Proper Approach to the Study

Introduction to the Study of the Holy Spirit

0:01 We do have a number of visitors with us tonight, and we are grateful for your presence, but particularly for your sakes, a word of explanation perhaps is in order. We have been for some 20 Lord's Day evenings studying the biblical doctrine of sanctification, and for four weeks our focus has been upon the biblical duty of mortifying sin. We have been with our attention particularly directed to Romans 8.13 and Colossians 3.5.

0:35 However, I wish tonight to take a two- or three-week digression from the focus of our studies and to bring some principles from the Scripture which are addressed to the subject of the work of the Holy Spirit. Our little biographical introduction to this will be in order, as some of you know who have been following in your little...

0:58 ...blue prayer sheets that we make available to you, that I was privileged to minister up in Toronto, not Toronto, in Montreal, Canada, earlier this week at a minister's conference, and was asked to address myself to the subject of the work of the Holy Spirit.

1:16 Since I had never dealt with that subject as such in that context, it meant a lot of independent, first-hand study and preparation. And after...

1:28 ...spending that brief time in Montreal amongst God's servants, who represent many fellowships and many denominations, and seeing something of the tremendous confusion that exists in most religious circles on the subject of the work of the Holy Spirit, I have been constrained on that basis, plus several other considerations, to take two or three Lord's Day evenings to bring some of the materialism, which I brought at that conference.

Setting the Ground Rules: Proper Attitude for Study

2:04 And so we want to deal with the general theme of the work of the Holy Spirit. But as with any subject, you never arrive at biblical answers if you come head-on to your subject without setting the field of your study, setting the ground rules by which you will come into that particular subject. And so what I wish to do tonight, and the Lord willing, to conclude probably next Lord's Day evening, is first of all to consider with you our basic attitude in handling a subject such as the work of the Holy Spirit.

2:45 And I deliberately did not say the person and work of the Holy Spirit. I'm thinking particularly of the work of the Holy Spirit, for it is here that there is the greatest confusion in our day. In previous periods of Church history, the subject of the person of the Holy Spirit was a subject of great controversy. There were some who denied the personality or the deity of the Holy Spirit, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses do in our day.

3:15 But I'm not concerned with that confusion which exists in the cults concerning the person of the Holy Spirit, who is He. Rather, I am concerned with the confusion which exists with regard to the work of the Holy Spirit, not who He is. Not who He is, but what He does. What can we expect Him to do in our day?

3:36 What do we have a right to ask Him to do? How can we know if indeed He is doing something that is supposed to be His work? That's the precise focus of my concern in these studies. And as we approach that, it's essential that we come to it with a proper biblical attitude.

3:56 And so we're going to consider tonight, first of all, our basic attitude in handling the Holy Spirit, and then secondly, we want to consider a basic principle of interpretation which must govern all of our consideration of the work of the Holy Spirit. And then I wish to give some basic principles which must govern all of our considerations on the work of the Holy Spirit. So then, attitude, basic principle of interpretation, and then five basic principles or guidelines, or guidelines for the work of the Holy Spirit. All right then, what should be our attitude in approaching this subject?

Improper Attitudes in Approaching Scripture

4:40 Those of you gathered here tonight come from a diversity of backgrounds, a diversity of ecclesiastical associations, and a great diversity of personal experiences. And when we do, it's easy to approach a subject of this nature with an improper attitude. Let me illustrate the attitudes that are improper. There's the attitude that sits back, not really listening to learn anything, but with an invisible checklist, seeing at what points the speaker agrees with me.

5:10 And so we sit, ah, he's all right, he agrees with me there. Yeah, he's all right, he agrees with me there. That's a terrible disposition to have, and yet so often God's people have it when they come to the Word of God in general. I trust we'll not come with that attitude.

5:24 The other is the attitude where you become sort of a cheering section. You have in your mind who are the enemy, and you're sitting there and seeing if I will be your David to slay those Goliaths out there. And at every point where I attack what you feel is the enemy, you'll just cheer me on in your heart, though perhaps not verbally. Now, dear ones, again, that's a terrible attitude.

5:48 And yet we must, if we're honest, confess that we often come to the Scriptures with that attitude and to preaching with that attitude. Then the third attitude is the one in which you do not put yourself under the judgment of the Word, but you put the preacher or teacher under the judgment, of your own ability to assess where he fits. I remember one time preaching in a church, expounding the seventh chapter of Mark, in which our Lord castigates the Pharisees and scribes for negating Scripture by church tradition. You remember he said, In vain do you worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

6:26 You may void the Word of God by your tradition. And I was dealing with the principle that we as evangelicals can become so bound not to the tradition of Rome, which is 1,500 years old, but to the traditions of evangelical circles, which may be 50 years old. And I began to take some of our traditions and expose them in the light of the Word of God. Well, afterward a man came to me, not saying, Well, brother, your exposition was wrong.

6:53 Your exegesis was wrong. Your interpretation was not valid. He didn't attack how I handled the Word. He said this, he says, I think I've got you pegged.

7:02 You're halfway between a Pentecostal and a Plymouth Brethren. Well, you see, what he had done, in his mind, he had equated anyone who showed any kind of animation in treating the Word of God, anyone who got excited and let his excitement show, had some of the leaven of Pentecostalism in him, and anyone who dared to question tradition must be a Plymouth Brethren. And so he had me some kind of a high-bred Pentecostal Plymouth Brethren. Now we've chuckled.

The Proper Attitude: Dependence, Teachableness, and Discernment

7:40 And perhaps, and I'm sure such chuckling is all right, but Brethren, do you not see what a terrible, terrible attitude that is with which to approach the Scripture? What then is the proper attitude with which to approach the Scripture? Let me suggest that three things must comprise that attitude. First of all, a conscious dependence upon the Holy Spirit.

8:02 Secondly, a teachableness to the voice of the Spirit speaking in Scripture. And thirdly, an investigativeness and discernment in the treatment of Scripture. In Ephesians chapter 1, a passage to which we'll probably get sometime next fall, at the rate we're going Sunday mornings, working through Ephesians, verse by verse, the Apostle says in verse 15, For this cause, I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which ye show toward all,

8:42 the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. And this is what he prayed for these people. Here are the people who are the fruit of his own labors in Christ. Having spent some three years there at Ephesus, the Apostle Paul saw this church come into being under his own ministry.

9:03 And now as he's away from them and he hears news of their continued faith and their continued love, he has deep and holy longings for them. And this is the paramount longing. Notice what it is. This is the reason for which I bow my knees before God, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know, and then he goes on to delineate the things that he trusts the Holy Spirit will reveal to them.

9:44 But the significant principle in the passage is this. The Apostle Paul, though an inspired apostle, one who spoke by unique apostolic authority, knows that even though they heard him for three years, and even though they're going to read this letter that is dictated by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul, that they'll be blind as blind, as a bat to the truth contained, unless the Spirit illuminates the understanding. Paul was conscious, conscious of the need of the ministry of the Spirit as the spirit of illumination.

10:28 And so I submit to you that when we approach any biblical subject, we must never approach it as though we stand over it as masters to analyze and to dissect. But we come as little children, as humble disciples, bowing before the authority of the Word, asking God by the Spirit to give us light. Perhaps the most telling test as to whether or not we have cultivated this conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit is the frequency and fervency with which we pray with David,

11:11 as we have the Eucharist of the Holy Spirit. And we do so in the baptism of Jesus. And we pray with the Holy Spirit, as we pray in the baptism of Jesus, that we may be opened to the Holy Spirit, and that we may see the Holy Spirit as he was, as he was, in the fidelity of our lives. And we pray in the baptism, that we may see the Holy Spirit in his face, them ye think ye have eternal life, and these are they which testify of me, but ye will not come to me that you might have life.

11:56 He searched the scriptures, but he said, you miss me.

12:02 They came not with a sense of conscious dependence upon the Spirit, who alone can open up the truth of scripture. They came confident, we're the doctors, we can handle the book.

12:14 What's your attitude as you sit there tonight? Is it the attitude of one whose heart is weaned from self-confidence and creature confidence and preacher confidence?

12:27 And is your confidence in God the Spirit alone to open up the scriptures? You see, if we insult and grieve the Holy Spirit by failing to consciously acknowledge our need of Him, He'll display His grief and displeasure by withdrawing and withholding His gracious and powerful influence. As the Spirit of illumination, He says, all right, you smart enough to get on without me? All right, I'll let you see what you can do.

12:56 Jeremiah 17, 5, Cursed be he that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. He shall be like a heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit a parched place, a wilderness, a salt land, where no water is. Dear ones, the word of the psalmist is true as much today as it was when he spoke it. And in thy light we shall see light.

Teachableness: The Painful Process of True Learning

13:24 And if he doesn't give light, there will be no light. Conscious dependence upon the Holy Spirit. But then that must be joined to the second aspect of a proper attitude in all studies of scripture, but particularly this doctrine of the work of the Spirit. It must be joined to a teachableness.

13:46 Since true learning is a painful process. It's easy to pull down the shades that are hung up there in front of our minds and conveniently stumble around in our present level of ignorance. True learning is a painful process. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, I doubt you've had true spiritual learning.

14:10 True spiritual learning is a painful and costly process. For God is not interested in sending out into the world a bunch of theorists who've got a head full of fear. He's not interested in telling you facts about the Bible. He's concerned with making people like his Son.

14:29 And the thing he uses is his truth. And though it must first of all come to the mind and there must be illumination, that's not where it stops. And it's the filtering process from the head into the heart and out to the light where the pain comes. And if you're a child of God and have lived longer than a week as a Christian, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

14:50 It's painful. And so to keep a teachable spirit is a rare thing. It's amazing. It's amazing how many people, after 10 or 15 years of sitting around in evangelical churches, God himself couldn't teach them anything.

15:04 One of the reasons is the pain of teachableness is too much to bear. And so they come simply to be confirmed in their present level of understanding and to have their prejudice to areas of ignorance simply deepened. No, Acts 17 and verse 11 is a beautiful description of this teachable spirit. You hear this text referred to often in this assembly, and so once more won't hurt, and it just may do some good.

15:32 Notice how the Holy Ghost underscores the principle of teachableness, Acts 17 and verse 11.

15:40 Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the scriptures daily whether these things were so. Many of them, therefore, believed. Anybody here of nobility?

16:03 Well, God says, I'll tell you what spiritual nobility is. Here it is. It has nothing to do with your physical blood, whether or not you have royal blood in your veins, but nobility, in God's eyes, is this disposition and attitude of teachableness. Notice the wording.

16:26 They received. They received the word with all readiness of mind. To receive the word is to listen intently with a view to grasping it and understanding it. It's not just lending your ears to pick up the vibrations that come out of the larynx of the preacher.

16:47 No, no. To receive the word is more than to expose yourself to sermons. To receive the word is to listen intently with a view, to grasping and understanding. And then it says they received it with readiness of mind, and that could well be translated with all eagerness.

17:11 In other words, they said, we've got something to learn. Maybe this fellow Paul will be the instrument to teach us. And so they received the word with readiness of mind, eagerness to learn. May I ask you tonight, if you've come into this congregation, with that disposition, thank God there are many of you whom as best I can judge have not only come with that disposition tonight, but every time these doors are open, you come with that disposition.

Investigativeness and Discernment: Holy Caution

17:45 Sometimes I fear you don't come with the conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit as you ought, but you do come with readiness of mind, ready to receive the word with eagerness. But then that must be joined to the third facet of a proper attitude, individualism. Individual investigation or investigativeness, if you want the other word, and discernment. For notice what it says, though they received the word with readiness,

18:15 they examined the scriptures daily, whether these things were so, and many of them believed.

18:26 Since such great issues are involved for us individually, and since none of us lives to himself, but we have an influence upon our children, our friends, our loved ones, our fellow Christians, we cannot afford the luxury of spiritual impetuosity and gullibility. I've met so many dear people that thought they could afford the luxury of what I call spiritual impetuosity and gullibility. Every new thing they swallowed it hook, line, and sinker, and they'd take off like a rocket in that direction, only three years later to say what a fool I was. But the trouble is, they've left a trail of blood of people who've been harmed

19:11 by their quickness to receive things, but it wasn't balanced with this individual investigation and discernment. Now, God says that if particularly with regard to the work of the Holy Spirit, you're to approach it with a disposition of holy caution. 1 John 4, 1, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but trust. I, the spirits, whether they be of God,

19:46 there is a peculiar commandment directed to the people of God with reference to the work of the Holy Spirit. Wherever there is anything that purports to be the work of the Spirit, God says, don't immediately believe it, put it to the test. Put it to the test. As we shall see in subsequent studies, the test is not experiential, personal.

20:11 It is doctrinal.

20:13 It's doctrinal. Every spirit that confesses. You don't test the spirits by what people say they feel or experience, but you test them by objective truth.

20:28 That's another message. Some of you may not be here, so I wanted to slip it in in case you didn't get back. Now, this word is an interesting word. They examined the Scriptures daily.

20:42 And that word examine is the same word used in a legal sense. When a criminal is brought before a court and is examined for his crime, that's the sense in which it's used in Acts 4.9 and in Acts 12.19.

20:57 So God says, you are to examine the Scriptures with the objectivity of the defense attorney and the prosecuting attorney and the judge and the jury. You are to bring these things in and lay out all of the facts. That's the sense of the text. Individual investigation and discernment.

21:17 But now, how should this investigation go on? Look at the text. It goes on with reference to an inflexible standard of truth. They searched the Scriptures daily.

21:29 They didn't search their own experience. They didn't even search Paul's experience. They didn't search out tradition. They searched the Scriptures.

21:38 This individual discernment and investigativeness is to be carried out within the framework of a fixed, standard of truth, the Scriptures. Secondly, it's to be done with persistence. Notice, they searched the Scriptures or examined the Scriptures daily, day by day. They didn't go off for three hours and say, well, I've prayed and I've looked up the verses and now I'm all ready to take off like a rocket.

22:06 No, no. They were not gullible. They were not guilty of spiritual impetuosity. They went on with persistence.

22:15 And then thirdly, this is the standard of truth. This investigation was carried on with submission to the conclusions of Scripture. Notice, whether these things were so, many of them therefore believed. When they found out they were so, they said there's nothing else to do but to yield ourselves up to the truth we've discovered in the Scriptures.

Overcoming Prejudice: A Barrier to Truth

22:38 Once it was discovered to be truth, the issue was settled. They must yield themselves up to the authority of divine truth. This is a most difficult thing for us. John Brown in his excellent commentary on John 14 through 16 that is found in volume three of his Discourses and Sayings of Our Lord, a volume that I worked through recently for my own devotional exercises, has the most perceptive words about this very thing of a proper attitude with respect to the work of the Holy Spirit.

23:15 And I want to quote him at this time. The power of the Holy Spirit is to be the power of the Holy Spirit. The power of prejudice over men's minds is indeed a source of wonder.

23:26 When an opinion or feeling, however originating, has obtained a place in the mind and kept it for a long series of years, it is no easy matter to unsettle and dislodge it. We are very unwilling to be convinced that what we have long counted true is false, especially in cases where, in consequence, of our interest and passions being involved, a conviction of the falsity of an opinion long held is connected with the relinquishing of expectations long and fondly cherished. You see, he's relating this to the disciples who had thought for years that Messiah will come

24:10 and take that usurper government wrong, put it under his heel and crush it, and make them twelve prime ministers in the new kingdom. That's what they had in their heads. So when our Lord said, He says, Look, I'm going up to Jerusalem to die. It says they didn't understand him.

24:25 How plain can you get? I, that's me, am going. I'm going to make a journey to Jerusalem, a place. I'm going to die.

24:33 It says they understood not this saying. Why? Because the words were big words?

24:40 Because they were obscure? No. But because their minds had entrenched in them false notions and the plainest truth could not dislodge the false notions. The false notions.

24:52 The false notions were like an octopus which sent out its tentacles into all the fibers and facets of the mind and held it in its grip. And even the words of our Lord Jesus couldn't wither those tentacles. Couldn't wither. They had it all fixed, how everything should be.

25:08 And even the Son of God could not unconvince them. Then the author goes on to say, Never, perhaps, was the power of prejudice more strikingly displayed than in the rejection by the great body of the Jewish people of the claims of Jesus Christ, to be Messiah promised to their fathers. The idea of a temporal Messiah, the notion that the promised deliverer was to be a secular prince and his kingdom a worldly empire, had taken possession of and had for ages held its universal dominion over the nation of Israel. The notion was mixed up with all their feelings of national pride and their ideas of national interest.

25:49 The foundation of it was but little proportion to the wide extent and tenacious power of its grip upon the Jewish mind. They found it easier to resist truth founded on abundance of appropriate evidence than to renounce a prejudice founded on no satisfactory evidence whatsoever. Oh, may God help us to pray and to pray constantly, God, dislodge from my mind blinding prejudice that will keep me from seeing what is truly true. Oh, how I need to pray this as a teaching elder who, in a very real sense,

26:34 sets the direction of the thinking of so many. What a frightening thing. No wonder James says, Be not many of you teachers, knowing that ye shall receive the heavier judgment. Some of you men that may have a starry-eyed concept of the ministry, I hope you're shaking your boots before you ever stand to preach, because the areas of your willful blind prejudice are in great measure the willful blind prejudice of your people.

Basic Principle of Interpretation: Hermeneutical Guideline

27:01 That's why Jesus said to spiritual leaders, Ye be blind leaders. Well then, that's the proper attitude I suggest with which we must approach the subject of the work of the Holy Spirit, willing to bring all our previous notions and experiences to the touchstone of Holy Scripture. And then secondly, and it looks like this is as far as we'll get tonight, our basic principle of interpretation. Now, for some of you that like technical words a little more, I'll slip one out for you.

27:37 Our basic hermeneutical guideline. Hermeneutics is simply the science of interpretation. And it's necessary when we come to the Scriptures to have some principles of interpretation derived from the Scriptures themselves. All of you, I'm sure, are aware of the fact that the Bible can be used to prove almost anything.

27:59 Listen to what Peter says. This was going on way back in the Apostolic Age, 2 Peter 3 and verse 16. Speaking of Paul's writings, Peter says, 2 Peter 3, 16, As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, wherein are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and the unsteadfast W.R.R.

28:35 E.S.T. They rest them as they do the other Scriptures unto their own destruction.

28:44 Peter says, My beloved brother Paul has written some things, and he said, I confess as a fellow apostle, some of them aren't easy. Some of you have come to me saying, you've really exerted some mental sweat working through Ephesians 1. Well, good. Paul wrote some things not easy to be understood.

29:01 So if they're hard to be understood, it means you've got to think hard and pray much until you understand them. But there's another course open. People say, Oh, I've got the Spirit. I've got the Spirit.

29:11 It's obvious what it means. And what do they do? He says they're ignorant and they're unstable. And what do they do?

29:19 He says they take those words of Paul, which he equates with Scripture, and he says they rest them. And that word rest means to put on a rack and stretch out a shape. They take those Scriptures, they hold to the substance of the Word of God, but he says they stretch it, stretch it out of its natural shape and intent. And when they do, what do they end up doing?

29:42 Notice, they end up destroying themselves with the Scriptures. They rest the Scriptures unto their own destruction. What a terrible thing to destroy yourself with the Bible. It's bad enough when people say, I have nothing to do with the Bible.

29:58 I don't believe that stuff. And go out and destroy themselves in their own pagan ignorance. When people slip down into hell, clinging the Bible to themselves, that's tragic. And they do so by resting the Scriptures.

30:16 One of the ways they rest them is they have no basic, biblically dictated principles of interpretation. They can make the Bible, they make it a nose of wax. Shape it any way they want. Paul was conscious that people were doing this in his day.

30:36 Listen to his words in 2 Corinthians 4.1. Seeing therefore, we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint not. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully.

31:01 There were people in Paul's day who claimed to be apostles. They said, we're apostles. We preach the word. But he says, they handle the word of God.

31:13 Deceitfully, not honestly. And so, dear ones, it's not enough for me to stand up here these nights and quote verses on the Holy Spirit and read passages in which the name of the Holy Spirit is mentioned. You can prove anything that way. Handling, manipulating, the word of God deceitfully.

31:36 We must have a basic principle of interpretation that comes out of the Scriptures to guide us in our study of the Scripture. And I want to give it to you now, what that principle is. Then I want to explain it. And some of you may sit there and scratch it and say, that doesn't make much sense.

31:54 But you hold on. I think you see it well. All right? Here's the principle.

32:01 The teaching portions explaining the person and work of the Holy Spirit must regulate our understanding of the historical portions describing the work of the Holy Spirit. Now hang on and think with me. When you turn to the Scriptures, and we're thinking particularly now of the New Testament in terms of the work of the Spirit in and through the Church in this day, you have certain portions that come to us as specific teaching on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Portions like John 14, John 16, where Jesus talks about the Comforter, who He is,

32:46 who He is going to send, who He will be, what He will do, what He will not do. And then when you come to passages like Romans 8, where Paul is talking about the work of the Spirit specifically. Ephesians 1, 13 and 14 and other portions. These are the didactic, the teaching portions explaining the work of the Spirit.

33:07 Now, our principle, our guideline in our study in this area is this. Those teaching portions explaining the work of the Spirit must regulate our understanding of the historical portions which describe the work of the Spirit. The book of Acts. The book of Acts describes the work of the Holy Spirit.

33:33 But there is very little inspired interpretation by the Apostles of the work of the Spirit in the book of Acts. That is given by our Lord in John 14, 15 and 16 particularly and in the epistles extensively. Now let me break that down and demonstrate why I am declaring that this principle emerges out of the Bible itself. It's not just something I have said should be imposed upon.

Illustrating the Principle: Acts 10 and 11

34:06 The Bible teaches that God teaches in two ways. By what He says and by what He does. 2 Timothy 3, 16 says, All Scripture, referring to the Old Testament particularly at that point, is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness. Now God in the Old Testament gives us the record of what He did as well as the record of what He said.

34:35 When you read Exodus, the first part of it is what God did in getting His people out of Egypt. When you come to chapter 20, you have the record of what God said when He spoke from Mount Sinai and gave the law to Moses. God was instructing His people by what He said and by what He did. And so when you turn to a passage like 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul says after recounting the history of Israel, 1 Corinthians 10 and verse, well perhaps we could start with verse 1 so you get the principle.

35:14 For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant that our fathers were all under the cloud and passed through the sea and were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, did all eat the same spiritual food, did all drink the same spiritual drink. What is this? This is recounting the history of Israel. Now he brings in a little interpretation of that history.

35:35 For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Then he goes on to say, God was not pleased with most of them. They were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our exact examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.

35:56 Verse 11, These things happened unto them by way of example and were written for our admonition. When you read the history of how the people of God lusted after evil things and God judged them, God says through Paul, this is a word of God to you. God is saying to you, don't you do what they did. He is teaching by example, you see.

36:25 But God not only teaches by example, He teaches by precept. He tells us specific things. Now when God teaches by example or by precept, what He says is to be embraced as final and authoritative truth. But now follow closely.

36:47 There are certain things that happened in the lives of God's people which later on, through an inspired prophet or apostle, God interprets for us and says, this is what that means. And once that inspired apostle has told us what that means, we can never go back and say, ah, but it means this, and ignore what the inspired interpretation already was. You follow me? Now let me give you a classic example of how this is done with regard to the work of the Spirit in the book of Acts.

37:23 Turn please to Acts chapter 10. You'll remember the circumstances surrounding the events of Acts 10. Peter has received a vision, Cornelius has received a vision, God gets the preacher to a gathered body of prepared people, and Peter starts preaching to them the simple facts about Christ, that He is God's anointed Messiah, that forgiveness of sins is to be preached in His name. And then some amazing thing happened while he's preaching.

38:03 Verse 44 of Acts 10. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them that heard the word. And they of the circumcision, that is the Jewish Christians that were with Peter, they of the circumcision that believed were amazed, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles, was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.

38:36 And answered Peter, Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized, who received the Holy Spirit as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days. So here is the fact of what happened.

38:55 Peter's preaching, the Holy Ghost falls, Peter says, I think I'm getting the message. I think I'm getting the message. Up till now, I wouldn't give these people Christian baptism to receive them on an equal footing with us Jews. Never!

39:12 But I think I'm getting the message. God let down the sheet. What I've called clean don't you call common. Oh Lord, how can I forbid water?

39:19 You've sent the same Spirit that came upon us, upon them, and how do we know it? Why, same manifestation to them as to us. Lord, I think I'm reading you. I think I'm getting the message.

39:30 Can any forbid water? Well, something like that doesn't go on in this corner. It isn't long. Look at verse 1 of chapter 11.

39:36 The apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had spoken in tongues. No, that wasn't the main emphasis. No, no. The main emphasis was they had received the Word of God.

39:52 So when Peter comes up to Jerusalem, they of the circumcision contended with him saying, You went into men uncircumcised. You went uncircumcised and ate with them. Is what we hear true? Peter said, Yeah, it's true.

40:05 Let me give you the facts. So he goes back over the whole thing, starting with verse 4. Peter began and expounded the matter to them in order, saying, He said, Let me tell you what God did, and maybe you'll get the same message through what he did that I got. I got the message.

40:21 Let's see if you folk can get it. So he tells them what happened. Narrative. History.

40:27 That's all he does. Just history. Now notice what happens. Notice carefully.

40:32 Verse 16. I remembered the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit, if then God gave unto them the like gift as he did unto us, when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God. And now having heard the facts, notice their response. And when they heard these things, they held their prayer, peace and glorified God, saying, Here's the message of what happened in Cornelius' household.

41:06 God to the Gentiles has granted repentance unto life. They said, We got the message, Lord. The essential message of the Spirit coming upon them and the exercise of the like gift that we had is this. You're trying to tell us, Lord, there's no difference between Jew and Gentile.

41:30 In the new Pentecostal age, Jew and Gentile are granted repentance from the same Lord, imparted by the same Spirit into the hearts of those whom the Father draws to himself. And they interpret the essential meaning of the outbreak of tongues in the household of Cornelius. That this is so is emphasized again in the 15th chapter of Acts. And now I'm not going into the whole matter of what is the present significance of tongues.

Further Illustration: Acts 15 and the Jerusalem Council

42:05 That's not my purpose. All I'm trying to show is if we're ever to come to some sound biblical basis to understand any work of the Spirit, this is the principle of interpretation. History is interpreted by God through his servants and we must never allow our interpretation to cancel out theirs. Remember the problem in Acts 15, similar to that in Acts 11.

42:32 There were these people who said, we're from the Judea church and we've come down here to Antioch to tell you people the real Christian message. All these Gentiles, they're sort of half-saved. We're not going to call them lost. But if they're going to have real full-blown salvation, they've got to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses.

42:50 That's all. It's got to be. Notice verse 1, except ye be circumcised after the custom of Moses, ye cannot be saved. Well, Paul and Barnabas weren't about to take that sitting down.

43:01 They got into it up to the next level. They got their neck in a good theological debate. Brethren, there are times when you've got to debate theology if you love the people of God. The souls of men are in jeopardy.

43:13 And so Paul and Barnabas didn't say, let's have a prayer meeting. No, no. They said, let's have a debate over the Scriptures. Brethren, there's a time when prayer is sinful, when the issues of God's truth are at stake.

43:27 There need to be those willing to stick their necks out and their chins out for the cause of God's truth. Now there's time when debate is sinful, when there's more heat than light. But there's also a time when prayer is sinful. Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and questioning with them.

43:43 And they said, alright, only one thing to do. Let's send Paul and Barnabas up to Jerusalem and let's straighten the matter out. So they come up to Jerusalem. The elders and the church and the apostles receive them.

43:53 And then Peter stands up. Verse 7, And there had been much questioning. Peter rose up and said, Brethren, Now he's going back to history. Ye know that a good while ago, God made choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

44:10 That's a reference to what happened with Cornelius. Now notice. Here's the apostolic interpretation of the phenomena in the household of Cornelius. God, who knoweth the heart, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit, even as he did unto us.

44:30 And he made no distinction, between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. What does Peter say is the essential significance? Gentiles get saved just like we do. They get their hearts cleansed, not by circumcision and ceremonial law, by faith plus nothing.

44:54 Yet I remember as a babe in Christ, open and hungry for anything God would give me, having some well-meaning brother sit me down and take me through Acts 2 and Acts 10 and Acts 19 and try to prove to me that what happened there has as its primary significance that as they spoke in tongues, I should speak in tongues. That was a resting of the Scriptures. It was a resting of the Scriptures. It was a resting of the Scriptures.

45:29 It was not a true interpretation based upon Peter's assessment as an inspired apostle. And I remember saying, well, if that's so, well, Lord, I want everything you've got for me. But I had enough sense to know that, wait a minute, fellows, I'm willing to pray God give me whatever. When you say you've got to start coaching me, who was coaching Cornelius in his house?

45:57 It says, while Peter spoke, the Holy Ghost fell. And I had enough sense to know, look, you're not talking about the same thing. You say I need coaching to get what they got. They needed no coaching.

46:07 If you say we're getting the same thing, let's get it the same way. And God gave me enough good plain horse sense to know something wasn't right. But brethren, I feel this thing because I see the confusion in the church for a failure to get this principle. The teaching portions must govern our interpretation of the historical portions.

46:33 And so God taught the early church through what He did. And they passed on the lesson to us that anybody who by faith embraces the Lord Jesus comes into the body of Christ on the same footing for in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, Jew, Gentile, bond, free, black, white, oriental, occidental, ye are all one in Christ Jesus. That's the message. And brethren, if the Holy Ghost is present in this place, this will be the acid test.

47:12 Regardless of what color skin surrounds us, regardless of what cultural background has molded us, if we perceive that we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we not only shake hands with one another, we from the heart receive one another in Christ Jesus. That's the work of the Holy Ghost to incorporate into the body, knocking down all kinds of prejudice, all kinds of suspicion, until men reflect in their common acceptance of one another as full-blown citizens in the kingdom of God.

47:56 And Jesus Christ has broken down the middle wall of partition and made of the two one new man, so making peace. That's why Paul says, endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He sure had to do some unusual things to get it. Had to give visions and cause people to speak in other languages and really knock things about in those early days.

48:25 He said, I want you to get the message. And Peter and the other crowd finally said, I think we got it, Lord. And even then, he forgot it. So a while later, Paul's down at Galatians.

48:34 He said, I had to withstand him to the face. He forgot it. Well, do you see the principle? That's all I'm trying to do.

Illustrating the Principle: The Gospels and Epistles

48:41 I don't want to get carried away in a thousand directions, but I do want to establish that principle. Now, let me illustrate it. From the Gospels with reference to our Lord. When you pick up the Gospels, what do you find?

48:53 Essentially, you find this. A record of the facts surrounding the life, ministry, passion, that is the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. You have some teaching. Our Lord gives parables.

49:07 Our Lord gives instruction on various subjects. You have some prophecy. You have some interpretation. You remember our Lord said, the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom.

49:20 But for the most part, the Gospels are a narrative of the life, ministry, and death of the Lord Jesus. They give us the facts. Conceived in a virgin's womb. Born in a stinking cow barn.

49:33 Reared in a town of checkered reputation. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Anointed of the Spirit at Jordan. Three and a half years of ministry.

49:46 Crucified. Buried. Risen. Those are the facts.

49:51 But now if you'd understand those facts, how do you understand them? Well, the only way you can understand those facts is to see them bounded on the one hand by the prophecies which preceded them and by the interpretation which followed them. You take Isaiah 53 and you let Isaiah 53 cast its shadow over the narrative of the Gospels. If you simply read Matthew 26 and 27, you'd say that's a sad story.

50:21 They take him, they falsely accuse him, they put him on the cross. The heavens are shrouded in blackness and he dies. What's the meaning of all this? You look at the prophecies that go before and you take Isaiah 53.

50:33 Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.

50:46 The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord hath made to rest upon him the iniquity of us all.

51:00 You see what happens? The facts of the Gospels receive light from the prophecies. And then you turn to the epistles and what do you find? Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.

51:15 For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. He died for us, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. And you find what? The inspired interpretation of the facts.

51:32 And what does liberalism do? They take the facts and say, We'll make of them what we want. We want the religion of Jesus. We don't want Paul and Peter and the prophets.

51:40 What they're saying is, We want to put our own interpretation upon the facts. No, no, God says, I predicted those facts and I tell you what the facts mean. Now what is true with the coming of the Son of God in flesh once and for all is true of the coming of the Spirit to indwell and to abide with the church forever. Our Lord prophesies that coming particularly in John 14, 15 and 16 and says, Here's what you can expect.

52:15 This is what He's come to do. This is His essential work. And then when He comes, just like with our Lord's coming, there is a lot of unusual phenomena. God says, See through the phenomena.

52:30 You and I don't worship stars and shepherds. We worship the Son of God who came. And after the stars and the shepherd had forever gone back to their places, He's here and we have Him. And when the Holy Ghost came, He came in the midst of unusual phenomena.

52:45 But our Lord nowhere gives us to believe in John 14 to 16 that that which we are to seek and that which we are to set our attention upon is the unusual phenomena. No. He has come. The Comforter.

52:58 The Spirit of Truth. The focus of our attention is to be upon His work as prophesied by our Lord and then after He came. And we have in the book of Acts the record of His dealings with men. We have then in the epistles the inspired interpretation of the significance of those events.

53:20 And so I suggest, more than suggest, I urge upon you a Berean attitude toward this principle of interpretation which I'm suggesting tonight. Search it out to see if it is so that if we are to arrive at a same biblical view of the work of the Spirit, we must let the teaching portions govern our interpretation of the historical portions. And it's been my experience from those early days as a believer right up until this conference in Canada where I came right smack head on with some of the most far out thinking

54:04 on the work of the Holy Spirit that that principle is reversed. And these people make the historical portions their basis of interpretation for the teaching portions. And they completely reverse it. Completely reverse it.

Avoiding Extremes: No Fire vs. Wildfire

54:25 Reverse it. My friend, if you do that, you do that to the peril of your own soul. You do it to the peril of your own soul. So that whatever place we may assign to tongues and healings and other manifestations, and I'm not going into that issue tonight, brethren, let us not arbitrarily extract from the phenomena of the Book of Acts our theology of the work of the Spirit.

54:56 And it works the other way. What is taught in prophecy and interpretation is illustrated in the Book of Acts. So let's be careful that we don't put the Holy Ghost in a straitjacket. If in doing His essential works, which we're going to go into, it looks like this is already out to three or four weeks.

55:16 I thought I'd get much further tonight. If we are going to interpret His essential work in the light of John 14 to 16, the Comforter who will lead into truth, who will illuminate concerning truth, who will testify of Christ, if in doing that work, prophesied in John 14 to 16, He surrounded that work with unusual things, and in the interpretation of that work He nowhere negates those unusual things, then we will not only take the position that we have no right to say these things are necessary, we'll also take the position we have no right to say

55:59 they cannot, some of them, be repeated in the sovereign purpose of God. And that's all I'm pleading for. See, and some of you have been sitting there saying, see, you've had that attitude. Does he agree with me or doesn't he on my view of this or that?

56:12 Dear ones, I'm not pleading that you agree with me, but I am asking you to examine this principle because I'm convinced it is foundation to arriving at a Biblical understanding of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Let me say now in conclusion, without even having gotten in now to those five principles, we'll start in them, Lord willing, next week. I've already preached for about an hour and that's enough for one night. Let me say in conclusion that as we come to this subject of the Holy Spirit,

56:55 God knows and I trust you realize that the two great errors into which the Church has ever fallen with reference to His work in ministry is the error on the one hand of no fire, so afraid of excesses that there was sterility and spiritual barrenness, and on the other hand, so eager for life and power that there was wildfire and all kinds of excesses. And all you've got to do is pick up a one-volume work on the history of the Christian Church and right from the earliest periods you find the tension between these two directions amongst the people of God. You have a group that say we must have life and power and the presence of God

57:40 and we want it at any cost. Yes, any cost, even the cost of truth. And so there's wildfire and then people see that and get scared to death and say, well, the only way we're sure we'll never get wildfire is to have no fire. A person who never lights a match never runs the danger of setting a house on fire.

58:03 And so people have overreacted and said, well, the only safe position is no fire. And then what happens? People can only stand that for so long for God has made us for reality. He's made us whole men.

58:13 Who can't be satisfied with sterile notions in their head. We've got to have, and I say it reverently, a felt Christ, a felt reality in God. And you can't be satisfied with anything less for too long. I can't.

58:30 I hope you can. And so people have said, look, I can't take this any longer. I've got to break the traces of this bondage of deadness. And so they become irresponsible in their hunger and irresponsible in what they receive as being of God.

58:48 And then you see the cycle again. Off into wildfire, overreaction into no fire. Is it too much to expect that God will give us grace to have all the legitimate fire of the Spirit of Christ within our own hearts and lives and in our own assembly without the destructive effects of wildfire? The same Holy Spirit who said, try, the Spirit says, quench not the Spirit.

Conclusion and Call to the Unconverted

59:23 There you've got the two things. He says, don't run off after everything that looks warm and hot and has blazing light. Try the Spirit. That's a caution against wildfire.

59:34 Then he says, quench not the Spirit. That's a caution against no fire. May God help us as we seek to know His work, to be guided by Him into an understanding and valid, biblical experience of all that He would convey to us of the fullness of the grace of Christ. And all that we consider tonight has been almost exclusively directed to you who are in Christ.

60:08 But in a group this size I would be relatively sure there are some of you strangers to God's grace and you say, what in the world has that preacher been talking about tonight? Well, my friend, I'm not embarrassed to say that if you couldn't understand me, I'm almost glad. Because I've been talking the language of Canaan to you. And unless you're a citizen of Canaan, you can't understand that kind of speech.

60:32 And I hope the very fact that you couldn't grasp it drives you to the recognition that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know that. You say, what's he talking about? The Spirit?

60:49 Is he some spooky? What's he talking about? Oh, my friend, you'll never know till God is pleased to open your spiritually blinded eyes and bring you broken to the feet of the cross. And I hope that if you feel confused and out of it tonight, it will cause you to flee to God in Christ's name and ask him to have mercy upon you and open your eyes to the realities with which we've been dealing tonight.

61:15 For the crowning gift of the risen Christ is that of the Holy Spirit and true biblical religion never stops short of his personal, powerful, renovating indwelling. For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Romans 8 and verse 9. Do you have the Spirit of Christ?

61:37 Are you his? May God grant that you should be able to answer in the affirmative. As we approach the subject, proper attitude. What is that attitude?

61:50 Teachableness, investigativeness, submissiveness, all in the context of dependence on the Spirit. Secondly, basic principle of interpretation. The teaching portions in prophecy and in the epistles must govern our understanding of the historical portions and not the other way around. May the Lord help us to search these things out to see whether they be so.

62:19 Let us pray.