Participants: Carlos Pena
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000255
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00:30 Hello, my brothers and sisters.
00:32 I pray that you are being blessed today 00:34 as I'm here with you at the Faith Chapel. 00:36 My name is Carlos Pena. 00:38 I am the pastor of the Belvedere and the Rochelle, 00:40 Seventh-Day Adventist Churches. 00:42 The Lord said something to us while He was on this earth. 00:45 It is found in Mark chapter 3, verses 28 and 29. 00:49 And this is what he said. 00:50 He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, 00:52 all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, 00:54 and whatever blasphemies they may utter 00:56 but he who blasphemes against 00:58 the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness 01:00 but is subject to eternal condemnation." 01:04 Before we continue I invite you all 01:06 to have a short prayer with me. 01:08 Dear Father in heaven, we come before You, Father, 01:10 because we are Your children. 01:12 We pray, Father, that you forgive us our sins. 01:14 And we pray, father, that the Holy Spirit be here with us 01:17 as we study Your word. 01:18 We ask all in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. 01:25 It is something to commit blasphemy 01:26 and have an unpardonable sin, 01:28 something that He will not forgive 01:30 because if your sins are not forgiven 01:32 then you cannot go to heaven 01:33 because only people that have their sins forgiven are saved. 01:37 So it's important to understand 01:38 just what it means to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. 01:43 The book of Luke chapter 12 and verse 10 01:47 gives a little bit more insight 01:49 as to what the Lord is talking about. 01:53 Luke 12:10 says the following. 01:55 "And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, 01:58 it will be forgiven him 02:00 but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, 02:02 it will not be forgiven." 02:04 Verse 11 says, "Now when they bring you to the synagogues 02:08 and to the magistrates and authorities, 02:10 do not worry about what you-- what or what you may answer 02:13 or what you should say." And verse 12. 02:16 "For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour 02:19 what you ought to say." 02:21 First of all to understand what it means to blaspheme 02:24 the Holy Spirit we have to understand 02:26 what the job of the Holy Spirit is. 02:28 And this is also told by us in the Bible, 02:32 in the book of John, 02:34 chapter 16, verse 13. 02:41 The Bible says this, it says, "However, 02:45 when He, the spirit of truth, has come, 02:47 He will guide you into all truth for He will not speak on 02:51 His own authority but whatever He hears He will speak 02:54 and He will tell you about things to come." 02:57 So we see right away that it is the job of the Holy Spirit 03:00 or one of His functions is to guide us to the truth. 03:03 So what we have to understand 03:05 and ask ourselves just, what is the truth? 03:08 Now there are many definitions of truth 03:09 by philosophers in the world 03:11 but there is also a definition of truth by the Bible itself 03:15 and the Bible very plainly lets us know just what truth is. 03:19 And let us see what the Bible tells us what truth is. 03:23 In the letter to-- in the book of John 17:17 03:27 or chapter 17, verse 17, 03:30 the word of God says this, 03:32 it says, "Sanctify them by Your truth. 03:35 Your word is truth." 03:37 So we know right away that the word of God is truth. 03:40 So we have to ask ourselves just what is the word of God 03:44 and where is the word of God found? 03:46 You know, the word of God is found, 03:48 of course, in your Bible, from the book of Genesis 03:50 all the way to the book of Revelation. 03:52 All of this Holy Scriptures are inspired by God 03:55 or inspired by the Holy Spirit to make-- 03:58 He inspired men to write these things. 04:01 I've always believed that there is only one truth 04:03 and there is only one Holy Spirit 04:05 and the Holy Spirit guides everyone to that one truth. 04:09 So we must be open minded. 04:10 We must be-- allow the Holy Spirit 04:13 to guide us to this truth. 04:15 And one thing that He will use, He will use the word of God 04:18 which is the Bible to guide us to the truth. 04:23 The truth is found in scripture. 04:24 Everything the scripture says is the truth. 04:26 It comes from the Holy Spirit Himself. 04:28 It comes from the word of God. 04:30 So as we learn to study the Bible, 04:32 as we take time to read the Bible, 04:34 as we take time to go through the Bible 04:36 we must also take time to be willing to change 04:39 if we come across something in the Bible 04:41 that does not agree with what we think or how we live. 04:45 You know, when we come upon certain passages 04:47 that are difficult to understand 04:49 we must also pray for guidance by the Holy Spirit 04:51 so that He can help us understand. 04:54 Because there are things in the Bible 04:55 even now that are difficult for me to understand. 04:58 So as you start to study the Bible, 05:00 as you start to read the Bible, 05:01 pray that the Holy Spirit will give you understanding 05:04 so that you can make those changes in your lives. 05:07 And be not afraid to make those changes 05:10 because as the Holy Spirit shows you these truths in the Bible 05:13 whatever they may be. You know, before that time 05:16 if you did not know that was a truth, 05:18 you were not sinning. You were okay with God. 05:21 But now that you know the truth, then you must make a decision. 05:24 You will either accept the truth 05:27 and accept the truth in your life 05:28 and continue to live that truth in your life 05:30 or you can choose to reject that truth and not accept that truth 05:35 and act as if you had never heard that truth. 05:37 Well, up to that point you were not breaking the law of God, 05:40 up to that point you were not sinning 05:42 but if you continue from that point 05:44 forward to reject the truth 05:45 that you already know then now you are sinning, 05:48 now you are breaking the law of God. 05:50 And you are in a very dangerous situation before God. 05:54 Because the Holy Spirit takes his time 05:57 to show you what the truth is. That is His job. 06:02 If you reject anything that the Bible says, 06:04 you are rejecting the Holy Spirit. 06:06 And if you are rejecting the Holy Spirit, 06:09 you are calling Him a liar. 06:10 You are saying I know more than You do, 06:12 therefore, I don't have to accept what the truth 06:15 that You are showing me is. 06:16 And by rejecting the Holy Spirit and by calling Him a liar, 06:19 you are in effect blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. 06:23 How can the Lord forgive you if you know the truth 06:27 and refuse to follow the truth? 06:30 Unfortunately, that is the situation 06:32 with most of the human race. 06:34 You know, a lot of people get to know 06:36 what the truth is but they choose to reject it 06:39 and they choose to behave 06:40 as if they had never heard the truth 06:42 and they are in very shaky grounds. 06:44 They are on dangerous grounds. 06:47 Because if you know the truth and you refuse to follow it, 06:50 then the Lord cannot forgive you. 06:52 How can He? I urge my brothers and sisters, 06:55 that if you know certain truths of the Bible 06:57 that you have been rejected, 06:59 I urge you to change your lives and act accordingly. 07:02 Accept those truth that the Holy Spirit has shown you 07:05 and begin to live those truth 07:07 that the Holy Spirit has shown you. 07:08 And not only that, teach others what the Holy Spirit teaches you 07:12 because at the end that is what we are here for. 07:15 We are just not here to learn. We are not here study. 07:18 We're also here to teach others what the Lord teaches us. 07:23 Another question that we have to answer ourselves is this, 07:26 What is the word of God? 07:28 Well, my brothers, the word of God 07:29 is the whole Bible. 07:30 From Genesis all the way down to the book of Revelation. 07:34 And I know there are certain religions and certain peoples 07:38 that reject part of the Bible. 07:40 I know that our Hebrew brothers and sisters 07:42 they do not study the New Testament. 07:44 They only study the Old Testament. 07:46 Some of our other brothers and sisters 07:47 reject some of the letters of Paul. 07:49 Some other brothers and sisters reject the book of Revelation 07:53 when all of the Bible has been inspired by the Holy Spirit 07:57 and given to men to write these things down 07:59 that the Lord showed them in visions. 08:01 So they are all the truth and they all point to the truth 08:04 and they make a nice complete whole. 08:08 The situation that we may be in is we may think 08:11 we know more than God and choose to reject 08:13 certain portions of the Bible. 08:15 And we have no authority to do that 08:18 because the whole Bible is inspired 08:20 by the Holy Spirit Himself. 08:24 Do not get yourself in a situation 08:26 where you're rejecting the truth 08:27 that the Holy Spirit shows you. 08:29 Because if you reject the truth that the Holy Spirit shows you, 08:32 you are once again in very dangerous grounds. 08:35 I urge all my brothers and sisters 08:37 to learn to accept everything that the Bible says, 08:40 to learn to accept everything that is written for you 08:42 because the Lord took time to inspire the-- 08:45 to inspire men to write these things down for us. 08:48 Especially in these last days 08:50 where the whole human race needs to get to the Bible more 08:54 and learn more about what the Bible says. 08:57 But the only way to get to it is to learn to study it. 09:00 And you learn to study it on a daily basis. 09:03 To get more on what the truth is in John chapter 14, verse 6, 09:09 the Bible gives a further definition of what the truth is. 09:13 And it says this, "Jesus said to him, 09:16 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. 09:19 No one comes to the Father except through Me.'" 09:22 Jesus himself talking to us 09:24 lets us know that He is the truth. 09:28 And this great truth that the Father 09:30 has given us is to be followed. 09:31 He is our great example on how to do things, 09:35 our great example on how to live. 09:37 Jesus is the answer to everything. 09:40 Jesus-- the Bible is written about 09:41 Jesus from the book of Genesis 09:43 all the way to the book of Revelation. 09:45 Just because Jesus was born in the New Testament 09:48 does not mean that he was not around 09:50 when the Old Testament was being written. 09:52 Jesus was there Himself even though 09:55 Jesus was born in Bethlehem 09:56 does not mean that he did not exist before that. 09:59 Jesus has always existed. 10:01 Jesus has always been our truth. 10:03 He is our example and we should learn more about Him 10:07 so that we can do the things He did 10:09 and walked the way He walked 10:11 and do everything the way He did it. 10:13 Jesus is all--has always been our example 10:16 and He will always be our example. 10:18 He is our only hope for us to get 10:20 out of the situation that we are in. 10:22 He is the way and He is the truth. 10:24 No one goes to the Father except through Him. 10:28 So how do we learn about our Lord Jesus Christ? 10:31 Well, we go back to the Bible and we see what Jesus did. 10:35 And we believe as Jesus believed. 10:37 We taught as Jesus taught. 10:39 One of the things that we may not have in common 10:41 with most Christians as we try to believe what Jesus believed. 10:45 So what did Jesus believe about certain things? 10:48 That's what we do, you know. 10:50 And another example of what the truth is, 10:52 the Bible lets us know in Psalms 119, verse 151. 10:59 It lets us know, it says, "You are near, O Lord, 11:04 all Your commandments are truth." 11:07 So here we see the complete 11:09 biblical definition of what the truth is. 11:13 The Bible lets us know that all the word of God, 11:16 all scripture is the truth. 11:18 It is what the Holy Spirit uses to sanctify us. 11:22 The Bible also lets us know that Jesus Christ is the truth 11:25 and He is our example in everything that we do. 11:29 And the Bible also lets us know 11:31 that the commandments of God are truth. 11:36 It is what we use in our lives to change ourselves. 11:41 Now I know that keeping the law of God 11:42 or keeping the commandments of God is not going to save us. 11:46 But not keeping the-- not keeping them 11:49 and knowing that they should be kept may condemn us. 11:52 You know, this great country of ours, 11:54 this great country of ours is known for its liberty. 11:56 It's known for, you know, the rights that the people 12:00 of this great country of the United States have. 12:02 But the people have these rights, 12:04 the people have these liberties 12:06 because this is a country that is run by law. 12:09 The Constitution of this great country lets us know 12:11 that the people that live in this country have rights. 12:14 The people that live in this country have certain freedoms 12:17 that are given to us by the constitution. 12:19 It is the law of the land. 12:22 Imagine yourself if this-- 12:23 if the laws that run this country were done away with. 12:27 If the laws that run this country 12:28 were done away with, there would be no freedom. 12:31 There would be no rights. 12:33 There would be no civil liberties. 12:35 There would be no hope. 12:36 There would be complete chaos. 12:38 Let us keep in mind that the law truly does bring liberty. 12:42 The true--really, the law really does keep us safe. 12:46 And just like the laws of this country keep us safe 12:48 and give us these rights, so does the law of God keep us safe 12:52 and give us rights that nobody else has. 12:56 When the Lord was asked 12:57 while He was on this earth what the two great commandments are, 13:00 He said, "Love the Lord thy God with all your heart 13:03 and with all your soul and with all your mind." 13:05 And He also said, "Love your neighbor as yourself." 13:09 When you study the Ten Commandments 13:11 you see how these Ten Commandments 13:13 are related from those two. 13:14 In fact, these Ten Commandments 13:15 come from those two great commandments. 13:19 They are what they hang from. 13:21 This is the great law that runs the entire universe. 13:24 The Ten Commandments are simply-- 13:25 they were written in a way as 13:27 how they apply to the human race. 13:28 And that is how those two great commandments apply to us. 13:33 If we truly understand that the law of God is truth, 13:36 we are not going to blaspheme His name. 13:38 We are not going to use His name in vain. 13:41 We are not going to have idols. 13:42 We are not going to bow down to them. 13:44 We are going to keep the seventh day Sabbath, 13:46 because that is what the law tells us to do 13:49 and the Bible itself has let us know 13:51 that that is where the truth is. 13:54 Now the last six have to do 13:55 with loving our neighbor as ourselves. 13:57 If we truly love our neighbor as ourself 13:59 we are not going to steal from our neighbor. 14:02 We are not going to commit adultery. 14:03 We are going to honor our parents. 14:05 We are not going to desire anything that is our neighbors 14:08 because we love our neighbors. 14:09 When you study the law and for what it truly is 14:13 we see that the law is a relationship law. 14:16 It's, how do we relate to our Father 14:18 and how do we relate to each other? 14:20 That is truly what the law is about. 14:22 Now we read it sometimes 14:24 and we see a lot of do's and don'ts. 14:25 But in reality it is about relationships. 14:29 And the Lord wants us to relate with Him. 14:31 The Lord wants us to relate 14:32 with our fellow brothers and sisters. 14:34 How do we choose to do that? 14:36 And the more you study the Bible, 14:38 the more you see that the Ten Commandments are holy 14:41 and they are true and they are just and there is nothing wrong 14:46 with them as they are written in the book of Exodus. 14:51 Unfortunately, many people want to think 14:54 that it's possible to change the law of God 14:56 and they do not follow the law of God the way it is written. 15:00 but it is up to us who now know the truth to show these people 15:04 what they should be doing. 15:06 To show these people that the law of God is good. 15:09 Because that is what the Bible tells us what the truth is. 15:13 Once again the Bible lets us know 15:15 that the word of God is truth and we have been shown 15:18 that the whole Bible is truth, not just the New Testament, 15:22 not just the Old Testament, but every bit of the Bible 15:25 is where the truth is found. 15:28 You know, many people say that the book of Revelation 15:30 is difficult to understand and they refuse to study it 15:33 because it is difficult to understand. 15:36 But one of the reasons that it's difficult to understand 15:38 and people don't really take time to read it 15:40 is because most of the book of Revelation 15:42 is found in the Old Testament, almost word for word. 15:46 So if you don't take time to study the Old Testament 15:49 there's no way that you can study the New Testament. 15:52 You know, when John the Baptist was on this earth 15:55 and when he saw Jesus for the very first time, 15:58 the very first words that came out of John's mouth were, 16:01 "Behold, the Lamb of God 16:03 who takes away the sin of the world." 16:06 Now you may not think that's important but try to explain 16:09 that verse without using the Old Testament. 16:12 First of all, how do you know what the Lamb of God means 16:15 unless you go to the Old Testament 16:17 and see what the lamb represent 16:19 and see what the lamb is about? 16:21 Even the very word sin, you cannot understand 16:23 what sin is unless you go back to Genesis 16:26 and see what Adam and Eve committed the first sin 16:29 and you can understand what sin is truly about. 16:32 So that simple verse that John said to Jesus Christ 16:34 cannot be understood unless you go back to the Old Testament 16:38 and see where sin developed 16:40 and also see what the Lamb of God is all about. 16:44 I always question these people that when you show them 16:46 quote from the Old Testament they simply say 16:48 that it's in the Old Testament. 16:49 It does not apply to them anymore. 16:51 But I say to these people, you cannot understand 16:54 the New Testament unless you study the Old Testament. 16:58 You cannot understand Jesus Christ 16:59 and His mission unless you read about 17:01 what He was supposed to do in the Old Testament. 17:04 Because the Old Testament tells us 17:06 what Jesus the Messiah was supposed to do 17:09 and we can see how Jesus fulfilled scripture in His life 17:13 by studying what the Old Testament says about Him. 17:16 So my dear brothers and sisters, 17:18 please take time to understand 17:21 just how important it is to study 17:24 the whole word of God, 17:27 the Old and the New Testament. 17:29 They are still inspired by the same Holy Spirit 17:32 and the same Holy Spirit 17:33 is still guiding us to the whole truth. 17:36 And as we get to know more about our God 17:38 and we get to know more about our Lord Jesus Christ, 17:40 as we study scriptures, the Holy Spirit will continue 17:43 to lead us to find out more truth. 17:47 And once again He has let us know 17:49 that the commandments of God are truth. 17:52 So the question again, how do we blaspheme the Holy Spirit? 17:56 Well, reject His truth 17:58 and you are blaspheming the Holy Spirit 18:00 because the Holy Spirit takes time to teach you. 18:04 It is important to realize that we are in a school 18:08 and the Holy Spirit is the teacher. 18:11 And we are all in that school somewhere. 18:14 Some of us may be in kindergarten, 18:16 some of us may be in first or second grade 18:19 or some of us may be in high school. 18:21 Some of us may be in college or a major university 18:24 going for various degree but we are all in the same school. 18:28 And it is the teacher-- the teacher is the Holy Spirit 18:31 who takes time to teach us. 18:33 And He will not teach us more unless we grasp 18:36 what He's teaching us before. 18:37 In other words, He will not take us to the next class 18:40 or the next grade until we have mastered those grades before us. 18:44 And I have seen people that have been in the church 18:46 for 15, 20 years and have not gotten out of first grade. 18:51 You know, they are still there. 18:53 You know, they don't understand. 18:54 They're still there causing problems for the church 18:57 because they refuse to grow. 18:59 You know, when you look at a child, 19:01 when you look at an infant 19:02 and if that infant is not growing 19:05 then we take him to the doctor to see 19:06 what is wrong with that child 19:07 because we know that that child should be growing. 19:10 It is the same thing with us in our spiritual lives. 19:13 You know, we are all born-again Christians. 19:15 We all start out as infants 19:16 but the Holy Spirit expects us to grow. 19:19 But if we refuse to grow 19:21 it is because there is something wrong with us, 19:23 not with the Holy Spirit. 19:25 Because He is doing everything He can to teach us 19:28 that He is guiding us to the truth. 19:30 And He uses the same method that He has used forever. 19:34 The same methods that He uses with us, 19:36 He has used in the past. 19:38 He is always showing us the Lord. 19:39 He is always showing us scripture. 19:41 He is always showing us the law. 19:43 You know, when you look at what has happened 19:45 throughout history, you know, we can see 19:47 that the people of God reject one truth or the other 19:51 but very rarely accept the whole complete truth. 19:55 When Jesus was on this earth, the people of God, 19:58 His people, the people of Israel claimed to keep the law. 20:02 But yet they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. 20:05 Now we know that the law is truth 20:07 and we know that the scriptures are truth. 20:09 And the people during Jesus' time, especially 20:12 the Pharisees, they were masters of what the Bible said. 20:16 And in fact, one of their favorite sayings was 20:17 that if they had lived during the time of the prophets 20:20 they would not have stoned the prophets. 20:22 And yet see what they did to our Lord Jesus Christ. 20:26 So they grasped part of the truth 20:28 but they didn't grasp the complete truth. 20:31 And now us, as Christians 2000 years later, 20:34 we claim to know and believe and accept Jesus Christ 20:37 but we rejected the rest of the truth. 20:40 Some of us Christians reject 20:41 what part of the Bible says about Him. 20:44 And some of us Christians reject part of the books of the Bible. 20:47 And some of us Christians reject the law. 20:50 But the people of God will always accept 20:53 the complete truth which is, of course, 20:56 the whole Bible, which is, of course, 20:58 accepting His Son as the Savior of the world and, of course, 21:02 accepting the law of God as the law that not only rules us 21:06 but rules the entire universe. 21:09 It is time for us to wake up. 21:10 It is time for us to understand that we live in the last days. 21:14 That we are living right before the coming of the Lord 21:17 and there will be a people who will be 21:20 ready to accept the Lord. 21:22 We are told many times that there will be a people 21:25 who do keep the law and who have 21:27 the testimony of Jesus Christ. 21:29 And they will be ready for their Master 21:31 for when He returns. 21:33 And I pray that all of us here will be ready for that day. 21:37 I pray that all of us here are willing to accept the truth, 21:41 whatever it may be and however painful 21:44 it may be because I know that the truth can be painful. 21:48 I know that the truth can divide families. 21:51 I know that the truth can divide friends. 21:53 But in a situation like that, it is better to follow God 21:57 rather than men because people are not going to save you. 22:01 God is going to save you. The kingdom is coming. 22:04 The kingdom of glory is a kingdom where there-- 22:06 it is a kingdom run by law. 22:08 And God has shown us over and over and over again 22:11 that a kingdom must have law 22:14 so that there can be law and order. 22:16 If there is no law, there is no order. 22:19 Sometimes we think that the law is bad, 22:21 that somehow the law restrains us. 22:23 But it does not. In fact, the law gives us freedom. 22:27 It is the law of liberty. It is a law that is good. 22:31 It is a law that is truth. 22:34 You know, and there are certain situations also 22:37 where we may catch ourselves lying to the Holy Spirit. 22:41 We know in the books of Acts 5:1-11, 22:45 there is an interesting story about a couple. 22:48 And it is a couple that lied to the Holy Spirit 22:52 and then Holy Spirit took things into His own hands. 22:56 And sometimes when we think of the Holy Spirit, 22:58 we think of the Holy Spirit as being someone 22:59 that is very timid. 23:01 But we can see that sometimes He does take matters 23:03 into His own hands and takes action. 23:06 We will start reading in the book of Acts chapter 5 23:08 starting at verse 1. 23:10 It says, "But a certain man named Ananias 23:13 and Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. 23:16 And he kept back part of the proceeds. 23:18 His wife also being aware of it 23:20 and brought a certain part 23:22 and laid it at the apostles' feet. 23:24 But Peter said, 'Ananias, why has Satan filled 23:26 your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit 23:30 and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? 23:33 While it remained, was it not your own? 23:35 And after it was sold, was it not out of your own control? 23:38 Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? 23:41 You have not lied to men but to God.'" 23:45 Verse 5 says, "Then Ananias, hearing these... 23:56 Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. 24:00 So great fear came upon all those who heard these things." 24:04 Now it is interesting that as when his wife came in 24:06 the same thing happened to her. 24:09 Now when we think of the Holy Spirit sometimes 24:11 we think of a timid individual. 24:14 But we see that He is not timid at all. 24:17 When He gets angry, when He gets upset 24:19 this is what He does. 24:22 This family lied to the Holy Spirit. 24:24 They promised the Holy Spirit something 24:26 and then they didn't go through, they didn't follow through. 24:29 The Holy Spirit took matters into His own hands. 24:32 He did not forgive them and did what He had to do 24:35 for the good of the church. 24:38 My brothers and sisters, please do not lie to the Holy Spirit. 24:42 If the Holy Spirit is going to take time to show you 24:44 what the truth is and you tell the Holy Spirit 24:48 that you are willing to accept the truth, 24:51 when He shows it to you, you better accept it. 24:54 Because if you don't accept it, 24:56 you will once again be lying to the Holy Spirit. 25:00 And we do not want to be caught lying to the Holy Spirit. 25:04 We have to remember that God does not change. 25:07 God is the same today or yesterday, today, and forever. 25:10 He changes not. We are the ones that have to change. 25:16 Another way to upset the Holy Spirit is to bring 25:19 in strange fire to the temple. 25:23 Remember the brothers, Nadab and Abihu? 25:25 That is found in the book of Leviticus chapter 10, 25:29 verses 1 through 3. 25:34 This is what the Bible says. 25:36 "Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, 25:39 each took his censer and put fire in it, 25:41 put incense on it and offered profane fire 25:44 before the Lord which He had not commanded them. 25:46 So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them 25:49 and they died before the Lord." 25:51 Now that's interesting. 25:53 Some people think and claim that God doesn't kill, 25:55 that God doesn't hurt. 25:57 But yet here we have two instances 25:58 where He took matters into His own hands 26:00 and they all had to do with holy things. 26:02 And Ananias and Sapphira promised 26:04 something to the Holy Spirit 26:06 and then they went back on their word 26:07 and the Holy Spirit took action. 26:09 Here Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, 26:12 one of them was going to be the high priest. 26:14 They got a little bit-- a little bit drunk, I guess. 26:18 And they did things they weren't supposed to 26:20 and they brought strange fire into the sanctuary 26:22 or into the temple area 26:24 and the Lord took care of it Himself. 26:28 A strange fire in modern times would be a way of bringing 26:31 in strange doctrines into the church. 26:34 Every person that brings in his strange belief, 26:36 it better be tested by the word of God 26:38 to make sure that it is from the word of God. 26:41 And not some weird idea or weird way of thinking 26:44 that every now and then creeps into the church. 26:46 Everything must be tested and we must not allow 26:50 strange thoughts or strange ideas or strange doctrines 26:53 to somehow creep into the church 26:56 because that will only upset the Holy Spirit. 26:59 And once again they will take-- 27:01 or He will take matters into His own hands. 27:05 I urge you, my brothers and sisters, 27:07 not to upset the Holy Spirit. 27:09 I urge you to accept everything that He teaches you. 27:12 I urge you not to lie to Him. 27:14 I urge you not to profane His name because He is God. 27:19 I pray--let us get together now and have a short word of prayer. 27:25 Dear Father in heaven, I thank you, Father, 27:27 for your Holy Spirit. 27:28 And the trouble that He goes through to show us the truth. 27:31 Teach us, Father, not to upset Him. 27:33 Teach us, Father, to follow His ways. 27:35 For we ask all in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. 27:41 I urge you, my brothers and sisters, 27:43 never to take the Holy Spirit lightly. 27:46 He loves us very much. He loves Jesus very much. 27:49 And He continues to guide us to what the truth is. 27:51 And He expects us to follow the truth. Thank you very much. |
Revised 2014-12-17