Had to write down one more thing. Mike, Karen, everybody's tickled
to have you back. Me included. If you will, let's begin turning
to John 14. John 14. We're going to turn
quite a bit this evening and hopefully the Lord will have
us see some things. I pray he's with us. After Peter preached to those
people, he said, Therefore, let all the house of Israel know
assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom you have
crucified, both Lord and Christ. That's who's speaking here in
John 14, verse 16. We'll pick up there. Well, I'll
do verse 15 again. John 14, 15. The Lord told his
disciples there, after he sent Judas away, he said, if you love
me, keep my commandments. That's what we looked at before.
And I'd love to look at it again. He did not say, I'll touch on
this. He did not say, if you keep my commandments, then you'll
love me, or then I'll know you love me, or then I'll love you. He said, if you love me, just
keep my commandments. Keep my commandments. And verse
16 says, and, I will pray the Father, and he shall give you
another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever, the Spirit
of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him
not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth
in you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you." Who's speaking
here? That's the Lord of Glory speaking
in human flesh, isn't it? Who's he speaking to? He's speaking
to his apostles. He's about to leave. We're getting
to listen in. This is important. What's he
speaking about? He said, I'm God. Believe me. Believe me. Believe my word.
Believe my works. And he said, now you have some
gifts. That's what we've been looking at for weeks now. You
have some gifts that way all men will know that you're mine.
that you come from me, because there's a whole bunch of people
out there who say, I speak on behalf of God. He goes, they'll
know assuredly you come from me. He said, I'm going to leave
those things with you. And, and, he said, if you ask
anything of me, for the furtherance of this gospel, I'll give it
to you. Whatever's needed. You need to run fast, Philip,
catch that Ethiopian eunuch? Done. I bet that was a marathon
record. Whatever's needed. You need clothes?
Need your shoes not to wear out? You ask me. If it's for this
sake, I'll give it to you. And he said, no, you love me.
If you love me, keep my commandments. And you have to tell everybody
else what I've commanded. Go in all the world, preach the
gospel. And when the Lord saves them through his Holy Ghost,
then you baptize them and then teach them. Teach them. And this is the son. He said,
I'm going to pray the father. The son's gonna pray to the father. And he said, the father shall
send you another comforter. He's gonna send his spirit. He's
gonna send the Holy Ghost to you. Why? That he may abide with
you. He's gonna dwell with you and
may abide with you forever. That's never gonna go away. Who
is this comforter? Who is this? I've had a lot of
questions over the years. People say, well, were these
apostles not saved yet because they hadn't received the Holy
Ghost yet? No, he's talking to them. I'll cut to the chase. I'll give you the answer up front,
Bob. He's speaking with them right now. The great comforter's
sitting right there looking them in the eye. He said, down in verse 26, but
the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send
in my name, he shall teach you all things, bring all things
your remembrance, whatsoever I've said unto you. He's going
to come. That's the Spirit of God Himself.
The Son's going to ask the Father, and the Father's going to send
the Comforter. He's going to send the Holy Ghost
to His children. He said, He shall teach you all things and
bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.
He's going to make you remember Me. He's going to make you remember
My Word and My works. That's what He's going to do.
The Spirit of God Himself, the Spirit of Truth. Who is that? Look at verse 18. He said, I
will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Well, I thought
you said that you was going to send, the father's going to send
the comforter. Yeah. And he just said, I and the father are one.
Hold on. We just have human brains. Don't.
These things are so simple and so complicated at the same time.
What'd John tell us? He said, this is he that came
by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water
and blood. And it is the spirit that beareth witness, because
the spirit is of truth. For there are three that bear
record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. These three are one. He said,
I'm gonna go, I have something I have to do. When I go, the
Father, he'll send a comforter to you. There are three distinct
persons in the Trinity. I don't ever want to reduce that.
I don't want to distract from that. Yet, these three are one. The three of them are one. Look
up in verse 10. It said, believest thou not that
I am in the Father and the Father in me? and the words that I speak
unto you, not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me.
He doeth the work, the Father and the Son are one. Look over
in John 15, verse 26. But when the Comforter is come,
John 15, 26, whom I will send unto you, I thought you said
the Father's gonna send him. Yeah, I and the Father are one.
I will send unto you from the Father, the Spirit of truth,
which shall proceedeth From the Father, he shall testify of me. What does verse 18 say in our
text? I will come to you. Who's that? The Spirit's coming,
the Son's coming, the Father's coming. That's something, isn't
it? We're gonna abide in you. That's
what the Father said to the Son, wasn't it? He said, unto us a
child's born, unto us a son's given, and the government's gonna
be on his shoulder. What's his name gonna be called? Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. The father
said that about Christ. His name is going to be the everlasting
father. Turn over Romans chapter eight. Romans eight. We remember that Paul wrote to
that church at Colossae and he said, beware lest any man spool
you through philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of
men. Well, you know, this is how we
always did it. That sounds so not so much nicer than the traditions
of men and vanity. Well, we've always done it that
way. Or after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ.
You be aware of those, lest any man spoil you through all these
things, to look to anything other than looking to Christ. Now you
be aware of this. You don't have any trust. You
trust in that. No, you trust in him. You look to him alone.
And that's always good advice. I can't go wrong telling anybody
to look to the true and living God. What about my necessities? Look to Him. What about my comforts?
Look to Him. What about anything else? It don't matter. Look to
Him. Turn to Him. He said, for because in Him dwells
the fullness. You don't look to anything in
this world. Don't look to the traditions of men. You look to
Him, to Christ, because in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead
in a body. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost, all of them in one human flesh. And it was uncomely. Nobody wanted nothing to do with
Him. He was a door nobody wanted. And you got Romans 8. Let's start
up in verse 5. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit,
the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death. But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. There's peace with it. Because
the carnal mind is enmity against God. It means war with him. For it's not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. But you're not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, He's none of them. He's talking about the same capital
S's, isn't he? The capital S, Spirit of God. The capital S,
Spirit of Christ. That Holy Ghost is God. It's
God, the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of Christ, the Spirit
of God, the Father. All three of them are in one.
Our text says, I will not leave you comfortless. I will come
unto you. I will come unto you. And they abode with him. That's
who the Holy Spirit is. It's God the Holy Spirit. God
the Holy Ghost. And that's Christ, and that's
the Father. Now that's just so. I'm to declare it. Explain it. Yeah, I ain't got a good handle
on that. It's so. We can't think of these things.
Instead of trying to dissect it apart and try to get a good
handle on God, why don't we just thankful that the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost, all three of them's here for us and
going to abide in us. He didn't leave us comfortless.
We'll see what that means at the end. He comes to us in the
full power of the Almighty Godhead. That's something. What's the
means in which the Spirit comforts us? Turn to Acts chapter 1. I was afraid Brother Caskell would
read that this morning. What you read was right, the
Lord purposed it. Here in Acts chapter one, this is the means
in the days of old of how God, the Holy Ghost, spoke to people
because of what's written here. We know that these scriptures,
that's what, I've quoted, see, I think every message for a month
now, but that's all right. Peter said, knowing this first,
that no prophecy of the scriptures is of any private interpretation.
That's the first thing you gotta know. If someone says, well,
I don't really believe this is the word of God, I think man
wrote it. And I know a man one time said, well, Paul changed,
he saw his air and he changed what he was saying later on.
That's not so, just don't argue with them. If someone doesn't
grasp hold of these things, they don't think this is inspired
word of God. Thank you for the time, go on. And if we think
we can get a handle on it and we can get our own interpretation
by sitting in our basement, reading the scriptures, you ain't learned
that first thing. We gotta get a handle on that first. Well,
I got the scriptures. I'll just go save myself. Go
up in the wilderness and read the scriptures. I'll just go
sit on a surfboard down there and read. God the Holy Spirit
ain't gonna bless it. No prophecy of the scriptures
is given by any interpretation. But the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. God moved them to speak. God
moved them to write. You got Acts 1? Look here in verse 16.
Acts 1, 16. Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have
been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake
before concerning Judas, which was God to them that took Jesus. All these things that come to
pass, that's exactly what David was talking about, but it wasn't
David speaking. How did the Lord speak to us
in these Old Testament scriptures? Through the Holy Ghost. His spirit
entered into those men and made them write these things down,
didn't it? Not to the detriment of the gospel. Our Lord said, I came not to
destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to do something. Well,
now you forget what David said. I got something else. He said,
no, I've come not to destroy, but to fulfill. That's why the
Holy Spirit made David write that. Because Christ had to fulfill
the scriptures. Every jot and tittle, that's
every dot and every cross T. Turn to Acts chapter four. What
about in the apostolic days? How's the Lord gonna speak to
his people? How's he gonna move on? Turn to Acts four, verse
eight. Then Peter, filled with the Holy
Ghost, said unto him, ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel,
if we this day be examined of the good deed done to this impotent
man, by what means he was made whole? Be it known unto you all
and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
even by him does this man stand here before you whole." What
does a preacher filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with God
the Holy Ghost say? Look to Christ. He did it. The Father purposed it. He performed
all this, that our wicked sins nailed to a cross. This is the stone, verse 11,
that was set at nought of you builders, which has become the
head cornerstone. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none of the name under heaven given
among men whereby ye must be saved." You must be. Now, those that he spoke to,
they saw the boldness of Peter and John. That's why I've never
seen somebody like that. They were speaking with authority,
weren't they? And perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant.
Man, that's just fishermen. What do they do? And they marveled.
They marveled. And they took knowledge of them,
that they had been with Jesus. That didn't get them anywhere.
They said, well, you must have been with that fellow doing all
the miracles. You're different. You ain't like them other fellows
that get up and say the same old, same old, same old. Something's
different, isn't it? These theologians. The Lord turned
their hearts. He turned their minds a little
bit, hadn't he? They said, this guy's a problem. These two fellows
are problems. What are we going to do with
them? They go through this whole thing, right? We got to get something
on them. And he said, y'all quit. You
stop saying that stuff in public. And Peter said, we're going to
speak what we know. Can't say anything. I can't tell you a
lie. I know it's to be true. I have to tell you the truth.
Look down verse 21. So when they had further threatened
them, they let them go, finding nothing, how they might punish
them because of the people. They'd get themselves in trouble,
wouldn't they? For all men glorified God for that which was done.
These guys speak and they're not even getting the praise.
They have nothing to gain from this. And they're just telling
everybody to look to Christ. That's the work of the Holy Ghost.
Man won't do it, and man can't do it. God's gotta do it. Gotta
make somebody stand up and say, don't listen to a word I have
to say, look to him. No, don't listen to this man,
right? Listen to what he says. Look
to the Lord, don't look to me. How could this be? How could
people preach that way? The Lord said he's gonna send
a spirit, didn't he? Said in Matthew 10, he said, they're
gonna deliver you up. Take no thought of how you shall speak,
for it'll be given to you the same hour what you shall speak.
For it's not ye that speak, but the spirit of your father, which
speaketh in you. That's it. Like I said before,
it's like willy nilly. I knew I had mostly just text
here in my notes. Lord will have to teach me. Rely
on him to give the message, isn't it? But there's some times, maybe
you've experienced this. I don't think I'm the only one.
There's times that you've heard somebody preach. And I don't
disagree with anything they said. Everything they said was right,
but something was just not there. It didn't move my soul. Well,
that's accurate, but something was missing. It was just empty.
It was cold. It was lifeless. It was letter. It was to the
letter, wasn't it? Why is that? God the Holy Ghost
wasn't with them. That's it. God, the Holy Spirit.
Turn over to Matthew 28. Matthew 28. There's time to sit
down and read and read and read. I mean, you might get some knowledge,
but there's no warmth. Why? The Spirit's not beating
there. I didn't say where you're gathered with two or three books,
I'll be with you, did he? Or did he say, I'll gather with
you where you got two or three DVDs? That's not what he said. Mankind
in this day is just laying on that nonvolatile storage device
as hard as they can, thinking they're all right. And they're
cold. There's no growth. There's no
comfort. Look here in verse 18, Matthew 28, 18. And Jesus came
and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations. Preach to them. baptizing them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
Is that just something we say when I stick people underneath
the water? No, it's not. God Almighty, the
Father purposed this. The Son purchased that sinner
and the Holy Ghost came and revealed it in their hearts, proclaimed
salvation in their hearts. It's all in their name. Teaching
them, verse 20, to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded
you and lo, I am, that's the great I am. The Father, the Son,
or the Spirit? Yes, the great I am. I am with
you always, even unto the end of the world. I abide in you.
Fear not, be not dismayed, I'm with you. What happens after
this preaching's made effectual, if the Holy Spirit's given? What
happens? There's some things needed for
that to take place, isn't there? There has to be a man that God
sent after his own heart. He's got to have a word from
God according to this written word, isn't it? To tell his people
and then the Lord must give us his spirit. The spirit must be
with us and he must bless it. I can stand up and we get one
word from him. That's all, that's an eternity
of blessing. I can speak between 3,000 and
5,000 words every time I stand up here to talk to you, and it
ain't gonna do you a lick of good. Ain't gonna do nobody good. But if the Lord's pleased to
speak whatever truth I'm saying to your heart and say, peace,
you that already have life, peace, you'll be at peace, Bob, you
will. I can't do that, he can. Those
that's never believed on him, he can say live. And you'd have
life in you like that. I can't do that. I can fling
the barbed arrows of the gospel as hard as I can fling them and
just hitting dead man. That's all I'm doing. Unless
God says life and there's life. He can do it, can't he? He has
to give that. Look back on our text. John 14. Verse 16. The Holy Spirit of
God must be given, given. Says John 14, 16, I will pray
the father and he shall give you another comforter that he
may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth whom
the world cannot receive. You can't receive it because
it seeth him not neither knoweth him, but you know him. You know
exactly who it is because he dwells in you and shall be in
you. You can't choose to get the Spirit. You can't choose to have the
Holy Ghost. It's given. It's just like faith. God has
to give it. It's His Spirit. He's got to give it. He's the
source. It's His. I had friends growing up. The Pentecostal movement's
heavy in eastern Kentucky. And so old Billy got the Holy
Ghost Friday night. Because it had services on Friday
night, so the children wouldn't go out and cruise, or drink and
drive, or do whatever. They wouldn't get out of getting
in trouble, so we gotta keep them in church. It's a tactic.
Instead of making them mind at home, teaching them the Word
of God. They had a tactic. And so, look, what happened?
Well, I gave in. I had a friend of mine one time.
He said, yeah, I went up there and jibber-jabbered for a while,
and then mom and dad let me go out Saturday and do what I wanted
to. I said, I was gonna go preach to some other people, try to get
them to go to church with me. I said, what'd you do? He said, we went out partying.
It was a sham. It was a show. They knew it.
They knew it. Children are pretty honest sometimes.
Heaven and the spirit. They got a spirit all right.
What in the spirit of God? Falling over chairs and cutting a shine
and acting like a heathen. This is God's house. Calm down.
Mind your foot when you go in his house and mind your mouth.
That's what the scriptures say, isn't it? Training young children. Whatever you tell them little
ones, that's what they're going to grow up saying and doing.
How we pray in front of them, that's how they're going to pray.
What they call me, that's what they're going to call me unless
we train them. How they gonna act in front of God? How they
watch us act. Turn over to John 3. We can't do something to earn
this. We can't force God and bend his
arm and make him do it. The Lord has to be pleased to
give us a spirit. Look here at John 3. Verse 1. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This is Dr. Nicodemus. The same came to Jesus
by night and said unto him, Rabbi, teacher, we know that thou art
a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles
that thou doest to set God be with him. We don't really know
who you are, but we know God's got something to do with you.
You in there with him somehow. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. That's what the Lord just
said in our text. The world can't see it. Can't
see it. Nicodemus saith unto him, How
can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born of the water, and what
of the spirit? He cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. You reckon that's important? Pretty important, isn't it? We
must be born of the spirit, but we cannot enter the kingdom of
God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the spirit is spirit. He's saying in like manner, just
as our new birth has a whole lot of similarities with our
old birth. We didn't have nothing to do
with it. God did it. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
you must be born again. You're going to know soon, Nicodemus,
is what he's saying. Don't get spun around axes on
this. You just listen to what I got to tell you. The wind bloweth
where it listeth. And now here's the sound thereof,
but can't tell whence it come and whither it goeth. So is everyone
that's born of the spirit." When God moves on somebody, like that
came out of nowhere. I wasn't looking for God. I didn't
know who God was. And he just, he showed up. Like the wind blow it. I wasn't
real sure which direction it was. And you can't stop it. He blows on them dead bones and
lives. Knocks you clean down. I saw
videos of tornadoes this week. People trying to videotape and
they get sucked out of their house. Chickens got a head this
big enough since the other rain, don't it? Not these folks. That
wind coming, that Holy Spirit's coming, you can't resist it.
And we're glad we couldn't resist it. We was playing church and
didn't have no part of God. We hated God. And then one day
he said, live, one word. We were alive. What happened? What's the message that this
comforter comforts with? Look here in John 16. John 16, verse four. We remember there in John 15,
he said, when the comforters come, whom I'll send unto you
from the Father, the Spirit of truth, which proceed from the
Father, he shall testify of me. That's what I was gonna say.
A man told me one time, he said, I don't think the spirit's down there with you
folks. When you're preaching, I ain't gonna go back there no
more. I said, what's that mean? And he said, I just didn't feel
warm and fuzzy. I said, well, if the spirit's there, it's gonna
profess Christ. If that don't make you warm and
fuzzy, I don't know what will. That's what a professor of Christ was
going to do. Look here in verse 4, John 16, 4. But these things
I've told you that when the time shall come you may remember that
I told you of them. You ain't going to remember now.
You will down the road. And these things I said not unto
you at the beginning because I was with you. But now I go
away, I go my way to him that sent me and none of you asketh
me where thou goest. But because I've said these things
unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. I said I was leaving
and you just tore all to pieces. Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth. It's expedient for you that I go away. That hour must
come. For if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I'll send him
to you. That Comforter, if Christ doesn't go away, if he doesn't
go to that cross and he doesn't bear what I am, doesn't that
make you heavy hearted? All the horrible thoughts I don't
even remember having and all the good deeds I should have
done and I didn't do. We don't know what we don't know. He had
to become me and bear every bit of that from God the Father.
And he has to. Maybe it's just me and a part
of you that says, no, Lord, like Peter, albeit far from thee.
Can't you identify with Peter? This ain't right. Oh, this ain't
fair. You better it ain't fair. Oh,
damn. Our department says that, but
he says, I have to go, it's expedient, because if I go not away, the
comforter ain't going to come. Well, what if the comforter,
what is he going to comfort us with? Nothing if he didn't go
and hang on that cross and rise out of that grave. We have to
have an empty tomb, we have to have one interceding for us at
the right hand of the father. That's satisfied everything,
that the work's finished. That's what the comforters will
say, this is who Christ is. Here's what he's done. Look at
verse eight. And when he's come, he will reprove
the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, of sin because
they believed not on me. There was a time I believed in
a Jesus, but it wasn't this one. There was a time I believed in
a God, not the God. That's so. I didn't come up higher
ground a little bit better. Doctrine, I was wrong. God was
right. I was a liar. I'm sin. Not a sinner. That's the feminine
noun I am. I can't do nothing outside of
Him but sin. That's all I am. Of righteousness,
because I go to my Father. And you see me no more. Because
I go to my Father. That's it. Who can they send
but the one that descended? Before the Holy Spirit came to
me and saved me and revealed Christ in me, I thought, well,
I could have made it at least halfway. What do you mean you're
going someplace, just like Peter? What do you mean you're going?
Why don't you tell us where we're going? I can go with you. What's wrong with me?
Why ain't I good enough to go? We thought we deserved it, because
we was just sweet little church people. He's right. I'm sin, and he's the righteous
one. I ain't got none of it. Of judgment,
because the prince of this world of judged. All that judge, everything's
finished. Well, there's something left
for me to do. That's what he used to think. Well, now you got to get holy.
No, you don't. You gotta have Christ is what
you gotta have. He's the holy one, isn't he? He's the righteous
one. I have many things to say to you, but you can't bear them
now. Albeit when he, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide
you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself,
but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will
show you things to come. He shall glorify me. For he shall
receive of mine and shall show it unto you. All things that
the Father hath are mine. Therefore I said, he shall take
of mine and shall show it to you. And know what our Lord said
as he walked to earth? He said, I and the Father are
one. I'm telling you all the words he told me. Well, the Spirit's saying
the same thing. Wow, the three's one, ain't they? The three's
one. What comfort there is in having
this truth and good news imparted to our hearts when it comes to
sinner. I'm sin. Kevin, what good can
that come? Christ came to save sinners. That's good news. You
a sinner? I got good news for you. If you're pretty clean, I ain't
got no good news for you. of righteousness. I have no righteousness
in myself. Christ Jesus, he's the Lord our
righteousness. That's good news. It ain't just
a two-bit stand-in. That's God Almighty's my righteousness.
What about that judgment? The whole matter's been satisfied. How do we know? How do we know? That spirit came in power. Born,
gave us life that can't die. It ain't going nowhere. Can't
go away. and revealed these things, just
regenerated us, didn't he? That's what Ephesians 1 said,
in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after ye believed,
ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. I believe
that. How do I believe that? That's,
God's got to make me believe. And that's the earnest of our
inheritance. If you believe it's because God made you believe,
and because he made you believe and you know it, you get a hold
on to that. That's your down payment until
we're made just like him. Until he comes for his purchased
possession and to the praise of his glory. We'll say amen
to it. Until we get to go home, we'll say, if I go home, he's
bringing me home and he's coming because he said so. He's like,
I'm going to come and get you. I believe him. That get you through the
day? What, make it till Thursday?
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished,
her iniquities pardoned. She's received of the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. Water and the blood. Water and
the blood. We've been purchased in that
blood. All of our sins have been removed. And that water, we've
washed, like them disciples, washed all over. You're every
wit clean. Holy. Unapprovable before him in love.
Plum saved. I can say that to anybody. Tell you what he said. God, the
Holy Spirit can make it effectual in the heart. He can give peace. He can. That's the message. What's the result of that comfort?
If God, the Holy Spirit moves on somebody who works in them,
instead of, I said this was a pun, instead of you, you look like
somebody that's seen a ghost. Looks like somebody's experienced
the Holy Ghost. If God moved a mountain, you
reckon we could tell? I think that mountain's moving about
25 miles an hour. If God works in the heart of
somebody, don't you think we can tell? They won't kick their
dog as hard anymore. They won't cuss their employees
as bad as they used to. They're going to start building
their lives around the worship of God. Here's some of that comfort. They're in a text. Look at this.
If you got a marginal reference. John 14 verse 18. You know what that
word means? Comfortless. You got wrote down? I tried to
look for it today and I couldn't find it. I will not leave you
comfortless. I will come to you. If you have
a marginal reference Bible, that word comfortless means parentless. What's that? Orphan. Orphan. I won't leave you an orphan.
I talked to my brothers and sisters the night before they buried
my mother. And I said, I don't have a father and I don't have
a mother. I'm an orphan. And so we became orphans that day
when Lord took her home. That's an empty feeling, isn't
it? Her pastor got up and preached her funeral the next day. And
he said, Lord said, I won't leave you comfortless. That means orphans.
You ain't an orphan. How did he know what we said
in that motel room at midnight? How do you know? How do you reckon
Frank figured that out? He bug us? Didn't tap the phone? Lord said,
whenever he hung on that cross, he said, right there's your son,
right there's your mother. Didn't he? This is our family.
I have fathers and mothers and all that stuff on earth, on earth. And that's handy. I got you.
I got brethren. I like that. That's handy. Much
more important than that. We have a heavenly father. because
he's birthed us, he's gave us life in us and adopted us, or
however you want to cut it. Remember Abraham? He always had
Sarah. Isaac had a servant, Eliezer,
went to go get his bride, and Jacob had to go get her. What's
that mean? However you slice it, we're his. However he moved
on. We have a father, we have a brother,
and we have the spirit of God with us that'll never leave us,
nor forsake us. One more scripture and I'll be
done. Romans chapter eight, again, Romans eight. Romans 8, verse 14. I want you to pay close attention. It's
underline if you want to. Romans 8, 14. For as many as
are led by the Spirit of God, that's a capital S, isn't it?
It is. They are the sons of God. For
ye have not received the lowercase s spirit of bondage again to
fear. I put somebody under bondage.
Of what? Anything. Of the law, of tithing. Well, what about something man
come up with? Our vain traditions. How about soup kitchens? They're
fine, ain't they? I bet them hungry people appreciate
it. They probably don't complain. Well, they do complain about
what kind of food it is, but... That's bondage, that's something to
do. You gotta make self holy. You gotta clean up your act.
You gotta clean the outside of the cup. You gotta quit sinning.
You gotta do this, you gotta do that. That's a lowercase s.
That's a spirit of bondage. Again, to fear, that's not spirit
of God. But ye have received the capital S spirit of adoption. Are you an orphan? Was there
a time you didn't have God and you was at war with him? I try
to say it all the time, because there's some people that fight
it, because they're at war. I never did hate God. You still
do, probably. He adopted us. I was an orphan.
I was a little heathen running the streets, stealing food, doing
anything I could to look out for number one. And he adopted
me. But you have to receive the capital
S, Spirit of Adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. That means Father, Father. Children
call out. Daddy, father, dad, father, an
orphan can't. They don't have a father. They
don't have a mother. They don't have a family to call
out to. We are children of the most high, sons of God, joint heirs with
Christ. What does that even mean? I know what it means. We're joint
heirs. Somebody died. I know what that
means. Joint heirs with Christ. What more could I want? What
more could he say to us? I want to have that spirit. I
pray the Lord's with us. He says he'll be with us. He
said when I send that spirit, I'll be with you forever, always.
Now he may hide his face from us, but we're not hid from him. That plays out in our lives.
I saw some folks correcting a brother one time, and everything, the
words were right, right? But the spirit was wrong. It
was correcting, not loving. And that one corrected. It was
true, they took it, but they had the wrong spirit, because
they got defensive instead of having a broken heart. So that's
all the works of the flesh, isn't it? James and John, they said,
we're going to call down fire on those that don't bow to you.
That's right, isn't it? Right words, wrong spirit. The
Lord said, you don't know what spirit you are. You don't know
what spirit you have in it. Where does that leave us? God,
the Holy Ghost has to come to us through the preaching of the
gospel and make us cry out, God send your spirit to us. Bring your spirit to us. Give
us life and put our eyes on Christ and him only, and then make us
praise him. His spirit has to do that work
in us, doesn't it? When he does, oh, it's precious. It's precious. You can't bottle it. One real
old writer said, you can't bottle that spirit. What's another way,
what's a modern vernacular we can use? Well, you can't, you
can't record it and save it till later. You can't put it on a
thumb drive. God's with us. Boy, it's something special,
isn't it? He'll make sirens go off in our hearts, won't he?
Brother Mike.