Now we'll turn to the Acts of the
Apostles, chapter 1.
Somebody has called it the Acts of the
Holy Ghost, and that is right.
The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1, verse
1.
The former treatise have I made, O Theopolis,
of all that Jesus began both to do
and teach.
Until the day in which he was taken
up, after that he, through the Holy Ghost,
had 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
wait for the promise of the Father, which,
saith he, ye have heard of me.
For John truly baptized with water, but ye
shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not
many days hence.
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 looked steadfastly toward heaven, as
he went up, behold, 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 returned they unto Jerusalem from the Mount
called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath
day's journey.
And when they were come in, they went
up into another room, where abode both Peter,
and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and
Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of
Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother
of James.
These all continued with one accord, and prayer,
and supplication with the women, and Mary the
mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
Amen.
And we know the good Lord will add
his own blessing upon the reading of his
infallible and inspired word.
Just a word of prayer, please.
Our loving Father, we thank Thee again for
Thy word.
This infallible book, this, Lord, indestructible book, this
book, Lord, inspired by the Holy Ghost.
And now, Lord, as we return to its
sacred page, grant, Lord, that it will please
Thee to anoint these lips of clay, and
bring honor and glory to the man at
Thy right hand.
We ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Now, in verse 8 there, you read, 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.
This word, power.
Now, everybody is anxious about power.
At least out there in that old world
of ours, tonight, men and women are constantly
interested in power.
Now, this is not pardon, this is power.
Thank God for pardon.
It is good, all of you, perhaps, in
here tonight can look back to a time
in your experience whenever you knew that sins
were gone.
The Holy Ghost spoke to your inner consciousness.
I remember whenever He spoke to me along
that avenue, that, as He says, I have
blooded out as a thick cloud thy transgressions
and thy sins.
Marvelous, isn't it?
That we can know free pardon through the
blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And whenever He speaks that to your inner
consciousness, what a blessing that is.
That sweet voice, that quiet voice, that real
assuring voice of the blessed Holy Ghost when
He speaks to that inner consciousness, the citadel
of the soul where no human voice can
reach.
That's what we talk about, the assurance that
all is well between our soul and God.
Good to have the past blooded out, isn't
it?
That's pardon, to know the past, whatever it
has been.
Let it be black or as black as
it would stay in a bucket of tar.
Thank God, it's good to know that it's
under the blood.
Forgotten, forgiven and forgotten by God.
That's marvelous, isn't it?
And that should make our hearts rejoice to
know that.
But whenever the Lord Jesus is speaking here,
He's talking about power.
These are part of the final words of
our Lord Jesus Christ here on earth.
And He was speaking on the Mount of
Olives to over 500 brethren at once.
Men and women who were pardoned by the
grace of God.
And in these words that we have been
reading together, He's been telling them that you
shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not
many days hence.
And then in verse 8 He says, ye
shall receive power.
That's different from pardon.
Ye shall receive power after that the Holy
Ghost is come upon you.
And it's only the Holy Ghost who can
give power.
Now you and I know that there's a
lot of realms in the secular world where
power is really in evidence as far as
ordinary power is concerned.
You take nuclear power, the atomic energy, the
atomic bomb that was dropped in Hiroshima where
multitudes of human beings just melted into thin
air, never were seen, just melted, just disappeared.
The soul left the body and went out
into eternity, but the body just simply melted.
And they tell us tonight, the powers that
be, they tell us that they have got
power in their fist to blow up the
entire universe.
They tell us that if they had four
of these high explosives which they call the
cobalt and placed them at certain points in
this universe and donated them at the same
time they would blow the universe into another
orbit.
That's the power that men have at the
minute as far as the physical world is
concerned.
And there's not only atomic power, but there's
medical power.
They'll do anything nowadays, only there's one thing
they can do.
They may clone, but they can give life.
That's one thing they can do.
And my friend, only God can give life.
And at the minute they would tackle anything,
wouldn't they?
In the medical world they would do anything
that they felt that they could get away
with.
But you know friend, we're not despising what
medicine has done over the years.
We realize that some of us maybe wouldn't
be here tonight only for the medical world.
And so we do thank God for the
advances that they have made.
But they're insane when they get a certain
distance to go a wee bit far, aren't
they?
And then there's hydraulic power, lifting power.
And then there's magnetic power.
And there's word power.
And then there's money power.
And that has a good influence today, hasn't
it?
Money, you can do anything for money.
And buy a lot of friends with finance.
And then there's personality power.
And then there's political power.
And whenever you think of whenever Al Gore
and Bush were fighting for the White House,
they spent 1.2 billion in electioneering.
Do you think of that?
1.2 billion pounds trying to get into
the White House.
Buying their way nearly into the White House.
And Bush eventually reached it.
But that's in the secular world.
But the power that's mentioned here in Acts
chapter 1 and verse 8 is spiritual power.
The power of the Divine Spirit.
The third person of the Holy Trinity of
Heaven.
Don't forget that there's God the Father.
There is God the Son.
And there is God the Holy Ghost.
And whenever Adam and Eve were created in
the Garden of Eden, there a way back
6,000 years ago, they were spirit possessed.
They were perfect beings.
They were created by God.
And the Bible tells us that God breathed
on them.
And they became living souls possessed by the
Spirit of God.
And you'll remember that whenever they disobeyed God
and ate of the forbidden fruit, you'll remember
they were driven from the Garden.
And the Holy Ghost folded his wings and
went back to glory.
And from that day until the day of
Pentecost, the Holy Ghost didn't come to end
well men and women.
Didn't do that.
Because Jesus said that it would be better
for him to go away.
Expedient for me to go away.
For if I go not away, the Holy
Spirit will not come unto you or the
Holy Ghost.
He says, I'm with you, but he will
be in you.
Power where it counts.
Right in the center of personality.
The Holy Ghost operating through consecrated vessels cleansed
in the blood of Jesus.
That's what matters, isn't it?
And it's this power that Dr. Luke in
writing the Acts of the Apostles under the
inspiration of the Spirit is talking about.
And as I say, he's talking to the
people of God.
Now I take it tonight that every one
of you can look back to a night
in your experience whenever as a guilty lost
sinner you came to Jesus and knew what
it was to obtain pardon through the merits
of the atoning blood.
But I wonder how many of you in
here tonight can look back to another night,
to another time in your experience whenever you
realized that although you were saved by the
grace of God, you weren't able to live
as you knew that God wanted you to
live.
And this became a reality.
You had your upper room experience.
The Holy Ghost came and changed everything as
far as you were concerned.
I wonder how many of us in here
tonight can see Him into that.
It's good to be saved.
That's a perfect work in itself.
Can't add to it and we dare not
take away from it.
A perfect work of grace.
But this Pentecostal experience is something different.
It's power.
Now, you and I know tonight that there's
the scarceness of this power in operation.
If I had it within my power tonight,
I would try and get every child of
God in the north of Ireland and get
them located in certain places and we would
wait until we had another outpouring of the
Spirit of God.
Or if I could get their ear and
get everybody in northern Ireland tonight to surrender
fully and trust the Lord to fill them
with the Holy Ghost, we would have a
power in operation in 24 hours that would
turn multitudes to Jesus Christ.
But it's not happening.
Why?
Because the Spirit of God is not in
operation.
And that's a tragedy, isn't it?
You see, we are living in the age
of moral depravity.
Hell is let loose.
It would seem that the very sewers of
hell are open, spewing out all the muck
on the mire that hell can do.
And you know that's what's happening, isn't it?
Moral corruption.
And it's everywhere.
Moral depravity.
And whenever you open your daily newspapers, I
buy them down again for you to find
out what's going on in the political realm.
That's all.
And I said to my wife the other
day, don't lift it, don't read it.
It's only corruption from page one to the
back page.
That's all.
If you had a mind clean before you
read it, it wouldn't be clean after it.
Because the growth and the movement and the
advance of satanic influence in our modern age
is beyond the power of human description.
We know that, don't we?
We're taking young girls from school as low
as 12 years of age to maternity wards.
Not only moral depravity, but religious hypocrisy.
I said, isn't it?
Terrible lot of inconsistency, isn't there?
In the world today.
Especially among the people of God.
You see, some people would give us the
impression I have been around public houses giving
out tax and things like that.
And I remember offering a man a tract
one night at a bar.
And he said to me, I said, well,
what about salvation?
Oh, he says, I am saved.
There he was with his glass of beer.
No security in sin.
No matter what people say.
It is clear from Scripture that there's no
security in sin.
And spiritual bankruptcy.
No matter about the march of evil, we're
not able to counteract it, so we don't.
I don't know how many prayer unions the
faith mission has.
I think it must be close to 300
in Northern Ireland.
There's 500, I think, Presbyterian churches in Northern
Ireland, or in Ireland.
I don't know how many Methodist churches there
are.
Or how many Elam's churches there are.
Or how many Baptist churches there are.
Or how many mission halls there are.
And maybe if you added up all the
prayer meetings, you could have well over a
thousand prayer meetings every week.
A day of 27 days a week prayer
meetings in Northern Ireland.
And hell marches on.
There's something radically wrong.
Of all these prayer meetings, where function as
they ought to function, I often said that
the devil would be in the air, you
see.
But that's not happening.
Conditions relative to prevailing prayer are a thing
of the past.
Psalmist writing in Psalm 24 said, Who shall
ascend into the hill of the Lord, but
he that hath clean hands and a pure
heart?
Who hath not lifted up his soul unto
vanity, nor sworn deceitfully?
He shall receive the blessing of the Lord.
You'll agree with me, won't you, that there's
something tragic wrong.
But there it is.
And I don't think any of us would
say anything else.
But that hell is on the march.
You see, the Bible tells me that the
disciples went everywhere preaching the Word.
The Lord working with them.
And confirming the Word with signs full of
it.
One sermon preached on the day of Pentecost,
3,000 seen.
There are 3,000 sermons preached now.
And a lot of cases nobody's seen.
We're not in New Testament Christianity.
We have gone down the road.
And one would believe that the tragedy is
that the Holy Ghost has been de-officed.
You seldom today hear a word about the
Spirit of God.
Why?
I don't know.
Well, there are preachers who think that by
exalting or proclaiming the work of the Spirit,
you'll be taken away from the ministry of
Jesus.
But John 16 would clarify that by saying,
When He, the Holy Ghost, is come unto
you in Pentecostal power, He shall exalt Jesus.
You see, it's Him who exalts Christ in
the life according to New Testament story.
And so we have got to acknowledge that
there is something serious wrong.
The source of this power.
Well, the Bible tells us here, Now, it's
the power of the Spirit of God.
It's not human power.
It's not any power of our own.
As I have already stated, the Holy Ghost
is the third person of the Holy Trinity.
And Jerusalem was in an awful state.
Sin was rampant in the city of Jerusalem.
And these 120 believers in the upper room
and the disciples wanted to get on the
job.
They wanted to get out and get at
it.
But Jesus said, No.
Go back to the place of failure.
Back to Jerusalem.
Stay there and wait for the promise of
the Father.
Wait until God fulfills His promise and the
Holy Ghost comes in power upon you.
You see, that's what Jesus said.
And it would be good if every preacher
in the north of Ireland tonight got a
grip of that, wouldn't it?
That Jesus, instead of sending them forth as
they were, told them to go back to
the place where they had let the Lord
down the most.
Whenever He needed them most.
Whenever He was facing the cross.
What did they do?
They all forsook Him and fled.
And there on Calvary's Mount, naked.
Naked.
Star naked.
And soldiers below, casting lots for His undergarments.
That's it.
But you see, my friend, tonight, that was
Jesus.
And these are the words of Jesus.
This is what mesmerizes me.
That people never read the Acts of the
Apostles.
Because the emphasis on the Acts, if you
read it, from chapter 1 to the last
chapter, is the ministry and power and operation
of God the Holy Ghost.
You see, the Bible tells us that God
anointed Jesus.
Even Jesus.
He was thirty years at the carpenter's bench,
or whatever time He was at it.
In Nazareth.
He never performed a miracle.
Never did anything.
Was in subjection to Joseph and to His
mother Mary.
But before He began His earthly ministry, and
coming up out of the Jordan, John tells
us, He saw the Holy Ghost coming upon
Him in the form of a dog.
And every miracle that He performed, every one
that He touched and healed, every one that
He raised from the dead, every blind man
that saw, every man that was touched or
woman, at that particular time, for those three
years and a half, every word He spoke,
every miracle He performed, every action of Jesus
Christ, was in the power, and in the
power alone of the Spirit.
And even the Bible tells us that whenever
He was dying on the cross, He offered
Himself without spot to God through the Eternal
Spirit.
And how dare any man or any woman
say that they can live and operate apart
from the Spirit of God, whenever the Lord
Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity,
never performed a single act, spoke an inspired
word only by the Spirit of God.
That's already taken.
But that's according to Scripture.
Tell me, dear friend, tonight, can you say
that's right?
And then, not only that, but there's a
significance of this power.
What is it meant to do?
I have met people over the years, and
they have come to me, and they have
said, well, I feel I can't go on
any longer.
If God doesn't do more for me now
than He has done, I can't battle any
longer.
There's only one way, and that's back into
the Word.
But you know, friend, God is an answer
to it, the Holy Ghost.
You're in a meeting tonight, and life's not
easy, so it's not.
But here's power to live, above this world
and sin, with heart made pure, and garments
white, and Christ enthroned within.
Many are feeling that, aren't they?
Many tonight know perfectly well that their Christian
life is very inconsistent.
Cried and wept, repented, and went out and
did the same again, overcome, brought down, and
so on.
That's it, isn't it?
The disciples were the same.
There they were when they were in the
upper room with Jesus.
They were wondering which of them should be
the greatest.
And whenever He needed them, they all failed.
Failure could be written over those early disciples.
Failure!
After Pentecost, it was different.
Peter, before a wee girl, denied his Lord
with oaths and with curses.
And after Pentecost, what did he do?
He stood up in Jerusalem.
Man, I love that phrase.
Standing up with the eleven, and he charged
Jerusalem with the murder of the Son of
God.
Some transformation, wasn't there?
Bowing to a wee girl, ten days or
a few days, thirty days previously.
Now, standing up with the eleven, charging Jerusalem
with the murder of the Son of God.
And when He came to die, He made
a big request.
Tradition tells us.
He didn't want to be crucified the same
way as the Lord Jesus.
He asked them to crucify Him upside down.
Marvelous, wasn't it?
Power to live!
How were you living?
A man used to tell me in Archthrow,
and I was always tempted to say to
him, he used to say, I'm living in
the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.
And I was tempted to ask him sometime,
because I knew that he was addicted to
nicotine, and he was taking an odd pull
at him, even though he was professing to
be saved.
And I was going to ask him, how
was he getting on in earthly places?
Alright, living in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.
And that's right, and I wouldn't take away
from that.
But how were you and I getting on
in earthly places?
That's what matters.
Power to live!
And not only power to live, but power
to love.
Love.
That's it, isn't it?
A lot of hate about these days, isn't
there?
Hatred, one kind or another.
Catherine Booth was walking down the street one
morning, and she was passing the courthouse, and
she heard the yells of a woman, and
she looked across the street, and there was
a woman standing between two policemen, a human
wretch, polluting the morning air with her oaths
and cursings.
And the mother of the Salvation Army had
stopped on her step, and she left her
heart to God and wondered what she could
do.
What did she do?
She crossed the street, and she planted a
kiss on the cheek of the wretch.
And the woman threw her arms up into
the air.
She says, My God, who kissed me?
She was in the prison cell.
Catherine Booth went in to see her, and
every time she saw her walking up the
corridor, she would throw her hands in the
air, and she would say, My God, who
kissed me?
Mrs. Booth talked to her, and one day,
whenever the mother of the Salvation Army called,
she opened the door and invited her in.
And Mrs. Booth led her to Christ and
became one of the Salvation Army's greatest soul
winners.
Power to love.
The unlovely returning good for evil.
Power to labor.
You see, Jesus told them here, Ye shall
receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming
upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto
me, both in Jerusalem and so on, right
to the uttermost parts of the earth.
He was sending them out to be witnesses,
living witnesses, open and red of all men.
Tell me, friend, how were we getting on
at it?
I went to get something there in Kassel
Derg, when I was up at Ardstorfer.
I was up there a week ago, and
I went in to get something for the
car.
And there was a mission in Kassel Derg,
and the man that I was looking for
the parts of, I said to him, Well,
have you been to the mission?
He said, No.
I have no mission to go.
And I said, Well then, you are going
to go on to hell then.
He says, You just come in here today,
for they attacked me.
I said, I did nothing of the kind.
I came in here looking for parts of
a car.
For a car.
My brother-in-law's car.
It is good to tell it, isn't it?
You see, there are far too many people
silent in our day.
You can stand back, and hear the Lord's
name taken in vain, and never say a
thing.
People talking about your Jesus, your Savior, blaspheming
His name, and you never say.
If you hear them talking about your sister,
or talking about your brother, you would have
someone to say, Power to labor, to be
a witness, to pray.
And that is what the faith mission prayer
is all about, isn't it?
I had better rush on, because I can
see the clock is almost nine o'clock,
and I think it will soon be up.
The tape.
The secret of this power.
Well, the Bible tells us in John 7,
37, If any man thirsts, let him come
unto me and drink.
Thirst!
Are you thirsty?
For the Holy Ghost.
The Bible tells us in Acts chapter 5,
He gives the Holy Ghost to them that
obey Him.
Are you willing to pledge your obedience?
Implicit obedience, to the voice of the Holy
Ghost.
The Bible tells us in Luke 11 and
13, that ye being evil, know how to
give good gifts unto your children.
How much more shall your Heavenly Father give
the Holy Ghost to them that ask Him?
You see, He is a gift.
Salvation is a gift.
God has two gifts.
A gift for the sinner, Jesus.
And God has a gift for His saints,
the Holy Ghost.
What do you do with a gift?
You take it, and you thank the giver.
You remember the night, didn't you?
When you opened your heart to Jesus, and
He came in.
What did you do?
You thanked Him, for coming, didn't you?
Because you believed it was a gift, and
you accepted the gift of Jesus Christ.
This is a gift, the gift of God,
the Holy Ghost.
Plenty of course will you give.
Take Him, and thank the giver.
Jesus Christ Himself, gives the Holy Ghost to
them that ask.
That's it, isn't it?
Ye shall receive power.
After that, the Holy Ghost is come upon
you, and upon me.
May God bless His Word.
Amen.