The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is essential for all believers, as without Him, one does not belong to Christ. The sermon emphasizes that every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, a truth supported by scriptures like Romans 5:5, 8:9, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, and Galatians 4:6. This indwelling allows believers to address God intimately as Father, a privilege that should be cherished and experienced daily. Ultimately, believers are called to recognize and yield to the Spirit's presence, giving Him complete control of their lives, while the unsaved are urged to experience His convicting and regenerating work for salvation.
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Beloved radio friend, we earnestly greet you in the precious name of the Lord Jesus, and for the Lord Jesus we count it a great privilege to bring the ministry of God's precious word to your hearts. Would you ask that the Spirit of God may prayerfully be using the ministry of this word that we are studying concerning the doctrine of that same blessed spirit from the word of God? We have touched upon some of the facts regarding his work in the present age, his work of convicting souls and bringing them to Christ, his work of regenerating them, imparting to those who believe upon the Lord Jesus the knowledge of eternal life.
We are at the present moment considering his work of indwelling that is abiding and dwelling in every believer. And we would emphasize a fresh as we have already noted, that without the Spirit of God indwelling us, we do not belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. We would continue and conclude the thought regarding the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We have already thought to bring from Scripture in Romans five and verse five, in Romans eight and verse nine, and also in First Corinthians chapter two and verse twelve. The evident fact that support the argument and the presentation of this truth, every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God.
Now listen to another verse that we would bring before our hearts, written again by the beloved Apostle Paul in First Corinthians chapter six, reading verses nineteen and twenty. Paul raises a question, what? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. Now let us realize the words that we have read from this epistle of the Corinthians, They give a tremendous emphasis upon the Spirit in dwelling within a believer.
And the particular emphasis these words give to us can be understood if you have read this epistle written by Paul to the Corinthians. When Paul wrote this epistle to the Corinthian church, he was writing to a very shaky church. And he was writing to a group of carnal, worldly-minded, and immature, spiritually, immature group of Christians. Their conduct was a disgrace to the name of Christ. Their difficulties were appalling. Yet they were God's children.
But they undoubtedly were forgetting to whom they belonged. and the fact that their bodies were indwell by the Holy Ghost. But instead of their bodies being used by the Holy Spirit, they were permitting their bodies to be used for fleshly purposes and not for the glory of God. Now I want to make it very, very clear. that when one is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, having been convicted by the Holy Spirit and regenerated by him, Christ having genuinely been received as his or her Savior, that person is indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
We trust that we have clearly emphasized that and proved it from the Word of God. Now we would re-emphasize the fact in the light of the Scripture in First Corinthians chapter six. Here we find that it is certainly possible for a believer to forget that within his and her body there dwells the person of the Holy Spirit. What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, My beloved the Corinthian believers were forgetting this.
And I state very frankly, there are too many believers today, and very frequently perhaps all of us may be guilty, of forgetting the Holy Spirit dwells within me. Now let me ask a question of my Christian friends that are listening to my words. If you know that you are a child of God, Is it possible that like the Corinthian saints, you may have forgotten that in your body the Holy Spirit of God dwells? Now may I state, you can never drive him out. You can neglect his presence.
You can forget that he is there within you, and to do so would be to your shame. We shall see later that we can grieve the Holy Spirit. His power can be quenched. But please may I remind you what the Lord Jesus said in John fourteen. He shall abide with you forever and shall be in you. But now let us look at another scripture that we must use in order to prove that each believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Here are the words of Paul written to the Galatians in chapter four and verse six. And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
How very clearly do these words declare that everyone who is a child of God, who is saved, who has been made a child of God through faith in Christ Jesus, to all who have thus believed upon him, To all of his children God is sent forth the Spirit of his Son, which gives to us that intimate, holy privilege and consciousness of being able to address God as Father. Now may I state that any believer could never address God as Father without the presence of the indwelling Spirit of God.
Oh, let me ask my fellow believer as well as myself, do I prize this wonderful privilege of relationship with the Father? Am I really enjoying it? Am I daily experiencing this intimate fellowship and communion with my Father through His Son and by the indwelling Spirit of God? My beloved, I could not call God Father. unless within my heart the Spirit of God was dwelling. The Spirit of His Son. Now there's only one way that you and I can have the Spirit of His Son or the Spirit of Christ.
Now if you wish to determine that this statement speaks not of the Spirit of God but the Spirit of His Son, the Spirit of Christ and is referring to Christ only, let me ask you this simple question. Can you have Christ without having the Holy Spirit? Never. Whether it is the Spirit of Christ's character, developed and formed within the believer, it is always done by the indwelling Spirit of God. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and so on. and all the Christ-like qualities of the person of God's dear Son that are developed in the life of a Christian.
Let me state, it can never be done without the Holy Spirit's indwelling presence. And thus in relation to Galatians four six, when I cry in this wonderful truth, the word Abba is an Aramaic word, but the expression indicates this is an expression of blessed intimacy I am able to call God my Father. Do you recall the words of the Lord Jesus in John twenty? And verse seventeen, I believe, when the Savior said to Mary Magdalene as he commissioned her to go tell his disciples, Go to my disciples and tell them that I ascend unto my God and your God, unto my Father and now your Father.
Oh, may I ask again, Are we really enjoying those of us who are children of God and daily experiencing this intimate joy of fellowship and communion with the Father through the Son by the indwelling Spirit of God? Now let me bring our study on this subject of the presence of the indwelling Spirit to a close with two questions. I would ask one to the children of God and I would ask the other to my unsaved listeners. First to you, my fellow believer, and again we emphasize it without apology for the repetition, do you and I, as believers, realize the greatness of this precious truth as we ought, that the Spirit of God dwells in us.
This truth should and will affect our lives for Christ when it is properly appreciated. Wherever you and I go, my fellow believer, the Spirit of God goes with us. Whatever we do, my fellow believer, the Spirit of God is with us. And again we quote the Lord's words, He shall abide with you forever and shall be in you. It is an outstanding truth of Christianity. And in spite of what may be failure, whether individually or over the whole church, the Spirit of God is still here. He is faithful. Should we not then give him complete control of our lives?
Now to you, my unsaved listener, the second question I bring, you need to be born again. Have you ever been born again? The Spirit of God alone can convict, and the Spirit of God alone can regenerate. He only can impart eternal life. He himself must do the work, pointing you to the Savior who died for you upon the cross. How often you may have sensed the Spirit of God's work convicting your soul. You have been warned by the Spirit of God through the Word of God of the danger of eternal judgment and eternal retribution for your sins. And he may have pointed out to you, you can be saved, delivered from that judgment and saved by faith in the death of the Lord Jesus.
And your deliverance can be found only in and through Christ, God's beloved Son who died upon the cross. But are you saved? May God the Holy Spirit do his convicting work, his regenerating work. And may he certainly remind the believers he is in dwelling on who have trusted the Savior. Our blessed Father, we do humbly pray and earnestly ask, rivet home to the hearts of all, saved and unsaved, the blessed truth we have covered in the power of the Holy Spirit for thy glory. Amen.