I appreciate both of those hymns.
What a blessing. That hymn by Martin Luther, A
Mighty Fortress Is Our God, that's a message in itself, isn't it? If you will, let's open our Bibles
tonight to Acts chapter four. Acts chapter four. beginning with verse 31, and
I'm going to read into chapter five through verse nine. And when they had prayed, the
place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word
of God with boldness. And the multitude of them that
believed were of one heart and of one soul. Neither said any
of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own,
but they had all things common, and with great power gave the
apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great
grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them
that lacked, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses
sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,
and laid them down at the apostles' feet. Distribution was made unto
every man according as he had need. And Joseph, who by the
apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted the
son of Constellation, a Levite and of the country of Cyprus,
having land, sold it, brought the money, and laid it at the
apostles' feet. A certain man named Ananias with
Sapphira, his wife, sold the possession and kept back part
of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain
part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias,
why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost to keep
back part of the price of the land? Whilst it remained, was
it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it
not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this
thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men,
but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these words,
fell down and gave up the ghost. Great fear came on all them that
heard these things. And the young man arose, wound
him up, and carried him out, and buried him. And it was about
the space of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what
was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her,
tell me whether you sold the land for so much? And she said,
yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, how
is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?
Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at
the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway
at his feet, and yielded up the ghost, and the young man came
in and carried her dead, or found her dead, and carrying her forth,
buried her by her husband. I want you to notice that the
scripture where we began reading And chapter four in verse 31
speaks of a prayer meeting, and then where we ended just now
speaks of a funeral, a burial. And I do not believe tonight
that Lord is leading me to speak so much on the incident of the
prayer meeting or of the burials. But I want us to, this evening,
I'm feeling led to speak to us about the Holy Ghost, the Holy
Spirit, who is mentioned in these verses, you see, three times. In verse 31 of chapter four,
we read, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And then
in verse three of chapter five, Satan had filled thine heart
to lie to the Holy Ghost. And then in verse nine, How is
it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? And I want to say three things
to us tonight about the Holy Spirit, about the Holy Ghost.
And these are not things that are new to you that are here
this evening, but they are foundational truths and things that we need
to be reminded of. It's interesting in the second
letter of Peter, the apostle Peter is writing to those who
were founded, who were settled in the truth. And yet he said
he needed to write these things to put them in remembrance. And
as believers, as God's children, as the family of the Lord, we
do need to be reminded of these various things as we go through
this world. And I have three things I want
to say about the Holy Spirit. First, the Holy Spirit is God. We see this in verses three and
four. Now you and I know tonight that
there is only one God. We know this from the scriptures,
first of all. Isaiah chapter 44 and verse 6,
God says, I am the first and the last, and beside me there
is no God. There's only one God. And if
you will turn in your Bibles with me to Mark chapter 12. When
our Lord was here in the flesh ministering, He was, of course, many times
accosted and asked various questions. But here in chapter 12, he was
asked, what is the great, which is the first commandment? Let's see, that begins in verse.
Verse 28, and one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning
together and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked
him, which is the first commandment of all? Now, we know our Lord's
answer, the first commandment of all is, as he gives it in
verse 29, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. Now, after our Lord answered,
I want you to notice that this scribe, now remember, a scribe
was an individual, a Jewish individual, who gave his life to the study
of the law. That was his life. That was his
occupation. That was more than an occupation.
It was more than a profession. That was his life. To study the
scripture, the Old Testament, the law, and to, many times,
copy the law. But look at his answer in verse
32. Well, in other words, you've
answered well, Master. Thou hast said the truth. For
there is one God, and there is none other but He. Now, what
our Lord had said is, the first commandment is that we must love
God with all our heart. Now think of it. Think of it
like this. If there's more than one God,
we could not obey that command. That command in itself testifies
to the fact that there's only one God, because we are to love
God with all our heart, all our mind, all our strength, we could
only do that for one God. If there were two gods or three
gods, as some people believe and some religions teach, it's
amazing to me that people believe in many gods, But the scriptures
very clearly tell us that there's only one God. I remember watching a program,
it's been some time back, but this man was visiting, I believe
in Indonesia, one of those Asian countries over there. But they
went to various temples. And they come to one temple that
was dedicated to the monkeys. Monkeys. And monkeys, they wouldn't
touch a monkey. I mean, they had so many monkeys
around there and had a temple dedicated to the monkey god.
Doesn't that show how far man has fallen? How depraved man
is because of the sin that we have inherited from our father
Adam, that man who was made in the very image of God. In the
image of God, there has to be a moral image of God, upright,
made in the image of God, and yet because of sin, fallen to
such a level that we would worship animals and even insects? I remember Brother Ralph Barnard
said it like this one time, you know, that God is too big for
us, so we make a God and we He's too big, if it's man, if it's
animal. So we get out our knife and we
whittle him down. And before long, we're worshiping
an insect even, a reptile or something like that. But the
God of the Bible is a big God, and He's the only God, and He's
the sovereign God. He reigns and rules over all
of His creation. Now here in our text, if you
turn back to Acts chapter 5, Peter clearly states in verses
3 and 4 that the Holy Spirit is God. That's my first point,
that the Holy Spirit is God. And he makes it ever so clear,
doesn't he? I don't see how anyone could
misunderstand what Peter is saying here. In verse three, Peter said,
Ananias, why has Satan failed thine heart to lie to the Holy
Ghost? Who did he lie to? He lied to
the Holy Ghost, didn't he? That's what Peter says. Ananias,
you've lied to the Holy Ghost. But then notice in the next verse,
while it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it
not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this
thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men,
but unto God. Well, I thought you just said
he lied unto the Holy Ghost. He did, and he lied unto God. He lied unto God because the
Holy Ghost is God. Now, having said there's only
one God, as the scriptures declare, and having said here that the
Holy Spirit The Holy Ghost is God. We are reminded that while
there is only one God, he exists in a trinity of persons. I want
you to look with me in Psalm 33. And there's so many places
we could go in the word of God that testify to triune God. But in Psalm 33 and verse six, And we know in the very beginning,
in Genesis chapter one, when God said, let us make man. Us, let us make man. That's plural, isn't it? That's
a plural pronoun, us. And the Spirit of the Lord, he's
mentioned there in chapter one of Genesis, the Spirit of the
Lord moved upon the face of the waters. But here in this verse,
verse six, by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and
all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. In that verse we
see God the Father, the Lord, We see God the Son, the Word,
and we see God the Holy Spirit, the breath. Breath, that's what
the word Spirit means, isn't it? Breath, breath. The Holy
Spirit is one of the three persons in the Godhead. And you know
that word Godhead. The only reason I use it is because
the Apostle Paul used it. He used it twice. He used it
in Romans and he used it in Colossians, the Godhead. What is he talking,
what does he mean by that, the Godhead? He means the essence,
the essence of God. In Colossians he said this, speaking
of the Lord Jesus, for in him, that is in Jesus, dwelleth the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. The fullness of the Godhead dwelt
fully in the man, Jesus. Now, who was made flesh? Who was made flesh? The Word,
the eternal Son of God. And yet, He is the fullness of
the Godhead. In Him dwelleth the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. That is, in the Lord, in the
man, Jesus Christ, who was in union to the eternal Son, and
because the eternal Son is fully God, then the fullness of the
Godhead, and there can be no division in the Godhead, in the
essence of God. There's one God, but yet there
are three persons in the Trinity. The second point, the Holy Spirit
is a person. Now, I didn't know exactly which
of these should be first. The Holy Spirit is God or the
Holy Spirit is a person. But I came up with this. First of all, the Holy Spirit
is God. We see that, everyone here. And I know you knew that
before the service began. But we're going over this and
we are being reminded of this truth. The Holy Spirit is God,
and the Holy Spirit is a person. You know, I listen sometimes
to a radio program where people can call in and ask Bible questions. And I've been somewhat amazed
over the years. I don't listen to it every day,
but sometimes on my way home from here, it's on. And I've
been surprised how many times I've heard this same question.
People call in and ask, what is the difference between the
Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit. What is the difference? But I
can understand, can't you? If a person was not familiar
with the Word of God, if a person just, you know, went to the store
and bought a Bible. I heard a man give a testimony
recently and he was already married and he had never read the Bible
and he, it came into his heart while he was under conviction
of sin, is what it was, but he wanted to read the Bible. But
they had to look for a Bible, and finally they found out, he
and his wife realized that when they got married, her grandmother
had given them a small Bible, I guess for her to carry down
the aisle when they got married. And so he found that Bible and
started reading, and he began reading in Genesis 1 and read
all the way till he came to the Gospel of John, and that's when
The Lord revealed to him the gospel, how God saves sinners. But my point is, if a person
like that just picked up a Bible, a grown person or a teenager
or someone like that, and started reading, and they would read,
sometimes it says the Holy Spirit, and sometimes it says the Holy
Ghost, it might be confusing. Is there a difference? Of course
there's not. In verse five of our text here, I like to use the word Holy Spirit
or the title Holy Spirit. And I think most of you do as
well. And one of the reasons is because when these two people
died, both Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, when they died because
of lying to the Holy Spirit, what does the word tell us? They
gave up the ghost. Verse five, Ananias hearing these
words fell down and gave up the ghost. Verse 10, then fell she
down straightway at his feet and yielded up the ghost. We've
all heard of Casper the ghost, haven't we? Over time, now for some reason,
when in 16 whatever it was, the King James translation was made,
words change. Brother Streeter and one of the
Sunday school classes recently used the word complacent, complacent. That word has completely changed
its meaning over the years. When we say a person is complacent,
we usually mean they're kind of just inactive, you know. But
when God speaks of his eternal son, this is my beloved son in
whom I am well pleased, he's complacent with his son. At that
time, it meant he was well pleased. He was satisfied with his son. And the same thing is true about
the word ghost. Many people associate that with
people who've died and their spirits are out here, you know,
wandering around, ghosts. So that's one reason I like to
use the word spirit, the title Holy Spirit. But some people
who deny the Trinity, deny what I've spoken about and we've read
about here tonight about a Trinity of persons and the Godhead, they
say the Holy Spirit is not a person, They deny the Trinity, and usually
the person they deny, first of all, is the Holy Ghost. And many
of them say, yes, Jesus is God, but he's not the God. He's a creation of God, the highest
creation, yes. And that's what the Jehovah's
Witnesses teach. And that's one of the oldest
heresies that I've ever read about in church history. And
it goes back to the fact that the Greeks felt and believed
that anything that you could feel had sin, was sinful. Anything that had substance was
sinful. In other words, it had to be
pure spirit not to be sinful. And because Jesus Christ is born
of our bone and flesh of our flesh, they could not believe
that he could be God. They came up with that teaching
that God created another, I forget what word they use, aeon, and
that one created another one, and that one created another
one, and we come on down till we get down here far enough to
where even these creatures are good and holy. But we finally
get down to the place where one of them could create the world,
the universe. And then they say that the highest
one, but still a creature, is the Son of God. That's a lie. We know that's not true. But
usually the first person of the three persons in the Trinity
who is denied is God the Holy Spirit. Many will say, well,
it's just a power. That's just speaking of the power
of God. That's a quality of God. But the fact that he was tempted,
that's what Peter said, that you have tempted. Verse nine,
I believe, then Peter said unto her, how is it that you have
agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? You cannot
tempt a power You cannot tempt a quality, a person. And this word tempt is the same
word that we have in James chapter one, a different ending, but
the same basic word. Count it all joy when you fall
into divers temptations. And we know that temptations
in the word of God sometime is testing to good. God tested Abraham. when he commanded him to offer
up his son Isaac, and yet God doesn't tempt anyone to sin.
And that's the same word here. You've tempted the Holy Ghost. For a person, for temptation
to take place, a testing to take place like this, it has to be
a person. He is a person. John Owen declared,
none can possibly be so, that is tempted, but he that hath
an understanding to consider what is proposed unto him, and
a will to determine upon the proposal made. And I thought
this was interesting, John Gill's comments on these two tempting
the Spirit of the Lord. Have you ever thought, how did
they tempt the Spirit of the Lord? How did they tempt the
Spirit of the Lord? Well, John Gill said, whether
the spirit of the Lord that was in them, that in the apostles,
was he omniscient? Did he know? Did he know how
much they sold that property for? Did he? Was he omniscient? They tempted him to know if he
was omniscient. They tempted him to know if he
was all powerful. Could he do anything? Could he? Could he do anything, even if
he understood that they had lied to him? Well, we know that God
the Holy Spirit and the apostles knew they had sold the property
for so much and they lied about the price. They wanted to act
like they had given it all. It was all theirs. It was all
theirs to begin with. They didn't have to give a penny
of it. That was their decision to make.
But they wanted to feign themselves as being liberal and giving like
other believers had done, like Barnabas had done, who's mentioned. Here's the last part. The Holy
Spirit lives in every believer. Back in chapter 4 and verse 31,
The Holy Spirit lives in every believer. When they had prayed,
the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and
they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the
word of God with boldness. Now those who prayed in this
text, who are we talking about? We're talking about the apostles
and other believers, other Christians, and God the Holy Spirit dwelt
in every one of them. In every believer, in you tonight,
as a child of God, God lives in you. Christ in you, how? Christ in you, the hope of glory.
His Holy Spirit, your body is a temple. My body is a temple
of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit, God Almighty,
dwells in every believer. The Apostle Paul put it like
this in Romans 8. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he's none of his. He's none of his. The Holy Spirit
is the one who finds us lost and dead in trespasses and sins
and quickens us and brings us, leads us to Christ, unites us. He is in us. We're in union with
Christ by the Spirit of God being in us, and we are in him by faith. The Holy Spirit dwells in believers,
and the Holy Spirit is the spirit of prayer. Remember in Romans 8, again,
Paul said, he helpeth our infirmities. That is the Holy Spirit, he helpeth
our infirmities. Arthur Pink wrote, He helps Christians
before they pray. Before they pray. He helps Christians
before they pray by stirring up their spiritual affections
and stimulating holy desires. He gives us a desire to pray.
He's the spirit of prayer in believers. He helps us before
we pray. Second, he said, he helps them
in prayer. in teaching them to ask for those
things which are according to God's will. And third, he helps
them after prayer by quickening hope and patience to wait for
God's answers. Now I want you to look in the
request. These believers here in this
verse, they prayed. And if you look above in verse
29, we didn't read this, But let's see what they prayed and
asked the Lord for. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings
and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak
thy word. Now that's their prayer, part
of their prayer, and their request is that they might speak the
word of God with all boldness. Now look at the text, verse 31. And when they had prayed, the
place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word
of God with boldness. How did he fill them? How did
the Holy Spirit fill them? If you're like me, I used to
hear about the filling of the Holy Spirit. You can't help but
think of a filling a jug or filling a bottle. The Holy Spirit is
not a liquid. He's a spirit. He's a person.
How did he fill these people? By giving them boldness to speak
the word. By enabling them to speak the
word of God with boldness, he filled them. He failed them to
preach the gospel. In John chapter 15, our Lord,
remember in John chapters 14, 15, and 16, he speaks more and
reveals more to us about the person of the Holy Spirit than
all the rest of the gospels put together. But one of the crucial
things that he tells us in that passage is, When the comforter
has come, and that's one of his names, God the Holy Spirit, that's
one of his names. He's a comforter. Another name,
and I like this one, I like them all, but he's a helper. He's a helper. And don't we need
help? Don't we need help? All the time,
we need help. And whatever we are attempting
to do in God's service, we certainly need help. God the Holy Spirit. But here, when the comforters
come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, the Spirit of
truth, that's another one of his titles, the Spirit of truth,
which proceedeth from the Father, now notice, he shall testify
of me. They prayed, they were filled
with the Holy Spirit, they had asked that they might speak the
word of God with boldness, they were filled with the Holy Spirit,
and spake the word of God with boldness, and notice verse 33,
and with great power gave the apostles, now what did they preach? What did our Lord say? He shall
testify of me. He shall testify of me. What did these people who were
filled with the spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness,
what did they preach? They preached Christ. and with
great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus." Well, if you speak of his resurrection, you
must speak of his death, right? They spoke of his, as Paul said
in 1 Corinthians 15, the gospel that I preached unto you by which
you were saved, how that Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures and was buried and rose again according to the
scriptures. They preached the gospel. They
spoke of Christ. They testified of him. I pray
the Lord would bless this study. I know, as I said at the very
beginning, I'm not going to say anything that you don't already
know. but I pray it's a blessing to you to hear it again. It was
to me just to think about it. Okay, let's sing a hymn and we'll
be dismissed.