The Holy Spirit

There is a very disturbing trend in the Christian family today, even more disturbing than our prominent inability to get along. When we read the Book of The Acts of The Apostles we see that the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity, descended upon them. As we read the letters we also see that when Gentiles were saved, the Spirit descended upon them also. And as a Christian Teacher in a Southern Baptist Church, I know and I teach that when a man or a woman are saved, they are indwelt by the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit.

I have had folks, proclaiming to be saved, both in class and on the Internet tell me that not everyone can be as holy as I am! I always have and still do teach that I have no righteousness in me without the Imputed Righteousness of my Savior. If I am only found to be righteous through Him then it follows that without Him I have no holiness either. Now, if we flip this around and examine my condition carefully, in light of the revealed nature of God, in the scriptures, we see that any saved man or woman will have the same Holy Spirit to lead their lives.

I was recently informed, by an eighty-three year old "ex-pastor?” who is also an exprof that taught the Bible, that I should never hit him with "this HS Stuff,” when explaining why I had posted a message or I had stated a specific thing in a message. His explanation, as I recall, is that he had both preached and taught the Bible and he knew better!

As we all should know, God does not force any to do anything, evidenced by the fact that His perfect will is that None should perish (2Pet. 3:9) but that all should come to repentance and be saved and yet we know that the penalty for sin and failing to repent of it is death. (Rom. 6:23) And then we are taught by Jesus that there are two ways to live our lives and these are represented by the wide and the narrow gates. (Matt. 7:13) For, even the newest Christian, Hell is a real place and because they are indwelt with the Holy Spirit of God they will understand and affirm the teaching that the Second Death. (Rev. 20:14-15)

So, because we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit when we are saved we have a choice to make, we can follow His leading or, because God is not a cosmic bully, as some have suggested, we can deny Him and not be saved but still call ourselves Christian and no matter the good works we perform, work ourselves into Hell.

I will be rebuked by folks because of this message but it does not matter, the truth of the scriptures is just that, the truth! Many teachers, in and out of the church, are not God's teachers but are motivated by the all mighty dollar and any number of other purposes and they are very busy leading the deluded into Hell. In the scriptures we see Paul applauding the Bereans for their diligence. They accepted nothing that he taught without checking him and his teaching against the Bible! Today, it is no less important than it was then to test another's teaching against the scriptures and to rely on our memory to accomplish this is a Fool's Folly! One's memory is frail and easily deceived.

My prayer is that you take this message to heart. May God bless each of you abundantly.