What If The Holy Spirit Left BBC?

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What If The Holy Spirit Left BBC?

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Well, it is good to be back here in the United States. Some have wondered what we have done with our
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Sunday night service, but it is 3 a .m. now on Sunday night or a Monday morning, at least
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Auckland time, so it's good to be back home. Thank you for praying. I think
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I taught maybe about 14 times over about 5 days, and we talked about the Eternal Decree and the
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Holy Spirit, Sovereign Regeneration and the Holy Spirit. We talked about assurance in the
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Holy Spirit, the entire conference on the Holy Spirit. I enjoyed my time with the people there, but it is good to be back in America where we say things like counter -clockwise, not anti -clockwise.
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Or we say things like French press coffee, not plunger coffee.
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When I was offered plunger coffee, I said, no, thank you. I'll take tea.
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Anyway, thank you for praying. It was a really rich time of fellowship. It's one of the largest conferences down in New Zealand, about a thousand people.
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Love the dear Christians there. And I'm so glad to be back home today. Thanks for praying.
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Well, for many years, I've stood at the door after the service, and I don't stand there because I want a compliment or anything.
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I stand there because sometimes I don't see many of you during the week, and so I like to say hi. I like to catch visitors as they walk out and greet them.
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Some visitors scamper out the back door there, and I can't say hello to them. But I just stand there, and I want to greet and say hello, and maybe a hug, and maybe a handshake.
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But some interesting things have been said to me right there underneath that exit door. Many have said, that was a great sermon, and I think it's just kind of the grandma mode that people have, and they really want to say,
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I love you, but what comes out of their mouth is, that's a great sermon. Remember, as Spurgeon said, you know, thank you, but I've already been told that by Satan on the way down from the pulpit steps, right?
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I have been told at those doors by one particular gentleman.
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He looked at me, and he said, you're a liar. And I said, I should have said this. Well, I know
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I am, but what are you particularly talking about? But I said, well, what do you mean? He said,
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I can tell you're lying, because when people sweat, that means they're lying.
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And I said, it just means I'm trying to preach my heart out. It might be my last sermon. And we had quite a conversation afterward.
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But the one I really remember is when someone said, why don't you believe in the Holy Spirit? Why don't you believe in the
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Holy Spirit? And so I thought I'd use that in light of the conference in New Zealand, and in light of Hebrews chapter 9, where it talks about the eternal spirit, chapter 9, verse 14.
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And that's the question that I asked maybe 10 years ago with an expanded sermon. Now, what about the
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Holy Spirit? Do you believe in the Holy Spirit? What does he do? Who is he? Is the
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Holy Spirit an it? Is he a he? How do we comprehend this person called the
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Holy Spirit? And so I'd ask you the question this morning, do you believe in the Holy Spirit? And do you believe that Bethlehem Bible Church is a
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Holy Spirit -filled church? Now, we believe in one
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God, three persons, right? You can almost think of the hymn, holy, holy, holy. God in three persons, what?
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Blessed Trinity, where Jesus tells us to baptize in the name, singular, of the
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Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Singular name, one God, three persons. We don't believe in three gods.
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But we believe in one God, the triune God, Yahweh the Father, Yahweh the Son, Yahweh the
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Spirit. What I'd like to ask this morning is, what if the Holy Spirit left the church here?
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What would happen if he departed? Now, it's a theoretical question because it can happen, but I'm gonna use it as a foil so that I can tell you all the things that the
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Spirit of God does. In other words, if he left, what would happen? But the backdrop is really what he does and how he functions and how he operates and how you ought to think, rightly, about the
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Holy Spirit. The worst thing that would happen if the Holy Spirit left is that we continued as normal.
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Everything was same, we had VBS, we had Awana, we had Sunday morning, we had Sunday night, everything just worked out normally.
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That would be a tragedy, that would be a catastrophe. In other words, it takes more than being a good manager and having the right coffee and the right parking lot and the right kids program.
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Did I just say parking lot? One writer said, oh, my readers, face the solemn fact that the greatest lack of all in Christendom today is the absence of the
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Holy Spirit's power and blessing. Review the activities of the past 30 years. Millions of dollars have been freely devoted to the support of professed
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Christian enterprises. Bible institutes and schools have turned out trained workers by the thousands.
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Bible conferences have sprung up on every side like mushrooms. Countless booklets and tracts have been printed and circulated.
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Time and labors have been given by an almost incalculable number of personal workers.
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And with what result? We're gonna answer that question today. So I'd like you to take your
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Bibles first and turn to the book of Luke for question number one. And that is if the
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Holy Spirit left the church, there'd be no church because there'd be no Jesus. Now we're gonna look at the person and work of the
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Holy Spirit. This person who is co -eternal as God, co -eternal with the
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Father and with the Son. And I think you're gonna be encouraged because sometimes when we think of the Holy Spirit, he doesn't have the same kind of warmth that we might think of as, think about the names,
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Father and Son. You can almost hear the relationship of Father and Son, but then what about the
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Holy Spirit? Maybe he doesn't have the same kind of relationship because he has a different name. And even some of the
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King James people here might think of the Holy Ghost. I think you're gonna be encouraged and be reminded that although we don't believe in the spectacular signed gifts of the
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Holy Spirit active today, we need him and we need his power and presence or else we are certainly an impoverished people.
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If the Holy Spirit left the church, number one, there'd be no church. Remember friends, Jesus, while the eternal
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God, he was human as well. So on the earth, as we need the Spirit to do things, so too did
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Jesus need the Spirit. And let's just take a sweep of how the Spirit of God is involved in the life of Christ.
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Chapter one of Luke, verse 30. Chapter one, and I'm just gonna give you from incarnation to resurrection.
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And some people say from womb to tomb to throne, he, the Holy Spirit, is involved in the life of Christ.
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And if he wasn't here helping Jesus, there'd be no Jesus, therefore there'd be no church. Luke 1 .30,
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and the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name
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Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the
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Lord God will give to him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end.
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Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, the
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Holy Spirit, this third person of the triune God will come upon you and the power of the
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Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called
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Holy, the Son of God. You see the initial working of the
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Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus at the incarnation. Not only that, chapter three, please, of Luke, just giving you a good survey of the life of the
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Holy Spirit. I mean, the person of the Holy Spirit in the life of Christ. Chapter three, verse 21.
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Now, when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens opened and the
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Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove and a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved son, with you
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I am well pleased. And even there, dear congregation, can't you get an idea of one God, three persons?
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You have the Father there, you have the Son there, and you have the Holy Spirit there. One God, three persons.
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And the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus at his baptism. Not only that, he, the
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Holy Spirit, impels Jesus and pushes him out into the wilderness to be tempted. Chapter four, verse one.
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Now, we always pray, the Lord has taught us to pray, lead us not into what? Temptation.
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But here, because we're different than Jesus, here, Jesus is led into temptation on purpose because he needs to be tempted like Adam was in the garden.
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And your entire salvation rests on, will this last Adam, Jesus, make it through this temptation?
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Will he fail or will he succeed? And the Spirit of God drives him out, do you see? Chapter four, verse one.
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And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, and you'll notice back in chapter three and in chapter four, the word
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Jesus, emphasizing his humanity, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the
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Jordan and was led by the Spirit, capital S, in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by the devil.
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And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.
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Everything about the life of Christ was attended to and empowered by this great companion of Jesus.
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His name was the Holy Spirit. Chapter four, verse 14. And it continues.
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Here, Jesus is going to get rejected at Nazareth, but you'll notice that Isaiah the prophet is directly involved here talking about the
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Spirit of God. Chapter four, verse 16. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the
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Sabbath day and he stood up to read. That must have been an amazing thing. And the scroll of the prophet
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Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll, found the place where it was written and here we have this great prophecy from Isaiah fulfilled now in the inauguration of Jesus as he begins to preach.
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The Spirit, capital S, the Holy Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
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He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set a liberty, excuse me, to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the
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Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down because it's time for preaching.
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He sat down to preach in those days and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon him.
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And so we've noticed that Jesus had the Spirit of God at his birth, at baptism, pushed out in the wilderness and now here for the inauguration of public preaching.
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Lastly, turn to 1 Timothy 3 please. And again, we're not in Hebrews but I'm thinking about the eternal spirit, he the third person of the
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Trinity and I was thinking about the Holy Spirit and how we need to be reminded of the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
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1 Timothy 3 is a good capstone for the ministry of the
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Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus. This verse is basically gonna tell us that what the
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Holy Spirit did is he gave an amen to everything that Jesus did. He vindicated
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Jesus. What was that ultimate vindication or that ultimate authorization, that ultimate stamp of approval?
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It was the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead. Chapter three, verse 16 of this pastoral epistle.
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Some don't like confessions. This is certainly a biblical confession and it's a great one, great indeed.
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We confess, we agree, we all say the same thing. And it's the mystery of godliness, that is the incarnation.
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He was manifested in the flesh, right? He was pre -existing, right?
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It wasn't said he was born. He in fact was born but he existed ahead of time. And what's the next line say?
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You can see it's almost set up in your Bibles with this poetic lining and lots of white space on each side showing you that it's a poem or it's a confession.
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Vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
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Christ said, I'm the Messiah. The Spirit of God says that's true and vindicates him by raising him from the dead.
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Jesus heals the leper. He cast out the demons. He heals Peter's mother. He makes water into wine.
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He does all these miracles and more. He walks on water. He stills the sea by the power of the
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Spirit and the Spirit is so pleased with him. He's done what the Father has sent him to do that he raises him from the dead.
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Romans 1 says the same thing and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the
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Holy Spirit or the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.
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Jesus builds his church and if you have no Jesus, there's no church. And if you have no
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Holy Spirit attending to the human Jesus, there's no church. So if the
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Holy Spirit left your church, number one, there'd be no church. Number two, Jesus would recede into the background.
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Jesus would recede into the background. Now think about it for a second. I want to be kind to people. I have charismatic friends, continuationist friends.
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When that person said, why don't you believe in the Holy Spirit? What were they saying? And by the way, how do you tell a
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Holy Spirit -filled church, a Holy Ghost -filled church? Now he, the Holy Spirit could say,
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I would like to be praised. I would like to be worshiped. I deserve it. I'm co -equal with the
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Father and the Son. I'm co -eternal with the Father and Son. I have co -omnipotence with the
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Father and the Son. But he has decided by his prerogative and his pleasure to stand behind the scenes and point to Jesus.
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He could say, look at me, but he has determined to point to the Lord Jesus. And let's see if that's true.
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1 Corinthians chapter 12. We're jumping around quite a bit today. That's rare at this church.
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We do it every 10 years. So enjoy it while it lasts. Typically, verse by verse by verse through Hebrews.
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And I want you to see it all. It still is exposition if you expose people to the meaning of the text.
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And that's what we're doing today. Jesus would recede into the background without the power and the presence of the
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Holy Spirit. You'd never hear about the Lord Jesus because the Holy Spirit wouldn't be pointing to him.
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1 Corinthians 12, verse three. This was a crazy church filled with all kinds of problems and Paul wants to correct them.
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And he says in 1 Corinthians 12, three, therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the
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Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit says, Jesus is accursed. And no one can say
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Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. I mean, show me a spirit filled person and they're not gonna say,
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Jesus is cursed. If you met somebody like that, you wouldn't be thinking, they're walking by the fruit of the
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Spirit. You'd be thinking, who are you? And by the way, who would say Jesus is cursed? Well, in history,
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Jews would say that because Deuteronomy 21 says, anyone who's hung on a tree is under what?
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God's curse. It might be people who would think, you know what? Body's bad, spirit's good.
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These kind of platonic, neoplatonic dualist and so Jesus has a body so therefore bodies are bad, he's cursed.
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But nobody talks derogatorily about Jesus and is filled or empowered by the
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Spirit of God. If you're filled and empowered by the Spirit of God, what do you say? What does the text say? You say what?
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Jesus is Lord. Jesus, I bow my knee before you. I give you my loyalty.
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I trust in you. I believe in you. That's the power of the Spirit of God. As Elder Scott was praying,
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God, tug on their hearts, convict them so that they might respond with belief and say
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Jesus is Lord. Matter of fact, that's like the oldest creed in all the Bible, Jesus is Lord.
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You say, well, people can say it and they're not spirit -filled. They're just unbelievers. Can an unbeliever say
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Jesus is Lord? Yes, but they don't mean it. If anybody really means it with their heart, it's because the
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Spirit of God has done that in their heart. Every time we have a baptism and somebody says, I believe that Jesus Christ is the
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Son of God and He died for me and He was raised from the dead and He's coming back and I'm trusting in Him.
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Who's the one behind the scenes who's working? When you pray for an unbeliever, what do you pray for them?
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Lord, your Spirit, would you convict them so that they understand rightly their sin and rightly the
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Savior? If in fact you proclaim Jesus as Lord and you mean it, it's the
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Spirit of God's work. So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to the glory of God the Father, Philippians chapter two. Is it not true that the ultimate ministry of the
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Holy Spirit and His work in the life of a person is the exaltation of the
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Lord Jesus? The answer is yes. Now, demons might have called
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Jesus Son of God. Demons might have called Jesus the Holy One of God, but I can't think one time they said,
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Jesus is Lord. John chapter 15,
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Jesus said, when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the
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Spirit of truth, Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about me,
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Jesus said, and you will testify also. In other words, He could come the Holy Spirit and say,
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I wanna be the focus of attention, but the spotlight that the Holy Spirit takes as it were is on Jesus, He bears witness about Jesus.
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Jesus said in John 16, He, the Holy Spirit will glorify me. Holy Spirit deserves worship, yet He says, everybody worship the
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Lord Jesus. Show me a Holy Ghost filled church and I'll show you a church that talks about Jesus a lot.
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So if I'm not talking about Jesus and that man says, don't you believe in the Holy Spirit? I get it, but if I'm talking about Jesus, that's a
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Holy Spirit filled church. Paul, when he decided to go to Corinth, he said earlier in chapter two,
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I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him what? Crucified.
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Before I even get to a town, the language is this, before I even go there, I'm gonna make this calculation.
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No matter what they want, no matter what they desire, no matter what they're hankering for, no matter what might please them, no matter what might get me the most pragmatical bang for my buck,
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I've set it up in my mind that when I open my mouth, I'm going to talk about Jesus. Who put that in Paul's heart?
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The Spirit of God did. I determined, I made a resolution. Consciously, I will focus on Christ.
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For Paul, that wasn't a haphazard thing. It wasn't accidental. It was purposeful.
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David Jackman said, messengers of a crucified Savior are not impressing people and seeking to draw attention to themselves.
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You would not expect the Holy Spirit to take a preacher and say, make that preacher talk about his wonderful attributes.
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No, instead, Colossians chapter one, verse 28, we proclaim Him. Ongoing, ongoing.
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And you remembered Barnhouse when he was asked if Satan were to take over a city.
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We learned something about Satan today in Revelation chapter 20. What would Satan do if he took over a city?
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Barnhouse said, here's what would happen. In his famous quote, the bars would close.
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No alcohol would be sold. There would be happy marriages, well -behaved children, no crime.
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Everyone would be in church on Sunday where Christ is not preached. No wonder
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Luther said, we always preach Jesus, the true God and true man. This may seem a limited and monotonous subject, likely to soon be exhausted, but we're never at the end of it.
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That's what Christians want to hear because the Spirit of God is working in them and they want to learn about Jesus. And that's what the preacher is supposed to do.
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Second Corinthians four, we proclaim not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord. Well, number three, what if the
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Holy Spirit left the church? It's a theoretical question meant to teach the opposite. So you might think that we have the
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Holy Spirit. So he empowers Jesus. So there is a church and Jesus is front and center. Now, number three, you'd have no contact with Jesus without the
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Holy Spirit. We have mentioned before from this pulpit that Jesus is not here now.
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You might ask the question, where is Jesus now? What is Jesus doing now? Is Jesus walking with you and talking with you along life's narrow way?
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Is he in the Eucharist? Is he in the communion wafer and cup right here in front of us?
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Is his image in a waffle, in a pancake? You've seen some of those things, right?
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Some kind of water dripping on cement and there's Jesus there. Is Jesus in your heart?
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And it is counterintuitive to think the good news is Jesus isn't here. That's weird.
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Where is Jesus? He's seated at the right hand of God the Father in heavenly places. We have learned this in Hebrews chapter eight.
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The high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven.
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Colossians three, if you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
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Jesus even said, but from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.
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You don't want Jesus physically here. When you say on Easter Sunday, He is risen, that means
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He in fact has risen. He is risen indeed. My desire,
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Paul said, is to depart and be with Christ. That's far better. Our citizenship is in heaven and we await a
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Savior, the Lord Jesus. He's coming back. We anticipate He's coming back. But He is present through the
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Spirit. I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
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Ephesians chapter three, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. So while Jesus isn't here, how do we have contact with Him?
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If you didn't have the Holy Spirit, you'd have no fellowship with Jesus. You wouldn't have the Spirit of Christ in you.
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Turn to Romans eight and I think I can help show you this fact. Jesus is present in or through the
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Spirit, we might say. Jesus did say, behold, I'm with you always, even at the end of the age.
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How? If His body is in heaven, because His Spirit is in us, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ.
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You don't want Him to be here in a body. You want Him to be enthroned, but you don't want to be an orphan, so He gives you
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His Spirit. Romans eight, nine, chapter eight, verse nine.
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You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the
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Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the
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Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
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He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
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Where is Jesus? He's exalted, but dear Christian, you want to be encouraged that the Spirit is in you, the
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Spirit that He sent, His Spirit. Number four, if the Holy Spirit left the church, everyone here would lose their salvation.
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If you're a Christian today, you'd lose your salvation. Turn to Ephesians chapter one, please. This is a truth that speaks to God's faithfulness in an unfaithful culture.
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It speaks to God's reliability in an unreliable culture. It speaks to not ourselves saving ourselves, coming to faith, having faith cause our salvation.
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But no, this is the work of the triune God. Now, chapter one, verse three through 14, we've taught this before.
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I think there are 203 words in that sentence that in Greek is from verse three to 14.
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One entire sentence extolling the triune work of God, blessing the Father for choosing, blessing the
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Father for having the Son to redeem, and now blessing the Father for His work of the Spirit. Chapter one, verse 13, the
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Father chooses, the Son sacrificially dies, and the Holy Spirit, what does He do? Why should we praise the
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Father for what the Spirit does? And even here, I find it interesting in chapter one, verse three, the praise isn't directly to the
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Holy Spirit, although He could demand it. The praise is to the Father for what the Spirit has done.
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And what has He done, verse 13 of Ephesians one? In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the
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Holy Spirit of promise. What a great name, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory.
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You, friend, are sealed with the Spirit. What did seals do back in those days? And I'm ready for one of the little kids to say bark or something like that, but at least you're listening.
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By the way, when I was in New Zealand, I said that if I mentioned my children in a sermon,
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I had to give them a dollar every time I mentioned them, and for the most part, I paid. A lot of young men came up to me and said, my dad owes me a lot of money.
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And I thought, at least they're listening. Sealing has three components that I think if you grasp them, you'll see how great this protection, this sealing is.
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Number one, inaccessibility. When you're sealed, nobody has access to you. Remember, Darius throws
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Daniel in the lion's den, and what did he do with his signet ring so nobody else had access? He sealed it.
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That's inaccessibility. Matthew 27 talks about this, and when they went and made
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Jesus's grave secure, and along with the guard, they set a seal on the stone. No intruders, right?
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So if you think, if Satan could destroy me, he would, but you're inaccessible because of the Spirit. Not only inaccessibility, but ownership.
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Ownership. God takes care of His own possessions. I mean, He's not careless.
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I mean, do you lose your keys ever? Are you absent -minded? Here, He seals like ownership.
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They were kind to me in New Zealand. Even though I preached a lot, they said, you could either stay at the hotel, or you could stay with an elder and his family, and they have a bicycle for you to ride.
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And I said, you know, a very pious man that I am, well, why don't, I think the church should probably save some money on the hotel, and I'll have to stay with the family.
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And I'm riding my bicycle through the farmlands of New Zealand, and they didn't necessarily have brands on the cattle and the sheep, and they're everywhere, cattle and sheep.
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They had these little markings up on the ear. I don't know why the ear, okay, the ear. It seemed like their ear was here.
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My ear is here. And they had different numbers with different colors, and sometimes
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I just see the sheep that were shorn, and they had spray paint, couple dots and things. That's ownership, that's branding.
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Those sheep are mine, and they're no one else's. That's the idea, ownership. The Spirit of God, He owns you.
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He won't let anyone come in and have access to you. Right, that's why when Christians think, well, what if I could be demon possessed?
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The Spirit of God has sealed you, no access to intruders. He owns you. He has more riding on your eternal security than you do.
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And the biggest one here is number three, protection. He protects you. He guards you.
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I'll never leave you nor forsake you, the Lord says. Do you see verse 13? With the Holy Spirit of technically the promise.
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Promise of His work, promise of His future work. Because He's just the down payment, as it were.
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Now there's more to come of the Spirit, more to come of God's glory. Verse 14, who is given as a pledge, like think engagement ring of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory.
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I'm gonna give you my ring, and that's gonna be a pledge of a future transaction.
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You're gonna be saved for certain as the Spirit is the deposit. And it goes on to say in chapter four, verse 30, that He has sealed us to the day of redemption.
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Christian, if you say to yourself, can I lose my salvation? You're asking the wrong question. Can God lose a
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Christian that the Father has chosen, that the Son has died for, and the
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Spirit has sealed, so there's no access, there's protection, and there's ownership? God will complete
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His work. The seal of the Spirit is essentially saying, you are mine.
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Like David writes in Psalm 35, I am your salvation. This is a great pledge.
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The first installment is great, but there's more to come. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
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Chapter four, verse 30. What if the Holy Spirit left the church? Number five, no one would ever get saved.
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There'd be no church. Jesus would recede in the background. You'd have no contact with Jesus. You'd lose your salvation, and no one would ever get saved.
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I know the heartbeat of this church is to have unbelievers, your friends and family members, to get saved. Paul said,
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I implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Without the Holy Spirit, you could beg, you could plead, you could deny yourself, you could climb up stairs on glass, you could fast, you could mourn, you could cry, and no one would get saved.
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There'd be no baptisms, because there'd be no new believers. But when
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God, the Spirit, decides to do a work, it's like with Lydia, God opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
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Turn to chapter three of Titus, and let's take a look at this great work of God. Remember, some people think, for salvation,
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God votes for people to get saved. Satan votes for people to be lost, and you, my friend, cast the what?
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The deciding vote, except unbelievers always vote the same way. They always vote no, because they don't have it in them.
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Matter of fact, let's just push it and make sure you're thinking today, since it's about 3 .30 a .m. now,
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Auckland time. What if you could go to hell and give the gospel to people that have been in hell, and say, you know what?
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Simply repent and believe, and you can get out of hell and go to heaven. It can't be done, of course, but what if, just for the sake of argument?
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You know what, my friend? Even though they hate the horrors of hell, lake of fire is to come, but they hate the horrors of hell now, no one would ever repent and believe.
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While they're not masochists, they don't have it in their heart because they can't regenerate themselves. They can't make themselves born again.
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They can't change their nature. Only the Spirit of God can do it. They can't make their spiritually blind eyes open.
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They can't make their spiritually deaf ears to hear. Who activates, who motivates, who initiates with sovereign grace?
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It has to be the Spirit of God. Chapter three, verse five. By the way, if you read verses one through four of Titus, it talks about leaders, like political leaders and such.
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How do you act toward them? If you remember how merciful God was to you, you probably think differently about your leaders.
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And he says in chapter three, verse five, with the three great words to start in the New American Standard, he saved us.
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We're passive, he's active. He saved us. And then he explains it.
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Not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness. I mean, those are like filthy rags.
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But according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the, whom?
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Holy Spirit. He saves us. He does all the work.
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Now, it's interesting in Greek, there's a couple emphatic words. We and his. We merited nothing.
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His was the mercy. And you're supposed to see that contrast. We stands in intentional and emphatic contrast to his.
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He's the one that renews. He's the one that saves. It's by grace you've been saved through faith. This is not of your what?
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Self. He, the Holy Spirit, makes you alive. Think about it. We have all kinds of new babies here at the church.
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And it's exciting times. And we'll take church growth in any way we can.
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Your children celebrate birthdays, don't they? At least some do. Most do. Most normal people do.
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Maybe some don't. They never say on their 12th birthday, today is the day
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I bore myself. They never use those active words. 59 years ago,
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I bore myself. I climbed out of the birth canal and said, welcome world.
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No, what happens? Why did God even pick the idea of birth, new birth?
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You must be born again. Regeneration. Why did he pick that word?
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So you might think birth means it's done to you. I was born. Something happened to you.
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You were pushed out and you responded with cry. It's like with what comes first, regeneration or faith?
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Were you in the womb saying, okay, I'm ready to be born, time to go. Faith precedes regeneration and now you can be born.
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I bear myself. No, you were regenerated. You were made alive and you responded with faith.
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What a great way to think about it. When you've got a baby born, it is not active in regeneration.
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It is passive. God does all the work. God does all the saving. And by the way, when you praise
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God, don't you say that to him? Oh God, thank you for saving me. You don't say, like my brother said, you get to heaven and you fist bump
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God or high five God and say, we did it. You know, you don't even get to say, I gave like 1 % and God did 99.
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No, what's the text say? He saved us. That's great news. Because you don't have to wait for people to do something to themselves, a loved one, to make themselves better or more savable.
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There are no antecedent conditions before faith. No antecedent conditions before God says, you're mine.
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Say, I've got that loved one and they're enslaved in sin. They're enslaved in self -righteousness. Here's what you pray.
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God, what? Save them. And by the way, how does God save?
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Like He does everything else. With lavish love. Verse six, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our
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Savior. Whom He poured out. We're talking about the Holy Spirit. And that happened, of course, at Pentecost and it continues to happen.
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That being justified by His grace. These are, this is all language of, we're passive in salvation.
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God did it all. Of course, He didn't believe for us, but our belief isn't salvific. It's just a response. Non -saving,
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I mean, a non -meritorious response. That by being justified by His grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
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This is a trustworthy statement. And concerning these things, I want you to speak confidently so that those who have believed
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God may be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.
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The context, by the way, very interestingly, when it comes to dealing with the government, God, how does
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He deal with enemies? He was willing to save. He saved you. He spared no expense for you.
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He didn't spare His own son for you. He did it in the face of great opposition. So how should you look at government?
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Probably different than what we do. Number six,
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I think this is our last one. What if the Holy Spirit left your church? No prayers would be answered.
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Turn to Romans chapter eight, please. What we're doing in this theoretical study is simply highlighting the person and work of the
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Holy Spirit. And while we might not think that there is a gift of healings today, that people have a gift who could go to the hospital and heal everyone, of course
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God heals today. Of course God works through doctors and through prayers in His own sovereign way. But that's not the gift of healing that was in 1
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Corinthians 12. So does He do any work? Do we who don't think those gifts are for today believe in the
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Holy Spirit? Of course we do. He does so many things. We would be lost without Him.
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Romans 8, 28, no prayers would be answered. I don't know about your prayer life, but it's sure nice to have somebody who prays perfectly pray for you.
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And that's what the Spirit does. Let's find out. 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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I mean, just let that sink in for a second. That's true, isn't it? We don't know how to pray as we should.
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But the Spirit Himself emphatically intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
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I mean, can you imagine? Here's the great God of the universe, and what's the text say? He, the
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Spirit, helps our weakness. What a kind God. What a gracious God. Sounds like Hebrews 4, verse 16 about boldly approaching the throne of grace to get grace and mercy when we're needing help and when we're weak.
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He bears our heavy burdens. The word, therefore, helps our weakness.
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He just takes hold of us, and He takes hold of our face. It's up close. It's personal, is the idea.
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We're not left on our own. Tough times, circumstances, big issues in life.
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He's the perfect prayer partner. Kim and I know a lady named
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Iva, and she has died, but she said to me one time, I pray for you every day. And then
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Iva dies. Then what do we do? Who prays for me every day? The Spirit of God, He prays. By the way, this is not private prayer language.
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This is not you talking. It says the Spirit of God is talking. This is within the triune
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God. There's wordless discussion, as it were, not us.
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Of course, Jesus is in heaven praying, Hebrews 7. And here it says the Holy Spirit's praying.
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And you want Him praying because verse 27 says, and he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the
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Spirit is because He intercedes for the saints in a way that we don't because we don't know the will of God, but He does since He is
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God. So He prays according to the what? Will of God. What if somebody was praying for you, but they're praying against the will of God?
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Well, it would never happen, of course, but here the Spirit of God, He prays. He makes the groans. We don't.
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I mean, I told you the story just to make it fast. I know we have some newer people here. I wanted everything that God had for me.
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Kim was working. We had no kids. I got home early from the operating room and I lay on my bed and it says here groans. My old pastor said at Calvary Chapel, you groan and you'll get the gift.
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So I just lay there on the bed. Oh, oh, oh, you know,
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I'm looking around and making sure nobody's coming home. Kim's not getting home early. Oh, and my dog came up and her name was
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Marley at the time. And that was before the famous Marley dog. And she's like, master's hurt.
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He's groaning. She's licking my face and everything. And I told you, this is a true story. I thought that God wanted me to have the gift.
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Satan was in my dog trying to get me to not get the gift. And so I said, Marley, in the name of Jesus, I rebuke you.
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Well, I said it sternly. So she went to the bottom of the bed and laid down. And I'm not kidding you. I said to myself,
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I don't need the gift of tongues when I can cast out demons out of dogs. So I quit. I mean,
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I'm that stupid and left to our own prayer lives. We're probably just as foolish, but the
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Spirit of God, He loves you. He prays for you and His prayers are always answered.
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Jesus is praying for you. The Holy Spirit is praying for you. Think where we would be, dear Christian, if the Holy Spirit left our church.
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Is there anybody here who would know the mind of God so they might pray in perfect accordance to God's will? Of course not. What an assurance that is that He has not left us and we can have a prayer life.
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Because even when we're weak, He understands it. When your children say, mama or daddy, you're happy that they're talking, but you realize they're small and they're weak.
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Well, there's much more to be said. And as I've been taught in seminary, you say that when you've run out of time and things to say.
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What's the opposite of all this? We might continue with this next week. We might get back into Hebrews. Here's the positive side.
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Since the Holy Spirit hasn't left our church, dear Christian, what
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Jesus did remains. Jesus is front and center at Bethlehem Bible Church.
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We have contact with Jesus by His Spirit. You can't lose your salvation.
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When you pray for people, God saves through preaching and prayer at His sovereign will. And when you pray, while your prayers might not be answered, there's someone praying for you that's better than Ivor and better than myself.
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And that's the Lord Jesus's Spirit, the Holy Spirit. What would happen to the church if the
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Spirit of God left? Should be better answered with this question. How joyful we should be that the
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Holy Spirit, He is here and He is among us. Let us pray. Father, we look toward you.
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Thank you for your word. When we can celebrate the person and work of the
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Lord Jesus because of the Spirit, He saved us. Thank you by the washing and regeneration of the
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Spirit's power. How you, Father, were like the architect in eternity past planning it.
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Your Son was like the executor executing that plan of salvation.
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And your Holy Spirit is like the applier, applying what the Father has chosen and the Son has done to our lives.
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We thank you for that. We'd ask a blessing upon all those who are here today and may your Spirit convict those who aren't
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Christians today and show them the beauty and majesty of the fairest Lord Jesus. In whose name we pray, amen.