(South West Baptist Church 2008) the Holy Spirit — Gerhard Du Toit

And then we are going to open our Bibles and I am going to ask you to stand for the reading of God's Word. We have been sitting quite some time and why don't we stand and I want you to open your Bible at Acts chapter 1.

Acts chapter 1 and just for the sake of our time we are going to break or just read a couple of verses from that great chapter. Acts chapter 1 and let's begin to read at verse number 1. The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which He was taken up.

After that He threw the Holy Ghost that given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen. To whom also He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but that they should wait for the promise of the Father, which He saith, Ye have heard of Me. For John truly baptized with water, but he shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

Now when they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power.

But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

And while they were looking steadfastly toward heaven, as He went up, the old two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.

Then they returned unto Jerusalem, which is from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey. You may be seated. We trust that God will bless unto us the reading of His word.

I have said to Robert about these evenings that we are going to try to limit our time together for an hour and a half, and we are going to run out of time tonight. And so, I don't want you to look at your watch, because if you do, we are going to take up another offering and you will lose your watch, although we haven't taken one up yet.

The Acts of the Apostles as the Acts of the Holy Spirit

But just give me a couple of minutes, because I want us to spend some of these evenings in this wonderful book in the New Testament. You know, in the New Testament we are dealing with 7 ,957 glorious verses.

And I don't know if you are aware of the fact that there are three men in the New Testament that almost dominated something like 80 of the New Testament writings. So, how did this come about? Well, the Bible is saying to us that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.

It is profitable for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And then God is saying to us that holy men prophesied as they were moved by God, the Holy Spirit. And so, when you and I would come to those three men, the Apostle Paul, Luke the historian, and the physician, and the Apostle John, you will discover that the Acts of the Apostles is giving us 1 ,007 of those glorious verses in the New Testament.

The Gospel of Luke is giving us 1 ,151 of those verses. And when you and I will begin to study the Acts of the Apostles, you will come to the realization that the Acts of the Apostles can also be referred to as the Acts of the Holy Spirit.

You know, the Hebrew word for the word Spirit in the Old Testament is a marvelous word because it is the word Ruach. And the fascinating thing about this word Ruach, you will discover that when Moses came down from the mountain, and the Bible is saying to us that they put a veil in front of the face of Moses because of the greatness of the glory of God, well, you discover that the Hebrew word for that expression of the brightness and the greatness of God is the Hebrew word Rayach.

And somehow the word Ruach and the word Rayach has got a connection with one another as it relates to the Old Testament. But when you and I would come to the New Testament, and we begin to study the work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, that you will discover that there are no less than 261 passages that is speaking to us about God, the Holy Spirit, in the New Testament.

And one of the greatest things about the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, my brethren and sisters, is the fact that He never speaks about Himself, but what He does in His ministry, and you remember how Jesus said that when He comes, He will glorify Me, and what He does in His ministry is that He brings us back to the life of Christ, and He brings us back to the Scripture.

And so when we come to the Acts of the Apostles, you will discover that out of those 261 passages in the New Testament that is speaking to us about the Spirit of God and His ministry, you will discover that no less than 59 of those passages found themselves being revealed in this 1007 verses of the Acts of the Apostles.

Theophilus and Christ's Continuing Ministry Through the Spirit

Now, if you and I would study the Acts of the Apostles, we know very little about the man Theophilus to whom this wonderful book was written. But we do know something about his name, because the name Theophilus is a combination of two words in the Greek New Testament.

And the word for God, which is the word theos, and one of the words for love in the New Testament, which is the word philio, is a combination of those two words, and what we know about this man is that he was what we would refer to as a lover of God, or someone who was dear to God.

What we know about Theophilus is simply this, that here was not just someone who was concerned and interested and passionate about the life and the ministry of Christ in those three and a half years of His ministry that we discover in the four Gospels, but here was someone who was deeply concerned about that which happened after Christ died for us on the cross.

So you say, what do we discover in the book of Acts? My brother and my sister, you will discover that in the Acts of the Apostles, that which Christ did in the four Gospels during His earthly ministry, you will discover that in the Acts of the Apostles, He is continuing to minister, but the distinction that is taking place is that now He is ministering through the work and the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

The Geographic Mission of Acts 1:8

Now let me say this to you this evening, and I don't want to prolong this because of the limitation of our time, but if I may just say this to you, when you study the Acts of the Apostles, there is a key verse that I want us to focus our attention on this evening, and maybe tomorrow night just continue to explore the greatness of what this book is all about, but that key verse is also the verse that opens unto us these 28 chapters.

You say, what is it saying to us? Let me explain to you. There was a moment when Christ turned to those early disciples, and this is what He said unto them. He said unto them, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit will come upon you.

And He said unto them, you shall become witnesses unto Me. And then He explained to them this understanding of this word, matario, or the word matar, where we get our word martyr from, that comes from the root concept of the word mart in the Greek language.

He said to them that you will become witnesses in Jerusalem. Then, secondly, you will become witnesses in Judea and Samaria. Then He said to them, you will become witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the world.

And my brother and my sister, the first seven chapters, or for that matter, the first seven years in the Acts of the Apostles were taken up predominantly with witnessing in and around Jerusalem. From chapter 8 onwards to chapter 12, will you discover that the focus is changing, and they became witnesses in Judea and Samaria.

Why did they become witnesses in Samaria? One of the reasons is when Christ dealt with the women of Samaria in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John, He was preparing the way for the coming of the Holy Spirit of God.

Then from chapter 13 to chapter 28, that those early disciples become witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the world. The second period of witnessing was approximately something like 10 years, theologians are telling us.

And the third period of witnessing was possibly something like 16 years. And you say, what happened in that 31 years? My brother and sister, the then known world was evangelized for Christ. And you and I need to ask ourselves this question tonight.

The Meaning of Christian Witness

How did those early disciples do it? What was the secret in their relationships with God? Why was it said to all those early disciples that these men have been with Jesus? Why did we discover the word Christian the first time in the Acts of the Apostles?

Because those people that looked upon these disciples and these followers of Christ, used to call them in the common Greek language, the ones that belong to Christ. In other words, Christ's ones. And they were so affected by the lives of these people that followed the Lord Jesus, that in the Greek language, you know, as the result of the New Testament, words were formed in the common Greek language.

And what those early disciples, or rather, what the world that asked, they looked upon those disciples and they said, these people have been with Jesus. They took those two concepts in the Greek language, Christ's ones, and they brought them together.

That's where we find the word Christian. So you say, what was it? The secret is in that one verse. Now we don't have time this evening, you know. Here in this land of Australia, I was in a place some time ago, and my watch broke and it was glorious.

And here in this land of Australia, I think the problem is, to me time runs twice as fast as in any other normal country, because probably you are what they call down under, which I don't know what they mean.

Three Dimensions of the Spirit's Work

Let me mention three things to you. And if we are not able, you know, one of my great heroes is a man with the name of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. And he preached for 14 years through the epistle to the Romans.

And he spent eight years in Ephesians. And I used to respect him tremendously, because I spent eight years in Scotland. And they said that when he took eight years through Ephesians, he began to preach through Ephesians.

Young people got married and went to the mission field and came back with children. And he was in chapter 1, verse 3. Now that's not our intention in these days together, but let me mention three things to you about that verse, and we'll see how far we'll be able to get.

You see, the secret of the statement, that when Christ turned to those early disciples, and He said to them, you shall receive power and the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you shall become witnesses unto Me, you discover three things.

Brother and sister, it became the realization of the personal encounter with God, the Holy Spirit. It became the realization of a penetrating sense of the workings of the Spirit of God. And thirdly, it became the realization of a powerful endowment with God the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit as a Divine Person

You say, why do you say it became the realization of the personal encounter? Let me explain to you. Christ turned to those early disciples. And brother and sister, what did He do? He turned to them and He said to them, you shall receive power.

And you see, I want to ask you a question tonight. When you think about God the Holy Spirit, I wonder if you would allow me to ask you, what is your perception of God the Holy Spirit? Is God the Holy Spirit part of my experience of justification?

Is God the Holy Spirit an influence upon my relationship with God? Is God the Holy Spirit to a degree a manifestation of God Himself? What is my perception of the Holy Spirit? Because you see, my brother and sister, my perception of the Holy Spirit will be determined to the degree that I will understand the greatness of the life of Christ as it relates to the Spirit of God.

You say, why do you say that? You see, when we speak about the Holy Spirit, and when you and I would go specifically to say, for instance, the Gospel of John, and we study what we would refer to as the private ministry of Christ in those 48 hours from John 14 to John 16, and Jesus specifically began to speak about the Holy Spirit, you will come to the realization that the Holy Spirit of God is not a manifestation.

The Holy Spirit of God is not an influence. The Holy Spirit of God in that sense is not an experience. You say, what is the Holy Spirit of God? My brother and sister, the Holy Spirit of God is a person.

And if you and I cannot come to grips with the understanding that in His place in New Testament Scripture, and in His subjectiveness to the life of Christ, and the beauty of what the Trinity is about, that He is a person.

If we can't come to grips with that, we will never be able to understand what the fullness of the Spirit is all about. So you say, why do you say that He's a person? Oh, you remember those wonderful passages in the Gospel of John?

The Spirit's Indwelling, Teaching, and Convicting Ministry

We spent a whole day on them I think it was last Friday when we went to that ministry of Christ in those 48 hours in the Gospel of John. And now it seems to us that He moved from one place to the other as He was speaking to those 11 apostles that was left after Judas Iscariot left.

And the Bible says there was darkness. And Christ came and He introduced the person of the Holy Spirit. Now you remember He said in the 7th chapter of John's Gospel, He said, "...he that believeth in Him...".

And if I would be allowed to suggest to you tonight the Greek language is emphatic in its explanation. Because what Jesus really said, He said, "...he that believeth into Him, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water shall flow from the innermost of His being.".

And He introduced us to the source of this life in Christ. And He introduced us to the force. And He spoke about the cause. He said it's going to be a river. And then He made this amazing statement. He said the Spirit was not yet given because Christ was not yet glorified.

And so when He came to introduce the Holy Spirit of God, ah, you remember what He said? He said to those early disciples, when My Spirit comes, He said, My Spirit will be with you and My Spirit will abide with you.

And He said, My Spirit will be in you. He said, when My Spirit comes, He said, My Spirit will become your teacher. It's a wonderful word in the Greek language. It's the same word that was used for the greatness of the life of Christ when people came to Him and referred to Him as a teacher.

Jesus said, when My Spirit comes, He said, My Spirit will testify of Me. He was speaking about the Holy Spirit as a person, you see. He said, when My Spirit comes, He said, My Spirit will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.

You know what I miss today in the Western world? Far greater than I would see this, than we would see this in Eastern Europe and South America and Asia and China and in Africa. You know what I miss in the land of Australia?

And I miss it more in the United States. And it's desperately needy in Western Europe and in the United Kingdom. And the land where I live in Canada, you know what I miss? It's conviction of sin. And so Jesus said, when My Spirit comes, He will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

Why did He say that? He said, of sin, because they do not believe on Me. Of righteousness, because I go to My Father. And He said, of judgment, because the Prince of this world. He said, when My Spirit comes, He said, you will do greater things than Me.

Brethren and sisters, what was He speaking about? How can He say to those early disciples? He was speaking about the omnipresence of the Spirit of God. He was speaking about prayer. When He said, if you ask anything in My name, He said, I will do that.

So what was He doing? He was speaking about the Holy Spirit as a person. And I wonder tonight if I can ask you, do you have an understanding of God the Holy Spirit? Let me take it a little step further, brethren and sisters.

The Holy Spirit in Ephesians

You know, the epistle to the Ephesians is such a great epistle. You say, why is it? Because you remember in Acts 19, when the Apostle Paul came to Ephesus and here were the converts of the palace, and Paul turned to them, and he said to them, have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?

And they turned to him, and they said to him, we have not heard that there is a Holy Spirit. And so, you remember how the Apostle Paul prayed for them, and the Spirit of God came upon them. And as a result of that, brethren and sisters, when you and I come to those 155 verses in the epistle to the Ephesians, and we in theological terms, we would say, we are dealing with the Himalayas of the New Testament.

Because twice in every chapter, there is a reference to the Holy Spirit. And in the first chapter, the Apostle Paul said, after you believed, you were sealed to that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance.

And in chapter 2, he said we have been quickened by the Spirit of God. And then in chapter 3, he spoke about sitting with Christ in heavenly places as it relates to the understanding of prayer. And in chapter 4 he came, and do you remember what he said?

He said, grieve not the Spirit of God. Chapter 5, he came and he said, be full to the Spirit. And he gave us the consequences of being full to the Spirit, when he said, sing to yourselves in hymns and psalms and spiritual songs.

Why submit yourselves to the husband as unto the Lord? And he said, men, he said, love your wives as love. And he said, his spiritual worship, his spiritual submissiveness, and brother and sister, his spiritual sacrifice.

In chapter 6, he said, pray in the Spirit. And in chapter 4, he said, grieve not the Spirit of God. Do you know the Greek language is very precious, brother and sister. And listen, you don't need to be a Greek scholar.

I sat in a plane some time ago and spoke to someone about Christ. And I had my Greek New Testament with me. And this person said to me, do you understand what you read? And I said, you never understand the Greek New Testament.

It's like prayer. It needs to understand you. But let me tell you something. The structure of that passage, do you know what it's doing? It's speaking about the deity of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God.

And so Paul said, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Why? Whereby you are sealed unto the day of... You say, Gerard, how do I grieve the Spirit of God? Brother and sister, we grieve the Holy Spirit of God because of His sanctity.

Holiness, Sensitivity, and the Spirit's Indwelling

He is the Holy Spirit, you know. I mean, if we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, He wants us to live a holy life. You say, what does that mean? That means anything that I expose my mind to, I am forcing the Holy Spirit of God to be exposed to that.

Everything that I watch, if it's on the television or if it's on the Internet, I am forcing the Spirit of God to be exposed. Everything that I read, everything that I think, every aspect, if I am indwelled by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God is God, you know.

So, how do I grieve Him? I grieve Him because of His sanctity. I grieve Him because of His sensitivity. Ah, you remember the Holy Spirit when He came upon the life of Christ at His baptism and Christ was anointed for service?

You remember what happened? Brethren and sisters, the Spirit of God came upon Christ in the form of a dove. Why did He do that? You know, scientifically they say, being proved to us, that the dove is the only bird that does not possess that which we would refer to as the gull or the chicken.

You know, I was brought up in Africa and we've got some South Africans here and some of them were brought up in the Cape Town area and you know, they were more civilized and sophisticated than we who were farmers and boers up there close to the border of the land of Zimbabwe those days.

And you know, when we were on the farm those days and I want you to know, it happened before I was a Christian, but when we were on the farm, my mother would come to us at Christmas time and we would kill the chickens for Christmas.

And because we were Africans and we were brought up amongst the African people and those kind of things, you know, when we were killing chickens, I mean, we were brutal. I want you to know, it was before I became a Christian, because when we were killing the chickens, brother and sister, we would just grab them on their heads and we would swing them until their head part from body.

Can you believe that we would have done that? Hey, we were Africans, you know. Just watch out when you come there one day. Anyway, but you know, my mother used to say to us, and I love this term, my mother used to say to us in Afrikaans, she would say, You say, what does that mean?

You need to learn that language before you are going to go to heaven. Anyway, it means, do not touch the gall of the chicken. What is it? It's that bitter, bitter part, you know. The devil don't possess that.

And so when the Holy Spirit came upon the life of Christ, brother and sister, He came upon the life of Christ in the form of a devil. Why? He was tempted in all points like us we are and yet without sin.

He was the sinless Son of God, you know. And so the Spirit of God, Ah, the sensitivity of God the Holy Spirit. The sanctity, the sufficiency of God the Holy Spirit. Oh, you know, we are not just dealing with the sins of commission, but we are dealing with the sins of omission.

You say, what are you speaking about? You see, the things that we have done wrong, and God comes and He cleanses us from the pollution of sin, but brother and sister, we are dealing with the guilt of sin, you know, and the pollution of sin.

And you see, there are things that God wants us to do that we don't do. That's why we come short of the glory of God. That's why we are going to explore New Testament prayer and some of these sessions.

Prayer, Repentance, and Dependence on Grace

One of the most beautiful aspects of New Testament prayer is when we study the nine ingredients that comes out of what we would refer to as the Lord's Prayer, which is really the prayer He taught His disciples.

And when He brought this understanding of the inadequacy of my realization of my need of God, and He speaks to us about the pardon of prayer, and He said when you pray, you are going to say, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

And we discover what the Puritans would refer to as one of the most beautiful aspects of prayer. When I come with the depth of my need, and I say, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.

It's the Spirit of God, and He's a person. He never speaks of Himself. Duncan Campbell used to say, Oh, if you are full to the Spirit of God, you can't be full of anything else. Isn't that beautiful? Brethren and sisters, He's a person.

Human Personality: Body, Soul, and Spirit

You say, what did we discover within the realm of personality? Well, God has created us, and you know we are a trichonomy. Isn't that beautiful? God has given us a body, and a soul, and a spirit. You say, how do you know that?

These are three distinctive terms in the New Testament. And if I would have been able to explore the Greek language with you, and we discover the body and its functions and the greatness of the fact that God has given us a body, why did He give me a body so that through my senses, I become conscious in this environment and this world in which I find myself?

God has given me a soul. You say, what is it? It's the word suche in the New Testament. You say, what does it mean? Why did He give me a soul? He gave me a body to make me conscious of this world. And brethren and sisters, He's given me a soul.

Why did He do that? To make me conscious of myself. And when I come to Christ, I discover my identity in Christ. I discover that the Apostle Paul said, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live. How do I live it? I live it by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself. I discover the beauty of a life being crucified with Christ.

And He has given me a spirit. A body to make me conscious of this environment, this world through my senses. He's given me a soul to make me conscious of myself and the crucified life. You see, brethren and sisters, when I come to Christ, He does not destroy my personality, but He puts it in the place in the greatness of His redemption.

And do you remember what happened? He's given me a spirit. Why did He give me a spirit? To make me conscious of Himself. God consciousness. And so what happens? What do we discover within the realm? A personality.

The Mind, Will, and Emotions of the Spirit

A personality. My mind as a person. My will as a person. My emotions as a person. You say, can we relate that to the Holy Spirit? Emphatically, brethren and sisters, the New Testament is speaking about the mind of the Spirit.

The Apostle Paul made this great statement in that marvelous chapter on the Holy Spirit in Romans 8, when he said, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

And then he made this great statement. He said the reason why it's like that is because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin. And then the Apostle Paul said, he said, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ.

Can I ask you this Thursday night, you know? Is God in the process of renewing our minds? Brethren and sisters, hey, listen. You know, we're getting on in years. One of these days, some of us are going to sit under a tree here in the boonies of Bokobokoland in the sticks of Australia under a tree and someone is going to come to you and say, Joe, what are you doing here?

In your old age, you're going to say, sometimes I just sit here and sometimes I just sit here and think. We need to be transformed. And so it's my mind that God is speaking about. And so He speaks about the mind of the Spirit.

Why, brethren and sisters? Because He's a person. He speaks about the will of the Spirit. Do you remember in the Acts of the Apostles when those early disciples wanted to go into a certain area? And somehow, I love a statement in the congenial version of the Bible because this is what he said.

He said, the Spirit suffered them not. And do you know the emphaticness of a Greek language sometimes in the context of its understanding and the illustration way that comes out of the classical Greek that it seems almost the impression is coming that they were surrounded and constrained by the Spirit of God?

That they would not go. Why was it? Because it was not the will of God. That's why the Apostle Paul said, I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God.

He said, this is your reasonable service. Now, he said, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed. Why? By the renewing of your mind. Why should you do that? So that you may prove what is that perfect and acceptable will of God.

Discerning and Following the Will of God

Brethren and sisters, can I ask you? Are you concerned about the will of God? I need to find the will of God. I need to follow the will of God. And you know what? We need to finish the will of God. Are you struggling with the will of God?

And the submissiveness to God? You know what? I hear Christians, and I stagger at this. They would say to me, if there is an area in my life where I am not willing to submit to God, they would say, oh, you know, I'm just going to walk away from this thing and I'm going to trust God to work in some other area of my life.

And I said to them, you've got to be kidding. I said, it doesn't work like that. If you step out of the will of God, and brethren and sisters, listen, the will of God is revealed in the Scriptures. That's why the beauty that we will explore as it relates to prayer, is when we pray according to the will of God.

You know, that's the beauty of what prayer is about. That's when God answers prayer. And you know, Oswald Chambers said, if you step out of the will of God, don't you think that God is going to just start in another area?

Oswald Chambers said, God is going to bring you through a series of circumstances, and He's going to bring you right back to the place where you stepped out of His will, and He's going to bring you back to Him.

Remember the prodigal? When he came to himself. When he came to himself, he said, and so he had to step back. The will of the Spirit. The emotions of the Holy Spirit. It's a great word in the New Testament.

You say, where do you find that word? In the 8th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. The Spirit of God groaned. Free groanings in the Epistle to the Romans. Yeah, the Spirit of God groaned. I love that word.

I love that word. You say, what is it? It's a word... It's a great word. It's the emotions of the Spirit of God. Have you seen Christ sobbing over Jerusalem? Have you discovered those two words in the life of Christ that speaks of a sense of emotional brokenness?

You say, what is it? When He looked over Jerusalem, when He said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how did I try to gather you as a hen of chickens? And He said, you would not. And He burst out. The Gospel of Luke, you know, He's a physician.

There are about 50 technical medical terms. And so He gives expression to humanity. And He gives expression to the place of women. And the greatness of what Scripture is about. And when Luke comes, and He gave us this marvelous revelation.

And here are the emotions of the Spirit. He's a person. Brethren and sisters, let me close. You know what? When you and I received Christ into our lives, how did we know that He came into our lives? We accepted Him as our personal Savior.

We asked Him to save us. We confessed our lost condition before Him. Because Jesus said, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save those that are lost. You can't be safe unless you realize you've been lost, you know.

And so what happened? Ah, when we accepted Him, and the great doctrines of salvation, the doctrine of repentance, and the doctrine of regeneration, and the doctrine of faith, the doctrine of assurance, there is this marvelous doctrine.