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Ten Things We Would Not Have Without The Holy Spirit 20241222 Billy Harrington
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The speaker discusses the importance of receiving the Holy Spirit and the implications of not having it. They mention that if one has not received the Holy Spirit, they would not have the fruit of the Spirit, the ability for God to pour love into their hearts, help with their prayers, the power to hope, sanctification, and the presence of God living with them. The speaker encourages further discussion and exploration of these ideas. I'm glad you're here this morning, visiting with us online, also glad that you're here. I'm going to ask you this morning to think along with me, those that are in my Bible class will know some of this material, but I want you to think along with me about whether you have received the Holy Spirit or not. And we'll begin that in Acts 2 and in verse 38. In Acts 2 and verse 38 it says, And Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. If I were to ask you this morning, do you attend a Holy Spirit filled church? How would you answer that? If I were to ask you, do you have the Holy Spirit, what would you say? You know, we're pretty comfortable with Acts 2.38, we go there all the time, and we, I should say we're pretty comfortable with the first half of Acts 2.38, we go there all the time. Repent and be baptized and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit is a little bit different. We wonder about that. And many lessons have been taught on this. Some have taken it from the point of view that they believe that this is referring to spiritual gifts, when he says you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. There are some who believe that this is the ability to receive spiritual gifts. I have preached a lesson that this refers to salvation. The more I look at it, the more I'm convinced that it is indeed the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now all the approaches that are taken for this verse have some merit and should be considered. However, I want us to approach it from a little different point of view this morning. I want us to ask the question, according to Scripture, according to Scripture, what would I not have if the Holy Spirit had not been given to me? Now if you have questions about this or disagree with what I have to say this morning, feel free to come and talk to me. I'd be happy to talk with you about it further. But I want to look at Scripture and see the things that we would not have if the Holy Spirit had not been given to us. And one of the first things I want to look at is Galatians. And it is the, if the Holy Spirit had not been given to us, we would not have the fruit of the Spirit. There's an interesting question that Paul asks in Galatians 3 and in verse 2. He says, this is Paul talking to the Galatians in Galatians 3 and verse 2, he says, let me ask you this only, did you receive the Spirit by works of law or by hearing with faith? And that question is quite interesting because Paul doesn't say, did you receive the Spirit? He assumes that they had received the Spirit, and he assumes that they would know that they had received the Spirit. And what he asks them is, how did you receive it? Did you receive it by the law or did you receive it with hearing and faith? Now hearing and faith goes really well with Acts 2.38, you know, believe, repent, confess, be baptized, you heard, you believe, you have faith, you follow through, and then you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And Paul's making an argument here that they have the Spirit. In fact, he's arguing that they need to let the Spirit override the flesh. And in Galatians 5 and verse 22, he says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such there is no law. If the Holy Spirit had not been given to us, I submit to you that there would be no fruit of the Spirit. Now, you might take it offensively and say, well, there's people in the world that have love and there's people in the world that have joy and peace and patience. And I would say, yeah, that's true, but they don't have the fruit of the Spirit. That's not the fruit of the Spirit. They don't have faith in Jesus Christ. They haven't been given the Holy Spirit. Now, the second thing that we would not have if the Holy Spirit had not been given to us is a way for God to pour love into our hearts, at least according to Scripture. Notice, if you will, Romans chapter 5, there's an amazing verse here. In Romans 5, it says, And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. The imagery of God pouring His love into our hearts. I mean, it's like if you think of someone pouring something, there's an abundance. God has an abundance of love. He's going to pour it into our vessel, which probably has a little trouble containing all the love God pours upon us. And we kind of get this image of the Holy Spirit kind of like a funnel, where God is pouring His love through us through the Holy Spirit in whom He has given to us. If He hadn't given the Holy Spirit to us, how is He going to pour His love into our hearts? According to Scripture, the Holy Spirit is how He pours love into our hearts. I find that fascinating, to say that for a person in the audience who knows who you are. The third thing we would not have is help with our prayers. Now, most of us read this verse, and we know that it is there in Romans 8, verse 26. It says, Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought. But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He who searches the heart knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Do you need help with your prayers? I know I do. There are many times I seriously don't know what to pray for. I hear of someone's situation, and I think, what do I pray for? Do I pray for healing? Do I pray for him going on to meet the Lord? Do I pray for something else? And I don't know. But we have help with our prayers. You may not understand it. You may not know everything the Holy Spirit says. You may not know what the Holy Spirit says. Here we're told that we have help with our prayers. He intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, and He does it according to the will of God. If the Holy Spirit had not been given to us, I submit to you, we wouldn't have help with our prayers. If the Holy Spirit had not been given to us, we would not have the power to hope. That's one that was a little bit different to me. I didn't think too much about this, the power to hope. But in Romans 15 and verse 13, it says, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. Is your hope from the Holy Spirit? You may not see that immediately, it may not come to you obviously. But if you think about what the Holy Spirit does for you overall, it begins to become more prevalent. Yeah, our hope springs from eternal life, which we're guaranteed by the Holy Spirit. So our hope does indeed come from the Holy Spirit. We abound in hope through the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit had not been given to me, I would not be sanctified. I would not have sanctification, at least according to what Paul says here, down a little lower in Romans 15. He's making an argument that he's a minister of Christ. He says, To be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Now, that verse could be read, the offering of the Gentiles is sanctified, or the Gentiles themselves are sanctified, pretty good chance most of us here today are Gentiles. And so our sanctification were set apart by the Holy Spirit. God living with us, that's one where we need to consider a little bit. I'm going to go to John, the gospel of John, and I know some of you out there are probably nervous going through the gospel of John to talk about the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit in the gospels, many times, and much is referred to as what God is doing for the apostles. But I don't believe all of it is, some of it, there's some nuggets there for us. John 14 and verse 22, Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered him. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. Kind of a promise God is saying, I'll move in with you. If you love me and you keep my promise, I'll move in with you. And he said, well, that's referring to the apostles. Well, it might go that, except Paul doesn't keep it there. In 1 Corinthians, Paul talks a lot about the spirit. Paul, out of all the writers of the New Testament, Paul probably talks about the spirit more than any of them, though the other writers do mention it. But in 1 Corinthians 3 and in verse 16, Paul is making an argument to the Corinthians and he says, do you not know that you are God's temple, that God's spirit dwells in you? Do you not know that? And then in 1 Corinthians 6, and again, many times when he talks about the spirit, there's this contrast between the flesh and the spirit and doing away with the things of the flesh and living with the things of the spirit. And in 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 18, he says, flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexual immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. God moved in with you. You know, if you knew that God was going to move in with you tomorrow morning, when you got out of church today, would you not go home and clean the house, wash the dishes, maybe sweep the floor, mop it, maybe even wash the windows, maybe do some dusting. God's moving in with you. And that's kind of the argument of the New Testament. God is moving in with us, so we need to get rid of some things of the flesh, sexual immorality, envy, hate, strife, lying, cheating, stealing. That needs to be moved out because God is living with us. So we need to put on the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace. So he's making that contrast. If the Holy Spirit had not been given to us, God would not be living with us. Another thing that we would not have if the Holy Spirit had not been given to us is we would not have the privilege of belonging to Christ. And Paul makes that clear in Romans, the eighth chapter, in Romans, chapter eight, Romans, chapter eight, and in verse nine, he says, You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If, in fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. The Spirit identifies us, marks us as belonging to Christ. You know, in the book of Revelation, we talk about the mark of the beast. You belong to the beast. Well, the Holy Spirit is given to us to mark us, to identify us as belonging to Christ. Without that gift, where would our identifying mark be? Who would we belong to? Paul says, if the Spirit is in us, then we belong to Christ. Tricked you, didn't you? You thought I was out of space. If the Holy Spirit had not been given to me, I would not have God as my father. In 8, verse 14, it says, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. What he's saying here is because we are adopted sons of God, God has given us the spirit and through the spirit we can call God our father. Do you ever say our father who art in heaven? You do that because God has given us the spirit to be because we are his son. We didn't get the spirit before we became his son. We are adopted sons of God and he gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit. So by the spirit we can call God our father. Holy Spirit hadn't been given to us, we wouldn't be able to call God our father. The Holy Spirit hadn't been given to us. We would not be God's son. We would not be in his family and we would not have an inheritance. That's Romans 8, verse 16. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and his children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. If I did not or had not been given the Holy Spirit, I would not be an heir of God. I would not receive the things of God. But because God has adopted me as his son, has made it clear that I belong to Christ, has made it clear that I will receive an inheritance, I receive my inheritance from God because I'm a son of God, because I've been given the Holy Spirit to mark me as belonging to Christ. I wouldn't have that if the Holy Spirit hadn't been given to me. And finally, if the Holy Spirit had not been given to me, I would not have a guarantee of eternal life. Paul makes a really, three different times he makes reference to this. It's a powerful thing in the New Testament. If you will, turn with me to 2 Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and down about verse 22. Let's back up to verse 20, 2 Corinthians 1, verse 20. He's speaking about what we have in Christ. For all the promises of God find their yes in him, that is in Christ. That is why it is through him that we have that we utter our amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who also has put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. God, who made these promises to us, gives us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee that he will fulfill those promises. In 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 4, actually, let's pick up in verse 2. He talks about what that promise guarantees, what promises guaranteed. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling. If indeed by putting it on, we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened, not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God who has given us the spirit as a guarantee. God has given us a spirit as a guarantee that this mortal body will put on immortality. Someday it will change in a twinkling of an eye. It'll be different. It will not be flesh and blood, which cannot inherit the kingdom of God, but it will be changed into spirit. And God's given us the Holy Spirit to guarantee his promise that he will give us internal life. The one we're probably more familiar with is in Ephesians. Ephesians 1 and in verse 13, it says in him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire the possession of it to the praise of his glory. Guarantee what do we do with a guarantee? You know, if you ever buy something and you get a guarantee at first, we we sometimes have trouble seeing its value, don't we? And we know this thing is new. What do I need a guarantee? I'm going to take care of it. Things are going to be good. Right. And if we're asked to pay a little extra for that guarantee, we might even haggle over that. So, you know, is the guarantee really necessary? Do I really need that? I mean, do I have to have a guarantee? And then we finally decide, well, OK, I'll take it. We get the guarantee. We take it home. And if you're like me, you hand it to your wonderful wife who puts it in a magical place. And then when I ask for it, it magically comes back to me. But most of us without that wonderful wife would probably lose it, put it in a place we couldn't find it. And then if it did come that we needed it, we would have trouble finding that guarantee. And if we did find it, we would wonder, is it still valid? Is it any good? Has the person who guaranteed this, are they still in business? So we we struggle with the idea of guarantee. But our guarantee from God come with great value and a very high cost. Think about this. You buy a car, you have a guarantee of 100,000 miles. You take it at 90,000 miles and just die. So you take it and say, hey, it guaranteed 100,000 miles. And they say, did you change the oil? And you say, oil? What oil? You didn't maintain it, did you? Well, God's taking care of that. He's given us a maintenance program. Galatians 5 verse 22. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. What would you pay to have those things in your life? How much money would you give to have the fruit of the spirit in your life? I'm sorry, you cannot afford. You don't have the resources. You don't have the price. You cannot have the news. Somebody else paid the cost of that war. Somebody else paid the cost of that guarantee. God himself sent his son, Jesus, to die upon the cross to pay the price for eternal life for each and every one of us. And then he handed us a guarantee. Here's the guarantee. The gift of the Holy Spirit is a guarantee by God that he will give you everything that he's promised. You have doubts. You sometimes wonder if God wants you to be with him. You sometimes wonder if you're going to make it to heaven. You forgot about the guarantee. You forgot about the fruit of the spirit. You forgot about what God has paid. You forgot about the cost. You forgot about how valid that guarantee is that you can have eternal life. Sometimes we treat things with a little less value than they deserve. And I think, at least I have, I've treated the Holy Spirit with a little less value, actually a whole lot less than I should have. Is God's promise guaranteed to me that I can have? Let us not grieve the spirit, Ephesians 4, verse 30, but let us be filled with the spirit, Ephesians 5 and verse 18. We may never understand all there is about what the spirit does for us, how he indwells in our heart, what he accomplishes, but we can know that we have the Holy Spirit because God said, if you repent, you'll be baptized for the remission of your sin. You'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the guarantee that I will fulfill all of my promises that I promised. You know, if you think about it, we argue about what the Holy Spirit does and how the Holy Spirit does it and all those things, not necessarily bad things to think about. But sometimes we fail to accept the very gift that God gave us to give us assurance that he's going to fulfill all of his promises. If I were to ask you, did God create the world? You'd probably say yes. I said, how did he create the world? You might say, well, he spoke it into existence, which is true. But how did that work? Don't know. But I believe he created it. And you may wonder, God gave us the Holy Spirit. How did he do that? How is it in our heart? Don't know. But I know he did it because I believe what God said when he said he created the world. I believe it. And now he says, if you repent, you'll be baptized. You'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. I believe that I have received the gift of the Holy Spirit because God said it. Don't understand it. Don't understand everything you know about it. But there's a lot of scripture that says it does a lot of things for me. Gives me the power to hope, makes me belong to Christ, makes me mark to the Son of God, gives me an inheritance. So let's not quibble about what the Holy Spirit does or how the Holy Spirit does all this. But let us listen to the word of God and let us accept the gift of God and thank him for it. When you pray with me, our father, what a wonderful thing it is to be able to come to you and say, our father, Lord, you have done so much for us, your will to be our God and your will for us to be your people is amazing. Your love for us, your giving of your only son to pay the price that we might have eternal life. Sometimes it's hard to understand. And then, father, you say, here's my Holy Spirit, which guarantees everything that I promised you through Jesus Christ, that you are indeed my son and that you will indeed inherit what I have and that you will have eternal life. Father, sometimes that is difficult to understand. We know, father, in the Gospel of Luke that you said you would give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. And father, we ask for the Holy Spirit. We want to cherish your gift of the Holy Spirit. And we want to thank you, father, for the guarantee that all your promises will be fulfilled. Father, help us to do your will and help us to appreciate the gift that you have given us. So this is our prayer through Jesus Christ, our Savior.
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