Amen. So if you have your outline,
the person and work of the Holy Spirit, we are in the book of
Acts chapter 13, and we have lifted up out of Acts 13 verse
2, where the imperative, the instructions were given by the
Spirit of God to separate Barnabas and Saul unto me, as he says
in the last line, for the work where unto I have called them,
And what we are doing right now presently is working through
the importance of comprehending the presence of God in our life,
and particularly the life of the community of faith. Those
people who have been called by His grace ought to be more sensitive
to and aware of and knowledgeable about the Spirit of God than
anyone else. And so I have endeavor to basically
deal with some of the works of the Spirit of God. There are
two categories of the Spirit that we ought all to desire to
know, the person of the Spirit and the work of the Spirit. Tonight,
we will simply be dealing with aspects of His work. Those of
us who are Orthodox Christians believe that the Spirit of God
is a person, correct? We believe that He is one of
three persons. And so we call God, who is this
monotheistic, glorious being by which all things are created,
a tri-personal being. He is three persons, yet one
God. That's not solving the dilemma
of the mathematical paradox of the three-in-one. It's simply
stating what it is factually. And when you understand your
Bible correctly, you understand that God, the father is a distinct
individual with his own personal predicates and attributes that
constitute his own individual personhood. The same is true
for God, the son, God, the son possesses his own personal, unique
predicates and attributes as an individual. And so is the
case with the third person. When we make that type of claim,
what we are denying is the notion that God is a unipersonal being
who transforms himself from the Father to the Son to the Holy
Ghost at will or at whim. We deny that notion, which is
prevalent in our churches today. Prevalent. And we will not accept
that as a biblical construct for understanding God. It also
opens the door for so many difficulties when it comes to understanding
scripture. But as we're going through the
book of acts, the book of acts serves for us as a foundation
and platform for the work of the spirit of God, who shows
up in a very concrete and visible way in the life of the church.
As our texts alludes to in chapter 13, verse two, and as they ministered
unto the Lord, remember we dealt with that as the work of the
church to minister unto the Lord, correct? And we stated that distinctly
that has to do with the sacerdotal or the religious, um, uh, characteristics
of the gospel ministry to which all believers are called, whether
it's prayer, whether it's preaching, whether it's the collaborative
work of the whole church together in that priesthood ministry,
serving God, as God has called the church to serve him by which
God then is Placed on a pedestal by means of the labor of the
church so that the world can see God I said this that when
the church is functioning Coram Dale walking in the presence
of God and understanding the privilege of our priesthood position,
where we worship God and exalt God and pray to God and glorify
God. We are ministering to God. That
is the term liturgeo, for which we get the whole idea of the
ministry. And that's what Paul or Saul
and Barnabas were doing, both being Jews and now being Christians,
they had a full comprehension of the priesthood ministry. So
as they were preparing messages, as they were sharing the gospel
with the people in the local area of Antioch, as they were
seeking God's face for guidance, for understanding, the Spirit
of God spoke very clearly to them in that process as to what
they should do. The reason I laid that foundation
is that verse two of chapter 13 didn't just come out of nowhere.
You guys understand what I'm saying. It was the consequence
of a serious consecration unto Christ, a serious commitment
to obedience to Christ, a focus on who he is in a profoundly
vertical conscious activity on the part of the believer, seeking
God. And when we seek God, he promises we will be found of
him and he will be found of us and there will be the advancement
of his will in our lives. I'm laying a foundation for what's
gonna be a really, really, really good rest of the Book of Acts. And this has to do with the missionary
journey of the Apostle Paul. Barnabas will be a helper. Silas
will be a helper. Timothy will be a helper. A couple
of others. But from chapter 13 forward, you guys know that the
main featured person will be who? The Apostle Paul. But the
one really undergirding the work of missions is the Spirit of
the Living God. The one who actually brings to
pass the efficacious fruit of salvation in the life of lost
sinners is the Spirit of God. The one who qualifies men and
women to actually share the gospel is the Spirit of God. The one
who actually orchestrates events and bring to pass circumstances
where the person who is sharing the Word of God meets the person
who needs to have the Word shared with him is the Spirit of God. As we will work through the alphabet
just as a basic sort of category of the work of the Spirit of
God, we'll see how involved the Spirit of God is in every aspect
of the life of the church. My aim is for you to appreciate
Him more significantly in your life. A lot of times we really
do remain in a fog, ambiguous. We hold sort of a very mystical
Arms-length perspective on this third person and we ought not
Notice again in verse 2. He says it says the Holy Ghost
said That means he's speaking right? There's an articulation
an expression. There is a declaration. There
is communication taking place There's not an this is not an
unction or a filling or a sense. I This is an articulation, this
is an expression. It's gonna happen over again,
several times in the book of Acts. The spirit of God will
tell them what to do, even as Jesus said he would, right? In
John chapter 14, 15 and 16, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the
work where unto I have called them as a specific command, is
it not? The two persons to whom the spirit
of God now is going to send are selected out of five men, aren't
they? So there's a separation between
the three and the two because God is sovereign and he chooses
whom he wills. And in this case, he has chosen
Saul and Barnabas for the work. And we'll get a we'll get an
opportunity once again to see the blessing of the ministry
of the spirit. So if you have your outline,
the person in work of the Holy Spirit, he is the third person
of the triune God. And we take that from Matthew
28, 19 and 20. I just want you to start back
at the top with our alphabets. I'm going to go from A all the
way through I, which is just to recap for you, which is where
we are in our sort of selected aspects of the work of the spirit
of God. The first one is in our PowerPoint is he does what he
abides. Right. And that term abides means
he remains. He is present. He is essential
to the life of the believer. The idea of abiding is a prominent
statement that we saw in John's Gospel, chapter 14, verse 17.
It is also given again in 1 John 2, 24, where the church is admonished
by John the apostle to make sure that you submit to the abiding
presence of the Spirit of God. Go with me in your Bible to 1
John 2, verse 24. John would say to the church
that it is important for you to acknowledge the resident authority
of the Spirit of God in the church because of His role, His immense
and enormous role in keeping you and providing for you everything
that you need to do the will of God. The context in 1 John
2 is given to us in verse 24-25 where John speaks to us of the struggles that have gone
on. He says in verse 24 of 1 John
2, let that therefore abide in you which you have heard from
the beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning
shall remain in you, watch this now, you shall continue in the
what? And in the what? That's our three persons, isn't
it? That's our three persons. It is the Spirit that brings
you into communion with the Son and with the Father. Notice what
it says in verse 25, and this is the promise that he promised
us, even what? These things have I written unto
you concerning them that what? Seduce you, or deceive you. The Greek term there planeo means
to cause you to err. So really what John is dealing
with is an apologetic and a polemic against the heretics who had
come into the church that John was ministering to, caused many
to stumble. And when John dealt with it,
they left, like heretics often do. But the church is now suffering
from the thralls of that kind of apostasy. And what John is
saying now is, make sure that you understand what it means
to submit to God, to be protected from error and from falsehood.
And so he says over in verse 27, But the anointing, you see
that term anointing? It's a synonym for what? The
Spirit of God. But the anointing which you have
received of him abideth where? In you. In the literal language,
it means you in the plural sense, not you individually. It means
in the church. The Spirit of God dwells in the
church. That's his role. He gave life to the church in
Acts chapter two, didn't he? He birthed the church. He dwells
in the church. He guides the church and he guides
the people of God in the church. Really what we're talking about
is the community of faith. And we're talking about the work
of the third person in sustaining the life and witness of the community
of faith. You guys sense that? It's very
clear here. And when he uses, when John uses
the term anointing, again, he's moving us into that priesthood
concept. Is that not so? Because the priests
were the ones who were what? Anointed for ministry. And I
said this last week, if you call yourself a Christian, Are you
not saying that you're an anointed one? Right, you are. Because
that's literally what our word means in the Hebrew. Masah is
the term for anointed. Messiah is the anointed one. And so when we transfer the Hebrew
over into the Greek, Christos, we are now talking about those
who are like who? Christ, like the anointed one.
So every Christian is anointed. and we are anointed because of
the presence of the Spirit of God in our life. Now notice what
he says, But the anointing which you have received of him abided
in you, and you need not that any man should what? But as the
same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and
is no lie, even as it hath taught you, you shall what? So here's
what John is teaching. Be careful because you can mess
this verse up too and start acting like you don't have human instrumentality
by which you are taught. You meet people all the time
who talk about only God teaches me. I'm never taught by men,
I'm taught only by God. That would be ludicrous and the
scriptures would contradict themselves if that were the case, right?
And so, but we do know this, that our ultimate teacher is
whom? The Spirit of God. That's exactly
right. If we're going to receive truth
to the salvation of our soul, it will be the Spirit of God
who communicates that truth. But he's going to use means,
is he not? Teachers, and pastors, and missionaries, and prophets,
and evangelists. for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body, for the building up of the church
of Jesus Christ. And so at the beginning of the
verse, it says, the anointing which you have received abideth
in you. And at the end of the verse,
it says, you shall abide in him. He abides in you, you abide in
him. So there is that bilateral relationship between the believer
acknowledging the presence and the believer submitting to the
presence. Acknowledging the presence because
the believer did not bring the presence on, God did that sovereignly. Acknowledging and submitting
to the presence because the believer understands that without him
we can what? This is true. This is true. So
abiding is a term that should bring comfort to you when we
talk about, do you have the PowerPoint up? Okay. It's gone. Okay. So if Dave is here, Dave
can help you with that help, because it's up there. It just
has to be pulled out. In any event, you guys have your outline.
Abide is the idea. And again, what that means is
the Spirit of God is there present. He grants access for us to enter
into the presence of God. He anoints. And the Spirit of
God is the one who gives us assurance. We saw also last week that we
are baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ, right? First
Corinthians chapter 12 verse 13. It's a symbol of giving birth,
entrance into the kingdom of God and many other things. Thirdly,
the role of the spirit is seen in Matthew's gospel chapter 12
verse 28 as being the strength and means by which the church
is purified. And that is demonic activity
is halted or expelled only by the power of God. That's a work
of purification in the church. When demons are able to infiltrate
the church through false prophets and false teachers and any other
means, the only real way of that demon being exercised or removed
from the community is by the power of God. Only God can remove
that kind of assault, that kind of demonic assault from the community. Church and so Jesus says if I
cast out devils By the Spirit of God then the kingdom of God
is present among you We do need him present right to straighten
out the church when it's infiltrated by enemies Thirdly if you have
your outline or fourthly rather discernment, do we need the Spirit
of God for discernment? indeed we do if you think that
you have the natural innate ability to to discern what's right and
wrong, particularly in spiritual things, you think too much of
yourself. You think way too much of yourself.
And so long as you, and God will have you and me in situations
over your Christian life, make many mistakes. And you know why
he'll do that? To show you that you don't have
the innate gift of discernment, that you need God. He'll let
you err in doctrine and in practice. He'll let you err in motive and
in method. He'll let you err in many ways
so that you do not presume that somehow your gray matter is enough
to keep you from falling. He'll do that so that you might
really know what it means to be sensitive to his promptings,
his presence, his guidance. There are times in our lives,
is it not true, where we are imperceptibly slipping away from
fellowship with God. But the Spirit of God will be
nudging you all along to let you know that you are drifting
away. And whether the heart hardens
itself or soften itself will determine whether or not the
Spirit of God will let you smart. Is that true? And if the heart
hardens, he will let you smart. And sometimes it'll be behind
closed doors where he will let you stumble and you'll discover,
boy, I just made a fool of that. And if we don't learn behind
closed doors, he'll do it openly to let us know that he does not
play. And we will smart publicly and
others will see it. And that can be a means of demotion,
removing us from qualification for leadership, or influencing
the Christian church, where we are conducting ourselves in a
manner that disrespects his sovereignty. So discernment is critical in
the life of the believer. Fourthly, The role of the Spirit
of God is to what? Edify. We saw that in Ephesians
2, 22. Look in your Bible in Ephesians
2, 22. Ephesians chapter two, verse 22. One more time, we're
gonna read verse 20 through 22 and then we'll keep going. He
says that the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in
whom all the building fitly framed together groweth. Do you guys
see that term? Yeah, that's another term for
being edified or being built up. It groweth unto what? A holy
temple in the Lord. Now watch this. In whom ye also
are builded together for an habitation of God through what? So the instrumental
means of the people of God becoming a sacred habitation for the Father
is the Spirit. the instrumental means by which
the people of God, or we might even call it the efficient means
by which the people of God are made to be a sacred dwelling
place, because the word is temple. This is not a gymnasium. This is not an entertainment
center. This is not a nightclub. This is not a Harlots house.
It's a temple. It's an appropriate dwelling
place for God. Do you know God has to make you
into that? God has to qualify us through
the process of sanctification where we become appropriate for
his dwelling among us. This is where the contingency
of the Spirit's presence in the body of Christ at large is to
be taken very seriously. Because again, if a local church
persists in living in rebellion against God, the Spirit of God
will depart from that local church. Just as he departed from the
church of Israel in the Old Testament many times, the Spirit of God
will depart from a local church and leave that local church to
spiritual blindness. And it will substitute the real
authentic presence of the Spirit of God for mere entertainment.
Or methods of legalism by which they are functioning on a carnal
level and it's ultimately man-centered and not Christ-centered. And
the authentic work of the Spirit of God will not be evident in
that church because the people of God will not be first and
foremost humbly and desperately committed to Jesus. Secondly,
they will not be hungry for the truth of God's Word. Thirdly,
they will not be passionate for the fellowship of the saints
by which they are mutually edified and thus emboldened and prepared
to share the gospel publicly. How do I know that the spirit
of God is absent from a church? When a church does not have the
humble desperation to know God, when it is not committed to sound
biblical truth by which it comes to know God, when it is absolutely
unclear on the person and work of Jesus Christ as a foundation
of its relationship with God, and then when it lacks that real
zeal for fellowship with one another, as Psalm 133 puts it,
how good and pleasant is it for brethren to dwell together in
unity. And it gives the analogy of Aaron, the high priest. Remember
that Aaron now becomes a great central figure and type of Jesus
Christ. Aaron, the old Testament high
priest, Jesus, our new Testament high priest, and the anointing
oil poured on him from his head down through his beard, all the
way down his garments to his feet. It describes the church
centered in Jesus. as the place where the Spirit
of God has His full manifestation and efficacy, and what it describes
is the joy of the fellowship of the people of God as they
are committed to the glory of God and Jesus Christ. You guys
see that? The centrality of our unity As
it was with Aaron being the representative of the whole of Israel, Jesus
is the representative of the church of the living God. He
is our unity. He is our foundation. He's the
cause of our oneness. He's our focus. He's our joy. And he is the basis for all that
we do. And so the idea of being edified
is taken and lifted out of this text. It's the work of the spirit
of God. to take hell bound sinners from
out there in the secular world of darkness. We will call it
the rock quarry, if you will, of Hiram, and then brought in
and made to be a temple of God, brick by brick, stone by stone,
built up into a spiritual house by the work of the gospel and
by the ministry of the spirit. Is that analogy clear to you
guys? That's exactly what he does. You guys remember how Solomon
built the temple in seven years? You guys remember that? First
Kings chapter six. And what did Solomon do? He had
the, the, the portions of the house or the temple, particularly
the stones and the wood brought in from elsewhere. They were
prepared without, and then they were brought into Jerusalem.
and the preparation of the stones and the wood without is a type
of the predestinating purposes of God in the choosing of every
one of his elect people out of darkness to bring them into his
marvelous light. It is the work of the spirit
of God to call lost sinners who are chosen in Christ out of the
rock quarry of the world and bring them in and fit them into
the temple. And when they were placed, Remember what it was
said of Solomon's temple. You could not hear a hammer or
a nail or any noise in it at all. And the reason why is that
the temple represented the grace of God. That was a net effect
of the atonement that Christ had already accomplished so that
we are not working to build the temple. It's the spirit of God
placing sinners into the temple who are a part of the finished
work of Christ. Do you guys see that picture?
So that the work of grace is not the consequence of human
effort. The work of grace is the consequence
of one person's sacrifice, and that's Jesus Christ. And when
he rose again from the dead, grace was given as a certificate
to every one of God's elect. So that when they were brought
in, they were simply placed in the temple, stone upon stone,
brick upon brick. And this is what God is doing
all around the world. This is why Zachariah says, grace
unto it, grace unto it, the mountain of God, not by power, nor by
might, but by my what? Sayeth the Lord. And so as we
look now at the term feel, feel, we talked about this last week,
that's in your outline now. In Acts chapter 531, Ephesians
518, Philippians 119, It means the work of the spirit
of God and supplying the believer with the what energy to work. No spiritual work can be done
in the life of the Christian apart from the energizing presence
of the spirit of God. That's why I just quoted Zachariah
chapter four, six, not by power, nor by might, but by my spirit,
saith the Lord. If it's actually going to be
a work that sustains, and is able to endure the fires of 1
Corinthians chapter 3. Remember what Paul said in 1
Corinthians chapter 3? He says, there's no other foundation
that can be laid other than that which is already laid, which
is what? Christ. See, Christ is the foundation.
There's no other foundation that can be laid as the cornerstone
and foundation upon which the church is built, but Christ.
Now upon Jesus Christ, The labors of those who are preaching the
gospel by the power of the spirit and the collective efforts of
the whole body of Christ becomes the means by which the church
grows. It is the work of the spirit functioning according
to the finished work of Christ in a grace orientation, bringing
men and women into the kingdom of God. and we require being
filled to do that. So we looked at Ephesians chapter
518, we won't go there again. Remember the imperative there,
continue to be filled with the spirit, singing to yourselves
in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, in order that the work
of the kingdom of God might be done successfully, you and I
have to continue depending upon God. Because nothing that's done
in the flesh will ever pass through the fires of God's scrutable
judgment. See, it may look good here in
this world, and there are lots of churches, big churches, massive
churches, edifices that are ornate. and absolutely splendid in terms
of their opulence and their wealth and their notoriety and their
fame. I mean, just take the Mormon temple up there in the hill in
Oakland on any holiday, you drive up there and that thing is absolutely
stunning. It won't make it through the
fire on the last day. Do you hear me? And such are
all the churches that are built in the flesh. Such are all the
churches that are built in the flesh. They impress men, but
they don't impress God. They don't impress God. And this
goes to show you the paradoxical nature and tension between the
thing seen and the thing what? Unseen. The work of men and the
work of God. And the work of God is in the
heart and is manifested by what I said earlier, a love for the
truth of the gospel. a love for the presence of God,
a love for the people of God, and a love for the work of God
being accomplished. So I'll just share with you one
verse in that light. Look at Philippians chapter one, verse
19, Philippians 1, 19. You see how important it is for
the collaborative work to be going on up there too? That's
why teamwork is required in order to keep technology going as well. It just can't be done by one
person. We all got to work together, right? Colossians chapter one,
Philippians chapter 1 verse 19 listen to this listen to how
Paul explains it vividly aware of the necessity of The ministry
of the Spirit in doing what he needs them to do. He says over
in verse 19 This is where we left off last week And then I'll
read verse 20 and then we'll go on with the rest of our points
for I know this is what the Apostle says that this shall turn to
my salvation through your what and and the what? Supply of the
spirit of Jesus Christ. I'm being presumptuous, but Paul
used the same texts that you and I have in terms of the Old
Testament to now, when he now uses the analogy of the supply
of the spirit of God. So let me call your attention
to an image that Zachariah gave us in chapter four of the book
of Zachariah, where he had two olive trees. that were on each
side of the menorah and the olive trees poured into the menorah
oil in order for the menorah to be lit. Do you guys remember
that image? This is what he meant by the supply of the spirit of
God. The spirit of God must pour the
oil into the menorah. What is the menorah? The church.
You and I have no illuminating Elements in us are no illuminating
factors nothing within you and me That's capable of attracting
sinners to God apart from the work of the Spirit of God. Is
that true? You and I are dark and darkness itself You and I
were blind people if God left us to be the means by which they're
brought to God So you and I are only the light of the world Because
God has made us vessels by which he can pour his oil in illuminate
And therefore illuminate himself through us as we abide in God's
Word and his Word abide in us Therefore the Father and the
Son and the Spirit thus abides in the work can be done the next
one that we saw then was the idea of gathering and I state
that the work of the Spirit of God is to gather sinners from
all over the world and My argument was Acts chapter 13 verse two.
What did Paul, what did the Holy Spirit say in Acts 13? Separate
unto me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called
them to do for me. And what we're gonna see is that
they're gonna be going to little islands and cities and towns
preaching the gospel everywhere. And what is that going to do?
It's gonna fulfill John chapter 10 where Jesus says, other sheep
have I that are not of this fold. They too must be brought in and
there will be one fold and one shepherd. So the third person
is sent by the second person who was sent by the first person
to go get all of God's elect from everywhere in the world.
Are you guys hearing me? That's the work of the spirit of God.
And this is what makes missionary work so absolutely imperative. So we now bring ourselves to
the H in our alphabetical order of reflection upon his work.
He helps us, does he not? He helps us. We looked at Romans
8.26. There are many others, but in Romans 8.26, it fundamentally
says this. He supports the believer in the
ordained struggle of what? Sin and faith. He supports the believer in the
ordained struggle of sin and faith. See, there's a mystery that goes
on in the life of the Christian. that he has a real difficult
time negotiating. Every Christian is like Isaac's
wife, Rebecca, who said, why am I thus? When
she had conceived and there were twins in the womb, she didn't
know, they didn't have sonograms back then, you know that. Something
was going on. And what was going on was a warfare
of which we are about to learn intimately and deeply and strategically
in Romans 6 and 7. That takes place when you become
a believer. When you become a true believer, God has called you
to a struggle. And if you don't accept those
terms, your life is going to be miserable. In the struggle,
God shows up to teach you about his faithfulness and to confirm
the truth of his word in your life because fundamentally we
both don't know and we are incredulous when we're taught. Incredulous
meaning when God tells us something we don't automatically believe
it. So this is part of our sin nature. You have to accept this.
Part of our sin nature is that when God says something, if it
doesn't resonate with us immediately, we'll blow it off, that's a consequence
of unbelief, or we will reject it out of hand as not something
precious to hide in our heart. Remember when the angel spoke
to Mary, what the text says, and Mary took all these things
and did what? Hid them in her heart. So until you and I come
to learn how to accept God's word and hide it in our heart,
What God has to do is teach us through the struggle of sin and
faith. And these are, these are a tandems
that operate in our life. The struggle of the presence
of sin in our life, which humbles us before God causes us to cry
out to God. Then God comes along and helps
us. That's the goal of the helper.
Our faith is strengthened by the presence of God and his faithfulness
to keep us from ultimately falling. Is that true? Our faith is strengthened
by the presence of God who keeps us from ultimately falling away. And then after a while, we learned
that this is the dance to which he has called us to the tangle
to which God in his romance with us has called us to is the tangle
of being able to draw near to God. and God draw near to us
as he works with us around our fallen nature, that element of
our nature that still is inclined to want to do its own thing.
And God has to teach us how to function with that so that we
can actually ultimately do the will of God. And then we have
the term what? Indwells. It's different than
abide. Indwelling is different than
abiding. Abiding has to do with the general presence and eminence
of the Spirit of God in the church collectively. He is present. He abides among us. His impact
is relevant on the larger social level. But to indwell now is
to take a personal resident in the heart by which God now begins
to work acutely in you. Do you guys understand the difference? Well, the difference is articulated
by texts like Hebrews chapter six, where in Hebrews six, it
warns about those who have tasted the good word of God, who have
seen the powers of the world to come, who have been made what
are called existentially partakers of the Holy Ghost, but have not
actually been born again. These are people who have had
levels of exposure to the kingdom of God that most people don't. People like Judas Iscariot would
have fallen into that category. Where Judas was brought nigh
to the kingdom, like lots of people have been brought nigh
and have visibly seen the work of God in the saving of sinners,
in the restoration of the people of God, and even in the powerful
illuminating work of the Word of God on the conscience. An
unsaved person could be enlightened by virtue of the work of the
Spirit of God and allow him to comprehend gospel truth and yet
not be awakened in his soul to actually run after God. An unsaved
person can learn a lot about God's Word and therefore walk
in a kind of natural light because of his capacity for putting together
propositions. Am I making some sense? Well,
I'll say it like this before I move on. That's the only way
you can become an apostate. You can never be an apostate
if you didn't learn enough of sound Orthodox teaching and then
depart from it. Are you following me? So if we
have a world full of apostates, and we do, and we have a church
history filled with apostasy, and we do, then we have had those
who were brought nigh, educated, even became scholars who in their
Still and yet unbelief finally gave up on the God of the word
and the word of God and began to pervert the scriptures, twist
the scriptures or walk away from the scriptures. And many stumbled
after them. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So when I say that there's a possibility to be enlightened
and yet not awakened, please don't be alarmed. This is the
warning of the parable of the sower and the seed. This is just
this is like this is like common common practice in the Church
of the Living God. Many are called, few are what?
Right. And so when we hear these kinds
of ideas, the thing that the true Christian and informed Christian
is called to do is to simply make their calling and election
sure. Lord, don't let me be a Judas
Iscariot. Don't let me be an Alexander
the coppersmith. Don't let me be a diatrophies.
Don't let me be a Balaam. Don't let me be a Jezebel. Don't
let me be an Athaliah. Don't let me be like those who
have been drawn nigh and departed from you. And if you and I are
not asking God to keep us like that, you're presumptuous. Are
you hearing me? You remember the disciples the
night that Jesus was betrayed? and went to the cross. He told
them, one of you guys, one of you guys going to turn me in.
And you know what they said one by one? Is it I? Is it me? Do you know why? Because after
three and a half years of ministry with the master, he had so destroyed
their self pride. By the time they came to that
last Lord's Supper I mean last Passover meal they were done
with the presumption that they had a right to sit on his right
hand and on his left he told those boys tails up he really
did he really did they were dumb presuming that they were cock
sure for heaven he said one of you guys are gonna betray me
they said Lord is it I the only person that didn't say is it
I was the one who betrayed him He takes an intimate place in
the being of the believer's life for so many reasons. Under the
term indwell, we can deal with so many categories of doctrinal
truth concerning the work of the Spirit of God. Indwell means
to regenerate. Indwell means to illuminate.
Indwell means to seal. Indwell means to conform to the
image of Christ. Indwell means to sanctify. Indwell
means to consecrate. Indwell means to use. So many
things coming under the rubric of indwell. Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? Very important doctrine. So then the next one
is he what? Justifies. I like this because
what we're doing is talking about the work of the immediator. That's the term I've used before,
right? The son is what? The mediator, is he not? The
Father is the grounds and being of all things. The Father stands
preeminent on his throne. The Son stands as the mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. The Spirit of God
stands as the what? The mediator. He's the immediate
presence of God functioning among us to bring to pass the reality
of Jesus and the Father. Does that make some sense to
you guys? That's right. He's the immediate presence. And every
believer is spoken to powerfully and clearly in his conscience
by the Spirit of God. When the gospel is preached,
the Spirit of God sums up the totality of what Christ has done
for you by saying to your soul, justify, justified. It's the Spirit of God that has
to persuade you that you have been forgiven of all your sins.
that Christ's death on Calvary street has put away all your
sins, past, present, and future. Only the spirit of God could
do that. Only the spirit of God could convince you that you are
the righteousness of God in Christ. Only the spirit of God. Only
the spirit of God can tell you that you are forgiven every time
you fall and help you get back up. Only the spirit of God, because
he is the witness. Having witnessed what the son
did and the behalf of the guilty sinner, to give the sinner every
hope of glory. It's the spirit of God that sustains
your faith. Am I making some sense? That's
right. So like you can't justify yourself and you can't speak
peace to your own soul. You can hear the gospel preached.
You can hear Jesus say, whosoever believeth on me shall not perish,
but have everlasting life. But until the third person speaks
to your conscience and soul saying you have been justified freely
by his grace, therefore go only the spirit of God can give you
that peace. That's what Romans chapter four,
25 Romans five, one, and two is all about. Therefore being
justified by faith. We have what we got peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Not only that, And then he goes
on to talk about the powerful work of the love of God being
shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost so that we are constantly
reminded by the Spirit of God that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Only the Spirit of God can justify
your conscience. So that's 1 Corinthians chapter 611. Look at what it
says in your Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 611. What are we doing
tonight? We are reminding ourselves of
the permeating work of the spirit of God, the involved, the extent
to which the spirit of God is involved in bringing the kingdom
of God to reality in our life. Otherwise, as I have used the
analogy so many times, ladies, do you guys know the difference
between buying clothes and window shopping? Do you know the difference? Do you know the difference between
actually going into the store and purchasing that purse, those
shoes, that outfit, that nice piece of garment that you wanted,
and simply looking at it in the window? Ladies, do you know the
difference? That's the difference between
knowing Christ and knowing about Christ. That's the difference.
That's the difference. That's the difference. And such
were some of you. What was that, pastor? You know
what that was. Right? That's the used-to-be category.
Such were some of you. But you are what? That's the
analogy of baptism, isn't it? That's the analogy of baptism.
That's what Jesus said in John chapter 3. Except you be born
of the water and of the Spirit, you won't see nor enter the kingdom
of God. The Holy Ghost has to do that, right? He washes every
newborn babe that comes into the kingdom. Some of us have
had babies and we've had practice many times. One of the first
things we do after our babies are born is what? They have to
be washed. They have to be washed. And so
washing is that post regeneration work by which the new child is
freshly presented to the kingdom of God. And this is what has
occurred for those of us who have been born again. You have
been washed, but you have been what? Sanctified, set apart,
set apart. Set apart. But you are what?
Justified. Now watch this. In the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, he's our grounds of justification. Watch this now. And by the what?
Spirit of our God. Who's sealing the work of Christ
on our conscience? The Spirit of God. See what he
does? He does a lot, doesn't he? Doesn't
he do a lot? This is why the analogy of the
Spirit in the scriptures in relationship to the three persons is he's
called the servant. The Holy Ghost is called the
servant. He's the servant. He is the quintessential servant
of God. His role is to simply affect
the will of the covenant. And he is busy all the time.
Let's go on through the rest of our points. So we've gotten
from A to J, and now we are looking at the next term. What does the
spirit of God does? What does he do also? He keeps. I've been a believer now for
35 years. From the day he called me to
this day, he has kept me. I am more aware of his keeping
power today than I was the day that he called me by his grace.
I am so acutely aware of his keeping power that I thank him
daily for his mercy, for keeping me in my right mind and keeping
me on track. I know that that's his grace.
That's the only way that you and I could sustain this walk
in Christ. He keeps us. And so 1 Peter 1,
verse 5 tells us this just as a text case to support that aspect
of his work. 1 Peter 1, 5, you've heard it
before. Just hear it again in the context
of the works of the Spirit of God. In 1 Peter 1, 3 through
5, we read these words. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. which according to his abundant
mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, that's the work of the two persons,
to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that faced not
away, where is it? Reserved in heaven for you, you
who are what? Kept by the what? Power of God,
through what? Unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. And the last clause there is
that The way he keeps us is by sustaining our faith and letting
us know it's not over until it's over. When you look at the verse
carefully in that text, going back to verse five, when you
look at the text carefully, we are kept by the power of God
and the power there is the spirit of God through faith. And what
he means by that is this. Remember, as I said earlier about
him being a helper. That Greek term there in Romans
chapter 8, 26, we'll deal with that when we get there. It's
a powerful term with two major prepositions and a strong verb
there. It means to come alongside of
you on the other side of your trouble to help you deal with
your trouble so you can bear your trouble in order for you
to be able to advance in your purpose and calling before God.
What he does is sustain our faith. We are kept by the power of God
through faith. Without faith, it's what? That's right. You
got to believe that. And so like when a child of God
messes up royally and the error has penetrated deeply into your
soul, is not your faith at that moment in question on a subjective
level? Absolutely. Absolutely. How do we know? Remember I told
you Peter, James and John are perfect models for us. Remember,
Peter said, Lord, I won't ever leave you. I won't ever forsake
you. These might, but I won't. The
little girl came and said, I can tell you, Galilean, because your
speech is all jacked up. You came from the hood. You remember
what he said? I don't know him and started
cussing. Remember that? This is the brother
that's going to be one of the pillars of the church. He got
shaken to his boots by a little girl. Do you know why? Because
that little girl in Peter's mind was about to set Peter up to
be killed. Why? Because Peter was walking
in the what? Flesh. And he discovered that
walking in the flesh disarms you from any sense of standing
in the face of evil. And Peter immediately heard the
cock crow And looking upon the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ looking
at him broke his heart. He went away. Greed, didn't he?
Have you ever had that kind of transgression against your savior? If you haven't, you haven't been
in the faith long because he's going to allow some of our faith
to crash like that so that he can show us to show us that it's God that
keeps us. Not we ourselves. Are you guys
hearing me? When he reboots your computer
and gets you back online, you go, hallelujah. The lights are
back on. Revive us again, revive us again,
oh Lord. That's true, isn't it true? He's
so good. Our master went to the shore. and met them that morning. They
had gone fishing. They had sold out being an apostle. They went back to their old business
and he went and hunted them down, didn't he? He was a type of the
spirit of God. They wouldn't have come back
to him. He had to go to them. And he reassured them, recommissioned
them, didn't he? Peter, come here. Let's work
this out. You messed up, boy. But I just want to ask you one
question. Do you love me? See, because faith works by what?
See, if your faith is not operating on the basis of love, your faith
is false. Are you hearing me? Faith is
what love is, what fuels faith. It fuels it. The love of God
in Christ fuels your faith and your faith will. The flame of
your faith will go down so low. It will get so dim. That there
will be nothing in terms of its parameters for which it can light
up. You'll be looking for it and it'll be gone. But way down
in your soul, there's still a cry, isn't it? Lord have mercy on
me. Cause it never goes out. It goes
dim, but it never goes out. We're kept by the power of God
through faith. But then he also leads us. Let's go on. Let's
go on. We got 30 minutes. He also leads us, leads us. I'm quoting Luke 4, 1, John 16,
13, Romans 8, 4, 2 Peter 1, 21, a whole bunch of verses, but
listen to what it says. The Spirit of God leads us. His
guidance is perpetual in our what? That's right. We are constantly
being led by the what? We ought to. As many of us as
are born of the Spirit of God are led by the Spirit. If you're
born of the Spirit, you are led by the Spirit. If you're born
of the Spirit, you are led by the Spirit. The Spirit of God
is not going to quicken you and then not lead you. You don't
know where you're going. Do you understand that? I love
the historical narrative. Our Lord's ministry started with
him being baptized and then being driven into the wilderness. Who drove him into the wilderness?
The Spirit of God. Isn't that right? You guys gotta
listen, don't assume. He was led into the spirit, into
the wilderness by the spirit. It's amazing. Just think about
this with me for a moment. Cause see Christ is the personification
of our whole journey. Remember what we're learning
children of God? If we don't grasp the essential union between
the believer and Christ, We won't have a good understanding of
who we are because who we are is who he was for us. And as he was in the world, so
are we. So all I need to do is keep my
eyes on Christ in the scriptures and I get to see myself. So what
I see is that when my master was baptized, The first thing
that occurred after he got out of the water was the spirit led
him to be tested. And this is why every time we
do baptisms, I told you this last time, I said, you have a
bullseye on your back. The moment you are baptized in
a gospel church where you are claiming Christ publicly, you
come up out of that water, you have a bullseye on your back
because you have now publicly identified yourself with the
Lord Jesus. Here comes the attack. Are you hearing me? Here comes
the attack. It's coming from the celestial
world. It's coming from the terrestrial world. It's coming from the secular
world. It's coming from the sacred world. It's coming from the domestic
world. It's coming from your husband, your wife, your sister,
your brother. You know why? Because you opened
your mouth and you said that you are publicly now identified
with Jesus. And if they did these things
to him, do you think you're not going
to go through what he went through? The disciple cannot be greater
than his master. So and here's the point, ladies
and gentlemen, you don't have to be miffed or mystified as
to what the journey of the Christian life is. Just look at Christ. He already told us the way that
I'm going is the way that you have to go. There's no way that
you're going to do Christianity and not follow the road that
your master went down. See what I'm getting at? And
so the objective then is to watch how Christ, upon his commissioning,
then was led his excursion. The first place he went was to
the wilderness. Why? To be tested. The Spirit of God led him to
be tested. The devil came to tempt him.
See that? Those are the tensions. The Spirit
of God does not tempt, but he does test. The goal of the devil
is to tempt you to fall. Do you understand that? Why are
we now meeting in this wilderness to be tempted by the devil and
tested by the Lord? To try our faith to see if it's
authentic. What if our faith was not authentic?
Wouldn't you want to know that before you die? That one was
good, huh? Because don't we, don't we sometimes
say inadvertently, I don't want to be tested. Come on now. Come on now. Don't we say, Lord,
I don't want to go through the test. I don't want to go through
the trial. Well, how else is your faith going to be tested
to be authentic? And how else is it going to be
strengthened unless it's forged in the fires and made alloyed
by the grace of God? Right. That's right. That's. Wake up, smell the coffee. That's the call of the Christian.
And if it's any comfort, if it's any comfort, it's not going to
end until the end. The trials continue till the
end. But now watch this. If you thought that was not comforting,
here's the comfort. It ends. Are you hearing me? That's the comfort. It ends.
See, because God intends to grow you up. Too many babies. Too
many whiners, too many people who don't understand that you've
been called to service. But your service is going to
terminate at some point, right? And then you enter into your
reward. So the believer learns to live
out the gospel in hope of the what? Glory of God. That's right. And see, a mature believer understands
that the blessing is at the end. Endure hardship as a good soldier
because the blessing is at the end. If you fail to understand
that, ladies and gentlemen, you're going to have a hard time down
here. Jesus is not going to make any sense to you. The gospel
is not going to make any sense. And then you'll be sold out to
a prosperity gospel that promise you ease and comfort. Are you
hearing me? That's not the truth of the gospel,
though. So he keeps us and then he leads us. And he is our maker,
is he not? He is the author of spiritual
life and producer of their fullness. That's what I mean by the maker.
I could expand on that at length, but I just want you to appreciate
him being the cause of your spiritual life and your spiritual transformation. Do you guys got that? See, like in the first creation,
the Spirit of God is there hovering over it, working in it, producing
order, delineating the distinctions between the heavens and the earth,
categorizing days and nights, ordering purposes and designs,
the inanimate creation, the animate creation, and then ultimately
the pinnacle of creation, mankind. The Spirit of God is deeply involved
in what we call the cosmos. So let me help you with that
a little bit. Well, I met one of my sisters just a little while
ago at one of the prestigious stores that I shop at Walmart.
One of my sisters in Christ, just met her there. We were in
line enjoying ourselves, having some fellowship at Walmart. And
she was saying, Pastor, you know, you love talking about the universe
and the stars and all that, you know. Do you have friends in
NASA? And I said, I do, I have a few friends, but I'm just fascinated
in the handiwork of God. For a number of reasons on an
apologetic level, but just the universe is just absolutely stunning.
So like when you have eyes of faith, what you see in the universe
is the exquisite nature of an infinite God whose handiwork
is such that the details will keep you and me busy for all
eternity trying to figure it out. like Michelangelo to the
hundred thousand power. Are you hearing me? And the point
being is every believer who has had his eyes illuminated in the
scriptures, look at the heavens and go look at God. So now, so
now, and the reason why we go look at God is because what God
has done with the heavens is he has caused most the heavens. See, I talked to you about that
in Romans chapter one, three forms of the word for creation,
the material, and then the order and structure of it, and then
the sustaining of it. The cosmos is the order and structure of
the universe by which it is beautified. So the universe is beautiful
to our speculation that is our viewing of it because of the
handiwork of God. And so we marvel at it and it
becomes even more beautiful when we comprehend it through faith,
right? By faith we know that the worlds
were framed by the Word of God. So the unsaved man looks at the
universe and he doesn't know what to make of it. That's because
he doesn't know the maker. So like once you know the maker,
the thing made makes sense. Cause, cause mankind is still
trying to figure out what makes this little ball called earth
in the midst of this particular, uh, galaxy among all of the billions
of galaxies out there and expanding galaxies of any significance. He's trying to figure out what
do we need with all that universe? What do we need with all that
universe? And then he turns around and said, man is so insignificant
man is so So puny man is so irrelevant in the largest scope of the creation
and we go you dummy That creation is not for man
it's for God He made it for his own glory didn't he revelation
411 by him were all things made and For your glory are they created? So God sits back on his chair,
on the back of his porch at night with his feet up. And he looks
out and says, man, that's awesome. I'm still enjoying my universe.
And some of his people get it. The redeemed ones get it. The
redeemed one. See, the universe is not too
big for God. You understand that for God? It's just, it's just
a little model design. He planned on top of a table,
a little model design for us. We get lost in this expanding
universe, parallel worlds, bending of time, light years by the emptying
degree. You and I just lost in the infinitude
of creation, but not God. That's why you need to anchor
to your soul so you can enjoy the expanse and not get lost
in space. See when you know God you don't
have to be lost in space You understand what I'm saying, you
don't have to be lost you can enjoy it because you get to you get
to see it through God's eyes And go man, this is some males
and to think he gonna tear this up and start all over again It's
amazing It's amazing It's amazing. He's our maker though in that
2nd Corinthians 5 17 says about you and me if any man be in Christ
Jesus He's a new creation Old things have passed away behold
all things have become new. That's a prophetic statement.
It's prophetic. It's prophetic There's some things
new, there's something still old, right? Our bodies are still
old, right? Our spirits are new, right? The
creation is still old, right? It's not new yet. So when it
says all things have become new, it's speaking what? Prophetically.
Prophetically. It will ultimately in its teleological
objective be made new wherein nothing dwells but righteousness.
But I call your attention to the fact that the Holy Spirit
is your maker so that you would respect his enterprise in your
life. Because remember I was saying
earlier that as he shaped the cosmos, Job says that's what
the Spirit of God did. He garnished the heavens. The
Spirit of God garnished the heavens. He garnished. And that's what
he's doing with us too. The work is inside where he's
shaping and molding us. If you are submitting to the
intimacy of his presence in your life, He's detailing the soul. Detailing the soul. Getting the
soul ready for that radical transformation of the body. You got that? So he's detailing, he's on the
inside detailing the soul. There's no noise because it's
all of what? Grace. No hammers and all that going
on, but he's working, molding you on the inside. Not many people
see it. Because all they see is the external.
Remember what our master says? Men judge up to the flesh. But
God's working on the inside, right? So remember what I said
that you and I are? We're whips. You and I are whips. This is good. This will help
some of you. Just tell people I'm a whip. You guys got that? I am a work
in progress. I'm a whip. That's right. So you can roll with that. That's
what we are. And it doesn't matter if no one
else in the world knows that, so long as you and God knows
that, because that's what's going on. And see, the failure with
Christianity is, is we want God to pull back the curtains so
people can see what he's doing in our life, so we can shine. But you really don't want, you
really don't want, people to see what God is doing. Do you
understand that? Because it's an unfinished product
and we will be more confused at what we see now than we will
on the last day. That's like, that's like going
to a movie and go in there late 30 minutes into the movie and
then leave 20 minutes before it's over and think you're going
to tell somebody how the movie was. Do you understand what I'm
getting at? We misjudge people. So there's
a day of unveiling. There's a day of revelation Where
God is gonna justify this whole gospel scheme. That's why you
got to trust him You leave the curtain closed God's working
behind the scenes the just shall live by what that's right You
just got to believe God's doing work. And when he pulls the curtains
back, you're gonna look just like Christ It's gonna be amazing
Amazing and he's gonna get all the glory He's bringing many
sons to glory right now But the work is internal is deep is transformative. It's humbling, isn't it? Yes,
it is, but it's hopeful. I Would I wouldn't trade one
day in Christ? For a billion gazillion years
outside of Christ all the struggles I've gone through Nothing is
more glorious than knowing that God is in my life even in my
worst day. So there are things that the
Holy Ghost is not doing too. We often talk about God. We say
that with God, all things are what? But not really. You do know that,
right? God can't lie. He can't fail. He can't change. There are a number of things
God can't do because they are contrary to his what? and God's
never going to be in conflict with Himself. There are some
nots of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is, first of
all, not understood by everyone. The Holy Spirit is not understood
by everyone, and that's on purpose. Now, if He's understood by you,
thank God, because He's not understood by everyone. Are you guys hearing
me? So now this is gonna help you.
Get the CD and listen to it 10 times. For those of you who really
wanna help people. You know how people ask you Bible
questions? And a Christian may come to you and say, can you
tell me a little bit about how the spirit works? I'm just giving
you a whole alphabet of the work of the spirit, haven't I? You
can shrink that down, put it in the back of your Bible and
go, let me see. Okay, we're in the category of H. Now we can
talk about how he helps. What about when someone comes
to you and say, now is this, is the spirit of God showing
everybody these things? What you're going to say? No,
no. And you're going to be right.
It's a sovereign prerogative prerogative in conjunction with
the will of the son and the father to open some people's eyes and
leave the rest blind. So I'm going to say that again.
It's the sovereign prerogative of the Holy spirit in conjunction
with the will of the son and the will of the father to leave
some people blind and only open the eyes of those whom he wills. You guys got that? This is true. So I'll help you. I know you're
struggling with that. First of all, John 14, 17, go there. Let
me show you a few verses in John 14, 17. Now this is what Jesus
tells the disciples before the disciples actually enter into
a relationship with the Spirit like they're doing in the book
of Acts. So it's like, what I'm loving about where we are in
the 13th chapter, we're almost in the middle of the book. There's
28 chapters. So we really need to get to the
14th chapter to be centered in the book of Acts, right? 28 chapters
in the book of Acts, right? So now watch this. So if you
are sensitive to the presence of the Spirit of God, as you
are now, He shows up in Acts chapter 2, doesn't He? And now
if you just follow, you can track with him through all the chapters,
how he shows up, how he empowers, how he works, how he emboldens
the preachers of the gospel. Now he is featured in his missionary
work vividly in Acts 13 to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost said,
separate these men unto me. Now, from this point on, you're
going to hear the Holy Ghost talking in the missionary work. Well, how come? Because that's
why he came. He came to affect the will of
the father and the son. Did he not? So he's going to
show up now. You're going to see him telling
Paul and telling Timothy, you can't go there. He forbade us
to go here. We were compelled by him to go
over here. I'm going to show you the maps because we're going
to go through the journey of Paul. the first missionary journey,
the second missionary journey, and we're going to watch how
the Spirit works in missions. Are you guys hearing me? Because
he knows whom he's saving. Does the Spirit of God ever scratch
his head, wake up in the morning and say, let me see, who can
we save today? Is that how the Spirit works?
Is he saying, I sure hope there are a bunch of people who are
ready to be saved today. Because I don't know who wants to be
saved, but I'm going to do as much wooing as I possibly can.
Is that how the Spirit of God works? No. He knows everyone
for whom Christ died. He knows every nook and cranny,
every pit, every hole, every place where they are, every valley,
every dark crevice where the lost center is. Does he know?
And he will hunt them down, will he not? That's what you're gonna
see in the journey. You're gonna hunt them down.
You're gonna send them hither, send them yon, go get them. because
he's serious about honoring the son and honoring the father.
By the way, that's what he did with you. That's what he did
with you. That's exactly what he did. Here's
what Jesus says. Start back at verse 16. Let me
get a context here. Verse 16, I will pray the father
and he shall give you another paraclete or paracaleo that he
may abide with you for a little while. Now, see, and if I were
you and I were studying and trying to grasp the significance of
the Spirit of God, mark this. He is here forever. He's in your life forever. And
we're just scratching the surface with my alphabet categories.
Remember, I told you hundreds and hundreds of texts and dozens
and dozens and dozens and dozens of Attributes and works of the
Spirit of God in our life. I just did the alphabet When
you exhaust the work of the Spirit of God the level of involvement
that he has in your life To make you all that Christ means you
to be It's designed for you to appreciate him Well now watch
this he's going to be with you Forever that he may abide, that was our
first word, our first alphabet, right? Abide, remain, dwell among,
give you access to, anoint you, prepare, qualify you forever. I'm gonna give you another cover,
he's gonna be with you forever. Let's see here, go to verse 17.
Now watch this. Even the spirit of what? Whom
the world cannot what? Because of what? Everybody doesn't
see the Spirit of God. You got that? The world doesn't
see Him. So you know what that means?
I've got seven minutes. You know what that means? When
you are talking to people about Jesus, you and I have to do what
Jesus did. Submit to the Father and observe
whether or not the Father is working by His Spirit to give
people access to the truth you're sharing with them. So I'm going
to say it again. When you are witnesses for Christ,
your job is to acknowledge the presence of the spirit of God
and his right to open the eyes of people or not. See, at that
point, you're walking in the spirit. What that means is you're
submitting to the spirit's sovereign prerogative to open their eyes.
Watch this. Do you think you can open somebody's spiritual
eyes? Do you think you can make somebody love Jesus? You think
by your jumping through loops of fire and crying and whining
and going through all of the tricanery that you might do,
you're gonna get somebody to move even an inch toward God? The answer is no. So then watch
this now. Be careful that your antics are
not simply rooted in unbelief. Be careful that your antics to
try to get people to understand what you're saying is not just
rooted in the flesh. How many of you guys understood
what I just said? Raise your hand. All right. Because if it's rooted
in the flesh, it means that you don't believe that this is a
work of the spirit of God. You know what that means? When you share the word of God
with people as passionate as you may be, don't misplace your
passion for volition because that's what Carnal religion does
it tugs on people's human wheels? through emotions and exaggerations
and stories and all that your job is to sympathetically and
sensitively declare the truth while Simultaneously saying Lord
if it's your will open their eyes That way you don't have
to feel bad when they spit in your face Because that's what's
gonna happen sometimes Are they gonna punch you out? Now you
will feel bad if they spit in your face and kick your tail
because you have used carnal fleshly methods to provoke them
and tick them off. Cause somehow you wanted to try
to get them to see your point when it's not about you or me,
but the power of God working through the simple, clear propositions
of the gospel through a child of God who is submitted to the
spirit. We are at that point, co-laboring
together with God. And who's bearing the burden
of the yoke? God, not me. So how many of you have experienced
the presence of God and you're sharing the gospel? Don't raise
your hand. I don't want nobody to be embarrassed. But how many
of you have experienced the presence of God and the sharing of the
word of God with people and watching God cause those people to just
fall into your hands, metaphorically speaking, like butter, just they
become so compliant, so accepting, so, so, so amenable to what you're
saying. And you know, you didn't say
it any different. In fact, on this day, actually,
you weren't even feeling that good. Your attitude was funky
in yourself. You were you didn't have a whole
lot of sense of self-confidence, right? You follow what I'm saying.
In other words, the Spirit of God knows how to do a couple
things at once. Draw them while humbling you.
Squashing you while bringing them to a greater knowledge of
Christ and even ultimately conversion So that when it's all said and
done guess what you're doing. You're actually thanking God
not for saving them but saving you This is why you need to be
telling people about Christ Because you get a chance to get saved
all over again. All right You get a chance to get saved all
over again Because so now, you know, the sinner is if God generally
works in the normative process of crushing people, because that's
what he generally does. He resists the what? Only gives
grace to the humble. Gives grace to the humble. So
when you are watching the spirit of God dismantle a sinner. In
preparation for entrance into the kingdom of God, frequently. The sinners dismantling is a
mirror. And you see yourself. And you
go, Lord, have mercy on me. Watch this, now I'm telling this
to you, watch this. I really, Lord, don't have no
business talking to this person about you. I am so clear that
right now I have no qualification to be telling them about God,
as bad as I've been thinking. But because we love the gospel,
We love the gospel and we love the glory of God and we love
the possibility of sinners being saved in spite of ourselves. We still tell it and God still
works. Is that true? He still works.
He still works. You go away and say, man, I'm
so thankful that this is all of grace, that this is all of
grace. The world cannot receive him
because it does not see him, neither does it what? but you
know him for he dwells with you and shall be in you powerful,
powerful. This is what happened in the
beginning when God created the heavens and the earth and the
earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face
of the deep and God and the spirit of God brooded upon the face
of the waters and the spirit of God separated the waters and
he made a distinction between the night and the what? Day. He called the light day
and the darkness what? That's what we're talking about
right there. Do you see that? It's his prerogative to call
sinners light and leave others in darkness. Do you understand
that? That's his work. That's not your
work. And he's actually doing the new creation process right
there. He's taking a brand new raw sinner bringing them into
life, because without light, there's no life. No life without
light. You guys do understand that,
right? And the light was the life of man. No life without
light. And so that's that work of regeneration
that's taking place when the spirit of God pierces the heart
of a darkened sinner and begins to give them clarity on the centrality
of the gospel in the person of Jesus Christ. And the next person
by them is fuming because they hate what you're saying. Go back
to our PowerPoint. I'm gonna close with this last
one, and then we'll take up the next time. So he keeps, he leads,
he makes, he's not understood, he's not what? Seeing, is he
seeing? No, God is what? Spirit, all
right. He's invisible, but he's also
not what? Get that, get that. You're not gonna put, his sovereignty
in a bottle, put a lid on it, attach your denominational label
and have instructions on how to get the Holy Ghost. It's not
going to happen. It's just not going to happen.
You're not going to tell people when to get saved, where to get
saved, how to get saved. It's not going to happen. He's
sovereign. Are you guys hearing? He's sovereign.
He's sovereign. If salvation is just like the
birth of a child, then conjugal relationships between a husband
and a wife, because the Bible doesn't acknowledge any other
conjugal relationship. No, we haven't. Right. Right.
Yeah. You follow me? I have to say
that in the 21st century and conjugal relationship between
a man and a woman. In the context of covenant, if
salvation was the net consequence of our work, every time we came
together in conjugal relationships, we would concede, wouldn't we? If salvation was the net consequence
of our work, every time we came together in conjugal relationships,
we would what? Concede. But how many of us know
that God in his own sovereign time brings about conception
when he wants to. Does he? Is that good? Is that good? Because it's the
truth. So he will let couples get at
it and they'll look up as a year later, two years later, and they're
wondering, I can't have any baby. You go to the doctor, doctor
writes you off and your husband feeling bad, all kinds of stuff
going on. And that's because we are seeing
things through the eyes of the what? Flesh. And I have seen
this happen so many times when the couple settles down and get
their focus right back on God, boom! Guess what, pastor? Already knew. Already knew. There's obedience
to God, trusting God, waiting on God. All the fruit of the
womb is the Lord's reward. Every soul is the Lord. He gives conception when he wants
to. Now he uses means. So we preach. So we pray. So we witness. So we minister to God. But God
must give the increase because he's sovereign. Let's pray. Father,
thank you for this time. Thank you for our class. Thank
you for sort of an overview of the work of the Spirit of God.
that we would appreciate it and thank him for what he has done
in our life. And that we will continue to walk close to you,
O Father, by means of his promptings and his work in our life. May
we be more effective in our service towards you. May we come to know
you more fully. May we be more continually conformed
to your image. May we walk more humbly before
you as your children so that you might be pleased to use us
wherever we go. As we go our way, give us traveling
mercies, we pray. May we all worship you this Sunday
in spirit and in truth with our eyes fixed on our glorious Savior
and our hope in glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. God bless you guys.