I have mixed emotions about this. I'll just be honest with you,
open up my heart a little bit to you. I don't look forward
to dealing with this. And reading it, studying it,
I'm still confused. And here I am supposed to stand
up in front of you and teach you. Maybe, if anything, this
is going to teach us If any man thinks he knows anything, he
doesn't know. He just doesn't know. And these are mysterious
things here that are set before us, and I don't rightly know
the purpose behind the Lord recording some of these things. If you
think you do, you're welcome to stand up here in my place,
more than welcome. I don't. I know God has a purpose
in it, or he wouldn't have recorded it, would he, for us to read.
It's a difficult passage of Scripture. Let's read the first seven verses
again. It came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul's
pass through the upper coast came to Ephesus. Finding certain
disciples, he said unto them, Have you received the Holy Ghost,
since you have believed? And they said unto him, We have
not so much as heard, whether there be any holy government. And he said unto them, Unto what
then were you baptized? And they said, John's baptism. and said, Paul, John and Verily
are truly baptized with the baptism of the penitent, 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 upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they
spoke with tongues and prophesied. And all the men were about twelve,
twelve men. Now, there's a key thing we do
need to understand here. I know this. I know this much.
And I said this already before in our studies in Acts. The Lord
is forming his Church here. We need to keep that in mind
at all times as we read the book of Acts. This is the formation
of the early Church. There are things that took place
here that will not take place again. There were means and methods
and ways that God—things that God used and ways that God dealt
with men that will not be used again. And this was a time before—I've
said this before—this was a time before there was a worldwide
means of communication, of transportation, travel. so that you could not
get a message out all over the world merely by airwaves or mail
or whatever. It was slow moving, and the Lord
had promised that the gospel was going to go out in all the
world. So there were miraculous things that took place in order
to accomplish this purpose. Are you with me? This is just
as tough for me to teach as it is for you to listen, okay? Stay
with me. I pray that you'll stay with
me and that the Lord will give us a little understanding here.
The Lord worked special miracles here at this time in order to
establish his church before there was a Bible like you have, and
to send out the gospel into foreign lands. All right? Do you understand
that? You've got to understand that,
or you won't understand why these things took place, what was happening
here. The world doesn't understand
this. This foolish, ridiculous, superstitious world doesn't understand
this, and they take these things as pertaining to us now and run
with them and abuse them, and that's the reason we're into
all sorts of ridiculous nonsense today. You turn on the TV and
you see all this nonsense, and they use Scripture to back it
mostly out of the book of Acts, to back up what they're doing.
Well, it doesn't apply. These things are not applicable
now. The Lord was forming his church. You got that? There was no Bible
yet written. People didn't have a copy of
the full Old and New Testament, all right? We've got to understand
that, and this world does not understand that. That's the reason
for all this superstition and all this wicked religious nonsense
that's going on. They don't understand, and they
don't want to either. Because our Lord prophesied that this
would happen. He said, an evil and adulterous
generation seeks out for a sign. And it's always been that way.
Men are more interested in signs than they are in truth. More
interested in miracles than they are in God's Word. Right? And we read that over in 1 Thessalonians.
He said, well, if they won't receive the love of the truth,
If the Bible's not the truth, the gospel, the mysterious things,
all that pertains to God and salvation and the gospel and
all that's not enough, then I'll give them what they want, strong
delusions, and let them play with their toys. And I'll give
my people truth after truth after truth after grounding, settling,
truth, faith building, character building, maturing, perfecting,
truth that'll establish them in the faith. Truth after truth
after truth from the Word. I'll bear witness with them from
the Word. And I'll give these other, these religious people
who want a sign, I'll give them signs. And they'll be all taken
up with signs and mis-made. All right? You got that? That's
important. That's important. Now, as I said
before, in the message on Apollos, in the last chapter, chapter
18, there were many Jews still worshiping at the temple, the
synagogue. Paul, wherever he went, he went
into the synagogue, and he stayed there. It says in our text, he
went in there for the space of three months, whether it was
Every day? I don't know. It sounds like
it, doesn't it? It sounds like he was just constantly in the
temple for three straight months. Now, the Jews, there were Jews
like Apollos, and I believe these men, who were believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ and walking in the light that they had, which
was not perfect light. Right? Like I said, they didn't
have the scriptures like you and I did. And I think we'll
see clearly that these men, I think, that these men were believers.
And the purpose for this passage, primarily, is to show us how
God equipped his early preachers in order to send out the gospel.
I think, I believe, that that's the reason that he put this in
here. to show us how he miraculously equipped his preachers to go
out into the world with the gospel. All right, verse 1 says that
Paul passed through the upper coast and came to Ephesus. Now,
Ephesus, and I'll read what an atlas, a Bible atlas I have has
to say about the town of Ephesus. Ephesus was the most important
city in Asia at this time. Ephesus was a bridge between
the east and the west. It was a coastal port city, and
it stood at the end of one of the great caravan routes from
Asia and parts on westward. The city was magnificent. It
had streets paved in marble. Baths, libraries, marketplace,
a theater seating more than 25,000 people, a temple to the goddess
Diana, and the Scriptures were going to deal with that later.
And it was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and it
was four times—this temple was four times the size of the Greek
Parthenon there in Athens. As you can see, this was a great
city full of people. There had been a settlement,
there had been a city at Ephesus twelve centuries before Christ.
That's how old this place was, how long it had been inhabited. By this time, there were more
than a third of a million people living there, and a great many
of them were Jews. But as you can imagine, there
were people from all nations come into this Metropolitan City. Paul made a visit here, and on
his second missionary journey, he left Aquila and Priscilla
to stay there. On his third journey, he spent
more than two years here. Paul thought it necessary to
spend more than two years in this—are you with me? Come on.
Okay. So Paul spent more than two years
here. There's something, something,
this is an important place. And as I said before, we have
the book of Ephesus, the book of Ephesians, is one of my favorite
books in all the scripture. Is it one of yours? Sure it is.
You'll not find a book in all scriptures more, that has the
gospel in it more than the book of Ephesians. And all that is
in that precious book. We're studying it right now.
And I don't know when I've had a better time of it. A lot of
people here. Paul spent a lot of time here,
so it was—the Lord deemed it necessary. And the purpose. Paul wrote his letters to Corinth
and from Ephesus. And tradition has it that this
was the home of the apostle John. John lived there. So there's
something about this city. It was one of the churches over
there in Revelation, wasn't it? Church of Ephesus. There's something
about it. And I think that has a bearing on our story tonight,
that the Lord equips twelve men here to go out preaching this
gospel, not only into this big metropolitan city, but in places
elsewhere. All right? So Ephesus was a large
city with worldwide influence. And God is about to equip, as
I said, these twelve men to go out with the gospel. Now, verse
1 again, it says, Paul came here in finding certain disciples.
Every word is significant here. Every word is significant. When
I have problems with a passage of Scripture, I take each word
one at a time and carefully examine each word. And it says here,
he found certain what? Disciples. He doesn't say disciples
of John, does he? A disciple is a believer, a follower
of Christ, unless designated in the Scriptures. There were
certain men designated in the Scriptures as disciples of John.
It says here, he found certain—there's that word again—certain disciples. I don't think that's there by
accident. Do you? Find him. They say he found him. It sounds like he was looking.
Or else God sent him—both. Both. God sent this man, I believe,
to find these certain disciples, and like Apollos, to perfect
them in this way. I don't think it's any coincidence
that this story is right on the back of the story of Apollos. All right? Certain disciples. Disciples of who? Disciples of
Christ. I read on. Verse 2, and he says
unto them, when he found them, he said unto them, Have you received
the Holy Ghost since you believed? Now, every word is significant,
isn't it? Have you received the Holy Ghost
since you believed? Know what he said? Since you believed. I believe, based upon that one
word right there, that these men were believers. It doesn't
say anything to the contrary at all. We're going to see that,
I believe. And this is—like I said, I have mixed emotions about dealing
with this stuff, and so we're just going to deal with this
on a study and a passage of Scripture together. Are you up to it? All right, since you believe,
since you believe what? One Lord, one faith, so forth,
one baptism. Well, they said, and you may
say, what does this mean? They said unto him, We have not
so much as heard whether there be any holy goat. I believe, and based upon the
Greek Interlinear Bible that I have, reading that, reading
some of the commentaries, that the way this reads, really, is
we haven't heard whether the Holy Ghost is here or not. We
haven't heard that. Is he here? We haven't heard.
If there be, now, the Holy Ghost. I'll show you this, the reason
I'm saying this in a moment. Verse 3, And Paul said unto them,
Well, unto what were you baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. John's baptism. These men had
heard of the Holy Ghost. They had heard of the Holy Ghost. Let's turn over to John 1 and
find out, okay? John chapter 1. John 1, and let's
hear it from the mouth of John himself. Let's hear about John's
baptism, John's message, and from John himself, and then,
you know, you tell me after we read this. You tell me if these
people had heard who Christ was, all right, and how they were
baptized. John 1, look at verse 19. Verse
19, and we'll read several verses here. This is the record of John. This is the story of John. When
the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who
art thou? And he confessed He denied not,
but confessed, I'm not the Christ. Well, are you Elias, they said.
He said, I'm not. Well, art thou that prophet?
He said, no. Then they said unto him, who
art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us?
They're asking us who you are. What do you say of yourself?
What's your message? He said, I'm the voice. I'm the
voice of one crying in the wilderness, and here's my message. make straight
the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. And they which were sent were
of the Pharisees. And they asked him, said, Well,
why are you baptizing them? Why baptizest thou then, if thou
be not that Christ, nor Elijah, neither that prophet? John answered
them and said, I baptize with water. That's all I'm doing,
baptizing with water. But there stands one man. whom
you know not. He it is who, coming after me,
is preferred before me, whom she let shed I am not worthy
to loose." Now, these things were done in Bethabara, beyond
Jordan, where John was baptized. The next day, John seeing Jesus,
Jesus coming unto him, said, Behold
the Lamb of God. That's just John preaching Christ. What's he preaching? What's he
baptizing? What's he doing out there? Behold, the Lamb preaching
the gospel is what he's doing. There's the Lamb of God which
taketh away the sin of the world. This is He of whom I said, After
me cometh a man which is preferred before me. He was before me.
And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to
Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing
with water. And John, bear record, say, And
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode
on him. And I knew him not, but he that sent me, that's God,
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 baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, John said,
and bear record, this is the Son of God. Did he tell everybody
else about it? He'd keep it to himself. When
he was baptizing, did he say, now, you just go on in ignorance? Huh? What's the baptism of John? All
right, read on that. Let's read chapter three, twenty-two. And listen, I've listened to
preachers I esteem higher than myself, but I think they missed
it. I thought I had this all wrapped
up until I started reading this. The Baptism of John. John was out baptizing men, and
it's what he was saying and what he was doing when he was baptizing,
right? What was he saying? You read it. What was he doing? Baptizing with water. Why do
you baptize with water? What's water got to do with remission
of sin? It's a confession of the death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ, or else it's just mere superstition, right? It
has no meaning at all if it doesn't have anything to do with the
death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, right? Where is baptism
in the Old Testament? Where does it tell us to be baptized
in the Old Testament? Nowhere. Who taught him this? The Spirit of God concerning
Christ. All right, John 3, verse 22.
After these things came Jesus and his disciples. Now John was
still baptizing, still preaching. He was still out in the wilderness.
After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land
of Judea, and there he tarried with them and baptized." It says
Christ baptized in it. And John also was baptized in
it, Enoch, near to Salem. And were they working against
one another? Come on. John spilled with the Holy Spirit
from his mother's womb. What does a man do when he's
spilled with the Holy Spirit? He takes the things of Christ
and shows them unto you. Huh? Yes. All right, John was
baptizing because there was much water there. That tells me that
baptism is by mercy. And they came and were baptized.
John was not yet cast into prison. All right, here's a conflict
that came up. Then there arose a question between
some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. They
came unto John and said unto him, Rabbi, teacher, He that
was with you beyond Jordan, we saw him down there, to whom thou
bearest witness, the one you baptized. Behold, he's baptizing,
and all men are coming to him," John said. All men come to him. John actually
said, A man can receive nothing except it be given him from above,
from heaven. You yourselves bear witness.
That I said, I'm not the Christ, but that I'm sent before him.
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of
the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly
because of the bridegroom's voice. My joy is fulfilled, John says. They're following Christ. That's
what I've been wanting to do all along. As I said before,
John one time had two disciples, and they were following him,
and one day they quit following him and followed Christ, and
he felt like revival had come. Two members of his little congregation,
they left him, and he said, Revival is here. They quit following
me and started following a man. My joy is fulfilled. What was
John's joy? What was John's ministry? What
was John's motive, his aim? That men might see Christ and
follow Him. Right? What was he baptizing? What was he doing? Repentance toward God and faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah. Yeah. He must increase,
but I must decrease. He that cometh from above is
above all. Verse 31. He that is of the earth is earthly.
speaketh of the earth, he that cometh from heavens above all."
Listen to him talk about Christ. Tell me if John didn't know who
he was. And what he hath seen and heard, that he testify. No
man receiveth his testimony, though. He that hath received
his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. For he
whom God hath sent speaks the words of God. God giveth not
the Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son. and
hath given all things in his hand. He that believeth on the
Son," John's preaching here, "...he that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth upon him." Whoever
was baptized by John heard this message. Has that settled your own mind
after reading that? It is mine, finally. Now, I can't
fully understand our text. But in light of that, I must
be reading it wrong. Right? In light of that, what
was John's baptism? What was John's message? What
was John saying? What was John preaching? What was John teaching
those that came to him to be baptized? Christ. Ain't no doubt about it. Or else
he was a false prophet. Right? So what's this about here
in Acts 19? What's this all about? I tried
to say it. He's equipping and he's sending
out and calling the ministers of the gospel to go into all
the world and preach. Listen to Paul's confirmation
of John's preaching in Acts 19, verse 4. Paul said, John truly
baptized with the baptism of repentance. He doesn't stop there,
does he? Saying unto the people that they
should believe on him. which should come after him,
that is, on Christ Jesus. And Gil says—and he was an expert
on the Greek language—Gil says it doesn't stop there. Paul is
still quoting Paul, what he's saying about those that came
to be baptized with John. And when they that came to John
to be baptized heard this, they were baptized in the name of
the Lord Jesus. That makes sense, doesn't it? Matthew Henry disagreed
with him, but that's all right, too. That's all right, too. John truly baptized with repentance
and saying that they should believe on Christ. Is that enough to
save a man? Why, you better believe it. That's it. That's all there
is. Were these men that believed
saved? But then there's a second baptism,
huh? There's something else that we're missing, isn't there? That's
about all I have, isn't it? Well, now if you read it like
that, it makes sense. But if you say, verse 5, now
when they heard this, when these men that heard Paul heard this,
they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, it appears
that they were baptized over again. And Gil said this. The reason I'm quoting Gil is
so you can take it up his hands and see what he's making. But he's a lot smarter than anybody
I've ever run across. John Gil. It was said of John
Gil, even his enemies said this about
that man. They said, when they were talking about something
to be sure, something to be certain, they would say this. Even the
enemies of the gospel. They would say, well, that's
just as sure and certain as John Gill's in his study. Now, that's the man I'm going
to... I'm not worthy to untie that
John Gill shoelaces, let alone disagree with him. The Lord used him mightily, still
used him. He that being dead yet speaketh. He's blessed a lot of men. All
right. All right, but I base everything I'm saying and what
I believe on what we read in John 1 and John 3, not in John
Gill. Right? It just so happens John
Gill agrees with John 1 and John 3. All right. I believe it's talking about
all those who heard John preach. John surely knows who Christ
was. He did. We read that, didn't we? And
beside there are no other stories in all the scriptures of John's
disciples being re-baptized. There were many opportunities.
Do you see anywhere where Christ went about re-baptizing John's
disciples? Do you see where Peter and James
and John and all of them went about, we got to run through
all the land finding John's disciples. They got it all wrong. They were
baptized wrong. We got to find them all and re-baptize
them. Huh? You don't find that. You
don't find that. Now I've known some fellows,
and this may be a good lesson here. I've known some preachers,
and I use the term lightly on these fellows, who have taken passages like
this and abused them to such an extent that they set themselves
up, and their preaching and their doctrine, they make themselves
to be little popes. that taking passages like this,
that they've come to a point where they decide who's saved
and who's not. That's not what Paul was doing here. Paul didn't
ask them, Barbara, Paul didn't ask them anything about what
they believed. Saying, Paul, have you received
the Holy Ghost? Right? They said, we didn't know
he'd been sent. They'd heard of him. John told
about him. John preached about it. The Holy Ghost, upon whom
I see the Holy Ghost dwelling, that's the cry. John preached
about the Holy Ghost. But there's some men who set
themselves up trying to decide who's saved and who's not, and
when. Demanding everyone that's not saved under their particular
brand of preaching that they be rebaptized. Have you ever
run across anybody like that, or heard anybody? I know men
like that. Ed, have you? Men that say, now,
if you don't cross every T and not every I like it, I say you
should. You've not saved, and you're
going to have to be rapidly baptized by me when I say you're ready. Huh? That's not one wit different
than potpourri, is it? Baptism is a public confession
of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, period. A public display of our
commitment to trust in Christ as our Lord, our only salvation,
as our life. And it's before men, yes. It's
a public confession of that. But more importantly, it's from
the heart toward God. And John, the preacher, he's
out of the picture here. You've got to have somebody to
dunk, he said. That's all he's good for. That's all he's doing. He's not absolving a man from
sin or doing—he's just there to dip, to do the dipping. Christ
does the saving, right? The confession is before men
and before God from the heart. And I know this, though, that
this confession must be the right Christ. You've got to have the
right Christ. the right one because Paul said they'd come preaching
another Jesus. I know that. I know there are millions of
people all over the world confessing some Jesus, and they got the
wrong one. How do you know? I listen to them talk about him. And he doesn't resemble the Jesus
Christ of Scripture. He's a failure. He's a miserable,
helpless, hopeless thing, and he's in their hands to do with
him as they put... That's not their confessing the wrong one,
Terry. If they were baptized confessing that Jesus, they better
find out who the right one is. They better come to know the
only true God and that we're never baptized to begin
with. They better confess that Christ, that Christ. We must believe and confess this
Christ of Scripture as He's revealed in the Scripture. Okay? As he's
revealed in the Scripture. Lord, Sovereign, Holy, Reign,
Ruling, Complete, Successful, and Only Savior. Now, whether
you knew—are you with me? Come on. I see stairs. Everywhere
I look, I'm seeing stairs. This is tough, but it's necessary
in dealing fully and developing this passage, all right? Whether you knew this Christ
or not before, whether you confess this sovereign Christ or not
is between you and God, not between you and me. Right? I'm not the Pope. I'm not an apostle. Huh? Consider him, the apostle and
high priest of ours, is before him. If you didn't know, if you
didn't know this Christ, and you have not been baptized confessing
this Christ, and the Lord deals with you about it, then you better
be baptized. And I'll be glad to do it. But if you haven't,
if you're satisfied that this was the Christ you believed before,
and you were baptized confessing this Christ, fine. Who am I to
say different? Right? The important thing here
in this story seems to be that all believers are willing and
obedient to the divine command of believers' baptism and readily
renounce their past, forgetting those things which are behind.
I tell you what, if the Lord says, Be baptized—everybody's
going to be baptized again right now, I'd line it up. Wouldn't
you? I'd renounce my baptism in the
past and say, I want to do it again, Lord. again. But he doesn't. One baptism.
One. Right? I think that's a picture
of Christ being crucified and killed one time. One time. Not over and over and over and
over again. Christened at birth, baptized
later. And Paul and Reno, man, let's
get on past this, finally. Verse 6, When Paul had laid his
hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spoke
with—the word is languages. Whenever you see tongues in the
Scriptures, that means languages. Languages. And when Paul laid
his hands on them, they spoke with languages and prophesied.
Languages and prophesied. This is what the apostle was
aiming at. That's why he came. That's why
he was looking for these fellows. That's why he found them. That's
the reason the Lord sent him, didn't he? to equip these men
with the gifts of the Holy Spirit in order to go out and preach
the gospel. That's what this is all about. I'm convinced of it. It's
not that we might be hung up right in the middle there, whether
or not they were saved or what, or what this is all about. Boy,
you'd just get hung up, couldn't you, and strive about words to
no profit. All right? And it says that when
Paul laid hands on them, that they spoke with languages and
prophesied, they were now equipped to go out and preach this gospel
in Ephesus, which was a large city, metropolitan city, people
of different languages, and to any and all they met in far-reaching
places. Every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation in all the world. Isn't that what this is all about?
You see that? I believe it is. And isn't that
what the gifts are for? I believe it is—these gifts.
And in closing, let's just turn to two passages of Scripture.
I've only been about thirty-five minutes, and let's just turn
and read two portions of Scripture dealing with these two things—languages
and prophecy. The rest of this passage now, I don't have a clue. what these
handkerchiefs and all that, I know this, that it doesn't work anymore. I know that, oh, what's his name,
Rex Humbug, Rex Humbug did this, and so did some others, mailed
out their little hankies for a price, need to add that, for a dollar
and a half, and with their blessings on them, claiming to heal those
that had them. That's not... You say, what does that mean?
I don't know. It just means what it says, doesn't it? Hacker chips
were sent out. Hacker chips. If you'd like to
understand. Hacker chips. Paul Blues knows
it was hacker chips. Ha! Sent it out and it healed
people. I'm not making light of this.
I'm just trying to show you that... Would you explain this to me?
The man's a fool to try, isn't he? He's a fool to try it. He sure is a fool to send his
old Ernie out and think it's effectual to drive him away. As I said before, these fellows
that breathe on people, I can do that and knock people over.
Come up to me after the service, and I'll talk real close to you.
Some of you do it to me, and I feel like being slain. If you'll
see, every time, right after the message, I'll pop one of
these in my mouth, so I won't slay you. forgive that flesh, got in the
flesh there. All right, 1 Corinthians 14. That's about all that nonsense
of Massitude is going on today. And I'm here to tell you that
what was going on in the book of Acts was for the formation
of the early church and the equipped early preachers that didn't have
a Bible and no means of communication and worldwide travel and all
that. And God performed great miracles
in order to just send this thing rapidly. Gave the gifts of languages. Men didn't have time to go to
language school, John. Got taught on them immediately.
That's the reason. In that time, go to seminary.
It would have been lost time anyway. 1 Corinthians 14 talks
about these languages, and I'm not going to go into it. Let's
just read it. Paul said, verse 18, I thank my God that I speak
with more languages than all of you. Paul evidently was fluent
in every language imaginable. You've read about his journeys,
haven't you, Charlie? He went everywhere to all men.
Everywhere. Every Gentile-speaking person,
everywhere. He must have known, he could
have known as many as 15 languages. Where'd he learn them? God gave
them to me. He said, I thank God for them.
that I speak with more languages than all of you. Yet, in the
church, I'd rather speak five words with my understanding,
that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand
words to impress people that hear me. I have no language,
but that is a language they don't know. Brethren, don't be children.
Why did he add this in the middle of it? Don't be children in understanding.
You see that, Terry? I've never really noticed the
context of that verse there. That's why he's saying, don't
be children in understanding about this thing of languages.
In malice be children, but not in understanding. Be men. Be
mature about this thing. Now in the law it is written,
in the Old Testament it is written, in Isaiah 28, men of other languages
and other lips, I'll speak unto this people. I'll speak unto. Verse 22, read on. Tongues are
for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe
not. There are no words. Certain miracles
and wonders and signs were given to the apostles to validate or
prove to the people that these men were sent from God. Didn't
they say that at Pentecost, Terry, when they heard these men speaking?
From which come these men learning? Where'd they learn? We hear these
men speaking in our languages, the wonderful works of God. Where'd
they learn our language? God did. These men must be from
God. Read on, "...and prophesy, serveth
not for them that believeth not, but for them which believe."
All right, now, prophesy. Turn over to Revelation 19, and
I'll quit with it. Revelation 19, one verse will
suffice here. One verse will put to silence
all this foolishness today. about prophecy, and I think that
did about tons, didn't it? Languaging. And if you want,
on your own, read that 1 Corinthians 14. Take my pastor's commentaries,
or I've preached from that, dealt with it. Take that, and there's
no language without signification. And things must give a certain
sound, policy, or else what are people going How are they going
to prepare to battle? That's what languages are for—to
communicate, right? Not to impress. All right, Revelation
19, 10. Here is John falling at the feet
of this angelic creature. I fell at this man's feet to
worship him, and he said unto me, Don't do that. This was a true prophet, wasn't
it? And if these other fellows were, they'd say the same thing
to these people that are coming all googly-eyed up on the stage
to see them. They'd say, get out of here.
Don't come up to me and worship God. Don't do that. I'm your fellow servant and of
thy brethren. As I said before, this could
have been Peter. And John didn't even know him.
John didn't have perfect vision yet. He wasn't dead yet. I'm
them that have the testimony of... This is my message, always
was and always will be, he says. The testimony of Jesus. Worship
God, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of a prophecy. That's what all prophecy is about. It always has and always will
be. So anybody that's prophesying,
you say, what's prophesying? I just read to you. Testimony of Christ. That's something
to do with Christ. We dig into prophecy, don't we?
Old Testament. Dig and search and try to find
things concerning Christ, and we do. Prophecies, John, that
other people out there don't know about. The rest of you,
John, you hear and know prophecies that the world doesn't have the
clue about, right? But in the early church, there
were still prophets. There were still prophets, but
what did they prophesy of? Christ. It had something to do with Christ. You can count on that. You can
count on that. Well, I hope you got something
out of that. And I hope I didn't belabor all of that. All right, let's stand and be
dismissed.