The Holy Spirit part 2

Acts of the Holy Spirit. That's interesting.

What else did you catch in there? You know the song, right? And Kim, you know it? I'm asking you.

What stood out to you? I mean, even right in the beginning of the song, they ask the Holy Spirit for the power to write the song.

And then it demonstrates that it's the Holy Spirit that is the power that's working.

Wow, that's good. Did you catch that they're saying, Holy Spirit, we worship you. What do y 'all think about that?

You ever think of that? Is it appropriate to worship the Holy Spirit? He's God. He's God.

Absolutely. We don't think to do that as often as worshiping the Father or worshiping the Son. But the

Spirit is God and worthy of worship. Good. Anything else jump out? I think sometimes

I attribute the work of the

Holy Spirit in me to one of the... I mean, it's okay, but it really truly is the

Holy Spirit who's working. And so, as Francis Chan said, he's the forgotten

God. The forgotten God. Yeah, absolutely. He gives us eyes to see

Christ. Yeah. Regeneration, he's saying. And with that, turn to page two of your notes.

Anybody not have your notes? Yeah, my wife doesn't. I do. She'll be here.

Thank you. You can share one. There's a few versions here. A few copies.

Anybody else? Thank you.

I'll just put those out in the middle for whoever shows up. Alright, so the first week we studied the person of the

Holy Spirit, meaning who he is ontologically. Who he is as a deity, as Spirit, as holiness.

And this week we move into the work of the Holy Spirit. In fact, last week we began to talk about the first ministry of the

Holy Spirit listed in 2 Thessalonians 2, 6 and 7. That the Holy Spirit restrains evil.

He's a restrainer of the evil of the hearts of men. We know the doctrine of total depravity, right?

If left to our devices, what would the world be like without the restraining ministry of the

Holy Spirit? It would be like before the flood, as it was in the days of Noah. It would be just utter chaos all the time.

Evil thoughts all the time, evil actions. And the world would spin out of control. Right, the Holy Spirit restrains evil.

We're going to move into the second ministry now, the Holy Spirit convicts. And if you guys are ready, we're going to go around the room and go through these different ministries of the

Holy Spirit. Discussing each one briefly, so we can move through all of them today.

So Greg, you're up first. It's John 16, 7 -11.

So we've said the Holy Spirit restrains evil. That's part of his common grace,

God's common grace on earth. Is that he's doing that, not only for Christians, but for humankind in general.

Even as it's God's common grace to give reign to the just and the unjust alike.

In the same way, his common grace, he restrains evil on earth.

And convicting of sin, John 16, 7 -11. Good. So the convicting ministry of the

Holy Spirit. Who receives that ministry on earth? Is it believers only or believers and unbelievers?

Both, says Rich. And why? Well, because of course he works in us, so he convicts us when we do wrong.

But he also convicts the world. They know because they have a conscience when they are doing wrong.

That's the Holy Spirit working in their conscience. The Holy Spirit can use their conscience. Good. Specifically though,

I think you're right in the sense that there is a convicting ministry that's broad. Let me put the question this way.

Is the conviction of the Holy Spirit the same in all people? No. The conviction of the

Holy Spirit leads to repentance. Interesting. So in the text here we see he convicts the world.

Right? You see the world there? Do you think that is speaking only to believers in terms of the elect world or is that a general conviction here?

A general. I think in this context it is a general conviction that he has a ministry of convicting.

But there's nothing that says that he's convicting all people the same. Have you ever felt a stronger or a weaker sense of conviction over your sin?

Have you ever felt a difference in that? Surely we have, right? So in different times he convicts us more heavily.

Sometimes the conviction of the Holy Spirit can be so strong that, what? We repent.

In fact, the only way to come to repentance and faith is if the

Holy Spirit brings that conviction. We depend on his conviction to come to faith.

Does that make sense? In and of ourselves, our depraved minds would justify our own behavior.

We would be happy with what we're doing and we would go on in sin. So we thank

God that he, in a sense, convicts us and pushes us over the tipping point to the point of repenting and trusting in Christ.

Isn't that an interesting thought? So the Holy Spirit, though, is absolutely crucial in this area of conviction of sin.

Without him, in our pride, in the fallenness of our heart, we would always justify ourselves.

Moving on to the next one, which kind of dovetails with this. The Holy Spirit regenerates.

First John, chapter 5, verse 1. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the

Christ has been born of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

Okay. This is 1 John 5, verse 1. Okay, sorry,

I have to get there. The regenerating work of the

Holy Spirit. What does it mean? Give me a definition of regeneration.

What is it to be regenerate or to be regenerated? To be made new.

To be made new. That's a good definition. Okay. It's the first step in salvation.

Okay. If your heart's not regenerated first, then you can't even come to the point of repentance or come to salvation.

Very good. Now, what you just said is what I also will teach here. It's a controversial point.

This is what's called the Ordo Salutis, the order of salvation. Does regeneration precede faith or does faith precede regeneration?

The majority view in America today is that faith precedes regeneration.

You believe and responsibly the Holy Spirit then gives you the gift of a new heart, a new life.

Being made new, being born again. Okay. Now, the scripture speaks of being born again. And where you hear the term being born again or born from above, this is the work of the

Holy Spirit. It's called regeneration. So, we know the text in John 3. You must be born again.

Born of spirit and born of water. Right. There's some different interpretations of what that water is there, whether it's amniotic fluid or it's the washing of Ezekiel 36.

Or is it the physical water of baptism, which is something we'll look at today in the sermon. But the point is, you must be born again.

Now, the question is, do you believe and then God makes you born again? Or are you born again and so you believe?

Now, I'll start this by saying, there doesn't have to be a temporal difference.

Follow me. The time doesn't have to be different. So, it's not that the

Holy Spirit can zap somebody and make them regenerate. And then six months later, along comes the gospel.

And so they believe it when they hear it because God has made them born again. That's not the teaching. It's an order of priority in terms of a logical priority of which would come first in the order of salvation.

Now, the reformers clearly taught regeneration before faith. Now, later on, when after the remonstrance and the

Arminian tradition came about, there was the view that faith precedes regeneration.

Which is it? I'm just going to give you this one text. We're in 1 John 5 .1. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the

Christ has been born of God. Which comes first in 1

John 5 .1? Why? Has been. Has been.

What does that has been indicate? Past tense. Past tense. So, which thing comes first logically there?

It is being born again. And then logically from that flows belief.

Okay. Now. I just have to ask a question. If you go back to the Greek, because the King James doesn't provide that sequential emphasis.

Good. It is more, it's more like causative as opposed to, it says everyone who is born is an implication it will be.

Okay. So, if you go back to the Greek, is that the tensual application?

Yes. This exact wording in the Greek appears two other times in 1

John. Once in the second chapter and at the end and once in the fourth chapter. Thank you for bringing that up.

It's once with regard to works and once with regard to love. So, follow me.

Which comes first in the Christian life? That we are born again and then as a result we have the fruit of the spirit, which is

Christian love. Or does the love come before the fruit? Yeah, I have to find the actual text.

But I wanted to make the larger point first. That when John speaks about regeneration, he uses that same

Greek tense. Born from above that you see in 5 .1. In fact, the exact same wording, born of God, appears not only in 5 .1

but two other places earlier. I have to find them. It might be two. Look for the same expressions.

Born of God. In 3 .9

it says, no one who is born of God will continue to sin. Because God's seed, born of God is there, but I don't think it's what you're looking for.

It could be. But is born of God is the translation I have in NIV for 5 .1. And then that's the same translation in 3 .9.

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning. For God's seed abides in him. Could be it.

The last verse in chapter 2. Everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

Very good. There it is. Thank you. That's the first one. Read the whole verse first. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

Okay. So you have the same Greek tense there. You have the same Greek expression. And which comes first?

The practicing of righteousness or the new birth? The new birth. The new birth.

So you have an order. And in 1 John it's actually very important because the purpose of the book, if you look at 5 .13,

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

So the purpose is for the assuring of the believer that you have eternal life. And so it's almost testing yourself to see if you're in the faith.

So what kind of test? I'm going to cycle through again and again in that. It's if you love the brother. If you practice righteousness.

If you make a habit of sinning and go on sinning again and again without true repentance, then you can know you have not been born of God.

So you find this same expression with regard to love and works.

And now in chapter five, verse one, we have it too. Do we find one in chapter four?

Find it later, but it might be verse seven.

Yeah, it's verse seven. So chapter four, verse seven, you have the same Greek construction about being born again, that has been born of God.

And the evidence has been what comes out of the believer's life. In the first place, we saw righteousness.

And in chapter four, verse seven, we see love. Whoever loves has been born of God.

And now look at the parallel Greek construction in five, one. Whoever believes that Jesus is the

Christ has been born of God. So when you see a similar Greek construction, first of all, throughout the

Bible, but even more particularly within the same author, and then not only within the same author, but within the same book, you catch that there's something that he's developing there.

There's an idea that he's developing. So we'll move a little bit quickly through that, but this would be a subject that we could discuss at length.

I have a point. This is from John 12, 32.

It doesn't discount the work of the Spirit, but Jesus says, and I, when

I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. Now, that isn't to suggest he's not doing it with the help of the

Holy Spirit, but that's his job too. Yeah, that Jesus, yeah.

And in John 6, 44, it's the Father. It's the Father draws to the Son. So in a sense, you see language describing the different persons of the

Trinity doing the different works of salvation. That's like what Denise said. We attribute it to the

Holy Spirit, but really it's the triune God that lives within all of us, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

So sometimes we confuse the work of one for the other, but really it's the triune God. Yeah, that's true.

And certain ones are given a priority. So it's only the Son that dies as a substitutionary atonement. It's never the

Father or Spirit. And particularly the work of regeneration, if you look at John 3, there's born of water, there's born of the

Spirit. You must be born of the Spirit. So the spiritual work of regeneration is key there.

And the only ones that time bothers are us. It's not

God. Right. Because He's timeless. We think in terms of sequence. Right.

He doesn't. Right, right. Yeah, absolutely. Another place is in 1 Peter 1. You see the triune construction in the second verse,

Father, Son, and Spirit. It's the Spirit who's doing the born -again work. He's making born again. Anyway, so that moves on for regeneration to Kimberly for baptizing.

Again, one we could spend a lot of time on. And we will touch on this more next week. Good. So it's the work of the

Spirit to baptize in the Spirit. Right. We have Luke 3 .16. John the Baptist baptizes with water for repentance.

But one is coming who will baptize in the Spirit and with fire. Okay. So it's a greater baptism.

But this is a spiritual baptism that the Holy Spirit does. Now, in the book of Acts, we have a number of experiences of the baptism of the

Holy Spirit. John, Acts 1 .5 is the first that talks about how there's this coming, this greater baptism that's stronger than water baptism.

And then in 1 .8, we're told when people are baptized that way, they have what? Power to witness.

Okay. Then you have these different occurrences of it. So you have Pentecost in Chapter 2.

And then you have sort of the Samaritan Pentecost in Chapter 8. Then you have the Gentile Pentecost in Chapter 10.

And then you have another kind of Pentecost that happens with Paul in Chapter 19. Each one is accompanied with sign gifts of the

Holy Spirit of some kind. Now, the question is how normative are those for us today?

How much do they speak to our experience or are they only transitional experiences?

Because as the Gospel goes from Jerusalem to Samaria and Judea and to the ends of the earth, each time there's kind of a

Pentecost experience that marks that. Hmm. Now, what do we know for sure about the baptism of the

Holy Spirit? Well, I would say the best place to find normative teaching on it is in the epistles which speak to that.

So this verse to me is very important. 1 Corinthians 12, 13. It uses the same language for spirit baptism.

And it talks about being given the spirit to drink. And so notice, all of us who have been baptized into Christ and have been given the one spirit to drink.

I would argue from that, that spiritual baptism actually happens at conversion.

In the same time, when you put your faith and trust in Christ, the baptism of the Spirit happens.

Now, can there be later experiences of the Holy Spirit? Call them fillings or call them just movements of whatever you call them.

Can there be empowering things that happen in your life? Absolutely. The Holy Spirit can work in our lives in different ways at different times.

But it seems to me that the teaching of the baptizing work of the Spirit is that we all have that.

And it includes us into the body of Christ. How would you answer the Pentecostal brother that says the evidence is the speaking in tongues?

Well, I mean, I would go to 1 Corinthians 12. Do all speak in tongues? No. No. Is the implied answer from that Greek construction.

So the answer is no. It's not an evidence that you've been baptized in the Spirit. Now, could it be that people speak in tongues?

That's something we're going to cover next week. We'll get to that next week. Could they swear that if you don't speak in tongues, you haven't been baptized by the

Holy Spirit? I mean, that's the position they take. And so it's important to know 1 Corinthians 12, 13, because it makes no exceptions.

It's all of us have been given that one Spirit to drink. Comments on that. And next week, I promise you, this is where we're going.

That's part three. Any other questions or comments here, though? So the big picture,

I see baptism of the Spirit as being part of the work of being converted.

And that time, different things happen. It's all the Holy Spirit doing it. And part of that is that you're brought into the body of Christ, baptized in the

Spirit, given the one Spirit to drink. And even if different gifts of the Spirit don't show up for years and years, you were already baptized in the

Spirit when you believed. That's my view. So you're welcome to disagree, but we can talk about that.

Let's move on to the next one. And that becomes obviously the key or an important part of the conversation next week.

And this as well with empowering. Let's pick one of these. I mentioned Luke 3, 16. John the

Baptist baptizes with water for repentance. Jesus comes to baptize with the Spirit and fire. Let's do Luke 24, 48.

You are witnesses of these things. That's it. That's it. Maybe 47 as well.

Okay. Can we start a little bit at the beginning of the sentence? This is what is written.

The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. And repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Beginning at Jerusalem, period. You are witnesses of these things. Yeah. And then 49.

That's what I'm getting at. I am going to send you what my Father has promised. There you go. But stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.

Okay. The empowering ministry of the Holy Spirit. Without the empowering ministry of the

Holy Spirit, our ministry on earth would be null and void. It would come to nothing. Everything that we do in the flesh ultimately gets burned away as wood, hay, and stubble.

The gold, silver, precious stones that our ministries produce come from the Holy Spirit, not from us.

He is the one who empowers us to minister. And notice in this verse, they weren't even allowed to go out preaching yet.

Jesus had already died. He had already been resurrected and ascended. He was about to ascend to the

Father. And yet they're told, don't go out preaching yet. Wait until the gift from above.

There is an empowering ministry from the Holy Spirit. So that it's Him working in us, not just us working in the flesh.

It's very important. So we see that in Acts 1 -8, that kind of thesis statement of the book of Acts.

We heard in the rap song from Shy Lynn that the book of Acts is really the

Acts of the Holy Spirit. Empowered by the gospel. Empowered by the

Spirit. Yeah. So it's amazing that we need the Holy Spirit not to do anything in the flesh, but we need

Him to do the work through us. Next, the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit. Rick, you up? Let's do

Romans 8 -11. So now we're told that the

Spirit of Christ can come and live inside of us. And indwell us. To inhabit

His people. Isn't that amazing? The temple was an image of God coming to be with men. And now we're told, 1

Corinthians 5 -6, that what? You are the temple of the

Holy Spirit. He comes in and He dwells inside of you and makes you a holy temple.

Think of that. It's an awesome thought. That's what we are. The temple of the

Holy Spirit. He lives inside of us. He seals us. Rich, Ephesians 1 -13.

Ephesians 1 -13. Okay, I'm in Ephesians 1. I just saw it.

Take your time. Oh, that's 12. In Him, you also, when you heard the word of truth of the gospel of your salvation, believed in Him, were sealed with the promise of the

Holy Spirit. Sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit Himself seals you, right?

Wow. Think of that concept. One of our youth leaders when I was a kid said, it's like this.

You have a jar. And if God takes a jar and seals it, do you think any force on earth could ever open that jar?

You know, like a pickle jar that's hard to open or something? If God were the one to seal, could anybody break that seal?

And the answer, of course, is no. Now, in that particular context, it was kind of missing the analogy because it's not talking about the sealing of a jar.

It's talking about God stamping His signet ring and putting His seal. Kind of like more of a king of old would make a decree and roll up the scroll and take his wax ring and seal it.

Mark it as his and have it come from him. So, it carries the authority of the king.

But the point remains, though. What God has done, what God has sealed, no force on earth can break.

No devil, no spirit. In fact, not even we ourselves can break that seal.

How could that be? How could that be? Because when He regenerates us,

He gives us new life. He is the one who keeps us. Look at the end of the book of Jude. That great doxology.

In fact, let's do that real quick. I love it. About the keeping, sealing work of the

Holy Spirit. So, Jude, of course, is right at the very end before Revelation.

Here's the point. It's Him that is able to keep us. I'll just read this one. Jude 24.

You don't have to say one, by the way. If there's only one chapter, you can just say Jude 24. But some people say

Jude 1, 24. Or Philemon 1, whatever. Verse 24.

It's a beautiful picture of the ministry of the Holy Spirit there. He seals us, meaning that He is able to keep us.

He is the one who is able to sustain our faith and to keep us until that day. Next, the sanctifying work.

Jayner, you got this? 829. 829. Romans 829. Okay. Could you also read 1516?

You kind of see the work of... That's the golden chain of redemption there. And you see the sanctifying work.

Look at 1516. Romans 1516. Okay.

So it's the work that Paul does is set apart by the Holy Spirit. It's sanctified by the Holy Spirit there.

And finally... Man, my notes are a mess there. I apologize. Galatians 5, 19 -24.

You guys will be familiar with this, of course. You want to do it?

Yeah, if you don't mind. Yeah. Oh, you want to move on? Okay. Yeah, that's fine. Start with 19.

Yeah. Jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissension, faction, every envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like.

I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control.

Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.

So, the sanctifying work. Of course, the word sanctification means what? Set apart. Set apart.

Right? We are set apart from the works of the flesh, who we were in the flesh, unto

Christ to be made holy. Now, that happens in a moment.

We are sanctified in a second. But there's also a process of sanctification. So, when we believe, we're regarded as being set apart from sin.

And we're counted as belonging to Christ, and no longer. So, we should count ourselves that way. Romans 6 talks about that.

We should consider ourselves as dead to sin, alive in Christ Jesus. But then there's also the process of sanctification.

What's that? Second Corinthians, being conformed into the image of Christ, increasingly, day by day, from glory to glory.

There's a process whereby the Holy Spirit is, in our actual lives, in our actual practice, changing us to be more like Christ.

So that the works of the flesh are done away with, and the new things of the Spirit, we exhibit more love, day by day.

More joy. More peace. The work of the Spirit in our lives is to set us apart from the things of the earth, and unto

Christ, being made holy. Being made like Christ. So, that is the work of the Spirit. Aren't you thankful for the

Holy Spirit doing that in you? Aren't you glad that's a promise in the Bible, that He does this? That He will keep renewing you?

Especially on discouraging days when you don't see it yourself. And you say, well, I can't see the evidence today in my life, because I'm not feeling peace.

I'm not filled with love and joy. I'm feeling selfish. But to know that you can rest in the promise, it's the

Holy Spirit who's going to do this. And He is doing it. That's what the Bible teaches us. Okay?

He also fills believers. Would you like to read, Mary? Sure. Okay. The filling ministry of the

Spirit. Let's read Ephesians 5 .18 and 4 .30. Read both of those. You can start with 4 .30, because together you can kind of see a picture there.

Okay. And do not grieve the

Holy Spirit of God, but whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Okay. And 5 .18?

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. Okay.

When we were talking about 1 John, we said you look within the same book, same author, to see how an author uses a term.

Here again, you see how Paul in Ephesians had already said in 1 .13, having believed you were marked in Him, you were sealed with the

Holy Spirit. Right? So he's already used this language of sealing until the day of redemption.

Right? Until that day, which is a guarantee of your inheritance. Now he uses the term again in 4 .30.

He says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. You are in.

You belong to Him. He's sealed you. He's marked you with His seal. So until that day when

He redeems you and He consummates all of this, don't grieve Him. Don't make

Him sad. So instead, what are we to do? Matthew 5 .18 says, do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the

Spirit. What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? And you can use wine as the counterexample there.

Well, when someone is drunk, they're being controlled by that with which they're filled. So I would think that the analogy then would be if you're filled with the

Holy Spirit, you're being controlled to an extent by the Holy Spirit. I think that's precisely it. That is exactly it.

It's a matter of who's controlling you. Are you being controlled by your old fleshly old man that's dead, that's just somehow rearing its ugly head again, or are you being controlled by the

Holy Spirit? And that's the other side of the coin. All vestiges of selfishness is being flushed out.

Yeah. Okay. Now we move on to the leading of the Spirit. Now this is not...

I apologize. Yeah. I think it's important to note there that either we're...

I mean, if you think of the word filled, you think of additional volume being added.

Right. And I don't think that's what that passage is saying. Correct. So going back to the concept of how do you deal with the

Pentecostal, I don't think there's any more Holy Spirit we can get than at the point of salvation.

So the word filled is a little bit awkward there. Okay. Because filled, again, connotes additional volume.

Right. And the meaning of the text there is one of control, not about getting more of a person, because, of course, the

Holy Spirit is not an it like wine. The Holy Spirit is a person. Now, can you be more or less under the control of the

Holy Spirit? That's the question. Can a believer be more or less under the control of the Holy Spirit?

Absolutely. And you see the difference between a believer who is being controlled by the

Spirit and a believer who's still saved, but they're not being controlled by the Spirit. They're grieving the

Spirit. They're walking in the flesh. I think that's the meaning there. Well, there are three manifestations of the

Holy Spirit. Okay. It's with, in, and upon. Okay.

Okay. When you're not a believer, you get a conviction. And when you are going to be a believer, you get a conviction.

Yeah. But when you believe, the Spirit comes and lives in you. Yes. So there's two manifestations.

Right. Before you believe and when you believe, it's with and in.

And then there is another manifestation, which is upon. Okay. When the Holy Spirit is upon you, that's when

He empowers you to do certain things that are not normal. Right.

Whether it is evangelism or even a miracle. Mm -hmm. You know, if you see the works of the

Spirit in the apostles. Yeah. When they were, let's say Peter, when he did a miracle of Paul.

Yeah. It was because the Holy Spirit was upon them. Okay. I will agree with that with a caveat that it's not that the

Holy Spirit leaves you and then comes back. But as He's taking, He's controlling you to do something that you wouldn't ordinarily do or be able to.

It's Him doing the work and not you. Once you become a believer, the Holy Spirit is in you and you are sealed.

But the works of the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit is upon you, is when something out of the natural happens.

Yeah. And if you look at the record of Acts, even though there's transitional issues there, dispensational issues, you do see that there is a difference between someone who's a believer and someone who's the

Holy Spirit is coming upon. So you do see the evidence of the Holy Spirit coming upon believers and there's some difference that He makes.

So we'll talk about that next week. Let's leave that discussion for now because next week it's all about the gifts of the

Spirit, all about baptism of the Spirit and all those things. Okay. So let's move quickly through these because I want to get to the last point and we only have a few minutes.

So I want to say about the leading of the Spirit that it's not the subjective. In these verses, like Romans 8, 14, the leading of the

Spirit here is not the subjective, I feel led to start this ministry. It's those who are led of the

Spirit, in this case, are those who are born again. We have to look at the verse real fast. Romans 8, 14.

As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Right. And in that context, if you're not led of the Spirit, are you a son of God? No. No.

This is not the subjective leading that this verse often is applied to. It's rather being included, belonging to, that He is your

Lord. You're submitted to Him. He leads you because you belong to Him. You're a son. You're an adopted son, which leads into Adoption 8, 15.

John, why don't you read that as well since you're there. I'm sorry. For ye have not received the

Spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,

Abba, Father. We cry, Abba, Father, because we have been adopted.

And it's the Spirit of adoption. The Spirit actually has this ministry of adopting us and making us children of God so that we can consider

God our Father and have access to Him as a Father and talk to Him openly like a child would.

Abba, Father, Daddy. We can pray with that kind of openness to our Father. It's a ministry of the

Holy Spirit to make us a child of God, a son of God, daughter of God. The assurance then, 8, 16,

John? John, you told it. Okay. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

Okay. And now we have a subjective element introduced, don't we? I think that this is speaking about an internal work of the

Spirit who bears witness with our spirits to the fact that we've been made children of God, that we are saved, that we belong to Him.

Do you ever doubt that you're born again? Do you doubt? When I was younger in the faith,

I would have doubts. That's why I think I did the altar call and went down to the front and got saved probably 12 different times when

I was growing up. Maybe you had similar experiences. I was going to say not anymore.

Yeah, not anymore, not anymore. So this ministry of the Holy Spirit has come to fruition in your life and you don't doubt that you're a child of God.

That's where I am too, where I'm assured that I belong to Christ. And I think there is a subjectivity to that and maybe some more sensitive souls might struggle more in that area, right?

But I think that the assurance of the Holy Spirit here, it says part of what He does, He bears witness with our spirit.

That's not referring to the Holy Spirit in us, but to us, the inner part of us, the heart of us is assured by Him, by His presence there.

He makes Himself known. We know that we belong to Christ, that we believe in Him and that we're saved. I thought that back when you were talking about that He seals us.

I thought He seals us unto salvation. We cannot lose ourselves. Yeah, and that's a promise you can rest on.

So even when that feeling's not there, when you're not feeling a strong sense, to know that I believe in Christ, I have repented and believed in Christ, I can stand upon the promise that I still belong to Him.

He tells me that He sealed me that day. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promise of the

Holy Spirit. So that's assuring too. To know the Word, we find assurance. In light of what John said, and with regard to sealing, this is a comforting verse.

This has always been a comforting verse for me. Philippians 1 -6, and I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ.

Amen. Amen. Points 16 and 17, the Spirit prays and the

Spirit glorifies. The Holy Spirit now helps us when we don't know how to pray. He intercedes with words and groanings that we don't know.

When we don't know what to pray for, the Spirit is helping us to pray. The Spirit also glorifies, that's

Ephesians 1 -14, He has sealed us until that day of redemption. By glorify here,

I mean when Christ removes, or the Spirit then, removes our sin nature from us entirely.

There is coming a day, when we die or when Christ comes back, when we won't sin anymore. The Spirit will finish that work of sealing, completing it now by completely removing our sin nature.

Right now, the old man is still around, and we can get in the flesh. But there's coming a day when we will be glorified and be like Christ.

He'll complete that sanctifying work that he's been doing all these years. And we will pick up with the next one next week because it kind of fits in.

I will just make the point that the Holy Spirit's work in Jesus, and John brought this up to me that we should talk about.

This is a great point. What did the Holy Spirit do in Jesus? Think about this before we get together next week.

That's a little bit of a homework assignment. How was the ministry of the Holy Spirit in Jesus like his ministry in us, or how was it different?

And I'll just throw this on the table. There is a theory called kenosis, kenotic theology, is that in the emptying of himself, when

Jesus left the glories of heaven, he left his divine nature behind. And so in the baptism of Jesus at the

Jordan by John the Baptist, he receives the Holy Spirit like a dove. That was the empowering that actually enabled him to do miracles.

Without that, he could have done nothing. To what degree is that true or untrue? That's something that we'll talk about.

I don't want to spend too much time on it. I wish this class was longer because that could be a long discussion, but we need to get into the gifts of the

Spirit. I'll give you the short answer now that kenotic theology,

I think, is rightly regarded as heresy because Jesus can never be empty of his deity.

He will always be divine. Now, there is a, there is because he is a triune being.

He is depending on the Holy Spirit in a way. He also depends on the Father, but it doesn't empty him of his deity.

He didn't leave his deity behind. So that when he does a miracle, he's also demonstrating that he's

God. When he turns water into wine, it's because he's God that he can do that. And he can walk on water because he made the water.

And he can calm a storm because he's Lord of the storm, right? But the Holy Spirit is playing an important role in this too.

He's part of how he rises from the dead, the Spirit, but he also has power to take his own life back up. He lays it down, he can take it back up.

So I have given you the short answer. We can talk about it more next week, but we won't belabor it because we want to get into the gifts of the

Spirit. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for this rich, rich study of your Holy Spirit.

Oh, we want to know you, God, and you are Spirit, and you are holy. We want to know the third member of the

Trinity. So Holy Spirit, we worship you. We worship you, Holy Spirit.

We want your ministry in our life, the full measure of it. All that you do on earth,

Lord, we want you active in our lives. So control us, Lord, even more than wine and beer control a drunkard.

We pray that you would have complete control over our lives, in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, guys.