WHAT IS THE DISTINGISHING MARK OF A CHRISTIAN?

Romans 8
WHAT IS THE DISTINGISHING MARK OF A CHRISTIAN?

DOES HE HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT? DOES THE HOLY SPIRIT DWELL IN HIM???
Notice what Jesus says in
John 14;16 Now I will pray the Father and and he will give you another confortaor that he may abide with you forever even the Spirit of Truth (now he is talking about the Holy Spirit and he calls him the Spirit of Truth) Whom the world cannot receive (and here again the Lord is making the difference..the saints of God have the Holy Spirit they receive the Holy Spirit but the World seeth him not ) now the word seeth him not means the world doesn’t literally see him but neither do you he is a spirit and a spirit cannot be seen) the word seeth here means the world does not perceive him the world does not understand him It is used in the same sense that Jesus said in the 3re chapter of John “except a man be born again he can not see the kingdom of heaven” It means you can’t perceive.. when I am talking to you about something and say do you understand that ?
What Jesus is saying here is that the world can’t perceive him the world doesn’t understand him and then he says Neither knowth him Now you may know “about him” but you do not know him intimately you can’t perceive the Holy Spirit you can’t fellowship with the Holy Spirit if you are of the world it is impossible you may know about him but you do not know him intimately because you have not received him.. A good test as to whether you are saved or not is just simply this “Have you received the Holy Spirit??”
In acts chapter 19 Paul met some deciples and he had some doubt as to wither they were saved or not and he asked them “have you received the Holy Ghost sense you were saved sense you believed?” and they answered him we didn’t even know there was any Holy Spirit.. He said is that right ..then what were you baptized into?? And they said into John’s baptism and Paul realized that they have come right up to the threshold of salvation but they have never received the Lord He preached unto them Jesus and they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus and received the Holy Spirit .. The distinguishing mark of a child of God is that he has the Holy Spirit if you don’t have the Holy Spirit they you don’t know anything about God. Now go to 1corenthins chapter 2;9 ..the Apostle Paul is talking about perceiving things or understanding things that belong to God. But as it is written “eye has not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” What Paul is saying here is that your natural eye and your natural hear cannot perceive and understand behold spiritual truth, neither your natural heart. What he is saying here is you will never comprehend spiritual things visually, audible, or emotionally, never , Not by the eye gate or the ear gate not by your heart..
But notice in verse 10.. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God.

Paul is contrasting 2 types of people ..Those who live by his senses and those who live by the Spirit
Verse 12 . Now we have received , not the spirit of the world but the spirit, which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

What Paul is saying is that you don’t have to get to heaven to see and experience these things but the only way you are going to know them is by the Holy Spirit.

Verse 14 But the natural man ( that is an unsaved man a man in his natural state) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can be know them because they are spiritually discerned.

Now if I preach the gospel to you and you say that’s foolish or if God’s word appears foolish to you well you are just giving proof positive that you have never been saved they are foolishness to the natural man neither can he know them because they are spiritually decerned he doesn’t have the equipment to know them there is no way he can know these truths.. but he that is Spiritual judges all things that is he deserns all things

Now go to the last book of the bible the bible book of Jude ..notice I am laying the groundwork so you can understand what makes the difference the distinguishing mark of a Christian
Go to verse 10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not ( why don’t they know not ?/ because they are spiritually decerned) but what they know naturally, as brute beasts,( that is a man without the holy Spirit has no head start over an animal in knowing God they are like a bruit beast) in those things they corrupt themselves.

Now look at verse 19 of Jude these be they who separate themselves , sensual (that is living by their senses) having not the Spirit. So you have the sensual man and the spiritual man, the natural man and the spiritual man. I am just trying to tell you in all of these verses what Paul is saying in Romans chapter 8;vrse 9

Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his..

Now go to Romans 8 and I want you to see that God gives your best friend 3 descriptions there are 3 references to the Holy Spirit and he is describe 3 ways for example In Romans 8:2 He is described as the Spirit of life do you see that? For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

There the Holy Spirit and the word Spirit is capitalized in my bible and it is talking about the Holy Spirit he is called the Spirit of life. Your best friend is called the Spirit of life.

Now go down to verse 9 and there he is called the Spirit of Christ notice the last part the Spirit of God is called the Spirit of Christ in this verse he is called both the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his

So th4e Holy Spirit is called in verse 2 the Spirit of life and in verse 9 he is called the Spirit of Christ now go to verse 15 He is called the Spirit of adoption

Now I believe in these 3 verses you have the office work of the Holy Spirit your best friend in your life.
He is 1. The Spirit of life
2. He is the Spirit of Christ
3. He is the Spirit of adoption
you need to get to know your best friend this is his 3-fold ministry to you
he minister’s to you as the Spirit of life
he minister’s to you as the Spirit of Christ
he minister’s to you as the Spirit of Adoption

now as the Spirit of life he gives us our life we have life by the Holy Spirit I don’t mean existence even an unsaved person has existence he will exist for ever but he doesn’t have life Jesus said in john 10;10 I have come that you might have life. Now how do we get this life .. well we receive this life by the Holy Spirit , the bible says it is the Spirit that quickens it is the Spirit that gives life

the difference between the people of this world who are religious is this.. The people who are truly saved live by the impartation of life .. the unsaved live by the imitation of life they just simply imitate the lord
But a Christian is somebody who has received life. Jesus said in john 3; we have to be born of the Spirit .. when you are born that’s when you have life you are born literally from above which is life. You see man is body soul and spirit . now I know that the theologians argue this.. but the bible says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 23 and I pray God that your whole spirit , and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our lord Jesus Christ.
Now man is more than a plant because he has a soul, plants have a body but they don’t have a soul, and man is more than an animal because animal have a body and a soul but animals don’t have a spirit, only man has body soul and spirit and your spirit is that organ of knowledge that part of your nature that enables you to know God for the bible says God is spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And when we get saved God’s Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. I want to point this out that man by nature is spiritually dead he is physically alive , he is soulishly alive or physically alive but he is spiritually dead until he receives the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit that gives life. You cannot have life apart from the Spirit of God you only have existence and the reason