Welcome back to
Books of the Book.
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When we last left our audience
we were talking about Acts
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chapter 2 and this incredible
event that happened on the day
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of Pentecost. There was a
mighty rushing wind, there were
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tongues of fire, incredible
manifestations of the Holy
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Spirit that were so evident
and the noise must have been so
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great that it stirred up
all those who were in the
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surrounding area to come.
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Right. That's what verse 6 tells
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us, which is interesting because
I've always had that idea that
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they were in a room and all
of them heard the mighty rushing
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wind and it was something
exclusive to them, not that
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the whole town heard it, but
that's what it says in verse 6
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that when the sound occurred
the multitudes came together.
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So it was something that got
everybody's attention as you had
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mentioned before, because the
Lord wanted the people to hear
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the gospel message that the
apostles were about to proclaim
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And that brings us to the next
point because the Lord wanted
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them to hear but he also wanted
them to understand and that was
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going to be a very difficult
challenge for them. Because it
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says in verse 5 that there
were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews,
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devout men from every nation
under heaven. So you get this
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sense that there are a variety
of different languages and then
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in verse 6 at the conclusion of
verse 6 it says everyone heard
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them speak in his own language.
Then they were all amazed and
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marveled saying to one another
look are not all these who speak
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Galileans. Then verse 8, and how
is it that we hear each in our
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own language in which we were
born. And it lists out all the
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various languages and areas from
which they came and they're all
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hearing them speak. In verse 11
it says: in our own tongues the
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wonderful works of God. Now this
is pretty powerful because what
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it reveals is the clearest
picture we have in the entire
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New Testament of what the Bible
refers to as the gift of tongues
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Now there are many different
views on the gift of tongues
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that exist in Christianity today
and if it were just for certain
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passages in the more theological
letters of Paul we might not
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know for sure what that gift
of tongues looked like. This is
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what we've been talking about
in the book of Acts. Because we
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have this inspired narrative
of the practical, practiced or
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acted out theology that we find
in the rest of the New Testament
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we can have a little better idea
of what it's referring to. This
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particular passage is the
clearest illustration of the
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gift of tongues that we have in
the Bible. What happens in this?
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It says very clearly everyone
heard them speak in his own
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language. The reason that this
is important is because there
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are some who believe that the
gift of tongues must be a gift
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that is somewhat unintelligible
to other human beings. It may be
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something that is unknown to
myself and they take that from
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certain passages of the apostle
Paul in 1 Corinthians and we
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could take a lot of time
trying to really explore and
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delve into those passages but
what we need to remember is that
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important method of
interpretation of the Bible
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an important rule of
interpreting the Bible is that
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we need to let clear passages
inform the passages that do not
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have that same clarity. So here
is the clearest picture of the
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gift of tongues and we do
not see it as a language that is
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unintelligible to humanity.
Rather we see something very
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different. Everyone hears these
disciples speaking in their own
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language. They can understand
clearly what they are saying
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in their own language. So this
gift of tongues appears to be
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a supernatural power
that God gives to enable his
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representatives to preach
the gospel and be heard and
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understood in languages that
they themselves may not have
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even been taught in.
Absolutely. And it's important
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again that you bring this
up. The hearing of the word was
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crucial to this audience. In
other words, it wasn't enough
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for the Lord that they saw
something supernatural take
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place. What they were
about to hear was crucial to the
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conversion experience of the
multitudes and that's what we
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find happens next here. They
actually, some of the people
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gathered there began mocking
the apostles and saying that
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these guys are drunk. And Peter
responds in verse 14 and says
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that we're not drunk. But he
says: This is what was spoken by
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the prophet Joel, in verse
16 and then he quotes from Joel
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chapter 2: And it shall come to
pass in the last days says God
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that I will pour out my Spirit
on all flesh. Your sons and your
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daughters shall prophesy, your
young men shall see visions,
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your old men shall dream dreams,
on my man servant and on my maid
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servants I will pour out my
Spirit in those days and they
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shall prophesy and I will show
wonders in the heavens above
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and signs in the earth beneath,
blood and fire and vapor of
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smoke, the sun shall be turned
into darkness and the moon into
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blood before the coming of
the great and awesome day of the
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Lord and it shall come to pass
that whoever calls on the name
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of the Lord shall be saved. Now
Peter shares this prophecy of
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Joel and then he basically
brings home to his audience that
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these signs and wonders are God
trying to communicate to them
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that the Jesus that they've just
taken and crucified was their
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Messiah as prophecy had foretold
He picks up in verse 22. He says
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men of Israel here these words.
Jesus of Nazareth a man attested
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by God to you by miracles,
wonders and signs which God did
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through him in your midst as you
yourselves also know, etc. you
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have taken by lawless hands
and crucified. So he brings this
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message to them. But it's
interesting that he brings it
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through this prophetic medium.
Something we want to note about
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Joel, two things about this
prophecy of Joel. First of all,
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when we look at the prophecy of
Joel we find that not everything
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that Joel prophesied and that
Peter sites here was fulfilled
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on the day of Pentecost.
What that tells us is that we're
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seeing not a complete
fulfillment of Joel's prophecy,
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but a partial fulfillment which
would lead us to expect a fuller
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fulfillment later on. Now why
do I know that, that's it's a
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partial fulfillment. How can we
know that? Well a couple things.
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First of all, one of the things
it mentions in context of Joel's
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prophecy is visions and dreams,
the gift of prophecy, your sons
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and daughters shall prophesy,
but when we look at the account
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here on the day of Pentecost,
the gift we see is the gift of
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tongues. We're not seeing this
outpouring of the gift prophecy.
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The other thing is that
there are signs mentioned in the
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heavens that we don't see taking
place here under the outpouring
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of the Spirit on
the day of Pentecost.
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Verse 20 says the sun shall be
turned into darkness, the moon
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into blood. That's
right. Before the coming
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of the great and awesome day
of the Lord. But we do know that
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Jesus prophesied similar signs
right before his second coming.
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So it would lead us to look for
a more complete fulfillment of
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Joel later on. But now that's
led some people when they see
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some of these things to assume
that maybe Peter spoke out of
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turn here. Now we were talking
about that. I think you had an
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encounter something like
that. Yeah. I at one point had
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somebody share with me that they
felt that Peter was actually
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mistaken when he quoted Joel as
a fulfillment of what happened
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on the day of Pentecost. I said
well Peter thought that Jesus
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was going to be coming soon so
he thought that this must have
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been what was happening before
the coming of the great and
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awesome day of the Lord but
he was simply wrong which really
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doesn't sound quite right, does
it? If you look at chapter 2 and
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verse 4 it says they were all
filled with the Holy Spirit and
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began to speak with other
tongues as the Spirit gave them
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utterance. So the Spirit
was giving him utterance and the
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Spirit inspired him to take
this passage of scripture and
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understand it as being
a fulfillment of what was
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happening on that day. If the
Spirit inspired the writer Joel
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and the Spirit inspired Peter
to interpret you can bet that it
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was a correct interpretation.
But it doesn't mean necessarily,
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as you are stating, that it's
a complete fulfillment. It could
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very well be a partial
fulfillment. I'd like to point
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us back to the book of Joel,
because back in the book of Joel
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in chapter 2 it gives a
little hint of a possibility of
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something that would happen to
germinate the early church and
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then something that would happen
for a more complete fulfillment
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at the end of the work of the
church at the end of time. It's
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in Joel chapter 2 verse 23. It
says be glad then you children
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of Zion and rejoice in the Lord
your God for he has given you
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the former rain faithfully,
(that's the rain that helped to
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germinate the seed in the
beginning of the growing season)
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and the former rain and the
latter rain in the first month.
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Now I want to go back up to the
middle where it says, for he has
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given you the former rain
faithfully. My Bible has a
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marginal reading on that. And
the former rain, the marginal
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reading for that is a teacher
of righteousness. He will give
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you a teacher of righteousness
to rain down on you, both a
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former manifestation and a
latter manifestation. What is
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this talking about? Well Hosea
picks up something very similar
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in Hosea chapter 6. I want
to look in verse 3 of Hosea 6.
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Hosea writes: Let us know, let
us pursue the knowledge of the
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Lord. So we need a teacher
of righteousness to receive the
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knowledge of the Lord.
His going forth is established
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as the morning. He will come
to us like the rain, like the
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latter and former rain to the
earth. It says, he will come to
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us like the rain. That
makes me think of is John
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chapter 16. Jesus talks about
the Holy Spirit coming and he
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says in verse 16: I'll pray the
Father. He will send you another
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helper. Verse 17: The Spirit
of truth whom the world cannot
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receive because it neither sees
him nor knows him. He will dwell
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with you and be in you. And
verse 18 says I will not leave
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you orphans; I will come to you.
But he's speaking about coming
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through the Holy Spirit.
And what you're looking at that
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there and what Joel's talking
about is coming through the Holy
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Spirit as a teacher of
righteousness. Well Jesus is
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coming to us; he is the
teacher of righteousness.
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that's right and what we
see here in Hosea, as you were
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describing it, is that his going
forth is established as the
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morning. He will come to us,
this teacher of righteousness,
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the Holy Spirit that the Father
is going to send. All of these
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things tie together with this
one very clear promise that we
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have, that just as the former
rain came faithfully to those
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early apostles, the latter rain
is going to come to us. That's
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what we see in this promise.
This is not a fulfillment that
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is complete in Acts chapter
2. Joel spoke of something very
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real that had happened and
that Holy Spirit power is still
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available to us today but in
a greater degree we're going to
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see manifestations of power and
we're going to see conversions
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such as happened here on
the day of Pentecost once more.
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Well something that we don't
want to miss is in verse 37.
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We're kind of jumping ahead a
little bit. In verse 37 it says
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that when Peter had preached
everything that he had preached
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it says the people were cut to
the heart. And something that we
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don't want to overlook is when
the Holy Spirit was poured out
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Jesus the teacher of
righteousness speaking through
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the Holy Spirit and conveying
that righteousness to his church
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it was in the context here of a
prophetic fulfillment and we can
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expect, I believe, at the end
of time, when we're looking for
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that latter rain that it will
come again in the context of
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fulfilled prophecy. Prophecies
are being fulfilled around us
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left and right. Jesus gave
a number of prophecies in the
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books of Daniel and Revelation
and the book of Matthew about
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his coming and it's in those
messages of prophecy that the
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people are cut to the
heart. It's in those messages of
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prophecy that they are brought
to a deep conviction and a sense
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of where they are and their
need of Christ. What's ironic is
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we're in a day and age where
sometimes a level of political
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correctness keeps us from
wanting to say things that are
00:13:10.54\00:13:13.37
so... You know, preach
the prophecies where they are
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disheartening, they're cutting.
The fact is that that cutting is
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what brings about the conversion
We see it in the power in the
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power in the early church.
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They are powerful aren't they?
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And Jesus is coming soon friends
The teacher of righteousness is
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going to come to us and reveal
himself in all his glory and we
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want to be ready for that
day. I hope you'll join us again
00:13:32.82\00:13:36.00
next time for our
study of the book of Acts.
00:13:36.03\00:13:38.83