Keep sharing good news without ads.
No description available
Good to see you all. It's good to be in the house of the Lord together this first day of the week to be able to worship and be able to come to this class,
Sunday school class. I don't know if you know this, but historically Sunday school classes were started to teach children from off the streets.
I think maybe it was really, really prevalent in England. They were children that were orphans.
They did not have the public school systems like we did in the church. Took it upon themselves to have a ministry to bring the children in and to teach them to read, write and things like that, but also to teach them about the
Lord and use it as a ministry. And of course it's carried on today and we have Sunday school to have all folks of all ages in the church to be able to come in and learn more about the
Lord so that we can grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why don't we go and ask our
God, our great God and King to teach us and to help us in prayer. If you join me as we pray.
Our Father in heaven, we do thank you and we do come to you in Jesus name and we would ask that in this short
Sunday school class that you would teach us that we might be able to, as we consider the scripture, be taught of our
God. We know that that ministry is the ministry of the Holy Spirit and we pray that our hearts would be opened, that our minds would be illuminated to the things of God, that we might just be so thrilled with your goodness to us in all the ways that you deal towards us.
How good you are and how faithful you have been even this past week to bring us to this point where once again the first day of the week we can gather and we can worship and we can praise and we can lift up our hearts to our great
God and King. We ask this in Jesus precious name. Amen. If you don't have a sheet, it's the same sheet as last week.
We're just going to continue. If you don't have one, I believe there are some. Or there were some that were passing, going around in there.
Are they over on the table? We're just going to continue. If you don't have one, I believe there are some. Or there were some that were passing, going around in there.
Are they over on the table? We see it's so prevalent that God is three in one, three persons, one
Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
I did some further digging around just so that I can kind of elaborate on where we went last week.
And I found this on the Master's College in Santa Clarita, California, their website.
This is from their doctrinal statement. This is what they teach the kids. And after I read it,
I said this is pretty good stuff. We teach that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, eternal, underrived, possessing all the attributes of personality and deity, including intellect, emotions, will, eternality, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, truthfulness.
Now, if you believe, as some do, that the Holy Spirit is just a force or a power or the
Holy Spirit is just kind of represents the presence of God, a force or a presence or a power doesn't have a will.
He doesn't have those things, those its.
They don't have the divine attributes of omnipotence or omnipresence.
They don't have emotions. You can't grieve a force. You can't grieve a power.
You can't grieve a presence. But you can, according to the New Testament, grieve the
Holy Spirit. Therefore, Holy Spirit is a person with these attributes. It goes on to say in all the divine attributes, he is co -equal and co -substantial with the
Father and the Son. We teach that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to execute the divine will with relation to all mankind.
We recognize his sovereignty in creation. How is it that the
Spirit of God is, according to the scripture, all I got to do is open up to the very first page and the very first couple of verses.
How is the Spirit of God involved in creation? Somebody tell me. Brian. Right. The Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters.
And when it says, you know, and then there's this activity of the Spirit of God. And Paul kind of takes and capitalizes on that or pulls that scripture back and uses it in 2
Corinthians chapter 4 when he talks about the recreation of the soul of the sinner being born from above.
He's saying just like God created back then, God recreates when it comes to our hearts and being born from above.
And we know that when it comes to being regenerated or born, you remember on the sheet, the first few, the conviction of sin, the illumination of God, the regeneration.
Just think of these things that we looked at last week to be to be convicted of sin, to be regenerated, to to be sealed, to be indwelt by, to be sanctified by, to be empowered by, by, by God.
Who is it alone that can do those things? Who is it that can do that? Who is it that can?
How is it that we're born again? We're born of God, right? The truth is revealed to us by who?
God. We're born by God. The truth is revealed by God.
We're indwelt by God. And then when the scripture goes and says that it is the spirit who indwells us, it is the spirit who teaches us.
John chapter 3, we are born of the spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
That which is born of the spirit is spirit, equating the spirit, of course, with God. One and the same, the spirit of God even has that name in the scripture as being called that the spirit of God.
This doctrinal statement goes on to say we recognize his sovereign activity in creation and incarnation, the written revelation and the work of salvation.
We teach the Holy Spirit is the supernatural and sovereign agent in regeneration. That's what we just talked about.
Also baptizing all believers into the body of Christ. First Corinthians chapter 12.
The Holy Spirit also indwells, sanctifies, instructs, empowers believers for service and seals them into the day of redemption.
Let me look at a couple more here. We teach the Holy Spirit administers spiritual gifts to the church.
And if we have time, we'll go there. First Corinthians 12. The Holy Spirit. Notice this one.
I brought this out last week and it's down at the bottom of the sheet, you remember, under the miscellaneous section, miscellaneous ministries.
And I didn't put them down there as that they're secondary. These are all great to look at.
But that one down there which says that the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus Christ. Listen to this sentence.
This is pretty neat. The Holy Spirit glorifies neither himself nor his gifts by ostentatious displays.
Get that again. The Holy Spirit does not glorify himself or his gifts by ostentatious displays.
But what does he do? Jesus Christ says in that verse that we that I put down there for you in John chapter 16 verse 14 that the
Spirit of God will not speak of him that I put down there for you in John chapter 16 verse 14 that the
Spirit of God will not speak of him. See, the Spirit of God will glorify me, not himself.
He will not put himself forward. That's why I believe that the churches who do have these ostentatious displays, these outward supposed demonstrations of the work of the
Spirit in their churches where there are manifestations, where there is speaking in tongues.
And really, when it comes to speaking in tongues, even if they were to do it, most of them don't do it properly.
If you study 1 Corinthians chapter 14, there is not the men doing it only.
It is not one at a time. And it is not with an interpreter. So it's not even done properly, decently in an order as it says in 1
Corinthians 14. But beside that, what happens is it goes askew.
It goes off the rails. And it gets showy and manifestations. And it's all about feelings.
It's all about getting pumped up for the moment. And it is all about the Spirit, where the
Spirit's ministry is all about Jesus Christ, just like our lives. The Spirit's ministry is about Christ.
Our life is to be Christ. And this goes on to say, he does glorify
Christ by implementing his work of redeeming the lost and building up believers in the most holy faith. And then lastly, they say here, we teach in this respect that God, the
Holy Spirit is sovereign in the bestowing of all his gifts for the perfecting of the saints today.
And that speaking in tongues and the working of the signs and the miracles in the beginning days of the church was for the purpose of pointing to and authenticating the apostles as revealers of divine truth and were never intended to be characteristic of the lives of believers.
So there is a wrong emphasis, I guess that's a good way to put it, in the ministry of the persons of the one
Godhead. And there we see that there is an overemphasis of these manifestations, these outward showy gifts of the
Spirit, whereas really when the Spirit of God is present in the church of God, the local
New Testament church, leading, teaching, instructing, there is an exaltation of Jesus Christ.
There is a lifting up of Christ. He is glorified. We are taught about Christ in the scripture by the
Spirit of God. And he is magnified. Well, another place where I did a little bit of study was in Grudem's Systematic Theology.
And it really kind of bolstered the thought, the truth that we just read there that the Holy Spirit is
God. And the way that he did it, we touched on some of these, but I just thought by way of review this would be very helpful to us.
He says that some have questioned whether the Holy Spirit is indeed a distinct person, rather than just the power or force of God at work in the world.
But the New Testament evidence is quite clear and strong. And he gives about four or five.
We'll only look at four of them real quickly. He says, first, first are the several verses mentioned where the
Holy Spirit is put in a coordinate relationship with the Father and Son. That sounds a little technical.
The Holy Spirit is put in a coordinate relationship with the Father and the Son. That would be verses where they're named together.
And where would one of those be? What we looked at last week. Does anybody remember the first one that we looked at?
It's in one of the Gospels. It begins with an M. It's not the first M.
I mean it is the first M. I'm sorry. It's not the second M. Okay, it's Matthew. Baptizing in the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Verses like that where the Spirit is put into that relationship.
And since the Father and the Son are both persons, the coordinate expression there strongly intimates that the
Holy Spirit is a person also. The Father is a person. The Son is a person. And therefore the
Holy Spirit is a person. And then another second argument he says here is, this is interesting and I used this last week but I didn't touch on it.
Look in John chapter 14 if you would. John chapter 14. If you're ever sitting beside me in church and somebody says turn to John chapter 14 and if I ask you, is that the
New Testament? I'm just kidding. I just thought I'd let you know that. Or if Pastor Mike says open to the
Psalms, we're going to read from the Psalms and I go like this and I go, what page is that on?
Is that the Old Testament? I'm just kidding. Sometimes I kid and I have a serious face.
John chapter 14 verse 26. But the Helper. And it's clarified who the
Helper is. The Comforter might be in your translation. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit.
So now we know who we're speaking about. Whom the Father will send in my name. The Father, just you see the
Trinity working here. The Father will send in Jesus' name the Helper, the Holy Spirit. He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said unto you.
What one word in that verse points to the fact that the
Holy Spirit is a person? He, right? That personal pronoun of He.
If it was a force, if it was a power, it would be an it. But here it says
He, notice in John chapter 15, 14 .26 and 15 .26, same thing.
John 15 .26. But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the
Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, very similar, He will bear witness about me.
He, again, personal pronoun. And it's really interesting because in the Greek grammar, the word for spirit or pneuma is neuter, which is not male nor female.
It's neuter. But it's interesting that a masculine pronoun is chosen, which is
He. And, of course, what that does for us is it's a term, that pronoun
He is a term which is commonly used to speak of a person who gives help or a person who gives comfort or counsel to another person.
And it is used of the Holy Spirit in John's gospel. Very, very interesting. Another point, we've looked at in these verses, we've seen the word parakletos or the counselor or the comforter or the helper.
And that is a term that is commonly used to speak of a person, not a thing, not a power, not a force.
Another interesting, and this is where the Sunday school class really is gone, these ministries of the
Spirit or these activities. Gruden speaks of the personal activities that are ascribed to the
Holy Spirit, such as teaching or bearing witness, which we just read there in John 15, 26, or interceding or praying on the behalf of believers or searching the depths of God or knowing the thoughts of God, willing to distribute gifts, forbidding or not allowing certain things to happen, speaking, evaluating and approving of things in the lives of the believer or church.
These are things that a person does. And if you think about those, again, teaching, knowing all things,
I mean, that's omniscience, knowing all things.
That's a divine attribute. That is not an attribute of a force or an it or something that's neuter.
It is a divine attribute. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is God. Let's just consider one of those.
In turn with me, if you would, to the book of Psalms about the one of the attributes of God.
Turn to the book of Psalms in Psalm 139. And I will just imagine that many of you will know this scripture and really hadn't thought of this nor put this together.
But it'll be interesting for you. And I hope a blessing for you this morning.
Psalm 139, a tremendous Psalm. Oh, Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know my when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and unacquainted with all my ways.
Even before the world, a word is in my tongue. Behold, oh, Lord, you know it all together.
This this missions of God. God knows what we're going to say before it's even spoken.
You have me in behind it before and lay your hand upon me. Speaking of God here, such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
It is high. I cannot attain it. Notice verse seven. Where shall
I go from your spirit? Where shall I go from your spirit or where shall
I flee from your presence? Notice the connection there between the spirit, God's spirit and God's presence.
The Holy Spirit is omnipresent. He's everywhere you cannot get away from.
If you could go someplace on the earth and be away from the spirit of God, he would not be God. But because you can't do that, he is
God. The Holy Spirit is God here. Something this is not true of any other creature.
You can leave this room and you are out of my presence. But you can't leave this room.
You can't go to the depths of the sea, the heights of the heavens and get out of the presence of the
Holy Spirit. Meaning it seems like David is equating God's spirit with God's presence here to go from God's spirit.
Grudem says this to go from God's spirit is to go from his presence. But if there is nowhere that David can flee from God's spirit, then he knows that wherever he goes, he will have to say you are there.
Just another proof to us that the spirit of God is God. Person.
Spirit of God is a person of the Godhead and he is God, very
God. We looked at last week, you remember who can pass the quiz from Acts chapter 5.
What took place in Acts chapter 5 that gave us an idea, showed us there that the Holy Spirit is
God. Anybody remember? Raise your hand. Bruce does. What happened in Acts 5,
Bruce? In Peter's announcement, it says first that they had lied to the
Holy Spirit. Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? And then
Peter comes and says with his declaration, you have not lied to men, but you have lied to God.
Equating them as being the Holy Spirit being God. If you remember, let's turn there in the first Corinthians chapter 2.
We looked here last week, but I think it'd be good for us to look once again. First Corinthians chapter 2.
We're just looking at some of these scriptures that show us that the Holy Spirit is fully God. And it's and it's so important, you know,
Grudem has had some questions at the end of his chapter. Let me ask you one, and maybe we can think about that as you're turning to first Corinthians chapter 2.
What about this question? In the past, has it been hard for you to think of the
Holy Spirit as a person rather than simply as a presence or force?
Just a thought. Maybe we thought of that before we were saved. I don't know. Maybe we just didn't even really think about the
Holy Spirit. Just a thought. Maybe we thought of that before we were saved. I don't know.
Maybe we just didn't even really think about the Holy Spirit. School classes. I'll just ask this question.
Is there anything that has helped you think more readily of the Holy Spirit as a person?
Is there anything that has come out that you've heard or possibly that you've thought about even since last week?
Anybody have a comment there? Yes, Peggy.
I really saw the word he come out out there like in John.
John uses it quite quite frequently. Yes. Spirit of God.
It's it's he in there. And that's that's good. Amen. Anybody else?
Something that has helped you to think and to see, maybe to clarify, to build upon the foundation of the truth that God has already revealed to you that the
Holy Spirit is fully God. It's easy for us to think of the Father as being a person and being fully
God, right? It's easy for us. And really, sometimes we almost think, you know, they have they have a name, the
Father, you know, Abba Father and the Son. Jesus, that's his name.
Christ is not his last name, as Pastor Mike says. It has to do with his title and his work as being the anointed one, the
Messiah. Jesus has a name, but spirit. And we don't we don't think of spirit as person because we think of spirit as as invisible or pneuma, you know, breath, wind in the
Greek spirit. But we need to come to the place and have an awareness even more so in this,
I believe, will will will permeate through your life as a believer. It will affect the way that you pray.
It will affect the way that you worship. It will affect the way that you you minister as you serve.
You will you will go if it is the spirit of God, the person, the third person of the Trinity that empowers the believer, then you will know that when you evangelize, when you go to evangelize, you will not be going.
You will not be going in your own strength when you have to when you call somebody up and say,
I'd like to come over and talk to you, whether the person's lost and you want to share the gospel with them or they're a believer and there's some issue that you want to deal with or just a fellowship to be able to do that.
You you must do it not in the flesh, but by the power of the spirit of God and your dependence is upon the spirit of God.
So this truth, what isn't it so so valid that what we believe affects the way that we live as Christians, right?
It affects the way that we live and what we think about and what we know about and what we what we conclude and what we determine the scriptures say concerning the person of the spirit of God will will have an effect.
And it ought to have a radical effect upon our lives. Well, in first Corinthians chapter two, it says in verse notice what it says in verse 10 and 11.
We cover these verses. I'll be go back to verse nine, but it is written. For the spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person who is in him.
So also no one comprehends. Notice this now. So also at the end of verse 11, no one comprehends the thoughts when your translation might say things, the things of God, the thoughts of the things of God, except the spirit of God.
What is that saying there at the end of verse 11? What does that say? What divine attribute is being attributed to the
Holy Spirit right there? Omniscience, all knowing the spirit of God knows the things of God knows the thoughts of God, unlike us.
And he is the one, according to this, this passage here, what's being told us here is the natural man can't understand it.
We need to be taught of God. And it is the spirit of God who knows the thoughts of God or is omniscient.
All knowing can is the one who can instruct us. What did Gruden say? Probably said it better than I did.
Let's see what he says here. He says, no one comprehends the thoughts of God or literally the things of God, except the spirit of God.
He didn't really get too much into that. I didn't do too bad there. All right. Then then the last one that that we have here, and we've already covered this.
You don't have to turn there. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John, chapter three, you must be what?
Born again or born anew. And then he talks about that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.
And he's talking there about being born again by the spirit of God. And this is interesting.
Let's see how he puts it. OK, but the work of this, how Gruden kind of explains this. But the work of giving new spiritual life to people when they become
Christians is something that only who can do. Who can do that?
Only God can do that. Right. And there in that verse, it says that where that it's the spirit of God.
And John and first John, I can't remember what chapter I'll bet you. I don't like to bet, but Pastor Pardeep, I mean, will probably knows what verse in first John talks about that.
We are born of God. Maybe you can tell us later, but there's a verse in there.
It says that we are born of God. And here in John three, it says that we're born of the spirit.
And we have that that connection again. It's the work of God, the Holy Spirit and the life of the believer.
OK, so that's kind of like a longer background as far as we revisiting some of these things.
As far as this, this idea of this doctrinal truth that the spirit of God is fully
God. And we did talk about some activities of the or the ministries of God. Did anybody have any questions on anything that we've covered last week or this week?
Any questions so far or maybe some verse that you that you have seen since we had the class last week?
Any at all? Yes. Are there any places in the scriptures that talk about worshipping the
Holy Spirit? They don't come to my mind readily, but because he is
God, there is there. There isn't anything wrong with doing it as long as we have the right emphasis and it's not an over emphasis on the spirit.
And those manifestations and it is a it is a pointing to Christ and a worshipping of of him.
God, the father and our and our great our great God now. And I know that there are some really good songs.
As a matter of fact, on the way in this morning, we were listening to some hymns. And there are some good songs that that will put us in the right frame of thinking, because as we're praying, it is.
Let's say it's OK to pray to the father in the name of Jesus Christ by the power of the spirit of God.
We recognize that it's the spirit of God that's assisting and enabling and empowering us to do all that we do for obedience, obedience to the
Lord. And there are songs like Breathe on me, breath of God, you know, fill me with life anew.
And I don't think it's I don't think it's wrong. It just shouldn't be our over emphasis to be going there, to to to be placing that emphasis on the spirit of God, because even even in our praying, we need to be careful who we're how we're praying, because sometimes when we pray, we're praying to the father and saying, you know, things that maybe were attributed to the work of Jesus Christ.
And we can kind of get muddled up and get kind of confused, confused or might confuse other people.
But I don't think it would be wrong. It's and it's certainly not wrong to worship our thrice holy
God. Anybody else have another thought on that question?
Because he is trying to say that she says the spirit involves us, but God does, too, because his name is
God with us. So are some of them interchangeable because he is trying? Well, they're not interchangeable.
We're not indwelt by the father. We're not indwelt by Christ, Jesus, the son. We're indwelt by the spirit of God.
But is the whole mystery. It's like, how is it that you can't separate them?
We're indwelt by God, but in the person of the Holy Spirit, just like we weren't.
The father didn't die on the cross for us. Jesus, the son did. But we know that the father is
God. The son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. And they together had purpose to save us.
And the work would be done by Jesus. But it was the will of God. And we're not we're not ever going to be able to get our minds wrapped around all of it, even trying to.
We do we do pretty bad poorly when we try to even explain the Trinity to other people and have them understand what it means.
But we believe we believe it. OK, let's look at the sheet.
Let's see what where we can we go in the time that we have left. We've covered the top half. Maybe let's get down to some of the verses that we haven't looked at.
How about how about Ephesians chapter three?
Since you're in Corinthians, Ephesians chapter three. Notice this is the in the miscellaneous ministries down the bottom, the very last one in the first section there.
Ephesians 316, where the scripture says that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being.
There's there's a statement here that God strengthens us with his power through the spirit.
So the spirit of God is doing this work in our inner being or in our inner man.
And here the Bible speaks of the fact that that we are as we as we submit to God and as we read
God's word and we submit to the to the word of God. There is a spiritual power that is exhibited in the life of the believer.
The outward man, our body is getting weaker and weaker and weaker as the years go on.
And you might be in your 20s and you might be in your 30s and you're doing just fine. But wait, there are things that happen as we get older and some of us are wearing glasses.
Some of us, our glasses are not just single focal, but they're trifocal. I mean, there's things in our mouth, mouths to hold our teeth in the mouth or to make teeth there.
And eyesight and so forth, all legs, bones, muscles, the outward man is perishing.
It's like a tent that is decaying in the in the desert sun and holes and rips.
The body is decaying, but we are renewed in the inner man. And that work is done by the spirit of God.
That's encouraging to me because I know that I am frail and weak on the outside, but on the inside.
So so as a Christian grows in his in his life, physically, we grow weaker.
But spiritually, we're growing and ought to be growing stronger. And that's by the work of the spirit of God.
And that is a that is a true blessing to us as we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, as we're strengthened by the by the spirit of God, using the word of God for us to combat and mortify the flesh, to combat sin, to be able to go in the spirit of God.
And and let's let's do this. There's a there's a great question. And I want to ask it of you.
Maybe you could see who somebody else is bold enough to be able to answer this. Have you ever been especially aware of the
Holy Spirit's empowering in a specific situation of ministry or in a way that you've ministered?
Have you ever been aware of the Holy Spirit empowering you?
And he says it could be evangelism, counseling, Bible teaching or preaching or prayer or worship or in some other situation ring you.
And he says it could be evangelism, counseling, Bible teaching or preaching or prayer or worship or in some other situation.
But you want to take a stab at that, Bruce. So so when evangelism evangelizing and you're speaking the truth to somebody and you want to say the right thing.
And isn't it interesting when you're when you're speaking to someone and you never intended to use a certain scripture or go in a certain direction that that you are prompted, so to speak.
You are the spirit of God brings the scripture to memory direction to somebody.
And it's evident that it is powerful in that person's life because they are convicted.
Maybe they are stopped in their tracks. His one, you know, the spirit of God is working when you're teaching
Sunday school class or preaching a message and you just make some quote of some remote verse.
And it's like way off. It is a tangent or some rabbit trail that you were on. And you've just laid out this great outline of four points or five points in the message.
And you're going down through them. And somebody comes up to you after and said, wow, that verse one way or the other.
That was just so good for me this morning. That's the spirit of God evident in the life of that person, because that's what that person needed.
Interesting, isn't it? Interesting how the spirit of God moves. Now, again, in control, not with with showiness.
I'm not talking about that in our lives or in the church, not talking about weird stuff. You know, we're we're led by the spirit of God.
It's quite evident we're not we're not led by. I think I put I put that note.
I think I jotted down something someplace. It's trouble with my notes. Yes, we're not led by the casting of lots, throwing of dice.
We're not led by digital alarm clocks. You've heard me say this one before. A woman was deciding whether or not she should go someplace.
And she woke up in the morning and looked at her digital alarm clock in it. And she didn't want to know if she should fly, go someplace.
And our digital alarm clock said 747. And she said, that's I know that I should fly.
We we kind of giggle. But some people live that way. And it's sad. Some people live that way.
We ought not to live that way with these little quirky mystical nuances and and and strange things.
And I was reading in Friesen's book, Decision Making in the Will of God. And he spoke of a situation just like that.
And he said that if that woman had woken up and look at the alarm clock and if it had said
DC 10, then she would know that God was trying to tell her something. Now, for those of you that are still asleep, that can't happen on an alarm clock.
You don't have letters, right? But we're led we're led by the spirit of God, not in bizarre ways or sensational ways.
But we're led by the spirit of God as we read the word of God. Right. And we we see that these are things.
This is the truth that we're to obey. And we submit to the word of God. And and as we're as we're going along,
I mean, there are times, I'm sure, when you're going along through your life and somebody's path of their life crosses the path of your life.
That's not an accident. That's not luck. That's not chance. God is orchestrating all things.
And the spirit of God is involved in leading us where we're going and orchestrating things in the lives of other people.
When Philip came across the Ethiopian eunuch, it was well, he didn't just come across.
He was sent there by God, dispatched by God to go to to be there with the
Ethiopian eunuch. If you look at Acts chapter 13, it says in that in that verse that it was the spirit of God picked out people in the church at that time to go on the missionary journeys.
The leadership, the leaders in the church were picked, but the spirit of God picked out the men that should go.
If you look in, well, look in Acts chapter 15, verse 28, Acts 15. I know
I'm all over the place, but we only have eight minutes left or so. Just fill it in. Get as much in as we can.
Acts 15, 28. Just in the working of the of the movement of the church and what's going on and the decisions that are that are being made.
In Acts 15, 28, it says, for it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements.
And this is the this is the council in the church when they're deciding what to do to the with the Gentiles. And it says here that it seems good to the
Holy Spirit and to to us with the decisions that they had come to in the church there in that council.
The spirit of God is evaluating and approving of a wise action or counsel.
And I believe that that can take place in our lives, too. As as as we read the word of God and we we are going to try to make a wise decision and we pray about it and we're seeking
God to be led by God. And we we go to do something if we do it according to the will of God and with wisdom and with with pre thought out determination.
We've asked people about it and it pleases the Lord and he approves of that. But if we have a knee jerk reactions in our lives and it's the the 747s on the alarm clocks and these strange things or we do it in our own power or with our own wisdom, then it grieves the spirit of God and he doesn't approve of that.
Just like here. Let me give you another example. Acts 16. Acts 16.
Does the spirit of God direct when it comes to ministry? Well, here we see in Acts chapter 16, the
Macedonian call says in Acts 16, verse six, and they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia.
Notice this having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.
They had a desire to go there, but the spirit of God forbade them or did not allow them to go.
And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them.
So here they're trying to go in one direction. Stop trying to go another direction. Stop. And then there is that vision, that dream of the
Macedonian call. And Paul ends up going over to Philippi. So there is a, and that's on your sheets down the bottom, the call to ministry.
We just looked at Acts 13. If you want the verses to write beside that, put 1528, where he evaluates and approves counsel, and Acts 16 .6,
where he directs or chooses the field of operation when it comes to ministries.
And that's why it's important for us to be led of the spirit, even as a church.
All right. Let me just use a couple of more questions, because I think it would be good for you to think this way.
And we can conclude with this. Let's see which question.
Maybe I didn't give people enough time to answer that question. I kind of went off. But, you know, the idea of perceiving the presence of the
Holy Spirit in our ministry or in our lives. Any other thoughts along those lines?
Yes, Becky. I think we can see it in our children, too. Because we just, like some random things that we're riding in the car and talk about something, or Pete is with me in IBS class or something.
Afterwards, it'll just be, he'll come up with something. It's just so profound or something. Maybe it's just my...
Yeah, in our children and out of the mouth of babes is the glory is brought to the
Lord and they'll say things. And, of course, as parents, we want to have times when we spend with our children to teach them.
We want to give them materials, Bibles, CDs, whatever to help teach them.
Things that will be good resources for them. We have great plans, but ultimately, as a parent, isn't our complete dependence upon God, the
Holy Spirit, to arrest our children's hearts, to open them like he did Lydia's, to save them and to reveal
Christ to them so that they bow the knee to Christ and they call upon the name of the
Lord to be saved. And like with anybody that we're speaking to, it must be of God. It can only be of God.
Casey, I see that hand. Well, I see, I find in evangelistic opportunities where,
I guess I call it what social or fleshly fears melt away of approaching some gangbangers or even worse, a
Harvard professor, and you don't want to do it and you feel like fearful and then that just melts away and you...
Absolutely. Casey said that when we're evangelizing, we have to approach maybe a hardened criminal or an educated
Harvard professor and we're fearful. It melts away. We know that the
Spirit of God gives us an assurance that we're the children of God and we're doing this under the commission of God, the authority of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Interesting. Going in all the world and make these disciples, teaching the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now, whoever spoke that, spoke that knowing that that's the truth of God.
Who spoke that? Who spoke those words? The Lord Jesus, didn't he? And he speaks directly of the
Holy Spirit and puts him right there with the Father as a person, the Son as a person, the Holy Spirit as a person.
Very, very, very neat. Okay, one last question here. Do you have a sense from time to time of the pleasure or displeasure of the
Holy Spirit at some course of action that you're taking? Do you ever have a sense of the pleasure or displeasure of the
Holy Spirit as you're taking some course of action? Maybe that's just food for thought for us as we examine our lives as believers.
We've been called to be a holy people and we are taught by the Holy Spirit to be a holy people.
And if we're not, then it grieves the Spirit of God. Ephesians chapter 4, there's a verse in there I believe that speaks to that.
And the second follow -up part of this is, is there anything in your life right now that is grieving the Holy Spirit?
Of course, for us to know that, we would have to examine ourselves in prayer and seek God. And it's something that we ought to be doing constantly, right?
Examining ourselves. Am I grieving God by thinking this way, acting this way, dealing with other people this way, having my ministry this way, the outbursts, just the thought life.
Am I grieving the Holy Spirit? And then lastly, what do you plan to do about it? God help us to be a people who not only understand that the
Spirit of God is fully God, He. His ministry,
Grudem says, is the work of the Holy Spirit is to manifest the active presence of God in the world.
And especially in the church. To manifest the presence of God. How thankful we ought to be that God has taught us this, concerning who the
Spirit of God is and His ministries in our lives. We still didn't get to all of them, but I don't think there will be a part 3 of this
Sunday School class. You can take those and look at those on your own. Shall we pray? Father in Heaven, thank you again for revealing truth to us, how kind you are.
You've given us your word, which is established and settled forever. It is not to be tampered with, not to be misapplied, not to be taken out of context.
We trust that as we looked at it today, that it would be helpful for us to know who the
Holy Spirit of God is and all of His divine attributes and activities, especially in the life of the believer.
Yes, He saves the lost, He opens their hearts, He regenerates them, but we who are the people of God, Christians here in this room this morning, we are thankful that we have the ever -present presence of the
Spirit of God and the ministry and teaching and leading and guarding and convicting and illuminating and directing and giving gifts as far as men and leadership in the church and the spiritual gifts to believers and so on, how blessed we are.
And we would just lift up our hearts in praise this morning to our thrice -holy
God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name, amen.