Well, good morning, everyone. It is nice to see the sun. It's good for morale, you know. Bobby and I were talking, I think it's been three weeks since we've seen the sun because I haven't seen it since I've been back from Indiana, I don't think. So that's good. It looks like it's going to be nice and warm tomorrow, too. So we'll enjoy that.

We're going to be studying Acts 2 and the beginning of the church today, the manifestation of the Spirit, the coming of the promised Holy Spirit. And really, this is perhaps the most pivotal text in the history of God's salvation plan. It's in its essence a fulfillment, a fulfillment or consummation of many things. And yet it's a genesis as well. It's the beginning of a new age, the church age, and the next step in God's salvation plan, His intention and purpose to bring all things together in one in Jesus Christ.

We're going to look at all that was fulfilled in this short time from the cross and the resurrection to the day of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit. And it's an amazing and encouraging time affirming our faith and our trust in God and His faithfulness to keep His Word and to bring His promises to pass.

I'd like for us just to read Acts 2 verses 1 to 13. We're not going to cover all of these verses today. It's hard for me to get past verse 1, but we're going to read these 13 verses. 

"When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord and in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one set upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 

And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, 'Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear each one in our own language in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs, we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.' 

So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, 'Whatever could this mean?' Others mocking said, 'They are full of new wine.'"

I've given you four points on your outline this morning. First, we're going to look at the old and the new. Second, fully come. Third, the baptism of the Spirit. And fourth, the filling of the Spirit. 

We're going to wrap our first two points together this morning in two words in our first verse: the words fully come. And this is highly significant what Luke is saying here. He writes, "When the day of Pentecost had fully come," these words speak of fulfillment, fulfillment of the feast of Pentecost. There were three major feasts that were celebrated each year by the Jews and they're prescribed by God in Leviticus chapter 23. And we won't turn to that passage for sake of time, but God lists out the way that these feasts were to be celebrated in that chapter.

We know that the Passover was a picture, a type of God's perfect lamb, the sacrifice of Jesus that would take away the sins of the world. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 5, 7, “Therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you are truly unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.” Jesus was the fulfillment. He completed, resolved the type, the picture of the sacrificial lamb found in the Passover. And He fully accomplishes God's passing over, the judgment of God for sin. His death on the cross in our place for our sins is the fulfillment of that feast that God gave to the Jews in that picture of deliverance from bondage and substitutionary atonement for our sins.

We see another feast which follows the Passover, the feast of first fruits in Leviticus 23. First fruits was the beginning of the barley harvest. And on the second day of the feast, the first day after the Sabbath, a wave offering, a barley loaf was offered to God. It was an offering of thanksgiving to God for the harvest, but it was also a guarantee of the harvest as a farmer took samples of grain from the fields here and there, something that farmers still do today, and evaluated the quality of the harvest. If the first fruits were good, the whole harvest would be good.

Now we can make all kinds of conjecture, and men do, about what this represents, or what we can know from this feast and all that was entailed, but we know one thing for sure, because Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15. I'd like for you to turn to that passage. In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 12, Paul is speaking in this text about the resurrection. And in verse 12 he says, “Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up, if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen, and if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins. Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. Look at verse 20. “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”

Paul tells us that this picture from the feast of firstfruits typified, pictured, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus' resurrection was the fulfillment of the firstfruits, and His resurrection is the guarantee, as Paul also says in other places, of our resurrection from the dead. My brothers and sisters, Jesus' fulfillment of these pictures of these types in the Old Covenant is highly significant. And it's central to our faith, to our hope, that the sacrifice of Christ on the cross fulfilled the Passover, that the resurrection of Christ fulfilled the firstfruits, our guarantee of resurrection.

And there was a third major feast. It was celebrated 50 days later, called the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost. And it also carries a fulfillment in the coming of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the New Covenant. The Feast of Weeks was also a harvest festival, and it was to celebrate in thanksgiving to God for the wheat harvest. The firstfruits, again, of the wheat harvest were presented to God along with a burn offering and a new grain offering and a peace offering.

It's interesting to note that the Jewish tradition says that Moses received the Law, the Mosaic Law, in Sinai on the day of Pentecost, the Old Covenant. What we see wrapped up in this fulfillment on the day of Pentecost, what Luke calls the full coming of the day of Pentecost, or the fulfillment, is really a transitioning from the old to the new. The coming in fullness of the New Covenant and its promises. And this is associated in every way with the coming of the Holy Spirit. Paul identifies the Holy Spirit as a kind of firstfruits, a guarantee as well. In Romans 8.23 he says, “Not only that, but we also have the firstfruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” Paul says the Holy Spirit is a firstfruit, an earnest, a guarantee of our inheritance, the final harvest.

So it was an ending of the old. We saw that last time in the Old Covenant Act, what we call the last Old Covenant Act in the Bible. It was an ending of the old and it was a coming of the new and the Holy Spirit was integral in this process. I want to talk a little bit about this distinction. The ending of the old and the coming of the new and all that it entails. It is the most important foundational understanding that we can have in order to comprehend and live out the Christian life. 

And this distinction is perhaps the most misunderstood, twisted, and ignored of all doctrines in the church today. When we consider God's salvation plan, His will to bring to pass the redemption found in Christ Jesus, the fullness of the New Covenant promises, and the consummation of all things in Christ, we can see a clear progression of His plan over time. The promise of a Redeemer goes all the way back to the Garden, where God promised that the seed of the woman, the child, would crush the head of Satan and conquer sin and death brought on by the fall of Adam. We know that there was then a long period of time from Adam until Moses, a time when Paul says in Romans 5 that there was no law, and yet death reigned in man, because all men are born sinners in Adam. 

There was still a great need for a Savior from sin and death and hell. We see in Abraham in this time the promise given of a nation, a chosen people by God set apart to be His people, to have a land, to form a nation and be a blessing to all nations, the blessing of the seed of Jesus Christ and redemption and salvation to all men. This was God's unconditional promise and His plan for salvation of the world.

430 years later, Paul says, after that promise to Abraham, we see that God gave to Moses on the day of Pentecost a covenant, a law covenant for Israel. And we know that the essence of this covenant was to set the people apart from the world, to show them their need for a Savior, to remind them of their sin and their separation from God, and to picture, to typify in every one of those sacrifices the coming of the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.

Now the important truth for us to see, for the church to understand, is that when Jesus came, He brought the new covenant in His blood. And He fulfilled, He ended, He made obsolete the entirety of the old covenant, the law of Moses. We saw these promises all the way back in Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 31. A covenant made with who? Israel. Right? The house of Judah, the house of Israel. 

In Ezekiel 36, 25, He says, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be My people, and I will be your God.” 

Notice that God is talking to Israel. He made a new covenant with Israel. The new covenant promises are given to Israel, and they will ultimately be fulfilled in Israel, as we see Paul explain in Romans 11 and many other passages. God will keep His promises. He will keep His unconditional promises of the new covenant to Israel.

Now we could argue and make conjecture over those Old Testament passages in Ezekiel and Jeremiah as to if and how they apply to the church now in this age and this time that began at Pentecost, because they were made to the Jews and they will be fulfilled to the Jews. But thankfully, the Holy Spirit has given us an explanation in Hebrews 8. I'd like for you to turn to Hebrews 8. This is a crucial passage. 

Now the author of Hebrews is writing concerning the church. He's showing that Jesus is better in all ways and all facets than the old covenant. That in fact, He has brought a new and better covenant built on better promises in this church age. Let's look in verse 6 of Hebrews 8. 

Talking about Jesus, He says, “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry inasmuch as He is also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. For if that first covenant, the law covenant, had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. And here He quotes Jeremiah 31, the other passage we talked about. 

Because finding fault with them, He says, 'Behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them,' says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. 'I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know Me from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds. I will remember no more.'”

In that, He says, a new covenant, He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant. And we know that He instituted this new covenant in His first coming and ratified it by His blood on the cross. Just as the old covenant, the law, was ratified by the sprinkling of blood, so the new covenant is ratified, sealed, by the blood of Christ.

Peter speaks in this language. And he ties that to the work of the Holy Spirit. Listen to 1 Peter 1. He's writing to the disciples, the Diaspora, the Jews dispersed through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia. Here's what He says to them: “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 

Peter's speaking to believers, New Covenant believers, to the church. And he highlights the work of the Holy Spirit. God chose us, God elected us, the Spirit set us apart, He sanctified us, we were obedient to the faith, we believed, and we were sprinkled with the blood of Christ. He uses that Old Covenant language. And he highlights the work of the Spirit in the implementation of the New Covenant promises. 

Implementation, that's the word I was trying to say. Hebrews 8 tells us that the Old Covenant has passed away, that in Christ it has become obsolete. And what we see in the day of Pentecost is a passing of the old and a coming of the new. And the coming of the Holy Spirit is central to the fulfillment of the promises. 

This New Covenant and its promises will ultimately be fulfilled in Israel, but listen now. What we see on the day of Pentecost, what we see in the church age, is a pre-fillment of this New Covenant and its promises. We enjoy the promises of the New Covenant. We as Gentiles in the church are blessed out of the covenant made with Israel. 

So the coming of the Spirit is, first of all, a fulfillment. A fulfillment of the Feast of Weeks. The day of Pentecost had fully come. And it is an implementation by the Spirit of the promises of the New Covenant. I think it's worth our time to consider those promises in detail because they really are the foundation of our life in Christ. Living now, not by the letter, Paul says. We no longer live by the letter, by the law, but we live by the Spirit. 

Those promises are listed as we saw before in Ezekiel 36. The promise of a new heart and a new spirit. This speaks of regeneration, the new birth. And we see the promise of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit permanently and His work to cause us to bear fruit outwardly, to walk in His statutes. These are new. These are new truths that the disciples experienced for the first time on the day of Pentecost. And now every believer after this day experiences when he comes to faith in Jesus.

Peter says that we were set apart by the Spirit and when we believed, we were born again. What's it mean to be born again? This is the new birth. This is taking out the heart of stone, putting in a heart of flesh. It's a quickening, a making alive of our spirit. This is what happened to these men on the day of Pentecost by the coming and the work of the Holy Spirit. 

These men, as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5, were made new creations in Christ. They were born again. They were regenerated. Romans 6 teaches us that their old man, the man in Adam, the one dominated by indwelling sin, under the law, headed for death, was crucified with Christ. They died to sin. They died to the law. And they became alive to God. And the body of sin, this physical body controlled by indwelling sin, was rendered powerless by this death, by this burial, and this resurrection to newness of life with Christ. And they were indeed new men. And we will see that because they became new men, they lived like new men.

Think about Peter. Before Pentecost, what was he doing? He was hiding in fear of the Jews. He abandoned Jesus and fled in terror of the Roman soldiers and the Jewish leaders. He was even afraid of a little girl who wanted to associate him with Christ. But what happened after the Spirit came? What happened after he was made alive in Christ? What happened after Peter was regenerated, given a new spirit and a new heart, and the Holy Spirit came and indwelled him and baptized him into Christ and subsequently filled him? 

As a result, he stood before tens of thousands of Jews and preached Christ and spoke to them about their sin and their need and gave them the truth about Jesus' provision, the salvation he accomplished at the cross. And he appealed to them to repent, to believe. He spoke boldly. He spoke clearly and accurately about Jesus. He received power and he yielded to. So he was filled by the Spirit and therefore he was a witness to Jesus, just as Jesus had told him would happen. 

And my friends, thousands believed that day. We need to grasp and take for ourselves the truths of the new covenant. The profound and drastic change that took place on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came and regenerated the believers and made them alive and indwelled them to empower them to be witnesses because we have that same power working in us, a power that Paul says raised Jesus from the dead. 

The Holy Spirit is imparting strength to our inner man and Christ is settled down, fully functional in our lives, working as we abide in Him and trust in Him. And God is able to do more than we could ever think or ask. He's working through us. These are the truths of the new covenant. 

So we see that the words, fully come, speak of fulfillment. Fulfillment and completion of the old covenant, of the feast that God instituted in the Passover, the first fruits, the Feast of Weeks, all picturing, typifying the work of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit. And all of that is wrapped up here in this monumental day, the fulfillment of the day of Pentecost. 

And we see that it was a complete passing of the old and an instituting of the new. And all that this means to us in the church age as God continues to progress in fulfilling His promises, building His church and bringing all things together in Christ.

Well, next in our text we see the baptism of the Spirit. Look at Acts 2.1. "When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire and one set upon each of them." 

Here we see the baptism of the Spirit. Jesus had promised this, the Father had promised this, the coming of the Spirit and the baptism of the Spirit. They were all with one accord in one place. I think this points us back to everyone who was there, the 120 names back in chapter 1 at verse 15. They were all together. They were all in one accord. 

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven. They heard something, something very impressive, a sound as of a rushing mighty wind. The sound was like a mighty rushing wind, like the roar of a tornado, like wind that rushes in like a freight train and it filled the whole house. I don't know if you've ever experienced something like this, perhaps a hurricane or a tornado. We don't have much of that kind of thing up here in the Northwoods, thankfully. But when I was a kid growing up in Indiana, we had lots of big impressive storms and many tornadoes. I never was involved in a tornado, but I've seen many tornadoes. I even had one traveling parallel to my truck one day in a field when I was driving home from high school and it was kicking up dirt and ripping up trees a few hundred yards from me out in this field and I went to the next county road and I turned away from it and I drove as fast as I could. 

You have, I'm sure, heard accounts of people who have survived tornadoes. And invariably, they describe it as a roar of wind, like several freight trains bearing down on you, an amazing sound. I remember when we were first married, Bobby and I moved to Indiana and she'd never experienced thunderstorms like that. And we were laying in bed and literally the glass is shaking on the house and she just stuck her fingernails into my leg and I was like, “Oh, what?” Because we always called that good sleeping weather. We had slept through those storms, but she didn't appreciate those storms. 

I think this is something like what they heard. And apparently everyone heard it because it gathered a huge crowd to the place where they were. But notice it says it was a sound as of a mighty rushing wind. It was not wind. It was not a tornado ripping through Jerusalem. It was the sound as of a mighty wind. 

And there was also a visual that accompanied the coming of the Spirit. Divided tongues as of fire, he says, and one set upon each of them. It was not fire. Some mistakenly associate this with the baptism of fire that John the Baptist spoke of. But the context of Matthew 3 and Luke 3 is judgment. He says, “Do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Listen, even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 

You may have heard preachers pray for fire to come down on them. I don't think that's a good prayer, my friends. Fire speaks of God's judgment. This is not baptism with fire on the day of Pentecost. It's baptism of the Spirit that Jesus promised, and the visual sign was divided tongues as of fire. It was like fire. Paul really explains this baptism to us in a more clear way in his epistles, understanding of the indwelling and the baptizing work of the Spirit.

Now I want to remind you, we have to remember that we are in a transition time in the book of Acts, from the old to the new. There's a lot of sorting out to be done, understanding to be gained, and we see some unique events in the book for various purposes of God, and we're going to explain those when we come to them, Lord willing. 

But after this early time in the founding of the church, many of these doctrines become crystal clear and are set and are explained by the Apostle Paul in his epistles. For instance, the indwelling of the Spirit is for everyone who believes, at the moment he believes. Listen to Romans 8 and 9. He says, “But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” If a person does not have the Spirit indwelling him, then he is not in Christ, he is not believed. 

And the baptism of the Spirit is immediate upon turning to Jesus in faith. 1 Corinthians 12.13, Paul says, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and all have been made to drink into one Spirit.” Romans 6 makes this clear as well. When we believe Jesus, we are immediately baptized into His death, burial, and resurrection.

These baptisms have nothing to do with water. Keep that clear. The word means to place into or to immerse. So the baptism of the Spirit is something that is… Listen now, everyone pay attention. I know we're getting long in the sermon, but listen. The baptism of the Spirit is something that is non-experiential. There's no necessary outward expression, manifestation of the Spirit upon being baptized by the Spirit. When a man believes Jesus, he is placed into Christ. He is placed into the body. And he's united with Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection to newness of life. But there is no prescribed experience with this, no necessary outward manifestation of any kind. The baptism of the Spirit is for every believer. And if a man does not have the Spirit indwelling him and has not been placed into the body and united to Christ, then he's not a believer. He's not saved. He's not in Christ. 

The baptism and indwelling of the Spirit, which happens at the very moment of faith along with regeneration and sealing, has no outward manifestation in that moment. But we see another work of the Spirit in our text that is experiential. We see something different beginning in verse 4. The filling of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2.4, "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." 

The filling of the Spirit is different. It is distinct from the baptism of the Spirit. In the baptism, we are placed into Christ. It is a one-time event for every believer, and it's permanent. It's our position. We are in Christ. And we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit if we are in Christ. This is permanent as well, a one-time event when the Holy Spirit comes to make His home in us. 

But the filling of the Spirit is distinct. It's not a one-time event that continues permanently like the indwelling, the baptizing, or the sealing, or regenerating work of the Spirit. Paul explains to us the filling of the Spirit in Ephesians 5.18. Turn to that passage with me, please. Ephesians 5.18. Paul says, “Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be being filled with the Spirit.” This is a command of the New Testament—continually be being filled with the Spirit. And the illustration Paul uses in contrast is drunkenness. 

He says, “Do not be controlled, do not be influenced in your outward behavior by the power of alcohol in your body, but rather be being continually controlled by the Holy Spirit so that your outward actions become consistent with the inward reality of who you are in Christ.” Look at the examples of outward actions that Paul gives as a result of being filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:19, “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.”

Being filled with the Spirit is yielding to Him, to have Him control our outward expression through the members of our body. And this is a moment-by-moment choice for us. When the Spirit fills, controls us, then we manifest the fruit of the Spirit by His power in us. 

Every believer is indwelt by the Spirit. He lives in them. Every believer has experienced the baptism of the Spirit, being placed into the body of Christ and united to Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection. These happened once and are permanent, not needing to happen again. But the filling of the Spirit, this happens again and again and again as we yield, as we obey the Spirit, and He controls us as He works through us to accomplish the will of God. 

And we see this manifestation in the book of Acts, on the day of Pentecost, and throughout the ministries of the disciples. Think with me about the purpose that Jesus gave to the disciples for their ministry establishing the church. What was the purpose? He said they would be given power. For what purpose? That they would be witnesses to Him. And what do we see on this first filling of the Spirit? And what do we see every time they are filled with the Spirit in the book of Acts? Acts 2:4, “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak.” 

Acts 4:8, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them.” Acts 4:31, “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke.” Acts 13:9, “Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said...” 

Over and over and over we see in the book of Acts that when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, they spoke. They spoke boldly and they spoke concerning Jesus, concerning the wonderful works of God. They witnessed to Jesus Christ. 

In verse 4, it says, “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak.” What did they speak? You have to go all the way down to verse 11. “We hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” They were witnessing about Jesus, preaching the wonderful works of God. And this is what Peter's going to do, clearly speaking boldly the truth of the gospel. 

Our time's gone and we're going to pick this up next time, but I want you to clearly see and understand the difference, my brothers and sisters, between the old and the new covenants and between the baptism and the filling of the Spirit. Because if we do not take heed to what the Scriptures say, if we do not cut the pieces straight, then we open ourselves to a multitude of error and false teaching on this subject that will lead us away from our purpose, lead us away from our commission, and cause us confusion and uselessness concerning our witness to lost men about Jesus and His good news message. The simplicity that is in Christ. 

This was a pivotal day in the history of God's unfolding salvation plan and it's important that we get it right and understand it accurately so that we might understand our life and ministry in Jesus Christ in the new covenant and understand that we have received power for the very purpose of being witnesses for Him. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful for Your Word, Your truth, so detailed, so intricate, so consistent over thousands of years as to Your plan of salvation for men to be redeemed, to be brought back to You through faith in Jesus Christ and what He did in that one-time sacrifice on the cross. Help us to understand that You accomplished redemption in Him, that we receive Your righteousness by faith and now You've given us Your Spirit to complete the work, to go out and tell men the good news about Jesus, to be witnesses to Him. Help us not to be distracted from that, to be confused about that, but to look to Jesus, to trust Him and know that You're empowering us by Your Spirit, pointing to Him, telling the truth about Him, testifying about Him in this world. We do this all for Your glory in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you, John, for the Word. Let's turn to song number 399. 399, please. Let's stand together as we sing.