We're turning to 1 Corinthians chapter number six. 1 Corinthians chapter number six. We're going to read from the ninth verse of the chapter here. 1 Corinthians chapter number six. And let's read from the verse number nine. Let's hear God's word. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient or profitable, All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ, Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of Inharlot? God forbid. What? Know ye not that he which is joined to Inharlot is one body? For to saith he shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body. But he that commiteth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Amen. And we'll end at the 20th verse, our reading of God's precious word. Let's unite in prayer again. Our Father and our God in heaven, we come again before thy throne. We do desire Thy presence to be among us. We need much of Thy Holy Spirit's ministry. It is His work to illuminate the page. It is His work to lead us to truth and on to truth. It is His work to regenerate, to convert, to sanctify, to edify the body of Christ. Oh, how dependent we are on His ministry. If there be anything that is in my life that has grieved the Holy Spirit, quenched the third person of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Trinity, Lord forgive, cleanse, wash, Sanctify this life of mine, that I might be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use. So come, meet with us as the family of God around thy word. And for those that are outside the family, bring them to know the head of the family today, or help them to come as a sinner to Christ. Answer prayer, we offer our petitions in and through our Savior's holy name. Amen and amen. Well, today we return to our series on the person and the work of God, the Holy Spirit. On previous Lord's Day, we have considered the Holy Spirit as our convictor. When we thought about that, and when we thought about the effectual call in the gospel I spoke to you in the text that we find there, In John 16, verse 8, Christ speaking about the Holy Spirit's ministry would inform His disciples that when He, speaking of the Spirit, when He the Spirit has come, He will reprove the world of sin and righteousness and of judgment. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to convict the sinner of their sin, and to bring them to a realization of their sinnership. No preacher can do that. He can preach about it, but it is the Holy Spirit who effectually brings that truth into the very soul of the sinner, whereby they understand that they are, as God declares, a sinner before him. He also shows the sinner of their lack of righteousness, that their righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And the only perfect righteousness that is found that brings a man into a right state before God is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He is to his people Jehovah Sikhenu, the Lord our righteousness. And then he shows the sinner that there's judgment. There's judgment ahead if sin is not repented of and righteousness is not received from the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the work. of God the Holy Spirit. We also thought about the Holy Spirit as our regenerator. It is the Holy Spirit that enlivens, regenerates the heart from its deaden state in which it is born and by which it comes forth from the womb and causes that heart to be brought to a state of spiritual life, enabling the sinner to repent of sin and to embrace Jesus Christ in the gospel. And then we thought about the Holy Spirit as our converter. And again, it is the work of the Spirit of God to convert the sinner. He does so by bestowing two gifts, the gifts of faith, and the gifts of repentance, both of which are necessary if a person is to have a true biblical conversion experience. They must repent of sin and they must exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we want to move on just a little in our studies. This afternoon, we want to consider the Holy Spirit as the one who comes to indwell the life of the Christian after they have been regenerated and converted to Jesus Christ by the work and ministry of God the Holy Spirit. You see, child of God, God doesn't leave us to struggle through this life on our own after we have been brought to faith in Jesus Christ. Now there were believers in the Galatian churches who seemed to think that that was what God intended for them. Because the Apostle Paul, he asked them a reprimanding question in Galatians 3, in the verse number 3, Are ye so foolish, having begun in the Spirit? Are ye now made perfect, or complete, or entire, or mature by the flesh? You see, there were those within the Galatian churches who believed that yes, they were converted and regenerated by the Spirit of God, but really, to live the Christian life, that was all going to be done by their own efforts, and by their own energies, and by their own experience. They were going to finish it in the flesh. But Paul is reminding these Christians that just as the commencement of the Christian life is solely dependent on the work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life, so the continuation of salvation and the Christian life is as equally dependent upon the ministry and the work of God the Holy Spirit in our lives. You see, if the Christian, if you as a Christian want to enjoy the Christian life, If you as a Christian want to succeed in living the Christian life to its fullest potential, then you'll have to come to the understanding that that can only ever be accomplished by and through the Spirit of God who now dwells within you. It is by His help and His grace and His ministry that you and I will be able to live the victorious Christian life. Now as we consider the Holy Spirit our indweller today, there are a number of truths that I want you to get a hold of in this service just this afternoon. The first truth that we want to think about is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit affirmed. I've said already in this service that God the Holy Spirit comes to indwell the life of the believer. We have been singing about that today in our second hymn. He abides. He abides, hallelujah, He abides with me. We're singing there about the Comforter, the Holy Spirit who comes to live and to dwell within the life of the child of God. And so I've already stated that, but rather than taking my word for it, we need to always go to the Word of God. We need to see, is this presented to us? Is it brought to our attention within God's Word? This truth, that God the Holy Spirit indwells the child of God. Well, I believe the Bible affirms this to be so. Let's go for a little tour in the Word of God. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 36, first of all. We'll not have too many passages, maybe four or five here, just to bring to your attention this truth that the Spirit of God now indwells the believer. They've been regenerated, they've been converted. And the Spirit of God now comes to indwell the life. He doesn't come and do a little work for a period of time, for a moment, as in conversion, and then just abandons the child of God. No, he doesn't do this. But rather he comes, he works within the soul, and he takes up residency within the life. Ezekiel 36, verse 26 and 27. Verse 26 and 27. A new heart also will I give you, And a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statues, and you shall keep my judgments and do them." He himself is the one who gives the new heart. That is regeneration. converts the sinner and then having done so he then puts within us a new spirit and after that occurs after the spirit has come to indwell us he then causes us if you look at the verse 27 to walk on my statues to keep my judgments and to do them this is the secret of obedience to the Word of God, to the commandments of Scripture. How do I obey God? How will I keep His statutes? How will I live the Christian life? How will I walk with God? It is by the Spirit coming to indwell the life of the child, because by nature, the flesh would tend us to go towards sin and unrighteousness. But now a whole new spirit has taken possession of the child of God. And that spirit, the Holy Spirit, the new spirit, comes and causes us to walk in God's statutes, to keep His judgments, and to do them. If you turn then to the New Testament, to John chapter 14, this is the discourse of our Savior in the upper room. just prior to his crucifixion. Look at the verse 16 and 17 of John 14. John 14, 16 and 17. And I will pray the Father, Christ is speaking here, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. He not only dwells with you, but He dwells in you. These are the words of Jesus Christ. If you turn to the Apostle Paul's letter to the Roman church, Romans chapter 8, we find this again. Emphasized Romans 8, verse number 9. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. And if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, He is none of his. The Spirit of God, Paul speaks about dwelling within you. Look at the verse number 11 of that same chapter. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Three times, this thought, the Spirit of God dwelling within the life of the child of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 in the verse number 16. I'll read these quickly a few more. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 16, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 1 Corinthians 6 and the verse number 19, we read it. What know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? And then the final one, Galatians chapter 4, verses 4 to 6. I'll read them to you. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law. We might receive the adoption of sons, and because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father, the Spirit of his Son into your heart. I'll not multiply the proof texts any more than what I have, but needless to say, the Bible texts that we have saw from both Old and New Testaments remind us that the Holy Spirit comes to indwell the life of the believer. There is such a thing as the actual personal residence of the Holy Spirit within the life of the child of God. He comes to dwell within us. He comes to dwell and to live within us. You think of that for a moment of time. This is something unique to biblical Christianity. It is unheard of in the world's false religions. Because in Islam there is no promise that Allah comes to live within the life of the Muslim. In Buddhism, Buddha does not come to dwell in the heart of the Buddhist. In Hinduism, what none of the supposed 33 million gods of Hinduism comes to take up residency in the life of the Hindu. And yet, in biblical Christianity, God comes to live, to dwell, to take up residency in the life of the child of God. 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 and the verse 16 reminds us again of that we've been reading in 1st Corinthians 2nd Corinthians 6 verse number 16 and what agreement of the temple of God with idols for ye are the temple of the living God as God has said I will dwell in them and will walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people God says I will dwell in them he indwells us by his spirit To his people God is Emmanuel, God with us. But not only is he God with us, but he is God in us. God in us. Octavius Winslow wrote, the bare thought that the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, should dwell with man, yes, in him. that he should take out of the fallen race of his creatures a people whose hearts should be renewed and sanctified as to form a dwelling place of the Holy Ghost, that this heavenly visitant should take up his abode therein all of his regenerating, sanctifying, sealing, and comforting influences. The bare thought of this seems almost too illimitable and glorious for a poor, finite mind to grasp, to think, that today I am indwelt by God the Holy Spirit. What a wonder, what a marvel, what a blessing. Think of a child of God, what a blessing it is to have the ever-abiding Comforter dwelling in us. You seek for comfort in your days of trials and difficulty, but within you is the greatest Comforter, God the Holy Spirit. He will comfort you with His presence, leading you to the Word and to the promises of God. He will comfort you in coming at His time and in His way to deliver you from all your trials and your troubles. This Comforter is living in you. He's abiding in you today. What a blessing to know that within me today dwells the Guide, the perfect Guide. The Spirit of God who guides us into all truth, who guides us into the center of God's will, providentially working in our lives, what a blessing it is to know that He lives within us, to have the Holy Spirit. to help us to live the Christian life, that which we could never do in our own strength and by the flesh. Of course we couldn't live the Christian life in our own energies, in our own flesh, and by our own works, but thank God there's someone who lives within us. God, the Holy Ghost, lives in us, child of God, giving all the strength and the grace that is needed for whatever we meet through life's trials and difficulties. So let me ask you, have you availed yourself of the comfort of the Holy Spirit this week? Have you veiled yourself of His counsel? Have you been led by the Spirit in the Word this week, guiding you and directing you in the choices that you're making within your home and within your life and within your family with respect to your future young people? Are you being led? Have you sought the Spirit to guide you? He lives in you. Oh, He lives in you, but He wants to lead you and He wants to guide you. Let me ask you this week, did you look to Him to give you victory over the flesh and over the world and over the devil? Did you seek His face? Did you seek for Him to guide you in His Word? Did you ask Him to illuminate your mind, to open your heart to the Word and to the truths contained within the Word of God? Did you desire to see Christ in the Word? Did you pray to the Spirit, Oh, lead me to Christ? that you might benefit as you've studied out the scriptures. I tell you, there are too many Christians, and they ignore the one who has taken up residency in their lives, and that is always to our spiritual detriment. Oh, for to know his working and ministry within our lives, he has come to live within us today. Every child of God has been indwelt by the Spirit of God. God lives in you. Oh, what a blessing, and yet what a responsibility. God lives in me, so where I go, he goes. And what I see, he sees. And what I listen to, he listens to. I wonder, did you grieve him this week? The one who is resident in your life? By the places you went, the things you said, the things you watched, the things you listened to? Did you grieve Him this week? He's in us. But we move on to consider a second point, not only the indwelling of the Holy Spirit presented or affirmed in Scripture, but we find the indwelling of the Holy Spirit explained. Prior to the act of regeneration, the Holy Spirit finds no welcome, no welcome in the life of the sinner. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, there is no receptacle in the natural man to receive the person of the Holy Spirit. No welcome. No welcome in the heart of the unregenerate person, the unsaved person, no welcome for the Holy Spirit. Rather, darkness and death, depravity, desolation. is that which marks the inner life of the sinner before they are ever made alive in Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God. I need not remind you that every person finds himself in one of two states, either saved or lost, righteous, unrighteous. But there is a distinction made also in Scripture whereby a person is either found in the flesh or in the Spirit. We read of that in Romans 8, verse 9. Let me read it to you again. However, when the soul is regenerated by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God enters the life, enters the soul, performs that gracious work of regeneration, never to leave or abandon that soul again, and that brings that person to be now in the Spirit. Once in the flesh, they're now in the Spirit. Now, you can't be in the flesh and in the Spirit at the same time. These are diametrically opposed to one another. We hear the statement with respect to people calling themselves a carnal Christian. Well, yes, Paul uses that statement, but I believe that people use it just to cover up with respect that really nothing of God's work in regeneration has ever occurred within that person's life. It is but an excuse for them to live a life of lawlessness, a life of sin, a life of ungodliness. But you can't be in the Spirit and in the flesh with respect to our standing before God. And so, as God enters the soul in regeneration, he comes to live within. Octavius Winslow speaks again of God, the Holy Spirit's triumphant entry into the heart of man. He wrote, what a triumphal entry when he takes possession of the temple already purchased by the Savior's blood. At his approach, darkness, enmity, pollution, and death retire, and all succeeded by light, love, holiness, and life. Oh, blissful moment, he said, when the spirit enters, convicting of sin, breaking the heart with godly sorrow, laying the soul low in the dust of self-abasement and self-condemnation before God, and then leading it to the atoning blood of Jesus, and speaking pardon and peace to the conscience. Oh, what an entry! He comes and he triumphs by grace, and he enters, never to leave. Who can fully explain how the Spirit of God actually comes to dwell within the life of the child of God? This is one of the Bible's mysteries. One of the secrets of the Lord, that which human language cannot explain, or human knowledge can plumb to the depths of. But this is biblical. This is revealed within the Word. We must believe it. The Spirit has entered. I'm now possessed by His Spirit as a child of God. And this new Spirit helps me to live this new Christian life. This is how I'm living it. not by conforming myself to the dictates of a church, not conforming my life to the standards of a church, but rather I see it in the Word. The Spirit of God is guiding me. He's maturing me. He's bringing me to believe the truth and to obey the truth. This is how I'm living the Christian life. Although a mystery to us, we believe it by faith, as it is revealed in the Word. And so we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Yes, it's affirmed in Scripture. We have it explained, but can we fully explain it? We just believe that which is written by faith. This is how we live the Christian life. It is by faith. The Word says it. I'm indwelled by the Spirit. I believe it. I believe it today. I'm indwelled by His Spirit. He's taken up residency in my life. I am the temple of the Holy Ghost. I believe that to be so. But let's move from the theory, and let's move to the practical aspect of the Spirit of God indwelling us. We want to give the final moments of the meeting to that. So we think about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit applied, applied to us personally. As I've said, we've already ascertained from the Scriptures that God, the Holy Spirit, comes to dwell within the life of the believer, but how does that truth How does it apply to this life of mine? Does this truth that God the Holy Spirit indwells me, does it have any bearing in my life? Well, you would know that because God the Holy Spirit comes to indwell the life, you must understand that there are repercussions, repercussions that will work itself out within a person's life. Those repercussions are governed by the one who comes to dwell within. Let me explain what I just mean. You see, the Holy Spirit is referred to under various names and under various titles within the Word of God. And whenever you think about those names, you think about those titles, then we come to understand the effect that such a one who dwells in us would have on us. I'll give you examples. I trust that you'll be able to follow what I mean. Can I say in the first place that the third person of the Holy Trinity is referred to as the Spirit of Grace? The Spirit of Grace. He's referred to the Spirit of Grace over there in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 29. Of how much sure punishment suppose ye? Shall ye be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the blood of the son of God? And hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace." The Spirit of grace. As the Spirit of grace, it is his work then to administer or to convey grace to the life of every child of God. He firstly conveys saving grace. saving grace. That grace enables the sinner to leave their sin and brings them into union with Jesus Christ. Now that's going to have an effect on our lives, is it not? This saving grace conveyed to me by the Spirit of grace, that's going to have a radical effect upon my life, because I once lived in sin. But now this Spirit, this saving grace, brought to me by the Spirit of grace, this grace has now delivered me from my sin. He has now saved me from my sin, emancipated me from my sin. I no longer live under its dominion. I no longer live under its control. I no longer live under its governance anymore. No, I'm now a new creature in Jesus Christ, and thereby I'm going to live a life of righteousness, not unrighteousness. If this spirit of grace has come and accompanying with him the Spirit of saving grace. But secondly, he conveys to us as the Spirit of God or as the Spirit of grace, he conveys to us not only saving grace but sanctifying grace. Sanctifying grace is imparted to us by the Spirit of grace. That sanctifying grace enables us to die on to sin and to live on to righteousness. And therefore, because he comes to live within me, I should be getting more and more like Jesus Christ. Because you see, the person who has been indwelled by the Spirit of grace, by the Spirit of God, will know this conveyance of sanctifying grace to their lives. They will flee from sin, and they will fly to Christ. They will begin more and more to be like Him in conduct, in word, in behavior, if the Spirit of God dwells within you. Because He's the Spirit of grace, and He brings sanctifying grace. And so if it be the case that you are living in sin, and you're loving that sin, and you relish that sin, and you profess faith in Jesus Christ, I would question your profession of faith, because the Spirit of grace brings sanctifying grace, whereby he enables me to see my sin, and then, as a believer, helps me to repent of my sin. But something else. The Spirit of grace conveys to the believer sustaining grace. saving grace, sanctifying grace, and sustaining grace. This is the grace that undergirds the child of God as they go through life's trials and through life's valleys and through life's troubles. That's going to have an effect upon a person's life. Do you know why? Because the person that meets the trials of life The person who is indwelt by the Spirit of grace and who the Spirit of grace has given this sustaining grace to, do you know what they're going to find themselves in the midst of life's troubles? They're going to be able to say, as for God, His way is perfect. As for God, His way is perfect. They're going to be upheld by God. They're not going to go back to the world. No, no, this grace, this sustaining grace is given every day of every year, of every decade of our lives until the day that we see the King, because he giveth more grace when the burdens grew greater. And so, child of God, you're maybe here today, and you're under the burden, and there's something troubling you, and something that has come into your family, into your own personal life, and you wonder, how are you ever going to get through? Let me encourage you to get to the Spirit of grace, and pray to the Holy Spirit, and pray to the Father, and pray to Christ himself, and pray that sustaining grace will be given to carry you through. It is the Spirit of grace that also produces and matures all the Christian graces. Remember what we thought about in our midweek prayer meeting, those that were there? We thought about the fruit of the Spirit. Those are graces. And as the Spirit of God indwells us, that fruit is nurtured and matured and cultivated in our lives so that we exhibit more and more the Christian graces of love, peace, joy, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. You cannot be indwelled by the Spirit of God and these Christian graces not be exhibited in your life to at least some degree, because it is His work to cultivate them and to mature them in your Christian life. So he's known as the Spirit of Grace. A second title that the Holy Spirit is known by, he is known by as the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Truth. John 14, we read it in the verse number 16 and 17, and I will pray the Father, he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth. All that the Christian All the Christian does and says should be governed by the spirit of truth who dwells in us and with us. We are men and women, or should be men and women of truthfulness. You and I cannot, we cannot have the spirit of truth living in us and then live a life of pretense, hypocrisy, and falsehood. Truth and falsehood can blend together as much as oil and water can. To be a dishonest Christian is simply a contradiction of terms. The Christian is to be a person of truth. We are to be children of truth, we are to walk by the truth, and we are to speak the truth in love. So let me ask you, is your life governed by the spirit of truth. And is that truth then being outworked in your life? So that in your business dealings, your interaction with parents, but most importantly your walk with God, is it being governed and controlled by the truth? In the fourth verse of John's third epistle, he wrote the following about the spiritual children that he was privileged of seeing brought to the new birth. He said these words, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. My children walk in truth. You know, folks, it's good to know the truth. It's commendable to affirm the truth. It's proper to embrace the truth, however it is best to live the truth. Let me repeat that. It's good to know the truth. Commendable to affirm the truth. proper to embrace the truth, however it is best to live the truth. There are too many believers and they know the truth, but they are resistant in living it out in their lives. There is an unwillingness to live out the truth, and that does the greatest damage to the testimony of Jesus Christ. Let us not be Christians who simply know the truth intellectually. But let us live it out experimentally, the truth as it is found in God's Word. And can I say that as a minister and as a pastor of this congregation, it brings no greater joy to this heart of mine to see you walk in the truth, to see young people, to see older people obeying the Lord, see them striving after holiness, To see them becoming more and more like Jesus Christ in their conduct. I tell you, that's the greatest commendation of any minister's ministry, that people just walk in the truth of God's word, trusting and obeying. Because knowing there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. But while it is my greatest joy, it is my greatest joy to see those walking in the truth, it is my greatest grief. On hearing of people who hear the truth, and they fail to walk in it, and they refuse to submit to the truth, that is the greatest grief. For you to know the truth, I tell you, you are a privileged people, not because of this minister, since that is not the case. But you're privileged, you've got the truth in your hand, the Word of God. And that Word is preached. In all of its weakness, we understand. That word is preached, and yet there be a resistance to actually living it out in home, in family, and personally within your life. There are those who walk in darkness here today. There are others and you're walking disorderly. You're not walking in obedience to the truth of God's word. Others, you're walking after the flesh. Others, you're walking after your own ungodly lusts instead of walking in the truth. causes the greatest grief. Believer, the spirit of truth dwells in you, then you will love the truth. And not only that, but you'll live out the truth in your life. Sinner, if today finds you walking away from the truth, I encourage you to come. Come and embrace the truth of the gospel as it is found in Jesus Christ. And then, by the help of the Holy Spirit, walk in truth. He is the Spirit of grace. He is the Spirit of truth. Finally, quickly, He is the Spirit of holiness. Holiness. Romans 1, verse 4, words speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ. And declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness. by the resurrection from the dead. I want you to answer this question for me at this time. I want you to answer it. You ready? Everyone listening? I want you to answer the question. What kind of person, sorry, what kind of life will a person live if they are indwelt by the spirit of holiness? What kind of life? Will a person live if they are indwelt by the spirit of holiness? Have you got the answer? Have you got the answer? Now let me ask you, is your answer an unholy life? An unholy life, is that your answer? I hope it's not. By your own thought, by your own thinking, by your own intellectual process, You have come up, I'm sure, all with the answer that a person who is indwelt by the Spirit of holiness is going to live a holy life. That's the type of life you're going to live if the Spirit dwells in you. If the Spirit dwells in you, how could you live anything else but a holy life? I submit to you today that an unholy Christian The person who lives content in their sin knows nothing of the work of God the Holy Spirit in their lives. I quote Mr. Winslow again, he said, the work of holiness forms a great and glorious part of the Holy Spirit's operation as the indweller of his people. He has come to restore the reign of holiness. to set up the law of God in the soul, to unfold its principles, and to write them upon the heart. Mr. Spurgeon said, a faith which works not for purification will work for putrefaction. He said, unless our faith makes us pine after holiness, it is no better than the faith of devils, and perhaps it is not even so good as that. And then he said this. A holy man is the workmanship of the Holy Spirit. A holy man is the workmanship of the Holy Spirit. And I don't want to say anything more about this topic because we're going to think about it. Because we're going to think about the Holy Spirit, our sanctifier, our sanctifier. But being possessed by the Spirit of God or the Spirit of holiness will lead us to live holy lives. There's no doubt about that. There's no doubt whatsoever. You cannot be possessed with the Spirit of holiness, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, and not live a Christian life. Are you living a holy life? Am I living a holy life? Where are the holy ones? Where are God's holy people? That's how Isaiah described them. The holy people. Where are the holy people? Is your minister a holy man? I fear I'm not. Oh, to be holy. I was just reading this morning. There in 1 Peter chapter 1, be ye holy, for I am holy. In the context of it all is Peter's writing to these scattered saints, and all of the gods that were out in the world, those gods were unholy. Unholy gods, but he says, I am unlike these, for I am holy. And if you be my child, then you be holy. And the world then will see there's a holy people who have a holy God. I wonder, is your life's motto holiness unto the Lord? It's an amazing thing to think that God, the Holy Spirit, makes the heart of the repentant sinner his dwelling place, but he does. Such should humble us, and such should curb all those sinful desires that will lead to us grieving or quenching the Holy Spirit of God. And so as we go out of this place, let us by God's grace resolve to make His dwelling place, this body of mine, This heart, this soul of mine, let us make sure that his dwelling place is as pure and untainted by sin as it can be. And if there is sin there, let us seek the cleansing of the Savior's blood to wash that sin's defilement away. Ye are the temple of the Holy Ghost. all that he would take possession of every room, every compartment of this life of mine. And may we go forth bearing his image as we go out into a sinful, unholy world. The Holy Spirit, my indweller, May God bless the word to our hearts today. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Thank you for listening. Let's still our hearts just for a moment. Our Father, our God, we come before thee today consciously aware that thou art the one who dwells within these lives of ours. Too often we would have him locked into some little room, not allowing him to take complete and absolute sway over our lives. But oh God, by faith we open every door and we cry for more of the Spirit, more of His grace and holiness and truth. pervade these lives of ours. And Lord, then as we go out into the world, that the worldling and the ungodly would say there's something radically different between them and me. Oh, that we would carry and bear, oh, may we bear the image of Christ and God in our lives as we go out into the world this week. Help us, Lord, and for all those things that are wrong and unholy and are certainly not right with respect to Scripture, help us to have done with such things. May, O God, you find among us here a people who are holy, sanctified, and ready to heal. Revival blessing. Answer prayer, for we offer our petitions in and through our Savior's precious and worthy name. Amen and amen. Thank you.