Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Spirit Of Christ* Is Holy              19th June

*Lk 11:13 *If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

\\ God is faithful because He is God holy.

God cannot deny Himself because His Glory is the most important thing to Him – His honour and His own Holy Name.

It is a truth we can slip from so easily, but God’s Holy Name is Precious to Him. – Not that He needs our approval or the recognition of men but He is Holy God and anything less than Holiness is less than who He is.

If God were to allow His Holy Name to be defiled, trampled and devalued –------ then --

He has no witness among the watchers of those who call themselves His Church!

God must fulfill His promises and stay true to His own Holy Word so that He is *known* to be Holy even by the heathen.

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray – they had been listening to Him and watching Him pray -- can you imagine the atmosphere as Jesus and His Father communed – (*holiness, reverence*) - they were captivated by this process and the Presence of God, –

before this if they wanted to talk to God or ask something of Him they went to the Priest – they offered a sacrifice, a dove or lamb – but John Baptists disciples prayed themselves – this was unheard of!

John was a Spirit filled man of God – filled from His mother’s womb and he *KNEW *God.

He came crying “prepare the way of the Lord” and he talked with God – his disciples had watched and he taught them to pray and the disciples of Jesus had seen them and been touched.

So now they wanted to pray, they wanted to approach God too – their whole spiritual understanding was being turned upside down from the religion they had grown up with – but they saw a new reality, Jesus hearing them and with the wisdom of God said very directly –

*Lk 11:2  *  “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.

\\ *Jesus Himself said the most significant thing you can pray for* – /to pray = to entreat, implore, to make request of God in humble manner – to intercede/ – so Jesus is saying the *very first thing*, *the most important thing to pray for* is the Honour of God’s Name – *that God’s Name be hallowed* – that is, /be recognised as Holy, Sacred, Consecrated , Revered/.

So Jesus says we are to ask God by entreaty and determined intercession for His own Name to be revered and kept sacred.

*Isn’t this incredible – I mean God is Holy and He is always Holy and He never changes* – so why should *we* have to pray for this *truth to be kept true*?

David said I saw the Lord always before my face – He kept Him there in the forefront of his every thought – man with a heart after God’s own heart.

I don’t know but maybe Jesus knew right from the beginning that we would so easily drift into a humanistic familiarity that brought God down to us, our level – that made Him our “mate” –

God knew that so many things had already been done in His Name that were defiling and horrible, and that had actually caused Him to pour out Holy wrath and judgment!

God knew that mankind would very quickly lose sight of His Holy, Glorious and Wonderful Name and claim His Glory as their own.

So He said *pray for this first* for My glory is the most important thing to Me!

For My strength is made perfect in weakness – *our pride and self sufficiency denies God His Glory!!*

Do you see that God’s Holy Name is most important and for the sake of His Own Name we can believe and stand upon every Word of God – every prophecy of the Bible, every promise, every correction and rebuke – every single Word of this Book is true because God is a Holy God – Gloriously unimaginably Holy – He cannot be less than Holy or He is not the God of this Bible!!

So when Jesus said more than our desire to please and bless and honour our children with gifts, we, who by comparison to God’s holiness are evil, – how much more will He our Holy Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! – So we know without any question that as we have asked God for the Holy Spirit, it is God’s absolute desire and will and HONOUR for *His Name’s sake *to give us the Holy Spirit.

– Giving us the Holy Spirit is always for the Honour of God.

In fact it is for the Honour of Jesus Christ, as He Himself said, when He has come He will glorify Me, all that the Father has is mine!

*Oh if only we could see that the Holy Spirit must always and only and without exception glorify Christ for the Honour of God’s Holy Name*.

So as we have asked, and God is faithful for His Name’s sake, – then why do we not know and see and LIVE that Honour and glory – why do we struggle and still seem to be waiting for something more?!  

Oh we have all tasted and seen and known something of His Presence and His grace – and yet all around us society is crumbling, it is falling into all lawlessness and depravity – and although it is prophesied and although God is never out of control – and although even the devil God allows – *Hasn’t He called us to be the bearers of His Holy Name the Name of Christ*? – Hasn’t He called */us /*the Church that bears His Name to be the ones to pray, intercede, and entreat Him? –

*Isn’t it down to us* to show His Name Holy to the lost, dying and lawless?

– Even though they might not come, even though they might not believe or accept Christ – Isn’t it up to us to at least give them the chance to reject Him??  The chance to see Him Holy and Hallowed?

Don’t we have to cry out and entreat God for the Hallowing of His Name until REVIVAL is born in our midst??!!

You know it is only the church that can make a difference – it is down to us! 

*Ro 1:18*   For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

     \\ I am not sure we even recognize this wrath of God – I don’t think the ignorant unsaved truly understand that the chaos around us is actually God allowed, if not God given.

Nothing is out of God’s Sovereign control – it is easy for us, even as Christians, to look at this chaos of social decline and become numb to sin.

You know 60 years ago if a woman wore a bikini to the beach she would have been arrested for being indecent – now it is normal even in the church!

60 years ago adultery was a most horrible crime in normal society – it was illegal!

I never knew one person who was divorced until I was at High School – to be seen drunk in public was disgusting and shameful, I never heard the word homosexual until I was in my 20’s – I didn’t have any idea what that was – the things we watch as entertainment today on TV would have brought prosecution as pornography in 1950! – Now it is acceptable even to the church in most instances.

We don’t see it as sin or unholy – and can you see that our concept of what is sinful or holy has actually changed with the acceptance of these practices by secular society.

With this new toleration of sin as normal and its eroding of our, (/the churches)/ concepts of what is sinful~/holy so the High and Holy View of God, the Hallowing of His Name is also diminished – it is eroded!

*And what we think is righteousness and acceptable to God He actually says is His wrath revealed*.!!

Isn’t this the story of the church from the beginning – Israel chosen by God and blessed and then adopting the practices of the pagan world around them, immorality, idols, all manner of sin and God judging and in Holy Loving Wrath finding a way to turn them back to Him – and like *us also*, chosen by God in Christ allowing the worlds standards, idols and morality to infiltrate the Holiness of God – not even seeing it, right into Pentecost and many of our practices and beliefs –humanism!

I wonder if in thinking about repentance and turning back to God we have not in our personal quest

 Missed seeing the need of “*The Church*” – we have downgraded sin to a view of simple acts of unrighteousness but have accepted the worlds idolatry of materialism and humanism and the worship of the human body and sexuality, of success and presentation and prosperity – and it has eroded our view of the Holiness of God and the Hallowing of His Name.! Because of this, our literal understanding of the Holy Spirit and who He is and what we should expect of His Presence 

is distorted at best, and totally wrong and actually deceived at worst.

It makes that scripture – that whisper of God to us so frightening and maybe we are so far away we don’t even hear His Voice?

*2 Th 2:9-10 *The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

\\ How we must be lovers of the truth!

– how we must seek after the truth!

– *You know it is God’s Holy Righteous and absolute desire – His Holy Father-like compassion and longing to bless and honour His Children by giving us His Holy Spirit* – that He might dwell in us!

God earnestly desires to give us the Holy Spirit of Christ above and beyond anything we have yet seen or imagined – I think we have only seen a shadow of what might be – a shadow of what the W.O.G. tells us at Pentecost!

But everything is for the Hallowing of His Name but we have wanted it all to be about us!

Our ministry, our needs, our healing, in fact we have created a gospel of healing a healing revival when the Bible tells us no such thing – but our God is faithful and He cannot deny Himself – and He says this /without holiness no-one will see the Lord/ – and He says /Be Holy for I am Holy/ - -and so He has made this provision by His Spirit through Christ – God shows us a way through  – Ezek 36 : --

*Eze 36:16-21* Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds; to Me their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary impurity.

Therefore I poured out My fury on them for the blood they had shed on the land, and for their idols with which they had defiled it.

So I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries; I judged them according to their ways and their deeds.

When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy name—when they said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, and yet they have gone out of His land.’

But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went.

\\ Just like us! – The world looks at us and says where is their God!

If that is what their God is like I don’t need that!

*His Name is profaned in us*, the church – our dissention, our divisions, our arrogance our self righteousness, our compromise, our sin – adultery, immorality, fallen heroes – you know it all – but the world look on and they see that *God is not Hallowed in us!

He is not!

He is not Holy and they have no idea or concept of what Holiness is because we don’t show it to them*.

How can God give what He so desires to give His children – the Holy Spirit who will Hallow His Name, if His Name is already profaned by our behaviors and practices?

*Eze 36:22-23  *Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: I do not do this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for My holy name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations to which you went.

And I will vindicate the holiness of My great name and separate it for its holy purpose from all that defiles it—My name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned among them—and the nations will know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service], when I shall be set apart by you and My holiness vindicated in you before their eyes and yours.

\\ Oh Church I pray that our ears may truly hear this and our hearts comprehend as we seek for revival – the revival we so desperately need – but it is not a revival for the sake of the church, it is not a revival for the saving of souls, it is not a revival of healing and miracles – */all the things we seek after/* – They are the things of great importance to man, and they seem so pious and so righteous – but they are all about the glory, success and recognition of man!!

*We need to cry out for a revival for God’s Name’s sake*!

Revival is about God’s Name being hallowed – Please listen to this because I am convicted and repentant over things we have done and I thank God for His Grace and mercy – His loving-kindness!

But God cannot give revival, real Holy revival where *His Name is not hallowed* because it would be against His own great and glorious holiness – it is impossible for God to compromise Himself – He is God –

God is not a man – there is nothing of mankind in Him – His ways are higher and He cannot sin, everything He does is Holy and it cannot be less than Holy – so God cannot bless something, anything, that is not a true reflection of who He really is! ( frightening to think of things we have done in His Name etc.) The Holy Spirit cannot manifest Himself in any behaviour that in any way denies this truth!

– We must LOVE this truth!

*Can you hear the voice of Jesus speaking to us in this* --  And I will vindicate the holiness of My great name and separate it for its holy purpose from all that defiles it—My name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned among them—and the nations will know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service], *when I shall be set apart by you and My holiness vindicated in you before their eyes and yours*.

Back to the prayer of Jesus, Our Father who is in Heaven Hallowed be your Name

*Eze 36:24-29  *For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all countries and bring you into your own land.

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness; and from all your idols will I cleanse you.

A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall heed My ordinances and do them.

And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be My people, and I will be your God.

I will also save you from all your uncleannesses, and I will call forth the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine on you.

\\ There has to be a separation from the world – its values, it’s contamination – Hard I know, but that is why we must meet together and support one another – etc.

The community – like Sandringham

As God is hallowed in us – *deliberately honoured* and holiness pursued – we are made clean – you know in the Welsh revival thy cried “Bend Me” – show me my sinfulness, my pride – my idolatry – when God is truly hallowed – His Brightness exposes our darkness!! – But it is wonderful to be clean!

God begins to change the heart – the hard heart, the indifferent heart, the broken heart – Oh there is such a softness that comes for the Hallowing of His Holiness – tender hearts truly love – Jesus was moved with compassion to perform wonderful miracles!

*Then the Baptism* – the Holy Ghost we long for and seek for, but here is God’s Divine order!! Do you see when we KNOW that infilling, this Promise, – we walk tenderly before God – we walk softly with our Lord in His righteousness – but conviction is constant and it is beautiful and longed for – Our God is Holy!!

There is such a beauty in holiness – a magnificent glory!

So how do we begin – we pray and try to live the honour, the hallowing, the holiness and allow conviction to come.

Bend me Lord! Bend Us!

 

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