May 27, 2008

• Blaspheme of the Holy Spirit by Pastor Don

  This is a continuation of the previous post found here.

  Matthew 16:15-17 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

  The fact of Jesus being Christ was revealed to Simon Peter.

  Pastor Don said that we have to change our approach to evangelism. There will be some people you just can’t reach. If much is given, much is required. If a person has a little, more will be given. But to him who has none, none will be given. This comes from the parable of the Talents. But the reason for this is that revelations come from God, and are only available from God.

  Can you read your mail if the postman doesn’t show up? No. So if the Holy Spirit who is God doesn’t bring you the mail, can you open it and read it? No. So we have to ask the question whenever we are witnessing to people, trying to lead people to the Lord. We are not looking to win the world, we are looking to find and lead and disciple those who have the witness of the Spirit. You are looking for the sheep that have been tweaked, as it wore, or open or spoken to. Now they may not have had the right revelation. You can get somebody that is looking in the new age or at witchcraft or looking for something in love or crossword puzzles or astrology, looking at all the different places. But the Holy Spirit is speaking to them, they just can’t translate the language. They just don’t know where to go.

  That’s the one thing our church (Living Word Chapel – see link) does effectively. People come here, and we don’t discriminate. We’re not sending everybody to hell every Sunday out of the Pulpit. That’s not Pastor Don’s way. He knows the people are coming, they are searching. They’ve got something. The Holy Spirit leads them to us. One of our members was watching Pastor Don on TV, and as a response she finds out that the church is right here, near where she lives. How did that happen? We had a guy last Sunday from New Paltz, he saw the TV show, and came to check us out. The Holy Spirit leads people here.

  We are looking for people who receive the revelation. Evangelism is not that hard. You don’t have to get up on a pulpit or a soapbox and do all of that. Someone was putting up telephone poles a few years ago on Pastor Don’s property, and recently they sent the same crew to put up more phone poles. A couple of years ago one of the telephone guys was a little curious about Pastor Don. He told us he didn’t give a speech or anything. The man just said, “Oh, I know one of your members.” I said, “Well, they’re not members of mine, they are members of the Living Word Chapel, and love Jesus.” That was all I said. So he came up to Pastor Don this time and said, “Don, when are your worship services?” He says, “I can’t come this week, but somehow its been on my mind. I think I want to come.” The great evangelist that Pastor Don is said, “9 and 12:30″. That’s all, no sermon, no speech. I didn’t say, “You want to pray? Let me lay hands on you.”

  A question came out. Say you were sick and God healed you and people notice that you are all of a sudden healed, can you say, “To God be the glory, He healed me?” Pastor Don said yes, but period. Don’t go on and on.  Here’s why, the Holy Spirit is talking to them and if the Holy Spirit is ready to go to the next level, the person will say, “You know, I don’t have much time now, but could you tell me about that?” The person who asked the question then said, “Well, I see a different look on their face when I mention Christ.”

  Pastor Don replied, when you start throwing your net further, they will often not want to talk more, so you just have to know that the Holy Spirit hasn’t revealed it to them yet. Someone made a comment that that’s how Jesus used the net. When the disciples were fishing they didn’t catch anything on their own, then Jesus told them where to cast the net and when, and they caught many fish.

  Jesus has given us a picture of what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit throws out the net, all we’re supposed to do is find the fish, that’s all.  He’ll clean them. That’s why this is a great church, we accept people, no matter where they come from or what their background was. We’re not going to throw them out no matter the sin, murder, homosexuality, adultery, stealing, or whatever. We’re just as guilty of sins ourselves.

  It’s funny, you take somebody that really feels that they’re righteous and all you have to do is talk to them long enough and you’ll find out what’s in their closet. And if there’s nothing in their closet, you’ll find pride. Pride in their righteousness. Just the other day someone said to me, I can’t believe it, you have over 100 people taking discipleship. My pastor grieves over the fact that if he has a Bible study only 2 or 3 show up. He does everything he can, and nobody shows up. Pastor Don said, “Praise God, Amen, God’s done it!”

  Matthew 16:17  Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

  How did Peter get the revelation? By Jesus’ Father (God), through the Holy Spirit. So often people get a revelation and then start taking credit for the idea. “Oh, I got a great revelation.” NO YOU DIDN’T, you received a great revelation. You didn’t go and get it. We start thinking, I’m so special because I got this great revelation. You didn’t go and get it, the Holy Spirit gave it to you. The Holy Spirit showed you something. You say, OK, show me the revelation. This is the foundation of the church. Look what it says in verse 18.

  Matthew 16:18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

  The Father does it by His Spirit, revealing that the foundation of the Church is Jesus the Messiah, and it is on that rock (Jesus) that the Church will be founded.

  Pastor Don suggested that we need to be nice to people who aren’t saved today, because God could give them a revelation  in five minutes, and step out to being a spiritual giant overnight.

  Someone then asked Pastor Don if an idea could come to a person, not from the Holy Spirit, and be used to pull a person off track from God’s plan. He said that it is possible to get an idea that is not of God, but the end of it is total destruction. The devil does not usually work in non harmful ways. He gives an idea that ends up a scam, for example, those emails saying that they have money for you – you need to test your revelation.  Every idea that you get is not a great idea.

  Hebrews 6:5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,

  How do we taste the good word of God and the powers of the age to come? Through the Holy Spirit. The revelation of the Holy Spirit is in all these categories.

  Hebrews 6:6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

  If they fall away, now remember the word IMPOSSIBLE used in verse 4 which is the start of this sentence “For it is impossible” to renew again to repentance. Why is this important. In discipling people and ministering to them, the devil plants it in the back of people’s minds that they have done something and are eternally rejected by God. The reality is that there is only one thing that qualifies a person to be eternally rejected by God. Are murderers eternally rejected by God? NO. Slanderers? NO, Liars? NO. Sexual perverts? NO, The only one is someone who qualifies according to the criterion, enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit, tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. If THEY then walk away from the Lord, saying that they don’t want the revelation of the Holy Spirit, that they want to reject the Holy Spirit, that they reject God and what Jesus has done on the cross and they leave not only the church, but they walk away totally, in total rejection. It says that if they did wake up one morning and say I want to come back, Jesus is saying that is not possible, they are eternally damned. And the reason is that they knew the truth.  There is a difference between I’ve made a mistake and I didn’t know, to I knew and reject. Who do we get the most angry with? A person who accidentally did something wrong or a person who should know better?

  Why won’t lucifer be forgiven? lucifer knew God, he knew the power of God, he knew the reality of God. So we have to ask this question. Who is he talking about here? He was saying that Judas qualified on all these points and then crucified the Lord. Now here’s the problem. It isn’t that he couldn’t be saved, because anyone that can repent can be saved. But what is our basis of repentance? It is on the sacrifice of Christ. I’m taking my sin and putting it on the cross. I’m putting my sin on Jesus. But, if you turned your back and rejected Jesus on the cross,and Jesus died one time at the sacrifice and was the mediator between God and man. He’s to die once, then what can you repent of? You don’t have anything to repent on. As verse 6 shows, Jesus was only crucified once.

  Someone asked about who can forgive sins, do we have the right to tell others that their sins are forgiven.

  John 20:21-23 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

  When we are born again we receive the Holy Spirit, and as we are consecrated with the one who revealed Jesus to us, we receive the dynamite power of the Holy Spirit by receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. But here it doesn’t say the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it just says in verse 23 that they have the Holy Spirit. We, as disciples of Christ, are told if YOU forgive they are forgiven, if YOU retain the sins of any they are retained.

  Pastor Don said that if a guy came to his office and said I committed adultery, and I ask him what did you do about it, the man says that he has repented, is ashamed, and wants to make it right. I tell him what to do to make it right and he says, “I don’t want to do that.” then his sins are not forgiven. You are still in your sin and all the consequences of your sin are going to follow you. But when you get ready to follow good Biblical counsel, then you can come back to Pastor don and let him know. Your repentance is based on your willingness to act on it. Pastor Don told him that he would have to have his wife and him come to his office and talk about this, and work things out. He told the person his wife would beat him up about it for a year or so, but in the end, if they worked together through this, their relationship would be stronger. Some repent of the action or getting caught, but they are lying through their teeth, waiting for another escapade.

  Pastor Don then asked why didn’t Moses get into the Promised Land. Remember that Moses was refused entrance to the Promised Land, because when the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness and needed water – Moses was told to strike a rock and water would spring forth. That is a symbol of Jesus on the Cross, and the water and blood that he shed. The next time the Israelites needed water, Moses was told to SPEAK to the rock, but in a moment of flesh he berated the Israelites and struck the rock – that broke God’s picture of Jesus being sacrificed once – and because of that second of rebelion and pride, Moses was prevented from entering the Promised Land. Moses qualified under all the points in Hebrews 6, and instead of speaking to the rock he struck the rock. Yet, He did repent, and God brought him to see the Promised Land on Mt. Nebo, but he was unable to enter the land because of that sin.

  We ran out of time for the Bible study. (Heather’s comment, remember this is not so we can point our finger and accuse people of Blaspheme of the Holy Spirit, but there are many who fear that they have blasphemed the Holy Spirit and this teaching can be used to assure them that they have not done that.)

  I hope this blesses you. The next Friday Bible study continues on this theme, and I will start sharing it tomorrow. Have a wonderful day.

  Heather

  • 9:45 am
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