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Amazing Facts

Doug Batchelor

Our Crucial Need for the Holy Spirit

This presentation is brought to you by the Friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry.

When we reject the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are basically burning the bridge that God uses to bring us to salvation.

You know, I'd like to go to a familiar passage in John chapter 3 and it's the story of where Nicodemus comes to Jesus.

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

This man came to Jesus by night And he said, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no 1 can do these things that you do unless God is with them.

And Jesus, anticipating what was really on his heart, he said to him, most assuredly, I say to you, unless 1 is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

We've got to know what that means because he's pretty definite there.

Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born again when he's old?

Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?

And Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless 1 is born of the water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit of spirit.

Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again.

The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.

So is everyone who is born of the spirit.

What does it mean to be born of the spirit?

We want to discuss the importance of the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer and the necessity for us to have the Holy Spirit.

We not only want the initial refreshing that you get when you commit your life to the Lord.

When you're baptized you should receive that gift of the Spirit.

It says there in Acts chapter 2, Peter told the believers, repent and be baptized every 1 of you and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises unto you and your children and many as the Lord God shall call.

So there's a promise he gives us the spirit when we first come to him.

Peter, James, John, they were baptized with the Holy Spirit probably by John the Baptist.

I mean when they got baptized by John the Baptist But then they received the Holy Spirit in Pentecostal power at Pentecost Acts chapter 2 So we want that latter reign baptism of the Holy Spirit we need it in the last days.

In the last days when sin abounds, God's grace does much more abound.

When the spirit of the devil is come down with great wrath because he knows his time is short, God's people through the power of God the spirit need to compensate and have a double portion as Elisha prayed for of the Holy Spirit.

So we're going to talk now about the biblical priority of the Holy Spirit.

Some people are a little dismissive about the importance of the Holy Spirit.

They don't talk about it, they don't preach about it, and the Bible makes a priority of it.

In the beginning you go to Genesis and it says the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Go to the end of the Bible where you see Revelation and it tells us the spirit and the bride say come.

The ministry of Jesus begins, he comes out of the water, he is anointed with the Holy Spirit and then after Christ dies and ascends to heaven his final words are, go ye therefore teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

So you see this priority that God gives to the Holy Spirit through the Bible.

Now I should probably pause here and say who, what is the Holy Spirit?

Now I mentioned it like that, not because the Holy Spirit is a what but some people talk about the Holy Spirit like it's electricity Biblically the Holy Spirit is a person.

He has all of the characteristics of the person.

Peter said, Ananias, why is Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?

Peter was telling Ananias, you didn't lie to some electrical force, some radiation or x-ray, you lied to God because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, it is a separate individual.

In Acts chapter 7 verse 51, It says you do resist the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 4, verse 30 do not grieve the Holy Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 5, 19, do not quench the Spirit.

The spirit of God burns within our hearts and we can quench his work by resisting him, that's how you lead on towards the sin against the Holy Spirit.

Acts 13 verse 2, it says as they prayed and fasted the Holy Spirit said, Holy Spirit speaking as a person speaks.

Notice here, the Holy Spirit speaks, he intercedes, Romans 8 26, I'm just going to give these to you quickly because I don't have time to read them all.

He commands, Acts 16 6 and 7, he appoints, Acts 20 verse 28, he leads, Romans 8 14, he reproves, John 16 8, The Holy Spirit has intellect, emotions, will, he can be grieved.

He has everything that a personality would have.

Now this is where it gets a little complicated.

We try to package God in our terms and it's so incomprehensible that God, the Father and Son evidently have a form because it describes their eyes and their hands and their feet and many other facets.

But with the Holy Spirit, Spirit comes down like a dove on Jesus at his baptism.

Holy Spirit comes down like tongues of fire at Pentecost.

And so sometimes the Holy Spirit is compared to water.

It's more of these quintessent elements that we see that are figurative of the Holy Spirit.

And so there's something mysterious here.

But keep in mind, the Holy Spirit is a person.

Jesus said, it's expedient that I go away.

If I go, I will send the comforter and he will be with you.

So Christ is with us through God the spirit.

Christ comes from the father to reveal God the father.

God the father is a separate person revealed through Christ and Jesus is real revealed to us through the Holy spirit.

So second point here is a good relationship with the Holy Spirit is a life and death issue.

John 1st John 5 16 Bible tells us there is a sin leading to death And I do not say that you should pray about that.

People often wonder why would it be considered more dangerous to sin against the Holy Spirit than to sin against the Father or the Son.

Let me read this to you from Matthew chapter 12 verse 31.

Therefore I say unto you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.

Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man it will be forgiven him.

But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

Well, you see, the Holy Spirit is the person of the Godhead that brings us to conviction that leads us to repentance.

And so that's why it's so important not to grieve, not to chase away the Holy Spirit when he's bringing conviction to us.

Now I need to stop right here and explain.

If you're wondering if you've committed the unpardonable sin, probably not because the very fact you're listening to this program shows you still have some spiritual appetite, but don't continue to resist the conviction and the work of the spirit in your life.

For 3 and a half years, Judas wrestled with the idea that he should confess his sin to Jesus, that he should forsake his sin of stealing.

He had been robbing money from the poor the whole time.

And when Jesus knelt to wash his feet there in the upper room, I think Judas heart nearly broke.

He wanted to tell the Lord what he had done.

He wanted to confess and come clean, But in his pride, he kept putting it off and putting it off.

And the Holy Spirit left him for the last time.

That's why it's such a dangerous thing to continue to reject the work of the Holy Spirit.

So we need to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Hebrews chapter 6 and this verse frightens people.

Hebrews chapter 6 verse 4, for it is impossible for those who are once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away to renew them again to repentance, seeing they crucify again for themselves the son of God and put him to an open shame.

If over the course of our life we reject the best that God has to offer, which is what this is saying.

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Our Crucial Need for the Holy Spirit

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