We were in a series in the Holy Spirit last week and so I wanted to sketch kind of the main themes from last time and then move into some new material. Last week we found out that the Holy Spirit is a person. He is not a power package. He is not a thing. He is not an it. He is a person and most importantly he is a superior person. In other words, he is the person who makes the demands to which we submit. He's not here to answer to our demands. Secondly, the Holy Spirit's work is primarily that of restoring us to the divine ideal. You remember that we quickly surveyed the fact that man is a fallen creature. So his intellect is darkened, his emotions are debauched, and his will is deadened. But the Holy Spirit is at work to restore us to God's ideal for the race, something that he does by conforming us to the image of Christ. And then lastly, we asked ourselves what our relationship should be to that superior being who is at work in us And that involved then the whole question of what true spirituality is or what it means to be a spiritual person. And the scripture indicates that our relationship is really marked by the word submission. So the true spirituality is not what I'm doing or how I look or what standards I have, but true spirituality is a matter of my submissive relationship to the Spirit of God. And so whatever He demands, I must respond without question. Now with all of that in mind, and that kind of recaps last week, we need to begin this morning with a starting point for the Spirit's work. And His work begins in what we call, in general terms, salvation. There's an old song that says, wonderful, wonderful, marvelous and wonderful what he has done for my soul, the half has never been told. That's true. Now, any things can you think of that the Holy Spirit did for you in the moment you received Christ? How many things can you think about? Are there three? Are there six? Are there ten? Well, I want to tell you there's at least nine separate activities of the Spirit that take place in the moment you receive Christ. And I say at least nine because there may be more, but theologians argue over a couple of them. So there's at least nine distinct works of the Spirit in the soul of a man when he receives the Lord Jesus as his Savior. And if we had a better appreciation for what the Holy Spirit did when we received Christ, we would have a better appreciation for what we are as Christians. In other words, there is a vast difference between us and an unsaved person. And the difference is not in the goods we possess or where we attend church, but the difference is in what we are, and all of that is the result of the Spirit's work. I want to speak to you today on the Holy Spirit in the sinner's salvation and we are going to survey these nine things together. Unless you worry about this being a nine-point sermon, you should know that we're going to treat some of them more than others because I want to really focus on the ones that have the most questions attached to them because you remember that I told you last time that there's a number of controversies connected with some of our understanding in the Holy Spirit's work. So, today as we look at these nine things, there are three of them that I really want to spend most of our time on, and I also want to try and put these into some kind of chronological order of how they happen. Although, you also have to understand that some of these do take place simultaneously. So we'll try to be chronological as well. But the starting point for us is in John 16, verses 8 to 11. You should have your Bibles open there. Let me just remind you of this passage. The passage says that when He, talking of the Spirit, has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they do not believe in Me. Of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more. Of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. So the first thing that the Holy Spirit does for a sinner is to convict him. That means he convinces the conscience of a person that he is wrong. And he's wrong with regard to three things. Number one, sin. Now what particular sin is the Holy Spirit concerned about convicting in the sinner? If you look at it, it says, because they believe not in me. So if I can make this, just this side comment about witnessing to lost people, we don't deal with the lost about their immorality. Although it may be necessary sometimes to bring that into the picture in order to point out that it's sin. But my point is that we don't target them for that. We don't deal with them about their profanity or any one of their other sins. Instead, we deal with the lost about the sin of unbelief. Well, they're failing to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior. That is what interests the Spirit of God. That is where His power is packed when dealing with lost people. It's convincing them that it is a sin to remain any longer in disbelief. Secondly, he convicts them of righteousness and it says, because I go to my father and you see me no more. So what does that have to do with righteousness? That's an interesting point, so let me ask you a question. What is supposed to be proven by the fact that you don't see the Lord Jesus and you can't find his body anywhere? Well, more than anything else, that is God's indication that Jesus Christ was righteous. Why? Well, because the Father received Him into glory. I mean, if He'd been a common sinner, His body would be in the grave to this day. But the fact that you don't see Him, and you can't find His body, is the clearest indication that everything He did was accepted by the Father. So the Spirit seeks to convince the sinner of righteousness by having him look at the life of Christ and see that this is the kind of life that's acceptable with God, as evidenced by the fact that God took him back to heaven. And then thirdly, of judgment, because if God accepted Christ, then he certainly rejects the ruler of this world, and the ruler of this world, it says, is judged, and everything about his lifestyle is judged. So a sinner must be convinced of the same inevitable judgment of God on his life. So the very first thing that the Holy Spirit must do is convince a man that he is wrong in his position as a sinner because he has not received Christ. He has not patterned his life after that standard. Now, if we stopped right there today, that would be a miracle. I mean, have you ever tried to convince somebody that he's wrong? So it truly is miraculous for the Spirit of God to bring a person to the conclusion that his entire life is a shambles. That really hurts someone's pride. But once the Spirit has brought that man to survey his life with honesty and conviction, then at that point this man must respond in faith to what the Savior has done for sinners. And salvation is very simple to explain to a sinner, right? Basically, you're a sinner, you can't save yourself, you need a Savior, and Jesus is the only Savior. I mean, it's just that simple. But even though it's expressed in those simple terms, when salvation happens, there is a whole lot of activity going on in the soul of a man by the Spirit of God. And at this point, the chronology is very hard to put together. Some theologians say that as soon as this man is convinced of his sin, then he exercises faith in God, and then the Spirit goes to work in his heart. That's one view. Other theologians say, well, no, you've got it all wrong. The Spirit works in his heart, then he exercises faith, because he couldn't exercise faith if the Spirit wasn't at work in his heart. So you've got these two mainstreams of thought. Pick a side. Because Scripture isn't really clear about the order of those things. So we can't be totally dogmatic about it. But at this point we're going to assume that this man is responding to what the Spirit is convicting him about, which means that the next activity of the Spirit is what the Bible calls regeneration. I want you to turn with me to Titus 3.5. Titus 3.5. You should know this one. This is one of two passages in the Bible that use this word regeneration. And in Titus 3.5 it says that it's not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us and he does it by two things it says through the washing of regeneration and number two the renewing of the Holy Spirit. The word regeneration here means to be generated again. Remember what I said last week God generated man, man degenerated, God regenerates. Now in this particular verse it says the washing of regeneration and that probably refers to the work of God in cleaning out a man's life. But very closely connected with that is this phrase the renewing of the Holy Spirit. That word renewing means to make again or make anew and in connection with the previous term theologians call this particular work of the Holy Spirit is regeneration, which is exactly the same thing as being born again. In John 3, remember that the Lord was talking to a famous man that we know as Nicodemus. And the Lord said to him, you must be born again. Well, the Lord's speaking of exactly the same thing mentioned here, although the word regeneration is not mentioned in John 3. But to be born again is simply to be born twice. You're born all over again. And this really confused Nicodemus. In fact, remember that he said, well, how can that be? I mean, how can a man enter his mother's womb a second time? And the Lord said, well, you know, you're kind of misunderstanding my point here. He said, I'm not talking about a physical birth. This is a spiritual thing, and the Holy Spirit is the one who brings you to birth. Now, what happens when you're born to birth? Well, that's regeneration. What is regeneration? Well, at this point I want to define it and we're going to learn some definitions today and each one is going to be short. But here's regeneration. Regeneration simply means to impart eternal life. To regenerate is to impart eternal life. So the first thing that the Holy Spirit does to a believing sinner is to give him a completely new life. And I hope we understand that when we say eternal life, we are not so much speaking about the fact that this is a life that will never end, but we're speaking about a life that has about it the very character of God. It is eternal. One of the attributes of God is eternality, and so one of the attributes of the new nature born in us is the same eternality. It is eternal life, not so much life in contrast to death, but a life that is of an entirely new kind. Okay? Now, let me explain why it's necessary for something to happen in us that brings us a new nature like that. I mean, do you know what your old sinful intellect was like before you were born again? I just want you to listen to these descriptions from Scripture. The Bible describes your old mind, the mind of the flesh, as dark, evil, at war with God, incapable of receiving truth, and reprobate, which means that your mind gravitates to sin, just like lead sinks to the bottom of the ocean. That is the mind's gravitation. It is reprobate, vain, conceited, defiled, corrupt, earthly, blind, and deaf. You know, when you hear those descriptions, if I can just pause to make this observation, is it any wonder then that as a child of God, I have such difficulty with my thought life? And is it any wonder that this is the channel through which demonic spirits work? I mean, this is a terrible thing, terrible mind that we have in the flesh. What about the emotions? Well, listen to these Bible descriptions again. They are lustful, hard, unrepentant, blind, erring, deceived, and without natural affection. And your will is all summed up in Romans 6, 16-20 as enslaved as a servant to sin. Now I need to make this as clear as I can. When you were born again, God did not remake your old mind, your old emotions, and your old will. This is what constitutes your flesh, your old sin nature. That sin nature is your capacity for these wicked things. It's the part of you, your sin nature is the part of you that makes it possible for you to do and think and feel in this way. That's why the Bible describes it in those terms. Now of course Adam did not have that capacity until he sinned, but this is all that we have as a sinner until God works in us a new capacity. That new capacity is called our new nature. So now we have the capacity to obey God and to love God and to understand God. We never had that before we had the new nature. This means that when a man is regenerated at that point he does not become two persons but he becomes one person with two different capacities inside of him. Now, a couple of practical points to make here. In the first place, I think it's important for us to remember that you never lose your capacity to sin. When the Holy Spirit regenerates you, it does not mean that you've lost all of that old nature. In fact, the scripture says that the old nature is actually antagonized by the presence of the new nature. It rises up against that. But I'll tell you what has happened. You can think about this as the difference between one letter. It's not a matter of losing the old nature, but it's a matter of loosing myself from it. You get that? It's one letter difference. It's that the dominion of the old nature has been snapped so that it no longer has dominion over you. You are loosed from it. So now it cannot bark an order and expect you to respond. Why? Well, you've been liberated. There's no longer the dominion of that nature in your life. Now that's very important for a believer to realize because it means that no matter how habitual your sin was, or how long you were enslaved to sin, or how many years you were under the dominion of sin, when Christ came into your life, that dominion is snapped. And now you can live for Christ. Now it's true there are scars. Sometimes temptation lights up those scars like lightning lights up the rocks and the trees on the hillside. But God has made it possible for you with that new nature to live for Christ. One other comment I want to make about this concerns the Old Testament saints. Were our Old Testament saints regenerated like that? Did the Holy Spirit work in their sin nature? Take a poll, what do you think? Well, it's very hard to find a verse about that, but there are two reasons why I believe that they were. First of all, it has always been, always been, impossible in the flesh to please God. That didn't just start with penny cost. It's always been that way. So anybody who is going to please God has to please God through the energy of the Spirit. Just take it to the bank. Secondly, when the Lord spoke to Nicodemus in John 3.10, He told him about the new birth. And remember that Nicodemus was surprised about all of that. And what did the Lord say to him? He said, well, are you a teacher in Israel and you don't understand these things? And he's implying that those people should have understood this concept. Now, granted, they didn't have the revelation in the Old Testament that we have in the New Testament. But I don't think there's any question but that men like David or Isaiah or Jeremiah or Joshua or Moses, these men of God were regenerated. Now, there was a difference between them and us, which we'll see later. But there had to be a new nature given to them. I mean, how could you live for God without a new nature? I mean, can you do it? No. When you understand the depths of depravity in an unsaved man, you understand that nobody can live for God without a new nature, whether his name is David or it's your name after Pentecost. Either way, you cannot live for God without a new capacity inside of you. And so we do believe that the Holy Spirit did regenerate those individuals. He imparted to them an eternal life, a brand new capacity for life. Now, that's a wonderful thing, and what is the result? Well, 2 Corinthians 5.17 says that if any man is in Christ, he's a new what? He's a new creation. And if you turn to Ephesians 2.10, I'm going to show you a passage that is very picturesque. in showing this. Ephesians 2. This is the passage that we often use in witnessing because it's such a good one. But it says, beginning in verse 8, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest anyone should boast, and don't stop there. I mean, yes, it's not from your works, but you've got to complete the idea in the next sentence for we are His workmanship." It's not your work, it's His. Created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Now that word workmanship is a beautiful word. It comes from the Greek word poiema. It's exactly the word from which we get our word poem. So when you receive the Lord Jesus you become a new creation, you become God's poem. So it's no wonder that God is so concerned about balance in your life or making it symmetrical and bringing all of the rhyme and the meter to a proper rate. It's no wonder that God is so concerned about smoothing you out and erasing things and substituting other things to make every single line as it should be because you are His poem. And people will think well of Him if they think highly of His poem. So when the Holy Spirit regenerated you, He gave you a new capacity for thought and for feeling and for action. And as you exercise yourself according to the Word of God in these areas, you actually become a beautiful, lyrical poem for God that draws men to Him as the Author. After regeneration, the next thing that involves the Holy Spirit is our baptism into the body of Christ. I'm going to leave that one out for now and come back to it because it's so controversial. I'm going to put it right at the end of the message because you're going to need to wake up by that point. Wake up and hear it. Chronologically, baptism is probably the next thing that happens after the Spirit works eternal life in you. Let's move on from that. If the Holy Spirit stopped right there, this is what you would be. You would be a person who has an old sin nature and a new God nature, but there'd be a big problem. The old sin nature is an adult. It's a well-exercised nature. And so the character of a man very easily still falls into those old patterns, those old sin patterns that you've been exercising in a certain direction for years. So in essence, you would have, as it were, an adult sin nature versus an infant God nature. And that adult sin nature also has allies. It has allies in the form of temptation from the world and the encouragement of the devil. So God will not leave you in that position. Instead, He brings to your side a paraclete. a comforter. One who is literally at your side to help the Holy Spirit himself. And he does that by doing this, number three, he indwells you. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is point number three. In other words, now it's a new infant God nature plus the very presence of God himself. So let's define indwelling at this point. To indwell is to impart God's presence. So regeneration is to impart eternal life. Indwelling is to impart God's presence, meaning that now we have two things the Holy Spirit has imparted to us. Eternal life, which is the very nature of God, and His own presence through indwelling. Now, I want to ask you a question. How do you know that you are indwelt at the same moment you're saved. In other words, how do you know it doesn't happen five years later when you surrender to Christ? How do you know it doesn't happen by praying and agonizing before the Lord, as some people do believe? Well, let me quickly give you three indications of how we know that indwelling does take place at the point of salvation. In the first place, the absence of the Spirit in your life indicates that you're actually unsaved, not unspiritual. Listen to Romans 8, 9 to 11. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. So what if I don't have the Spirit? Then I'm not of Christ. So we know that indwelling has to happen at the point of salvation if that person is to have Christ. And then the verse goes on to say, but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So the absence of the spirit indicates that a man is unsafe. Secondly, the presence of the spirit indicates the presence of Christ in the life. 1 John 3.24 says, and by this we know that He abides in us, speaking of Christ, by the Spirit whom He has given to us. So if I don't have the Spirit in my life, then I don't belong to Christ. But if I do have the Spirit, then I actually have the indwelling of Christ in my life as well. I have His abiding with me. And then thirdly, did you know that the Holy Spirit is said to dwell even in Christians who are terribly carnal? Do you know that? Your indwelling has nothing to do with your sinlessness. Nothing whatsoever. Let me show you. Turn to 1 Corinthians 3. I want to look at two passages here very quickly. What do we know about the Corinthian Christians? Were they spiritual people? No. You know, if this were the first Corinthian church of Blacktown, we would not be quick to join. We'd be quick to separate. Because they were very carnal. They were all divided about the preachers that they had in their congregation. They tolerated immorality in their midst. They were taking each other to court. They were abusing the Lord's table and prostituting their own spiritual gifts. They were clearly carnal people. And yet, 1 Corinthians 3.16, Paul says to them, do you not know that you, now that's a plural. He's talking about the whole church. So the whole church, you are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwells in you, that's another plural. If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, which temple you, plural, are. That church was indwelt by the Spirit as a whole. What about individual believers? Look at chapter 6. Chapter 6, verse 19, he says, or do you, now this one's singular. He reverts to singular. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? He's speaking of individual believers. Now, put that together And he's saying to these carnal Christians that you individually and you corporately are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And I pointed out last week when he speaks of the temple here, he's not speaking of the whole outer courtyard in that temple complex. He's talking about the Holy of Holies. He's talking about the place where the priest would go just once a year. This is the place that housed the Shekinah glory of God. And he says that, that's what you are. Now what point am I trying to prove? I'm trying to prove that every Christian is indwelt at salvation regardless of his sinlessness. He is indwelt because the absence of the Spirit indicates that he is not saved at all. So the timing for this is at the moment of salvation and it means to impart God's presence to us. Now, very practically, This simply means that when God said, I will never leave you nor forsake you, He meant it. In other words, He doesn't come and go on the basis of whether you're having a bad day spiritually or not. I mean, you didn't have your devotions, we can forget that, okay? No, the indwelling of the Spirit is the one thing you can count on from the moment of your salvation and into eternity. It is not possible for you to ever be alone again, because He will never leave you. Now, at this point, God needs to do something else to help you understand His truth. Let me give you a little bit of background to this before I give you the next point. The thing that God is always after in a man is his will. If God has a man's will, He has the man. And people generally say that there are two paths to the will. There's the intellect, and there's the emotion. In other words, you can either reason with a man intellectually to get his will, or you can make him feel a certain way to get him to do something. Now, that is actually incorrect. Because it's not that there are two paths to the will, and you can either go on one path, the path of fact, or the path of feeling, but intellect and emotion are really two laps on the same track. Alright? They're like two runners in the same relay race. So the race always begins with runner intellect. And runner intellect passes the baton to runner emotion. And they both run the race and work upon the will. In other words, You are never stirred emotionally unless it's on the basis of something that grips your mind. On the basis of fact. Now you might be confused about the fact. You might be all worked up when there's no real facts at all, but you think there's a fact. But my point is that when God works on us, He gives us the facts, and the facts are there to stir our emotions, and then they both go to work on the will. Now it has to be this way. Anytime you divorce emotion from fact, you end up with just sentimentality. True feeling is feeling that is fed by fact. So God has to begin with your mind in order to bring you into conformity with the character of Christ. Did you know that? He cannot begin with your emotion or your will. He has to begin with your mind. You say, you got a verse for that? I sure do. Romans 12, 1 and 2. It says that you ought to be transformed by the renewing of your what? Exactly. It doesn't say emotion, does it? Your mind. It's by making new your mind. Now, I do want to clarify, having said that, that we should not be afraid of our emotion as Christians. You know, as fundamentalists, we're sometimes a little bit too afraid of getting emotional. We back off from that a little bit too much. If this really is a wonderful life that we live in this world with the Lord and we tell others about it and if God's really done all of these things for us, well that ought to make us joyful people. And there ought to be some emotion attached to that. I mean, there should be times when you're not afraid to give a good hearty amen. That's okay, at the very least. And there should be times when you just well up with emotion. what the Lord has done for us. And when you have the facts that engage the emotion and then move the will, then you have a supercharged saint. But regardless, God has to start with your mind, and you know what that's called. The Spirit indwells you, but then you have something that is called the anointing of the Spirit. I'm going to give you three passages here because the anointing of the Spirits only mentioned in three places in the New Testament. In 2nd Corinthians 1.21 you have the first reference to anointing and all it says is this, Now he who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God. So it simply says that God has anointed us. If you look at 2nd John 2 there are two other references in that chapter. If you turn over to 2nd John 2 I'll show you. verses 20 and 27. In verse 20 it says, but you have an anointing from the Holy One and you know all things. Notice that this anointing is connected with what you know. Go down to verse 27. But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it is taught you, you will abide in Him." Now, when we speak of the anointing of God, we typically speak of Him as anointing someone with what? Power, right? In the Old Testament, there's at least two references that connect anointing with power. There are no references like that in the New Testament. In the New Testament, you simply have these three references. The first one is not really connected with anything, but the latter two are both connected. However, it's not with power, it's with teaching. So what is the anointing of the Spirit? As far as I understand it, the anointing of the Spirit is rendering a new believer teachable. In other words, it's working in him the ability not only to understand truth, but the willingness to understand truth. It's to work in him an innate knowledge of truth. And once he has that kind of work in him, now God can begin to sow in his heart the seeds of reality and truth. So really, if you think of it in this way, it is not totally correct, according to the New Testament, for us to pray that God would anoint us with Holy Spirit power because the anointing happened at salvation. He says to the people in 1 Corinthians, you have an anointing. They already had it. In verse 20 here, he says, you have an anointing. In verse 27, the anointing which you have received. So in all three cases, the verbs indicate that this is something that happened once in the past, and as a believer, I have it. I don't need to pray for it. I'm never commanded to pray for this anointing since I already have it. Now let me add that this is the very thing that works in me a reversal of the condition that I had before salvation. 1 Corinthians 2.14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Give a witness to a lost person, and told them what it's like to live as a Christian. You ever said to somebody before, you know what it's like to live as a Christian? I mean, you get to pray, and read your Bible, and go to church, and learn about God, and when you say that to people, their faces just drop. I mean, you can just tell this is the last thing in the world they want to hear. That sounds like a terrible life. Go to church? Read the Bible? Are you kidding me? Why? Because all of that is foolishness to them. The natural mind cannot comprehend the value of that. Those things are foolish. But what happens as soon as you receive the Lord? You get a spiritual appetite. And the value of some of those things begins to dawn on us for the first time. It's like plugging yourself into an electric socket where everything just comes on. That is the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It renders us teachable. I don't know how to completely explain that, but it's definitely connected with teaching. Now, one word of clarification. Verse 27 should not be used by anyone to say that we don't need good and godly men from God to teach us. Sometimes you find a person and they have a great deal of misplaced zeal And they end up thinking, you know, that the Holy Spirit, well, He's the only one who's going to be my teacher. I don't need these other guys. Okay? So they conclude that I don't need to go to church, and I don't need to read any Christian books. I'm just going to listen to what the Holy Spirit says. Don't need Bible teachers. Okay. I want to ask you a question. If you think so highly of the Holy Spirit's teaching of you, why do you think so little of His teaching of other men? Holy Spirit has taught these other men. And it is God's intent that we learn what the Holy Spirit has taught them. No, this is simply saying that we're not enslaved to human teachers because the Holy Spirit himself in our hearts is the final indicator of the validity of what we hear from those teachers. And of course, now that we have a complete revelation, the Holy Spirit indicates that through the Bible. So I can sit in church and say, Is that what the Holy Spirit says or not? How do I know? Is it in the Bible? My point is that it is His anointing that makes it possible for me to understand God's Word like that. Let's just review for a moment what's happened so far. So far the Holy Spirit has convinced me that I'm wrong. Then He's imparted to me eternal life. He's imparted to me His own presence. and he's rendered me teachable. So at this point, there is a great deal that's going on in my life. Isn't it funny that when you receive the Lord, you don't even know that all of this is happening to you? I mean, you don't feel it. You don't see it. You can't touch it. But it's happening. And I want to give you a verse for that. Don't you think it's a bit strange that you don't feel it? understand even what's going on? Well, we shouldn't feel strange because the Lord Jesus said this is exactly how it would be. Remember he was talking to Nicodemus again. Nicodemus said, well, how can all of this be? And the Lord said to him, don't marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, you see, you hear the results, but you cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. So I can see the results in my life. All of a sudden I can understand spiritual truth. Someone turn the lights on. All of a sudden I want to walk with God. I can sense these results and yet I don't know how it happened because this is something the Bible gives us facts about but it doesn't give a full explanation of the process. It just happens. Let's move on. Now that we've been anointed, the next thing that the Holy Spirit is going to do for you is give you the assurance that you are secure for all eternity. You ever debate with people over the issue of eternal security? I mean, are we eternally secure or not? Big question. How do you know if you are? Somebody says, well, I feel it. Do you? Always? You ever gotten up in the middle of the night and stubbed your toe on the dresser? What did you say? You see, there are times when you don't feel very much like a Christian. This is the problem with basing our eternal security on our feelings. Now this is why then, in Ephesians 6, the first part of our Christian armor that is mentioned is what? What's the first piece of armor mentioned? The helmet of salvation. Because what part of the body does the helmet protect? The head. Why the head? Because mentally you have to be convinced that you're saved before you can do any warfare for God. You know, when some of these countries take out soldiers as prisoners of war, one of the first things that they want to do is just completely isolate them. Cut them off from friends and their country and convince them that they've been deserted and nobody cares about them. They're just kind of lost and forgotten forever. And when they convince them of those things, those soldiers then weaken and they give up their courage and they give up their fight. Well, the devil would love to convince you that you're not saved. And so it's absolutely essential that when we enter the battle, we have on our head the conviction of our salvation And the Holy Spirit makes that possible by sealing us. It's the next thing God does for the believer. What is a seal? Well, in the ancient days, you know, they used to have this thing called stationary. And you would take what they call a pen and write words on paper. And they had these things called stamps and a place called a post office. Some of you remember the days, right, when you used to buy these boxes of really nice perfume stationery. And if you had a really nice set, it might come with a metal seal that maybe had your last initial on it, and a couple of sticks of wax. So you would lick the envelope shut, and then you would melt the wax over the flat, and you'd press the seal on that to create an imprint on the wax. The idea was that the receiver of the letter would know that nobody had tampered with it. Because that seal would be unbroken until it got to them. Well, the sealing of the Holy Spirit is an indication of God's ownership. And it also secures me for God alone for all eternity. I'm His possession forever. He has marked me with His initial, in a sense. And He's the only one who can open me up. And one of these days, praise the Lord, we will be opened up in heaven. And then all of the old nature will come out. And all of the new nature will be brought to full maturity. And then we will be strong and complete men and women in Christ. And the thing that seals me for that right now is the Holy Spirit. In fact, He actually is the seal. Let me show you this. There's three passages that deal with the Holy Spirit sealing the believer. The first one is in 2 Corinthians 1.22 which is the same passage that spoke of His anointing in verse 21. But the two that I want to look at in a little more detail are in Ephesians. So turn to Ephesians 1. This will tell us when we are sealed. Ephesians 1.13 says, speaking of Christ, in him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed you were sealed with what? The Holy Spirit of promise. So when were you sealed? When you believed. Look at Ephesians 4.30. This one says, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed, and now he's gonna tell you when the seal's gonna be broken, for the day of redemption. When does that occur? When God redeems these old bodies of flesh and gives us glorified bodies, amen? So let's just pause then and define what it means to be sealed. To seal is to secure for God. and the Holy Spirit himself is my security. He is the seal. So maybe you know what it is to have what I would call a holy impulse that leads to action. I mean, you can't explain it, but all of a sudden there was this constraint on your soul to maybe speak to that person about Christ, and you know that if you don't do it, that for the rest of the day, you're going to be in disobedience to God. That's the kind of thing that should be an indication to you of your eternal security. In other words, the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life like that is an indication of your security in Christ. Now let me point something out to you. Sometimes the security of the believer is argued against because if you tell somebody they're secure, he's going to take that as a license to go out and live any way that he wants. I've got my fire insurance, I can live any way I want. Okay? That's how they look at it. So, you know, we shouldn't really push for the idea that you can be sure you're saved because they're going to take that for granted. But do you know what the Apostle Paul uses the security of the believer to actually argue for? Look at Ephesians 4.30 again. Grieve not the Holy Spirit. Why? Because you are sealed. You see what he's doing? He's saying that the seal of the Holy Spirit isn't a license to sin, it's actually a discouragement against sin. I mean, when a man believes he is secure in Christ, that thought above all should discourage him from sin. He shouldn't get a license to do it. I can illustrate it in this way. If you married people out there, who is the one person on earth that you are most concerned not to displease, besides the Lord. Here's the one person, you're married, just us, okay? Your mate, why? Because you got to live with her, right? You don't have to see that other person until tomorrow. But your wife, well, we gotta spend a lot of time together, so we better get along. Yes, and don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Why not? Because He lives with you. And you have got to live with Him. And He won't give up on you. Read Hebrews 12. If you're a son, you will endure chastening. If you don't have any chastening, it says that you're an illegitimate child. But if you're a son, you'll be chastened. So don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Don't hurt His feelings by living a sinful lifestyle any more than you would hurt your wife by living a sinful lifestyle. All I'm saying is that the security of the believer is a discouragement from sin, not a license to sin. And anyone who truly understands what it means to be the Holy Spirit's property is a person who actually fears to sin because according to 1 Corinthians 11, the Holy Spirit will go so far, if necessary, to even bring a believer to a premature death. He will not give up So the sealing, our security, is the very thing that makes you concerned about living a holy life, and that is a wonderful thing. Now, that brings us to three other things, and very quickly, two of them I'll list, we won't say much about them. But having sealed you and made you secure, He also becomes something else for you when it comes to eternity. Let me define it for you. He becomes your guarantee or your pledge for future blessings. He's your guarantee. Some people refer to this as your down payment on future blessings. What's a down payment on a mortgage? Well, you don't have all the money that you need for that house, so here's part payment and it guarantees that you're going to come back and pay the rest later. Well, the Holy Spirit is your guarantee in three passages. Talk about it again. 2 Corinthians 1.22, which we already saw, and then 2 Corinthians 5.5 and Ephesians 1.14. In our version, in most other versions, I think it's referred to as our guarantee, the Holy Spirit is our guarantee. So just like He is the seal, it's important to remember that He Himself is the guarantee. He Himself is the down payment. Look at it this way. How do you know what it's gonna be like in heaven? Well, you already know what it's like to have the Holy Spirit in your life, right? I mean, surely you know what it's like to get up and live a whole day for the glory of God. And then to lie down at night and just say to yourself, you know, I wish every day could be like this. You ever had one of those days? I mean, you just feel like you're walking just so closely with the Lord. You're just so responsive to Him. He gives you such an understanding of scripture in your devotions and a wonderful opportunity to testify of Christ to somebody else and you lay down at night and you say, oh man, if every day was just like this, that's what heaven would be like. Yes, and you just got the down payment. That's the indication and guarantee of what awaits us in glory. In fact, when we experience that kind of thing, it's meant to make you long for glory. So when the Holy Spirit is working in my life that way, I should say, boy, if this is just a down payment, what's coming later? I'll be a millionaire spiritually. So here's our pledge of future blessings, and that's how we're going to define it. There's a wonderful passage on this in 2 Corinthians 5.5. We don't have time to look at it, but the apostle says, who has prepared us for this very thing as God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee, and since that's true, he says, so we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. We are confident, yes, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. So the Holy Spirit is in your life to be your confidence, that as soon as you die, you go home to be with the Lord. Now, two other things the Holy Spirit does for you, I'm just gonna comment on them. They're very closely connected to our Christian service, but at the moment you're saved, he also fills you. And we'll look at the Spirit's filling in a later message. And then he entrusts you with spiritual gifts. And I'll prove that in a moment when we look at the one thing I've left out, which is number nine. But let's just go over all of them to remind ourselves. We have the Spirit's work in regeneration, which is to impart eternal life. Gosh, I forgot conviction. The convicting work. Regeneration. Then there's the indwelling, which imparts God's presence. He anoints us, meaning he renders us teachable. He's the seal, meaning he secures us for God. He's the guarantee or our pledge of future blessings. Then he fills us. He gives us spiritual gifts. Finally, all right, let's talk about this last one connected to the spirit, which is baptizing. Now I need to introduce this before we continue. The reason baptizing is so controversial is because of at least three areas of confusion. Let me mention them to you. Sometimes the baptism of the spirit is confused with water baptism. And yes, there are Christian teachers who say that there's no such thing as a spirit baptism because it's just another way of speaking about water baptism. So whenever you see baptism, it's water baptism alone. Another issue is when people teach that spirit baptism is always indicated by tongue speaking. And again, there are Christian teachers, and some of them very sincere, born-again people who love the Lord, but they teach that being baptized by the Spirit will always be indicated by tongue speaking. If you don't speak in tongues, you're obviously not baptized. Then there's a third area of confusion when the baptism of the Spirit is defined as a second work of grace after salvation that empowers the believer for service. In other words, they're really confusing baptism with filling. Now, let me read a statement to you from someone who teaches some of these things. It's a man named Larry Christensen, Lutheran charismatic. This is from his book, Speaking in Tongues, and he says, sometimes the baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs spontaneously, sometimes through prayer and the laying on of hands, sometimes it occurs after word of baptism, sometimes before, sometimes it occurs virtually simultaneously with conversion, sometimes after an interval of time. But one thing is constant in scripture, and it's most important, it is never merely assumed that a person has been baptized with the Spirit. When he has been baptized with the Spirit, he knows it. It is a definite experience. Now, I want to extract three things from that quote. First of all, he's saying that the baptism of the Spirit is unpredictable and inconsistent when it comes to timing, right? He says it may occur when you're saved, or after you're saved, when someone lays their hands on you, when they pray over you, you just never know when it's gonna happen. Number two, however, he's saying that you will always be aware that you're experiencing it. All right, quote, when he's being baptized with the Spirit, he knows it. And then thirdly, he says that it is an event that you, as a Christian, cannot take for granted. In other words, it's the kind of thing you may or may not have, so don't take it for granted that you got it. Now I want to question that. Can a believer indeed take for granted that he is baptized with the Spirit? Or do we need to hold a prayer meeting all day while we wait for the baptism of the Spirit? Let's turn to the answers in scripture. I want to look at almost every scripture that mentions spirit baptism and there aren't many of them. But I think you'll see exactly what it is as we go along. So turn to the first one in Matthew 3. Matthew 3. In this chapter, what great Old Testament prophet, the last one, is baptizing people? John the Baptist. John's baptizing. Notice what he says in verse 11. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Right away you can see that there's a contrast. I do it with water. He will do it with the Holy Spirit and fire. And that tells you that there is a distinction between spirit baptism and water baptism. Right? They're clearly not the same thing. Secondly, notice who the baptizer is. Who baptizes with the Spirit? Jesus. The Lord Jesus does it. In fact, do you know that nowhere in scripture is the Holy Spirit spoken of as the baptizer. It is incorrect to speak of the Spirit baptizing us. The Lord Jesus baptizes us. Now listen very carefully to the distinction. The Spirit is the element into which we are baptized. Just like water was the element into which John baptized. We'll see more of that in a moment. And one more thing I want to point out here, what about this fire? What's the baptism of fire? What happened at Pentecost? There were tongues of fire. Is that what this is referring to? Charismatics say, yes. Look at the next verse. Verse 12 says, His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. There's your fire. It's a fire of judgment, not a fire of Pentecost. So what is he obviously saying then in the previous verse? He's saying that the Lord Jesus will baptize you with either the Holy Spirit or with fire. Who gets baptized with fire? It's the people who aren't wheat, but chaff. And that's obviously a reference to unbelievers. In other words, this reference tells us that the lake of fire is a type of baptism. And the Lord Jesus, as a judge, will baptize unbelievers in that fire. So it's definitely not referring to the tongues of fire at Pentecost. Now let me sum this up for you. All four Gospels say this, that John the Baptist told the people, I baptize with water, he will baptize with the spirit and fire. And from that we've learned there is a spirit baptism that is distinct from water baptism, that the one baptizing is the Lord Jesus and that the baptism of fire is not referring to the tongues of fire but to the lake of fire. Turn to the next reference, Acts 1.5. Did the Lord's disciples ever experience their spirit baptism in the Gospels? Look at Acts 1.5 for the answer. Have they experienced it by the time they get to that verse? No. Because the Lord says, and you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And notice again, it isn't the Spirit doing the baptizing, you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Not many days from now. So in chapter 2, what happens? Pentecost. At Pentecost, there are three signs. Tongues of fire, rushing mighty wind, and tongue speaking. We're going to have an entire message on tongue speaking. We're going to look at every single reference in the New Testament to tongue. Not many. They're all found in Acts and 1 Corinthians. But that message is coming. For now, I just want to point out that at Pentecost, those three things were involved. But do you know what's interesting? Nowhere in Acts 2 does it say that they were baptized with the Holy Spirit. And yet they were. How do I know? Because of the next reference, in Acts 11. Turn there with me. In Acts 10, there was a famous Gentile who received the Lord. His name was Cornelius. When Cornelius and his house received the Lord, they spoke in tongues. But I want to make this distinction in passing that although they spoke in tongues, there was no fire and there was no wind. like a Pentecost. Now when Peter saw what happened then, when he was there, he went back to Jerusalem and reported it. Here's what he said in verse 15, And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them as upon us at the beginning. Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. if therefore God gave them the same gift as he gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who is I, that I could withstand God." So Peter's saying, you know, when I saw them speaking in tongues, I realized that they'd been baptized with the Spirit, just like we were. And I remembered that the Lord had said, you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So Peter's saying that both at Pentecost and in Cornelius' house, spirit baptism did take place, which is how we know that it took place back in Acts 2, even though it's not mentioned there. But now I want to ask you a question. When a person is Spirit-baptized, will there always be fire? Yes or no? No. How do you know? Well, Cornelius didn't experience any. Will there always be a rushing mighty wind? No. Right, same reason. will there always be tongues? Because, you know, at Pentecost there were tongues. At Cornelius' house there were tongues. So should we all break into tongues and speak in tongues when we get Spirit-baptized? I mean, how do you know if you're Spirit-baptized if you don't speak in tongues? All right, let me just give you a preview of what we're going to cover when we get to the tongues message because I do need to clear this up in order to understand baptizing. In the Book of Acts, there are four occasions when the Holy Spirit came on groups of people. On three of those occasions, they spoke in tongues. In one of them, they did not. In addition to that, when Saul was converted and became the Apostle Paul, and he received the Holy Spirit, he did not speak in tongues. And all I'm pointing out is that in the Book of Acts, when people were baptized with the Spirit, Sometimes they spoke in tongues, but sometimes they didn't, meaning that tongue speaking is not necessarily an indication of baptism. That much should be crystal clear just from the evidence. But now, we do want to answer the question, when does spirit baptism take place? This is answered in the epistles, and open up with me, if you will, to 1 Corinthians 12. Almost done. I am almost done, I promise. Here's our passage for what's going on when a person is baptized in the Spirit. Let's begin in verse 12. He says, for as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. What did he just say? Well, very simply, he said, one body, many members. Or diversity in unity. One body, unity, many members, diversity. So just like you look at your body as one, yet you have so many diverse members as part of that body, so also is Christ. Now, how did it get that way? Look at verse 13. Here's how. For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, there's your diversity, and we've all been made to drink into one spirit. So he's saying that by one spirit, that's the element. It's actually better translated as with one spirit with one spirit. We were baptized into the body of Christ What is spirit baptism? What does it do according to this passage spirit baptism? Positions us into the body of Christ And if I can take that a step further that's why I say that at salvation the Holy Spirit also imparts spiritual gifts and Because when He positions us in the body, He positions you as a hand, or as a foot, or as a mouth, or an intestine, or a lung, or whatever. That's when He positions you in the body to perform a particular function. So what is Spirit Baptism? Spirit Baptism is positioning in the body of Christ. Who has experienced Spirit Baptism? Everybody who's in the body. Who is in the body? Every believer. Look at what he says. By one spirit, how many of us are baptized? We were all baptized into one body. And remember, he's writing that to carnal Christians. So even these people are baptized in the body. So if someone asks you, are you spirit baptized? Your response should be, well, are you a Christian? Are you in the body of Christ? There's only one way to get there. Spirit baptism. Now in summary then, I just want to make these five closing statements on baptism. First of all, who's the baptizer? Jesus. Secondly, there is never a single case in scripture where people are seeking spirit baptism. Not one. Number three, spirit baptism is never commanded. You will search in vain for any passage that says, be baptized in the Holy Spirit. It is never a commanded activity meaning it's not up to you. Number four, every time it refers to a Christian, it's referred to as a past action, meaning that it happened in the past and it happened once for all. It's never referred to in the present tense or as some kind of continual action. It says that about filling, never about baptism. And number five, every single Christian has been spirit baptized. As we come to a close this morning, and I know it's been a long message, but do we realize what the Spirit of God has done for us? It is phenomenal. You are not what you were. You're not even close. You're not even in the same league with unsafe people at all because you have the very life of God in you. You have the presence of the Holy Spirit. You have been rendered teachable to the truth of God. You have been stamped with God's seal as secure for all eternity. You've been given the Holy Spirit as your pledge for all the future blessings that God is going to give to you in heaven. You've been filled for service. You've been given certain spiritual gifts and you've been positioned in the body of Christ to perform that service and that means you are a completely different person from what you were. It also means that the life of Christ really is accessible to every one of us as believers. So to go on living the old life is to fail to recognize what the Holy Spirit has done for us. Let me make this final appeal, and I trust that God will just direct it to the hearts that need it this morning. Can you tell a difference from before and after your salvation? I mean, how do you know that you've been saved? In fact, you know that it's possible in our congregation for somebody to have professed Christ, and yet there is nothing in your spirit that demonstrates that. Your attitude is basically the attitude of an unsaved person. You might even teach the Bible to others, but when it comes to your outlook to souls, and your hunger for the Word of God, and your discipline in prayer and your responses to God and your spiritual responses to other people, it is no different from that of a lost person. Now that may be an indication that the Spirit of God has not remade you. I know people who were saved after years of thinking they were saved, You say, how can that be? Because people think that when they made some kind of verbal profession back there somewhere, it means something happened in their life, and it may not have happened. I can't totally explain why. Maybe you didn't express faith, or maybe you didn't really repent of your sins. So the question I'm asking then is this. Today, today, right now, in your seat, are you a new person in Christ? I don't want to cause anyone to doubt their salvation. Don't misunderstand me here. But I'll just put it to you like this. Do you know what it is to experience the leadership and the security of the Spirit of God in your life on a daily basis? If you don't, you may not be saved. I'm not going to give an invitation this morning, but as we go through this series, all I'm asking is this. Will you submit yourself to what we learn each week? And if we will do that, then when we come to the end of this series, we will be spiritual people, right? I mean, we will be more mature as spiritual people if we will give ourselves step-by-step to what we are learning. So last week, if you responded and submitted yourself to the Spirit of God, right, you've taken a step. Now this week, If you respond to these truths as a believer or even with a confession of Christ as your Savior, then today you can go out of here as a spiritual person. You say, yeah, but Pastor, I keep sinning all week long. Right. Keep a short account. Get it right with God. Confess it and be a spiritual person again. And live for the Lord. God wants us to be spiritual people. But it only comes by having a right relationship to his spirit.