Amen. Thank you so much, Ethan, for that lovely special number. Please take your Bible and turn to Luke's Gospel 24. Brother Morris, if you could hand some of these to Brother Josh, and you all can pass those out. Luke's Gospel, chapter number 24. This evening I'm going to begin what might take several weeks or several lessons to actually complete. And it's going to be on a message, a series or message we're dealing with, our series on the Holy Spirit and His power. Tonight we're going to begin talking about what the Bible doctrine is of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit of God? Now ladies and gentlemen, I want you to listen carefully. That doctrine, perhaps, is one of the most misunderstood of contemporary doctrines. And there are some, among the Charismatics in particular, who have taken this doctrine and twisted it wildly and dramatically. And at some point in the next several weeks I will deal in length, at length, with the gift of tongues. There are so many people who talk about, well, is the tongues gift for today? What was the nature of the gift of tongues? Is tongues an indication that a person has been filled with the Holy Spirit? I will deal with all of those things in an ensuing lesson. But tonight we're going to lay a foundation so that you can understand that what has proven to be the excesses of the charismatic movement into what is not undeniably, could not undeniably be called lunacy, because that is much of the charismatic movement is sheer lunacy, that that is not scriptural. And we're going to talk about that. I'm very concerned about how the church, and I'm using the broadest and general sense of term, the evangelical church, has bowed down to this insanity that is not scriptural and is in many ways, I think indeed, a satanic counterfeit. What does the Bible say then about being filled with the Spirit of God? Well, we're going to find out in an introductory passage in Luke. We'll turn over to the book of Acts and we'll touch on some of those issues tonight. Luke chapter 24, verse number 46. Now this is Luke's version, if you will, of the Great Commission. Remember, we have the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are what are called synoptic Gospels, meaning that they are similar. They are more biographical in nature. The Gospel of John is more spiritual in nature, focusing on teaching and message. But Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and by the way, they were penned in that order. Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The order you have them in your Bible is the order in which they were penned. Matthew, Mark, and Luke. We come to Luke's Gospel. We also understand that Luke was the human penman for the book of Acts. So we're going to compare a little between Luke and Acts. But we're in Luke's Gospel, the 24th chapter. Begin looking at verse number 46. Luke 24 and 46. The Bible says, "...and said unto them..." Now these are the words of Jesus. Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day." Jesus is saying that His suffering and death was prophesied as well as His resurrection. And then He says this in verse 47, "...and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, and ye are witnesses of these things." Verse 49, "...and behold," now this is the words of Jesus, immediately before His ascension. It is Luke's version of the Great Commission. And behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you. But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. Now everyone notice Jesus' specific instruction. Terry in the city of Jerusalem, wait there, the disciples are about to witness the Lord ascending to heaven. In fact, the Bible says in verse 50, And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And it came to pass while He blessed them that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. The Bible says in verse 52, they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with joy. They were about to watch as Jesus Christ was carried up into heaven in His ascension. They were about to be eyewitnesses to that. And after that, they were to go preach the Gospel. But Jesus said specifically in verse 49 to His disciples, before you ever go out into all the world and preach the Gospel, which is your commission, He said, you must tarry in the city of Jerusalem. You must wait there. Because I will send the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit. We'll see that in a moment. I will send the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, and He is going to endure you with power, spiritual or divine power, for the enormous task that lies before you as disciples. So they were not, though the commission was given to go to preach the Gospel, they were not to immediately ensue upon that task. Rather, they were to wait for a spiritual filling, which would take place on the day of Pentecost, as we will see in a moment. Look at the introduction of your outline with me tonight. In addition to dwelling within believers, the Holy Spirit is said to fill some believers with His presence and power. Now, I want to be very careful to make a distinction. All believers, all Christians are filled, pardon me, are indwelt with the Spirit of God. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Not all Christians are filled. So every Christian is indwelt by the Spirit of God. He lives inside you. If the Holy Spirit does not live inside you, you are not a Christian. But not every Christian has experienced the filling of the Spirit of God. You say, preacher, how do you know that? Because in Ephesians, Paul says, be filled with the Spirit. It is a command. So not every Christian is filled. We will see, for example, in the book of Acts where there were numerous times when, as need should arise, the Holy Spirit filled the disciples so that they were empowered to carry out the work that they had to do. We're going to see that in just a moment. But understand, the Spirit of God, if you're saved, He dwells inside you, but you are not necessarily filled. And we'll talk about that in a moment. In fact, the disciples were enjoined by the Lord Jesus to wait in Jerusalem after His ascension for the empowering of the Holy Spirit. But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." Before they began any gospel work, they needed the divine enablement of the Spirit to reach the world for Christ, and their need is no different from ours today. Now look at me carefully, Christian, and listen carefully. We have a tremendous task before us, and that is the preaching of the Gospel to a lost, and frankly today, very skeptical world. If I have to rely only on my force of argument, my force of reason, or my personality to get the job done, then nothing eternal will ultimately happen. Well, the disciples were told by the Lord in the Great Commission that it is their responsibility to preach the gospel to every creature, to go to all the nations of the world with the Great Commission. Well, they were instructed that that was their responsibility. They were told that before they would ever embark upon such a journey that they needed spiritual empowerment by the Spirit of God. Now, you say, preacher, why would that be? Well, look at point A of your lesson outline. Because of the greatness of the task, All of us as believers is incapable of ourselves of fulfilling the Great Commission in the manner that the Lord would have it fulfilled because it is such a large task. We must have the empowering Holy Spirit. Here are some of the reasons the task was so great. Number one, they were to preach an unpopular message. Repentance and remission of sin through Christ alone. Now think with me. The Lord has ascended to heaven. Here are the disciples, eleven of them standing there who have witnessed His ascension to heaven. They're going to go back to Jerusalem, and there are other disciples that are there that will gather together in what we know as the upper room. There are other disciples that are gathered together there. But there's just a handful of them. There are not thousands of Christian believers. At this point, Jesus, the name Jesus, may be fairly well known in Jerusalem because He had just been crucified, but it was not uncommon for the Romans to crucify folks. There were thousands who had heard the ministry of Jesus, but most of those who had heard of His ministry, or had seen Him, or had heard Him preach, were probably in Galilee, in the northern region where most of His ministry was carried out, some in the southern region. But ultimately, the name of Christ was not that well known. In addition, the message that they were to preach, repentance. Believe and repent. Repent and believe. That message was not very popular. You used to preach, how do you know it wasn't popular? John the Baptist lost his head over it, as it were. When he confronted one of the pagan kings about his wicked lifestyle, ultimately he lost his head over it. And so the disciples are told to preach a message that is inherently unpopular. That's my job today, and your job as well. And if I have to use the force of personality merely, or the force of my rational persuasion, I think I'm going to come up short. I need something more. I need the Spirit of God. Not only that, number two, they were to speak of Jesus Christ, a name the world had never known. This repentance and remission of sins is preached in the name of Christ. And yet outside of the precincts of Jerusalem and maybe Nazareth and some other locations where He was still remembered for the great works that He had done, His name had never been heard before. The disciples were told to go into all nations with a name that had never been heard. Can you imagine the level of the task? They were to go to places where the name Jesus had never been mentioned. They were to talk about one who lived a perfect and sinless life. One who died a sacrificial death on the cross. And then they had to convince everyone that He also rose again. And that the only way to heaven and a relationship with God is to believe on this one Jesus Christ. And that's your responsibility. And you're to go to a place where He has never been named before. Ladies and gentlemen, that is a colossal task. videotape of a missionary who had gone in the 1960s to reach the last cannibalistic tribe in Papua New Guinea. It's a fascinating story of what God did by His grace. It took five different interpreters, one interpreting for the other, until they could reach through to get into this particular language group. The tribe that he was reaching, the Miami people, were a cannibalistic tribe and they were feared even by the British who would send military patrols into the area and often be driven out by that cannibalistic group. And here this missionary felt the call of God to go there and to reach these people with the gospel, a people who had never heard of Jesus. You say, preacher, how are you going to do it? You will not do it in your own power. you can only do it in His power, the fullness of the Spirit of God. They needed this fullness as do we today. Point three, they were to preach the Gospel among all nations throughout the entire world. It would have been a tremendous task just to evangelize Jerusalem, but Jesus said, no, you'll start at Jerusalem. But then you'll go to the entire known world. What a tremendous task lay before them, certainly beyond their own human strength. They were to begin in the place of fiercest opposition, Jerusalem. Of course, Jesus referred to Jerusalem as, O thou Jerusalem that stonest the prophets and killest them that are sent unto thee. Jerusalem had a reputation for being difficult on Bible preachers. And so that was where they were to begin. They would need the Spirit of God. They were to identify fully with a man whom the Romans had just crucified. They were to be witnesses of Christ. Beginning at Jerusalem, they were to say, do you remember Jesus who preached and healed and was crucified? I was with Him. They were to identify with one that had been put to death and under the death sentence of Rome. Does everyone in this room understand that their task was absolutely monumental? You say, preacher, how could they do it? They could not do it had they just walked away from the presence of the ascended Christ and started preaching in their own power. Jesus said they had to tarry in Jerusalem for an event that would take place, that would transform their ability to minister and to preach, and that is the day of Pentecost as we'll see in a moment. Look at point B. The promise of the Holy Spirit, given in verse 49. Jesus said, And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. The coming of the Holy Spirit had been promised repeatedly to the disciples. You will remember in John chapter 20, Jesus with the small gathering of disciples in His presence after the resurrection, breathed on the disciples and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Now some Bible scholars would say that they, just the disciples, were indwelt of the Spirit of God at that time. That may or may not be. But the promise of the Spirit coming generally over all believers in the beginning of the church age most certainly occurred at Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost. Jesus had promised the disciples the Comforter would come. We've studied several verses. You'll recall the verse. Jesus said, I will not leave you comfortless. I will come unto you. He said, it is expedient for you that I should go away. If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I go away, I will send Him unto you. And so the disciples understood that their tearing in the city of Jerusalem was for the fulfilled promise of the Father that the Holy Spirit would be sent. Look at point two. The advent of the Holy Spirit in His fullness would be a definite event at a definite location. Jesus said, Terry in Jerusalem. You say, preacher, did they? We'll go over to the book of Acts in a moment. We'll find that they did. And it wasn't something where they wondered if they had been empowered by the Spirit of God or not. They knew and were certain it was a definite, definite event. So they understood the location and that an event would take place. Point three, the advent of the Holy Spirit in His filling believers. is synonymous with His in doing them with power from on high. Now you say, Preacher, how do you know that? I'll prove that in just a moment when we get to the book of Acts. But Luke 24-49 is a prophecy of what would take place in the book of Acts 2. Now, you might as well turn there. Turn over to Acts 1 because we're going to see a repetition of again the details, some additional details of the Lord's Great Commission. We'll see that in a moment. But so the advent of the Spirit of God would be a definite event at a definite location. The Spirit in filling believers is synonymous with being endued with power from on high. Look at small point A under that. The Spirit's power would change their character. In other words, would give them boldness. We'll see that in a moment in the book of Acts. And it would change the character of their ministries. They would be fruitful. They were to tarry in Jerusalem for this enduing of the Spirit's power. the Spirit's power would make a definite and radical change for the disciples and the early church, their effectiveness in carrying out the Great Commission hinged entirely upon their receiving the Holy Spirit's fullness." Now stop there for just a moment. This is absolutely the key. They could not successfully carry the Gospel to the whole world without the power of the Spirit of God. Listen carefully, Christian. Neither can we. Now, there are some today, and I'm going to jump ahead for just a moment, there are some today of the charismatic persuasion who believe that the Holy Spirit's presence is manifest by speaking in tongues and miracles and odd signs and people bouncing off the wall and laughing and tackling wildly in church. Nothing could be further from the truth. As you will see in a moment, the fullness of the Holy Spirit is manifested in a bold proclamation of the Gospel that is fruitful in winning souls to Christ. As we spoke of in a previous lesson, it is when I partner with the Holy Spirit of God in the preaching of the Gospel so that the words are empowered, sinners are convicted, and people turn to the Lord. The fulfillment of spirit empowering. Look at Acts 1. Acts chapter 1, beginning at verse number 4. The Bible says, "...and being assembled together with them, commanded them..." This is speaking of Jesus again. Now this is a kind of repetition with additional details of the Great Commission. "...being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, you have heard of me." You've heard this already in verse 49 of Luke chapter 24. And John, Jesus said, truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Now I want you to pause for a moment. Back in Luke 24, verse 49, Jesus said, tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. Here Jesus is saying in Acts 1, verse 5, that you would be in a few days baptized with the Holy Ghost. So, the two are synonymous terms. Continue on in verse 6. When they therefore came together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? Now this is all during the time before His ascension. You say, well, Preacher Luke didn't give all those details in his Gospel. No. Some details are given in the Gospel. Some are given in the book of Acts. Some are given in Matthew. And it puts together this whole picture of what the ascension conversation was like. Before His ascension, the disciples said, Lord, are You going to restore our kingdom? Preacher, what are you talking about? They wanted the literal kingdom restored now. That's what they were looking for. By the way, you'll notice Jesus never said, no, there's no such thing as a literal kingdom. He never said that. He said in the next verse, look at it. But it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own hand, which God controls. It is not for you to know. It is under God's power, the times and the seasons. So watch this. He didn't say there wouldn't be a literal kingdom, because there will. But he said it is not time yet. They knew He was the King, but if we're not going to have a Kingdom, Jesus, what are we going to do? I'm glad you asked. Look at verse 8. but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. Luke 24, 49, they would be endued with power from on high. Acts 1 and verse 5, they would be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Acts 1 and verse 8, the Holy Spirit would come upon them and they would receive power in what will happen. And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. You say, preacher, what does this all mean? The words that we have found in Luke's account of the Great Commission at the end of his Gospel, and in his additional supplemental account of the Great Commission in Acts chapter 1, indicate that this promise of the Holy Spirit was for spiritual power and was going to come in a few days after the ascension. Now look at point number one under letter A. Luke was the penman. This is under Roman numeral 2, first page of your outline. Luke was the penman of both accounts. The Gospel of Luke, the Book of Acts. Though worded differently from his Gospel, the Acts account presents an elaboration of the Great Commission that serves to explain the terminology in Luke's Gospel. In other words, by comparing the two, we can come to an understanding of what exactly is being promised coming up on the day of Pentecost. Notice that the gospel promise of being endued with power from on high is equated with being baptized with the Holy Ghost. Now, I'm being very precise in my terminology. You'll see that in just a moment. The disciples inquired as to the restoration of Israel's kingdom. We talked about that a moment ago. This was an expectancy that was not rebuked by the Lord. Jesus' response was to delineate their responsibility to the Gospel without worrying over God's prophetic timetable. What are you going to do? Jesus said in verse 8, but ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses. So in verse 8, Jesus repeats the promise of power as a result of the Holy Ghost coming upon the disciples. Now, here is what I'm getting to. Compared to Luke's Gospel, we find that the promise of the Father being endued with power from on high, the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost coming upon the disciples are all different and synonymous ways of describing the same event that would take place in Jerusalem not many days hence. Now, does everybody follow that? It's very simple. A promise was made. It is reiterated and elaborated several times. Luke's Gospel. The Great Commission is presented in the book of Acts. It is expanded upon. And very specifically, Jesus said this promise of fullness of the Spirit of God will come not many days hence. Then you say, well, wait a minute, preacher, in all the terminology you just used, it didn't talk about the fullness of the Spirit. You're absolutely right. but it will in Acts 2. And what I'm getting at is this. You see, there is a charismatic crowd that talks about people being baptized with the Holy Ghost. And what they mean by that is rolling around on the floor and frothing at the mouth. You will not find that in the book of Acts. What you will find is the baptism with the Holy Ghost. Now, I'm not talking about the Holy Spirit baptizing you into the body of Christ, 1 Corinthians 12, 13. I'm not talking about that. The baptism with the Holy Ghost is synonymous to being filled with the Holy Spirit, is synonymous to being endued with power from on high, is synonymous to the Holy Spirit coming upon one. Does everyone follow this? There is no charismatic excesses in the doctrine of the fullness of the Holy Spirit when you take the terminology and accurately and biblically apply it. So what in the world, preacher, happened when they went to Jerusalem? Well, boy, I'm glad you asked. Acts 1. They did exactly what Jesus told them to do. Verse 14. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren. They all continued in one accord. They were in unity in the city of Jerusalem. You say, preacher, what else happened? Acts 2. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord, that is in unity, in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting." Now where were they? They were in Jerusalem. What did Jesus say? You would be endued with power, you would be baptized with the Holy Spirit, you would have the endowment of power from on high and the promise of the Father. All of these things would come, not many days hence. Here they are expectantly waiting because Jesus promised something would happen. The Bible says, a sound of rushing mighty wind came. It filled the house where they were sitting, verse 3, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as fire, and it sat upon each of them. Aha! Aha! Tongues! We'll deal with it. And don't anyone get nervous. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Aha, preacher. That means if I'm really filled with the Holy Spirit, I will talk in tongues. No. I will show you numerous occasions in the Scripture where people were filled with the Spirit of God and did not speak with tongues. The tongues on the day of Pentecost were an incidental sign to the main event which was the infilling of the Lord's Church with the Spirit of God. Now, I'm getting way ahead of myself, but I like to argue with myself when I'm teaching, so let me not get too far ahead. Okay, look at point B, the day of Pentecost, what happened? After Christ's ascension, the disciples did not begin immediately preaching the gospel. Rather, in obedience to Christ, they tarried in Jerusalem, awaiting the empower of the Holy Spirit. They waited with a spirit of unity. They were in one accord. Please spare us that joke about the Honda Accord and all the disciples cramming into it. You like that, don't you? All right. Oh, you have an accord. OK, moving right along. And they waited in a spirit of prayer, prayer and supplication. So they were awaiting something. Preacher, what were they waiting for? The fulfillment of the promise. All of a sudden, on the day of Pentecost, something happened as well. On the day of Pentecost, 50 days after the Passover, the promise of the Father was fulfilled. What happened? There was a sound as of a rushing mighty wind. They all heard it. It was distinguished as a sound. There was a visual effect. There were cloven tines like as fire that appeared over each of them. The Greek construction literally is that they appeared themselves over the individuals. They were not something that was manufactured. You say, Preacher, what was this? I am not sure. but it was a visual effect of some sort to indicate the presence of the Spirit of God. This is not uncommon. You will remember at Jesus' baptism that the Spirit descended in the form of a dove, which would be a visual effect indicating the presence of the Holy Spirit of God. So somehow there was a sound, something they could hear, it was something they sensed with one of the senses. There was also the coven tongues as a fire, something apparently, I always pictured it in my mind as something that was above their head as a sign, maybe something that was glowing or something that looked like fire, but that is the description that is given in the Bible. So we have a sound, a visual effect, a filling, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, And a sign, they began to speak with other tongues." Now, listen carefully. Whatever in the world, and we'll have to study this more next time, I don't have time in the message time. Whatever in the world happened at Acts chapter 2, I am absolutely certain that they were filled with the Holy Spirit because the Bible says so. Okay? I am also certain that that filling of the Holy Spirit was the fulfillment of the prophecy that Jesus spoke in Luke's account of the Great Commission in Luke chapter 24 verse 49 when he instructed them to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until they would be endued with power from on high. I'm also certain that this is the fulfillment of Jesus' promise in Acts 1 verse 5, where he said, Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. I'm also certain that this is the fulfillment of Jesus' words of Acts chapter 1 verse 8, but ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you. You say, what happened? In fulfillment to what Jesus promised. as the disciples obediently tarried in the city of Jerusalem, the Spirit of God came and infilled them with certain effects." The key in the teaching is not the effects. The key is the filling. Now you say, preacher, why is it not normative in the filling of the Holy Spirit today to see the effects? In the book of Acts, we have a particular moment in time. I'll get ahead of myself. I'm not going to worry about it. The day of Pentecost was a day in which Jews from the entire Roman Empire gathered for the feast in Jerusalem. There were people there from great distances who spoke a multiplicity of different languages. There was a huge crowd present when this phenomenon began to take place. And the reason there was a sound, and the reason there was the visual effect, and the reason there was the tongues, all of it was given for a sign. You say, preacher, a sign to whom? A sign to the Jews who had gathered from the four corners of the earth, as it were, to Jerusalem for Pentecost, All of a sudden, they saw a spectacular display of what the Bible refers to as ignorant and unlearned men who stood up in their midst, now listen carefully, and spoke with tongues. Oh, you say, Pastor, all of these people at Jerusalem must have been fascinated when the Apostle Peter stood up and said, time about time, time about time. No. That wouldn't fascinate anybody. Well, they must have been really excited when one of the other apostles stood up and screamed, Wanda wants a Honda. No. What impressed them was these Galilean fishermen. Many of the disciples were Galilean fishermen. where all of a sudden, they're ignorant and unlearned men, they're not educated, all of a sudden they are able to speak in the language of every individual that was present on the day of Pentecost over a dozen different languages. and they spoke the Gospel intelligently, and there was a visible sign that appeared over them, and there was a sound that had been heard at the annunciation of the sign, and all of this indicated that something very special was happening. And later in Acts 2, the question is, how do these men speak these languages when they're ignorant and unlearned? And they said, how hear we every man in our own language wherein we were born? Everyone stop here for a moment and look at me. Drill this into your head. Tongues in the Bible is always, 100% of the time, without exception, a known, recognizable, foreign language. It is never gibberish. Everywhere where the Greek word for tongues, it's the Greek word glosses, everywhere where that is used, it means a language. It can mean the physical tongue when it references someone's tongue in their mouth, but it is used to mean a language. Never gibberish. The other Greek word dialecto is used in the book of Acts, meaning a dialect, a manner of speaking that is familiar to at least some group of people on the face of the earth. Now right away someone says, oh, but Pastor, I know an exception. Paul talked about those who speak with the tongues of angels. And when I speak in tongues, I'm speaking angelic language. Ok, now before you become too fascinated with that argument, let me ask you a question. It's a fair question. In the Bible, what language do angels speak? They speak the language of the people to whom they are speaking. Now that might be Aramaic. That could have been Hebrew. It could have been Chaldean in several instances. But they always spoke the language of the people to whom they were speaking. It may surprise you to know that there is not one instance anywhere in the Bible where any angel ever speaks in anything but a recognizable human language. So for you to claim that angels have a special language, you can't prove it from the Scripture. They always spoke recognizable human languages. Okay, well preacher, what happened? It was a sign, but we'll get there. Now back to my outline, point three. Note that the event promised in Luke 24 in Acts 1 was fulfilled in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost. I think we can all agree to that. That's very basic. Pentecost fulfilled Christ's ascension promises. Therefore, the terms of the promise, and here they are again, the promise of the Father, endued with power from on high, baptism with the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost come upon believers, are all synonymous terms with being filled with the Holy Ghost. Whatever else happened on the day of Pentecost, one thing is clear, the disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost in fulfillment of Christ's promise at His ascension. Alright, we've got that down. What about tongues? Here we go. The tongues given on the day of Pentecost were given as a sign specific to that occasion. Why that occasion, preacher? Because Jews were gathered from the entire world. And these were not nominal Jews. They were devout Jews who would come to Jerusalem for the special feast, Feast Day of Pentecost, They were serious-minded Jews who loved Israel, loved their homeland, believed in the Old Testament Scriptures, awaited the coming of the Messiah. These were the serious crowd of Jews. They'd gathered together on that specific occasion from across the Roman Empire. They were all witness to the tongues as a sign that God was now at work in the church and that Israel's program had been suspended. Take your Bible. Turn to 1 Corinthians 14. This is absolutely vital. 1 Corinthians 14. What, preacher, is the purpose of tongues? Is it so that we can have an exciting feeling? No. What is the purpose? 1 Corinthians 14. That should be 21 and 22. There's a misprint in the note. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 21. Paul, speaking about the spiritual gifts, says, in the law it is written. This would be Deuteronomy 28, 49, Isaiah 28, 10-12, etc. In the law it is written, with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people, speaking of the Jews, God's people, and yet for all that they will not hear me." Paul is quoting an Old Testament prophecy that would come as a result of the rejection of the true Word of God, the true prophet of God. Verse 22, what are tongues for? Wherefore, tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. Does everyone see that? What is it a sign? It is a sign that the judgment that was predicted by Moses and Isaiah that would come upon the nation of Israel for their rejection of the Messiah had come to pass. Now every eye up here. Deuteronomy 28, that Mosaic Covenant. where God's people were to covenant with God as to their behavior. If they rejected the truths of the Mosaic Covenant, if they rejected the prophets of God, God said He would bring judgment upon them. You remember the curse section? Cursed shall you be coming out. Cursed shall you be going in. On and on it goes. If they continued in their obstinance and rejection, the highest form of punishment would be captivity and removal from their land, so that they would be carried away captive and they would listen to the gibbering of a language with which they were not familiar. With other tongues will I speak unto this people, it was a sign of judgment. Paul took those two passages, one in Deuteronomy and one in Isaiah, and he said those passages are fulfilled in tongues when all of the Jews who gathered from across the Roman Empire to come to the day of Pentecost for the feast, when they heard in other tongues their language preached by these disciples of the Lord, and then the other languages that were foreign to them, so that it was a veritable New Testament babble. It was a divine sign to all of the Jews worldwide. Not only those dwelling in Jerusalem, but those from far-flung provinces of the Roman Empire. It was a divine sign, according to the Apostle Paul, that God was finished for this time with the program for Israel. that he was no longer dealing with the Jewish people as the chosen people. That they had rejected and crucified their Messiah. They had rejected the final prophet that would be sent to them. And so they were being set aside on the shelf, listen, and God's program was changing from Israel to the church. And in another passage, Paul puts it this way. He says it was to cause his people to envy. And since that time, and by the way, we date the birth of the church as the day of Pentecost, don't we? And since that time, God's program with the church has been in full force. Well, preacher, did they speak in tongues on the day of Pentecost so that all these Jews would hear the gospel and be saved? No. They may have heard the Gospel, but the primary emphasis of the tongues on the day of Pentecost, remember those are foreign languages, the primary emphasis was not for them to be evangelized, but it was for them to hear this cacophony of other languages and to recognize that this sign of gibberish, their own language, but then French and German and Spanish and whatever else there was, Phrygian, whatever kind of language that would be. All of those languages being heard together was a mark here in my Jewish years, hearing all of these different languages, that is a promised sign of judgment. And it is an indicator that God now is no longer dealing with the nation of Israel. He is now dealing with the program that belongs to the church. Does everyone see this? See, we're very foolish. By the way, the devil is a counterfeiter. He's a counterfeiter. You know, it's funny about the devil. He doesn't have a whole lot of new tricks. He just tries it on new people. I was studying for a class I'm going to be teaching in a New Testament introduction book. The author of the book points out that the modern textual critic, those liberals who do not believe the Word of God, that their arguments against the Bible line up perfectly with the arguments against Christ and the Bible that are given in the Koran. so that the modern text critic is really the handmaiden of Islam. Interesting. By the way, this is not something I came up with. I read this in a book. You say, Richard, we know you thought of that yourself. You have it on the mind. No, no, no. I was delighted when I found it, believe me, but it was in another book. And I thought to myself, isn't that interesting? The devil doesn't have more tricks. He just uses differing groups of people. Now, folks, listen to me. Listen to me. If the devil can counterfeit what is God's, he can deceive, can't he? So here's my point. We're going to talk about in the next lesson what the filling of the Spirit of God does. When He comes in His fullness and empowers you, He can use you for service in ways that you would be amazed because it's His work and He works through you. And we've talked so much about this. But if he can deceive whole segments of the quote-unquote professing church into confusion, into babble, into very foolish and hurtful behavior that makes the church look foolish and phony and that is emotionally driven, if that can happen, then that will impede the progress of the gospel among sensible people. But if, as we read in the Bible, this genuine miracle of these unlearned men all of a sudden speaking in these foreign languages, how here we every man his own tongue were and we were born. Why, it can only be something of God was the answer. And the rushing mighty wind and the cloven tongues of fire and all of these Jews. Well, what's happening? What is God doing with this strange little sect that would later be called Christians at Antioch? What is God doing with this strange little sect? Could it be that God is blessing them and not us? Could it be that this multiplicity of languages that we're hearing is a fulfillment of Deuteronomy 28 and Isaiah's prophecy of judgment? And the Apostle Paul says, oh yes, because that is a sign to you who believe not that the program for Israel has ceased for this time and the program for the church has begun. When I say that, though, understand God still has a program for Israel, Romans chapter 11. Don't you ever forget it. One day all Israel shall be saved. She's going through some hard times right now, isn't she? They're going to get a lot worse, according to the Bible. They're going to get a lot worse. But right now, God's working with the church. His people in and through the church. You say, Preacher, how does God accomplish His work in the world? He uses Christians. But the most effective gospel work in the world is accomplished when we are filled with the Spirit of God. Say, wasn't it a wise thing for the disciples to tarry in the city of Jerusalem to be filled with the Spirit of God? In a future lesson, you're going to see the result. Boldness. Powerful witness. Thousands converted. A willingness to testify and even to die for Christ. the genuine fullness of the Holy Spirit of God brings a power that is irresistible. And we'll see what that is. Not odd, peculiar, strange, wild behavior, but a power in speech, communication, and convicting that is undeniable in this world. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what we need. And we'll continue this on next time. Father, thank You for Your Word tonight. Thank You for its richness. We pray, Father, that You'll help us to be clear about this matter of the fullness of the Spirit of God. Thank You, Lord, for the promise that was given, for His presence, and then, Lord, for His empowering as we yield to Him. Help us, Lord, as Christians to not lean upon our own abilities, but to lean upon You in our work for You. Thank You for the clarity of the Bible. Help us, Lord, to be careful students of each word, studying diligently, comparing that we may understand what is truth from error in a very confused age. Bless each one for having come. Enlighten our minds. And Lord, empower us by Thy Spirit to be witnesses for Thee. We pray it in Jesus' name, Amen.