The Spirit Qualifies You
2 Corinthians 3:1-6
July 14, 2013

Well this morning we are going to try and kill two birds with one stone.
(And that really isn’t all that difficult since the Holy Spirit
Is such a vital part to all parts of Christian life and ministry)

But this morning we are going to
Commission a group of missionaries to Africa
And at the same time continue on our study of the Holy Spirit.

I really am thankful to God for His impeccable timing.
I really had no idea where we would be in this study of the Holy Spirit at this point,
But I don’t think I could have picked better timing.

As you know we have already looked at both
The PROMISE and the PERSON of the Holy Spirit,
And we are now in a much longer section of this study
Which we are calling the PURPOSE of the Holy Spirit.

We are simply trying to find out what exactly He is here to do.

And having already seen His FINGERPRINTS in John 16,
We are now moving into more of a topical approach
By examining the different EMBLEMS that represent Him in Scripture.

When we looked at His person we said that in Scripture the Holy Spirit
Is represented by different emblems or analogies which help explain Him.

He is represented by WATER
Which we have learned represents life (spiritual life) and so it is not hard to rationalize that the Holy Spirit gives life.

Last week we saw that He is represented by FIRE
Which we learned is primarily a purifier and we learned that the Holy Spirit comes to sanctify believers.

Now one thing I want to remind you of as we continue on with this study Is that f these works that the Holy Spirit accomplishes are not optional.
THEY ARE ESSENTIAL.

Obviously SPIRITUAL LIFE is not an optional thing

To fail become alive spiritually is to remain spiritually dead, and the result of that is only hell since those who are spiritually dead are enemies of God.

Ephesians 2:3 “Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
And SANCTIFICATION is also essential.

Hebrews 12:14 “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.”

We even talked about the account of Jesus washing the disciples feet (a picture of sanctification) and when Peter didn’t want Jesus to wash his feet
Jesus said, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

So sanctification is also an essential quality.
God is a jealous God and He demands that we be wholly His.
We must be separated from the world and separated unto God.

So both life and sanctification are essential,
And as we saw the last couple of weeks,
Both are accomplished by the Holy Spirit.

• He is the One who produces life in the believer…
• He is the One who accomplishes sanctification in the believer…

So it should be becoming obvious to each one of us
As this study continues that the Holy Spirit is essential.

You cannot be a believer without Him.
You cannot please God without Him.

And this morning we are going to take that a step further
And add that YOU CANNOT SERVE GOD WITHOUT HIM.
This morning we are going to look at TWO EMBLEMS of the Holy Spirit
Because in my mind they work similarly and they work together.

We are going to examine the Holy Spirit both as OIL and as WIND

• He is pictured as OIL in the sense of Him being our anointing.
• And He is pictured as WIND in the sense of us having power.

As far as the anointing goes, we read:
1 John 2:20 “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.”

1 John 2:27 “As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.”

It is obvious there that the anointing is the Holy Spirit
Since He “abides in you” and since He “teaches you about all things”

The Holy Spirit is represented by the OIL of anointing.
And by this we are referring to our being chosen or called by God.
He is also represented by WIND, and this equates to power.
John 3:8 “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

The main characteristic of wind there being it’s power.
It “blows where it wishes”

It comes with great force and great strength.
It cannot be contained
It cannot be resisted

The Holy Spirit represents both of these in the life of the believer,
Both an ANNOINTING and POWER

And that is what I want us to see this morning.

And to do that, let’s look at our text in 2 Corinthians.

Now the book of 2 Corinthians is a book that
We have not studied together since I have been here in Spur.
(You may already have an understanding of it, but we have not looked at it together yet)

It is by far the most intimate letter that the apostle Paul ever wrote.
He is specifically answering some very outlandish charges
That have been made against him in the Corinthian church.

• Not only was there a member who had made some very serious and hurtful accusations against Paul,
• But there were also a group of false teachers were doing everything they could to destroy Paul’s gospel by destroying Paul.

So the letter he writes has a strong sense of self-vindication.
And it is not as though Paul is vindicating himself just to feel better,
He vindicates himself because he must protect the gospel he preached.

So as you read you understand that it is very important to Paul
That the Corinthians understand what makes a qualified minister.

Now we read chapter 3:1-6 to start this morning,
But to get the full idea we really need to begin in chapter 2.

Chapter 1 and most of chapter 2 are very depressing segments to read.
You find the apostle seemingly in the pit of despair.

However in chapter 2:14, Paul’s demeanor completely changes.
He instantly turns to a man of gratitude and great confidence.

AND THE REASON IS BECAUSE PAUL REALIZES THAT HE, AND NOT THE FALSE PROPHETS IS THE ONE WHO IS ACCEPTABLE TO GOD,
AND IS BEING USED BY GOD.
(VERSE 2:14) “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.”

Now to fully understand what Paul is talking about here,
You have to understand a certain concept of Paul’s day.

He is taking his victory in Christ and describing it
Through the backdrop of a ROMAN PARADE OF TRIUMPH.

William Barclay
“In [Paul’s] mind is the picture of Roman Triumph and of Christ as a universal conqueror. The highest honor which could be given to a victorious Roman general was a Triumph. To attain it he must satisfy certain conditions. He must have been the actual commander-in-chief in the field. The campaign must have been completely finished, the region pacified and the victorious troops brought home. Five thousand of the enemy at least must have fallen in one engagement. A positive extension of territory must have been gained, and not merely a disaster retrieved or an attack repelled. And the victory must have been won over a foreign foe and not in a civil war.
In a Triumph the procession of the victorious general marched through the streets of Rome to the Capitol in the following order. First came the state officials and the senate. Then came the trumpeters. Then were carried the spoils taken from the conquered land. For instance, when Titus conquered Jerusalem, the seven-branched candlestick, the golden table of the shew-bread and the golden trumpets were carried through the streets of Rome. Then came pictures of the conquered land and models of conquered citadels and ships. There followed the white bull for the sacrifice which would be made. Then there walked the captive princes, leaders and generals in chains, shortly to be flung into prison and in all probability almost immediately to be executed. Then came the lictors bearing their rods, followed by the musicians with their lyres; then the priests swinging their censers with the sweet-smelling incense burning in them. After that came the general himself. He stood in a chariot drawn by four horses. He was clad in a purple tunic embroidered with golden palm leaves, and over it a purple toga marked out with golden stars. In his hand he held an ivory scepter with the Roan eagle at its top and over his head a slave held the crown of Jupiter. After him rode his family; and finally came the army wearing all their decorations and shouting lo triumphe! Their cry of triumph. As the procession moved through the streets, all decorated and garlanded, amid the cheering crowds, it made a tremendous day which might happen only once in a lifetime.
That is the picture that is in Paul’s mind, He sees Christ marching in triumph throughout the world, and himself in that conquering train. It is a triumph which, Paul is certain, nothing can stop.”
(cited in MacArthurs commentary of 2 Corinthians, pg. 68-69)

So Paul says that Christ is leading him in triumph.
This is why he rejoices, even though he is presently
Persecuted and slandered among the Corinthians.

He then says:
(VERSES 15-16) “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?”

Again drawing on the imagery of the Triumph
Paul likens that the parade and the smell of the sweet burning incense meant something different to different people.

• If you were one of those captured prisoners being put on display the
fragrance of the incense was only a mockery of your defeat and reminder of
your coming execution.

• If you one of the victorious soldiers the fragrance was a token of victory and
a wonderful smell.

And so Paul says “Here I am in the victory train of Christ. Some hate me for it, some love me for it, but here I am none the less.”

And then he asks a very important question.
“And who is adequate for these things?”
“Who is qualified to march with Christ in His Triumph parade?”

It is a very important question that Paul poses to the Corinthians.

• On one hand they had Paul who had founded their church and preached there for 18 months.

• On the other hand they had their new preachers who were seeking to undermine Paul’s ministry.

And Paul asks the Corinthians, which one of us do you think
Is adequate or qualified to march with Christ in His victory Triumph.

He adds:
(17) “For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.”

Paul says, “It’s me, not them”

They peddle the word of God,
We speak from sincerity, from God, in Christ, before God.

The noun form of the word “peddling”
Actually means “a huckster” or “a con-artist”.

On the other hand Paul says, that he speaks “from sincerity”

That word in the Greek is a compound word that means “to judge with sunlight”

It pictures someone holding something up to the light to examine it more carefully.

Now that should immediately get you and I to thinking,
Not only about Paul’s adequacy, but our own adequacy.

Certainly a group of people preparing to travel to Africa on mission should want to know about their own adequacy before God.
Well that takes us into chapter 3 where Paul explains why he is adequate.
Now we can’t spend a great deal of time here,
But let me give you the gist of Paul’s argument.

WHO IS ADEQUATE FOR SUCH THINGS?

(3:1) “Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you?”

What was Paul saying there?

He was saying, “You know us”
We don’t have to come in like a phony and produce all sorts of fake credentials
And letters of recommendation to prove to you I am real.

You know I am real.
I lived with you for 18 months, I preached to you, you know me.

And so obviously someone who is adequate to serve Christ
Is someone with a reputation for godliness
And one who has an obvious Christian character.

(3:2-3) “You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

Here Paul reveals that even if a letter was needed,
It wouldn’t be one written on paper.
The Corinthians were his letter.

All anyone had to do to measure the apostle was look at the work he left behind.

And so a second thing that makes one adequate to serve Christ
Is one who has genuine converts.

They produce genuine fruit among people.
They aren’t emotional manipulators or quick-talking deceivers.
The fruit they produce is genuine and it lasts.

So an adequate one is one who has an obvious Christian character
And one who produces genuine fruitful converts.

And Paul knows that this is him.
(4) “Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.”

So Paul knows that he is that type of adequate servant of Christ.

But here is the real point.
Here is why Paul is this type of adequate servant.

(5-6) “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

So Paul knows that he is adequate to serve God
And march in that triumph parade, but how did he get that way?

He clearly says in verse 5, “our adequacy is from God”
In verse 6, God “made us adequate as servants”

WHY?
Because we don’t serve according to the letter “but of the Spirit”

The only reason Paul was adequate to serve Christ is because God made him adequate, and God made him adequate by “the Spirit”

GOD MADE PAUL ADEQUATE

And he knew this, listen to these other statements:
Colossians 1:25 “Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God,”

1 Timothy 1:12 “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service,”

1 Timothy 2:7 “For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”

2 Timothy 1:8,11 “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel…for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher.”

We are talking here about God making someone adequate.
We are talking here about God putting someone into service.

And the picture is that of God selecting or calling that person.
In the Old Testament they were referred to as “God’s Anointed”

I wish we had time to look at them all, but throughout the Old Testament
It wasn’t a man’s ability or intelligence that qualified him to serve God,
It was the anointing of God’s Spirit upon him.

Consider Joshua:
Numbers 27:18 “So the LORD said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him;”
Consider the Judges of Israel:
• In Judges 3:10, The Spirit of the Lord comes on Othiel
• In Judges 6:34 The Spirit of the Lord comes on Gideon
• In Judges 11:29 The Spirit of the Lord comes on Jephthah
• In Judges 13:25 The Spirit of the Lord comes on Samson

And we see this continually with Samson.
Judges 14:5-6 “Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came as far as the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion came roaring toward him. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily, so that he tore him as one tears a young goat though he had nothing in his hand; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.”

Judges 14:19 “Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of them and took their spoil and gave the changes of clothes to those who told the riddle. And his anger burned, and he went up to his father’s house.”

Judges 15:14-15 “When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him. And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily so that the ropes that were on his arms were as flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds dropped from his hands. He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he reached out and took it and killed a thousand men with it.”
But it wasn’t just Joshua or the Judges

It was true of the Kings.
• In 1 Samuel 10:6 The Spirit of the Lord comes upon Saul

Then we see David:
1 Samuel 16:13-14 “Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah. Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD terrorized him.”

That incident is why after David had the affair with Bathsheeba
And killed Uriah that he prayed:

Psalms 51:11 “Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”

David did not want to lose his right to serve God.
He had seen it in Saul, and he knew what made him adequate.

We also see it with the prophets:
2 Kings 2:15 “Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho opposite him saw him, they said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” And they came to meet him and bowed themselves to the ground before him.”

Or even in the New Testament:

In selecting the first deacons:
Acts 6:3-5 “Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” The statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch.”

Or how about elders in the church?
Acts 20:28 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”

The point is that it is the Holy Spirit who makes us adequate.
WITHOUT HIM WE HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHT TO SERVE GOD.
AND WE HAVE NO RIGHT TO FOLLOW CHRIST IN HIS TRIUMPH.

Without the Holy Spirit we are merely those “peddlers”
That Paul spoke about in 2 Corinthians 2:

2 Corinthians 2:17 “For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.”

You don’t even have the right to serve Christ without the Holy Spirit.

Don’t assume that Christ is just desperate for you,
Regardless of whether you are saved or not.

God doesn’t ask non-believers to serve Him.
His message for them is always REPENT

The message to serve is reserved for those
Who are indwelled by His Holy Spirit.

You must have the Holy Spirit.
And here is why:

You can’t do it well enough to suit Him.
• You don’t have spiritual power or ability.
• You can’t talk to the dead
• You can’t read the heart
• You can’t touch the soul
• And thus, on your own, you can’t truly accomplish any spiritual work at all.

You will merely result to human gimmicks and tactics
That are the equivalent of those hucksters and peddlers.
WHY IS THAT?

Because apart from the Holy Spirit you also have no power.
You can’t accomplish anything of merit without the Holy Spirit,
And therefore apart from the Him you are not qualified to serve.

And that leads us to the second emblem of the Holy Spirit this morning, And that is WIND (which we said was POWER)

See, not only does the Holy Spirit makes us ADEQUATE,
But He also makes us COMPETENT.
He is our power.

Acts 1:8 “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Colossians 1:28-29 “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.”

This is why Paul knew he was adequate.
This is why Paul knew his fruit would last.

This is also why he knew those “peddlers”
Couldn’t really mach up to him in a true comparison.
Paul had what they did not – The Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit made him adequate and made him competent.
And he does you too.

HOW?

Let me give you a few passages to chew on:
1 Corinthians 12:4-11 “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.”

Ephesians 4:7-9, 11-13 “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, AND HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN.”…And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

Romans 12:3-8 “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”

1 Peter 4:10-11 “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

WHAT DO WE CALL THOSE?
Spiritual gifts

Paul called them “manifestations of the Spirit”

In other words, while all believers have all of the Holy Spirit,
He chooses according to His own sovereign will,
To manifest Himself differently in different believers.

• In some He wishes to show His ability to preach…
• In some He wishes to show His ability to teach…
• In some He wishes to show His leadership ability…
• In some He wishes to show His great compassion…
• In some He wishes to show His generosity…

And we call them spiritual gifts.
They are not human talents, they are divine spiritual gifts.

Now God may use your talents, and we certainly offer them to Him,
But your talents can’t produce spiritual results.

You may be a great carpenter or plumber or speaker or mathematician
Or doctor, and God can use all those things.

But regardless of how good you are at those things,
You cannot by your own talent produce spiritual results.

However, the Holy Spirit has chosen to give you a spiritual gift
That can produce spiritual results.

He makes you adequate to serve, and He equips you to serve.

BEYOND GIFTS
We could talk about the boldness He gives believers:
2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.”

We could talk about the understanding He gives believers:
1 Corinthians 2:10 “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.”
We could talk about the love He gives believers:
Romans 5:5 “and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

The point is that the Holy Spirit provides the power and ability
For you to serve God.

What did Jesus say about our ability on our own?
John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

We need the power of the Holy Spirit
To be able to do what God desires us to do.
He makes us adequate and competent
SO PICTURE IT LIKE PAUL DID.
• You want to march with Christ in His great victory Triumph.
• You want to smell that fragrance of the incense burning…
• You want to witness the greatness of the spoils…
• You want to be a part of His great victory…

WHY WOULD HE LET YOU?

The people who participated in that,
Were the soldiers who fought in His battle.

But His battle is not a physical battle, it is a spiritual one,
And apart from the Holy Spirit you can’t fight in a spiritual battle.

So without the Spirit you have no power,
In which case you aren’t adequate to serve in Christ’s army.

But with the Holy Spirit you now have power and ability,
Which in turn makes you adequate.

• DO YOU SEE WHY WE NEED THE HOLY SPIRIT?
• DO YOU SEE WHY WE CAN’T DISREGARD HIM?

He is WATER
You can’t be a believer without Him.

He is FIRE
You can’t please Christ without Him.

He is OIL and He is WIND
You can’t serve Christ without Him.

You may be willing, but you aren’t adequate.
It is the Holy Spirit who makes us adequate.
“Who is adequate for such things?”

2 Corinthians 3:5-6 “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

Now that is true for all believers,
But obviously this morning it takes a special urgency
To those about to go to Africa.
Christ is the general, about to embark on a great battle.
• In this battle He will defeat a foreign foe…
• In this battle He will take ground from the enemy…
• In this battle He will deliver captives…

And He will march victorious in His Triumph when He is finished.

WILL YOU BE ALLOWED TO MARCH WITH HIM?
Apart from the Holy Spirit you are not even qualified to go,
Let alone able to help.

But because the Holy Spirit dwells in you, God has made you adequate.
He has anointed you as His servant by the indwelling of His Spirit
And He has given you power to serve through that same Spirit.
My encouragement to you (and me) is that you SEEK His Spirit,
TRUST His Spirit and LET His Spirit work through you.
He is what you need to succeed in this mission
And thus march with Christ in the great victory Triumph.

The Spirit Sanctifies You
Galatians 3:1-3
July 7, 2013

As you know we are studying the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

And the goal here is really to take a “from the beginning” approach
To this subject.

• I trust that much of what we have talked about has really only served to solidify that which you already know to be true about the Holy Spirit.

• And at the same time I hope that your understanding of Him has also increased and that you have come to love Him in an even deeper way.

We have already talked about the PERSON of the Holy Spirit
And the PROMISE of the Holy Spirit.

We are presently under what would be Roman Numeral #3 –
THE PURPOSE OF THE SPIRIT

And we are spending a great deal of time here on purpose.
This seems to be the area in which
The doctrine on the Holy Spirit is the most maligned.

• The Holy Spirit isn’t a carnival barker…
• The Holy Spirit isn’t pixy dust…
• The Holy Spirit isn’t some sort of electrical surge or charge…

And yet He is often portrayed in such a manner.

We have already seen His fingerprints (or the box).
And so we know the basic guidelines of what He is here to do.

NOW we are trying to get a little more specific
And bring more clarity to His purpose in your life.

And in order to do that we are taking a closer look
At the emblems that Scripture uses to represent Him.

Last week we saw that He is portrayed as WATER
John 7:37-39 “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

And as we looked at this analogy we learned that the Holy Spirit gives life.
True life – spiritual life.

He is what makes a dead soul come to life and comprehend the things of God.
• His life is eternal
• His life is abundant
• His life is freeing
• His life is intimate

He comes to make spiritually dead people alive
To the things and ways and person of God.

And hopefully you were able to see evidence of that life in yourself.

This morning I want to move on from that truth a little further.

On one hand we know that the Holy Spirit gives life.
I want you to understand that it matters to Him how you live it.

He has a very specific and definite design in regard to
What you are to do with the life He has poured into you.

And so this morning we are going to talk a little about SANCTIFICATION

The Greek word for sanctification translates HAGIOSMOS
It is a word that refers to separation.

And you can really look at Sanctification from two distinct points.
1) YOU WERE SEPARATED UNTO GOD

The idea being that you are fully His.
It is similar to when a couple gets married,
They separate themselves unto one another.

1 Peter 1:1-2 “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.”

That truth is clearly seen there.
Here we have people whom God has chosen.
He chose them according to His own foreknowledge.

But the means by which these chosen ones actually became His
Was “by the sanctifying work of the Spirit”

It was the Holy Spirit who set them apart to be His.

We even see there, the goal of that sanctification
Which is “to obey Jesus Christ”

But that is the idea here about sanctification.
It is to set you apart to God.

This truth is illustrated later in Peter’s epistle.

1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.”

There you see it again.
The believer is “set apart” solely for God.

And it is the Holy Spirit who does this.
2 Thessalonians 2:13 “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.”

There again, as the Holy Spirit set you apart,
He did so in order that He might set you apart to God.

And that is one concept of sanctification.
You were set apart to God.

The flip side of this sanctification is this:
2) YOU WERE SEPARATED FROM THE WORLD

Just as a married couple is given to one another,
They also vow to “forsake all others”

This is also what the Holy Spirit does.
He not only brings us to God, but He takes us from the world.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

There you see “the Spirit of our God” actually working
To take you away from what you used to be.

He is not only taking you to God, but away from the world.
He is in the process of separating you.

Romans 15:15-16 “But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”

There again, Paul could take the Gentiles to God, but if they were not “sanctified by the Holy Spirit” then they would not be “acceptable”.

They not only have to be given to God,
But they have to be separated from the world.

Titus 3:5-7 “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

There again you see that God “saved us”.
HOW?

Well He didn’t do it through our own works.
It wasn’t “the deeds which we have done”

Rather, He saved us “by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit”

That is the Holy Spirit washing the world off of us
And making us new and acceptable to God.

And hopefully now you see what sanctification is.
It is separation from the world to God, and it is the work of the Holy Spirit.

And from that you understand a little better
What the goal of God is for your life.

People always seem to think that God’s goal
Is just to get people into heaven.
That is not the goal.

GOD’S GOAL IS TO MAKE YOU LESS LIKE THE WORLD
AND MORE LIKE HIM

Throughout the Old Testament we saw it:
“Be holy for I am holy”

When Jesus showed up He preached the same.

As He concluded Matthew chapter 5 of the Sermon on the Mount He said:
Matthew 5:48 “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Jesus didn’t come preaching “I can get you into heaven”
He came preaching that it was time for you to be holy.

Paul said:
2 Corinthians 7:1 “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

In fact, that was Paul’s desire in life.
Philippians 3:12-14 “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Peter also echoed this sentiment.
1 Peter 1:14-16 “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”

We even learn from Paul in Romans 8 that God intends
To “conform us into the image of His Son”

This is the goal.
• God wants you set apart from the world.
• God wants you set apart to Himself.

NOW, THERE ARE TWO WAYS THAT HAPPENS.

It happens both POSITIONALLY and it happens PRACTICALLY

When Christ died upon the cross,
• He paid the sin debt of all of God’s children.
• He satisfied God’s wrath against your sin
• He imputed His righteousness to you.

2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

And we’ve talked about that concept of imputation.
Our sin was imputed to Him.
His righteousness was imputed to us.

That means when you look at me you are looking at a righteous man.
Scripture no longer calls me a sinner, it now calls me a saint.

Now, you have a tough time believing that
Because you know I am far from perfect.

How can I say I am a righteous man when it is obvious that I still do sinful things?

That is because I am righteous positionally, but not practically.

Before God I am righteous.
• When He looks at me He sees the righteousness of Christ.
• I am totally acceptable and totally pleasing to the Father because of Christ.

Every believer is.
But God desires more than for you to be positionally righteous.
God desires for you to be practically righteous.

He wants the righteousness that He imputed to you
To begin to show up in your life.

This is why Peter could command us to be holy,
Even though we are already children of God.

1 Peter 1:14-19 “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”

Clearly there Peter is talking to saved people.
He says they are “children” that God is our “Father”,
He notes that we are “redeemed”.

But at the same time he tells us to “Be Holy”

He knows that positionally we are holy, but practically we are not.
We must continue to work on that.

And that is really one of the main calls of the New Testament,
For you to start living the holy life that Jesus has given you.

Colossians 3:5-10 “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him”

Ephesians 4:22-24 “that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”

And the list there could go on and on, but the idea is that
You and I start living like the person that God intended us to be.
Christ made us righteous, now we should live righteous.

And let me say one more thing.
THIS ISN’T OPTIONAL

This practical righteousness is essential, it is definitely required by God.
Hebrews 12:14 “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.”

Did you catch that?
If you don’t get this righteousness, you won’t see God.

Remember John 13?
When Jesus was washing the disciple’s feet and Peter didn’t want Jesus to wash his feet?

John 13:8 “Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

If you don’t get clean, we won’t be together.

So Scripture clearly calls for you not only to be positionally righteous in Christ, but also practically righteous.

You and I are commanded to be set apart from the world
And set apart to God.

BUT HERE IS THE PROBLEM
ON YOUR OWN YOU CANNOT DO THAT

And finally we get to Galatians 3

I’m going to spare you here a great deal of context in regard to the Galatian letter Namely because when we started this study two months ago
We gave the background to the Galatians then.

But just know that the Galatians were caught in this very predicament.

They had come to Christ and been made positionally righteous.
They were trying to figure out how to become practically righteous.

And someone came in and told them that the way to do that
Was through the works of the Law, namely circumcision.

And they were buying it.

It was practical righteousness through your own efforts.

And Paul was livid!
(1) “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you..?”

The word “bewitched” translates BASKAINO
And it means to slander, and then to deceive someone with feigned praise, it can even mean to charm.

Picture a snake oil salesman who first hammers the doctors and then tells you how you are way too smart for them, and in fact the type of person who can see that what I am telling you is the truth…

The Galatians had been hood-winked.
They had taken the bait and they were signing up to get circumcised
And thus further along their sanctification process.

And Paul can’t stand it.
“who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?”

That is to say, “Did you not hear the truth about the crucifixion of Jesus?”
“Did you not hear that Christ died for you to make you righteous?”

What is all this “human works” junk, and what about what Jesus did?

Then Paul moves on:
(2) “This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?”

And there is a very good question.
• How “did you receive the Spirit” (which is salvation)
• How did that happen?

Did you do enough good works that the Spirit finally saw that you were a temple fit to live in so that He moved in?

No.
You heard, you believed, and the Spirit moved in.

AND HERE THEN IS THE REAL POINT:
(3) “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

So you’re telling me that the Spirit started it,
But now you are going to finish it?

You’re going to achieve practical righteousness on your own?

And of course that is absurd!
We couldn’t make ourselves positionally righteous before God
And we can’t make ourselves practically righteous before God.

Jesus made us positionally righteous.
The Holy Spirit works to make us practically righteous.

You can’t do it on your own.
He works to help you.
Philippians 2:12-13 “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

We’re working on it, but so is He.

In fact, here is the promise:
Philippians 1:6 “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Who began that good work in us?
The Holy Spirit – He was the One who set us apart to God

And now He is still working to finish what He started.
HE IS SANCTIFYING US COMPLETELY.

And so last week we looked at Him as WATER,
This morning I remind you that He is FIRE.

He is a purifier.

We know at Pentecost when He came,
The apostles saw what appeared to them as tongues “as of fire”.

Psalms 66:10 “For You have tried us, O God; You have refined us as silver is refined.”

Proverbs 17:3 “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the LORD tests hearts.”

And that is the sort of work that the Holy Spirit is here to do in your life.

He is working to purify you and make you practically righteous.
He is helping you become the man or woman you were intended to be.

The next thing I want you to see is, HOW HE DOES THAT

How does He work in us to complete what was started at salvation?

Well, there is one main way, and several secondary ways.
THE MAIN WAY IS THROUGH SCRIPTURE

I told you a couple of weeks ago that He is the author of Scripture.

2 Peter 1:20-21 “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

The Holy Spirit wrote the Bible
And the Holy Spirit uses the Bible to accomplish His work.

Remember this passage?
2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

We know the Holy Spirit wrote it, but there we also see WHY He wrote it.

“so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

He uses Scripture to reprove and correct and train us.
To make us what we need to be.

Hebrews 4:12-13 “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”

That is what the Holy Spirit does.
He takes God’s word and applies to the depth of your heart.
You can’t hide from it, you can’t defeat it.

And if you will listen to what He says, He will use it to change you.

Listen to what Paul said:
2 Corinthians 3:18 “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 from the Lord, the Spirit.”

That mirror that He is referring to is the word of God.
And in it, the Holy Spirit is showing you what He wants you to see,
Namely “the glory of the Lord”

And as you do, He is transforming you
“into the same image from glory to glory”

Remember His fingerprints?
• He convicts sin…
• He guides into the truth…
• He glorifies Jesus…

That is what He does through the Scripture.
• He reproves you
• He corrects you
• He shows you the truth of how you should act
• He shows you how Jesus did it

And the end result is that you learn from Him and you are more like Jesus.
He is literally molding and shaping you
Every time you get in the word of God.

John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”
The Scripture is His main tool.

But inside of that, He has other things He uses as well.

What did the writer of Hebrews say?
Hebrews 12:11-14 “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.”

Does the Holy Spirit really use trials and hardships?
Of course He does.

Who led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted?
Matthew 4:1 “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

The Holy Spirit definitely uses trials.

And while you are in the midst of those trials, do you know what He does?

He prays for you.
Romans 8:26-27 “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

He prays for you.
And He prays according to the will of God.

Well what is the will of God?
Romans 8:28-29 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;”

The will of God is that this trial helps you to become conformed into the image of His Son. (practical righteousness)

Do you see what He is doing?
• He is working in you.
• He is working on you.
• He is helping you achieve the righteousness you could not achieve on your own.

It is really that whole Romans 7 affect.

You have Paul in Romans 7 grieving over the sin in his life,
And he just can’t seem to beat it.
He even cries out, “Wretched man that I am who will set me free from the body of this death?”

The answer?
Romans 8:1-4 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

The Spirit helps us to live in that righteousness we desire to live in.

Here is what that means.
Every day you and I should be becoming more and more righteous.

The things that plagued me yesterday should not plague me tomorrow.

If I am walking by the Spirit and listening to His guidance
He will slowly but surely work His sanctifying work in me.

He is that type of purifying fire, that is what He does.

And He does it through the Scripture.
(Even in the trials, He uses the Scripture to teach you what you need to know)

That is why when you and I come to the word of God, we must listen.

TURN TO: JAMES 1:19-25

That is the formula for you to achieve sanctification.
• Listen to it
• Don’t argue with it
• Don’t forget it

Just do it.
And as you do, He will change your appearance.
He will start to form you into the image of Christ.

Now, on your own, you couldn’t even understand the Scripture,
But remember He searches the depths of God and guides us into truth.
And as He does this, listen to Him and watch Him slowly change your life.

And that is THE POINT this morning.
• You must be holy as God is holy
• Not just positionally holy, but practically holy.
• And this is not a holiness you can achieve on your own.

But the Holy Spirit working inside of you
Will do it through the word He has given to you.
He takes the word and molds you.

That is why we sing songs like:
“Ancient words, ever true, changing me and changing you, we have come with open hearts, o let the ancient words impart”

“Word of God speak, would You pour down like rain, washing my eyes to see, Your majesty, to be still and know that You’re in this place. Please let me stay and rest in Your holiness, word of God speak.”

We know that through the word, the Holy Spirit
Will speak and transform us into the image of Christ.
Now, that takes us back one more time
To the passage we looked at briefly in Galatians 3.

Paul said in verse 3, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

Then look on in verses 4 and 5
“Did you suffer so many things in vain — if indeed it was in vain? So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?”

HOW DOES HE DO IT?
“by hearing with faith”
Because it is the Holy Spirit who is using what you hear
To help you achieve the righteousness
You could never achieve on your own.
He will guide you into the sanctification you must have
If you will listen to Him.

The Spirit Gives Life
John 7:37-39
June 30, 2013

As you know we are studying the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

• We have seen the PROMISE of the Spirit
• We have seen the PERSON of the Spirit
• Presently we are looking at the PURPOSE of the Spirit

Most recently we have looked at sort of “the box” that the Spirit works in.
We called it His fingerprints.

Found in John 16, we learned that the basic overview of what the Holy Spirit does:

1) He Convicts of Sin
2) He Guides into the Truth
3) He Glorifies Jesus

And we even saw an illustration of that last week as we listened to His message to the Colossians who were being led away from the belief
That Jesus was enough and all sufficient.

And so we are learning who the Spirit is, as we learn what He does.

And I want to continue that this morning.

A few weeks ago as we studied the person of the Spirit
We took a brief look at some of the analogies that are used to describe Him.

In Scripture He is represented by various things:
Dove, Fire, Oil, etc.

And this morning I want us to look at one of those analogies,
Namely that the Holy Spirit is represented by “WATER”

That is clearly seen in our text this morning:
“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

This “rivers of living water” that Jesus referred to was the Holy Spirit.

And it is not hard to understand the analogy.
Water is a picture of life.
You can’t have life without it.

And because of this water has always been a picture of physical life.
You may remember in John 3 as Jesus talked to Nicodemus:
John 3:5 “Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

Of course with Nicodemus Jesus spoke of two types of birth.
• The first birth and the second birth.
• Being born and then being born again.
• The first was “of water”
• The second was “of the Spirit”

But that water was always a picture of birth.

And what I want you to understand this morning about the Spirit
Is that He is the giver of life.

John 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

To begin let me make sure you understand that
There is a difference between physical life and spiritual life.

Every human being has physical life.
Plants have physical life
Animals have physical life
Physical life is common to all living things.

And physical life carries some common aspects among all living things.
• There is a beginning & an end
• Growth occurs during life
• Life requires nourishment to grow

And among physical things, nothing is more important than
The endurance and quality of that life.
A living thing wants to live as good as it can for as long as it can.

That is pretty much common with all physical life.

YET FOR MANY, THAT LIFE IS ALL THERE IS.
And that is a terribly depressing thought.

Ecclesiastes 3:19-20 “For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity. All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust.”

Ecclesiastes 9:3-6 “This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead. For whoever is joined with all the living, there is hope; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten. Indeed their love, their hate and their zeal have already perished, and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun.”
Those are in reality very depressing thoughts,
But the futility of life has created that sentiment in more than one person.

Physical life is a good thing, but if that is all there is,
Then in reality it is merely a cruel trick.

Well, the good news is that it is not all there is.
God has also made available Spiritual Life

It is not universal, it is not given automatically to all men.
Spiritual life is exclusive

Matthew 7:14 “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Not everyone gets it, but it is available to those who want it.

John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”

Now the reason it is available and yet some still don’t want it is because
In order to achieve it, you have to forsake the physical life.

The natural man seeks to live as good as he can for as long as he can.
To obtain the spiritual life you must be willing to forsake that ambition.

Matthew 10:39 “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”

Matthew 16:25 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

And the reality is that it shouldn’t even be a difficult decision.
In fact, Jesus readily taught that you and I should
Eagerly forsake the physical life for the sake of the spiritual one.

Matthew 18:8-9 “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. “If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.”

1 Timothy 6:17-19 “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.”

In other words, don’t try to gain life through this world,
Forsake this world and pursue the true life.

And you see what I am talking about.

And the reality is that this is a great decision to make,
For the physical life may seem to be all fulfilling,
But in reality it falls far short of all that God has for you.

The constant search for material or natural things
Is obviously a futile ambition.

Jesus actually asked:
Matthew 6:25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”

Luke 12:15 “Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”

And He is right isn’t He?
Is the search for food or clothing or money or stuff…is that really all there is?

There must be something more.
There must be more to this life.

Well the reality is that there is not more to this physical life,
But there is another life (a spiritual one) available if you want it.

And that is precisely what we hear Jesus saying here in John 7.

You will notice in verse 37 that Jesus is speaking at a very climactic time.

“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out…”

And just to help you understand the climax here.
This was their 7th month (October)

• On the 1st of the month they celebrated THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS
• On the 10th of the month they celebrated THE DAY OF ATONEMENT
• And then on the 15th of the month THE FEAST OF BOOTHS

This feast was a week long and culminated all the crops having been gathered in, and all Israel would come to Jerusalem for “THE” celebration of the year.

During this feast a ritual had begun (not prescribed)
And that ritual was for each day of the feast, the priest would draw water from the pool of Siloam, and carry it in procession back to the temple.

The people would quote Isaiah 12:3
Isaiah 12:3 “Therefore you will joyously draw water From the springs of salvation.”

And they were looking toward that great day of Israel’s resurgence
And the Messiah’s deliverance.

The last day was the “great day” for it was the grand finale.

And at this point Jesus stood and made His great offer to Israel.
• He is offering the water they are picturing.
• He is making a claim to be Messiah.
• And offering the life they so desperately want.

And you will notice what He said:
“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.”

“If you want something more, if you want something better, then come to Me!”

Don’t go to religion…
Don’t go to some old well…
Come to Me!

Now you’ve seen that before.
We all remember the woman at the well,
Who just wanted an easier way to get water.

She had a futile and miserable physical life
And she just wanted something to make it easier.

To her Jesus said:
John 4:13-14 “Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

Jesus offered her spiritual life, BUT SHE HAD TO WANT IT.

Not all people do.
• Some people are quite happy with their sin.
• Some people are quite happy with their luxurious lifestyle.

(That is why the poor always came quicker than the rich)
(that is why it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven)

People who own the world aren’t as desperate
For something more as those who do not.

But the first key to getting this life Jesus is referring to
Is that you actually thirst for it.

Isaiah 55:1-3 “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost. “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance. “Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; I will make an everlasting covenant with you, According to the faithful mercies shown to David.”

Revelation 22:17 “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.”

You have to want something better, you have to want something more.

Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

And then, if you thirst, you have to act on that thirst.

“let him come to Me and drink”

The first thing people were going to have to do is recognize that
Jesus was the One who could give what they wanted.

And then they would have to take it on His terms.
That is what it means to “drink”

And this seemed to be a tough one for Israel.
John 5:40 “and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.”

You may remember the Rich Young Ruler.
• Who wanted life…
• Who came to Jesus to get it…
• But when Jesus offered it, he wasn’t willing to drink.

He didn’t want the cost associated with the life he pursued.
He instead chose to keep his old life.
He valued the physical life as worth more than the spiritual life.

But Jesus said, if you want life, then come to Me
And take what I have for you.

(38) “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”

Now please notice the peculiarity of that statement.
Jesus just told them to come to Him if you were thirst and drink.

Wouldn’t you expect Him to say, “For from Me will flow rivers of living water to you”?

But that isn’t what He said.

He said, if you believe in Me,
Living water will flow from your innermost being.
Jesus was saying, “I’ll put life inside of you!”

WHAT IS THIS LIFE?
(39) “But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

All of this life…
All of these rivers of living water…
It all referenced the Spirit whom Jesus would send
To dwell inside His followers.

And we understand that the Holy Spirit then
Is the One who makes us alive.

He isn’t coming to give physical life – you already have that.
He is coming to give spiritual life.

Now let me tell you first a little about this spiritual life,
And why it is better than physical life.

1) IT IS ETERNAL

The biggest grief we face with the physical life is that it always ends.
In fact, Paul taught us that
“flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God”

This body will die.

But spiritual life is different, it never ends.

Remember what Jesus told Martha when Lazarus died?
John 11:25-26 “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

What kind of statement is that?
If you believe in Me, you will live even if you die?
If you live you will never die?

How can that be?
Everyone dies.

Jesus obviously wasn’t referring to physical life, but spiritual life.
He was saying that the life I can put it in you
Can even survive physical death.

Nothing will put an end to this life I will put in you.

It is eternal.
That, by the way, is also why it is incorrect for a Christian to say that “Someday I will get eternal life.”

If you are a Christian, you already have eternal life.
The life you have been given will never die nor leave.
The body may die, but your life will remain.

Let me tell you another great attribute about this spiritual life.
2) IT IS ABUNDANT

We all remember the statement of Jesus:

John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

That is one of the most misunderstood
And misapplied verses in the whole Bible.

It has become the number one gimmick verse
For trying to seduce people to follow Jesus.

And people use it to say that if you come to Jesus, your life will be filled with abundance and plenty and prosperity and health and happiness…

To apply the verse likes that misses the point.
The concept would be Jesus making this life better.

No, Jesus is not talking about renovating your physical life
Or enhancing your physical life.

Jesus is talking about the spiritual life He gives.
And the spiritual life He gives is abundant.

In other words, there is tons of it.
There is an unending supply.

It is the same thing He said to the woman at the well.
John 4:14 “but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

It is the same thing He said in John 7 about the Holy Spirit.
John 7:38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'”

The life He gives is sufficient, is abundant; there is plenty of it.

This physical life is often characterized by need or by lack
We even face sickness and illness
And people literally fight to keep this life going.

NOT SO WITH THE SPIRITUAL LIFE – IT IS ABUNDANT!
3) IT IS FREEDOM

This physical life is all about dependency.
You need food…
You need water…
You need exercise…

And there are those carnal vices that we think we need,
Which often times captivate us and conquer us.

And before long this body actually controls us.

Well the spiritual life is not enslaved to anything, it is free.

Romans 6:4-7 “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.”

When we trade the old life for the new, we gain a life that is free from sin.
We gain a life that is not dependant on carnal things.

4) IT IS INTIMATE

The spiritual life enjoys and intimacy with God
That the physical life never did.

Remember what Paul said about the old life?
1 Corinthians 2:14 “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”

When the physical life is all you have, you are completely ignorant of the things of God and have no intimacy with Him.

In fact, Scripture teaches that without the spiritual life,
Not only are we on the wrong path, but are actually at enmity with God.

Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

However, when we were made alive, we were brought near to God,
We were granted fellowship with God, and we came to know God.

It is a spiritual life far greater and far superior
To any life we have ever previously known.

And hopefully as we talk a little about this life, you can today remember
What it felt like when you finally came alive.
I will never forget it.
I can tell you the exact moment I was born.

(And incidentally, if you moved from death to life,
Don’t you think you ought to be able to tell the difference?)

In an instant I had emotions, passions, convictions,
And understanding like I had never had before.

In an instant I was being led by God in a way that was really foreign to me.

I wanted new things, and I could understand the value o
F walking in obedience to the word of God.

And hopefully you can recognize that in your life.

Paul explained it like this:
Philippians 3:5-11 “circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Paul had physical life,
But when he received spiritual life, everything changed.
He was no longer in pursuit of worldly ambitions,
But he was now in pursuit of the righteousness that is found in Christ.

It is really a miraculous thing.
That God could take a person engrossed in worldly pursuits
And completely change their desires and ultimately their direction.

But what I really want you to understand this morning,
Is where that came from.

• Do not assume that you just reached a place in your life where you decided to do things differently.

• Do not assume that you just reached a level of intellect beyond that of the world, and since you were smarter than them, you had the where with all to choose the higher road.

That is not what happened.
What happened is exactly what Jesus said would happen back in John 7.

John 7:38-39 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive…”

• The thing that happened to you…
• The thing that made you change…
• The thing that caused your desires to be different…
• The thing that caused you to understand the things of God…
• The thing that transformed your goals and ambitions…

THAT WAS THE HOLY SPIRIT MOVING INSIDE OF YOU
HE MOVED IN AND MADE YOU ALIVE

TURN TO: EZEKIEL 37:1-14

Now let me help you make a very important distinction here.

Obviously we know what a pile of old bones represents,
Those are dead people.
Here they represent spiritually dead people.

But you will notice that God organized them
And actually put them back together.

And by the time we get to verse 8,
They look like every other living army, but there is one problem.

THERE IS NO LIFE IN THEM

UNTIL WHAT?
Until the Holy Spirit moved in and made them alive.

Listen, this a reality we face even today in so many religious circles.

TURN TO: REVELATION 3:1-6

They were the church with a rich history
And one that lived on it’s past accomplishments.

They were like a lot of people I talk to today who say things like,
“My grandpa was a preacher” or “My great-grandpa was a deacon in that church”

Do they suppose that the spiritual life of their ancestors is somehow compensating for their lack of spiritual life today?

That is what the church at Sardis thought.
They looked alive…
They acted alive…
They had all the programs…
BUT THEY DID NOT HAVE LIFE

And that is one of the main reasons
We are studying about the Holy Spirit.

• We don’t need to be an army of flesh with no Spirit…
• We don’t need to be a church with programs but no Spirit…

The Holy Spirit gives life!

Picture it like a water hose
(all sorts of attachments, but it must have water)

WE NEED THE WATER, WE NEED THE BREATH, WE NEED LIFE
Eternal Life
Abundant Life
Free Life
Intimate Life

And if you recognize that difference in your life, then by all means, give Him the glory and allow Him to continue to do in you all that He desires.

If you don’t recognize that difference, then do what the Scripture says, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.”

Because everyone who is thirsty for more,
And who comes to Jesus,
Willing to accept the life He offers,
Believing in Him,
They receive that eternal, abundant, free, intimate life!

And if you will deny yourself and trust in Jesus,
Then this endless rivers of living water will flow through you as well.

He gives life.

John 7:38-39 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Only Jesus
Colossians 2:1-23
June 23, 2013

As you know we have recently been studying
The person and work of the Holy Spirit.

And I admit that this is somewhat of an “open-ended” study from my end
Because I really don’t know everywhere we will go or how long it will take.

There are, to be sure, many more things we need to understand about the Holy Spirit,
But I must honestly tell you that I’m not sure I even know them all yet.

So, we are just kind of riding this thing together,
And I hope that in your own personal walk and study
You are also seeking and searching out who He is.

• Well SINCE we don’t have a set course we are following
• And SINCE we are also partaking of the Lord’s Supper,
I really had to spend some time seeking
What exactly God would have me to preach to you.

It seemed difficult to me to preach a sermon on the Holy Spirit,
While at the same time preaching on the sacrifice of Jesus.

And I certainly didn’t want to try and force anything just for the sake of saying I did it.

But as I prayed and studied, I was led to a wonderful chapter of the Bible.

And I apologize at the outset here, that since we are going to study the whole chapter,
We are obviously going to leave a lot of truth on the table this morning.

All we are going to be able to do is take a “forest approach” a “wide angle” approach.
It is up to you to come back and start examining the individual trees.

But to help you see where we are going here this morning,
I first want to remind you of the precious truth
We learned about the Holy Spirit last week.

John 16:14-15 “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. “All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”

The last several weeks have been spent looking at
“the fingerprint” of the Holy Spirit.

We call it the fingerprint, because the actions listed in John 16
Are sort of the indicators that the Holy Spirit has been at work.

• He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment
• He guides us into all the truth
• And finally, as we read there, He glorifies Jesus.
And particularly the way He glorifies Jesus
Is by revealing the true Jesus to you.

We saw how even on the night before Jesus died,
The disciples still didn’t have a full understanding of who Jesus was.

When Jesus said He was leaving, but that the disciples knew the way that He was going, Philip interjected…

John 14:8-9 “Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

Even the disciples, after three years of ministry,
Had difficulty truly recognizing who Jesus was, and because of that,
They also had difficulty truly worshiping Him as He deserved.

• The Holy Spirit would come and truly reveal Jesus, and thus truly glorify Him.
• The Holy Spirit would make sure that you knew that “all things that the Father has” are Jesus’s.

And so our point was that the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus.
If Jesus wasn’t glorified, then the Holy Spirit wasn’t there.

Now hang on to that truth for a moment, and also do me a favor
And remember the previous truth we learned.

And that truth was that the Holy Spirit guides us into the truth.
John 16:12-13 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”

And hopefully you remember the very important point there.

• The Holy Spirit promised to guide the apostles “into all the truth”
So the apostles would get it all.

• Secondly, when the Holy Spirit speaks “He will not speak on His
own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak;”

The Holy Spirit gave all the Scripture to the disciples,
And now speaks nothing but.

When you want to hear the Holy Spirit speak, get in the word.
He wrote the Scriptures…

And that is what He speaks, He will not speak anything contrary to them.
So at this point we know that the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus,
By teaching us who He really is,
And the way He does that is through the Scripture.

And yet, here is something I want you to realize.
We are seeking to know the Holy Spirit better,
If you want to do that, then read the Scriptures.

You can come to understand much about a man
If you read everything He writes.

Well, so it is with the Holy Spirit.
Do not claim to have a desire to get to know the Holy Spirit
If you aren’t reading the book He wrote.

Read the Scriptures, listen to what He wrote,
As you do, you will get to know who He is.

And so that is where we have come thus far in our study of the Holy Spirit.

Now this morning you will also see that we are taking the Lord’s Supper,
And so it is imperative that we see Jesus.
But by now you should know that the two topics are not in conflict.

We want to see Jesus, and the Holy Spirit wants to show Him to you.

And so this morning, as we study Jesus,
You also get to see how the Holy Spirit glorifies Him.

This morning we study Colossians 2.

This chapter (along with the rest) was inspired by the Holy Spirit.
He wrote it.

2 Peter 1:20-21 “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;”

The Holy Spirit wrote the Scriptures, that includes Colossians chapter 2,
So this morning sit back and listen to Him lead you to Jesus.

NOW FIRST, A LITTLE CONTEXT

The Holy Spirit is writing this letter
And He is doing so through the Apostle Paul.

• However, Paul had never met the Colossae church.
• In fact, Paul was presently in prison

• But problems had arisen in the Colossian church and their pastor Epaphras went looking for Paul for help.

And here is the problem:
Pirates had come to Colossae.

Not physical pirates, but spiritual ones.

(READ 2:8)

That phrase “takes you captive” comes from the Greek word SULAGOGEO.

It is a compound word used only here in the New Testament,
And because it also never seen in Greek literature,
It may have been a word Paul just made up,
(all good preachers do that…)

SULE = “booty” or “spoils”
AGO = “to carry off”

So the word means “to carry off spoils” or “to kidnap”
Precisely the work of a pirate

And these spiritual pirates had moved into Colossae and were figuratively carrying the Colossians away as spiritual prisoners of war.
They were seeking to lead them away from Christ.

Not much different than what Paul warned the Corinthians about.
2 Corinthians 11:3-4 “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.”

In sort of the same way, these spiritual pirates
Were threatening the faithfulness of the Colossians.

WHY WOULD THE COLOSSIANS LISTEN TO THEM?
Because they were convincing.

In fact, these spiritual pirates had three main and very effective tools.
1) STRICT RELIGION (2:16)

They were very legalistic, and legalism is always enticing.
People who hold to a legalistic outward form are very effective
Using the power of guilt to conform others to their standard.

These men did that.
2) SELF REJECTION (2:18a)

The delighted in “self-abasement”.
Now, initially that is not appealing, but it does wield a certain respect.

If a man will starve himself for his religion, he does get your attention
And cause you to think there might be something to what he believes.

3) SPIRITUAL REVELATION (2:18b)

They actually had “visions”
There were mystical experiences that supported their claims.

So these people came up to you and said they saw a vision
Commanding them not to eat certain food in order to please God,
And when you saw their self-abasement, it made you stop & think.

• Maybe they knew God better than you did…
• Maybe they knew something you didn’t…
• Maybe they saw visions, but you just weren’t that spiritual…
• Maybe you weren’t as real as you thought…

AND THE RESULT OF THESE PIRATES
Was that the Colossians were losing their prize (2:18)

Their prize was their assurance of salvation, their joy in the Lord,
Their emotional peace, and ultimately their gratitude.

These Pirates had turned the eyes of the Colossians off of Jesus
And onto their own self-made religion
And had succeeded in sucking the life right out of the Colossians.
They were just like prisoners of war.

They had come to Christ, they had believed in Jesus,
Now they were made to feel like somehow they were still missing out.

(Mystical religion can make you feel that way can’t it?)

The Colossians felt like they just didn’t have much.
ON THE CONTRARY – THEY HAD EVERYTHING

And the Holy Spirit wasn’t about to tolerate some spiritual hacker
Coming in and disregarding the blessing of knowing Jesus.

So through a man the Colossians had never met,
The Holy Spirit speaks to set the record straight.

So this morning see the Holy Spirit’s passion and the value of Jesus.
Now we are going to break this chapter down into three points
As I told you, we are going to leave a lot of meat on the bone,
But let me give you the overall picture.

There are three main things the Holy Spirit wanted the Colossians (and us) to see.
#1 STAND WITH CHRIST
Colossians 2:1-5

You notice from the beginning there that through Paul
The Holy Spirit mentions a great agony He feels toward the Colossians.

“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf…”

“struggle” translates AGON
From where we get our word for “agony”

• There is a heavy burden…
• There is a deep concern…
• There is a spiritual anguish for the Colossians…

And verse two shows us WHERE this agony is pointed.

(2) “that their hearts may be encouraged”

As I told you these spiritual pirates had swooped in with their mystical religion and their legalism and had succeeded in convincing the Colossians
That they still didn’t have anything.

There was still a level of intimacy with God that they were far from having,
And the result of that was doubt, confusion, even a type of spiritual depression.

But here the Holy Spirit wants them to be “encouraged”

Namely because the result of being encouraged is that
Their hearts will be “knit together in love” and they will attain “all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding.”

See, the reality here is that Paul (or the Holy Spirit)
Wants these Colossians to have full understanding of the truth,
So they can again have assurance and encouragement and unity.

All of those things were in jeopardy.

And you even notice the complete AIM of this journey:
“resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Now if we stop right there,
You see those fingerprints of the Holy Spirit I told you about.
• His desire to guide them into the truth…
• His desire to glorify Jesus…
• In a moment you will see Him expose the sin of the pirates.

This is how the Holy Spirit works.
He wants you to know the truth and ultimately to see Jesus.

WHY?
Because in Jesus “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Everything you need to see can be found in Jesus.
There is nothing more of spiritual value in this life outside of Jesus.
He contains it all.

If you have Jesus, you have everything!

So through Paul, the Holy Spirit is telling the Colossians
Not to be discouraged that somehow they are missing out.

Not so, be encouraged, you have Jesus,
And a true knowledge of Him is the greatest treasure you can have.

NOW LET THAT SINK IN FOR A MOMENT
• Are you in Christ?
• Is Christ in you?
• Do you have a relationship with Jesus?

If you do, then you have everything you could possibly need or want.
He is all sufficient.

• You don’t have to await another “filling”…
• You don’t have to seek some deep experience…
• There is no need for a new revelation…

John 1:16-18 “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”

You have Jesus and it doesn’t get any better than Him!

That is how the Holy Spirit starts this chapter with the Colossians.

NOW TO THE REASON BEHIND THOSE FIRST THREE VERSES.
(4) “I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument.”

In other words, I want you to know that,
Because I don’t want someone to deceive you by some sort of fancy talk
And convince you that there is more out there than Jesus.

And here is the goal:
(5) “For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.”

It is the Holy Spirit moving Paul to have this burden for the Colossians,
And the ultimate goal is that they would maintain “good discipline”
And that their “faith in Christ” would be stable.

Stay with Jesus.

Friends, that is exactly the message of the Holy Spirit.
He moved Paul to write this letter, because He is passionate about Jesus
And wants us to stay with Him.

So first, Stand with Christ
#2 SEE THE TRUTH
Colossians 2:6-15

We start off here with a “Therefore”

Since Christ is enough and I want you to stand with Him:

“Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him”

In other words, “Change nothing!”

• You received Jesus…
• You decided to follow Jesus…
• Don’t get shaken from that, keep doing it…

Keep walking with the Jesus you know and love!
(7) “having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.”

Notice the verb tenses there.
• You were “firmly rooted”
• You are now being “built up”
• You were “instructed”
• You should be “overflowing with gratitude”

When you came to Christ He firmly rooted you in Him,
And He is presently working in you.

You were taught that from the beginning,
So remember it and instead of feeling like you are somehow missing out,
Return to being grateful.

• Remember when you were first saved?
• Remember when you realized that Jesus had forgiven your sin?
Do you remember how grateful you were then?

Well, so were the Colossians.
The only problem is now someone has come and made them discontent and they have lost their gratitude.

The Holy Spirit wants them to get it back.
Run back to the Jesus you know and love,
See what He is doing in your life, and be grateful once again for Him.
That is the positive side.

Here is the negative side:
(8) “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”

There is that pirate phrase.

And notice that the Holy Spirit is passionate that they not be duped!
“See to it!”

Don’t let anyone kidnap you.

They will use:
“philosophy” which is “empty deception”

A philosopher is one who tells us things we already know
In words we don’t understand.

And philosophy is empty. It started with the assumptions of a man, and was built upon by other men’s assumptions, but philosophy is not rooted in truth.

It is rooted in “tradition” it is “according to the elementary principles of the world” but it did not come from Christ.

The world invented philosophy
As a means of explaining things it did not understand.

Only Christ has the truth, and the reasoning of humanity is useless.

1 Corinthians 3:19-20 “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is THE ONE WHO CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR CRAFTINESS”; and again, “THE LORD KNOWS THE REASONINGS of the wise, THAT THEY ARE USELESS.”

The Holy Spirit guides you into the truth, and He is passionate that you not be carried away by some empty philosophical teaching.

Don’t let their reasoning pull you away from Jesus.

WHY?
Why is it so important you stick to Jesus?

(9-10) “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;”

• You have to stick to Jesus, because only Jesus is fully God.
• Only Jesus makes you complete.
• Only Jesus stands at the top of all authority and wisdom.

The point is, you have to stick with Jesus,
Because when you come to Jesus you have reached the pinnacle.

Finding Him is like standing at the peak of Mt. Everest,
There is nowhere to go but down.

When you find Him, you’ve found God
And He then imparts His nature to you, making you complete as well.

JESUS GOT IT ALL
JESUS GIVES IT ALL

When you have Jesus you aren’t missing anything.

So don’t let anyone make you dissatisfied with Jesus.

But real quickly let me show you what you have in Jesus,
And why you don’t have to go anywhere else.

1) COMPLETE SALVATION (11-12)

(11-12) “and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”

Jewish circumcision was done to remove the flesh
From the most carnal male organ.

But when Christ came, He circumcised you spiritually.
He circumcised your heart.

When you died with Him, and then were raised in newness of life,
He worked a deeper change in you than you could work on yourselves.

His salvation worked, it was complete.

2) COMPLETE FORGIVENESS (13-14)
(13-14) “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

• He forgave us “all our transgressions”
• He cancelled those “decrees against us”
• He “nailed it to the cross”

When Christ died, He took our sin and paid its penalty in full.

And so now the Law is powerless to condemn us.
The Law can speak of sin all day, but we all of our sin is forgiven.

The Law is still there, but it can’t touch us.
We are completely forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus.

3) COMPLETE VICTORY (15)
(15) “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”

And that assures us that no one will ever undo what Jesus did.

• He not only defeated the enemy, He “disarmed” Him.
• He then humiliated Him and thoroughly “triumphed” over them.

In short, Jesus totally saved because He totally forgave,
And it will never be undone.

And that is why the Holy Spirit is so adamant
That the Colossians stick with Jesus.

Someone has told them that there is still more to get.
Someone told them there is still more receive.

And that infuriates the Holy Spirit
Because He knows that Jesus is more than enough.

• And I think that thoroughly answers all those questions about these “secondary fillings” people are always talking about today.

• You know, where you can be saved, be forgiven, have a relationship with Jesus, and there is this group that talks about this “secondary filling” of the Holy Spirit.
• They call it being “baptized with the Holy Spirit” as though all believers didn’t get everything when they got Jesus.

They would claim when you got Jesus, you only got part of it,
Now you need to go back and get the rest
(which obviously they have and you don’t)

That teaching does two things:
• It makes you dissatisfied with the Jesus you already have
• It glorifies them as possessors of something you don’t have

The Holy Spirit wants you to know that when you got Jesus,
You got it all!

So Stand with Christ
See the Truth

And one more thing
#3 SPURN THEIR RELIGION
Colossians 2:16-23

There is that “Therefore” again.

And this time it is simple:
“Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day”

That was those legalists, always trying to make you feel like you may have Jesus, but if you didn’t keep all their rules you still weren’t pleasing to God.

That is a lie

Furthermore if you aren’t pleasing to God,
How do you expect those things to help you?

Those things according to verse 17 “are a mere shadow of what is to come”

That is all just temporary, Christ is what they were pointing to.
If you found Jesus, you found what they were pointing to.

(18) “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize”

These people love their visions, and they love their self-abasement,
And they love their legalism.

And they use all that to make you feel inferior
And suck the life out of your relationship with Jesus.

And the Holy Spirit says, “Don’t let them”

(20-22) “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined to perish with use) — in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?”

In other words if Christ has saved you, what good is all that extra stuff going to do?

And then comes the summation.
(23) “These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”

In other words, all that extra junk may look good,
But it is absolutely pointless and worthless.

THE POINT?
• If you’ve got Jesus, you’ve got it all.
• You don’t need anything else.
• And don’t let someone tell you that there is more out there.

The Message of the Holy Spirit to these Colossian believers
Is simple: ONLY JESUS

And based on what we studied in John 16, that sounds just like the Holy Spirit doesn’t it?

That is the Holy Spirit.
He wants you to see that it is Jesus and Only Jesus.

And friend that is how we come to the Lord’s Supper.
We come just as the Holy Spirit intended.

We look at this cracker and remember His body.
We look at this juice and remember His blood.

And we remember that we need nothing more, He is all sufficient.

• He brought a perfect salvation
• He brought complete forgiveness
• He brought total victory

Now I’m going to pray and we will have a time of preparation.

It is a time to prepare our heart and to make sure we come in a worthy manner.

 

And then we will partake of the table of the Lord
And remember that what Jesus did on the cross
Is all that we will ever need.

Pray

LORD’S SUPPER

• Deacons come and fold blanket

Colossians 1:15-18
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.”

• Give Bread to Deacons
• Deacon Prayer
• Deacons pass out bread

1 Corinthians 11:23-24
“For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

• Take Bread

Colossians 1:19-22
“For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach”

• Give Juice to Deacons
• Deacon Prayer
• Deacons pass out juice

1 Corinthians 11:25
“In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

• Take Juice

• Deacon Prayer
• Closing Hymn

The Holy Spirit Magnifies Jesus
John 16:14-15
June 16, 2013

To begin this morning, I want you to turn with me back to John 14.

You know we are studying the Holy Spirit
You know we are presently doing so by hearing
What Jesus had to say about Him in the upper room.

You will remember that Jesus has told the disciples that He is leaving.

John 13:33 “Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’”

And the result of this has been sorrow on the part of the disciples.

John 16:5-6 “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ “But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.”

For the disciples Jesus has been their everything for the last three years.
He was literally their ace in the hole.

He was “God with us”
Emmanuel

And so the thought of them leaving not only struck an emotional cord,
I’m sure there was some legitimate
“what will do without You” fear involved.

Jesus knew they were greatly troubled about His coming departure.
And that is the sorrow which is revealed in John 14.

READ (1-3)

Jesus is very clear there.
• I am going, but it is for a purpose.
• I am going to prepare a place for you.

And believe Me, I’m not going to put all that work into preparing a place for you and then forget to come get you.

I’m coming for you.

Beyond that, Jesus says in verse 4:
“And you know the way where I am going.”

That is to say, If something should go bad (Like you die before I return) you know how to get where I am.

Now, this only upped the anxiety in the hearts of the disciples.
In fact, at this point the real pessimist of the group spoke up.

(5) “Thomas said to Him, “lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”

There is classic Thomas.
“You’re leaving, we’ll get lost, we’ll never find You, we’re doomed!”

To which Jesus gives that great statement.
(6) “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Thomas, I’m going to the Father, that’s where I am.
And you get there through Me.

Now, we understand that statement better than they did.
• We understand that through the death of Christ, He satisfied God’s wrath on our behalf and fully atoned for our sin.

• Through faith in Christ, we die with Him, and are raised with Him, and thus gain our access to the Father.

We understand that, but at the moment the disciples did not.
They were still confused as to how they were going to get to the Father,
If Jesus took longer returning than expected.

And Jesus knows this, and then adds:
(7) “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”

Now what was Jesus saying there?
He was saying, “I am God”
“I am the Father”

If you come to Me, you come to the Father.

But as I said, the disciples just could not seem to make this connection.

(8) “Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”

What are you talking about?
Did He not here what Jesus just said?

READ (9-11)

And you get the point of what I am talking about.
The disciples didn’t really know who Jesus was.

• They knew He spoke with authority
• They knew He was from God
• They knew He had power
• They knew they loved Him and had chosen to follow Him

But they still didn’t really know who He was.

And now He is about to leave.
• Their goes their source of power…
• Their goes their teacher…
• Their goes their leader…

And that is why Jesus promised down in verse 16 “another Helper”

And it is that “Helper” we are learning about in chapter 16.

Now we have already talked about Him quite a bit.

We talked about the PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT,
That He is someone to be anticipated.

We talked about the PERSON OF THE SPIRIT,
That He is a Helper like Jesus.

And recently we have started talking about THE PURPOSE OF THE SPIRIT.

And looking at John 16 we are looking at,
What I have called, His fingerprints, or the box He dwells in.

This is how we know it is the Holy Spirit.
This is how we recognize Him, and this is what He helps us do.

First we saw: CONVICTION OF SIN

John 16:8 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;”

He helps us in our ministry by piercing the hearts of those we preach to.
He digs deep
He confronts the secret sins
He convicts

And because we know this about Him,
We can also know if we have some type of experience, or leading, or whatever from Him, but sin isn’t addressed, then it wasn’t Him.

The Holy Spirit does not leave sin alone.
He is, after all, the HOLY Spirit.
Next we saw His: ILLUMINATION OF SCRIPTURE

John 16:12-13 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”

And that is such an important statement about the Holy Spirit.
• He is not a rogue member of the Trinity.
• He is not a rebel (He is pictured by a dove remember)

And He guides men into the truth.

He gave ALL the truth the apostles
(which they recorded as Scripture)
And He won’t speak contrary to that.

Jesus said, “He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak”

• The Holy Spirit is not in the business of new revelation.
• The Holy Spirit is in the business of illumination.
• He speaks the truth of Scripture.

After all, WHAT IS THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT?

Ephesians 6:17 “And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Furthermore being filled with the Spirit is the same equivalent
As “letting the word of Christ richly dwell within you”

He speaks Scripture

And this understanding of truth
Is certainly a help in proclaiming the truth to the world.

• We saw last week that the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God and reveals them to us and Paul said these are the things we also speak.

We proclaim these revealed truths to men.

AND SO HE IS DEFINITELY THE HELPER.

Well, this morning I want to show you the 3rd thing Jesus revealed about the Holy Spirit and that is that HE MAGNIFIES JESUS

It really doesn’t get any clearer than the statement Jesus makes
In verse 14, “He will glorify Me”
“glorify” translates DOXAZO
It literally means “to praise, extol, magnify”

And that is what the Holy Spirit does, He magnifies Jesus.
He extols Jesus, He praises Jesus.

Well, there are three things I want you to see here.
#1 HIS MINISTRY
John 16:14a
“He will glorify Me”

And that is simple enough.
He comes to extol, praise, and magnify Jesus.

That is, first and foremost, His fingerprint.
If Jesus wasn’t glorified, it wasn’t the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:3 “Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed”; and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.”

1 John 4:1-3 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”

Anyone that comes and blasphemes Christ or belittles Christ
Or disregards Christ, is certainly not doing so
Under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

His purpose is to glorify Christ.

And, incidentally this is a foundational attribute of His.

Even in the Old Testament, before Christ came,
The Holy Spirit was passionate about prophetically revealing Him.

Listen to what Peter said:
1 Peter 1:10-12 “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things into which angels long to look.”

Even in the Old Testament prophets, it was the Holy Spirit who was showing them as much about Christ as they could understand.

He was glorifying Jesus, before Jesus even came.
That was true in the PAST, it is also true in the FUTURE.

Zechariah spoke of the day when Israel would finally see Jesus,
Repent, and run to Him.

DO YOU KNOW WHY THEY WILL DO IT?
Zechariah 12:10 “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.”

When the Holy Spirit is poured upon them, the first thing they will do is
Run to Jesus, because that is what the Holy Spirit does.
He magnifies Jesus
He extols Jesus
He praises Jesus

And that is so foundational, and yet so important.

We live in this world of false prophets and deception.

Listen, if what the preacher says draws you to the preacher,
It wasn’t the Holy Spirit.
If it glorifies the man, it wasn’t the Holy Spirit.

I’ve seen the TV shows just like you have, with men claiming all this special anointing, and special powers, and doing so to draw in massive crowds.

THAT IS NOT THE HOLY SPIRIT
He constantly points to Jesus

Paul spoke of preachers like that:
Philippians 1:15-17 “Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.”

There are those even today who preach Christ
Only out of selfish ambition.

Let’s face it: Jesus sells books, Jesus draws crowds,
People will pay good money for an encounter with Jesus.

These men seek to use Jesus or the Holy Spirit as their trump card,
To draw you to them.

That is not the Holy Spirit.
He doesn’t glorify men, He glorifies Jesus.

So if your experience didn’t draw you closer to Jesus,
It wasn’t the Holy Spirit.
This is one of the biggest problems I have with
Much of what is supposedly the Holy Spirit today.

People claim all these deep, personal, super spiritual revelations, that includes everything from seeing Jesus, to going to heaven, to whatever,
And then when it is over, they still love the world, not Jesus.

There is something drastically wrong with that.

When He has been there, your sin will be exposed,
The truth will be explained
And your heart will be enamored with Jesus.

And incidentally this is a tremendous help to us in ministry.
• We can’t show men their sin – but the Holy Spirit can
• We can’t know the truth of God – but the Holy Spirit can reveal it to us
• And we can’t cause people to love Jesus – but the Holy Spirit can

He has a way of drawing men to Jesus that you and I cannot do
• I don’t care how emotional you get…
• I don’t care how motivational you are…
• I don’t care how gifted a story teller…
You can’t possibly glorify Jesus like the Holy Spirit can.

That is what He does.
He pushes men to Christ – and that is why we need Him.

Christ is the only Savior.
Christ is the only way to the Father.
Christ is the mediator between God and men.
We need help magnifying Him to the world.

The Holy Spirit does this.
That is His ministry.

Now let me show you HOW He does it.
(This is also a tremendous clue as to how we do it)

#2 HIS METHOD
John 16:14b

“for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.”

In other words, the way He will glorify Me,
Is simply by revealing Me to you.

Listen friend you can’t glorify Jesus to someone else
When you don’t even really know who He is.

How do you praise someone when you don’t even really know Him?

And didn’t we just see that the disciples didn’t really know who He was?

Remember that conversation back in John 14?
John 14:9 “Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

These guys couldn’t glorify Jesus, because they still didn’t know Him.

And this is precisely what the Holy Spirit comes to do.
He reveals Jesus, which is to glorify Jesus.

In other words, to know Him is to love Him.

The reason the world doesn’t love Jesus right now?
They don’t really know Him.

Paul said the reason the world crucified Jesus
Is because they did not fully understand the truth.

1 Corinthians 2:8 “the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;”

And that is why a sinful world is still hostile to Christ.
They don’t really understand the truth about Him.

The Holy Spirit comes to reveal the truth of Jesus.

“He will take of Mine” – (truths about Me)
“and will disclose it to you.”

John 15:26 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,”

1 John 4:13-14 “By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.”

How was John able to see and testify that Jesus was God’s Son?
“because He has given us of His Spirit”

In the upper room John had no idea that Jesus was God.
But when the Holy Spirit came, John learned exactly who He was.

We even get a foreshadow of this in the gospels.

Remember the day when Jesus asked the disciples who the world thought He was?

There were all sorts of answers given.
And then Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?”

And Peter just blurted out the answer:
Matthew 16:15-16 “He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

I really just get this image of Peter blurting that out and then all the other disciples looking at him as if to say, “What did you say?”

And Peter kind of giving this look back like “I don’t know”

Where in the world did Peter get an idea like that?
Matthew 16:17 “And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”

I’ll tell you where Peter didn’t get that type of information.
• He didn’t get it from man.
• Man never thought of that.

He learned that from God.

And that is still true today.
Man doesn’t naturally see who Jesus is,
But the Holy Spirit reveals Him to people
And that is naturally to glorify Jesus.

• So His MINISTRY is to glorify Jesus
• His METHOD of glorifying Jesus is revealing Him
#3 HIS MOTIVE
John 14:15

The reason the Holy Spirit is so passionate about glorifying Jesus
By revealing Him is because of who Jesus really is.

“All things that the Father has are Mine;”

WHAT IS JESUS SAYING THERE?
I am the Father.
I am God.

And He’s been saying it:

John 5:18 “For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.”

John 5:23 “so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.”

John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.”
Jesus has been saying for some time now that He is God,
That He and the Father are one.

But no one has been understanding it,
In fact the Pharisees wanted to kill Him for such statements.

So Jesus says, this is why the Holy Spirit
Is passionate about telling you who I am.

“All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”

He wants you to glorify Me
He wants you to know that I am God so that you will glorify Me

And the point is, if Jesus wasn’t God, then why bother?

If Jesus wasn’t God, then the Holy Spirit most certainly
Would not spend all His time glorifying Him.

BUT HE IS.
And the Holy Spirit wants to make sure you see that.

2 Corinthians 3:18 “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 from the Lord, the Spirit.”

It is the Spirit who is showing us, through the Scriptures,
The glory of the Lord.

The main motive behind all that He does
Is to reveal the glorious nature of Christ.
He did it in the Old Testament
He does it in the New Testament

• He is not there for you to glorify the preacher…
• He is not there for you to glorify the song leader…
• He is not there for you to glorify the band…

Those people may all be good at what they do,
But none of them are God,
And so the Holy Spirit doesn’t point to them.

He comes to glorify Jesus.

And so are you better understanding who the Holy Spirit is?

• He is not some mystical force who glorifies you by giving you some cryptic power that others do not have…

• He is not some ecstatic experience by which you can brag about how close you came to heaven…

• He is not some circus producer who passes out weirdness to be observed by others…

He is the Helper.
He Helps you do what God has called you to do.

• He Helps you in your ministry by convicting the world of sin…
• He Helps you in your ministry by guiding you into the truth…
• He Helps you in your ministry by glorifying Jesus…

And friend so long as all you want is for people
To turn from sin, know the truth about Christ, and worship Him
I can assure you that the Holy Spirit will be your Helper too.

But the second ministry becomes about you, He is gone.

• He doesn’t support preachers who try to stay popular or relevant by letting people remain in their sin…

• He doesn’t support missionaries who are not concerned about proclaiming the truth…

• He doesn’t support ministries that seek only to grow and gain popularity but leave Jesus in the shadows…

But when sin is confronted…
When truth is explained…
And when you leave with no one but Jesus on your mind…

Rest assured the Holy Spirit has been there,
And He will help you in just the same way.

I’m reminded of a story about Charles Spurgeon,
A great preacher in England in the late 1800’s.

He preached at the Metropolitan Tabernacle and because the place filled to capacity each time, you had to have a ticket to attend. You didn’t have to purchase it, but you had to have it.

One young man reportedly wanted his friend to hear Charles Spurgeon so badly that he gave his ticked to his friend and waited outside. When his friend exited the service the man who had surrendered his ticket asked: “So what did you think of my preacher?”

To which the friend answered: “Preacher? What preacher? I saw no preacher. I saw only Jesus.”

That was the Holy Spirit.

He glorifies Jesus.

In fact, look at times when He did.
Acts 2:32-37 “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. “For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET.”‘ “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ — this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?”

The Holy Spirit arrived and people were aware of their sin,
They understood the truth, and they wanted Jesus.

That’s what He does.

Again, don’t fear Him, don’t avoid Him, don’t neglect Him.
He is God in us.
And He is our advantage in every way.

Trust Him, follow Him, and let Him work through you.
• That is when sinners are convicted…
• That is when the truth is made clear…
• That is when Jesus is truly glorified…

John 16:7-15 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. “All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”