A three-part series on the Holy Spirit by Andrew Williamson
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01
Read transcript of The Spirit of God: Session 1
Transcript produced automatically and lightly edited; it may contain errors.
So we’re hoping to look over the next three Sundays at the Spirit of God. I think perhaps before we do anything more, it’s fitting to read Genesis chapter 1, the first couple of verses of Genesis chapter 1. We’ll have a few other readings in a short while, but we’ll start with this. Genesis chapter 1, reading from verse number 1.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And 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. Then God said, Let there be light. And there was light. We know the Lord blesses his word as we think of it together. Now it’s my intention
really, it’s such a vast subject, if I had told you that I was going to speak about God over three sessions, probably you would know that there would be a lot wouldn’t be covered. Well that’s exactly what’s happening. We’re going to speak about the Spirit of God. And I think there’s 350 references to the word Spirit in the Old Testament and 350 are around there in the New Testament. So we’re going to be suggestive and hopefully helpful. And there will be things that we don’t get covered. But we trust that we’ll be blessed as we look at the word together.
Now my intention is over the three sessions to look at the Holy Spirit from three angles. Now each week we’ll have to set a kind of foundation for what we’re going to say. So there will be a sort of panoramic part to what I say at the start and then something more specific as we move through the session. We’re going to look at the person of the Holy Spirit today, then next session God willing we’ll be looking at the present age and the work of the Spirit and how that contrasts with the past and with the future. It’s a very interesting study in its own right. And then I want to think in the third session of the practical reality of the Spirit of God in our lives as Christians. What does it mean that I am indwelt by the Spirit of God? What should it mean? How should it affect me? What work has the Spirit done to bring me to where I am? What work will he do to eventually bring this redemption that we have received to its culmination and conclusion? So we look at the practical reality of the Spirit of God in our lives. Now I know that it’s such a big subject. I mean it was funny because I was thinking of it yesterday and one of the persons I was speaking to down the town yesterday, he came up to me and he told me that the Spirit of God was running up and down his legs. Now I don’t want to trivialise, but that is a problem. And the person in question, he may well be a brother in the Lord, but he has an idea about the Spirit that is not really based on any biblical text. And I tried to explain to him the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians chapter 5, love, joy, peace, long suffering and so on. And I said, well this is where the evidence of the Spirit is. If you see these things in your life, this is the evidence, not exactly to do with feelings in your legs. That’s not the thing. So there’s a lot of confusion about the Holy Spirit. There’s a lot of confusion and there are many genuine believers that are confused. And so as we go through these sessions, there might be questions coming to your mind or there might be something that you want me to deal with and I don’t get dealing with. So let me know. Let me know because I can maybe incorporate it in the sessions
or we might be able to put it out in a separate podcast. For the Home Bible Study, we’ve got a wee podcast thing that Stuart helpfully set up. So we might be able to get something put together anyway. So if you have a question or just something that I don’t cover, please let me know. So we’re dealing today with the person of the Spirit of God. So we’re going to read several different passages.
I’ll put them up on the screen and we’ll read through them. I’ve already read the first one with you. Let’s turn to John chapter 14, please.
John chapter 14
verse 16
If somebody could switch the middle light at the back, you might make the screen a bit — thank you Georgie. John 14
means everybody is in darkness now I can’t read.
14 and verse number 16.
And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another comforter or helper that he may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive
Matthew 28 Matthew 28
For connection we might well read verse number 18. And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 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, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. And 2 Corinthians 13 for a final reading at this time.
There will be a lot of referencing just by nature of the subject as we go through.
2 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse number 14
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. We know the Lord blesses the reading of his word to us. When I’m looking at this subject today, what I want to do is really just to give a kind of overview introduction, one or two of the issues that have been raised in this subject. And then we’re going to focus in on the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit, because these are two big issues in the minds of some people.
And then what we will do thereafter, God willing, if we have the time, hopefully we’ll have the time, we’ll look at a kind of panorama of his work and we’ll never cover all the aspects of the work of the Spirit. We’ll briefly mention some pictures of him in different ways he is illustratively spoken about in Scripture, different metaphors and so on that are used of the Spirit of God. We’ll mention them but really that will be your — I’ll leave that ball in your court to go and deal with them in more detail and then we’ll finally try to draw what we’re going to say to an orderly conclusion. So first of all let’s look a little bit at an introduction. It is a kind of impossible task to cover because after all we’re dealing with someone who is inexhaustible. We’re dealing with
we’re dealing with God. We’re going to see that as we go on and look at this in more detail. He is divine. He is equal in essence and substance with the Father and the Son. He is essentially God. He shares all the divine attributes with the Father and the Son.
So, for instance, he is omnipotent. That is, he’s all-powerful. And that reference in Job, or those two references I’ve given you in Job, speak of how he works creatorially. He has created people. It tells us that in Job chapter 26.
Perhaps that reference is actually to the heavens. Job 33 is how he created us. Job 26 is how he created and garnished the heavens. A beautiful truth that we’ll maybe touch on in a little while. He is omniscient.
That means he is all-knowing. He knows everything. In fact, he knows all about and understands, as no one else does or can, all about the depths of God. It tells us this in 1 Corinthians 2. He is also omnipresent. That beautiful verse that I’ve put at the bottom there, where can I go from your Spirit or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven you are there, if I make my bed in hell behold you are there, if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. And this is referring to the Spirit of God as well as God in that sense, as well as God the Father.
So, as we’re thinking of the person of the Spirit, we have to understand something of the way we need to be careful and biblical when we’re speaking about him, because we’re speaking about a member of the Godhead. Now, there are genuine struggles that people have in understanding the Spirit of God. Now, I suppose it’s because we understand persons as having bodies, usually. We think in that way. And even the word for spirit, in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, has this idea of wind or breath associated with it. And so we think of that as almost like an…
up in the ether or something. Quite difficult for us to conceptualize because the Spirit has no physical shape or form.
As with the Father, God is Spirit. And they that worship him must worship in spirit and in truth, the Lord says. So the only member of the Trinity, in that sense, who has a body, who has a body in that sense, is the Lord. And he took that upon himself in coming into this world. He took humanity to himself, as we know. It is also a neuter word.
It’s a word that of itself is not gendered. I’m speaking about the specific word. Spirit, in English and in Greek and so on. So it is something that we struggle with in a natural way. And of course we struggle with understanding what’s involved in the trinity or the triunity of God. There is one being and there are three persons in the trinity. These are not easy things
to understand. They were never meant to be. How can a mere mortal fully understand the divine?
But there has been a revelation and because there is a revelation we come to it and we understand that all the attributes of God are shared and the Father has all the attributes and the Son has all the attributes and the Spirit has all the attributes of deity.
Now there are false teachings that you can imagine come out of this. Right back in the 4th century, Arius, who was known for his false views of the Lord Jesus as well, he believed that the Spirit of God was more or less an influence emanating from God. Or even an exerted energy of God.
Then there was another man in the 16th century, Socinus. And again, he did believe in the eternity of the Spirit. But he just thought it was in the eternal influence or emptiness. These are some of the things that people have said. And that comes right down to today. And so you’re on the street and you’re speaking to a Jehovah’s Witness, they do not believe in the deity or the personality of the Holy Spirit. And that’s not only the JWs, you’ll find other cults that are the same. And of course Unitarianism is the same, it doesn’t believe in the deity of the Lord Jesus or of the Holy Spirit or even his personality usually, I think I’m right in saying that. So there are false teachings out there with regard to the Spirit of God. So we’ve
got to ask ourselves as we come back to scripture, how are we meant to defend? How are we meant to understand what the Word of God says about the Holy Spirit? Well, we just begin to read because it becomes very clear and not that difficult to understand the two big points that I want to make now which is his personality and his deity. His personality. There are really three major elements that mark personality. Intellect, the mind and the thoughts and the cognitive abilities if you want to put it like that, emotions and will. Will is that ability to choose, to command and so on.
Well, we find out when we come to something like an influence or an energy that it doesn’t have any of these things. An influence does not have an intellect, a mind.
An influence, obviously, or an energy doesn’t have emotions. That energy is not sad today.
and certainly we know that influences or energies don’t have a will, they have to be directed by
another. And so when we come to Scripture we find out that all these things are spoken of in relation to the Spirit of God. So let’s look at them for a little minute. First Corinthians chapter 2, please. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Very interesting little section at the end of chapter 2, verse number 10, we read this. But God has revealed them to us through his Spirit, speaking about the wonderful things eye hasn’t seen or ear hasn’t heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed them to us through his Spirit. For the Spirit, notice this, searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. So the Spirit is searching.
For what man knows the things of man except the Spirit of man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. So there’s knowledge there as well. Let’s go to Romans chapter 8.
We could say more about that passage, but not so much. Not for now. Romans chapter 8.
And verse number 27.
Now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he makes intercession for saints according to the will of God. So here we have the mind of the Spirit. So again we have that thought of intellect. There’s so much more. This goes through the Bible. I’m only taking one or two references.
Let’s think of emotions. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 30.
and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God
so there’s a thought of his sensitivity and there’s a thought of emotion attached to this. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. And then finally 1 Corinthians chapter 12
younger folks definitely go in and beef these things out because there’s a lot more to it
1 Corinthians 12 and verse number 10
verse 11 really, but the one and the same Spirit worketh all these things distributing to each one individually or severally as he wills, as he wills. So we have the will of the Spirit. So we’re just at this point trying to develop an understanding of the personality of the Spirit of God. There’s a lot more we’re going to find out about his deity in a little while, but first of all we’ve got to understand his personality. Secondly, his works confirm his personality.
John chapter 14 verse 26. Let’s turn to it. I’m not going to turn to all these because I realise we won’t get past looking at them all at this time. But John 14 is a fantastic passage.
John 14 and 26.
But the Helper, the Comforter, if you like, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, I will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I say to you. So, teaching. And we find out testifying, bringing to remembrance all these works of the Spirit. We find out in chapter 16 that he is guiding them into truth. Guiding. In chapter 16 again in verse number 8.
He is convicting the world of sin and righteousness and judgment to come. Convicting. Then we’ve already touched upon it in Romans chapter 8 verses 26 and 27. We have him interceding. The verse before what we read. He intercedes for the saints.
The Spirit joins his help with our weakness, it tells us. And he intercedes. Commanding. That’s a good one. Acts chapter 13 and verse number 2. Turn to that.
Acts 13 and verse number 2.
This is the church at Antioch. And as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Now that is, this is airtight now. This is clearly emphasizing and helping us to understand the distinct personality of the Holy Spirit. He said, separate unto me Barnabas. And so he commands. You see his will there and we see also his commanding, his works confirming his personality. Of course the pronouns show
his personality. Because the Lord Jesus when he’s speaking about the Holy Spirit and as I’ve said that’s a neuter word. The Lord Jesus doesn’t say it, he says he.
He says he. He uses the masculine pronoun. So these are just some ways in which it is very clear when you start to examine scripture and read it carefully and more carefully that we discover that the Holy Spirit is not merely an influence or an energy, but he is a person. And therefore we should speak of him as such.
Now let’s think of his deity for a couple of minutes.
John 14, please.
You probably should just keep your finger in in John 14 to 16.
John 14 in verse number 16.
And I will pray the Father and he will give you another helper. That he may abide with you forever. Now it’s often been pointed out this is the word allos. It’s another of the same kind. So here the Lord is saying that he is a comforter, a helper, a paraclete. He’s the one who has been beside them and called alongside to help them.
And now he says there’s another one coming of exactly the same kind in that sense. And this is emphasising the equality of the Holy Spirit with the Son.
in fact he tells us in chapter 16, we’ll not turn to it unless you’ve got your finger there, chapter 16 and verse 7, it says — it’s the Lord says — it’s expedient that I go away. So here the Lord Jesus, the Son of the living God, who was with his own and training his own and teaching his own, he says listen, it’s better if I go away. That’s tremendous. Why? Because if I don’t go away the Spirit will not come, but the Spirit is coming.
He’s going to be your helper. He’s going to be your fortifier. He’s going to be your encourager. He’s going to be the paraclete that comes alongside. So we see again equality with the Son is clearly evidenced in this passage. Now he shares his name with the Father and Son.
this to me is tremendous. I remember the first time noticing this, I mean I probably should have noticed it 20 years previous, but I remember noticing this. Matthew 28
you don’t need to turn to it if you don’t want to but in Matthew chapter 28 you’ll remember the Lord says
all authority is given unto me in heaven and on earth, go ye teach all nations, baptizing them in the names of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. No, he doesn’t. He doesn’t say that. Sure, he doesn’t. He says baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. You see a singular name.
The unity of the Godhead and yet the three persons of the Godhead. One of the most beautiful Trinitarian passages that we have. He shares a name with the Father. What’s in a name? Wasn’t that Shakespeare once said? Well, what’s in a name when it comes to the Bible is a tremendous amount.
All the character, all the quality is emphasized of that person or persons. So when it tells us that there is a singular name that links together Father, Son and Holy Spirit we know without a shadow of a doubt of the deity of the Spirit of God
of course there’s shared blessings from
the Father and Son and Holy Spirit
1 Corinthians chapter 12 which we’ll turn to I’m sure in another week in more detail.
When he’s speaking about the gifts and the administrations and so on he brings out very clearly again another Trinitarian formula. He speaks of God and the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of God. In fact we will turn to it. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Sometimes it’s better when it’s in front of us.
look at verse number four, now the earlier verses are interesting as well but I’m afraid the whole bible is interesting so we can’t stop. Corinthians 12 and verse number four, there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit, there are differences of ministry but the same Lord, there are diversities of activities but the same God who works all in all and so on. So the blessing of the gift and of the ministry that you’re involved in and of God’s operation through you, it’s all brought together in this passage and we see that the blessings that come to us come to us not only from the Father and Son but also from the Spirit. That’s only one example. You can look at the others. I’ll leave them for the sake of time. Of course the titles of the Holy Spirit really emphasises deity also.
The Lord, the Spirit, tells us in 2 Corinthians 3. The Holy One, 1 John chapter 2. You have an unction from the Holy One.
And these are only two of many titles. And so without a shadow of a doubt those who are bible believing christians have to come to the conclusion that he is a person and that he is divine, he is God. Now there’s more can be said as you know, you can go to Acts chapter 5 as well and things like that. Now I’ll just leave that. That, for your interest, will be on the handout or the PDF when it goes out. Notice the shared attributes within the Godhead. Somebody put together this very nice table. It wasn’t me on this occasion. And you can see the references there for the Spirit of God.
Life, omniscience, omnipotent, omnipresence, eternity, holiness, love, truth. And there probably could be others added to that list, I’m sure. But we’re really just emphasizing this point at the minute. Let’s think for five minutes. Five minutes of a panorama of his works. So I’m going to stop at each one for about ten seconds.
He worked in creation. We thought of it, the Spirit of God hovering or brooding over the face of the waters. By his Spirit he adorned or garnished the heavens. What a beautiful thought. In fact, the word behind that, it’s a word for light. And so you look up at the night sky and you see the beauty of it spread across the heavens.
Remember, it was the Spirit of God who garnished the heavens. In inspiration, holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
All scripture is God breathed. And you look at the word breathed, breath. It’s a word for spirit. So it’s telling us, I take it central to the work of inspiration is the Spirit of God.
Administration. You look through the Old Testament again and again. You remember Bezalel when he came to make the furniture for the tabernacle, it tells us that the Spirit was in him. In Judges chapter 3 and 6 and so on we’ve been noticing as we go through that the Spirit of the Lord came upon them. Now we’ll think a little bit more about that next week. But just at this point it’s emphasizing whether it is a work of wisdom and skill, because wisdom is emphasized in the Exodus passages, or rule, the judges when they were judging, or war as they went out to war, or the prophets when they spoke, in any occasion when the work of God was taking a particular turn.
The Spirit of God was involved. Moving men. Working with men. The Spirit of God spoke to me, David says in 2 Samuel. As a prophet, of course, as well as a king. The Spirit of God spoke by me.
His word was on my tongue. So in ministration, in incarnation,
the Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore also that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. In incarnation.
In redemption. Well, that’s such a vast field. From the beginning to the end, right through Calvary, when he offered himself through the eternal Spirit without spot unto God. From the baptism of the Lord Jesus, we were thinking about it, the Spirit descending like a dove upon him. Through the miracles that he did. In the power of the Spirit.
That were attributed by the nation to Beelzebub.
So in redemption wherever we turn. The Lord himself stood and he said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because he has anointed me. And so in redemption we see in a remarkable way. The work of the Spirit of God. In regeneration.
Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus. And he should have known this, shouldn’t he? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except anyone be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. The Spirit of God is involved in the new birth. In conviction. When he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment.
In illumination.
But when he has come, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you into all the truth. In the baptism in spirit and the formation of the church, 1 Corinthians 12 verse 13, for by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink of one Spirit.
In provision for the church we thought about that already, by one and the same Spirit, but one and the same Spirit works all these things distributing to each one individually as he wills. In sanctification, that’s a massive subject.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 6 to 8, that’s what it’s all about. Galatians 3 to 5.
In intercession, likewise the Spirit also helps in our weakness. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. In consummation. That’s a great summary statement. From the throne proceeds lightnings and thunderings and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Seven is the word, obviously, for completion and completeness and fullness.
And we find out from the throne, before the throne — you know, in those days, Caesar had, they tell me, seven people that sat before his throne. And they were to work out the edicts of the throne. And so the Spirit of God will be involved. We’ll think of that in a minute, actually. The Spirit of God will be involved in bringing to pass the millennial earth. In the setting up of the millennial temple.
and there will be a man
a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind it tells us, I think it says Isaiah 32, but we find out from Isaiah chapter 11 that he will be a branch, he will be a shoot coming from the root of Jesse, that root that was cut down, that lowly root, and the Spirit of the Lord shall be upon him. Spirit of wisdom and understanding and so on. So as you can see, the work of the Spirit of God spreads across the whole of scripture, the whole of the drama, the unfolding drama of redemption. And this is why we should, and it’s imperative that we understand more about him and his works. There are many pictures of him, I’ve just mentioned some of them there, I’ve not put any references on it, you can go ahead and do that and develop some of these things because I’ve only put a few words beside each of them. We see him as the dove and emphasising I take it the purity of a clean bird and the thought of sensitivity as well, and of course the dove abides in Christ.
You remember the dove couldn’t find a place for the sole of its foot on the judged earth. But of course we have the dove abiding in Christ. There was never a time when he would grieve the Spirit or could.
The wind. We have of course the Lord uses that illustration, doesn’t he, in John chapter 3. The wind blows where it wants. You hear the sound. You cannot tell where it’s come from or where it’s going to. So is he who is born of the Spirit.
saying there’s something mysterious and sovereign about the workings of the Spirit. Of course, the mighty wind, we think of Acts chapter 2, and it’s emphasizing the power, the power that just cannot be resisted. Now, in saying that, it doesn’t mean you can’t resist the Holy Spirit, but that’s another subject for another day. Fire, emphasis is holiness, of course. Again and again, our God is a consuming fire. And that’s an illustration, as we’ll see, of the Spirit of God.
Water, the thought of satisfaction. Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water, the Lord says. Speaking of the Spirit, John chapter 7. What is it about the belly in Scripture? The seat of that, the hunger, the appetites. There’s people in Philippians chapter 3 whose God is their belly.
they’re just completely governed by their appetites, their desires, their needs, but of course the person who is filled and full of the Spirit has no need for these things, has deep satisfaction. Oil, sanctification, the thought of anointing and so on and supply as we think of the light’s supply and testimony. Seal has the thought of ownership, we’re sealed by the Spirit. The earnest, the promise. In fact that’s a little word that was used at the time for what we would term engagement rings. It’s a thought of a pledge, of a coming, of a down payment of something that was coming that was even better. And so we can think about that in maybe another session. In conclusion.
In Zechariah chapter 4, when these people are struggling with their temple that they’re trying to build and so on,
the Lord speaks to Zerubbabel and he says, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. That principle runs through the whole of scripture.
The picture behind it is a picture of testimony because of course the temple is going to be in a future day of testimony for the nations and the nations will come up to it. How will it come about? Not by might.
That’s the thought of armies behind it. It won’t be some great army, however great the Israeli army ever gets. It won’t be because they have nuclear weapons. That millennial temple will not be set up because of that. Not at all. Not by might.
Nor by power. That’s a thought of human effort. Strength. Brute force. Physicality. Not by power.
By my Spirit. It’ll happen. It’s as sure as I’m standing here that it’ll happen. Why? Why? Because God has pledged it.
And it will be by his Spirit. So we must understand in our Christian lives, whatever we do,
human effort isn’t going to do what we want to achieve for God.
Human effort won’t really help us when it comes to witnessing for God. Oh yes, we will have to, I’m not saying that there aren’t things we should do and things we should obey in the scriptures. Of course that’s true. But we should not be depending on ourselves. When we came to Christ at the beginning, we were depending on Christ. He has given us the indwelling Spirit of God.
We must be depending on his power if we’re to accomplish anything for his glory. But we trust that enough has been said for the glory of God. Shall we pray?
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02
Read transcript of The Spirit of God: Session 2
Transcript produced automatically and lightly edited; it may contain errors.
Turn to John please, John chapter 7, put your finger in on verse number 37, John 7 and 37.
John chapter 7 and verse 37, a couple of very interesting verses that the Lord brings to your attention. We are looking at the Spirit of God over these three sessions, as you’ll remember. Last week we looked at the person of the Spirit of God. We thought of his personality. Those things that contribute to personality are seen related to the Spirit of God. He’s not merely an influence or an energy from God, but rather he is a person. The Lord Jesus confirms this in how he speaks about him as well. But we thought of the intellect, the emotions, the will, those things that relate to personality are seen related to the Spirit of God. We thought also of his deity.
We looked at different aspects of that deity as it’s seen throughout the Scripture and tried to bring it together. But now this session is really dealing with the present age and the Spirit of God. We’re going to think of how he is at work in the world today, how he’s at work with believers today, and how that differs in some way from different ages and so on. So, I mean, it’s a massive subject again. So as I said, each week I’ll have to kind of set a bit of a foundation before we understand it properly, I believe. Okay, so what we’re going to read first of all in John chapter 7 and verse 37.
John 7 and 37 to 39.
The Lord Jesus is standing in a very particular day in the Jewish calendar, but we’ll leave that for now. On the last day, that great day of this feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will, or out of his belly, the authorized is better here, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. And we know the Lord will bless the reading of his word to us. In fact we will maybe read the second passage mentioned there now, we’ll see if it’s turning to it later but we’ll be thinking about it later definitely.
John 14 in verse number 16.
And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper, another comforter, 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 will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Okay, so what we’re going to look at in this session, more or less, are these three big, broad sections. I want to look at an introduction at the past work of the Spirit of God in the Old Testament and briefly, very briefly, in the life of the Lord Jesus.
And then we’ll think just for a few minutes about the future work of the Spirit as we stretch on into the future past the rapture of the church. And then we’ll think particularly and focus in on the present unique work of the Spirit of God. Now I’ve mentioned four things there, we’ll mention more than four, but four of the main things that we’ll think about are the baptism of the Spirit. What is exactly, what’s meant by that? Because there’s many ideas that float about in the world about that, so we’ll think of what the Bible says about it. Then we’ll think of the indwelling of the Spirit of God and how that differs from the Old Testament.
We’ll think of the sealing and the earnest, or some translations have the guarantee, of the Spirit and things like that. So we’ll think of those particular facets of this work of the Spirit in this present age for believers.
Then in conclusion, I’ll try to draw a few lessons from it and draw it all together. But firstly let’s look together in introduction at a few things and then we’ll think of the past work of the Spirit of God. Now some ministries of the Spirit are specific to the age that we are in, and when I speak about the age that we’re in I’m thinking particularly of from the day of Pentecost when the church began to the day when the church is taken from this world into glory. So I’m speaking particularly of what’s sometimes termed the church age, the age of grace, sometimes even the age of the Holy Spirit. There’s a very specific way in which the Spirit is working in this age and it’s really important that we understand that. Now some ministries of the Spirit are more general in character and have been seen in other ages and some of them continue through this age as well, so we can think of those briefly as well. When I’m speaking about the church I’m speaking about every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m using it in its large aspect, I’m thinking of everyone that knows the Lord, whatever place they go to on the Lord’s day; that’s not what I have in mind at the minute. I’m thinking of the church, the body of Christ, and so every member of the church, the body of Christ, they make up in this age the church which is his body. I’m kind of semantics there for you, but it’s just trying to underline that fact. Now there are specific ministries in this present age, as I’ve mentioned. What began at Pentecost, you see, was something that was
it was completely new. It wasn’t Israel rehashed or reformed or even replaced. It was something completely different and distinct, and that’s why in the Bible there’s a different word used for the church. We don’t really — there’s one occasion in the whole of the Bible when the same word, assembly, is used of Israel, and it speaks about the assembly, the gathering together in the wilderness, when it’s specifically speaking of the nation having been gathered out into the wilderness. But on every other occasion you read the word church and it relates to believers; it is not speaking about Israel at all. And when you read about Israel it’s not speaking about the church, it’s speaking about Israel. A very simple rule of semantics, just keep it in mind, it helps when you look at the scriptures. Now God’s purpose for the church, Ephesians chapter 1, is from before times began; God’s purpose for Israel is from the foundation of the earth. Now that’s a very simple distinction that you can draw as well when you look at scripture. I’m just drawing these very broad general things so that we can understand where we’re going. So in formation, maintenance and life the Holy Spirit plays a pivotal role in the church. It’s helpful for us to understand that that’s what makes his work in this age so unique. It’s to do with his work in connection with mainly the church, the body of Christ. So let’s think of it in a little bit more detail now. What about the past work of the Spirit of God? Well we looked a little bit at this last week but I want to just focus on a few things and then we’ll move on.
In creation, what we find in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 2, that the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters, and God said, Let there be light, and there was light. You remember, I’m kind of just shortening it for the sake of time, but really the atmosphere and environment
that was set for the production of and for the development of life was done by the Spirit of God who moved on the waters, and the idea behind it is the thought of perhaps a bird brooding or fluttering — that’s the expression that’s used, it’s a very unusual expression, and it’s that thought of, you imagine — a chick was mentioned today, a hen was mentioned today — what is the hen doing over its eggs? It is creating an environment for life, and it’s associating itself with the life of the chicks. Now if you just keep that in mind, that’s something that comes up again, and the Spirit is involved in creating that environment and in the production of life. So we find out in creation, whether it’s speaking about that initial creation, or it’s speaking about the spirit of animals even, in the Psalms, when it’s speaking about the spirit of man in Job, and even when it’s speaking about garnishing the heavens, the Spirit of God was involved and is involved in that work. That’s a work in that sense that continues every new life. A new birth, this is an interesting one. The creation of spiritual life. If you were to look at John chapter 3, the Lord Jesus speaks to Nicodemus who knows his Old Testament, or should know his Old Testament very well.
He says to him, and he tells him about the new birth, and he says you have to be born of the Spirit and of water or else you can’t be in the kingdom of God — and I’m again just being very quick in my travel through this — you’ll notice that he goes on and he says you’re a teacher of Israel and you don’t know these things. Nicodemus should have known from reading his Old Testament, and from passages such as Ezekiel 36, 37, those kind of passages, that life is given by God. And life is essential for the coming kingdom. And for Nicodemus, that was a very literal thing. The millennial kingdom, he was thinking of the kingdom on earth. And so the Lord says, listen, if you ever want to enjoy the blessings of God, but in that sense, in the future, you need to know something of the new birth. You need to know something of this divine life.
So what we can learn by implication from that, while it’s not developed as much in the Old Testament, is that the thought of regeneration is not restricted simply to this age.
What about filling? That’s another interesting one. We think of filling and it relates to Acts and we think, well, that’s the church age. Well that’s true, it is true, but it is mentioned in the Old Testament as well.
It’s mentioned in relation to specific skill and wisdom that is needed for a certain thing. I have filled them with my Spirit, he says, the Lord says. So it might have a slightly different aspect in relation to this present age, as we’ll see perhaps next week, but there is a sense in which that is a work that continues, a past work of the Spirit that continues. What about specific
empowerments, callings, tasks? You remember the judges, we’ve been going through the judges, and you think of how the Spirit of the Lord comes upon them and they judged Israel, for instance. Or the Spirit of the Lord came upon them and they went and they did some great feat that was in God’s purpose. And there’s this thought. Almost like a sailing boat. Taking wind in its sails.
And being moved along. Because God through his Spirit is working. And he’s lifting a man up. He’s picking him up. And using him for a specific purpose. We’ve seen that in relation to Samson.
We would have seen it. And who knows in the future. We might yet see. In relation to Saul. And David and those kind of people. Where they’re picked up
by the Lord and used particularly. So that’s specific empowerment. What about in the life and work of Christ? You’ll see how quick I’m going here. Well we cannot really stop. We thought that last week of the dove descending and the symbolism in the dove and so on, whether it be his conception, his baptism, his anointing three times in Isaiah, the Spirit of the Lord being upon him, his leading — he is driven by the Spirit into the wilderness, he’s led by the Spirit into the wilderness — the statements that he makes of the Spirit, the joy that he rejoiced in spirit, it says in the authorized, better he rejoiced in this spirit, his joy in the Spirit, the eventual offering through the eternal Spirit without spot unto God, the resurrection, the sending of the Spirit himself. So the whole life and work of Christ is the foundation, I will say, for the present work of the Spirit. Why? Because there are three characteristics as we come to the end of the work of Christ, and it says there’s a completed cross work, there’s an exalted and ascended Christ at the right hand of the throne of God, and there’s the descended Spirit of God in Acts chapter 2, and they are absolutely essential for the work of the Spirit in this present age. Now the future work of the Spirit, it’s very interesting because when you come into the Revelation you find in chapter 4 verse 5 that we see the throne in heaven and we see the edicts of that throne and we see how the throne in heaven is going to be involved in the bringing to pass of God’s purpose on earth, and you see before the throne of God and of the Lamb we see seven lamps of fire burning and so on, and they depict the Spirit of God. It’s very clear if you look at the symbolism in it, and we think of the plenitude, the seven, the idea of deity, but also the thought of the fullness of the power and the work of the Spirit is there for the benefit of the throne and for the working out, the agency of that purpose being worked out on the earth. Now it’s important we understand that. And so when it comes to the coming day of tribulation, and we have coming out of that tribulation those who are saved in the tribulation and as a result of the witness of the 144,000 and other reasons, those who are saved — a great multitude is mentioned in Revelation chapter 7 — well the work of the Spirit will be involved in their experience as well. Not in the same way as it is for us, it is true, but in the tribulation there is definitely the work of the Spirit of God, and no one will see the kingdom of God without the new birth, and so that tells us, I think, enough for us to know that’s the case. In the millennial kingdom, interestingly, well there’s different passages we can turn to here, but Zechariah 4 and 6 we mentioned —
how is the temple going to ultimately be built? How is there going to be a witness for God? And we have this beautiful symbolism of the two trees and of the olive and how it’s supplied. And then at the end of that section, God speaks and he says, Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. How will God bring to pass the end game, where he is glorified and there’s a witness going out from Jerusalem across the world and there’s that millennial temple in its proper place? It won’t be by might nor by power.
It won’t be by the armies of this world. It won’t be by human ingenuity or effort. But it will be by my Spirit, says the Lord. So we look at the future work of the Spirit. Not a lot of detail is given but enough for us to understand that he is at work. We’ll maybe come back to that in some way later on.
Now what about the present unique work of the Spirit of God?
You’re saying, Andrew, how are you going to get through all that? Well, we’ll see what we can do. But I’m going to mention a number of things that are particular to this age. Some of these things, you could argue that there was some aspect of them seen in a previous age, but a lot of them are specific to the age in which we are and to the church of which we form a part. The baptism of the Spirit, the indwelling of the Spirit, the comforting — well think of what I mean by that in a little while — the teaching that he does, the sealing, the earnest, the gift distributing,
the fruit producing, the convicting in relation to the world, and finally the restraining in relation to evil. Let’s think of these things very briefly. The baptism of the Spirit of God. Now there’s a lot said about this in among Christian circles of different descriptions, and it’s kind of got a very confused look about it if you were to listen to folks. It’s actually not that confusing, I don’t think, when you come to the scriptures. We’re going to read some of the scriptures here on the screen just so that we see where we’re going with this. John the Baptist was the one who mentioned the baptism of the Spirit the most numerous times in Scripture. He mentions it in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
And then the Lord Jesus mentions it in Acts before the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost. And then there is a reference to it in Acts chapter 10. And in my understanding anyway, there’s really only one definite reference in the epistles to the baptism of the Spirit, and I take it to be 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 13. So we’ve mentioned the doctrinal, the teaching passage at the end there, and we’ll think of that in a minute. But let’s read the verses together. John answered, saying to all — you’ll remember the occasion, he’s baptizing and so on — I indeed baptize you with water.
Then he’s speaking of the greatness of Christ, he says, but one mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I’m not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. You notice that? He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Or, I baptize you in water. Easily translated like that.
And he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit. Then the Lord Jesus said — you look at the other references in your own time, I only picked the Luke reference there — the Lord speaking, for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Now he doesn’t mention the fire, by the way. You’ll
notice that. But you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. And that’s speaking of what happened in Acts chapter 2. There’s no doubt about that. Now then we come to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and this is what we read. Paul is speaking about the church as a body and he gives the basis doctrinally for what he’s saying, and he says, for in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have been made to drink of one Spirit.
You notice that, the symbolism here. Baptised, that’s the thought of being immersed in the Spirit. Obviously that’s not a physical thing, by the way. It’s surely understandable that we’re dealing with spiritual things, not material things, immaterial things. Spirit.
By one Spirit we were baptised, we were immersed into one body. That’s to do with the creation of the body, the bringing together of the body of Christ. How does it happen? It happens by the baptism of the Spirit, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free; so whatever background you come from this is how it comes to pass, and have been all made to drink of one Spirit. That’s the indwelling, we’ll think about soon. Not only — you think of how you use a drink, a drink of water, you drink it,
it comes into you. So you’re baptised in the Spirit but you be made to drink of one Spirit as well. So the two aspects are seen there, baptism and indwelling. Now we’ll think a little bit more of that in a minute. You’ll notice the baptiser is Christ and the element is the Spirit. That’s probably great.
It’s evident to me anyway. I know there’s some who would maybe see that slightly differently, but that’s my understanding. You can see the parallelism between water baptism. I baptize you in water. You shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Who’s the baptizer?
It’s Christ. John the Baptist was baptizing in water, he says, there’s one who’s coming and he will baptize in the Holy Spirit. It happened at Pentecost originally, by the descent of the Spirit. That’s obviously very clear from the Acts 1 passage and the Acts 10 passage, which refers back to it. And it results in the formation of the body of Christ.
And when was that initiated? It was at Pentecost. Now, what about all of us? You’ll notice it says, we were all baptized into one body. Now he’s writing to Corinthians who were not
progressing spiritually the way they should have. They were very carnal. It tells us that in chapter 3. They were fleshly. They were acting in a way that was just like the people around them in the world at times. So this wasn’t a people who had reached some sort of super-duper level of spirituality and had been baptized of the Spirit in some kind of second-blessing sense. Not at all. This was believers,
they were all of them, every one of them — he concludes himself in this — we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greek, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink of one Spirit. And that brings us into, clearly I think it brings us into, the body of Christ, and I’ve put there at the point of conversion. Now there’s a wee bit of — I don’t want to be semantical here — but there are some people that really believe, and this is the way I was taught originally and I don’t really subscribe to it, I just don’t tell my dad.
He was very much of the opinion, and many people are of the opinion, that there’s a sense in which the baptism was once for all and it was at Pentecost, and we came into the good of it at conversion. Now I understand where he’s coming from in that, and I understand why, I think. I think Pentecost was definitely a once-for-all event, the descent of the Spirit and the beginning of the church. However, I’m not completely convinced that the baptism of the Spirit in that sense only happened at Pentecost, and this is why — just to summarize my thoughts, somebody else put it as I was thinking it: it is true that the work of Christ was accomplished on the cross, was accomplished once for all, becoming effective for individuals when they become saved. Even though the act of — the work of the Holy Spirit in baptism is different, however. It is the active joining of the soul to the body of Christ in a point of time. While it can be said that Christ died for all even before they are saved, it cannot be said that individuals are baptized into the body of Christ until they come to the moment of saving faith. That’s my understanding. Now, there will be different people who have a different view on that, so you can go and be Berean about it. Anyway, let’s look at the next one, indwelling. I will pray the Father and he will give you another helper, another comforter, 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. Now this is interesting, this wasn’t seen in the same way in the Old Testament. This is a thought of permanent accompaniment. He will abide with you forever.
He was presently with them in the sense of there during their service, in companionship as it were, but he would be in them. Now that’s union, that’s deeper union with our spirit, making our bodies the temples of the Holy Spirit — that’s 1 Corinthians chapter 6 — it’s universal upon believing, we’ll see that in a second. Now this allows in practice all of the practical ministries of the Spirit to take root in our lives and hearts, and we’ll see that in a little minute. Ministry such as interceding and assurance and understanding, all these things are to do with the uniting of the Holy Spirit with our spirit, or being indwelt by the Spirit of God. This is a tremendous truth, as we’ll think in a minute or two. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, says Paul in Romans chapter 8, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you; now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his, or none of him. Now this is one of the clearest statements in the New Testament as to the fact that if you don’t have the Spirit of God, you’re not truly a believer in the Lord Jesus. So the idea of a subsequent receiving of the Spirit is not the norm or characteristic of the New Testament at all.
It’s certainly not characteristic of the epistles. So we’ve got to understand that if you don’t have the Spirit of Christ, you’re not of him, not of his. Thirdly, the comforting. Now this flows out of the indwelling. There’s the enjoyment of the Godhead abiding, that’s really what the Lord speaks about specifically in John chapter 14, allowing this union and communion, this joy of fellowship, that he will abide with us, the Lord, and the Father will abide with us in that sense. The way the Lord said, for instance, he that has seen me has seen the Father. There’s a union within the Godhead. There’s a closeness. There’s an essence. So you enter into the good of the abiding presence of Christ because of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
What a wonderful thought. Guidance in the truth, we’ll think of that in a little minute, especially the apostles in the context would be guided and helped to understand the truth of God in a way that they didn’t know. Assurance of link with the Father — you remember in Romans chapter 5 we read those words
that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that’s given unto us,
or the love of God has been poured forth in our hearts, and the thought is that we now have an appreciation of the love of God as a result of the indwelling Spirit of God; that happens at the moment of conversion. Now you come to Romans chapter 8 and it tells us a little more, it says that the Spirit within bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. What a tremendous thing. This is why it says in Galatians chapter 4 that he has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, Abba, Father. And we get more of it in Romans chapter 8. We’ve got this thought that there’s that appreciation for a link with God as our Father. I remember it was one of the most revealing things the moment I trusted Christ. I remember getting down by the side of my bed and saying, Father.
And I don’t ever remember speaking of God like that before, but there’s an understanding of a link with the Father now because of the indwelling Spirit of God. So this all comes through the indwelling Spirit. This is the comforting. Now you see that word comforting, well, we use the idea of comfort as something like a cushion; that’s really not the thought behind the word comforting. It’s the word paraclete. It’s the one who’s called alongside to help. But there is behind it this thought — just remember the circle of four —
it’s this thought of fortifying that is really behind it. It’s strengthening. That’s all involved in this idea of comforting. It’s not comforting, i.e. making you somehow comfortable in everything that you’re doing.
That’s not the job of the Spirit of God in our lives. No, but to fortify us in our lives and service for him. And to give that will involve encouragement, but will also involve this appreciation that we now have, and the enjoyment of the Godhead abiding and so on. Remember David’s woes in Psalm 51.
Do you remember what David said when he was worried about all that would fall out of his sin with Bathsheba? And one of the things he says, take not your Holy Spirit from me.
But you can’t pray that intelligently now, as you know, that I’m sure, because the Holy Spirit indwells us, and is our seal — we’ll think of that in a minute — but just I think of the circumstance for David. David has seen Saul originally empowered by the Holy Spirit, picked up and used by the Holy Spirit, and then the Spirit of God leaves him because of his evil attitude and characteristics, and it says that an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him — that’s what it says in Scripture — and David knows that he has the power of the Spirit working in his life, and he says, whatever you do, Lord, don’t leave me the way I am. Now that’s not something we can intelligently pray because of the indwelling Holy Spirit who is with us forever. Interceding for us — what a wonderful verse this is. Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses, or joins his strength to our weaknesses, some people have translated it, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. This is to do with our prayer life, when you are beyond words yourself and you don’t even know what way to turn or what words to pray. The wonderful thing is that the Spirit intercedes for us.
And he cries Abba Father, and tells us that we cry Abba Father in the Romans passage; in Galatians it says he cries out Father. And so here we have all aspects of the particular ministry of the Spirit of God in our lives. Now I’m going to have to get to the conclusion. Teaching, we’ll maybe leave the teaching but look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and also at John chapter 16 as I’ve referenced in there. The inspiration of his word, the revelation and wisdom in his work and in his word. Let’s look at the sealing and earnest of the Spirit
just for a minute or two. In him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth,
you say that’s a lot of words. Well, it’s a lot of words, but it’s extremely helpful to understand. Having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Now the old Romans, they had that thought of ownership and authenticity, authenticating,
and they had behind it the thought of security — you remember this, they’d seal the stone and things like that — and so what we’re learning here is that when we believe, God sets his seal upon every believer, his sign of authenticity. If you truly are the Lord’s you have this sign of authenticity. We have this seal of the reality of what’s happening in our life. What is that seal? It is the indwelling Spirit of God. Something more —
it says who is the guarantee, or the earnest, of our inheritance. What’s that? Well, I take it that this is the thought behind that, you see in the engagement ring, because that’s the very word that would have been used for an engagement ring at this time. Now, you give someone an engagement ring, and I find out to my cost that it was a very costly thing, an engagement ring. But what you’re really saying to the person is that there’s more to come. You’re going to enter into so much more. Or here — it’s going to be a wee bit, flip in there and say, well, maybe you spent all your money on the engagement ring and there’s nothing more to come.
But that’s certainly not true in this case. It’s the thought of a down payment. You know, you’re going to come into so much more. You’re sitting in the presence of the Lord, even this morning, different times perhaps, and something of the joy of knowing the Lord rises up in your heart by the Spirit of God. And you say, what will it be to be there? You see the Holy Spirit is the earnest, is the down payment, is the guarantee, whatever way you want to put it there, of the inheritance that is ours. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God — we’ll think about this next week in more detail — you see it’s a personal relationship, there’s a way that you speak to someone that you’re in relationship with, there’s a way that you act when you’re in relationship with someone. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Gift distributing, we’ll maybe touch upon it next week, I’m not sure. Manifestation of the Spirit is given to each for mutual profit. What about fruit bearing? The contrast being the works of the flesh, plural, we have the fruit of the Spirit, singular. The fruit of the Spirit, what is it? That guy that came to me the other week, he says, you know, I know I have the Spirit because I feel something coming up my legs. Right? What does that mean?
What does the Bible say about knowing that you have the Spirit? Well, we’ve mentioned some things already, but one of the things is that you can expect the fruit of the Spirit to be being worked out in your life. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, faithfulness, goodness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. So fruit-bearing, the work of the Spirit. We will think of it more finally — and this is me genuinely stopping after this, I’m coming to my conclusion — the convicting work of the Spirit of God, we’ll mention it there, John 16, when he comes he will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment to come. Will not mention that too much, but there is a work to the world, the world that rejected Christ, the world that is headed up by the ruler of this world; there is a work that is done by the Spirit to convict people in the world. Now, finally, restraining.
Now, the restraining work of the Spirit is an interesting one, because there’s a little bit of evidence to suggest that the Spirit has always restrained. My Spirit shall not always strive with man. There is a restraining aspect to the work of the Spirit throughout the ages. There’s a sense in which the prophets were sent to restrain sin in the nation. There’s a sense in which in many ways, but there’s a very specific restraint that is being placed today upon the rise of the lawless one, of the man of sin in the future, and the rise of the mystery of lawlessness into its full manifestation. Why has it not reached its full-blown manifestation yet?
Well, the reason is
what it says here in 2 Thessalonians 2. And you know what is restraining? Now the “what” in this context, I believe it’s the Spirit indwelling the church. That he may be revealed in his own time, speaking about the man of sin in the future, the antichrist if you want to use that terminology. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. In other words it’s happening,
the working of the mystery of lawlessness is already happening. There’s agitation, there’s lawlessness. The heart of man’s all set for it. So what is stopping the revealing of the man of sin that it speaks of in 2 Thessalonians 2? Look at the rest of the verse. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.
So the personal presence of the Holy Spirit within the church, which will be removed — yes, as I said, there will be a work done by the Spirit in the future, but the personal presence of the Spirit of God will be removed at the rapture, and what will happen then as a result, just like the Lord saying, my Spirit shall not always strive with man, there will be a full-blown manifestation of the heart of man, and that will result in an immediate judgment, the judgment that begins in the tribulation period. So that’s something of the present unique work of the Spirit of God. Now in conclusion, I’ll just mention these things and that’s me.
We have to understand the importance of the present work of the Spirit of God. The unique present privilege that we have as believers in the Lord Jesus, as part of the church, the body of Christ, that we are knit together with a vital link to one another and to the living head. How did that come about? It came about as a result of the work of the Spirit of God, as a result of the baptism of the Spirit of God as we thought. So someone comes to you saying I haven’t been baptized of the Spirit, you’ll start to understand either they’re saying that they haven’t been saved at all, they’re not part of the body of Christ, or else they’re perhaps using the wrong words, which is often the case in these things. Experience must be understood from Scripture, not Scripture from experience. So in other words somebody says I feel like a special thing is coming over me, it must be some aspect of the work of the Spirit of God — we have to ask yourself the question, do we find that in Scripture first and then apply the experience, or do we find the experience and then try, find the scripture to back it up? Because that’s the wrong way around.
We must all understand our complete dependence on the Spirit if there’s to be genuine fruit seen in our lives. And with this verse I finish. I want you to think about it for next week because this is where I want to go.
Did you receive the Spirit by the works of law or by the hearing of faith? Paul is telling, asking the Galatian believers. He’s saying, was it through your own effort or something like that? Or was it through accepting the reality of what Christ had done and trusting in Christ and therefore receiving the Spirit? He says, how do you continue now? Is it in the same vein?
Or are you going back to that self-effort? Are you going back to adding those rules in that you were trying to use to make yourself right with God? Are you being made perfect in the flesh? Or are you trusting, still relying moment by moment, on the power that has been given us by the Spirit of God. We’ll think of that next week. Thank you and sorry for going over the time.
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Read transcript of The Spirit of God: Session 3
Transcript produced automatically and lightly edited; it may contain errors.
2 Corinthians chapter 3, we will be looking at shortly. We have taken a very sort of whistle-stop tour through this wonderful subject, the subject of the Holy Spirit of God. We thought of his person, his personality and deity. That was the first week. Then we thought of this present age and the Spirit of God, how the Spirit is working in this present age. Today I want to sort of focus in in one or two specific ways in which we can know the practical reality of the Spirit in our lives, and so I suppose if I was to put it in question form I would put it like this: what does it really mean for us in real terms to be aided by the Spirit of God? What makes it different in a day-to-day way?
Is his indwelling so very glorious? Now, the answer is yes. Are we so very privileged? And again, the answer will be yes, but we’ll look at that a little bit. And then how can we access the divine resources that God has given us? Because you look back in the Old Testament, you think of all the blessings that were given to the children of Israel, and yet so many of them didn’t enter into the good of those blessings.
And sadly that’s true among us as believers. Every one of us in some way, we’re not entering into all that we have. And so we have the privilege of having such divine resources and such divine power at our disposal to make us more like the Lord. And are we accessing Him and how should we and how can we access those resources, especially the resource of the Holy Spirit himself within. How can we avoid grieving this Holy Spirit, this holy person who has united himself with us in this remarkable way? How can we avoid grieving him?
We’ll think a little bit about that. So to do so, I suppose it will come under three main headings. I want to think firstly in 2 Corinthians 3, just for a few minutes, about the glory of the Spirit in our lives. The glory of the Spirit in our lives. And then we’ll think mainly, the main section of this meeting, on growing in holiness by the Spirit. And really we’ll look a little bit of chapter 6 and 7 and into chapter 8 of the Roman letter.
A wonderful section. One of the Himalayan heights of the New Testament, Romans 6 to 8. Growing in holiness by the Spirit. We’ll think a little bit with that. And then I want to think about Ephesians chapter 4 just briefly at the end. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
What do these things really mean in our lives? So let’s think of them together and then we’ll conclude. We’ll try to draw together our little series at the end. Turn with me please to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. We’ll read the first few verses.
Do we begin again to commend ourselves or do we need as some others epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men. Clearly you are an epistle of Christ ministered by us. Notice this, not written with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is of the heart. Now we’ll come back to this in a little bit more detail in a moment. The first thing I want us to notice is that these believers in Corinth were looked upon as a living letter, a living epistle of Christ.
It was as though the Lord had begun to write and write in their lives in a remarkable way and that writing was the very commendation letter if you like for the apostle because he didn’t need a wee piece of paper with ink on it; they were his evident token of the blessing of God among them and that he was who he said he was, an apostle of God. You see, what was happening in Corinth at this time, just to give a very brief bit of background, was that there were people going around and they had designs against Paul. Let’s put it like that. They came along and they said, well, we’re associated with the Old Testament. We’re associated with the ancient religion of Judaism. And yes, oh yes we are Christians, but really what you need to do is you need to incorporate a bit more Judaism in here, and Paul, he’s just, he’s kind of wacky and original and he’s not really linked to the old thing, and they were speaking against Paul and they were coming and they had letters of commendation; it seems they were coming with letters, paper and ink, to the Corinthians and they were spreading some things against Paul and so on. And Paul defends himself throughout 2 Corinthians against them.
But on this occasion he says, listen, I don’t need a letter when I come to you, in effect. He says, you are my letter. He says more. He says, you’re a letter from Christ. What a commendation. But he says more again, he says, it’s not a letter written with ink but by the Spirit of the living God. Isn’t that tremendous? Just to stop to think
about that for a minute. That the Lord as it were has been writing in our lives, every one of us. And he doesn’t use ink. He has impacted our lives from the moment that we were saved and we were born again of the Spirit of God. And even before then, you could argue, God was at work in a mighty way, but he began writing in our lives, and he was writing a letter, as it were.
The Lord was writing a letter. A living letter. Not a mere letter on ink with a message like that. No, we are actually a message of Christ in that sense. Isn’t that remarkable? And how does he do it?
He does it by the work of the Spirit of the living God within our lives. What a remarkable thing that really is. You say, I mean I’ve been in prayer meetings and people don’t mean anything bad, I know they say, they’re saying something like, oh Lord we would just like to see your hand in blessing, and you’re looking around at 50 or 60 or 70 people whose every one of their lives have been changed radically by the Spirit of God. Sometimes we need to look around and remember how much blessing there is among us. Remember how the Spirit of God is moving in our lives and remember that in this sense we are a living letter, a testimony and a message from Christ to the world around, and also so in this case, the Corinthians were a letter to Paul’s very authenticity. So first of all, a living letter. Keep that in mind. It’s a good thing to remember.
When we think of the glory of the Spirit in our lives, that’s the number one point I mention. Secondly, look down towards the end of the chapter. We’ll pick up reading at verse number seven. But if, now I kind of feel bad just breaking into this beautiful section but we’ll read a few verses, but if the ministry of death written and engraven on stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look in the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance which glory was passing away, how will the ministration of, or the ministry of the Spirit, not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect because of the glory that excels. For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. Therefore since we have such a hope we use great boldness of speech, unlike, and like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly at the end of what was passing away. And then he speaks about the blindness of Israel. Just come down to the end of the passage, verse 18.
But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. And we know the Lord blesses his word. So these false teachers, they were saying in effect, we’re associated with the old thing, it’s glorious. The law, Judaism, all these things, the old covenant, Sinai, think of the thunderings and lightnings of Sinai, think of the face of Moses glowing and him covering it, that’s what they were harking back to. And Paul says, listen, the glory that we have in the gospel, the glory that has affected our lives, is far greater. That’s the point he’s going to make here, and it is the glory, as we come to the end, the glory of the Spirit of the Lord. So there was an old ministry in the ministry of death, because that’s really what the law was; you take those stone tablets chipped out and written with the finger of God, what did it bring to people? It only brought condemnation. And so here we have it, what a contrast: instead of death this ministry now brings life. The gospel, when people accept it, it doesn’t bring to them just condemnation, it brings to them righteousness, it brings to them life, it changes their whole destiny and so on. So immediately he says let’s just compare and contrast these glories. Now there was a glory, he says, associated with it, but it just wasn’t as great as they’re making out and it certainly wasn’t any greater than the glory of the gospel and the glory of the present message and conversion and so on that was seen in these people around him. So let’s think about it a little bit more. You remember Moses, he comes down from the mountain and there’s two things it tells us about him coming down from that mountain. It says that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look at the face
of Moses because of the glory of his countenance. That’s the first thing it says. So it is pointing out that there was a glory associated with that old system, the old covenant. And so if you read the passage in Exodus, Moses covers his face. Now what we’re going to learn as we move down, is there’s another reason why Moses covers his face. It tells us as we move down.
It says in verse number 13, Unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look at the end of what was passing away.
Because you see, one of the reasons why Moses covered his face was not just that they couldn’t see the glory, it was that they couldn’t see that that glory was a fading glory.
So the veil is over Moses’ face, a mediator of that old covenant.
And so for those Israelites and Jews to this day, they look at Moses and they remember the glory. But they haven’t understood that that glory was a fading glory, that there was something greater was coming, that that had a use by date, if you like.
And so immediately they turn to the Lord the veil is taken away, but we’re not dealing with that today. Just come to the end here, what a contrast we have here, but we all, verse number 18, but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. So I hope you’re starting to understand that what seems to you like perhaps just the run-of-the-mill everyday ordinary thing of maybe you starting to grow in some way in your spiritual life, as far as God is concerned that is a changing from one glory to another, as you look at Christ in the scriptures, as you understand something more of it, as the Spirit of God works in your heart and in your life, that is a glorious thing, and we must appreciate that if we are to understand how God views the work of the Spirit today. So the glory of the Spirit in our lives, that’s enough of that, we’ll turn on to the next subject which is my main one. I want to think of growing in holiness by the Spirit. Well, it’s really chapter 6 to 8, so you can imagine me doing 6 to 8 from the Romans in 15 minutes. That’s not going to be very deep or detailed. But some really important elements I want to mention. Turn to Romans chapter 6. Up to this point in Romans, what has happened is that the criminal, the condemned man of
chapter 2 and 3 has been justified. He’s been cleared of every charge of guilt in the courtroom of God. And we come to chapter 4 and we find out that it’s by faith. Then we come into chapter 5 and we find out that it’s a justification of life. That there’s a life associated with it. That there’s a triumph associated with it. But as we come to the end of chapter 5
the question that’s on the mind of the Jew, and it’s on the mind of many people when you ask these questions. Well okay, so you have this eternal security and you’re justified and you’re cleared of every charge of guilt. Do you just continue to live the way you were?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And the questions that run from chapter 6 into chapter 8 are really questions not about justification, but about sanctification. About how we become more holy in our everyday life. How we become more like Christ. So the word sanctification is used, I believe, twice in Romans chapter 6. You’ll not find it. It says holiness, but it’s the same word.
Unto. Holiness unto. Unto sanctification. Now there are certain necessary elements for sanctification. That’s really what Paul deals with in these next three chapters. The first one is our relationship to sin has changed. That’s chapter 6.
We’ll think about that in a minute. The second one is our relationship to the law has changed. That’s Romans 7. We’ll think again a little bit more about that. What changed all these things? It’s the cross. Both in chapter 6 and chapter 7.
And then our principle of power, how we get our power to live our life, has changed as well. That’s chapter 8. So that’s where we’re going. These three things are really important. Think a little bit about this. Our relationship to sin has changed. You see, in chapter
3, he’s dealt with sins.
Okay, what I mean by that is our actions, what we have done, he’s dealt with that whole issue of sins and our guilt and things like that, it’s all associated with our sins, what we have done. Good to remember that, and that was dealt with in the cross of Christ, the propitiation that’s mentioned in chapter three. And then he comes across and he comes into chapter five, and he tells us about some other way in which we’re linked to sin. And he mentions Adam. And he speaks about our Adam’s standing, if you want to use the old expression. Our Adam’s standing in chapter 5. And he says that’s been changed as well. We’re now linked to Christ.
He’s our new federal head. And we’ve been brought out from under the headship of Adam and under the headship of Christ. So our link to Adam is another way in which we were linked to condemnation and sin. In a different way, but it’s there. So that’s dealt with. Now we come into chapter 6.
The question is this. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? In other words, shall we continue in our same relationship that we had to sin before conversion? And it cannot be. And that’s what he’s going to deal with. He’s going to deal with our relationship to sin having changed.
Look at chapter 6 and verse 6. And I am having to just cherry pick here a little bit. But it’s a great chapter. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him. That the body of sin might be done away with. That we should no longer be slaves to sin.
You see that? So the cross is what changed our relationship to sin. Now this is not so much sin, the practice or actions. It’s sin, the principle, the master, the master in our life, the slave driver that grips a hold of us. And when he calls, we answer. And that’s the way we were before we were saved.
We had sin as a master. But what he’s going to say is that in God’s sight, we have changed employment. God has terminated the old contract if you like. And how has he done it? We find it here in Romans 6 and 6. Knowing this that our old man, all that we were in Adam, was
crucified with him. Okay so he died for us, that’s chapter 5. But this is another subject, and the subject of what we might term being co-crucified with Christ. It’s a wonderful subject because what it means is when the Lord died on the cross and dealt with sin and died to the whole issue of sin, as it were, that’s exactly what happened to us. And so as it says in Job, that in death the servant is free from his master. And the first element we have to understand when it comes to growing in holiness is this very point, that our relationship to sin is not the same as it was before; when it calls we don’t have to respond the same way now. Now we might respond the same way, he says let not sin reign in your mortal bodies, but he’s going to say that that is not necessary anymore the way it was when we were not saved, because there’s a breaking of the old link that we had to sin in the sight of God. So that’s our relationship to sin has changed, we’ll come back to that a little bit more. But what about our relationship to the law? You say that’s a bit strange to me. Well you see, Old Testament believers were linked to the law in a very unusual way we might think from our perspective. And it was this, that they were under covenant relationship to God.
And so to illustrate the change for New Testament believers, Paul puts it like this. Look at Romans chapter 7 and verse 4. Having used the illustration of marriage, he says, The woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So death terminates the marriage contract, okay, it’s death that does that. Verse number four, therefore my brethren you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. So what he’s actually saying here is that we are not linked in that same way now to the law. Not at all.
Because at the cross when the Lord died this was all terminated, and how it was terminated was this, we became dead to the law as it says here through the body of Christ, and the reason for that was that we, we’ll think of that in a minute, that we should be married to another. You see, explain that to me a wee bit more. Why is it important that we’re not under the law? Now, we knew it was important because the law couldn’t justify. That’s earlier. But it’s important because the law and law keeping and the principle of me setting a standard and trying to adhere to it with all my might, by all the strength of my being, will not work.
It will not make me more holy. And there are reasons for that. Because, just to use a simple equation,
the law plus the flesh equals condemnation. Now, that is true for an unbeliever and it’s true for a believer who’s working in this principle. It’s self-condemnation for the believer. He knows that there is this principle of sin that drags him down still. Well, think about that. He knows that is the case, and so he sets his standard, and then when he doesn’t adhere to it, he is going through life with a big burden over him, of having broken all these things that he tried to keep.
And that’s the wrong way of achieving what God wants in our lives. So it’s a really important thing. There’s a lot of believers that are in that sense, in a practical sense, at this place. But then he’ll go into chapter 8 and he’ll say, well, there’s another thing that’s changed. We have a new principle working within us. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death, he’ll say.
And he’ll speak in chapter 8 about the Holy Spirit in a lot of ways, and that’s where we want to get to. It’s a wee bit like the fire triangle.
You know, when I was at school they taught me that oxygen and heat and fuel are necessary to make a fire and if you break that you’ll not have a fire. Well, there’s a sense in which if you don’t have a right understanding of your relationship to sin now, or you haven’t understood that you’re not under the law now, or you haven’t appreciated the indwelling power of the Spirit in your life now, if one of those elements is missing, you cannot move forward and grow in holiness the way that the Lord wants us to. So we need all these three major elements in our lives. Now how do I enter into the practical good of these things? That’s a good question. Because, Andrew, that’s a lot of doctrine.
That’s a lot of, you know, you could say theory. But how does it come down? How does it boil down into my life? Well, this is something that’s necessary for moment-by-moment appreciation. You know, you wake up in the morning and you say, oh, I can’t face today. I can’t face the struggles that will come.
And then you remember, I am indwelt by the Spirit of God.
Sin comes calling in a certain way. And you remember, I am no longer under the mastery of sin. Oh, yes, it might have a power and a grip in my members and in my flesh, but I’m not under that and I don’t need to bow to it and I can conquer it.
Or for instance our relationship to the law having changed. You wake up in the morning and instead of saying oh I wanted to get up so much earlier and I failed. You go down through life with your head hanging low saying I’m no use as a Christian, because you’ve got the great weight and burden of a law that you have made, that you’re trying to keep, upon your shoulders. And there’s a real danger with that. Now we’ll think about that in a little bit more detail, because I know that could be misunderstood.
But how do you enter into the practical good of these things has to do with my understanding how I relate in these three areas. And it’s the same way in which we were saved. It’s the obedience of faith. In chapter six of the Romans he puts it like this, he says knowing this, and then he says reckoning it to be so in my case, and then he says yield or present your members as instruments of righteousness unto holiness, and present yourself unto God as alive from the dead. Well what he’s saying is you have got to assimilate these truths by faith and say they’re good in my life and I’m going to act upon them. That’s faith. That’s the man standing on the edge of the promised land. Having been told, God said, this territory is mine.
I’m going to then step forward into it. You say, but there’s lots of problems. You don’t understand. I can see the soldiers are coming. The enemy soldiers are over. Nobody has to move forward.
Why? Because God has given it to him and he has to work in faith. Now the same principle we started our Christian life is the principle we still do. I don’t know if you were like me, but I remember before I was saved, trying to get saved. And human effort never did it.
This is Galatians truth, by the way.
How did you receive the Spirit? Was it by the hearing of faith or was it by some form of fleshly activity or effort, human effort? No, it was the hearing of faith. And he says, having begun in the Spirit, are you made perfect in the flesh? So are you going to go back to that old principle of just using human effort, or do we need to bow before God and accept what the scripture says just as we did at conversion and try to live that out in our day-to-day life? You see that’s a different principle that we’re working on. Why are these changes necessary? Well, when it comes to sin, I suppose it’s very obvious. You change master from
being a slave of sin and the fruit is just death. And the wages of sin is death. I’ll come to the end of chapter 6 and say that. And you change, God changes your employment and you’re a slave of righteousness, he says, he says you’re under God now, he says though the gift of God is eternal life and so on. So it’s quite obvious why we need to have changed relationship to sin. Law, well as I say you’ll notice in chapter 8 and verse 1 it says there is therefore now no condemnation, and actually it’s a very emphatic no, you underline it, because what it’s saying is, there’s not only no condemnation from the issues of sins or things like that, you know, from God, earlier chapters, but there’s no need for this kind of self-condemnation that comes from applying the law to the flesh in human effort. So no kind of condemnation at all to those who are in Christ Jesus, why, he’ll explain that and we’ll get there I hope. So a new master. Then he says, I’ve termed it a new marriage, because what he said is the old testament believers in that sense, they were united to the law, they had obligations, they had to fulfill the law of Moses in their everyday life, they were Jews if you like. But now, because God has severed that link in the death of Christ, not only did he die and deal with the curse of a broken law, but he also, representing us, we died with him at that point, and because of that we are now able to be involved in this new union with the risen Christ. Now this is the key to it all because then he’s going to say and bring forth fruit unto God. Just as a normal marriage you would expect
in the process of time, it’s normal to expect fruit. Well that’s what he’s going to say in that sense. We’re united to the risen Christ and if we live in the good of that relationship with the risen Christ then these great fruits of holiness and sanctification begin to work their way out in our lives. That’s where we’re getting. So a new master, a new marriage. What about a new principle?
You see, he’s mentioned the principle of flesh, the flesh, and how the flesh operates, and he’ll deal with that a bit more in chapter 8. But he says there’s a new life principle within that we now operate by.
Now that sin is judged in the flesh, this is Romans 8 and 3, by the way, there’s now a new principle we operate by. So we’ll actually come on to chapter 8 because it’s so full and so good that we have to get there. Let’s look at verse 1 to 4 and we’ll deal with the principle of the Spirit first of all.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Now notice this. Notice this new position he’s mentioning here. Those who are in Christ Jesus. This is the thought of our union with the risen Christ. This new position that we’ve been brought into.
On the other side of death and judgment. That I’ve spoken about. The one who has died for us. And we have died with him. And now we’re seen on the other side. Past all kind of condemnation.
Those kinds of things. And we’re on the other side now. And we’re now in Christ. We’re in practical union. And real vital union by the Spirit of God. With the risen Christ.
And that’s the first point he makes, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Now notice this, we’ll come on to the last clause in verse 4, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. This is the new principle you see within our members. The reason why when you take the flesh and human effort and all the best you can conjure up inside you, if we want to put it that way, and you apply it to the law and you still break down, things don’t work right, it’s because that you have a law, a principle within, which is what we might call the principle of sin and death, sin in the members and so on. Let’s illustrate it like this. You go outside and you throw a ball in the air and that ball comes crashing down. The reason the ball comes crashing down is, well, two. The first reason is that the law of gravity is operating on that ball, so it comes down. And the other reason is that there’s no law within that ball to keep it in the air. So that’s pretty basic. I’m not going into too much aeronautical engineering or whatever. That’s just a basic principle.
The law of gravity brings something down, so we have a law within us, the law of sin that’s in our members is in our members even though we’re saved, because the flesh doesn’t change.
But now we have something else, we have another law that acts in the members, and you see I took that ball out and I threw it in the air and it fell to the ground. But if I took a little spiral out and I threw him in the air, or it in the air, or her in the air, whatever,
that little spiral could soar. Why? Because there’s a law of life in the spiral. There’s a principle that is now within that spiral that means it negates the law of gravity, in that sense it can soar. And so this new principle that we have within us as a result of the Spirit of God indwelling us, thus the new life that we have in Christ Jesus, as it puts it here, the law of life, the law of the Spirit, which is life in Christ Jesus, I take it, has made me free from the law of sin and death. And then he tells us a little bit more of the basis of it all.
There’s a necessary basis. And the basis is this, that sin has been judged in the flesh. And how did that come about? Verse number three and four.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh. And that word for condemned is a very interesting one but it involves and can involve anyway the thought not just of the condemnation of that sin but the judgment passed on that sin. And so we’re thinking of the cross, and God has not only dealt with, think of this, brother, God has not only dealt with our sins at the cross. He’s not only dealt with our Adam standing at the cross. He’s not only dealt with sin as a principle that we had a relationship to as a servant to master. But now the very sin within that still can drag us down, it was dealt with at the cross too. And because of that, we are now indwelt by the Spirit of God.
And we don’t need to be under condemnation because God has worked in a mighty way, and the purpose of it all, verse number four, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. So the righteous requirement of the law, go down in a few verses and I’ll speak about those that are in the flesh, their minds are not subject to the law of God, they can’t please God. And so we have this thought of the righteous requirement, I take it to be as we have in the Lord, the Lord’s summing up of the Old Testament, that you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbour as yourself. That principle of love that marks it is now worked out in believers, not through trying to adhere to a set of rules by their own effort, but rather just by living in the enjoyment of the relationship they have with the risen Christ and the indwelling Spirit. And so incrementally, as we were thinking in 2 Corinthians 3, we are growing from glory to glory more like Christ. That’s a very different principle of operating, everything because of this indwelling Spirit as he works in our lives, and this principle changes us for good. Now I’ve kind of got lost in the beauty of this so we’ll have to get through it very very quickly now. Principle of flesh fails to please God, that’s verse 5 to 8 by the way. The principle of the flesh fails to please God, whether we look at the contrast in five and six between the flesh and the Spirit.
The conflict of the fact that the flesh, it cannot, it’s always at enmity with God. So even if we were doing something in the best of our human efforts, well, there would still be that which is against God. We would be doing it for the wrong motives. The mind would be wrong, as it says here. We would be doing it in the wrong way. And he goes on, verse 8, the principle of the flesh, it cannot please God.
So our own efforts will not suffice. That’s the really important thing that we have to take away from that. Now, what about privileges of union with the Spirit? Verse 9 to 17. I’m going to mention them. I’m not going to look at them.
You’ll get them in the handout. Ownership by Christ. The person who is indwelt by the Spirit of God. It says in verse number 9, Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. He is not of him.
Ownership by Christ. Our spirit is alive, verse number 10. Our future resurrection is secure, verse 11. We are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh, verse 12 and 13. We have the dignity of sonship and closeness with God. We have family assurance.
The Spirit within bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God. And we have this heirship, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. So there’s great privileges that come out of that union with the Spirit. What about the prospects, verse 23? Verse 23 says, Having received the firstfruits of the Spirit, we groan within ourselves. There’s something that we’re looking forward to.
We know that this is not all. God has something more ahead for us. And finally, we have prayer in the Spirit in this section, and it really brings out this thought of in the depth of our extremities we have the Spirit helping us in prayer, joining himself to our witness in a remarkable way, we have the indwelling Spirit interceding for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. So that’s how we can grow in holiness by the Spirit. Finally, grieve not the Spirit, I’ll just mention it.
Grieve not the Spirit of God by whom you are sealed for the day of redemption. How do you grieve the Spirit?
First of all notice his sensitivity.
This pure Holy Spirit within us, holy, sensitive, the thought of grieving is the thought of him being in sorrow.
So how do we do it in this verse? Well it mentions in this verse let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth but what is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers.
I don’t know if it’s true for you but it’s certainly true for me. I know I’ve been in company, I’ve done it myself, I’ve maybe been enjoying something and just because of unwise things said. This corrupt, by the way, this idea of corrupt word or corrupt communication, it’s not really speaking about blasphemy or those extremes, we might say, but it’s just lowering the tone.
But what is good for necessary edification? In other words, we should be thinking of helping one another, in whatever way we speak to each other, that it may impart grace to the hearers. We want to continue to enjoy the Spirit of God’s gracious ministry in our lives. It’s important that we speak to one another in the right way. Let’s see, there’s more. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. So the very
simple things of life, you might say. Well, he is so sensitive. And in our individual lives, we must watch these things. Of course, quench not is 1 Thessalonians 5. It relates particularly, I think, to the word of God as it’s opened among the Lord’s people. But we’ll leave that for now.
So what does it really mean to be aided by the Spirit? Is his indwelling so very glorious? Of course it is. Of course. How could it be otherwise, indwelt by the almighty, omnipotent Spirit of God. How can we fully access such divine heart?
It’s through faith and moment by moment in our lives. How can we avoid grieving him? May the Lord help us to do so.
Breathe on me, the hymn writer says, breathe on me breath of God. We take the heart of what he’s saying here. Fill me with life anew, that I may love what thou dost love and do what thou wouldst do. Breathe on me breath of God, till I am wholly thine, until this earthly part of me glows with thy fire divine. May the Lord help us to do so, and may God bless us all. Amen.