All right, take your Bible, please, and open up to the book of Acts. So we're working on our study in reference to the Holy Spirit. Acts in chapter 16. Acts in chapter 16. And let's start at, let's start at verse one. Paul's in the midst of his journeys. This is his second missionary journey. It says, then came he to Derbe and Lystra, and behold, a certain disciple was there named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed, but his father was a Greek. which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth with him, and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters, for they knew all that his father was a Greek. And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep. that were ordained to the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. And so were the churches established in the faith and increased in number daily." Well, that's a good report. Excuse me. Chapter 15 was the big council and everything, and they had kind of finalized some simple things, which was a very important council dealing with the nature of salvation. And it wasn't linked to the law. And, anyway, so he's begun his journey now, and when it talks about him being in Derby and Lystra Iconium, he's still an Asia Minor. And they get over to the coast, basically. Verse 6, now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, That's an amazing sort of statement. Here they want to preach the gospel, and God, who is the author of the gospel, says, No. I don't want you to do that. Verse 7, After they were come to Messiah, they assayed to go into Bithynia, but The Spirit suffered them not. Once again, not allowed to go. And they, passing by Mysia, came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us. And after he had seen the vision immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia Assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them And that's a very significant event because they're gonna cross the isthmus And they're gonna move from Asia to Europe And we were talking about this Monday night in our New Testament survey class, how, you know, the Lord's working broadly in countries and, you know, globally, and He's accomplishing His purposes. And it's just significant little things that He does and how He leads to accomplish what He knows needs to be done. And the Macedonian call is one of those very pivotal points. What I want us to look at, though, is verse 7. Well, we could put it together, 6 and 7, where it says, and we're forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. After they were come to Messiah, they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not. Father, would you help us tonight as we come to your word? Give me clear thought and clear speech. Help us, Father, as we're trying to either remind ourselves of the actions of your Spirit Maybe learn some new things. Father, certainly we want to know what to do with the truth you've given to us. And so would you help us, please? I do pray for Rachel and just for the needs in her situation. You know exactly what's necessary. And it can be quite discouraging when it seems like that which you hope for does not come to pass. Help her to not become discouraged, but to look to you. Would you use this? To even further your glory through her helper I pray I do pray for Sharon's unspoken and the others who have an unspoken need you know exactly what those are and so we pray and ask that you might guide and direct and Give wisdom and courage and faith in whatever it is that they may be facing. Help us now tonight, I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Last time as we were in this study about the Holy Spirit, we were looking at Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit. And that's a very prominent event that takes place. And I had said, of course, it's almost 7.30, so if I'm on time, we're done at 8 o'clock, so that's 30 minutes. You cannot exhaust a doctrine and all what the Word says about a subject in 30 minutes. And I certainly don't want anybody left with the impression that Huh, the Holy Spirit's come, He's not coming again, this is as good as it gets. We do need the Holy Spirit to help us, do we not? Yeah. So, I'm saying that because At the end, last time, that wasn't a period, it was more like a colon or a comma. There's more to come, okay? More about the Holy Spirit. And we're here in Acts because it's obvious the Holy Spirit is directly directing them. Isn't he? They want to do something and it seems proper and it seems scriptural and God-honoring. They want to go and preach the gospel and yet the spirit is not allowing. Now I have this question rolling around in my head. What does that mean? Suffereth not I mean, I think I can define the terms But I'm trying to question in my own mind. So Did Paul hear an audible voice? That said no That's potential we're gonna look at some other scriptures here in just a moment Did the Spirit not allow them to go by causing Paul to get motion sickness. So he's laid up for a while. Or they couldn't, you know, they couldn't get bus tickets. Obviously they weren't getting bus tickets, but you get the idea. What was it the Spirit did or said? We know the end result was He was directing and shut that down. He shut it down. And so they were like, well, okay, that door seems shut, so let's go this way. And then the spirit wouldn't let that go either. Nope. Not just no to Asia, no to Bithynia. And so now they're like, well, now we don't quite know what, I don't know where to go next. That's kind of like Brother Miller. It seems like things have shut down in Puerto Limon. And like any door there is closed and the Lord's done with them there. And now they're wondering what is the next step? What is the next step? We don't really know what it is. We just know this is the step for the moment. And sometimes the Lord works in these mysterious ways. Sunday morning, we were in Romans 12 and verse 2 about knowing, right? Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye might know what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Hmm. I think Paul wants to know the will of God. He wants to know what is the good, acceptable, perfect will of God in the now. Not in the general or in the long term. He needs to know what's the next step. Are we supposed to just pack our bags and go back to Jerusalem? Are we done now? Or what do we do? He wants to know the will of God. And just quickly reminding us there's the prerequisite of not conforming but rather being transformed. As I said Sunday, if I'm conforming to the world I'm not going to know the will of God because I'm more concerned about conforming to something else or someone else's will than the Lord's. So I'll become distracted or blinded. I need to be changed. That's the renewing, that's the process. I need the spirit and the word to be changing my mind and my thinking so I have proper thought and understanding. And that when God makes his will known, It'll be good acceptable and perfect. I was talking about the Brady was probably Friday night after everybody left and I probably talked his ear off too long. You know we're talking about I was asking him about how it was that he knew it was God's will for him to leave the pastorate and enter into the current ministry that he's in. You know what what what what was it. And it was a long conversation so I can't remember all the details. But he did say the Lord confirmed that he knew this is exactly where he's supposed to be. And do we not all want that kind of confirmation in clarity? Yeah, we do. So this idea of Sensing the Spirit, however we may want to describe that, we're talking about, for instance, John 10.27, Jesus says, My sheep hear My voice and know Me. So what we're talking about is an increased sensitivity to the voice of the Holy Spirit. So we know, we know. Now we, so in our Wednesday night study we had previously talked about this powerful illustration of the Spirit's purpose, okay. And you know, they were to wait for the promise of the Father and you know, ye shall be filled with power and you'll be witnesses, right? So the power of God there was about being His witness I need to know and I presume you want to know what is the will of God in the now? right now. So I'm not looking for Pentecost to repeat, but I am looking for the same kind of powerful direction from the Holy Spirit. It may or may not be manifested by some kind of outward thing. That's up to Him to do that. But I do want to know He's leading me and sense His voice, hear His voice, However we want to describe that, I want to know His leading so I can do the right thing. So take your Bible and let's go back a couple chapters. Go to chapter eight. And I want you to see kind of a continued, a directed revelation from the Holy Spirit. Now, we have something, we have something that the disciples and the apostles that we read about, we have something they did not have. That's right, Sandy's right. We have the Word of God. We have the complete revelation. They didn't have that yet. But the fact that I have it, I don't want to dismiss the Holy Spirit Okay, so obviously God's revelation, either in a personal sense for me and my situation, or you in your situation, coupled with the revelation we all have, the written revelation, those two directions should kind of match, shouldn't they? The Holy Spirit's not gonna lead us contrary to the revealed Word of God. They will work in consort together, okay? But it is interesting to see how this progresses, right? So in Acts, excuse me, chapter eight, okay, and this is, look at, I'm gonna go to verse 26. And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. Now, Philip was just in Samaria, and there was this great revival breakout, and so now the Lord directs him away from the great of this phenomenal Revival, that's my term. That's probably not the right term because they weren't saved, so they can't be revived. They weren't even vibed. Okay, that's bad grammar, but you get the idea. They had to be made alive first. You can't have a revival if you've not been saved in the first place. You don't need revival. You need redemption, okay? So let's call it a big redemption breakout took place in Samaria. And while that's phenomenal and great things are happening there, people are getting saved and so on, the Lord directs the preacher away from there very clearly. The angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise and go to this place. Go to a desert place. Go where nobody's at. That seems kind of odd. and while maybe nobody's dwelling there permanently, somebody is traversing through the area. Verse 27, and he arose and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, and eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship. So he's Ethiopian by his ethnicity, et cetera, But he's a proselyte of Judaism. He's a believer in Jehovah. That's why he's in Jerusalem for to worship. He's doing the best he can to follow the revelation that he has, which leads him in the right direction. But it's not enough, is it? There's a little more that's needed. And we know the story, don't we? Now I'm bringing you here to notice what it, you know, what's said. Okay, verse 28. So he's returning, and sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah to the prophet. So he's reading Isaiah. And he's a little confused. He says in 31, how can I, except some man should guide me? Who? Verse 34, and the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee of whom speaketh the prophet, this of himself or some other man." Have you ever read Isaiah and went, okay, what did he just say? What am I supposed to do with that? Okay, so I mean, here we are, we're people who already saved, have the indwelling Holy Spirit, and we're reading Isaiah and going, what was that? So I'm not surprised the Ethiopian eunuchs having problems. Okay, I have problems sometimes when I read Isaiah. So, okay, we need the Lord to help us. But notice verse 29, okay? So we read about, he's in his chariot, he's reading. Now we can't answer this question, but the question that arises in my mind is did he hear this voice audibly? Did he hear it? Was it subjective? Sort of like a thought floated across his head? You should go talk to that guy. How did that work? I don't know because the Bible doesn't tell us whether it was audible or just some sort of subliminal sort of suggestion. It's just the revelation says The Spirit said unto Philip, however he said it, Philip knew the Spirit was leading him. However, however that happened. And that interests me because I want that kind of clear direction. Don't you? Well, he's like, yep, the Holy Spirit told me, go over here. Okay, so I'm not wondering, I'm not scratching my head, I'm not, you know, making out a pro-con list and I'm comparing them and I'm gonna balance it out and say, well, logically, it should go this direction because logically, Paul should have gone to Bithynia. But the Spirit said, no. He should have gone to Messiah, and the Spirit said, no. It's like, well, the list of pros and cons didn't make sense. So there's something about the Spirit directing, isn't there? And in this incident, at least, it's very clear. There's great clarity. All right, go to the next one. So Philip gets some very specific guidelines. Go to chapter 10. Okay, chapter 10, starting at verse 9. And here's the wonderful story about Peter and Cornelius. So Cornelius, he's a centurion, he's a Roman soldier, he's like a colonel. A centurion is a man who led a hundred. That's where the title comes from. You didn't get to be a centurion. Part of being a centurion is you didn't stay in the back directing your men where to go. You were the point man for your men into battle. That's just kind of how the Romans did it. So, to be a centurion was a very prestigious position, spoke of this man's courage, his honor, his abilities, etc. But Cornelius is special because he's also very sensitive to the Spirit and to the things of God. He's what theologians call a God-fearer. Verse two, this is a devout man and one that feared God with all his house. All right, so we know the story. He gets this vision, go send for Peter. That in itself is amazing that God can reveal himself to the unsaved very clearly. Okay. But we want to focus on Peter. So, verse 9. This is Cornelius' envoy that he's sent to get Peter. It says Peter's on the housetop, he's having prayer time, okay? It says about the sixth hour, that's like noon, okay? So the sixth hour of the day, the day technically began at 6 a.m., so it's lunchtime. And he's on the rooftop, having prayer, maybe doing late morning devotions, waiting for lunch, he's hungry. We know he's hungry because he falls asleep and he starts dreaming. He dreams about food. Okay. Verse 10. I'm just putting my own spin on it. And he became very hungry and would have eaten, but while they made ready, he fell into a trance. and saw heaven opened and a certain vessel descending unto him as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners and let down to the earth wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things and fowls of the air and there came a voice to him rise Peter kill and eat This whole dream is a bit distressing to him because that would be a great violation of dietary restrictions for a Jewish man But the voice speaks to him again in verse 15 because he's like in his trance He's like I can't do that. I can't do that seven three times okay, and He kind of comes to himself and They show up at the door. They're knocking. They're asking for Simon Peter. Look at verse 19. Notice the phrase. He's not in a trance now. If this was in a trance, it'd be like he heard something as he's dreaming. Have you ever woken from a dream that was so real? It was like it was real. You felt it. You know, you wake up and you got sore muscles because in the dream you were running or you were doing something or, you know, whatever was going on. It was like, it was so real. It was like you were actually there. Okay. So in dreams you can hear God speak or whatever, and it's like real, in a dream. But this verse, he's not in a dream. He's no longer in the trance. And the spirit said unto him. So he's not dreaming this. This is not some sort of dream impression. Again, the question comes to me, is this audible, subliminal, logical? How did the Spirit say it? And again, we're not told, are we? It doesn't say, and he heard a voice from heaven, like when Jesus was baptized. It says, a voice came from heaven, that was audible. We're not told that here. We presume it's not audible, but that's an argument from silence, so that's not really a very strong argument. But however it was, Peter clearly understood the Holy Spirit was speaking to him. Hmm. Interesting. Now, what's significant about this event, of course, he goes, we know what happens. They hear the gospel. They get saved. They speak in tongues. We talked about that last time. But go, if you would, please, to Chapter 11. After all of this event takes place, everybody back in Jerusalem hears about this. And this is like one of those shocked moments where people go, uh-oh, and they cover their mouth, and they're like, oh, what happened there? Because Peter is a Jew, and he's gone to a Roman soldier's house. Not only did the Jews generally hate the Romans, but religiously, that was like a huge violation to be in the house of a non-Jew. That was like the epitome of uncleanness. So there's great shock. And they're like, how could you? And so in chapter 11, Peter's called to account. What were you doing? How dare you go into a Gentile's house? And he has to give an account. I'm not exactly sure how much time has taken place. It's not like he went from Antioch to Jerusalem. It wasn't like a 10-minute drive down the road. There was gonna be enough time spent that the news of the events had to leave Cornelius' house, make it all the way to Jerusalem. They're shocked. What should we do? Well, let's find out. And news has to go back to Peter. Peter, what are you doing? You better come and answer for this. And Peter then is like, well, I better take a trip down to Jerusalem. Okay, so there's a lot of back and forth going on. A couple of days at the least. Now, if something happens to you that's quite amazing, and at the time that it happens, it's like fresh as crystal clear. But a few days later, after you've calmed down, and your emotions are not at their peak, and you've been able to sleep on it and think on it, it's like, hmm. And you kind of reevaluate it, right? So if Peter, in the shock of the dream, in the trance, is like, wow, this is all happening so fast, this is amazing, but now, it's a couple days later, and he's like, hmm, what in the world was I thinking? Except listen to what Peter says. Verse 28. Excuse me, verse 12, that's where I want you to see. So Peter's giving he's giving answers to what's happened and The spirit bade me go with them nothing Doubting you notice he's just as clear After the event as he was in the midst of the event He's just as clear There's continued perception of of the Lord's direction. It hasn't gotten fuzzy. He hasn't re-evaluated and said, oh, hmm, maybe I should have done this or that, or I'm sorry, I really flubbed it. You know, everything just kind of got the best of me in the moment. But that's not what he's saying. Now we're hearing that all the time from politicians. They say something stupid and somebody points out it was stupid and all of a sudden there's like these apology letters and all of this hoopla. It's like, if you said it and you meant it, why can't you just own up and say, yeah, I said it, I meant it. So it makes you kind of suspicious of their words and why they say what they say sometimes. Peter's not having any of that. God told me to do that. Continued clarity. I want that kind of clarity. I want to know when the Lord says, go this way, that three days later, three weeks later, three years later, whatever the case may be, I'm not thinking, you know, I don't think I had that right. I probably messed that up. I sure wish I would have done this and not that. If you're waffling, that's not a good place to be, is it? That's a place of instability. And we begin to doubt ourselves, doubt the Lord, doubt his word. Doubting is not good. Would you agree? Yeah, doubting's not good. All right, look at verse 28. another event. And there arose up, so they're in Antioch, okay, and word comes, not via a telegram or a letter, but from the Holy Spirit. And there stood up one of them named Agabus, signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world, which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. And this is when you know, Paul goes there, this is when James is killed, Peter's imprisoned, and the prayer meeting's taking place in John Mark's mother's house, and Rhoda's the little girl that answers the door, and Peter, that's the event, and Paul is there for that prayer meeting, because he's gone there to bring relief for those who are gonna be in this famine. But the point is, The Lord is still giving clear direction. And in this case, it's not really about preaching the gospel, is it? This is clearly about caring for his people. And he's giving direction. Once more, go to chapter 13. And this is familiar. I got four minutes, I gotta move it up here. And in the beginning of chapter 13, let's just look at verse 2. It says, "...as they ministered to the Lord and fasted." So it's a prayer meeting, okay? They're fasting and praying. The Holy Ghost. What's the next word? Said. Here it is again. The Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit said. Okay, was it audible? Was it subliminal? Was it logical? We're not told, are we? But there's enough that, in essence, the leadership of this church, they're unified of what God's will is that they're to do corporately as a congregation. They're to send out Paul and Barnabas. It's clear, very clear. Notice it says, verse 3, and when... What's the next word? They had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them. They sent them away. So God didn't speak to the pastor of the church. He spoke to, the way I read this, is he spoke to the congregation. And the congregation heard, in whatever fashion that was, heard the Holy Ghost speak to them. Wow, that's pretty amazing, isn't it? Directed revelation. Do we want that kind of direction? Yeah, I would hope so. Let me close. Obviously, I'm not gonna finish this tonight. So go to Ephesians chapter four. There's an amazing truth. In Ephesians 4 in verse 30, it says, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. This whole next chunk of the study is called graceful durability. graceful durability. And next time, we'll come back and get a little more lead-in from the Old Testament. But I want to read for you a quote from Herbert Lockyer's book all about the Holy Spirit. He says, by grieving Him, we do not lose the seal nor drive the Holy Spirit out of our hearts, which, of course, is impossible. Amen? That's wonderful that the Holy When we grieve the Spirit, we lose the joy, power, and assurance of the saved state. As sinners, we grieve Christ. As saved sinners, we grieve the Spirit. And what is grievous to Him is likewise grievous to the Father and the Son. So here's the point I want to leave you. As we just looked at these four, no, actually five illustrations of the Holy Spirit post-Pentecost. This is after Pentecost, okay? So last time we studied, we said the Holy Spirit, we're not looking for another Pentecost. He's here. I don't have to somehow work up some phenomenal thing so I can have the Holy Spirit. If I'm saved, I have the Holy Spirit. But these five events we just looked at were all after that event. And if the Holy Spirit was as clear and direct in those cases, can he not be as clear and direct in mine? And what's so, why I call this next section Graceful Durability, is that he's so gracious when I flub it, he doesn't leave me. There's no threat of losing the Holy Spirit. My ears might get dull, My will might be resistive to what he's telling me. But I can have clarity in his direction. If I want it. And that really is the key. Do I want it? Or do I just want to do my own thing and feel good about it? Sadly that's probably more than likely what happens most of the time. And I hate to admit that but I'm I have a sinful nature like anybody else does. But I want that kind of clarity. I do, I want that kind of clarity. And so we're kind of working our way through this to find out, how do I get that if I don't have that? That's important. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day and your love for us, and I pray now you might help us. Even as we reviewed these passages, it might sort of rise within us a desire for that kind of clear direction from you. Would you help us, please? Bless, I pray. Give safety as we go our separate ways. Bring us back again on Sunday as we gather worship and celebrate together and come to the Word, I pray you might work. Bless in Jesus' name.