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