Now, I must confess that it isn't really
to my personal liking to take a subject
that is a mooted subject, a mooted question.
There are times, however, that we have to
do some of these things.
I would much prefer to speak on the
subject of the fruit of the Spirit or
the fullness of the Spirit.
In fact, last year ago, two years ago,
it would be this summer, I was in
a CBMC conference, a retreat, and I announced
my subject on being filled with the Spirit.
I had the scriptures, or at least I
had the scriptures read on the subject, and
I intended to speak on the subject of
being filled with the Spirit.
But the whole CBMC was almost broken up.
It was about ready to bust up.
Some were going to extremes and others were
fearful and afraid and didn't know what to
do about it, didn't know how to handle
it.
And the whole thing was in a quandary.
The leader of the CBMC wrote me later.
He said, I was ready to throw in
the towel, brother.
I was going to quit the whole thing.
I didn't know how to handle it.
But they were having their, I would say,
they were having their pandemonium meetings right in
the midst.
It wasn't wholesome.
So after I went there to speak on,
as I intended on that morning, on the
subject of the fullness of the Spirit, I
said, I haven't been able to get away
from the fact that I have to speak
to you on the subject of the baptism
of the Holy Ghost.
Well, I took my neck out, or I
asked for trouble, or somebody's trouble, I didn't
know.
And so we were really in the hot
spot.
And God was with us.
And by the time we got through, we
had pretty well had both classes with us,
and we spoke for an hour and 20
minutes at that Sunday morning service.
I'm not going to speak.
Fortunately, you've got another meeting coming on, so
I can't this morning.
The baptism in the Spirit.
Now, in order to get underway in the
book of Acts, let us get our bearings,
first of all.
Some may say, now I'm going to say,
I'm going to say so many heavy things
that you're going to have to keep your
eyes open and your ears open and dig
a little hole there and make a receptacle,
because I can't repeat over much.
Some may say that when we try to
sit, and I'll follow my notes pretty closely
in order to save time.
I don't like that kind of teaching, but
sometimes in teaching you must need to do
so.
Now, some may say that when we try
to set forth scriptural teaching about the meaning,
mission, and teaching of the Spirit, we are
quibbling about words and phrases when we know
certain words, distinctions, terminologies, and phraseologies.
I know of a great Bible teacher who
said, when it comes to the baptism of
the Spirit, filling of the Spirit, anointing of
the Spirit, and they all mean one and
the same thing.
And he was one of the great men
of God of the past generation, but he
didn't live in days when distinctions had to
be made as we now have to make
them.
Therefore, he has discriminatory powers were not very
good.
Now, as these phrases are employed in the
New Testament, setting forth the purpose and the
power and teaching and mission and ministry of
the Spirit, they don't all mean the same
thing, I think, or the Holy Spirit would
likely have used the same words, so that
the terms do not mean the same thing.
Now, it seemed to me after many years
of study that the term, the baptism of
the Holy Spirit, now, N-O-W, means
in the 21 New Testament epistles, in the
21 New Testament teaching epistles, seems to me
that the phrase now, as we stand historically,
includes the regeneration of the Spirit, John 3,
5, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, 1
Corinthians 3, 16, the gift, Acts 2, 38,
the sealing, Acts 4, 30, the earnest, Ephesians
1, 14, the anointing, 2 Corinthians 1, 21,
the fullness, Ephesians 5, 18.
That is to say, the baptism seems to
me now, N-O-W, to include the
whole pie, and all I did was give
you a slide in these various terms that
I brought in.
The baptism is the whole now, and in
it are all these others.
I think that is actually the teaching of
the New Testament.
Now, these words, indwelling, gift, sealing, earnest, anointing,
fullness, regeneration, and so on, these words do
not all mean the same thing.
They are not used indiscriminately, interchangeably, or unmeaningfully.
As we classify the New Testament passages, noting
where they occur, where they occur, we find
them fall into a threefold classification.
I'm using Scroggie's threefold classification here.
Prophetical, doctrinal, historical.
Now, you'll find what we mean as we
go along.
Prophetical.
Prophetical passages regarding this subject.
In the following five passages, the baptism in
the Spirit is a yet-to-be thing,
not as experienced or as yet bestowed.
Here they are.
Matthew 3.11. Mark 1.8. You have
to take them down as fast as students
do in school.
Luke 3.16. And John 1.33. Those
are the four gospel passages.
All right, I'll run through them again for
your sake.
3.11. 1.8. 3.16. 1.33.
Got them all?
Good for you.
All right.
In Acts 1.5, we receive this.
We notice this.
Acts 1.5 is the climax.
Ye shall receive, or ye shall be baptized
with the Holy Spirit not many days hence.
Do you understand the announcement by John and
Jesus?
These are all five prophetic passages, all awaiting
the day of Pentecost for fulfillment.
All right.
Now, number two, the doctrinal passages.
The doctrinal passages.
We have seen prophetically, listen now, Matthew, Mark,
Luke, John, Acts 1.5. Now we move
clear on over here to the doctrinal epistles.
We'll note them.
We'll come back and notice Acts in the
historical, between the two.
The baptism viewed doctrinally now in the epistles.
I'm going to take, I think I'll take
all the passages there are.
I'll give them quickly.
1 Corinthians 12.13. And we read this.
For in, now you need to do some
discriminatory listening as well as writing.
For in one spirit were we, were we,
all baptized into one body, whether Jews or
Greeks, whether bond or free.
Note the past tense.
Were we all.
An accomplished fact.
Now, here's a question right at once.
Did these all have the baptismal experience as
taught by some today?
And when I go into these matters, I,
I trust that you'll not think we're just
having a kind of a fisticuff with Pentecostal
people.
I, I don't want to, I think that
is a bad, bad spirit that fundamentalists are,
have fallen into head over heels.
It's just too bad.
Now the Lord save us.
After all, if we all belong to Christ,
we're in one body, the Lord save us
from knifing up the body.
But nevertheless, that doesn't sanction erroneous teaching which
leads to falsehood and errors and dangers in
living.
I could tell you some things, serious things
about that.
But note the past tense.
Now, listen.
Did these all have the baptismal experience as
taught today?
Were we all baptized.
Past tense.
Now, if they did, those to whom Paul
is writing, you notice he's not writing to
what we would call the faithful Thessalonians or
the, the spiritual Ephesians.
Now, he's not writing to his beloved Philippians.
He's writing to the carnal Corinthians.
Babes in Christ.
Concerning these, Paul says, all ye were baptized.
Whatever the baptism was, it was not a
blessing that cured their sex, S-E-C
-T-S.
Didn't cure that.
Didn't cure their immorality.
Didn't cure them automatically of their lawsuits.
Didn't automatically cure their loose sexual matters.
Didn't cure them of eating meats offered to
idols.
Didn't cure them of envy, jealousy, and strife.
And didn't cure them of errors regarding the
resurrection.
In fact, there's not a more erroneous living
church in the New Testament than the Corinthians.
Yet he says, concerning these, ye were all
baptized in one spirit.
Paul is writing to them.
He is writing to them.
Not of their spiritual experience, or rather not
of their state of experience.
Not about their state as Christians.
Now this lady needs, do you, are you,
just where you want to be right now
are your sisters?
All right.
I thought you were looking for a seat
and couldn't find one.
All right.
Paul is back.
He's writing to them of their factual, actual
standing as joint members with Christ.
That's what he's doing.
As having been united to Christ.
In fact, in 1 Corinthians 6-11, he
says, such were some of you in your
false days and false living.
But you have been washed from past pollution.
You have been sanctified, separated unto God.
You have been justified as though you had
never sinned.
That's what your actual, factual relationship to God
in and through Christ is.
See?
That's what he says in 1 Corinthians 6
-11.
Now the baptism past had, in this case,
clearly to do with their occasion and means
of their incorporation into the mystical body of
Christ.
All paths were baptized into one body.
No racial distinction.
Neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond or free.
No social distinction.
Come to another passage, Galatians 3, 27 and
28, in which we read, As many of
you as were, here you got it again,
have been, is to, is to, it doesn't
give the true tense of it.
As many of you as were baptized into
Christ did, not have, but did put on
Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor
free, neither male nor female.
Now the baptism in this verse is here
spoken of as having secured the unity in
one body of all Christians, breaking down, breaking
down what?
Doing away with all distinctions, whether national or
social or even sexual distinction.
Legalism even did away with that.
Sexual distinction as well as national, racial, social.
This baptism has to do then, not with
our spiritual state, but with our standing in
Christ and membership in the one body.
Another passage, Ephesians 4, 5.
Ephesians 4, 5.
You want to take down perhaps 4, 1
to 5, because on 1 to 3 we
read of the church's calling to walk worthy.
In verses 4 to 6 in that passage,
we read of the basis or ground of
their unity.
Then he says, even as you're called in
one hope of your calling, there's one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
who is above all, through all, in you
all.
One Lord, one faith, one baptism.
Now the great point here in the one
body, in the one baptism, is that they're
baptized into Christ in one whole.
That is the teaching of the passage.
Over all our God and Father.
Now may I say that some baptism people,
because there are a good many branches so
I don't know which one to name, we'll
just leave out the names, but some say,
some have consistently, within their own inconsistencies, said,
and I mean it just like that, they
have concluded that unless you have the baptism
and tongues, you're not even yet a member
of the body of Christ.
I say that is consistency.
Within their inconsistencies, that's consistency.
Because if there's one baptism and if you
haven't spoken in tongues or haven't a special
experience of some kind, if you haven't had
that experience, you're not yet a member of
the body because there's one baptism that puts
you into the body.
Therefore, until you have spoken in tongues or
something like that, you're not yet a member
of the body.
Now that's at least consistency within the realm
of inconsistency.
All right, you get what I mean, all
right.
Romans 6, 3 and 4.
Know ye not, so many of us were
baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his
death?
Now hear this.
The deepest reference is to our having by
the Spirit been baptized into Christ and therefore
into him crucified and risen.
Baptism of the Spirit into Christ.
You say, but all that talks about water.
Well, may I just throw in something to
help you be a little more frustrated.
I had an uncle who really knew God
and he was a good Baptist deacon, way
down almost below the mason-deacon line.
And, you know, he said, he said, until
I began to see that passage without H2O
in it, he said, I didn't see identification
with Christ in death and resurrection as I
should, because all he saw up until that
date was H2O.
Well, I think symbolically it's there, but that's
not the primary that's there.
The primary that's there is identification.
No ye, not that the ministers are baptized
into Jesus Christ, of which the others are
symbols, but baptized into his death.
Therefore we have died already.
Not talking about experience, talking about your position.
I may go into identification tomorrow if I
get there.
Now, all these references that I've given you
constitute the doctrinal statement, the body of doctrinal
teaching truth on the subject of the spirit
baptism as contained in the doctrine in the
epistle.
I think these are pretty well all the
teachings.
These passages all point, this latter group of
passages, all point backwards.
They point backwards.
The first five passages I gave you point
forward.
Now, where are we?
Doctrinal in the epistles point backwards.
Prophetical in the Gospels, including Acts 1-5,
pointed forward.
But now the question.
Forward to what?
Backward to what?
That's where we're at now.
Forward to fulfillment.
Backward to the history which Paul has explained
in the epistle.
You see, historical experience is never doctrinal precedent.
Not necessarily.
But doctrinal teaching is explanation of historical experience.
Now, that may not mean too much to
you if you haven't studied the Word.
But it doesn't mean much.
Now, number three.
The book of Acts.
Historical.
Between the Gospels and the epistles.
Now, the old dispensation was passing.
The new dispensation was beginning.
Israel had been God's witnessing, functionary, got that
word, had you?
On earth.
Here was a national witness and Israel was
God's functionary of all.
Israel had been God's witnessing agent.
Now, the church of this age is to
be and have a different kind of witness.
Not a national, but a preaching, proclaiming witness.
An enunciation of a long, of the long
anticipated gospel good news, preaching it in all
the world.
Now, in Israel, you turn to 1 Corinthians
10 and I'll be there by the time
you get there.
In Israel, Moses was God's visible head of
Old Testament witnessing agents.
In the church, Jesus Christ is the head
of the New Testament agency.
1 Corinthians 10, 1 and 2.
I found this a very wonderful passage.
Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should
be in doubt that all our fathers went
into the cloud and all passed through the
sea and were all, listen, baptized unto, with
respect to Moses, in the cloud and in
the sea.
Well, there, Moses was the visible head of
Old Testament witness.
Now, in the New Testament, it could, you
could, shall I read, shall I transliterate that
second verse for you?
Look at it.
It might be said concerning us, and were
all baptized into Jesus Christ in the element
of the Spirit.
That's giving it a proper transliteration to the
present dispensation.
One means the same as the other.
That is, not that the witness was the
same, but the Old Testament Israelitish witness, they
were whelmed into one hole around Moses the
leader, never got away from him.
In the New Testament, we are whelmed into
one hole in another element, not the cloud
and the sea, but in the Spirit, unto
Christ the head.
We are now the functionaries.
They were the functionaries coming out of Egypt
that they should show forth the praises of
Him who called them out of darkness into
His marvelous light.
We, as strangers and pilgrims, have now been
whelmed into one hole into Christ that we
should show forth the praises of Him who
called us out of the world's darkness into
His marvelous light.
We do it in preaching.
They did it as a national witness.
I've said a whole lot there in a
little time.
All right.
Now, the congregation, thus the congregation of old,
was incorporated on its functioning mission, incorporated into
one hole around Moses.
It's called baptism unto Moses.
Now, similarly, the two-foldness of the baptism
is symbolically set forth.
Ours is unto Christ, into Him, connecting us
to Him, linking us, identifying us with Him,
and uniting us to Him according to Romans
6, 3 and 4, as you already have.
Now, therefore, therefore, in 1 Corinthians 12, 13,
we're all baptized into one body.
Now, the baptism, as I see it now,
doctrinally speaking, as explained in all the epistles,
is simply a baptism into union with Christ,
and in Him we are one body, neither
jew nor Greek, bond or free, male nor
female.
We are all one in Christ Jesus, whelmed
into one hole around Him, into Christ.
Now, the same time, at the same time,
we are regenerated by the Spirit.
We are baptized into Christ, were we all,
were we all baptized into one body, 1
Corinthians 12, 13.
Now, just as Israel was inaugurated or nationally
inducted into her national witness, so we have
been baptized into Christ in the Spirit to
show forth the praises of Him who called
us out of darkness into His marvelous light,
1 Peter 2, 9.
Now, we're going to go through these groups
rapidly.
group number 1, in Acts chapter 2.
We're taking the historical now, you see.
Between the prophetical and the doctrinal is the
historical.
Group number 1 in Acts.
I'm taking for granted that you know, you
know your Bibles fairly well.
So, the Church, in group number 1, the
Church as the out-called, Israel was out
-called from Egypt, wasn't it?
Out-called from the world.
So the Church, as the out-called and
collected whole, were baptized unto Christ Jesus in
the Spirit, constituted officially and publicly, manifestly inaugurated,
inducted into her functioning witness as baptized into
one constituted body, visibly set forth, this is
God's new thing, witnessing through, not through Israel
now, He's changing, we're in transition here.
Simultaneously, listen, simultaneously in Acts 2, simultaneously, they
were filled with the Spirit, therefore, it says,
and they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost.
I wouldn't say the baptism and the filling
were precisely the same.
The baptism is one thing, the filling is
another.
But it, in describing the experience of that
day, they were all filled.
Basically, back of it all, they were baptized
into Christ as the new functionary in the
earth.
They were simultaneously filled with the Holy Ghost.
And it says, therefore it says, filled, and
they began to speak.
That was the function.
That was the chief function of this age.
Now the tongues of fire, speaking in supernatural
tongues, and tongues of fire both indicated the
character of this age, a witnessing dispensation with
great boldness of speech with a fiery tongue,
character of the dispensation.
I must make one thing clear here regarding
the preaching of the day of Pentecost.
The disciples, when they began to speak, have
you gotten up with me now?
The disciples, when they began to speak, did
not preach the gospel.
All you have to do is read it
and see.
They, it was noise abroad, but they were
speaking the wonderful works of God and that
brought all the people together.
Then after that, Peter preached in the Jewish
language that wonderful sermon on the day of
Pentecost.
All right, that's just incidental.
Peter preached that wonderful sermon in the Jewish
language.
What meaneth this?
He explained it in things they understood.
But at first, we do hear them speak
in our own languages as all around age
of minor.
In our own languages, wherein we were born,
back there in Cappadocia and all out in
Laodicea and so on.
We heard, in our languages back there, we
hear them speaking the wonderful works of God.
They came together.
Now, the sermon in the intelligible Jewish language.
Now, the exalted, what happened?
The exalted, once crucified, but risen Lord Jesus
is yonder, and he has poured forth this.
What meaneth this?
It's this.
He's yonder.
That's what it means.
Men and brothers, what should we do?
Repent.
You killed him?
Repent of it.
Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of the Lord Jesus.
I think that's a better rendering.
In the name of the Lord Jesus, for
the remission of sins, and ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Three thousand converted and filled all at once,
simultaneously.
Have no doubt they were.
Manifestly at once, then and there, no delay,
no space of time, no particular sign.
As far as I know, on the day
of Pentecost, it doesn't say that these three
thousand had any particular signs.
It doesn't say so.
They had already, they'd already seen signs.
If you require signs, they'd seen, they'd seen
much already.
At least there's no mention of tongues in
connection with the three thousand.
They simply met the simple condition, repent and
be baptized, every one of you, in the
name of the Lord Jesus, and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Meet the condition, the gift is yours.
The promised spirit was theirs, and having met
the condition of salvation, repenting, believing, the gift
was theirs as promised.
Group number two.
We're just, we're just going slightly fast.
Acts chapter eight.
The second instance in the book of Acts.
God chose Philip to carry the gospel where?
Down to Samaria.
All right, according to Acts 6-5, Philip
was a man full of the Holy Ghost.
There were many gospel triumphs in Samaria.
You can look at it if you like,
8, 5 to 17.
Much divine power attended Philip's preaching, yet Philip
was not one of the apostles.
You understand?
I didn't say that incidentally either.
He was just a deacon, but as we
often say, he was a deacon who did
deek.
He preached the Christ to them.
There were miracles, demons cast out, paralytics restored,
people listened with one accord, great joy in
Samaria, many believed were baptized.
Yet we read the Holy Ghost.
Isn't this a crazy thing?
The Holy Ghost had fallen yet.
Now don't think about the word fallen as
though somebody could strike you dead.
A lot of people, oh, if only I
could be under the Holy Ghost when he
falls and hits me.
Wait a minute.
That isn't the illusion.
That's just the psychological thing that's in your
system.
That's simply a psychological reflex that you have.
That's the idea you have.
If you lived in the New Testament times,
that wouldn't be the idea at all.
It'd be this, as dew falls in the
evening.
Slight difference between that and knocking you out
of the pieces.
But a lot of people, oh, my, I
met a fellow on the train once and
he goes, oh, my, when I was under
the power, when I was under the power,
he kept talking about under the power.
I said, well, if that's the case, then
just as Israel had manna the first 10
years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, now
we ought to have manna today.
We would if we had faith enough.
I said, now you are crazy.
Foolish, I think I said, pardon me.
But what kind of extreme camp we go
into.
When I was under the power.
Now, you see, he had a psychological something.
Too bad.
Otherwise, good fellow, good chap, we had good,
good time talking.
Before he goes, yes, at Samaria, the Holy
Ghost had fallen on none of them.
Verse 16.
They had faith and regeneration.
I think it would be foolish to say
that they weren't regenerated people with all that
took place there.
They were therefore born of the Spirit.
Now, Peter had said on the day of
Pentecost that the one condition of receiving the
Spirit was to repent, be baptized in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, listen, hadn't he done that?
They had repented.
They had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ
and had been baptized.
Well, what does it mean the Holy Ghost
had fallen on none of them?
Well, you see, these are puzzling points.
And I don't wonder people get mixed up
on them.
What was the sole condition of receiving the
gift of the promised Spirit on the day
of Pentecost?
Three thousand.
They met the simple condition, repent, be baptized,
believe on Christ and be baptized and the
gift is yours.
No other condition the strings attach.
But this promise, the promise had been fulfilled
in the three thousand according to Acts 241.
But why not on these then?
Apparently, no gap of time on the day
of Pentecost between their repentance and faith in
Christ and their having been filled with the
Spirit.
Though no mention is made in Acts 241
of any special signs attending the gift of
the Spirit, what then is the difference between
the three thousand in Acts 241 and the
multitudes of believers in Acts 8 now that
Samaria because Philip was just as much filled
with the Holy Ghost as anybody else.
Philip the deacon was mightily filled with the
Spirit, mightily used to the Spirit and they
had a great revival at Samaria.
Listen, there is a great grand doctrinal divine
reason at Samaria for Peter and John to
come down from Jerusalem.
On the day of Pentecost the church was
especially now I don't go to seed on
extreme dispensation.
You don't have to be especially learned in
the Bible to see the Jews used in
the Old Testament and the church in the
New and the Jews in the days to
come.
You don't have to be especially learned in
Bible study to see that simplicity.
But that's far different from going off the
deep end on extreme dispensation.
Now listen, on the day of Pentecost the
church was especially Jewish.
To the Jewish believers it never occurred that
anybody else could have such spiritual privileges and
blessings as for us Jews.
Inclusively and exclusively we are God's people.
That was their belief.
Now what?
Samaritans were half Jews.
Half Gentiles.
You know they were dogs.
Mischief.
The northern tribes had been led into captivity.
Jews, Gentiles had been imported.
They had intermarried some 600 years before.
Ever since in their half-breed character these
were neither Jews nor Gentiles.
A lot of half-breeds.
The Samaritans stood midway between the distant and
distinct national differences and extremes Extremes almost of
race, color and tongue.
Now the Jews had no dealings with the
Samaritans.
John 4, 9 Recall that Jesus said I
am not sent but to the lost people
of the house of Israel.
He gave them an intense evangelization first.
Matthew 15, 24 Yet he did visit Samaria
in John 4, didn't he?
The Samaritans were God's halfway house between the
extremes between the vast antipathies between the Jews
and the Gentiles.
Peter and John Now note Peter and John
with the keys to the kingdom both to
the Jews and the Gentiles Matthew 16, 19
Now note the significance.
Here is quite a point because you notice
the confusion if you try to point to
a particular pattern experience Acts 2, 41 No
signs apparently and no gap of time Repent,
be baptized and you shall receive the gift.
There is forthwith a whole lump sum.
Samaria miracles regeneration many much joy great survival
Holy Ghost hadn't yet been imparted unto them.
What in the world are we talking about?
Listen.
Apostles had to come from Jerusalem to properly
to complete and incorporate the Samaritan believers into
the one body.
Samaria must be identified with the Jews baptized
into one body.
There is neither Jew nor Greek.
There is neither Jew nor half Jew.
Philip could complete the work just as easily
as any apostle.
Had it not been officially necessary for officials
from Jerusalem to come down and endorsing they
put their hands on these believers credentialing them
as full-fledged members in the body of
Christ.
And the Samaritans must need to submit to
salvation is of the Jews.
There is not going to be any little
Mount Gerizim church up here in Samaria because
we say in this mountain the place where
men ought to worship.
You say down there that long age long
antipathy has to be broken down.
And so Peter has to come down and
say okay.
That was a step for Peter.
Almost broke his neck to take that step
down.
But it was God's halfway house.
I'm glad God furnished a halfway house so
the man wouldn't step all the way and
break his neck going all the way to
the Gentiles.
Well the laying on of hands endorsing this
serves from the Jewish standpoint recognition by Peter
and John as officials from the Christian Jerusalem.
They endorsingly accept the Samaritan believers as one
with Jerusalem.
The Samaritans on the other hand submit to
Jerusalem.
All right.
We've got so far we've kept the body
intact.
That's the meaning of the baptism one.
On to Christ.
One body needed junior great free male female.
There is our one preserved Peter officially represented
the original baptism.
Well do they speak in tongues down there.
I don't know doesn't say so.
I'm I'm I think it doesn't say so
and if it doesn't say so it doesn't
mean it is so absolutely indispensable to say
so incidentally didn't say so but it seems
so I'm going to call something and it
looks as though they have.
I rather expect they did because that would
seal the sign these Jews and half Jews
that would seal to them the fact that
they were no left and would seal to
Peter and John that these two men were
no left.
The Jews require finally I think Peter got
it.
Well all right why the delay.
I've shown you what let's go ahead shall
we.
Well I'll skip over two or three pages
of my notes here and give you group
number three.
This is the interesting group it gets thicker
the plot thicker at chapter 10 as you
know in chapter 10 chapter 11 we have
the account of Peter preaching to the Gentiles.
You know about that to the Jews in
Jerusalem.
Peter had been the chief agent at Pentecost
hadn't he to the half Jews of Samaria
he had been the chief agent with John
among the believers at Samaria.
The body of Christ is being made up.
Now to the Gentiles here's a new group.
Another group another national incorporation into the body.
It requires a supernatural revelation from heaven to
persuade Peter to even go down to the
house where he was.
Sheep led down from heaven.
Arise Peter slay and eat.
Not a better but nothing unclean ever touched
my mouth.
Dr. How much more was a miracle needed
to bring Gentiles into the very body of
Christ?
Will Jewish hands be laid on these Gentiles?
Is there to be a Judaized church?
There's another danger in the case of the
Cornelius household.
Will Jewish hands be laid on Gentile believers?
God will take the matter out of all
Jewish hands but he'll give them the same
sign so there's no difference.
You what?
You know I've inclined once in a while
to think that God seems to have known
what he was doing.
Well I just said what's latent in some
of your thinking.
Questioning.
All right.
Will God take the matter in hand and
take the matter out of Jewish hands and
yet give them the same sign?
We can scarcely appreciate the fact, that in
the days that they act it required a
miracle, a direct revelation, a special working of
God to have the early church baptized body
at Pentecost considered such an amazing departure as
that the Gentiles should be received into the
church on the same place.
That was too much.
To us it's no problem at all.
But in those days it was of all
problems THE problem.
To those it was indeed a mystery, one
of God's best secrets.
But mysterious to the original believing Jews how
carefully and patiently Paul in his epistles taught
them this.
The middle wall of petition being broken down,
wasn't that?
Don't you find it in Colossians?
Don't you find it in Ephesians?
You find it most everywhere, trying to show
the oneness of the body.
We are just seeing a little of the
meaning of Paul's teaching historically here as he
taught later in the doctrinal epistles.
Now, by what is happening historically here in
the Acts, Gentiles being baptized.
1034, look at 1034.
Then Peter opened his mouth and said of
a man who
was a man who was a who was
a man who was a
man who was a man who was a
man who was a man who
was man who was a was was a
man who was
a was a man man who was a
man man who was a who was a
man who a man who was man who
was a man
who was a man who was
a was a man who was a Wherefore
tongues are for a sign, not to them
that believe, but to them that believe not."
Now that's not talking about the unbelievers of
the world.
A little bit later, a few verses later,
it talks about the unbelievers of the world.
And the unbelievers of the world, if they
hear you speak with tongues, they'll say you're
mad.
But if you speak plain speaking, they'll fall
down on their face, convicted of their sin,
and worship God and say God's in you
of the truth.
That's the unbeliever of the world.
If he hears you speak plain, he understands
it.
And therefore, he gets convicted of sin.
But wherefore tongues are for a sign, not
to God's people that believe, but to God's
unbelieving people.
That's the context.
I defy anybody to dispute it.
Why?
What's the context of the quotation even?
Back yonder in Israel's day, she was so
unbelieving and so rebellious that the Lord brought
the Assyrians in to whip her, to teach
her.
Wherefore all, for all this, they will not
hear me.
Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to
God's people that believe, but to God's stiff
-necked, unsubdued people that have to be spoken
to by a people of a strange lip.
And I got a whip over their back.
I brought the Assyrian lip to lash them.
And yet for all that, they wouldn't listen
to me.
Wherefore, Corinthians, remember that tongues are for a
sign, not to God's believing people, but to
God's unbelieving people.
If they have to have the signs to
indicate they don't believe.
Well, I can hear some person come on.
Suppose I even grant that he has a
genuine experience of some kind.
For the sake of argument, I'll grant you
your experience.
Shall I?
Well, all right, I won't fight with you
about it.
But listen, if you did have such and
such an experience, don't go around strutting.
Maybe you had to have a crutch before
you'd learn to walk.
But those who walk on crutches all the
day shouldn't boast of how well they can
walk.
And this demands that you liken my experience
to a crutch.
That's right, you got it.
Oh, it showed I had greater faith.
Is that so?
If you read your Bible straight, you'll know
better.
I'm thinking of Gideon.
Gideon said, Lord, give me a fleece for
some water and dry on the ground.
And he rang a bowl of water.
Whoop!
I don't know whether I'm in the right
order or not, but at any rate, I
got the idea.
Second, now, Lord, I know, pardon me.
I, I, I, don't hit me, please.
I asked one time, I got it.
But use one more.
And give me another one, then reverse the
order, please.
Now, imagine Gideon strutting around as, I tell
you folks, if you believe God, you'll get
a bowl full of water.
And if you don't, if you believe more,
you'll get a ground all dry, a fleece
dry.
It's wonderful if you believe God, but you
get in the way of time.
All our 20th century believers, unbelievers, I should
say.
I defy anybody to dispute it.
You come up here, we'll have a 50
cup.
No, we won't.
But I, listen, I've sometimes said something like
this.
If I'd spoken in a dozen tongues, I
would preach what I'm preaching.
You say, what?
No, you wouldn't.
You'd interpret the Bible by your experience.
I do, I'm God.
But I will interpret experience by the Bible.
Here's what I use as an illustration.
You'd be surprised what these glasses do.
Since I had my eyes taken out and
here are my lenses out here.
Literally.
I see it in the Word.
I do.
You say, anybody don't see it.
Well, I'm seeing it through these glasses.
I'm interpreting the Word through my glasses.
Listen, if you're liking this for experience, you
better be sure that you read experience through
the Word instead of the Word through experience,
so you'll see things.
Maybe see some things that are not there.
What makes a difference depends on what the
glasses, from which headquarters you got the glasses.
The squint is by the medium.
The squint in the book is not the
part of the book.
But it's what I read through the medium.
It's mediumized to me.
Now, that's a dangerous practice.
As soon as you get your, a friend
of mine said, what in the world would
you do about such a diversion?
He said, I don't know.
I've just ridden away to headquarters to find
out.
In other words, his headquarters down in New
York was an optical firm.
Denominational optical firm.
And they furnished glasses, whereby when you put
your glasses on, I see it for myself
in the Word.
Yeah, you do.
So do I.
But it happens there's something between me and
the book that gives me the interpretation.
Now, that's the principle.
Look out for it.
It's got paragualla carts loaded.
Look out.
Let's go on here.
This is, this gets gooder and gooder.
Let's read on.
But I'm going back 44 and read again.
While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy
Ghost fell on all them which heard the
word.
And they of the circumcision, which believed with
starvation, as many as came with Peter, because
that all the Gentiles also was poured out
the gift of the Holy Ghost.
For they heard.
How do you know, Peter?
We got our unbelief knocked out of us.
We heard them speak with tongues and magnify
God.
Then answered Peter, look.
And he looked around.
And I can see him look into all
these six boys he brought along.
Boys, anybody forbid water?
What do you say?
No, no, no, no, no.
All six.
Read on.
Can any man forbid water that these should
not be baptized, but have received the Holy
Ghost as well as we?
And you understand the parenthesis of we, don't
you?
Huh?
Read on.
And he commanded them to be baptized in
the name of the Lord.
Then prayed they him to tarry a certain
day.
And the apostles and brethren that were in
Judea heard.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
That the Gentiles had also received the word
of God.
That's all right.
We don't object to that.
The dogs need it.
But look.
This is what we heard also.
Peter was come up to Jerusalem.
They which of the circumcision contended with him,
saying, Thou wentest into men uncircumcised, and set
down the same table, which put them on
the same plane with the rest of us.
Is that true, Peter?
And you're on the cusp.
But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning,
and expounded it by order unto them.
Believe me, he went into beaucoup details.
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
I was in the city of Joppa, praying.
And in a trance I saw a vision,
a certain vessel descend.
And it had been a great sheet let
down from heaven by four corners, and it
came even to me.
Upon the which, when I had fastened mine
eyes, I considered and saw four foot of
beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and
creeping things, and fowls of the air.
And I heard a voice saying unto me,
Arise, Peter, slay and eat.
Not so, Lord.
You don't catch me in anything like that.
Not a bit of it, nothing uncommon or
unclean, hath at any time entered into my
mouth.
But the voice answered me again from heaven,
What God hath cleansed that call not thou
common?
And this was done three times, and all
were drawn up again into heaven.
Behold, immediately there were three men already come
unto the house where I was, sent from
Caesarea unto me, and the spirit bade me
go with them, nothing doubting.
Moreover, ha, here we are.
Moreover, gentlemen, and am I glad these six
brothers accompanied me.
And we entered into the man's house, and
he showed us how he had seen an
angel in his house, which stood and said
unto him, Send men to Joplin, call for
Simon, whose surname is Peter, who shall tell
thee words whereby thou and all thy house
shall be baptized, shall be sanctified, shall be
glorified, no, shall be slain.
Oh, now, don't come down to low levels
like this.
Well, you just as well take what says.
You're not going to improve upon it much
unless you get a good pair of spectacles
from the headquarters.
All right, and as I began to speak,
yes, I didn't get my sermon half finished.
In fact, the Lord just broke right into
it.
And as I began to speak, the Holy
Ghost fell on them, as on us at
the beginning.
Hmm, isn't this remarkable?
I like that.
May I give you, because I haven't much
time, here we are now.
According to that, you notice there are eight
years in your margin.
It's about A.D. 41 by now.
About eight years since Pentecost.
You have good dinner revivals, you've got St.
Mary in here, and you've got about, and
that's about right likely, about eight years has
passed.
Now look, I'm going to conclude with a
little scriptural reasoning by quoting from a man
who was a great, who had been a
great Pentecostal preacher, and then he dropped their
position and went into the Christian Missionary Alliance,
and my old teacher went to hear him,
and this is his reasoning.
I think I got it from him after
I'd been thinking about it for a long
time.
And here is the same reasoning adopted by
this very Pentecostal minister himself.
And he says this.
Note, I'll read it so you'll get the
background.
Let me read it right here again.
As I began to speak, the Holy Ghost
fell on them as he always does every
time a person gets his baptism, as he
uniformly does, as he does according to Acts
2.4. He says, as on us at
the beginning.
Now look.
Well, let me read on.
Then remembered I the word of the Lord,
how that he said, John, be baptized with
water, but he should be baptized with the
Holy Ghost for as much then as God
gave them the life-gift as he did
unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ, what was I that I could withstand
God?
Now I'm so glad I had these six
boys with me.
I would have done my best.
I never would have let them in on
the same ground.
But I did, and these boys will bear
witness what happened there.
Why, we heard in secret tongues we had
all the unbelief knocked out of us.
When they heard these things, they held their
peace and glorified God, saying then hath God
also to the Gentiles granted the baptism.
Then hath God to the Gentiles granted what?
Repentance unto life, salvation on the same terms
as any Jew.
How do you know?
How could our helpers know?
By their unbelief knocked out of me.
Did you?
What happened?
As on us at the beginning.
Now here's the Pentecostal reasoner.
Here's what he said.
If all the multiplied thousands saved and filled
with the Spirit during that wonderful revival period
of eight years between the second chapter of
Acts and the tenth chapter of Acts, if
they all spoke in tongues, why did Peter
say, as on us at the beginning?
Why didn't he say?
Then he adds, he could just as well
have said, as he has been baptizing all,
everybody, every believer since the day of Pentecost.
Now that would be the way the Pentecostals
would have written it.
Now you know that irresistible logic.
His reasoning is that if it was well
known that all received the gift of tongues
when they were truly filled with the Spirit,
all uniformly, all the way through, he wouldn't
have pointed back to the day of Pentecost
eight years ago.
You can see that.
He would just simply have said as he
uniformly and always does.
That's what he would have said.
And we might say that if Luke the
writer was so careful to record this fact,
when only these few spoke in tongues in
this household, why did not Luke record it
when all the multiplied thousands on the day
of Pentecost and at Samaria?
Why didn't he say so at every case?
Peter recalls by way of his own personal
conclusion that John had foretold the baptism of
which this last large Gentile group has just
partaken.
The body is three-fourths made up.
There's no schism.
No difference.
Therefore tongues are for signs, not to Peter
who believed, but to Peter who believed not.
Well, you say Peter was a believer.
Yes, but in this respect, in this thing,
he did not believe that the Gentiles should
be on the same plane with the Jews.
There must be no schism in the body.
Not any Mount Gerizim church in Samaria and
not any Gentile church away out there.
Well, what pattern should we follow?
Which one of these patterns?
None, necessarily, because if you follow one, you
might contradict the other.
And listen, no Pentecostal people take everything right
out of the book of Acts as a
uniform pattern.
Here you have salvation, regeneration, the whole thing
all in one lump sum.
Samaria you have great joy, wonderful revival, and
yet the body not incorporated, not made up,
the Holy Ghost not having baptized them into
the body yet, great gap.
On the day of Pentecost, no gap.
Here, gap.
Here, no gap.
What are you going to do with all
that charters, eh?
Be careful in your discrimination and be careful
of conclusion.
Don't know too much or you'll be like
Uncle Josh.
I'd rather believe less and believe so many
truths that ain't told.
Well, I haven't time, I haven't time to
go longer.
Sorry.
We'll have to, ahem, ahem.
In the meantime, you stand in New York
and get your spectacle.
Listen, let's bow our heads in a word
of prayer.
Now Lord, we thank Thee for help.
We pray that Thou would give us discernment,
discrimination.
And Lord, may we not be cheated out
of the children's bread, being frightened of one
thing or another.
Lord, we thank Thee if ye being evil
know how to give good gifts unto your
children.
How much more will your Heavenly Father give
the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?
And Lord, it's no vain thing to trust
Thee for Thy filling, Thy blessing.
Bless us as we carry along tomorrow and
the next day in these things of the
deeper life.
Save us from pitfalls, perils.
Save us from going out with a holier
-than-thou attitude.
Save us from going out so dead and
dry and satisfied with doctrine and no experiences
of the Holy Ghost.
Deliver us from these pitfalls, we pray Thee,
and make us practical, Spirit-filled, overflowing believers
in Jesus' name.
Amen.