Would you turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 12? How can I know if I have the
Spirit of God? That's the question I want to
address. How can I know if I have the Spirit of God? I'd like to
read the first three verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Now concerning spiritual gifts,
brethren, I would not have you ignorant. You know that you were
Gentiles carried away under these dumb idols, even as you were
led. 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. How can I know if I actually
have the Spirit of God dwelling in me? God is one God revealed in three
distinct persons. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. All three persons of the Godhead,
and I don't know how else to say this, it almost doesn't sound,
I just don't know how to say it. So I'll say what I'm thinking. All three persons of the Godhead
have a specific role in salvation. I don't know whether that's the
right way to say it, but that's the only way I can think of saying it. All
three persons of the Godhead have a specific role in salvation. The Father elects, He chooses
people unto salvation. The Son redeems, and God the
Holy Spirit regenerates or gives life. All three persons of the
Godhead have their specific role in salvation. Not one of these
is more important than the other, and not one of these is less
important than the other. The work of the Father in election,
the work of the Son in redemption, and the work of the Holy Spirit
in regeneration are equally essential and equally necessary. It's one
salvation. It's one salvation. God's salvation
is one salvation. The salvation of the Father,
the salvation of the Son, and the salvation of the Holy Spirit.
Now, if we leave out the work of the Father, there's no salvation.
If we leave out the work of the Son, there's no salvation. If we leave out the work of the
Spirit of God, there is no salvation. Now, to me, in some respects,
the Holy Spirit is the most mysterious. of the three persons of the Godhead.
And I bet you'd agree with me because God the Father, we have
some concept of Father, don't we? God the Father, God the Son,
we have some concept in our thinking of the Son, God the Son, but
God the Spirit is just more mysterious. He's harder to conceive of. Now,
how can I know if I have the Spirit of God? How can I know
if I've been born again, if I've been born of the Spirit? How
can I know if somebody is speaking under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit? How can I know that God really
sent them? Those are mighty important questions, aren't they? I want
to know the answer to them. How I can know if I personally
have the Spirit of God. Now in chapter 12, Paul is introducing
a new subject. He switched gears, and he says,
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you
ignorant. He's talking about the gifts
of the Holy Spirit. Look down in verse 4 of chapter
12. Now there are diversities of
gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of
administrations or ministries, but the same Lord. And there
are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which
worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the
Spirit is given to every man to profit withal, for to one
is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word
of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same
Spirit, to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit,
to another the working of miracles. to another prophecy, to another
discerning of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues, and
to another the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh
that one in the self-same spirit dividing to every man severally
as he will. Now these supernatural gifts
were foretold of in the Old Testament when the Messiah would come,
the Holy Spirit would be poured out and the church would actually
practice these gifts. Men enabled by God to raise the
dead. Men enabled to speak in other
languages. Men enabled to tread over serpents
and scorpions and it wouldn't hurt them at all. Men able to
heal the sick. Wouldn't it be something if I
had the gift to heal the sick? There's some people in here right
now that I'd heal. I'd heal, or the Lord would heal
them through me if I had that miraculous gift. Well, the church
practiced this. Turn to Acts chapter 2. These
gifts were foretold in the Old Testament. Acts chapter 2, verse 14. Here's where these
gifts began. But Peter, remember the crowd
had heard these men speaking in other languages. They heard
them speaking in tongues. And they were saying, well, they're
drunk. They must be. How are they doing this? Verse
14, But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice,
and said unto them, Ye men of Judea, and all that dwell at
Jerusalem, Be this known unto you, and hearken to my words.
For these are not drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is but
the third hour of the day. It's nine o'clock in the morning.
But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall
come to pass in the last days, saith God, I'll pour out my spirit
upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy. And your young men shall see
visions. And your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants
and upon my handmaidens, I'll pour out in those days of my
spirit. And they shall prophecy. And
I'll show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath
blood and fire and vapor and smoke." After the resurrection,
Christ said to his disciples, this is what's going to take
place. Look at Acts chapter one, verse four. and being assembled
together with them, He commanded them that they should not depart
from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which,
saith He, you have heard of Me. For John truly baptized you with
water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many
days thence." And that is what was taking place in chapter 2.
The coming of the Holy Spirit came, and what happened? They
all began to speak in other languages. As a matter of fact, I think
there are 23 different dialects that are mentioned. In Acts chapter
2, everybody, no matter what country they were from, they
heard the gospel in their own language. This was indeed a miracle. Now, the gifts of the Holy Spirit
were in full operation in the early church. And the Lord said
they would be. You remember how He said, we'll
turn to Mark 16. This is before his ascension
in Mark chapter 16, look what he says to his disciples. Verse 17, and these signs shall
follow them that believe. He didn't say they might, he
says they shall. In my name, they shall cast out devils. They
shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents.
And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them.
They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. Now the
Lord says, this is what's going to take place. And this is what
was taking place in the church at Corinth. The gifts of the
spirit were in full operation. And these people had supernatural
gifts. They were able to speak in other
languages. They were able to heal the sick.
They were able to raise the dead. They were able to drink deadly
things. And we just mentioned those different
gifts that were in operation. Some had the gift of prophecy.
They could foretell future events. Some had the gift of discernment.
They could understand who was real and who wasn't and on and
on, these different gifts that were practiced in the early church.
And that would have been something. I bet everybody in here would
like to experience that, wouldn't you? Would you have liked to have seen those
gifts in operation? Sure you would. Now somebody's
asking the question, are they still in operation today? No, they're not. Are any of them in operation
today? No. They're not. Now, can you back that up from
the scripture? Or are you just saying that because you don't
have these gifts? That's the way some people would respond.
Well, you're just saying that because you haven't experienced
it. You don't know. Can you show me from the scripture that these
gifts are not in operation? Well, turn to first Corinthians
chapter 13. And then I'm going to show you a scripture that
I think just solidifies this. Paul says in verse 8, charity
never fails. That's the gift. That's better
than any gift. It never fails. But whether they
be prophecies, they're going to fail. Whether they be tongues,
they shall cease. Whether they be knowledge, it
shall vanish away for we know in part and we prophesy in part.
But when that which is perfect is come, and he's talking about
the full canon of Scripture. They didn't have the full canon
of Scripture at that time. They didn't have what you and I have
in our laps right now. That's the only thing that's
perfect in this world. When that which is perfect is
come, that which is in part shall be done away with. Now turn over
to Acts chapter 8. This was very helpful to me,
Acts chapter 8. And the reason I say that, I
tell you what, I remember when I was in school, right next to
me there was the Maranatha Christian Fellowship and it was a commune
I guess, of all kinds of people and all of them spoke in tongues
and they had miracles and they had healing services all the
time. And I remember they were always trying to get me to get
baptized in the Holy Spirit. And I was intimidated by this.
It really troubled me. And I can even remember praying
that if tongues were real, if there was anything to it, Lord
give me this gift. Give me this gift if I'm missing out on something.
Because I don't want to miss out on anything, do you? Whatever
the Lord has for me, I want it. And I can remember asking the
Lord if this is real. Give it to me. And it never happened. It never happened. But I was
so intimidated by this because they seemed to have so much going
for them. They seemed so nice and sweet and evangelical and
all those things. And I was troubled by it. But
look here at Acts chapter 8. Verse 5, Then Philip went down
to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people
with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake,
hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. And he performed
some miracles. For unclean spirits, crying with
a loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with devils,
and many with palsies, and that were lame. They were healed.
This was really taking place. And there was great joy in that
city, but there was a certain man called Solomon, which before
time in the same city had used sorcery and bewitched the people
of Samaria, giving out that he himself was one great one, to
whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying,
This man is the great power of God. They were impressed with
him. And to him they had regard, because that of a long time he
had bewitched them with sorceries. But when they believed Philip,
preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name
of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Then Simon
himself believed also. You know, there's a problem with
somebody believing also. It's kind of like a disclaimer. You
can see, and as you go on reading, you find out that it was not
real faith. But he saw everybody else believing, so he believed
also. He saw the miracles, he said, hey, I can't deny them,
there must be something to this. So he believed also. And when he was baptized, he
continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and the
signs which were done. Now, when the apostles, which
were at Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received the word
of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who, when they were
come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. Now, why couldn't Philip do this?
Couldn't Philip transfer these supernatural gifts? Why did Peter
and John have to come down to transfer these supernatural gifts?
I mean, Peter was there, but yet... I mean, Philip was there,
but he couldn't do it. Peter and John come down. Verse
16, For as yet he had fallen upon none of them, only they
were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they
their hands on them, Peter and John, and they received the Holy
Ghost. They received this supernatural
ability to heal the sick and so on. And when Simon saw that
through the laying on of what? The apostles hands. No, Philip
wasn't an apostle. Philip didn't have the ability
to transfer this gift. It was only through the laying
on of the apostles' hands that this took place. And when Simon
saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands, the gift
of the Holy Ghost was given to him, he offered him money. He
wanted to buy this ability to do this, but this only happened
through the laying on of the apostles' hands. And when the
last apostle, John, died, the last person who had the ability
to put his hands on somebody and the supernatural gifts, that
was it. And that died out in the early
church. Now you can see that it was only
through the laying on of the apostles hands that this took
place. Now in the church of Corinth,
though, there were many who had these supernatural gifts. Now, If I had the gift to speak
in tongues and to speak in other languages, and I could speak
fluent French and Spanish and Russian and whatever other language
it was, wherever I went to preach the gospel, if you're anything
like me, you think, boy, I wish I had that gift. And if I had
the gift to heal, and this was going on in the church at Corinth,
there were people actually putting their hands on people, sick people,
people who were dying. I'm not talking about people
with one leg shorter than the other. I'm talking about somebody who
had cancer or heart disease and they were miraculously healed.
This was actually going on. There were people who were foretelling
future events. They had the gift of prophecy.
All these gifts were being operated. Some had the gifts of healing,
some claimed to have it. You see, wherever there's a real,
you know what's going to be right behind it? The counterfeit. Every time. Wherever there's
something real, the counterfeit is going to come right behind
it. Some had this gift, some claimed to have it. Some had
the gift of discernment, others claimed it. Some had the gift
of tongues, others claimed it. Now what gift would be easiest
to counterfeit? Now, it wouldn't be easy to counterfeit
the gift of healing, would it? But I'll tell you a gift that
could easily be counterfeited, the gift of tongues. You hear
somebody speaking in another language, and you think, well,
I'll do that. And I know the power of the human
mind, the human psyche. You could start speaking in tongues
and believe, so you think, and you think you're really doing
it. I know that a human can do that. We're intimidated, we think
somehow somebody's got something we don't have, and so we want
to come back and we want it, and we want to practice it, and
so on. And that's what was going on at the Church of Corinth.
There was horrible abuse of these gifts, and that's what the next
three chapters are about, the way they were abusing these gifts. Everybody wanted the gifts of
the Spirit, and maybe somebody felt bad that they didn't have
these gifts, so they made themselves believe they did. So Paul is
giving us instruction as to how we can tell if a man really has
the Holy Spirit. Because some people say, well
look, I'm speaking in tongues, obviously I do have the Holy
Spirit. I'm practicing these miracles, obviously I do have
the Holy Spirit. But the answer Paul gives, here's
how you can tell whether somebody has the Holy Spirit. It's by
what they do say or what they don't say regarding Jesus Christ. Not by the miracles, because
Satan can counterfeit the miracles. Remember the magicians of Pharaoh,
how they could duplicate many of the things that Moses did?
Satan will come with power and signs and lying wonders, the
scripture says. Satan can, I don't know how he
does it, but he can duplicate things. His ministers can duplicate
things. There's no question in my mind
about that. So the way you can tell if somebody really has the
Holy Spirit is not by some miracle they say they can perform, but
what they do or do not say regarding the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's
examine exactly what Paul said. Chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter
12. Now concerning these spiritual
gifts, brethren, I don't want you to be ignorant. You know
that you were Gentiles. Carried away under these dumb
idols even as you were led. He first reminds them about what
they were. Gentiles. People who had no knowledge
of the living God. Dead in sins and they were idolaters.
They were carried about by these dumb idols, Paul calls them.
Idols that they claim to be gods, but they can't hear, they can't
see, they can't speak. They're dumb idols, and that's
all they are. And you were so deceived, he
says, you were led about by these dumb idols. You were carried
about by these dumb idols. You were dead in trespasses and
sins. And if God didn't do something
for you, you would have wound up in hell. You were Gentiles. carried about by these dumb idols,
even as you were led. Now, wherefore, verse three,
I give you to understand, this is what I want you to know, 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. And there's how I
can tell whether I have the Holy Spirit. Here's how I can tell
if somebody else has the Holy Spirit by what they do or do
not say concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's the first
thing he says. He says, here's how you can tell
if someone's speaking by the Spirit of God. No man speaking
by the Spirit of God will call Jesus accursed. Now that seems
on the surface like a no-brainer, doesn't it? Obviously, someone who says Christ
Jesus is cursed. Obviously, someone who says Christ
Jesus is anathematized. He's under the disfavor and the
displeasure of God. He's someone that God despises.
Obviously, anybody that says something like that is not speaking
by the Spirit of God. We know that, but I'll tell you
what, I've not heard very many people say that of you. Have
you ever heard anybody say Jesus Christ is anathema? I've not
heard many people say that. Now, that's obviously included
in what he's saying, but he means more than that. Now, I read at
the opening in this passage of Scripture, Hebrews 2, verse 11. Both he that sanctifieth and
they who are sanctified are all of one. Now, what that's a reference
to is union with the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm united to Him. Now, what does the Bible mean
by union with Christ? What does it mean by us being
one with Him? Well, He became one with me,
for one thing. He became one with me. He took
upon my flesh. He became one with me. He took
my human nature. And not only that, He was made
to be sin. He became what I am. Now, do I understand this? No,
I don't. But I believe it. I have no doubt
the Bible teaches it. On the cross, His own self, bear
our what? Sins. In His own body, on the
tree. He was made according to the
Scripture to be sinned. He became one with me. On the
cross, He became what I am. Now, He never sinned in His person.
He's utterly holy. He never committed a sin. That
doesn't mean when He was hanging on the cross, all of a sudden
He started lusting and cursing and having wicked thoughts and
wicked... It's not saying that at all.
I don't really understand what it means. But I know the Bible
says, He was made sin. That's the worst thing that could
be. He was made to be... All that sin is, He was made
to be. And just as truly as he was made
to be what I am, you know what the flip side of that is? And
this is true of every believer. I'm made to be what he is. As he is, here's what 1st John
4, 17 says, as he is, so are we in this world. Now here's a scripture, turn
to 1st Timothy chapter 2, 2nd Timothy chapter 2. Verse 11. It's a faithful saying. 2 Timothy
chapter 2 verse 11. It's a faithful saying. For if
we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him. If I died
with Him, I'm also going to live with Him. If we suffer, we shall
also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will also
deny us. Now look at this verse 13. If
we believe not, yet He abideth faithful. He cannot deny Himself. If we believe not, how many times
would that describe you? A whole lot more than we admit.
If we believe not, overcome with unbelief, the only thing we can
cry out of our heart is, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. dominated by unbelief. And you can't change it. You
can't make yourself better. You know, whenever you try to
believe, that doesn't have anything to do with believing, does it?
You can't make yourself believe. You can't pull yourself up by
the bootstraps. You feel helpless. But look at this promise of our
Lord. If we believe not, and you know you've been guilty of
that, Look at this promise, He abideth faithful because He cannot
deny Himself. You see, for Him to deny you,
even in your weakness, would be for Him to deny Himself because
you're united to Him. The two are one. This is where
our confidence comes from. This is why I can come boldly
into the very presence of God at all times because I'm united
to Christ. I'm one with Him. It's me. It's Him. Can you tell the difference? That's the two. Both he that
sanctifyeth. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they who are sanctified are all of one. Not just close together. but they're one. His righteousness
really is my righteousness. I'm one with Him. As He is, so
are we in this world. Now, without doubt, the Bible
teaches union with Christ. Now, if I'm united to Christ,
if I'm somebody that He died for, if I believe the gospel
and I'm united to Him, if I'm somebody He died for, let's just
keep it that simple, if I'm somebody that He died for and you say,
that I might wind up in hell anyway or that I am in hell anyway,
even though Christ died for me. You know what you're saying?
You're saying Jesus is a curse. Union with Christ makes me one
with Him. Didn't He say to Paul, Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? Now wait a minute, Saul, You
weren't able to persecute the Lord Jesus Christ. He's at the
right hand of the Father. You were persecuting His people.
But what does the Lord say? Why persecutest thou Me? Inasmuch as you've done it to
the least of these, My brethren, you've done it to who? Me. Inasmuch as you did it not to
the least of these, My brethren, you did it not unto Me. Now,
if I'm united to Christ and you say I'm cursed, you're saying
He's cursed. All you have to believe is that somebody that
Christ died for ends up being cursed anyway. And you're saying
that Jesus is accursed. Now somebody says, that's taking
that too far. Isn't that pretty much what Satan said to Eve. He said, you don't have to take
what He said literally. You don't have to take this too far. I
mean, you shall not surely die. Why would somebody say you're
taking this too far? You can't take this too far.
Union with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is our hope. This is my
confidence. This is how I come into God's
presence. Union with the Lord Jesus Christ. If you really believe Him, you
won't say He's cursed because you'll believe that everybody
He died for must be saved. Well, this has to do with the
work of Christ. Anybody who preaches or believes that it can be a
failure, that Christ or those that He died for and He's united
to can be cursed, you can be sure of this, that person is
not speaking by the inspiration of the Spirit of God. Can't happen. No man speaking by the Spirit
of God said that Jesus is accursed in Christ. I am complete. Look
what he says next in our text, back to first Corinthians chapter
12. Wherefore, I give you to understand
that no man speaking by the spirit of God called Jesus accursed
and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord. but by the
Holy Ghost." Now, He tells us what they won't say if we have
the Spirit of God. And if you have the Spirit of
God, I know this, you will believe in your heart of hearts that
whatever Christ does must be successful. You'll really believe
that. I mean, it won't be an issue
with you. You'll really believe. You'll
believe, if he died for me, I must be saved. You rest in his work. You have faith in his blood.
The scripture actually uses that phrase in Romans 3, faith in
his blood. You have faith in his blood. You really believe
that his blood washed away your curse and you stand perfect before
God. Now, if you have the Spirit of
God, you have such high views of the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And not only that, look what he says next. He says, no
man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now, you and I both know that
that doesn't mean simply articulating that. A parrot can do that. A
parrot can say Jesus is Lord. I have no question about that.
The devil can say Jesus is Lord. Did not our Lord say, not every
man that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my father, which
is in heaven. Now, what does this mean? Jesus
is Lord. It's not talking about just saying
it, although you will say it. If you believe it, you'll say
it. Jesus is Lord. And you want everybody in here
that believes that you want, you said in your heart, amen to that. He is Lord. And you delight in that. He's
Lord. Don't you love His Lordship?
You believe it. And you'll say it, too. Jesus
is Lord. But it's not... This is not just
referring to articulating it. It's talking about believing
it and having some understanding of it and entering into it. What
does this mean, Jesus is Lord? Well, the word means power. It means He's the dictator. You really believe that? You
really believe that He is Lord, that He controls all things. You know, Thomas had some understanding
of this when he saw that living man with mortal wounds in his
body, yet living. And he bowed down before Him.
He hit the dirt. And he said, what? my Lord and
my God." To believe that Jesus Christ is Lord is to believe
that He is God. Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is God? Do you believe he's the mighty creator of the universe? Do you believe he's the one who
controls everything? I don't mean he has the right
to be Lord. I mean he is Lord. I don't mean
he has the right to do his will. He does his will. He is the Lord. I think of what Peter said to
Cornelius. He is Lord of all. And you really believe that.
If you have the Holy Spirit, what I'm saying, you really believe. You believe He is Lord. Now this is true in three or
four different senses. First, you really believe He's
the Lord of creation. You really believe that Jesus
Christ the Lord created this physical universe. You believe
that? You believe he's the one who
said, let there be light, and there was light. He's the Lord. He's the Lord of creation, and
he controls all that's created. He controls the physical, material
universe. He controls the microscopic world. He controls animals. He controls
plants. He controls insects. He controls
fish. He controls angels, good and
bad. I love the way the demons would
have to ask Him permission to go from one place to another.
Suffer us to go into this herd of swine. They couldn't move
from one place to another without asking Him first because He's
the Lord. He controls angels, good and
bad. He controls men, believers and unbelievers. He said, Thou
has given Him power over all flesh. that He should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given Him. He's the Lord, and
I'm in His hands, and you're in His hands, and He can do with
us whatever He pleases to do, and whatever He does is right,
and you really believe that. He is the Lord. He's Lord of
creation. He controls all created objects,
and He's the Lord of providence. The Scripture says in Hebrews
1, or Colossians 1, by Him all things consist. He holds everything
together. He's the Lord of Providence.
That means everything that happens, He's in control of. Now, it always
amuses me when we make statements like this. That was really providential.
You know, that's a denial of what providence is when you make
that statement. That really good thing, that good thing that happened,
that was really providential. Everything's providential. Everything
is providential because He controls everything. The king's heart
is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water, he turneth
it whithersoever he will. The lot is cast into the lap,
but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. He controls everything. He's Lord of providence. He's
most especially Lord of salvation. Salvation. is of the Lord. That means my salvation is totally
up to Him. It's His work and it's up to
Him. And I like thinking about this. I was thinking about this
scripture in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 where it says, He's
the author and the finisher of our faith. The faith that I have,
He's the author of it. And the only way I'm going to
keep having it all the way to the end is if He ends it and
perfects it and finishes it. He is the author and the finisher
of our faith. Even our faith is His work. We do the believing. He doesn't
believe for me, I must believe, but He's the author of my faith.
And He's the finisher of my faith. He's the Lord of salvation. Salvation
is of the Lord in every respect. And if you have the Holy Spirit,
you believe that and you rejoice in it. Are you glad He's the
Lord of salvation? You do if you have the Holy Spirit.
No man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit.
Now here's the clincher. He's Lord of creation. He's Lord
of providence. He's Lord of salvation. He's
my Lord. He's my Lord. Like Thomas said,
my Lord and my God. You know, even the thief had
some understanding of this. He knew he was God. He said,
don't you fear God? He wasn't talking about God the
Father. He was talking about this man hanging on the cross.
This is God. How did he know it? Same way
you know it, God revealed it. I don't understand how he knew
it, but he did know it. He knew that Jesus Christ was God. And
what did he say? Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. He was his Lord. Now, he's my
Lord. That's one thing to say that.
And it's another thing for it to be real. Lord knows whether
it's real, but he is the Lord of my life. He calls the shots. I am his servant and he is my
Lord. And I say to him, my Lord. You know, the only way to address
him is the Lord. He said, you call me master and
Lord. And you say, well, for so I am. He's the Lord. I love it when
John and Peter, they were out on the boat after the ascension
or after the resurrection. The Lord, remember, he was over
there cooking something. And John saw him, he said, it's the Lord. It's the Lord. You recognize
Him as the Lord. And He's your Lord and you rejoice
in Him as your Lord. Everybody that has the Holy Spirit
really believes that Jesus Christ is Lord. In all four of those
senses. He's Lord of creation. He's Lord
of providence. He's Lord of salvation. And He
is my Lord. He's the Lord of my life. Barnard
used to say, don't tell me who your Savior is, tell me who your
Lord is. And that's how I can tell who
your Savior is. He is the Lord of my life. And I love having Him as my Lord
and my Savior and my God. All who have the Holy Spirit
Believe that he is Lord. Now, how can I know if I have
the Holy Spirit? Is it because whether or not I can speak in
tongues or perform miracles? No. If I have the Holy Spirit,
my view of him is such that I cannot possibly call him accursed. He must be successful. He cannot be cursed. Him and everybody He represented,
they must be saved. Not only they must be saved in
the future, they are saved. They are complete in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Every single one of them. And
I in my very heart of hearts believe that He is the Lord. He is the Lord. Now everybody who believes that. They have been born of the Spirit
of God. They have the Holy Spirit, that's
why they believe that. They wouldn't believe that if
they didn't have the Holy Spirit. May God give us grace to never
say or believe that the Lord Jesus is accursed in any way
and to really believe from the depths of our hearts that He
is Lord. And one of these days, everybody's
going to find this out. Every knee is going to bow, and
every tongue is going to confess that He is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father. Let's pray.