Alright, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 19. Acts chapter 19. We'll be looking at verses 1
through 7 this evening. I've entitled this, The Immutable
Gospel and Spirit of God. Immutable, unchangeable gospel
and spirit of God. The Scripture says, And it came
to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed
through the upper coast, came to Ephesus, and finding certain
disciples, he said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost
since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have
not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And
he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they
said unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized
with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they
should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ
Jesus. When the people heard this, they
were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul
had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came to them,
and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. And all the men
were about twelve. Now last time we were together,
I preached a message concerning the immutable God. God says in
Malachi 3 and verse 6, He says, Behold, I am God, I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. And so tonight I want to bring
a message to you concerning the gospel of the unchangeable God. The gospel of the immutable God
is in itself an immutable gospel. As it is the gospel of God, it
is as the attributes and the will of God, it is eternal, it
is unchangeable, and it is immutable. It's immutable. Now, in this
account, the Holy Spirit gives us of these disciples of John
that were at Ephesus, and by the providence of God. Consider
this. Out of all the people in Ephesus,
Paul comes along and finds these twelve men. The providence of
God brought them together, and they met the apostle. who instructed them concerning
the complete gospel message of which they were unaware. Now
these men, I want you to know this first of all, they were
not lost men. They were saved. They were saved
in the same way that everyone is saved, by the grace of God,
through faith in Jesus Christ. They believed on Christ. They
are here called disciples of Christ. And now, this is no doubt
in this church. We must remember, every time
you come to the book of Acts, you must understand the historical
place of the church. There was a transition period
that was taking place in the church. It was a transitional
time. And so then, not everyone knew
the fulfillment of the gospel. Not all of those that believed
in Christ's coming. knew that he had actually come
into the world. They didn't have the same means
of putting out information as we have. Tonight we're worshipping
together via internet. We're actually going on airwaves
and this gospel is going out to many people at one time. They
didn't have this kind of communication. The gospel was only as one believer
or one preacher would meet another person. And this was determined
of God to be this way, but many of God's people at this time
had only had partial information. Some of them, like in the previous
chapter, there is this man Apollos, and in another place was Cornelius. You remember Cornelius was a
believer in Christ. The Scripture says he was a just
man and waited for the coming of Christ. But you remember Christ
had already come, and he didn't know this until when? Until Peter
came. And Peter preached the full,
complete message of the gospel to Cornelius. He preached of
Christ having come and suffered for sins and risen from the dead.
Now he had done this already, but Cornelius had not known this.
And the same was true of Apollos. Apollos, like these men, was
a disciple of John. He had heard his gospel from
John. But yet we know this, that Priscilla
and Aquila came and they talked with him concerning the fullness
of the gospel. He didn't know this as of yet.
He was a believer, but yet he did not know that these things
had taken place. And the same is true of the men
in our text. They were believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ. They heard the gospel from John.
They believed on Christ. But yet, after this, they had
not known what had taken place. They didn't know the complete
fulfillment. They believed the message that
they heard. But up to this point, they had not heard what had taken
place after John's death. Therefore, in the sovereign providence
of God, Paul was brought to these men, and he asked them this question. Look at this in verse 2. He said
unto them, Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? Now isn't it good for every man
to witness of Christ or to preach the gospel to assess those to
whom he's talking to. That's a good point. Paul was
assessing what they had known, what they had heard. It's good
for us when we witness to people to always begin where they are. You know a good place to begin
witnessing is to know this, there are sinners in need of grace.
That's always a good place to begin, isn't it, when we witness?
That salvation is by grace and it's only for sinners. And so
Paul began where they were. He assessed what they understood,
what they knew, and then began to preach to them. And he begins
with these men's confession. That's what he began with. They
confessed to be disciples. They confessed to be believers
in Christ. And so he asked them, have you
received the Holy Ghost since you believed? And so what did
he know? He knew they were believers.
He knew that they professed faith in Christ alone as all their
salvation. And so that He began at that
point, which all believers should know, and that is that the Holy
Spirit had been poured out. He had been poured out, the Scriptures
had been fulfilled, which showed forth the authority and the truth
of Christ's ascension. God poured out the Holy Spirit
because it was a fulfillment of prophecy. And so he's asking
them, did you know about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit?
Did you know that the gospel we preach has been given authority
by these signs and wonders of God? By the pouring out of the
Holy Spirit. Now, I want you to understand
this because this is vitally important because some men have
taken this and made their own heresy out of this particular
Scripture. Paul is not teaching that a man
might be believed apart from having the Holy Spirit. That's
not what he's teaching. How do we know this? Because
Scripture is plainly clear about this. In Romans chapter 8 and
verse 9, the Scriptures are clear. If any man be without the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of His. So this heresy that is going
about, and they say, well you can believe on Christ and be
without the Holy Ghost, is a lie. That's not what's being taught
here. The Apostle says this in Galatians
4 and verse 5, he says, and because you were sons, God sent forth His Spirit of
His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. You can't be a
son of God without the Spirit of God. And if you are the Son
of God, God will send His Spirit into your hearts. So the Spirit
of God comes with faith. And faith, you must have the
Spirit of God to believe. So what was Paul doing by this
question? He was rather asking them if they had known the Holy
Spirit had been poured out to make manifest the authority of
the gospel that they believed concerning Christ. But their
reply was what they didn't know of the coming. They replied that
they didn't know. Look at this in their answer
in verse 2. And they said unto him, We have
not so much heard as whether there be any holy ghost. Now, what I want you to know
this is they're not saying they didn't know the person of the
Holy Spirit. That's not what they're saying at all. It was not that these men did
not know the existence of the Holy Ghost, but rather they did
not know He was poured out. They did not know that the fulfillment
of Scripture had come. It means that they have not heard
that the Holy Ghost had come, and these men were taught of
John, plainly, of the Holy Ghost person and His coming. I'm going to give you a scripture
in John chapter 1. I'm going to read it to you.
This is John the Baptist, the same one they heard the gospel
from. Listen to what he said. He said, And I knew him not,
but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto
me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending. and remaining
on him, the same is he which would baptizeth with the Holy
Ghost. And I'll give you another reference
in Matthew chapter 3 and verse 11. It says, I indeed baptize
with water unto repentance. But he that cometh after me is
mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. You see, so John
taught his disciples the person of the Holy Ghost, of the Holy
Spirit, and that when Jesus would come, he would baptize them. In other words, there would be
a descending of the Holy Spirit, and he would baptize them with
the Holy Spirit. So they knew of the existence
of the Holy Spirit. That's not what it intends to
mean. It says, we don't know if there'd be a Holy Spirit.
What they're saying is, we don't know that the Spirit had come.
Because John obviously taught of this Holy Spirit. So Paul
then puts this to them, this question. Look back in your text. In verse 3, he said unto them,
unto what then were you baptized? And they said unto John's baptism. He said, if you've not heard
of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, then what baptism were
you baptized with? And they answered John's. By
this, Paul knew where they heard their gospel. They heard it from
John. And so then the apostle, like
I told you before, he begins where they are, right? Look what
he says in the next verse, in verse 4, and then Paul said,
John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying
unto the people that they should believe on him which should come
after him, that is on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, They were baptized in the name
of the Lord Jesus. Now I want you to understand
that's all one statement of the Apostle Paul. It's all one statement
from the Apostle Paul. So when he says in verse 5, they
heard this, he's talking about the people that heard John. When
the people heard John, what did they do? They were baptized in
the name of the Lord Jesus. Now, it's from this I want you
to see something. And this is my message. This
is the core of my message. Is that the gospel doesn't change.
It doesn't change. This Gospel that we are preaching
tonight is the same Gospel that was preached by God in the Garden
of Eden. It's the same Gospel that was
preached by Moses and the prophets and Abraham. It was the same
Gospel that is preached by John. It is the same Gospel that was
preached by our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the same Gospel that Paul
preached. So where did Paul begin? He said,
look, let's just go back to the first person that you heard this
Gospel from. And so here Paul preaches to
them the gospel. Don't you know this, that the
Word of God is immutable? Isn't that what Peter said? He said, All flesh is grass,
and the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withers,
the flower fadeth. But, what did he say? The Word
of God endureth forever. Which word? This is the word which by the
gospel is preached unto you. Listen to this, the gospel of
God's sovereign election, the gospel of Christ's eternal redemption,
the gospel of His perfect salvation, the gospel of the Spirit of God
the quickening power of the Spirit of God, the Spirit that calls
us to life and faith and keeps us in the faith firm to the end,
is the same gospel because it is the Word of God. It's the
Word of God. And the Word of God doesn't change.
That message that these men heard is the same message Christ preached.
It's the same message Paul preached and the same message we're going
to preach tonight. What is that message? Look back
at what he said. He said, John verily baptized
with the baptism of what? Repentance. Saying unto the people
that they should, what? Believe. On him which should come after
him, that is on Christ. See, Christ's not yet come, but
who is He saying? He's saying you should believe on Him who's
coming. What do we say? You should repent and believe
on Him who has come. Our message is the same. We're
all telling you to repent and believe on Christ. So this is
the unchangeable gospel. Here it is. It's a message of
repentance and faith. Repentance and faith. Repentance
and faith are the rudiments of the doctrine and practice of
all true Christianity. Of the true gospel of Christ.
Now most people today, let's look at these individually. First
of all, repentance. Repentance. What is repentance?
Most people today believe repentance is turning from one sin or another. They said, hey, you need to repent
of smoking. You're just smoking and you need
to repent of that. You're going to the movie, you need to repent
of that. You're drinking, repent of that. That's what they say. It's turning from one sin or
another. And they think by repenting,
this makes them holier. Most men believe that if they
repent from a sin, that makes them closer to God. As though
they are now more acceptable of God because they have repented. Well, that's not true repentance. Because repentance is not turning
from your sin to your repentance. Repentance always leads to faith
in Christ. trusting Christ to make us acceptable. Now a better understanding of
the word repentance is this, to take God's side against yourself. Now there's repentance. To take God's side against one's
self. Repentance is an act of an awakened
soul. It's an act of one who is born
again of the Spirit of God. So when God the Holy Spirit comes,
and He quickens a man to life, that man is then able to see
things about God and himself. He's awakened. He's enlightened
about some things. What is the first thing he sees?
He sees first of all the holiness of God. Listen, you profess to believe
in Christ, have you seen the holiness of God? Do you know
what God requires of you? God requires of you to be perfectly
holy. To be without sin in order to
be accepted of Him. And what do you see about yourself?
When you see God as He is, holy, and what do you see about yourself?
We see ourself to be nothing but perfect sinfulness. perfect
sinfulness. That we are absolutely incapable
of being holy as God requires. It's when we are quick and we
see that sin is not just what we do, but sin is what we are. We are by nature sinners. Therefore, we sin. We begin to see God as just and
righteous and holy and that we have nothing we can do, nothing
we can offer, nothing we can present to merit the favor of
God. This is what repentance begins
with. It begins with the inability to be accepted of God by our
works. It is to confess that in the
flesh dwelleth no good thing. Repentance begins by confessing that we cannot stand in the presence
of God, that nothing of our religion, our self-righteousness, nothing
of our works or actions can deliver us from the just and holy sentence
of eternal damnation. That's where repentance begins.
If you've never seen that, then you've never repented. If all
you see is you've done some bad things and you need to start
doing some good things, that's not repentance. That's not the
repentance of the Holy Spirit. That's not what John was talking
about. That's not what Paul or Christ is talking about. He's
talking about taking God's side, saying, God, you are holy and
I am sinful. There is nothing I can do to
merit God's favor. Isn't that what God said? There
is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They are all together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no not one. That's taking God's side against
myself. That's taking God's side against
everybody else. But this is the condition in
which we hear Christ. This is where we hear the gospel.
In order to have repentance, we must first see this situation. Our condition is irreversible
and hopeless. If you don't ever see that, you'll
never turn to Christ. You know why men don't come to
Christ? Because they've got some other option. It's only when
you don't have another option you'll turn to Christ. When you
are brought to your wits end, you've got no place to go. It's
then the gospel is preached and we hear of the condescension
of Jesus Christ. What does that mean? We hear
of Him who is God come down and became a man. A real man. He grew up as a real man. He experienced everything a man
experiences without sin. He came into this world to be
a representative man. To be a high priest and an offering
for the elect of God. When we hear that He has come
to be the sacrifice of God for sin, we hear the message that
He's come to deliver us from the guilt of sin, the power of
sin, and the penalty of sin. By His own personal obedience
and one offering. It is then we turn from self
to Christ. Because there's nothing in self
but sin. And there is nothing but salvation
in Him. And so repentance is turning
from self, from self-righteousness, from our own supposed goodness. We repent from our own ability
to merit God's favor and heaven and turn to Christ for all of
that. We repent by the power of the
Holy Spirit and turn to Him. Now listen, this isn't just something
John preached. Look at Isaiah 55. Look at Isaiah
55. See this, Isaiah preached it.
You can go to several other passages, but this is as good as any. Isaiah 55. What a beautiful passage
of repentance this is. Look at verse 7. Let the wicked
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts." What is that? His way. How you think a man
gets to God. Now you need to forsake how you
think man gets to God. Most men think you get to God
by works. You need to abandon that. That's repentance. You
need to stop looking at your way to God. Your way is not to
God. Your way is to hell. Let the
unrighteous man forsake his thoughts. His thoughts on how to please
God. Well, I think God would be pleased if I did this. You
know, if I just repented of this one sin, God would be pleased.
No. You need to forsake that. and let him return unto the Lord."
How? Freely. Return unto Him. Come to Christ. Turn away from
yourself and come to Christ. And He will freely, listen, He
will freely have mercy. Now listen, who needs mercy? Guilty people. Those who are
guilty need mercy. and to our God, and He will abundantly
pardon." Now how can He do that? He can abundantly pardon because
Christ has already paid the debt for sin. He can abundantly pardon
because He has by Himself purged our sins. And he has by his work of obedience
merited a righteousness, even the righteousness of God. This
is how he can pardon the sinner. Because all that is required,
Christ did. Everything you need. I want you
to listen. If you're a sinner, and if you have no place to go,
I want you to listen to this. Christ has done all you need. Simply abandon yours. and receive His. That's repentance,
isn't it? It's turning from yourself to
Christ. And how do you turn to Christ?
You turn to Him by the second thing, which is faith. Repentance
is what John preached, and he preached you should repent and
do what? Turn by faith to Christ. To believe on Jesus Christ. Now some believe faith is nothing
more than a mere decision. If you just make up your mind
one day to believe on Christ, that that's faith. No, that's
not faith. That's not faith. Faith is not a mere decision
of man's will. They believe that all men have
some free will to make a decision of faith, and it's by this act
of the will, spiritual life comes. They say, look, you want to be
born again? Well, you've got to just make a decision. And
once you believe by your free will, it is then you're born
again. No. In order to believe, you must
first be born again. And so the product of the new
birth is what? Faith. Repentance and faith are
a product of the new birth. And so it's not the will of man
that causes the new birth. Never has there been born more
of a blasphemous doctrine than this. Free will works religion
is a lie of the enemy of God. It was a lie from the beginning,
wasn't it? He said, when you eat that fruit, listen, you shall
become as gods. You'll be able to be free will.
You'll have a free will. You'll be like God. You can choose
good and evil. Once you eat this, you'll be
able to choose. What happened? Were they able
to choose? No. Sin entered in and there was
no choice but to sin. That's a lie from the beginning.
On Free Will Works, religion is a blasphemous doctrine. It's
a heresy. It's not the truth. It's a lie. Faith does involve the will of
man, but faith does not come by the will of man. It's a major
distinction, friend. For man died. When Adam sinned,
he died. And his will died. Therefore a man walks according
to the flesh. The Scriptures are clear that
the natural man receiveth not the things of God. They are foolishness
to him. Neither can he know them because
he is spiritually judged, condemned. But faith, friends, is of God.
And just as repentance, faith is a gift of God. For by grace
you are saved through faith, and what? That not of yourselves,
it. Faith is a gift of God, not of works. Why? lest you brag,
lest you boast. And that's what free will works
religion does. It boasts in man's will. God says if true faith
has nowhere to boast, because it's not of itself, it is a gift
of God's grace. And all those who are made to
see their utter hopelessness in themselves, they will repent,
they will turn to faith in Christ, not by their own power, but by
the power of the Holy Spirit. by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Paul tells us of those in Thessalonica, he said they turned to God from
idols. Turned to God from idols. Repentance and faith. And all
those who believe on Christ. Do you believe on Christ? Do
you believe on Christ to save you from the wrath of God? Do
you believe on His works alone? Do you believe on His person,
His deity, His humanity? Do you trust all your soul and
body and mind to His sovereign salvation? Do you hold only to
Him as to be accepted with God? That's repentance from self and
faith in Christ, is to receive Him as all your salvation, as
the only precious blood that could redeem us and pardon us
and forgive us. And so when John preached, Behold
the Lamb of God, that's what these men did. They by faith
repented and looked to Christ. They beheld the Lamb of God,
these men. These men were disciples because
they came by repentance and faith in Christ and so is everyone
that comes to Christ in faith and repentance. Have you repented? Have you seen who you are? Have
you seen who God is? If you ever see that, you'll
have no choice but to repent and turn by faith to Christ.
Because you've got nowhere else to go. And friends, this is an unchanging
message. It's the same message John preached,
repentance and faith, repentance and faith. Listen, do you desire
salvation? Then turn from yourself. Stop
looking to yourself. Stop trying to please God and
see that Christ already pleased God. And then just hold to Him. That's faith and repentance.
Now the third thing is this. In this Gospel we read of baptism. Look at what John says. Go back
to your text. He said, John preached repentance. He said, He verily
baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people
that they should believe on Him who should come after Him, that
is on Christ. And what did they do? Once they believed, once
they repented, what did they do? When they heard this, when
they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
They were baptized. Paul not only assumed their faith
and preached the message that they rejoiced to hear, the full,
complete message, but he also knew that they were baptized
because they had repented and believed. Because all who repent
and believe, guess what? They're baptized. They're baptized. Now, this is not a re-baptism. I want you to understand that.
That verse is not talking about Paul taking them and re-baptizing
them. In fact, you won't find that
in Scripture. You won't find re-baptizing in Scripture. Not
of someone who truly believed and was baptized. Now, they may
not have all the understanding, but if they've believed on Christ
and were baptized, then there's no need to be re-baptized. Now,
if they were believing in a false god, right, and they weren't
under the true gospel and they were baptized, well sure, they
need to be baptized to begin with because all that was of
no account. That was not the true God, it
was not the true gospel. Their baptism was nothing. It
was a show. It wasn't a following of Christ. So it's not re-baptism, it's
just baptism. So some believe in order to confess
Christ before men that you must do something in front of the
church. Now that's a common thing, isn't
it? When people say, you need to confess Christ. And what they
do is say, well you need to come on up to the front. It ain't
in the book. Coming to the front is not in
the book. You know what is? Baptism. Baptism
is the only true confession of faith given to us in Scripture. The only way we confess Christ,
to show men that we have repented and believed on Christ, is to
obey Him and submit to believer's baptism. Baptism, friends, is
the immersion of the believer in water as a picture. It does not save. It doesn't
have anything to do with the salvation. As a matter of fact,
you're not supposed to do it unless you are saved already.
And once you are saved, you are confessing to everyone that you
identify, that you are in union with Christ when He lived, you
are in union with Christ when He died, when He was buried,
and when He rose again from the dead. That's what it tells everybody. And so if you are a believer
in Christ, and you have not been baptized, I don't know what to say. Your
faith is suspect. Your faith is suspect. Because
you confess Christ to be your Lord, but yet you will not obey
a simple command of being baptized. Why? Why would you not be baptized? I don't understand your argument
as to not being obeying the command of Christ and being baptized.
Jesus said, But he that heareth and doeth not is like a man who
built his house upon the earth. When the storms came, it blew
it down. You see, we only believe by our lips. We believe by what
we do. And His word is, be baptized. Mark 16, He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved. Now, baptism doesn't have anything
to do with salvation, but those who believe are baptized. Now,
I understand hindrances, right? Thief on the cross. You put him
down off that cross, he would have been baptized. He would
have. He had obeyed Christ. He had no opportunity. He died
the very same, very few hours after our Lord did. He couldn't
get down. These men no doubt rejoiced to
hear that message. You know, they didn't flinch. They said, yep, that's exactly
right, Paul. That's exactly what we heard. And I'm so glad you
came and filled us in on what was remaining. That the Spirit
of God had descended and come. Yeah, but that message that John
preached, that's what we believed. They said, yeah, that's right.
That's the same message I'm preaching now. Why? It's an immutable message. Which leads me to this point
here. That we who have believed and
repented have not yet attained unto perfect knowledge. Isn't
that right? We've not attained unto perfect
knowledge. This is why you need preachers.
Alright? Paul said he gave gifts unto
men, some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastor-teachers
for this purpose. For the maturing of the saints. The perfecting of the saints.
until all of us come together in faith and are brought to Himself. That's what we're here for. We're
here to declare this Gospel of Jesus Christ over and over and
over again. Why? We are broken cisterns. It just leaks out of us so much. What are you going to remember
out of this message? I hope you remember everything,
but I don't think you will. I don't know if I will. I wrote
it. I don't even know if I think I remember everything in it.
This is why we need constant reminders of these things. Now
listen, I've met men who've made a profession of faith, and they've
endured for a little while, and they went away. These men had
only a historic faith in Christ. They had only a head knowledge
of the gospel of Christ, and once they filled their head,
they said, well, there's no more to learn. I've actually had a
man tell me that. He said, well, I've learned everything
there is to know. I said, your faith is vain. It's
empty. Because it's not a doctrine to
be learned. It's Christ. It's Christ. I like what Paul said. He said,
I count and do count all things but done that I may win Christ.
Now I'll tell you what, did he not win Christ? He said, yeah,
but I want to win Christ. and that I might be found in
him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law." Now Paul,
did you have the righteousness of Christ already? You bet he
did. But he said, I want to know that I know that I know I have
in him and have the righteousness of Christ. He said, that I may
know him. Paul, did you know him? Well
yeah, I spent three years in Arabia learning my gospel directly
from the Lord Jesus Christ. I knew him, but I'll tell you
this, I want to know him. Listen, I know him, but I want
to know him. I love Him, but I want to love Him. I believe
Him, but I want to believe Him. I know the doctrine of election,
but man, I don't know the doctrine of election. I know the doctrine
of redemption, but man, I want to know the doctrine of redemption.
I want to know the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and the quickening
of the Spirit, and the power of the Spirit. I want to understand
that. I want to know that. This is
why we grow in grace. When children are born, they
have all their fingers and toes. They don't grow extra fingers
and toes. But those fingers and toes, they grow. And that's what
the Gospel is. When we're born again, we have
all we need, but we grow in it. These men had all they needed,
really. But when Paul came and expounded
to them more of this Gospel, they were able then to grow in
it. grow in it. We've not yet fully
attained unto this message. Paul said, I'm not attained unto
perfection yet. It seems to me the more I grow
in the grace and knowledge of Christ, the more I need to grow
in the grace and knowledge of Christ. The more I know of Christ,
I realize this, the less I know of Christ. The more I count all things lost,
I need to count more lost. I have not yet seen the bottom
of my sinful nature. I have not yet seen God in His
complete holiness. I have not yet attained to understand
the fullness of Christ's death so far as His blood has gone
to remove the stain of my sin. I have not yet plumbed the depths
of how far my sin has gone and how far His blood has gone under
my stain and covered it. I'm not yet attained into the
resurrection of Christ. But I long to. I long to. Well, how do you do that? Through
the preaching of the gospel. The constant preaching. Paul
said, for me to repeat these same things to you is not grievous,
but for you it is safe. It's safe. so that you be not
moved about by every wind of doctrine that comes down the
pike. And these men were humbled by
Paul's message and they learned it. Isn't that something we should
know? I mean, if we're taught, if God
the Spirit would teach us, may God give us teachable spirits.
Isn't that right? Well, we do not need teachable
spirits. Alright, who doesn't need a teachable spirit? I know some men would raise their
hand, but that would be too arrogant. They would not do it in public,
but they do it in private. And so that's why they don't
read, they don't study, they don't hear. I've learned enough. I've got enough. I know it all.
God keep me from such a spirit. And I know He will. And this
leads me to our last point, the unchangeable Spirit. Not only
the unchangeable God, but the unchangeable Spirit. Look at
verse 6. And Paul had laid his hands upon them, and the Holy
Ghost came on them, and they spake in tongues and prophesied. He regave them the gifts of the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit." Now this same Spirit that Paul
here anoints them with is the same Spirit that every
believer in Christ possesses within this mortal frame. Paul said, know you not that
your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I told you already,
any man that hath not the Spirit of Christ hath none of his. You
have the Spirit of God dwelling in you. This unchangeable Spirit. Now we know that these gifts
that Paul laid on these, that these are no longer necessary
gifts. That's why they're not prevalent
today, and what you hear in those false churches. And I had a lady
ask me about this. She was attending her mother's
church, Church of God, and they were talking in gibberish, you
know. And she said, I don't understand how people could
accept that as truth. And I said, well, it's easy to
see it's a lie. Simply by looking, not at their
gibberish, but looking at their gospel. If their gospel is not
a gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone,
without the deeds of a man, without the free will of a man, without
the obedience of man, it is simply a gift of God's grace. If that's
not their gospel, then everything they do is not the Spirit of
God. Remember, the Spirit of God has one purpose, and that
is to teach us of Christ. Teach us of Christ. And so now
we have the full revelation of God. We need not these gifts
and signs and wonders like this, because we have the full revelation
of the Word of God. And according to the Word of
God, what is the work of the Holy Spirit? Here it is. He gives
life and faith. Life and faith. Jesus said, "...the
Spirit quicketh, the flesh profiteth nothing." These words I speak
unto you, they are Spirit and they are what? Life. The Spirit
of God, His work is to take this gospel of faith and repentance,
faith in Christ, and He is to take this word and apply it to
the sinner. to those that God has chosen
and Christ redeemed, the Holy Spirit will perform this work
in every one of them. They will come to see who they
are, they will see who God is, they will repent from their dead
works, and they will turn by faith and believe in Christ.
Why? This is the work of the unchangeable Spirit. It is always
His work. The wind bloweth where it listeth.
You can hear the sound thereof, but you can't tell where it's
coming. You can't tell where it's going. So is everyone that
is born of the Spirit of God. If you're born of the Spirit
of God, that is the work of God. And it's a sovereign work. You
can't tell where it's going to happen. You don't know when it's
going to happen. And God just... it happens. That's
it. You weren't ready for it. You
weren't wanting it. You didn't care for it. And it happens.
God convicts you of sin, God points you to Christ, and you
believe, and that's it. That's His work. It's His work
to save, to give life. And it only comes by preaching.
What to God people would understand the means of preaching, the necessity
of preaching. Not just any preaching. Woe is
me if I preach not what? The Gospel. Not that I don't
preach. It's that I don't preach the
Gospel. Woe is me. I preach the Gospel for a reason
because this is what the Spirit uses. He only uses this. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the Gospel for it is the power of God. unto salvation, only
as the Spirit uses it. So that's the work of the Holy
Spirit. He comes and gives life and faith. And the next work of the Holy
Spirit is this. He keeps us in the faith. He keeps us believing. He keeps us believing. You didn't put yourself in Christ.
How do you suppose you can keep yourself in Christ? You can't. That is the work of the Spirit
of God. Peter said this, "...who are
kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation, ready
to be revealed at the last time. And as He keeps us, He also leads
us." He leads us. What does He lead us to do? The
same thing He led you to do in the beginning, to believe in
Christ. As many as are led by the Spirit
of God, these are the sons of God. What does He lead you to
do? He leads you to look to Christ. When we go through this world,
we believe in Christ, and I'll tell you this, faith and repentance
go together, and it's a constant thing. I'm constantly turning
away from self. That's the work of the Spirit.
Constantly rejecting the notions that come into this evil mind
of mine. Constantly trying to reject anything
that would dishonor my God. And I'm constantly turning, not
to self to accomplish this, but to Christ. What is that but the
work of the Spirit leading me? He leads us. He leadeth me, O
blessed thought! O words with heavenly comfort
wrought! Whatever I do, wherever I be,
tis my God that leadeth me. He leadeth me. And what then
is the result of this Spirit? What's the result? Well, what
happened here? Look back in your text and see
what happened. And he went about in verse 8,
and they went into the synagogues and spake boldly for the space
of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning
the kingdom of God. What happened? They preached
the Word, didn't they? They told others. They had a
desire that others should come. Do you have a desire that others
should come? I know, listen to me believer,
we get caught up in ourselves, don't we? We get so caught up
in our own sin, our own inability, our own struggles, our own evilness
that we say, well, you know, I just don't have enough to get
out and tell others. No, that's a lie. You do. We're
just selfish. Fr. Walter Gruber, he said, I'm
not being selfish, I'm just thinking about myself. No, they went out and spake to
others of Christ. That's what we're here for. Don't
you know that? We're not here for any other
reason. We should speak of Christ. And what was the response of
that? Look at that next. But when divers were hardened
and believed not, they spake evil of that way. Listen, when
you preach the gospel, they're going to speak evil of this.
They're not going to like you. And they ended up, these believers
in this chapter, you find out they just huddled in a little
school room somewhere. They found some place, they borrowed
a room, and they huddled around there for two years. And you
read of these men that came in and how they tried to imitate
that and how God ran them off. But look at verse 20. This is
a promise to us who have repented, who have believed this immutable
gospel, who have, by the Spirit of God, are still continuing
to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, who have been born
again of the Spirit, and are kept by the Spirit. Listen, this
is a promise. So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed. Guess what this Word's going
to do? It's going to grow and it's going to prevail. Not like
the world sees it. The world sees it, it only grows
if you've got 10,000 people. That's not necessarily how it
happens. How about it just grow in me?
And prevail in me? And you? Listen, it will. God's going to take this Word
and do exactly what He wants to do with it. I have my desires,
don't I? Don't you have your desires,
what God would do with this Word? You know what God's going to
do? What God wants to do. Are you going to apply this exactly
the way He desires it be applied? And I pray that it's in the salvation
of sinners. I know it will be. I know some will believe. Some
will repent. And some will not. Some will inherit eternal life. And some will not. Oh, would to God everyone would
repent and believe that they might be saved. I'm thankful that God has given
me such grace and to continue to believe. I
know if He hadn't kept me, I would have been gone long ago. But I'm here because He keeps
me. That's the immutable spirit that keeps me in the immutable
gospel because it's by an immutable God. I'm just going to rest in that.
I pray God give you grace to do the same.