Trump, and Netanyahu, and all these things. Is God just responding to these things? Or is God sovereign over these things? And God is sovereign over these things, including the redemption of his people. So before the foundation of the world, God made a plan. I'm going to have a people for my own possession who magnify my name and spread out over all the earth. And the triune God covenanted together, if you will, made an agreement, made a plan, an eternal plan to rescue fallen sinners through Christ. So how does this work? The father gave the son a chosen people, chose them individuals as a people now out of the mass of fallen humanity to rescue, gave them to the son. The son accepted this gift. Jesus, the son of God, accepted, agreed to become legally or covenantally obligated to them to be their surety, to be the representative. And then the Holy Spirit's active in this. This is the argument I'm making. The Holy Spirit agreed to apply the redemption accomplished by Christ to the elect in time. Well, you're just using an opportunity to talk about soteriology. Well, of course, always. However, this does apply to Acts 2 because, well, first of all, it's more indirectly connected. But it is behind the scenes. Because what you have in Acts chapter 2 is now this coming to light. God is declaring publicly that the promised kingdom covenanted to Christ has come in the church. And this is publicly manifest by the Holy Spirit falling upon the church as part of God's eternal plan. And if you think I'm way off base here, I'm not, because I'm going to show you something. He's talking about the mighty works of God in verse 11 flow out of the eternal plan of God. And if you just think, well, it's way off base to talk about predestination and eternity. But am I though? Because what does Peter preach? Look down, just look down and go to verse 23. What is Peter preaching here? In verse 23, he says, this Jesus delivered up according to what? the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. Now listen to me, when you hear foreknowledge, you just want to think that God can look through, or some of you, God can look through time and know what's going to happen. Well, of course God knows what's going to happen, but God has never looked through time and learned anything. You understand? For God to look through time and learn something is for God not to be God. So the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, we take these things together and we say this, God has an eternal plan to save a people unworthy, but according to His sovereign grace. And the point is that in time, all of this is coming to fruition now. In time, the Son of God took on flesh, this human nature being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Jesus, if you remember, in His ministry, was publicly anointed with the Holy Spirit at His baptism, which is part, Jesus says, of His fulfilling all righteousness, identifying with His people. And now we kind of wade into the whole storyline of Scripture, if you will. God made man upright. Adam is placed into the garden to work it and to keep it. of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. What's contained in that is the entirety of the moral law rests on that. That Adam is called to love the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and he's called to love his wife Eve as himself. and to obey the law that God had given him and to fulfill the covenant of works by doing what God said to do. Now, you know the story, but we're just rehearsing it here. What happened? Adam sinned, Adam fell, Eve sinned, and since Adam was the federal head of all humanity, all of us have sinned in Adam. The youngest person in this room, and we'll use this, that I know of, unless there's something I don't know about, but the youngest person in this room Baby Jedidiah. It's hard, but let's remember he has already sinned in Adam. What? Yes, because Adam is our federal head. We broke the covenant of works. And God, in His justice, could have wiped out all humanity at that very moment. But remember that He already had a plan. That didn't catch Him off guard. Even this fall flowed out of His plan to save unworthy rebels, to magnify Christ by a sovereign grace. And even as we're going to memorize soon, Genesis 3.15, God promises that His covenant of grace will come to fruition, saving sinners by the work of King Jesus, the seed of the woman who will step on the serpent's head and deal him a death blow. And so Christ steps in to do what Adam left undone, and to not do all that Adam did do wrongly. What I'm saying is Jesus perfectly obeys God. Adam did not. You did not. We have fallen. And then, here's an unfathomable reality. To send Jesus to obey the law of God, that's humbling in and of itself, as we've read in our catechism. the state of his humiliation, that he was born, that he took on human flesh, that he was born to a low estate, to an impoverished family, as it were. And that in and of itself is humbling enough. But you understand that Jesus keeping the law, that's only one aspect of it. He did keep the law. Praise God. He's worthy of praise just for that. But then here's an unfathomable and mind-blowing reality. This Jesus, who is perfect and righteous and holy and good, this Jesus lays down his life For unworthy rebels. For us who are not good. For us who are not righteous. And we're not just neutral, like, well, you're not righteous, but at least you're not unrighteous. No, no. Us who are filthy and vile and wicked. This Jesus goes to the cross. This righteous Christ goes to the cross. The Son of God. God in the flesh. And He's punished. Not for His sins. But for ours. Sexual morality and thievery and lying and covetousness and idolatry and homosexuality go on and on and on. He's he he bears the blame. He bears God's wrath in our place as our substitute. This Jesus is dead, he's he's buried, and on the third day, up from the grave, he arose. But I don't think that what the church is saying in Acts 2 stops there. Sometimes we stop there. We shouldn't stop there. Because it's also, remember, it's just on their minds because they just saw it ten days previous. Don't forget. They're not just talking about, hey, Jesus rose again from the dead. That's important. And I understand that properly speaking, we could stop the gospel there as it were, but I just want you to know the context. What else would they be saying? Not that you said Jesus rose again from the dead, but what? Where is He now? He ascended. He ascended into heaven. And I promise you, they're not saying, well, one day we're just going to wait around and one day he's going to come back and he's going to be king. No, no, no. They are saying, and I'm going to argue when we get to Peter's sermon, Peter is preaching. He's king now. The son of David that was promised in the Old Testament, he's here. It's Jesus. He's king. He's reigning now. He's ascended. This is all here. And so they're preaching. They're foretelling here Christ and His kingdom. And His kingdom, what is the kingdom of Christ? It's the church. It's comprised of those born again, repenting of their sins, brought into union with Christ, having been justified, that is, declared righteous, having the righteous life of Christ imputed to us, credited to our accounts by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. Now, I don't know all the verbatim, the details of 2.11. You know, they're the mighty works of God. But based on what Peter is about to preach in the following verses, I think at least some of what I've covered was proclaimed as the mighty works of God. The point is, they're not just talking about creation. They're not just talking about the falling of the Holy Spirit upon the church. They were telling what God had done in Christ to save unworthy sinners by His marvelous grace and how the public coming of the Holy Spirit was part of God's plan and the fruit of Christ's work. The public inauguration here of the kingdom, if you will, had arrived. All right, third point under this heading. Creation, covenant, thirdly, conversion. I just want to make I need to make a point here about the Holy Spirit. We're going to see this in Acts 10. You're going to see it in Acts 16. But the argument I'm making here is that the Holy Spirit works in time to take the gospel and to apply it to hearts in such a way that sinners are convicted of their sins. They're drawn to Christ. Their hearts are open. They turn from sin and they put their faith in Jesus. This is the work of the spirit. So so let me just say something here. We're very and by the way, I think Saturday we're going to do some public evangelism. You're invited to join us. If you can't join us, would you pray for us? Now, we're very, very serious here about preaching the gospel and we're very serious about evangelism. We're very serious about sharing Christ, but I need to just not rebuke us or anything, but just caution us, remind us here. As equally important. Is the work of the Holy Spirit. If we're preaching the gospel and the Holy Spirit is not with us, we preach in vain. If we try to do ministry and the Holy Spirit is not with us, we do it in vain. We need the Holy Spirit. Now, even when he doesn't regenerate, he is still working to magnify Christ in the preaching of the gospel. Amen. But is there not a desire in our hearts to see sinners saved? There ought to be. If you have no desire in your heart to see our fellow countrymen, to see our neighbors, people in Perry County and in Central Argonne, if you have no desire to see them saved, how can you say that you're saved? We want them saved. And so we need the spirit to be with us in our preaching and to work in the hearts of those who would otherwise never yield to Christ because of their sin. And you say to me, well, I can't go out evangelizing with you, but I guess all I can do is pray for you. What? All you can do? No, that's glorious. We need you to pray because we need the spirit. And now let me say this before moving on. You've heard the gospel this morning. That's something I want to deal with, like even with my own children. So my own children, listen to this for just a moment. And I want the rest of the children too, obviously, though I have a special heart for my children. But I want all the children to hear this. I want some of the adults to hear this too. A lot of times, especially in kind of reform, soteriological circles, I have kids who say things like, well, you know, one day, I guess the Holy Spirit, they don't say it this way, but it's kind of this mindset. Well, I guess one day the Holy Spirit, he'll just I can't be a Christian yet. The Holy Spirit is not going to work or whatever. I think I support theology. What I mean is. Do you see yourself as a sinner? Like you're actually not discerned, let me give it to you this way. The windmill is not to discern whether or not the wind is blowing. What's the windmill do? It just responds to the wind. And your responsibility, little boy, little girl, Listen to me now. Your responsibility is not to say, well, I just don't know if the Holy Spirit is working yet or not. No, no. Your responsibility is to repent and believe the Gospel. Listen, do you feel a conviction for your sin? Do you know that you stand under the judgment of God? That if God were to come back right now, that you would stand condemned and that you would go to hell. Do you see that? Do you see that before God? Do you understand? Okay, then your responsibility, little boy, little girl, your responsibility is to go to Christ, to repent, to go to Jesus. And I promise you, if you go to Jesus, we'll all affirm the Holy Spirit's working. We know that. And your responsibility is to call upon the Lord and be saved. And that's for all of you. No matter your age. To go to Christ. To believe. You've heard the gospel. And just like the Holy Spirit took the the unformed mass, as it were, of Genesis one and beautified it, if you want to think of it that way. So, too, can he take your sick? Dead, dark. Rebellious heart. And he can beautify it by grace. He can apply the blood of Christ. And though your sins be like scarlet. The Bible says they will be you will be as white as snow. Come. Belief. Rest in Christ. OK, fourthly, I need to move on creation, covenant conversion, church. Now, just look at a pronoun. with me in verse 11, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. OK, who is the them? It's the church. So the work of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and beyond. Ultimately, is the church the fruit of Christ's suffering? is the church, the assembling, the building, the nourishing, the sanctifying, the furthering of the church. This is all the Holy Spirit's activity. Friend, do you love the Holy Spirit? You need to know this morning that the same Holy Spirit at work in Acts 2 is also at work in us. Of course, you already know, I'm convinced from the storyline of Scripture that the revelatory gifts like speaking in tongues and prophecy, that these things have ceased. We'll get to those things more, prophecy. But in no way, I just don't want you to misunderstand me. That this is not saying the Holy Spirit is inactive today. No, he's active. Think about this church. He's gifted this church in a variety of ways. We see that here. We have some brothers here gifted to preach. We have some here who are especially hospitable. We have some here who are especially merciful. We have some here who are gifted to be abundantly generous. And some, many actually, serve in various and beautiful ways. And all of us are bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And He's conforming us all into the image of Christ. So it's important. You need to ask yourself this morning, can you point to areas of your life that the Spirit of God is working? Christian, you should be able to do that. Consider just for a moment, where is the Holy Spirit actively working in your life? Think of this and consider, because the gift of the Holy Spirit publicly poured out at Pentecost echoes into the church today. He's active in the church today. This is a long quote from John Owen, but I think it's helpful. He says, without the Holy Spirit, all religion is but a body without a soul, a carcass without an animating spirit. It is true in the continuation of His work, He ceases from putting forth those extraordinary effects of His power which were needful for laying the foundation of the church in the world. But the whole work of His grace, according to the promise of the covenant, is no less truly and really carried on at this day. in and towards all the elect of God than it was on the day of Pentecost and onwards. And so in his communication of gifts necessary for the edification of the church, the owning, therefore, and avowing the work of the Holy Ghost in the hearts and on the minds of men, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace, is the principal part of that profession which at this day all believers are called into. I know it's hard to read Owen. It's hard to listen to Owen, I'm sure. Well, let me just... I'll say it to you this way, Providence Baptist Church believes in the Holy Spirit. We love the Holy Spirit and we need Him. We should pray for the Holy Spirit's work. We should celebrate the Holy Spirit's work. We should expect the Holy Spirit to work alongside the means that He has given us in His Word, preaching and prayer and singing the ordinances, evangelism, giving, memorizing, meditating on Scripture, all of these things. I hope I've made the point abundantly clear this morning that without the Holy Spirit, Providence Baptist Church is sunk. And so may he be pleased to grow this church in maturity, in Christ likeness, in number. And may we give ourselves to prayer for the work of the Holy Spirit here. And by his work, back to verse 11, by his work, may the church today, Providence Baptist Church, continue to proclaim the mighty works of God. I want everyone in Perryville to say, like, I don't understand that church. They do some things weird. They do some things differently. But all they're talking about is the mighty works of God. If you're going to be known for something at your work, if you're going to be known for something in this town, if you're going to be known for something with your friends and neighbors, may you be known by someone who will not shut up. about all that God is and all he's done in Christ. OK. Number two, don't be scared. Number two, the marveling. So number one, the mystery. Number two and three will not be as long. Number two, the marveling. So verse 12 says, and all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, what does this mean? The same word for amazed is used in verse seven. Verse seven says, and they were amazed and astonished, saying, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? I'm going to make two claims in this point. The first claim briefly is this. It is right to marvel at the work of the Holy Spirit. You should not have a neutral response to the Holy Spirit. You should marvel. It should amaze us. Creation should amaze us. God's covenantal working within the persons of the Trinity should amaze us. Conversion should amaze us. Every time we see a sinner saved, that should amaze us. To see God's work in the church, and in the gifting, and in the fruit of the Spirit, and in the unity, all of it should amaze us. What God has done in Providence Baptist Church, I consider it in many ways miraculous. It should amaze us. Friends, do you appreciate the Spirit's work? Do you marvel at it? Are you amazed? Again, just from the text, and all were amazed. Would you say, I am amazed at what God is doing in the Holy Spirit? You should be. Okay, that's one claim. The second claim is this. Marveling at the Holy Spirit is not enough. You should marvel at the Holy Spirit. You marvel when an amazing catch is made on the baseball field, when an amazing touchdown pass is thrown, or an amazing scene from Lord of the Rings. You marvel at the amazing purse that is on sale. You marvel. You should marvel at the Holy Spirit. That's right, but I'm just saying it's not enough. Let me make an argument here. The word for amazed is used several times in the Gospels, but it's actually not always used positively. So, for example, in Mark 3, 21, it's used of Jesus's family saying that Jesus was outside his mind. Insane. They were amazed at Jesus, but not in a saving way. So let me just issue a caution and a warning here. You can be amazed about the spirit's work here. You can say, wow, they all sing so loud. Wow. They memorize scripture. Wow. They take so seriously the preaching of God's word. Wow. They love fellowship. Wow. You can marvel at those things and not be saved. We should marvel at the Spirit's work here. Amen. But marveling at the Spirit's work and trusting Christ alone for the forgiveness of our sins are not always one and the same. Okay, because when Jesus walked on earth, you understand, a lot of people marveled. Words used a lot. They would come from miles. I think they kind of viewed Him, and some people kind of viewed Him as like a magician. Y'all, guess who's coming to town? I heard Jesus of Nazareth is coming down. Y'all wanna go? Well, grab lunch on the way. Y'all wanna go? Maybe he's gonna do a miracle. I heard he raised people from the dead. He cures people with leprosy. Hey, man, he did. Man, and when he comes, man, what's really great is he really gets those Pharisees. And so we show up and we look and we're like, yeah, maybe there'll be a riot today. Y'all wanna go? Other people came and they marveled at Jesus, but many of those people, they never followed him. They never trusted him. And so what is happening at Providence Baptist Church is not some heroic Disney movie to just give you goosebumps and then you get on with your life. What is happening here is about the exaltation of King Jesus and the advancement of his kingdom. Marvel at this. Amen. But this marveling must move you to repentance. To turn you away from sin and self, to let go of any righteousness that you think you have. And to let go even of just being associated with the godly church or a godly home, like those things merit something. No, no. To run to Christ alone as your only suitable and all sufficient Savior. That's the marveling. More we could say there, but I understand. Have be mindful. of time. Thirdly, the mocking. So the mystery, the marveling, the mocking. So now we get verse 13, we kind of conclude this first section. Verse 13 says, but others mocking said, they are filled with new wine. So the crowd hears all these languages being spoken. They hear God's works in their own language. Isn't that interesting? It's like without excuse. They're hearing in their own language the mighty works of God. And some of their conclusion is this. You know what? They're just drunk. Spurgeon put it this way. Miracles will not convince when men are resolved to disbelieve. Faith is not born of sight, nor can it be nourished by it. Let's push back on something here. I think that some of us can think sometimes, Lord, if you would just do a miracle here. Raise somebody from the dead. Do something miraculous in our town. If you would just do a miracle here, everybody in Perryville would become a Christian. But the reality is, this didn't happen in the New Testament time, and the reality is, the true miracle that every lost person needs is the miracle of regeneration. The miracle of they need to be born again by the work of the Holy Spirit. And that miracle only accompanies the heralding of the gospel. So once again, I will repeat, we are, as I saw this video just the other day on Facebook, I shared, I'm like, this is baloney. We're not trying to get, you know, get a big auditorium. Let's get everybody in and let's have another Pentecost. That's not going to happen. Because God's already accomplished this. So we're not looking for another Pentecost, right? If God would just send another Pentecost, like, what are you going for that? If God would just send another Pentecost, everybody would be saved. No, they won't. Look at the text. They're mocking. They're mocking. What they need today is what they needed then. The preaching of Christ. And as I said before, they need then and they needed they needed then and they need today the Holy Spirit to take the preaching of Christ like an arrow. And to pierce their dead cold heart, to pull that dead, stony, cold, rebellious heart out and to replace it with a heart of flesh. To move past only having a knowledge of Jesus in the brain and to have an experiential saving knowledge of Christ. Maybe you need that. That's definitely what our town needs. When I go back to the text, though, and I want to tell you something else, but others mocking said they are filled with new wine. And I want to just emphasize something that whenever and wherever the Lord is working, Satan is often working too. Not that you need to see God and Satan as equal powers. Certainly they're not. It's just a reality. Where God is working, we have satanic influence as well. We'll see that in more places in Acts. Sometimes he does counterfeit things. So think about back to Exodus. And some of the things that Moses and Aaron do, the wicked magicians of Pharaoh, they do that too. What is Satan doing there? He's being a counterfeit. Or Even let's say we're going to get to Acts chapter eight and you have Simon the sorcerer. And he, and so sometimes, um, sometimes Satan will use like the wolf and sheep's clothing tactic. And so Simon, the sorcerer, he, you think he's a believer and then all of a sudden he's actually, he's trying to buy the gifts of God with money. Satan is crafty in that, but then there's this other way that he were the other things we could use intimidation or whatever. But then there's this other real tactic from the evil one is mocking. Ridicule, mocking, that's that's in the text, but others mocking said they're filled with new wine. This isn't a work of God, it's a work of drunkenness. They're mocking and the word in our text for mock is has a connotation of using both words and gestures to scorn. You're going to be part of that. You're going to go to that church. Those people are crazy. And you say to me, well, I'm not influenced by peer pressure. Well, that's baloney. Only kids deal with peer pressure. No, that's not true. Did you live through COVID-19? Huh? Are you reminded? When a group of people begin to deride you, and to mock you, and to scorn you, it can make it difficult to go against the grain. This is a satanic tactic. Or, when you're trying to participate in a biblical church, or biblical evangelism, or biblical membership, or biblical discipline, and the response from those around you is mocking. You're going to be part of that church. They're crazy over there, right? You're going to be part of that. Those people are outside their mind. And what's frustrating to me as a pastor is to see other people who ought to know better. And they're talking about, oh, yeah, I got a relationship with Jesus. And oh, yeah, the days are short and we need to be serious about the things of God. But when you try to press them to the things of God, they buck and they rebel and they mock. I'm just going to tell you. Not to scare you, to give you the reality. Biblical Christianity, listen, is costly Christianity. Even in rural Arkansas. What I would consider the epicenter of the Bible Belt. We may not face martyrdom right now, at least in this point in history, but don't downplay how serious ridicule can be. It can be incredibly discouraging. And sometimes it can persuade people to go on and just do something else. I can't be part of that. Faithfulness is too costly. Let me pull back a little. I don't I can't do the laughter and the disrespect. I can't deal with that. They're mocking us. I can't I can't be I've got to do something else. That's a real temptation. But I remind you this, Jesus asked his disciples, remember this in John six, he asked his disciples. Do you want to go away as well? Peter responds, Lord. To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. I believe that. Where else am I going to go? A faithful church is worth it. Why? Because Christ has the words of eternal life. Christ is worthy. They may mock us. You know what we'll do in response to their mocking, I love the transition here. You know what we'll do at Providence Baptist Church in response of any mocking? Be careful, we're not going to mock mocking, maybe in the way we can. But we're going to respond like Peter. They mock. Peter preaches. That's what I'm going to do. They mock. I'm going to give them Christ. I have answers for their mocking. I have answers for the ridicule, just like Peter does here, but they're going to mock. We're going to stand up and preach. We're going to keep giving them Christ because we know that the mocker, some of them are going to repent and believe the gospel. And we know, as we heard today in the prayer meeting from Psalm chapter two, that at the end of days that those who are left mocking God mocks them. and they will be cast off and they will not win. So we will preach Christ. So what about you today? I'll take our three points, just work backward. Number one, the mocking. Now, I don't think that's it probably in this room, but I wonder if there's any mockers here in your heart. You reject the Holy Spirit. You reject what the church is committed to. You're uncommitted to the church. You laugh at the gospel. Maybe that's true here. Maybe some of you, maybe some of this little children, maybe it's in your heart. Maybe some of you adults is in your heart. If it is, you need to repent. And come to Christ. Number two, the marveling. Maybe this is you. I really think there could be a person here or a few people here that are like, hey, this is neat. I love this little church and I love what's happening here. And you love all the external things. You see something different. But you haven't yielded your heart to Christ. You're a spectator in the crowd and you're not a participant in the church. Well, you too, you need to repent. We don't want you. We don't need your applause like I'm not. I'm going to ignore the mockers. I'm going to ignore the plot. You're going to sit up there in the stands and say, great job. I don't care about that. I want you to come join us. I want you to be a Christian. Come to Christ. And then thirdly, the mystery, this is back at the beginning, and I hope this is everyone in this room. So you, you see the grand story of what God is doing. You see your need of the Holy Spirit daily. You see his continued work here in this church. And my exhortation to you is, will you just keep running? where you keep growing. Don't grow weary. Don't grow weary. You look down and I know sometimes when I'm running, I look down and I look down how much longer I have to go and I'm like, oh boy, I'm never going to make it. Don't think about how much longer you have to go. Don't think about all the reasons that you should stop running around you. Instead, run looking to Christ. Keep running. Keep going. Christ is working. The kingdom is expanding. The Spirit of God is in us, and He's with us, and He's for us. And there's no one more for the building of the church than the person of the Holy Spirit as He's active today. And the kingdom is growing. So don't quit. And don't let the mockers discourage you. Keep pressing toward the goal of the upper call of God in Christ Jesus. Amen. Father, thank you for your word. Establish us in it, encourage us by it. I wonder today about the children. In this room. Who have not professed? Christ. I think about. Oh, just some of the ones that are probably older enough. I think about Piper and I think about Piper. I think about Haddon. I think about Amelia. And I think about Adeline. And I think about Josiah. I think about Lindy. And Naomi. I think about. Perhaps Aaliyah, Olivia, Alyssa, Jace. I think about Hoyt and Ridge and River. I think about Haddon. Oh God, I think about these precious children. And I pray, oh God, That even today, you would draw them to Christ. That they would repent of their sins. And believe the gospel, I'm not unmindful of Rory, I know he's little, maybe too little, I don't know, but would he repent and believe the gospel? What I pray for even. Those who are in our midst, who are visitors, not I mean, at least they're not members. What I pray that their status with you would be in Christ. That they would repent and believe the gospel, if they're not already in Christ, if they are in Christ. Oh, God, I pray that they would want to be baptized and join the church. What I pray for our church family. Help us, O God. I can't believe I forgot little Jack. Lord, I pray that Jack would love Christ. You would draw him to yourself. Even today, he would become a Christian. Lord, I pray that you would establish our church in your word. Help us to be a faithful church, committed to your teaching, committed to your truth. If I've forgotten some little soul that is old enough to come to Christ, forgive me and I pray for them. I pray for the exaltation of Christ in Perryville. Would you keep working here, not for our sake alone, not not just because we need you, but ultimately for the magnification of King Jesus. Take the preaching of your word today, O God, and pierce hearts. May we see fruit. Not trying to be a vain babbler or just think that if I pray long enough, something will happen. I just believe, God, that you're going to work, that you are working. Holy Spirit, we need you. Work as only you can. And as we sing in response today, may believers be encouraged in Christ. May we keep marching. to the day that we feast in Zion. In Jesus' name, amen. Would you stand and let's sing.