God's Holy Spirit, Part 2

In the first part of this series on God's Holy Spirit, we looked at the reality that what is real is actually invisible. It's spirit. It exists in a different dimension. It's something that we can't sample, that we can't realize or know anything about unless it's revealed to us. That is the reality. God the Father and Jesus Christ are currently the two beings in the God family. Now those two beings are very unique. We don't see them. We don't perceive except that which we are taught. We have a certain revelation of what they are like through the appearance of Jesus Christ, the teaching of Him as the God of the Old Testament and His visible form as a human being on earth.

But as far as the literal reality of the spirit world, we are not told a whole lot except that they dwell in the heavenly dimension. Jesus taught us to pray, our Father who is in heaven, He's in the spirit world. That's a unique place. You are not God. I am not God. We are not spirit. We are not of that dimension. And God says in Isaiah 55, verse 8, My thoughts are not your thoughts. That's how unique and different we are from God. He says, Nor are your ways my way, says the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

In the sermon today, in part 2, we're going to take a look at some crucial elements, two in particular, that relate to our having a relationship with God. A relationship across dimensions into the spirit world, into the true reality, into a being who is so supreme that He is unlike you and me in any way except the image in which we are fashioned.

We're going to see that the elements that are in the heavenly realm, in the spirit world, are very pure, very unique, and something you and I need to be striving for. We're going to focus on one particular element with a side element as well. The title of the sermon is God's Holy Spirit, part 2, Oneness with the Family of God.

Now, that probably seems a little chaotic after just describing that we are not God, we're not even in the same dimension, and God's thoughts and ways are totally different than ours.

And yet, we are offered, and we are expected, to develop a unity that is so close and so tight, it is called oneness.

If you and I want to participate in eternal life, to step into the real dimension through a gift of God, to really have life and have it more abundantly than we can as physical humans in a physical realm, then we need to reach up to the calling which we are given, and we have to meet certain criteria that God has put forward.

One of those things is that we need to become agents of oneness. You and I need to become an agent of oneness.

It is something that the God family is, and as children of God, we need to embrace and embellish that.

How can you be one with God?

Well, in Isaiah 55, in the preceding two verses, is the answer to that.

Yes, He is so high, and He is so wise, and He is so great, and He is infathomable compared to you and I.

And yet, married to that unique separation, as it were, are the elements that would bring us together.

In verse 6 of Isaiah 55, it says, We take it for granted that we can get on our knees and call out to God, and we can go right to our Father in Heaven.

That window is going to shut for some.

For some who have not pursued it, for some who are on a different wavelength, who do not have a oneness with God, who have not been seeking God, who have not embraced the calling to have that child-father relationship, the door is going close. And that's why He says, The process of us becoming one with God continues.

The way of humanity is to depart from God. It's to sever the oneness, sever the relationship.

It's enmity. It is division away from God and the family of God.

So He says, They push God away. God is not a God of self-centered sin and personal indulgement of greed and lust and self-promotion.

So get rid of those things and let Him return to the Lord.

So we have the One Direction going apart, like the Big Bang.

No, let Him return. Turn around and return. When somebody is coming to you, they are approaching. They are coming near.

They are being sought or they are seeking to come together.

Let Him return to the Lord, which is unifying.

And then God will have mercy on Him and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

So here we have the elements of oneness, repentance and forgiveness.

We have to repent. We have to be agents of repentance.

Jesus Christ came as an agent. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent.

We have to be repenting. Then He came as an agent of forgiveness.

He came to give that which will allow humanity to be forgiven of their sins.

You and I are called to be children of this.

We are also to be agents of repentance.

Repenting in our own lives. Helping and encouraging others to repent.

Promoting the message of repentance and encouraging repentance.

And then also being forgivers. Taking the loss. Taking whatever it takes.

Eating crow, as it were. Taking the blame, if necessary. But be forgiving. In fact, Jesus said in the model prayer outline, pray that God will forgive you as, or in the same manner, that you forgive others.

We need to be that Christ-like, that God-like, in our minds.

Know that there is one big difference between the physical realm, in which you and I live, and the spiritual realm.

Especially the spiritual realm that's coming. The perfect spiritual realm. The recreated one, where the Father's going to trade all things new.

Where everything's going to be refashioned, and all the spirits, sons, and daughters will be brought into the family of God.

We read of in Revelation 20, 21, 22. Something unique about that.

It says in Revelation 21 and verse 27, But there shall by no means, no possible way, anything entering it that defiles or causes an abomination, or a sin, or a lie.

But only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

See, at that point in time, everything else burns up. It all dissolves.

The only thing that's left, there's no mention of Satan, no mention of demons, no mention of sinners, no mention of anything.

After that point, nothing, by no means, will enter God's Kingdom, a new Jerusalem, anything but those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

We have to be purified, either by repentance through baptism, the washing of the water, the cleansing of the blood, or be purified out by fire.

And there's lakes of fire for humans, there's a lake of fire mentioned for the devil and his angels, there's a lake of fire mentioned for the beast and the false prophet.

Cleansing this out is going to take place in however way and manner God chooses to do it.

You and I have been given an invitation. The invitation came to us via the Holy Spirit.

Some of you are little children, maybe doing a crossword puzzle or drawing or coloring here today.

But you know that you have been given an invitation to come to God, to turn and forsake the wrong way and go to God in God's way.

All of us are children in God's eyes, and we all have been given this opportunity.

We find in Luke 2 and 40, And the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the graciousness of God was upon him.

He had a connection with God as a child, a little child.

That connection is available. That child was Jesus Christ.

You children, and those of us who have grown up in the church as children, we have a similar opportunity.

Jesus embraced it. He wanted that connection.

He got rid of anything that offended. He would have nothing to do with it. He was a pure and purified individual with a strong focus, a connection to God through the Holy Spirit. We all can have that connection. God's Spirit will move in us.

It's a life that is available, and it's the best life that you can have.

There seem to be many who choose various things as we come into the church and we grow up in the church. Just think of yourself. At what age were you called? And what did you do with that calling?

Well, it's personal choice at whatever age we were called.

Did we really embrace it, or did we like it, or were we just associated with it?

What did we do with it?

There can be no better life than to dive fully into it as Jesus did, and be at one with God, the family of God, the church of God, all that God is doing. It is the best life that one can have.

1 Corinthians 7, verse 14 shows that your children, it says, are holy.

God is sanctifying. He is setting apart individuals to be called now, and He is calling them. Calling is like, hey you, come here. But how many actually are chosen?

When the Bible says many are called, the invitation is large, but few are chosen, means few get baptized and receive the Holy Spirit.

The word chosen most often refers to those who are in possession of God's Holy Spirit in a new covenant with God at this point in time.

Why are there so few?

Decisions. We have to decide. But it's the Holy Spirit because, in a sense, it's God.

The Holy Spirit is a little difficult to define. I can't really give you a good definition of the Holy Spirit, actually. It's holy because God is holy, and the only things that are holy have God in them, or they are God, or they are of God.

In the one sense, the Holy Spirit is something that God said, I will give you. The Holy Spirit will come, and it will be a comforter to you. So it's something from God. In another sense, in the same phrase, same sentence, he said, I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. So in another sense, it is greater than just sort of a power of God. It is God. Paul said, you are the temple of God, and God is living in you. How is he doing that? Through the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit is a very not well understood by humans aspect of God. And it is powerful. It is moving. It is able to change you and me. It is something we can be led by. It is our ability to have God living in us, though he lives in heaven at the same time. So to fully describe the Holy Spirit might be a bit of a challenge. We have a doctrinal paper entitled, Are Our Children Caught? It's a good paper to read. If you want to read it, you can go to members.ucg.org. And the very bottom of the left column says, find a study paper. If you click on find a study paper, the first study paper that comes up in the list is, Are Our Children Caught? In this sense, we are all children of God. We have this calling. What are we doing with this calling? How much of God? How much of His Spirit? How much of His written Word are we allowing to come in and change us? Jesus Christ was one with the Father. He had the Holy Spirit from birth. God, somehow through that Spirit, partners with those who are in a close relationship, a one relationship. The opportunities are limitless, it would seem. God's family, through the Holy Spirit, is unified and at one. It says in the Bible that God is one. Another concept that's difficult for us to fully understand. But God is a powerful unifier. A unifier isn't just sort of setting up parallel objects in the same sort of parallel direction. God takes unity way farther than that. He says, one. One. Jesus said, my Father and I are one. He said in Genesis 2.28, the man shall leave his father, mother and cleave until his wife, and they shall be one flesh. How would you do that? God, it's one. He's referring, in a sense, to a type of Jesus and the bride. If we go to Ephesians 5, verse 30-33, Ephesians 5, verse 30, It says, for we are members of his body. We call this church the body of Christ. It's one. God just is about getting so close and being so tight and so unified and so networked, to use some of our human terms, that there is a oneness. I often wonder what it's like to be a God-being. We will know someday, but I wonder what the communication process is. We speak through vocal cords, making little sound waves that come and bounce on eardrums, that convert to electrical signals that go into this gooey mass, and we interpret what the person is trying to say, and we usually get it wrong, if you know. That's not what I intended. That's not what I meant. You misunderstood me.

Well, in the God-spirit world, within the family of God, there must be absolute clarity. So is it done through sound waves bouncing around, or is it done through a connection, a mental, what we might call, Wi-Fi, where you can actually connect in? I have no idea. But there is a oneness there that they are able to have. We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones, a concept that's slightly elusive to us as humans, to understand the oneness that God is.

For this reason, man shall leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery. Yes, it is. But I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Now, if you consider this, Christ and the Church now are going to be one. And in the spirit realm, once we are the bride of Christ, we will be one with Him and the Father in a very unique, communicative way. I think our questions will be answered. I think we'll understand so much just by being in the God family. But for now, we also need to be one. He says, Nevertheless, let each one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and the wife see that she reverents her husband.

When you think of the bride in Christ, let's put it in those terms. Nevertheless, let each one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself. As Jesus Christ loved the Church as much as himself, you would have to say, big time. Not only creating us and creating our environment, but coming here, living, dying for us. He loved us as much as He loved himself. Now, it says, And the wife see that she reverence her husband. Are we to revere Jesus Christ? Are we to love our Father in heaven?

Are we to love the family of God? Are we to be like they are? That really describes what we might anticipate as our roles. Once the resurrection takes place, once Christ returns. Is Him loving us and us revering Him and serving as a team to go on one at one with the Father in bringing more sons to glory?

The God's family is definitely one. When you see the movement towards one, this isn't something you have to go in the Bible and say, Well, let's kind of create a oneness sermon. No, this is what God is. God is one. From the instant that the Holy Spirit appears anywhere, in Scripture, in your life, for the instant that God, in other words, touches anything or anyone, everything starts moving together.

In contrast, the instant that Satan or society touches anything, it starts fracturing and moving apart. Look at the world today. Is it moving together? Are even countries of the world today moving together? Or are they breaking apart and fracturing apart? And within those fractures, there are divisions of the various groups that are fracturing the country. The groups are fracturing. This is Satan. It's his society. But with God, everything moves towards oneness. An example would be the church, the New Testament church, when it was founded. June 17, 31 A.D., Feast of Pentecost, was taking place.

The Holy Spirit came in. And, of course, the Holy Spirit began to help individuals who had assembled there for the Holy Day, from around the region, around the known world, to understand that the church had begun, what the Gospel was, that there is a new covenant. It was very powerful. And as soon as that took place, on the very first day, what was one of the immediate results?

We find this in Acts 2, verse 44. Acts 2, verse 44. It says, Now all who believed were together, now that's interesting, all who believed were together. And it says they had all things in common, which means they were sharing. They were one. And they sold their possessions and goods so that they could be together. And they divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, now they're of one mind.

Not only are they together physically, they're now of one mind. And breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity, it mistranslates. It should say singleness or oneness of heart. The King James Version translates that singleness of heart. Not simplicity, but oneness of heart, singleness of heart. In chapter 4, verse 32, it says, After talking about this group, now it says, Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul, or one body. Whenever God shows up, His Spirit shows up, things pull together. I like to ask myself the question, when I show up, what happens?

In contrast with God, or apart from what God and His Spirit do, what happens when I show up? What happens when I get involved in lives or things or activities or church or neighborhoods or whatever? It's a very good question to ask, because it is proof of something. It is proof of something. Because God is about oneness. And the same oneness should exist for all of God's children. We should be promoters, just like Christ. We should be agents of oneness. Because it's a byproduct of agape. When God's Holy Spirit is given to you and me, the byproducts of being led by that Spirit are agape love, joy, and peace.

Peace, Irene, it means to join. Agape love, sacrificial service, the joy from serving and giving, and the joining, the three top things that happen from God's Holy Spirit. And if we are joining, then we would be able to say, you know what? I see signs here that God is working in me. But if we come and say, well, I've come to be saved, I've come for something, I've come to get healed, I've come for this, I've come for wealth, I've come for whatever people come to religion for, and the relationships are sort of going the other way, and there are divisions, then we have to say the fruits of something else would be evident.

We'll talk about this a little bit more. But obeying God's law and living His agape way of life trends towards oneness. It trends towards unity. Recently, my wife was sitting in this room with our six-year-old grandson, and she asked him a question. And the question was, what words describe family in your mind? And so he started writing out words that describe family.

Together, love, best friends, encouraging, kind, supportive, doing your best, helping, teaching, watching out for one another. We are part of a family that God is calling. We're part of a way of life. And these words are things that you and I would pick up from God, from His Word. These are elements of not perfection, but these are elements that would send a signal that we are heading towards something that's unifying.

When we would step outside and you might ask someone in society a question, it might, what's on their mind, might be quite different because of the trending that is going in various ways. Some people do better than others at it. But within God and His family, His way of life, there's a trend towards oneness. God is creating family. He's expanding family. You'll recall in Luke 18, verses 16-17, that Jesus brought some children. Well, He wasn't brought them. The children came. The mothers probably brought the children. They said, hey, bless our children. And here's what Jesus says. Luke 18-16, but Jesus called to them. Children, He says, let the little children come to Me.

Right there, we often don't understand that He is an agent of unity, of bonding with God. He calls. He says, I am calling. Come to Me. Do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of God. God is bringing children to Himself. Young children, old children.

What's the process? Recently, we engaged in a series on God's plan of salvation. Seven-part series. There is the process. We understand the process. But we have to participate in that process. And though God draws, and in some ways, if you look up the Greek word for, None can come to Me except the Father draws Him, the Greek word for that means to drag. It includes drag. It doesn't just mean to drag. But there is a certain resistance there that can be even dragging someone.

Though God will not drag us against our will, that term invokes a certain encouragement, doesn't it, to come to God? What causes the resistance in you and me? What causes the impeding of our success in being one with God? I like to think of it like this. Once upon a time, there was an archangel at the throne of God. He's described in Scripture as being Lucifer. And one day, God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.

And Lucifer said, as we can read back in Ezekiel, No! I will be like the Most High. It's funny, God created you and me in His likeness. Lucifer says, No, I will be like the Most High. He's an opponent. He's an adversary to you and me becoming like the Most High. Some other things were said there. The repentance and obedience, it says in Ephesians 2 verse 6, He has raised us up together and made us to sit in heavenly places.

But Satan says, No, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne. He doesn't want us sitting on the throne. When resurrected, we will dwell in the heavenly realm. We will judge God's stars or His angels. But Satan said, No, no, no. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will be higher than the angels. See what happens here. You have a lot of self-promotion in this being. You have someone who is not given that as a destiny, as a future. Someone who is jealous, covetous, and therefore wants to impede your and my ascension to that which God has in mind for us.

And so this is unfair in Satan and the demons' minds. How do we know that? From time to time, the church will get people who are demon-possessed. They will come to our office or whatever. Maybe we will go out to anoint them or whatever. They will start talking. And they will say, God is unfair to us. It is not fair what He is doing. See? Well, they attempt to torpedo your ascension to be a child of God. They are agents of division, trying to impede your oneness with the family of God. They want you to be separate from God. You remember how the first couple, just created in the Garden of Eden, one with God.

Satan shows up and says, hey, God is not fair. It is not fair what is going on here. You would be as God's. God is limiting you. Go eat of that tree so you will understand everything and you will be like God's. Cora and 250 leaders, they felt, well, they were empowered to assist in the tabernacle. They were empowered to assist and they were leaders, 250. But they said, are we not also priests? That is not exactly their words. But if you read the whole account, that is what they were saying. Are we not all the same? Are we not also priests?

And then Moses goes back at them and he says, you have been assigned a certain role to assist. What, now you think you are also in the priesthood? You think you are Levites? That is the same jealousy that Satan gets people to focus on. It offends God, it offends others. The Pharisees in Christ's day, remember the Pharisees?

They felt empowered, entitled. They were the chief rulers. And here comes Jesus Christ as the Messiah. No, no, no, no, no. We worked hard to get these positions. We worked hard to have this. We are going to kill him. That guy needs to die. They were trying to kill Jesus Christ. Much of his ministry and finally did do away with him. Why? It was about some role of entitlement that they wanted to maintain.

Some status that they felt that they had earned. This is common. It is common within your life and my life. It is common within church and splits. It is common within families. It is common wherever self-seeking is. Wherever a person is, an agent of me. A promoter of me. Rather than a promoter of oneness. You know, Jesus Christ was a promoter of oneness. He showed the way.

God the Father is a promoter of oneness. That family is about one. And the only ones who will be in the kingdom forever are promoters of oneness. Through living agape love and the joy that results from that way of life. And through the joining that each part does its share. We need to wake up to this reality from God.

It's found in James 3, verses 14 through 18. Pounded at home during one of the splits a few years ago. Seemed like fell on deaf ears. And it probably always falls on deaf ears. Has nothing to do with me. I'm just talking about the Bible here. Always falls on deaf ears to those who are interested in themselves. Let me tell you what I am entitled to. I am entitled to burn in the lake of fire. That's what I'm entitled to.

Nothing more. Now, I can receive much, much better blessings and a status than that. But that's what I'm entitled to. That's what I can do as a human being on my own. So let's keep this off of the self. And if you get it on yourself, as it says here in James 3, verses 14 through 18, if you have envy and self-seeking in your heart, it doesn't matter what it's from. It's envy. Somebody else got my job. Somebody else gets this. Somebody in the family got the bigger piece of pie. Whatever it is.

If it's at work. If you have envy and self-seeking in your heart, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but it's earthly, sensual, demonic. It's something that's going to be burned up and destroyed. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. And who's the agent of all this? Who's the mastermind of all this? It was the one who wanted to promote himself.

He didn't like being limited to being an angel in the angelic realm, of seeing sons and daughters in the family of God roll in at the God level. Didn't like seeing the greater plan of God's new rollout of a new Jerusalem, the new throne, new family, new heavens, new earth. But the wisdom that's from above is first pure, then peaceable. Oh, peaceable. It's not peace like we know peace.

It is joining. It is Irene. It is to join. It is one. The wisdom from above trends towards oneness. It is gentle. It is willing to yield. It is full of mercy and good fruits without partiality, without hypocrisy. Now, the fruit of righteousness is sown in joining to join by those who make joinings. God is about stitching together, and the fruit of righteousness is joining. That's the fruit of righteousness. Again, I ask myself, what kind of fruits do I have in my life?

Now, there are some people that just will not be joined, you know, but be at peace or be joining with all man so much as it is possible with you. On the other hand, if I'm just a carnal human being, and I'm just saying, oh, what's in it for me? How much can I get? How high can I rise?

How much can this reflect well on me? And I'm going around just, me, me, me, me, me. Then I'd be an agent of division, of alienation, of competition. How can I become an agent of oneness? How can you become an agent of oneness, more so than what we have been and what we are already?

How can you be like the Most High would be another way of saying the same question, because God is an agent of oneness. Well, brace yourself. I'll show you how. I won't show you. God will show us how.

1 Peter 2, verse 24. 1 Peter 2, verse 24 will tell us how you too and I can become an agent of oneness. 1 Peter 2, verse 24. Here it is. Who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. That's how it's done. Ouch! Kind of catches us by surprise, doesn't it? Here's our Lord hanging on a tree naked, shredded face, jeered at, spear in the side, stuff running out, made fun of. You see, there was no me in what happened there.

There was no self. It was give. It was love. It was putting others higher. He did it with excitement. He yearned to do it, he said. He looked forward to it with great anticipation, with great desire. The night before he died, I have desire to take this cup with you. It's the opposite of feeling entitled, isn't it? When you're hanging on a tree and you say, Father, Father, why have you forsaken me?

And humanity has forsaken him. His disciples have forsaken him. That's not fair, is it? It's not about fairness. It's not about having things of equality. It's a result of humility, of sacrifice, of promoting others. Jesus Christ came to promote you into being a divine member of the family of God, living forever with everything that he has inherited, everything that God will be creating. He did this, bore our sins in his own body on the tree, going on that we, having died to sins, we having repented, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed, or the Greek, eomai, made whole. Why? In other words, you were brought back to be made whole with the family.

You were restored in a relationship with the family of God, because, or for, you were like sheep going astray. We were headed outward. We were going away from God. And oneness required him to die, humble himself, give of himself, God the Father, to stop what he was doing and call and draw us, so that we who were going that away, notice, have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your lives.

God is about oneness, about reconciliation, about bringing things together, and that's what it took. We changed direction and have returned to God. All humans are God's children. All were created in his image. All are owned by God.

They were taken captive by Satan. Jesus came and was on that stake to pay a ransom to get us back, because we had been taken off willingly.

But he came to reunite family, to bring us back, to return us to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

Let's go to 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18 through 20. This passage sometimes is misunderstood to be talking to the church. It's not as talking about the apostles. Remember, the apostles are the ones with the prophets on whom the church was built, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone, and he himself not actually building the church, but God the Father is the one who built it through Jesus Christ. It is the church of God. Jesus said, keep through your name, Father, those that you have given me. He instructs us to pray to our Father in heaven. This is a one body. Yes, Christ is at the center of it, but God is all in all. He and Jesus Christ are one.

It says here in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18, Now all things are of God the Father, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ. We have to understand here who our family is. God the Father is very involved with you and the church. And all of it is of God. And He has stitched us, reconciled us to Himself the Father through Jesus Christ. Now, Paul here is saying this from the perspective of the apostles. Let's read it from the way it's written. And has given us the apostles, the ministry, the ministers who Christ chose and put in His church, the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, Christ put some leaders, some ministers, some apostles in the church, and they are agents of oneness, of reconciliation. Paul is saying we, whom the Father has drawn, we are agents, we are ministers of reconciliation. That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, the Father, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us, the apostles, the ministry, the word of reconciliation. That's what the ministry is to be doing. Now we, he goes on, now then we, the apostles and ministry, are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us. We, the apostles and ministers, therefore, implore you on Christ's behalf to be reconciled to God. That's what the church is about. The church from God the Father reconciling, Jesus Christ reconciling, the ministry reconciling. We are all to be pulling together, and then we read in Ephesians 4, verse 16, that even each member of the body now stitches itself together by the part that each one does its share in a gappela. We're all to have the oneness and to be agents of oneness. The very mindset of God leads to oneness. It leads there every time, in every situation. Again, analyze your legacy and see if we are as good an agent of oneness in becoming one and unified as Jesus Christ was.

And then analyze how much we have imitated Him in our sacrifice, in self-demotion, in promotion of others, in loving the wife as our own body, in respecting each other, in children loving your parents, etc., etc., and loving God. Are we really, really devoted and committed to this agape mindset of God? That mindset will always, in every situation, every time, lead towards oneness. I am just a human being. I have the opportunity to have inspiration from God and a calling into the ministry. But from where I sit, from where I work, I am amazed. And it is just incredible to see that when God, His way, His Spirit work, people draw together. It is a living miracle. It is profound. It is something of a different dimension. And it is exciting to see it. And so if we go to John 14, verses 15-21, we see some words, some instruction from this one who was the promoter of unity, the one who came as an agent of it for you and me, that the Father reconciled us to Himself through this individual. And Jesus says in John 14, in verse 15, If you love me, if you agape me, keep my commandments. Some say, well, this is about the Ten Commandments and the do's and don'ts and buying your salvation. No, no, no, no, no. If you love me, if you love God, if you love the family of God, if you like the kingdom of God, if you want to be part of it, develop the mindset of God, which is agape love. It's reflected in God's law, His commandments. Buy into that. Do it. And I will pray to the Father and He will give you another helper, another helper, that it may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive, because it neither sees it, the Holy Spirit, nor knows it, the Holy Spirit, but you know it. For it dwells with you and will be in you. After Pentecost, now it dwells, those of us who are baptized, the Holy Spirit dwells in us. Notice what He's saying. This helper, the Holy Spirit, the world cannot understand.

It cannot receive it because it doesn't see it and doesn't know it. But you and I know the Holy Spirit. We sense it in our lives. We can be led by it. If we understand what it is, and not the wrong spirit, but if we actually test the spirits, we can see the fruits of it and we can be emboldened to say, Yes, that is the way I should walk in that. That is the self-demoting way, other-promoting way. That's the right way. That's the relationship-building way. That's what Jesus Christ and God the Father do. I want to be part of that.

But you know it, for it dwells in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will not leave you disconnected. Notice his reference here. An orphan is someone disconnected from family. I will not leave you disconnected. I will come to you. How's he going to do that? Through the Holy Spirit.

A little while longer and the world will see me no more. But you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them is he who loves me.

And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him. See the unity, see the pulling together, see the binding, the oneness there. And ultimately in that day, which I assume is the resurrection he's referring to, we will be in each other. However that happens, I don't know. Fully. But I think that once again there is a communication, there is a oneness of mind through the Spirit that emanates from the Father and through the Holy Spirit, through the Son, to the children.

We have that opportunity to be at one with God now as much as we can be as human beings. Paul says in Galatians 5, verse 16, Galatians 5, 16 through 26, that we are to walk in the Spirit. Galatians 5, 16, I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another. If you want division, if you want fracturing relationships, well, here we are again. The things that appeal to us on the carnal human level break apart. They are contrary to one another. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the penalty for breaking the law.

You're not under a sentence to the lake of fire. If you walk by the Spirit, you're not under this penalty for breaking the law. The context here of this whole passage is those who will enter God's rest and those who won't. Those who will enter the kingdom of God, that rest pictured by this Sabbath day, and those who will not. Those who will not will be burned up. That's the penalty for breaking the law. Paul here is saying, you are not under the penalty for breaking the law. You're not under a sentence to the lake of fire.

Now, the works of the flesh are evident, which are those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom. I'm not going to read that long list of stuff. But we drop on down and we see that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. What will they inherit? The penalty for breaking the law of God, which is the lake of fire. That's what they'll inherit. Verse 22, But the fruit of the Spirit, or the result of having the Spirit, again, is agape, love, joy, and the Greek word, irene.

Or, stitching together, to join. Also, it means one, or to set at one again. That which was not one is now set at one again. Long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no penalty for breaking the law. If we are doing those things, there's no lake of fire for you.

No lake of fire for me. There's no penalty for breaking the law. There's no lack of entering his rest, which is the theme of this passage. And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. And if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited. Oh, me! It's about me! And, oh, look what I might be able to do.

And look how well I can think. Provoking one another. See, that starts to alienate. Envying one another. That this trending in the opposite of oneness. Back in Ephesians 2 and verse 14, says, For he himself is our peace. He is our joining. Our joiner. The one that brings us together. Who has made both one. He took the Gentile world and the Jewish world and made them into one. He does the impossible. He takes a male and a female and makes them into one. He takes those of us who are going astray, returns us back and brings us into one. That's what God does. That's what we need to do.

In verse 19 of chapter 2, Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, alienated, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, pulling in together one, one family, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together, notice the direction it's going, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. God is in it, in whom you are also being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

For the moment God touches anyone or anything, we trend towards oneness. We, brethren, need to endeavor to be unified. Let's wrap this up by looking at Ephesians 4 and verse 3, Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace to join. That's what we're about. There is one body, one Spirit, just as you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all.

This is about oneness. Verse 23, Be renewed in the spirit of your mind that you put on the new man, which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. It says at the end of verse 25, For we are members of one another. That's oneness. We are to be one. Paul says in Philippians 2 verses 1 and 2, If there is any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love being of one accord, one mind.

Now what this teaches us is God's Holy Spirit is about oneness. And if we're about two-ness or three-ness or twenty-five-ness or three-hundred-and-fiftiness, we're not of God. We're just not. God is not fracturing and breaking things apart. We need to be agents of oneness. In conclusion, why did Jesus Christ come in the flesh? Why did he come? Why did he willingly humble himself? Why did he so lovingly approach that ultimate sacrifice that he gave? I'd like to conclude this sermon by reading his words in John chapter 17 verses 20 through 23.

John chapter 17 verses 20 through 23. This is the prayer that he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. And he really is pouring out his heart to the Father. And he says in verse 20, I do not pray for these apostles and disciples, 120 alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word.

We today are built on those apostles, on the teachings, here we are. Notice, I pray that they all may be one. That's what we are to be. And anybody, I don't care who they are, what their title is, what excuse they have, what reasoning or logic they use, that is an agent of anything but one for the family and children of God, is about something other than what Jesus Christ was about. That they may be one, as you, Father, are in Me, and I in you. That they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent Me.

And the glory which you gave Me, I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one. I in them, and you in Me, that they may be made perfect in one. Brethren, God's Holy Spirit is about oneness. Let's be led by the Spirit towards becoming one with Him and with each other. Next time we'll look at part three, what it means to be led by the Holy Spirit.