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THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

A sermon written by Dr. R. L. Hymers, Jr.
and preached by Mr. John Samuel Cagan
at the Baptist Tabernacle of Los Angeles
Lord's Day Morning, July 9, 2017

“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13).


Some of you think last year’s revival didn’t do much good. But you are wrong. It’s true that the Devil came down several times. It’s true the Devil confused some people. But that kind of thing always happens in revival. When the Holy Spirit comes down, the “waters boil.” There’s an upheaval, and some of it is negative. It’s negative because the Devil is fighting with all of his might to stop the revival. Dr. Hymers is going to preach on that tonight. But you are wrong if you think the revival did not help us. That small “touch” of revival changed my life! I hated the prospect of becoming a pastor. Dr. Hymers spent hours trying to convince me. But I clenched my jaws and said, “I will never do it!” Finally Dr. Hymers gave up on me. He was about to go to another young man. But I said, “All right, I’ll do it.” Dr. Hymers didn’t believe me. I had a hard time convincing him I would do it. But I had changed my mind and I will do it! Pray for God to help me! I will need a lot of prayer! Dr. Hymers says that he was very surprised at my change of heart. He thinks that answer to his prayers was nearly as great a miracle as the conversion of his mother at the age of eighty! I surrendered to preach the Gospel during the “touch” of revival last year. Dr. Hymers says that my surrender to preach was worth the whole “touch” of revival – that if nothing else had happened, my surrender to preach would have validated that “touch” of revival even if nothing else had happened!

When I preached my first sermon, Dr. Hymers prophesied that I would preach in person throughout the Third World. I thought he was wrong. But I have already preached in the Dominican Republic with many hopeful conversions. And next week my father and I will go to three different places in India, where I will preach the Gospel every night to many hundreds of people. My surrender to preach, and openings for me to preach in these two Third World countries, came out of that “touch” of revival last year! It changed my life forever!

“How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13).

Prayer changes things! Believe it! Believe it and pray again for God to rend the heavens and come down in His holy presence among us!

We had just a “touch” of revival – but look at what else happened as a result. We got Noah Song, a mighty preacher of the Gospel! We got Aaron Yancy and Jack Ngann as our new deacons!

“How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13).

We had just a “touch” of revival. But look what we got as a result! We got Christine Nguyen and Shirley Lee as prayer warriors! We got Dr. Chan as a powerful man of God!

If you have been a Christian for any length of time, you have an idea of how long it takes for most people to get saved. It is hard for those born in the church to be awakened. It is hard for those who come into the church out of the world to be awakened. Many churches go for years without gaining a single convert from the world. In this church, where Dr. Hymers places a heavy emphasis on Gospel-evangelistic preaching, where an all-out effort is put into evangelism, with special prayers offered almost constantly for souls – we are happy to have one convert a month who stays in the church and becomes a strong Christian The ground is dry. The souls are dry. We live in a dry time. But God is a God of mercy and He keeps His promises!

“I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring” (Isaiah 44:3).

Listen to what God did in that small revival last year. Jesse Zacamitzin got saved! Virgel Nickell got saved! Minh Vu got saved! Alicia Zacamitzin got saved! Danny Carlos got saved! Ayako Zabalaga got saved! Timothy Chan got saved! Joseph Gong got saved! Julie Sivilay got saved! And I’m glad of that! Baiyang Zhang got saved! Andrew Matsusaka got saved! Thomas Luong got saved! Tom Xia got saved! Erwinn Luu got saved! Jessica Yin got saved! Robert Wang got saved! Susan Chu got saved! We will baptize about 20 people in November who were hopefully saved in that “touch” of revival and its aftermath! A few of them may fail the test, but Dr. Cagan thinks most of them are converted. This is what happens when God moves! “Praise the Lord, Oh My Soul.” Stand and sing it! Sing it!!!

Praise the Lord, Oh my soul, And all that is within me,
Praise His holy name.
Praise the Lord, Oh my soul, And all that is within me,
Praise His holy name.
For He has done great things, Hallelujah!
He has done great things, Hallelujah!
He has done great things, Praise His holy name!
   (“Praise the Lord, Oh My Soul,” from Psalm 103:1).

Sing it again!

“How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13).

Why is the Holy Spirit so important? Cessationists say that there is no need for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit today. Cessationists say that “It is not Scriptural to pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit today. The Spirit was poured out once and for all at Pentecost.” They ignore the fact that the Bible teaches “there shall be showers of blessing” (Ezekiel 34:26). They forget God’s promise,

“I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring” (Isaiah 44:3).

Stand and sing “Showers of Blessing,” stanza two. It’s number 3 on the song sheet.

“There shall be showers of blessing,” Precious reviving again;
   Over the hills and the valleys, Sound of abundance of rain.
Showers of blessing, Showers of blessing we need:
   Mercy drops round us are falling, But for the showers we plead.
(“There Shall Be Showers of Blessing” by Daniel W. Whittle, 1840-1901).

They forget the great prayer of Isaiah,

“Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!” (Isaiah 64:1, 2).

You may be seated.

“Oh,” they say, “those promises are only in the Old Testament.” But they are wrong. After the outpouring of God’s Spirit on the Day of Pentecost – afterwards Peter said, “The promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:39). What promise? “The gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38). This is made clear in Acts 3:19, “When the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”

Dr. A. W. Tozer was not a fanatic. He was in full agreement with his friend, Dr. Lloyd-Jones. Dr. Tozer said,

      It is impossible for the outpouring which came at Pentecost to affect persons who were not present or congregations not yet in existence...the teaching of the New Testament is that the outpouring at Pentecost was the historical beginning of an era which was to be characterized by a continuous outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Dr. A. W. Tozer, Paths of Power, pp. 49-61).

“Showers of Blessing.” Stand and sing stanza 2 again!

“There shall be showers of blessing,” Precious reviving again;
   Over the hills and the valleys, Sound of abundance of rain.
Showers of blessing, Showers of blessing we need:
   Mercy drops round us are falling, But for the showers we plead.

“Mercy drops” of the Holy Spirit fell on us in the “touch” of revival we had last year. The Holy Spirit came down among us and more than fifteen people were converted, and have a testimony that Dr. Cagan passed as genuine. The Holy Spirit came down as we prayed for Him to come down. We will baptize about 20 people who were converted in that “touch” of revival power. But we want more! Sing the chorus,

Showers of blessing,
   Showers of blessing we need:
Mercy drops round us are falling,
   But for the showers we plead.

Again, Dr. Tozer said, “That God’s promise of poured-out power is meant for the church for the whole time of her earthly warfare is confirmed to us by the experiences of [two thousand] years” (ibid., p. 52). Revival power is being poured out in China right now. The Holy Spirit is bringing revival to parts of India, and parts of Africa right now. Dr. Tozer said that this can “be explained only as new chapters in God’s unfinished book, the Acts of the Holy Ghost” (ibid.).

We cannot be satisfied with anything less than a shower of God’s Spirit upon our church. We can have strong preaching, but without God’s Spirit the preaching will be powerless to convert sinners. We can have prayer meetings, but without God’s Spirit we will only be mouthing words for an hour. We can have “fellowship,” but without God’s Spirit we will only be passing the time in each other’s company. Jesus said, “Without me ye can do nothing…with man it is impossible.” Only when the Holy Spirit is present are these things possible.

We had a “touch” of revival when the Holy Spirit fell on our church last year. Many young people were converted. Many who were already saved were revived. I myself surrendered to preach. That “touch” of revival changed our church forever. But we want more! We want more of God’s presence! We want more of the Spirit’s conviction! We want more deliverance from Satan and his demons! We want more faith! We want more hope! We want more charity – more love for each other in our church! We want to claim the power of God! We want Jesus Christ Himself to be the answer to our sin and unbelief! We want the Spirit of God to magnify Jesus among us!

“I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring” (Isaiah 44:3).

Stand and sing all of hymn number three!

“There shall be showers of blessing,” This is the promise of love;
   There shall be seasons refreshing, Sent from the Saviour above.
Showers of blessing, Showers of blessing we need:
   Mercy drops round us are falling, But for the showers we plead.

“There shall be showers of blessing,” Precious reviving again;
   Over the hills and the valleys, Sound of abundance of rain.
Showers of blessing, Showers of blessing we need:
   Mercy drops round us are falling, But for the showers we plead.

“There shall be showers of blessing,” Send them upon us, O Lord;
   Grant to us now a refreshing, Come, and now honor Thy Word.
Showers of blessing, Showers of blessing we need:
   Mercy drops round us are falling, But for the showers we plead.

“There shall be showers of blessing,” Oh, that today they might fall,
   Now as to God we’re confessing, Now as on Jesus we call!
    Mercy drops round us are falling, But for the showers we plead.
(“There Shall Be Showers of Blessing” by Daniel W. Whittle, 1840-1901).

Do you want to know the love of God? Then you must have Jesus. You are separated from God by your sin. If you go on like you are, you will never have peace with God. You must turn from your sinful life-style. You must turn to Jesus. He died on the Cross to pay the penalty for your sin. Come to Jesus. Trust Jesus. Turn your life over to Jesus. Jesus will cleanse you from sin with His Blood. Only trust Him. Only trust Him. Only trust Him now. He will save you. He will save you. He will save you now. I know because Jesus saved me. And He will save you too. Dr. Hymers, please come and close this service.


WHEN YOU WRITE TO DR. HYMERS YOU MUST TELL HIM WHAT COUNTRY YOU ARE WRITING FROM OR HE CANNOT ANSWER YOUR E-MAIL. If these sermons bless you send an e-mail to Dr. Hymers and tell him, but always include what country you are writing from. Dr. Hymers’ e-mail is at rlhymersjr@sbcglobal.net (click here). You can write to Dr. Hymers in any language, but write in English if you can. If you want to write to Dr. Hymers by postal mail, his address is P.O. Box 15308, Los Angeles, CA 90015. You may telephone him at (818)352-0452.

(END OF SERMON)
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Scripture Read Before the Sermon by Dr. Kreighton L. Chan: Matthew 7:7-11.
Solo Sung Before the Sermon by Mr. Benjamin Kincaid Griffith:
“Fill All My Vision” (by Avis Burgeson Christiansen, 1895-1985).