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Pentecost
I
will read a few Scriptures and bring this old type up to
the anti-type, through the Revelation, and see what God
can do for us today. The first verse deals with the
silence in heaven, and the second verse: “And I saw the
seven angels which stood before God; and to them were
given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at
the altar, having a golden censer; and there was give unto
him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers
of all saints upon the golden altar, which was before the
throne. And the Smoke of the incense, which came with the
prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the
angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled
it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and
there were voices and thunderings, and lightnings, and an
earth quake.”
Here is Pentecost, my
friend. Now we have some symbols to answer. I saw the
seven angels, which stood before God, to them were given
seven trumpets; here is a symbol of your ministry clear
through the Gospel Day. The trumpets, if you please, I
think you know what that is; is that of sounding out the
Word of God. Back in Ezekiel, he said, son of man, I have
made you a watchman on the wall, and told them to sound
their trumpet and warn them when the enemy comes. If they
won’t listen, their blood will be required at their
hands, but if you fail to warn them, when the enemy comes,
He will require the blood at your hands. That is why I am
going to faithfully warn men.
God help us to see that
we must faithfully warn men, in every situation of life,
or we will come up with blood on our skirts. 1 Corinthians
the 14th chapter and the 8th verse, Paul make is very
clear when he said, “For if the trumpet give an
un-certain sound, who shall prepare himself to the
battle?” Why don’t we see the saints raising up in
this Armageddon, as they ought, and standing and getting
in the Camp of the Saints and fighting for this thing, as
they ought? There’s too much un-certain preaching, going
on back home in the pulpits. People get up that are scared
to death. They think a war is coming. They are afraid a
depression is coming, and their salary will be cut off;
before they read what the Word of God says. They begin
preaching what they believe Jesus meant by this and that.
You will never hear me preach I believe thus and so,
because what I believe does not amount to a bit more than
what you believe. Paul said, “we speak the things we
know”. You go preach what you believe to a bunch of
people, and they will not have enough faith to pray a
church mouse out of the building. I believe He meant
that---and then, they see a poor old brother that is
guilty of that sin. Well, maybe He did not mean that.
Brother, we need to put the Word of God out in no
uncertain terms. It will be a foundation for men and women
to build skyward experiences to God on. So here are the
seven angels, that stood with the seven trumpets ready to
sound, but they had not yet sounded and another angel came
and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; there was
given to him much incense that he should offer it with the
prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was
before the throne, and the smoke of the incense which came
up with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God
out of the angel’s hand. Now, here we have a censer and
we have a golden altar. If we ever get the answer to these
symbols, we have to go back to the temple, where they were
used. Read Exodus the 30th chapter, ten verses, and let us
get understanding here and we will see exactly what
happened on Pentecost.
“And thou shalt make an
altar to burn incense upon: of shittim wood shalt thou
make it. A cubit shall be the length thereof, and a cubit
the breath thereof; foursquare shall it be; and two cubits
shall be the height thereof; the horns thereof shall be of
the same. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, the
top thereof, and the sides thereof round about, and the
horns thereof; and thou shalt make unto it a crown of gold
round about. And two golden rings shalt thou make to it
under the crown of it, by the two horns thereof, upon the
two sides of it shalt thou make it; and they shall be for
places for the staves to bear it withal. And thou shalt
make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with
gold. And thou shalt put it before the veil that is by the
ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over
the testimony.”
The mercy seat was in the
second room, the Holy of Holies was the mercy seat, the
ark of the covenant---a symbol of the presence of God, in
the second room. This little incense altar was to be put
right before this golden altar. All right then, what was
to happen there? “Before the mercy seat that is over the
testimony, where I will meet with thee.” There is where
God meets with people, not over here, or out in the woods,
no, right here. “And Aaron shall burn thereon, sweet
incense every morning.” There were many things that
these men went through back in the Old Testament that had
no meaning to them whatsoever. It brought no blessing to
them, but they are types of reality that you and I would
enjoy through Jesus Christ, in this Holy Ghost
dispensation. What did it do for Aaron, to take fire and
incense and burn on that altar every morning and night It
was a type of something.
Incense is a type of
prayer. Psalm 141, David said, “Let my prayer be set for
before these as incense;”. Revelation 5:8, “the four
beasts, and four and twenty elders fell down before the
Lamb, having everyone of them harps, and golden vials full
of odors, which are the prayers of saints.” Fire and
praise go together, they had harps and vials.
Now, what was this
business back here, putting incense, a type of prayer, our
privilege of prayer. “And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet
incense every morning; when he dresseth the lamps, he
shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the
lamps at even.” There is a type of prayer---when should
we pray? Every morning when we dress the lamp and every
evening and then greater than that, keep on…”And when
Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense
upon it, a perpetual incense” (Men ought always to
pray). He said he was to get fire here off this brazen
altar and bring it over here, but where did that fire come
from, that he go off the brazen altar? Read the 16th
chapter of Leviticus, the 12th and 13th verses---“And he
shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off
the altar before the Lord.” All right, out here at this
brazen altar the priest was to take a censer full of fire
from it and take it in here and put incense with it and
put it on the golden altar. “And his hands full of sweet
incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil.”
The 9th chapter will tell
us where that fire came from. He just did not go out here
and get fire from off that altar…it had to come from
somewhere. Where did the fire come from, that he got off
the brazen altar? “And Moses and Aaron went into the
tabernacle of the congregation and came out and blessed
the people.” The sacrifices were put on the altar. God
said, don’t let no man strike a match (if they had any).
This is no human work; read it. “Bless the people and
the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people and
there came a fire out from before the Lord.” Where did
the fire come from? It came from God. Man never lit the
first fire in the tabernacle of the temple. God lit it by
a supernatural work and He told man never to let it go
out. What is that a type of? That fire is a type of the
Holy Ghost---all the way through---that John said Jesus
would baptize us with. It came by God, He puts it in there
and it’s up to you and I to keep it burning. How do we
keep it burning? Just put in a little incense (prayer).
“There came fire out
from before the Lord.” All right, the 6th chapter of
Leviticus, the 13th verse, it came from God. The priest
carried it to the golden altar. This fire was started by
God and must never go out. “The fire shall ever be
burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.” We have
a job, these are all types of the reality that we have in
Jesus Christ. Here in our lesson in Revelation we have
Christ, our high priest; remember this was the old high
priest that went in there. He had to burn the incense and
let the very smoke of it cover him as he went into the
Holy place before God. Now Christ is our high priest, Paul
said. He just went in once and when He went in, thank God,
he rent the veil. Not only did He go in, but He opened up
a new and living way for all the rest to go in. We come by
this altar here where He offered himself as a lamb without
spot and blemish, we come by the laver, the washing of
regeneration. Thank God, we have a new and living way
through the blood of Christ to go right on in to the Holy
of Holies.
Now, let’s look a
little farther. Just read our Revelation now, and see if
it makes sense to us. “And another angel came and stood
at the altar.” There were the seven angels standing
(ministry) another angel came and stood at the altar
having a golden censer (that angel was Christ) more than
once in the Revelation, Christ is spoken of as an angel.
When he was still operating in the thought of a messenger,
bringing His good news of the redemption of mankind. This
other angel, that stood at the altar is none other than
Christ, having a golden censer in His hand and there was
given to Him much incense that He should offer it with the
prayers…What about much incense? He’s still praying.
That He should offer it with all the prayers of the saints
on the golden altar. Now, let us see if that does not
bring us right over to what happened before and at
Pentecost. He (this angel or our high priest) did not go
before the mercy seat. The Scripture said He went before
the very throne of God. Now, who works there and you will
know who the angel was. Before Christ ever left here He
said, “I will pray the Father He will send you another
comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, and He will dwell with
you forever, He will dwell with you but He shall be in
you. He is the Sprit of Truth who the world cannot
receive. It seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye
know Him.” He shall be in you. We will see that He
offered His prayer with all the prayers of the saints.
Now, we will go back and
get the last of the type. We come clear up through the
Scripture in the first chapter of Luke and we see some of
the last work there of the old high priest before Christ
came. Zacharias was one, and in the first chapter of Luke,
verse 8, we read---and we will see the last of this old
work. We want to remember, that when the priest was ready
to go in and put this incense on this golden altar with
the fire he got off the brazen altar, the congregation
stood outside praying. Here we will get the last picture
before Christ came. “And it came to pass, that while he
executed the priests office before God in the order of his
course. According to the custom of the priest’s office,
his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple
of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were
praying without at the time of incense.” There’s the
picture, just a little while before Christ came. Here’s
Zacharias still preaching to them and the congregation
standing outside praying, the priest taking incense and
going in before the Lord. It was just about ready to be an
anti-type.
Now, we come over to
Pentecost again, just before our high priest went before
the very throne of God to pray that His people might have
a comforter. A congregation was at Jerusalem praying, they
continued in prayer. Christ was different from all the
other priests. When this Priest had taken the incense and
the censer of fire and went in and offered it on that
altar He turned around and came back out and the
congregation dispersed and went back home sad hearted. But
look what our Priest did. He offered up His prayer with
all the prayers of the saints; He went before the very
thrown of God and after He had offered up the incense, He
turned around and took the censer that He had the incense
in, and picked up fire off the altar and cast it into the
earth. There’s the day of Pentecost. Glory to God! He
took one step that no priest could take in any age. When
they had offered the incense they went back out, but our
high priest, when He had offered the incense, He scooped
up a censer full of fire and cast it into the earth, and
Pentecost come into being.
We read on a little
farther. Acts, the 2nd chapter we see the very thing acted
out this morning. This thrills my soul. We begin reading
(don’t forget, there was the congregation praying;
Christ was before the throne praying). “And when the day
of Pentecost was fully come.” People say when 50 days
passed. That was not what the Scripture meant, there has
been hundreds of Pentecosts, but that Day of Pentecost
fully came this day and others were just types of this
Pentecost. Brother, this was the Pentecost that God had in
mind when He gave the first tabernacle in the Word. God
did not have anything for man through this only examples,
types and shadows. What He had in mind was the Holy Ghost
coming back in the hearts of men. These other Pentecosts
were just types of this one. The Day of Pentecost had
fully come that morning. When the Day of Pentecost was
fully come, they were all in one accord in one place.
Praying together will bring us together. I firmly believe:
if you let me use my imagination, that there was aught to
get out between those people when they prayed in the upper
room. Somebody said, what makes you think so? They were as
human as you and I. They were human enough to turn back to
their nets and disbelieve Christ when He told them He
would meet them in Galilee. He said, I’ll meet you in
three days, out here on a mountain. Did they believe it?
They were going back to their nets saying, I thought sure
He would redeem Israel. He had to get out of the grave, go
round them up, and get them on a mountain. He got them
over there and sat down and talked to them and said, all
power is given unto me, in heaven and earth. This Gospel
must be preached. There is your complete ministry; a
symbol of it, gathered around there. This Gospel must be
preached, to all the world, but tarry in Jerusalem until
you be endued with power from on high. They were all
together in one place---there came a sound from heaven,
brother, there’s your fire that the high priest took in
his censer and cast it in the earth.
We have this treasure in
earthen vessels. Jesus prayed, Thy kingdom come, Thy will
be done IN earth, not ON the earth. Millennialists tried
to twist that to make a literal reign here---Thy will be
done in earth as it is in heaven. Brother, the people of
God are doing the will of God even as the angels are doing
the will of God in heaven. That is why in the Hebrew
letter he called the heavenly Jerusalem an innumerable
company of angels. Why? They are doing God’s will, just
as the angels are.
There came a sound from
heaven as a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole
house. All right, let’s go back to Revelation and read
the last verse. “And the angel took the censer and
filled it with fire from off the altar and cast it into
the earth.” Brother, when that thing hit the earth, when
that Spirit hit the souls of men there was something
happened. So Revelation says, “there were voices.”
Let’s go back to Acts; there came a sound from heaven as
a rushing mighty wind! Cloven tongues of fire fell on
them. Where’d it come from? Out of this censer, up
before the throne of God. The Revelation said there were
voices. “And the angel took the censer and filled it
with fire off the altar, and cast it in the earth: and
there were voices.” Acts 2, “And suddenly there came a
sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it
filled all the house where they were sitting, and there
appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it
sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the
Holy Ghost, and began to speak.”
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