I wanted to let everyone know that's listening online that the next series of study in the Sunday school hour, in the Sunday morning class, is going to be, I don't know if they'll be able to see this, but The Life and Death of Mr. Badman. It's another one by John Bunyan. He gave us the account of a pilgrim's progress. Now he gives us an account of a bad man's progress. And I think that it's quite good as well. And I ordered some more of these from Amazon. And any people listening online, if you'd like to follow along, you can do that. One of the people I know listened to it already on audio and said that it was very good. So the life and death of Mr. Badman then. And also, as we come to the Lord's table then, those of you that follow online are always welcome to have the elements ready there where you are the first Sunday of every month. And to just be, just as a reminder now, as the purpose of the Lord's table and the privilege that it is for a believer to come to the Lord's table and take the bread and the cup is that it is, of course, a reminder. We do this in remembrance of Christ. It's a reminder of his sacrificial atoning death for his people on the cross. But it's also a reminder, and I was reading good old John Calvin on this this last week in a sermon that he had on Acts, and he said that the elements, the bread and the cup, are also a tangible, visible reminder to us that we are in Christ, that we are joined to him in his body as we eat the bread and drink the cup. He also said something that I wasn't aware of, but one of the problems that he faced in his day when the state was so involved in church affairs and so forth, that most of the people in the community were church members, one church or another, but it was a very formal, spiritless religion to a lot of them, not in Calvin's church. Of course, he preached the gospel, but they viewed it that way, and what would happen is They would because officially they were church members. They would only show up on Sundays when the Lord's Table, the ordinance was being offered. And as is classic John Calvin, he didn't mince any words for those kind of people coming down on them and rightly so. But it is a privilege then to come to the Lord's Table. Let's, in case, if you'd come forward to serve, then let's pray and ask the Lord's blessing on his ordinance. Father, we thank you for this table that you've set before us, that this bread and this cup are given to us to remind us that Christ, well, that we have a Savior, that Christ really did atone for our sins by his body and his blood. And so, Lord, we remember these things as we come now, and we pray that we would do so in a right and worthy manner. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. And you may serve the table. Therefore, Paul wrote to the Colossians, therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition. according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ. For in him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. And you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. And there is another account by the Apostle Paul of this great salvation for us, given us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well here then is the bread which Christ said represents his body and given for us on the tree. Eat it in remembrance of Christ. Then also at the end of their supper, The Lord took that Passover cup and kind of transitioned it now into the new covenant and he said that it represents his blood given for us in which there is remission of sin and by which the new covenant is established. So drink it in remembrance of Christ. The scripture reading is in the second chapter of Joel, the Old Testament minor prophet, Joel. Of course, this is a classic chapter because it lies behind so much of the preaching that the apostles did, particularly Peter, on that day when the Spirit came upon the church, upon Christ's people. And so we're going to begin at verse 18, and we're looking at this considering how the Spirit of God came upon the people of God on that day of Pentecost, because we've come now, we come now today to that part of the Apostles' Creed that we've been considering that says, I believe in the Holy Spirit. And so you see the connection here. starting at verse 18. Then the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people. The Lord answered and said to his people, behold, I'm sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied, and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. I will remove the northerner far from you, and drive him into a parched and desolate land, his vanguard into the Eastern Sea and his rear guard into the Western Sea. The stench and foul smell of him will rise, for he has done great things. Be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things. Fear not, you beasts of the field. For the pastors of the wilderness are green, the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and the vine give their full yield. And just a note there, you recall what we heard from Lloyd-Jones this morning earlier, already you see, hey, wait a minute, that's sounding a whole lot like the new creation and that's what, That's what is being shown in kind of shadow and type here by Joel. Verse 23, be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication. He has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain as before. The threshing floor shall be full of grain. The vat shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locusts has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord, your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit and I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls. And then there you have this description, once again, of this doctrine of the remnant that represent the people of God. Well, that's the Lord's word, and of course, it is explained to us further in the second chapter of Acts as being the time when the Lord poured out His Spirit then upon the church. Well, we're going to come, as I said now, to that portion of the Apostles' Creed that simply says, I believe in the Holy Spirit. That's what Joel was talking about, the Lord would pour His Spirit out upon His people. And so let's ask the Lord's blessing then as we look into these vital doctrines of the word of God. Father, we thank you now that we have this privilege to come to your word once again as we are gathered here in your church. Thank you that you've called us out of darkness and into light. Thank you for this church body, this local church, that we can come together and we can encourage one another to love and good deeds, that we can hear from your word and be strengthened and further enlightened by your truth. We pray, Father, that we would come to your word now, believing it, ready to obey it, as you teach us and show us your truths, and we pray this all in Christ's name, amen. Well, here then is our consideration, as I said, of the Apostle's Creed. And this is the declaration or confession of our faith in the third person of the Trinity. He, the Holy Spirit, gets the fewest words in this opening section of our faith in the Trinity. I believe in the Holy Spirit. And then there it is. I would recommend to you this morning, and I think with confidence, to say that a large portion of what claims to be the Christian church today will give lip service to this truth, I believe in the Holy Spirit, and so on, but in fact, it's a false confession. And why is it that I say that? Paul told Timothy this, 2 Timothy 3, but understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And then he hits us in the fifth verse with this, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. And that last verse just kind of blows you away because as you've been going through this list of these ugly sins, you're kind of thinking, yeah, that's right, boy, those pagans out there in the world, that's what, boy, that's increasing all the time. Those are these, they're brutal and they don't love what's good and they're treacherous. But we find out in this fifth verse having the appearance of godliness. Wait a minute. He's talking about people that claim to be Christian. He's talking about people that go through, he's talking about hypocrites in the church. And he says of them, they look on the outside like Christians, they look godly, but they've done something that he calls denying its power. And then he just says those plain, simple three words, avoid such people. You know, I don't think we were taught that. I wasn't growing up in the church. If there's somebody who claims to be a Christian, and they're a church member and so forth, but in fact, you see if you can get behind their disguise that they put on, you find out that they are proud, arrogant, abusive, and this kind of a thing, that we're not supposed to have anything to do with them. Avoid such people, and they're to be put out of the church. Churches just suffer greatly because they don't do what Paul said. Avoid such people. Don't let people like that come into your midst. There's a particular, and I'm sure that you saw that as I read it, there's a particular sin that's listed in here that kind of jumps out at you, right? Disobedient to their parents. Disobedient to their parents. I think that lots of churches have lots of young people in the youth programs and so forth that are anything but obedient to their parents. And you say, wait a minute, well, how do we handle that? Well, bring them into the church, bring them into these rebellious kids, you know, bring them into the church and we'll fix them. And Paul says, nope, put them out of the church, avoid such people, you see. And so something else to think about there. Well, what is the role of the Holy Spirit? When we say, I believe in the Holy Spirit, when we confess this, what is it exactly that we are saying? Well, we certainly are saying numbers of things. We say, well, we believe what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit. And the Bible does say a lot about the Holy Spirit. The Bible talks about how the Holy Spirit gifts Christ's people, how it is the Holy Spirit and was the Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. and lots of other things, that the Spirit dwells within us and is leading us and those kinds of things. But we're saying, so we're saying far more when we say, I believe in the Holy Spirit, we're saying far more than just saying that, well, I believe in the Trinity and I believe that the Holy Spirit is one of the three persons in the one Godhead. I believe those kinds of things. But to that point, even the devil believes that. The devil knows that. He believes those kinds of things. And so to confess, I believe in the Holy Spirit, is to confess more. And in fact, to love a particular truth more. And so to confess faith in the Holy Spirit is to confess that true religion, real Christianity, is this, Romans 2. For no one is a Jew, a true Jew, a true Israelite, who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical, but a Jew is one inwardly. And circumcision is a matter of heart, and then see it here, by the spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man, but from God. So what Paul is saying there is that as he's rebuking the Jews in Romans 2 for their hypocrisy, he's saying, you guys are descendants of Abraham. OK, I'll give you that. So am I. But that doesn't make you an Israelite. That doesn't make you a true child of God. That doesn't make you an heir with Abraham. No, a true Jew, and all you have to do is translate this, a true Christian, right, is not a Christian who just has the trappings of religion on the outside, but a true Christian is one whose heart has been circumcised by the Spirit. In other words, it's the new birth, it's the effecting of the new creation by the Spirit of God. So a Christian, a Christian is a true Israelite. A Christian, because we're in Christ, we are heirs with Abraham and so forth, true people, members of the true people of God. So a true Christian is a person who has had a heart transplant, you might say. And that heart transplant is effected by the Holy Spirit. And I think that the confession in the creed, I believe in the Holy Spirit, that this truth is the essence of that declaration. That we are saying that I believe that a Christian is more than just a person that goes through external motions, that the Christian church is more than just a building and a structure, but that a true Christian and true religion is that which is effected by, empowered by, created by the Holy Spirit, right? Romans 7, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh sold under sin. We were just talking about Romans 7 earlier, whether this is talking about a believer or a non-believer or whatever, but you notice that Paul says the law is spiritual. I mean, under the old covenant, when God gave his law, it was something that was to be obeyed from the heart. All right, that's what it means. The law is spiritual. And Paul goes on later in Romans 7 to say, well, I thought I was doing pretty good. Everybody thought I was just excelling as to the righteousness that's in the law. Man, I had it made. And then I read the 10th commandment. You shall not covet. And I got to thinking about that. You know, coveting. You shall not covet. How do you covet? Well, you covet in your heart. You covet in your heart. And therefore, God looks at the heart and he's saying, wait a minute, wait a minute. The law is spiritual. God requires obedience to the law from my heart that I will love His law, and that's something that I haven't been doing. Paul says, I realized I was a dead man. I was condemned then before God. We see this spirit in true religion as well in Ezekiel 36. I think this is the background passage for the John 3 statement, Jesus to Nicodemus. you must be born again, all right? So Ezekiel 36. Therefore, say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, it's not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I'm about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. The nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. And it's like, well, how's he gonna do this? Israel had only sinned, made a mockery of the Lord's name before the nations. How's he gonna vindicate his holiness before him? Well, I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land, and I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you, and I will give you a new heart, and here it is, you see, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." He's talking about the church. He's talking about the new covenant and that it is the church The true Israelite is created by the hand of God, by putting the Holy Spirit within us. This is all the language of the new birth, so that we will then walk in his statutes. This is salvation. This is the new creation, you see. This is true religion. Jeremiah 31, the same thing. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, before God, before Moses even brought it down from the mountain, they broke it, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. and I will be their God and they shall be my people. And once again, what do you see there? You see that true religion is of the heart. Christianity, the Christian church, is that body of believers that have been born again. They are made new creations by the Holy Spirit so that they love the Lord, And they love his, and they love his word. And they love, then, one another. I believe in the Holy Spirit is to say, I believe that the religion of Christ, I believe that the people of Christ are people who are indwelt by the spirit of God, and that that spirit has recreated them, put the old man to death, and raised up the new person in Christ. John 3 then, here's Nicodemus, Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit means I believe in the new creation effected by the Holy Spirit. I believe that the church of Christ, the body of Christ is created by God, by his spirit, and it's his spirit that joins us together into the body of Christ, you see. It is to confess that a Christian, a true child of Abraham then, is a new creation. And that he or she has been created by a regenerating miracle, effected by the Holy Spirit. And it is to, when we say I believe in the Holy Spirit then, it is to confess that we reject all externalism. all formal religion, religion which is of just a form, but there's no power, there's no substance, because the people, you know, like the Pharisees, well, here you go, Matthew 23, you blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You're like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. There is religion devoid of the Spirit of God. One of the reasons that good old J.C. Ryle, a preacher in England back in the 1800s, one of the reasons his sermons are so powerful is that he very, very often challenged his listeners, and remember, so he is a minister in the Church of England. the Church of England there were plenty of outward forms and a much more structured liturgy maybe than what we are familiar with. It would be very easy to have people in those churches, true in any church, but in those churches in the Church of England who were hypocrites They weren't born again, and J.C. Ryle knew it, and so he would often preach sermons that challenged his listeners on this very point. He wanted them, he called on them, you know, examine yourselves. See if your religion is that of the spirit of Christ, or is it just some external form? Here's a few of the titles of just some of the sermons that he preached on this. Are you born again? And then authentic religion, practical religion, and emphasizing self-inquiry. Examine yourself. And he preached on the power of the Holy Spirit, and he preached on the true church, and he preached on that subject many more times. Ryle knew. As any true minister of Christ in Christ's church, Ryle knew that there's an ever-present danger of many people thinking themselves to be right before God, approved by God, and yet their religion is mere outward form. And that's all it is, going through the motions, going through the motions, but they've not been born again Spirit's mighty recreating power. And that's why I think the creed, the Apostle's Creed, I believe in the Holy Spirit. I reject false external religion. And I confess that true religion is a creation of God by the Holy Spirit. So Ryle challenged people. Very often, Whitfield did too. Any faithful minister of the gospel is going to do this. He's going to challenge people. Are you born again? I mean, are you born again? Do you think much about eternity? Eternity is a long time. You can't even say eternity is a long time because you've got to rule out time. There's no time there. Eternity is, when I've been there 10,000 years, I've only just begun. Well, that's good in amazing grace if you're in Christ, but in hell, it's anything but good news. When I've been there 10,000 years, I've only just begun. Forever and ever and ever. This subject should have our attention, and we should examine ourselves. born again. One indicator to watch for in yourself is what is your reaction if I as your pastor or someone else, if somebody challenges you, what's your reaction to this question? Are you born again? Are you? A lot of people that aren't born again react by being angry. Well, how dare you imply that, that I'm even, huh, of course I'm born again. I was born in a Christian home, and I've gone to church and Sunday school for all the years that I can remember, come to church every Sunday, I do these things, and of course I'm born again. Really? How do you know that, you see? These are things that you don't, people think, well, boy, someday when I'm on my deathbed, who says you're gonna have a deathbed, right? God has a bajillion ways of taking us out of this world just like that, and then comes the judgment. Jonathan Edwards wrote on this subject and preached on it as well. the class of hypocrites in the church, those who were not born again, but pretended and fancied themselves to be these fine Christians, he called them sinners in Zion. Sinners in Zion. You may have heard that phrase before. He got the phrase from Amos chapter six, which is used of, Amos is rebuking the Israelites. who were walking in sin, they weren't obeying God's law, but they were like, hey, we're children of Abraham. Yeah, we're, oh yeah, you know, we're, so we're in Zion, just representative of either Jerusalem or the nation Israel. Yeah, we're members of Zion. We're at ease in Zion. And so Amos says, woe to those. who are at ease in Zion and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the first of the nations to whom the house of Israel comes. Woe to them. Woe to those who are at ease in Zion. Today that would mean woe to those who are at ease in the church. And yet they're not born again. They're pretending, they're fooling themselves They're wearing a disguise and so on. John Bunyan, of course, warned of this kind of thing in his series. Remember, we went through it. The barren fig tree, the doom and downfall of the fruitless professor. And so we need to be seriously and soberly and often warned of this business, this danger that's called formal religion. J.C. Ryle opened his series on the subject this way. Listen to what he says. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. And he says, a man is not a Jew if he's only one outwardly. Nor is circumcision, well he's still, he's quoting Romans 2 here. Nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he's one inwardly. And circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God. And then he says, reader. So this is an article that he wrote. The text, the scriptures, which head this page, deserves your serious attention at any time. I take it for granted that you have some religion, because after all, they wouldn't be reading this if they weren't. You're not an infidel, not pagan. You profess and call yourself a Christian. Well then, is your Christianity formal or spiritual? Is religion with you a matter of form, outward motions, outward appearance, and so forth, or a matter of the heart? Is it form or heart? The question deserves special notice in this age of the church in the world. Never since the Lord Jesus Christ left the earth was there so much formality and false profession as there is at the present day. Now, if ever, we ought to examine ourselves and search our religion so that we may know of what sort it is. Reader, let us find out whether our Christianity is a thing of form or a thing of the heart. I know no better way of unfolding the subject than by turning to a plain passage of the word of God. Let's hear what the Apostle Paul says about it. He lays down the following great principles in his epistle to the Romans. A man's not a Jew if he is only one outwardly. Nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he's one inwardly, and circumcision is circumcision of the heart by the spirit, not by the written code, not by the law. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God. Three most instructive lessons appear to me to stand out on the face of that scripture. Let's see what they are. We learn, first of all, that formal religion is not true religion, and a formal Christian is not a true Christian in God's sight. Second, we learn that the heart is the seat, the center of true religion, and that the true Christian is the Christian in heart. They've been born again. And we learn, thirdly, that true religion must never expect to be popular. It will not have the praise of man, but of God. So let us thoroughly consider these great principles. 200 years have passed away since a mighty Puritan divine, he's talking about Thomas Hall, 1658, said formality Formality, formality is the great sin of England at this day under which the land groans. There is more light than there was, but less life. More shadow, but less substance. More profession of Christ, but less holiness. What would this good man have said if he had lived in our times, or in our time then? today, you see. Well, all of this formal religion, this spiritless fake religion, is what we are rejecting when we say, I believe in the Holy Spirit. You see, if we confess Christ in truth, and yet What's happening every week throughout this nation? People are attending things like a funeral service, for instance, okay? And they go to a funeral service in a church building. and they leave having been assured, or you can apply this to a typical church service as well, and it seems like most local churches, they leave having been assured by a preacher who loves his income more than he loves the word of God, that they like the dead man that they just went to the funeral for, are surely headed straight for heaven. Of course he's headed for heaven. We're all headed for heaven. Everything is just fine. When in fact, they're headed for hell. Why is it? Because their religion is a form. It is a shell and it's hollow. Their heart is still hard. They are unconverted. Their religion has no saving power The Holy Spirit is, in practicality, denied. They might confess, oh, I believe in the Holy Spirit. But in practice, the power of the Spirit is quenched, and it is denied. A spiritless Christianity is a Christless Christianity. Look at the outward forms. Now, we necessarily have outward forms that we use. in our worship of God, right? The benches you're sitting in, the building that we're in here, the wooden cross that's behind me here, and even partaking of the ordinances in the Lord's Supper, all of these things, the Bible in our hand. But ask yourself this, can any of those things save you? Can any of those, in other words, can coming every Lord's day to his church, in the meeting of his church, and going through the utilization of these things as we worship the Lord, can those things in and of themselves save us so that we can leave this place and say, I went to church. God's pleased with me, you see. None of that can save you. That, in and of itself, is formal religion. It has no saving power because the Holy Spirit is not present in it, if the Spirit of God is not present. And the way that he is present in the Lord's worship is, one, when his people, who are indwelt by his Spirit, gather together, And then he is present in the preaching of his word. It's primarily through the preaching of the word of God that the spirit acts upon the sinner and shows him his sin and shows him or her their need for Christ. Listen to Paul once again. Here's Romans 8, starting at verse 12. So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. If you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you've received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. There it is, the spirit of God at work in us, leading us. And just before that, Paul had spoken further about the spirit in true Christianity, starting at verse five, those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. I'm not a Christian if I'm not living according to the spirit who is in me and by whom I've been born again. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that's set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot, those who are in the flesh cannot please God, and that's the condition we were all born into this world, right, in the flesh. You, however, if you've been born again, right, you, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if, in fact, the spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. So when we say, I believe in the Holy Spirit, we are affirming this, that true religion consists of being indwelt by the Spirit, being born again by the power of the Spirit, and that therefore anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ doesn't belong to him. is still dead in their sins. If Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. You see that I believe in the Holy Spirit is to declare all of these things, all of these truths that we're reading here about the Holy Spirit and it is to reject formal, external religion, which is simply a creation of man and is devoid then of the Spirit of God. A religion devoid of the Holy Spirit is a dead thing that cannot save. In fact, what happens is it it increases the wrath of God. God's wrath is most intense against the sinner who is at ease in Zion. He is the one that God's wrath is primarily then upon. A person that practices this delusion of a spiritless religion is like is a dead man, a dead person trying his best to imitate and look like a living human being. So you could call him, here's the one who's at ease in Zion. Here's the hypocrite, the one who's going through the motions and fancies himself this wonderful saint and Christian and so on. He could be the minister of the church. He could be an elder of the church, an upstanding pillar member of the church, but he's not born again, and he's imitating a Christian. He's imitating a living, spiritually living human being, but he's a spiritual zombie. That's what he is. Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. I believe in the Holy Spirit. That means I believe in the Spirit who's invisible, as Jesus said, but he's like a wind. He's quiet, you don't see the wind, but you see the effects of it, you see. A Christian is a person, you might say, who is gone with the wind, because the old person that we were is put to death, that person is gone, and there's a new creation. How'd that happen? by the power of the pneuma. Pneumatic, you know, is air. That's the imagery here. The pneuma is spirit. It's by the power of God's spirit. The wind blows where it wishes. And you hear it sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who's born of the spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit means I believe that a true church True Christianity consists of people who are born of the Spirit. I didn't see the Spirit, just like I don't see the air that makes up the wind and so on, but I see the effects. of the wind. I can see the leaves rustling and the branches moving and so forth. So we need to be wise in this regard. When we say, I believe in the Holy Spirit, we are saying, I believe in the new birth. I believe in the fruit of the Spirit who is in every real Christian, and I believe in the inevitable radical changes that the spirit effects in a person who is born again. And in this respect, I think this is a good challenge for all of us, myself included. We need to stop making excuses for one another when God's word doesn't leave room for excuses. Look it, you're either born again or you're not born again. If you are born again, you are indwelt by the Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and so forth, will increasingly be evident in your life. Not might be, then you see, but will be. This is absolutely true. Jesus said it. He said you can't see the Spirit himself, and you can't see this new birth happening at the moment, but you can see the effects of it. You will see those effects. And where those effects, I mean, if you look outside, not today because there's wind out there, but if you look outside and nothing is moving, I mean, there's not a leaf that's even slightly moving, nothing, what do you say? There's no wind. Dead calm out there. There's no wind. Well, it's the same thing here. If we don't see the fruit of the Spirit in a person, then there's no wind, there's no Spirit. The Spirit is not present, you see. Let me give you an example. Let's say a man claims to be a Christian, and he's a church member, been a church member, grew up in a church. He's in church every Sunday and is happy to let you know that he's in church every Sunday. He generously ties, he does all of those things. Now imagine him through the week, however, doing some things that understandably offend and worry his neighbors, all right? So they're not just imagining things. They're offended. They're worried about these things. They're bothered by these things. They're frightened by these things. And he does this all the time. And so his neighbors ask him to please stop. It's scaring them. And then this fine Christian man responds this way. He refuses. He says, you know, under the letter of the law, I have a legal right to do what I'm doing, and you can't make me stop. And then he goes, and he goes to bed, and he sleeps very well that night and every night. Is that man a Christian? Is this a man who's indwelt and led by the Spirit? Is this the fruit of the Spirit that we see in him? And yet, and I know a man like that, and I also know people that have known that man for a long time, as I have, making excuses for him. You know, I'll tell them, that guy's not saved. That's his problem. He's not born again. And they'll say, well, you know, yeah, those things about him, they bother me too. But, you know, I think there's a real faith in him. And that's what I mean. We need to stop making excuses for these people. The Bible doesn't leave room for excuses. You're born again. or you're not born again. If you say you're a Christian, but you don't love your neighbor, you're not born again. Boom, there it is. And it surprises me how many professing Christians will hear you say something like that, and their response will be, man, you're awful black and white. Have they ever read 1 John? Look, it's either this or it's this. That's how it is, period. So we need to stop making it, you're not helping people like this who are sinners, who are at ease in Zion, if you make excuses for them, you see. What does the Lord say? 1 John 3, no one born of God makes a practice of sinning. For God's seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he's been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. Now it can't be any more Plain than that, can it? And notice when John says, by this it is evident who are the children of God. It's not a mystery. Where do we come up with this stuff of, well, it's not up to me to judge, you know? It's not up to me to judge whether that person is a Christian or not. Well, then you're blind. Because here God's word says it's evident. It's plain. You know, John will go on in the fifth chapter of 1 John, and this is like, maybe this is like the most ignored verse in the Bible, right? 1 John, where John says, and I'm just gonna paraphrase, I won't take the time to look it up, but it says essentially this. There is a sinner whom I do not tell you to pray for. Okay, it comes out of Jeremiah, that's where it comes from, He says, there is a sin that leads to death. And I don't say that you should pray for such a person as that. Well, what is the presumption when John says that? It's that we can detect that kind of a person and not pray for it. We can detect the reprobate. That's what he is saying here, you see. But in our day, the church is filled with such, false teaching, that those kinds of things aren't then even considered. So that it's almost like the worst sinner, long as he comes to church, long as he tithes, long as she does this or that, then we're gonna cut him some plaque, because we're really gracious here, and they certainly are saved. Well, you see then, that we have If we function that way and we make excuses, then we really are being hypocrites when we say, I believe in the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit transforms a person when they are born again, you see, like that. There's many other evil fruits of the flesh. You know, somebody might say, well, I passed that test because, boy, I sure wouldn't treat my neighbors that way. Well, all right. But there's lots of other tests that we need to look at here. There are many other evil fruits of the flesh, right? That we need to examine ourselves for. Galatians 5, after he recounts the fruit of the spirit, he says in verse 19, now the works of the flesh are evident. You see, it's there again. The works of the flesh are evident. This is plain. You know, let this really sink in. This is in regard to yourself, and it's in regard to others who claim to be Christians, all right? First of all, if you're a Christian, you can discern who else is a Christian, all right? You can discern that it's evident. It's plain. Look at them. By their fruits you shall know them. It's plain. Secondly, once we do discern that a person is a sinner at ease in Zion, a hypocrite, a false Christian, what's to be our response? Avoid such people. Why do we let people like that fill up our churches? Well, there's lots of reasons, and none of them are good, you see. The works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality. Okay, I'm good on that. In your mind, are you? All right, okay. Impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. I had this backwards. Now he gives the positive fruit of the spirit. And he goes through there and he's saying, okay, well, I'm looking at that list and I'm examining myself. I don't see that bad fruit in me. I think I'm pretty patient and faithful and so on. But then it's like Paul's saying, I know some of you, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that you applied this test, this list to yourself, and you think you're coming out pretty good. So he's like, so I'm gonna hit you with one final thing. Let us not become conceited. Boom. See? Because the sinner at ease in Zion is anything but humble. He's very, very conceited. I believe in the Holy Spirit is to confess these things and more. And so the question is then, if I say I believe in the Holy Spirit, then what is my religion? Is it a religion of the heart, of the spirit, or is it a mere outward shell? Am I truly a citizen of Zion, a child of God, or am I a hypocrite at ease in Zion? These are vital vital questions because, as I've already said, eternity is a long, long time. Our God is a consuming fire and no one will stand before him on that day unless we are in, in Christ, you see. Let's not be foolish and allow ourselves to be deceived. Father, we thank you for these truths, these words that challenge us. Thank you for your spirit. We thank you for the new birth. Thank you for a true religion. And we pray, Father, that every one of us will know these things, that we will know that your spirit is in us and is leading us. And we pray, Father, that anyone listening to this message and these truths from your word who is dead in their sins. Father, I pray that you would, by your Spirit, awaken them, make them hear the rumblings and the terrible voice of Mount Sinai, of the law, and that they would see their need for Christ and flee to him and pray to you to have mercy upon them. And we pray this all in Christ's name, amen.