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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

The Early and Latter Rain: Our Need of the Holy Spirit

Chester Clark

The Early and Latter Rain

The Third Person of the Godhead

Six Reasons Why the Early Rain is Needed

Father in heaven, we thank you that you've given to us the promise of your Spirit.

You promised that where 2 or 3 are gathered together, there you will be.

And we know that that is through the personhood of your Spirit.

And so we just want to pray today that as we open your Word, as we study the Bible, that You would send Your Spirit to be here, that it would not just fill this house of worship, but it would fill each of our hearts, and that we might hear His voice speaking to us.

This morning we're going to begin with a little bit of a Bible study, so I'm going to ask you to take out your Bibles, and if you take out your holy iPhones, make sure you're looking at the text and not texting, right?

Just kidding, I don't think there is such a thing as a holy iPhone, but a holy Bible is on the iPhone, and what other device you may have with you at the time.

And we're going to begin by looking at a number of passages today that share with us the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

We're going to be looking at how important the Holy Spirit is in its role, in its work, in our spiritual conversion, and in our spiritual life.

So we're going to start by looking at the fact that the Holy Spirit gives power to the believers.

Acts 1 and verse 8, I know this is a familiar text to many of us.

In fact, I suppose we'll cover a number of familiar texts, but we always learn more from the text, don't we?

There's never a time when we have exhausted the Word of God.

Acts 1, verse 8, These are the words of Jesus as He's about to leave His disciples, as He's returning to the Father.

And you know, and we looked last night at some of the promises, we'll look at some of them again today, the promises of the Holy Spirit in His absence.

But Acts chapter 1 and verse 8 says, but you will receive what?

Power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Judea, in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

Now, last night we were discovering how we tend to focus on the power and witnessing.

We tend to focus on the Lord adding to the church as a result of the Holy Spirit.

But there was a whole set of circumstances and we might say conditions, experiences the Holy Spirit brought the church through to the point that they could be powerful witnesses.

It's not so much that the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to go out and say things more eloquently.

That's not the real reason the Holy Spirit gives power.

It's not because the Holy Spirit, you know, somehow, you know, amplifies our voices or something like that.

No, what amplifies is what the Holy Spirit has done in our lives that enables people to see that the religion of Jesus Christ is a life-changing transformative religion.

If your religion does nothing more for you than what you can get from the self-help aisle of a bookstore, It's not the religion of Jesus, because the religion of Jesus is a life-transforming religion.

The religion of Jesus, friends, is miraculous.

And what the Holy Spirit wants to do as it fills each of our lives through an early reign measure, He wants to so change our lives that the words we speak are not just ideology.

They're not just a phrase of nice construction.

They are a reflection of an experience that we personally have had, that we have tasted and seen with Jesus.

We looked at Acts chapter 2 yesterday about how the Holy Spirit made the group united, the early church.

They spent time fellowshipping and eating together and enjoying each other's company and focusing on repenting of their sins and making right wrongs and then the verse says, the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

But sometimes we want to jump to the witnessing, We want to jump to the witnessing.

We want to jump to the adding to the church without experiencing what the Holy Spirit brought in its early reign manifestation to the early church.

And I want to just underscore that this power is not just ability to do evangelistic outreach or deeds.

It is not power to simply hold better evangelistic series and have bigger baptisms.

It is power to change our lives that gives our words credibility and influence.

The Holy Spirit gives us power for victory over conscious sin.

The Bible says in Galatians chapter 5 and verse 16, if we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

If we live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit, we won't become high-minded.

It says in Ecclesiastes 5, 25, and 26, and I quote, If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking 1 another, envying 1 another.

If the Holy Spirit is in our lives, then the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives.

And the way it's said in Desire of Ages, I believe it's page 676, she goes on and she says, not 1 will be missing.

The fruit of the Spirit is not fruits of the Spirit, it's the fruit of the Spirit.

And when you have the Spirit, you have the fruit.

You can choose whether you want patience or love or gentleness or kindness.

The fruit of the spirit is what the Holy Spirit does in the human heart in which it dwells.

I don't know about you, but I I would say that having that fruit of the Spirit consistently is a miracle for me.

We need the Holy Spirit for the power that it can give, for the transforming power that it can give to us.

The second thing the Holy Spirit does, let's turn to John chapter 16.

John chapter 16, and we're going to look at a number of verses here today from John chapter 16.

Let's look here in John chapter 16 at verse 8.

John chapter 16 and verse 8, And this is what Jesus says.

And by the way, we'll back up just a few verses and look at some context here.

He has said that he is leaving and so forth.

Verse 7, nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you.

Now, just keep this in mind for a moment because later we're going to be talking about the personhood of the Holy Spirit.

And I'll be honest with you, I can understand where some of the people have anti-Trinitarian ideas even in Adventism here today.

I understand where some of that comes from, okay?

But I don't understand how you can have Jesus going away, but it's his presence that stays behind.

He's very clear here saying, I am going away.

And it makes no sense to say that the Spirit is going to be His Spirit or His presence that just remains behind.

That is just not a very rational reading of the language that He is using.

If I do not go away, the Helper will not come to me, but if I go, I will send Him to you.

Verse 8, and when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.

Now, this conviction is very, very important.

It's not because the Holy Spirit is the only 1 that convicts.

I'll have you know this morning, it's important to note, that the Holy Spirit is not alone in convicting of sin.

There's a distinct difference between the Holy Spirit's conviction of sin and the devil's conviction of sin, however.

When the devil convicts you of sin, he says, you're such a bad sinner, there's no hope for you, you might as well give up.

When the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin, he tells you, you're such a sinner, but Jesus died for sinners just like you.

There's a huge difference between the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the conviction of the enemy of our souls.

And without the conviction of the Holy Spirit we would not be able to come to Christ.

We would not know our own need and we would not know the hope that we have in our Savior.

Now we could spend a whole lot of time just on this aspect of the Holy Spirit's work.

There's sometimes confusion between the conscience And conviction, the Holy Spirit's conviction.

There's actually a difference between the 2.

We won't go into a whole lot, I can't spend much time on that because I have a clock that's counting here.

But in summary, you can study it on your own.

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Series

The Early and Latter Rain: Our Need of the Holy Spirit

The Third Person of the Godhead

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

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