In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the strategic nature of God's plan for spreading the gospel. He highlights how people from various regions, including Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and dwellers in Mesopotamia, Judea, and Rome, were present in Jerusalem to hear the good news of release from bondage. The preacher also discusses the significance of the two loaves offered as a token of God's faithfulness and inheritance. He praises the young men and women who are walking with the Lord and being guided by the Holy Spirit, expressing the need for more of this spiritual discernment. The sermon concludes by acknowledging the new conscience that arises in believers, leading them to question their behavior and choices in light of their relationship with God.

The book of the Acts, chapter two, and when the day of Pentecost was now come, Margin says was being fulfilled. When the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled in this very great matter of the presence and walk of the Holy Spirit, we can only take one more small fragment this morning, and it arises out of this fulfillment that took place on that particular day. It ought to impress us that it was on that particular day that God decided to send the Holy Spirit. There is nothing in the Old Testament that speaks of the advent of the Holy Spirit at any given time. No word there that at a certain time the dispensation would change by the coming from Heaven of the Holy Spirit to abide for the age. No word that it would be so, but there is very much in the Old Testament that is gathered into that day and that advent. God chose that day because of the deep and rich relationship of things to that particular time. When you think of it, dear friend, it is an impressive thing how God chooses his time for things. You know when the Lord Jesus was about to be crucified, the Jewish rulers said, not on the Passover, not on the Passover, but Heaven and God said yes on the Passover. The Jewish Passover was being fulfilled, but being fulfilled in a way, in a fullness that they neither thought of nor intended. But God said this is the time for the great Passover, transcending all others, the fulfillment of all others after this time. He chose the time. He chose the time for this great dispensational change and movement, coming of the Holy Spirit. It was by his decision that it took place at that particular time. When all these people gathered in Jerusalem at their feast of Pentecost, they never imagined. It had never occurred to them that they had left their far-off cities and countries. Mentioned in this chapter how many of them. They never, as they set out on the journey to Jerusalem, had in mind this thing that was going to happen. For them it was the keeping of an old Jewish festival, much rich meaning for them in history. But the Lord said now is the time for something much more, much greater. He chose the time. Of course we shall see why in a moment. It is like that. And we are given to understand that the Lord is choosing the time or is going to choose the time for the coming again, the Lord Jesus. And that is not a general statement, but it is said precisely that when the spirit of Antichrist has reached that point of expression where more than ever before in history there will be a bid for world dominion, then he whose right it is will come to take it. Antichrist will make the great bid for worldwide dominion gathered up into one system, whether in one head it may be. And is there not today a bigger movement in that direction than ever before? Many who have made that bid, but it has been more or less limited scale. But there are only two camps in this world today really. And the battle is to break down the one. To make way for Antichrist. That is the summing up of the dominion of this world under one head. And the Lord will say when it reaches that point, now is the time for the right one to have it. He has appointed the day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the one whom he has appointed. God chooses his time, his day, and it is always very strategic, opportune, and full of significance. And so it says here now when the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled. He chose that day for the coming of the Holy Spirit in person to govern this dispensation until the coming of the Lord Jesus. You know the Pentecost means 50th. Literally it is now when the 50th day was in fulfillment, in the course of fulfillment. And that at once opens to us God's meaning in choosing this. For all who know the Bible, even in a very simple way, know that that 50th day in the old economy was the day of jubilee. And the day of jubilee was the day when all who had been in slavery were released. All men and women who had been sold into bondage got their liberty on that day. All lands and properties which had been brought into bondage for debts and so on had to be released on that day. You had lived on a 50th year day. You would have, if it was necessary, been awakened very early in the morning by a certain sound. But early on that morning as the sun grew out of the night, the priests sounded the jubilee trumpets. The trumpets of jubilee. And they were the gospel trumpets. The gospel means good news. It was the sound of release for all captives, all prisoners, all in bondage. People and land set free. And the trumpets proclaimed release. Good tidings to the captive, the setting at liberty of them that were bound. It was a day, therefore, of great joy for the prisoners, for those who had no liberty. God chose that day, or the meaning that was bound up with that day, for the day of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Significant, isn't it? Indeed, that day in Jerusalem was for many captives a day of rejoicing, a day of liberation. They're going forth over the whole world. The representatives, through representatives. Look at it. Parthians and Medes and Elamites and dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, Amphylia, Egypt, Libya, Cyrene, sojourners from Rome. The whole world is here. The gospel trumpet proclaimed in Jerusalem to the whole world, as represented on that day, the good news of release for the world from its bondage. How strategic God was. However, fulfillment of the old conception, but how much greater the fulfillment than had ever been imagined. I say again, when they came from far off Rome and Cyrene, Libya, and all these places, they never expected to hear that message which God had prepared. Now, of course, quite simple is the message for us. Pentecost, the Holy Spirit having come and being here as he is, represents that, just that, glorious liberty for men. Glorious gospel of emancipation from bondage. When the little remnant came back from the captivity in Babylon, Chaldea, having known 70 years of bondage, the word of the Lord through his messenger was, According to the covenant which I made with you in the land of Egypt, my spirit remaineth among you. According to the covenant in Egypt, my spirit remaineth among you. And here they are, because of the faithfulness of God to his covenant, and because of the abiding spirit of God, they are out of captivity. One little sidelight from the great truth. Dear friends, I am not sure that we appreciate our liberty in Christ's office. We need to read again that letter to the Galatians in the light of Pentecost, in the light of Jubilee. Our liberty in Christ, one of our most prized, translated not out of an earthly Egypt, but out of the authority of darkness, into the kingdom of the Son of Israel. Being fulfilled then is the gospel of emancipation for all slaves, for all prisoners. Lord Jesus is undoubtedly in the fullness of his ministry on the day of Pentecost. What I like about this, he had already said it, but here it is in fulfillment. He is here by the Holy Spirit in the fullness of his ministry, of which he said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he hath anointed me to preach the good tidings to the poor, to bind up the broken heart, to set at liberty them that are bound, to open the prison to the prisoners, to proclaim, oh what an unfortunate translation we have of the words, the acceptable year of the Lord, no, the year of Jubilee of our God. The year of Jubilee, the year of grace, the year of grace, the breaking of the law which binds the prisoners and has imposed bondage upon so many. The year of grace being fulfilled. And another thing was here, very present in the minds of all these who had gathered in Jerusalem, what was it that they were there to celebrate? Well, for them, feast of Pentecost was linked with the giving of the law at Sinai. They were remembering Moses going into the mount, God meeting him, giving him the covenant by the law to govern their lives henceforth. And for them the feast of Pentecost was always closely linked with that great epoch in their history, the covenant and the law. Sad and tragic history of broken law, but the Lord knew what he meant. He meant something more than tables of stone, written and engraved, pen and ink. He had a deeper meaning. And the day came when the prophet Jeremiah was caused to say, as you will read in the 31st chapter of his prophecies, the 31st verse, it's always easy to remember, by great shame, Jeremiah 31, 31, it's an epoch. The days come, said the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, not according to the covenant which I made with them when I took them by the hand and led them. But this is the covenant that I will make in those days, said the Lord. I will write my laws upon their hearts and upon their minds will I write. Now we need not say a lot about that because it's so clear, simply clear, that that is exactly what the Holy Spirit came to do. That is the fulfillment of Pentecost. You and I know it. Do we? Do we? Let me challenge every heart. Let me challenge old and young with this. Do you really know, in experience, in life, Jeremiah 31, 31? If you really have received the Holy Spirit, which as a child of God you ought to have done, do you know that? You are able to say, I know what the Lord meant when he said that through Jeremiah. I know in my own experience that part of Pentecost anyway because one of those very first things in the Christian life when we are born of the Holy Spirit is we know in ourselves without anybody having to tell us what we ought to do and what we ought not to do in a new way. It's remarkable. It's very remarkable. Things that we did without any question, the way we behaved, the way we used to speak, perhaps dress, oh, in a thousand ways about which we never had a second thought before. We're beginning to get some sensations, some feelings about that now. Some question arises about that. What we do, where we go, where we do not go. We say we have a conscience about it, but it's another conscience that we never had before. We did have a conscience before, but it's a new one. Altogether, a new set of laws never governed us until this time. Isn't it true? I know it begins in a simple way. All of us remember the first time that we had a question about something that had never been a question before. Remember it, Franklin? We remember that first time when, within us, the spirit of God put his finger upon something and raised an issue. Felt uncomfortable, perhaps miserable. Something we could not altogether explain and define. Something that we did not feel was right. We learned afterward it was a very vital matter. We came to realize that the progress of our spiritual life was bound up with our giving heed to that. We stayed where we were until that found an answer in our heart. And all that is very true, isn't it? Upon their hearts will I write. And in their minds, the inwardness of the new covenant that began on the day of Pentecost. That is in Pentecost. It's the day of the new covenant. That's what it means to have the Holy Spirit. May I say this? It is a grand thing, a grand thing, to see lives, especially, if I may say so, young men and young women, who are in that way walking with the Lord and not having to have the law laid down to them by parents or preachers or other people. Just not having to be told, coming alive to these issues. And being able to say, the Lord has spoken to me about that. If ever anybody mentions it, they'll say, alright, alright, the Lord's already touched me on that matter. Isn't that grand? That's a sure sign, a sure sign of the Holy Spirit within. Oh, for more of it. Oh, for more of it, this mighty work of the Holy Spirit on the basis of the new covenant. If necessary, the Holy Spirit saying, thou shalt not. It's alright if he says, thou shalt not. Or if he says, thou shalt. That is, the Spirit is the arbitrator. One who comes between the right and the wrong and gives his verdict in the heart. In the heart. Pentecost is the day of new covenant. And it's not right back there so many centuries ago. It's now. It's now. It's for the age, as the Lord says. And, to close with for the present. Pentecost, as you know, as we have recently said, was the feast of the first fruits. Time when, in the old economy, the husband man went out and saw the first ripe grain. Gathered it into a sheaf. Took it home. Made it into two loaves. Two loaves. Took them and laid them at the feet of the high priest. The first fruits of the harvest. In token of God's faithfulness. Of God's grace. Of God's disposition to be favorable. Of God's intention to give all that that represented and signified. The token of a full inheritance. Taken by faith in the two loaves. Two. You know in Biblical symbolism, two is always the number of sufficient testimony. You've got two, you've got enough. In the mouth of two witnesses, that's enough. You get two, you've got sufficient to God. Where two or three are gathered together. My name, there am I. Sufficient basis for the Lord. If two of you shall agree, as touching anything that they shall ask, shall be done of my Father. Two loaves, a sufficient testimony for. Well, the Lord Jesus, in death and resurrection. Two sides. His glorious, redemptive activity has now gone up into the presence of God. Presented himself and been accepted. He said to Mary, as she sought to embrace him when that resurrection morning touched me not. Embrace me not, lay not hold of me. I have not yet ascended unto my Father. Go to my disciples and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father and my God and your God. Something happened. He presented the double testament of death and resurrection to the Father God and was accepted. But in token of all those who in him were represented and included as his full harvest. No wonder the Lord chose those out of every nation under heaven, it says. To be represented in Jerusalem on that day. And one representing the fruit of all the nations. Attested by the Holy Spirit. It's all wonderful. Very blessed. Here in a little gathering like this. Very little ones. Nevertheless, enough nations represented. Enough nations to be a token. But Christ the firstfruits. Out of every nation. Every tribe. Every tongue. Accepted in token of a great harvest. That's a word of encouragement in a day of prostration in the nations. A day when it seems like limitation and curtailment. But because he is there as the firstfruits of all that believed, the vision will be fulfilled. A great multitude which no man can number. Out of every tribe. Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands. That beggaring language. The inexpressible fruit of pentacles. The work of the Holy Spirit. May we all be the fruit of the Spirit. Really be the fruit of the Spirit. Something presented to God. So, the Lord says present your bodies. A living sacrifice. Holy, acceptable unto God. Which is your spiritual. Be not conformed to this. Be transformed. By the renewing, the making anew of your mind. That is the Holy Spirit's work and business. May he have a clear way in every one of us.