Published: December 15, 2024 | Speaker: Mark Freitag | Series: The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 1 - Part 13 | Scripture: Joel 2:28-29; Acts 2:17-21
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my uh my intention for this week was to uh begin um a little bit of a I guess you could call it a a survey of the Old Testament
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prophets in how they by the spirit and um using the phrase that we see in many of the uh
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prophetic books uh the spirit of God not just in uh some of the things that we've talked about and we'll review a couple of those things here but particularly in
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preparation for the Messiah looking ahead and giving us a picture of the the close of the Old Testament but the the glory that is to come in the
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Messiah um one uh author um uh George smen I believe it is uses the the phrase quote the unction
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awaiting the awaiting the Messiah um how do the Old Testament prophets do that so after David um from the exile to the close of the Old
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Testament um
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the I guess you would call it the testimony the The Prophet's
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the working of the spirit and um that uh which we looked at a little bit last week the the outpouring of the spirit um
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um as I began to to do that and guided by some of the commentaries to see how they handle these things um I did pretty well with the first couple because in two books of the Old Testament there
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is no mention of the spirit of God um in Jeremiah and Daniel and yet we see some very powerful things related to um the
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New Covenant the the coming of the Messiah but um it was when I got to Joel that I realized um Joel is
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um it's a very exciting powerful couple ofs verses in Chapter 2 um that Peter repeats in Acts chapter 2 But realize I
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don't understand all of Joel um some of the words um and then in particularly um I I 8 10 years ago somewhere in there I
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inherited a library from u a friend his library and uh he was downsizing and with in an illness and I didn't have any commentaries on Joel
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he had one book so I just kind of stuck it in my bookcase and uh didn't really remember that I had it and I pulled it out this week and um I was very taken aback by
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his um I I can only assume it's a dispensational view of Joel and uh we'll talk about that when we get there but um
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it kind of threw me for lose is where does he get all this so um going to do a little bit of recap and then we'll look
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at um couple of thoughts from Jeremiah Daniel and Daniel and Hosea and then uh with whatever time we have remaining uh look at the Joel
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passage um because I think it warrants a little a closer look um and then the next couple of weeks hopefully we'll we'll go a little further with some of the other prophets and into um making
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the way for the Messiah um the prophets uh generally speaking in the
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prophets um there is reference to times present
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um so in their present day they're going to refer to certain things and we also see in the prophets again generally um not just the time's presence but um how
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the spirit guided them so we we have reference to uh the spirit coming upon them uh the spirit
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showing them uh different things and so we we we've talked some about those types of things um and then again
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using uh smen's
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and then um as we um we talked about last uh time some passages where the spirit will be
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but um these are phrases that I I don't think I used this word in my regular vocabulary but the pouring out he calls
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the great diffusion the spirit being poured out upon the church um from on high the um language of of Joel
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um that uh I will pour out my spirit in those days those days um upon All
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Flesh and uh so we'll need to talk about those phrases but in general speaking of the testimony again I'm kind of concentrating on the the
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future looking forward not just the things that we've already looked at but but these two particularly is what I wanted to try to to find passages in the
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prophets that prophets that specifically um are leading Us in that direction and uh again what we find is
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um two books the Jeremiah and Daniel do not even have the expression the spirit of God which I I guess I would have guessed that they did um and yet we do
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find that particularly Jeremiah the very um passage that I think will be very familiar to you um in Jeremiah
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31 31 and and forward and um it's just a beautiful passage so I'm going to read it out loud here Jeremiah writes behold
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days are coming declares the Lord when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not like the Covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by
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the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt my Covenant which they broke although I was a husband to them declares the Lord but this is the
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Covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord I will put my law within them and on their heart and I will write it and I will be their God
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and they shall be my people they will not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother saying know the Lord for they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest
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of them declares the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I'll remember no more definitely looking forward to the New Covenant um looking
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um back at the failure of the people even after he took them by the hand but looking forward to the New Covenant that's what we see in in Jeremiah um and
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uh one who who you know named the weeping prophet those um tears that he shed and the the um Agony of preaching
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to the people declaring to them and yet this beautiful passage of the Covenant
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um we know that he was able to interpret dreams that he was able to uh have unusual insight and understanding of of
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the times um and I I guess make an assumption from what other prophets say that how how
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could that come about naturally in a in a man uh unless he was um helped and aided by the spirit and I don't find
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that here uh in Daniel but one passage uh that I did see in uh chapter 9
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beginning at verse 19 just um how the Lord aided him his his calling upon the Lord um and the aid of the angel Gabriel
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in chapter nine it says oh Lord hear oh Lord forgive oh Lord listen and take action for your own sake oh my God do not delay because your city and your
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people people are called by your name now while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of My People Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God in
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behalf of the Holy Mountain of my God while I was speaking still speaking in prayer then Gabriel whom I have seen in a vision previously came to me in an in
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my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering he gave me in instruction and talked with me and said oh Daniel I have now come forth to give
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you Insight with understanding it wasn't from Daniel it from was from God sending um the man
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Gabriel um and not quite sure what else to to make of that except that Daniel does acknowledge that it didn't come from within him but the book doesn't not
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expressly say as we see in Ezekiel and other places uh that the spirit of God led him at that point so um just not
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[Music] um that I I I I guess can't read any further um into that um except that was an encounter uh where God expressedly
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gave him the insight and understanding
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that's confusing to me to understand and he uses the phrase men of the spirit um and he seems to refer to the prophets the question I have with
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Hosea is the mention sarcasm or is it perplexity and I didn't look up the he
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Hebrew word I should have um realized this morning looking at my notes that I didn't go back and look at it but I'm going to read it from The New American Standard Hosea chapter
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9 he says the days of punishment have come the days of Retribution have come let Israel know this the prophet is a
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fool The Inspired man or literally the man of the spirit is demented because of the grossness of your iniquity and
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because your hostility is so great um he's either as I say it's sarcasm the prophet is a fool a man who calls himself a man of the spirit is
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demented um because of the gross iniquity or it refers to the true prophets but the word
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demented perhaps means perplexed um confused because of the great apostasy or is um he puts it here the grossness of their
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iniquities um I'm not sure what to make of it but it's it seems to in any sense indicate that Hosea had this idea or um
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that God is conveying to us an idea that a prophet is a man of the spirit a man who who has the spirit of God um
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but that's all I could see in
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Hosea so um not sure if uh you have any other insights into that but um so these were quite perplexing so at this point I'm kind of scratching my head going okay
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maybe this wasn't the right path to go down and then I looked at Joel and there is a very explicit U at least to me explicit um
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wording related uh that we've seen in in Isaiah and other places Ezekiel this idea of the outpouring of or that great effusion
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spirit and so this
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is but then it's repeated by
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Acts clearly to me a connection between the between the outpouring of the spirit and the coming of the of the Messiah the um making the way here um
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but again as I began to study look at these things um not all authors are agreed on who and when um and what um these
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things mean um and U I may have made myself more confused by studying um although I came across uh something in
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uh I think it was Herbert Locker uh reminded me this week that um he said uh
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that it is it is a shame if we purport to study the work of the spirit without the aid of the spirit and uh that kind of was a
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reminder that um this is uh if we're going to study we need to dedicate ourselves to the study and uh determine that we're going to um
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not just study it for academic sake but uh understanding who the spirit is and what he what his work is um going to read the 27 through 29 here from uh
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Joel he says thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord your God and there is no other and my people will never be put to shame it will come about after this that
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I will pour out my spirit on All Mankind and your sons and daughters will prophesy your old men will dream dreams and your young men will see Visions even
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on the male and female servants I will pour out my spirit in those days um again trying to find a place to start
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uh as I say um the the question of what does it mean and when does this
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[Music] um in Joel what's coming before this is the restoration of the land uh and really um what what I
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two two things that I see from again this is cursory reading and just studying the first part of Joel but uh there seems to be an emphasis
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on the day of the Lord when is that and what does that mean and uh I would label what he's talking about here is Revival I mean
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true Revival not the um Thursday night Friday night um tent revivals that are used to be popular it
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was one um where we lived in in Malden we'd go by a sign um every day for probably four and a half months um and they had a
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Revival every night um they claimed anyway um I'm not sure that's what Revival is is a tent me uh I think what we see here is true
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Revival but in in Joel 2 he talks about the threshing floors will be full of grain um I will make up to you the years that the locusts have eaten I will I
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will do these things you'll have plenty to eat you'll be satisfied um then you will know that I am in the midst uh he says in verse 27 I am the Lord your God
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and there is no other we've talked about that Proclamation that Proclamation and we see that and but then the question becomes in verse 28 and it will
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come about after this that I will pour out my spirit on all mankind um and I again I when I picked up the one um and it doesn't purport to
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be a technical commentary taking verse by verse but uh uh simply uh one man's study but it it it uh really kind of
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shocked me uh and the only I can only imagine that it was um from A dispensational View because um he looked
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at the words and it his whole Exposition hinged on the words after this and jumped immediately after this
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obviously means after the tribulation after the Thousand-Year reign of Christ and the second coming and it's like what
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Peter Peter when they're looking at the people are looking at the um men and women on the day of Pentecost and
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assuming they were drunk and he says uh no it's only 9:00 in the morning um but because of the
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Fulfillment and then he reads what I just read from Joel to and and goes on uh even beyond that um so it kind of
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it's like how would you how would you get there get there um from from the the words after this um
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you're jumping Way Beyond what Peter actually testifies in the scripture um so how can you how can you hold that view um yes
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dispensationalism holds this from revation show what these things okay there's a large segment of dispensationalism thats Peter and
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James wow okay I have encountered that um so anyway I put that book Away um there was something else that he said and I'm I'm not uh oh well he did
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say the Revival was to the people of Israel after the Exile and then skips the thousands of years uh Beyond uh did
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not mention Peter and acts to at all so maybe I mean maybe what you just f fill in is what he skipped um didn't mention those at
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all um the other one of the other questions that that came up in my mind when Peter quotes um Joel he doesn't say
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my spirit but of my spirit and several of the commentators um seem to point to the phrase of my
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spirit as being trying to give us the understanding of a measure a measure
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of my of my spirit um I wasn't quite sure how to take that but a measure given to man of the
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inexhaustible fullness of the resources of the Holy Spirit um and and it makes some sense if you look at 1 Corinthians
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12 it's the spirit who distributes of the Manifest fullness of the Holy Spirit he gives to each one as he Wills the the
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grace gifts we call them um and so it is possible that that's what the commentators are hinting at I hadn't noticed the difference um myself until
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began to to read through this um um but it's just one of those things that makes you stop and and think um it does make some sense uh that we do not have the
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fullness of the spirit but we are given gifts of the Spirit yes it says
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Jesus of Jesus yes so um
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is it Peter's or it's it's Peter um at least in The New American Standard I didn't look didn't look at other places but um oh really okay um
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sorry um yeah um the way it's written here and it shall be in the last days God says that I will pour forth of my spirit upon
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all mankind so he doesn't use the words after this he does use last days um but he um before that he says uh
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verse 16 but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel so he's looking at this now is the last days this is U
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the days of which he
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question um what I I see
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um well let me let me just back up when I was uh in seminary one of the books we had to read was the art of prophesying um wasn't Cunningham
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can't think of the name right now and he equated prophesying with preaching and with no at I remember anyway even in the introduction material
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in that book he didn't explain that he just you know he was a Puritan Era I can't think Perkins maybe William
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Perkins and it kind of again just where does that come from I'm one of those you know tell me how you get this it when you say something equals something I I
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need to see how you got there in this uh case um Sinclair Ferguson uh defines it this
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way um a way to say the sharing of the me Messianic spirit and experiencing the knowledge of the Lord which only the spirit of God could
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I don't know Chu do you have when you taught through acts do you remember I couldn't we talked about that and prophesying was something you see in the church it's definitely there
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clearly I think it was us of the word of the question is whether it ceas think kind of under ongoing question about the identity of
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Prophecy that the reform view that prophesy is preaching is a matter of convenience and yet it's very inconvenient because our daughters aren't preaching yeah so I got a problem
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there no I think prophesying is is no different than what we see in the school of the of the prophets or major Minor Prophets that is declaring the word and will of the Lord
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to and seems obvious to me the
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church yeah John um 1 John 2 um he says but you have an anointing from the Holy Holy One and you all know and then later he says and as for you the anointing which you receive from him abides in you
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and you have no need for anyone to teach you but as his anointing teaches you all about about all things and is true and is not a lie and just as it has been
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taught uh taught you you abide in him
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um again uh the question of the sensation of these things but knowing that we have received from from the Lord some uh anointing in the spirit um as as
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Believers um we all have the ability to communicate uh participate together in the body uh and there is um I I think
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Ferguson is right in saying there is a sharing of the Messianic Spirit there is a sharing in the body a participation in the body and our our experience and
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knowledge in the Lord uh is part of that but um
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um I take it as Peter does these are the last days that's that's right because he's what we see here with
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right we might look at these as extraordinary gifts extraordinary gifts but I I don't think that it's limited to extraordinary there's there's ordinary gifts because
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he's saying on each one on everyone and you know from the from the greatest to the least um Peter says or in here um
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you know he he doesn't leave out any any category Sons and Daughters men and women um the you know the servant and the handmade the
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um The Young and the old um but I I think what we see here is is extraordinary gifts but we also see ordinary gifts as
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well I guess I should do this um but these are gifts that only come when the spirit is
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is given this because he is the gift of of Christ this is what he left I must depart in order for the spirit to come
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to you uh I take that as this this is his gift uh to the church um and the blessing the blessing of of Christ um
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you know looking at um
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in verse 38 of Acts 2 Peter said to them repent and each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the Forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit again that's where I I see the it's the
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sanctifying gifts of the Spirit his gracious indwelling in us or the inhabitation of the spirit I think comes
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um fully into view here um and again no distinction of U nationality no distinction of social
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conditions um I I see it as a gift he he says All says All Flesh and it's difficult to understand again the commentators will will say
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well did this mean certain classes of people um they asked the the questions uh is it only for worthy individuals uh and I think the answer is
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a gift you're not worthy it's a gift um you don't deserve gifts there there's not a merit um and and again some asked
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the question is it limited to these extraordinary gifts and I I I think no I think the the um what we see in the New Testament is these are gifts gracious
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things that are by the grace of God giving um gifts to men um I don't know to me this is the this is the beginning
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of of these things um but I want to look at um and again under this kind of a heading you know what's the purpose of
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all this whoops e you know okay know okay what's all this for [Music] um and I I think both um Joel and Peter
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indicate that purpose um in in Joel 2 verse 32 uh he says and it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the
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Lord will be delivered from on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who Escape as the Lord has said even among the survivors whom the the Lord calls there's there's a
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um men and women are being led to call on the name of the Lord the they're their the Revival is um
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to me that was kind of the bottom uh line I may not understand all of the um the timing I may not understand how that actually works out um the full
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definition of of All Flesh um and yet the the purpose was that we would call on the name of the Lord that we would be
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um we call it when we um begin our services and and it's in formal liturgy I guess you call it the invocation but that's what it seems to
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be um we invoke God we call upon him to deliver us um and again that idea of the delivery the the sanctifying work of the
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spirit in Revival and calling on the name of the Lord seems to be where um Joel and Peter are leading us the history of all of this discussion in the
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church has always been one of exclusion and limitation what we're dealing with here is the
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spirites okay all right you U yeah that was where I was headed um numbers 11 um what Chuck just said um there there was Revival there there were some of the men
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who were helpers of of Moses they prophesied but for a short period of time and and Moses um they're arguing with Moses and he said would that all
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the Lord's people were prophets that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them um
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I can't talk and write at the same time sorry but you
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know there's there's a limit U let me let me see the phrase that I wrote here
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yeah if if we think in terms of First Corinthians the Corinthians the distribution there's a limited distribution we've seen that in the men that that he gifted to do certain things
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and for certain purposes but it's it's a limited um outpouring or using the wrong phrase limited um work of the spirit for
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specific things but then we read about
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New Covenant we we read the words that that the prophets are pointing to here as the outpouring and I was read some passages and I don't know
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that I read this one and um I read it several times but to me this illustrates what I really wanted this lesson to be about the the moving toward
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this and this is how Ezekiel at least this is what I see in Ezekiel what does this outpouring look like as you move from the the old uh Testament the the
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testimony of the of not just um the prophets but even back from Genesis and then we went to the uh Moses and then on
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to David and the prophets and moving toward this um the unction of um the Messiah the anointing of the
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Messiah um this seems to illustrate this outpouring Ezekiel 47 beginning uh verse
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one then he brought me back to the door of the house and behold water was flowing from under the threshold of the house toward the East for the house faced East and the water is Flowing down
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from under from the right side of the house from south of the altar he brought me out by the way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate by the um of the gate that
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faces East and you're thinking okay there's some water flowing around this house and then we read this and behold water is trickling from the
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Southside when the man went out toward the East with a line in his hand he measured a th cubits and he led me through the water water reaching the
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ankles again he measured a thousand and led me through the water Waters reaching the knees and again he measured a thousand and he led me through the water water
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reaching the reaching the loins again he measured a thousand and it was a river that I could not for for the water had risen enough water to swim
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in a water that could not be fored and he said to me son of man have you seen this do do you see where it's it's
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going that that's where they're pointing to me that's that's where we're we're headed um headed um the the the Fulfillment is is pointed to
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by by Peter and yes what we're seeing is the the stream the
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stream the trickle is becoming a flood a a river and and yes um I think there is um just another uh comment as we kind of
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try to get a handle on this um there are those who say it was that day the day of Pentecost these things
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happened they prophesied they dreamed they saw visions and it ended but I this is smen's
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term still trying to digest it but
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it it began there the the outpouring as the gift of the Messiah leaving and leaving us the the gift of the spirit but it doesn't terminate at
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Pentecost it wasn't a one- day wonder and it's there are some who believe it's it's a type and a shadow of what will come thousands of years
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later but what does Hebrews say the shadows and types have ended this isn't this isn't a shadow this is the real
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thing this is the flood of the outpouring of the spirit um it takes in all subsequent time as well to
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me but it's beginning here and I'll end with this uh quote from Sinclair Ferguson that I think um kind of sums up what I
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see particularly in Joel but wanted to convey he says quote the coming of the spirit marks the end of the limitations built in to the divinely ordained
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impermanence of the Mosaic co uh economy and the beginning of the new era let us
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Our Father we do we thank you for the scriptures we thank you for the the writings that you have inspired these men to record for us
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to read to meditate on to study and father we do uh we do ask that we would not uh study without the holy spirit
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that we would rely on you to guide us by the spirit show us the way help us to meditate to think
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to understand but father we do pray that you would give us a heart that just enjoys the scriptures enjoys reading and following the paths that we're guided on
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and rejoice in where you have brought us in our understanding but where you have brought us in worship and so we ask father that you would continue to to
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build your church to excite us with your word and excite us with our desire to worship you and give you
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all honor and glory in Christ's name we pray amen