This is the Truth Network. In our previous episode, we learned that the tongues of fire that came on Pentecost Day brought the fire of devotion. They also brought the fire of light. But what kind of life?
Well, stay with us, listen, and learn. You're listening to Until He Comes, a blend of prophetic and practical biblical studies with Dr. Greg Hinnant, author of The Second Coming of Christ, His Appearing, His Return, Our Preparation. And now, author and teacher Greg Hinnant. Welcome to the broadcast.
Today we're going to continue studying tongues of fire. Yeah. The fire of God that fell on Pinkos Day brought light to the upper moon. you know all fire produces light. For instance, camp fires, they provide not just cooking, And warmth.
But light. Similarly, These tongues of fire brought light. to the upper room.
Now what kind of light Did they bring?
Well, let's examine that. First of all, They brought the light of truth. Truth frees us from the deception and bondage of darkness. What is darkness?
Well, it has a Varied interpretation. the darkness of sin. Spiritual darkness entered this world. The day Adam and Eve sinned. And has continued since.
So, the first darkness is the darkness of sin. Anytime you or I, my friend, choose to sin against God. We walk in darkness and we permit darkness to enter our soul. even if it's just an area of our soul, And that is a dangerous thing. What is sin?
Seeing Yes, well, of course, it is a nature. Sins are the acts of the sins of the sins of the sins. that spring from that nature. What are sins? Sins?
are those acts which disobey the known will of God. That is, we know what God's will says in a certain issue and we do not do it. We do something else. These are sins in God's sight, and they spring from the sin nature we all have. In common.
Sin manifests in different ways in every Christian's life and every unbeliever's life, but We all share a common sin, nature, which we inherited from from the federal head of the human race, Adam. I believe I heard John Hege say one time that when he gets to heaven, he's going to kick Adam in the rear end for all the trouble that he caused. You know, I hope he doesn't make good on that threat, but you know, I don't know whether he will or not. Then there's the darkness of falsehood. Falsehood statements which are intentionally or unintentionally inaccurate.
Last Deceptions. The saint Pretence Oh, my goodness. The Psalms have so much to say about the lying tongue. and the dreadful effects. and the sure judgment of God upon those who continue to lie.
harmfully about others. We're not talking about An innocent inaccuracy. We're talking about an intentional misrepresentation to cause Other people. To reject, judge, or despise someone. Yeah.
Then there's the darkness of false worship of false gods. All around the globe today. Millions, hundreds of millions of people are worshiping. False gods. God's that in reality do not exist.
Paul says they're demons. And they are merely fronted or Faced. By the And the name of a particular deity. That is, behind the purported deity is a demon. The worship being offered to Allah or some other god is in fact being offered to a demon.
And we're told have nothing to do with it.
So There is the darkness of sin. Falsehood. false doctrine and false religion. and false gods. The light of truth Once received, Frees us from all that.
And it's the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of truth. He is the essence of truth. All truth is derived from Him. flows from him. And he bears witness to what is true, but does not.
Bear witness to falsehood. Pay attention, friend, to the witness of the Spirit in your lie. When you hear a teaching And it may be new to you, but it is biblical. And the Holy Spirit bears witness, saying, in effect, Yes, this is correct. Pay attention to that.
How will he bear witness to you? Oh, I can't tell you that. That's something I've heard uh described as being better felt than tilt. I could say how he Bears witness to me, but that may not be the way he bears witness to you. But the witness of the Spirit will follow truth, and truth is determined.
by the word of God. The canon. The Old and New Testament. This awesome sixty six book library. We have Oh my goodness.
We should be so thankful. Men and women died. to get the word of God into print for us, into the vernacular where we could understand it. For so long The Catholic Church kept the Word of God hidden from the laiity. And from many of the priests, the priests didn't even know the Word of God.
They just. blindly and rotely. Red The mass. which was in Latin the people did not understand it, unless they were privileged. to be educated well.
We have the light of the Bible, and we should be praising God every day for it. Jesus said, thy word is Truth, John seventeen, seventeen. The psalmist wrote, The entrance, the opening, the unfolding of thy words give. Light. Psalm one nineteen one thirty.
So the first light we received In the church age. as a result of the viscetation of the Spirit of Truth in the form of tongues of fire, was the light of truth. Oh, thank you, Lord, for this wonderful light. which is still in the Church today, and which makes us the light of the world. Then there is the light of the Father.
Jesus came to shed light on the Father. Who is he? What's he like? What does he like? What does he not like?
What does he approve of? What does he disapprove of? What gives em joy, and what makes him burn. With holy anger. We see and learn all of this.
In Jesus. Jesus sheds light on who the Father is. everything about the father. Jesus said in John 14:9, He that hath seen me has seen the father. There is no distinction between the two.
The sun is the image of the Father, the Father's image is seen in the Son. Jesus of Nazareth was, still is, and forever will be God's special revelation. To the world.
Now you know the scriptures. or an awesome revelation. But Jesus. Is the special revelation. You will hear teachers say that the Bible is the special revelation.
Well, I'm not going to argue with them about it, I understand what they mean. The Bible contains the Logos, the thought of God. The expression of his essence, who he is, how he thinks, what he feels. And it's put to us in words that we can understand. Jesus Was the word.
Incarnate the word in flesh. The word living among us. The word become one of us.
So we could examine him. and learn in greater detail. What the father is like. And what is not like?
Now, with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Who is Christ's appointed teacher for us as Christians and the Church? We can have light on that is, understanding of, virtually any biblical See? Any biblical truth is now is now accessible, understandable, interpretable. To the simplest Christian.
Now, not without study, not without prayer, not without using the study age we have available to us, of course. God's not going to just drop the meaning of the word into your lap. Oh, no. No, Jesus didn't say that. But he said the Holy Spirit would teach us, implying You and I are teachable.
Are you a teacher about a day? Or is your mind so made up On any particular subject, for instance, this one. The baptism of the Holy Spirit and the light that comes to the church through this experience, the light that entered the church. at the first experience of this spiritual baptism, this mighty spiritual baptism, is your mind so made up because of this or that pastor's opinion That you would not accept the light of the Word of God on it. Hm, then, friend, I would consider Changing my attitude and saying, Lord, you know.
I don't understand this. I've been taught against it. I know some people that say they have experienced it and are sound, and some who say they have experienced it and they're unsound. I don't want to be like them.
Well, no one's asking you to. But God does ask you to be open-minded toward His Word.
Now I'm as closed minded as any one else to that which clearly contradicts his word, or extra biblical revelation, for instance, the Book of Mormon. You needn't hand me the Book of Mormon. I'm not going to read it. I'm not afraid to. I'm just not going to waste my time reading it because it is extra-biblical revelation.
Written by a man who was noted for being a story teller before he ever came up with one of the wildest stories. conceived in religious history about how God appeared to him, supposedly. and gave him Revelation.
So The screen. Spirit has come to bring the light to us the light of truth, the light of the Father. The light that filling the word of God. Then he brings the light of salvation. Jesus said twice these words, you must be Born again.
That is, you must experience a complete Spiritual Regeneration or restart in lie. And he clarified that this saving birth is not physical, but it is, quote, of the Spirit. Let me read to you John 3, 5 through 7. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that is what I am about to tell you is exactly true. The Essence of Truth.
Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, He cannot enter into the kingdom of God. We can't Under heaven, if we haven't been born naturally, that is born of water, of our mother's water which broke before she gave birth to us. and now also born Being saved Being born again is a Awesome miracle. A direct act of the Spirit of God. This month, for a gift of any amount, receive Dr.
Hinnant's book, Word Portraits: Five Illustrations of the Mature Christian. This well-researched, insightful book paints five colorful portrayals of the surprisingly similar characteristics between mature Christians and five things: stoneware pottery, eagles, ants, salt, and the biblical wise men from the East. You will be amazed and changed by what you discover. For a gift of $60 or more, we'll send you the complete four-volume Hinnant End Times Prophecy Collection: The Second Coming of Christ, The Tribulation Story, Revelation Notes, a verse-by-verse commentary on Revelation, and the Day of the Lord commentary, which interprets all Old Testament prophecies and foreshadowings of the end times. And if you are a Logos Bible software user, You may purchase all four of these books from the Logos Online Bookstore.
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Now, again, Dr. Hinnant.
So he says, unless you've had this experience, you can't even enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. The natural birth brings the natural life. In the natural world. And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
When you are born again of the Spirit, you now have a new spiritual capacity. That you did not have before. A new interest comes, at least initially, along with that, and if you feed it, the interest will grow. If you don't, It will dry up.
So That which is born of the Spirit is spiritual. You now have. a new ability to enter into and explore spiritual truth and spiritual life. He goes on to say, Marvel not that I said unto thee, You must be born again. The word must, of course, is in the imperative mood.
The understood subject is you. In this case, it's stated, you must be born again.
So this is not optional, it is obligatory if I plan on going to heaven. and spend it in eternity with God. This is the light of salvation. It comes to us directly from the lips of the light of the world. Jesus.
Some churches do not hold to this, I would say. A number of them. Rather than insists that Eternal life comes through a new birth experience. They have reduced this to a religious ceremony or ordinance. Specifically, Water baptism.
Water baptism does not save you. At all. It is a sign. Voluntarily entered into by the believer of what he or she believes has already occurred in their soul. the day they repented of sin.
and receive Jesus into their heart as their Saviour and Lord.
Now, all other purported ways of salvation are utterly. False. Utterly dark. They're conceived By demons, the rulers of the darkness of this world in Paul's Parlance and Ephesians six, verse twelve. These rulers of darkness Use men and women who appear to be angels of light.
They say, We're bringing you truth from God. I have a gift from God. Edgar Casey said he had a gift from God. Jean Dixon says she had a gift from God.
Well, they were angels of light. In the same way, Joseph Smith said he is a light bearer. And he brought and has brought millions of people into deadly Darkness. But in fact, these angels of light peddle utter spiritual darkness. Paul warned us.
Satan's prime servants disguise themselves as agents of light. I am not surprised. Even Satan, said Paul. Disguises himself as an angel of light, so it is no wonder that his servants also. disguise themselves as servants.
of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve. Second Corinthians eleven, fourteen and fifteen in the New Living Translation.
So The light that came at Pentecost brings us the light of salvation, and that light. will show us every time. what darkness is. Darkness is any doctrine that disagrees with it. Satyology Think about that word.
the study of salvation doctrine, how it comes about and how we receive that salvation from God. It is by far the most important. Dark trend. and school of thought. theological field, if you will.
How are we to be saved, Jesus? laid it out there force. You don't have to be a theologian or a PhD to understand Jesus' words. You must be born again. Simple.
A child can understand it. That is the way of salvation, and his words in John 3 give us light on that. By the way, His words in John four, verses ten through fourteen, give us light on the second work of grace, the baptism. with the Holy Spirit, which we are in part discussing in this Series of tongues of fire.
Now, of course, we're not talking about the experience, but the light. Which springs from that experience.
Now, I want to qualify this as well. A person who's been born again also has light. The same light we're talking about here. But I think it's fair to say they won't have The Amount of light That someone who is baptized in the Holy Spirit and who is living a humble, obedient life. Can have.
Now This light is also the light of divine guidance. Oh, here is a great subject. Everybody can identify with this. In Psalm 119, 105, the Bible states, Thy word. is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
The Word of God gives you light. on what you should do and how you should decide the issues of life. In many areas. Not every area. but many areas.
You say, wait a minute, Dr. Henney, that gives us light in every area. No, my friend, the Bible is a skeletal revelation of God, it is not. Exhaustive. It does not address every single decision of every single person and every single circumstance that they come across.
No, not at all. The Bible doesn't tell you who to marry and who not to marry. The Bible doesn't tell you what car to buy or not to buy. The Bible doesn't tell you what friend specifically. to make and what Friendship to decline it does give you general principles about whether the friend is godly or not.
Isaiah 50 verse 10 says this. It describes a God fearing believer temporarily enduring the darkness Of unknowing. Hm, this is odd. We just said a few minutes ago that darkness usually means the darkness of sin, of falsehood, of falsehood. false teaching, false religion.
False gods. Well, here darkness is used in connexion with a God fearing man or woman. Fifth. Let's read on. It's going to tell us about the darkness of unknowing.
That Sometimes we go here. We don't know yet what. we are to do next.
So Psalm Excuse me, Isaiah 50 verse 10 says this, Who is he that fears the Lord? and that obeys the voice of his servant? And I'm going to say and yet that walks in darkness and has no light.
Now this seems to be incongruous it seems to be Ill fitted, it seems that this verse is out of balance. On the one hand we have a man who fears the Lord and obeys his voice. And this text says the same man Not a different one. is walking in darkness and has no light. What in the world?
I think Isaiah was confused. No, my friend, he had it right. He had it right. There are times when Enoch walked with the Lord. God hides from us the next step we are to take.
Why? Because we are to learn to walk by faith and not by sight. To live completely dependent upon Christ, not partially.
So, in this text, Isaiah says, Who is he among you who fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? That is, who is a good servant of God? And yet, Is walking in darkness and has no light. Let him trust the name of the Lord. And stay upon his God.
That is, let him trust the nature of God, the faithfulness of God. Has God ever failed you before, friend? If he has failed you, please write me at P.O. Box 788 High Point NC. North uh two seven two six two or Send your email to Info at Greg Candid Ministries.org and tell me when, where, and how, God Almighty.
failed you. No, he hasn't failed you. No, not at all. You may have thought that he did, but upon Humbler and closer examination you found out what the real problem was and in most cases it was you that failed him, not he that failed you. And in other cases, it may have been that you were involved in someone else's situation.
They were in rebellion to God. That got you into trouble. It wasn't God's Fault, he never is unfaithful. to his children who fear him.
So this text says, Lady and trust in the name of the Lord, trust that God is still faithful and good, and stay upon his God, meaning lean on God. If you don't know what to do, do nothing until you know what to do. Stay close to God. Talk to him about the situation. Surrender your will to him under his mighty hand.
That's the place of power and safety, and ask Him, Lord, Please show me your path. That's all I care about and that's all I'm going to do. And this text says Unto the upright light arises in the darkness. That's Psalm one twelve four. It reassures us that no matter how dark it may be and how long the darkness continues, the light will come.
in God's time and way, that is. if we continue to walk uprightly. Isaiah fifty verse ten And Psalm 112 4 Give us the other side of the story. While darkness usually represents sin, unbelief, Falsehood. false religion, false gods, etcetera.
In this case, it represents the darkness of unknowing, not yet knowing. what the next step in God's plan is going to be. Paul had this experience in Troas. And uh we're told about this in Acts 16. Vars is 6 through 10.
Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia, what? Forbidden of the Wer of the Holy Spirit to preach the word? That's what the Bible says. After they were come to Micia they essayed or attempted to go to Bithynia, which was due north, but the Spirit suffered them not. The Spirit didn't allow them to go on a mission?
And they passed by Mysia and they came to Troas. Troas was a city on what is now the western shore of Turkey. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us. And after he has seen the vision, Luke writes, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia.
assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us to preach the Gospel. Unto them. This is an amazing example and shows you Paul's complete submission to God. He wanted to go. to Asia.
And he was denied. He wanted to go to Bithynia, and he was denied.
So obediently he waited on God, and God spoke in the vision, showed him that Macedonia was the place he should go. He went there, the church of Uh Philippa. was founded And he successfully obeyed. The guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is such an important lesson.
We see here that he was checked, and he accepted the check. He had to wait in this darkness, this darkness of unknowing. He waited there. Perhaps you're there right now. Don't rush your head.
Stale got trusty. and pray to him daily until he shows you what you should do.
So then Paul Once you knew the will of God, obeyed promptly. He did the will of God and he was successful in his work.
So, friend, here we have... an important lesson. Please take it to heart and walk in the light of divine Guidance. If this message has blessed you, tell your friends and please consider helping us stay on the air by sending your tax-deductible donation to Greg Hennett Ministries. Also, remember, you may download the Until He Comes podcast from your preferred podcast app.
May you walk closely with Christ and trust and obey Him in your daily tests of faith and patience until He Comes. This is the Truth Network. Yeah.
