The words to which I should like to call your attention are to be found in the thirty second verse in the fifth chapter of the book of the Acts of the Apostles. Let me read this short paragraph that runs from verse twenty nine to the end of verse thirty two.

29 Then Peter and the [other] apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged on a tree.
31 Him has God exalted with His right hand [to be] a Prince and a Saviour, so as to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
32 And we are His witnesses of these things; and [so is] also the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.

I want to deal with that last verse. Verse thirty two: And we are his witnesses of these things; and [so is] also the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.

We have here of course one of the first persecutions suffered and endured by the infant Christian church. Prior to this two of the apostles - Peter and John - had been arrested and had been put on trial, as we can read in the fourth chapter of this book. But here at this stage the entire company of the apostles had been arrested and they had been thrown into prison. This was because of the miracles that they were working, and because of their teaching.

But, as you remember from the account, they had escaped from prison in a miraculous manner and they were back again in the temple doing what they had been prohibited to do - namely to preach the gospel.

But the authorities who constituted this great council in Jerusalem, known as The Sanhedrin, sent their troops again to arrest the apostles - and here they are, they are brought once more before the council. And the charge against them is - Did we not straitly command you that you should not teach in this name? and, behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.

Then Peter answers for the entire company of the apostles in those words that I have just read to you. In other words, what we have here is the Christian church fighting for her life. The Christian Church - questioned, queried, attacked, condemned, and persecuted by the world. And here she is fighting for her message and her truth - fighting for her very existence. And this is of importance to us obviously, because it is clear that again we are returning more and more to conditions comparable to those which obtained during these early days of the Christian church.

The church is once more fighting for her life. There is no question about this - statistics demonstrate it and prove it. And we are all familiar, alas, with the sad declension in the religious life in this country especially since the last world war. And there are those who are prophesying and predicting the end of Christianity. "Certainly" they say "the end of Christianity as we have known it."

And we are in a deteriorating situation. So there is nothing that is more important for those of us who are concerned about these things. All of us who are Christian. And we will know that there is no other hope for all the multiplying problems of humanity. No hope whatsoever, apart from this gospel! So nothing could or should be of greater concern to us than to know how we are to conduct and to comport ourselves at a time such as this - with all that we stand for being attacked so powerfully in almost every direction. What can we do? What's our duty at a time such as this?

Well I am calling your attention to this incident because it seems to me that here is the perfect pattern and the perfect example. Let us forget that we are living in now - that is one of the most irrelevant factors of all - which century we live in - it doesn't make the slightest difference. The church was fighting for her life in the FIRST century and has had to do so many and many a time in her long and chequered history.

So there is nothing new about the position which we are confronting. That is the basic fallacy - to think that we are confronting with a new situation that nobody has ever know before - it's sheer nonsense - if we have nothing but this one paragraph, we have a sufficient answer to this foolish notion that because we are people of this century, we have a novel situation and we need some new answers to our problems.

No! No! In this respect as in so many others there is nothing new under the sun! So the essence of wisdom, as I say, is to go back to the history. There is no need to try and discover some new message or some new method. Let us find out how the church succeeded at the very beginning - and you will find, if you read the subsequent history of the church, that the same has happened on many and many an occasion.

There have been dark eras in the history of the church. There have been periods when the gospel was virtually obliterated - hidden entirely out of sight - and everything seemed to be finished, but again something happened and the church went on to a new and a mighty period of work and of success. So I say that it is sheer wisdom to do this, because this is what we have to do in our day and generation - as these people did it and as it has been done, as I say, so many times subsequent to this.

Well now it's clear you see that there are two things that are emphasised here. There are two things that we have got to bear in our minds as Christian people - as members of the church - as we confront this appalling situation that is facing us. There are to be two elements if you like in our strategy - in what we think.

What are they? Well the first is this ... ‘And we are his witnesses of these things.’ The apostolic message - the truth! But not only that ... and so is also ... also! ... the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him. Here are the TWO elements that are essential to our success - the two elements that are most essential to us at the present time in meeting this menacing situation. And I want to emphasise this very much! Our danger always is to emphasise one or the other of these two elements - and to fail to realise that the "TWO" are essential.

What I mean is this - there are some friends at the present time witnessing what is happening in the churches and the world, and they say, "There is only one thing necessary and that is that we should have an orthodox message, that we should know what the truth is. What is needed," they say, "is reformation!" And they say that, "Nothing else is needed! The only thing that is necessary is that the preachers, and others, should come back to the New Testament unadulterated truth, should believe it and preach it and proclaim it!" "That is all," they say, "we need! All we need is to declare the truth!" And they stop at that - we are his witnesses of these things; the apostolic witness.

But then you see there are other friends and they go to another extreme - they say, "No! One thing only is necessary!" What is that? "It is the witness of the Holy Spirit!" Now these people who belong to the second group, they say, "It doesn't matter very much what you believe - there are men who are very uncertain about many of the doctrines - there are men who disagree about foundational doctrines - but it does not matter," they say, "If a man has had an experience of the Holy Spirit, nothing else matters."

So they are telling us that it does not matter whether we are Roman Catholics or Protestants - it does not matter how liberal we are in our attitude to the scriptures - and to many other doctrines - as long as we have got the witness of the Spirit, nothing else matters at all!"

Now you are familiar with these two groups and this is something that has tended to happen so frequently in the long story of the church. People put their emphasis entirely on the one or else on the other. And so you see they become unscriptural.

Well the scripture tells us that BOTH are necessary - we are His witnesses of these things; and so is also ... also! ... the Holy Spirit. We must have orthodoxy - we must have truth - we must come back to the apostolic message - but THAT alone is not enough! There is another witness - it is as if Peter was saying here, and indeed this IS what he was saying - he said, "Here you are. I have just given you our witness, and we have done it before and you are familiar with it. That is OUR witness, but if you do not accept that," says Peter, "look at this OTHER witness, this ALSO, this ADDITIONAL witness, this FURTHER witness, listen to THAT witness - the witness of the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him."

Now to me this is such a vital and all important matter that I must give proof of what I am saying from the scriptures themselves. And my dear friends - we are to be scriptural! We are not to act in terms of what WE think is right or best - we are to be governed by the scripture. So let me demonstrate my point that the TWO witnesses are essential! That orthodoxy alone - while it is essential - is not enough! And the witness of the Spirit alone - is not enough! You MUST have the TWO together!

Now let me give you the proof of what I am saying. And I go for my first proof to our blessed Lord Himself! The Lord Jesus Christ! He Who is the Son of God - come into this world - and we know all that was so true of Him!

But do you remember that when He set out on His public ministry at the age of thirty, something happened to Him? He IS the Son of God in all the fulness of that meaning. But before He entered on His ministry - something happened to Him! You will remember that He went to John the Baptist to be baptised in the river Jordan. That after John had remonstrated, our Lord persuaded John to baptise Him and he did so.

But the important thing is what happened after that. The accounts vary a little bit in their emphasis - either whilst He was still standing in the Jordan - or else coming out of it - The Holy Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove - and a voice came from heaven saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’

Now before even the Son of God could do His mediatorial saving work as a man in this world - it was essential that the Holy Spirit should come on Him in this mighty manner. And so you will remember that what we read at the beginning of the fourth chapter of the gospel according to Saint Luke is this: ‘And Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.............. where He was tempted, you will remember, for forty days.

Then after that I read in verse fourteen on, ‘And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and there went out a fame of Him through all the region round about. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And they handed Him a scroll of the prophet Isaiah and He began to read and these are the words that He read: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor ............etc. etc. etc.’

And then when He had handed the scroll back to the man He uttered these extraordinary words, He said, ‘This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.’

Isaiah had prophesied concerning the coming of the Messiah, and the Messiah although He is the Son of God, cannot exercise His ministry without 'The Spirit of The Lord' coming on Him. And that is what happened at the river Jordan at the time of His baptism. Even the Son of God was unable to exercise this ministry without this baptism, this UNCTION, that came on Him when the Holy Spirit 'fell on Him'.

And you will remember that in the third chapter of John's gospel, John tells us, ‘For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure to Him.’ But HE gave it to Him in all its fulness - not by measure. We receive the Spirit in measure but - ............God gives not the Spirit by measure to Him. HE gave it to Him in all its fulness!

And again you will find in another place in John's gospel, in chapter 6:27, ‘For him has God the Father sealed. HE sealed Him by sending HIS Spirit on Him! John the Baptist had been told that people thought that John was the Messiah - but John said, "I am not the Messiah."

"Well who is the Messiah?" "Well" said John, "what I was told was this - the one on whom I would see the Holy Spirit descending like a dove, THAT IS the Messiah!" So he was able to say to his followers in John 1:29 ‘Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.’

And what was the attestation - the power come from the descent of the Holy Spirit in this remarkable manner.

The Lord of course from His birth was filled with the Spirit in the sense that He is the Eternal Son of God! But in addition to this there is an "also", and the Spirit came on Him and enabled Him to work His mighty ministry.

But come - let us look at these Apostles themselves. Is it not extraordinary how we can fail to realise a thing like this. You remember what we are told in the first chapter of this book of the Acts of the Apostles. Here were these Apostles with our Lord - after the resurrection - just before His ascension, and He said to them in Acts 1.4 ‘And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, says He], you have heard of me. For John truly baptised with water; but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days hence.’ And then He adds to it in verse 8, ‘But you will receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come on you, and you shall be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Well now, here is the position. Look at these men the Apostles - they have been with our Lord for three years - they had heard all of His sermons and addresses - they had seen all of His miracles - they had seen Him arrested and condemned - they had seen Him crucified - they had seen Him dead - they had seen His body taken down and buried - they had seen Him 'risen from the dead' and the 'empty grave'.

Well you would have imagined, wouldn't you, that these men were already 'Perfect Witnesses'? What could you desire above this? They knew it all - they had all of the facts in every respect, with respect to Him! And yet what our Lord tells them is this - that as they are they cannot be true witnesses to Him. Before they can be true witnesses, that have got to receive this baptism with the Holy Spirit. ‘You shall be baptised,’ He says, ‘with the Holy Spirit not many days hence. You are going to receive this power then, and not until then.

Although they have got all the facts with all the truths, they cannot be witnesses to Him until then. So you see this thing is here and quite unmistakable. The witness of the Apostles is essential, but also, ‘So is also the Holy Spirit,’ - they could do nothing apart from this.

And do you remember what happened to them after the day of Pentecost? To round off this bit of pure scriptural argumentation, which is nevertheless 'all important' you will find that exactly the same thing happened to the Apostle Paul. There on the road to Damascus he meets the Lord and he begins to worship Him as it were - and surrenders himself to Him. But do you remember that it was necessary for a man called Ananias to come and to give the Apostle Paul this same 'gift and power of the Holy Spirit', before he can be an Apostle in the same way.

And still more striking perhaps is what you will read in Acts chapter eleven, in the case of the household of Cornelius. The Apostle Peter you will remember was called to preach to these Gentiles - and he was very unhappy about this and very reluctant to do it - Peter was a typical Jew - and as a Jew he could not see how a Gentile could possibly become related to God and become a 'child of God'. And it was essential that God should give him a vision.

And do you remember the vision that he had in Joppa? And the vision convinced him sufficiently to make him go with the emissaries to the household of Cornelius. And here he is now - and he begins to preach in the household of Cornelius - and even while he was preaching - the Holy Spirit fell on these people - Cornelius and the others - as it had on the Apostles on the day of Pentecost.

And this was the thing that finally convinced Peter. He says so! He said so at the time! Seeing this happening to them, he is convinced now that Gentiles can become Christians and so he baptised them! He was most reluctant to do so - UNTIL THE HOLY SPIRIT HAD BORNE HIS WITNESS!

Even the vision had not finally convinced him! And then in the next chapter when he gives his defence in Jerusalem for what he had done in baptising these Gentiles - he puts his great question: "Who was I that I could refuse them water - after the witness and testimony of the Holy Spirit?"

So you see right through this book you get this dual witness. Oh yes! The orthodox truth! Reformation! We are his witnesses - certainly - but that is not enough, especially in a time of crisis - and so is also - this further witness of - the Holy Spirit, - testing the truth and confirming it.

So I am stressing the all importance of our bearing in mind these two things. If we say that reformation alone is enough - or some experience of the Spirit alone is enough - we are not scriptural, we are not keeping to the balance which is ever the greatest characteristic of 'The Word of God'.

But let me go on to a second principle. What is the object of the 'witness of the Holy Spirit'?

The Holy Spirit is a witness as we are witnesses. But to what does the Holy Spirit bear His witness? Now here again is a most important matter. There is perhaps more confusion in the churches today over this matter than over anything else! And it has happened many a time before in the long history of the Christian Church!

I repeat again that we are not dealing with a new subject - it has happened so often - but here it is dealt with in terms of the scripture. To what does the Holy Spirit, bear His witness? And the answer is perfectly plain.

Let me put it first of all 'negatively'. The Holy Spirit does not bear witness to Himself! Not to HIMSELF. And again I am amazed that people can ever forget this - because we have got such specific teaching on the subject and from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself! Take those great chapters in John's Gospel - chapters 14, 15 and 16. Here our Lord is about to leave them and they are crestfallen and unhappy, disconsolate, and He says, "It's alright! You need not be unhappy - another Comforter is going to be given to you." And He goes on and begins to teach them about the Holy Spirit!

What does He say? Well this is what He says - I am reading from John 16:12. ‘I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. .......And then He goes on ..... ‘He will glorify me, for He will receive of mine, and will show it to you.’

But He has already said - ‘However when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak of Himself’ - which means OUT of Himself or FROM Himself - ‘but whatever he will hear, that will He speak, and He will show you things to come.

‘He will glorify me.’ :................. The Spirit never glorifies Himself! It is not surprising that the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove - suggesting a 'delicacy' and a 'shyness'! He can be easily 'grieved'. He can be 'quenched'. He can be 'offended'. The Spirit has been sent with one specific object and that is NOT to direct attention to Himself - BUT TO GLORIFY THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!

Let me give you a second 'negative'! The Spirit is not sent to glorify US! The Spirit does not make us call attention to ourselves and our experiences and our gifts or anything else that He has given us or may have done to us! Because that again would be glorifying Himself! He doesn't do this! It is here quite specifically before us.

Well then - what does the Holy Spirit bear witness to? And Peter has said it once and forever. ‘And we are his witnesses’ - of what? - ‘of these things, and so is also the Holy Spirit. - What is He a witness to?..... ‘These things.’

Well what are they? Well that is why I read the whole paragraph (Acts 5.29 on) ‘Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged on a tree. Him has God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses’ - of what? The Spirit and His Power and the Gifts we have had....NO!.......... ‘of these things’, the things he has just been mentioning - The Lord Jesus Christ! - His Person and His work!

‘This Jesus! God has exalted Him to be a Prince and the Saviour - for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.’ That is what the Holy Spirit witnesses to. Not to Himself. Not to us. Not to what He does to us or gives to us. His witness - His testimony - is to the Lord Jesus Christ - and to glorify HIM!

And this of course is a remarkable thing, it is here everywhere in this book of the Acts of the Apostles. And that is why you see that men and women who go astray do so because they begin to concentrate on experiences instead of being guided and governed by the scripture.

Let me prove my point to you. Take Peter on the day of Pentecost. You remember that amazing event? Suddenly these men are being filled with the Holy Spirit as our Lord had prophesied would happen. And it was a remarkable thing! There was the sound of a mighty rushing wind - cloven tongues as of fire - speaking in other tongues and so on - and of course it was a great sensation and the people came together from everywhere to hear and to see these men!

And Peter, we are told, got up and he began to preach - and he stood up and said, "What is this?" He said, "Some of you are saying that we are drunk.... but we are NOT" (Acts 2:15) - ‘For these are not drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.’ What is this? Well he says, "This is actually what was prophesied by the prophet Joel,’ and he quotes Joel's prophesy Then he begins to preach.

And what does he say when he begins to preach? Does he now tell them of the experience they had while they were waiting in the upper room? Does he tell them what he and the others have felt and their abilities and their gifts? Nothing of the sort........LISTEN! ‘You men of Israel,’ - he says - ‘hear these words.’ He is beginning to preach.

Now remember, this man is filled with the Spirit, he is baptised with the Holy Spirit - what does he talk about? - ‘Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know, Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.Whom God hash raised up,’ ........... What does he preach about? Jesus Christ! He doesn't preach about the Holy Spirit - he preached about The Lord Jesus Christ, His Person and His Work and he expanded on the meaning of the death of Christ and goes on to talk about the resurrection. Here it is - plain evidence - the Spirit in all the power of the Day of Pentecost - does not call attention to Himself, but always to The Lord Jesus Christ in His Person and His Work!

But go on to chapter three. You remember the incident of Peter and John going up one afternoon to the temple to pray - they are suddenly accosted by this poor lame fellow at the Beautiful gate of the temple. And in a miraculous manner Peter and John healed the man. And of course this created another tremendous sensation and the people came crowding together from everywhere.

And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering. And Peter decided to preach again, ‘And when Peter saw it, he answered the people’, - and here is his sermon - ‘You men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? or why do look so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?’ - "It is not us," says Peter. "Do not look at us." He did not preach you see about their experiences and their gifts, he did not preach about the Holy Spirit .......... What does he say? ‘The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Son Jesus,’ - another sermon on the Lord Jesus Christ - ‘Whom you delivered up, and denied Him in the presence of Pilate, when He was determined to let him go. But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God has raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. And His name through faith in His name has made this man strong, whom you see and know: yes, the faith which is by him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.’ Once more he doesn't preach about the Spirit nor about himself and their gifts - always about The Lord Jesus Christ!

Go on to the next chapter. Peter and John are arrested and they are on trial and again Peter does exactly the same thing..... Acts 4:8 ‘Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, You rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole, be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him does this man stand here before you whole.’

He does exactly the same thing again - and he goes on doing it! You see the test of whether a man is filled by the Holy Spirit or not is this...... It is not how much does he talk about the Holy Spirit and the gifts that he has received - it is - "How much does he glorify The Lord Jesus Christ?" This is the test! And as you go through the scriptures you will find it invariably and everywhere.

And what he bears witness to and glorifies is these things - the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1Cor 12:3 ‘Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.’ He makes me an orthodox...... He must do so, because HE is sent to glorify the Lord.

And people who are filled with the Spirit - they testify that Jesus of Nazareth is the Eternal Son of God - The Only Begotten Son of God - This Prince and also This Saviour! They are clear about HIS death - the meaning of HIS death - why HE came - why He had to come! As Peter expounded immediately the Doctrine of The Atonement on the day of Pentecost, so men and women who are filled with the Spirit - they bear their witness too - and the Spirit does the same - always to The Lord Jesus Christ! John 16:14 ‘He will glorify me.’ :............................ Not Himself and not the people to whom He has come in great power.

And this is indeed a remarkable thing. I have taken the trouble recently to check this matter. You know the writers of the hymn books they are generally scriptural. I have been working it out in terms of this new hymn book and I wonder if you have ever noticed this. If you turn up the synopsis at the beginning - the table of contents - you will find that the number of hymns that are devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ are one hundred and seventy nine! How many are devoted to The Holy Spirit? You will find, I think, that the number devoted to The Holy Spirit are more like twenty seven! One hundred and twenty seven Hymns to the Lord Jesus Christ - twenty seven to the Holy Spirit.... that is absolutely right - that is the scriptural proportion.

Now this is an interesting thing is it not? Look at these great hymns that we are so fond of singing. Take the hymns of a man like Charles Wesley. Now here was a man you see who had been a godly man and indeed a Christian man for some time, but he had not received this Baptism of the Spirit. But then he received this Baptism and he became a great evangelist with his brother John! He became a great hymn writer.

Now here is a man you see filled with the Spirit. What does he write about in his hymns? Not the Holy Spirit - but the Lord Jesus Christ! If I tested you as a congregation I have no doubt as to the answer if I asked you to name a single hymn by Charles Wesley on the Holy Spirit - I do not think that you would be able to give me one - there are one or two - I do not think that you would be able to give me one! Why? Well because his great and characteristic hymns are these:

"Jesu, lover of my soul", "O for a thousand tongues to sing My Great Redeemer's praise", ..... or take William Williams, another man filled with the Spirit as those men were two hundred years ago. What of his great hymns? Well, all of his great hymns, as is true of Ann Griffiths and others, are about the Lord Jesus Christ - His person - and about His death on the cross, This is an amazing thing - the preaching of these men and the hymns of these men is always about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Of course they believed the full doctrine of the Holy Spirit, but they were NOT always talking about the Spirit and preaching about the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit! No! No! Their emphasis and all the use of their gifts was to glorify The Lord Jesus Christ. So the TEST of having received that great experience of the Holy Ghost is not that you talk the whole time ABOUT the Holy Spirit, but that you glorify The Lord Jesus Christ!

These were the hymns! It's interesting! The Spirit had been poured forth, but you see the talk is not about the Spirit, nor gifts, the talk is about The Lord Jesus Christ and HIS death, HIS atonement, HIS blood, HIS glorious resurrection and the way of salvation.

So my dear friends, let's come back to the scripture. The evidence of the Spirit, and it's 'essential', is an evidence which 'attests' the Person and The Work of the Glorious Son of God.

But that brings me to my last principle which is this. How does the Spirit bear this witness? ‘And we are His witnesses of these things, and so is also the Holy Spirit, Whom God has given to those who obey Him.’ How does HE do so? And this again is most important because there is much confusion about this at the present time.

What is clear is this, is it not? That Peter was obviously calling attention to something outside of himself and outside of the Apostles - he had said, "we are his witnesses in the totality of our persons and the whole of our ministry." "Now" says Peter "In addition to this also there is this 'objective, external witness' outside of us." He can point to something outside himself and the other Apostles - this to me is a very important matter and especially in the confusion that is prevailing at the present time.

How did the Spirit bear witness and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ? Here are the answers! He did so first of all, and perhaps most important of all, in His coming on the day of Pentecost. How is that important? Well in this way..... Our Lord, as I have already told you, had predicted and prophesied that the Spirit was going to come! He had even said, (John 16:7) ‘Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you, but if I depart, I will send Him to you.

Now He had committed Himself to this - He had said, "Do not be downcast, do not be depressed, I am going, but I am going to send you the Spirit." And again you get the same thing in the seventh chapter of John's Gospel on that great day of the feast where it says in 7.37 ‘In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink. He who believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’ And then we are given the explanation, ‘But this spoke He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.’

And He goes on doing this - making these explicit promises - and even just before His ascension, after the resurrection, as I have told you already, in chapter one He says ....... "Stay where you are.... not many days hence something is going to happen to you - the Spirit is going to come on you- you are going to be baptised with the Spirit in great power!" He's committed Himself to this! So if the Spirit had not come He would have been a false teacher.

But the Spirit came! And He came remember in a phenomenal manner, in a way that was a 'spectacle', that astonished people and made them come together - and people looking on said...."Are they drunk? What is this?" He bore witness - He glorified the Lord. He said....... "He said this was going to come ......... and I've come!"

So you see the Spirit does it partly by the very act of coming - as He came on the great day of Pentecost! I can't answer my own question fully - I would keep you till midnight if I tried to. He does it in many other ways. Of course He does give 'gifts' to us - but still more important, at the present time as it was here at the beginning, it is what He does in this kind of phenomenal 'external manner' that really counts.

Now let me show you - I have told you what happened on the day of Pentecost - well then go back again to chapter four........ Peter and John on trial and they are fighting for their lives once more. And this is what I read when Peter was allowed to speak, ‘Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit,’ ............... The Spirit came again on him!

Do you remember the story of Stephen - the Martyr Stephen? People saw his face shining - this is an 'external witness' and 'evidence'. Stephen did not give his experience - you read chapter seven of this book - Stephen did not give his experience..... These men did not! They never preached about themselves! They never preached about the Spirit! They preached about The Lord Jesus Christ - invariably!

Go further on in chapter four. When Peter and John had been dismissed by the Sanhedrin we are told that (verse 23) ‘And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. And what happened? Well the church immediately began to pray - they could do nothing else......... They cried to God with one accord and pleaded with Him to come to their vindication and the vindication of His own Son - they said (verse 27) ‘For of a truth against Your holy child Jesus, Whom You have anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatever Your hand and Your counsel determined before to be done. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings.’ And they plead with Him to do something!

What did He do? (Verse 31) ‘And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. The Holy Spirit shook the building! That's how He does it! This is a phenomenon!

Now this is not Christian people giving their experiences. It is a building shaking! This is then 'evidence' and 'witness' of the Spirit. The Spirit 'witnesses' in an 'external' phenomenal manner which is something that you can point to. The BUILDING shook!!!! And then the men went on and began to give great witness to the resurrection of Christ.

And He did it the same way in the death of Ananias and Sapphira at the beginning of this fifth chapter. A fact - a phenomenon! They had lied to the Holy Spirit - well the Holy Spirit bore witness to Jesus by putting them to death. A phenomenon! And this is the thing that I would like to leave in your minds and on your hearts.

My dear friends we are living in evil days as I said at the beginning - we are fighting for the Christian Faith - the Christian truth - for the whole future of the Christian church. How can we do it? Well...... We are to bare witness, and thank God that God gives us grace to do it. Some of us are orthodox and we are preaching the orthodox truth and we have been doing it for many years, but we see what is happening don't we? What is to be done? Have an Evangelistic Campaign? All right you can have them, but you will find you will make no difference. We have tried all of this! Give entertainment to the people? Bring in Pop Music? Bring in a Band? We have tried it all - it has all been done! It doesn't work, does it? Of course it doesn't! No! No! There is only one other factor which is absolutely essential - it is the 'witness' of the Holy Spirit!

And I mean this - this is what is so important - I don't mean so much the work of the Spirit which He does in us when He convicts us of sin and when He regenerates us and when He gives us certain abilities. Thank God that many of us that are here this afternoon can testify to all this, but this is not enough - there is the need of this also - this further 'witness' of the Spirit. Outside of us - a phenomenon! Something striking! Something amazing! Something that arrests not only the people in the churches, but the people outside in the world - and they come crowding as they did on the day of Pentecost and say, "What has happened? What is this?"

What do I mean? That is what I mean by Revival! There are people today who are having remarkable experiences and I notice that increasingly they are referring to it as 'renewal'. They are quite right - it IS renewal it's NOT Revival! They say, "You all have the Spirit - you are all baptised with the Spirit - that's your regeneration - and all you need to do now is to realise you have got it and to yield yourself to it and you will find a great difference in your lives. 'All right do it my friends'." All I am saying is this - THAT is not THE 'witness' of the Spirit. THE 'witness' of the Spirit is this 'external phenomenal evidence'.

And this is what you get of course in all great Revivals. And the greatest need of this hour is another Revival of religion. What's that? Well I say again that it is not an organised campaign. I am not of necessity speaking against these things - do it if you like - all I am saying is that it is NOT Revival. Well what IS Revival? Revival is in a sense a repetition of what happened on the day of Pentecost. It is a pouring down of the Spirit. It is the Spirit coming upon people as He did on the day of Pentecost; as He did on Peter before the Sanhedrin, as He did on the Church when they were praying and the walls began to shake. The Spirit came down - THAT IS Revival! And that is the only thing which is going to attract people back to our Churches at this time in which we are living.

We have tried, I say, everything else - orthodox preaching; campaigns; entertainment - every thing has been done. Still the people are outside! The moment the Spirit comes down you will find them crowding back again - the 'witness' of the Spirit will have come into evidence.

"Well what is this?" said someone. Let me put it to you like this - and with this I close. This is what happens always in every period of Revival. You take this last Revival in Wales in Nineteen Hundred and Four, and Five and part of Six - and you will find you know that sometimes some were converted, not in meetings, but on the way to the meeting - they had not even arrived at the meeting - the Spirit fell on them!

You hear of men working underground in Collieries and suddenly they drop to their knees. WHY? The Spirit has come on them! A 'phenomenon' and everybody talked about it. The Western Mail (A South Wales Newspaper) even gave great prominence to it. All of the papers do! It's a 'phenomenon' - not an organised 'phenomenon'- nobody organised it. I don't think Evan Roberts ever organised a meeting in his life - and what 'happened' to him was not organised. It is the Spirit 'doing things' - it is the Spirit 'coming'!

And this is the characteristic of every Revival that has ever been known. You may have heard of a great South African teacher called Andrew Murray who used to come a lot to this country in the early part of this century. If you read the biography of that man you will find that he was in one of his churches - at his weekly prayer meeting - and he was as usual sitting at the table presiding over the meeting - he was not expecting anything to happen and he did nothing out of the ordinary - but he tells us that there he was sitting at the table and suddenly he was aware of a sound, and the sound got louder and louder and louder and louder, and he could not make out what it was. He suddenly realised what it was........ The Spirit fell on the meeting - a Revival broke out! Andrew Murray did nothing - nobody else did. The Spirit came! And it was a phenomenon! The Revival lasted for months. Large numbers of people were converted. The church became bigger and mightier and it spread to others - THAT IS Revival! You see it is entirely the falling of the Spirit on people!

But let me give you perhaps one of the best descriptions of what I am talking about that has ever been given. Out of the journal of John Wesley for January the First of Seventeen Thirty Nine. John Wesley says at this point that sixty friends --- he was amongst them, and his brother Charles and the great George Whitefield and many other prominent leaders in the Methodist Awakening and Revival of two hundred years ago ---- met together to have what they called a 'Love Feast' in Fetter Lane in London (United Kingdom). You know....... the going out of the old year and the coming in of the new. A kind of 'watch night service'. 'Love Feast' - 'Singing' - 'Praying' and so on. Now this is what John Wesley writes, I am reading his exact words:

"About three in the morning as we were continuing instant in prayer, the Power of GOD came mightily on us insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from the 'awe' and 'amazement' at the presence of HIS Majesty, we broke out with one voice, "We Praise Thee O GOD We Acknowledge Thee To Be The Lord."

That is what I am talking about! That is the 'witness' of the Spirit. It was not anything that THEY did! The Spirit 'fell on them' at three o clock in the morning! They had not organised it - it was not organised singing, it was not organised anything - it was a free meeting and the Spirit 'fell on them'. "The Power of GOD came mightily on us." They did not try to work up the power of GOD by singing and this and that - as we are so familiar with. No! No! "The Power of GOD came mightily on us!" That's the 'witness' of the Spirit! And do you know that it was really from that point onwards, much more than what happened to him the previous May the Twenty Fourth in Seventeen Thirty Eight, that turned this man into a Flaming Evangelist.

This I say is the story of all Revivals. Christian people, especially here in Wales........ Have we forgotten Revivals? This has been the glory of our land and the church in this land - a series of great revivals! People have forgotten about this - so many years have passed - they are no longer thinking about this! They are talking about themselves and their experiences and about the Spirit.

No! No! We must bare witness to the Lord Jesus Christ and pray that the Spirit may come, and in a phenomenal, amazing, astonishing manner, and will fall on us and bare HIS 'witness' in this 'external' manner. And you will find that people will be arrested - they will come crowding to hear and to see what it is. Perhaps they will come in criticism. But it does not matter. They will come and listen to the gospel. And when they come what have we to tell them? Not about ourselves - not about what has happened to us - we are not in it to preach directly or overmuch about the Spirit - we are to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ! This PRINCE! This SAVIOUR! And pray that under HIS influence, and it will happen, many will be convinced and convicted of sin - will believe in HIM and in HIS blood - and be born again and become members of the Christian Church!

My friends it is the only hope! Go on with our witness! Go one with our orthodox preaching! But still more I would say - let us pray without ceasing for another outpouring of the Spirit - another descent of the power of GOD upon us - that will first of all amaze us, because we have had nothing to do with it - and then will amaze and astonish the world - and lead to many, many conversions and a new period of success and of prosperity in the history of GOD'S church here on earth!

Let us not forget the ‘also’........ so is also the Holy Spirit, Whom God has given to them that obey Him. And you obey HIM by believing HIS truth and by proclaiming it and preaching it and testifying to it - and then HE will bare HIS 'witness' in this amazing and astonishing manner.

GOD have mercy upon us! Oh Lord our GOD we cry unto YOU as YOUR church did in those early days. Have mercy on us. We know that the world is not interested in us and is not persecuting us because we are what we are - we know that it is against YOUR Holy Child Jesus that all this is happening - and we can but cry unto YOU as they did....... Vindicate YOUR truth in an unmistakable manner by sending YOUR Spirit on us and into our midst in a manner that none can gainsay. LORD grant again this mighty phenomenon of Revival in our needy land and revive YOUR work in the midst of these cruel years - and unto YOU and unto YOU alone shall we give all the praise and all the honour and all the glory, both now and forever.