Address—C. Hendricks
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Please turn to John 12, John's Gospel Chapter 12.
Verse 23.
And Jesus answered them, saying, the Son of the hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, It abideth alone, but if it dieth, bringeth forth much fruit.
Verse 27. Now is my soul troubled?
And what shall I say?
Father, save me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour.
Father, glorify thy name. And came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
Verse 31.
Now is the judgment of this world.
Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out?
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
This, he said, signifying what death he should die.
Now this passage very clearly indicates that when the Lord says the hour is come.
It was the hour of his death.
He said this signifying what death he should die.
He was to be lifted up on the cross.
To give his life.
And he says in connection with that death, he says now is the judgment of this world.
The world is no longer on trial.
It was.
Prior to that 4000 years of man's history.
But the cross ended the trial of man.
And the world is judged. We're going through a judged scene.
A scene that.
Is condemned.
And what God is doing in this present day of grace is not improving it, not seeking to mend it or to fix it up, but rather to call out of it at people for His name. It's so important.
In order to be intelligent as to what is the Christian's responsibility down here to understand.
These things.
And I want to speak this afternoon on the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God.
But in order to understand we are in the dispensation of the Spirit, if you will, the axe is called the Acts of the Apostles, More properly would be called the axe of the Holy Spirit.
In Luke 11, the Lord speaks of praying for the Holy Spirit.
How much more shall he give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Well, that was when he was here on earth.
Now he gives instruction.
In this book.
The Gospel of John instruction which applies.
After his death, his resurrection and his ascension to glory.
It's the only gospel that does that. It's unique and different from the other three. But John's Gospel gives us Christian truth before it was actually established as a fact in this world.
And so it's very important for us. It gives us what would be characteristic. The first thing is the world is judged.
So all these efforts that are being put forth by sincere and earnest Christians to fix up this poor world are a mistake.
Because the world is a judge thing.
If you go by a building and it has on it condemned, you would think a man quite foolish if he had hired painters and carpenters to fix it up, because it's going to be torn down, it's condensed.
And that's this world. It's a condemned scene. We should understand that.
Now in chapter 14.
We can only touch on these things in Chapter 14, he says.
In verse 12, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me the works that I do, shall he do also.
And greater works than thee shall he do, because I go unto my Father.
I speaks of going to the Father.
Is going to return to the father. He came from the father and now he's going back to the father.
And in his absence, he.
The Holy Spirit, verse 16.
And I will pray the Father and He shall give you another comforter. He had been their comforter. He had been their sustainer. He had cared for them and ministered to them and provided for all their needs. But now he was going to leave.
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He was going to the Father, but he says, I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter.
That he may abide with you forever. He wasn't going to remain with them. He was only here for a short time.
But he says, I'm going to give you one that will remain with you forever.
Tremendous truth.
The Spirit of God will abide with us forever.
All through eternity he will be the power of worship, the power of communion.
Power Fellowship.
Even the spirit of truth.
Whom the world cannot receive. This is that judged thing, that judge system, the world, it can't receive the spirit of truth.
Because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him.
But you know him, for he dwelleth with you in contrast with the Lord.
About to take His leave of them, and not remaining with them any longer. And He shall be in you. That was not true of the Lord. He was not in them.
He was with them, but now he says the Spirit will be with you forever, but He will dwell within you. Tremendous, tremendous truth.
Truths that they had never heard before.
Not revealed in the Old Testament. These are things that connect with Christianity, this new thing that he was about to introduce.
And the formative power?
Of all that is Christian is the Spirit of God.
Spirit of God.
You read the book of Acts, just trace it through and read all the passages that refer to the Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit all the way through.
It's the acts of the Holy Spirit. He's called the Spirit of truth.
Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, For he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. And he fulfills that promise by the Spirit.
Verse 20, he says that that day, and we're in that day now it's the day of Christianity, ye shall know.
Three things.
That I am in my father. We know he's in the presence of the father. He's gone on high.
And he and me, we are in Christ.
And I am you. Christ is in us now. We had Ephesians before us in our readings. And Ephesians.
Presents the Christian in Christ, in Christ placed before God. That's what he says here, ye and me, Colossians, presents Christ in you, the hope of glory, and I in you. So we have those two epistles embraced, you might say an embryo form here in this verse.
Verse 26.
Verse 25.
These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name.
He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance.
Whatsoever I have said unto you.
In the middle of verse 28, he says, if you love me, you would rejoice because I said, I go on to the Father. He's about to return to the Father. That was the joy that was set before him.
Because eating back in the presence of the Father.
He said, Who for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The joy that was set before him. So he says, if you loved me, you would rejoice because I go to my father.
Now in chapter 15.
Verse 18.
If the world that's that judged system that we read about in Chapter 12 now is the judgment of this world if the world.
Hate you.
Ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
If ye were of the world. So now he's talking to a company of Jewish disciples, and the Judaistic religion was of this world. But now he says you're not going to be of it. I'm going to take you out of it.
And make of you a heavenly people.
If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you.
We've been living in a false atmosphere that the countries in which we've been living are Christian.
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There is no such thing in Christianity in this present day of a Christian nation.
Christians are heavenly people, citizens of heaven.
And the world in which we are, through which we are passing, is a judged scene.
These are these are truths that we should get a real hold of so that we would know what is consistent with true Christianity in what is being promoted in Christian circles today and what is not.
Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you all. So they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
And then he says at the end of the chapter verse 26. But when the comforter is come.
Whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth. There He is called the Spirit of Truth again.
Which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.
And ye also shall bear witness, because I have been with you from the beginning.
Now in chapter 16.
Verse 4.
Well, let me read the first 3.
Chapter Verse One. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They should put you out of the synagogues. Yeah, the time cometh.
That whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God's service.
And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.
But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go my way to him that sent me, and none of you asketh me Whither goest thou?
He's trying to lift.
The sights of these Jewish disciples, from earthly expectations to the realization that they're now going to be a heavenly people and their portion is going to be heavenly citizens of heaven, not of this world, and the world would hate them and persecute them even as it did him.
So he says, remember the word verse 20 that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. So on.
Now in chapter 16.
Verse 4 But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, you may remember that I told you of them.
And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go my way to him that sent me. And none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.
They didn't want him to go.
They loved him and they were very attached to him. But he says I'm leaving.
And then he says in verse 7, something very important. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient, it is necessary. It is absolutely essential for you that I go away.
For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. So the coming of the Comforter depended on his leaving the scene. He could not send the Comforter while he was here below a Messiah on earth. He had to be rejected as such, and then go back to the Father, and then he would send the Comforter. And the coming of the Comforter would characterize and be the formative power of the Christian testimony.
From the Day of Pentecost to the Rapture.
We had much of that before us in our readings.
The spirit forms the body.
And the spirit indwells the house.
And he is the one who dwells in each one of us, individually and collectively. Well.
He says 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. I am going to read that as it is in the new translation. He will bring demonstration to the world of sin.
And of righteousness and of judgment.
I believe that verse means that when he comes, his very presence here is a demonstration of 3/3 basic truths.
The first is the sin of the world in rejecting Christ.
Of sin because they believe not on me.
Man's unbelief.
Proven by the presence in this world of the Son of the Spirit of God.
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Proves that the world has rejected him.
The sin of the world.
Of sin because they believe not on me. Of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see me no more. The world rejected him. That was the world sin. The righteousness of God exalted him to the highest seat in heaven. He's there. God in righteousness set him there. And God in righteousness has set each of us there.
We have a place of acceptance before God, the very same place that He has as the glorified man.
Set there by the righteousness of God.
You and I have been set there too. God righteous in doing so.
Because he has answered to God for all of our sins on the cross.
He has opened the floodgates of God's love and grace to bestow upon us the greatest blessing ever bestowed upon any of His creatures.
Far exceeding that of angels.
You and I are one with Christ in glory.
United to him by the coming of the Holy Spirit.
In dwelt by a divine person.
Who inhabits us, who dwells within our bodies, and who also dwells within us collectively?
Among us, collectively.
Of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged.
The presence in this world of the Holy Spirit.
Is the demonstration that the world has rejected Christ? God has accepted him.
And the Prince of this world, who led the world to reject him as a judge, is judged, and so is the world.
The whole system of things down here is a judge thing.
What folly then, for us who are heavenly people to be making?
Our nest egg down here.
In this world.
Every mark of the world is a reproach to him that is heavenly.
I have yet many things to say unto you, Verse 12. But you cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he.
The spirit of truth is come.
He will guide you into all truth. Isn't that wonderful that we have the spirit of truth dwelling within us to guide us into all the truth?
For ye shall not speak of himself.
He doesn't draw attention to himself. He's here to glorify Christ.
But whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me.
For he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. Just as the Lord down here glorified his Father, so now the Spirit is sent to glorify.
The Lord Jesus.
Now let's turn to.
Can only touch these things very briefly. Acts chapter 1.
Verse one.
The former treatise which is the Gospel according to Luke.
Have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach?
Until the day in which he was taken up. After that he through the Holy Ghost, the day in which he was taken up. That's his ascension.
Not his resurrection, but his ascension, the day in which he was taken up. After that he threw. The Holy Ghost had given commandment under the Apostles whom he had chosen.
To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion, his sufferings.
By many infallible proofs.
Being seen of them 40 days.
And Speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
He was a risen man on earth for 40 days after his resurrection.
And then he ascended.
He was taken up.
And ten days later, completing the 50.
Was Day of Pentecost 50 days after his resurrection, 40 days on earth?
10 days in heaven, and then he sent down the Holy Spirit.
And he says to them, verse 4 again, And being assembled together with them, He commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which sayeth he have heard of me.
For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
Verse 8 But ye shall receive power. After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.
Then you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
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The Holy Spirit is power.
Power of the Holy Spirit for witnessing.
And when he had spoken these things while they beheld, he was taken up.
And a cloud received him out of their sight.
And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven.
As he went up, behold, 2 men stood by them in white apparel.
Which also said Ye men of Galilee.
Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner.
As you have seen him go into heaven.
Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount that is called Olivet.
Which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey.
They watched him go, and he, cloud received him out of their sight. Now there's a man in the glory, and Christianity begins on the other side of the cloud.
Didn't begin when he was here on Earth.
The Spirit of God couldn't be sent until he had gone to heaven.
And a cloud receives them out of their sight. And then the next chapter verse chapter 2, verse one.
Ten days later, which is 50 days after his resurrection.
The day of Pentecost, which means.
When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with 1 accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and notice it filled all the house.
Where they were sitting, I think a little picture of the Spirit of God coming, filling the House of God.
Here it was the house in which they were dwelling, but a picture of the Spirit of God coming to fill the House of God, so that the Saints collectively, as we had it in Ephesians 2, can be spoken of as the habitation of God by the Spirit God the the Holy Spirit dwelling in the midst.
And amongst his people.
Wonderful truth.
And he'll never be taken from us. Can't lose him.
Can't lose him.
He is with us forever.
I want to call your attention to one more passage in John chapter 3. We'll come right back here to Acts, but in John chapter 3.
Very important verse, Very important.
Verse 34.
He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
At the River Jordan.
When he came to John to be baptized of him.
The Spirit of God came down upon him as a dove.
Father's voice was heard from heaven. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
And he received the Spirit of God.
It says God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
And he received the spirit and the fullness of his power to remain upon him.
As the perfect man.
He received the Spirit by virtue of the perfection of his person.
But you notice the last two words of that verse are in italics. They have been supplied by the translators.
And the verses it reads here certainly correct.
But let's read it without it. God giveth not the Spirit by measure. Now that's a statement characteristic of Christianity.
Not only unto him, but unto all of us, when the Spirit of God is given, as He came upon the prophets in the Old Testament and they were moved to prophecy and to speak His words, and then He was withdrawn from them, He didn't remain.
But upon us he remains. We saw that in John 14. He shall be with us forever.
Never be taken away. We cannot lose the Holy Spirit once He has sealed us once He has.
Then give them to us.
He marks this out as his just as the Spirit of God came upon the Lord Jesus.
And marked him out as his. He sealed him.
Turn to Chapter 6 of John.
Verse 27 Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you, for him hath God the Father sealed.
The force of.
Is.
Marking out as his. This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. And he sealed him. He sent the spirit marked him out as his beloved son.
Has he done that with us? Yes, he has.
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When we when we believe the gospel of our salvation, he has sealed us, it says.
Mark this out.
As his.
He was the son. We are sons.
By virtue of his work.
We receive the Spirit by virtue of his work.
And justice, as God didn't give the Spirit by measure unto him, he doesn't give the Spirit by measure unto you and to me.
Is given to abide with us forever and to dwell within us.
The Old Testament was characterized by the Spirit being given by measure.
Just coming upon one for a time.
An occasion. But now you cannot sin the Holy Spirit away. You can grieve him, you can quench him, but you cannot send him away.
Once he takes up his abode in your body.
You'll never leave you.
That's one of the truths of the resurrection. I hope we'll get to it.
Going back to Acts chapter 2.
Peter in explaining.
Well, let's read verse 3. It says in verse 2, the end of the verse, it filled all the house where they were sitting, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as if fire, and had sat upon each of them. The significance of the tongues in the gift of the Spirit is that Christianity is not just for one nation like Judaism was, but it's for all the nations in the world.
For all the languages, all the peoples, all the nations.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Now in a little bit later in the chapter.
Verse 32 we know the we know the story well, so I'll pick it up there. This Jesus Peter says, hath God raised up whereof we all are witnesses, therefore being by the right hand of God exalted.
That's what he that's what he says in chapter 1 when he says He was received up. He's exalted now, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he had shed forth this which he now see and hear.
Verse 36 Therefore let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now there's a man in the glory on the other side of the cloud. Now he sends down the Holy Spirit to form the one body.
To inhabit the house to indwell believers individually.
Then Peter, now when they heard this verse 37, they were pricked in their hearts, and they said unto Peter, and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Is there any hope for us? We've crucified our Messiah.
Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift.
Of the Holy Ghost, The gift of the Holy Ghost.
Well.
The Samaritans received the Holy Ghost in chapter 8.
The Gentiles received the Holy Ghost in chapter 10.
And the gift of the Holy Ghost.
And when you believe the Gospel, you have received the gift of the Holy Ghost now.
What are some of the blessings? This is what I want to get to this afternoon. What are some of the blessings that are ours because we have the Holy Ghost?
Turn to Romans 8 please.
I want to read one verse in Romans 5 first. Romans 5 verse 5. Hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God.
He shed abroad in our hearts.
By the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.
The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.
By the Holy Ghost.
Whether it reads Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit, it's all the same.
Just the difference of the translation. It's the same word in the original.
And he sheds forth the love of God in our hearts. Now, chapter 8.
Chapter 8 is the most wonderful.
Unfolding of truth.
Verse one. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. I believe that's where that verse should end.
The last part of the verse is properly found at the end of verse 4, but I don't believe it belongs in verse one because there it's.
Our position in Christ no condemnation to them who are in.
Christ Jesus.
What does it mean to be in Christ? It means to be in Christ's place before God. God sees us.
No longer in Adam, but in Christ. There's two heads, Adam and Christ. We were in Adam.
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In our unsaved condition, but in our safe condition, we're in Christ, in Christ before God.
And then he says, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, that made me free from the law of sin and death.
In Chapter 7.
We have the experience of a man under law, under ******* he's miserable. And in verse 23 he sums up and he says I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.
So here you have a quickened soul under law and miserable.
And he says, O wretched man that I am.
This is not the description of the Christian position or the description of the Old Testament Saints position.
Before they receive the Spirit.
Who shall deliver me?
From the body of this death, who shall deliver me? And then he gives the answer. He says, I thank God.
The deliverance comes through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now verse 2 of chapter 8.
The law of the Spirit.
He talked about the law of sin, which is in his members. Now he has another law operating. That's nothing to do with the law of Moses. The law here is used in the sense of a fixed principle or a constant tendency. Like we talk about the law of gravity. Apples always fall down towards the earth. They never fall up but the law of gravity. So here we have the law of the Spirit.
Of light in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
The ******* that that man under law in Chapter 7 was in leading him to proclaim he was an wretched man.
Now he says, I am free by the power of the Holy Spirit.
For what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh.
It addressed itself to the flesh, and the flesh cannot please God.
God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and four sins condemn sin in the flesh.
God has not improved the flesh.
He's condemned it.
And he's given us an altogether new life.
He's given us the Spirit.
As the power of that life, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
That the righteousness of the law, what the law righteously required.
Might be fulfilled in US.
We who are not under law, but who walk.
Not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
So here you have a soul that has received the Holy Spirit, is believed in Christ, and he walks according to the Spirit.
No longer, according to the flesh, a new power.
A new life has been given to him and a new energy and power.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.
But they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit 2 entirely different.
Things to mind.
Things of the flesh.
The natural man, that's all he can mind, that's all he can go after, the things of the flesh.
Can a Christian do that? Yes, because he still has the flesh.
But they that are after the spirit mind the things of the spirit. Can an unsafe person mind the things of the spirit? And he cannot impossible because he does not have a new nature.
Is not indwelt of the Holy Spirit, but the Christian has still the old nature as well as the new, and therefore he can, if he allows the old to act, he can enjoy this world.
In a certain sense.
But here we have the.
Contrast between one who is after the flesh and one who is after the spirit.
Verse 5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, that they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Now verse 6 I am going to.
Correct the translation. We must be very accurate here in order to get the force of it for the mind of the flesh.
It says to be carnally minded that that's not the thought. The mind of the flesh is death.
But the mind of the Spirit.
Is life and peace.
The flesh has a mind.
And the Spirit has a mind.
And everything that the flesh delights in has got the stamp of death upon it, The mind of the flesh.
Is death.
So when we allow the flesh.
And desire the things that the flesh desires.
It has the stamp of death upon it.
But the mind of the Spirit is life.
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And peace.
The Christian who lives half in the world.
And half in spiritual things is not a happy Christian.
The only real happy Christian is one who is all together for Christ.
Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, verse 7.
For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be tremendous statements.
So then they that are in the flesh.
In that condition before God cannot.
Please God, now everyone in this room here this afternoon is either in the flesh.
Are in the Spirit.
Everyone here either.
Has the Spirit of God or doesn't?
And if you have the Spirit of God, you are characterized in this chapter as being in the Spirit. If you don't have the Spirit of God, you're characterized as being in the flesh.
And you mind the things of the flesh.
Then they that are in the flesh.
Cannot please God.
The expression in the flesh.
Cannot apply to a true believer.
If he's a true believer, he is what is described in the ninth verse.
But ye are not in the flesh.
But in the Spirit.
If so, be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
The Spirit of God indwells you. You are in the Spirit.
Doesn't mean you're spiritual.
Well, it does in the sense of.
Of one passage of Scripture depends on the viewpoint of the writer.
But here to be in the Spirit is to have the indwelling spirit of God.
And to be in the flesh is not to be lost, it's to be lost. You're not in the flesh, but in the spirit of so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. I want to say this to our young people.
It says the mind of the flesh is enmity against God. If you entertain marrying an unsafe person, all they have is the mind of the flesh.
That's all I have.
They don't have the Spirit of God.
And this verse says they can't please God. How could you entertain marrying someone that can't please God?
Says the mind of the flesh is death.
Mind of the Spirit is life and peace.
The mind of the flesh is enmity against God.
For it is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can. But you can't get your unsaved.
The desire to go to meeting.
Has no desire. You can't get them to read the Bible if they have no desire to pray. You can't get them to desire the things of God because they don't have the Spirit of God dwelling in them. They're in the flesh.
Their mind is death and enmity against God.
They that are in the flesh cannot please God. How can you possibly think?
Of linking up for your lifetime.
With someone that can't please God.
Isn't that a horrible thought?
That's what you're doing.
If you never go out with an unsafe person, you'll never marry them.
Well, enough of that.
But you are not in the flesh.
But in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Infinitely better that you remain single than that you marry an unsaved person.
If the Spirit of God dwells in you, you're in the Spirit.
And then he says, if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his, He doesn't belong to him.
He's not marked out.
As being his.
I can't comment on every verse.
Verse 11 is beautiful if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you.
He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by reason of or because of it. Ought to read His Spirit that dwelleth in you. The Spirit of God has claimed your body for God.
Your body is his.
And he's going to claim that he's going to raise it in that day.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh. We don't know the flesh a thing.
To live after the flesh. We are not debtors to the flesh.
For as many.
For if you live after the flesh, ye shall die.
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That's a path that leads to death and destruction.
But if ye through the Spirit do mortify, do put to death.
The deeds of the body he shall live.
Our brother was telling us the other day. Brother Dan.
That.
If you're his your private property.
That's right, you belong to him.
You're not to give yourself to another.
Until you're married.
Verse 14 says as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
What characterizes, I believe that ought to read Children of God.
Many are led by the Spirit of God. They are the sons of God or the children of God.
That's what characterizes one who's.
A child of God who is led by the Spirit of God, the Lord Jesus, the Son of God.
He was led by the Spirit always.
And so those who are sons of God, led by the Spirit of God.
For you have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA, Father.
This expression is found three times in Scripture, here in Romans 8.
Spirit of adoption, we cry ABBA Father. It's found its. Look at it in Galatians chapter 4.
And there.
It's called the Spirit of his son Galatians, chapter 4.
Verse 6 And because ye are sons.
God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying ABBA Father.
It's interesting that that word ABBA was not translated.
It's the Aramaic and it means Father. If it was translated, it would read Father Father.
They translated the Greek word Potter, which means father as father, but they didn't translate the Aramaic.
Which means father.
Crying ABBA father.
Well, two times. Here in Galatians 4 we have the spirit of the sun.
Galatians in the Romans 8 We have the spirit of adoption. Sonship we cry, ABBA father.
The other time, and I'm just going to read it in Mark chapter 14 when the Lord is in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He uses that expression.
He's in the extremity.
Of suffering. And he went forward a little, verse 35, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, ABBA, father.
All things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup for me. Nevertheless. Not what I will, but with thou wilt. He was in perfect communion with his Father. In the garden he cries. Amber Father.
Appealing to him from the depths of his anticipatory sufferings as he anticipated the cross.
And his sweat became great drops of blood falling to the ground.
Father if it be possible, if there is any other way?
Let this cup pass for me. But then he says not my will.
The dying beggar Father, you and I can address God that way.
In that precious.
We have the spirit of the sun, the spirit of adoption.
And we too cry. And the Father.
He's brought us that near, as near as he.
As he is as a blessed man.
Have a father.
Verse 16. Now in chapter 8 of Romans, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
If we're children.
Then were heirs.
And immediately you find out your heir to something and you'd say who's heirs?
Cares of God.
What are my air tube joint heirs with Christ?
All that he is 1.
Is going to share with us.
Joint heirs with Christ.
That's the very height of Romans 8. There it is. If we're children, we're heirs, Heirs of God, Joint heirs with Christ. You can't go any higher. Joint heirs with Christ. If so be that ye suffer with him.
That we may be also glorified together. The suffering is always brought out in the epistles.
Because that's the common experience.
Of a heavenly man.
That walks in separation from this world.
If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.
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Now let's turn to 1St Corinthians chapter 2.
One Corinthians chapter 2, verse 9.
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.
These are things that never have entered man's thoughts, man's heart.
Never conceived of such wondrous blessings, but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.
For the Spirit searcheth all things ye the deep things of God.
For what man knoweth the things of the man, save the spirit of man which is in him?
Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.
Man's spirit knows his own thoughts.
God's Spirit knows God's thoughts.
We have God's Spirit.
So that we can know God's thoughts. The natural man doesn't. He can't understand.
God's thoughts, He can't understand this book. It's a closed book to him. He can read it, but if he doesn't have the Spirit?
He won't understand it.
The way we get the Spirit is through faith in Christ.
Now let's see what this says.
The Spirit searcheth all things ye the deep things of God.
Verse 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world.
But the Spirit which is of God, that we might know.
The things that are freely given to us of God.
In verse 10 he says God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit. We have three things here. We have the revelation.
Of the truth.
To the apostles.
And then they wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the words, the very words of the Holy Spirit, verse 13, which things also we speak.
Not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual or communicating spiritual things by spiritual words or means.
The very means of communication.
Are according to the Spirit of God. Everything in Christianity is by the Spirit.
So we have the revelation by the Spirit.
And then they were inspired to write it down in the words taught by the Holy Spirit.
That rules out paraphrases as good translations. They're not good translations because a paraphrase is putting the original words into your own words, and we don't have that right to do that. We should seek to translate as accurately as we can, because the very words of Scripture are inspired.
The very words are inspiring.
But we need something more than that. Not only has he revealed it to those that he now inspired to write it down for us, the apostles, but we need the Spirit to receive it. And that's what he goes on to say. The natural man.
Receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can He know them, for they are spiritually discerned.
But he that is spiritual, he that has the Spirit, hears the passage where the word spiritual means one who is indwelt of the Holy Spirit. He is called spiritual in contrast with the natural man who does not have the spirit.
He that is spiritual, He that has the spirit.
To judge it, or discerneth all things.
Yet he himself is judged or discerned of no man.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ, we have the Spirit of God, the mind of the Spirit, here called the mind of Christ.
So we can know.
The things that are freely given to us of God. Isn't that wonderful?
Turn over to 1St John Chapter 2 for a moment.
1 John, Chapter 2.
Because this is So what we've just been looking at.
John writes in verse 20, chapter 2.
Ye have an unction, an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.
Now he's writing to the babes in the family.
Family of God is fathers, young men and children or babes, and he says to the babes, you have an unction from the Holy One referring to the Holy Spirit. That word action means anointing.
And the Spirit of God is that anointing and you know all things that that doesn't mean that a babe, one that's just recently been saved, has come to the understanding of all things. But he has the capacity to understand all that God has given because he has the teacher.
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The author of this book dwelling within him as a teacher.
And if we are subject, we cannot ever take the position. I can't understand it.
Because the Teacher, the divine Teacher who dwells within us, he will teach us.
Instruct us.
In these things. And so it says, you know all things.
I've not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you didn't know it, and that no lie is of the truth. The one who has the Spirit, who is a true believer, he knows the truth, He has it, He's received Him who is the truth. Verse 27 But the anointing which he have received of him abideth in you, and you need not that any man teach you.
But as the same anointing teacheth you of all things in His truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in Him.
So we have a divine teacher within.
And he enables us to receive these inspired words of the apostles, who receive them by revelation.
And he gives us to.
Understand the truth of God.
To walk in it.
Nothing can replace communion.
Walking in fellowship with this divine person on earth.
I want to back up for a minute to 1St Corinthians again, this time to chapter 3.
One Corinthians, chapter 3.
Verse 16.
No ye not.
That ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God.
Dwelleth in you.
Now there he's viewing the Saints collectively as the temple of God.
And he says he dwells.
In US in a collective sense.
He says, if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy that word defile and destroy the same word in the Greek, If anyone destroy the true character of the temple of God by defiling it him shall God destroy.
For the temple of God is holy.
Which temple GR.
We saw in Ephesians 2 That.
He's building.
The building is growing to a holy temple in the Lord.
Their Christ is the builder.
Here man is the builder.
Paul says, going back to verse 10, he says.
I have laid the foundation as a wise master builder.
Verse 11 he says other foundation can no man lay than his laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay and stubble, and we see the result of man's building all around us, not Christ's building.
But what we see in Christendom and all the confusion.
And all the error of doctrine and the wrong practices and the wrong thoughts.
As a result of man's building wood, hay and stubble, it's all going to be burned up.
But what is gold and silver and precious stones that's going to bite the fire, that's going to receive a reward?
Oh, don't you long to be a builder.
With gold and silver and precious stones. Got you along for that. You don't want to build wood hand stubble do you?
I don't.
None of us does.
We don't want to commend something that's going to go up in the flames and be destroyed.
We don't want to give our energies to things which are not consistent with what Christianity really is.
We want to build gold, silver, precious stones.
Most of what's been built.
Is wood hand stubble? Sad to say but it's true. All the big buildings.
The Cathedrals.
The choirs.
The vestments.
All the.
Tacodontal system of things.
Clerical system.
Wonderful music.
Sites. Ornate buildings, that's all patterned after duty and that's all going to be burned up. That's wood. Hand stubble.
If we understand what we really are as Christians, A heavenly people.
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United to a heavenly man.
Hated down here, despised down here, passing through strangers and pilgrims.
On our way to glory, indwell to the Holy Spirit, that Divine Teacher and that wonderful will never be taken from us.
He is our comforter. He is our encourager.
That word could be translated in courage as well as comfort.
How can we get discouraged when we have the Divine Encourager within? But we do?
Because we get our eyes off of Christ, the Spirit is here to keep our eyes on Christ.
I know we felt this morning in the Lord's presence.
As we remembered him and all that he went through to bring us into blessing.
To make all these things that we're looking at this afternoon a reality to us.
We felt.
And all what a joy it was to his heart.
See a few of his own gathered around himself.
As the hymn writer said, gather to Thy name, Lord Jesus, losing sight of all that Thee. Oh a joy thy presence gives us, calling up our hearts to Thee.
That with reverence we would linger in the shadow of Thy cross, which has closed our hearts forever.