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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the Bibleignmenistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

I want you to take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Acts in chapter 1. One, what I want to talk to you about tonight is about when does the church begin? I talked this morning about when it ends at the rapture. And many people can understand that and agree to that. But a lot of people have trouble believing, well, when did it really start? You may not think that’s important, but I want you to understand why it’s important.

If somebody says the rapture is not going to happen until the end of the tribulation period, can that not affect the way you think and feel and the work that you get done? You’ll be looking for the blessed Antichrist because he has to show up first. Does that affect anything? Any air in theology, any doctrinal air affects your thinking, affects your life, affects what you do and don’t do. There’s things that God wants us to do, and we don’t understand what those are, and they definitely refer to us, then we will not be found as obedient as we ought to be.

Because if God says to do something, and we put that to somebody else at a different time, and it belongs to us, then we’re gonna have trouble being obedient in that area. So this is why it is so important, because maybe here at Calvary, you feel a sense of security thinking, well, they’re dostingly straight, fundamental. So we don’t have to really worry about it. So you can just set 12 year thumbs and whistle through the dark. Don’t worry about anything.

But you may not always be here. God has a way of sometimes moving his people around, putting them in other places so that they might even be a blessing or they could, you know, help teach something or challenge something or whatever. God doesn’t keep all of his people in one spot. I don’t know after 50 years that’s never been the case. They don’t always stay and they seem like they scatter times. And sometimes the Lord spreads people out for His own purpose that we don’t understand.

But when you do, you’re going to find out they’re not everybody’s on the same page. Not everybody believes the gospel the same way. And so there’s many other things in God’s Word. So this is an important issue. So I want to just start with first of all about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and when the church began, Some of these things I’ve covered before, but I wanted to have one sermon where I had it all put together in one sermon.

That may not be done tonight. I sure hope so. But we’re going to get started. So here in the book of Acts in chapter 1, Jesus Christ has come back from the dead. He has shown himself alive after 40 days infallible proofs that what he said was true. He had already told them to go on all the way on preach the gospel. But he also told them to wait until they were in dude with power from on high. So it wasn’t to begin when he gave the command.

They were to go when the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, which was 50 days from the resurrection. So you’ll notice what he says in verse 4, and been assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father which said that ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with a holy ghost, not many days hence. So at this point, being baptized by the Holy Spirit had not yet taken place.

John the Baptist three and a half years before had preached the baptism of repentance. And the baptism of repentance was simply, if you believed, on the one that was coming which was on Christ, they were to be baptized in water. But John told him, says, I baptize you with water, but he that cometh after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. So up until this time, no one has been baptized by the Holy Spirit. But he does tell him here, wait.

Until now look there in verse eight where it says, but ye shall receive power after that a holy ghost has come upon you. In other words, the authority to go and witness to do what I told you to do. Now he’s already told them, but he’s also commanded him not to go till the Holy Spirit came and that was the authority by God for them to go into all the world and praise the gospel. And they were also to baptize him in the name of the Father of the Son and the Son.

Holy Spirit. So that was the command. Reestated here in verse 8, then He says here in chapter 2. In chapter 2, look there in verse 32. Verse 32 says, This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses, therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received past tense of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost. He hath shed forth this which you now see and hear. So when this verse is written, it means that something had to happen between this verse and the verse over there in chapter 1.

It hasn’t happened yet. Verse 33, it’s past tense. So somewhere in between here there had to be the coming of the Holy Spirit and Lord behold, chapter 2, verse 1 says, and when the day of Pentecost was fully come, the Holy Spirit came just like He had promised. And so the people that were there were baptized by the Holy Spirit. And it happened at this time, the first time, that had never happened before, but now it had happened. And this was a baptism of the Holy Spirit for the Jews to be bound together into the body of Christ.

Now take your Bible and turn all the way over there to the book of 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians and chapter 12, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, look in verse 12, for as the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body, bin, many are one body, so also is Christ. Four by one spirit are we all baptized into one body. Now these were carnal Gentile Christians. Yet they ball in baptized by the Holy Spirit.

It didn’t say they all spoke in, but it didn’t say they did that. It didn’t say that all of them could heal and all of them could do this than the other. No, no, no. It said, but you’ve all been baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. There are no scriptures to command anyone to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. The reason is because that’s not your choice. That happens automatic when you trust Christ is your Savior, you are placed into the body of Christ, meaning that when Christ died on that cross, that’s a picture of you on the cross.

You see, He did it in your place. So you were on the cross, you died on the cross, and you paid for your sins on the cross, and you came back from the dead. Now, because what He did was put to your account, it was just like you were in His body. So all believers are in the body of Christ. You have been placed into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit. Now get this. He says all of this in verse 13, whether we be bond or free, Jews are Gentile, have been all made to drink into one spirit.

So one spirit, one body. Now go back there to Acts in chapter 10, Acts in chapter 10. Peter has talked to those on the day of Pentecost, the Jews. Now he’s talking to the Gentiles in chapter 10 and he preaches the the Gentiles the gospel. When he preached this one phrase, look in verse 43, to him give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever, believe it in him, shall receive remission of sins. When they would be lived in Jesus Christ, they would receive remission of sins and then notice very next verse.

While Peter yet spaked these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all of them which heard the word. They heard the word and when they believed they were baptized by the Holy Spirit. So it’s Jews and Gentiles. This has never happened before in all of creation. It’s never happened. This happens now for the first time. Jews, Gentiles baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. So then he says here in Acts chapter 11 very quickly, because he’s now rehearsing what took place at the house of Cornelius who was a Gentile.

And he says in verse 14, “…whoso tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.” And as I begin to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them as on us at the beginning. So there has to be a beginning. When was the first time this ever happened? Yeah. On the day of Pentecost. So Pentecost has to be the day that the church was born. And so you have baptized Jews and Gentiles into one body. This one body is now called the church.

It’s the time of grace. It’s the body age, the church age, the time in which you and I live. Now, these things are important because it’s so important to note when did it first take place? And the Bible says that we’ve all been baptized into one body. Now the next thing I want you to see is this. The church started before Paul. Many people believe that the church wasn’t started until Paul showed up and Paul started the church. That is an heir.

So then they had to change it because there were so many scriptures of disprove it. They said well maybe there was two churches. You know the church before Paul got here and started another church. So that’s why Paul does not teach some of the same things, or that Peter was preaching, or many independent fundamental Bible-emissioner-minded Baptist churches even preach, and what we preach, that it started on the day of Pentecost, and the command that he gave is why this is so important.

So I want you to take your Bible first of all, look there in the book of Matthew chapter 28. Matthew chapter 28. And you will notice the last chapter, last command, which is sometimes called the Great Commission, Great Compassion. And so it’s called these things. And some believe it’s actually caused the Great Cause. Great Stair caused it the Great Cause. So he started a whole thing called the cause. And the cause is a good cause. So look what he says here in verse 18, and Jesus came, spake unto them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever. I have commanded you, and I am with you always, even to the end of the earth, or to the end of the world. Now see, if this command doesn’t hold to the church, We don’t really have a definite command anywhere else in the scriptures like these commands to go into all the world and do it.

It’s more like an option if you want to. It would be nice, but it was a command to do this. And because of the command, there was also to be baptized because it was a picture of what you inwardly believed. And so I believe people have lost out on a great blessing, a step of obedience by not being baptized like God wants them to because there’s some preachers that tell them that you don’t have to be, that it’s not that important.

If God says it’s important, everything God says is important. You and I are not the ones who get to pick and to choose what we want to believe. You’re supposed to read the Bible, study it, and believe it, and they were supposed to live it. And so therefore there’s many who do not believe that this is important. But I I want you to see this. The church, starting by Paul, looked there in chapter two of Acts. Paul did not start the church.

The church, believe it or not, was already here before Paul ever showed up. Paul doesn’t show up until chapter, last part of chapter seven, part of chapter eight, but he didn’t trust the Lord until Acts chapter nine. So a lot of things have been going on in between here. So in Acts chapter two, I want you to look at this verse. Look there in verse 47. Chapter two verse 47. And this is chapter two, right here in the beginning where it says, when Peter had preached this great message to them and all these people who trust the Lord about 3000 of them, he says in verse 47, praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be or were being saved.

Now, here’s the church right here in this verse. Paul doesn’t even show up until chapter nine. So the church existed before Paul came on the scene. And that’s important to know because if you ever leave here and go someplace, you say those things are not important. Everything is important. Everything in the word of God is important. Or God shouldn’t have put it in here. So whenever you’re gonna say this is what it says, then you’ve got to defend your position.

It’s very, very important. So we know from this verse, it was already there. Look there in Acts 8. Acts 8. And look in verse 1. Here is a story of Saul, and this is his name before he became Paul. So he says in verse one, and Saul was consenting unto his death, talking about Stevens who has just been stoned to death in the previous chapter. Saul gave his approval to the man being stoned. And at that time there was a great persecution against the what?

Against the church. How can he persecute the church if it didn’t exist? But it does exist, and it existed before Saul ever got saved. And then he also makes his statement. In verse three, as for Saul, he made havoc of the church entering into every house, hailing men and women, and committing them to prison. So this is definitely proof that the church existed before Paul came on the same. So what God had given to the apostles on the day that he commanded them to go into all the world and preach the gospel as a command.

You see, if it’s true that the church was started by Paul, then the command that was given to the apostles won’t apply. And therefore we have no command to go into all the world. But wait a minute, what does that do to everything that we’re pushing? Why are we doing this? because I do believe the church started when it was supposed to start, and I believe the great command to go into all the world was true. As time goes on little by little people lose their motivation.

They lose that challenge. They forget about that command that we have. It’s more like, well, that’s an option if you want to do something about it. You don’t have to. Is the Bible true? Then we should live it because it’s what it says. Therefore, I believe that these things are true. And I believe that missions is our sole investment. It’s why we do what we do. Think of all the things that we have and what we’re doing and why we doing it.

But if there is no command, we don’t need to do any of it. You take it when you strip it away, there’s no power there. But it’s the challenging thing. Otherwise, how am I supposed to take kids to camp and challenge them to be sole winners if there is no command to do it? Am I doing something that’s wrong? Is it illegal? Am I legalistic? Because you’ve given a command. Some people say, well, if it’s a command, that’s legalism.

It’s just like, you know, parents got children. Is it legalism? If you tell your kid right and wrong, if you tell them to obey and they disobey, you’ve got some do’s and don’ts and some rewards and some punishment. That’s not legalism. I’m not telling anybody, you’ve got to do this to be saved. No. Look at the next when I want you to see there in chapter nine, Acts, chapter nine, and look in verse four, Acts chapter nine, verse four.

And he fell to the earth, talking about Saul. He heard a voice saying unto him, Saul saw why persecuted thou mean? Well, wait a minute, how could Saul persecute Christ, Christ was in heaven? Because the idea of the body made up of believers when you persecute those believers, you’re persecuting the body of Christ. So this idea of this body made up of these believers was true before Paul became Paul. And he was persecuting me. He says, why persecut is thou me?

Also I want you to see this. Because these verses are right here and they make a lot of sense and they help you to see that these things are true. Look in verse 30. When the brethren knew they brought him down to Caesarea and sin him forth to Tarsus. Then had the, and you ought to underline this word, churches, rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria. So where were the churches? There were churches in Judea, churches in Galilee, churches in Samaria.

Well, how did they get there? They were there before Paul came along. So when somebody says, hey, Paul started the church, impossible. They did not. Now there’s things that God revealed to him, but he also revealed them to the other apostles. Paul didn’t learn the gospel from other decipables or apostles. He didn’t learn the truth about the church from the other apostles, because God revealed that knowledge to him. But it wasn’t knowledge that other ones didn’t know or hear or anything about.

That’s in the dispensations that we’ll get into it in another message, but not tonight. Another verse I wanted you to see is found there in Galatians chapter 1. Looking Galatians chapter 1, Galatians chapter 1 and looking verse 13. Galatians chapter 1 verse 13. This is only to show you that Paul could not have found the church and it could not have began with him. The churches were all ready, well established. And he says in verse 13, for you have heard of my behavior, my manner of life and time passing the Jews religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it.

He tried his best to destroy the church. That’s Paul. He didn’t start it. He didn’t establish it, but he had some knowledge that God revealed called mysteries, which we also called and talk about in dispensational truth. And like I said, we’ll get into that in the book of Ephesians in chapter 3, Colossians in chapter 2 and so on. But there’s a lot of scripture that deal with this issue, but you have to get a little bit here and a little bit there, but it all comes together.

Now look Acts 28 because they say the things that belong to the church is not the Old Testament, it’s not the four Gospels, it’s what Paul wrote. So Paul wrote only those things that the Christians need to listen to and learn. Well look what you’ve got, you have robbed God’s people of the rest of the Scriptures that Paul didn’t write. It doesn’t the Bible say in Romans chapter 15 that the Old Testament, these things were written for our learning.

So it may be not to us, but it is for us, and we can learn from reading those things. When you stop and think about it, when Paul did show up on the scene, he didn’t have the New Testament. He preached to the people from the Old Testament and he used Old Testament scriptures. And even in the book of Acts in chapter 9, he said that he went into the synagogue and he preached to them concerning the Son of Man and proven that he was the Christ.

So Son of Man, He was deity, but Christ, He was the Messiah. And He used Old Testament scriptures to show them. And then you’ll also find in the book of Acts where He talks about the Berean Christians, they call them, because they studied the scriptures daily to see whether those things were true. What scriptures? The Old Testament scripture, who was doing it, was the church. And so there’s people the day say, well, those are not for us, and we don’t need those things.

And so there’s a lot of it, they just overstepped all those scriptures and just teach the book that Paul wrote. No, all of the scriptures. Paul made this statement. He said, I have not shunned to declare unto you all. All of it, every last bit of it. But in Acts, in chapter 28, Paul is at the end of his ministry. And so there’s those who say, well, we don’t have to teach concerning the things of Christ. So they don’t even want you to teach concerning Matthew, chapter 28, where he talks about the command.

They don’t want that covered. Because this is what ultra dispensationalists believe. They don’t believe that those things are for today. So it does away with the command. And the teachings of Christ throughout the Gospels, well you don’t have to teach those things. And they rob their people of all of those things, taken away from individuals, the greatest powerful motivating force that a child of God can have, and tell them they don’t need that. And they strip away from them, those things that can help them in so many ways.

Those things were written for our learning. I can take the gospels, I can take even the book of Matthew, and I can go through the 10 virgins and preach the gospel. I can talk about the judgment of the nations and I can preach the gospel. I can take the seventh chapter of the Book of Matthew and take out one thing about the false prophets and the wolf and your understanding that you’ll know them by their fruit and I can preach to you the gospel because it doesn’t contradict the gospel.

Those are illustrations that help you to understand you cannot save yourself by your works. There’s nothing wrong with those books. And I don’t like it when somebody takes and tries to strip away the most powerful thing all the world. What Jesus said. Now this is why this one verse is so powerful and so important. Look in Acts in chapter 28 and notice what he says in verse 25. This is at the end of Paul’s ministry right before he was going to lose his head.

He’s in Rome and he says in verse 25, and when they agreed not among themselves, they departed. After that, Paul had spoken one word. Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the profit unto our fathers. Here is quote in the Old Testament again, saying, go into this people and say, here in ye shall hear and shall not understand. See and ye shall see and not perceive, for the heart of this people is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and should be converted and I should heal them.

Be it known therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and that they will hear it. And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had great reason among themselves. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him. Preaching, now look what he was preaching to this people toward the end of his life. The very thing they say, you’re not supposed to talk about or to preach and we don’t need those things.

That’s not for the church. Well look what he said, preaching the kingdom of God, teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ. With all confidence, no man forbidding him. In other words, he had the freedom to speak. And this is what they were doing. Now, if Paul did start the church, there is no command to the church then. And the baptizing, then it wouldn’t have been to the church. So that means when Paul came, then he shouldn’t have been baptized.

And he should have nothing to do with anybody being baptized. If he’s not under the command, but what does the scripture say? I thought you’d ask and I want to show you this. Look in Acts chapter two, verse 41. Acts chapter two. And verse 41. You’ll notice something that’s very interesting. In verse 41, then they that gladly received his word were what? They were baptized. So on the very first day that the church began, they were not only baptized by the Holy Spirit, many were baptized in water.

Because that was the command. This is what they were supposed to do. Also, notice they’re in Acts 8. Acts 8 and look in verse 12. We know at this time, right before Saul believed on the Lord and became Paul, It says here in verse 12, it says, but when they believe Philip preaching, the things concerning the, what’s those words? Kingdom of God. Same thing that Paul was preaching at the end of his ministry. Concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

Then Simon himself believed also in when he was baptized. So were they still baptized in at this time? Yes. Also look there in verse 35. This is Philip who is now preaching. And notice what he says, didn’t Philip open his mouth and begin at the same scripture and preach unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came into a certain water and the eunuch said, see, here is water. What did the henry me to be baptized?

Philip then entered and said, if thou believe it with all thine heart, thou mayest. So what was the key before you could be baptized? You had to believe, right? You had to believe on the Lord. And the anson said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. So he believed that son of God is referring to his deity. Jesus Christ, he’s the Messiah, but he’s also God in the flesh. He commanded in verse 38 that chariot to stand till they went both down into the water.

Now you don’t go down into the water. If all you need is to spring a little bit on the head, then it says the verse 39, when they come up out of the water. Now they were still baptized in it this time. Now in chapter nine is when salt trusts the Lord. Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr. Arnold’s book, The Gospel Driven Man.

Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the Gospel with friends and loved ones. This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics, and we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a free copy. There’s no obligation, no donation necessary, simply call us at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of the Gospel-Driven Main. The mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634.

Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address, and God bless you and thank you for listening to Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Taught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day.

Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.