We just quieten down.
Father, we just look to you tonight at
the outset of this meeting to pray for
the work of your Holy Spirit in our
midst.
We just ask that he will have his
wonderful way.
We pray for those who are here with
heartaches and problems and needing your comfort.
We pray for those who are here with
difficulties and trials.
We thank you that your grace is sufficient
for every time of need.
Think of our brother in Waterloo, Brother Gillette,
at this time we pray, Lord, if it
is your will to call him home, that
he might indeed have an abundant entrance into
the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ.
And we pray that the Savior will be
magnified by his death as well as by
his life.
And we pray for the family, too, at
this time.
So many of your people going through deep
waters, oh Father, we pray that your presence
will be nearer than ever in life, more
near than they ever believed it could be.
We just ask for each one in the
meeting tonight, Lord, we thank you for your
grace and your kindness to us and pray
that day by day we might be more
and more conformed to the image of the
Savior.
We ask in his precious name, amen.
I was going through the books this afternoon
and I was noticing some that were written
by those in assembly fellowship.
I really believe that the main purpose that
God had in raising up the assembly movement
was in connection with the ministry of literature.
Assemblies have never produced a great preacher like
Spurgeon.
You could go through a great list of
things that have never come out of the
assemblies, but there has been a tremendous amount
of literature.
And I just thought I'd mention some.
There's a whole series of books by John
Phillips.
Has John been here at all at this
conference?
So many of you know John Phillips and
his books are available up there.
Marriage Builder by Lawrence Crabb.
Lawrence carries on counseling ministry with regard to
the home and the family.
The Time of Your Life by Mark Porter.
This is on time management.
Do you have a problem with procrastination?
Who doesn't?
Well, this tells you how to make the
most out of your time.
It's really good.
It has some very practical hints in it.
Peace, Prosperity and the Coming Holocaust by Dave
Hunt.
Dave's in fellowship in the West Valley Assembly
in California, also known as Canoga Park.
Dave believes in this book that the New
Age movement might be the religion of the
Antichrist.
Whether you agree with that or not, he
has some very valuable insights as to what's
going on in the evangelical world today.
It's kind of shocking to read about some
of the famous names in the evangelical world
and what they really believe.
Then there are two books here by Dave
Reed.
He's on the faculty at Emmaus.
Devotions for Growing Christians.
I think this is the new one, Thoughts
for Growing Christians.
Dave writes a newsletter and sends it out
to his friends that are on his mailing
list.
He's really a good writer, and these are
good little essays.
And then I guess most of you have
The Next Move, Current Events in Bible.
How many already have that book?
Well, I figured as much.
But those who don't might be interested in
having it by Rob Linstead.
There are others, believe it or not, that
I didn't mention.
Pat Bennett will tell you about them.
Was somebody going to say something about the
booklet by Stuart Henrich?
Pardon?
Has it already been mentioned?
I want to mention, too, before we get
started, that in going through a series like
this, it's inevitable that some of you would
have questions.
And what I'd like to do is, if
any of you have questions, feel free to
write them up and just put them up
here on the platform, and we'll try to
answer them.
I think that would be probably better than
just having questions from the audience, and I
will try to do my best with whatever
questions you submit.
So do feel free to do that.
This morning we were thinking about some of
the ministries of the Holy Spirit of God,
and we mentioned the fact that, first of
all, that He convicts the unsaved of sin.
Maybe you want to bring that down to...
He convicts the unsaved of sin, and we
mentioned that without that conviction there is no
conversion to God.
And then, secondly, He regenerates.
That's where we left off this morning, isn't
it?
He regenerates.
Now, if some of you are having a
hard time reading that, it's not because your
bifocals aren't working, but it's because it's hard
to read.
He regenerates, John 3, 5, Titus 3, 5.
Regeneration is a mysterious, supernatural work of the
Spirit of God.
It really is mysterious.
It's supernatural.
It can be imitated, but it can't be
duplicated.
One of the things we're going to be
doing in heaven is listening to testimonies of
what the grace of God has done in
human lives.
You know, if we could take the time,
which we can't do at a conference like
this, if we could take the time to
hear of God's working in your lives.
It's really marvelous.
Just let me share the story of one
of our fellows out there, a fellow that's
very dear to me, he and his wife
and little baby.
His name is Eric Shorkin.
Eric was brought up in a home where
his father died when he was young.
His mother, a German lady, raised him and
his brother and sister, and there was no
mention of God from one end of the
week to the other.
No acknowledgment of God.
There was a little girl in the neighborhood
that Eric used to play with, and she
used to tell him Bible stories.
Isn't that interesting?
Well, he thought it was interesting.
He used to listen to the Bible stories,
and they developed a respect in him for
God and for the Bible.
As he grew up, he got wilder and
wilder.
One day, he and his brother and sister
were walking down a shopping mall near us,
and a young lady, a girl, walked up
to them and said, Have you heard the
word of the Lord?
Now, there's an approach for some of you
to use.
That was quite an approach, wasn't it?
Have you heard the word of the Lord?
Well, the brother and sister started to mock,
but Eric said, No, what is it?
And she took him aside and explained the
gospel to him.
Well, he didn't get saved, but it was
a link in the chain of his salvation.
Eric became really a wild man.
He was a motorcyclist.
He had a motorcycle.
It was a classic.
It was taken to motorcycle shows.
He had a fiberglass board giving all the
details about it, and he had the word
Hellbound painted on the side of it.
The word Hellbound and picture of the devil
with the pitchfork and the tails and the
horn and the whole bit.
One day at campus, when Eric was going
through Chabot Junior College, one of our interns
met him, began to work with him, and
had the joy of leading him to the
Lord.
Transformation in that fellow's life.
He changed instantly, and he started to try
to sell the motorcycle, but he couldn't sell
it.
He went on a gospel crusade down to
Mexico.
While he was down there, he was telling
another of our interns, Jim McCarthy, how he
was trying to sell this motorcycle, and he
couldn't sell it.
And Jim said to him, Eric, would you
sell a motorcycle?
Now that you're a Christian, would you sell
a motorcycle with the word Hellbound on it?
Eric said, I never thought of that.
So he came home from the Mexico crusade,
and he started to work on the paint
job.
And the Lord enabled him to get that
top layer of paint off so perfectly that
the under layer was exactly the way the
motorcycle came from the factory.
Eric said, God is working in my life.
That was one of the first ways he
knew that God was working in his life.
The second way was that the motorcycle sold
the next day and he got the full
price for it.
I tell you, that's wonderful, isn't it?
And you know, from the day that fellow
trusted Christ as his Savior, he has never
turned back.
When he was a boy, he used to
love to play in bushes and wooded areas,
jungle work.
He loved the jungle.
And since he got saved, God has called
him to go down to Brazil to work
in the Amazon jungle.
He was down there two years ago, spent
the summer there, and the missionaries there told
me that they never had a fellow come
down that could rough it like Eric.
And in the will of God, he'll be
leaving in the spring of next year to
go down to Brazil to work in the
Amazon jungle.
What a story, isn't it?
Listen, only the Spirit of God can do
that.
That's not reformation.
That's not putting a new suit on a
man, is it?
Putting a new man in the suit.
And Eric is a new man.
He's a real worshipper.
I don't think Eric ever talks to me
without talking about the coming of the Lord.
That's remarkable, isn't it?
His mother does nothing but nag him.
His brother has been in trouble with the
law.
Nothing.
She never says anything about the brother.
Sister's been living in sin.
That's perfectly all right.
She just can't give Eric peace.
Why?
Because his life is so convicting to hers.
That's why.
So if you think of it, you might
pray for dear Eric and his wife Sandra
and their little baby.
Eric was back with me.
Eric and his wife were back with me
at the missionary conference with their 13-day
-old baby, breaking the baby in young.
Regeneration.
You know, if there's someone here and you're
troubled about your soul and you're not sure
you've ever had this marvelous work of regeneration
in your heart, we should speak to us
afterwards.
I'd love to talk to you.
I'd love to show you how you can
know the new birth through the Spirit of
God.
Okay, the third thing is the third ministry
of the Holy Spirit of God is that
he baptizes believers into the body of Christ.
He baptizes believers into the body of Christ.
Please turn to 1 Corinthians 12, 13.
1 Corinthians 12, 13.
I'll begin back at verse 12.
1 Corinthians 12, 12.
For as the body is one and hath
many members, and all the members of that
one body being many are one body, so
also is Christ.
Notice, four by one Spirit, where we all
baptized into one body, whether we be Jews
or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free,
and have been all made to drink into
one Spirit.
Now, please look at verse 13 carefully and
tell me, what is the baptism of the
Holy Spirit?
If you were taking an exam and the
question was, what is the baptism of the
Holy Spirit?
How would you answer that question?
Well, it seems very clear to me that
the baptism of the Holy Spirit is that
ministry of his which places a believer in
the body of Christ.
Is that what it says?
The baptism of the Spirit is that ministry
of the Holy Spirit which places believers in
the body of Christ.
Notice what the verse says.
For by one Spirit were we all.
We all.
In other words, all believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ are baptized by the Spirit into
the body of Christ.
We all.
If you want to know who we all
is, you turn back to 1 Corinthians 1,
verse 2.
Paul makes it very clear.
He's writing unto the church of God which
is at Corinth.
To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus
called to be saints with all that notice,
with all that in every place call upon
the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both
theirs and ours.
So, he's speaking to all believers and he
says we were all baptized.
We were all placed in the body of
Christ.
For us, this takes place at the time
of conversion.
Doesn't it?
At the time of conversion.
Actually, the initial baptism of the Holy Spirit
took place at Pentecost.
I often like it to the formation of
an army.
Sometime in the past in the United States.
A law was passed establishing an army.
That was the beginning of the army and
since then people have been joining that army.
Well, it's that way with the baptism of
the Spirit.
It took place initially at the day of
Pentecost but it takes place for us when
we trust the Lord Jesus as our Savior
and it includes all believers in the Lord
Jesus.
Now, I do want to stop here and
say the baptism of the Spirit should not
be confused with the filling of the Spirit.
They're different and we're going to be talking
about the filling of the Spirit later.
And the baptism of the Spirit should not
be confused with the baptism of fire either.
A lot of people think they're the same
because there were tongues of fire at Pentecost
they equate the baptism of the Spirit with
the baptism of fire.
I'd like to show you that they're not
the same.
John chapter 1 verse 33.
I'm going to begin back in verse 29.
It says, The next day John seeth Jesus
coming unto him and saith, Behold the Lamb
of God which taketh away the sin of
the world.
This is he of whom I said, After
me cometh a man which is referred before
me for he was before me.
And I knew him not but that he
should be made manifest to Israel.
Therefore am I come baptizing with water.
John bare record saying, I saw the Spirit
descending from heaven like a dove and it
abode on him.
And I knew him not but he that
sent me to baptize with water.
The same said unto me, Upon whom thou
shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on
him the same as he which baptizes with
the Holy Spirit.
And I saw and bare record that this
is the Son of God.
Notice in this passage of Scripture in verse
33, it mentions the baptism of the Holy
Spirit.
Period.
Right?
Now turn back to Matthew chapter 3.
Matthew chapter 3 verses 11 and 12.
But I'm going to begin again back at
verse 7 and you'll see why in a
minute.
Verse 7, But when he saw many of
the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism,
he saith unto them, O generation of vipers,
who hath warned you to flee from the
wrath to come?
Bring forth therefore fruit meat for repentance.
And think not to say within yourselves, We
have Abraham to our father.
For I say unto you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children
unto Abraham.
And now also the axe is laid unto
the root of the trees.
Therefore every tree which bringeth not fruit is
hewn down and cast into the fire.
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance.
But he that cometh after me is mightier
than I, whose shoes I am not worthy
to bear.
He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit
and with fire.
Let me finish reading.
Whose fan is in his hand and he
will truly purge his floor and gather his
wheat into the garner.
But he will burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire.
Now, in the first passage I read to
you in John's Gospel, he shall baptize you
with the Holy Spirit.
In Matthew 3, he shall baptize you with
the Holy Spirit and fire.
Why the difference?
Let me just, before I give you the
answer, let me just say something.
Every difference in the Gospels is significant.
God gave us four Gospels.
And do you know what man does?
He writes harmonies of the Gospels.
And that's just what God didn't intend him
to do.
God never intended us to write harmonies of
the Gospels.
Everything in the Holy Spirit seldom repeats himself.
He usually has a reason for every difference.
And I can't give you the reason, but
I think I can in this case.
If you'll notice, in Matthew's Gospel, it was
a mixed audience.
It was believers and unbelievers.
How do you know?
It says the Pharisees and the Sadducees came
to him.
He said, O generation of vipers, who warned
you to flee from the wrath that comes.
Believers and unbelievers.
When you come to John, there's no mention
of unbelievers.
No mention of unbelievers in that passage.
He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
What is the baptism with fire?
Let the Scripture explain itself.
It says, verse 12 of Matthew 3, Whose
fan is in his hand, and he will
throughly purge his floor.
He will gather his wheat into the garnet,
and he will burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire.
What is fire?
It's judgment.
That's what it is.
It's the judgment of God.
Which leads me to say, beloved Christian friends,
don't pray for the baptism of fire.
You don't have to pray for the baptism
of the Spirit because if you're saved, you've
already received it.
You're already in the body of Christ.
But whatever you do, don't pray.
Of course, God would know your innocence in
praying for the baptism of fire, and he
wouldn't give it to you if you're a
believer.
But I think it's important to see that
type of thing.
Actually, this quotation is found in all four
Gospels, and wherever there's a mixed multitude, he
shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and
with fire.
Wherever there's believers and unbelievers, but where there's
just believers, he shall baptize you with the
Holy Spirit.
I tell you, these differences in the Bible
are really wonderful.
Another ministry of the Holy Spirit which we've
already mentioned, but we'll mention it again, he
indwells believers and the church.
We saw in John 14, verses 16 and
17, when a person is saved, the Spirit
of God comes and he indwells in that
person forever.
He'll never leave.
And 1 Corinthians 6.19 says that your
body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
That's really wonderful, isn't it, when you think
of it, when you think that in these
lowly bodies, these bodies of our humiliation, the
Holy Spirit actually resides.
I think it'd be a good thing for
every one of us at the beginning of
every day to say, Lord, this next 24
-hour period, help me to remember that my
body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
It would change our lives, wouldn't it?
It would affect where we go.
It would affect what we do.
It would affect every aspect of our life
if we're consciously practicing the presence of the
Holy Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit indwells all believers.
It's automatic.
It takes place at the time of conversion.
Notice Romans 8.9. Romans 8.9. It
said, But ye are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, if so be that
the Spirit of God dwell in you.
But if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his.
The distinguishing mark is the presence of the
Holy Spirit of God.
The man doesn't have the Holy Spirit doesn't
belong to God.
And this is good, too, because some people
say, well, I just grew into Christianity.
When did you become a Christian?
Well, I just kind of grew into it.
No, you didn't.
There was a moment when the Spirit of
God came into your life that you were
really saved.
Incidentally, how do you know that?
Well, you know it by the Word of
God.
When you got saved, did you feel the
Holy Spirit coming?
No, you didn't feel it, probably.
But you know it because the Bible says
so.
Which leads me to say that in your
Christianity, don't go too much by your feelings.
They're very undependable.
Go by the Word of God that never
changes from day to day.
Say the same thing to you tomorrow as
you do today.
I think one of the big sneers today
among Christian people is trusting their feelings instead
of trusting the Scriptures.
I speak from experience.
I was telling somebody here that when I
was brought to my Christian home and I
heard all these marvelous testimonies of miraculous transformations
of drunkards and thieves and adulterers and all
the rest.
They became saved and they would get up
and testify and say, Therefore, if any man
is in Christ, he's a new creature.
Old things are passed away.
Behold, all things become new.
And I just figured when I got saved
that that's what would happen to me, that
the lights would go on, the bells would
ring, and I'd get nervous shivers in my
system.
And when I did trust the Lord, nothing
happened.
But I could feel and I guessed I
wasn't saved.
And I went on in misery for months
looking to my feelings to tell me that
I was saved and they never did.
Then I got ahold of a little booklet
by George Cutting, Safety, Certainly, and Enjoyment.
He said, It's the blood that makes you
safe.
It's the word that makes you sure.
And then I read what Ironside said.
He said, I don't know I'm saved because
I feel happy, but I feel happy because
I know I'm saved.
See, I was putting the cart before the
horse, wasn't I?
Let me say that again.
I don't know I'm saved because I feel
happy, but I feel happy because I know
I'm saved.
And how do you know you're saved, Dr.
Ironside?
Because the Bible tells me so.
And then I read what Martin Luther King,
Martin Luther said, Martin Luther, somebody asked him,
Mr. Luther, do you feel your sins have
been forgiven?
And he said, No, but I'm as sure
of it as that there's a God in
heaven.
For feelings come and feelings go and feelings
are deceiving.
My warrant is the word of God.
Not else is worth believing.
And then I read that statement by Dr.
Scofield.
I think that was the greatest of all
for me.
He said, Justification takes place in the mind
of God and not in the nervous system
of the believer.
That was wonderful.
See, I was expecting to feel it.
I was expecting electrical impulses to go through
my body to tell me I was saved.
They never did.
But when I entered the word of God
and when I read John 5, 24 and
1 John 5, 13, These things have I
written unto you that believe in the name
of the Son of God, that ye may
know that ye have eternal life, even ye
that believe in the name of the Son
of God.
I got assurance of salvation and I've never
doubted it since.
Wonderful, isn't it?
Assurance through the word of God.
So, how do we know the Spirit of
God indwells us?
Because the Bible says so.
We don't feel it.
Although I do say this, after we're saved
a while, then the evidence has become a
new love for holiness, a new hatred for
sin, an appetite for the word of God,
a new love for Christian people.
We know we pass from death unto life
because we love the brethren's death.
There are evidences along the way that confirm
it, but immediately you can know through the
word of God that He indwells.
When the Spirit of God does indwell a
person, He makes a change in that person's
life.
There's no question about it.
I don't care whether you were brought up
in the strictest Christian home.
When you're saved, a change comes in your
life.
Now, there is a verse in the New
Testament that might be a little confusing to
some.
That is in the King James, but you
won't find this in your modern versions.
It says in Acts 19, this has to
do with a group of men known as
John's disciples.
Acts 19, verse 1, it came to pass
that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having
passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus
and finding certain disciples, said unto them, now
it says in the King James, have ye
received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?
It's an unfortunate translation.
If you have a more modern version of
the Bible, it accurately says, did you receive
the Holy Spirit when you believed?
Are you with me?
You've got the King James, the old King
James, have you received the Holy Spirit since
you believed?
That makes it sound as if the coming
of the Holy Spirit was subsequent to salvation,
which the New Testament doesn't bear out at
all.
It really should read, did you receive the
Holy Spirit when you believed?
I just want to mention that in case
somebody is hung up on that verse of
Scripture.
Okay, we go on to another ministry of
the Holy Spirit, and that is that he
gives the believer a consciousness of sonship.
He gives the believer a consciousness of sonship.
Galatians 4, verse 6.
Well, I'm going to go back again.
I'm going to go back to the first
verse.
This is very important.
Now, I say that the heir, as long
as he is a child, differeth nothing from
a servant, that's a slave, though he be
lord of all, but is under tutors and
governors until the time appointed of the fathers.
Even so, we, when we were children, were
in bondage under the elements of the world.
But when the fullness of the time was
come, God sent forth his sons, it should
say born of a woman, born under the
law.
He wasn't made.
Jesus is not a created being.
He was born of a woman, born under
the law, to redeem them which were under
the law that we might receive the adoption
of sons.
And because we are sons, God has sent
forth the spirit of his son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Now, this is very, very interesting.
What it really means is that when a
person is saved, the Holy Spirit creates an
instinct in that person to look up and
call God Father.
It's an amazing thing, isn't it?
I remember during the war years in Hawaii.
We had the blackout there.
At night, all the windows had to be
blackened out.
No light must get out at all for
fear of Japanese planes or subs.
And I remember in a Bible class there,
one night a fellow stayed behind.
He wanted to be saved.
And we dealt with the fellow, and then
we got down on our knees.
And it was the first prayer I guess
he had ever prayed.
You know what he said?
He said, Father, I've been in a blackout
up until now, but now I see the
light.
The first word was, Father.
Who taught him to say that?
The Spirit of God taught him to say
that.
That's an amazing thing, isn't it?
But that fellow, a newborn child of God,
should immediately look up into the face of
God and say, Father.
That's what I mean when I say that
the Holy Spirit gives us the consciousness of
sonship.
Now what this passage that I read is
doing is comparing believers in the Old Covenant
and in the New Covenant.
In the Old Testament, you never find, I
don't think you'll ever find, an individual believer
ever speaking to God as Father.
Can you think of any?
I believe that collectively, Israel said God was
their Father, but I don't think you'll ever
find an individual ever calling God Father in
the Old Testament.
What this text is saying is that under
the law, they were treated like slaves.
And a slave doesn't call the master Father.
Master, huh?
But when the fullness of time came, the
Lord Jesus was brought forth, born of a
virgin, born of a woman, born under the
law, to redeem them which were under the
law that we might receive the adoption of
sons.
What does that mean?
Well, it means that when you're saved, you're
placed in the family of God as a
mature adult son.
Not as a baby, not as a slave,
but as a mature adult son.
There are two things in the New Testament
where children of God and where sons of
God are the same thing.
No, they're not the same thing.
Children of God means we're members of God's
family.
Sons of God means we're placed in the
family of God as mature adult sons, and
this refers to women as well as men,
with all the privileges and responsibilities of sonship.
We could probably compare it to what happens
in a human family.
Here's Junior, he's six years of age.
Someday he's going to inherit all Dad's wealth.
He's going to get it all someday.
In the meantime, poor kid, he's treated like
a slave.
Get on your pajamas.
Brush your teeth.
Go to bed.
His life is one series of orders after
another.
But then he reaches his majority in life,
let's say.
Let's say he's 18 now, and he comes
home.
What does his mother say?
Put on your pajamas.
Brush your teeth.
She doesn't say that.
She treats him like an adult in the
family.
And that's the difference between the Old Testament
and the New Testament.
The way believers were treated then is the
way believers are treated now.
This is the adoption of sons, and with
the adoption of sons comes that instinct in
the life and heart of the believer to
look up and call God his Father.
It's really something very beautiful.
And maybe we just have time to look
at one more ministry of the Holy Spirit,
and that is he seals the believer.
The Holy Spirit himself is the seal.
Let's look at some of these verses.
2 Corinthians 1, verse 22.
Verse 21, Now he which establisheth us with
you in Christ and hath anointed us is
God, who hath also sealed us and given
the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Ephesians chapter 1, verses 13 and 14.
The seal and the earnest are often spoken
of together, although we're going to look at
them separately.
Ephesians 1, verses 13 and 14.
In whom ye also trusted after that ye
heard, and once again that should be in
whom ye also trusted having heard the word
of the truth of your salvation, in whom
having also believed, not after ye believed, having
also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of
our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession unto the praise of his glory.
The seal in the Bible has three meanings
to it.
It means security.
It means ownership.
And it means destination.
The Holy Spirit is the seal.
When you are saved, the Lord gives you
the Holy Spirit.
That marks you as belonging to God.
It's something like the brand mark that they
used to put on cattle, or probably still
do in the United States.
Or the dye that they put on the
wool of the sheep.
It's a seal.
It's a mark of ownership.
That sheep belongs to a certain farmer.
That steer belongs to a certain owner.
Well, it isn't a brand mark in the
body of the believer.
It's a person indwelling the believer.
That's the seal.
Ownership and then security.
The seal speaks of security.
Those that he seals are his forever.
And it speaks of destination until the redemption
of the purchased possession.
It takes place at conversion.
As I read in the revised version here.
And it is until the day of redemption.
That's a wonderful thing, isn't it?
The believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is
as sure of heaven as if he were
already there.
That is one who's truly been born again.
He's as sure of heaven as if he
were already there.
We sometimes think more happy but not more
secure.
The souls of the blessed in heaven.
That's true.
People in heaven are happier than we are.
But they're not more secure than we are.
Praise the Lord for that.
And so this is a wonderful ministry of
the Holy Spirit.
The seal of the Spirit.
Marking us out as belonging to God.
Assuring us of security.
And it's until the redemption of the purchased
possession.
And that refers to the glorified states, doesn't
it?
When we'll get our glorified bodies.
What a wonderful thing that is.
We're presently in bodies of humiliation.
And aren't they too?
Bodies of our humiliation.
But one day they're going to be fashioned
like his glorious body.
And the very fact that you have the
seal of the Spirit tonight assures you of
that glorified body.
Shall we look to the Lord in prayer?
Father, we thank you for your word.
It truly is a mine of wealth to
our souls.
Inexhaustible.
We think of your great heart of love
that planned all of these things for unworthy
sinners.
We think of your marvelous grace that sought
us until it found us and brought us
to the fold.
Help us to love you more.
Serve you more faithfully.
Till we see the Savior face to face.
We ask in his worthy name.
Amen.