Good morning. Welcome to Sabbath School Study Hour coming to you from the Granite Bay seventh-day adventist church near Sacramento, California. A very warm welcome to those joining us for our Sabbath school class today and also our members and visitors here at the Granite Bay church, always good to see you here, Sabbath after Sabbath, to study our lesson together. Our lesson today is lesson #5 dealing with the Holy Spirit entitled the baptism and filling of the Holy Spirit - that's lesson #5. Now, for our friends joining us, if you don't have a copy of our lesson, you can go to the Amazing Facts website - just amazingfacts.
org. You can download lesson #5 and study along with us. We have a free offer for those in North America: all you have to do to receive our free offer is give us a call on our resource phone number. The number there is 866-788-3966 and you can ask for the book called understanding tongues - it's offer #145. Well, before we get to our lesson, we'd like to begin by lifting our voices in song.
I'd like to invite our song leaders to come and join me up front and we'll begin by praising God. Thank you, Pastor Ross, it's so nice to see you here. And our extended family around the world, we know that you're ready to sing and we are too. So our first song you will find on #240 in your hymnals. If you have those at home, pull them out and join with us: fairest Lord Jesus - and we're going to do the first, second, and fourth stanzas - #240.
(Singing) it is such a beautiful song - we don't sing it very often, but I wanted to do that today. And the next one is #175 - and this is one that we definitely don't sing very often, but I grew up singing this one - it's one of my favorites - #175 - now the green glade rises - and we will do all four stanzas. Join with us - #175. (Singing) thank you so much for singing along with us and, until next week, we'll sing some more. At this time, Pastor Ross will have our opening prayer for us.
Let's bow our heads for prayer. Dear Father in Heaven, again, what a privilege to be able to gather together to study Your Word and, once again, as we talk about the Holy Spirit, we ask that the Holy Spirit would come guide our hearts and our minds as we study about being filled with the Holy Spirit and the work that the Holy Spirit does in us. Bless our time together, in Jesus Name, amen. Our lesson this morning is going to be brought to us by pastor ross - sorry, I am Pastor Ross (laughter) it's going to be brought to us by pastor Batchelor, excuse me. (Laughter) no, don't - come here - come back here, pastor Batchelor (laughter).
Where were you yesterday? I was in india so I'm a little jet-lagged this morning, but we're getting there. Give us a mission report (laughter). You know, we're doing good things in india and that's exciting. I was over there - afcoe's got a training program and they're translating media, and we're putting some stuff up and looking at some land for a training school, so a lot happening there. So, we're training lay-pastors - principally we're training Bible workers that are already out working in villages with churches.
So they come for some additional training, resources, and also printing books and preparing things in different languages. Yeah. There's a lot happening. That's exciting. Now, what's the time difference between - where in india were you? I was in mumbai, which is central western part of india.
What, about a 10-hour time difference? I don't know what the time difference is. I think I'm supposed to be sleeping right now, but I'm awake. Thank you very much, and we understand. I thought we'd squeeze in a little mission report there. It's always kind of interesting, exotic when you go to the other side of the world.
And that's why he confused me for Pastor Ross. (Laughter) sorry, I could assume - get a real kick out of that. Welcome, friends. We're glad you're joining us here for Sabbath school. I want to welcome our regular online members that are out there.
We've got some members of the Granite Bay church scattered around the world. Now, you'll notice the background is a little different and that's because, here at the Granite Bay church, we are just beginning a series that will last many weeks, dealing with the life of David. And so, you'll see the background change, sometimes we'll have some different props related to the life of David, and so people that turn the broadcast - oh there it is - it's called the shepherd king. You can tune into that - people that turn on now halfway through Sabbath school are going to wonder, 'now, what's going on in the background?' But - and I want to remind you, again, there is a book going along with our study today, called understanding tongues. The reason is, our study today is dealing with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and there's a lot of people that equate the baptism of the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues.
And I'll talk a little bit about that. If you're interested in this, it's offer #145 - and call 866-788-3966 - that's -study-more - and we'll send this to you for free. Please read it and share it with others. Our lesson is #5 today, as I mentioned, dealing with the baptism and filling of the Holy Spirit. And we have a memory verse, and the memory verse is from John :10 and you can read it out of your lesson.
They've got it here from the niv and - you ready? John 10:10, "the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." Now, we all know that as 'they may have life and have it' - more abundantly. More abundantly. Yeah. And the Lord came to give us the abundant life. And there's a connection between the baptism and the filling of the Holy Spirit and the abundant life.
Now, maybe I should begin by directing your attention to a verse, I think most of us know, in John 3:5. In John 3:5 Jesus is talking - in chapter 3, who's he talking to? John 3:16, who's Jesus talking to? Nicodemus. Nicodemus, so John 3:5, he's still talking to nicodemus. And he says here, 'mosst assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of the water and of the Spirit, he is going to have a harder time entering the Kingdom of heaven.' 'He may find it a little more difficult to enter the Kingdom of heaven.' Is that what it says? "Unless one is born of the water and the Spirit," - spirit birth - "he cannot" - so being born of the Spirit, is that optional for those who are bound for heaven? Or is it an absolute necessity? Necessity. According to Jesus, we must be born of the Spirit.
Now, in a lot of protestant churches - our church is similar - we measure a person's conversion by the day of their baptism. Which baptism, water baptism or spirit baptism? Spirit. We typically think, 'when were you baptized?' And we say, 'that Marks the beginning.' But if you had to do without one or the other - not that you should do without either - will there be people in heaven who maybe were not water baptized? Yes. Will there be anyone in heaven that is not spirit baptized? The Bible says if you don't have his spirit, you are none of his. We must be born of the Holy Spirit.
Some people think the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a new testament teaching - it's a phenomenon that happens at pentecost. The Bible doesn't teach that either. You find the Spirit from beginning to end in the Bible. You know, the Spirit of God moves upon the face of the water. There the Spirit is integral in the formation of life in the beginning and it says, 'the Spirit and the bride say, 'come'' at the last chapter of the Bible.
So the Holy Spirit is all through the Bible, and even the filling, or the baptism of the Spirit is found all through the Bible. Just a few examples - we don't have time for all of them - go to Judges chapter 6, verse 34. And here it says, "but the Spirit of the Lord came upon gideon; then he blew the trumpet," - he was being filled with the Spirit. Chronicles 20:14, "then the Spirit of the Lord came upon jahaziel The Son of Zechariah, The Son of benaiah...in the midst of the assembly." It's one of the prophets back in the days of jehoshophat - the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. How many of you remember the story of when Moses was being overwhelmed with administrating the Kingdom and God said, 'look, I want you to bring the 70 elders, and you need to delegate - bring them to the tabernacle and I will take of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them.
' It almost makes it sound like, you know, Moses has got this special formula and God's going to take Moses' formula and put it on the elders - kind of like when God said he took the Spirit of Elijah and put in on Elisha, it's all a type of how God takes the Spirit of Jesus and gives God the Spirit to us. Amen. But here, he goes on and he says that these seventy elders are filled with the holy spirit and they prophesy. It's almost like a mini example of what happened with pentecost. You notice, Jesus had the twelve apostles and then he also had an additional seventy that he sent out, right? Moses had the twelve princes of Israel, and then he had the seventy elders.
Some interesting Numbers - they were all spirit-filled. And so, all the way from the old to the new testament - one more - like I said, there's many, many I could give you. Ezekiel 11:5, "then the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and said to me, 'speak!'" - Of course, he's - prophets of God in the old testament had the Spirit of God. Now, is having the Holy Spirit the same as being baptized with the Holy Spirit? This is a very important question. Does the Holy Spirit come in varying degrees? I, you know, in preparation for studies and sermons, I read other material - other books - listen to other messages by other preachers.
And, in preparation for this, I heard the message of another pastor I'll not name and he said that, 'every Christian, at the point of conversion, is baptized in the Holy Spirit.' I thought about it and thought about it - he made some arguments, and I just respectfully disagree. I believe that the Holy Spirit comes in varying degrees based upon what the need is. Amen. Did the apostles have the Holy Spirit when Jesus sent them out teaching and preaching during - while Christ was alive? They were casting out devils. If it wasn't the Holy Spirit, what was it? Let's hope it was the Holy Spirit.
In the upper room, when Jesus breathed on them, and it says that he breathed on him and he said, 'receive ye the Holy Spirit' - they had the Holy Spirit then, but that wasn't the filling of the Holy Spirit. And so, you see a number of examples in the Bible - it wasn't the baptism of the Holy Spirit because if that was the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that's in the upper room, why does Jesus say, 'now don't go anywhere. Wait in Jerusalem until you receive power from on high. So, what happened at pentecost, and what happened to David and Samson and the seventy elders is a separate filling of the holy spirit - and we're going to get more into that a little later on. So now, that's just our introduction to this section.
We're going to go talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and - let's start with Joel chapter 2, verse 28 - Joel 2:28 and 29, and here the prophet says, "and is shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on my menservants and on my maidservants I will pour out my spirit in those days." So, does God discriminate that only Prophets and Kings get the Holy Spirit? Do you have to be a judge of Israel, like Samson, to get the Holy Spirit? No, he says that there's a special outpouring of the Spirit that would happen on all believers. When is that supposed to be? Is that future or past? Present. Present? Did it only happen in the present? The outpouring of the Spirit? Look with me in acts chapter 2 - acts chapter 2, verse 14 - "but Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, 'men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem," - it goes on to say, "...these are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'and it shall come to pass in the last days,'" - it's fun when you hear one Bible Scripture quoting another Bible Scripture - "'and it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.
And on my menservants and on my maidservants I will pour out my spirit...and they shall prophesy.'" So at pentecost, was the Holy Spirit only poured out on the twelve apostles? Who received the holy spirit at pentecost? How many were in the upper room? A hundred and twenty in the upper room. So you've got the twelve - actually ten times twelve is one twenty - are receiving the Holy Spirit. In the last days, is it only the 144,000 that are saved? Or do the 144,000 have a special work to get a great multitude ready? Does that make sense? So it wasn't just the disciples. It wasn't just men. The Holy Spirit was poured on everyone way back 2,000 years ago.
And so, God is offering his spirit to all people for the purpose of ministry. Now, did the Lord only pour out his Holy Spirit on women after Jesus, during the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Or were there prophetesses in the old testament? So this was not a new thing that women should receive the holy spirit. So what is Joel talking about - 'it'll come to pass in the last days'? Well, you know, my understanding is that Joel is describing, not that there would be individual cases of, not only apostles and prophets and common people receiving the Spirit, but it would come in a tsunami. See, the Holy Spirit is compared to rain. In the - and this is important to understand in this study - in the Hebrew agricultural environment, their climate, the crops were sprouted with this real good rain.
Now, those of us that are here in the Sacramento area, those who don't know, Granite Bay is a suburb of Sacramento. Can I say that? And we're not even in granite bay, we're in rocklin, so now you're really confused. But in the greater Sacramento area, we just had - I hope - is the drought over? Help me. It's over! Does it feel like it's over? When you walk around outside and you sink into the mud up to your knees, you hope the drought's over. So we just had a really good gullywasher, but the thing that you notice after one sunny day - it was beautiful yesterday - all this stuff sprouted.
All the grass came up. Stuff sprouted. I was out planting flowers yesterday. And they would have heavy rains in the fall that would then sprout the winter crops of wheat and they would get smatterings of rain along the way, and then there would be a latter rain where they would get a heavy rain in the spring and ripen up the crops just in time for the harvest and pentecost was when they had that harvest after the latter rain. And so, when it talks about pouring out the Spirit, he's talking about something more than the sprinkling.
It's a pouring of the Spirit that's happening here. Someone, in a moment's, going to read for me John 1:33 - dan'll have that, okay? I'm going to read John 3:5 - actually, I already read that - Mark 1:8 is what I'll read. John the baptist said, "I indeed baptized you with water, but he" - the one who comes after me - "will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." Now Jesus said you must be born of the water and the Spirit or you cannot enter the Kingdom of heaven. Let me say a little more about that: you're going to run into - if you haven't already - you're going to meet Christians who read that verse 'born of the water; born of the Spirit' - they say 'born of the water' means human birth - when a baby's born it's in an envelope of water and the water breaks and usually the baby is born soon after that - you hope. And they say, 'unless you're born of a woman and of the spirit, you cannot enter the Kingdom.
' Anyone else run into that before? Heard that study? A lot of churches - you have, yeah - a lot of churches teach that. I don't believe that's what Jesus is talking about because that would really be strange to say. How many of you out there were born of a woman? So why even mention it? I mean, it's everybody, right? Now, these days, things are changing, because - a lot of stuff happening in the laboratory - but, typically, everybody's already born of a woman; why even say that? He's talking about unless you were born of the water - going to John the baptist - that's a choice you make - born of the spirit is a choice God makes. You can choose the date of your water baptism, but God only chooses the date of the Spirit baptism. And, have you noticed that sometimes the Spirit baptism happens at the same time as the water baptism? Give me an example of that.
Jesus. Christ. He was baptized in water, spirit - same time. Sometimes they were baptized in water and then later the holy spirit. Give me a case of that.
The apostles. They were probably baptized by John the baptist, but they were baptized by the Holy Spirit at pentecost. And then, sometimes people were baptized in the Holy Spirit and later baptized in water. You can read where cornelius and his family - Peter's preaching - they're baptized in the holy spirit and he says, 'wow, you're getting the cart ahead of the horse. You're supposed to be baptized - Peter didn't realize it can happen any way God wants it.
And he said, 'who can forbid water that these should also be baptized in water? And so, we can't choose when God decides to pour out the Spirit, but is there something we can do to plead for the Spirit? Should we be asking for the baptism of the Spirit? If it's essential for our salvation to be born of the spirit? You know, before the children of Israel entered the promised land, they went through the sea. Paul tells us, in 1 Corinthians 10, that's a type of water baptism; and they were baptized in the fire. Now they had to make a decision to go forward and go through the sea. God is the one who sent the pillar of fire. So they were baptized in this pillar of fire that God sent, and they were baptized in the sea.
A symbol - before they got to the promised land, they needed both baptisms, right? The world was baptized in water, according to 2 Peter chapter 3, the world was baptized in water in the days of Noah - washed from its sin. It will be baptized in fire before Jesus comes - or, when Jesus comes - baptized in fire, and then God makes a new earth. The world doesn't get to heaven until it goes through a water/fire baptism. So, John the baptist is saying, 'I baptize in water, but the one who comes after me, he's going to baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire.' Now, was there, literally, fire at pentecost? There were tongues of fire. Yeah, why did God choose tongues of fire? Where did God take the coal - remember the story of Isaiah's conversion? When Isaiah's converted, where did God take the coal? He put it on his lips, yeah.
At pentecost, what was the evidence that they had been filled with the Holy Spirit? It was their speaking and they spoke in a supernatural way with languages they had not formally known or studied. They were speaking in tongues so God gave them tongues of fire to show that this was a gift of the Holy Spirit. Go ahead, read for us 1 John 33. "I did not know him but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit." So here you have John; God is giving him a signal. If you want to know who is the one that will baptize with fire - I've not baptized with water - you will see the Holy Spirit descend on.
God gave, you know - I mean, usually you feel the spirit, but he said, 'I'll give you something visual to look at.' Pentecost it was tongues of fire. When Jesus was baptized, what was the visual sign of the spirit? A dove. Now, we need something visual because the Holy Spirit is a spirit - he's invisible - and so he's compared, as I mentioned before, to water. You know, there at the well Jesus talked about the overflowing the Spirit as living water, and it was a dove at his baptism. It was fire at pentecost.
He told nicodemus it's like wind that blows. And so, God gives us different symbols, but sometimes it's hard for us to understand the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the Spirit's likened to oil. Oil was poured upon the priest to anoint him - or to the King and the Spirit came upon them. Luke 3:16 - now, there's three places where - four places - where John the baptist talks about - he makes it really clear, 'I baptize you with water but someone else is coming to baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
Luke 3:16, "John answered, saying to all, 'I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." - And, you know, Jesus said John is the greatest of the prophets, but compared to Jesus, no prophet is worthy. And then you read in acts :5, it says, "for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." Now, Christ is telling them, 'you're going to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. You need the water baptism; you need the Spirit baptism. You know, it's interesting that when - I did evangelism as a - oh, I still do evangelism, but I was a conference evangelist for several years and every good president, when you get done with a meeting, he wants to know, 'well, was it a successful meeting?' You know, if you're paying a pastor to be a full-time evangelist, you've got to produce fruit.
How do you measure the fruit? What do they think - what do you think the president will ask the pastor? How many baptisms? Or the evangelist? How many baptisms were there? That's the criteria - and that's appropriate. What other gauge you going to use? But I've never yet had anyone say, 'how many were baptized in the Holy Spirit?' But how important is that? It's harder to measure, isn't it? That. But it's crucial and we need to be praying for the baptism of the Spirit. You know, Jesus, when he talks about the things that you could, specifically, ask for, he said, 'if your child is hungry and he asks for a piece of bread, will you give him a stone?' And the devil told Jesus, 'turn the stones to bread.' He said, 'if he's hungry and he asks for a fish,' - you know - 'will you give him a serpent?' 'If he asks for an egg' - Luke mentions one additional analogy, he says, 'if he asks for an egg will you give him a scorpion?' I mean, what parent would say, 'oh, you want an egg? Here, I'll make scrambled scorpions this morning.' You would never do that to your children. And he said, 'if you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children' - then he tells us what we should pray for - 'how much more will your Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to those that ask?' So what's the one specific thing that Jesus mentions, that we should be praying for? The Holy Spirit.
That is the most important thing - it's part of my prayer every day, is that God'll give me the holy - how do you resist temptation? How do you know what to say? I mean, you need the Holy Spirit to guide you. And we need the filling of the Spirit. Now, in the last days, where sin abounds, grace much more abounds, do you agree? Doesn't the Bible say that? I hope you agree - it says that. And so where there's - does the devil give his spirit in different degrees? Are there varying degrees of evil? Yes. Do we see an increase? Does it say, in the last days, 'evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse'? Then, if there's ever a time when we need the Holy Spirit more, wouldn't it be now? We need to be praying for the filling of the Holy Spirit.
And then, of course, acts 11:15 - here, Peter's describing what happened at cornelius' house and he says, "...i began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, 'John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'" Now, I want to pause here and I'm going to inject - I think I've got time - a little study explaining the gift of tongues. This is important to me, personally, because we're teaching, of course, adventist Sabbath school. Many of you have been raised in the adventist church. Anyone come from a pentecostal background? I see a few here, yeah.
I didn't come from a pentecostal background, I came from a pretty much atheist background, but after I became a Christian - I'd never heard of adventists, I worshiped with charismatic Christians. And they would always say, 'have you been filled with the Spirit?' And what they meant by that was, as evidenced in the speaking of tongues. 'Do you speak in tongues?' And that used to confuse me because, when I first heard that, I had already read a lot of the Bible. I'd never understood that being filled with the Spirit meant you had to speak in tongues. I always understood tongues was one of many gifts of the Spirit and the Bible does not say you know if a person is spirit-filled based on the gifts of the Spirit.
You know if a person is spirit-filled based on the fruits of the Spirit. And what is the fruit of the Spirit? Love... Love, joy, tongues, peace - no, I threw that in there. It doesn't say that, but a lot of my charismatic friends, they made it sound like, 'do you speak in tongues? That's the proof you've got the holy spirit.' A person can fake speaking in tongues and they're not spirit-filled. Now, I don't want to be very unkind, but some of us remember, about a decade ago, there was a raft of televangelists that would often speak in tongues on television and there's a lot of scandals, one after the other, of these televangelists - they were, you know, prosperity preachers, and they would flaunt their wealth and they'd speak in tongues on tv and they were caught, on several occasions, living immoral lives.
But they could prove they had the Holy Spirit because they spoke in tongues. But what always surprised me is that when they traveled overseas they had to hire a translator. (Laughter) it's true! Yeah, these evangelists that would always speak in tongues on tv and then, and you know, I don't want to mock them, but, you know, they just start babbling incoherently. They said, 'this is the gift of the Holy Spirit and we're speaking in a heavenly angelic language nobody understands.' They, ostensibly, have the gift of tongues, but when they traveled to south America or russia or india, they had to have a translator to help them preach. Well, when the Holy Spirit fell on the apostles, they didn't need a translator.
One of the gifts of the Spirit was tongues - it's one of the gifts. But the most important evidence you've got the Holy Spirit's not tongues, it's love, joy, peace - and I'll get into some of the other criteria here in a minute. Every time someone was filled with the Holy Spirit, they shared the word. Why does God give us the Holy Spirit? To speak in tongues? 'I will give you my spirit and you will be my witnesses.' So why does God baptize with his spirit? To spread the Gospel. To witness.
Now, I'm getting ahead of myself. This comes up a little later. Being filled - with the holy spirit - oh wait, let me see a couple more things. There are three examples - how many? Three. Three examples of speaking in tongues in the Bible.
Did you know that? Only three. If you went to charismatic or pentecostal church, you would think that there's a thousand, but there's three examples. They're all in the book of acts - acts chapter 2, acts 10, with cornelius, acts 19. In all three cases, when they're filled with the Holy Spirit, they are speaking with multiple language groups present and it's for the purpose of sharing. Those listening know what is being said.
The Bible says, in acts chapter 2, 'we do hear them in our own tongues where we were born, speaking about the wonderful works of God.' Another place it talks about - they magnified God. Another place it says 'they prophesied' - they knew what they were saying. All the times they spoke in tongues they were - the word 'tongues' just means 'languages' - that's what it means in the original and every example in the Bible - the word there, for tongues, means 'language'. It doesn't mean some supernatural gibberish. It always means 'a language' and, in 1 Corinthians 14, where Paul talks about tongues - Paul talks about tongues in 1 Corinthians 14, but nobody's speaking in tongues in the passage.
He's explaining how to do it when it happens. So, there's only three examples of it happening. And it's interesting: Paul only speaks about tongues there in 1 Corinthians - Mark mentions, at the end of the Gospel, Jesus said, 'you will speak with other tongues.' Jesus said one of the signs is you will speak with other tongues.' The apostles were given the ability to speak in other languages for spreading the Gospel. And Peter never mentions it. James never mentions it.
John never mentions it. You would think that if it were essential to your salvation and, finally, if you're a Christian, what does a Christian do? Follow Christ. Where does Jesus speak in tongues? I've been in some churches where I heard the pastor was so desperate to have Jesus speaking in tongues somewhere, they took where it says, 'Christ is on the cross' and he says, 'eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani' and they said, 'see, Jesus is speaking in tongues.' I said, 'no, that's not what's happening. The Bible - the Gospel writer there is telling you what Jesus said in his regular language, but because you need to know that the words sound like Elijah, you'll know why the roman soldiers misunderstood.' They didn't speak very much - they thought he was calling for Elijah because he said, 'eloi, eloi', which was similar to Elijah's name. Jesus never spoke in tongues in the Bible.
There's no record of him speaking in any other language. And so, to say you don't have the baptism of the Holy Spirit unless you speak in tongues, is to imply that Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit at his baptism, but he doesn't speak in tongues. So you've got to be very careful about making a doctrine out of that. Now, do I believe in the gift of tongues? Absolutely. It is one of the gifts.
Do you know, when the gifts are listed, it's always at the bottom of the list. But some churches have turned the list upside down. So, anyway, moving along - being filled with the Holy Spirit - Ephesians 5:18 - now someone's going to read for me, in a moment, Luke 1:41, okay? Ephesians 5:18, "and do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit". You know, if you go to a liquor store - liquor stores used to say 'wine and spirits'. Why do they call them spirits? Because a different spirit comes over a person when they drink.
It's not the Spirit of the Lord. And, well, I won't do my alcohol sermon right now, but it's bad news. Paul, he says, if you want to contrast night and day, don't be drunk with wine' - wrong spirit - bad spirit - 'but be filled with the good spirit, the Spirit of God.' Acts 13:52, "and the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit brings joy. Jesus came to give us an abundant life. Romans 8:9, "but you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.
" Now - so the Spirit doesn't just come in a little wave, but he wants the Spirit of God to come and do what? Dwell in us. So when you go to sleep you've got the Spirit; when you wake up you've still got the Spirit. That's why David prays, in psalm , he knew that he had sinned and he remembered when Saul persisted in sin, God took the Spirit away from Saul. It's like the Spirit left Samson. He didn't know the Spirit of the Lord had departed and he was weak.
the Spirit was taken away from Saul and David said, 'Lord, take not your Holy Spirit from me.' And so we want the Spirit to dwell in us. Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. How important is it? You don't belong to Christ unless you have the Spirit of God. We need to be praying for it every day. Alright, read for us, please, Luke 1:41.
"And it happened, when elizabeth heard the greeting of mary, that the babe leapt in her womb; and elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit." Yeah, just even at the hearing of the voice - the babe is leaping in her womb. You notice that words seem to generate the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit fell on cornelius, what was happening - when he was baptized with the Holy Spirit? He was listening to the word. When the Holy Spirit fell on the disciples in Ephesians - matter of fact you might want to look there - not Ephesians, in acts - they were ephesian believers. It's in acts 19 - go to acts 19, verse 1 - this is one more example of what I'm talking about.
"And it happened, while apollos was at corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to ephesus. And finding some disciples" - this is acts 19:1 - now I'm in verse 2 - "he said to them, 'did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?'' Now, notice, the first thing Paul asks them when he finds disciples. These are people who had been disciples of John the baptist. They heard about John - the preaching of John - they were believers. "He said to them, 'did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?' So they said to him, 'we have no so much as heard whether there is a holy spirit.
'" They had missed some sermons, that's for sure. "And he said to them, 'into what then were you baptized?' So they said, 'into John's baptism.' Then Paul said, 'John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.'" - Who would baptize them in the spirit, right? - "When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied." - They heard what they were believing - again, there's several groups - language groups here, present. Paul preaches to them about Jesus, lays hands on them, and they're filled with the Holy Spirit. You'll often see that it happens in that sequence.
Now, what does it mean to be baptized? We're talking about baptism of the Spirit and I probably should have stopped earlier and said, 'what is baptize?' What does the word 'baptize' mean? Immerse. Come on, you're - you're good protestants. Baptists understand baptism. We're not the only ones that understand that. It means 'to dip; to submerge; to immerse' baptizo - you can say that word.
It's Greek but you can say it, baptizo - it means 'to saturate; to immerse; to plunge under' - so when it talks about 'baptized in the Holy Spirit' - it's not a sprinkling of the Holy Spirit. Does the Holy Spirit bring conviction? Yes. So before a person's even converted, isn't the Holy Spirit working in their life? Amen. To convict them of sin? And the Holy Spirit can guide and comfort. God's Spirit works in people in varying degrees.
We're talking here about the fullness - where your cup overflows with the Holy Spirit because you are submerged in the spirit. So yes, it comes in different degrees. And, again, I've been reading you different verses. Here's one from Matthew 3:11, John said, "I indeed baptize you with water...but he who is coming after me is mightier than i, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
" Now what does water do? Soaks. Cleans. Do you use water to clean? What does fire do? You ever boil water? To purify? Does fire clean? It does. Farmers understood that. They'd clean things - they'd purge things with fire.
So the Holy Spirit comes in different degrees. The Holy Spirit's poured on the disciples in acts chapter 2 - so was that the last time the disciples received the holy spirit? No? You go to chapter 4 of acts it says they prayed and the place they were assembled was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke in tongues. No, it doesn't say that. It does say they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the Word of God. They didn't need tongues then because everyone there spoke the same language.
So, he's - they were filled with the Holy Spirit for the purpose of speaking the Word of God. But, do you notice, the disciples were filled at pentecost, but it wasn't the only time they were filled. So, there can be different fillings or baptisms of the Holy Spirit and then you - when you get married and you pledge your love to your spouse, you might feel a surge of romance and passion and adoration, but it may not always feel like that. But it doesn't mean you don't love them anymore. And when God baptizes you with the Holy Spirit, it is the sealing of a covenant.
You may not always feel it, because when God fills you with the Spirit, it's for a job you have to do. Let me give you another - maybe a cruder example. When was Samson filled with the Spirit? When there was a battle to fight. God did not give Samson supernatural strength to kill a thousand men when he didn't need to kill a thousand men. He didn't give him strength to kill a lion when he didn't need to kill a lion.
But it says, 'when a lion roared, the Spirit of the Lord came on him and gave him the strength for the battle that day.' So you may be walking in the Spirit now - I hope you are - and God will baptize you with the Spirit as you need the power to do the work of God. Whatever your gifts are, he will empower you for as the need comes. So the disciples, it came in waves, as they needed it. There's another time when Paul was speaking and the Holy Spirit came upon him - well, let me see here, acts 9:17, "and ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, 'brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.'" Why was Paul filled with the Spirit? Because God said, 'I'm going to send you out preaching. And then he was baptized after that.
You notice that the Holy Spirit came to Paul after he spent days praying. Now, how many of you want the baptism of the Spirit? How do you get it? Acts chapter 2, the disciples were praying. Acts chapter 4, when the place where they were assembled was shaken - did you read? You go ahead. It's your - we're going to have him do acts chapter 4, verse 31 - how does the Holy Spirit come? "And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the holy spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness." Now I already alluded to this, but I want to emphasize, when they prayed. Acts 2, they prayed - Holy Spirit.
Acts 4, they prayed - Holy Spirit. Paul prayed - he spent three days praying - Holy Spirit came. So the Spirit of God comes in response to prayer. What else brings the Holy Spirit? Proclamation of the word. Acts 2:37, "now when they heard this," - the apostles were preaching - "they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'men and brethren, what shall we do?' Then Peter said to them, 'repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
" Now, I believe there's a difference here. Paul says, at pentecost, to the general crowd that is listening, 'if you repent of your sins and you are baptized, you are going to get the gift of the Spirit.' Is the gift of the Spirit the same thing as the baptism of the Spirit? I don't think so. The baptism of the Spirit is an all-saturated filling of the Spirit. There's a gift of the Spirit that is given to every believer. How do you know that you are forgiven when you're baptized in water? By faith.
Because God said so. He said, 'repent, be baptized, if you confess your sins he is faithful and just to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.' He said it; I believe it. Isn't that what it means? Righteousness by faith? So, how do you know you get the Holy Spirit at baptism? Same way. He said it. You believe it, you receive it.
How do you get peace after you're baptized? Because God made a promise that I'm forgiven. I believe his promise; that brings great peace to me - that my sins are forgiven. I feel better because I believe. You see, we always get it backwards. We want to feel something and then we start believing.
God says, 'no, you believe and then you start to feel something. So, how do you receive the Holy Spirit? I'm not talking about the baptism - the gift of the Holy Spirit. God promised; you believe it, and then you experience it. And you will need it, because the baptism of the Holy Spirit may be for proclamation; the gift of the Holy Spirit is to live the life. After Jesus is baptized, he goes in the wilderness and he's tempted by the devil.
Why does Jesus need the Holy Spirit there? To preach or to walk a victorious walk? And so, the gift of the Spirit is given to every believer so that you can live the life. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is to do the work in a special way. Now, I believe that many of his here have the gift of the Spirit - I'd like to believe you all do. It might be presumptuous for me to say that, but I believe that when you're baptized and you make that decision, God gives you the gift and that gift is manifested different ways. So, I need to move along here.
Alright, someone's going to read for me 1 John 2:4 - just a moment, I'm going to first read acts 5:32. What is the condition for receiving the Holy Spirit? Obedience. Acts 5:32, Peter says, "and we are his witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him." Now, is that a deep, mystical theological statement? No. "The Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those that obey him." Or is that something that we can all understand? Let me read another one, John 14:15, Jesus said, "if you love me, keep my commandments." Everyone knows that part - keep reading - go through verse 17, "and I will pray The Father, and he will give you another helper, that he made abide with you" - from time to time? - "Forever - the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; but you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you." Jesus said, 'if you love me keep my commandments. I will pray The Father and he will send the Holy Spirit.
' Notice the connection - keep my commandments - because God doesn't want to give that power to someone in rebellion because you'll misuse the power. That's right. It's a gift of the Spirit. It's a person of the Spirit. Alright, go ahead, please read 1 John 2:4.
"He who says, 'I know him,' and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." So, does God give the power of the Holy Spirit to those that say, 'I don't intend to be fully surrendered and obey'? He wants us to be willing to obey. Now, does that mean that if someone slips and falls or they make a mistake, that God withdraws the Spirit immediately? No, I don't believe that's true. First of all, the Holy Spirit will be there to convict. David sinned in a big way with bathsheba and he said, 'take not your Holy Spirit from me.' The Holy Spirit led him to repentance where he said, 'I have sinned.' Did Peter have the Holy Spirit after pentecost? Yes. Did Peter make a mistake in showing partiality to the Jewish believers? Did Paul have to rebuke him for that? And there were probably other things as, you know, things recorded in the Bible.
Was Paul filled with the Holy Spirit? Did Paul have a serious argument with barnabas about whether or not Mark should go along? Here these two apostles are ready to slug it out because they can't agree. They're going to go talk to others about the love of Jesus and they can't get along with each other - they argue about Mark - and then Paul later says he was wrong, that Mark - he says, 'send Mark, he's profitable to me in the Gospel.' And so, they were human, but they walked in the Spirit. They kept short accounts with the Lord when they sinned, that the Spirit would convict them and they would immediately repent. And God says he will abide with you - the Spirit abides with you - but a willingness to obey. John 3:24, "now he who keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in him.
And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us." A willingness to obey - this is one of the ways we know. If a person says, 'I'm spirit filled' and they're living in rebellion - probably not. And the reason that God gives us the Spirit is to proclaim the word - for witnessing. Acts 1:8, "but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to me". Luke 24:48, "and you are witnesses of these things.
Behold, I send the promise of my father upon you;" - he says, 'I'm giving you the promise so you can be my witnesses.' Alright, self-centered living vs. Christ-centered living is the last section here. And, you know, I just want to read what it says in Galatians :16, because this is so clear. I'm going to read through verse 26, "I say then: walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh;" - they're not getting along with each other.
They're contrary to one another. There's an enmity between the spirit and the flesh - between the woman and the word and the world. "But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law." - You're not under the penalty of the law if you're spirit led - "now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like;" - he says this is not an exhaustive list - 'and things like this' - "of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God." - There's to be an obedience in the life - "but the fruit of the Spirit" - by contrast - "is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." - By the way, when you look at the fruit of the Spirit and you look in 1 Corinthians 13 at the description of love, there's a lot of overlap there where Paul defines and describes love - "and those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
" And one last verse I'll give you here, and this is Romans 8:6, "for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.
" So I close where I started. Is being filled with the Spirit an option or, at least having the gifts of the Spirit? - It's not optional, it's mandatory. It says if you don't have the Spirit of Christ, you're none of his. We need to pray that we have the Holy Spirit. It's like - it says there in Zechariah, 'I pray for rain in the time of the latter rain and the Lord'll send flashing clouds.
' We need to be asking for the outpouring of the Spirit in our day, amen? Amen. I want to remind our friends, if they would like to get our free offer, there's a big connection between baptism in the Spirit and what people often misunderstand about tongues. We'd like to give you this book that helps clear it up. It's called understanding tongues - that means understanding the subject of tongues. It's offer #145 - call and ask for that offer.
It's - the number is 866-788-3966 - that's -study-more. You can even read it for free online if you'd like. God bless you, friends, we look forward to studying His Word together again next week. Friends, would you win souls if you could? Well, you can. Please plan now to join me in doing some evangelism this winter.
It's easier than you think. Prophecy encounter will be a major new 10-part evangelistic program that'll be broadcast by satellite and streaming on the internet to homes and churches near you - hopefully your home or church. From February 17 through 25, I'll be preaching an all-new old-fashioned evangelistic program from sanford, florida and we'll be using the latest technology and fresh illustrations, so all you have to do is open your churches, your homes - invite friends and family - be friendly, pray, and let the power of the word do the work. The programs will be available on 3abn, aftv, Facebook, roku, and more. You'll be surprised; there are people in your community that are really worried about what's happening in the world and they're looking for answers.
Jesus said, 'the harvest is truly great, but the laborers are few. So pray therefore the Lord of the harvest will send laborers out into his harvest.' You can be one of them. So I'd like to encourage you to join us and be praying for the upcoming prophecy encounter meetings. For more information check out www.prophecyencounter.com and who knows, you might be revived in the process. For life-changing Christian resources, visit afbookstore.com.