The Glorious Spirit

- Good morning, Hickory Bible Church. (audience laughs) I am Scott Williams, the administrative pastor here. The guy who normally fills the pulpit at an ash off is with family, fall break, enjoying some time with the crew out in the west, and so pray for them to have a safe trip back in a good time together. So we are going to be in Second Corinthians chapter three this morning, so if you'll turn in your Bible to Second Corinthians chapter three, and I will tell you that in this chapter, we could focus on several different aspects, just like a multifaceted diamond. We could focus, for instance, on this is a church that as Kurt Gephard spoke about last week, it had some serious issues, and we could speak to the fact that in the first few verses, Paul is going to defend himself against some of the false teachers who had crept in, and we're casting doubt and dispersion on the revealed word of God that Paul had been present to that church. We could also focus exclusively on the old covenant versus the new covenant, because it is a major part of chapter three. But what I'm going to focus on today is primarily the triune God, meaning God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Three persons in one distinct Godhead, and specifically, I have the emphasis on the Holy Spirit that we will see in chapter three of Second Corinthians. Now, before I dive in there, I have to give you behind the scenes snapshot easier for you to sign in me. And I'm going to blame Ronald, our worship pastor. You're going to suffer through this, because Ronald is one who presented this to me last week. Ronald, this course, prepares the music to go with the worship service. And so he said, "What are you going to be preaching on?" I said, "Second Corinthians three," and speaking on the Holy Spirit. And he says, "Hey, did you hear about the pastor, that the clip was on social media this week, that God told him to go up to another male speaker at a charisma magazine function, and plant a big juicy kiss on this other preacher's neck." And he said, "God told me to do that." And the people go, "They laugh." And I'm going, "How creepy is that?" It's so creepy. So then Ronald tells me that and I did believe him, but I had to go see for myself. So I went, looked it up. And then I did another couple of clicks in there. And I found out this guy also claims that the Spirit of God took him back, and he was present at Christ crucifixion. And then the other one was, and this one, he was in the woods in Texas, and he looked at the tree, and he materialized a squirrel in the tree. So with that kind of lunacy surrounding what God tells people to do and claiming the Holy Spirit, I think it's good for us to see what Scripture actually has to say about the work of the Triangod and the Holy Spirit in our lives. I went, dug just a little deeper on this guy, found out he's up in Wilkes County. I was like, wow, I'm gonna be careful which apples I pick and eat, depending on if he might have gotten to him. And this is what it said in his bio. This person lives in close abiding intimacy with the Spirit of God. He is honored for his extreme sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. So understand the claims that are made that are attributed to the Holy Spirit are actually blasphemous in many, many, many cases, as is in the case of this guy that now you can blame Ronald for having to hear this nonsense to get started, right? But before we also dive into Second Corinthians 3, I have to go back all the way to Exodus 31 and pick up with one of the Judaism on the Mount Rushmore of Judaism Moses. And Moses is who we see in Exodus 31 where I'm just gonna summarize, he goes up on the Mount Sinai in order to meet with God. God takes and gives him the Ten Commandments. And if you recall, he actually cars them on stone. Our pastors today will talk about, he actually carves them with this finger. And me being me goes, I wonder if it had a certain font because I think about weird stuff, like fonts. Did he put it in italics in Hebrew? But he carved it and I can picture the sparks flying and I always think about how we think, I remember walking to an furniture plant 35 years ago and seeing a computer-controlled router going, wow, wow, look at how efficient that is. It doesn't waste any pattern, any of the cloth. And I was like, no, God invented CCR back, I'm not saying it, we just discovered it later on. He is a God far above us. Well, Moses got those Ten Commandments. He is then going down the mountain to present to the children of Israel, as you recall, they have fallen into gross idolatry, had built a golden calf in our worshiping it and participating in all kinds of ludionless, insidious activity. Moses crashes those stones in disgust, deals with the people. He then is called back up to the mountain with God in Exodus 32 and God replaces those tablets. He makes new ones. And when Moses comes down the mountain and comes to the people, his face is glowing like nobody's business. It scares the people, his face is so glowing. And so we get a picture of the fact of God's incredible light in this reflected light on Moses. So to the point where the people said, you've got to put a veil over that thing 'cause you're scaring us. That's the Wilms translation. It doesn't say that exactly in Exodus 32, but you can check out, read the story in Exodus 31 and 32 and you'll see that the basics of what I'm telling you there is actually true. So with that in mind, thinking about that because that's gonna be referenced in second Corinthians 3, let's go to the text and let's read the first 11 verses and then we'll read the others just a little bit later. Second Corinthians chapter three verse one, are we beginning to commend ourselves again or do we need some letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter written in our hearts known and read by all men, being manifested that you are a letter of Christ cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God, not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the spirit for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death and letters engraved on stones came with glory so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, how much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory? For indeed, what had glory in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it? For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory. Lord, we do pray that you will help us to listen with hearts open to the Holy Spirit's work, taking the word and doing a work in our lives. Lord, may I deliver it accurately, and Lord, may we all be better equipped to serve you as a result in Jesus' name. We pray these things, amen. So when we take a look at the first thing I wanna look at in those first few verses, I want you to see that the spirit's work is eternal. The spirit's work is eternal. Once the spirit does his thing, it lasts forever. And we see that here in these first three verses. And it's even compared to the old covenant which was represented by those 10 commandments that Moses brought down. If you think about it, those 10 commandments were not going to last forever. They were built actually to be replaced. And that is the beauty of the old covenant under the Mosaic law and the new covenant instituted with the blood of Jesus Christ. But in this process, we even see the fact that these commandments weren't going to last. We get a little signature of it when Moses actually breaks them. them and they disintegrate. This is one of those things that was just a little snapshot to me of, you know, God didn't even chastise Moses for breaking them. You know, I think about as a kid, if I would have broken a really nice work that my dad had done, I'd be like, you did what? But he doesn't even chastise him for it. He just reissues new ones and they go and this is contrasted with the eternality of the Spirit's work in writing in our hearts. This is really critically important because when the Spirit writes on human hearts, once a person is created by God, we are all eternal beings. You understand that. There is going to be a resurrection of the dead because the Spirit lives on. There will be a body reuniting with the Spirit. Once that life is created, it is an eternal being. The Spirit of God, when He writes on the hearts of us humans, it is going to last forever. That is glorious. I titled this message to glorious Spirit because all of these things point to the glorious God head and the glorious Spirit of God as He does His work. The other advantage of having this written on our human hearts is, if it was written only on stone, how many places can that stone be? Exactly one. It can only be here. But when it's written on the hearts of us, eternal human beings with the soul that last forever, think of how many places this glorious good news is now able to be seen. The visibility is invisible in our hearts, but very visible in our actions. So we are able to be light carriers to the world because the Holy Spirit has written on our eternal heart when you have come to Christ. The other thing that we see here is in 1 Corinthians 619 and 20. This also supports this idea. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own, for you have been bought with the price, therefore glorify God in your body. This is one of those sobering things to think that when the Spirit of God writes on your heart, it's gloriously eternal and also the responsibility that falls into realize that He has just made me with the Holy Spirit within me and how I act and what I say and where I go, all of this takes on a whole lot more weight, does it not? So the Spirit of God, first of all His work is eternal. The second thing I want us to look at here, and this is in verses 4 through 6, is the Spirit's work equips us for life. It talks about such confidence we have through Christ toward our God, not that we are adequate, not that we are sufficient in ourselves. To consider anything is coming from ourselves, but our sufficiency or adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not the letter but of the Spirit for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. So one of the things in the Spirit's work is equips us for life is we can have as verse 4 says, we can have confidence because the Spirit of God gives us that confidence. And specifically, look at Paul's wording, such confidence we have through Christ toward God. You see a triune God is all over second Corinthians 3. God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit are all intertwined, different activities, but it is all the same God. We see this idea of a triune God. When you go through a membership class here, you are going to hear that we believe in a triune God. And if you don't believe that, we don't believe you are a Christian. It is a non-negotiable a core doctrine that you must believe in. Second Corinthians 3 is going to support that over and over. The other thing here is if we want to look towards this kind of confidence, let's look at a few verses in Acts 4. So in Acts 4, 8, it says, then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them. So listen up, filled with the Holy Spirit, and then what is Peter going to do is he is going to preach a message. He is going to preach the gospel. He is going to present the truth of the new covenant of Jesus Christ. And so it goes on and says in 11 and 12, he is a stone which was rejected by you. The builders, but which became the chief cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. And then a little bit later in that chapter says this, and now Lord, take note of their threats and grant that your bond servants may speak your word with all what? Confidence. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness. So one of the things that the Holy Spirit does in equipping us for life is he equips us with confidence to know that the message we have that is written on our heart is from God about Christ. It is glorious and we can rejoice in that. Then the other things that are pointed out in the section of 4 through 6 is that we are not adequate or sufficient in and of ourselves. We are just not. Refer to Kurt Gephardt's message last week called a glorious insult when the insult is you can do nothing in and of yourself. In fact, 1 Corinthians 3, 7, that he read last week says, so then neither of the ones who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. So we in and of ourselves are not sufficient in order to live this life. We must have the Holy Spirit of God to equip us and to move us and to help us in all those things. Yet, look at verse 6, it says, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant. I take joy in this because not only does he make us sufficient to be a minister, but he takes us to be a minister of the new covenant, the one that is eternal, the one that is imprinted on human hearts, it is the most important message of the world. What you do with Jesus Christ is the most important thing that you will ever do. And he has made us servants, deacons of that message, to carry that message forward. May we have the confidence in Christ through God with the Holy Spirit's power in order to deliver our part of being a minister of the new covenant. And then look at the contrast that he puts there at the end, verse 6, the contrast between the letter of the law which kills or puts the death versus the spirit which gives life. So understand that the mosaic law, the rabbis quantified it in the Talmud and other places that there were 613 distinct Jewish laws that you needed to keep. 613 is the number they put on it. When you break one scripture teaches, you've broken what? You've broken them all. You see because God cannot stand any sin in His presence at all. I say this often because it just rings true in my own heart. I deserved hell for taking candy from my mother's purse when she told me not to. You go, well, that seems awfully harsh. No, it's a holy God. And he is holy, holy, holy. He cannot stand any sin in his presence. So the letter of the law, all of the mosaic law, what it did is it pointed out that you could not keep it all and you needed somebody that could. You had to have help. And that help, as we are seeing, is going to come through the Holy Spirit's work to our Lord Jesus Christ, pointing us to Him. John chapter 10, 10 says this, Jesus says, "I came that they might have life and have it abundantly." So when we talk about the Spirit, equips us for life, He is the life giver itself. And in fact, this idea of having life and having it to the fullest, most abundantly, my friends who are not truly followers of Christ think that life is full and wonderful by doing certain activities that have no value whatsoever, no lasting value. In fact, many of them are destructive. I've actually said to people before, I just don't find it fun to spend Saturday morning hugging a commode throwing up. I don't think that's fun from what I did the night before. No, you can live life and live it to the fullest and abundantly in the Lord Jesus Christ. I wish for all within the sound of my voice to understand He is the one who gives life and He gives it abundantly. Well, we've seen the Spirit is eternal, the Spirit equates us for life. Section 3, verses 7 through 11, the Spirit's work produces righteousness. It produces righteousness. So the comparison there is talking about the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face. Okay? Because it was frightening. It says, how much more is the glory of the Spirit? Guys, the reason I read or paraphrase 31 and 32 of Exodus is because it was quite something. The glow on his face was scary. It was so bright and what Paul is saying is that is not even close to the glory that is tied up in the Holy Spirit of God's delivery of the new covenant. The eternal one written on the human heart of man. You know, we think about comparison of light. One of the things that Terry said to me, my wife, she said, you know, I'm not seeing as well in our bathroom. You know, it's like the light isn't it great and I go, huh? So I walk into exam and said light situation and take off the fixture and find that half of the bulbs are burned out. You know how it is? One goes and you don't really notice and then you get used to it whatever. So then I went to the junk closet, found three bulbs of the same kind but there's six up there and I replaced the three and it said something about LED and daylight and I put those bulbs in there, flipped that light on. Well, they came on. I was giving myself a clap on the back for being such a great handyman and then the other bulbs really looked dim, like really dim. So I said, okay, I'm going to have to get some more of these bulbs. So went to the Wally World, bought some more bulbs the next day, came back, put them in, turned it on and it was like, whoa, it's a good thing there's a dimmer on this switch because then later on, Terry, because I had just tested, I was in the other room and she flipped that light on and I promised you it looked like a plane was landing in our backyard. Like it, it's shown all the way through. I go, wow. So what was, there was light, it wasn't completely dark. We had half of the bulbs working. But the difference, the comparison was like, wow, astounding. Of course, I've been studying this message. So that's why you're getting an illustration because it just hit me of the difference in, was the old covenant good and glorious? Yes. Scripture is making it clear, but how much better is the new covenant? This new covenant that is inaugurated by the blood of Jesus Christ, written on the heart of mankind with the Holy Spirit's finger. It's eternal. It equips us for life and it brings righteousness. I also had to think about the comparison between things that I once thought were great. They were glorious, human things, right? And then I found out later on that things could be different. For instance, I grew up eating 19-cent boxes from craft of macaroni and cheese. You know the stuff I'm talking about? Rock hard noodles, you poured them in the water and then the cheese was like, now you young people, you've been spoiled, but it was powder and then you put the powder and then you put some stuff in there and some liquid poured it over and stirred it up. It was like, oh, it's great. I mean, as a kid, mac and cheese. And then when mom was going to turn it into instead of just like the side, it became a meal when you put the can of chicken of the sea tuna inside and mixed it. Now some of you are going, ooh, appetites the present. Well, that was glorious to me when I was six, okay? Since then, people have done all kinds of things with macaroni and cheese. You know, if you watch the Food Network, which I sometimes do because my wife does, I will see all of these creations of these world class chefs. And so, I went hunting for one of those and it's actually in Carrie, North Carolina, so you guys can have this version of mac and cheese. I believe we've got a slide for it. That's right, lobster mac and cheese. $44, okay? So instead of tuna mixed in, which was probably a 25 cent can of tuna back in the day, you get lobster mac and cheese for $44. Now, if I took and compared and said, here's what I thought was glorious to you and then you go, oh, there's no comparison. By the way, if you don't want the lobster, you can just throw regular mac and cheese. It's only 17 bucks. I just wanted to pass it along. But I guarantee you, it's a little bit better than the box mac and cheese. The reason I want to point that out is that I don't want you to think that the old covenant was not glorious. It was, but the new covenant eclipses it by miles. The turnality and the grace that is in it, that we have the privilege of carrying within our body. We are temples of the Holy Spirit. What ridiculous grace. It is indeed the glorious spirit. And when we talk about the idea of the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteous and subordinate glory. Paul wrote in Philippians three, these words, verses eight and nine. Just listen to these on their own screen. More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for who might have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ and may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith and Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. See, Paul said, I count everything rubbish compared to that. You see that comparison is such a huge, huge difference. And what a blessing that the spirits were produces righteousness in unrighteous people like me. Undeserving of God's goodness, undeserving of his grace. And he produces righteousness to me. What a glorious spirit he is. Well, we have to read verses 12 through 18 because I haven't read him yet and then we'll take a look at those. It says, therefore, that means we need to understand there are some things that should be happening because of the truths that are found in these first 11 verses. Therefore, having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech and are not like Moses who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were hardened for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains unlifted because it is removed in Christ. But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart, but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now, the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is. There is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as from the Lord, the Spirit. So here the fourth and final point is the Spirit's work is transforming. The Spirit's work is transforming. The first thing there is, look at, we use great boldness in our speech. My note says, back to talking about Acts 4 with Peter and his discussion about having confidence to speak the glorious good news of the gospel. No fear, whatsoever. In fact, we have been made ministers of this new covenant, adequate. We have the capability, because the Holy Spirit, to be involved in the greatest work that mankind can ever do. Back to Kurt's message from last week, the insight salt is you're nothing and God is everything. The glorious part is we get to water, we get to plant, and we get to be involved in this work, and he makes us adequate for it. So we can be bold in proclaiming the glorious hope. Versus 13 to 15 talk about the contrast with Moses putting a veil over his face. You know the old covenant itself was not as crystal clear as the new covenant is revealed in the New Testament. It was shadowy, there was images, there were point two, but when you get to the New Testament, it makes all of the Old Testament crystal clear. So understand when Moses, when it talks about having a veil over his face, I believe it also can represent it was it was cloudier than the clarity of the new covenant that is found in the New Testament. Here the Israelites are said to still have a veil over their head as the law is read covering their eyes, but in 2 Corinthians 4 just into the next chapter Paul talks about all believers having that veil over their eyes, unable to see it. Those of you who have come to Christ, is it not sometimes frustrating to you when you talk to family and friends, neighbors, and they they it's like it seems so crystal clear to you. The good news of the gospel. Why aren't you getting it? And yet the answer is found in that we have to have the Holy Spirit of God has to do the work we can't do, which is to unveil their eyes so that they can see it. Now what's good about that is this. I am just supposed to do my part. I am supposed to live this life, the spirits equipped me to live with. I am supposed to plant the seeds of this new covenant. I am supposed to water those seeds and the miracle is when God takes a dead person and makes them alive and their eyes are open to see the glories of the gospel. I pray and I do pray that anybody in here who has been trusting in your history in the church, your parents' decisions, your good activities, your faithful giving, if you're trusting in any of those things, I pray that God lifts the veil this morning and you see the only thing that matters is what you do with the new covenant of the Lord Jesus Christ. He dies in your place. He pays the price for your sin and he calls on you to repent and trust him fully. It has nothing to do with any of your past, any of your works because Isaiah made it crystal clear. The best Scott Williams has to offer. My best works in comparison are like filthy nasty rags. That's what scripture teaches. So we see here that the spirit's work is transforming. We need people to be, have their eyes open by the spirit of God. It should not discourage us from sharing just because we don't have control of the outcome. God has control of the outcome. We're just called to do our part, our piece. When we are transformed by the Holy Spirit, we also, verse 17, there talks about the idea of where the Spirit of the Lord is. There is liberty. There is freedom. The kind of freedom that Paul is talking about, he spelled out very crystal clearly in Romans chapter 8 in the first two verses, which says, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death." So if you're here today and you say, "I'm trying to clean up my life. I'm trying to get back in the church. I'm trying to, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, it's not the right path because you need to be set free by the only person who can set you free." And as Paul says, that's in Christ Jesus. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ is the only one that can set you free from a life of sin and death. I'm thankful he's still doing that work today. He is changing people's lives here and all over the globe as he grabs ahold of people's hearts, makes dead people live and gives them the capability of having victory over sin and death. Apart from the Holy Spirit, we've got no hope of living a life, denying sin and living righteously towards Christ. Part of the transformation, once you become a believer, is, are you now perfect? Judicial, judicious, judiciously, yes, practically, no. We still have to be transformed, which is where Paul heads to here in verse number 18. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. So we, that is, if you have put your faith in trust and Christ, the Spirit of God has written eternally on your heart. You have been declared righteous by God Almighty through the perfection of Jesus Christ. As I told my Monday night Bible, our Thursday night Bible study guys, I will stand before God one day and I will have an advocate. I'll have a lawyer who never loses a case. The Lord Jesus Christ, by my side, what right do you have? Well, stand to heaven. And my answer will be, I got nothing in and of myself. I'm trusting fully in my advocate. If his covering is not good enough, I have no claim. This is the glorious hope of the gospel, because I do have confidence, because the Spirit of God has written on my heart and his work as eternal. Jesus will never fail. One day, we will stand before him. Will we stand there, clothed with Christ or with our own self-righteousness? Well, as Paul talks about being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, this is the idea of being transformed by degrees. I always say, the way I am today, in one year's time, I should be walking closer to Christ than I am today. I should be being transformed. I always say, it should be like this, yet my human frailty and my sinful flesh that I still battle, it looks more like this. Does it not? Like, I'd like to tell you it's always like this, but that's not it. But we are being transformed as we spend time in the word rejoicing in all that God has done for us. Well, before we close, I want to take a quick look at a few other New Testament passages that describe how the Spirit of God works in our lives. So, I'm gonna put them on screen so you don't have to turn to them because I'm gonna go fairly quickly. Of course, you can always turn, but Galatians 5 says this in verse 18, "But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law." Okay? All of those 613, not under them, when I'm led by the Spirit, but the fruit of the Spirit. Now, here's what the Spirit does. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things, there is no law. Those 9 things, I love how the cap there is, there is no law. There's no limit there. You can keep pouring those on. This is the kind of things that happen when you are led and filled by the Spirit. Not telling somebody, "God told me to do this and do some ridiculous thing in the name of the Holy Spirit." Scripture teaches you. is none of that nonsense. So then look at what Ephesians 5, 17 through 21 says. It says this, so then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And it goes on to say, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit. And notice he goes right into what is being filled with the spirit, speaking to one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. And then always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ of God, even the Father, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. So you see what being filled with the spirit is? You want to sing. Glory is to His name. You want to be with other people, singing, psalms Him, spiritual songs, you want to have responsive readings where we're saying the same things and agreeing to the same things. Sounds a lot like church. And then giving thanks, giving thanks, giving thanks. Think one of the barometers for my heart is when I cease to be as thankful as I should be. It's because I am not spending enough time being transformed. Gratefulness should pour out of our lives as the spirit is constantly transforming us. Then 1 Thessalonians 5 in verse 16 says this in through 19. "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing. Here's that thanks-king in everything, give thanks. For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." Then it says, "Do not quench the spirit." So the context here is, as it continues, it talks about not ignoring the word of God is one of the things that comes into play here. The idea of quenching the spirit is, "He's in me, but am I capable of quenching Him?" And obviously I am because I'm commanded to do not quench the spirit. And then Paul goes on in Ephesians 4, he says this through the church of Ephesus, "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment so that it will give grace to those who see you here. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. So he says, "All of those things grieve the spirit. Stop it, the Bob Newhart solution. Just stop doing that." And then these are the things that come from being spirit-filled, being kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you and me. So in conclusion, we look at second Corinthians 3 and these other verses. And I just have to ask you, what is your relationship with the Holy Spirit of God? Has he indeed lifted the veil of your eyes to where you go, "I see it. I see the glories of the New Covenant today." And you desire to come into a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. We invite you to do that. Now. And he will. And if you have questions about that down front, our elders, we would love to have an opportunity to talk more fully about that. Have you been transformed from being self-righteous to acknowledging Christ's righteousness as being your only hope for life and indeed an abundant life? And if you're a follower of Christ today, how is your daily walk with the Spirit? Examine yourselves today. Are you grieving or quenching Him with attitudes and actions that you know need to change? I pray that our life's song will be filled with praise and worship for the trying God, who has permanently written on our hearts and as we are continually being transformed to see and be more like Christ, that we will exhibit more of that Galatians 5 fruit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such things there is no law. Father God, we do thank you for the opportunity to study your word today. Lord, I'm grateful for the Spirit's work in my life. Lord, the times when I quench your grieve, Lord, may I confess quickly and come back into a right relationship with you, we pray for each person here that they will examine their heart to make sure that they are indeed in the faith, that they haven't been trusting in a prayer said years ago or any other good thing, but rather have they truly come to you as a repentance sinner who needs a Savior. May you do a work in their hearts and lives. May they see their need for Savior. And for those Lord that are walking with you, may you help each one of us to examine the fruit of our life as it truly bearing the fact that we are filled with the Holy Spirit of God who dwells within us. We praise you and thank you for your goodness to us. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.