Welcome to "Expound,"
our verse-by-verse study of God's word. Our goal is to expand your
knowledge of the truth of God by explaining the word of God
in a way that is interactive, enjoyable, and congregational. Father, we do come
and we just want to put our attentions on pause. All the things that
clamor for our attention, we just want to put
them out of our minds and focus specifically
on the fact that we are here together
with other believers, in a place that is set
apart for this purpose, so that we can focus on
the text of scripture. And we trust that
your Holy Spirit, who inspired the writing of it,
would speak to us in this day and age in our situation. And not only speak to us, Lord,
but draw us along as a guide and as a helper, as a
counsellor, as a comforter, that we might grow. We might learn who Jesus is. More dramatically,
we might learn what the Holy Spirit does and
more of who He is in our lives. We might please
you all the more. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. I have to admit that I feel a
little bit like that warrior in the Native American
legend who came down from the mountains and
saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time in his life. It was a sight to behold. I don't know about
you, but I remember as a little kid, the
first time I actually saw the ocean, I
was quite young, because I grew up on
the coast, in that area. But when I first saw it,
it's just an amazing sight. Well he came down
from the mountains, saw it, was in awe of it. And he went down into it and
started wading in the waves. And he brought with
him a little clay jar and he was scooping
water into the clay jar and he was putting the lid on it
and somebody said, what are you doing? And he explained, he
said, up in the mountains, my people have never
seen the great waters. So I'm going to bring this
back to them so they might understand what it's like. Now I have a question. Do you think that Native
American showing his people a little clay jug
full of salty water is going to make them understand
the experience of seeing the ocean for the first time? Never. Not in a million years. But I sort of feel like that. I'm covering this vast,
immeasurable subject of the person of the Holy
Spirit, the third person in the Godhead, and
I feel like I've got a little jug with a
little bit of water in it, and I'm trying to show people
what it's like and pour it out. And not just show people,
to understand it myself. So I approach this with
humility and knowing that I feel like I'm trying
to capture the ocean in a jar. Last time we were together,
we looked at John chapter 14, 15, and 16,
some of the quotes that Jesus gave his disciples
in that upper room discourse. We noted a couple of things. We began by saying
that when it comes to the subject of the Holy
Spirit working in the church, there are generally two camps. There are more, but generally
there are two camps. There are cessationists and
there are sensationalists. There are those who believe it
ceased, that's a cessationist. The Holy Spirit
doesn't work like He did during the New Testament. Now that we have the completed
New Testament, some will say, we don't need the Holy Spirit
like the early church had the Holy Spirit He doesn't
work in the same way like he did back then. So they believe that
the gifts of the Spirit, those miraculous
operations, have ceased. On the other hand, there
are the sensationalists. They're all about
the Holy Spirit 24/7. Give me some Holy Ghost. That's what they're
zeroing in on all the time. And I believe that the truth is
in between those two extremes. Last time we were
together, and again, this is just a little prelude,
these three weeks, last time, this time, and next time, before
we get into the book of Acts. But because we're going
to do afterglows again, starting next week, I just
want to give you a little bit of a primer on the Spirit. Last time when we
were together, we discussed that the Holy
Spirit is a person. He is a person. He is given personal attributes. He exhibits personal traits. He has a personality. When Jesus speaks
about the Holy Spirit, He never says the Holy
Spirit is an it or a force. He uses personal pronouns,
He and Him, rather than that or it. So He is a person. We also noticed last time,
He is not only a person, He is a divine person. He is the third member
of the triune Godhead. We are trinitarians. We believe there is one God, but
that God is seen and manifested in three distinct persons. The Holy Spirit is described
as having omniscience, that is He knows everything. Having omnipotence,
He's everywhere present, at the same time. The Holy Spirit is seen as
being eternal in the scripture, we saw last time,
even from this text. And finally, the other
thing we saw last time is that, not only is the
Holy Spirit a person, not only is the Holy
Spirit a divine person, but the Holy Spirit is a
divine person who helps us. The Holy Spirit is a
divine person who helps us. And we told you that word that
is written in the Greek, a word that some of you now know. You know this word, you know
this Greek word, paracletas. Paracletas, one who is
called alongside to help. Translated helper, also
translated comforter, also translated counsellor. All of those translations come
from that single Greek word, paracletas, one who
comes alongside to help. I made a statement last time
and I want to repeat it. We need all the help we can get. When it comes to living the
Christian life, it's not hard. It's impossible on your own. You need His power to
be able to do that. You need His help to be able to
do that and we have His help. All believers have His help. So the Holy Spirit is a divine
person who comes to help us. Not only is He a helper, but
we made a very important note, and again I'm just sort of
going back over some truths. The kind of helper
the Holy Spirit is to us was the same
kind of helper Jesus was to His apostles,
to His disciples. He said I'm going to
give you another helper. That's what Jesus promised them. One just like I
have been to you. So we have a helper
for us, just like Jesus was a helper to His early
followers, those apostles. And finally, we
noted, and we skipped through a lot of material,
that the Holy Spirit, when it comes to working
in and through us, is exclusive to believers. It's not saying that he has
nothing to do with unbelievers. In fact, we're going to see
tonight he certainly does. But the Holy Spirit
is a relationship that believers
exclusively enjoy. Now what I'd like
to do is talk more about the role of
the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. I want to take a deeper look
with you at the kind of help that He gives us. And we just barely
mentioned it last time. We just touched on it,
but we didn't drill down, and I want to drill down. I want you to know that the
Holy Spirit comes after us, that the Holy Spirit
comes inside us, and the Holy Spirit
comes upon us. Those are the three
things we're going to be talking about tonight. The Holy Spirit comes after
us, the Holy Spirit then comes inside us, and then the
Holy Spirit comes upon us. So what I'm going to be doing
with you is sort of considering the relational journey
that the Holy Spirit takes in our relationship with
Him, a relational journey He takes with each of us. I'm going to be talking a
little bit about the baptism with the Holy
Spirit and I'm going to be talking about the
filling of the Holy Spirit. But let's look at John 14:15. "If you love Me," Jesus
speaking here, "If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray
the Father, and He will give you another
Helper, that He may abide with you forever." That's the eternal
nature of the Spirit. "The Spirit of truth, whom
the world cannot receive, because it neither
sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for
He dwells with you and He will be in you." Let's begin with that first
point that I mentioned. The Holy Spirit comes after us. He pursues us. You might say He chases us. Look at verse 17 once
again, the Spirit of truth, and the world cannot receive
because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for
He dwells with you. Let's stop right there. He dwells with you. The Holy Spirit was with
you before you got saved. That's how you got saved,
because the Holy Spirit was with you. You go, what do
you mean, with me? He was hanging around to make
you feel really bad so that you would do something really good,
and that is come to Christ. For that to happen,
the Holy Spirit has to have some kind of a
relationship with an unbeliever and that relationship is, He
comes with the unbeliever. And I'll show you what
he does in just a moment. We just read it last time, but
we'll drill down this time. The Holy Spirit has been called
by some the Hound of Heaven. I don't know if you've
ever heard that phrase. The Hound of Heaven is something
that some people, preachers, writers, Christians will use in
referring to the Holy Spirit. It's a term that comes from
a poem written in the 1800s by a man by the name
of Francis Thompson. He wrote a poem called
"The Hound of Heaven." Thompson had been
a medical student. He dropped out of
medical school, he got addicted to opium,
he was in deep depression, he tried to commit suicide. But the poem, 182
lines of this poem, are his testimony of
how he ran from God and tried to get away from
God as far as possible. But the Holy Spirit,
the Hound of Heaven, pursued him, chased
him, was with him to bring him to salvation. Here's just a couple
lines of his poem to get the flavor of it. "I fled Him, down the
nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the
arches of the years; I fled Him, down the
labyrinthine ways of my own mind." Then he describes God's
pursuing him with these words. "But with unhurrying chase,
and unperturbed pace." I love that. It's like, you know what? I was running. God just kept coming
and just kept coming, and He was determined. He was unrelenting to chase me
down and get a hold of my life. That's the work of
the Holy Spirit. He is with the unbeliever. Now what does He do when
He's with the unbeliever? Jesus, in John 15:26, says
"He," the Holy Spirit, "will testify of Me." Or another translation says,
"He will tell you about Me." Or another translation, "He
will speak plainly about Me." That is, one of the
works of the Holy Spirit is to open the heart
of the unbeliever to salvation, to Christ Himself. So it was God, the
Holy Spirit, that awakened your need
to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. That feeling you got, that
thing that was happening inside of you before you
said yes to Jesus, that was the Holy Spirit all
along, the Hound of Heaven. Now go to chapter 16
please, of John, John 16. In verse 7, familiar
territory, "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage
that I go away," something I'm sure
the disciples did not agree with when he said that. "For if I do not go away, the
Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I
will send Him to you. And when He has come," now
watch this, "when He has come, He will convict the world
of sin, and righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because
they do not believe in Me; of righteousness,
because I go to My Father and you see Me no
more; of judgment, because the ruler of
this world is judged." Jesus said the first
thing the Holy Spirit does is convict the world of sin. So when the Holy Spirit is
with you, you're running, He's walking right after you. He's chasing you,
He's chasing you. And every time He
gets close to you, you start feeling
weird about you. You start getting convicted
about your own sin. He convinces you
that you're a sinner. That's the idea of this. He will convince people in the
world that they're sinners. Here's how it works. Before anyone can ever figure
out that they need a Savior, they have to figure out
that they're a sinner. Unless you realize,
man I'm in bad shape, you'll never look for a Savior. As long as you think, I'm good
enough, I'm religious enough, I'm holy enough, you'll
never look for help. Jesus said only those who
are sick need a doctor and you have to admit
that you're a sinner. So it's the Holy Spirit's job
to convict the world of sin. Now have you discovered
most unbelievers are not convinced of this? Yet. You don't give up on them. You pray for them. Just keep praying the Holy
Spirit will chase them. The Hound of Heaven, sick 'em. Lord, in Jesus' name. [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE] You pray for that. You pray for that conviction
of the Holy Spirit, because most people, in
their natural thinking, are not convinced that they are. Most won't admit that
they're a sinner. They don't even tolerate
the idea or the word sin. In fact, when it
comes to what we call sin, what they will often
do is blame their environment. Well I'm not a sinner. I am this way because
it's how-- my parents made me eat spinach when I was a
kid, and now I act like this. It's their fault.
It's my environment. Or they blame it on their
genetic structure, their genes. Well I have a genetic
propensity to get really angry. That's why I beat
people up all the time. I'm so violent. I can't help it. No, the problem
is you're a sinner and sinners need saviors,
and the Holy Spirit is really good at this. It's amazing. The world can deny
it, but I have watched, in a flash of
time, in a moment of time, the Holy Spirit shine His
bright light of conviction and make people
aware of their need. And by the way, that's
His job, not yours. It's not your job to
convict people of sin. You're not very good at it. I'm not very good at it. Whenever Christians try
to be the convictors, it doesn't come
out as convicting. It comes out as condemnation. That's what happens
when we do it. When you leave it
to the Holy Spirit, it drives a person
down to the place where they see their
deep need of a Savior and they desire forgiveness. Not like 13-year-old Elizabeth. 13-year-old Elizabeth was
congratulated because she sold, get this-- any Girl
Scouts in here? She sold 11,200 boxes
of Girl Scout cookies. One girl, Elizabeth,
11,200 boxes. She was on the news and people
said, how did you do it? You know what she said? She said, you got to
look people in the eye and make them feel guilty. [LAUGHTER] That might work selling cookies,
it doesn't work sharing Christ. It's the Holy Spirit's job. And so, when we look at the
New Testament book of Acts, and we will, we see
Peter on Pentecost standing up and
preaching, and it says-- do you remember how
many people got saved that day? 3,000 souls got
saved on Pentecost. That wasn't because Peter was
a great exegetical preacher and analyzed the text
with such precision. It's because the Holy Spirit
of God convicted people. And it says, listen
to what it says, "and they were
cut to the heart." They were cut to the heart. And they said, what must we do? And Peter showed them
what they must do. So the Holy Spirit will
convict the world of sin. There's something else
I just want to make note of before we go on. Notice that it's in the
singular, not in the plural. It doesn't say the Holy Spirit
will convict people of sins, but of sin. It's not like He's going
to come along and say, that was wrong, that was bad. It's not like He's
going to convict people of individual sins like
stealing or lying or speeding. I find that most
people aren't convicted if they speed anyways. [LAUGHTER] Or murdering or adultery, no. Your conscience will do that. The Holy Spirit, rather than
convicting of individual sins, He'll convict of sin and
more particularly, He will convict you of the sin
your conscience will never convict you of, and society
will never convict you of. And you know what that is? Unbelief. He'll convict the world of sin. What did Jesus say? "Because they
believe not on Me." The Holy Spirit convicts people
that their unbelief is a sin and they want to do something
about that sin of unbelief. Now it takes the Holy Spirit
to convince a person of that, because you know what? Most worldly people don't
see unbelief as a bad thing. They see it as a good thing. It's almost a badge
of honor to them. Well, I'm just so smart. I'm just so intelligent. That's why I don't believe. I can't believe. I'm just smarter than
all you Christians. I don't have a
crutch like you have. They look at unbelief, not
as something that's a sin, they see it as a
mark of intelligence. Jesus said it's sin. In fact, it's the
worst sin of all, because it's the sin of unbelief
that prevents people from being forgiven for every other sin. So the Holy Spirit will
convict the world of sin, "because they
believe not on Me." Now let me just
say a word to you. If you are closely
related to an unbeliever, you're married to
an unbeliever, you have an unbeliever
living in your house, you're around an
unbeliever a lot. If that's true, you make
sure you get special prayer before you go home tonight. And I mean that seriously. Let us bear that
burden with you. Because one of the hardest
things to do in life is to share the same
space with an unbeliever under the conviction
of the Holy Spirit. When a person is
convicted of their sin, but they haven't
surrendered yet to Christ, they are miserable to hang with. They'll say the meanest things. They'll do the harshest things. A person under the
conviction of the Holy Spirit can be a tyrant, can be hostile. Conviction is a good
thing, but if you're living around somebody who has
it, it can be a hard thing. So the Holy Spirit will
convict the world of sin. Next, look at the
text again, He'll convict the world of
righteousness, Jesus said. "Of righteousness, because
I go to My Father," chapter 16, verse 10,
"and you see Me no more." The Holy Spirit convicts
people of righteousness. What does that mean? He convinces people that
they are not good enough in their own righteousness. They're not good enough. Their own good deeds, religious
works, righteous behavior, isn't good enough. What does the Bible say
about our righteousness? It's like what? Filthy rags before God. Filthy rags. The Holy Spirit is the
one who convinces a person that their righteousness,
whatever they measure that by, isn't good enough. You know the world has a
standard of righteousness, right? And you know what
it is, typically? It's typically this. I'm not perfect, but
I'm not as bad as some. So if they were to
map out righteousness, it would sort of look like
a thermometer or a gauge. At the very bottom would be
like the worse possible person in solitary confinement for
doing the most heinous things ever in the world. So that's the bottom tier,
all the bad criminals. Then you go up a little bit,
up to 20 degrees or 20% or 40%, you get a little
bit better people, then a bit better people,
and better people. It's always fun when
they say that, say where are you on that scale? Just point to a number. Just curious. But then on that same scale,
a hundred, well, that's God. That's the white hot
perfection of God, and nobody can be
perfect, so I'm better than a lot of other people. It's a floating standard
of righteousness. OK. Then Jesus comes along
and when Jesus came along, He demonstrated a
completely different kind of righteousness. And He blew their minds when He
said to them things like this. Unless your righteousness
exceeds the righteousness of the most religious
people you can think of, scribes and Pharisees, you will
never enter the Kingdom of God. Ouch. That was a hard sermon to hear. And then in the same
sermon, He said, "Be perfect, just as your
Father in Heaven is perfect." He drew the line at 100%. How would that make
anybody feel, hearing that? Not great, right? Not a pat on the back. My righteousness
has to be better than the religious dudes? I'm sure if I heard that
sermon for the first time-- it was the Sermon on
the Mount, by the way-- I'd feel like
Isaiah the prophet, when he had a vision of God. Remember what he said when
he saw the vision of God? Did he say, wow is me? I'm lucky. I saw God. I'm going on Christian TV
to show people my new book, I Saw God. [LAUGHTER] What did he say? Woe is me. Woe is me, he said
in that vision. I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell among a
generation of unclean lips and my eyes have
beheld the Lord. So when you stand next
to the Perfect One, it shows how imperfect
you and I are. An illustration I go
back to is, years ago, I was asked to speak at the
Billy Graham Training Center. I've spoken there for many
years, back in North Carolina. It was a thing that
I did every year and I was speaking that night. That was OK. I loved doing that. I love speaking. I love speaking to believers. But that afternoon, I was
at Dr. Billy Graham's home. We had lunch, which
was a privilege. And he said to me, I'm coming
to hear you speak tonight. Well-- [LAUGHTER] I'd never put myself in
the Billy Graham category, but if I said to you, if
you were going to speak, hey I'm going to come listen
to you speak tonight, you might go, oh, just stay home. And that's what I'm thinking. Just relax, you
have a busy life. You're a televangelist,
just hang out. Because I'm going to come
and hear you tonight. To make matters worse, you
know my topic was at the Cove? Evangelism. So I am going to
speak on evangelism with the world's greatest
evangelist in the house, in history. He's seen more people come
to Christ in his ministry than any person
who has ever lived and I'm going to
talk on evangelism. Hello. It was just so hard to
get that message out. And then before I went up to
speak, they said at the Cove, now not everybody here who comes
to these meetings is saved. You may want to
give an altar call. I said, great I'm
going to give an altar call to the guy who
does altar calls all the time with great success. All of that, I just realized,
it put me in my place, in a good way. It's like, he's Billy Graham
and I'm not, but here goes. So in the same manner,
you never impress God with your righteousness. Because He's so perfect. He's perfectly righteous. But, and this gets
to the point, Jesus came and died,
atoning for our sins, and He ascended into Heaven. And when He ascended
into Heaven, it was as if the
Father said, now this is the righteousness
that I will accept. His righteousness is perfect
and He ascended into Heaven and sat at the right hand
of the throne of God. It's as if God was
saying, this is the righteous life,
the righteous standing, the righteousness I will accept. So the Holy Spirit
then convinces us that we are sinners, but He
tells us what to do about it. He convinces us we
need to stand in Jesus' imputed righteousness. That just means He
gives it to you, He confers it upon you
when you believe in Him. So He makes you feel really
bad that you're a sinner, but then really
good because you're standing in His righteousness. As Paul said in one
of my favorite texts in Philippians,
and by God's grace we'll get to it one
day, on Sunday morning. [LAUGHTER] When Paul said, "And
being found in Him, not having my own righteousness,
which is by the law, but the righteousness
which comes through faith in Jesus Christ." I am not standing in my
goodness, my righteousness, my background, my pedigree,
my religion, the religion of my parents and grandparents. I am found in Him, having His
righteousness and not my own. So the Holy Spirit
convicts the world of sin. He convicts the world of sin, of
righteousness, and then third, go back to the text. He convicts the
world of judgment. And he says of judgment,
because the ruler-- notice that-- or prince, the
ruler of this world is judged. What the Holy Spirit
does, part and parcel of the work of the Spirit with
an unbeliever, is to show them, not only are they a
sinner and that Jesus has perfect
righteousness for them, but if they push his
righteousness away and say I don't want to receive
Christ, I don't need Christ, the further conviction
is that there is a judgment that is coming
and they are standing right in judgment's path. That there is such a
thing, if they reject the righteousness of Christ. And Jesus says that is
proved by what happened to the ruler of this world. When Jesus died on the cross,
Satan's fate, his doom, was sealed. It was set. And I just want to say
it's always healthy, it's always healthy
when somebody is nervous about judgment-- I've heard people
say, you know, I don't like churches that
speak about judgment. I do, I'm sorry. I do because people need to
know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And if you say no
to Christ, there is a judgment that is
coming, and that's the work of the Holy Spirit as well. And it's always a
healthy sign when I find somebody who's
worried about where they're going to go when they die. That's good. God uses guilt so that it can
be alleviated at the cross. I was a chaplain for the
FBI for a number of years and I'll never forget
a meeting that I had with one of the agents. He came to my office
and he was embarrassed. He kind of paced around a
little bit, and he goes, I don't know how to say this. I just feel weird. And so he finally got
around to saying, you know, I'm a Special Agent. I use a firearm, I put
myself in harm's way, and I've shot at people,
I've killed people. I've had people shoot at me. And I've never worried
about it, ever. But he said, the weird thing
is, I'm getting on an airplane to go to Washington,
DC, to headquarters, and I'm worried about
flying and dying. And then he said, I feel
weird, like where am I going to go when I die. And then he goes,
isn't that weird? And I go, no. [LAUGHTER] That's one of the
smartest things you could ever say or feel. And we had a wonderful
lengthy conversation, at the end of which
he bowed his head and received Jesus Christ
as Lord and Savior. [APPLAUSE] That's the Holy Spirit
that convicted him of sin and righteousness
and of judgment. So it's the Holy Spirit that
pursues us and testifies that Jesus Christ
is what we need. That's the Holy
Spirit with a person. Second, the Holy Spirit
comes inside of us. Go back to verse 17 of John 14. Love that sound. [PAGE TURNING NOISE] John 14:17. "The Spirit of truth, whom
the world cannot receive, because it neither
sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him for
he dwells with you," we just covered that,
"and will be in you." That's future tense. Will be in you. OK, so here's a glass. Here's a pitcher. Here's the water
inside the pitcher. I'm placing it
next to the glass. What is the relationship of
the water now to the glass? It's with the glass. That's all. Just with it. They share the same table space. But if I do this, then
what is the relationship? Wait, they sealed it for me. [LAUGHTER] Yeah, let's put this out
here so he cannot pour-- OK hold on, there we go. So now, what's the relationship? It's in, so you just use
a different preposition. Remember propositions,
by the way? Remember English? It's kind of fun to
go over these things. Oh, no, English class! Prepositions tell us how
nouns and pronouns work. So the first preposition, it's
with, that's when it was here. Now I poured it, so now it's in. That's a different preposition,
and Jesus uses that. He dwells with you
and He will be in you. This is the church age now. Something happened at Pentecost
that brought the Holy Spirit into the lives of
believers that happens, since that happened on
the day of Pentecost, to every person in the future. And that is, the
Holy Spirit comes in. When you receive Christ
as Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes inside
of every single believer. He dwells with you. He lives inside of you. In the Old Testament,
there are records, and we don't have
time to chase it all down because of time,
we're only doing three weeks. But in the Old Testament,
there are certain people that the Holy Spirit came with
and around and upon or in, for a very special task. For example, a judge
by the name of Othniel. Othniel, it says, was
filled with the Holy Spirit so that he could perform a task. King Saul, it says he was
filled with the Holy Spirit and he became the
King of Israel. Not a great King, by the way. But then the Holy Spirit
departed from him. And that's what David
meant in the Psalms when he said, take not
by Holy Spirit from me. Because he saw what happened
when the Holy Spirit said adios to King Saul. He thought, I don't want the
Holy Spirit saying adios to me. But it was that
tentative relationship. But now, but now,
in the church age, we as believers have the Holy
Spirit living in us 24/7. All the time. It's not like, oh, you wake up
and He left during the night, and you don't know where He
went so you better get Him back. He dwells permanently with
believers 24/7, maturing you, sanctifying you, and a
number of other things. 1 Corinthians 3:16. Paul says, "Do you not know
that you are the temple of God and that the Holy Spirit
of God dwells in you?" In you. In you. 1 Corinthians 6, your body is
the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you. Same word Jesus used. Whom you have from God. You are not your own, you
were bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in
your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Now listen carefully. This happened in the church
age on the day of Pentecost. On the day of
Pentecost, something happened that changed the
relationship of the Holy Spirit with every believer from that
day forward who is in Christ. And as I will show
you, this is what is meant by the term, the
baptism with the Holy Spirit. The baptism with
the Holy Spirit. Baptism, baptizo. And you know what a baptism is. We had a baptism this weekend. What do we do with people? We put them in and under. We immerse them in water. Baptizo means to immerse in. The baptism, you are immersed
in something, and that is this. The Holy Spirit comes inside
of you to dwell within you and then He puts you
in or immerses you in the body of Christ,
called the church. That's the baptism
with the Holy Spirit. By the way, Jesus predicted
it and before Him, John the Baptist predicted this. John the Baptist said
this in Matthew 3:11. "I indeed baptize you with
water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is
mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with
the Holy Spirit and fire." Jesus came along and repeated
that prediction, Acts 1:5. He said, "For John truly
baptized with water, but you shall be baptized
with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." Do you mind, since
I have water here? Now it really is in me. [LAUGHTER] OK, so we are baptized. We are put into, we are
immersed in the body of Christ. Every single believer
in Jesus Christ is immersed into the
church, the body of Christ. Baptism with the
Spirit, He puts you in a group, a family,
the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:13. "For by one Spirit we
were all baptized." He's writing to
Corinthians, they were far from being perfect or
holy or awesome or powerful. "We were all baptized into one
body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or
free, and we have all been made to drink
into one Spirit." Now I want to throw something
out at you and just-- I won't talk about it long,
but the term, the phrase the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You've heard that phrase, the
baptism of the Holy Spirit? You'll never find it
once in scripture. It's not in there. Now I don't want you to
go, [FRIGHTENED NOISE],, because sometimes when you
make a statement like that, and people start
panicking, and go, well, he said-- what is he saying? I'm just saying
that you'll never find that phrase in the Bible. That's all I'm saying. You'll find the phrase baptism
with the Holy Spirit, baptism in the Holy Spirit, and
baptize by the Holy Spirit. But that phrase, which is
so often used by people, is a phrase that is never found,
the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That could just be semantics, so
I don't want to dwell on that. But I do want to say that
the whole idea of the baptism with the Spirit has been misused
by many groups for many years. There are spiritual
thrill-seekers out there who feel like, if you
don't have enough shakes and shandalas, that the
Holy Spirit did not come. He did not show up,
he wasn't there. Because it's evidenced by
the shakes and the shandalas and the speaking in tongues. I remember my first
experience with this. I went to a church, I won't
say which church it was. It was a denominational church. I went to it and they were
asking people to come forward. I came forward. I'm a young believer, I want
whatever it takes, you know. I want all the help I can get. So I remember the preacher
grabbing me by the head, saying, "Have you been
baptized by the Holy Spirit?" And I'm going, I think so. And so he kind of
shook me, and he goes, "Well, speak in tongues, boy." He kept just trying to-- and I didn't even
know what that was-- but I did finally. Maybe I was polite, maybe I
wasn't, but I said, "Excuse me sir, but you're
not the Holy Spirit and He hadn't told me that. So I know what
you're trying to do, I think, but you're
just not Him." So it wasn't a great start
to begin with, for me. But now I want to
make a quick shift, because I just mentioned
what the Bible speaks about as the baptism with
the Holy Spirit, which would lead some to ask this question. That's it? Is that all there is,
you're telling me? Are you telling me the
extent of the Christian life is, I believe in Jesus
and he sticks me in church and that's all? No, that's not all. That's not all. There's more and
it's called being filled with the Holy Spirit. I'm using biblical
terminology now, being filled with the Spirit. At Pentecost, both of
these things happened. They were baptized with
the Spirit or by the Spirit into the body of Christ and they
were filled with the Spirit. Both of them happened same day. I'll show it to you. Both of them happened. It was the birthday
of the church. The church was born on that day. The Holy Spirit was putting
people into that group and they were filled. Before I get to that, I'm
going to read something to you. I want to just
trigger your memory. Remember, in John 7,
the day is the day of the Feast of Tabernacles. It's the last day of the feast. Temple's packed full of people,
it's standing room only. And Jesus is there. And at a certain ceremony,
at a certain time, Jesus lifts His voice. So everybody-- you had
to yell, because He didn't have one of these
and one of these speakers. So He had to say something
like this, [SHOUTING] "If anyone is thirsty, let
him come to Me and drink!" Everybody stopped and turned
and looked at that guy. And He said these
words after that, "He who believes in Me,
as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will
flow rivers of living water." Would you love to
have that experience? Would you love to have
an experience that is described by Jesus as rivers
of living water flowing out? Listen to what John wrote
right after Jesus said that. "But this He spoke
concerning the Spirit, whom those believing
in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit
was not yet given, because Jesus was
not yet glorified." Guess what? He's been given. He's been given in the book of
Acts in the day of Pentecost. The church began,
the church age began. But what Jesus said
was all-important. He said, out of his
innermost being will flow rivers of living water. It tells me that the goal
of the Christian believer is not just to be a contented
person, but a conduit. A conduit. Not just contented,
but a conduit. Not just that we
would be blessed, but that we would be a blessing. Not that we would be a
gulper [GULPING NOISES],, drinking all the water,
but we would be a gusher. A gusher. If I were to ask you
a simple question, do you have a firm faith,
you would probably say yes. Do you have a firm faith? Do you believe Jesus is
the only way to Heaven? Do you place all of your faith
alone in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross? You'd probably say,
that's what I believe. I have a firm faith. Here's my follow up question. Do you have a flowing faith? You see, I don't think Jesus
wants us to just sort of be content splashing around
in our own little pond that we've collected. We've collected this water. Woohoo, I'm going to have fun! He wants us to be a conduit,
to help see others refreshed, so it flows out from us. Empowered to refresh
and serve others. So the Holy Spirit comes
after us, the Holy Spirit comes inside of us. Now, Acts 1:8. Do you have a Bible? I'll wait till you turn there. Acts, chapter 1. I'm going to make the time. I believe it. Acts 1:8. No, let's do verse 7. "And He said to them,
it is not for you to know the times or the
seasons which the Father has put in His own authority." See, they were asking him
about when the end time scenario was going to
happen, the Kingdom was going to be set up. He said don't worry about it. But, but, verse 8,
"You shall receive," now watch the
wording here, "power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses
to Me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the end of the earth." I want you to notice
that sentence in verse 8. I want you to notice three
key elements in that sentence. Notice first of
all, the word power. You know what power means? Dunamin is the Greek word. Dunamin. We get the word
dynamic from that. Well That sounds
a little bit more like that living water thing
Jesus spoke about, a dynamic. By the way, we get the word
dynamite from it as well. But I think too many people
are going to pieces already. I prefer the word dynamic. You shall receive a
spiritual dynamic. The Amplified
Bible puts it, "You shall receive power, that
is the ability, efficiency, and might." In other words, a new capacity. A whole new capacity. Notice also the word upon. Now that's another preposition. With, glass is
next to the water. With. I poured it in, it's in. Now we use a
different preposition. When the Holy Spirit, verse
8, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you; and you will be witnesses to Me
in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost
parts of the earth." Now upon is a different
experience from with and in. There's a big difference. Go back to this analogy. The glass was next to
the water, it's with. I poured it in, it's in. Now it's filled. Now it's in. Now watch, watch, watch, watch. Look at that. Don't worry, it'll dry. You know what it is now? It's upon it. It's upon it. It's overflowing. It's flowing in, but
it's also flowing out. So if you're around it, it's
like well, give me a glass, because I could
use some of that. So as you keep pouring
it and keep pouring it and keep pouring it, you
have an overflow now. The Holy Spirit comes upon you. So watch the verse again. "You will receive
power, dynamic, when the Holy Spirit
comes upon you," that overflow that I believe
Jesus meant in John 7, "and you will be
witnesses to Me." Martures. To That's the Greek
word, martures. We get the word
martyr from martures. Unfortunately, you think
of a martyr as somebody who dies for their faith. What it means is somebody
who lives for their faith and is willing to
die for their faith. It really means somebody
who is a witness. It's somebody who tells
somebody else what he's experienced, seen, or heard. If I tell you what I've
experienced, seen, or heard, I'm witnessing. I'm bearing witness to you. And that's the word
martyr, martures. Did this happen in
the book of Acts? Happened with Peter. Acts, chapter 2,
day of Pentecost. He stands up, preaches the
gospel, 3,000 souls get saved. He gave a bold, clear,
compelling witness. Interesting that it was Peter. Why is it interesting? Because not too
long before that, Peter stood in a courtyard
when a servant girl said, you look familiar. You were with Him. I wasn't with Him. No, you were with Him. I wasn't with Him. No, you're the guy. And then he starts
cussing at her. Why didn't Peter boldly
stand there and go, I was with Him because
I believe in Him. He ran away. He denied Jesus. What happened so that
Peter could stand up and boldly preach the gospel? Two things. Resurrection of Jesus
Christ, to be fair. And number two, the
Holy Spirit filled him. He was filled with the
Holy Spirit, a dynamic, and he preached the gospel. So there is a filling. OK, go to Acts chapter 2. Really quickly, Acts chapter 2. I want you to see this. Verse 1, "When the day of
Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one
accord in one place. And suddenly there came a
sound from Heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and
it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared on them
divided tongues of fire and one sat upon each of them. And they were all," watch
the word, what does it say, "filled." Now Jesus, in chapter 1,
verse 5 repeated that baptism with the Spirit. But now it says
they were filled. Baptized, and now filled. They were filled
with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word
of God with boldness. So on that day of
Pentecost, not only were they baptized with the
Spirit into the body of Christ and the Holy Spirit
came in them, but they were also filled
with the Holy Spirit. By the way, the Bible
does make a distinction between baptism with
the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit. Baptism with the
Spirit takes place at the moment of salvation
and places believers into the church,
the body of Christ. Filling with the
Spirit takes place after a person is saved
and empowers that person to say and to serve. You're going to say,
you're going to speak, and you're going to
serve the body of Christ. Those two things it
will help a person do. It'll give a person
boldness and the dynamic to say and to serve. Baptism with the Holy Spirit,
according to the Bible, is a once for all,
non-repeatable event. Hear that. You never, ever, ever,
ever-- let me add it again-- ever, ever read
of somebody being baptized with the Holy Spirit a
second or third or fourth time. Ever. You don't read about it. You can say that it happens, but
you can't find it in the Bible. But there are many
times a person is filled with the Holy Spirit. I just showed you
one in chapter 2, verse 4, where it says they were
filled with the Holy Spirit. If you have your
Bible open and you can go quickly to Acts chapter
4, I'll show you another one. Verse 31, Acts 4. They've been threatened,
they've been told not to preach in Jerusalem. It says, when they prayed, Acts
4:31, "when they had prayed, the place where they were
assembled together was shaken; and they were all," what? "Filled with the Holy Spirit
and spoke the word of God with boldness." So they were filled
with the Holy Spirit, after they were baptized with
the Holy Spirit at Pentecost into the body of Christ. They were filled with the
Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Now, some time later,
they're filled again with the Holy Spirit. And it won't be the last time. It's like Paul the
Apostle, Acts chapter 9, he was filled with the Spirit. Acts chapter 13, he was
filled with the Spirit. When we get to the book
of Ephesians, chapter 5, we're given a command to
be filled with the Spirit regularly. I'll read it to you. Ephesians 5:17. You need to write this
down unless you have, like, supercomputer memory. Ephesians 5:17-18, he says,
"Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the
will of the Lord is." Let me stop right there. Do you want to know
God's will for your life? Who doesn't? We all do, right? I'm going to tell you what
God's will for your life is right now. It says, "Do not be drunk
with wine," that's part of it, "in which is
dissipation, debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit." Be filled with the Spirit. Now that is a
command, by the way. That is a command that is given. Now isn't it interesting that
the filling of the Holy Spirit is compared to what? To what? You can say it out loud. I know it's a
church, but go ahead. Getting drunk. Why? Please do not think it
hints at losing control. In fact, what it means
is giving over control. That's the idea. When a person drinks
and drinks, he's giving control over to alcohol. You've even said it, when you
see somebody slurring or saying a compliment that you know in
their normal reality they'd never say, that's
the alcohol talking. I remember my first
experience, I tried to witness to a guy who was drunk. Man, he was so moved. I thought he was so convicted. And he was like [CRYING SOUND]. He starts crying. (SLURRING) I love you, man. And he prayed and everything. The next day, didn't
even know who I was. [LAUGHTER] No recollection of the
conversation at all. None. He was completely under
the control of alcohol. The idea of being
filled with the Spirit is the idea of being
controlled by the Spirit. You may want to picture
a hand in a glove. You have a glove and
you put a hand in it. And now that glove can work
because the hand behind it can move it. So here, you're the glove. Let God put His
hand in and on you, and control your life, where
you give control completely over to the Holy Spirit. Now here he says be
filled with the Spirit. I said it's a command. We are never
commanded in the Bible to be sealed with the Spirit,
because you can't do anything about that. You believe in Christ,
you're sealed with the spirit to the day of
redemption, period. That's just part of
the package deal. He does that. You're never commanded
in the Bible, be baptized with
the Holy Spirit, because that's what happens
when you believe in Christ. The Holy Spirit will baptize
you into the body of Christ. You're never
commanded to do that. But here you are commanded
to be filled with the Spirit. So it is a command, which
means you can do it. It's possible. It's an element where you and
I are cooperating together. In fact, this is the only
work of the Holy Spirit you have a part in. You say yes to Jesus Christ. You can't say, OK I
said yes to Jesus, but Holy Spirit,
don't come inside me. Sorry, it's going to happen. Don't seal me. It's going to happen. Don't baptize me into
the body of Christ. Going to happen. But this is the work of the
Spirit where you and I are cooperating with Him. It is a command for us
to put into practice. It's also in the passive. It's written in the
passive, that is something that is done to me. When it says be filled
with the Spirit, it means allow
yourself to be filled by something from the outside. It's in the passive mood. And it's also written
in the plural. When it says be filled
with the Spirit, it's all y'all be
filled with the Spirit. Not one single person,
not for elite Christians, special class of second
blessing believers. It is for, available
to, all believers. And, this is the
most important, it's in the continuous, or
imperfect in Greek, tense. The imperfect or
continuous tense. In other words, the
best translation of it is, be constantly being
filled with the Spirit. You know what I prayed before
I came out here tonight? Fill me with Your Spirit. You know what I prayed this
morning when I began to study? Fill me with Your Spirit. Control, Lord, take my life. Fill me, empower me, use me. You go, well, you
already prayed once. Why do you need to pray again? I leak. [LAUGHTER] So remember this. One baptism, many fillings. Can you say that? One baptism, many fillings. That's the New Testament
teaching on it. One baptism, many fillings. So the baptism of the Holy
Spirit is a positional work. The Holy Spirit places a
person in the body of Christ. The filling of the Holy Spirit
is an experiential work. We experience that. It has to do with living
the Christian life. So at Pentecost, then,
two things happened. They were baptized by the Holy
Spirit or with the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit came
to dwell within them as a permanent possession. But they were also filled
with the Holy Spirit to be a witness to
the world and to be winsome to God's
people, the church, to serve them in the future. I love what Spurgeon said. I love Spurgeon. I love him so much, I love
Charles Spurgeon so much, that when I was in London once,
I not only went to his church to see the facade of it--
because I'd read him since probably the first
week I was saved-- but I went to where
he was buried, because I had read about
his funeral procession. It was massive. It was one of the
biggest ever in London. So I went to see it
and I remembered there something Spurgeon said. He said his last
prayer, "If there was only one prayer which
I might pray before I died, it would be this. Lord, send thy church men
filled with the Holy Ghost and with fire." Close quote. It's a good prayer. Lord, send your church,
men and women, young, old, and everybody in
between, to be filled, filled with Your Holy Spirit. Upon. So that you become a river of
living water, not just being satisfied and getting soaked,
and saying, man I'm so happy, I'm so content. But you turn your focus on
refreshing, blessing others, witnessing to the world,
and serving the church. So the Holy Spirit then comes
after us to make us saved. The Holy Spirit comes into
us to make us sanctified. The Holy Spirit comes
upon us to make us, as I mentioned last
time, supercharged or servants to serve the world. To serve the church. I want that. I want that. That's what you're thinking. I want that. How do I get that? You know how you get that? You just ask. Because here's what Jesus said. He said, you know if
you guys, being evil, can give good gifts to your
children, how much more would the Father give the Holy
Spirit to those who ask. Father, we ask, right now,
right here in this place, in our lives, imperfect
vessels as we are, all of us. We who have been baptized by
Your Spirit, with Your Spirit, into the body of Christ, where
the Holy Spirit lives within us to satisfy us, to sanctify us. Lord, come upon us. Fill us to overflowing,
that our experience would be like Jesus promised
would happen on that day. We just ask You for it, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. For more resources from Calvary
Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig, visit calvaryabq.org.
