The devil best kept secret
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 7 viewsNotes
Transcript
There are three things that fire does:
(1) It warms;
(2) It lights;
(3) It cleanses.
So the Holy Spirit brings to the human heart that receives Him warmth, illumination, and cleansing from all sin.
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
There are three things that fire does:
(1) It warms;
(2) It lights;
(3) It cleanses.
So the Holy Spirit brings to the human heart that receives Him warmth, illumination, and cleansing from all sin.
What was the purpose of the supernatural combination of sound and sight, of wind and fire?
The parallel with what took place on Mount Sinai in connection with the giving of the Law is very instructive.
And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
“Fire like wind was symbolic of the divine Presence”.
“Wind (2) and fire (3) were an accepted symbolism for the powerful and cleansing operation of God’s Spirit.”
That is, when the Holy Spirit fills the believer’s heart He gives both power and purity.
No person can have one without the other.
To receive the Holy Spirit in His fullness is to experience both simultaneously.
What was the purpose of the supernatural combination of sound and sight, of wind and fire?
The parallel with what took place on Mount Sinai in connection with the giving of the Law is very instructive. We read that “there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud … And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly”
At Pentecost. The dispensation of the Holy Spirit was being inaugurated. The disciples must be alert and alive to what was taking place. The symbols of wind and fire would help them to understand the significance of what happened.
But these, together with the speaking in tongues, were but the accompaniments of Pentecost.
That the infilling of the Holy Spirit cleansed the hearts of the disciples.
And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
These two things—the filling of the Spirit and the cleansing of the heart—are thus equated (or at least asserted to be simultaneous).
Early reference to speaking in tongues
For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.
In the law it is written, 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.
Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,
There is no record of what his pray was, maybe because it was a heavenly language.