Alright folks it is about time to get started. Welcome back to Anchor Baptist Church. If you
would find a seat and grab a hymnal, we'll go ahead and start our service this evening.
Our first hymn is number 109. Save You're Like a Shepherd Lead Us.
Hymn number 109109. Save You're Like a Shepherd Lead Us.
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, 1-1-8, near to the heart of God, 118 there on the first, there is a place of wine.
and raise your hand.
Usher will bring you one. 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
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 Salvation.
Also, if you have any Salvation, 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 are Bahamas mission strip 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.
Alright, our third hymn this evening, 126, Anywhere with Jesus, 126, 1-2-6, Anywhere with Jesus.
We'll sing their starting right on the first.
Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go, Anywhere he leads me in this world beyond
Anywhere without a fear of choice 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.
and 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, who will bend and see.
The darkness of salvation free
Ready as he summits me to go or stay
Anywhere with Jesus when he points the way
Anywhere, anywhere the mirror I cannot go
Anywhere with Jesus I can see
You can't have ground up now
plates are being passed. Turn if you would to 1st John chapter number five. 1st John chapter number five.
Good evening first John chapter 5 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 has 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 over cometh the world,
and this is the victory that over cometh the world even our faith.
Who is he that overcomeeth 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 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.
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 has 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 that 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
Sineth not but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself and that wicked one touches him not
And we know that we are of God and the whole world,
lieth and 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 out of soul
wanting today and we ask that you bless our church and all of the efforts of our church and our
Amen. Well, we're in 1st 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
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 to 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 1 John 5-7, which is a
great proof that the Holy Spirit is God, right?
For there are three, the bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and
are one. We believe in the Trinity at Anchor Baptist Church. We don't believe in this oneness,
modalism doctrine where God just shapeshifts 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'm not God. I just
believe what the Bible says. There are three that are one. Acts 5 1 says this, but a certain man
kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a
certain part and laid it at the Apostles' 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 is 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 is saying, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?
Now let's keep reading. It says, while 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, a 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 Genesis chapter one.
And now I'm going to read for you Psalm 139, verse 7.
The Bible says,
You know, the Psalmist here is saying that you can't escape the Spirit of God.
Why?
Because the Spirit of God is omnipresent, which is an attribute of God himself.
And so the reason the Holy Spirit is omnipresent is because the Holy Spirit is God.
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 two, 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 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-presidents, 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 wanna 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 dying be done and we're gonna look more into the Holy Spirit pretty soon, but go to Acts chapter number 13
Acts chapter number 13
Now prove it 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.
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 1 Corinthians, chapter number six.
1 Corinthians, chapter number six.
1st Corinthians chapter 6 says in verse 19,
Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost,
which is in you, which ye have of God,
and ye 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.
And 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 you 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
And 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 cometh thou to me.
And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it so to be now, for thus it becomeeth us to
fulfill all righteousness.
Then he suffered him.
When he was baptized, went up straight way 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 3.
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.
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 1 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, four 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 gonna 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 nine, 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.
We don't have the power to lay our hands on someone and heal someone of their disease.
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 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-
language is 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.
through the Old Testament to the time of the Apostles.
And I'm gonna 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
and you not have any harm.
It is a miracle if you could get bit by a 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
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 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 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, any time you see a church with a sign that says miracles done here,
just realize their charlatans, their 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 devils, what they are.
They're liars.
Matthew chapter 16 verse one says,
the Pharisees also with the Sadducees 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.
O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky,
But can ye 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,
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 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 gonna 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 100% of the time.
And even back then, they just, they looked at the sky,
they were able to tell what the weather was gonna 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
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 says.
That is a wicked heart that is constantly desiring a sign.
Go to 2 Peter, chapter number one.
2 Peter, chapter number one.
Go to verse 16 of 2 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 I witnesses 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 am well pleased.
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 ye do well that ye 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 is 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.
I know so many times people and I think a lot of these people are truly convinced in
their mind.
You talk to them out soul winning and they say like, look, God spoke to me and told me
this.
And look, 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.
Desiring a sign, desiring a miracle, verse 21 explains to us that the Word of God is a miracle.
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 were 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 in 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.
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.
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 give it thee a sign, or a wonder.
So this person is performing miracles.
And the sign of wonder come to pass.
Where have he spake unto thee, saying,
Let us go after other gods, which thou hast 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's 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 3,
Thou shalt not harken unto the words of that prophet
or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God proveeth 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 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
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 frauds,
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 was some preacher in Oklahoma
That said he had a vision that Donald Trump was gonna 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, well, 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,
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast 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 as the Antichrist.
Because the Antichrist 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.
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 Antichrist 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.
because the Bibles are 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 withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.
So here the good spirit, the Holy Spirit of God was given to instruct.
And one of the ways that God does that is by giving us, as Ephesians 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.
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 could 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 learned from preaching all the time. I listened to other pastors preach and I
learned 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 1st Corinthians chapter number two, 1st Corinthians chapter two.
But as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath 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,
yea, 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
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 Orn and the Jebusite
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 could 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.
You're unsaved family members that you want to waste every Christmas and Thanksgiving arguing doctrine over, you know
Nothing's ever gonna 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, save 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 coworkers on doctrine.
It's 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.
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 make an intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
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 to words the things that I'm going through that I'm experiencing,
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 searcheth the hearts, knoweth what is the mind of the
Spirit.
because he make it 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 Baptist because we don't believe that there's still these
Apostolic miracles going on because we don't believe that God is gonna 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 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?
It tells us when we're wrong.
It 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 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 as 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.
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 has 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' name in that way,
it really just gets under my skin really bad.
But before I was saved, that 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 takeeth his name in vain.
That means something to us now.
Before, when you're saved, oftentimes it does not.
Go to if you would acts 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 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 the work that
we will do for God.
And you know, that's kind of like one of the principles of fasting is to chasing 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.
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.
It might not kill you before that Muhammad's mission 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 1,000 salvations
for about five days.
Wouldn't it be great if this year we went and we hit 1,500 salvations?
Wouldn't it be great if we went this year and hit 2,000 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 happened when they were filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
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 onto someone
who's walking in the Spirit.
Let's go to Acts chapter one. We'll finish here.
Acts chapter number one.
Look at verse 8, it says,
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
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 a squared-away doctrine, right?
We don't want to be a church where it's like, oh, you know, half of us believe Pentecostal beliefs
on the Holy Spirit, half of us think speaking in tongues is rolling around on the floor,
half of us think it's languages.
Like, we need to get doctrine squared away, 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.
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 mission strip 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 that we would seek wisdom from Him.
We love You. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.