The Promise of the Father - Joel Schrock

Good morning. Also on to greet you all in Jesus'

name and welcome the visitors here. Glad you're here with us.

A few months ago had a message on on the Godhead,

on the Trinity, and I mentioned then it was inspired

somewhat by teaching the Book of Acts a little over

a year ago when we were in Greece and Jesus

telling his disciples to wait for the promise of the Father,

which is the Holy Ghost, really stuck with me since

since studying that, and so today I'd like to kind

of circle back and talk talk about that. The title

of the messages the Promise of the Father, and it

was interesting to me how I don't know if you noticed.

I noticed as we went through the service, how many

times the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit was mentioned,

even if it wasn't the focal part of devotions this morning,

with Harlan going to reference some of the same events.

I think our second song this morning was Spirit of

God Descend. The Sunday School discussion touched on these things.

So to me, talking about the Holy Spirit comes with

a certain amount of trepidation. I guess it would be

the right word. The Holy Spirit is the third we

would say, is the third part of the trinity. Fully God.

He is God. He is not the Father or the Son.

Holy Spirit is perhaps, as we in our human minds,

the most mysterious part of the Godhead, maybe the part

we understand the least in some ways. You know, we

picture God the Father. We have some things of some

human things, some physical things to tie that to, Like

we know what a father is, and we think of

him as a creator, master lord, and we don't fully

understand that, but we do have some things we can

tie that to. We picture the Son as Jesus come

in the flash and then ascending to the right hand

of the Father. And while we don't understand how God

could become man, we do have some reference points as

far as what a man is, what that might look like.

But who is and how do we picture the Holy Spirit?

Jesus described a bit to Nicodemus in the Necessity of

being Born Again. He said, you know, the wind blows

kind of seemingly wherever it once. You don't you can't.

It's not like the wind is a thing that comes

from here and goes there and that passes through. You

can't see the wind, but you know that the wind

is there by the movement of the trees, by the sound,

by the feel of it. Spirit is harder to wrap

our minds around than flesh. For example, with Jesus, as

is mentioned, the word became flesh and dwelt among us

have that reference point. And then there's the aspect of

the respect that the Holy Spirit demands God does in general.

First Thessalonians five, verse nineteen, we have a warning, it's

a really simple short verse, quench not the spirit. And

then there's the matter of the what we call the unforgivable,

unpardonable sin. And I don't know how many of you have,

maybe maybe it's current, maybe it's past, been fearful of

that or wondered about it. I'll read a couple where

this comes from, just a couple verses from Matthew twelve,

and then also from Mark Matthew twelve, verses thirty one

and thirty two. Wherefore, I san to you, this is

Jesus speaking. All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be

forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost

shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a

word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him.

But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not

be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the

world to come. And then in Mark we have Mark.

I'm going to read Mark three, verses twenty eight to thirty.

Now thirty seems a little like a add on here,

but I left it there because it has to do

a bit with a context here that Jesus is speaking.

So Mark three, verse twenty eight, barely, I say into you,

all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men,

and blasphemes wherewith soever they shall blaspheme. But he that

shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but

is in danger of eternal damnation. And verse thirty because

they said he hath an unclean spirit. Now these are

these are sobering words, and we can begin to believe,

to feel that the Holy Spirit is some being that

we need to live in dread fear of. You know

what if our tongue slips and were forever lost, right,

something like that. But I believe that if you look

at this, you look at what Jesus was saying, look

at the rest of the New Testament. That's a mischaracterization,

and I'm open to correction on anything I say here.

I believe it's a mischaracterization not only of the Holy Spirit,

but of our Heavenly Father in a view it that way,

if you look at Jesus' words here the context I

believe in both Matthew and Mark certainly Mark here where

verse thirty you can see he's responding to someone. The

Pharisees are accusing Jesus of casting out demons by the

power of Beelzebub instead of by the spirit of God.

They mistook the Holy Spirit's power for the power of

Satan and called it that. It seems that the unpardonable

sin isn't just a mere slip of the tongue, but

a purposeful act, a complete rejection of God in the

face of truth, and here attributing the work of the

Holy Spirit to the devil. Whatever the case, I believe

we should have the fear of God and the utmost

respect for God for the Holy Spirit. But I believe

as we look through this, the subject of the Holy

Spirit and the being of the Holy Spirit should bring

us joy and comfort, not dread and fearfulness. So this

is the promise. And it is interesting to me how

many times I didn't look. I didn't count I didn't

look how many times. But promise is used couple times

in different places when referring to the Holy Spirit. The

first one I'm going to look at is in Luke

twenty four, and I'm not going to read much of

this here. This is the last words of Jesus recorded

in the Luke. So if you look into different gospels,

coming at things from different angles, they're writing what Jesus said,

and there's different things that Jesus said recorded last words

recorded in the different gospels and Luke verse forty nine.

Luke twenty four, verse forty nine, this is Jesus speaking

to his disciples that are with him before the ascension,

and in verse forty five it says that he opened

their understanding that they might understand the scriptures and behold,

I send the promise of my Father upon you, but

terry ye in the city of Jerusalem until you be

endued with power from on high. That's Luke. That's the

end of Luke. Now Luke, we can turn to Acts

Wing to follow along. Here. These are the two books

that Luke is said to have been the author. I

believe he actually wrote more of the New Testament by volume,

not by books by volume, than anyone else. Paul's got

a lot of books, a lot of short ones. But

when he picks up here in Acts, it looks like

he kind of he expands a bit more and includes

more of what Jesus said at the time, kind of

talking in retrospect here, I believe, and then acts one.

I'll read verses four through eight and being assembled together

with them. So this is Jesus with the disciples for

his ascension. He commanded them that they should not depart

from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father,

which saith he ye have heard of me for truly,

for John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be

baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days. Hence, when

they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord,

wilt thout this time restore again the kingdom to Israel.

And he said, unto them, it is not for you

to know the times or the seasons which the Father

hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive

power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you,

and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem

and in al Judea, and in Samaria, and onto the

uttermost parts of the earth. Bit expanded version of what

Jesus told them there. Now, the last message I had

was was on fathers, about fathers, relating especially comparing to

our heavenly Father. And I and I read Matthew seven

eleven that more than that, But that versus says, if

even being evil, know how to give good gifts into

your children, how much more shall your have Father, which

is in Heaven give good things to them to ask him?

And that was in the context of a father giving

his children good things, not evil things. And I'd like

to look at I guess a parallel passage. Read it

out of Luke this time and going to later read

more of the of more verses, but just this verse,

this parallel verse Luke eleven thirteen. If ye, then, being evil,

know how to give good gifts into your children, how

much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit

to them that ask him? And so remember this is

in the context of father and child. And you know

the child asked for something good, bread, fish, an egg

here and Luke, would you would a father, a loving

father that's prone to mistakes, give a stone or a

serpent or a scorpion instead. And it's a rhetorical question, right, like,

we don't really need to answer that question. Doesn't look

like there's an answer given here, because of course not

no loving father, as evil as it's used here, or

prone to mistakes as we may be, we wouldn't do that.

So our Father in heaven says he will give the

Holy Spirit to them that ask him. The Holy Spirit

is the promise of the Father here, and so this

morning we're not going to spend really time on the

indwelling of the Holy Spirit and what that looks like.

That I would like to do that sometime, but rather

this morning, I'd like to look at who the Holy

Spirit is as the promise of the Father and how

he comes to us. So who is the Holy Spirit?

We've touched on some of this earlier here, and I

would have an earlier message on the Trinity. But going

to just touch on a couple of things again. God,

he is God, the Holy Spirit is God. And Harlem

mentioned read the we won't read that again. He read

that story of Anonius and Sapphira and Peter says, why

hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?

And he continues on thou hast not lied unto men,

but unto God. And there's other scriptures too on that.

But the Holy Spirit is God. And when we looked

at the Trinity a few months ago, I went over,

I listed some names of God, and most of those

would be attributed, we'd say, to the Father, although they're

used interchangeably sometimes, but just specifically the Holy Spirit. What's

interesting about the names of the Holy Spirit. It seems

there's overlap between the names and the actions of the

Holy Spirit. And not going to hit on them all,

just a few here, but obviously the Holy Spirit, the

Holy Ghost. One we're specifically talking about here is the promise,

promise of the Father, Spirit of God, Spirit of promise,

Spirit of truth. And we'll read a verse pretty soon. John.

Then there is what is translated in the King James's comforter,

and I believe the I'm no Greek. John is back

to correct me if I'm wrong, but paraclitose, I don't

know if that's recognizable, but this word is translated as comforter,

as I mentioned here in other versions, intercessor or advocate

or helper. Going to read a few verses out of John.

We're going to kind of jump through John here a

little bit. And Jesus speaking about the Holy Spirit John fourteen.

Start there. John fourteen, verse sixteen. This is and I

just love how Jesus intertwines himself, the Father the Holy

Spirit verse sixteen. And I will pray the Father, and

he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide

with you forever. And so Jesus asked the Father, who

will send the comforter. And there's something about this comforter

that's different. Jesus is with them right now, speaking to them,

but Jesus will not be with them in person forever.

And so this comforter that is being sent, he says,

will be with you forever, that he may abide with

you forever. John fourteen, verse twenty six. If we wonder

who the comforter is, but the comforter, which is the

Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name,

he shall teach you. And here we have again action

of the Holy Spirit. He's a comforter. He will teach

you all things and bring all things to your remembrance.

Whatsoever I have said unto you, Comforter, teacher, bring these

things to your remembrance John fifteen, verse twenty six. But

when the comforter is come, whom I will send unto

you from the Father. Even here's a name that we mention,

Even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father,

he shall testify of me. And again I think was

while the Holy Spirit is a distinct part of the

god Head, you cannot separate God John sixteen, verse seven. Nevertheless,

I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you

that I go away. For if I go not away,

the comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart,

I will send him to you. So now, what picture

do you get of the Holy Spirit? Is this? Is

this a being in which to live in dread fear?

Jesus talked about him as a comforter, and Jesus said,

in fact, it's better. We would say, you know what,

what could be better than living with Jesus day to day,

watching him perform miracles, preaching, listening to him. What could

be better than that? Well, Jesus said, it's better if

I go back, If I go back to the Father

and send the comforter to be with you. That's better,

it's expedient, it's good. Another name that really stood out

to me, probably in the last couple of months thinking

about this is the earnest of our inheritance. Ephesians one.

I don't know if this is a name, but it

says he is this. So Ephesians one. I'm going to

read verses thirteen and fourteen, in whom ye also trusted,

after that you heard the Word of truth, the Gospel

of your salvation, and whom also after that you believed.

We're sealed with that holy spirit of promise. And there's

there again the Holy spirit of promise. It's a promise

which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption

of the purchase possession under the praise of His glory.

What does that mean? What is what is an earnest

of something? And what is our inheritance? So if anybody's

ever done a real estate transaction or something like that,

sometimes there's some earnest money that's put down. Usually it's

not very much in comparison to the hole. It's just

a little bit. Make sure you're serious. But I think

we could say that this the earnest of our inheritance

is maybe a down payment a deposit, And I think

that that is a beautiful thought if we have a

down payment on a deposit on our on our heavenly inheritance. Again,

I'm open to correction, but my view of that is

the Holy Spirit living in our hearts is a down

payment or a I don't know if that's necessarily the

right terminology, but of the inheritance to get in the

next life, maybe we would say it's a taste of

heaven to have to be in the presence of God

in that way in heaven, what is heaven? Well, we're

fully in the presence of God in heaven, right, And

this is I think a little taste where the Holy

Spirit living in us that we have we have we're

in the presence of God. Another name given is spirit

of life Romans eight, verse two, for the law of

a spirit of life in Christ, Jesus hath made me

free from the law of sein and death. And again,

so many actions convictor author guide, so many things. Now,

the second question I have here is, and I struggled

a little bit, this is not I don't think the

wording for the question is quite right, how is the

Holy Spirit given? And what I mean by that is

how much is available? And like what quantity are we

talking here? So, you know, do we get just a

little bit like is the Holy Spirit contain? Is there

a certain amount that has to be like rationed out

to people and your risk running out? Or you know,

what does that look like? I would like to look

at a couple Old Testament prophecies a found of interest,

and I don't think we're taking these out of context.

Isaiah forty four. A lot of these prophecies are directed

to Israel. Let's say, going to read just two verses

out of Isaiah forty four, Verses three and four. Isaiah

forty four, verse three, For I will pour water upon

him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground.

I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my

blessing upon thine offspring, and they shall spring up as

among the grass as willows by the water courses. And

so I'd like to notice the word that God that

is used here in God giving his spirit, and the

word is pour. Right, so we think of well, if

we have a picture, you know, and we pour it,

we're really dumping it out a lot of times we're

filling something up when we pour something. Notice the picture here,

though it's dry ground in thirsty conditions, you can imagine

here a desolate landscape, scorching sun, desert, no water and

therefore no life, and then an abundance of water and

not just one downpour. That's the thing here. It's not

just like it's poured out and then it's done, but

enough water all the time, for years, for decades, and

how would that change the landscape? I think of an

experience I've had. I've told somebody about this, not going

to go into in depth. UH had it with my

aunt Helen in fact, and that is we were in a parched, thirsty,

barren desert with no life, and it felt like not

much of ours left either, and it was hot and dry.

I don't know if it was one hundred and ten degrees,

but it was Arizona and it was August and it

was the middle of the day whatever that means. And

something changed out there that wasn't It wasn't like we

stayed in one spot and it changed. We had to

move for it to change. But we got to a

place where there was water, not just a little bit

of water, but it ran through and it had to

have been running through there for decades enough water that

never dried up. And it was interesting. It's not like

there was you know, more rain or something. But there

were trees. There were you could there was life, lots

of life. And the interesting thing about it, well, there's

a lot of interesting things about it. You could you

could smell it before you could see it, see the life.

I mean it was. It was distinct difference. But we

go from this hot, dry, dusty, no life to an

abundance of water. If you if you read here, you

know willow trees. That says here it's like willows by

the water courses. Find your stand, right, a willow tree

and a mature willow tree can use something like one

hundred gallons of water a day, right, so you know

you can do some simple math there what that looks

like in a year and whatever. And this outpouring of

water not only supports one willow tree, but you get

picture here it's willows by the water courses. There's plenty

of it, So I get that picture of freely flowing water,

never shrinking, never used up, always there, giving life and joy.

Willow trees without number receiving nourishment along its banks that

never run dry. That's that's the picture I get of

how God pours out his Holy Spirit. I believe this

picture of the Holy Spirit, that this is a picture

the Holy Spirit's availability to us. Another one in Joel

two Versus twenty twenty nine, And it chill come to

pass afterward that I will, and here it is again

pour out my spirit upon all flesh. And it goes

on to talk about prophesying and visions and so forth.

And this is Peter quoted there in his after the

coming of the Holy Spirit there at Pentecost, and again

verse twenty nine, and also upon the servants and upon

the handmaids in those days, will I pour out my

spirits available for everybody poor. So there's an outpouring. So

these verses I believe represent the giving of the Holy Spirit,

the promise of the Father. But what about the receiving,

the receiving of the Holy Spirit. Going to read just

a couple verses, you don't need to turn to them.

Acts two. Verse four says that as the I believe,

it was about one hundred and twenty people waiting in

that upper room, the disciples Jesus Mother Mary his brethren.

It says this group they were filled with the Holy

Ghost Ephesians five eighteen. We're instructed to be filled with

the spirit. So I'd like to think about those two words,

pour and fill. I'd like to think about the abundance

of the promise of God and the availability to fill

us not one time, but constantly, in a way that's

living like willows by the water courses. The Holy Spirit

is not reserved for the rich and famous. He is

he is not given sparingly or sprinkled here and there,

but he is poured and we can be filled. And

we could we could get you know, a partial picture

with you know, a picture and a cup. You pour

that out and you fill a cup. It's full. The

analogy breaks down fairly quickly after that. But so now,

how do we receive the Holy Spirit? And again this

is not necessarily exhaustive here, but I have three things

that I believe we see in people receiving the Holy Spirit.

And I'm going to mention here. Number one, hear and believe.

I'm going to read Ephesian's one verse thirteen, one verse

here in whom ye also trusted? After that you heard

the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in

whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with

that Holy Spirit of promise. Again, it's the Holy Spirit

of promise, in whom also after that ye believe. Now,

that puts some responsibility on those listening, But it also

puts some responsibility on those that already believe, those who

have heard, in those who haven't heard. In Romans ten,

verse fourteen, this is a responsibility for those who have heard,

for those who do believe, for those who do have

the Holy Spirit, How then shall they call on him

and whom they have not believed, And how shall they

believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And

how shall they hear without a preacher? So that that

gives some responsibility for us. But according to Paul in Ephesians,

and believe, the second one I have here is repent

and be baptized. And we're going to go back to

the Peter's sermon after the coming of the Holy Spirit

that at Pentecosts. And there are some things about this

story that are unique, unique to this specific situation. I'm

going to read this a couple verses here in Acts

two verses thirty eight and thirty nine, verse thirty eight.

Then Peter said, unto them, and this would be them,

would be would be for the most part religious Jews,

as far as far as I can tell, here, repent

and be baptized, every one of you in the name

of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye

shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promise.

Here's promise again, For the promise is unto you and

to your children, and to all that are far off,

even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Now. Peter,

as I mentioned, was talking here to a large group

of Jews from all over the place that had come

for the feast. They were in town for Pentecosts here,

and these men were really right for repentance. They knew

the scriptures, many of them Old Testament prophecies, and so forth.

Some of them, no doubt, had been at the trial

of Jesus, had been had witnessed, that had been a

part of it. Some of them likely had been crying

to crucify him. This is not that much later. Like

these events are pretty close together, and Peter filled with

the Holy Spirit quite a salvation message to these Jews,

and Peter told them you crucified the Son of God,

and many consciences were pricked. Peter laid out the problem,

the sinfulness of mankind. As good as they thought they were,

they weren't, and he gave them a solution. You men

of Judea he's talking to when he addresses them, or

men of men of Judea, he says, repent. You know

you have all sinned and are in a sinful state. Repent,

be baptized. Take the step and making a one hundred

that repent is a one hundred eighty degree turn from

the life you were living, and be baptized. Outwardly show

your new allegiance that repent. You know, if you think

about these people, these religious Jews, who pretty much thought

they were on the right track, Well, when you repent,

because I understand this word here, it's a complete different

direction from where you're headed. And Peter says, do this

in the name of Jesus, and ye shall receive the

gift of the Holy Ghost. And he again he calls

it promise, and it's a promise unto you, your children,

to all those that are far up. It's available for everyone.

But there's some action here. You need to repent. And

then the third one here that I see is ask.

And going to go back and read more of that

account Luke eleven m that we touched on earlier, going

to start at verse nine, And this is Jesus speaking,

And I say, unto you, ask and it shall be given.

You seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall

be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and

he that seeketh findeth. And to him that knocketh it

shall be open. If his son and so that's the backdrop,

that's the beginning of the paragraph I believe, going into

this about the son and the father. If a son

shall ask bread of any of you that is a father,

will he give him a stone? Or if he ask

a fish, will it give him a fish? Will he

for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he

shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

If he, 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 him so?

M Earlier we looked at the father's part here, but

let's look at our responsibility. Jesus says to ask seek

and knock, and Jesus seems to be giving a simple

just a simple formula or a simple simple instructions. If

we are engaged, if we truly desire, if we search out,

Jesus says that our heavenly Father will grant us the

Holy Spirit even more than an earthly father would grant

good food to a child in need. That's asking. And

so back to those willow trees. The roots of a

willow tree are aggressive in searching out water. They use

a lot of water, but they move out and you

could say, maybe you could say they're asking, seeking, knocking.

It's simple, doesn't make it easy necessarily. So we have

not touched on the fruits of the spirit, the gifts

of the spirit TJ mentioned in the Sunday School this morning,

or what living in the spirit looks like. But what

I wanted to address today is who the Holy Spirit is.

He's a promise, He's the promise of the Father. He's

our comforter, helper advocate. How much of the Spirit is

available and how we receive the Holy Spirit? And I

wanted to get a glimpse in that of the Father's

heart and his promise and the down payment of our

heavenly inheritance and dwelling in His presence. So in closing

to reinforce that the spirit is a living stream, not

just water poured from a jug and left to sit.

I'll read Glatians five, verse sixteen says this. I say,

then walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill

the lust of the flesh. So don't count on one

dose of the Holy Spirit to get you through. But

the challenge for us is to daily fuck in the spirit.

M let's have a song.