The Holy Spirit (Part II)

Grace Fellowship Church

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Okay, let's let's pray. Father. Would you please guide us tonight by your Holy Spirit? Would you teach us or to help us to have a good fruitful evening?

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I pray that it would be an encouragement to To the McDonald's hearts to Steve's heart to the

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Poirier's hearts Lord, please help us to To focus or to speak through me with power even as we as we speak over the computer

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And I pray that that you'd be glorified and everything that we say everything that I say and everything that we do

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Lord help me to to speak tonight with unction with unction. I pray in Jesus name. Amen Yeah, well tonight because we're doing a different format guys.

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I'm going to I Don't know about you, but I have a really difficult time watching someone over a screen for a really long period of time maybe it's just me being a squirrel or ADHD or something like that, so Maybe let's even though I didn't plan to do this.

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Let's make this just slightly more interactive than we have in the past. So if We've all been in a situation where we've heard someone speak or preach and thought, you know

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I wonder if they're gonna bring up this passage and if a passage comes to mind feel free to share and to share some insight and I think that'll just make things a little bit more engaging and And I don't think that that will take away from the the spirit of the teaching time so feel free to to intervene

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And to add as we're going along, okay So we're we're going now.

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We're looking at the second part of our statement on the Holy Spirit Elias Last week showed us

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Or taught us about the divine identity the divine nature of the

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Holy Spirit that he is God the Spirit and he Taught us that the one one of the roles or some of the roles of the

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Holy Spirit are to glorify Christ to convict the world We know that in Scripture to convict the world regarding sin and righteousness and the judgment and then imparting life through regeneration

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And this week what we're going to do We're going to dig out just a bit deeper now and we're going to look at what God the

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Spirit does upon our conversion so this is Maybe for Jesse and Selena when they catch this online.

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Hopefully this might be helpful for them but what what the the third person of the

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Trinity does when a person is converted and then The activity of the Holy Spirit for the remainder of a believer's life

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So it's I like I do with all of these I had too much fun, and I have too much information

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So I'm just going to have to prune as we go But we'll read the whole we'll read the statement first So it says the

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Holy Spirit the spirit of promise. This is the second part seals anoints indwells and sanctifies believers upon their conversion and Further to that it further sanctifies.

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He further sanctifies leads illumines fills And graciously empowers for godly living and service until the day of redemption

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Now what I've done here for ease is we'll break this study up into two sections So we'll look firstly at the activity of the

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Holy Spirit upon conversion and we're going to Do a bit of a word study on on those words individually.

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So seals anoints indwells sanctifies and then Secondly, we'll look at the role of the spirit in the life of a believer from justification to Regeneration.

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Alright, so let's look at that first section first we'll look at this the spirit of promise seals anoints indwells and sanctifies believers upon their conversion now last week

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Elias Unpacked a little bit already this this idea of the spirit of promise and so The language that we get this from this idea of the spirit of promise the

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Holy Spirit that was promised To the church as part of the new covenant one of the passages we would look at is

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Ephesians chapter 1 in verse 13 So Ephesians 1 13 it says in him that's in Christ You also when you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation and believed in him

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We're sealed with the promised Holy Spirit We see the seal or the the spirit of promise and if you're a fan of church history that expression the spirit of promise we actually get from William Tyndale and the

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King James Version the translators They borrowed that language and so in the in the in the

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King James Version or in the Tyndale Version It reads something like this. You were sealed with the

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Holy Spirit of promise and then last week Elias told us a little bit about how the coming of the

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Holy Spirit was in keeping with the ancient promises of God and so This although the

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Holy Spirit the Lord would put his Holy Spirit upon people in the Old Testament And we heard it last week, so I won't go at length but the scriptures whether it is the books of Moses the history books the writings the

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Minor prophets major prophets even in the Gospels We see the promise of this

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Holy Spirit coming the Spirit of God coming in a new and in a pronounced way and it's scattered across the text of Scripture and Then finally in these last days

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God has poured out his Holy Spirit upon his believers and and I just want to say what a

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Blessing that is that our Lord keeps his promises when we think about the world in which we live

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There are men who make promises and choose not to keep them there are folks who make promises and then forget about them even with good intentions and Fail to keep them, but unlike man

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When God speaks his word is truth mindful of Psalm chapter 12 and verse 6 where it says the words of the

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Lord are pure words. I Love that as a man ever had pure words

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Only when he's speaking the Lord's words the words of the Lord are pure words like silver refined in a furnace on the ground purified seven times

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And if we can extend this just a little bit further the promises of the Lord are pure promises

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So all the glory goes to him God has given his spirit of promise to his people in these last days according to his word now this point

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Someone might ask maybe no one in this group. Sometimes I feel like I'm preaching to the choir, but someone might ask

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What is the purpose of this outpouring of God's Spirit? What is the the function of the

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Holy Spirit in the lives of believers in the lives of the Saints? And I think our our statement while it doesn't do it

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Doesn't do it exhaustively it gives us just a little bit of what the Holy Spirit does and so we're gonna look at these words seals anoints indwells

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Sanctifies and I'll add that all of this occurs. I'll say this a few times just to drive it home. All of this occurs immediately completely instantaneously

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Upon conversion, so there is a progressive element to the the filling of the

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Spirit of God to the to the Unction to the anointing of the Spirit of God. However, all of these things are

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Commenced at conversion some of them in completion, but we'll look at this together. So First we'll look at the word seals

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So when God saves a man or a woman he seals he places the seal of his

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Holy Spirit on Them and we see this in a number of texts. I'm gonna cherry -pick just a few

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But maybe we can turn we'll turn together to 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 in verse 20 2nd

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Corinthians chapter 1 and I find it interesting as we're getting there just the connection you see sometimes with this idea of the promises of God and And the

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Spirit of God, but 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verse 20 Says this for all the promises of God Find their yes in him.

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They find their yes in Christ That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory

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And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us.

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We're going to come back to that He's anointed us and has put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as A guarantee so God has given his spirit as a seal on our hearts as a guarantee

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And it begs the question a guarantee of what I think Ephesians chapter 1 tells us about that We've already looked at this a little bit, but Ephesians chapter 1 in verse 13

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It says in him you also when you heard the word of the truth the gospel of your salvation and believed in him

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Were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit see the promise again who is the guarantee of our

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Inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory so here we see that the

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Spirit of God God has given us a seal as a seal to Guarantee our inheritance.

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So from the moment of our conversion until the time of our glorification We are we are sealed there is a guarantee and I might it's

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I find it often as helpful to look at A little dig a little bit more into the the meaning of these words in a historical context to appreciate it

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So what we're going to do is we'll we'll look at some of the history behind this so in the

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Bible Says that God has set his seal on us. He's referring to an an ancient practice.

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I'm looking at you McDonald children Maybe you guys have experienced something like this before Or seen something like this before maybe in a movie or in a book when someone has a letter maybe it's a royal letter and they will take a drop of wax or some soft wax and Stamp it with a stamp or maybe seal it with a signet ring

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Well, that's what God has in mind there is to seal or to stamp Wax and so that might be on a on decree maybe in some movies you see it to seal an envelope

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And even recently when we are thinking about the ascension of Christ the Roman seal that was placed on the tomb of our

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Lord that was essentially one of these seals and It might seem like a bit of a foreign idea

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But I was thinking back to a time when I worked at a mechanic shop Back when I was 19 between high school and college

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I had a job Nicole's dad actually offered me the job and he said

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How would you like to be a gopher for the summer? And I thought what does a gopher do?

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It didn't didn't sound very exciting and then he said and I'll pay you $10 an hour

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And at that time $10 an hour was like double what I was making anywhere else So I remember saying to Nicole for $10 an hour.

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I will do anything There's nothing I wouldn't do for $10 an hour So in any case

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I worked as a gopher for the summer and One of the things that I did it was a trucking company that hauled cement dust or I guess it would be yeah, cement dust and And this shop because they were fixing these trucks would just be covered in cement dust

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And so my job pretty much all day was to sweep cement dust Which which is yeah, maybe why

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I was getting paid $10 an hour But I remember I used to sweep the tool room and I would look at all these mechanics toolboxes

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And you look at these mechanics toolboxes and you'd think I remember thinking to myself That box probably has $10 ,000 worth of tools and that box and that box and that box and counting the tools

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I was thinking there's Maybe a hundred thousand dollars worth of tools or more just in this room.

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It's not locked. There's no fancy security systems And how do you think those mechanics?

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Secured their tools They would they would put a stamp or or etch their initials or their name

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Onto the tools and what they were saying when they did that is this belongs to me.

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This is my toolbox This is how I make my living and if you touch my tools you mess with me

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And I'm going to find you because my name is on my tools And in many ways, this is what the

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Lord does when he puts his seal on us There's really four things that the

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Lord does when he puts his seal on us It's a it communicates his authorship that that he has made us that he has made us a new

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It communicates his ownership that we are his we belong to him. It communicates authenticity that we are

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Authentically his and that it and it communicates protection It's it's pretty and so someone put their seal just like the tomb of Christ it communicated all of those things

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And so when God puts a spirit on a person, I'm looking at you nafta lie there in your living room

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When God puts his seal on you, he says I have made nafta lie a new person

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She has been created in Christ Jesus for good works Before which

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I prepared beforehand that she should walk in them So God has made you a new and he has put his seal on you.

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I have made nafta lie a new When God puts his seal on a person he might say

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I own Steve I have bought him with the blood of my own Dear son, he has been bought with a price.

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He belongs to me. He is to glorify God in his body When God places a seal on a person he communicates that anyone who has the spirit is a genuine

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Christian and the scripture even teaches this Romans 8 16 tells us the spirit himself

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Bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God And then when

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God places a seal on his Saints he effectively says this person is mine I made them I own them.

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They bear my seal of authenticity and I will protect them and I will preserve them

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With authority greater than any human government with authority greater than the Romans when they sealed our

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Lord's tomb and to break That seal was a capital offense In first John we're told that he who was born of God protects him and the evil one does not touch him

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And so the Lord will protect his people and he's given his seal we're told as a guarantee and The word that Paul uses for guarantee here is the word a rabban which means a down payment or a pledge

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And so just like when we buy a house and we commit to that property until we take

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Possession of it when the Lord puts this pledge down this This divine down payment he is in essence saying

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I am committed to saving this individual I'm committing to protecting this individual until I take possession of him

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We see that Confirmed in Romans 8 verse 11 It says if the spirit of him who raised

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Jesus from the dead Dwells in you he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies

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Through his spirit who dwells in you the next word that we see is this the word anoints and So we've already looked at 2nd

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Corinthians chapter 1 where it says that we God has established us in Christ and anointed us with the

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Holy Spirit But let's think about this word anoint. I don't know if if you guys are familiar with the word anoint

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It's not something that we use that often anymore But it's a loaded term and it's full of wonderful meaning so we'll look at a couple of things here so to anoint a person would be to to smear or to pour oil on them or to pour oil on something and It's done for this purpose primarily to to signify holiness to signify separation unto

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God and so in the scriptures we we see this again and again we see that it's used to Bestow divine blessing and to equip an individual for service

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One of the very first places that we see this practice even though the word anoint isn't used as in Genesis 28

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So if you guys are familiar with the story of Jacob or the otherwise known as Israel there you'll remember a time when he was traveling through the land of Canaan and he

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Ended up spending the night there, and I don't know about you guys Thinking about the kids.

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Do you guys ever go to bed and rest your head on a rock for comfort? Do you ever use a stone as a pillow?

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doesn't seem like a comfortable thing to me, but Jacob used a stone as a pillow that particular night and fell asleep and And maybe it was part of the

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Lord's providence I wouldn't sleep very deep if I had a stone pillow But the Jacob had a dream and he had a dream about a ladder that reached to heaven and there were angels of God Ascending and descending the ladder and above the ladder was

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God and the Lord Promised Jacob he promised him that he would give him that land that he was sleeping on and that he would fill that land with his descendants

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And so in the morning early in the morning when Jacob woke up he took his stones. He stacked them and then poured oil on that pillar of stones and that essentially was him anointing that pillar and It was a place that was to be holy that was to be separated unto

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God It was Bethel the house of God next place. We see that is in Exodus 28 and 29 and we read about the the first anointing of a person and in those chapters we read how the priests how

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Aaron and his sons were to be anointed and consecrated for service as priests in the tabernacle and When these priests were anointed with the special oil that no one else was allowed to make

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They were set apart as unto God commissioned for service Later, we read about Kings who were anointed at their coronation

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My mind goes to King Saul if you remember that story King Saul was anointed with oil

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We're told and then shortly thereafter in first Samuel It says that God gave him another heart

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It was at that anointing or shortly after that anointing that that God in essence made

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Saul anew not in the New Testament sense, but in an Old Testament sense and then later it says that the

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Spirit of God rushed upon him and he prophesied and All who knew him previously saw how he prophesied with the prophets the people said to one another and the people said with one another

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What has come over the son of Kish is Saul also among the prophets? And then we see that the prophet

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Elisha was anointed to take the place of Elijah we see this in first Kings 19 and he too received power to affect his ministry and then finally the ultimate anointed one is

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None other than Jesus Christ the name Christ the Greek word

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Christos Translated means anointed one We see in passages like Luke 4 it says and the scroll of the prophet

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Isaiah was given to Jesus He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written The Spirit of the

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Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim Good news to the poor

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He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at Liberty Those who are oppressed to proclaim the

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Lord of the years Favor and so Christ came as the ultimate prophet priest

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King the ultimate anointed prophet priest and King and he is the substance to which all these

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Shadows point as we've said so many times already and he was set apart as God he set himself apart as God unto himself the scriptures tell that he consecrated himself

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To do the will of God and when he ascended into heaven, he essentially bestowed his mantle this anointing upon His body the church to carry out ministry in his place and we see this this these verses begin to make sense when we understand this a right first Peter 2 9 where we get part of our

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Mission statement from but you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for his own possession that you may proclaim

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The excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

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We see that That divine kingdom or king and priests that we would we would also see in Revelation 5 and all this comes by the anointing of God's Spirit Acts 1 verse 8 and this should embolden us as we think about Carrying out our ministries to the

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Lord you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you He empowers us for ministry and we'll talk about that a little bit later and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem Judea Samaria and to the ends of the earth

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First John 2 20, but you have been anointed by the Holy One and you have all knowledge later in verse 27

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But the anointing that you receive from him abides in you and you have no need that anyone should teach you

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But as his anointing teaches you about everything and it's true and is no lie Just as it is taught you abide in him

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So the Spirit of the Lord convicts he regenerates he anoints and he consecrates for faithful service unto

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God Next we'll look at indwelling And it's too bad. I I really wish that that I could do all of these terms justice

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So if you guys have anything you want to add, please do I Remember and I don't know if anyone has heard this criticism, but I remember

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John MacArthur after he had The Shepherds Conference or it was around that time there was a

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Charismatic group that offered a little bit of commentary on John MacArthur. And one of the things that they said was

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It is it's kind of a backhanded calm compliment They said it's evident that God has used

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John MacArthur in an important way that his Christian ministry has been very valuable

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But they said just imagine how powerfully how sorry how powerfully he would be used of God if he had the

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Holy Spirit Implying that a person can be a Christian that they can even be effective and yet not have the

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Holy Spirit Dwelling within them another time. I remember reading a book by a

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Christian author and I looked at the the back of the book and they had their biography on the back cover and It said something to the effect of this that Bob was saved and came to Christ in 1978 but it was not until 1982 when he received the

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Holy Spirit that he was truly Transformed and so the question is can a person believe in Christ?

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Can they repent of their sins? Can they be saved? Can they live a faithful Christian life and not have the

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Holy Spirit? I Think we know already from what I've said here that the answer to that is no

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But we'll let we'll let the Apostle Paul answer this as well He says in Romans 8 verse 9 anyone who does not have the

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Spirit of Christ Does not belong to him If you do not have the

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Spirit you are not a Christian if you do have the Spirit you are a Christian And this is amazing wonderfully

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Miraculously almost unbelievably when a man or woman an individual is born again by the

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Holy Spirit The Spirit doesn't simply affect the change in that person's heart and then move on No, he enters into that individual's heart into that individual believer and what a fearful and Glorious thought that is that every person

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I was going to say every person in this room, but every person on this screen

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Who is in Christ? Has the Spirit of God? dwelling within them

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And that that begins when I when I was thinking about that this weekend. It really starts to Drive home the importance of of not grieving this spirit whom

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God has given us Now the Lord taught this and we see it in the Gospel of John in John 14 if you love me

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You will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever forever

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Who is it verse 17 even the Spirit of truth? Whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him

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He says, you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you

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So that that was the Lord when he left when he ascended into heaven He would give the

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Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit wouldn't merely be upon us but in us in Acts 2 2 we see we see this at Pentecost how

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It says in verse 4 they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other

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Tongues Galatians 4 6 I'm going to speed through this a bit and because you are sons

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God sent The spirit of his son into our hearts crying

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Abba father. The spirit has been sent into our hearts What a blessing he has not left us as Orphans, but he is on his throne.

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He is sovereign and active in the world and he is in He's reigning in the hearts of his people every single one of his people

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And this is a blessing that I'm going to challenge you. I think that most of us take for granted that that the

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Holy Spirit has been given to us and has been put in us and I'm mindful of something that Moses said numbers 11

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You hear it's at one point Moses said Would that all the

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Lord's people were prophets that the Lord would put his spirit on them?

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And not only do we have the spirit on us, but we have the spirit in us Next we see that the spirit sanctifies.

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He sanctifies believers now Right away someone might think because Because I'm saying that the spirit sanctifies believers

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Does that mean when someone is saved that they immediately that not only are they justified but immediately they are sanctified that they that they turn

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Directions that they are perfect that they achieve what what has been called complete sanctification

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What the Wesley brothers it's more specifically John Wesley taught this idea of complete sanctification sinless perfectionism

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That's not what I'm teaching but we'll we'll look at that a little bit first Corinthians 6 in verse 9 says or do you not know that the

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Unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God do not be deceived neither the sexually immoral nor adult nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who practice

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Homosexuality nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God and such for some of you

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But he says but you were washed You were sanctified

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That's past tense. You were sanctified and You were justified in the name of the

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Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God and so the spirit upon conversion

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Sanctifies believers That doesn't mean that it's immediate complete sanctification

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But but what it does mean is that when we're washed with the waters of regeneration when we're renewed by the

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Holy Spirit the individual's heart and mind is Sanctified it is consecrated unto

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God it is purified for his purposes Probably the best word is Transformed by the

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Holy Spirit John MacArthur writes this he says Sanctified this results in new behavior which a transformed life always produces sins total dominion is broken and Replaced by a new pattern of obedience and holiness holiness though not perfect This is a new direction

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Romans 6 we see this in verse 17 But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed and have been having been set free from sin have become slaves of righteousness

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Paul speaks of this transformation a little bit later to in verse 20 He says for when you were slaves of sin you were in for you were free in regard to righteousness

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But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed for the end of Those things is death

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But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end eternal life and so the sanctifying work of the

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Holy Spirit at conversion breaks the bonds of sin and frees us both to desire and to do

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The will of God albeit imperfectly we shouldn't expect perfect repentance

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We should not expect perfect sanctification at conversion But we should expect a transformation a change of direction new desires new affections

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And that conversion the spirit initiates a process that that changes the complete trajectory

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Of our lives the things that the sin that we once loved to use Paul's words We're now ashamed of the good that we once despised despised

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We now desire holiness righteousness Christ likeness something that no unbeliever when we were unbelievers none of us had that desire to be like the

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Lord Jesus Christ and Yet at our conversion when the Holy Spirit has been given to us

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We hunger and thirst for righteousness as the Lord taught in the Sermon on the Mount I'll illustrate this just with a personal experience.

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I remember as an unbeliever going to church with Nicole and they were singing praise and worship songs and I looked around and I thought you know

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I think religion has a Purpose to serve a purpose to serve even in my life.

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I tend to feel better on Monday after I've been to church on Sunday But I am

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NOT gonna get brainwashed like the rest of these people I'm not going to I even remember hanging out with a

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Christian friend and And bless bless my mom. She she was

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She was looking out for me the the best way that she knew how so I don't want to dishonor her in this illustration But she said whatever you do don't let them convert you

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And I I kind of smugly laughed and said oh mom, I'm not not gonna get converted don't worry and Then what happened when the

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Lord saved me a few years later. I Remember praying to the

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Lord Probably with language from Titus 3 like the washing of regeneration

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Lord wash my brain more wash my brain more I Offer myself as a living sacrifice

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Holy and acceptable to you there was Any sacrifice that I could make was not enough

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In the service of God and that's not for my glory

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But that's for the the glory of God and the glory of the Spirit He was an instantaneous shift in everything that I had lived for up to that point lost its luster and God God became everything

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And all of this all that I've described happens at once at the time of conversion

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Praise the Lord for that. He seals he anoints he indwells he sanctifies every single believer

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It's not just for a special few. It's not for rock stars the rock stars of Christendom But is a reality for every man woman and child in Christ all of these things

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It sounds so good. It's hard to believe it could get better, but it does and so we'll look at the second part of our statement

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It reads this the Spirit further sanctifies He leads illumines fills and Graciously empowers for godly living in service until the day of redemption

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So I've already provided a pretty thorough definition of some of these terms so we're going to pick up the pace a little bit and We'll leave some room for personal study perhaps

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But we'll look at this he further sanctifies so while the process of sanctification

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Begins at conversion. It's not yet complete I've already said that and we see this in passages like Hebrews chapter 10 verse 14 for by a single offering

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I love this passage for by a single offering. He is perfected for all time those who are being

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Sanctified and so what this shows is that we can be justified we can be

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Perfected for all time upon our conversion to Christ and yet there is still room for sanctification

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There's still sanctification needed And you'll notice in this passage That that we are not the primary actor in this sanctification the author of Hebrews doesn't say

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That we are sanctifying but that we are being Sanctified we are just like if someone says, oh, where's the car?

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Oh, it's it's being washed The car is having something performed on it

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That doesn't mean that we're passive in the process, but we are not the primary actor Peter gives us a bit more insight in first Peter 1

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Chapter or first Peter 1 verses 1 and 2 to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion

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He's writing to this dispersed church in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia according to the foreknowledge of God the

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Father in the sanctification of the spirit for what purpose for obedience to Jesus Christ and Sprinkling with his blood.

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It is the Spirit of God that sanctifies for obedience and for obedience to whom?

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for obedience to Jesus Christ this is the ultimate goal of Our sanctification is conformity to Christ.

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It is obedience. It is holiness It is to be pure as he is pure And as I've said while the

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Holy Spirit is the active Player in this we are not passive I'll show a show a couple verses that or at least one that that that lends itself to this 1st

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Corinthians chapter 3 in verse 18 another good one and we all with unveiled face

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Beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory

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To another for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit and so praise

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God He sanctifies us at our conversion. He continues to sanctify us through our

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Christian life And how do we participate? We behold the glory of the Lord. We behold him in prayer.

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We behold him in his word We hunger and thirst for righteousness and act according to that desire to that that thirst that hunger

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We seek the Lord in obedience to him. We say what does the word say and How can

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I obey it? So that's how we participate. It's a quick summary, but how we participate in sanctification with the

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Spirit says that he leads us He leads us in in a very practical way with with decisions

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For life and family and work and ministry that is why we seek the

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Lord in prayer and ask for wisdom because we We trust that when we do the

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Spirit of God Gives us that wisdom We see a living example of this in Acts 16 6 it says and they went this is

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Paul on his missionary journey through the region of Phrygia and Galatia Having been forbidden by the

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Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia And so we don't know what that forbidden really looks like but that the

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Lord led Paul in his ministry and in some cases gave specific guidance about where to go and where not to go and This involves our active participation again.

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We're not passengers in the leading of the Holy Spirit And so it is not like a bus

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Where you get in and the bus drives and you just sit there and you can close your eyes and fall asleep

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You must remain awake and open to the Spirit's leading and so we see verses like Romans 8 14 for all who are led by the

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Spirit of God are Sons of God those are those who who essentially follow in the

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Spirit's footsteps Galatians 5 16 to 25, but I say walk by the

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Spirit This is an exhortation Which means that there are some who choose not to or fail to walk by the

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Spirit But Galatians says but I say walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh

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This is tied in really closely with our sanctification for the desires of the flesh are against the

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Spirit the desires of the Spirit are against The flesh for those who are opposed Sorry for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do there

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We see the new affections, but if you are led by the Spirit You are not under the law

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Now the works of the flesh are evident and he gives a long list of vices

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But then he says in verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is this love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control

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Against such things there is no law and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires if we live by the

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Spirit Let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited provoking one another envying one another

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So we can be led by the Spirit we can walk in step with the Spirit or we cannot and how do we do this?

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well, we we look at what the Word of the Lord says and we We seek the

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Lord we walk in communion with him. We abide in him. We seek his direction

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As a church we should we should be people who are continuously asking

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Lord Where do I go from here Lord? What next? Lord, where would you have me to be and to to be in submission to God to be in submission to his desire?

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to his will to his word You see that he illumines in 1st

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Corinthians 2 11 the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God For they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they are

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Spiritually discerned it is the Spirit of God that helps us that illuminates our minds that illuminates his word

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To help us understand. I remember as a new believer Remember as a new believer

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Praying in a prayer meeting. Oh Lord. Give me revelation Give me revelation and at the time

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I didn't really know what that meant, but something felt off about it And now

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I've learned that the Lord has already given his revelation in his word.

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We've talked about this He's revealed himself. Generally. He's revealed himself Specially specifically and what

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I need is illumination Oh Lord open my under my mind to understand this passage.

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That's why we pray before we preach Lord help me to preach this effectively help my hearers to hear it to understand it and to do it

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It's the Spirit of God. We must be dependent on the Spirit of God to illumine

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We're almost done here in Ephesians 5 18 we see that he fills

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It says do not get drunk with wine for that is dissipation But to the contrary he says be filled with the

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Spirit in Acts 6 5 When the seven were chosen to serve tables it describes

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Stephen he was a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit and then it lists the other men

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I trust that those other men were godly men spirit spirit filled men But there was something about Stephen that made it notable that he was perhaps more filled that this filling was more pronounced more noticeable more noteworthy in terms of including it in text in the text and How is this?

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Well in Luke 11, we remember the Lord Telling a parable and he said which of you has a friend

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Who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him friend Lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him and he will

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Answer from within do not bother me. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed

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I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you though. He will not get up and give him anything because he is a

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He is his friend yet because of his impudence He will rise and give him whatever he needs and I tell you ask and it will be given to you seek and you will

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Find knock and it will be opened to you For everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds and to the one who knocks it will be opened

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What father among you if his son asks for a fish? Well instead give him a serpent instead of a fish give him a serpent or if he asks for an egg

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We'll give him a scorpion If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to the to your children

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How much more will the Heavenly Father give you the Holy Spirit? Give the

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Holy Spirit to those who ask him And so we should be seeking to be filled more with the

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Spirit We've already established that every Christian has the Spirit in dwelling but that in filling can be to various degrees and we should

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Pray and seek to be filled To overflowing filled to the greatest degree that is humanly possible

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Lord fill me with your spirit or give me your Holy Spirit Sanctify me make me a fitting vessel for honorable use to be filled with your spirit and last

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Lastly he empowers for godly living and service We've already looked at that at some length some length with the anointing of God But we see this practically worked out in the

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New Testament for instance in 2nd Corinthians 2nd Timothy chapter 1 Follow the pattern of sound words that you have heard from me

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In the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us guard the good deposit

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Entrusted to you verse 14 by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us Guard the good deposit entrusted to you

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Paul is encouraging Timothy by the power of the Holy Spirit by the Holy Spirit's work in you by his empowering by his equipping carry out your ministry and Then we see that he gives gifts gifts of the

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Holy Spirit We're not going to go through it here, but Romans 12 Verses 3 to 8 1st

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Corinthians 12 1 to 11 Ephesians 4 verses 9 to 6 The Lord has bestowed gifts upon his church for the building up of His body to them to mature manhood to the fullness of the stature of Christ We're told in Ephesians 4 and so the

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Lord has empowered us all to carry out the ministries that he has given us to one another and To the world around us and ultimately for his glory

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So in summary at our conversion I'm better have it in front of me if I'm going to summarize it.

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He seals he anoints he indwells He sanctifies at conversion praise the

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Lord praise the Lord for that And if if you're a believer and you're questioning your salvation,

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I Would say examine yourself Do you see that the

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Lord has Sealed you that he has anointed you that he's given you new desires through sanctification

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Do you does your spirit bear witness with his That that he is in you and then

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I would say look for the fruit of that sanctification In the spirit, what is what is your relationship?

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With God like what is your relationship with sin like what is your relationship with righteousness?

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Like do you do you secretly love sin and do the righteous deeds because out of a sense of duty

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Or do you desire to live a righteous life and to serve God? Let me ask you.

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How is how is your relationship with the Holy Spirit? He is a member of the

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Trinity that we enter into relationship with through Christ Have you have you experienced his leading?

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Do you seek out his leading? Do you seek out his illumination? Do you pray and ask for him to fill you

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Lord fill me with your spirit? Does this describe your life in the

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Holy Spirit? I'll leave it with this with this sentence. May we be a people maybe may we be a church plant

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That is filled with the Spirit of God for the glory of God Let's pray

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Father Thank you for your word or I pray that you would illuminate

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This word in in my heart in our hearts Lord I pray that you would fill us with the

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Holy Spirit or that we would love you and Serve you then we would bear the fruit of your spirit that we would

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Have one ambition one desire in all the world and That would be to to please you to obey you to glorify you and to live with you for all of eternity

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Lord help us to understand this help us to apply this and father Everything that I have said during this time that may have been unhelpful or a

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Hindrance in any way Lord. I pray that you would undo that and Lord that you continue to teach us by your spirit