Misunderstanding the Spirit

The Acts of Jesus Christ and the Acts of the Holy Spirit

I want to invite you to take out your Bibles. Turn with me once more to the 10th chapter of the Acts. We made reference last week to the fact that Acts, in most of your Bibles, if you go to the front of the book of Acts, it says the Acts of the Apostles, but in reality this book is more appropriately titled the Acts of the Holy Spirit.

For that is what this book is about. We have four books, the Gospels, which tell us about the Acts of Jesus Christ and establishing His own righteousness, demonstrating His righteousness by living a perfect life, demonstrating the atonement by going to the cross, demonstrating His power over death, hell, and the grave by being resurrected, and then demonstrating His authority through the ascension and being seated at the right hand of the Father.

And yet in John 14 He tells us that when He goes away He will not leave us alone, but that He will send us the paraclete, the comforter, the one who will go with us and be within us the Holy Spirit of God.

And as we addressed last week in the message, and I said this was going to end up being two parts, this is the second part of last week's message, the Holy Spirit of God is a subject on which there is much confusion within the church.

And last week my point was to prove from the text of Scripture that if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have been converted to Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, if you are regenerate, and if you don't know what that term means, the layman's vernacular, if you have been born again, then you are a possessor of the Holy Spirit of God.

He lives within you. There is no second class Christianity, there are no spiritual and carnal, there are no some who have the Spirit and some who don't. If you are a Christian the Spirit lives within you, and if you do not have the Spirit within you, then you are not a Christian.

That is what the text teaches us in the Bible, and we spent all of last week establishing that, based on the promise in Joel, based on its fulfillment in Acts chapter 2, based on what we see in the later writings of the Apostle Paul, and based on what the promise fulfillment is, the promise is that God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh, meaning in that sense all believing people, all believing flesh, of course the Spirit of God does not empower the unbeliever.

So there is a context in which the term all flesh falls underneath, and we have to understand the context. Well, this week we are going to move to a polemic message. This was something Mike and I were talking this week on the phone.

He called me and asked me what I was going to be preaching on, we were talking about it, and I told him the subject, and he said, well this is a polemic message. This is a message which is designed to create or produce the argument.

It's making an argument opposing something that's wrong. And this is something that a lot of people don't really get to in their Christian walk. They don't get to the position where they're making the defense.

You know, and even though the Scripture tells us, be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within us, apologion, to make a defense, that we're supposed to do that, a lot of people never get there.

We have become so convinced that Christianity is all about feelings and not about the intellect that we've robbed Christianity of any intellectualism at all. We've robbed it of any mentality at all. It's become all about feeling, it's become all about emotion, it's become all about what feels good, and that is why sin has seeped its way into the church and made its way even into the pulpits and in every other area of conceivable church life.

Because people have now begun to think with their emotions rather than their brains. And so when somebody comes along and says, no, that's wrong, or this is right, what does the world say? Well, I don't like to be told I'm wrong.

You hurt my, what, feelings. And because in the modern day the feelings have become the highest authority, it has become the highest of all sins to hurt someone's feelings. And so we've abandoned all sorts of things as a result.

We've abandoned evangelism because we don't want to offend, we've abandoned telling someone that they're sinners because we don't want to hurt their feelings, we've abandoned reading scripture or praying publicly because those things might turn someone off emotionally and we don't want to do that.

And so it's all become about the emotion and not about the intellect. And I know you've all heard the old thing, it's the people who miss heaven by 18 inches because they have all their religion in their head and it hasn't made its way to the heart and there's an 18 inch gap between the head and the heart.

You've ever heard that? I've heard it many times because they say, you got to know it in your heart. Let me tell you, that 18 inch gap goes the other way too, because there's a lot of people who burn in their heart and they got nothing in their head.

They don't know anything about their faith. You tell, you ask them, do they believe? Oh, I believe with all my heart. What do you believe? I don't know. But I know I'm sincere. I'm committed to what? I don't know.

So I was just talking to, I think it was Paul this morning, and I said, you know what commitment without knowledge does? Commitment without knowledge is what makes somebody pull a rip cord and blow themselves up in a room full of people.

That's commitment without knowledge. That's zeal without knowledge. We don't want that. We want to know why we believe what we believe. We want to be able to articulate our faith as we were talking earlier in the value of the catechism.

We want our children to know what they believe and why they believe and be able to articulate it. And we want to be able to make a defense for truth against error. Next month, I just found out on the calendar, next month the Jehovah Witnesses are having two weekends of conference in downtown Jacksonville.

They do this apparently annually, because I remember they did it last year. They're meeting at the arena. They're coming in droves. I saw them last year, just it was as far as you could see people flocking to the arena.

Why do they gather? They're going to learn about and to beef each other up because what do they do? They send people out to the doors. And what do they do when they come to your door? They try to get you to believe what they're teaching.

They give you the awake magazine. They give you the watchtower. They give you an argument at the door. And most of the people who call themselves evangelical today would have very little, if any, defense at all for their faith.

I remember years ago, I sat in on a ordination service for a man. It was an ordination examination. He was being called to ordination to the gospel ministry. And it was a time to ask him questions. And he invited me, and later he wished he hadn't.

Because I asked a couple of questions, and one of the ones I asked, I said, if a Jehovah Witness came to your church, married someone in your church, and he came to your church, said he wanted to be a Baptist, it was a Baptist church, that he's been taught his whole life that the Trinity is a false teaching and it's wrong, how would you defend?

Crickets, man. Isn't this a guy who's supposed to be a pastor, a preacher, a teacher of the Word of God? And you know what the guy beside me who was on the board examining this guy said? Well, that's a tough question.

This ain't a cakewalk, son. This life, this real, of tough questions. And not just for the guy who's standing up here preaching. This is a life of tough questions for you. And you ought to be able to answer them, or at least try to learn to be able to answer them.

You should not be satisfied in ignorance. We can't. Not anymore. With the advent of the internet and the advent of everybody who has an idea can now advertise it. Used to you had to go and be published, and people had to examine what you had to say, and it had to go through peer review, and it had to be examined and allowed to be put into the public square.

Not anymore. Anybody with 20 bucks can come up with bible .com. I'm not saying I don't know what bible .com is, so don't think I'm just... Anybody with any amount of money can create their own website.

People bring me stuff all the time. Have you seen this pastor, what this guy has to say? Who is he? I don't know. I got it on the internet. Okay. Let's find out who he is. Let's find out what he's written.

Let's find out what his background is. Do you realize he's a Jehovah Witness? I didn't know that. What's right here? I didn't know that. The ability to defend what we believe, the ability to stand for truth is so vital.

And I've already kind of gone away from my preaching, so I need to get back to the message. But this is because we're going to make a defense for the doctrine of the Holy Spirit today. But I'm telling you why it's so important.

Because we are now going to deal with three incorrect perspectives. In your notes, I gave you three incorrect teachings. And I made it bold. I underlined it because I didn't want you to go home with my outline and not read that part and say, oh, this is what the pastor is teaching.

Please know it ain't. I'm not teaching these three things. I'm teaching you these three things are wrong. So please underline it, bold it, highlight it, do whatever you've got to do. Don't go home confused.

Let your friends come over and they look at your bulletin. Oh, you went to church today. They open it up and say, you're pastor's nuts. Yeah, that's right if that's what they think I'm teaching. So just be careful.

The Holy Spirit Given When You Believe, Not When You Are Baptized

Well, let's read the text because we're still in Acts 10. We're going to go to Acts 10 .44. We're going to read again what happened with the Holy Spirit falling. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is so vital.

You know, when Spurgeon used to take the pulpit, you know, he said as he walked up to the pulpit, I need the Holy Spirit. I need the Holy Spirit. That was just what he said. Because he knew to preach under his own power was to preach powerless.

And so he would say that to himself as a reminder. I need God's Spirit. So this is when the Spirit fell on the Gentiles. Let's stand and read verse 44. While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.

And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God.

Then Peter declared, Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.

Father in heaven, I thank you for your word. I pray, O Lord, that you would give me the power of the Spirit now to preach. For I know under my own power it would be absolutely useless. And I pray, O Lord, that as I preach, you would keep me from error by the power of your Spirit.

Keep me in the center of the truth. And I pray that you open the hearts of your people to the truth. And Lord, if you see fit to convert one through the preaching of this message, I pray and thank you for that in advance.

And Father, I pray that you would use it for Lord such as your gracious will. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. There are three incorrect views regarding the Holy Spirit, three incorrect perspectives regarding the Holy Spirit, which I want to deal with today.

And I want to say from the outset there are many others. But if you look at the three that we're dealing with, one, they have connection to the text that we're in, but also they sort of stand as umbrellas under which there are many other errors.

So these sort of work as, if you will, the umbrella of error under which many other errors fall. Or if you might want to say the root of error out of which many other errors grow, whatever analogy helps you in your mind.

But these three issues have made their way into the church, made their way among God's people. And what we see is we see them cropping up in various denominations. This is not centralized in any specific group or denomination.

We see these out in the world in various denominations. And you will at some point, if you are a person, which if you're a believer you are a person who shares your faith, if you're a person who interacts with other people in regard to their faith, you are going to run into these issues at some point if you haven't already.

So let's look at the first one. The argument goes like this. The Spirit's indwelling comes when you are immersed in water. Now what is immersion in water? Baptism. In fact, not to create a big argument as to what baptism means.

Bapto means to dip or to sink or to go underneath the water. There's some argument from our Presbyterian brethren that it could mean other things. But typically in Baptistic churches we understand baptism as being immersed, to go fully under the water.

There's the old question the Baptists and the Presbyterian were debating as to which was better. And he said, you know, if you baptize a man up to here, has he been baptized? He said, no. He says, the Presbyterian's asking the Baptist, well, if you baptize him up to his neck, has he been baptized?

He said, no. He said, so he has to be baptized all the way up to here, right? And the Baptist says, yes. And he says, well, that's the part we take care of. It's the most important part. So it's good.

That's the part. That's the most important part. So anyway, in regard to baptism, there are those who believe that you are not filled or indwelled with the Holy Spirit of God until you have been immersed in water or baptized.

And that particular view is very prominent in what is called the Restoration Movement. In fact, this church, once, back in the days of my youth, as you all know, I grew up here, we were part of the Disciples of Christ Movement.

Jack, you and I remember this very well. Many of you do. And we left them well before we even became Sovereign Grace. But we left the disciples in the 90s because of their liberalism and false teachings.

But one of the things that the disciples are, they're a part of the Restoration Movement. The Restoration Movement today, the Disciples of Christ, the Churches of Christ, the Independent Christian Church, North American Christian Convention, these are all a part of what is typically called the Restoration Movement.

And it came out of the teachings of a man by the name of Barton Stone, Alexander Campbell, and Walter Scott. These three men came together in the 1800s, all from differing denominations, and they said they had restored the ancient gospel.

That's why it was called the Restoration Movement. They believed that the gospel had been lost, and because it had been lost, it needed to be restored, and so they restored it. And what was the central argument that they made?

That baptism is the place where a person, and by that I mean baptism by immersion in water, in the name of Jesus Christ, was the place where a person was cleansed of his sin, and was indwelled by the Spirit.

That up until that moment, up until your immersion, you were not cleansed of your sin, and your sin had not been remitted, and you had not yet received the gift of the Holy Spirit of God. And they made this argument based on certain texts like Acts 2 and 38.

Acts 2 and 38, Peter was asked, what shall we do? Remember, he's preaching at Pentecost, and he says, repent and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And so they took that particular passage, and they ran with that passage, not seeking to exegete it in its context, not seeking to exegete it in accord with the rest of Scripture, but they used that particular text, that also, John 3, where Jesus said, unless one be born of water and the Spirit, and they used the water there to refer to baptism, even though I think that's a stretch in meaning.

They said that the water there is baptism. So they used Acts 2 and 38, John 3, 5, and of course there's a passage in Peter that talks about our baptism saving us. They used those three particular passages to build an entire doctrine around having to deny several places where the Apostle Paul tells us, and others tell us, that salvation is not of works.

And the argument is, baptism is not a work. That's the only way to get around it. They have to argue that baptism is not a work. It's an exercise of faith. I like the fact that some of you just smirked a little.

Because couldn't you say all good works are exercises of faith? And thus there, you just kind of just created your own problem. You just boxed yourself in the corner by saying it's not a work, it's an exercise of faith.

And again, some of them don't argue that way. Some of them simply say, this is what we believe the Bible teaches, that a person must be immersed to receive the forgiveness, and to receive the Holy Spirit of God.

If you guys ever see those guys on television that shoot at ducks and talk a lot about Jesus, they're from this movement. Just in case you didn't know. They are from the Restoration Movement. I know a guy who drove three states.

I don't know him personally. Saw a guy on TV who drove three states to be baptized in their church. And when he was there, as the patriarch of the family was preparing to baptize him, he said, you are going under this water a sinner, you're coming out cleansed, and when you come out, you will receive the Holy Spirit.

So the water becomes the operational part of the ministry of the Spirit of God. Ex opera operato. The thing working works, is the Latin. It means that which it's doing is actually doing. That sounds kind of confusing.

The water does what it signifies, is what that argument is. And that's what's taught in the Catholic Church. That when you pour water on a baby's head, when he is an infant, that at that moment he's regenerated.

It's only later that he comes to faith and then he's confirmed. But the water on his head produces regeneration. And this is all taught in various capacities, as what we would call baptismal regeneration or baptismal remission.

So, I want to address this from Scripture. First, I want us to turn to Ephesians 1. We read this verse last week, but I want to go back to it and use it as part of my polemic, part of my defense here, my argument.

This is talking about the inheritance we've received in Christ, this is talking about that which we have received in accord with our faith. And it says in verse 13, "...in Him," that being in Jesus, "...you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.".

What does this text tell us about the receiving of the Holy Spirit? When did He come? When you were baptized. No, that's not what it says. I want to make sure you're still listening, because that's not what it says.

It says, "...you received the Spirit when you believed.". Now, if you look at the day of Pentecost, and you look at Acts 2 .38, when the Apostle Peter says, "...repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sin, and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.".

What we're seeing is the conjunction between faith and baptism, which was very common in the New Testament time, that a person, when he received Christ, was immediately baptized. There was not this long period of time in between.

And that which was happening internally, was also demonstrated externally. So there was a natural connection between the two. However, we move on to Acts chapter 10, and what do we see? We see in Acts chapter 10, the people believed the Spirit of God fell on them at that moment, and then later in that time they were baptized.

In Acts chapter 8, we see the people believed and were baptized, and only later did they receive the Holy Spirit, because of the transitional period. This is a transitional moment in the history of the church, because this is very early on in the history of the church.

We see that kind of differing things happening. But by the time the Apostle Paul pens Ephesians, which is one of the later letters of the Apostle Paul, we see in his reading that his assertion here to us is very, very powerful.

You received the Holy Spirit when you believed. Now one might could argue and say, well, you were baptized when you believed, so that's what he's making the connection there. But that would be eisegesis.

That would be reading into the text something that it doesn't say. You're having to assume his meaning here. And we're not supposed to do that. We're supposed to read the text for what it says. And this text tells me very clearly that when I heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel is what the Word of Truth is here, and I believed it.

I was at that moment sealed with the Spirit, and the Spirit became the guarantee. This word sometimes can be translated as down payment. The Spirit came within me as the promise of God that He who began the good work in me will complete it.

You see, salvation was not of me. Salvation was not of you. It wasn't brought about by you. It wasn't caused by you. There was no act that you did that could produce it. God did the work in you. And when He did that work in you, that was the promise that He's going to complete it.

You know, when you put a down payment out on something, you might have bad credit. You might put a down payment down and never pay anything else. But God doesn't have bad credit. I mean, in a very simple way.

God's Word is His promise. And it is unbreakable. And so He says, I have given you My Spirit. It is the down payment of your inheritance. You know for sure you're going to receive that inheritance. So, getting back very quickly to the issue of baptism.

We know from this text that a person receives the Spirit when he believes. But I want to go a step further in my argument because those who say that you do not receive the Spirit until baptism also have a problem with the nature of man.

Because baptism and the desire for baptism is a good thing. It is a spiritual thing. And the natural man does not desire spiritual things. Okay? You look confused. Turn with me to Romans 8. Begin at verse 5.

For those who live according to the flesh... Who's that? Every natural man. Every person born of the flesh lives according to the flesh. And that's everybody who is born of Adam. I could take you to Ephesians 2.

It says we are by nature children of Adam. Which means it's a natural thing. It's what we're born into. So here, it says, For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on what? The things of the flesh.

What is the desire of the natural man? Fleshly things. Is baptism a fleshly thing? True spirit desiring baptism. No. And it goes on. It says, Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death. But to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Is an act of faith pleasing to God? The answer is yes. Is baptism an act of faith? Yes. Can a person in the flesh desire to do that which is pleasing to God?

No. So the person going into the water must be going into the water already having had a changed heart. That's my argument. The person who says you can't get your heart changed until you go in the water, Why did he want to go in the water?

You might say, Well, some people go in the water for reasons other than a heart change. And that's true. If that's what you're going to argue with me, Yes, there are people. But their argument is everybody had to do it that way.

Everybody had to go for the wrong reason. Because nobody got a changed heart until they got in there. My argument is there are people who go in there having already had their hearts changed. Because if it weren't so, we wouldn't have any Christians.

And everybody who went in, went in with a wrong heart. And that way everybody who came out, came out with a wrong heart. I hope you follow me. I hope I'm not spitting in the wind here. This is a pretty heavy argument.

What I'm saying is the natural man does not desire spiritual things. Baptism is a spiritual thing. The desire for baptism demonstrates that the change has already occurred. Simple, right? And this is my defense against this argument.

Because they will say a person isn't changed until they go in the water. I say a person has to be changed or they wouldn't want to go in the water. Very simple. Do you know this argument? This belief is the only belief.

And take this down. Because there's actually Chris Arnzen who pointed this out to me and I thought it was brilliant. Chris and I were having a conversation about the disciples of Christ. About the old teaching.

And he made this argument. He said, you know baptismal regeneration. The belief that you have to be baptized and that creates your regeneration. He said it's the only belief system in Christianity. Where a person can truly believe in Jesus.

Truly repent of his sins. Truly follow after Christ. And still go to hell. Because he hasn't been immersed. That's scary wrong. That's not just wrong. That's scary wrong. Baptism itself does not produce regeneration.

Neither does it cause the gift of the Spirit to fall upon you. Both of those things are sovereign works of God. That happen at the same time. Both bringing about your faith. And causing you to understand your forgiveness.

They happen at regeneration. Not at baptism. Okay, I got to move on for time. The second one. Which is no shorter than the first. Is about the tongues. Because the second, moving away from that. Now moving on to another common false teaching.

Is that the Spirit's indwelling is always accompanied by speaking in tongues. I remember being told this when I was at a Baptist school. Not by the guys in the Baptist school. I was at a Baptist seminary.

And I was invited by a family member to go to a camp meeting. It was a camp meeting with Holiness Church. They were having their Holiness camp meeting. And I was invited to come and sit in the audience.

So I came and I sat. And I listened to what was being said. And everything finished and closed. And the pastor came to my relative who was there. And my relative introduced me. This is Keith. He is in seminary at Jacksonville Baptist Theological Seminary.

And as soon as he heard the word Baptist. His countenance. And he stuck out his hand. He grabbed my hand and he pulled me in tight. And he said I want you to know that we believe the evidence of sanctification.

Is signified by the utterance of speaking in tongues. I will never forget how he said it. And I remember thinking that was routine. That is not the first time he said that. Because he was so convinced that I wasn't that.

Which he is right. But he wanted me to know where he was coming from. We believe the evidence of sanctification. Sanctification. What is that? Well for us it is something different than what they believe.

But he said the evidence of sanctification. Is signified by the utterance of speaking in tongues. Which means this. For you to be sanctified. By the Holy Spirit of God. Meaning set apart. By the Holy Spirit of God.

For that to have happened in your life. You must have spoken in tongues at some point. So is their belief that a person must at some point speak in tongues. That is a lot to deal with. With as short a time as I got.

I am wondering if I should. I am going to deal with it. Because let me just say that is wrong. Did I just say that? But let me just say. Let me add to that. Understanding the gift of tongues requires a couple of things.

One we have to understand the purpose of the gift of tongues. The purpose of the gift of tongues in the first century church. Was the expanding of the gospel to include all languages everywhere. And the gift of languages was the sign of that reality.

That all people everywhere of every language would receive the gospel. So the gift of tongues in Acts 2 and Acts 8 and Acts 10 and later in Acts 19. We see as a relation to God's gospel going out to all the nations.

The question of whether or not tongues are active in the church today. Is one that is very debated. And honestly I am not going to try to defend cessationism today. And if you don't know what that is.

We will talk about it later. But I will say this. Two things we can know for certain. And you can write it down if you want. There are two things we know for certain. One. Most of what is called tongue speaking in the modern churches.

Bears no resemblance at all to what the Bible describes as tongue speaking. So that's. Whether or not you are a cessationist or a continuationist. We ain't got to have that argument to agree with this.

Most of what is being done in the name of tongue speaking. Has nothing at all in resemblance to what the New Testament did. There is no example in the New Testament of gibberish. There is no example in the New Testament of multiple people all doing it at the same time.

In fact the apostle Paul repudiated that. He said it is to be done no more than one or two people. And they are to do it in order. Or two or three. I am sorry. No more than two or three to be done. They are to do it in order.

And they are not to do it without an interpreter. I have been in churches where everybody erupts. With all kinds of gibberish. There is no interpretation. There is no order. And I remember having a conversation.

I asked a person. What about the apostle Paul's admonition that all things should be done decently in order? And the person looked at me and said. This is how we keep order. You can't make up a meaning of a word.

You don't get to create your own dictionary. That's not order. You don't get to do that. Sorry. So that's one thing we know. Disorderly gibberish is pagan. Not Christian. Number two. And this is the one most important for my argument today.

Not everyone filled with the Holy Spirit of God spoke with tongues even in the early church. And I invite you to go to 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12. Verse 27. Again, nobody argues that the gift of tongues is operational at this point in time.

We all know the gift of tongues is operational at this point in time. Right? And this is what the apostle Paul says starting in verse 27. Speaking of the body of Christ. He says now you are the body of Christ.

And individually members of it. Similar to what Mike read earlier for a call to worship. We are all part of the body of Christ. And each one of us has been given gifts. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gift of healing, helping, administration, and various kinds of tongues.

Verse 29. Are all apostles, are all teachers, do all work miracles, do all possess gifts of healing, do all speak with tongues, do all interpret? Now you might say well he's not answering. He's just asking a question.

In the Greek he does answer. In the Greek it says may. May is the Greek for the negative. Do all speak with tongues? No. Do all interpret? No. It's implied in the question. Do all interpret? No. Are all apostles?

No. No, no, no, no, no. So if you come to me or if anybody comes to me and tells me that to be filled with the spirit I must speak with tongues, I will tell you uh-uh, no, no, wrong, wrong, you wrong.

I don't know why I say it like that. No, it just ain't so. The idea that the gift of tongues must accompany the filling of the Holy Spirit was not even true then. The gift of tongues was in four different situations.

Pentecost, Acts 8 when the gospel went to the Samaritans, Acts 10 when the gospel went to the God-fearers, Acts 19 when the gospel went to the Gentiles. And we see the administration of the tongues for the purpose of showing that God's gospel would go to all types of people.

The idea that every person spoke with tongues on being filled with the spirit is just false teaching. So, now let's move on. Last one. I'll make this one simple. There are those who believe that the filling of the spirit is accompanied by sinless perfection.