Our subject is threefold, divine hearing, speaking in tongues, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts. First of all, we take up divine healing. And the first point in our message is an example of divine healing, and we find it in Acts chapter three. We read, Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer being the ninth hour. And a certain man laying from his mother's womb was carried, whom they lay daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms of men that entered into the temple. Who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked the alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him, was John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. There's the example in Acts here that we chose of divine healing. Its definition now is this, namely the healing was done by a person to whom was given the power to do that healing. That's divine healing without use of means and through an individual whom God has equipped to do the healing. Now our second point is this, the purpose of divine healing. And we go to Matthew and we read in chapter eleven this in verse two. Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said unto him, Out thou he that should come, or do we look for another? That is, John says, Are you the Messiah or do we look for a Messiah of a different kind? Jesus didn't answer yes or no. Why? John wouldn't have accepted it. What is Jesus' answer? Go and show John again those things which he do here and see. The blind received their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. What was Jesus' answer? Namely, go and show John again the miracles I performed which miracles were for the purpose of proving that my claims to Messiahship and my message were from God. Therefore, the purpose of divine healing in the first century was to attest the divine source of a message which the person gave who performed the miracle. Now, most of the miracles our Lord and his apostles performed were based on the healing covenant God made with Israel, which miracles Israel was therefore taught to expect from God sent messengers. And we read in Exodus this, Exodus If thou wilt diligently harden to the voice of the Lord thy God, and will do that which is right in his sight, and will give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon me which I have brought upon the Egyptians. Now comes the healing covenant, for I am the Lord that healeth thee." And when I came to Psalm one hundred and three, and we bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all the benefits, who forgiveth all thy inequalities, who healeth all thy diseases. Now the words, who healeth all thy diseases, are not at all applicable today. They were part of the healing covenant which God gave Israel. Now, the reason why God gave a healing covenant to Israel, God being to heal them, was because Israel was to be the channel through which God would work to bring salvation to the human race, and he needed a healthy nation. So the healing covenant was never made with the Gentiles. And we're going to look at a passage that shows that the giving covenant was not made with the Gentiles. And we turn to Matthew chapter fifteen, verses twenty-one to twenty-eight. And we read, Then Jesus went thence and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou shalt of David. My daughter is grievously vexed with a demon. Here is a Gentile, accosting our Lord as son of David, appearing upon a basis of his messiahship for healing for her demonized daughter. She, a Gentile, was recognizing him as Messiah, and upon that basis claimed healing for her daughter. But he answered her another word. And the disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she cries after us. And he answered and said, I am not said but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In effect, the Lord Jesus says this to the disciples, don't you remember the healing covenant God made with Israel? That covenant was only for the Jews and for the reason that they were the channel through which God was to work to bring salvation to this earth. Family needed to be kept healthy. Now this Gentile woman has accosted me as Messiah, and upon the basis of Messiahship has claimed healing for her daughter. I can't do it. I was sent only to Israel, and the healing covenant was only for the Jew. Then Matthew says she came and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. And the minute that she recognized Jesus as just a person who could help her, he answered. He answered and said, It is not me to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs. Now let's be careful in no fish that Jesus did not call this woman a dog. The Gentiles call the Jews dogs and the Jews call the Gentile dogs. The Greek word means a little dog. And Jesus was referring to the little pet puppies that the children had. And so he says it isn't fitting to take the children's bread and throw it to the little pets underneath the table. And she said, Truth, Lord, yet the little pets eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, greatest thy faith, be unto thee even as thou wilt, and her daughter was made whole from that very hour. That is enough to show us that the healing covenant, divine healing, was never for the Gentiles, as they claimed it from the Messiahship of Jesus Christ, and was for the Jewish nation. Now, the healing covenant was an operation in the early church, and we turn to James chapter five for a moment. James chapter five. And we read this, if you will, please. James chapter five and verses fourteen and fifteen. He reads, If any sick among you, let him call to the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise them up. And if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Now these verses, and the whole official, for instance, must be taken in view of the historical background, the date of the writing of the letter and so forth. James is generally, I think, conceded to be about the first New Testament book that was written. It was written very early, and it was written to the Jews, and was written to the Jews before God set Israel aside as a nation. And we'll read it from this standpoint now. Is any mistake among you, let them call for the elders of the church. The reason why the elders of the church were brought in was because this illness was the result of God's disciplinary action. in the life of a certain saint who had sinned in his life. And this sin affected the church. So the elders were called in. And they were called in to do two things. First, to pray for this person. And second, to annoy him with oil. And this, in the name of the Lord. Now that Greek word and night means the massage, and one of the chief remedial agents in the first century was oil. You remember the Samaritan poured into the rooms of the traveler whom the robbers injured, wine and oil. wine for its disinfecting properties, the alcohol would do that, and olive oil for the healing properties, all of which means that oil here stands for the medical aid in the first century. And this is with the healing covenant, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick. Now, this is applicable for this context here. We pray often then, we pray as far as we know in faith believing, but we don't get well. This has no reference for today. It's national, it's dispensational. The prayer of faith shall save the sick went. When that person's sickness is due to the disciplinary action of God, and he confesses his sin and gets rid of it, and then the prayer of faith shall save the sick. We can't take this statement, the prayer of faith shall save the sick out of its context, and say, now Lord, answer prayer here, and now you're guaranteed to save me. That wouldn't be correct interpretation of the Bible nor correct procedure. This has to do with sickness amongst the Jews, and they have the national covenant of divine healing, and God guaranteed to heal. Therefore, we have the healing covenant in Israel, and it has nothing to do with the Gentiles, although Jesus did heal Gentiles at times. Now, God set Israel aside as a nation back there in Acts chapter twenty-eight, where we have Paul declaring that he's going to the Gentiles. We look at chapter twenty-eight of Acts for a moment, and we'll see what Paul has to say. The Jews he had called to confirm with him in Rome in his imprisonment rejected the gospel, most of them. And Paul says in verse twenty-eight, Be it known unto you, therefore, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. Thus, the healing covenant had to do with Israel as a nation. And then when God set Israel aside as a nation, the healing covenant was also abdicated, which means that the healing covenant is not in effect today. Today God heals in answer to prayer when it pleases him to heal. He doesn't always answer prayer for healing. It is not as real sometimes. Sometimes, in his wise purpose, he allows saints to be ill all their lives as a method of dealing with them, bringing them closer to himself. But he does heal and answers a prayer when it pleases him. And he usually uses a medium through which he heals, not directly. God doesn't strain at the miraculous. When there's medicines at hand, he wants to see his medicines. In the case of a missionary far from any doctor, in instances God would heal directly. But there is no healing today through individuals. There was no need for it. The need for it in the first century was to establish Christianity as from God. And the healing miracles were to show Israel that Christianity was now to be accepted. Now that purpose has been subserved, and therefore the only reason why God healed your individuals anyways in the first century was to prove that their message was from God. Since that has now been proved in the written scriptures, there is no divine healing through individuals today. Again, Jesus and his apostles never emphasized healing or used it as a bait to get people to listen to the gospel. Indeed, Jesus kept his healing ministry in the background and often told those whom he healed not the same thing about it. In contrast to many so-called divine healers today who make it their propaganda. And finally, Jesus and the apostles never took money for healing and never took up a collection when they healed people. Thus we dealt with the divine healing matter. The gist of the matter is this, the divine healing was in answer to the divine covenant of healing that God gave to the Jew for the preservation of the nation. that it had to do with Israel alone, not with the Gentiles. And it was discontinued when God set Israel aside as the nation in Acts twenty-eight, and now God heals in answer to prayer when it pleases him. Sometimes through means, sometimes directly. That brings us to speaking in tongues. And we have in Isaiah chapter twenty-eight the background for speaking in tongues. And we find that speaking in tongues is one of God's methods in dealing with Israel as a disobedient nation. We read in Isaiah twenty-eight this, Whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Then let her wing from the milk and drawn from the breast. For precept must be upon precept, precepts upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, hear a little, and there a little, with stammering lips and another tongue. Another language will he speak to this people? Now that expression, this people, in the Bible, always speak of Israel when Israel is in disobedience. And here we have the prediction of Isaiah, which is taken up by the Apostle Paul in First Corinthians, to the effect that when Israel is disobedient, God will sometimes deal with that nation through the use of a language strange to them. Now, one of God's methods in dealing with rebellious sinners was the confusion of tongues at the table. And so, this is the way he has been dealing with Israel at times when Israel was in disobedience. That brings us to the speaking in tongues in the New Testament. And we go to the book of Acts first. And we have in the book of Acts two kinds of speaking in tongues. Paul in First Corinthians says, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, that is, there are two kinds of languages, two kinds of tongues, human languages and languages of angels. At Pentecost, we have human languages. And in chapter two of Acts, we read that these languages are those of the Parthians and the Medes and the Elamites and the Mesopotamians and from Judea, Cappadocia, Parnassus, Asa, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Cyrene, Rome, Crete, Sarabians. These were human understandable languages. The miracle was, namely, that these Galilean Jews did not acquire these languages, did not learn them, but suddenly spoke them in the power of the Holy Spirit. And these languages were for the purpose of attesting the fact that Christianity was from God, and they were directed to the nation Israel. Then we turn to the tongues in the later Book of Acts, pardon me, And we turn to Acts chapter ten and verses forty-four and forty-six. It's in the house of Cornelius and the Gentiles are saved and receive the Holy Spirit. We read, While Peter yet speak these words, The Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Now how do these Jews know that the Holy Spirit had been given to the Gentiles? Because we read in verse forty-six, they heard them speak with tongues. Again, we have God using tongues, languages foreign to their own to prove to them a certain thing. And we want to be careful to note here that this was speaking in tongues, was not to prove that any individual received the Holy Spirit, but that a large section of the human race known as the Gentiles received the Spirit. in one section of the Christian Church today, sincere believers, teach that if a person doesn't speak in tongues, he doesn't have the Holy Spirit. But they mistake this passage here. This passage does not teach that the speaking in tongues proved that any individual received the Spirit, but that the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, received the Spirit. And that has been proved. Therefore, speaking in tongues is not needed today to show that the Gentiles had received the Spirit or that anyone had received the Spirit. Then we turn to Acts chapter nineteen, where we have the case of Jewish disciples of John the Baptist, who were saved before the cross. And in the Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit was not given. And Paul says to them, Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? The Greek makes it clear that this is what Paul meant. Have you received the Holy Ghost in view of the fact that you believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard, though there be any Holy Ghost. Then it turned out that they had been baptized by John. But when they looked backward to an accomplished salvation, the Calvary's cross, Paul laid his hands upon them and the Holy Ghost came upon them and they spoke in tongues. Jewish believers now end up speaking in tongues was for the purpose of showing that they who had been saved in the old dispensation now received the added benefits of the new dispensation of grace. And that speaking in tongues was for the purpose of showing that the Jews there had received the Spirit. Now we do not have any instance of a person being saved under the Old Dispensation today and alive, and therefore that speaking in tongues is not necessary. That brings us to the speaking in tongues in First Corinthians chapter fourteen. And we find that there are two purposes of the speaking in tongues there in the early church. And these speaking in tongues, of course, are the tongues of angels. And we read, Follow after love and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God, for no man understands him. How, if he is in the spirit, he speaketh mysteries. But he's that prophesier. That is, the person in the early church who received revelations from God and gave those revelations to his fellow believers, speaketh unto men to edification. exhortation and comfort. But he that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifies himself. But he that prophesies edifies the church. But I would be all speaketh with tongues, or rather she prophesied, for greater is he that prophesied than he that speaks with tongues, except the interpret, and that the church may receive edifying. So one purpose of the speaking in tongues here in the Corinthian church was edification of the saints. But let us remember that the Corinthian church was full of Jews, Jewish proselytes, that needed to have testimony borne to them regarding the divine source of Christianity. And then the other purpose of speaking in tongues in the early church was, namely, as an evidence of the divine source of New Testament truth to the Jew. And in the same chapter, I Corinthians fourteen, verses twenty-one and twenty-two, we read this. In the law it is written, and here's where Paul quotes Isaiah, with men of other tongues and other lips, will I speak unto this people. And yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues are foresigned. And that Greek word sign means in the testing miracle. A miracle whose purpose is to prove that the person who speaks in that tongue is a minister of God and ministers God's Word. Therefore tongues are for an attesting sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. And there we have again the statement that the speaking in tongues is for the unbeliever and to the Jewish unbeliever, because speaking in tongues was according to Isaiah, God's method of dealing with the Jews, not the Gentiles. Paul says in first Corinthians thirteen and verse eight, whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Now Paul doesn't say in that verse when they shall cease, but we can use our reason here upon the face of scripture in the book of Acts in Acts twenty eight. We just found that God and Paul's time there said his loicide is a nation. and deals with the Jew today, he deals with the Gentiles, and setting Israel aside as a nation, he also set tongues aside as a measure of dealing with Israel as a nation, which means that there is no speaking in tongues today by the Holy Spirit. And for the reason that God has discontinued that method of dealing with Israel, and for the reason that the nation Israel has been set aside. Any speaking in tongues which occurs today comes from either one of two sources, either from a hyper-emotionalism or from demonology. And thus we dealt with the speaking in tongues. Briefly, we said that speaking in tongues was a method that Isaiah predicted God would use with the disobedient Israel. It wasn't for the Gentiles. In the second place, it was to attest the divine source of Christianity, according to Paul here, to the Jews. Never for the Gentiles. And where the speaking comes in the book of Acts proves that certain individuals received the Holy Spirit, it was in the book of, in the house of Cornelius there, not to prove that a single individual received the Holy Spirit, but that the Gentiles did as well as the Jews. which means that there is no necessity of anybody speaking in tongues to prove that he has the Holy Spirit. And the fact that the person doesn't speak in tongues doesn't say that he doesn't have the Holy Spirit. So much for divine healing and speaking in tongues. That brings us now to the... ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts. And we turn first of all to Luke chapter eleven. Luke chapter eleven and verse thirteen. Where Peter, where the Lord Jesus speaks to his disciples, he said, If ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Now, the Lord Jesus was inviting the disciples there to ask that the Holy Spirit be given to the disciples. This was under the age of law, and the Holy Spirit was not given to a believer under the mosaic economy as a permanent indweller for sanctification. The Holy Spirit came upon, or in believers in the Old Testament times, for service and left them when the service was over. And Jesus invited the disciples to ask for the person of the Holy Spirit to come and indwell them. And it appears that the disciples did not pray. that prayer. And we have the Lord Jesus in John chapter fourteen and verse sixteen saying this, I will pray the Father and he shall give you another counselor. The implication being you didn't pray, but I will pray. And Jesus prayed and prayed that the Holy Spirit might come. And he came on the day of Pentecost. And on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit entered into three new aspects of his ministry, none of which was true under the mosaic dispensation. On the day of Pentecost, three things took place. The anointing with the Spirit, the baptism by the Spirit, and the fullness of the Spirit. By the anointing with the Spirit, we mean that God the Father, in answer to the prayer of God the Son, sent the Holy Spirit to take up his permanent residence in the heart of the believer for purposes of sanctification. That took place at Pentecost, where individual believers received the Holy Spirit as a permanent indweller for sanctification. Second, the baptism by the Spirit The act of God the Holy Spirit placing these individual believers indwell by Him into vital union with Jesus Christ, thus creating the body of Christ, of which He is the head. And thus we have the Church of Jesus Christ, the mystical body of Christ formed at Pentecost. The third is the fullness of the Holy Spirit or His control over the believer. Now, in the Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit did control believers for a certain period of time for service, but He did not control them constantly through their lives. There was no process of sanctification. Old Testament believers were regenerated, they had the divine nature. But distinguish between regeneration and the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit. There are two different things. Regeneration is the act of God the Holy Spirit imparting divine life again to the human spirit of the individual, giving him the divine nature. That's one thing. But to indwell him personally, that's another. Now, we have therefore the third thing, the constant control, or the control, let's say the control of the Holy Spirit in the believer's life as a process. Those three things happen on the day of Pentecost, and they are true for this age of grace. Now, We want to take up the matter of the reception of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts. The Book of Acts is a transition book. There are things in the Book of Acts that happen in the early church that do not happen today. For instance, the reception of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts, in at least the three cases which we will point out, is different from that which is today. Every time the Jew, a Jew, let's say, in the Book of Acts receives the Holy Spirit, it is in an extraordinary, out of the ordinary way. Every time a Gentile receives the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts, it's in the ordinary way in which He, the Holy Spirit, is received today. We turn first to Acts chapter two in verse thirty-eight. It's at the close of Peter's sermon at Pentecost where he accused the Jewish nation of crucifying its Messiah. And Peter answers that question, men and brethren, what shall we do? He says, , repent. Repent of what? The national sin of crucifying the Messiah, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, because of the remission of your sins. The Greek has it very clearly, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now, the order here is repentance, which includes faith, water baptism, and then the reception of the Holy Spirit. This verse has no application whatever for today. This is dispensational. This is transitory. This fits a certain case in the boulevards here, where the Jews and the Jewish nation have prayed for it. was accused of crucifying the Messiah and the Holy Spirit was given after water baptism. That is not the case today. That brings us to the second instance in the book of Acts, chapter eight, where Philip went to preach to the Samaritans. And the Samaritans, you remember, were half Jew, half Gentile. and they had the Samaritan tentative, and they had a rival temple at Mount Garrison and did not recognize the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, and the Samaritans and the Jews had no dealings with one another. Now, some of these Samaritans were saved. And when the apostles, we read, which were in Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto him Peter and John, who when they were come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Here we have an instance in this Age of Grace where believers were saved and didn't have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was withheld from these Samaritans for the reason that had he been given, and they have been given their full salvation then, so far as this earth is concerned, the split between the Samaritan nation and the Jews might have continued in the church. And the Samaritans might have had a rival church rivaling the church of Jerusalem. Therefore, it was necessary for the Apostles to come to Samaria and receive the submission of the Samaritan Christians to the Mother Church of Jerusalem and to Christianity as a whole. Then laid their hands on them, and the laying on of hands symbolizes identification and submission. And the Holy Spirit was withheld from the Samaritans until they submitted to the apostolic authority of the church. And then the Holy Spirit was given. And they spoke in confidence. Now we come to another instance where the Holy Spirit was in not in evidence. And that is in Acts chapter nineteen. We just had it a few moments ago regarding the Jewish converts of the Baptist. And the Holy Spirit, they didn't have the Holy Spirit for the reason that he was not given in Old Testament times. And they look back, therefore, to the Messiah who died on Calvary's cross and received the Holy Spirit. Now, we don't have those instances in the church today. That brings us to the place where the Gentiles received the Spirit, and we turn to Acts chapter ten in verse forty-four. And there we read, While Peter yet spake these words, The Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. This is the normal order for this age of grace, namely the immediate reception of the Holy Spirit the moment a person puts his faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. So we've had that matter of the reception of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts and found that every time a Jew receives the Holy Spirit, it is in an extraordinary, out of the ordinary way, which is not true in this age of grace now. And that when the Gentiles received him, it was an immediate reception in answer to their faith in Jesus Christ. One more thing we want to take up, and that is this. As we read the Book of Acts, we seem to see in the standard translations what is called a repeated filling of the Holy Spirit and many fillings of the Holy Spirit. I want to take you to some passages now and submit to you that they are not repeated fillings of the Holy Spirit, but that the language there describes the normal condition of the saint in the Book of Acts. For instance, we have a certain company filled with the Spirit here on one day, and then a few days after, a little time after, they asked it to be filled. Now that's not a repeated filling. If that were so, then the time elapsing between the first filling and the second filling During that time, those individuals were not controlled by the Holy Spirit and were controlled by the evil nature, which is not true. We turn to Acts chapter two and verse four. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost. That is, they were all controlled by the Holy Ghost. The word fullness, when infused of the Holy Spirit there, means the control. And we turn to Acts chapter four and verse eight. Then Peter, controlled by the Holy Ghost, said unto them, And verse thirty-one of the same chapter, when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all controlled by the Holy Ghost. Now they were not controlled by the Holy Ghost because they prayed. How could they pray if they were not controlled by the Holy Ghost? That's a description of the normal condition of the saint in the early church, controlled moment by moment by the Holy Spirit. We turn to Acts chapter six and verse five. We read in the same, please the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and controlled by the Holy Ghost. That's the normal condition of the saints. Should be. Not a repeated filling. Chapter thirteen and verse nine for a moment. Then Paul, who was also called, then Saul, who also was called Paul, controlled by the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him. And then , and the disciples were filled with joy and controlled by the Holy Ghost, which means that instead of saying one baptism in many fillings, we should say one baptism and his constant control, namely the control of the Holy Spirit over the yielded believer. The only thing that will keep the constant control of the Holy Spirit is sin in the light. And when there's sin in the light, the evil nature controls. But the normal, healthy Christian life is one in which the normal condition is in the control of the Holy Spirit. Thus we have our three subjects this morning, divine healing, speaking in tongues, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts.