["Pomp and Circumstance"]
The first hymn is number 109,
Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us.
Hymn number 109, 109, Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us.
We'll sing there starting on the first.
Savior like a shepherd lead us,
by feeding thy tender care.
In thy pleasant pastures feed us,
for our good stuff will prepare.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
thou as bought us thine we are.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
thou as bought us thine we are.
We are thy good family,
credit us, be the garden of our pain.
Keep thy wealth from sin,
credit us,
seek us when we know what's great.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
hear, O hear us when we pray.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
hear, O hear us when we pray.
Thou as bought us to receive us,
poor and sinful though we be.
Thou has mercy to relieve us,
raised to lend us power to free.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
early had not served to thee.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
early had not served to thee.
Early let us seek thy favor,
early let us seek thy will.
Blessed Lord and Holy Savior,
in thy love our hopes must fill.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
thou as bought us thine we are.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
thou as bought us thine we are.
Amen will open with a word of prayer if you'll bow your heads with me.
Heavenly Father, we just thank you again for another opportunity to gather
together this evening to put you first. Lord, when the world is putting other
things first on a day like today, just I pray that you'd keep our hearts
attuned to you. I pray that you'd incline your ear to us as we sing praises out to
you and just be with those that received the word this afternoon, that
that would germinate into a faith that would call upon your son for salvation.
These things we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
All right, for our next hymn this evening, turn if you would
to 118 near to the heart of God.
Hymn number 118, 118.
Near to the heart of God.
118 there on the first.
Is a place of quiet rest.
Near to the heart of God.
Of things where sin cannot
bless. Near to the heart of God.
Oh Jesus, blessed,
We deeper, sent from the heart of God.
Hold us to thank thee for thee.
Near to the heart of God.
There is a place of
come who thirst me.
Near to the heart of God.
Of things where we our Savior be.
Near to the heart of God.
Oh Jesus, blessed, We deeper,
sent from the heart of God.
Hold us to thank thee for thee.
Near to the heart of God.
There is a place of full release.
Near to the heart of God.
Of things where all is joy and peace.
Near to the heart of God.
Oh Jesus, blessed, We deeper,
sent from the heart of God.
Hold us to thank thee for thee.
Near to the heart of God.
Good evening everyone. Welcome to Anchor Baptist Church. This time we'll go
through some announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, raise your
hand and an usher will bring you on. On the front is our Bible memory
verse of the week, Galatians chapter 1 verse
6. On the inside is our service times listed Sunday morning at 10 30,
Sunday evening at 4 30, and our Wednesday evening Bible study at
7 o'clock. Soul winning times are listed there and all those
meet here at the church building. Soul winning has been very receptive lately so
definitely want to encourage everyone to take part
of a soul winning time that is most convenient for you.
Nursing home ministry schedule today was brother Eric
and the next preachers will be updated next week.
Our year-to-date statistics are listed there for salvations.
Also if you have any salvations please do email the church
and I'll be happy to add that into our bulletin. Please be in prayer for Ms.
Whitney Reed, our expecting lady of the church for
her pregnancy. Also upcoming events, it's not in the
bulletin but remember that this evening right after the service we're going to
have a quick business meeting for our church
finances so I'll try not to preach too long this evening that way we can give
plenty of time to that for questions to be answered and just
you know going over those details. This Friday though is our
sweetheart banquet. Been looking forward to this for
quite some time so really excited to have our first
sweetheart banquet. Come hungry we've got lots of food
prepared for this so looking forward to it. April 19th also
Easter soul-winning marathon in OKC. May 16th through the 18th is the King
James conference in Vancouver, Washington. May 31st is a joint
soul-winning marathon with Steadfast Baptist Church in Durant, Oklahoma.
June 28th, Tinker Air Force Base air show as a church fun event there. August 27th
through the 31st is the fire-breathing Baptist fellowship
in Texas and August 6th through 11th our Bahamas missions trip with Steadfast
looking forward to all those great events this year. If you have any
questions about any of those you can always ask at any time.
Also if you'd like to give online we do have a QR code there listed for you
other than that on the back just make note of our prayer requests for the week
please be faithful to keep everyone in prayer
and if you have any requests please do email me I'll be happy to add that for
you. That's going to be it for announcements
this evening we'll go ahead and go to our third
song.
All right our third hymn this evening 126
anywhere with Jesus 126 126
anywhere with Jesus. We'll sing there starting right on the first
Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go
Anywhere he leads me in this world below
Anywhere without a fear his joys would fade
Anywhere with Jesus I am not afraid
Anywhere anywhere fear I cannot know
Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go
Anywhere with Jesus I am not alone
Other friends may fail me he is still my own
Though his hand may lead me over dreary ways
Anywhere with Jesus is the house of praise
Anywhere anywhere fear I cannot go
Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go
Anywhere with Jesus over land and sea
Devil's golden darkness of salvation free
Ready as he summits me to go or stay
Anywhere with Jesus when he points the way
Anywhere anywhere fear I cannot go
Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go
Anywhere with Jesus I can go to sleep
When the darkening shadows round about me
Free moving I shall be in heaven or to Rome
Anywhere with Jesus will be home sweet home
Anywhere anywhere fear I cannot go
Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go
As the offering plates are being passed turn if you would to
1st John chapter number five. 1st John chapter number five.
Good evening, 1st John chapter five. The Bible reads
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God
and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him
by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and
keep his commandments for this is the love of God that we keep
his commandments and his commandments are not grievous
for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world
and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith
who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the son
of God this is he that came by water and blood
even Jesus Christ not by water only but by water and blood
and is and it is the spirit that beareth witness because the spirit is truth
for there are three that bear record in heaven the father the word
and the holy ghost and these three are one
and there are three that bear witness in earth the spirit and the water and the
blood and these three agree in one if we
receive the witness of men the witness of God is greater for this
is the witness of God which he hath testified of his son
he that believeth on the son of God hath the witness in himself
he that believeth not God hath made him a liar
because he believeth not the record that God gave of his son
and this is the record that God hath given to us
eternal life and this life is in his son he that hath the son hath life and he
that hath not the son of God hath not life these things have I written
unto you that believe on the name of the son of
God that you may know that you have eternal life
and that you may believe on the name of the son of God and this is the
confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his
will he heareth us and if we know that he
hear us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that
we desired of him if any man see his brother sin a sin
which is not unto death he shall ask and he shall give him
life for them to sin not unto death there is a sin unto death
i do not say that he shall pray for it all unrighteousness
is sin and there is a sin not unto death we know that whosoever is born of god
sin is not but he that is begotten of god
keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not
and we know that we are of god and the whole world
lieth in wickedness and we know that the son of god has come
and hath given us an understanding that we may know him
that is true and we are in him that is true
even in his son jesus christ this is the true god
in eternal life little children keep yourselves from idols
amen let's bow our heads for a prayer father in heaven we thank you for
keeping us safe
amen well we're in first john chapter number five
and we'll start reading verse six the bible says this is he that came by water
and blood even jesus christ not by water only but
by water and blood and it is the spirit that beareth
witness because the spirit is truth now verse
seven says for there are three that bear
record in heaven the father the word and the holy ghost and these
three are one you know we kind of mentioned this
verse in passing this morning about how this is a very important
foundational verse for the doctrine of the trinity
and it's important to have a king james because if you're reading this in an niv
just says for there are three that testify and that's the end
of the verse but thank god we have the king james and it tells us about the
father the word and the holy ghost and this
evening i'd like to preach a bible study on the topic of the holy ghost the title
of my sermon is god the holy spirit god the holy spirit you
know it's important for us as christians to preach the hard sermons
preach the hard truths but also just to preach doctrine
and make sure that we're giving attendance to doctrine and what the
bible teaches about every subject and so i basically have two
parts to this sermon part one i want to talk about the
characteristics of the holy spirit who he is and then i
want to talk about the ministries of the holy spirit so number one the holy
spirit is god this is a foundational
important doctrine go to acts chapter number five
acts chapter number five beyond first john five seven which is a great proof
that the holy spirit is god right for there are three that bear
record in heaven the father the word and the holy ghost and these three
are one we believe in the trinity at anchor baptist church
we don't believe in this oneness modalism doctrine where
you know god just you know shape shifts and puts on different hats
we believe that there are three distinct persons that is
one god you say make that math make sense i
i'm not god i just believe what the bible says there are three
that are one acts five one says this but a certain man
named ananias with sapphira his wife sold a possession and kept back part of
the price his wife also being privy to it and
brought a certain part and laid it at the apostle's feet but peter said
ananias why hath satan filled thine heart to lie to the holy
ghost and to keep back part of the price of
the land so what was happening is this couple here where they sold their
property and they went around saying that they
had given all the money of the property to the church basically
but the bible's telling us that they actually kept back part of that price
and they kind of conspired together husband and wife to do this
and peter's saying why is satan filled your heart
to lie to the holy ghost now let's keep reading it says
whilst it remained was it not thine own and after it was sold was it not in
thine own power why hast thou conceived this thing in
thine heart notice the next phrase here it says
thou hast not lied unto men but unto god and so here the bible is referring to
hey you've lied to the holy spirit you've lied to
god because god is the holy spirit is god now why do we bring this up well
because there's a religion out there false religion known as the jehovah's
witnesses that deny this doctrine they teach that
the holy spirit is just like an impersonal force that it's like the
manifestation of the power of god but it's not god himself you know
there's eight million plus jehovah's witnesses in this world today
that believe this false doctrine so we need to make sure that we are
sure about the doctrine that the holy spirit
is god go to psalm i'm sorry go to genesis chapter one
and i'm going to read for you psalm 139 verse 7
the bible says whither shall i go from thy spirit
or whither shall i flee from thy presence you know the psalmist here is
saying that you can't escape the spirit of god why because the spirit of god is
omni present which is an attribute of god himself and so the reason the holy
spirit is omnipresent is because the holy spirit is god look at genesis
one verse one it says in the beginning god
created the heaven and the earth so we're at the beginning
of time right here and it's not very soon into the bible
that we see the spirit of god mentioned verse 2
and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the
deep and the spirit of god moved upon the
face of the waters and god said let there be light
and there was light so all the way from the beginning
of creation the spirit of god is mentioned
and the spirit of god is mentioned as having a part in
the creation of the world why because the holy spirit
is god and it's kind of a beautiful picture here of
how the holy spirit was moving among the waters
right before light was shown into the world
and when we go out soul winning don't we often pray that the holy spirit would go
before us that it would convict the hearts of the
people that we're talking to because what we're hoping is for the holy
spirit to go you know on the face of the waters
of their hearts and then light would shine the light of the gospel would
shine and then they would be saved lord willing
that's what we're hoping for and that's kind of a picture of what
we're seeing here go to hebrews chapter one
but you just got to realize that when we're praying for the holy spirit
to go before us to work in the hearts of individuals that we talk to
out soul winning we're not just praying for some impersonal force to go before
us okay this isn't star wars you know we're not
praying you know like what's an impersonal force like gravity
you know the holy spirit is not like gravity okay you know because you could
say well you know gravity is kind of omni presence
right you can't really escape gravity at least on this earth
but that's not the same thing the holy spirit is a person the holy spirit is
god and that's actually my second point is that the holy spirit
is a person the holy spirit is a person hebrews 1 verse 3 says
who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his
person and upholding all things by the word of his power
when he had by himself purged our sins and sat down on the right hand of the
majesty on high now this specific verse
is referring to how the lord jesus christ is the express
image of god the father's person but i just want to show you how the bible has
no problem using the word person when referring
to a member of the godhead and some people like to get up in arms
and freak out about saying that a member of
the godhead is a person but we have a clear verse right here
saying that jesus christ is the express image of god the father's
person and what the bible teaches is that each member
of the godhead is its own person you know the bible talks about how jesus
has his own will and he's praying not my will be done
but thine be done and we're going to look more into the holy spirit pretty
soon but go to acts chapter number 13 act
chapter number 13
now prove let's let's prove that the holy ghost is a person
and by the way the holy spirit of god the holy ghost
the spirit of god these are all talking about the same person the bible uses
these terms interchangeably acts 13 2 says as
they ministered to the lord and fasted notice the holy
ghost said separate me barnabas and saul
for the work whereunto i have called them
you know last time i checked things that aren't persons don't speak
but the holy ghost is the one who said separate me
barnabas and saul the fact that the holy ghost is speaking
is pointing to the fact that the holy ghost is a
person go to first corinthians chapter number six first corinthians chapter
number six
first corinthians chapter six says in verse 19 what
know ye not that your body is the temple of the holy ghost which is in you which
you have of god and you are not your own you know the
bible teaches that our body is the dwelling place of the holy
spirit now of course it's not the singular
dwelling place of the holy spirit because if you're saved every single one
of us in this room has the holy spirit of god dwelling
within us and the holy spirit of god is omnipresent
but the bible is teaching here that the holy spirit resides
in our bodies which is why also in the bible talks about how we're not supposed
to grieve the holy spirit of god whereby we are sealed unto the day of
redemption you know it's hard to grieve something
that's not a person but you know what a person
speaks a person dwells somewhere a person can be grieved you know it's
important for us to remember that the holy spirit of god is a person
living inside of us that we can grieve when we decide to sin
you know i guarantee that the holy spirit of god
on 430 on a sunday evening is grieved if they're watching that freak kendrick
lamar on the super bowl rather than being in
god's house you know the holy spirit of god living
inside of you wants to be in god's house when it's time to be in church doesn't
want to be watching the super bowl watching the halftime show
no that's going to be grieving the holy spirit of god
go to matthew chapter number three number three when it comes to the
characteristics of the holy spirit is that the holy spirit has a spiritual
body the holy spirit has a spiritual body
again this is something people love to freak out about but hold on we've
already we've already discussed he's god he's a
person he has a spiritual body now i'm not
saying that the holy spirit has a physical body let me be very clear
the holy spirit has a spiritual body go to matthew 3 verse 13
it says then cometh jesus from galilee to jordan
unto john to be baptized of him so you have the son of god in this story
but john forbade him saying i have need to be baptized of thee
and comest thou to me and jesus answering said unto him
suffer it so to be now for thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness then he suffered him and jesus when he was baptized went up
straightway out of the water and lo the heavens were opened unto him
notice and he saw the spirit of god descending like a dove and lighting upon
him and lo a voice from heaven saying this
is my beloved son in whom i am well pleased go to luke
chapter three so here in this story you have all three members of the godhead
involved in this story you have the son of god being baptized
you have the father's voice from heaven saying this is my beloved son in whom
i'm well pleased and you have the holy spirit of god
descending like a dove and notice what it said
that jesus saw the spirit of god now obviously there's times in the bible
where god allows people to see angels or to see the spiritual realm
going on around us so i don't think that the holy spirit of god is just
someone that we could see at any time but god did allow in this situation for
jesus to see the spirit of god which means that he
had to have had some sort of shape some sort of bodily form luke 3 is
a little bit more clearer on this where it says in verse 20 to 22
and the holy ghost notice descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him
and a voice came from heaven which said thou art my beloved son
in thee i am well pleased so again what are we talking about we're talking about
a spiritual body here but he does have a spiritual body
because jesus was able to see him coming down in a
bodily shape so this was something that he was able to
see go to first corinthians chapter number 12
first corinthians chapter number 12 number four as far as the
characteristics of the holy spirit of god
is that the holy spirit has his own will he has his own will which again kind of
goes into the point of him being his own person is that the holy spirit has
his own will i'll show you that first corinthians 12 4 says
now there are diversities of gifts but the same
spirit and there are diversities of administrations
but the same lord and there are diversities
of operations but it is the same god which worketh all in all you know it's
funny the bible using this word diversity
because we're talking about how the buzzword in our culture you know is that
diversity is our strength and it's like look diversities of gifts
is good diversities of administrations how things are run is good
operations that's fine but we need to have the same spirit
we have to have the same lord we have to be united and agreed on those things
but it says in verse 7 but the manifestation of the spirit
is given to every man to profit with all for to one
is given by the spirit the word of wisdom
so it could actually be a gift given to a person by the holy spirit
to be a person that excels in wisdom and you know who is the type of person that
god is going to grant the gift of wisdom to it's probably going
to be someone that asks for it someone that prays for it because you
know you had solomon and god appears to solomon and solomon
asks god for wisdom to judge this so great people
and god says hey i'm going to give you wisdom and i'm going to give you riches
and all these things that you didn't ask for because you are
primarily concerned with wisdom so the holy ghost can give us the gift of
wisdom and if you want that gift you should
probably pray for it that's the best way to get it
to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit you know some
people are just very good as far as knowledge they're
able to study really hard and retain things
that they study that is a great gift to have verse 9
to another faith by the same spirit to another the gifts of healing by the
same spirit to another the working of miracles to
another prophecy to another discerning of spirits
to another diverse kinds of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues
verse 11 is the key verse here but all these worketh that
one and the self same spirit notice dividing to every man severally
as he will so who is the one willing or deciding who gets these
gifts it's the holy spirit of god the holy
spirit of god has his own will and he is dividing
severally two people the gift of tongues the gift of
knowledge the gift of wisdom the gift of prophecy right
and look some of these gifts are no longer around today you know we don't
have the power to lay our hands on someone
and heal someone of their disease okay you know we could pray
you could bring the elders before the church and anoint the person with oil
and pray for their sins to be forgiven them and god can heal those people
but you know we within ourselves we do not have the power to just
raise people from the dead and just heal people from whatever diseases right
but you know some of these some of these uh gifts for sure
are around today how about the gift of tongues that's not
you know speaking gibberish and rolling your head around backwards and walking
on the ceilings or something like that the gift of tongues is just speaking a
different language and you know like i look at a guy like pastor anderson
who's fluent in i think like seven plus languages fluent
it's like that's a guy that has the gift of tongues now of course
he also works very very hard i'm not discounting how much time and effort he
puts into it but it seems like the holy spirit has
helped him and enabled him to be able to speak other languages very well
the gift of prophecy you know if god gives someone the ability
to preach you know you should use whatever gift god has given you
why because it was the holy spirit's will to give you whatever gift you have
you know and you should be thankful to god and honored by the fact that hey god
gave me this you know gift whatever i have let's use
it for the glory and honor of god let's not keep it bottled up
let's use it go to mark chapter number 16
so really quickly that's just kind of the characteristics of who the holy
spirit is he's god he's a person he has a
spiritual body he has his own will now let's talk
about the ministries of the holy spirit what
does the holy spirit do what has he done throughout history
number one one of the ministries of the holy spirit is
miracles miracles now this primarily was done
through the old testament to the time of the apostles okay
and i'm going to show you this in mark 16 verse 17 it says
and these signs shall follow them that believe
in my name they shall cast out devils they shall speak with new tongues
they shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing
it shall not hurt them they shall lay hands on the sick
and they shall recover so then after the lord had spoken unto them he was
received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of god and
they went forth and preached everywhere the lord working with them and
confirming the word with signs following amen this was one of the
ministries of the holy spirit of god was to come upon
these men these apostles people at this time
and allow them to do great miracles i mean we could all agree here
that it is a miracle that if you were to drink some deadly thing
and you not have any harm it is a miracle if you could get
bit by venomous steak snake excuse me what's a venomous steak i don't know
that's probably something that's well done
that's a venomous steak right there don't ever eat one of those that's an
abomination you know but if you were to get bitten
by some sort of venomous snake and you felt no harm that's clearly a
miracle is it not but notice why it was that god allowed
these miracles to take place and this is really important
because you have all sorts of pentecostal you know apostolic churches
that are going to tell you that these miracles are performed every sunday at
their church but notice what it says again in verse
20 and they went forth and preached everywhere the lord working with them
and confirming the word with signs following amen the reason why
the holy spirit gave these signs to these men is
because scripture was still being written
and so because scripture was still being written
god allowed them to do these great miracles to back up the veracity of the
word of god to where it's not just something that
they're saying but it's like okay these guys are saying all these great
powerful truths and they're doing these great miracles
this lines up this is the work of god but today we have something way more
important and way more valuable and way more uh verifiable than even
miracles and that is the word of god itself
the word of god is done it's been written there's no new testament
there's no you know a new testament of jesus christ like uh
like the mormons teach that the book of mormon is another testament
no we have the old and new testament and that's it it is done
go to matthew chapter number 16 matthew 16
and you know i know these people are fraud because
if if they were following what mark 16 said
you know i want to see them get bit by a snake and live i want to see you
drink deadly poison and live let's see it right now why aren't you doing that
because it's a fraud you know anytime you see a church with a sign that says
miracles done here just realize they're charlatans they're
liars because if they actually had the gift of healing you got to realize
that there would be millions and millions of people at their
church like when jesus was healing people there was
innumerable multitudes around him the bible said
i mean because i don't know about you any infirmity i have in my body
if i knew someone could just touch me and heal me of that stuff
i would be down and there's people that have serious health problems
serious injuries i don't even have anything like that so much the more you
think those people would literally travel the world
to go to that church but that's not happening because they're liars
because they're not operating under the spirit of god
they're frauds they're of the devil is what they are they're liars
matt matthew chapter 16 verse 1 says the pharisees also
with the sadgeses came and tempting desired him
that he would show them a sign from heaven
he answered and said unto them when it is evening he say
it will be fair weather for the sky is red and in the morning it will be foul
weather for the sky is red and lowering oh ye
hypocrites you can discern the face of the sky but
can you not discern the signs of the times a wicked and adulterous
generation seek it after a sign and there shall be
no sign be given unto it but the sign of the
prophet jonas and he left them and departed so notice
jesus is approached by these people that want to see a miracle from him
that want to see a sign from him and how did jesus react
you know he reacted in anger why because the words of jesus christ
should be more trustworthy than seeing any sign
and he kind of uses this uh physical truth to illustrate a spiritual truth
he's saying look you're able to recognize some carnal truths of this
world you're able to look at the sky and
you're able to tell what the weather is going to be like
and you know meteorology that is a very secure
well-studied science and you look at the weather app and let's be honest it's
almost right a hundred percent of the time
and even back then they just looked at the sky they were able to tell what the
weather was going to be but he's like look you may be able to
understand some of these physical truths
but you're not able to discern the signs of the times they're not able to discern
that god in the flesh is right in front of them why do you need to see a sign
why do you need to see a miracle when jesus christ is in front of you
he is the miracle he is the sign he had the miraculous virgin birth
the words of jesus christ are miracles in and of themselves
and you know they shouldn't be asking for anything above that when he himself
is there and i think god wants us to have the
same attitude today where christianity is not about this
hyper spiritual experience where you're seeing people doing backflips and
walking on the ceilings and speaking gibberish
and handling snakes and drinking poison he wants you to be satisfied with the
words of jesus christ he wants you to be able to look at the
bible and hear the word of god being preached
and be satisfied and trust and have faith in what it says
and you know anything beyond that is coming from a wicked heart the bible
that is a wicked heart that is constantly desiring a sign
go to second peter chapter number one second peter
chapter number one
go to verse 16 of second peter chapter number one
notice what it says it says for we have not followed cunningly devised fables
when we may known unto you the power and coming of our lord jesus christ
but were eyewitnesses of his majesty for he received from god the father
honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from
the excellent glory this is my beloved son in whom i'm well
pleased and this voice which came from heaven
we heard when we were with him in the holy mount
talking about the mount of transfiguration
we have also a more sure word of prophecy where unto you d what you do
well that you take heed as unto a light that
shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise
in your hearts knowing this first that no prophecy
of the scripture is of any private interpretation
for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man
notice but holy men of god spake as they were moved
by the holy ghost and you know we need to
change our mentality where we're not always looking for the
mount of transfiguration experience which hey praise the lord for the mount
of transfiguration praise the lord for the great miracles
that are done in the word of god that we read about
but peter's saying look i was there i was an eyewitness of these things i
heard the voice of god from heaven saying this is my beloved son in whom
i'm well pleased but he's saying look more sure than
even that experience that i saw with my own eyes
that i heard with my own ears is the word of god
and you know that is real christianity right there that
lets the word of god trump your feelings you know so many times
people and i think a lot of these people are are truly convinced in their mind
you talk to them about soul winning and they say like look god spoke to me
and told me this and look i i'm sure some of those people are just complete
liars i'm sure other of those people are
completely delusional and crazy i'm sure other of those people are
mistaking their emotions for the word of god you know it's kind of
a mix of these things but you have to realize what the bible is trying to do
is dial in our minds to say like look it doesn't matter what experiences you may
have actually had or thought you had it doesn't matter
what matters is what the word of god says
and the word of god is a more sure word of prophecy not only that
desiring a sign desiring a miracle verse 21 explains to us
that the word of god is a miracle look at look at it again verse 21
for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man
but holy men of god spake as they were moved by
the holy ghost the word of god was not produced from the heart of man
from the mind of man the word of god is a miracle that was
given to us because it was inspired by god men of god were filled with the holy
spirit they are moved by the holy spirit god
gave them utterance to give us the word of god now just like jesus christ
is 100 god and 100 man i believe it's the same way
with the inspiration of scripture there's a doctrine out there that many
independent fundamental baptists believe called mechanical dictation and there's
good people there's people that i love that believe this doctrine
but mechanical dictation teaches that inspiration was god basically
controlling a prophet's body controlling his tongue
controlling his mind to say exactly what god wanted him to say
now i do think there is an instance of that happening
like when balaam's ass spake like an animal speaking that's obviously
god performing a miracle and moving that donkey's mouth but i
believe that the rest of scripture is more of a
dynamic inspiration where god is still using the personality
thoughts experiences wisdom knowledge intellect
of the human author while also presenting god's words on the page
so i believe that the bible is 100 god and 100 man just like the lord jesus
christ is 100 god 100 man but it did not originate from
men right god used men to write it physically
but it did not originate from men because this verse
in verse 21 is telling us that it came from god
go to deuteronomy chapter number 13 deuteronomy 13
so we're talking about miracles this is one of the ministries of the holy spirit
and the word of god in and of itself is a miracle and i thank god for that
miracle
well you know what should we do when someone claims to be doing miracles
look at deuteronomy 13 1 it says if there arise among you a
prophet or a dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a
sign or a wonder so this person is performing
miracles and the sign of wonder come to pass where if he spake unto thee
saying let us go after other gods which thou
not known and let us serve them so i want to make
sure you understand what this is saying a prophet gets up and says i'm a prophet
i'm a man of god right here is a miracle and they actually do
the miracle but they say let's go worship other gods
okay that's the context of what we're talking about
verse three thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet
or that dreamer of dreams for the lord your god proveth you
to know whether you love the lord your god with all your heart and with all
your soul you shall walk after the lord your god
and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice and ye shall serve
him and cleave unto him notice again the idea the idea here
again is that the bible is emphasizing the superiority of god's
written word than seeing miracles or having some
sort of experience to where even if you were watching
someone do a literal miracle and let's say it was even real but if
they're telling you to go serve another god
you're not supposed to hearken to that you're supposed to hearken to what the
bible actually says you know we see in the bible
wicked people doing miracles how about pharaoh's henchmen
i mean moses and aaron are performing all these miracles
and then the magicians in egypt were able to copy many of those miracles
now i have no idea how i'm not really interested in getting deep into the
occult and finding out how much of this stuff is real and how
much is fraud because all i know is what the bible says
and if someone's doing miracles but they're not speaking according to the
word of god i'm going to listen to what the bible says every time
and not allow those miracles to sway me go to john chapter 20 john chapter
number 20
you know and people get really caught up with
an emotional prediction like a preacher getting up and making some sort of
prediction and it coming to pass or doing some sort of miracle people
get really caught up with this stuff like i saw that before president trump
had that assassination attempt on him that apparently there were some
preacher in oklahoma that said he had a vision
that donald trump was going to get shot in the ear or something like that
and it seemed like to the untrained observer it seemed like this guy pretty
much called the assassination attempt and you might look at that and say like
that's kind of weird but then later on he said that during the inauguration
there was going to be a giant terrorist attack in oklahoma city
and guess what it didn't happen so you're a fraud
you're a liar you're a false prophet you know hey sometimes
maybe the devil helps these people make some predictions
maybe they are able to do some miracles but at the end of the day if they're not
speaking according to the word of god i'm not going to listen to them i'm not
going to give any heed to them john 20 verse 27 says then sayeth he to
thomas reach hither thy finger and behold my
hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not
faithless but believing and thomas answered and said unto him my
lord and my god jesus saith unto him thomas because thou
has seen me thou hast believed blessed are they that have not seen and
yet have believed you know there is an extra
blessing for the christian that hasn't seen the
miracles that didn't get to see the prophets of old
that didn't even see the lord jesus christ walk this earth but we just read
the words of god and believe it jesus is saying those people are greatly
blessed and you know i would rather be a person
that is more blessed by just reading the word of god and believing it
than being like thomas where it's like oh you believe because you saw him
you know god takes pleasure in the fact that here we are in 2025
and we believe him even though he lived that long ago
that does bring pleasure to god you know the people that are obsessed
with signs and miracles and wonders you know who
they are going to love is the anti-christ
because the anti-christ the bible teaches is going to be doing
all these miracles and powers and signs and lying wonders
by the power of satan go to nehemiah chapter 9
while you're turning there i'm going to read for you second thessalonians 2 9
even him whose coming is after the working of satan
with all power and signs and lying wonders
and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish
because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved
look the anti-christ is going to be doing all sorts of miracles
and all sorts of things where people are going to say like this is the power of
god this is the only way these miracles could be happening
no the bible already warned us that he's going to be doing these miracles
and the whole purpose is so that god could find those that don't love the
truth that love unrighteousness and that those
people might be damned the bible says and so it's kind of a litmus
test to see if you fear god and if you love god those that love god
will stick to his word no matter what they see
because the bible's our final authority those that don't will be turned aside
another ministry of the holy spirit is that he's a teacher
nehemiah 10 or i'm sorry 9 verse 20 says
thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them
and withheld us not thy manna from their mouth and gave us them
water for their thirst so here the good spirit the holy spirit of god
was given to instruct and you know one of the ways that
god does that is by giving us as efeasians talks about
pastors and teachers and evangelists and apostles and prophets all these people
that god has given us who are filled with the holy spirit of
god that are able to instruct and teach but also jesus taught that the holy
spirit will come and will teach us all things
and we have no need that another man teach us
so you know theoretically you by yourself with the holy spirit of god
can learn any truth in the word of god it's not like you have to go to seminary
or some advanced education to be able to get all the deep truths of the bible
you know if you pray if you apply yourself if you want to know the truth
if you ask the holy spirit to teach you he will teach you
now of course this doesn't mean we should get rid of pastors or preachers
or anything like that because you know in a church there's people
that are on different spiritual levels there's people that are coming in that
just got saved and by having a teacher can help people
go farther in their faith faster you know that's something that's good
you know i myself i'm a pastor i learn from preaching all the time
i listen to other pastors preach and i learn new things all the time
you know it's important for us to have that but at the end of the day it's the
holy spirit that is teaching us go to the first grenthians
chapter number two first grenthians chapter two
first grenthians chapter two verse nine
but as it is written i have not seen nor ear heard
neither have entered into the heart of man the things which god hath prepared
for them that love him but god hath revealed them unto us
notice by his spirit for the spirit
searcheth all things yay the deep things of god skip down to
verse 14 but the natural man receiveth not the
things of the spirit of god for they are foolishness unto him neither
can he know them because they are spiritually discerned
you know this is an important truth for us to understand and i think it
helps us with you know relationships with family
members who aren't saved is you have to realize that there are
things in the bible that you cannot understand
without the holy spirit of god that you cannot understand
unless you are saved now of course everyone can pretty
pretty much everyone can understand the carnal truths of the bible
noah built an ark right you don't need the holy spirit of god
to understand that noah built an ark or to understand that god created the
heaven and the earth you don't even need to have the holy
spirit of god to believe that jesus is real or something like that
but the spiritual truths of the bible it's spiritually discerned
you cannot understand these things unless you're saved
so you know understanding the foreshadowings of jesus christ from the
old covenant understanding you know what the temple
represented what abraham and isaac's sacrifice represented the threshing
floor of ornam the jebi site like looking at stuff like this and
making application and dividing scripture
this requires the holy spirit of god now the good news for us that are saved is
that we can do that that we have access to that knowledge and
thank god for that that's a blessing the word of god is like honey it's sweet
to our taste it's refreshing to read and we get to have all these great deep
truths because we're saved but on the other hand you have to
realize that your unsaved mom doesn't have that ability your unsaved
family members that you want to waste every christmas and thanksgiving arguing
doctrine over you know nothing's ever going to change
until they get saved and so before you ever try
to teach some deep doctrine or get into some doctrinal fight with someone
you need to make sure that they are saved first this is why
like debates are dumb from the perspective of thinking that a debate
will actually try to you know reconcile differences you know
a saved man debating an unsaved man they are never
going to agree unless the unsaved man gets saved but
they're not going to come away from that you know debate and saying like oh
yeah you know i totally understood what you were saying there saved man
no it's not going to happen because those things are spiritually discerned
right so these type of things debating your family members
debating your co-workers on doctrine it's a complete waste of time
what you should be doing is doing everything you can to get them the
gospel right and do this out so winning too
because people sometimes they're like i call them doorstep
theologians doorstep theologians means like they don't go to church
they don't read their bible but the second you're on their doorstep they're
now a theologian and they want to talk doctrine about
everything in the scripture you know i had a lady like that today
that was explaining to me that when god said
be perfect for i am perfect means that we can be sinless
and she's just saying like you know that's what i'm working towards i'm
working towards you know being sinless i don't see it in the bible where you
know we could just sin or anything like that she's what a doorstep theologian
right she does not understand the spiritual truths of the bible
because she is unsaved go to romans chapter number eight
let's start speeding through some of this here romans chapter eight
another ministry of the holy spirit is that he comforts the holy spirit of god
comforts us as you're turning there i'll read john 14 16
and i will pray the father and he shall give you another comforter
that he may abide with you forever even the spirit of truth whom the world
cannot receive because it seeeth him not neither knoweth him
but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you so the holy spirit
of god is a great comforter for us and
how does he comfort us well one way he comforts us is helping us to understand
the word of god and you know the word of god is very
comforting to me you know i ran out to a lady out soul
winning today unfortunately she did not get saved but
she was very emotional it was very weird she was like crying the whole gospel
presentation she was finishing the verses for me when
i was quoting for them she seemed like she had a lot of
familiarity with the word of god but she like almost viewed herself as
being too sinful or something like that it wasn't like getting through her head
that it's a free gift and that she doesn't have to stop being a drug addict
or whatever issue she was having but she was just saying like i don't know
if i want to call upon the name of the lord
i'm just really sad you know i get sad sometimes and i'm like hey i get sad
sometimes too but you know what helps me is the word of god
you know the comforter the holy spirit of god is the comforter
and it's like yeah of course you're going to be extra sad when you're not
saved and you don't have that comforter you know we have the holy spirit of god
that comforts us by helping us to understand the scripture
by bringing scripture to our remembrance when we need it
right when you're going through a hard time and you remember a story in the
bible or you remember a scripture and it helps you through that another
way he comforts us is by helping us in prayer look at
romans 8 26 likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities
talking about our weaknesses as people for we know not what we should pray for
as we ought but the spirit itself maketh intercession for us
with groanings which cannot be uttered you know god understands
how weak our frame is that we are just flesh
and that sometimes i don't know about you sometimes you just pray and you just
feel like i don't even know what to pray for right now i don't even know how
to put two words the things that i'm going
through that i'm experiencing but the holy spirit of god comforts us
because he takes that and he brings it to the father and he kind of translates
it with groanings that cannot be uttered
you know the holy spirit of god says hey brother so-and-so he can't put this to
words right now but this is what he needs
this is the way that he needs help right now from god the holy spirit does that
for us and in verse 27 it says and he that
search at the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit
because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of
god and we know that all things work together for good to them that love god
to them who are the called according to his purpose you know some people like to
falsely accuse us as baptists because we don't believe that there's
still these apostolic miracles going on because we don't believe that god is
going to possess our body and make us speak gibberish
i've heard this many times out so many oh you guys don't believe in the holy
spirit of god that's what they'll say you don't
believe in the holy spirit no i believe in the holy spirit
i believe that the mind of the holy spirit and the person of the holy spirit
himself is going to translate my prayers to god
when i need help because of my infirmities i i 100 believe
that the spirit of god does that for me another ministry of the holy spirit go
to john 16 and we'll wrap it up pretty quickly here
another ministry of the holy spirit is that the holy spirit of god
reproves what does that mean tells us when we're wrong
makes us feel guilty for things when we are wrong
john 16 7 says nevertheless i tell you the truth
it is expedient for you that i go away for if i go not away
the comforter will not come unto you but if i depart i will send him unto you
and when he has come he will reprove the world
for sin of sin and of righteousness and of judgment very clearly
the holy spirit it is said that one of the things that he does is that he
reproves the world of sin now there's a major
false prophet known as joseph prince has anyone ever
heard of this guy he has a gigantic mega church i believe
in australia and i think he also has it in singapore
and has like all these different locations all over the world
but he's known for teaching the hyper grace
movement where he basically teaches that god could never be mad at you for
anything god is never mad at his children and
this doctrine actually crept into a new ifb church at one point
and this person thankfully was kicked out but this was going around in a new
ifb church that god can never be mad at you
god can never convict you of your sin god would never reprove a christian for
their sin when the bible literally says that the
holy spirit of god is given to us to reprove the world of sin okay joseph
prince said this the bottom line is that the holy spirit
never convicts a believer of his sins he never comes to point out your faults
it's like tell me you're of satan without telling me
when jesus literally said the holy ghost is coming to reprove the world of sin
and here's this guy saying oh the bottom line is the holy spirit
never convicts a believer of his sins you know he may feel that way because
he's not saved and so he's never felt the holy spirit
convict him of his sins but i'm guessing that every single person in here has
felt that before right before you were saved you were not
a child of god you do not have the spirit of god
and you could sin and you know you might feel bad on some level because the law
of god is written on our hearts but you know it's different once you're
saved the conviction that you feel for doing wrong
and you feel convicted about things now that you didn't before
right like everyone has some sort of morality at birth like
murdering someone everyone knows that's wrong committing adultery everyone knows
that's wrong but like you know how about before
you're saved a lot of people just flippantly use the lord's name in vain
and a lot of times before you're saved you don't even think twice about that
you don't feel guilty about it because you just hear everyone do that
and it's just part of the culture but you know i don't know about you but
after i got saved that thank the lord is something that i
cut out of my life and i would feel extremely
smitten if i were to do that today and when i'm around people
that just use the lord's name in vain it does
bother me when i'm around family members that just use
the lord jesus's name in that way it really just gets under my skin
really bad but before i was saved i never would have bothered me
because it's just normal right but what is that that's the holy spirit of god
reproving us thou shalt not take the name of the lord
thy god in vain for he will not hold him guiltless
that taketh his name in vain that means something to us now
before when you're saved oftentimes it does
not go to if you would act chapter number four acts chapter
number four
last ministry we'll talk about that the holy spirit does for us is that he
enables us to do the work of god the holy spirit is
what enables us to do great exploits for god
acts chapter 4 verse 31 says and when they had prayed
the place was shaken where they were assembled together
and they were all filled with the holy ghost notice what happens to them right
after they're filled with the holy ghost and they spake the word of god with
boldness and look this applies to man woman boy
and girl that if you are filled with the holy
spirit of god god will enable you to speak the word of
god with boldness you know i've seen little children get
grown men saved you want to know why that little child
is able to bring a grown man to faith in jesus christ it's the
holy spirit of god and children can be filled with the
holy spirit of god women men all of us that are saved you
could be filled with the holy spirit of god and that enables you to do a great
work and you know that's why it's so important that we take heed
to instruction in the bible that's telling us to walk in the spirit
to put on the new man because the more we walk in the spirit
the more we put off the works of the flesh the greater of a work that we
will do for god and you know that's kind of like one of
the principles of fasting is to chase in yourself and to get
yourself in a spiritual mindset and to be praying a lot and reading the
bible a lot so that you could be in that spiritual mindset so that you could then
do a great work for god you know it's not like just not eating
food itself is what enables you to do a great work for god but when you're
fasting the idea is that you're focusing on the spiritual
and walking in the spirit and that helps you to do a great work for god
so you know think about great things that we have coming up like
the bahamas missions trip you know we have a great
door open to us where we're going to be able to go to the colleges
we're going to be able to go to the schools we're going to have open access
to some of the most receptive people on this planet
you know it might not kill you before that bahamas missions trip to just take
a day and fast and just pray and just seek god's favor just ask him
god fill me with the holy spirit when i'm over there
help fill me with boldness help me to preach the word of god with boldness
so that we can do a great work for you you know last year when we went or maybe
it was two years ago i remember we almost hit a thousand
salvations for about five days you know wouldn't it be great if this
year we went and we hit 1500 salvations wouldn't it be great if we went this
year and hit 2000 salvations but you know what we can do that if
we're filled with the spirit of god if we're walking in the spirit and god
will then bless us with that boldness to do a great work
notice what happened in verse 32 and the multitude of them that believed
were of one heart and of one soul neither said any of them
that ought of the things which he possessed was his own
but they had all things common and with great power
gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the lord jesus christ
and great grace was upon them all so notice what what happened when they were
filled with the holy spirit of god lots of people got saved great power
was given to them to witness of the resurrection of jesus christ
and great grace was given unto them all you know those are some things that i
want for this church you know i want god to give this church
and the soul winners in this church great power and make us not just soul
winners but effective soul winners not just preachers but effective
preachers that actually could do a great work for god
and on top of that grace as well it's funny how
the more these people were filled with the holy spirit the more grace god gave
unto them it's pretty interesting because you
would think hey you know the more i'm walking in the spirit
the less that you need but that's not true god is willing to
impart more grace unto someone who's walking in the spirit
let's go to acts chapter one we'll finish here acts chapter number one
acts chapter number one
look at verse eight it says but ye shall receive
power realize that this is some of the last words of jesus christ here
before he ascended to heaven but ye shall receive power
after that the holy ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses
unto me both in jerusalem and in all judia
and in samaria and onto the uttermost part of
the earth you know jesus christ is no longer
physically on this earth but his mission goes on
his work goes on to this day he left us here to fulfill the great commission
he gave us the spirit of god to help us fulfill that mission
and notice how he says that we receive power to be witnesses of him
in the whole earth that's god's desire for us
is to be witnesses of him in all the earth and you got to realize that the
greatest work that we could do is preaching the gospel
that is the greatest work that we could do and how are we going to do it we have
to do it by the power of the holy spirit that's how we're
going to effectively accomplish the great commission
so just as in closing when we think about
the holy spirit of god you know why preach a sermon like this well first of
all we just need to make sure we have squared away doctrine right
we don't want to be a church where it's like oh you know half of us are belief
pentecostal beliefs on the holy spirit half of us think
speaking in tongues is rolling around on the floor half of us think his
languages like we need to get doctrine squared
away that god that the holy spirit is god that he's a person
right that he has his own will and on top of that we need to understand the
ministries of the holy spirit why so that we in our daily lives can
rely on the holy spirit of god so that we as a church could rely on the
holy spirit of god and realize that it's not through any intellect that
you have any strength that you have any financial might that you have that's
going to enable you to be a powerful servant of god it's
going to be by the spirit of god using you greatly and so as you're
living life as you're studying your bible hey pray
that the holy spirit would open your eyes and teach you the word of god
before you go out soul winning pray that the holy spirit would fill you
and that he would go before you and convict the world of sin right
that's what he does convict the world of sin lord help these people to be
convicted in their need of a savior you know let's
try to be filled with the holy spirit of god before we do
great feats like the bahamas missions trip so that we can have the greatest
outcome possible let's pray lord we do thank you for the
holy spirit of god we thank you for the ministry that he's had in times
past and that he has for us today i pray that you'd help us all to be
reliant upon him when we do the work of god
i pray that we would trust him and