Living in the Spirit

Description of the Holy Spirit and His WorkSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillI think a lot of people today are asking questions like how you heal and how you overcome depression, and how do you pray and it seems like we have a multitude of how questions. It seems that we always have a multitude of how questions when people are eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and not too much of the tree of life. If you remember, when Mary asked the angel, “How can these things be?” And the angel said, “You shall conceive and the child shall be born in your womb.” The angel answered, “By the Holy Spirit.”And it seems that all the “how” questions are answered by life, by the life of the Holy Spirit. But when there’s an abundance of knowledge and a shortage of life, then I think there are a lot of questions and very few answers. I feel that in a way, even in spirit filled circles today, that’s the problem. There are a great many of us who are saying, “This is the way to the Holy Spirit. This is the way to receive the Holy Spirit. This is the way to be filled with the Holy Spirit.” But there is surprisingly little of the sensitive life of the Holy Spirit alive among us.And it does seem that you can often talk about the Holy Spirit and teach about the Holy Spirit without actually living in the stream of the life of the Holy Spirit. And, I think it is important, you know, just to see that really it’s the Holy Spirit alone that gives life. In 2 Corinthians 3:6, this is really what Paul says, that the old letter kills in a written code but in the spirit for a written code kills but the spirit gives life. And I think John 6:63 states the same thing, that it’s in the spirit that real life is.And I think that it is true that if we, in our bodies, here of Christ, give more respect to the Holy Spirit than we did to ideas, I think we’d receive more life of the Holy Spirit into us. I think too, we’d be led to the person of Jesus rather than the principles of Jesus. Old Stanley Jones was good, he said, “Unity comes when people are preoccupied with the person of Christ rather than the principle of Christ.” And really, if we honored the Holy Spirit and respected him in our own individual lives, more of us would be preoccupied with the person of Christ and we’d be led into real unity than preoccupied with the principles of Christ.I think this is the real reason for Jesus’ command to the apostles. You remember, they had experienced more of truth and reality than any of us probably will ever do in a sense and they had walked, and ate, and slept with this man who was absolute truth and yet this man said to them, “Listen, after I die I don’t want you to leave Jerusalem, I want you to stay there to wait for the promise of the Father which is coming to you.” This seems to be the reason why Jesus emphasized this command, because he knew that he could bring principles and he could teach truths, but only the Holy Spirit could give actual life.And I think this is why he emphasized the importance of the Holy Spirit in John 14. He talked of the Holy Spirit as someone without whom we could not do at all. John 14:16-17, “And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.” And Jesus emphasized that unless the Holy Spirit came to them, really all that he had said was of little value.I think this is why such serious consequences were taught in the early church for blaspheming theHoly Spirit. People blasphemed and lied to Jesus and yet they were not struck dead. But in Act 5:3-5, Ananias and Sapphira you remember, lied to the Holy Spirit when they kept back the proceeds of the land and they were struck dead for that. It seems that in doing this kind of thing God was guarding the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit was someone very precious that he wanted his people to honor and obey. And you remember blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is reckoned in Mark 3:29, to be the unpardonable sin. That is the sin that will not be forgiven, if you blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.I think this is the reason too for the battle that took place in the fourth century in the early church about the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Many of us think of the battle over the divinity of Jesus that took place around the time of the Creed of Nicene. But really it was in 381 at Constantinople that at last the early church agreed that the Holy Spirit was a divine person of the Trinity. And it seems that this was such a long drawn out battle because Satan realized that if people did not treat the Holy Spirit as what he was, a real person in the Trinity then all would be lost as far as Jesus’ death had gone.I think the importance of the Holy Spirit is implied really in that benediction that we use most Sundays in church. It’s the benediction mentioned in 2 Corinthians 13:14 and it’s that verse from which we get the implied doctrine of the Trinity from the Bible. 2 Corinthians 13:14, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” It would seem very strange if Paul were to say, “The grace of Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of Peter be with you all.” We would feel, “Ah no, that is wrong. Peter isn’t on the same level at all with Jesus and with God.” And yet Paul feels it is very natural to say, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” Implying that the Holy Spirit is equally important with the Father and the Son and he’s just like them.So, that’s really brothers why I think it’s important to see that the Holy Spirit is someone who is pre-imminently important in these days, these days that we call the age of the Holy Spirit. What I’d like to try to talk about a little is who the Holy Spirit is first of all. I think it’s important to see that he is a person. Ephesians 4:30 talks about the Holy Spirit being someone who can be grieved. We often insult him as treating him as a force or an influence and I think it’s good to see that he is a person with a real will, and a real mind, and real desires and it is possible for the Holy Spirit to interact with you and me, and it is possible for his mind to become our mind and for his will to deal with our will.This is I think, what we feel at times in our own Christian lives when we find something stirring within us wanting us to go a certain way. It is the will of the Holy Spirit. When a person becomes a Christian it is because the will of the Holy Spirit has taken over his will, or his will has cooperated now with the will of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a divine person; he’s not just an influence. Jesus told us that he was to be his successor. He was to complete what Christ himself began. Jesus said that we were dead in our sins but it’s the Holy Spirit that makes us really realize that we’re dead.Jesus can say, “You must be born of the Spirit,” but it’s the Holy Spirit that makes us actually come alive. And, it’s the Holy Spirit that is the successor of Jesus in that he makes real to us the things that Jesus talked about. He is a successor in a real way. He can do things for us that Jesus cannot do. I think we often forget that. I think we feel, “Oh, Jesus can do everything.” No, Jesus is at the right hand of the Father today and he can only influence us as the Holy Spirit brings his life to us. The Holy Spirit was even so important to Jesus that Jesus said, “Unless theHoly Spirit had anointed me, I could not preach the gospel to the poor, I could not heal the broken hearted, I could not bind up wounds.” He said, “The Holy Spirit has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.” So, it was the Holy Spirit that gave even Jesus the power to do these things.Many of us say, “Oh well, I mean, you ask Jesus to do the thing and he’ll do it anyway.” But, it is good to see that it’s wrong for us to look to one person of the Trinity to do what that person expressly told us another person of the Trinity would do. And this is what Jesus said in John 16:7-8. He really pointed out that it was the Holy Spirit who would do things for us that he could not do for us at this time, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.”Significant that it says in the Bible that Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save it and it’s the Holy Spirit who comes to convict the world of sin. Jesus himself does not convict it. So, in many ways Jesus showed us that the Holy Spirit would do things that he could not do and we should look to him to do them. Really we ourselves in our studies, and our preaching, and our positions as husbands, and our positions as sons; I think we would be freer in our relationships if we really did honor the Holy Spirit. Maybe too often we look to our wives, or we look to our fathers or mothers to see how we can really be a blessing to them, or how we can be like Christ to them. Maybe if we honored the Holy Spirit himself, and spent more time loving him, and respecting him, and obeying him, we would automatically be better husbands and more sensitive people in our families.This is the kind of thing that Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do for us. That he would really bring Jesus real in our own lives and make him real. I think we often have looked upon the Holy Spirit as the force that comes upon a meeting, a great influence that comes upon a Billy Graham evangelistic service, and this is just insulting the Holy Spirit. All of us have objected to people treating us as machines. You, Mike, would hate to be treated in the library as a kind of book machine that just shot out a book when you shot your card in. And I hated it most when men treated me as a pastor, “He’s a pastor and that’s the kind of thing he’s supposed to do.” And we all feel this, oh insult, to our personalities when people treat us as functions and yet I think often we have grieved the Holy Spirit because we have treated him as a function, who will do certain things, or influence us in certain ways instead of treating him as a real dear person whom we can love and who can love us.The Bible uses the same terms of the Holy Spirit as it does of the Father and the Son. It’s good to see that, that in a sense you can think of the Father as God existing and the son as God revealing, and the Holy Spirit as God communicating and yet they are all equal and equally important. And omnipresence of the Father is attributed to the Holy Spirit. All these invisible qualities that God has and the Son has, the Holy Spirit is said to have also. Indeed, you can see in connection with the Constantinople conference that belief in the Holy Spirit was the last test of orthodoxy as far as Christians were concerned. And even today we would think that orthodox Christians are Trinitarians, people who really believe in the personality of the Holy Spirit.Maybe it’s good to see lastly about this whole question of who is the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit is the real gift. Maybe we’ve made a tremendous mistake in our bodies today in looking for pardon, or cleansing, or peace as the gifts instead of looking to the Holy Spirit as the gift. You remember, in Acts 2:38, it was the Holy Spirit who was promised as the gift to the new converts.The men asked Peter, “Oh, what should we do?” And he said, “Be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” And it wasn’t, “That you shall receive the gift of pardon, or the gift of cleansing, or the gift of peace, or the gift of forgiveness but, “You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”It seems that if we’re looking for the Holy Spirit it would help a lot if we’d look for the Holy Spirit and not for his gifts. All the other things that he gives are gifts of his. He gives the nine gifts of the Spirit outlined in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 and he provides the nine fruit of the Spirit as outlined in Galatians 5:22-23, but the Holy Spirit himself is the gift. Jesus emphasizes that you know, in John 15:26 and I’d just refer maybe to John 8:13, where Jesus says, “It’s the Holy Spirit that you need, it’s not pardon and cleansing that you need, it’s the Holy Spirit. He will bring the rest of the things to you.” The Pharisees and John 16:7 he says when the Holy Spirit comes, “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away,” not peace will not come to you, or forgiveness will not come to you, or sense of glory will not come to you but, “The Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” a person.So, that’s something brothers of who the Holy Spirit is. What was the Holy Spirit’s relationship to the church, to the early church? I think we find that the Holy Spirit was absolutely responsible for the early church. Without the Holy Spirit the early church wouldn’t have existed really. The Holy Spirit started the church. You remember there was no movement of a church. Jesus certainly talked about his church but there was no creation of a church until Acts 2:4 took place, “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”It was only when the Holy Spirit fell upon these men that they began to gather together in the unique community that was called the church and that, you know, outlasted Domitian and Nero, and all the other Emperors that tried to destroy it. The Holy Spirit began the church and Acts 2:17-18 you get that emphasis again that this would take place, “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and then your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” And none of this would take place until the Holy Spirit came.It was the Holy Spirit who began the church. It was the Holy Spirit we saw that was promised as the gift to the new converts. It wasn’t peace or forgiveness, it was the Holy Spirit. Wait for the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit who disciplined the church. It’s good for us, I think, to see that especially in our situation where we tend to feel that man is so important. I mean, we are precious to each other and I know I’m precious to you as you’re precious to me, but it’s very important to see that it’s not the elders, it’s not the pastor, it’s not we men that discipline the church, it’s the Holy Spirit himself. Acts 5:3, “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Bishop?” “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Elders?” No, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land?”I really do feel that if we had that attitude to the Holy Spirit as the disciplinarian in the body, it brings forth a great freedom. It brings for instance, me into tremendous freedom that I don’t feel that when I’m reflecting something to Tim, or something to you Mike, that it’s my discipline or I’m teaching you how to do something that I know better than you. But suddenly we all become aware, “Yes, he’s just calling me back to the Holy Spirit.” I felt that, I have to say it Tim, even though we’re recording, that when you were pushing me to record and to put this on tape it was good to feelyou’re not disciplining me. This isn’t Tim trying to discipline the pastor of the body, but it’s Tim calling me back to what the Holy Spirit wants me to do.And it seems that’s the atmosphere that God wants, you know, where the Holy Spirit is the disciplinarian in the church and we all feel we are responsible to this invisible person that is moving among us and that is expressing himself through different ones of us at different times. It seems that that’s why the church can be a mutual experience. It seems that’s what takes the whole responsibility from one man to lead the church and discipline the church, and advise the church. Suddenly we begin to find that all of us men are being used by the Holy Spirit to speak forth his word to each of us at different times.It seems to me there’s a great balance, and a great set of balances and counteracting forces there that saves us from wild individualism and fanaticism. But the Holy Spirit was the one who disciplined the Church. The Holy Spirit was the one who directed the leaders in evangelistic activity. I think it’s good to see that in Acts 16:6-7, because a lot of us, especially we here who are concerned with getting 10,000 of us out here into the world for Jesus, we wonder well, “Where do you go? Do you go to India Mike where you have had some experience?” Or, do we go Tim to London and specialize there? Or, do we go to South America with Sue or to Bolivia with Wally and Marg who have had some experience in Bolivia? Do we go where the Holy Spirit tells us? And it seems that it’s plain you know, Acts 16:6-7 states that, “And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.” And so they avoided Asia not because they didn’t know Asia but because the Holy Spirit had forbidden them to speak the world there. “And when they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.”This is the kind of discipline that the Holy Spirit exerted over the missionaries of the early church and it seems to me it’s the kind of discipline that he wants to exercise over us in our missionary strategy. The Holy Spirit apparently can see deeper than we can. It’s not a matter of looking for the underprivileged countries, it’s not a matter of looking for the non-lost of lands, or looking for the lands that will be freshest and most open to the gospel, but it’s really a question of following the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit directed the evangelistic strategy of the early church.The Holy Spirit ministers to the world. It seems even in the New Testament it wasn’t the church that ministered to the world but it was the Holy Spirit. You remember, Jesus said, “When the Holy Spirit comes he will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.” It wasn’t the church that was to convince the world of sin but the Holy Spirit. I think the church has become so often a mealy mouthed kind of harmless milk and water organization or it has seemed to other people as a downright fanatical narrow minded fundamentalist oppressive operation because the church has tried to convince the world of sin. Instead of just living before the world in the Spirit of Jesus, the church has tried to convince the world of sin.Now, the Holy Spirit is the one that ministers to the world through the church. So, it is really good to see that the Holy Spirit is the one who will do the main work of the church and will do these things for our church today. Perhaps it would be good just to look for a moment or two at what the Holy Spirit does in connection with Jesus himself, in other words, the relationship of the Holy Spirit to Jesus. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would tell us who he was. John 15:26, “But when the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me.”Many of us say, “Oh, we know who Jesus is, he’s the son of God, he lived in the first century, we have manuscripts to back up his historicity. He’s the one that healed the lepers; he’s the one that called Peter and John to follow him.” Those are the historical facts of Jesus and through those facts we can know him as we know Winston Churchill, but the truth is that the Holy Spirit can bring us into a personal knowledge of Jesus. Even though he lived 1900 years ago, he can enable us to know Jesus as really and more really than even the disciples knew him. The disciples for instance, knew Jesus after the flesh and yet when it came to the time of his trial they forsook him and fled. That’s how well they knew him after the flesh.It seems that the Holy Spirit can bring to us a knowledge of Jesus that is even finer, and more sensitive, and more detailed than that in the New Testament. I’m not saying, you know, that we go on to new revelations that are beyond the New Testament, but the Holy Spirit interprets the details of the New Testament picture to us in ways that we’ve never seen before.It was just a revelation to me in my prayer times, when I began to discover that I could get up from prayer knowing Jesus in a deeper and a more sensitive way than I knew him when I first kneeled down to pray. And yet, it wasn’t that I could tell you of some quality that I didn’t know he had before, that I discovered, but it was him himself. I met him in a new way and the Holy Spirit will tell us who Jesus is in that way. The Holy Spirit will make Jesus real in our own lives. He’ll reveal Jesus to us. He’ll interpret scripture to us. Jesus said this in John 16:14, “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”Some of us have used this kind of illustration that oh you could bring the most beautiful paintings into this room at the moment, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper and the crucifixion and St. John of the Cross, and have them around the walls of this room and then I could bring you into the room and say, “Aren’t these beautiful paintings?” And never switch the light on you and you’d say, “Well, I can’t see a thing, darkness, absolute darkness.” And then when I switch the light on you’d see these beautiful master pieces lined up around the walls of the room.Now, it seems to be the same with the Holy Spirit, you can talk about the beauties of Jesus, but until the Holy Spirit has made them real to you, and revealed them to you, and lit them up for you, there is no beauty in them. It’s the Holy Spirit who interprets scripture and enables us really to understand scripture. The Holy Spirit makes the things of Jesus real and fresh. They happened 2000 years ago but he makes them real and fresh today. That’s really what Jesus is saying in John 15 and that verse where Jesus says, “He will take of the things that are mine and communicate them to you,” and the Greek word means you know, make them real with you, share them with you in a way that you will understand.And it seems that, oh you can talk of Jesus and he’s just a historical figure until the Holy Spirit makes it real and alive. Jesus said, “The Holy Spirit will glorify him.” I was always baffled when I read about that. I thought, “Oh yeah, that means we’ll all glorify Jesus. We’ll glorify Jesus.” We’ll say, “Oh, Jesus you’re wonderful, you’re great. Oh, you’re a good Lord, you’re a good Lord.” And I used to think, you know, that praising and glorifying Jesus seemed to me rather a flattering kind of attitude towards Jesus and it never struck me as a manly thing to do, everybody would be around glorifying one person.But I think it’s good when you see that the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus in this way. He takes of the things of Jesus and reproduces them in our lives so that the world sees Jesus alive inside usand that’s all the world needs to do to glorify him. Jesus will automatically be glorified when the world sees him again and that’s really the way the Holy Spirit glorifies him. He imparts to us the very beauties of Jesus’ own life and then the world sees Jesus alive again and simply falls before him and worships him.It seems that the same way the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin. We often feel, he’ll come straight down and strike them dead, or strike them in their conscious. No, I think the Holy Spirit will reproduce the beauties of Jesus in you and me and then the world will see the beauty and the balance of our lives and the peace of our emotions, and the love in our hearts, and the world will be convicted of its own ugliness. And that’s the way the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin.Maybe I could just end by talking for a couple of minutes about the Holy Spirit and us ourselves. The Holy Spirit, if we allow him will miraculously take the life of Jesus and make it real in us. This is the unique factor in Christianity. Mohammad cannot make himself real in us, but Jesus can make himself real in us. The Holy Spirit can take the love of Jesus and make it real in us.It meant a lot to me when I at last saw that when 1 Corinthians 13 describes the love of Jesus, if I’m really allowing the Holy Spirit to do what he wants in me, then it will describe me. And I know you’ve maybe heard it before, but just to be able to say, you know, “I am not jealous or boastful. I am not arrogant or rude. I do not insist on my own way. I am not irritable or resentful. I am not glad when others go wrong. I am glad when others are right. I believe all things. I bear all things. I endure all things. My love never ends.” It seems that that’s what happens when the Holy Spirit takes the love of Jesus and makes it real in each one of us. And when he takes the forgiveness of Jesus and makes it real in us and the humility of Jesus, not that old diffidence or that humiliation, or that timidity, or that modesty that we call humility but real humility of Jesus a willingness to be rated low, a willingness to waive our rights as Jesus did whether we’re praised or blamed for his sake. Those qualities, those unique supernatural qualities the Holy Spirit will make real in us.So it seems to me this is some of his work and some of his ministry and oh, we would just transformed people if we would really honor the Holy Spirit and ask him to make the supernatural life of Jesus real in us and he will really. You know, in these next meetings I’d really like to begin to talk of how the Holy Spirit will make real in us the purity and the power of Jesus.

New Testament Personal ExperiencesSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillWhat is really necessary things in regard to the work of the Holy Spirit is to be very clear in our own minds what the New Testament experience of the Holy Spirit is, and to really interpret that carefully and closely. And so that’s really what I’d like to spend a little time doing now. I think it’s important brothers to see that Jesus himself came to do a two-fold work and you have that pointed out clearly, you remember, in John 1:29 and 33 where John says first that Jesus is the one you remember, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” And John says, “First of all Jesus came to take away the sin of the world,” that is to bring forgiveness of sins. And then in Verse 33 the second purpose of his coming, “I myself did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’’So, I think it’s important to see that the reason Jesus came was to remove our sins from between us and God so that God would then really be free to replace the tree of life in our lives and to fill us and baptize us with the Holy Spirit. And I think it’s vital to see that Jesus’ work is not just the work of a savior from the guilt of past sins but his work is also as a Savior through the power of the Holy Spirit from present sinning and from our present powerless lives. And I think it’s important to see that really this was what Jesus himself laid emphasis on in John 7:37-39.You find Jesus emphasizing this truth that the Holy Spirit was someone that we would receive really only from him and Verse 37, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, ‘If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, “Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.”’” And then John explains you see, “Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”And you see that’s the special mark of the new covenant. You see that. The Holy Spirit had not yet been given in a full way because Jesus was not yet glorified. So, not only is the baptism of the Holy Spirit really the real reason Jesus came, but it’s the unique mark of the new covenant as opposed to the old covenant because John says plainly, “Until Jesus is glorified.” That is until Jesus presents his blood to the Father, God cannot replace the tree of life among us men and so cannot baptize us with the Holy Spirit.Now, you get that emphasis in Acts 2:17-18. The emphasis that this is the really unique mark of the new covenant, the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:17, “And in the last days it shall be.” You remember, Peter quotes Joel, “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; yeah, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.”So, you can see that really the new covenant was to have as its unique mark, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That’s why Jesus, you remember, said on one occasion to the disciples, “The Holy Spirit is with you,” because in the old covenant in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was with people. I mean, the Holy Spirit was with Saul to be a king. The Holy Spirit was with the prophets to prophesy. The Holy Spirit was often with Moses, but here in the New Testament the Holy Spirit was to be in you and this was a new mark of the new covenant, that the Holy Spirit was going to beable to become synonymous with us men and with us woman.In the old days God spoke through Balaam’s ass external and independent of people but now with the coming of the Holy Spirit into people then the word was again made flesh and so the mark of the new covenant is the Holy Spirit coming in and filling and making us like Jesus himself. Now you get that clear teaching about the Holy Spirit brothers if you look at the first instruction, you remember, that was given after the first Christian sermon that was preached, Acts 2:37-38. You remember, the response of the people to that first Christian sermon in Act 2:37, “Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’” And then the first instruction you see, includes right in the forefront of it this command to receive the Holy Spirit, “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”And you see it there that the gift of the Holy Spirit was the thing they were told to receive. That is what would make them Christians as opposed to Jews, they were going to receive the Holy Spirit into themselves. Now, the Holy Spirit would do certain things in them and the Holy Spirit, we find does certain things in us. First of all John 16:8, you remember, “When the Holy Spirit comes he will convince the world of sin.” It is the Holy Spirit that convicts us of sin. None of us have moved towards Jesus or towards God except that the Holy Spirit has worked in us and made us realize that we were not right with God.Then the Holy Spirit will regenerate us in John 3:5, you remember, “Unless you are born of water and of the Spirit, you will in no wise enter the kingdom of God.” So, we’re born of the Spirit when we become Christians. The Holy Spirit seals us you remember, Ephesians 1:13 that it is the Holy Spirit that seals you as God’s own people. So our assurance that we’re children of God comes from the Holy Spirit. And then you remember Acts 1:8, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” It’s the Holy Spirit that brings power.Now, I mention all those because I think we often have an idea that the Holy Spirit only comes upon a person when that person is baptized with the Holy Spirit. It seems to me that the Holy Spirit has dealt with many of us even before we’re children of God. He has convicted us of sin. It’s him that brings real repentance to us. It’s him really that enables us to believe on God. It’s the Holy Spirit that works the grace in us. We have to say yes or no to him, but it’s the Holy Spirit that brings about the miracle of the new birth. It’s the Holy Spirit that brings about the miracle of assurance that we’re children of God, and it’s the Holy Spirit that fills us with power.So, maybe it’s good to see that the Holy Spirit is not just to be identified with what we have so often called the baptism of the Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit does many things in our lives down through the years. Maybe it’s important to see at this stage that he’s the basis of our assurance. A lot of people in these days really aren’t sure whether they’re Christians or not and they aren’t sure because they don’t know the real basis of the assurance that they’re children of God. Some of them get caught in that trap that Jesus outlined you remember, in John 1:12 and they say, “Oh, we’re born of blood and we’re born of Christian parents so we must be Christians.” Or, “We’re born by the will of man. The Baptist pastor or the Presbyterian pastor, or the Methodist pastor gives us the hand of fellowship, welcomed us into the church, we’re members of the church so we know we’re children of God.” Or, some have a belief in the will of the flesh, born of the will of the flesh.They say at a Billy Graham meeting or an evangelist service, “I’m going to believe in Jesus,” andthey say, “Just the sheer determination to believe, that makes me a Christian.” And they try and look back and say, “Do I really feel determined? Then I must be a Christian.” Now, assurance of salvation is not based on any of those things. Assurance of salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit within us and it can be clearly discerned. It’s outlined there in Romans 8:16 and you remember Paul is talking about the Holy Spirit moving within us and he says in Verse 16, “It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”Now, the Holy Spirit gives us an assurance of salvation because he, you see the Spirit capital S in Verse 16 of Romans 8, the Spirit himself and the capital S signifies a definite article in Greek and it always refers to the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit and that’s a small s that we are children of God. So the way you tell you’re a child of God is because of the combination of the witness of the Holy Spirit and the witness of your own spirit.Now you know, if you say, “Well, what is the witness of God’s Spirit?” Well, it’s there outlined in Verse 15 of Romans 8, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” So, the witness of God’s Spirit inside us is that we feel he is our Father, we sense he’s our Father. When we go to him in prayer we sense we want to call Abba! Father! And Abba is the Greek word for dad, and we feel that God is our Father. We sense inside, “He is our Father, he loves me.” There’s a spirit inside of God that calls up to God and regards him as our Father, no longer as a great Creator or as a mighty Lord God but it’s Jesus inside us calling up to his Father and saying, “Dad, I love you.”Now, it seems to me the first witness is the witness of God’s Spirit inside us that makes us feel about God the way Jesus does. We just sense we love him. We sense he is our Father. However much we fail him, however much we’ve disobeyed, there’s a spirit inside us that makes us keep on coming back to him saying, “Father forgive me.” It’s not a spirit of fear of the mighty judge but it’s a spirit of a child coming back to his father and saying, “Father I’ve messed it all up again. Will you forgive me?” But it’s a spirit inside, it’s a spirit you know, that assures you that because Jesus has died for you, God no longer has anything against you. It’s an absolute recumbency upon Jesus as your only hope of salvation. It’s an absolute confidence inside that you have nothing to offer God, that only the blood of Jesus will enable you to be accepted by him and it’s therefore a rest in Jesus as your redemption and sanctification. It’s a complete trust in Jesus because of his blood.But it seems to me that’s the witness of the Holy Spirit you see, and that’s something that goes below feelings, and below intellectual convictions. It’s something that you sense deep down, it’s an attitude of heart. And then what is the witness of our own spirit? Well, the witness of our own spirit is outlined in several places but Romans 5:5 is one place. Romans 5:5, love is part of the witness of our own spirit, when the Holy Spirit comes inside us he dwells with us and he also influences our spirit and he fills it with love, “And hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy spirit which has been given to us.”So, there is a love inside us of God and a desire to love other people. Now brothers and sisters, I’m not saying that it dwells unmixed in the heart until really you have been filled with the Holy Spirit completely, but it is there. It’s a desire to love people and it’s a desire to love God, and it is a sense inside, “I want to love you Lord. I want to go your way.” In other words, the real mark of God’s Spirit within a person is that they have a desire deep down that they want to go his way. When sin comes up, it’s an alien thing to them. You know, they don’t embrace sin. Sin may bethere but they don’t embrace it. They say, “No, I want to go God’s way.” Whatever the sin is like they reject it as something alien and external to them.Now, it’s important maybe brothers and sisters to just note those clearly and to see that really Galatians 5:22-23, you know, the fruit of the Spirit is an indication that our own spirit has been changed by God and the absolute confidence that we have that God will receive us for Jesus’ sake, that’s the witness of God’s own Spirit and the Holy Spirit brings that about.Now, what about the whole business of the baptism of the Holy Spirit? And it seems to me here it’s important really to look carefully at the New Testament and to analyze it as carefully, and coolly, and calmly as we can. Would you like to look at the whole problem of the time sequence? And this is where a great deal of the problem lies. The time sequence in the baptism of the Holy Spirit and regeneration by the Holy Spirit.Let’s look at Acts 2:38. Here’s the norm you see, here is the norm. Acts 2:38, “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” Probably what happened was this, Peter preached, said, “You have murdered the son of God and this Jesus has been raised to the right hand of the Father and he has poured out this power which you now see. You murdered him by ruthless and cruel hands.” And the people said, “What do we do about it?” And Peter said, “Repent. Be sorry, stop doing it. Turn to God and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and then you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” And they probably that very day believed on Jesus and said, “We’re sorry. We’re sorry. Now we’ve seen what we’ve done, we’re turning from it and we’ll turn and we’ll live for this Jesus.”And then Peter would say, “Alright, now next day you’re going to be baptized. I’m going to baptize you in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins.” And he would gather them around the next day and he would repeat probably something of what Paul wrote down for us, you remember, on Romans 6:3-4. He would say, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” And they would say, “Well, yeah, yeah, but what does that mean?” And Peter would outline what it meant. He would say, “Now listen, I could be arrested any day. I could be killed tomorrow. I can’t live for tomorrow. I can’t hope for my family to grow up. I can’t hope to be wealthy. I can’t hope to look to the future. As far as I’m concerned there is no future. Now, that’s what being baptized into Jesus’ death is going to mean for you.”And then he would go through the possessions you know, this is what it’s going to mean for you and he would explain fully what full surrender meant. And then he would say, “Now, are you willing not only to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, but are you willing to be baptized ‘ice’ is the Greek word, into Jesus? Are you willing to be identified absolutely with Jesus in his death so that you can be identified with him in his resurrection?” And then if they were willing they would go down into the water and as they came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit would baptize them with himself.And so brothers, I honestly believe that in New Testament days the norm was really the whole experience taking place either in one day or in two days. But, I honestly question you know, if the norm in those days was you were born of the spirit and then a long while after, maybe two or three years, or in my miserable experience, you know, 17 years later, you’re filled with the Spirit oryou’re baptized with the Spirit. I honestly believe that was the norm in those days and that they were baptized with the spirit in two ways. They were filled with the Spirit for purity and from that day on the nine fruit of the spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23 began to appear in their lives and they were anointed with the Holy Spirit for power so that the nine gifts of the spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:3-4 were made available to them.But that really, that was the New Testament experience. And, really that is the work of the Holy Spirit in the new covenant and in that way reproduced the image of Jesus, reproduced the purity of Jesus in the converts and reproduced the power of Jesus in the converts which was really why the people in the ancient world saw immediately Jesus in what were apparently very new converts. Now, Satan has tried to upset our whole attitude to the Holy Spirit by preoccupying us with distractions in regard to this experience. And I really think he has done his best to eliminate this precious unique work of the Holy Spirit in the new covenant by getting us all to disagree in all kinds of ways with the way your baptized with the Holy Spirit.And so I’d like really to try and tackle some of those. First of all you know, that he has tried to preoccupy us with this whole business of the time sequence of the works of the new birth and the filling and the anointing by the Holy Spirit. And you know there are plenty of people in all kinds of churches and all kinds of groups that spend their time disagreeing with each other about the time sequence in regard to the work of the Holy Spirit. So, there are people who say, “Oh, you must be born of the Spirit before you can be filled with the Spirit.” There are people who say, “You have to be baptized with the Spirit before you can be filled with the Spirit.” There are others who say, “No, it has to be the other way around.”Now brothers, I think the first thing you have to face is that it’s very hard to tie down a time sequence. After you’ve looked at the normal pattern in Acts 2:38 you have to accept that the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ words is a free spirit and the wind bloweth where it listeth and the Holy Spirit will often do things backwards and in different ways. And you get that you remember, in Acts 10:44-48 the experience of Cornelius. Acts 10:44-48, and you remember Peter had hardly finished preaching and it says, “While Peter was still saying this,” still preaching, still preaching the gospel, “The Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.” Who had apparently not even believed on Jesus or just about and no more, “For they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, ‘Can any one forbid water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’”So the first thing I think is to see that it’s hard to tie down and say, “No, Larry you can’t have been baptized with the Holy Spirit because you haven’t experienced this or you haven’t experienced that.” I think finally we have to be very humble about the time sequence of the works of the Holy Spirit and be open to God doing them in a new way. So brothers, I don’t think you can afford to say to a person, “You couldn’t be born of the Spirit and filled with the Spirit at the same time.” You can say with old John Wesley that, “I have interviewed hundreds of people in the midst of revival in the 18th century and I have not found one in whom both works have taken place instantaneously.”So, you can take the empirical evidence and historical report but you have to finally say that there is nothing in the scripture that says it should be so. And you certainly cannot afford to say to a person purely on the basis of time sequence that you cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit because you haven’t been born of the Spirit. You have to accept that a person could be born of the Spirit and filled with the Spirit the same day as far as God is concerned. There is no difficulty as faras faith is concerned.Now then I think, people have tried to confuse us and Satan has tried to confuse people on the issue of tongues. Tried to get people all wrapped up with the whole business of tongues. Not with the gift of the Holy Spirit, not with being baptized with the Holy Spirit but with the whole business that you have to speak in tongues otherwise you haven’t been baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now brothers, it’s just not true you see. 1 Corinthians 12: 29-30 run like this, “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing?” And the form of the Greek question obviously expects the answer, “No.” And you could guess even from the English that the answer is, “No, all aren’t prophets, all aren’t teachers, all don’t work miracles.” And then, “Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” And obviously, Paul is saying everybody doesn’t speak with tongues. There are many people who are baptized with the Holy Spirit who don’t speak with tongues.Now, I think many people get caught up in the kind of scholastic argument, “Oh, but maybe that was the gift of tongues, but everybody speaks with a tongue when they’re first baptized.” But then brothers you’d have to deal with the fact that only three instances in Acts, only in three instances in Acts is it recorded that they spoke with tongues. In all the other instances where they were baptized with the Holy Spirit there’s no mention of tongues. And I’d just mention, you know, Acts 2:41, and Acts 8:17, and Acts 9:18 and Acts 2:41 is just a plain one where it just says clearly that they were filled with the Holy Spirit and that was it.Acts 2:41, “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” It just says they were baptized into Jesus and there were added three thousand souls. Or, if you like to look at Acts 8:17, you remember, the case of Philip’s converts, “Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.” But there’s no mention of tongues. So it’s wrong, I think, for us to be preoccupied with the question of tongues. Tongues is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit is separate from his manifestations and the baptism with the Holy Spirit is not signified simply by speaking on tongues.But Satan, I think, has preoccupied us with this you know. I think he has tried to preoccupy us with what many of us will claim is a very cool, and intellectual, and middle of the way, and maybe a British attitude to take. And the alternative many people say to these is, “That’s right, you’re right brother. That’s madness talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a second work. It isn’t a second work, it’s one complete work and when we’re born of the Spirit we’re baptized with the Spirit and there’s no question about it. And it doesn’t matter what my life is like, it doesn’t matter whether I have the fruit of the Spirit in my life or not, it doesn’t matter whether I minister in the gifts of the Spirit or not, I’ve been baptized with the Spirit because what you say is right. In the New Testament it was to be one experience and even though it seems to me, I haven’t experienced the whole one experience yet I know I’ve been born of the Spirit so I must have been baptized with the Spirit.”Now brothers, do you see that’s an utterly blind attitude today where you say because the norm in the New Testament was one great experience then you say you’re a Christian and yet you haven’t the fruit of the Spirit in your life, you have no experience of the gifts of the Spirit but you keep on saying, “Ah, no but I’m baptized with the Spirit.” Now dear ones, do you see that’s contradicted by the New Testament examples of people who had entered into only part of the work of the Holy Spirit and it’s contradicted also by those of us who know we’re Christians but know we’re not moving in the fullness of the Spirit.So really, what we need to see is that the norm in the New Testament is one complete experience but there are several indications in the New Testament itself that many people entered into only half of the experience. Some were born of the Spirit and not filled with the Spirit. Some were anointed with the Spirit and not filled with the Spirit. Some experienced victory and not power. Some experienced power and not victory. Some experienced forgiveness of sins and neither power nor victory.Now I know that there are some brothers who say, “Well, you should accept the teaching of the work of the Holy Spirit on the basis of the didactic passages alone in the New Testament and you shouldn’t bother with the descriptive passages. But do you see from the didactic passages you get the norm and the normal doctrine of the Holy Spirit, but from the descriptive passages you find how that worked out in human experience and how it often worked out only partially in some people’s experience.Now, that’s brothers what I’d like to look at a little now. Would you look with me at some of the impartial experiences of the work of the Holy Spirit? First of all, you get Acts 19:1-6, and you remember those were Apollos’ converts at Corinth. And you read in Verse 2, and Paul said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ And they said, ‘No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’ And he said, ‘Into what then were you baptized?’ They said, ‘Into John’s baptism.’ And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.’ On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.”Now, here was a group of people who believed on the one who was to come. Now, old Apollos obviously hadn’t even told them about Jesus but they believed on the Messiah who was to come and through whose holy servant of God they were to receive the forgiveness of their sins. In other words, they were baptized as good Jews. Now, they obviously received the forgiveness of their sins for Jesus’ sake but they did not believe for the Holy Spirit. And it is unto you according to your faith. Now it seems that many people can be born of the Spirit and have their sins forgiven and yet not be baptized with the Holy Spirit because it is unto them according to their faith.There’s another situation in Acts 8, you remember, Philip converted some people in Samaria and in Acts 8:5-8 you read this, that Philip asked them then to come forward and then explained to them what was going to happen. Acts 8:5, “Philip went down to a city of Samaria, and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the multitudes with one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs which he did.” And then it says, you know, to be clear in Verse 12, “But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.”Now here was an instance where people believed in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins and so they actually were born of the Spirit. They were not just good Jews, they were born of the Spirit and they became children of God. And yet, “When the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.”Now, it seems that some people can actually be baptized in the name of Jesus and become Christians, not just be good Jews who know the forgiveness of their sins but really know Jesus himself and be born of his Spirit and yet not be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And it seems to me that there are some people that we come across that are in that position.Then there’s another example, you remember, in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, “But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ.” These are the people in whom the spiritual gifts were manifest. The Corinthian church had the spiritual gifts in complete fullness. You could see it from the details Paul gave in 1 Corinthians 12 about spiritual gifts and yet he says, “I could only address you has babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready, for you are still of the flesh.” And he says, “You are still carnal.” “For where there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving like ordinary men?”Now here was an instance of men who had been baptized with the Spirit and experienced the gifts of the Spirit but had not experienced the inner purifying work of the Holy Spirit. And so it seems to me you can come into that situation where people have entered into the power of the work of the Holy Spirit but not into the purity.Now really brothers, these are some of the instances in the New Testament that suggests that though the work of the birth and the baptism of the Holy Spirit should probably and is planned by God to be one great work, yet there are examples in the New Testament that it was only a partial work. What I would like us to talk about probably in the next tape or the next time we meet is what should be our practical attitude then to our own lives and our own experiences in the light of this fact that the norm in the New Testament is one great experience but there are instances of people entering into only partial experiences. And I would trust God, that he would at least begin to guide you in your outworking of it in your own life during these days. Amen.

Fruits of the SpiritSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillI’d like brothers to really talk today about how to enter the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And you remember, that last time we talked about the New Testament experience of the Holy Spirit and we talked about receiving the Holy Spirit as being an essential part of entering into Christ where Acts 2:38 says, “Repent and be baptized into the name of Jesus for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the Holy Spirit.” And the indication is in the New Testament that everybody was expected to enter into the fullness of the Holy Spirit as a complete experience in salvation. And yet you remember we saw that there were definite descriptive parts of the New Testament that revealed to us that not everybody entered into the fullness of the Spirit.You remember in Acts 19 Apollos’ converts entered into only the Jewish forgiveness of sins and I think many people do that today, enter simply into forgiveness of sins. Probably as with Apollos’ converts through lack of light rather than through unwillingness to make a full surrender. Some people enter into the same thing as Philips’ converts in Acts 8, they entered into a real forgiveness of sins through Jesus and a real baptism into Jesus but they had not believed for the fullness of the Holy Spirit and so the fullness of the Holy Spirit did not come to them so they were simply in that position. They didn’t know all that the Holy Spirit could do in them.And I think a lot of people in churches today are in that position, they just have not had full surrender or the fullness of the Holy Spirit preached to them and so they enter into only a partial experience. Thirdly you remember, there were the Corinthians that Paul wrote to who had entered into the baptism with the Holy Spirit for the gifts and ministered in tongues and ministered in healing but had not entered into the Holy Spirit as far as purity of life was concerned and so Paul had to say you are carnal you are fleshly, you behave like ordinary men, you’re walking like ordinary men who have never met Jesus. And I think there are many people in that position today who believe their sins are being forgiven and even have some experience of the gifts of the spirit but have not purity of life in their own hearts.Now, what I’d like us to share just for about half an hour is how to enter into the fullness of the Holy Spirit. What should be our practical application of the didactic teaching in the New Testament that all men should enter into the fullness of the Holy Spirit and of the descriptive teaching that some did not. I think the heart of it is our attitude should be a pragmatic attitude. We should not play about with semantic games. We should not take the position of those people who say, “Well, it is God’s will for you to enter into a full experience isn’t it? To enter into the new birth and to enter into the baptism of the Holy Spirit all at once. That’s God’s will for you. Now, if you’ve entered into part you must have entered into all.”Now, it’s not wise to play that semantic game you see. Some people would say, “Oh well, doesn’t it mean we’ve entered into the Holy Spirit, that we’ve all of the Holy Spirit that we need, but we’re not letting him express himself in our lives?” Do you see it’s silly to argue about whether you’ve entered into all of the Holy Spirit and you’re not letting him express himself in your lives or you’ve entered into only part of the Holy Spirit and you need to receive more of him? It’s silly to argue over that semantic question which is which. The vital thing is to take a pragmatic and a practical attitude to the people involved.I think we shouldn’t argue about superficial signs. I don’t think you should get into the positionwhere you say to a person, “Have you spoken in tongues?” Because obviously, the Bible makes it very plain that not all people speak in tongues. I think it’s foolish if you get into the position, “Have you had hands laid upon you and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit by that method?” It’s silly to talk about superficial signs, you know, that are involved in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It’s wrong even brothers, to talk about the way you entered it. It’s wrong for me really to say to you, “I entered in this way brothers so you must enter in the same way.”Loved ones, I think we should be pragmatic about the thing. We should deal with the question, “have you the marks of a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit?” Not did you go through a Pentecostal experience, not did you go through a holiness experience, not do you think you’ve died to self, but have you the marks of the fullness of the Holy Spirit in your life? And deal with that issue brothers. Deal with reality. That is what will save us from all kinds of wild and vague introspection and uncertainty. Deal with the basic pragmatic fact, “You’re filled with the Holy Spirit? Okay. Have you the marks of a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit?” And then when you’ve dealt with that see that it’s beautiful. If I haven’t those marks what I need is to be filled with the Holy Spirit not to try harder, not to pretend that I have the fullness of the Holy Spirit but to see I’ve entered into a partial experience like many people in the new Testament and now even though I’m in Jesus’ and my sins are forgiven and I’m accepted by the Father because of his blood, yet I need to enter into more of the Holy Spirit.But brothers I think our attitudes should be pragmatic. Okay, what are the marks of the fullness of the Holy Spirit? Well, maybe you’d like to look at very plain ones given in Galatians 5:22, the fruit of the spirit. Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.” Now, when a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will bear the fruit of the Spirit naturally and effortlessly in their lives. In other words, you will find yourself not having to try to produce love and long suffering. You will find long suffering rising up from your spirit. Your spirit, your inner human spirit will be a spirit that is filled with the Holy Spirit and will automatically bear the fruit of that Holy Spirit.You’ll find in situations that there’ll just rise up a gentleness in your heart; it will just come from within. You’ll just know it’s there. If I were to ask you or if you were to ask yourself, “Look, what is your spirit really like? What is your spirit inside you like at the moment?” You’d be able to see, “It’s amazing, it’s a miracle, but it’s really a spirit of gentleness and of love.” In other words brothers, you’ll be able to describe yourself as one who is love. That’s the fruit of the Holy Spirit.Some people have said, you know, “All the other fruits just really elaborate on the first fruit, love. Joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, are all expressions of love.” In other words you’ll be able to say in 1 Corinthians 13, “Not love is patient and kind,” but, “My spirit, my spirit is patient and kind. It is not jealous or boastful. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way.” And you’ll be able to say your spirit that rises up from within you is that kind of spirit.And brothers, here’s the glory of it, if your spirit is not like that it’s great to see that there’s a fullness of the Holy Spirit into which you can enter that will make your spirit like that. And it’s good to see that you don’t have to try to keep repressing it or suppressing, or trying to will it forth and say, “Oh, I’m filled with the Holy Spirit because I’m a Christian. I know that so I have to really prove that I’m filled with the Holy Spirit.” No, it will be just a beautifuladmission. “Oh brother, my spirit is not like that. I have a spirit that comes up that is not gentle and long suffering.”Now, the thing is to begin to identify that spirit. You see, the Bible has told us that that spirit would arise, you remember. In Galatians 5:17, it says, “This is the normal experience,” and I’m afraid it’s the normal experience of most of us who have come to know Jesus. We believe in him for the forgiveness of our sins. There comes in a beautiful sense of the presence of Jesus’ Spirit. And in the early days and weeks we have no trouble reading the Bible, we have no trouble praying, we have no trouble witnessing, it’s just a joy to do it. It’s a joy to serve our Lord. He’s given us everything and we want to give everything to him.And then many of us have found that this begins to be true inside us in Galatians 5:17, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would.” And most of us who have entered into the forgiveness of our sins, and have received the Holy Spirit inside us, find that there’s another attitude in us that grieves the Holy Spirit and works against the Holy Spirit. And we find that the Bible study isn’t so easy to do. We find there is another desire coming up inside us to cut the Bible study a bit and get on with the rest of our lives.There’s a bit of us that in prayer life, there’s a spirit within us of Jesus because we’ve really received the Holy Spirit of Jesus when we’re born of God, but there’s a spirit inside us or an attitude inside us that fights against that spirit that wants to go to God in prayer and says, “You’ve other things to do. You have study to do you have more things you’re responsible for. You have to get on with your own life as well as serve God.” And bit by bit many of us find that those desires inside us grieve and quench the Spirit of Jesus more and more until we find a daily resistance against God’s Spirit inside us and we find ourselves really just in a position that Paul was in in Romans 7 where he says, “I find a law inside my members.” And he says in Romans 7:15, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate.” And he says this, “For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.”Now many of us you see, in the Christian life have found that weeks, or months, or maybe years for some of us, there begins to work inside us that desire that opposes the Spirit of Jesus at times. Now, brothers it is true that if we would reject that spirit immediately, probably we would just walk on into the fullness of the Holy Spirit. But the tragedy is that we tend to look around at the rest of the Christians in the world who have had controlled surrender or half surrender preached to them and we say, – well, I remember it happened in my own life. I remember the voice inside me saying, “What would it be like to give everything to Jesus? To live only for him?” And I looked around at all the other friends at college and I said, “Nobody else is doing that. That must be a fanatical thought. I must get on with my own life, plan my career, make a good marriage, have a good home, and serve God all I can.”But I remember that voice and I do believe that the Spirit speaks to us early on in our Christian lives and says, “Would you give all?” And brothers, the only reason a crisis experience is needed in our hearts is because like the people in Corinth, we resist the Holy Spirit of Jesus. We resist him and we build up a back log of resistances against the Holy Spirit so that we are actually quenching him and grieving him. And that’s why it becomes necessary for us to come to a point where we find, “What can I do? I’m not a Christian on the inside at all. I’m not in the position Iinitially came to.” I realized, “I’m not a Christian inside at all. Inside I have all kinds of Jekyll and Hyde struggles. Inside I have a desire to criticize my brother, I don’t have any desire to love my sister, I have a desire to bite against them and the only reason I keep it down is because I don’t want to spoil my witness.”But what I didn’t realize was that that witness was being spoiled anyway because it was coming from me, a stream of sweet water at times and a stream of sour water. And really it wasn’t a case of teenagers. I mean it’s silly to tell about teenagers, you’re either one nature or the other nature. A nature, when you talk about a person being a generous nature, you don’t mean he’s a generous nature sometimes and a mean nature other times, or a pinch penny in nature at other times. You mean he’s of a generous nature, that’s what he is, that’s what he’s like. Now you are either of one nature or another.When before we were born of the spirit they’re governed by an evil nature of the children of wrath. When we’re born of the Spirit and as long as we submit to the Spirit we are born of God’s nature and his nature is imparted to us. So brothers, really what many of us come to in our Christian lives is what I came to 13 years after I’d been born of the Spirit. I came to a place where I had to face it, was I a Christian or was I not? Was I governed by Jesus’ Spirit or was I governed by my own desire for my own pride, and my own self, and my own ways? And bit-by-bit I began to see that undoubtedly I was in Romans 7. I was not doing the good I wanted to do, it was the evil that I wanted to avoid, that was the thing that drove my life.And I didn’t know what to do, you know. I read a book called Possibilities of Grace and I began to see there that some men had had to come into a new conviction of sin. And brothers, you know, I’m not arguing that we all seek second experiences or second crisis but it was so in my life, that even though I say here undoubtedly we can enter into a fullness of the Spirit as far as God is concerned all in one activity and experience with the new birth, yet it seems true that most of us have to come into a second conviction of sin, and a second believing, and a second repenting because our own first one is not continued.And I believe even the brothers, you know, across the Atlantic who would be a wee bit slow on the whole business of baptism of the Holy Spirit, they would admit that this is the problem with many Christians. This is the reason that many Christians are not living in the fullness of the Spirit, because they have grieved the Spirit and they have quenched him in their lives and something else is needed. And that’s why brothers, that’s why we emphasize so much another event in your life, or a crisis of some kind because even though there may be a gradual, gradual awareness of your problem, there comes a moment when you at last decide to deal with that problem.Well brothers, I can only tell you the way I got down to it. First of all I started to see that there was something in me that I couldn’t control. There was an attitude in me that I could not control. I tried to control it, tried to pray it down, tried to will it down, tried to suppress it, tried to repress it but there was something in me that wanted its own way, that wanted to be independent of God. Now, it was a great help to me to see that that something was something that was really beyond my control and I suspect that was the first step for me in any kind of deliverance.You see, the self inside us wants to believe that it can destroy itself whenever it wants and that’s what kills most of us. Most of us feel, “Oh, I can control it whenever I really want to, it’s just I don’t really want to. I can stop being impatient whenever I really want to.” It was a tremendousrelief for me when I looked – I think it was Romans 8:7 where I read this, “For the mind that is set on the flesh,” and the flesh is just our independence of God you see, it’s not the physical flesh or the sexual part of us, it’s the mind that is set on the flesh independent of God. For “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot.”And brothers that was a deliverance for me that I began to see that this thing inside me was really something that I could not control. It was something that was a part of Satan in me and I could not change it. It would not submit to God’s indeed it could not submit and for the first time I began to distinguish between the part that Satan had in me and my own self. Up to then I’d mixed them both up and that’s Satan’s game. He wants to mix up his rebellion in your heart with you. He wants to try to get you to say, “Okay, that’s you. You can’t let you go.” And it’s a big step when you begin to see, “But this isn’t the real me. The real me is deeper than that but this is something that has almost taken me over.” And that was the first step in my life.The second great step for me was seeing that God had done something with that because I didn’t know how to get rid of it myself. And so Romans 6:6 was just deliverance for me. That can only be deliverance I think when a man is at the end of his tether. That’s why I say approach this in a pragmatic way. Deal with a person ask the gift of discernment to see where they are. If you minister this to a person who isn’t ready for it, they’ll just give up completely. But for me, this was life you know. What I didn’t know what to do with this place inside, this self that wanted its own way and wouldn’t do what God wanted and then I saw in Romans 6:6, “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.” And that was life that I saw that God had not only put my sins on Jesus and destroyed them, but that he had put sin in the singular, the old independent self that produced sins, he had put that on the cross and crucified that with Jesus.That in some way loved ones that I couldn’t understand, God had put my independent rebellious carnal will and rebellion against God into Jesus and destroyed that in him and that I was actually living a lie. Persuaded by Satan I was believing that I was my own man that I was not bought with a price, that I could do what I wanted. I could have my own way, I could do what I wanted, I could establish my own rights, defend my own rights, assert myself and defend myself whenever I wanted and that all that was a lie and that I was actually under the control of this old self because I was refusing to believe that it had been crucified with Jesus. And so I began, you know, gradually to see maybe there was a way through.Then the thing that baffled me; why did I not believe that? Why did I not believe that my old self had been crucified with Christ? And the Holy Spirit gradually showed me I didn’t believe it because I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want my old self crucified. There were bits of my old self that I liked. Alright, the anger was inconvenient at times but self-pity, I didn’t mind a good cry over myself at times. It wasn’t bad at night just to think how everybody was treating me and it wasn’t bad to kind of just mull over, mull over some of the resentment from the criticism I had of people because it sort of made me feel, “Well I knew where other people stood and I knew what was right and what was wrong.”And I began to see that although there were bits of the old self that I didn’t like but there were many bits that I hugged to myself and I enjoyed and that I really, in a way, couldn’t do without. And so the Holy Spirit began to reveal to me in order to believe that your old self is crucified you have to be willing for it to be crucified. And so I just began to ask the Holy Spirit, “Holy Spirit will you show me what dying to self with Jesus on the cross would mean in my life at present?” Andfor me it was a lot of different things. Anger for me was a method of pulling things back into my control when they got out of control because I knew everybody respects you when you get angry so you get angry to get them to respect you and get them to do what you want them to do.And so the Holy Spirit made it plain to me, “If I take anger and self from you, you’ll actually be in situations you can’t control. Do you know that? You’ll have to leave the control to me. Now, would you be willing to let those things come under my control and not be able to control them or stop them yourself? Would you be willing for me to call uncle when I choose not when you choose? Would you be willing to face all the things that I would be willing for you to face however long I ask you to continue it?” Brothers, I had to be willing to face the consequences in my life of the Holy Spirit cleansing cleansing me from self, that’s what it was. I had to be willing to face the consequences in my life of me being crucified with Christ.Lust for me even though I was married, lust was a problem. So for me the question was, “Would you be willing, if you die to self with Christ, and die like him to having a woman, would you be willing if I asked you never to have intercourse again in your life?” And that was it. You know, he didn’t ask me to do that afterwards but he asked me would I be willing and here’s the thing, the Holy Spirit by searching out the places in my life where I was not willing for Christ’s death to be made real, began to expose to me the part of myself that I treasured more than Jesus. And bit-by-bit he began to get me down to the nitty gritty that it wasn’t the envy, it wasn’t the jealousy, it wasn’t the lust, it wasn’t the pride, it wasn’t the ambition, it wasn’t the irritability, or bad temper, it was self.I felt I had the right to myself. I felt I had the right to run my own life and I had the right to keep myself back from pain and hardship when I wanted to and I had the right to protect myself from other people. I had the right to look after myself and take care of myself. And I began to see, you know, it was self it was me Ernest O’Neill that was the problem and that that was the source of all these works of the flesh envy, and jealousy, and bitterness that I read about in Galatians 5:21, that it was the source of all those things. It wasn’t a matter of dying bit by bit, you know, to self, and to envy, to envy and selfishness, and jealousy, and pride. It was a business of allowing the Holy Spirit to bring me right to the ground of my heart where I saw it was myself I was defending and would I be willing for that self to be crucified with Christ?With me it was really finally, I mean, he gets you down to besetting sin, each of us has a besetting sin that holds self down, you see. There’s a hard fallow ground that all of us have built up over – because we have a back log of resistances to God’s will over many, many little failures and surrenders. Now, on top of that fallow ground there’s a besetting sin like a cover of ice that prevents the Holy Spirit getting down. All of us have a besetting sin. I think mine probably was, “Would you be willing to be a failure for me if it’s for my glory?” I was a minister, I wanted to succeed. I wanted to succeed.I even defended it – self is so subtle, I even defended and said, “It’s for God’s sake you want to succeed.” But I wanted to succeed I didn’t want to be left in the corner with nobody knowing what I was doing for God. And finally, you know, the Holy Spirit brought me to that point, “Would you be willing to be a failure for me? Would you be willing to be nothing for Jesus’ glory?”Now brothers, I do emphasis that only the Holy Spirit can give you revelation on these things. Only he could give me revelation. Even as I say this, you know, it was real to me when the Holy Spirit made it real. It wouldn’t have been real if you had said it to me. I had to see the exceedingsinfulness of myself. I had to think that this was a choosing – an intersection of two ways, a fork in the path. I had to either go this way and all into the full surrender and fullness of the Holy Spirit or I had to move out of Jesus. Actually, to be filled with the Spirit all you have to do is to stay in Jesus. The only way to avoid the fullness of the Spirit is to step out of Jesus. And I began to see that was the choice for me. Would I be willing to live for Jesus’ glory alone and allow him to fill me with his Spirit so that was the only thing that governed my life?And you know I’ve shared with you before, that there came a morning that the Holy Spirit witnessed that I was at a place of full consecration. A place of full consecration. I’d often thought I was at it before but I wasn’t sure. Then I began to realize if you’re not sure you’re not at it. There was a moment when the Holy Spirit witnessed to me, “Yes, you are really willing to be nothing for Jesus. You’re willing to be filled with me. Alright, I witness that in your heart.” And I just knew it, I knew I was at a place of full consecration, or the human side of sanctification and then I just received the fullness of the Holy Spirit that day.Just a quiet assurance that he had come into my heart and with me there was just a sense of cleanliness, and purity, and victory. There need not be that with you. For many people there’s a weeping and a crying. For many people there’s a laughing. For many people there’s a speaking in tongues. For many people there’s just a knowing. The heart of it is a knowing. You know that you are willing to do what God wants from you in order to be filled with the Holy Spirit and therefore that He must fill you and say you’ve just received the filling.Now brothers, I honestly do believe that this is God’s normal way into a baptism of the Holy Spirit. Really. I know there are other brothers and I’ll try and talk about it next day, I know there are other brothers who will say, “Oh brother, you can enter into the baptism of the Holy Spirit with tongues without any of this stuff that you’re talking about.” Brothers, I honestly do believe that as it’s outlined in Romans 6, “Do you not know that you who were baptized into Christ Jesus will baptize into his death so that you might be raised from the dead by the glory of the Father and might walk in the newness of life.” I do believe that that’s God’s normal way of us entering into the baptism of the Holy Spirit.Now I agree with you, being ready to enter in is not the baptism. Being in a place of sanctification, being in a place where you’re ready to be crucified with Christ is not the baptism. It is the condition of the baptism it is a place of full consecration. But that is the normal way to enter into it. Coming into a place of full consecration where you accept your identification with Christ, and his death, and his life, and his resurrection and the Holy Spirit fills you with himself and cleanses your heart. As Acts 15:9 says, God gives the Holy Spirit to them the Gentiles that he did to us and cleansed our hearts by faith. And he fills you with the purity and the nine fruit of the spirit and then he anoints you with that nine gifts of the spirit so that you can minister that life to others. And that’s what I’d like to share next day the ministry of the gifts of the spirit.But brothers, if you don’t enter into an absolute consecration you’ll find that you’ll end up ministering gifts in the flesh or by the power of demons, but you won’t minister the life of Jesus unless your own life has been crucified with Christ and only his flows through you. So I really do believe this is the normal scriptural way to enter into the fullness of the Holy Spirit that will bring real joy and delight not only to your own life but the people who live with you. Amen.

Gifts of the SpiritSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillThe unique factor in the Christian Gospel is not only Jesus but the gift of the Holy Spirit. And that’s what we’ve been saying over the past few days, that the gift of the Holy Spirit is what sets Christianity apart from Mohammedanism and Buddhism and other religions. It is that peculiar gift that was offered, you remember, by Peter on the day of Pentecost when he said, “And you shall receive the Holy Spirit when you’re baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. Then, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”And that is the unique gift that brings to us the very abilities and aptitudes of Jesus himself. No other religion can do that. Buddha can never ensure that all his followers have the very gifts that he had. Mohammad can never ensure that all his followers have the gifts that he had. But, Jesus can ensure that we experience his own life through this gift of the Holy Spirit. And you remember we shared in the past how the Holy Spirit normally comes into a person when he is born of the Spirit, when he receives Jesus the first time for the forgiveness of his sins.And how often the Holy Spirit then begins to try to expand his influence throughout that person’s life and begins to try to fill that person with himself and how very soon after that most of us began to experience a real double life inside us, a real sense of hypocrisy where the desires of the flesh, the desires of our own selfish independent attitude to God strove against the desires of the Spirit and we found that we were prevented from doing what we would. And most of us have found that our lives have followed that kind of pattern.We saw how in the New Testament it didn’t need to be like that. How in the New Testament probably people were born of the Spirit and filled with the Spirit all at once and they died to self and were raised with Christ the first day virtually that they heard the gospel. But we saw how even in the New Testament many people experienced only half of the work of the Holy Spirit.You remember the people who were converted in Acts 19 by Apollos had obviously believed in the one that was to come and they’d obviously entered into some forgiveness of sins into actually a Jewish experience of God wiping out their sins. Now, many of us have entered into that kind of partial experience. Many of us have entered into what the people entered into who were converted by Philip who entered into a real baptism into Jesus’ name for the forgiveness of sins and presumably came alive in the Spirit and had the Spirit of Jesus inside them and were born of the Spirit but had not really been filled with the Holy Spirit and so the apostles had to come down and pray they would receive the Holy Spirit.I think many of us too have come into the partial experience of the Corinthians who experienced the fullness of the Holy Spirit for the gifts of the Spirit but still walked in strife, and envy, anger, and jealously and therefore behaved like ordinary men and were called carnal or fleshly Christians. And so we saw that in the New Testament times there were many people who entered into only half of the work of the Holy Spirit so many of us have found the same thing, we’ve had to come to a new experience of conviction of sin, of seeing where the Holy Spirit was not filling us completely and seeing where we needed to die to self with Christ and be filled and cleansed by his Holy Spirit.Now brothers that’s only half of the work of the Holy Spirit. The purifying work is only half of the work that the Holy Spirit was sent to do. It is the cleansing work by which the Holy Spirit isable to bring about inside our own lives the nine fruit of the Spirit but it is God’s will that we should not only walk with the purity of Jesus but with the power of Jesus. And so the second part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to anoint us with himself with power so that we can begin to administer the gifts of the Spirit.Now, if you imagine us entering into the purity of the Holy Spirit without the power of the Holy Spirit, then it’s like imagining Jesus walking in absolute purity and coming to the leper and being able to do nothing with him. Saying, “Well, look I love you with a pure heart but I can’t do anything about your leprosy.” In other words, you would see a maimed Christ, a crippled Christ and if we walk only in the purity of the Holy Spirit, we may walk in holiness, we may walk in purity and in joy in our own lives, but we walk as a crippled Christ as far as the troubles and the problems of this world is concerned.Moreover, we’ll probably eventually walk back into our own self confidence because we’ll depend on our own psychology or our philosophy to deal in problems of counseling with people who are being oppressed by Satan. We’ll to try to deal with the ordinary form of medicine with people who are oppressed in their body. So, it’s vital not to accept only half of the work of the Holy Spirit but to go on and see that the Holy Spirit wants to make available to us the nine gifts of the Spirit. And this is the second part of the work of the Holy Spirit.Now, on the other hand, if you enter into the nine gifts of the Spirits without the purity of the Holy Spirit running through you, if you enter into a ministry of gifts without really being purified and cleansed from anger, and envy, and jealousy, then you’ll find yourself ministering the gifts in the power of the flesh or in the power of satanic forces and you’ll find your ministering gifts but instead of ministering life of Jesus through the gifts you’re ministering miracles and great events that everybody is preoccupied with and people will be preoccupied with you instead of with Jesus.So it’s vital, you can see, to enter into both the purity and the power of the Holy Spirit. What I’d like to do just for a short time now is to talk a little about the nine gifts of the Spirit. So, if you have a Bible maybe you’d turn to 1 Corinthians 12 and just see the teaching that is very plain there and that will prevent us from going astray in regards to the nine gifts of the Spirit if we’d only look at it. I think the first thing really to see is the statement made in 1 Corinthians 12:11, “All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.”Now brothers, we need to write that on all our walls and in all our hearts, that it’s the Holy Spirit who distributes the gifts. You can’t claim the gifts yourself by the sheer determination of your faith. It is the Holy Spirit who distributes the gifts. He distributes to each one individually as he wills for the up building of the body of Christ. Now, you cannot go to God and say, “I want a gift to prove that I’m filled with the Holy Spirit.” Nor can you go to God and say, “Look, I need this gift now give it to me.” The Holy Spirit distributes the gifts to each one of us as he wills.Now, I agree with you that the Bible says that we should covet the best gifts. We should want them, you see. We should desire them. We should be in a position where we say, “Holy Spirit, we want you to give us all the power that we need to be you to these people today.” And that should be our general attitude of hunger and thirst for all that the Holy Spirit wants to give us. But then we should wait upon him to show us which gift he wants us to have so that we can believe him for it.So brothers, it’s important to see that it’s the Holy Spirit who distributes the gifts. You don’t grab the gifts yourself. That is why it’s important to see the truth that is outlined there in Verse 29 of 1 Corinthians 12, a verse we looked at before, 1 Corinthians 12:29, “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” In other words, God is plainly saying, “All people are not prophets, all do not work miracles.” Why? Because they haven’t enough faith, because they’re not baptized with the Holy Spirit, because they’ve been under heretical teaching that has taught that the Holy Spirit only cleanses? No, because the Holy Spirit distributes to each one individually as he wills and he does not distribute tongues to everybody and he does not distribute gifts of miracles to everyone. He distributes to each one as he wills.One of the beauties of this is that no man becomes preeminent above everybody else by the fact that he ministers in the whole nine gifts of the Spirit. No man becomes preeminent. It’s vital for John to be in the body because the Holy Spirit is given him a gift that he has not given me. It is vital for Scott to be in the body because the Holy Spirit is distributing to him a gift that he has not distributed to me and so the body comes into a beautiful harmony and wholeness where it’s not just a matter of Scott saying, “Oh yeah, yeah, I know I’m part of the body. I know you want me to feel I’m necessary but really you could do it on your own.” It’s so good to be free from that. To see that each of us is vital to the body. That the body is not a body if John is not in it. The body is not a body if Scott is not in it. Why? Because the Holy Spirit will distribute to him a particular gift at a particular time that will be needed in the body.I think that’s important to see that, that no man can say, “I have the gift of healing.” No man can say, “I have the gift of miracles.” Every one of us has to say, “The Holy Spirit will give us the gift for the time that we need it at the time that we need it and then will take it back to himself.” So, I think it’s good to see that the Holy Spirit is the one who distributes the gifts.Maybe it would help us to see that there are differences of gifts, and differences of workings, and differences of services because I think a lot of people say, “If you’re not ministering the gift of tongues, or the gift of healing in the way I have seen it ministered then you’re not ministering that gift.” Now maybe you’d look in Verse 4 of 1 Corinthians 12 to see God’s description of how the gifts work, “And there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.” So, there are nine different gifts but there is the one Holy Spirit who distributes those gifts.Then come to another person’s attrinity, the second person in Verse 5, “And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord.” Now, there are varieties of service, Jesus will appoint some of us to be pastors and teachers, some of us to be evangelists, some of us probably to be administrators. He’ll appoint different ones of us to different services and the nine gifts will be ministered in those different services, all obviously in different ways. A preacher ministers the gift of prophecy in a very obvious way that is plain to everybody. He ministers it in a very different way when he’s in a counseling situation. He ministers it in a slightly different way when he’s an evangelist. Now, there are varieties of service and some of us will be administrators but we’ll still need the nine gifts of the Spirit for our service.Then in Verse 6, “And there are varieties of working,” maybe this is the most important one, “But it is the same God who inspires them all in every one.” Now, there are different gifts distributed by the Holy Spirit. There are different services appointed by Jesus but there are varieties of working of the gifts or differences of operation and they are determined by God. And brothers I think it’s vital for us to see that everybody does not minister the gift of healing the way Katherine Kuhlmandoes. She ministers it by listening to Jesus’ Spirit and knowing when he reveals to her that somebody in the balcony has been healed. Then she says, “Come up if you’ve been healed and she invites them up.” They’re already healed she doesn’t heal them via her touching them.So often as she recognizes and is given the gift of revelation, they have been healed. Oral Roberts is different, he calls them up, lays his hands on them and heals them in the name of Jesus. There’s a man called Christopher Woodard in London who doesn’t heal either of those ways. He is given discernment by Spirit to see when a person is tense or upset in their own spiritual life and he ministers directly to that and the healing of their whole spirit spreads to their body and heals them.Now brothers, it’s vital to see that there are different ways to minister the gift of healing and we are being utterly naïve and utterly unfair to God’s word to say a man has not a gift of healing because he simply doesn’t lay hands on people and they’re healed. Healing comes in many different ways, so the gift of prophecy, so the gift of knowledge. So, dear brother David can stand in front of a meeting and say, “I know what you were doing wrong today and I know what your relationship is with this person,” and he can see right into your spirit and he can tell you that and that’s a real gift of knowledge for knowing what is in a person’s life. Now, he can minister that gift of knowledge that way another person can minister it in a study counseling another person not saying, “Scott, I know what is in your heart.” Maybe he doesn’t know, but he shares something automatically and Scott wonders, “How on earth did you know that about me?” And that’s the gift of knowledge ministered in a much less obtrusive way but ministered nevertheless. So it’s important to see, you see, that there are different ways of workings in the gifts.Now, brothers maybe we could go on directly into the gifts themselves and just talk about them one-by-one a little. You see that there are nine gifts. Let’s look at really the first one mentioned there in Verse 8, “To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom.” Now, there is an earthly wisdom you know, that comes from studying the psychology books, the philosophy books and even that comes from studying the Bible. But there is a spiritual wisdom that is exactly right for that person in their spiritual state. There’s a spiritual wisdom that is deeper than just a scriptural wisdom. There’s a time when it may seem to you, “The right thing scripturally is this person is obviously in disobedience to God and what they need to do is repent.” And you say, “Okay, you must repent,” and you minister repentance to them.A spiritual wisdom gives you the insight to see that what that person fails to believe is that God is good and that God will forgive them and that’s really why they don’t repent. They don’t want to even acknowledge their sins because they’re afraid God won’t forgive them. Now spiritual wisdom is concerned with the internal workings of the Holy Spirit in a person and is a wisdom that is deeper than just knowledge. Spiritual wisdom is really what a lot of the churches lacked. Spiritual wisdom for instance in ministers or speakers enables you to apply the right word to a body at the right time.I remember reading once where someone said a lot of preachers are trying to cut wheat with a plow and they’re trying to plant corn with a threshing machine and I think a lot of us are trying to do that. I think a lot of us are trying to bring people into forgiveness with the word of law when we should be using the word of grace and a lot of us are trying to bring people to an awareness of God with teaching love/love all the time when what we should be bringing is the word of law home to their hearts to convict them. Now spiritual wisdom is knowing which to do and the Holy Spirit gives you that. The Holy Spirit gave wisdom, you remember, to Philip when he went up to Ethiopia eunuchand asked him, “Do you know what you’re reading?” That was the right thing to ask that eunuch at that time. Now that’s spiritual wisdom.Do you see the next one is in Verse 8, “And to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit.” I don’t think we need to dwell on that because I mentioned it as an illustration earlier on that the gift of knowledge is the ability to know what is in a person’s spirit. So, I remember one fellow who was dealing with someone who was seeking Jesus and suddenly this pastor saw a great white cockatoo, just saw it as a vision. Now knowledge doesn’t come to everybody, it doesn’t come to me like that, but it came as a great white cockatoo. So he said to the fellow, “Do you know anything about a big white cockatoo?” The fellow said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I stole it four years ago.” And he wouldn’t confess that to God and that was what held him up and when he confessed it and dealt with it and was prepared to make restitution God dealt with the man. Now that’s the gift of knowledge you see. It’s knowing what is in a person’s spirit.Now brothers, could I say this, that most of these gifts are probably ministered with the person very unconscious that he is ministering the gift. Probably that’s true. Probably we’re not very conscious at the time that we’re ministering that. I’ve had a number of people come into the study during this week so far and obviously they were ministered to as if I knew exactly what was in their spirits but I didn’t know. So often the Holy Spirit will give the gift of knowledge and get you to pass it on almost without you knowing. Now at other times, you’ll know very well. So you know, I love you brothers and I just know at times what is in your hearts.It’s very important also to see that the gift is the utterance of knowledge not just the knowledge because I think a lot of us feel, “Ah yeah, I know what is in his heart so I minister it now,” and we shouldn’t. I think we have to be loving to each other very often and hold back and some things I see in you brothers and I’m sure you see in me and you just – no, God tells you, “Don’t utter just keep quiet about it and pray and let the brother come on in to this.” So it’s more important that you see that knowledge, the utterance of knowledge is something deeper than just knowledge itself.Verse 9, “To another faith by the same Spirit.” This is working faith, you see, it’s not saving faith that comes when a person is willing to submit to God and believe that Jesus has died for their sins. But this is working faith. This is faith that works results in people’s lives. It’s the kind of faith that Mueller had, you remember, with the orphanages. He just prayed and prayed and God brought money and he built orphanages for thousands of homeless children just through the result of his prayers.Now if you remember reading Mueller’s life he emphasizes that he was not driven to build the orphanages primarily for the children, though he really loved the children, but primarily to show the world that God was still a prayer answering God and so God granted him the gift of faith for that purpose. The gift of faith would really be seen in people like Brainerd who was among the red Indians where he obviously could not be understood by the Indians through a drunken interpreter. They couldn’t understand what he was trying to get over and yet Brainerd was given the gift of faith in long periods of prayer each day to pray for these Indians so that they came to the highest level of Christian living through the preaching that Brainerd did through the drunken interpreter. Now obviously, it didn’t come through what the interpreter was able to say. It obviously didn’t come through the spirit that came through the interpreter. It came direct from the Holy Spirit by revelation as a result of old Brainerd’s faith and that’s what we mean, you see, when we talk about the gift of faith.Now, just if I could say a little about each it might be useful rather than spending a long time on certain gifts. “To another,” Verse 9, “Gifts of healing by the one Spirit.” Again, I don’t think we should spend a long time on it because I used that as an illustration at the beginning. But the gift of healing can be manifested in many, many different ways and frankly, I think the Holy Spirit wants to bring a lot of us in the bodies around the world into now is such an atmosphere of Jesus’ presence in an ordinary meeting. Such an atmosphere of love and peace. Such an atmosphere of brokenness as far as soulish powers are concerned, that people will come into the meeting and they’ll just sense a healing. They’ll just sense a healing in the atmosphere and they’ll receive the healing without anyone doing anything.It seems to me to keep us clear from this emphasis on people, “Oh, that man, you should see how he’s used in healing.” It seems that in these days Jesus wants to lead us a way from this preoccupation with individuals and lead us into a consciousness of the reality of the body of Christ. And that when a number of people come into real love and harmony with Jesus, and with the trinity family, and with each other, all the gifts of the Spirit begin to be manifested just naturally by the Holy Spirit. So the gift of healing I think maybe we should just go quickly on since I did use some examples about Katherine Kuhlman and Oral Roberts.The next gift mentioned is in Verse 10, “To another the working of miracles.” Miracles is almost in a sense apart from faith. It’s a definite miracle that is worked for a real reason and purpose and as a sign not just for the sake of the healing but as a sign to people that God’s super natural power is at work. It seems to me that’s how it would differ from the gift of healing which is primarily concerned with bringing health to people. But the gift of miracles may be a gift of healing but is primarily from the point of view of a sign to show that God’s super natural power is still at work here in the world. Carvasso got into a coach you remember, in the 19th Century; there were 12 people in the coach. They road down two miles down the road and he got out again and the 12 people were Christians.Now, that wasn’t because he did a quick round with the Spiritual Laws booklet but because he had the gift at that moment of the miracle whereby God revealed Jesus so really to each of these people that they saw him and they did submit to him. The gift of miracles would be seeing, you remember, with Finney when he went into that weaving factory and there were two little girls tittering you remember, in one corner and he looked over at them and they tittered a little longer, and then they got nervous, and then the tears began to come down their eyes, and then one broke the thread you remember, and then they got worried, and then they started to weep quietly. Then another person at the next loom began to weep, and another person further down the factory floor began to weep and then gradually everybody began to get down on their knees and the manager who was still standing with Finney looked around and then he closed the factory for the whole day and they sought God.Now that’s a gift, that’s a miracle you see. Now it is important brothers for us to see that this gift is still available to us and will be needed as we go out to be a Christian Peace Corps in God’s world because that’s the only thing we have to pit against massive economic systems of supply and support that Russia and America will give to different nations. We will have this power to work miracles and God will work them, you know, in us in regard to damning up waters for reservoirs, in regard to piping in electricity to people’s home, in regards to transport of all kinds, problems of all kinds, God will work miracles for us. Now that’s the gift of working miracles.“To another prophecy.” I think I shared that a little, that prophecy is the speaking forth of God’s word and the speaking forth of the right word at the right moment. It’s not just the ability topreach you see there are people who preach with no gift of prophecy. There are people who preach just from their own knowledge of God’s word and their own insight into human nature. But the gift of prophecy is being able to speak forth God’s word to the right person at the right moment. Now that you can do in a constant situation. That you can do in an ordinary witnessing situation. That’s where we’re so far astray when we go up to a person who isn’t a Christian and we blast them with all the gospel versus and we say, “Well, we ought to take them through the whole gospel and we ought to hit them with this, and this, and this.”This is why it’s vital in any kind of booklet that outlines how to bring a person to Christ, it’s vital that we receive from the Holy Spirit the gift of prophecy to speak the right verse at the right time to that person. And the gift of prophecy is that more even, you know, than speaking forth words about the future. Only on occasion did the prophets actually prophecy about the future. More often than not, if you examine the Old Testament prophets, they spoke the right word to the nation of people at the right time.“To another the ability to distinguish between spirits.” In Verse 10, and that’s the discernment of spirits and that’s what we need so badly today because there are a whole lot of people going around doing miracles of all kinds, speaking in tongues in all kinds of situation and so few people seem to have the discernment of the Holy Spirit to tell whether it’s of the Spirit. Whether it’s of an evil spirit or whether it’s of the flesh. And brothers, that gift of discernment is essential. You can read a book that seems very scriptural and seems very fundamentalist in its doctrine and yet there can be a subtle spirit of deception running through that book. So it’s vital to have the discernment of Spirits not only to see what books to read but to see what a person is like really in their hearts.It’s not enough in these days, you see, to say, “Oh I was baptized with the Spirit. I speak in tongues. I have been used by God to bring miracles and healing.” So were the people that opposed Moses that did the miracle of throwing their staffs down and turning them into snakes. So the Bible says will the antichrist be. He will be a person who comes doing many miracles like a wolf in sheep’s clothing having all the appearances of power. And unless we have the discernment of the Spirit we can be led away after the antichrist thinking that it is Christ himself. So there’s a great need for the discernment of spirits.I’d just like to go quickly over that though a lot more needs to be said about it to the last gift because there is so much misunderstanding about it. “To another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.” Could I just state briefly because of the shortage of the time that if you examine 1 Corinthians 12 carefully you’ll find outlined there in 12, and in 13, and particularly in 14, you’ll find especially in 14, there are three occasions when tongues are used as a gift of the Holy Spirit.One is in a believers meeting when only believers are present and there it’s to be used only if there is an interpretation. If there is no interpretation then either the person themselves spoke inspired by a demon, or spoke inspired by the flesh, or spoke out of God’s will. But it is not God’s will for that tongue to come forth at that moment unless there is an interpretation. And the problem is with the person who speaks in tongues. You may say, “What about the interpreter could they not be disobedient of the Holy Spirit?” The Holy Spirit knows before he inspires a person to speak in a tongue that there’s a person present to interpret. So first of all a tongues when it’s used in a believers meeting must be accompanied by someone who has given the interpretation by the Holy Spirit.Secondly, you’ll see in 1 Corinthians 14 especially, that tongues can be used in private prayer without interpretation and there the tongues simply express the glory, and the sense of praise that you have for God in the midst of your private prayer. And it’s accompanied by a great sense of elevation and a sense that you want to glorify God, “Father, you’re wonderful, you’re magnificent. Lord Jesus, you’re beautiful,” and you run out of words and your tongue trips over itself as the Holy Spirit gives you more words that you don’t know from an unknown language to express your desire and your love for God. And there it’s used without any interpretation and it comes very naturally from a sense of an inner desire to glorify and praise God.When that inner desire isn’t there brothers, it’s questionable whether it’s tongue. If you ever feel, “Oh, I must use the tongue today otherwise I’ll lose it,” then that’s questionable if that’s a tongue in the Spirit. A tongue in the Spirit comes when you have a great sense of a glory and a presence of your Father and you haven’t enough words to express your love to him. Now a tongue comes then in private prayer. It up builds the person himself, and it elevates him and strengthens him and releases his spirit.The third occasion is in the presence of unbelievers. And then always it’s a known language such as was used in the day of Pentecost. It’s a sign to unbelievers that God’s power is present. That’s why they said, you remember, “Do we not all hear speaking in our own language the wonderful works of God?” And often, you see, a person has been used I remember, Reverend Mirer was used by God in a certain situation to speak to a person in their own language and he didn’t know the language at all and this person said, “How did you come to speak in perfect,” whatever it was, “Arabian?” And he was amazed. But it was the Holy Spirit giving him a known language to speak to an unbeliever to convince the unbeliever that God’s power was still available.Now it’s those three places you see, that the Holy Spirit in the Bible has told us tongues can be used and I think we need to be careful in the use of them and to look especially at the New Testament outline of a normal New Testament meeting and see that at the most two or three people speak in tongues and always in order and always to the up building of the body and to the up building of those present. In other words, where there are unbelievers present it’s very questionable if you should ever use an unknown tongue.

How Can We Be Born of the Spirit?Galatians 5:17-20Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillA dictatorship has been prepared for during previous years. And dear ones, in Cuba the people there had had this decay working in their hearts for many years so that gradually their natures changed, and changed, and changed and when the dictator came they welcomed him as the savior. And so it was in Germany, it was no sudden event. The decay had been seeping through the nation. The decadence had been working in the people’s hearts and to those of us on the outside it was a great surprise when it took over, but to the people really, it was no surprise. The people received him as a savior. It’s when the people’s needs, and the people’s willingness to pay the price for the fulfillment of their needs come together that the dictator takes over without a battle. And so it will be with the antichrist.When the antichrist comes there will be no great opposition to him, but there will be a great flocking to him from all the corners of the earth. From dear ones whose hearts have been deceived, and whose hearts have been prepared, and whose hearts have been looking for the savior, and whose hearts have not be filled with the Holy Spirit, and whose lives are not pervaded by the spirit of God’s truth. And they will flock to the antichrist, and they will worship him as the savior.So it will be with the personal opponent of Jesus Christ whom the New Testament says will come at the end of the ages. He will be hailed as a new savior. And you say, “Well, why will this be?” Well, you can look for yourself in the New Testament and find out why it will be dear ones, it’s in 1 John 4 and the second half of Verse three. 1 John 4:3, “And every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God.” Then the second half reads, “This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already.” That was 180, the spirit of antichrist has been in the world preparing the hearts of many of the so called faithful to receive the antichrist when he comes.And so the Bible itself teaches that there is a spirit of antichrist abroad even in church people, abroad even in those who think they are deep Christians. There is a spirit of antichrist seeping underneath the very Holy Spirit that is trying to get ahold of our very hearts and lives and that antichrist spirit is preparing us to receive the antichrist. And when he comes, many of us will be deceived into thinking that this is Jesus. This is the second coming of our Savior.Now, this is why the Bible warns us to discern spirits. And you can see that warning in 1 John 4:3B there, “This is the Spirit of antichrist, which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already.” And 1 John 2:18, “Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour.” And in Chapter Four of 1 John 1, the warning to test the spirits, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”And you may say, “Well, why are you preaching about the antichrist?” Well, I’m not preaching because you can stop the antichrist coming, you cannot. You cannot break scripture. The scripture says, “The antichrist will come and you cannot stop him coming.” Even if I could tell you who he was at this moment you could not stop him coming. Perhaps he is in the world already but you willnot be able to stop him coming because the scripture cannot be broken.But dear ones, it is imperative that we begin to discern the spirit of antichrist when he moves in our own hearts least we ourselves be deceived when he comes. That’s why I’m preaching. Not so you will be able to look to the antichrist and not so that dear ones here will be able to become excited over who the antichrist might be, dear ones those are doctrines of demons. Those are doctrines of demons when these false prophets who do not even prophesy in the name of Jesus say, “The antichrist is born in such and such a land.” That is not what the Bible tells us to look for. But, the Bible does tell us to discern our own spirits and discern the spirits that are working in our own hearts so that we ourselves will not be deceived.You see, the Bible comes right down the line on who are Christians and who are not. The Bible comes right down the line by the law and tells us, “If you obey the law then you please God.” The Bible says that right from the first part of the Bible to the last part of the Bible. It tells us that obedience to the law is the mark of the sons of God. Then Jesus Christ came and he says, “Whoever has my spirit in their hearts, you are the sons of God, you are the children of God.” And Christ comes right down the line and points out the things that we need to have if we claim to be alive in God. And then the Holy Spirit came after Jesus ascended to the Father and he comes right down the line and he says, “If I abide in you, you will have these marks. You will have love, and joy, and peace.” And he comes right down the line. And the law and Jesus Christ’s life and the Holy Spirit all testify to us who are the sons of God.Now dear ones, there will come a day when God will allow someone to testify to us who will bring even a clearer judgment. When the antichrist comes many of us who think we are sons of God will find out where we really stand when we follow him as the antichrist. So it is important tonight, on the last night of the conference, to make sure that you have the pure Holy Spirit of truth governing your life.Now, you may sit there and say, “Oh now, this is a lot of mumbo jumbo. You don’t need all this stuff to distinguish the antichrist. I have a good mind and I may not be walking in all the light that God has given me, but I have a good mind and I can discern the antichrist.” Now dear ones, the Bible makes it plain that it will be difficult to discern the antichrist. One of the reasons it will be difficult is given in 1 John 2:19. You remember, John has said so many antichrists have come and then in 1 John 2:19, the Bible reads, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out, that it might be plan that they all are not of us.” But one reason is the antichrist and the spirit of the antichrist is among us ourselves.Another reason that’s given plainly in Ephesians 6:11. Ephesians 6:11, why you cannot discern the antichrist just by your clever mind, “Put on the whole armor of God.” Why? “That you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” The devil when he comes, in the person of the antichrist, will not plainly have a name on his chest saying, “Satan,” or, “Antichrist.” He will come with tricks, and with wiles. It will be impossible to discern him however closely you have studied the Bible. The Bible itself is not a sufficient guard against the antichrist.Some of us know we’re not walking in all the will of God. You know it. You know you’re not walking in all the will of God. You know you’re walking a little aside from God’s will and yet you keep pretending to yourself, “Ah, I will not be deceived by the antichrist. I will know him because I will see him. He will look like the antichrist.” He won’t dear ones. The spirit of antichrist wasin the false prophets and here’s what it said about the false prophets by Jesus, Matthew 7:15. Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in,” wolves clothing? No. But, “Who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”In other words, the antichrist will look like Christ. You see, from what you read in the scripture the antichrist will come and will claim to unite all nations and all political powers in him. He will claim to unite all churches in himself. He will come as the savior of the world. He will say, “Come bring to me your sick and your dying. Come to me those who are enslaved and need deliverance and I will deliver you.” The antichrist will look like Christ. He will be in sheep’s clothing. You by the cleverness of your own mind or even by your intimate knowledge of the Bible will not be able to discern him just by that alone.You may say, “Oh, now that’s silly we’ll know him by his works. He will come and he will burn and ravish all before him.” He won’t. He will come with healing medicines. He will come with an offer of peace, mental peace such as we have never had before. He will come and offer to solve the international problems in politics. He will come and promise to solve the economic difficulties we have in our nations. He will come with good works. You doubt it? Well, look at what Jesus says himself you can find it there in Matthew 7:22, that same Chapter Matthew 7:22, Jesus says, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many might works in your name?’ And then will I declare to him, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’” And so the antichrist will come with mighty works that will imitate the works of Jesus.You remember what happened when Moses threw down his staff and it turned into a snake? Weren’t they able to imitate the work even of God? How much more will the antichrist be able to imitate the very works of Jesus? Some of us say, “Well, we’ll know him by his fruits, by their fruits you shall know them.” But you know that today already, there are imitation fruits all around us. There are so many of us that talk about concern now, we talk about care, you must be concerned, and you must show concern for the downtrodden. But, it isn’t the loving, it isn’t the loving concern that comes from the heart of Jesus it’s an artificial politic philanthropic concern that ends when its purpose is achieved.But already there is this artificial imitation of love abroad in many of our hearts. Already there is an imitation of Christian joy abroad and many dear ones cannot discern the difference between real Christian joy and the happiness that seems to exist in people’s minds. There is a false peace abroad not only with the tranquilizers but there is a false peace with the new drugs. There is a false peace with even the blindness that has come into many man’s eyes about the future. There are artificial fruits. We will not be able to discern the antichrist simply by his works or by his fruits.The only way we can prepare for the coming of the antichrist and the only way you can be assured that you will not be deceived by him when he comes is to allow the Holy Spirit tonight, to wield his sword in your own spirit and to show you if any of the marks of the spirit of antichrist are present in your life. Now, will you do that dear ones? Will you allow the Holy Spirit to wield his own sword in your heart and to stop saying, “I was born again on that date.” Or, “I was sanctified on that date.” Or, “I was baptized with the Spirit on that date.” And allow the Holy Spirit himself to speak to your heart.Let’s just look at some of those plain marks in scripture. The first one is found right at thebeginning of the Bible Genesis 3:4-6. Genesis 3:4-6, “But the serpent,” who is a symbol too of Satan and of the antichrist, “But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” The spirit of antichrist is the spirit of the whisperer. Yeah, the spirit of antichrist is the spirit of the whisperer. The spirit of antichrist makes the bullets and allows someone else to fire.“I believe Mrs. Woodard feels that your children make a little too much noise.” Yeah, that’s the spirit of antichrist. That establishes a hostile triangle, right? With the one that told it, with the one whose children are being talked about, and with Mrs. Woodard. And you only need four of those and you have 12 dear ones who have distrust being built up in their hearts for each other. No, it is up to Mrs. Woodard to go and tell about the children herself. But, the spirit of the whisperer wants to have the privilege of imparting to you some special knowledge that only she has. The spirit of antichrist is the spirit of the whisperer.This is why John Wesley said, “Never say anything about anyone who is absent or anyone who is dead.” Never. You don’t need to talk about them. You don’t need to do you? Are you doing them any good? It’s the spirit of antichrist that is working in your heart at that moment dear ones. It’s not achieving any good, you know that, it only creates distrust. Or, you know, “I don’t think John is really capable of that Job.” When it isn’t your responsibility to decide whether he’s capable or not and you aren’t asked any opinion but you say to a third member, “I don’t think John is really capable.”That binds you two in an attitude of superiority to John and eventually John’s spirit feels that and there’s distrust and the spirit of antichrist has already begun to prepare you to receive him when he comes because he is the spirit of the whisperer. Dear ones, no whispering and if there is any whispering in your heart and if you’ve done that then seek the spirit for purification tonight. Not only for forgiveness but for purification from that whispering spirit.Let’s look at a second mark of the antichrist and generally speaking it’s given by Jesus in Matthew 15:6. And generally speaking it’s the attitude of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. The attitude that wants to question or disobey God’s word. You remember the serpent said, “God has not said,” and it’s that spirit and it’s found in Matthew 15:6 and Jesus is speaking to some of those who had the spirit of antichrist living in them. Matthew 15:6, “So, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God.”Now first of all dear ones, for the sake of your tradition. So many of us will say, “Well, I believe that you’re righteous because Christ’s righteousness is imputed to you. I believe you’re holy in Christ. I believe you can commit adultery and God looks down upon you and he says, ‘That’s no adultery,’ because you’re within Christ.” And there are dear ones who say, “This is our tradition. We believe in imputed righteousness. We believe you are holy in Christ. You may not be holy in life but you’re holy in Christ.” And so they have a list of sins every day and they bring them to Christa and they confess them to him as a matter of course but they thank him that they are holy in Christ.And Jesus again, and again says, “If a man love me he will keep my words. If a man loves me he will not continue to cut me apart with the nails and the sword.” But they say they are holy in Christ. And Jesus says, “So, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God.” There are many in whom the spirit of antichrist has made void the word of God for the sake of their tradition.So, let’s go to the other side of the spectrum and there are many of us who believe in holiness and we say, “It’s glorious where you come to the place where you die to that old self and where the Holy Spirit cleanses your heart from anger, and jealousy, and impatience, and irritability, and critical spirit, and it’s glorious when you come to that place when you know the old self is dead at last and nailed to the cross.” And then the next day we find we’re a little angry so for the sake of our tradition, for the sake of our belief in eradication, we say, “The sin was taken out so that’s not anger.” And we call black white. For the sake of our tradition we make void the word of God.Now dear ones, those are some of the marks of the spirit of antichrist. And many of us – I see some dear ones whom I love and they’ll know what I mean when I say this, many of us do the same with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We say, “I am baptized with the Holy Spirit. I may be irritable in my home, I may cut my wife to bits, I may be angry when my friends oppose my doctrine but I am baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Dear ones, the baptism with the Holy Spirit, according to Acts 15:9, cleanses our hearts by faith but for the sake of our tradition we make void the word of God. One group pretends that sin is not sin with them. The other group pretends that what they’re doing is not sin and the middle group ignores sin altogether and for the sake of our tradition, for the sake of our human doctrines we make void the word of God. There’s another mark of the spirit of antichrist that is outlined in Colossians 2:16-22. Colossians 2:16-22, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no on disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, ‘Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things which all perish as they are used), according to human precepts and doctrines? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh.” And many dear ones who have not really entered into the purifying part of the Holy Spirit have sunk into a false legalism.The Holy Spirit makes you want to obey God’s law and we have every responsibility to encourage each other to obey the law of God if the Holy Spirit of God dwells in us. But, there is a false legalism. There is a list of don’ts and dos that many of us arrange to suit ourselves. So, we happen not to do this thing so we’ll label that a sin because we have no trouble avoiding it. And we list our don’ts and we create a false legalism that is the very spirit of antichrist because it takes our eyes off the beauty of Jesus and the spirit of Jesus and puts our eyes on men’s precepts and doctrines.There is also another mark of the spirit of antichrist mentioned in 1 Timothy 6:20. 1 Timothy 6:20, “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you.” This is the last verse of 1 Timothy 6 dear ones, “Guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge, for by professing it some have missed the mark as regards the faith.” “Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.” Even in Jesus’ day there was a devil living among the Greeks of gnostic beliefs. You remember the mastics felt they had an esoteric kind of knowledge and you needed it.Dear ones, let’s be humble about any knowledge that God has given us. You know there are movements among us in these days that depend on an esoteric kind of knowledge. Esoteric means, you know, aspecialized kind of knowledge and you must joint my group to get it. Now dear ones, that’s dangerous. The Spirit of Jesus is an open spirit full of love, full of joy with only one assurance that the Spirit of Christ moves among you. That the Spirit of Christ motivates your every heart and your every action. But it does not depend on an esoteric kind of knowledge that you feel you can bestow on everyone else. That’s the very mark of antichrist.So is the last mark of this kind that I’d ask you to look at. It’s in 2 Peter 2:17-19 and this is the very opposite of the unscriptural legalism. 2 Peter 2:17-19, “These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved. For, uttering loud boasts of folly, they entice with licentious passions of the flesh men who have barely escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first.” And you see what the Bible lays emphasis on, they promised him freedom but they themselves are slaves of corruption and there is an unscriptural freedom, an unscriptural licentiousness.There is a licentiousness that says, “It doesn’t matter what we do we have the Spirit of Christ within us.” Dear ones, the mark of the Spirit of Christ is plain. It’s plain and you can’t go on saying day, after day, after day, “Well, I’m angry but I have liberty in the Spirit.” The Bible again, and again right down the line talks about anger. Proverbs says, “Cease from anger and forsake wrath.” Another verse in Proverbs says, “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty.” Ecclesiastes says, “Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry for anger rests in the bosom of fools and the fool belief that there is no God.” And Matthew 5:19, you remember, Jesus says, “Think not that I have come to abolish that law and those prophets. I have come not to abolish them but I have come to fulfill them and I tell you it was said of old that whosoever kills is guilty of the judgment but I say to you whosoever is angry with his brother is guilty of the judgment.” Let us face the truth as it is in God’s word. Let us not say, “We have liberty. We have freedom,” while anger rises and rules our hearts. We have nothing but the spirit off antichrist if that is so dear ones.Now, there is another mark of the spirit of antichrist and you can find it in 1 Timothy 1:6-7. 1 Timothy 1:6-7, “Certain persons by swerving from these,” you see what these are they are in Verse Five, “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith. Certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make assertions.” And so there are many today who claim today to be able to teach the way of God but they teach it with so much ambiguity that you don’t know which side you’re on.They say, “You should not sin.” But they say, “Well, this may not be sin and you can sin a little.” They say, “Complete obedience to God is necessary. But well, you have to allow for a little disobedience.” And they teach the way so ambiguously that no one knows where they are. They say, “The Holy Spirit cleanses the heart from all sin,” and then they say, “Well, if there’s a little rising that’s temptation.” Dear ones, temptation comes from the outside. The fiery darts of the wicked one come into the converted heart and it’s like a can of gasoline inside and the look, the look of the girl, or the temptation to be angry comes in as the fiery dart of the wicked one and comes into the gasoline inside and there’s a reaction within that bursts out and responds. And the flame goes up within and the anger is out or the lust is out.And when the sanctified heart meets the fiery darts of the wicked one, the fiery dart of the wicked one comes out from the outside and comes into the inside and into the can of water and it sizzles out and the reaction and the response is not there. Ah dear ones, there’s no ambiguity about the sanctified life. You can know whether you’re sanctified. It’s clear, there is no response within. There is no rising from within. The temptation comes from without. But the spirit of antichrist is trying to encourage many of us to say, “Well, maybe this maybe that.” The trumpet of God issues a certain sound. You have no doubt about the trumpet of God, it issues a certain sound and you know to prepare for battle. But so it is that many dear ones have come into ambiguity in their teaching.Dear ones, there’s no ambiguity in the Bible, it’s full of it you know. Some people say, “Oh, should a Christian obey God’s word? Can you really expect him to obey God’s word?” Well, it runs through every part of it. Deuteronomy, “This day the Lord thy God has commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments. They shall therefore keep them and do them with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” Joshua says, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth even but they shall meditate therein day and night that thy mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.” And we keep on asking, “Do you really mean that Christians are supposed to obey God’s law?”And Samuel said, “Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold to obey is better to sacrifice and to harken than the fat of rams.” And we keep asking, “Do you really think a Christian cannot have any sin in his life?” And in Matthew it says, “Not everyone that sayeth unto me, “Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which thou is heaven.” And we keep asking, “Do you really think that we cannot afford to disobey God’s law even in just our [inaudible 30:21] or sons of God?”Well, the Bible says in James 4:17, that if a man knows what is right to do and fails to do it for him it is sin. And the Bible says, “Anyone who is born of God does not commit sin.” And then we keep on ask you see, “Well, do you really think that we’re not allowed to sin at all?” And Jesus says, “Therefore whosoever hear these things of mine and doeth them I will liken him onto a wise man which built a house upon a rock.” And we ask, “Do you really think a Christian is meant to live without sin? Do you really think he’s meant to obey God’s word?” And Jesus says, “For whosoever do the will of my father which is in heaven the same is my brother and sister and mother.” And we say, “Do you really think you can only belong to the family of God if you obey his word?”Well dear ones, where does it stop? I have a list of symptoms of cancer here. Here they are and I read them out to you. You don’t say to me, “I have only one of those.” One is enough. The marks of the flesh are plain, you know they are. The marks of the flesh are there and you can look them up yourself in Galatians 5:18-23. Galatians 5:18-23, “But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.” You see, you are not going to be condemned under the law. “Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like.”Now the word of God is plain, if you come to that word and say, “Well, do you mean to say if I feel just a little envy for that singer up there and just envy a little that voice that I am not walking in the will of God?” Well, you can judge for yourself. You may say, “Do you mean to say if anger rises in my heart at the children that I have some of the works of the flesh in me?” Well look, look at the word. There is no ambiguity in God’s word and there is no ambiguity in the Spirit of Christ but there is constant ambiguity in the spirit of antichrist.Dear ones, I know many of you need to deal with the Holy Spirit for heart cleansing tonight and the spirit of antichrist is trying to deceive you and persuade you that the amount of victory that you have already is sufficient. Dear ones, complete victory is possible in the power of the Holy Spirit.Well so it goes on, another mark of the spirit of antichrist is 1 Timothy 4:1-2. 1 Timothy 4:1-2, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in a later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared.” And one of the marks of the spirit of antichrist is the deceitful spirit, the dishonest spirit.When the Holy Spirit comes in and cleanses your heart and begins to lead you in away from your soulish powers and into the purity of the resources of the tree of life, then you become very conscious of the slightest dishonesty. The Holy Spirit makes you treasure absolute honesty, absolute honesty. “That’s a beautiful dress.” Well, if it really is and you really think it is then the Spirit of Jesus would have you say it and the dear one will know you mean it and the dear one will know politeness and the dear one will know that cultured sophistication when she sees it and there is just a great difference between the two.When the Holy Spirit comes into your heart he makes you treasure honesty. He has nothing to do with deceitful spirits because they are of the spirit of antichrist. He has nothing to do with doctrines of demons. I think there are doctrines about demons as well as doctrines of demons. I think many dear ones want to cast out demons when they should be repenting of carnality. And I think there are a lot of us you know, that how that doctrine of demons and doctrines about demons. There are doctrines of demons such as Robinson spreads about the virgin birth of Christ and there are doctrines of demons such as [inaudible 34:40] spreads about the reality of God.But there are also doctrines about demons and many of us are wanting people to cast out demons from us when really the demon is just bad temper and we need to get down under God and surrender that old self which produces the bad temper to him. But the doctrines of demons and the doctrines about demons are part of the spirit of antichrist.Then you see it mentions that their consciences have become seared and many wives weep over husbands in these days. Husbands who think they are far on in the spirit and have not the Spirit of Jesus ruling their own hearts and their homes. You cannot be advanced in the spirit unless the beauty of Jesus rules your life and your home and in your work.Just two more dear ones, and one especially that I think is important and you find it in Ezekiel 34:2-3. Ezekiel 34:2-3, and these men were produced by the spirit of antichrist even in Old Testament times. Ezekiel 34:2-3, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ho, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves!” A shepherd you see is one who feeds, but you’ve been feeding yourselves. “Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the crippled you have not bound up, the strayed you have no brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the wild beasts.”There are many who feel they have advanced far in the Christian faith and they are ruled by selfishness. And so I say to my dear brothers and sisters whom I love, it is glorious that there will come a day that the sons of God will be revealed. It is glorious that Jesus is building for himself a great body that will rise up and glorify his Father in heaven even as he glorified his Father. It is glorious that there will be a great day when the sons of God will be revealed. And that’s great but dear ones, let’s be careful. Let’s be careful that we do not become preoccupied with the revelation of us as the sons of God, less we find ourselves feeding ourselves instead of feeding the sheep.After all there’s a time to sow and a time to reap. There is a time to be born and a time to die. There’s a time to save the lost and to see the Holy Spirit filling others with the beauty of Jesus and with the power of Jesus and there is a time for the revelation of the sons of God and no doubt God will lead us forward bit-by-bit. We don’t have to keep looking ahead and trying to see what is going to happen we can trust the Holy Spirit to prepare us for that day.Let us be careful that none of the advancement that we have in the Christian faith becomes a selfish delight in our position. Let us be careful that we are found doing what God has given us to do. The commission, the great commission and my dear brother said, has never been with God. We are still called to go and preach the gospel to all the world and we are to be found doing that when Jesus comes.Well the very last mark of the spirit of antichrist is there in the original chapters we were studying 1 John 2:22. 1 John 2:22, “Who is the liar,” “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.” You mean I say God is not the Father, Jesus is not the son? No. Deny means make nothing of the Father and make nothing of the son.Perhaps the greatest and clearest mark of the spirit of the antichrist is that the antichrist will rise in the place of Jesus. He will take the place that Jesus himself ought to have and the spirit of antichrist is found that it is clearest in our own hearts, in our own selves when we want to rise up and rule our own lives. And the dear one comes home and Jesus wants to be loving to that dear one but the old self wants to rise up and cut the dear one apart. Jesus wants to rise up in us and get the glory in the service, he wants to receive the glory to himself and our old self rises up and we want all men to look at us. We want every eye to see what we have done. There’s a great pride rises up within us. We not only want our way so that Jesus will not have his way but we want our glory so he will not have his glory. There’s a great desire to be praised, a great desire to be noticed that rises up in the hearts that is ruled by the spirit of antichrist because you see, the antichrist is already preparing that heart for himself.He’s already preparing that heart so that heart will recognize him when he comes. That heart will bury down the pride, will bury down the envy and the jealousy but that is all seeping underneath and will rise up to receive the antichrist when he arrives. There are only two guardians against the spirit of antichrist. There is first of all in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 the scripture itself. You can look at it there. Paul explained to Timothy that there would come days of stress and surely those days are already upon us when men would be lovers of self rather than lovers of God. And then he says, “There is only one guard on that day.”2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped forevery good work.” And in Verse 14 he says, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.” And the second guardian against the spirit of antichrist is found in John 16:13 and it is as you can guess yourselves the true Holy Spirit of truth.John 16:13, “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 hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” There will come a day either before you and I die or soon after it when a glorious figure will appear in our world and he will have apparently the fruits of the spirit and he will do many mighty works such as Jesus himself did and that great figure will call to himself all who believe in him, all who respect what he is and great, great numbers of evenly elect will come towards him and be deceived and their judgment will have already taken place. And you say, “How can I prepare for that day?” Allow the Holy Spirit to wield his sword in your heart tonight and be honest.Now many of you have been arguing, haven’t you? I know it because God told me. Many of you have been arguing with God and you have been saying, “Victorious life can’t be that victorious.” A little anger, a little envy, a little jealous and the spirit of antichrist is already in work in you. Dear ones, the only way to prepare is to be open with God. Open with God, direct with him and honest now and admit that you are what you are. And you say, “What can be done?” Well, at this present time the Holy Spirit is here among us. At this present time we are privileged to have the Holy Spirit in our midst. There will come a day when he will withdraw but the Holy Spirit is here tonight and his word is here and you know his word well enough during this past week to know where you stand.The Holy Spirit is able to show you where the spirit of antichrist still rules in your heart and where you yourself are being prepared for his coming. You need to come to the alter tonight and allow the Holy Spirit to do that. Ask him, “Holy Spirit of truth show me where the spirit of antichrist still rules in my heart. Show me where I am not being obedient to you.” And the Holy Spirit will show you. Then you need to see that all that spirit of antichrist within you, all that old self was crucified with Jesus and the Holy Spirit is able to crucify it now in you. He is able to cleanse out all that and fill you with himself so that when the antichrist comes the Holy Spirit will cry in your heart, “That is the antichrist.” But he can only cry that in the heart of one who is being utterly obedient to him today. Well are you such a one and will you have such a counselor on that fateful day? I pray that you will. I pray that you will receive him tonight if you haven’t received him already.Let us pray. Loving Father, we trust you now to do your work. Blessed Holy Spirit, your word has been proclaimed and we trust you to minister to each of us as we need that we may not be found following the wrong man on that fateful day. We trust you Holy Spirit, now to minister to us and to draw out the ones that need to take you fully into their hearts and surrender their spirits completely to you. For the glory of Jesus, our Savior. Amen.

The Death of the Old LifeSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillLast time we shared how God gives us the Holy Spirit and makes our spirits alive. He gives us the Holy Spirit because something has happened that has made it no longer necessary for him to keep the flaming sword that guards every way to the tree of life. The event that happened was simply that his justice was able to work its full way out upon us in Jesus. That’s it. God took the whole human race, put that human race into Jesus, and destroyed it there. Now that his justice has worked its way out upon the sinner, the Holy Spirit and the way to the tree of life are accessible to us.Now it seems to me it is very important to see that the only reason we can experience new birth or the Holy Spirit coming into our spirits and regenerating us — is because all the old life was destroyed. Sometimes I don’t think we really realize that that’s the case — that it’s because all the old race of mankind with all its self and all its own rights were destroyed in Jesus. It’s because of that, that God can actually begin a whole new race. That’s why the new life is possible to us at all.In God’s eyes new life is only possible because he has destroyed all the old life. That’s why we can experience the new birth at all. It’s because we have all died in Jesus and all our old life of independence of God has been destroyed, that God is able to give us a new life in the Holy Spirit. So really, in a sense you could say the death comes before the new birth. Yet it is true that many of us have found ourselves in the new birth experience and have not really come into the death of the old life.That’s what I’d really like to talk about during the three quarters of an hour that we have. I think all of us see that being a Christian is not just being a moral person. It’s not just being a church-goer. That is, it’s not doing works that will save you. It’s not just being a church person, somebody who goes to the right service and attends the right meetings.It’s not just being socially responsible. It’s not just being a person who believes and accepts the world view of Christ that he has preached to the world. It’s not a person that experiences gifts or miracles. A Christian is one who has received the Spirit of Jesus into himself. John 1:12: “To as many as received him, to them gave him the right to become the children of God.”Now we also looked at the kind of person that meant that you were. You remember, it was the kind of person described in 1 John 3:9. A person who had really received the Spirit of Jesus into them would be this kind of person. 1 John 3:9: “No one born of God commits sin; for God’s nature abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God.”So you recognize a person who has really been born of the spirit — not just one who attends church, not just one who accepts the Christian world view, not just one who tries to do what is best for him and the world. You recognize a Christian who is born of the spirit by the fact that he does not commit sin.We talked a little about what that meant. It certainly doesn’t mean that you never deviate from absolute right. Because of our imperfect minds, there will be times when we unintentionally deviate from absolute truth and absolute goodness. So certainly, not committing sin doesn’t mean that we never unintentionally deviate from absolute right. At times you will.Nor does it mean that you never err in excess of emotion. I think our emotions at the point of the new birth certainly are not utterly balanced and at times we will joke more than we should. I feel like Ron and I and Scott — who were comedians before we met Jesus — will have emotions that tend to fly off from the old joke or the old laugh too much, and we will overbalance in that direction. So, it doesn’t mean that you’ll never indulge in excess emotion.It doesn’t mean that you won’t fall back at times through physical weariness. In other words, because of imperfect mind, and imperfect emotions, and a weakened body, we’ll find that very often we’ll make mistakes and we’ll do things that we didn’t intend to do. So that isn’t sin. Sin is what is stated in James 4:17. It’s stated very clearly so we really need be in no doubt of what it is: “Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”Sin is something very far from being an unintentional deviation from absolute right. Sin is a deliberate disobedience — a conscious knowing disobedience to God’s rule and God’s law.It’s a knowing disobedience of the 10 Commandments, a knowing disobedience to the life that is presented in the Sermon on the Mount, a knowing disobedience to some of the marks of a Christian that are described in Paul’s Epistles, a knowing disobedience to the whole example we have in Jesus’ life. Sin is a conscious resistance to that will of God that is stated for us in scripture. So sin is something very concrete. It’s a conscious disobedience to God’s will as outlined in the gospels, and the Epistles, and the Old Testament.Now, does this mean that a Christian never sins? “Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin.” We’ve talked in the past a bit: does this mean you never sin, or does this mean that you just don’t sin habitually?It certainly doesn’t mean anything as weak as not sinning habitually. It doesn’t mean, “Oh yeah, I sin once or twice every week but not habitually. I mean, I don’t sleep in every day of the week. I don’t sleep in habitually. I sleep in maybe Saturday morning and maybe an odd Monday morning but not habitually.” So, it doesn’t mean anything as weak as “does not commit sin habitually.”But I think it’s fair to see that it doesn’t really mean “never sins.” It means hardly ever sins. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin. This is not the natural normal activity of a Christian who is born of God — because the nature within him is Jesus’ nature, and that nature always wants to obey God and will always obey God — except where the imperfect mind, or the unbalanced emotions, or the weakened body that has not yet come under the daily discipline of the daily cross — prevents the spirit of Jesus from getting out through that person. But inside, the person will always have a pure attitude of wanting to obey God.That brings us to the problem of the death of the old life, because I think that many of us have difficulties there. We know that a Christian is one who does not commit sin and who does not disobey God knowingly. Yet we have problems inside in our own inner lives.We come to a situation where we are due to hand an assignment in to a professor and we know we have to be honest. It says so in Ephesians 4:25. It might be good just to look at it because God’s word can often speak individually to us as we look at it. Ephesians 4:25: “Therefore, putting away falsehood, let every one speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” And we see that.We say, “Alright, I’m a Christian. I’m a child of God and I’ve to put away falsehood.” We haven’t the assignment ready for the professor and we tell him so.What troubles many of us is that even as we tell him, we have within us almost an unbearable strain that makes us want to tell him a lie. We tell him the truth, but inside us there’s a tremendous strain — because we don’t want to face the music and we don’t want to lose our reputation with this man who respects us. Even though we do obey, we find a tremendous pressure within us, a tremendous desire of the flesh that is against the desire of the spirit. That desire is deep down there and we try to rationalize it away but it’s still there.Or, we go home and the roommate is there. They’ve taken all of our books out and spread them all over the floor. We know we’re to be patient with them, and we now that we’re not to be angry with them, because if you’re angry you sin, and we hold the anger in. But within us there is a tremendous strain and desire to be angry with that person, to put them in the right place.So even though we obey God outwardly, inside we find this tremendous strain. I think many of us wonder: is this the victory in the Christian life? We’re obeying – okay, we’re obeying outwardly. We’re not sinning outwardly. But inside we have a tremendous battle to hold down that attitude, or that reaction, or that response, or that motive that is not in accordance with God’s Spirit.So underneath the water of the lake there is this restlessness. We feel it’s there. I think you’d admit that at times you can obey God and you can be kind to the sister and say the right word to the brother but inside it’s as if you didn’t do it — because the restlessness is so miserable, and the strain is so terrible, that it’s almost as if you in your own heart have sinned.Now that’s one of the problems they come against — that desire within to sin even though they don’t actually sin. I think we have another problem, and it’s really the problem outlined in Hebrews 12:1. It’s a famous phrase that you’ll recognize. In Hebrews 12:1 the writer of Hebrews is saying that we should follow the example of a great cloud of witnesses: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” “Sin which clings so closely” is translated in the King James Version as “the besetting sin.”That’s the second problem that many of us Christians have: we’re born of the spirit but we have a sin that we cannot get over. I don’t know what it is with you. With me it was the whole question of lust and masturbation. It was that whole area. With others it’s just a strong selfish ambition. With me for some time it was that. It was a strong selfish ambition that I could not get on top of. With some of us it is a pride. But it is some besetting sin that keeps catching us out.Now, we know we’re children of God as long as Jesus continues to deal with us as he told us to deal with each other. That is, he said, “You must forgive until 70 times seven.” So we know we’re saved. God will always forgive us as long as we’re able to repent. So the problem is not that God will ever refuse to forgive us however often we commit this sin.But don’t you see that isn’t the problem? The problem is deeper than that. The problem is that the more that we commit this sin day after day, or week after week, or month after month, the more we attempt to excuse it — the more we attempt to rationalize it — and the more we try to persuade ourselves, “This is just my personality. This is just a normal human trait that I have.”I think that’s the real danger here. The danger is not that God is not willing to forgive us. I think a lot of us are concerned, “Well, am I really a child of God if I do sin? Say I do continue in a sin maybe ever month. Am I a child of God?”You’re a child of God as long as you can sue for forgiveness. As long as you can repent, God will forgive you until 70 times seven and far beyond that time. But the real danger is that we continue in this tendency to rationalize the sin, and to excuse it, and to talk our way around it, until we begin to build up a resistance and a hardening of our conscious towards the conviction of the Holy Spirit.There’s a famous passage in Hebrews 6:4 that deals with this: “For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt.”Do you see? The key words are, “It is impossible to restore again to repentance.” It is not impossible for God to forgive us. God can forgive us until 70 times seven. But it is impossible to restore again to repentance a person who continues to so rationalize and excuse sin in his life that he comes past the point of ever repenting.I think those are the problems we share. Paul expresses it in Romans 7:22-24. It’s that old passage that describes the defeated life that we’ve so often looked at: “For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”The real problem there for us is two-fold. We often find ourselves obeying God outwardly, but inwardly we have a tremendous strain to disobey him. As well as that we have often some sins that eventually have broken out into outward expression in our lives that we keep on rationalizing and excusing away. Do you see it’s the excusing that is the heart of sin? That’s what sin is.Actually the argument mark isn’t over, “Do you tell a lie?” or, “Have I lived the whole of the past year without ever losing my temper?” That isn’t the issue. The real issue is that sin is an attitude of resistance to God’s will that wants to rationalize away any deviation from his will — instead of face it and treat it as sin. That’s the real problem inside us.The problem is how we treat sin as just a human shortcoming, and the corresponding tendency in our nature to suppress it or repress it, and to strive to overcome it, and to fight it. That isn’t God’s plan for us. It isn’t God’s plan that we should live in that kind of rationalizing and suppressing and repressing kind of life.Maybe we could look at the problem as we were mentioning it at the beginning of this talk. The real problem is that though God destroyed all of us in Jesus — and that’s why he can forgive us — yet we have not all entered into that. Now, we did become Christians, because the condition for becoming a Christian is, “to as many as receive Jesus God gives the right to become the children of God.” It’s important, I think, to see that the Greek word for “right” is “exousias.” The King James Version wrongly interprets it as “power.”God gives you the right to become the children of God. He gives you the right to eat fully of the tree of life the moment you are ready to receive his Son Jesus. And you actually do receive the Spirit of Jesus within you at that time.But the fact is that that’s possible only because God destroyed us all in Jesus. You can only experience the fullness of that life when you are actually willing to dot the i’s and cross the t’s of what God did to us in Christ. Only when we’re willing to identify ourselves totally with Jesus’ death will we be able to identify ourselves totally with his fullness of life and his resurrection life.Part of the problem is not that everything has not been achieved for us by God and Jesus — but that we’re only entering into half of it. Really what we need to experience is a complete death. Not just a complete birth but a complete death with Jesus.If you say to me, “Oh brother, why is that?” Because the basic principle upon which God deals with us is, “Be it unto you according to your faith.” God can only do in each of us what we believe he is able to do and what we’re willing to let him do. And so it is unto us according to our faith. So I don’t know about you, but for me, when I heard of becoming a Christian, it was never told me that I died with Jesus. I was told Jesus died for me so that I wouldn’t have to die. So I believed that and God dealt with me according to my belief.I think with many of us that’s the case. God dealt with us according to our belief. We believed that Jesus would come into our hearts when we asked him in, and that’s what happened. We did not believe for any death with Jesus. We didn’t even think it was necessary to die with Jesus. We thought God had destroyed the whole human race in Jesus and that was it.But it is possible to enter into an actual experience with that in our own life. You know the secret is this — that sin is an attitude that has to be destroyed and displaced by the attitude of the Holy Spirit — whereas sins are acts, and thoughts, and words that have to be forgiven. What most of us enter into is a freedom from the outward symptoms first, and we deal with God over the outward acts, and thoughts, and words.Before I became a Christian I would have known what anger was by my angry words. But if you had said to me, “Oh, you’re angry deep down even though you’re not showing it” — I don’t know if I had enough sensitivity or light to even recognize that.I recognized anger when I expressed it. I recognized irritability when I expressed it. But it was only after the Spirit of Jesus came into me and gave me something to compare my own spirit with, that I began to sense that you could have an attitude that didn’t come out and didn’t express itself.So it seems that it’s almost like a darkened room — until you bring a candle in you don’t see the dark corners. It seems almost as if until the pure Spirit of Jesus comes into our hearts, we can’t see the really dark corners — they just look gray to us. So for most of us, I think we’ve come into a forgiveness of our sins but not into a real cleansing of the inward attitude.What is that inward attitude? Some people say it’s just the old nature, and you’re committed to fighting the old nature for the rest of your lives. There’s something silly even in the semanticsof it — because if you say to me, “Oh, he has a generous nature,” you mean he’s a generous kind of person. That’s his nature. That’s the basic kind of person he are. You don’t really mean, “Yeah, well he has a generous nature but he also has another nature.” When you talk about a person being of a certain nature you mean that’s really what that person is.Now do you see you can’t have good fruit from a bad tree and you can’t have bad fruit from a good tree? You can’t have sweet water from a sour source and you can’t have sour water from a sweet source? You’re either one or the other.We all like to think that on the whole we are children of God and on the whole we are really Christians. But there are just little bits of us that aren’t Christ-like. I think it’s probably the other way around. I think on the whole we have an outward appearance of being Jesus, but inwardly we’re our real selves, and that it’s not a question so much of one nature fighting against another. It’s simply a fact that the desires of the flesh are against the spirit wherever they are. The desires of the flesh are always against the spirit. But where the desires of the flesh are strong in us, it’s probably because we have not really received the divine nature of God.And that’s why many of us will say, “Oh, should the Christian life be a striving and a straining to obey?” No, it’s probably true that the Christian life is never that. It’s probably true that it’s just Christ imitators that live a straining, striving kind of life.Yet do you see that you can’t accuse a brother or a sister who has entered into that of not being a Christian in any sense? Because he has entered into all that God has told him, and all that he has believed for he has entered into. But once more life begins to come to him and he begins to see that more is possible. Then he is under obligation to go on into it.Romans 3:25 shows part of the work that Jesus did on the cross. Romans 3:25: “Whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” So the blood of Jesus is what we believe was shed to enable God to forgive us for our sins. And so we enter into a sense of the meaning of the blood of Jesus. Every time we sin we offer to God the blood of Jesus.But the second part of the work that God did on the cross is in Romans 6 and it refers to the cross of Christ. You see how Paul tackles it? He says in Romans 6:3: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”Now, you’ve been baptized into Christ Jesus. You’ve been baptized into him for the forgiveness of your sins. Now do you realize that you were baptized into his death? Romans 6:4: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”The death of Jesus, or the cross of Christ, is something that we enter into. Why? So that we might walk in newness of life. Verse 5 says, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” The truth is that it’s really impossible to walk in newness of life until we enter into the actuality of being buried with Christ. It’s impossible to walk in anything but a partial experience of newness of life until you’ve entered into the death of Christ.The truth is that we all have been crucified. The truth is that you’re not really alive today asfar as God is concerned — you’ve been destroyed. But you and I keep believing Satan’s lie that this is our life and this is our future, and we have a right to our own way and we have a right to establish our reputation. The truth is we haven’t. We’re all dead. At this moment we’re each one in heaven beside the Father — but we won’t believe that or aren’t willing to believe that.First of all, some of us won’t believe it. We just won’t believe it. We won’t believe God’s word that we know that our old self was crucified with him. We just won’t believe it. It’s a problem of the mind. We set our eyes on our experience rather than on God’s word.Some of us have a problem that we are not willing for it. We’re not willing to be dead. You have a car that you like and you have clothes that you like. You have a lot of things you want to look forward to – marriage and a whole future.We don’t want to be dead people. We’re not willing to be dead. Really, if we were honest with God, when he says, “You’re dead with my Son,” we would recognize that we’re saying, “We’re not dead with your Son. We’re alive and we have a right to our own way. We have a right to ensure that we have a certain future ahead of us.”It’s disagreement with God. It’s a controversy with God when we don’t enter into the death with Christ. I think it’s good to see the details of it. You see in Romans 6:6 there are three elements involved in our defeated life that we live even after we’ve received the Spirit of Jesus into us.You see in Verse 6 there’s first of all the old self. There’s that tendency, that desire, to have our own way, to be God of our own lives, to do what we want, to insist on our own rights.Then you see the body of sin, or the sinful body it is called in the RSV {Revised Standard Version of the Bible}. That’s the second element. The sinful body, the body that is being used to commit sin for years. The emotions have been used to getting angry with people who tried to oppose us. The mind has been used to trying to manipulate other people. The body itself has been used to being lazy and being indolent. So, the body can always be called a sinful body because it’s being used for so long by sin. That’s the second element.Then the third element is, “we might no longer be enslaved to sin.” That’s Satan himself. Satan controls the attitude of sin in our world. Satan has spread throughout this world an attitude that is determined to live happily in the world without God, without his creator. It’s an attitude of rebellion against God, to go our own way rather than God’s way, to do what is right in our own eyes. Now, those are the three elements that are used in bringing us into a defeated life.Sin is the source of the rebellion against God. The body of sin is the instrument that that sin uses to express itself in the world. Do you see the middle man? The middle man is our old self. The middle man is the connection between sin and our body. The middle man is that little bit of attitude that self has that it has a right to its own way. It’s the attitude of the will really. It’s the evil will — the attitude of the will that wants to go its own way.Now you see what God does. The perfectionist eliminates sin from the world. They say, “Yeah, when you’ve entered into the death of Christ you never sin again. You can’t ever sin again even if you try hard — you can’t ever sin. Sin is just eliminated from the world.” That’s what perfectionists say.There are some perfectionists who teach holiness in that line. They say, “If you have entered into the death of Christ you’ll never sin again. Sin is once and for all blotted out from the world.” They get themselves into the problem where they go home and beat their wives at night and they say, “No, it wasn’t a sin. It wasn’t a sin. I’m a sanctified Christian. I can’t possibly sin. I know it because I’ve entered into the death of Christ.” That’s what some holiness perfectionist will say. They’ll try to eliminate sin from the world.The ascetics — many of whom I think found themselves in the Catholic Church at one time anyway — the ascetics will try to eliminate the body. They’ll teach the body as the problem. They’ll say, “Let’s eliminate the body. Let’s beat it with irons and with chains.” They’ll say, “Let’s fast, and let’s treat the body so badly that we take from it all power and energy to sin.”That isn’t the answer. God’s answer is you take out the middle man. You take out the old self. You crucify the old self. You crucify that evil will that wants to go its own way. That’s what Romans 6:6 means: we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed — or really rendered inoperative as the Greek word means. Rendered inoperative — and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. It’s the old self that God rendered inoperative. It’s the evil will.That’s what makes us get angry. Your problem and my problem is: are we willing to have that evil will destroyed? I think some of us have said, “Will God make me willing?” Well, God has already destroyed that evil will, but you have to be willing to allow him to destroy it in you. You have to be willing to allow him to destroy what you call freedom of your will.In other words, we have to be prepared to face the consequences if we were never to be allowed to sleep late when we wanted to. Would you be prepared to be in that position? Would you give up your right of ever sleeping late in the morning just because you wanted to — if God wanted you not to? Would you be prepared to give up your right ever to have ice cream again if God didn’t want you to have it? Being willing for God to destroy the evil will means being willing for God to destroy your will completely and make it absolutely like his whenever he wants to. You’d still have to exercise the will, but you’re giving up the right ever to exercise it against God.Now what the Holy Spirit does if a man is really anxious to enter into that, is he begins to show up in your life the places where you wouldn’t be prepared for that — where you just don’t want that. He begins to show you the places in your life where you want your own way and you’re determined to get it, and you’re not prepared for that will to be destroyed. He’ll take the darling sins, or the darling relationships, the things that are dearest to you, that mean most to you. He’ll take those and say, “Would you be prepared for my will to be done alone there and for your will to be destroyed?”What we need to do is to come to the place where we are willing for the Holy Spirit to do that. Where we say, “Lord, I’m willing for you to destroy this evil will and even my good will. I’m willing for you to destroy that. I’m willing to do whatever you want me to do — if you will only make this crucifixion with Christ real in my life.” It is true that after you get down all the levels of the things you’re willing to do and the things you’re not willing to do, the Holy Spirit graciously brings you to a place where he isolates the evil will, the heart of the evil will, the heart of that self.It’s just a miracle of the Holy Spirit that he isolates that for us, because we all probably thinkas I used to think, “Oh, no. It’s just my mind that is used to working intellectually, and so I have a natural pride in my mind. I just have to control that pride.” Or I thought, “No, I’m just an emotional kind of person. Therefore I have trouble with my feelings. I just have to discipline my emotions or my feelings a wee bit more.” But really the heart of it was that my will was letting loose those things, and my will had to be destroyed with Christ on Calvary.The Holy Spirit is so good to isolate that for you, and he’ll find out whatever is your darling sin, or whatever is really the heart of your self will. He’ll bring you to that place and say, “Would you be willing for me to destroy it?” And he’ll only destroy it when you say, “Yes.”I think that’s what some people mean when they say, “Can I pray that the Lord make me willing to be willing?” Well, yes, if you really get down to business and find out in what way you are not willing and are prepared for God to destroy that sense in which you are not willing. But you actually have to be willing for God to take away the right of you to do whatever you want to do. And when you get to the heart of that, then the Holy Spirit will make that crucifixion real in you.I’ve already shared before that it was just deliverance for me, and I almost thought that I had really hardly experienced Christ’s life at all before that time. Even though I did know I was a child of God before then, and I knew I was forgiven, and I knew God would accept me into his own presence — yet I never had any real experience of the victorious or pure life within me — until one day I did say, “I’m really willing.”There are two parts to it, and it might be just good to look at the two verses. First of all to look at 2 Corinthians 5:14 and see the complete experience of the new birth and the new death, or the complete birth and the complete death together as they are in scripture. Because I think we often try to separate them — and you cannot separate really the birth and the death. You cannot separate the birth in the spirit from your death in Christ — though many of us have done this in order to produce an easier kind of Christianity.2 Corinthians 5:14: “For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all.” That is what most of us enter into initially. We are convinced that Jesus has died for us so that our sins can be forgiven. “Therefore all have died.” Because all have died, we have all died with him. That’s what we need to enter into to experience freedom from the power of sin. Not only from the penalty of sin but from its power.The way to enter in is simple. It’s Romans 6:11. First of all the believing: “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin” — reckon yourselves dead to sin — “and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” So we have a responsibility to believe what God has told us is true in scripture.Then the second part is the obedience — Romans 8:13: “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.” Submission to the Holy Spirit will enable the Holy Spirit to make this death real in us and this victorious life real in us. So what’s needed is: believing what has happened to us in Jesus, and obeying the Holy Spirit day-by-day.The same truths are taught in Galatians 5:24-25. It might be good to look at them there again and see the two parts that we need to be willing to enter into: “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” You belong to Christ when you receive his spirit into you. If you have done that then you have already crucified the flesh with his passionsand desires, and you need to take your stand on that biblical ground, “I have been crucified with Christ.” Not, “I have to crucify myself,” but, “I have been crucified.”Then verse 25 says, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” It’s submission to the Holy Spirit day-by-day. Some people have said, “How does it become real in us?” Well, you believe it and you submit to the Holy Spirit and you trust him to make it real in you.Next time I’d like to deal, if possible, with some of the difficulties that we run up against in the actual experiential side of what has potentially taken place in Jesus. So maybe you’d perhaps think of some questions for that presentation that we can then talk about.

How to Enter into DeliveranceSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillBrothers just to remind you we’re in a series at the moment, dealing with the four great stages, if you like to call them, in the Christian life, or the four great freedoms that you can experience in the Christian life. And, you remember, we’ve talked about the freedom from the guilt, from the guilty conscience. And we’ve talked about the freedom from the selfish will. And we’ve talked about the freedom from the domination of a personality that is independent of God’s Spirit. And we’ve talked about freedom from a passive spirit. And it seems to me that those are the great stages, really, that all of us come to, sooner or later–maybe in different order and maybe some faster than the other. But we eventually have to come through those stages.We have to deal with our guilty conscious. We have to allow God to deal with our selfish wills. We have to allow him to deal with our independent souls or independent personalities. And we have to allow him to deal with our passive spirits that are so poor at warring against Satan in an aggressive way. And what we have seen, during the past few talks together, is that all these freedoms and deliverances are found already in what Jesus has done for us on Calvary. So there’s nothing that we need in our own lives that Jesus has not already done for us. All we’re talking about here is the making these things real in our own lives. So it’s never a case of, “Oh, the cross is alright for forgiveness of sins, but when it comes to deliverance from the selfish will, you need the baptism of the Holy Spirit.” It’s never that.It’s always, what we have in Jesus on the cross, we can have made real in our own lives–if we will really believe God’s word, and submit to his Holy Spirit. Now, last time we talked, you may remember we discussed the deliverance from a selfish will. We discussed the problem that we all have found, that is outlined in Romans 7, starting at verse15. I’ll just read it to you. You almost know it off by heart–the problem which Paul explains this way. “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good.” And he says, “I can’t do what I want to do, for I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.”And we talked last day of the need to be delivered from that selfish will. And you remember, we outlined the facts that that deliverance was based on–the fact that our old self was crucified with Christ, that that old selfish will was crucified with Jesus. And in order for that to be made real in us we simply had to believe that and to be willing to submit to the Holy Spirit, to die to self, ourselves. Now those are the only conditions that are necessary.What I’d like to share today in a little more detail is how to enter into that deliverance. And I’d really appreciate it in between the presentations, if you have questions, if you would share them.Question from audience:I was going to ask, you said there were two conditions for the person making it. Can we know which one of those two a person is not fulfilling?Reply from Pastor O’Neil:Sam says that there are two needs: Revelation that you have been crucified with Christ and awillingness to be crucified–belief and submission or trust and obey. And can you, in counseling, tell which one a person is having trouble with?Normally, the Holy Spirit can reveal to you which one the person is having trouble with, though you can see that they are very closely linked, because “belief” in Greek is “pisteuo”. And it has a willingness, a willing content to it. And if you’re not really willing, in fact, you’re only believing with your head. And so, total belief is a real willingness. But I think that’s what I’ll spend the time going into, in some detail.Brothers the first point I think we should make clear is what the deliverance is. And it’s made clear in Romans 7:17, “So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.” “It is sin which dwells within me.” Romans 6 goes back to that fact, you know, where Paul says in Verse 7 of Romans 6, “He who has died is freed from sin.” Now, the deliverance is from sin. Sin is an inward desire to be independent of God.I think it’s very important for us to see that the deliverance is from the selfish will. It is from the desire to disobey God. It is deliverance from the desire to get angry. It’s deliverance from the desire to be irritable. It’s the deliverance from that rising up from within when the fiery darts of the wicked one come into you. It’s the deliverance from that quick reaction that is wrong and that is apart from God’s will.Now why I push that strongly is, I sensed at times, Larry, that you were sometimes asking me, “Well your attitude, I mean, your attitude. You still really have to resist in your attitude.” Well, I think it’s very important to see that it is an actual change that is wrought in your response to Satan’s temptation that takes place when you are willing to die to self. It is not in other words simply a case that the fiery dart of the wicked one comes in. And you find the rising up to get irritable, but now you decide you have to resist it. And so you resist. It isn’t that kind of inner fight that it once was. It is an actual deliverance from the desire to be irritable, or the desire to be jealous, or the desire to be envious. That’s what we mean when we say, “You’re freed from sin,” you see.If you like to put it this way, you’re freed from the power of sin.” Or, if it’s clearer to put it this way, “You’re free from having to sin.” You’re free to sin. But you’re freed from having to sin. So it’s important to make that distinction. You’re free to sin, but you’re now free, so that you need not sin, if you don’t want to. Before, you see, the problem was, “I don’t want to get angry. I don’t want to think these unclean thoughts. I don’t want to be irritable. But, I find something in me that wants to do them.” Now death to self with Christ, and being cleansed by the Holy Spirit, means that your heart is actually cleansed by faith. That’s what Acts 15:9 says, “God gave the Holy Spirit to them as he did to us and cleansed their hearts by faith.”It is actually, brothers, a cleansing of the tendency to disobey God. It is a cleansing from the tendency to fall over independent of God. I make that point, Bill, because deliverance was so real in my own life, you know. And if you press me and say, “Brother, are you saying you never sin again?” I’m saying, “If you ever do sin again it’s your fault.” And many of us are deceived into sinning. And many of us sin after entering into our death with Christ. But if we do, it’s simply our own fault. Before, it was really what Paul said, “If I do it, it is sin that dwells within me.” But now this is a deliverance from that inward sin, and you’re really free to obey.Now I believe I should stop there and give an opportunity for anybody to press me.Question from audience:You mean we’re not responsible for the sin before that?Reply from Pastor O’Neil:Alright, that’s good. Sam says, “You mean we’re not responsible for the sin before that?”And obviously, old Paul would be very strong and say, you know, or James says, “Let no one say is tempted by God.”And undoubtedly God says, “A man is responsible for expressing the inward desire that Satan has put inside him.” He’s responsible for that. And so, even though he says, “This is something that seems to be controlling me,” yet he still is responsible for letting it express itself in his life.Most of us Sam, it seems to me, have come to the place where we do not express this outwardly. But we have it inside, and we’re holding it down. And most of us, therefore, are walking in some degree of victory. But it’s through an intense self will and willpower. And it’s due to great repression and suppression of that desire. But certainly, if we give vent to it, still God holds us responsible for that giving vent. Indeed, we feel it ourselves. We sense guilt, immediately we express that anger. We don’t say to ourselves, “Oh, well that anger is part of Satan so I’m not responsible for it.” There’s something in our conscience that says, “If you express it you’re responsible for it.”Now I think the responsibility is the same in both cases. But before, it seems impossible to do anything about it. And that possibly is due to the fact that we do not read God’s word in an open minded way. Mark?Question from audience:You said there were two steps. Will there be a time period before they experience deliverance?Reply from Pastor O’Neil:Mark is going back–and it’s just for the sake for any who are listening to the cassette that I do this. Mark is going back to the two facts, you remember, or the two conditions that are necessary if we’re to enter in. And they’re outlined in many verses but Galatians 5:24-25 are two such verses, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” That’s belief in that fact. And the second one, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit,” is submission to the Holy Spirit or willingness. And he’s saying, “If you enter into a real belief in the fact is there often a gap,” I think, “Before you enter into the willingness?”Yes, I think there often is. I think many of us have to believe that fact for a long time only in our heads until the Holy Spirit really brings us into a willingness for that fact to be made real in our own spirits and lives. Mark I think now I’m going to deal with just some of those issues.What I’d like now to deal with, brothers, is three of the misunderstandings or misconceptions abouthow to enter into this deliverance from self or this being filled with the Holy Spirit. The first one is this, that many of us do not set our eyes on the fact. We set our eyes on our own experience. Many of us, in other words, when we find anger and impatience within us, say to ourselves, “Obviously, I’m not crucified with Christ. Obviously, you can see it my life is full of irritability, and anger, and jealousy. I’m not crucified.”Now all we’re doing there, is walking by sight and not by faith. We’re walking by the symptoms that Satan is producing in our own lives, rather than by the reality that is stated clearly in God’s word. In other words, God’s word says in Romans 6:6, “Our old self was crucified with Christ.” Now brothers, if the Holy Spirit is going to make real anything in our lives, he can only make it real if we believe God’s word, against our own experiences.Now many of us get into real problems you see, we say, “Oh no, my experience tells me that I am not crucified with Christ. So now I have to crucify myself.” And if we don’t fall into exactly the asceticism of the Catholic saints–of some of the Catholic saints–we do fall into that same kind of attitude, “I must crucify myself. I must destroy this evil within me. I must destroy this selfishness.” And we end up falling into legalism, in order to control this lion within us.Now brothers it is not a matter of looking at our own personal experiences. I think each time you find irritability, or impatience, or anger inside yourself you have to say, “Holy Spirit, I know that is there. Satan, you don’t need to tell me I am evil. I know it. But I know that my old self was crucified with Christ. And I set my mind on that fact. And Holy Spirit, I know you can only make this real, if I set my mind upon it and accept it.”Now brothers if you don’t set your mind on the fact that that was crucified on the cross, you will begin to experience an increasing conviction of sin, which is the Holy Spirit’s way of leading you on into this experience. But, as you increasingly experience how evil and how egotistical you are, that great ego will loom so large, in your own mind, that you’ll become utterly discouraged–unless you keep hold of the fact, “This has been crucified with Christ.” It will overwhelm you completely, you see, unless you hold to the fact in your own mind, “But this has been destroyed. I thank God it has been destroyed. Boy, I’m still under it but I thank God this old self has been destroyed.”But if you don’t accept that brothers, there’ll be no deliverance for you, you see. And I think a lot of us say, “Oh I see the old self. I see the envy. I see the jealousy. I see the irritability, and boy, God, I don’t know how you’re ever going to overcome it.” Unless you hold to the fact that God has said, “Listen my brother, my sister, your old self was crucified with my son. I destroyed all that. What you’re seeing is simply a ghost.” Now if you say to me, “Oh, but brother, if the old self was destroyed, why is it that I still feel the effects of it inside me?” Because, you’re living a lie–you’re believing the lie that that old self is still alive, and that it has a right to its own possessions–it has a right to its own way, when actually God has destroyed it. And the reality is that all of us are dead.I know that’s mad. But the reality is that all of us are dead. And we’ve been raised with Jesus. And at the moment, are at God’s right hand. But, we keep believing Satan’s lie. We believe we have a right to live our own life, to have our own way. And so, his lie produces those evil fruit. Sam?Question from audience:So it’s by ignoring the empirical reality of our evil nature?Reply from Pastor O’Neil:It is in a sense, though it is in another sense facing it, facing it head on and saying, “Holy Spirit, I see that. I see evidence that I’m still believing the lie, but in actual fact, I know that I’ve been crucified. I know that potentially it is there, and the only possibility of it being actualized in me is if I believe it.” It’s the same with our sins. I mean, we all believed that Jesus had died for us, but it was only made real in us when we were willing to let go of our sins. Now, it’s the same with this. The only basis is to believe that you have been crucified with Christ, and then to go on and find out in what way you’re not willing to be, because it’s the unwillingness that prevents the Holy Spirit from making it real.Do you want to press me anywhere brothers?Question from audience: (inaudible)Reply from Pastor O’Neil:Scott, if you don’t mind I’ll repeat that just in case some listen. Scott was saying, as you heard, that it seemed a lot more natural to him, and God seemed to begin to deal with him on the issue, when he at last accepted that, “Okay, I have been crucified with Christ and now I’ll just let the Holy Spirit show me, and make this real to me, but I won’t fight to die.” And it seems to me that’s the heart of it, that we have to accept that when God destroyed Jesus, he destroyed the whole evil world. And we are part of that world. And we have been destroyed in Jesus. And as far as God is concerned we’re no longer any great threat. And we should simply accept, “Well Lord, I thank you that you’ve destroyed this. And now, Holy Spirit, I know you want to express the victory of that death right in my life. And now I just trust you to let it come.”I agree with Scott, I think you can get yourself into a neurotic state if you say, “I’ve got to die. I’ve got to die.” Yeah. It’s actually–the place of faith is, “I believe your word, Lord. Now Holy Spirit, I trust you to make it real in me.” Sam?Question from audience:When I was dealing with some word last Sunday night, it came to me, “What does it mean to hunger?”Reply from Pastor O’Neil:Yes, that’s good. Sam has brought up the question of, when he stops striving, then God seemed to deal with him. Then someone asked, “Well, what does it mean to hunger and thirst after righteousness?” And it seems to me we need to keep doing our best to obey God’s word all the time. We never need to stand back and say, “Okay, I can’t do it I’ll just be a sinner.” We need to, all the time, set our mind on God’s word, and move towards it. But we need to see that what we’re trying to do, is begin to see how helpless and hopeless we are. We’ll never succeed in obeying it on our own. But it’s always a coming to an end of our own helplessness and hopelessness. So it’s a hungering after Jesus rather than a striving to obey the word without him.It seems to me that’s the heart of it. It seems to me as we try to obey the word without God, by our own strength, that’s the striving that is wrong. That’s the striving that God is trying tobring us to the end of. But the point to which he’s trying to bring us, is to see that, with all our striving, we’ll never do anything. What we need is simply Jesus within us. But until that time comes, I think Nee is right. All you can do is keep doing your best to obey. And yet all the time allow the Holy Spirit to show you how hopeless your obedience or your attempts are.The second misconception, brothers, that I’d like to deal with is, that many of us think it’s a question of auto suggestion. Many of us say, “All I have to do is auto suggest myself into this death with Christ.” And we keep saying it – in fact, I know a brother who used to walk around saying, “I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead.” Now, do you see that’s only the mind trying to persuade the mind that it’s dead? In other words, it’s revelation, not auto suggestion that will bring us into this.And it ties up a bit with what you said Scott, we need to set our mind on the fact that we’ve been crucified with Christ. And then ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us in what way we’re not crucified. But it seems to be an attitude that says, “Alright Holy Spirit I’ve tried my method. Now I’m giving up on my method. I’m willing to try your method. Holy Spirit, will you give me revelation about what, in what way, I’m not crucified with Christ?”Now brothers, if you don’t do that, you end up in introspection, because you start looking around and saying, “Well, I’m not dead. It’s not real in my life. Now in what way am I not dead?” And you start asking yourselves all kinds of questions that you make up, you know. “Would I be willing not to be married? Yeah, yeah. Would I be willing not to have a dog? Would I be willing not to have two dogs? Would I be willing not to have a lot of money?” And you start making up questions that God isn’t asking you at all.Now it seems to me that’s the difference between striving around and thrashing around in your own experience and introspection and auto suggestion and what is really needed, going to the Holy Spirit and saying, “Holy Spirit, my Lord said, ‘You would lead me into all truth.’ My Lord said, ‘You would counsel me.’ Now, Holy Spirit, tell me how do I look in Jesus’ eyes at this moment? In what way am I not willing to go through his death with him? In what way am I not willing to die to self? Holy Spirit, I’m asking you. Will you show me?”And brothers, it seems to me that’s the hungering and thirsting after righteousness. It’s not so much, if you like, a hungering and thirsting after victory, Scott. It seems to me you can come preoccupied with victory until it becomes almost a neurotic obsession. But, it’s a hungering and thirsting after the Father’s will. “Lord, what is your mind for me? What do you think of me? Holy Spirit, you know God’s mind. You know how he sees me. Give me judgment day honesty. Help me to see myself through Jesus’ eyes.”And it seems to me that’s what we mean by revelation, you see. And that’s so important, brothers, because all of us have different things holding us back from death to self. All of us hold back from the cross for lots of different reasons. And the person, who knows you best, still doesn’t know you well enough to show you in what way you’re not willing to be crucified in Christ. Only the Holy Spirit knows you that well.And so that’s the second misconception. A lot of us think it’s auto suggestion instead of revelation. A lot of us think it’s introspection instead of revelation. But it’s not. It’s always revelation. And that’s, Scott, where that rest comes in. You come to a place where you see at last, “Lord, I don’t know what’s holding me back. I’ve done my best to obey. I don’t know what’sholding me back. Holy Spirit, will you show me?” And there was a great deliverance in my own life when I gave up the introspection, and gave up trying to see the thing for myself. In fact, it involved a death to my own mind, because my mind thought it could discover all my shortcomings itself. And so that was part of the old self that had to die.Now brothers, revelation not auto suggestion. Is that okay?The third misconception brothers, is this. I think a lot of us are tempted by Satan to believe that this experience of death to self, or deliverance from the selfish will, is simply a question of believing that we’ve been crucified with Christ, and then repressing the feelings that we have inside, on the basis of that. So a lot of us, I think, get into the position where we think it’s a kind of double think, or a kind of bluff. “Okay knowing that you’re crucified with Christ, knowing that fact, that fact has a certain intellectual power of constraint upon my mind. And if I keep holding to that I’ll come into more strength than I used to have over envy and jealousy. And I’ll somehow be able to repress them or suppress them, in a way that I wasn’t able to before.”Now brothers, it is not suppression. It is submission. It is not suppression of the evil things within us. It is submission to the Holy Spirit. It is a loving gentle attitude to the Holy Spirit. “Holy Spirit, show me in what way I’m not ready to die to self. And whatever way you show me, I’m willing to submit to you.” And you submit to the Holy Spirit. You come into an absolute death to your own ability to live the Christ life, and an absolute obedience, instant obedience, to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit naturally and unconsciously takes away those desires from within you.So it is a real miracle, the Holy Spirit removes those things from your heart as you spend your time submitting to him. So actually it’s far from preoccupation, you know, with the evil things within you. Actually, it’s a real preoccupation with the Holy Spirit and with submitting to him. And suddenly as you begin to submit to him completely, and trust him to make the Christ life real in you, suddenly you find yourself flying over all the other things. So it is a real miraculous removal of those things by the Holy Spirit. It isn’t a suppressing of them with the help of the intellectual fact that you’ve been crucified with Christ.It is in other words, a real miracle, brothers. It’s a miracle that the Holy Spirit works in your spirit in response to your absolute submission to him. And if you say to me you see, “Where is the problem?” I think the problem is in the submission to the Holy Spirit. I think we think we’re submitting to the Holy Spirit, but there are a hundred different ways in which we’re not really obedient to the Holy Spirit at all. And, in a way, this experience is an experience of total obedience, you know.Question from audience:How can one have the discernment to obey the Holy Spirit before they’ve died to self?Reply from Pastor O’Neil:How can one have the discernment to obey the Holy Spirit before they have died to themselves? First of all I would go in on the word discernment. I would say that it is not discernment that is needed to obey the Holy Spirit. But it is willingness to obey the Holy Spirit. Then, when you come into a willingness to obey the Holy Spirit, discernment is given to you. In other words, God is very gracious he doesn’t reveal to you much more than you’re willing to enter into. He just reveals alittle step ahead to convince you that there’s resistance in there that has to be dealt with. But he will not – somebody has said, “The key to insight, spiritual insight is love, loving obedience.”And so you only receive the discernment when you actually come into a willingness to obey. That would tie up, Mark, with what I’ve said at times that when you come into full consecration or readiness to die to self, the Holy Spirit witnesses that inside. He witnesses it, so that you know, “Yeah, I am ready.” And then discernment pours in on top of you. If God gave us all the discernment that he could give us, about how we’re not obeying the Holy Spirit, he would blind us, and absolutely discourage us, and dishearten us. So, he only gives just enough, which is why we talk about revelation, why we talk about the importance of revelation. God only reveals what is necessary for us to see at that time in order to enter into deliverance.Question from audience:Doesn’t this description tend to present the death to self as a process rather than as a crisis?Reply from Pastor O’Neil:Why I think it appears as a process is, I’m trying to take this experience apart, and trying to foresee all the ways in which we try to enter into it that are unscriptural, and ineffective. And I think, in fact, you can spend a lot of time dying, but there’s a moment when the breath stops and you’re dead. So you can say that there is a process leading up to the experience, but the experience itself is instantaneous. And I remember in my own life there was a moment came, when I knew I was willing to die with Christ. And it was just a moment when I knew I was filled with the Holy Spirit.Could I just finish with one thing brothers? What is the relationship of this to the baptism with the Holy Spirit? It does seem that this is the precondition of a full, complete baptism of the Holy Spirit. You can’t say that being ready to die to self is the baptism with the Holy Spirit. All you can say is that, when you are willing to die to self, and to be buried with Christ, then, as he rises up from the water, and the dove of the Holy Spirit comes upon him, so as we rise up from our crucifixion with Christ, the Holy Spirit comes upon us, and baptizes us with himself–filling us for inward purity and anointing us for outward power–filling us with the fruit of the sprit, the nine fruit of the spirit, and anointing us with the availability of the nine gifts of the spirit.But it is true I think, doctrinally, to say that it is – the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a result, or follows upon, our readiness to be crucified with Christ. And yet it’s the baptism with the Holy Spirit that actually completes it, because you can be ready to be crucified with Christ and to die with self and never be angry again, but, unless the Holy Spirit baptizes you with himself, there’ll be no deliverance from anger. So, really, it’s important to see that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is, as it were, the seal. Ephesians puts it, you remember, it’s the seal of our childlike position to God the Father.So the baptism of the Holy Spirit is what follows upon our readiness to die with Christ. Now does anyone want to press me on that?I think we dealt, last day, with the fact that some people do seem to enter into a very partial experience that they call baptism with the Holy Spirit, but that is only a temporary experience of some of the gifts of the spirit–at times tongues, or maybe some of the miracle gifts. But theydon’t enter into a real death to self with Christ. And so they don’t minister life through the gifts. They become preoccupied with the gifts and with each other.Brothers, is there anything because I think we’re finished?Question from audience:It’s very natural. I didn’t realize it was happening.Reply from Pastor O’Neil:That’s good. It is good to point out what Larry has done, that many of us have entered into this without any of the terms or the names being used, and that actually if we follow on after the Holy Spirit, he will lead us into this. It seems, Larry, the tragedy is, that many of us have not followed after the Holy Spirit, or have received some teaching which discouraged us from going on into a complete consecration, and so we have entered into only a partial experience of the forgiveness of sins, and deliverance from guilt, and we still walk in a defeated life, because of the selfish will.Okay, shall we pray? Lord Jesus, we thank you for the completeness of the victory that is in you and in your death and resurrection. And we trust you by your Holy Spirit to make it real in each one of our lives. To actualize in us what has potentially taken place in you. Lord Jesus, we know that this is your will. And we thank you that all that we need is found in you, and in your death, and in an absolute identification of ourselves with your death and resurrection. We thank you for that, for your glory, amen. ????????

Independent Life of the Soul – edited by MarySermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillDo you remember the night that the servants of the high priests arrested Jesus in the Garden Gethsemane? You remember the scene and then coming into the garden and surrounding him and his disciples? Now, there was an incident that took place then and I’d ask you to look at it with me loved ones, it’s John 18:10-11. The high priest followers have surrounded the disciples and Jesus and then in John 18:10, “Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s slave and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus. Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?’” Now what was the cup which the Father had given him?Well, if you see that you’ll find it in Matthew 16 where he had explained it carefully to Peter long before that incident took place. Matthew 16:21, “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men.’”So Jesus knew that God had a plan for his life and he was determined to drink the cup of that plan to the last drop. But Peter rebelled against the whole plan and felt, “No, Jesus don’t die stay alive as long as possible and liberate the Jews from the Romans.” And so Peter rejected the plan that God had completely and was determined to ensure that his plan would be executed by the strength of his own strong right arm and that was the situation in the Garden of Gethsemane.Now loved ones that is sin in the flesh. That is sin in the flesh, independent action by ourselves on the basis of our own needs for self preservation, absolutely independent of what God wants and using our own power to bring it about. That’s sin in the flesh, you see. You remember, we came across it last Sunday because in Romans 8:3, it says, “That God sent Jesus and he destroyed sin in the flesh in Jesus.” Now sin in the flesh is just Peter’s action in the garden. It’s action and attitudes within ourselves that are motivated by priorities of the body’s need for self preservation and self gratification independent of what God wants.Now I think some of us who are activist are prone to say, “Ah, that’s it! Sin in the flesh is action and today’s study walking in the spirit is doing nothing, leaving it all up to God.” Well no, you know Jesus did plenty. I mean, he healed lepers, he rebuked the religious leaders, and he carried his own cross, and he turned over the tables of the money lenders. So walking in the spirit is certainly action but sin in the flesh is action that is motivated by our own selfish desire for things, for pleasure, for power, and influence. That’s what sin in the flesh is. It’s action and attitude that is independent of God, that is for our own benefit, and is motivated by the old body’s need for things, and for pleasure, and for security. That’s what sin in the flesh is and really that’s what God is opposing in Jesus.And going back to last Sunday’s verse, some of you may say, “Well, why did he destroy sin in the flesh?” Well maybe you should look at the verse because some of us weren’t here last Sunday and maybe you should get the continuity for today’s study, Romans 8:3 dear ones, it mentions this sin in the flesh. Romans 8:3, “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.” Some of usmay say, “Well, going back to that verse I mean, why did God have to condemn sin to destruction in the flesh?” Well the answer is that we men and woman had been operating that way for so long over so many centuries that we have actually managed to twist our own personalities so that they only work that way.That’s it. Somebody comes at us with a sword; we take out our sword and cut the ear off. We’ve been operating that way so long that our personalities have become twisted and forced into a rut whereby they always work from the body’s fear mechanism, or the body’s need for security mechanism, or the body’s need for comfort and pleasure mechanism work from the outside in all the time. It’s been going for centuries like that. You remember what happened with Cain and Abel way at the beginning. Cain and Abel were two brothers, they brought two sacrifices to God but God judged that Cain’s heart was not truly penitent and Abel’s was and so he refused Cain’s sacrifice. Cain, kind of casual like, “Would you like to come out into the field with me Abel?” And then, just takes out his sword and kills his brother. Then when God says to him, “Where is his brother?” He says, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”So that was from that early stage but loved ones, the whole race has been operating that way for generations. So much so that we have developed personalities that are twisted so that’s the way they automatically operate. So we try to do what God wants us to do but our whole personalities have been rutted into that kind of activity for so long that they are now hopeless reversed and perverted and the only way God can give us any chance to do what he wants is to destroy that old reverse personality completely.You’ll find the same line again, you know, and you’ll see yourself in this one, with Jacob you remember Jacob and Esau? You remember Jacob had conned his brother Esau out of his inheritance as an older brother. Then, years later he heard that Esau was coming with many, many men to meet him and so look at Jacob’s action. If you look at it in Genesis 32:11, and first you see he tries to do it the way God wants him to, he prays, “Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and slay us all, the mothers with the children.” So he did make the effort to do the thing right, to go to God first and say, “Lord, I did the wrong thing in regard to my brother. Will you protect me now?”But it’s like ourselves you know, we say a prayer and then we think, “We better stack the deck the right way anyway just in case the prayer doesn’t work,” and you get it in Genesis 32:13. “So he lodged there that night, and took from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau, two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty she-asses and ten he-asses. These he delivered into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants,” as usual you know our own system becomes highly complicated, “Pass on before me, and put a space between drove and drove.’ He instructed the foremost, ‘When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong?’” And you can get our old system in it, we’re always manipulating and every time we manipulate everybody has to say just the right word you know, “Don’t tell him it this way tell him it this way.” “To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these before you? Then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present sent to my lord Esau; and moreover he is behind us.’ He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, ‘You shall say the same thing to Esau when you meet him, and you shall say, ‘Moreover your servant Jacob is behind us.’ For he thought, ‘I may appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterwards I shall see his face; perhaps he will accept me.’” That’s sin in the flesh.Not necessarily doing anything wrong you see, sin in the flesh is not necessarily murdering people, or committing adultery, or committing fornication. Sin in the flesh is just acting independent of whether there’s a Creator or whether there is not a Creator, independent of what he wants from my life or what he doesn’t want, but acting on the basis of the old body desires for pleasures, security, and power over other people. That’s loved ones, what sin in the flesh is and the truth is we have a human race have been acting that way so long that our personalities are hopelessly twisted into that direction.And so for God to get us to operate the other way he has to first of all deal with this miserable twisted perverted personality. And you know, some of you know, the diagram but it’s a fast way I think, of reminding you of it but that was the way our personalities were supposed to work there. And it was God’s plan that we would always operate that way. We would operate by praying to him as Jacob tried to in the beginning in asking God what he wanted. Then he would give us the life of his Holy Spirit in communion with him and would, through the intuition of our spirits, guide us as to what we should do and then our conscious would constrain our will on the basis of that guidance and direct our mind and emotions so that they would understand God’s will for us.Our emotions would experience the joy of doing it and we would pass it on through our bodies to the world and express it through our bodies to the world. And that was God’s plan for us, that we would operate that way. Now of course, we kept rejecting that, we kept acting as Cain did on the basis of security, or jealousy, or pride, on the basis of Jacob his fear of his brother, on the basis of Peter let’s get our own way, our own judgment is right in this instance and we began to operate the personalities the other way completely. And so we began to be dominated by our minds and emotions and they in turn were dominated of course from here by the needs of the body and we began to concentrate on doing things that would give us enjoyment, that would give us control of other people, that would exploit our flesh and give us a sense of thrill in that area.And so our whole personalities have been reversed and perverted and now that’s why God destroyed sin in the flesh. He took our whole personalities, put them into Jesus and destroyed that old personality there and that’s really what that means. That that was the way we operated and God took that personality that operated from the outside in from the body and its desires, and its needs, and its necessities, and put it on the cross and destroyed it and raised us up as a new personality. And that’s what God has done.What we shared last day was that God has done that with every one of us. He has destroyed sin in the flesh. He has destroyed that old personality that worked the wrong way around. In other words really, he took Peter’s old desire to retaliate immediately somebody attacked him and he put it into Jesus. And even though Jesus could have had any time called millions of angels to his aid yet when the Roman soldier put the spear into his side he accepted it and refused to retaliate on the basis of the needs of his own body and the desire of his own mind and emotions to protect himself. And in doing that he destroyed Peter’s powerful retaliatory force inside his personality. And so he made it possible for Peter to receive a new personality and that’s what he has done with each one of us. He has taken that old personality of yours that has been used to operating the other way for years; he has put it into Jesus and destroyed it there.Now loved ones, here’s a question if Peter just believed that would he fulfill God’s will for his life? That is, if Peter said, “Well, I believe that my old desire to retaliate was crucified with Jesus. I believe that. Okay now Lord, does that satisfy you?” God would have to say, “No. I destroyed your old contorted perverted personality so that you would be able to obey me. It’s notenough for you to just believe that I removed this old personality that prevented you obeying me out of the way. I have done that so you will obey me, so that you’ll take advantage of the new personality I’ve given you. So that you’ll take advantage of the death of your old self and old flesh in Jesus and you’ll begin to obey me. In other words, the reason I took your old perverted personality and put it into Jesus and destroyed it was to stop you cutting off people’s ears. That was why I did it. It wasn’t so you’d carry on saying as you took the 25th ear off, the 25th of the high priest guard, ‘Oh well, I believe my personality has been destroyed in Jesus.’ No, I did it so that you would stop cutting off ears and so that you would take advantage of the new personality that I have given you.”Now loved ones, many of us I think have a misapprehension about this. I think many of us think, “Oh no, you’ve got it wrong. Jesus died to his desire to retaliate against the Roman soldiers. Jesus destroyed my old selfish personality in himself and the perverted drive of my psychic and of my spirit so that I would not have to do it myself. So Jesus fulfilled the law so that I do not have to fulfill it.” Now loved ones, there are people down through the centuries that have been called antinomians. Antinomians, anti and “nomos” is Greek for law and anti is against the law and there have been people down through the years who have been antinomians and have said, “No, no Jesus destroyed the selfish drive in himself and obeyed God’s law so I wouldn’t have to do it any longer.” And they will say, you see, you don’t need to do anything. You just need to believe that your old personality has been crucified with Jesus and that’s enough and you can do what you like then. You can live how you please because the important thing is Jesus has fulfilled the law for you.Now of course, it just contradicts the ideas of our own logic but it contradicts also this verse loved ones, that we’re studying today so maybe you’d look at it and we’ll just take it word-by-word. Romans 8:3-4, “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.” For what purpose? So that we would not have to do anything else but believe? No, “In order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us,” that’s why God did it. God destroyed the old carnal reversed personality that we have that has made it impossible for us to obey him; he destroyed that in Jesus in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.Now an antinomian would read that verse you see and say, “Oh no, the verse is wrong, the Greek is wrong. The word is not in; it is in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled for us.” No, it’s that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. You can’t go home and lose your temper with your wife. You can’t go home and tell lies about the missed assignment and say, “It’s okay, Jesus has fulfilled that law for me so I don’t need to fulfill it.” The fact is loved ones; Jesus wants to fulfill the law in you not for you. What Jesus did for you was to die for you so that God could take your miserable perverted personality, put it into Jesus and destroy it there and make a new beautiful personality available to you that was adapted for God’s original purpose of working according to his judgment and by his power.That’s what Jesus did for you, but he did that for you so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in you. And I think some of us you see, who have been brought up maybe under a kind of antinomian teaching, we will react and say, “Ah, that’s work righteousness. You’re saying we have to do something, we have to do something.” Well no, not really loved ones, it’s the passive voice you see. The verb is in the passive voice there in Romans 8:4, “In order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.” In other words, I’m right with you. You have no more power to obey God’s law after your old self has been destroyed in Jesus than before it was destroyed. You can’t obey God’s law yourself it has to be fulfilled in you by the Holy Spirit ofJesus.So it’s the Holy Spirit of Jesus that obeys the law but he does obey it in you. So you know you can’t afford to say to your mum or your dad, “Yeah, yeah I know I lost my temper but it’s okay Jesus in some ephemeral place in the seventh heaven is obeying the law for me and it doesn’t matter what I am doing down here.” Because your mum and dad have every right to say, “No, no, the teaching is that Jesus is obeying it in you. And if he’s obeying it in you it’s probably that I’ll be able to perceive it.” And so Jesus’ Spirit fulfills the law in us.But that’s the purpose of it loved ones, that we would express and let Jesus express his obedience to the law through us. And that’s why God destroyed that old perverted self, so that the law might be fulfilled in us. Really, what we’ve to do is let him. So it’s a wee bit like somebody buying you a new electric carving knife for Christmas. And you put it up on the shelf and you have the old knife and you take it and you just throw it out into the garbage bin and you realize no more sawing. Then you sit there and you say, “Well, I believe that old knife has been thrown out and I believe I have a perfectly new knife that will enable me to cut just efficiently and just with absolute freedom and relaxation. I believe it.” And you just look at the old roast sitting there and you expect any minute to see it falling into slices. And it doesn’t matter how much you believe, it doesn’t matter how much you believe the old knife has been thrown away and you’ve got a new knife, if you just keep believing and sitting there that meat will never be cut.That’s one mistake I think some of us make. We say, “Oh, it’s enough just to believe that my old personality is gone.” It’s not enough. You have to take advantage of the new personality that is there. On the other hand, there’s no point either in getting the carving knife down, sticking the knife in and going to it just sawing back and forward the way you used to in the old days with the old knife because it’s just going to be as hard as ever. There’s no point in doing what you used to do to get the meat cut, and yet you do have to do something.You don’t have to do what you used to do with the old knife but you do have to do something. You have to flick the switch. So it’s not right to say, “We don’t have to do anything.” It is right to say, “We don’t have to do what we used to do. We don’t have to saw that old meat the way we used to.” But we do have to flick the knife. Otherwise, the power that is available there will never do its work as it was meant to. And loved ones, it’s the same with us. Your dead right if you’re having trouble obeying God, you’re dead right when you say, “I can’t. I can’t.” You’re right. Your old personality has been so used to acting from the outside and from the needs of the body inside that unless you get rid of that old selfish reverse personality you won’t be able to obey God’s law at all.But the important thing to see is once you believe that it has been destroyed and that there is a new personality available to you in Jesus, then you do have to flick the switch. You do have to let the Spirit of Jesus begin to run your life. So it’s right, you don’t have the old legalistic concentration on every jot and tittle of the law to make sure, “I don’t go wrong here, I don’t go wrong there.” You don’t have to legalistically try to fulfill the law like that but you do have to do something, you have to let the Holy Spirit of Jesus begin to operate in your life. And that of course often means letting him express love through your body to somebody else instead of exploiting somebody else’s body for the sake of your own.It does mean that you have to often be content with experiencing just the joy of letting Jesus’ life flow through you and stop looking for more and more enjoyment from circumstances, and situations,and other people. It does mean you’ll have to be content for your mind to concentrate on understanding God’s will and God’s plan for you instead of using your mind to control and manipulate other people for your own purposes. So it does mean letting the Spirit of Jesus flow through you and that means rejecting once and for all the old reverse personality that has been crucified with him.And loved ones, do you see how you do that in Romans 8:4, “In order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” That’s how you flick the switch, by walking not according to the flesh but according to the spirit. By walking not according to this direction from the outside in but according to this direction from the inside out beginning at last to give up concentrating on the law and obeying it and avoiding sin and begin instead to pay attention to this dear new friend that is inside you called the Holy Spirit.And when he tells you to speak, to speak; when he tells you to turn, to turn; when he tells you to be silent, to be silent; and to start listening to him and running your life by this Holy Spirit. And then one day you’ll glance around and you’ll suddenly find to your surprise that the just requirements of the law are being fulfilled in your life and you never thought about fulfilling them you’ve just been so busy concentrating on this Holy Spirit. Now that’s God’s plan for us.What I’d like to spend the next seven weeks doing is talking about how to walk after the Spirit and not walk after the flesh. But that’s the secret, walking after the Spirit. That’s how to come into victory and deliverance. So will you think loved ones, of some of those things and just see if there has been some misunderstanding in your own mind or some deception that Satan has brought and just get it straight in your own heart so that we can really get down to business these next couple of months and talk about how to walk after the Spirit and not walking after the flesh. Let us pray.Dear Father, we thank you that you have done all in Jesus’ death that needs to be done. We thank you Lord that you did it so that you would be able to see your law fulfilled in our lives. So that our friends would be able to meet people who are kind, and gentle, and loving, and understanding, people who are free from that jealousy and anger, critical resentment. So Father, we trust you now to make it clear to us that you have done everything that was needed to change our personalities and we can afford to trade that old personality in now for the new one that you have given us in Jesus.And Father, we know that old personality has been crucified and done away with forever and we know that this new one will work only as we follow this dear Holy Spirit that you have given us. So Holy Spirit, we would give ourselves to following you and walking after you in these coming days. And we know that incidentally as a result of that we will end up fulfilling the law. Dear Father, we trust you to make all these truths real in each one of us in these coming days for Jesus’ glory, Amen.

Gift of the Holy SpiritSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillThere is someone called Bob here this morning who wrote me a letter and in it he said, “You’ve been saying that the Holy Spirit is a ‘dynamic’ and what do you mean by a ‘dynamic?’” So I’d like to try and talk about that loved ones. I’d point out to you that “dynamic” is not only an adjective but is a noun and in the dictionary it means “an energizing or motivating force”.You remember, during the first part of August, we talked about the general problem that all of us have in our own personal lives. The problem is we have evil desires within us and we lack often good desires that we would like to have. That’s exactly what Paul said in Romans 7:15, “I do not do what I want. [There are times when I want to feel good desires and I can’t feel them] but I do the very thing I hate. [There are evil desires within me that I am not able to control].” And you remember, we shared at the beginning of August that most of us deal with these inner desires or motivations within in the same way as we deal with a headache — we try to deal with the symptoms. We take an aspirin to try and cut off the nervous system that connects up the pain with our perception of the pain.We do the same with these desires. We try to bring in external compulsions that will make us do good. In secular business, we do it by offering incentives to the salesman to sell more. Really, the ideal would be that he would want to get up and get out every morning and just sell for the joy of selling, but he doesn’t find that, so we offer other incentives, promotion, or commissions to make him do it. We, on the whole, deal with our own personal lives the same way. loved ones. We hold carrots out to each other to make us do the good that we don’t feel comes naturally from within us. So I’d ask you to look at your own lives and see do your own lives not operate that same way? Why do you get up in the morning? It would be nice to say, “Oh, just because I love to get up in the morning,” but often it’s because of fear of what the boss will say if we don’t get up, or it’s because of fear of what our wives will say if we don’t get up.It’s the same with the evil desires that we have. We tend on the whole not to be able to get rid of them from within so we try to use external compulsions from without to hold them down. So, many of us are not caught like Allan Howe [U.S. Congressman] because of fear of society. That’s why we don’t get caught in the red light district of Salt Lake City, because of the fear of what other people will think or what other people will say. Many of us hold down a great many of our evil desires because of fear of what other people will say or because we have been brought up to respect certain standards. It’s not that we feel naturally free of these evil desires, but we have all kinds of inhibitions that we use to hold them down.Now of course, that’s why so many of us are just wild neurotics, or we’re on the version of becoming a wild neurotic, or we are a kind of semi-sophisticated civilized being that has tremendous internal conflict within that we cannot get rid of. That’s why loved ones, most of us do not deal with that failure inside us to have good motivations and that presence inside us of many bad motivations. Most of us don’t deal with those inside at all. We simply control them or we limit them, or we discipline them by all kinds of external compulsions. Of course, that’s the tremendous conflict that keeps hitting — it just rings us dry. Many of us here, I’m sure, are run dry in one area or another because we are a battlefield of EXTERNAL compulsion trying to control and INTERNAL motivating force. It is hideous. That’s why we often feel we are a “Jekyll and Hyde”.Now, God knows that and that’s why when he allowed his son to die on Calvary — though it was just a death apparently of a political criminal on this space-time continuum yet in the cosmic world of reality where time and space do not exist. The Father who made us put us into his son on Calvary and destroyed there all the selfish perverted personality that has produced these strong evil desires of ours. That’s what God did. He actually did that loved ones. That’s the only way to get rid of those things. Not all the drugs in the world, not all the transcendental meditation in the world and not all the power of positive thinking in the world can deal with those evil desires because they themselves are only a product of a personality that is perverted, that has determined to live on dependence on the world for its security, significance, and success. That’s where all the problem comes from.Now God put all that in Jesus and destroyed it there and recreated us anew by giving us HIS dynamic. The dynamic that makes God God. The dynamic that makes God a loving father is the Holy Spirit. That’s the energizing and motive force that makes God the kind of person he is. Now loved ones, Jesus came to earth to destroy the evil desires in us once and for all and to give us this Holy Spirit. That’s why he’s called the HOLY Spirit. He’s a spirit of holiness. He’s a spirit that makes us like God. To be holy is to be like God. It’s not first an ethical concept you know, strangely enough. Holiness is not first an ethical concept. It does become that in connection with society but it’s first and foremost somebody like God. That’s what holiness is. The Holy Spirit is a spirit of supernatural life that makes you like God from within. Of course it solves all that chaos inside and that’s why Jesus came.Now many of us here believe all that you see. Many of us here believe all that and that’s the first great watershed that separates some of us from the others here this morning. Some of us really believe that — but that’s all we do, we just believe it. We are like those demons that are mentioned in James 2:19. We read it before but it might be good just to remind yourselves that this degree of belief is mentioned in scripture and yet is inadequate.James 2:19, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder.” Now a lot of us do that. A lot of us say, “Oh, you mean God has destroyed all that is evil in me in Jesus? Great, that means he has nothing against me?” “Right!” “That means he has forgiven me?” “Right!” “Oh, good — I’m clear!” And that’s where we stay. Loved ones, hundreds of us live in that – now, you know they do, dear ones. You know because I lived in that for years and felt I was a Christian. I believed that that’s what had happened and therefore there was no reason why God should have anything against me, which is all right, and that he had forgiven me my sins, which is right. What I didn’t see was that BELIEVING is not enough — that even the demons believe all that and they shudder because they won’t let it be made real in their own lives. It’s not BELIEVING that enables you to become a child of God — it is RECEIVING. It’s receiving.Would you like to look at that? It’s John 1:12, and this is one of the first distinctions, loved ones, between two groups of us this morning that some of us “believe” and some of us “receive”. John 1:12, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” “To all who received him.” And that’s what old Peter said in that Pentecost day. They asked him, “What will we do?” And he said in Acts 2:38, “Be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”In order to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, you have to not only believe that you were crucified with Christ but you have to actually reckon yourself dead indeed unto sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. You actually have to be willing for that to be made real in your life. Only thenare you able to receive the Holy Spirit. Now loved ones, could I just stress that just the last time because I know many of you just know it off by heart — but loved ones, you will not be able to receive the Holy Spirit unless you are willing for the crucifixion which took place on Calvary to be made real in you.Now dear ones, it may not be complete in you or you may still be smoking or you may still be losing your temper, but if you enter into the position where you say, “Lord God, I know that Jesus did not die instead of me. I know he died and I died with him and Lord, I’m willing for that to be made real in me. I ask you by the power of your Holy Spirit to bring me into the same death to self and death to my own will and my own way that Jesus experienced.” Loved ones, God will send the spirit of his son into your heart and that’s what becoming a Christian is, receiving the Spirit of Jesus into you.Even when that dear Holy Spirit first comes in he will bring something of Jesus to you. That’s what the Bible says, the Holy Spirit will take of the things of Jesus and impart them to you. [1 Corinthians 2:13] Now that’s why a person who becomes a Christian experiences a real change because they receive a new energizing and motive force within them so that they find new attitudes coming up from inside them. Now, that’s what that means in John 16:14 loved ones, if you’d like to look at it. John 16:14, “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” The Greek word for “declare” actually means “impart or share”. So “he will take what is mine and share it with you” — and that’s what the Holy Spirit does for a person who takes that step of identification with Jesus in his death and willingness to obey the Holy Spirit.Now then, another great watershed takes place because the Holy Spirit begins to want to spread his life in you. That’s why I said to you we shouldn’t be surprised if we grow out of this auditorium. I think we should be concerned if we don’t outgrow it. really — because the Holy Spirit always expands, you see. He’s always moving out. You remember the way Jesus went into the highways and the byways to bring people to come into the marriage feast? Now the Holy Spirit is always doing that. He’s always acting. He’s always going out looking for dear sheep — and so that’s what the Holy Spirit does in you.So he begins, you remember, the house illustration we used. He begins to try to find his way into every area of your life. Now some of us just say, “Stop there! Wait a minute! Holy Spirit, I’ve given you my Christian religious life, and my inner life, but I can’t give you my business life, and my social life and my sex life. I can’t give you everything. And I do have a life to get on with, you know. I mean, there are limits!” Many of us say that loved ones. Many of us say, “Holy Spirit, I’m willing for you to bring some truth to me but I’m not willing to give my whole life for Jesus’ glory. I have a lot of other things, you know, that I have to take care of and I better get on with them myself.”So many of us say, “No” to the Holy Spirit and we come into the position, loved ones, that Paul talks about in Galatians 3:3, you remember, looking at it before probably. Many of us come into that attitude, Galatians 3:3, “Are you so foolish,” he says to the Galatians, “having begun with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?” And many of us come into that spot, you see — the Holy Spirit begins to say to us, “Are you willing for people to criticize you and to put you down and yet to be satisfied with that?” And the flesh gets up — the flesh is the independent personality that wants its own way — and it says, “No, I’m not. I’m not prepared for that at all.” We grieve the Holy Spirit once there.His voice is a little fainter the next time. He says, “Will you start reading the scripture again each morning before you go out to work?” And we say, “Well, I’ll try.” But we don’t do it. And his voice is fainter the next time and it’s not long before we become just BELIEVERS. You can call us Christians if you like — it’s questionable if we are at all. We become part of that great group of church-goers who believe it all, but aren’t like Jesus at all.Now there are others of us who, when we come to this great watershed say, “Yeah, Lord I want everything. I want your death to expand through every part of my life and Holy Spirit, whether I’m a bank clerk, or whether I’m a shopkeeper, or whether I’m a businessman, or whether I’m a housewife, Holy Spirit I want to go for Jesus. That’s the only one I care for, THAT’S the person I’m going to live for for the rest of my life. Holy Spirit, change me whatever way you want. Make me like Jesus.” And we take that attitude and we say, “You can do whatever you want to me.” The Holy Spirit expands through all our personalities — and loved ones, he begins to change us completely and to bring in a whole new set of motivating powers within us.They’re all different kinds. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was talked of in terms of the oil that was poured on the prophets, and the priests and the kings when they were anointed for their office. They poured oil on them and the oil is regarded as the symbol of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. The oil or the ointment that was put on them had certain effects and those are the effects that the Holy Spirit has miraculously for those of us who surrender completely to live for Jesus’ glory. It is miraculous, really, loved ones.Here’s one of the effects in John 12:3 and some of you know these examples — we’ve looked at them before. This is part of what it means when we talk about the Holy Spirit as a dynamic in your life. He brings about attitudes within you that are foreign to you and that you cannot produce yourself. John 12:3, an example of oil or ointment and the effect it has, “Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.” When you allow the Holy Spirit to fill you completely he fills your life with a fragrance of Jesus that is supernatural and that no one else can imitate.It is not the “sweetie sweetness” of the pseudo Christian. It is not the “I wouldn’t hurt a fly” of the one who is pretending to be a Christian. It is the strong sweet fragrance of Jesus himself. Your soul becomes a garden of spices. Your conscious becomes a delight to you and not a smell in your nostrils. You yourself become a delight in the office where you work. You become a pleasure in the church where you worship. You become a blessing in the home where you live. Loved ones, it is a supernatural fragrance that the Holy Spirit brings upon you and brings into your life. It’s a beauty that no man can create and no woman can create. It’s a supernatural fragrance.I’ll tell you where it comes from. It comes directly from Jesus himself. The Holy Spirit takes the fragrance of Jesus’ own life and creates that fragrance miraculously in you so that no longer do you find you’re constantly arguing with people in the office to try and persuade them to be Christians. No longer are you coming to church and saying, “Do I agree with that? Do I agree with that?” — but there’s a beauty and a fragrance in your life that is the most precious thing to you and everything else is a detail after that.Oil was used in the old days to strengthen the body. Those who allow themselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit find that they have supernatural strength. Many of us are good at this, “How are ya?” “Oh, I’m doing fairly well, bearing up you know, bravely carrying the cross.” — andeverybody knows it. Everybody knows it. Our loved ones know it at home. Our friends know it. Everybody knows what brave suffering soldiers we are. Loved ones, when the Holy Spirit fills your life you’re able to bear unbearable sufferings and pain with absolute joy and with effortlessness — and in a way that isn’t masochistic. You’re actually even able to enjoy and glory in the things that you’re suffering for Jesus’ sake.Now that’s what you get when you look at old Paul. If you’d just glance in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. It’s just a different kind of human being that this dear Holy Spirit creates. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, “And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” Now loved ones, the Holy Spirit does that. He changes the power, and strength and ability you have to endure pain and hardship.Those of us who have been involved in athletics at all know at times they used to use oil in the old days just to make the old joints supple and flexible. Now, when the Holy Spirit comes and fills a person’s life that’s the kind of personality he gives them. Suddenly they’re flexible and supple. Suddenly they can become all things to all men. Before you’re filled with the Holy Spirit you drag yourself to pray, you drag yourself to church, you drag yourself to witness, you drag yourself to talk about God –but after being filled with the Holy Spirit you can be whatever Jesus wants you to be wherever you are.I don’t know how often you find yourself in the position where your dear wife or your dear friend needed something said to them — not a rebuke at all, but something loving, something that was just right for them. You knew there was a dear broken bleeding heart in there and you knew you had to say something to speak to it. You know how you felt: clumsiness, awkwardness, all the difficulties and the frustrations of your own personality that you’ve inherited from your mums and dads, and you just couldn’t bring it out.Loved ones, how many times have we husbands and wives sat across from each other and failed to say the thing that needed to be said? But loved ones, those of us who live together in houses and rooms, those of us who live together in dorms, those of us who work with each other in the office, how often have we found that our business attitude and our business behavior prevented us suddenly opening out and being Jesus to a certain person? Loved ones, that’s because that is a miraculous result of the Holy Spirit in you. The Holy Spirit fills you with that flexibility when you’re at last willing to live for Jesus and for his glory alone.There are other things that you can get just symbolically from the oil in the Old Testament. The oil in the Old Testament was made up of different ingredients. There was one ingredient that was called myrrh. It was probably the kind of thing that the men brought to Jesus when he was first born. Myrrh is used to ease the pain and take the soreness out of a bruise. Before you’re filled with the Holy Spirit somebody insults you or criticizes you, or puts you down, and you cry yourself to sleep that night, or you bravely bear it but you know you have received a mortal wound. Courageously, you overcome it or, as old Plato said, “You at least blot the face out of your memory that created that pain in you.” But loved ones, when the Holy Spirit fills you with himself he takes all the soreness out of those bruises and you can walk through the days in the office, andpeople can say all kinds of things and can criticize you, and put you down, and can talk behind your back, and there’s a peace and a freedom from resentment.Loved ones, it’s true. Don’t sit there and say, “Ah brother, you mean you overcome resentment?” No, there is no resentment – really, really. Now don’t tone it down. Don’t dilute it. There is no resentment. The Holy Spirit takes away the soreness of the bruise. In fact, really in a way, you feel like pitying them because you know you’ve been crucified in Christ and they aren’t doing it to you they’re doing it to that old dead person that used to be and you feel like saying, “Look, don’t kick that old dead horse you’ll hurt your foot!”It just brings loved ones a miraculous detachment from yourself. You see, it’s ourselves we’re bound up with. We’re always protecting our miserable selves. We’re always defending our miserable selves because we think that’s it, that’s it. Loved ones, it isn’t. That old self was destroyed as it needed to be thousands of years ago on Calvary but you cannot make that real by manipulation of your thoughts. You can only allow the Holy Spirit to make it real miraculously in you. He takes the soreness out of all the bruises.Another of the ingredients was calamus. Calamus was used to counteract the acids and take the sourness out of the stomach. I don’t know, but before the Holy Spirit fills you you’re always kind of looking out, “Yeah well Billy Graham, yeah he’s okay there, but he’s wrong there. Yeah, and my friend that neighbor, well she’s okay on that but she’s wrong on that. And this other person yeah, they’re quite nice but they’re a wee bit critical, aren’t they?” You’re always seeing the little things that are wrong in others. You see these apparent saints walking by seeing no harm in anybody, and for a while, we argue they’re dumb. They just can’t see what’s really in front of their eyes.But loved ones, when the Holy Spirit fills you with himself he takes the sourness out of your stomach, removes all the acid and you never have met a sourpuss. He never allows you to see the sourpuss in others. He enables you always to see the Jesus in other people — now that’s true, loved ones. Don’t say, “Ah Pastor, you mean you see the wrong thing but the Holy Spirit enables you not to notice it?” No, no. The Holy Spirit gives you clean eyes, gives you a pure heart, gives you a stomach that is clear of any acidity or sourness and enables you to meet other people for the beautiful people that they are in Jesus. Loved ones, that’s a miracle.I don’t know about you but I tried psychology and auto suggestion for a long time trying to control the old mind because I believed these were the right things to do. Most of us do, don’t we? We all agree that’s the right way to live. For a long time I tried to do it myself, but you can’t. It’s a result of the Holy Spirit. That’s part of what it means when we say the Holy Spirit is a “dynamic”, he’s a motivating and energizing power that changes you completely and enables you to be different inside.Another one is cinnamon. Cinnamon was a spice that was used to stimulate and to motivate and to produce effortless activity. That’s what the Holy Spirit does. When you sit worn out and weary and tired or utterly made passive by depression and you just can’t get this heavy body up to do anything, loved ones, that’s the way life is until the fullness of the Holy Spirit brings that stimulating effortlessness that makes nothing a problem or a trouble. You know how different it is to have a person who is always willing to do anything that you ask the them to do. It’s entirely different, isn’t it? In fact, you also know some people that if they have to do something outside their ordinary job they haven’t time, “Everything’s on top of me”. They’re always complaining.Everything is always down on them. They can never do anything but just manage through to the end of the day and creep into bed and fall asleep.Loved ones, that’s the way we are without this dear Holy Spirit who produces an effortless strength in you and enables you to always have energy for whatever God allows you to be asked to do — of course, that’s the secret. What we fail to realize is that if we’re asked to do something it is because God has allowed it to be asked us. What we normally do is we try to judge for ourselves. So it’s the whole difference between lumpish, awkward, heavy, people and people who are light and effortless as a feather. The Holy Spirit brings that, loved ones, and you can trust him for that.That’s why we talk about the Holy Spirit as a dynamic. You remember when Jesus said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” The Greek word is “dunamis” and the “u” changes to a “y” in English and becomes “dynamite”. That’s what “dunamis” is. That’s what the power of the Holy Spirit is — it’s a dynamite that produces a new life in you that is utterly and absolutely different. Now loved ones, that’s what God does — he gives you that Holy Spirit and fills you with that Holy Spirit as long as you will continue to regard the Holy Spirit as your Lord and master and obey him moment-by-moment and day-by-day. The truth in Acts 5:32 is true, God gives the Holy Spirit “to those who obey” — and that’s it — not to those who are trying to obey, but those who say, “Holy Spirit, I’m going to obey you whatever the cost, even if it means Calvary. I thank you that it has meant Calvary for me.” That’s it loved ones — it’s a supernatural life.Somebody said a couple of weeks ago, “Ah, another sermon on the Holy Spirit?” But actually, you could go on for five or six weeks and I hope to go on for the next 40 years — no 80 years. I’m going for 120 — because he is the precious gift, loved ones, that our Creator has prepared for us. Oh I pray that you’ll see it that way and you’ll see that why God has given us supernatural standards is because he has given us a supernatural power to reach those standards. That’s God’s plan and so let us never lower the standards, but let us never take our eyes off this precious gift.What do you need to do to receive him? Acts 5:32, “God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey.” All you need to do is bow your head in a moment and say, “Lord, I need that kind of life and I am willing to do whatever you, Holy Spirit, tell me to do if you’ll bring me into God’s will for my life.” That’s it. The Holy Spirit then will give you some direction, even this afternoon. Loved ones, watch out because it will probably be so utterly contradictory to your normal way of life that you’ll have a tendency to say, “No, no, I won’t do it!” But do it, do it. If you say to me, “What if it’s not the Holy Spirit?” The Holy Spirit will check you before you get too far out on a limb. If you read the Bible every day and you continue to fellowship with other loved ones in Jesus you won’t get away out after some evil spirit. You can afford to trust that dear voice. So really, that’s the secret loved ones. Anybody here could begin that kind of life this very moment — really.Shall we pray? Holy Spirit, we do believe that you’re real because you have created the church, and with the church the first hospitals, and the first schools, and all the civilization that has come to this dear old broken world. Holy Spirit, most of all, you have created this Bible and made the life of Jesus possible and we have seen you reproduce that life in others here. Holy Spirit, we would ask you to come in and change our lives. Holy Spirit, all of us here may not know all the details but will you tell us them — will you show us? We may not know everything that’s involved in being crucified with Christ, but Holy Spirit, we ask, will you show us what that means in our lives? Holy Spirit,if this is our Creator’s plan for us, that we will be filled with you and be governed by you as the dynamic in our lives, then that’s what we want. So we commit ourselves to obeying you as our Lord and Master in the same way that the disciples obeyed Jesus. Holy Spirit, we tell you we’re going to put our faith in you and we’re going to expect to hear you either verbally through someone else, or through the reading that we’ll do, or Holy Spirit, through an attitude inside us, or an impression, or desire within us that makes us feel that we should do something this afternoon. Holy Spirit, we commit ourselves to obeying that, whatever it is, and we trust you to grow in us as we obey you more and more — and as we surrender more and more, Holy Spirit, will you fill us more and more until we’re a replica of Jesus Christ and we’re a delight to our friends, and to our relatives, and to our colleagues? We ask this for your glory, amen.

Ultimate Intention of the Holy SpiritSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillLord Jesus, we trust you to explain these things to us yourself so that we can believe them with all certainty and so that we can enter into all that you have provided through your counselor, the Holy Spirit for us. We ask this in your name and for your glory, Amen.It’s good dear ones, to see what God’s ultimate intention for us is. And I think you can find that in Ephesians 1 there and reading just Verse 9 and Verse 11. Even Verse 9 and 10 reveals it clearly. Ephesians 1:9-10, “For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him, according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will, we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory.”It is dear ones, God’s will for us to become conformed completely to the image of his son Jesus so that there will rise up on the earth here a great body of his sons. And all of us, you see, will be different limbs of his body so that Jesus will look down upon the earth and will see another reflection of himself rising up in the earth. And that this reflection of himself will be exactly like him. And that eventually this great body of sons, this great body of brothers and sisters to our Lord Jesus, will rise up and bring glory to the Father the same as the original son brought glory to him. And that in its turn, that revelation of the sons of God that we talk about, in its turn, is to bring us into the very family of the father heart of God.I think we should be careful; some of us dear ones talk about the revelation of the sons of God as if that was an end in itself. Well it’s not. That in its turn is only a step on the way to our entering into the trinity love that the trinity family share with one another, until we enter into the very Father heart of God and become a part of that dear blessed family. And so we will reflect the glory of God among ourselves and up to him and he will reflect it back down to us. So it is God’s will that we’ll become completely like Jesus.You remember God made two provisions for that, they’re in Acts 2:38. It’s the first Christian sermon that was ever preached, “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.’” That’s the first provision that he made, that we could be restored into the favor of God. And then the second provision is, “And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” And that’s the second provision that we might be restored into the very image of God and into the very image of his son.Now last night we talked about the inward work that the gift of the Holy Spirit accomplishes in our hearts. That’s the inward work, dear ones of, if you like, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now, dear ones, if you rebel against that and shout out a Pentecostal shout and say, “Ah, no that isn’t a baptism with the Holy Spirit.” You must remember that Peter looked back on the day of Pentecost you remember in Acts 15:9, and he looked back on that day when we believe the apostles were baptized with the Holy Spirit.And he did not look back and say, “Well, on that day we received the gift of tongues.” But he looked back and said, in Acts 15:8-9, “And God who knows the heart bore witness to them,” these gentiles, “Giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us,” in parenthesis, on the day ofPentecost, “And he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faith.” And so Peter says that one of the things that happened with the baptism of the Holy Spirit was an inward cleansing of our hearts so that we could be renewed in the image of Jesus. And that inward cleansing of the Holy Spirit begets in us the fruit of the Holy Spirit.Now dear ones, it is important to see that the baptism of the Holy Spirit had an outward effect on their lives in regard to their service. So you see there are two sides to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There is an inward cleansing through the Holy Spirit applying the work of the cross to our own lives and the death to self. But there is an outward baptism with the Holy Spirit by which the Holy Spirit gives us gifts and power for service. And I think it’s necessary to see both of those.In other words, it’s necessary to see that Jesus would have put forth a very poor revelation of his Father if he had not been able to perform miracles. The ability to perform miracles in Jesus’ life was a vital part of the revelation of God. You can find that in Acts 2:22. It’s referred to there by Peter. It was a necessary part of the proof that Jesus was the son of God and it was what Peter used on that Pentecost sermon. “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.” Jesus would not have been the revelation of God if he had not been able to do many might works, and wonders, and signs.And it was so with the group of people that were called his body. They were the body of Christ not only because they shared the very inner pure cleansed heart of Christ but because they also were able to do the same many might works, and wonders, and signs. So would you look at one of the members of the body doing this in Acts 3:12? Peter was asked for alms and the Holy Spirit had baptized him with power and so he stretched forth his hand and said, “Silver and gold have I none but what I have…” (“I know I have because the Holy Spirit has baptized me with this power.”) “…and what I have I give to thee.” And in Verse 12, Peter says, when Peter saw that the people were moved and they clung to him, “He addressed the people, ‘Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him.” And he says, “It was by Jesus’ power that this man was raised up.”In other words, the early church had the same power and the same gifts as Jesus himself had otherwise the early church could not have been called his body. And dear ones, the early church had the power to stop believers in their track with a mighty sign so that they stopped and thought. Now throughout our world today there are many churches who are trying to be the body of Jesus and the non-believers know that they are not the body of Jesus because the only power they have is the power of ministers who are trained in pastoral psychology. The only power they have is the power of the doctors whom the churches send out to the mission fields. But it is human, fleshly power. And they do not manifest the power that the Lord Jesus had. And so the believer respects these churches, and goes to them, and uses them for his own convenience but does not believe that they are the body of Christ.And it is not God’s will that a church should work in such powerlessness. It is God’s will that the body, the church, the body of Christ, should glorify him by a pure heart and power and service. And so dear ones, the Holy Spirit gives us the power for serving God in his way by bestowing on us the gifts of the Holy Spirit.Now we do violence to the Holy Spirit if we enter into the death to self and then say to him, “Not the gifts, Holy Spirit. We do not want the gifts.” It’s the same as the Pentecostals saying, “We want the tongues, Holy Spirit, but we do not want the purity.” Each of those attitudes is a reaction against the Holy Spirit and they grieve the Holy Spirit. And therefore, he begins to withdraw from the life.So dear ones, you know what has happened, many of us have entered into an experience of sanctification or deliverance from inward sin and we have refused to go on into what the Holy Spirit had to give us in gifts. And so we know we have sunk back into legalism. So it wasn’t long after the Holy Spirit graciously cleansed my heart that he began to ask me to do things that I was not able to do with the natural power that I had and so I was not able to obey him. And I knew that if I could not obey him then he would withdraw from my heart. So I then began to seek him and say, “Holy Spirit if you’ve told me to do these things you must be able to give me the power to do them.” And so it wasn’t long after that the Holy Spirit revealed to me that he was able to give me the gifts of the spirit.And so dear ones, it’s almost – well, I think it’s essential after you’ve entered into the inward cleansing of the heart through the Holy Spirit that you show your willingness to be led by the Holy Spirit on into the gifts of the spirit. And you see the holiness groups on one side and the Pentecostal groups on the other side have both grieved the Holy Spirit in many ways. The holiness groups have said, “We won’t have the gifts. We don’t want anything to do with them because of their fleshly administration we’ve seen in them.” And the Pentecostals say, “We don’t want holiness because you say that the cleansing of the heart is what the baptism of the spirit is and that alone and we believe that it gives power.” And it is God’s will for us to know that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is an inward cleansing of the heart from sin so that we will obey God continually and then it is an outward bestowal of power through the gifts of the spirit. But dear ones, we grieve the spirit if we refuse to enter into one or the other.Now, I think it is important to see that Paul says clearly – well, you could look at 1 Corinthians 13 dear ones, if you like. Paul does state clearly dear ones, what is essential and what will last and I think we have to be wise about this. 1 Corinthians 13:8, “Love,” which is the bestowal of the Holy Spirit and the cleansing of the heart through the death to self, “Love never ends.” So in heaven, heaven will be full of love. There will be a great rising and pouring out of love to God, the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit and a great pouring down of life and love into our hearts from them. And love will never end. Love will involve all of us and will bathe us round as we were bathed in our mother’s womb when we were babies. So love will bathe us all around.“Love never ends; as for prophecies,” gifts of the spirit, “They will pass away,” because there will be no need for them. “As for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect, but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.” It’s important to see that the precious thing that the Holy Spirit does is to make us holy.Now there’s a reason why God did not call it the gift spirit, he called it the Holy Spirit. And it is important to see that the precious permanent work that the Holy Spirit does in us is the cleansing of the heart. But it is vital to see dear ones, that we live at the moment in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit has gifts to give us for service and if we refuse these gifts we are unable to enter into the service that he calls us to. And so we grieve him in disobedience and he withdraws even from the cleansing heart experience. But it is vital, Ithink, to see that the precious thing that he brings is holiness to our lives.Could I say just one more thing about that? You see, the terrible weakness and the terrible work that the devil has done through many dear ones entering into a baptism of power with the Holy Spirit and not entering into the cleansing inward experience of the Holy Spirit. So you have dear Pentecostal ministers and others among us who know how to heal and have experienced the gift of healing but in their home they are impure. And they lose their temper. And they’re irritable. And they’re impatient. And pride surges up in their hearts. And they do many of these things at times for a wrong motive. And so eventually the Devil begins to take over and they begin to minister these things in the flesh.It is vital in other words to take it in the order in which God has led us along this week. Dear ones, first we are reborn by the spirit. Secondly, we are cleansed by the Holy Spirit. Then, we are baptized with power by the Holy Spirit. And I know. I’m sure they could all take place at once. And I am sure they could take place in strange order so that God will show us that he is sovereign. But it is good, dear ones, it is good to see the good reason for them taking place in that order and the good reason for seeking them in that way. So that when you’re baptized with the Holy Spirit make sure, dear ones, that you’re ready to die to self. Make sure that you’ve allowed the Holy Spirit to cleanse your heart as well as to give you these outwards gifts.So now, could we go on to the outward gifts, because if you’re like me and maybe you aren’t, I came through the holiness witness of this. And so I learned that Bethany taught three works of grace. You see, so I thought you were all heretics. And so I had a reaction and I’m sure brother Dick feels the same way. I was brought up a Methodist, not a John Wesley Methodist, though I was in my heart. But I was brought up a formal Methodist and I felt that the tongues and all those things were of the Devil and that they were fleshly imitations, as I think many of them were that I observed.So I had a great feeling against the gifts. And if you’re like me, maybe you have some of that. So let’s deal with that dear ones. Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 12:31. And let’s look at the usual interpretation we place upon that. See Paul says, he gives the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 and then in the last verse of the chapter he says, “But earnestly desire the higher gifts.” And many of us feel, “Well that’s good, the tongues and the prophecies, yeah they’re lower gifts. Let’s desire the higher gifts. I’m glad he’s getting onto some good holiness doctrine.” And then we read the next half of the Verse and say, “And I will show you a still more excellent way.” And we tend to say, “Ah, I’m glad Paul understands what God wants and that he sees that there is a still more excellent way besides gifts. Gifts is a lower way and he’s going to show us a more excellent way.”And then we say to ourselves, “Ah yes, you ought to covet the best gifts. And the best gift of all is love.” And so, many of us get ourselves into a corner. We say, “Paul has outlined the gifts and obviously he thinks there are gifts, but he obviously means us to covet the best gifts. And the best gift of all is love. So we’ll go straight for love and we’ll ignore these things, lest we fall into danger.”Now dear ones, this isn’t the interpretation. Would you like to look at the verses 14-16 in that 1 Corinthians 12? And you see there that Paul says, “For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.” And he goes on andsays towards the end of the Chapter in Verse 29, “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?” And he’s saying there is some need for cooperation between those who have different gifts and he’s pointing out there is a difficulty here.There is a tendency for some of us to say, “Ah, we have the most precious gift, what need have we for the other gifts in the body?” And it’s in the light of that that he says, “Now I’m going to show you a more excellent way to exercise these gifts.” He’s saying, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love I am a noising gong or clanging symbol.” He’s not saying, “Don’t speak in the tongues of men and angels,” but he’s saying, “If I do that and don’t have love then I’ll constantly be in conflict with ones who have other gifts.” And in other words, in 1 Corinthians 13 he’s saying, “Not I give you a greater gift,” but, “I’m showing you how to exercise the gifts you have received. You exercise them in love.”In other words it’s important to see dear ones, that Paul is not saying, “You don’t need gifts.” He’s saying, “These are the gifts but to exercise them properly in harmony you need the fruit of the spirit which is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.” And so he’s not saying, “Don’t bother with the gifts.” He’s saying, “Exercise the gifts in the spirit of the fruit of love that the Holy Spirit sheds in your heart.” So he’s not saying, dear ones, “Don’t have gifts.”If we argue against gifts we’re left with a powerless church that is pastor dominated. We’re left with a powerless church which does not minister as a body but where the pastor alone ministers. And he becomes – he takes the place of the Holy Spirit among us. But where the Holy Spirit is allowed to shed abroad the gifts of the spirit among us there’s a ministry of the body. And when everyone comes together they have a special gift by which they can minister.So I think it’s good to see that the Devil has held us there and has held us back strongly from the gifts. I think, as we’ll see later on he has held us back also on the tongues. But I think it’s important dear ones, to see that we’re living in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit and that it is his will that we should be able to minister through his power the gifts of his spirit.You may say, “Well, were the gifts not always in the Church?” Well they were in the church for the first 300 years. For the first 300 years the gifts were ministered freely in the church. Some of us say you see – and look back on church history and some of us liberal theologians look back and we see, “Ah well, from the year 300 I mean, there was nothing so obviously, it’s not meant to be today.” But you know what happened around the year 300? Constantine legalized Christianity. And he endowed the church with money. And he endowed it with great power and prestige. And as soon as he did that the church began to depend on its power and prestige and its position of influence and so it began to withdraw its dependence on the Holy Spirit. And so the Holy Spirit withdrew the gifts from the church. And the church was left to get on without them.Dear ones, wherever a church begins to depend on its own wealth, or its prestige, or its own methods then the Holy Spirit withdraws the precious gifts from that church. And so I don’t know, but you have a great temptation obviously in Bethany because you have a great going concern in the camping trailers. And you have a going concern in the other things that you manufacture. And there will always be a temptation for you to begin to depend on the power of the flesh that you have available there and to depend on the wealth that God has given you, and the ability that God has given you.You see, the Holy Spirit will only be active in a church that cannot do without him. And so it’svital for dear ones in their churches to constantly hang on the Holy Spirit and depend on him. Otherwise, he withdraws the gifts and eventually the fruit of the spirit from their midst.Now dear ones, will you look more closely with me then at 1 Corinthians 12 and just let’s receive God’s teaching on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Let’s look first at the verses which deal with the problem the Devil brings up. The Devil says, “Ah well, he gives the gifts but only to some.” So let’s look at the verses that deal with that. 1 Corinthians 12:7, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” And the Devil wants us to read there, “To the pastor is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” But God’s word cannot be changed dear ones, and we need to read it as it is.“To each,” that’s to each dear Christian who is ready to be cleansed and baptized with the Holy Spirit, to each of them, “Is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” And then in Verse 11 again, “All these,” and we want to read the pastor, or a few chosen ones. But in Verse 11, “All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to,” the pastor and a few chosen ones. “Who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” And it’s good to look at 13 and 14, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member,” the pastor, “But of many.” In other words, the emphasis in the teaching on gifts if that the Holy Spirit wants to give each one of us gifts as we need them. He does not want to give them just to a few.So dear ones, many of us sin against God in the sanctified life because we do not read these verses sincerely and we are not prepared to enter into any gifts. We just assume that they’re for the pastor, or they’re for a few chosen ones and so we’re not able to be used by the Holy Spirit. We need to see that the Holy Spirit is willing to give to all of us the gifts that we need for ministry.I think some of us say, “Well, how do we know?” Well you see it in Chapter 14:1. You may say, “Well, how do you know what gift you are going to be given?” Well, 1 Corinthians 14:1, “Make love your aim, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.” I think we need to do that, just to earnestly desire. To be hungering after the Holy Spirit day, after day. To be drinking the Holy Spirit in day, after day and saying, “Holy Spirit, manifest more of the power of the life of Jesus within me.” And be earnestly desiring the gifts. Not ask for one gift but earnestly desire the gift that the Holy Spirit wants to give you. But we have a responsibility to earnestly desire them, dear ones.Now, could we look then at some more teaching on the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6. Look at Verse 4 first of all, “Now there are varieties of gifts,” and I think it just says diversities of gifts in King James. “There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.” Well, you can see the varieties of gifts if you look down at the nine of them that are listed. Notice there are nine fruits of the spirit though it’s really only fruit of the spirit, isn’t it? But there are nine manifestations of the fruit of the spirit and there are nine gifts of the spirit through which he manifests himself.In Verse 8 and the following verses, “To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom.” That’s a gift. “And to another the utterance of knowledge.” That’s a gift. “To another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.” So that’s what Verse 4 means, you see, there are varieties of gifts and the Holy Spirit gives different gifts to each one. Of course, it takesaway all pride, you see. Because anyone who is responsible, it seems, for the healing of a dear one at the altar, all the others know, “Thank you Holy Spirit for manifesting the gift of healing through that dear one.” And it’s precious that at times then, he withdraws the healing from that dear one, the gift of healing, and gives them some other gift as they need it.It’s precious that the Holy Spirit has the right to give the gift when he is pleased to give it. And so the glory always goes to the Holy Spirit. And no one feels you see, “Oh, I wish I had his gift.” Because if the Holy Spirit gives you one gift you thank him for it and you say, “Holy Spirit, I’m glad you’re willing to use me as a little finger of the body. And I’m glad you’re willing to use him as an eye of the body.” And there’s just a joy you see, in the exercise of the gifts that is free from selfish pride if the old self is on the cross. Otherwise, the Devil works mischief among us. But there are varieties of gifts. Then will you look dear ones, at Verse 5 because I think these are important verses, “And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord.” Now with the varieties of service the word is “diakonion” and it means the same as deacon you know. It means, different kinds, different ministries. And it means different ministries in the one body of the same Lord Jesus. And you see those different ministries over there that God gives to the Lord Jesus in his body, over in the Verses 28 and the following verses of 1 Corinthians 12. Here are the different ministries or the different forms of service, “And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?”Well, there are different ministries and that’s why it’s a joy to be able to sit down there and say, “Lord, you have given me the ministry of taking care of this auditorium and that brother has been given the ministry of speaking today. And I’m glad Holy Spirit that the moment you withdraw your power from me I have no ability to take care of this auditorium in the gracious way that you want the life of Jesus to pour through me in doing it. And I’m glad, Holy Spirit, that the moment you withdraw your power from that dear one at the desk, that moment he ceases to be able to be used to pour forth the life of Jesus in his words.” It is a great sense everyone has that no one is more important than the other because all of us owe our ministries to the Holy Spirit and to the Lord Jesus himself who appoints some of us a finger, some of us a leg, some of us a foot. So there are varieties of ministries. Now it’s important then dear ones – it’s important therefore not to covet somebody else’s ministry you see, because that grieves the Holy Spirit.And then in Verse 6, could I say that the preacher always has to be ready to take care of the auditorium? See? If he ever gets to the place where he’s not willing for God to withdraw all his power from him so that he can only clean the auditorium then he is not in the right place in the body. So always keep your ministry – sit loosely by your ministry, won’t you? It’s given to you by Jesus and just for as long as he pleases.Now would you look dear ones, at Verse 6 because I think this is even more important in a sense, “And there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one.” And that’s “energaematon”, working. And there are varieties of working. And in King James isn’t it, “operations?” There are varieties of operations. God operates in different ways through different ministries at different times. So it’s important to see that a dear brother can be given the gift of healing and God can have a different way of operating that gift through him. So that Oral Roberts (Granville “Oral” Roberts was an American Methodist-Pentecostal televangelist and aChristian charismatic.(cid:160)1918-2009) asks me to touch my radio set and if I’m in tune with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit does not say through me, “Ah, be careful of that man he asked you to touch your radio set.” He does not say to me, “Now, look at Christopher Woodard, a Harley Street specialist in London who practices the gift of healing in a different way.” He says, “You must come to a harmony of your own spirit and then the harmony of your own spirit which God is able to bring through my ministry to you, the harmony of your own spirit will spread to your body and make it healthy and holy too.”And the Holy Spirit does not say inside me, “Now that’s the way that healing gift should be operating, the way Woodard does it in London, a much more cultured way, a much more sane way it seems to this mind.” The Holy Spirit does not say that. The Holy Spirit if he’s in charge of you says, “Thank God for Oral Roberts. Thank God for Christopher Woodard. Thank God that he works and operates in different ways through different ministries through different gifts.” And dear ones, then none of us is able to judge another.And oh I wish we could see this – you know, if we really see the hordes of the enemy that are marching against us, I don’t turn around as the Germans attack us and say, “Listen brother you’re not firing your gun properly. You’d better fire it like me.” You don’t say that. If you’re fighting against the hordes of the heathen you don’t turn around to a brother and say, “You’re not using the gift the way I use it.” You say, “Thank God for you, brother. We need all of us. Let’s go forward.” And you minister the life of Jesus to him. And the life of Jesus will fix him up if he’s not fixed up. You see? But we don’t need to start repairing him. We just need to minister our gift and keep our eyes off everybody else because there are varieties of working in these gifts.Now dear ones, could we go on just briefly then to the gifts themselves. And we won’t be able really to say too much about them. But would you like to look at the first on there that is given in Verse 8, “To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom.” Now the world is full of books dear ones, and the world is full of Stanley Jones’s and T.A. Hegre’s [founder of Bethany Fellowship and author]. And the world is full of dear ones who have been given revelations by God. And those are found in the precious books that these brothers have been inspired to write.But there is a holy wisdom that the Holy Spirit is also able to give you at special times. There is a wisdom that comes not from books but comes directly from the Holy Spirit himself. There is an inner wisdom in doing things that only the Holy Spirit can give you, you see. And there are moments when you need the real gift of wisdom. The preacher needs the real gift of wisdom so that he will not reap when he should be sowing and so that he will not sow when he should be reaping; so that he should not preach holiness when they’re not even half committed or converted and so that he will not keep preaching salvation when they are walking in the light that they’ve been given. So you need wisdom in dealing with souls as brother Elmer has said again and again this week. You need at times the gift of wisdom to be able to interpret God’s supernatural wisdom to dear ones. You need wisdom for understanding the things that are happening in your own life.Now the Bible says plainly, “If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God who gives liberally and doesn’t question you as long as you ask in faith nothing doubting.” There is need for wisdom that you cannot get from books. I remember a dear brother, and I think I’ve told you this before, who was preaching with me at a camp meeting, a holiness camp meeting. And the dear brother was about 75 and had lovely white hair and I remember him saying once, “Now Brother O’Neil,” it’s the first time I ever heard it, “Brother O’Neil is a man of books but I’m a man of one book, the Bible.” And that’s right he had very little education, you know, and he had maybe got to–I don’t know–eighthgrade or something and then had left school. But God had given him the gift of wisdom.I had been trying–I think I told you–for days to get over to dear ones that we needed to trust the Holy Spirit even when we could not see where he was leading us. Even when we were going blind we needed to trust him and obey what he told us. But this dear brother just in a moment did what I tried to do with two or three sermons. He said, “You know, if the Holy Spirit tells you to jump through that wall, you jump and he’ll make the hole.” That, I think, was a word of wisdom that the Holy Spirit had given to him, and that came over clearly to all our hearts. So the Holy Spirit wants at times to give you the word of wisdom.Then would you look at the second word there in Verse 8, “To another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit.” And there come times you see, when you need insight into another’s heart. And so there is a dear one at the altar and something is holding them back. And you need the word of knowledge of their spiritual condition. So you’re kneeling there, and if you’re depending on your own power or even your own ability to worship, then you’re lost. You need to be ready to receive the gift of knowledge at any moment and say, “Holy Spirit, will you reveal to me what you want to reveal?”And so I remember one dear brother was dealing with another one at the altar and they couldn’t get through and it was an hour and they’d been on their knees. And then there came to the brother who was dealing with him the gift of knowledge. And he saw a great white hen, and he told the brother what he saw. And of course the brother had stolen this great white hen two years before from a neighbor. And what was holding him back from being cleansed by the Holy Spirit, his refusal not only to look at that but to make restitution. So again and again we need the gift of knowledge of the other’s condition.Then would you like to look at faith. I think it’s the next gift, “To another faith by the same Spirit.” And faith is working faith. So Carvaso [William Carvaso, of Cornwall, England, 1749-1834] would get into a carriage and would drive two miles and there were 12 people in the carriage and when he got out they were all converted.” Well that wasn’t because he explained the four spiritual laws quickly, or because he had brother Hegre’s book and was able to read it fast to them. But that was a miracle of working faith you see.And there are miracles like that dear ones, whereby God can use you mightily to bring about the conversion of many. So Finney [Charles Grandison Finney 1792-1875] you remember walked into the factory. A little girl began to titter and he looked at her and then she felt condemnation in her heart. And the thread broke in the loom and tears began to trickle down her eyes. And he went over to her and spoke to her about Jesus. And then bit-by-bit the other members in the factory fell down on their knees until everybody was on their knees. Then the owner of the factory closed the factory and had a revival meeting. He was not a Christian but he closed the factory and many, many dear ones were converted. That was a miracle of working faith, you see and that can happen. That can happen, dear ones, if you’re given the gift of working faith. Not saving faith or sanctifying faith but the gift of working faith.So it goes on, dear ones, into others. Could we just look very briefly at the Devil’s instrument? And there it is peeping out in 1 Corinthians 14:18. It’s ridiculous of Paul to say this kind of thing when he knows the theology so thoroughly. He is daring enough to say, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all.” Then in Verse 39 he says, “So, my brethren, earnestly desires to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.” And I think Paul really was just deviatingfrom true pure holiness theology there. And I’m glad we can correct him.Dear ones, do you see that that’s the Devil’s instrument? It is the ninth gift and because many dear ones have made it the first gift, or have supplanted the need for the cleansed heart with an outwards expression of tongues, and because so many dear ones have ministered tongues in the flesh, the Devil has used tongues to turn us from all the gifts. Now you can see how illogical that is, you see. We’ve looked at tongues and we’ve said, “Oh, no I’m not having anything to do with that wild stuff.”But you see there is a real message in the gift of tongues because the Holy Spirit wants complete control of us and the last thing of course that we’re really ready to render is our tongue. It’s a little thing you know, but a very strong member. It can guide a huge boat–the rudder–and the tongue can set passions on fire. And so the Holy Spirit wants control of our tongues and it seems to me that’s the message of this gift of tongues. That the Holy Spirit wants to control your tongue not only when you’re speaking an unknown tongue but especially when you’re speaking a known tongue.It is important then to see that this is one of the gifts of the spirit. And it is important to see that the Devil has taken advantage of it and has said, “Look at tongues, that’s all you get when you deal with gifts.” It’s important for us to see that’s silly. It’s the ninth gift of the spirit. It’s one of the gifts. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Let’s not throw everything out. And you see that is what has happened, dear ones. The Holy Spirit has come into many dear hearts in the cleansed experience and then the Holy Spirit has led them on to see the need for gifts. And then someone has brought up, “Look at those wild people that minister tongues in the flesh.” And so we look at them and we say, “Yes, that must be tongues. That can’t be God’s will.”It’s not God’s will to minister any gift in the flesh, but it is his will to minister the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And it is therefore necessary to look at those two verses where the apostle Paul who was given the very presence of Jesus on the Damascus Road says in 1 Corinthians 14:18, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all.” And he says in Verse 39, “So, my brethren, earnestly desires to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.” So it’s important to see that.Now, what’s the meaning of tongues? Well would you like to look at the meaning as it’s outlined in 1 Corinthians 14:2, “For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.” So obviously when you speak in a tongue the Holy Spirit works directly bypassing your mind and speaks directly with your tongue to God. And in Verse 4, “He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.” Well now, it’s true that there is a great sense of up building in times in private prayer when the Holy Spirit gives you freedom in utterance in a tongue. Then in Verse 14, “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful.” Now in other words the tongue can be used to build you up spiritually.It seems that the Bible puts the emphasis on private prayer. It doesn’t say, “You can’t use it in public.” But it does seem to put the emphasis on private prayer. And what’s the meaning, dear ones? When the Holy Spirit fills you with a great spirit of praise for Jesus and you see him in all his glory at the right hand of God, then there surges up in your heart a great desire to praise him. And you say, “Mighty God, Ruler of all things, Lord Jesus my Savior, my Dear One, I love you.” And the words are not sufficient. And the Holy Spirit takes your tongue and utters an unknown tongue, the praise. So that the very spirit of your self seems to rise out of your heart and youseem to lift off from your body and rise into the very heavenlies.That’s the purpose of a tongue and it’s a precious purpose. And the Holy Spirit has given us the tongues for that. We should not be concerned if we haven’t tongues. We shouldn’t say to the Holy Spirit, “Give me a tongue.” The Holy Spirit gives you what you need and will give you what you need at the time you need it. So we should not say, “I want a tongue.” We should say, “Thank you Holy Spirit for what you’ve given me and I’ll minister that in the fullness. And if I minister that in the fullness you’ll give me other things that I need.” But, if he gives you a tongue it’s a precious thing and a dear one should use it.Though dear ones, the Bible emphasizes private prayer. You can see this in a few other verses just before we finish. In 1 Corinthians 14:5, “Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy.” That’s to speak the word of God in the right way, at the right time, to the right person. “He who prophesies is greater than he who speaks in tongues, unless some one interprets, so that the church may be edified.” So on the whole God guides us through Paul to speak in tongues in public only when there’s someone there to interpret.Now dear ones, I think we need more obedience in that. I think we grieve the Holy Spirit often because we speak in tongues when there’s no interpreter and the Devil can always get in in the flesh unless we obey the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. We cannot afford you see, to grieve the Holy Spirit in any way in the life in the spirit. And then if you look again in Verse 9-13 Paul gives this emphasis again about the public use of tongues, “So with yourselves; if you in a tongue utter speech that is not intelligible, how will any one know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning; but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourselves; since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. Therefore, he who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret.” And that seems like good logical, spiritual common sense doesn’t it?And I think it’s important to – the higher you get, the closer you must be to the obedience of the Holy Spirit. You see, the higher you get the closer you must be and the finer must be your obedience.And last of all dear ones, in Verse 16 and 19 there, in Verse 16 Paul says, “Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit how can any one in the position of an outsider say the “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying?” And then in Verse 19 last of all, “Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.” In other words it’s important to minister the gifts according to the obedience of the Holy Spirit and according to the words that God has given us.Well dear ones, have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit? Now maybe you’re saying, “Well, I was cleansed last night.” Well then the Holy Spirit is filling you, all you need to do is open your heart to him and say, “Holy Spirit, I am willing to receive whatever gifts you want to give me and I am willing to walk into whatever avenues of service you have equipped me for.” And the Holy Spirit will give you the gifts as you need them so that you can walk fearlessly into the lion’s den, fearlessly into the ward in the hospital, fearlessly in to the better educated person than you are and you know that the Holy Spirit will give you the necessary gifts and will enable you to reflect the very image of Jesus, not only purity but power. Let us pray.????????

Crucifixion – Condition for Being FilledSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillIf you say, “Oh I was baptized with the Holy Spirit when I was born of the Spirit.” Well I don’t think anyone is going to say it’s not possible. I think they’re going to say if you have the marks of the baptism with the Holy Spirit than that must have happened. But for many of us it has been as second step in our Christian experience.And so we have this bookcase with the baptism with the Holy Spirit: The top section has books on filing of the Holy Spirit for purity, for inward victory. And the bottom section is anointing of the Holy Spirit for power, for the gifts of the spirit. Emphasizing you see, that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is an inward and an outward enduement: power for inward purity and power for outward witnessing. And then the third bookcase is labeled “Walking In The Spirit,” and it deals with union with Christ and with ministering life.Now I tell you that to point out that really on these Sunday evenings we’ve been dealing again and again with the third bookcase and with that third step. And I noticed that really the seminar this morning that John leads on baptism with the Holy Spirit was overflowing. And really I think the truth is that many of us are at that stage. I think that’s true, isn’t it? Many of us are at that stage where we’re having some difficulty in some defeat in our Christian lives and what we need is the baptism with the Holy Spirit.Now some of us are baptized with the Holy Spirit and have come into a full surrender and we really need to be walking in the Spirit and learning how to walk in the Spirit. But I think it’s necessary maybe, from time-to-time on Sunday evenings to back up and deal again with that crises experience, the baptism with the Holy Spirit. And that’s what I’d like to share a little about tonight and you’ll forgive me therefore not dealing with the Christian’s desires but in fact, just going back in the light of this morning’s message and dealing once more with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the need of it in our lives.I had some cream in that glass jar and I left it too long. Yeah, I did. And it’s really quite a smell. And there’s nothing as miserable as sour cream. Now do you see dear ones, if I leave that like that and you bring me some fresh cream and I say, “Okay, I’ve got a jar here,” and I take your fresh cream and I pour it in here, you know what will happen. And you’ll say to me, “Listen pastor if you pour that fresh cream on top of the sour cream the sour cream will affect the fresh cream in a matter of a day or so.” Now that’s foolish. What you need to do is clean that sour cream right out and then put the fresh cream in.Now loved ones, that’s the situation with many of us in our Christian lives. We have come to the place where we realize there was a lot of sour cream in our lives that we needed to empty out. And we did come into a real repentance and we received Jesus into our spirits. And it wasn’t long after that until Jesus began to make us aware that there was something sour underneath that we had never really got to the bottom of. And it was still laying there in our lives. There was a doubleness of will that we had never really dealt with.And do you see what happens? While we allow that to remain there you can receive more of the Holy Spirit in every Sunday, and you can receive a special supply of the Holy Spirit at Easter time, and a great supply of the Holy Spirit if you’re on a retreat, or at a series of evangelistic services.But do you see that the same thing happens all the time? If that stuff at the bottom of your heart has not been dealt with then the Holy Spirit will soon be soured again by that sour lack of full surrender at the bottom of your heart.Now that’s really what we’re talking about when we’re talking about the baptism with the Holy Spirit. We’re saying that the only way to get that sour double will out of your life is to allow the Holy Spirit to be poured in and displace it completely. And to do that you have to be willing to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And the whole deal with the baptism of the Holy Spirit is coming to a place of honesty where you really do want the Holy Spirit to fill every part of you.Now brothers and sisters, you may say, “Oh Pastor if you had the trouble I have with my temper you’d know I want it.” But loved ones, there’s a great part of us that wants so much of the Holy Spirit but not completely and that’s what the struggle is all about, you see.Now, this is built in to the whole message of salvation and maybe we should see that. Acts 2:38, you remember, that famous verse where the people on the day of Pentecost came up to Peter and they asked him, “What must we do to be saved?” And Peter’s answer you see really implies these two important works that the Holy Spirit does within us, regenerating us and filling us. Peter replied, you remember, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”Now the forgiveness of our sins is what Jesus’ blood was shed for. Jesus’ blood you remember, I suggested this morning, was shed to enable God to forgive us and remain a just God even though we were sinners and deserved death. And in a real sense therefore Jesus’ death was for God. In a real sense, Jesus died for his Father’s sake, to enable his Father to forgive sinners who in all justice deserved death. And this enabled his Father to forgive us even though we deserved death because his Justice was wrought upon Jesus. Now that was for the remission of our sins.But you see the second step is, you shall receive the Holy Spirit. And of course the Bible means receive the Holy Spirit not only to regenerate you and renew your spirit and you give a desire for God but to fill your spirit completely, to cleanse your heart by faith.Now those two things are implied in Jesus’ death for us. And dear ones, they run right through the whole of scripture. Jesus died so that God could forgive us our sins. Secondly, Jesus died so that we might die in him and God might destroy and render in operative that rebellious will of ours. Now you see, we don’t accept that at all most of the time. Most of the time we say, “Yes, Jesus died so that God could forgive us our sins. Now our job is to suppress and repress that rebellious will.” And that’s what most of us live in, isn’t it?We believe that Jesus died so that God could forgive us our sins. We couldn’t find any other. There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in. But when it comes to victory within we begin to use our great willpower. We begin to suppress and repress that attitude within us which begets individual sins on the outside.Now if you’d just be patient and look at those two verses that we did check this morning. You remember, I suggested that the first four and a half chapters of Romans deal all the time with sins in the plural: acts, and thoughts, and words that are disobedient to God. And the second three and a half chapters’ deal all the time with sin in the singular, the inward attitude that wants to disobey God. Now that’s Romans 3:25. You remember, it mentions there that Jesus died for the remission ofour sins, “Whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous,” even though he forgives us, “And that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus.” Now you see, the emphasis there is on sins and the forgiveness of our sins.Now would you look at Romans 6:6, where the emphasis is not on sins but on the inward attitude of sin which produces those sins. “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin,” in the singular. In other words, there’s a real need for us not only to believe that Jesus has died for our sins and to be willing to let go of our sins, but there’s a real need for us to realize that we were crucified with Christ and to be willing to let go of self so that he is able to free us through the Holy Spirit.Now there isn’t a place dear ones, where you cannot find these two things emphasized you see. You look at 1 John 1:9 and it’s a verse we often quote about how really to become a Christian. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins,” and that’s the part that we again, and again preach in our churches, “He will forgive us our sins.” But do you see the second, “And cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”Now it is God who will cleanse us from the unrighteousness within. It is not ourselves by willpower or the power of positive thinking, or Paul Tournier [1898-1986, A Swiss physician, author and pastoral counselor] or fellowship, or through Bible study and prayer. It is God himself who through the Holy Spirit will do this.Now why do we say through the Holy Spirit? Well Acts 15:9 states what Peter felt happened on the day of Pentecost you remember. You remember there’s difficulty about receiving the gentiles in without first becoming Jews. In Acts 15:8 Peter explains this, “And God who knows the heart bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us; and he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faith.”In other words, when we share this need to die with Jesus we’re not making the Christian faith harder, or the Christian life harder we’re making it possible, loved ones. It is impossible to destroy that evil inward inclination you have to have your own way and insist on your own rights. It is impossible to do that by human willpower. The only way is to see that God, through the Holy Spirit, does it and he will only do it if you’re willing to die to self.Now you know if you say, “Oh well brother now why don’t we share this more in our churches?” Loved ones, you know why, because we want to retain some free will ourselves. We call it free will. It isn’t free will. It’s slavery to self. But you know that in our churches we’re anxious for admission into heaven. We want our sins covered by Jesus’ blood. We don’t want to be found in hell at the end of this life. But when it comes to the way we live this present life, again, and again we want to be able to live it our own way.Now you’ll see as you go through scripture, it just isn’t on the books loved ones. It just is not that way. Now look at 2 Corinthians 5:14 and you begin to see a magnificent symmetrical logic you know, about God’s word when you see the two events that took place when Jesus died on the cross: Not only the bearing of the penalty of our sins but the bearing of ourselves into death with him. “For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all.” That’s for the forgiveness of our sins. “Therefore all have died.” In other words the two emphases are there,that Jesus died for us but that we also died with him. And really, until we enter into that there’ll be no experience of resurrection.You find it in the Old Testament. Ezekiel 36:25-26 and again, the two sides of the work that Jesus did on the cross. “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.” And it says that God will sprinkle clean water upon us: sprinkle the blood of Jesus upon us so that we are looked upon as righteous because of Jesus’ righteousness. Then in Verse 26 the real change that he will work in us: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”And again, and again throughout scripture there’s the emphasis. God will treat you as righteous because Jesus has died for you but he will make you righteous by the filling of the Holy Spirit. Now this is pictured for us you remember, in the Israelites. You remember, they passed over the Red Sea and the escaped from the bondage and the slavery that they were in-in Egypt. And then, like many of us, they wandered for 40 years in the wilderness coming back to their old campsites, making the same old resolutions, “We’re going to win through this time. We’re going to obey you Lord whatever the cost.” And it wasn’t until they eventually crossed the Jordan and into Canaan that they came into a place of rest. And there was in a sense two different experiences for them: A coming free from slavery and then an entering into the rest that God had for them.Now that’s what many of us have found you know, in this baptism with the Holy Spirit, that it suddenly seems to bring you into a rest. And that’s why many of us call it the second rest of the people of God, where you cease from your labors. You cease from that striving to overcome those miserable habits and you enter in through the filling of the Holy Spirit into an effortless life of obedience.But dear ones, those are just a few of the pictures in the New Testament and I have others here you know, and could go through them.Now where is the problem normally in the born again Christian or the child of God who has not entered into baptism of the Holy Spirit? Where is the problem? Well I suggested where it is this morning. It’s not normally in the outward life. Most of us can walk in a fair degree of outward victory. We’ve been trained, we have strong wills. We’re sophisticated western educated people. We have a fair degree of control over what we do outwardly and what we say outwardly. But the problem with most of us is in the area of attitudes, or the area of reactions, or the area of motives, or the area of tempers or desires. You see, we’re willing to do something for God and we get up here and we do it and we’re not quite sure what was the real motive behind it. We believe that it was for the glory of God and we say, “Praise God,” when somebody thanks us for it. But often inside there’s a great welling up of pride in the old natural abilities. And there’s a great pleasure derived from all eyes being upon us.Now normally dear ones, it’s in the area of motives where we have our problems, or the area of attitudes, you know. You can hold back from being angry with a brother. You can hold back from outwardly criticizing someone. But you know if you’re heart was to be projected on one of those outdoor screens in an outdoor theatre and everybody could see it, you know you would be the most ashamed person in the whole world, because there are things in your attitudes to others: just unquestioned attitudes of criticism. Unquestioned attitudes of hatred, and grudges, and resentment that you would hate anyone to see.Now loved ones, usually it’s in those inner areas. That’s why we often call it inward sin, you see, as opposed to outward sins. And the reason why we have no revival among us is many of us are walking about in apparent outward victory but inside our hearts our foul, and unclean, and filled with things that are not godly and are not Christ-like. And those are the things that destroy our witness.Now if you said, “What particular things?” Well, you’d find them there in Galatians 5:19 if you wanted to look at it. They’re called, you remember, in the New Testament the works of the flesh. “Now the works of the flesh are plain: immorality, impurity,” you see, these are attitudes, all the “-y’s”, all the “y” words are normally attitudes, “Immorality, impurity, licentiousness.” See it’s not just enough loved ones, to hold back from unclean acts. It’s that God wants us to be free from a spirit of licentiousness.See there’s a real way in which I’m all for the sap coming up in the trees at spring time and all that. And it’s beautiful. But there’s a way, too, in which there can be a licentiousness in our lives. There can be an attitude of a libertine even though it doesn’t get outside. Now that’s what is not consistent you see, with the spirit of the pure tender Jesus that is dwelling within us. That’s why he is uncomfortable so often in our lives, because he has to dwell with such unclean neighbors inside our hearts. And that’s why there’s always a struggle, because he will not stay there if you’re going to keep that neighbor there, you see. One of them must go. And that’s where the struggle comes from.“Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like.” Party spirit isn’t where this group on this side of the church get up and fight against this group on this side of the church. That isn’t party spirit. Party spirit is where that’s already beginning to move in your hearts– where we’re already beginning to think of him as him or them as them and us as us. That’s party spirit beginning to develop in our hearts.One tract that I found was good for me at the time I needed to enter into the baptism of the Holy Spirit, was this little one, and Roger is ordering more: “Traits of the Self Life.” And it’s good, you know, to ask yourself, “Have you any of these?” Because, you see, the most plain evidence that you’re not baptized with the spirit is your self life, your self life. And it has these things. “Are you ever conscience of a secret spirit of pride, an exalted feeling in view of your success or position, because of your good training or appearance, because of your natural gifts and abilities, an important independent spirit? Are you ever conscience of a love of human praise, a secret fondness to be noticed, a love of supremacy, a drawing attention to self in conversation, a swelling out of self when you have had a free time in speaking or praying?”“Are you ever conscience of the stirrings of anger or impatience which worse of all you call nervousness or holy indignation, a touchy sensitive spirit, a disposition to resent and retaliate when disapproved of or contradicted, a desire to throw sharp heated flings at another? Are you ever conscience of self will, a stubborn unteachable spirit, an arguing talkative spirit, harsh sarcastic expressions, an unyielding headstrong disposition, a driving commanding spirit, a disposition to criticize and pick flaws when set aside and unnoticed, a peevish fretful spirit, a disposition that loves to be coaxed and humored?”“Are you ever conscience of carnal fear, a man fearing spirit, a shrinking from approach and duty, areasoning around your cross? Are you ever conscience of a compromising spirit, a jealous disposition, a secret spirit of envy shut up in your heart, an unpleasant sensation in view of the great prosperity and success of another, a disposition to speak of the faults and failings rather than the gifts and virtues of those more talented and more appreciated than yourself?”“Are you ever conscience of a dishonest deceitful disposition, the evading and covering of the truth, the covering up of your real faults leaving a better impression of your self than is strictly true, false humility, exaggeration, straining the truth? Are you ever conscience of unbelief, a spirit of discouragement in times of pressure and opposition, lack of quietness and confidence in God, lack of faith and trust in God, a disposition to worry and complain in the midst of pain, or at the dispensations of divine providence, an over anxious feeling whether everything will come out alright? Are you ever conscience of selfishness, a love of ease, a love of money?”Now loved ones, do you see that God cannot use you if those things are down there? Loved ones, I don’t care if you know Schaeffer [Francis August Schaeffer, 1912-1984, theologian, philosopher, pastor, L’Abri founder] backwards. I don’t care if you know Watchman Nee back to front. I don’t care if you’re a Baptist or if you’re a miserable poor Methodist like me. But do you see if you have those things deep down within, then the Holy Spirit has not filled you with himself? Now loved ones, that’s just true. You have not allowed him to deal with some areas in your life.Now if you’ve come to a place you know, where you say, “Well Pastor I believe I entered into a filling with the Holy Spirit.” Well then brothers and sisters thank the Holy Spirit for filling you and tell him about these things. Tell him, “Holy Spirit, I know it’s your desire for me to be completely cleansed from these things. Now will you reveal to me what area of my life is not nailed to the cross with Christ?” Now that’s it, loved ones.Now if you say you know, “How do you enter in?” Dear ones, it’s trust and obey. That’s the way you enter into forgiveness of sins. You trust or you believe that Jesus died for your sins and then you obey him absolutely. You let all those things go from your own life and you obey him.It’s the same with entering into victory over sin within. You trust and you believe that you were crucified with Christ. You believe that, that you died 1900 years ago. That that great person that your parents have made all the plans for, that you have made all the plans for, that the government has all the plans for is actually dead and that your mind and body are available for the Holy Spirit to live the life of Jesus over again in. But believe that you are crucified, that you’re dead with Christ, that you have no rights to your own way, or your own rights, or your own attitude. You’ve no right to assert yourself or defend yourself and you were crucified with Christ.And now look to the Holy Spirit and say, “Holy Spirit if there’s any way in which I’m not really willing to be crucified then will you let me know?” Because do you see dear ones, believing is not a matter of auto suggestion, you see. The word for believe in the New Testament means obey. You can’t believe unless you’re willing to obey. I can’t say, “I believe that chair will hold me,” unless I’m willing to step on that chair. Then in the New Testament sense I believe. The word is “pisteuo” in Greek. It means I obey what I believe, I do what I believe. Even the English word, believe, comes from “be” in Anglo Saxon and “liefan”, to be in accordance with. And until you actually are in accordance with what you say you believe the Holy Spirit cannot fill you with himself.Now you’ll see that if you look at just two verses there in Romans and then two in Galatians. Romans 6:11 explains how to enter into the baptism of the Holy Spirit or into a full surrender or freedom from this desire to disobey God and have our own way. “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” That’s it. That’s what believing is. The word you remember, is translated in the King James Version reckon and the Greek word for means you don’t only reckon it, you don’t only imagine it, you are in that position. And for many of us that is the real struggle in coming into the baptism with the Holy Spirit. It’s coming to that place where we’re actually willing to be crucified with Christ.Now that’s hard loved ones, because that means your future is not your own. That means dear sisters you cannot choose who you’re going to marry. It means there is no marriage ahead for you, there is only a marriage ahead for the Holy Spirit using your mind, and body, and emotions. Brothers, there is no future ahead for us. There are no jobs to plan for; there is only a future ahead for the Holy Spirit living inside our minds and bodies. It really means a funeral you see.Somebody has said, “Oh, that death is more real than physical death.” And brothers and sisters I’d testify to it in my own life. You know, that was a death to all the things I held dearest, all the things I wanted myself. And God dealt with each one of them and asked me, “Would you be willing to come to a place there where you’re willing to be a failure for Jesus? Where you’re willing to be nothing for him?” Now do you see I can share these questions with you? But only the Holy Spirit can choose the area of your life where you’re not willing to reckon yourself crucified with Christ. Now in fact, you have been crucified. As far as God is concerned he sees you crucified. But that can only be made real in you if you’re willing for it to be made real just as with the forgiveness of your sins.Now you see the second step is, after you’ve come to that place, Romans 8:13 is the way to live in this victory. In other words, you don’t come to a place where you’re really willing to be crucified with Christ and then start trying. No. “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.”Now the answer to every how in the New Testament is the Holy Spirit. Mary said, “How shall these things be?” The answer was, “The Holy Spirit will conceive within you.” Now it’s the same here. How can you walk in this victory? By instant obedience and submission to the Holy Spirit.So those are the two sides, dear ones, a reckoning that you have been crucified with Christ, that you have no rights to live your own life in your own way and then an absolute submission to the Holy Spirit.Now I’d just point to two more verses and then we’ll have some questions if you want to ask. Galatians 5:24-25 state those two conditions that are necessary to be fulfilled in order to be entered in. The first, you see, is belief, is trust, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” The flesh in the New Testament is not the body or even the sexual part of us. The flesh is if you rearrange the words and leave one letter out you get what it is, it’s self. The flesh in the New Testament is self. The self love that is not the kind of self respect that God wants but is a self centered love, a self deification, a self glorification, a self aggrandizement. You see, it is those things.Now all of us you see, that belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh. Loved ones, as far as God is concerned you don’t have a future, you see. But you’re arguing with him. You’re saying,“Yes Lord, I have a future and I am going to have a two car garage, a motor lounge, and I’m going to have the best salary I can possibly get my hands on.” And the Father has just a controversy with you. He says, “No my child, I crucified you with Jesus. I destroyed that evil inclination to have your own way with Jesus. And you must accept that. Otherwise I cannot give you my Holy Spirit in his fullness.”Now that’s the first step you see, that realizing that you were crucified. And then Verse 25, the obedience, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” The way you walk in that victory is by instant obedience to the Holy Spirit. I’d just finish there that you see you cannot have instant obedience to the Holy Spirit if there is a great area of your life that you have not allowed the Holy Spirit to place on the cross. Then of course you’re trying to believe over a half committed and half surrendered self. Well, that’s impossible you see and you’re always going to have difficulty obeying.Just one example, if your problem is anger, I think I used this before, or bad temper, the Holy Spirit will probably deal with what would be the consequences if you did not use anger or bad temper in your life. In other words he’ll probably point out to you, “Now listen you know you use anger to keep people off. You know you use anger to control people. You use bad temper to let them see that you want your way. Now, would you be willing not to have your way?” And then you will think in your mind, “But Holy Spirit, if I don’t get my way at times these people would trample me under foot. They would just walk over me. They would treat me as a doormat.” The Holy Spirit will pin you on that and say, “Are you willing to be a doormat? Are you willing to be trampled underfoot as much as I want you to be? Are you willing for me to be your only defense? Are you willing for me to decide when to take the heat off?”Now when you’re willing, you see, to face the consequences of not having anger and temper as a weapon against other people then the Holy Spirit will move on to the next area in your life. And he will keep moving dear ones, until he gets to the bottom of all your resistances to God’s will. Now that doesn’t mean he’ll have no more light to show you but he’ll deal with all the areas where you have already rebelled against God and he’ll bring you down to the ground of your heart Wesley said. You’ll come to a place where you’ll see the ground of your heart. And the Holy Spirit will witness you in a place of full consecration ready to be crucified with Jesus in your own life. And faith will spring up in your heart to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Faith is not a problem when you come to that place. Then it’s a matter of walking in the same way as you entered in, trusting and obeying the Holy Spirit.Now loved ones, will you share questions? Now brothers and sisters do you see that I’m glad to be asked a question that I can’t answer. There was a day when I was concerned about that and anxious always to have an answer. But I want you to ask questions, they may be even – well, if they’re hostile questions don’t ask them in a hostile way, ask them in a loving way. But do you see, that I want to find truth? Don’t you think if you’ve the truth there, don’t keep it wrapped up you see. Share it and push me.Chris is asking, “Does God break us individually of different areas?” What she has found at times is she’s been broken in a certain area and later on it has cropped up.Do you see, dear ones, that the common misunderstanding of growing in grace is that God gradually breaks us of all the things that we’re doing wrong in our lives over a period of time? That’s the normal misunderstanding of growing in grace. Dear ones don’t realize that growing in grace onlytakes place after you’ve been crucified with Christ. It only takes place after you’ve entered into resurrection life. Growth in grace implies growth in the grace and beauty of our Lord Jesus, not growth out of our own ugliness. That is something that is achieved by Christ’s death on the cross.And so the important thing I think to see is that no, the heart of all these areas is self. That is the reason why we’re bad tempered. It’s the reason why we’re jealous, why we’re proud. All those things can be traced back to self. And what the Holy Spirit does is he’ll deal with certain areas. He’ll ask us to walk in obedience in those areas. We’ll have to, in other words, start walking in obedience. We don’t want to wait for a great blockbuster some day when he’ll blast through everything. If the Holy Spirit shows me some area, I need to walk in obedience in that area. But I need to see that what the Holy Spirit wants to get at is the great self deep down.And so I know for me, I had to ask the Holy Spirit, “Holy Spirit, show me. I see my anger, I see my ambition, but reveal to me how that comes from self and how that great self underneath me is like an iceberg, a tenth on the surface, a tenth on the surface that shows a little pride but underneath nine tenths I cannot see. And will you show me that great self? And show me that it is hostile to God. Show me that the exceeding sinfulness of that.”Because if you had pointed out some of the things in my life I would have said, “Well, those are just little things. I mean, those I can overcome gradually.” But it was only when the Holy Spirit gave me revelation and light to see that self as a rebel against God, that I really saw that that needed to be destroyed by God. “Rendered inoperative” is a better word because there’s nothing destroyed forever, it’s only put on the cross and held there by the power of the Holy Spirit. As soon as we cease to believe it comes back down again. So it’s held there by the power of faith and willing submission to the Holy Spirit. But it is, as far as we’re concerned, it’s dead because it’s rendered inoperative by the power of the Holy Spirit.So that would be my answer, that you need to walk in obedience, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal it to you, but the issue is to get to that heart of self. Otherwise, the things will just crop up again. Otherwise, you’re just treating the symptoms of the disease and the disease is still there. “The just shall live by faith.” We have to steer well clear of the emphasis that some dear ones, and well intentioned they were, but it is not scripture, where they say, “The flesh you see, can be once and for all done away with so that you never have to remember it again. You’ll never sin again. Once you’ve entered into the crucifixion with Christ you’ll never sin again.”Now I see no reason why you should ever sin again, but that’s because of continual exercise of faith and submission to the Holy Spirit. In other words, you cannot get to the point where you say, “Whether I exercise faith or submission to the Holy Spirit, I’ll never sin again because that’s once and for all crucified.” Well, that’s a wrong understanding of inward sin. Inward sin and a carnal nature is not an appendix that you take out and put on the cross.It is an attitude within us. You say to a person, “That fellow is very generous. Yes, that’s his nature. That’s the way he’s built. It’s just his whole attitude in life.” Now it’s in that sense that we mean we have a carnal nature. But that’s an attitude that can be held on the cross by the power of the Holy Spirit as long as we believe, as long as we trust and obey.“Once the Holy Spirit has revealed to you that there’s something like pride in your life, how can you know that you’re willing to give it up unless you give it up?”Presumably, let’s go the other step by saying, “Surely you can only walk in obedience if the Holy Spirit enables you to.”Now do you see, dear ones, that the Holy Spirit knows if you’re willing to give it up? That’s why I’ve mentioned the witness of the Holy Spirit to your full consecration. It’s not a question you see, of wondering through this and wondering, “Am I fully consecrated? Well, I feel a bit more consecrated than last time. I think I am.” No, the Holy Spirit comes and the New Testament says, “We are sealed by the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit stamps a seal upon us and says, “Yes, you’re fully consecrated.”I remember in my own heart, I came to a place where I knew that witness of the Holy Spirit. He hadn’t filled me at that point, but he witnessed that I was fully consecrated. So, that’s it. The Holy Spirit will witness, when you’ve come to the ground of your own heart, when you’ve come to the end of yourself.Diane says, “Then there’ll never be a time when we’ll have everything fully given over? The Holy Spirit will always be showing us more things.”Now, here’s the distinction I would make, that most of us after walking in Jesus for six months or a year, the Holy Spirit begins to show us things where we ought to move out after him, maybe in witnessing in school, which concerns our reputation. We want to be thought a swinger and the Holy Spirit tells us to witness and be a square. And we stand back on that and our reputation becomes precious to us. It’s those resistances to the Father’s will that we’ve already established. It’s those things that the Holy Spirit wants to clear away. And you’re right, when he comes to the bottom of those he will fill us. And then he will give us more light on other areas that we’ve never seen before.But do you see when it comes to those, the resistance of our will, will have been cleansed away by the filling of the Holy Spirit and we’ll walk willingly and obediently into those other areas.Well, as far as God is concerned you’re clear at that point. The Father regards you as perfect at that moment, you see. Because the Father says, “Sin is, anyone who knows what is right to do it and fails to do it, for him it is sin. Now my dear child if you are walking in obedience to me and have no resistance to anything that I’ve shown you in the past, then as far as I’m concerned you are perfect in my sight.” And the Father, you see, knows a whole lot of other things where we could walk in greater perfection. But they are not obligatory on us until the Holy Spirit brings them to our hearts. Of course, he can always tell whether we’re walking purposely blind to the Holy Spirit or not. The Holy Spirit knows.That’s why loved ones, I’ve shared with the importance of the Holy Spirit as the counselor. He alone knows whether you’re being honest or not. I don’t know. Your wife doesn’t know. Your best friend doesn’t know. The Holy Spirit knows if you’re being honest. And he determines his filling if your life by your honesty with him.There can be no separation. If we’re dealing with New Testament Christianity, there can be no separation between belief and obedience. But you see, that today, you’re right, what we have shared is cheap grace, you see.Bless our hearts, our tendency is to present it as a hedonistic offer to people. And it’s ridiculous you see, we say, “Now listen, if you continue as you are you’ll have a miserable life and you’ll go to hell. Now if you accept Jesus you’ll have a great life and you’ll go to heaven.” Well now anyone in their right senses will choose the latter. You know, they’ll say, “Well I’d rather have a good life here and go to heaven.” And we’ve preached you see, all they have to do is accept Jesus. And the emphasis has been on accept. And we thought it was the idea of accepting that he’s the son of God, accept all the things that they say about him, and generally try to live like him. But the New Testament experience is repent: A radical repentance, a turning from all our sins, an absolute obedience to him and a receiving his spirit into our hearts.It’s trust and obey. And that’s why, you see, we have so many – we call them conversions–they’re not really you know. We call them even, intellectual Christians. They’re kind of intellectual conversions, most of them. They’re giving intellectual assent to the truth of scripture and trying hard. That’s really what many of them are…

The Holy Spirit Anoints Us for WitnessingSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillHow many have you led to Christ during the past year? How many have you led to Christ during the past year? Well, during the past two years? Well dear ones, how many have you witnessed due about Jesus during this past week? Now not to Christians, and not witnessed about the church, but how many have you witnessed to about Jesus during this past week? Well, during the past three weeks?Now Acts 1:8 says, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” You see, that’s a promise. You’ll receive power and you’ll be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in your own home; in Judea, in your place of work; in Samaria, among the people with whom you have personality conflicts; and then until the utter most parts of the earth.Now how is your witnessing life? Now dear ones, I think the Devil is engaged in deceiving us about our spiritual state. I think he has persuaded us to treat created life as if it were begotten life. He has persuaded us to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and then is now trying to persuade us that we have eaten of the tree of life. And he is constantly trying to deceive us about our true relationship to God. Now the Bible leaves no room for any deception.Dear ones, knowing your state of grace is not a matter of, “I feel a feeling I felt I felt before.” And it just is not, dear ones. And you can say what you like about these old hard preachers that preach otherwise, but the Bible gives clear marks of our different states of grace. Now the mark of one who is born of God is that one who is born of God does not commit sin. And that’s the glorious grace into which God can lift us that we can be free from known act or word that disobeys him. So if a dear one is talking to some others and someone says, “Well, you know she bakes very nice cakes.” And you reply, “Yes, but I wish she’d help with the dishes,” that’s sin. Yeah, yeah, that’s not what Jesus would say. Jesus would not say that about the dear one. And that is a non-loving word.Now loved ones, do you see I’m saying to you that God can lift you into this kind of victory. I’m not beating it over your head and saying, “You must rise to that yourself,” but I’m saying that is sin and anyone who is born of God need not do that. You need not speaking an unloving word like that. The Holy Spirit can give you the insight to see that that is an unloving word. The one who is born of God does not go to the higher $10 when he’s filing in his expenses in the income tax. He doesn’t go to the next $10 up. He puts it exactly right. He does not steal. He is given the power not to commit sin. And one who is born of God does not commit sin. And if he commits sin he isn’t born of God.See, it’s like a group of Irish doctors gathering around a corpse in some Irish town. And there someone has left you know, part of what is to go on the coffin or the casket. And they have, “Born 15th of September 1903,” and the dear one is dead. And the doctors look and say, “Well, he was born 15th of September 1903. Now there’s no death and he doesn’t speak like someone who is alive. And he doesn’t look like someone who is alive. And he doesn’t think like someone who is alive, but it says he was born 15th of September 1903.” Now I think a lot of us are engaged in that kind of deception with the Devil, “I was born again in this year; I must be alive; I must be regenerate. I do not talk like a live person. I do not breath the Holy Spirit in like a live person. I do not breathe the Holy Spirit out to my dear ones in love like a live person, but I must be a regenerate person.”Dear ones, if you’re a regenerate person you do not commit sin. You have the marks of life. And the Holy Spirit is able to give you that life. Some dear ones would say you know, “Well that’s hard words. You’re not ministering grace you’re ministering the law.” Dear ones, it’s vital to know if you have cancer so you can get better. You know the power is available in God, but it is vital to know when you have not that power.And so, one who is born of God doesn’t commit sin. One who has had their heart cleansed by the Holy Spirit has no experience of these feelings within: “unbelief; a spirit of discouragement in times of pressure and opposition; a lack of quietness and confidence in God; a lack of faith and trust in God; a disposition to worry and complain in the midst of pain; an over anxious feeling whether everything will come out all right; formality and deadness; lack of concern for lost souls; dryness and indifference; lack of power with God.”One who has allowed the Holy Spirit to come in and cleanse their heart has no lack of love for lost souls. But dear ones, many of us are sanctified and petrified. And we are stamped and addressed and are ready to go to heaven. And you know that because ever since we have come into Bethany, and ever since we have come into this experience, we’ve just walked around concerned with our own family, and our own little children, and with all that concerns ourselves. And we’re here and we’re ready to help with the work, but we don’t overflow with the Love of Jesus. We have not a great burden of souls in our spirits.Now one who is cleansed from inward sin by the Holy Spirit is free from inward signs of self and self centeredness and self love. And so it is that the Bible here gives us another clear mark of one who has been anointed with the Holy Spirit, or baptized with the Holy Spirit. You may say, “Oh, you speak in tongues.” No, no because the Bible says, “Do you all speak in tongues?” No, obviously you don’t. Well you may say, “Oh, you have the gift of healing?” The Bible says, “Do all have the gifts of healing?” No, because of course those are gifts. The Holy Spirit may be pleased to give you himself without those gifts. He may just make those gifts available when you need them.But this other sign is a plain sign and it’s found there in Acts 1:8 if you’d like to look at it. And it refers to that realm in many of our lives where we are utter failures. It refers to our witnessing lives. This is a clear sign that you have been anointed with the Holy Spirit. “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.”Now let me make another sentence up as near as I can to that, “When you get into this plane you will end up in San Francisco, and then in Los Angeles, and then in Mexico City.” Now if you get into the plane and you end up in New York, and Miami, and Cuba then you know you’re not on the right plane or something has gone wrong. Now dear ones, if you are not witnesses in Jerusalem, your home, and in Judea, your place of work, and in Samaria, to those with whom you have personality conflicts, then you have not received the anointing of the Holy Spirit. That’s just what it means you see.If you have not a victorious witnessing life tonight then you are not anointed with the Holy Spirit. And if I have not a victorious witnessing life tonight it doesn’t matter what state I have been in in the past, the anointing of the Holy Spirit is not upon me. And I am not pouring fourth the life of Jesus because a witness is a “marturae” and “Martureo” in Greek is obviously near to our “martyr” and it means just that: One who dies. And a real witness is one who dies to himself so that Jesusstands up and lives within him and everyone sees Jesus instead of the person. Now if you are not a witness in that sense to Jesus then you have not been anointed with the Holy Spirit. And I’m saying tonight that the Holy Spirit is available for you.Now some of us of course say, “Oh well, I haven’t time to wait around for the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and I don’t know whether I have the anointing of the Holy Spirit or not, but I’ll go out and witness anyway.” And many of us get out there and you know what we do, we end up in a conversation with some dear one and we say, “You know, we believe you can be free from sin.” And the other dear one says, “Well, I have just finished reading Calvin and I don’t believe you can be free from sin in this life. I believe, in a sense, one has to sin in act and word and thought every day.” And then we say, “Well, 1 John 3:9 says, ‘Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin.’” And they say, “Well, even so-and-so sinned.” And you have a long argument over whether you can commit sin or not. And you leave and they leave. And they think, “Well that’s a strange theology.” And the only impression you make on them is that of a clever theologian or a theologian of a different color to themselves. You know that.Or, we meet some dear one and we decide to witness without the anointing of the Holy Spirit and we go up to them and say, “You know, I think you drink too much.” And they say, “Well, it’s my own life. I can do what I like.” And we say, “Well, look it says in the Bible that drunkenness is a sin.” And they say, “But it says take a little wine for your stomach’s sake.” And then you balance up a few more verses and they balance up the two or three other verses that they have and you leave each other. And they get the impression, “Well, he’s a very moral person. He doesn’t drink and I must say I’d like to be him.”But these dear ones do not see Jesus. They see you as a theologian or they see you as a moralist. Or we go to them you know, and we tell them about Bethany Church, or we tell them about our Presbyterian church or our Nazarene Church or Methodist Church and they say, “That’s very interesting. I go the Lutheran Church.” And they share some things about the Lutheran Church. And you share some things about your minister. And then you talk about the terrible state of the world, and you talk about ecumenicity, and how many some things are getting better or worse. And you depart from each other and all they think is, “That’s a certain kind of churchman and I’m this kind of churchman.” And you make an impression on them as a certain kind of churchman but you don’t witness about Jesus.Now dear ones, that’s the disappointing, defeatist witnessing life without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Now the Bible says, “Listen, there’s a promise. You can receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and then you will be witnesses, when the power of the Holy Spirit is upon you.” In other words the Bible says, “God has done a miraculous work in your heart. You need a miraculous power and ability to tell of it to others.” If you haven’t that miraculous power all you’ll get over to them is the non-supernatural part of the experience. But if you have the supernatural part of the Holy Spirit then Jesus will shine through you to them.Now dear ones, Jesus himself required this anointing. Maybe you’d like to check that for yourselves. It’s in Luke 4:18-19, and Jesus, you remember, is speaking and reading in the temple and he applies these words to himself from the Old Testament. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”In other words, Jesus could not have preached good news to the poor; he could not have proclaimed release to the captives; he could not have proclaimed recovering of sight to the blind if he had not been anointed with the Holy Spirit at his baptism. Even our Lord Jesus who was the son of God himself had to be anointed with the Holy Spirit for the work he was sent to do.And so it is with us, dear ones. We cannot go and witness unless we have the baptism and the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon us. So Fletcher of Madeley, the old saintly Methodist used to gather his preachers around them and he used to talk to them for 30 minutes and then he used to get them to pray for 30 minutes for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And the older Methodist bishops used to gather their preachers around them before they ordained them and they’d say, “Have you the anointing of the Spirit?” Dear ones, there can be no witnessing without the anointing of the Holy Spirit.Now of course the truth is that you and I are members of the body of Jesus. And so if you are a hand, then as the Holy Spirit anoints Jesus, the Holy Spirit pours down over the whole body and down over this right hand. And so he anoints you also if you stay in Jesus. But many of us get into the position where we find witnessing so difficult that we disobey Jesus’ command to witness. We disobey his injunction that we are to be witnesses. And so we step aside from Jesus and the Holy Spirit is not able to anoint us.Now we can only receive the anointing if we remain in Christ in obedience and in love. You may say, “Well, what is the significance of this anointing?” Well you remember it occurred in the Old Testament. You could be born into the tribe of Levi but you did not become a priest, you did not enter into your Levite priesthood until you were anointed with oil. That was the seal that the Israelites put upon you that you were ready to enter your office.Now you can be a born again Christian, but you cannot enter your office as a priest before God until you have the anointing of the Holy Spirit. That’s why so many of us are unable to be a “pontifex”, a “bridge maker” between ourselves or between our friends and God. We’re unable to intercede before the Father for dear ones. And we have little experience of successful and victorious intercessory prayer because we have no anointing to enter into that priesthood.See dear ones, there’s a sense in which a priest must bear the sorrows and the pains of others as his very own and that requires the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We need priests in our churches today. We don’t need so much, better preachers, but we greatly need priests who will intercede mightily before God. And so you remember, that story that I’m sure you’ve heard again and again of Moody (Dwight L. Moody 1837-1899, American evangelist) traveling to that church, preaching in the morning: cold service, no atmosphere, no movement. And he was reluctant to go back that night. But a dear one went home to her invalid sister and told her that a Mr. Moody was at the church. And the sister said, “Take my lunch away. I’ve been praying for him to come to this church for years.” And she prayed all day and Moody preached that night and 500 came forward. And he sent them back and said, “No, this is emotion. If you want really to give your lives to Jesus, to deny yourself, to become nothing for him, then come to the vestry tomorrow night.” So those 500 and 200 others came forward.Now dear ones, that’s the power of an intercessor in prayer. We need the anointing of the Holy Spirit to become priests before God. Now you could be born a king in Israel. But until you had the anointing of the oil you could not enter into your office as a king. Now we have available authority in Jesus over evil spirits and over demons. You remember, it says in Ephesians that Jesuswas placed above every authority and above every power in heaven and on earth. And of course, we who are in Jesus are there also. And so if every enemy is under his feet and if we are in him we are at least above the soles of his feet. So we’re above every enemy.So the Holy Spirit is able to anoint us to be kings, rulers over demons and evil spirits. But many of us go to homes where the Devil rules, where the Satan spirit has a hold on a member of that home so that that member is not free to decide for Jesus. And we go and we give them the gospel again, and again, and again. And we wonder why they aren’t reacting. And we have not the anointing of the Holy Spirit to stand against that evil force within them. We need the anointing then to be kings.You remember, there were prophets. You could be born a prophet because one of them said, you remember, “I wasn’t born in a prophet’s family. I was a shepherd.” You could be born as a prophet. But you couldn’t enter into the office until the Holy Spirit anointed you. Now we need prophets today. We need people who will stop going to the person next door who has a funeral and say, “Well now, I want to give you some verses that will help you.” And then they read over “Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me.” And they read over some other verses. Then they close the Bible and they think of some good things that ministers have said in the past at funerals and they give them then. And then they give them a little bit of commonsense that they’ve got out of the Reader’s Digest. And they feel that they have acted the part of a prophet and comforted the dear ones.Do you see that God has a right word for that person at that time? And you need the anointing of the Holy Spirit so that you can speak that prophetic word to them, so that you can speak the right word out of the right place of the Bible to the right person at the right time. And that requires the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And God has promised us this. Now you can have this anointing tonight.What affect does this anointing have on your own life? Well, some of the effect of the anointing can be found if you look at John 12:3. You can see if you take the “an” off as an indefinite article from “anointing” you’re left with “o-i-n-t” And therefore you can see the connection easily in the English language between it and “ointment”. And they’re very close together. The effect of the anointing on a life is the effect of this ointment. “Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.”And when the Holy Spirit anoints you with himself he fills your life with the fragrance of Jesus. And Jesus breaks through what was that old self. And your thoughts and your feelings become sweet as his are. Not with the sweetie sweetness that people try to imitate, but with the real sweetness of Jesus himself. When the Holy Spirit anoints you with himself, your own soul becomes a garden of spices and you become a delight in the church, and a delight at work. There’s something fragrant about your presence. You don’t need to speak but something shines through from you and people sense the very presence of Jesus. And you don’t need to preach the gospel to them. But the Holy Spirit has anointed you with the very fragrance of Christ himself.Now that can be yours dear ones. The Holy Spirit is anxious to give you that kind of fragrance instead of the sourness that so many people connect with so many of us Christians. When the Holy Spirit anoints you with himself he anoints you with the very fragrance of the Christ life miraculously. Too many of us have tried to imitate Jesus. We aren’t called to imitate Jesus. Jesus is at the right hand of God the Father and he is able through the Holy Spirit to give us thethings that are his own. So he is able supernaturally to impart to you his own fragrance of his own life. But you need to get down on your knees and begin to admit that you need it and that you have not sufficient in your own self.When the Holy Spirit comes he gives you strength. When the Holy Spirit came to Paul he was able to endure shipwrecks and persecutions. He was able to endure stonings. He was able to endure arrest, and criticism, and conflict with joy–with complete joy. Now some of us come into a hard place and somebody says, “You’re having a hard time these days.” And we say, “Yes, but God is sufficient,” with teeth clenched. Now we don’t need to have the teeth clenched. You can meet those trials, and those defeats, and those difficulties with joy. The Holy Spirit is able to strengthen you so that you can face all those things and not be weary.So this is the whole promise of the Bible: that you’ll rise up with wings as of eagles. You shall run and not faint. And the Holy Spirit is able to strengthen you in this way so that you can go through unbearable trials, things that you would have thought you could not meet. And you can meet them, not just meet them but meet them with joy and with peace because nothing is draining from you yourself. The Holy Spirit has anointed you with his own strength.Another effect I think of the Holy Spirit is the same effect as oil. You know that oil in the Old Testament is the symbol of the Holy Spirit. And the young men especially, will know that athletes use oil on their limbs to make them supple and flexible, to make the joints nimble so that they’ll move easily and quickly without any friction, without any strain. Now many Christians enter into some experience of conversion and often enter into the place of full consecration for sanctification but never stay long enough to be anointed with the Holy Spirit. And so they have to be dragged to the prayer meeting. They have to be dragged to testify. They have to be persuaded and begged to do this or that piece of Christian work. They move slowly and lumpishly and awkward about God’s business. They are enthusiastic and alive and active in their own business but they’re slow and awkward in God’s business.Now when you have the anointing of the Holy Spirit he makes you flexible. He makes you nimble about God’s business. You have gospel shoes on and you’re ready to go about God’s business. And you’re not always preoccupied with how little time I have left for myself, but you’re anxious how much time can I give to the Lord Jesus because the Holy Spirit has anointed you with that. No longer do you come up to people and say, “I can’t witness to them because they are better educated and better read than I am.” But the Holy Spirit anoints you with himself so that your personality becomes as fluid as the psychologists think it can become. It becomes fluid and flexible so that you can meet all different kinds of people and you can deal with them in the way God wants you to deal with them. And you can tell that you have this flexibility about you.You know it. You know yourself. You know whether you’re lumpish and awkward at the moment in God’s business. You know it dear ones, don’t you? You know how you feel tonight. You know whether you’re free for Jesus just to break out of you if he wants. You know it. Or, whether you’re wrapped up in half a dozen contortions of thinking that you have. The Holy Spirit anoints us with that kind of flexibility in our lives.Just, dear ones, to finish could we look at the anointing oil of the Old Testament? And I think it teaches us some things about the way the Holy Spirit can affect your own witnessing life. The oil in the Old Testament that they use to anoint prophets, and priests, and kings with contains several ingredients. The first ingredient was myrrh. And myrrh was used to take the soreness out of abruise. Now when the Holy Spirit anoints you with himself people can kick you, and tear you apart, and criticize you, and complain about you, and oppose you, and offend you, and there is no soreness in the bruise. Now there is no soreness.You may sit there and say, “I don’t believe it. You feel hurt surely and the Holy Spirit comes in and he gives you a band for the hurt. And it heals up after a while.” No, when you’re anointed with the Holy Spirit you feel no bruise. You feel no soreness. You feel no pain. You never feel, “How badly I’ve been treated. How unfair they’ve been to me. What a thing to say to me. I’ll never see that person again if they’re going to treat me like that.” You don’t feel it. The Holy Spirit takes the soreness out of the bruises. And that’s why one who is anointed with the Holy Spirit can keep going forward. So he’s a Steven; he’s a Paul; he’s a Peter. He feels nothing. The Holy Spirit bears it all. It is possible, dear ones, and it is for you.Another ingredient of the anointing oil was cinnamon. And it was a fiery spice as we know and stimulates. This is why Paul said, “Don’t be drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit.” Because wine does stimulate you at one point but the Holy Spirit does a far better job and has none of the other effects. That’s why the Holy Spirit acts as cinnamon in us. It stimulates us and makes us active, makes us able to do 10 times the amount of work that we did before. That’s why one old preacher said, “I enjoy the rest of faith which keeps me in perpetual motion.”When you’re in that place anointed with the Holy Spirit you have no weariness, you have no tiredness because the Holy Spirit has given you a new stimulation. And I think it’s important to say that there is a stimulation in our faces and our hearts. You know, some of us take each other for granted, don’t we–in Bethany, and in our churches, and in our families? We say, “Well, we’ve to witness to everyone else but these people know. And they won’t mind me walking around just my good old self.” And we expect them to take our good old selves which are usually glum, complacent, and wrapped up in ourselves saying nothing but what refers to our desires and our wishes.Now when the Holy Spirit comes he stimulates you so that you are interesting each way in a new way and a new way to your wife. Each morning is new. She meets you as a new person with more of Jesus in you. And you meet her with more of the loved one in you, more of the Savior in you. And the Holy Spirit is able to do that. It’s new every morning, the grace that he gives. But it’s a continual moving forward because of the stimulating power of the Holy Spirit.So one who is anointed with the Holy Spirit is an interesting person to be with. He or she is just an exciting person to be with because they’re dynamic and they’re moving forward. And they’re saved out of self and delivered out of self, and out of those sinking sands–out of those quick sands where we’re lifting one foot after another with grave difficulty, grave difficulty.The Holy Spirit gives you stimulation in your life. The Holy Spirit acts as calamus. Calamus was another ingredient and it was used to counteract the acid in people’s stomachs. I suppose it was alka-seltzer. And it took the sourness out of people’s stomachs. And when one is anointed with the Holy Spirit they’re like the people in that bank that used to advertise on the TV, they’ve never met a sourpuss. They not only are not sourpusses but they themselves have never met a sourpuss. They really haven’t.And someone comes along to them and says, “Isn’t he very irritable? Isn’t he? Isn’t he an irritable person? Don’t you find that?” And the one who is anointed with the Holy Spirit says, “No, no. But I tell you I see this of Jesus in him. I see this beauty of Jesus in him.” And theHoly Spirit anoints you so that it takes the sourness out of the stomach. You do not feel sourness coming to you.Now don’t you say, “Oh, you have to be honest you know.” I think we should leave that to the Holy Spirit of truth. He’ll do a better job of convicting than we will. If we can trust him he’ll enable us only to see the sweetness in other’s lives. And that’s the way we should be, to be looking for the Jesus in each of us so that one anointed with the Holy Spirit is always being ministered to by the life of Jesus.Well just looking at one other thing, one other ingredient of the anointing oil was olive oil. And olive oil was used to take the kinks and the creases out of the skin and to put a shin on the skin and make it smooth. And when the Holy Spirit anoints a person with himself he takes all those stupid idiosyncrasies out of that person’s life. You know how many of us want to witness but we want to witness so they know that it is us that are witnessing. I mean, we want our witness to have a special kind of flavor to it. We want them to know it’s our particular self that’s being used by Jesus to witness. We don’t want to be rolled over in the crowd. We don’t want to be conformed to the mass of Christians, we want them to see Jesus but we want them to see Jesus through the beauty that is in us.And we have these idiosyncrasies and these elbows, and they’re always getting in the way. We try to deal with it dear one and the elbows are getting in the way because we want them to see just how vitally different we are to all other Christians they’ve met. When the Holy Spirit anoints us with himself he takes all those kinks out of our characters–all those creases that shouldn’t be there, all those strange characteristics that God doesn’t really want there, because he wants to replace some of his own. When the Holy Spirit anoints you with himself he anoints you with the very beauty of Jesus.So that you know, you can read 1 Corinthians 13 and you don’t need to say “love”, but you can say, “I am patient and kind. I am not arrogant or rude. I do not insist on my own way. I am not glad when others go wrong. I rejoice at the truth. I bear all things. I believe all things. I endure all things.” And it is God’s will for you tonight to be able to say that. And the Holy Spirit is available to you tonight to anoint you with that beauty of Jesus.Now have you that beauty? Have you the beauty of Jesus in your life? You may say, “Well, will he anoint anyone?” No, he will only anoint a lamb. You remember, the Holy Spirit came down on Jesus at the baptism in the shape of a dove. A dove is a very gentle bird and very easily repelled, and very easily frightened. And a dove will only come to rest on a lamb–on one who is like the lamb of God, one who is gentile and who “as a lamb to the slaughter, opened not his mouth.” One who is ready to die to all self seeking. One who is ready to die to that desire to appear a more enthusiastic Christian than everyone else. One who is ready to die to that desire of self to seek to pray better than everyone else, to seek to preach better than everyone else. One who is dead to self seeking, who does not steal any glory from God. One who is dead to self confidence, a lamb without self confidence. One who, like Peter, has fallen and lost their self confidence–lost confidence in their own ability to witness in this way. One who, like Paul, became blind before he could see at all. One who has lost trust in their own ability to see what is needed in any witnessing situation. One who has died, not only to self seeking, but one who has died to this desire to have your own way, this desire to have your own self confidence.One who has died to that desire to help yourself. One who is no longer anxious to say, “Lord, theseare difficult circumstances if I could only get out of these I could witness better.” One who is not eager to rescue himself from the circumstances in which God has put him. One who is not eager to say, “If that person were only removed I could witness.” One who is not eager to withdraw from a certain situation so that they’ll be able to witness. One who has stopped trying to plane away their own cross to make it easier to carry.If you are ready to be a lamb, if you are ready to die to self defense, and self assertion, and ready to be looked upon as nothing by others for Jesus’ sake, then the Holy Spirit, the blessed dove that God sends will come and anoint you with the beauty of Jesus.Now if you have entered into sanctification, if you have died to self and been filled with the Holy Spirit this week and yet God has spoken to your heart and you need the anointing, I would ask you dear ones, unless God presses you, to remain in your seat and receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit, you see. Or, to kneel down in your place afterwards and receive that anointing, because if you are a place of real readiness to die to self then the Holy Spirit will anoint you without refusing. So I’d ask you just to stay in your seat.But if God has spoken to some of you dear ones, tonight and you do not know the victory of death to self–and I know there’s one dear brother here certainly that does not and wants to seek tonight–so in other words if you have not entered into sanctification, if you have not freedom from anger, and envy, and jealousy, if you’ve not freedom from bitterness, a desire to save yourself, a desire to assert yourself and get yourself out of difficult situations, if you’ve a desire still to protect yourself and are not a lamb, then will you seek God tonight and simply allow the Holy Spirit show you where you’re not ready to be a lamb yet. And then come to the place where you’re ready to be one, and simply receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit tonight for a witnessing life that God has planned for you–that God has available for you tonight. No more defeat and no more disappointment, but the victory of the beauty of Jesus shining through. That can be yours. I pray it will.Let us just turn to the last hymn dear ones. And will you just come to the altar and seek God as he speaks to you. “Hover o’er me, Holy Spirit, bathe my trembling heart and brow, fill me with thy hallowed presence. Come oh come and fill me now.” And the Holy Spirit will fill those who are willing. So let us stand as we sing. ????????

The Holy Spirit Cleanses Our HeartSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillLet us pray, dear ones. Father, we trust you in the name of Jesus and for his sake and for his glory, and for the exhibiting of him in all our lives. We trust you our Father, tonight to expose the lies of the Devil. We trust you our Father, to expose his lies that we cannot live a conquering victorious life. Father, we trust you to dissipate all the grey area. We trust you to make things black and white for us so that we can glimpse the victory that you are able to bring about in our hearts. Father, we trust you to lead us to throw away all belief in past experiences, all belief in an experience and to look at you and know that you are able to accomplish what you have promised. And that in Christ we are able to be more than conquerors through him that loved us. We trust you for this, our Father, that we may be your sons in spirit and in life. Amen.I don’t know if you can see from there but you can tell by the smell. It was good cream at one time and I left it too long and it got a bit sour. And it smells sour. And dear ones, it doesn’t matter how often I put good milk into it. It keeps going sour faster than the original stuff did. And I can fill it up again, and again, and again. And maybe a day later the whole jar of milk is sour. And while that sour stuff remains at the bottom you can do nothing. And you’ll continue to sour even the sweet milk that goes in.And many Christians are experiencing that. They go to a conference like this, and some of the sweet milk of the Holy Spirit pours in. And there’s something sour deep down that makes it all sour two days after the conference has ended. And they’re up on that peak at the conference but two days later the old sour stuff that has never been cleansed away has soured all that has come in. And dear ones, many Christians are living like that. Many Christians are living that up and down existence because they still have something sour at the bottom that they have never had cleansed out. And you know, the only answer to this is for me to put it under the hot tap and to wash it thoroughly and clean out all the sour stuff. And then I can put sweet milk in it and it stays sweet.And that’s exactly what Peter meant. He said, “You know there came a day when the Father gave us the Holy Spirit. And he cleansed our hearts by faith.” But many Christians are living defeated lives because they have never gone that deep. You know, they came as all of us have done, where they felt that God was condemning them. They saw that angry words were wrong. They saw that dishonest words were wrong. They saw that their actions were all built on building their bank account and on making themselves successful. And they saw that they were under condemnation of death, that the Bible said that the wages of sin was death. And they didn’t know what to do. They felt they had to die. And then the Holy Spirit revealed the blood of Jesus to them. And they suddenly realized that they could present the blood of Jesus on behalf of their sins. They realized that the Father looked down on them. And where he had said before, “I demand your life,” now he was ready to say, “I accept my son’s life on your behalf.” And so when Satan the accuser of the brethren would say, “You haven’t had such a good day today. You haven’t been up so much as you were yesterday,” they got used to saying, “Well no, but that’s not the basis of my acceptance with God. It’s the blood of Jesus. The outpoured life of Jesus pleases my Father.”But then they began to find that more and more they were needing the blood of Jesus where they hadn’t before. And though all of us, even if we were as saintly as God is able to make us, all of us need the blood of Jesus to be acceptable to God, they found that their life was becoming a seriesof hills and valleys. And they began to discover that they were on the top at a conference, or they were at the top at Easter time, or they were at the top when church began in the fall. But there were long, long dry valleys when they began to feel that they were not in grace at all.In other words, they began to feel great depression in their spirits. And the depression of course was brought by guilt because they could see that certain things were wrong. They could see that they should not break out in bad temper with the children. They could see that that was wrong. And they would pray to Jesus at the beginning of the day that he would control them in this very regard. And then the children would do something and before they knew it the temper was out. And they would go to the Lord Jesus at night and they would plead again his precious blood. And they would confess the sin. And then they would come to repentance. And they would remember the words of some preacher who said, “Repentance is a godly sorrow to Jesus for your sins and an absolute turning from the sin.” And they would remember the words of John when he said, “If we walk in the light as he is in the light then the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.”But they realized they were not walking in the light because they had confessed this sin yesterday. And so they would walk the next day, and they would walk that day victoriously. And the next day they would lose their temper again with the children. And the guilt would settle on their conscience. And when they tried to plead the blood of Jesus again for that, the words would come in, “If we walk in the light as he is in the light.” And they realized that they had confessed this sin so often to the Father that they were now becoming immune to what even the blood of Jesus could do for them.And dear ones, there are many I think, dear Christians and many who are even baptized with the Spirit and experience some of the gifts of the spirit who live this kind of up and down life. You remember that Jesus gave the gift of casting out demons and healing to the apostles when he sent them out, the mission of the 70 you remember. And yet even after that James and John will still arguing about the place they were going to get in heaven. Even after that Peter denied his Lord for fear of the little maid and his reputation. And many Christians who seem to have gone on in the Lord in many might ways are experiencing this up and down life.Now dear ones, you know what that brings. It brings eventually a sense of condemnation that you are a hypocrite. Bit-by-bit you begin to feel that what the people say at home is right. You know, “I wish the church people could see you.” And bit-by-bit you begin to realize that you seem to be leading a double life. You’re one person on the outside, you can control your acts and words at times. And to some people you make a good impression but inside there is a mass of what Jesus said was in the heart. For he said, “It was out of the heart that adultery comes and the jealous comes and envy.” It’s out of the heart that that comes. And bit-by-bit you began to realize that there was something down there that you had never allowed God to touch.Now dear ones, the Bible has made provision for all that and God has. The Bible has made a clear distinction between sins, your acts and words over which you get victory at the beginning in your converted life and sin in the singular which is the attitude within you that still wants to be a little independent of God in some things. If you read, you see, the book of Romans carefully, you find that the first four and a half chapters are concerned with sins. You very rarely find the singular word sin in the first four and a half chapters of Romans. It talks about sins. And it talks about the blood of Jesus.You might like to look at one of these places now. In Romans 3:25 you find an example of this. Andif you go through the first four and a half chapters of Romans I think you’ll find that on the whole those chapters talk about sins and the blood of Jesus. You see it says there, taking part of 24, “Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”In other words, the first four and a half chapters give us the message that you can be forgiven your sins by God because he looks upon the blood of Jesus, the outpoured life of Jesus, the death of Jesus that has been offered in your place. And therefore you see, there is nothing between you and God. Before, there was death between you and God. Now there is nothing because Jesus has died for you. And he is able to reach right over Jesus and to grip you and draw you to himself. And he forgives you. He restores the relationship that he wants with you.In other words, the blood of Jesus deals with the forgiveness of our sins. And it refers to the standing we have before God. And so we can go before God in confidence because of the blood of Jesus. But it refers to our standing before God. It refers to our justification. To justify you means God treats you as just for the sake of the blood of Jesus offered on your behalf.But the second three and a half chapters of Romans deal with another subject completely. There you find the word sins, rarely occurs. But the word sin in the singular occurs often. And there you find the emphasis not so much on the blood of Jesus but on the death of Jesus and on the cross of Christ. And there you find the emphasis is not so much on our standing with God or the state of our own conscience. But you find the emphasis is on our walk with God and our life.Now dear ones, you can see that yourselves if you look at Romans 6. And these are the second three and a half chapters in Romans. And I’m just taking this one example but you can read through them all and you’ll find this emphasis. Romans 6:4, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death,” no mention of blood but, “Into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”In other words, the emphasis there is on our walk with God. And I suggest to you dear ones, that it’s at that point that many dear Christians who are converted but have had no experience of the death to self, or the deliverance from sin, it’s there that many of us are failing. We are failing to walk in the light because we have taken one truth of Christ’s death for us, and we have utterly forgotten the other side of that truth. And so dear ones, the blood of Jesus is for the forgiveness of our sins but the cross of Jesus and the death of Jesus are for the deliverance of us from sin, in the singular.In other words, there are two sides to sin. There’s the inward sin in the singular, the inward attitude of independence to God. And there are the outward sins that that begets in our life. There is the inward “dis-ease” where we are at “dis ease” with God’s will. And there are the outward symptoms of that “dis ease”. And, as with the doctor when you come to him, he sees your symptoms first. And so when we first come to Jesus he points to the symptoms on the outside and he says, “Those must first be forgiven.”But then if we will stay with him and if we will open our hearts to all the Bible demands of us in a victorious life, we will see that Jesus is pointing to the “dis ease” and he is saying, “Listen, that is no use being forgiven. I am not going to forgive you that rebellion which lurks in your heart. That rebellion has to be removed. The disease has to be cleansed. The disease has to be cleansed from the bottom of your heart. Otherwise, every time I pour your spirit in your “dis ease”with me, will contort what I give you. And you’ll pervert it.”Now dear ones, do you see that this was the emphasis all through the Bible? That again and again, even the Old Testament while it talks of the need to have our sins forgiven, again and again it says, “I will put a new heart within you. I will take away your old heart of stone and I will put a heart of flesh within you, a heart that can feel me and wants me.” Again and again the Old Testament emphasis, “I will put a new spirit within you.” And dear ones, many of us are trying to walk without entering into the second blessing of Christ’s death. And it is there for us. We can enter into it.The Bible calls sin by several names. First of all it talks about sin in the singular. And it doesn’t matter what creed of which church you read, the creed will state “We believe that there are the remains of sin even in the born again believer.” Even if you looked at the Baptist church statement of belief, you’ll find that it says that. If you look at the Methodist church statement of belief you’ll find it says that. The Lutheran… They proclaim plainly that even after you’re converted, there remains within you some of this sin.Now the easy way to see what the sin is, is to take the center letter of it. And many of us come to Jesus and tell him that we want to get into heaven. We tell him that we want our sins forgiven and we want to be accepted by his Father. And we receive forgiveness. But the “I” is still central. And we still begin to rub our hands and tend to say, “I’m glad I’m going to heaven. I’m glad of what Jesus has done for me. And now I want to get on with my life and I want to live it the way I best possibly can, and then be accepted by him, at the end, in heaven.”But the “I” is central. “It is not for his purposes that I’m living. It’s primarily for my own purposes that I’m living. I want to help with the missions. I want to be a good church member. I want to do as much as I can for Jesus. “I can” for Jesus.” But the “I” is central. And everything in my Christian experience is still being referred to myself. And if someone asked me to do something in the church, I find out whether it’s convenient for me first. And then I may do it. And even when I do-do it if they ask me to sing, I sing. And I sing for the glory of Jesus. But there’s something inside that creeps up and says, “Look at what these people are thinking of you. And look at some of the glory that you’re getting for yourself.” And so this “I” begins to have a greater and greater place in many Christian’s lives until it comes to the place where it begins to break out in outward sin again.See you know dear ones, it stays for a while where no one can see it. It does stay for a while in the inward part of man’s life. It stays in the realm of the attitudes. It stays in the realm of the motives. You know, you preach. But there’s a voice says, “Look at what they’re thinking of you. Look at what they’re thinking of you.” And the self rises up within. And you don’t want it to rise up, but it rises up. And sometimes you can’t control it. And before you know it you’ve said something that obviously express pride. And you’ve committed an outward sin and then you have to go back and plead the blood of Jesus. And there’s that continual list of confessions and forgiveness’s.It’s found in the realm of the reactions and the responses. You’re alright while it’s the pastor that’s coming to the house because you know he thinks you’re a Christian and feels you’re a Christian and you ought to be on your best behavior. So you get prayed up so that you will be in good form. And he comes in and everything is right and the kids are in the right place in the other room and the wife is organized. And you’re ready to receive him. And you witness well for Jesus.And then he goes out and the kids come in and the wife comes in and says, “I forgot that thing you wanted me to get today.” And you say, “You forgot?” And before you know it you’ve responded in a way that shows that what is in will always come out. And dear ones, sin will always come out.The tragedy is it comes out with the ones whom you ought to love best. Not the ones you love best, the ones you ought to love best. It comes out with them. There you’re relaxed, there you go off your guard. And before you know it the sin is out. And it’s out in the responses and the reactions. Brother Elmer said the same thing, “You know, it’s not the actions that are the trouble to a converted Christian it’s the reactions.” And that’s what shows what’s inside you.So it’s in the realm of the attitudes and the motives, the reactions and responses, the intentions and the desires. It’s there where we have trouble. And you know what it’s like at times, it’s like a great Alsatian dog–and I think maybe I said this to you before– and it’s running around the room, it’s bounding everywhere in chaos. And you can’t get talking to the pastor. So you take that big Alsatian dog that’s so obvious to everyone, those sins, and you put it in a box. And then you sit on it and you start talking to the pastor. And then after six months or so the dog begins to jump and the box begins to lift and you begin to go up and down and say, “Yes, yes, yes.” And the lid is lifting and you’re having trouble keeping it down.And you know dear ones, I needn’t tell you because we know what it’s like. You pray for patience. And God doesn’t give you patience. Maybe he gives you a temporary patience but he allows it to break out again. Do you know why? Because you don’t put cosmetics on somebody that has cancer, you see. And he wants you to see your real state. And so he refuses to take away one of the symptoms that show the deadly disease that is within. And he wants you to know that it is possible to remove that, to remove that completely.How do you know it’s there, dear ones? Well you can do it in many ways. I’d ask you to listen faithfully and honestly as I read these words. “Are you ever conscious of a secret spirit of pride, an exalted feeling in view of your success or position, because of your good training or appearance, because of your natural gifts and abilities? Are you ever conscious of an important independent spirit? Are you ever conscious of a love of human praise, a secret fondness to be noticed, a love of supremacy, a drawing attention to self in conversation, a swelling out of self when you have had a free time in speaking or praying? Are you ever conscious of the stirrings of anger or impatience which worst of all you call nervousness or holy indignation?”“Are you ever conscious of a touchy sensitive spirit, a disposition to resent and retaliate when disapproved of or contradicted, a desires to throw sharp heated flings at another? Are you ever conscious of a disposition to criticize and pick flaws when set aside and unnoticed, a peevish fretful spirit, a disposition that loves to be coaxed and humored. Are you ever conscious of a jealous disposition, a secret spirit of envy shut up in your heart, an unpleasant sensation in view of the great prosperity and success of another, a disposition to speak of the faults and failings rather than the gifts and virtues of those more talented and appreciated than yourself? Are you ever conscious of a dishonest, deceitful disposition? Are you ever anxious about whether everything will come out alright?”Dear ones, all those are symptoms of the self inside you that you have never allowed God to deal with. The teaching of the Bible is that we can live the exchanged life. As Jesus exchanged your position on the cross, as Jesus died on that cross for you now he calls you to die on that cross with him. Now many of us fail to see that. Many of us say, “He’s died the death for me now I’mfree to live my own life.” You’re free to live your own life under the tyranny of self. But he has called you to die on that cross with him. He has said to you, “I can bear your sins but I want to bear you to the cross with me.”Now you can see this, dear ones, in Romans 6 very plainly. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death.” Now I ask you, do you know that experience? Do you know that experience of being baptized into Jesus’ death? Because that’s the truth that the Bible proclaims. You cannot tame that old self, you cannot train it. That old self has to be destroyed on the cross by Jesus. And he has done it. It says in Romans 6:6, “We know that our old self, our old man was crucified with him.” Why? “So that the sinful body might be destroyed and we might no longer be enslaved to sin,” we might no longer have to cry out, “The good that I would I cannot do and the evil I do not want that’s the very thing I do.” The next verse says, “Who is free from sin?” “Those of us who have died are free from sin.”In other words Jesus calls you as a converted Christian to come to him on the cross and allow yourself to be crucified with him. And no more of this business, “Thank God that he has forgiven my sins, and now I can get on with my life. And I can have my own way, and insist on my own rights, and stand up for myself, and assert myself, and defend myself.” But, “Now, I can join him on the cross and I can die to this old self within.” But dear ones, do you see that it’s Jesus that has crucified that old self and all you can do is enter into this victory?So the Bible makes a clear distinction between being born again and dying. It says at the beginning in John 3:3, “You must be born again.” You have to be born again. You have to come into the life of Jesus. But when that life comes into you it will soon begin to tackle another life that’s within you already. And in Galatians 5:17 Paul stated it plainly. He said, “This life of the spirit fights against the life of the flesh within.” And is another word the Bible gives to sin, the life of the flesh, the independent spirit of a man.Now do you see that it shows itself only slightly in all of us? You know, the Devil is clever and the Devil loves religion. And Christians in whom the old self has not been crucified usually love religion. And they especially love to do a whole lot of work in the church. And they love to get leading positions in the church. And so the Devil loves religion and the old self loves religion. And it really enjoys being looked upon as a Christian worker. But inside all the time it’s perverting everything to its own glory. And the old self takes all the victory out of the Christian life. It destroys your victory.You come to a time when you know you should have love for the wife and she comes in and she has bought a new dress and she says, “Do you like it?” And the bank account isn’t in too good shape and you say, “Yeah, yeah, yeah it’s alright.” That’s the old self. Do you see? See? Don’t say dear ones, “That isn’t a sin.” That’s a sin of a lack of love. That’s not perfect Christian behavior. That’s not the victory that Jesus has wrought in us. And you know why it’s not, because you’re thinking of the bank account. You have not committed it to God. You’ve said you had, but you haven’t really. And she’s affected the bank account. And you know you are the guardian of the bank account. And it’s your responsibility to take charge of it. And the only way you can take charge of it is by showing her what you think of the new dress. And it all comes from self. Self is in charge of the bank account. And self must up and show its ugly head to the dear one. And it takes all the joy out of the new dress.Do you think Jesus could organize that bank account even though she bought the new dress? Dearones, I know he can. I know he can. Really! But we don’t believe it and we take control. Or, the kids are running around the house and they’re tearing the place apart and somebody is coming. And we don’t know what to do because we are mother. And this is our home. And it’s our responsibility to keep it right. And we want to be like Eve. We want to be as gods. And we want to have this place right. And we are the mother of these children. And it’s our responsibility. And we have never died to our motherhood. We have never died. We have never allowed the mother of that home to be placed on the cross. And so we don’t know what to do and we tell them gently. And we try to be Christian. And then we lose our temper and we’re angry. And then the words fly. And the peace of Jesus rules no one’s heart.And all the time the Lord Jesus is waiting in the power of the Holy Spirit to cleanse out all that from you. And dear ones, it can be. The Holy Spirit can cleanse all those reactions out of your heart.Now do you understand that? I don’t mean fight them. You’ve fought them, I know you have because I fought them. You can fight them. And you can call it the fight of faith even though you’re not being biblical. But you can call it the fight of faith. And you can try to pray them down. But there is no victory. There is no victory until Jesus comes in and cleanses those. And in this experience of Jesus’ death on the cross, the Holy Spirit is able to cleanse those things from you.I don’t know how I could make any more plain the victory, dear ones. Do you see that even if it’s within you, and you don’t express it, that is sin rising up? Do you see that? You come into the church and you see someone whom you know isn’t living a right life and you don’t say a thing. Your face doesn’t even change, but a critical attitude rises inside you. And you just look at them without the pure love of Jesus. That is sin. That is a lack of victory.I think I told you what I did as a pastor. They would come in to me in the office, and makes some slick comment about the sermon which wasn’t very complementary. And I would grip the chair and smile because a pastor always smiles. And I would smile. And inwardly the old self rose up and said, “What right have you to criticize my sermon? They don’t know any Homiletics.” And dear ones, again and again it’s this reaction within.It doesn’t show itself outside except that the eyes begin to get a grey look at the back of them. There becomes a defeat into the eyes of Christians who live with the old self alive inside. There comes that defeated look, there comes that strain to the whole face. You know, when you hold a disease down that brings a strain to the face. And these Christians live strained lives. They carry the burden of Christianity on their back. They do not look into the heavenlies in Jesus. But they struggle along.And you know, they draw up their car to Jesus and they ask him to step in and he steps into the passenger seat and they drive along in their life for six months. And he says, “Turn left.” They turn left. “Turn right.” They turn right. “Go down the hill.” And they go down the hill.Then he says one day, “Go down through those slums.” And they say, “Father, Lord Jesus, I don’t want to spoil my reputation by going down there and doing that kind of thing. No.” And then they do that a few times. And they turnaround one day and Jesus is not there any longer. And the whole assurance of his presence has gone from their hearts.Dear ones, there comes a day when you have to stop the car, and get out, and walk around and letJesus into the driver seat and then keep your hands off the wheel. Keep your hands off the wheel and say, “Lord Jesus, whatever this means for me, whatever it means, a loss of reputation, it doesn’t matter. I’m dying now with you. I’m willing to die to self. I’m willing to be anything for you.”How do you enter in dear ones? First of all acknowledge the Holy Spirit as a person. First, do that. Don’t treat him as a force or an influence. Start praying to the Holy Spirit. Now would you do that? A lot of people say, “I know what you mean, I know what you mean. Now Lord Jesus, will you help me here?” Jesus has said, “It is to your advantage that I go away because if I did not go away the Holy Spirit would not come unto you. And he’s the counselor. And when he comes he will lead you into all the truth. And he will convict you of sin.”So begin to pray to the Holy Spirit. And if you do this tonight, do it this way, dear ones. Address the Holy Spirit in your prayers and say, “Holy Spirit, will you search my old self and see where it’s still alive in me?” And he’ll take you deep down. And he’ll begin to show you the pride that is deep within you. He’ll begin to show you the irritability that is deep within you. He’ll begin to show the root and the source of these things that you really want to be God. You want your own way all the time. You want to rule your own life and everybody else’s. And the Holy Spirit will reveal this to you.But only he can do it. You can’t do it through introspection. Nee says that introspection is no good to Christians. Introspection does harm because you only look at what you’re prepared to look at. The Holy Spirit will take you into the very heart of yourself where you’ve never seen the evil that is within. Now dear ones, you need to deal with the Holy Spirit in this regard. You know? That’s why at the altar it’s so good to leave your seeking with the Holy Spirit. He is the counselor. He can counsel you. He can reveal to you where this still exists in you.Secondly, it’s necessary to see the sinfulness of that old self and to see that it isn’t just a shortcoming. And it isn’t just a higher realm in the Christian life you’re concerned with but it’s what Romans 8:7 says it is, “The mind of the flesh, the mind of the old self, the mind of sin, the mind of the eye is enmity against God. It is not subject to God’s law neither indeed can it be.” And dear ones, do you see why it’s so silly to struggle? Do you see why it’s pleasing the Devil tonight if you say, “I have some of those things but I’m not going to come up there and deal with them?”It pleases the Devil. Because while you’re a Christian with the old self alive you’re at enmity against God. And that is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. That’s why when you try to get patience or you try to pray anger down you can’t. Because those things are not subject to God’s law. They’re subject only to the power of the evil one within you. And that’s why they need to be crucified. And it’s necessary to see the sinfulness of that.And then to see thirdly, that Jesus has done something for it. You cannot crucify it. You can’t strangle it. But Romans 6:6 says, “That our old self was crucified with Christ.” Do you realize that’s every one of you? Dear ones, all your pride, all your desire to have your own way, all that strong, stiff necked attitude that you have towards God: That has all been destroyed on the cross of Calvary. It has been destroyed on the cross of Calvary. It is dead already. That old self is dead. And that can be made real in your heart because the Holy Spirit can take of the things of Jesus and impart them to you. By a miracle you can receive the application of that victory to your heart. Romans 6:6, “Our old self was crucified with Christ.”And lastly, you need faith. You need faith to allow the Holy Spirit to come in and cleanse out all this and displace it with himself. And what is faith? Some people say, “Oh, if I had only faith. I want to pump up faith.” And they pump up faith. And they say, “Our old self was crucified with Christ. Our old self was crucified with Christ.” And they try auto suggestion instead of faith.Faith is the gift of God. In other words, faith has two sides. It’s first of all a vote of no confidence in self. It’s a readiness to say, “Father, there is no good in me. The anger comes out because that is me. That is what I am. I am anger. It’s not something I do. I am pride. It’s not something I feel. I am envy. It’s not something I show or express. I am envy. I am anger. I am pride. I am a man of unclean lips. Not, I speak unclean words. It’s me that’s wrong. It’s me that has to go to the cross with you. Father, I accept. Holy Spirit, I believe. There is no good thing in me. Even the good things I’ve done in church have been tinged with self and have stolen the glory from God.”In other words, the first part of faith is not a circling to believe dear ones, but a readiness to accept that there is no good thing in me and a readiness, therefore, to consecrate my whole self to God and a readiness to say, “I’m ready to be anything for you Father.” And the Holy Spirit will come into you tonight and he’ll begin to say, “Are you ready to be anything? Are you ready to fail financially for me? Are you ready to fail financially? Are you ready to sell that house and buy one that I want you to buy or to live in rented accommodation? Are you ready to do without that davenport forever? Are you ready to be a failure in your business? Are you ready to do without your own way at home tonight? Are you ready to do without your summer vacation that you’ve planned? Are you ready to die to your own plans, to die to your future?”Ah young brothers and sisters. That’s us, you know. We carry the future on our back. We want to be gods in our future. Jesus says, “He who is crucified has died to the future. He has no future.” Are you ready to be dead to your future? And the Holy Spirit will come down and down the line. And then he will say, “Are you ready to be nothing for Jesus if he wants you to be? Are you ready to be nothing? Someone with no reactions, no responses, no opinions? Are you ready to be nothing for Jesus?” And then there comes a blessed moment when the Holy Spirit witnesses that you are ready to be nothing. And he witnesses that you’re at the place of full consecration.Now the Holy Spirit will tell you that dear ones, you don’t need to struggle to believe that. The Holy Spirit will witness you have reached the ground of your heart. You have seen all that God wants to show you.And then there will spring up in your heart faith. It will spring up in your heart. You don’t grasp it. You don’t work it up. It springs up in your heart when you’re at the place of full consecration.But what many of us do is we try to have faith for the death of self over a partially consecrated life and it’s impossible. We work up a human faith and the thing, as we say, doesn’t take or doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because it’s human faith. When you come to the ground of your heart and you’re ready to be anything that the Holy Spirit wants you to be, then faith springs up in your heart and receives the blessed Holy Spirit in. And he comes in. And I don’t know what he’ll do with you. I don’t know how he’ll manifest himself in you. But he will cleanse all that mess out. And he will displace all that unholy spirit that rules your life, and all those unholy desires that you have and those unholy motives. And he will fill you with the very beauty of Jesus.And dear ones, I can’t tell you the victory that comes into your heart when you find the envy does not rise, when you find the anger is not there, when you find the pride does not rise in that situation, and when you find the motive is clean. And the Father is pleased completely with what he sees in your heart. Ah that’s a joy and a victory that is for each one of us, for every one of us.What is it to die to self? You die tonight. My mother is lying, her corpse, in our home in Ireland now. You’re dying and you lie here tonight. And you lie there. And what have you died to? You’ve died to your possessions. It doesn’t matter about those possessions they belong to somebody else now. They’re not yours. You’re not concerned with whether that house ever gets painted. You’re not concerned with all that. Your mind is not burdened with all the things that you’re going to do tomorrow. You’ve died to your possessions.You’ve died to your affections, too. You know, your loved ones may still love you in some sense, but you cannot love them. And it’s a good thing to die to your natural affection, because at times it binds us from doing what we need to do with our dear ones. You die to your natural affections. And you die to your future. You have no future. And you’re called to die tonight to all that. To be as if you were now with Christ in the heavenlies and as if your body belonged to him.And then tonight, let’s say, we all go out of this auditorium, and during the night Jesus comes in and he sees your body lying there. And he gets inside it and he stands up straight. And then he walks out in your body and walks to your work tomorrow and your friends say, “Good to see you. You’re looking well today.” And you say, “Well no, actually I died last night. And this life, this life that I live is not I that am alive but it is Christ that lives within me. And this life I’m living now I live by the faith of the son of God.” And dear ones, that can be your experience tonight. So that only Jesus, only Jesus thinks and feels in your heart.The Holy Spirit is able to do that for you. He is able to do that this very night for you. And I testify that he did it for me and that the Holy Spirit is able to keep you clean. He’s able to keep you clean every day as you trust him and obey him. And it need not be a battle. It is victory, victory all the way, inside and out with no “ifs” and no “buts,” and no qualifications. And it’s available for you.Dear ones, you know you’ve heard God’s word and I trust you now just to respond to the Spirit as he tells you. I wouldn’t stay in my seat if I was defeated. I tell you that. Because the Holy Spirit is present tonight and is able to cleanse you completely and give you victory. So I trust you just to do what God tells you. And if you all have victory then you need to stay in your seats or you need to stay standing. But if you haven’t victory, don’t struggle further. And don’t keep compromising. Don’t keep compromising. Come and receive the Holy Spirit to cleanse your heart from inward sin and give you victory.

Preparation for the Spirit of Anti ChristSermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’NeillA dictatorship has been prepared for during previous years. And dear ones, in Cuba the people there had had this decay working in their hearts for many years. So gradually their natures changed, and changed, and changed. And when the dictator came they welcomed him as the savior. And so it was in Germany. It was no sudden event; the decay had been seeping through the nation. The decadence had been working in the people’s hearts. And to those of us on the outside it was a great surprise when the dictator took over but to the people really it was no surprise. The people received him as a savior.It’s when the people’s needs and the people’s willingness to pay the price for the fulfillment of their needs come together that the dictator takes over without a battle. And so it will be with the antichrist. When the antichrist comes there will be no great opposition to him but there will be a great flocking to him from all the corners of the earth. It will be dear ones whose hearts have been deceived, and whose hearts have been prepared, and whose hearts have been looking for the savior but whose hearts have not been filled with the Holy Spirit. It will be those, whose lives are not pervaded by the spirit of God’s truth, and they will flock to the antichrist and they will welcome him as the savior.So it will be with the personal opponent of Jesus Christ who the New Testament says will come at the end of the ages. He will be hailed as a new savior. And you say, “Well, why will this be?” Well you can look for yourself in the New Testament and find out why it will be dear ones. It’s in 1 John 4 and the second half of Verse 3. “And every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God.” And then the second half reads, “This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already.” That was 100 A.D.The spirit of the antichrist has been in the world preparing the hearts of many of the so called faithful to receive the antichrist when he comes. And so the Bible itself teaches that there is a spirit of antichrist abroad even in church people, abroad even in those who think they are deep Christians. There is a spirit of antichrist seeping underneath the very Holy Spirit that is trying to get a hold of all our hearts and lives. And that antichrist spirit is preparing us to receive the antichrist. And when he comes, many of us will be deceived into thinking that this is Jesus. This is the second coming of our Savior.Now this is why the Bible warns us to discern spirits. And you can see that warning in 1 John 4:3b there, “This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that is coming, and now it is in the world already.” And 1 John 2:18, “Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour.” And in 1 John 4:1, the warning to test the spirits, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”And you may say, “Well, why are you preaching about the antichrist?” Well, I’m not preaching because you can stop the antichrist coming. You cannot. You cannot break scripture. The scripture says the antichrist will come and you cannot stop him coming. Even if I could tell you who he was at this moment you could not stop him coming. Perhaps he is in the world already but you will not be able to stop him coming because the scripture cannot be broken. But dear ones, it is imperativethat we begin to discern the spirit of antichrist when he moves in our own hearts lest we ourselves be deceived when he comes. That’s why I’m preaching. Not so you will be able to look to the antichrist, and not so that dear ones here will be able to become excited over whom the antichrist might be. Dear ones, those are doctrines of demons. Those are doctrines of demons when these false prophets who do not even prophesy in the name of Jesus say, “The antichrist is born in such and such a land.” That is not what the Bible tells us to look for. But the Bible does tell us to discern our own spirits and discern the spirits that are working in our own hearts so that we ourselves will not be deceived.You see, the Bible comes right down the line on who are Christians and who are not. The Bible comes right down the line by the law and tells us, “If you obey the law then you please God.” The Bible says that right from the first part of the Bible to the last part of the Bible. It tells us that, “Obedience to the law is the mark of the sons of God.” Then Jesus Christ came and he says, “Whoever has my spirit in their hearts, you are the sons of God, you are the children of God.” And Christ comes right down the line and points out the things that we need to have if we claim to be alive in God. And then the Holy Spirit came after Jesus ascended to the Father and he comes right down the line and he says, “If I abide in you, you will have these marks. You will have love, and joy, and peace.” And he comes right down the line. And the law, and Jesus Christ’s life, and the Holy Spirit all testify to us who are the sons of God.Now dear ones, there will come a day when God will allow someone to testify to us who will bring even a clearer judgment. When the antichrist comes many of us who think we are sons of God will find out where we really stand when we follow him as the antichrist. So it is important tonight, on the last night of the conference, to make sure that you have the pure Holy Spirit of truth governing your life.Now you may sit there and say, “Ah, now this is a lot of mumbo jumbo. You don’t need all this stuff to distinguish the antichrist. I have a good mind and I may not be walking in all the light that God has given me but I have a good mind and I can discern the antichrist.” Now dear ones, the Bible makes it plain that it will be difficult to discern the antichrist.One of the reasons it will be difficult is given in 1 John 2:19. You remember, John had said so many antichrists have come. And then the Bible reads, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out, that it might be plain that they all are not of us.” But one reason is the antichrist and the spirit of antichrist is among us ourselves.Another reason is given plainly in Ephesians 6:11, why you cannot discern the antichrist just by your clever mind, “Put on the whole armor of God.” Why? “That you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” The Devil when he comes in the person of the antichrist will not plainly have a name on his chest saying, “Satan,” or, “Antichrist.” He will come with tricks and with wiles. It will be impossible to discern him however closely you have studied the Bible. The Bible itself is not a sufficient guard against the antichrist.Some of us know we’re not walking in all the will of God. You know it. You know you’re not walking in all the will of God. You know you’re walking a little aside from God’s will and yet you keep pretending to yourself, “Ah, I will not be deceived by the antichrist. I will know him because I will see him. He will look like the antichrist.” He won’t dear ones. The spirit of antichrist was in the false prophets. And here is what is said about the false prophets by Jesus, Matthew 7:15,“Beware of false prophets, who come to you…” “In wolves clothing?” No but, “Who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”In other words, the antichrist will look like Christ. You see from what you read in the scripture the antichrist will come and will claim to unite all nations and all political powers in himself. He will claim to unite all churches in himself. He will come as the savior of the world. He will say, “Come, bring to me your sick and your dying. Come to me those who are enslaved and need deliverance and I will deliver you.” The antichrist will look like Christ. He will be in sheep’s clothing. You by the cleverness of your own mind, or even by your intimate knowledge of the Bible will not be able to discern him just by that alone.You may say, “Oh, now that’s silly we’ll know him by his works. He will come and he will burn and ravage all before him.” He won’t. He will come with healing medicines. He will come with an offer of peace, mental peace such as we have never had before. He will come and offer to solve the international problems in politics. He will come and promise to solve the economic difficulties we have in our nations. He will come with good works.You doubt it? Well, look at what Jesus says himself. You can find it there in Matthew 7:22, that same chapter. Jesus says, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty words in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’” And so the antichrist will come with mighty works that imitate the works of Jesus.You remember, what happened when Moses threw down his staff and it turned into a snake. Weren’t they able to imitate the work even of God? How much more will the antichrist be able to imitate the very works of Jesus? Some of us say, “Well, we’ll know him by his fruits. By their fruits you shall know them.” But you know that today already there are imitation fruits all around us. There are so many of us that talk about concern now. We talk about care. You must be concerned. You must show concern for the downtrodden. But it isn’t the loving. It isn’t the loving concern that comes from the heart of Jesus. It’s an artificial, politic, philanthropic concern that ends when its purpose is achieved.But already there is this artificial imitation of love abroad in many of our hearts. Already there is an imitation of Christian joy abroad. And many dear ones cannot discern the difference between real Christian joy and the happiness that seems to exist in people’s minds. There is a false peace abroad not only with the tranquilizers but there is a false peace with the new drugs, there is a false peace with even the blindness that has come in many men’s eyes about the future. There are artificial fruits. We will not be able to discern the antichrist simply by his works or by his fruits.The only way we can prepare for the coming of the antichrist and the only way you can be assured that you will not be deceived by him when he comes is to allow the Holy Spirit tonight to wield his sword in your own spirit and to show you if any of the marks of the spirit of antichrist are present in your life. Now will you do that dear ones? Will you allow the Holy Spirit to wield his own sword in your heart? And will you stop saying, “I was born again on that date.” Or, “I was sanctified on that date.” Or, “I was baptized with the Spirit on that date.” And allow the Holy Spirit himself to speak to your heart.Let’s just look at some of those plain marks in scripture. The first one is found right at thebeginning of the Bible. Genesis 3:4-6, “But the serpent,” who is a symbol too of Satan and of the antichrist, “But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die. For God knows that when you eat,’” (of that tree of knowledge of good and evil) “Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The spirit of antichrist is the spirit of the whisperer. The spirit of the antichrist is the spirit of the whisperer. The spirit of antichrist makes the bullets and allows someone else to fire.“I believe that Mrs. Woodard feels that your children make a little too much noise.” Yeah, that’s the spirit of antichrist. That establishes a hostile triangle. Right? With the one that told it, with the one whose children are being talked about, and with Mrs. Woodard. And you only need four of those and you have 12 dear ones who have distrusting built up in their hearts for each other. No, it is up to Mrs. Woodard to go and tell about the children herself. But the spirit of the whisperer wants to have the privilege of imparting to you some special knowledge that only she has.The spirit of antichrist is the spirit of the whisperer. This is why John Wesley said, “Never say anything about anyone who is absent or anyone who is dead.” Never! You don’t need to talk about them. You don’t need to do you? Are you doing them any good? It’s the spirit of antichrist that is working in your heart at that moment, dear ones. It’s not achieving any good. You know that. It only creates distrust.Or, “You know I don’t think John is really capable of that job.” When it isn’t your responsibility to decide whether he is capable or not and you aren’t asked any opinion but you say to a third member, “I don’t think John is really capable.” That binds you two in an attitude of superiority to John. And eventually John’s spirit feels that and there’s distrust. And the spirit of antichrist has already begun to prepare you to receive him when he comes because he is the spirit of the whisperer.Dear ones, no whisper. And if there’s any whisper in your heart, and if you’ve done that, then seek the Spirit for purification tonight–not only for forgiveness but for purification from that whispering spirit.Let’s look at a second mark of the antichrist. Generally speaking, it’s given by Jesus in Matthew 15:6. And generally speaking, it’s the attitude of the serpent in the Garden of Eden–the attitude that wants to question or disobey God’s word. You remember, the serpent said, “God hath not said.” And it’s that spirit. It’s found in Matthew 15:6. Jesus is speaking to some of those who have the spirit of antichrist living in them. “So, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God.”Now first of all dear ones, “For the sake of your tradition.” So, many of us will say, “Well, I believe that you’re righteous because Christ’s righteousness is imputed to you. I believe you’re holy in Christ. I believe you can commit adultery and God looks down upon you and he says, ‘That’s not adultery because you’re in Christ.’” And there are dear ones you say, “This is our tradition. We believe in imputed righteousness. We believe you are holy in Christ. You may not be holy in life but you’re holy in Christ.” And so they have a list of sins every day. And they bring them to Christ and they confess them to him as a matter of course. But they thank them that they are holy in Christ. And Jesus again and again says, “If a man loves me he will keep my words. If a man loves me he will not continue to cut me apart with the nails and the sword.” But they say they are holy in Christ. And Jesus says, “So, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God.” There are many in whom the spirit of antichrist has made void the word of God for the sake of theirtradition.So let’s go to the other side of the spectrum and there are many of us who believe in holiness and we say, “It’s glorious when you come to the place where you die to that old self and where the Holy Spirit cleanses your heart from anger, and jealousy, and impatience, and irritability, and critical spirit. And it’s glorious when you come to that place when you know the old self is dead at last and nailed to the cross.” And then the next day we find we’re a little angry. So for the sake of our tradition, for the sake in our belief in eradication we say, “The sin was taken out so that’s not anger.” And we call black white. For the sake of our tradition we make void the word of God.Now dear ones, those are some of the marks of the spirit of antichrist. And I see some dear ones whom I love and they’ll know what I mean when I say this, many of us do the same with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We say, “I am baptized with the Holy Spirit. I may be irritable in my home, I may cut my wife to bits, I may be angry when friends oppose my doctrine, but I am baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Dear ones, the baptism with the Holy Spirit, according to Acts 15:9, cleanses our hearts by faith. “But for the sake of our tradition we make void the word of God.” One group pretends that sin is not sin with them. The other group pretends that what they’re doing is not sin. And the middle group ignores sin all together. .”And for the sake of our condition, for the sake of our human doctrines, we make void the word of God.”There’s another mark of the spirit of antichrist that is outlined in Colossians 2:16-22. “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, ‘Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch’ (referring to things which all perish as they are used), according to human percepts and doctrines? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh.” And many dear ones who have not really entered into the purifying power of the Holy Spirit have sunk into a false legalism.The Holy Spirit makes you want to obey God’s law. And we have every responsibility to encourage each other to obey the law of God if the Holy Spirit of God dwells in us. But there is a false legalism. There is a list of don’ts and do’s that many of us arrange to suit ourselves. So we happen not to do this thing so we label that as sin because we have no trouble avoiding it. And we list our don’ts and we create a false legalism that is the very spirit of antichrist because it takes our eyes off the beauty of Jesus and the Spirit of Jesus and puts our eyes on men’s precepts and doctrines.There is also another mark of the spirit of antichrist mentioned in 1 Timothy 6:20, “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge, for by professing it some have missed the mark as regards the faith.” “Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.” Even in Jesus’ day there was a development among the Greeks of Gnostic beliefs. You remember, the Gnostics felt they had an esoteric kind of knowledge. And you needed it.Dear ones, let’s be humble about any knowledge that God has given us. You know there are movements among us in these days which depend on an esoteric kind of knowledge. Esoteric means, you know, a specialized kind of knowledge. “And you must join my group to get it.” Ah, dear ones, that’s dangerous. The Spirit of Jesus is an open spirit full of love, full of joy, with only one assurance: that the Spirit of Christ moves among you, that the Spirit of Christ motivates your every heart and your every action. But it does not depend on an esoteric kind of knowledge that you feel you can bestow on everyone else. That’s the very mark of antichrist.So is the last mark of this kind that I’d ask you to look at. It’s in 2 Peter 2:17-19 and this is the very opposite of the unscriptural legalism. “These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved. For, uttering loud boasts of folly, they entice with licentious passions of the flesh men who have barely escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first.” And you see what the Bible lays emphasis on, “They promise them freedom but they themselves are slaves of corruption.” And there is an unscriptural freedom, an unscriptural licentiousness. There is a licentiousness that says, “It doesn’t matter what we do. We have the Spirit of Christ within us.”Dear ones, the mark of the Spirit of Christ is plain. It’s plain. And you can’t go on saying day, after day, after day, “Well, I’m angry but I have liberty in the Spirit.” The Bible again, and again right down the line talks about anger. Proverbs says, “Cease from anger and forsake wrath.” Another verse in Proverbs says, “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty.” Ecclesiastes says, “Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry for anger resteth in the bosom of fools and the fool believeth that there is no God.” And Matthew 5:19 you remember, Jesus says, “Think not that I have come to abolish that law and those prophets. I have come not to abolish them but I have come to fulfill them. And I tell you it was said of old that whosoever kills is guilty of the judgment but I say to you whosoever is angry with his brother is guilty of the judgment.”Let us face the truth as it is in God’s word. Let us not say, “We have liberty, we have freedom,” while anger rises and rules our hearts. We have nothing but the spirit of antichrist if that is so, dear ones.Now there is another mark of the spirit of antichrist and you can find it in 1 Timothy 1:6-7. “Certain persons by swerving from these.” You see what “these” are. They’re in Verse 5, “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” “Certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make assertions.”And so there are many today who claim to be able to teach the way of God but they teach it with so much ambiguity that you don’t know which side you’re on. They say, “You should not sin.” But they say, “Well, this may not be sin and you can sin a little.” They say, “Complete obedience to God is necessary but, well, you have to allow for a little disobedience.” And they teach the way so ambiguously that no one knows where they are. They say, “The Holy Spirit cleanses the heart from all sin,” and then they say, “Well, if there is a little rising maybe that’s temptation.”Dear ones, temptation comes from the outside. The fiery darts of the wicked one come into theconverted heart and it’s like a can of gasoline inside. And the look, the look of the girl or the temptation to be angry comes in as a fiery dart of the wicked one and comes into the gasoline inside. And there’s a reaction within that bursts out and responds. And the flame goes up within. And the anger is out or the lust is out.And when the sanctified heart meets the fiery darts of the wicked one, the fiery dart of the wicked one comes from the outside and comes into the inside, and into the can of water and it sizzles out. And the reaction and the response is not there.Ah, dear ones, there’s no ambiguity about the sanctified life. You can know whether you’re sanctified. It is clear. There is no response within. There is no rising from within. The temptation comes from without. But the spirit of antichrist is trying to encourage many of us to say, “Well, maybe this, maybe that.” The trumpet of God issues a certain sound. You have no doubt about the trumpet of God. It issues a certain sound. And you know to prepare for battle. But so it is that many dear ones have come into ambiguity in their teaching.Dear ones, there’s no ambiguity in the Bible. It’s full of it, you know. Some people say, “Oh well, should a Christian obey God’s word? Can you really expect them to obey God’s word?” Well it runs through every part of it. Deuteronomy, “This day the Lord thy God has commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments. Thou shall therefore keep them and do them with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” Joshua says, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth even but thou shall meditate therein day and night that thou may observe to do according to all that is written therein.” And we keep on asking, “Do you really mean that Christians are supposed to obey God’s law?” And Samuel said, “Hath the Lord its great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold to obey is better than sacrifices and to harken than the fat of rams.”And we keep asking, “Do you really think a Christian cannot have any sin in his life?” And in Matthew it says, “Not everyone that sayeth unto me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he who doeth the will of my Father which thou in heaven.”And we keep asking, “Do you really think that we cannot afford to disobey God’s law even in one jot or tattle if we’re Christians or sons of God?”Well the Bible says in James 4:17, “If a man knows what is right and fails to do it for him it is sin.” And the Bible says, “Anyone who is born of God does not commit sin.” And then we keep on asking you see, “Well, do you really think that we’re not allowed to sin at all?” And Jesus says, “Therefore whosoever heareth these things of mine and doeth them I will liken him unto a wise man who built his house upon a rock.” And we ask, “Do you really think a Christian is meant to live without sin? Do you really think he’s meant to obey God’s word?” And Jesus says, “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven the same is my brother and sister and mother.” And we say, “Do you really think you can only belong to the family of God if you obey his word?”Well dear ones, where does it stop? I have a list of symptoms of cancer here. Here they are and I read them out to you, you don’t say to me, “I have only one of those.” One is enough. The marks of the flesh are plain. You know they are. The marks of the flesh are there. And you can look them up yourself in Galatians 5:18-23. “But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.” You see, you’re not going to be condemned under the law. “Now the words of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger,selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like.”Now the word of God is plain, if you come to that word and say, “Well, do you mean to say if I feel just a little envy for that singer up there and just envy a little that voice, that I am not walking in the will of God?” Well, you can judge for yourself. You may say, “Do you mean to say if anger rises in my heart at the children that I have some of the works of the flesh in me?” Well look, look at the word. There is no ambiguity in God’s word and there is no ambiguity in the Spirit of Christ. But there is constant ambiguity in the spirit of antichrist.Dear ones, I know many of you need to deal with the Holy Spirit for heart cleansing tonight, and the spirit of antichrist is trying to deceive you and persuade you that the amount of victory that you have already is sufficient. Dear ones, complete victory is possible in the power of the Holy Spirit.Well so it goes on. Another mark of the spirit of antichrist is 1 Timothy 4:1-2, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared.” And one of the marks of the spirit of antichrist is the deceitful spirit, the dishonest spirit.When the Holy Spirit comes in and cleanses your heart and begins to lead you in away from your soulish powers and into the purity of the resources of the tree of life, then you become very conscious of the slightest dishonesty. The Holy Spirit makes you treasure absolute honesty, absolute honesty. “That’s a beautiful dress.” Well, if it really is and you really think it is then the Spirit of Jesus would have you say it, and the dear one will know you mean it. And the dear one will know politeness and the dear one will know that cultured sophistication when she sees it. And there’s just a great difference between the two. When the Holy Spirit comes into your heart he makes you treasure honesty. He has nothing to do with deceitful spirits because they are of the spirit of antichrist. He has nothing to do with doctrines of demons.I think there are doctrines about demons as well as doctrines of demons. I think many dear ones want to cast out demons when they should be repenting of carnality. And I think there are a lot of us, you know, that have that doctrine of demons and doctrine about demons. There are doctrines of demons such as Robinson (John A. T. Robinson, Anglican bishop) spreads about the virgin birth of Christ and there are doctrines of demons such as Altizer (Thomas J. J. Altizer, b. 1927) spreads about the reality of God.But there are also doctrines about demons. And many of us are wanting people to cast out demons from us when really the demon is just bad temper. And we need to get down under God and surrender that old self which produces the bad temper to him. But the doctrine of demons and the doctrines about demons are part of the spirit of antichrist.And then you see that it mentions that “their consciences have become seared”. And many wives weep over husbands in these days…husbands who think they are far on in the spirit and have not the Spirit of Jesus ruling in their own hearts and in their homes. You cannot be advanced in the spirit unless the beauty of Jesus rules your life, in your home, and in your work.Just two more, dear ones, and one especially I think that is important. You find it in Ezekiel 34:2-3. These men were produced by the spirit of antichrist even in Old Testament times. “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds,Thus says the Lord GOD: Ho, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves!” A shepherd, you see, is one who feeds. But you’ve been feeding yourselves. “Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the crippled you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the wild beasts.”There are many who feel they have advanced far in the Christian faith and they are ruled by selfishness. And so I say to my dear brothers and sisters whom I love, it is glorious that there will come a day when the sons of God will be revealed. It is glorious that Jesus is building for himself a great body that will rise up and glorify his Father in heaven even has he glorified his Father. It is glorious that there will be a great day when the sons of God will be revealed. And that’s great, but dear ones, let’s be careful. Let’s be careful that we do not become preoccupied with the revelation of us as the sons of God lest we find ourselves feeding ourselves instead of feeding the sheep.After all, there’s a time to sow and a time to reap. There is a time to be born and a time to die. There’s a time to save the lost and to see the Holy Spirit filling others with the beauty of Jesus and with the power of Jesus. And there is a time for the revelation of the sons of God. And no doubt God will lead us forward bit-by-bit. We don’t have to keep looking ahead and trying to see what is going to happen. We can trust the Holy Spirit to prepare us for that day. Let us be careful that none of the advancement that we have in the Christian faith becomes a selfish delight in our position. Let us be careful that we are found doing what God has given us to do. The commission, the great commission, my dear brother said, has never been withdrawn. We are still called to go and preach the gospel to all the world. And we are to be found doing that when Jesus comes.Well, the very last mark of the spirit of antichrist is there in the original chapters we were studying. 1 John 2:22, “Who is the liar?” “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.” You mean, “I say, God is not the Father? Jesus is not the Son?” No. Deny means, make nothing of the Father and make nothing of the Son.Perhaps the greatest and clearest mark of the spirit of antichrist is that the antichrist will rise in the place of Jesus. He will take the place that Jesus himself ought to have and the spirit of antichrist is found in its clearest in our own hearts, in our own selves when we want to rise up and rule our own lives. And the dear one comes home, and Jesus wants to be loving to that dear one, but the old self wants to rise up and cut the dear one apart. Jesus wants to rise up in us and get the glory and the service. He wants to receive the glory to himself and our old self rises up and we want all men to look at us. We want every eye to see what we have done.There’s a great pride rises up within us. We not only want our way so that Jesus will not have his way, but we want our glory so he will not have his glory. There’s a great desire to be praised, a great desire to be noticed that rises up in the heart that is ruled by the Spirit of antichrist. Because you see, the antichrist is already preparing that heart for himself. He’s already preparing that heart so that that heart will recognize him when he comes. That heart will bury down the pride, will bury down the envy and the jealousy but that is all seeping underneath and will rise up to receive the antichrist when he arrives.There are only two guardians against the spirit of antichrist. There is first of all in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, the scripture itself. You can look at it there. Paul explained to Timothy that there would come days of stress and surely those days are already upon us when men would be lovers of self rather than lovers of God. And then he says there is only one guard on that day. “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” And in Verse 14 he says in these days, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.”And the second guardian against the spirit of antichrist is found in John 16:13. And it is as you can guess yourselves, the true Holy Spirit of truth. “When the Spirit of truth comes,” into your heart, “He will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”There will come a day either before you and I die, or soon after it, when a glorious figure will appear in our world and he will have apparently the fruits of the spirit and he will do many might works such as Jesus himself did. And that great figure will call to himself all who believe in him, all who respect what he is. And great, great numbers of even the elect will come towards him and be deceived. And their judgment will have already taken place. And you say, “How can I prepare for that day?” Allow the Holy Spirit to wield his sword in your heart tonight and be honest.Now many of you have been arguing haven’t you? I know it because God told me. Many of you have been arguing with God, and you’ve been saying, “Victorious life can’t be that victorious.” A little anger? A little envy? A little jealousy? And the spirit of antichrist is already at work in you. Dear ones, the only way to prepare is to be open with God–open with God, direct with him and honest now and admit that you are what you are. And you say, “What can be done?” Well at this present time the Holy Spirit is here among us. At this present time we are privileged to have the Holy Spirit in our midst.There will come a day when he will be withdrawn, but the Holy Spirit is here tonight. And his word is here and you know his word well enough during this past week to know where you stand. The Holy Spirit is able to show you where the spirit of antichrist still rules in your heart and where you yourself are being prepared for his coming. You need to come to the altar tonight and allow the Holy Spirit to do that. Ask him, “Holy Spirit of truth, show me where the spirit of antichrist still rules in my heart. Show me where I am not being obedient to you.” And the Holy Spirit will show you and then you need to see that all that spirit of antichrist within you, all that old self was crucified with Jesus. And the Holy Spirit is able to crucify it now in you.He is able to cleanse out all that and fill you with himself so that when the antichrist comes the Holy Spirit will cry in your heart, “That is the antichrist.” But he can only cry that in the heart of one who is being utterly obedient to him, today. Well, are you such a one? And will you have such a counselor on that fateful day? I pray that you will. I pray that you’ll receive him tonight if you haven’t received him already. Let us pray.Loving Father, we trust you now to do your work. Blessed Holy Spirit, your word has been proclaimed and we trust you to minister to each of us as we need that we may not be found following the wrong man on that fateful day. We trust you Holy Spirit, now to minister to us and to draw out the ones that need to take you fully into their hearts and surrender their spirits completely to you. For the glory of Jesus, our Savior, amen.