Galatians 3, verses 13 and 14,
Christ hath redeemed us. I love the certainty of that
language. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law
being made a curse for us, for it's Cursed is everyone that
hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the
Gentiles through Jesus Christ, and here's what that blessing
of Abraham is, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit
through faith. Now that is the blessing of Abraham,
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. I've entitled this message, The
Promise of the Spirit, The Promise of God the Holy Spirit. And because of Christ's redeeming
work, I love the way it says Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. It's an accomplished, glorious
truth. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. Because of that, every believer
is given the blessing of Abraham. I'm given the blessing of Abraham,
not because of anything I've done, but simply because Christ
hath redeemed me. I'm given the same blessing Abraham
was given, the promise of the Spirit. God the Holy Spirit. God is one God in three distinct
persons. Isn't that mysterious? That can't
possibly be understood. It can only be believed. God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and the
Holy Spirit is just as much eternal God as God the Father and God
the Son. He's introduced very early in
the scriptures. We read in Genesis 1 too that
the Spirit of God moved on the face of the deep. He's called
the Spirit. the Spirit of God, the Spirit
of Christ, the Spirit of your Father, the Spirit of the Lord,
the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of holiness,
the Comforter, and the Holy Spirit of promise. Now, the promise
that every believer is given is they're given the promise
of God the Holy Spirit. Now the work of the Holy Spirit,
the third person in the Trinity, is just as essential as the work
of the Father in election and as the work of the Son in redemption. It's His work in regeneration,
Him giving us life. Now all that we experience of
the Father and the Son is through God the Holy Spirit. Every desire you have for Christ,
every sight you have of your sin, every breath of prayer,
every desire to simply be found in Christ comes from God the
Holy Spirit. All we experience of God the
Father and God the Son is through God the Holy Spirit. indwelling
within us. Now, isn't it amazing to think
that God lives in you? You are the habitation of God
through the Spirit. God actually lives in you if
you're a believer. He is in every single believer. He's the author of faith. If
you have faith, He put it in you. He's the one
who made you look to Christ. If you have hope, Christ is the
hope, the feeling of the hope, He's produced in you. When you
have a hope that on judgment day you'll be accepted and that
all God requires of you, you have in Christ. That hope you
have, that blessed hope, that hope of rejoicing, God the Holy
Spirit created that within you. If you have charity, if you actually
love God, who put that in your heart? God the Holy Spirit. All we experience of God is Him. You know, when you were
stripped, when I was stripped of my self-righteousness and
made to see that Christ is the only righteousness I had, who
did that? It was God, the Holy Spirit.
All that you learned truly has come from Him. When you've seen
the all-sufficiency of Christ, it was God the Holy Spirit who
taught you that. All the communion you have, all
the enjoyment you have of Him, is God the Holy Spirit. And notice
this, it's called the promise of Abraham. This is very important.
Abraham was an Old Testament believer. Now sometimes people
kind of present it like Old Testament believers had the Holy Spirit
in a different way than New Testament believers. And that comes from
that verse of scripture where it says, it's expedient for you
that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not
come to you. And what that's a reference to
is On the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ, God
the Holy Spirit was given to the church in a new way to witness,
to preach. And that was seen on Pentecost
when 3,000 people were converted by one message. But all the saints
of the Old Testament were born again just like the saints of
the New Testament. Every one of them, they had the same spirit.
Abel, God, the Holy Spirit gave him faith, gave him a new nature.
He was made to see Christ was all in salvation. That was the
only hope he had. Abraham, the same way. David, the same way. Daniel, the same way. All these
men were born of the Spirit, just like every New Testament
believer is born of the Spirit. Now, there are two reasons given
in our text as to why we have the Holy Spirit. First, because
of redemption. May God give you and I the grace
to get hold of this. Christ hath redeemed us. You know what that means? That means all your sins are
paid for. That means before God you have no sins and there's
nothing that could hinder God from giving you His Spirit because
you've been redeemed. You're not given the Holy Spirit
because of you asking for Him. You're given the Holy Spirit
because Christ hath redeemed us. and were given the Holy Spirit
because of promise, the promise of God. The promise was made
to Christ that those for whom he died would be given and indwelt
with the Holy Spirit. Look in Galatians chapter 3 beginning
in verse 15. Brethren, I speak after the manner
of men, though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed,
no man disowns it or adds thereto. Now to Abraham and to his seed,
and his seed is the Lord Jesus Christ and all those in him,
now to Abraham and to his seed were the promises made. He saith,
Not unto seeds, plural, as of many, but as of one, and to thy
seed which is Christ. See, the promise was made to
Christ. It wasn't so much made to you, it was made to Christ,
and you and I benefit from that. And this I say, that the covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which
was 430 years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise
of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it's no more by
promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth
the law, it was added because of transgressions, to the seed
should come, the seed, Christ, to whom the promise was made,
and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now,
I believe the Gospel of John gives us the most detail as to
what this thing of having the promise of the Spirit is. And
I want us to look at several scriptures throughout the Gospel
of John that give us some idea of what it is to have the blessed
Spirit of God dwelling in me and to know it. I want to know,
don't you? I want to know if I have the
Spirit of Christ. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's
none of His. Now, turn with me to John chapter
1. Now remember, this is the promise to Abraham, this is the
promise to every believer. The promise of the Holy Spirit. John chapter 1. Verse 10, He, the Lord Jesus
Christ, was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and
the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His
own received Him not, but as many as received Him. To them
gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe
on his name, which were born. Not of blood. If you're born
of God, it's not because your mom and dad were born of God.
It has no fleshly connection like that at all. Not of the
will of the flesh. You're not born again because
you decided to be born again, and your free will said, I'm
going to decide to become born again. You know, Billy Graham
wrote a book entitled, How to be Born Again. Bible doesn't
even tell you how to be born again. But Billy Graham knew,
no, the will, you're not born of the will of the flesh. nor
of the will of man. It's not because a bunch of men
got together and said, we're going to pray for him until God
saves him. We'll give God no peace, no rest until he saves
him. We ought to pray for people like
that. But that's not why somebody's born again. They're born of God,
birthed of God. Look in John chapter 3, verse
1. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus
by night. Now, it was nighttime. It was
dark. Perhaps he was ashamed to be seen with the Lord Jesus.
But I think more than anything else, this night is representative.
He came in utter darkness without any light at all. The same came
to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou
art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles
that thou doest, except God be with him. Now, everything he
believed was according to what he saw. He said, we see these
things. We know you must be a teacher
come from God. Verse three, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, He cannot
see the kingdom of God. He's saying, Nicodemus, you don't
know anything. You say, we know these things,
you don't know anything, except a man be born from above, born
again. He cannot see. He can't understand
the things of the kingdom of God. A natural man, when you
preach the gospel to him, he has no idea what you're talking
about. When you talk about sin, He knows the Word, but He doesn't
know what it means. When you talk about righteousness, He
knows the Word, but He doesn't know what it means. The natural
man cannot see the Kingdom of God. If you've been given eyes
to see, what a blessing to you. The natural man can't do this.
Verse 4, Nicodemus didn't have any idea what he's talking about,
and he said to him, How can a man be born when he's old? Came here
in the second time into his mother's womb and be born. Jesus answered,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Now
that word water, it's not talking about water baptism. Paul talked
in Ephesians chapter five of the washing of water by the word.
It is God using the word, God the Spirit using the word as
the seed and creating life. Of his own will begat he us,
through the Word of Truth, which is what's going on right now.
The preaching of the Gospel. This is what God uses, God the
Holy Spirit uses, to beget life. If you're going to have life,
it's going to be because God the Holy Spirit takes this Word
and creates life in you. Divine life. But we're bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Those two things cannot be separated.
The sanctifying work of God the Holy Spirit and belief of the
truth. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
1. Hold your finger there in John 3 and turn to Ephesians
1. Now this is the promise of the
Spirit that every believer is given because Christ redeemed
him and because God promised. Look in verse 12, Ephesians chapter
1, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted
in Christ. I love thinking about this. You
know, the Father was the first one to trust him. He trusted
him with our salvation. The Father gave to the Son His
people, and He completely trusted Christ to save me. In whom also
you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, after that you
believed, you were sealed, or having believed, you were sealed.
preserved for good with the Holy Spirit of promise which is the
earnest of our inheritance. Now, you know why I'm going to
persevere all the way to the end? And why I'm going to stand
before God justified and accepted and complete? Because I've got
this earnest. I've got this damn payment. I've got the Holy Spirit
in me who's caused me to believe. He's sealed me. He's preserved
me. Now go back to John chapter 3. The Lord says in verse 6, that
which is born of the flesh flesh, and it can never rise above its
nature, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." If
I'm born again, I have a spiritual nature, a nature that I did not
have before. Verse seven, marvel not that
I said unto you, you must be born again. The wind blows where
it lists, where it wills. Thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh or whether it goeth. So
is everyone that's born of the Spirit. Here he's talking about
the sovereignty of the Spirit in his operations. He blows where
he wills. God the Holy Spirit is just as
sovereign as God the Father and God the Son because they're one
God. And he blows where he wills. Turn to John chapter 4. God the
Holy Spirit is necessary for worship. Verse 16, Jesus saith unto her,
Go call thy husband, and come hither. And the woman answered
and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast
well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands.
And he whom thou hast is not thy husband, and it saidst thou
truly. The woman was no doubt taken aback, and she said unto
him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. And then she commences
to speaking what I would call religious mumbo jumbo. Our fathers worshiped in this
mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where
men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman,
believe me, the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mount
nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship you know
not what. We know what we worship for salvation
is of the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is
when the true worshipers. I want to be I'm going to be
one of those, don't you? I want to be a true worshiper, whatever
that is. He said, The hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father
seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit, and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Now, there's no worship of God
without the Holy Spirit. You know that, don't you? You
and I can't worship God any more than we can create a universe
without the Holy Spirit. I think of that passage of scripture
in Philippians chapter 3 verse 3 where Paul said, We are the
circumcision which worship God in the Spirit. Any spiritual
worship you have is caused by God the Holy Spirit. When you
bow in your heart in awe before the greatness and the glory and
the majesty of God, and you can't even say a thing, you're just
awestruck by His greatness. That's got the Holy Spirit in
you. That's Him causing this and bringing it to pass. This
is Christ dwelling in you. We are the circumcision which
worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no
confidence in the flesh. Now, I can tell you how you can know
whether or not you worship God in the spirit. If you worship
God in the spirit, here's two things that you will do. You
will rejoice or glory only in Christ. Nowhere else. And you will have absolutely
no confidence in the flesh. If that's where you're at, You're
worshiping in the Spirit. Look in John chapter six, verse 59. These things said he
in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. And I would imagine
most of you are familiar with this chapter, but this is that
passage where the Lord brings out so clearly what we call the
doctrine of grace. And many, therefore, of his disciples,
when they'd heard this, said, this is a hard say. Who can hear
it? They didn't like what he said.
When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it,
he said to them, did this offend you? What I've just said, are
you offended by this? And I love what he says here
in verse 62. He says, what if you shall see the Son of Man
ascend up where he was before? What he's saying by that is,
if you're offended now, you'll really be offended then. When
you see who I really am and that I'm in absolute sovereign control
over everything and what I say must be, you'll really be offended
then. Verse 63. Now look what he says.
It is the Spirit that quickens, that gives life. Only the Spirit
of God can give life. The flesh profits. How much? How much? Nothing. In this thing of the giving of
life, the flesh doesn't even enter into the equation. It's
only God the Holy Spirit who quickens and gives spiritual
life. Look in John chapter 14. Verse 16. He says, and I will
pray the Father And He shall give you another, and I love
this name for the Holy Spirit, another comforter. Now, I need
comfort. You know why I need comfort?
Because my sin is ever before me. There's not a time when I'm
not thinking, in some respect, about my sin before God. I'm not talking about sin before
I was converted. I'm talking about sin right now.
And I need some kind of comfort. And the only thing that comforts
me is the gospel. And the only way the gospel can
be applied to my heart is through God the Holy Spirit. It's just
words without God the Holy Spirit. It means nothing to me. But if
God the Holy Spirit comforts me, oh, You know, you could say,
be comforted. It doesn't comfort me any. Maybe it should, but it doesn't.
But if God the Holy Spirit gives me the comforts and the consolation
of the gospel, oh, how comforting it is. Now look, and I will pray
the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he
may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the
world cannot receive. Because it seeth him not, neither
knows him, but you know him. For he dwelleth with you and
shall be in you. I'll not leave you comfortless.
I'll not leave you orphans. I will come to you." Now notice,
when he says, the Spirit will come to you, he says, I will
come to you. When God the Holy Spirit comes
to you, it is Jesus Christ the Lord, the Son of God coming to
you. He says, I won't leave you orphans. Look what he says in verse 25
of the same chapter. These things have I spoken to
you that yet being yet present with you, but the comforter.
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send. In my name,
holy for my sake, He shall teach you all things, and bring all
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." Now, what
a teacher we have. Anything that you or I have truly
been taught, He taught us. They shall all be taught of God. Have you been taught that you're
a sinner? Have you been taught that you really are a sinner
and you don't have any personal righteousness at all? Have you
been taught that? Who taught you that? God the Holy Spirit. Have you been taught that Christ
really is all in salvation and you really believe that? He's
all your salvation. You look nowhere else. Who taught
you that? It was God, the Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of God, who's taught you everything that you truly
know. He might have used human instrumentality,
but it was Him doing the teaching. And everything that we know,
He has taught us. He'll teach you all things, and
He'll bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I've said
unto you. You know, what the preaching of the gospel is, is
bringing stuff to our remembrance. because we forget it's easy.
How often do you have to hear, by grace you're saved? How often do you have to hear
that all God requires of you, he looks to his son for? How
often do you got to hear that as he is, so are we in this world
right now? How often do you have to hear
that you're complete in Him. How often do you have to hear
that there's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus?
You have to hear it real often because we forget it all the
time. And the office of God the Holy Spirit is to bring these
things to our remembrance. And that's what preaching is,
really. It's bringing what He's already said to our memories. Look in John chapter 15, verse
4. in me, and I in you. As the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine,
no more can you except you abide in me. I'm the vine, you are
the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me you
can do nothing." And you know as well as I do that he's talking
about the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is Three
different clusters. Love, joy, and peace. You love
the Lord. You love His salvation. You have
peace, knowing that Christ is all you need, and it makes you
happy. It gives you joy. Long-suffering, gentleness, and
goodness. That's our attitude towards others. Faith, meekness,
and temperance. That's the fruit of the Holy
Spirit with regard to ourselves. He said, Abide in me. Remember,
it's the fruit of the Spirit. It's not something that comes
from human nature. It's the fruit of the Spirit that every believer
possesses in abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look in John 15,
24. If I had not done among them
the works which none other man did, they had not had sin, but
now they both seen and hated, both me and my father. But this
cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled, which was
written in their law, they hated me without a cause. But when
the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father,
even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he
shall testify of me. And you also shall bear witness
because you've been with me from the beginning." Now he tells
what this testimony is in John chapter 16. And if someone would
ask me what is the most important passage of scripture with regard
to God the Holy Spirit, I'd say it's right here in John chapter
16. Look, beginning in verse 7. Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not
away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart,
I will send him unto you. And when he has come, here's
what he'll do. He will reprove. He will convict. He will overwhelmingly convince
the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. And now if somebody
says, well, what's the world mean? Is that talking about everybody
without exception? Well, you know it's not. You
know it's not because not everybody sees these three things. It's
the same world of which Christ is described as the savior of
the world. It's the same world of which
it said God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but
have everlasting life. And there's basically three areas
of conviction that God the Holy Spirit gives when he convicts. Sin, righteousness, and judgment. Now you listen to these three
real carefully. Look in verse 9. And this is
Holy Spirit conviction of sin. Because they believe not on me. Now you've been convicted of
the Holy Spirit when you find out that you're an unbeliever. And you find out that faith is
out of your reach. And that you can't even come
up with faith. And you don't even know what it is. Now, as
long as you believe that you can believe whenever you decide
to believe one of these days, I'm going to, I'm going to turn
around and I'm going to believe the gospel. I'm going to receive
Christ and I'm going to be saved. As long as you believe something
like that, you've never been convicted of God, the Holy Spirit.
Because when a man or a woman or a boy or a girl is convicted
by God the Holy Spirit, they become convinced, first of all,
that they're not saved. That they don't even know God.
And that they can't even come up with the faith. I can't believe. It's only when you find out you
can't believe that you begin to believe. Did you know that?
It's only when you can't believe that you call upon the Lord to
have mercy on you. Lord, I can't even come up with
the faith. That's what the conviction of sin is. It's the conviction
of unbelief. Of sin. Because they believe
not on me. And the next thing in verse 10,
of righteousness. This is Holy Spirit conviction.
He convinces the world of righteousness, because I go to my Father. You are convinced that the only
righteousness there is, is the one that Christ brings to His
Father. You're convinced of that. You're
convinced that the only righteousness there is is the righteousness
and merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're convinced you
don't have any personal righteousness. You've been convinced of sin.
And you're convinced, you really believe that His righteousness
is the only righteousness. And your prayer is, oh, that
I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." Oh, you
become convinced of this thing of righteousness, His righteousness
being your only righteousness before God. Have you been convinced
of that? You know, if you've been convinced of sin and righteousness,
that's the operation of God the Holy Spirit in you. And look
what he says next in verse 11. He says of judgment, because
the prince of this world is judged. Now that word judgment has to
do with the handing out of the sentence, the verdict, as it
were. And in the original, where it
says the prince of this world is judged, it's actually in the
perfect tense. Has already been judged, perfectly
completed, never to be repeated. Now what you become convinced
of when God the Holy Spirit does something for you, you're convinced
that all judgment was taken care of on the cross. You're convinced
of it. The prince of this world, he
was defeated. He was judged. Everybody Christ died for, they
were justified. Everybody that does not believe,
they were condemned. Condemned completely. You're
convinced that judgment... Now, the sentencing, the formal
sentencing doesn't take place on Judgment Day, I don't suppose,
but as far as the judgment goes, it's already taken place. All judgment took place in the
cross. Now, he says in verse 12, I have yet many things to say
unto you, but you can't bear them now. You can't take them.
Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide
you into all truth. Four. Don't miss this. He shall not
speak of himself. Aren't too many people like that,
are there? He shall not speak of himself. If the main emphasis is the Holy
Spirit, the Holy Spirit's not even there. He's not speaking. He shall not speak of himself. What a, isn't that glorious?
Here he is God, the third person of the Trinity, the creator of
the universe, the author of the new birth, and he shall not speak
of himself. Oh, if I had that resume, I'd
probably want to speak of myself, but not him. Not him, that's
not what he wants to do. Let's go on reading. He will show you whatsoever he
shall hear, that shall he speak. what he hears from the Father,
the words the Father gives him, that shall he speak. He'll show
you things to come. He's gonna show you the future.
I don't know the details of the future, but I know the future.
On Judgment Day, all the elect will be justified. All unbelievers
will be condemned. And I know that everything that
happens between now and then is gonna be for the good of his
people and his glory. We know that. We know the future,
don't we? We really do. We know the future. We might
not know the details, but we don't need to know the details. I don't
want to know the details. Well, I'm glad I don't know about
the bad stuff that's ahead of me. I wouldn't even want to know
it. But I know he's in control. Here's his office, verse 14. He shall glorify me. That's the work of God, the Holy
Spirit. He glorifies the Son. For he shall receive of mine
the things of mine and my glory and shall show it unto you. All
things that the Father hath are mine. Therefore said I that he
shall take of mine and shall show it unto you. Now, I want
to close with three scriptures with regard to God the Holy Spirit. You see how necessary he is,
how desperately we need him and what his office is in salvation. But here's three scriptures.
The first is found in Ephesians chapter four, verses 30 through
32. Would you turn with me there? Paul says in verse 30, and grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God. You can only grieve a person.
He's not some kind of force. He's a person. And you can only
grieve somebody who loves you. Somebody you might be mad at. They might be mad at you. But
somebody that loves you is grieved. Let's go on reading. Grieve not
the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of
redemption. He's the reason you're going
to persevere all the way to the end. Why would we want to grieve
him? Now let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor That's
controversy and evil speaking, speaking bad of others. Be put
away from you with all malice and be kind one to another, forgiving
one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven
you. Grieve not the Spirit of God.
Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 5. Verse 16. Rejoice evermore. pray without
ceasing in everything, give thanks for this, whatever it is you're
going through. Is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you? It doesn't matter what it is.
It's His will concerning you. Now look what he says next. Quench
not the spirit with murmuring and complaining, and despise
not prophesying. It's preaching. Preaching. The
preaching of the gospel. Now we can dampen his influence
by a murmuring attitude and by despising the preaching of the
gospel, having a wrong attitude about the preaching of the gospel.
Quench not the spirit. Now one last scripture, Luke
11. Verse five. And he said unto
them, which of you shall have a friend? And shall go unto him
at midnight and say unto him, friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine in his journey
has come to me and I have nothing to set before him. And he from
within shall answer and say, trouble me not. The door is now
shut. My children are with me in bed. I can't rise and give
thee. Now put yourself in this fellow's place. If you were in
bed asleep and heard the door knocking, somebody said, I need
some loaves to feed some guests that came in. I would handle
that very graciously, but probably you all wouldn't. You'd probably
get mad if I came over. I'd be quick to just get up and
not say a thing about it. But I know you guys. But it would be irritating, to
say the least. Verse 8, I say unto you, though
he'll not rise and give him because he's his friend, yet because
of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
Now that means his shameless persistence. He keeps knocking.
I said, go away. I need the bread. Just keep knocking,
not letting it go. Keep knocking. Shameless persistence. I say unto you, though he will
not rise and give him because of his friend, yet because of
his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needs.
And I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given you. Seek,
and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth. And he that seeketh, findeth.
And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. If a son shall
ask bread of any of you that's a father, will it give him a
stone? Of course not. If he asks for a fish, will he
for a fish give him a serpent? No way. If he shall ask for an
egg, will he offer him a scorpion? Under no circumstances. If you
then, and I love this, being evil. Can you imagine the Lord saying
that to you? If you then, being evil, yeah, if you then, being evil,
know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more
shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that
ask him." Now, I want you to remember this. Anything you're
ever going to have from God, you're going to ask for. And
if you're going to have the Holy Spirit, and you want the Holy
Spirit because you know you can't believe the gospel without the
Holy Spirit. You can't repent of your sins without the Holy
Spirit. You can't repent, period. You can't see the gospel. You're in utter darkness without
the Holy Spirit. You ask for the Holy Spirit, and you'll have Him. If that's
who you're asking for, Lord, give me your Spirit, you'll have Him. May God give
us all the grace to ask. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
Holy Spirit. How we thank you for thine eternal
Son, our Savior, the Redeemer. How we thank you for yourself.
And Lord, we ask, because you told us to ask in your word,
we ask for God, the Holy Spirit, that we might be enabled to be
believers and disciples and followers of thy Son. And Lord, if we don't
have your Spirit, all is vain. So we ask in Christ's name that
you would give us the promise of Abraham, that promise you
gave to Abraham. Give to us through Christ by
faith. Give us this glorious gift, the
person of thy Spirit. Lord, cause him to beget life
in each heart here. In his name we pray. Amen. Let's
sing that hymn, Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove. You already picked
it out, I'm sure. 158, we'll stand and sing.