Ron Dunn Podcast - Lifestyle of The Spirit

Episode Date: October 28, 2020

Ron Dunn begins a new sermon series "Lifestyle Of The Spirit"

Chapter 14 and to the book of Acts chapter 2. The Gospel of John chapter 14 and the book of Acts chapter 2. The Gospel of John we'll read verses 16, 17, and 18. And then we'll go to the second chapter of Acts. In the Gospel of John, in the 14th chapter, where Jesus is walking with his disciples from the upper room to the Garden of Gethsemane, he is saying words to them that will encourage them and stabilize them for the trials that they are soon to encounter. He says in the 16th verse,

And I will pray the Father, 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 sees him not, neither knows him. But you know him, for he dwells with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you helpless orphans. And then in the second chapter of Acts, you'll find that promise made in John 14 fulfilled. We begin reading with verse 1. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,

they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it set upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.

Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born. And then in verse 14, but Peter standing up with the eleven lifted up his voice and said unto them, you men of Judea and all ye that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known unto you and hearken to my words, for these are not drunken as you suppose, seeing it as but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel and it shall come to pass in the last days saith God I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh.

And then I want us to read verses 32 and 33. The end of Peter's Pentecostal sermon. This Jesus has God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has shed forth this, And having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit,

he has shed forth this which you now see and hear. To me, some of the sweetest words that Jesus ever spoke were those in John 14 when he said, I will not leave you as helpless orphans. I talked to a young man recently whose life had gone through a number of ups and downs and tragedies. And he said at one He said, what felt worse was that I felt so abandoned. I felt all alone, as though no one understood and that everyone had forsaken me. It is a terrible thing to feel abandoned. It is a terrible thing to feel all alone to me the cry of Jesus on the cross

gives us the depth of his agony when he said my God my God why hast thou forsaken me and I believe that was the depth the deepest depth of Jesus' agony on the cross. In that moment when he felt abandoned by God himself. And all of us at one time or another have felt abandoned in one way or another. Psychologists tell us that loneliness is the first emotion that we ever experience,

and it is the most painful. I'm prone to believe that. When you feel totally alone, you may be surrounded by people. You can be in the midst of a crowd and yet feel abandoned and feel lonely. But Jesus said, I will not do this to you. He's talking, of course, about his leaving them. And this has been a trying time for these disciples and Jesus can see the consternation and bewilderment on the faces of these men as he says these strange things about going away. And I believe it is a stout word of reassurance that Jesus gives to his disciples. He's saying, I will not leave you without a comforter, without an encourager, without somebody walking by your side. I'm not going to do that.

I'm going to send another one. And of course, as you probably know, the Greek word another there means another just like me. There are two Greek words translated another. One is another of another kind. But the other is another of the same kind. And that's the one that Jesus uses here. I will send you another just like me, another of the same kind, and that's the one that Jesus uses here. I will send you another, just like me, another of the same kind, another encourager, another comforter who shall be with you and shall be in you forever.

And you know him, and you'll know him. The world won't understand him. The world will never comprehend this, but you will. You will know it. The world won't understand him. The world will never comprehend this, but you will. You will know it. I will not leave you as helpless orphans. And that promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Now, Pentecost is a magic word for believers. We think back, oh my, if we could just have Pentecost again. And I've heard people pray, Lord, give us another Pentecost. And when we talk about the ills of the church or the powerlessness of the church, we seem to always go back to Pentecost. Probably the second chapter of Acts

has been preached upon as much or more than any other passage in the whole Bible. Because all of us, all of us, I believe, feel that somehow we need to set the church back about 2,000 years. That somehow there is something missing in our lives individually and something missing in our church and that we need to go back and somehow recapture what happened at Pentecost. We need a new Pentecost in our day. And I won't deny that and those feelings at all. And yet I think that what we need to understand that what happened at Pentecost is in a sense a once-for-all event like Bethlehem, the incarnation, and like the crucifixion. But there were some things that happened at Pentecost that will never be repeated.

We hear about the sound of a mighty rushing wind and the cloven tongues of fire and all of the different phenomena that surrounded the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Those were external phenomena to let people know that something was happening. But we make a mistake if we fashion upon those things and say that is what is important. And so we need to understand what of Pentecost was permanent and is permanent for us and permanent for our church. It was not the, as I said, the external phenomena. What we need today is not so much another sound

of a rushing of mighty wind. Most of us would run for the cellar if we heard that. What we need today is not so much cloven tongues of fire. That'd scare us to death. What we need is to understand what is the permanence of Pentecost, and it is this. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit.

It is the gift of the Holy Spirit. In Peter's sermon, he makes this statement. They come to him and they say, Men and brethren, what shall we do? What are we going to do about this? And in verse 36, he said, therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made that same Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. And they say, what then shall we do? And in verse 38, then Peter said unto them,

repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and here it is and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit that is the permanent of Pentecost that's what you and I still have today that is what is most essential. That's what it was all about. We may not have a lot of external happenings going on that may only be temporary and sometimes confusing to us. What we need to focus on is that which is permanent, and that was the gift of the Holy Spirit. So let me, in this sort of introductory message tonight on our series on the lifestyle of the Spirit, let me share with you what I believe here in Acts is given to us as the important facts concerning the Holy Spirit. First of all, he is the abiding possession of the believer. He is the abiding possession of the church.

Jesus said, I will give you this comforter and he will abide with you forever. And he shall never leave you. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the abiding possession of the believer. He is with us, in us, forever. Now there is a difference in the Old Testament and the New Testament's way of treating the Holy Spirit. You could, to simplify it, say that in the Old Testament the Spirit of God came upon individuals,

but in the New Testament He comes to dwell within them, you see. In the Old Testament, for instance, in Psalm 51, David prayed, Lord, take not thy spirit from me. Now, a New Testament Christian can't pray that. Oh, not to pray that. For the Lord will never take his Spirit from you. For in the Old Testament, God would temporarily anoint with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit would come temporarily upon individuals. But in the New Testament, he comes permanently within individuals. He dwells within us just like Jesus. Another one just like Jesus. So that we will not be helpless orphans, so that we will not be without comfort, so that we will not be without encouragement. He is one called along the side to enable us and to help us, and God has given him to us as the abiding possession of the church. Now, of course, we need to understand the difference between the gift of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. Later on, we'll talk about the gifts of the Spirit.

But there is a difference. Here, he's speaking of the gift of the Spirit. You repent, be baptized, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, the gift of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself. It's just the Spirit Himself. The gifts of the Spirit are the different abilities and powers that He dispenses to those who belong to Him,

enabling them to do the work that God has called them to do. But the most important thing is that he is the gift of God. And that as the gift of the Spirit, he comes to indwell us and he is the permanent possession of the believer. I was reading this afternoon some of my favorite verses in the book of Ephesians. And let me just share with you some of my favorite verses in the book of Ephesians. And let me just share with you some of these. First of all, the one that I noticed and came to and was reminded of was that one in Romans 8 and 9 where it says,

If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. You see, the sign that you're a believer is that you have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. That is the evidence. That is the token. And if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And so if the Spirit of Christ indwells us, that is what God sees. And that is what marks us as unique and belonging to him. Now, for instance, in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 13, the Scripture says, In whom you trusted and after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,

in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. And in chapter 4 verse 30, Paul uses the same expression to describe our relationship to the Holy Spirit. He says, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. Now, that is one of the important statements concerning my relationship to the Holy Spirit. I have been sealed by the Holy Spirit. Now in the ancient days, a seal was sort of like a brand you'd put on a horse or a cow. It was a sign that this belonged to a certain individual. For instance, if you were to produce something and you'd put your name on it, and when

you saw that name, that meant that this product was produced by this certain person. You go home tonight and you look around your house and you'll see different names on different appliances, Westinghouse and GE and GME and certain things like that. Now, what those things represent is this. They are the seal of the company that made them. In other words, when you see that name, that seal upon it, that tells you that this product was made by that person, by that company, by that name.

It served as a seal of ownership, a seal of production. So when the Bible talks about our being sealed by the Holy Spirit, what he's saying is that it is the Holy Spirit who has made us what we are. We are the product of the Holy Spirit, and we are sealed unto the day of redemption. In other words, that seal can never be broken.

That seal can never be changed until the day of redemption. I don't understand how people can believe that they can lose their salvation. I really don't. I just don't understand. There's so much in the Scripture that belies that teaching. We are sealed, not until we make a mistake. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit, not until we mess up in some way, but we are sealed unto the day of redemption. But there's another phrase that the apostle uses there to describe our permanent relationship

with the holy spirit and it's found in verse 14 he says speaking of the spirit which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of his glory. The earnest, that's another great figure and symbol. I think the best way to translate that is the down payment. Some translations read the guarantee. An earnest was a pledge. That's how another translation reads, as a pledge. But the Holy Spirit that is given to us indwell us is God's guarantee that more is to come that really the Holy Spirit is just the down payment in the fullness of our salvation that's what earnest money is isn't it isn't that what a down payment is you buy something and you give some earnest money you put down a down payment. Now what is

that? That is proof, that is your pledge, your promise, that the rest of it's going to be paid. This isn't the whole bit. This isn't all you're going to receive. It's just the foretaste of what you're going to receive. And when God gave to us the Holy Spirit who indwells us, He's just the down payment of all that salvation is going to do for us. He is the promise that more is to come. He is God's pledge that this is only the beginning. This is only the beginning, and it is going to open up into vast reaches of experience that you and I

have never before imagined. Now, I want you to think for just a moment about the greatest experience, spiritual experience you've ever had. Can you think of one? Can you think of something? The greatest spiritual experience you've ever had. The time when you felt the closest to God you've ever felt in your life and you'd give anything in the world if you could just maintain that all the time. Are you thinking of something?

Paul, are you thinking of something? No, I'm not good. That is just a tiny piece of what's to come. Your greatest spiritual experience is just, my goodness, you'll forget about that, but that's just of what is to come. He is the abiding possession of a Christian.

But there's something else. The Holy Spirit is the authenticating presence within the Christian and within the church. Now, what do I mean by that? He is the authenticating presence. It is his presence that authenticates that everything we believe and everything we preach is real. For instance, I want you to notice in verse 32 and verse 33,

we read it a moment ago. This Jesus has God raised up, whereof we're all witnesses. Now watch it. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath shed forth this,

which you now see and hear. Okay, here's what's happening on this day of Pentecost. All of a sudden, all of these things are happening, and there are thousands of people in Jerusalem, and they hear these men preaching in their own language, and they're asking one another, what in the world is going on?

What does all of this mean? And Peter is, then he launches into his sermon. And his sermon is about the prophecy of the Messiah that should come and that Jesus is that Messiah and that you crucified him but God raised him up and has exalted him both Lord and Christ. Now that's quite a statement. He's preaching to those Jews, unbelievers.

And he said you crucified, but God raised him up, and God has exalted him and made him Lord and Christ. How do you know? What's your proof? That's quite a statement. He's preaching to those Jews, unbelievers. And he said, you crucified him, and God raised him up, and God has exalted him, and made him Lord and Christ. How do you know? What's your proof? Why all this is happening, the descent of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit's presence. You see, if the Holy Spirit had not come down and did not manifest Himself,

then they wouldn't have any proof that Jesus was Lord and Christ. You see, it is the Holy Spirit that authenticates our experience, authenticates our experience, authenticates our message. The only way that you and I have to prove that Jesus has been exalted to the right hand of God is he said that when he was exalted, he would do what?

Well, he said, when I get up there and I'm seated at the right hand of the Father, I will what? I will send you the Holy Spirit. Well, if the, when I get up there and I'm seated at the right hand of the Father, I will what? I will send you the Holy Spirit. Well, if the Holy Spirit never comes, then we have the right to assume he never made it. How do you know he made it? How do you know he's exalted? Oh, because the Holy Spirit came. He did what he promised. He did what he promised.

And so, that was one of the reasons the Holy Spirit manifested himself in such spectacular phenomena on that day of Pentecost. Why? So nobody could deny that the Holy Spirit had come, you see. It is the Holy Spirit's manifestation that authenticates the message that Jesus Christ is Lord. Well, why is it that the world doesn't believe our message? Why is it that the world, when we preach,

does not really believe that Jesus is Lord and Christ? Could it be that the Holy Spirit is not manifesting Himself in our lives? They don't see the Spirit of God manifested in our lives. I'm not talking about jumping up and down and doing miracles and parting the Red Sea and moving mountains. I'm just talking about the Spirit manifesting Himself, as we'll see later, in the fruit of the Spirit, love and joy and peace and these things. And if the people of the world do not see the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in our lives, then they have no reason to believe our message. Why should they believe when I preach Jesus is the answer when they don't see much of the answer in me?

He is the authenticating presence in the church. Now, this is something else that you need to remember. When you go out witnessing or when you share your faith with somebody or when you preach, I can remember many a time earlier in my ministry when I would go out visiting and witnessing and I would share, you know, the Roman road and the gospel. It seemed so powerless.

You know, they just seemed to be words. And sometimes, I think that's why I started off preaching. See, yelling and stomping is not my nature. That's not my personality. That is some people's way, and so they ought to do it that way. But that was not my way, but that's the way I do it because I felt like I needed that to drive the Word into people's hearts, you see. You're going to be saved, you know.

But I can remember when suddenly I began to realize, it's not me. I'm not the one who authenticates the message. I can't make people believe. I can't thrust it into people's hearts. I can't jam it into their ears where they will believe. It's the Holy Spirit who does it. The Holy Spirit makes it alive.

And I remember I used to start off every witnessing thing with this question. I'd say, do you believe the Word of God? And most people did. And so then I'd start reading from it. Then I met a fellow who said no. Well, I had no place to go. Here I am, got all my scriptures down here. Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God?

No. Well, let me read it to you. I stopped asking that. Never ask them, do you believe the Bible is the Word of God? Just start giving it to them. It is the Word of God, whether they believe it or not, and the Holy Spirit will authenticate it to their hearts. He is the authenticating presence.

If He is greed, then nobody believes. But when He is filling us and indwelling us and reigning over us, you can rest assured, regardless of how ineffective your speaking or preaching or singing may be, the Holy Spirit is the one who makes the Word of God real and alive in the hearts of people. Number three, the Holy Spirit is the attracting power of the church.

The Holy Spirit is the attracting power of the church. Look in verses 5 and 6 of Acts chapter 2. And there were dwellings at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language. Now look at it. Oh, I tell you, this is something.

Here are 120 nobody up in an upper room it's the day of Pentecost and as such thousands of people from all over the world have come together for the feasts

so the streets of Jerusalem I mean imagine it like the world's Fair. Imagine all the attractions, all the booths set up, and all the con men wandering around, and all the three-card ante, and all of that stuff going on. All the attractions. I mean, there were thousands in Jerusalem. Well, here's a little motley crew of 120 people that nobody knows up here in the upper room. What are you going to do today?

We're going to start the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Say what? We're going to start today the church that will endure for thousands of years and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I don't see any advertising. Have you done any advertising?

We don't have any money to advertise. You're not on the radio or TV or anything like that? No. Have you been going to the crowds

handing out flyers? Well, we don't, we don't, no, we don't have access to that. Well, how are you going to, how are you going to the crowds handing out flyers? Well, we don't have access to that. Well, how are you going to attract people? Well, I don't know, but we're going to pray. And they pray, and suddenly the Spirit of God comes down and fills every one of them,

and they go out into the street. Now watch it. Here are thousands and thousands and thousands of people in Jerusalem with all the attractions that are there. And this motley bunch comes out and they're preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit. And what happens? They all gather around this bunch and they say, what in the world is going on? Isn't that something? Now don't get me wrong, folks. I believe we ought to use every resource that God gives us. I believe in advertising and

promotion. I believe in all of that. But let's not forget, like the old hymn says, all is vain unless the spirit of a holy one comes down. And I'm not sure where to draw the line on this. I am deeply grieved at what I see some churches doing today, trying to attract the lost, trying to attract the unbelievers. Folks, I want to tell you something. The only one, the only power that can draw people to Jesus is the Holy Spirit. Why is that? Because he points to Jesus. And somehow or another, Jesus is always attractive to men and women.

He's like a magnet. The Holy Spirit doesn't glamorize a preacher. The Holy Spirit doesn't glorify a church. It doesn't glorify a message or a method. It points to the Lord Jesus Christ and turns the light on Him. And that's why the multitudes come together. And we must be discerning, I think,

in the church about the methods we use and the message that we preach in our effort to try to get as big a crowd as we can, we must remember that the one who attracts people to Christ is the Holy Spirit. He is the attracting power of the church. You know, you don't have to advertise a fire.

I mean, you just start one and people will come. You don't have to advertise. And you don't have to advertise what God is doing when God is doing it. You really don't. Yeah, you can if you want to, but... You know, I've seen it before you know, I've seen it before. Oh, I've seen it before.

I've seen it twice before in my life. I hope God lets me live to see it at least one more time. I've seen it twice in my life when nothing but the sheer power of the Holy Spirit. One Sunday morning, the church was full. People there. And they came hungry and thirsty. And they came seeking the Lord and repenting. I mean, you say, well, what did they do? Nothing. It is phenomenal. Well, somebody somewhere got right with God and the Holy Spirit was able to fill them and control them

and He began to manifest Himself in the lives of people and put a hunger in the hearts of individuals and one day, silently, softly, mysteriously, the Holy Spirit just gathered the crowd together. Oh, I'd love to see that happen again. I believe it can. I believe God wants to do that again. The Holy Spirit is the attracting power of the church. And then one final word. The Holy Spirit is to be the acknowledged power, the acknowledged person in the church. When all these people came on the day of Pentecost, they were saying, what's going on?

What meaneth this? Some said, these men are full of new wine. Peter's standing up saying, oh, you know, they can't be drunk. It's only nine o'clock in the morning. I don't think he could say that today. Some people get started that early, but back in those days, they had a little bit more, you know, whatever. And you just didn't find people drunk at 9 a.m back in those days, they had a little bit more, you know, whatever. And you just didn't find people drunk at 9 a.m. in the morning. He said, no, it can't be that. What this is, is the fact that I have trained and I have effected my eloquence and I have perfected my hermeneutics, and that's what's going on is because I have prayed and I have prepared

and here I am standing and preaching this fabulous message and this is what's going on. And besides, we just spent 10 days in an upper room praying. And that's why. That's not what he said, is it?

Didn't take any credit didn't say well we have a great church didn't say well you know we've got people who've had great experiences he said no he said let me tell you something this is that I like that phrase this is that of which Joel the prophet spoke

when he says I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh you see he acknowledged that what was happening was not of man, was not of man's cleverness, was not of man's production, but that it was the Holy Spirit to acknowledge his presence in our lives. Acknowledge his presence in our lives.

You say, but doesn't that take away from Jesus? No, because you see, he is the Spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit is really Christ himself through the Spirit living within us. And so when I do honor to the Holy Spirit, and I acknowledge His presence and I'm conscious of His presence, I'm doing honor to the Lord Jesus Christ and acknowledging His presence.

For it is through the Spirit that Christ indwells us. So I acknowledge His presence. And you know a person's presence makes an awful lot of difference? It really does. When I was pastor, I had a fellow come to me. He was a tall guy,

played on our church basketball team. Everybody called him Bones. Nice guy. Tall, really tall. And he came in one day and he said, Pastor, I need to talk to you about a problem I've got. I said, okay, tell me what it is. He said, well, he said, I cuss.

He said, I just cuss all the time. He said, I can't say a complete sentence without cussing. Just cuss all the time. I said, Bones, I can't believe this. I said, I've been with you. I've sat on the bench with you next to you at these basketball games a lot of times and you got a bad call. If there was ever a time when you was going to cuss, it'd be then.

And I said, I've been around you on retreats and things, and I've never one time heard you cuss. And he said, well, of course not. I don't cuss around you. I said, why not? He said, well, of course not. I don't cuss around you. I said, why not? He said, well, you're the preacher. I said, Bones, you've just told me two things. Number one, you've told me that you can control it.

If you cannot do it around me, you cannot do it around anybody. The second thing is, though, you've told me that you have more respect for me than you do for the Spirit of God. And that's true, isn't it? If we were as sensitive to what the Holy Spirit thinks about us as we are what people think about us, we might hear the mighty rushing wind. Jesus said, I will not leave you helpless orphans.

I will send another just like you. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. Thank you.