Doctrine of the Holy Spirit

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Good evening, everyone.
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We are back with class five of Survey of Bible doctrines Survey of Bible doctrines class five and you'll be pleased to know tonight.
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We are not beginning with a pop quiz You can all be happy That we don't have a pop quiz.
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Oh you wanted one? Oh, okay.
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Oh, oh, I thought you said like like dang.
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Oh, yeah.
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No What we are We're starting tonight right into the lesson because my goal is to do the pneumatology Lesson in this hour so that we can spend the last half hour going over the survey the theology survey remember I said in class five we were going to do that So that's the goal for tonight is to spend our last half hour going over that So we are in pneumatology class class five Lecture five pneumatology, which is what? Study the Holy Spirit when it comes to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit People are often Unbalanced either there is no focus No discussion at all of the work of the Spirit to the point of it's almost like he's the neglected member of the Trinity to the other extreme where The Holy Spirit becomes the focal point of worship which in one sense is not right Because the Bible says the goal of the Holy Spirit is to point to the work of Christ His goal is to point us to the work of Christ done on our behalf that is not to divide the Trinity, but to understand the economic distinction in the work of the Trinity the whole role of the of the The the Holy Spirit of God is to Regenerate the heart of the believer Give them the ability to believe and then point them to The object of their faith, which is Christ himself Christ is the object of our faith faith without an object is Useless you cannot say I believe and that be the end of the sentence it has to be I believe in something and Christianity is I believe in the finished perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ and so the object of our faith is Christ and the Holy Spirit Points us to that and a lot of churches the Holy Spirit becomes the absolute focus and in that sense is Unbalanced a true Trinitarian Church will understand the distinction within the Godhead and the economic roles of each person within the Godhead So when we talk about pneumatology, I want to begin by reading a quote from the Moody handbook of theology it says because the Holy Spirit is a member of the triune Godhead the special study of his person and work could not be more important as Might be expected wherever God and his truth are invoked False teaching has developed to distort or deny orthodox Doctrine so quick conversation What are some of the ways? that our understanding of the Holy Spirit has been Miscommunicated or maybe misunderstood in the church.
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What are some of the things when I say I think the Holy Spirit there's imbalances Okay, well But but he's kind of going in the direction.
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I'm thinking okay, so gifts of the Spirit Absolutely.
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I think there have been Misunderstandings there.
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What's what else? No, actually, we're gonna see that is a distinction.
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That's part of what we're gonna talk about tonight What's the distinction between baptism the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit because because in some churches they are united Right because if you've been baptized by the Spirit, what what else you speak in tongues because that's the evidence According to certain Theology's I was at a camp meeting at a holiness church one time.
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I've told this story Bobby you've probably heard me tell the story and My mom was there.
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She brought me to this church and there were nice people sweet people and after the event the man who was heading the event came over to talk to my mom and She introduced me as her son the Baptist And As soon as she said, oh no, she said I was I was attending a Baptist seminary It just tells you how long ago it was I was still in school.
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So it's my son He's going to a Baptist seminary.
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Now.
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My mom was proud of me the whole reason why she was telling this man that I was Going to a Baptist seminary was she wasn't trying to demean she was trying to throw a throw an accolade my way This is my son the seminarian.
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This is my son the future pastor.
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This is my son You know, you know how mamas are we get proud, right? Well as soon as the guy who was heading up the this thing heard that He said I want you to know that we believe that the evidence of sanctification is the utterance of speaking in tongues No, but that's exactly the statement.
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I'll never forget it Why would he say that Because he wanted to make me understand the distinctions of our theologies Because he knows I would not agree with anything in that state First of all that the evidence of sanctification Well, what is sanctification sanctification is the process by which we are made like Jesus Christ? we are conformed to his image through a process of sanctification and that the evidence of sanctification is the Utterance of speaking in tongues.
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How do you know you're being sanctified that you have spoken with tongues? So right there the question of Gifts as you said John is a big distinction and it becomes a Point of Division within the body of Christ.
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How do we understand the work of the Spirit particularly in baptism and When I say baptism, I don't mean water but spirit baptism and is spirit baptism to be identified by the speaking in tongues, so that is a That kind of leads to our subject for tonight.
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What do we need to know as Christians? What should we be certain about when it comes to the Holy Spirit and the doctrine of the Holy Spirit? Well, I have three Points of the lesson as I always do.
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I don't know why I can't get away with can't get away from threes I just maybe it's the Holy Trinity coming out, but I tend to always have three points of For my lectures and the three points of tonight is number one the personality of the Spirit These are in your in your syllabus.
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Just if you have it the personality of the Spirit number two the filling and baptism of the Spirit number three the gifts and fruit of the Spirit and Because I know the second and third one are going to take the most amount of time I'm going to spend the least amount of time on number one not because it's least important, but because I think it's fairly easy to distinguish and prove because basically when I say the personality of the Holy Spirit is When we identify the Trinity, what is the what is the theological? Formula for the doctrine of the Trinity we talked about this in class two.
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What's the theological formula for the doctrine of the Trinity? God is one in essence God is three in Person not being the person he's one in essence three in person and the persons are co-equal co-eternal and Distinguishable or distinct from one another we can distinguish the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Spirit the Son Died on the cross the Father did not die on the cross the Son Became incarnate the Spirit did not become incarnate So this is the distinctions that we need to make and therefore when we come to the Holy Spirit we need to first recognize that he is personal a lot of people can see the Holy Spirit and they consider the Holy Spirit to be an Energy of force or a power of some sort rather than a person When the Bible does not allow For that Understanding why why why why is it wrong to identify the Holy Spirit as a force or a power? Yeah right there so we could say the first reason is he has given a personal pronoun All right, the personal pronoun and by the way, I got I kind of got sidetracked in set free this morning I was teaching it set free and I got so don't allow me to get sidetracked tonight I just I I said every time the Holy Spirit is spoken of you get the pronoun and the pronoun is he not she And I and I made that distinction and one of the guys asked me Well, do you think that the Holy Spirit might be the the feminine side of God and I said no God doesn't have a feminine side.
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God doesn't God doesn't have a masculine feminine side as if God lacked something in his position as the father or Needed that feminine balance and and I went on to say with the men of set free, you know, because we're talking I said God is doesn't have a body neither.
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Does he have? Parts that would make him male or female, but he identifies himself masculine and The Holy Spirit also receives the masculine pronoun So we never see the neuter pronoun either.
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So she would be feminine It would be neuter, right? I say he She it right, I am a he because I'm masculine Jackie is a she because she's feminine and this is it because this has neither a Masculine nor feminine All right, and when we talk about The spirit the spirit is not called it The spirit is called he and so I would say personal pronouns first and foremost.
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Absolutely.
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That's how we can identify personhood Regarding the Holy Spirit, but what's another way we can identify personhood? Regarding the Holy Spirit somebody think of something else Yeah, he does things So so we could say the Holy Spirit has attributes right attributes belong to persons What are some of the attributes of the Holy Spirit? Well, he has intellect 1st Corinthians 2 10 talks about the mind of the Spirit Romans 8 7 or excuse me 8 27 talks about the mind of the Spirit He you talked about his grief now we could talk a little bit about how grief works from the mind of God but at least from the expression of its identifying Things don't grieve Powers and forces don't grieve but the Spirit grieves and in even though it's that language is, you know, somewhat anthropopathic It's still referring to a person don't grieve the Spirit, right? And so we have Attributes that are personal so you not only have pronouns that are personal you have attributes that are personal And you have works that are personal I'll give you just a few These might come kind of rapid-fire.
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So you can write them down or just get them from me later if you want the Spirit teaches John 14 26 Testifies John 15 26 Convicts John 16 8 regenerates Titus 3 5 intercedes Romans 8 26 27 commands Acts 13 2 to 4 so a Personal spirit is Necessary to work those things out The Spirit of God teaches convicts testifies regenerates intercedes and commands.
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These are not the acts of a mere impersonal force these are the acts of a personal God and so Those things are important Also, he can be resisted lied to and obeyed according to According to according to Acts 7 51 which says that they resist the Spirit Acts 5 3 says they lied to the Holy Spirit and Acts 10 19 and 21 says they obeyed the Spirit.
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So again, if it's just if we speak of the Holy Spirit as it It doesn't make sense we must speak of the Holy Spirit as he and regard him personally Probably the best example of this is found in Acts chapter 5 I just mentioned Acts 5 where it says they lied to the Spirit remember in Acts 5.
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Who's the who's the main actors in Acts 5? What did they do? Huh, they got killed That's right, that's right, but remember what happened when when Peter was talking to Ananias Well, yeah, but but well Going a little different direction what I'm saying is when he was talking no No, when he went when Ananias was talking to Peter and Peter says What has caused you to lie to the Holy Spirit? You have not lied to men but to God So when he says The whole you've lied to the Holy Spirit and then the next sentence the next breath out of his mouth is you've not lied to men But to God, what does that tell us about the Spirit? Tells us the Spirits God and that he's personal It's a very important text.
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That's Acts 5 1 2 4 in Regard to the personality of the Spirit now.
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I want to read a section from our book.
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I've so enjoyed this book I hope you guys are enjoying your reading.
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I know I know it's a lot that I'm asking of you But I hope it's been a blessing This is dr.
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Sproul sharing about his wife's conversion He said the most significant event of my life was my conversion at that time I was engaged to be married and I attempted to explain to my fiance in great detail the Circumstances of my conversion to Christ and what it would mean for our relationship We communicated mainly by letter and telephone because we attended different colleges and we carried on this discussion for many months I felt I was getting nowhere Finally, she came to visit my campus and I decided to take her to a prayer meeting I spent the entire morning beforehand on my knees praying for her and for that occasion and to my great delight She was converted to Christ at that meeting and I went on to marry her on the day of her conversion She said to me now.
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I know who the Holy Spirit is I thought that was a fascinating response to her awakening to Christ and over the years.
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I've reflected on it quite a bit It is significant.
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She said I know who the Holy Spirit is rather than I know what the Holy Spirit is So that was a good little story from the book and a good reminder that when we are dealing with the Holy Spirit of God we are dealing with a person So that's the personality of the Holy Spirit certainly more can be said but I Think that's enough for us to move on let's go now to the filling and Baptism of the Holy Spirit and I want to add one thing to the outline because it says the filling and baptism I would also I Would add one and that is regeneration Because that needs to be distinguished I'm gonna write three words on the board All right regeneration filling and baptism of the Spirit Regeneration as It is described to us by Jesus in John chapter 3 verses 1 to 5 is the act Whereby God gives birth to a dead spirit The Bible says that we are dead in our trespasses and sins in which we once walk According to this world and we were by nature Children of wrath we are born doa We were born dead on arrival.
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We are dead in our trespasses and sins and we do not have any Spiritual desires to come to God or to have relationship with God or to submit to Christ until such time as God opens up our heart to believe and we would call that opening of the heart or the giving of a new heart the gift of Regeneration and Jesus said unless a man be born again He will not see the kingdom of heaven unless a man is born of water and of the Spirit.
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He will not enter the kingdom of heaven Regeneration Is something that has always been necessary Ever since the beginning of ever since the fall because Regeneration is the act whereby God takes the dead spirit and makes it alive.
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So if you follow The narrative Adam and Eve They ate of the fruit of the tree.
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What was the what was the what was the punishment on? The day that thou shalt eat of it you will surely die Right.
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Did they die that day? Well, I would say they did But they died Spiritually now it took nine hundred and thirty years for Adam's body to catch up with his spirit Because eventually his body died as well But spiritually he did die and all of his posterity is born spiritually dead so When we start reading the narrative of Genesis and we come across men who walked with God men like Enoch and Noah men like Abraham Isaac and Jacob We can say this without any real fear of controversy that those men were regenerate Because they were believers In fact, if you read Hebrews chapter 11 You will see that it is by faith These people did this thus and so Hebrews 11 is the great faith chapter where it talks about Abraham and all these other people who did these things by what by faith and Because regeneration is the cause of faith Then we know they were regenerated yes, and let me explain that a Dead Spirit a dead soul Does not seek after God Neither will that dead soul believe prior to faith a work of God must happen and that work of God is regeneration, so we could say on the on the If you if you from a perspective of Order what we call the order of salutis or the order of salvation we could say it begins with Regeneration and then faith There are some people who believe faith causes regeneration That's not the view that we hold this church.
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Neither is that I believe the view that the Bible teaches but Regeneration is what precedes faith and is necessary to bring about faith.
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Yes, but Well, what I think that they do I Think that the timing is probably indistinguishable.
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I Think that three things happen all at once.
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I think the heart is regenerated and you repent and believe and I add repentance because Repentance is the act of turning from sin and the first thing that you turn from is the sin of unbelief so by repenting From unbelief and turning to belief that's the initial act of repentance and This is why the Bible says that we should always be careful how we treat unbelievers because God made by his grace Grant them repentance You know, he may grant them think of how that's like how that's worded God may grant them repentance Therefore repentance is a gift of God in the same way faith is and so we look at Regeneration brings about repentance and faith Noah was not a perfect man But he was a man of faith We know that Hebrews tells us that Enoch was not a perfect man, but he was a man of faith The Bible tells us that by faith by faith Enoch walked with God and was taken You know, this is what Hebrews tells us Hebrews is such a wonderful important Passage to understand the the nature of the Old Testament Saints Because I think sometimes people think the Old Testament Saints weren't regenerate I Have to believe that they were Because they couldn't believe otherwise but the New Testament Saint is promised Not only regeneration But the New Testament Saint is promised indwelling of the spirit so Indwelling is not the same as regeneration Indwelling means that the spirit not only changes your heart but comes to live in your heart forever and This is the promise of the New Covenant That the Holy Spirit would not only change the heart of a person But that he would make the heart of the person his abode or his home What was the abode of the spirit in the Old Covenant? The tabernacle temple, right? It was the tabernacle before the temple was built and then it was the temple The abode of the spirit was in the midst of the people of God But what happened on the day Christ died on the cross The veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom Demonstrating it was God who had done it because the That veil was one about as thick as your hand and it was very high So no man got up there and just grabbed a hold of it and tore it it was torn from top to bottom to demonstrate it was an act of God and By tearing the veil of the temple demonstrated a new administration of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit would now not in one sense reside in the temple, but in the temple of the heart and Now what is the temple? You are according to the Apostle Paul.
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You are the temple of God the Holy Spirit lives in you That's that's that That's wild.
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I mean it really is I mean if you just think about that for a minute Think about how many times you sin today and he was with you You took the Holy Spirit with you.
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How dare you? Watch your mouth That's my brother and be careful We all Every day if we are believers have the Spirit within us That's the blessing of the New Covenant That the Holy Spirit will indwell all believers He will make his but in fact, what is Romans 8? Tell us if you Romans 8 9 says if you do not have the Spirit You are not his if you do not have the Spirit of Christ You do not belong to him and the Spirit of Christ in that sense is another word for the Holy Spirit if you don't have The Spirit you don't belong to God So the indwelling of the Spirit is a promise of the New Covenant so Regeneration is cross covenantal.
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It was all people had to be regenerate But the promise of the New Covenant is indwelling of the Spirit Here's a few Bible verses to consider on that John 7 37 to 39 and John 14 16 Galatians 3 2 & 3 and Romans 8 9 just a few And again think of the prophecies what was the prophecies I Will pour out my spirit on all flesh.
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I'll pour out my spirit men and women will dream dreams, right? The Spirit will come and make his home in you That was the big deal about the New Covenant people who think the New Covenant in the Old Covenant are essentially the same miss a radical newness that is in the New Covenant and Also, it should make us all a little a little bit more grieved about our sin Because we have the abiding presence of the Spirit with us always and you know There's no indication that the Old Covenant Saints had that so if you go back and say well the Old Covenant Saints did thus and so and Therefore We can do the same.
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So yeah, but they didn't have the same empowering and the same indwelling that we had So don't don't don't go Comparing yourself to them as if it's the exact one-to-one ratio.
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I think I think we have to be fair and Understand that it's not So when we talk about regeneration and indwelling they are distinguishable, but now If you are regenerate you are indwelled So like I said, this is cross covenantal This is not but now because we are on this side of the cross These two things would happen Together so I said there were three things or four things Regeneration indwelling repentance and faith and I would say they all happen Essentially simultaneously But from a perspective of causation the Spirit gives you the new heart He comes to live in that heart and by that new heart you believe and repent or repent and believe Make sense my everybody with me so far.
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Okay, so all that is before we ever talk about filling Because filling is not the same as indwelling and you say oh man now you're being confusing.
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I promise I'm not Because the the term filled with the Spirit is Not the same as being indwelled with the Spirit and I'll and I'll hope to demonstrate this by one verse Ephesians 5 18 Ephesians 5 18 says do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery But be filled with the Spirit That is in the imperative Meaning that is a command To be filled with something means to place yourself under the control of something.
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I Wouldn't disagree that those are ways that we Submit so I think that's I think that there's that's a practical thing a way of looking at it What is an easy way to explain Well, but I think the explanation needs to be though that Unlike indwelling which is not come.
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We're not commanded to be indwelled because we can't do that We're not commanded to be indwelled.
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That's the work of the Spirit But we are commanded to be filled which means to submit to the Spirit See the distinction I can't force the Spirit into me But once the Spirit's here, I have to submit to him and that's what it means to be filled So when you talk about reading your Bible daily doing those things, that's how I'm being submissive That's the action.
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That's the outworking of that but the work itself the the thing that I am doing is I'm submitting myself to the in the same way that somebody who gets drunk is Submitting themselves to the control of alcohol Paul says don't get drunk with wine for that is sinful but be Hey, I don't want to say it this way, but drunk with the Spirit.
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No Filled with the Spirit, but it's the still it's the one-to-one Idea is to be under the control of don't be under the control of wine be under the control of the Spirit And that is an imperative.
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It's a command.
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Yes, Bob Yeah, yeah there they they certainly have the ability to control Yes I talked to you one time about the feeling of spirit, you know, some people will act like it's like almost like he's like a balloon Fills up inside of you, but you told me it's to be filled with a spirit.
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It's kind of like focus on the Spirit Because he said when somebody's filled with anger, that's all they do.
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They're just angry start being under the control He's filled with love, you know, I mean they walk around with you know, the heart on the shoulders so if you feel the Holy Spirit, you know, you're focused on the spirit and Gifts of the Spirit, you know, I mean by love respect The seven we're gonna talk about those in a minute you're talking about the fruit of the Spirit And I want to tell you something I just love it to hear my lesson Giving back to me because that means you're listening that does my heart good.
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I mean, I mean that in the best possible way Thank you, and that's a good reminder Yeah to be filled with anger means be under control of anger to be filled with love or whatever Paul is commanding us be filled with the Spirit be submitted to be under the control of and like you said seeking after that's the that's where it becomes the endic the imperative rather than the The filling we can't do I'm sorry the indwelling we can't do and it sounds like the same thing But it's not the indwelling is him coming to make his home But the being filled with is the coming under the power of or submitting to so thank you John for reminding me of that So, let me ask you this what are some ways that we would What are some of the ways that we would Make sure I don't have it written the way I want to say it What are some of the ways that we maintain that's that's horrid maintain our filling And already kind of alluded to it right daily Bible reading right because when we read the Bible where it helps us to know Again what we ought to be who we ought to be the Bible says it's like a mirror, right? What are some other ways that we can in a sense fulfill that command to be filled with the Spirit? Yes prayer Communion with God through prayer, obviously.
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Yeah, right.
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Very good Brian.
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What else? Yeah That's right.
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I think one of the things that we Forget to our peril is how important it is to be with other Christians Because when we're not with other believers Well, we don't have the same amount of accountability we certainly don't have the same amount of You know mutual desire, you know, it's like the man with the piece of coal That's hot and you pull it away from the fire and the coal gets cold You need to be around the other coal to stay hot Yeah, did you have it? I think so, especially especially what leads up to the Lord's Supper, which is examination of self right and Preparing to receive again the reminder of what Christ has done.
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Yeah, absolutely Yeah, I love the Lord's Supper.
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It's a certainly a high point of worship Ross All right, so if we've said indwelling and filling are not the same and I think I've made a decent argument for that Now we talk about baptism and again, it all seems like it's the same and I do think people tend to use them in sort of Interspersed, you know when people talk about being indwell, it's about being filled talk about being baptized What is it that makes baptism because we said filling is being under the control What specifically then is the baptism of the Spirit We know we read about it right mark 1 8 John the Baptist says I baptize you with water But Jesus is coming to baptize you with the Holy Spirit right and 1st Corinthians 12 13 says in one spirit we were all baptized and I don't think that's talking about the water there So what is it talking about? What is baptism? In fact, it says in Galatians 3 27 as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ What does that mean? Yes You're right there It's union with Christ union with Christ very good the Spirit comes to live with us in us and Then he unites us to Christ and we receive the benefit of his work We are baptized into Christ Just like Noah and I'm gonna talk about this Sunday.
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Noah had the ark if he wasn't inside the ark He would have suffered the same wrath as everyone else.
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But by going into the ark, he is saved from the wrath of God we too Who have been placed in Christ by the Spirit have been baptized into him This is why our baptism symbolizes that death burial and resurrection, right? this is why I I'm committed to a particular form of baptism some people baptize by pouring water on the head some people baptized by sprinkling water on the head, but we baptized by taking the body and Placing it in the water for this purpose to symbolize death and Resurrection to symbolize union with Christ in his death burial and resurrection.
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Yes There is a lot of debate over the meaning of baptizo The word Is is used differently in different literature in the ancient world It was all it was sometimes used by ships that were going under the water Baptizo to go under the water, right? but also to dip your finger in the water was baptizo so that the idea of dipping or Immersing was the was the meaning even John Calvin admitted to that Even though he didn't practice Immersion he admitted that the meaning of baptizo means to go under the water to be in the water and John the Baptist Weren't called John the sprinkler Yes, and the people came to John to be baptized in the Jordan the the best argument But I'm I have to I have to at least give the other side.
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It's do the absolute best argument for the other view is that on the day of Pentecost 3,000 people were baptized Where did they go and what water did they use that that that's I've heard that argument and I've wondered sometimes I don't know.
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Did they go to the Kidron Brook and baptize there? Was there enough water there? Where was there a place in Jerusalem where they could have went and be immersed or did they all caravan down to? the Jordan Yeah, you know so that's a good question And maybe somebody will hear this online and send me a good answer Maybe one of you will research it and give me a good answer But that was the argument was they did when there was such a mass group of people they didn't immerse But they poured water as a way of baptizing I don't agree, but I do what I don't know where they would have immersed 3,000 people on the day of Pentecost Okay Every baptism that speaks of an individual being baptized that we know of was immersion But then again again though I get not arguing for their position because I don't agree with it But having sat in enough baptism debates, I've heard enough that You know at the house of the Roman jailer Or not the Roman jailer.
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Yeah.
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Yeah the the Philippian jailer Yeah, him and his household were baptized where did they have a bathtub? I mean, you know, or did they or did they pour water on them? I don't know.
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It's a good question Right No, not in that not in that Says they were they they're there Yeah, that's also the one that they used to try to argue that babies should be baptized because they argue that there was Huh, I'm I don't mean to get us off on this topic.
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I'm sorry Bobby go ahead My thing is Yeah That's right That's right, it uses the word baptist so baptism means to dip therefore If so factor one more hook a two hands, go ahead That's it.
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So yeah Yes, yes the same word because it means to immerse again So we are baptized into Christ.
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We are we are immersed into Christ We are united with him in the act of the Spirit baptizing us into him And the water is simply a symbol of what has happened some people believe you're not baptized by the Spirit until you're baptized in water and Those people would would often also believe that you're not regenerated until you're baptized in water And I would take a big issue with that because I would say you wouldn't want to get in the water unless you were regenerated Go ahead Wash her with the word Yeah, yeah wash Ephesians 5 yeah, I have to look up what the how the which word is used there though It might be it might be a derivative of baptist.
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So but it but the ESV I think says washed washer with water the word Okay.
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All right.
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We went a little off on that.
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But this is good.
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This is what we want to do We want to engage and ask questions But ultimately the indwelling and regeneration happen when we believe The filling of the Spirit is coming under the control of the Spirit Baptism is when we are united with Christ, which I believe also happens when we believe brought him to the family of God Okay.
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Well now let's finish with the gifts and fruit of the Spirit What is the difference between gifts and fruit? That's a good answer and that's the right answer.
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That's right.
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No, I mean, it's both a good answer and a right answer Now for those who didn't hear online or whatever Ed's right the the gifts of the Spirit are unique to the individual and My gifts are going to be different than your gifts and your gifts are going to be different Jackie's gifts and Daisy's gifts and whatever but the fruit of the Spirit is What identifies all believers and the fruit of the Spirit is found in Galatians? Which tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love joy.
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Peace Patience kindness goodness gentleness self-control and against these things there is no law, right? Why is there no law against those things? Because love they fill that they fulfill the law The law is love your neighbor love God love your neighbor, right? and so all of those things are fulfillment of the law and a person who does not have the fruit of the Spirit is Is not a believer but let me Clarify that quickly by saying there are times when all of us Fail to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit at various times in our life.
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We have to we have to be honest There are times when I'm not as loving as I should be there are times when I'm not as kind as I should be there Are times when I'm not as good as I should be but When a man is regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God His heart has been changed and therefore his affections have been changed and the affectionate change is that he goes from being a Person who has the fruit of the world or the fruit of the flesh? To being a person who has the fruit of the Spirit if you if you have a person Who is always hateful? Who is never loving who is never patient who is never kind who is never Expressing goodness or gentleness To to convince me that that person is a believer would be very difficult And you say well, I've never met such a person man.
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I meet him all the time People just hate life hate themselves hate their mama.
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I mean they hate everything but at the same time As I said before believers can believers can wrestle with All kinds of things and one of the most difficult things that we do wrestle with is being loving What's that? Well, yeah, but that and that's part of it, right? Yeah, I mean, it's one of the fruits Yeah So the fruit of the Spirit is something we are all called to have and but here's the thing though Here's the thing you you're not This this is gonna sound funny fruit of the Spirit.
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It's not a command This the fruit of the Spirit is a byproduct of the Spirit living within you if I'm for the first time in my life this year, I'm gonna plant a garden and I pray it goes well I've never tried so I don't know if I have a green thumb or a black thumb or anything I don't know what kind of thumb I have.
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I don't know, but we're gonna go till the ground at our new house We're gonna make a little four by eight bed We're gonna peel up everything and I want to I want to grow watermelons My wife wants to grow cucumbers and a few other things.
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So I went and bought the seeds We're gonna get the little jars and start them in the house and not jars But little cups and then we're gonna take them outside and plant them in the ground and I'm hoping it's going to be a nice little garden But I'll say this The the the fruit of that garden will be the byproduct of the seed Not me The seed will will grow the fruit The Spirit within us grows the fruit of the Spirit So therefore if a person says I have the Spirit, but I don't have the fruit you can't It's not a command.
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It's a byproduct Any more than I can go out to that seed and say grow it doesn't work that way It's going to grow because it's the seed has the power within it to grow and likewise The Spirit has the power to grow That that fruit and that's why I think it is called fruit and not a gift Because it is it is the natural byproduct of the Spirit indwelling the heart Gifts are different in that Everybody's gifts are unique to them If I said Bobby as a Christian, you should exhibit love peace patience kindness goodness stillness Self-control because that's the fruit of the Spirit, but I couldn't say Bobby as a Christian you must demonstrate the gift of teaching Because that may not be the gift God gave you it may be but that but that's not something I can expect of you All right There are gifts that are outlined in the scripture and I believe everyone has a gift from God For one specific reason and That is to build up the church Where you read about the gifts is primarily in 1st Corinthians 12 13 14 and Romans chapter 12 and both of those texts Clearly express that the gifts of the Spirit are given for the building up of the church They are not given for I had this conversation again set free this morning I mentioned this gift and and one of the guys asked me he said well I think I have a gift which is for me personally to use.
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I said well I said here's why I would disagree with you I said I don't think God gives us gifts for our Individual benefit because the Bible says the gifts that are given are for the building up of the church Not for you to build up yourself, but for you to be used with others and their gifts to build up the church This is why We hear in 1st Corinthians 12 about the variety of gifts because The the church needs it.
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There's four elders here me brother Mike brother Andy brother Jack And all of us are vastly different Brother Mike is so bold Brother Andy is a good leader and a great preacher.
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Both of them are great preachers.
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I tend to be Me I don't know how to describe myself.
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I don't want to be no, don't you dare? Well, I know I was talking to him I don't know what he was gonna say but I have my gifts and I feel confident in what my gifts are and brother Jack is stately and administrative and loving and His gifts are a blessing to the church plus his gift his one great gift is his gift of longevity To see an 85 year old man who is still in the church ministering in the church loving people with the Word of God I mean, it's just those so all of us are different and gratefully so and It wouldn't be good if it were just one of us because there would be something missing Likewise within the body we have men and women who have the gift of Service and who truly want to serve one another and take care of one another We have others who have the gift of teaching and want to be with children and teach and we have mothers and fathers who are teaching their children and there's so many good things we look around the church and we say here's all these spiritual gifts that work together in concert together and In a later class not this class but in a later class I hope you guys stick with the program and continue.
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We're going to do a class called Christian life and ministry That's the last class in the two-year program and Christian life and ministry is going to go through More about spiritual gifts and how the Spirit uses our gifts in the ministry of the body But the important thing tonight I wanted to distinguish is the difference between spiritual gifts and spiritual fruit That and and I hope that you read the book because dr.
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Sproul did talk about cessationism and Continuationism the idea that some people believe certain gifts have ceased Some people believe certain gifts have continued the gift of tongues that we talked about earlier That's in the book if you want to hear his arguments and I would agree with most everything that he said I would consider myself a classic cessationist and that I do believe that certain gifts Ended during the lifetime of the Apostles such as the miraculous gifts of healing and tongues That was that was a that was known to mark the ministry of the Apostles I think that gifting has given way now to the prayer ministry of the church where the church prays In concert for healing and for things like that so Does anybody have any questions about the gifts or the fruit and the distinction? All right, I'm gonna give you three things about spiritual gifts to write down and then we'll we'll take a break number one When it comes to spiritual gifts We do not choose our own spiritual gift and the verse you want to put with that is 1st Corinthians 12 11 1st Corinthians 12 11 says he gives to each as he wills The spirit again going back to his personality the spirit chooses to give you the gift that he wills for you to have What? Yeah, you can't you can't go learn it.
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It's just like gift of tongues, right? There's books on how to speak with tongues It's like wait, wait, I got question That comes as he wills not as you go take a class Yeah, absolutely The second thing is whatever the gift is it is to be active within the body Whatever your gift is it is to be active within the body and that is 1st Corinthians 12 7 Which says that each? Gift is given for the common good Common good meaning the good of the church Yeah, it says yes, yes What whatever our gift is it's meant to be active in the body that being the church that that and that leads to the third thing number three For your gift to be active in the body.
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You have to be active in the body So if God has given you a gift in the church, and you're not a part of the church Then you are not Exercising the gift he gave you in the way he meant for it to be used.
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So that is an important Threefold reminder about the gift to the spirit.
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Let's pray.
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Oh wait.
55:49
No, let's let's take a break.
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We're not done yet We got 30 more minutes scripture for that last one is No, no, I said that's it.
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That's it.