men the title of my sermon tonight is the person of the Holy Spirit turn if
you would to Matthew chapter 3 the person of the Holy Spirit I'm going to
talk about the person and work of the Holy Spirit tonight now of course we
know that God is made up of God the Father Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost
the Holy Spirit we often talk about the Father and the Son we don't spend as
much time talking about the Holy Spirit in fact this even prompted brother
Hyles many decades ago to write a book called meet the Holy Spirit because he
felt like it was something that a lot of people didn't preach about or talk about
but I think that part of the reason for that is that the Bible doesn't go into
as much detail about the person of the Holy Spirit because the person of the
Holy Spirit is one who actually points to Jesus Christ okay he's not one that
glorifies himself but rather takes of the Word of God and and uses that and
glorifies Christ and and glorifies the Father but look at Matthew chapter 3
verse 16 the Bible reads and Jesus when he was baptized went up straight way out
of the water and lo the heavens were opened unto him 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 look at verse 1 of the
next chapter then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be
tempted of the devil so here we have Jesus Christ being baptized the Holy
Spirit descends on him like a dove and then there's the voice from heaven
coming from the Father saying this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased and
then that same Holy Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted of the
devil let me start out by making a very important point here and I've got a
couple of charts here to help illustrate this so if I can get my usual
volunteers up here to hold these if you remember the sermon from this morning we
talked about how man is made up of body soul and spirit right these are the
three components now I'm gonna have you hold this chart right here hold it up
nice and high and you know this represents the Trinity basically that
we've got God the Father we've got Jesus Christ and then we've got the Holy Ghost
right now they all are God God the Father's God Jesus is God the Holy Ghost
is God but they are not each other right God the Father is not Jesus Jesus isn't
the Holy Ghost three persons one God right I've got another chart here if
you'd hold this and get a little closer to the middle here and hold it up nice
and high and we've got another chart representing man here right and we've
got man who consists of soul and body and spirit right and if you think about
it you know the soul is that man and the body is that man you know if we were to
identify the body for example let's say I died tonight we went out of the
police station today that's Steven Anderson that would be correct wouldn't it but up
in heaven the soul and spirit of Steven Anderson you know that's also me too
right so the soul is that man the body is that man and then the spirit is also
that man but they are not each other are they I mean is the soul the body is the
body the spirit and we know that the Word of God even can divide between soul
and spirit even so these are not each other but each of them is the man right
and collectively they are the man just as each of these is God and collectively
they are God but they are not each other so this is kind of a great illustration
of this now no illustration is ever perfect you could take this illustration
and and twist it or pervert it but it does provide a good illustration so if
we were to kind of use this illustration and run with it then obviously the
spirit would be like the Holy Spirit right that's a no-brainer because it's
got a spirit in the name and then we'd say that okay well the body you know the
only one of these that has a flesh and bone body would be Jesus Christ and then
that leads God the Father as the soul here's what's interesting remember how
we talked about this morning that often the word soul is referring to the whole
person in the Bible we showed a whole bunch of examples from the Bible where
the word soul is not talking about just that part of the person but it's
referring to the whole person in general I'm not gonna re-preach that
sermon but what's kind of interesting about the fact that the soul can
sometimes be represented the whole thing is that if you were to just say God
because often the Bible just calls God the Father just God many times and then
also God in general is often just called God well then you can see how there's a
nice little parallel there isn't there so why am I bringing this up yeah you're
helping out that side a little bit so why am I bringing this up okay the
reason I'm bringing this up is that Jesus Christ was a man right he's the
Son of Man the man Christ Jesus so that means Jesus Christ had what soul body
and spirit but yet we see what in Matthew chapter 3 we see the Holy Ghost
descending like a dove and lighting upon it now this is not what descended like a
dove on Jesus and lit upon him do you understand everybody get this let me let
me help you out with my orange marker here so Jesus had a soul right we got a
soul of Jesus right and we've got a body of Jesus because I mean if he if he's a
man he should have this whole package he wasn't just a body walking around with
no spirit and no soul right we know he had a soul because it says his soul was
not left in hell right and then his body didn't see corruption and then we've got
here the spirit of Jesus okay so as a human being he possessed these three
components just like every other human being who's ever lived but then we have
someone else descending from heaven and lighting upon him it wasn't like his own
spirit jumped out of his body and then came down and came apart no no because
Jesus gave up the ghost on the cross right that's his spirit this is the Holy
Spirit in addition to Jesus Christ having his own spirit right just as a
man having body soul and spirit you know the Holy Ghost also came upon him he was
also filled with the Holy Ghost he was also led by the Holy Ghost that had to
externally descend upon him when he was 30 years old so what about the first 30
years of his life well the first 30 years of his life this is what he had
and then this person right here the Holy Ghost descended and came upon him led
him ministered unto him etc so we can go and put those away thank you I'll put
him back in the pulpit where I got him so before we get into a lot of
scriptures I just want to make sure that we understand these basic facts and and
kind of have these basic foundations going into the sermon now this is such
an important event that it's recorded in Matthew Mark Luke and John right so
certain things are only in certain Gospels this is in all four for sake of
time let's have you flip to Luke 3 while you're turning to Luke 3 I will just
mention to you that Mark 1 says that the spirit like a dove descended upon him
there came a voice from heaven saying thou art my beloved son in whom I'm well
pleased and immediately the spirit driveth him into the wilderness pretty
much the same thing we saw in Matthew Luke chapter 3 verse 21 now when all the
people were baptized it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and
praying the heaven was opened and the Holy Ghost so in Matthew 3 it said the
Spirit of God here it says the Holy Ghost same person descended in a bodily
shape like a dove upon him and a voice from heaven which said thou art my
beloved son in thee I am well pleased look at verse 1 of chapter 4 and Jesus
being full of the Holy Ghost as a result of what what just took place at
his baptism Luke 4 1 Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan and
was led by the Spirit into the wilderness go to John chapter 1 John
chapter number 1 got want to hurry because of time I'll start reading while
you get there John 1 29 the next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and
saith behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world this is
he of whom I said after me cometh a man which is preferred before me for he was
before me and I knew him not but that he should be made manifest to Israel
therefore am I come baptizing with water and John bear record saying I saw the
Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode upon him and I knew
him not but he had sent me to baptize with water the same said unto me upon
whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him the same
as he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost and I saw and bear record that this is
the Son of God now let me answer this question that a lot of people have asked
does the Holy Spirit have a body now the answer to that if we're talking about a
flesh and bone body is obviously no right it's Jesus that has a flesh and
bone physical body but the Bible did tell us in Luke chapter 3 that the Holy
Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him so the Holy Ghost descended
in a bodily shape but that doesn't mean that the Holy Ghost has a flesh and bone
physical body okay God the Father I don't believe that he has a physical
flesh and bone body either but you could say that they have a body in the
sense that obviously God the Father has a face and he has hands so there's a
there's a spiritual type body but to say that the Holy Ghost or God the Father
have a flesh and bone type body is a stretch or adding to what the scripture
tells us I believe that we have the man Christ Jesus being that member of the
Trinity that has the physical flesh and bone body you know he's got his own body
soul and spirit going on because he's just like every other human being in
that sense but God the Father and the Holy Ghost they don't have physical
bodies not flesh and bone okay now let's flip over to John chapter 14 let's get
into the nitty-gritty here of the person of the Holy Spirit there are people out
there who deny the fact that the Holy Spirit is a person they will say the
Holy Spirit's just a force or that it's just part of God sort of like man has a
body soul and spirit it's just a component of God the Father it's his
spirit or it's Jesus's spirit I already kind of debunked that by showing you
that obviously Jesus had his own spirit up till he's 30 and then externally the
Holy Ghost comes upon it but John chapter 14 through 17 these wonderful
four chapters of just a lot of red letters in your red letter edition Bible
Jesus just gives all this great preaching and prayer in chapter 17 and
there's so much evidence here that the Holy Spirit is a person one of the
biggest things I would point to is that he's referred to with a personal pronoun
he right now there is one place that I could point to in the Bible where the
Holy Spirit's referred to as it this is Romans 8 16 the spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God but that does not
prevent the Holy Spirit from being a person because Jesus Christ is also
referred to in that cut with that kind of a neuter pronoun in the book of Luke
when it says therefore that holy thing that holy thing which shall be born of
thee shall be called the Son of God right why because a baby there is being
referred to as a thing but of course we know it's also a person don't we it's
also a person that's why when we call people we say hello it's me not he's me
right we say it's me who is at the door oh it's mom right so there are times
when you could use it for a person and the fact that personal pronouns are used
over and over for the Holy Spirit shows that he is a person and it's gonna be
obvious as we look at the scriptures look at verse 15 of John 14 if you love
me keep my commandments 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 seeth him not neither knoweth him but
ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you notice he says I so we
have the Son of God Jesus Christ saying I will pray the father and he shall give
you another comforter not the same comforter Jesus Christ has been
comforting them quite a bit throughout his ministry because the comfort means
to strengthen to encourage and of course Christ did that repeatedly but he said
I'm gonna send you another comforter the father is gonna send you another
comforter he's gonna send another comforter in my name and he's gonna be
with you forever he he's dwelling with you right now why
because Jesus Christ is filled with the Holy Ghost right so you know he's with
you but he shall be in you they're going to be indwelled by the Holy Spirit right
verse 18 says this I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you now I
used to misunderstand this verse but once you understand this verse it's
crystal clear what's being said here you just can't unsee it okay keep your
finger there in John 14 go to John 20 John 20 because he says I'm gonna give
you another comforter that he may abide with you forever but then he turns around
says I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you so a misunderstanding
of this verse would be like oh well when he says I'm gonna come to you the Holy
Spirit that's Jesus coming to them because you know but remember the chart
here this is what we believe right we better be what we believe Jesus Christ
is not the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost is not Jesus Christ they're both God
right but we have one God three persons so what we have here when he says I will
not leave you comfortless I will come to you is the prophecy that he's going to
come to them and give them the comforter let's see that fulfillment in John
chapter 20 verse 19 then the same day at evening being the first day of the
week when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the
Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst and said unto them peace be unto you and
when he had so said he showed unto them his hands and his side then were the
disciples glad when they saw the Lord then said Jesus to them again peace be
unto you as my father had sent me even so send I you and when he had said this
he breathed on them and said unto them receive ye the Holy Ghost whosoever sins
ye remit they are remitted unto them and whosoever sins ye retain they are
retained so Jesus said I'm gonna send you another comforter it's expedient for
you that I should go away because if I go not away the comforter is not gonna
come and he says don't worry I'm not gonna leave you comfortless I'm gonna
come to you and do what give them another comforter that's what happened
in John 20 Jesus comes to them and he doesn't leave them comfortless does he
no he breathes on them and says receive ye the Holy Ghost look at John 14 again
verse 25 these things have I spoken unto you being yet present with you but the
comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall
teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I
have said unto you of course people people have made much ado about well is
it the Father sending the comforter or is it Jesus sending the comforter huh
well it's the Father sending the comforter in Jesus's name so it's
really just a silly discussion go to chapter 15 chapter 15 verse 26 but when
the comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father so they're both
sending him folks it's not that it's not rocket science even the spirit of
truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testify of me notice the third
person personal pronoun he that's third person shall testify of me that's first
person right and he also shall bear witness because you've been with me
from the beginning look at chapter 16 verse 7 chapter 16 verse 7 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 now
how in the world could anyone in their right mind walk away from this verse and
say oh Jesus and the comforter are the same person you'd have to be crazy to
think that because he says well you know you're not gonna have the comforter
until I'm gone you know look you're not gonna have pastor Anderson preaching
until I'm gone Stephen Anderson has to leave so that
pastor Anderson can appear all right so Stephen Anderson is gonna leave now and
when Stephen Anderson leaves pastor Anderson is gonna come out of this door
okay all right I'm pastor Stephen Anderson it's good to be here tonight
you know I'm glad we could get Stephen Anderson out of the way so that pastor
Anderson could come preach tonight but this is the logic of the oneness crowd
isn't it it says in verse seven you know the comforter will not come unto you but
if I depart I'll send him unto you okay why because he's a third person that's
why look at verse 13 how be it when he the spirit of truth has come he will
guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he
shall hear that shall he speak and he will show you things to come now what
does it mean when it says that the Holy Spirit will not speak of himself some
people might misunderstand this to think that he's not going to speak about
himself well that's not true because the Holy Spirit does speak about himself if
the Holy Spirit speaks through God's Word well does God's Word talk about the
Holy Spirit so that'd be the Holy Spirit talking about the Holy Spirit right when
the Bible says of here it's referring to the source of something okay so when it
says here he will not speak of himself what it's saying is that he is not the
source of the words that he's saying he's not coming up with things on his
own that he's gonna say what's he gonna do he's not gonna speak of himself but
whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak right so he hears something and
then speaks it it doesn't come from himself and we'll explain that a little
more in a moment he will show you things to come watch verse 14 he shall glorify
me and this is what I mean about why we don't put a massive emphasis on the Holy
Spirit is because the Bible places the emphasis on Jesus Christ as being the
Savior dying for us being buried and rising again and the Holy Spirit's role
the work of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus and that's what we're
doing glorifying Jesus that's why we end up talking more about Jesus than we
do talking about the Holy Spirit don't we it says he shall glorify me for he
shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you so when the Holy Spirit hears
something and speaks it the Bible is referring to that as him receiving from
Jesus and then showing that to them why because Jesus is the word so if Jesus is
the word of God made flesh it makes sense that the Holy Spirit is doing what
taking of the word of God and showing it to us that's why I get a little weary of
people saying oh the Holy Ghost told me and then they just kind of make
something up or just something that kind of came from their imagination or I just
felt like the Holy Spirit was saying go do this or don't do that it's like whoa
buddy is did he say that of himself you know isn't that kind of what they're
saying that the Holy Spirit is just coming up with all this new material to
say to you know the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to take of God's Word to take
of the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to take of Genesis Exodus
Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy and the whole rest of the Bible and show it to
you so the Holy Spirit would bring all things to remembrance that Christ told
the disciples okay so after Jesus Christ dies and is buried and rises again after
he's glorified he breeds on them they received the Holy Ghost now they have
that person with them the Holy Spirit who's going to guide them into all truth
he's the spirit of truth and he's gonna show them the Word of God you know what
the Holy Spirit does he uses the sword of the Spirit and you know what the
sword of the Spirit is the Word of God so that means you're out soul winning
and you're giving the gospel to someone and boom that perfect verse pops into
your mind and you say that verse right that's the Holy Spirit taking God's Word
and showing it to you bringing things into your remembrance what about when
I'm up here preaching and I'm preaching along and I didn't even have a verse in
my notes but BAM the Holy Spirit just brings that verse to my remembrance
that's you know so God does talk to us and he talks to us through the person of
the Holy Spirit when we read our Bibles the Holy Spirit speaks to us doesn't he
it's not like just reading any other book when we read the Bible the Holy
Spirit talks to us but he doesn't say things like pastor Anderson don't go to
that restaurant today it's a bad idea but people will say stuff like that or
the Holy Spirit said go talk to that guy now the Holy if I'm supposed to go talk
to that guy you know how the Holy Spirit would would say that to me he might
just bring a verse to my mind that says go ye therefore into all the world
preach the gospel to every creature which includes that guy right I mean you
know then I could read between the lines or let's say I'm about to commit a sin
and all of a sudden you know a verse pops into my mind telling me not to
commit that sin let's say I was going to look at something that I wasn't supposed
to and then the verse pops in my mind I'll set no wicked thing before my eyes
right and and verses are popping into my mind that are inspiring me to go
soul-winning not to say and to read my Bible to pray or whatever else that's
the Holy Spirit working in us using the Word of God now here's a little hint
though if you don't read the Bible if you don't know any Bible verses how's
the Holy Spirit gonna bring stuff to your remembrance when you never heard it
the first time I mean in order to remember something you got to hear it
the first time so the more you read the Bible the more you memorize the Bible
the more you listen to Bible preaching well guess what you're giving the Holy
Spirit a lot more things to bring to remembrance he's gonna be able to speak
to you through the Word of God he brings the Word of God to life not only that
but of course we know that his ministry inside us from other scripture the fruit
of the Spirit is love joy peace you know he enables us he empowers us to do the
right things and to serve God to preach with boldness he gives us power he gives
us love he gives us joy he gives us peace right he's a wonderful comforter
what does he do he strengthens us he encourages us he teaches us so he's a
pretty important person right to to be living right here with us and guiding us
you know this is one of the main perks of being saved in the New Testament is
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit this built-in comforter this built-in spirit
of truth this built-in teacher the Bible says that the anointing which we
have received of him abideth in us and we need not that any man teach us but as
the same anointing teaches us of all things that is truth and is no lie and
even as it has taught you he shall abide in him so we've got the Holy Spirit which
is the anointing of the Holy Spirit that is guiding us into all truth teaching us
and also giving us moral support strengthening encouraging allowing us
to love like he loves have joy like he has peace etc I mean we you know we talk
all night about the Holy Spirit so you know any one of these subjects we could
just go off and do a whole sermon on it right I'm just kind of giving you an
overview of the person of the Holy Spirit and his work let's look at verse
number 13 it says how be it when he the spirit of truth has come he'll guide you
into all truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear
that shall he speak and he will show you things to come he shall glorify me for
he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you all things that the Father
hath are mine therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall show it
unto you okay so that's part of his ministry now there are religions out
there that want to de-emphasize the Lord Jesus Christ and overemphasize the Holy
Spirit but we remember it's the Holy Spirit that glorifies Jesus we remember
it's the Holy Spirit that doesn't speak of himself he takes of Christ and shows
it unto us and most notably is of course the Pentecostal or charismatic movement
where it's just all about the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit
and there are many fraudulent counterfeit gifts of the Holy Spirit
where people will claim that they have the gift of tongues and they just are
babbling that's not the tongues of the Bible because in the Bible when they
spoke with other tongues they were actually foreign languages that people
from other countries understood you know the Italians are understanding the the
Jews that are with Peter they're understanding languages from people that
they wouldn't expect to speak that language and men of Galilee just speaking
all the languages under heaven in Acts chapter 2 that is not what we see today
with just ecstatic utterances and what was the purpose the purpose was to do
what to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ it was all about the gospel of
Jesus it wasn't just Holy Spirit for the sake of Holy Spirit I mean think about
today we have churches that they want to have a Holy Spirit revival because they
just want to have an experience they want to tingle that's what it really
comes down to as opposed to in the book of Acts the power of the Holy Spirit
came upon them so that they could preach the gospel what are they doing in Acts
2 getting people saved getting people baptized teaching people doctrine what
does it say in Acts 4 31 when they had prayed the place was shaken where they
were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they
spake the Word of God with boldness right that is the clearest evidence of
being filled with the Holy Spirit when you're preaching the Word of God with
boldness you know that's through the power of the Holy Spirit he empowers us
to do that in the Old Testament the Spirit of the Lord would come upon
people and allow them to do mighty works such as fighting a physical battle or
preaching a powerful message or a negative message to a king and having
the guts to confront kings and and rulers with a powerful message from the
Word of God right that's the power of the Holy Spirit right there so the Holy
Spirit is a person just like Jesus is a person just like God the Father is a
person right and the Holy Spirit is God the Holy Spirit is not any more or less
God than Jesus or the Father you've got the Father you got the Son you got the
Holy Ghost and these three are one now they they they obviously work together
in harmony in symphony but we see that there is an authority structure right
like we've already gone over in a lot of other sermons how the Son obeys the
Father he subjects his will to the Father not my will but thine be done
even after the millennial reign of Jesus Christ he delivers up the kingdom to the
Father and here we see that the Holy Ghost is taking a subservient role to
Jesus in the fact in the sense that he glorifies Jesus he doesn't speak of
himself he takes of Christ and shows it unto us now some people would look at
that and say that that makes Jesus inferior to the Father or that it makes
the Holy Ghost inferior to Jesus but you know this shows their lack of
understanding of what submission means and what it means to be obedient or a
servant you see prideful arrogant people they think that submitting or obeying or
ministering unto someone else somehow makes you inferior they're like the
Gentiles would think where those who are great exercise lordship upon them well
Jesus said whosoever will be great among you let him be your servant right so
servitude is not something that implies weakness or inferiority you see Jesus
Christ by being obedient that doesn't make him less that makes him more that's
a great attribute to have see Jesus has nothing to prove the Holy Ghost has
nothing to prove right Jesus doesn't mind glorifying the Father the Father
doesn't mind glorifying the Son what because of the fact that glorifying
someone else lifting up someone else serving someone else ministering to
someone else these are not things that make you inferior okay when you go to
your job and you serve the boss does that make you inferior unto him that
make him better than you know of course not but see prideful arrogant puffed up
people they think that so they have to be the boss all the time because you
know God forbid they should take orders from someone else you know they think
that being a servant is a bad thing being a servant is a blessing okay so
having a chain of command does not take away from the fact that father son and
Holy Ghost are co-equal they are all every bit as much of God as each other
there is a chain of command however now some people would balk at this teaching
of the Holy Spirit as a person go if you would do Ephesians chapter 4 and really
all of evangelical Christianity Baptists anyone who's even halfway close to being
saved acknowledges the teaching of the Trinity and believes in the fact that
the Holy Spirit's a person and that you know there's God the Father there's
Jesus there's the Holy Ghost and that the Trinity you know is the explanation
that is biblical but there are people out there who deny these truths and one
of the scriptures that I've heard oneness Pentecostals use or other
Trinity deniers use is Ephesians chapter 4 and they come up with this ridiculous
argument there's only one spirit and they just keep saying that over and over
again and it's just it's just it's sad how anyone could actually believe for
one second that that's what one spirit means and you know I hate to break it to
these people but there's this thing in the Bible called the seven spirits of
God I mean did you get there yet because God has seven spirits three
different spirits I see those three spirits and I'll raise you four and you
know to sit there and say there's only one spirit one spirit was there seven
it's just madness it's bizarre I mean think about it because here's their
logic they're like well if God's a spirit if God the Father's a spirit and
we know he's holy and then the Holy Spirit that that's two Holy Spirits and
the Bible says there's only one no actually there's seven seven spirits of
God I guess there's I guess six of them are unholy according to these idiots
and one of them's holy because God forbid there would be two spirits that
are holy right but see what they fail to understand is that the Holy Spirit is a
name the Holy Ghost is a name it's not just a spirit that's holy you know what
my spirits holy the spirit of Stephen L Anderson is holy not does that make me
the Holy Ghost I'm the Holy Ghost I mean I'm a spirit and I'm holy that's just
ridiculous okay because you've got three names God the Father's a name Jesus is
a name the Holy Ghost is a name so God the Father being a spirit and God the
Father being holy that doesn't make him the Holy Spirit and it well but we know
there's only one spirit right wrong there's seven but anyway it's already
confuse you with the facts there but look at Ephesians chapter 4 verse 1 this
is a great scripture on unity in the church that's what it's about it's about
having unity within the church and seeking to be unified and there are
certain things that unite us as believers right I mean look we have
people here tonight that are a red yellow black and white but here we are
united we have people here that are blue collar white collar and you know back
when we were in high school together we may have never even ate lunch together
right the types of people that we are we would have been in different crowds
but here we are all together united why what is it that unites us is it the fact
that we're all white we're all black we're all we're all Hispanic is that
what unites us is it the fact that we're all skaters you know is it the fact that
you know we're all this hobby or that hobby or we all dress this or no what is
it that unites us the Bible tells us what unites us here let's read the Bible
here verse 1 I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk
worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called vocation simply means the calling
so he's saying walk worthy of the calling wherewith you're called with all
lowliness and meekness with long-suffering forbearing one another in
love what's he begging for in verse 2 that people would get along with each
other isn't that what he's saying get along with each other is it going to
happen by accident no verse 3 says endeavoring that means we're putting
work into this right we're trying endeavoring to keep the unity of the
spirit in the bond of peace there is one body one spirit even as you're called in
one hope of your calling one Lord one faith one baptism one God and Father of
all who is above all and through all and in you all but unto every one of us is
given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ now some people that
are of the oneness persuasion they'll whenever they see the word one they just
kind of jump all over it so they would just kind of jump on this one spirit but
in the same book of the Bible keep your fingers all we got to do is go back to
chapter 2 verse 18 and we see a differentiation made between the Holy
Spirit and God the Father because it says for through him we both have access
by one spirit unto the Father so the Holy Spirit gives us access to the
Father and again if this meant that there's only one spirit that well then I
must not have a spirit because there's only one spirit I mean is that what it
means one spirit in the whole world one spirit in the universe well no it just
means God only has one spirit oh what about seven spirits of God it doesn't
work folks it's a dumb interpretation what the Bible is saying when it says
one spirit what's the context unity he's saying you know what the same Holy
Spirit that indwells me is the same Holy Spirit that indwells you and so if you
got the same spirit that I've got let's unite around that right that's gonna
bring us unity that's gonna help us have peace and get along right because look
at the other examples one baptism let's see how many baptisms did we have this
morning well we had four nope there's only one only one baptism you've missed
counted when you reported four baptisms for this morning because there's only
one baptism the Bible says isn't that kind of dumb what does that mean when it
says one baptism you know what that means the same way that I got baptized
is the same way that you got baptized there's not a certain baptism for this
kind of person we don't have a baptism for the Chinese and a baptism for the
white man and we don't have a baptism for the rich and a baptism for the poor
we don't have a different baptism for men and a different baptism for women no
what do we have one baptism it doesn't mean one as in there's only one it means
one type one kind so you gotta get the context of what is even getting across
here he's saying we're trying to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of
peace the primary unity builder is the spirit right one spirit so we've got one
body what's one body mean what's the body of Christ well that would be the
assembly that would be the congregation that would be the local church well let
me ask you this is there only one church no because all throughout the Bible it
says churches is the church in Ephesus Church in Smyrna Church in Thyatira so
what does it mean one body does it mean that there's only one body in the whole
world there's only one church the the Holy Roman Catholic Church or something
no when the Bible says one body you know what that means it means we don't
separate men and women we don't separate rich from poor we don't separate by
nationality we don't separate by any of those things there's one body and we
certainly don't separate Jew and Gentile one body Jew and Gentile bond and free
we're all one in Christ Jesus so there's only one body it doesn't mean there's
only one in the whole world folks you got to use context and common sense
there's one body there's one spirit one spirit doesn't mean that God doesn't
have seven spirits because he does what one spirit means is that the same Holy
Spirit is the same one that I have same one that you have same person that
indwells me is the same person that indwells you same way that I was dunked
in the name of the Father the Son the Holy Ghost is the same way that you are
dunked in the name of the Father the Son the Holy Ghost the same congregation
that I'm a part of the same body of Christ that I'm a member of is the same
body of Christ that you're a member of that's why we need unity what can we
rally around well we can rally around the same church the same Holy Spirit the
same baptism the same Lord the same faith right verse 5 one Lord one faith
one baptism one God and Father of all who's above all and through all and in
you all what does that do that brings us together brings us unity to take this and
twist it to try to somehow say well you know God can only be one spirit or God
can only have one spirit it's just a completely ignore scripture that says
that the Father is gonna send another company the Father is gonna send the
Holy Ghost in Christ's name and that there are seven spirits of God oh you
don't believe me okay revelation chapter 1 verse 4 John to the seven
churches which are in Asia grace be unto you and peace from him which is and which
was and which is to come and from the seven spirits which are before his
throne chapter 3 verse 1 and under the angel of the church and Sardis right
these things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars
revelation 4 or 5 and as the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and
voices and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne which are
the seven spirits of God and again in chapter 5 verse 6 and I beheld and lo in
the midst of the throne of the four beasts in the midst of the elders stood
a lamb as it had been slain having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven
spirits of God sent forth into all the earth now chapter 3 verse 1 of
revelation said that Jesus Christ had Jesus Christ had the seven spirits of
God in chapter 5 verse 6 the Lamb of God had the seven spirits of God
no one spirit Ephesians 4 one spirit there's only one spirit throw away the
Trinity throw out a couple thousand years of sound doctrine and let's jump
on the Pentecostal bandwagon of modalism oneness because there's only one spirit
well you know what you get on that train and it'll take you all the way to
hell different Jesus different God not the Jesus of the Bible now obviously you
can't lose your salvation but guess what anybody who's saved isn't going to get
on that train because when they go to get on that train the conductor also
known as the comforter is going to say excuse me sir you're getting on the
wrong train you see we're talking tonight about the person and work of the
Holy Spirit you know what the Holy Spirit's ministry is according to John
we already read it tonight didn't we he will guide you into all truth John
chapter 16 verse 13 said that he the spirit of truth will guide you into all
truth now let me just close the sermon by explaining this important concept
about the ministry of the Holy Spirit because a lot of people get messed up on
this they get mixed up and so I want to explain this and make it really clear
that a saved person is not going to fall for damnable heresy hook line and sinker
it's just not gonna happen I don't believe in it now people this is sort of
like the reprobate doctrine where sometimes you start thinking maybe
people just don't want to understand this maybe they're just pretending not
to understand it because it's not really that complicated what this means here's
what happens when you get saved all right you get saved right who comes and
lives inside you the Holy Spirit moves in right so when the Holy Spirit comes
and lives inside you what's he there to do he's there to guide you into all
truth right he's there to show you things in the Bible he's there to take
of Christ and show it to you he's also there to come for you encourage you help
you be more loving peaceful joyful etc but one of his major ministries is to
teach you the truth show you the truth that's why when I open my Bible to read
it I often pray open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy
law I asked the Lord to teach me the Bible right so the Holy Spirit said a
guide you into all truth well one thing that Jesus Christ said he said my sheep
hear my voice they will not follow another a stranger will they flee from
for they know not the voice of strangers and you know what he said that before
the Holy Ghost was even given you know he's already saying that a person who's
of his sheep a person who's safe is not just gonna fall hook line and sinker for
these Antichrists and false prophets you know the Bible says that when the
Antichrists come they will be so smooth that they would deceive the very elect
if it were possible why because it's not possible because first of all Christ
sheep hear his voice and second of all we have in the New Testament the added
benefit of the Holy Ghost are built in teacher and God I can't even count how
many times I've heard some heresy or false doctrine taught and I didn't know
why it was wrong but I just knew like that's wrong that isn't right there's
something wrong with that that's the Holy Ghost warning you about that now
that doesn't mean that we're never gonna make mistakes and get things wrong
because we're all gonna make mistakes and get things wrong but we're not just
gonna go all the way off the cliff into damnable heresy now I've seen people get
pretty mixed up on doctrine you see in the Bible you see Peter get mixed up on
doctrine at one point you see the Apostle Paul make some pretty weird
decisions in the book of Acts toward the end there but at the end of the day a
saved person you'll never convince me that a saved person is gonna go out and
become a devout Mormon think about that if I see somebody who was a Baptist
somebody who claimed to be safe go out and join the Latter-day Saints what am I
gonna say about that person he was never saved to begin with okay what if a
person came out of our church and started saying you know what I believe
that this whole world just came from the Big Bang and I think the Big Bang is
real I think that man is just an evolved animal you know I don't believe that
God's the Creator I don't believe that Genesis is telling us the truth I
believe it's a myth would you say that person saved or unsaved you'd say that
guy's not say now you're not saying he lost his salvation what are you saying
he was never saved to begin with the Holy Ghost never moved in hey once the
Holy Ghost moves in you're sealed by that Holy Spirit until the day of
redemption that's the earnest of our salvation and he's not going anywhere
he'll never leave you and so we would say that person was never saved to begin
with now here's how people try to twist this they'll try to say oh well you're
saying that when we go out soul-winning we have to explain the whole creation
story to people because you're saying that you have to believe on Jesus and
believe the creation story no no wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong what we're
saying is that if you believe in Jesus and you've got the Holy Ghost living
inside of you and somebody shows you Genesis chapter 1 you're gonna hear
God's Word and the Holy Spirit is gonna bear witness to your spirit that is
truth and you're not just gonna go all the way off into the cliff of some Big
Bang evolution thing does everybody get what I'm saying you're not gonna just be
like you know I changed my mind I'm Catholic and you know it's it's
salvation by works we need to venerate and pray to marry what are we gonna say
about that person friends well crazy okay but what we're gonna say is that
they were never saved to begin with okay but then there's a oh does that mean
that in your soul-winning presentation you also have to include a part about
not worshipping Mary you know is it is it believe on Christ and don't be
a Latter-day Saint is it believe on Christ and don't believe the Big Bang
it's like come on people who understands what I'm saying right now that it's not
the fact that they believe in the creation story that saves them it's the
fact that a saved person hears what God says from his word and they don't go off
the cliff into just damnable heresy you know I mean if somebody just comes you
and says hey Jesus is just a man he was a good teacher okay I mean you you'd say
that guy was never saved I don't care how long he went to that church you know
he didn't lose his salvation and you wouldn't say well he's saved but you
know one of the works of the flesh is heresy hold on hold on a minute you know
I do believe that it's possible for people that are saved to goof up on
their doctrine look we've all goofed up on doctrine at one point or other I mean
I think about some of the stupid stuff I believe when I was a teenager good night
and I got saved when I was six years old I've had the Holy Ghost living inside me
since I was six years old but you know when I was a teenager he didn't have as
much Bible to work with to bring to my remembrance because I hadn't been
reading enough right too many video games and movies and not enough Bible
going in right so he didn't have as much to work with and even at look after
reading the Bible 24 times cover to cover I still thought the Jews were
God's chosen people if you can imagine that all right after reading the Bible
24 times cover to cover I still thought that the Jews were God's chosen people
now look why because that's what I've been taught that's what I'd heard I took
it for granted I didn't question it I didn't dig into it for myself you know
does that mean that the Holy Spirit wasn't leading me no no the Holy Spirit
was there all along to help me and eventually the Holy Spirit did straighten
me out on that but is that a damnable heresy though no because what we believe
about some country on the other side of the world doesn't really amount to a
hill of beans in Tempe Arizona that's why I can't believe people make such a
big deal you know people get thrown out of their church for not being pro-israel
it's like what in the world does Israel have to do with Arizona I mean tomorrow
morning when you go to work and tonight when you go home and be with your family
what is Israel gonna have to do with any of that you know what I mean is the
Palestinian conflict really gonna matter to you this Tuesday as you go about your
work a day life no is it does it really matter Sunday morning Sunday night
Wednesday hours so what no no it's just an idol over there that they worship
instead of God the Jews and the state of Israel and the chosen one you know
but here's the thing that's not a damnable heresy so it wasn't like the
Holy Ghost was just urgently grabbing me and shaking me my whole life you're
wrong about the juice oh you know why because it was it's not the most
important doctrine eventually the Lord did deal with me on that subject and I
got it right and I got that thing straightened out I got off the wrong
doctrine I got on the right doctrine but isn't there a difference between being
wrong on prophecy being wrong on Israel being wrong on little things like that
versus you're wrong on who God is you're wrong on who Jesus is you're wrong on
what salvation is you're wrong on this whole planet that it wasn't even created
by God or something I mean that's where you've gone totally off the cliff and
I'm just saying it right now what I've always said these people were never
saved to begin with when they go into damnable heresy when they go all the
way off the cliff and look you don't have to know all these things to be
saved you know what all you need to be saved is John 3 16 right and a few other
verses few other explanations you know I could get somebody saved in 10 minutes
but I can't teach them all the doctrines in 10 minutes I can't teach them the
whole Bible in 10 minutes but you know what if somebody rejects a portion of
the Bible they're not saved now does that mean I have to show them the whole
Bible at the door no that's just dumb okay but if somebody just tells me well
I you know I reject the whole book of Revelation I don't think the book of
Revelation is even God's Word I reject it all it's a lie or I reject everything
Paul wrote would you believe that that person saved no way why because that's
the Word of God and they're rejecting it okay that you think the Holy Ghost is
gonna teach them that no way that's crazy the Holy Ghost is not gonna let
them get on that train because that train is heading for a gorge that it's
gonna sail off the tracks into and crash and burn in the bottomless pit of hell
so I think everybody understands that some people pretend to not understand
that but it's it's pretty basic isn't it that the Holy Ghost living inside us
that's what even allows us to believe the same I mean here all of us are we go
home we read our Bibles we study but so many of us believe the same things about
so many different doctrines and a lot of people that go to our church they
already believed X Y or Z even before they got here they didn't even hear it
from me they heard it from him and the him there that personal pronoun is
referring to the Holy Spirit he's the one who taught it to them let's power
it's another word of prayer father we thank you so much for giving us the gift
of the Holy Spirit and Lord thank you for sending us him as our comforter and
Lord we just pray that you would guide us into all truth Lord and that your
Holy Spirit would teach us guide us and warn us and Lord help us to be sensitive
to the Holy Spirit when we get into false doctrine or when we you know are
tempted to sin or when we are gonna make a bad decision Lord I just pray that we
would be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and that we would have lots
of Bible in our hearts for him to bring to our remembrance and in Jesus name we
pray amen