Jim Harper - The Work of the Holy Spirit in New Testament Times - Class 4 - Miraculous Spirit Gifts

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1. 0:01

   This is day four of the 2007 Palm Springs Bible School and our second period speaker is our brother, Jim Harper. His overall theme for the week is the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament and today’s topic, Miraculous Spirit Gifts of the Gym. Of necessity, brothers and sisters, this is going to be rather general if you go to Romans 12 or you go to 1st Corinthians 12, or if you go to Ephesians 4 and you look at the the gifts there.

2. 0:52

   They defy any kind of comprehensive coalition, they just defy that brothers and sisters. So of necessity this will be rather general. I just hope that it won’t also turn out to be rather vague in the process, and I attempted when I started on this to make a definition statement. And after I’ve reviewed it with you, I’ll tell you I’m not terribly happy with it.

3. 1:25

   It’s probably not adequate, but I felt compelled to try to say something miraculous. Spirit gifts and New Testament times enabled the believers who received them to do things in the name of Christ that they could not otherwise have done.

4. 1:47

   And then I struggled with this because when in history, New Testament times or not, have we not been able to do things in the name of Christ that we could not otherwise do? And isn’t that also miraculous? You know, and I struggled with this kind of thing at home. These have had a bit of airing with the with our adult Sunday School class.

5. 2:17

   And Brother Dave Stiles came to me after one Sunday morning. And some of, you know, Dave and Connie, and, I mean, they’re just wonderful contributors to the Meriden meeting. And Dave said, look, he said there are natural miracles and there are supernatural miracles. He said you’re basically trying to focus on the supernatural miracles.

6. 2:40

   And I said, yeah, you know, that’s right. So that’s very helpful. Can I quote you on that? And I now have, because when brothers and sisters, has God not worked in our lives in miraculous ways? And so I am looking at some of the more overtly miraculous things. Brother Jeff and I were just talking a little bit about this before, You know, you can merge from these New Testament miracles into our own experiences and and and the areas Gray a bit.

7. 3:17

   But what I’m thinking about for the moment is this kind of thing. By the empowerment of heaven, men spoke with other tongues. The mysteries of God were revealed and their meanings were expounded. That’s a a marvelous, marvelous area to explore. Remember Paul’s expression in First Corinthians 14? In the tongue they speak mysteries.

8. 3:45

   And you know, he’s not just referring to the fact that the tongue itself was enigmatic, but he’s saying something, I believe, about the content of what was being spoken as well. And those things were being revealed and their meanings could be expounded and men prophesied. We we saw a couple of examples of that yesterday and.

9. 4:11

   The net result of many of these things was that listeners were compelled to heart searching response, and heaven is the driving force behind it. People were healed of physical and mental afflictions, and so there is a microcosm of salvation being set before us. In the New Testament times, the dead were raised to life again. And over against those wonderful blessings, words of divine judgment were pronounced against unrepentant sinners, and punishments followed with frightening swiftness. The hand of the Lord is upon you, and immediately a mist fell upon him from heaven, and he went about seeking someone to lead him by the hand.

10. 5:09

    Or anioniasis of Fira in the process of all of this in the New Testament context. And then we want to think about the fact that it still happens. Maybe not with the same tongues or healings or raisings of the dead, but this can be extrapolated in the process. Faithful men preached the gospel of salvation. Throughout the Jewish and Gentile worlds and believers edified fellow believers in the things that pertain to life in Christ.

11. 5:49

    And that’s still happening. It just doesn’t happen with my ability to stand up here and speak Hebrew to you, or to put my hands on someone and make them walk again. Or heal them in some other physical way. Those things will ultimately have their fulfillment and the best that’s yet to come. But still we preach and we edify. We’re going back to the New Testament context, the saving purposes of God.

12. 6:32

    We’re served among men on Earth. And the glorified Christ, through whom the gifts were given. And This is why, brothers and sisters, I’m so I don’t know whether adamant is too strong a word, but but so positive in wanting to say to you these gifts came from heaven always, and even when they came in punctuated ways, there was the prayer from earth, and there was the answers to the prayer that came from heaven. Because this is important.

13. 7:08

    The glorified Christ, through whom the gifts were given, was shown for all time. He was shown to them then, and it’s documented for us. He was shown for all time to be the Savior of mankind, the minister of God’s grace to men.

14. 7:41

    And so, brothers and sisters, what purposes did Holy Spirit gifts serve a New Testament times? And how are the same purposes served in Christ’s ecclesia today? And we’ll just kind of weave the thoughts together and we’ll never finish, but we’ll stop when 45 minutes come. And I want to begin in those New Testament contexts where gifts were given that I’m inclined to call baptismal gifts, the kind of thing that happened when believers first believed, responded to the gospel, and were baptized into the Lord Jesus for the remission of their sins. And we saw plenty of evidence.

15. 8:31

    Already that heaven often, if not always, responded. We can read about it now, but they couldn’t necessarily. And heaven often responded with a wonderful, reassuring response to those believers. So I want to explore the gifts in that heading when we believed. And if we get to the second heading, then I want to talk about life after baptism. All right.

16. 9:01

    For the edification of the Church and the third is really just an extension of the second. Whether we get there or not, let us go on to perfection. Let me just back up here when we believed. And that’s picking up Peter’s words in defense of having gone into Cornelius and the Gentiles. We’ll take our illustrations across the New Testament world, almost following brothers and sisters, the the plan of the Great Commission from Jerusalem to Samaria to Caesaria to Ethicis, and when I see examples coming in the Book of Acts from a widespread area like that. It says to me that this may be a lot more common place and experience in New Testament times than we think or are inclined to think.

17. 10:09

    Because it strikes me that across the New Testament world, heaven responded in dramatic fashion at the time of a believer’s baptism into Christ. A Holy Spirit baptism. And I just say possibly a one time gift of miraculous utterance. And I only have really Acts 10 and Acts 19 to go on. But a Holy Spirit baptism sealed the life of the new convert in the love of Christ, and just as surely brothers and sisters, as we read about this now.

18. 10:53

    We can be sure that in our own response to the truth, that same love of Christ is vouchsafed to us, even though we may not have an overt Holy Spirit baptism. And now, at the time of our belief, it provided. As and as the language says, and Brother Randy Davenport was saying to me yesterday, are you going to get to these passages that speak about the earnest and so on? And at that time I couldn’t remember what I was going to be getting to.

19. 11:31

    But anyway, here it is, a seal, a guarantee, and we just have to read this passage slowly. We can read through this. I know Esther and I can read through this in a matter of seconds in the daily readings twice a year and every phrase of this passage in Ephesians chapter one is absolutely powerful, brothers and sisters, absolutely powerful in Christ.

20. 12:10

    The context allows me to to to to put that in in Christ. You also trusted after you heard the word of Truth, Remember? Now we’re talking about those moments when people believed in Christ. You also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

21. 12:45

    In whom? Also in Christ, also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Now I infer from that that Paul has something overt in mind.

22. 13:11

    The fact that God has touched our life also has enduring, enduring effects. But I infer that Paul has something overt in mind that has happened when they’ve heard the word of truth, when they’ve put their trust in Christ, when they’ve believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the guarantee of our inheritance.

23. 13:39

    Until the redemption of the purchased possession, which is us, to the praise of his glory, there’s not a praise of that that isn’t just powerful. I read that. And if I read it slowly, brothers and sisters, my reaction is Step aside, Shakespeare.

24. 14:06

    This is this is marvelous, marvelous stuff. The baptismal gift was an earnest of eternal life, a literal foretaste of the powers of the age to come, a person who heard the gospel of salvation and put his trust in Christ by obedient baptism. In that day and age, many of them quickly learned how trustworthy Christ truly is.

25. 14:46

    And so Paul can go on to say in Ephesians for do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom by God you were sealed for the day of redemption. And I think the Ephesians could have thought back on the experience of their baptisms and known something of the truth of this. And we can understand that God is no less, no less desirous of our understanding these things, now that we in our baptism, have entered into Christ. And while the experience of an overt confirmation was not given, the word is sufficient to tell us we’ve been sealed for the day of redemption, our Holy Spirit. Baptism, and there’s in the greater sense, is still to come. Second Corinthians.

26. 15:48

    And again, I think Paul has something overt here in mind. Even though the lasting effects of the work of the Holy Spirit has got to be on our hearts, the frightening thing from Hebrew sex is it is possible for us to have tasted of the heavenly gift and to fall away. So that’s not even ruled out here. I think Paul has something overt in mind and he desires that. Not only that be remembered, but that we go on to perfection, and the gifts will continue to fuel that transfiguring process, just as the Scriptures fuel it for us today. Now he who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit. In our hearts as a guarantee.

27. 16:54

    And there, there Paul gets, may I say to the heart of the matter, because it’s while it seems to be something overt, they could understand what was meant when we were told we’ve been anointed, we’ve been sealed. But yet, at the same time, if that hasn’t come to reside on our hearts, it’s it’s it’s wasted what God has done.

28. 17:21

    Has gone for naught, and we’ve not, in our response, justified God. The anointing the ceiling of the believer was a singular gifting act at the time of baptism into Christ. And I say that cautiously, but I think there’s a fair bit of evidence for it in New Testament times. But Paul makes a vitally important point. The lasting effect of the gift had to be on the believer’s heart, Holy Spirit gifts.

29. 18:01

    The New Testament times, brothers and sisters, I’m convinced, were intended to have a transfiguring effect on those who received them and used them and benefited from them.

30. 18:19

    Or else all the work of Christ, who is the administer of God’s grace to man, is in vain. And, you know, just exploring and contemplating this, my mind went back to this rebuke which Jesus issued amongst some of those with whom he’d spent the most time the towns of Carrazin and Beth Seda.

31. 18:53

    Around the Sea of Galilee, woe to you to Raisin, woe to you Beth Seda, For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done, and Tyre and Siden, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. And if that isn’t saying to us? That what Jesus had done, not just within the city precincts of careason or but seda, but the mighty works were done in you.

32. 19:30

    He’s not just talking about a geographic place, He’s isn’t he. He’s talking about people. If the mighty works that were done in you had been done in Tyron Sidon, there’d have been some effect on their hearts. They would have repented. Long ago, in sackcloth and ashes, miraculous Holy Spirit gifts came from God with His intent, with His desire that they should have a moral impact on the lives of sinful human beings. And that’s me.

33. 20:18

    And this, too, is eternal life. So while the gift may be a foretaste of eternal life, in some powerful sense, the powers of the age to come, it’s the lasting effect that is also eternal life even now. A seal, a guarantee. Second Corinthians and we can relate to this, brothers and sisters. So I find myself constantly starting in the New Testament and lapsing to us.

34. 21:02

    But that’s okay stepping out into our times. We who are in this tent groan being burdened. And as I reviewed these thoughts this morning, I thought to myself, you know, as I stand up here and I look out across all of your brothers and sisters, we have an accumulated age, and we have an accumulated experience in life that can relate to this.

35. 21:38

    We who are in this tent groan, being burdened not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now he who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. And the Corinthians could reflect on what had happened in their lives.

36. 22:29

    They could perhaps put their finger on the time of their belief and heaven’s response. And we have to convince our children and our friends when they go into the waters of baptism. The heavens may not open up again, and the Spirit fall on us, the same as it did in the household of Cornelius, or amongst on those disciples of Ephesus. But nevertheless, rest assured, we have the guarantee of this burdened life being swallowed up by life. But I think, brothers and sisters, for our benefit as we read of these things and for their benefit as they experienced them, that believers in New Testament times were openly given a down payment on eternal life when they openly put their trust in Christ.

37. 23:33

    There’s something else, I think wonderful that happens here, and that is not only not only is Heaven giving them a foretaste of of eternal life, but in the baptismal gifting process that I think took place in many, many instances, Heaven was saying to these people who’ve just learned the gospel of salvation in Christ and responded to it, yes, your faith is acceptable, your repentance is acceptable, your sins are forgiven, they’re washed away, and you are indeed the heirs of eternal life.

38. 24:25

    I believe those baptismal gifts that came along were a confirmation as well of the forgiveness of sins, and I just want to take one or two examples to illustrate the point. I believe that the baptismal gifts that came declared that God accepted the repentance of the believer, that God forgave his sins, and that God justified him unto eternal life, whether he was a Jew or a Gentile. And we go to the House of Cornelius, and I’m going to start in verse 44 of X10 in a moment. We’re going to back up just a little bit from this so that I can perhaps give some thrust to what I want to say. But while you, you remember how it happens. You know the the three men come from the household of Cornelius and they find a Peter in Joppa and they bring him to Caesaria. And when he comes in, you know, Cornelius falls down before him and Peter says, get up man, I’m just the same as you are. And Peter opens his mouth and begins to speak. And as he goes along speaking, he arrives at this point, which is in verse 43.

39. 25:52

    And we’ll go back to that. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And how did they know? Well, there was a miraculous baptismal gift. They heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.

40. 26:11

    What did it mean? We’ve we’ve been there already this week. But let’s just remember Peter and the six Jewish brethren that went with him to Cornelius’s home in Caesarea had to go back and answer to the brethren in Jerusalem. For what had been done. They had gone into the Gentiles, and Peter rehearsed what had happened, and they had to conclude this is indeed of heaven. If therefore, God gave them the same gift as he gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, then God has granted to the Gentiles repentance to life that Holy Spirit baptism in the household of Cornelius said, Your repentance is accepted. You’re the heir of life.

41. 27:20

    Have you ever read anything of Clement of Rome? Incredible letter written near the end of the 1st century and written to the Corinthians worth reading and up to my mind? The pinnacle atonement statement that Clement makes in there is when he says that the cross gives to us the grace of repentance. It is the way by which God has given to us the grace of repentance, I thought to myself, Well, there’s a 1st century appreciation of the cross.

42. 28:11

    And so, in response to all the things that God had done in the life of Cornelius, he has granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life, and that Holy Spirit baptism was an acceptance of their repentance, which God had engendered in any respect, envy, and made them the heirs of eternal life.

43. 28:38

    The sequence of events at the House of Cornelius is particularly instructive in this regard. And now I want to go back just one verse, because what was Peter saying when the Holy Spirit suddenly fell on the Gentiles? What was he saying? Well, here it is to him. And now it’s the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth. All the prophets witness that through his name, whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins. And while Peter was speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon those who heard the word, and a double miracle happened.

44. 29:41

    Just open up your Bibles. It’s about time, huh? Talking yesterday. And I have to say, brothers and sisters, what struck me yesterday, Is there something to be said for just the man in the book?

45. 30:08

    And unless you’re comfortable with this stuff, leave it alone. There’s a lot to be said for just the man in the book. Acts 11 There’s a double miracle at the at the House of Cornelius. We know about the Holy Spirit Baptism of the Gentiles. But I believe that Peter himself experienced a gift at this moment too, and I just would draw your attention in Acts 11 to verse 15 and then verse 16.

46. 30:57

    And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them as on us at the beginning. And the conclusion, of course, is now that heaven has purified the hearts of the Gentiles by faith. So that’s another way of expressing the meaning of the Holy Spirit. Baptism that took place then, which resulted in speaking in tongues and magnifying God. Can we go to about 1:00 today?

47. 31:38

    Never mind. So that was the Holy Spirit Baptism of the Gentiles. But then look at verse 16, brothers and sisters, we’ve been emphasizing this kind of thing. Then remembered I the word of the Lord. How he said, John indeed baptized with water, but you should be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

48. 32:08

    We might miss that. I don’t know how many years I’ve missed that. I thought, well, you know, Peter saw them speaking tongues. That’s what had happened to them on the day of Pentecost. And what else? You know, his mind just went back to Pentecost. His mind doesn’t actually go back just to Pentecost, if you’ll notice. His mind goes back to the words that Jesus spoke a few days before Pentecost acts.

49. 32:37

    One verse 5 is your cross reference, isn’t it? You know, turn back to John 14 with me, verse 25, John 14, verse 25. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance.

50. 33:32

    Whatsoever I have said to you, then remembered by the words of the Lord Jesus how he said, John indeed baptized with water, But you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

51. 33:55

    And so Peter received a miracle at that moment. And do you remember how he processed that miracle? Do you remember how he responded to it? Brothers and sisters, they come back to Acts 10.

52. 34:12

    If I get 2 locked in, I’m using the scriptures. I’ll lose the PowerPoint. Oh, happy day. Oh Happy Day. Here’s how Peter responded. Look at this Acts 10, verse 46. They heard them speak with tongues and magnify God, but perhaps they didn’t know what was also going on within Peter himself, then remembered I the word of the Lord Jesus. Look at the rest of verse 46 then answered Peter. Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Spirit as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus?

53. 35:09

    And I’ve attempted here, brothers and sisters, just to paraphrase us a little bit, as the Holy Spirit falls upon them and says that God has purified their hearts by faith, yes, they have been granted repentance unto life. Peter is having this experience within himself. Yes, Peter, Gentiles can also have their sins forgiven by faith. In the last words you just spoke. Gentiles can have their sins forgiven by faith in Me, the glorified Jewish Messiah.

54. 35:51

    And these Gentiles have faith that justifies them in the sight of God. You want to know what Peter they’ll show it to you when you command them to be baptized.

55. 36:09

    Ephesus Acts 19 and all we’re going to get accomplished today and that’s enough. Is that these baptismal gifts that came? And this is not saying anything about the edifying work that goes on in the Ecclesia after that. A New Testament times. And I’m sorry that that’ll just have to go. The notes are there, you can read them for yourself.

56. 36:39

    Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus and finding some disciples, he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And whatever else that says to you, brothers and sisters, it suggests to me that Paul expected something like this to have happened, and that there may have been more widely than we. We tend to see the overt response of heaven to these early believers after Christ’s glorification. Maybe just the timing was wrong here for these people because they end up being disciples of John and it’s hard to know when they were baptized.

57. 37:29

    And I would just say in passing, brothers and sisters, there’s nothing deficient in John’s baptism ever. The deficiency here is in these people, and Paul sensed that,

58. 37:45

    especially when they respond as they do in the rest of verse two. So they said to him, we’ve not so much as heard whether there’s a Holy Spirit and that put the flag up and Paul’s thinking. And so he raises the obvious next question into what then were you baptized? So they said into John’s baptism.

59. 38:11

    Now I can’t get into the mind of of Paul here, but I think if I were standing there with the bit I know today, my response would be really what were you baptized into into John’s baptism? Did you understand it? Heaven had not confirmed that the faith of these disciples when they believed or at any time since, and I think Paul immediately inferred that their belief was faulty and that their sins remained unforgiven because of that, whenever it was that they’d been baptized.

60. 38:57

    These disciples had not, I believe, understood the repentant nature of baptism, even John’s baptism. Because what does Paul Anguanda say then? Paul said John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance.

61. 39:18

    That’s hard to know exactly why he says it that way, and what may have been in the minds of these people, and why they had gone through the process of baptism at all. But Paul is getting right to the heart of it. Here. John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance. Why? For the forgiveness of sins, saying to the people that they should believe on him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. So in both of those clauses there, brothers and sisters, Paul seems under inspiration to be getting at the heart of what the problem was with.

62. 40:03

    These would be disciples of John at Ephesus, and neither had these disciples understood the work of the mightier 1 to come of whom John had spoken. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And so in response to that, very brief but I think very important couple of statements that Paul makes when they heard this. They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Why?

63. 40:42

    For the forgiveness of sins and And here’s where in the New Testament times the paradigm works out. So often this larger paradigm of salvation that when the individual has responded by faith to baptism for the forgiveness of sins, heaven completed the paradigm as it were, with the overt confirmation Proof positive, brothers and sisters, proof positive that our Lord is going to come and give us eternal life because that model has been filled out for us in the New Testament that we read.

64. 41:34

    And so when Paul laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them. Where did the Holy Spirit come from? Well, you you may have your thoughts on this. I don’t believe it came from Paul. He is the agent of Christ.

65. 41:59

    He is the agent through whom now it is known amongst men that this glorified Messiah of Israel works and proves to men that he is the Savior. The Holy Spirit came upon him, surely from the Lord Jesus himself, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. Now heaven openly confirmed that the sins of these repentant believers were forgiven, and it was done by granting A baptismal gift.

66. 42:31

    They spoke with tongues and prophesied, and only now did they become heirs of eternal life, vouchsafe to them from heaven itself. I’m just finished with this. Perhaps this will be have a little bit of help and and lead us on to tomorrow. The household of Cornelius spoken tongues and magnified God. And I’ve given you the strong’s number.

67. 42:58

    The disciples at Ephesus spoken tongues and prophesied. And I’ve given you the strong’s number. Is there any hope, brothers and sisters, of knowing what these baptismal gifts may have been like?

68. 43:15

    Well, obviously I wouldn’t lead you on like that if I didn’t have something to suggest. I hope I’ll end up taking an extra minute here, but I always love it when speakers ask questions like this, because I sit over there and I say to myself, I haven’t got a clue. Tell me, please, is there any hope of knowing what these baptismal gifts may have been right? Well, first of all, I believe, brothers and sisters, and I’ll say more about this tomorrow, that the gifts of utterance were substantive, very comprehensible. And I also believe that in these particular cases they have redounded to the praise of God’s saving grace in terms that may well have echoed his Old Testament promises. Now that’s a breathtaking leap of logic. How do I get there?

69. 44:15

    Well, you may have already discovered this for yourself. I find it more than coincidence that Luke gives us specific examples of these very gifts at the beginning of his gospel. I don’t know if you noticed this. Here’s Luke 1 and it’s Mary’s song.

70. 44:36

    And Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord Strong’s number, and my spirit has rejoiced. And God my Savior. Can you imagine Peter and the six Jewish brethren listening to something like this in a tongue that they understood? I think the tongue’s there for them personally, and the message that they’re hearing Well, we’ve got an expression for it.

71. 45:15

    It blew them away. My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God, my Savior, and on down. Mary says. He’s helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever. Perhaps it wasn’t just words like this, brothers and sisters.

72. 45:40

    Perhaps it was something about him being a light to the Gentiles that they would have referred to, but can you think of any more lovely kind of expression to come from the lips of one who has just been baptized into the Jewish Messiah for the salvation of their very lives? The same word in X10. And lest we wonder about Acts 19, in the very same chapter we read about Zacharias filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied Same word.

73. 46:25

    In fact, it’s Holy Spirit baptism language. The grand difference between Luke 1 and Acts 19 is that the Savior has not yet come. He’s in prospect at this point.

74. 46:42

    And so this Holy Spirit baptism, if you will, of Zacharias has given to him from heaven, but not from his Savior per se. Well, of course God is a savior, isn’t he? But you know what I mean? In Acts 19 one has come who has wrought the salvation of man in himself, and been glorified, and is now showing to men that he has the power to save them.

75. 47:11

    And in their baptism they receive a Holy Spirit gift of tongues, and they prophesy. Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied saying blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us and the House of his servant David. And I don’t think in the early days Luke expected us to miss the links between what he’s put in his gospel and what he’s put in his historical record in Acts 19. And it’s hardly necessary to point out how appropriate inspired confessions like these would be at the time of a believer’s baptism into Christ.

76. 48:01

    I just offered that as a suggestion, brothers and sisters. But I’m convinced in my own mind that those utterances were substantive, they were relevant, and they were very godly. And God, glorifying well our time, has more than run its course.

77. 48:24

    There was life after baptism, and the Spirit of gifts were edifying there too, that these babes in Christ might come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, and that outworking process for each of us will find its culmination

78. 49:07

    when we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.