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Tonight now with the Feast of Weeks, otherwise known as the Feast of Pentecost, or in Galilee. Now, shall we read, please, in verse fifteen? And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheep of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be complete. Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall you number fifty days, and you shall offer a new meat or a new meal offering unto the Lord. Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two-tenth deals.
They shall be of fine flour. They shall be bitten with leaven. They are the first fruits unto the Lord. And he shall present with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock and two rams. They shall be for a burnt offering unto the Lord with their meal offerings and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord. Then he shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs, two he lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings.
And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priests. And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day that it may be an holy convocation unto you. Ye shall do no servile work therein. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. And when you reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not take clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thy gather any gleaning of thy harvest. Thou shalt leave then for the poor and to the stranger.
I am the Lord your God. The book of Deuteronomy, please, or a verse or two to complete our Old Testament reading, chapter sixteen and verse nine. Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee. Begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn. And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God, with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee.
And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou and thy son and thy daughter, and thy manservant and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow that are among you, in the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen to place his name there. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and thou shalt observe and do these statutes. Look over with me, please, to the Gospel according to John. John's Gospel, verse two, in chapter one, and we'll break into the reading of verse thirty two.
And John bear record saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him, and I knew him not. But he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with or in the Holy Spirit. And I saw and bear up record that this is the Son of God. Chapter fourteen, please. Verse fifteen.
If you love me, and the advisors rightly put it, you will keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless, desolate, or orphan. I will come to you yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me.
Because I live, ye shall live also. Verse twenty five. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, properly the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
The Acts of the Apostles, please, chapter one, verse six. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, will thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. Now finally, in chapter two and verse one: um 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 a fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews without men, out of every nation under heaven. Now 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 hear we every man in our own tongue, our own dialect, wherein we were born. The Lord bless to us the reading of his word. You will appreciate connection in connection with this subject that there are so very many scriptures that you could read in studying the subject for yourself, but publicly we must just try and read a few that will give to us the basis for our consideration.
Now, the first thing we should always keep in our mind each night we come together and look at the individual feast that's before us, is always to see its association with the other feasts. Now, that may seem to be repetitious, but I believe it's most important for the young believer not only to see the thing analytically, that is to see the teaching of each particular feast, but I believe it will enhance the teaching if he sees it in association with all the others. And really, that is how the Spirit of God wants to teach us the whole picture, is to see each individual piece in its association with the other.
We pointed out last evening, and it may be sufficient to say just now, that really, in the book of Leviticus chapter twenty three, you'll find that our little expression, the Lord spake unto Moses, brackets these two feasts together, the feast of the first fruits and the feast of Pentecost. The feast of first fruits, we pointed out last evening, is really doctrinally the resurrection of Christ, and typically as well. In relation to what is historical, you remember it was the day after the Sabbath that the wave sheaf was waved before the Lord. And you remember we pointed out to you that that really has introduced to us a new dispensation.
By the waving of the sheep of barley, the handful, the first fruits of their harvest. It is very likely, at least I'm quite convinced, that the people of Israel really didn't know that what they did historically, the people of God living now in this particular dispensation, they realized that it was really the passing of the old and the introducing of the people of God into the new. The Gospels, at their close, remind us that the Sabbath was passed. It was not only passed historically, but it was passed dispensationally as well. And from that very moment, the Spirit of God connects the people of God with the first day of the week.
You remember, of course, associated with it was redemption, the new control and commencement, then the new character in the unleavened bread, then the new compulsion and the new confidence as we realize that the man who bled and died for us on the cross is now living for us in the power of an endless life. Practically, of course, and devotionally, in order that the character that becomes the people of God should be manifested in us while moving here in our pilgrimage, according to First Peter, then we must know that it is necessary to reckon our association with the risen man.
That's the great truth of Romans chapter six, in order that the sanctity of life of which the unleavened bread speaks might be manifested in. Consequently, I believe our identification with the Lord Jesus is most important. We pointed out to you, because I want to come to this just now, that in connection with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, it was really a seven-day feast. In connection with the first fruits, it happened in the one day and was never repeated. In connection with the great matter of Tabernacles, it was seven days with an octave, the eighth day, taking us into eternity.
But in regards to what is before us tonight, and I think it's most important to get a hold of doctrinally that it took place on the fiftieth day. It never was again repeated in the year. It took place on the fiftieth. Pentecost really means the fiftieth. so that when you read the Acts of the Apostles, chapter two, we may read it this way, when the fiftieth day was fully come. It is spoken of as the Feast of Weeks, simply because, you see, the forty nine eh, days were, the seven weeks of forty nine days were counted from the day after the Sabbath, and if you look at that carefully, you'll find that Pentecost was actually the first day of another week.
Not only that, but if you look at the history of the people of Israel, you'll find it was the memorial of the giving of the law. In other words, the Passover was the memorial of their redemption in Egypt. The Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of the First Fruits was the memorial of coming out of Egypt. For remarkable enough, you remember, the Spirit of God does say that when that wave sheep was waved before the Lord, the Spirit of God uses the same term as he uses in connection with a burnt sacrifice. It shall be accepted for you. You know, dear brethren, that thrills my soul when I think about it, because, you see, typically it reminds me of a man who has come out of death and who has gone into heaven by virtue of his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for us, and the very moment he come out from the tomb, we have been accepted in a risen man.
Indeed, we died with him in Romans chapter six. but doctrinally the great fact of the first fruits is this, that we have actually taken character from his resurrection as well. The reason I wanted to emphasize that this was a one-day feast and never a feast, because if believers could keep that before them doctrinally, they would be saved from the error of Pentecostalism. They would be saved from the errors of the modern charismatic movement. We'll not go into that just now. We'll deal with it in a few minutes when we come to the great doctrine of what really it typifies, and that is the descent of the Spirit.
Now, someone might say, I thought really that the feast of Pentecost was really the church. Well, I believe it will broaden out onto that, and we'll take a look at that at a later time. But I think the main emphasis doctrinally in relation to Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles chapter one and in the Acts of the Apostles chapter two, the emphasis doctrinally in First Corinthians chapter twelve, is that Pentecost was really to two things: a new meal offering, that's the first thing, then a new mission in relation to the Spirit of God, and then we'll see Monday night in the will of the Lord a new mystery that shall be consummated at the rapture of the church.
So you see, its association with the other piece is really that it's connected with the first roots, because you can only have the descent of a spirit by the ascension of a man. So, dear brother, you must have a man going up, and that's the theme of Acts chapter one. m They watched while he was taken up, and he went into the presence of God and set himself down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. You remember in John chapter twenty, as the Lord Jesus anticipated the interim period between the forty days when he was taken up and the fiftieth, which is really Pentecost.
If you read carefully John chapter twenty, he brought his disciples near to him, and John says he breathed on them and said, receive ye Holy Spirit. So you see, here was the anticipation of what Pentecost actually speaks about. The mainstream of teaching is really the great ministry of the Spirit of God. Now we speak about this as the church age, and rightly so, but we must always keep in our mind that this really is the dispensation of the Spirit of God. It is a glorious dispensation, as is rightly understood. Let me point out something else to you.
In connection with the Passover, the Lord Jesus is prominent because typically he's the Passover Lamb. When you come to the fairly first roots, God is prominent, for you'll notice in nearly all the references of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus in your New Testament, you'll find that the resurrection of Christ is attributed to God the Father. So in the first feast, the Lord Jesus is from. In the first fruits, it's God the Father who raised him from the dead. Then when you come to the feast of Pentecost, you find that the Spirit of God now, that divine personality, is prominent in connection with this feast.
So when you put them together, you have the stamp of the Trinity, even doctrinally and prophetically in these particular feasts. It stands, of course, distinct from these other three in another order, because, you see, you have redemption, righteousness, resurrection, and relationship. You'll notice that primarily the first three deal with the individual believer, typically and doctrinally. Whereas when we come to Pentecost, you'll notice that there are two rules, and we'll see as the truth branches out into the great interval, that interval in which there was no peace, because Israel were busy in their fields, in their harvest, waiting for the seventh month, and on the first day, the shrill note of that trumpet that again brought them to move up to their holy convocation.
And of course, it reminds us of our present dispensation and its New Testament character. So if you have what is individual, now you move to what really is. And yet at the same time, it has an individual touch, because in these laws we're going to see that you have Jew and Gentile brought together. And really, that is the great characteristic of the dispensation of the Spirit, because if you go to the epistle to the Ephesians chapter two, you'll hear the apostle saying, by one Spirit we both, that is Jew and Gentile, we both have access to the Father.
So you see, you have suggested here the two loaves, Jew and Gentile, brought onto the same ground, that is on the common ground in relation to the New Covenant and the New Dispensation. I want you to think very quickly with me, because I really want to come to the doctrine of it as quickly as I can, but we must be intelligent as to its history. I want you to think of the accompaniments that associated this particular feast here on the fiftieth day. You'll notice, of course, primarily from its history, apart from the doctrine, there were these two loaves. Now, the Spirit of God emphasizes immediately that they should be a fine flower.
That's interesting. And yet he reminds us that they should be thickened with leaven. Now, the question would immediately rise in the mind of a believer, young or old, particularly when he senses the mind of the Spirit of God in connection with leaven, that is always suggestive of the secret workings of evil. Leaven is always evil. Why then should the Spirit of God remind us that these two loaves were baked with leaven? This is a new meal offering, and it stands, of course, in contrast to the meal offering that was associated with the offerings of these other festivals, where there was no leaven allowed, where there was no honey allowed, but then, you see, as we pointed out, that meal offering of Leviticus chapter two, that the priest took the memorial handful and placed it upon the burnt sacrifice with its outpouring of wine, reminds us, of course, of the perfect, unblemished, spotless life of the man who moved up to Calvary for me.
And you know, dear brethren, we should always be ready in our appreciation to put our hand and take that memorial handful and always associate it with the sacrifice of Christ. Because you see what he was to God as the fine flower, the beauty of his moral character, it lent dignity to all he accomplished at the place called Tel. But then you are dealing with a new leela. Who knows? But then take courage. They were bitten of five blood. So that every child of God, whether Jew or Gentile, the word of God reminds us that we have taken of his nature.
We're partakers of the divine nature. In other words, we have taken character from his son. We should be so experimentally, but the very moment that we were linked with the Lord Jesus, the epistle to the Hebrews says that he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all one. So you see, the vine flower tells me that the very moment I trusted Christ, I have taken character from Christ to find love, with this difference that the leaven was there. But here's something to remember. The leaven was baked in the loaves, and consequently, as the result of the fire of the oven, it was no longer active.
Now, when you come to the teaching of your New Testament, that is not really hard to interpret, because the intelligent believer knows this. The very moment he trusted Christ, from that moment on, he is never viewed as being in the flesh. He's in Christ. What he realizes by his struggles, something like the struggles of the man in Romans seven, that there is a principle operating against the power of the Spirit of God and the desires and ambitions to live for God and produce this character that's so pleasing to God. And he comes to the conclusion, as he's instructed by the Spirit of God, that while he's not in the flesh, and he never will be in the flesh, and he's not after the flesh, and he doesn't mind the flesh characteristically, the flesh in him.
In other words, there is the principle of evil in the human nature of every believer that he shall have until that moment that Paul cries out, oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death. It's that victory cry as he looks on to the coming of the Lord Jesus, to the redemption of the body, when all leaven shall be removed and every vestige of evil, we'll have done with it, we'll leave it where it belongs on earth, and we'll have a body, not only morally, but a body physically, right onto his own body of glory. So now, let me point out something else that was associated with these two loaves.
The Spirit of God is very careful to tell us that they were the first fruits. Notice that? The first fruits. But now, let me point out a little difference here. The word that the Spirit of God uses for the first fruit here, that is a, a singular word. Why? Because it speaks of the Lord Jesus alone in his dignity before God, even though it portends the coming harvest. But here, you'll notice this particular expression, the first fruits, is a plural word, and James says we are a kind of first fruits unto the Lord. So you see, it's the people of God collectively that in Christ, as the vine flower, are waved before Jehovah.
We are the first fruits of the travail of his soul. It should always remind us, of course, as well, that that body that was formed at Pentecost, as we shall see, is something that was conceived in the mind and heart of God, so to the display of Christ throughout all the coming ages, and consequently it has precedent and priority even in relation to the teaching of these things. But notice, with the two loaves, there was the seven lambs and the two rams for a burnt offering, with their meal offering and their wine. Because, you see, the only way in which loaves suggestive of Jew and Gentile, with leaven still in the nature, could be accepted by God, they can only be accepted in the value on grounds of the perfection of the seven lambs, the completeness of the sacrifice of Christ.
You'll notice, of course, there was a kid of the goats for a sin offering. With the meal offering of Leviticus two, you had no sin offering associated with it. Why? Because that is the person of Christ. You only need the sin offering and the peace offering when there's a question of bringing the people of God before God. So you see, dear brethren, they went up in holy competition, and in the evil nature that they had so displayed throughout the wilderness, there's only one way in which God could go on with them, and only one ground upon which they could be accepted, and it was first of all on the grandeur and glory of that which was all for God, the burnt sacrifice.
The burnt sacrifice tells me, of course, of my fitness. Then you'll notice the kid of the goats for the sin offering. That tells me of my forgiveness. Then you'll notice the peace offering was associated, and of course that tells me of my fellowship with God and my fellowship with one another. And so the accompaniments of this historically are most important because they breathe out typically the person of Christ to God, not only what he was to God, but what he is for me. And the basis of our fellowship, the work of Christ, you have that, of course, explained to us in First Corinthians chapter one.
Now, I think I've said enough about the accompaniments of it. I want to suggest another thing that's most practical. The attitude that this festival was to engender in the people of God. What was it to engender in the character of God? It was always to engender the thought of thankfulness and appreciation and pity. Do you know why perhaps the Spirit of God is to emphasize that? Because, you know, man naturally, he's a selfish being. And that has been displayed all through the Word of God in relation to poor fallen nature, selfishness.
And the very thing you remember that the Spirit of God indicts them for in the epistle to the Romans is this: unthankful, unholy. So God would remember, would remind them in these festivals of the first thing they were always to do, and that's the reason I read to you Deuteronomy chapter sixteen, they were to remember. Oh, beloved brethren, in thinking about these particular feasts of Jehovah, if there's one lesson that seems to have stamped them privately upon them historically and devotionally, it's this, that the Spirit of God would have his people always to remember. The man who wrote that wonderful hymn that has been the great theme song, and a wretch of a sinner he was by his own testimony, and when that grace reached and saved him, marvelously saved, he put up in his room continually after that, remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt.
My dear brother, it is possible sometimes, and sisters as well, to walk haughtily amongst the people of God with some measure of pride. We'll never move in that characteristic if ever before our hearts and minds is this great truth, remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt. Do you remember in the book of Deuteronomy chapter twenty six when they were to go up to remember before the priests, and with their baskets of first fruits they had gleaned that belonged to God as priority, for they were only stewards of all that he had given. They would put it down at the priest and they would acknowledge a Syrian ready to perish is my father. And I have noticed in my travels among the people of God, you show me the believer, whether young or old, and sometimes it seems to mark the young believer.
And there's one thing that they deeply appreciate. I've noticed as they've gone out of the meetings and they've stopped with me. And when we speak in particularly about the person of Christ in relation to his work, it seems to stir them, and they have gone back to Calvary in the meeting, and they have appreciated with deep thankfulness to God that they were picked up and saved by the grace of God, and they continually remember they were a bondman in the land of Egypt. There's nothing will keep us in a worshipful spirit like the idea of. P. Ernest Wilson, years ago, when I was only a young believer in Ireland, he had come home from one of his furloughs in Africa, and I remember him telling about one of the ancient missionaries by the name of Mr.
Lane, Mr. Thomas Lane. And you know, there was a Portuguese slave train going through that part of the country, and Mr. Lane and his wife come out to see the pitiable sight of these people being taken away down to the coast. They noticed a little fella just with a little ragged shirt on, nothing else, holding onto the hand of his mother that was chained with the others, and they happened to get this slave train stopped. And Mr. Lane started to dicker with the Portuguese slave traders to see if he could purchase this little fella and give him a chance and bring him up in the home and perhaps hear the gospel. And you know it worked, and they paid the price for him.
And the little fella, of course, grew up, and when Mr. Lane would be away up in his safaris up for the gospel, sometimes Mrs. Lane would have an awful time with him. Could hardly handle him. And then when Mr. Lane would come back live, she would tell him about the little fella. And he used to take the little fella to the woodshed. Ha, some says, I, I suppose he took the rod with him as well. Now, just a minute there. Forget about the rod just for a minute. Although I believe in the rod. Look this on. I don't believe in psychology in relation to family raising. I wasn't raised on the tall. If you'd asked my father about psychology, why, he would have wondered if that was some sort of a vegetable, a new vegetable to be raised in the garden.
No, no. He, he didn't bother with psychology, but Mr. Lane took him away to the woodshed, and when into the woodshed, he just put his arm around the little fella and he says, look, son. And there, hanging up on an old rusty nail, was the little tattered shirt. That's all was needed. The little fella took a look at it, and he remembered. Dear brethren, there's nothing will keep us humble before God and usable and worshipful, like remembering, because there's not one of us deserving the same.
But God says you'll remember, and you'll not only remember in such a way that you'll have that pity for others. So when you go into your field, I'm speaking historically now, for I wouldn't miss it. I don't apologize for looking at this historically for a moment. Because when you go into your field and take off your harvest, and in Leviticus chapter twenty four as well, and he said a sheep happens to fall, he says, don't one of you ever go back to pick that sheep up. Let it lie. And don't go round the corners of your field, for into that field there'll come the poor and the stranger. You know, looking at it historically, the poor could be their poor brother that had fallen in hard times.
And I love to think of one that walked one day, and it says it was her hat. It was her hat to land in the field of blows. I, she found handfuls and purpose because of the grace of his heart. God has always had a heart for the stranger. Dear brethren, if you come to the epistle to the Ephesians chapter two, always remember this. That's exactly what we were. We were strangers. And God made available for us that there would be handfuls and purpose and blessing. Now, did you notice where this comes in? It comes in in connection with the Feast of Weeks. It doesn't really come in in connection with the Feast of Trumpets. It comes in in regards to the Feast of Weeks that actually tells me of the descent of the Spirit of God.
Why is that? Well, I'll tell you. My brethren, I'm going to show you in a minute. The Spirit of God has worked in the old Testament in his own peculiar and particular way. Whether it was brooding over the dark waters like the, like the bird fluttering over the waters in Genesis one. Whether it was coming down to clothe Gideon, the mighty mal of valor. Whether it was coming upon Samson to give him might and power. Whether it was to infuse into Balaam, the false prophet, words of wisdom in relation to those wonderful parables, wherever you move in the Old Testament, you find he's not indwelling, but the Spirit of God is coming upon.
Remember that, dear brethren. He's coming upon people, then he leaves them. That's the reason the beloved David cries out as he realizes dilemma and his sin. He cries out, he says, O God, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. You see, no intelligent child of God would ever pray that in this dispensation. They would neither pray for the Spirit, nor would they pray for the Spirit to be taken away, because they are two absolute impossibilities. It's an awful waste of time tarrying for the Spirit. Especially of a child that God saved, he would, he would really have a lack of intelligence if he prayed for the Spirit, because the moment we believed, we were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
But notice, the Spirit of God is now working in this interval, and of the Jews, there's an election according to grace being brought in. They're be- they're Jews being saved today, but where's God putting them? Into the nation? No, into the church. And immediately he puts them into the church, they lose their national distinction, and out of Jew and Gentile, God has made one new man. One new man. But then, the Spirit of God brings this little touch into the feast to let us see when we go beyond this theory. And the church is safely home, as we'll see, in the glory to the judgment seat of Christ, because that comes in here.
But then? Oh, you say the Spirit of God goes away with the church. Dear brethren, it will be something like the servant. The servant had a work to do in Genesis chapter twenty four. You remember when he brought Rebekah to the end of the desert, and his work was finished when he linked her with Isaac. That didn't mean his service was finished. No, no, he was a servant again, and he went back again to serve his master in a new capacity. Oh yes, because Abraham speaks about it later on. The Spirit of God will work again, dear brethren, and he will work in the corners of the field from which the harvest has been taken off.
And in the book of the Revelation, chapter seven, I see the poor and the stranger. I see Israel in their poverty, like Naomi. And I see the Gentile stranger, like Ruth. I see that great company that is brought to Christ as a result of the ministry of the witnesses. Who do you think does that? The same gracious spirit that fluttered on the face of the waters. And I see a great multitude that no man can number of Gentiles brought in. What is that, dear brethren? Why would the church has been lived at home, the Spirit of God hasn't gone back to heaven. He has moved into the corners of the field to pick up the sheaves and to take out the harvest of the corner for the poor and the stranger.
Israel in their poverty, the remnant, and the stranger, the Gentile, will be brought in when the gospel of the kingdom goes home. And my brethren, I sat in a reading some few years ago, and I could hardly get it impressed upon a dear brother that was there. He was absolutely convinced that a Gentile during the tribulation would deceive if he gave a cup of cold water to a Jew. I do not believe that. Would you say the scripture says that? No, it doesn't. Dear brethren, if you read it carefully, you'll find the reason the Gentile in that day gave a cup of cold water to a Jew is because he had embraced the same God and the same message of the kingdom that the Jew did, and this was really, and he remembered what he was out of the pity of his heart.
He was now coming to what we have here. He was actually ministering to the poor and the stranger. That was what the evidence, as there ought to be in our day, of this life and evidence of pity and desire and blessing. Now I want you to think then of the answer to this particular feast in the New Testament. If you were to read a course in the New Testament, here's a simple way for a young believer to put it down. This is how I put it down, because I believe the simpler you can think about a thing, why, the greater your mind will be able to compass it. First of all, we must look at it prophetically in the gospel.
Then secondly, we must look at it as to its fulfillment historically in the Acts of the Apostles. And then we must look at it doctrinally as the Spirit of God gives it to us in First Corinthians twelve and in the Epistle to the Ephesians chapter two. Great confusion in our day in relation to the ministry of the Spirit. First of all, in the Gospels, it's prophetic. John, you remember, reminds them in Matthew, and he reminds them in Luke. Now, you'll notice a little difference in Matthew and Luke, they're together. Mark and John stand together in this way. That when the Baptist said, he shall baptize you, I baptize you with water, he shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire.
That's Matthew and Luke. Now Mark and John say this, I baptize you with water, he shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit without the fire. You see, Matthew's looking at it dispensationally, and Matthew is not only moving beyond the feast of Pentecost or weeks, and he's going on to this particular period here. This is where the fire comes in, brother. It's not really here. No, no. There was no fire at Pentecost. What you say, preacher, you read about fire in Acts two. I read about tongue, cloven tongues like as fire, like as fire.
And that only serves to remind us, John said, I saw fire descending upon him. No, no, no. The devil descending. You don't need, you don't need purification for the Lord Jesus, the devil descending upon. But when it's believers, in whom there is heaven, then he comes like as glowing tongues of fire. That's prophetically, that's living on. When you come to the Acts, you get it fulfilled. He says, now tarry at Jerusalem until you be entombed with power from on high.
What do they mean? Till the coming of the Spirit of God. So, in chapter two then, he left on the fortieth day, he went back to the Father, and the Spirit of God is actually spoken of as the promise of the Father. He's spoken of as the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Spirit that raised him from the dead, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of adoption. There are so many titles of the Holy Spirit of God, it would take a couple of nights in itself to take up the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and perhaps it would really be a good thing in this day of confusion.
But I know you see the thing in its threefold core, which is not easily broken prophetically by John in relation to the Lord Jesus. And remember, the Lord Jesus is the baptizer. Did you notice that? John says, I baptize you in water. There standeth one among you whom ye know not, who shall baptize you in Holy Ghost. In Holy Ghost. That's the element. In other words, he'll take you out of nature, and he'll steep you. He'll baptize you. He'll immerse you into a new spiritual standing, like the people of Israel. There's the type of you well, in First Corinthians chapter ten, You remember when they come out of Egypt and cross the Red Sea, what is the first thing happened to them?
First thing happened to them is this. The Spirit of God says they were baptized onto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Someone as well pointed out in the cloud. That is in relation to baptism in the spirit, in the cloud. That's heavenly. That's positional. And then in the sea, that's experimental, that's the water, and the two are always associated together, as they are in Romans chapter six. They were baptized onto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and it said they were all made to drink into one spirit. So you see, when you come to First Corinthians chapter twelve, here's the doctrine of it. Paul is moving back to Pentecost.
That's the reason I want you to keep this in your mind, that we're going to be doctr- doctrinally correct. Seven days. eight days. one day. one day. He could only be raised from the dead once, and it says he dieth no more. So now it was election. He'll never need to be raised from the dead any more because he, he will never die again. Pentecost was one day, brethren. There are some people that make numbers of Pentecosts. No, no, there was only one Pentecost. And Paul speaks about it in the past tense.
He says, now watch the language it uses. For in, not by, by is instrumental, in, not sphere for in one spirit, where we all baptized into one body. See the point? It's history. He's looking back to that which the Spirit of God rounded up at Pentecost. You'll search your Bible, and I believe if my young friends could get a hold of this in the closing moments of the meeting, it will really be a help. Because we must make this subject later on Monday evening, as we go into this particular character of the interval, because we're still dealing with the Spirit of God's ministry in relation to the church, until, like the sermon, he lifts the church out of her and presents her to the man who's coming out to meet us.
But the point is this. You'll search the New Testament, and you'll never find an individual believer spoken of as baptized in the Spirit. In other words, it is never an individual experience. It is a collective thing that took place at Pentecost and never again is repeated. The very moment we trust Christ, we are made to drink into one Spirit. Paul says about the house of Cornelius, they received the same like gift, gift of the spirit. Upon believing, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Acts chapter four, Acts chapter five. In fact, if you run your mind through the Acts of the Apostles, you will find that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
But you see here, brethren, sealing, the unction, the anointing is entirely distinct and different from the baptism. Baptism is corporate. Sealing is individual. Grieving is individual. Quenching is corporate in the company. But I let you see that really, to try and infer that this feast went on for two or three days or seven days would be to absolutely spoil the doctrine of the New Testament. The body was formed at Pentecost, and the very moment every believer trusts Christ, they, like Cornelius, receive the light gift.
Soon as my all I've entered on Christ's atoning blood, the Holy Spirit entered, and I was born of God. So you see, dear brother, it would do away with the fallacy of the present modern tongue movement, because they say to speak in tongues you must have the baptism of the Spirit. Well, the baptism of the Spirit is already accomplished. It took place at Pentecost, and there were many people who were sealed with the Spirit of God and received the gift of the Spirit of God that never spoke in tongues, many of them. So you see, that is a wrong inference. But I point out that to let you see that the great event took place when, at the very time of the fiftieth day, the Spirit of God came down to do his great work.
And on Monday evening, we'll go on with this theme and let you see how he works presently in relation to the church until we come here to the rapture of the church that lies at the end of this, and we'll say something about Israel's trouble that will lead up to the sounding of the trumpets. The Lord bless his word.