Sound The Trumpet : The Continuing Work of the Holy Spirit

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“The Continuing Work of the Holy Spirit”
by Hugh Davidson
September 27th, 2009

The continuing work of the Holy Spirit

John 15:26-16:11,^”But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.”

In Acts chapter 2 it says, "When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place." The day of Pentecost in the book of Acts came ten days after Jesus’ ascension into heaven and the disciples were all gathered together. And then it says that the Holy Spirit came but it doesn’t say that He arrived as a result of the disciples' prayers or as a fulfillment of some special spiritual requirement but the Holy Spirit came because God said He would and this was the time for it to happen. The one thing I want you to understand is that God didn't send the Holy Spirit in response to anything that anyone did.

I remember when I was involved in the charismatic movement we had a week-end of meetings with some well-known leaders of the charismatic movement from Florida and one of these men was sharing with a group of twenty or thirty of us how to receive the Holy Spirit. And he was telling us to breathe deep and led out minds go blank and then he said that the Holy Spirit would come in and fill us and we’d all speak in tongues. And after a while of practicing what he said most people did experience what he was talking about. And do you know what the strange part is? The apostle Paul didn’t know anything about this. He never received any instructions or promised any spiritual gifts to anybody who did it this way.

Listen, tongues are not the spiritual domain of just the charismatic crowd. There are people in almost every cult in the world that speak in tongues but they know nothing of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In Acts 2 we also see the signs of the Spirit's arrival in verses 2-4 where it says, "Suddenly there came a sound from heaven like a rushing mighty wind, and if filled all the house where they were sitting." I want you to see the source of this tremendous experience. It says the sound was like a mighty rushing wind that came from heaven and one thing we’re sure of is this, the source of this sound was from God, it wasn’t from man or and it certainly wasn’t from Satan. This was a sudden phenomenon and the church came into being instantaneously. I’m sure that no one was expecting anything but God made something happen that neither they nor anyone else had ever experienced before. And if you look there you’ll see where it says it was a sound like a wind but listen, it wasn’t a wind. So, maybe they heard the sound and they saw the tongues of fire but no one actually felt any wind blowing. In the scripture, wind is often an emblem of the Holy Spirit. In John 3:8 it says, "The wind bloweth where it willeth, and thou hearest the sound of it, but canst not tell from where it cometh, and where it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Generally the Greek word translated "spirit" is pneuma, which also means "breath" or "wind." But in Acts 2:2 the Greek word is pnoes, which means "a blast of breath." So, it's wasn’t a gentle breeze; it was more like a strong gust of wind but as I said, I think they heard it but they may not have actually felt it.

Later on we read that unbelievers came to where this miracle happened and it says they were curious because they heard this sound and came to see where it had come from. This gives us the impression that this was such an audible demonstration that the unsaved were attracted from outside the house and some of them were amazed when they heard the various languages being spoken while others actually started making fun of them by accusing them of being drunk. And the same thing happens today when the world sees someone who was living for the devil turn around and live for the Lord. There are always a few who’ll be amazed at the change while others will write off this person’s experience by saying, he must have had some kind of breakdown, just give him some time and he’ll get over it.

Today people define what they call the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a spiritual experience. But in Acts 2:2 this baptism was non-experiential. These people were all sitting in the room and they were all baptized but they didn’t seem to show any reaction at the time. There was no yelling, no tears and nothing emotional whatsoever. And listen, a good example of what happened here is what happened to you when you became a Christian. The moment you received Jesus Christ into your heart the Bible says you were justified. And that means that no sin you’ve ever committed or ever will commit will be charged to your account. Now, let me ask you, did you suddenly feel justified? No, justification is a judicial act of God. It was a non-experiential reality. It happens the moment you were adopted into God's family on the basis of your faith in Christ.

There are those who will point to the speaking in tongues in Acts 2:4 as the experiential reaction to the baptism of the Spirit and they come to the conclusion that this is the norm for all believers. And yet, throughout the New Testament there are certain verses that tell us what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is. For instance, in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 Paul said, "As the body [the church] is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. By one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Greeks, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." So, this tells us that all believers whether they’re Baptist, Pentecostal or whatever they are, if they’re truly believers they’re baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is when the Holy Spirit takes a believer and places him in the body of Christ. You can, but you don’t have to shout and you can, but you don’t have to feel goose bumps when this happens. It’s a spiritual work.

It’s like when you get married. When the pastor says the vows and you repeat them; you may or may not have been emotional about the commitment you were making but the vows themselves were clear commitments to living a lifetime together. As a matter of fact I’ve had people go through the same vows at the practice on the night before and there was no emotion at all. So, we might get emotional about the work of the Holy Spirit but His work isn’t necessarily an emotional experience.

And it’s interesting to see that the speaking in tongues that came with the filling of the Spirit only happened to certain people during the foundation of the church. And history tells us that by the end of the first century this experience had completely faded out. It fulfilled the purpose for which God gave it to the church which was to testify to the Jews. It’s interesting to see that the people who were speaking were speaking actual languages that were spoken by people who spoke them. So, they weren’t angelic languages or special prayer tongues and when you read Acts 2 you’ll see all the languages listed and a group of people who understood what was being said.

Now, having said that this gift is no longer available to the church I don’t want to give the impression that the Holy Spirit is no longer active because where ever people are getting saved and growing He is definitely involved in the process because if He wasn’t then no one would even be saved.

I read something interesting last week, according to a Christian newspaper columnist by the name of Cal Thomas a mistake was made by George Bush senior before a religious broadcasters' conference in 1990. Thomas tells the story in one of his books and he says that the Lord has a way of revealing those who really know him and those who don't. He said Bush gave a speech about how his faith is so "important" to him in an attempt to convince the American people why they should consider him for President. As a matter of fact, He announced that his favorite Bible verse was John 16:3. Of course the speech writer meant John 3:16 but none of Bush’s staff were familiar enough with the scripture to catch the mistake. And do you know what John 16:3 says? It says, "And they will do this because they have not known the Father nor Me.” The Holy Spirit works in strange ways and by His works He reveals the true and exposes the frauds.

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13