continue to talk about the Holy Spirit because I think it's important. We have a lot of new believers here that have never heard these things before. They've never really been taught the doctrine from the scriptures and good understanding of these things and I believe that for me to skip over this and not really deal with the Holy Spirit and talk about the person of the Holy Spirit. We talked about his person and we're going to talk about his work but If I skip over that, I feel like I would be doing an injustice to you and not explaining to you some things that most preachers will not explain, will not teach like this, and will not take you through and teach you on matters like this that are very important. You can do both expository preaching, subject preaching, you can do all of that at the same time and still benefit and profit people. Sometimes you've got to take a little bit of a detour or you've got to stop on something for a while and teach on it so people have a good and thorough understanding of that. You'd be surprised how people take a verse in their mind and they have it set on what that verse believes and then they'll come to me and they'll talk to me about that verse and I'll be like, that isn't what that's saying at all. And that's not the context of that at all. Whatever interpreted it, their feelings, their fear, whatever it was, it wasn't the scriptures that interpreted that. It wasn't the Holy Spirit. Because it was contrary to what the Spirit of God is even teaching in that. So, it's important to understand who the teacher is, and that's the Holy Spirit. And He's there to teach you and guide you. and into all truth and to guide you through the scriptures. So it's important that you understand what God means by that when he says that. So in order for you to understand corporately about the Holy Spirit, you need to have some good understanding individually for yourself as well, that you would understand the work of the Spirit. That you would understand how God's spirit moves and how it works. How he works and how his power works. Okay? So that's very important for God's people. It's a very simple thing. But if somebody's going to live inside of you, you ought to get to know him, don't you think? Amen? If God is living in you, don't you think you ought to get to know and understand him? That's what our life is about, isn't it? Our life is about knowing the Lord and growing. And you have to humble yourself and see sometimes that you don't know anything. So God can teach you. Amen. And people that aren't surrendered and they're not submitted to God, they won't learn from God the way that they ought to. And this is very important. So let's read these. I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. He's talking about, he mentions the Holy Spirit. Well, why is that? Well, because these things are fruit of the Spirit. When he's talking about long-suffering, forbearing, lowly, those things are all fruit of the Spirit. They're all evidence of the Holy Ghost in you. That's what those things are. So it's important that you understand those things. All right, let's pray. Father, we pray that you'd help us now and guide us through the Scriptures. Help us understand the Spirit's work in our lives, in our church, in our hearts. Lord, we thank you for it. We thank you for your work. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, so we're going to talk about the works of the Spirit here, and that one Lord, one faith, one baptism. What he says here is, he says there is one body and one spirit. We've talked about the one body. Now we continue to talk about the one spirit. We talked about the person. Right? His personality. He has his own feelings. His own will. His own mind. And we'll talk about this later in Ephesians when we get to it. About not grieving the Holy Spirit. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you're sealed unto the day of redemption. And also the Bible says quench not the spirit. So those are two commands given to believers. They're not given to the lost. They're given to the saved. God is warning you as a saved Christian not to quench the spirit. Right? Not to quench the Holy Spirit and not to grieve the Holy Spirit. So those things are things that God describes and a person is grieved. The Holy Spirit is a person and he is grieved. He can be grieved just like you can be grieved. All right? You have a will, you have a mind. All right? So there's more that can be said about that, but we'll move on. We'll talk about the works of the Spirit in the person and in the body of Christ. So these works we'll cover mostly tonight are dealing with the sealing and the filling of the Holy Spirit. Those two things. The first thing though that we understand is found in Romans chapter eight, verse nine, and that's the indwelling of the Spirit. Romans chapter eight. And verse number nine. But you're not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. He's talking about the Holy Spirit indwelling the saint. When you are saved, when you are born again by the Spirit of God, the Spirit comes to indwell you immediately. Right when you were born again, right when you were saved by grace, the Spirit of God indwells you. All right? He comes in and He makes His abode there. He makes His home there. That's the work of the Spirit. Jesus promised it, didn't He? He said, if I go away, I'll send another Comforter unto you. Right? And He is with you and shall be in you. That was the promise, right? That's what happened at Pentecost, right? That He was not only with them, but He was in them. And now everyone that is saved by the grace of God has the Holy Spirit in them. He indwells them. He lives there in them. That's why you're told not to grieve the Spirit of God, because he's in you. He is God in you. Think about that. Think about God dwelling in his people. Not just dwelling in his church corporately, but in his people, each individual that is born again. That's the promise of God. So we have the indwelling that is there, that Christ dwells in us through the Spirit. Sometimes he's called the Spirit of Christ, sometimes he's called the Spirit of the Father, but he's the Holy Spirit, right? And he dwells in the saints. That's important to understand. That's why Paul is gonna discuss in this chapter of Romans 8, he discusses, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. He says, for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit. that we are the children of God. So many running around looking for assurance. The problem is, is that they're not looking for it in the right place. They're not looking for it where it's found, in the scriptures, and it's found in the spirit. It's found in the spirit of God. It's found in his work in our hearts and our lives. It's found in his promise. He is the promise. Amen. When you get that through your head and heart and understand that, that God's spirit is the promise, which we'll get to. All right. So the first is indwelling. The second is sealing. Turn to Ephesians chapter one. We talked about this a little bit a long time ago when we were on Ephesians chapter one, which was a while ago. Ephesians one verses 13 through 14. It's talking about salvation, being saved. In whom you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed, after that you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. He said, after that you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. After you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit. He's called the Holy Spirit of promise here. Why? Because he was promised. Which is, he says, which is. What's he talking about? The Holy Spirit of promise. Him. Which is the earnest of our inheritance. That's the down payment. When you buy a home, you have to provide what? Earnest money, right? Money in earnest, right? Lee, you have to do that. Well, the Holy Spirit is the down payment promise of the Father. He's the promise that you're going to heaven. He's the ceiling of that promise that you are going to heaven. His presence in you. is the promise. It's not some feeling you get from it. It's not some, it's not not looking for that feeling or looking for something, some kind of outward manifestation or speaking in tongues or that's not, no, no, no, no, no. It's his presence in you. That's the promise. which is the earnest of our inheritance, he says. So let's back up. It says you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. After you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Ghost, which is the earnest of our inheritance. It's the down payment until you receive the rest of your inheritance. What is the rest of your inheritance? Being with God for eternity. That's right, eternal life. Being with him for all of eternity. being with God. So he seals you, he comes into you, he indwells you, and he seals you under the day of redemption as the promise until he takes you home. Amen. That's why he could say to you, I will not leave you comfortless. I will come unto you. Amen. That's God's promise. Verse 14 says, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. You get that, don't you? If you understand what it means to put down earnest, right? Until the redemption, until that purchase possession is mine and it's in my hand and I own it. And I have it, right? Until I've redeemed that. So until Jesus comes and redeems his own and takes them by possession, the Holy Spirit is with you. Amen. We'll get to that too. That's right. It is the King's seal, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory. See, God gets glory by doing that. That's why He did it. That's why He did it. He has everything for the glory of God. Because it glorifies Him. Everything God does glorifies Him. There is nothing that God does that does not glorify Him. Nothing. Throwing people in hell glorifies God. Amen. Glorifies God. Everything God does, all of His works glorify Him. All of His works give Him praise. Amen. And all of His works are right. Amen. Don't you ever forget it either. Don't you get a sour puss on God either. You better believe it. You better understand. You better believe it that all of his works are right. Amen. I don't care what you're going through. You believe God. He said it. You better believe it. It's important. It's important for your spiritual wellbeing that you believe God. You cause a lot of heartache to yourself when you don't believe God. under the praise of his glory. Let's turn to Ephesians 4.30. We are warned here, and you've seen this verse, but, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed under the day of redemption. By the way, he's not saying, well, if you grieve him, you won't be sealed anymore. That's not what he said. Some of the Armenians teach that nonsense. Well, you know, the seals broke if you grieve him. Really? So, because your children grieve you, they're not your children anymore? How does that work? They make you sad, you don't love them anymore, or what? Well, even if you didn't, God still does. Amen! Because God doesn't love you because you were good, he loves you because Christ is good. Amen! There's some doctrine for you! Why don't you pay attention to it? Understand it! You're not blessed because of you, you're blessed because of Christ! You better learn to give God glory for that. Amen. I mean it. There ain't nothing more of a shame than for God's people not to give Him glory for His marvelous works and what He's done. And think for some reason there's some virtue in us that God should bless us. There's nothing good in you besides the Holy Spirit of God. Paul said, there is in my flesh, in my flesh dwelt no good thing. Ain't nothing. God doesn't bless you because you're good. He blessed you because Christ is good. Amen. Get your theology straight, you'll be all right. If you get your doctrine straight, your practice will work out. You know what I mean? When I go up there to, and I'm preaching on this 501c3 issue or incorporation, whatever you want to call it, issue, the one thing I said was, you know, your practice needs to match your doctrine. If your doctrine is Christ is the head of the church, then your practice better show that Christ is the head of the church. Amen. If your practice don't show that Christ is the head of the church, something wrong. Now, your doctrine's not wrong, because he is the head of the church, but your practice is, so you need to fix your practice to match your doctrine. Amen? Boy, that'll clear a lot of stuff up for you, too, when you're walking around like somebody kicked you in the guts all the time. You get your doctrine to match your practice, or your practice to match your doctrine, you'll be all right. Amen? You'll start believing God, won't you? And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Not to grieve him. Why? Because you're sealed. Whereby? Because you're sealed by him. So don't grieve him. He lives in you. Amen. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Verse 21 and 22. Now he which establisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God, who hath also sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. Amen. That's the promise of the Spirit, right? That's His presence. He's the seal. They say, well, He put a seal on you. No, no, no, He didn't put a seal on you. He is the seal on you. He is the seal on you. Do you get that? You are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. It's Him, the person. God sealed you. You get it? That's just, amen. That's God that did that. That's right, that is why it can't be broken. That sealing of the Holy Spirit, the method of that sealing. Believers are sealed with the Spirit when they trust Jesus as their Lord and Savior, when they've repented and put their faith and trust. Turn to John chapter seven. I don't mind taking my time with this doctrine, I really don't. It's important. People need to get their doctrines straight. A lot of the times you got your doctrines messed up and then you think you've got problems you don't really have because you don't know the Bible. You're misapplying the scriptures. If you believe what God says, you don't worry about how you feel. You just believe what God says. Amen. You spend too much time worrying about how you feel. You ought to be more concerned with what God said. Amen! Verse number 39, 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. Jesus was telling them in the future what was going to happen, that He was going to be glorified and He was going to send the Holy Spirit. He was going to come and He was going to seal them. That was the work that He was going to do. Of course, we talked about that in Ephesians chapter one, verse 12 through 14. We've already looked at that. And then Galatians chapter three, turn there. Some of these verses we go over more than once, but that's okay. I'll put you in remembrance of these things, though you once knew this, right? He said, put them in remembrance of these things, and thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ. Amen. Right? Don't ever be afraid of teaching something more than once. It's like sometimes you think your children, you've taught them once, that's it. You know, it's good. They should have it figured out by now. Well, you ought to try pastoring them. Because they don't figure it out. They don't figure it out once. You know, actually, parenting helped me understand pastoring a little bit better when it comes to that. Right? That's why the Bible says you have kids, you know, you have children to raise and take care of. Why? Because you think children, well, I told them once. Yep. I always just laugh. I told them once. My wife will say it to me sometimes. Well, I already told them. I'm like, yeah, I know, honey. But they're kids. They're kids. You gotta tell them more than once. It's repetition, right? Repetition. It happens. We can easily, the Bible talks all through the New Testament. Paul warns, Peter warns, many of them warn that you once knew this, but you've forgotten this. You don't remember this. You should remember this. So then bring it up to them again. Teach them these things again, he told Timothy. Teach them again because they need to be, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ. If you put them in remembrance of these things over and over again, drill it into their hearts over and over again that they understand. And I'm praying over and over again that, I mean, I pray for you daily, right? That God would bless you, that you would walk with Him, and that you would learn, and you would grow, and you would understand what God's will is for your life. Galatians chapter 3, verse number 14. that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Amen. Here it is. See, the Spirit is the promise. The Spirit is the seal. So it's not just like some seal that God put on you. No, he gave you his spirit as the seal. Why? Because you need God in you to be like Jesus, that's why. Because if God's not in you, you ain't gonna be like Jesus. Amen. And some people, they profess to be Christians, but they don't have God in them, and that's why they can't be like Jesus. They can't grow in grace. They can't. Why? Because they don't have Jesus in them. They don't have the Holy Spirit to conform them to the image of Christ. So they're not like Jesus, and they don't want to be like Jesus, and they don't grow to be like Jesus. Why? Because they don't have the Spirit. When you have the Spirit of God, you take on His attributes and you grow. He gives you his attributes, the ones that are communicated to you, that is. The other ones you don't get until you get to heaven and then you'll be like Jesus completely. But you have the ones here that you need on this earth to get through this life and grow. Amen. But you see the promise there. The meaning of the sealing is security. When a seal is put on someone, it's to secure them. It's to give them security. Turn to Daniel chapter six. We'll see an example of that. See, when we study what a seal is in the Bible, what we find is that that seal is for security. Daniel six. Here is the seal that was put on in verse 16. Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, thy God, whom thou service continually, he will deliver thee. And a stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lord's, that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel. No one could break that seal. Once the king sealed it, no one could break it. Amen. No one. No one could break the seal. And that's the picture that we have here. It's security. It's also a picture of ownership. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 1 again. We went over these verses, but look at it in the context of ownership here from the Spirit. Now He which establisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God, who hath also sealed us and given the earnestness of the Spirit in our hearts. Why? Because He owns you. That's why. Amen. That's why Paul would say, Paul the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul, the prisoner of the Lord, when he's sitting in prison. They're cuffing him, taking him away, and he's writing to these people, and what does he say? He says, Paul, the prisoner of the Lord. I'm not in Caesar's house. He's like, yeah, I'm in Caesar's house, but I'm the prisoner of the Lord. Why? Because God told me I was going there. He said, you're going to go there, Paul, and you're going to be a witness for me in Rome. So then is Paul to believe that it's Caesar that has him in prison? Or it's the Lord that has him in prison? The Lord put him in prison. And why did God put him in prison? So he could write all those prison epistles. See, God has a purpose for whatever he puts you through in this life. Whatever challenges and trials that he allows you to go through in this life, he has a purpose for them. He will be glorified in them. Amen. He has a reason for it. God has a reason to try you, to try your faith. He has a reason to do that. And he owns you. So when he gives you his spirit, he owns you. You're bought and paid for with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body, right? You're to glorify God, why? Because he owns you. because you're bought and paid for with a price. If you don't wanna be owned by God, then go to hell. Is that too simple? Right? That's, I mean, I could preach a message on that. If you don't wanna be owned by God, then go to hell. I'm not telling them to go to hell. I'm just telling them that's what's gonna happen to you. You're going to go to hell. If you don't want to be owned by God, you're going to hell. There's only two options, friend. Either Christ purges you and redeems you, or you go to hell. I don't want to be owned by anybody. Man, I do. I thank God he owns me. He tells me what to do, he leads me, he guides me, he directs me, and he's going to take me home someday. Amen. And when it's time for me to go, ain't nothing gonna stop it. And if he wants me to stay, ain't nobody gonna stop it. That's the way it works, right? That's the way it is. That's ownership, and that's why he puts that seal. I own you, you're mine. I've purchased you with the blood of my dear son. Amen. Nothing wrong with that. Only a rebel would have a problem with that. You got a problem with that right now, it's cause you got a filthy heart. You need to be saved. Amen. You need to be forgiven of your sins and cleansed of your unrighteousness. You need to be born again and you need the spirit of God inside of you. Then you'll rejoice when God, when you say God owns me. I'm not my own, I'm bought and paid for with a price. I don't have a right to do whatever I want to do. I can't live my life doing whatever. I can do whatever I want to do. I can think for myself. Really, I can't. I can't think for myself. Let me tell you something right now. I can't think for myself. I need this book to think. I need this book to think. I can't think for myself. See, I'm smarter than you. I can think for myself. Yeah. See how that works out for you. We'll see how that works out for you. I can't. I can't. I need the mind of Christ to think. Oh, I can think enough to make some really dumb decisions. And I can act on my own and make some really foolish decisions and destroy my life. But if I want to think biblically, then I've got to have this book. I've got to have the mind of Christ. Amen. Because if you own you, you're going to hell. That's just simple. If you own you, you're going to hell. You might get 70, maybe 80 years here. If it's worth getting thrown into hell over, I guess. You got to make that call, I can't for you. Right? Because see, I believe that everything you think and do ought to be defined by this book. As a Christian. And lost people don't think that way, why? Because they don't have the mind of Christ. They can't think that way. Right? Their foolish heart is darkened. They can't think that way. Amen. That's what that ceiling does. It's ownership. It's also authority. It's also authority. God's authority in your life. Turn to Genesis chapter 41. It gives the example of that same thing. Genesis 41, verse 41 and 42, it's interesting. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, see, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring. What's his ring? It's a signet. It's a seal. The ring was a seal, right? The ring is a picture of the seal, right? It's Pharaoh's seal. I mean, Pharaoh literally took his ring off. Pharaoh, king of the world at the time, because Egypt ran the world at the time, right? So he takes off his ring off his finger and puts it on Joseph's hand. Right? And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, see I've set thee over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand and put it upon Joseph's hand and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck. Now the funniest thing ever about this is it's a Jew. I think that's so hilarious that God takes that. Who's it? Joseph, who's a type of Christ. He's like a hundred times a type of Christ. Go read A.W. Pink's book, Gleanings in Genesis. Great book. And if you read that, he'll show you a hundred times how Joseph is a type of Christ. I don't agree with everything A.W. Pink says, but I do agree with most of that. And anyway, so he took that ring off, put it on his finger and here's this Jew that's exalted, right? He's sent into slavery. Amen. This whole world's got some surprises coming when it comes to the Jews. I'm gonna tell you that right now. There's gonna be some sorry Christians that are gonna lose a lot of rewards for going against the Jews. I ain't saying they have to agree with everything Israel does, but I'm talking about, and this is what I tried to explain to people the other day, and I'm not gonna get off on this, but on my broadcast, I said this. Somebody said, well, these Jews are, those Jews are wicked Jews, and those Jews are Talmudic Jews, and those, man, they're all wicked. They're not Jews because of their religion. They're Jews because of their bloodline. That's what makes them Jews. It's not their religion that made them Jews. It's their bloodline that made them Jews. People don't understand that. They don't get it. They don't get that, first of all, they don't study the scripture. Second of all, they don't study history and understand what's going on. But hopefully, I want to do something to help that. I'm going to produce this documentary called To the Jew First. And it's going to have Pastor Jeffrey's testimony. It's going to have his father who was in the war for the Six Day War over there. And he has pictures of him going in. That's crazy stuff, man. But anyway, all of that stuff that took place in Israel at the time, in 1948 when they went back into the nation, and everything went back into the land and everything that took place, and the history and coming, and moving forward what is coming. And I'm going to have his testimony there, but I'm going to talk about that, because there's a lot of deception out there and misunderstanding about that. And people need to be right about that topic, because there's a lot of hate out there for the Jews. Anyway, this is a picture of that authority. This is that authority that that ring signified. It's the same thing as a seal. That's God's authority on us. In Esther 8, we won't go there, but for sake of time here, but in Esther chapter 8 we saw that remember there was a seal of the king, remember that? And then you had Haman wanting to kill, who was a type of the Antichrist, wanted to kill the Jews and all that stuff, but there's a seal there as well and that's important to understand too. Second Corinthians chapter 5, You know, that seal, that authority, it really puts us as authorities to be ambassadors for Christ. Because in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, the Bible says, now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. People ask us, why are you out here doing this? Because we work for the King, that's why. He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That's why we're here. You're a creature. I don't know what kind. But you are one, right? So we're here to preach to you. We're here to obey the Lord, right? And then of course, the authority that he gave in Matthew chapter 28. All right, but also that sealing, that sealing, Matthew chapter 28 is the Great Commission, of course. But we won't get in, we'll just kind of skip ahead. Likeness. That seal stands for likeness. A seal imparts its own image. The Holy Spirit imparts the image of Christ into us. You've heard that? Well, how are you predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ? How does that happen? Well, it wouldn't happen without the Holy Spirit. That's how it happens. And you have to grow in grace. But turn to Galatians chapter five. I just, really my desire is for you to learn this and understand it, it really is. I don't know why I'm so bothered by it, or not bothered but burdened by it, that I want you to understand this. On so many levels I want you to understand the truth of this and understand that this is your intimate connection with God Almighty. It is God in you. the Holy Spirit in you, and maybe you would pray differently, maybe you would think differently, maybe you would nurture that relationship with God more if you got a glimpse of that and an understanding of that from the scriptures. Instead of basing what you do on your feelings, on what man thinks, on anything else, but you would base it on what God says in his word, very plainly. It's so important. He's gonna talk, he says in verse 18 of this chapter, but if you be led of the spirit, you're not under the law. And then skip down, because we're not gonna go to the works of the flesh here, but we're gonna talk about the fruit of the spirit. He says here, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such, there is no law. This is the spirit of God that comes inside of you. When he comes in, he brings his fruit. It's not called the fruits of the spirit. It's called the fruit of the spirit. One person, he comes inside of you and his attributes, his fruit is in you. And each one of these things must be developed in your life, in your Christian walk. Each one of these things are tried. Each one of these things are to grow. You're to grow in these things, right? You're to grow up into him in all things. That's what God has commanded you to do. So in other words, it bears the likeness of God. That fruit of the spirit that comes inside of you, or the spirit of God when he comes inside of you, he bears witness. Right? And his attributes begin to show through you. I mean, that's the only way you can explain it. That's the only way you can explain why I'm not still selling drugs, smoking pot, running around, being a fornicator and living my life the way I did. There's no other way to explain it. And then when trials and tribulations come, I didn't just take off and quit the faith and walk away. Well, why is that? Because I was saved by grace and he put his spirit inside of me and he changed me and he made me a new creature. So I'm not that guy anymore. I can't go back and do that. I don't want to go back and do those things. He changed my wanter. Amen. Maybe you got a problem with your wanter. Maybe God needs to change your wanter. Maybe you need to ask him to change your wanter. Amen. To do of his goodwill and pleasure. Instead of your own will. Amen. You know, it's pretty concerning when I always hear, when I hear from people what they want all the time. What does the Lord want you to do? If I can sit and talk to people for hours and I talk to them and I only hear what they want to do, I never hear what God wants them to do. That's a little concerning, isn't it? For the children of God, it shouldn't be like, well, what do you, it should be, it should be, well, what does God want? See, if we have the same authority, then we sit down together and we talk, things shouldn't be that complicated. It shouldn't be that confusing. But when you don't have the same authority, then things get very confusing. Because it shouldn't be, well, this is what I want. Well, what does God want? What does God want for you? Excuse me, I really don't care what you want. I wanna know what God wants for you. Because remember, I'm watching for your soul. I'm not watching for your fun. I'm not watching for your leisure. I'm not watching for your earthly and worldly gain. I'm watching for your soul. Amen. Because I know I gotta give it a count one day. So I'm watching for that, I'm concerned for that. Amen. That should be my concern for you, right? That should be your concern for you, too. But that seal, it imparts a likeness. When the Spirit of God comes inside of you, that's the only way you're predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. It's when the Holy Ghost is in you. So then, painfully, many times, you're going to be conformed to his image painfully. It's not a painless work. Why? Because we're selfish. That's why. We want our own way. We want to do our own thing. We don't want to give of ourself. We want everybody to give unto us, but we don't want to give ourselves. But when the Spirit of God comes in, you're like Him. You begin to be like Him. That's a, oh, to be like thee. You've heard that song, right? We sing that. That's how through many trials and many tribulations, much time of growing in grace, learning and growing. Amen. But that's His work. That's what that seal does. It bears a likeness to the Savior. That's why, naturally, the Spirit of God, when you're saved, leads you to the body of Christ. He leads you to the local New Testament church. That's the work that He does. When He saves you, He leads you to go to church and to be a member of that church and to join that body and be a part of that body. That's the work of the Spirit. Why? It's likeness. He sure don't lead you to go to the bar. He sure don't lead you to go to the world. You'll find no happiness there, no joy there, right? So he does that, he does that work. He also imparts spiritual gifts with that seal, right? That seal of the spirit imparts spiritual gifts. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter one. This is a good Bible study, but I always preach my Bible studies anyway, so. You get preaching in it too, but we need it. I think I got the wrong chapter here. What am I in 1 Corinthians 1, 22? This is for the Jews, requires sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. Yeah, I don't think that's the one I was looking for, but it's not the first I was looking for. Anyway, but the spiritual gifts are in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Yeah. Yeah, that's the wrong verse, yeah. Yeah, I gotta go to, 1st Corinthians 12. There we go, spiritual gifts. I knew that. Okay. Was it? What was that verse? Read it brother. Amen, that's a good verse, but really what I'm looking for is on these gifts here. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles carried away into 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. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom. To another, the word of knowledge by the same spirit. To another, faith by the same spirit. To another, the gifts of healing by the same spirit. Some of these gifts have been done away, okay. By the same spirit. To another, the working of miracles. To another, prophecy. To another, discerning of spirits. To another, diverse kinds of tongues. And to another, interpretation of tongues. But all these work at that one and the self, same spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. So, the Spirit of God is the one that imparts gifts to us. He gives us the gifts of the Spirit. When you get saved, you get sealed, and that sealing brings in the gifts, and we'll talk a little bit about that probably more later, because there's a sermon I want to preach to you on this chapter, but I don't know if we'll get to that Sunday or not. We'll see. Now, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth four times in the New Testament. He gives us that. He comes into us and he is the spirit of truth. And over and over again, that's the work of the spirit, to be the spirit of truth, to guide you into truth. John chapter 14. Some of you want to be guided by your own feelings instead of God's spirit. Well, how does God's spirit guide me? He guides you in the word. John chapter 14, verse number 17. Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. And 1526, we looked at these verses before, but that's okay, we can look at them again. John 1526, 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. The Spirit of truth. Amen, John 16, 13. How be it when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. So who are you looking to guide you? Are you looking for the world to guide you? Are you looking for worldly counselors to guide you? Are you looking for your lost friends to give you advice about spiritual matters? One of the dumbest things I've ever seen people do is they get saved by the grace of God and then they ask lost people advice about what they should do. That's about the dumbest thing in the world you could do. Why would that be? So you're gonna ask somebody without the spirit of God what they think you should do spiritually. And you think you're gonna get a good answer? It's crazy. It's not even logical. Of course they're gonna hate any spiritual decision you make. Of course they're not gonna, they can't comprehend and understand what you're saying. These things are spiritually discerned. They're not gonna understand walking in the spirit and living for God. How could they? They don't have the Holy Ghost. Hey, Ben. Come on, this is simple stuff, friend. So you wonder why your mom and dad or somebody else don't like what you're doing. I didn't like what you were doing either before I got saved. I thought Christians were a bunch of kooks and weirdos before I got saved. And I went to a Christian school and I was like, man, them cats are weird. Here's some weird people. When I grew up and I was living in the world and doing drugs and running around and living fornicating, I looked at them like, man, they're kind of weird. I mean, I said, I'm never going to marry my wife. I'm not going to marry one of them girls. I said that. That didn't last too long. But I said it. Amen, I did, I said it. Why? I didn't have the Holy Ghost. I wasn't saved. Simple stuff, friend. 1 John 5, 6. You thinking people are gonna be able to, gonna accept what you're doing, walking with God? You live in an antichrist world and you want the world to accept it. You gotta be crazy to believe that. By the way, you gotta be crazy to care. I don't even care. I've been saved for 22 years. I don't even care if they like what I do. In fact, it makes me feel pretty good that they don't like what I do. Like the longer I live for God, the more I'm glad they don't like what I do. I'm like, you're a bunch of weirdos. You run around, you don't know what a boy and a girl is? You run around and look like you went headfirst into a tackle box? You shaving off your hair, you ain't got no hair, and you're a girl, and a boy's growing his hair out long? Look like a bunch of weirdos? Right? Calling people cisgender, whatever in the world that means, right? Saying there's more than two genders? Just go get a DNA test and figure out if there's more than two genders. Try to do that. Try to chase your lineage back without a father. Why? Because the seed is traced through the DNA of a man. That's how it works. Amen. That's it. That's how it works. Yeah, you can trace your mother's lineage. You ain't going to find out about you though. You won't find out about you. You got to trace your father's. That's what you have to find out, because it's through the father. Wait, you mean that's like the seed of the woman? Yeah, yeah. That Bible makes more and more sense, doesn't it? As time goes by, this makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Why don't you believe God? God said all this stuff all years ago, thousands of years ago, and these scientists ain't even caught up yet. And you're bowing down, worshiping, licking the boots of these stupid scientists. They're real smart. Lick their boots. They're so dumb, they don't even believe God created the heaven and the earth. Bunch of morons. They don't have any intelligence. Oh, they know facts. Yeah, wrong ones. Yeah, wrong ones. They got a lot of wrong facts. They don't have very many right ones. Why? Because God gives them over to their foolishness. You better start believing your Bible instead of believing a bunch of nuts. They'll have you believe in you came from a monkey. And you'll have me believe in you did too if you can keep believing them. I'm just kidding. I might think you've got the mind of a baboon sometimes, but I won't say you came from a monkey. This is he that came by water. and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the spirit that beareth witness because the spirit is truth. So let me ask you a question. Are you like Pilate? You like Pilate? I'm just looking for truth. Well, truth was right in Pilate's face. And he was so proud and arrogant, and he was so foolish, that he rejected truth right in his face. And if you look down into the pages of this book, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, and you look down at this book, and you don't see the truth that is right before your eyes, you're in a lot of trouble. Because he said he's the spirit of truth. All truth comes from here. If it ain't in here, I don't believe it. I'm going to say it again to you. If it ain't in here, I don't believe it. I don't care how many people have how many degrees, and I don't care how many facts they try to throw at me. I laugh at them because they're fools, because they reject the God of the Bible, and you're a fool if you believe them. Amen. You want truth, it's right there. The spirit of truth is right there. You ask God to give you truth, and He'll guide you into truth. He'll show you every bit of truth you need. All of it. Because He's the spirit of truth. Amen. Got to think about those things, friend. By the way, when the Holy Ghost seals you, He gives you access to the Father. Ephesians 2.18. You know, God's people ought to be able to explain these things to lost people or people that have questions about it. You ought to be able to teach your children. You ought to know something about the Holy Spirit of God. You ought to learn. You ought to grow. I know there's a time for everyone to grow and to learn, but you ought to have a desire to learn about the Spirit of God, the person of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 2.18. By the way, instead of studying everything else outside in this world and chasing rabbits down and everything else, why don't you get into God's Word and learn of God? Why don't you learn of the Lord? Why don't you sit at the feet of Jesus and learn and grow? So many people wanna go look at everything else and they're looking at everything else, they're looking at all the darkness of the world, they're looking at all those things. They don't look in the light that's right there in front of them. So that's why everything they talk about is darkness all the time. By the way, if it's depression, anxiety, if it's any of those things, you wanna make it greater, keep looking at darkness. You just make it worse. You'll make it worse. If you don't feed on the light, if you don't get the light of God's word in you, if you don't let the light of God shine in you and shine in your heart and shine in your life and in your countenance and you don't put more in, it's gonna get darker. Oh, it'll continue to get darker. It'll get darker and darker and darker and darker. You need the light of the Lord, but your flesh doesn't like that. So you want to fight that. There's a fight there with that. Why? Because the light reveals. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. You've got to bring your old filthy rotten deeds to the Lord and repent. So when that light shines on it, you feel rotten. And you think that's bad that you feel rotten. And I think it's bad that you feel good being in the world and following darkness. I think it's bad that you think it's good to follow that darkness. I think it's good when God takes the light, shines it upon you, and breaks you down and shows you your wickedness before Him. That's a good thing. You need it. You need that light to shine in the darkness. Amen. We all do. We need rebuked from the Lord. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Amen. We have that access. By the way, that ceiling affirms that we are the children of God. Romans 8, 15 through 16. We're not going to get to the filling of the spirit. We'll get to that on Sunday. That's okay, though. We're just going to talk about the ceiling. Overachiever, so. But that's okay, I like to stop and park on some of those things and preach on them. He says in Romans 8, verse 13, For if you live after the flesh, you shall die, but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Are you led by the Spirit of God? Good question. If you are, you're led by his word. Because that's how the spirit of God leads, is through his word and his will. His word and his will never contradict each other. Because these words, they are spirit and they are life. That's what they are. So they never contradict. If God's will for your life, if something is God's will for your life, it will match up with this book. Amen. It will not be contrary to it. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. That's the lost, right? They received the spirit of bondage again to fear. Bondage to sin. Bondage to the flesh. Bondage to the God of this world. They're in bondage to sin. That's why when Paul looked at, or I think it was Peter, Peter looked at Simon the sorcerer, he said, thou art in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. He wasn't saved. He's in the bond of iniquity, he was a false convert. He said he wanted to buy the Holy Ghost so he could do some parlor tricks, like some cheap witch. That's what he was, that's what he did. Why? Because he wasn't a Christian. So he was in bondage. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. That spirit of adoption, what does that mean? It means you know who your daddy is. Amen. I know, bastard, I know who my father is. Is that too straight a speech for you? I don't care. Lump it. I don't care. You don't have to lump it. You can like it, you can do whatever you want with it. The Bible's clear about it. I ain't no bastard. I have a father. I know how to use words biblical. I know how to use them the way that God wrote them in his book. And that's perfectly biblical. But I think there's a lot of spiritual bastards out there. They don't know who their father is. Amen. They don't know who their father is. But you know what? It says here that he puts the spirit in our hearts. The spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba Father. What does that mean? Well, you know you were adopted in the family of God and who your father is. So when you're in trouble, what do you do? Well, you call out to him. You pray to him. You ask him to help you. You cry out and ask God for help. You don't go run to the beer bottle. You don't go run to the drugs. You don't go run to the whorehouse. You don't go run to the world. You run to your father. That's where you go. And you ask your heavenly father. Why? Because you've received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Amen. Where do you go when you're in trouble? Do you have the spirit of adoption in you? Do you cry out to God when trouble comes? When you're in need? Do you talk to your heavenly father? The spirit of God, if he's in you, he leads you to do that. I will tell you, literally, the moment that darkness came on me and depression and PTSD and those things when they came on me, the moment that came on to me, I reached for him. I was weak. I was hurting for a long time. I was in a lot of pain, a lot of fear, but I knew who my father was, not because I was a good Christian, but because he's a good savior. And he put his spirit inside of me and he sealed me under the day of redemption. And he said, I'm going to teach you that in darkness, I'm still with you. No matter what you go through, I'm there. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. But Lord, it feels so dark. Yep. But he's still there. The whole time, why? Because he put his spirit inside of me. That's the spirit of adoption. Knowing who your father is. That's what that means. It means that you know who your Father is. That's why you cry, Abba Father, because He's there. Even if you feel like He's a million miles away, He's still your Father. And He's not because the Spirit of God is still there. Amen. This doctrine's important, man. It's so important. It's so important that you get this. I better stop, it's getting late. But how long we been going, Andrew? About three hours? About an hour? I'll probably stop and pick it up. I'm almost finished, but maybe we'll stop. I'm sure it's close to an hour. That's it? All right. All right. You're looking kind of tired, Andrew. I better stop. I better have mercy, right? But we'll pick it up again on Sunday. That's the best part about it. We just keep going, right? Amen? Let's pick it back up. We got two messages on Sunday. So we'll talk about it again Sunday. And I'm sure it'll take me. a while to get through it, and that's okay. But I want you to understand the importance of these things. I want you to understand the importance of having a relationship with the Holy Spirit of God, that you understand how He works. That builds your assurance, by the way. When you understand how God works, if you'll study His scriptures, then you'll stop believing your feelings and you'll start believing God. That's just how you'll believe God, you'll trust Him. You have to learn to trust Him, though. So you have to go through things to try your faith. So you learn to trust Him. Because you don't automatically trust God. You automatically doubt God. That's just, you automatically do. You have to learn to trust God. You just have to, because you're, by nature you will doubt Him. That's human nature. Right? So we have to have our faith exercised so we learn to trust Him. So we're always in a pattern of trusting God. You grow in that, right, to learn to trust Him through trials. And then when big ones come, or those medium ones come, or those different ones come your way, you've already been trusting God, and you grow stronger through them. Because that's God's will for you, but you need to understand that great truth of the Spirit of God and His sealing. We'll get to more of that on Sunday. Father, Lord, thank you. Thank you for your words. They're so powerful. They're comforting to the soul. Lord, we're not worthy, but you are. And Lord, I thank you for the spirit of God who guides us into the word and guides us into all truth and teaches us and shows us because you're the spirit of truth. And Father, please help us not to quench the spirit, help us not to grieve the spirit, but help us to trust you, Lord. Thank you, Father, for all you do. Please keep our people safe. Bring us back safely to preach on Saturday and on Sunday to be in the house of God together. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.