Practical Pentecost

The title of the message today is Practical Pentecost. Now,

I've heard all kinds of sermons and exhortations and how

to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and I must

say that most of them aren't worth much. Now here's

what I mean by this. I find that many of

the exhortations on being filled with the Holy Spirit are

virtue signaling sessions, what you ought to do right, what

you should do here, and so on, and I think

it misses the point. To be filled with the Holy

Spirit is to experience a practical daily Christianity that is

life transforming, because Christ is in our lives through the

Holy Spirit. So that's why I've chosen the title Practical Pentecost.

Plato once wrote that the measure of a man is

what he does with power. That's profound. Really, you can

misuse power. You can have power, and in a single moment,

you can blow it with that power. The measure of

a man or woman is what he or she does

with power. When Jesus promised his church the gift of

the Holy Spirit, he promised his followers the gift of

infinite power, power without measure, power without limitations, power to

change the world in more profoundly power to change the

life of his people on the inside. History is full

of sad sagas of people who misuse power to get

their way at the expense of others. Friend, if the

Holy Spirit is only an impersonal power, for you, like

George Lucas, is the Force, and there are people saying

that the Holy Spirit isn't a person, He's just an

impersonal power and emanating influence from the Father and the Son,

and they sometimes can figure out which one. If the

Holy Spirit is only an impersonal power, if you, like

George Lucas, is the Force, then your use of the

Holy Spirit is nothing more than pagan magic. You're accessing

power to get what you want. That's magic. It may

come as a surprise to some here today to learn

that the Holy Spirit does not come into our lives

to be used by us. The Holy Spirit comes into

our lives to rule our lives, to gain control of

a heart that is out of control, to take a

life that is failing, and bring life to the life

that is not there, and thus to be Christ in us,

the Hope of Glory, as the representative of Jesus Christ

in the Godhead, the third person of the Godhead, who

personates Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit comes to us to

be the leader in our life, the leader in the

Church on earth. In the absence of Jesus Christ. Through

the Spirit, Christ leads the church. The Holy Spirit is

the leader of the Church on earth. So I don't

think for a moment that you can use the Holy Spirit.

It's impossible to use the Holy Spirit. We must surrender

to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is waiting for

you and me, all of us to surrender to Jesus.

So the Holy Spirit can use you to save others.

But guess what he's most concerned about saving you first.

Simon Magnus wanted to use the Holy Spirit. And this

was Peter's response to Simon Magnus, Simon the Great, that's

what his name means. It wasn't great at all. He

thought he was great. He was a classic narcissist. I

will wield the power Simon the Great, and he was

so impressed with what Peter was doing. Look at Acts eight,

verse eighteen. Let's just zero in there. And now Simon

saw that the spirit was given through the laying on

of the apostles hands, and he offered them money. I

was once we were doing an evangelistic series in Bangalore, India,

and it was the most disgraceful thing that happened. In

that meeting. A church leader came up to us and

asked for five thousand dollars so the meeting would be

a success. I've never had someone just ask for money

that blatantly so that the meeting would be a success.

And what was amazing about it? He said, well, you know,

we'll make sure people get here, We'll make sure you

have baptisms, will make sure you have enough pictures so

you can go back home and everyone will know the

Holy Spirit was in your meeting. Now he had reached

out to one a person here today, I'm not going

to mention it was and through us. And of course

the answer of all of our team was no, Well,

suddenly the Holy Spirit wasn't with our meeting. They sent

the message out, don't attend this offshoot, crazy group of

people preaching nonsense. And our meeting initially went from about

two hundred and three hundred people down to about fifty people.

But we didn't sell the faith. And I never will

forget what happened. I got sick. I mean, they could

also say that the Lord has smitten one of the preachers.

You know I did. I got sick, I had an

antibiotic and all kinds forgive what Jack Saquera did. He

just tucked me in bed, this wonderful man of God.

He says, I'm going to preach and teach for you

while you recover. Mike, I know that you're suffering right now.

And this elderly man who just retired or was in

the process of retire is more accurate. He just he

was a bush preacher. He led my wife to Christ.

In Africa, he was a man without a country, literally

a man without a country because Idea Mean wanted to

kill him. He wrote a book on communism, and he

set out to destroy Elder Saquera, and he began to pray,

just his raw bible, just open his Bible and preaching

and teaching to the fifty people. And then he did

what he did in Africa. He stayed after the sermon

and he just opened the doors of the auditorium and

he made sure that people could be prayed for. And

people started coming from the streets all the way down

the street to have Jack lay his hands and pray

for them. And it just so happened in the middle

of that meeting that one of those people was miraculously healed.

It got through the town, and suddenly our meeting was packed,

and the brethren who tried to buy us off showed up.

And when they showed up, after they tried to buy

us off, they realized that they better go along. And

the strangest thing happened at the end of that meeting.

They put garlands around our neck, They kissed us, thanked

us for the work of God, and all that. Now, look,

I'm not here, We're not here to put anyone down.

It was like a knee jerk thing. But God does

not need money to do his cause. He doesn't need

three to four thousand unconverted people to advance his work.

And so Simon the Great Simon Magnus, in his own mind,

offered them money. Now look at Peter, Saysburys nineteen, saying,

give me also this power that anyone on whom I

laid my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. Peter said

to him, your silver perish with you, because you thought

you could obtain the gift of God with money. You

have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your

heart is not right before God Verse twenty two. Repent

therefore of this what does the Word say in the

English Bible, of this wickedness of yours? And pray to

the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart

may be forgiven you. For I see that you are

in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. Boy,

that's pretty straightforward. Now, if I had to say something

like that to someone, you probably a pastor, Mike. That's

not a kind thing to say. Was Peter okay in

saying that in that instance? Sure he was, Dear friend,

Peter made it perfectly clear. We don't use or manipulate

the Holy Spirit. As Christians. We must surrender to the

Holy Spirit to be used by Jesus Christ, to be

guided by his personal representative on earth, the whole Holy Spirit.

In Act one to eight, Jesus put it plainly in

stating why the power of the Holy Spirit is sent

to the church. Look at X one eight with me.

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has

come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem,

all Jedea and Samaria, and the ends of the earth.

In the Gospel of Luke, the Holy Spirit is the

power of God that Jesus wielded and used in his

life ministry to save people. It said he went forth

in the spirit and in the power of the Holy Spirit,

and he healed people. But before Jesus could use the

power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus had to surrender to

the Holy Spirit. Did you hear me? All three gospels

indicate that the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. The

Gospel of Market actually says the Spirit drove him into

the wilderness. Now, if you weren't at prayer meeting this

last Wednesday, you missed a wonderful presentation that Daniel and

his mother shared on the tims of Christ. It was

awesome and if it's still online, it's well worth going

online and getting this. For those of us who missed

prayer meeting, I realize everyone can't get there, but you

can get there online. And we've got to improved by

the way this communication. So I'm not sure who used

to be sending out the news of the Unlock prayer meeting,

but we need it to happen again because so much

good material there was shared this week. Friend, the Holy

Spirit was not an impersonal force that came from Christ

or the Father. The Holy Spirit was a person who

guided Christ, who directed him at times, who even on

one occasion, healed a woman with a flaw of blood

without even asking Jesus for permission. Christ was surprised because

the power of God, the Holy Spirit had healed her himself.

So don't think for a minute that you can control

the Holy Spirit, dear heart. The Holy Spirit must control

you as the Lord. He is equal to the Lord Jesus,

equal to the Father in the fact that he is.

Yeahweh God. And that's why Paul will say the Spirit

is the Lord. The Holy Spirit is not given without condition.

Some people say, well, I just want the Holy Spirit

and I want to pray for it the Lord to

give it to me. No, not so quick. A commitment

to obedience is one vitally important condition for receiving the

Holy Spirit. What's the keyword in that statement? I just

made obedience. So obedience. Now, obedience is not legalism. Legalism

is the idea you obey so you can be saved. Obedience,

when it's the heartfelt, converted response to what Jesus has

done for you, obedience becomes something beautiful. It becomes the

fruit of the Gospel. In fact, Hebrews four equates it

with faith, the obedience of faith in Romans one. So

look at Acts five twenty nine. Open your bibles with me.

But Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God God,

rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus,

whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. That's

pretty direct. God exalted him in his right hand as

leader and savior. Again quoting Psalms one hundred and ten

and one, we looked at that last week to give

repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And I like

the word give. There. We don't repent because we're good

at repenting. We don't get forgiving because we do something great.

God gives that to us. And we are witnesses to

these things. And so is the Holy Spirit, whom God

has given to. And what does the second text say

to those who what does the Bible say? Who you

can say it? Who obey him? When they heard this,

they were enraged and one to kill him. Peter is

speaking the truth in his rebuke. He says that God

only gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey him. Now,

let's make this truth practical in our relationship with God,

if we, as Christians willingly take a position that God's

law has been set aside based on what Peter just

said here, we know by apostolic authority in Peter that

God will not give a wilfully rebellious person the gift

of the Holy Spirit. Is that correct? Is that correct?

So there is conditions we must guard our hearts to

not tread upon God's law lightly or at all. If

we teach men and women to disobey God's law, and

there are many pastors that do, including the Six Commandments

four to six, any of them, God will not give

that person or any of us the Holy Spirit. We

must see why the new coven Hebrews eight and is

to take the Holy spirits for the Holy Spirit, to

take the law of God and put it where right

on the heart in the life. Now, if you don't

believe there's a law, you can't write it there, can you.

So if we set aside any one of the ten

Commandments and treat them as trivial, God will not give

us the Holy Spirit, because His law is one, because

He is one. I have seen this in my own life.

I remember when I was. We had a small group

fellowship at Southern Adventist University, which was Southern College and

used to be called Southern Matrimony College because you could

find a wipe there. I found mine there, and what

was amazing about it was, I remember you. In my hall.

I was an ra I kind of policed the kids

so they wouldn't go out and get drunk, and if

they did, I had to turn them in. It was

pretty bad. So how do you keep them focused? I

formed a parent prayer group in my room. In time,

the whole hall was praying almost every night, and of

course people were wondering how they could get their school

work when my grades went up. But I remember one

person who came to our prayer group that we had

as a revival broke out in the dorm. He said,

I'm full of the Holy Spirit and I've just been

to a bar to witness. And he says, when I

went to the bar to witness, you know, I'm also

got myself a drink. And I thought to myself, who

you witness for him? You could compromise and break God's

law and still be a holy spirit filled Christian and

be a good witness too. Nonsense if we set aside

any of the Ten Commandments and treat them as trivial,

God will not give us the Holy Spirit. Dear heart,

we cannot afford to set aside one principle of the

Holy Decalogue and expect to be new covenant, holy spirit

filled Christians. There are tricky ways men and women, preachers

and theologians and doctors of religion and philosopher king types

can set aside the law of God. First, they can

rationalize it away, Oh, this really doesn't work here, it

doesn't apply. They can also legalize it away. You see,

they can be so legalistic that spirit of the law

is gone, there's no love and mercy in it. Or

lazy as people. They can ignore it away, Oh it

don't matter. Or they can just deny it outright as binding,

as many people will do in many churches across the

world today. Let me give you some examples of this.

I'm gonna interact with tin commandments. For instance, some say

God commands that we keep the seventh day Sabbath, and

yet many preachers and teachers will say that all we

need to do is keep a day that we choose.

Have you ever heard that, well, that that's just doing

away with the law. I mean, that's just saying the

commandment doesn't matter how it's written. And yet the Fourth

Commandment which is given us, the Fourth Commandment for the

fourth corners of the earth. That's why it's the fourth Commandment.

It's a global commandment. Jesus said the Sabbath was made

for man all over the world, mankind, for the fourth

corners of the earth. As the global Fourth Commandment clearly

states that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord,

your God. It's not mine or yours, it's his. It's

the seventh Day. He owns it. So we don't have

a right to pick our day. When God gave the

seventh day that is Saturday, to the world from sundown

Friday to sundown Saturday. We need to obey God remember

the Sabbath day to keep it holy. That's why the

commandment says remember why, because millions of people have forgotten. Thus,

embedded in the commandment is the simple word remember now

when you remember the day, you remember the Lord of

the day, Christ is packed inside the Sabbath. The number

seven is the Holy Spirit number. In scripture, the seventh

Day seven eyes of God. In the book Revelation right

through on the lamb. Who's the lamb Jesus. Seven torches

that burn before God's throne? Who sits on the throne, Well, yeah,

that's right. Revelation twenty two to one says that's the

shared throne, the throne of the Father and the Lamb,

but also the Father. Seven horns of God's power. Where

are they on in the book Revelation chapter five on

the lamb? And we know from the text that this

is the Holy Spirit. Seven means the complete spirit of God.

He's everywhere north, south, the east, west, four directions, up, down, five, six,

and he's also inside number seven, the seven eyes of God,

the seven horns, the subcomplete power of God, the seven

torches that burn before God's throne that appeared on their

heads at Beentecost. So this means that the seventh Day

is the Holy Spirit day. God told Moses in the

Hebrew text of Exus thirty one seventeen that the Sabbath,

literally in the Hebrew was filled with nefish, It was

filled with breath, and many translators will say God was refreshed.

God doesn't need refreshing. The day was filled with life

and breath and there's fire in the day. As we

see in later part of the Torah, the seventh day,

friends is alive because the Holy Spirit is in the

Holy Spirit day. It turned to Ezeko twenty nineteen and twenty,

God says, I the Lord am your God. Isn't that personal?

Is that personal? I the Lord am your God. I

Jehovah am your God. Walk in my statutes, be careful

to observe my ordinances, and how am I sabbaths? That

they may be a sign between me and you? And

that's not the mark of the beast. This is God's

sign that they may be a sign between me and you,

kind of like an anniversary, kind of like the day

you got married. You know that you may know that

I the Lord and your God. In Jesus Day, the

rabbis had figured out a way to relieve a son

or daughter of their duty to provide for their parents

in their old age and thus disregard the fifth Commandment.

Does the fifth Commandment matter? Yes? Or no? Okay, Now

why is it the fifth commandment? Well, how many books

of Moses are there? It's the Taarah commandment, the Word

of God commandment that establishes the principle of obedience in

the family so that a future generation respects God is

law and elders. Why, because we learn to obey and

honor God. When we learn to obey and honor our parents, Brady,

disrespectful children will become brad and disrespectful adults in the

church and the world unless they learn the value of

the Fifth Commandment. So when I see someone you know

acting awful toward an elder or even their associate, pushing

themselves into their face, trying to demonstrate how right they

are and wrong everybody else's, I can tell you right

now they didn't get the right upbringing. But it's never

too late to change. Can God spank us a little bit,

Jesus as many as I love a rebuke and chasen.

So Mom and Dad get to work in love, big

word love to fix these things early. You won't have

to deal with it later. When a person is no

longer a child, they are still called by God because

of the fifth Commandment to do what to honor their parents.

I don't care if you had the worst dad on

the face of the earth, honor your father. If your

mother lets you down and set all these awful things,

and maybe had faults of character. Honor your mother, the

hearts of your parents soften in your adult life. But

the rabbi said, just give Corbine a gift to the temple,

and you won't have to worry about that commandment anymore

by providing for your parents. And you can keep the

money and we'll get some of it too. Now, Jesus

had this to say in Matthew fifteen six. So for

the sake of your and what's the key word, what's

it saying next? You can say it with me, tradition.

You have made void the word of God. So it's

possible to have a religious tradition that does away with

God's law. Let's look at the sixth commandment together. I'm

picking a few out of the ten. The Bible says,

thou shalt not what kill right, Okay, the Hebrew means

thou shalt not murder. The number six in the Bible.

See the fourth commandment is four because of the fourth

corners of the earth. It's global. The sable is made

for man. The fifth commandment is like the tor of

the five Books of Moses, the Word of God commandment.

It teaches us to respect so we can benefit from

the word of God. The sixth commandment is the man commandment,

the human kind commandment. The number six in the Bible

is the number of a man, because man was made

on what day? Sixth day? Adam and Eve came to life.

On the sixth day, God breathed into Adam, and in

the in the Old Testament, Adam and Eve are both Adam.

They're both called Adam. God breathed into Adam, meaning Adam

and Eve. But first to Adam that he breathed into

his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living,

nefish soul, a breathing being on the sixth day. The

sixth commandment is the pro life commandment in the in

the Decalogue. Now why do I say that is God

for life or against life? Some of you paused, Does

God want to kill? He says, I am not willing

that any should what perish, but that all should come

to life repentance be saved in life. Friends. The sixth

commandment is the commandment that protects life human life from

those who would trivialize life, those who would destroy it

or even make it miserable. The principle of the sixth

Commandment says we don't give people grief in their life,

because life is precious. Jesus said in John ten ten,

I have it here on the screen. The thief comes

only to steal, and to what what to say next?

To kill and destroy. I came that they may have

what life, and they might have it how abundantly, friends,

as seventh to have it. As Christians, we're in the

living business. This is the heart that this verse that

you're looking at. Here is the exact linguistic center of

the Gospel of John. Christ has come that we might

have life and have it abundantly. Satan has only come

to kill and destroy. Now what does that mean. It

means that whenever we can make a difference to help

someone live, we should do it. I struggle for two

years to save my brother's life. It was worth every

minute of the struggle. And dear Heart, there are people

who come to the door. I was talking to Elder

Sewn Robinson, who was the former Associate secretary of Chesapeake.

Well he's the former associate he's not now, but he

told me he was researching England. He's from England. He

said he found in the records of a church in

this place. I can't Remember it's not Nottingham, it's not

Robin Hoodville. I'm losing it in my head. But he

said a record that the church clerk had taken notice

that they had killed an urchin child, a homeless child

who had come into the church, and that they had

paid for the services they're rendered. Can you imagine a

church paying to kill a homeless child because they're unwanted.

That's what happened in the sixteenth century. Unbelievable. Well, you

go further enough back in history, the ancient Canaanites would

take newborn babies fresh from their mother's womb. They would

place them on a red hot stone altar like which

has been found at Gezer. While they found hundreds of

mutilated children, little girls, mainly cut in two, and they

played their version of loud rock music so you couldn't

hear the baby's screams on the altars. It died. And

as for these Canaanites in their satellite city of Carthage,

this was a religious right. It was a matter of

religious conscience for them, a freedom of religion issue that

needed to be protected for the sake of the individual's

rights to kill their children. Now that's a misuse of

freedom and the Covenant indictment of Psalms one o six.

God declares that Israel offered their children to demons. Turned

on Psalms one hundred and six thirty seven, they sacrificed

their sons and their daughters to demons. They poured out

innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom

they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land

was polluted with blood. Thus they became uncleaned by their

acts and played the harlan and their doings according to

the Bible, and fanticide makes you a heart, but for God,

if you foster it for religious reasons Verse forty, then

the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,

and he abhored his heritage. If God wants you know,

if you want who would want this? But if you

and your evil would want God to hate the Church,

just do what they did, and he abhoured his heritage.

He gave them into the hand of the nations. In

other words, he brought discipline so that those who hated

them ruled over them. Dear Heart, the minute you take

the life of a child and you use the religious

freedom argument, calling it a matter of conscience. You're making

murder a religious freedom and a religious right. Any theologian

or doctor of religion who puts that argument forth in

any church is of the Synagogue of Satan. They match

up with Psalms one hundred and six. It is the

teaching of devils that came up with this kind of

twisted reasoning that would justify the death of little children.

The early Christian Church, full of the Holy Spirit, saved

the lives of thousands of little babies and girls in

the city of Rome alone. I've read the papyrus materials

showing that they what they would do. They would discard

these children. But we know from Gibbons, following the cloud

of Roman Empire and ancient sources, the Christians would visit

these trash heaps of the Roman world to find those

little babies crying out for the right to life, but

who were left in the open air to die by exposure.

And they found every one of them that they could find.

For Christ. They followed the cry of a child, and

they raised these little boys and little girls as orphans

in the Church of God, and they dedicated them as

sons and daughters of God, the children of the church.

I recently read the statement of a prominent theologian in

a church I won't name out of respect for that church.

It's not the church's position. I wish she would quit writing.

Who rightly claimed, in one side of his argument that

abortions the violation of the sixth Commandment. I thought that

was right. But who then added that you can do

it anyway because of conscience, just like the Corbin argument

of the rabbis. He claimed directly that it's a matter

of personal conscience. I asked the question of myself, and

I'd love to have asked him. Got a PhD. And

wrote a lot of things that probably should edit a

lot of it. I would ask him this question, since

when is murder a matter of personal conscience? Evil thinking

turns into evil writing. It comes from a deluded heart

that has not surrendered the Holy Spirit. This kind of

reasoning is abhorrent to God. It's an abomination to God.

God says he abhors what he would occur in Psalms

hundred and six. Any religious leader who would try to

convince you of such a thing should be ignored as

void of the Holy Spirit, an instrument of the evil

that he is justifying his writing and really unfit for

the office of pastor. You cannot receive the Holy Spirit

unless you are committed to obeying the Lord your God

without reservation. God has not called smart theologians to take

the place of a clear Thus set the Lord in

the Holy Law of God. Now we've been worn in

the spirit of prophecy that there will come a day

when men of pleasing address. It's in the chapter of

the Final Warning of Great Controversy. Who are ministers of

the Remnant movement for the last days because of compromise,

because they have not come into obedience to the principles

of the Third Angels message. They will come under the

control of Satan because of this compromise, and they will

join the ranks of the opposition the mark of the Beast.

I believe this compromise today among some, not by no

means the everyone. There are godly voices in our movement,

but among some is really rooted in the compromise of

the sixth Commandment, which says it's okay in some of

these preachers' minds to set aside that commandment for unborn babies.

But when the Sabbath comes online, we need to have

freedom religion, so it's worth the sacrifice. Bad logic not

from God. Friends, as Christians whose consciences are subject to

the Bible, and the Bible alone, we must obey God

rather than in God has not given it to the

Church of the Last Days to command the Holy Spirit

or deviate from His law or the testimonies of Jesus

that we have. God has called on the Remnant Church

to obey his Holy Spirit, to keep the commandments of God,

and to hold of the testimony of Jesus. Turn to

Revelation twelve seventeen. The dragon Satan was wroth with the

woman the True Church when off to make war on

the Remnant of re See. The Remnant is a subset

of God's Church Universal, which keeps the commandments of God

and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. When religious leaders

call on the church to pray for the Holy Spirit,

but they themselves will not repent so as to take

the side of the little children who deserve to live.

When they write policies that have violate the sixth Commandment,

they are on the wrong side of the prayer for

the Holy Spirit. Jesus will not come back to planet

Earth to receive a disobedient church that breaks the commandments

of God or the sixth Commandment, or any of the

commandments of God in its teachings or practice and Exus

twenty verse five. God promises to love those who keep

his commandments, and Jesus says the same Exus twenty five.

Let's read this together. Won't hurt us? Help me, but

showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me

and keep my commandments. Now this is the ten Commandments.

It's the second commandment. Go to Deuteronomi five, where we

have the commandments repeated. So read it with me, but

showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me

and keep my commandments. The me who is God in

the ten Commandment law of God is Jesus, also God

the Father, and God the Holy Spirit. How do I

know that because Jesus quotes the ten Commandments in John

fourteen fifteen. Look what he says. If you can read

this with me, and I'll read the rest. If you

love me, you will keep my commandments Verse sixteen. I

will pray the Father he will give you another counselor

to be with you forever. Even the spirit of truth

and the world cannot receive because it neither sees him

or knows him. You know him, for he dwells with

you and will be in you. I will not leave

you desolate. I will come to you, Jesus said, if

you love me, keep my commandments. Friends, Jesus is the

yah weeighth God of the Ten Commandments. He is the

Lord of the Sabbath. He is Jehovah in human form.

And because he is the living Word who spoke the

law at SINAI. What will Jesus do practically then, for

those who humble themselves, who choose to obey His law

with no reservation, who ask God to take broken vessels

and forgive them and give them the Holy Spirit. Jesus

says in verse sixteen that I will pray to the

Father he will give the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit

to be with you. Now here's what I'm getting at.

I've heard presentations of the Holy Spirit. Says, well, you know,

when we get perfect enough, and we're a good generation

at the end of time, then we'll get the Holy Spirit. Friends,

God gives you the Holy Spirit when you're not perfect.

He gives you the Holy Spirit when you're struggling. He

gives you the Holy Spirit when you need to change life,

at the beginning of your journey, not the end of

your journey. That's the problem with perfectionism. It waits for

the goodness of God to come into your life. You

need it now, Jesus says forever. I'll give it you

the Holy Spirit forever, while Jesus says you will know him,

the Holy Spirit forever, not an impersonal force like Jeorge

Lucas's force in Star Wars. Jesus says, you will know him,

and Jesus he will dwell and be in you John

seventeen three. And this is eternal life, that they might

know the only True God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou

hast sinned. Now only true God includes the Spirit of

Truth John sixteen thirteen. When the Spirit of Truth comes,

he will guide you into all the truth. For he

will not speak on his own authority. But whatever he speaks,

he will speak. He will declare to you the things

that are to come. When a man or woman depersonalizes

the Holy Spirit, they are in reality insulting Jesus, who

is Jehovah God. They're insulting the Father who is Jehovah God.

They're insulting the Holy Spirit, who is the he who

is the him that Jesus is talking about here as

someone you can personally come to know God forever Christ

in you the hope of glory. Friends, we need to

know that he who is a hm who is the

Holy Spirit in these verses. Why so we can obey Christ,

have changed lives, have the fullness of the abundant life

that Jesus came to give. Just as Jesus and the

Father are one, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one.

The Holy Spirit is so close to Jesus that when

the Holy Spirit comes into your heart, guess who comes

into your heart. Jesus comes in here, and the Father too.

First John five to seven was quoted as scripture by

Sippering of Carthage in the third century AD, many years

before Constantine in the Council of Nicea at the seminary,

I learned, unfortunately that this shouldn't be in our Bible.

I have changed my view based on the evidence. Textual

Greek manuscript evidence is only partial evidence. It's not conclusive evidence.

Bible verses are quoted as scripture before these manuscripts come

online and people can tamper with them, and did in

some cases. First John five to seven was found in

the Bible of the Waldensians, which the Spirit of Prophecy

tells us were among the first peoples of Europe to

receive a copy of the scriptures. It was there. Modern

textual critics tried to cut First John seven out of

our modern Bible, much like the anti Trinitarian bishops of

Constantine's time did. Some point they said, what do you

mean anti trinitarian bishops of Constantine. Constantine appointed anti trinitarian

bishops to pose what had occurred at the counts of Nicia,

and it was there until Constantious the first died in

One John five to seven, as preserved in the King

James version. Who came to James version as well. It

needs to stay in our Bible for the last days.

Don't let a smart person who really isn't looking at

all the evidents reasoned away. Now in Vaticanas, we had

two of those fifty copies codexes that were translated by Constantine.

He commissioned them at Nicia. They took this verse out,

but in one of them Vaticanis, which is still here.

We have a little umlot in the side margin, which

shows it's a textual variant missing. It was there before.

It's quoted by Athanasius the Scripture at the same time.

So the historical evidence and the old Latin Bible evidence

that found its way to become the Bible of the

Waldensians and other things show us this verse was there

first John five seven. Here it is for there are

three that bear witness in heaven. What does it say?

The Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit? And these

three are one. Leave it in your bible. Jesus said,

if you love me, you will keep my commandments, and

I will come to you. No man or woman who

claims to be a member of the remnant Church of

Revelation who willfully weakens or set asides the Fourth Commandment

or the sixth Commandment, or any of the commandments will

be ready for the coming of Christ. I've been working

on the chiastic structure of the book Revelation the past

few weeks, and that's a picture of some of my

work that you can see. It's tagging it in order

moving through the hole the center of the book Revelations

Revelation twelve ten. And I will make this available from

our church members. When this is study is done, I'm

going to have some presentations on the chiastic structure the

book Relation. I can't wait for that. Angels in the

Glen is going to publish these works. It's not going

to be published anywhere else. That's where this work is

going now. One of the many discoveries in that structure

is the truth that those who receive the Mark of

the Beast, who are quote deceived in Revelation nineteen twenty,

is crossmatched in the structure on the other side with

those who are a Synagogue of Satan, who say they

are Jews and are not meaning real Christians, but lie,

deceive and lie. Dear Heart, We are Christians if and

only if we get on our knees and we ask

God for the gift of the Holy Spirit, so we

can obey and honor Him by a surrendered life. Any

minister in the Remnant Church who teaches that the sixth

Commandment can be set aside to protect the Fourth Commandment

in the Mark of the Beast test is deceived and

they fall because of the structure, they would fall into

the Synagogue of Satan. In fact, the Synagogue of Satan accord,

according to sister White in the spirit of prophecy, are

those who break God's law? Jesus simply says it. As Christians,

we don't pit the commandments of God against each other.

In this way. We keep them all because we want

all of Jesus and all of the Holy Spirit, and

all of the character God in our lives. And we

affirm that the state has the right to do righteous

things as God is appointed. Not every law the state

makes is immoral if it does the right thing. But

when a state makes an unrighteous law that violates God's law,

you stand tall and you say no. The mark of

the beast test will be an unrighteous law that attacks

the law of God, the fourth Commandment of the Sabbath.

That God has not set up that law. He has

not ordained that the fourth Commandment should be attacked by

any law of the land. But any law that protects

children their lives, that honors the principle of the sixth

Commandment is well within the domain of the state, and

we don't need to fight against those. As Christians, we

should work to protect human life life. We also obey

God when we obey the Gospel of God. Paul talks

about the obedience of faith. The teaching the apostles of

the New Testament is so import turn next two forty one.

So those who received his word were baptized and were

added that day about three thousand souls. So what did

they receive before they were baptized? In verse twenty one

forty one his word when a man or woman is

baptized in Jesus, when they surrender their life to God

and they repent, they are obedient to the Gospel, and

they're baptized. So what does God do. He gives the

Holy Spirit immediately to someone who's baptized. This is why

the outpoint of the Holy Spirit comes at baptism, Acts

two forty two. And they devoted themselves to the apostles,

teaching fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

I'm so glad we're gonna have a picnic next month.

There's no amens, come on a picnic, you guys, don't

come on amen. You know, in fact, you could even

seeing the doxology for that. Halylujah, hellay lou yah. Yeah,

we're gonna have a picnic. Now. Four things here represent

practical Pentecosts. Quickly move with me. Number one what does

it say on the screen. Apostolic teaching, which means the Bible.

We need more of the Bible. Number two Christian fellowship

we need to have. They're going on a hike this afternoon, Hurrah.

Number three the communion service of the breaking of bread.

Don't avoid communion, come to church for holy communion. Number

four prayers. We should be praying for each other, praying

for those we know, making a difference through prayer. These

four things represent practical pentecost obedience. So what is the

result of the Holy Spirit obedience in all these matters

of faith? Look at verse forty three, and fear came

upon every soul, which means respect. And many wonders and

signs were done through the apostles at the oak Wood

seventh d Aventist Church years ago, our little church that

God gave us, and He built a big church for

our little church. Our church met the condition of practical

Pentecost in prayer and working for children in the projects,

in the crack houses, and we saw signs and wonders

of God. I have seen some here also, especially in

our early days, in our fight for religious freedom. We

need more of that. We need renewal in the Holy Spirit.

I saw God raise one of our dear members from

the dead in the oak Wood seventh d Avenist Church

on a Saturday morning. I saw a resurrection from the dead.

That morning had a world renowned surgeon, our head elder

confirming that she had died, had been dead, and God

brought her back and he couldn't explain it, and he

was shaking. The devil wanted to have a funeral that day,

but the Holy Spirit gave us a resurrection instead, and

little Luella lived again. Signs and wonders without the Bible

and prayer and witnessing and sharing and loving and growing

in obedience won't keep you in the faith. So God

doesn't give signs, So we will believe He gives signs

because we're obedient when you serve God in the church

for the sake of others, by giving you the church,

by returning a faithful tithe to God, so the church

can advance its ministry, but supporting with its offerings. God

takes note of that as practical Pentecost Living in your

life Verses forty four and forty five. And all who

believed were together, does it say they went their own way?

They did their own thing. What does it say there?

They were what together, and they had all things in common,

and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them

to all as any had needed. What do you call that?

We call it unselfish benevolence and love and service. We

give as we give as we can give. We give

because we love the brethren. And when we do this,

our hearts are changed, our attitudes are transformed. The Holy

Spirit is bubbling in us. It becomes part of our

daily spiritual dna to live for Christ every day to

help others be saved Verses forty six and forty seven.

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking

bread in their homes, they partook of food with what

kind of attitudes? Help me with that word? Glad and

generous hearts, praising God. I'm going to stop and say,

praise God. Will you want to help me? Hallelujah? Praise God?

And having favor with all the people. In other words,

say kind characters, and the Lord added to their number

day by day those who are being saved. Dear heart,

let us pray and strive to meet the contactitions of

full obedience to God. And all these things so that

day by day our hearts will grow good later and

our lives will have more joy changed through the abundant

life of the gift of the Holy Spirit. And let

us rejoice in the good work of God that will

bring men and women and children to Jesus Christ. Dear Heart, God,

bless all your days on this earth in the Holy

Spirit and gladness of heart, with power to obey and

the love, peace and joy of the Holy Spirit. God

keep you, dear Father. When we come to the cross

and we fall down in need, we know that we're

the sinners in need of salvation. That were the broken

people that needed men to that were the unclean that

need to be made clean, and we're the poor that

need to be made rich. And Father, thank you for

Jesus who gave up all the good things even and

the Holy Spirit. He lost him in the darkness of

the cross so we could have him. Dear people, may

there be no heart discouraged today because they have failed

you in life. May they be strengthened to know that

the God who forgave them at Calvary's Cross is eager

to give them the Holy Spirit, not just to obey,

but to have the abundant life of joy, love, peace,

of making a difference. So keep everyone here the Lord.

The lesson we can leave, which is central, is that

we have the Holy Spirit. We got Jesus. Give us

Jesus and his name. Amen,