Good to have everybody here this morning. Amen. In John chapter 16, we begin our series. This is the kickoff of a series that will carry us well through the summer on the Holy Spirit of God. Message entitled, Are You Just Winging It? And in my Master's on Theology program, I don't think I was ever brought as aware of the overall ministry of the Holy Spirit of God as I was through that study, and I said, I've got to share this with the people. It's so important. As a pastor, you look at your own life, and you also observe many of the parishioners as well. Not just only here, but elsewhere, just Christianity as a whole. And you see a lot of Christians that are struggling over issues they should never be struggling over, living lives that they should never have a question about whether it's right or wrong, whether it's good or whether it's bad, whether it's mature or whether it's immature. And I believe it is because we have left off really teaching our folk about the Holy Spirit, His ministry, and His purpose. And if we don't understand it, we don't know it, and a lot of times I believe that we've avoided it, in part, because of what the Charismatics have done. That is, to hijack a teaching about the Holy Spirit of God that is no longer relevant to today because of 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 10, where it says, and when that which is perfect is come, and that which is in part shall be done away with. There was a time when tongues was important. It was in a transitional period when they were going from law to grace, law to faith, if you will. And the ability to, and we need to be very careful about this because at Pentecost, the key, and it seems like when you are not looking for the absolute truth, you kind of hijack the truth that is there. And the Bible didn't say that Peter and them spoke with another tongue. It says that the people there heard. And that's the interesting thing. God did not give to Peter, who was basically would have been considered in the day an ignorant fisherman, having no real need to learn more than just his Hebrew language, his Hebrew dialect, to actually be able to speak so that Parthenians and Medes, and it just lists about 16 different languages that were present there in the day of Pentecost. For Peter to have done that and for the people to have been literally mesmerized, caught up into the message in such that 3,000 were saved on that particular day, that Peter would have had to been able to speak these 16 different languages dialectically perfect at one time. So the Bible says that Peter spoke really his natural language, but the folks at Pentecost heard. in their own language. And that was the real miracle of Bentecost. So there's no sense in reading that and trying to duplicate that in such a fashion that we get all caught up into somewhat of this quote-unquote mysterious language. God speaks all languages. There is no advantage for me to speak in an unknown tongue whatsoever. God would be far more concerned about the nature, the condition, and the nature of my heart in speaking and praying than He would in what language I might have used. And so, as we look at the Gospel of John, which has been read to us already this morning, We kind of get a rough idea of God's plan and purpose for the Holy Spirit of God. And that key verse is verse 13, where it says, Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth, for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come. Now what we learn from this opening text is the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit and His ministry in the lives of believers and in this world. We'll get to it eventually, but He is one of the restraining forces. How many of you think that the world's in pretty bad shape? All the way around. I mean, it's in pretty bad shape. And it's getting worse and worse and worse because the Holy Spirit is having less and less influence on the hearts of people. Unfortunately, not because he hasn't the power to do so, but because they could care less. But in the same process, I believe he's having less and less of an impact on the lives of believers, because believers don't understand the importance of him. But I want you to notice first that Jesus is very plain in his statement in John 16 and verse 7, as we look back there, and he says there, nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go. Now remember the disciples had been endeared to him for three years of his public ministry. They walked with him, they talked with him, they heard what he had to say. He bailed them out on a number of occasions when their lives were seemingly in jeopardy. They saw things and they experienced things that they had no doubt in their heart of hearts that this indeed was the long awaited Messiah. And they fell in love with him. And of course we read earlier in John chapter 14, he comforted them and said, let not your heart be troubled. And so he was comforting them, as we call really the first comforter, because he's promising he's going to send another comforter, which is not of a different kind, but of the same, if you will. But he says, it is expedient for you that I go away. Now the Lord is telling the disciples that it is to your advantage that I go. Now they're probably thinking to themselves, really? Why is this? And the answer is contained in the same verse. And it says here in verse 7, he says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the comforter, or the paraclete, or paracletos really is the word here, there's a word that's used, paraclete, and this here is the word paracleto, will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you. So he said, my ministry is finished. And that's basically what he's telling him. My ministry is finished. I have accomplished what I came here to accomplish. I gave my life on the cross. I shed my blood. I gave up my life here in the flesh so that you could have salvation. So that you could be saved from God's wrath on your sin natures. And so the Lord's telling him this. Number one, if Christ remains, the comfort will not come. And we need the Comforter. We need the Paracletos. And we'll explain what his name means, if you will, in a minute. But Christ's mission, as I said, is complete. He proved that he was the Son of God. And now it is the unique ministry of the Holy Spirit that the disciples and you and me need. We need the Comforter. We need the paracletos to come alongside of us to strengthen us and to encourage us in the things of the Lord. Now, an overview of His ministry we've said is given to us in John chapter 16 verses 8 through 14. But today we're going to learn why it is very, very unwise to not take the Holy Spirit, His ministry, seriously. I'm afraid that we do not take His ministry very seriously. And if we do not take his ministry as the redeemed of the Lord seriously, then we are doing one of two things that will surely not bode well for you and I as believers. And that is to grieve him and or to quench him or to do both at the same time. So, Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 30, which is a, there's a list that precedes that of things for which as believers we're not to be doing because we are new creatures, new creations in Christ Jesus. But verse 30 says, and grieve not, notice he says, and, he said, in this litany of things I'm giving you here that should not be a part of a believer's life. He simply said, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. Now that's important. We've been sealed. The unsaved are not sealed. The unsaved still have a sin nature. You and I still have the flesh that's weak, but we don't have a sin nature. It's under the blood. So he says there, as believers, we're not to be doing that. The word grieve literally means to affect with sadness. Have you ever been affected with sadness before? Maybe you thought you were going to get a promotion at work and it came out that someone else got the promotion and you didn't get it. Now, aside from being upset and mad, it made you sorrowful. What did I not do right? How come I wasn't up for it? What was the difference there? It also means to make one uneasy and or to offend. You know that we can offend the Holy Spirit of God? And we can certainly make Him uneasy when we go places where we ought not to be. And we're doing things that we ought not to be doing, listening to or viewing things that we ought not to listen to. You know what, folks? We're grieving the Holy Spirit of God. When we present ourselves and we dress just like the world, and we're not dressing modestly, men or women, we're grieving the Holy Spirit of God. So, we also know that quenching, number two, is in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 19, where it says to quench not the Holy Spirit. Meaning to suppress, meaning to stifle, to quench divine influence. Whether or not you know it as believers this morning, the Holy Spirit may be working on an individual that you work with, a fellow employee. It may be a neighbor, it may be even someone in your family member. And you come along and you do something and you say something that would unravel everything that the Holy Spirit has been trying to work in the heart of that individual. You can say something, you can do something, then that person thinks to themselves, wow, and they call themselves Christians. And I'm sure that is a word and so on. Listen, I think sometimes if you want to know how a Christian ought to be acting, you ought to ask the world. I think the world has a better idea of how Christians ought to be acting than we do as Christians sometimes. And so here's the reality. If you do not know all that God has given to us in His Word, about the Holy Spirit, then in our willful ignorance, it is willful ignorance because any one of us can pick up the Word of God and we can read it and study it and meditate it. Amen? What is stopping you from doing that other than not having a desire? You can't say, well I don't have the time, because if you don't have the time then you're too busy about all the wrong things. So, then in our willful ignorance we are undoubtedly doing both. We are grieving and we're quenching the Holy Spirit of God in that process. And in today's message and subsequent messages, we're going to see just how serious God takes the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And if He takes His ministry serious, then you can be sure we had also better take the ministry of the Holy Spirit very, very serious about letting Him, that is the Holy Spirit, to fulfill His ministry in our lives. You don't want to have to stand before the Lord and give an account for being a hindrance to the working of the Holy Spirit of God. Amen? So by God's grace, and we won't get through all four points, so don't faint and pass out. I thought I could condense them all down in, contract them all down into a morning message, but it's not working. But I want you to look at the most protected The most neglected. The Lord willing, next week we'll finish it up with the most connected and the most directed. Four points. We'll deal with the first two this morning. Father, we thank you for your guidance and your direction and the Holy Spirit, we're so thankful for your ministry in our lives. Lord, I would pray that each and every one of us, from this pulpit to the pew, will get a hold of this ministry that you have, that God the Father has given to you, to work in and through us on behalf not only of the Father and of the Son, but also of the unsaved in this world. Lord, there's not a man, there's not a woman, there's not a young person in this building that has been saved, that the Holy Spirit was not instrumental in their salvation. And Lord, it's the same thing when it comes to spiritual growth. Without the Holy Spirit of God, there can be no spiritual growth. This process of sanctification, of being set aside for your purposes and your use and for your service, but it will not materialize. So Father, help us to take this series very seriously. Lord, to apply them to our lives, especially our young people who have so much of their life ahead of them. Lord, how the Holy Spirit wants to guide and direct them to make good decisions that will not backfire on them at some point in their lives. So Father, we pray that each and every one of us, regardless of our age, Lord, we'll take this series seriously and we'll give you that praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, first of all, at the most protracted, we're going to look over back in the Matthew chapter, the most protected rather, back in the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 12, a chapter that I'm sure that many of you are familiar with. And it says, beginning in verse 31, now there's more that goes on before this verse, but it says, Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. But the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." This is how the human mind works. We read a passage such as this passage, and our minds run all over the place trying to discover what it is, or at the very least, to speculate what this unpardonable sin, and then questioning if we have committed such a sin or not. Now, it's human nature to look at this portion of scripture and begin to be inquisitive. But there is a twofold message which does deal with the unpardonable sin. But the other message is the protection given to the seriousness of the Holy Spirit and His purpose and His ministry in our lives. Now, when I say He is the most protected, God is making sure that we as the children of God understand that God is going to protect the Holy Spirit of God to the nth degree. His protection as you will notice, is that God the Father and God the Son will take into account, via the blood of Christ, any sin, because there is no sin so great that the grace of God, because of the shed blood of Christ, that God will not forgive. Basically, you can pretty much slander the Father. You can't do that. Well, you shouldn't. But, it's not unpardonable. God will forgive. You can blaspheme, and we'll explain what that is in a moment. So we can slander, as the word blaspheme would have it, injurious speech. Even the Lord God says it can be and it will be forgiven if one will come by faith, accepting Christ as their Savior. We can blaspheme the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, people will roll their eyes, you can't do that. Again, we ought not to. There really isn't any grounds to do so. But blaspheme, slander, or bring injurious speech against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. This blasphemous sin is slandering and making injurious speech about the Holy Spirit, impugning His character and His ministry of revealing God's truth to the lost and the dying world. You can't run opposition to the Holy Spirit of God and expect to find forgiveness. But not only is that so, it is twice mentioned in these two verses to reveal just how important this truth is in verifying the fact that God is very, very, very serious and it is immutable, it is unchangeable with God. That's what basically the idea and the concept of immutable is, and we read it in the book of Hebrews. For without the Holy Spirit there can be no salvation. Do you realize that? You cannot be saved without the Holy Spirit. Someone has to be responsible for bringing the power of conviction of the Word of God that has been shared with someone. So you can't be saved without the Word of God and you can't be saved without the Holy Spirit of God. He takes the Word of God and He works from the outside upon us bringing conviction about our sin nature. And then once we have understood and we have confessed and received Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit then takes up a residency within us and He guides us and He directs us. in that line. But he says it in verse 31, he says it in verse 32, and he says there, But the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. Then he goes on and says, But whosoever speaketh in verse 32 against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. Now, For without the Holy Spirit this morning, there can, as I said, be no salvation, and there can be no conviction, and there can be no conversion. That's how important He is. You are saved today because of the work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God upon you to take the Word of God that's been shared with you to an acceptance, where you came by faith to receive Christ. So, if you were unsaved, and you have no idea where you're going to spend eternity, and you might be saying, well, you know, someone asked you, if you were to die today, do you know for sure if you got a home in heaven? And you say, well, I hope I will go to heaven when I die, is the same thing as not knowing. Amen? Now, I know. You say, well, you're a preacher. Sure, you're going to go to heaven. There are preachers who are standing in pulpits who are not going to heaven. You don't go to heaven because you stand in a pulpit and you preach the Word of God. We all go to heaven on one source and one source only, and that is our faith in the person of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So, 1 John chapter 5 and verse 13, as we turn there this morning, 1 John chapter 5. And this is one of the reasons why we have got to be very, very careful in our witnessing and our sharing the Gospel that we do not take over for the Holy Spirit of God. You and I cannot bring conviction on a person. All we can do is share the Word of God. We can pray that the Holy Spirit of God will make it very clear, that He will help us to make the Gospel message very, very clear. But in essence and ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit that brings us to that place of understanding. He is the one who brings us to that place of knowledge. So 1 John chapter 5 and verse 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that she may know that she have eternal life, and that she may believe on the name of the Son of God." So we can know beyond any shadow of a doubt. Not because of what someone has said to you, but because of what the Holy Spirit has helped you to understand what Christ had done for us on the cross of Calvary. So the word no, now there's at least four, maybe five different Greek words that are rendered in the English as no. Here, the word is not gnosko, but it is oida, meaning to see with the mind's eye, signifying a clear and purely mental perception. Now, there are some things that you can be taught, and it's very clear. You see it very clearly. You understand it very clearly. That would be with the mind's eye. Now, some things come very natural to people. It seems like they have that ability to be able to perceive with the mind. I think mathematics is one of those things. If you've got it, you don't have it. Amen? Or maybe some of us just make it tougher than it is for others. But when you're looking at the higher forms of math, we talk about calculus and a little bit higher than that and so on, which is beyond my reach for sure. But someone else can just sit there and absorb it and see it all, see it all, see it all and have no problem. Me, I think to myself, okay, this is about as Greek as Greek can get to me, that's for sure. But the idea is that the Holy Spirit of God will take the Word of God and help us to be able to see what it is that we need to see so that we can respond appropriately so. And that's what he's talking about here, when he says, oida, meaning to see with the mind's eye, signifying a clear and purely mental perception. Now, back when Peter and John came to the tomb, after the women had come to the tomb on the resurrection Sunday, that they came back to them, and they ran to the garden, they ran to the room, they looked in there, and there's actually a couple different senses there that they actually used the idea of being able to see. I think one of those was Blippo, which had to do with the idea of being able to perceive. They looked in and they actually saw physically that Christ wasn't there, and they actually saw that the linens were folded where they had been left and laid, but it said then they perceived with their minds eye. they took in what they had seen and then they perceived that, hey, what the Lord said was true. He actually is resurrected. He came forth from the grave. So it's signifying a clear and purely mental picture. Anywhere Where do we get this from? It's the Word of God and the Holy Spirit of God as He leads us into all truth. He's the one who provides us with that mental understanding and perception of these things. See, that's why we've got to be in the Word of God. That's why we've got to be reading the Word of God and we've got to be meditating. Reading the Word of God is kind of like taking a dirty basket, a wicker basket, and filling it full of water. and expecting to be able to get from the creek to wherever it is you're camping and have the water still be in there. And you get back here and you see kind of like the old illustration where an Indian had told a young man to go down to the water's edge there and to fill a basket full of water and bring it back up here and he got it back up there and the guy would look at it and say, well, where's the water? And he said, well, it came out. He's going to go out and get me some more. After three or four times there, the kid said, this is kind of useless. And he said, no, at least the basket now is clean. Amen? So the idea simply here is this morning He's going to lead us, and reading is important to that aspect. It's going to help us, but it's not going to deliver what we need. Amen? It's like being in a classroom, young people. You can either kind of read through the lesson, and maybe you have a photographic memory. Many of us don't have a photographic memory. You may be a natural A student, and all you have to do is just kind of read through it, and you've got it all down there, and they give you a test, and you write all the answers out. But for those of us who don't, we've got to study. And we've got to commit the memory, the things that we've studied. And in that particular process we begin to see and understand some things that we would not have otherwise understood. So we have to really apply ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us and to teach us into areas there. So He is the one who leads us into all truth. So the point is that we can know beyond any shadow of a doubt. Romans chapter 8 and verse 24. We're going to turn there very quickly as well because I think this is a very important verse. Romans 8, 24. Now, in the context of our conversation this morning, chapter 8, verse 24 says, For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not what? Is not hope. Now, I just want everybody to come in and sit down in these pews. And I don't think that I'm heavier than anybody else in here. I'm heavier than a lot, but I'm not as heavy. No, I think we're all about the same. So I have no question about coming over there and sit where Gabriel is. I said, well, let's go over there. And Gabriel sat there. Well, I hope he's going to hold me. Well, then you say, well, he's lighter than you. OK, well, I'm going to try to find someone. I won't mention any names. I'm going to try to find someone who I think is about my stature, my height, and whatever else. I'm going to say, well, to hell with them. I hope it's going to hold me. Well, the reality is that why am I hoping for if somebody else who is about the same as me, weight, height, and everything else, they sat there and it held them, why would it not hold me? So I don't have to hope. I can just sit down and take my rest there. And so he's kind of getting at that idea, therefore, we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? And so once we are saved it becomes very clear to us. Some things will not become clear to us until we are saved. But the truth of the matter is once you've been presented with the gospel of Jesus Christ, you don't have to hope that God is going to save you because Jesus Christ already said that God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. So why don't you fit in there? Well, I hope I do. No, you don't have to hope. You can see exactly. Did not the Lord Jesus Christ through the Apostle Peter say that God is not willing that any should perish but all should come to life? So it's no longer, it's a hope. I can reach out and I can claim this truth for myself. I can receive Jesus Christ. I can come by faith and He's going to save me. I don't have to wonder if He did or He didn't. He said He would. I'm going to trust Him. He wouldn't lie to you. So if you were saved, You've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God. Your greatest danger is not blasphemy. Take a deep breath, whatever it is I'm trying to say. You're not going to commit blasphemy. The Holy Spirit, for us, is a matter of grieving causing him great sorrow as he endeavors to minister to us God's purposes and God's truth for you and I, and we aren't or we won't listen." Wow. Figured that one out. God has a ministry for each and every one of us who has been saved. It may be a Sunday school class. It may be on the mission field. It may be youth director, youth pastor. It may be a church pianist. It could be any number of things that God has a purpose, God has a function for us. And yet, I don't want to do that. Maybe God has given you a voice to sing His praises with. I get all, you know, when I get up there. You know what? You do it anyway. Because when we don't, we're grieving the Holy Spirit of God. We may even be quenching Him, depending on what it is that He's seeking for us to do. So When we're not listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit of God, and you say, well, hmm, does he actually speak through the Word of God? He does. He brings to us insight and understanding that we may not have had otherwise. You can't come to the Bible and the scriptures with your own personal intellect. Now, it's a good thing to come and to understand words and adjectives and verbs and so on. It's good to understand all those things to some degree. But the truth of the matter is, brilliant men have come to this book. and walked away not believing anything in it. Not believing anything. Because the key to the scriptures and understanding the scriptures is the Holy Spirit of God. Our complete reliance upon the person of the Holy Spirit of God to take this book which is not a complex book as far as the grammatical structure goes, and to make sense in a way that we could never have possibly come to the conclusion in and of ourselves. That's why it is important that the Holy Spirit came once Christ had ascended, that the Holy Spirit descend. So, if we're not refusing to listen, or we may find ourselves quenching Him, which is to render his ministry to others, let alone to ourselves, useless by countering him, neutralizing his ministry to others. Do you know you can do that? When you walk out of this door and you walk contrary to the life of a Christian, and someone who has been ministered to by the Holy Spirit of God sees you and turns away from what the Holy Spirit has been teaching that person, you are responsible for quenching that Holy Spirit. We have an awesome responsibility as the children of God. A prime example of this was the religious leaders in their attacks in the early ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, or throughout the ministry of Jesus Christ, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now, as we looked at earlier in our text of Matthew chapter 12, they were accusing Christ of casting out demons by Beelzebub. Which we come to that particular verse where it says, let me get it straightened out there, a house divided cannot stand. Why would the devil cast out demons? He has his own ministry, which is to keep people blinded to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to ruin the testimonies of believers, if you want to take the two-point ministry of the devil, if you will. But Jesus brought them to this place about you can say what you want to about the Father, and you can say what you want to say about me. But the ministry of the Holy Spirit is helping you to see that I am the Messiah. The Holy Spirit's ministry in the lives of you people, you leaders especially, is that I am the long-awaited Messiah, that I am the Son of God. And He said you are on the threshold of committing this sin which cannot be forgiven in this life or in the life or the world to come. which is a rejection of the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God. Primarily the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God is what? To reveal Jesus Christ. To reveal to sinners who Jesus Christ is and what He did. And if you reject the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God, then what means can you possibly be saved? What possible means can you and I ever hope to be in eternity with Christ if we reject the ministry of the Holy Spirit seeing that His ministry is to elevate the Lord Jesus Christ? Because even in John chapter 16 we said that He will teach you of me. So how can we know if we have committed the unpardonable sin or not? First, if an individual has no desire to be saved whatsoever. They probably have reached that point where they have committed the unpardonable sin and they could care less what the Holy Spirit has to say in person or otherwise. Secondly, such individuals will have no remorse because all conviction about everything is gone forever. Now you may look at some of the crazy people that have been out there, Hitler, and I'm trying to think of some of the other guys that were in his cadre, if you will. I'm trying to think, Mengele. And I mean, these guys, to this day, it agrees me greatly when I go and you see documentaries. And I'm thinking to myself, how, how, how could anybody? Well, you're talking about Pol Pot in, was it not Vietnam, but Thailand? Is it down there, Pol Pot? Cambodia, Cambodia, it was down in Cambodia, down in the area. I mean, we're talking about Lenin and Stalin. Millions of their own people slaughtered just so they could hold their place of power. These are, I remember reading a story about Lenin. And before Lenin ended up over in Russia, he was actually in Chicago. He had attended a church in Chicago and the Sunday school teacher never showed up. He walked out of that church, he walked out of that Sunday school class and said, I'm never going to another one of them again. If a teacher can't care to come to church and be in place where they're supposed to be, he said, what's the point? And he was embroiled in the insurrection and the Bolshevik battle in Russia. Amazing. Amazing. But we're talking about men, Dahmer as well, and things that we've heard of even late here, that they have reached a place where they have no conscience, no morality. We're living in times where this is becoming more obvious with each and every passing day. It is the idea that where an individual is not sorry for what they have done. Regardless of how heinous or egregious it is, they are only sorry that they got caught, not sorry for what they've done. And if you're really listening to some of the testimonies of some of the generals from World War II out of Germany, they were not the least bit sorry for what they did in exterminating Jews and the handicapped or whoever else they just didn't feel was fit for the Aryan race. They killed them all, as many as they could possibly kill, and they weren't sorry for what they did. They were just sorry they got caught. There is no sense of right or wrong, no sense of moral or immorality in their hearts. The Holy Spirit will not, nor does He have, hover over them to convict them. Right now, if you've been shared the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is working on you. He's hovering over you to help you to bring to you a greater understanding of what it is to become a part of the family of God. Very secondly, and very quickly here, the most neglected. So he's the most protected, he's the most neglected back in Matthew chapter 3 and verses 16 through 17. It's the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has come to the Jordan River. John the Baptist has baptized him there. And when he came up out of the waters, the voice of God the Father spoke from heaven. and the Holy Spirit of God descended upon that scene, that situation there. And so we have the composite unity of the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were there at his baptism. But folks, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to state that the Holy Spirit of God is of the Godhead. He is part and parcel to the Godhead. The most neglected, the most misunderstood, and not because he is God's best kept secret. Rather, it is because we are not paying attention to Him when He is endeavoring to lead us into all truth. What do you think it is that speaks to you when it says, you should be having your Bible time. You should be having your prayer time. You should go talk to this person here. You should share the gospel here. Do you think that's just your conscience, your conscience alone? It's the Holy Spirit of God. And when you say no, you're grieving Him. He's hovering over that person, and you may be the one that actually is able to share the right couple of words from the Bible, and it's all going to come together, and he's going to receive Christ as his own personal Lord and Savior. So the truth is that God has saved us for a purpose and has given us a purpose and it is one of the Holy Spirit's responsibilities to guide us to where it is that God wants us or God has purpose for us to be. God has a destiny for us. God has a preordained destiny. He has an appointment for us, amen? And that appointment is to be conformed to the image or the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. See, so you are neglecting the Holy Spirit's presence and ministry in your life. Well, you say, I don't know if I am or not. Well, let's see. Have you studied the Word of God this week? Did you take some time where you had the Word of God there and you studied the Word of God? Now, you may need some help along the way. There's a lot of good Bible studies, some bad ones out there, but some good ones out that way, that you can come to the Word of God. I know that Jack was saying that he uses G. Vernon McGee's, some of his books here, when he's reading through, and he'll read up and kind of get an idea, and I do the same thing. Not necessarily G. Vernon McGee, but sometimes yes, sometimes no, sometimes it's Matthew Henry, sometimes it's G. Campbell Morgan, some of these old-time guys from the 1600s who had a clear mind about things in the Scriptures and so on. And sometimes you just need to get a little tweak to get in the right direction or get your thought juices going in the right direction. And they'll do that in a wonderful and great way. But if you haven't studied the Word of God, guess what? Reading is good, is it not? But it's not studying. If the answer is no, you didn't study, then can I tell you that you've neglected the Holy Spirit of God this week already? You've neglected Him. Why? Because of 2 Timothy 2.15. Again, study. That word study is in the imperative. It's in the present, not passive, but it's in the present imperative state that, listen, we are to do this. It's imperative that we do it. It's imperative that we know what the Word of God has to say. It really is. I'm quite sure the voice of the Holy Spirit was not the voice who whispered to you, you're kind of busy today. You're not going to have time to just go about and do your business. That was not the voice of the Holy Spirit of God. I can tell you what it was. It was either your flesh or it was Satan himself. He will never tell you. I understand that you just don't have time to study because his goal and his purpose is going to get us into the Word to study the Word of God. So, number two, have you been faithful to attend church when the church is holding meetings? Well, you know, kids got to be in at six o'clock. They don't have to be in bed by seven o'clock or something like that. I went to a Bible college. going through full-time Bible college, working a full-time job, passing on the weekends there. And we were in church every service with our kids. And our kids were ranging probably, what? Randy was, Rick wasn't born, but Randy was in kindergarten, first grade. I think Ron might have been born wherever they were. You guys were in some grade up there. But they were in church Wednesday nights, Sunday nights, and Sunday mornings. And you know what? They survived. We survived. I didn't say it was any easier, but we survived. We got through it. What better example can we set than to bring our children to the House of the Lord whenever it's open? What greater example can we set? To show them the importance of being where the Word of God is being preached and where we're being challenged and where we're being encouraged. There's Sunday school. We just started, we're only two weeks into Bibliology, and if you know me, it takes me three weeks to get through one lesson, so we don't move very fast. You can pretty much come and pick up right where we were. But the excuses we use about being tired, and the kids need to be in bed by seven, I need the overtime, and on and on go the arguments, and certainly arguments that are not generated by the Holy Spirit of God, they are generated by our flesh. And we are to reign in our flesh. Now health issues are a different thing. I understand health issues can be different. But Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 24 of 25, especially 25 says, Forsake not the assembling of ourselves together as a man or as a man's. But exhorting one another, encouraging one another, and so much the more you see the day approaching is what Paul says. So what more can I say about our refusal to give our tithes, to verbally share the gospel when opportunity avails itself, to give of our tithe, to tithe our time freely, give of our talent, and don't ever get me started on the use or the absence of our spiritual gifts that God gives to us the day that we're saved. The point is this, we are so, so, so very guilty and so many myriad of ways of neglecting the Holy Spirit in the process of grieving Him as He wants so very... How many of you moms and dads want so very much for your kids? I mean, you don't want your kids going out there, getting in with the wrong crowds, the wrong groups, getting in the wrong things, getting involved with the wrong things. You want what's best for your sons. You want what's best for your daughter. Can I tell you the Holy Spirit of God, He not only wants what is best for us, He knows what's best for us. Now let us shake some homes up this morning. But He wants so very much to bring us on our way to not only fulfill God's purposes, but also in the process of conforming us to the image and the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what Romans 8, 29 and 30 is all about. Being conformed to the image. We have been by God through our faith in Christ and the ministry and the work of the Holy Spirit, God's purposes. At the end of it all, we will be conformed to the image and the character of Jesus Christ. We are simply winging it. Or maybe I should simply ask, are we simply winging the Christian life? Kind of going through, as long as we haven't kicked the dog and smacked the wife or burnt the dinner for the husband or whatever it is here, if we haven't done that, then we're doing okay. God did not save us to do okay. How many of you want to go out there and buy something that someone says, well, I didn't do the best I could, but I did an okay job? You want to buy a house where someone just did an okay job, or you want to buy a house that a guy did a professional job? You go and get your car detailed at one of these places around here, and you turn around and the guy says, well, I didn't really have the time to put all that I could into this thing here, but I think I did an okay job. So are you going to charge me an okay price, or are you going to charge me the full price? Do you want to pay the full price for an okay job? Well listen, I'm not talking about paying a full price when it comes to this, but are you willing to surrender and give yourself so that the Holy Spirit can not just simply do an okay job, but so that He can do a wonderful, a marvelous, an exciting job in your life. Amen? Amen! So are you simply winging the Christian life and neglecting and grieving the Holy Spirit as you kind of bop along without any spiritual direction in your life? Or are you in cooperation with the Holy Spirit walking in the Spirit? Are you walking in the Spirit? Are you walking in the... See, if you're walking in the flesh, you just... If you're walking in the Spirit, you'll know it. It's like when you drive a car, and you've got eight cylinders, and only four of them are firing, you're going to know real quick. Or if you've got a flat tire, you know, hopefully. But my friends this morning, are you walking in the Spirit, cooperating with the Holy Spirit of God? Or are you fighting him, neglecting him, grieving him, quenching him? Next week, Lord willing, we're going to look at the most connected and the most directed. Father, we thank you. It's time that we could be together. Lord, we thank you for the patience of your folk today that you guide and direct in this invitation time. Lord, we need to be stirred. Lord, we cannot ever have a personal individual revival, let alone a church revival, if we do not understand the ministry and the purpose of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Lord, may we come alongside of this series and realize that, Lord, we don't want to miss a single lesson from the Word of God, not a single message from the Scriptures about the Holy Spirit of God. You've been given to us. We come to your presence today confessing our sin against you. The grieving, maybe perhaps even the quenching. And we don't want to do that. And we know that you'll forgive. And begin that work that will bring us, not on an easy road, but it's the right road, to being more like the Lord Jesus Christ. with each and every passing day, with each and every session of our study, meditating and reading in the Word, that we'll become more and more in mindset and character to that of our Lord Jesus Christ. Heads are bowed and eyes are closed as Diane quietly plays the piano this morning, every head bowed and every eye closed. Folks, this is probably going to be one of the most serious series I've preached in a long time. I hope that it will speak to you as it spoke to me. As a child of God, as a believer here this morning, or even at home this morning, I'm pretty sure that the Holy Spirit of God has spoken to many hearts. You have a decision to make this morning, whether you're going to fight Him, ignore Him, or surrender. and say, as I have said this morning, I'm sorry, Holy Spirit, for grieving. I'm sorry for quenching your ministry, and I don't want to do that any longer. And by the grace of our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, I'm going to be more fully surrendered, more fully committed to the ministry and more cooperative with the Holy Spirit of God. You're saved this morning, and that is your desire. Then you can raise your hands and say, Preacher, pray for me in closing today. Yes. Preacher, pray for me today. I have not done my best. I have not given my best. I have not given my fullest. I want to. Holy Spirit has really spoken to my heart today. That I might work in cooperation with Him. to the winning of maybe family members that are lost, neighbors, co-workers that you've witnessed to in the past. Wouldn't it be great to see them come to know Christ? It just might be the fact that you and I are not walking hand in hand with the Holy Spirit of God. That could be the thing that's holding them back from getting saved. Do you really want that responsibility? Then discharge it and give yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. Give yourself to the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit of God. And let it work marvelously and wonderfully. How about some of the young people? Your classmates. Listen, see, you young people have got a lot of decisions ahead of you. If you're going to walk in the flesh, those decisions are going to fall flat on their face. and you're going to fall flat with it. Young people, if you will allow yourselves to be so filled with the Holy Spirit of God, when you are facing a decision, whether it's the friends you make, or the mate you'll marry someday, or the school that you're going to, or whatever it is, if you will get serious about this, young people, He's going to guide you to make decisions that are going to be a blessing to you when you look back over your life. The choice is yours right now. He's not going to play games with you forever. He is not going to play games. Maybe this morning you're saying, Preacher, I don't even know if I've got a home in heaven yet. I would suggest this morning that the Holy Spirit of God is speaking to you right now about it's not what you do, but what Jesus Christ has done. And if you will receive Him by faith, He will accept you in the family of God. He will take you from being a sinner to a saint. He will remove you from the family of Satan. and into the family of God this morning. At home or here in the sanctuary this morning, if you have no idea and you'd like to get it straightened out and you'd like us to pray for you, I would love to do that. Just slip up the hands because heads are bowed and eyes are closed and not a soul looking around. Preacher, would you pray for me in closing? I have no idea, but I'd like to get it straightened out today. Preacher, would you pray? Well, Father, once again, we thank you for this time that we could be together. Lord, I can only pray that these messages will not be coming from the mouth of a man, but Lord, they'll be coming from the Scriptures and the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit working in each and every one of us to bring it and to receive it so that we may allow it to transform us to become the men, the women, and the young people that you so much want us to be. And Father, we give you the praise. We give you the honor and the glory. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Now Father dismiss this with thy blessings in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And all God's people said, Amen. Amen.