Joel's Prophesy

To the crowd of people who are wondering what is happening, he's going to give a spirit-filled explanation for what's occurring here in this upper room. But before we do, I just want to do a review and add something to that review that I think is beneficial for all of us. Last week, we talked about these two cities, the two times in which the Lord changed the languages of individuals.

Back in Genesis chapter 11, he changed the language of those who were building the Tower of Babel, and he confused their languages. And he separated them into little pockets, little groups, and those groups went off and formed different areas, different languages, different cities and nations. And then we looked at this city that the Lord is trying to build, and that city is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And on the day of Pentecost, he changes languages to bring people together so that they can build his great city. And that is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. So God confounded one city, and he blessed one city.

He confounded Babel because they were building an edifice to glorify themselves. And he brought languages together because he wanted God's children to build a city that will glorify him. You know, this week, I thought about how Brother David mentioned this point in time.

He thought about the entire building, and God brought in individuals to change, and then he scattered them and destroyed their work. You know, the devil sees that, and he says, I can do that too. And so the people of God come together, and they are one heart, one mind, one soul.

We're going to read about that here as we go through the book of Acts. He's bringing them together in unity, as Brother David mentioned, all over the world. God's children are building this great city, this great kingdom.

The devil comes in, and he says, I can scatter them just like you scattered back in the Tower of Babel. I'll scatter them too. And he does it in a very subtle way.

I was part of the church life. Witnessing, and that's homeschooling, and a lot of homeschool families. There are other churches that are established in the same thing as theology.

A lot of teaching, a lot of in-depth study, a lot of get your theology in order, understand theology. Then there's some churches that are more concerned about signs and wonders, and fill the groupings in there. And, you know, the devil looks at that and says, here's the body of Christ, and here's some of the major things in the church.

And I was in London, and these people went to them. You can see what's happening here. And then you had that group that had their sister churches about theology.

Then you had the Pentecostal kind of groups. They're down here with some. And the city that was supposed to go sends them off.

I'm all for theology and getting your theology in order. I'm all for family life, and I'm all for everybody getting together as one. And that's all actually.

I was a part of a church that had theology and witness. I first heard it for the first 10 years of my Christian life. Theology and witness.

One of the statements in our church was, if you ain't a soul winner, you're nothing. You know? You're nothing. And we believe that.

And so then I saw a group that was specializing in family and practical holiness. And I said, hey, that's a good situation over there. What I did, I didn't really get that in.

And I think we need to make sure that we don't throw this Holy Spirit. Because when you get in the book of Acts, you're going to find a lot of these things happening that people say, well, is that for today? You know, can we embrace these things? And more and more as we go down through the book of Acts, I think we need to open our hearts up a little bit. It's more of the Holy Spirit filling our hearts and God using us in a wonderful way to bolster our witness.

So we ought not to encourage these groupings. These groupings. Groupings that divide the body.

And they're everywhere. So that's an introduction here to our message. Two cities.

Babel and that great city. And you see them at the end of the book of Revelation. You have this woman who's a harlot.

That's Babylon. You have this other woman who is this great city that comes down from heaven, which is the church, the bride of Christ. And God is trying to build his church.

And he's trying to bring people together of one heart, one mind, and one soul to build that church. And I just want to throw this out. I think it's very important.

I didn't bring it up as much as I should last time. But right after this fall of Babel and the whole thing goes down and the people are scattered, the next chapter, the next verse, starting in chapter 12 in Genesis, it says, God called Abraham. And that's important because Abraham is the father of faith.

Abraham is the beginning of God saying, I'm going to build a great nation. I'm going to build a great people and they're going to come out of you, Abraham. Yes, you're a physical seed, but Abraham, you're going to be the father of those who will come to me by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that's going to be those who I'm going to build this church with. And so Abraham is called out of the air of the Chaldeans and he comes forth and he trusts God. And he begins to be a father of many nations.

So we come now here to chapter two and verse number 12. I'm going to start reading here last week. We saw their speaking in tongues and the whole multitude are coming together and they're trying to figure out what's happening.

So let's pray and we'll look at this passage here this morning. Heavenly Father, Lord, may you work in our hearts. As we've seen in the Tower of Babel, how men with their fallen nature coming together.

And you said they would be restrained to them, which they've imagined to do. Lord, I know your heart is this morning that we would come together as a family all over the world. Come together under the power of the spirit of God to build a kingdom for your glory and for your honor.

And Lord, may you open our hearts and eyes this morning to truth. And may that truth motivate us to surrender more and more of our hearts in our life, to put away our culture, to embrace truth. And to change our life and our habits.

For your honor and for your glory. We acknowledge that you're king of kings and lord of lords. We acknowledge that you're seated at the right hand of God.

We acknowledge that, Lord, we desire to be your servant for your blessing. And this morning, Lord, as we get to the end of the message, Lord willing, we pray that you'll touch hearts and maybe bring more people into the kingdom of God and save souls. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, I've tried this week to just try to imagine and envision the Day of Pentecost. And I don't know what it's like in your mind when you think about what is happening.

These 120 are in this upper room. I think it was the same place they ate the Lord's Supper. They're in the city of Jerusalem.

Where at? I don't know in Jerusalem, but they're in this upper room. And this powerful thing happens where the spirit of God fills this house where they're sitting. And then they begin to speak in other languages.

Now, I think you might look at us, 120, and if we're in a room and the spirit of God comes and we start speaking in tongues, it doesn't affect people out there. Nobody even knows that it's happening out there. And yet, it seems like this begins to spread throughout all of Jerusalem because there are people coming.

It says multitudes are coming together to see what's going on here. So evidently, in my mind, some of these individuals are actually out maybe on the rooftop. You know, Jesus told them to preach from the rooftop or in the porches.

And they're declaring the Word of God. They're prophesying and they're speaking in a language that only those who can hear different languages can understand. And this begins to spread.

Hey, come and look at what's going on over here. These people are speaking and they're speaking languages that all of us can understand. And if you look here in verse number 12, it says, And they were all amazed and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

What does this mean? What is happening? And so the people are hearing these men prophesying in different languages. And they think about it. The thought occurs to them, if you go back here to verse number 11, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

God is doing something here. And even the lost people are recognizing God is doing an amazing work here. Something miraculous, something supernatural is happening in front of our eyes.

Something else they realize, if you jump back to verse 7, it says, And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? Now, Galileans, what's a Galilean? Well, a Galilean is someone from the north. Galileans are shepherds. Galileans are farmers.

Galileans are not theologians. They're not studied. The Jews understood this.

Here we are in Jerusalem, the center of Judaism. We have our colleges. We have our institutions.

These people are Galileans. How are they speaking in all these languages? I mean, Galileans only know one language, and they barely speak that one. They're unlearned.

They're ignorant. So that's another thing. These people are Galileans.

What's happening here? They are speaking like our best professors who know five or six languages. And so, obviously, this is a notable miracle. And they acknowledge that this must be a work of God.

Verse 13 says, Others mocking. There's always mockers in the crowd. These men are full of new wine.

Now, some thought they were drunk. So if you were there, you'd have taught them. Brother Jerry's drunk.

He's lost it. He's been drinking some wine. He's drunk.

Do you hear how he's speaking? Some thought they were drunk, but it was only 9 o'clock, Peter said, and you usually don't get drunk at 9 o'clock in the morning. So we have a question here. What is going on? What does this mean? And Peter then stands up with the eleven.

Here's leadership. The twelve disciples and Peter stands up with the eleven, and he lifts up his voice. Now, I'm all for standing up and lifting up.

And there's a number of places in the Bible that tell us to stand up and lift up. Stand up on your feet and lift up your voice. So Peter steps out.

He may be on a porch. He may be on a housetop. He stands up, and he lifts up his voice.

Amen. That's common in the New Testament. And it's something that we ought to be doing more of in our day, standing up and lifting up the voice, this idea of open air, preaching.

You know, back then they didn't have all the technology that we have. They didn't have newspapers and magazines, and they couldn't communicate as quickly as we do. And so in a public forum, to stand up and to lift up your voice and to speak to people was a common thing.

And so it ought not to cause us to be fearful or to step back when we see someone stand up and lift up his voice. Now, verse 15 it says, for these are not drunken as you suppose, seeing as it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which is spoken by the prophet Joel.

Now, I believe that Peter has given here revelation. I don't know, maybe they were reading their Bibles during this time before the Spirit of God fell. But I believe that Peter understood his Bible.

He understood the Old Covenant. And when the Spirit of God came upon him, the Spirit of God brought revelation to him. So that when this event happened, the Spirit of God brought revelation to him and others.

This is in Joel. You remember you read in Joel, Joel chapter 2 or chapter 3, whichever it is, go back and look at it. Here's what's happening.

And so Peter is given revelation by the Spirit of God. By the way, Jesus said this. In John 14, 26 He said, But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, and this is exactly what's happened, He shall teach you in all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.

And so these verses come back, Old Testament passages come back, and God gives revelation to Peter. And Peter's going to explain from the Old Testament prophet of Joel. Now, Joel here prophesied this about 850 years earlier.

So God is foretelling, this idea of foretelling. He knows what's going to happen before it happens. So he prophesies, Joel prophesies of this event.

And I'd like to just study this prophecy with you because it's a very important prophecy. And this is at the very foundation of the church as it begins to be built. And starting in verse 17 is this prophecy that Joel gave.

And we won't go back and look at it. It's almost word for word if you want to go back in the book of Joel. But in verse 17 it says, "...and it shall come to pass in the last days." Now just put yourself there in that position.

You're listening to Peter. And Peter stands up, lifts up his voice and says, here's what this means. These languages, this wonderful work of God.

This is coming from the prophet Joel. God is saying to us, he says, "...it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God." This is not me reading a Bible. This is God speaking.

"...I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit, and they shall prophesy." So here's what's happening, "...thus saith the Lord." Now I'd like to break this down and just talk a little bit about what's happening. Verse 17 says, "...it shall come to pass in the last days." Now we've talked about this before, but the last days in the Bible start on the day of Pentecost, pouring out of the Spirit of God until the second coming of Christ, which is the day of the Lord.

This period of time, and we're living in that period of time right now, this period of time is what is called the last days. And this event here is like a bookend. You know, you stack books in the middle and the second coming of Christ is the other end of the bookend.

So this period of time is called the last days. Now here's some evidence that the world is not going to go on for 5,000 more years because according to God, these are the last days. And so from the creation to Pentecost was roughly 4,000 years.

And if these days are the last days, then they're not going to last more than 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 years. They are the last days. And so we're approaching the end.

And I'm one who believes in the week theory, not week, W-E-A-K, but W-E-E-K, that God is going to give us just like a week. He's going to give man six days to labor, to do all his labor. And the seventh day, he's going to have a day of rest.

And so you have six days. Peter said one day is like the Lord's 1,000 years. So six days, 6,000 years, and then the 1,000-year millennium.

And so for 4,000 years, we went from Adam to Pentecost and 2,000 years from Pentecost to the second coming of Christ. Now Jesus was crucified around 32 A.D. 32 A.D. to 2,000 years is 2032. I'm not setting dates or anything, but roughly 2,000 years is what I understand is to be the last days.

And the last days are going to end in the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're living in the last days. And some of you who are not converted, you need to understand that we're getting close to the end.

And as we read this morning, God will send them strong delusion who chose not to believe the truth while they had an opportunity. And they'll be sent a lie. And so the last days, and we'll see a little bit more about that here in just a minute, but look at verse 17.

It says, And it shall come to pass that the last days saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and on your young men shall see visions, and on your old men shall dream dreams, and on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit, and they shall prophesy. So this period of time in God's mind, you're going to get up and talk to Him today, stand beside Him and say, Lord, what do You have in mind for these last days? Well, let me tell you what I have in mind.

I want to pour out My Spirit upon all flesh. All flesh. And in the context in Joel's prophecy, he's talking about the people of God.

All believing flesh. And so one thing I want you to remember here is that he's talking to these Jewish people who are Old Testament in their mindset. And in the Old Testament mindset, you had prophets that had the Spirit of God come upon them.

And the average person would look at that and say, wow, I wish I could be an Elijah and have the Spirit of God come. I wish I could be like a Samson and how the Spirit would come and go on Samson, you know, when he needed some strength. I wish I could be like one of those prophets.

They had the Spirit of God would come upon them and they would prophesy. I'm just a regular old Joe. I'm not a prophet like that.

You know, God comes to the Israelites and He comes to us and says, listen, I'm not going to pour My Spirit upon the Elijahs and the Samsons. I'm going to pour it on everybody. Everybody.

All flesh. And when a Jew heard that, you know, we hear that and we don't think much of it, but if a Jew heard that, wow, hey, we can all be Elijah. We can all be Samson.

We can all have the fullness of God's Spirit. So I'm going to pour My Spirit upon all flesh. And here's what he says about this all flesh.

He gives three classes of people. He starts out with sons and daughters. And by the way, this is not a sex, male-female thing.

You know, you're not out if you're one sex and in if you're another. He says sons and daughters. Now, that's not talking about young people, by the way.

Joel is prophesying 800 years before the event and he says your children, the generations that will come, your sons and your daughters, 15 generations in the future, 20 generations in the future, I'm going to pour out My Spirit upon them. Male and female. Sisters, don't be discouraged.

You know, God is just as willing to pour His Spirit out on you as He is on that young man sitting beside you. And it's his heart. I'm going to pour out My Spirit upon all flesh.

Sons and daughters. And he says young and old. Young men and old men.

Age is not an issue either. Hey, I'd love to see a 12-year-old get filled with the Holy Ghost. Amen? Oh, I have a book.

We gave him away when people would visit our house. It's entitled, I Must Tell. A young man, probably 13, 14 years old.

James Stewart was his name. He was a well-known worldwide evangelist. But he was playing, I think it was cricket or some game, soccer maybe, over there in England.

And God was weighing heavy upon his little heart. And he was having to make a choice of giving up his desire to be a soccer player or a cricket player. And he had a professional career in mind.

And he was under conviction during a game one time. And he just gave it all up and threw it all away. And he ran and he embraced the Lord Jesus Christ.

13, 14-year-old little boy. Young man. God filled him with the Spirit of God and he took off.

I mean, he just went out on the street and started preaching. Young man. Just a kid.

And by the time he's 19, he's preaching to 100,000 people all over the world. And just a vessel. Well, God doesn't care whether you're young or old.

Just a vessel that He can fill. And so, sons, daughters, that's male, female, young and old. And then he goes down into the social class.

I'll even pour out my Spirit upon my male servants and my handmaidens, my female servants. I mean, the low class, the servants. You know, in Judaism, it was the rabbi.

It was the Pharisee. It was the leader. It was the high priest that got the blessing of God and everyone else was way down here.

But no, God says, I'm even going to pour out My Spirit upon the lowly. Anybody wants it. Even a handmaiden.

A girl who's sweeping the floors. She can be filled with the Spirit of God. And then we're told here that God wants to use them to prophesy.

Sons and daughters shall prophesy. Your handmaidens and your servants shall prophesy. Now there's a lot of confusion about prophesying.

I just want to try to clarify that. Prophesying simply by definition means this, to speak the divine revelation. In other words, I'm prophesying today.

I'm just sharing with you the divine revelation. One of the definitions is to speak forth the divine revelation. Divine's Expository Dictionary says it this way, prophesying means speaking forth the mind and counsel of God.

So the Spirit of God is motivating these people to speak forth the Word of God, the mind and the counsel of God. That's prophesying. Now there's another definition of prophesying and that is foretelling the future.

Being able to prophesy about an event that's coming in the future. Joel's prophecy right here, verse 16, but this is that which is spoken by the prophet Joel. Joel was telling what's coming in the future.

He's a prophet. Look down to Acts 2, verse 29. Here's another prophet.

Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried and his sepulcher is with us unto this day, therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne, he seeing this before, he knew this way back, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. David's a prophet. And David in the Psalms prophesied of Jesus.

He looked way up into the future of his journey and said, here's what's coming. I'm a prophet. And so as you go through the Bible, you'll see people prophesying, speaking of the divine revelation of God, and you'll see prophets foretelling the future.

Those two aspects of prophecy. And so God, His heart is to fill you with His Spirit that you might prophesy. So God wants in these last days to turn the church, I like this, into an army of prophets.

Did you know that? I haven't heard any amens today. An army of prophets. Look at this.

Ephesians chapter 6, you've got this whole armor, right? Armor. That's to protect you. And what do you have as a weapon? A sword of the Spirit.

Think about this. The sword of the Spirit. Who wields the sword? It's the Spirit of God's sword.

It's called the sword of the Spirit. We have the sword of the Spirit, which is the what? Word of God. In other words, you're a military armor.

A large part of it is protecting you, but the offensive aspect is a sword that is wielded by the Spirit of God, and it's called the Word of God. Now, the Spirit of God cannot wield that sword without a vessel. And we need to be the vessel that the Spirit of God can fill and then use to wield the sword, because if you go to a fight in the military and you don't have a sword, and all you have is a bunch of protective device, you're not going to win any battle.

You're never going to kill the enemy. You're never going to harm the enemy. You're just going to be in a defensive mode all the time.

It's unfortunate. I think the church is in a defensive mode. And so the Spirit of God has this sword.

And I just throw this question out to you. Just think about it for a minute. If you're not willing to wield the sword, why do you need the Spirit? Right? What's the purpose for having the power of the Spirit to go into a battle, and yet you leave the sword down? If it's the sword of the Spirit.

And so this is what we see here in Acts 1, verse 8. You shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses. What are you going to witness? You're going to witness of the resurrection.

You're going to witness of the Word of God. And the Spirit of God is going to give you the power to take the Word of God and use it as a sword. And that's why I think we see in the book of Acts, on the day of Pentecost, these tongues of fire.

And in many ways, God desires to give us tongues of fire. And you know, I get back to my illustration over here which I've already erased. And I find that many churches want to specialize in theology.

Many want to specialize in home life. Many want to specialize in signs and wonders. But I think if we need to add a little bit to our congregation, I think we do well with family.

I think we do well in theology. Maybe we need to add some Pentecostalism. But one area I think that we need to upgrade is a little bit of witness.

Witness. And to be more of a balance. And if you look at the book of Acts, there's a lot of witnessing going on here.

And it seems to be one of the ways in which God fills men with His Spirit. And so, you've known this throughout the years if you've been here for a while, I do not believe in quiet Christianity. That's so contrary to what God is teaching here that when He fills you with His Spirit, then you speak.

So this idea of just being a quiet Christian is one way that we quench the Spirit of God. And as we go through the book of Acts, you won't see anybody too quiet in the book of Acts. As a matter of fact, Stephen was not a quiet fellow.

And Peter is lifting up his voice here. And he's speaking. And I was talking with Brother David this week, we met in the morning here, and I talked about how if you go through the book of Acts, when the Holy Ghost came upon people, you know, the Holy Ghost when He came upon people, whether it's here in the book of Acts, in chapter 2 or chapter 4, or further and further, you're going to go down through the entire book, you're going to find that it causes something to happen in their tongue.

It says when the Holy Ghost came upon men, they prophesied. That's from the tongue. When the Holy Ghost came upon men, they glorified God.

That was from the tongue. When the Holy Ghost came upon men, they spake in tongues. That again is the tongue.

And so when you see the Holy Spirit coming in fullness upon an individual, one of the first things that happens was their tongue was set on fire. And we can go through and look at a lot of examples. We won't take the time here this morning, but right here in Acts 2, you see this, how it happens.

In Acts 2, verse 3, it says, there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire, and it set upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. What do you think will happen when you're filled with the Holy Ghost? The next words, and they began to speak. Speak with other tongues.

Another example of this is in Acts 4. In verse number 31. Acts 4, 31, and when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the Word of God with boldness. And so I cannot see me personally, and I cannot see a person who claims to be filled with the Holy Spirit who lives a quiet life.

It's contrary. It's totally contradictory to what the Bible says here. Verse 8 of chapter number 4, and I could go through many, but it says, Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them... You realize those are the people in the elders of Israel.

He gives a whole sermon. Whenever men are filled with the Holy Spirit, it affects their tongue. How about this? Acts 5. Even to the church.

Be not drunk with wine. That's what they thought they were. Wear in his excess, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.

What's the next word? Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, giving thanks unto the Lord. There you go. It's right here in the tongue.

It loosens the tongue and sets the tongue on fire. And I think if you don't want to be a speaker or you don't want to prophesy, you don't want to glorify God with your mouth, you're going to limit the ability of God to fill you with His Spirit. Now, I shared this with you a few weeks ago.

I want to read these verses again and comment on something here. In Acts 6.7, it says, And the word of God increased. Remember we talked about how the Word of God is going forth.

And the devil was trying to stop the Word of God from going forth. In Acts 12.24, but the Word of God grew and multiplied. And then in Acts 19, this is kind of going on through the book of Acts.

The Word of God is going out. Acts 19.20, So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed. Now, you ought to read the book of Acts and have this idea in mind.

God is establishing His kingdom. He's going to build His house. He's going to bring God's people together.

He's going to fill them with the Holy Ghost. And they're going to go out and preach the Word. That Word has the power to get people converted.

That Word has the power to heal. That Word has the power to sanctify. That Word has the power to do everything we need done.

And these people go out and the Word of God begins to grow and multiply and go everywhere exceedingly. Of course, the devil doesn't like that at all. And he's in the process of trying to shut it down.

And so you find threats and imprisonments and all the things that we're going to see as we go through the book of Acts to try to stop the Word of God from going forth. And so the Word of God is going forth in the book of Acts like a sword. It's being wielded by the Holy Spirit.

But as I mentioned here already, the Spirit of God needs some vessels. He needs some vessels. The Spirit of God is not going to be able to speak forth the Word of God without a human vessel.

Someone to carry the sword. You know, a sword. I could bring a very, very sharp sword.

A long sword. Maybe this is a good children's lesson. Long sword.

Heavy sword like Goliath. A sword that if you just touch your skin, it just pierces your skin. And you set it right up here and let it sit.

Do you think it's going to benefit anything? No. It's going to benefit nothing. However, you get someone to pick it up and they're strengthened by the power of the Spirit of God and they start going... All of a sudden, you've got something pretty effective in a war and pretty powerful.

You know, it would be a tragedy to stand before the Lord someday and after 30 or 40 years of Christian life and the Lord says, hey, I had this tremendous sword for you and I wanted to fill you with the Holy Spirit to use this sword and to go forth and to win the battle and to slay the enemy and to save souls and to deliver God's people, but you just left it lay. You left it lay on the chair. And so, this testimony here in the book of Acts is a testimony of God filling His vessels and they taking this sword and going out and started to wield them.

And they well-wielded them everywhere they went and people were falling over. I mean, they were being slain in the Spirit. And people were getting converted.

3,000 first of all on the day of Pentecost, then 5,000. So, the Lord needs vessels. You know, it would be great to just say, Lord, here I am.

I mean, I know my personality, my culture, my character. I'm not a prophesier. I'm not one who speaks much, but I'm just going to give my body to you and you just fill me and give me that sword and I'll do whatever you want.

Good place to be. You know, God will change you. Change you.

That Bible has the power to save. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God. It has the power to heal.

It has the power to sanctify. It has the power to do everything we need to have it done not only in here, but out there. And we have the energy and power to get it out there and in here.

And these people took advantage of it. I believe this, if you want to truly participate in New Testament Christianity, you better be ready to prophesy. Can you give me an amen on that one? I mean, I don't see any other way.

Either we just take this book here of Acts and just kind of rip it out. So we have these bookends, the day of Pentecost and the second coming of Christ, and we have the Lord saying, in these last days, my heart is to pour out My Spirit, not just on these prophets, but I'm going to pour My Spirit upon everyone who's a believer. And I personally have felt over the years, I go to different places and preach that I'm fighting against a lying... He's a liar.

The devil's a liar. He's a liar. The Bible says every lie comes from him.

But I've been fighting against the lies of the devil all over the place. It's not my gift to share the Word of God with anybody. That's a lie.

I've told you this before. You know, if I'm going down the road and maybe I see Brother Wolf and his wife and family off the side of the road and their car's broken down and I stop and I roll the window down and I say, Brother Wolf, what's the problem? He says, my car's broken down. Can you help me? And I say, Brother Wolf, I don't have the gift to help, so I'm sorry.

I'll call Brother Chris to come and help you. Or, you know, we have an offering box back there and I don't know if you've seen... Oh, it must have fell off. On the front there we have only those who have the gift of giving should give.

Is that the case? How about mercy? You know, mercy's a gift. Brother, I don't show any mercy at all because it's not my gift. You know, every one of those gifts we all have a part in.

The Bible says we're to serve one another, but I don't have the gift of serving. The Bible says we're to give, but I don't have the gift of giving. The Bible says we're to show mercy.

And so, prophesying is for all of us. But you know what? God gives us an extra measure of that to certain individuals. And certain individuals seem to have a better feel and a better ability to prophesy than I do.

But that doesn't mean I should just chuck the whole thing. I'm supposed to take part in everything. All of your sons and daughters, all flesh are going to prophesy.

It may not be my gift. Giving may not be my gift, but I'm going to give some. Mercy may not be my gift, but I'm going to try to be merciful.

Serving may not be my gift, but I'm commanded to serve one another. Teaching may not be my gift, but I'm supposed to teach my kids and my wife and my brothers. You know, the Lord, if you look at His gifts, He commands all those things.

Exhortation, mercy, serving. But those who He gives an extra measure to, they have a flavor in their life. And that's their gift.

So again, many, many attempts to try to stop this army from picking up the sword and wielding it. It's all the devil. Who would tell you to keep the sword and leave it lay right there and be quiet? Who do you think would say that to you? Well, I'll tell you what.

If I can convince the army that's fighting me to put their guns down and we'll fight this battle if they put all their guns down, that'd be a pretty good idea, wouldn't it? All you people, if I can convince you and lie to you that you don't need those guns and we'll fight you. So I think as the devil looks upon all of us and if we all pick up a sword and start wielding it, it's like, whoa, we've got to convince these people that sword's not for them. So it's all flesh.

But these are the bookends here for the last days. Pentecost and the second coming of Christ. And if you go back with me here to Acts 1, just flip one page over, this is alluded to here in Acts 1, verse number 9, And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven. Now these angels understand this and they say, listen, you see, you're standing here, you see Jesus go up, listen, He's going to come down in a like manner right here. You guys have a work to do.

So why are you standing here? You need to get ready for your work. You're going to bring in this harvest. And so as the Lord goes up, He's coming down at the second coming of Christ.

And that is actually alluded to here in Acts 1, here in Acts 2 also, and later on in Acts 2 it's alluded to again. This whole idea of the Lord came, He did His work, He has sent it up, He's coming down, and this period of time, the last days, is for the church to be filled with the Holy Spirit and go forth and bring in the harvest. Now let's keep reading here.

Verse 19, And I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vaporous smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great and notable day of the Lord come. Now this is this great and notable day of the Lord.

That's when the Lord appears. And He returns to bring judgment upon the world. But notice what it says.

I'll show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath. So I'm standing here, and I'm thinking, okay, heaven is above, earth is beneath. I'll show wonders in heaven above and I'll show wonders in the earth beneath.

Up and down. Now you don't have to turn there, but let me read to you Luke's Gospel. This is the same writer who wrote the book of Acts.

In Luke chapter 21, verse 25, it says this, And there shall be signs in the sun, that's up here, and in the moon and in the stars, that's in heaven above, and upon the earth. Distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them for fear, or looking after those things that are coming on the earth, or the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. Now I understand this to mean that as we approach this time here, the end of what is called the last days, we're going to start seeing some specific things in the heavens and in the earth.

And it gives three things. Blood, what do you think that is? Blood. If you go down and read the next verse, The sun shall be turned to the darkest, the moon into blood.

That's up there. A lot of these people talk about these red moons and things of that nature, but I don't know how this is going to work, but somehow the moon is going to turn into a reddish, purplish color, and very, very vivid. A sign.

You've got signs in the heavens. The sun turned to darkness, the moon into blood. You've got blood here in verse 19, and fire.

I don't know all about that fire, but I know that there's a lot of fire on the sun. And you know, we're probably going to see some major sun, you know, they watch these things, what they call these flares off the sun. They actually have an effect upon the earth, but the sun is going to start stirring it up a little bit.

Signs in the sun, and in the moon, and it goes on to say, blood fire and vapor of smoke. Now, I think this is talking about the earth beneath. You know what? When you see this volcanic explosions, the earth teething up, and amazing how the atmosphere is filled with smoke and debris and dust.

God is going to start shaking the earth. As a matter of fact, Luke says, people's hearts are going to begin to faint because they're seeing this stuff in heaven. The earth is rumbling underneath their feet.

The sea and the waves are starting to roar. Things are getting a little out of hand. And then in verse number 20, it says, the sun shall be turned to darkness, the moon to blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.

And let me read to you what Jesus said in Matthew 24. He said, immediately after the tribulation of those days, after the great tribulation, shall the sun be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, the stars shall fall from heaven, the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn. Whoa, it's judgment time.

And they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and great glory. That's the day of the Lord, the great and notable day of the Lord. So as we get closer and closer to that day, there's going to be things happening underneath the earth, things happening up here, and these are just some of the many signs that the Lord has given that the end is approaching.

Time is drawing near. And I think one of the greatest signs for you young people that the end is approaching is the fact that we are coming together as a globe, as a one world system to build. And the information age, you all young people have grown up in it.

Some of us are older. We didn't grow up. We grew up in some of it, but not all of it.

But it's expanding at such a rapid rate that we're moving toward Babel. And man is going to deify himself. Man can do amazing things.

I read an illustration once, I think I shared it here, that it took 6,000 years, close to 6,000 years for man to travel more than 35 miles an hour. Basically a horse is as fast as man could travel up until the early 1900s. Now man can travel like 5, 6, 10, 15,000 miles an hour in rockets on the way to the moon.

Incredible leaps of technology. And that's because man is coming together to build. And nothing is going to be restrained to them.

God's going to let them build. They're going to build Babylon. But let me let you know ahead of time, it's kind of come down.

You read those last few chapters in Revelation. Babylon has fallen. It's fallen.

That great city. Well, the Day of the Lord, and I'm not going to share any more on that. There's a lot in the Bible on the Day of the Lord.

If you want to go back and read Joel 3, verses 9-16 is a good description of that day. But I'd like to get down to this last verse and we'll close here in Acts 2. With all that in mind, Peter closes with an invitation. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

So in this period of time called the last days, God says here's how you can find salvation. Call upon the name of the Lord and you shall be saved. These verses mean a lot to me because that passage, verse 21, is the same as in Romans 10-13.

And you've heard my testimony before, but I'll share it just briefly. I was working at a golf shop under conviction wondering how to find peace. And someone had put a gospel track on the wall, a track rack.

I read it. And I was not a church-going person. I was a heathen.

I had very little church. I understood there was a God. I did have respect for the Bible.

But I opened up this track and in my simple faith, just simple faith, and that's a good thing to have, simple faith, I read that Jesus died for my sins. And if I would be willing to turn in my heart from those sins and ask Him to save me, call upon the Lord, that He would save me. Now here's something I think is important.

It's faith. When I read that, I remember in my heart thinking, I can be saved and go to heaven in the next five minutes. I can be saved.

And I believe that because I trusted what God said, wholly. You mean, I call upon the Lord and ask Him to save me now, He will save me. And I didn't even doubt it.

I just knew that if God said it, it's true. It's impossible for God to lie. So in my heart, I knew I was going to heaven as soon as I prayed and asked the Lord to save me.

I got out of my car. I said, Lord, I'm a sinner. I'm going to hell.

I need help. Save my soul. And from that point on, I've known I'm saved.

Because God doesn't lie. And He promised whosoever. Now, the Bible says many will say, Lord, Lord.

I'll say I never knew you. If you come to the Lord, and you say, Lord, I'm a sinner and I'm going to hell. I need salvation.

And you call upon Him out of a heart of sincerity, He will save you. Many people call upon the Lord for many different reasons. The airplane's going down, you know.

Lord! Lord! Save us! The stock market crashes. Lord, help us! They have no desire to repent. They have no desire to turn from their wicked ways.

They just want a temporary fix. But if your heart here this morning is, I need to escape the judgment of God. I know it's going to be severe on me.

You just humble yourself and just say, Lord, have mercy upon me. Save my soul. And you have faith in His Word.

He'll save you. He'll really save you. And He'll forgive you of your transgressions.

And He'll put His Spirit in you. And you can pick up that sword and go to work. Amen? It's not hard.

As a matter of fact, Paul says, I'm very concerned that you people are going to, by the devil, be led away from the simplicity of the Gospel. It's a simple thing. Well, it says here, in one of my favorite illustrations, you've heard it many times, Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Richard Baxter was a famous Puritan. And he read that verse and he said, I'm thankful that the Lord said, Whosoever. He said, maybe what if the Lord would have said, Richard Baxter, if you call on the name of the Lord, you shall be saved.

He says, I don't think I'd be happy with that because there's other Richard Baxter's in the world. He could mean someone else. But when the Lord said, Whosoever, He surely meant me.

And if you're sitting here today, you've got an invitation to salvation and eternal life. And that invitation is going out to everybody. Whosoever.

And so, friends, you can be saved today. I know it's raining outside, but I'd love to take you up to the river and baptize you this afternoon. Amen.

We'll get wet before we get in the water. But in these last days, God is saying, here's what we're doing. I'm going back to heaven.

I'm going to send the Holy Spirit. You're going to be empowered for this time to bring in the harvest. When the harvest is over, I'm coming again.

And there's no mercy. No mercy. I'm going to judge this world.

And it's going to be over. It's not going to be pretty. And anybody in this period of time who hears the Gospel and cries out and says, Lord, save me! I'll save them.

I'll save them. Not because of them. I'll save them because of my mercy.

My grace. Not about them. So you, your blood is not on my hands.

Amen. You get here and you see Jesus coming and you know it's the end. You can't blame.

Blame us here. You have a choice to make. I don't like to force people into making choices.

You have a choice. And God wants a willing heart. I believe the Word of God.

I believe that I'm a sinner. I believe You saved me, Lord. I choose to humble myself and call upon the name of the Lord.

The free will. So let's close this morning with a word of prayer. Maybe there's someone here that would like to just say, hey, I don't want to face judgment.

I don't want to face the Lord. You know, the Bible says when He comes...