Go with me back to Acts chapter
19. Acts chapter 19. Here in this text,
the Apostle Paul asked 12 men a very soul-searching question. A very soul-searching question.
This was soul-searching to me. I do pray that the Lord will
quicken us right now. We don't war against flesh and
blood. We war against other things.
And I pray the Lord will send His Holy Ghost right now and
quicken us and cause each one of us to ask ourselves this question,
this question Paul asked. Chapter 19, 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 you received the Holy Ghost
since you believed? That's an interesting question,
isn't it? Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? I thought it was God's Holy Spirit
that brought faith to a sinner and caused that sinner to believe.
It is. It is. That's the work of the
Holy Spirit. He brings the faith of Christ
to a sinner and then he performs that faith in that sinner and
then he causes that sinner to look to Christ and believe on
Christ. So what an interesting question this is that Paul asked.
Verse 2, he said, Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believe? Now I'm going to get right to
the heart of the matter. We're going straight into the
heart. Here's the whole point. Let me show you why this question
is so soul-searching. Turn with me to Acts chapter
8. I'm going to read about 16 verses
here and let's see if we can enter into what this says. Acts
chapter 8 verse 5. Then Philip went down to the
city of Samaria and he preached Christ unto them. And the people
with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake,
hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits
crying with loud voice came out of many that were possessed with
them, and many taken with palsies and that were lame were healed. And there was great joy in that
city. But there was a certain man called Simon, this man Simon,
which before time in the same city used sorcery and bewitched
the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great
one, to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest,
saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they
had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with
sorceries. But when they believed Philip
preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, In the name
of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Then Simon
himself believed also. You see that Simon himself believed
also that's what God's word says. Then Simon himself believed also. And when he was baptized, he
continued with Philip and wondered beholding the miracles and signs,
which were done. Now when the apostles which 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.
For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they were
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now let me tell you what
that means. Philip came down preaching, and he worked signs
and wonders. And the reason was to confirm
his message. And this message needed to go
forth. This message needed to be preached. This New Testament
had to be written. Everything that is happening
here is being recorded by a man named Luke, and now we have God's
Word. But only the apostles could confer
the gifts of prophecy in other tongues, because they had to
go to other tongues, and signs and wonders to confirm it to
them. I'm preaching God's Word because
I can do things I couldn't do before. So Peter and John, the
apostles, came down to where this was. Philip, this Philip,
was not an apostle and could not confer these gifts. Now verse
16 says, For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they
were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they
their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And
when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the
Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me also
this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the
Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy
money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift
of God may be purchased with money. Now watch verse 21. Here's
the point. Thou hast neither part nor lot
in the matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of
God. This man, Simon, believed what
Philip preached. God's Word says He did. He might
have believed that Jesus was the Christ. He might have believed, and I'm
sure He did believe, that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. And that's good. You believe
Jesus is the Christ, that's good. You believe Jesus Christ is the
Son of God, that's good. But the devils believe that. The devils believe that. Turn
with me to James chapter 2. James chapter 2 and look at verse
19. Thou believest that there is
one God. One God. Thou doest well. The devils also believe that.
And they tremble. They tremble. Don't turn over
there, but in Mark chapter 1, our Lord cast a devil out of
a man, and this is what that devil said. He said, I know who
you are, the Holy One of God. That's what He said. And then
in Mark chapter 3 it says, The unclean spirits fell down before
our Lord crying, Thou art the Son of God. They knew. They knew. Now turn over to Luke
chapter 4. I want to show you this one. Luke chapter 4, look at verse
40. Now when the sun was setting,
all they that had any sick with diverse diseases brought them
unto him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed
them. And devils also came out of many, crying out and saying,
Thou art Christ. You're the Christ, the Son of
God. And He rebuking them, suffered
them not to speak, for they knew that He was Christ. They knew
He was. Isn't that something? They knew. They knew He was the
Christ. The problem was their heart was
not right. They knew that. But their heart
was not right. Here's the whole problem. They
didn't love him. That's the whole problem. That's
what it all boils down to. They did not love him. He said things. They did not
believe him. They did not love his word. And because of that, they're
going to die in their sins. Salvation. is a heart issue. Salvation is a heart issue. Proverbs 4.23 says, keep thy
heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. Brother Henry used to say all
the time, salvation is roughly 18 inches. I measured it yesterday. It is exactly 18 inches from
here to here. It's 18 inches. It's the distance
it takes to get from the head to the heart. From the head to
the heart. Here is our soul searching question
tonight. Do I I mean do I, when I cut everybody
else out and I'm standing alone, do I love the Lord Jesus Christ? And does He love me? That's all
I want to know. That's all I want to know. I
don't need to know about anything else. All I want to know is do
I love the Lord Jesus Christ and does He love me? That's it. My life depends on it. It depends on it. Do I love Him? And do I love His Word? Do I
love this Word? I love what John Newton wrote. He said, "'Tis a point I long
to know. Oft it causes anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am I His or am I not?" If I love, why am I thus? Why this dull and lifeless frame? Can every one of us not enter
into that? Hardly sure can they be worse
who have never heard his name. Truth, Lord. Lord, decide this doubtful case. You must decide. Here I stand,
I'm just a sinner. I know I'm dead. I feel it. So you must decide this doubtful
case. This is in your hands. Lord,
decide this doubtful case. Thou who art the people's son,
sense upon thy work of grace, if indeed it be begun. If you
did something, let me love thee more and more. If I love at all, I pray, if
I have not loved before, help me to begin today. If I have not loved you before
today, as I stand behind this pulpit right now, Lord, would
you help me to start right now? right now. Help me to begin today. Our Lord said, you ask, you'll
receive. Isn't that what He said? Here's
my prayer. Here's my prayer. Put a love
in my heart for the Lord Jesus Christ. And put a love in my
heart for that precious blood that He shed every drop. Don't
let me take one drop for granted. Don't let me grow tired of hearing
about the life He gave. Make me love, make me love it. David said in Psalm 23, he makes
me lie down. Make me love it. Not just believe
it. Yeah, I got it. Man was sin,
Christ came, Christ died, man's good, gotcha. Make me love it. Make me love him. Send it from
my head to my heart. Search me, oh God, and know my
heart. That song comes from what David
said. Search me. Have I received the saving love
for the Lord Jesus Christ? The love that comes through the
gift of God's Holy Spirit. Didn't the Apostle Paul say,
he wrote it in 1 Corinthians 13, he said, though I preach,
though I prophesy, that's how he said it, though I preach,
and understand all mysteries and have all knowledge and all faith so that I could
remove mountains. And though I give all my goods
to the poor and though I give my body to be burned, if I don't
have love for the Lord Jesus Christ, it profits me nothing. It profits me nothing. Has God
performed an operation on this heart? That's what I want to
know. On this heart, do I love him? Do I love his word? Do I love hearing about what
he's done for me? Have I received, not accepted, have I received
the gift of God? And what is that gift? It's love
for Jesus Christ. It's love for Him. Faith, hope,
and love. The greatest of these is love.
True love. Do you know why we love this
Word so much? We love this Word, don't we?
You know why we love this Word so much? It's because it's His
Word. That's why. It's His Word. We love Him. We love hearing
from Him. That's why we love every word
of this. If I am willing to throw out one of His words, the longer I am in the ministry,
the more I am running into people who want to split hairs over
doctrinal things and words and such on and so forth. If I am
willing to throw out one of His words to protect a doctrine that
I have in my head, something is wrong. Something's wrong. You know why we hold to every
single word in his book? Because it's his word. We love
him. The Spirit of God Himself, this
is what Paul asked them, have you received the Holy Ghost? I mean, that question is just
coming to me. Have you received the Holy Ghost? The Spirit of
God Himself, if that Holy Ghost comes, that's the Spirit of God
Himself. That's the Spirit of Christ Himself.
And the Spirit of God loves Christ and loves His Word. Two things,
he loves Christ and loves his word. Turn with me over to John
16. John 16, look at verse 13. Our Lord said, how be it When
He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself,
but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will
show you things to come. He shall glorify Me." That's
what He'll do. He'll glorify Me. If God's Holy
Spirit comes to a sinner, what's going to happen in that sinner
is God is going to be glorified. The heart of that sinner is going
to glorify God. He shall glorify me for he shall
receive of mine and shall show it unto you. Has God revealed
the things of Christ himself to this heart? Well, let me ask
myself this question. Do I want Jesus Christ to get
all the glory? Really? I believe I do. I strongly believe I do. I believe
that I want Jesus Christ to have all the praise. I believe I do. I believe that all the honor
goes to Him and I believe I love that. I really do. I believe that. Go with me back
to Acts 19. 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 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. And
he said unto them, Unto what then were you baptized? And they
said, Unto John's baptism. And that was their error. just like the world of religion
that is going on right now. They did not say, he said, what
were you baptized unto? They didn't say unto John's message. John preached to Christ. He kept pointing men to Christ.
We were baptized unto John's Christ. John kept telling us
about a lamb. We were baptized unto that lamb.
He didn't say that. They said, John's baptism. And that's the great error of
the world. That's the great error. What
are you confessing? Well, I'm confessing baptism. I'm doing
what I think I'm supposed to be doing. You get baptized. What
must you do? I think it's be baptized. Wow. Who are you supposed to
be? What's your hope of salvation?
I was baptized. These men had clearly never heard
the message. Never heard it. They'd never
been given ears to hear, eyes to see, and a heart to believe.
Now listen to this. This word right here says that
John the Baptist was given the Holy Ghost from his mother's
womb. I love that. That's amazing to
me. That's unexplainable. But when Mary walked in with
God and she greeted Elizabeth with
John, as soon as John heard Mary's voice, John leaped in her womb.
He knew my God is right here. Explain that one. Okay, John
had the Holy Ghost. Did John know anything? Well,
we were baptized unto John's baptism. Well, did he know anything
about the Holy Ghost? He had God's Holy Ghost from
his mother's womb. John is the only person, the
only mortal that God allowed to actually see the Holy Ghost. He said, I saw the Spirit. He
descended from heaven like a dove and he landed on Jesus Christ. John's message everywhere he
preached, we have it over and over. It says the same thing.
John said, I'm baptizing you with water, but there comes one
after me who is mightier than I. He shall baptize you with
the Holy Ghost and with fire. Something living is going to
happen. I'm giving you this. This is what John was clearly
telling people. I'm giving you this ceremony. But when he moves,
When he works, when he sends his own Holy Spirit, life is
going to take place. Life is going to take place.
And Paul asked him in verse 2, 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. What
that means is they're blind. They're deaf. We haven't heard
anything. Dead. Dead. So Paul preached
John's message to them. Here's that scripture that says,
great is thy faithfulness. These people, they heard John
preach and so God in mercy sent them the
gospel again. He preached John's message. When it pleased God, He revealed
His Son in them. Look at verse 4. 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 John, that is, on Christ Jesus. He said John did not preach a
what? That's religion. Every religion
is stumped on a what? Every religion. And he said John
didn't preach a what. He preached a who. He preached
a who. John spent every waking minute
of his very short ministry. He had a very, very short ministry.
And he spent every waking minute of it pushing men and pushing
women to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's the offering for sin,
right there. I mean, as plain as John could
tell it, as plain as I can tell it, there is the offering for
sin. Here's a, it'd be just like going
into the cancer ward and telling everybody, that is the one cure
for cancer. You go right there, you will
not be denied, you will be cured. There is the hiding place. John
stood up saying, oh, you generation of vipers. Right there's the hiding place. There is the one mediator to
God, right there. There he is, right there. And
I love this. Go over to Matthew 11 with me. We could say that these are John's
last words. Over in 2 Samuel 23, we have
David's last words and what precious words they are. Well, here is the sum and the
substance of John's ministry right here. Matthew 11 verse
2. Now, when John had heard in the
prison, John was in prison. He's about to be beheaded. His
life is over. This is it. He's done. And even
right then, even right here, it says in verse 2, When John
had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his
disciples and said unto him, Art thou he that should come,
or do we look for another? He told two of his disciples,
two men that were listening to him preach, following him, listening
to him preach. He told them, you go straight
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Here he is in prison. He said,
you go straight to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want you to ask
him for yourself. You've heard about him through
me. You've heard me tell you about him. I want you to go directly
to him. And I want you to ask Him for
yourself personally, are thou He that should come or do we
look for another? And I'm preaching to myself if
I've ever preached to myself. And after I get finished preaching
to me, I'm preaching to you if I've ever preached to you. Personally
go directly to Him. Personally and you ask him for
yourself art thou he that should come Or do we look for another? I'm telling you every sinner
who goes directly to him and Says Lord. I want to know are
you the way? Or is there another way? Every
sinner who seeks the truth from Christ himself will get the same
answer these two men got. Every sinner. Verse 4, Jesus
answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those
things which you do hear and see. The blind received their
sight. You realize that I was blind but now I see? I
was lost but now I'm found? You realize that? You realize
that this room is full of a bunch of people who were blind and
now we see? You realize that? What if you
went over to the Renaissance Center and they were having a
meeting up in the second floor in some room? The blind people
who now see get together and talk about their experience. I see things that angels desire
to look into. Do I get the glory for it? No,
this heart right here wants all of that to go to Christ. He said
the blind receive their sight. The lame walk. The lepers are
cleansed. The deaf hear. There was a time
when I couldn't hear. Now I do. The dead are raised up and the
poor have the gospel preached to them. Those who were so low
and so down and so poor have all this good news poured on
them. All this amazing news is poured on them. Paul showed these
men the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he did, he showed
them the Lord Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, the life. And it says back over in our
text, back in Acts chapter 19, verse 5 says, when they heard
this. I love how the word this is in
italics. It says, when they heard. When it pleased God. When they heard, I love the song,
open my ears that I may hear voices of truth thou sendest
clear. And while the wave notes fall
on my ear, everything false will disappear. All that religion
I was in, it's gone. Silently now I wait for thee,
ready my God, thy will to see. Open my ears, illumine me, spirit
divine, spirit of God. Verse five says, when they heard
this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Our Lord told that woman at the
well, you don't know what you worship. We know who we worship. And God moved on him. He gave him a heart for this
man. That woman at the well ran and
said, come see a man. They fell in love with this man. They did not fall in love with
salvation. Everybody wants salvation. There's
not a soul on this earth that does not want salvation. They
did not fall in love with salvation, they fell in love with the Savior. Huge difference. They did not
fall in love with the kingdom. Everybody wants to see, if there
really are golden streets, who wouldn't want to see that? They
didn't fall in love with the kingdom, they fell in love with
the King. Mine eyes have seen the King.
I bow to the King. While this world wants heaven,
God's sheep want Him. They want Him. That's all I want
is Him. He is heaven. Where is heaven?
Doesn't matter to me. As long as I'm with Him, that's
all I care about. This is what they wanted. This is what they confessed.
Verse 5, when they 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 on them, and they spake with
tongues and prophesied. And all the men were about twelve. Those twelve men were called
to the ministry. That's what happened right there.
They were called to the ministry. They were given the ability to
preach, like we just said, in languages they'd never spoken
before. The gospel went out. And God, through His Holy Ghost,
He proved to them, He proved to the people they were preaching
to that this is the Word of God. We don't need signs and wonders
anymore. We just don't need it. We have
the Word. We have the Word. We love this
Word. We bow to this Word. We don't
need miracles. But I'll tell you what we do
need. We need God's Holy Spirit. That's what we need. We need
God's Holy Ghost. We need to look to and trust
in and believe on and fall in love with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we need. Have we
received his spirit since we believe? That's what I want this
heart to know. Have I received the Holy Ghost? Since I believe Lord send him
to us. That's what we we beg him for
every time. Send us your spirit. Send us
your spirit. OK, let's stand together.