ESCAPE 238

OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY

Ezekiel 36:26

26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Joel 2:28

28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

THEN IT HAPPENED

Acts 2:1-4

1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

JESUS ALSO PROPHESIED

John 7:38-39

38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

39(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.)

You do not receive the Holy Ghost automatically when you believe! It is a separate but dynamic experience that is part of the new birth!

ACTS  19:1-6

1 And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,

2 He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.

3 And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism.

4 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.

5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

6 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.

Paul found believers, but they needed their experience with God updated! Even though they had been baptized unto John’s baptism, it was not enough. They were re-baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus!

Is the Holy Ghost Necessary for Salvation? 

The baptism of the Holy Ghost is a birth of the Spirit in the experience of the believer. As breath enters the lungs of the newborn babe and they cry out, so does the Holy Ghost enter the heart of the newborn child of God and they speak with tongues.

The following facts will help us understand the place of baptism of the Holy Ghost in God’s plan of salvation:

• Jesus never left it to choice of His disciples; He commanded  them to tarry until they received.

• Jesus revealed how important it was for the Comforter to come when He said that it was expedient for Him to go away (John 16:7)

• The Apostle Peter was given the keys to the kingdom, and when he preached the gospel unlocking the door to the kingdom, he preached (a) Repentance, (b) Water Baptism in Jesus’ Name, and (c) the baptism of the holy Ghost. (John 3:5)

• The Apostle Paul wrote that we are saved “by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost (Titus 3:5).

BAPTISM

Jesus told Nicodemus…Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3)

Nicodemus asked how? I’m an old man, how am I going to be born again?

Jesus answered…That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:6)

Nicodemus…Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. (John 3:5)

     … Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; (Titus 3:5)

Jesus said…I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)

     …At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:20

Paul wrote in Galatians 3:27… For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

So how does he get in you? He gets in you through the baptism of the Holy Ghost. It takes the baptism of the water in the Name of Jesus and the baptism of the Holy Ghost. It takes both of these to put you back into God… back into the kingdom… back into the abiding with God.

SPEAKING IN TONGUES

…The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. John 3:8.

Everyone that is born of the Spirit is like the wind, you can’t see it, but you can hear it!

Thou hearest what?… Sound!

The original Greek word for sound is fo-nay’, which means – noise, voice, or sound.

Replace the word sound with fo-nay’ or language, and you have… The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the LANGUAGE thereof,and, the last verse… so is every one that is born of the Spirit.