The Holy Spirit Illumines Scripture
John 16:12-13
June 9, 2013

As you know we are in the middle of a study of the Holy Spirit.

Without rehashing all that we have said,
You know that we have learned that it is vitally important
That we get to know the God who is in us.

In the Old Testament they had God in their midst.
God’s glory dwelled first in the tent of meeting and then in the temple and the people were heavily encouraged not to take it for granted.

When Jesus came, they had God with us.
God in human form walked the earth and the people were again encouraged not to disregard Him, but they did.

Today we have God in us.
The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost to indwell those who believe in Christ. And again we would be foolish to disregard Him.

We want to get to know the God who dwells in us.

Namely we want to get to know Him
Because He is the answer to an absent Jesus.

Jesus is no longer dwelling on earth.
And that would leave us in quite a bind.

But to answer for His absence Jesus promised “another Helper”
Who would dwell in us.

A “Helper” of the same kind as Jesus.

And to reiterate the value of this Helper Jesus actually said:
John 16:7 “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.”

Jesus actually said that it was better to have the Holy Spirit
Than it was even to have Jesus on earth.

The reason of course is that in order for God to become flesh
He had to relinquish certain parts of His deity.

To some extent He had to “glory down”

Philippians 2:6-7 “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”

There was a certain emptying that took place in order for
The second person of the trinity to become human.

• To some extent He limited His OMNIPOTENT power, subjecting Himself to death.
• To some extent He limited His OMNISCIENCE, saying He didn’t even know the day of His return.
• And to perhaps the greatest extent He limited His OMNIPRESENCE, being able only to dwell in one place at one time.

We had God with us, but not in His greatest form.

The Holy Spirit however would have no such limits.
• He would be omnipotent God
• He would be omniscient God
• He would be omnipresent God

And so Jesus said, it is advantageous that I return to the Father,
And that He come to you.

And then Jesus began to spell out that advantage.

The first was that the Holy Spirit Convicts Sin

That is one of the ways He helps us in ministry.
• We can’t see the heart of man…
• We can’t convict the heart of man…
• We can’t cause man to desire righteousness…

BUT HE CAN
He shows the world their sin, and that they miss the mark.
He shows the world what true righteousness looks like.
He reveals to the world the reality of the coming judgment.

We could not succeed in evangelism without His help.
He is the helper.

AND THROUGH THAT WE ALSO LEARNED WHO HE IS.
Not only is this how He helps us in ministry,
But it is also a way in which we know that it is really Him at work.

I told you last week that one of the things we need to be willing to do is “put God back in the box”

We can’t put God in our own box.
The reality is that God has put Himself in a box.
God has set parameters of things that He simply will not do.

And those parameters are revealed to us in Scripture.

That means, if you want to know who God is, you read Scripture,
He has revealed Himself there.

• Your own logic does not reveal who God is…
• Your experiences do not reveal who God is…
• Your desires do not reveal who God is…
Scripture reveals who God is.

We don’t know all there is to know about Him,
But we do know what He has chosen to reveal to us.

Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.”

God has let us know what we need to know.
And God has revealed all that we need to know.

And this is what we see regarding the Holy Spirit here in John 16.

John 16 contains the box that the Holy Spirit dwells in.
Jesus doesn’t speak of specifics, but rather generalities.

The Holy Spirit does more than what Jesus mentions here,
However, the things Jesus mentions here are always true of Him.

This passage reveals His fingerprints.
• In a world were false spirits are at work…
• In a world were false prophets are at work…
• In a world were even Satan masquerades as an angel of light…

We need to have a criteria by which we discern what is true.
Jesus gave us that criteria here.

So if we want to learn who the Holy Spirit is, look here.

Last week we saw that He convicts sin.
THIS MORNING WE SEE THAT HE GUIDES US INTO THE TRUTH.

THROUGHOUT SCRIPTURE (both Old and New)
WE HAVE SEEN SATAN WORK THROUGH MEN AND WOMEN
WHO CLAIMED TO SPEAK FOR GOD

Jeremiah 14:13-14 “But, “Ah, Lord GOD!” I said, “Look, the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see the sword nor will you have famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place.'” Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility and the deception of their own minds.”

Jeremiah battled with those who claimed to have a word from God,
But it did not benefit the people in the least.

Jeremiah 23:32 “Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams,” declares the LORD, “and related them and led My people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit,” declares the LORD.”

• In a world saturated with falsehood, how do we know what is true and what is not?

• In a world saturated with falsehood, how will we ever convince the people we are preaching to that we are true while others are false?

THE ANSWER: THE HOLY SPIRIT
Just He hates sin, He also loves truth.
And this morning we are going to talk about
His ministry of ILLUMINATION.

NOW We must remind ourselves who Jesus is speaking to here.

THIS UPPER ROOM DISCOURSE
WAS GIVEN TO THE DISCIPLES / APOSTLES
I tell you that to help you understand the work of the Holy Spirit here.

HIS AID TO THEM IS VERY SIMILAR TO OURS, BUT IS ALSO DIFFERENT

He aided them with what is commonly called INSPIRATION
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.”

God, through the Holy Spirit,
Inspired the apostles to write the New Testament.
John 14:25-26 “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

John 15:26-27 “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, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”

The Holy Spirit aided them with inspiration, BUT NO LONGER
And I’ll help you see why in a moment.

He aids us through ILLUMINATION
He opens our eyes to understand the Scripture.

1 Corinthians 2:10-16 “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. 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. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.”

I hope you understand the difference as we get into this text this morning.

And as we look at these two verses, I want you to see
Three attributes of the Holy Spirit that will help us identify
When it truly is Him who is speaking.
#1 HIS SERVICE
John 16:12-13a

“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”

Could you imagine if Jesus had dumped His entire knowledge bank on the disciples in the upper room?

There is no way they could have handled it all.
The word “bear” is the same used of a donkey under a heavy load.

So there again we see a vitally important role of the Holy Spirit.
(13) “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth…”

And this is a very important statement.
The Holy Spirit is not in the business of re-writing truth.
He is not in the business of inventing new truth.

He comes to “guide” into the truth of God.

The word for “guide” is the same that is used in Acts.
Acts 8:29-35 “Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: “HE WAS LED AS A SHEEP TO SLAUGHTER; AND AS A LAMB BEFORE ITS SHEARER IS SILENT, SO HE DOES NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH. “IN HUMILIATION HIS JUDGMENT WAS TAKEN AWAY; WHO WILL RELATE HIS GENERATION? FOR HIS LIFE IS REMOVED FROM THE EARTH.” The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him.”
The Ethiopian Eunich did not want someone to give him new truth,
He wanted someone to help him understand the truth that was before him.

That is what the Holy Spirit does.
HE GUIDES YOU TO UNDERSTAND THE TRUTH
THAT IS ALREADY THERE.

THAT IS REALLY WHAT HE DID WITH THE APOSTLES
EVEN IN INSPIRING THEM.
Almost all of what He showed them had already been recorded in the Old Testament, but it was in a mystery.

You can find the rejection of Jesus You can find the betrayal of Jesus
You can find the death of Jesus You can find the resurrection of Jesus
You can find the breaking off of Israel You can find the salvation of Gentiles
You can find the return of Jesus.

BUT IT WAS ALL A MYSTERY, UNTIL THE HOLY SPIRIT GUIDED THEM.

And this is still what He does with us.
Not to write more Scripture, but to help us understand what is written.

HE IS NOT WRITING NEW TRUTH,
BUT GUIDING YOU TO SEE THE TRUTH THAT IS ALREADY THERE.

Did you catch what Jesus said in verse 13?
“He will guide you into ALL the truth”

Now remember, He is speaking to the apostles here.
These were the men who would write Scripture under divine inspiration.

DID JESUS SAY HE WOULD GIVE THEM ALL OF THE TRUTH OR JUST SOME OF IT?

He said, “all the truth”

DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?
SCRIPTURE IS SUFFICIENT – IT IS ALL YOU NEED

It is simply amazing how prone our world is to wanting new truth.
Some don’t like the truth that is there, so they wish to reinvent it.
Some are just bored with the truth that is there, and want to spice it up.

I constantly hear this talk of people who want a “new word”
Or a “fresh word” from the Lord.

And instantly I think:
• “Has the Bible somehow become outdated that we need a new?”
• “Has God word spoiled that we need a fresh word?”

Hebrews 4:12 “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.”

You aren’t in need of something new,
What you need to understand is what God has already revealed.

Remember when Jesus spoke in parables?
Do you remember why?

Matthew 13:10-13 “And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. “For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”

Jesus spoke in parables because
These people were always wanting something new,
But they had never dealt with what they already had.

Listen to me, when you can honestly say you have plumbed the depths of the truth revealed in Scripture, and there are no more mysteries and you have mastered it all.

Then go to God and ask Him for a “new” word.
Until then, I’m pretty sure the one He has given is sufficient.

And the Holy Spirit knows this,
That is why He is in the business of revealing that word to you.

People get so caught up in a new fresh word,
The Spirit just wishes people would obey what they already have.

He guides you into all truth.
He inspired the Apostles to record Scripture,
And now He illumines that Scripture to you.

The service of the Holy Spirit is to guide you into the truth of God.
#2 HIS SOURCE
John 16:13b

Please notice Jesus does NOT say, “He can not speak on His own initiative…”

There is a lot of faulty theology, and faulty leadings that fall under the category of “Don’t you think God can…”

One of the biggest and most common today:
“Don’t you think God can save a person apart from Jesus Christ?”
But this same backwards theology is used today,
Even in the name of the Holy Spirit.
“Don’t you think God can speak something new apart from Scripture?”
“Don’t you think the Holy Spirit can lead you in a direction that doesn’t seem Biblical?”

And based upon the way those types of questions are asked,
You have to say “Yes”, but those are bad questions.

It is not a matter of ability, it’s a matter of God’s will.
“He will not speak on His own initiative,
but whatever He hears, He will speak;”

This is the same attitude that Jesus had while He was no the earth.
John 8:28 “So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.”

THE POINT IS THIS.
The Holy Spirit does not speak anything other than what God is saying.
And we just learned in the first part of this verse
That ALL that God is saying is revealed in His word.

SO WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU?
The Spirit only speaks according to and through Scripture.

So if you want a little help discerning the spirits,
Just ask yourself if what you are hearing is Scripture,
Because the Holy Spirit won’t speak any other way.

NOW THERE ARE PLENTY WHO WILL
Jeremiah 23:16-22 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; They speak a vision of their own imagination, Not from the mouth of the LORD. “They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD has said, “You will have peace”‘; And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, They say, ‘ Calamity will not come upon you.’ “But who has stood in the council of the LORD, That he should see and hear His word? Who has given heed to His word and listened? “Behold, the storm of the LORD has gone forth in wrath, Even a whirling tempest; It will swirl down on the head of the wicked. “The anger of the LORD will not turn back Until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart; In the last days you will clearly understand it. “I did not send these prophets, But they ran. I did not speak to them, But they prophesied. “But if they had stood in My council, Then they would have announced My words to My people, And would have turned them back from their evil way And from the evil of their deeds.”

The world is full of false prophets and deceitful spirits
Who cloak themselves as apostles and as the Holy Spirit
To tell you all sorts of stuff, but that doesn’t mean it’s from God.

I’ve had many people prophesy over me over the years.
(Every one I can remember spoke of my success and glory in the ministry)
BUT I AM VERY SKEPTICAL AND PLACE STOCK IN NONE OF IT.
The reason is because that is powerless.

I can tell you what the Holy Spirit tells me.
2 Timothy 4:1-5 “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

I’ve never been given a promise of success…
I’ve never been given a promise of fame…
I’ve only been told that most people won’t like it,
But I am to preach anyway.

CONSIDER PAUL AS AN EXAMPLE:
Acts 20:17-23 “From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. “And now, behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me.”

HOW DID HE KNOW THAT WAS THE HOLY SPIRIT?
BECAUSE THAT WAS THE JESUS HAD BEEN SAYING IN SCRIPTURE

Matthew 10:22-23 “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. “But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes.”

When the Holy Spirit comes
He guides into truth, and He speaks what Jesus speaks.

That is His Service, That is His Source
#3 HIS SUBJECT
John 16:13c

NOW REMEMBER THE FIRST APPLICATION IS TO THE APOSTLES
Jesus had a lot He wanted to tell them that they just couldn’t handle,
And so the Holy Spirit is coming to tell them all of what Jesus is saying.

SPECIFICALLY
“what is to come.”

We are not talking about some prophetic tool
Where they could see around every corner and know the future.

What Jesus is talking about here is that
The Holy Spirit will reveal the events that are to come.
The death of Jesus
The resurrection of Jesus
The ascension of Jesus
The return of Jesus

AND HE DOES THE SAME THING TO US, BY GUIDING US INTO THE TRUTH THAT THE APOSTLES RECORDED.

HE REVEALED WHAT WAS TO COME
BUT PLEASE UNDERSTAND, THEIR SUBJECT WAS JESUS.

As we will see next week.
John 16:14 “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.”

WHEN IT IS THE HOLY SPIRIT
There is Conviction of Sin
There is Illumination of Scripture

And I hope that helps you understand how to tell
If it is the Holy Spirit who is speaking.

Don’t fall prey to a deceitful spirit who is speaking something appealing apart from the word of God.

God has said all He wants to say in the New Testament,
DON’T GO LOOKING FOR SOMETHING ELSE.

All we need is there.
2 Peter 1:2-4 “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”

God gave us EVERYTHING we need for life & godliness.

Where does it come from? – “through the true knowledge of Him who called us”

How do we come to a true knowledge of Him? – “He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”

Now that is also where the “Helper” part comes in.

The Holy Spirit helps you understand the Scripture
And the Scripture provides everything you need for life and godliness.

Now think, even in regard to evangelism.
We said last seek that He convicts.

Well let me show you why His guiding into truth is so important.

TURN TO: 1 Corinthians 2:6-16

Notice that there is a wisdom that on our own we cannot receive.
There is a wisdom so lofty that the world cannot understand it.

But:
VERSE 10-12

And what do we preach?
The things God reveals

VERSE 13

That is how the Holy Spirit helps us.

So last week we said, if sin isn’t confronted, it isn’t the Holy Spirit.
But the fact that He convicts is a tremendous help to us in ministry.

And so it is with this next attribute.

If Scripture isn’t illuminated, if truth isn’t revealed, it isn’t the Holy Spirit.
But the fact that He guides into truth is a tremendous help in ministry.

We are going out to people
Who are absolutely bombarded with falsehood.

False prophets are a dime a dozen.

We not only need to know how to discern what we hear,
But we also need help knowing what to teach.

The Holy Spirit provides both.

MY POINT?
The Holy Spirit is a helper.
He helps us in evangelism.
He convicts sin and He guides into truth.

We desperately need Him, and it is to our advantage to seek Him out.

John 16:7-13 “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.”

The Purpose of the Holy Spirit
John 16:7-11
June 2, 2013

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

It is absolutely necessary that you and I know who He is,
And how to follow His leading.

Very simply put, when we ignore the Holy Spirit,
We ignore God at work in and around us.

In the Old Testament God’s glory dwelled in the temple.
God’s presence was figuratively in the ark.

And what an advantage it was to Israel to have God dwell in their camp.
• We saw what happened when the Ark of the Covenant circled the walls of Jericho.
• We saw what happened when the priests carrying the ark stood in the Jordan River.
• We saw what happened even when the Philistines stole the ark.

There was power in that figurative presence of God.

• And we saw what happened when God’s glory departed from the temple.
Babylon destroyed them.

God’s presence was absolutely essential to life in Israel.
Apart from Him they had no life.

We then came into the New Testament and we studied the gospels and we saw the difference that Christ made as He was on earth.

• He worked miracles
• He healed diseases
• He read the heart of man and spoke piercing truth

He was the difference maker

But today, there is no temple…
Today, Christ is seated in heaven…

WE HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT.

And so it is necessary that you and I get to know Him.

And in saying that, it is necessary that we get to know who Scripture says He is, not who the internet says He is.

And that is what we are doing.

Last Sunday we took our first peak into the upper room.
Jesus really did a great deal of teaching on the Holy Spirit there.

And last week we really just saw sort of the introduction of who He is.

Jesus said:
John 14:16-17 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”

Jesus called Him the ALLOS PARKLETOS
“another Helper of the same kind as Me”

And we then saw some very basic concepts as to who He is.

HELPER
• To evangelize
• To teach
• To love
• To have joy
• To have hope

He helps in things that are essential to Christian life and ministry.
He didn’t come to harm, He came to help.

We also briefly examined some of the analogies given to explain Him.

• Water – picturing abundant life
• Fire – picturing His purifying work
• Wind – picturing power
• Oil – picturing anointing
• Dove – picturing innocence and gentleness
• Seal – picturing His securing work

And already we learned a very important basic concept of the Holy Spirit, He is above all else a helper.

He is given to be the answer to ministry without Christ on the earth.

And I want carry that out a little more this morning
And talk about how He helps.

Before we get into the text we are going to study
Let me take you back to John 14 one more time.

John 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.”

Now that is an interesting statement.
Jesus said that His disciples and all who believe in Him would do “greater works than these”

Now you have heard that verse before, because it is commonly quoted in regard to miracles and wonders and healings and things of that nature.

But obviously Jesus could not have been talking about that.
The miracles Jesus worked were the epitome of greatness.
How could you do one greater than His?

• What is greater than raising someone from the dead?
• Or calming a storm?
• Or feeding 5,000 with two fish and five loaves?

He is talking about ministry work.
When Jesus is talking about greater works,
He is talking about salvation of the lost.

And notice WHY these greater works would occur.
“and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.”

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
How does His going to the Father equate to greater works on our behalf?

Now to our text:
(16:7) “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.”

There it is again.
You will do greater works because you will have the Helper!

When He comes and dwells in you,
There is no limit to what can be accomplished.
He is absolutely essential to life and ministry.

This is where we begin to talk about
The difference the Holy Spirit makes.

HAVE YOU EVER FELT POWERLESS IN MINISTRY?
Do you know why you felt that way?

BECAUSE YOU ARE POWERLESS

• Ministry is spiritual work.
• And as much as we would like to, we can’t speak to the heart.
• We can’t speak to the soul.

We can’t know the thoughts of a man or how to confront him.

It requires help.
Well that is where the Helper comes in,
And I want you to see some of how He helps.

Now, we are only going to get through the first part of this passage
And we’ll have to continue on the rest of it in the coming weeks,
But hopefully we’ll begin to see just how helpful He really is.

Verse 8 is really the first big help issue.

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

Of all the things He comes to do, the first is conviction.

“convict” translates ELENCHO
“to convict, confute, refute, usually with the suggestion of putting the convicted person to shame.”

It is not a final conviction, but an informative conviction,
With a view to redemption, not destruction.

It is used other places in the New Testament.
Matthew 18:15 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.”

2 Timothy 4:2 “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”

Ephesians 5:11 “Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;”

That is precisely what the Holy Spirit came to do.
He comes to convict, and refute this world,
With the intention of putting the world to shame.

And you must also remember what we learned earlier,
And that is that He comes to be in you.

He comes to aid you with conviction when you minister in this world.

The Holy Spirit will come to “convict the world”

Was Jesus convicting?
Oh yeah, that is why the religious elite hated Him so much.
He convicted them to the core.

Well, what do you do without Jesus?
We have the Holy Spirit.

When we talk to men, we can address outward issues,
But we have no way of addressing the heart.
We can’t refute the arguments of another person’s heart.
But the Holy Spirit can.

He comes to convict.

Now in addition to His help
We also learn here more about identifying Him.

Jesus is very clear that convicting the world is what He does.

He convicts sin.

And in that, Jesus is specific about three ways He does that.
#1 HE IS A VOICE OF REBUKE
John 16:9
“concerning sin”

We already see one of our first tests we run
In order to determine if what we are experiencing is really the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of God cannot ignore sin, nor does He inspire it.

If holiness is not the result of your experience,
Then it was not the Holy Spirit.

THE BAROMETER BY WHICH WE MEASURE ALL VISIONS, DREAMS, OR LEADINGS WE ASSUME TO HAVE COME FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT IS:
DID IT INSPIRE HOLINESS?

Because you see, in the Holy Spirit we are dealing with Holy God.
When a person is truly confronted in a personal way with Holy God,
It leads to holiness.

Consider Job
Job 42:1-6 “Then Job answered the LORD and said, “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ “Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” ‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.’ “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.”

When Isaiah saw God
Isaiah 6:1-5 “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
Consider when Peter got a revelation of Jesus’ deity
Luke 5:4-8 “When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

The standard by which we determine if it was the Holy Spirit
Is if He dealt with sin.

HE ALWAYS DOES
Don’t assume to be following the Holy Spirit if holiness is not involved.

BUT BEYOND THAT
We see here that the Holy Spirit comes to your aid
In convicting the world of sin.

More specifically He comes to convict the world of their rejection of Jesus.
“because they do not believe in Me;”

And we have seen Him do it.
Acts 2:37-42 “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?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

The Bible is clear, there is an UNPARDONABLE sin.
There is a sin so heinous that if you commit it,
You cannot, and will not be forgiven.

It is the sin of rejecting Jesus.
Hebrews 10:26-27 “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.”

John 8:24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

The Spirit comes to convict the world in regard to this sin.
That is part of His conviction role.

And even simpler than that.
This world has a sin problem.
Jesus is the only answer.

That means that people who sin without Jesus are in trouble.
The Holy Spirit is here specifically to convict those people.

• What do you say to a sinner?
• How do you get him to desire Jesus?

The Holy Spirit does that – let Him help you.

He is a voice of rebuke
#2 HE IS A VOICE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
John 16:9

Here Jesus says He convicts “concerning righteousness”

Now there are two ways you could look at this.

1) He convicts a sinful world for their lack of righteousness

He brings men to an understanding of sin
He then shows them their need for righteousness
And He actually causes them to desire it.

Acts 16:27-30 “When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!” And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

2) He convicts a moral world of their self-righteousness.

Certainly this is also true. Remember how the mob responded to Stephen’s sermon against the false righteousness of Israel.

Acts 7:54 “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.”

So He convicts the world concerning righteousness.
WHY IS THIS NEEDED?

“because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me;”

When Jesus was here, He was righteousness incarnate.
• He was the One who knew no sin.
• He was the One who fulfilled the Law.

• He was a living embodiment of righteous living.
• He was a continual example.
BUT HE IS GONE.
Who will lift High the standard of righteousness now?

ANSWER: The Holy Spirit

• He convicts the world of righteousness…
• He confronts self-righteousness…
• He confronts the human heart…

We can’t make people desire righteousness, but He does.
(try to get your kids to some time)
He is a tremendous helper!

He is a voice of rebuke
He is a voice of righteousness
#3 HE IS A VOICE OF REALITY
John 16:11

“concerning judgment”
Again, there are a couple of ways you could see this.

In short, He reveals the coming judgment.

Acts 24:24-25 “But some days later Felix arrived with Drusilla, his wife who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. But as he was discussing righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix became frightened and said, “Go away for the present, and when I find time I will summon you.”

It was the Holy Spirit that somehow applied what Paul was saying directly to the life of Felix, so much so that the reality of judgment frightened him.

And the reason the Holy Spirit convicts in this way is
”because the ruler of this world has been judged.”

Now Jesus uses two different words there.
One is KRISIS “judgment”
“the process of investigation, the act of distinguishing and separating.”

This is what the Holy Spirit does to the world.
He reveals to them where they stand in regard to the coming judgment.
He informs them of their coming fate.

The other word is KRINO “has been judged”
“to select, choose, to determine, and so judge or pronounce judgment.”

This is what Jesus said we should not do to one another.
But it is what has already been done to satan.

Satan has been judged and his judgment is the firstfruit
Of what is coming to all those who don’t believe in Christ.

And the Holy Spirit burns that truth into their heart.

• It is the Holy Spirit who convicts men of sin.
• It is the Holy Spirit who reveals a lack of righteousness.
• It is the Holy Spirit who creates a terror of judgment.

And that is extremely helpful to you and I who can’t do any of this.

• We can preach…
• We can share testimony…
• We can confront people’s sin…

But we can’t get on the inside and apply it to the heart.
But the Holy Spirit sure will.

And He will do it through believers.
• That is why when you listened to Billy Graham that time his words just cut you deep.

• That is why Adrian Rogers seemed to expose your sin like never before.

• That is why the tent preacher terrified you of hell.

It wasn’t those men.
They didn’t even know you.
They may not have even known you were listening.

That was the Holy Spirit helping them in their ministry.
And He will do that for you.

We need His help.
In fact, we can do nothing without Him.

So church begin to recognize the Holy Spirit
And allow Him to work through you.

He is the answer to the absent Jesus.

John 16:7-11 “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.”

The Person of the Holy Spirit
John 14:16-17
May 26, 2013

At this point in John’s gospel,
Jesus and His disciples are in the upper room.
• Jesus has washed His disciple’s feet
• Judas has gone out to betray the Lord

And upon Judas’ exit, Jesus realizes that
The ball has been officially set in motion.

John 13:31-33 “Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately. “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.’”

Jesus is again revealing his death.

And incidentally, the disciples knew He was talking about death.

Notice Peter’s response a few verses later:
John 13:36-37 “Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus answered, “Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.” Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.”

Peter seemed to understand the implication.
Jesus was going away, and according to Him
None of the disciples could yet follow.

One can only imagine the faces in the room at this point.
I’m sure you could see remorse, sadness, even worry, begin to creep upon all the faces of the disciples who sat and heard what Jesus said.

Jesus was leaving.
They would be on their own.

As long as they had Jesus, they could do anything.
• Sickness wasn’t an issue,
• Lack of food wasn’t an issue,
• Demonic spirits were no threat,
• Even the wind and waves couldn’t stop them.

Jesus was the difference.
For three years in Galilee, Jesus was their ace in the hole.
And now He is leaving.

That helps John 14:1 make a whole lot more sense.

John 14:1 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.”

Certainly their hearts were troubled, they may have even been afraid.
What will we do without Jesus?

Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid, just believe”

Now, there is a more to the discussion, and some valuable verses, but it doesn’t change the fact that the disciples are now perplexed because they are about to be on their own.

It is during this time of loss and confusion
That Jesus reiterates that great promise.

(16-17) “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”

Jesus promises “another Helper”

Those are two very important words.
ALLOS PARAKLETOS

ALLOS translates “another”
It means “another of the same type”

Had Jesus used the word “HETEROS” it would have been
“another one who is different”

What Jesus is promising here is someone of the same mold as Him.

And then He uses the word PARAKLETOS
It is actually a verbal adjective.
In other words, His name describes who He is.

And PARAKLETOS literally means “called to one’s side”
It refers to being called to another’s aid.

This phrase was used in the court of justice to denote a legal assistant,
Or the counsel for the defense. It was an intercessor or an advocate.

The King James translated the word “Comforter”
The NASB (which I read) went for the generic term of “Helper”

Jesus said, The Father will give you a Helper the same type as Me.

In other words, Jesus is leaving, but the disciples would not be alone.

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper”

And this Helper, “will be with you forever;”

WHO IS HE?
(17) “that is the Spirit of truth”

• Now, you will also notice that the world cannot receive Him.
• The reason of course because the world won’t accept what it can’t see.
• But believers not only have “the Spirit of truth” with them, they have Him “in” them.

And we’ll talk more about those concepts later.

But this morning I want us to settle in who “the Spirit of truth” is.

We are now in the middle of a study on the Holy Spirit.

I have told you from the beginning of this study
That I was moved to begin this study mainly out of a conviction
Of the lack of power in the life of the church.

I have heard too many stories of defeat.
• “Why can’t I beat this temptation?”
• “Why am I so timid in evangelism?”

And the answer in Scripture is obvious.
Defeat occurs when believers walk according to the flesh
And not according to the Spirit.

After all Paul put it very clear:
Galatians 5:16 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”
That certainly seems like an easy enough solution.
Just walk by the Spirit and the flesh won’t win.
And yet, it seems like we sure see a lot of the flesh winning today.

SO I ASKED WHY DON’T PEOPLE WALK BY THE SPIRIT?

1) They don’t know who He is (and so they don’t trust Him)
They think He’s some kind of strange force that makes you handle
snakes and speak gibberish and fall down and flop in the aisle.

2) They don’t know how
They think it’s some sort of mystical thing, or some ecstatic thing, more
like levitating or being hypnotized.

And because of that, genuine believers just leave the Holy Spirit all together and are relegated to lives of powerless failure.

And hence our study.
We want to find out who the Holy Spirit is.
We want to find out how to walk by Him.
Last time we talked about this, we saw “The Promise of the Spirit” and saw how He was to be the answer to human weakness and failure.

• Israel was being removed from their land, they had failed in their required obedience, and now Babylon was about to destroy Jerusalem.
• In that dark hour, through Jeremiah, God revealed the new covenant.
• A covenant in which He would write His laws on the heart of His children and cause them to be obedient.
• And according to Ezekiel, the agent of this change would be God’s Spirit.

Ezekiel 36:27 “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

He would be the answer to human failure and weakness.
He would be the reason God’s people
Would be able to walk in righteousness.
And Israel looked forward to the promise of His coming.

And I told you then that the Holy Spirit is not someone to dread,
But rather someone to anticipate and cling to.

Well hopefully today we can begin to flesh that out a little
And show you why you want Him.

I want to show you who He is in nature.
(We’ll get to what He does later, but for now just who He is)

Well Jesus said a mouthful there in John 14
When He called Him ALLOS PARAKLETOS.

When Jesus called Him another of the same type that really says a ton.

When we talk about the Holy Spirit we are talking about God.
He is the third person of the trinity.

And yet how many times do we hear the Holy Spirit referred to as “It”.
He is treated like some sort of cosmic force – like something off of StarWars

But He is not an “it”, He is a He.
He is God.

He is Omnipresent just like God.
Psalms 139:7-12 “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,” Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.”
He is Omniscient just like God.
1 Corinthians 2:10 “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.”

He is Omnipotent just like God.
Luke 1:35 “The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.”

• Scripture says He speaks
• Scripture says He grieves
• Scripture says He prays
• Scripture says He teaches
• Scripture says He testifies
• Scripture says He guides

Those are attributes of something that is alive.
The Holy Spirit is God.

He is not strange, He is not different.
The God you know and love in the Father
Is the same God you will know and love in the Spirit.

This is perhaps one reason we are frightened by the Holy Spirit,
Because at times He is portrayed as someone different.

I told you before He has sort of become the “fall guy”
For all sorts of erratic behavior.

People claim to do all sorts of wild things under
“the direction of the Holy Spirit”

Some things people claim are even direct violations of Scripture.
(This is especially true among false prophets)

And when we hear that we begin to assume that
Although the Holy Spirit is real, He is just a little strange.
And we would rather stick with the Father, the Son, and the Scriptures.

But friends the Holy Spirit is One with the Father and the Son.
He is God like them.

(READ JOHN 16:7-15)
When you read that, He sounds just like the God we know and love.

1) HE ABSOLUTELY HATES SIN
In fact, He will convict the world concerning sin.

2) HE DESIRES GOD’S WILL
That is why He is guiding you into the truth.
3) HE PASSIONATELY LOVES JESUS
That is why He continually seeks to glorify Him.

There is nothing strange about that.
There is nothing strange about Him.

So rest assured the Holy Spirit is not working contrary to God,
They are step in step, stride for stride.

And I tell you that again because I want you to realize that you
Can Trust Him, and you will Love Him, and should Worship Him.

But Jesus revealed even more to us
Than just that He is God, of the same substance.

Jesus specifically gave Him a descriptive title.
I suppose His name would be “the Holy Spirit”
Or “the Spirit of truth”

But in John 14 Jesus gave Him a descriptive title.
Jesus called Him the PARAKLETOS

“The Advocate” “The Comforter” “The Helper”

And this reveals to us a great deal.

If we wanted to do a study on God, the Father.
We could very easily center that study around a study of His name.

• Jehovah Jireh – “the Lord Provides
Jehovah Nissi – “the Lord is my banner”
• Jehovah Tsidkenu – “The Lord our righteousness”
• Jehovah Shalom – “the Lord is peace”
• Jehovah Shammah – “the Lord is there”
• Jehovah Rohi – “The Lord is my shepherd”
• Jehovah Rophe – “The Lord who heals”
• Jehovah Mekadesh – “the Lord who sanctifies you”

If we wanted to do a study on who Jesus is,
We could study the analogies that He used to describe Himself.

• “I am the bread of life”
• “I am the light of the world”
• “I am the doorway of the sheep”
• “I am the Good Shepherd”
• “I am the resurrection and the life”
• “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”
• “I am the true Vine”

Well, we are afforded the same tools when studying the Holy Spirit
We get both descriptive names and descriptive analogies.
I want to look at them this morning
And see if I can’t help you better understand who He is.

LET’S START WITH THE NAME.

PARAKLETOS – “The Helper”
• What does that mean that He is our helper?
• What does He help us with?

I would suppose a better question would be, what do you need help with?

Let’s start with an obvious one.
EVANGELISM

• Anyone in here ever wish they were better at sharing their faith?
• Anyone in here get discouraged that either they don’t know what to say, or are too timid to say it?
• Anyone in here wish they could have someone help them?

Well, you’re in luck.
The Holy Spirit is the Helper

In fact testifying about Jesus is one of the things He loves to do.
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,”

He is a testifier, and He will help you.
Matthew 10:19-20 “But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. “For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.”

Luke 12:12 “for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

In fact just to let you know how good at this He is.
Read through the Old Testament and find a passage where Scripture says that “The Spirit of God came upon” someone.

More times than not, do you know what that person will do next?
They prophesy.
(Speak boldly)

Was that not what Joel said would happen
When the Spirit of God was poured out?

Joel 2:28 “It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions.”

The wisdom of what to say and the boldness to say it
Comes from the Holy Spirit.

How about another area?
TEACHING

The Great Commission said that to make disciples we had to go to them, baptize them and what?

“teach them to obey all that I have commanded you…”

• I know evangelism can be intimidated, but is anyone intimidated by the concept of teaching others?

Those headed to Sanyati this summer,
Are about to spend the afternoon learning about
All the different teaching opportunities they are going to get.

• Does that intimidate you?
• Would you like help?

That is what the Holy Spirit promises.
In fact, He is a teacher.

John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

Have you ever wondered how Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were able to write the gospels?

The Holy Spirit brought it to their remembrance.
The Holy Spirit taught them what to teach.

And He has done this throughout the ages.
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.”

He is the teacher.

I tell people this all the time,
But the key to being a great teacher is to be a great learner.

WHY?
Because the Holy Spirit first teaches you, so that you can teach others.

• 1 Corinthians 2:12-13 says He will teach you “the deep things of God”
• Mark 13:11 says He will teach you “how to answer”
• Isaiah 30:12 says He will teach you “how to walk”

HE HELPS.
He helps in evangelism, He helps in teaching.
LOVE

Now, I know love is easy – WRONG
• It’s easy to love the loveable, but it’s hard to love those who aren’t.
• Love is the sacrifice of self for the good of another, and that is hard.

Anyone in here ever struggle with love?
Want some help?

Romans 5:3-5 “And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 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.”

And that isn’t soap opera love.
That is “the love of God” AGAPE love.

The Holy Spirit will help you exercise it.

In fact, “love” is one of His attributes.
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Love is what He produces.

JOY

Ever struggle with joy?

I’m not talking about happiness.
There are things in life that just shouldn’t make you happy.

There are things that don’t make God happy.
And I’m not even talking about a “mood” necessarily.
Love is not an emotion and neither is joy.

Joy is a deep seeded contentment
In who God is and in what He has done.

WANT HELP?

1 Thessalonians 1:6 “You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit,”

The Holy Spirit helped the Thessalonians
Be joyful even in the midst of tribulation.

Romans 14:17 “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit helps believers have joy.
HOPE

There is a tough one in our world.
It’s easier to nail jello to a wall than hold hope on your own.

• This world is too bad.
• There is too much suffering, there is too much pain.
• And there is definitely not a feel that it is getting better.

Hope is hard to come by.
But we need it.

• We need hope when the doctor says, “Cancer”
• We need hope when the job is lost
• We need hope when a son or daughter is shipped over seas
• We need hope in all sorts of areas

Want help with it?

The Holy Spirit is the helper.
Romans 15:13 “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Galatians 5:5 “For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.”

Are you beginning to see a little better who the Holy Spirit is?

He’s not some strange cosmic force
Who orders chaos and makes you do strange things.

He is the Helper who comes along side you
To help you in the areas where you struggle most.

• He helps you in your quest for purity
• He helps your ministry
• He helps you exercise the attributes you want to display

He is not working against you, He is there to help you become like Christ.

And just like we learn a great deal about God from the titles He is given,
We learn a great deal about the Holy Spirit through the title He is given.

But He is also given more than just a title.
Jesus was described by analogies.

So is the Holy Spirit.
Can I show you some of those?

WATER
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.”

We don’t have to carry out the analogy to its fullest, but you understand it
Water is cleansing
Water is nourishing
Water is refreshing

But perhaps the main issue Jesus spoke of here
Was that water is abundant life.

Good luck having life without water

Jesus explained the Holy Spirit as “rivers of living water”

Remember that woman at the well?
She wanted living water.

That is what the Holy Spirit is, never ending, all satisfying,
Fully abundant life.

That doesn’t sound like someone to avoid.

He’s also described as:
FIRE

Acts 2:3 “And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.”

Why fire?

Fire is purifying.
Isaiah 4:4 “When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning,”

That may not at first sound pleasant, but think it through.
• Do we not mourn over the sin in our lives?
• Do we not hate it when we fail?
• Do we not grieve like Paul in Romans 7; “wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death”?

It is the Holy Spirit that works that purifying work in our lives.
He helps to make us clean.
He helps to remove the dross.

That is a good thing.
WIND

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.”

Acts 2:2 “And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.”

The idea there is that of being powerful and independent.

You saw first hand this week what wind can do.
Now that was destructive in nature.

Go to work with Romeo to the wind farm some day
And see how efficient the power of wind can be.

That is the Holy Spirit, He is powerful accomplishing great things.

He is described as:
OIL

You may remember the parable of the 10 virgins.
10 had lamps, but only 5 had what? Oil.

Matthew 25:2-4 “Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. “For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps.”

5 had religion, 5 had the Holy Spirit.
5 had the show, 5 had the substance.

And throughout scripture oil is unique.
• It is called “the oil of gladness”
• It is comforting and refreshing as a healing agent.

When the good Samaritan stopped to help the man in the ditch,
the good Samaritan poured oil and wine on his wounds.

• Oil was an illuminating agent like the parable of the virgins.
• Oil was also used to anoint and consecrate.

Isaiah 61:1 “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners;”

It was far more than just oil that made a king a king,
It was the anointing of God.

When Saul fell out of favor it was then that the Holy Spirit departed and an evil spirit came to torment him.

That is why after David sinned with Bathsheba he prayed:
Psalms 51:11 “Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”

Through the Holy Spirit we have that anointing
And consecration from God.
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.”

The Holy Spirit is like the oil of gladness setting you apart for ministry.
He is your anointing from God.

He is also pictured as:
A DOVE

Matthew 3:16 “After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him,”
A dove was gentle
A dove was innocent

Didn’t Jesus tell us to be “shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves”?

That is the Holy Spirit.
He isn’t violent or rude

One of the things we love about Jesus is His meekness.
Matthew 12:18-21 “BEHOLD, MY SERVANT WHOM IHAVE CHOSEN; MY BELOVED IN WHOM MY SOUL is WELL-PLEASED; I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT UPON HIM, AND HE SHALL PROCLAIM JUSTICE TO THE GENTILES. “HE WILL NOT QUARREL, NOR CRY OUT; NOR WILL ANYONE HEAR HIS VOICE IN THE STREETS. “A BATTERED REED HE WILL NOT BREAK OFF, AND A SMOLDERING WICK HE WILL NOT PUT OUT, UNTIL HE LEADS JUSTICE TO VICTORY. “AND IN HIS NAME THE GENTILES WILL HOPE.”

Jesus wasn’t a bully, or a squawker or an intimidator
And neither is the Holy Spirit.

People have this fear of Him that if you get too close,
He’ll seize control of your body
And force you into all sorts of mindless activity.

No, He is gentle, like a dove.
Jesus never forced His will on anyone, and neither does the Holy Spirit.

He is a helper, but He won’t hold you hostage.

One more:
SEAL

Ephesians 1:13-14 “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation — having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”

Ephesians 4:30 “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

He is a protector and a guarantee.
• He is what lets your heart know that heaven is for real and causes you to long for it.
• He is where assurance comes from.
• He is the One who testifies that you are in fact a child of God.

He is not an accuser, He is an advocate.

Satan is the accuser, He is the one attacks you and belittles you
And seeks to humiliate you.

And his false spirits working in his false messengers will do the same.

But that is not the Holy Spirit.

He is here to Help you.
With evangelism, with teaching, with love, with joy, with hope

He is here as WATER to refresh you, FIRE to purify you, WIND to empower you, OIL to anoint you, a DOVE to gently guide you, and a SEAL to protect you.

That’s who Scripture says He is.

You don’t have to fear Him.
You certainly should never avoid Him.

He is the answer for an absent Jesus.

Jesus said He was leaving, but not to let your heart be troubled, “I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper”

Don’t let some TV preacher scare you away from the Holy Spirit.
Listen to who Scripture says He is.

He is to be SOUGHT, He is to be LOVED, He is to be TRUSTED,
He is to be WORSHIPED, He is to be FOLLOWED.

Galatians 5:25 “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”

The Promise of the Holy Spirit
Acts 2:37-39
May 12, 2013

For those who may not have been here last week,
We are sailing on uncharted waters for me here.

I ordinarily am a verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book kind of guy.
I put great value in expository preaching
And for the most part shy away from topical studies.

However, for the last several months,
As we were finishing the gospel of Matthew
I have had a prompting within me to study the Holy Spirit.

The main motivation for this study is in response to Christian weakness.
I have looked at my life, and I have certainly listened
As many have shared their struggles with me.

And it appears to me that far too many of us struggle far too often.

When I hear statements like, “I hate what I’m doing, why can’t I stop?”
Or, “I thought all of this was behind us.”
Or, “I don’t know why I am so timid to share Jesus”

Statements like that come from sincere hearts.
• They come from hearts that love Jesus.
• They come from hearts that desire righteousness.
• They come from hearts that pursue obedience.

And yet they come from hearts that are at the same time discouraged
Because they don’t feel as though they ever truly achieve their goal.

Issues like that sort of force a pastor to dig deeper.
And the overwhelming reality that hit me is that
This solution is really not that complicated.

All of those issues are a result of walking in the flesh.
All of those issues are a result of not walking by the Spirit.

So I began to ask myself, “Why do Christians not walk by the Spirit?”
And there are really two main reasons.

1) They don’t know Him
2) They don’t know how

Our world has so misrepresented the Holy Spirit,
And characterized Him as some sort of wild emotion responsible for abnormal behavior that by in large “normal” people are terrified of Him.

They don’t want the Holy Spirit to direct their lives
Because they don’t want the circus that they think comes with Him.

And such a reality only proves that Satan has done a better job distorting who the Holy Spirit is than the church has done revealing who He is.

So the aim of this study is to first of all reveal who the Holy Spirit is.

But the second problem (don’t know how to walk by the Spirit)
Is also an issue.

There are many who don’t fear the Holy Spirit working in their life, but when they read statements like:
• “be filled with the Spirit”
• “walk by the Spirit”
• “pray in the Spirit”

They don’t know how.

Some think it is all mystical and ecstatic.
To be filled, or to walk, or to pray in the Spirit must be
Some sort of out of body experience where wild and tingly things occur.

And so some who seek to be led by God’s Spirit
Actually go about it in the wrong way.

I received a book one time as to how to speak in tongues.
(Not what I would call genuine speaking in tongues, but how to develop what is commonly called “A private prayer language”)

After doing a rather inadequate job of seeking to prove the relevance of a prayer language, this writer actually began to try and explain how to do it.

It included practices like loosening up your mouth, and audibly speaking any syllables that come to mind, no matter how bizarre it may sound.

And people actually equate this with the Holy Spirit.

And so some people when they do seek to walk by the Spirit
Go looking for Him in the most mystical of places.

• That is not at all what walking by the Spirit is.
• That is not at all what being filled with the Spirit is.
• That is not at all what praying in the Spirit is.

And so I find it necessary that we examine what those things really are.

The end result being that we all fall in love with the Holy Spirit
And learn to trust Him, follow Him and allow Him to work in us.
And so that is what we are currently studying here on Sunday mornings.

Last week I gave you our theme verse of the study.
Galatians 5:25 “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”

And I won’t go back through that intro again,
Except to point out the obvious here,
And that is that you can trust the Holy Spirit to guide your life.

If He is the One who GIVES life,
Then certainly He can be trusted to GUIDE life.

He is trustworthy and we need Him.

And this morning I want to really begin our study of Him
And begin to reveal namely why He is so necessary.

I want to show you the difference that He makes in life.

And to do that let’s start in the book of Acts on the day of Pentecost.

I want to show you “The Promise of the Holy Spirit”

We don’t have time to work our way through the entire chapter,
But you are familiar with what is occurring.

Jesus had told His disciples:
Luke 24:49 “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

The disciples weren’t supposed to do anything
Until they received the Holy Spirit.

Well, on Pentecost He came.
The walls were shaken, tongues as of fire rested on them,
And they all began to speak in other languages.

And it really was quite a scene.
Acts 2:12-13 “And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others were mocking and saying, “They are full of sweet wine.”

And it was at this point that Peter took his stand to preach his sermon.

(READ ACTS 2:14-21)

So Peter says this is not drunkenness,
This is actually the fulfillment of a long awaited promise.

This is the fulfillment of the promise God made through Joel.
(Quoting Joel 2:28-32)
(17-18) “’AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,’ God says, ‘THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS; EVEN ON MY BONDSLAVES, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN, I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT And they shall prophesy.”

So let’s examine this a little
And see if we can’t understand what Joel was seeing.

Joel clearly saw a fabulous event occurring in “the last days”
“the last days” began when Christ died.

This time was a bit of a blur to the Old Testament prophets.
They looked at the time of Christ similar to how
You look at a mountain range from afar.

From a distance the mountains look real close together,
In reality they are miles apart.

The prophets could see the first coming of Christ,
And they could see the second coming of Christ,
But sometimes they had difficulty seeing the valley of time in between.

That is why “the last days” is taking so long.

And Joel noted that in these last days an amazing thing would occur.

God would “pour fourth of My Spirit”
It was the promise that God would send His Holy Spirit to earth.

Some distinctions:
• “on all mankind” – Jew and Gentile alike
• “sons and daughters” – no gender discrimination
• “young men…old men” – no age distinction
• “bondslaves” – no status distinction

God would send His Spirit without prejudice or discrimination.

Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

And of course we notice the activity that all of these would be involved in.
• “prophesy”
• “see visions”
• “dream dreams”

Now this is where some people get off course here with the Holy Spirit
And start instantly trying to turn Him into something mystical and ecstatic
They think that the Holy Spirit is all visions and dreams
And special appearances and new revelation.
No.

Please understand who made this prophecy and how he understood it.
Joel was an Old Testament prophet.

And the unique thing about a prophet in the Old Testament
Is not that they spoke boldly,
But rather that they had something to speak.

What made a prophet unique is that they had privileged information
From God to give to the people.

The emphasis here was no on everyone preaching,
But on everyone understanding.

Even after the people this day got saved, Acts 2:42 doesn’t find them preaching but “continually devoting themselves to the apostle’s teaching”

And in the Old Testament that information
Routinely came through dream or vision.

Numbers 12:6 “He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream.”

What Joel was saying was not that all would preach,
But rather that all would understand.

When I pour out My Spirit indiscriminately,
All those who receive Him will have full understanding.
They will all know.

Jeremiah 31:34 “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Joel foresaw a day when God would truly make Himself known.

From there Joel went into the events leading up to the return of the King.
Joel put the two events together, because as I told you,
They had trouble distinguishing how far apart they were from a distance.

(19-20) “’AND I WILL GRANT WONDERS IN THE SKY ABOVE AND SIGNS ON THE EARTH BELOW, BLOOD, AND FIRE, AND VAPOR OF SMOKE. ‘THE SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME.”
So Joel saw both the beginning and the end of this time period.

And one truth aspect of this time period is this:
(21) “’AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.’”

So the people think we have some drunks on our hands and Peter says,
“No, God’s promise through Joel is being fulfilled before your very eyes.”

Now if you skip down in Peter’s sermon you will find Peter
Proving that Jesus is the Messiah and that they killed Him.

This reality startles the people in Jerusalem.
(37) “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?”

They are afraid of the judgment of God and don’t know what to do.

And I want you to see Peter’s answer.
(38-39) “Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

• They need to turn from sin…
• They need to trust in Christ…
And not only will they be forgiven, but…

“you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

And notice Peter’s statement.
“For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

Now did you catch what Peter just did?
He paraphrased what Joel had said.

There is a promise of God’s Spirit and it is an indiscriminate promise
For all who repent and trust Christ.

In other words Peter was saying:
THIS IS THE DAY YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR!
Now, let me show you why they have been waiting for such a day.

TURN TO: JEREMIAH 31:31-34
Now you have to know that this passage was written
In one of the darkest days ever of Jewish history.

Nebuchadnezzar was presently tearing down the wall of Jerusalem.
He would soon accomplish his goal, kill many, take the rest into exile
And burn Jerusalem to the ground.

It was the absolutely epitome of failure on the part of the Jews.

Moses had led them out of Egypt
With the promise of land flowing with milk and honey.

And God was very specific as to how they could keep that land.
We don’t have time to study it all, but sometime read Deuteronomy 28.

Deuteronomy 28:1-2 “Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. “All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God:”

Deuteronomy 28:15 “But it shall come about, if you do not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:”

And really the main blessing was fruitfulness in the land.
The main curse was eviction from the land.

Well, here Jeremiah sat, knowing that Israel
Was about to receive the ultimate curse.

They were about to be removed from the land God had given them.
It reeked of failure.

But in this darkest hour of human failure, God interjects a promise

(READ 31-34)
Here God introduces His new covenant (also read it in Hebrews 8)

This new covenant answers all the weaknesses of the old covenant.

The Old Covenant failed because it depended on HUMAN EFFORT.
The children of Israel had to obey to make it work.

They didn’t obey, so it didn’t work.
But this one:
(31-32) “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.”

Furthermore the Old Covenant didn’t work
Because it FOCUSED ON THE OUTSIDE, not the inside.

The New Covenant will work from the inside out, not the outside in.
(33) “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

And because the Old Covenant depended on human effort to change the heart, it NEVER SUCCEEDED.

The children of Israel never got to know God,
And they never found true forgiveness.

But the New Covenant would be successful.
(34) “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

So Jeremiah introduces a new covenant that will cause
Israel to succeed whereas the old covenant let them fail.

It was a promise of something better to come.
• A day of true worship
• A day of true intimacy with God
• A day of true forgiveness

Now, one thing Jeremiah doesn’t tell us, is the agent of this covenant.
Jeremiah doesn’t tell us, but Ezekiel does.

TURN TO: EZEKIEL 36:24-28

Now you notice that Ezekiel has much the same thing to say as Jeremiah,
The only difference is Ezekiel reveals WHY their hearts would be obedient.

(27) “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

So this new covenant with all these tremendous promises
All hinged upon the Holy Spirit coming to dwell within them.

This concept is illustrated in the very next chapter.
TURN TO: EZEKIEL 37:1-14

God’s Spirit would make people come to life
And achieve what they had lost due to their own human weakness.

In other words – THE SPIRIT WAS THE PROMISE
They waited for the Spirit
They anticipated the Spirit

Isaiah 32:15-20 “Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high, And the wilderness becomes a fertile field, And the fertile field is considered as a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness And righteousness will abide in the fertile field. And the work of righteousness will be peace, And the service of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever. Then my people will live in a peaceful habitation, And in secure dwellings and in undisturbed resting places; And it will hail when the forest comes down, And the city will be utterly laid low. How blessed will you be, you who sow beside all waters, Who let out freely the ox and the donkey.”

Isaiah 44:1-5 “But now listen, O Jacob, My servant, And Israel, whom I have chosen: Thus says the LORD who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you, ‘Do not fear, O Jacob My servant; And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen. ‘For I will pour out water on the thirsty land And streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring And My blessing on your descendants; And they will spring up among the grass Like poplars by streams of water.’ “This one will say, ‘I am the LORD’S’; And that one will call on the name of Jacob; And another will write on his hand, ‘Belonging to the LORD,’ And will name Israel’s name with honor.”

And of course that passage that Peter quoted in the book of Joel.

I tell you all this
Because I want you to understand the mindset of Israel.

When it gets close to Christmas we anticipation.
• We read those passages about “A child” being born to us.
• We read about the King coming to Zion on the colt of a donkey.
• We read about the Messiah coming to reign on David’s throne.

We make a big deal about Christmas.
WHY?

Because it marked the fulfillment of the promise
That God would send a deliverer to save us from our sin.

But Israel anticipated the Spirit as much as they anticipated the Messiah.
They anticipated Him, they longed for Him, they wanted Him.

He would be the answer to their weakness.

And even when Jesus came, He reiterated that promise.
John 16:7 “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.”

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Something more beneficial than having Jesus around?
Something better than having God in the flesh?

WHAT IS BETTER THAN HAVING GOD IN THE FLESH?
According to Jesus:
HAVING GOD IN YOU
Look forward to this, this is a good thing!
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.”

John 14:16-18 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”

John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

John 15:26-27 “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, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”

Now why do I tell you all of this?

BECAUSE I WANT YOU TO UNDERSTAND THAT
THE COMING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A BIG THING!
AND BY IN LARGE THE CHURCH HAS OVERLOOKED IT.

• We spend at least a month celebrating Christmas.
• We have gobs of songs we sing rejoicing in the coming Messiah.
• We decorate with nativity scenes.
• We ponder the mystery of the incarnation.

And if I ask you when is Christmas, what will you say?
December 25th.

You know it, you anticipate it,
We call it “The most wonderful time of the year.”
We celebrate the coming of the Messiah.

And yet, this year the church
Will almost completely overlook the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Does anyone even know when Pentecost is?
(It is always 7 weeks after Easter – this year it is May 19, next Sunday)

My point is that we have failed to see how big this is.
We have failed to see that God fulfilled an enormous promise.

God sent His Spirit to dwell in us, to be the answer to our weakness.
• God sent Him to change our hearts from the inside out.
• God sent Him to empower us for ministry.
• God sent Him to guide and direct us.
And yet His coming is hardly ever celebrated, hardly ever anticipated,
And widely overlooked.

WHY?
There again because we don’t realize how badly we need Him.

Today when we talk to people about being saved we are always looking for an angle by which to coerce them to accept Christ.

Do you know what angle the apostles used?
If you trust Christ, you’ll get the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:37-39 “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?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

Consider Paul talking to those misguided Ephesians:
Acts 19:1-5 “It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

And this is the glorious reality for believers.
Colossians 1:26-27 “that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

• At Sinai we saw God to us.
• At Bethlehem we saw God with us.
• At Pentecost we saw God in us.

Friend, don’t look at the Holy Spirit as someone to be dreaded.
Don’t look at the Holy Spirit as someone to be avoided.
Don’t look at the Holy Spirit as someone you can’t trust.

The saints of old anticipated the coming of the Holy Spirit
As much as they anticipated the coming of the Messiah.
They knew they needed Him.

On their own they were too weak.
On their own they were kicked out of the Promised Land.

But one day, when the Holy Spirit came, they would never fail again!
He is the answer to human weakness and timidity and fear.
Don’t ignore Him, seek Him – He is what we want!

And this morning I don’t mind telling you that you can have Him.

Let me read it again:
Acts 2:37-39 “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?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

• This promise is for you.
• This promise is for your children.
• This promise if for people who are far off.
• This promise is for everyone the Lord calls to Himself.

If you will repent of your sin…
If you will trust in Christ…
(what Peter meant by baptism)

And Peter says if you will do that, you can have the promise today.
No more waiting
No more anticipating
Instead you can receive Him

It’s that simple.
See, it’s not mystical.
• You don’t have to be in some special service speaking gibberish, with people falling down or slapping you in the forehead.

• You don’t have to fall into a trance or have an out of body experience.

God has promised the Holy Spirit and Peter says God will give Him to you, if you will repent of your sin and trust in Christ.

And that is a good thing.

The Holy Spirit was never someone to dread,
He has always been someone to anticipate!

He is the promise of God!
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.”

Getting To Know The Holy Spirit
Galatians 5:16-25
May 5, 2013

I’m just going to tell you from the outset here
That we are about to enter uncharted waters.
I think it is fairly obvious by now that I am a “book study” kind of guy.

I put tremendous value in context and exhaustive themes and systematic study.

But we’re going to take a break from that on Sunday mornings for a while
Because I have had it impressed upon my spirit
That we need to go another direction for a while.

I have become convinced that it is time we begin to study the Holy Spirit.
And let me tell you why.

The Christian church (and our church)
Cannot fulfill our destiny in any way apart from the Holy Spirit.

• We cannot fulfill our mission of evangelism
• We cannot fulfill our calling to Christ-likeness
• We cannot even obtain our eternal destiny of heaven

There is no way around the fact that
In order to be or do or accomplish or receive anything God intends for us,
We must have the Holy Spirit.

And as I look at your life and my life it reminds me daily that we need Him.
• I’ve had far too many conversations with believers stumbling in sin…
• I’ve had far too many conversations with believers living in fear…
• I’ve had far too many conversations with believers too timid to share their
faith…

Conversations with Christians who want to know why
They don’t experience more victory in their Christian life.

Victory over temptation…
Victory over fear…
Victory over weakness…

And as I have spoken with many, the answer has become clear to me.
We need to better understand the Holy Spirit.

And so that is what we are about to do.

And from the very beginning I want you to understand
Some very important facts.
(and we will elaborate on these as we work through all this)

1) THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GOD

What this means is that you can relate and respond to Him
Just as you do the other persons of the trinity.

It is astounding today the number of people who are literally terrified to let the Holy Spirit do anything in their life.

They love God, they love Jesus…
The trust God, they trust Jesus…
But they are terrified of the Holy Spirit.

I just want to remind you that the Holy Spirit is God too.
He is the third person of the trinity.

• God’s mercy is His mercy
• God’s love is His love
• God’s truth is His truth
• God’s will is His will
• God’s plan for your life is His plan for your life

All of those promises that we love about God:
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

Romans 8:28 “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.”

Those are the same promises that the Holy Spirit makes to you as well. He is not out to ruin your life or your family or your church.
He has great plans for you, and you can trust Him.

Often times today the Holy Spirit is painted as sort of
The “black sheep” of the trinity.

People see Him as the real “loose cannon” of the three.
He is perceived as unpredictable, wild, and overly hyper.

Whereas you can trust God’s will and you can trust Jesus’ will,
You had better not open yourself up to the leading of the Holy Spirit,
Because God only knows what He might do.

That is a perverted view of the Holy Spirit.
He is God, He is part of the trinity, you do not have to fear Him.

Embrace Him as you embrace the Father.
Embrace Him as you embrace the Son.

I also want you to know out the outset
2) THE HOLY SPIRIT IS WILDLY MISREPRESENTED
There are all sorts of misrepresentations about the Holy Spirit.
He gets credit for all sorts of things today
That frankly He had nothing to do with.

It has become normal today to sort of let the Holy Spirit
Be the fall guy for any and every action.

And sadly He has even become the excuse many give for why the defiantly disobey Scripture.

I’ve heard people say, “The Holy Spirit told me to…”
And it was something clearly unbiblical like “leave my wife”

And these radical claims have led many
To literally have a fear of the Holy Spirit.

• On one TV channel we see people flopping in the aisle while the
preacher says they have been “baptized in the Spirit”.

• On another TV channel we have people speaking gibberish while the
preacher says they are “praying in the Spirit”.

• On another TV channel we have people falling down as if dead while
the preacher says they are “slain in the Spirit”.

And then we come back to our church on Sunday morning
Where these types of things do not occur.

Those TV preachers would say, “Those things don’t occur because you don’t have the Holy Spirit.”

And the response of 98% of the people in our church would be,
“If that’s the Holy Spirit, then we don’t want Him.”

And sadly that is where the church often finds itself today.
They have seen some sort of perversion of the Holy Spirit
And then decided they had better stay away from Him.

THE FALLOUT is powerless lives that find
• No strength to witness,
• No victory over temptation,
• No guidance in decisions,
• No true fulfillment in life.

I want you to know that you do not have to fear the Holy Spirit,
Because much of what you have been told was the Holy Spirit
Was not Him at all.

Let me give you a couple of passages here to help you understand this.
TURN TO: 2 Corinthians 11:1-6

The Corinthians had a problem with mystical infatuation.
1 Corinthians 12:1-3 “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led. 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.”

And that infatuation caused them to be involved in all sorts of wild behavior,
Which we will talk about later.

Mostly I just want you to see that they were allured by this sort of stuff.
They actually listened to “mute idols”
They were mystical
And that is Paul’s problem with them here.

We read this passage a couple of Sunday nights ago,
But actually have here Paul trying to
Preserve the purity of the Corinthian church.

He pictures himself as the one trying to safely transport the bride to the groom.
The problem is that the bride has a wondering eye.
She is easily seduced.

And noticed what she falls for.
“another Jesus” and “a different spirit”

The point being, that there are counterfeit Jesus’s and counterfeit spirits.

Just because a person has a “leading” or just because a person feels something
Does not naturally indicate the leadership or the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Let me show you another one:
TURN TO: 1 John 4:1-6
• Here John is dealing with real Christianity versus fake Christianity.
• He actually opens the letter calling for true fellowship through repentance of sin and faith in Christ.

And here you see his reasoning.
Not every spirit is actually the Holy Spirit.

There are false ones.
And these false ones even lead the false prophets.
John here tells you how to tell the difference.

You examine their theology on Jesus. (verses 2-3)
Do they preach Him to be the Son of God in human form?
If not, that is a lying spirit inside a false prophet.
Next you examine their spiritual life. (verse 4)
Do they possess the life of God or are they still in death?

Then you examine what they preach. (verses 5-6)
Is their preaching filled with worldly reasoning, or is it Scriptural truth?

DO YOU SEE MY POINT?
The Holy Spirit gets credited with a lot of behavior, and leadings, and direction today that is simply not Him.

• Just as God is misconstrued by false gods
• Just as Jesus is misconstrued by false saviors
• So also the Holy Spirit is misconstrued by false spirits

I want you to understand this at the very beginning
Because I want you to open your heart and your mind
To searching the Scriptures to find out who this Holy Spirit is.

And I think when you do, you are going to love Him and desire Him and trust Him every bit as much as you do the Father and the Son.

To that end let me point you to a very important scripture.

John 16:7 “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.”

We’ll spend more time in John 14-16 in the coming weeks, but notice that verse.

Do you see that the Holy Spirit is necessary?
Do you see that the Holy Spirit is good?
Jesus actually said it is better for us
To have the Holy Spirit than Him on the earth.

We need Him, and we need to push through all the garbage published about Him so that we can gain a biblical understanding of who He is.

Now, that being said, I want to give you the THEME verse of our study.
This is where I want us to look this morning, and we will go on from here.

TURN TO: Galatians 5:16-25

That last statement (verse 25) is really the heart and soul
Of what I want you to understand as we study the Holy Spirit.

• I want you to understand who the Holy Spirit is.
• I want you to understand that we live by Him.
• And I want you to understand the need to walk according to His will.

That is really the aim and objective of our study.
We don’t want to walk by the flesh, we want to walk by the Spirit.

Romans 8:12-14 “So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”

By the time we are done with this study it is my prayer
That we all have a better understanding of who the Holy Spirit is,
That we all love and trust Him and are committed to walking according to His leading.

That is really the aim.

So let me just start with this verse as an overview of things to come,
And in the coming weeks we’ll get more detailed about this whole thing.

So here we are in Galatians 5.

It is important that in all the passages we study
That you have a proper view of context
(this makes topical preaching less dangerous).

And the background to the book of Galatians is legalism.
If you wanted to really sort of break it down deeper we would say that
The struggle of the book of Galatians is the battle of
Whether they would walk by the flesh or walk by the Spirit.

That is really the dilemma of the book.

As Paul and Barnabas branched out on the first missionary journey
They found themselves in the regions of Galatia
Preaching the gospel and planting churches.

But it wasn’t long before a Satanic attack broke out.
Acts 15:1 “Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

From our study of Acts many of you will remember that this debate actually motivated “The Jerusalem Council” to meet and debate the issue.

The result of course was that Gentiles did not need to be circumcised.

• To be circumcised was to seek to enter the Old Covenant.
• To be circumcised was to seek to be saved according to the Law.
• To be circumcised was to seek to be saved according to works of the flesh.

And that is precisely what the Judaizers were teaching.
They came in and told these Gentiles that it is all fine and well that they have accepted Jesus, but if they want to be saved, they must first be circumcised.
They were literally telling these Galatians
That pleasing God was a work of the flesh.

Now I don’t have to tell you that this totally infuriated Paul.
You don’t have to read the book of Galatians but once to pick up on Paul’s rage.

• Twice he calls them accursed…
• He calls for them to be cast out…
• And he calls for them to take their circumcision to the max and totally emasculate themselves…

He is angry.

What they were offering as a means of salvation was not salvation at all.
It was works, it was legalism,
And “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified before God.”

So Paul is writing to save the Galatians from a destructive heresy.

Paul’s goal is to get them to determine not to walk according to the flesh (even in religious areas) and to walk by the Spirit.

And the first 4 ½ chapters is really dedicated to debunking this theory about the necessity of human works as a means of pleasing God.

Where I want us to pick up is in chapter 5, verse 16.
(5:16) “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

The question always remains as to how a human being achieves holiness.
• How does sinful man become righteous?
• How does sinful man begin to practice righteousness?

Well the answer to how we become righteous is through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

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 the answer as to how we begin to practice righteousness is that we walk according to God’s Spirit.

Many have fallen into the deadly trap
That the Galatians were about to fall into.

And that is the danger of believing that
While salvation is purchased by Christ,
It is both secured and perfected by the believer.

That is a form of what I would call POST-LEGALISM.

The Pharisees were full-blown legalists in the sense that they believed you had to work your way into salvation. You had to do it all.

Post-legalism (and I invented that term) would be someone who starts working after they believe in Christ as a means of keeping their salvation.

They came to Christ in faith, and now they try to keep
And perfect their salvation by their own efforts.

Essentially it is a person who discards the cross after a one-time use.

Sound strange?
That is what the Galatians were doing.

Galatians 3:1-3 “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 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? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

In other words, they used Jesus to get saved
And then decided to take over from there.

They in effect said, “Thank you Jesus, I’ll take it from here.”

Paul was so disturbed by this that he wondered
If a person with such a mindset was ever really saved at all.

Galatians 4:9-11 “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.”

Paul’s fear was that maybe their salvation wasn’t actually genuine,
Because they so quickly ran back to human works to find righteousness.

And that is really the age old question.
HOW DOES A SAVED PERSON BEGIN TO PRACTICE RIGHTEOUSNESS?

And that is what Paul answers in verse 16.
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

So how do you keep from carrying out the desire of the flesh?
“walk by the Spirit”

Now we all know what Paul means by “desire of the flesh”
We all have them don’t we?

• For some it is gossip…
• For some it is alcohol…
• For some it is lust…
• For some it is anger…
• For some it is selfishness…
(Have I hit you yet?)
• For some it is laziness…
• For some it is gluttony…
• For some it is meanness…

You know what I mean.
We are people who have a flesh that desires things we hate.

The age old question is how do I keep from doing those things that I hate?

Paul said it like this:
Romans 7:24 “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”
That is the issue here.

And the answer of how to be set free from the body of this death is,
“walk by the Spirit”

“walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

That is Biblical fact.
If you walk according to the leadership of the Holy Spirit,
At the end of the day, when you take inventory,
You will find that you did not do the desires of the flesh.

Now, let me tell you how people commonly mess this statement up.
(And I’ve seen this mentality in religion my whole life)

People would read it like this:
“don’t walk by the flesh, and you will carry out the desire of the Spirit”

And that is been how churches have operated.

They tell people, “Don’t gossip – don’t cuss – don’t drink – don’t lose your temper – don’t look at pornography – don’t be selfish – don’t be lazy – don’t over eat – don’t be mean…”

And the assumption is that if you can tie yourself up with a whole lot of “Thou shalt not’s…” then you have found the key to holiness.

If just don’t do anything wrong, then at the end of the day,
I will determine that I finally achieved perfection.

HOW DOES THAT WORK FOR YOU?
-it doesn’t.
In fact, I’ve found that the more I focus on not sinning,
The more temptation I have to endure.
Because that is not the command.

The command IS NOT, “don’t walk by the flesh, and you will carry out the desire of the Spirit.”

The command IS “walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

We need someone to help us fight the flesh.
And we have someone.

(17) “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.”

There is a war inside of you.
The flesh is on one side, and the Spirit is on the other side.
They fight

You must determine which one you are going to listen to.
You will either listen to the Spirit, which is victory / righteousness
Or you will listen to the flesh, which is defeat / immorality

That again emphasizes why we need the Holy Spirit.
Without Him, you’ve got nothing in your battle against the flesh.

So in the battle, quit fighting the flesh (that is the Spirit’s job)
And you start submitting to the Spirit.

Because (18) “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.”

When you received the Spirit of God, you no longer were under a
Law / performance – based salvation.

So why would you want to jump back under it now?
No, instead walk by the Spirit.

HOW DO I KNOW IF I AM WALKING BY THE SPIRIT OR THE FLESH?

Look at your life.
(19-24) “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Which list best describes you?
• Sexual immorality or Love and peace?
• Jealousy or joy and patience?
• Outbursts of anger or kindness and goodness?
• Drunkenness or self-control?

You can tell me right now if you have been
Walking according to the flesh or according to the Spirit.

And the implication here is that we look at our lives
And see areas of defeat and determine that
We don’t want to be defeated anymore.

SO HOW DO I QUIT CARRYING OUT THE DESIRE OF THE FLESH?
(16) “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

See this whole thing is a plea to get you to start walking by the Spirit.
This whole section is a request for you to quit walking by the flesh.

And that gets us to our theme verse.

(25) “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”

Now let’s focus on that for a moment.

“If we live by the Spirit”
And we do.

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.”

Galatians 6:8 “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

Titus 3:5 “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,”

It is the Holy Spirit who gives life.
When you believed in Christ, you were baptized with the Holy Spirit.
He entered your life, and He gave you new life.

Sometimes called “eternal life” or “abundant life” or “newness of life”,
But it is life none the less.

Those without Christ and the Holy Spirit are spiritually dead.
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.”

Without the Holy Spirit a person is spiritually dead.

And consequently there is no real war internally
Because they don’t have anything that fights the flesh.

They may be a little deterred by consequences, but that is it.

AND WE WERE DEAD, BUT GOD SENT US LIFE.
Titus 3:3-7 “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 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.”

Obviously that life came from the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.
That day you became alive to the things of God,
Was because the Holy Spirit moved in.
He made you alive.

And that is not new to you, you realize that.
And so did the Galatians.

The problem was that the Galatians took the new life of the Spirit
And then tried to go the rest of the way by the flesh.

And so many do that today.

Maybe we are afraid of what the Holy Spirit might do if we yield to Him…
Who knows?

But for whatever reason, people in church (Baptists are as bad as any)
Try to accept the life of the Holy Spirit,
And then put Him on the shelf and try to finish the race on their own.

That is why we are so big into 12 step processes, programs and events.
We got saved, but we’ve got it from here.
And then one day we look up and realize that our life,
And our ministry, and our religion in general
Is so full of failure and weakness and we don’t know what to do.

We love God, we love Christ, we love the Bible,
And we want to be righteous.
In fact we hate it when we aren’t righteous.

But it doesn’t change the fact that my life is more characterized by those deeds of the flesh than by those fruit of the Spirit.
And we don’t know what the problem is.

• Why can’t I resist the temptation?
• Why do I keep failing in my attempts?
• Why is there no power in my ministry?
• Why am I so timid when it comes to time to share the gospel?

We hate it, but we acknowledge it none the less.

And that is where Paul comes in with this profound request.

“If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”

If the Holy Spirit is gracious and powerful enough to give you life,
Don’t you think it wise that you listen to Him in how to live that life?

If He gives you life, can’t you trust Him to guide your life?

We give that much lead way to doctors.
Some doctor comes in and “saves your life”.
I promise you will be prone to follow his directions from there on out.

So why not the Holy Spirit?
He doesn’t save your life, He gives you life.
Why can’t you let Him guide it?

The very reason you are walking in defeat in failure
Is because you have not let Him do it.

Now I know the fears, I really do.
“Preacher, I’ve seen those ‘Spirit-filled’ people who are being ‘led by the Spirit’. I’ve heard about those churches. If we start being Spirit led we’ll be handling snakes, and drinking poison, and speaking Japanese, and dancing, and rolling down the aisles.”

See, we don’t think we can trust the Spirit
Because we have believed that it was the Holy Spirit
Who was doing all those things.

But that wasn’t the Holy Spirit.

Those were perversions and Satan has used them to convince you to ignore the Holy Spirit so that he can keep you ensnared in sin.

• Paul’s plea is that we quit buying the lie that our righteousness is a matter of our own human efforts.

• Paul’s plea is that we quit buying the lie that the Holy Spirit will only humiliate and embarrass you with wild behavior.

• Paul’s plea is that we come to realize that we can trust the One who gave us life to actually guide the life He has given us.

Now I know we are about out of time,
And we are going to need a lot more time to finish all of this.

But some will want to know:
If walking by the Spirit is the key to Christian victory, then why don’t more people do it?

And there are really two answers:
1) They don’t know Him
2) They don’t know how

Well that is what this study is for.
To introduce you to the Holy Spirit
And to teach you how to walk according to His guidance.

 

I want to encourage you to stay plugged in during this study,
I am supremely confident that the Holy Spirit
Will delight your soul in a way you may have never imagined.

Galatians 5:25 “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”