Okay, tonight's lesson is pour water on his people, washing by the water of the word. Isaiah 44, three through four says, for I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon thine seed and my blessing upon thine offspring. And they shall spring up as among the grass as well as by the watercourse. Last week we had started on this Sunday. about pour water upon his people, and I was giving y'all some analogies and some different definitions about water and being the water was symbolic of the spirit, but also water, Jesus used water in different fashions or different ways, but water, he was implicating, talking about the spirit, and you can use it literally or figuratively. So he says, I will pour water on him that is a thirsty and floods upon the dry grounds. I will pour my spirit upon thine seed and my blessing upon thine offspring, and they shall spring up among the grass as well as by the watercourse. That seems like an answer to the parent's prayer. that they're continually praying for their children. These are blessed people or these are people and your children, unsaved or not, still should be, whether you think they're saved or not saved, they should be in your prayer. in the days of joel and peter says this is what joel was talking about he said he will pour out his spirit upon your sons and daughters but then looking at this this may be an answer in request of the parents praying that god would save their children It's not a parent that I know of that wouldn't be, shouldn't be praying for their children. That should be consistent in all of our prayers that we pray for our children no matter how old they are, how far away they are, away from the church or anything, that we constantly pray that God would feel them and that turn their hearts toward Him. He says that, upon thine seed and my blessings upon thine offspring. So this is an answer, and that's why I say the parents should be living a godly life, living before their children, and their children see their faults and failures and weaknesses. Because it's like some people in the church or some people portray themselves as having no faubles or no valuabilities or no faults. But they have to see us struggling also that it's not always perfect. It's not an easy walk. And that Christianity is something that we're not faking it. We have to be doers of God's word. He says, and then they will grow. But in the course of this growing, in the course of all this, they see the obstacles that was in our way. A lot of things that we met or whatever, we have to dig up our fallow ground. In other words, we have to be plowing the soil with prayer, plowing the soil with Bible study, taking the obstacles and things in our lives out of our lives, coming out of the world, not living as the world. washing of the water by the word. When you pour this water, if it's a deluge of water, if he's pouring the water, and I give you the analogy earlier, I don't know if we got that portion on the recording, about like in California, some of these places, when you see a deluge of rain, a great bit of rain come down, Well, a lot of times it causes mudslides and all of these other things because if the soil is hard and the water is poured on there, well, you get runoff. it's not gonna penetrate the ground as fast because it's hard and it doesn't suck up the water. So if a farmer get out there, they harrow and they till their fields and everything, you see them always pouring and getting the ground, they say digging up your fallow ground, getting all the stuff away that would hinder it so when the water do come, it absorbs the water. So, we don't want a washing off, we don't want to be overpowered by the spirit, but we want it to soak into us. But listen to this, it says Matthew 8 and 3, it says, And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. So here's a man that had brought Jesus, or Jesus came to him and he said that you could, if you willed to, you could heal me. Jesus listed what he says he said be thou cleansed God's Word is obvious in this miracle and it's sometimes what it does it Cleanses us by just the speaking of the word because he says he will do it that he says you could heal me if you will but the miracle is the process of the word when Jesus says I Be thou cleansed. The miracle was within that word that he says. If something requires cleansing, the washing of water by the word must be actively present. If it's to be cleansed, the water of the washing of the word has to be present. I think suddenly I used the term phosphorus. It's how much phosphorus is in the washing powder to attach itself to the dirt pile of All the particles and the molecules to pull the dirt out of the clothing or whatever Ephesians 5 and 26 he's talking about the church here, and I got the two different different readings though King James says that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water and by the Word. In other words, He's going to set it apart. What's going to sanctify, what's going to cleanse this, it's the washing of water by the Word of God. So, it has to be applicable. In other words, we have to assimilate that into our lives. We have to be doers of that Word. We have to be actual doers of God's Word. It has to attach itself to our lives, and we have to live that way. So Amplified says, so that he might sanctify the church, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word of God. In all aspects of the church's lives, that has to be applied to their lives. Now later on, as he poured this out upon our children, that's where the repentance and turning to God comes in. But that is where God turns the sinner toward Him. Even though the sinner hadn't been cleansed first, the repentance occurs as he starts to turn, like the adulterous woman, where she hadn't changed her life or whatever. But he told her her sin that he didn't come to condemn. He says, go and sin no more. In other words, her life has to be turned around. We have to start living a different way. So Peter says, they say, what must we do to be saved? He says, repent and be baptized. I'm going to cover that baptism in the water aspect of that a little bit later if I can get to it. He says, for the remission of sins and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. So here the pouring out of water comes later in the gift of the Holy Ghost as water there being symbolic of the Holy Spirit. But also water is mentioned here by baptism. Baptized in the Christ, but your sins of what sometime they use it say that your sins be washed away But baptism is the outward identification with the body of Christ. It's a work that we do. This is symbolic God does not work apart from his word. So in conjunction with his word As as we would say, in conjunction with the washing part of the chemical that's placed in the water. it has to be placed in and assimilated into the clothing, into what's going on. The latter, in other words, the water, if we baptize in the Christ, we're buried with him in death, but we do rise up out of the water, the resurrection of life, but that same water still washes us, it sanctifies us, it is what's cleansing our lives. You remember he said, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, The word has to be effectual in our lives. We have to be a doer of the word for the church to be without a spot or a blemish or without wrinkle because it straightens our lives out. It presents us to Christ as chaste virgins. Remember I told you about the fine white linen. So it's a preparatory thing, but it's a process that we're going through. from the creation of the world to the present the place of god's word in his work has been essential and the beginning was the word the word who became jesus christ in the world was with god and the word was done he was in the beginning with god and all things were made through him in without him and nothing was made that was made john one one through three He was in the beginning with God and all things were made through him. And without him, nothing was made that was made. In addition, the phrase God said is found 10 times. Did I go over this portion? I think I did go over that portion. The Bible is God's written word, whereas Jesus is the spokesman for God. If the true church is to do a word for God, it must be established and built on God's word rather than on tradition. The Word is our more sure word of prophecy. It is what we have as a standard in our lives. It has to be in His Word. God doesn't work apart separately from His Word. That's why if someone tells you something contrary to God's Word, or not in God's Word, that's when they say, if a prophet, if your brother, someone tells you something and it does come true, But it's not part of God's Word. It's not within the Word. It's different from the Word. That's not a true prophet. Just like if they're talking about necromancy and talking to the dead or whatever, we know that seances and all of these different people that talk about talking to the dead, we know that that's not of God because God forbids us from talking to the dead. Necromancy is against the Word of God. The covenants of grace and law within this word Ephesians 5th chapter 25th through to 27 verse read Husbands love your wives in other words seek the highest good for her and surround her with caring and unselfish love just as Christ also loved the church and Gave himself up for her so that he might sanctify the church Having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word of God so that in turn he might present the church to himself in glorious splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy, that is, set apart and blameless. And as I was saying, you could be in the world and not of the world because if you take in heed to God's word, it sets you apart right there where you are. you'll be a little sanctuary to God within the world. It says, keep them from the evil that's in the world and the things that's going on in the world that God's word holds you or puts you in a cocoon away from those things. The word is your fortress. It's your refuge. It's a little place of asylum here in the world. And that's why it says come out of the world. So you watch television and do things like the world, but you're not watching the same things. Your motives and the things that you hear coming in, what you place before your eyes, your action, your methodology, your motivations should be becoming different. We should be watching different things. We can't all, some of the things that we do watch, we may get a different meaning from them. Our spiritual man may see these things, but we would see it through a different lens. Like, God sees everything in the world. A lot of times we can't just turn eyes to different things at different times. We see things, but it doesn't have the same effect on us as it does on others. Some others may lust after this. They may covet it, but you could see something without lusting or coveting after that. Do we understand? That's what God's word do to the mind. It's the changing of the mind, the perspective by which you see things. It says, but the cleansing found here in Ephesians 5, 26 is a different kind. He's, I know I, I think I, I'm gonna skip that portion because I think we covered that Sunday. Therefore we are washed by the water of the word of God in conjunction with a new nature that is given to us by God's spirit. So this new nature that he'd been given us by spirit, we think differently. Our mind starts to be transformed. But it starts us where we are, where we at that time. Someone comes in the church now. It's gonna start them right there where they are then but according to whatever God had placed in their lives early the Application may go even faster than the ones that have already been in the church It's according to how fast the ones that's been in the church. Have you been seeking God's Word? Have you truly been? Thirsting for God's word now when he pour out his water when he pull out his word his spirit Are you hungering and thirsting for his righteousness? You see some people couldn't drink water quickly and some people just maybe a sip or two at a time But are you hungering? Do you really need God's word to gulp it down? That is to refresh you and vitalize you how much of it you could drink So he said those that are hungering and thirsting for righteousness shall be filled so as much as you can Consume as much as the intake that you can take in without wasting it God's Word flows into you because it says be filled with the Spirit. He's not to give you a lack in your life So maybe you've been praying all week that you've been praying it and hungering for that preacher to fill you with something, to be filled with God's Word. Will that Bible study night or that preaching session coming up that Sabbath day, will the words be more effective and God would open up your understanding for that and it will fill you more than somebody that's been sitting there watching TV or playing computer games or without a real desire to be filled with God's Word, without a desire from hearing after God, because he says, as the deer panted for water, he's panting for this. Well, do you have a hunger for this? Because if you're not hungry, there's no use in him feeding you. Would you put a larger plate before a man that says, well, I'm not hungry, I'm not going to eat much. or you would give him just a little bit. It's like my mother used to say about wasting food. It's better to get your plate and then eat all of that and come back for a second than to pile a whole lot up on your plate and don't eat it. But the more you eat, the more you hunger. God keep piling that on so there's no lack. In the law of manner, he that gathered much had no lack, but he that gathered little had no overages. In other words, you take as much as you can consume. So as much as God's Word that you could assimilate so sometimes I give more than what y'all can cover Because there's gonna be some people that's gonna continually study and meditate on simple posse. You didn't give us enough I ran through that or whatever, but then it's gonna be some you gave us too much or whatever But you've only read a page a few scriptures But that may have been sufficient for you. You couldn't consume as much as this other person. Your hunger and desires was different, and God dealing with you differently, not because you are different, it's because that's the measure that has been meted unto you. That's the measure that has been met. This begins to help us to understand why studying the Word of God is so important. We need those words in us so that we can think according to them. And if we believe those words, they will begin to purify and cleanse the way we think. your mind is transforming, you applying it to spiritual things. With everything, not everything that you're watching on television is God there, it's a spiritual meaning to that. Every conversation you have, you're applying that to some of God's word that you have and it has a purifying effect. So it causes you to set some of your friends or set some things aside because he says he must increase and I must decrease. So the water that's essential, some people can't drink a whole lot of water, you know. They need to have flavored water. They need something with that water. But to some people, they like water, boy, so that's some high quality H2O. that pure, refreshing water is invigorating them. So some people can drink maybe a gallon a day. But it's only some people that can drink a half gallon a day. Or some people drink two or three glasses a day. But the doctors are in dispute about that because it says when your body knows how much you need, is your body hungry for more water? You know, that's why I have to buy the little 8-ounce bottle of water, because I don't want my children or grandchildren coming by there and getting a 16-ounce bottle of water, and you just gonna take a couple of sips out of it and leave the whole bottle sitting there, or half the bottle sitting there. It would have been better for you just to get a small bottle, or get just a little glass of water or something. Instead of wasting that, you can't waste a word. That's what it tells us about wasting that. And Jesus always showed him picking up the fragments. Pour water upon. Water is the emblem of the Holy Spirit. As water refreshes, cleanses, and makes the earth fruitful, so do his influences the soul. As the Spirit, as we see it as water, as water invigorates, If she says she needs a lot of water, I don't know what's, something may be dehydrating her other than, you know, because there are different reasons why you're dehydrating or drinking a lot of water. That is a medical issue there. But if it's the Spirit, that's because you're using the Spirit. If you are a chandler where God's Spirit is flowing through you, in other words, you're interacting with a lot of different people and you're witnessing of His Word. Well, you need more ammunition. You need More powerful ammunition you need more scriptures because you're dealing with different levels of people So you need more of the Word of God? That's what the Jehovah Witnesses they are witnesses with some of them are young and I ain't quite studied But they'll tell you well, let me get somebody that know I'll bring somebody else back Is that because that person is like a professor or something? He's really studying and he's really into that and But you may not be that level of a believer. You see what I'm saying? He didn't make all of us evangelists. So some people say, well, you're a pastor, you're a preacher, so you have time for that. No, it's not just that I have time for that, but that's how God made me is to want more of it. And this is the course where it's a little satisfy you, where the little doesn't satisfy me. It says, the gift of the Holy Ghost is the great blessing, the plentiful pouring out which God kept for the latter days this is the latter day rain he says in the latter days he was going to pour out his spirit on all flesh he wasn't going to be picky about it it was going to be all flesh not just the juice it was going to be on all flesh but it was going to be an abundance of the spirit because in those days you remember it would come upon a person come upon the prophets or different people or whatever the spirit wasn't yet given but here The Spirit is given to each man the profit withal. So each person can profit by that Spirit of God. You may leave your brethren behind or this person behind. Joseph was at a higher level than his brothers. You didn't hear much from his brothers. They didn't accomplish much or whatever. But Joseph had went to a whole other level. So that plentiful of the Spirit, you can't exhaust that Spirit, and the more hungry you are, that child is growing or whatever. Well, it's not that you love one child more than another, but this child is eating it. Let me put this on its plate. Let me put that on its plate. During the hurricane, I was at my daughter's house. you know, our children was eating or whatever, and one of my grandchildren, he said, no, I don't want that piece there. And he went and got a big thigh, you know, and held it up and said, this the piece I want, because he could eat more than the rest of them. But if someone else just got a piece like that because he wanted it, maybe you should have got a thigh or a wing or something, because you can't consume that. So it's like people say, the dog that you feed is the one that's gonna grow the most. So the one that's hungry and thirsting after, you keep feeding that. That's the one. It's not that you have a respect to a person, but you're doing what comes natural. Where God gives his spirit, he will give all other blessings. And notice that the spirit comes first and the blessings follow after. That's why, you remember I told you, you have to have a Manasseh before you have an Ephraim. Joseph had to forget before God made him fruitful, or the fruitful would have been wasteful. That's what he told the servant about that took the talent and hid the talent. Just think, if God would've gave him five or ten talents, maybe that's why God went on and just gave him one, because he wasn't gonna use that one that God gave him, and he called him a wicked servant. He says, why didn't you put my money to the bank as a somebody so I would've had interest when I came? We need to use what God gives us, and he'll give us more. He'll give us more if we hunger after these things. Hereby shall be a great increase of the church, thus it shall be spread to distant places. And that's what I'm telling you, the church is actively moving. The church is growing. The church is becoming strong and we can see this effectively. It bothers a pastor, it bothers a parent to see his child not growing. It hurts a parent to see his child weakening in an immune deficiency state, just like it would hurt a pastor to see his members spiritually weakened. Well, that's the way God is. He doesn't want us in that shape. He wants us to grow and prosper and be in health and be abundantly strong in Him. He says He wants us to be overcomers. Where there's any other rock or protector that could defend Him, you remember He said, I alone am God. There's no God beside me. So read the rest of that chapter. You'll see those that were working with the rocksmiths, the carpenters, and all of them, that they was going to have to discard all those things. When God pours out His Spirit, while our children, and as we start to see all of these idols, the television, the cars, the people, whatever is an idol or whatever is a weight and sin in our lives, we will discard them and know the true rock, what really nourishes us, what causes us to be fruitful. The word of God starts to show us the cleanse your life to purify your life this needs to come out of there It's what sets you apart and causes you to be straight strongly So the word is working as spirit in you give it life. The spirit is what give it life and But the water washes it away. In other words, the words say, this is an idol, this is a graven image. The word shows you, well, you have roots of bitterness in you. All of this is fallow ground that has to be broken up and cast away out of you, idleness and slothfulness. All of these things work against you. He says, none beside could foretell these things to come, of which God, by his prophets, gave notice. And I was telling Sister a while ago about, did you get counsel on before you did this? Anything we do, are we seeking Godly counsel? Are we running it through as God says in life? That's why the church is here. That's why he says, forsake not to assemble together yourself. Just like you're talking with other people or whatever, this should be your family to help you because there's wisdom in a multitude of counsel. So there are things that we can talk about as spiritually enlightened people. But it's by, according to the word of God, he gives us wisdom and knowledge. So things I could have told her, somebody else might have told her, before we do anything, we talk or run that over or by with somebody else. We don't just go making all of the decisions and things in life. That's why a child, your children prosper more if they say, well, mama, what you think about this? Or daddy, what you think about this? Or ask their brothers or sisters or somebody else, don't you know it all? But a lot of times the children of people would rather go ask someone else into someone else that really loved them and want to see their betterment. All of that is watering, the pouring out of the spirit that sets them apart. All was set in order in the divine predictions as well as in the divine purposes. So God has all these things set around you to bring fruitfulness into your life and to prosper you where you are. The Spirit is pouring all these things out for you to open up your eyes. The pulpit commentary, and I'm going to quote this, the pulpit commentary, verse 3 says, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty. Water is, in Isaiah, the common metaphor for divine grace. Sometimes, as in this place, and then I've got the other scriptures in Isaiah that it refers to, the simple, the water of waters is used in the word of God to mean a spirit of God's grace, His divine grace, not common grace, but His divine grace. This divine grace is that that leads to salvation, that that has hold of salvation, because by common grace, a lot of us, and it rains on the just and the unjust, prosperity doesn't mean godliness. Prosperity, but the world thinks godliness is gain. But just to have some things, that's why I say, sometime before God give you or bless you with some things, manasseh have to come first. In other words, you have to get right or turn toward God repentance and I told you he forgot Joseph had said Manasseh in other words the child God had given him had helped him to forget so he didn't hold things against his brothers anything his life was cleansed that took that out of his way that was the water that was the cleansing of Agent in his life and then God prospered him and then when his brothers came to him he didn't go to his brothers But when he came to them, he didn't mention any other thing, but he gave them of the things Egypt had in fluent sometimes and At other times we have instead or in addition the word rain. He uses the word rain He's the rain this down upon us and it has rain or dew and streams of floods it a great number of notes and all of these come from Isaiah's way using that word for the spirit when he says coming down so in this latter times it's going to come quicker It's Gokum and Ezekiel talking about sprinkle, but he's talking about a deluge of the Spirit. In other words, a pouring it out abundantly, you know, richly blessing us. So the church, we should be a time of prosperity where we can see it, but I'm sure glad that he's doing it that way, because I would have hated for prosperity to came first, and I would have wasted that prosperity. Remember Solomon at the end of his life says all was vanity and vexation of spirit because all of that came first and he wasted that. But isn't it good that you were afflicted before you went astray, that God had caused all this to be in your rear view mirror? Now that I understand God, as Joe said, I understand better. Maybe he could raise those other children a different way or something else. I don't know what was the problem, but he gave him seven sons and three more daughters. He doubled Job's blessing to him. He says, but now I understand more clearly. I understand God better. He sees better. Sometime God puts all of these things that's behind us that we didn't experience. Now we can use them in a beneficial way. The past experiences that God allows us to go through. At His coming on earth, our blessed Lord took up the comparison and has made it familiar to all men, Jesus Christ, when He came. Throughout the whole Christian world, and all of these, like I said, it's too many scriptures to go over there for the listening audience, but most of them in the book of John, when I'm referring to Jesus Christ, John 3 and 5, 4 and 10, and 11, 13 through 15, John 7, 37-39. We may note here that the water is only poured on him who is a thirst. Note there, only to the ones that is thirsty. So, you're going along and people say, well, how come you didn't give me no water? You didn't ask for any water. Huh? You know, if you are hungry and you ask for something to eat, that's why someone gave you something. He that is of thirst, let him come unto me, and I'll give you, I'll cause the flow from you rivers of living water. But you have to ask. That's the way God created. That's the way Jesus Christ designated. He says you have not because you what? Ask not. That's why I say whatever you deem in prayer, that's why I say healing and all of these other things is designed that you should ask for it. Because later on, if you give someone something and Jesus says, do you really want to be healed? You know that the person had to ask for it? Because a lot of times you do something for someone, well, I didn't want that anyhow, you gave it to me, I didn't want it. Haven't you had a lot of people that waste something or don't do something and they say, well, I didn't ask you for it anyhow? So you don't have any reason to say anything because why did you give it to him? He didn't ask you for it. You keep giving him stuff that he's not asking you for. If he was gonna use it, he'd ask you so he could use it. thy seed and thine offspring, not Israel after the flesh, only but Israel after the spirit. This is true of the Israel of God. So those that are of the faith of Abraham, we ask and we trust God by faith and we desire, we hunger and thirst after righteousness. We don't have our own righteousness. A lot of people contend with their own righteousness and they go on through life with their righteousness. But like I said, at the end, they'll see that that righteousness was as filthy rags. You need to exchange your righteousness for His righteousness. We have to ask Him for His righteousness, to continually being filled with the Spirit. That's why we come each day and we say, give us our daily bread. Give us this day our daily. Give me what's necessary this day. I'm asking for my manner. Now, if you got too much of the manner, it would spoil, wouldn't it? It would grow worms. But this bread, he says, the water that I give you, you'll never thirst again. Because why? It creates this thirst in you. It creates a capacity to keep being filled with it, but it keeps flowing But it's a river, a river never stops running. Do the Mississippi really run dry? It continues to flow because it's coming from a larger source. Well, God's Spirit, if it's flowing through us, it would flow more and more. The more channels you grow, the more people you grow out. And it says that it's going to send parched waters in the desert. I'm not reading through my Bible right now. But porch waters in the desert that's meaning you could tell your nieces nephews. You could tell everybody you meet You will go out spreading this water. It's gonna branch out One tail one entails more and that's how you grow the body of christ. It's gonna be a fruitful tree spreading throughout It's gonna saturate the earth. God's people saturate the earth water as a symbol of God's Holy Spirit. With all these references feeding into Jesus' teaching in John 3 and 5, we can be confident that the water he refers to includes all three of these figures. That is, it quenches a person's spiritual thirst. That water that he's pouring out, it quenches a person's spiritual thirst. It facilitates the spiritual birth, because you must each be born again. And it grows you into a mature and perfect man. It's working in you. We may not see the work, but the spirit work it as it will. It cleanses him from his spiritual filth. It's going to stop you from all the filthy talking. It's going to clean up your thought processes, your thoughts. Like, that wouldn't even come into mind. The thinking, you will have a more docile thinking, a humble, a humility. You're not going to have the high-mindedness. All of these other attributes, by studying the Word of God, you see that these things are contrary to God. living this way or with these things is contrary to God, so it tears down the strongholds that Satan has in your life. It's loosening the cords of sin that bind you. But you have to want this done. You can't keep holding on to your sin. You can't cling to these things. You have to loose them and let them go. You have to deny yourself. You have to deny these physical things, the emotions and the feelings. You know how some things make you feel good? You know, doing good just makes some people feel good. They like that feeling of doing good. But you're not doing good just for the feelings. You're doing good because It is necessary. This is what God's requiring of you because sometimes that's what you don't want to do. It's not, I was telling someone that I was going to have to go back and apologize to my doctor and go back to this other doctor because he was right. Well, that's what I say. Your children need to see you doing it. Well, I was wrong, son. I was wrong, daughter. Tell people that you were wrong. You discovered you did something wrong. You go back and you correct those things. So the things that you don't want to do, you have to die to self. Self sometimes doesn't like to apologize. Self doesn't like to be wrong. Self doesn't like to make mistakes. Self always go blaming on something else. That's why a lot of times people quit talking to you and say that because you will come with some excuse. You could deny that you did that or you was the cause of that. So you stop telling those people. That's why in marriages and in relationships and in family, that's why some people quit talking. That's why professors, that's why people at work, sometimes people say, well, why you hadn't said anything? Because you was going to deny it or you wasn't going to say, oh, yeah, I didn't know that. But yeah, I did do that because you were excusing because the world looks for perfection. I'm perfect. I didn't do that. Well, I didn't do something like that. I wouldn't have said that. But self, you're mortifying the deeds of the flesh. The Spirit's creating something different in you, and it's working in you. You see yourself for what you used to be, and I used to be terrible. I used to be someone that I was in love with. But now I see I hate myself. I was a worm, Jacob. I was a supplant. But this is what God's making of me, a son of God. He's making me into this. We can conclude that Jesus' reference to water in John 3 and 5 should be understood as attached to the Spirit. God descending like a... Excuse me. Okay, that's it for him. E. W. Bullinger and his Figures of Speech. This is a book by E. W. Bullinger. And the Bible, page 664, says that in this context, we are dealing with a figure of speech called a hiandus. And I talked about this once before on another subject, which literally indicates one by means of two. One by means of two. In other words, in a hiandus, two words, in this case the word water, and the word spirit are employed to get the point across, but only one idea is intended. Water is used, and spirit is used, but it's used two different words to get the point across. This pouring out of the water, you can get an illustration of what the spirit is through this idea. It's making one idea. One of the words spirit expresses the point, but the other word water intensifies the spirit to a superlative degree. If I see a nice cold bottle of water dripping with frost almost out of it and just gulp it down, you can kind of see that and understand that. And how refreshing that would be on one of these days that it's 95, 96 degrees and it's so hot out, how refreshing that could be. Well, how about the spirit? As you're talking to, he says, be drunk not with wine, but with the spirit. If you drink the spirit down to you drunk of it, Paul said, I'm poured out like a drink offering. In other words, his blood, his life blood is poured out for people like a drink offering. Remember, they just would just pour out a drink offering. In other words, in God's Holy Spirit, there's the instrument of both the cleansing and the birth of divine nature in us. That's a cleansing effect. The word washes and cleanses the church, right? The church washes and cleanses. But there's a birth of the divine nature because remember I said that when God plants his nature in you, his seed, that seed grows. is being germinated, that word that's germinated, the washing of the water, it makes that seed grow. You have to have whatever increasing faith. So the prayer, and by actually doing these things, is what causes that spirit to get stronger in you, the one that you're feeding. So you're feeding the spirit of God, the word of God. You're feeding that portion of you that God had planted in you. God didn't do like he did Jesus. He didn't give you the spirit without measure. But yours come in increments. You grow in the Spirit. You grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord. But what it was, it's actively through trust by faith. Through trust by faith. Jesus says in John 663, it is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit in their life. Now this statement clarifies matters. The water, the word, and the Holy Spirit must be considered together as one element that precipitates the new birth, all being given from above. You born of the water, man must be born of the water. and of the Spirit, but the Word of God. He says you're not born by the will of the flesh or the will of man, but by the Word of God. It's the Word of God. You see these three things? Am I getting through on you? The water, the Word, and the Spirit. It's the three that testify in heaven and in earth. Concerning them as one makes Jesus' declaration even that much stronger. John 3 and 5, still hammering in right there, consider water in terms of baptism. I told you we'd get back to baptism before I close. Even in baptismal context, water is used figuratively. figuratively because there's one baptism one lord this is the baptism of the holy spirit baptize into the body of christ you staying with the dot but we use it figuratively as a watery great that baptizing in water is figuratively what is shown that is a cleansing agent there but as a type of death of burial And resurrection is coming up out of the water. You've been resurrected to walk in the newness of life. You're a new creation in Christ Jesus. So it reflects all three of those figuratively. The death, burial, because it's a watery grave, but the resurrection also. In baptism, water becomes a grave from which we must be spiritually resurrected, not a symbol of life or regeneration. And water is used as regeneration that I'll teach at another time, but we can use it in that format also. That's why we have to keep learning all aspects of this because we don't want somebody to be dogmatic and say, well, no, it's this. Yeah, it's that, but it's something else also. It could be many different things. We can't limit the word of God as to what it means. Paul makes it clear in Romans 6, 1 through 8. He says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue to sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus was baptized into his death? We will bear it with him. We will baptize in his death Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death that just as christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father Even so we also should walk in the newness of life. So after you've coming out after you remember I said peter says repent and be baptized In the name of Jesus, for the remission of sin, that was for the removal of sin. But I'm not saying, please don't get me into a Pentecostal state where some people say, well, I've been baptized and washed away all my sin. No, it doesn't wash away your sin. Just being baptized in water. It's a many of people been baptized I don't know how many times but it's don't remove your sin baptism. Don't do that It says even so we should walk in the newness of life For if we've been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection knowing this that our old man was crucified with him and that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer live as slaves to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. So we have to mortify the deeds of the body. We have to stop doing what we used to do in that old life, because that baptism, that watery grave we were in, we died. The life I live now, it is Christ in me that live it. I sit in heavenly places. Christ is living through me. That is I saw I I can't I shouldn't see he said should could we continue to sin? No, we have to stop doing all those things. We have to put it away Put away the old man. So we will have to The things when it come into our mind, we have to get that out of there sometimes pulling down The stronghold the thought bringing into captivity every thought until obedience of our lord and saying jesus christ We can't have those kind of thoughts anymore The thoughts of man was evil and wicked it continually is why he destroyed the old world It's how a thought life those things matter You know I said if you think and you lust after a woman in your heart you've committed the things we look at we can't look at it in lust after Not just a woman. It could be a car. It could be money. It could be anything. Lust is wrong. When lust is conceived, it brings forth sin. It doesn't matter what it is you're lusting at. You could lust after food. That becomes gluttony. That becomes a sin. Food is necessary for our requirement, but we shouldn't lust after these things. In these verses we see pictured the figurative burial of the old man living in trespasses and sin, Ephesians 2, 1-2, in preparation for the birth of the new man in Christ. We walk in the newness of life. We have to walk in the newness. We're quickened. We're made alive. The Word of God is what quickens us. You remember I told you water does have a regeneration, and I'll talk about that later. But now the Spirit is giving us life, but it's giving us a new life. We're a new creation in Christ Jesus. This regeneration that's occurring, it's like when they say the church has a revival. Well, you're not reviving the same old man. The old man is dead. This is a new heart he's given you. You know, when a person's giving somebody CPR and resuscitating them, they're not giving them a new life. They're trying to get that old heart back to pumping. They're trying to revive that. That's what revivals do. You're not trying to revive the old man. You have to kill him. He has to be dead. Why would you revive the old man? That's the one we put in the death. Don't revive him. But the regeneration is the new man. It's a different mind. Let that same mind be in you that you can think differently. That guy you used to know, he ain't here no more. Stop asking for it. He's not gonna answer the door. But I know he in there, but we're not gonna keep digging him up though. Jesus permitted John the Baptist to baptize him as an example for our benefit, though he had no sin. So why did he baptize him if it was a washing away of sin? He said, suffer it to be so to fulfill all righteousness. That was the example for us that Jesus was baptized, but he didn't need to wash away sin, did he? So it was another principle, another reason for him. Then jesus came from galilee to john at the jordan to be baptized by him and john Tried to prevent him saying i have need to be baptized by you and are you coming to me? But jesus answered and said to him permitted to be so now for thus It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness Then he allowed him that jesus when he had been baptized came up immediately from the water and behold the heavens were opening him and he saw the spirit of god Descending on him like a dove a lighting up on him Matthew 3 13 through 16 John 1 32 adds to this account Happen to pinpoint the time of our receipts of the gift of the Holy Ghost Remember Peter said be baptized for the remission of sin First he says repent and be baptized for the remission of sin you receive the Holy Ghost notice that Jesus was baptized and when he came up out of the water and You've seen the spirit lighting on him as a dove the Holy Spirit coming down and John bore witness saying I saw the spirit Descending from heaven like a dove and he remained on him and I did not know him But he also sent me to baptize at water saying to me upon whom you see the spirit descending And remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God. Jesus baptizes us. You remember I told you it was one baptism? This is the true baptism, the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Man can't do that. You remember after they had baptized all of the people at Antioch, the apostles came down laying of hands on people and they received the Holy Spirit. It was God giving the Holy Spirit. It says the Spirit added to the church such as should be saved. It's the Spirit that adds to the church. Don't look to man. The Spirit places you in the body of Christ. You are baptized into the body of Christ. One Lord, one faith, and one baptism. It puts you into the body of Christ. The burial of the water, the figurative baptism of the water, that's symbolic, that's figurative. It's according to how we're looking at these things. Our receipt of God's Holy Spirit occurs when we are spiritually resurrected from our watery grave and by God's grace, cleansed through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. God's spirit gives birth to the new man as a child of God. It is not the waters of baptism that cleanse us, but Christ's blood and the receipt of God's Holy Spirit. So we must be covered by the blood, the blood has to be applied to our life, and the spirit is what give it us life. So we see this watery grave, we see the Spirit, but God pours out the Spirit, and we're using water here as a type of the Spirit, metaphorically the Spirit.