Acts: Verified By God

Well, good morning. It's good to see you all. Welcome to but

that I'm glad that you're here this morning with us. It's a great day

to be in the House of Lord, and it's great not only for us

to be together, but it's great to have you here with us this morning.

Whether you're here in person or watching online, we're glad that you're here.

If you have your bible's turned with me to the Book of Acts,

Acts chapter eleven. We have been in a book study through Acts, and

we took a break last week for Easter, but we want to jump back

in this week for Acts chapter eleven. Now we live in a day to

day that it's increasingly getting more and more difficult to figure out what it's true

and what is not. This is something that seems like a common theme that

comes up in Sunday Morning sermons as we look at different things, but we

do. We live in such a world now it's hard to detect what is

real and what's not. Even phone calls, text messages, email, it's

hard to figure out what is real and what's not. I heard of a

couple there was an actual article was written May seventh of this year in the

New Yorker, which is an article publication in New York, and it's about

a couple named Robin and Steve. Robin was it was late one night.

They had two small kids, and they were downstairs of sleeping in there,

or they were in their bedrooms asleep, and and that about that time,

about midnight, Robin got a phone call on her phone and she looked over

and it was her. It was her mother in law's Her name was Mona.

It was her mother in law's telephone number popped up on her on her

cell phone, and so she saw it and she thought, well, she

never calls after midnight, so she actually just ignored it. About a few

seconds later it rang again again. It was Mona's name popped up. She

answered the phone and it was Mona, and Mona said, she's panicking.

She says, I can't do it. I can't do it. And she

was like, what's going on? And she was startling, you know,

in the middle of the night. She's trying to get all her everything together.

And she says she hears Mona's husband in the background. Bob is his

name, and Bob is it's saying, make sure you get the husband her

Robin's husband, Steve. He was saying, make sure you get Steve,

and so she heard Mona's voice. She heard Steve's voice, and then suddenly

so she reaches over wakes up. Her husband says, Steve, Steve,

wake up. He's actually was a police officer, and your mom's on the

phone and there's something's not right. And then suddenly they hear another voice,

and the other voice says, I've got a gun to your mom's head and

if you don't send some money via VEMO right now, I'm gonna kill her.

He asked. He finally she's talking. The lady Robin's talking on the

phone, and Steve is then calls one of the guys that he works within

the police department who works with negotiations. They start talking and they work it

out. Of course, they were asking for five hundred bucks, and through

a few interactions and trying to get the right number, they send five hundred

and then the guy says, well, I need an another two fifty and

that's not enough. I need hears another voice in the back and it's a

girl's voice, and I need two hundred and fifty for my girlfriend to get

her a ticket out of here and get us out of here. And so

they work through and finally the police officer who worked in the negotiation says,

Steve, call your dad's number. Your mom's phone has been compromised. Call

your dad. So he calls us dad, His dad doesn't answer. He

calls again, and finally Dad's his dad's answer, and he says, Dad,

Dad, or you're okay, You're okay? He said, yeah,

yeah, what what's wrong? He says, Mom's okay? Is mom okay?

Yes, she's laying right here beside me. They had used AI technology

to capture the voice of the mother and the father and use and then also

use technology to use their telephone number to use a scam to scam seven hundred

and fifty dollars out of Stephen Robin. I tell you that because this is

the world we live in today, right It is very difficult every moment of

the day to figure out whether you get an actual phone call where it's actually

someone's voice, or whether your text message is actually someone's text message or email,

whatever it may be. Is. We're living in an increasingly very difficult

day to figure out whether something is real and whether something's not, whether something

is verified their actual person whether it's not. But can I tell you today

not only we live this in our world and just finding out who is actually

the person we're talking to, but can I tell you we living in the

world today that it's increasingly more and more difficult to find out whether something is

from God and whether it's not from God. We have false teaching, and

false teaching are spread throughout our world, and it's rampant in America. And

today it's increasingly increasingly more important that just as you would vet someone to find

out whether that is actually your loved one on the phone, you must,

as a believer in Jesus Christ, do your diligence and your hard work to

find out if someone says they're from God, whether they're from God. And

this morning is we come to Act chapter eleven. The early Church is really

wrestling whether there's salvation when it came to the Gentiles, is it really from

God? And in this passage of scripture we see how the early Church verified

that the salvation that had went to the Gentiles was really a work of God.

And as we see how in the time of my sermon is verified by

God. As we see how they verified God's work we must take these same

principles in our life. And when we see things that says they're from God

or the people propose it they're from God, we must use the same method

that the early Church use to verify whether something is from God and whether it's

not. So let's read the stand and read God's Word together, and I

want to encourage us. It's very important that we verify God's work. So

the question we're going to answer today through the study of God's Word is how

do we verify God's work? How do we verify God's work? So Act

chapter eleven says, now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard

that the Gentiles also have received God. And so Peter went up to Jerusalem,

and the circumcised party criticized them, saying, you went to uncircumcised men

and ate with them, But Peter began to explain them to them in order

that I was in the city of Jophah praying in a trance. I saw

visions something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its

four corners, and it came down to me looking at it close. They

deserved the animals and the beast and the prey, and reptiles and birds of

the air. And I heard a voice saying to me, rise, Peter,

kill and eat. But I said, by no means, Lord,

for nothing common or unclean as ever entered my mouth. But the voice answered

a second time from heaven. What God has made clean, do not call

common. This happened three times, and was all drawn up again into heaven,

and Verse eleven says, and behold, at the very moment, three

men arrived at the house in which were they were. It sent to me

from cesarea, and the spirit told me to go with them, making no

distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house,

and he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house,

and said, and say, send to Joppa and bring Simon, who

is called Peter, and he will declare to you a message by which you

will be saved, you and all of your household. And I began to

speak, and the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as as on us

at the beginning. And I remember the word of the Lord, and how

how he said John baptized with water, but you will baptize with the Holy

Spirit. And if God gave the same gift to them as he gave to

us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Who was I that I

could stand in God's way? And we heard these things, they fell silent

and they glorified God, saying then to the gentiles, also, God has

granted repentance that leads to life. Let's pray together, Father, I thank

you for your word. Lord. You know what I've prepared. You know

what, Lord, how you've led today. And I pray that Lord,

you know who's come. Lord, you know who's listening today. Lord,

you know the message that we need to hear. So, Lord, today,

may we listen for you. And Lord, may we listen to your

voice, your word, and your spirit today. And Lord, may you

have your will and way. God, I pray that you would give me

clarity, speech, clarity thought. And Lord, may you move today in

a way that only you can. In your name, we pray, Amen,

you may be seated in First John four. Listen to this. First

John four one through six says this beloved, that's beloved. There's brothers,

brothers and sisters of Christ. Listen. Some one says, do not believe

every spirit, but Testa's spirits of whether they are from God from many false

prophets have gone out into the world. And this you know the spirit of

God. Every spirit that confessed Jesus Christ has come into the flesh is from

God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus is from God is

the spirit of the anti Christ, which you've heard coming and is now in

the world. Already, little children, you are from God and have overcome

them. And he is who is who is in you, is greater than

he is in the world. And they are from the world. Therefore they

speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from

God. And whoever knows God's listen to us, and who is not from

God listens does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of

truth and the spirit of error. John's very clear in this passage of scripture.

He says, beloved, do not believe every spirit right, but tests

the spirits. This is a command that Jesus I mean. John says for

us as believers, that we should test the spirit. And he says that

there are Antichrist, there's false teachers in the world, and they're there right

now, right and they're they they they're of the world. So it's very

important, as this pastor tells us that we are tested spirit This is not

only a practice that we must do, but it's something of practice. Was

also in the early Church, the early Church, the Jews and the early

Christians, they had not at this point ever seen salvation had gone to the

Gentiles. Salvation had always been through Judaism, is through the nation of Judaism.

The Jews were God's showsen people, and so they had never seen salvation

going to the gentile unless they became a proselyte. And so here in this

pastive scripture, they're they're testing, they're testing, and they're trying to look

and verify whether this the salvation that's gone to the gentiles, is really from

God and not from any other thing. The Bible says. So as they've

done that, and as we must do that, how do we do that?

So? How do we verify God's work? First? We must verify

God's work by God's word. So you say, pastor, you say,

for me, I'm to test the spirits. I'm to test truth, I'm

gonna test teaching, I'm gonna test things that people say and from God.

I'm gonna test them. How do I do that? The very first way

we do that we must verify God's work by God's word. Scripture says in

this pastors, you know, the last few weeks we've been working in through

the Book of Acts, and we have seen how the Jews believe that,

as I mentioned a minute ago, that salvation was only for the Jews,

and the only way for someone who was outside of Judaism to be saved was

the first to become a convert to Judaism, and that would mean they would

they would become a full fledged convert, and that would mean even the process

of circumcision, and so you become a what they called a proselyte. Also,

we looked at how they believe and only that that was the only way

to salvation. But secondly we understood that they believed that salvation was only for

the Jews. But secondly, they believed that everyone outside of Judaism was unclean.

The gentiles were unclean people. You were not to associate with them,

you were not to visit with them, you were not to stand a home

with them, you were not to eat with them because they were unclean.

And therefore it was unlawful for you to eat with them, stay with them,

and vice versa. This passes of scripture in verse eleven, I mean

chapter eleven, verse one. It starts off with and you remember the story,

Peter went to Corneus's house and he stayed with them, He ate with

them, And we saw over the last few weeks the house salvation had came

to Corneas, and Corneus's house Corneas was what it was, a gentile.

So we've got major problems here for the early Church. Right, they believed

that salvation only came to the Jews. Now there's a gentile that says has

gotten saved, Number one problem. The second problem is Peter, who is

an apostle and the leader of the Early Church, not only went to Corneas's

house, but he ate with him and he stayed with him. So the

early Church, you can imagine the church in scripture says in verse one,

that word got from listen to just look at the very beginning. Now,

the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea listened to this, heard that

the gentiles had also received the word of God. Cesarea was the north west

part of Israel, Judea is is Jerusalem, and that's the southern part of

Jerusalem. Hey, the grape vine is active today, that is in Durham

in North Carolina. The Great Line was active in the early Church times.

So word had gotten all the way from the northern part of the country,

all the way to the southern part of what happened, that the salvation had

gone to Corneus's house the gentiles, and that the scripture says and verse two

and when the people and when pete. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem,

the circumcised party criticized him, what do they criticize him? Well,

verse three says, you went to the uncircumcised men and ate with them.

So what is there issue? They're saying, Peter, this has never happened

before. Peter. You went, you know it's unlawful for you, and

you're an apostle, you're a leader of the church, and you you know

you're not supposed to eat with those unclean gentiles. And you went and you

stayed with them, and you ate with them. And so now there's there's

a struggle. There's they're struggling to try to figure out whether this is from

God. They've heard as a church. These are by the way, if

you say who is these? Who are these? In verse two? This

this circumcised party, It's the Jewish Christians. This is the Christians that are

in the church in Jerusalem. And it's just showing you saying why why is

it saying circumcises. It's showing you that they are true Jews. They grew

up as Jews. They were and so they were natural born Jews and they

were believers. And so that's what it's saying. It's believers. It's Jewish

who grew up in Judaism and converted to Christianity. And now they're criticizing these

gentiles who have not been circumcised, and whether they are saved, and whether

it's okay to eat with them, stay with them, and be with them.

And so in this passive scripture, I want you to think it's very

important as you come to this passage of scripture, what is the point of

this passage of scripture? Luke, the writer of Luke, wants you to

see how Peter verified to the Jews who were criticizing whether it's salvation would come

to the gentiles and whether it was okay to eat with the gentiles. How

that was from God. How this is not Peter's idea, This was not

Peter's thoughts, This was not Peter's plan. This is not something Peter thought

would be good to do to take salvation to the gentiles. This was God's

work. So Peter's laying out for you, and really laying out. In

chapter eleven, he comes in in verse and three, I mean verse four.

But Peter began and explained to them in the order. Who's he explained

to Who's just flying to the whole church. I'm telling you, I'm showing

you, I'm verifying you that salvation is going to the gentiles. This is

monumental. You have to understand, in thousands of years of the history of

Judaism for the Jews, salvation for anyone outside of Judaism had only come by

someone converting to Judaism first. Now they're saying, there is a man in

cesarea by the name of Corneas and his whole household, and he's gotten saved.

And he did not start with him becoming a Jew first. He got

saved directly right where he is. It's very important. So Peter is verifying,

he's showing how this was from God. How does he do that?

He says, he shows first this was God's work. And he began showing

this is God's work by retelling God's word. Look what happens, Scripture says

in verse four. But when Peter began to explain to them in order he

explains that, Peter says, you know what you know, I went to

Japa and I went to go check on all the church there, and there

was some people there that was sick. And I healed the lady in Japa.

And while I was in Japa, I was you remember the passage Scripture

Peter was hungry and he went up on the roof and he was praying.

And there as he was praying, and there were that had something in the

crop pot. I told you last week, you know. So he was

waiting for a while, and say he was up there praying. And as

he was praying and he was hungry, Scripture said, he he loved up

and it was into trance and into vision, and he saw a sheet coming

down from heaven. You remember that. And Peter retells that story. He

says, he saw a vision and you can see this in verse five and

verse six, and he looked up and he saw on that sheet it's like

a tablecloth, there was all kinds of animals. In verse six, he

describes them beast and pray, reptile birds of the year, and all these

were unclean animals. You remember, Peter's ready to get eat, ready to

eat, and he sees all these unclean animals, and then he hears the

voice say what, Rise up, Peter and eat. Now. I told

you before what was the major issues for the Jews about the Gentiles. One

that they could only be a convert unless they converted to Judaism. But secondly,

they were unclean people. Why would they unclean people because they ate unclean

food? Why could you not eat with them or stay with them? It's

because they ate unclean food. Well, now Peter sees a vision and this

is the food that the Gentiles were eating. And in the vision he sees

the animals and then he hears what he hears the voice of God. I

hear a voice saying, rise Peter, kill and eat. And listen to

Peter's response. I want you to understand the very struggle that the Gentiles were

having at that this moment was the same struggle that Peter had scripture says,

in verse seven, I heard a voice said, rise, Peter, kill

and eat. But I said, what by no means Lord? That recognizes

that the voice that he hears, he recognizes is God's voice. For nothing

common or unclean has ever entered my mouth. Peter says. Listen, guys,

I know you think that they're unclean because they eat unclean food. But

I want to tell you. I was praying and God showed me a vision

of unclean animals, and God commanded me to eat. And I told God,

just like you're saying, no way. Oh, We've never done that,

Peter. We have never done it that way. We've never seen anything

like that before. And God showed me the vision three times and I told

him no three times. And listen to what he says. In verse four

and verse nine, he says, but the voice answered a second time from

Heaven. What listen to this. What Peter may clean, what the Church

may clean, what God has made clean, don't call common. Peter explains

to the church, I know you think these gentiles are unclean because they eat

unclean food. But I'm telling you God has declared to me that He's made

their unclean food clean they're no longer unclean people because God has made their food

clean. And then Peter goes on and explaining, because I think it's important

for you to understand. Here Peter explains, and only this God was speaking

to him, But he shows that God spoke to someone else, and who

is it Corneas he explains that why he was eating avoid some messengers came to

the door and they asked for Peter, right, and it was it was

messengers from Corneus's house. And look at the verse eleven, and behold that

very moment, three men arrived at the house in which we were, and

they were sent from me from cessarea. And this spirit. Listen to me.

The spirit told me to go with him and make no distinctions. Listen,

you see that God's word, God word told me in the vision.

He told me not to declare anything unclean that He's made clean. And God

told me to go with him. So you're saying to me, Peter,

I can't believe you went with him. I can't believe you stay with him.

I'm telling you, I follow the voice of God. Listen to what

he says here in verse twelve. The spirit told me to go with him

and make no distinction. Six brothers also accompanied with me, and we entered

the man's house, and he told us listen to this. And he told

us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, saying, send

a japa and bring Simon, who is called Peter, and he will declare

to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your

household. Peter says, listen. I can tell you God's knowledge spoke to

me. But God sent me to Corneus's house. And when I came to

Cornea's house, God had also sent an angel, a messenger to Corneas,

and God had told Corneus listen to this. The Jews believe salvation was only

what by becoming a Jew through Judaism. God tells Corneas directly that here comes

Peter. I'm going to send Peter to your house and he will declare you.

Listen to what says listen. Very important this passage. He will declare

verse fourteen, he will declare you a message by which you will be saved.

See, God only showed what Peter that he was going to make all

things clean. That God also spoke to Corneas that that Corneus would be saved.

You know, Scripture says in Second Corinthians and also many places in the

Old Testament that and I'll read the passage at tewod Corinthians thirteen to one.

This is the third time t to you. Every charge must be established by

the evidence are two or three witnesses, right, This is very important this

premise. The premise is if you hear something that someone says is true,

it must be verified by two or three witnesses. Right. So when Paul,

when Peter lays out his argument that I'm telling you salvation is going to

the Gentiles and this was God's word, how does he verify that? He

first verifies how God's word came to him. Secondly, he verifies what's the

other witness that God's word has said the same thing to who? To corneas.

He also lays out in this passage of scripture that there's six witnesses with

him. Right, what is he establishing. He's establishing a consistency of the

word of God. So it's very important for us when you're examining teaching or

someone who says they're from God God, listen, it must be verified consistently.

In scripture, you can't just take one passage of scripture, right,

and and say, well, this passage says what this, and therefore this

is true? No, no, no, no, It must be consistent.

Right. Just as Peter verified that something was from God's word, by

God's word by showing how it spoke consistently by several different witnesses, Peter,

Cornelis and the other messengers, same thing for us. If someone says that

something is from God, we must verify it by God's word and by many

sources in God's word. Do you understand that it's very important? Because listen,

we live in a world that likes to take passages of scripture and take

one passage of scripture and build a whole argument for justification for some type of

thing. Right, we must it must be consistent through all of God's word.

Peter shows that he demonstrates that in this passage of Scripture, and so

I encourage you today, believers, be disciplined to discern what is from God.

And if something is seen in our world that's from God, is it

consistent with the Word of God, not just one passage of scripture, but

consistently throughout scripture. Right? Because God's word never condict contradicts itself, and

God's word will never condict contradict his work. Do you understand that? So

it's very important. I remember, I remember in college there was a Christian

studies major. I went to North Greenwell University and there was a there was

somebody in our and I forgot exactly who the guy was, but he was

he was dating a girl, and and it was you know how the rumor

Meal told you was active then it was active then in college and rumor was

that him and his girlfriend were sleeping together, They're having premier of sex.

And someone confronted him about it. He said, well, God had told

him that it was okay. Well that's convenient, and so I tell you

that because that is the world we live in. Right. Well, I'm

not going to verify something by the word of God. I'm just going to

say God spoke to me and God told me it's okay. It doesn't work

that way, right. If God speaks, and if God's going to do

something, it's going to be consistent with what his word says. And if

it's not consistent with this word, it's not God. You understand that.

And so it's so important because we live and I thought as I was preparing

this message, there were so many different ways I could just tell you about

false teaching in our world. But I would spend probably an entire hour by

just explaining different false teaching that's in our world today. There's false teaching when

it comes to prosperity gospel. There's false teaching when it comes to just prosperity

and some financial but just prosperity and prosperity of life that you can live your

best life now right, there's prosperity. There's all kinds of just false teaching,

false teaching about sexuality. There's falts teaching about prosperity is false. There's

just all kinds of fauts teaching out there. But here's the thing. Listen

to me today, in our world today, this is what we're dangerous to.

Believers are dangerous if someone says they're from God and they say something that

sounds like God, we just take the word for it, and we never

as believers do the hard work of knowing what Scripture says and verifying whether someone

says something that it's from God, verifying in against the word of God,

and if it's not, listen that we're too, we're too nice sometimes as

Christians. Well, I just I don't want to say that they say it's

from God. I don't want no, no, no, no. Listen,

there's nothing wrong with something when something I think someone says they're from God

and it's contrary to the word of God saying I don't care whether they're popular,

I don't care if they're liked or if they're followed. If it's contrary

to the word of God, I'm going to get rid of it. I'm

not gonna allow it in my house. I'm not gonna read their books,

I'm not gonna watch their videos, I'm not going to listen to their podcasts.

I'm going to get out, get it out of my life because it's

false teaching. But listen to me. You must learn how to do this

on your own. Because John Ford that we just said, says they're in

the world and you know who they're pursuing. They're pursuing you. They're pursuing

you as believers that you might buy it on something that's false and be carried

away into some false teaching. So understand, Peter explains, how do you

how do we verify God's work? We verify God's word, work by God's

word. Secondly, we must verify God's work by the Holy Spirit. Now

in this passage of scripture, what was the second thing? How did he

show that this was the work of God? You have to remember that here

this has never happened in the history of Christianity, or a history of the

Church, or history of history of Israel. This has never happened before.

If someone was saved or came into Israel, they became a proselyte, and

they it would be circumcised. He is very clear at the very beginning,

saying that you went with uncircumcised men. To note that Corneas was not a

proselyte. You remember I told you several weeks ago that for the for the

Jews, there were three types of gentiles, right, There were unbelieving gentiles,

There were God fears. God fears will be gentiles who may be believed

in Israel's God, but never truly converted, never was converted to Judaism.

And then lastly there was a proselyte. Again his passage, he's there,

these circumcised parties are saying, hey, you went eight with uncircumcised men.

It's just again Lucas, showing Corneus was not a proselyte, he had not

converted Judaism. So how do they verify? You know, A big,

big, big question that comes in our world today, and that's a big

part of this passage of scripture is why is there speaking in tongues in scripture?

It's a private question many of you have. What is the purpose of

that? Why is it in scripture? We see in the next chapter eleven

here we see that Corneas or chapter ten, and we see it, and

also in chapter eleven that Corneus is how speaks in tongues? Right? Peter's

preaches and the Bible says, the Holy Spirit falls upon them and they spoke

in tongues. And you would say, pastor, what is that? Why

did they do that? Well, I show you. I want to show

you this morning, according to the word of God. Peter verifies that salvation

has gone to the gentiles, first because verified it through God's words. But

secondly, he verified that this was God's work by listen by the Holy Spirit,

listen what happens. Peter says in verse fourteen that Corneus says that Peter

would declare a message listen he will declare to you a message by which you

will be saved, you and your household. Now, it's very important as

we come to this past of scripture. Luke wants you to understand Corneus is

not saved. And before Peter came here, he was not circumcised, right,

so we're not saved by Judaism or following the practice of Judaism as the

Jews would have thought. Secondly, Corneus declares to himself that he was not

saved. Now, Scripture goes all the way back, if you go all

the way back to chapter ten. As Corneus enters the scene, Scripture says,

the Angel comes to Corneus and says, Corneas, what, I've heard

your prayers, and I've seen your alms giving. I've seen your giving.

And it shows that Corneus is was this God fear. He'd never converted to

Judaism and it never became a Jew, but he was someone who feared God

and believed in Israel's God, right, and so therefore he'd been praying to

Israel's God and he'd been giving to God. But that didn't save Corneus.

You understand that just because he prayed and just because he gave to Israel did

not mean he was what a Christian doesn't mean he was saved. Corneus.

Luke wants you to seen this passage of scripture. Corneus gathers all his household

before Peter got their why because he knew he was lost. He knew his

prayers wasn't enough. He knew that giving wasn't enough. There was something missing

in him, and he was not saved. And the Bible says Peter,

so he was not saved. And he knows that Simon's coming is going to

declare the message to him by which he said he's going to be saved in

verse five. Now here, what's the main issues for the Jews? Was

Corneus saved outside of Judaism? Peter saying, listen, he told me he

wasn't saved, that I was going to give him a message, And let

me tell you how it happened. Let me tell you how Corny has got

saved. Listen to what happens in verse fifteen and Isaac, as I begin

to speak, listen, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us

at the beginning. Again, the Early Church is trying to verify did the

Gentiles really get saved? And really was it God's work? Peter saying,

listen, I can tell you it was God's work because it was God's word.

And secondly, I can show you verify it was God's work because of

God's Holy Spirit at work. Listen the Bible says, he says, and

as I begin to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as

on us at the beginning. You see, we must verify how do we

verify God's word? We must verify it through God's word, but we also

must verify it by the Holy Spirit. Peter says, Listen, I can

tell you that God saved them not because God said and what he said to

me and what he said to corneas what he said to the witnesses there.

But I can tell you that God saved the Gentiles because they received the Holy

Spirit, just like you and I. And Act chapter two, if you

want to turn back with me, Acts chapter two, and this gets into

the question of why speaking in tongues. You remember in Act chapter two,

well, Act chapter one, Jesus gathers the apostles right after he's resurrected,

and he told them to go to Jerusalem and wait. You remember what he

tells them to wait for anybody. He tells them the wait for the Holy

Spirit, right, that the Holy Spirit would fall upon them. You remember

that Act chapter two. They're in the upper room. There's one hundred and

twenty of them, and they're praying. Right, And then Act chapter two

what we call is what we call Pentecosts. Right, and the Bible says,

the Holy Spirit fell upon those in the church right, and the Holy

Spirit came upon them. What came upon them the Holy Spirit? And when

the Holy Spirit came upon all one hundred and twenty, the Bible says in

Acts chapter two that how did they know? Right, all right, how

did they know that the Holy Spirit had came upon Therese one hundred and twenty,

Well, the Bible says, the one hundred and twenty began speaking in

tongues. What was that? In Scriptures describes they spoke in a divided tongue.

That meant that they were speaking known languages to others. Right, Let's

read that in Act Sheps Verses one and four SS. When the day of

Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place, and suddenly there came

from heaven a sound of mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house

where they were sitting, and divided tongues as fire appeared to them and rested

on each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and

began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. So the

Bible says, how they showed that they had received the Holy Spirit at end

for the very first time. When Holy Spirit came upon the early Church,

is that every believer, not just a few, everyone in the church spoke

in tongues. And what was speaking in tongues that was speaking in a known

language that was not known to that individual. It would be like me,

I don't know German, right, and suddenly the Holy Spirit feel me,

and suddenly I'm speaking German and I've never spoken to my life, right.

That's what happened. And Scripture shows us that because in Acts chapter in verse

eight of that same chapter, and the Bible says the Jews, who well

a million Jews had came to Jerusalem for Pentecost that day, that hear the

Christians and they're speaking in these tongues, are speaking in these languages, and

they're startled by it, and they says they gather around the there's one hundred

and twenty, and the Bible says, they're trying to figure out what is

this, what is this that's happening to these Jews, these Jews who say

they're Christian. Something's happening. And then when we've never seen it before,

and listen what verse eight says, and they say, how is it that

we hear each in our own native language, Parthians and me And we won't

go through all of those, but go to verse ten. Vigeria, Pamphernalia,

Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Serene, and visitors Rome, both

Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians. We hear them telling in our own

language the mighty works of God. So it's very clear when listen to the

Holy Spirit came for the very first time. Listen to this, when it

came to the very first time to the people of the Jews, what happens?

What was a verification that it was the Holy Spirit? They all received

it. They all spoken tongues, and they all spoken unknown told that they

did not they didn't know like German or whatever. It was a known language,

but it was not a language to them, do you understand that?

And what were And then third what did they do? They were? What

were they speaking? It was not just some gibberish, It was a It

was they were speaking the mighty works of God in a known language. Right.

So when Peter says, listen, I'll tell you. I went.

I went to Corneas's house, and Cornea says he had been saved. And

now I was declared to him a message. How about what he saved?

And I told him. I started telling him about Jesus. And then suddenly

I started telling them here was he had, He had his whole family together

and all the people he loved. And I tell you, when they heard

about Jesus, he said, I can tell you, the Holy Spirit came

upon them. And I can tell you when the Holy Spirit came upon them.

You remember what it was like, boys, when we were in the

upper room, there's one hundred and twenty of us, and the fire came

from heaven. And then suddenly it came upon us and we begin speaking unknotold.

Can I tell you, just like God worn't in us, God worked

to the gentiles. The Holy Spirit came upon them, and they too began

speaking they've been speaking in tongues, known language, and listen to what the

mighty works of God. Look at verse Look at this passage of scripture.

In verse ten, in verse chapter ten, verse forty four. It says,

while Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all

them who heard the word. And the believers from their circumcis who had come

with Peter were amazed. Listen to this because the gift of the Spirit was

poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them, listen to

this, speaking in tongues and doing what extolling God. When they were preaching,

speaking in tongues, what were they saying? They were praising God,

just as the Jews when they filled with tongues. They were speaking a known

language that was not their language, and they were praising God when salvation came

to the Gentiles, when it came to Cornea's house, the same holy spirit

that filled the Jews, the same holy spirit that filled the Gentiles. And

just says, the Jews spoken tongues and glorify God. The Gentiles spoken tongues

and the glorified God. Why is this because Peters wanting them to see listen.

The same Holy Spirit that was working you is the same Holy Spirit as

it working them. God, I tell you this is God's work. The

salvation has come to the Gentiles. It was by God's word, and it

was by God's spirit. I can tell you that it's so. Can I

say to you and I when we hear someone that declares that something is from

God, we must verify it by God's word. But we must verify it

by God's Spirit, that it's the same spirit that's working in us. Do

we see the same elements in their life? What's the fruits of the spirit?

You know? The fruit of the spirit, Scripture says Glatians five twenty

two twenty three. Fruits of the spirit is love, joy, pee,

patient kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control against such things.

There's no law. You want to verify whether someone's from God? Do they

had the fruits of the spirit? Is there? Conviction of sin? Scripture

says the Holy Spirit comes to conviction us of our sin and lead us through

righteousness. That's why Romans eight says that's the work of the Holy Spirit to

show us the sin of our life and lead us to how to live a

godly life. Do you see that as you looked through that, I heard

a story of a pastor. His name's Tim Ross. He actually pastor to

church in Irvin, Texas and called Embassy City Church. He started a podcast

about ten years ago. It's called The Basement with Tim Ross. Don't recommend

it, as you're going to hear me in just a second. There's two

hundred He has roughly two hundred and seventy eight thousand subscribers. And on his

podcast he used for vanity, he's a pastor, he's a profanity. And

he explained that he thought that he really should use profanity, that it was

good for him to use profanity. And this is why I said, in

my mind, it makes sense that when I'm feeling a strong emotion, I

should use strong language to go with those emotions. And so he said he

was using it very intentional. Now hear me, he shows no biblical justification

of why he should use this language, just a theory or ration now.

And I say that to say, what is the fruits of the spirit?

You know you would say Scripture says in Ephesians, let no corrupt me talk

come out of your mouth. Only what is for the upbuilding of the Church.

And you may say that would be a passive scripture, but go further

than that. What is the fruits of the spirit, the fruits of love,

joy, peace, patient kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self

control. He says, I need to show my wrong. Scripture says we

need to what spirit demonstrates self control? Right? And so I showed say

these things is show you that the early church rightly. So sometimes we give

Chapter eleven a hard time and say these Jews were too critical, but I

think rightly so they were just trying to make sure something was truly from God.

How Peter showed that something was from God. He showed it that it

was consistent with God's word, and it was consistent with God's Spirit, the

Holy Spirit. So today, believers, can I encourage you to test his

spirits. Test the things that you listen to TV radio, if you do

podcasts, or if you do reading, you buy books, test them if

they're not from God, if they're not consistent with the Word of God and

not consistent with God's Spirit, put them away. Will you pray with me?

Lord, I thank you for your passage of scripture that you've led us

to do to today. And your word tells us that we are to test

the spirits. And Lord, I pray today that we would be individuals in

the church that would be faithful to test Lord your word, and Lord to

verify whether something is consistent with your word, and verify whether it's consistent with

your spirit or We thank you for Lord. Today. We celebrate that salvation

has gone to us and we're here today because Lord, Lord, you sought

to reach the unreached the nations. And Lord Lord, I pray that I

thank you for that, we give you, prayse for that. And Lord,

we love you. We pray you lead us today in our service,

lead us at the time of invitation. We pray, and Lord, we

love you union and we pray I mean Jesus to