Morton Rick. Ezekiel 36 is where we're going to begin. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for who you are and what you have revealed to us about yourself and the way you work in this world. We ask you, for understanding and wisdom and insight. We confess that things are too wonderful for us. They are hard to comprehend. And so we rely upon always the ministry of your spirit to do that, which only you can do in teaching us. We pray for this this morning in Jesus name, amen. So we've been spending, and I really don't know how much time we will, spend on this, but I've given a little bit of our Sunday school time lately to looking at the Holy Spirit, who is, of course, the third member of the Trinity. And, you know, sometimes because of the, not because of any consistency in the Bible, but just because of the nature of God and the nature of being one God in three persons, right? Individual members of the Godhead are credited with having the same kind of conduct. but we've been trying to focus on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So he is a real person. He has his own distinct personhood. He's not just a force. And he is, and we'll talk a little bit more about this next week. More than, I want to say this cautiously, more than any other member of the Godhead, he is the presence of God on earth. I think that's suggested in Genesis 1-2 when we read that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, that his presence was there. And next week we will look at the fact that although Jesus was himself sinless, his spiritual powerment came from not his flesh but from his spirit, which is, again, really good news and helpful for us, and we will get to that. But for now, we're kind of exploring, and I'm doing this very cautiously because the more I have studied it and read on it, the more complicated it really gets, is the distinction between the ministry of the Spirit in the Old Testament and the ministry of the Spirit in the New Testament. It's pretty common for people like us, people like me, to point out that the Spirit was real and active in the Old Testament, but believing people in the Old Testament were not regenerated and they were not indwelt. And I've just come to the realization that we need to tread, I need to tread a little bit more carefully there, because the Holy Spirit of God has a work and he has an abiding presence. And unless we are prepared somehow to argue that the human nature of Old Testament people was substantially different than is human nature today, salvation is possible only by the awakening and the regenerating work of God's Spirit. Natural men do not receive the things of the Spirit of God. They are discerned spiritually, Paul tells us. Nevertheless, right? I don't want to go back and try to revisit all of that. Nevertheless, the Old Testament itself makes it very clear that there will be a radically distinctive element to the ministry of the Spirit in the New Testament that are not true. And there are just a couple of passages in the Old Testament that give us a preview of that. And so one of them is Ezekiel 36, where we are this morning, verse number 22. And of course, Ezekiel is one of the books written as the captivity is underway. Ezekiel is one of the captives that is hauled off, gets word about the destruction of the temple. So he is a man living through this very moment when God is bringing this devastation upon the nation of Israel and upon his own covenant people. Verse number 22, therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy namesake, which ye have profaned and made common among the heathen, the nations, whither ye went. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which he hath profaned in the midst of them, and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, the nations, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness, from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them. And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers and you shall be my people and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleanness and I will call for the corn and will increase it and lay no famine upon you. and I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field that ye may receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. Then shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations, not for your sakes do I this sayeth the Lord God, be it known unto you, be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. So this is the promise of what we would call the new covenant. And Jeremiah talks about it. In Ezekiel, Ezekiel is very clear that the new covenant is in some way connected with the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And if I could just pause here for a moment with reference to the Holy Spirit and talk a little bit about future events, right? This part of what is being predicted here, right? This is written to people who have been carted off to the nations, to the Babylonians. And God here is promising the regathering. And again, lots of conservatives like us, with some degree of accuracy, like to go back to 1948 and the reconstitution of the nation of Israel as an independent state and go, there it is. But I think if you'll read Ezekiel 36 very carefully, you know that we don't have a total fulfillment of that just yet. that day is coming, and that would lead us then into, by the way, Ezekiel 37, Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones, which is not about revival in the church, but it's about the reunification of this nation that has experienced, number one, right, the disunion between the North and the South back in the days of Rehoboam, and now the devastation at the hand of the Babylonians, and 100 years prior to that, 150 years prior to that, to the Assyrians. And God is going to reconstitute them again as one people, reuniting those two tribes, and they will have one identity, and that will be the identity of God's people. And again, that has future, that has kingdom dimensions to it, and the kingdom is not really our subject this morning. So anyway, back, so here is, all of that to say, off on a little bit of a tangent. The Holy Spirit is active in the Old Testament, in the ways that we would find him in the New Testament. In other words, he is active in restraining and rebuking sin in the Old Testament. He is active in salvation in the Old Testament. He is active in the sanctifying and empowering work of God's people in the Old Testament. But there is here a promise of something that is radically different. And it is a passage like Ezekiel 32, 36, that brings us in part to the conclusion that there wasn't a personal, indwelling, abiding presence of God's Spirit since that is part of the promise. And again, how this all works out, folks, is probably a little bit more complicated than we are able to grasp. And then one other passage in the Old Testament that we're familiar with, and that's Joel chapter number two. Joel chapter number two. And we're gonna jump in at verse number 28 of Joel chapter number two. Joel 2.28, and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will show wonders in the heaven and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance as the Lord hath said. and all the remnant whom the Lord shall call. And again, we know that this passage is quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost. But again, folks, without getting too far afield, there are great future dimensions to this because Joel is not simply talking about Pentecost. Joel is talking about the very end of the age. And again, That's more of a future event subject, folks. But the world has not yet experienced the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord has yet to come. And the day of the Lord is what, to us, what we would call the tribulation. the period of time in which God does those things. And so this is what Joel is anticipating. And this is why you have, again, what appears to us to be kind of a squashing of information, right? We have the promise of God's spirit. We have the promise that is quoted by Paul in Romans 10, 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And then we also have predictions about earthly events, very real earthly events that involve the sun and the moon, which again have eschatological overtones to them. These are things that are predicted at the end of the world. So with that, let me ask you to turn to John chapter 7, because John chapter 7 is one of those passages that whatever we might say about the Old Testament and the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit, We're all collectively kind of brought up short with John chapter seven. When we get to this, we have, right? We know that he is active. He has been active since creation. We know that he has anointed people for service. We know Genesis six, three, that he has been instrumental in contending with people about sin. We know that he has been the voice of God. The prophets spoke in the power of God's spirit. David wrote inspired poetry in the power of God's Spirit. And yet there are very real distinctive features to the New Testament working of God's Holy Spirit. So John chapter seven, beginning in verse number 37, and then we'll just leave ourselves in John chapter seven for a few minutes. In the last day, verse 37, That great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. So there is, right, so for the Holy Spirit was not yet. And if you're looking at a King James Bible, if you look at it carefully, you'll notice that the word given is in italics, and that's because our translator supplied the word. The sentence literally ends, the Holy Ghost was not yet. which certainly can't refer to his existence because he's God and he was in existence when the world was created. The spirit was not part of the creation. He was active at the creation. So, right? So, I mean, there's nothing, I'm not criticizing the translation, right? It's very helpful to us. Our translators are doing a good job of anticipating some of the questions that might arise. All right, so let's just kind of look at a little bit of this framework here. This is, it's the last day of the feast, the great day of the feast. And this is, we know from John chapter seven and verse number two, it is the feast of tabernacles, or what is sometimes called the feast of booths. And this is one of the three major feasts in the Old Testament world. And by major feasts, this was one of the three feasts in which all the males in the nation of Israel were commanded to leave their homes and go to Jerusalem, and to appear before the Lord. Three times a year, men had to do this, and this was one of those feasts. And it's called the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths because the Israelites, it was specifically designed to remember the wilderness wanderings and the deliverance from Egypt in which the Israelites were delivered into the wilderness. And so the people were not supposed to go to fancy hotels, which they didn't really have, or other people's homes. They were supposed to go to tents. You know, I mean, it would, and I'm not trying to be funny, I'm not trying to be humorous, but it would be as if for one week in December, we just had to turn off the heat to our homes in memory of the sufferings of Valley Forge, right? The terrible winter that Washington and the Patriot Army spent in Valley Forge. And we have to remember that. And one of the ways to remember that is for one week in December, we can't turn the heat on in our houses. That was kind of the nature of what this feast was. It was a memorial time. So there's the framework, right? So you have this massive humanity, mostly men, Jewish men who are assembled in Jerusalem in deference to this feast and to them, Jesus, makes his appeal. The last day, the great day, Jesus stood and cries. It is an appeal to anybody who is thirsty. Verse number 37. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Now, part of what's really staggering about that is, go back to John chapter 7, or you're in John 7, go back to verse number 1, After these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, which is kind of a reference to the northern part of the nation. For he would not walk in Jewry, which is the southern part of the nation where Jerusalem is, because the Jews sought to kill him. Jesus wasn't afraid of the Jews, and he wasn't afraid of being ambushed and killed unexpectedly, but this is one of the strategies that the Spirit had for him. was to just avoid the area. A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself. So Jesus does that, okay? But now it's the feast of the tabernacles and he goes. In verse number five, for neither did his brethren believe in him. And these are his physical brethren, Joseph and Mary's children. They did not believe in him. Verse number 12, and there was much murmuring among the people concerning him. For some said he is a good man, others said nay. but he deceiveth the people. And then verse number 25, then said some of them of Jerusalem, is this not he whom they seek to kill? But lo, he speaketh boldly and they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? Howbeit we know this man whence he is. But when Christ, the anointed, the Messiah comes, no man knows whence he is. So that's the kind of crowd response that Jesus is dealing with. Some people want to kill him. Some people don't believe in him. Many people are confused by him. He does all the right Messiah things, but he can't possibly be the Messiah. And Jesus stands up and says, now if any of you are thirsty, let him come unto me and drink. And when you go past that, verse number 40, many of the people, therefore, when they heard this saying, said of a truth, this is the prophet. Others said, this is the Christ. But some said, shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture said that Christ cometh to the seat of the David and out of the town of Bethlehem where David was? So there was division among the people because of him. And some of them would have taken him, but no man laid hands on him. So when Jesus stands up and yells out this cry that anybody who is thirsty is welcome to come, this is a little bit of a note for us in the age in which we live that sometimes our evangelistic witness is tempered by the cold hard reality that people aren't interested. Jesus stood up and yelled, anybody who wants to may come, to a crowd of people that were hostile to him. To go back to John chapter seven, right? Just kind of leading up to what's going on here. What is being told to us? It is an appeal to anybody who is thirsty. It is an appeal to believe on Christ. This is not physical water. This is not H2O that is being offered. Back to verse number 37. If any man thirsts, let him come unto me, he that believeth on me. And so you see the clear connection there that to be thirsty is to believe. That is the kind of thirst that is being discussed here. And it is then the promise of God's Spirit, verse number 38. He that believeth on me as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This is the promise of God's Spirit. You see the way that Jesus is using the idea of water here. If you are thirsty, you come unto me and drink. And then we have a little bit of a reflection of Joel chapter 2, the pouring out of the Generally speaking, folks, one of the distinctions that we make between the Old Testament and New Testament ministry of the Holy Spirit is this pouring out of the Holy Spirit, this kind of overflow gushing dimension to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. And this is yet another clearly New Testament. We'll look at this in a little bit. This is another clearly New Testament dimension that is given to the ministry of the Spirit. That the Spirit of God will be mediated through one who believes and then there will be a ministry of the Spirit through the one who believes. not just to the one who believes, but the Spirit of God will minister to others through the life of those who believe. And this is all predicted, right? This is, and by the way, this is, I didn't really get into this, but when Jesus says, as the scripture has said, He's not quoting, right? It's close to Isaiah 55. It's close to Isaiah 55, but this seems to be kind of a composite of many of the Old Testament instructions and teachings about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is being predicted in the Old Testament to have a clear, distinct New Testament. New Covenant ministry. And then verse number 39, this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive, still in the future, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified. So again, there are clearly parts of this that we can't fully explain. But there is something about the ministry of the Holy Spirit that requires the glorification of Christ. And that brings us then to this, what does it mean for Christ to be glorified? And let me ask you now to turn to, if you would, to Acts chapter two. Because on the day of Pentecost, Peter helps us to understand this framework of the glorification of Christ. Acts chapter 2, verse number 22. Verse number 22, Peter preaching, ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. So Peter points out to them that Christ was crucified, right? That although he had all the evidences and markings of divine approval, the people crucified him. And this did not happen accidentally. This did not happen spontaneously. Peter is very clear about that. If you look at verse number 23, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. This goes back to the beginning. Did these men do it? Yes, they absolutely did it. Did they do it only because they thought it was their idea? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. So the crucifixion, then verse number 24, whom God hath raised up, having loose the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad, moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him that a fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne, he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. So, and there's a lot there folks, but the gist of the argument is this. Jesus died, David died. Jesus went to hell, which if you look at the note is the grave, Hades. David went to hell, Hades. David's body is still entombed. His sepulcher remains to this day. There is no tomb for Jesus because Jesus did not stay dead, he rose. And folks, it was a bodily resurrection, not just a spiritual resurrection. This is something which we who believe the Bible would fight for. The doctrine of the physical, literal, visible resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is what he's arguing. So Peter preaches to these people, Christ was crucified, Christ was raised from the dead, Back to verse number 33, Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ, both master and Messiah. So there is the exaltation. There is the glorification. He has been lifted up. He has been raised up. He has been glorified. This is what Paul is getting at. in Philippians chapter two, that great passage about the emptying of Christ. And that God will give him a name that is above every name. And that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. What? What will they confess? That Jesus is the Lord. That Jesus is the Lord. Jesus is the master. That's what every human being will eventually confess. That Jesus Christ is the master. the undisputed Master. So, right, until this happens, right, there is a sense in which the Holy Spirit's ministry cannot come in its fullness. Because again, folks, however we understand it, there is clearly a ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. And He is not just shapeless and formless and inactive. He is involved in a concrete, measurable way. We can talk about what he does and what he did. But there is something to the ministry of the Holy Spirit that cannot be brought to fruition until Christ is exalted. So if you take that, right? So here, notice again Acts chapter two, and then I'm gonna take you back to John for just a second. Or look at verse number 33 in Acts chapter two. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear." Now take that and go back to John chapter 15. And verse number 26. John 15, 26, but the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, who is synonymous with the Holy Spirit, I'm assuming that you know that. Our King James Bible uses ghost and spirit interchangeably, but it's the same word, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. So that the Spirit does not come and cannot come in fullness until Christ is crucified, resurrected, and exalted. And then the spirit comes in his fullness. From that moment, folks, from that moment on, from that day, from the day of Pentecost going forward, the presence of the Holy Spirit becomes the absolute non-negotiable in the life of a believer. In fact, that's a misstatement, because it isn't in the life of a believer. It is to be a believer. Every believer has the Holy Spirit, period. And people who do not have the Holy Spirit are not believers, period. That is the posture that the New Testament takes, and it begins to take it from that moment forward. You're familiar, or I mean, we've read portions of Acts chapter two. You know on Acts chapter two, the great day of Pentecost has come, the cloven tongues of fire appear, men begin to speak in other languages as the spirit gives them utterance. There's great pandemonium and confusion about what this means. Peter stands up and points out that what this means is exactly what Joel had predicted, right? That this is not mass emotional hysteria. This is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and they will prophesy and we have women doing this, right? Another unique manifestation of the Spirit in the New Testament era is Spirit-empowered ministry by women to the church. And then he preaches what we just read. Look over to Acts chapter 11. So then what happens at Pentecost is not necessarily duplicated any other place. But beginning at Pentecost with the reception of the Spirit, the disciples and the believers begin to go out and proclaim the gospel to all sorts of people. This is, again, a radical component to what they're doing. And it even takes the apostles by surprise, right? They wanna preach the gospel to the Jews. And so God disperses them, Acts chapter eight. And the gospel begins to go around because God had said, I want the gospel to go everywhere, not just to the Jews. And of course, Peter has his great incident with the sheet coming down and with Cornelius. And you have him talking about that where we will start in Acts chapter 11, And verse number one, the apostles and brethren that were in Judea, the south where Jerusalem is, heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. And when Peter has come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him. These are Jewish believers. And they are mad at Peter. saying, thou wentest into men uncircumcised and didst eat with them, right? You violated the purity laws. You crossed the line between clean and unclean. But Peter rehearsed verse number four of the matter from the beginning and expounded by order unto them, saying, I was in the city of Joppa, praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, a certain vessel descend as it had been a great sheet let down from heaven by four corners, And it came even to me, upon the which when I had fastened my eyes, I considered and saw four-footed beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things and fowls of the air. And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter, slay and eat. And I said, Not so, Lord. For nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered my mouth, but the voice answered me again from heaven. What God hath cleansed, that call not thou uncommon." Right, a little bit of a power struggle here. Who's going to make this decision? And the Lord said, if I call it clean, you just take it. And this was done three times, verse number 10. And all were drawn up again into heaven, and behold, immediately there were three men already come into the house where I was sent from Caesarea unto me, and the Spirit made me to go with them. Nothing doubting, moreover, these six brethren accompanied me and we entered into the man's house. And he showed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, send men to Joppa and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter, who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. It is not the ministry of appearing angels, but the message of the word of God that is the instrument of salvation. And as I began to speak on them, the Holy Ghost fell on them as on us at the beginning. So they experienced what Peter experienced, and Peter did not experience it until Christ was glorified. Verse number 16, then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with or in the Holy Ghost for as much then as God gave unto them the like gift as he did unto us. who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I? That I could withstand God. And when they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God saying, then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. But you notice folks, that it is, they heard the word and they believed and what they received was the Holy Ghost, verse number 17. For as much then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord, what was I that I could withstand God? So very early in the book of Acts, as the church is getting up and running with what it means to have the Spirit, the Spirit is the instrument of salvation. Look at Acts chapter 19. Acts chapter 19, verse number one, and it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus. And finding certain disciples, he sent unto them, have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, unto what then were ye baptized? and they said unto John's baptism, which was obviously, folks, whatever it was, it was not a not-believer's baptism. John was not baptizing people upon their profession of faith in Christ. Then Paul said, Paul, verse number four, John verily truthfully baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him which had come after him, that is, on Christ. When they heard this, They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them and they spake with tongues and prophesied. And all the men were about 12. And one of the additional things that goes on in the book of Acts, folks, in the earliest days of all of these movements, is that all of these people and all of these events and all of these churches had some form of apostolic approval put upon them. Right? It was like God, right? Because the apostles, Ephesians chapter four, are one of the gifts to the church. And when you get into the earliest days of the church, you have people going out and preaching the gospel. And then almost always you have this followed up with an apostolic visit, as if they put their stamp of approval on it. Yeah, this is valid. This is, right? And they're not power brokers and they're not power hungry. They are doing what God has the apostles to do. These are the men who are validating early church ministries. These are the men who are being used to write the New Testament. And they are part of the succession of God's authority. Look at Romans chapter eight, which is certainly one of the clearest the clearest expressions. Romans chapter eight and verse number nine. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. All right, and I just, all right, let me make the first point, the point that Paul's making, and then let me expand on it a little bit. Verse number nine, now, if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. I mean, that just could not be more black and white folks. That could not be any more non-negotiable. Right, whatever a person says about their experience, whatever testimony a person has about their salvation, however long they have been in church, whatever, however type the church it is, right, save people have the spirit. Safe people have the Spirit. Additionally, Paul is not creating this, something that is very unfortunately common in independent fundamental Baptist churches. Paul is not recognizing this category of carnal Christian. To Paul, it is an A or B world. It is one or the other. You're not in the flesh but in the Spirit if the Spirit of God dwells in you, period. You're not everything that a believer ought to be, but you're a believer. You're a believer or an unbeliever. Those are the options. Now, one of the things that we will undertake, and let me ask you to turn to Ephesians chapter one, because you can imagine, folks, what kind of questions this engenders, right? We can ask people, are you saved? Are you saved? and people will answer, yes, I'm saved, and they will probably have some kind of salvation testimony. I called upon the Lord, you know, and maybe, right, I mean, it just may be, you know, rather lengthy, you know, how the Lord brought them to faith. I'm not trying to discount any of that. I'm just saying that many of us are far more comfortable answering that question. Tell us about how you came to know the Lord. then we are in answering this question, tell me how you know you have the Spirit. Do you have the Spirit? But if you don't have the Spirit, if I don't have the Spirit, folks, then anything I would say to you about my salvation testimony is meaningless. Paul will post this question to the Corinthians, some of the most questionable believers to be found in the Scriptures. Don't you know? If you don't have the Spirit, you're a reprobate, but we trust you're not reprobates. Ephesians chapter 1, verse number 13. This is the threefold celebration of the work of the Father, Son, and the Spirit in salvation. Verse number 13, in whom ye also trusted, which is Christ, verse 12, After that she heard the word of truth, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of His glory. So we will deal with this, right, because a separate, at least one separate lesson will be upon the sealing work of the Spirit, and the baptism with the Spirit, and the filling with the Spirit. But again, say people have the Spirit, and there are Bible dimensions to what that means. How do we know that we have the Spirit? So the New Testament ministry of the Spirit is again, along the same lines as the Old Testament ministry. But in other ways, it is radically different. And it isn't just simply the indwelling, although that is clearly a part of it, right? That the Spirit of God lives in New Testament people, male and female, young and old, right? We don't know how old Timothy was when he got saved, but we know Timothy had been taught the Bible from a very early age. So whenever a person comes to know the Lord, the Spirit of God minister comes into them and then I'm running out of time I just want you to look at one other one last passage which is 1st Corinthians chapter 12 and we will of course give more time to this the Holy Spirit now has a ministry to unbelievers he will reprove the world of sin John chapter 16 he will have an evangelistic ministry John 3 8 He has a ministry to believers, Galatians chapter 5. We have the fruit of the Spirit. We have things that are produced by God's Spirit in us. And we have 1 Corinthians 12, right? Jesus said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. We have ministry to others. We have the ministry of God's Spirit not only to us, but through us concerning spiritual gifts, 1 Corinthians 12, 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. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit, right? Different gifts. I probably don't have your gift, you probably don't have my gift. There are different gifts. And there are differences of administrations, verse number five. There are different services, right? Different gifts have different expressions. So I mean, if you just go through the list of gifts and it's probably not exhaustive and there are three or four of them in the New Testament, right? But the gift of mercy and the gift of administrations are not going to be exercised in the same way as the gift of teaching. So there are different gifts and there are different services, but it's the same Lord, verse number five. And there are diversities of operations, verse number six. There are different results. There are different results. To put it in mathematical terms, and I don't know that that's everything that Paul means, two people with the same gift exercising the same gift are not necessarily going to reach the same mathematical results for their gift. There are differences of operations. That's what he's getting at there in verse number seven. But it is the same God which worketh all in all. So different gifts, different ministries, different outcomes, same Lord, Verse number seven, for the manifestation or the evidence of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all, and with all means to benefit the others. This is one of the reasons, folks, and I'm really running out of time. This is one of the reasons that while visiting online and watching online services is a fabulous blessing and can be, right? Over the long call, it is no substitute. for the body ministering to itself. The body ministers to itself. This is what God has, right? Our gifts don't exist in isolation just for ourselves. They exist for the ministry to the body. And this is one of the clear dimensions of New Testament Holy Spirit ministry. Okay, I got to stop there. It's 10 to 11, so I've already cut it short.