Going to Jesus

Gospel Tracts

 Select a tract to read:

• Tracts 1-50

  1. How I Received the Holy Ghost 2. Jesus Is Coming Again 3. You Must Be Born Again 4. Stir Up the Gift of God 5. The World’s Most Dreaded Hour 6. What is Salvation? 7. Stand Still in Jordan 9. Grieved Hearts 10. The Second Death 11. The Father and the Son 12. Suffering and the Saints 13. Cancer Conquered 14. The Church? 15. How Shall They Preach, Except They Be Sent? 16. Have You Received the Holy Ghost Since You Believed? 17. Patience 18. Alone With God 19. Tithes and Offerings 20. Prayer 21. The True Sabbath 22. The Besetting Sin 23. The Cry of the Righteous 24. What Will the Harvest Be? 25. Marriage and Divorce 26. Taking the Name of the Lord 27. The Keys of the Kingdom 28. Works 29. Politics and Believers 30. Unequally Yoked in Marriage 31. Coming Out of Babylon 32. The Forgiven Woman 33. The New Earth 34. The Sin of Silence 35. Freedom 36. Gods of the Gentiles 37. Why Some Are Not Healed 38. The Seven Pillars 39. Life, More Abundantly 40. Fear 41. The Comforter’s Testimony 42. This is My Friend 43. Conversion 44. The Time Is Drawing Near? 45. Songs in the Night 46. The Master’s Net 47. Trials are Opportunities 48. Receiving the Messenger 49. Seven Messages to the Seven Pastors 50. Keep Yourself Pure

• Tracts 51-100

  51. The New Birth 52. John the Baptist and Jesus 53. Denying Jesus 54. Bruised Reeds 56. The Wise and the Foolish 57. Holiness 58. Is Jesus God? 59. Christ or Christianity 60. Have Faith In God 61. Worthy to Suffer 63. Four Kinds of Soil 64. Communion 65. The Fullness of Time 66. Baptism 68. No Room 69. Crucified With Christ 70. Homosexuality and the Bible 71. The Kingdom of God 72. The Gospel of Christ 74. Perseverance 75. The Resurrection 76. Salvation 77. Sanctification 78. New Commandments 79. The Sacrifice of Christ 81. The Sound of the Spirit 82. The Wrath of God 84. God’s Compass 85. Perfection 86. The Abomination of Desolation 87. Antichrist 88. The Way of Grace 90. Relationships 91. The Vineyard of God 93. Subdued 94. The Spirit of Christ 95. The Blood of Christ 96. Spirit of a Serpent, Spirit of a Dove 97. Gluttony 98. The Lost Lamb 99. Scripture Burners 100. Bleating and Lowing

 

Our text tells us that the Comforter himself testifies when he comes.  In Acts 2, when the Comforter first came, he testified through the disciples of the Lord.  Jesus had told them, “You will be my witnesses,” and this was fulfilled at Pentecost.  After the Comforter had testified in tongues through Peter and the other disciples, Peter stood up and, in his own language, gave a wonderful, convincing testimony.  The testimony of both the Comforter and Peter, working together, accomplish a remarkable change in many lives, and I am persuaded that the same two witnesses, God’s and man’s, will be required to bring about the long-awaited, end-time revival spoken of by the prophets.

Solomon said, “Two are better than one because they have a better reward for their toil” (Eccl. 4:9).  Moreover, under Moses’ law, no one was condemned without the testimony of at least two witnesses.  Referring to this holy standard, Jesus said, “In your law, it is written that the testimony of two men is true.  I am one who bears witness of myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness of me” (Jn. 8:17–18).  The Father bore witness of the Son many times, especially at his baptism by John in the Jordan River when the Comforter descended as a dove upon Jesus, and a voice from heaven cried out, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  Friend, do you have a testimony from God?

The Spirit’s witness, the Comforter’s Testimony, sets God’s way of salvation apart from all other religions.  No religion but God’s bears His mark of approval, the Spirit’s testimony.  Only God’s is a two-testimony religion.  Throughout history, people everywhere have claimed to belong to God, but man’s testimony is insufficient if it is alone.  It is the second testimony, God’s, that seals the covenant.  Paul wrote, “The Spirit bears witness, together with our spirit, that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:16).  God’s Spirit and yours are the two witnesses, my Reader.  I know that you have one of them, but what about the one that confirms the covenant, the Comforter’s Testimony?  In other words, did the Spirit of God testify through you when it came into your heart?

Have Tongues Ceased?

Many other miraculous wonders preceded the death of Christ Jesus, but not the sign of the new covenant: the Comforter’s Testimony.  Upon reading Paul’s words, “tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to those who do not believe” (1Cor. 14:22), one should ask, “what is speaking in tongues a sign of ?”  The answer is that God ordained the new miracle of speaking in tongues as a sign to guide sinners to Himself.  Sinners need the saints to speak in tongues!

It is remarkable that, despite the testimonies of multitudes of Spirit-baptized believers, many people deny the existence of the Comforter’s Testimony.  Some admit that the earliest disciples spoke in tongues, but then they say that tongues have ceased, though they cannot say who did away with them.  Can you imagine Jesus, after coming to this sinful world and giving his life to complete God’s plan of salvation, allowing someone to change His plan or to do away with part of it?  No, my friend, the New Testament is eternal and unchangeable.  Jesus declared, “My words will never pass away.”  We must go God’s way, for “he who climbs up at some other place is a thief and a robber.”

The Scriptures give no indication of the withdrawal of the blessings Christ bestowed.  Long after the initial outpouring of the holy Spirit in Acts 2, the saints were still speaking in tongues and thanking God for it (1Cor. 14:18).  Gentiles received the Spirit and spoke in tongues long after Pentecost.  And remember, Paul strictly warned the saints that if any man, or even an angel, came preaching any other gospel than that which he preached, he was accursed (Gal. 1:8–9).  If anyone has caused speaking in tongues to cease, it is Christian ministers who teach against it, not Jesus, who purchased that blessing with his blood.

Some, with foolish boldness, dare to teach that speaking in tongues is of the Devil.  How I fear for such men!  They may be sealing their eternal judgment, for Jesus said, “All sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies that they might utter, but whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit has no forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation” (Mk. 3:28–29).  Those who were first baptized with the Spirit were mocked and accused of being drunk (Acts 2:13), and ignorant men at times still mock Spirit-filled people.  Paul knew that those who were unlearned in the things of God would call the saints insane when they spoke in tongues (1Cor. 14:23), but Paul also knew that by speaking in tongues, the saints were “giving thanks well.”  My friend, never mock what you do not understand.  Peter said some men would be destroyed for doing that (2Pet. 2:12).

Yes, many teach that speaking in tongues is not for today, but God knows their hearts.  In fact, it is precisely because God knows their hearts that they have not received His Spirit and do not speak in tongues.  Peter said that God gives the holy Spirit to all who obey Him (Acts 5:32).  Therefore, we know that those who have not yet received the Spirit and spoken in tongues have not completed their obedience to God, though they certainly may do so; we pray that they will.

The gift of God’s holy Spirit, and the miraculous sign of tongues that it brings with it, came to us at a very great cost.  It cost God the sending of His beloved Son from the perfection of his heavenly home to an earth steeped in heartache, sorrow, disease, sin, and death.  It cost the Savior inexpressible anguish and ignominious death on Calvary’s cross.

After the Lord ascended, his disciples went forth with miraculous signs attending their message.  Jesus had told them to teach “whatsoever I have commanded you.”  And what he had commanded them was to preach the gospel, saying, “These signs shall accompany those who believe: in my name, they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mk. 16:17–18).  Yes, speaking in tongues is one of the signs of the true body of Christ.  Proud men make great efforts to discredit these verses, but every faithful child of God knows that those words are from Jesus.

Proof

Not knowing what the Comforter’s Testimony is, some people, more full of confidence than of knowledge, refer to their happy feelings as proof that they possess the Spirit.  Eventually, however, such people, if sincere, must admit that this witness is an unreliable one.  It will fail them in time of greatest need.  Right now, while in favor with men, while in health, while financially secure, while surrounded with friends, they feel blessed; but later, when those conditions are reversed, they will feel unhappy.  They will lose what they suppose to be the Comforter’s Testimony.  Others point to “what the Bible says” as proof of their having the Spirit, but friend, the Bible has never said anything.  It is a book; it can only be read.  And whether or not someone understands what he has read is the issue.

Others think that the Comforter’s Testimony is their peace of mind, but when they see many who claim no religion apparently having the same peace of mind, their concept of the Comforter’s Testimony proves insufficient to sustain their faith or to give them trustworthy assurance.  When the dark hour comes, they, too, must face defeat and surrender their claims as being false.  But what joy, peace, and righteousness come to those who have the witness of God – to those who really have the Spirit and who have learned to walk in it!  Jesus promised this divine testimony to his followers, and he died that they might have it; so “why does it seem incredible to you” that God should still be testifying today through those who yield to His will and power?

Conclusion

“When the Comforter comes . . . HE will testify of me.  And YOU also will bear witness.”  These are the two witnesses: God’s Spirit and yours.  Are you among the many who testify alone,  saying, “I am born again”?  Or do you also have the second witness?  Please don’t allow any man to steal your hope.  Millions think they are being led rightly, when they are actually being carried away from the truth of Christ.  Jesus loves you and offers you life.

On Pentecost, the first group of disciples were born again, and now, Christ is offering to you your own Pentecost experience, your own new birth into the kingdom of God, a kingdom into which no man can take you, and out of which no man can cast you.  The only thing men can do is either encourage you or dissuade you to pursue the thing you need most, the baptism Jesus gives, with the evidence which always accompanies it:

The Comforter’s Testimony.