These studies are going to be enlightening, and they're going
to be enjoyable, because I've already enjoyed the preparation
of this message today to the fullest extent. And I hope that
you will listen carefully and apply your mind and heart to
this message tonight, and look forward to two or three more
on the Holy Spirit. First of all, the Holy Spirit
is a divine person. One of the distinguishing marks
of a Christian is his belief in the Holy Spirit as a person. There have been many people who
have considered him to be an impersonal power, and many people
who consider the Holy Spirit to be an influence or an energy,
and not as the third person of the Trinity. The Bible reveals
the Holy Spirit as a person, first of all, attributing to
him three things that only a person can possess. The Word of God
attributes to the Holy Spirit a mind and a will and emotions. Now, let's look at that in the
Bible. First of all, in 1 Corinthians 2. Now, this desk up here does
not have a mind, it does not have a will. It does not have
emotions. The Holy Spirit has a mind, a
will, and feelings that's characteristic only of a person. In 1 Corinthians 2, verse 10,
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. 1 Corinthians
2, 10. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?
Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God has knowledge. The Spirit of God has wisdom.
The Spirit of God has a mind. The Spirit of God knows the things
of God. This death doesn't know anything. It's an impersonal object. It
has no knowledge. It has no mind. The Holy Spirit
is a person. He knows the things of God. Secondly, as a will. in 1 Corinthians
12, in the twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians, chapter 11. And
here it is talking about what we call the gifts of the Spirit,
talking about faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles,
prophecy, discerning of spirits, different kinds of tongues, interpretation
of tongues. And verse 11 of 1 Corinthians
12 says, All these worketh that one and the selfsame dividing
to every man severally as he will." The Holy Spirit has a
will, and he divides the gifts of the Spirit and ability and
capacity for spiritual knowledge and service as he will. Now in
Acts 16, if you'll turn to Acts 16, verse 7, And here the Apostle Paul is
talking about going to a certain place to preach, but the Holy
Spirit forbade him to go. He said in verse 7 of Acts 16,
they would come to Mysia and they determined to go to Bithynia,
but the Spirit suffered them not to go, forbade them to go. Now, in Ephesians chapter verse
30, the Holy Spirit is said to have feelings or emotions. In Ephesians 4, verse 30, and
grieve not. Over in the Old Testament it
talked about angering the Holy Spirit or vexing the Holy Spirit,
and here it talks about grieving the Holy Spirit. Grieve not the
Holy Spirit of God. A person can be grieved. A person
has feelings. and grieve not the Holy Spirit
of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption."
I don't know how far you can carry that, but I do know that
these references to knowledge and a will and feelings or emotions,
when they're applied to the Holy Spirit, determine that he is
a person. Now then, the Bible also reveals
unto us the personality of the Holy Spirit by putting the Holy
Spirit side by side with the Father and Son and with other
persons. The Bible talks about the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. Now, we know the Father is a person. There doesn't
seem to be any quarrel about that at all. We wouldn't even
begin to say the Father is a power or the Father is an influence
or the Father is an energy. The Heavenly Father is a person.
And the Lord Jesus Christ, nobody would say the Lord Jesus Christ
is an energy or an influence or a power. He's a person. And the Holy Spirit is a person.
Now look, if you will, at Matthew 28, when the Lord is telling
his disciples to go and baptize people after they're converted,
he says in Matthew 28, verse 19, putting the Holy Spirit side
by side with the Father and the Son. And he says in Matthew 28,
19, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. He's side by side with the Father
and the Son. Now here is a scripture I never
thought about before along this line. Turn to Luke chapter 4,
verse 14. But I found it today, and it's
so clear. In Luke 4, verse 14, if the Holy
Spirit is only a power and not a person, I want you to read
this verse that way, Luke 4, verse 14. And Jesus returned
in the power of the power unto Galilee. That wouldn't make sense,
would it? It says Jesus returned in the
power of the Spirit. If the Spirit is only a power
then that means that he returned in the power of the power, or
the power of the influence. It doesn't read right, does it?
In the power of a person. The Lord Jesus Christ limited
himself when he took on himself human flesh, human nature, but
he was baptized or filled or anointed with the Holy Spirit
without measure, and he returned from the Mount of Temptation
in the power of a person, in the power of the Holy Ghost. Now then, the Holy Spirit is
a divine person, he's God himself. Only God is omnipotent, only
God is omniscient, only God is omnipresent. And yet it is said
in the word of God, of the Holy Spirit, that he is omniscient,
omnipresent, and omnipotent. Let me show you that from the
Scripture. Now, omnipotent means all-powerful. In Psalm 104, verse
30, to begin with, while you're turning to Psalm 104, verse 30,
the Holy Spirit is omnipotent in creation. We're going to see
in a few moments that all things were created not only by the
Father and by the Son, but by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. In the book of Genesis it says,
and in the beginning God created the heavens and the And the earth
became without form or void, and the Spirit of God moved on
the face of the water, the Holy Spirit of God. He was there in
creation, in the earliest hours of creation, in the dawn of creation. It was the Spirit of God that
moved upon the face of the water. And when God said, Let us make
man, He wasn't talking about us angels. He wasn't talking
about us people or us creatures. He was talking about the Son
and the Holy Spirit. And here in Psalms 104, verse
30, listen, Psalms 104, verse 30, Thou sendest forth thy Spirit,
they are created, and thou renewest the face of the earth. Thou sendest
forth thy Spirit, and they are created. Created by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit was in the conception
of Christ, miraculously bringing forth in the womb of the Virgin
a son. he is omnipotent. Then he is
omnipresent. David said, Whither shall I flee
from thy spirit? If I take the wings of the morning,
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there will thy
hand hold me. If I ascend into heaven, thou
art there. If I descend into the grave, thou art there. Whither
shall I flee from thy spirit? Christ offered himself by the
eternal Spirit, and then the Spirit is omniscient. Turn to
Isaiah, that is, he knows all things. Now, when we talk about
God being omnipotent, Isaiah 40, if you will, when we talk
about God being omnipotent, we're talking about him being almighty,
all-powerful. When we're talking about God
the Holy Spirit being omnipresent, we mean he's everywhere at the
same time. Whither shall I flee from thy
Spirit? When we talk about the Holy Spirit being omniscient,
we're talking about the Spirit knowing all things. In Isaiah
40, verse 13, who hath directed the Spirit
of the Lord, or being his counselor hath taught him, with whom took
he counsel, who instructed him, and taught him in the path of
judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of
understanding." The Spirit of God knows all things without
any counsel or without any instruction or without any judgment from
any other party. In 1 Corinthians 2, I read that
a moment ago, "...who knoweth the mind of God, but the Holy
Spirit." But turn to 2 Corinthians 13. What we're saying is the
Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit is a divine person. The Holy Spirit is side by side
with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I can't explain the Trinity. The Trinity is only explained
by itself. God is only understood in himself. It's impossible. If I, a finite
man, could explain God, God would not be God. It's impossible for
a human mind to understand, or by natural wisdom, to find God. But here in 2 Corinthians 13,
14, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and
the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all." That's the
apostolic benediction. And here the Holy Spirit is side
by side with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love
of the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit. So starting
out in our study, without any further reference to this now
in future days, the Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit
is a divine and the Holy Spirit is placed in the Word of God
side by side in omnipotence, in omniscience, in omnipresence
with the Father and the Son. Now, the work of the Holy Spirit.
And here's something that really, I want you to listen to these
next two points especially. Here's something that really
never occurred to me, but as I read it today, and I want to
pass it along to you, it is so logical And I suppose like the
Lord said to his disciples, there are some things that I have to
say to you that you can't bear now, you have to wait a little
later to study them and learn them. But listen carefully to
this now. In our thoughts of the Holy Spirit,
we must guard against the common error. And I think this error
is so common that I'd say 90% of the people right here in this
congregation tonight are guilty of this, including your pastor.
We must guard against the common error. We must not limit the
work of the Holy Spirit only to that of regeneration and sanctification
of the believer. we must not limit the work of
the Holy Spirit to regeneration and the sanctification of the
believer. The teaching of the believer, praying for the believer,
interceding for the believer, we must not do that. Now listen,
and the thing that leads us to this error, the thing that leads
any man to this error, that is, limiting the work of the Holy
Spirit to the application of salvation to a person, or the
sanctification of that person, the thing that leads to that
error is our considering our salvation in the narrow sense
to be the most important thing in the world. That's what leads
us to that error. My salvation, your salvation,
nobody else's salvation is the most important thing in the world. When we begin and end with man,
do we do that in our theology? Do we do that in our thinking?
Do we do that in our contemplation of the Spirit? Do we start with
man and end with man? When we do that, when we start
with man and end with man, that is, his fall, his sin, his need
of Christ, his salvation, heaven and hell, all these things are
true. But when we start with man and end with man in our thinking,
then our theology is man-centered. The Bible is God-centered. The
Bible starts with God. The Bible starts in the beginning,
God, and it ends, even so come Lord Jesus. The Bible doesn't
start with man, and it doesn't end with man. It starts with
God, and it ends with God. And I'm afraid in our thinking,
our concern usually is our salvation. I want to go to heaven. I don't
want to go to hell. I must study my prayer life.
I must study the law, I must study morality, I must attend
the Sunday services, I must think about heaven, I must think about
hell. But when we take this view and only this view, we think
of the Holy Spirit in terms of regenerating us, the Holy Spirit
teaching us, the Holy Spirit sanctifying us, the Holy Spirit
setting us apart. And that's not the Bible approach
at all. The Bible begins with God. It gives God all the glory. It brings God into the picture
from eternity to eternity. The Holy Spirit's work is in
harmony with this God-centered theology. In the beginning, God,
and at the end, even so comes Lord Jesus. Now, the Holy Spirit
in creation. Turn to Psalms 33, verse 6. This is back before man was ever
made. Here is the Holy Spirit in creation,
Psalm 33, verse 6, verse 7, "...by the word of the Lord were the
heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath." Now,
the breath of God is the Spirit of God. Any time you read in
the Bible, God breathed into man the breath of life. and he
became a living soul. That's the Holy Spirit. The breath
of God is the Holy Spirit, and by the breath of his mouth all
things were created. We're talking about animals,
too. Turn to Psalm 104 again. The animals and the creeping
things and the creatures that were made were made by the Holy
Spirit. In Psalm 104, and Christ too, all things were made by
Christ, and without him was not anything made. But we must not
isolate the Holy Spirit from the world of creation, from the
act of creation. In Psalm 104, listen to verse
24, "'O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou
made them all. The earth is full of thy riches.
So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable,
small and great fish or beasts. There go the ships, there is
the Leviathan, the whale, whom thou hast made to play therein.
These wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat
in due season. That thou givest them, they gather.
Thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest
thy faith, their trouble. Thou takest away their breath,
and they die and return to the dust. Thou sendest forth thy
Spirit, they are created. Thou renewest the face of the
earth." All of that is by the Spirit of God taking away the
breath and they return to the dust, giving them the Spirit
and they're created. Job several times refers to the
Holy Spirit in creation. First of all, in Job 26. In the
26th chapter of Job, in verse 13, turn over there if you will. Job 26, verse 13, "'By his Spirit
he hath garnished,' or decorated, by his Spirit. Now, in Job 33,
verse 4, the Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the
Almighty hath given me life. Right above that, in Job 32,
verse 8, there is a Spirit in man, and the inspiration of the
Almighty giveth them understanding. So it is the Holy Spirit, as
well as the Son and the Father, who creates, who made all things. It is the Holy Spirit who recreates. It is the Holy Spirit who recreates
man in the new birth. After man was created, he fell.
He became marred and scarred and spiritually dead. He lost
his knowledge, he lost his understanding. But God did not leave him in
that condition, for the Lord Jesus Christ said in John 1,
Turn with me to the third chapter of John. The Holy Spirit regenerates
or recreates and gives man spiritual life, which he lost in the fall.
In John 3, verse 3, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily I say
unto you, Except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God. Nicodemus said unto him, How
can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered very,
very, I'm saying to you, except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit
is spirit. That's the recreation. The creative
work of the Holy Spirit is all-embracing, both in physical and spiritual
realms. The work of the Holy Spirit began
back yonder in the creation of the heavens, and the work of
the Holy Spirit will continue to the judgment. He is not just
one who came along after Christ ascended, he is one who has been
there all the time. Now then, here is something that
you are going to especially appreciate, and we are going to get in a
later message into the work of the Holy Spirit and regeneration.
I just touched on it there. but I'm laying some foundations
tonight. Now then, for just a few moments
on the subject, the Holy Spirit and common grace. Now, here is
the problem. I will present the problem and
the solution. Here, first of all, is the problem.
To understand, and when I talk about the Holy Spirit and common
grace, I'm talking about the Holy Spirit and the unbeliever. I'm talking about the Holy Spirit
and the man out there on the street tonight who does not believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, does the Holy Spirit
have something to do with him? A whole lot, a whole lot. To understand more thoroughly
the work of the Holy Spirit in common grace, it's necessary
for us to notice the background which makes common grace necessary.
When the Holy Spirit breathed into man the breath of life,"
back down in the Garden of Eden, the Father designed, created
by the Son through the Holy Spirit, breathed into man the breath
of life, man became a living soul, made in the image of God. Man was endowed with holiness,
man was endowed with wisdom, knowledge, Man was endowed with
righteousness. There was no evil in man. After Adam fell, after he sinned
according to the word of God, he and all of mankind with him
was no longer in that state of holiness, righteousness, and
wisdom. Man was now fallen, depraved,
totally depraved. wholly, completely inclined to
evil. I'm telling you what the word
of God says. Man has no spiritual life left in him. He has no merit
in him and no holiness in him and no spiritual wisdom in him.
Man seems to understand some things, but he does not spiritually
understand anything. He knows nothing because he does
not relate to the God of glory. He knows nothing spiritual because
he does not relate to the God of glory. Let me show you that,
first of all, in 1 Corinthians 2. What we're saying here is
that when man fell, he lost his spiritual life, he lost righteousness,
he lost wisdom, he lost knowledge, he lost holiness, he lost communion
with God, all things. And in 1 Corinthians 2.14, the
natural man, the unbeliever. Now listen to this. Receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. He won't receive them.
He doesn't care for them. He's inclined to evil. He receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to
him. Neither can he know them. They're spiritually judged or
discerned or understood. He cannot understand them. They're foolishness to him. Genesis
says that every imagination of man from his youth, Genesis 8,
is evil. Every imagination of man's heart,
Genesis 6, is evil. Romans 3 says there's none good,
no not one, there's none righteous, there's none that speaketh after
God, there's none that understandeth, and then it talks about the poison
that is permeated man's whole being from the top of his head
to the sole of his feet. And Romans 8 says the natural
man, it doesn't say it's at enmity with God, it says it is enmity. Now, whether we like it or not,
that's the condition of the creature. Now, here's the problem. Here's
the problem. Man is not as evil as he could
be. he is not as evil as he could
be. Natural man does many things
that are noble and kind and commendable. Now, I'm going to answer some
questions for you here if you'll listen. Don't go to sleep. Now,
this is the first thing. The Word of God says that flesh
is flesh. In the flesh, no man can please
God. In the flesh, the plowing of
the wicked, even when he plows his field and plants his seed,
it's sin. The natural mind is enmity, the
whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint. From the sole
of the feet to the top of the head, there is no soundness in
him. The natural man is an enemy of God, he hates God, he despises
God, he abhors God, he loves evil, he loves darkness. Every
man out of Christ, that's true. But you said, Brother Man, you
know and I know that there are many people we work with and
we work for, and people in our families who are not converted,
who are not Christian, they are noble people and they are kind
people and they are commendable people. You're right, they are.
And there are many who are not believers who are splendid people. and their morals are good, and
they tell the truth, and they help people out of trouble, and
they give to schools and churches and hospitals and orphanages,
and they march off to war to fight for their country, and
they give their lives, and they're honest, and many of them have
their lusts subdued, and many of them talk about life after
death. How do you explain that in the light of total depravity?
If man, according to the Bible, is totally depraved, if man,
according to the Bible, has no goodness in him whatsoever, if
man, according to the Bible, has not one jot or tittle or
iota of ability to do or even desire to do any good, If he's
inclined to hate God and hate his neighbor, how is it possible
that he can do this apparent good, that he can give to the
community church and the United Front? How is it possible that
a man can be a splendid pagan and an honest heathen and a good
unbeliever? How is that possible? How is
it possible that a man who is totally depraved can live a life
that sometimes appears to be even better than some Christians? Some men say, well, it's because
they're not depraved. The preacher says they're depraved,
and the preacher's not telling the truth. Well, that's not the
solution, because this Bible says they're depraved. Christ
said that. Christ said they appear beautiful to you. But he said
they are like whited sepulchers on the outside, they appear beautiful
to men, on the inside they are rotten as hell. That's what he
said. They are full of dead men's bones on the inside. He says
they are clean and beautiful on the outside, on the inside.
Man looks on the outward countenance, God looks on the heart. Now here
is the answer. That's the problem, here is the
answer. The answer which the Bible gives to that problem.
is that the Holy Spirit is at work in the life of every unbeliever
in a special way, not in a saving way, not in a saving way, not
in a regenerating way. Not in a way so as to bring them
to faith, but in a special way. It's not the new birth, it's
not regeneration, it's not bringing them to Christ, but the Holy
Spirit works in every man that comes into this world. He deals with man in what the
early writers called common grace. That's called grace because people
don't deserve it, and it's called common because it's seen in the
lives of every unbeliever. You can see common grace in the
life of every unsaved man. Common grace includes several
things. Briefly, I'm going to bring you
the three, but it includes the free offer of the gospel, it
includes the giving of the sunshine and the rain. That's common grace. God said it rains on the just
and the unjust. That's common grace. That's the Holy Spirit. It includes the maintenance of
laws of nature so men's crops will come up and feed their heathen
children. It includes the granting of powers
to heal the body, the body is cut and the white corpuscles
begin to act and throw off the infection and the body healed.
That's the gift of God, that's common grace. Man don't deserve
that, he ought to bleed to death. If he's a rebel, he hates God,
but he heals. The unsaved man heals just like
the saved man. And then the long-suffering of
God in not sending a man to hell just as soon as he breaks the
law. When you break the law here, they come and get you right away
and take you to jail. God doesn't do that. He lets
you break the law again and again and again and again and again
and again. And when the cup runs over, then
he comes after you. He says, therefore, to slide
in due time. But this common grace in a general operation
of the Holy Spirit in the non-elect in a free-fall way. How come that man, an unbeliever,
a non-elect, is so moral and clean and has such high principles
and standards? The Holy Spirit gave them to
him. The Holy Spirit of God gave them to him, because he restrains
men from sin. The Holy Spirit is sent of God
to restrain men from following their evil inclinations to the
fullest. Do you realize what this world
would be like if God turned men loose and women? Do you realize
what it would be like? God must restrain men to keep
this world livable. God must restrain the evil inclination
to not let men go to their fullest. That doesn't make a man pleasing
to God because the Holy Spirit restrains him, it just makes
him less wicked. The wicked are wicked, they're
just less wicked. The unbeliever is wicked, he's
just less wicked, so that life in this world can be livable. I'm going to show you some cases
where God did turn men loose, where the Holy Spirit did let
them go. But everybody in this town of Ashland who is unsaved
is under the restraining hand of the Holy Ghost, the restraining
power of God's Spirit, who restrains evil, who does not let the unregenerate,
who are the degenerates, go to their fullest extent of evil.
God doesn't let you. If God were to let men go to
the excess of their evil, while violence and murder and death
and hell and thievery would stalk the streets, but God restrains
it, let nothing be left. But there have been times when
God has restrained men and then let them go. I want to show you
some in the scripture. First of all, in Psalms 81. It says over here in verse 11
and 12, in Psalms 81. Psalms 81, 11 and 12, God says, My people would not
hearken to my voice. He's talking about Israel, he's
talking about national Israel. They wouldn't listen to me, they
would have none of me, so I gave them up unto their own heart's
lust. I let them go. I gave them up,
and they walked in their own counsels." Up to that time, God
had estranged them. Up to that time, God had caused
them to walk in His counsels. Up until that time, God had kept
them in check. He let them go. Turn to Romans,
if you will, chapter There are some more people that God gave
up, God turned loose on them. Sometimes you talk about what
happens to a man when he murders his wife and when he murders
his own children. What happens? God lets him go. If the Holy Spirit hadn't been
restraining him, he would have killed her a long time ago. That's
right. What happens to a man when he
gets When he seems to have such high principles and such high
morals, then all of a sudden, boom, down he goes to the depths
of the rottenest place on earth. God let him go. God, the Holy
Spirit, restrained him up until a certain point. Here in Romans
1, look at verse 24. Wherefore God gave them up to
uncleanness, just let them go, through the lust of their own
hearts to dishonor their own bodies. That's what happened
at Sodom. turn them loose. If God turned this generation
loose, it looks like to an extent he is turning them loose. Somebody
says, this is the worst day of their lives. Oh, no, that's not
so. Nowhere near. Why, over there
in the days of the decline of the Roman Empire, we can't hold
a candle to that bunch of rotten, wicked, blood-loving God let
the Roman Empire go, turn them loose, cease to restrain them
by his Spirit, just let them go. And that's what happens in
the lives of churches, that's what happens to individuals,
that's what happens to nations, that's what happens to generations,
if God gives them up to dishonor their own bodies among themselves.
Look at verse 26. For this cause, God gave them
up. Up until that time, God held them in check, God restrained
them, but He gave them up to vile affections. Their women
did change their natural youth into that which is against nature
and lies also to men. That's homosexuality, perversion. And God let them go, that's what
that is. That's the restraining power
of the Holy Spirit being taken off of a person and God just
giving them over to reprobacy and to the worst kind of uncleanness
and departing from God. That's what it is. God gave them
up. Anybody that's in homosexuality has been absolutely turned loose
by the Holy Ghost to defile himself and then go on to hate. That's
what it is. That's what scripture says. Look
at verse 28. They did not like to retain God in their knowledge,
and God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which
are not convenient. Let them go. There is going to
come a time in this world when God is going to let the whole
outfit go. Turn to 2 Thessalonians 2. This is what I'm saying, that
God the Holy Ghost restrains sin in unbelievers. These people in Romans 1 weren't
believers. These people in Psalms 81 over
there weren't believers. King Saul, God took the Holy
Spirit away from King Saul, he wasn't a believer, and gave him
an evil spirit. And brother, you talk about a
rotten mess from that day on. That's what Saul was. And whether
you're an unbeliever, if God ever turns you loose, there's
no limit to the extent of depravity to which you'll go. this generation,
this nation, wherever it is. In 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 7,
the mystery of iniquity does already work. Brother, it's here. It always has been since the
Garden of Eden. The iniquity is in the heart. It may be like a tulip bulb that's
in the ground now. It's going to come up when cold
weather lets it, when cold weather departs. Or like a fire. Did you all used to bank the
fire at night? We used to have a fire burn free. Yes, you didn't,
but you get the fire at night and you let it kind of burn down
in and pour fresh coal on top and then put a lot of ashes right
on top. Bank the fire. Just pile ashes on there. And
boy, it's cold. That fire doesn't put out any
heat, but it's burning down there. And then next morning when you
rake the ashes off, it comes off. And the mystery of iniquity,
they've already worked. Only he, that's the Holy Spirit,
who now let it or restrain it, will restrain it, until he be
taken out of the way. And then, when the Holy Spirit
who restrains is taken out of the way, then shall that wicked
one be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spit of
his mouth, but for a while he's going to run rampant. The Holy
Spirit restrains iniquity. He restrains iniquity. You know
why you're not as bad as you could be, Holy Spirit? You say,
that's true of believers. Oh, no. That's true of every
son of Adam. That's true of Adolf Hitler,
who was a man that God let go. He had no compassion, he had
no feeling, he had no affection, nothing whatsoever. He's no worse
than you and me by nature. He's no worse than any son of
Adam. Who maketh thee to differ? The
only one who makes any unregenerate man to differ from another unregenerate
man is the Holy Ghost. I'll tell you another thing the
Holy Spirit does. He not only restrains men from
sin, but when men are restrained from sin, they've got to do something.
So they do that which is considered good. There can't be a vacuum.
If I'm kept from evil works, I'm going to do something. I'm
not a vacuum, so I do good works. If I don't do good works, I do
evil works. So I'm going to do some kind of work. But the Holy
Spirit restrains me from evil and gives me some principles
and morals, I'm going to do good. And that's when the Holy Spirit
encourages men to do it. What men call good, we restrain
from evil and we encourage denial. The natural man cannot please
God, and here is the reason. Even when he does what is called
good, it doesn't please God, because that which is not done
in faith is sin. That which is not done for the
glory of God is sin. That which is not done for the
honor of God is sin. I don't care what it is. A man
who does not love God and who does not trust Christ and who
does not seek the glory of God may give a million dollars to
help the poor, but that's not pleasing to God. For he that
honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father. And the reason
men do that, as Christ said in Luke 6, turn over here and he'll
show you why. In Luke 6, it's really self-love. It's really self-love. Any good
thing that an unsaved man does, if he doesn't do it for the glory
of Christ, motivated by the Spirit of God, for the honor of God,
he does it out of a selfish principle. And that can cover a whole lot
of ground. In Luke 6, verse 6, Christ said, If you love them
that love you, what thank have you, what praise have you, what
benefit is that? Sinners also love those that
love them. That is unsaved people. If you
do good to them which do good to you, what thanks have you?
Sinners do good to them that do good for them. If you lend
to the man from whom you hope to receive, what benefit is that? Unbelievers do the same thing. But I'll tell you this, it's better for a man to give
his money for the poor than to spend it on gambling and drinking.
Even though it doesn't recommend him to God, at least it benefits
people a lot more. So we can thank God for this
restraining grace of the Holy Spirit, because it makes the
world a place that is livable and beautiful. And we can thank
God that the Holy Spirit keeps men from being as evil as they
can be and encourages them to good, because we have schools
and hospitals and and all of these different things by which
this world is a decent and pleasant and livable place. Now then,
thirdly, and maybe this will help you account for some things,
the Holy Spirit endows men with cultural ability and tasks. The unbeliever has intellectual
capacities, the unbeliever has mechanical skills, The unbeliever
has artistic ability, the unbeliever has wisdom in science, in medicine,
in language, in music, in general culture, and these skills are
gifts of God. Turn to Isaiah 45. Here's an
example of that. King Cyrus wasn't saved, he wasn't
a believer. King Cyrus was a heathen. And
yet it says here that God gave him wisdom. God gave him skill,
God gave him military ability to accomplish God's purpose.
The man that built the highways that we ride on, God gave him
that skill. The man that wrote the textbook
for your family physician, God gave him that skill. God gave
Shakespeare the ability to write Hamlet, Macbeth. God gave Beethoven
the ability to write his symphony. God gave Einstein the wisdom
and power to look into the different dimensions and so forth. God
gave Caesar the power to control and govern the world, and here
in Isaiah 45, verse 1, thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to
Silas, whose right hand I have holden to subdue nations before
him. And I will loose the lorns of
kings to open before him the two levit gates, and the gates
shall not be shut. I'll go before thee, and make
the crooked places straight. I'll break in pieces the gates
of brass, and cut and sunder the bars of iron. I'll give thee
the treasures of darkness, and the hidden riches of secret places,
that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which called thee by
thy name, am the God of Israel." I'm going to do that, God. Cyrus
wasn't saved. He was a heathen king, and yet
God gave him the power. God gave him the power. These
are the things that make the world livable. Man is dead in
sin, man is by nature the enemy of God, man is by nature void
of any knowledge of God or love for God or righteousness or merit
or mercy or affection. He's an evil creature. But the
Holy Spirit of God restrains sin, and the Holy Spirit of God
keeps men from being as wicked as they can be. And sometimes
God removes the Holy Spirit, and a man comes in and murders
a half a dozen people. or loses his mind. He could go
on to commit suicide, get so depressed that he destroys himself
and everybody else. Falls prey to just all these
bottom-of-the-barrel deals. Well, he's no worse. He's a son
of Adam. He's a demon-possessed man, but
so is every unbeliever. But the Holy Spirit restrains
him. And the Holy Spirit encourages me into good, what we call good,
in order that the world might be livable, in order that God's
will might even be populated. And God endows me in for cultural
tasks. Now, the last statement, Mr. Hodge said this, the greatest
calamity that can possibly befall any individual on this earth
or church or nation, is that God should remove his Holy Spirit. Is that God should remove his
Holy Spirit. That's what scared David to death.
Turn to Psalm 51. Listen to him here. In Psalm
51, I'll let you go, this is the last comment, verse 11. David
says in Psalm 51, cast me not away from thy presence, and take
not thy Holy Spirit from me." Take not thy Holy Spirit. There
was a man in Texas who was treasurer of the church, superintendent
of the Sunday And he'd been one of the three top men in the Church
for years and years and years. And he turned out to be a thief.
And every Sunday morning he was stealing. He'd go around to the
classes and collect the money. He started out as a dependable,
so-called good, high-principled, moral man. But when it finally
caught up with him, he'd stolen. thousands and thousands and thousands
of dollars next year. Take not thy Holy Spirit from
me." I don't care if you're unregenerate or who you are. You are an object
in the hands of the Holy Spirit, either in saving grace or in
common grace. And if God doesn't save you,
I'd go to hell praying, Lord, don't let me go. Don't turn me
loose. Don't take your Holy Spirit.
If you can't give me saving grace, then give me common grace, but
give me some kind of grace. That's the Holy Spirit. Our Father,
give us wisdom in this study. We know it's impossible for these
small minds of ours to comprehend the vastness and the majesty
and the glory of the Spirit of the living God, and how with
every breath we're so dependent upon him. The food we eat, the
steps we take, the sight and hearing and speech and our lives
and salvation and any knowledge of the Word and everything that
we have or are or ever shall be is by thy power, by thy Spirit. Give us some wisdom, thy servant
especially, and thy people understanding as we look into this subject
so important, so vital to us. Lord, teach us. We are but poor
little children, so ignorant, but we want to wait before thee,
and we want so much to learn of thee. Be disciples and learners
of the Master, sitting at his divine feet and have him teach
us through his words. We pray this in Christ's name
and for his sake. Amen.