Acts chapter 19, we'll be looking
at verses 1 through 7 this morning. Acts chapter 19, verses 1 through
7, and the title of the message this morning is, The Unchanging
Gospel and the Unchanging Spirit. The Unchanging Gospel and the
Unchanging Spirit. Acts chapter 19 and verse 1 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 you baptized? And they
said unto him, Unto John's baptism. And 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 they heard this, they were
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid
his hands on them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spake
with tongues and prophesied. And all the men were about twelve."
Now here, we have an account of the Holy Spirit of God concerning
these disciples of John. which were in Ephesus, and we
see and hear the providence of God now moving in the lives of
these disciples, these men that had heard the gospel by John.
Because they had not heard everything that had happened, God in providence,
not willing that their growth should be limited, He sent His
Apostle, His man, to preach to them again the message of God's
grace to tell them of the things that they were not aware of.
Now, these men were not lost men. These men were not lost
men. These were disciples of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Matter of fact, Paul in Scripture
says that certain disciples. And they said they were baptized
unto John's baptism. These men were saved, individuals,
and not lost. We must recognize that when we
read the book of Acts, that this is a transitional period of the
church. This is a transitional time in
which you'll find in this book, in this book of Acts, that there
were certain men that had not heard everything. If you'll remember Cornelius,
when we studied him, we looked at his account in the Gospel
here, in this book of Acts, and we read that he was a just man.
He was a saved man. But we know that Cornelius had
only learned the Old Testament at that time. He believed in
Christ that was to come, but he had not heard that Christ
had come. He was what we would call an
Old Testament saint. And when Peter came to Him, Peter
revealed Christ had already come. And what did he do? He embraced
it. He immediately embraced that because that's what he was waiting
for. He was waiting for Christ. And there's another type of believer
which is the same like these disciples. You remember last
week we talked about Apollos and how he was a disciple of
John. He was saved under the ministry of John the Baptist.
And so were these men. But you must understand that
they didn't have all the information yet. They only had part of the
information. They only had part. But they
believed what part God had given them. They had believed what
they had. Many of these only had partial
information because the gospel was not as quickly spread. Some of these men did not hear
everything. They believed the message that
they heard from John. And this message that John preached,
as we'll see this morning, was enough. The message of John was
the gospel. It was the gospel. And they believed
that message. Therefore, when Paul asked them
a question to see, he asked them a question to see what they had
known. You see, Paul didn't understand
or perceive everything about those believers. When you walk
up to a believer and you talk to him, do you perceive everything
about him automatically? Do you know what level of Christian
growth a person has unless you question him, unless you communicate
that and ask? And that's what Paul was doing.
He was assessing to whom he was speaking. And friends, when we
witness or when I preach the gospel, we always must assess
to whom we're speaking. I don't know if you notice this
or not, but usually on Sunday mornings, I have to cover a little
more ground than I have to on Wednesdays. On Wednesdays, I
know whom I'm speaking to. I have a faithful group of believers
in there than most of them are older believers, and I assess
that. But when I have somebody come in off the street, I would
have to assess that, hey, they're not going to know as much as
you do. And so Paul does this by questioning him. And he begins
by asking this question in verse 2. He says, Have you received
the Holy Ghost since you believed? Now, he knew that these men were
believers, and he knew that they professed faith in Christ unto
salvation. So then he began the gospel at
the point of where they were. He asks them the question, have
you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? And I want us to first understand
this, that Paul is not teaching that these two are separate things.
Paul is not teaching that believing in Christ and receiving the Holy
Spirit are two distinct, different things here. That's not what
he's preaching. But rather, he is talking about
the gifts of the Spirit. He said, have you, since you
believe, received the Holy Spirit or received the gifts and powers
of the outpouring of the Spirit of God? But their reply to this
was that they did not know about this outpouring. Look at that
in verse 2. He said, Have you received the Holy Ghost since
you believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard
whether there be any Holy Ghost. Now, these men, make no mistake
about it, when they were under the ministry of John the Baptist,
they heard about the person of the Holy Spirit. They heard about
the person of the Holy Spirit. John knew about the Holy Spirit.
John had personal, intimate knowledge of the Spirit of God in that
it was the Spirit of God that called him. And if you remember,
when he baptized the Lord Jesus, what happened? He said he saw
the Spirit of God descending on him like a dove. And in John
1.33, In John's record of this, he
says, "...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
baptized with The Holy Ghost. You see, John preached the Holy
Spirit. So we must understand that these men are not saying
they had no understanding of the Holy Spirit, but they had
no understanding of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They didn't
know anything about Pentecost and what had happened there. They had not heard of how God
the Holy Spirit was given and poured out upon all men, all
types of men. If you remember during the ministry
of John the Baptist, he was ministering to what nation? The nation of
Israel, wasn't he? He wasn't ministering to the
Gentiles as well as the ministry of Jesus Christ. You remember
what he said to that Gentile woman? He says, is it meat to
give the children's bread to dogs? Of course, he had mercy
on her, but his ministry was toward the nation of Israel until
when? Until the Spirit of God had been
poured out at the day of Pentecost. And so the next question Paul
puts to them is this, he says, if you've not heard of the outpouring
of the Spirit of God, then to what name were you baptized?
And they said unto him, to John's baptism. In other words, when
the Lord ascended, what was His command? Go you into all the
world, teaching all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. He said, under
what name were you baptized if you had not known the Spirit
was to be poured out or has been poured out? And they said, well,
all we know is John's baptism. All we know is that what John
preached and that we were baptized under his ministry. Look at that. And then Paul, after hearing
all that they knew, After hearing everything and answering the
questions that he had for them, he assessed to what level he
was speaking, and look what he says. Look what he says in verse
4, what he gives them. 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. And when they heard this, they
were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." It is from this message that
Paul preached to these disciples that we can clearly see the message
of God does not change. It does not change. Flip over
to 1 Peter 1. Hold your places. 1 Peter 1.
1 Peter 1 and verse 25. Peter says, But the
word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. Peter says the Word of God endures
forever. You want to know what the Word
of God is? It's the Gospel we preach. That's it. It endures
forever. The Gospel of God's grace in
Christ was the same from all eternity, and it will be the
same to all eternity. There's no difference. The message that these men heard
from John, is the same message that Christ preached, is the
same message that Paul preached, and is the same message that
I preach. It is the same gospel. You notice that Paul, when he
assessed that they had not heard everything yet, what did he point
them to? He pointed them to the gospel
they had already heard. He pointed them to the gospel that they
had already heard. Because that gospel is the only
true gospel of God's grace in Christ. And this gospel is faith
and repentance in Christ. This is the rudiments of all
Christian doctrine and practice. Faith and repentance. Repentance
and faith. Most people today, when you ask
them, what is repentance? And that's what Paul preached.
If you look back in your text here, he said, and Paul said,
"...and barely John baptized with a baptism of repentance."
What is repentance? What is repentance? Most people
believe repentance is turning from one particular sin or another. It is turning from a sin that
they've been made aware of. That's what they think repentance
is. Oh, I've sinned. I've got to repent from that
one particular sin and turn. No, that's not repentance. That's
not repentance. I think a better understanding
of the word of repentance is to take God's side against ourselves. That's what it is to repent.
To repent is to turn completely from self to God. That's what it is. Repentance
is an act of an awakened soul to life. In other words, no one
can come to repentance except they be given life to repent. And what happens in a man when
that message comes, when that message of repentance comes?
What does a man see? What does a man awaken to by
repentance? Well, the first thing he sees
is this, the holiness of God. He must see the holiness of God. And at the same time, he sees
the perfect, complete sinfulness of his own soul. An awakened heart, a quickened
heart, is one that sees His nature, sees exactly who He is by nature,
that sin is not just what He does, but it is the very essence
of His nature. An awakened soul sees that He
can do nothing. He can offer nothing to please
God. That's what an awakened soul
sees. He sees that in His flesh dwelleth
no good thing, and that if He stands before God in His religion,
if He was to stand before God in His works, if He was to stand
before God in all of His good deeds, He would rightly say to
God, Thou art just to send me to hell. That's what an awakened
sinner sees. And it's in this condition, it's
in this condition, that the Spirit of God comes and gives him the
gospel of Christ. I remember in that condition,
I didn't know where to turn. Did you? My soul was helpless. It was hopeless. I had nothing
and I could offer God nothing. And I didn't know where to turn
until the Spirit of God pointed me to Christ. It's there we hear of His condescension
to be a man. It's the gospel of Christ that
we hear. He has come to be the sacrifice
for sins. We hear the message that He has
come to deliver us from the guilt of sin, the power of sin, and the penalty
of sin. It is the unchanging message
of Christ that the Spirit uses to turn us from ourselves to
God. This is the message. This is
the message that awakens our soul. This is the message that
the Spirit of God uses. Repent! Repent and turn to Christ. Isaiah 55, 7 says, Let the wicked
forsake his way. and the unrighteous man his thoughts,
and let him return unto the Lord. And he will have mercy on him
and to our God, and he will abundantly pardon." It's when the message
of the gospel comes in the power of the Spirit to quicken the
sinner that he will see that his ways and thoughts are not
right. It's only then he sees that he
must turn and forsake all his goodness and turn by faith to
Christ. You see, repentance and faith,
they're just one coin. It's two different sides of the
same coin. You cannot have repentance without
faith and you cannot have faith without repentance. They're necessary.
They're necessary. Both of them are necessary for
salvation. Then what is faith? Some believe
faith is a decision. They've academically assessed
that they can't provide nothing for God, so they academically
make some decision to turn to Christ. Who wants to go to hell? Nobody wants that. Surely I can
just make my decision and turn to Christ. Surely that's faith. No, that's not faith. That's
not faith. Although faith does involve the
will, faith never comes by the will. It is never generated by
the will. For by grace you are saved through
faith. And that faith is not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God. If you have faith, we should
bow down every second before God and give Him praise all the
day for giving us faith. The faith I have now is a faith
that is by the grace and mercy of God. And if I have faith ten
minutes from now, it will be by the grace and mercy of God
alone. Faith is not something we can
produce. It is something that is given.
Something that's given. All those that are saved must
turn from sin and idols, from their thoughts and ways, and
they must turn to Jesus Christ by faith alone in Him for salvation. And all those who believe on
Christ, and still do believe on Christ, have been saved from
the wrath of God. We have been redeemed. We have
been pardoned. We have been forgiven of all
of our sins. We have had the mercy of God
shed on our souls. And so when John preached the
Gospel, what was his Gospel message? Behold, the Lamb of God. Is that not the same message
today? Is that not the same message
that thrills your souls? It is mine. It is the same message
that gives me hope, that gives me life, that gives me faith,
that gives me repentance. It is the same message. And it
doesn't change. It doesn't change. John's message
was, Behold the glamour of God. Paul's message was, Behold Christ. And this is the same message
that we preach today. I'm so glad that this message
doesn't change with the fashion of the age. I mean, I can't keep
up with the way people dress. If the gospel changed, how in
the world could we ever keep up with it? It doesn't change. It's the same gospel. And I know
that the comfort that Paul gave these disciples when they heard
this message again. He says, no boys, you've not
heard everything. But I'm telling you what, your
message that you heard was enough. It was enough. It was enough
for the salvation of your souls. It doesn't change. John not only
preached repentance and faith, he also preached baptism. Paul
not only assumed their faith and preached the message they
rejoiced in, but he also knew that they were baptized. Can
you not see in that, in his question? He said, unto what then were
you baptized? Unto what name? See, he knew
they were baptized. If they were believers, it should
be an easy assumption to think that one has been baptized. And when those people that heard
John's message, when those people heard John's message in John's
day, what did they do? Look at that in verse 5. He says,
when they, the people that heard John's message, heard this, they
were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now these men
were not rebaptized. That's not what it's saying.
You should take verses 4 and 5 and put quotation marks around
them because that is all the message of the Apostle Paul.
That is what he's talking about. He's talking about the they there
are not these men. These men were not re-baptized.
You read of nowhere in the Scripture of anyone who was baptized under
John's ministry that was re-baptized. Never. You never hear that. And
that's not what this is teaching. So don't believe that at all.
But those that believed, they were baptized. Why? Why do we go through the ceremony
of baptism? If baptism has nothing to do
with our salvation, if baptism does not add to the work of Christ,
then why do it? Because this is the only confession
of faith before men that is ordained by Scripture. The Lord Jesus
Christ commanded us to do so. Is that not a good enough reason?
That's a good enough reason for me. And I'll tell you this, if
anyone who is a believer in Christ refuses to be baptized, I'll
tell you, their faith is suspect. Their faith is suspect. Why?
Why would anyone that believes in Christ not obey Him? in such
a simple thing. It's a simple thing, isn't it? You see, there is no confession
of faith to come down to the front. There's nothing in the
Scripture that says that. The only way we confess Christ
is in baptism. We stand and identify with Christ
in His life. We are immersed and identify
with Christ in His death and burial. And when we come up,
we identify with Christ in His resurrection. That's a confession.
That's a confession. What's that confession? I died
in Christ. My sins were washed away in Christ. And I confess that before men.
I confess that before men. That's what baptism is. And this
leads me to my second point. They had not yet attained unto
perfect knowledge of this unchangeable gospel. These men, although they
knew the gospel, they did not know everything. Alright, here
it is. If you know everything, raise
your hand. Go ahead. If you know it all, if everything
is revealed to you of the Holy Scriptures, then please, by all
means, leave. I've got nothing for you. Friends, we've not yet attained
to perfect knowledge. We've not yet attained to perfect
knowledge. Those men that have a historic
faith in Christ, that only have a head knowledge of Christ, when
they come to the end of their understanding, they can only
go so far. And when they come to that last
point, you'll find out they'll just leave. When they've exhausted
their mental capacity, they become bored with the preaching
of the gospel. They can't endure. They just
endure it for just as long as they possibly can and they take
off. They run. They don't understand why the
preacher repeats himself week after week after week. They don't
understand that. But those that have heard the
gospel, by the Spirit of God and have been quickened by the
Spirit, we rather rejoice in this message for years and years
and years and every time we hear it, it is just as fresh as if
I heard it today for the first time. I think that's how we should
approach the Gospel every time we hear it, as though it's the
first time we've ever heard it. It should be as fresh to us today
as it was the first time the Spirit of God came and gave us
life. It should be just as fresh. We that believe still love the
old, old story. And we don't want anything else.
We don't want anything else. We still love to hear of His
condescension. We love to hear of His righteousness.
We love to hear of His crucifixion, of His ascension and His intercession. And we love to hear of His coming
again. This is the same story that's been from all generations. And it's the same story we love
to hear because we've not yet fully attained to the bottom
of it. Have you come to the bottom of
your sinful condition? Have you actually understood
fully how wicked sin is in the eyes of God? Because I haven't.
Have you come to the end of Christ's death? Have you seen how far
He had to come and had to reach down to get us? Have you seen
that? I haven't. Not yet. I've just
begun to scratch the surface of these things. And you know
what? It's going to take me all eternity
to learn them. So no, we don't have everything,
but we love this gospel and it's unchanging, but yet we've not
attained to everything yet. And lastly, the unchanging Spirit. Verse 6, And when Paul had laid
his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they
spake with tongues and prophesied. This same Spirit, the same Spirit
of God that wrote the Word of God, the same Spirit of God that
moved upon the face of the deep in the days of creation, The
same Spirit of God that descended upon Christ and filled Him without
measure. The same Spirit of God that when
the Apostle laid His hands on them and the Spirit descended
upon these men to give them these great gifts of tongues and prophecy,
is the exact same Spirit that dwells in every one of God's
children. Same one. Same one. Why do we doubt His power to
deliver us from the things of this life when His Spirit dwells
in us? Why do we doubt and fear so much about the things of this life
when God says, I will dwell in you, in you. Is His arm too weak to deliver
us? No. That same Spirit of God is
in us and dwells in us and He does not change. And friends,
this same Spirit, He does not change His means. of saving sinners,
which is by the preaching of His gospel. Paul said, For I
am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth. 1 Corinthians 1.21, For after
that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God.
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. Friends, if the Spirit of God
that gave us life and gave us faith also has come to teach
us by the preaching of the gospel, how should we neglect the method
and means by which the Spirit of God refreshes our souls? It's
the same method. He doesn't change. He doesn't
change. And friends, His Word never changes.
because the Spirit of God never changes. And we should, by His
grace, by His grace, recognize these things and we could have
much more comfort, much more peace in our hearts, if we would
just believe God, believe His Word, and trust that it doesn't
change. I pray that God blesses to our
hearts.