There is much, much talk this
day and age about the Holy Ghost and the power of the Holy Ghost
and the work of the Holy Ghost. And most folks think you've had
a real Holy Ghost meeting whenever emotions have run high and you
just feel good. You have that tingling feeling
running up and down your spine and folks maybe wave their hands
and clap and all that silly nonsense. Well, the term, the phrase, the
power of the Holy Ghost It's found only once in the New Testament. Once is enough, but it's found
only once. Let's see how it's used. Romans chapter 15 and verse
13. I want to talk to you as God
enables me about the power of the Holy Ghost. I pray that he
will give me grace to do so both sensibly and effectually according
to scripture. Romans 15 verse 13. Now the God
of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye
may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. All of God's saving operations
of grace are wrought in us by the power of the Holy Ghost. We have joy and peace in Christ
only by the power of the Holy Ghost. We have joy and peace
in believing only by the power of the Holy Ghost. And believing
God, trusting Christ, we abound in hope. only by the power of
the Holy Ghost. The power of the Holy Ghost works
in us faith and patience and hope. The power of the Holy Ghost
keeps us not agitated, but in peace, not stirred, but calm,
living in the patience of faith and hope before God. Power is
the peculiar prerogative of God. God alone has power. Now I chose my words deliberately.
Power is the peculiar prerogative of God. God alone has power. Listen to what the scripture
says. God has spoken once, twice have I heard this. that power
belongeth to God. The son comes forth out of his
chamber and rejoices as a strong man to run his course. And the
son has power, but the power of the son is derived from God
who alone has power. We read in the scriptures of
Leviathan and Behemoth, those mighty creatures of the earth,
those majestic creatures of power, great power, but it's power given
to them only by God who alone has power. Men sometimes seem
to have power. We think sometimes we have a
little might. The fact is, man's power is so
small and insignificant, it could hardly be called power. Yet when
kings hold the scepter, when tyrants command their armies,
when mighty dictators rule nations, still power is the exclusive
prerogative of God. No one has any power. Nothing has any power. No one has any might. Nothing
has any might except God. Whatever might or power is given
to any creature upon the earth, it is God who gives it power. This exclusive power of God is
found in each of the persons of the Holy Trinity. God the
Father has power. By His word, the heavens were
made and all the host of Him. By His strength, all things stand
through Him. Everything fulfills its ordained
purpose. God the Son has power. Like the
Father, He is described in the book of God as the Creator of
all things, without whom was not anything made that was made,
and by Him all things consist. He upholds all things by the
Word of His power. And God the Holy Ghost power. The power of the Holy Ghost is
that power by which the triune Jehovah gives life, faith, and
salvation to chosen redeemed sinners. Oh may he be pleased
to exercise that power in our midst today. It is by the power
of the Holy Ghost that God, our Savior, the Lord Jesus, saves
his people, establishes his kingdom, and builds his church. Now, let
me come at this two or three ways this morning as we look
at this revelation given in scripture of the power of the Holy Ghost. It is not what men think it is
by any means, but it is clear the scriptures teach much about
the power of the Holy Ghost. First, we see the power of God
the Holy Spirit in outward visible displays. God the Spirit shows
his power outwardly, in outward things, visible things that no
one can deny. Visible things seen by the eye
of all natural men. Visible things no human mind
can reasonably or rightly deny. We see the power of the Holy
Ghost displayed in creation. Oh, what omnipotence is set before
us in creation. I'm gonna look at a couple of
texts of scripture, I'll refer you to them, but you turn to
Genesis chapter one. Genesis one. Not very often, but occasionally
in scripture, creation is ascribed to the Holy Spirit, as well as
to the Father and the Son. By his spirit, we read in Job
26, hath he garnished the heavens. His hand hath formed the crooked
serpent. All the stars of heaven were
set in their place by the spirit of God. Job specifically tells
us that one constellation called the crooked serpent, the Lord
God formed by his hands, they're the handiwork of the spirit.
He binds the sweet influences of Pleiades and loosens the bands
of Orion. And he continues his acts of
creation. He continually performs creative
works in this world as he brings men and women and all animal
life forth. The creation of life is the work
of God's spirit. We read in Revelation 5, for
him and by him, all things are and were created. So creation
has a continual present work in this world. The work of God's
spirit giving life, giving life to men and to beast. Thou hidest
thy face, we're told, and they're troubled. Thou takest away their
breath and they die. and return to their dust. Thou
sendest forth thy spirit, and they are created, and thou renewest
the face of the earth. Every new life, a fresh creation
of God. Doesn't matter if we're talking
about biological things or human things, every new life is the
creation of God who is life. The creation of all life in the
universe is as much ascribed to the Spirit of God, the power
of the Spirit, as the first garnishings of heaven and earth. Now, look
here at Genesis chapter 1. Here we see a distinct display
of the Spirit's peculiar power in creation. Genesis 1. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth, and the earth was, that word was,
but better be translated became. It commonly is translated became.
And the earth became without form and void. It wasn't created
that way, but it became without form and void. And darkness was
upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters. We don't know how old the earth
is. I know that most conservative
Theologians, most conservative commentators argue very strongly
that the Earth is very young, no more than six to 10,000 years
old. Personally, I see no reason to
make that argument. I have no objection to it. I
just don't see any reason to insist on it. I'm more inclined
to agree with Mr. Spurgeon. He suggested that the
Earth was created many millions of years before the time of Adam. He wrote, our planet has passed
through various stages of existence and different kinds of creatures
have lived on its surface, all of which have been fashioned
by God. But before the era came wherein
man should be its principal tenants and monarch, the creator gave
up the world to confusion, He allowed the inward fires to burst
up from beneath and melt all the solid matter so that all
kinds of substances were co-mingled in a mass of disorder. The only
name you could give to the world then was chaos, a chaotic mass
of matter. What it should be, you couldn't
guess or define. It was entirely without form
and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. The spirit
came and stretching out his broad wings made the darkness disperse
and he moved over it and all the different portions of matter
came into their places. It was no longer without form
and void, but became round like its sister planets. and moved,
singing the high praises of God, not discordantly, but now as
one great note with the vast scale of creation. Could we have
seen the earth in its darkness, chaos and confusion? We would
have thought to ourselves, who can bring anything out of this?
Who can make anything of this? The answer would have been the
power of the spirit can do it. By the omnipotent power of his
will, things can come together. The power of the Holy Ghost brought
order where there was nothing but confusion and chaos before. Now, what a beautiful, beautiful
instructive picture we have here of God's marvelous grace. Man
was created originally in perfection. And then something happened as
when Lucifer and one third of the heavenly angels fell from
heaven. Man by the influence of Satan
fell in the garden. And man who was created in the
image and likeness of God is altogether full of chaos and
confusion and darkness by reason of fall. And then the Spirit
of God moves in the power of His grace. And God says, let
there be light. And light shines in the heart
and dispels the darkness. And dead, lost, ruined sinners
live by the power of God, the Holy Ghost. Turn to Hebrews chapter
10. Here is a particular instance
of creation in which God the Holy Spirit is distinctly concerned. The forming of the body of our
Lord Jesus Christ for the saving of his people, for the accomplishment
of redemption. When the angel told Mary that
she would bear a son, she said, how can this be, seeing I know
not a man? I've never known a man. How can
I possibly have a child? And the angel said, the power
of the highest shall overshadow thee. So that that thing which
is conceived in you is conceived in you by the Holy Ghost. This is what our Savior tells
us in Hebrews chapter 10, verse five. Wherefore when he cometh
into the world, he says sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not
but a body hast thou prepared me God prepared me a body God
the Spirit by the power of the Holy Ghost prepared me a body
a body to live in a body to be by which to bring in everlasting
righteousness a body to suffer in a body in which I would die
under the wrath of God for my people Thou has prepared a body
for me In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast
had no pleasure. Then said I, lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it is written to me, to do thy will, O God. Above when he said sacrifice
and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin, thou wouldest
not, neither has pleasure therein, which are offered by the law.
Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away
the first that he may establish the second. By the which will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body, that body
prepared for him in the womb of the virgin by the power of
the Holy Ghost. By the offering of the body of
Jesus Christ once for all. Our Savior was begotten of the
Holy Ghost. A second manifestation of the
Spirit's power is found in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus
from the dead. If you've ever studied the subject
of the resurrection, you might be perplexed by the fact that
the resurrection is sometimes ascribed to God the Father, and
sometimes to God the Son, and sometimes to God the Spirit.
But that shouldn't be perplexing. All the great works of God are
sometimes ascribed to God the Father, sometimes to God the
Son, and sometimes to God the Spirit, because all three persons
in the Godhead are always involved in all his works. Our Lord Jesus
is sometimes spoken of as having raised himself from the dead.
He had the power to lay down his life, and he had the power
to take it again, he tells us in John 10, 17. In other places,
we're told that God the Father raised him up from the dead. Raised him up from the dead,
having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that
he should be holding a bed. And the scriptures declare that
God the Holy Ghost raised our Savior from the dead. He was
raised by the Father who said, Lucif, let the prisoner go. Justice is satisfied. The law
requires no more. Vengeance has its due. Let him
go. And our mighty Savior, by virtue
of his own holy, omnipotent being as the perfect man who is himself,
God raised himself from the dead. He burst the bonds of death because
he could no longer be holding of it. Death no longer had a
claim upon him. He went to the tomb because he
was made sin for us. But having put away sin, he rose
with no sin. Death had no claim upon him.
And he was raised by God the Holy Ghost, who gave the energy
of life again to his mortal frame. After for three days and three
nights, he laid in the grave. He was quickened by the Spirit. In fact, the Apostle Paul tells
us that because the Spirit of God quickened him, we are assured
the Spirit of God will quicken us. Listen. If the spirit of
him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal
bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. When he was raised from
the dead, he was justified in the spirit. God the Holy Ghost
raised him up and God says, this man who was made sin is justified,
sin is no more. What a display this is of the
power of the Holy Ghost. The third display of the Holy
Spirit's power is to be seen in His attesting works. Attesting
works, that's a good term, attesting. He attest to the validity of
the Savior's claims. He attest to the validity of
the apostles' claims. He attest to the validity of
this fact. The man, Jesus of Nazareth, is
indeed the Christ of God. The Holy Spirit bears witness
of that continually. Our Savior said, there is another
that beareth witness of me, and I know that the witness he witnesseth
of me is true. While our Lord walked on this
earth, As he began his public ministry, he was baptized. And
John the Baptist said, God told me I know who he is. When I saw
the spirit descend from heaven and light on him and abide on
him. And when John baptized the Savior,
symbolically fulfilling all righteousness, showing that by his death, burial
and resurrection, sinners would be saved, justly with God, the
Holy Spirit descended from heaven in the form of a dove and lighted
on him. And John said, I knew this is
he. I knew this is the one. And then as he went about his
earthly ministry, our Lord did something other men had never
done. He did something other men had
never done. Oh, he came and forgave sin. But in order to demonstrate
that he had power to forgive sin, he healed their bodies. Well, Elijah healed men, Elisha
healed men. Yeah, but not like our Savior.
Our Lord Jesus gave sight to the blind. He gave ears to the
deaf. He gave a tongue to the dumb.
He calls lame men to get up and walk. And he did something else. He gave life to the dead. He
gave life to the dead. This was no modern day Pentecostal
fake healer. This is the Christ of God. He
did these things in such a public way that no one could ever reasonably
question the fact that they were done. On one occasion, He took
five loaves and two fishes, and on another occasion, some more
loaves and a couple of fish, and fed thousands of people. Thousands of folks had lunch.
His disciples just kept breaking the bread. Just kept passing
out fish. Well, there was some trick to
that. Ask the thousands who were filled.
Ask the folks down the street who got the baskets full that
were carried away. Our Savior, by these things,
performed these miracles, and God, the Holy Ghost, working
in him, for he was given the Spirit without measure. By the
power of the Spirit of God in him, he performed those miracles. And when the pilot was about
to, or Herod was about to take John to Baptist life, John sent
two of his disciples and said, you go ask him. Art thou the
Christ? I look thee for another. As I've
said to you many times before, I don't have any question, John
wasn't concerned. John knew who he was. John saw
the Holy Spirit descend on him in the form of a dove and abide
on him. John wanted his disciples to be confident who he was. And
the Savior said, you go tell John, the deaf hear and the blind
see. The poor had the gospel preached
to them. And women received their dead again alive. This is the Christ! God the Holy
Ghost attested to that fact while He lived upon this earth and
performed His many miracles. Then there was a prophecy back
in Joel chapter 2. of women prophesying, children
prophesying, and understanding the things, the deep, deep things
of God, having understanding given them by supernatural power,
the Holy Ghost being poured out on young and old, male and female,
Jew and Gentile, and Gentile. poured out on folks from every
nation, race, kindred, tribe, and tongue. What? God's gonna
pour out his spirit on people who aren't Jews? Yes, yes. When
Christ is in his kingdom. When Christ is in throne. When
David has taken his throne forever. And on the day of Pentecost.
The Lord Jesus Christ poured out His Spirit upon all flesh
as the inaugural act of the King of kings and Lord of lords. And
men who had never learned other languages by miraculous power
spoke the gospel clearly in the languages
of other men. They didn't practice tie my tie,
tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie,
tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie
my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie,
tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie
my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow
tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow
tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow
tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow
tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow
tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow tie, tie my bow
tie, tie the men by whom the Lord God gave us his word, writing
the book of God by divine inspiration, explaining to us in the epistles
all the doctrine that the Savior taught while he walked on this
earth. Those apostles, how do we know they spoke for God? How
do we know that these men really are the apostles of the Christ?
God gave them extraordinary power. by His Spirit, by the power of
the Holy Ghost, so that the apostles preached in other languages.
They spoke in tongues. That's what it means, preached
in other languages. The apostles. Peter and John saw a fellow laying
at the temple, and they said, we don't have any money to give
you, but we can give you something better than that, get up and
walk. And he did. And Philip performed miracles.
The apostles, man, Men raised the dead. Peter gave life again,
gave life again to the dead. They breathed in life to men
by the power of God. How can that be? These men were
the apostles of Christ. Now we have folks today who claim
they had these gifts. You've seen them. Benny Hinn,
I think of those fellows. I see Benny Hinn, I think, man,
if I had power, he says he had, I'd at least fix my hair. But
they claim they got power, they got power. No, no, only servants
of Antichrist today. claimed to have the gifts of
the Spirit. How do you know? These were gifts for a specific
time, for specific people, that ended with the death of the last
apostle. They were only apostolic gifts.
No one could convey those gifts to another except the apostles
themselves. Also, the miraculous gifts wrought
by the apostles testify that Jesus, whom we preach, is the
Christ. A fourth outward display of the
power of the Holy Ghost is to be seen in his mighty works of
grace in the hearts of chosen redeemed sinners. In the eighth
chapter of the book of Acts, we read about a sorcerer, a fellow
named Simon, we commonly call him Simon Magus, who bewitched
the people. You and I can hardly think like
that. We drive by these places, say palm readings, sister door
and that stuff, we just kind of laugh and chuckle, make jokes
about it. We can hardly, I know some of you read horoscopes and
follow that nonsense, but most of you got better sense. You
say, you wanna go in there and get your palm ready today? No,
I don't think so, I don't think so. We just kind of chuckle about
it. But there was a day when the whole Gentile world was even
more so given to superstition than we are. And there was a
sorcerer named Simon who bewitched all the people of Philippi, giving
out that himself was some great one. And everyone in town, everyone
in town, you can read in Acts chapter 8, they said, this man
is the great power of God. Not this man has the great, this
man is the great power of God. Then Philip came preaching the
gospel. And God poured out of the spirit at Philippi. And Simon
the sorcerer was converted. He wasn't really converted. But
his witchcraft was done. He made a profession of faith.
He joined in with the apostles and with the disciples in Philippi.
And then he saw Peter. working miracles. And he said,
boy, I want some of that. I want some of that. And he said,
this is the way he'd done business before. He said, how much did
I have to pay you to get your powers? And Peter said, you have
no part in a lot of this matter. There's still in you the gall
of bitterness. Your money perished with you. You can't buy the gift
of God. It can't be done. It can't be
done. But by the preaching of the gospel, the sorcerer was
exposed and multitudes converted. In modern times as well, as men
have gone forth with the Word of God in their hands, preaching. Preaching as the Spirit gave
utterance. As the doors were opened by Him
for the Word, we see the power of the Holy Ghost displayed.
Read about David Brainerd and his work among the American Indians.
I wouldn't offend my brethren, and I have a good many friends
who are Indians. I wouldn't offend them for the
world. But the American Indian would almost make the primitives
in New Guinea look like a civilized society. The American Indian
was dirty, barbaric, cruel, filthy, superstitious, full of idolatry. And then God sent a man like
David Brainerd preaching the gospel to them, and how things
changed. The gospel of God's grace turned
their lives around from the inside out, so that the whole peoples
were altered by the power of the gospel. We see it more relative
in our day, 54 years ago, Brother Walter Groover took his wife,
Betty, and their children, quit his job, and moved to Mexico. Do you know how he did that?
Do you know how he did that, Mark? He just moved. He didn't
go on deputation. He didn't raise some money. He
went down there, what money he had in his pocket, and went preaching.
That's all. Nobody supported him. Nobody
taken care of him. Nobody promised anything. He
just, God called me to this, God will take care of it. And
God has used that man to establish 39 gospel churches. I don't know if another man in
history did such a thing. I don't know of another one anywhere.
Thirty-nine gospel churches, and they have faithful gospel
pastors. I know about all of them. How? Well, Walter's such a talented,
gifted man. Well, Walter would agree, but
he won't mind me telling you this. If you were to get a book
on missions, I studied missions in school a couple of times,
folks who were real good at it, and how you're supposed to do
missionary work. If you were to get a good book on missionary
work, if you could find a good one, and they'd tell you how
to go about it, this is how Walter did it. Nah, nah, nah, nah. He didn't do anything the right
way. I mean, he didn't do anything the right way. God worked by
him, that's all. Called the power of the Holy
Ghost. Brother Cliff Heller did the
same thing going to New Guinea. For years, this is how he maintained
himself. He'd go to New Guinea, work for
a few years, come back and get a job as an engineer, save some
money and go back to New Guinea. Did it for years. Raised his
family down there among barbaric tribespeople. Barbaric tribespeople. Now, in those barbaric tribespeople,
our gospel churches would have been preaching the gospel of
God's grace. Brother Lance had a, just sent his letter a couple
months ago. I asked you to read that about Brother Seaman. Oh, what a blessing, what a blessing.
The gospel of God's grace preached in the power of the Spirit is
still a miraculous thing, a wondrous thing. Brother Clay Curtis, when
at Princeton, what now, 12, 13 years ago, And God's established
a gospel work in that place. Every now and then I hear testimony
from somebody who's been saved by God's grace. I think particularly
two men, same thing happened to them. Brother Jim Wilson down
in Wichita Falls, Texas. Brother Russell Smith over in
Ballard Money, North Ireland. Somebody cared enough about them to start
giving them tapes of the messages here. And they'd get mad. They got mad. Both of them told
me the same thing, and they didn't know each other. They didn't
conspire on this. They'd listen, throw it out the window. Find
another one to interrupt, listen a little bit, throw it out the
window. And Brother Russell was more religious than Jim. He didn't
cuss anybody, Jim, but he would. He'd just, throw it out the window. And then one day stuck one in
and started to turn it off. Wait a minute. How by the power of the Holy
Ghost, God grips the heart and does his work. You see, the word
of God is quick, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even through the biting asunder of soul and spirit. and joints
and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. Now I gotta hurry. All those
outward displays of the power of the Holy Ghost are things
that no one can deny. But there are also inward manifestations
of his power. These are things that can be
known only as they're experienced and felt. They can't be explained,
Mark, so that anybody else will understand them. You can't go
home and tell your wife or your mother or your brother, your
daddy, your son, your daughter, can't tell it. You can talk about
them and you may as well talk to a donkey about painting, doing
artwork. It ain't going to happen. That
ain't going to happen. You can't explain it to anybody. The only
way they can ever understand them is to experience them. and they're experienced only
in the sweet exercise of God's saving grace. They must be felt
in the soul. And I thought long and hard about
that word felt before putting it here in my notes. Because
we live in this age of delusional Pentecostal revivalism and Pentecostal
nonsense. Most people think that Religion
is some spiritual or emotional spasm and no more. And then mere
doctrinalists think that the matter spoken of as felt things
aren't intellectual enough. But God's saving grace is something
felt within. I wouldn't give you a wooden
nickel for religion that's all feelings. And I wouldn't give
you a wooden nickel for a religion that doesn't have any. An awakened man feels his awakening. A sick man who's been healed
feels his healing. A man who's been in bondage feels
freedom. A thirsty man, when he takes
a drink of cold water, Oh, that feels good. He feels
the quenching of his thirst. And a dead man feels life when
he's been resurrected from the dead by the power of the Holy
Ghost. The Holy Ghost comes upon the
hearts of men, bearing witness of Christ within, and breaks the heart of stone. Zechariah speaks as God's prophet,
and God describes the heart of man being harder than adamant. One time I looked that up, adamant,
what kind of stone, an adamant stone. It was only a legendary
rock. No one's ever discovered adamant
stone. It was just a legendary rock. But legend was a pretty
good picture of the heart of man. An adamant stone could not
be broken. by any human means. You could
just beat it and beat it and you wouldn't crack it. The adamant
stone could not even be heated by any fire, just warmed on the
surface, that's all. But the adamant stone, that hard
adamant stone, if you soaked it in the blood of a goat, would be dissolved and crumble
like an aspirin in water. What a picture God gives us. You see, your heart is an adamant
stone. Nothing gonna touch it. Nothing
gonna break it. Nothing gonna move it. Nothing. Oh, it can be warmed a little
on the outside. A preacher can tell a tear-jerking
story and maybe cause you to have a little outside feeling.
He can show you a movie about the fires of hell and scare you
to death maybe, but he can't do anything about your heart. But God the Spirit can. If he comes and sprinkles your
heart with the blood of the Paschal Lamb, Christ our scapegoat. The blood of Christ sprinkled
on your heart melts the heart of stone. He'll melt the adamant heart
to repentance and cause you to mourn over him whom you pierced. And nobody will understand it.
except you are somebody else whose adamant heart had been
melted by the precious blood of Christ, applied to your heart
by the power of the Holy Ghost. And there's something else going
to be done. Soon, soon, these bodies will
return to the dust. The Spirit of God, graciously,
will finish His work for us on this earth, but there's still
something more to be done. When Christ comes again, He will
send His Spirit by His Word to raise up these mortal bodies in the perfection, in the perfection
of Jesus Christ our Redeemer. That's the power of the Holy
Ghost. The power of the Holy Ghost by
which we live. The power of the Holy Ghost by
which we labor. The power of the Holy Ghost in
which we hope to die. The power of the Holy Ghost by
which these bodies will be raised up in the resurrection day. Oh,
may God make you to know power of the Holy Ghost now in the
First Resurrection. Amen. All right. Take your