The Suicide of Unbelief - Part 1 (Hebrews 3:7-19)

I feel sorry for you tonight because I know what's coming. Um, I promise you, you're not ready for this evening. Um, we're going to go, and we're going to go fast. The media ministry got a hold of me tonight and they said, "You do know that there's 90 slides of scripture?" These are passages, not verses, passages. So hopefully, it will make sense to you in a moment as we get into this portion of Hebrews chapter three. I'll begin in verse seven. If you'll, uh, read in the responsive reading on the screens, verse seven. If you'll pick it up in verse eight. Here we go. Hebrews chapter three. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness."

"Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.'" But exhort one another daily, while it is called "today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. While it is said, "Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion." Now, with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose corpse fell in the wilderness? Verse 19. We end here. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. We're looking at a message church tonight, and probably for a while, titled "The Suicide of Unbelief." The suicide of unbelief. We pray in Jesus' name that You'd give us ears to hear what Your Holy Spirit desires to speak to us this night from Your word. We pray, Father God, that You do something special in this section of the book of Hebrews that not only saves lives but more importantly, saves lives eternally. That we here in this church, or those that join us online, would be a people that heed the warning that is here written. This is gravity. This is strong medicine. This is a call to attention. And so, Father, we pray for Your presence tonight. We ask it in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, "Amen."

So, church, tonight, as we look at this opening message of this section in Hebrews 3:7-19, "The Suicide of Unbelief." Um, just putting this message together. As I put a message together, uh, I don't, I don't start with a title and then try to make the message fit the title. You always do your message, and then the title is the last thing that goes on. The scripture should announce to you what it's all about clearly. It's all about a warning, isn't it? Clearly, it's all about unbelief. But what happened to the children of Israel in those 40 years of wilderness wanderings is that they refused to believe God. And so, what happened? As I was studying and preparing, the thought came to my mind that they died in the wilderness. Did you know that? They didn't make it into the promised land. I don't know if you know that or not. The children of Israel who left Egypt, they never made it. They refused to make it. Their children went in. They didn't. They died. Listen, Joshua and Caleb made it over, but some estimates of three million people did not. Unbelief. So, we talk a lot today about the plague of suicide, which is sweeping America, and that's terrible. But did you know that there's a suicide that's worse? And that is the suicide of the soul. The suicide that comes from unbelief that condemns you to eternal destruction. And that is a serious topic. We live in a world today of unbelief. It's rampant all over our world, our nation. In fact, when I say unbelief, I'm talking about unbelief in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a lot of belief, would you agree? There's a lot of spirituality taking place in our world, but it's aimed in the wrong direction, and it doesn't end well. The Bible's very clear about this. So, church, I'm going to give this introduction, and then we're going to hang on to our seats. You're going to get your pen ready, and we're going to go for it because we're going to be looking at two very, very important issues, as I've been mentioning, suicide and unbelief. Listen, suicide, and of course, I'm speaking spiritually. But what I did was, is I went to Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary, looked up suicide, and that is to slay. It means to self-murder. The act of designing one's own destruction. The intentional act of ending this life. I thought that was important that they said "this life." Uh, to, uh, constitute suicide, constitute suicide, the person must be of years of discretion or responsible, says Noah Webster, 1828. One guilty of self-murder in the physical sense of life. Remember, he was a believer. So you hear him making a difference, at least hinting about it. The premature or untimely ending of this earthly life. And then it is said later on that it's a willful act of assuming to be God or in God's place by false authority. In other words, physically, no one's got the authority to take their own life. That's what makes it wrong in so many ways. Physical suicide is you assuming the authority of God, and you, instead of living out your days as ordained by God, whatever those days look like, you take the reins, as it were, out of the hands of God, and you deal with your life in what is a sovereign act of God. You take the place of God, and you, untimely, without authority, take your own life. And, uh, that's a tragedy. That's tragic. And then the word unbelief. Unbelief is to withhold, or the withholding of belief. Listen to this. As unbelief is being blind infidelity, disbelief of divine revelation. He says, disbelief of the truth of the gospel, the refusal and rejection of Christ as the savior of men. A willful act to determine not to allow, not to believe, not to rest upon. So now we see how this comes together that someone in the hearing of my voice could commit suicide of unbelief. You can tonight be saying, "I don't believe in God. I'm, I'm my own person." And if you stay long enough in that unbelief, and you die in that situation, you have actually committed, think about this, after death, as it were, I will exaggerate it that way. After physical death, you have committed suicide of unbelief. You condemn your eternal existence to what the Bible calls hell because of unbelief. And God doesn't want you to live like that. He doesn't want you to experience that. Jesus Christ died on the cross, and He rose again from the dead so that you and I could have the liberty and the freedom to follow Him and to believe Him and trust Him. And what, what always amazes me is that when people want to fight about Jesus, I always ask them, "What has He done to you that you're so, you have so much angst against Jesus? What has He ever done to you?" And then what you wind up hearing them, when they have, when they're forced to think outside of their bubble, they, they begin to realize that, "Well, it was, I'm actually mad at my dad. I'm mad at my mom. I'm mad at my kids. I'm mad, you know, I'm saying." They wind up blaming the way life has gone, and so they don't know where to shoot their arrows, so they shoot them like Nimrod at God, thinking that they could dethrone Him. And that never works. But you don't want to die in that situation. Listen to what Charles Spurgeon writes from 1862. "The Suicide of Unbelief." I put that up there so he didn't write that part. "Is it not a sin for a creature to doubt the word of its master or maker? Is it not a crime and an insult to the divinity for me, an atom, a particle of dust, to dare to deny His words? Is it not the very summit of arrogance and extremity of pride for a son of Adam to say, even in his heart, 'God, I doubt Thy grace. God, I doubt Thy love. God, I doubt Thy power'? Oh, sirs, believe me, could ye roll all sins into one mass? Could you take murder and blasphemy and lust, adultery and fornication, and everything that is vile, and unite them all into one vast globe of black corruption, they could not equal even then the sin of unbelief. This is the monarch of sin, the quintessence of guilt, the mixture of the venom of all crimes, the dregs of the wine of Gomorrah. It is the A1 sin, the masterpiece of Satan, the chief work of the devil," says Charles Spurgeon. Wow. Aren't you glad you didn't live in 1862? But that's all true. He just knew how to articulate it.

So, get your notes ready, church. I'm going to ask all of you to write this down. I'm going to ask the, the media team, they're going to leave the scriptures up longer than normal for you to, to write them down. But we're going to go into this study tonight, and we're going to be looking at part one of our, uh, argument. And, uh, and so, listen, only one part. So, but don't think you're on vacation. It's going to be hard work. But before we do that, jot this down. This is, uh, the preamble, as it were. The preamble to what we're going to be talking about. John chapter 10, verse 10. Jesus says, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy." Is there any destroying going on in your life? Is there any killing going on in your world? Is there any thievery taking place against you or around you? Jesus said that comes from the thief. And when you read the context of John 10, the thief is a reference to Satan himself. Satan is the one that is robbing your life. That thing that you're mad about, and you're mad at God about it, it's probably Satan doing it. Think about that for a moment. John chapter 8, verse 43. "Why do you not understand My speech?" Jesus said, "Because you are not able to listen to My word." They didn't have the ability. They didn't want it. Verse 44. "You are of your father, the devil." Can you imagine? Mild-mannered Jesus. He's telling the religious group, by the way, these are the Pharisees. These are the professional religionists. These are the people that if you saw them, you'd say, "My, my, look at those holy men." Jesus says, "You guys are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father, you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him." Listen to this. "When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources." This is an amazing statement. When Satan speaks, he can't say anything else but it being wrapped or ensconced in a lie. Even when he spoke in Eden to Eve, he took the truth of God and twisted it. And then when he shows up again, speaking to Jesus during the temptation of the 40 days, he takes scripture again and misquotes it, twists it to get his own way. His resources. Satan's resources are lies. That means you and I, if we are not hearing the truth, we're hearing a lie. And I don't care if it's coming from a Girl Scout or the, or the Pope. If it's a lie, it's from the pit and from the tongue of the wicked one. It's rooted. All lies are rooted in the works of Satan because lies are meant to deceive, and he's the great deceiver. And that verse goes on to say, "For he is a liar and the father of it." So notice this, church, as we get into this, and it makes sense in a moment regarding the suicide of unbelief, is that Jesus speaks about life. Satan speaks about death. Jesus speaks about the truth. Satan speaks about lies. Jesus desires to give life. Satan desires to take life. It's remarkable. So here we go. Are you ready? No, you're not. I'm going to ask you, and you're going to respond, and we'll, we'll edit for radio and make you sound really excited about it. Okay? We'll, we'll just change that part out. So, are you guys ready to get into the study?

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Thou shalt not lie.

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Number one point tonight, one and only point: The Suicide of Unbelief and the Holy Spirit. The suicide of unbelief and the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 3, verse 7 says, "Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the day of rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore, I was angry,' this is God speaking, 'I was angry with that generation and said, 'They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.' Verse 11. 'So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.' And your note-taking, church, jot it down. Therefore, verse 1, 'Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says.' That's as far as we're going to get tonight. The Holy Spirit. What is your relationship with the Holy Spirit? The Bible says here, "Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says." Says is a very interesting word in the Greek language. Says means that He is speaking. It means that He has spoken. He is speaking, most predominantly in this verse, speaking now, and He will speak. He's always speaking, according to the Bible. The Holy Spirit is always speaking. Isn't that amazing? So, I haven't heard God speak at all. That's not His problem. You and I need to learn to slow down. We need to discipline our world, in our lives, to slow down and listen. Write these two things down, would you? Regarding the Holy Spirit: He's referred to in the personal pronoun, the Holy Spirit being as a personality. The Bible announces that the Holy Spirit has a personality. We will see some of that tonight, but it would take days for us to go through all of the revelation of the word of God that shows you the emotion, the passion, and the dynamics of the nature of the Holy Spirit as a person. The Holy Spirit is not a power. It's not, it's not the great force out there. Luke, it is, well, He's not an "it." He's a person. And He's, He's referred to by God. Uh oh. This ought to shake things up. Watch, watch us get off. I'm going to be true to the Bible, and we'll get knocked off of YouTube right now. Now, God refers to Himself in the masculine gender, and the Holy Spirit is referred to as a masculine gender. Did you know that? The only interesting thing that we see in the book of Revelation is Jesus is always mentioned in the masculine gender, except in one moment in the book of Revelation where it says that there's a, uh, a sash that's across His breast, and the, the word for breast is actually female breast, but it doesn't mean physical breast as you think. The word means across His chest is comfort and mercy and compassion. So even in His wrath, in the book of Revelation, there's compassion available if one would cry out to Him. Remarkable.

The suicide of unbelief. Number one. Listen. Here we go. Right, small number one. Is there a Holy Spirit? Will you write that down? Say, "You've got to be kidding me." No. Listen. There's people attending this church now. I told you we were going to start over after 30 years with all the people that have come from various places during the COVID world. There's people here that don't even know if there even is a Holy Spirit. You don't know that. And the Bible says there's a Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 19, verse 1. "And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus." This is Turkey today, and it's beautiful, by the way. "And finding some disciples, he said to them, 'Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?' So they said to him, 'We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.'" Just like you guys. Some of you guys. "And he said to them, 'Into what then were you baptized?' So they said, 'Into John's baptism.' Then Paul said, 'John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, after John, that is, on Christ Jesus.' And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." This is water baptism. "And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied." Now, the men were about twelve in all. What do you mean? What Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit that's in the Bible. You mean the New Testament? No, the Holy Spirit that's in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. The Holy Spirit. See? Well, I was baptized. Awesome. But let me ask you something. Did the Holy Spirit, has the Holy Spirit come upon you as it's recorded in the book of Acts? This is, listen, this is not salvation. These guys believed. They were saved. But the Holy Spirit came upon them in power, and there's a big difference. And I hope by the end of this series, you'll be an expert on this. The Holy Spirit is everywhere. The omnipresence of the Holy Spirit is everywhere. The Holy Spirit being the being God, the Creator, we'll see soon, in a moment. But He's everywhere. And if you're not a Christian tonight, He's alongside you. That doesn't, that doesn't mean good or bad. It just means He's alongside you. When I put it that way, it means that when you do wrong, He is that voice speaking to you, saying, "You ought not to be doing this. You could, you better not die right now. You're in trouble." What are you going to do? What are you going to do with Jesus? Have you ever had those thoughts? First of all, what am I asking? Of course, we've had those thoughts. God has written that moral code within the human soul. You can be running around naked in the jungles of South America with a spear in your hand, and you still have this moral law inside of you that God has put in the human. But there's a Holy Spirit. That's where we begin.

Number two. He is the Holy Spirit. Throughout scripture, He's referred to as the Holy Spirit. He is holy, pure. And in this, we'll see regarding the Holy Spirit that it makes up, He makes up the Trinity, or the Triune Doctrine of God in the Bible. A lot of people stumble over the fact that the Bible teaches, or they don't think it does, that we say that there's a Trinity. The Bible teaches, again, from Genesis through Revelation, that God is one. The book of Deuteronomy says God's one. But throughout scripture, God reveals Himself in the manifestation of three separate persons, but He's one. That's hard for us to even begin to think about. Second Corinthians 13, verse 14. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God [referring to the Father], and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen." Is that something? There's the Trinity right there in one verse. Because the Bible teaches Jesus is God, and the Father is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. Colossians chapter 2, verse 9. "For in Him [that is, Christ] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." The word "Godhead" is referring to the multiple persons of the Triune God, who is one. I've mentioned this not too long ago, but it bears repeating. See, Jack, it's freaking me out. It's not really. If Mama Bear, Papa Bear, and Baby Bear live at 123 Maple Lane, they live under one roof. Under one roof. That's the bear house. Mama Bear, Baby Bear, and Papa Bear live under that house. All of them have the same last name, and they are all exactly bears. But each of them have different first names. They all share the same power, the same food, the same dynamic, the same location, but they're all under one roof. And one can talk to the other, but they all share the last name. See where I'm going with this? It's a pathetic illustration, I know. Well, Pastor Jack, use the egg. Use the egg. The egg. The egg doesn't work either. There's an egg, there's the shell, there's the yolk, and there's the white of the egg. It's, uh, but use water. Use water. It's put it. Water can be a vapor, water can be a solid, water can be a fluid. But I like to, I like one address, one, two, three, you know, Maple Lane. That's an address. God. But under that roof is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I can't explain it. The Bible just teaches it. You and I will know it just fine when we get up there. Apparently, He doesn't care too much that we understand it fully, but we will. Matthew chapter 28, verse 19. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." What do you think about that? Those of you who are saying, "I don't get it. I don't get it." I'm not asking you to get it. I'm just asking you to listen. The Bible says there's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. All the same, not one less than the other, exactly pure deity. John 14:16. Jesus said, "I will pray to the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you and shall be in you." The Holy Spirit. In Luke chapter 3, verse 21. "Now it happened when all the people were baptized, and Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, 'You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.'" There's the Trinity. Did you guys all pick that up? Anybody miss that? By the way, side note. The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus. He wasn't in the shape of a dove. You know, when I grew up in Calvary Chapel at, uh, Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, they had the Maranatha Dove. You know, you ever seen that thing? That makes no sense to a non-believer whatsoever. I went to that church as a non-believer, and I saw that sign out there in the front, and I thought that was like somebody had thrown spaghetti on the building. That Maranatha Dove. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Raise your hand. Okay, 100 of us. When you're not a Christian, you know what that means. But it represents the Holy Spirit. I, I probably went to church there for years before I figured that out. I heard about that. But here's, here's what you need to remember. The Holy Spirit did not land on Jesus in the, in the form of a dove. The Bible simply says here, always read your Bible carefully. The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus like a dove would land on your shoulders. It's describing how He came. He said, Jesus didn't come out of the water, and He's standing there, and a dove landed on His shoulders, and the skies parted, and the angels started singing, and there's a, there's a dove sitting here. That did not happen. But it happened in the movie. Jack, the movie got it wrong. The Spirit of God came upon Jesus just like a dove lands on somebody's head. And from that moment on, His ministry was underway. But notice there was the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And then in Second Corinthians 1, verse 21. "Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit." Notice it's capital S. That's the person, the Holy Spirit, in our hearts as a guarantee. There's the Trinity right there.

The suicidal unbelief and the Holy Spirit. Number three. The Holy Spirit was at creation. Did you know that? The Holy Spirit was at creation. When we talk about Genesis 1:1, look at this. "In the beginning God." That word is Elohim. It's not Yahweh. It's not Jehovah. It's not Yah. "In the beginning, Elohim." Elo is God. The "im" on the end of Elohim is the singular God in plurality. Go figure that one out. A singular plurality. What do we know about that? Well, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." The word "hover" right there in Hebrew means to, uh, brood or to flutter the wings, like like a hen flutters her wings when the little chicks come and run under her. The Holy Spirit was at creation, physical creation, and in some way, shape, or form, the Holy Spirit was brooding, hovering over the waters of the earth being formed. Remarkable. Awesome. Incredible.

The suicide of unbelief. Number four. Is that the Holy Spirit can be made angry. Did you know that? The Holy Spirit can be made angry. In Isaiah 63, verse 10. The Bible says, "But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their Enemy, and He fought against them." Can you imagine that? Can you imagine God saying, "That's it. I'm, I'm come. I'm, I'm not only not trying to lead you to the desert anymore, I'm not going to do that anymore. I'm coming after you. I'm angry, and I'm going to become your enemy." Why? Because of unbelief. Church, this is big stuff. God sees an unbeliever who's locked in their unbelief as an enemy. And people make light, people make fun about believing in God, mocking God. And He's patient, like He was in the days of Noah. Patient. But that time's going to run out. He can be made angry. So, you see, it's not in, you can only anger a person, a personality. Acts chapter 7, verse 51. Are you guys okay? We're not even started yet. Acts 7, verse 51. Stephen said, "What a preacher." That's, I think it's the biggest sermon, uh, recorded in the New Testament. Stephen's sermon in Acts chapter 7. It's a great sermon. Got him killed, but it was a great sermon. "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did, so do you." Paul the Apostle, but Saul of Tarsus was standing right there, by the way. Saul who became Paul heard that. Psalm 7, verse 1. "God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day." Everybody says, "You know, church, can I, I don't repeat this. It's just us right here. We're safe." But you know, you, you do know that God does not need RPR. He doesn't need us. We don't have to run interference for Him, and we don't have to make excuses for Him. You know that. Why do you say that, Pastor? Because the Bible here says, "God is angry with the wicked every day." Because, listen, we don't go around saying that kind of stuff. Do you know what we say? "God loves you. God loves you. And God loves you." And oh heck, "God loves all you." "God love you." No, God loved you and went to the cross. [Music] But He's angry with the wicked every day. Wickedness. When a person is doing wickedness, God doesn't look the other way while you're doing your dirty deed. No, no. He sees it all, and He's angry. We need to run. Listen, if you're not a follower of Jesus, you need to run to Jesus right now. Now, I don't mean just stay seated, but I mean get up in your heart, and you run to Him now in your heart. Because He's angry with you. Well, nobody knows. He knows. I've never been caught. Not yet. But He's angry with the wicked. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30. "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." He can be grieved. Isn't that sad? You can make the Holy Spirit sick to His stomach. That's a message to the believer. Christian, don't live a life that is testing God constantly. Amen. I am not going to give details. I'll just tell you this. Uh, Lisa and I had a very, very good friend. He loved the Lord. But when he got, he was an alcoholic at a very young age, and he fought with it, man. I'm telling you, we were close, and he fought with it, and he battled it. He'd have a few weeks, and he was, what's the word, sober, and then he would, he would fall. And he would just beat himself to death, as it were, regarding grief. "I can't believe it. I'm so weak. I can't believe I'm so weak." And we, our, Lisa and I, and our friends, we, we basically carried him in life for several, several years. Loved him. Great guy. His love for God. But he was torn. Brought up by an alcoholic. He learned to deal with life by drinking as a kid from his father. One night, on Pacific Coast Highway, drunk, he went right into a telephone pole and was killed instantly. The police officers said, and all of us knew immediately, God had taken him home. You know what? God had taken him home. He struggled so much with his addiction, and he hated it. But, you know what? Jesus loved him, and Jesus took him home and rescued him from himself. You know, God will do that. You don't want that to happen. But God, listen, if you've been sealed with the Holy Spirit, God may just take you home prematurely for His name's sake and for your sake. And we just had a funeral here not too long ago. A young woman. She was, she started coming here. She was invited here by a dear man and beautiful woman, like a model, young. But she had been battling the same thing of alcoholism. And I prayed with her a few times, and she wept a few times, and God took her home. When we grieve the Holy Spirit as believers, I'm just talking to the believer right now, not, not the non-believer. We can be believers and grieve the Holy Spirit in our lifestyle or our decision-making, and there could come a point where God takes us home prematurely because it's better for us to be there so we don't rack up any more bad witnesses for His namesake. You know, it doesn't always happen that way. We just saw, as I mentioned on Sunday, a great debacle in the kingdom of God of a world-renowned pastor, his sex life and drug life and alcohol life, all now splashed on the media, and yet he lives. I don't understand. It's sovereign to the hands of God. Just know this, each of us need to know that Ephesians 4:30 says, "Don't grieve the Holy Spirit in your life." And if you have addictions, you need to get help now. You, of course, keep asking God to help you, but you need to get around some good, strong brothers and or sisters. And if it's a sister, get sisters according to the Bible. If it's a brother, get brothers and get some help. Because God will not put up with it. He'll, He'll say, "Look, I love you. I know you struggle, but you can't drag My name through the world like this. Your, your witness is sterile. Your witness is dead. Home, you come."

Number five. The suicide of unbelief. The Holy Spirit. I just put it this way: appeared. We want to make sure that we believe God. That unbelief tells us that He would never be involved in our life. No, don't believe like that. Don't think that. Don't be in unbelief. The Holy Spirit, and I put it as I said, appeared, meaning that He came upon His Old Testament prophets and saints of old. First Samuel 11, verse 6. "Then the Spirit of God" - that's the Holy Spirit - "came upon King Saul." That's amazing. Psalm 51, verse 11. "Remember, we, we used to sing this song. This church is not allowed. We don't sing this song." I told the worship leaders years ago, "Never sing this song." We used to sing it all the time. Psalm 51:11. "It's David's psalm after getting busted with Bathsheba. He says, 'Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.'" That's not a New Testament doctrine, church. That's an Old Testament doctrine. The Holy Spirit, if you're a believer, cannot leave. That's amazing. In those days, He would leave. He would come and He would go. In the Old Testament era, in Judges 16, verse 6. "The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson mightily, and he tore the lion apart as he would have torn apart a young goat." That's funny though. He had nothing in his hand. I guess it's like, you know, you know, everybody tears apart a young goat. We're not talking about that. We're talking about he tore apart a lion. The Holy Spirit came upon Samson, and he ripped the lion in half. Yikes. Not like a young goat. Everybody knows how to tear apart a young goat. That's funny, huh?

The suicide of unbelief. Number six. Is the Holy Spirit worked the incarnation. The coming of Christ into the world was a work of the Holy Spirit. Remember, we're in Hebrews chapter 3 here, verse 7. "Therefore, the Holy Spirit says." And we're getting all of this just from those few words because you and I need to know this. The Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary. It says in the Bible. Matthew chapter 1, verse 18. "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, engaged, before they came together, before they, you know, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit." That is an amazing announcement. The Holy Spirit uses the egg of a woman and no sperm from a male by divine intervention within the human DNA, conception takes place. And it had to be exactly that way according to the Old Testament. Did you know that? According to the Old Testament, no one from the line, do you guys care? No one from the line of David's family on King Jeconiah's side, no one that had Jeconiah's DNA in him could ever produce the Messiah. And that was declared in the Old Testament as a judgment call from God. Your, your lineage is cursed. And when that day, listen, this is probably not only an accurate assumption, but it had to be amazing in the halls of hell because Satan's plot was always to mess up the line that the Messiah would come through. That's what your Bible's all about, by the way. Your Old Testament. When you read it, when you follow the genealogies, notice your Bible doesn't follow the genealogies of Ishmael that came through Hagar via Abraham. No, the Bible covers it from Abraham through Sarah to Isaac, and then it branches like, like a tree, and you've got these lines of these kings. And Jeconiah sins against God, and God says, "That's it. Your offspring are written off. Shall never sit upon the throne of David." And hell must have went, "We did it. We ruined it. The Messiah can never come. Mankind will be forever perpetually bound in our grip. Every soul will be lost. We defeated God. Every human will inherit hell. Satan wins." Guess what? You know Joseph in your Bible, in your New Testament, Joseph. Joseph and Mary. Joseph. Guess, guess who Joseph was related to in his DNA? How do we know? We know exactly because the Bible writes down the lineage of him in the Bible. Science. Guess who he's related to? Jeconiah. He had the legal right to the throne, but he didn't have the blood right to the throne. So what does God do? God has Joseph adopt His son, God's Son. Mary's lineage, bloodline, comes from a different king, and it's intact. So Jesus, what looks like an impossibility now, it actually turns out to be a double confirmation. How did God do that? The Holy Spirit did it. The Holy Spirit, in a divine act of God, the incarnation takes place. And inside of Mary is somehow her human DNA, which represents all of us, which is very cool. You guys, I'm, I'm not going to make it. It's so cool because today, in modern hematology, please do not believe the words that are about to come out of my mouth. You go search them and see. In modern scientific hematology, with the research that we now have at our fingertips, you can trace back our DNA to one female. And that location is somewhere in what they call the cradle of civilization, where life was first unearthed. They put it that way. Somewhere in the region of what we would say, east of the Mediterranean and west of the Euphrates. DNA, blood, hematology, to a female. We call her Eve. But isn't it interesting that regarding the Messiah, Mary's blood was clean, with a clear path. Joseph, not one drop of Joseph's blood could have been in Jesus, or else the offering on the cross would have been null and void. I don't know about you. I love that kind of stuff. Luke chapter 1, verse 35. "And the angel answered her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the Child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.'" First Timothy 3:16. "And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified by the Spirit." The Holy Spirit, a reference to the deity of Christ.

The suicide of unbelief and the Holy Spirit, owned and operated by the Holy Spirit. Will you write that down for number seven? We read it a moment ago. It bears repeating. Ephesians 4:30. "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." That is God stamped you, embossed upon you, tattooed you, if you want to put it that way, put His mark on you. I've been asked a lot. People ask, they call the church, they write, they write letters, they ask me in the courtyard, "And Pastor Jack, you always wear long sleeves in summer, winter, spring, fall. You always wear long sleeves." I don't know why. I like wearing long sleeves. That's, that can't be it. So they call the church. "Does Pastor Jack have to, is he tatted up?" That's it, isn't it? First of all, find a life. Okay. Oh, and this, this is another thing out there on the internet. See this? Watch. Zoom in on that, baby, would you? So I'm being accused of having a $450 watch on the internet right now. See this watch? This is a Casio. Wait, give me a break. Come on. I'm not like this. You can get at Target two miles from here. Four, how much? How much did you pick? Eight dollars. I paid $12.99. You though, you paid $20. You got ripped off, man. Why do I bring this up? Because here it is. [Music] There's, there's nothing there. Watch. I'm going somewhere with this. The Bible study is not over. There's nothing there. Here's the deal. I was sealed in the day by the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption, which means I don't have a tattoo here that says "God loves me" or "Jesus is Lord." You know, when I flex, [Music] none of that, according to the scripture. I am sealed by the Holy Spirit. And every one of you who will trust and believe in Him, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption. Some of us are old enough to remember Kmart layaway. You put that thing on layaway, and nobody could touch it. It was kept safe at the store for you until you came in with the, the full redemption of that. It was, it was on layaway, which means it's on hold for you, but it's awaiting the moment of full redemption. And my mom and your mom would take you down, and you'd lay it down there. Either that, or the blue chip or green stamp store, and you'd bring in the books, and they would take that Tonka truck. It was like one of the greatest days of my life. That Tonka truck comes off that shelf, and it's, that's, it's probably where idol worship began. But, [Applause] but we're owned by the Holy Spirit, and we're operated by the Holy Spirit. And, uh, any movement of God in your life today at all is done by the Holy Spirit. You want to know the Holy Spirit? Study His nature. We're going to learn a lot about Him on these Wednesday nights. You need to know, uh, what role He plays in your life. Because let's be honest, I mean this with all due respect, of course. Jesus lived here 33 and a half years, died on the cross for our sins, and rose again from the dead and went back home 2,000 years ago. The Holy Spirit came from heaven to earth, and every believer that puts their faith in Christ is sealed with the Holy Spirit. And Jesus said, "I'm going to go away so I can be inside of you by the Holy Spirit." We'll read that verse, and not this week, but the Holy Spirit has been working on earth for 2,000 years, building the church. Think of it. Amazing. Almost done. I still have tons of time. Three minutes. It's huge. Ephesians 1:13. "In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance." Oh my goodness. That's the best. "Until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory." God's glory. God the Father. That's amazing. That's awesome, man. If you're feeling insecure, stop. Because verses 13 and 14 just wrap you up. That's just God's love all over it. Romans 8:11. "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." What an awesome statement that is. And then we'll have to end right here. John 14, verse 17. John 14:17. Jesus says, "The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him." We read this earlier, but listen. "But you know Him, for He dwells with you." Now, remember, Jesus was still on earth at this moment. "And shall be in you." Here it comes. Jesus is speaking. "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you." What a remarkable statement by Christ. I thought Jesus ascended. He did. I thought He's at the right hand of God the Father. He is. I thought He said He's going to come and be inside me. He is. How does He do that? Answer: Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives in you. Think about that for a moment. We're done. Think, think, think. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, one God. Jesus is on the cross, and the Bible says that God the Father laid upon Him the sins of us all, and He bore our sins. Isaiah 53. He took our sins upon Him, and it pleased the Father when He saw the grieving of His Son's soul for the redemption of mankind. He said, "Man, that's brutal." I understand. Of course, it's brutal. Every sin you and I commit afflicted Him on the cross. God did that. Even though you and I live in the 21st century, Jesus died for our sins. See, what about the people who haven't even been born yet? What about them? He died for them. He said, "Well, does everybody get to go to heaven then?" No. He paid the price for everybody, but some people are just so bonehead stubborn and arrogant and proud that they won't come to Him. They won't even listen to Him in unbelief. They refuse. They've got excuses a mile long. They won't come to Christ. They'll say things like, "I don't like church." We're not talking about church. We're talking about Christ. Forget church. It's Jesus. "I, I've got to go wash my car." Something. Always something. And there's a day coming in your unbelief, if you stand there long enough, God will seal you in it. He knows you're not going to move. Did you know that? Just like Pharaoh. Everybody gets all upset. "Oh, God condemned poor Pharaoh." No, He didn't. The Bible tells us that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, but what you fail to read is it says it ten times that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and it says it ten times that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Listen, you take a position, and God lets you take it. You dig your heels in, God lets you. You just get all dialed down on it. You're not going to believe, and God bless you. Come on. He's fair. Why would you, why would you be in heaven when you die? When you breathe your last breath, and you start hearing the screeching, moaning of hell in the terror of the darkness, why would all of a sudden He grab you and take you into the light and into His love? You don't want it. You don't want Him. Why? Why would He violate your will? He won't do that. You must come to Him willingly. The Holy Spirit's a perfect gentleman. No one gets dragged into heaven. Can you imagine all of us up there? "Praise the Lord! God, this is amazing! Wow, this is so great!" And there's some guy, "What's wrong with you?" "I didn't want to be here. I don't like it. Too much light. I don't like singing." It's perfect. "How'd you get in there?" "Somebody drove me in." That's not going to happen. I had a guy tell me, "World, you can stand." You can stand. A guy tell me, we were witnessing on Newport, uh, Newport Beach Pier, Newport Pier, witnessing to this guy, and listen to the whole thing. He's listening. He's listening. And he goes, "Nope. No." I go, "Why not?" And he goes, "Because I want to be in hell with my friends." And I said, "What if I were to tell you that you're going to..." "You're not going to be in hell with your friends." "No, no, I am." "I said, 'Well, your friends, apparently, based on your estimation of your friends, will be in hell, and you will too, but you won't see each other.'" "Why not?" "Because the Bible says it's pitch black. It's the, it's the blackness of black. And it's also very strange because there's flames, but they apparently don't give light. So it's pitch black flames. The feeling of burning. You ever burn yourself on a flame or steam? Can you imagine? Oh, and you're forever falling." "Well, I like roller coasters." No, this is a bottomless pit. You know that feeling? And Jesus said, and there's the sense there where the worm is consuming your skin, and the list just goes on and on. And you know who talked more about hell than anyone else in the entire Bible? Jesus. That's how much He does not want you to go there. So, church, we got to seven, and we had 18. So, [Applause] we'll pick it up next week by God's mercy. Father, we pray, Lord, and ask of You in Jesus' name, that right now, in this place, in living rooms, in the cabs of 18-wheelers, Lord, those on military bases, those, Lord, on ships across the sea, on the maritime network, God, we ask right now collectively around the world, Father God, that men and women and boys and girls would say, "Jesus, I want You to wash me of my sins, and I want You to come into my life, and I want You to make me a follower of the living God. I don't have stomach for religion. I don't have stomach for church, and I don't have stomach for all the trappings of tradition. I don't know anything about that, but I know this one thing: I don't want to be on my own anymore. I want the power of the Holy Spirit in my life. I pray, God, that You come upon me and save my soul, cause me to be born again, and to follow Jesus all the rest of my life." And if you tell God that, you say "Amen" and thank You to Him, God will start to transform your life right now, wherever you're at in the world. You'll go to work right now by the person of the Holy Spirit.