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     1. The Day of the Lord (Pentecost)   (30:14)
               a. Scripture text: Acts 2:14-21   (1:25)
               b. Pentecostal Fire is Falling   (3:59)
               c. Message   (24:49)
     2. Waiting on the Lord, verse 2   (0:40)

Acts 2:18-21.  And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: ¹⁹And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: ²⁰The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: ²¹And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

I’m going to read a scripture text, and before I say a word or two about it, our choir will sing another song.  But let us keep our minds stayed on Jesus.  A very familiar word from Acts 2:14: “But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose… But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Now let us hear from the choir.

[Choir song: Pentecostal Fire is Falling]

I pray God to have His way with me tonight, I mean now.  How would you like the Lord to have His way with you now, tonight?  What would happen if God really…?  Well, there’s nobody stopping the Lord except yourself.  Oh, how we need God to have His way with us!

There’s something in this text that interests me very deeply.  It’s the mentioning of that great and terrible day of the Lord.  And I’ll tell you why: because we see that day approaching with rapid steps.  We know the day is at hand.

…

Oh, in every generation the Holy Ghost was at work.  In every generation the Gospel of Jesus Christ was preached.  And you’d be surprised what a great company that no man can number are there now, clothed in white with palms in their hands, and crying “salvation unto our God, and to the Lamb that sitteth upon the throne,” hallelujah!  Oh, beloved, the saints will fill heaven with their hallelujahs.  For these 2000 years, this last day, this last call of Almighty God has brought forth a new generation, a holy generation, “a holy nation, a peculiar people, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,” thank God!  And He says, “They shall live and reign with Christ forever and forever.”

…

It was the great red dragon.  Beloved, he wasn’t after the backsliders.  He wasn’t after an apostate church.  He isn’t after these backsliders that play bingo instead of going into prayer meetings—that “mind earthly things”.  He’s got them by the neck.  But he’s after that Babe that’s to be born.  He’s after the overcomers.  He’s after those in whose mouth is found no guile, who are not defiled with women but keep themselves clean and unspotted from the world because they love Jesus Christ, because they’ve heard the Gospel, and because they have bowed before Jesus Christ and they’ve been filled with the Holy Ghost.

…

When I came to Ridgewood 34 years ago, I marveled at two things.  I marveled at the way God manifested Himself.  People blamed me for it; I knew I wasn’t to blame.  I knew that God used me, many times, but I knew it was Almighty God.  I knew that sometimes He pushed me aside and He preached Himself.  I knew that.

And another thing that I marveled at was the hardness of heart—how people could hear and hear and hear and not change and not repent and not get right with God and still lie and still live in the flesh.  Beloved, God says, “Let him that is wicked be more wicked still.”  You don’t get into heaven like that.  But it says, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered.” 

There it is!  You’ve got the chance that Peter had, the very same chance that Paul had.  You’ve got the very same Savior that Elijah had.  You can call on the name of the Lord, and “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”  And if you have received Him, then you’re “begotten unto a living hope,” thank God!  And you can “forget the things that are behind” and you can “press toward the mark.”

…

I’ve been in churches where God Almighty walked almost visibly among them and spoke His word.  And people prided themselves of having heard from heaven, and they went away and did exactly the opposite of what God told them to do.  But I saw what happened to those that took the word of God to heart.  Almighty God came and dwelt in them.  He became their portion.  He became their Bridegroom, and they became His bride.  “I found a man after My own heart who will do all My will.”

…

And today, Pentecost, glory to God—as the Lord told us this morning—is not a day, it’s a Person. It’s the Bridegroom.  It’s the King.  The King’s call comes through the power of the Holy Spirit.  He says, “I will do signs in heaven above.”  You don’t need to fool yourself.  You can have the stamp of Almighty God upon your life.  You can have the Name of Jesus Christ engraven in flaming letters across your heart.

…

A Christian in union with the world is like Pegasus yoked with a cow.  “I’d like to know what kind of a cow you’re harnessed to.  ‘Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.’  That’s unequal.  You’re not going to make the grade; you’re going to become consumptive, spiritually.  You belong somewhere else.  Let the master touch you.”    (from 9:41)

Complacency following “The War to End All Wars,” the horrors of World War II, and Germany’s subsequent return to complacency and worldliness.  “We have seen these earthly signs to warn a dying world that the end is near: blood, fire.  God says, ‘with blood and with fire I will plead with this nation.  And yet for all that, they will not hear me.’  Where is Germany today?  They’re in prosperity…  And, beloved, what’s going to happen in America?  We don’t know, but we know the end is here.”    (from 13:41)

Alle Tage Sonnenschen — Every day sunshine.

Johnny, Get Your Gun — A song written in 1886 by F. Belasco, a pseudonym used by Monroe H. Rosenfeld, who was a newspaper reporter, composer, and lyricist. It was adapted in 1917 by George M. Cohan as the popular World War I song “Over There.”  (from answers.com)

The Son of God Goes Forth to War, a hymn by Reginald Heber, 1812.

That martyr first, whose eagle eye
Could pierce beyond the grave;
Who saw his Master in the sky,
And called on Him to save.
Like Him, with pardon on His tongue,
In midst of mortal pain,
He prayed for them that did the wrong:
Who follows in His train?

Date: “When I came to Ridgewood 34 years ago…”  That would place this recording around 1959.

Audio Quality: Poor

Original tape marked #55 C/60.  For side A, we ran light hiss reduction, resample to slow the recording to 101% of its original duration, DeHummer -30dB, 4 filter, 59.25Hz, and compression.  One or two stutters were removed.

The original media and project files are available upon request.