This sermon was preached at the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log, GA on Sunday, August 26th, 2012 by Rev. Paul Mims.

Acts 1:4-5
We at Cornerstone have been blessed as much as any church in a building program could be blessed. We have held the special services of DEDICATION DAY and PRAISE SUNDAY. Basically, all of this had to do with our gratitude for the building. We have worked hard to get everything just right in the building and also to beautify the grounds. But now the emphasis needs to shift away from these physical concerns and focus on the spiritual mission that the Lord has given to us. The same strength and enthusiasm with which we have done the physical things is not adequate for the spiritual mission of being the church that our Lord wants us to be. What Jesus said to the disciples as he was preparing to ascend back to the Father was that another event in the timetable of God was about to happen. The big events in Scripture are the creation, the forming of the nation of Israel, the birth of Christ, and now the coming of the Holy Spirit to permanently indwell believers for the purpose of establishing the Kingdom of God through the indwelt church. The coming of the Holy Spirit was a one-time event and Jesus instructed the church to wait for it to happen before they tried to establish the Kingdom without him. Jesus called it a “baptism.” “For as John baptized with water” to prepare the people for the coming of Messiah, now they would be immersed in the Spirit who would “indwell them,” fill them,” and “anoint them” for service. That is what is required of us.

I. WE MUST WAIT UNTIL WE ARE INDWELT BY THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR WE CANNOT DO THIS WORK IN OUR OWN STRENGTH. Jesus said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.” (Acts 1:8)

When and how does the Holy Spirit come on a person today? Is there another Pentecost? No, that was a one-time event like the birth of Christ was a one-time event. Is the experience of the Pentecost event to be typical of us today? Yes, it is in the same result, but not in the same manner. The same result is that we are indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit, but most people do not speak in a way that people who do not know English can hear what we say in their own language. Cloven tongues of fire do not sit above our heads. A violent sound of wind does not fill our rooms. Luke described it like this: “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” (Acts 2:2-4).

How then does the Holy Spirit come on us today? He comes to indwell us at the time of our conversion to Christ. Our sin is forgiven, we are born again in that our spirit comes alive to the Spirit of God, and we are given a salvation love gift as described in Romans 5:5 “…God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

Do people try to do the Lord’s work who are not even converted? Yes, Judas did. The latter part of Acts 1 recounts the disaster of Judas and the replacement of him as an apostle with Matthias. John Wesley tried to serve the Lord without being converted. Sometimes we hear of ministers and church leaders who have never been saved.

Shawn Barr writes of Wesley’s conversion: “If anyone should have been confident about their “religion” it was Wesley. After all, he had been a missionary to the Indians; he was an Anglican priest; he had done open air evangelism; he had been involved in prison ministry. He was an Oxford scholar. His personal spiritual habits included reading the Bible and regular prayer. He was sensitive to sin and tried to do what was right and holy.

However, none of these activities or positions had given him peace about his own destiny. Was he right with God? Was he saved? Was he going to heaven? All of these questions plagued him. He had spent considerable time praying, studying the Bible and reading various books during his dilemma. He had sought counsel from other preachers and friends. All to no avail.

On a now historic night he was invited to a meeting where all of this changed:
That evening he reluctantly attended a meeting in Aldersgate. Someone read from Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to Romans. About 8:45 p.m. “while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” (excerpt from http://www.umcworship.org).

After this night Wesley’s doubts faded. He had peace about his destiny and salvation. Although he might have experienced some doubt’s later, his writing and speaking was never again full of agony about this issue.

Notice from his own words what brought this peace, “…I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins,…” It was faith in Christ that brought an end to Wesley’s doubts. Notice that is wasn’t his religious activity. It wasn’t his:

• Missionary service
• Pastoral position
• Service for God
• Or Oxford Scholarship
His conversion also sounds different from some of the calls for salvation we hear today…
• “Get right with God”
• “Ask Jesus into your heart”
• “Give your life to Jesus”
• “Give your heart to Jesus”
• “Come forward and pray to get saved”
• “Turn your life over to God”
• “Confess all your sins”
• “Join the church”
• “Get the second blessing”
Wesley doesn’t indicate any of these things were a part of his salvation or assurance. In fact, he had done many of these! But they didn’t bring him peace. Only the firm confidence and belief that Christ had paid for his sins did.

Not much has changed in almost 300 years. In fact, it hasn’t changed since the time of Christ or even before. Salvation comes from faith in Christ not from being religious, moral, or working for brownie points with God.

Jesus sums it up best:

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.” John 6:47”
Do genuine believers try to do the Lord’s work in their own strength? Absolutely! Dr. Carl Bates, who was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Charlotte speaking at our Pastor’s conference said, “If the Holy Spirit were removed from many of our churches, ninety per cent of the work would go on as usual.” He was saying that this is the cause for many churches being filled with dissention because some people want their own way and are not led by the Holy Spirit in what they do. Dr. Bates indicated that such stymies the progress of the kingdom, harms the reputation of the church, and causes the church to be more like a club than the people of God. Such are the results when we try to do the Lord’s work in our own wisdom and strength.

II. WE MUST WAIT UNTIL WE ARE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT BEFORE DOING THE WORK OF THE KINGDOM. “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to proclaim God’s message with boldness.” (Acts 4:31b).

The word “filled” means to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. It means to have an extra ordinary strength above your own and a desire to do God’s work in the way that he directs. Practically, how does that work out in the local congregation?

For the Pastor – it means trusting what the Holy Spirit says to him about leading the congregation and trusting the congregation about what the Spirit says to them about what the church should be doing. A major concern for me is receiving from the Lord the message that I am to give to you as we worship and being as John said, “On the Lord’s day, I was in the Spirit…” (Revelation 1:10).

For our Teachers – it means being filled with the Spirit to study the scriptures with diligence and teach it clearly to others.
For our Givers – it means to joyfully give our tithes and offerings for the Lord’s work.
For our Church Elected Workers – it means to freely give of our time as we daily submit ourselves to the authority of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
For our Soul Winners-it means to be directed to the persons that we should speak to about their relationship to the Lord.
For our Encouragers – In the power of the Spirit they encourage those who are discouraged and carry heavy burdens and are not strong spiritually.
How are we to wait to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Here are some practical things to do in your private time of devotional each day:

1. Affirm yourself in Christ as his disciple. Focus on the truth of the Holy Spirit indwelling you. Hunger for his power in your life.
2. Quiet yourself before the Lord and listen for what He will say to you.
3. Face the truth about yourself. Examine anything that is not Christ-like in you. Determine to change any secret rancor or bitterness in you and ask for forgiveness.
4. Put yourself under the control of the Holy Spirit’s agenda, timetable, and purpose for you in service.
5. Understand that waiting does not mean doing nothing, but becoming while you are serving your Lord.

A.B. Simpson wrote: “There are some spiritual conditions that cannot be accomplished in a moment. The breaking up of fallow ground takes time. The frosts of winter are as necessary as the rains of spring to prepare the soil for fertility. God has to break our hearts to pieces by the slow process of his discipline, and grind every particle to power, and then to mellow us and saturate us with his blessed Spirit, until we are open for the blessing he has to give us.”

Being “baptized in the Holy Spirit” is a one-time experience at the time of our conversion. Being “filled” is a continuing power from our conversion or a repeated and regained experience as we see from the following scriptures:

Acts 2:4 “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit…”
Acts 4:8 “Then, Peter filled with the Holy Spirit…”
Acts 4:31 “…they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”
Acts 6:5 “They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 9:17 “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 11:24 “(Barnabas) He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.”
Acts 13:9 “…Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit said…”
Ephesians 5:18 “…Be filled with the Spirit…”
This is a command that is binding on all Christians to be continuously filled with the Holy Spirit.” There is one baptism, but many fillings.

These people in the early church were not super Christians. They were people just like us with warts and all. But they were individuals who submitted themselves to the Lord and were used to begin the spread of the Gospel over the then known world.

There is a third experience that we must have with the Holy Spirit.

III. WE MUST WAIT UNTIL WE HAVE A SPECIAL ANOINTING FOR SOME TYPES OF SERVICE.

This generally has to do with our spiritual gifts. Every believer has one or more spiritual gifts to use in the service of the Kingdom. Just as David was set aside to be King of Israel and anointed by Samuel, we are set aside by our individual calls to perform what we are gifted to do. Discover your gift and receive from the Lord an anointing of the Spirit for the task. On Sunday mornings I ask the Lord for an anointing of his Spirit for preaching and for the day’s events.

In preparation for this message I read again Billy Graham’s book, THE HOLY SPIRIT – ACTIVATING GOD’S POWER IN YOUR LIFE. He tells of an interesting experience of “anointing” before a crusade.

“We sailed for England in 1954 for a crusade that was to last for three months. While on the ship, I experienced a definite sense of oppression. Satan seemed to have assembled a formidable array of his artillery against me. Not only was I oppressed, I was overtaken by a sense of depression, accompanied by a frightening feeling of inadequacy for the task that lay ahead. Almost night and day I prayed. I knew in a new way what Paul was telling us about “praying without ceasing.” Then one day in a prayer meeting with my wife and colleagues, a break came. As I wept before the Lord, I was filled with a deep assurance that power belonged to God and that he was faithful. I had been baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ when I was saved, but I believe that God gave me a special anointing on the way to England. From that moment on I was confident that God the Holy Spirit was in control for the task of the 1954 Crusade in London. That proved true.

Experiences of this kind had happened to me before, and they have happened to me many times since. Sometimes no tears were shed. Sometimes as I have lain awake at night the quiet assurance has come that I was being filled with the Spirit for the task that lay ahead.

However there have been many more occasions when I would have to say as the apostle Paul did in I Corinthians 2:3 “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.” Frequently various members of my team have assured me that when I have had the least liberty in preaching, or the greatest feeling of failure, God’s power has been most evident.” (page102).

I call on the members of Cornerstone to examine your salvation and determine that you have been baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ – to examine your daily walk with the Lord and determine that you are “filled with the Holy Spirit” – and if you are a worker in the church to ask God for a special “anointing” for the task that the church has assigned to you. If we all do this we will have the spiritual power to accomplish our mission.

PRAISE BE TO HIS NAME!