The Holy Spirit in the Life of Christ

00:01 Amen. Let the church say amen. Well, it's a joy to be here this morning and in a different setting, I guess. Same location, different surroundings. And I'd like to just take a moment here this morning, even though we're not having a formal dedication today. We do want to plan something for the near future. 00:19 But I would like to just pay tribute to those on our building committee that really put so much time and energy and effort into this project. It is a joint project by everybody in the sense that everybody has contributed the funds to make it happen. 00:36 But there are some that put a lot of time and energy into bringing this to pass: Bob and Yolanda, and Rod and Cindy, and also Ryan, 00:52 Ryan and Liz. And Tim. Tim was the sound rep. And Valerie. So thank you so much for what you've done for us. We appreciate it. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Matthew, chapter 3. Matthew, chapter 3, continuing a second message in our series on the Holy Spirit. 01:14 Not that we are intending to bring honor necessarily not honor, but undue attention or focus to the Holy Spirit. He does deserve honor. He does deserve attention as a member of the Godhead. But he is almost the one that works in the background. And he says in Scripture, 01:33 the Bible says, "That he shall glorify me," that is Christ being the focus, the center. But it seems like there is a need for teaching on who the Holy Spirit is, what his role is in the Christian's life, what his role is in the world so that we might recognize who he is, honor him as such, 01:53 and also recognize his need and our dependency upon the person of the Holy Spirit. Our last message, we looked at the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and we saw his work in creation and in qualification and revelation and transformation. Creation, 02:13 how that he was forming and working with the Father and the Son in the creative acts there in Genesis. And in the new creation, in our case, creating in us a new heart and a new life. 02:28 And then in qualifications in the Old Testament, it was the Holy Spirit that would come upon a prophet or a priest or someone with a special judge, a special calling, a special function in leadership or in service, and qualify them and equip them for their ministry. 02:47 And then we also saw him in revelation, how that is the Holy Spirit who spoke through holy men of God, prophets, and so on as they wrote down the Scriptures and revealed God's Word to man. 02:58 And then in transformation, how that even in the Old Testament the prophets were prophesying that the Holy Spirit would be given to people in such a way that it would transform them from their inner being and outward. And so this morning we look at the Holy Spirit who is the one who takes the things of Christ and makes them real to us. 03:18 I don't know how many of you remember the radio personality Jay Vernon McGee. But one of the things I remember Jay Vernon McGee saying repeatedly when he would pray for his messages on the radio was that the Holy Spirit would take the things of Christ and make them real to us. 03:38 And really that is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And we'll see that not only this morning but also in a few other messages to come. And so we want to look at this morning the Spirit who imparted the nature of the Father to Jesus Christ, who gave our Lord Jesus direction and empowerment. 03:55 That's our three points this morning: the nature of the Father in Christ, the direction of the Spirit in Christ, and the empowerment of the Spirit in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see it all the way back in the early part of Matthew, Matthew, chapter 1, verse 18. 04:16 Of course, we're coming into the Christmas season. And we see that the Holy Spirit would come upon Mary. 04:25 It says, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit." That somehow the Holy Spirit came upon her to insert God, the Son of God, into her womb. We don't understand this mystery. 04:46 But in verse 20 it says, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." And Mary had an experience from God that no one else has ever had or ever will have. Imagine that. 05:05 Imagine that in Mary. To bear in your womb, to carry for nine months gestation period, the Son of God. No other woman had ever had that happen. No other woman will ever have that happen. 05:21 And yet as special as that was, she still needed the infilling that we experience and experienced that herself, I'm sure, on the day of Pentecost. And so Luke, chapter 1, verse 35 talks about the Trinity. "And the angel answered and said to her, 05:40 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you.'" That's the Father. "Therefore also that one who is to be born will be called the Son of God." You have the Trinity in one verse. "The Holy Spirit come upon you. The power of the Highest will overshadow you. And the Holy One shall be born of you, 06:02 the Son of God.'" And so we see him in overshadowing Mary to insert the life of God, the life of the Son of God, the pre-incarnate eternal Son of God, Jesus the Christ, 06:18 into the womb of Mary as a virgin and bringing forth that Son who was named Jesus of Nazareth. And so then we see him in this establishing his godness. I don't know if the word godness is a word, a term or not. 06:37 But we're going to talk about that a bit this morning, about the godness of the Son of God, his equality with the Father in Philippians 2, where it says of Jesus that he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, 06:52 or he thought it not something to be grasped at in an illegitimate way or to take something that didn't belong to him to be considered equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man. 07:07 And so you have the Son of God equal with the Father and that being accomplished by the Holy Spirit. So what you have here is the Trinity where Jesus says, "I and my Father are one." You have the Father. 07:26 You have the Son being equal and yet having different roles that they serve and that they fill in the Godhead. And the Holy Spirit being right there as part of that, making it happen, facilitating, coordinating. We see that happening in Scripture. 07:46 Isaiah 9:6, "For unto us a child is born. Unto us a Son is given. And his name shall be called." Now get this. 9:6, "Unto us a child is born. A Son is given. And his name is the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, 08:04 the Prince of Peace, and the Wonderful Counselor." But the Mighty God, he is called the Mighty God. You have the Trinity already in Isaiah 9:6 back there. The attributes of God ascribed to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 08:21 I want to take a little time on this this morning and just show you a little diagram here that has been helpful to me in illustrating this concept of the Trinity. The Trinity. This is an ancient diagram of the Holy Trinity. And what you have here is you have the Father, 08:42 you have the Son, you have the Holy Spirit. We kind of think of that as a triangle. But you could probably... I don't know if there are better ways to illustrate it. Probably not. But you have the Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. But they are different. The Son is not the Father. 09:02 The Father is not the Spirit. And the Spirit is not the Son. And so it's a very simple diagram to kind of give us a picture to help us wrap our minds around this thing of the Trinity. And by the way, if you ever get your mind wrapped around it, you're probably in error because it's about impossible to wrap your mind around it. 09:23 In fact, if you could understand it, then you would be God because the finite cannot understand the infinite. And yet we have to come up with ways of trying to relate to this God who has so many different dimensions to him and has revealed himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 09:45 The word Trinity is not, of course... Of course, it's not in the Bible. You can't go and find the word Trinity. You can't go to the Bible and find the word Bible either. But there are concepts in there that man has assigned words to that mean something and helps us understand the concept. 10:03 The word Trinity was developed by the Latin Church Father Tertullian in about the 2nd century, the 3rd century, the 200s, and really is just a tool to help us understand how the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit relate to each other and how they relate to us. 10:24 And there are various ways that people have tried to describe the Holy Spirit. All of them fall short. You can describe him kind of like this. But yet that's just a human man-made diagram that falls short. 10:44 Some people have said, "Well, you can get a little bit of a picture in a three-leaf clover. You have three leaves and yet it's one clover." Well, that's okay. But if you take one away, it's not a three-leaf clover anymore. Where with the Trinity, if you take one and isolate it, it's still God. 11:06 And some people have used the illustration of water. I kind of like that one. It's kind of easy to get your mind around that H2O has three forms. It has vapor. It has solid. And it has liquid. But it's all one substance just in three different forms. Yeah, I can kind of get my mind around that. 11:28 Some people describe the Trinity like an egg. An egg has three parts: the yolk, the white, and the shell. I can get my mind around that. But all of those just don't quite cut it because to think of God as an egg or to think of God as water, well, it's a little bit of a stretch. Some people think... 11:46 One of the best illustrations I have used or have heard is that as a person, I am one person but I am functioning in different roles. So I function as a Father. I function as a Son. And I function as a husband. But I'm just one person. 12:04 But yet that's not quite enough either because we're talking about three personalities, not just three ways of relating to us. 12:12 So all of these are just kind of tools to help us get around this concept of the Trinity, this concept that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit function as God in perfect unity and one does not function separate from the other. 12:32 I want to share with you a few Scriptures this morning that we base this Trinity on. When we think about the Trinity, some of the aspects of God that have been attributed to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to let us know that they're equal. 12:52 They are one and yet different. They're one in the sense that they're God but different in the sense that one is not the other and the other is not the other. And so when you think about God being eternal, the Bible says that God is eternal. "From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." In Psalm 90. 13:13 And in Revelation 1, it says of Jesus, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, who is and was and who is to come, the Almighty." It says that of Jesus. So you have what is said about the Father. He's eternal. Then you have it said about the Son. He's eternal. And it is said about the Spirit as well. 13:34 He said in Hebrews, he is referred to as the eternal Spirit, the eternal Spirit. Then you think about the omniscience of God, that God knows everything about everything about everything. Jeremiah 17 says, "I, the Lord, search the heart." Speaking of God, "I search the heart. 13:55 I try the reins even to give to every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings." In Romans 2:16, it says that about Jesus, "In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ." And so he knows everything about everything about everything. And then you have the Holy Spirit, 14:16 which it says in 1 Corinthians 2, "God has revealed those things or them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." And so you have what is said about the Father is also said about the Son. It's also said about the Spirit. You could go on just one more about truth. 14:35 John 7:28, it says of Jesus, he said, "You both know me and you know whence I came. I am not come from myself. But he that sent me is true." So the Father sent the Son and the Father is true. But in Revelation 3, Jesus is called true. 14:56 "These things sayeth he that is holy, he that is true, and he that hath the key of David." That's speaking of the Son. 15:03 And then of the Spirit in John 16, it says, "Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth." And so you can look at a number of different places where the Father is referred to in the same abilities, 15:23 attributes as the Son and as the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 12, he says, the Bible says, "There are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit. There are diversities of ministries but the same Lord, Jesus. 15:39 And there are diversities of activities but it is the same God." So you have again the Trinity being referred to in one verse. So don't let it trouble you that the word Trinity is not in the Bible. But the concept is certainly there. The truth is there. Someone has said, 15:58 "He who denies this truth may be in danger of losing his own soul." So the Holy Spirit in the nature of Christ. And then secondly, we see the Holy Spirit in the leading of Christ. Now, I realize we haven't got to our text this morning. We were back in Matthew 1:18 and 20. 16:18 So if you look at Matthew 3:11, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But he is coming after me. He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." We'll talk more about this in a future message. 16:41 "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. And he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his weed into the barn. But he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." And so there's something about the coming of the Holy Spirit that has some judgment and purification attached to it. 17:03 By the way, let me remind you that when we talk about the Holy Spirit, we are talking about the Holy Spirit, not unholy. And so the Holy Spirit would naturally, when he comes, establish holiness, not unholiness. He establishes holiness. 17:24 And so this is true in the life of Jesus. There was no sin in Jesus' life that needed to be purged. 17:29 But Jesus, who is the baptizer, who we will see in the book of Acts, who is the baptizer, baptizes into holiness and a judgment on sin both in the sense of purification and in the sense of final judgment for those who resist and reject Jesus Christ. 17:50 And so we have here the baptizer, John baptizing with water, Jesus the baptizer with the Holy Spirit, verse 13, "Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent him saying, 'I am in need to be baptized by you. And you are coming to me?' But Jesus answered and said to him, 18:11 'Permit it to be so now. For thus, it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.' Then he allowed him. When he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water. And behold, the heavens were open to him. And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him." There you have the Trinity again. You have the Son coming up out of the water. 18:32 You have the Spirit descending upon him. And verse 17, "A voice came from heaven saying, 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.'" Now exactly what happened after this? 18:47 Verse 1, "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." Why did Jesus need this? What is happening here? Well, there's a number of things happening here. One of the things that is happening here is the public declaration and introduction of the Son of God and his ministry. 19:08 Another thing that's happening here is the anointing of Jesus for empowerment because though he were the Son of God, he was also the Son of man. And the Bible says in Acts 10 that the Father anointed the Son with the Spirit for ministry. Jesus also said in Luke 4, 19:30 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel." And so there's an anointing going on here as the Spirit comes upon the Son and enables the Son to do the work of God, equips the Son, 19:50 and connects the Son with the Father. Have you ever wondered how did the Father and the Son communicate during their time, his time here on earth? How did they communicate? How did the Father communicate his instructions on the details of Christ's ministry? 20:07 Is it such that Jesus was given all of the instructions for every one of his contacts and deeds from the Father before he arrived? Or was there communication going on two-way from the Son to the Father? Well, we know that was happening because Jesus was a man of prayer. 20:28 But there was also communication coming from the Father to the Son. How did that happen? How did it get there? How did it get back and forth? That happened through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 20:47 Now try to wrap your mind about that, around that, 20:50 where God is leading Jesus and exposing him to temptation by the devil. Interesting things to ponder. How do we communicate with God? And why am I making this an issue? How do we communicate with God? 21:11 We communicate with God through the Holy Spirit. He is the link between us and Jesus. I mean, Jesus isn't here. How does Jesus hear our prayer? And you try to wrap your mind around that, children, and try to teach your children around that. 21:33 Well, we tell our children at night, "Don't be afraid. Jesus is with you." Right? Well, I thought Jesus is in heaven. How can Jesus be up there and be down here at the same time? Simple answer, the Holy Spirit. 21:55 The Holy Spirit is the link between earth and Jesus in his physical absence from us. And so do we need the Holy Spirit today? Absolutely. We need that link. We need that connection. 22:12 We need the blessings and the illumination and the understanding and wisdom coming down. And we need access going up. And of course, that is done in the name of Jesus. It's done under the authority of Jesus. And it's done as Jesus intercedes to the Father for us as our great high priest and our advocate. 22:32 But how does it get back and forth? That's the ministry of the Holy Spirit. 22:39 And so Jesus was led by the Spirit. We also need to be led by the Spirit. For the Bible says, "For as many as are led by the Spirit are the sons of God." Jesus was led. He was leadable and was led. We also must be leadable. And if we are children of God, we are leadable. 22:59 We're leadable. We're sensitive to the Holy Spirit. We want to hear from God. We need to communicate with God and hear his communication with us. Who told Jesus that he needed to go through Samaria in John 4? The Holy Spirit. Who told Jesus that he needed to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things? 23:21 The Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, all working in harmony. Who raised Jesus from the dead? It's interesting, you see, the resurrection being a joint effort between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father said, "He will raise him from the dead." The Son said, 23:41 "I will raise myself from the dead." And the Spirit was active in raising Jesus from the dead. "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit who dwells in you." Who's going to be the active agent of resurrection when Christ comes back again? 24:04 The Holy Spirit. Going to give life to dead bones and give life to dead bodies. He is our guide. I do not believe that the Holy Spirit gives messages to men that are even closely on the level of Scripture. 24:25 But the Holy Spirit does give promptings. He does communicate God's word to us. He gives enlightenment so that we can understand Scripture. The story is told of John Bunyon. 24:38 Some of his persecutors had found out that the jailer who kept Bunyon in jail in England would let him out at night sometimes. And he could go home. He was kind of under temporary arrest. And the officials got word of that. And on this particular night, 24:58 Bunyon was at home with his family and had been given a release from the jailer for a 24-hour pass or 12 hours or whatever. And the authorities showed up. 25:08 And they had found out about this unique arrangement. And they said, "We're going to nail this jailer." And for some reason that night, while Bunyon was at home, he was restless. He was agitated. He was not able to settle in. And he just said, "You know what? 25:27 I just feel like I need to go back to the jail." So he went back to the jail. In fact, the jailer was actually perturbed at him. "Why are you here? You're inconveniencing me." What the jailer didn't know is that when John Bunyon got to his cell, the guys, the authorities showed up and wanted to know if John Bunyon was in the jail. Well, yeah, he is, in fact. 25:48 Had he not been prompted by somebody beside his own intellect and ability, it wouldn't have turned out so well. It would have been bad for the jailer and bad for him. And so God does give promptings. But these are not ever on the level of Scripture. 26:07 And even we have to be careful when we attribute them to God because a lot of things have been attributed to God that are not God. But God does guide. And God guided the Lord Jesus Christ. The last point I want to make this morning is about the Holy Spirit in the abilities of Christ. 26:28 We've talked about the Holy Spirit in the nature of Christ, the Holy Spirit in the leading of Christ, and now the Holy Spirit in the abilities of Christ. And so what we have here is the Spirit of the Lord. 26:45 The Bible says, Jesus actually said it as he read Old Testament Scriptures in the synagogue. He said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, 27:05 and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Where did Jesus get his power? He got his power from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit anointed Jesus. It says in Acts 10:38, 27:24 I referred to it a moment ago, "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him." So you have again the Trinity in the ministry of Jesus. 27:44 In the ministry of Jesus, you have the Father having sent the Son, given him instruction. You have the Spirit coming upon the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the man Jesus, the Son of man, the Son of God, enabling him, empowering him to do ministry. And let me tell you something. 28:05 If Jesus needed the anointing and empowering of the Holy Spirit, don't you think we do? You're awfully quiet this morning. If Jesus needed the anointing and the power and enabling ability of the Holy Spirit, don't you think we need it? Amen. I need it. 28:25 There is a difference, however, between the power that Jesus had, and we'll get into this more in future messages, and the power that we have because Jesus had the Spirit without measure. We have the Spirit by measure. 28:43 Now, if you look at the Scripture in John 4:34, it says that Jesus received the Spirit without measure. 28:56 In other words, the fullness of God, Colossians said it, the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Jesus Christ. There was nothing of God that was lacking in Jesus. 29:14 Jesus had 29:17 full fruit of the Spirit. There was not any fruit of the Spirit that was lacking in Jesus ever. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, 29:37 faith, temperance, not a one of those things was ever lacking in Jesus ever. 29:45 Did they lack in us? Yeah. Yeah. Shouldn't. But they do. We grow. We grow. And somehow Jesus grew. I don't know how to understand that quite. He grew in his ability and in his mind, will, and emotions. The Scripture says that he increased in favor with God and man. 30:07 He increased, how does it say, spiritually, emotionally, physically, and in favor with God and man. So we don't know exactly how that worked. But we know in his ministry, he lacked none of the fruit of the Spirit. We also know that he lacked none of the gifts of the Spirit. None. 30:28 All of the gifts of healing, all of the gifts of wisdom and knowledge, all of the gift of service, 30:38 of supernatural gifts, you name it, Jesus had it all. Why? Because he had the Spirit without measure. But we don't have it all. We do not have it all. We have the Holy Spirit as believers. But we're not God. 30:58 Never will be. 31:00 Even though some people think that they are God incarnate somewhere, within them is Godness. God is in there. He is in us. We have his nature. But we are not God. 31:19 And so we have the Spirit. And we have the fullness of Christ living within us. But when it comes to gifts and abilities and those kinds of things, we have varying gifts. We have different abilities. And nobody has all of them. But Jesus did. 31:40 Jesus had it all. The Father, the ESV Study Bible says it like this, "The Father gives to Jesus the Spirit without measure. Others had been and will be empowered by the Spirit to some extent. 31:57 But Jesus has a measureless anointing from the Spirit." One writer said it like this, "Only the Lord Jesus Christ has the fullness of divine blessing. As the head of the body, Christ received the fullness of the Spirit. He did not receive the Spirit in partial measure as a believer does when baptized in the Holy Spirit. 32:15 Christ received the fullness of God's Spirit because he was God. And in him, all fullness dwelled." So we have looked this morning at the nature of the Spirit. We have looked at the ability of Christ being given by the Spirit. And we have looked at the leading of Christ by the Spirit. 32:36 What does this have to do with us? We can all say, "Great, wonderful, praise the Lord. Jesus is who he said he was." No problem there. We believe it all. Hallelujah. What a Savior. What does that have to do with us? What does it have to do with us? 32:54 I want to give you just a couple of things to think about that it has to do with us. Number one, as he was Christ's connection with the Father, he is also our connection. He is our connection with the Father. 33:11 I understand from Scripture that really we get nothing from the Father except by the Holy Spirit. And nothing gets to the Father except by the Holy Spirit because the things that we are about are spiritual. They are spiritual. Even our prayers are spiritual. 33:31 What Judy referred to this morning was not just about words. Our prayers are not just words. Our prayers are a heart connection, a spiritual connection with God. And so he is our connection. The rich storehouses of the Father are made available to us by the Spirit. 33:53 We really have nothing from God the Father or God the Son without those riches coming to us by the Spirit. In fact, Jesus said in John 16:14 and 15, "He will glorify me. For he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 34:13 All things that the Father has are mine. Therefore, I said, he will take of mine and declare it to you." So there you have the ministry. 34:21 One of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to connect us with God, to give us God's resources, and to take our feeble efforts at prayer and ministry and anoint them, empower them, 34:41 and make them come alive. If you remember last time we said that the Spirit is about transformation, it is about life hovering over the waters. It is about creation. It is about the new creation. We are a new creation in Christ by the Spirit. 35:02 Oh, yes. Mary had an overshadowing like no other human being has ever had. But you know what? You and I have an experience with God that Mary needed as well. 35:12 And so that day of Pentecost, Mary had something happen to her that did not happen to her at the conception because the Holy Spirit was not yet given in the way that he has now been given to actually take up residence in the human personality and 35:32 be the life of Jesus Christ to us. He is the one who gives us illumination, who gives direction, who gives understanding, who gives wisdom. He is the one who empowers our feeble efforts for God's kingdom and empowers our ministries. 35:48 He is the one that needs to be sovereign in our lives to the point that we hear and we understand the ways of God and to the point that we follow and walk in the Spirit. If you live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit, Scripture says. 36:07 So this has direct implications for us. One of those direct implications I've already referred to is fulfilled on the day of Pentecost and is fulfilled in us when we come to know Christ. And that is being baptized in the Holy Spirit and with fire. 36:30 And so he said here, "I will baptize you with water," John said. "But he who's coming after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." And we'll talk more about that. But one of the reasons it was necessary for Jesus to have the Holy Spirit as a man is because he's the baptizer. And if the baptizer doesn't have it, 36:50 the baptized won't get it. Are you with me? And so if the baptizer with the Holy Spirit, Jesus, doesn't have the Holy Spirit, there's no way that the baptizee is going to get the Holy Spirit. And oh, how we need him. How we need him. 37:10 And I would just say just personal 37:14 confession that I have probably not recognized through the years how much I need the Holy Spirit. I share that with you as a confession this morning. If Jesus needed him, how much more do we need him? 37:34 He is the only one who can take the resources of forgiveness and apply them to the heart. He is the only one that can dispense the grace that we need when the grace is needed and it is dispensed into the human heart. 37:53 That is a work of the Holy Spirit taking the things of God the Father and God the Son and giving them to us. He is the applier of the healing ointment on a troubled soul. And he is the light in a dark world. Oh, how dark this world would be were it not for the ministry and person of the Holy Spirit. 38:12 You think it's dark now? Just wait till the church is removed and the Holy Spirit is held back and restrained or is no longer restraining sin and takes a step back from this world and lets it play out in all its evil. You haven't seen anything yet. 38:28 And he is the one who will separate the wheat from the chaff and gather the wheat into the barn and destroy the chaff with unquenchable fire. Oh, how we need him. Don't be afraid of him. 38:49 I will also confess to you that there have been times when I have been afraid of the Holy Spirit. And what I've come to realize is that because of excesses, what I've come to realize is what I've been afraid of was not really the Holy Spirit, but somebody's distorted concept, my own distorted concept of the Holy Spirit. 39:07 The Holy Spirit is a beautiful part of God. He is not a monster. He will never make you do something out of control. I would hear stories about people who would go off and claiming this was done by the power of the Holy Spirit and lose control. 39:28 In fact, I had a man I read a book one time of a man who said that he was so under the anointing of the Spirit that he got up to preach and he didn't know what he preached for an hour. He just preached. He was so under. I'm not sure that's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not make you lose your intellect. 39:48 The Holy Spirit does not make you lose control. The Holy Spirit is the one who gives you the ability to think and to communicate and to control yourself. So let us not be afraid of what God has for us. 40:07 And I realize that this is an interesting subject for our time because there is much emphasis on the Holy Spirit even in our community. It's not all true what's being promoted. So let's root ourselves in the truth, but not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Amen. Let's pray. 40:31 Lord God, we thank you that you have not left us as orphans. You didn't just pull out of here and leave us on our own. You gave us yourself in the person of the Holy Spirit. 40:48 And oh, how we need him to make Jesus real to us, to take the things of God and apply them to our hearts. Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful gift. In Christ's name. Amen.