Chapter 19, Acts chapter 19, we're actually finishing a message that we started last Wednesday night, and I'll review a little bit from last Wednesday evening. And our Wednesday night message is right now we're going through the life of Paul, and we are well on our way. We are on his third missionary journey. And at the end of Chapter 18, he completed his second missionary journey with a visit to Jerusalem, and then he had a break as he went back to Antioch to his sending church and reported there, and it says in verse 23 of chapter 18 that he spent some time there, but then he began a third journey. couldn't be satisfied to stay in Antioch. God had called him to that mission's ministry. And so he went out again and embarked on his third missionary journey. And most of the time was spent in Ephesus. And that's where we'll begin looking at his work in Ephesus tonight. He had stopped there on his second missionary journey, and he spent just a brief time there and preached in the synagogue to the Jews. He was well-received, and they asked him to stay longer, and he said, well, I'm going to be in Jerusalem for the feast, but I'll come back, Lord willing. And so the Lord opened the door for him to go back. But before he did that, and this is where we kind of focus last Wednesday evening, he went back and visited the previous churches that he had planted. It says in verse 23 of Acts 18 that he departed and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples. And so we noted last Wednesday evening that he was strengthening the church. He went in order, it says there in verse 23. He just went church by church and spent some time there and strengthened them, helped them to be established in their faith and answering questions that they had, dealing with problems that they had, making sure they weren't being led astray by false teaching or getting off into sinful lifestyles and just helping to establish the believers in those churches. But he also, and it doesn't tell us this in verse 23 of Acts 18, but from looking at what he wrote to other churches during this third journey, he also helped the churches the church in Jerusalem, succoring the church, strengthening the churches that he had established, succoring the church at Jerusalem. On this third missionary journey, he wrote 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans. And as he's writing to the Galatian church in Galatians 2 and verse 10, noted that when he had been to Jerusalem and they had acknowledged the fact that God had called him to be the missionary to the Gentiles, that they said, be sure to remember the poor. And Paul said, I did that. And so as he had seen the poverty of the Jerusalem church, when he had gone back at the end of his second journey, As he went out on his third journey, he raised funds to relieve the needs of the Jerusalem church. And so in 1 Corinthians 16 and verse one, he talks about the fact that he had given order to the churches of Galatia about receiving that offering. He wrote to the Roman church that the churches of Macedonia and Achaia were participating in that offering. He wrote in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 very extensively about that offering and about principles for giving in those two chapters. And so Paul was burdened to help the church of Jerusalem in its need, and it just reminds us that, you know, we talked about strengthening the church, that we all have some part in strengthening the church, though everybody's not called to be the pastor, and to work in that way, but there are ways that God has called all of us to be involved in strengthening the church, and that we ought to, as we have opportunity and see a real need, we ought to be willing to give to help those in need, those who are poor. John writes in his first epistle that we're to love not just in word, but in deed and in truth, and if we see a brother or sister in need, and we have the means to relieve that need, that we're not really loving like Christ if we don't do all that we can to meet that need. So those are things that Paul had done and was doing as he's on this journey, but he's also starting a church at Ephesus. Paul had left Priscilla and Aquila at Ephesus on a second journey. You see that in chapter 18 and verse 19, that he came to Ephesus and he left them there, that is Aquila and Priscilla, and then he went into the synagogue again, briefly preached there, and then went on his way. And they were making disciples. Aquila and Priscilla, they were not preachers, they were tent makers. They were a faithful couple who loved the Lord and served the Lord. They had abilities as teachers, but they weren't called to preach or to that ministry of the word. But nonetheless, they were involved in witnessing and leading others to Christ. So that we read in the end of chapter 18 about a man named Apollos, and they instructed him more, further about the Lord Jesus Christ, expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly, verse 26 of chapter 18 says, because he didn't have a full understanding of all that was involved in Christ's coming. But it says that when he was disposed, verse 27 of Acts 18, when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, and when we read Achaia, we automatically think of what? When you read Achaia, you think of, Corinth. When you read Macedonia, you think of what? Philippi and Thessalonica and Berea. There you go. Good. So, Apollos is going into Achaia. He's going to go to Corinth. But it says, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him. So there's brethren in Ephesus. Paul has left Priscilla and Aquila there. People have gotten saved. There are believers in Ephesus. But it really isn't until Paul arrives that the church takes off because God had called Paul to be the preacher, to be the missionary. And so as he comes, the Lord works through Paul and the church really is established. But the first thing that we read about in chapter 19 is that as Paul comes to Ephesus, he finds certain disciples and he says to them, have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, What then were you baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. And then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they spake with tongues and prophesied, and all the men were about twelve. So Paul encounters these twelve the disciples of John the Baptist, they were followers of John. They didn't know about Christ, or they didn't know of the work of Christ. And when John was preaching and baptizing, he told about Christ. He told about the one that was coming after him, whose shoes he was not worthy to lace, that Christ was coming, that Jesus was the Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world. So his disciples knew that Jesus was coming, but these men had evidently missed out on Jesus. They knew John's preaching, but they didn't know about Jesus, or they didn't know fully about Jesus, and so Paul preached Christ to them. They believed on him and were baptized in the name of Jesus, and they received the Holy Spirit as evidenced by their speaking in tongues and prophesying. So, you know, I just want to focus in on this part of Acts 19 and Paul's ministry in Ephesus tonight. And then we'll move on to the other work that Paul did there and the establishing of the church. But this is where it begins for Paul on this third journey with these 12 men. So what do we learn as we think about what happened with them? What can we learn? that will be a help to us. And one of the things that we need to understand is that Christless religion doesn't save. because they were followers of John the Baptist, but they had not heard of Christ, or they didn't know fully about Christ. There's some debate when you read the commentaries, there's some debate, were these men saved or were they not? They're called disciples, and Paul asks them, did you receive the Holy Ghost since you believed? And so there are some that say, well, they're called disciples, and Paul talks about them believing, And so they must have been saved and he just sent and received the Holy Spirit, but they didn't know about Christ or didn't know fully about Christ. So there are others, and I'm of this opinion, that they're not believers, that they were followers of John the Baptist, they knew his preaching, but they had never really come to grips with Jesus Christ and his death on the cross for them and his resurrection. They hadn't heard that part of the message. So they had believed the message that they had received, but they hadn't received enough message in order to be saved. And so, you know, as they were baptized by John, John's baptism was an acknowledgment of sin. He repent and be baptized for the remission of sin, repent and be baptized and looking forward to the coming of Christ. But as as those who heard John's message and acknowledge their sin, when they were baptized, they were acknowledging the fact that they were sinners before God and they were turning from their sin. But all of that was in preparation for receiving Jesus Christ, because, again, John is the one preparing the way for the coming of And so even as they're baptized, their baptism is an indication of, it's that public testimony that they had turned from their sins, that they were wanting to live for God, and then when they were introduced to Jesus, they were to embrace Jesus Christ as Savior. And so it was good as far as it went, but it was limited in value. John's baptism was limited in value if it wasn't followed by the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior. And as you think about that, put it this way, acknowledging that we are sinners and even seeking to live a more holy life is not salvation. It is religion, or as we've often said, use the term reformation. God is not looking for just the turning over of a new leaf. Even acknowledging that I've been wrong, I've been doing wrong. and I need to do better and I need to change. But if there's no acknowledgement that I have sinned against God. that the change that is needed, yes, change is needed. I need to live for God. I need to live right as God would have me to live. But I have to acknowledge that my sin is an offense to God, that I have sinned against God, that I need his forgiveness. And as I receive his forgiveness, then I go out to live in a new life. As I receive his salvation, I go out and live in a new life. But just even admitting I am a sinner and I need to do better. I need to live a more holy life. I need to live better. That's not salvation, that's just reformation, turning over a new leaf. And there's a lot of people that, even sometimes, we've talked about this recently in a Sunday morning message, I think maybe a couple weeks ago, as we were just mentioning this, that sometimes we get into sin, and we suffer the consequences, and we think, you know, this is bad, and I need to change. But repentance isn't just, again, just changing. It is acknowledging my sin and asking God's forgiveness, and then going out to live differently. That confession comes before the change. The change is a result of the confession. Repentance begins with confession. And David, you go back to this 51st Psalm, and just go ahead and turn back there for a moment. And the 51st Psalm is David's Psalm of, confession of his sin of adultery and murder. But in verse 16, David says, For thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering. Essentially, what David is saying is, Lord, I've sinned, and you're not asking me to make up for my sin somehow, to do something better. to somehow pay for my sin. That's essentially what David is saying. Lord, if it was a sacrifice, if you wanted me to do something, and again, sometimes when we sin and we think, you know, this is bad and I need to do better, and I'm gonna read my Bible more, I'm gonna pray more, I'm gonna be more faithful in church, and we get the cart, as it were, ahead of the horse, we acknowledge I've done wrong and I need to change, and we begin to try and change, again, without ever taking that step of confession and dealing with God. David says, the sacrifices of God are broken spirit, are broken in the contrite heart of God, thou wilt not despise. What God wants to see is that we acknowledge our sin before him. He says that in verse three, I acknowledge my transgression, my sin is ever before me against thee, and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest. Lord, I've sinned against you. And if there was something I could do to make up for that sin, I would, but I realized there isn't. All I can do is come with a broken heart before you, humbly admitting my sin, confessing it to you, and receiving your forgiveness. And then, yes, David is gonna go out and live differently, but it's as he says in verse 10, as God creates in him a clean heart and renews a right spirit within him, that he then goes out to live a different life, a new life, the holy life that God wants. And so even that, that acknowledging of sin and that baptism that John administered was only a step towards believing in Christ. But in and of itself, it didn't save. And there are, again, a lot of people today that are religious, they've been baptized, they joined a church, they try to live a good life, and they would acknowledge some things are wrong, sinful, but they've never come to the cross. They've never come to that place of admitting their sin to God and asking His forgiveness. They're just trying to do good, live a better life, turn over a new leaf, and that's not salvation. Salvation comes only by believing in Jesus Christ as Savior. But I want to note something else here too, because not only had they missed the heart of the gospel, They were religious, but they weren't believers. But they had been baptized, but they were baptized again, because Christless baptism doesn't count. Baptism is a public testimony of our personal faith in Jesus Christ, the Savior. They had been baptized, but not in identification with Christ. They had been baptized by John's baptism and they didn't receive Christ, they didn't believe on Christ, so when Paul preached Christ to them, they believed they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. They believed and they were baptized again to identify with Jesus Christ, to testify of their faith in Jesus Christ, because that's what our baptism is, is a public decoration of our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior. And baptism always follows salvation in the New Testament. You see that over and over again, as people believe and then they are baptized. There's that pattern. I thought about my own testimony. I was baptized on my profession of faith as a five-year-old. but I did not get saved when I was five years old. But for a long time, my testimony was I had been saved when I was five years old. Of course, I've shared my testimony many times. At 12 years of age, I began to doubt my salvation, and it wasn't until I was 19, I was a sophomore at Bob Jones University, that I was truly born again. And after that, I was baptized again. I had been baptized by my profession of faith as a five-year-old, but that baptism was meaningless, because I wasn't a believer. And so I was baptized again as an indication of the fact that I had indeed believed on Jesus Christ as my Savior, and I was publicly declaring my faith in Christ. Someone illustrated it this way, and I always thought it was a good illustration. If you're not married and you wear a wedding ring, what does that signify? Nothing. But it's not until you're married that that wedding ring has meaning. Well, if you're baptized, but you're not saved, what is the significance of that? There is none. It's not until you have believed on Christ as Savior, and then you are baptized as a public declaration of your faith in Christ, that it has meaning. So until that point, it's like wearing a wedding band without being married. It has no meaning, no purpose. It looks good, but it doesn't mean anything. And baptism is public and not private. It's a public declaration of our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior. So when we have believed on Christ, then we are baptized before others as a declaration to them of our faith in Christ. When we were in Mississippi and a man in our church got saved and he wanted to be baptized in his farm pond at his camp house. And he asked me one day if I would baptize him out there. And what he really wanted me to do was just come out there one afternoon when he was out there working, hey, let's just stop to go out in the pond and baptize me and I'll have it done. Well, I told him, I said, I'm willing to baptize you in your farm farm, that's fine. But I said, not just you and me. I said, we'll gather the church, and we'll come out there to your camp house, and I'll baptize you. And that's what we did one Sunday afternoon, right shortly after that. We had Sunday morning service, and then everybody went and got a bite to eat, and then we gathered back at his camp house, and we went down there, and he and I went down into his pond. The church gathered around the banks of the pond, and we went out there, and I baptized him, and the whole church was there. And it was a public declaration of his faith in Christ as his savior. And it always should be that way, that it is a public thing, not a private thing, but a public thing, because that's really what it's all about, a public declaration of our faith in Christ. And so as they heard the message of Christ and they believed on him, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and then they received the Holy Spirit. which was, again, signified by, in their case, speaking in tongues and prophesying. In the book of Acts, there were times when the Holy Spirit's coming on believers was delayed, and this is one of those times, but that is not the norm, and this is the last time that occurs. Because Paul is very clear, and again, he wrote the book of Romans on this journey, But Paul wrote in Romans chapter eight and verse nine, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Paul was very clear that the Holy Spirit enters our heart the moment that we trust Christ as Savior. So we believe on Christ as Savior, the first act of obedience, as it tells us in the Great Commission, is to follow Christ in public baptism, and the Holy Spirit comes upon us, and then our life is changed. In Romans 8, 16, Paul wrote, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. If we've truly been born again, the Holy Spirit has come to indwell us and he makes a difference. We know that the Holy Spirit is there. He bears witness with our spirit that we are indeed the children of God. There is evidence that the Spirit indwells us. And if there's no evidence of the Spirit's presence in our lives, there is reason to question, were we ever really born again? Because the Spirit enters the moment we trust Christ as Savior. Paul wrote to the Ephesians in chapter 1, verses 13 and 14, he said, In whom you also trusted, that is, you trusted in Christ, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of his glory. That verse, the Holy Spirit, is pictured kind of like the engagement ring. that a man might give to a woman when he asks her to marry him, and she says yes, and he gives her a ring, and that ring is the earnest. It's his way of saying to her, I am going to follow through on this, I am going to marry you. You don't hear about it much anymore, but in old days, in America, if a man didn't follow through, he could be sued for breach of promise. You promised to marry me, and then you didn't do it, you backed out, and he could be sued for breach of promise. That engagement ring and the promise that went with it indicated there really was gonna be a wedding, that this guy was gonna follow through. Well, Christ gave us a Holy Spirit as like the down payment or the acknowledgement that, hey, indeed, he's going to give us a full salvation, that he is going not only to redeem our soul, but redeem our bodies, and we are going to dwell with him forever in glorified bodies in heaven. And the presence of the Holy Spirit in our life is the promise that God is going to give us everything that he's promised us in salvation. But when the Holy Spirit comes in, There's evidence, and he comes in, again, when we're saved, and we see that in Annax chapter 10, if you go back there, and you don't need to turn necessarily, but if you're familiar with the story in Peter's life, when he's preaching the gospel in the home of Cornelius, God has had to teach him that the Gentiles were not unclean, that God was doing a new work, and he was receiving the Gentiles as well as the Jews. And so Peter goes and preaches to Cornelius and his household, and it says, while Peter yet spake these words, preaching the gospel, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word, and they of the circumcision which believed were astonished as many came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. They had believed on Christ, as evidenced by the fact the Holy Spirit had come upon them just like it had on Peter and the others on the day of Pentecost. And they knew that because they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. And so then Peter answered, can any forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. And then they asked him, they prayed him to tarry certain days. But the moment they believed, they received the Holy Spirit. And because God was doing a new work, he gave evidence of that through their speaking in tongues. But the moment they believed, the Holy Spirit entered into their heart One writer said that in this case, in these 12 disciples of John that believed on Christ and were baptized and received the Holy Spirit, that by using Paul to convey the gift of the Holy Spirit to them, God affirmed Paul's apostolic authority and united the Ephesian church to the other churches, as well as to the mother church, quote unquote, in Jerusalem. What God did through Paul for these 12 men was not normative for the church today. How do we know? Because it was not repeated. The people who were converted in Ephesus under Paul's ministry all received the gift of the Holy Spirit when they trusted the Savior. And Paul makes this clear in Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, and this is the pattern for us today. But God was doing a special work in withholding the Spirit until Paul laid hands on these men and they received the Holy Spirit. And then again, there was evidence of the Spirit entering into their lives because they spake with tongues and they prophesied. So as we believe on Christ, the Holy Spirit indwells us, and it makes a difference in our lives. There are many ways in which the Spirit evidences, manifests His presence. One is in the ability that He gives us to serve the Lord. He gives us gifts, supernatural abilities to serve God. Peter wrote in 1 Peter 4, 10 and 11, as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. God gives us the gifts and the ability to use those gifts. He said, if you minister, do it as of the ability, the power that God gives. that as God gives the gifts, he also empowers those gifts to be effective in ministering to others and being a blessing and making a difference in the lives of others. But it's the Spirit of God that gives the gifts and the Spirit of God that empowers those gifts. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, there are diversities of gifts with the same Spirit. There's one Holy Spirit who gives different gifts to different people. You know, I was thinking about some folks in church and, you know, the blessing that people can be, and sometimes we think about an individual and they really are a blessing to us in our ministry, or maybe it's a couple or somebody, or a family, and you say, man, I wish I had a church full of people just like them. But that's not the way God planned it. God didn't want to church full of people just like anybody. Yeah, the zeal to serve the Lord, yes. But God doesn't, we're not all cookie cutters. We're all different. We have different personalities, we have different temperaments, and we have different gifts. And God ordained it that way. God made it that way. The Holy Spirit has given each of us different gifts. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord, how we use those gifts. There is one Lord who is directing us as the Spirit has given us those gifts, the Lord directs us in how we use those gifts, what ministries we get involved in. And there are diversities of operations, but it's the same God which worketh all in all. There's different effects as we use our gifts. There are different effects of the working of that gift, but God is the one who does the work. And it's all of God. But that's what happens when the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us. God's Spirit enters into us, and he gives us gifts to use in God's work, and he empowers those gifts to make them effective in the lives of others. Jonathan Goforth was a missionary to China, and I think it was in the early 1900s, God used him as a preacher. God brought about revival in the churches in China and the church in Manchuria, and he was the evangelist that God used to do that. But he had been studying the Holy Spirit in his own personal devotions. And God was teaching him things about the Holy Spirit. And he understood the fullness, the filling of the Holy Spirit. And he went out and preached those messages on the Holy Spirit in those revival meetings. But he also tried to live out the lessons, the truths that he learned and teach it to the church. And the result of that was that the spirit of God took over the churches there in China, Manchuria, and there was revival. People were confessing sin and getting right with God and getting right with one another, and there was just a tremendous work of revival that God did, but it was the Spirit of God. He wrote a book about it, and he entitled the book, By My Spirit, based on Zechariah 4 and verse 6, where the Lord said to Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. And you know, the reality is that if we have truly been born again, the Holy Spirit indwells us, he's given us gifts, but our lives ought to be making a difference in the lives of others. As we exercise the gifts that God has given to us, as we walk with God, and as we talked about that overflow of my own personal walk with God, the Spirit of God indwelling me and filling my heart, with God and then that overflows from me into others. Our lives ought to be impacting others and making a difference in their lives because of the Holy Spirit that indwells us. He changes our character. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. That's all a work that the Holy Spirit does within us. Those characteristics are not things that, all right, now I'm saved, so I need to be more loving and longsuffering. faithful, and so on and so forth, and I'm just gonna make up my mind to do those things. No, it's the Spirit of God. Yes, I have to understand that I'm not those ways, and that the Spirit wants to make me that way, and I cooperate with the Spirit of God, but it's the Spirit of God that ultimately changes us. It's not just what we do, it's what the Spirit of God does in us. As Paul wrote, again, to the Corinthian church, we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into that same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. The Lord's Spirit is the one that does the changing. I think it was Alexander McLaren, the old Scottish preacher, who was talking about the power of God. And he noted the fact that so often we talk about the power of God in our service, in our work, in our serving the Lord, but he said power for service is second, power for holy living is first. He said we need the power of the Holy Spirit to make us holy first, and then to make us useful and helpful to others as we serve the Lord. And not only does he, give us the ability to serve and empowers our service. Not only does he change our character, but he changes our conduct. Ephesians 5.18, we're commanded to be filled with the Spirit. As a result of that, we're thankful and we're submissive and we praise the Lord and husbands are able to love their wives and wives are able to submit to their husbands and parents are able to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and servants are able to faithfully serve their masters. All that, the changes that take place in the home, And in the heart, it's all the work of the Spirit of God. As we are filled with the Spirit, then God can work through us. He can make us thankful and make us worshipful and make us submissive and make us loving husbands and submissive wives and obedient children and faithful parents and faithful employees or employers. God's Spirit does all that. In their case, they spoke with tongues and prophesied, and those were signs that God gave that the Spirit had come. Tongues have ceased, and prophecy in the sense of God giving new revelation has ceased. But the work that the Spirit does of gifting us and empowering us and changing us, that work goes on today. And there's still evidence that the Spirit of God indwells us, and should be evidence in each of our lives, who have professed Christ as Savior, that indeed, the Spirit of God indwells us. We're not perfect. We don't always do it right. But there is something different about us, and it's a growing thing. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. It is a process by which God is making us more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me close with this illustration It was said of D.L. Moody that in the early days of his service for the Lord, he had a zeal without knowledge. He was very active in serving the Lord, but he was lacking in many ways. During that time period, by the way, that's when he was called Crazy Moody, because he was just always doing something unusual. And that was when he would just walk up to people, you know, out of the blue, are you a Christian? And sometimes, you know, it was kind of embarrassing. God used that. But he admitted later, you know, I was, my heart was right, but sometimes I was a little overzealous, zeal without knowledge. But during that time period, he wrote to his brother. He said, I'm up till 11 or 12 every night. I'm up at dawn every morning and I don't get five minutes a day to study. So I have to just talk as it happens. I don't have any time with the Lord. I'm so busy serving the Lord. I don't have any time to sit at the feet of the Lord. So I don't really have anything fresh from God. I just do what I can. But you know, That kind of service leads to burnout. That's why people burn out in ministry, because they're trying to do it in the flesh. And that was Moody. And so his spirit began to wane. So what's the answer? When you're zealously serving the Lord, and you're doing it in the flesh, and your spirit starts to lag, and you're doing it, and you know you ought to be doing this, but your heart's not in it, what do you do? Well, what Moody did is he just worked harder. But it wasn't working. But his wife, faithful, believing wife, knew what the real need was. And so she suggested they take a voyage to England. Moody had been reading some of the writings and some of the sermons of great British preacher, Spurgeon, among them. Spurgeon was his hero in the faith. And so she said, let's go to England and you can hear some of these guys, meet some of these guys. And so they did. They went to Great Britain and he heard Spurgeon numbers of times. I think he even met Spurgeon. He met George Mueller. It was there that he met the young man, Harry Morehouse, who had been a pickpocket and God had saved him. He became an evangelist. Morehouse was the one that preached for seven nights on John 3.16 at Moody's church in Chicago, and who taught Moody how to preach the Bible, because even in that period of time when it was zeal without knowledge, Moody's messages, his sermons, were more like pep talks than messages, sermons. So he met these and other spiritual giants whose names might not be as familiar to us. And it was said that it was a help, that when he came back to America, he was a different man, but he still was something missing. But God had put two elderly women in his church. They were frail in health, but they sat right on the front row every time they had church, and they would sit there. When he was preaching, they would look at him, and there was this, you know, there's just this look on their faces that said they knew something wasn't right. He knew there was still something missing. He didn't know what it was, but he knew something wasn't right. But they knew, and they would sit there, and he could look at them and know something wasn't right. So they came to him, and they told him, you're not filled with the Spirit. He reached a low point. His ministry was dying. He's trying to figure out, how can I get this thing going again? The crowds were dying off. As a matter of fact, in his thought process and all that, he said, I guess I'm going to have to start having concerts or things like that because the gospel is just not drawing. And he knew he was wrong, and he never even followed through with that, but he just had this sense, I've got to do something. This is not working. But finally, he admitted that he was the problem. It wasn't working because he wasn't right. He wasn't filled with the Spirit. He was serving in the flesh. So he began crying out to God for help. He examined his heart. He realized his motives were all wrong. He was ministering in the flesh for personal glory and not for the Lord. When the crowds were big, he was happy. When the crowds fell off a little bit, he was sad because it was all about the externals. So it was said at that time he began to study the Bible on his knees, and things began to change. And so, as he's preaching during that time, he's seeking God, he's reading and studying his Bible on his knees. Hadn't changed yet, but those little old ladies said they saw something's changing, something's different, and they said, Jehovah's dealing with you. He invited them to his house to talk to him. They prayed for him and continued to counsel him that he was lacking the Spirit's power, the filling of the Holy Spirit. It was about that time the Great Chicago Fire happened. Everything was destroyed. So Moody took his family, went to New York City. He actually went there to raise funds to build a new church. But he's still empty inside. He's still going at it, but he knows he's not. He's not right. He knows something's missing. Now he knows it's the spirit of God, the power of God's spirit, the filling of the spirit. And so one night he's walking down a street in New York and the spirit was at work in his heart and he cried out to God and he said, Oh God, why don't you compel me to walk close with the always deliver me from myself? Take absolute sway. Give me thy Holy Spirit. And at that moment the Lord did. And he said, I had to be alone. He said, there was a friend who lived nearby. He said, I went to their house and I asked him if I could have a room where I could be alone. And he went in there and he said, God did a wonderful thing in his heart that night that forever changed him. And he could hardly speak about it thereafter. He said, quote, on that night, the Lord revealed himself to me. And I had such an experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay his hand. He made my soul like an artesian well that could never run dry. And as a result, I understood what was meant when Jesus said, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. He had surrendered to God and God had filled him with his spirit. Sometime later, after he had preached in his church back in Chicago, those two little old ladies came up to him and said, now walk softly, lad, all the days of thy life. Jehovah hath dealt with thee. The spirit of God had come on his life. and ministry, and though he had been zealous and had large crowds, and God had worked through his life and ministry up to that point, it was nothing like what God did with him after that. It was after that that he went to Great Britain and preached the great revival meetings in Ireland and Wales and Scotland and then back in the U.S. All those great revival meetings that you think about when you think about the Yom Kippur, they all came after the filling of the Spirit in his life. Paul preached the gospel. These men got saved. They were baptized in the name of Christ. The Spirit of God empowered them and changed them, and they served Him. You know, we asked the question last Wednesday night as we closed, are you doing your part to strengthen the church and to help the church? But let me ask you tonight, does your life give evidence of the indwelling Spirit of God? Does your life give evidence of the power of the Spirit of God? is your character changing? Are you different? Can you look back, however long you've been saved, Look back and you can see the changes that the Spirit of God is making in you. I mean, there is more holiness there. It's not all that it needs to be, and you acknowledge that, but you know there's things that are different. There's a holiness that you have now that you didn't have when you first got saved, or after, depending on how long you've been saved, after a year or five years, or even 10 years if you've been saved longer than that. There's something different, truly different, and the only explanation is God has changed you. Are you serving God, and your life is being a blessing to others, and it's not because of you, it's because of God? And even to the attitudes of your heart, because when the Holy Spirit indwells you, He doesn't just change the externals, He changes, and it all begins in the heart. So, have you been born again? Have you believed on Jesus Christ as Savior? Have you publicly identified with Him in baptism? Does your life give evidence of the Spirit of God indwelling you? Let's stand together for prayer. Our Father, we thank you for this encounter that Paul had with these 12 men who were living up to the light they had, but they needed more light. They needed to know Christ. And as Paul faithfully preached the gospel to them, they believed. And the Holy Spirit indwelled them and their lives were changed. Father, we thank you for the reminder tonight that if we have truly been born again, the Spirit indwells us and that we ought to see that difference. Father, we know we can resist as the Spirit tries to purify our lives and empower our service. We can try to do things in the flesh. We can resist what the Spirit is trying to do in our lives. And our lives are really worthless as far as making a difference for you. And really, we're miserable. Father, maybe there's one here tonight who's trying to serve you, but they're doing it in the flesh, and they're burning out. The zeal is gone in their heart. They continue on because it's the right thing to do, but they really don't have that love for you, that motivation that comes from the Spirit of God that keeps them going. They're just gritting their teeth when they ought to be just dwelling in the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit. Father, help them to see their need to surrender to You and yield their life completely to You. And may Your Holy Spirit fill them and empower them. Father, we pray that if there is one even here tonight on this Wednesday night that doesn't know Christ as Savior, we pray that they might believe on Him. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.