Morning. How y'all doing? If
you will, let's turn to John chapter 7. John chapter 7. We're going to
turn a lot this morning. And I want young people to listen
to me. And I want you old people to listen. If you can't get there,
just listen. Just listen. Every week Kimberly
sends out the sermon notes at no charge. Just as Miss Shelby, her time
is donated to the Lord's work here, and we don't ask for... that
email's free, so you'll get them and you can read through them
and listen again. That's what the Lord gave us to do here.
This could be the first in a series of what I might call common misquotations. I don't know. I'll work on the
name of it. broadly misquoted and broadly misunderstood, and
we're going to hear this for this hour. John 7, verse 37. In the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. But he spake, this spake he of
the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. For the
Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet
glorified. Verse 39 here, that's our text.
It's in parentheses. That's explaining to us what
our Lord had just said in verse 37 and verse 38. When a person
is made thirsty...if...if...big if...any man thirst. When a person's
made thirsty, they come to Christ and they drink. He's their lifeblood. He's the necessity. Not the weather. Not chit-chatting afterwards.
they consume Him. They believe and then out of
their bellies, out of their innermost parts, rivers of living water
flow out. Christ, the living water. Who
He is, what He has done. If somebody gets up and tells
you, I chose Jesus, I chose this, I did that, I went to church,
I made a profession, I received... Poor man. We'll look at this
next hour. You know how precious it is we're here today? And we
have God's truth. We have Christ. Do you understand
that? On the radio this morning, I heard a fellow saying, all
you have to do is receive Christ. And he was relating it to a court
of law. And I thought, boy, I've never really considered that.
That's amazing. Everybody thinks receiving is
a gift. Like it's Christmas time and you can say, well, I already
got three or four copies of those shoes. I don't need those shoes
now. I got two of them jackets already. I don't need that. And
you could refuse the gift. When you receive pardon in a
court in this land, it's yours. You can say, well, I want to
go to jail. We ain't got room in the jails. You're free. I'm sorry about
that. What about whenever you receive a guilty sentence? You
receive 10 years. Go to the judge and say, well,
I think I'll just wait to serve those 10 years. It's going to
be 20 years, isn't it? We ought to quit relying on words
the way we see them and rely on the way God says them. That's
what we ought to do. Christ flows out. This is the
work of the Holy Ghost. That's what the Holy Ghost does.
It says Spirit and it says Ghost there, doesn't it? Both of those
words are the same. Pneumon. That's where we get
the word pneumonia. It's breath. What did the Lord
do on those waters when He created the world? He breathed on the
waters. What did He do to those bones
that were dry? He breathed on them, didn't He? It's the same.
His Spirit and the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit and the Holy
Ghost, it's the same. It's the same. and we could get knee-deep
in the weeds as to why He says both. And when He says both,
we ought not supersede and usurp our authority over God, and we
ought to say what He says. But we could get so knee-deep in
the weeds as to why He delineates that, why He says two different
terms, and why it's crossed all together. So let's ask better
things. Are we the Father's workmanship?
That's what the Scripture says, isn't it? Are we Christ's workmanship? Are we His seed, His product?
Of course we are. Are we the work of the Holy Ghost? We are. We have life breathed into us
somehow, don't we? Somehow. And these three are
one. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost are one. How? How could they be one? They're
of one mind. They're of one will. Our Lord
said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, truly, truly, The Son can
do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do, for what
things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son like. Turn
back a little bit there to John 6, verse 38. Just a page or two
you left. John 6, 38. The Lord speaks here in John 6, 38
and says, For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will,
but the will of Him that sent me. They are of one will. This
doesn't mean that Christ has a will and it's different than
the Father's and he just has to do what the Father says. No,
he's constrained by his nature. His will is constrained by his
nature, the same as our will. Man's free will is just as free
as his nature is. You're going to do what's in
you. What was Christ's nature? What was his will? Same as the
Father's? Holy. And we can't begin to enter into
what that is. not in this world. They have
holy wills. Are they going to be different?
They can't be. They can't be. It's the same. He must do what
his Father does. They are one. They have one will.
They have one mind. What about the body? What about the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost? Do they have one body? Turn over
Colossians chapter Colossians chapter 1 verse 19 says, For it pleased the Father
that in him, that in Christ, should all fullness dwell. What fullness was going to dwell
in Christ? What's fullness? Just a whole bunch of good things.
What would be full? He would speak of. Look one page
there to your right in chapter 2 verse 9. For in him, in Christ,
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." God the
Father, God the Holy Ghost, and God the Son dwelt in one body,
and it walked this earth. That's a great mystery. Did you
know that? Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
What's the first thing mentioned? God was manifest in the flesh.
He came down and was made like we are. We're privileged to know
those things. We'll see it again next hour.
It's a privilege to know those things. It's a rare, rare thing
to know those things. And I hope we see it next hour,
I hope we see it every hour. And we're grateful. God, the Father,
God, the Holy Spirit, God, the Son, they're one in mind and
they're one in human body. Hebrew writer said, wherefore,
when he has come into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offerings
thou wouldest not. We don't want your sacrifices.
He don't want your blood of bulls and goats. He don't want the
offerings of your mouth. on your vain ramblings, he said,
but a body hast thou prepared me. That's the sacrifice he's
going to accept, is the one he prepared, the one he provided. Philip had this concern. He said,
Lord, show us the father. You speak to this father that
you pray to and that you're of one will with and that you're
one with. Show us him, show us him. And
he says, Philip, Have I been so long with you? It cast him
out, did it? He's a child. He said, have I
been so long with you and you don't know me, Philip? He said,
he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. They're one will. They're one body. And they're
of one spirit. Turn over to Ephesians 4. Ephesians
chapter 4. Ephesians 4 verse 4 says, There
is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope
of your calling. There's one spirit. Paul writes
the same thing over in Colossians. And he said, For by one spirit,
capital S, are we all baptized into one body. Whether we be
Jew or Gentile, whether we be bond or free, we've all been
made to drink into one spirit. He's one will. All three of us. the triune God,
they're of one will, they're of one body, and they're of one
spirit, one breath. It speaks the same breath. And
that's what we're baptized into. That's what we have. We get our
little, our lowercase s, from his capital s, his spirit. It says there back in John 37,
if any man thirst, let him come unto me. This is where all this
is wrapped up in him. Let him come to me and drink.
He that believeth on me as the scripture hath said, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water." This is a person. He
didn't say, come to the five points of Calvinism, did he?
I hope that that's the structure that I have that's easy to digest.
He said, come unto me. He didn't say, come unto your
decision you made when you was a little teeny bopper. He didn't
say, come unto your baptism. He didn't say, come unto your
mommy and daddy. He said, come unto me. Come unto me. But they couldn't. If any man thirst, nobody's thirsty.
Why? Verse 39, that this he spake
of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive,
for the Holy Ghost was not yet given. How necessary is it for
God to send his Holy Ghost to us, to give us his Spirit? How necessary is that? We'll
stay in John for a little bit. Turn back to chapter three, John
three, verse five. John 3 verse 5. Jesus answered,
Verily, verily, of a truth of a truth. That's doubly pay attention. I say unto thee, except a man
be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. People say, I want to go to heaven.
Well, you're going to have to be born of water and the Spirit,
of the Word and the Spirit. That's what's going to have to
happen. Look here in chapter 4, one page over. Chapter 4, verse
24. John 4, 24. This is who we're
dealing with. God is a spirit, capital S. And they that worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth. Where does the lower case
S come from? He has to give it. We're not
going to enter that kingdom of God unless the Spirit comes.
The Spirit's going to give us His Spirit. And we're going to
worship God in spirit and in truth. In truth. Who is the truth? We're gonna worship him in Christ,
that's how we're gonna do it. Chapter six, John six, verse 63. What's the result of these things?
When the spirit comes to someone and gives them life born and
they worship, John six, 63 says, it is the spirit that quickeneth,
that giveth life. The flesh profiteth nothing.
The words speak unto you. They are spirit and they are
life. He gives. He comes to us, gives us life.
The three are one. Did the Lord speak that? Yeah,
He did. Does He speak life? Of course, He does. Does the
Holy Ghost do that? Yes. Of course, they're one.
James said, For the body without the Spirit is dead. It's necessary. We're going to look later, but
John 16 says, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it's expedient
for you that I go away. For if I not go away, the Comforter,
the Holy Ghost, God the Holy Spirit, will not come unto you.
But if I depart, I will send him to you. Paul told us, but
ye are not of the flesh. Ye that he comes to, you are
in the spirit. If so be that the spirit of God
dwell in you, you have his spirit. Now, if any man have not the
spirit of Christ, he's none of his. Because they spoke about
those that shall receive his spirit. How necessary is it for
God to send us his spirit? It's eternal life or death. It's eternal life or death. And
I ask a question. Have I received the Holy Spirit? Has the Holy Ghost come to me? This was talked about a lot in
my childhood. People said, Little Suzie or Little Timmy Sunday,
who buddy? They had the ghost with them.
They had the Spirit. Spirit was talking to them. They
was dancing. Oh, they were feeling good. They
were feeling warm and fuzzy. They just needed that. They needed
to go get recharged for the week. They were playing piano like
Jerry Lee Lewis. I saw his heel go up and start kicking. I heard
all kinds of things. I hear it spoke of a lot in this
area too. It says geographically bound. I heard it spoke a lot
in this generation. People ask me flat out, do you
have the Holy Ghost there? I've had people attend here briefly
and they leave and tell me I don't have the Holy Ghost. I said,
really? What'd it look like? What do you measure that by?
Well, I feel. I feel. We'll see that in a second.
People say they don't feel the Spirit. Me being a preacher,
do I have to ask myself this? Not me henpecking you. Not me
whipping you. Do you have the Spirit? Do you
have the Holy Ghost with you? Do I have to ask myself this?
Our Lord said, many will say to me that day, Lord, Lord, have
we not prophesied in thy name? Ain't we preached in your name?
Ain't no different than anybody else, am I? Turn over to Revelation
1. Revelation 1. What is it to have this Spirit
given to you? What does it do to you? What's the response of
a human being when God the Holy Ghost comes to somebody? Revelation
1, verse 10. This is John writing. the Spirit on the Lord's day,
and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet, saying, I am
Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, and what thou seest,
write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which
are in Asia, unto Ephesus, unto Samarna, unto Pergamos, unto
Thyareta, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
And I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being
turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks, And in the midst of the seven
candlesticks, one likened to the son of man. He'd seen this
one before. Clothed with a garment down to
the foot, and gird about with paps with a golden girdle. His
head and his hairs were white like wool, white as snow, and
his eyes were a flame of fire. And his feet like in the fine
brass, as if they burned in the furnace. And his voice as the
sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand
seven stars, and out of his mouth when a sharp two-edged sword
and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength."
Here's this apostle that the Lord loved. So close to him. Spent so much time with him.
So familiar with him. Did he start chit-chatting? I
know you! Come here, buddy. No, that's
not what happened. Verse 17, when I saw him, I fell
at his feet as dead. You're gonna be jumping over
the pews to make it to the front, shake somebody's hand. You're
gonna start jibber-jabbering in tongues because the Spirit
come to you. If God the Holy Spirit comes to somebody and
you see Christ as He is, you're gonna fall like a dead man. That's
what's gonna happen. You're gonna hush. You're gonna
quit your bodily, physical activity and your exercise, and you're
gonna be humbled at His feet. People say, well, that happens
at my church. Well, we'll address that in a minute. We'll get to
that. Let's turn to Ezekiel. This ain't
just New Testament stuff. Ezekiel chapter 1. You got Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel. Forget Daniel, he went too far. Chapter 1, the Spirit of God
came to Ezekiel and he was describing here in the end of first chapter. He's telling us that Ezekiel
1, he's talking about the throne was like the appearance of a
man, just like John. There's a person, a body was
there, wasn't it? A human. Ezekiel 1, verse 28. As the appearance of the bow
that is in the cloud in the day of rain, like a rainbow. We looked
at that before. We've been through that, ain't
we? Who's the rainbow? Well, what does it represent
this month? Hogwash. Who's the rainbow? That's the
Almighty God, Covenant God. Who does that represent? As the
appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain,
so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This
was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And
when I saw it, I fell upon my face. I fell upon my face and
I heard, I heard, He said, I read about it. He said, I watched
it on TV. He said, I zoomed in on it. He said, I heard. Is that
what he said? I heard a voice of the one that
spake. And he said unto me, son of man,
stand up on thy feet and I will speak unto thee. And the spirit
entered into me. You want to receive that spirit?
Is it going to enter into you? And the spirit entered into me
when he spake unto me. That breath entered me when that
breath came to me and set me upon my feet that
I heard him that spake unto me. What did the spirit entering
Ezekiel make him do? Fall on his face and hear. Feelings come and feelings go
and feelings are deceiving. I have feelings when I'm preaching.
Did you know that? God's preachers have feelings when they preach.
Most of the time, over half, I feel like I'm walking through
concrete. I think you see Satan at work
on the news, standing in a pulpit. I feel like I'm walking through
concrete. I feel like I have no one's attention. I feel like what I'm
saying hardly makes sense to me, and I'm the one that read
it. There's no way God will bless this. Let me get to the last
page of notes. I got to get this over with. And then I'm going to run
and hide. I don't want to talk to nobody. Get me out of here.
I'm going to buy a house. I'm going to buy a cave and go
hide in. And people will come up to me with tears in their
eyes, crying, saying, oh man, I needed that. That's just what
happened this week. And then other times I feel like
I really have something to say. I feel like God's words inside
of my bones burning to come out. And how in the world somebody
couldn't hear what I have to say shut up and listen, bow and
hear and rejoice with me." I said, well, see you next time. Does it make a difference how
I feel? That's what the article with Brother Angus said in the
bulletin. If we truly understand God, it don't matter how I feel,
we just preach His Word. It don't matter what I reason,
I just preach His Word. It don't matter if I think, well,
I'm going to preach this message first because I know who's going
to be here. And then this other one can be preached the next
hour, because then we might have more people then, or whatever.
What I think don't matter. Just get up and preach His Word.
That'll be the test of a watchman. That's hard words, but so it
is. That's a test of God's watchman.
Is he faithful to the end? Not close to the end, not till
mile 25 of that marathon, Is he faithful to preach Christ
and bow to Him to the end and tell others to do the same? I
pray God keeps me and makes me faithful. I'm prone to wonder.
I'm prone to take the easy route. I'm prone to do what's convenient.
You know, it just makes a lot of sense if we start doing this.
So many people have... I'm different, most folks, and
I know it. I'd make decisions different than most folks, and
I know it. I work different than most folks, and I know it. And
people think I'm so strange. I raise my children different
than most people do. People say, well, Kevin's just
different. I do it according to his word. And I'm learning
as I grow older and older to do his word. Not to act like
I know it and then ignore it and spit in his face. Do what
he says. Why? Because I love him. I love
his law. I'm in love with a person. Is it vital for the spirit to
come and give life? It is. What happens to a person
when the spirit comes? They bow and listen and not speak. They're shut up to God because
of the sin that they are. what the Spirit proves to them,
convinces them they are. Turn over to John 16, we'll see
what that work is. This is what takes in place what
time the faces are hitting the ground and the mouths are stopped.
John 16. Verse 7. Christ speaking here. Says, nevertheless,
I tell you the truth. Is there any qualification we
need to have that's more needed to bow to what he says than that? What I tell you is the truth.
You think he's lying? What I tell you is the truth.
It is expedient for you, it's profitable for you, it's necessary
for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter,
God's Holy Spirit, will not come unto you, but if I depart, I
will send him unto you. When he has come, when he's come
to you, God the Holy Ghost comes down to Ezekiel or to John or
to you or me. He will reprove. That word's
convince. He will reprove the world of
sin and of righteousness and of judgment. of sin because they believe not
on me." You know what a child of God will say? There was a
time I hated God. There was a time I didn't believe
Him. And then He sent His Spirit to me. I'm nothing but sin. Sin's not what I do, it's what
I am. It's a noun. It's not a verb. We do. We do
sin. We commit sins because we are
sin. That's my nature. Just as His
nature is holy, my nature is sin. That's all I can do. righteousness,
because I go to my Father and you see me no more." I'm convinced
he's holy. I'm convinced I'm nothing, and
I'm convinced he's everything. Why? Because he's the only one
that's ever ascended. He willingly laid down his life, and that
sacrifice-not a blood of bulls and goats-that sacrifice of his
son, the propitiation he provided, it went up. It was consumed, just like we've
been reading with Abraham. That sacrifice was accepted. I'm convinced
of it. I'm convinced of it. because
the prince of this world is judged. That's twofold, isn't it? I see
what I am. I'm convinced of what I am, and
I'm convinced judgment's coming. And the only hope I have at all
is to be in the one that's righteous. Kevin, I think you're painting
a bad picture. I just ain't. I mean, I'm bad. I've committed, but
I'm not. I'm not an enemy of God. I pray God's Holy Spirit comes
to you, convince you what you are. Well, Christ is good. He's a good man. Or maybe He's
the Savior. Jesus is everybody's Savior.
Read a bumper sticker. You'll know that. But now He's done
some stuff. I got to do some more. He's the
righteous one. He finished the work. He shall
save His people. Outside of Him, I'm settled to
my own judgment. I have to defend myself in that
holy court, and I cannot stand. I cannot stand. In Him there
is therefore now no condemnation." I'm convinced of it. I may falter,
I may woe. I'm in that boat and I'm just
tossed to and fro with the seas, but I'm in that boat. You ain't
gonna tell me I'm in an airplane, I'm in a boat. You can tell me
I'm in a giraffe, I'm in a boat. I'm in Him. Christ the Archon,
I know it. I've been convinced of it. Have you been convinced
of it? What's the proof of these things?
The Holy Ghost is not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Is that plain enough? Is the
Holy Ghost there? It's not. How do we know it's
not there? Because Christ was not yet glorified.
That one's not lifted up yet. Yeah, but you should have heard
that piano player. Well, the piano player is exalted. You
should have heard those beautiful lyrics, those singing. Oh, what
a beautiful singing voice they have. That's exalted. Walking
the aisle, doing this, doing that. You know how many people
they baptize today? Baptism's exalted. Holy Ghost ain't there.
Christ is exalted. How can I know if I'm lacking
the Holy Ghost? Christ will not receive all the
glory and He will not be glorified. If I have Him, Christ will be
glorified. He'll be exalted. How can I know if my home that
I raise my children in has the blessing of the Holy Spirit in
it? Is Christ glorified there? Is He the only one glorified?
How can I know if the church I attend has the Holy Spirit?
Is Christ the only one receiving the glory? Is his work of redemption
completed? Because he says it was. Are those
he saved fully equipped to meet the triune holy God, be in his
presence for eternity? It's paid in full. Some translator
said whenever he's hung on the cross and he cried out, it is
finished. They said, you know, technically,
and I was, ugh, zoning out. I don't want to hear it. I don't
like technicalities. They said technically that was
a merchant's term and it could be more appropriately translated
paid in full. And I said, okay, I won't kick
you out. It is finished. Paid in full. Not the 99 cent store and he
gave you 98 cents. You got to come up with a penny.
It's finished. It's done. It's paid in full.
How can I know what body of believers I should unite with? where the
Spirit is. The Spirit's where Christ is
exalted. It doesn't matter what your feelings are. It doesn't
matter how the oratory comes out, the sensibility of the dictation,
how logical the points are. I could just really understand
that. It matters if the Son of God is high and lifted up, and
nothing else, and no one else. John 16, verse 13, The Spirit of truth is come,
he will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself. You have to hear. You have to
hear. He shall not speak. Verse 13. 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. He shall receive of mine. and shall show it unto you."
He's going to glorify Christ when He comes. And whenever He
enters His people, they're going to fall down on their faces,
they're going to hear, and they're going to glorify Him too, because
that's what's going to be shown to us. It ain't going to be shown
how to clean up your living, though that'll come. It ain't
going to show you how to be a good husband and a good wife, though
that'll come. It's going to be showed unto
you Christ's glory. Turn and close. There's some
places that it ain't. And it's prevalent. It's throughout.
Turn to 1 John. 1 John chapter 4. I saw a meme. Someone said, well, I'm going
to church there and I'm just getting the good parts. I'll feed on
the good parts." And it was a guy up to his waist, flipped over
upside down in a dumpster. I wouldn't want to eat out of
that dumpster, would you? Sheep do it. 1 John 4, verse 1. Beloved, leave
not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of
God. Because many, does that say a
few? Because many, does that say,
well, there's about half? Many, many false prophets are
gone into the world. Hereby you know the Spirit of
God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ, that's the
Lord, that's not some dude named Jesus. That's the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the Messiah. This is the
one prophesied of old. He fulfilled the scriptures.
That Jesus Christ is come and the flesh is of God. And every
spirit that confesses Not that Jesus Christ is coming to flesh.
What's that mean? Did He show up? Everybody believes
that, don't they? Most people do. No, that He's come in a body. That that perfect will and that
perfect triune God and Spirit and truth came in a body. He
did a work of His Father. He finished the work. His people
are fully redeemed. He's our wisdom. He's our righteousness.
He's our sanctification. He's our redemption. He's our
all. And He's ascended on high. That substitute we had. sitting
on his throne interceding for his people. Those that don't
believe that, they're not of God. And this is the spirit of
Antichrist. Is that hard to figure out? There's
Christ and Antichrist. There's Him and everything that's
against Him. Well, Antichrist is that super-billionaire
that's trying to put robots up everybody's nose. Hogwash! That's nonsense! It's a man in
a suit and a tie standing with the Bible saying, God wants you
to do something. He needs you to do something. God said He's elected a people
before the time began, but now you gotta clean yourself up a
little bit. You ought to start walking this way. You better
start doing this. That's against Christ, isn't it? There's strong
terms. I have no fear of Satan. It ain't
my terms, it's God's terms. That's what it is, antichrist.
Where have you have heard that it should come? How'd you know
it was gonna come? You heard? He was on our face, busy listening
to what He told us. And even now He's already in
the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them,
because greater is He. How do we know we've overcome
this world, we've overcome death, we've overcome judgment, we've
overcome everything? How do we know that? And I know the Spirit's
in me. Because greater is He that is
in you. Glorified is He that's in you. than he that is in the world.
Isn't that something? We pray often, Lord, have your
spirit with us. What are we really asking? Lord,
if you'll please send your spirit with us, because what we're doing
is just vanity. I might as well be up here reading
off baseball statistics from 1973. Why do we need his spirit? We need Christ exalted in our
hearts. That's what we need. All right, we'll meet back again
at 1030. I can't get it under 30 minutes.
I'm trying. 33, I'm getting closer.