========================================================================
  WHAT MEANETH THIS?
  by Carl Armerding
========================================================================

Summary: The Holy Spirit's coming in Acts 2 marks the beginning of the
Christian church and empowers believers to live a victorious Christian
life.

Duration: 43:28 Topics: "Effective Evangelism", "Christian Witness"
Scripture References: Acts 2:4-42, Ephesians 5:18-20, Colossians 3:16

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------

In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of effective
communication in spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. He shares a
personal anecdote about a man who praised his sermon and highlights the
need to continually improve in delivering the message. The preacher also
reflects on the changing world and the challenges faced by young people
today. He emphasizes the uniqueness of Christianity and its
transformative power compared to other religions. The sermon concludes
with the preacher encouraging Christians to be happy and radiant in
their faith, serving as a powerful testimony to others.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meditation for this evening, let's turn again to the Book of the Acts,
chapter two, the second chapter of the Book of the Acts. I might say
that, God willing, these evening studies will continue in this Book of
the Acts, picking out certain important passages, and by that I'm not
saying that the rest of it isn't important, but taking passages of
scripture which I believe are relevant to the day in which we live, and
which have a message for us now. We're living in the now generation.

They're reminding us of this every once in a while, that they're more
interested in the here and now than they are in the there and then. They
forget that it's possible to be interested in both, and so tonight we
want to minister in both directions, now and here, and there and then.
The second chapter of the Book of the Acts, And when the day of
Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing, mighty
wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there
appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each
of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to
speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

And they were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men, out of every
nation under heaven. And when this was noised abroad, the multitude came
together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak
in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one
to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how
here we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born! Parthians, and
Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and
Cappadocia, and Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, and Egypt, and
the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews, and
proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues
the wonderful works of God.

And they were all amazed and were in doubt, saying one to another, What
meaneth this? I'd like to use these last three words as my text this
evening. What meaneth this? Evidently here was something so different
and so unique that they had never heard the like of it in history
before. Last night, you'll remember, as we were looking into chapter one
with some of the related passages, we pointed out some of the unique
features of our Christian faith.

The fact that the founder of our faith was born of a virgin, and that
this was not something which was discovered after it happened, but it
was something predicted 700 years before he came. Indeed, we could go
back even further than that to the book of Genesis, where God himself
said that the woman's seed was to bruise the serpent's head, so that in
a sense you could say it was predicted 4,000 years before it took place.
But put in exactly those terms in the seventh chapter of the book of
Isaiah, that a virgin should conceive and bear a son.

This was unique. Then we pointed out that it was also pointed out where
he should be born, in Bethlehem, and that Daniel gave us the time of his
birth, so that here are three lines of prophecy running over one person
at one time in one place. It can never happen again.

It's conceivable that somebody might come along and say, I'm born a
virgin, and I was born in the town of Bethlehem. But he's just too late.
It had to occur at a certain particular time.

And here's a wonderful thing when you see three lines of prophecy
running over one person in one place at one time. It can never occur
again. This is unique.

And so we went on to show that the death of our Lord was unique. His
resurrection was unique. But last night we concentrated on his ascension
to glory, which was also unique.

Well, tonight we come to another unique feature of our Christian faith,
and that is the coming of the blessed Holy Spirit. And here again, the
timing is perfect. The Lord Jesus had predicted that he was coming.

In that very first chapter from which we read last night, he said, Ye
shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. And here we
find this prophecy of our Lord's being fulfilled, and the Holy Spirit
comes. Now there are three things I would like to just point out and
make as clear and simple as I can tonight with regard to the coming of
the Holy Spirit in answer to this question in this verse which we read
here in verse 12, What meaneth this? Now let us notice, first of all,
how the Spirit came in the beginning of the chapter.

We notice that the setting was perfect. They were all with one accord in
one place. In other words, they were conditioned for the very thing that
the Holy Spirit was about to do.

And what was that? The Holy Spirit was about to baptize all these
believers into one body. That's the first answer to the question, What
meaneth this? He was baptizing these believers who were one accord in
one place, he was baptizing them into one body. This had never been done
before.

The Holy Spirit had other functions in the Old Testament. Sometimes
people get the idea that the Holy Spirit never had anything to do until
this present dispensation. Nothing is further from the truth.

The Holy Spirit is the first member of the Holy Trinity which is named
by name in the Bible. In the very first chapter of the Bible, he's the
first person of the Holy Trinity that is singled out by name when you
read that the Spirit of God brooded or moved upon that chaotic scene
depicted in the second verse of Genesis 1. Then in the sixth chapter of
Genesis, again, we have reference made to the Holy Spirit. He was
striving with men.

And God said, My spirit shall not always strive with men. We turn to the
book of Exodus, and we find that the Spirit of God fills men to build
the tabernacle. They were filled with the spirit of wisdom, which is
none other than the Holy Spirit.

David certainly must have had the Spirit because he prayed in Psalm 51,
Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. And according to Peter in his first
epistle, the Old Testament prophets had the Holy Spirit, because Peter
says they prophesied of things by the Spirit of Christ which was in
them, which signified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the
glories that should follow. So the Holy Spirit was in those Old
Testament prophets.

And the Holy Spirit must have been regenerating men in Old Testament
times. Otherwise the Lord Jesus would never have said as he did to
Nicodemus, speaking about the new birth, Understandest thou not these
things? Yes, men must have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit in Old
Testament times. And the Lord Jesus challenges Nicodemus with the
question, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? The
unique work of the Holy Spirit in this age is that he takes believers in
the Lord Jesus, you and me.

He takes us and baptizes us into one body. And this is true the moment
we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. This is
something the Holy Spirit does for us.

We find that this baptism of the Holy Spirit is brought out here in
three stages in the book of the Acts. Here in chapter 2 we have it on a
distinctly Jewish congregation. We turn to chapter 8, and there we have
the Samaritans introduced.

And that's not a fresh baptism. That's merely an extension of the
primary baptism. And when you come to chapters 10 and 11 of this book,
you find this is further extended to take in the Gentiles.

This is not a new thing. It's merely an extension. We sometimes
illustrate it this way.

These United States of America started with 13 states, but from time to
time other states were added to the Union. Until today we have 50 of
them. But the government didn't have to go through the process of
becoming a new government every time a new state was added.

So there's no such thing as a repetition of the baptism of the Holy
Spirit. It's merely an extension of it that it takes in these others.
And this is what I believe is one of the great subjects of this book of
the Acts.

So this is the answer number one to the question, what meaneth this? But
as I said, we'd like to point out how this Holy Spirit came when he did
this. You notice in verse 2 of our chapter he says, "...suddenly there
came a sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind." A tempest, as it
is in the original language. A terrific force.

Something that could be felt when he came in. And you say, why did he
come that way? He didn't fall that way upon the Lord Jesus. We were
reading yesterday morning, talking about how John knew that the Lord
Jesus Christ was the Son of God, because he saw the Holy Spirit
descending upon him like a dove, coming down very silently, very softly
upon him, and it abode upon him.

But here we see the Spirit of God as a mighty rushing wind. What's the
idea? Well, you know, there's another being in the universe of God who
is called in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, he's
called the Prince of the Power of the Air, the Spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience none other than the devil himself. And
here the Holy Spirit, who is, shall we say, the direct opposite to the
devil, comes into this scene, and he comes in with a force that makes
even this one move to one side.

Do you know, dear friends, that this is the reason why we Christians who
live in a world like this, over which Satan is the God and the Prince,
do you know how high it is that we can triumph? Because greater is he
that is in you than he that is in the world. That's why. He comes in
with a force which is irresistible.

He makes himself felt. And I believe this is true not only in a
corporate sense, but in an individual sense. You remember when the
Apostle Paul was writing to the Thessalonians? He says, Our gospel came
not unto you in word only, but in power, and in much assurance, and the
Holy Ghost.

How it came. You remember the first night or the first day that the
gospel gripped you? And if you're here tonight and have never had this
wonderful experience, I trust that somehow through the working of the
Holy Spirit tonight you may know something of this terrific power, the
gospel coming to you in the power of the Holy Spirit. Yes, he comes like
a mighty rushing wind to displace the one who would keep his word from
operating in your heart and mine.

This is the way he comes. Then we notice a second effect here. You
notice it says here, It filled all the house where they were sitting,
and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire, and it sat
upon each of them.

Now, of course, we believe that this phenomenon was a temporary thing,
that it happened and that was it. And Luke, the divine historian, the
divinely inspired historian, gives us a record of this, that he not only
came in this sensible form, but he came in this visible form. It was
something that made his presence visible.

Ah, yes, you say, if we only had something like that today. We have it.
We have it.

You know, dear friends, occasionally we look into the face of some
person who is really under the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit,
and his face fairly radiates. It glows. I remember one night in the city
of Albuquerque, New Mexico, I was saying farewell to a dear brother who
was leaving us in Albuquerque to go back to his home in San Diego,
California.

It was before the days of air travel, such as we know it now. It was
even before the days of air conditioning in the trains, so that my
brother, who was taking advantage of an empty seat, he didn't have a bus
that night. He was going to ride all night sitting up.

And we were talking through the open window of the train while waiting
for the train to leave. We were improving the last minutes, and our
conversation was about the Lord Jesus Christ. And my friend was
bewailing the fact that he would have to do without Christian company
the rest of the journey.

He says, you know, Carl, it's going to be a lonely trip tonight without
you, because we were close friends and we loved to talk about the Lord.
But sitting right behind him was a man whom he couldn't see. And the
more I talked about the Lord, and the more my friend talked about the
Lord, the more this man's face began to get radiant.

Why, his eyes nearly popped out of his head, and finally he couldn't
keep himself any longer, and he shouted out, Hallelujah! My friend
nearly went out of his seat. I said, Ed, there's your friend right
there. And they had a wonderful time that night.

That man had one of the cloven tongues of fire on him. You know that?
You know, dear friends, this is one of the best advertisements that I
know of for our Christian faith. You know, some people get the idea that
in order to be a good Christian, you ought to have a face long enough to
eat your oatmeal out of a quart jar, but it isn't so.

It isn't so. The Lord wants his people to be happy. You know the old
Hebrew hymn book, and you've got a copy of it right there.

Hymn number one in the old Hebrew hymn book says, Blessed or happy is
the man. Psalm 1. That's how God starts his hymn book. He wants his
people to be happy.

He wants them to be radiant with what they have. And you know, dear
friends, sometimes this speaks louder than anything you could say. I
remember one time traveling on a ship where I was told that I couldn't
have any meetings.

I couldn't even have private Bible studies with people who were
interested. It was against the rules. I said to my wife, I said, Well,
at any rate, we can show we've got something.

You know, we weren't on that ship more than two days. When a man sidled
up to me one day, he said, Say, mister, he said, I've been watching you
and your wife. He said, What is it you've got that I don't have? I said,
I don't know.

It can't be money. Couldn't be that. Oh, no, he said, You've got
something money can't buy.

He said, When I noticed you two people talking, you've got that book. He
said, I suppose that's the Bible. I said, Yes, that's what it is.

And I said, There's where the secret is right in this book, too. There
it is. Oh, beloved, what an advertisement for our Christian faith.

Last night, you remember, we were talking near the close, yesterday
morning, rather, talking near the close of the meeting about what it
means to, with open faith, to behold us in the glass, the glory of the
Lord, and to be changed into the same image from glory to glory. And God
help us to manifest more of that in a world such as we live in. You
know, dear friends, we're living in a queer world.

I never dreamed when I was a young man, a boy, seventy years ago, and I
was beginning to think about my surroundings. Sixty years ago, when I
was looking at things in the eyes of a teenager, I never dreamed we'd
come to this. I never dreamed we'd come to a day when young people who
should be full of pep and energy without anything should be having to
take things to give them pep.

Friends, my doctor told my father, he said, that that boy didn't have
asthma. He'd jump over the moon. We had energy.

We didn't need any pills to give us energy. And when it comes to
spiritual energy, dear friends, there's only one place you and I'll find
it, and that's right here. And this will send forth a glow that I
believe will answer to what we have in this passage of scripture
tonight, the glowing tongues of fire that were there.

They were glowing. That was an evidence of the presence of the Holy
Spirit. And I believe that's a phenomenon which can be present today and
is present today in congregations and in individuals where the Spirit of
God really presides.

Then there's a third thing here. You notice it says here in verse 4, and
they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Now somebody says, yeah,
that's wonderful.

It's not only wonderful, dear friends, but it's something that we're
told we have to have. And I want you to keep your bookmarks here in Acts
2, and we're going to go first of all to Ephesians 5, Ephesians chapter
5, to read about this being filled with the Spirit. Just to show you
that this was not simply a passing phenomenon, but it's something that
God intends should be true of His people throughout this whole
dispensation in which we live.

Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18. And be not drunk with wine wherein is
excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Now notice, He doesn't say be
prayed to be filled with the Spirit.

He doesn't say work yourself up into a frenzy, but He says be filled
with the Spirit. Now how do you do this? Well, let's look at the next
verse, because this is a continuation of that very sentence. Speaking to
yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making
melody in your heart to the Lord.

That simple, isn't it? Have you ever thought of what a wonderful gift
has been given to the Christian church in the psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs that we have? I have a collection of old hymn books that
I've been making now for something like, oh, I guess some 40 years ago I
began making this collection of old hymn books. And I've got some real
old ones. I'm amazed at the richness of the poetry we find in these hymn
books.

I've had in college courses, of course, to read other poetry. We read
the Canterbury Tales by Chaucer. We read the Fairy Queen by Spencer.

We read Shakespeare's plays and so on, and more modern authors after
them. And they were real poets in those days. But you'll find nothing
that can excel spiritual poetry.

It's tremendous. If you haven't bathed your soul in it, you've missed
something. I know these are days when they say, oh, we're too practical
to be poetical.

Dear friends, you have to be poetical to be practical. Do you know why?
Because this is the very word God has used of this creation which he
made. Do you know that when the Bible tells us about the things that are
made in Romans 1, he uses the word poem? Do you know that in the first
verse of Genesis in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word
poiema is used to denote the creation? Do you know that in Ephesians 2
and verse 10, where it says we are his workmanship created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, the word workmanship is poem? This is it.

God intends it to be a poem. And this is the thing he wants you and me
to be occupied with and have our souls filled with it. And how wonderful
to begin a day with some grand old hymn of the church.

Some grand old hymn that exalts the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I tell you,
many a day has been begun with a song like that, and God has blessed it.
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making
melody in your heart.

You don't have to sing so loud you wake up everybody in the house, you
see. It's making melody in your heart to the Lord. But then let's go a
little further.

Verse 20, Ephesians 5.20, giving thanks always for all things unto God
and Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sentence goes even
further than this, but we'll stop there tonight. Yes, you say, brother,
but you still haven't given us any practical way outside of this reading
these hymn books, as you point out.

Is there really a practical way of being filled with the Spirit? Now it
so happens, dear friends, that we have a parallel passage to this one
we've just looked at in Ephesians 5. And you know, parallel passages are
the most helpful things that you can get. This is one of the blessings
of the four Gospels, that you have an opportunity to put parallel
passages alongside of each other and gain fresh light on them. I could
give you a dozen illustrations of that tonight, but I'm going to give
you this illustration tonight, a parallel passage to Ephesians 5.18 and
19.

Turn, please, a few pages over in your Bible to Colossians chapter 3.
Colossians chapter 3, verse 16. Colossians 3 and verse 16. Let the word
of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace
in your hearts to the Lord.

Do you get it? Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. That's the
parallel to the expression in Ephesians 5, to be filled with the Spirit.
How do you let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom?
Well, one simple way of doing it, dear friends, is to read the word of
Christ in the book.

You see? Read it until your heart burns. As we've heard it said in
connection with Luke 24, did not our heart burn within us? While he
talked with us, by the way, don't be content with just reading ten
verses. Don't be content with reading a chapter.

Keep on until you get that heartburn. That's it. Let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly in all wisdom.

And you'll notice that it has exactly the same context that you have in
Ephesians 5. It says here, teaching and admonishing one another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts
to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of
the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Notice the
parallel passages.

Where you have in Ephesians 5, be filled with the Spirit, you have in
Colossians 3, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.
Two things which produce the same effect must be equal. You see? They
were filled with the Spirit.

And this brings about a third result there in Acts 2. Let's come back to
that chapter now. You'll think that this is something after the method
of an old schoolteacher. Well, I'm just simply going according to a
habit that's been mine for years, to go along the schoolteaching way.

And so if this looks to you like a schoolteacher behind the school desk
tonight, well, take it as such. And let's see what the Spirit of God has
to teach us now in Acts 2. Verse 4, they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost. Now we've talked about that, what it means and how it can be
done.

And they began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them
utterance. Ah, somebody says, now, now we're in for it. No, you're not.

This passage means just exactly what it says. And this must not be
confused with what you have in 1 Corinthians 14. In 1 Corinthians 14,
nobody understood what was said.

In Acts 2, everybody understands. In 1 Corinthians 14, you need an
interpreter. In Acts 2, you never hear about one.

You're not talking about the same thing. You look at him and see. But
what is he telling us here? Well, as we go down this passage of
Scripture, we count and we find there are about 14 different languages
that they talked here, and everybody understood what was being said.

This was the marvel of it. And sometimes people get so occupied with the
means that they forget the purpose. It's like a person picking up a
telephone.

He takes a telephone. Isn't it a wonderful instrument? Somebody says,
let's take this thing apart and see what makes it tick. And as sure as
you do, you're going to spoil it.

Because if you don't want to think about telephones, you'd better let
that alone. But you get so occupied with the telephone. Look at the
shape of it.

Look at the color of it. And I wonder who can use this. Bless your soul,
it wasn't made as an ornament.

It was made as a means of communication. That's the lesson of Acts 2.
First of all, the Spirit of God united them in one body. Secondly, He
filled them and He made them to glow.

And now He uses them to communicate. Don't get occupied with the detail.
Take into account the purpose, dear friends, that God has given us this
gift to communicate.

And we're responsible to communicate. You say, how am I going to
communicate? That's a good question. This is something which has baffled
the educators down the years.

They think they've got an educator all ready for the job. And he gets up
before a classroom full of youngsters and he doesn't communicate. You
pick out somebody you think is going to be a first-class Sunday school
teacher, and he or she doesn't communicate.

They don't know how to put it over. In other words, their lips are not
anointed by the Holy Spirit to communicate. And sometimes we take the
rudest person who's had very little education, and it's amazing how he
or she can communicate.

They really know how to communicate. And to communicate, dear friends,
is to give somebody something in language and spirit that he
understands. You're talking his language now.

You're communicating with him. And this doesn't mean that you need to
descend to the level of slang, nor even to colloquialisms. You can use
choice language, even with the most primitive peoples.

And it's amazing how they respond to it. I know this from experience on
the mission field. Not so long ago, I was down in Salvador, in Central
America, giving an address in the Spanish language.

And I had gone over this address a good number of times to see that I
was speaking idiomatic Spanish. And here were some people in the
audience who had little or no education. But it's interesting to hear
them after the service saying, Muchísimas gracias, hermano, por la
palabra de Dios.

Thank God. Thank you for the Word of God. This is it.

You're communicating. And dear friends, sometimes this is a blunt
statement, but you're communicating something. I had a dear father-in-
law.

He's now in glory. He had very little, if any, education. Came over to
this country, to Canada rather, when he was a boy, I think 10 or 11
years of age, from Yorkshire.

Settled up in the province of Ontario, Canada. His father before him was
a bootmaker. And so he learned the trade, even as a lad.

But when he got up in his teens, he decided he'd go out west, to Western
Canada, out to Manitoba, to take up claims there. He and a brother of
his, his brother Stephen, they went out there and went into the cattle
business. And they really made good at it.

He was a shrewd dealer, but absolutely honest. And I watched this man as
he went about his business, for I went with him on some of his trips up
there in Manitoba, as well as later on in Ontario. And I looked at this
man and his approach to people.

He talked business with them, and he knew his stuff when he talked
business. They couldn't fool him about a cow or a steer. He knew what he
was doing.

He knew almost to the pound what the beast would weigh without putting
it on the scales. Clever businessman. Never learned this in college or
the university, because he never finished the grade schools even in the
old country.

But he had a way of communicating. And I give you one illustration to
show how it was done. One Sunday morning, we were out taking a little
walk before the meeting for the remembrance of our Lord.

He and I were walking the streets of Clinton, Ontario. And there was a
man across the street who cupped his hands in the morning sunlight, and
he looked at two of us. And addressing my father-in-law, he says, Is
that you, Mr. Taylor? My father-in-law said, Yes, this is John Taylor.

Aye, it's a fine morning, that Mr. Taylor. It's a fine morning if your
sins are forgiven. And he was halfway across the street.

And he communicated with this fellow. He had struck a note when he said,
It's a fine morning if your sins are forgiven. I don't think the man had
ever connected that beautiful Sunday morning with the forgiveness of his
sins.

But before that morning was over, this was the most wonderful morning
he'd ever lived. Now, if it had been put to me and said, Suppose you
talk to this old man about his soul. I don't know that I would have
known just how to go about it.

But here was a man who knew how to communicate. And, dear friends, this,
I believe, is one of the great lessons of this second chapter of the
Book of Acts, is to learn to communicate with men and women about the
Lord Jesus, the wonderful works of God, as we read here in this chapter.
They heard, everyone, the wonderful works of God.

And this led them to the question, What meaneth this? And, dear friends,
this is it that makes Christianity unique. I've talked to Buddhists.
I've talked to Muslims.

I've talked to a good many atheists. And not one of them could produce
something like what the gospel does to men and women. And I've taken
this gospel, dear friends, into a variety of places.

In ten years of ministry in the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, we were
taking it to one bedside after another, to those TVs. Some of them were
rich, and some of them were poor. Some of them were ignorant, and some
of them were educated.

Some of them were cultured, and some of them were rude. But we took the
same message to all of them and counted on the Spirit of God to make it
good, and He gave us a harvest of souls. He really did.

Oh, this matter of communication. Dear friends, to me, it's one of the
great burning desires of my soul that as long as I live, I'll still be
able to communicate these wonderful good news. I don't want people to go
out and say, you know, Oh, that was a tremendous thing.

I remember I had one man like that in my conversation out in Arizona one
morning. He said, as he went out, he said, You know, Preacher, I don't
think that sermon of yours this morning could be improved on. It was
excellent.

That night he went back. I was wondering if he was going to say no. I'd
either slipped or something.

Anyhow, he came up after me and said, Well, Preacher, I didn't think it
could be done, but really, he said, you outdid yourself tonight. Well,
you know, if you didn't know the human race, you'd say to yourself,
That's terrific. Did you know what I said to him? I said, My friend, I'm
afraid you've missed the whole point of my message.

I said, I wasn't aiming to get you to tell me what a wonderful sermon I
preach. I was aiming to get you to tell me what a wonderful Savior I
represent. That did.

And beloved, that's exactly what they did here. They didn't call
attention to their gifts. They didn't call attention to their manner of
presentation, but they preached Christ.

And this is what we need to do in a day like this, in this dispensation
of the Holy Spirit. And the way to become proficient in this is
expressed in the little hymn with which we're going to close this
service tonight. That's hymn number 365.

Hymn number 365, which will probably put into poetic forms what we've
been trying to say about taking time to be holy. Three hundred sixty.
Speak oft with thy Lord, abide in him always, and feed on his word.

Make friends of God's children, help those who are weak, forgetting in
nothing his blessing to see. Number 365. Shall we sign? Leave this
world.

We thank thee for the presence of thy blessed Holy Spirit. We thank thee
for what he does to those of us who trust in thee, putting us together
in this one sacred body, which causes our very countenances to glow with
holy light, and which frames our tongues and lips to speak his words. We
trust that each one of us shall be in our everyday living, that we may
truly fulfill the exhortation to be filled with thy spirit.

Speaking to ourselves in psalms and hymns in this portion of thy word,
we commit it to thee and to our salvation. Bless us as we do this in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

========================================================================
Audio: https://sermonindex1.b-cdn.net/8/SID8010.mp3
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/carl-armerding/what-meaneth-this/
========================================================================