Let's come to our Saviour. Our
Heavenly Father, we do thank You for the wonderful privilege
of You gathering Your people together, of the promise of You
coming and revealing Your Son to us and in us and in ways which
are beyond the understanding of men. Heavenly Father, You
illuminate the Scriptures and You speak to the hearts of Your
people through those And we do pray, Heavenly Father, that the
promise of the Lord Jesus, that His words are spirit and life.
might be our portion this morning. May it be you who speak, Heavenly
Father, and may you teach us and lead us and guide us into
all the truth as is promised, that we might magnify the Lord
Jesus Christ, that we might see him high and lifted up, we might
see him as sovereign Lord of all. And may we, Heavenly Father,
by your gracious work in our lives, be enabled to call him
my Lord. We pray your blessing on your
word, Heavenly Father, this morning. And we do pray for the preaching
of this gospel around the world. And we thank you for our friends
scattered throughout this world who continue to encourage us
in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray your blessing
upon their labours and their preaching. Heavenly Father, we
thank you. We thank you for the privilege
of having the gospel, the wonderful privilege of knowing the Lord
Jesus Christ as he is in his true character as revealed in
this holy word. Bless us, Heavenly Father, for
his sake we pray. Amen. We've been singing some
of those old hymns because Peter's coming. in October and we're
practising, so we're not only practising for singing in heaven,
we're practising singing for our friend. So he's so much looking
forward to it. He said he and Jill, not a day
goes by where they're not talking about the delight of coming back
to Australia. They will be seeing a grandchild
and a son and a daughter-in-law, but they're actually going to
see a family as well, a family of God. So those passages we
looked at in Acts chapter 11 raised some questions, those
verses we looked at. The question is, you know, what
is it to be baptised in the Holy Spirit? How can I know that I
have received the Holy Spirit? Has it been or can it be that
in the words of verse 44 of chapter 10, that when Peter spake all these
words, the Holy Ghost fell on them. The Holy Ghost fell on
them. It's a lovely word, that word
fell. The Holy Ghost fell. The Holy
Spirit fell upon them. When something falls upon you,
you have no control over it whatsoever. It just falls on you. And it
comes from beyond you. And you are a receiver. It comes unexpectedly. Generally things that fall on
you, fall on you in an unexpected way. But the Word also has sweet,
sweet references to the Blessed Holy Spirit and His work. To
fall on them means often to embrace. And the Holy Spirit comes, He
embraces His own. He seizes them. He presses upon
them. And the Holy Spirit comes as
a result of preaching the Gospel. There is a power from on high. that comes, like that rushing
mighty wind that came on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter
2, this same Holy Spirit came on these believers in Cornelius'
house in the same way. The Holy Ghost fell on them.
And then Peter also says that the Holy Ghost was poured out,
verse 45, and they of the circumcision which believed were astonished.
Peter brought six of the circumcision with him and brought them to
Cornelius' house from his house where he was staying in Joppa.
He brought six of them there and he took the same six over
to Jerusalem. Peter was probably well aware
that he needed witnesses to have all the prejudices of the Jews,
which had been built up for those 2,000 years, overturned. But
the Holy Spirit was poured out. They were astonished. As many
as came with Peter because that on the Gentiles also was poured
out the gift of the Holy Spirit. So it's poured out as a gift,
it's not earned and it's not worked for. It means to gush
out. I don't know whether it's been
your experience, brothers and sisters, but has there been a
time when the power of God illuminating his word has come upon you and
it has seized you, it's pressed upon you, it's been poured out,
it's been, it's gushed out upon you, shed abroad in your heart,
The words cease to be just the words of men. They actually become
the words of God. It's something that is promised. It's the promise of the blessing,
isn't it? That promise of the Spirit that
comes as a result of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
All of these blessings are blood-bought blessings, and these blessings
come upon these people because that actually had The word preached,
we looked at it last week, the word which God sent unto the
children of Israel, preaching peace, gospelising peace, by
Jesus Christ. It's a declaration that the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all, has won peace for his people,
peace with him, peace with God, peace in all the trying circumstances
of this world. Have I, have I been baptized
in the Holy Ghost? Have I been baptized with the
Holy Ghost? The Holy Spirit is an illuminator. There is a phrase that's used
in Acts chapter 10 verse 37. and it's used in Acts chapter
2, verse 22, is that the Apostle Peter, in this sermon which is
so remarkably simple, just gives a history. He outlines the history
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He declares him as a result of
history, but in Acts 10.37 he says, you know that word The word which God sent unto
the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is
Lord of all. That word, I say, you know."
So they knew the word, they knew the history, they knew what had
happened. They were only just a little
way away from Jerusalem, and this is years, this is years
after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel
has gone to Samaria, Philip had gone through that coast preaching. These people knew there is a
knowing, there is a knowing that is not a saving knowing
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Greg Elmquist was telling me
about a fellow who was a professor at the college he was at, and
he had memorised the Old Testament in Hebrew. and didn't know the Lord Jesus
Christ. The most famous Greek scholar,
Andrus Bergentopoulos, he had a set of volumes, I think it
was something, it was huge volumes on the Greek New Testament. He
was a Jewish man, and he knew the Greek New Testament better
than anyone else on planet Earth. Both those men, it appears, died
in unbelief. The baptism of the Holy Spirit,
the work of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential for you
to know the Lord Jesus Christ in a saving way, to know Him,
to know Him as He is, to have Him revealed. Turn to Acts 13
and we'll see some people who knew, knew a lot, like these
two men that I've just spoken about, they knew a lot. He says in verse, let's go back
to verse 26. Men and brethren, children of
the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you
is the word of this salvation sent. For they that dwelt at
Jerusalem and their rulers, because they knew him not, And just listen to this next
phrase, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every
Sabbath day. They didn't know him, but they
hadn't heard the voices of the prophets. They'd heard the words
of the prophets, they'd read the words of the prophets, they
could quote them and recite them. But they hadn't heard a voice.
They hadn't heard a voice from God. Even though they were read
every Sabbath day, even though the very words that they knew
off by heart, you read on in our verse 27, it says, they fulfilled
them in condemning Him. And though they found no cause
of death in him, yet they desired Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all
that was written, they took him down from the tree and laid him
in a sepulcher. But God raised him from the dead. They knew him not. It is the most horrifying statement
that will ever be witnessed on the Day of Judgment, when people
do come to meet the Lord Jesus Christ, and meet Him as they
really find Him to be as declared in the Scriptures. He says, Many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in your name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name
done many wonderful works? Then I will profess unto them
I never knew you. Depart from me. So they thought they had good
works. The Lord Jesus Christ declares,
ye that work iniquity. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. The will
of the Father is to look to the Son. The will of the Father is
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. is something more than just knowing
about him. There is a necessity. Cornelius
knew a lot about God. He was a man who feared God.
He was a man who knew something and a lot about the God of Israel. But Cornelius didn't know him
as he is. Salvation is knowing Him. This is eternal life. I quote
the verse often. I pray the Lord would write it
on our hearts. This is eternal life, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou
hast sent. He's not known except by revelation. He's not known except the Holy
Spirit come and illuminate things. There are those wonderful verses
in 2 Timothy 1 verse 9, which speaks of that illumination,
that enlightening. It's essential for us, isn't
it? He speaks of the power of God, and you suffer. Be thou
a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God, verse eight, who has saved us and called us with
an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. And this is what's happened,
isn't it? It was all given. It was all there in existence,
signed and sealed in that covenant of grace from all eternity, but
is now made manifest. Now made manifest. It's rendered
apparent. It's become clear. There's a
light that's shone upon it, hasn't there? Manifest by the appearing
of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and has
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Life and immortality to light. So when a light shines on something,
nothing's created. What's revealed is what's already
been there, isn't it? It's just like we opened that
curtain there. The mountains which have been
there for thousands of years are still there, aren't they?
The great glory of the gospel is that the work was finished
from the foundation of the world. Our great God reigns. He reveals. He reveals that it's
the work of the Blessed Holy Spirit, the glorious work of
the Blessed Holy Spirit, to take the things of the Lord Jesus
Christ, to take those ascension gifts and apply them to people,
to cause this Gospel to be proclaimed, to be baptised in the Holy Ghost,
to be baptised with the Holy Ghost, is to receive His Word. His word to become life, to hear
from Him. Let's go back and have a look
at the sermon in Acts chapter 10, which Peter uses to describe
being baptised in the Holy Spirit. One of the things that's always
difficult, and it's a pain in the neck really, but we have
to actually talk about what so many people misunderstand as
the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is just a common thing amongst
Pentecostals and others. to think that somehow after you've
been saved, then by doing certain things and experiencing certain
things, you receive some second blessing experience. And I don't
know about you, when I was young and naive, I was troubled. by
those people. Partly troubled by what they
were saying, because I had an experience that partly troubled
because I thought, well, if there's gifts going around out there,
I want to be in on this. God's children are like kids
in a lolly shop, I'll have a bit of everything, thank you very
much. And if some people have it, but one of the things they
do, of course, is that they actually then say, as they still do, loudly
and clearly in so many places, if you haven't received that
second blessing experience, if you haven't spoken in tongues,
And modern tongues is gibberish, brothers and sisters. Tongues
in the Bible is someone speaking in a language. It's like Norm
Day speaking Tamil. And I can understand some Tamil. And I could understand what Norm
Day was saying. And if Norm Day is speaking in
tongues and he's speaking Tamil and I understand Tamil, one thing
he's going to be doing, he's going to be speaking as they
do in Acts chapter two, they'll be speaking of the wonderful
works of God. Modern tongue speaking is all
about the wonderful works of man. All of these gifts, these
particular gifts, there is a particular baptism of the Holy Spirit to
remind and to show the early church that the Gentiles were
co-heirs with the Jews and so they received the Holy Spirit
and they spoke in tongues on this occasion to show that, as
Peter says in Acts chapter 11, that they have received the gift
exactly the same as the Jews. There is absolutely no difference
between Jew and Gentile. But tongues have ceased. Tongues have ceased. These spiritual
gifts have ceased. Let's just have a look at a couple
of verses. It's always a distraction, but I think I trust it's helpful
for you. In Acts chapter Sorry, in 1 Corinthians
chapter 13, it speaks of these, he says, charity, love will never
fail, verse eight of chapter 13. But whether there be prophecies,
they shall fail. They'll come to an end. Whether
there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge,
it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy
in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that
which is in part shall be done away. What's the perfect? The perfect is the full revelation
of God. When John put the full stop at
the end of the book of Revelation, end of story. Let's go to another
passage just to show you that these gifts have finished so
that you don't get caught up in the nonsense of it. If you
recall back in Acts chapter 8, Philip had gone down to Samaria. Philip had gone to Samaria and
he had preached the gospel down there, and people believed. And verse 14, and now when the
apostles were at Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received the
word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John. who, when they
were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy
Ghost. Then they laid their hands on
them and they received the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost was poured
out in that early church in ways which caused the confirmation
of the Word of God to be proclaimed. But the thing that's interesting
is that Philip was a preacher. Philip was a successful preacher,
and yet the apostolic gifts, those apostolic gifts were given
to the apostles and given to those to whom the apostles had
laid their hands upon. So when the last of the apostles
is gone, all of those spiritual gifts are gone. Wouldn't it be
lovely? It would be lovely to have the
gift of healing, wouldn't it? It'd be lovely to go round to
John's mum's hospital ward and lay a hand on her. You know that
it's fake, brothers and sisters, because the hospitals are full
of people, and yet we have these healers all over the place. There
is just one further verse that I'd like you to look at, and
that's in Hebrews chapter 2, and it describes the reason for
these gifts coming and the reason for these gifts finishing. The Apostle speaks of this word,
verse 2 spoken. He says in verse 1, we ought
to give more earnest heed to the things which we have heard,
lest at any time we should let them slip. how often they slip
from our memory and how sad it is. For if the word spoken by
angels was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompense or reward, how shall we escape if
we neglect so great salvation, which at first began to be spoken
by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? God also bearing them witness
both with signs and wonders and diverse miracles and gifts of
the Holy Ghost according to His will." They were there, the gifts
were there to confirm the fact that the apostles were speaking
the very word of God. the anointing of the Holy Spirit,
the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It's essential for salvation.
It's essential to know God. It's essential for Him to have,
for God to enlighten you so that you see Him as He is. Not as
the religious world sees Him, but to see Him as He is. It's to receive His word. So let's just look back in Acts
chapter 10 briefly and just look back through this sermon and
look at the declarations there are in this sermon of Peter's
because whenever the Holy Spirit is poured out, he's going to
be poured out in such a way that he will confirm the preaching
of the gospel. He will confirm the word that
is preached. And he will, wherever he's poured
out, he will glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's just see
how Peter glorifies him. It's a word sent by God, as the
Lord Jesus promised in Acts chapter 1 verse 8. He says, you will
receive power from on high, and you shall be witnesses unto me,
both in Jerusalem and Judea and unto the uttermost parts of the
earth. Now this gospel is going to the Gentiles in the uttermost
parts of the earth. It's the promise of the Lord
Jesus Christ being fulfilled. But for it to be baptized by
the Holy Spirit, there must be a word sent from God. In our
text, verse 36 of chapter 10, there's a word sent from God. There is a gathering, as we saw
in chapter 10 earlier, there is a providential, supernatural
gathering, a gathering of God's chosen child to God's chosen
preacher. And it's called, in Ezekiel 16,
it's called the time of love. a time of love. The Lord Jesus
Christ will have all of his people come to him. He will have all
of his bride. He will never be seen as a failure in any way
at all. But they will come. They will
come in a sovereign hand of God. A sovereign hand of God worked
in Cornelius' heart, and a sovereign hand of God worked in Peter's
heart. But the sovereign hand of God brought a shining angel
to Cornelius. Wouldn't you have thought that
would have been wonderful? Wouldn't it have been lovely to hear the
gospel from a shining angel? You won't hear the gospel from
a shining angel. You'll hear the gospel from a
Galilean fisherman. You'll hear the gospel from an
ordinary man. You'll have the preacher and
the sinner brought together by the hand of God. You will have
this gospelizing word, this gospel, this news, preaching peace by
Jesus Christ. There will be a declaration of
him that peace and that reconciliation of God, there will be a declaration
that He is Lord of all. For there to be a baptism of
the Spirit, there must be a declaration that the Lord Jesus Christ is
God. He's God over all. He's Lord
of all. He's Lord of all providence.
He's Lord of all creation. He's Lord in salvation. He's Lord of all. all, nothing wriggles in this
universe outside of His absolute sovereign control. There will
be in the hearts of God's people, there will be that preparatory
work, there will be, as verse 35 said, there will be a divine
realisation, there will be a fear of God, He that feareth Him,
there will be a divine desire divine desire to work righteousness,
there will be, as the gospel is preached, there will be a
realisation that the Lord Jesus Christ has brought peace because
he is our righteousness before God. And that's why the servants
of God, the children of God, as the psalmist says, they'll
speak of thy righteousness and thine only. There'll be no talk
of the righteousness of Cornelius, no talk of the righteousness
of man. There is sovereignty. There is a declaration that the
Lord Jesus Christ is anointed. It means to be Christified, or
Messiahed, as it were. He's anointed, verse 38, anointed
with the Holy Ghost. Anointed with the Holy Ghost
and anointed with power. The Holy Spirit came upon him
at his baptism. He was publicly anointed at his
baptism. And he went about doing good. God was with him. All of the
activities of the Lord Jesus Christ are declared to be the
activities of God. He does what his father has given
him to do. He does what his father has shown
him to do. He is the good shepherd. He is
the one who only does good. No one else does good ever. And he went around doing good
because man was in need of someone to come and do good for them. And he is the revealer of God,
isn't he? He reveals God. He reveals the
true character of God. Philip says at the Last Supper,
doesn't he? He says, show us the Father.
Show us the Father and that will do. That'll suffice. The Lord
Jesus turned to him and said, Have I been with you so long,
Philip? If you've seen me, you've seen
the Father. If you're going to see God, you're
going to see God in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is that one who is Lord of
all. He is that one who was anointed
by God. He is the one, as Peter declares,
was slain by the Jews at Jerusalem. They slew him and they hung him
on a tree. He is the one, verse 40, that
was raised up by God. So all of these characteristics
of the Lord Jesus Christ are preparatory and essential for
there to be an anointing of the Holy Spirit. To be baptised with
the Holy Spirit is to have this word come to you. For this word
to be real in your life, for this word more than to be a history,
for this Lord Jesus to be the one who in his resurrection has
defeated death, in his resurrection he shows openly that God has
accepted his sacrifice, that God has now justified all of
his people, that they have peace with him. And it is witnessed
by particular people. See, it begins with election,
doesn't it? God is no respecter of persons. It's wonderful, isn't it, that
God is no respecter of persons, because there is nothing in my
person to be respected, and nothing in yours before God. He's no
respecter of person. He chooses his people on the
basis of his love for them, which is a sovereign love. And he chooses
his witnesses on the basis of who he chooses to bear witness
to. The Lord Jesus Christ, after
his resurrection, was revealed to his own and his own alone. They're witnesses chosen of God. God chose the witnesses. God
chose the activities of the witnesses. God chose the witnesses and to
whom they would witness him. He is the resurrected Lord of
all now. And he is the one who governs
and directs all things. Verse 42, and he commanded us
to preach. Preaching is a command from God,
a command. a command that's obeyed by God's
people. He commands us to preach. What
a glorious thing. He commands His preachers to
preach peace by Jesus Christ. That's the command of God. What
a glorious command. What a glorious command that
we have the remarkable privilege of participating in, week in
and week out. When God commands, God provides. When God commands, God promises,
commands these things. He's not only the commander,
but he is the judge. It's interesting in Acts, in
the sermons in Acts, and we'll look at them more closely as
we go through, but the sermons in Acts to the Gentiles, Peter
makes very little reference to the particular sins of people. You read this sermon, you can
see that these people are sinners. You can see that Cornelius had
reason to fear God, and he had reason to work righteousness. And the question is why? Why
in these sermons in Acts, here in Acts 13 and Acts 17, the larger
ones in this, there is not this labouring. People think somehow
that we have to actually impose all of that upon people to get
them to see that they are sinners and to get them to see that they
have a need of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is a time and
a place for those things. But people think that the law,
preaching the law and preaching your disobedience to the law,
brings you to Christ. It's not, brothers and sisters.
It's the work of the blessed Holy Spirit to bring you to Christ.
It's the work of the blessed Holy Spirit to reprove you of
sin and righteousness and judgment. We'll look at that a bit later
on. But that's His special work. I can talk to you about your
sins all day long. I can talk to you about the depravity
of man all day long. But unless the Holy Spirit shows
you that you are the depraved one, it is all meaningless. You only have to read the newspapers
to study history to know the depravity of man. You only have
to know a little tiny bit about your own heart. And it's only
God in revealing the Gospel that you'll actually see what sin
is. You only ever see sin as sin in light of the proclamation
of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. You only see sin as sin when
you see what God did to his son when he was made sin. It's the
only place that we'll see sin. You can dangle someone over the
pit of hell, said someone, until you singe every hair off their
body, and it'll have no effect on them whatsoever. We are dead,
brothers and sisters. We are dead. We need the blessed
Holy Spirit to come and to give life. to give us a sense, as
these sermons show us, that there is a resurrection from the dead.
There is a resurrection from the dead, and there is a judge.
At that resurrection, there is a judge. He's the judge of the
quick and the dead. He's the judge of the living
and the dead. He's the judge of the saved and the unsaved. The gospel is preaching peace.
Peace with the judge. Peace with the judge. That's
what it is to receive the Holy Spirit, is to know peace with
the judge. Listen to verse 43. To him give
all the prophets witness. To be baptized with the Holy
Spirit is to bear witness that all of the prophets spoke of
the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. As Peter declares
in his first epistle, he says that that was the declaration.
That's what all these Old Testament prophets, they long to look into. They spoke of this one thing
again and again. They were searching out what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did
signify, when it testified beforehand. This was all the Old Testament
is about, Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. What's the glory that should
follow? He gets glory for himself in
gathering his people in church. He gets glory for himself in
the proclamation of the gospel. Our great God, who is Lord of
all, he's a promise maker. He's a promise, a promiser, isn't
he? Listen to it. To him all the
prophets give witness, verse 43, that through his name, whosoever
believeth on him, whosoever believeth in him, shall receive remission
of sins. To have your sins remitted, to
have them taken away from you as if they never existed, to
have them taken away from you and laid on the Lord Jesus Christ
is a work of God. To receive remission is to have
release from them. Sins weigh people down. False teachers weigh people down
with their sins, don't they? They keep reminding them again
and again and again of their sin, and they remind them again
and again and again of the things that they need to do to fix it,
the things they need to do to fix their lives, to get themselves
polished up and ready for heaven. That's not what the preaching
of the gospel is about at all. To receive remission of sins
is to be set free from that captivity, as Isaiah 61 says. It literally means letting them
go as if they had never been committed. That's what it is
to be justified, brothers and sisters. What a glory, what a
glory to be justified by the Lord Jesus Christ. To have your
sins so completely taken away that you are perfectly fit for
heaven. Holy, he declares his people
to be, blameless. No sin, a perfectly fit receptacle
for the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in you, purely because
of a sovereign work of God, an electing Father, a redeeming
Son, and now a regenerating Spirit. It's remarkable, isn't it? We
commented on it last week. But this baptism of the Holy
Spirit that Peter talks about in Acts 11, it's almost as if
the Holy Spirit interrupted Peter's message, that simple message
about the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. While Peter yet spake
these words, the Holy Ghost fell on them all, which heard the
word. It's to hear, isn't it? To hear. Thousands of people heard, but
some hear to the saving of their souls. They heard the word, that
word that God sent, they heard. They heard. And they of the circumcision
which believed were astonished, because that on the Gentiles
was also poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit. For they
heard them speak in tongues, speak with tongues and magnify
God. When the Holy Spirit came upon
those people on the day of Pentecost, what did people hear? In all
of those tongues, in all of those languages, they heard them declaring
the wonderful works of God. It's what preaching the gospel
is, isn't it? Preaching peace by Jesus Christ,
the wonderful works of God. What is it to be baptised? in
the Holy Spirit, in the Holy Ghost. It's to be buried, isn't
it? It's to be buried in such a way
that you're hidden from view, that this man of flesh disappears. The old man is dead. We read it in Romans 8 earlier,
didn't we? That old man is dead. They that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the Spirit, but they that are after the Spirit,
the things of the Spirit. The things of the Spirit are
to reveal to us that our death has happened, that this flesh
has been put to death. We keep quoting those verses
in Galatians. Paul describes his activities,
his being immersed in the Holy Spirit. him having the Lord Jesus
Christ revealed in him that he might preach him among the heathen.
But he says of his experience, he says, I through the law am
dead to the law. Through the law, he died to the
law. The law required death. The wages
of sin is death. The law got a death. It got the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it got the death of all of
those in him. I, through the law, am dead to
the law, that I might live unto God. It's like the words in Romans
8, isn't it? To be carnally minded is to be
looking at the flesh. To be carnally minded is to be
looking at our activities. To be carnally minded is to be
looking away from the Lord Jesus Christ, thinking that we have
to do something. We have to do something to earn
our salvation, to keep our salvation. The old man is dead. Paul says it so succinctly at
the end of Galatians. He says, For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision availeth anything. Circumcision has no
power. All of you, all of those Jewish
acts under that law, the circumcision was the entrance into the law.
It happens when you're an eight day old baby and you kept it,
your parents kept it for you and you kept it. It avails nothing. need nor uncircumcision. The only thing that matters is
a new creature, a new creature. The old man, this baptism in
the Holy Spirit, our baptism, our water baptism is but a picture,
isn't it? Water baptism is a picture, according
to Romans 6, of the baptism of the Holy Spirit then. He says in verse 3 of Romans
6, know ye not that so many of us as were baptised into Jesus
Christ were baptised into his death. We were immersed into
his death. When he died, we died. To be baptised is to be hidden
from view, and for one to be seen. Therefore, we are buried
with him by baptism unto death, that as like Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, We shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. All of God's children were baptised
into his death and all of God's children were raised together
with him and there'll come a glorious time when we'll be raised and
we'll have resurrection bodies like his resurrection body. Knowing this, Knowing this, do
you know this, that our old man is crucified with him? Do you
know it? The Apostle Paul knew it, that
the body of sin might be destroyed. Henceforth, we should not serve
sin. Anyone who thinks that preaching
the Gospel leads to licentious living doesn't understand the
Gospel at all and hasn't heard the Gospel. Knowing this, that
our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might
be destroyed, henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is
dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ
being raised from the dead dieth no more, death has no more dominion
over him. For in that he died, he died
under sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. He lives unto God. I love what
he says in verse 11. It's a lovely reckoning. Do you
reckon this? Likewise, likewise reckon ye
also yourselves to be dead indeed to sin. Do you reckon yourselves
dead to sin? God says to reckon yourselves
dead indeed to sin. See, to be calmly minded is to
be continually reminded of your sin, isn't it? That you must
do something about it. Reckon yourselves also dead indeed
unto sin. And reckon yourselves alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Is that what you reckon
yourselves? Reckon yourselves. To be baptised
in the Holy Spirit is to have that reckoning. Like our verses
in Romans 8 and these verses here before us, there is in this
Holy Spirit baptism, and we are immersed and He is seen, there
is those two glorious things in the Gospel, isn't there? There's
the wonder of union with Him. We were united with Him in His
death, we're united with Him in His resurrection, we're united
with Him in heaven. There is union and there is communion. To be baptised into the Holy
Spirit is to believe the words of God, to reckon yourselves. It takes a new creation, it takes
a new man, a recreated man, a resurrected man to believe these things.
They are just remarkable, aren't they? He speaks of the Holy Spirit
bringing these things to our, not just to our notice, but to
be our life itself. That was his prayer. The sufferings
of Christ and the glory that should follow. The glory that
should follow is the fulfilment of every promise he ever made. All of the promises of the Old
Testament, all of the promises that he made. Let's read some
of them in John chapter 14. John 14, 16, and I will pray
the Father, and he shall give you another comforter. To be
baptised in the Holy Spirit is to have the Holy Spirit come
as a comforter. that he may abide, I love that
word abide, it means to come and to live and to stay with. He may abide with you forever,
even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but you know him, for he
dwelleth with you. He dwells with them and shall
be in you. I will not leave you comfortless.
I will come to you. When the Holy Spirit comes, the
Lord Jesus Christ comes as well. I will come to you, yet a little
while, and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me. Because I live, ye shall live
also. What a great promise from our
Saviour. In that day, in that day, in that time of love, in
that day when these things are revealed by the Holy Spirit to
you, in that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and ye
in me. and I in you." He made a promise, brothers and
sisters. He signed and sealed that promise
with his precious life's blood. And it's the Holy Spirit's glorious
work, isn't it, to take the things. He'll take the things of mine,
take of mine, and He'll show it to you. He actually shows
it to you. He enlightens and He illuminates. He brings He brings life and
immortality to light. He takes those words and they
become precious. They come poured out. They come
embracing you. They come shed abroad upon you. to baptise the Church with the
Holy Ghost is to immerse it. It came in Acts 2 as a mighty
rushing wind and those tongues of fire, those cloven tongues,
came upon those apostles and they went about, that 120 people,
preaching the wonderful works of God here, here. Peter just says, it came on us
at the beginning, but here it was a word. They didn't need
those mighty washing tongues. The apostles had been appointed
as the preachers of the gospel. And now, and now until the Lord
Jesus comes, the Holy Spirit comes and baptises his people
by the preaching of the word. Just the preaching of the word.
Preaching of the word. who is God, those words sent
sovereignly, those words from witnesses chosen, the words of
preachers, the words that come to people as Paul says to the
Thessalonians, the word of God came to you. He says he thanks
God without ceasing because when you received The Word of God,
you heard of us. You received it not as the Word
of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God. And it's not
an inactive word. Paul goes on to say, the Word
of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe. It's an effectual word. It seems
to all the world like foolishness, and yet is the power of God unto
salvation. Promises fulfilled. The words
of God, gathering His people, gathering preachers and hearers,
the blessed Holy Spirit, taking the things of the Lord Jesus
and revealing them to people. He comes as a spirit of truth
to guide us into all the truth. He comes as one who brings to
remembrance all the things that the Lord Jesus Christ had done
and said. He comes as a revealer, as we
read in 2 Timothy 1.9. He comes as a testifier to who
the Lord Jesus Christ is. He comes as an advocate. He comes as an intercessor. When you pray, occasionally we
really pray, so often our prayers are groans. And Romans 8 says
the Holy Spirit takes those things. And there He is interceding with
us according to the will of God. He is the one that seals us. In Ephesians 1.11 he says, no,
1.13, in whom you also trusted after you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after you believed,
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. To have this
Holy Spirit of promise is to have the very Spirit of God.
To be immersed in Him is to have Christ in you, the hope of glory. If the Spirit of God dwells in
you, says Romans 8, and if the Spirit of God doesn't dwell in
you, if you don't have the Spirit of Christ, you're none of Him. You're none of Him. He's the
Spirit of truth. Without Him, there is no knowing
the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no salvation. Without
Him, there is no truth. Without Him, there is no sanctification. He reveals Christ as our sanctification. He is also the sanctifier. Paul
thanks the Thessalonians, he says, because God from the beginning
has chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief in the truth. Without him, there is no faith. He's a comforter. Has he comforted
your hearts? Has he comforted you by showing
you the Lord Jesus Christ? Has He comforted you by bringing
you into communion with Him, by revealing that Christ is in
you, the hope of glory? He finishes that letter to the
Corinthians, doesn't he? He says, in the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of
the Holy Spirit, There is a communion between our souls and the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have joy unspeakable and full
of glory. He is the glorifier of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the convictor of sin and
righteousness and judgment. He has the glorious work of crowning
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The glorious work of gathering
the Church, the glorious work of making all those ascension
gifts of the Lord Jesus Christ completed and fulfilled in us. What is it to be baptised with
the Holy Spirit? In the words of our text, it's
to have Him fall upon you. It's to have Him poured out upon
you. It's to have Him make you to
be a sinner and make you to be a believer. It's make you to call upon Him
as He's revealed. to be baptised of the Holy Spirit
is to believe all that's written about Him. Everything that's
written about Him, we say yes and amen to. As Peter said in
that sermon, he began by talking about the electing love of God.
We love, God's children love the electing love of God. We
love the redeeming love of Him. We love the absolute sovereignty
of God. We love the fact that He makes
these promises. To have the Holy Spirit poured
out upon you is to magnify God. To magnify God. He seems so small
and He seems so distant and He fills this universe. To magnify
Him is to have that light shone upon Him. It's to receive. It's to receive. They received. They received remission of sins. They received a like precious
faith. It's simply to believe, to rely,
to trust Him. Are you trusting Him? Are you
relying upon Him? Do we need, like Peter, a word
when he says doubt nothing? Doubt nothing. Believe God. Lay all of the hope of your eternal
salvation upon Him and Him entirely. To receive To be baptised in
the Holy Spirit is to call, isn't it? Whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever believeth in
him shall receive remission of sins. Ask him, ask him. Seek, knock, it'll be given unto
you. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do thank you again for your word of promise. And we pray,
Heavenly Father, that we would find ourselves as those who call
upon the name of the Lord. We find the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the character of him as revealed in the scriptures,
so extraordinarily endearing to our souls, that in his glorious
character, in his extraordinary sin-bearing death upon Calvary's
tree and his glorious resurrection, He is all in all to us. We praise you, Heavenly Father,
that He is Lord of all, that in His sovereign Lordship, He
has chosen to come. In the sovereign Lordship of
the blessed Holy Spirit, He's come to His church at that time
of love and buried us with Christ in His death and raised us to
newness of life. Heavenly Father, we pray that
you'd cause us to magnify your glorious Son, our Redeemer, our
Saviour, our Lord, to know Him as our brother. to know him as
the friend of sinners, to be comforted, Heavenly Father, by
your blessed Holy Spirit, to take those words of his and make
them spirit and life, that we might live as he has promised,
because I live, you also shall live. Bless your word, Heavenly
Father, by your Holy Spirit's work to the hearts of your people. For the sake and for the name
of your dear and glorious Son, we pray. Amen.