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We've been making our way through
the Spirit of God. You have the sheet here, which
is the outline of the entire concept of the Holy Spirit as
we're teaching it. We've already taught number one, the person
of the Holy Spirit. And the two items is he's a real
person. He really is a person. And number
two, he's a divine person. He's not only just a person.
I'm a person, but I'm not divine. So he's fully God and he's fully
a person. And of course, we dealt with
things like emanations and influences and powers and all those other
kinds of things that have crept into the Thinking he really is
a person one reason why you know, he's a person by the way anybody
he has emotions You can grieve him just remember that when you
can grieve him Okay, then we went to the work of the Holy Spirit what
he has done in history in creation revelation Old Testament life
of Christ and salvation We've studied those up to salvation
kind of what we're gonna put salvation in the life of Christ
actually in our outline here tonight we probably could add
a 7b which would be in the Millennial Kingdom and And you have passages
like Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36, I'm sorry, Jeremiah 18, Ezekiel
36, you put a new heart, new spirit within you, et cetera,
et cetera. So you could make a case for some of that. But
we're going to go to 5b and 6b there. We're going to combine
and we're going to start going down that. What does he do in the
salvation or more importantly, in the life of a believer? So
we're going to just kind of start. Hopefully these are somewhat
logical in progression, maybe. I don't know. Everybody would
maybe disagree with that, but we're going to start with the
first one. John 16, verse 8. Anybody can quote that? Otherwise,
read it. Look it up. John 16, verse 8. Who's got it? Mike. OK, so when you come, you convict
the world of sin and of righteousness and then judgment to come. And
so first thing we recognize is he convicts. So tell me what
it means to convict. If you were in a court of law,
do you have other translations, by the way? Is there any other
translations that you have? What does it mean to convict
any other translations you have? Are all your translations say
convict? Reprove? Show the error of your ways?
Any other translations? It would be convince, convict,
reprove would be the main one. It's a word that's translated
in some places reprove. For example, in Second Timothy
3. that the Word of God is inspired and is profitable for doctrine.
Reproof. Same word there. It's a word that's used in Hebrews
chapter 11 verse 1. It is the evidence of things
not seen by faith. It is the word evidence there.
So what does it mean to convict or convince or reprove or rebuke
or give evidence for or any of those other translations? Bring
it to your attention. All right. So I tell you, Boom,
whatever. I bring it to your attention.
You go, what else? Brings it to your attention.
You ever witness to somebody bring it to their attention?
Is that conviction? Pricks your conscience? What
else? All right. This is a word that's
really strong. In fact, when you study it, I
did my thesis on this. 60 pages on one word. How do
you like that? Anyway, it's a really strong word. It means to expose
something so conclusively that you can't deny it. So it's not
just I tell you Jesus died for your sins or whatever it is and
you go, well, I don't care. I don't like it. Don't believe it. Don't
know it. It's the Holy Spirit of God is able to expose the
truth of something to such an extent that you can't deny it.
All right. And so there it has an authoritative
presentation, unquestionable proof. It really does convince,
it does convict you of it. You can think of places in the
book of Acts, for example, in Acts chapter two, they were cut
to the heart. In Acts chapter seven, they were
cut to the heart, et cetera, et cetera. So it means to just
place the truth in such a clear light that it cannot be denied. So it implies something, right?
It implies the truth is brought to you. And we want to think
this through because There's a wonderful wedding that goes
on between the Spirit of God, when you're witnessing to people,
when people witness to you, there was God working through His Spirit,
and there was also people. Either they handed you a tract,
they talked to you personally, they preached from the pulpit,
however they did it, somehow truth got to you. And I don't
know about you, but I remember the day that all of a sudden
it went BAM! The lights went on and I understood
it. What had happened? Same thing that I heard probably
all my life as a kid growing up, never made a lick of sense
to me, never understood it, although I could probably repeat it. All
of a sudden, lights went on. I was convinced of it. I was
convicted of it. I was exposed to it in such a way that it hit
home and it was like, wow, those are the things. Now, what does
he convict of? What truth is made clear according to these
verses? What's the first one? Convict of sin. And what about
sin? Why does it say in verse nine,
I've sinned because they do not believe in me. So what is that
all about? So he convicts of sin because
they have not believed in me. That's the first thing the Spirit
of God does when a conviction. All right. And brings you to
that point where you recognize I'm a sinner. I'm a lost. I need repentance. I need a savior.
But here's the phrase, because you don't believe in me. First
thing he does is he brings it to your mind that you really
are convinced you don't deny it anymore, that you're in a
state of sin because you haven't believed. The minute I believe,
am I in a state of sin? The minute I trust Christ, I
have the righteousness of Christ in me. So it brings me to the
conviction that I'm a sinner until I believe. And that's the
first and wonderful truth that he brings to me. Now, having
said that, having come to that conviction, he says the second
one is what? He will convict the world of
sin and of righteousness. And the explanation of it in
verse 10 is of righteousness, because I go to my father and
you see me no more. What's that got to do with righteousness?
So first I realized I'm a sinner because I have not believed in
the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm a sinner until I believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now all of a sudden I'm convinced
of righteousness. What righteousness? And how is
it convicted? That righteousness conviction
brought in my life because I go to my father and you see me no
more. What happened? What's the concept of going to
the father? What would we call that one word? Resurrection.
I'm sorry. Going to a father's ascension.
All right. and you see me no more, is a resurrection and ascension.
And so the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ are what? They are the ultimate proof that
Christ's death was sufficient, totally paid for our sins, Romans
4 verse 25, justified according to or because of his resurrection. The resurrection and ascension
of Jesus Christ gives overwhelming proof that Jesus Christ His death
was sufficient and therefore he, the righteous one, made the
full penalty for my sins. So the first thing he convicts
me of, I'm a sinner until I believe. I'm a sinner because I haven't
believed. The second thing is I need righteousness. And the
only righteousness I can have is the righteousness found in
the one who is resurrected and ascended into the right hand
of God the Father. I need the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
And you say, OK, I believe the first one. I believe the second
one. But I don't worry about it. Do you? And that's the third
thing he brings home to your mind. If he didn't bring the
number three to you, you'd say, you know, he's a really merciful,
gracious God, and he doesn't judge people and he doesn't really
carry out his things. So I'm going to get away with
this. He says no. He convicts of sin because you
haven't believed, of righteousness in the one who is ascended to
the right hand of God, the Father, and of judgment to come. And
then verse 11, because the ruler of this world is judged. John
chapter 12, verse 31 says, God really does carry out judgment.
He really did judge Satan. God says, I'm going to judge
wickedness. I'm going to judge sin. And guess
what? We have one overwhelming proof. The leader of evil, Satan
himself, was judged. You can go to the bank on this
one. God will judge sin and does judge sinners. And so those three
things. Now, do you see any progression
there or correlation? Absolutely. First, you realize
I'm a sinner because I haven't believed in Christ. I need righteousness.
The only righteousness I can have is the one that's found
in Jesus Christ, who died, rose and is ascended. And if I don't
do it, I'm facing judgment because the leader of evil, Satan himself,
was judged. And God really will carry through
on this one. So here's some questions. Does this conviction always lead
to faith? No, unfortunately, there would be people who disagree
with you. Maybe people would say, well, then they really weren't
convicted yet. But I think Acts 2.37 and Acts
7.54, you have two cases where they were cut to the heart. You
know, we preached this Sunday morning. The one, they were cut
to the heart and they said, what shall we do? And they repented
and believed. The other one, they were cut to the heart. They
gnashed on Stephen with their teeth. They both were cut to
the heart. One of them repented. One of
them said, no way. And they got rid of that message.
OK, so I don't think that it has to lead to faith, but it's
sure a good step in the right direction. And then the second
question, what impact does this have in our evangelism? So there's
one point. Guess who does the convicting?
You're not real good at that. Trust me. All right. But that
doesn't mean you shouldn't try in the sense of making truth
clear. That's what the Holy Spirit ultimately
does. He makes it so clear that they can't deny. We work hard
at being clear in our presentation. But at the end of the day, we
know that really, I'm probably not real good at convicting people.
But the Holy Spirit can. What else does it teach you about
evangelism? So I just I realize I need the Spirit of God to really
get through that stubborn heart, which was once mine. What else
does it teach you about evangelism? OK, what if this weren't true?
What if the Spirit of God says, you guys, you're on your own,
go do it. Go walk up to your neighbor and win him to Christ.
I'm just going to stay home and let you guys do it on your own.
We would, wouldn't we? I mean, this is really a statement
of hope for us because God himself steps in and God himself, and
so when you think of your own life, why were you convicted?
Why is the person you just led to the Lord, whenever it was
the last one you led to the Lord, why were they convicted? Well,
there's a part in which you or somebody else presented the gospel,
but ultimately it gives you great hope. God can break through the
outer crust of other people and he can convict them and convince
them and prove to them the reality of it. That also has implications
for apologetics. We studied that in a Bible institute
before. How do you present the truth
and whatever? You know, I don't really have to convince people.
God can handle that one. You know, I just bring truth,
clearly present truth. So those are some things. We make the
message as clear as we can, but we trust God, his spirit, to
do that work. So the first thing he does is
he convicts of sin and of righteousness and judgment to come. That I
am in a state of sin because I haven't believed, because I
need righteousness and I'm only found in Christ. And if I don't, I,
like my, the leader of evil, Satan himself, I will face judgment.
God does really carry through on that. All right. So what's
the next thing he does? Why don't we read Titus three,
five, or somebody quoted not by works of righteousness. All
right. Washington regeneration and renewing of his Holy spirit.
So the first one, one B there, what are one C it really is he
convicts, or in other words, he brings truth to bear in the
minds of it. And then the second thing he
does is he. He regenerates. So tell me what that means to
be born again. All right. It is God giving us
as believers, of course, eternal life. God giving us eternal life. That's what born again is all
about. So we can just think these through, you know, these verses.
So let's just think of through and generally at least the chapters
in John chapter three. What does that tell us about
regeneration? Absolutely, you must be born again. Twice it
says that in that chapter. Nicodemus. Why? Well, you must
be born again. So it is absolutely needed and
everybody needs it. By the way, that's very important
in Christian circles. And as we talked about dispensationalism
and covenant reform, some do not believe that everybody needs
to be born again. And some believe not everybody
has to be converted. Some believe not everybody has
to be born again. But the Bible says you must be
born again. It's the only hope. So the Spirit of God can born
us again. How about 2 Corinthians 5 17? What does it bring? Everybody
is a new creation or every believer is a new creation. Old things
passed away. Behold, all things become new. So it's necessary
for all. It brings about a total transformation
of who I am because I'm born again. I'm not just regeneration
is not reformation. There are many people who are
trying to reform others, trying to change them, trying to get
them to act better, talk better. And those are all great and noble
things to do, but at the end of the day, you still have the
same person. You got sinful nature person and you're trying to get
them to act right. Well, that's a great thing, but
it's better if you can change their life and make them a new
creation. So it's a transformation or a total change. By the way,
does that mean they're perfect? Everybody who's regenerated never
sins from that moment on? Not at all. We understand that.
It is not just a mild reformation. You know, I'm just the same guy
who used to be And I'm just mildly reformed and I'm trying to work
really hard at being nice. I am a new creation. I am radically
different. I have been transformed. You
remember when that happened to you when you were saved? Tell
me some things that happened. I can tell you one. I went to
Sunday school and the teacher made sense. You read your Bible and
you understood it. You wanted to read your Bible.
Any other ones? Your life was different. And
you couldn't... What did I do different? Did
I eat different breakfast? Or what was it, you know? And
you were just a different person. And eventually people picked
up on that. It's like, you don't swear. Turn on TV and you can't
hear that. I can't watch that. And you weren't
trying to be smart or holier than thou or anything. You just
genuinely, it bothered you. Genuinely. I mean, you can't
be who you're not. You're now a new creation. Things bothered
you that didn't bother you before. So we could all give testimony.
We're a new creation. How about 1 Peter 1, 23, I guess. Bryant,
you got it? We're born again through the
living and enduring word of God. by it, through it, whatever word
we're going to translate there. How does it come? It still comes
through the Word of God. And so we have this wonderful
work of the Spirit of God on one side, convicting and regenerating. On the other side, we've got
to realize somebody's got to open their mouth and say it.
And so that's going on. 1 John 2, 29. Everyone who does
what is right is born of Him. So when I'm regenerated, it changes
my life. And that's what Nancy was talking
of. When it does what's right doesn't mean we're perfect, but
we're starting to practice righteousness. And that's one of the results
of that. So what is the distinction between faith and regeneration
and which comes first? We've talked about this a couple
of times. Faith is what I have or what I need to do. I need
to trust. I need to believe. I need to have faith. Regeneration,
what God does, he gives me a new life, an eternal life. I'm a
new creation, whatever it is. We won't belabor that, but anyway,
that's what it's all about. So he convicts of sin, righteousness
and judgment to come. So I now have heard and I've
not just heard words, I really heard them and I know they're
true. I remember when you're witnessing,
you remember what it's like, you know what it's like. You're
talking to people and you realize when it's really getting through.
Right. They know you're right. They
might be playing games. Well, I don't think that's, you
know, whatever. There are a lot of people who say that and they
really don't believe it's true. And all of a sudden the spirit
of God convicts and you can see the light bulbs gone. They know
it's right that they're a sinner. Righteousness is found in Christ
and they're going to face judgment. And then if they trust in him,
they'll be born again. There's regeneration. So what
happens then? Let's say you are convicted and
then you are regenerated. You've come to that point, which
I trust all of you have been. All right. Let's go to the next
one, number three, Ephesians 1, 13 and 14. You got it, Matt?
All right. The word sealed is found there.
You'd find that the word sealed is found at least four times
as far as the Holy Spirit work in my life. One is Ephesians
1, 13 and 14. One is Ephesians 4, 30. Ingrieve
not the Holy Spirit of God by whom you have been sealed. One
is 2 Corinthians 1, 22. And then one is 2 Corinthians
5, 5. So those are the major ones about being sealed. So the
question is, go to second Corinthians on your notes. There's this first
Corinthians change at the second Corinthians one twenty two. I
will read it for you and you tell me who does the sealing.
Second Corinthians one twenty two says, who also has sealed
us. The last word of verse twenty
one is God, who also has sealed us and given us the spirit in
our hearts as a guarantee. So who does the sealing? God
does it. All right. Let's go to Ephesians
1, 13 and 14, because we asked the question, what does it take
to be sealed? I mean, who's sealed? If I had
asked you that question today and said, raise your hand if
you've been sealed by the Spirit of God, you'd go, well, if you know
the scriptures, you'd be all right. But if you had not read
the scripture, you'd go, what does that mean? I don't know. What
does that mean? Here's what it says, Ephesians 1, 13 and 14.
In him also, after you, what's the word? Heard. After you heard
the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also
having believed." So there's two things. What does it take?
It's after you've heard and after you've believed. Now, it's not
just that you heard anything. He's very careful here in verse
13. He says, after you heard, in him also you also trusted.
After you heard the word of truth, not just anything, but you heard
the word of truth. What is that word of truth? The gospel of
your salvation. So it takes hearing and believing. And so this is
something that is Well, who's sealed then? If you just read
those verses, who would you say is sealed by the spirit person?
Any unsaved sealed? Absolutely not. All right. How
many saved people are sealed, do you think? All of us, right? I think we'd all conclude that.
And so that's an important thing. One of the things on your final
exam is we're going to list all these things, indwelt and da-da-da-da.
You're going to have to figure out to who is that? Is that true? Is it true of every Christian?
Some Christians, no Christians. Who is it true of? So here's
one that says you've been sealed. Every one of us. If you have
heard and believed the gospel of salvation, then you have been
sealed. The next question is, what is the seal? Now, how many
have ever got a registered letter or something really official
that's got a seal on it? You got one? Was it from the
court? I hope not. No, not really. When I used to
drive, I used to drive semi. for a company and we would have
sealed containers. They'd come from wherever and
we'd ship them from wherever to wherever. And there's just
a little tin thing on that thing. Here's this massive, you know,
50 ton, whatever those things were. It's got this little thing
that you could just take your pocket knife and snap it in a
minute. It was a seal. All right. That little thing
told us a whole bunch of things about that container. And that
was our seal. Now, what's the seal of your
life? What is the little thing in your life that tells you,
only it's not so little, that God has done something for you?
The Holy Spirit. The presence of the Spirit of
God in your life is a seal. It's like that little thing that
says to me as I unloaded those containers, this one came from
Germany, this one was all right, whatever. So the next question
is, what does it do? When I look at a seal on a registered
letter, I look at a seal on a container, something that you could snap
apart without any problem. If it's all complete, you get
your letter and nobody's slid it open, what does it tell you?
A couple of things. First of all, it's usually, you
remember, a king's seal. Esther and some other places
in the scripture have king's seals. It's a mark of possession or
ownership. It's mine. Or it says on there,
you know, Brock Manufacturing. It tells you whose it is. So
we've been sealed with the Spirit of God. It tells us we are His. He has marked me down, marked
you down and says, you are my child. You have my spirit stamped
all over you. What's the next one? It's a guarantee
that it's genuine. So a container comes in and the
seal is broke. What do we immediately do? We
don't unload it. We don't know what's in there.
We know somebody snapped that thing open and somebody got in
there and we're not sure what's in there and we're not going
to touch the thing because we don't want to unload something that's not
the right stuff. So it's a guarantee. The seal
on there says, and same thing with a registered letter with
a seal on it, it says, I guarantee that it hasn't been tampered
with. I guarantee that what's inside is exactly what we said
it is. The third one here is, as you read through here, you
were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee
of our inheritance. So it's the earnest or the guarantee
of our inheritance. In other words, it's a down payment. The other lines there are possession.
It's a possession. Mark's possession. It's authentication.
Now it's a down payment. It tells me, you know, he's the
Holy Spirit of promise. I got something already, but
there's more coming down the pike and I'm looking forward
to that. And finally, it's a protection against harm. In other words,
it brings about security. So what does it do? It brings
possession. I'm his. It brings authentication. I'm
genuine. Brings down payment of what is mine to come and security.
and all those things together make up what it means to be sealed
with the Holy Spirit of God. So how long is this seal good
for? According to Ephesians 1, 13 or is it 14? Now 14. Who is the guarantee
of our inheritance until the day the redemption of the purchased? Yes, the redemption of the purchased
possession. You've been bought with a price,
we're told, and until you are fully redeemed, There's a sense
in which we're already redeemed, but there's a sense in which
our full redemption is still coming down the pike, until that
is true. We've just been sealed. What does it bring? Finally,
it says in verse 14, to the praise of his glory. Three times in
Ephesians 1 and 2, it says to the praise of his glory. And
the fact that the spirit of God lives within us is to the praise
of his glory. I'm a totally new creature. By
the way, it also brings something else. Ephesians 4, 30, grieving
out the Holy Spirit of God by whom you have been sealed. What
does that have to do? What does it bring? If you know
you've been sealed, I'm secure, I'm his, I'm authentic, I'm safe. But also, he says, because you've
been sealed, we're not supposed to grieve. What is that? What's
it talking about? If I know I've been sealed with the spirit of
God, who is the earnest, the guarantee of my inheritance,
etc., etc., there are some things that I do that really break his
heart. And if I know I'm sealed, I probably should have something
within me that says, I don't really want to break his heart
tonight. I really don't want to really break his heart. Remember
in Proverbs it says, you know, a wise son and a foolish son. What does a foolish son bring?
Grief to his mother. Breaks your heart. So a wise
son doesn't want to break mama's heart. And a wise Christian says,
I don't really want to break the Spirit of God's heart. Every
time I sin, every time I do something wrong, I'm breaking his heart.
So it does bring quite a bit. What is not true? Here's a couple
of things. Sealing is not an experience. All right. Yesterday I was sealed.
Were you sealed? You know, some churches you go
through, they get us all mixed up, sealing, filling and dwelling,
baptizing, you get them all mixed up. And, you know, oh, man, I
was sealed Sunday. What about you? You know, it's
not an experience. The minute you were saved, the
Spirit of God was your seal. We are never, the second one,
we are never what? To be sealed. Commanded. Yeah. You don't, you find nowhere
in the scriptures it says now, Rosemary be sealed tomorrow.
All right. I want you to get up and read your Bible and pray
and then be sealed with the Spirit. You're already done. It's a done
deal. So that's the sealing of the Spirit of God. And hopefully
that will help us in many, many ways. So that's the third thing.
Now let's move on to number four. First Corinthians 6, 19. Somebody
read that. Your body is the temple of the
Holy Spirit, who is? He indwells you. He's in me. All right. Several
verses. Let's go to Romans 8, 9. Let's just raise your hand if
you'll read that one. Somebody raise your hand. First Corinthians
6, 19, we just read. First Corinthians 3, 16 is Rosemary.
Go ahead, Bryant. So and then Rosemary, First Corinthians
3, 16, I believe it is. OK, we probably could add up
a bunch of other verses, but all of them say the Spirit of
God lives in me. He's in me. He dwells in me. Those kinds
of things. So, who is indwelt on the basis of those? Any unsaved
indwelt? No. How many saved people are
indwelt with the Spirit of God? All of them. Very, very true. What did you have to do to be
indwelt? All you had to do was be saved. The minute you were
saved, bam, the Spirit of God came within you. And He lives
within you. What does it mean? And we're
going to have a chart in a little while Indwelling and baptizing
and filling because we get them mixed up often. We have to be
real clear on those. To be indwelt means God is in
us or the believers. So it places God in the believer.
So because I've been indwelt, God came and took up residence
in my life. He started to live in me. We
often sing, Christ liveth in me, Christ liveth in me. Oh,
what a salvation it is that Christ lives in me. And that's absolutely
true. But we could sing it this way. The Spirit lives in me.
The Spirit lives within. Oh, what a salvation the Spirit
lives in me. What must one do to be indwell? Anybody got John
7, 37 and 38? Thank you, Pam. Somebody read
Acts 11, 17, Matt. All right. Go ahead, Pam. So he said, he who believes in
me will have rivers of water, etc, etc. This he spoke of the
Spirit who they had not yet received. So the key is that they believed.
How about Acts 11, 17, Matt? When we believed in the Lord
Jesus Christ, in both cases it's believed. So what must one do? You don't have to pray about
it. You don't have to seek it. You don't have to come forward
in a service. You don't have to throw a stick
in a fire. You don't have to do any of that. You just got to
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Problems passages we'll just quickly go
through the first one because we'll just blow it off a little
bit Luke 24 49 says and this is before Pentecost before the
church was started therefore people were not receiving the
Spirit of God they would they were not dwelt in he said I want you
to tarry and How is that misused at times? Some churches or some
people some Christians misuse that as far as I'm concerned
if you want to Be in dwelt with the Spirit of God you have to
what? All right You have to wait for it. So some churches have
a tarrying time, the end of a service, you tarry. And so you just gotta,
you gotta wait this one out. And you're waiting, you're tarrying
and then all of a sudden you're in dwelt and you shake and shimmer
and roll in the aisle and laugh and I don't know what you do.
But anyway, you have to tarry and they use Luke 24, but that's
before Pentecost. He's saying to the disciples,
I want you to tarry because the spirit will be coming and you
will receive him. That was true for them. It is not true for
me. I don't have to tarry. I just have to believe. Acts
2, 38 is another problem passage, if you'd like to say it that
way. It's not a problem when you understand it, but some people misuse it.
It says, And Peter said to them, Repent and let every one of you
be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. for the remission of
sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Some
have said if you want to receive the Spirit, verse 38 says, you
have to have the remission of sins, for the remission of sins.
In other words, you have to repent, let everyone of you be baptized
for the remission of sins. Those are the things that come
once you're baptized. In other words, the point is
you cannot be indwelt with the Spirit of God until you've been
baptized. You might be a believer in Jesus Christ. You haven't
been baptized. There's quite a few of those
around, by the way. They believe but don't get baptized.
And they would teach you don't have the remission of sins and
you don't have the Spirit of God living within you. So you
better jump in the water. Let's look at it. He says, repent
and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
The word for there could be translated or should be translated with
reference to the forgiveness, the remission of sins. In other
words, He says, I want you to repent and be baptized because
of the remission of sins. That's why you would be baptized.
You have repented. Your sins have been taken care
of. And then as a separate thought and you receive the Holy Spirit,
they really are in a sense connected, but it's a package deal. So that's
not really a thing. But some people say you have
to tarry. Some people say you have to be baptized. Then Acts
5 verse 32. Says this, Acts chapter 5, verse
32, And you are his witnesses to these things. And so also
is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. So some say you have to tarry,
some say you have to be baptized and some say you have to obey him.
So if you're not living in obedience to God today, guess what happens?
Gone. So those people, and I used to
play softball against them. They were the Nazarenes and so
on. They're great guys and you love to play ball with them.
One day they had the Spirit of God, and the next day they didn't,
and then the next day they did, and the next day they didn't.
Because as long as they obeyed, they had him. As soon as they
didn't obey, they lost him. And boy, they were up and down
like you couldn't believe. What is the obedience he's talking
about there? How do you handle that? Because it seems to say
that. Obey the gospel. About four or five times in the
scripture says that you have to obey the gospel. That is the
same thing as saying, if I obey the gospel, that means I've heard
it, understood it, and been convicted of it, and I obey it, or I believe
in it, or I trust it. I respond to it. I accept it.
Those are all words, and they're almost used interchangeably.
So that one doesn't mean you have to keep obeying, or in other
words, you keep losing the Holy Spirit. And one day you have
them, and 10 minutes later you lose them because you thought
the wrong thought or said the wrong thing or whatever. So, so what?
Let's go to Romans chapter 8. What does it matter that I'm
indebted by the Spirit of God? By the way, tell me before you
read Romans 8, what difference does it make in your life that
God lives in you and His Spirit lives in you? All right. You can't be a new creature if
He doesn't. Wouldn't be saved. Let's just think about other
things. I mean, why would that be true? All right. It's like going to the wrong
place with your pastor, right? You know, it's just, that's right. There's just some places you
don't go with your mom and dad, right? Because when mom and dad
are with you, you feel really bad. And to think that the Spirit
of God lives within me. And that's what First Corinthians,
by the way, says, what know you not that your body is the temple
of the Holy Spirit? I mean, don't you understand that kind of truth? So one thing, it really, you
know, adjusts how I live, how I think, how I act, where I go.
Because He's living in me. What else? Is it a good deal
to have the Spirit of God living in you? You're never alone. He's
also called the Comforter. Right? John chapter 16. So, the
Comforter. It's not like God's in heaven
comforting me. His Spirit lives right inside
me. Alright? I'm walking through life. You
just see Richman Euclid. You want to know who's really
in here? Try messing with me, buddy. You know? No, we don't
do that. But the Spirit of God lives within
me. I'm a whole different person.
I have testimonies of new Christians, and everybody has a different
experience. But some of them will say to
you, you know, this is great. The Spirit lives within me. He
really does. I'm a different person. That's
why Christ would say, when He was about ready to leave, and
He told His disciples, I have to leave you. Of course, they
were brokenhearted, and they asked all those questions in
John chapter 13 and chapter 14. Where are you going? Because
we want to be with you. He says, calm down. I'm leaving you, but
I'm sending you another comforter. You know, Jesus Christ, as He
walked the face of the earth, was limited to one place. That's just what had happened.
He had become a God who became man. He said, I'm going to give
you the Spirit, and He's going to live in every one of your
hearts at the same time. Think if we had the choice today of
having Jesus or the Holy Spirit, which would you choose? Jesus,
who would be limited to one space? Maybe it's Jerusalem. Maybe it's
New York City. Maybe it's Waterloo. I don't know where He'd live.
or the Holy Spirit who lives in every one of our hearts. We
got the better deal. We have the much better deal.
Romans 8 is a classic on it, and I'm just going to pick up
a few of them. And it says this, but you are not in the flesh,
but in verse 9 of chapter 8, I should say, but you are not
in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells
in you. Now, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he
is not his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because
of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. And
it's 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.
And the spirit of God living within me brings life. A life
that I didn't have before and all the things there. We could
go into a lot of detail about that. I was dead. I'm alive and
I have life within me. Verse 12. Therefore, brethren,
we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to flesh, you will die. But if by
the spirit of God, by the spirit You put to death the deeds of
the body, you will live. And so we have, we're not debtors. You know, anybody here have big
debts? Don't need to tell me that. But if you did, I know
somebody right now who is just buried. I mean, they literally
are buried and they are one worried people, couple. You know why? They owe and they owe and they
owe. I mean, they are really buried. They are debtors. They have no liberty. They have
no freedom. They can't even spend their check the way they want
because they got to pay off their bills. And with the spirit of God, I'm
not a debtor. I got to where I got to keep doing what the
what the sin tells me to do. I'm free to live. And so I have
liberty of life. I have liberty. Verse 14, but
as many as are led by the spirit of God. And so he brings life.
He brings liberty. He brings his leading verse. So you go down. Verse 16, the
spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God. And so he brings the reassurance or the assurance
in my life that I'm his kid. How do you know? You're God's
child. How do you know that? Well, two
reasons. One, the Bible says if you believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, boom, you're His child. So I can just
trust His word. But sometimes I'm not sure I always trust that,
you know. And the Spirit of God makes me cry out, Abba, Father.
And so it's the Spirit who brings that assurance. And there's other
things that He brings. So He indwells us, and it's a pretty
good deal. 1 Corinthians 16, 19 brings care in how we live.
And that's the one that Rosemary was alluding to. When she says,
what? No, you're not. Your body is
the temple of the Holy Spirit. You're not your own, et cetera,
et cetera. It changes the way I live my life because God's
living inside me. All right. So I take care on
how I live, or at least I should. So that's the fourth one. He
indwells us. Everybody has that as a believer
in Jesus Christ. Any questions on that? So the
spirit lives in me. Now let's go to First Corinthians
12 and verse 13 and pick up the next one. OK, so here we have
by or in one spirit, we were all baptized. All right. So now we have the baptism of
the spirit. We have the sealing of the spirit. We have the indwelling
of the spirit. We have the baptism of the spirit.
We're going to also have the filling of the spirit and the
gifts of the spirit, some other things. But the baptism, first
of all, on your list there, baptisms in the New Testament. Many people
think there's only one baptism talked about in the Bible. That
is absolutely not true. I'll just fill them in for you.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, it is a baptism with Moses. It's
a figurative baptism. We're baptized into Moses. So
it's figurative of what happened when they were coming out of
the wilderness. And so Mark chapter 10, verse 38 and 39, the baptism
of suffering. He said, I don't know. They said,
well, we'll gladly go with you. And he said, well, I don't know
if you can handle the baptism I'm going to be baptized with. It's the
baptism of suffering that Christ is going to face. And so this
big brave disciples who said they could handle it, really
were not able to do that. Luke 3, 16 and 17, it's a baptism
of fire. He talks about the baptism of
the fire, which is probably judgment. In Matthew 3, 1 through 11, we
have whose baptism? Who's out there in the wilderness?
John's baptism. It's a baptism of repentance. By the way, we're going to study
in a little bit. In Acts 19, verse 1 through 6, When Paul
got to Corinth, he said, in what then were you baptized? And they
said, we were baptized in John's baptism. He said, well, let's
get back in the water and let's get baptized a different way. John's
baptism was a baptism of repentance. They were identifying with his
message of repentance and the need of the nation. In John 3,
23 through chapter 4, verse 2, it's Jesus' disciples were baptized. He baptized, or his disciples
were baptized. And we don't really have a real
good clue on what that was all about. But apparently they were
identifying with his movement and his message just like they
had with John's Hebrews 6 to the Jews were baptized. There
was a Jewish baptism becoming a true Jew. And a lot of people
don't realize that not only were you supposed to be circumcised
but by the time of Christ if you were going to become a Jew
you had to be baptized. And so it wasn't a baptism. I mean,
it was like ours in mode and whatever, but it was not designed
to identify with Christ's death. It was designed to identify with
the Jewish movement. Acts 2, 41, of course, is believers'
baptism, the one that you will see. If you come to our church
and people are baptized in a tank, it's in water. And then 1 Corinthians
12, 12 and 13 and some other places, it's spirit baptism.
So I just wanted to list them out. I think those are all the
baptisms in the thing. By the way, what is common to
all of them? Why is the word baptism used
with suffering and fire and John's repentance and Jewish, joining
a Jewish religion and on and on? It helps you understand what
the word baptism means. Why do they say the baptism of
fire, the baptism of this, the baptism of John? Each require
a form of total immersion. So if I was going to be baptized
with John, I got in the water, we're told, but I was really,
it was a baptism of repentance. I was identifying, I was totally
surrounded by immersed in, identified with, Repentance. I'm buying
this one. I'm going on record as saying
to the whole world around me, I identify with this movement.
So it has immersion or identification. And those words are almost used
interchangeably. So remember that. Immersion or
identification with whatever it is. So to become a Jew, you
have to be baptized. You have to be identified with
the Jewish people. You have to be immersed. And often the symbolic
way was in water as well. Let's look at the progression
of baptism, spirit baptism. one of them that's not there
in John 1.33, but it's important to read it. So would you write
that down? John 1.33, I did not know him,
but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, this is
John the Baptist talking, said to me, upon whom you see the
spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who will baptize
with the Holy Spirit. So John is saying even when he
first met Jesus. He's directed by God's Spirit. He says, the one you're going
to baptize, who would be Jesus Christ, you're just baptizing
with water. He's going to come someday and
baptize with the Holy Spirit. So it's like prophesied. It's
a future thing way back then. Acts 1.5. They're in the upper
room. Acts 1.5. They're in the upper
room. Jesus has died. He rose. Many of them have seen
Him. I think probably all of them have seen Him. He is ascending
into heaven. And it says in verse 5, For John
truly baptized in water, But you shall be baptized in the
Holy Spirit, not many days from now. In other words, it's still
future. The baptism of the Spirit has not happened yet. So that's
Acts 1, verse 5. Acts 2, 38, not many days from
now, you guys will be baptized in the Spirit. Acts 2, 38, you
remember Pentecost, he preaches, et cetera, et cetera. verse 37
now when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said
to Peter and the rest of the apostles men and brethren what should
we do Peter said to them repent and let every one of you be baptized
in the name of Jesus Christ because of or be on the basis of a reference
to the set remissions of sin and and you will receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit and he's referring to there's the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit but also the baptism of the Holy Spirit acts
8 there's Acts is a book of transition, so you've got the church starting
and not fully developed. And so in Acts chapter 8, verse
14, 15, and 16, when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that
the Samaritans had received the word of God, they sent Peter
and John to them. And who, when they had come down, prayed for
them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet,
he had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in
the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them
and they received the Holy Spirit, et cetera, et cetera. And so
there is a receiving a minimum of the Holy Spirit also could
be perhaps the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is the first
message outside of Judaism. Now it's out to the Samaritans.
And when that happened, there is this confirmation by Peter
and John that this really was the work of God, this really
was the right thing, and so they are baptized by the Spirit, at
least receive the Spirit. Acts 11, 16. Acts 11, 16. Then I remembered, Peter is in
Joppa, I believe, and it says in Acts 11, 16, 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. Verse 15
says, And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them
as upon us at the beginning. So you see this through the book
of Acts. He said it's going to happen.
Acts 1, 5. Acts 2, 38. It already starts in the church
at Pentecost. Acts 8, it happens to the Samaritans.
Now in Acts 11, it happens to those who are in Joppa. Acts
19 is the one you'd like to look at as well. Verses 1 through
6. Acts 19, 1 through 6. It happened when Apollos, who
was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper region,
came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples, he said to them,
Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said
to him, We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy
Spirit. And he said, So unto what then were you baptized?
And they said, Unto John's baptism. And Paul said, John indeed baptized
with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they
should believe on him who would come after him, that is, on Christ
Jesus. And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name
of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands
on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with
tongues and prophesied. And so there for the people of
Ephesus, the Gentiles of the city of Ephesus, there is, I
said Corinth in my notes, but it's really Ephesus, there is
the receiving of the Holy Spirit. In the book of Acts, you see
this transition going on. At first, they are not people
who have received the Spirit and have not been baptized by
the Spirit. But then through time, they have and do receive
and are baptized by the Spirit of God. The classic, of course,
is 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and I'd like you to go there. Because
really to understand baptism, we have to understand this passage
more than anyone else. But I want you to picture water
baptism first, okay? You've all seen it, did it, probably. I think all of you have probably
been baptized. You for sure have seen it. And we'll just go down
these questions. What, or in other words, what
is the action in water baptism? Immersion. You get wet. You get
fully dunked. You're immersed in water. You're
surrounded by water. You've totally identified with
the water. Into what? The element is in water. John
1.33 says, he baptized in water, but you will be baptized in the
spirit. So it was immersion in the water. Who did it? Who is
the agent? Who do you see baptize people? Usually it's a pastor. Probably doesn't have to be.
I don't know anywheres in scriptures demands that, but most of our
circles, that's what happens. So there's a person who baptizes
them in the water. Who is baptized? Believers. Someone who has made a confession,
a profession, a statement that they have trusted in Christ as
their Savior. When is it done? Is it before they believe or
after they believe? After they believe. How soon
after they believe? Well, it can be right then. A lot of times
people wait. At least today. Some people wait
a year and some people wait forever. But anyway, it should happen
after you believe. And what's the result? In the book of Acts,
it seems to me to keep saying they were baptized and they were
added to the church. They were baptized and they were added to the church.
So it seems like, and I think F.F. Bruce said it so well, in
the book of Acts, you see this, that when a person believes,
they are baptized and then they're recognized as one who is a part
of the church. It's entrance into the visible
body of Christ. And that would not be inconsistent
with Jewish baptism, which said, you want to be a Jew? You can
say all you want, but you better get in the water. When you get
in the water, we will count you as a Jew. And so it's an entrance
into the visible, the visible, the one we see, the body of Christ.
There are many churches who don't do that, many churches you can
join without being baptized. But it seems to me that that
would be the pattern that we live with and basically see.
So that's water baptism. Let's go through spirit baptism
with 1 Corinthians 12 and try to answer and fill in all those
blanks as well. What is the action? We are baptized. So it means immersion or identification. What's the element? in water,
when it's water baptism, and it's in the Spirit. Now that's
very important. It's not of the Spirit. Many
people will say baptism of the Spirit is when the Spirit baptizes
you. But is that true? Well, the preposition
is, is the preposition in. So when I go in the water, the
water doesn't baptize me, does it? That's why I'm going in.
And in Spirit baptism, it's not the Spirit who's doing it. That's
what I'm going in. I'm going in the Spirit. I'm
going to be identified with the Spirit. I'm going to be immersed,
surrounded by, totally inundated with the Spirit. Who does it? Well, with water baptism, it's
a person, like a pastor or somebody puts them in the water. Who baptizes
us in the Spirit? Christ. John 1.33. Remember we
read it? John the Baptist is talking there. He said, I was told that, you
know, you're baptizing in water. There's coming one when you see
him, he's going to come and someday he's going to baptize in the
spirit. Every time you find the statement
baptized in the spirit. In fact, first Corinthians 12,
13 says the same thing. For in one spirit, we were all
baptized. It's always in, always in. I
know it's wrong translation. It really is. That's one bad
translation. Trust me. It's the Greek word
in which is always means in. That's why you don't have to
learn it because it sounds the same thing as English. Every
dictionary you ever look up will say it has a location in mind.
It means in. And that's why many people think
baptism is by the Spirit, because they read it in their Bible that
way. What else could they conclude? But it is always in the Spirit.
It's the same word that's found in John 1.33, where it says you
are baptized in the water. There's one who's coming after
you who will baptize in the Spirit. Were you baptized by the water?
No, you were baptized in it, weren't you? And the parallel
there, you're baptized in the water, you're baptized in the
spirit. It has to be that's the only way it can be. So Christ
is the one who immerses us in the spirit or totally surrounds
us with the spirit, totally puts us a part of the spirit of God.
OK, who is baptized in the spirit by Jesus Christ? First Corinthians
12. And verse 13, for in one spirit,
we were awe. That's very important because
many people will teach, I can show you a lot of papers that
will teach that baptism in the spirit is something that happens
to some Christians who walk forward in the service or really pray
hard or whatever. It's important to know baptism
in the spirit happens to us all. Who's the awe of 1 Corinthians
12? What kind of people were in Corinth? What kind of Christians
were in Corinth? Super righteous? No problems? Everything going
well? 1 Corinthians 3.13, you're carnal, he said. 1 Corinthians
5, there's one amongst you who's doing this and this. Man, if
I ever get there, I'm going to read them the right act. 1 Corinthians
6, they're going to court against each other. He says, what in
the world are you doing? So all of 1 Corinthians is to Christians,
but they're not perfect. Now he says, now we are all been
baptized in the Spirit. So who is we all? When? For water baptisms is when we
are saved and are willing to say that to people. And for this
one, it's at the moment of regeneration and salvation, the minute I'm
saved. We all have been baptized in the Spirit. And what's the
result? Let's read verse 13. For in one Spirit we were all
baptized into one body, whether Greeks or Jews, whether slaves
or free, and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. But
here's a phrase, baptized into one body. As a result, it is
entrance into not the visible, but the real body of Christ. I think if you can keep water
baptism and then go through all the things, you got it straight.
OK, here's the definition. Baptism of the spirit is that
act whereby Jesus Christ places a believer into the body of Christ
by totally surrounding him, immersing him, identifying him, whatever
phrase you want to use there, in the spirit. So, indwelling
is God lives in us. What's baptism? It's us in the
spirit or us in God. It's the opposite. So, is God
in us? That's indwelling. Or is us in
God? That's baptism. Which is it? Yes. All right. And us little Western
minds, we've got to have it one or the other. You're in me or
I'm in you, but I can't be in you and you in me, you know?
What does that tell you? We are so identified with the
Spirit of God that in one sense, we can say He lives in me. And
in another sense, I can say I live in Him. The truth is, He really
shouldn't really be a difference between me and the Spirit of
God as far as what is said and what is done and who I am and
how I act and whatever it is, right? So, what is the relationship
of the Holy Spirit baptism to water baptism? Water baptism,
I think, is an external display of what has happened
internally, and I think it's an external evidence of what
the Spirit has really done. It's placed us already into the
real body of Christ. Now I'm going to do it externally,
and it's a demonstration of that. My identification with Jesus
Christ is death, burial, and resurrection. externally displayed
displays as well Spirit baptism. Is Holy Spirit baptism ever repeated? So I'm baptized. When am I baptized? At the moment
of salvation. So is it repeated? No. Once and
for all. Does the Holy Spirit baptism
invest us with a transformed life free from evil? That's right. The second one
there, 1 Corinthians 12, 13, with 3, 1 through 3, says you
are carnal and you have to be baptized. So we know that was
true of them. Acts 1, 5 through 8, when he's talking to those
in the upper room waiting for the Spirit, Christ is about to
ascend. He says to them, you will receive
the Spirit of God. And then what will they do? Acts
1, 8. Have boldness. Yeah, you'll be
witnesses of me. It doesn't say, and you will
live a sin-free life. Boy, this will be great. You're
going to get the Spirit of God. No, it says, you will receive the
Spirit and you will witness for me. So it doesn't guarantee a
sin-free life. Now, the reason I'm pounding
on that, because we're going to go to filling as soon as you get back. And
then we're going to see that there are two major, major views
on this whole thing of indwelling, baptism and filling. And I've
been pounding pretty hard on indwelling and baptism is for
only believers, for every believer, never to be repeated. Whether
you're carnal or spiritual, it's what you got. There are those
who don't believe it. There's two charts in the back that you
might just want. You'll probably get confused
by because I got a whole bunch of handwritten notes on it. Hopefully I didn't
write anything real bad. But anyway, the chart of baptism
by the Spirit in the Book of Acts. But you're going to take
a little break. We're going to come back and we're going to
talk about filling and gifts. And we'll almost be done.
Doctrinal Survey 8-1
Series Bible Institute:Doctrinal Surv
| Sermon ID | 52913725256 |
| Duration | 54:38 |
| Date | |
| Category | Miscellaneous |
| Language | English |
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