We used to sing that growing up at the country church we grew up in. We used to sing that all the time, so thank you for that. All right, let's prepare ourselves for the teaching of God's word. Utilizing 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It's important that we own up the wrongdoing. so that we can recover the filling ministry of the Holy Spirit, and then the Spirit of God can teach us the Word of God. Father, we come before you, Lord. We give you great thanks and praise for everything you provide. We thank you, Lord, for your sovereignty. We thank you for your omniscience, your omnipotence, omnipresence, righteousness, justice, veracity. We thank you, Lord, for your love and mercy and grace. We thank you, Lord, for truth. We thank you for the scripture, which reflects your character. We pray, Father, that the word of God might go forth with clarity, accuracy, and power. I pray that you might impart blessings to the soul of the believers here as they appropriate your truth by faith. Help us in this day and age to continue to live by faith and walk by faith instead of sight. And we know that the world is not our friend. We know that in the world we shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. We thank you for that, Father. Help us to understand the scripture in a clear light this morning. Open our eyes that we might behold wonderful things out of the word of God. And we ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. Let's open the Bibles to the Gospel of John. I've been expounding on John chapter 7, 39 and following. So let's turn there. John 7, let's go back here to verse 37. This section here from verse 37 through 39 indicates the future ministry from this perspective of the Holy Spirit. On that last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Now this last verse in 39 indicates that there's a future ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was not yet given in the sense that his advent had not come. And so this does not mean that the Holy Spirit's ministry was absent before this period of time. Obviously, the Spirit empowered Christ. Obviously, the Spirit came upon him in the form of a dove, remember? And obviously, in the Old Testament, the Spirit came upon selected individuals. But the Spirit of God would come in his fullness on the day of Pentecost. And there would be many more ministries that the Holy Spirit would do at the day of Pentecost. So the advent of the Holy Spirit had not yet arrived. But when the Holy Spirit would arrive at Pentecost, he would indwell every single believer. And so I really think we have several doctrines related to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, certainly the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit, as well as the filling ministry of the Holy Spirit. I think it's implied by saying out of his, verse 38, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water and think that refers to the effective ministry of the Holy Spirit through the believer. So here, the Spirit of God would come upon those who would believe. So those who believe would receive the Spirit, showing that the condition for receiving the Spirit is faith. Faith. It's interesting, John anticipated the sole condition for the Spirit coming to indwell. Those believing in him would receive. And certainly, we know that Christ is received by faith. In John chapter 1, verses 11 and 12, he came to his own and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name. Receiving Christ is simply believing, believing. So those believing in his name would receive the Holy Spirit. He would be given at the moment of saving faith. Now there is a transitional period in the Book of Acts. There's a delay in the advent of the Spirit. They would tarry until they were endued with power on high. That was a unique historical condition in Acts 1. The disciples remained in the upper room until the day of Pentecost arrived. And once he arrived, though, he would come in his fullness. But there would be a transitional period from Acts 2 until the time of Cornelius. And then at that point, when the gospel went out to the Gentiles, the Spirit of God would come immediately upon believing the gospel. And there was a historic reason for the delay of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God, first of all, had to arrive from heaven vertically on the day of Pentecost and then horizontally out to various people groups until finally the Spirit's ministry as defined in the books of Paul's epistles and so forth would come upon every believer at the point of faith in Christ. There would be no delay of the Spirit's ministry. Now, the Spirit was not yet given in the sense that at Pentecost he would come in his advent, just like Christ came. Christ pre-existed his birth, okay? Christ pre-existed his birth. We can see types of Christ in the Old Testament, even appearances in theophanies. But his advent occurred when he took on human flesh. So we talk about the advent of the Holy Spirit, or advent of Jesus, we need to look at Acts chapter two, Pentecost, the advent or arrival of the Holy Spirit. And by the way, once the spirit of God's ministry is complete in the church, we're raptured. And that doesn't mean that people cannot be saved in the tribulation because the omnipresent ministry will kick in after his advent is complete, just like when Christ ascended back to heaven. He still continues to minister as our great high priest, but he's not physically here on earth. So when we think in terms of like Christ, in terms of the Holy Spirit, he ministers in his fullness during the church age. And then the rapture, he is going back, he goes back to heaven, but his omnipresent ministry continues here on earth through that seven year tribulation period. Now, Jesus was not yet glorified at this point. As we saw last week, he prayed in his high priestly prayer that glorify me, Father, with the glory I had with you before the world began." So he's praying for that glory that he would receive once he arrived back in heaven. So after he arrived in heaven, he promised that he would send the Spirit of God. And Peter acknowledged that in Acts chapter 2. He acknowledged that Christ is alive because he promised to send the Spirit, and we have the evidence of that here. And so the evidence of the ministry of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost is proof that Christ is alive, that Christ is in heaven, as he promised. He fulfilled his word. So when we look at the ministry before Pentecost, we have it described in terms of he was not yet. So John 739 indicates a contrast. We could call this even a dispensational distinction between the pre-Pentecost ministry of the Holy Spirit and the post-Pentecost ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was not yet. This is why biblical distinction is not simply in the area of prophecy. It's in a lot of different areas in the Bible. There are distinctions in the ministry of the Holy Spirit, ministries of angels, ministry in relationship to man, and so forth. There are dispensational distinctions. We need to contrast how God uniquely a minister of his affairs before Pentecost and how he ministers his affairs today. And therefore, there's this distinction set with the ministry of the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost, a spirit came, just like Christ's advent. He took on human flesh at a certain point in time. Pentecost was the arrival of the Holy Spirit. He arrived and took up residence in born-again believers in the church. So we could say once a spirit arrived, he is. Remember, we looked at last week, Acts 19.2, these boondock disciples, as I call them, these disciples that were not aware of Pentecost ministry, and they only understood John's baptism. They were waiting for the Messiah, but they were ignorant of the ministry of the Holy Spirit after Christ died and went back to heaven. And the question is did you receive the spirit when you believed? Well, we haven't heard that the holy spirit is We could say we we're not aware that the holy spirit has arrived We're not aware that he arrived as You know certainly was promised. So after the pentecost the holy spirit is He's now resident ministering in the church So there's certainly that distinction before pentecost at pentecost the spirit came and now After Pentecost, he has arrived. The Holy Spirit is. Now, we begin to look at the transitional period in the book of Acts. We have initially the advent of the Spirit. The Spirit of God came on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. And then the ministry of the Holy Spirit went out horizontally to the samaritans let's take a look at that account in acts chapter eight acts chapter eight verse twelve and we'll take a look here at uh... verse thirteen twelve and thirteen seventeen uh... But they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ. Both men and women were baptized. Simon himself also believed. And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip. And he was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done." Later on, we have here in verse 17, let's take a look at, let's go back here Let's read verse 14 first and then we'll follow down through that section here in verse 17. Now, when the apostle who were at Jerusalem heard that the Samaritans had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they came down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. Now, let's pause right there. We do not pray for the Holy Spirit today. This is unique historically. If you compare other times, when the Spirit of God ministers, we don't have the condition of prayer. This is where the Charismatics, not understanding the historical transition in the Book of Acts, try to make these conditions now for receiving the Spirit. We've got to pray for the Spirit. No. Now, once these transitional situations are done with, we have the permanent ministry of the Holy Spirit, as defined by the Apostle Paul and others. But this was historical. And there's a reason for this. Look at verse 16. For as yet he had fallen upon none of them, they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And so here they're baptized by water, but yet the Spirit of God has not come upon that group of individuals. Look at verse 17. Then when they laid hands on them, they received the Holy Spirit. Charismatics try to make that another condition. You've got to pray for the spirit and then lay hands on people to receive the spirit. And usually it's through speaking of tongues or some ecstatic utterance or some other kind of phenomena. But there was a historic reason for that occurrence. What was that reason? Why did they wait for the apostles to lay hands on them so that they might receive the spirit? God wanted that Samaritan church. Keep in mind the nature of the Samaritans. They were the outcasts. Jesus ministered to a Samaritan woman, half Jewish and Gentile. They were individuals who were on the outside, so to speak. And therefore, God did not want something to continue like what is done in the past. They had their own set of scripture that they observed, their own ritual, apart from the Mosaic law. God did not want two separate churches, a split-off organization to start, them doing their own thing continually, and the Jerusalem Church doing their thing. God wanted a united body, both believers who are Jews and Gentiles in one body in Christ. So the apostles identified with them. He said, you're part of the same body of Christ that we are. Laying on a hand speaks of identification. You remember in the Old Testament, the priest laid the hands on the scapegoat. I always kind of said that scapegoat didn't go, wow, I got the glory. No. No, that scapegoat means our sins are identified with the scapegoat, and he would go out into the wilderness, and certainly our sins would be like that. They would be removed. And so the idea of identification, laying on of hands. Here it is. They laid their hands on him. So the apostles are the authoritative leaders in the church. And they wanted them to be part of the same body that they belong to. And I think that's the reason for the delay. That's the reason so that the Samaritans would become part of this larger group. They would be identified with the Jerusalem church. They would be identified with the body of Christ. So do not take that unique historical occurrence and make it normative. Again, this is a transitional period in the Book of Acts. So we have the ministry of the Spirit now going from Jerusalem, remember the outline of Acts, it's going from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria, Samaritans, and then the uttermost parts of the world, it went to Cornelius, and therefore the ministry continued in Acts chapter 10, and let's take a look at chapter 10 I Think the verses are wrong. There's not two three. Let's take a look at Acts chapter 10 the ministry of Cornelius And we had the vision of Peter he sent down to Caesarea and He ministers those individuals and while they're speaking they believed they believe the gospel and earlier on in that chapter ten uh... let's take a look at uh... verse seventeen i see peter meets cornelius here what passage am i looking for here someone help me out looking in my bible here early on peter meets And he preaches the gospel, and the spirit comes when they believe. Spirit comes upon them when they believe. So is that 10 verse 10? Chapter 10. Chapter 10, OK. Yeah, there it is. So then he became very hungry. He didn't want to eat. They went down. When they were made ready, he fell into a trance, and he saw that vision. Then he goes into the Samaritans. see later down the chapter here. What's that? Thank you very much. Verse 24. The following day they had entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them. We had called together his relatives and close friends. Peter was coming. Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. Peter lifted him up saying, stand up. I'm also a man. As he talked with him, he went in and found many who had come together. And he said, you know how unlawful it is for Jews, Jewish men, to keep company with or go to one another of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. That was that vision of those animals that prepared him to accept these unclean Gentiles. Therefore I came without objection, and as soon as I was sent for, I asked him, for what reason you have sent me? And then Cornelius required his preparation. And then verse 34, Peter opened his mouth and said, in truth, I believe that God shows no partiality. For in every nation, whoever fears him and works righteousness is accepted by him. And then he goes on and speaks about the ministry and the spirit of God. Verse 44, here it is, when Peter was speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who, what? What's the next phrase? Heard the word, okay? So was there any laying on of hands? No, no, there was no delay. The immediate message brought salvation and when they heard that my, they were hearing the message. The Spirit of God came upon them. And so this is the nature of the ministry of the Holy Spirit from that point forward. Now, we do have an exception in Acts 19 because we had disciples that were not saved in the Pentecostal sense after Pentecost. And therefore, that ministry was unique in Acts 19, but Paul says, In Romans 8, 9, if anyone does not have the spirit of God, he's none of his. And we went through those passages that indicate the believers now have the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Here it is, Romans chapter 8, verse 9. So the whole point of this is there's a transitional period, transitional period in the book of Acts until finally now every individual has the Holy Spirit. We don't need to speak in tongues. We don't need anyone to lay hands on us. We don't need to pray. We don't need to tarry. There are various so-called conditions that are misinterpreted that we don't need to do in order for the Spirit of God to come. He comes when you believe. So this chart gives us some dispensational distinctions before and after Pentecost. Spirit in the Old Testament, there was no permanent indwelling. It was temporal. So David can pray, take not your Holy Spirit from me, something that a born again believer can never ever pray, or should pray, put it that way. In Psalm chapter 51, certainly the anointing ministry of the Holy Spirit, the endowment we could say, as being a king and leader could be removed. Remember Saul. that endowment for being a king left. David did not want what happened to Saul to happen to him. And I want to retain my kingship. And therefore he owned up the wrongdoing, and God allowed him to retain his kingship. He did not remove it from him, and the Spirit's endowment continued. And that's what David was praying when he's saying, take not your Holy Spirit from me, he didn't say, Like in the New Testament sense, the Spirit of God can leave. He abides forever. So that was a distinct ministry. The ministry was not permanent. Every single individual believer in the Old Testament, they were not indwelt. They were not indwelt. Understand that. It was selective. We have certain leaders. We have judges, certain Samson, Spirit of God. You see that phrase, came upon him, came upon him, came upon him. So that ministry was partial and temporary. Notice John chapter 14, verse 17. We need to look at that passage. John chapter 14, verse 17. Let's go back to verse 16. The Lord says, I pray the father and he will give you another helper. The word paraclete, it means one who comes alongside to assist. That's what a helper does. One who longs to give also the idea of comfort. You know, I think it's proper it's translated comforter because that's one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit. He comes to assist, he comes to comfort. I don't have a problem with either term. The word paraclete, it's used of comfort, it's used of assisting or helping. That he might abide with you How long? Forever. So that's the ultimate ministry there. He's talking about the spirit of God will abide with you permanently. The spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. For you know him. Notice this contrast. Here's a distinction. Look at this last phrase. He dwells with you and shall be in you. So the Spirit is with you before Pentecost, but you know what? After Pentecost, He's going to indwell you. He's going to be in you. That's a very important distinction that He makes. So the indwelling after the age of grace is universal and permanent. Universal and permanent. And the Spirit of God comes to indwell every believer. All right, Unger says this in his book, The Baptism and Gifts of the Holy Spirit. This amazing statement does not mean the Holy Spirit was not present, nor did not have a vital ministry in the Old Testament times and in pre-Pentecost experience. It does mean, however, that as a result of the death, burial, resurrection, ascension of our Lord and his exaltation at the Father's right hand, the Holy Spirit will be given in such an abundant manner that the contrast between the old dispensation of limited spiritual blessings and the new age of the Holy Spirit ushered in at Pentecost would be described in these terms. The Spirit was not yet, the Holy Spirit now is. So, Unger is saying there's a definite change between pre-Pentecost and post-Pentecost. We have more blessings in the Spirit's ministry today than the Old Testament saints ever had. Understand that. More blessings, more ministries that exist today than the Old Testament saints did. At Pentecost, therefore, the Holy Spirit took up permanent residence in the church. Permanent residence. Turn over to John chapter 16, verse 8. John 16, verse 8. And when he comes, he will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. The Spirit of God would convict the unsaved of their need for Christ. Verse 9, of sin, because they do not believe in me. That's the one sin that the Spirit of God points out, the sin of unbelief. The Spirit of God would also come, in verse 13, and guide us into all truth. However, when He, the Spirit of Truth has come, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He speaks, He will hear, and He will tell you things to come." So the Spirit of God has various ministries that would occur after the day of Pentecost. Now, at this feast, They were that the nature of the feast anticipated on the eighth day, the coming of the Messiah, the symbolism pointed to the arrival of the Messiah. And Jesus certainly pointed to himself as the Messiah. But one day in the kingdom, God will pour out his spirit upon the Jews in the future. We call this a new covenant blessings. New covenant ministry of the Holy Spirit is the Spirit's ministry upon the Jews. in that future period of time. Isaiah, let's go back to Isaiah chapter 44. Isaiah 44 verse 3. And then we'll look at the passage in the book of Joel. Isaiah 44 verse 3. For I will pour water on him who is thirsty. Floods on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit on your descendants see that And my blessings on your offspring. When will that be in the Millennial Kingdom? Okay, that's a millennial blessing He's gonna pour out the Spirit of God Look at Joel chapter 2 This is a familiar passage But many times we read it in the book of Acts and try to say that this was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, which it wasn't. Acts chapter 2 verse 28. And it shall come to pass afterward. Now that's a very important term. After what? You read back in the context He speaks of blessings on the nation of Israel, Israel being blessed in the kingdom. And notice in verse 26, so you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God who dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never be put to shame. Then you will know that I am in the midst of Israel. When will that be? When Christ reigns in his kingdom. I am the Lord your God, there is no other. My people will never be put to shame in the kingdom. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And on my maidservants and on my maidservants I will pour out my Spirit in what days? Those days. Very important. Last days of Israel. The last days of Israel. I will show wonders in the heavens and signs on earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. What day is that? That's the last day of the tribulation period. So there will be certain celestial phenomenon that will occur that will indicate that the Lord's return is near. Keep on reading. Verse 32. It shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, for where will be deliverance? This is very important. In Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be salvation. So this is related to God's blessing upon the city of Jerusalem. And the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls. For behold, in those days, at that time when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, So he's gonna regather the nations back and the Gentiles will be judged in verse two and following. So if you read down through the context, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit will occur in the future days of the tribulation and the blessings will continue in the kingdom, all right? You'll have Israel back in the land, Israel born again, Israel saved as a nation. Paul says in Romans 11, and all Israel will be saved. And those new covenant blessings will be poured out abundantly, and especially in the kingdom. Now, why does Paul Peter quote this in Acts 2? So that very passage, he quotes it. There are several reasons why authors quote the Old Testament. Now, normally we think of quotation as fulfillment. Remember, Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. Matthew quotes Micah 5. Certainly there's direct fulfillment, but sometimes authors can quote something to draw a comparison or an illustration or remind them of certain truth. So it's not necessarily that this passage is fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Let's look at the context in Acts chapter 2 and figure out why he quotes this passage from Joel. Acts chapter 2. Let's go back to verse 14. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised up his voice and said to them, Men of Judah and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let it be known to you, and heed my words, for these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. Now when he's saying that, he's not saying that this is fulfilled, but this is an illustration that knowing that God will pour out his spirit in the future, you should not be surprised about what he's doing currently. That's his whole point. He's using it as an illustration. So he's quoting that. Now, I want to ask you a question here. You might say, well, the spirit of God was poured out upon those at Pentecost, And there are certain phenomenon, but do we have the phenomenon in verse 20? The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood. Did that occur on the day of Pentecost? No. That is a contextual clue to tell you. He quoted the whole passage to show you he's only using this as an illustration of the future ministry of the Spirit of God. If they understood that, they should not be surprised about what the Spirit is doing. That's the whole point of the quotation So he's not telling them that what occurred at Pentecost was fulfilled or even partially fulfilled sometimes Well, it was partially fulfilled. No, he called the whole section there in Joel Make no mistake. This is the spirits ministry in the future but what we have here should not surprise you because you know that in the last days God is also going to pour out his Holy Spirit and So the last days in Joel is not the last days of the church. Pentecostals try to say, OK, church has gone on for, what, nearly 2,000 more, 2,000 years, when Christ died 20 AD 33, Day of Pentecost. So closing in on 2,000 years plus. So all that period of time, Pentecostals will say, well, In the late 1800s and early 1900s, we have a certain phenomenon that there was a revival, so-called revival, in the spirit of God in the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles. People, so-called the presence of God, came upon an individual. They spoke in tongues. And we really have the era of the modern charismatic Pentecostal movement really centering on late 1800s, 1901, somewhere around that time frame. Charismatic movement they said well, this is the last days and so this fulfills Joel's prophecy that the Spirit of God will be poured out in the last days problem with that is Joel's context does not deal with the church It's not the last days of the church that the Spirit will be poured out. It's the last days of common phrase use of Israel's Israel's last days So they try to say, well, see, we're in the last days of the church. You promised to send the Spirit. That's why we had the phenomenon repeating Pentecost. You've got to speak in tongues. You've got to lay hands on people to receive the Spirit. You've got all this other phenomenon that you see in the charismatic movement. And I say this because this movement is a distraction from biblical truth. We spoke about ditches. And usually we remember our illustration of the license ditch and antinomianism. There's also the ditch of hyper-spirituality and emotionalism. And there's contradictions to how you live the Christian life, false views. And a lot of that is in the modern day Pentecostal charismatic movement. You say, why are you naming denominations? Because if they hold a false doctrine, you need to be aware of that. You've got to guard yourself. They have a faulty view of the Holy Spirit's ministry. And you can get distracted in those things and not live the Christian life. And even we have precursors of that in the Book of Colossians. We have false movements. Therefore, we have to understand dispensationally what the Spirit is doing. and try to realize that there are certain things that happened historically that were unique. All right, let's transition into three types of men. This is something you should be familiar with. So if I ask you on a test, take a test, get out a pen and some paper, name the three types of men in the scripture that you find in the word of God. The whole human race falls under three categories, right? All right, you should know this. I say this, by the way, because I think, well, I'm studying something. There I know that. There I know that. I should never assume that. Now, you're a brilliant congregation. I can say that. But I should not assume these things. Because I realized when I was in seminary, I thought, OK, I know this doctrine. OK, I got this down. Here's a test. Oh, I know that. I know that. You ever had that? I know that. Well, what is it? Don't know. Need to be reminded, right? OK. Natural man. The natural man is the psychicos man. He's called the soul man. You know the song, I'm the soul man. So that's true. Guy was singing truth, if he didn't know Christ. The psychicos man related to psychology, doctrine of studying the soul, so to speak. That's not a biblical. There's biblical psychology and humanistic psychology, by the way. And so we have to be careful when we deal with psychology because there's a faulty view of man. Many times modern day psychology leaves out this point, man is sinful and guilty. You need to own up to sin in your life. We can't ever have people admitting wrongdoing or sin. What happened in your childhood? My father used to beat me, that's why I'm this way. Really? Now that may contribute to anger, certainly it can. But is that the complete reason? Sometimes we want to blame someone else. We fail to take responsibility. All right, 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14. 1 Corinthians 2, 14. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. They are, what, foolishness to him. Nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Biblical truth is spiritually discerned. How can we discern it? We need the Spirit, right? We need the Holy Spirit. So the person that's simply soul-ish cannot appreciate biblical truth. The unsaved person can memorize the Bible. They can quote verses. Many times our politicians quote it out of context. They stand against Christianity until it suits their needs, and then they quote a verse out of context. So the natural man cannot really appreciate spiritual truth. They do not. They are devoid of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, there might be people that are born again but are living according to the same nature, fleshly. We call those persons the carnal Christian. What are no such things as a carnal Christian? Well, you haven't read 1 Corinthians 3. Look at this. Take a look at it. Paul says to the Corinthians, you are still carnal. You're fleshly. Whereas there's envy, strife, divisions among you. That never happens in churches. That never happens. And behaving like who? You're behaving like unsaved people. Unsafe people you mean Christians who are controlled by the sin nature can behave like the unsaved person Well, if you don't believe that just think about this, you know that when you get angry or upset or you have a Time where you explode and are angry You are controlled by the old sin nature If someone would take a video of you and place it on tick-tock or whatever they put it on Facebook Look at this person. You would say, well, that's an unsafe person. No, that was me last week. No, I'm saying that we could have times where the flesh just takes over. We can get angry, upset. The sin nature is pervasive. We've got to keep it in check. But certain individuals who continue in that state are controlled by the old sin nature. They're called fleshly. The word sarkikos, having the nature of the flesh, central, controlled by the animal appetites, or governed by human nature, instead of by the Holy Spirit of God. So this is a person controlled by the old sin nature, I would say, instead of the Holy Spirit, which is a filling ministry. And then the third type of man is the spiritual man, pneumatikos, word related to the Spirit of God, pneuma, pneuma. Persons who are spiritual, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, enjoying the influences, grace, and gifts of the Holy Spirit. I would put the person who's filled with the Holy Spirit, means controlled by the Holy Spirit. Let's take a look at 1 Corinthians 2.15. He who is spiritual. I think that was the title of Chafer's book. He wrote, he that is spiritual. He who is spiritual judges all things. He has discernment. So this is a spiritual man. He's able to evaluate things from a biblical perspective. He's able to understand the word of God. He's one under the control of the Holy Spirit. That is a spiritual man. And that's certainly our goal. God does not want us to be fleshly. Certainly we will never be natural because we're born again, but we can act like the natural man. So if you put a carnal Christian, and you recorded a person who's angry, and they recorded you who's angry, and asked a question, which one of you are born again? Pick out the same person. I don't know. Maybe on a nice day, you say, well, that person's nicer, for he's saved. And that person's acting like this. He's unsaved. And that's the problem when we try to judge people like that. Because some days we're controlled by the flesh instead of the Lord. So those are three types of individuals. I'm saying this because comes the ministry of the Holy Spirit of control. Ephesians 5.18. You want to be spiritual. How can I be spiritual? You need to be controlled by the Spirit of God. The Bible says not to be controlled with substance abuse. Do not be drunk with wine. That doesn't include just wine, by the way. That includes any type of thing, something that can alter your thinking, whether drugs can do that, any type of substance abuse. Do not be under the influence, we could say. Who is a person under the influence? He's a person that would not normally act that way. One who is controlled by the alcohol. And that's the idea of drunkenness. He does not condemning drinking, he's condemning drunkenness here. And he compares it to and contrasts it to the spirit's ministry. Drunkenness leads to dissipation. That's a fancy word for saying all kinds of sinful activity. So there's certain simple activities that connected to drunkenness. Disorderly conduct, sexual immorality, you can go on and on. The list can be great. You place yourself in that position, then you open the door for other things. But we want to be under the control. Filled with the spirit does not mean when we think of filling a vessel, That we're 50% filled, we need 80% of the Holy Spirit, 100%. No, the word filled, when looked at in this context, means to be controlled. Now, break it down further. We have a present passive imperative verb, plurao. And the idea is to be under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Think about, passive. So present tense refers to ongoing action. This is something that we need to continually be controlled by the Spirit of God. This is the rest of our life. We need to be under the influence of the Holy Spirit. We need to be controlled by the Spirit of God. Ongoing. Passive, we receive the action. God is the one who's doing this. So God is the one who is controlling us. Imperative, it's a command. He commands us to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. Do not be controlled with substance abuse, but your life should be manifest by the Spirit's control. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit. Now, before we go any further, let's look at Ephesians chapter 5. And again, I'm getting ahead of myself. This is later on in my notes. But I want to point this out. What are the results of being controlled by the Spirit of God? What does that look like? What would we say the fruit or byproduct of the Spirit's control? Well, all we've got to do is look in the context for some clues. Ephesians 5, 19, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. We could say, worship of God. Worship of God, praising God. Joy, we could add, certainly. Thanksgiving would be another byproduct of being controlled by the Spirit of God, verse 20. Giving thanks always for all things. How about verse 21? We normally don't put that under the category of being controlled. Submission to one another in the fear of God. Humility. And then he's specific about who is to submit to whom. Wives, submit yourself to your own husbands. That is a spirit-filled wife. That is a spirit-controlled wife. One who is submissive. The fruit of the Spirit is being manifested in marriage. It affects your marriage. So being controlled by the Spirit affects a lot of areas of your life. How your Christian life is lived out in the family. How your Christian life is lived out in the world. How your Christian life is lived in person before God. This has some implications. We're gonna go into the implications of being controlled by the Spirit of God. So, identifying a Spirit-filled Christian, what would that person look like? And normally we could tell, someone full of peace, someone full of joy, someone who is worshipful, someone who's obedient, and I have this list later. We'll look at what a Spirit-filled Christian looks like. And therefore, God wants us to be filled with the Spirit. Now, some people think this spirit-filled Christian is someone who praises Jesus, sways, speaks in tongues, you know, falls over on the ground, got the Holy Ghost glue, cannot get off the ground, barks like a dog in church service, moves like a cow in church service, all these idiotic, stupid things that you see in these charismatic meanings. That's being spirit-filled. No, that's being a knucklehead. It's not being filled with the Spirit of God. It's being an idiot. I sound like Trump now, don't I? OK. I'll be getting in trouble here. Let's talk about ministries of the Holy Spirit. Reminding you of the permanent ministries of the Holy Spirit. Regeneration. Remember ribs? What's the definition of regenerate? Here's another tip. What is the definition of regenerate? I've spoken to it. If you would define it, write it down. This is your blue book test. Blue book test means I'm going to give you five pages. Maybe you're familiar in college. Here's a philosophy. Yeah, maybe more. I'm being five pages. So here you go. Here's your blue book. Philosophy, here's five questions. Your final exam is based on five questions. Now that's pain. Talk about pain in philosophy class. Answer these five. So you think, oh man, what's, yeah, write it down. What is regeneration? The impartation of eternal life. Here it is, that's God giving you eternal life. That's what it means to be born again. Impartation of eternal life, okay? Indwelling, the spirit of God living inside of you permanently. Spirit's indwelling. Baptism, define that. The spirit of God placing you in the body of Christ, right? Spirit places me in Christ. Again, occurs that quick. Sealing, spirit of God who lives in you securing your salvation until the glorification of your bodies. Filling, the spirit's control, right? Filling is a spirit's control. So that results in being in fellowship with God. Sin breaks that. That's why I say that in order for you to understand spiritual truth, looking at those three terms, As a spiritual person, you need to be spiritual. Therefore, you need to be controlled by the Spirit of God to appreciate the things of God. And therefore, it's important. In order to learn doctrine, it's not simply a matter of this. It's a matter of being controlled by the Holy Spirit. And therefore, you're opening yourself up, you're welcoming biblical truth. We went through the regeneration. There's another way to look at it. Now, let's talk about the other ministry then. Glass of ribs with a glass of water. Now, this is the one reoccurring ministry of the Holy Spirit, the filling ministry of the Holy Spirit. And that means the Spirit's control, the Spirit's control of the believer. Filling, okay? Now, what does that mean? Number one, the filling of the Holy Spirit means I'm controlled by the Holy Spirit. Does not mean I get more of the Holy Spirit. Number two, the filling ministry of the Holy Spirit is repeatable. I can lose it. What can I not lose? Going back to our chart. I cannot lose regeneration. I cannot lose indwelling. I cannot lose baptism. I cannot lose sealing. These are permanent. Can I lose the Spirit's control? Yes, I can. personal sin. I'm in control when my sin nature is controlling me. The Spirit is not in control. Think about that. I'm not in control when my flesh is controlling me. But when I allow the Spirit of God to control me, then I'm walking by means of the Spirit. The filling ministry is the key to the spiritual life. Question. What ministry of the spirit of God do they point to as being spiritual? Baptism, right? B. And they say you get it when someone lays their hands on you, you get this experience. I speak in tongues. By the way, the Methodists, their theology of a second work of grace was the precursor to the modern Pentecostal charismatic second blessing. I understand the roots. The roots of the modern charismatic movement is in Wesleyan holiness. I can say that because I grew up in and around that movement. Just like what happened in Asbury. I understand that movement. You gotta pray to have a second blessing, to have this experience, to eradicate your sin nature. And I went through that. And that's not biblical. It was that theology that the Pentecostals came into. So they had individuals rooted in that second blessing. But now we're going to add one more thing. We're going to seek that baptism through prayer. We're going to seek that blessing of the Holy Spirit like they did at Pentecost by tearing, speaking in tongues, but we're going to add The manifestation of that is what? Speaking in tongues. That's the difference between Wesleyan holiness, some of them, and Pentecostals. They're rooted in the same theology. Pentecostals simply add the evidence of the baptism of speaking in tongues. That was different. So when you study the root of that false doctrine, it was rooted in the idea of I could pray and receive a ministry of the Holy Spirit in addition to being born again. And so just understand the historic roots of that movement. And we can go through the three waves of the charismatic movement and go through how it has influenced even going across denominations, but we won't do that. I just want to point that out. Now, Genuine spirituality comes when I'm in fellowship with God and controlled by the Spirit of God. That's being spiritual. Whether I speak in tongues, whether I praise or worship God, or do all these other things, I'm not spiritual unless I'm walking in fellowship with God. You can't say that I'm spiritual. All right? Walbert says this, the filling of the spirit must be contrasted to the indwelling of the spirit. As all Christians are indwell at the moment of salvation, while the filling of the spirit is found in only some Christians. No Christian can be said to be in the will of God unless he is filled with the spirit of God. I can be filled with the spirit but not mature. Maturity takes time. I'll explain it this way. You could be, a baby can be in good health the moment that baby is born. But obviously wouldn't let that baby out on his own. The baby's not mature. Baby can be healthy and grow up healthy, but not mature, just like you. The moment I'm born again, I could be spirit filled, right? I could be walking in fellowship with God, controlled by the spirit of God, love, joy, peace produced through me, but I'm not yet mature. That takes time. Maturity is a process. Think about it. It's a growth. So don't confuse spirituality with maturity. Now, obviously, if I want to be mature, I need to be spiritual. I need to walk with God each day if I want to grow as a Christian. But maturity takes time, which we are out of. So we'll continue this next time. Let's bow our heads. Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word and the doctrine of the filling ministry of the Holy Spirit. I pray that we might have a clear comprehension of this ministry. It's so vital in the Christian life, and there's so much false teaching in regards to this. So help us to have a clear understanding of what it is to be filled with the Spirit of God. And certainly, we don't want to be controlled by our sin nature, but we certainly want to be controlled by you, Father. So give us clarity and pray that we might produce the fruit of the Spirit through our lives and let our light shine. And we ask these things in Christ's name, amen. Okay, I have a few announcements.