From Greenville, South Carolina, we present Let the Bible Speak. Let the Bible Speak is the radio ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America, preaching Christ in all His fullness. Thank you for joining us for another broadcast of Let the Bible Speak. Today we continue a series of studies on the doctrine of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Message is preached by Dr. Alan Kairds, founder of Let the Bible Speak Radio Ministries, We'll be hearing from Dr. Cairns in just a few minutes. First of all, we invite you to enjoy a devotional thought from the pen of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, found in his collection called Faith's Checkbook. Our devotional for today is entitled In Calm Repose. The text is found in Hosea 2, verse 18. I will make them to lie down safely. Yes, the saints are to have peace. The passage from which this gracious word is taken speaks of peace with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground. This is peace with earthly enemies, with mysterious evils, and with little annoyances. Any of these might keep us from lying down, but none of them shall do so. The Lord will quite destroy those things which threaten his people. I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth. Peace will be profound indeed, when all the instruments of disquiet are broken to pieces. With this peace will come rest, so he giveth his beloved sleep. Fully supplied and divinely quieted, believers lie down in calm repose. This rest will be a safe one. It is one thing to lie down, but quite another to lie down safely. We are brought to the land of promise, the house of the Father, the chamber of love, and the bosom of Christ. Surely we may now lie down safely. It is safer for a believer to lie down in peace than to sit up and worry. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. We never rest till the Comforter makes us lie down. His rest in the eye of the storm. Though night winds may wade all around me, His comfort and love keep me warm. Peace divine as a father planned. Peace made mine by the Spirit. This peace defies all man's reason. Its boundaries exceed time and space. God promises peace to his children. The gift of God's love. of our God and states. And sleep peace, the gift of God's love. In the midst of this increasingly secularized and materialistic society, multitudes of men, women, and young people seem to have forgotten that they have immortal souls, and that one day they must stand before a holy God and face the ultimate judgment. Despite every effort to banish the reality of death from the mind, the Word of God declares, it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment. How can a person be ready for that awful day? Is there a way to face God without fear? The great 19th century preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon answered this question. in a powerful sermon entitled, Preparing to Meet God. Let the Bible Speak now offers a booklet published by the Trinitarian Bible Society, which contains this vital message under the title, Preparing to Meet God. In addition to the sermon text, the publication contains a brief biographical sketch of Spurgeon's life, as well as a schedule for reading the Bible through in a year, all contained in an attractive, conveniently sized booklet. To obtain your copy, simply email info at faithfpc.org. That's info at faithfpc.org. If you wish, you may call us at 864-244-2408. That's 864-244-2408. If you prefer regular mail, you may simply write, Let the Bible Speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, South Carolina, 29615. That's Let the Bible Speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, South Carolina 29615. Just ask for your copy of Preparing to Meet God, and we'll be happy to provide it. So, On today's edition of Let the Bible Speak, Dr. Kearns continues his series of studies in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Today he'll be bringing the next portion of a message entitled, The Earnest of the Spirit. The text is found in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 14. where the Apostle Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit as the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. Dr. Cairns has been drawing from the first three chapters of Ephesians, which describe the Christian's wealth, or what the believer has in Christ. In doing so, he has defined the term earnest as it applies to the Holy Spirit's relationship in the Christian's life. This word speaks of the Christian's partial entrance into this great wealth, of which the Holy Spirit is the chief part. In addition, as we'll see today, the earnest is the believer's assurance of that great wealth. Now Dr. Cairns continues the message called the earnest of the Spirit. When God wants you to live above the world, how do you do it? By the power of the Holy Spirit. When God wants you to serve Him in the ministry, in soul winning, in the mission field, or wherever, how do you do it? By the power of the Holy Spirit. Whatever the Lord wants a Christian to do, He gives him the power to do it in and through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance. The Holy Spirit is God's gift to His people to enable them to live in this world in a manner befitting the sons of God. Why then are Christians living beneath their dignity? Why are Christians bringing dishonor on the name that they bear? Why are Christians living in defeat to the devil and to sin? Why are Christians finding that their minds are stopped and they are overcome by the fear of man, and they are unable to stand for God, and they're unable to witness for Christ, and they're unable to win souls? Why is this? God has given us His Spirit. It is time in the Church that we rediscovered the doctrine of the reality and the person of the Holy Ghost. God has given us His Spirit that we should live as the heirs of God and fully enjoy Jesus Christ, at least to the fullest extent of our capabilities in a world in which we are surrounded by sin. So, first of all, the earnest tells me that we have now a partial entrance into the great wealth that there is in Christ. The second thing the earnest tells me is of the Christian's assurance of his great wealth. You know, the need for assurance in spiritual things is great. Paul said, we have not followed cunningly devised fables. I referred to Saint Christopher a moment ago. We can laugh at that. Can you think over centuries of the numbers of people who entrusted the welfare of their souls to a non-existent Saint Christopher? They have been sold fables! Now, you look across the United States today. There are hundreds and hundreds of religions. Many of them call themselves Christian. I'm not at the moment talking about distinctions of churches. I'm not saying look at the Methodists and then look at the Presbyterians and look at the Baptists. If they are true to their confessional standards, Methodists and Baptists and Presbyterians, for whatever reasons, differ on some things, but they are all together united on the great essentials of the faith in Jesus Christ. If they are true to their own confessions, they are united on the things that matter. So I'm taking them all as one. But there are various religions. And every religion is telling its devotees the way to heaven, or the way to God. Now, they can't all be right. They can't all be right. Jesus Christ said, I am the way. The Lord Jesus was the most exclusive of preachers, and the most intolerant of preachers, in the true sense of that word. The Lord Jesus says, I am the way. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. So therefore, if a man misses Christ, he's lost. Now, he can be religious, he can be well thought of, he can be whatever he will be, but if he hasn't got Christ, he's lost, and he's lost forever. I have stood at the open graves of men with stupid clergymen standing around, eulogizing them and lifting their names up to heaven, when by their own testimony those men died in blatant rebellion against God and God's Christ. And if that Bible is true, those men were in a lost eternity. Let's be clear about this. There is nothing upon which we need absolute assurance more than on the matter of our standing with God. But what better assurance could a man have than God Himself? What better assurance could a man have than a divine earnest, a down payment, a pledge, a first installment of heaven? with God's own Word behind it, I will fulfill the promise in this pledge." I give you from Genesis 38 the Old Testament word, pledge. In another form of that word, in the verb form, it occurs quite regularly. There's a very interesting text over in the book of Job. Let me draw your attention to it. where Job is praying. And he turns to the Lord in verse 3 of chapter 17. Lay down now, put me in assurity with thee, who is he that will strike hands with me. One commentator said Job was a bad bargain to anybody but God. How true that is. Who would have struck hands with Job? Would you have entered into a long-term bargain with Job? His breath stinking, his body corrupting, his wealth gone, his health gone, his family gone, his name gone, the very urchins of the street would spit upon him. He was the laughing stock and the gazing stock of his day. Would you have struck a bargain with Job? Who would strike hands with him? He was a lost cause to men, but he prays to God, put me in a surety with thee. Or literally, he's praying to the Lord, become a pledge or a surety for me. Lord, be my pledge! Lord, be my surety! I want to tell you, my friend, that the glorious gospel of God is that He has done it. In one sense, Jesus Christ became our surety. And on the cross, He bore my guilt and my debt, and He paid that to God. Then consequently the Holy Spirit became God's pledge given to me, so that God himself became a pledge that I would get to heaven. The Holy Spirit himself has been given in order to assure me that the blood of Christ has been shed for me. that the sacrifice of Christ has been accepted for me, and that the provision of Christ has been made over to me. Here is the assurance. You know when Paul says the Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance? Do you know what he's saying? He's saying God Almighty has engaged Himself by the most solemn obligation to bring you to heaven. That's what he's saying. I use the word engaged advisedly. Do you know that this word earnest in modern Greek is the word for the engagement ring? When a young man enters into the promise of marriage, And he puts that gold ring with all the sparkling diamonds or whatever on it onto the finger of his betrothed. He is giving her the earnest. I know that in our society that ring means practically nothing. It can be given and taken and given and taken until it's made a plaything. Remember that until very recent times, to break that was tantamount to breaking marriage. And indeed in English law, I don't know about American law, I'd have to let Tim come and talk on that, but I know in English law, even to this day, the suit for breach of promise can still be made and won. Why? Because that isn't earnest, it is an engagement. Could I say it very reverently, the Holy Spirit is the engagement ring that God has given to his people. God engages himself by the most solemn obligation, I will bring you to heaven. So the earnest speaks of our partial entrance now into our wealth in Christ. It speaks of our assurance our perfect assurance of this great wealth, and therefore, finally and very briefly, it speaks of the Christian's promised inheritance of that great wealth. The earnest. What does it say? The best is yet to be. The best is yet to be. I was speaking to an old woman up in Toronto recently. She's way up in her eighties. She's a great old soul. She's from back home in Northern Ireland. She's a great home baker, and every time we go, we enjoy all the Irish breads that she can bake like few people can. She was bringing me a parcel of this home-baked bread that we were bringing back down to Greenville. And we got to talking. I thanked her for it, and she said, No, don't thank me. It's just what a joy it was to be alive and well and serving the Lord. She was just bubbling over with the joy of the Lord, ready to live and ready to die. Tremendous old soul. As I talked to her, I thought of the words that I so often heard quoted from Bob Jones, Sr. And he said, The devil has no happy old man. You could say happy old woman. How true. As a minister over the years, it's been my privilege, more than my job, to visit many, many old people. Now, I'm very conscious that sometimes, especially young ministers, sort of feel that to talk, go and visit old people, sort of a waste of time. There's so many other things they could be doing. But I started out my ministry as Dr. Paisley's assistant. And I always remember the first job I had was visiting an old couple. They were really ready for death. It became a great joy to me to go there. Down through the years, when the Lord gave me the time, when I had just the church to look after, nothing else, I enjoyed going to talk to old folk, listen to them. I learned a lot from them. But most of all what I learned was the joy and the peace and the assurance of people who had Christ in their heart and they were ready for heaven. I visited other old people who weren't saved, and I can say that Dr. Bob never said a truer word. The devil has no happy old men. Now he has young men who think they're happy and they're that stupid, they fall for the lie. Yes. You get the crowd going tipsy around the dance floor, they think they're happy. The laughter of fools, says the Holy Ghost, is as the crackling of thorns under the pot. The fire is already kindled, and they don't know it. They have already become fuel for it, and they don't know it. But when they get to be old, The devil has no happy old men, and even very few who can be calmed into thinking that they're happy. There's disappointment and bitterness and disillusionment, and then only the darkness of a lost eternity to look forward to. For the unseemed, the worst is yet to be. you Let the Bible Speak is the radio ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America. Founded by Dr. Alan Cairns, Let the Bible Speak is also heard in many parts of the world through the international radio outreach of Let the Bible Speak, produced in Northern Ireland. The Free Presbyterian Church stands without apology for the absolute inerrancy of the Bible, emphasizing preaching that centers on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and is militant in its stand against the ecumenical apostasy and the efforts of the world to infiltrate the Church. For further information about the Free Presbyterian Church, you may email info at faithfpc.org. That's info at faithfpc.org. You may call us at 864-244-2408. Or you may write, Let the Bible Speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, SC 29615. Again, that's Let the Bible Speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, SC 29615. Also, we encourage you to visit the website of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America at www.fpcna.org. That's www.fpcna.org. This is Charles Kelsch saying thank you for listening and inviting you to join us again as we let the Bible speak.