93-15 – Do You Know Your Spiritual Birth Line? – Have You Been Legally Adopted? Part 2

In this scripture-packed series, Dr. Betters discusses regeneration, effectual calling, conversion, justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance and glorification. Come along on this journey and find great joy in discovering many treasures in your journey along your spiritual birthline. Peter’s spiritual journey is a clear picture of a man intrigued by the Messiah, but not converted. In this message we watch as God removes Peter’s spiritual blindness. Peter’s journey helps us see our own spiritual birthlines unfold.

Transcript

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Welcome to In His Grip with Dr. Chuck F. Betters, produced by Marking Ministries. Each in his grip message is designed to help turn your hearts toward Jesus and equip you to walk by faith. Let's join Dr. Betters as he preaches the series: Do You Know Your Spiritual Birth Line?

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I'd like you to take your Bibles, please, and turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. I believe the church has entered into a period of real apostasy. I don't have a whole lot of hope that we are going to see any kind of revival in our churches today, unless we get serious with the doctrines of Scripture and get serious with the issues of prayer. I believe that we have seen over the past 60 years a degeneration of doctrine across our denominations, across our church structures. As I review what's transpired in the past 60 or 70 years historically, I realize that a lot of things have happened in our world. For example, we know for a fact that a lot of form criticism and denial of the inerrancy of scripture was born in a crucible of German thought. And many of those German theologians made tremendous inroads into the infrastructures of German society. In fact, back in the 1920s and the 1930s, German criticism, forum criticism, or a denial of the inerrancy of scripture kind of became the socially and culturally acceptable thing to do. And so pervasive was the destruction of the inerrancy doctrines by German thinkers that I believe personally it gave rise to the whole structure of the political and economic structure of Germany and thus opened the door for the authoritarianism and dictatorships of people like Adolf Hitler. But a lot of that doctrine was imported. A lot of that came over into Western thought, into many of the British thinking seminaries and seminary professors, and a lot of the American seminaries and colleges, and that thought was imported into our structure of society. And so prevalent was it that one of the great turning points, according to Francis Schaeffer, in a book that he wrote called The Great Evangelical Disaster, one of the turning points in this century that has given birth to the apostasy that we have today was the defrocking of a man by the name of J. Gresham Machin. Now, Machin held to the authority of Scripture. He held to the inerrancy of Scripture, and he was disciplined by the Northern Presbyterian Church and literally defrocked because of his view of inerrancy. That's how much the thought of the Germans had infiltrated our society and our culture. It was the socially acceptable thing to do, the culturally acceptable thing to do to deny the inerrancy of Scripture. Francis Schaefer calls that defrocking a turning point. Now, what happened to that thinking? That thinking became acceptable to professors and seminarians who then became the preachers and teachers who stood behind the pulpits for the next 50 or 60 years, and thus we have today, for all intents and purposes, a show church that is apostate. Very few people hold to the inerrancy of scripture, to the verbal inspiration of the doctrines of this book. We no longer believe it is important that Jesus physically rose from the dead. It's no longer necessary to hold to a literal second coming of Jesus Christ. And certainly when we talk about the doctrines of grace, and more specifically, the need for us to come to understand that faith in Christ is the only way to eternal life, that you can't go to heaven unless you are a converted man or a converted woman. That has been thrown right out the window of the social gospelites. And so the gospel has become something of a system of ethics whereby we change the infrastructures of society, but certainly God has no message for you. God is not interested in speaking specifically to your needs, and certainly you can't mention that S-word. You know what the S word is, don't you? You say you can't speak about sin. We speak of mistakes or errors in judgment or glitches in our personality. And we've blamed everything from our prenatal thumbsucking to our fathers and our mothers and everything else. We have someone somewhere that we can pin the blame on for the S-word. So to speak of the need for men and women to come to understand what faith in Christ is all about is a mischievous notion of just a few, of which I am one. And I say that to you simply to tell you this: the message you're hearing from this pulpit is a minority message. It is not being preached across Christendom the way it was when the fires of revival were lit in the 1700s under the preaching of men like Jonathan Edwards. We are not seeing and hearing of people who are having the kinds of religious experiences where the whole of their being and the cages of their spirits are rattled as God confronts men with their need to be saved. We don't hear about sweeping revivals across the country where thousands of people are coming to understand what faith in Christ is all about, and Christians are getting serious about ridding themselves of the leaven that's in their lives. Why? Because we no longer understand what we believe, and what we do believe we're not willing to put our lives on the line for. Once you catch a glimpse of the holiness of God, you will also then come to comprehend the love of God and the mercy of God. You can't take the one without the other. You can't understand his love unless you understand his holiness, and you can't understand his holiness without understanding his love. The two go hand in hand, grace and mercy, the love of God, the justice of God, and you can't just compartmentalize them as some of the social gospel people have done. Let's just talk about the ushy gushy love of God. Let's talk about feeding the poor and clothing the naked. Let's talk about removing injustice. We'll solve the problems of South Central Los Angeles. Let's just teach everybody how to get along with one another. It's like putting band-aids on a cancer. You're not going to be rid of social and racial hatred and prejudice until a man's heart is changed, until he understands what the love of Christ is all about. White men are still going to hate black men, and black men are still going to hate white men, and until the heart is changed, the hatred remains, and that gospel message has to be preached. And you've got to get serious with it if we're ever going to see revival. That takes you inside of yourself now, doesn't it? You begin to examine exactly what do you believe? Well, we've been talking about this birth line, and I've worked through it with a few people, and it's interesting to see how lights go on and how revelations come as the result of just seeing the movement of God in their lives. At some point in your past, unbeknownst to you, if you are one of God's elect, the Spirit of God regenerated you by moving into your spirit and changing your nature. If he does not do that, you can never experience conversion. The nature you possess inherent to yourself is evil. And unless the Spirit of God changes that nature, you can never be saved. But God promises to every one of his elect, to all that he chose before the foundation of the world, that somewhere in time he will change that nature, he will move into your spirit and regenerate that spirit. That is what we mean by the term born again. It is not the same as conversion. All who are regenerated will be converted. All who are regenerated have the Spirit of God and will be converted. But in that process leading up to their conversion, God begins to effectively call. Several things happen at that point of conversion. One, you are justified. God measures you against the backdrop of law and sees inside of you the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. Not your own righteousness. You're not made sin-free of all of the law. What you are is judged against the backdrop of law according to the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, which has been placed inside of you. You have been justified and measured according to the standard of the law and found guiltless, not because of you, but because of the righteousness of Christ in you. And the second thing that happens at that point is you are legally adopted, spiritually and legally adopted. You became dead, orphaned, if you will, as the products of living under the Adamic curse. As a part of the human race, you are a fallen creature. And you die in your sins. You're dead in your trespasses. And unless God intervenes and raises the dead spirit to life, it'll never live. And so he brings that life. And there you stand as a sinner under the curse of law, orphaned, lost, without any hope. And he, in love and mercy, grafts you into his family. He adopts you, sets the slave free, not to be a slave again, but sets the slave free by forgiving him and restoring him not to the status of slavery, but to the position of sonship, where you are given all of the rights and the privileges and inheritance of the sons and daughters of God. And he isn't through with the process. You see, what he plans to do from the point of conversion on is to help enable you to remove all the remnants of sin in your life so that you are progressively day by day sanctified, and we'll talk about that in weeks to come. And he prepares you in this sanctification process for the day when all of your sins will be put off, and all of the remnants of those sins will be put off, and you will be glorified in the presence of God. That is an inheritance that is guaranteed by your adoption. We talked about adoption the last time we were together, but now we raise the question: how may we be sure of our sonship? How can we be sure of our sonship? Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will, to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one that he loves. I want to give you several reasons, none of which is more important than this one. Several assurances, if you will, of your sonship. You find it right here in these verses, Ephesians 1, 3 to 6. Here you have a clear, irrefutable statement that God, the Father, has taken this action. God has done it. And because God has done it, it is legal and it is irrevocable. That ought to be reason enough. God says so. I've done it, I've adopted you legally, irrevocably. I'm not going to adopt you in order to send you off. I'm going to adopt you to grant you an inheritance with all the rights and privileges that go with it. Romans 8 14 says that we are led by the Spirit of God. We know that we are the sons of God because we are led by the Spirit of God. You know what that language refers to? That's Old Testament language. That's language that refers to the way in which the Spirit of God led the children of Israel in the Old Testament. The pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night. That's the same language. The Spirit of God led the children of Israel. For 40 years as they wandered through the wilderness, the Spirit of God led them. He protected and preserved them. He led them out of bondage. Judged Pharaoh and his armies, indwelt them with his own Shekinah glory, and for 40 years he led them through the wilderness. That's the same language that's used in Romans 8:14 to speak of the sons of God. We as the children of God are led by the same Spirit of God. Oh, we don't see any cloud, and we don't see any fire because there's no longer any need for such external tangibles as clouds and fire. Because the Spirit of God no longer dwells amongst his people, the Spirit of God dwells inside of his people. You become the temple of God. You are led as the children of God. God said it. You see, a Christian is one who realizes that he's on a pilgrimage. You see your life as a pilgrimage. And in the wilderness, you're going to experience all kinds of things, aren't you? You're going to experience hunger and thirst. You're going to have to face some giants, some insurmountable mountains. You're going to be chased by certain armies coming out of the kingdom of hell. You're going to be surrounded on all sides where there's no direction to look but up. That's part of living the Christian life is to be led by the Spirit of God. There will be many giants, large-scale enemies who at times will seem to outnumber you. Where you kind of take a step back and say, Who is sufficient for these things? I can't live this life. Then we're brought back to that Romans 8:14 passage that speaks of us being led by the Spirit of God. When Israel was released out of bondage, what happened? Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his armies after them. But what did God do? He surrounded them with his Shekinah glory. He surrounded them with his power. He didn't say to them, Now pick up your weapons and turn and fight, did he? I will lead you through the wilderness. And he was the one who executed judgment upon the armies of Pharaoh. And for that reason, when they when they arrived on the other side, they sang the song of Moses, which is the song of deliverance, that all of you can sing if you've trusted Christ. Why? Because you're adopted children. He tells you that he predestined you to be adopted. Now, some people like to talk about predestination as nothing more than foreknowledge. It's like a man on top of the Empire State Building. He looks down and he sees there's a car coming this way and a car coming that way. And those cars are going to crash. And we say of that man, well, he knows they're going to crash. He foreknows something they don't know. He can see they're going to crash. That's foreknowledge. But that's not the word that's used there to describe this adoption, is it? It says, He not only foreknew, he predestines. Now the word predestined is more than just foreknowing. The word predestined has in it action and causative force and causative power. He causes it to happen. He's involved in the process, he's making it happen, not only foreknowing it, but causing it to happen. And what's he saying? You are predestined to be adopted. Legally and irrevocably. And he promises to lead those who have been adopted. He promises to give you his Holy Spirit to lead you. You say, well, how does he do that? Go over to Psalm 32. Turn to Psalm 32. I want to show you something. How does the Spirit of God lead us? How can we be sure of our sonship? How can we know that He leads us? Psalm 32, verse 8. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. Psalm 32, 8. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding, but must be controlled by bit and bridle, or they will not come to you. Notice the contrast. I will instruct you and teach you, but not like a horse or a mule. I'm not going to lead you around by a bit in your mouth. I'm not going to lead you by coercion and force. I'm not going to lead you by intimidation and brow beating. That's not the kind of father I want to be to you. I will instruct you and I will teach you in the way you should go, but not like a horse and not like a mule. John catches this vision in his first letter, 1 John 5, 3. He says, This is the love of God, to obey his commands, and then he adds this and his commands are not burdensome. You catching this picture? God leads us to obedience. Yes, he will lead. Yes, he will guide. But then if you go over to Ephesians chapter 1, 17, how does he lead his sons and his daughters? How does this take place? Gently, lovingly, yet firmly. And his commands are not burdensome. But Ephesians 1 17, I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you, here it is, the spirit of wisdom and revelation. So that you may what? Have a degree from a Bible college. So that you may have puffed up knowledge to show off how much about the scriptures you know, so that you can be a preacher. I have given you the spirit, that's the Holy Spirit of wisdom. Now that sounds like that Shekinah stuff in the Old Testament. That sounds like the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. I have given you that same spirit of wisdom and revelation, and here's the purpose. Of the Holy Spirit. Here's why you have the Holy Spirit, that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. In order that what you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. You know what this passage is saying to me? God has given me as an adopted child his Holy Spirit that I may know him and know the hope and enjoy the inheritance to come right now. You know what's wrong in our churches today? Listen to me. We are afraid of the Holy Spirit because we are reacting against the excesses. We see the excesses around us. We watch people going crazy and acting foolish. We see and we hear of experiential religion that is short-lived and we're afraid of it. But you know what we do in reformed churches? We go to the other extreme. Why we are doctrinal people, you see. It's important that we reason these things through. It's important that we don't get too emotional. I mean, certainly we can't weep. And when we sing a hymn, we don't want anybody to know that we're excited about what we're singing. That's not reformed. We don't want to have any ecstatic experiences because we don't want to say that we're doing anything that's beyond the scriptures. And we've reacted to all these excesses. We've raised four children. If we're called children of God, I gotta tell you something. There's been a lot of emotion in our home over these past 20-some years. You won't walk into the better's household and see some rationalistic stoicism. I wish it were there sometimes, but you don't see it. We've got some emotional children because they have some emotional parents, and we're not afraid of our emotions, and we're not afraid to show our emotions because God made us as emotional creatures. So we come to church, and what do we do with our emotions? We leave them checked right out there at the door because we don't want anybody to see that the Spirit of God may be saying something to me. We don't want the Spirit of God to speak to me. I gotta tell you something. If I was one of those Jews in the wilderness and looked and saw Pharaoh coming, I would have said, Ah! What would you have said? Well, let's see what the scripture has to say about let's let's read Hodge or let's read uh you know, let's check this out and make sure that it's doctrinally sound. And I gotta tell you something, when I saw the fire from heaven come down and consume those armies, I would have been on my face before God and I would have been weeping over the power and the majesty of God. We're afraid of that, we're afraid of that. Don't let your hair down, don't let it down. Keep up that front, don't let anybody know. Certainly don't let the Holy Spirit know that you're hurting inside. Don't let him know you're afraid. Don't let anybody else know that your world is coming apart. Put up the front. I gotta tell you something, friends. I think we quench the Holy Spirit by doing that. I think we grieve the Spirit of God with that kind of mental stoicism. Oh, should there be balance? Absolutely, there should be balance. No experience is legitimized unless it's legitimized through the Word of God. I know that. But let's not go to the extreme of saying that my relationship to God has to be this stoic, non-experiential sort of thing. I came across something. I wasn't gonna read it this week. Let me find it. I'm gonna read it. I want you to listen to this. Nobody was a greater philosopher than Jonathan Edwards. Nobody had a greater understanding of the doctrines of the Reformed faith than the great preacher Jonathan Edwards. I want to read something to you about an experience that he had. He was one of the greatest philosophers since Socrates and Plato and Aristotle. He describes one of his experiences before the Lord this way. He said, Once as I rode out into the woods for my health, he used to go out into the woods and ride his horse, I guess, for his health. You jog or run or sit around and get fat, I don't know what you do. But once I rode out into the woods for my health in 1737, he has the date down. Listen to what he says. Having alighted from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly has been, to walk for divine contemplation and prayer. Got the picture? Man goes out into the woods to get alone with the Lord, gets off his horse. I had a view that for me was extraordinary of the glory of the Son of God as mediator between God and man, and his wonderful, great, full, pure and sweet grace and love, and meek and gentle condescension. This grace that appeared so calm and sweet appeared also great above the heavens. The person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent, with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception, which continued as near as I can judge, about an hour, which kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears, weeping uncontrollably out loud. What a contrast that is to today. Or D. L. Moody, a man with big stature, big burly guy Moody was. Not a philosopher in any way, shape, or form like Jonathan Edwards, but a man who nonetheless was not afraid of his emotions. He said, I began to cry as never before. The hunger for this increased. I really felt that I did not want to live any longer if I could have the power of God in my service. I kept on crying all the time that God would fill me with the spirit. Well, one day in the city of New York, oh, what a day I cannot describe it. I seldom refer to it. It is almost too sacred an experience to name. I can only say that God revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay off his hand. Or take the words of the great Welsh Baptist preacher Christmas Evans, who describes an experience which he had while traveling over a mountain pass one day. He had been in a dry and lifeless state spiritually for a number of years as the result of preaching and teaching false doctrine. He was a name it and claim it preacher, similar to what we have today with our faith healers. And now he began to pray for God to have mercy on him, and he says, This having begun in the name of Jesus, I felt as if it were my shackles loosening, the old hardness softening, and as I thought the mountains of frost and snow dissolving and melting within me, this engendered confidence in my soul in the promise of the Holy Ghost. I felt my whole mind relieved from some great bondage. Tears flowed copiously, and I was constrained to cry out loud for the gracious visits of God by restoring to my soul the joy of his salvation, and that he would visit the churches in my city again that were under my care. Or consider the great eloquent, perhaps the greatest of England's preachers, George Whitfield. Soon after this, I found and felt in myself that I was delivered from a burden that so heavily oppressed me. The spirit of mourning was taken from me, and I knew that it was truly to rejoice in God, my Savior, and for some time could not avoid singing psalms wherever I was. But my joy gradually became more settled, and blessed be God has abode and increased in my soul, saving a few casual intermissions ever since. Thus were the days of my mourning ended after a long night of desertion and temptation. The star which I had seen at a distance before began to appear again, and the day's star arose in my heart. Now did the Spirit of God take possession of my soul, and I humbly hope sealed me into the day of redemption. You know, I read accounts like this. I think to myself, people like that would be drummed out of our churches. We would say of them, too emotional. How can you get before the holiness of God and begin to comprehend the meaning of that word grace without any emotion? How can you do that? How can you be so reserved? Am I inciting you to a riot now? No, I'm not calling for a riot. I'm saying get alone before God, get on your face before him, and you wrestle with him, and you wrestle with him, and you lay before him until the holiness and grace of God merge in your spirit and you sense that once in your life, for the first time in your life, I am a son, I am a daughter of the living God. Man, you can't get excited about that. You better check out whether or not you know the Lord. An anointing. He says, but you have an anointing from the Holy One. Are you anointed by the Holy One? And all of you know the truth, he says. 1 John 2, 20. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the Antichrist. He denies the Father, he denies the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what He promised us. This is what He promised us, even eternal life. I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you receive from Him remains. You do not need anyone to teach you, but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and as that anointing is real and not counterfeit, just as it has taught you, remain in Him. What are we talking about here? We're talking about how can we be sure we are the sons of God? And the answer is because the Holy Spirit will testify that we are the sons of God. If you have been converted, you have been anointed with the Holy Spirit. Now I want you to listen very carefully to this. Because once again, we're going to shatter some misconceptions about the Holy Spirit. There are people who teach that when you become converted, you receive the Holy Spirit, and that is called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now that is the traditional evangelical doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The moment you become converted, the Holy Spirit baptizes you into the body of Christ. On the other hand, there are charismatic teachers who teach that you are given the Holy Spirit at conversion, but then somewhere later on, down in your Christian experience later on, you receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit that they call the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And there's a period, a delay, if you will, between those two events. And that the evidence that you have truly been baptized with the Holy Spirit is that you will speak in tongues. That is called the doctrine of subsequence. That is, that you're saved here, but baptized with the Holy Spirit here. And those are primarily the two positions that most people have held. You either get on one ship or the other. The third alternative goes like this. I believe that the use of the word baptism has many different meanings in Scripture. The use of the word baptism has many different meanings in scripture. Sometimes it means, for example, in terms of our salvation, we read in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, that we are baptized into one body. That is, we are united to Christ and to the rest of the body of Christ by this supernatural impartation of the Holy Spirit, and that happens at our conversion. I don't have any problems with that. I reject outright the theory that says that the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues. I believe tongues have ceased. I believe all of the sign gifts have ceased. And so I reject that outright. However, I do believe there is another definition for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And I believe it happens to you after you're converted, and that it's not the same thing as your conversion. When you are converted, you are filled with all of the Holy Spirit you're ever going to get. You are adopted as sons and daughters of God, justified legally and forever. You are given the gift of eternal life, and nothing will be able to separate you from the love of God in Christ. I believe that. But I believe what you heard, Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield and D. L. Moody, and all of the accounts I've read of revival that have taken place in the history of the world, I believe they're describing something else. And it's one of the products, if you will, of our adoption. You say, well, what is it? What are you talking about? I want you to turn over in your Bibles, please. I'm going to skip ahead here a little bit. I want you to turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Please stay with me. I'm going to introduce this today and we're going to develop it in the weeks to come. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. I want you to read verse 22. He has set his seal of ownership on us. He has put his Holy Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. I want you to underline the words seal of ownership. And then go over to Ephesians chapter 1. And look with me at verse 13. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 13. You also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked with the seal, the promised Holy Spirit. Same book, chapter 4, and verse 30. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Now, in all three of those verses, there's one word that keeps repeating itself, and what is that word? Sealed. A seal is a mark of ownership, authenticating the legitimacy of a transaction. If you and I strike a deal, we write it out in a document, and I imprint my seal which says, I agree with that document. A seal in Roman law, for example, the tomb of Jesus was sealed. When they rolled the stone, they put the Roman seal on the edge of that stone, which said, in essence, anybody who breaks that seal will suffer the penalty of death. It was an authoritative mark of ownership. Now what's he saying? He is saying to us as his children, you've been adopted. I am going to seal you with my Holy Spirit. Now many have tried to equate what happens at your conversion, that is, when the Holy Spirit comes in and forgives your sins. When you are actually converted to faith in Christ. Many have tried to equate that and the sealing of the Holy Spirit as one and the same thing, and I don't believe they are. I believe there is something beyond what the Holy Spirit does at the moment you're saved, and it is a mark, an authenticating, if you will, of ownership, whereby the Holy Spirit affirms and confirms in your spirit your sonship. You see, an adopted child grows to understand the nature of his adoption. How many adopted children do we know? That some at some point in their life they decide, I'm going to go off and try to find my natural parents. And they find their natural parents. But what do they come quickly, most of them to realize that parenting involves more than a biological act, and they crow to appreciate the adoption that they have and the adoptive parents that they've had for most of their lives in a way that they never appreciated them before. I want to suggest to you something. I believe there is an act of the Holy Spirit that comes after you are converted, whereby the Holy Spirit seals you, affirms you, whereby the Holy Spirit authenticates your adoption. That is not something that is reasoned through, that is something that God makes happen. You know why I say that? In all three of those verses, the sealing of the Holy Spirit is in the air's passive, which means it's a point action once and for all, never to be repeated, that the Holy Spirit does to you, not because of you. It's referring to an experience. Now, if our birth line is correct, and it is, we are regenerated back here when the Holy Spirit changes the nature. We don't have any knowledge that he's done that. We are totally passive in the process, and we do not know that it has happened. But out here, after we're converted, when the Holy Spirit seals us, we know it. We know it. This is what I believe is the missing ingredient to real revival in the 20th century. I don't believe we have any understanding of the doctrines of the Holy Spirit. We're so afraid of it. You say, Well, am I supposed to seek this? What are the evidences? What are the proofs? Uh what will happen? How will I know? Did you hear what I read to you from the experiences of Edwards? And Moody and these other guys, thousands of others like them. Here is a man on his face before God. A man who says to God, I am not content with the way my life is. There's more to my relationship with you than the humdrum and the routine of living day in and day out as a believer. There's more to it. I want to love you more. I want to serve you more. I want to know you more. What did the apostle Paul say was his chief ambition in life? That I may know him and the power of his resurrection. We don't know him and we don't know the power of his resurrection. We know about him. We come and sing about him. We come and spectate concerning him. But do you know him? You say, Yes, I'm a Christian. That's not what I asked you. Do you know him? Do you know your status in Christ? Has he sealed you with his Holy Spirit? I believe you can rightfully place into that context what happened in Samaria in Acts chapter 8. And you can rightfully place what happened in Ephesus in Acts chapter 19. In both cases, you're speaking of people who were believers. They knew the Lord. In one of the passages at Ephesus, Paul actually baptized these people. Now, Paul would not baptize somebody who hadn't professed faith in Christ. He baptized them. As first generation Christians, he baptized them. So what's he saying by that act of baptism? These people are believers. But then in the very next verses, Acts chapter 19, verse 5, 6, somewhere around there, in those very next verses, he starts talking about have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? Well, of course they received the Holy Spirit. When they believed. No, that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about the sealing of the Holy Spirit. Because he tells them, the same Ephesian Christians, he tells them that in Ephesians 4. He tells them that in Ephesians 1. The Holy Spirit desires to seal you, to authenticate you, to affirm you. And we're afraid of it. We're so scared to death of it. Because we don't want to be like the charismatics. We throw the baby out with the dirty water and forget the doctrines that are so crucial to our understanding of experiential faith. Are you sealed with the promised sealing of the Holy Spirit? Have you been on your face before God? Have you said to him, I'm not going to continue to live the same old ordinary life? If we are right, and I believe we are, that we are living in the last days, humdrum Christianity just isn't going to cut it. You're going to have to know who you believe, what you believe, why you believe, but more than that, you need to know him. Him. You need to get alone with him. I'm not proposing some new phony doctrine, friend. I'm just telling you that the Holy Spirit also desires to know you. And why are you afraid of that? Why do you fear that? I believe that adoption happens at conversion. But one of the side benefits, if you will, of our adoption in Christ is what I am calling the sealing of the Holy Spirit. Now, for some people, it happens right at conversion. For some people, there's an interval. For some people, there may even be years where that ownership, where that sealing occurs. I hope you know him. Now I know if you didn't have questions before you came in today, I know you have questions now. And that's good. I don't think we should be afraid of this. I don't believe that there's any tongue speaking that's necessary to prove this ceiling. I believe it is the same as the baptism that's spoken of in Scripture, but I believe that baptism is different from the baptism that happens when you're converted. The terms are just terms that need to be defined. They need to be defined very carefully. Summarizing, this is what I'm saying. One of the proofs that you are a son or a daughter of God, that you have truly been adopted, is the witness of the Holy Spirit in your spirit. You say, well, how do I get that? First thing you need to do is get into the book. Because this is where God reveals Himself. Every experience that I've ever read of revivals started with men pouring over this book. They won't let it go. I want to know your promises. Lord, show me in this book what you have promised me again and again, and I won't let it go until you make it understandable. And then pray like you've never prayed before. And make yourself available. Say to your God, this is your servant. I am your child. And I want you to put that seal on me, affirm in me my sonship in Christ. I gotta tell you something, friends. When you say that, duck. Because the glory of God is gonna make itself known to you. And then you know what's gonna happen? You're going to become contagious. That's what's wrong with us. We're not contagious. You're going to become contagious. People are going to look at you and they're going to say, something different. You are really what Peter calls a peculiar person, aren't you? You really are a royal priesthood. You really are a holy nation. You really are a chosen people. Would you pray with me, please? I want to ask you a question. Do you love him? Do you really love him? Would you be willing to make a commitment here this morning? Would you be willing to say to him, Lord, for the first time in my life, I'm going to lay aside all of my earthly cares and restrictions and limitations. And I want to open up my spirit to you in a way I've never done before. Friends, I'm not asking you to seek an experience. I want you to seek Him. Him. Not an experience, Him. If God sees fit to give you that experience, so be it. If not, so be it. But seek Him in a way you've never sought Him before. We're going to sing in a moment, hymn number 364. My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine. And I want you to ask God to bring revival to you. I'd like to open up the front here if you'd like to come and pray. Join with other Christians and pray that God would bring revival, that He would send His Holy Spirit to lead in a way you've never been led before, to give you that authenticating seal of ownership. Say to him, I want to know you in a way I've never known you before. Father, we are tired of humdrum Christianity. We are tired of just going through the routine. We want our children saved. We want their children saved. We want revival, Lord. We know that as Christians who preach and teach this word, we're in a minority. And yet, with a minority, Lord, you have brought great revivals in the history of the world. And so we're asking you to do that. We're asking you to start it right here. Begin something here today, Lord, that will become contagious to the community around us. Have your way, Lord, in our lives. We've come to confess to you our love, our love. We desire to know you.

SPEAKER_02 53:21

Now may the grace of God, the love of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus the Christ, the very presence, person, and power of his Holy Spirit abide with each of you now until Christ comes again and forevermore. And all God's people said it.

SPEAKER_01 53:43

You have been listening to In His Grip, featuring the preaching and teaching ministry of Dr. Chuck F. Betters and produced by Mark Ace Ministries. Mark Ace Ministries exist to offer help and hope to hurting people by pointing them to the promises of God and the comfort of his word. Through In His Griffith, ask Dr. Better's Daily Treasure and Help and Hope, we provide free, faith-based resources for those walking through suffering, grief, confusion, and seasons of easy needs. To learn more about Dr. Better's explore resources or contact us, visit N-A-R-K-Nc.org.