I said last Wednesday that I
hope to bring several messages to us concerning the Holy Spirit
and believers. And we looked last time at four
basic truths about God. There's one God. There is a trinity
of persons in the Godhead. the relationships of the three
persons one to another, and that salvation is of the Lord, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. If I were asked to show in the
word of God that there are three persons in the Godhead, one verse
I know that I would go to, and that would be in Matthew chapter
28, when the Lord said, baptizing them in the name, the name, singular,
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. But if
I were asked for a second verse, I would turn to 1 John chapter
5 and verse 7. The scripture says, For there
are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. If I were asked
to show that the Lord Jesus Christ or the Son is God, the eternal
Son is God, I believe I'd go to John chapter one and verse
one, which declares, in the beginning was the word and the word was
with God. That shows that the word was
with God. There are two beings, two persons,
I should say, not beings, but two persons. The Word was with
God and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and
dwelt among us. And then if I were asked to show
in the scripture that God the Holy Ghost is God, I know I would
go to Acts chapter 5. Turn here with me. Now, not everyone
maybe would go here. Those passages in John chapter
14 and John chapter 15 and John chapter 16, of course, declare
the same. But in Acts chapter 5, we have
this that took place early on after the Lord Jesus Christ ascended
back to the Father and the apostles were preaching the gospel. God,
of course, raised up the church in Jerusalem. And people began
to sell their possessions and whatever they got for their land
or houses, whatever they sold, they brought and laid it at the
apostles' feet. Now they were not commanded to
do that. I've heard people try to promote
socialism from that passage of scripture, but that's something
that they decided to do on their own. They were not commanded
to do that. And we do know this, that soon
they would all have to leave Jerusalem. So any property they
had there, they would leave in just a few days or months or
years. But here in Acts chapter five,
we have the case of this man and his wife. They had a piece
of property, it was theirs, and they could do what they wanted
to with it. But they decided to sell it and give the money
to the work of God. But they just made another decision. But a certain man named Ananias
with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession and kept back part
of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain
part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias,
why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? Now
what he did, he said, this is what we got for this possession.
If it was $100 or $1,000, this is what we got and here it all
is. He lied. Notice Peter said, you lied.
Satan filled your heart and you have lied to the Holy Ghost to
keep back part of the price of the land. Well, as it remained,
was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it
not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this
thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men,
but unto God. You lied unto the Holy Ghost.
You lied unto God in lying to the Holy Ghost. How is that?
Because the Holy Ghost is God. Now, tonight, I want us to look
at the Holy Spirit, the fact that He is the one who makes
believers. There would be no believers.
I said I want to speak to us, bring a few messages concerning
the Holy Spirit and believers, but we recognize that apart from
the ministry of the Holy Spirit, there would be no believers. We sang that hymn just a few
minutes ago taken from our Lord's words to Nicodemus, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, you must be born again. And then he said,
you must be born of water, even of the spirit. That which is
born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit
is spirit. Now, if you will, turn with me
back to Ezekiel. We're going to look at two passages
of scripture. And I would like for us to begin
in Ezekiel chapter 36. These promises, Ezekiel chapter
36, verses 26 and 27, concern God's promise of the new covenant. Verse 26, a new heart also will
I give you and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give
you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within
you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep
my judgments and do them. I want you to notice that we
have a new spirit and my spirit. Do you see that in verse 26?
He said, a new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will
I put within you. And then in verse 27, I will
put my spirit. Now in our translation, both
of these words begin with a small S. That is, neither one is capitalized,
but the second should be capitalized, my spirit. is God's Spirit, is
the Holy Spirit. We saw last time that the relationship
that the Trinity has one to the other, the Father begets, the
Son is the begotten, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the
Father and the Son. So here, my Spirit is God's Spirit,
God the Holy Spirit. Our Lord said, when the Comforter
is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the
Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father." Now, it is
the work, the ministry of God the Holy Spirit that is stated
in verse 26. This is what He accomplishes.
This is the new birth. There are two things here we
see. First of all, he gives and puts a new heart and a new spirit
in everyone who is born again, in every believer. This is what
we call regeneration. This is what we know as quickening,
making alive. In Ephesians 2, verses 4 and
5, Paul said, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love,
wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ. This is a ministry, this is the
work of God the Holy Spirit, that he puts a new heart, a new
spirit within those that he quickens. Many writers, such as John Gill,
refer to this as a new principle of life. And he goes on to say
that this new principle of life that he puts within us, it's
a new spirit, it's a new heart. They both refer to the same thing. That new man that is created
in righteousness and true holiness. When a person is regenerated,
when a person is effectually called by God the Holy Spirit
to trust in Christ. They now, we now have a new spirit
and a new heart, which is the new man that the Apostle Paul
writes of in the New Testament. But John Gill, let me go back
again, he said that many refer to this as a new principle of
life. And it results in a new will. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ
said, you will not come to me that you might have life. Men
like to talk about and brag about and glory in a free will. But the free will of man is obstinately,
or the will of man, I should say, is part of depravity, part
of the fall, being dead in trespasses and sins, and the will of the
natural man is set against coming to Christ, believing on Christ. Remember Psalm 110, we read,
thy people shall be willing, when? When are they willing?
In the day of thy power. And this is the power of God,
the Holy Spirit, who makes a person willing. Once he has a new heart
and a new spirit, then sure, He's willing to come to Christ.
He desires to come to Christ. And he does come to Christ. Because
this is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. He has a new will. He has new purposes. His purpose,
her purpose before, was to live for self. That's just true of
all lost men. We're selfish. We're only interested
in ourselves. But when a person is given a
new heart and a new spirit, he has a new will and he has now
new purposes of life. And his purpose is to glorify
God. That's his desire. Above everything
else is to bring glory and honor to God. Not only new will and
new purposes, but new affections. He begins to love what he never
loved before. It's amazing, isn't it, when
a person is born again of the Spirit of God, he begins to love
what he had never loved before, what she had never loved before.
The Bible, the Word of God, may be set around in the house and
gather dust, but it had no interest. until a person is quickened and
made alive by the Spirit of God. And then, as Peter said, desire
the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby a person
all of a sudden now has a relish, a desire, a love for the Word
of God. Loves to read it, loves to hear
it, loves to worship, new desires. There's people here tonight,
I'm sure that if someone had told you 35 or 40 years ago,
maybe not even that long, that you would be in a worship service
like this one here tonight on a Wednesday evening. You would
have thought, I don't know about that. I don't think that's going
to happen. But it has happened. Why? Because you have a new spirit
and a new heart. Because you've been made new
in Christ Jesus. Because there's a new man that
now lives within. And of course, in Ephesians,
Paul tells us to put on the new man. The new man is created in
righteousness and true holiness, but they're still the old man.
But we're not going to go into that right now. So he gives,
he puts a new heart and a new spirit in everyone who is born
again. Remember what the gospel of John
tells us. Let me read this in John chapter
one. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. And that especially refers to
the nation of Israel. I understand that, to the Jews. But it's true of every man who
is dead in trespasses and sins. He comes, man doesn't receive
him. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name." Now why is it that they receive him? Why is it that they believe on
his name? "...which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God." So that's what our text tells
us. First of all, the work of the
ministry of the Holy Spirit He quickens, He makes alive, He
gives a new heart, He gives a new spirit. And notice this also,
He replaces the stony heart. If you still have your Bible
opened here to Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 26, a new heart also will I give
you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of
flesh. Now the stony heart is the one
with which we are born. It's a hard heart. Oh, it's hard
as stone, hard as marble, and it does not receive the imprint,
the word, the message of Christ. But when a person is born again,
he is given a heart of flesh. Now only the sovereign, powerful
grace of God the Holy Spirit is able to perform this work. That is to take away the stony
heart, to remove the stony heart, and give a man, a woman, a heart
of flesh. Which means that he grants repentance
unto life unto them, and he works faith in the soul. You might
say, well, I don't know if I've experienced this or not. Let
me ask you this. When the Holy Spirit gives a
new spirit and a new heart and takes away the heart of stone
and the heart of flesh, this is a sure sign that a person
has experienced this. He looks to Christ. He trusts
in Christ. We're never taught, hear me now,
we're never taught to look within to determine our spiritual relationship
with God. We're never taught that. Because
as sure as we do, we're going to come up with the wrong opinion. We're always taught, and God
the Holy Spirit is always sure to point us to Christ. We looked at that verse just
a moment ago, or read that verse, rather, where the Lord said,
when he has come, he shall convict the world of sin. Convince. In the margin, it says convince.
And I like that better than convict. He shall convince. I mean, think
about it tonight. Have you been convinced that
you are a sinner? I have. There's no way. that anyone,
by the grace of God, I know I should say that, that I could ever be
convinced that I'm not a sinner. I see it every time I look in
the mirror. Every time I give much thought
to my life, to my actions, to my thoughts, I know I'm convinced
I'm a sinner. and he convinces us of righteousness. I'm convinced, are you convinced? We need a righteousness that
we cannot perform. It would be the most foolish
thing in the world, as far as I'm concerned, to think that
there's something I can do to produce a righteousness that
will allow God to justify me. Oh no, I'm looking to the imputed
righteousness of Christ and His alone, aren't you? And number
three, he convinces us of judgment, that the Lord Jesus Christ, when
he was upon that tree, he took the sins of his people and he
was judged. He was chastised. He was punished the justice of
God. And when we look at the empty
tomb, we say, hallelujah. God was satisfied. The Holy Spirit. When He gives us a new heart,
a new spirit, and takes away the heart of stone, gives a heart
of flesh, it's a tender heart. It's a tender heart. Making a
person submissive to the will of God, and He writes His law,
the gospel, upon our heart. Now, let's look at another scripture
in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. So we're
thinking about the Holy Spirit and believers, and we realize
that apart from the Holy Spirit and His work, His ministry, His
office work, there would not be any believers. If you are
a believer tonight, it is because God the Holy Spirit has worked
in your heart, because He has given you a new heart, a new
spirit. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse
6. Paul says, Who also hath made
us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter,
but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life. Now in this verse, I see God
the Holy Spirit. You say, well, where do you see
Him? I see the Holy Spirit because
Paul begins with the word who. And that refers back to God. God. Our sufficiency is of God
who hath made us able ministers of the New Testament or the New
Covenant. Now, who made Paul a minister? Who made Paul a minister? There's no question. Look in
Acts chapter 13. Keep your place there, please,
but look in Acts chapter 13. In Acts chapter 13, in verse 1, Now there were in the church
that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers as Barnabas and
Simeon, which is called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manon,
which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. Now we know that Saul, his name
will later be changed to Paul. Who made Paul a minister? Who made him an able minister? God the Holy Spirit. Notice verse
two. As they ministered to the Lord
and fasted, the Holy Ghost said. This shows the personality of
the Holy Spirit also, doesn't it? A power. You know, many people
deny the Trinity. They say, well, the Holy Spirit,
that's just a power. Oh, no. It's a person. A person speaks. And it was God,
the Holy Spirit, who spoke, who spoke. And he said, separate
me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called
them. Now, what work did he call Saul
to do? To preach, to be a minister of
the gospel. So here in 2 Corinthians 3 and
verse 16, I see God, the Holy Spirit here, who had made him
an able minister of the gospel. Now, no one else can do this. Now, men may make ministers,
I mean, in the general sense of the word. Seminaries, they
may make ministers, there's no doubt about that, but they're
not God's ministers. Only God the Holy Spirit can
make a man minister. and able minister of the new
covenant. That's his work. He calls men,
just like he called Saul and Barnabas, separate me unto the
work whereunto I have called them. He calls men into the ministry,
and he doesn't call women, not into the ministry of preaching
the gospel. We know that. And yet, isn't
it amazing, my friends, how that today the so-called church just
just throws that out the door. I mean, just, well, we know better
now. It's amazing to me when I think
of what is going on in the United States of America under the name
of Christianity. And it didn't just start yesterday. It's been going on for a long
time. A man told me last Sunday, there's
a pastor in New York, pastor's a Baptist church, and it's one
of those mega churches, 10,000 members, I believe he said. And
he said, it's not necessary to believe in Christ to go to heaven.
And even Jesus didn't believe that. You wonder how in the world
a man can be a pastor and make a statement like that of a so-called
Christian church. It's sad, isn't it? It is to
me. It's so sad to see what's going
on in our country. But we know still that God's
purpose, he's still working all things after the counsel of his
own will. You may not understand it, I
don't, but I know he's still in charge, he's still in control.
But the scripture here says, or rather Paul in this scripture
says he had made him a minister an able minister of the New Covenant,
the New Testament. Now that's what we looked at
in Ezekiel, the New Covenant. Paul now says he's been made
a minister, an able minister of the New Covenant, and he contrasts
the letter with the Spirit, and says that the letter kills, but
the Spirit gives life. It's the law. It's the law that
Paul calls the letter. Make no mistake about it. It's
the law that Paul calls the letter. Because that's all it is. That's
all it is. It's the letter. It tells men
what we should do, what we must do, and what we should and what
we must not do, but it gives no power at all. It just tells us what we should
and what we should not do. To those who are of the works
of it, it has no power at all to justify or to give life. In Galatians 3 and verse 10,
the apostle said, For as many as are of the works of the law
are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is every one
that continueth not in all things which are written in the law." Continueth in all things that
are written in the law. Christ was made a curse for us,
wasn't he? That's what the scripture says,
that he might redeem us from what? From the curse of the law. The law curses us because we
are not obedient. all the time, in every way, in
everything. And so as many, Paul says, who
are of the works of the law are under its curse. Thank God he's
redeemed us from the curse of the law. Now in this text, it's
the gospel. Now I said it's the letter, or
rather it's the law that Paul calls the letter. So it is the
gospel that Paul calls the spirit. In John 6, in verse 63, the Lord
said, it is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing.
The words I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. The gospel is spirit. It speaks
of spiritual things. It speaks of redemption. It speaks
of justification. It speaks of pardon. It speaks
of forgiveness of sins. It speaks of reconciliation.
It speaks of acceptance. It speaks of sanctification.
And it speaks of being made an heir of God. Now the life that
the law promised Israel upon their obedience was life in the
land of Canaan. the blessings of this world.
That's all it ever promised. And of course they did not obey,
they did not fulfill. But the gospel promises life. Not life in this world, but eternal
life. The Holy Spirit, as we have seen,
is the one who quickens sinners who are dead in their sins, but
as one old Puritan said, The Holy Spirit comes riding in the
gospel chariot. It's his work, it's his ministry,
but he comes riding in the gospel chariot. In other words, as the
gospel is proclaimed, as the gospel is preached. John Gill
made this comment. He said, it, the gospel, is a
means in the hand of the Spirit of God quickening dead sinners
of healing the deadly wounds of sin, of showing the way of
life by Christ, and of working faith in the soul to look to
Him. Look at a couple of verses in
the New Testament with me. 1 Corinthians 4. I think it's important. I know
it is. It's important that we recognize the importance of preaching
the gospel. We've already established that
it's God the Holy Spirit who quickens, who makes the life,
but he uses, as Gil said, as a means, the gospel. He accompanies,
not always, not every time the gospel is preached, no, but he's
chosen to use the gospel. Here in 1 Corinthians 4 and verse
15, Paul said to these believers, for though you have 10,000 instructors
in Christ, Yet have you not many fathers? For in Christ Jesus,
now watch this, I have begotten you through the gospel. They
were born again. They were quickened by the spirit
of God through the gospel and using the gospel. Also in James
chapter one and verse 18, we read of his own will. James chapter
1 and verse 18, of his own will begat he us, notice, with the
word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of
his creatures. Listen to God's words concerning
his word as recorded in Isaiah 55. So shall my word be that
goeth forth out of my mouth. In other words, As the rain comes
down and causes the ground to produce and to bring forth herbs
and vegetation, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my
mouth. It shall not, now listen, it
shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that
which I please. and it shall prosper in the thing
whereto I sent it." When we think of the Holy Spirit and believers,
the first thing we see is that without the Holy Spirit and His
work, there would be no believer. You would not be a believer.
Someone wrote me one time and asked me this question about
the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. when it was
that that changed. Well, nobody is a believer, a
child of God, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. I know
some people will try to tell you, well, if you haven't experienced
these gifts and these signs and things of the Holy Spirit, well,
that was for a time. But when a person is saved, you
have the Holy Spirit. There's no way a person could
be born of the Spirit of God and not have the Holy Spirit
living within. We sing that hymn, I will praise
Him. And one line is glory, glory
to the Father, glory, glory to the Son, glory, glory to the
Spirit, glory, glory to the three in one. And yes, salvation is
of the Lord. of the Father, of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Unto God be the glory. Let's
sing a hymn, David, before we're dismissed.