In this message, Harry Argo shares how reading the Bible brought him to conviction and a changed life, then asks whether Christians are missing the Holy Spirit. He argues that the Spirit’s work is not emotional manipulation, spectacular experiences, or mere knowledge, but lasting conviction that turns people toward Jesus.
Warning that false spiritual claims cause real harm, he recounts a cancer patient confused by a false prophecy and points to Acts 5 on the gravity of lying to the Spirit. Surveying the Gospels, he shows that John the Baptist and Jesus promised the Spirit as a comforter who abides with believers and testifies to Christ. The Spirit’s central work is to reveal Jesus.
Argo criticizes “check-the-box” conversions and easy-believism, which can produce imitation without transformation, and contrasts them with the repentance and bold witness seen at Pentecost. He closes by urging honest, obedient prayer that seeks Christ and the Spirit’s renewed work.
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(00:02) I was raised completely in um I guess not darkness from Christendom. I was in Christendom but from the saving knowledge and the power of the Holy Spirit. Didn’t know anything about it. got witnessed to living a complete wild wild life in my early 20s and witnessed to guy in my office and uh really rebuffed him gave him a really hard time but over time and God worked on me.
(00:39) My testimony is weird. Then I swiped his Bible, was reading his Bible and God greatly convicted me and was moving me and changing me. And I didn’t even know what was going on. I didn’t know what was going on where I was losing my desires for my wickedness. I was seeing it, not wanting it.
(01:05) I was reading for the first time. As I read it, it was real. I tried to read the Bible once before. It was I could may as well have been upside down and then it was gripping me. And one of the the benefits I think I had during that time, kind of a strange benefit, was the guy that was witnessing to me, we were in the army at the time, he got transferred. He was gone.
(01:32) And I didn’t know anybody what to do except for read the Bible, reading the word of God, crying out to God at night going, “God, I read this.” Now, I was religious. I went to church every Sunday. But I was reading this going, “Wow.” And life was changing. I’d lay in the bed at night, look at the ceiling, go, “God, I don’t know who you are.
(01:59) I don’t. You’ve got to help me. I’m lo I don’t know what to do. I didn’t know spiritual language. I didn’t know about Christian radio. I didn’t have any Bible studies. I didn’t have any pastors. I didn’t have anything except the word of God. And what a blessing that was because I look back and I I wonder what would have happened to me.
(02:22) Not necessarily that if anybody talked to me it would be bad. But I look back and my I my salvation doesn’t entail contemporary Christian evangelism. It doesn’t fit. Doesn’t fit. I never was told pray this prayer and you’re going to heaven. I was never taught that. Never heard of it. All I was looking at this and Jesus says these things and tell people it was like like it was like you you’re the man. You’re this is you.
(02:50) my mom looking and crying out to him and and people were what’s what’s wrong with you? Why are you not fun anymore? That was a big thing. I couldn’t I couldn’t get into the drinking and the partying and the cranking up the music. I just I they were like I tried to do and I just I lost it and I couldn’t tell them why.
(03:08) Maybe I’ll rescue you. Are you okay? I you know suicidal or something. You know, they thought I was in depression or something. I look back now, I realize Holy Spirit. Yes, Holy Spirit. And I didn’t get evangelized by contemporary market oriented evangelism. Praise the Lord. I didn’t get that. I didn’t get the condensed, the uh modernistic, all the things that I didn’t get that.
(03:37) And I I didn’t know. I I got very confused over a while. I started s started going, well, am I saved? Because I didn’t pray these prayers. And like my life was fully changed and I didn’t know it. And people were asking, you know, spiritual things. I couldn’t tell you what born again was. I knew none of that.
(03:54) I hadn’t really didn’t know enough of it. So, I had gone through this situation of the Holy Spirit changing me. And and I could go into detail, but I’m not I’m not going to do that tonight. So, I want to get on things. But in that in my Christian life, I at the time I was in the military moving around with the military and um I’m not going to get into the non-resistance.
(04:16) I can fully non-resistant. Got it. But the point I wasn’t. And and so I’ve I was um exposed to just about every type of Christianity. Um and I got exposed to all sorts of different views of the Holy Spirit. And so, you know, that when I’m thinking about what am I going to talk about, a great little title, you know, there’s only like how much is written on the Holy Spirit over the last 2,000 years.
(04:45) And how are we going to get this give you something now for the Holy Spirit there and that message centrality of Christ and power of the Holy Spirit today? Well, today and everywhere any any day and everywhere it’s with with touching that I can give you I barely scratched the surface on on on a glass surface and give you something but I’m going to give you hopefully something here.
(05:07) But of course I’m asking what what do we talk about? So I have this wide range from what is the Holy Spirit? Well, if you’re saved, you got him. You know, if you’re a Christian, you got him. If in Christendom, if you belong to our church, you got him. I could pull I could show you scripture. You got him from that. That’s about all. That’s it.
(05:30) That’s the maximum you get is that you have him. He’s part of the trinity. So, you have him function. Who is he? Not all the way. How far can we go on the other side? How far can we go on what the Holy Spirit does? And I’ve been with all of that. You name it, I’ve been with it just just about because I’ve bounced around and um had I’ve had uh I guess various approaches to what I think were errors of the Holy Spirit.
(06:12) But the question for us is I guess a big way of of looking at this and the Holy Spirit Are we missing anything? Is that a good question? Are we missing something? Do we have it all? Are we missing him? The Holy Spirit. Are we missing him? And missing him can be a a couple of ways to look at it.
(06:40) Are we missing him like he was there? We We didn’t never got him. We never miss him. Are we are we missing him like we like we miss someone we miss? Do we miss the Holy Spirit? Do we miss having had him in those younger years of when Christ called us and we had that change of heart and that time where he was so comforting and nurturing and you’re on your way and anybody that time and we wish we do we miss do we miss the Holy Spirit? Have we missed him? Are we missing him? So, so we’re going to examine some scripture here and I’m going to put it
(07:29) out there right now. Now, a lot of times cuz I you I work with youth all the time. There’s youth in our house right now. There’s youth everywhere in our house and I like to do some fun things. But you know, I’m not going to tonight cuz in my preparation for this topic, I came to the conclusion that this business of the Holy Spirit is deadly serious.
(07:59) It’s deadly serious. Deadly serious to our souls. Deadly serious. The fact that it’s just brushed off is a problem. The fact that it’s abused and converted into something else, it’s not serious serious business. So, I went I I could always be serious. I like that fun. So, uh we’ll see how this goes. I we we did a uh kind of a wilderness camping or wilderness camp uh disciplehip camp this week and we it took the group on a pretty good hike and uh I thought the hike was about an hour up and an hour back and so yeah I’ll be
(08:52) back we’ll be back in 2 hours and something happens when you tell people. It’s going to be an hour. The two of waterfalls and it’s not an hour. It’s longer than an hour. Where is it? I think it’s right ahead. Where is it? I think it’s right ahead. Where is it? I think it’s right ahead. And people start getting kind of angry and it ended up being two hours one direction.
(09:17) Well, I hope tonight I hope tonight, okay, that you’re not going to be going how much longer. We’ll see how this works. Let’s get a few things out there just to begin with and we’ll look into this. Holy Spirit is not wrote logical knowledge without understanding, without wisdom, without application.
(09:43) That’s not the Holy Spirit. You know, you join the Christendom and words and the Holy Spirit spirit just on the other side. He’s not a spectacular emotion providing ex spectacular experiences either can be. I suppose that’s not his main identity though. That’s not that’s not it. He’s not generated by fleshly tools. He’s not spun up by fleshly tools, by music, special tools like smoke machines.
(10:31) Everybody smoke machines. You know what I’m talking about? All the things we can do to spin up the emotions and feel like we have the Holy Spirit. Group movement together. That all works sociologically. All this stuff works really well soci sociologically because we’re humans and we’re social beings and all this stuff is going on. We want to go with it.
(10:51) We have a feeling of that and used to irritate me at one point when I started going, “Wait a second.” So, we played some music and the I’ve been everywhere, okay? You know, the praise band and we’re all and we’re also we’re getting the music. We’re getting the emotions up. We’re getting it up because the message is coming and now we’ve we’ve now got you.
(11:13) The Holy Spirit’s got to hold you because our music and the singers and the sound and we’ve got you now. We’ve got you and now we’re going to bring you down again. We brought you high and we’re going to bring you down and get you ready for the message. And the song leader talking like that and I can get quite cynical. I can get cynical and one of them can I can I be cynical for a minute? Can I? I used to think well you know one of them what if we change the words and this is when I was involved in a lot of this stuff and I piper I’m going where’s the conviction
(11:49) where’s the conviction the emotion versus conviction those are two two two different things if we change the words of this one song I don’t want to ruin the song for anybody but I might instead of singing we exalt thee what do We sing I love Bambi and have the whole church sing I love Bambi. We could get the whole church going I love Bambi and we could just be don’t you love Bambi? We all love Bambi.
(12:23) Get the whole church under this emotions. They see the Holy Spirit’s working. Is that the Holy Spirit working? No. That’s sociological influence by group the sounds. I took guitar lessons a long long time ago from a guy who was really sharp guy and the first lesson was now we discovered in the 1950s if we put the right notes together the right beats together in sync somehow with the heart we can gener up and generate up amazing emotions.
(12:52) We learned that in the 1950s when the rock and roll era came. That’s what they figured out. They had to get people to cling to it and love it and sing in their heads and follow groups or all those things. It found its way into the church. It’s my opinion not the Holy Spirit. So I’m again this is my skepticism of a lot of that.
(13:17) So what are we doing here? And I could go on. I would guess that the person here who shows up at a Kingdom Fellowship weekend is looking for maybe more. A deep grip on the soul. Yes. A deep grip. We long for the Holy Spirit. Deep grip. Yes. Yes. I think that’s what we’re looking for. Maybe some emotion comes up now and then.
(13:58) Okay, that’s not what I’m looking for. That deep grip, that conviction, something that changes me. Yes. Changes my heart, changes my mind, changes my soul, changes me, orients me all the more towards Jesus. my longings, my my actions, the fruits of my life. Okay, so that I I think that’s what we’re aiming for. But so now I want to look at some abuse if abusive thing that happened.
(14:36) We we all know about it. Well, we’re going to use scripture and see if we can draw some lesson from it by the work of the Holy Spirit. It’s pretty funny thinking today on the Holy Spirit. You know what? I need the Holy Spirit. So, can we just for a minute, not a minute, let’s just moments, let’s everybody bow their heads and pray for two things.
(15:07) Pray one for me as I speak that the Holy Spirit speaks and the second for everyone here that the Holy Spirit speaks. Please, please pray that now. Lord, without you, I can do nothing. At best, a mess. Lord Jesus, will you by your Holy Spirit speak to us? Speak to us now. without you nothing but yet with you all things.
(15:39) So in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Okay. I have a young man I was teaching was helping young man. I I I teach part time at a college and living a disaster. It was just he was a disaster trying to help him. Turns out his mother had died and father wouldn’t let him quit school and we took him in almost like he thinks Julie’s his mother now almost and one you know lovely boy and to cut to the the point he would he calls us when anything good is happening and when anything bad’s coming he’s still this is after years he still treats us this way called us one time I
(16:20) finally have a job a great job tell us about the job we’re driving and he goes yeah well the job is I’m going to be this editor he likes video editing, right? That’s the world I teach in those things. And he um we asked him about where it is. Well, it’s going to be at home. Okay.
(16:38) And how’s it going to work? Well, I I bought a new Mac and a new iPhone and I mailed them to them so they could format them. Anybody? Anybody? We’re driving going, “Oh, yes. Yeah.” What’ you think? It was a scam. He got scammed. It was like So, it was such a innocent. It got scammed. A lot of money he borrowed from his dad. Oh, there was a girl that I was friends with kind of on the interested side only cuz she was quite a supporter of the the persecuted church and and I used to play tennis with her.
(17:32) She’s a real athlete and we would talk about the persecuted church. Really got to know her. never went into the romantic realm or anything, but I was really good friends with her and I was qu she and then she got cancer. Kind of sad cuz her dad is a top cancer specialist in the nation and she got cancer, got over it, came back again, got over it, and then uh she told me, “I’m not fighting it anymore.
(18:06) ” and which is a end because we end that means it’s it she’s only 31 at the time this is some years ago now and she would call me down then I lived in Kansas at the time she lived in Washington DC she called me one night and she said I’m so confused I’m so confused this is a woman godly woman fighting for the persecuted church and she said my my church the church ladies came over we had a prayer meeting and they were praying over me, laying hands on me, and they had a prophetic utterance. One of the women proclaimed
(18:42) to me, proclaimed, and they all agreed, and they praised God that I was going to be cured and have children. And last week, they took out my uterus, though. I’m not sure what that is. It’s a woman part, but it means you can’t have babies. I know that she I can’t have babies. What is God doing to me? her answer.
(19:06) What is God doing? Why is God doing this to me? Why is God doing this to me? Telling me that. I’m like, cuz he’s not. But she was so confused. I got angry. I pulled back my anger. I get angry again at it. Was that the Holy Spirit? Who says that was the Holy Spirit? This is what’s going on out there. A lot of lot of destruction out there.
(19:34) It’s almost like Satan Satan was like getting her back. It was almost like that. So, I can go on on the things there. I just want to get our mind um oriented, but here’s the question I have. Have we been scammed on the Holy Spirit? Have we been scammed? Maybe not. Let’s turn to Acts five. Acts five. And I’ll see if I can speed this up.
(20:18) I’m sorry. I have a lot of preparation. I’m going to speed it up here. We’re going to do some page turning. And I’m not going to say it’s going to be 2 hours one direction, but we’ll see. Acts 5. And a certain man named Ananias and Sapphira, his wife, sold her possession, and they kept back part of the price. His wife alo being also being privy to it, and bought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles feet.
(20:45) Brought a certain part. And Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back a part of the price of the land, whilst he remained? Not was it not thy own? And after it was sold, was it not thy own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thy heart? Thou hast not lied unto man, but unto God.
(21:07) And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down, and gave up the ghost, and great fear came upon all of them that heard these things. And the young men arose, wound him up, carried him out, and buried him. And there was a space of three hours. After that, his wife, not knowing what had done, came in.
(21:26) And Peter Peter said to her, “Tell me whether ye sold the lamb for so much.” And she said, “Yay, for so much.” Then Peter said, “How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the holy the to tempt the spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them have buried your husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.
(21:46) ” She fell straightway at his feet. And you love the ghosts. And the young men came and found her dead and carried her forth. And great fear came upon the church. But many heard these things. And there were signs and wonders. I’m going to I could go further into that, but I’m going to stop there. What happened? What happened here? Why a lie? Yeah.
(22:17) To publicly say something that wasn’t all that true. Anybody I have. But wow. Lied to the Holy Spirit and dead. That’s a It’s deadly. That’s what I’m saying. It’s deadly serious. And maybe it’s not normative here, but it’s attention getting the seriousness of playing with the Holy Spirit. Let’s put it that way. Playing around here. Okay.
(22:48) What happened? Let’s get the context here. We have the promise of the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament. I don’t got enough time to go through everything, but I’m going to the promise of the Holy Spirit. It’s coming. The Holy Spirit came on people. It was short-term, long, sometimes it was long term.
(23:02) The whole Nazarite bow thing was connected to being filled with the spirit. All those things are going on. Then we have Jesus promises the Holy Spirit. A lot a lot. In fact, let’s just go through a few of those. Let’s let’s turn if you can. Matthew 11 and 13. Now, if if you because of time, I’m going to give you synopsis of what it is unless we have to turn to it.
(23:31) Matthew. Uh yeah. Yeah, let’s turn to that one. Let’s get that one straight before I go off the rails here. And this there’s a lot of them here, but we got to we’ve got to um discuss this one and then we’ll build we’ll go faster through the other ones. Let’s go through Matthew 3 11.
(23:52) And of course, this is John the Baptist when you’re asking him what’s going on here. What’s going on here? He’s doing all these things. 11. I indeed baptized with water unto repentance. But he that cometh after me is mightier than I. Who soos I’m not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. You say basically I’m baptizing with water.
(24:23) There’s another one who’s coming and he’s going to pay for your sins and so you can go to heaven. Right? Isn’t that he’s going to save your soul so you can have eternity? Is that Isn’t that there? That right? That’s right there. Is that rare? the one that comes after me. He’s going to give you a better life. He’s going to he’s going to make things all the bad things. He’s going to turn them over.
(24:58) You’re not going to go to hell. He’s going to save people from going to hell. That’s what he the one is greater than I can’t even do. He’s going to save people from hell. Does anybody see that? No. No. In fact, John the Baptist doesn’t talk. He barely talks about anything except for the Holy Spirit. Jesus is coming with the Holy Spirit.
(25:28) His man, that’s John the Baptist. I know one thing. He’s coming with the Holy Spirit with fire. A double thing’s coming. That’s in uh Luke 3. Same thing. And he talks about chaff. Let’s see. Was where is that in there? Yeah. And whose fan? H whose hand? I’m sorry. Whose fan is in his hand? And he’ll thoroughly purge his floor and gather the wheat into the garner and he will burn up the chaff with unpunchable fire.
(26:03) So it relates to the fire. Ah, the chaff represents the deadness like like we think of in Psalm 1. Unconnected to God. Unconnected to God. This is serious business. Turn to Mark 1. Let’s go quickly. Mark 1. See if we can get through this. We got to get got to get context here for what the Bible focuses on, what the scripture focuses on before we get into what man has been been pushing at us for a while here.
(26:41) Mark 1 where he goes um again John the Baptist there cometh one mightier than I latches the hand shoes not worthy I indeed baptize you with water but he’s going to give you eternal life in heaven. No, I’m not saying it’s not true. It’s true, but it’s not the focus. John the Baptist’s understanding and there was no one greater than this John the right in the kingdom of God.
(27:11) No one like this. He knew something. Jesus is coming to give the Holy Spirit. We can’t get off the marketing tools of the 1920s. The market is business propositional logic that’s invaded all of Christendom. And it’s it’s getting into us, too. The way you get people into the church by selling them heaven. Sell them heaven.
(27:45) Tell them how bad it is. You’ll create the need. You’re going to hell. which is all true except it makes us focus off topic. Off topic a little bit. Okay. Luke 11. Luke 11. I’m sorry. I put these in order. They’re not necessarily in a an argumentative order. I just wanted to make it in order so we can get through it. I want to get them all in our mind.
(28:11) We come back to them as we as we need to. Okay. in Luke 11 here. I feel like I’m going against 2,000 years of writings here. Okay. Luke 11. And it came to pass as he was praying in a certain place when he ceased one of his disciples says, “Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples.
(28:45) ” So you get this need. They’re seeing something. They see Jesus praying. And they know John was doing something. He wasn’t all that wrong either. I guess you Well, they’re going, “Lord, we’re missing something. teach us to pray. And he starts off, it’s very interesting what he does here. He gives us the Lord’s prayer and he said, “Pray when you pray, pray our father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as in heaven.
(29:15) Give us day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we also forgive everyone that has debted us. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil.” Amen. And we have portions the other one. What’s interesting though at this which we say, “Well, there it is. That’s it. Pray that prayer. You’re good.” Got it. You’re done, disciples.
(29:42) You’re done. Go. No, no, no. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. And he said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend?” And out of midnight, friend, give me three loaves. I got to go very fast for this. I’m I have nothing. How should he answer? Trouble me not. Let’s He will he not rise. Let’s get down to it.
(30:06) And I say to you, ask it will be given to you. Seek you’ll find. For everyone that ask receive. Verse 11. If I uh Yeah. Yeah. If a son shall ask red of any of you that is a father, will he not give him a stone? And will he give him a stone? If he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If he asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask.
(30:48) Now, what in how are what’s going on here? Well, we should have put a a chapter break there, shouldn’t we? No. And he then explains this to them. Somehow I argue. It was my argument. I don’t know anybody else who said this, but I look at it and I go. The verbatim prayer wasn’t the answer. The verbatim answer, the verbatim prayer at all.
(31:18) The answer is they need the Holy Spirit. They need the Holy Spirit. Now the prayer is great because it actually takes if you examine closely the prayer and start breaking it out you can see what he’s he’s God you we could I had a whiteboard I diagram something but I maybe I’ll do it later. So there’s something we’ll we’ll come back to this concept that even in his instruction here at least according to this section of scripture he’s aiming at the at satisfying that need in the prayer was not the verbatim prayer it
(32:00) was the need for the Holy Spirit. This is what he’s after. Okay? We’ll we’ll we’ll we’ll come back to that a little bit later. Okay. John 1. John 1. Yeah. Okay. I’ve got to speed up here, don’t I? All right. Just a little further. Yeah. 20 29. This is repetitive, but let’s look at it. Uh let’s jump down and John bear record and said I saw the Holy Spirit descending from heaven like a dove.
(32:43) Verse 32 there. And I knew him not. But he has sent me to baptize with water. Said to me, un whom I sh you shall see the Holy Spirit descending, the remaining the same is he. Which will and I could be sarcastic and I could put all the different words in there that we’re getting from the c the culture now from programmatic Christianity that’s about getting to heaven.
(33:07) Heaven’s not mentioned except for the kingdom of heaven when by by John is talking about this something else. This Holy Spirit is something else that we’re not hearing a whole lot of in our evangelical or evang evangelistic thinking here. He’ll baptize you with the Holy Ghost. Okay. John 14.
(33:35) We’ll get a little deeper into this. John 14 and uh starting at John 14 starting at verse 15. If you love me, keep my commandments and and of course we’ve gone through there’s quite a bit in here on that concept. And I will pay the father and he shall send you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. We know what he’s talking about.
(34:05) The Holy Spirit, even the spirit of truth, the spirit of truth, Holy Spirit, spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it sees him not and knows him not, but ye know him. For he dwelleth with you, like now he’s dwelling with you right now and shall be in you. It’s going to go from with you to in you. Okay.
(34:37) Holy Spirit in let’s see in uh Philippians 1:9 very much describes the spirit of Jesus Christ. We’re supplied by the spirit of Jesus Christ. Holy sp this is my argument. I don’t hear it much. Holy Spirit is the spirit of Jesus Christ. I will be with you. I’m going to come. I’m not leaving you.
(35:03) All those things have to do with Jesus and the Holy Spirit being one. Like the father and this and him are are one. They’re different. They but they’re one. There’s this, you know, we wrestle with that. But here here we see, let me get back to my verse here. Where was I on verse 30? said, “Okay, the comforter, the spirit of truth, and uh the world cannot receive.
(35:37) They can’t see him.” John 3:3. Unless you’re born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. If you’re not born again, you can’t see the spirit. You can’t understand. You can’t perceive the Holy Spirit. The world can’t perceive that. I’ll leave you not verse 18. I will not leave you comfortless in the King James, but actually as an orphan.
(35:59) I won’t leave you as orphans. I’m going to be there. I’m going to be with you. I will come to you. I will not leave you. That he’s talking about the comforter. I will come to you kind of as a comforter. I argue. I I think it’s there. Okay. And let’s jump down to let’s go to John 15 and we’ll John 15 26 but when the comforter has come whom I will send to you from the father even the spirit of truth we say it again now the spirit of truth which proceedth from the father he shall testify of me the centrality of Christ for tonight’s
(36:52) talk is that the spirit of truth testifies of Jesus is whoever has the spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit Jesus is the central thing in their lives. It’s it it’s Jesus. It’s about Jesus. They testify of me. Verse 27, “And you shall bear witness. It’s going to come out of you.” Holy Spirit’s going to be in you. Testify of Jesus and it’s going to come out.
(37:28) Jesus comes out by the Holy Spirit and those that have the Holy Spirit, it comes out. If you don’t have the Holy Spirit, I don’t know. Okay, let’s turn to over to John 16. John 16 goes this interesting statement. Nevertheless, I tell you, the truth is expedient for you that I go away It’s better for you if I go away. You got that? Jesus is telling them, “It’s better if I leave you.
(38:03) If I leave you physically, I depart. For if I not go away, the comforter will not come to you.” He’s implying that it’s better. The comforter, the Holy Spirit, is better better for you if I leave and the Holy Spirit comes down. But if I depart, I will send him. And when he comes, he will reprove the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
(38:32) He goes through that. How How is he going to reprove the world? Is the Holy Spirit coming down here and he’s going to be on a tree or a roadside or or on the ground or in you? In you, he’s going to reprove the world. When the comforter comes into you, he’s going to use you to reprove the world of sin, righteousness, judgment, and he goes through it.
(39:00) That’s what he’s going to do to the world. Verse 13, how be it when he, the Holy Spirit or the spirit of truth is come, he’ll guide you. He’s going to reprove the world, but he’s going to guide you. Wow, this is great. He shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, he speaks, and he shall show you things to come.
(39:21) Down 13, a little while you shall see me no more, and again a little while you shall see me, cuz I go to my father. And of course, you could argue one with the resurrection seeing, but he’s implying when I’m going to my father, you’re going to see me. I think that might be talking about comforter, the Holy Spirit. this.
(39:41) But any case, let’s uh I’ll finish up here on on on some of these things. There’s so there’s a lot we’re getting our mind around this thing. Um no, I’m going to I’m going to stop there. So, I’m going to get back to the other scripture. Here’s my point on this. John the Baptist was single focused that Jesus was coming to bring us the Holy Spirit to baptize and put the Holy Spirit into us.
(40:20) This is this is what it’s going to be. He’s coming. I’m not sure John the Baptist knew what the cross was. He didn’t know what was happening to him. I don’t know. But he knew one thing. Holy Spirit for us. Jesus’ words. I’m going away. There’s more there. I’m going away and you’re gonna get the Holy Spirit, the comforter, and it’s gonna be better than this.
(40:43) And they’re like, “Well, it can’t be.” Yes, it’s going to be better. Far more spoken about this than heaven and hell. What’s happened to us? Have we bought that propositional that propositional logic in our age that do this thing, pray this prayer and you’re going to heaven. Now, I have a quick condensus and some of you heard me and some of you know I do this, but you we we came around the world.
(41:26) I mean, out of just wicked freef fall, become a believer and then you’re going into churches that aren’t helping you with your fre wicked freef fall very much. Fact, it’s going on in the churches we were in. It’s like unbelievable. And in our path, my wife and I, our path was we’re done. We’re done then. Forget it. We’re done.
(41:48) We went to home church world. That didn’t work. We And and then by God’s providence, here we are. and and and and seeing things that we to this day we can’t believe that we see that there’s a people of God that tries to do the right thing. It’s a it’s an amazing toss and we’re we’re it blows our mind and even last night we were with we had a lot of young people up we we did this this uh retreat this last week and and the the beauty of all the discussions we had with with the uh the older people.
(42:26) We just said we were just sitting down last night. We’re going do you remember any of this in our past? No, we didn’t have it. We were going to the best churches we could find. We didn’t have it. And so what I’m going to say right now, please don’t take this as a criticism. And not a criticism because we’re like amazed. We’re still amazed.
(42:46) Two amazes in my life. One, I’m never going to get over that Jesus rescued me. I’m never going to get over it. I I almost every day I can’t believe Jesus rescued me. It blow it just blows my mind. The second is that we he led us to a I don’t know godly culture. Let’s put that way and not put it back.
(43:09) But I can say something it might be misinterpreted. So we don’t know we know I know what happened to me and we’re doing a lot of Bible schools now. And so and I’ve been using we’re with youth to work with college youth and everything and of course we’re like amazed at the difference. It’s just like night and day.
(43:26) And it doesn’t mean you know that the Anabaptists are you know how we say this? Perfect. No problems. Yes. Got it. Okay. Perfect. No problems. Yes. We’re not We’re well over the honeymoon. And but we we as start asking questions. I was tempted to do this tonight, but I didn’t. But uh we asked questions to young people at the dinner table.
(43:46) Just three questions. One is how’d you come to Christ? Second is what’s the difference between the old you and the new you? And the third question is, what are you doing to grow into a disciple? We’ve changed that third question around, but I was doing it was no, no agenda. I just want to know.
(44:06) No, I wasn’t like, I’m going to do these things. We’re just doing at dinner table and talking and did it. I I don’t know. Maybe maybe maybe few hundred people now who’ve done this. And to the first question, how did you come to Christ? And the typical answer, and I didn’t think anything was wrong with it until a lot of repetition and started pondering it a little bit, but the very typical answer is, well, uh, a revival speaker came and I got worried. I got convicted.
(44:41) I got worried about going to hell. And this is not all. There’s a wide range of answers, but the in the center where most of them were was that type of an answer. So I went to my parents and talked to my parents and I became a Christian. So that was the kind of the standard and it sounds so for second question you know what’s the difference between the old you and the new you usually started with h [Music] and the general answer again many answers but the general one was the way I treated my siblings that was and there
(45:27) were different ones again but But we come down to the you know the normal curve it’s like in there and the third question what are you doing to grow into your disciple and most of the answers well the at the beginning was kind of funny I changed the question they say I’m in Bible school okay that’s good now it wasn’t until actually a couple years into this we were doing it just and we loved it and the students wanted to stay and we talked for a long time it was wonderful this is not a throne but then I started going there’s something that
(45:57) I’m not hearing like I’m not hearing in this general sense a little bit here and there and I wasn’t hearing the word Jesus. I wasn’t hearing the word Christ. I wasn’t hearing the word sin. I wasn’t hearing the word Holy Spirit. I wasn’t hearing the word conviction. I wasn’t hearing sorrow. I wasn’t hearing any of that for a major portion.
(46:27) Some on the end state they’re different. Should I be concerned any who thinks I should be concerned? Something has worked its way in. When the word sin is not used, conviction, Jesus, the blood of Christ, these things weren’t there. It was just automatic. I I didn’t want to go to hell. So I went and got this the the prayer that the evangelicals have told us to pray and you pray that prayer and you’re going to heaven and the parents are like yay cuz no I want my child to be in heaven with me and it’s just you don’t want to doubt them you want them who
(47:13) wants their children to not go to heaven we all do yeah right all that yeah yeah so let’s just we’ll take Scares me a little bit. Anybody? Scares you a little bit. We got to We got to look at this and we wonder why people are doubting salvations or why people are dropping off, dropping out. And I to me I I don’t I I personally don’t get it.
(47:51) It’s just and the way God grabbed me, shook me and pulled me, the Holy Spirit not even knowing and opening my eyes and seeing the horror of who I was and oh it’s it’s like uh tell me that didn’t happen. Tell me that’s not real. Tell me the way he turned turned my love for sin off that was a concept in my mind a concept in my mind or something.
(48:21) No real thing. Holy Spirit. So let’s go look a little further now at Ananias and Sapphira for a moment. back there. We’ve we’ve got, by the way, let’s one last thing in there in Acts. When the Holy Spirit comes, when the Holy Spirit comes, he’s promised, I’m sorry, Acts one, wait for the promise of the father that you heard from me.
(48:59) For John truly baptized water, but ye shall you be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from hence. Acts two comes along clothe in tongues they were filled with the Holy Ghost that comes and began to speak just like he said you’re going to speak you’re going to testify Jesus there it goes testifying Jesus you see the thousands come they mocked then he explains in 17 verse 17 I will pour out my spirit it’s all There we see this is all going on.
(49:36) Sorry, I’m I’m going to speed up here and he um I’m going to raise up witnesses. Let me let me I’ve got to because of time here. Jesus says repent. Therefore any question verse 38 Peter there says repent be baptized everyone in the name of Jesus Christ for remission is in and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. again.
(50:02) He doesn’t say heaven. He doesn’t say heaven. He doesn’t say you’re going to miss hell. You’ll have avoided hell. It’s not there. It’s you’re going to get the Holy Ghost again. What’s happened that we’ve dropped this or dropping it or maybe someone or not, but there’s not an focus like there is here in the scripture on this Holy Ghost thing.
(50:28) Well, yeah, we know cuz massive abuse on this one side. Remember I drew earlier? Massive abuse. I told you I’ve been there. Walked like those making this lady doubt God. There’s abuses that I’ve been I I could tell you horror stories of some of the abuses that I’ve seen been in the middle of on that side. So okay. So we’re a little bit ler that except it’s there.
(50:53) For the promise is unto you and your children and to all the are far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And I put in there by the Holy Spirit just my God by the Holy Spirit calling. All right. So we have we have that. The point here is they were filled with the Holy Spirit. There were signs and wonders and then gladness of heart and then the bodies coming together and then there’s healings going on. It’s pretty amazing.
(51:23) And then things got bad in Acts four. Acts four. And they they command them not to speak. Remember they the authorities they commanded not speak at all or teach in the name of Jesus. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. Speaking Jesus. They weren’t speaking, by the way, the Holy Spirit. They’re speaking Jesus.
(51:51) We cannot speak verse 20. We cannot we cannot but speak it. What we heard and what we seen her we can’t. The Holy Spirit was in there. They couldn’t even stop. They couldn’t stop. This is the Holy Spirit working. They were threatened. Uh yeah, let me jump down. Then they have this prayer meeting of course and they talk about the threatenings and they ask God grant unto thy servants that with all boldness we may speak the word stretching forth thy hand to heal and signs and wonders.
(52:33) It says, “And when they had prayed, and when they had placed, the place was shaken.” And when they had prayed, the place was shaken. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken. This was not a normal prayer meeting, although it should be a normal prayer meeting where the Holy Spirit is there and shaking. Now, the place was shaking.
(53:02) Was it the building shaken? I think it was the people shaking. The place was shaken because there the Holy Spirit was answering their prayer. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken. They were assembled together. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Filled with the Holy Ghost. And they spake the word of God with boldness.
(53:24) And the multitude believed were one heart. It goes on more how how good it was getting. pardon me. And the church grows and is prospering. The threatenings didn’t work. It got worse. And I I’ll interject my thinking here for a moment. Satan changed his tactic. Scoffing didn’t work. First it was scoffing. That didn’t work.
(54:04) Threatening didn’t work. So what do we do? Infiltrate. Infiltrate. And Jesus has a whole parable about infiltration. A whole parable of tears who come in and do big destruction infiltration. I’m not going to go through that for time sake. with infiltration. And the infiltration is like this. False believers, get into congregations to act like believers.
(54:40) Some of them don’t know they’re not believers. They just act it out because now we want to be this wonderful group, wonderful group to be with them. And they’re acting this way. We act this way, too. not being born again, not having the Holy Spirit, possibly they’ve had programmatic salvation, which we’re now passing to our children.
(55:03) They got programmatically saved, not Holy Spirit saved. They don’t live it out. They’re just saved by Satan and they work it. This is a an issue with programmatic salvation. this easy simple program programmatic salvation. You just got to believe this. Pray this prayer. God will take care of you. Four spiritual laws all that.
(55:29) The flesh can handle that. The flesh likes it kind of. I get I get heaven if I pray this prayer. Yeah. Whereas the gospel doesn’t say that. Gospel doesn’t say Gospel doesn’t say what you get. Gospel says talks about what you give. You get the Holy Spirit, but you got to give. Got to give for life.
(55:52) It’s a different thing. Take off the cross. That doesn’t sell well. That’s not good marketing. Any case, the point I want to jump to is with with them. And I I have much much much more. The main point from this and we we’ll get back to this too is we have all this evangelism now within our congregations and we have these techniques now that are on the outside the programmatic pray these prayers and we can declare you’re a child of God now because you prayed that prayer.
(56:32) It’s not biblical but but that’s what we’re doing. The big question is, does the Holy Spirit get a say? Does the Holy Spirit get a say in our salvation or in our life? John 6:36, it is the spirit who gives life. The flesh contributes nothing. Prophets in the King James. What? What? It’s the spirit that gives life.
(57:03) The word I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. The I have written down somewhere I can remember without saying it. We’ve got this culture now where we have the Holy Spirit because we’re saved. as opposed to the Holy Spirit worked repentance in me unto salvation. 2 Corinthians 7:10, for godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of.
(57:53) Ananias and Sapphira I propose got scammed. They got scammed. Come join. Come join. Just believe this. Who knows what they they’re part of it. We want to be part of it. They didn’t have the Holy Spirit. They wouldn’t have lied in the Holy Spirit if they had the Holy Spirit. They didn’t have the Holy Spirit. So serious God killed them.
(58:39) Talks about blasphemy of the spirit where there’s no hope. How much how much time did they have to repent? Zero. That’s serious. No. you know, you you shouldn’t have prayed that. You you shouldn’t have said that. Take some time. We like you to, you know, confess to the congregation and can you can we can we can we fix this? It’s deadly serious here.
(59:11) It sure get our attention if we not converted pretending to be converted dangerous. That’s I that’s why I argue to that. Okay. So, what do we do now? time to to wrap up here. Back to that prayer thing. Back to that prayer thing with the Lord’s prayer. The thing that was missing there was the Holy Spirit. Even so, the father will give to the Holy Spirit those that ask
(1:00:16) in this somehow in this prayer there’s something that’s happened to prayer and there’s something in general I believe has been lost. Not everywhere. There’s there’s components of it now and then, but prayer, prayer meetings and and prayer lives. As of now, I hear more about I I see more prayer meetings, which I think we need to inject a word in there.
(1:01:08) Prayer list meetings. Prayer list meetings. Come together, take your prayer requests, and we start notching off the prayer requests. Yeah. Anybody? You start knocking off the perilous and and maybe I’ll have a message at the end. And and the prayer that we we got from Jesus was not a prayerless meeting. It wasn’t a prayerless meeting.
(1:01:42) It was wrestle with this. God is what he has. What is he doing? And you you start forgiving because you forgive you you and there’s this things that are there and in that he says he added the Holy Spirit portion and it’s the what has been lost and if you’ve tasted it you’ll long for it you’ll want it that’s the deep prayer meeting the deep holy spirit prayer meeting and I don’t mean deep holy spirit prayer meeting where people stand up and give this great utterance and I’m great cuz I have this utterance and I’m and
(1:02:26) someone in those circles for different reasons for ministry reasons they’re talking about that I don’t know about deep prayer meetings where we as a group we ponder the depths of who Christ is in our prayer time and we talk we we ponder our own sin and our own who we are. We ponder what’s around us and the calling you’ve given us and we say, “Lord, show us really who you are and Lord, show us really who we are and it’s not pretty when he shows you who we are.” No, it’s not pretty.
(1:03:07) But then we realize what Christ did. So I just it’s like a the you know if it’s okay I got draw imaginary way board. How’s that? You ask, we normally think God is here and we’re here. Sometimes it’s the other way. People criticize God. We become a believer. We go, “Oh, God is and I’m” We start to see our sin.
(1:03:38) We start to see his holiness. Well, you know, you want to really grow deep in your nas of Christ, ask him to do this. And it’s not fun. Ask him to show you your sin. Lord Jesus, show me my sin. He will. It’s not pretty. It’s horrible. And he’ll show you. Sometimes he’ll make you do something. He’ll have you.
(1:04:09) No, make you do something. All of a sudden, you’ll do something. Oh, there it is. You see it? Oh, Lord, is that me? Yeah, that’s you. He’ll show you what he sees. And you go down. It’s not good. And the second question, our second request. Lord, show me your glory. The distance increases. Yes. But the cross, the cross which reached from heaven down to me.
(1:04:44) The more I see my sin, the more I see God’s glory, the more the cross, the cross is larger and larger. So this concept of prayer where we pray along those lines, the deep prayer meeting, the prayer list will come. That’s fine. But drawing near to God in prayer together. It goes on, but it’s not very prevalent out there. I was, this is some years ago.
(1:05:18) I I led a prayer group for seven years and we worked on this. The bonding was amazing. I was at a conference and a pastor an old up in his mid 80s was talking about this type of prayer. And I afterwards I was this is about 30 years ago. I came to him I said do you mean the type of prayer where you’re praying and there’s almost like a dissent or something and you begin to see you and understand in ways you’ve never understood before both of of Christ and of me and of what’s going on in people just what’s going on.
(1:05:59) And he his eyes went like that goes you know you know. Oh yes, I know. I know what that is. That spirit prayer, that spiritled, not spectacular excitement, fireworks. No, not I heard the God. None of that. a a deeper brokenness among all the people in the prayer meeting and and an increased awe at Jesus and and a a changed desire to live for him and a a longing for him to lead.
(1:06:41) Prayer prayer like that. Do we have that? It’s there for us. You got to find someone to do it. If not, you do it on your own. deep reading. Same. I’m not going to go through that because I’m way over time here. And deep obedience. Deep obedience. Deep diving into the word of God. Deep prayer with one objective.
(1:07:13) And that’s Jesus objective. Jesus objective. the Holy Spirit in you being filled with the Holy Spirit. That’s what Jesus wants more than any heaven. Heaven’s like an extra benefit. I get to go to heaven, too. I get Jesus and you get heavier. Really? Well, we’ll deal with that later. Right now, I’ve got Jesus.
(1:07:41) This is what Jesus wants on the earth. People filled with him, filled with a desire for him. walking with him. A a different people testifying at same thing in my title for today. Same thing is back there in Acts chapter 2. Amen. Let’s stand. Let’s just take a moment if we can just a moment to ask those questions, Lord. And I’ll let’s let’s close our eyes and I’ll just ask a few questions then let’s have some prayer.
(1:08:34) Lord, how much do we understand what you want? with regards to your your words and John the Baptist words and what you promised. Do we understand? Lord, help us to understand how much you want to be indwelling us. That’s the focus. Christ in you, the hope of glory, the Holy Spirit in us, the hope of glory. Do we long for that? You tell us to be filled with the spirit, not filled with wine or the the things of this world.
(1:09:12) Filled with the spirit of God. Lord, Lord, help us to long for that to be filled with the spirit. You told us if we ask, you’ll give the Holy Spirit. Lord Jesus, give us the Holy Spirit. Even if giving us the Holy Spirit in a new refreshing or more powerful way would cause us grief about our lives, Lord, so be it. as long as we can see better the cross, the love of Christ.
(1:09:45) Lord, for our I I I worry for our young people with this programmatic check the box salvation instead of Jesus Christ’s Holy Spirit. Lord, that we would have a renewed interest in looking for the working of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives, in our young people, that the spirit’s moving. Not that they’re we’re teaching them to say the right words, but that they longing for the spirit and you, Holy Spirit, would work in our young people, great and mighty things that we could just marvel at your Holy Spirit. But we call upon you, ask you,
(1:10:25) Lord, please move, move in us that we would testify of Jesus correctly, that they would hear of Jesus correctly and that you could work with them and bring many of them to where you want them being filled with the Holy Spirit, Lord. Not in crazy ways, but in convicting ways. We ask all this in Jesus’ name. Amen. All right.
(1:10:49) Thank you.