What If The Holy Spirit Left BBC?

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Well, it is great to be back here in Massachusetts after the two -week trip to Germany and Switzerland I like waking up in the morning someplace else thinking.
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Where do I preach today? What country am I in? But I'd love to preach to you more than I love to preach anywhere else.
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I love you dearly I love it that you love God's Word and It is a joy to stand up here and preach
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Like a dying man unto dying men Well just a quick update on the Germany trip the
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Lord really blessed. Thank you for your prayers I taught about 28 hours on 1st Corinthians, and you say did you finish it all
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I tried, but I could not finish I Covered chapter every verse in chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 half a chapter 10 all of 11 all of 12 quickly run through chapter 13 you get that at marriages anyway, and then 14 and then we were done
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But that was about 28 hours of teaching the students wanted to know the Word of God one man came up to me the very first night and This is an old
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East Germany place so many Russians And so we had a German translator and a Russian translator in the back this
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Russian man named Igor came up to me And he said when will you speak on 1st Corinthians 7?
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And I said You know three weeks. No. I didn't say that I could tell there was an earnestness in his face.
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I Said I'm guessing maybe in two or three nights And then he grabbed me by the arm, and he said it's life and death to me first Corinthians chapter 7 and he was a divorced man you want to know what the
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Bible says about divorce and remarriage and biblical remarriage and After I taught it on Tuesday night.
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He came up, and he was so happy you could see how the Word of God liberates from error right doctrine from the
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Word shows what we should believe in and what we shouldn't believe in and He was a really kind of a tough hockey player kind of guy, but he brought me this little
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Bible bookmark that says Jesus is love and he said I I bought this for you for teaching me the
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Bible I Said I'm not gonna forget about you Igor I'm gonna tell the people back in Massachusetts about Igor who was changed by the
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Word of God And so thank you for letting me go I have no more travel plans except summer holiday, and it's great to be back preaching to you
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Bethlehem Bible Church Make sure we continue to pray for the ministry over there in Germany and Switzerland Lord is doing amazing things as men learn the
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Bible and then want to teach others. It's amazing. It's not that hard is it? Learn what you can about the word teach it to everybody you know and have them teach the next generation
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And our message is always the text what does God say well when I was in Germany lots of people asked me questions
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I got questions about head coverings about speaking in tongues about 1st Corinthians chapter 13 10
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What is the perfect tell me about spiritual man natural man all these questions? But many of the questions were regarding the ministry of the
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Holy Spirit Who is the Holy Spirit? What does the Holy Spirit do do we believe in the
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Holy Spirit? And so I'm going to ask you that question this morning if the
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Holy Spirit the third person of the Trinity left Bethlehem Bible Church after this sermon
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What would happen? If the Holy Spirit left our church, it's a hypothetical But I'm going to use it as a teaching tool so we can see all the ministries of the
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Holy Spirit in our church But what if the Holy Spirit left? Would everything go on just as it's going on now that would be my nightmare nothing changes
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Preaching ministry Awana. I guess the snow plowing could change, you know can say the same
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But what would change if the Spirit of God left today? Positively, how much does a local church rely on the
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Holy Spirit? So we won't be in Matthew chapter 6 today. We'll be looking at this question What would happen here at Bethlehem Bible Church if the
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Holy Spirit left after this sermon? Well to start I want you to know that the
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Holy Spirit before we even get into the text He is a person the Holy Spirit has an intellect if you want to just jot this reference down We'll get there a little bit later
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Romans chapter 8 a text talks about the mind of the Spirit The Spirit has an intellect the
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Spirit has a mind and certainly no force has intellect or mind This is not some kind of force or invisible kind of current running through like electricity the
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Spirit of God God himself the third person the Trinity has a mind. He has an intellect
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Furthermore, he has emotions that can be grieved Paul says to the church at Ephesus. Don't what grieve the
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Holy Spirit? It's kind of hard to grieve a force or some kind of influence Not just mind and emotions
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But he also has a will first Corinthians 12 talks about how he gives spiritual gifts
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Individually just as he wills by his own determination the Spirit gives gifts
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Sovereignly with deliberation so the Spirit of God. He is a person he has a mind.
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He has emotions. He has a will furthermore And let me have you turn to John chapter 16 for a moment
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John chapter 16 The Spirit of God when talked about in the Bible Shows forth himself as a person even with a little bit of grammar.
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I don't know if you like grammar very well I like to tell young men who want to learn the Bible first thing you need to do is go take an
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English grammar class Because grammar is very important the word for spirit as you're turning to John chapter 16 the word for spirit
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Pneuma wind it's neuter. It's not male It's not female, and if you don't know what neuter is may
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I speak New Englandese. It's nuda right It's right in the middle by the way. I don't know what to do without a translator
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I am so used to preaching and then waiting preaching and waiting and So we're just gonna let her rip today.
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I just feel like almost taking this coat off. We're going today Spirit isn't male or female in terms of grammar
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It's neuter and so if you would just say I'd like to to not say the
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Holy Spirit I'd like to place a personal pronoun in place of the Holy Spirit. You wouldn't put pick itself you would pick
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Himself or he take a look at the masculine pronoun John 1613 this goes against all grammar, but the
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Spirit of God he is a person therefore We have a masculine pronoun with the neuter noun verse 14 of chapter 16
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He will glorify me for he will take of mine, and we'll disclose it to you
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So we're talking about the Spirit of God verse 13 shows us, but when he the spirit of truth comes
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What's my point my point is so far just to give an introduction that the Spirit of God the third person the
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Trinity is a person He has a mind intellect emotions and he is by definition in the
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Bible used as Masculine for he he is a person the
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Spirit of God we could study for a long time in this church about how he is Omniscient he knows everything he's never learned anything how he is omnipotent.
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He has divine power He created the world he is eternal.
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He is holy matter of fact We call him not just the spirit, but most of time we call him the Holy Spirit But many people think you know we don't believe in speaking in tongues
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We don't believe in healings and miracles and all these crusades at Bethlehem Bible Church So therefore we don't believe in the spirit you won't hear about the spirit of the church
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And so I thought it would be good to talk about the Spirit of God at Bethlehem Bible Church Let's go to first Corinthians chapter 12.
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Please as we talk about the Spirit of God who is he and what does he do?
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How could you find a spirit -filled church in other words? We've had people here in the last two years leave this church after 30 minutes of the service
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Saying the Spirit of God is not here, and they've left the church right in the middle of the service
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What do they mean by that? I don't know But I'd like to teach you here at Bethlehem Bible Church who the
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Spirit is and what he does so you'll be thankful to God the Father for the Spirit And you'll realize in fact do we rely upon the
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Spirit for corporate worship and everything else now first Corinthians chapter 12
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Paul is dealing with this carnal church Paul is trying to set the record straight
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How do you deal with weaker Christians chapter 8 9 and 10? How do you deal with proper worship services in chapter 11 with?
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Head coverings and with the Lord's Supper and now he says you've got another problem in your worship services
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It's found in chapter 13 12 13 and 14 and he says
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I'm gonna talk a little bit in chapter 12 Paul says about how the Spirit of God Controls people how could you tell if somebody's?
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Indwelled by the Spirit of God. How could you tell if there's a church? That's run by the Spirit and These Corinthians were doing everything wrongly matter of fact
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What was most likely happening is as they would go to these pagan altars for worship? Some demon would take control of them
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And they'd have these ecstatic experiences, and now they've are saved by the grace of God And they're bringing these kind of weird trance
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Ecstatic experiences into the church saying see this is what spirit controlled is Demon control looks like this and just with a little tweaking here their spirit control looks like this and Paul has to correct them
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Don't be like you used to be deceived by these speechless idols So he says in chapter 12 verse 1
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Now concerning spiritual gifts he goes on to this next topic now concerning spiritual gifts brethren
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You can hear the pastoral tone. It's a sensitive topic. I do not want you to be unaware
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They were unaware they were ignorant They were doing things the wrong way and so Paul now wants to write and correct them.
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How do you use spiritual gifts? properly What I alluded to just a minute ago He says in verse 2 you know that when you were pagans you were led astray to the dumb idols
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However, you were led All these ecstatic
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Frenzies led by not just a piece of wood But the demon behind the piece of wood was making you act like some kind of raving lunatic
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We're being controlled by these idols And by the way the text shows in the original it's a repeated thing
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Paul is saying don't mimic what was going on in these weird Pagan places in the local church don't do that It's too bizarre.
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It's too wrong, and I don't want you to be unaware either
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How can you tell the Holy Spirit is working in a local church is it healing services is it tongues is it?
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Miraculous things is it casting out demons. How do you know? Do some churches look more like Corinth when it comes to the
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Holy Spirit than Jerusalem What does the Holy Spirit do today?
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Should we be satisfied with what the Spirit does today lots and lots of questions matter of fact when
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I studied first Corinthians Paul asked questions all the time It's a good way to get people to think if the
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Holy Spirit left Bethlehem Bible Church Let me give you the first thing that would happen number one Jesus Christ would recede into the background and you would never hear about Jesus anymore
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Jesus would recede in the background and either he would not be talked about or the Holy Spirit himself would be the focus
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Let's look at verse 3 even as we are continuing in our passage in 1st Corinthians chapter 12
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Show me a spirit -controlled person and I'll show you someone that points to Christ because that's exactly what the
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Holy Spirit does If I had a big curtain up here the old the church in Germany had a big curtain under the cross
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So I hid behind that Curtain, I don't want to do a bunch of prop stuff and you know wear sunglasses in the pulpit and all that But there was a curtain there.
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It was a conference So I hid behind the curtain and I put my arm out like this and I began to point to the cross
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So that's what the Holy Spirit does you can tell the Holy Spirit's working when their focus is not upon himself
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But upon the cross Jesus Christ and here even in the life of an individual verse 3
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Therefore I make known to you You didn't know now I'm going to tell you that no one speaking by the
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Spirit of God says Jesus is accursed And no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the
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Holy Spirit now Some people think that was a hypothetical thing Nobody's really saying Jesus is damned by the
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Spirit's control others say maybe some Jews were saying it maybe some Gnostics were saying it Who knows?
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But what's true is that the Spirit of God tells people that Jesus is
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Lord And then those people bear witness of that very thing if the Spirit of God dwells in you you
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Joyfully confess I submit to Jesus Christ as Lord a wonderful scholar
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Gordon Fee who happens to be a conservative charismatic said this the ultimate criterion of the
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Spirit's activity is The exaltation of Jesus as Lord Whatever takes away from that even if they be legitimate expressions of the
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Spirit Begins to move away from Christ to a more pagan fascination with spiritual activity as an end in itself
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In other words show me a place where the Spirit of God is living and active and working
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I'll show you a place where Jesus Christ is put front and center Let's go to John chapter 15, and I think this is even more explicit
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John chapter 15 when the Spirit of God comes he points to Jesus I find it fascinating that some churches who think we have not the
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Spirit are Churches that focus on the Holy Spirit, and they do exactly the opposite of the Bible show me a church that focuses on the
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Spirit I'll show you a church. That's not Holy Spirit filled because Holy Spirit filled churches point to Jesus verse 26 of chapter 15
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Jesus has already said I'm gonna send you another comforter. Just like me I'm going to go in chapter 14, but someone just like me is going to testify what
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I testify to And testify to who I am And then he says in chapter 15 verse 26
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When the helper comes Spirit of God whom I will send to you from the Father That is the
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Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father He the Holy Spirit this person the second person of the
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Trinity a Person second person the Trinity who by definition is God and who could say
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I want to receive worship But has submitted in the eternal workings of the
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Trinity says no I'm not going to receive worship even though I'm do worship. I'm going to point to Jesus.
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He will testify about who Me Jesus and It'll go on to and you will testify also because you have been with me from the beginning
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Jesus Christ is pointed to by the Holy Spirit. That's the Spirit of God's privilege
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Let me push the envelope a little bit. Could you find me one verse in the Bible? That talks about the
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Spirit of God receiving praise. I Think you'd find that very difficult now we may sing praise
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God from whom all blessings flow praise Father Son and Holy Spirit and by Theology since the
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Holy Spirit is God. He should receive worship. Here's my question though. How often
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Does the Spirit of God receive praise in the Bible? You can study that on your own
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But I don't think you'll find very many instances of that case the Father Son and the Spirit all one
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God all Co -equal yet. There are there's functional There there there are there's a subordination
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Just like when Jesus cloaked himself with humanity. He was just equal with God, but he cloaked himself with humanity
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So the same thing with the Holy Spirit he deserves worship He is God, but you see the
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Spirit of God pointing to Jesus show me somebody that says I love the Holy Spirit He rules my life.
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He fills my life. I'll show you someone that says Jesus is Lord Number two if the
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Holy Spirit left Bethlehem Bible Church, what would happen? First of all, nobody would ever talk about Jesus Second of all every one of you that saved would lose your salvation
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If he left at the end of the service all our salvation is lost. Let's turn to Ephesians chapter 1
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We didn't save ourselves the Spirit of God saved us Jesus saved us the Father saved us and if we lose the
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Spirit of God, we all lose our salvation Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13 and 14
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I'm very glad we have the Holy Spirit and he's not going to leave us because we would be undone
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Spirit of God Triune God himself saves us.
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It's by his work and we respond certainly in faith We're not saved because of faith We're saved through faith and you see what happens here with the
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Spirit of God how he seals us to the day of redemption Great passage in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13 and 14 if you back up to verse 3 of the same chapter
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You see the start of the sentence verse 3 through verse 14 is all one
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Greek sentence There are some periods in the English, but it's one Greek sentence over 200 words and there's no main verb
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How'd you like to write that way in English class? Sprechen ze English. Oh When I was in in Germany, I can't speak
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German and so some of you already know that and so I don't even try you know, I can You know, maybe order a cheeseburger at McDonald's that's about all
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I can do and buy a S bond ticket But I got to know the students and I said now listen, you can ask any question you want.
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There are no dumb questions And so I have a little Hogan's Heroes German that's about it.
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And so no is nine Stupid I could only come up with doom cough and I know
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I know questions is froggen And so there's nine doom cough froggen and they laughed probably not at what
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I said, but how I said it Ephesians 1 verses 3 to 14 is one sentence and the main verb is implied and the main verb is be
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That's the implied word blessed be in verse 3 This God the father of our
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Lord Jesus Christ is to be blessed everything in this section is about praising God and it's a
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Trinitarian kind of praise verses 4 to 6 we praise the father because he chose in eternity past We praise the son verses 7 to 12 because he died sacrificially and Caused us to have redemption forgiveness of sins and then there's praise to the father
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For the work of the Spirit verse 13 and 14, and this is the Spirit's sealing ministry
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And so we're to praise the father to speak well of him to eulogize him to extol him because he has given
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The Spirit of God to seal us take a look at verse 13 In him you also after listening to the message of truth the gospel of your salvation
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Having also believed you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise
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Seal means something was done to us. It's a passive verb. We are not active in the sealing. We don't seal ourselves
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We didn't save ourselves. We didn't grant ourselves Repentance we didn't grant ourself faith. We didn't grant our self conviction of sin.
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We were saved It was done to us salvation from front to finish Beginning to end is all of God's work and here the triune
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God then seals us to the day of Redemption when I think of seal, what do what do
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I think of? hermetically sealed Seals on a letterhead.
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I'll tell you what they thought of when they thought of sealing three quick things number one inaccessibility
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Inaccessibility if something was sealed you had no access to it And that's one of the nuances here in Ephesians Daniel thrown into the lion's den
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Daniel chapter 6 and a stone was brought and laid over the mouth of the den and the king
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Sealed it with his own signet ring Can't get in Prevent access and you can quickly begin to think you know
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God seals us and there's no access for anyone else to get in Satan and sin and the hordes of demons and all these others were sealed.
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Nobody can have access to us in our eternal salvation Pilate was asked by the chief priests and the
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Pharisees to seal Jesus's tomb So the disciples couldn't steal the corpse and then say he was resurrected
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So they set a seal on the stone Matthew 27 Keep the intruders out
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Luther has the idea can't get back from Germany without quoting Luther God's decree of predestination is firm and certain and the necessity resulting from it is in like manner
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Immovable and cannot but take place for we ourselves are so feeble that if the matter were left in our hands
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Very few or rather none would be saved but Satan would overcome us all
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God says I'm not going to let Satan steal your salvation I'm going to seal you with the Spirit of God not only in accessibility
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But also ownership when you see in verse 13 you were sealed in him. It also talks about ownership
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I grew up in Nebraska. We try to work on farms and one thing I noticed about all the cows in this particular
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Farm in northern Nebraska's they all had something on the side of them the cowhide all had the same imprint
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What was that? Well, you don't know because you weren't there, but it was some kind of brand
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It was some kind of the hot stick into the fire and then the side of the cow You can almost smell that hair burn.
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Can't you I? can't
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Worshippers of Dionysius had a sign which was the ivy leaf burned on them
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To say I'm I'm owned by that God Dionysius the burned ivy is on here so everyone knows and here the seal says nobody can touch you because of the work of the
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Spirit and Also, it does something else. It shows that we are owned by God as False worship has some kind of stigmata here the real
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Ministry of the Holy Spirit seals us not with some kind of external branding. We'll see in a minute He himself is the seal but also protection implied in in accessibility
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Protection in him you were also sealed read Ezekiel 9 sometime and you'll see where there's a seal on someone protected from the angel of death
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Christian because of the Spirit's ministry you are marked you are marked men and women you are kept intact
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You are kept safe You are preserved forever psalm 37. We hear the words of our
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Savior and to Hebrews 13 I will never desert you and I will never forsake you and look at the language is wonderful verse 13
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You were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise Characterized by keeping his promise always faithful and the word order is emphatic of Promise the
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Holy Spirit is the one whose promises and he will keep true to his word verse 14 who the
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Holy Spirit is given as a pledge of our inheritance an earnest a
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Downpayment if the Holy Spirit leaves us as individuals as a body we have no more down payment.
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We have no more divine IOU we have no more guarantee for our future glory in heaven and as a spirits
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Ministry the text says in Ephesians 1 with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of his glory
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He's like a pledge saying this business transaction that started will be completed when
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God saves He will complete that and without the Spirit of God. You have to be worried about keeping yourself saved.
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How dreadful would that be? If we could lose our salvation We were lost at a long time, but the future promise of an unchangeable
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God who never lies So if the Holy Spirit leaves our church, we lose our salvation everyone
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God the Holy Spirit can't lose a Christian It'd be worse for him than it would be for us because then he would be no longer
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God because his promises would be null and It helps us to as a church because we have boldness
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We can't lose our salvation Latimer said before he was burned when I live in a settled and steadfast assurance about the state of my soul
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Me thinks then I am bold as a lion. I could laugh at all the trouble No affliction daunts me, but when
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I am eclipsed in my comforts, I am a fearful in spirit But I could so run into a very mouse hole
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We have the pledge of the Spirit better days are coming it's good now on earth, but there's going to be great salvation waiting for us
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Number three, what would happen to Bethlehem Bible Church if the Spirit left? Well, the first thing is
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Jesus would recede in the background like some Christmas toy on day six after Christmas Number two every one of you who saved would lose their salvation
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Number three, no one would ever get saved. No one would ever get saved.
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Let's turn to Titus chapter 3 I believe in the Holy Spirit and I believe the Holy Spirit points to Jesus Seals our day of redemption and also saves people nobody ever saves themselves
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The triune God saves certainly but Titus chapter 3. We must not forget that the
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Spirit of God's ministry is also one of Salvation Titus chapter 3 verse 5.
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We looked at this passage a little bit several months ago in the election series November 4th series
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Titus 3 5 He saved us those are the three main words everything hangs on that then he explains this salvation
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Not on the basis of deeds, which we have done in righteousness God saved us not because of baptism not because of contrition not because of penance not because of last rites not because of how good
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We were not because we earned it not because we gave not because we took the Lord's Supper. Nothing we did Had one man say, you know you get saved by big by getting baptized
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Said really then you have to do that and then that's a work and if you do it with your heart
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Corrupt because of your own sin and because of the fall than anything you do you have blood in your hands How can you do something good for God with you got when you have a bad heart and he said well
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No, you don't do it You don't understand when you get baptized you don't do anything because the person holding you who does the baptism
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He does the work and this person is passive. The other the pastor is active Well, it's not that person's work and it's not the pastor's work either
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Can you imagine if you got saved by the work of me? You weren't supposed to laugh
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They don't laugh in Germany if you have a loved one spouse children
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Friend at work, of course, you have the privilege and the command to give them the gospel.
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Yes It is a privilege and it's a command but without the Holy Spirit They're not going to get saved no matter how many times you put little tracks in between their sandwich bread
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Before they go to work Don't do that. By the way, that's just annoying No matter how many times you pressure them to go to church on Christmas and Easter If it's not for the
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Spirit's work, no one gets saved and you see the text verse 5 but according to his mercy and look at the vehicle look at the instrument by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing by the
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Holy Spirit don't miss that God saved us
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Of course the father choosing in eternity past Of course Jesus dying a substitutionary death at Calvary for the sake not of his own sin
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But for other sinners risen from the dead in victory, but also by the spirits applying that work of Christ By the washing and regeneration and renewing of the
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Holy Spirit if you'll take a look at that passage It's very interesting speaking of grammar we have done but according to His mercy guess which one is more emphatic in the original as the pronouns we and his stand in opposite They're intentionally misplaced in the
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Greek language. So we all say it's not we it's not us. It's not what we did It's according to his mercy.
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I Love the story by Ironside and I like to tell it a lot it's the person who got up in the baptismal font and gave the testimony and a bunch of the old elders didn't like the
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Testimony because this person just said it's all by God's grace. Jesus did it all I was not looking.
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I was not searching I was not finding I wasn't good. He did everything. He saved me. He's given me new life and made me born again
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It was by his cross only nothing else And the elders chastened him and said you seem to indicate that God did everything when he saved you
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Didn't you do your part before God did his? the new
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Christian was fairly Cognizant of God's total salvation.
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Oh Yes, I did For more than 30 years. I ran away from God as fast as my sins could carry me.
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That was my part But God took out after me and ran me down that was his part
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God the Holy Spirit implants new life in a Christian God the
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Holy Spirit Renews in quality and kind the person's life in verse 6 says whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our
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Savior No hope for your spouse if they're not saved no hope for your children.
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No hope for your friends No hope for your visitors unless God the Spirit does it Number four if the
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Holy Spirit were to leave Bethlehem Bible Church That's the negative way to say it positively. I could say the
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Spirit of God is in our church pointing to Christ Has sealed our salvation Saving other people and number four if the
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Holy Spirit left BBC The life of prayer at Bethlehem Bible Church would be crushed
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Your personal prayer life would be crushed Would any dare to say in this church that you're a super prayer warrior and you're strong in prayer
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Would anyone here dare to say, you know when it comes to prayer I better back off because I just pray too much anybody
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Would anybody here say when it comes to prayer I know what I should do and I know what
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I do and I just feel weak. I Don't pray as often as I pray. I don't pray as much as I pray and I certainly don't pray as biblically as I ought to pray
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Wouldn't we all fall into those last few questions? If it wasn't for the Spirit of God, let's turn to Romans chapter 8
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That's the state in which we would live but the Spirit of God intercedes for us when we're weak as Jesus has an intercessory work for us as our great high priest in Hebrew 725
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So too on behalf of believers the Spirit of God intercedes I believe in the
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Holy Spirit because without him our prayer life would suffer it would go and the
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Holy Spirit himself Helps us as weak sinners.
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Certainly if God gave us the greatest gift Jesus He'd take care of these other things too Wouldn't he teaching his children how to pray assisting the prayer life of his children?
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Romans 8 26 and in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness For we do not know how to pray as we should
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Simple self -explanatory. We are weak and we don't pray like we should So if we can't play pray like we should here the
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Spirit of God comes to a Christian He's indwelling the Christian certainly and he he himself
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The Spirit himself if you ever see something like he himself or the Spirit himself That's an extra word thrown in there to give you emphasis the
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Spirit himself Intercedes let me say that again because some people take this as some private prayer language.
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This is the Spirit himself intercedes our helps It's a it's a double compound word that just means to lend a hand
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To take hold of to take somebody's face and just to come alongside and help a heavy burdened person the
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Spirit himself Intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. That's the Spirit himself
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Who's got the groanings too deep for words, by the way, there are no words there to help us
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The same word used only one other place in the New Testament Luke 10
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But Martha was distracted with all her preparations and she came up to him and said Lord Do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone?
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Tell her then to help me Same word for help in Romans chapter 8
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Here the Spirit of God comes and says, you know, I know you're weak. I know you're frail. I know you're a creature
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You're not infinite. You're still having taints of sin from the fall even though redeemed.
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There's this hangover of sin So I'm gonna help you and I know the Father's mind I know his will and he answers all my prayers and I'm going to pray on behalf of you
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That would be gone if the Spirit of God left Difficult times.
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What do we pray for? Father who's dying God to take him don't take him. What should I do? I need wisdom difficult financial things
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Do I take that other job? What do I do? I wait God help me. I don't know what to do if the Spirit of God goes We're undone
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But Paul says you're not alone in trouble You have a perfect prayer partner, I think
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I've told you many times I've met people who say to me I pray for you every day and I've met some of those people and then they've died since They haven't died because they prayed for me every day
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There's a there's a enter a new paragraph, but they've died and I thought I've lost my prayer partner
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They said I pray for you every day and then I'll realize they've been promoted and off to glory they go
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There's one that never leaves never forsakes The Spirit himself And the text is he keeps on interceding tirelessly relentlessly
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It's not us It's wordless as the Greek the point Paul is making is not
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You groan, but it's the Spirit of God doing it. They're unexpressed words not
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Expressed they're inexpressible not expressible You see verse 27 and he who searches the heart knows that the month what the mind of the
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Spirit is Because he intercedes for the Saints according to the will of God always perfect prayers
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His prayers always are answered because they're always according to the will of God because he is God God Do you promote somebody to glory or do you keep them around?
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Because we love them are there are loved ones the Spirit of God knows what the will of God is The texture isn't you ought to groan and you have a private prayer language.
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The text is the Spirit of God He himself intercedes If you're making sounds these are wordless things.
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I think I have to tell you the story just because I can tell I'll get your attention this way
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When I first became a Christian I Was at the Calvary Chapel and Calvary Chapel pastor had a private prayer language.
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I Wanted that private prayer language? I'm a have -not he's a have and they got these kind of little you know, here's what you do and here's how you do it and I want that I want to be everything that God wants me to be so Pastor said to me you need to groan and he took
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Romans chapter 8 out of context And he said what you do is just get on the Get on the bed or on your chair walking or wherever you just begin to groan and it'll kick in It's kind of like a you know, an
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Indian motorcycle. You just keep doing that long enough. It'll eventually go so Kim was working lay down on the bed
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You're doing just what they did in Switzerland All right I guess
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I got God can't God can't hear me and you know I'm willing to make a fool of myself for the to be a have not a have -not
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So I didn't know the whole time that the Spirit of God was already in me interceding for me perfectly according to the will of God Making inexpressible groans to the father that the father understands.
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He's using his mind and here. I want to just kind of Basically be lazy because prayers hard and I just think if you groan
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I get the thing kicked in I'm alright, so I'll try one more time. Oh Well, I had a dog and that dog was named
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Marley and That was before Marley was a popular name for dogs. And so Marley thought her master was getting hurt somehow
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So Marley comes up to me and begins to lick my face wag and going you okay, buddy. Everything okay?
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I'm like, you know what? Satan Is using my dog?
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To keep me from the gift This is spiritual warfare
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Had the Bible right there. I was laying on the bed. I made sure Kim was still at work, right? So, what do you do?
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You rebuke the dog Satan in Marley's body
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I rebuke you Well, obviously she could tell
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I wasn't happy and so she puts her tail between her legs goes down to the bottom of the bed And lays down like that.
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I Thought forget tongues. I can cast demons out of dogs I have arrived
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But when you got one, you might as well go for the other so let's get back to business. Oh Anyway I could go on and on but basically she came up again began to lick my face
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I rebuked her again. It didn't work and I realized what am I doing the whole time the Bible sitting right here?
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I have everything I need God has given me everything the sufficiency of the spirit the sufficiency of the word
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Why am I trying to be lazy and get some gift when I have the Spirit of God now? I can't even search my own heart.
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I don't know what the mind of the Spirit is outside of the revealed text. I can't intercede faithfully
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Perfectly for myself nor the Saints according to the will of God. I need help Spirit knows the mind of God the
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Spirit prays in perfect accordance to God's will and if the Spirit of God left this church You wouldn't know what to do number five number five
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If the Holy Spirit left number one Jesus wouldn't be central number two You'd all lose your salvation number three.
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No one would ever get saved number four Prayers might not ever be answered Number five no one would understand the
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Bible when they read it or no one would understand a sermon if they heard it Let's turn to first Corinthians 2, please
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First Corinthians chapter 2 the Spirit of God Certainly was there for Divine revelation as the canon was being to put together
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The Spirit of God was certainly working through the Apostles and those close associates as the
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Bible was being Inspired our God breathed through these men and certainly the
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Spirit of God is now active in illumination You can memorize the Hebrew Bible if you're an unbeliever, but still can't understand it
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You can memorize the Greek New Testament without the Spirit. You can't decode this It's like the antenna that I talk about all the time.
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It's like when you're an unbeliever. You have an a .m. Antenna and God is transmitting his word through the
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FM frequency To complicate matters that a .m. Antenna is broken So it's a wrong frequency and it's broken.
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And so there's no communication And so if we did not have the Holy Spirit We wouldn't be able to understand the
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Bible properly and we wouldn't be able to understand preaching properly And Paul talks to them in First Corinthians chapter 2 about how the
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Spirit gives comprehension and as he moves through the Apostles Verse 11 just to pick it up.
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I'm after verse 14, but we better read the first few verses First Corinthians 2 11 for who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him
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You don't know what I'm thinking You can't know what someone else is thinking even so the thoughts of God.
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No one knows except the Spirit of God What is God thinking if we didn't have the Bible we could not know we can't even know what another person is thinking
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What our spouse is thinking what our children are thinking and then Paul says in verse 12 now we
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That's not you and Paul. That's not me and Paul That's the Apostles in the context of apostolic revelation and inspiration now
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We have received not the spirit of the world But the spirit who is from God so that we the
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Apostles may know the things freely given to us by God Don't believe in these false teachers
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Church of Corinth. We're the ones who know from God We're the apostolic messengers.
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And by the way what we receive from God we speak verse 13 Which things we also speak not in words taught by human wisdom that you love chapter 1
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But in those taught by the Spirit we the Apostles teach spirit filled teachings combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words and then we come to verse 14 the contrast but a natural man an unbelieving person an unbelieving man or woman or child does not accept the things of the
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Spirit of God as The Spirit of God knows the mind of God because he is God he works through the Apostles with revelation through inspiration
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And then they're given to other people Those people if not Christians have that broken a .m.
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Antenna, and they do not accept the things of the Spirit of God They do not under they do not accept marriage man and woman only they do not accept
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Jesus the only way they do not accept Forget this false wisdom in chapter 1 and it's only the foolishness of preaching
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Chapter 1 and 2 they don't and it says in the text for they are what foolishness to him verse 14
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So they number one don't accept without the Spirit number two It's foolishness and number three that I cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised
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So without the Spirit of God when you would read the Bible and you would go. Yes. I know that's a participle I know that's a gerund.
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I know that's this that's a period that's a question mark But you could not grasp the spiritual import of those things
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Maybe I could tell you the story like this remember you for me I used to read the Bible and I would say
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Jesus died on the cross He rose from the dead and all that I could do that. But though in the day God saved me in 1989 I just thought
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I see it all clearly It all goes together Jesus is
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God. I knew Jesus was God before but now I really know this is true He's the only way look at all this it all makes sense.
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I Get it One man said if an unbeliever you can you can gnaw on the bark of Scripture, but you can never get to the wood
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Martin Luther said the Bible cannot be understood simply by study our talent. You must count only on the influence of the
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Holy Spirit John Calvin said the testimony of the
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Spirit is superior to reason For these words will not obtain full credit in the hearts of men until they are sealed by the inward testimony of the
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Spirit God discloses discloses himself to men through the Spirit of God and then when we read the
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Bible as believers We say I accept it. It's not foolishness anymore And I can understand it.
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I See it. Jesus is God. He died for me. He was raised from the dead Must repent without the
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Spirit of God. We are undone Now it's a hypothetical sermon. What if the Spirit of God left because he's not going to leave
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But on the positive side, I wanted to talk a little bit about a little today about why we need the Spirit Why we believe in the
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Spirit why I think we're controlled by the Spirit. It's not a bunch of show
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It's not the latest and not all charismatics do this, of course, there are good conservative ones But if the scripture isn't enough and the
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Spirit isn't enough Then we go from slain in the Spirit to barking in the Spirit to vomiting in the
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Spirit And then what's next show me a spirit -filled church, and I'll show you a church that puts
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Jesus Christ and his word central Show me a church that focuses on the
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Holy Spirit at the expense of Jesus and I'll show you a church that doesn't Have spirit filling
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Well, there's more to be said but let's bow in prayer Thank you father for this day. Thank you for your spirit.
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Thank you for sending your spirit Thank you for Having your spirit seal us to the day of redemption.
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Thank you for having your spirit. Let us understand scripture Thank you for giving us the spirit and there's nothing we could do to somehow make him go away because you've given us that pledge
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Lord we don't want to grieve the spirit. So we would ask your assistance. We don't want to somehow come across as a church that Doesn't know the spirit or is not thankful for the for your giving us the spirit
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We just want to be biblical Christians So help us and we're thankful that as a body your spirit helps us with Intercessions and groanings that can't be uttered and you are a wonderful Savior and we would ask that our church
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Body as we minister to those who might have different ways and different thoughts and different Pastors that you would help us to be men and women who are
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Dominated by the fruit of the Spirit as we talk about these things with love and joy and peace and self -control for Jesus sake.