Major Ian Thomas expounds on God's covenant with Abraham, emphasizing that the promise made to Abraham was not merely for a nation but specifically for Christ, the singular seed through whom all nations would be blessed. He explains that the law reveals our inability to meet God's standards, leading to a curse, but through Christ's redemptive work, believers are freed from this curse and can receive the Holy Spirit. Thomas highlights the importance of understanding that redemption is not just about forgiveness but about restoring the life of God within us, enabling us to reflect His likeness. He warns against relying on our own efforts to live the Christian life, stressing that true empowerment comes from the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a recognition of the transformative power of God's presence in our lives.

I'd like first just to read a few verses to you from the third chapter of the Galatian epistles. The eighth verse. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen to faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the palms of the earth be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Lord of duty. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith. But the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Now just refer back, would you, to that eighth verse with which we commenced in this third chapter. The scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. God preaching gospel, good news. When it says that God first preached the gospel to Abraham, it doesn't mean that God thought it up and the first man that ever heard the good news of the gospel was faithful Abraham. For as some of us saw last evening, the seeds of God's redemptive and regenerative purpose were planted in the very chapter, the third of the first book in the Bible, Genesis, where the record is given to us of man's fall into sin. But God chose a man whose name was Abraham, through whom that redemptive purpose was to be consummated in the birth of one of his seed. The individual, as we're reminded in the 16th verse of that third chapter of the epistles of the Galatians, the Lord Jesus. You remember what it says? To Abraham and his seed, singular, where the promise is made, he saith not unto seeds, plural, as of many, but as of one to thy seed, which is Christ. In other words, the covenant that God made, the pledge that he made to faithful Abraham, didn't concern a nation or its culture or what as a corporate body it might offer to the world. But he specifically spoke of one individual seed, singular, who should be born into this world. We know who that was, born on that first Christmas morning, nearly 2000 years ago, in the city of David. Bethlehem. But there was a covenant that God was made between himself and Abraham. And the redemptive work of Christ upon the cross that delivers us from the curse of the law, that only exposes our sin, stops our mouths and proves us guilty, that he might redeem us from the judgment that must rightly fall upon those who fail to satisfy the minimal demands that a holy God makes upon man made in his likeness. That on the basis of that redemptive transaction there might be accomplished in you and me what he describes in that 14th verse as the blessing of Abraham. Christ, verse 13, hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, the seed who was promised by God in Abraham, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And comprehended in that 13th verse is the redemptive transaction, the vicarious atoning work of Christ, in which God credited him with your guilt and is willing and able to credit us with his righteousness. To whom there has been imputed or credited his death, that there might now be credited to us his life. Now just a brief word in passing concerning the curse of the law. The law in itself of course is not a curse, that is not what it means. It simply means that the law comprehends the minimal demands that a holy God may reasonably make upon man, his creature, made in the absolute unsullied likeness of God his maker. Sin is variously defined in the word of God. One definition you'll find in the fourth chapter of the first of John's three epistles. No need to turn to it, but the fourth chapter of the first of John's three epistles. Sin is the transgression of the law. Now that's one definition that is given to us of sin. Sin is the transgression of the law. What law? God's law. A law that was penned with the finger of God upon tables of stone and presented to Moses in Mount Sinai. And that law simply represented, as it were, a transcription of the righteousness of God described in language that is relevant to you and to me today on earth. There's nothing new about the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God, which is absolute, timeless, eternal and unchanging, is as immutable and timeless as God himself. God has never changed. But in all that we men, his creatures on earth, might know the demands that that righteousness makes upon a man created in God's likeness, it was transcribed for us in terms of the Ten Commandments and such other allied commandments as God, from time to time, may have been pleased to add. When the law says thou shalt not steal, all that God is saying through the law is this. I, your creator, made you my creature in my image, my likeness. I gave you a physical and a visible body that in that physical and visible body you might give a physical and a visible expression of an invisible God so that all creation, looking at man, might know what God was like. So when the law says thou shalt not steal, all that God is saying is this. I, as your God creator, made you man, my creature, in my unblemished likeness, and I'm not a thief. When by the law God says thou shalt not bear self-witness, don't tell lies, all that God is saying is this. As your creator, I made you man, my creature, in my perfect likeness, and I'm not a liar. When God by the law says thou shalt not commit adultery, all that God is simply saying is this, that as your creator God I made you my creature man to give an unblemished absolute expression of my perfect righteousness, and I'm not an adulterer. Now the curse of the law is simply this, that God having not only made us in his image but imparted to us by his divine presence through the Holy Spirit the moral competence that made it possible for man to discharge that responsibility, man of his own free will repudiated the moral relationship that lets God in a man be all that God is to that man, providing him by the presence of deity within man in his humanity with the moral competence to discharge the office which God made him, he repudiated that relationship, he lost God, and now no longer can discharge that office. So that although the law of God reasonably says to man thou shalt not steal, men thieve. So that although the law of God which is a reasonable commandment a holy God can make upon a man his creature in his own likeness, thou shalt not bear false witness, men lie, all down the record. In other words man created in normality to give a valid expression of God's likeness is no longer telling the truth about God, he's a caricature of God, he gives only a shabby cheap imitation of the real thing, and that is the controversy that God has with man. That's why in defining sin another way, in the epistle to the Romans, the apostle Paul chapter 3 and verse 23 says this, there is no difference, there is no difference, all of sin, in that all have transgressed the minimal demands that God makes upon a man according to the law. And having sinned, all have come short of the glory. What's the glory? Not heaven, though heaven is glorious, the glory is simply God's likeness, God's likeness, God's image, a valid reflection of God's absolute utter unchanging holiness, that's the glory. And because man in repudiating the relationship that lets God be God in the man is no longer morally competent to satisfy the demands that he as creator makes upon man his creature, we have fallen short of the glory. In other words instead of as God created you to do, telling the truth about God, by what we do and say and are, we constantly tell lies about God. Now how did man lose his moral competence? So that he no longer is capable of satisfying the demands that the law makes upon a man. What actually happens? Because until we understand that, we shall not be able to understand adequately what happens when on the grounds of redemption there takes place a spiritual regeneration. Now we don't have time to major too long upon this, but it's absolutely vital as the essential premise upon which may we may safely build our understanding of God's purpose and plan in sending his son into this world. There are three orders of physical life on this earth. There's what we call the vegetable king, there is also the animal king, and physiologically man of course is included in that group, because we feed, breathe, bleed, and breed the animal way. But God as we shall see has lifted man out of the animal kingdom and made man, man by unique creation. Not by a process of evolution, of course that's for the birds, but by a unique act of creation God created man, though physiologically an animal in such a way that he can have a moral relationship to God his maker, and it's the capacity that is built into man to have a moral relationship with God his maker that lifts man out of the animal kingdom and makes man, man. Now in common with all forms of physical life, vegetable and animal, man possesses a body. Of this we're in no doubt, whatever, most of us have said it within the last couple of hours, and some of us have washed it since we got up this morning, and being mostly adults I suppose that's everybody. It's that part of you that gets toothache and corns. It's the body, it's the house you live in. But in common with all forms of animal life, you and I possess a soul, and the soul is that behavior mechanism that is built into you and to me that enables us to behave in a way that a plant can't behave. There has been given to you and to me in common with all forms of animal life a mental capacity, an emotional capacity, and a volitional capacity. In other words a capacity to think on occasion, a capacity to react emotionally, and on the basis of the way you react emotionally and think mentally, you decide volitionally. Mind, emotion, and will. Whoever teaches the mind, whoever teaches the emotions, directs the will, and whoever directs the will ultimately governs behavior. Mind, emotion, and will. That's the soul. Tripod in character, and more often than not in the bible described as the heart. It comes as quite a surprise to some folks to know that animals in common with man possess a soul. But again without enlarging upon that, because we don't have time, if you care to do so, if you're making notes, you can note the 30th verse of the first chapter of the book of Genesis, and you can relate that to the 7th verse of the 2nd chapter of the book of Genesis, and you can relate that to an occasion throughout the 9th chapter of the book of Genesis where God commands Noah to take two of every creature, because you'll discover that the words used in each case, as represented in the 7th verse of the 2nd chapter of the book of Genesis, translated from the same original words. Living soul. Living soul, which is common to beast, bird, insect, fish, and man. Your mind, your emotions, and your will. Whoever controls mind, whoever controls emotions, controls will, whoever directs the will governs behavior. So the fact that you have got a soul doesn't distinguish you as man from animal. It simply proves that you're not a vegetable, and that's encouraging. What then is it that distinguishes man from the animal kingdom? Well God in his wisdom has been pleased to protect the animal kingdom in its behavior patterns by a built-in computerized program, and for the sake of convenience we call it instinct, so that we recognize that each form of the animal kingdom within its species will behave in a certain characteristic way on a repetitive basis, generation after generation, century after century, and yet it never goes to school, it doesn't have a textbook, but by this means God has preserved it and provided for its reproduction. So in the animal kingdom you recognize feeding habits, mating seasons, migratory paths, building skills, all of which are carried out within the animal kingdom with meticulous mathematical accuracy in such a way that the species is not only preserved but reproduced, and I only wish that we had time to examine that more fully and to discover some of the marvelous illustrations to which we can so easily turn in the world around us. Now if God can control the animal kingdom in their behavior patterns in such a marvelous way by built-in instinctive trust so that they will on a repetitive basis again and again fulfill their responsibilities, don't you think it would have been possible for God to create a man whose behavior patterns would be governed by built-in instinctive trust, a computerized program so that with meticulous mathematical accuracy in everything he ever did, said or was, he would give a complete, unsullied, unblemished expression of God's total life? Well of course he could. If God by instinct can govern the behavior patterns of the salmon and bring them years after their being hatched back to the place where they were hatched to reproduce, if God by built-in instinctive trust can take a bird hundreds and hundreds of miles across a trackless ocean and bring it to its final winter destination, if God by a built-in instinctive trust can determine that a bee once gathering its raw materials from one species of plant will never under any circumstances go to another so that cross-pollination would take place, then God could have produced a man who with the same mathematical accuracy would have given a valid expression of God's total life. And all creation would have seen a man governed by instinct showing what God was like. Now why didn't he do that? For a very good and simple reason. Because when an instinct, when an insect or a bird or a beast or a fish governed by an instinctive trust behaves in a certain way, it's not saying anything to God. It's not adopting an attitude. It isn't adopting a disposition towards its maker. It isn't God-conscious. It's impersonal. The bee which makes a honeycomb to an exact mathematical specification, maximum cubic capacity, maximum tensile strength, minimum materials used because wax in the manufacture of the honeycomb is so expensive to the bee, when the bee behaves that way, that bee isn't looking into God's face, its creator and saying, I'm a bee and you're my creator and as my creator you made me to be the kind of bee you wanted me to be and I, because I love you, want to be that kind of bee. See? Is that what a bee is saying? No. It's not God-conscious. So God created man differently for in man uniquely God of all his creations wanted to have a creature that could reciprocate his love for man by man's love for God. In other words, man was created to have a moral relationship, capable of adopting an attitude, exercising a disposition towards his maker. When the animal kingdom behaves, it's not saying God I love you or God I hate you or God I couldn't care less. But God created man in such a way that no matter what he does, 24 hours every day, whether he knows it or whether he doesn't, whether he likes it or whether he doesn't, by everything he does and says and is, he's saying something to God. That's why whether you like it or whether you don't, since you got up this morning and before you sleep tonight, by everything you've done, thought or been, you will have been saying something to God. You either will have been saying to God, I love you, and this is the way I want to demonstrate that fact, or you may, I trust not, have been saying to God, I hate you, and this is the way I'm demonstrating that fact, or tragically enough, more often than not, by what you've been doing, saying and being today, you've adopted an attitude that says this, God, so far as what I'm doing at this moment, so far as the decision that I'm making at this moment, so far as the way I'm spending my money at this moment, so far as the plans I'm cherishing at this moment, so far as my ambitions are concerned, you might just as well be I couldn't care less whether you like it or whether you don't. By everything you do and say and are, by the way you run your business, by your activities around the home, by the way you play football, by the quality of the work that you hand in if you're a school kid to your teacher, by the way the wife replies to her husband, by the way the boy talks to his dad, you're saying something to God. You're saying, God, I love you, or God, I hate you, or God, quite frankly, I couldn't care less, you might just as well be dead. This is what lifts man out of the animal kingdom, and makes man, man, because God created man to love God back, and love cannot be compelled. Only love can satisfy love, and only to be befriended can satisfy friendship, and neither can be compelled, neither can be demanded, and that's why God built into man the moral capacity to choose to say yes or no, a moral option, the exercise of which must always be his own personal responsibility, and a responsibility that God will never, under any circumstances, relieve a man of exercising. You've got to choose. This is what gives to man the capacity to love God. You see, between the instinctive thrust and the animal soul, there's a rigid interlock which is unbreakable, so that within very limited boundaries, its behavior patterns are totally regimented, cannot escape. Not so with man, for God gave to man what he didn't give to any other form of created life, not only a body, not only a soul, but a human spirit. And the human spirit is that unique capacity that God gave to man, and did not give to any other form of created life, that allows God as creator actually to take up residence and inhabit man, his creature. So that the God who inhabits eternity, the prophet Isaiah tells us, is a God who is prepared to take up residence within the spirit of the humble, and the contrite one, lest his purpose in creating the souls of men should be frustrated. So when God first made man, having given him a body, and having given him a soul, having built into him a human spirit, as creator God, he took up residence by the Holy Spirit, within the human spirit. That from within the human spirit he might have access to the human soul. That God himself by the Holy Spirit might play the role in man's soul that the instinctive thrust plays in that of the animal, teaching his mind, controlling his emotions, directing his will, and thereby governing his behavior. And it was the presence of God by the Holy Spirit from within the human spirit with access to the human soul to teach his mind, control his emotions, direct his will, and govern his behavior that provided for man as creature the moral competence to reproduce the likeness of God his creator. Because God by the Holy Spirit from within the human spirit was to teach his mind, control his emotions, direct his will, govern his behavior, and therefore God himself within the man was the origin of his own image. God himself within the man was the source of his own activity. God himself within the man was the cause of his own effect. And God himself within the man was himself the dynamic of all his own demands. And that's why the Bible says faithful as he that calleth he will also do it. 1 Thessalonians 5 24. That's why the Bible says Philippians 2 13 that it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. And that's why the apostle Paul speaking to those who had newly been converted of the Christian faith who had repudiated their paganism and in humble repentance toward God had claimed redemption through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus and they themselves becoming the recipients of the Holy Spirit says Paul to them work out your own salvation because everything that God ever gave me he's given you. In the day that I was converted on the road to Damascus claiming Christ as my redeemer he risen from the dead came by the Holy Spirit to invade my humanity so that he from within my human spirit might once more have access to my human soul so now for me to live is Christ. He teaches my mind he controls my emotions he directs my will he governs my behavior I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live but don't get me wrong not I Christ lives in me and the life that I'm now living in this body that you recognize by its physical features as that that once belonged to Saul of Tartus now belongs to a man called Paul the apostle because I live by faith that lets Jesus Christ as God be God in me who gave himself for me and who's given himself to me so now I can do all things I've been restored to my moral confidence I can do all things through Christ who is my strength but the difference was this apart from the fact that God by the Holy Spirit was to play the role within man's soul that instinct was to play within the animal soul as opposed to the rigid unbreakable interlock between the instinctive thrust and the animal soul there was to be a moral interlock between God by his Holy Spirit and the human soul and that moral interlock would derive from man's love for God expressed in man's dependence on God evidenced exclusively by man's obedience to God love for depends on obedience to and God would never under any circumstances violate that moral relationship so that when God first made man having given him a body having given him a soul having built within him the human spirit that he God by the Holy Spirit might inhabit his human spirit said in so many words to man so long as you're prepared out of your love for me in dependence on me to yield obedience to me you will share my life and not only that your life deriving from me you will exercise a derived authority over all the works of my hand but I will never violate the moral option that I built into no creature in eternity could be more wealthy than you are you share the life of your creator and you've been given the fantastic privilege of yielding your members now so that he God behaving through your members can give in terms of your physical and visible body a physical and a visible expression of his invisible self but in the day that you repudiate the moral relationship that allows out of your love for me me to be God in you and the moment you repudiate your dependence on me by disobedience to me in practice you'll die you'll die you'll die not physically for the animal part of you will survive your physical body and your human soul but I will withdraw my presence and God the Holy Spirit in coality with co-equality with the father and the son will be absent from the human spirit then you'll be physically alive you'll be soulishly active your mind will still function your emotions will still function your will will still function but you'll be spiritually destitute you'll be empty of God you will be bankrupt and you will neither be protected by instinct nor will you be governed by God so you won't know how to behave like an animal and you won't have what it takes to behave like a man and all that can produce is chaos and anarchy with every individual human being oriented around his own ego with all the fratricidal strife that has blighted damned and stained society all down the centuries of man's mad experiment of human self-sufficiency who believed at satan's behest that a man can be man without God and in the absence of God invaded by a sin principle called the spirit that now worketh and the children of disobedience that has its origin in satan himself from the day that he fell into sin embarking upon this tragic experiment of human self-sufficiency man's humanity has been abused misused and prostituted the flesh profiteth nothing no flesh will ever glory in God's presence a sin principle of satanic origin that is essentially hostile to God it's described in the eighth chapter of the epistle to the romans as the carnal mind that is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be because it has its roots in satan himself the arch enemy of our creator God and the arch enemy of man who was created in that creator's life so when man fell into sin he lost God nothing more complicated than that and he lost God by the withdrawal of the holy spirit from the human spirit leaving him physically functional soulishly functional spiritually destitute still possessing a human spirit but a human spirit totally empty of the holy spirit dead that's a dead soul what then would you imagine God would have in mind in seeking to remedy the situation let me put it in the simplest way possible supposing you were sitting in your room tonight after dark reading a book or writing a letter and suddenly the light went out you thought that's strange you feel in the dark for the switch and you find it still switched on well yes there must be a fuse but you look under the door and under the crack of the door you can see the light is on next room it isn't a fuse bulb must have broken so you open the door let the light in from the adjoining room screw the bulb out of the socket take it into the light and examine it and it isn't broken well you say that's funny current's flowing no fuse bulb isn't broken switch is on no light then you examine the terminals on the end of the bulb and you discover that they're dirty and there's been such an accumulation of dirt and rust now that although screwed into socket there's no contact with the of electricity so your diagnosis is very simple dirty in life out light off is that very complicated dirty in life out light off all right what happened when man fell into sin we're told in the first chapter of the john's gospel in the beginning was the word the word was with God the word was God by him all things were made without him was not anything made that was made in him the creative word the word that was made flesh and dwelt among us of whom says john we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the father in him was life and this life that was in him was the light of men it was only his presence by the holy spirit within the soul of man that gave to man the moral competence teaching his mind control his emotions directing his will and governing his behavior by what he does and says and is to give a valid expression of the likeness of God his maker in him was life this life was the light of men but in the day that adam fell into sin the holy spirit was withdrawn through whom man shared the life of jesus christ and when the life went out the light went out dirt in sin life out the withdrawal of the holy spirit light off man no longer morally competent to give a valid expression of God his maker the plaything of the devil himself whose humanity could only be prostituted by a sinful principle of satanic origin that is hostile to the creator of the universe all right what would you do about it well you decide get some sandpaper and i'll clean the terminals and get the dirt out okay you do that and so now you've got a nice clean lamp and you go into the room again shut the door and put your nice clean lamp on the table and say i've got a nice clean lamp i can get on reading i can get on writing my letters tell me this how much more light would you get from a nice clean lamp on your desk than from a dirty lamp in the socket would you get any more light well of course not if when the dirt came in the life went out and the light went off the only purpose of getting the dirt out would be to let the life in to switch the light on right now you're beginning to understand what god was at in sending his son into this world not as so many suppose and alas so often the impression is given in the preaching of the gospel that jesus died two thousand years ago to to his to do his thing as it were so that men could get out of hell and into heaven that's purely incidental gloriously true but purely incidental the purpose which the lord jesus died upon the cross and his blood was shed that you and i might be cleansed and reconciled to a holy god was not just to get us out of hell and into heaven but supremely to get god back out of heaven into men dirt out life in light on because that's why the whole epistle to the galatians was written because they missed the point they'd claimed dirt out by the redemptive work of christ upon the cross but they'd never intelligently understood that the whole purpose of getting the dirt out was to get the life in and so although the dirt being out god had put the life in they were ignoring the life that god put in you remember galatians chapter three let me read these few verses to you beginning with the first verse from the amplified new testament which simply gives you more adequately from the original in amplified english language what god had in mind when by the holy spirit he authored these words through his apostle paul third chapter oh you poor silly thoughtless unreflecting and senseless galatians who is fascinated or bewitched or cast a spell over you under whom right before your very eyes jesus christ the messiah was openly and graphically set forth portrayed as crucified you were there some of you when it happened and long since you've heard the story how that god incarnate in the person of his sinless son accomplished on the cross your redemption he shed his blood that your sins might be forgiven let me ask you this one question he goes on the second verse did you receive the holy spirit life in as a result of obeying the law and doing its work so was it by hearing the message of the gospel and believing it in other words if god the holy spirit has been restored to you so that by his presence you can share the life of jesus christ was it as a consequence of your performance in satisfying the demands of the law or was it in consequence in god's faithfulness of your faith that hearing the gospel that jesus died that you might be forgiven that he risen from the dead might come and inhabit your humanity that was a rhetorical question because they knew exactly the answer they knew perfectly well that nobody receives god the holy spirit as a reward because of their good performance in satisfying the demands of god's law because there is none righteous no not one and all have sinned and come short of that glory sin is the transgression of the law there's no boy girl man or woman that's ever been morally competent from the day they were born to satisfy to god's holy satisfaction the demands that he makes through the law upon his creature made in his likeness so paul says are you trying to persuade me that you receive god the holy spirit as a reward for your good works in satisfying the demands of god's law you know better than that or he says was it in response to your faith in hearing the gospel and believing it that god in faithfulness accepted you back as forgiven sinners and restored to you the person of god the holy spirit who was lost in adam are you so foolish there's three are you so senseless are you so silly having begun your new life spiritually with the holy spirit are you now reaching perfection by dependence on the flesh on the grounds of redemption because jesus died for you the holy spirit has come back to live within you and share with you the life of god your creator and his son jesus christ so that he might teach your mind control your emotions and direct your will and he says you're so stupid you're so silly you're so senseless you're so unthinking that in spite of having had the life of god restored to you by the gift to you of the holy spirit you ignore his presence and you're still trying to be made perfect in the old adamic nature that couldn't before you were redeemed and can't now that you're ready now that was the stupidity that was the folly of the galatians but of course as most of us recognize it's the folly that most of us have perpetrated at one time or another and maybe are still so doing in our own christian lives tell me this if the person before redemption and the energy and enthusiasm of that old adam nature tried quite sincerely to live the christian life would they succeed or would they fail given any boy any girl any man any woman who's never claimed christ as redeemer who's not yet forgiven who hasn't enjoyed a spiritual new birth who only has the old adam nature to play with given that boy that girl that man that woman admiring maybe the life of a genuine christian saying i'm gonna be a christian like that but they're not born again they're not redeemed they're not saved they're not converted tell me this no matter how hard they try no matter how sincerely will they fail or succeed they'll fail well given a boy girl man a woman who has been converted who genuinely has received christ as redeemer who is born again to whom the holy spirit has been given but who in ignorance of that fact or in defiance of that fact ignores the holy spirit and in the same old adam nature after redemption tries to live the christian life will that boy that girl that woman that man fail or succeed they'll fail what then is the essential difference between a person who tries before redemption to live the christian life in the energy of the flesh and the person who after redemption tries to live the christian life in the energy of the flesh what's the difference well one will fail on the way to hell and the other will fail on the way to heaven that's the only difference the only difference will be destination because there will be no more light from a clean lamp on the table than from a dirty lamp screwed into the socket now this is the tragic fallacy that permeates a pragmatic evangelical society that has long since repudiated the imperative presence of god the holy ghost to give the spiritual dynamic to the christian life so now we're all projecting patterns on each other to which we conform and our conformity to those patterns are now equated is now equated with our spirituality and our relationship to god nothing could be farther from the truth if i superimpose certain patterns upon my own children and say you're confirmed in those patterns will be equated with your relationship to jesus christ or if as a pastor i insist that my congregation should conform to certain patterns of procedure and their conformity that those patterns of procedure will be equated with their relationship to jesus christ nothing could be farther from the truth all i'm doing is not establishing a relationship between jesus christ and them or them and jesus christ i'm simply establishing a relationship between them and me them and my denomination them and my group them and myself little wonder it's sterile little wonder it stings pardon me for saying sir it was the folly the stupidity that was being perpetuated by the galatians and the whole of the epistle was tried to enlighten these people as to what really happened when they were redeemed christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law because our moral destitution made it impossible for us to satisfy the minimal demands that god has the right to make upon creatures made in his image but he bore our sins in his own body on the tree christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree verse 14 that to this end that the blessing of abraham might come on the gentiles through jesus christ that everything that god had in mind when he made this covenant with abraham when he preached the gospel to him all those many years before ever jesus was born that all the substance all the content of what god had in mind on the basis of christ's redemptive work might now come to be yours and mine as our inheritance in him well what was it but it goes on to tell you in the 14th verse that the blessing of abraham might come on the gentiles through jesus christ that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith what god had in mind when he preached gospel to abraham saying there would be somebody born in whom any boy girl man or woman could find forgiveness was that on the grounds of that forgiveness they might receive what was lost in adam the holy spirit god the son the father and the holy spirit all the fullness of the godhead to come in the person of the comforter to take up residence within the redeemed humanity of a forgiven sinner so what do you anticipate will happen when any boy girl man or woman claims redemption and forgiveness through the shed blood of jesus what will they receive in the fulfillment of god's purpose and plan in restoring a man to his true humanity dirt out life in what for to switch the light on so that by the holy spirit cleansed in the blood of jesus any boy girl man or woman may be sealed sent and sanctified and sanctification simply means in plain language intelligently applied once more by an intelligent creator for the intelligent purpose for which intelligently created that's all the sanctification means and you and i to receive god the holy ghost somebody god himself to indwell our humanity as he is restored to the human spirit so that we might once more be applied intelligently for the intelligent purpose for which an intelligent creator intelligently created what was that purpose to provide a valid expression of god's absolute likeness to stop telling lies about god and to start by what we do and say and are telling the truth about god and the restoration person of the holy spirit is absolutely imperative for the job now before we conclude this half of our afternoon session would you just turn with me by way of preparation to the 24th chapter of luke's gospel 24th chapter of luke's gospel and we're introduced in this chapter to a bunch of men and women who for three years have been the closest devotees of the lord jesus 12 of the men were numbered to be apostles except that one has committed suicide he never got converted so he resigned from the ministry and my recommendation for any man who's a preacher who is not converted is to resign from the ministry or get converted but i don't suggest that he should commit suicide maybe he could just sell vacuum cleaners if that's an honest living depends on the vacuum cleaner and women who had such a sentimental and not insincere attachment to the lord jesus that they would wash his feet with their hair with their tears and wipe his feet with their hair and yet in those three solid years they hadn't a clue what it was all about not a clue the lord jesus was a total enigma to them they were constantly baffled at what he said and what he did they didn't want the cross did everything in their power to avoid it and when it happened refused to believe in the resurrection that's peter james and john and mary and and all the others what a bunch but then something very marvelous happened and it's all recorded for us in the 24th of luke when at last in the upper room they were finally convinced that the lord jesus had been raised again from the dead and the lord jesus said verse 44 of luke 24 these are the words which i spake unto you while i was yet with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of moses and in the prophets and in the psalms concerning me must be fulfilled nothing optional about it because it was history written in advance as we my father i and the holy spirit compelled holy men of god to write as they were divinely instructed and i have come god incarnate to implement everything as the living word that was foreshadowed in the written word and i told you all about it and you listened and you listened and you listened and you listened and you never heard a word i spake unto you while i was yet with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of moses in the prophets in the psalms concerning me then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures and said to them thus it is written and thus it behold christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at jerusalem and he explained to them exactly why he as the incarnate word god clothing himself with our humanity and though never ever less than god deliberately for 33 years of his own free volition choosing to behave as though he were never ever more than man allowing the father by the holy spirit to indwell his human spirit through whom he jesus offered himself to god without spot having come into this world to his father's total satisfaction should lay down his life a ransom for many so that there might be credited to you and to me the death that he died so that being acquitted and forgiven there might now be credited to us the life that he lived in the restoration to us of god the holy spirit who was lost in adam in other words the lord jesus explains them the redemptive efficacy of his death so that at last the penny drops and they recognize that he did not drift to disaster it was not the untimely end of a noble idealist it was stern business he came to accomplish he bore our sins in his own body on the tree in other words they've understood now that christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree he said you saw it happen and the heavens were darkened for the space of three hours as god my father made me sin for you that you might be clothed with my righteousness and accepted in the father's beloved forgiven was that the gospel no that's only dirt out that's only dirt out and you see god isn't particularly interested in having rows and rows and rows of redeemed sinners on shelves all marvelously cleansed and forgiven all in glass cases scented with lavender can you imagine how boring that would be for god just to have rows and rows and rows of redeemed saints to none of whom has been restored the life that was forfeited in adam wouldn't that be boring it'd be like a morgue or a museum that isn't what heaven's going to be like and the lovely thing is we don't even have to wait till we get there to know what it's going to be like because you and i by virtue of that spiritual resurrection for which jesus died we can have heaven on the way to heaven no no the fact that now their minds have been enlightened as to the redemptive efficacy of christ's work upon the cross did not constitute salvation it was the beginning of the gospel it's the only way only place where the gospel can begin that's why he went on to say this now you understand why i died you're going to be witnesses of these things you're going to preach repentance and remission of sins in my name among all nations beginning at jerusalem you're going to be witnesses of these things but half a minute he says you're not ready for the job yet remember dirt out dirt in life out light off and although now you understand why i died to get the dirt out you haven't yet got the life in so i haven't yet been able to switch the light on so what does he say verse 49 behold i send hasn't come yet i send the promise of my father upon you until i send the promise of my father upon you carry in the city of jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high i've taken the dirt out now wait in the city of jerusalem until according to the promise of my father the light is put in then the light will be on then you'll be fit for the job but you're not yet you've seen the atoning efficacy of my death you're overjoyed to know that i'm risen from the dead you've seen the hallmarks of my saviorhood the nail prints in my hands and feet but at the moment you're not fit for the job had the lord jesus dispatched them to do the job at that stage with nothing more than to understand why he died for them they would have been as useless and impotent as were the senseless silly unthinking galatians he says tarry in the city of jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high god's going to switch you on and that brings us to where we're going to commence our second session in the first chapter of the book of the acts the lord jesus risen from the dead conducted a 40-day six weeks short-term non-vocational bible school and being assembled together verse four with them he commanded them that they should not depart from jerusalem commanded them didn't just suggest it commanded them he said under no circumstances are you to leave the city of jerusalem and embark upon your new responsibilities but you are to wait for the promise of the father which said he you've heard of me so they're going to wait for something to happen it's the fulfillment of what the lord jesus described as the promise of the father which said he you've heard of me how does he go on to yet to happen because it hasn't happened yet in the fifth verse john indeed baptized with water ye shall be baptized with the holy ghost not many days hence so whatever it was that had not yet happened and that was so soon to happen not many days hence it represented two things one the baptism with the holy spirit and two that baptism with the holy spirit would represent the promise of the father which said jesus you've already heard of me all right supposing we were in any doubt in our minds as to what the lord jesus meant by the baptism with the holy spirit what were the best thing to do he says what is going to happen not many days hence is going to be the baptism with the holy spirit and when that happens that will be the fulfillment of the promise of the father which said he you've heard of me well the best thing to do would be to turn back the pages and discover what they had heard of him and once we've learned what they had already heard of him about the promise of the father without any ambiguity without any possible excuse for misunderstanding we shall know what he meant the lord jesus by the baptism with the holy spirit and once we've discovered what he the lord jesus meant by baptism with the holy spirit it doesn't really matter what tom dick or harry wants to believe about the baptism of the holy spirit and i would suggest that's the most objective obvious and sensible thing to do that's why we're going to do it because i'm reasonably sensible so we're going to have a word of prayer then we're going to break and you can have five minutes to powder your nose or do anything else you like and then we'll sing a hymn and uh mr gilchrist may have some announcements and then for the balance of the afternoon session uh we'll discover what they had already heard of him let's pray thank you dear lord for your word thank you for the amazing compassion that provided the means of redemption compassion that allows a holy god to restore his presence to redeem sin help us not to miss all the fantastic provisions the illimitable wealth that is ours because of christ himself being who he is god living now where he does in our hearts and in his dear name amen