Holy Spirit His Leading and Symbols

Great day of the feast. It's the Feast of Tabernacles. They've been at it for seven days. This is the eighth day. Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. And the implication is that the religion, even a God-given religion, because sadly man had complicated it and added all kinds of traditions and obscured the reality of what God had given with all their traditions, they were still thirsty, even after a week of religion. Is anyone thirsty? He said, let him come to me and drink. In other words, I can satisfy. He that believeth on me as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers, rivers of living water. This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. And we talked about this overflowing life, that not only does the Spirit of God come into our lives, but well, just put it this way. Remember when Solomon built the temple, and he prayed about it, and he said, look, heaven and heaven of heavens can't contain you, never mind this building. Now, some of us are big, but none of us are big as Solomon's temple, right? And if God can't be contained in Solomon's temple, God, the Holy Spirit, can't be contained in us either, right? He needs to flow out from us, bring in refreshment, like that rivers of living water to a dry, barren landscape all around us. But we asked ourselves the hard question, is that describing us? Are we living that abundant, overflowing, refreshing life? Is there rivers of living water flowing out of us, or is it just a trickle at best? And if so, what's blocking the flow? And part of it could be that we've just ignored this blessed person. We haven't given him the attention that Scripture gives to him. We've basically ignored him. And I was saddened in some ways to have people tell me afterwards that they'd never really heard ministry on the Spirit before. People have been in assembly fellowship for years. No wonder we're in the state we're in, if we're not addressing such fundamental issues from the Word of God. So, we need to learn about the Spirit. And I want to think a little bit, to begin with, in this session about the leading of the Spirit, because he does indeed lead the children of God. And so, I want to think about his leading. Then we'll think about some of the symbols of the Spirit. And if we've got any time left, we'll talk about the gifts of the Spirit. And even if we had time to do all that, we're still not done, because then there's the whole idea of walking in the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. And you see how exhaustive this topic is? It's huge. And we're just scratching the surface. We're just wading in the shallows. There's much more to be said, but at least we've made a start. So, this leading of the Spirit. Turn with me to Romans, please, chapter 8. Romans 8. It's kind of interesting. Some have suggested that Romans 8 is the Pentecost of the book of Romans. It's interesting that the Holy Spirit is rarely mentioned prior to chapter 8. But when you get to chapter 8, and again, you could do this as a little exercise when you get home, you could underline in your Bibles every time the Holy Spirit is mentioned in Romans chapter 8, and you'll be surprised at how frequently he is mentioned in that chapter. And when you get to Romans 8 verse 14, you read this, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. And so, what he's saying is, one of the evidences, one of the marks of sonship is the leading of the Holy Spirit. How we know that we're really sons of God is that the Spirit of God will indeed lead us. Look back to the gospel of Luke, please. We already have looked at this in a different context, but let's look again. Luke chapter 4 verse 1, the Lord Jesus, presented to us by Luke as that perfect man, the dependent man, the second man, the last Adam. We see here Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, Luke chapter 4 verse 1. Returned from Jordan, and then notice this, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. That's a kind of interesting scripture, isn't it? See, sometimes you maybe could be given the impression that if you're led by the Spirit, you'll always be led into very positive scenarios. Everything's going to go wonderful. It's going to be hunky-dory if you're led by the Spirit. But where does the Spirit lead the Lord Jesus in this verse? Into the wilderness. Well, what's he going to see in the wilderness? Who's going to meet him there? What's going to happen? Actually, he's going to be tempted by the devil for 40 days and 40 nights. Isn't that amazing? But is he in the will of God? Yes. He's led by the Spirit. And so, sometimes when we're led by the Spirit, don't expect that everything's going to go smoothly, and you may find trial, you may find difficulty, but be assured that the Spirit of God can still lead you into those scenarios. It doesn't mean everything's going to go wonderful. He's led by the Spirit, but notice verse 14, Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit. Certainly, this encounter was a very positive one in the sense that the Lord Jesus comes out of the wilderness in the power of the Spirit. Now, I want to just try and make this as practical as I can, because I want to think about this idea of leading in the Spirit. You see, how did they get guidance in the Old Testament? Well, one of the ways that they were guided in the Old Testament was by what we call casting of lots. Remember that? They cast lots, and that would give them direction. And it's very interesting that the last time casting of lots is mentioned in our Bible is Acts chapter 1. And that's to determine their replacement for Judas. But you never hear it mentioned afterwards, because something happens in Acts chapter 2 which nullifies the need for casting lots. What happens in Acts chapter 2? Well, the birth of the church, and when the birth of the church occurs, they're placed into the body of Christ, and the Holy Spirit's placed in them. And now they have a new means of guidance, and they never again will cast lots, all the way to the rest of the Scriptures. It's kind of interesting. John Wesley—this is a true story from church history, an interesting story—John Wesley saw that George Whitefield had married a lady, actually a widow, and that George Whitefield was really, really happily married. And then he saw that his brother Charles Wesley had married, and was really happily married. And he wondered, would the Lord have him to marry? And there was a widow. And so what he did was he cast lots. And the lot fell. He should marry this lady. Well, it turns out she was an insanely jealous woman. They lived close by to Charles and his wife, and one day Charles went in to see his brother, and Charles Wesley was being dragged by the hair around the house by this insanely jealous woman. And so there's no wonder John Wesley preached away from home a lot. In fact, he went on the road and never saw his wife again for years. In fact, he didn't even show up for a funeral. He did not have a happy marriage, because he cast lots. Wrong dispensation, right? Acts chapter 2. Mr. Wesley, you're a good man, but you are not thinking correctly. We have a new way of leading now, right? A new way of guidance. Now do you—I want to ask you, do you believe in the leading of the Holy Spirit? And I would suggest to you that if you have ever been in assembly fellowship for any sense of time, you know what the leading of the Spirit is. Because at the Lord's Supper, at some point, you will have witnessed the very clear evidence of the leading of the Spirit. Ever been in a Remembrance Meeting where a theme ripped through the meeting, and it was so—I remember the first Remembrance Meeting I ever went to. We were not in assembly fellowship at the time. We were living in Leeds. We were going to—in England, we were going to an evangelical church. We had a big snowstorm, and they were telling people, you know, not to drive. And we had seen this little meeting place, and this little meeting place, they had the same Scripture text outside their building that we did outside of ours, and it was just walking distance. So we thought, well, we'll just go there rather than risk the hazardous roads. And it turned out to be a little gospel hall in a place called Hare Hills in Leeds. And so we went there, and of course, they put us in the back seat because they didn't know who we were. My wife had a hat on because it was snowing, and no problem with that. But they put us in the back seat, and we sat there, and we witnessed our first ever Remembrance Meeting. I want to tell you something. A theme ripped through that meeting, and it was absolutely amazing. And I remember saying to my wife, we need to be here. But they never told you how you could get out of the back seat. So it took us eight years before we actually did come into assembly, but we were ready that morning to come into fellowship. We were so marvelous. But it was evident the Spirit of God was leading. All these different individuals getting up, but it's almost like they're working to a script. In fact, we've had visitors come to Springfield who've been in the area, and they're not from assembly background, and they've said to us, like, who orchestrated this? They could tell somebody was orchestrating it, and we know who it was. It was the Spirit of God. Now let me ask you a question. If he can do that on Sunday morning, and you've seen it, do you think the Spirit of God's exhausted after Sunday morning, and he's done for the week? Or could he do that on Monday morning? Or Tuesday evening? I mean, could he lead you with the same clarity throughout the week? In Ireland, one of the things that they'll often have is what they call open-platform conferences. And at these open-platform conferences, they don't have announced speakers. They just announce that there will be a conference and invite any that would come if they have a word from the Lord to give it. So I went to this open-platform conference in a place called Drum County Monaghan in Ireland, and it was very interesting. The brother who was one of the leading brothers, he stood at the front and he said, now brethren, we don't want any flesh here today. If you don't have a message from the Spirit of God, we don't want to hear it. If you don't have a message from the Spirit of God, we want to hear it. If you don't, we don't want to hear it. And then he said, we want to not be rushing to the platform here. Like, don't be in a mad rush to get here. We want people to come with decorum and all. Anyway, he laid out the groundwork. Anyway, the different brothers got up and shared. First brother got up, shared from Ezekiel 34, just like our brother read from this morning. And the theme throughout the whole thing was shepherd care. It wasn't prearranged. It just was, that was the message the Spirit of God wanted to give to the assemblies that morning. Everybody that spoke, it was connected to that theme. It was absolutely thrilling. And you knew that God the Holy Spirit had a message that morning. And so it was tremendous. And so I've seen that so many times, even in preaching. This is a true story. It's a nerve-wracking story. My wife almost had heart failure. But I was speaking at an assembly, and we're singing the last hymn. And my wife says, you know what you're speaking on? And I said, I have no idea. I couldn't settle on any message. I had messages in my Bible, in my mind, but I couldn't settle. She said, what are you going to do? I said, I'm going to walk up to the platform, put my Bible down, and hope that by the time I get there I've got a message. When I got to the platform and put the Bible on the platform, I knew exactly what to speak on. I gave a message, and the elders came up afterwards and said, who told you? I said, what do you mean? He said, you have just talked about the very issue that we're struggling with in this assembly. Now, how did that happen? The Spirit of God, right? Now, do we believe we can do that? Now, not just for preachers. I'm not saying that. But in everyday conversations, could the Spirit of God prompt you to call somebody, maybe in fellowship in this assembly, and just tell them, I was just thinking about you. Is everything okay? Have you ever had that experience? I've done that too sometimes, driving down the highway, and I pray, Lord, is there something you want me to call? And I call somebody, and one time I called a sister. Her husband was elsewhere, incarcerated. And I just called her, and I said, I was thinking about you today. Is there anything I can pray for you about? And she said, you're not going to believe this, Mike. She said, I was thinking to myself, nobody cares. And you called. And she was in tears. Isn't that interesting? Now, I'm not making any credit. The Spirit of God put that sister on my heart that day. And I believe with all my heart in the leading of the Holy Spirit, because I've seen it so many times. And so, it's one of the marks of sonship, those that are led by the Spirit. And what does it look like? Well, let me just talk about the leading of the Spirit. What does it really look like? Usually, when the Spirit leads us, it's against our comfort zone. It's outside of our comfort zone. So, I could be in an airport, and I've had this happen to me, where I have this strange, solid prompting to go up and talk to this complete stranger about the—now, that is not me, personally. I would rather go jogging than walk up to a complete stranger and talk to them. Like, that's not my thing. But I've had it happen where I just know God wants me to speak, and I've got up and spoken to them, and they've been wide open to the gospel. Now, this is the kind of thing I'm talking about. And it's usually against our comfort zone. It's not a comfortable thing. But he's able to lead us, and we believe that. And it's interesting that in witnessing, in visiting or calling somebody, in praying. Sometimes the Spirit of God puts somebody very much on your heart to pray for, and you pray for them. You don't know what it is, but you know that he wants you to pray for that. And then you hear afterwards that they were going through a real crisis right at that moment. And you were burdened to pray. Now, isn't that amazing? That's the Spirit of God. And so, it's an amazing, joyful life to experience this leading of the Spirit. Now, let me just say a couple of other things. I want to recommend a book to you, because this is by a man called Charles Stanley. Now, it's not the fellow from Atlanta, okay? Not the first Baptist, but there's a guy. He was Charles Stanley from Rotherham in England, which is actually from my home county of Yorkshire, about 70 miles maybe from where I was born. And this man, he was a salesman. He sold a kind of, I guess, building supplies, things like that. But he was a traveling salesman. And he used to say, he walked to the railway station, and he'd pray, and he'd say, Lord, where do you want me to go today? And he'd get on the train, wherever the Spirit of God would prompt him to go to certain places, and then he'd do his business, and then he'd preach. He was an open-air preacher. And this book is called Incidents in Gospel Work, or The Way the Lord Led Me, by Charles Stanley. And it's a remarkable book. And let me just give you one story. It's a true story in this book. One day, he was led to go to this particular village to preach. And when he got to the village, there wasn't a soul there. It's empty. There's nobody there. But he knows God's called him to preach. So he goes, and he stands on a doorstep, and he preaches to nobody. You say, this guy's insane. No, he's following the leading of the Spirit. Guess what's happening? Behind the door is a family that are waiting to go out, and they decide, well, they know there's a man on the front doorstep. They had manners in those. I don't want to disturb this man. He's obviously talking to people. So they sit there and wait till he finishes behind the door. By the time he finished the sermon, the whole family were born again. Isn't that amazing? That book is full of stories like that. Here's a man who knew something of the leading of the Spirit. Now, I want to say one more thing about the leading of the Spirit before we move on to other things. And we see it all through the book of Acts, where people were led by the Spirit very directly, very clearly. Let's look at Acts chapter 8, for instance, and then we're going to look at a verse in Galatians, and then we're going to move on to the symbols of the Spirit. But look at Acts 8 verse 26. It says, in Acts 8 verse 26, it says, And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise and go towards the south, to the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority, under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning and sitting in the chariot, read Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said to Philip, Go near and join thyself to his chariot. And Philip ran, vivid to him, and heard him, read the prophet Isaiah, and you know the rest of the story. But can you see the leading of the Spirit there? The Spirit said, Go join yourself to that chariot. What does Philip do? He ran. He responded to the leading of the Spirit, and here's a man who's ready. He's reading Isaiah. He doesn't understand what he's reading, and here's a man who knows what Isaiah is talking about and is able to lead him to Christ. Now, can God the Spirit do for you what he did for Philip the evangelist? Of course he can. But he's still working. This is still the age of the Spirit. It didn't stop after the book of Acts, right? It's still continuing to this day. The Spirit of God is still working. He's still working through people, but he's working through people that are sensitive to the leading of the Spirit of God. And if you ignore him, you're not going to have these glorious opportunities. But if you're conscious of your indwelling heavenly guest, and you're open to his promptings and his leadings, you might find yourself in somebody's chariot leading them to Christ. Now, wouldn't that be something, if we saw that? And people are seeing that. These things are real. Now, just one other scripture. Look at Galatians 5. I would love to have spent more time in Galatians and chapter 5, because it's a very important chapter that contrasts the ugliness of the flesh compared to the beautiful fruit of the Spirit. He says, For if you walk in the Spirit, verse 16, you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. The flesh lusts against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh. They're contrary, they're one to another, so that you cannot do the things that you would. But then he says this, But if you be led of the Spirit, you're not under the law. Can I just say one thing? A man who's led by the Spirit will never be led back to Mount Sinai. If you're led by the Spirit, you're not under law. He's not going to lead you to Sinai. You know where he's going to lead you? To Calvary. That's where he's going to lead you. Never to Sinai, always to Calvary. Never to law, always to grace. That's how he's going to lead you. But he wants to lead us, and are we conscious of that? And you read through the book of Acts, and you'll see things like in Acts 16, the Spirit forbidding them to go to certain places. I've had that happen. I've been invited to conferences and just felt clearly the Spirit of God was saying, No, that's not for you. And I felt the same, the opposite, where not only I need to go there, but I know what I'm going to speak on immediately. Right? Are we in tune? Are we conscious of the leading of the Spirit? And we need that. And not just at the Lord's Supper, but in all of our Christian experience, every single day, being conscious of him. Now, let's think about the symbols of the Spirit of God for a moment, because sometimes the way my mind works, sometimes I find the pictures of the Bible sometimes easier to grasp than the precepts. Right? Maybe that's just the way my mind is, but I love typology. I love all these pictures. God's picture book, where he stamps these pictures and these impressions throughout the Word of God that are just delightful. So, when it comes to the Holy Spirit, one of the symbols of the Spirit is the dove, as we know well. And I want you to look at the gospel of Luke, chapter 3, please. Luke 3, verse 22. Well, let's read from verse 21. It says, Now, when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized. And then Luke tells us something that no other gospel writer tells us about the baptism of the Lord Jesus. And again, this is so harmonious with Luke, because remember, Luke is presenting the Lord Jesus as the dependent man. And so it says, the Lord Jesus being baptized and praying. Now, Matthew doesn't tell you that. Mark doesn't tell you that. John doesn't tell you that. Luke says, when Jesus was baptized, he was praying. So you might say, everybody would say that the Jesus public ministry began at his baptism, right? That's when he publicly enters into his role as Messiah, like he knew he was Messiah all along. We know that from 12 years of age, right? But the ministry actually begins. How did his ministry begin? In prayer. Isn't that interesting? Remember Saul of Tarsus? Ananias—somebody mentioned it this morning at the Lord's Supper—Ananias was told to go to a street called Strait, where he'd find one Saul and him praying. Where did his ministry begin? In prayer. Isn't that interesting? Can I say this? A ministry that doesn't begin in the place of prayer probably won't amount to much. It begins in prayer. The Teagues will know pretty well, I'm sure, the history of new tribes. But how new tribes started was a prayer meeting, and I'll never forget the story, because there were a group of guys, and they were on their knees praying, and one guy was praying so intently that on his knees he'd push the chair out of the door, and he was going down the hallway on his knees praying. That's how the ministry began—in prayer. So, it says, Jesus and praying, it says, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him. And a voice came from heaven which said, My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. So, a dove, first of all, we all know it as a symbol of peace, don't we? Have you ever seen the peace symbol, a dove with a kind of olive branch in its mouth, all that kind of stuff? What's amazing to me is we said that one of the reasons we neglect the Holy Spirit is because of a reaction to the charismatic movement where we have the pendulum has swung so far the other direction that we're actually scared of this person. But I think to myself, why would anybody be scared of a dove, right? Like, what kind of a wimp are you if you're frightened of a dove, right? I mean, isn't that a picture of gentleness? I mean, that's how he works with us. Even back in Genesis, it's interesting that it just turned back to Genesis 1 and verse 2. Actually, we're going to look at a couple of references in Genesis, but Genesis 1-2. I'm going to read it to you in the King James Version, and we're going to read the Jewish Talmud's rendering of this. It says, the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And if you were to read the Jewish Talmud, it would say this, the Spirit of God, like a dove, brooded over the waters. A lovely picture. The Spirit of God, like a dove, brooded over the waters. Now look at Genesis 8. And of course, we know that a dove is a clean animal. It's often very jealous of the purity of its plumage, cleaning itself all the time, and certainly a bird that's known as a lover of peace. And when we look at Genesis 8 verse 8, it says, And he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground. And the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put forth his hand and took her and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet another seven days. And again, he sent forth the dove out of the ark, and the dove came into him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off, so no one knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet another seven days and sent forth the dove, which returned not again unto him anymore. Some have suggested that this dove that was sent out for the third time didn't return again. And the picture was it was looking for a clean place to land. And we don't see it again, and some have suggested until you get to Luke chapter 3 in verse 22. And finally, the dove finds a clean place to land on the person of the Lord Jesus. Now, I don't know how accurate that is. Many commentators have commented about that, but I find it a very beautiful picture. Because when the Spirit of God comes into us, the first thing that has to be done is we have to be cleaned up before he comes to take up residence. That's why you have the washing of regeneration, followed by the renewing of the Holy Ghost, because he'll only come into a clean place. And that's why you have to be born again, so the Spirit of God can come and take up residence in your life. The Holy Spirit, like the dove, is characterized by gentleness, tenderness, and purity. It's a lovely thing. Matthew 10, 16 says that we're to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. And again, we would say this, the Spirit of God is not going to harm us. He's going to do much good to us. Isaiah 38, 14 talks about mourning like a dove. And we've already seen that the Spirit of God yearns jealously when we're not madly in love with the Lord Jesus. The Spirit of God, in his grieving, is mourning because we're not madly in love with the Lord Jesus. So, just lovely pictures in terms of that. I want to move on to another one, and that is the symbol of oil in Scripture, is often used as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. And it was used, this oil, because it gives a picture of something soothing, healing. It was often used for healing. Remember the man that, on his journey, was set among thieves, and they poured in oil and wine. Remember that? And so, there's a soothing aspect to the ministry of the Spirit. But in the Old Testament, we have the anointing with oil. And prophets, priests, and kings were all anointed with oil. If you remember that, you remember David, we saw that yesterday, that when he was anointed with oil, it says that the Spirit left Saul when it came upon David. That anointing is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Those who anointed were set apart for divine service—the prophet, the priest, the king. They were not to act as other men because they were to recognize the solemnity of the fact that the oil of God was upon them. Look at Leviticus, please, Leviticus chapter 10. I want to just think about having this anointing oil of God upon someone. In the Old Testament, what it meant, practically, this is the story of Nadab and Abihu. Remember, they offered strange fire, and they were burnt to a frazzle, as it were, before the Lord. And we have Aaron and Eliezer. In verse 6, Moses said to Aaron and to Eliezer, to Ithamar, His sons, uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes, lest you die, and lest wrath come upon all the people. But let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord hath kindled. And you shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, lest you die, for the anointed oil of the Lord is upon you. And they did according to the word of Moses. And so, just a simple example, but they couldn't do what normal men would do because the oil of God was upon them. They were set apart for divine service. They couldn't just do whatever, but normally people would immediately get out of there, and they would begin to mourn, but they've got the oil of God upon them. They can't do that. So, it was the priest was anointed, the king, and the prophet all were anointed. Let's look at references to that, Leviticus 21 and verses 10 through 12. We read this. It says, And he that is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, and shall not uncover his head, nor rend his clothes, neither shall he go in unto any dead body, nor defile himself, for his father or for his mother, neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God, for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him. I am the Lord. So, the high priest was anointed with oil. Now, again, what is that symbolic of? The picture is a symbol of this, that in order to do divine service in holy things, the oil symbolized the Spirit of God. This could not be done in the energy of men's flesh. It had to be done under the power and authority of the Holy Spirit. So, that's the idea of anointing. The king, same thing, 1 Samuel chapter 24 and verse 6, 1 Samuel 24 verse 6. You're going to be a king ruling for God in the nation of Israel. It says in verse 6, And he said unto his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. David had a couple of opportunities to wipe out his enemy, Saul. Remember that? I mean, it's like almost God delivered Saul right into his hands on two different occasions. On both occasions, David refused. Why did he refuse? Because he is the Lord's anointed. He had the anointing oil of God upon him. Chapter 26 and verse 9 of 1 Samuel, David said to Abishai, Destroy him not, for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? And then the prophets. Let's look at 1 Kings chapter 19, 1 Kings 19 and verse 16. It says, And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. And so again, anointing the prophet. Verse 19, it says, So he departed thence and found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. And Elijah passed by him, cast his mantle upon him. And so the prophet anointed. Now, so what we can say is this, prophet, priest, king, anointed. What about Lucifer? What did it say about him? He was the anointed cherub. Wow, that's pretty serious, isn't it? He had the oil of God upon him. And yet when he fell, serious consequences. So just this idea of anointing. And of course, the reason for all this is this, that it all foreshadowed the one who would ultimately combine the three offices of prophet, priest, and king in one person. That's the Lord Jesus, right? He, the Messiah. Now, it's interesting, when we think of the term Christ, for instance, in the New Testament, we often say, we call him the Lord Jesus Christ. That term Christ, it literally is anointed. Chrisma is the Greek word. It means anointed. He has the oil of God upon him. He is the anointed one. That's the idea of Messiah. He is the anointed one. And so let's just look at the Lord Jesus in terms of the reality of what we saw in picture in the Old Testament. Luke's Gospel chapter 4 again. Luke 4, as he goes to the synagogue in Nazareth after his temptation in the wilderness. This is the Holy Spirit chapter in the life of the Lord Jesus. If you remember verse 1, he's full of the Holy Spirit. He's led by the Spirit. Verse 14, he comes out in the power of the Spirit, and then he says in verse 18, he's reading Isaiah the prophet, and he's reading from Isaiah 61. And this is what he says, The Spirit of the Lord, verse 18, is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, to recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and gave it again to the minister and sat down, and the eyes of all of them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. What is it telling us? Jesus is the anointed one who is going to combine all these offices of priest and king and prophet in one person. Now, I want you just to look at the understanding of this truth as it's seen in the apostles. Acts chapter 10, Peter preaching in the household of Cornelius, giving the gospel to them. One of the things that he wants them to know is this, Acts 10, 38, it says how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth. Now, notice what it says. It's not that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth by pouring oil on him. That's the symbol, the picture. But what happened to Jesus is what the oil symbolized, the reality actually came upon him. Old Testament, they use the picture. New Testament, it's the fulfillment of the picture. And so, again, let's read that verse. 10, 38, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power. He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. Look at Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 9. Again, this idea of anointing as it relates to Messiah, the Lord Jesus, the one who is the Christ. Hebrews 1 verse 9, thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Right? So, again, Jesus clearly is the anointed one. And hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Remember we said nobody was fully yielded to God more than the Lord Jesus, and the Spirit was given to him beyond measure, John 3, 34. But now, what about you and I? Look at 2 Corinthians with me for a moment in chapter 1 and verse 21. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 21, speaking to Christians, and he says of us, Now he which establisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God who hath sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. Wow! I can see Jesus is the anointed, but now what is he telling us? You're anointed. Isn't that amazing? And you didn't get somebody pouring oil on your head, you got the real thing. The Spirit of God came and took up residence in your life. So what does that mean? Well, you're anointed for what purpose? What does it mean that the oil of God is upon you? Well, it's interesting that one of the things that's true of the New Testament is that every believer is a priest. Right? So you've got the oil of God. You're a priest. Part of the Spirit of God being given to you is so you can be an effective priest for God. And who speaks for God in this world? We might not have the prophetic office, but who—you know, I remember when I was first saved at work, and the coffee break, it was during the Falklands War, and everybody would get together, and so they would always ask me because they knew that I was a Christian. What does God have to say about all this? See, who speaks for God? We do. We're not only priests, we're God's spokesmen in this world. Aren't we? And then what about kings? Well, he's made us kings and priests unto our God, and we shall reign on the earth. So we're anointed. He says, now he which established us with you in Christ and anointed us is God. Look at 1 John 2.20. But you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things. That word unction is the same word as anointed, exactly the same. It's translated a different way. It's the same word in Greek. Verse 27 of 1 John 2, it says, But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and you need not that any man teach you, but the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in him. So what it's telling us is that part of the purpose of giving us the Spirit, this anointing that has been given to us, we've received and abides in you. It says you've no need that anyone teach you. So if you just wasted a whole weekend because you've been listening to somebody teaching you. Now, it's not saying, what's John doing, by the way, in his epistle? What's he actually doing? He's teaching. It's not saying that we don't benefit from teaching. God's given teachers to the church. He's given instructions through the epistles. He's not opposed to teaching. But the idea is this, that having the Spirit within you, it gives you the ability to discern what's right and what's wrong, what's error and what's truth. I remember a friend of mine, when he was newly converted, some Adventists kind of got hold of him very early on, and they started taking him along to meetings. He was only there a few times, and he just, a young believer, only just saved. He said, there's something not right about this. How did he know that? Well, the anointing that anointed him showed him. When we were first saved, the charismatic movement was just going wild. A number of people left our church, and when they took us along, and I remember being in a meeting, and everybody in the room was speaking in tongues except my wife and I, and I'll tell you what, there was a cold chill went up my spine. I mean, it was demonic. There's no question about it. I said to my wife, we're out of here. Now, I couldn't explain why. I couldn't articulate what was wrong with the charismatic movement theologically, but I knew this is not of God. How did I know that? Because having the Spirit of God living within me, the anointing which you've been anointed of, and you know what is true, because what is the Spirit? Well, he's the Spirit of truth, and he's going to lead us into all truth, and so that anointing, it gives you that ability to smell error, to know something is not right. It's a wonderful thing. We know intuitively that something is not right. A child of God is an inbuilt protection to discern between truth and error, which flows from the Spirit of God. Now, we often say, and we use this term, that we pray that Brother So-and-So's ministry will be anointed, or that Brother So-and-So will have real unction. Have you ever heard those terms used? And what it's really saying is that the Spirit of God would be speaking through that man. And we want that, right? We want the Spirit's message through that instrument, human instrument. We don't want his opinions or his—we want what the Spirit has to say to the churches. So, we pray for anointed ministry. We pray for ministry that has genuine unction, because we want it to be the message of the Spirit for the churches. Either it has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit has to say to the churches. Now, just a couple of things about that anointing oil that was used in the Old Testament. Back in Exodus chapter 30 and verse 22 onwards, this oil that was used was a very special oil. It says, Thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office. And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, This shall be an holy anointing oil unto me throughout your generations. Upon man's flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall you make any other like it after the composition of it. It is holy, it shall be holy unto you. Whoever compoundeth any like it, or whoever putteth any of it upon a stranger, shall even be cut off from his people. And the Lord said to Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte and uncia galbenum. These sweet spices, with pure frankincense of each, shall there be a like weight, and there shall make it a perfume, a confection, after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy. And thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put it before the testimony of the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee. It shall be unto you most holy. And as for the perfume which thou shalt make, you shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof. It shall be unto thee holy for the Lord. So it was olive oil plus four precious ingredients that gave a beautiful aroma. So the priest, when he had this oil upon him, there was a nice smell. Everywhere he went, you could smell it, and you weren't allowed to copy it. Now, it's kind of interesting. There's certain aftershaves. One conference I used to go to, and there was a brother, and I used to always hug him, and I used to love the smell of it. And I said, what is that? And so he told me what it is, and I use it myself now. But there's a fake knockoff version of it for a fraction of the price, because somebody copied it. Now, if you copied the smell of the fragrant oil here, the penalty was death. You couldn't copy it. It was only for divine things. It was set aside for divine things. And this oil produced a beautiful fragrance. And if we could just say this, that the Spirit of God, if we fully are under his control, what will be evident in our lives is the fruit of the Spirit. And you know what that is—love, joy, peace, all those things. And it's beautiful. What it is is Christlikeness. And in contrast to the stench of the flesh that is ascending to the nostrils of God from this wicked world, all of a sudden there's this beautiful aroma that comes into his presence of people yielded to the Spirit of God who smell like his Son, Christlike. Isn't that wonderful? And that's what God wants from us, that fragrance of Christ. And so this oil had that beautiful fragrance about it. And then, of course, other symbols—fire we've talked about. We've talked a little bit about water. It's just interesting that in the water, it's used in terms of the new birth, born by water and the Spirit. In 1 John's Gospel chapter 4, it talks about this Samaritan woman, that the water that Jesus will give her will be like a well welling up within her. And then in John 7, it's going to be like rivers flowing out of us. And so it starts out just water in the new birth, a well of water springing up, full supply, and then a river of water flowing out to each other. And so what it's telling us is this. The Spirit of God is not only sufficient to meet your needs, but also to minister to others as well. He's given not just for you, but through you to minister to others. That's why we talk about this overflowing life, this life of refreshment, a river of water flowing out to each other. And in each case, there's an increase in John 3 to John 4 to John 7 to this point of rivers of living water. There's a lot more I could say, but I want to move on and talk a little bit about the wind, because it's a very interesting thing, the wind of the Spirit. Actually, in Hebrew and Greek, wind, the word for wind, it can also be breath and can also be the same word as spirit. Wind, breath, all the same word, both in Hebrew and Greek. And so it's kind of an interesting thing. And so Genesis 2 verse 7, the first man, it says, The Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. We've already looked at it before, but look at Job 33 and verse 4. Job 33 verse 4, it says, The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. So when we think about wind, it's interesting in Scripture that we'll see the symbol of the wind in connection with the Spirit in three particular ways. And I want you to look at Ezekiel 37 to begin with, this picture of wind being one of the emblems of the Holy Spirit. Notice in Ezekiel 37 and verse 9, this is where the prophet is told to go and preach in a graveyard. Sometimes we preachers feel that we can identify with Ezekiel, because sometimes it seems like we're preaching in a graveyard. But he says in verse 9, he says, He said unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. And so in this first instance, I'm going to look at what results in this. What is the result of him prophesying to the wind, and the four winds blow, and they blow on this graveyard, and what happens? Well, actually, the bones kind of come out of the graves, and then they join together, and then they take on flesh, and all of a sudden there's, well, there's revival in the graveyard. And what is that revival? Well, the text tells us what it is. What is he speaking about? He's talking about the nation of Israel. Verse 11, Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, Our bones are dried, our hope is lost, we're cut off of our parts. Therefore prophesy, I say to them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, cause you to come up out of the graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. So, let me just say it this way, briefly, to the point. The first time the wind is used is in connection with the rebirth of the nation of Israel. Right? They've been scattered in their graveyards throughout the world. They've been, their parts have not been together, and God miraculously brings them together, reunited as a nation. Okay? So, the rebirth of a nation. John's Gospel chapter 3, the story of Nicodemus, the rebirth of an individual, right? The wind blows where it wills. You hear the sound of it. And so, he likens the new birth to the operation of the wind. You can't see the wind, but you can see what the wind does. And the wind does blow where it wills. And you hear the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. So, you've got the birth of a nation, the rebirth of a nation. You've got the rebirth of an individual. And then, in the book of Acts chapter 2, what happened on the day of Pentecost? There was the sound of a rushing, mighty wind. And what is that to do with? The birthday of the church. The national rebirth of Israel, the individual new birth, and the birthday of the church are all connected with the ministry of the Holy Spirit, symbolized as the wind. So, these are just little pictures, symbols that have been given to us concerning the Spirit of God. But the pictures are helpful. But what we need to realize is the reality that that oil, the anointing, we have the anointing. You have living within you the Spirit of God. If you're born again, the wind of the Spirit blew in your particular direction on that day that you saw yourself as a sinner, and you passed from death to life. You believe the gospel. You're new birth. You're part of the church, which was formed by the rushing, mighty wind of the Spirit, right? So, all of these things are coming together. And this dove, this gentle dove that lives within you, he found a clean place when you were cleaned up through regeneration, and now the renewing of the Holy Spirit. So, all of them find the reality in us, in our condition today. And so, the question is, our conference is just about concluded, but I want to say this. What are you going to do with the information that you've heard? Because I think that many of us, if we're really honest, we don't have that overflowing life. We can't say, actually, out of my innermost being, I did come to Jesus. I was thirsty, and I did believe, but I can't say that I have that overflowing life. And if you don't have that overflowing life, something's blocking the flow. Something's stopping the Spirit of God. Maybe it could be just ignorance. You just didn't know. But you know now. You know that he's a real person. You know that he's a divine person. You know that he lives within you. You know that he wants to lead you. You know that he wants to use you and empower you. You know that he wants to produce the fruit of Christlikeness through you. You know now. But what will you do with what you know? Are we going to yield ourselves fully to his control? Are we going to empty the things that we have been full of from our lives—full of strife and wrath and lust and all these other things and greed and guilt and all—full of things? We're going to rid ourselves of these? Are we going to do what that great hymn says? Emptied, emptied that thou shouldest fill me, a clean vessel in thy hand. We will see how good the conference has been by what the results will be in our lives. Not how many came, not how good the meals were, not how good the fellowship was, but whether it actually made a difference in our lives. My prayer is that it will make a difference, that we'll start to live the overflowing, abundant life that God intended us to, and that we can only live in the energy and the power of the Spirit. The flesh all had to come to the place where he said that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. And much of the flesh work of Paul was religious flesh. It still stinks—religious flesh. There's rotten flesh. There's religious flesh. It's flesh. It's a stink. What God wants is to smell the lovely anointing oil, that fragrance of Christlikeness that only the Spirit of God can produce. May we, without hesitation, yield ourselves fully to the Spirit's control. Let's pray. Our Father, we're so grateful for this opportunity that thou has granted to us over the course of these days together. And again, Lord, we're asking that there would be eternal consequences as a result of this weekend, that we would leave here with a much greater consciousness that our bodies are actually the temple of the Holy Spirit, that we have living within us a real person, a divine person, a holy person, and a person that doesn't just want to be resident in our lives, but wants to be president in our lives. And Father, we confess that for too many of us, he's been resident for a long time, but he hasn't been president. Lord, today we want to make an exchange and say, we no longer want to be president. We want him to be president in our lives, to lead us, guide us, and direct us, and empower us, and control us, and enable us to walk in a worthy walk, and to even speak to us, direct us in our steps. Lord, help us, we pray. We desperately need New Testament, Spirit-filled, Spirit-led Christianity, and we'll be so quick to give thee the glory. In Jesus' name, amen. We do thank you for being with us. The Lord has given us a lot of things to think about, remember, apply to our lives. Again, we're going to sing another prayer to the Lord himself. Our Good Shepherd has given his life for us as sheep, and he has sent the Spirit of Christ to do all this for us. So as we sing this song, remember that the Spirit is here to lead us. 482, and I read handbooks, 482. Savior, like a shepherd lead us, much we need thy tender care. In thy pleasant pastures feed us, for our use thy folds prepare. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou hast bought us, thine we are. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou hast bought us, thine we are. We are thine, thou do befriend us, be the guardian of our way. Keep thy flock from intend us, seek us when we go astray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, hear, oh hear us when we pray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, hear, oh hear us when we pray. Thou hast promised to receive us, poor and sinful though we be. Thou hast mercy to relieve us, grace to cleanse and power to free. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, early let us turn to thee. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, early let us turn to thee. Early let us seek thy favor, early let us do thy will. Blessed Lord and only Savior, with thy love our bosom fill. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou hast loved us, love us still. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou hast loved us, love us still. I'd like to ask Brother Jim Allen if he will bring us before the Lord in prayer and give thanks for the food downstairs. We thank you that we can enjoy peace with you because of our clean vessels fit for master's use. We pray that we would take this teaching that we've heard in the last two days, take it to heart, meditate upon it, and apply it in our lives and rejoice knowing that your Holy Spirit dwells us and leads us. We thank you for your loving kindness. We do give you thanks for this food and for the day but we make our prayers to you in the name of the Lord Jesus our Savior. Amen. Dinner should be ready to partake of downstairs.