No Crisis Experience #3

Prayer for Preservation from False Doctrine

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, December 13th, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:15 Now let us again seek the face of God for His blessing upon the ministry of His Word, particularly the warnings that will come, that by them we may indeed be kept from sin in general, kept from presumptuous sins in particular. Let us pray for God's help.

0:37 Our Father, we do thank You that You have given us a law that is perfect, that restores the soul, that makes wise the simple. And we thank You that it is that Word by which Your servants are warned, in the keeping of which there is great reward. We are therefore bold to pray that these purposes for which You have given Your Word may be fulfilled in us, as Your presence. And we thank You that You have given us a law that is perfect, that restores the soul, that makes wise the simple.

1:07 And we thank You that You have given us a law that is perfect, that restores the soul, that makes wise the simple. Grant, O God, that this congregation may be immunized for decades to come against the strange winds of doctrine that are blowing about in our day with reference to the Christian life, and in particular with respect to a crisis experience subsequent to regeneration. We pray, Lord, that You will so come and so minister that Your people will be able to live in peace and peace. We pray, Lord, that Your people will be guarded and kept in the way of truth and of righteousness.

1:42 To Your praise and to our good and safety, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Allure of Quick Spiritual Wealth

1:57 Have you ever wondered what it is that drives millions of Americans every day to buy their lottery tickets and then anxiously to await the projection on the television screen of the winner of the lottery? Have you ever wondered what it is that drives millions of Americans every day to buy their lottery tickets and then anxiously to await the projection on the television screen of the winner of the lottery? Have you ever wondered what it is that drives millions of Americans every day to buy their lottery tickets and then anxiously to await the projection on the television screen of the winner of the lottery? If you live here in New Jersey, I wonder if you have ever wondered what it is that causes hundreds, if not thousands, of senior citizens every day to board the special buses that make their way to Atlantic City, where throughout the day they pull the arm of the one-armed bandit and engage in the other activities in the various gambling casinos in Atlantic City. Have you ever wondered why?

2:52 If you have, no doubt you have answered, at least in part, it's the love of money, which in this case is indeed the root of this form of evil. May I suggest it's more than the love of money in the generic sense, but it is the possibility of large sums of money acquired in a manner other than in the way of money. It is the way of God's appointment that is the great attraction of the lottery, of the lotto, and of the casino. It is the possibility of great sums of money acquired in a way other than that of God's appointment. It is the passion to get rich quickly and without the pain, the planning, the restraint, and the wise use, and the use of money associated with the honorable accumulation of wealth. What is true in the material realm is also true in the spiritual realm. God has appointed a way of solid, responsible, gradual accumulation of the wealth of grace in our experience.

4:13 It is the way of growth in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, the way of the Lord Jesus. It is the way of abiding in Christ and walking in the Spirit. It is the way often of two steps forward and one and a half backwards. It is the way of gradual maturation in the Christian life, ever because remaining sin has an aversion to the self-denial, to the discipline, to the pain, and to the restraints of God's God's way of attaining solid growth.

4:54 Men and women are continually devising theories of the Christian life which hold out the promise of instantaneous accumulation of spiritual wealth.

5:10 They have a kind of spiritual one-armed bandit business. They have a spiritual casino which if you hit the road, you can buy spiritual wealth pointed. Very unconverted, impenitent. An unbelieving man or woman in this place.

5:47 There is a path to instant spiritual wealth for you. You sit here in your abject poverty, whether you know it or not. If you are without Christ, you are miserable and poor and blind and naked. You are of your spiritual death is abhorrent to the nostrils of almighty God.

6:13 And there is a justice for you. That is the way of immediate repentance. And faith, fleeing all ending, your endings upon the Lord Jesus, taking him to be your righteousness, your salvation, your ticket, if I may say it, without irreverence to all the blessings that God has stored up in love and in redemptive mercy for every believing sinner. The living, the Christian life by a denied maturation. And we are doing in conjunction with a series of studies entitled the manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church, a series in which we are seeking to highlight those biblical truths which have constituted the nerve centers of our life together

Context: The Trinity Baptist Church Manifesto and the Christian Life

7:29 for our first 25 years in that life as a people of God. And we are presently concentrating on the ninth tenet in that manifesto, namely that we are determined. To maintain a balanced New Testament teaching and expectation concerning conversion, the Christian life and the mission of the church. From what I've said, obviously our present focus is on the issue of maintaining a balanced New Testament teaching with respect to the Christian life.

8:07 And thus far we've looked at several vital principles touching the biblical doctrine of the Christian life. We have seen that there is no one master key to living the Christian life. Secondly, that there is no escape from tension and conflict in living the Christian life. Thirdly, that there is no cancellation of the conscious engagement of all the faculties of our redeemed humanity in living the Christian life.

8:38 And we are presently studying this fourth very crucial principle, that there is no post-conversion crisis experience promised or commanded by conjunction with living the Christian life. In the two previous messages in which we've been examining this fourth principle, I've explained what I mean by the words post-conversion crisis experience, and what I mean by saying no such experience is promised or commanded by God in conjunction with the Christian life. And then we had time only to set before you two what I believe can be called massive pillars of biblical evidence which support that principle. The first was this, that among all the general imperatives or commands and general promises of the New Testament, there is not one clear pointing to a post-conversion crisis experience. Now that should be very significant to anyone who takes his Bible seriously. If a crisis experience is, as many tell us in our day and have told others in days past,

10:05 is the open door to maturation and power and usefulness surely somewhere explicitly command or promise such a blessing. But when we read the pages of the New Testament, we look in vain. No imperative or one general promise of post-conversion crisis experience in conjunction with living the Christian life. And then the second massive pillar of biblical evidence that we considered was this, in addressing the broad spectrum of the thorny problems confronted in the pages of the New Testament, a post-conversion crisis experience is never proposed as the divine solution to any one or all of those problems. The New Testament addresses a whole spectrum of thorny problems, both doctrinal, ethical, moral, racial, all kinds of problems are addressed

11:26 and yet not by apostolic writers or by the risen Lord. In Revelation 2 and 3, it says, "...standing among the churches, as the church's prophet, priest, and king, exposing serious problems." Not once does he say, the answer is a baptism in the Spirit. The answer is a crisis of surrender and faith. The answer is the receiving of perfect love.

The Misuse of Scripture: Wresting and Not Handling Aright

12:02 The answer is entering into the life of victory. There is no suggestion of addressing the full spectrum of the manifold problems that a post-conversion crisis experience is the divine solution to those problems. Now we'll have time only to look at the first part of the third massive pillar of biblical evidence, and it is this, the scriptures that are used to encourage the desirability and the availability of a post-conversion crisis. The two pillars of a post-conversion crisis experience are not intended to teach what is used to encourage the desirability and the availability of a post-conversion crisis experience are not intended to teach what then does not read long to teach any of the post-conversion crisis experience teaching

13:28 described several weeks ago or any of their offshoots, one does not listen long on the pen or from the lips of those who teach such a post-conversion crisis experience, but he will find two scriptures coming to his mind again and again and again. The first is 2 Peter 3 and verse 16. 2 Peter 3 and verse 16. Although in this passage Peter is speaking of people who are strangers to grace, who are not Christians who are simply in error, but heretics who are not in a state of grace, there is nonetheless a principle, and just as remaining sin in a true believer can break out in the kinds of sins that dominate him, he can break out in the kinds of non-believers, so there are aberrations in handling the word of God which are dominant in a heretic that can be manifested even in a true child of God. And notice what Peter says in 2 Peter chapter 3. Having referred to his beloved brother Paul into the wisdom given unto him, wrote unto you verse 16 of chapter 3, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things where

14:56 in are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and unsteadfast rest, W-R-E-S-T, as they do also the other scriptures. Now because they are out of any saving relationship to God, it says they do so to their own destruction, but it is this phrase, the ignorant and unsteadfast rest, as they do the other scriptures. It renders this phrase, the ignorant and unstable, to the other scriptures. The New English Bible, the ignorant and unstable, they do also the other scriptures. And the Greek verb itself is the verb you would use were you to describe what was happening to a man whose arms had been strapped to shaved lugs and feet, strapped to similar things, on a machine which when a crank was turned,

16:06 his arms and legs would be torturously pulled out of joint, an old-fashioned torture rack. And the sense of this verb is that they take the scriptures, and rather than allowing them to be brought before the minds of men in their God-intended shape and form, and therefore perceiving them to be what God intended them to be, they put them on a torture rack, and they stretch them into the distorted form. What they set before men is scripture, but it is scripture in grotesque and tortured form, not scripture in its divinely intended form. And of the hundreds, if not thousands of pages of the literature of those who teach this post-conversion crisis experience that we're wrestling with, that I have read over the years, the text comes back again.

17:10 And again and again, when I see them handling passages of scripture, yes, they are teaching the scripture, but they are arresting the scriptures. They are torturing them. They are misinterpreting them. And then the second text that will come to your mind, not long into reading their literature or listening to their sermons on tape, and many are available, is 2 Timothy 2 and verse 15, where Timothy is admonished by the Lord.

17:41 Timothy is admonished by the Apostle that he must marshal all of his energies and God-given faculties and concentrate them upon being a responsible teacher of the Word of God. 2 Timothy 2 and verse 15, give diligence, and that Greek verb, spoudazo, speaks of concentrated, conscious focusing of the energies. Timothy, concentrate and consciously focus all of your energies. To present yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth, or holding a straight course in the word of truth, or cutting a straight course in the word of truth. The translation is difficult because we don't have the use of this verb in other places in the New Testament itself. But I believe the comments of those responding...

18:43 The responsible commentators who have wrestled with all of the various options are most helpful. Hendrickson writes, the man who handles the word of truth properly does not change, pervert, mutilate, or distort it, neither does he use it with a wrong purpose in mind. On the contrary, he prayerfully interprets Scripture in the light of Scripture. He courageously, yet lovingly...

19:13 ...applies its glorious meaning to the concrete conditions and circumstances, doing this for the glory of God, the conversion of sinners, and the edification of believers.

19:25 Calvin, on this passage, writes, but I take what is said here to have general application and to refer to a judicious dispensing of the word which is adapted to the profit of those that hear it. Some mutilate it. Some dismember it. Some distort it.

19:47 Some break it in pieces. Some, as I have said, keep to the outside and never come to the heart of the matter. With all these faults, he contrasts a right dividing, that is, a manner of exposition adapted to edify. This is the rule by which we should judge every interpretation of Scripture.

20:11 And then finally... A very helpful insight from Patrick Fairbairn in his commentary on the pastoral epistles.

20:18 To divide rightly, in one point of view, might give an appropriate meaning, but scarcely one quite suited to the connection. For as the subject under discussion is the true as opposed to the false, the serious and earnest as opposed to the frivolous and unprofitable, and that's all clear in the context, dealing with spiritual things by a ministerial...

20:43 ...of the gospel, one does not so naturally think of the mode of distributing or administering the word among the hearers, a matter of tact and wisdom rather than that of fidelity, as he thinks of a fair and conscientious or straightforward handling of the word itself.

21:04 This, as opposed to all kinds of torturous interpretations or by-plays of ingenuity, for sinister purposes, is pre-eminently what becomes the teacher who would stand approved in the judgment of God. Like a sincere and honest workman, he must go right on in his use of the word, maintaining it in its integrity and applying it to the great spiritual ends for which it has been given. Applying it to the ends for which. It has been given.

The Four Pentecost Passages: A Common Misinterpretation

21:45 Now, I have taken the time to open up these two texts, not because I was looking for filler, but because I want you to see how critical it is in coming to the scriptures used to encourage the desirability and availability of post-conversion crisis experiences. You will see that scripture is taken and not interpreted by scripture, or received for the purpose for which it was given to us as scripture, but it is forced into the service of a doctrine concocted in men's brains rather than mined out of a responsible handling of the word of God. Now, what are the major scriptures so used? Well, as I have wrestled with trying to organize them into categories, at this point I believe, there are three major categories of scripture that are used. We will have time to take only the first today and the second and third in our subsequent message.

22:50 And the first category is the four Pentecost passages in the book of Acts. And here I want you to take your Bibles with me and follow as I read without comment the four Pentecost passages in the book of Acts. And if you read any literature on the subject of the availability of scripture, the availability and desirability of a post-conversion crisis experience, you will almost invariably come across one or more, if not all four, of these passages. I can remember as an 18-year-old kid, just a few months old in the Lord, and the local Assembly of God pastor sitting down with me and a few of my recently converted buddies, and in trying to set before us both the availability and desirability, of seeking the baptism with speaking in tongues, he took me through these four passages. I am not theorizing. This was part of my experience as an infant in Christ. And this was a godly man, a man old enough almost to be my father at the time, probably old enough to be my father, whom I greatly respected.

24:07 And he set out these scriptures, and at first they seemed so plausible, until upon further examination, I found the whole fabric beginning to turn to dust in my hands, as I examined the scriptures. I had no one to guide me but God the Holy Ghost and the Word of God. Dear people, if you think this is an exercise in tedium, you deserve to be vulnerable to the error down the road. I exhort you to follow with me, that you may not only be preserved, but that by the grace of God you may help others.

24:42 All right? Let's just start. Let's simply read the four Pentecost passages. Acts 2, verses 1 to 4.

24:50 When the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them tons parting asunder like as of fire, and it sat upon each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

25:24 Now these were obviously converted people. The first chapter describes them as the disciples who had been interacting with their Lord. They saw the Lord go back up into heaven. They heard the angel say, He shall so come in like manner.

25:37 They were gathered together, about a hundred and twenty of them, according to Acts 1, in verse 15. They were being obedient. They were being obedient to the word of God. They were praying.

25:46 According to the last chapter of Luke, they were periodically visiting the temple, praising God. These were Christians, born-again people. And yet, it says here that on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit came. They were filled with the Spirit.

26:02 They spoke in tongues. They had a post-conversion, crisis experience in the Holy Spirit. And it obviously transformed them. They are turned from timid, cowardly people who a few days before were running from their Lord in the hour of His need, now boldly standing and preaching in the name of Christ.

26:23 Three thousand converted in one day. Surely, that's what you and I need and want, is it not? All right, Acts chapter 8. Second Pentecost, as it is called.

26:38 There is a persecution that begins on the occasion of the death of Stephen. The church in Jerusalem is scattered. And we read in verse 4 of Acts 8, They therefore that were scattered abroad went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed unto them the Christ.

26:58 And the multitude gave heed with one accord to the things that were spoken by Philip, when they heard and saw the signs which he did. For from many of those that had unclean spirits they came out crying with a loud voice. And many that were palsied and that were lame were healed. And there was much joy in that city.

27:18 Verse 14. Now when the apostles that were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who when they were come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet it was fallen upon none of them, only they had been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands, on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

27:47 It does not say they spoke with tongues, but that there was some visible manifestation is clear. Verse 18. Now when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me this, also this power, that on whomsoever I lay my hands he may receive the Holy Spirit. Well, it's clear, is it not?

28:12 The gospel was preached by Philip. God had given him special miraculous powers. Multitudes came to faith, expressed it in baptism. There was joy in that city, yet they had not received the Holy Spirit.

28:28 And the apostles come down, lay their hands upon them, pray for them. They receive the Spirit, and though tongues or prophecy are not mentioned, there's some visible manifestation of the Spirit's coming, and this man who eventually proves to be a hypocrite and a false professor of Christ, Simon the sorcerer, he says, I want this power that I may help people to get this crisis experience in the Holy Ghost. Then Acts chapter 10. Remember how the Lord had to deal with Peter in a vision, repeated three times, to predispose him to be ready to go to the house of a Gentile and there to preach the gospel, to Cornelius and his household. Cornelius, being what many would call an Old Testament believer, is described as a devout man, one of whom it is said that his prayer was heard and his alms were had in remembrance. Acts chapter 10 and verse 31. Peter comes into the house, begins to preach, and what happens?

29:41 Verse 44. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them that heard the word. They of the circumcision that believed were amazed, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit, for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any forbid the water that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?

30:13 And he commanded them to say, And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days. So here again, you have an Old Testament believer, we are told, by the name of Cornelius. The assumption is that the members of his household were Old Testament proselyte believers with him, Gentiles who had come to the faith of Israel's God, and in that sense Old Testament believers.

30:41 And while Peter's preaching, the Spirit of God comes upon them in a post-conversion crisis experience manifested with speaking in tongues. And then the fourth so-called Pentecost passage, Acts chapter 19. Acts chapter 19. And it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, came to Ephesus and found certain disciples.

31:11 These are disciples, followers of the Lord Jesus, they are attached to Christ in faith and love and obedience. And he said unto them, and one of the problems is the authorized version, and I know a book that has the bad translation for its very title, renders this passage, did you receive the Holy Spirit since you believed? Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? And they said, see, Paul is asking them, have you had a post-conversion crisis experience in the Holy Spirit?

31:48 But the rendering of the 1901 and most modern translations more accurately reflects the Greek, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said unto him, no, we did not so much as hear whether the Holy Spirit was given. And he said, into what then were you baptized? And they said, into John's baptism.

32:08 Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him that should come after him, that is on Jesus. And when they heard this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spake with tongues and prophesied, and they were in all about twelve men. And I was told back then in 1952 that you see, you can be a disciple and a believer, but because you're ignorant of this great blessing, of receiving the Holy Spirit, you then in your ignorance are devoid of the experience, and if you are properly instructed and seek the baptism, then you'll get it, and when you'll get it, you'll know it, you'll speak with tongues. Very simple, very clear. There it is in Acts chapter 19. Well, here then are the four Pentecost passages in the book of Acts.

33:08 And the common denominators in all of them, we are told, is that the people who had this experience were saved already when they had this subsequent experience. Acts 2, it was the disciples of our Lord, the hundred and twenty, that were gathered in the upper room, saved people. They had a post-conversion crisis experience. Acts chapter 8, these believers in Samaria were obviously saved.

33:39 They had heard the gospel. Much joy was in the city. But when the apostles came down, they laid hands upon them. They received the Spirit with some kind of visible manifestation.

33:52 Then Cornelius and his household, they were Old Testament believers, proselytes, who had the benefits and the blessings of any Old Testament believer. They were, in that sense, converted men. He's called a God-fearing man whose prayers were acceptable to God. And we are told by those who use these passages, the prayers of the wicked are an abomination to God.

34:16 They're not accepted by God. Therefore, he was a converted man. And to this converted household, the Spirit of God came. They spoke with tongues.

34:26 And then we are told in Acts chapter 19, these are disciples. It clearly states Paul found disciples. And they tell us he probably saw that there was something deficient in their joy, in their power, in their victory over sin that made him ask, wait a minute, have you received the Spirit since you believed? There's something defective here.

34:47 What you need is a post-conversion crisis experience in the Holy Ghost. So after a little instruction, he lays his hands upon them and boom, they get it. And then they take off like a rocket. So we are told in the opening up of these passages, the common denominator is they were all saved when the crisis came.

35:09 Secondly, in using these passages, we are told that the experience in every case was definite and discernible by those who had it. There was no question when the day of Pentecost was fully come, suddenly there came from heaven. And they knew they had been filled with the Spirit. They spoke in tongues.

35:34 Likewise, Acts chapter 8, Acts 10, Acts 19, all were saved when this post-conversion crisis experience was given. Secondly, everyone who experienced it knew it. It was definite and discernible. And in three of the four cases, tongues and prophecy were the immediate manifestation of this post-conversion crisis experience.

36:06 It explicitly states tongues in Acts 2, it explicitly states tongues in Acts 10, tongues in Acts 19, and something discernible to the eyes or to the ears in Acts chapter 8. Therefore, we can assume if three of the four say tongues and prophecy, it was probably tongues in Acts chapter 8. Well, then the case is clear. Isn't it?

36:33 Look what these people did. They turned the world upside down. What are you doing? Is your world being turned upside down?

36:41 Is my world being turned upside down? I went out to shovel my walk and just had an opportunity for further witness with my neighbor. And I was so full of joy like I had preached to thousands. But my neighborhood is not turned upside down.

36:56 Is Montville turned upside down? Is there much joy in your city? You see how we can begin to say to people, oh, this is what we need. And their spiritual saliva begins to rule out the corner of their mouths.

37:11 This is what we need. This is what's available. This is what's desirable. This is what made the people of God in the book of Acts what they were.

37:20 And God has told us not once, not twice, not three times, but four times. Wake up, people. Seek and obtain the baptism in the Spirit. Now, dear people, I'm not creating a straw dummy.

37:31 I may have said even too much for some of you. Now, I begin to say that sounds fairly plausible. Now, what do we say in response to such teaching? Now, put on your thinking cap.

The Uniqueness of the Acts Period in Redemptive History

37:48 Ask God to create two more egos in your life. He'll create two more ears for you as you listen. What do we say? Well, this is what we say, first of all.

37:59 Number one. Here's our answer. Here's our answer to the use of these scriptures when they are set forward as teaching the availability and desirability of a post-convergent crisis experience in the Holy Spirit. This is the first thing we say.

38:17 We must recognize the uniqueness of the period recorded in the Book of Acts. We must recognize the uniqueness of the period recorded in the Book of Acts. God is the God who works out redemption in the course of human history. And here in the Book of Acts we have the record of God winding down a major chapter in the history of redemption or the history of the salvation of His people and instituting the record of God winding down a major chapter in the history of redemption and instituting a new chapter that will last until the coming of the Lord Jesus.

39:00 You'll say, Pastor, that sounds plausible, but where does the scripture teach that? Well, it teaches it in so many places that an epitomizing text is Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 1. God having of old times spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by diverse portions and in diverse manners hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son. Now do you see the temporal element?

39:36 In the past God spoke and the words of Moses and of Isaiah and of Nahum and of Habakkuk they are the words of God. He spoke in diverse manners in diverse ways by bits and pieces by different types and by shadow. But now in this temporal period called the end of these days He has spoken in His. He has used the language that many of you are familiar with.

40:11 God had prophesied in the Old Testament a day is coming when I'll make a new covenant. Not like the covenant that I made with my people when I brought them out of Egypt. I will make a new covenant in which I'll write on the tables of stone but on the fleshy tables of hearts. When I will put away sickly bodily and irrevocably and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more.

40:45 And when we open up the book of Acts what are we seeing? We are seeing the redemption of the final dismantling of the old and the establishment of the new. And when He does that He doesn't do it in an instant. Israel in one instant bringing all together until Pharaoh is ready to get rid of them.

41:21 And then He opens up the Red Sea and then He brings them safely through on and He gathers them together and He places the pillar and protects by day. And then He thunders from Sinai and He calls up Moses and He reveals to Moses His mind and covenant in will and when Moses comes down and they enter into covenant in an hour is that forms of God establishing the old with His people Israel. And likewise when God is dismantling the old and establishing forever the new He doesn't do it in a day. It is a process it is a complex of events by which God establishes the new and totally dismantles the old. In a passage like Hebrews 8 in verse 13 this is the very language that is used. In that He saith a new covenant He has made the first old.

42:37 But that which is becoming old and waxeth aged is nigh unto vanishing away. You see the element of process and finally with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and when the last word was given to John on the isle of Patmos to complete the canon of the New Testament so that God will say directly to His people until Christ Himself breaks through the clouds with the voice of the ark and God has completed the new covenant documents. But He didn't do that in a day He didn't do it in a year He did it in several decades in which He dismantled the old and established the new. He's dealing with real life perceptions of reality with real life prejudices with real struggles with unbelief and so what is He going

44:07 to do? He's going to deal with His people in such a way that they understand that which He is unfolding to them and that's the reason why He's going to do this. John had said of Jesus Matthew 3 11 I baptize in water there comes one after me whose shoes I'm unworthy to unloose the same shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire. My baptism is only taking you so far.

44:43 Christ will give His way to save our hearts and our souls and deliver us from sin and the wrath that it brings to this world this world is so beautiful for His strength and His Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water. Now here's John's comment. But this sake he of the same word was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. So what is he saying? He is saying that the Spirit, as the Spirit of the ascended Christ, the Spirit given as the crowning act of messianic glory,

46:02 was not because another event had not yet happened. Christ was not yet glorified, and he couldn't be glorified until he was crucified. God quenched in initiating and dispensing the blessings under the new covenant. Therefore, he said to the disciples, as he was about to go back to his Father, in Luke chapter 24, he knew what that time was, and what the time schedule was, the Lord Jesus did.

46:39 And what were his words to him? Verse 49, Behold, Luke 24, I send forth the promise of my Father upon you,

46:49 just literally, in the city, until you be clothed with power from on high. Now he didn't say go back in the city and groan and agonize and fast and pray and plead for the baptism and wait for tongues. He just said, you wait in the city till you're clothed with power. You wait until in God's name, the Spirit is given as pure gift from the Father.

47:17 The promise will be fulfilled. So when we open up to Acts chapter 2, we see that this is exactly the emphasis that Luke, the same writer of Acts, or the same writer of the Gospel of Luke, is the writer of Acts. What is the emphasis? It's temporal.

47:38 When the day of... And in there, there's no emphasis on anything made.

47:57 There's an emphasis on the calendar. God have mercy on the twisters of Scripture. Isn't that what it says? When...

48:07 When you got up in the morning, ticking off the days in your calendar. Oh, this is Pentecost. God said, this is the day I'm going to do what I said I'd do. And what happened?

48:18 They were all together in one place. Suddenly, they came from heaven. Now the emphasis is upon what? Suddenness and God's activity.

48:28 Not a word about theirs. And it's very interesting. You see, the first thing is said about them. There came from heaven the sound as of a rushing mighty wind, filled all the house where they were sitting.

48:38 Now that's not the posture of spiritual heroes. No picture that they're on their faces agonizing and groaning and pleading and meeting certain conditions, claiming the promise of the baptism. No indication anybody's there coaching them, saying, now just let your jaw go and just start praising the Lord. It says they were sitting...

49:04 The emphasis is on God's initiative. Now my friend, when you take a passage, it starts with an emphasis on the calendar and God's initiative and try to use it to tell an 18-year-old kid that he needs to do this, this, this, this, and this, and seek this, this, and this, and get his jaw loose and say, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little. That's the scriptures. That's listings.

God's Sovereign Inclusion of All Peoples in the New Covenant

49:27 That's denigrating the work of God and substituting man-made experiences. And you go through each one of these passages and you realize what God is doing is this. In all four Pentecost, God is saying something to his people. He is saying, as I establish and institute and dispense the blessings of the new covenant, I will give them in their fullness to the Jews gathered in Jerusalem.

50:03 However, I will give the same measure and kind of blessing to those half-breed Samaritans. I will give the same to Gentiles who are proselytes. Acts 10, I'll give the same to raw pagan Gentiles out on the far reaches of Asia Minor, out at Ephesus. So by the time we come to Acts 19, what has God said by his deeds?

50:30 He has said, under the new covenant, everyone who believes upon my Son gets equal blessing in Christ, gets equal portion of the Spirit, gets equal standing before God, God is telling us by his deeds in the book of Acts what he explicates and explains by his words in the epistles. That's why in the epistles, believers all throughout the Roman Empire with Gentile background, proselyte background, or raw pagan background, it matters not, they are all described as possessors of the same blessings in Christ. Justification, adoption, definitive sanctification, indwelt by the Spirit, baptized by the Spirit into the one body, sealed by the Spirit, anointed by the Spirit, and not once is any one of them in any group commanded to seek the baptism, to obtain the baptism, to pray for the sealing. Every text that is relevant describes them as equal universal possessors of the same blessings in Christ.

51:59 So what we have in those four Pentecost passages is God imparting the final dimensions of full New Testament salvation to all who believe, Jews, Samaritans, Gentile, proselytes, or raw pagan Gentiles. And I want to prove that now from the text itself. And I'll take just one specimen passage in the interest of time. Let's take what happened in the household of Cornelius, because there we have the Holy Spirit's own interpretation of what they perceived God was doing.

52:43 I simply read Acts chapter 10, verses 44 to 48. While Peter was preaching, the Spirit falls. Now then, in chapter 11, we read, the apostles and the brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles now notice, what did they heard? Had received the baptism of the Spirit and a second work of grace?

53:15 No. What had they heard? They heard the Gentiles had received the Word of God. And when Peter was come to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him, saying, You went into men uncircumcised and ate with them.

53:31 But Peter began and expounded the matter unto them in order, saying, Then he gives them an account of the vision by which God broke down his own resistance and prejudice to get him ready for the messengers who would come from the household of Cornelius, that he might go and speak to them. Now notice very carefully, what had God revealed to the people in Cornelius' household? Verse 13, And he told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, Send to Joppa and fetch Simon, whose surname is Peter, who will speak unto thee words whereby thou shalt get the second blessing. No.

54:12 He will speak unto thee words whereby thou shalt be saved, thou and all thy house. Peter's going to come and speak words that will lead to your possessing full covenant salvation. Verse 15, And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, even as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

54:47 If then God gave unto them the like gift as he did also unto us, when Jesus Christ, who was I, that I could withstand God, was now come to cause full covenant salvation, the crowning blessing of which is the gift of the Spirit. And God gave them the same gift, telling this thick-headed, prejudiced Jew, the Gentiles are getting all that I've given you. And they got the message because look at verse 18, And when they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles, also to the Gentiles, repentance unto life. They got the message.

56:14 Why did God send the Spirit in this miraculous way, to these households to speak in tongues, to be a path, to these thick-headed, prejudiced Jews, that Gentiles were going to get the same blessings in Christ that they got? And they got the message. They held their peace and given repentance unto life. Not a word about us, not a word about a second work of grace, not a word about a baptism in the Spirit, and earn my ten conditions. No. God graciously granted a form of the verb, ditto me, and its direct object is repentance.

57:19 God is saving repentance in the heart of Cornelius and his household. And God who sees the heart, then granted the gift of the Spirit, and he sovereignly caused them to speak in tongues, giving them the same external manifestation as he gave to us, to get through our thick Jewish skulls, that they've got the same blessings that God gave to us. That that is clearly the message comes out again in Acts 15, when they have the council at Jerusalem, when there is this debate whether or not Gentiles need to be circumcised and keep the Mosaic rituals to be fully saved, and in the midst of that discussion, Peter stands up, verse 7 of Acts 15, and when there had been much questioning, Peter rose up and said, brethren, you know that a good while ago God made choice among you. Now notice, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the Gospel and believe. God made choice that Gentiles should hear the Gospel and believe, and God who knows the heart bore them witness. Giving them the Holy Spirit even as He did unto us and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.

58:45 Now therefore, why make ye trial of God that you should put a yoke on the neck of disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe, here's the conclusion of the matter, we believe now that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in like manner. Like manner as they. And the whole incident in Cornelius' house was God's declaration that men are saved by grace through faith and they receive all the blessings of the new covenant in Jesus Christ.

Common Denominators in the Acts Passages Refute Crisis Experience Claims

59:23 Now does that sound like a forced interpretation or is that letting the Scripture interpret the historic event? I leave to your conscience to doubt you. Then in closing, if I may just have you forbear with me for five minutes because this would be awkward to tack on in the next message. It's very, very interesting and this is what I saw as an 18-year-old kid, at least in part.

59:50 I can't remember how much I saw clearly but I saw some of it. I went home with those passages when that godly pastor laid them out and tried to convince me of the availability and desirability of a post-conversion crisis experience manifested with tongues as I went back and studied those passages. You know what struck me? And I think it will strike you immediately.

60:12 There are some common denominators in all four of them. Common denominator one, in every case, the entire group received the Spirit. At the same time, there were no haves and have-nots at the end of a carrying meeting. They were the Holy Spirit, Acts 2.

60:35 Acts 8, they laid their hands upon them and they, and they were all included in this coming of the Spirit upon them. Acts 10, the Spirit came upon them all. And in Acts 19, I said to myself, wait a minute, what he's talking to me about, I go to their meetings and there's 15 people at the altar praying and maybe one of them will get the baptism. Maybe none will get the baptism.

61:05 Maybe two. And you very conveniently divide everyone up into the haves and the have-nots. That is what happened in the four Pentecost passages recorded in the book of Acts. In every case, it was a group experience in which everyone present received the same donation as divine gift from the right hand of the Father.

61:29 That's the first common denominator. Second common denominator, in not one of those passages was there anyone teaching or preaching about the baptism of the Spirit or the desirability of tongues. Acts 2, they were sitting, waiting. That's all it says they were doing.

61:49 And for anyone to say that in the midst of that somebody was coaching them, getting them psychologically prepared to let their jaw loose and let their tongue go is blasphemous. And it says, while they were sitting and listening to Peter's preaching about Christ, the Spirit fell upon them and they spoke in tongues. No preaching about tongues. No instruction about tongues.

62:18 No. The entire group received the blessing. Secondly, in all cases where there were visible signs, no preaching about tongues, no teaching on the baptism of the Spirit, no coaching, no conditions, in two instances, they laid hands on them. In other two instances, no hands were laid on them.

62:37 God's action was sovereign. Thirdly, where there were tongues, they came unsought, unexpected, and undemanded. They came unsought, undemanded. And that's worlds away.

62:55 I've had people coach me, folks. I know what I'm talking about. At your jaw loose, just start saying, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Just forget yourself.

63:04 Let yourself go. What nonsense to say, this is that. Never, never, never in a thousand years. Don't substitute psychological, self-induced gibberish for the sovereign work of the Holy Ghost in redemptive history, proving to men that Jesus Christ now imparts full salvation to everyone under the new covenant.

The Ordinary Work of the Spirit After Initial Demonstrations

63:30 That's as far from this self-terminating kind of gibberish as heaven is from hell. And the fourth thing we notice is that afterward, the Spirit's work in every one of those areas is described at all, is described in very ordinary terms. After Pentecost, when the 120 received the Spirit in that unusual way, 3,000 are converted. And what does it say of them?

64:02 Peter says, repent, be baptized, you'll receive the gift of the Spirit, the promises to you, your children, all that are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call. With many other words, he testified and exhorted, saying, save yourself from this untoward generation. Then they that received his word were baptized, and there were added unto them in that day 3,000 souls, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. The very ordinary work of the Spirit.

64:31 Same thing you'll find in Acts chapter 11, with the work of God up at Antioch, the subsequent work of God at Corinth, the work of God in the later chapter of Acts 19. Once God proves the point in a new area, he doesn't repeat it again and again and again and again and again. Will you not believe Christ came in the manger of Bethlehem, unless there's a special star in the sky and an angelic chorus? Long after the star went wherever it went and the angels went back to wherever angels go, he was there.

65:14 He was there. And we receive him on the basis of this record. It's an evil in an adulterous generation, that seeks a sign. That's yearning for signs.

65:28 When God has told us in his redemptive activities in the four Pentecosts of Acts 2, Acts 8, Acts 10, and Acts 19, now under the new covenant, all who believe receive the gift of the Spirit. I close by exhorting you, my brethren, I admonish you against the careless use of the Scriptures. I exhort you to continually cultivate the Berean spirit. Search the Scriptures.

All Blessings are in Christ: A Call to Diligence and Abiding

66:01 Ask God to let Scripture interpret Scripture. Then there is a marvelous declaration that I would make this morning. And that is that every blessing of salvation that any sinner will ever have is stored up in Christ. Get to Christ and you have it all in him.

66:24 God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. And oh, my unconverted friend, make a straight line to Christ and in him you have all the blessings that God will ever give the sinner. Finally, it ought to be a persuasion to us to lay hold of and to work out with diligence all that God has so painstakingly made it plain is now ours in Christ. God is so painstakingly made it plain in the record of his word that all who in this age of the new covenant turn from sin and lay hold of Christ have in Christ an infinite source of life and power and grace. God have mercy if we live impoverished lives. We denigrate the glory of Christ and his salvation. We ought so to be rooted and grounded in him and abide in him and feed upon him.

67:31 That we are living monuments of the glory of new covenant salvation that is complete in Christ for in him ye are made full in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead modeling. I am not discouraging, seeking God earnestly, praying fervently, asking for greater measures of the Spirit as the Spirit of light and life and conformity to Christ and wisdom and power. But I am here to say that everyone uses the full Pentecost of Acts to say that there is available for you and it is desirable for you to seek a post conversion experience in the Holy Spirit. They are twisting the scriptures.

68:15 They are not cutting a straight course in the word of truth. Don't believe them. Don't follow them. If you are given an opportunity lovingly do what Priscilla and Aquila did with Apollos and teach them the way of God more perfectly.

Closing Prayer: Deliverance from Shortcuts and Love for Biblical Paths

68:36 Let us pray. Our Father, you know our grief and pain when we think of the horrible confusion that is abroad in the professing church today because of the mishandling of these portions of your word. O Lord, as we have sought to lay out the teaching of your word we pray that the Spirit would seal it to our hearts whatever has had the mixture of the clay of human, human opinion, the law upon it, bring it to naught. We pray that those who are not in Christ would see the glory and the simplicity of what is offered to them in the one Savior and the one salvation and may they run to Christ and find that his promises are true. We pray for your people that they may be immunized against the itch for shortcuts. This horrible penchant for wanting something in the easy way, the quick-fix mania. Lord God, deliver this congregation from every last vestige of that spirit and may we be willing to pay the price of the daily taking up of the cross, the hacking and the hewing of biblical mortification, the humbling of ourselves before you and our fellow men coming again and again to the cross

70:04 for cleansing and forgiveness and going to one another again when necessary to seek each other's forgiveness. Oh Lord, we pray, make us love the old and proven biblical paths of growth in grace. Seal your word for the glory of Christ in the good of our souls, we pray. Amen.