Gift of the Holy Spirit

If we were living back in those days, Thursday would have been the day that the disciples saw Jesus for the last time, and they would be getting together now every day in the temple, looking for the fulfillment of the promise of the coming of the Spirit, which would come then, ten days after his leaving, next Sunday, which would be Pentecost. And a few things about this that I'd like to share today, and I'm going to read from Acts 2, starting at verse 37. This is the end of Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost.

He's finished his sermon. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.

And he testified with many other words and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. Notice, Peter did not say, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, of the Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins, and you'll go to heaven when you die. If you repent, and if you get baptized into Jesus, and if you truly allow your sins to be washed away in his blood, the Spirit of the living God will come on your life here in this world.

You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the proof that you have been accepted into the love, the proof that you have indeed been adopted as a son or daughter of the living God, is that God sends his Spirit to you, and the Spirit coming into you floods your whole being with life that is not of this world. In every single one of the four Gospels, John introduces Jesus to the world as the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

Again and again, our Lord makes clear that apart from the Spirit of God, it is utterly impossible for us to experience the life of God. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you are born again of water and of the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.

God is Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth. It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you, they are Spirit and they are life.

When the Counselor is come to you, him whom I will send to you from the Father, who proceeds from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, he will bear witness to me. He will show you things to come. He will guide you into all truth.

He will teach you all the things you need to know. And at the very end, before our Lord ascended, he gives the disciples the promise. John indeed baptized with water, but before many days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Now, the sad truth is that most of us, even the Pentecostals among us, haven't even tasted what these things really mean. Let's be honest. Are we really worshiping God in Spirit and in truth? Are we hearing the witness of the Spirit in our hearts? Are we being taught by him, guided by him? Are we living, moving, speaking, acting under the Spirit's unction? Are we conscious of the Lordship of the Holy Spirit over this assembly right now? Are we aware of the fact that we are at this moment in the presence of the Holy Spirit, who is revealing to us the word of a holy God, who is pointing to us so that we can see it.

Holy blood that was shed for our sinful, wretched, unholy lives. In the Apostolic Church, the Holy Spirit was not a doctrine to be argued over, nor was he some kind of impersonal force that you tap into any time you want to, like oil or electricity. He was God, the Holy Ghost, Lord of the Church on earth.

He was their light, he was their joy, he was their teacher, he was their guide, he was their ever new, ever fresh revealer of Jesus. The Apostle Peter did not preach out of himself. He preached because he was inspired to preach by the Spirit.

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Ananias and Sapphira died not because they lied to men, but because they lied to the Holy Spirit. The deacons were chosen because they were known to be men full of the Spirit. Then Stephen, full of the Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

When Ananias of Damascus came to blind, broken, shaken Saul of Tarsus to lay his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me that you might receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit all through the book of Acts. On and on the same story goes. When salvation comes to the house of Cornelius, it is attended by the outpouring of the Spirit upon those people.

When the apostles are sent forth from the city of Antioch, who gives them the signal? Do they sit around and open their Bibles and finger point to get their guidance as they minister to the Lord, worship the Lord, and fasted? The Holy Spirit said to them, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. These people were not taken up in their experiences or their goose pimples or their ecstasies. They were utterly awed by God the Holy Spirit as He opened their eyes to God the Son.

And the more clearly they saw God the Son, the more clearly they saw God the Father. They were not taken up with themselves, but with God and the doing of God's will. They didn't just sit around and have ecstasy in God.

They did God's will. They weren't forever taking their spiritual pause. They were too busy doing God's will.

They weren't all the time measuring their brother's spiritual stature. They were too busy doing God's will. They weren't endlessly sitting on the fence trying to decide whether they should go here or there, whether they should do this or that.

They were too busy already doing God's will. And God's will was revealed to them and put in them, worked through them by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now how did all this start? What was it that opened the door for this clear life of God to come in? In every case, these people were brought to the place where they saw the alternatives.

They came to the place where they saw only two possibilities. Not five or ten or a hundred, two. Eternal life or eternal death.

Two roads only. One leading up into the glory of God. And the other leading away from God to a place where the light of God is never seen.

Those who chose a way to God, those who committed themselves really to Jesus Christ, were visited by the power of the Holy Spirit. Everyone, no exceptions. As many as received Him.

Not just some. As many as received Him. As believed on His name.

Because that indicates power to become sons of God. And what is that power? That's the Holy Spirit. There is no such thing as committing yourself to Jesus Christ and not receiving that power.

And if you lack that power right now, my friend, don't go to a charismatic clinic. Go to the cross! And make sure that your sins have indeed been laid at the foot of that cross. Once you see Jesus Christ face to face, then you see those two alternatives clearly.

Only two. The minute you put your feet on the road of life, the spirit of a living God begins to move on you. But also, it must be said, that after you have been shown Jesus, His mercy, His forgiveness, His peace with God, and offered this, and you back away, then it must be said that the powers of hell immediately begin to work on you.

Dulling your mind. Twisting the truth. Giving you grandiose ideas about yourself.

Showing you everything that's wrong with everybody else but you. Putting you to sleep. Taking away your desire to pray.

Taking away your hunger for the Word. Ripping off your faith. Now, every morning when you get up, and every hour of the day, and in every situation you face, these two roads extend out from your feet.

And you choose again and again and again. Every time you choose, for instance, to love your brother in the name of Jesus, you choose life. And every time you choose to turn your back on your brother, and remove yourself from him, and be indifferent to his need, and play church away from him, you choose death.

Every time you choose truth in Jesus, you choose life. And every time you choose the lie in any way at all, it's death. When Peter finished his sermon on Pentecost, these two alternatives were now clear to many people who had never seen them before.

They saw two things. Heaven and hell. Eternal life, eternal death.

And they were scared. Oh, I've never been scared. That's probably because you still haven't seen it.

I don't see how anybody can see those alternatives and not be scared. Brethren, what shall we do? They cried. And Peter said, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Hope, right away. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to him. And everyone who responded to that invitation of Peter, everyone, was answered by God with the sending forth of his Spirit into their lives.

Now they had a teacher in them showing them hour by hour and day by day which way to go. Now they had power in their hearts enabling them to do God's will. Now if you lack that power, it is only because you have still not settled the issue between these two alternatives.

That's all. Or if there should be people here who once seemed to have it and now the Spirit has withdrawn from you, the reason is that you are unwilling to keep making that choice every day. You want to lie down and slide into the kingdom of God and this is not possible.

But there is no such thing as putting your feet on the road of life and not receiving the Spirit. No such thing as committing yourself body and soul to Jesus and walking through this earth devoid of the Spirit's light. Now it could be quite possible that you won't speak in tongues or prophesy or see visions immediately when the Spirit comes to you.

But your eyes will be opened to see Jesus. And that's what matters. Your eyes shall see the King in his beauty.

They shall behold a land that stretches afar. You will know God. You will be taught of God.

And you will have power from God by his Spirit to do God's will as you never had that power before. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off as many as the Lord our God shall call. So if there's anybody here who sees those two roads right now, get off the fence.

Get off the fence and commit yourself. Glenn, praise God you start. To Jesus Christ.

And don't deceive yourself with a lie that you'll take care of this some other time. The call of the Spirit to many people among us is to repent, turn. If you've once been baptized but have never done anything about living the life of a baptized person, start doing something about it.

If you haven't been baptized, be baptized. Whatever. Commit yourself today with everything that's in you to Jesus Christ.

And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Let's pray. Thank you and praise you for the gift of your Son, the victory already won.

Thank you for the blood streaming from his side. Thank you for that pure wonder of the Holy Spirit coming from that wounded side, coming from beneath the throne in heaven, flowing in our midst at this moment. And we just pray, Father, that as we drink of this, light from heaven may clear our heads, open our eyes, and keep them that way, Father, in the days ahead.

And what we pray for ourselves, we pray for our brothers and sisters in the body across the earth. We pray for the brothers and sisters in this city, Father, in itself, teachers, prophetic voices, strong preachers, people out there getting out into the world, out on the streets, oh God, raise up, missionaries, male and female, everywhere, Father, and take away the dullness of our vision. Help us to see.

We pray for those who are laboring right now in places where nobody sees but your eyes. Comfort and strengthen and encourage them, Father, even through our prayer. Pray for those who languish in prisons because of their faithfulness to the Word right now, Father.

And for those who have found the Lord in prison, We pray for leaders of organized prisons, Father, that you'll be touching their eyes and their hearts. And the leaders of nations and movements, Father, that your hand will be on them during this critical time as the Church is being drawn together and made clean. We lift up before you, Father, by name in our hearts the needs of those for whom we feel a special burden today.

We pray, first of all, for those whose rebirth we long to see. We pray for the sick of mind or body. We pray for the bereaved, all the lonely, young or old, for brothers and sisters who appear to be stumbling, for any cause of disunity between us, Father, for children who have no one to show them, these and whatever other things you'd have us answer.

Love takes to us for the sake of the bitter sufferings and death of Jesus, your Son.