The Work of the Holy Spirit

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Good afternoon and welcome again. It's good to see you here. We appreciate your interest in the scriptures. We appreciate your commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the church. We're glad that you came to worship the Lord this afternoon. [00:00:34] Let's take a moment to pray, shall we? Our loving Father, again this afternoon we pause here in your very presence and we turn our attention to you and we want to respond to your love and to your grace and all that you are to us day by day. Thank you, Father, for weekends like this one. Thank you, Father, for the freedom that we have in our land to teach and to preach the wonderful words of life. Father, we thank you for these folks that have come this afternoon. We ask, Lord, that we might be alert and awake. [00:01:07] Help us, Lord, to receive something that your spirit can touch our hearts with, that can be a blessing to us, we can take with us from these meetings and be blessed. So, Father, we just ask today, Lord, for each one of us who stand up here, Fill us with your spirit, Lord, and help us to hide behind the cross of Jesus, that we might exalt his name in your kingdom. So, Lord, we ask now, guide the words that are spoken, help us to speak things that would bring glory to your name, and build us up in Jesus Christ. [00:01:39] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, this afternoon we want to have a continued study in the subject of the Holy Spirit. Now I'm going to read the same verses that I read yesterday when I began. If you want to turn your Bibles again to John chapter 14, read three verses there and go over to chapter 16. In John chapter 14, it says, Jesus speaking, He said, I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, [00:02:10] that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. And then verse 26. But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Turning over to chapter 16 in the book of John where it says It's expedient for you that I go away [00:02:41] for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you But if I depart, I will send him unto you, and when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness, of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you see me no more. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many other things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now, howbeit, when he, the spirit of truth, has 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. [00:03:20] He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine, therefore said I, that he shall take all things of mine, and shall show it unto you. Yesterday we talked about the Holy Spirit, the person that he is, and we looked at the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. We thought about some of the biblical proofs of his personality and after the service yesterday one of the brethren said to me, he said, the Holy Spirit is not to be referred to as it. The Holy Spirit, the pronoun in the scriptures, is he. He is a person. He is the third person of the Trinity of the Godhead in glory. [00:04:01] He has the spiritual qualities of personhood. He doesn't have the physical ones. We talked about that yesterday some. We get a picture of Jesus because he came in the incarnation, lived in a body of flesh. The Holy Spirit has not done that, except that he dwells within us as the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives. The divine attributes that we looked at yesterday that have to do with the Holy Spirit is that he is eternal. He is omnipotent, He is omnipresent [00:04:33] And divine works are ascribed unto Him In the very creation, beginning in Genesis 1 Remember I said Elohim, the word God there In the beginning God, Elohim, the three in one The plural name for God We talked about the equality of the three persons of the Trinity And we spent a little time then in speaking about the matter of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and what a serious sin that is. We talked about the unpardonable sin, sin that will never be forgiven in this life or the next. [00:05:06] Well, we talked about the descriptive titles. And this principle is true, that the Holy Spirit was in the Old Testament, but one of the differences there was that the Holy Spirit was with His people, New Testament, in His people. The Holy Spirit with God's people, working from the outside seemingly, in the New Testament, taking up residence within us, and we are then to be filled with the Holy Spirit. [00:05:36] Now, Old Testament brothers were filled with the Holy Spirit too at times. The Holy Spirit would come upon someone and enable them to do a task, fill a responsibility, serve a time, completely provide everything they need for that time. But it wasn't a permanent indwelling presence. It was not a powerful righteousness. It was not a powerful holy living like we have experienced in our New Testament time. Well tonight, or this afternoon, we're going to go on from there and look at the Holy Spirit in the New Testament [00:06:07] and this gets a little more practical, right down to our hearts and what God has called us to today and what he's providing for us in the New Testament time where we live. Brother Keith this morning was talking about a stable church, an unstable world. He made reference to this comment that Jesus made when he said, I will build my church and the Lord is in the building process of the church no question about it the church is being built God's plans and purposes are not frustrated [00:06:39] you know we think about the passages of scripture that talk about the last days how it says there's going to be a great falling away how it says many are going to depart from the faith it says will he find faith on the earth when he comes we talk about the salt of the earth and the salt is diminished As note, not enough salt to preserve the earth anymore and a great change is going to come. But God's purposes are not frustrated. When the end comes, there will be a church. There will be a bride for Christ. There will be a marriage supper in glory. [00:07:11] Heaven and glory are going to go on. God's purposes are not going to be frustrated. There's going to be a great separation. all the sin, the wickedness, all the demons and the devil and all be cast away, they'll be cast away, it's a permanent separation never, never to have another opportunity I believe that Satan and his demons don't have any opportunity but for people, people who have lived on the earth and they've sat in places like this and they've heard the message of salvation [00:07:42] and they've rejected it or neglected it neglecting is a terrible problem in our time I believe When we hear the message, we hear truth, we're challenged in our hearts, and then we turn away and forget. Forget that our face is dirty. You know, I talk about looking in a glass and going his way and forgetting what manner of man he was. Well, God is not a loser. And those of us who are with God, with Jesus Christ in the church, will not be losers either. There's glory. There's glory ahead of us. [00:08:12] We want to press on, look forward, look upward, and keep on encouraging one another. That's one of the purposes of times like this, to keep up on our friendships, to edify each other That can be done from up here, but it can be done as well in the fellowship that we have together Just to be with a group of a kinship spirit, of like precious faith, that's encouraging And it's up building for us, I trust that's your experience as you spend time here this weekend Let's just think for a moment about the building of the church [00:08:43] I have some experience with building. My older brother and next younger brother have a building business. They build houses, do remodeling and such like, and I work on their crew sometimes. Well, in building a house, the plans are all made. Now, there's an owner, and he kind of begins with an architect, and then the plans are all laid out, and then all the suppliers are involved, And then it comes down to the superintendent on the job or the general contractor along with all his workers. [00:09:19] And my brothers have been working, I worked on it some too, a nice, great, big house. And everything is just falling into place and it's almost finished. And just to think about how all these things fit together. It all works together from the architect, the owner, the architect, and all the material providers, and then the general contractor, all his workers, it all fits together and it comes out a beautiful product. There's a continual relationship as that house is being built. [00:09:51] The architect's been out there several times to just see how things are going and all the material providers have always been in and out and the contractors have always been there on the job and all his workers and it all fits together. And I'd like to make a little comparison to that, to the building of the church. You know, Jesus Christ is under the authority of his Father. The Father, the master planner, the master designer. And then to think about Jesus Christ as being the one that came to earth to bring to us salvation [00:10:25] and to provide us with everything that we need in the process of the work of building the church. And then I like to think about the Holy Spirit as being the superintendent on the job. And then all of his workers around him, all working together with their eyes upon Jesus Christ and upon the master plan that God has laid out. The Holy Spirit. You know, we are workers together with God. But it's the Holy Spirit that is the one that is with us. [00:10:58] He has the plan and he helps us in all our co-laboring to work together in building of the church. He's giving of gifts as needed. Wherever the gift is needed, he can provide it. He gives to men severally as he wills, giving the gift to meet the need and the place at the time. And he's full able to do that. He has the master plan. He's the supervisor in the building of the church. I don't mean to do in any way make a degrading term to the Holy Spirit [00:11:29] in making these likenesses. You know, the Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity. He is divine. He is God as well as the Father and the Son. But to help us grasp the work of the Holy Spirit and where we fit into it and how he works with us. That's why we use these illustrations. So he gives the gifts and the graces that are needed to fill the building program that the church will be built. God is not on a losing side. The church will be built, and there will be a bride for Christ in glory, [00:12:01] and I trust today that there won't be a soul that's here today that will be missing in that experience. It's going to be a beautiful, a beautiful time. Let's go on then with some things pertaining to the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. From Incarnation to Pentecost, we have John the Baptist in Luke chapter 1 verse 15 that John the Baptist coming on the scene as the forerunner of Christ about six months ahead of Christ's coming and he's going to be filled with the Spirit. [00:12:34] He's going to be under the control of the Spirit of God and he's going to lay out the highway. He's going to prepare the way for the Lord Jesus Christ He's going to introduce Jesus Christ to the world. Then there's Zacharias. The Holy Spirit filled Zacharias. And Zacharias filled a place, being the father there of John the Baptist. And then to think about the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ. [00:13:05] And as I look at these things, I realize that the Holy Spirit is very, very active in the life and the ministry of Christ. Think about these things. The scripture lays these things out very plainly and very clearly. It says that he was conceived of the Spirit, born of a virgin. That was the power of the Spirit of God in the incarnation of Christ. He was, Mary, conceived of the Holy Spirit. He was anointed of the Spirit. He was the one that was appointed, set up for this office. [00:13:39] You know, in the Old Testament, the prophet, the priest, and the king were anointed. And when a person was anointed, then the people knew. Oh, this person was anointed to fill this place. This is the person we look to. The prophet, the priest, and the king. All people that God used through the Old Testament time. And their anointing was the manner of their appointment. Well, Jesus Christ was anointed of the Spirit. He was sealed of the Spirit. He had the seal of God upon Him. He went with the authority of God. He was filled with the Spirit. He was led of the Spirit. It says He was given the Spirit without measure. [00:14:18] And the Holy Spirit then continuing on with the life of Christ Even to the cross It says in Hebrews 9.14 That it was through the Spirit that he was offered on the cross as that offering for sin Through the Spirit It says in Romans 8 that he was raised by the Spirit So here you see Jesus Christ being the second person of the Trinity and the activity of the Holy Spirit in setting up and carrying on in the preparations for Christ's ministry. [00:14:53] Well, we go on from there, from Pentecost then to the end of the age. In organizing the church, in Acts chapter 2, verses 1 to 4, maybe I'll just read those verses, they are common verses, but let's just take a look there. The Holy Spirit came to make the arrangements and to give power and all for the beginning of the church. It says, So there is the birth of the church, the birth of the bride of Jesus Christ. [00:15:50] The Holy Spirit came and took up residence. He came and filled the lives of these disciples for them to carry on then the work that Jesus had begun while he was here on the earth. So he's organizing the church, he establishes it, and he possesses the church as the temple of God. The temple. Do you realize? Do I? I don't think I grasp it completely. I don't understand. Here, my body is a temple of the Holy Ghost. God, in the Spirit, lives, dwells within me. So he possesses the church. [00:16:30] It's not the building where we go to worship. No, his dwelling place is in the believers. That's why they, in time past, church houses were called meeting houses. The house is not the church. No, it's where the church meets, where all these people who are the little temples of the Holy Ghost come to worship the Lord. And then he equips the church with gifts and graces. I made a few comments about that already, but to think about the graces there just for a moment, The grace is being the fruit of the Spirit [00:17:01] I ask you this question Without the fruit of the Spirit What would be the attraction Or what would be attractive about the church of Jesus Christ You know, the very nature of Jesus Is to be given to us The fruit of the Spirit When the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us He wants to bring with us the very nature and the very character of Jesus Christ The love, the compassion, the service. He wants to bring it all. [00:17:33] Love, joy, peace, all those things. He wants to be part of our life. And our lives will be attractive as the fruit of the Spirit is evidenced there. Somebody without the fruit of the Spirit is not a very attractive person. But here we are in Jesus Christ. Holy Spirit gives us gifts to carry on the work and the gifts that he gives, there's a whole section in this study about the gifts of the Spirit, but the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives, they are designed perfectly for the place, for the moment, and for the need. [00:18:13] The Holy Spirit knows. And so the Holy Spirit is able to do that. So, what my gift is, what your gift is, I don't know, there's a lot of focus on gifts and all, and I think that's good and right. The scripture teaches these things. But I think that we need to realize that every one of us has a little place to fill in the building program of the church. Every one of us. There's nobody in the church that's a nobody that's not needed. No, everybody that comes into the church of Jesus Christ, he becomes a little temple of the Lord and then God has a place for him to fill and then to fill that place he gives him a gift. He provides what he needs to fill it well and he gives him the very nature of Jesus so he's an attractive person while he's doing his work. It's a work of the Spirit of God. Without the Spirit we would be lost. [00:19:08] Equipping the church with divine revelation or with the inspired truth What the Holy Spirit brings to the church is revelation, inspiration, and illumination He brings revelation, that means he brings the message Revelation, it's the work of the Holy Spirit It said yesterday that holy men of God spake and wrote as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. [00:19:40] The writers of the Old Testament, the writers of the New Testament, the same way. Revelation, the Holy Spirit bringing the message to the hearts of men and enabling them to record it that we might have a true message today. And then inspiration, the Holy Spirit is protecting that message. The message came by the breath of God through the Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit protected that message from any error. You can't find conflicts in the Scriptures. No, it's the protection of the Holy Spirit. [00:20:12] And we have the Holy Scriptures today. We have them, Bibles, all around us. Not quite that way every place in the world. But one of the things we ought to be grateful for is the privilege we have to have openness and freedom in our land to have Scriptures, to preach, to teach, to live, to testify, Why? To practice the principles of the scripture without being molested in our land. Well, the Holy Spirit brings the message and he protected the message in its writing and he still protects it for us today, I believe. [00:20:43] And then in illumination, he guides us in our understanding of the scriptures. The Holy Spirit helps us to grasp the principles of the word as we apply ourselves to study. The Holy Spirit doesn't just pour us full. There's something on our part to do. We need to read, we need to study, we need to seek after, diligently seek after, and pray, ask God to reveal, and His Holy Spirit then is able to reveal to us, to illuminate us, to bring light to our understanding of what the Bible is saying. [00:21:27] The church into all the word of God. You read there in Acts chapter 15 where the disciples went down to Jerusalem. They had some questions. How are we going to do? And when they had off to the Jerusalem conference was finished and the report was, it seemed good unto the Holy Ghost and to us that they go back to the churches with the initiated report. Well, so it's the work of the Holy Spirit. They were there in that Jerusalem conference seeking for the presence of God and seeking to understand and to hear the voice of the Spirit. [00:21:59] Well, the Holy Spirit, He's the superintendent. The Holy Spirit is the director of the building of the church. So here we are, little under-shepherds or little servants, co-workers, and we need to understand the Holy Spirit is the one who has the answers. He reveals them to us, and so we need to seek after that. And He is able, and He will do that, if we, in the honesty of our hearts, will seek after it. Well, let's go on. Just a couple comments here in our New Testament time now. [00:22:31] In relation to the world, these verses that are read in John 16. He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and judgment. He will convince the world. You know, it's the work of the Holy Spirit to help people get a hold of the idea that they're sinful. He's the one that brings conviction by pointing them to their sin. by pointing them to the truth of the word of God. And when a man will measure himself against the truth of the word of God, there's not a man on earth who will say, oh, I guess I measure up. [00:23:04] Nobody does. We're all sinful. The wages of sin is death. So we're sinful by nature, been passed on to us from Adam. We had no choice in it. We're just that way. But God's made a wonderful provision for us to turn away from that old sinful life and to live a new life in Jesus Christ. We'll talk more about that. We're going down through the line here a little bit. So he convinces the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. We are sinful by nature. Righteousness in Jesus Christ is a possibility for us [00:23:36] if we will heed to the voice of the Spirit and to the written word and judgment is surely coming. Judgment is surely coming. Well, think then just a little bit further then about the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. He regenerates the believer. Regeneration. Now, most of us have water softeners and we know what happens when they regenerate. Now the water flows through these little crystals of whatever they call them in their rosin or whatever it is [00:24:07] and the water comes through that and all the dirt and stuff collects on those particles and then you flush it backwards with salt and it cuts all that corruption off of those little particles and flushes it down the drain. Oh, it's regenerated. The old stuff is taken out and the new is as good as new again. Well, regeneration for us is to experience a change in our life. We've been sinful by nature. We've enjoyed our sins. We've walked in the course of this world after the prince of the power of the air, [00:24:38] all the lusts of the flesh we have done. Well, regeneration makes a change in our thought patterns, a change in our mind, a change in our heart. We look at sin differently when regeneration happens Because we've received a new nature As the old nature loved the old sinful ways The new nature loves righteousness So we've turned away from the old And now we look toward the new And we long for the new regeneration Well, also in relation to the believer [00:25:10] He indwells us And I've talked about that for a bit But let's think about indwelling of the Holy Spirit The baptism of the Holy Spirit is something that every believer has experienced. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is about the most simple term I can put it in. I believe it kind of covers it. It's that the Holy Spirit, when a person comes to the cross of Jesus Christ, and there he responds in faith and repentance, bowing his knee with brokenness before the cross of Christ, [00:25:45] something happens. No, the change comes, and the Holy Spirit is given to him. So the baptism of the Spirit happens at regeneration, it happens at the new birth, it happens when faith and repentance work their work in a heart, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us. Jesus Christ gives the Holy Spirit, we receive him, he lives within us. That's about as simple as I can make the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Spirit, then you go on from there with some other things, but the receiving of the Holy Spirit is what our focus is here today. He seals us, he puts his mark of ownership upon us, he is the one that marks us for God, the seal, it's mentioned the seal yesterday, just briefly, that when a package goes out from a company that has a stamp on it, that marks it, where it came from, that company, well, we as [00:26:43] As believers in the church of Jesus Christ have received the Holy Spirit, we've been baptized with the Holy Spirit, and as God looks down from glory, he sees who we are. Every person that has the Spirit of God has his mark, has his mark of ownership. We belong to him. We're his kingdom. So, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit, we're marked for God. If we don't have the Holy Spirit, we are not in his kingdom. You see, well he empowers us as well [00:27:15] In Acts chapter 1 there in verse 8 It says you'll receive power After that the Holy Ghost has come upon you And then you shall be witnesses Talking specifically to the disciples and all But you know, people, the power of the Spirit that comes upon us Is power to be and power to do It gives us power to be the kind of person in this ugly, sinful world that God has called us out to be. Power to live a righteous life. [00:27:47] Power to overcome the temptations and the pressures of evil. It's a power to supply everything we need to walk after the Lord in obedience to the scriptures, in obedience to his word. And the power to do. That's the thought that kind of generally comes to my mind when I read that verse there in Acts chapter 1 verse 8. They were going to be witnesses and they went forth and they were witnesses. The power of the Spirit enabled them to be what they were in the kingdom work of Jesus Christ. [00:28:18] And that's the same for us today. The power of the Spirit of God will help us to do, to be workers, to be servants. We're not all going to be preachers. We're not all going to be this or be that. But every one of us has a place to fill and the power of the Spirit within us enables us to fill that place, to fill it well in an acceptable way with the Lord. So there's power for living and there's power for service. Well, he guides the believer and we need to trust the Lord and his wisdom. [00:28:56] The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. The Holy Spirit guides the steps of a man who's seeking in his heart after God. I found some places in my life where I didn't really like the steps. I didn't like the changes that he was asking of me. But do I trust the wisdom of God? If it exactly fits with what I'd like or not, trust the wisdom of God when he orders your steps, [00:29:27] Guides your steps through places that are unhandy, places that are difficult, yet the Lord will guide our life. In relation to the scriptures that we have, think about a few things here. The Holy Spirit is the author. And in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, you read there the messages that John recorded. there are the messages to the churches record what the spirit is saying to the churches the whole [00:30:02] matter of the scriptures is for our learning the whole manner of the scriptures given us to give us understanding of God and man and salvation and life and eternity it's all it's all there think about the Holy Spirit in relation to Jesus Christ a little bit further His birth, His development, His official consecration, His wilderness temptations, His ministry of preaching and healing [00:30:33] His death, His resurrection, His post-resurrection, then the bestowment of the Holy Spirit His intercessory ministry that He has for us today and then in His return, the Holy Spirit working in the life of Christ in all these things Well, let's come now to the part of this discussion yesterday and today that I think is probably one of the greatest importance. And if you remember this, [00:31:08] now, all the things that I said, I believe, out of the scriptures, they are all important. Don't get the idea that, well, now this is important, the rest of it wasn't. No, everything that the Bible says is important. But here's something that's going to be real practical for us that I want to stick in your hearts and in your life. It has to do with the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Infilling of the Holy Spirit. Filling is a command. [00:31:41] It says in Ephesians chapter 1, chapter 5, verse 18. It says, be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit. Now, this matter of being filled is to be under the control of, or giving the Holy Spirit the right in your heart, willingly submitting yourselves to Him. It's going to be His will now. My will is going to be laid aside, [00:32:12] and I'm going to allow the Holy Spirit to take control of me. He's going to guide my life, he's going to guide my steps. Nothing else is going to get in the way. Now this whole thought there about be not drunk with wine where it is excess but be filled with the Spirit, you know what wine does? Wine takes control. So he says don't, don't make the mistake of using alcohol and such whatever it might be. It might include all kinds of drugs and our time and anything else. Don't allow these things to come in and take control of you, but allow yourself to be completely under the control of the Spirit of God. [00:32:55] You see, when alcohol comes in, it begins to take control, and if you keep on taking more and more and more, it has complete control. I mean, a man's laying in the gutter in his vomit. What? Well, the Holy Spirit wants to have full control, so you can't have alcohol in your system taking that part of it away. Now, I'd like to give you a little demonstration here. Sometimes little object lessons or things like this kind of help things stick in our mind. Here I have a jar, and this little jar is a vessel, and this little jar is going to represent you. [00:33:31] Now, this jar is empty right now, but we have water in this pitcher. I'm going to take this pitcher, and I'm going to fill this jar with water. Now, I'm going to fill it clear up to the brim. Oh, that's even running over just a little bit. That's all right. This is what God's design and desire is for your life. He wants you as the vessel to be completely filled with his spirit. Nothing else. Nothing else in the way. [00:34:03] So, is this jar full of the Holy Spirit if the Holy Spirit represents water? Yes. We'd say yes it is. Well, I have some other things with me here today. I'm going to put these things in this jar. Alright. Now, you can see those things in there probably. Is that jar still full? Yes, it's still full. But what's it full of? Is it full of the Holy Spirit? Is it full of water? Well, yeah, water comes up to the top, but there are some other things in there. [00:34:37] What do these other things represent? These other things represent things in my life or in your life that can get in the way of the Holy Spirit really having His way in my heart or in your heart. When you think about a few of these things, Maybe they might represent all kinds of sin. They could represent jealousy. Oh, one of those stones might be jealousy. Ever have any experience with that? Jealousy? Or maybe envy. [00:35:09] When there's envy, having control of my spirit and guiding my thoughts, the Holy Spirit is not, I'm not full. The Holy Spirit doesn't have full control. Or it could be anger, or hatred, or malice You ever have any feelings of anger? Oh, I know what that's like When my spirit is angry And I realize that anger is an emotion That God gave us and responses It can stir within us responses [00:35:40] To things that can be good But, when I'm talking about anger here It's the kind of anger that doesn't have God's approval You know, I've had some experience with both kinds, perhaps. Well, anger, hatred, malice, all kinds of carnality. Dishonesty, you ever tell a lie? You ever be caught in a half-truth? How about lust? Oh, lust after immorality? Lust after, you know, covetousness? All kinds of things? Covetousness. [00:36:12] Why do you say it? Gossip. You ever say anything that later, oh boy, I sure wish I wouldn't have said that. Oh, you see, all those things, all those things can have control of our spirit, of our thoughts, and the Holy Spirit just can't work His way. We're just not filled with the Spirit. No. God doesn't want those things in there. God wants us to be filled, full, of the Holy Spirit. [00:36:46] This is God's design. I'm going to empty myself of all my selfishness, all my lust, all my covetousness I'm just going to say, Spirit, take my will and make it yours So my will is going to be laid down, you see The Spirit of God is going to take control So, this is a practical study, in this part of the study Be filled with the Holy Spirit [00:37:17] And a lot of knowledge doesn't do any good if we don't apply it to life The baptism of the Spirit happens one time We have Him or we don't It's not something that you grow into No, when new birth happens, the Holy Spirit is given That's the baptism of the Spirit happens there one time Several things happen at one time And when we hear the word and the conviction of the Holy Spirit, I'd like to just mention a few of them. [00:37:51] For young people especially, think about these things. Listen to this list. And I think in my heart today that all these things happen at the same time. Faith, repentance. You know, when a person comes to the place where he believes what the word of God says, now he understands in his heart, yes, faith. Faith believes these things are true. It brings him to repentance. and he seeks forgiveness, regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, conversion, new birth, baptism of the spirit, filling of the spirit, and being sealed of the spirit. [00:38:32] Like all those things happen at the same time. All those things happen at that point when faith and repentance bends the cross and the person is born again. All those things happen. We don't have time to explain all those things, but faith, repentance, forgiveness, regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, conversion, new birth, baptism of the spirit, the filling of the spirit, and the sealing of the spirit all happen at the same time. Now, we think about this matter of sanctification as another matter of being filled with the spirit, I believe. [00:39:03] We'll do a little demonstration here with that. Sanctification. It happens instantaneously at the new birth. but there's a progressive kind of thing that happens through our lives as the Lord takes us from where we are and begins to open our understanding of new things in the scripture that we didn't know and then he again wants us to yield those areas to his spirit to allow him to fill you again and we have some cups up here [00:39:36] you won't be able to see the water in these cups you'll just have to believe that as soon as you see me pour it But here's another cup. And this cup is full of water. The cup is your vessel. It's you as the vessel. And the water represents the Holy Spirit. And here's where you are in your life at the level of understanding that you have. But along comes some new understanding Maybe you haven't been tithing And you hear a sermon or you read the scripture And the Holy Spirit begins to convict you [00:40:07] Oh, say, I need to pay attention to that principle I need to tithe Well, then we have an extension on our vessel You see, I was full, but now I have new understanding I'm not full anymore So, again, we get filled with the Spirit because I've yielded that part to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And then I come to something else. This is the process of sanctification through our lives. We come to something else and our vessel gets bigger. [00:40:38] And again, here's another area. I want to yield that area to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And the Holy Spirit, again, wants to fill me by taking charge of that area of my life too. You see. Or, we have some farmers here. Another way to illustrate that would be the farmer takes his wagon out to the field He picks corn. We used to do it that way. Hook a wagon behind the corn picker and go out and pick corn until the wagon got rounded full. Oh, the wagon's full. But then you put on some more sideboards. Oh, the wagon's not full anymore. [00:41:10] So that's the way it is with our lives. Yes, God wants you and I to be filled with the Spirit, under the control of the Spirit of the Lord. So that happens when we come to the cross, we give up ourself, it's the only way to experience a new birth There we are sanctified, set apart, and filled for God But then as we grow in grace and in knowledge Then the Lord wants more areas of our life to be surrendered and yielded to His Lordship Well, it's all the work, it's all the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives [00:41:46] Now, just a couple little things here yet Now we're going to stop with this study. These stones, these stones that I have up here, we'll put them back in the cup, back in the jar. What do those represent in your life? Oh, you know, I would trust today that your heart is full, you're full of the Holy Spirit and there aren't any stones there. But I'll ask you more questions. [00:42:19] What is there in your life that the Holy Spirit would yet like to change? He's still working on me. You see, it says, from glory to glory, He's changing me. His goal is to change me and you into the very image of Jesus Christ. Well, I'm not what I was. I've been changed from what I was to what I am. But His goal yet is to change me from what I am to what I can become in Jesus Christ. And then to change me, finally, into the very presence of the Lord [00:42:49] From glory to glory, he's changing me And I trust he's working that way in your life So, just ask a few more questions And this is always dangerous because if I don't happen to mention what you're struggling with Then you think, oh, he wasn't talking to me But just for a few illustrations How about your husband-wife relationship at home? Just for some examples here Is there something that the Lord would like to build, to build up in that, that is not to the fullest of its potential? [00:43:24] Is there still something? Is there some kind of an attitude or some kind of a selfish spirit? Anything there in your heart that the Lord still wants to yield to the control of the Spirit? Or how about in your parent-child relationships? relationships. There's a lot of homes have a lot of stresses. And I believe people, when stresses are in our homes, I believe we're not understanding how to apply, maybe we're not understanding the principles, or not understanding how to apply the principles of the scriptures in our home relationships. And the Lord, the Spirit of God, when there's relationship problems in our homes between parents and young people or children, we need to take a look. [00:44:09] There's some rocks in there somewhere that the Spirit would still like to take out and just fill you completely with the beautiful person of the Holy Spirit and your life to express His fruit. All relationships. You have a problem with anger? Oh, that might represent one of those rocks. You have a problem with authority? Oh, Keith was talking about that some this morning in our whole church relationships. You have a problem with authority? I don't like to be under authority. Did you ever hear anybody say, I don't like people telling me what to do. [00:44:41] Did you ever say that? Do you still have a kind of a sense of that in your heart? You know, we have a nature that wants to be independent. I want to do what I want to do. That old nature is still there. You know, and if I allow that nature to rule my throne, then there's a stone in there that the Spirit of God still wants to change, take out, and fill me again with the beauty of his own character. How about that whole matter of lust, honesty? No? Is there problems? [00:45:13] You know, in our time where we live, there's a lot of advertisement. The devil advertises his kingdom. The devil advertises his immoral values all over. But there's a verse in the scriptures that helps me tremendously with all these temptations in any of these areas. And it's 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13 where it says that there hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that he is able, but will also with the temptation make a way to escape that you might be able to bear it. [00:45:49] So, we cannot, we cannot ever think, well, yeah, these thoughts went through my mind and all, but I couldn't help it. Yeah, temptation, temptation is one thing, but allowing that temptation to be fruitful in your heart and in your mind is another. It's not wrong to be tempted. But I want to tell you one thing about temptation. And that is that I believe, I believe that as we go about our daily business work, as the Lord leads us, regardless of what we're doing, if we're doing, we're following the Lord, we're out about our business, we have a special protection from all the pressures of evil and all the temptations that can come to us. [00:46:32] but if we voluntarily expose ourselves that bring temptations to us I think God's shield is let down and we fall headlong into sin yielding to temptation so let's be sure that the Spirit of God has full control as we go about our daily duties we'll have a protection and we can keep our vessel full of the Holy Spirit Spirit, no rocks, no rocks therein. [00:47:03] Well, my time has two minutes left, and maybe the afternoon session is going to be a little bit longer sometimes than we think. But just to think about a couple more things that we could study as far as the Holy Spirit is concerned. Symbols of the Holy Spirit, oil, fire, a dove, wind, water. The fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Spiritual gifts, a whole other area that we go to a lot of in-depth study in But today, the time is up [00:47:33] God bless you for being here, God bless you for listening And as the Lord wants to fill your heart You will never, you will never ever regret for a moment That you've yielded every part of your life to the will of the Spirit of the Lord As He wants to change you from what you are now Into a greater likeness of Jesus Christ He'd like to bring His fruit forth in your life in a more clear and abundant way than He has to this point. He'd like to change you into a greater and greater likeness of Jesus Christ. You'll never regret allowing the Spirit of God to change you. [00:48:08] God bless you.