morning. We're going to be in 1st Corinthians chapter 12. You'd like to open your Bibles there with me. 1st Corinthians chapter 12 and I want to thank Tom and Joy for making a change this morning. I asked him at the last minute if we could sing that hymn. Of course they prepare ahead of time for what we're going to be doing and I just felt like that hymn would go really well with what I wanna try to bring out of these verses this morning. Let's pray together.

Our merciful heavenly Father, what great hope and joy we have in being able to come before the throne of grace on the merits of thy dear son. Knowing, Lord, that we are not just accepted in the beloved, but we are loved. Lord, that you hear the cries of your children We know, Lord, that when we gather for worship, that our greatest cry is that you would send your Holy Spirit in power, that our worship would not be just in word, but that it would be in spirit. Lord, that you would speak to our hearts, that you would give conviction and comfort were needed in each heart that you would unlock the mystery of the gospel to us. Lord, we are unable, we're unable to see, we're unable to believe, we're unable to do anything without thy sweet and powerful Holy Spirit. Lord, enable us to make a good confession. Enable us to speak what we believe.

We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. I wanna try to answer the question, how do I know if I have the Holy Spirit? How do I know if I have the Holy Spirit? I've titled this message, Every Believer's Confession. What I confess, what I believe. If what I confess is what I believe, a lot of people are making confessions of things they don't believe.

You hear people say, Jesus is Lord. And yet, in the same breath, they will say that you need to make him Lord. Well, which is it? It can't be both. If a person confesses what they don't really believe, then we call that being a liar. And the scripture tells us that Satan is the father of lies. So my hope this morning is that the Holy Spirit will put into our hearts a confession that reflects what we really believe. And if that confession is the one that the Lord speaks of here, then that will be our comfort that God has given us his Holy Spirit. Let's read these verses together. 1 Corinthians 12, verse one.

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles carried away into dumb idols. even as you were led, led about by idols that couldn't see, couldn't speak, fashioning them like unto ourselves. They had eyes but they could not see, ears they had but they could not hear. Men make gods to be like they are themselves. They set themselves up on the throne of God. is what happens, they have a God that they can control.

Verse three, wherefore, I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. we must have the Holy Spirit. The Lord tells us in Romans chapter eight, you are not in the flesh. And in the context of everything that the Lord is telling us in Romans chapter eight, you're not saying that we don't often act fleshly, that we don't have to deal with the presence of our flesh or that we're not fleshly-minded oftentimes. He's talking about some people being in the flesh and some being in the spirit. The unbeliever who has not the spirit of God, all they have is the flesh. And so the Lord says, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If so be the spirit of God dwelleth in you. Now, If any man have not the Spirit of God, he is none of his.

It is the Spirit of God that breathes life into our hearts. The Spirit of God that opens the eyes of our understanding. The Spirit of God that opens up the scriptures and reveals Christ. The Spirit of God that gives us faith. How do we know if we have the Spirit of God?

Some would say, well, Paul is in this whole chapter going to talk about spiritual gifts. Some would say, well, you know you have the Spirit of God if you've been baptized in the Holy Spirit, you've received a second blessing evidenced by some extraordinary manifestation of the Spirit, such as speaking in tongues or something like that. The baptism of the Holy Spirit takes place when we are circumcised in the heart by the Spirit. That's the new birth. It's not a second blessing. It's not something subsequent to salvation where some evidence of spiritual gifts is revealed in your life.

The circumcision of the heart is when God causes you to have no confidence in the flesh. What is circumcision? It's cutting away of useless flesh. The circumcision of the heart done by the spirit of God, the scripture says, and not by the hands of men. And this is the circumcision of the Old Testament. Some will liken it to baptism in the New Testament, but that's not it. It's the spiritual baptism. It's the circumcision of the heart.

And that's when God, the Holy Spirit, causes you for the first time in your life to be the true circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Prior to that, you went about trying to establish your own righteousness. Prior to the circumcision of the heart, you went about thinking that you could merit favor with God by something you did or by something that you abstained from.

Now you know that your only hope of standing in the presence of God is to be found in Christ and that you have no confidence in the flesh. The Spirit of God has cut from your heart any hope of salvation based on fleshly means. And that's what Romans chapter 8, the Lord is saying, you are not in the flesh, you are in the spirit. If so, be the spirit of God dwelleth in you. And if man have not the spirit of God, he's none of his.

Now, we looked at... some of the signed gifts that God gave to the early church to authenticate the gospel and how we don't need those signed gifts now because we have the scriptures that reveal and prove the veracity of the gospel. But in those early days, God gave but speaking of unknown languages like we see at Pentecost.

When the scriptures tell us all the different nationalities and all the different languages that were there in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and Peter stood up and preached and the Bible says that the apostles began to preach the gospel and every man heard the message in his own language. That was a miracle. And all the other references to speaking in tongues in the New Testament are known languages. They are known languages. God gave it for the purpose of those who knew Christ to be able to preach the gospel to someone who they didn't know their language. Never was it some sort of ecstatic utterance of heavenly speech that didn't make sense. that had to be interpreted, you know, it was always a known language. We don't need that now. The Bible's been interpreted into all the languages of the world.

I give you to understand, here's the text, verse three. 1 Corinthians 2, Paul said, we have received the Spirit of God that we may know the things that are given to us by God. Only by the Spirit of God can we know these things, can we have an understanding. John said in 1 John chapter 2, we have an anointing of the Holy Spirit. We have an unction of the Holy Spirit. And we know all things.

I have not written unto you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it. And then no lies of the truth. The Holy Spirit will not allow God's people, those whom he has anointed to speak lies, to speak lies about the gospel. No lie is of the truth. So if a person is speaking something that's not true concerning the gospel, concerning Christ, concerning the revelation of the Word of God, then we know that they're not speaking by the Spirit of God. What is this confession that every believer confesses that proves the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit?

Well, here it is right here in verse three. I give you to understand. David said, I believe therefore I have spoken. We speak what we believe. By your words, by your words, you are justified. And by your words, you are condemned. If we speak what's in the heart, that was put in the heart by the Holy Spirit, and we can only speak what we believe. With the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, and believe in thine heart that God has raised Christ from the dead, thou shalt be saved. What do we believe about the resurrection? Every person who identifies themselves as Christian in the world today are meeting to celebrate the resurrection. What do we believe? What does the Bible say about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ? You still have your Bibles open to 1 Corinthians 12, verse three. Wherefore, I give you to understand.

Before Paul gets into talking about the various gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to the body of Christ, and that each member of the church is likened to a part of your physical body, and no part of your body is unimportant, and that each part of your body functions differently, and yet it all serves together to work in cooperation with the head. The Lord likens the church to the body of Christ and the Lord himself being the head of that body and each one of us being a different member of the body of Christ. But before he gets into defining and the different functions of the parts of the body, he settles this one issue. I want you to understand something.

There is some speech that goes along with the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit. If you have the Holy Spirit, there's some things you're not gonna say, and there's some things that you are gonna say. Here it is. No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed. I don't ever remember in my life hearing someone say that Jesus Christ is accursed. in those words. Maybe you have. I know that early on, the Jews that crucified the Lord said those words. They believed that that man that they hung on a Roman cross was doomed for eternal damnation.

That's what accursed means. The word accursed here is the word anathema. It means to suffer the wrath of God without any hope of redemption. That's what accursed means. to be devoted to destruction, to be set apart for damnation. It's the opposite of what holy means. Holy means to be set apart for the holy or rightful use of the worship of God, the glory of God, and anathema means to be set apart for eternal damnation and eternal destruction.

Even the Jews today don't say what those early Jews said about Jesus of Nazareth. They do not believe that he was the Messiah, they do not believe that he was the Son of God, but they believe that he was a good moral teacher. You talk to your Jewish friends, you'll find them to say, you know, they won't say that Jesus is cursed.

Turn with me to Galatians chapter one. Look at a couple of places where this word anathema is used and then we'll make it personal. I hope that it will comfort your heart to know that though men today don't use these words, they do in essence the meaning of the word, they accuse Jesus Christ of being anathema. Galatians chapter 1, look with me at verse 6, Paul in writing to the church at Galatia, now, We're in Corinthians and in Galatians right now.

And Paul addresses, God addresses some moral issues in the church of Corinth that were horrifying. Getting drunk at the Lord's table, taking one another to the court of law, the Gentile court of law. trying to compete with one another about who had greater spiritual gifts. One man with his father's wife, his stepmother. I mean, just horrible stuff.

But in all of those issues that the Lord addresses, and he addresses every one of them in our lives as well, Paul never calls the believers in Corinth unbelievers. He never says that these sins give evidence of you not being converted. Now if they did not receive the rebukes that God gave them then that would give evidence of that but the presence of sin did not call into question their conversion. In contrast to that, in the church of Galatia, none of those sin issues are brought up.

But what is brought up is that the believers in Galatia were giving a sympathetic ear to the Judaizers who were coming into the church and saying, essentially, the Jesus that Paul preaches is the long-awaited Messiah, but Paul hasn't gone far enough.

You must have Christ. He is necessary for salvation, but he by himself is not sufficient for salvation. You must also be circumcised in the flesh. You must also keep the law of Moses. You must also celebrate these ceremonial laws and different things. You would take them back to the law. It's grace plus works.

And it was the church of Galatia that Paul said, I stand in doubt of you. I fear that my labors with you have been completely in vain. If you're giving these Judaizers a sympathetic ear and even considering the possibility that your salvation is based on anything other than the accomplished work and shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you haven't heard the gospel. And he opens the letter to Galatia with these words. Verse six, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. By adding works to grace, they are perverting the gospel.

And you're listening to them. But though we or a very angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be anathema. Let him suffer the full wrath of God in eternal separation. Let him be devoted unto destruction without any hope of redemption. Let him go to hell.

And we said before, and so I say now again, if any man preach any, in case this language was too strong for you and you think maybe I'm just, you know, I'm gonna repeat it. If any man preach any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be anathema. Do I now persuade men or God? If I'm trying to be friends with men, I'm not gonna talk like that. How do I know I have the Spirit of God?

Romans chapter 9, there's a verse that is beyond my comprehension. Only two men in the Bible made this statement. Moses and the Apostle Paul. But Paul said in Romans chapter 9, I could wish that I myself were anathema for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

And he prefaced that statement by saying that the Holy Spirit I'm speaking these words, I'm not exaggerating. Paul's saying God is witness to these things. He put this in my heart. Moses said, you know, Lord, if you'll save these people, you can cut me off forever.

I'm sorry, I don't have that spirit. I don't know of any other man that ever did other than these two. willing to go to hell that others might be saved? That's a special anointing I don't know anything about. That's what the word accursed means. It's to suffer the wrath and judgment of God without hope of redemption.

Now go back with me to our text. How do I apply this? Because people aren't saying that today. Well, yes, they are. Yes, they are. Everybody's saying it. except for those who have the Holy Spirit. Only those who have the Holy Spirit would not say this. Everybody else is saying it. Wherefore, I give you to understand.

May the Lord enable us to understand what's being said here because this is the confession that every spirit-filled, spirit-led child of God makes. They will not call Jesus anathema. They will not in any way say that the Lord Jesus Christ suffered the wrath of God without the hope of redemption. No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth.

Now, of course, look these words up. The word calleth doesn't mean that just to articulate or verbalize audibly, it means to teach, it means to affirm, it means to maintain a belief. So this is not just words that are being spoken. It is what's in the heart. And that's where the circumcision of the heart takes place. That God, the Holy Spirit, when he circumcises the heart, cuts away our hope of anything fleshly and causes us to rely upon the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus for all our salvation. So we don't affirm In any way, we don't maintain, we don't teach in any way that Jesus is anathema. Here's the point.

If there is one person in hell, that Christ died for, you are calling him anathema. If there's one person that suffers the eternal judgment of God without any hope, and all that are in hell have no hope of redemption. Rich man went to hell, Abraham said, there's a great gulf fixed between us, there's no way for you to leave. That's the eternal damnation. That's what anathema is.

If one person for whom the Lord Jesus Christ shed his precious blood ends up in hell, then you are saying that he suffered the wrath of God without the hope of redemption. I hear people say, well, you know, there's a sense in which Christ died for everybody. No, there is no sense in which Christ died for everybody.

He laid down his life for the sheep. He actually accomplished the eternal salvation of everyone that his father had chosen in the covenant of grace. Not one drop of his blood was wasted. Not one person for whom he died will end up in eternal separation from God. He was successful. He accomplished the work that the Father gave him to do. He actually redeemed his people.

There's nothing to be added to it. That's why the ministry of the Holy Spirit is so necessary in our hearts. There's nothing that I need to do in order to make what he did work for me. What he did worked. What he did was an accomplished, finished work of redemption. Yes, he suffered the wrath of God, but not without the hope of redemption.

Let me show you that. Turn with me to Galatians chapter 3. Verse 13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Now, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. It is written in Deuteronomy, chapter 21, that if a man was put to death by hanging, that he was to be taken down before the sunset. And the scripture says, for cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. You say, well, no man can call Jesus accursed Different word. What is the curse of the law? In the day in which you eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall what? Surely die. The wages of sin is death.

That's what's being referred to here. The word cursed in all of these All three of these places in verse 13 that we just read is not anathema. It's not anathema. It is a different word altogether. And it's in the context of redemption. Look at verse 13 again.

Christ hath, not he will, not he wants to, not he has provided an opportunity for you to be redeemed, Christ hath redeemed us, having become a curse for us. He received the curse of the law. He received the judgment of God in death, but not without redemption. For the purpose of redeeming those born under the law to redeem those who are cursed by the law.

What do we confess? What is every believer's confession? Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ suffered the wrath of God to accomplish the full redemption of all his people. We don't call him anathema. We dare not even suggest that there's a sense in which Christ suffered the wrath of God without the hope of redemption. But that's what the whole world says. The whole world. The whole religious world says that Christ died for people who are going to end up in hell. and that now you have to do your part in order to make his death work for you. No, we don't believe that.

Lord, save me. Lord, give me your Holy Spirit. Lord, give me faith. Lord, regenerate me. Lord, turn me and I'll be turned. Lord, give me repentance and I'll be repented. Lord, the first step to being saved is the realization that you can't do it. That he has to do it. Salvation is of the Lord. That's our confession. Christ is all and he is in all. He is our confession.

And no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus a curse. So if a person suggests that the Lord Jesus was not successful, and that his work of redemption is all the hope of my salvation. And the evidence of that is that the spirit of God has circumcised my heart and cut away any hope that I have in any fleshly means. What my faith? Looking to Christ, looking unto Jesus who himself is the author and the finisher of our faith. He is all in our salvation. That's my confession. Spirit of God gives that confession.

Is that your confession? And can you discern the difference? Do you hear what others are saying about Jesus of Nazareth? Do you hear your friends and family members like the one who texted me this morning telling me happy Easter and he's going to a Catholic church? I said, well, come join us. Now I'm going to go over here. Turn with me to Luke chapter 1.

Zachariah was the father of John the Baptist. He and Elizabeth were up in age and they did not have children. Gabriel, the angel, came to Zachariah and told him that Elizabeth was going to bear him a child and he didn't believe it. And so the Lord shut his mouth, and Zechariah was dumb. He couldn't speak during Elizabeth's entire pregnancy.

The Lord told Zechariah, you name that child John, and you make him, and you give him the vow of the Nazarite. John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord Jesus. And now, Elizabeth has John and everybody wants to name Elizabeth's son Zachariah after his father. And Zachariah, unable to speak, writes on a piece of paper, his name shall be John.

And they were all amazed. And as soon as he wrote that, the Lord loosed his tongue and he was able to speak. And here's what he says. Verse 67 of Luke chapter 1, and his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied, here's the confession that we make, this is our confession, this is every believer's confession, this is the evidence that we have the Spirit of God by what we say. If what we say is what we believe, people can say words that they don't believe. But that just makes them a liar. If we speak that which we believe, then that's the, that's why Romans chapter eight says, if you, or Romans chapter 10, if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, you shall be saved.

Verse 68, blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people. Verse 69, he hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been since the world began.

This has been prophesied from the beginning. From the very time of the fall in the garden, this was God's promise to send a Messiah, to send a savior, to actually accomplish the redemption so that all Israel would be saved. All Israel, every single one of them. That we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of them that hate us. save from sin, save from Satan, save from the grave, save from the eternal damnation, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. I'm doing this for my name's sake because my name's, I made a promise in the covenant of grace before anything ever was, before time ever was, in eternity past, God made a covenant, a promised covenant to God.

That's what the Lord Jesus fulfilled at the cross. He died to satisfy that covenant. He performed that which was given to him by his father. He actually accomplished the salvation of his people. That's my hope. Not that he did something that I have to add to. in order for me to be saved. All my hope is in Christ. I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. He's all the hope of my salvation. That's my confession.

That's not the confession of the religious world. the oath which he swore to our father Abraham that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of the enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.

This is the only message of salvation that takes fear out of my heart because if God's counting on me to do something in order for him to be able to save me, Then I'm afraid. I'm afraid that I haven't done it right. I'm afraid that I didn't do enough of it. I'm afraid that I wasn't sincere enough when I did it. Because all those things are true of me. I don't do things right. I don't do it enough. And I'm not as sincere as I ought to be. And if God's counting on me, I'm afraid.

But a gospel that is accomplished by Christ alone, a Christ who actually redeemed, who is not anathema in any way, He did not suffer the wrath of God without the hope of redemption. He actually redeemed his people. Now that's a message I can rest in. That's a God that I can put my hope in. That's a salvation that I can go to sleep at night and have rest for my mind and soul. Every believer's confession. Is that your confession? Oh.

I just have to make a couple of comments very briefly about 1 Corinthians 12, 3, if you'll turn back there with me. the last part of verse three, and no man can say. Now this word say is not, again, it's like the word calleth. It's not just articulating words. It's not just verbalizing sounds. It means to speak what you believe. It means to make known your heart. Now, if a person speaks something that they don't believe, then they're a liar. And no lie is of the truth.

Do I speak what I believe when I say that Jesus is Lord? Because the confession of the rest of the world is, Jesus is Lord, got to make him Lord of your life. Which is it? If you have to make Jesus Lord of your life, if you've got to do something in order for Him, God's already made Him Lord over the living and the dead, the spiritually alive and the spiritually dead. You can tell your most profane, unbeliever friends that Jesus is Lord over your life because He is.

He owns, that's what the word Lord means. It means to singularly own something so that you don't have to consult with anyone else as to what you do with it. It belongs to you. You lord over it. And that's true of all men. That's true of all men. You don't make him Lord. He is your Lord.

I don't care what you think about Jesus of Nazareth. I'm here to tell you on the authority of God's word that he reigns sovereign over you and he will do with you whatever he wills. And what is the confession of the believer? Thank God. Thank God. I'm in His hand.

I need a God who is omnipotent, a God who is all-loving, a God who is able to save to the uttermost. I need Him to own me. Every time I take ownership of my own life, I just mess it up. I need to be owned by another. I need to be possessed. by God Almighty.

No man can say, not if they're speaking what they believe, not with understanding, no man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Turn with me to Romans chapter nine. Verse 13. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. By the Holy Spirit, Jesus is Lord. He has the sovereign right to love whoever he wants to love and to hate whoever he wants to hate. Amen to that. Jesus is Lord. Oh, no, my God's not that way. No, I'm sure he's not. But you have a different God. You have a different God. Our God is God.

A couple of Jehovah's Witness came by our house yesterday. And I got a little blunt with them. And they said, well, you're not being very respectful to us. We're trying to be respectful to you, but you're not being respectful to us. Wait a minute, you've come to my home in the name of the God that I worship and you want to tell me that he's not who he says he is? And you don't think I should be offended? What if I came to your home and made unfounded accusations about your husband or about your children? Would you not be offended about that? Now I got to thinking about it. I didn't say all that, I wish I had. After they left, I thought, you know, in a lot of ways, those Jehovah's Witnesses who flat out deny the deity of Christ, they say that he is a created being, he's the son of God, but he was created by God, and that he's not the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

She said, well, I want something more than John 1.1. to prove that Jesus is God. I've heard that. Everybody I go to, I hear that verse. What more do you need to hear?

I mean, there's a whole lot more to tell you, but you're not interested. You're not interested. You're not here with a teachable spirit. If you were, I'd be happy to talk to you, but you're not. Paul said, To those Judaizers, he said, I did not give them a moment of my time. And I recommend that for you. Don't give them a moment of your time. Just cut them off. If they're genuinely interested, then fine. But I got thinking about it.

The Jehovah's Witnesses who deny the deity of Christ are more honest than the Southern Baptists and the Methodists and the Pentecostals and all the different flavors of religion who would put their foot down and say, Jesus is Lord. He's God. He's the fullness of the God, but you got to do something to make him Lord. Wait a minute, you're talking out of both sides of your mouth. At least those people are consistent. You can't make sense out of nonsense and you're speaking a contradiction. You can't say he's Lord but I've got to do something to make him Lord. That is complete contradiction.

This is our confession. Verse 14. Romans chapter nine, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid, he's God. Nothing unrighteous about him. For he sayeth to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but it is of God that show of mercy. Amen to that, he's Lord, he's Lord. He's not dependent upon the will of man.

This is our confession. This is every believer's confession. We would never say that there was any sense in which the work of Christ did not accomplish the redemption of every person he came to save. We would never say that Jesus Christ is anathema. And by the Holy Spirit, we say what we believe. Jesus Christ is Lord.

My salvation is completely in his hands. He would do with me whatsoever he wills. Lord have mercy on me. You see, if you believe he's Lord, you believe he owns you, then you will bow to him and worship him and seek him for his mercy and for his salvation if you believe that. If you're just calling him Lord, if you're just honoring him with your lips, but your heart is far from him, then you will come before him offering something for him to be able to save you.

Big difference. How do I know if I have the Holy Spirit? You read on. We're the potter. He's the potter. We're the clay. He has the right to make from the same lump of clay. The lump of clay is all of humanity. He has the right. He's Lord. He has the right to make from the same lump of clay some vessels of honor, some of dishonor. Who can stay his hand? Who can say unto him, what doest thou? He's Lord. If you believe in your heart that he's Lord and you say that he's Lord, you will find yourself at his feet, worshiping him, seeking his mercy and his grace and his forgiveness. No man can say with understanding and from the heart Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. This is every believer's confession, and my confession is the evidence that God has given to me his Holy Spirit.