Glory in the Spirit

[0:00] Turn with me to Book of Ephesians. If you're new with us, we have been beginning our study on this wonderful letter that Paul has written to the saints who gathered at the Church of Ephesus.

[0:19] I'm going to read today's passage and then we're going to get into, Lord willing, a greater understanding of what Paul would love us to understand. So starting in verse 11 of this letter, Paul writes, In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

[0:55] 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 possession of it to the praise of his glory.

[1:13] Now some of you may know that I have actually not spent the majority of my time or career as a pastor.

[1:25] This is actually my 11th year as a pastor. Previous to my years of serving as a pastor, I had to do this thing called school and interning, which took up another five years of my life.

[1:37] But previous to that, I happened to work for the Canadian government. And the role that I did in the Canadian government is I worked as an intelligence officer with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

[1:49] So part of my main responsibilities is my job was to catch terrorists that existed, lived, or used Canadians to do either activities in Canada or outside of Canada.

[2:02] But one of the special duties that I also used to do for their government is that I would tend to defectors. And if you remember defectors, defectors are one who were loyal to another country and through some sort of situation have decided that they want to come in to live in Canada.

[2:22] So often they would be political asylum. Sometimes they would do so for money. Sometimes they knew the circumstances back in their life wasn't favorable. So they would say, you know what, my life is better here in Canada than it is going back home to my home country.

[2:39] Because for some situation, it could mean death. Now, when I served, a lot of the issues going on was Middle Eastern. So a lot of the people that I used were from Middle Eastern countries.

[2:52] So as an example, the ambassador of Iraq defected to Canada. Iraq no longer exists. That's why I can talk about it. And my role was making sure he settled well in Canada.

[3:05] Now, it might seem pretty nice, but you need to understand these people who defect. The guy has a degree from London School of Economics. Went to Ivy League. Very intelligent and smart.

[3:16] But he's kind of got to live life on the low low now, right? So it's not like he can become a professor. And what this guy ended up doing was becoming a teacher at a small community college.

[3:32] But he would work with international students teaching you how to go into the system. For a man such as that, that is a heart-breaking role after all that he accomplished in his life.

[3:45] He was regarded as an emissary for his people. Now, do you guys remember the Cold War? You guys remember the Cold War? I found out my son did not study World War II or the Cold War in high school.

[4:01] That absolutely amazed me. Well, I don't know if you guys know, but there was this Cold War. It happened after World War II. And did you guys know that the Cold War started here in Canada? You probably didn't know that.

[4:12] But in 1945, there was a guy named Igor Galitzin, I believe was his name. I might have his last name wrong. But he was a cipher clerk who worked at the Russian embassy.

[4:23] And remember, after World War II, we were all neighbors, right? We were all allies. England, United States, Canada, Russia, all these countries formed this big group of allies.

[4:34] But this guy who was Russian was in charge of sending the communiques to Moscow. And what he discovered was his people were spying on Canada. And he knew that was breaking the treaty and what was going before the media.

[4:47] The media was up saying, you know, the Russians were saying, hey, we're all buddies, we're all buddies. And he was writing these things, we're enemies, we're enemies. So what he did in a cold night in 1945, he took 109 documents and he ran out and showed up at a police station.

[5:02] And we all discovered at that time the government agencies were actually at war and so began the Cold War. What's interesting about this guy is my friend, who was my superior, was the guy working with this defector.

[5:16] So this whole life, you set them up in a life, a community, make sure he has a house. And this guy had a really nice house. He lived in a really nice area. But what was really amazing about this guy is he had, I think it was a five-bedroom house.

[5:30] Like I said, it was a very nice area. But when he'd go to visit them, sometimes we'd bring them gifts, make sure their kids were being taken care of. But he found out that the whole house was boarded up, that him and his wife and his kids chose to only live in the living room, the kitchen, and the bathroom.

[5:47] They had come from abject poverty in Russia where their little conclave would have been all made of cement. And that's what he chose to live here as.

[5:58] Because when we ask them about it, when we engage them about it, it's like it was just too much work. It was so different than the life that they had. It's like no one person could need this room, so they just boarded themselves off to the blessings that they could have had living here.

[6:19] I think that's very similar to a lot of Christians today. We've been given something, these rich resources that we find in Jesus Christ, but we board ourselves off from them.

[6:32] We don't allow them to come into our hearts, to penetrate our lives, and actually make a difference. And we end up making life so much harder for ourselves than it actually needs to be.

[6:46] Until those areas are unlocked, I do not believe we are able to live the life that Jesus Christ has truly called us to live.

[7:04] I don't know, maybe some of you guys feel this way. You know exactly what I'm talking about. You've heard the news of Jesus Christ, the gospel of salvation, but you still feel like you're caught in a rut.

[7:16] You don't know what to do. You're looking over at other people and you say, man, they've got it, but there's just something that's just missing here. So today what I want to talk to you about is the power of the Holy Spirit and the function of the Holy Spirit in believers' life.

[7:35] So for the next couple of weeks, Dave and I are actually going to unfold the workings of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life. It's my contention that teaching on the Holy Spirit is probably the worst teaching in the church today.

[7:53] Not only is it not taught enough, when it is, it's mistaught. And this passage actually relates to some great aspects of the Holy Spirit.

[8:04] So we're actually going to go through five functions of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life. So we would know, once you know what it is for, what the Holy Spirit's function is, we can relate to the Holy Spirit in a much more efficient, better, and fruit-bearing way.

[8:23] Now for those of you who are new, we're jumping into Ephesians. And Paul actually begins these first 13 verses as a type of hymn, a song. He's excited about something even though he's in this cold, dark prison cell.

[8:40] And he's excited about the work of the Trinity in salvation. So if you haven't been here, we've actually talked about his rejoicing of the work of God, the Father in election, and how that all works.

[8:53] And then last week we learned about the power of the cross, and what Jesus Christ did on the cross to actually give us this power that we can plug into through the cross.

[9:05] We learn, and Ephesians tells us very clearly, that every spiritual blessing is in the heavenly places. That we were chosen by God because he placed his love upon us so that we can be holy and blameless.

[9:22] We learn that we are actually adopted into the family of God. Not as second-class citizens who are destined to eat at the kiddie table forever, but we're actually accepted fully to eat at the banquet table with God.

[9:40] That our freedom is entirely paid for. We don't owe God anything. There's no money, no guilt that we have to keep giving him for the wonderful salvation that he's granted us.

[9:54] It says that all our trespasses have been forgiven, and we've been granted incredible wisdom and understanding into the issues of life.

[10:06] This happened all because of what God did in choosing us, and electing us before the foundation of this world. We learn it wasn't arbitrary.

[10:17] It wasn't by chance, and it wasn't impersonal. But Scripture says that he knew us. He chose us because he loved us.

[10:29] How or why, Scripture doesn't tell us, but it lays out those facts clearly. And there was this work that happened 2,000 years ago on the cross.

[10:42] Jesus Christ died a violent death. It was a violent sacrifice. You and I are known as slaves, slaves to sin, enemies of God, people who are lost and without hope.

[11:01] But this sacrifice did something. It opened up the door, so to speak. Take a look at those last verses that we learned here. In this last verse, it said, In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel.

[11:21] Okay, we're going to go back. Sorry. Notice that it uses the word lavished upon us. Verse 8.

[11:32] If you look at verse 7, it says, The forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he, God, lavished upon us. Think about that word, lavish.

[11:47] What that means is, God didn't give us out of his riches. He gives us his riches. Do you know what I'm saying?

[11:58] It's like when you go to a bank, and you're looking for a loan, you know, they fill it out. They know they're going to get that money back from you. God just kind of opens the vault and says, Hey, take what you need.

[12:09] In fact, I'm going to load on a few more bags of coin on your cart so you can have it, because there is no end to my riches.

[12:20] And I use this wonderful illustration of a good friend of mine. A friend of mine grew up overseas. He is the typical father of a blue-collar son. And he comes to Canada, and he meets this woman that he falls in love with.

[12:35] And it turns out she's just not wealthy. She's filthy wealthy. Okay? And he's got kind of no idea just how wealthy the family is. So he courts her over a couple years.

[12:46] You know, he's got to go to these functions. And, you know, it kind of doesn't fit in very well. We kind of asked him, you know, what do you think the wedding's going to be like? You know, dad's footing the bill, and I've just been told to stay out of it.

[13:00] Well, on his wedding day, he says, Well, I just figure they're just going to probably give me a job in the family, and kind of, I kind of want to do my own thing, but I'll be accepted. On the day of his wedding, he was given an eight-bedroom house.

[13:15] He was given a special sports car and a massive boat. So, my friend has felt guilty for many years for receiving that. But what his father was doing was just simply tell him, I love you, and you have access to everything that I have.

[13:33] So what's interesting, when I'm down in Florida, and he happens to be down there, guess what? We go visit him at his dad's mansion. You know, that's just how he lives. And I'll tell you one thing about my friend. He's the most generous person.

[13:45] Now, if I'm in Toronto, I need a car. Usually, it's going to be a decked-out SUV or a Jaguar waiting for me. But he's just got so much riches, he just throws them out.

[13:55] He's grateful. And what did he do for them? Nothing. He just really married into it. It's nothing special. He's not smart. That's the way God does, right?

[14:07] Don't tell him I said that. He's not especially smart. How's that? But he could be the brightest of all my friends. But God gives us out of his riches, right?

[14:22] Which leaves us with, how do we get this life? How do we earn this love, or plug into this love and power of God's election? How do we plug into this power of Jesus Christ?

[14:34] How do I get that to apply to my life? I understand that salvation is planned. I understand that salvation was paid for. How do I get that salvation?

[14:44] Right here, right now, two words. It's the Holy Spirit. This is the work that Paul is very excited about. The work that the Holy Spirit is presented to be engaged in.

[14:59] This past Thursday, you women heard a testimony. You heard a testimony of a woman who received the love of Jesus Christ. She was elected before creation.

[15:11] Jesus died for her 2,000 years ago. And Allison, forgive me if I get the total story wrong. But God did something in her heart. Holy Spirit moved her to, I believe, take a bus across the continent to connect with her sister because something was going on.

[15:27] Only the Holy Spirit does something like that, right? That someone would have this longing in their soul to do something which would eventually lead to their salvation.

[15:40] I am convinced there are many people who once walked in darkness, now saved, need a new life in Jesus. And it comes by understanding this work of salvation.

[15:52] So the first work of salvation, or the first work of the Holy Spirit in salvation that I want to address is what theologians call the effectual call.

[16:03] It's called the effectual call. Let's go to verse 11. It says, In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

[16:19] All right. When you first read that, that is very similar to what Paul tells us in verses 4 and 5. So you're kind of asking yourself, why is Paul repeating himself here?

[16:33] Now this was a very tough verse to get my head around because a lot of the Bible versions say one thing, but when you read your commentaries, they actually quote the verse very differently.

[16:49] And what they do is many scholars say that we haven't obtained an inheritance, but the scholars feel that the term obtain an inheritance should be stated that God obtained an inheritance.

[17:06] And guess who that inheritance is? Us. What he's basically saying is the fruit of election, the fruit of salvation, is that people are now following him.

[17:18] Because of the work that happened before time, the work that happened on the cross, is being realized as an inheritance to him. So one guy writes it very clearly like this, in whom we have also been chosen as God's inheritance, then he says we can also use the word heritage.

[17:38] You know, sometimes our kids are given a heritage by the actions and how we lived. According to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

[17:52] What he's saying is, by virtue of his elective purposes, we are now the fruit of that. Let's be honest.

[18:05] Who's not asking the question, did God ever get ripped off in his inheritance? He gets us, right? Last week, we sang a song.

[18:17] All our sin for all God's grace. That's a great deal for us, right? That's like a deal, it's almost so good to be true you wouldn't take it.

[18:30] Because you'd think you're taking advantage of this poor fool. But what we don't understand is that God, and one professor expressed this to me, before time when God elected us, he gave us over to his son.

[18:53] And we're now his son. And his son is working to redeem us. And he's working to redeem us by the work on the cross. Right? Where we received full salvation.

[19:06] So we understand at this point we have full salvation. But Jesus Christ is continuing to work in us. So that time, when we're presented back to the Father, guess who we're like?

[19:20] Jesus Christ. This passage, remember? Everything is in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. And through the power of the Holy Spirit, in Christ, Jesus will eventually present us perfected to the Father.

[19:37] Amen? Amen? That's a wonderful truth, in case you're not figuring this out. This is absolutely incredible. And it speaks to the volume, depth of love, that what God is doing within us.

[19:55] So it begins when the Holy Spirit, where does it start? It begins when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes. One, when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to who God is.

[20:06] That God is holy and righteous. Right? Remember Isaiah 6, to be in the place of God. We can't even look upon him.

[20:18] Moses had to turn his back. That's how great God's glory was. So the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to understand this truth. The Holy Spirit then reveals that we are really, truly sinful and enemies of God.

[20:36] For some, that's hard to, to, it's hard to accept. And sometimes we have to have a real encounter with God to understand this.

[20:51] My friend and I, many years ago, went to see an athletic event. And there was a lot of celebrities that were there. And, there was NBA players who came out.

[21:04] It wasn't an NBA game. It was actually a boxing match. And, I don't know if you guys remember Patrick Ewing. He was a senator for the New York Knicks.

[21:15] And, I know he's big. He's seven foot two. Like, I understand what that number is. But, when I had a chance to be beside him and say hello, like his whole hand just, like he was a monster.

[21:34] A monster. Like, if someone said I had to hurt him, I would not know how. Because he's big and he's strong. He's not tall. But, at that only moment in time have I ever felt short.

[21:49] I'm average. I'm five, ten and a half. I'm kind of half inch taller than the average person. Do you know that? The average man. I'm feeling good, right? But, compared to this guy, I truly recognize how small I was.

[22:03] When your eyes are opened up to who God is, that's how you feel. He is so holy, I am not. But, then we understand this good news of Jesus Christ.

[22:18] And, that the only way to make it right with him is through his son. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us faith to believe this truth. We're going to later learn in Ephesians 2, it says, for by grace you have been saved through faith.

[22:33] And, this is not your own doing. This is the gift of God. Why does the Holy Spirit do this? Because, us as slaves to sin, we are blind to the truth of who God is, what it's about, and where he is.

[22:50] If you're one of those people saying, you know what, I don't need the Holy Spirit. to open my eyes to see Jesus Christ. All Jesus Christ has to do is show up, do a miracle, and I'm in.

[23:03] Well, let me tell you what your forefathers did. Your forefathers saw Jesus Christ walk on this earth for 33 years. Not only did he walk on this earth, he did it in sinless perfection.

[23:16] Never once was there an accusation against him. He did miracles that are unknown, healing the deaf, the blind, people who had never walked. He would say with the word, get up and walk, and they walked.

[23:29] What did they do to him? They crucified him. They took a crown of thorns and jammed it into his head. They spat on him.

[23:42] They lied about him. So if we truly believe that we can see God for who he is outside of the Holy Spirit, all of history denies this fact.

[23:55] We would not have acted differently. If you ask God to prove himself, you'd actually be under more condemnation because you'd have more information for which to be judged by.

[24:10] Without the work of the Holy Spirit, you cannot do it. John 16, 7, 9 reads, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away.

[24:23] For if I, Jesus, do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment concerning sin.

[24:41] Because they do not believe in me. The effectual call, my friends, is when God opens our eyes to the truth of who he is and we understand there's a need and that the need only comes through Jesus Christ.

[25:00] That is how you know when the Spirit is really doing something in you. You know you're lost and you're looking for that hope which is found in Jesus Christ.

[25:12] So that is the first function of the Holy Spirit. It's called the effectual call. Now the second function of the Holy Spirit, not the primary, but the second one, and I say this because it kind of follows in our verses is it's to the glorification of Jesus Christ.

[25:30] I believe the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is to uplift the person of Jesus Christ. You get that? That's the primary person. It is Jesus Christ who is the hero of this story, not the Holy Spirit.

[25:46] The Holy Spirit's whole role is to put a spotlight on the person of Jesus Christ. Take a look at verse 12. And it's repeated in verse 14 and we're going to learn a little bit why it's repeated.

[26:00] But it's so that we who were first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. So we who have that hope in Jesus as our salvation, that is glory that goes to him.

[26:13] And then later on in verse 14, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire the possession of it to the praise of his glory? John 15, 26 says, for when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

[26:36] Jesus Christ saying, I'm going to leave, but there's going to be, this Spirit's going to come and he's going to bear witness. John 16, 35 says, 13 to 15 says, when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak of his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

[26:59] He will glorify me. He will take what is mine and declare it to you. You see, his role is to glorify Jesus.

[27:12] It's to call attention to the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now, why is this so important? Why are we supposed to pay attention to Jesus and not the Holy Spirit?

[27:28] Now, I'm going to speak a little and a little bit is going to be, how do I say it, from experience or anecdotal from stories, but there's a few stories here that kind of connect.

[27:39] It's my experience is that when churches call people to the power and work of the Holy Spirit and lift the Holy Spirit up, I believe it creates an unhealthy and unbalanced church.

[27:56] All right? And I'll explain this. It's essentially what it does is when you start paying attention and lifting up the Holy Spirit, you end up creating a us versus them culture.

[28:09] Most of these churches usually use terms like, have you had the second baptism? And when people ask about the second baptism, they're usually asking if you've had the experience of speaking in tongues.

[28:21] Have you experienced tongues? Have you experienced the gift of miracles? They're talking about that there's this other event that must happen in a life of a believer for them to be kind of all in on God's saving word, right?

[28:38] Have you had the second blessing? Now, some will say you don't have to have the second blessing to be saved. You don't have to speak in tongues to be saved, but it'd be really better if you did, right?

[28:53] And I'm sure most of you have heard stories you've related. Perhaps that's the way you have thought. I have friends that in order to feel part of the church, they have faked speaking in tongues.

[29:07] And when I ask them about it, they just simply said, I just want them to get off my back. Right? Because there's such this onus, you have to experience this blessing. I'm going to tell you right now what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is.

[29:20] It's when you are at that moment of salvation accepted into Jesus Christ through faith, through the work of the cross of Jesus Christ. Amen? You are baptized in the faith.

[29:31] There's nothing beyond that. You are given every resource and gift needed at that moment of salvation. You do not need to chase it.

[29:42] You do not need to study more. That is it. You are given everything that I have. You are given everything that your brother or mother or sister has been a Christian for 20, 30 years.

[29:54] It's the exact same thing. Now, follow along with this argument a little bit more. See, what happens is it sets up this class structure in the church.

[30:08] And a class structure sets up what? Division. religion. It's us versus them. And I've got some friends that are so ingrained. My friend, she believes her mother is the greater Christian because her mother has had an experience speaking in tongues.

[30:24] She calls her father a Baptist. He hasn't had that experience. But it's interesting, the mother left the father for another man and the father raised her and her rest of her brothers faithfully in the Lord.

[30:37] But because her mother had this experience in tongue, she still looks up to her mother as being the greater of the Christians. It's how twisted it gets in there. You want to know what the evidence of the spirit in the believer's life is?

[30:52] I'm going to read it to you. I'm actually going to be repeating what Carl read to you today. Galatians 5 22. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

[31:17] When you want to know if I'm in the spirit when you're asking yourself that, those are the characteristics of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life. They love God and they love others.

[31:30] Now let's be honest, there's a whole other ways that churches get divided over. Some are theologically deep but express no love at all, right? Do you know what happens to the church of Ephesus?

[31:44] Forty years later, the apostle John will write a book called Revelation and in that book he chastises the church of Revelation. You have the knowledge but you have not love.

[31:58] We have to keep all of these in gears. Some churches, they're all works, they're all doing stuff but what happens is they get into this idea called transactional relationship with God.

[32:09] I do this for God so that he will bless me with this, right? You always find out someone who's had a problem who's a transactional believer because as soon as there's hardship in their life, they quit praying.

[32:21] Well, I prayed and this is what my life turned out by, right? Transactional people always think there's something good they did must mean God has to repay good back to them.

[32:35] My friends, the role of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ and all the other activities of the Holy Spirit which is to bring sanctification and holiness to our lives. It's to bring inspiration.

[32:46] It's the giving of supernatural gifts. And all these things are meant to draw us together. Amen? Our gifts are meant to serve one another, not divide one another.

[33:00] They're meant to draw us around the person of Jesus Christ. My contention is that any emphasis upon the person and work of the Holy Spirit that detracts from the person and work of Jesus Christ is the work of another spirit.

[33:17] Whenever Jesus Christ is exalted, I believe it is the Holy Spirit at work and we may recognize that work and thank him for it. A church that lifts up the name of Jesus Christ, you know the Spirit's working.

[33:30] So we're to give thanks for the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation. We can simply say thank you the Holy Spirit for making me see truth about you God, about me, my sin, Jesus, the truth of the Bible, and praise him for the miracle of our hearts of stone being turned to flesh.

[33:49] So that is the second way that the Holy Spirit works, is through glorifying God. The third way, and it's attached to that, the third way that Spirit works, is to build up his church.

[34:04] The Holy Spirit works by building up this church. The reality is God is calling together a church out of two different groups of people here in Ephesus. Two very distinct groups here.

[34:16] One, Jew, second, Gentile. Right? Now I want you to pay attention to this. Let's take a look at verse 11 here with me. Alright? Verse 11, and I need you to look down your Bibles.

[34:27] I want you to circle this, highlight this, because you're going to see something very distinct from chapter 11 and 12, then 13 and 14. So notice in verse 11, Paul writes, in him, he says, we have obtained.

[34:38] What he's talking about is we as Jewish brothers and sisters have obtained inheritance. That inheritance is going all the way back to Abraham, right?

[34:49] We as the Jewish people have obtained this inheritance. Having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of will. Notice verse 12, so that we who were the first to come to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

[35:09] Alright? We are the heritage of what happened with God in Abraham thousands and thousands of years ago. And now here we are, Jesus Christ came, the answer, the person we were waiting for through that redemption can praise God.

[35:27] Are you with me on that? You see that we there? Now look what happens in verse 13. In him, you also. Now it's no longer we, it's the you being used.

[35:42] 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.

[35:56] You see what he's doing there? He's talking about his Jewish audience now understanding and the Gentile audience and guess what? It's all our inheritance together. Jew and Gentile, which warred.

[36:12] Now to the church at Ephesus, this is huge, this is big. In fact, this is a point that God has been banging away in even some of the apostles' head that the Gentiles have full access to me just like the Jewish people used to do.

[36:33] In fact, Acts 15 there's actually tells us about a time there was like a tribunal, it's called the Jerusalem Council, where Paul openly rebukes Peter for paying attention to all the Jewish widows and ignoring the Gentile widows.

[36:51] Hey, Peter, you're being a hypocrite. You're talking like we're all one, but your actions are showing favoritism to the Jews rather than to all of us.

[37:03] And if you pay attention to what happens in Acts, and I really believe that the Lord is strongly, when we, there's three things. Remember when the Holy Spirit descends on the people, Acts 2-4, early church, Holy Spirit comes, and they speak in tongues.

[37:18] These tongues that they're speaking are real languages that people are understanding. They're going out and sharing the gospel. Later on, Acts 8, we hear about the Samaritans.

[37:30] You know, the Samaritans who the Jews hate. They're like half Jews, and they want to have their own temple over there. God actually sends Peter over there, and Peter actually gets to witness the Holy Spirit falling on the Samaritans, which is the same experience that happened in Acts chapter 2.

[37:49] And what he's doing is he's reinforcing into Peter's head, see, even the Samaritans can have the Holy Spirit just like the Jews. And then later on, we go to Acts 9 and 10, Cornelius, the Roman centurion.

[38:03] And he has the dream, remember, that all those foods that he was not permitted to eat, he can now eat. And then he sees the Holy Spirit falling on the Gentiles, the Romans, the people who persecuted Jesus Christ, are now accepted into the family of God.

[38:22] Whoa! Like this is Peter struggling with this. He's struggling with it for the first half of Acts, till Paul has to rebuke him over it.

[38:36] This is big. We have to allow those people in. Imagine if you owned slaves. Now, guess what? Your slave becomes a Christian, you have to let him come to church with you.

[38:48] You're busting down all the cultural moorings. The reality is I have worshipped in France, Philippines, China, all over America, Canada, Switzerland, Germany.

[39:02] It's all the same and it's all different and it's all about God. Amen? Let's take a look at this small crowd. What? We got people from Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa, Italy, Tanzania, Mozambique, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, Philippines.

[39:16] And I'm sure I'm missing a few more. And what are we all doing? We're coming together and worshipping the one God. Amen? We're coming together, all together to worship the one God.

[39:27] Amen? Amen, right? I know I'm preaching more like a Southern Baptist preacher than I am a Fellowship Baptist preacher. But this is a deep, this is an amazing truth of how we're to function as a church.

[39:43] Paul is laying down this incredible groundwork which is intent to create a holy identity of a people involved in a community of how we live, how we love, how we serve one another.

[39:57] And if we can understand this, there's no people on the outsiders that were all insiders in Jesus Christ. Jesus' work and will do great things in this church here, Squamish, BC, today.

[40:12] The fourth work of the Holy Spirit we see here is the work of the Holy Spirit that testifies to truth through the word of God. Take a look at verse 13. It says, Just as the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus Christ, he also brings power to the word of God.

[40:46] God. The fact is, the Holy Spirit never speaks a word outside of Holy Scriptures. If someone says to you, the Holy Spirit says this to me, you can go back to the word of God and find it in there.

[41:00] Sometimes we get those, those thoughts, man, Jesus is telling me something. And often, he's calling to mind what we've read or understood in the pages of Scripture. You ever been that time, someone's asking you for counsel?

[41:12] And you give them advice and you're like, wow, man, that is really wise. Man, I got to go home and live this way. But that is the power of the Holy Spirit working in you, bringing the power of the word that you've heard, you've studied at some other time.

[41:29] He's illuminating that truth. The Reformation, which we just simply celebrated a week ago by, we call it Halloween, but it's really the Reformation, right?

[41:41] We celebrated over, it was 500 years ago that they believe that the work of the Holy Spirit is because of what the Bible teaches us. John 3, 8 says, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.

[41:57] So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. First John 5, 1, 6 says, this is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by the water, only by, but by the water and the blood and the Spirit of the one who testifies because the Spirit is the truth.

[42:18] Paul will later write in 1 Corinthians 2, now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

[42:34] And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

[42:45] The Bible actually tells us we can know the mind of God. And how do we know the mind of God? Studying God's Word. That is how to know the mind of God.

[42:56] It doesn't say we're going to know all God's mind, but we're going to know how God thinks on certain things. The Holy Spirit illuminates this truth to us. Sometimes tells us what is true, what's false.

[43:10] Now God reveals himself in three ways. One, it's called the revelation in history. God told us about himself by the cross. What happened?

[43:21] The atoning work of Jesus Christ. The second way that God reveals himself is in writing the Bible, which tells us about God's actions. And the third way that God reveals himself is through our minds and hearts of individuals by the Holy Spirit who shows us that number one and number two is true.

[43:41] The cross is true and God's Word is true. That is the power and the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. It's not because you're super smart, because you're a great detective, you figured this out.

[43:53] The reason you understand this is because the Holy Spirit has allowed you to understand it and has revealed it to you. Now the final work, which is the fifth, take a look at verse 13.

[44:09] The very end. It says, The Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

[44:22] My friends, this is probably one of the most incredible workings of the Holy Spirit. And that's going to be a whole sermon unto its own next week.

[44:34] So, that's the end of our sermon. But we have now an illustration of God's great love and mercy coming up. We have a baptism coming up.

[44:45] God's great love.