Understanding the Passive Reception of the Holy Spirit

"Now we are trying to show that that is a wrong teaching and I'll give you later some reasons for taking such time with this subject one reason we saw it once was this for rejecting it that it really does seem to do violence to the world notion which is thought in the scripture that the Holy Spirit is a person the Holy Spirit is not an atmosphere is not a force he is and they're teaching seems to me that revive at that whole idea." [00:01:44]

"Now receiving the risk early an active since but then in verse 16 you have and of his fullness have all we received and grace for grace there the sins according to the authorities is the passive one and that's a very good illustration to carry in your mind very well the word we've got here then may have an active since or it may have a passive sense when it is the passive sense it means receiving something that is given." [00:04:31]

"Surely this verse alone answers the problem the first half the first use of the word receipt surely settles the matter once and for all listen further ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear that ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father now it is quite inconceivable isn't it that in the first usage there it can have any active sense at all can you imagine anybody taking or breathing in a spirit of bondage and of fear of course not it's something that happens to us and it's a very miserable and unhappy state to be in." [00:06:42]

"Now I'm saying that deliberately every single one let me put than before you now the basic statement with regard to this whole matter of being baptized with the Holy Spirit is clearly the statement in Luke 3:16 and the parallels in the other gospel where John the Baptist's do you remember when he realized that some of the people to whom he was speaking we're coming to the conclusion that he was the Christ you remember how its put and as all men mused in their hearts concerning John whether he were the Christ or not John answered and said unto them all I indeed baptize you with water he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with power." [00:08:49]

"Now what our Lord is doing here clearly is this he is not making a prophecy that these people were going to take the Holy Spirit afterwards that isn't what he's saying at all what he is telling them is this that the effect of my sending the Holy Ghost upon you not many days hence is this that you will find that you've got power you haven't got it now but I am going to send the Holy Ghost upon you and after the Holy Ghost is come upon you you will be finding and will be conscious of the fact that you've got power now in both instances you see he is emphasizing the giving he's going to send the Holy Ghost upon them and with the sending of the Holy Ghost he's going to send this power upon them without which they can do nothing." [00:11:41]

"Now you see this is crucial again according to the other teaching what would have happened would be this Paul would have said well now then you've been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ but wait a minute you can receive the gift of the Spirit you've only got to believe what I'm telling you when taking by faith don't worry about your feelings just take him by faith and you'll have him he will fill him but that isn't what happened at all again he doesn't teach he does exactly what Peter and John had done in Samaria he laid his hands upon them and then they the Holy Ghost came upon them and they skate with tongues and prophesied." [00:32:41]

"Now you notice there's our word the word used twice in Romans 8:15 translated received now what is Peter saying well Peters argument is this you see and it's obvious he was in a dilemma I didn't know what to do he was in trouble about this old question of the Gentiles that's why he did have that vision but now here he is he says I'm quite clever the holy ghost has fallen on these people as he did on us they have received the Holy Ghost exactly as we received him at the beginning on the day of Pentecost at Jerusalem he says in the light of death I have no hesitation at all Enterprise in these people." [00:25:39]

"Peter baptized them not because they said that they believed or that they said that they taking this gift by faith he baptized them for one reason and because of what God had done to them it was God sending the spirit on them that convinced Peter and his party finally so the whole emphasis you see is on the activity of God in the giving and on the passivity of these people in the receiving now I regard that as a an utterly conclusive argument against which nothing whatsoever can be sent who can be said Peter makes it abundantly clear Peters problem would not have been solved in this matter of the prising these Gentiles if it had been the take it by faith teaching these people saying that there though they felt nothing at all they believed the word and have decided to take the gift that is offered that would never have satisfied them but when God has given it and the people of the passive recipients and are proving that the Spirit has entered them and that they're filled with the spirit Peter is absolutely convinced there's no other conceivable interpretation at that part." [00:29:47]

"Now you see the coming of the Holy Spirit is something that falls upon us we don't take he falls upon us he was not yet fallen upon any of them only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus but go back again to verse 50 who when they were come down fade father prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost surely if this is something that a man does voluntarily there was no need for the Apostles to pray for them what they would have done would have been this they'd have said now look here the Holy Spirit was given once and for all in this great way on the day of Pentecost all you've got to do is to realize that he's been given and you can receive him whenever you like whenever you have faith to do so he's all around you take him in as you breathe the air into your Constitution they would have taught them if it's something that you and I've gotten they would have not only have taught them they would have exhorted them to receive him but they didn't what they did was to pray for them they prayed that they might receive the Holy Ghost and remember that is to be considered in the context of his falling upon them." [00:21:04]

"Now that people misinterpret that in this way they say you know if a man said yes I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the son of God and that he died for my sins they say to in quarrels are you prepared to say that being quarter said yes very well they say you say but you know the scripture doesn't say that if thou will confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that's to say with the totality of your being the heart is the center of the personality this isn't feelings this is the center this is the whole man believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead a man who believes that in the heart his whole life is governed by it thou shall be saved now that faith I say is never bare in that sense faith is not true faith unless there is an element of feeling in it if there is no element of feeling in it it may be nothing but intellectual assent it may be nothing but a kind of historical faith there's nothing to stop any men say I believe that yes I believe that evidence that doesn't make him a Christian the devil's believe that they know that but they tremble we must be very careful lest we substitute a mere intellectual assent to a number of propositions for real faith faith is a deep thing and a man really doesn't have true faith without having rest in yourself being therefore justified by faith we see in Romans 5:1 we have peace with God we are enjoying it and you really mustn't say you've got faith until you know something about that rest so we must be very careful about this their faith it isn't true faith faith always is accompanied by a certain amount of feeling and of works faith without works is dead merely to say things doesn't prove we are Christians faith is deeper than it it goes beyond intellectual assent the propositions." [00:44:41]

"Now you see this is crucial again according to the other teaching what would have happened would be this Paul would have said well now then you've been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ but wait a minute you can receive the gift of the Spirit you've only got to believe what I'm telling you when taking by faith don't worry about your feelings just take him by faith and you'll have him he will fill him but that isn't what happened at all again he doesn't teach he does exactly what Peter and John had done in Samaria he laid his hands upon them and then they the Holy Ghost came upon them and they skate with tongues and prophesied well now there it is there's the main evidence in a sense you've got a bit of parallel evidence in this epistle to the Romans we've already considered it some time ago chapter 5 verse 5 where we read and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts we don't take it it shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us isn't it interesting that the terms are poured forth shed the broad hell upon these are the terms Oliver's none of them suggesting that it's something that we actively voluntary take in and of course as we've already seen in a sense in Galatians 4:6 you've got precisely the same kind of emphasis where we read and because ye are sons god sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying Abba Father it goes out of its way to tell us that it is God who sent it forth yes and right into our hearts the same notion every time without exception." [00:33:38]

"Now you see the coming of the Holy Spirit is something that falls upon us we don't take he falls upon us he was not yet fallen upon any of them only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus but go back again to verse 50 who when they were come down fade father prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost surely if this is something that a man does voluntarily there was no need for the Apostles to pray for them what they would have done would have been this they'd have said now look here the Holy Spirit was given once and for all in this great way on the day of Pentecost all you've got to do is to realize that he's been given and you can receive him whenever you like whenever you have faith to do so he's all around you take him in as you breathe the air into your Constitution they would have taught them if it's something that you and I've gotten they would have not only have taught them they would have exhorted them to receive him but they didn't what they did was to pray for them they prayed that they might receive the Holy Ghost and remember that is to be considered in the context of his falling upon them." [00:21:04]