00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
John, Gospel of John, chapter 14. I shall say that if we leave right now, the Lord spoke to my heart through our Sunday school lesson in such a powerful way. that I have already met with the Lord. John chapter 14, let's begin reading back in verse 15, and we'll do what we did last week. We'll read some in three chapters. Verse 15 of the Gospel of John chapter 14, Jesus said, If you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper or comforter that he may abide with you forever. the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you." Isn't that interesting? He says, I'm going away and I'm going to send the comforter or the helper. Then he goes right down and says, I'm not going to leave you as an orphan. I will come to you. How's he going to come? in the person of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Christ. Go down a few verses. Verse 25. We'll read what we read last week. And these things I have spoken unto you while being present 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 things that I said to you. Chapter 15, verse 26. But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify of me." And then chapter 16, verse 5, "'But now I go away to him who sent me, and none of you ask me, Where are you going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, 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 depart, I will send him to you. And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin, because they do not believe in me. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father and you see me no more. of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine, therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you." We'll stop our reading there, and we'll return to those verses throughout the course of the message this morning. I don't know, those verses, part of those, not all of them, but part of those are the verses that I read last week. And I don't know whether you noticed or whether you thought about it, but every one of those statements that we just got done reading were made by the Lord Jesus. They were made to His disciples. And even more importantly, they were made within the last few days of His life. One of my favorite portions of Scripture is from John chapter 12 over to the Crucifixion, and if you've got a red-letter edition of the Bible, you probably notice that those chapters are full of red. The reason those chapters are full of red is because the Lord Jesus, in those chapters, is doing a lot of teaching and a lot of talking because it is the last few days of his life, his earthly life, here upon earth, and he is preparing his disciples for what is about to take place, his crucifixion, his resurrection, and then his ascension back to the Father. He makes several references to the fact that he was about to go back to the Father that sent him And those disciples who had walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, ate with Jesus, seen the miracles of Jesus, they were about to lose the physical presence of Jesus that had been in their lives for about three years or a little over three years now. And Jesus, knowing what was about to take place, He was teaching them and preparing them so that they would be ready for the change that is about to take place in their lives. Isn't it interesting? But in the last few days of his life, as he's preparing them and teaching them for his impending death and resurrection and ascension back to the Father, isn't it interesting that he makes reference after reference to the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Helper that he was going to send to sustain them and to help them to live for him in this world? It's very interesting to me. that in the last few days of Jesus' life, He wanted them to understand, listen, I am going away, but I'm sending this Helper, the Holy Spirit. He's the Spirit of Truth, and He's going to come and guide you and teach you, and He's going to testify of me. And He was trying to say to them, yes, I am going away, but I'm not going to leave you an orphan. I am going to come to you in the person of my Spirit, and I will no longer be with you like I've been for three and a half years. I will now be in you, in the person of the Spirit, dwelling within you and sustaining you and helping you to live your life for the glory of God. And last week, if you were here, you remember that I read all except one of those references. I read them all last week, and I began by talking about how that probably, in my opinion, one of the great sins of the church of our generation is the sin of self-sufficiency, the belief that we can defy God in our own strength what only God can do through us by His power. Remember the great verse out of the book of Zechariah? Not by power, nor by might, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." That's the verse that we need written deep into our hearts. It's not by human power, not by human might, not by organization, not by planning, not by human works of any kind, but anything of any value. Anything of any value that is done and that lasts must be done by the might and the power of the Spirit of God. I was reading in the book of Ecclesiastes this week, whatever the Lord does, the Bible said, lasts forever, it'll last forever. But I'll tell you what, whatever man does is temporary, isn't it? And so much of what we see, I was thinking this morning as I was meditating on this, so much of what we see in our churches today is smack and fire and excitement, but it doesn't last. It's temporary. And you see so much excitement and so much human activity and so many human works and so many plans. For instance, and I'm not trying to be hypercritical, but you know, we've talked about it here before, how that in the modern day church, there is one fad after another fad that comes down the pike. You'll have this fad, and everybody will be into it for a while. Then there'll come another fad, another author, another pastor who'll write another book, and everybody will be into that, and then it'll pass off the scene. Then there'll be something new, and then it'll pass off the scene. Can I tell you, anything that is of God and that is real has been around for thousands of years. There's nothing new under the sun. And I'm not saying that there are not new ways of thinking and this and that, but I'm trying to say this. These things that man comes up with, they are only passing fads. And that's why our churches that are founded upon the passing fads of men are so weak, so non-biblical, so powerless. And that's why there are so many so-called conversions that don't even last until the ink dries on their baptismal certificate. And they're right back out in the world in the same mess again. What the Lord does, though, is real and eternal, and it lasts forever. So we've got to get away from human self-sufficiency. We've got to get away from this idea that we can win people to Christ. We cannot. We've got to get away from this idea that we can build this great church. We cannot. And we've got to get away from these ideas that somehow we can do, by our own ingenuity, for God what only God could ever do by His power in and through His people. Now last week we began to talk about the work of the Holy Spirit, and we talked about five different things that the Bible teaches us about the work of the Holy Spirit. Number one, we talked about the truth that it is His work and His delight to exalt the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the other thing we talked about, it is His work to convince of sin. The third thing we talked about, it is His work to convince sinners and to make saints out of them. Then we talked about that it is His work to empower the preaching of the Word of God. And then we talked about how it is His work to empower our witness in this world and to make us real living witnesses of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to continue this morning and talk about the work of the Holy Spirit and some of the other things the Bible teaches that he accomplishes and that he does in our lives. Now, first of all, go to the book of Romans, chapter 8. And the first thing I want to say to you is that the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit attests to our sonship. Now, how in the world can you know that you're saved? Do you know you're saved because you go to church? A lot of people believe that. Are you a Christian? I must be, I go to church. But can I tell you, going to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than getting in water makes you a duck. It's just that's not real. Going to church does not make you a Christian, but there are multitudes of people that I've talked to that somehow equate church attendance with being a child of God. Can I tell you? You can go to church all of your life and perish in your sins, and go to an eternal hell and be separated from God, because going to church does not make anyone a Christian, nor does it prove Not that I am a Christian. Well, baptism, absolutely not. The Bible does not teach that baptism will make you a Christian. Watch, if I can just be good and turn over a new leaf, I can be a Christian. No, the Bible does not teach that. For the last three weeks in the book of Romans, on Wednesday night, we talked about the fact that no man is justified by works or by law keeping. So how can some of them be sure that they're a Christian? Well, the Bible gives us some evidences, but you know what the greatest evidence the Bible talks to prove that we are a child of God and that which we can found our assurance upon? It is this truth that the Spirit of God lives within us and attests to the fact that we are sons of God. That's the greatest evidence. Now look at Romans chapter 8 and look at verse 9. Look at verse 8. Let's begin at verse 8. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. Now, I can't tell you over the years, 19 years of preaching and 10 of that in prison, I can't tell you how many times I'd come across someone and I would say, are you a Christian? Yes, I'm a Christian. I've been saved. And then they would say something like this, but I do not have the Holy Ghost yet. And I'd say, well, I have to tell you this, then you're not a Christian. And you'd be surprised at the shock that that brings to people. Because there are people who do not read the Bible, do not believe the Bible, do not understand the Bible, and they think that salvation is a decision that you make, and then you've got to build God and seek God for the Holy Spirit. Now, according to what I just read to you, anybody that does not have the Holy Spirit living within them, they are not a child of God. They are not Christ. He does not own them. They are not His and He is not theirs. You can go to church, you can be baptized, you can try to turn over a new leaf, you can try to be good, you can try to rap, you can try to give, you can try to do all these things. But if the Spirit of God does not live within you, the Bible says that you are not His. And it can't be any plainer than it is right there in the Scripture. Now look what it says in verse 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." Isn't that plain? Those who are led by the Spirit of God, those are the ones who are the sons of God. Those who have the Spirit of God living within their human spirit, teaching them, guiding them, directing them, moving them, those are the ones that can claim rightly to be the sons of God. Verse 15. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Abba. Now, anybody can put the name of God upon their lips and anybody can claim that God is their Father, but you will never be able to look up to heaven and from the depths of your being call God your Father unless the spirit of adoption has come to live within you, making real the reality that Christ is yours and that you are His and you've been adopted into God's family. Look at the next verse. The Spirit Himself, by His witness with our spirit, will allow the children of God. Brother Jim talked about it this morning when he was praising God. He was thanking God for the reality that God the Spirit witnesses in His Spirit every day to the reality of His Sonship. And the Bible is full of that. If you think I'm making that categorization chapter 4, Galatians chapter 4 basically says the same thing. Look at verse 6 and verse 7. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying out, I have a father. Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. First John chapter 4. If you wrestle with your assurance, you need to read the book of 1 John. The Bible plainly says that John wrote his book, 1 John, so that you may know that you have eternal life. And if you want to be sure about your salvation, you need to go to the book of 1 John and read it, because he gives the good evidences of those who have been born again. 1 John 4, verse 13. Now this we know that we abide in Him and He in us. How? Because He has given us of His Spirit. We know He abides in us and we abide in Him. Why? Because He has given us of His Spirit. Now this is not a small matter. There are multitudes of people that are not sure about their salvation. There are multitudes of people that are deceived about their salvation. There are Christians who wrestle with the subject of assurance, or how can I know that I'm saved? And then there are multitudes of people who have a false hope, who are not converted, but somehow they've been convinced that because they left the isle of the church, went through some little ritual that a preacher led them through, that somehow they are saved. But the Scripture says, the evidence that you are a son of God is that the Spirit of God lives within you. And this is not a small matter. And I'm going to read to you a verse in case you think it's just a small matter. Here's what the Bible says. Examine yourselves. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you are disqualified? So as you go there, examine yourselves, test yourselves, make sure you're saved. And don't you know that Jesus Christ is in you unless you're not really saved? Don't you know that Christ lives in you? See, that's the evidence that you've been born again. See, the reality is we live in a world of religious confusion. All kinds of religious confusion. Christians are professing, Christians don't read the Bible. A lot of them read the Bible, they don't understand what they're reading. They go to church looking for truth and they hear a bunch of junk. coming from the pulpits of the church of our land. And there's very little solid biblical teaching and preaching in our day. I received a letter yesterday from an inmate, a man that I love and I respect this man as great a Christian, I guess, as I've ever known. And he's got this sermon. He's in prison, but he's got this sermon, and he loves God, and he loves the Word of God. And he was talking about something, and this is what he said, I never heard one of the religious volunteers that come in to preach the Word of God in the prison, I never heard him tell one of the men in the prison that when we come, we just want to make you feel good. That is not the purpose of coming to church. And can I tell you, I hate to tell you this, but when you come here on Sunday morning, I don't get up on Sunday morning saying, that's what I say to them to make them feel good. But it's not why I get up on Sunday morning. I come to preach the words of the living God. And many times the words of the living God do not make you feel good. They're not intended to make you feel good. They were intended to convict and to reprove and to shift and to do a work in the hearts and lives of people. The reality is, in our world of religious confusion, everybody wants to go to church to have a pep rally. They don't want to feel good. They want to hear some feel-good, self-help message that will make them feel good about themselves. But in reality, the Word of God is not going to do that. Can I tell you, you may not be sure of your name. You may not be sure who your family is. You may have been adopted. You may not know who your mom and dad are. But I'll tell you what, you better be sure you've been born again. And the great evidence of that is the Spirit of God who lives within us attest to the reality of our sonship. And let me say this, and I don't demean. Now, all of us, we like to go back and say, let me tell you what it was like when I got saved. Now, I've heard older people go back 40 years, 50 years. I'm going to tell you what it was like the night I was saved. Well, thank God for that, but can I tell you, you better have some witness since then. Right? I know I'm a Christian not because I had an experience 18, 19, 20, 30 years ago. I know I'm a Christian because the Spirit of God lives within me every day, witnessing to the reality that I am His and He is mine. So that's His great work, He attests to our sonship. Number two, He guarantees the completion of our salvation. Go to Ephesians 1. Now, my point I need to make is understand that salvation is in three tenses. You do understand that, don't you? You understand? Here's salvation. If you'll bear with me again, here's salvation in three tenses. You are saved, you are being saved, and you will be saved. You understand that? You are saved from sin's penalty. You've been justified by the grace of God, and the penalty of sin will never be reckoned against you again because you've been justified. You have been saved from sin's power, right? Isn't it true that if you're saved, the Spirit of God is living within you, taking the Word of God, sanctifying you, changing you, making you more like Christ? So you are saved from sin's penalty. You are being saved from sin's power. And then you will be saved when Christ comes and we are made like Him. And we no longer, as the Bible says, this bad body is changed and made like unto His glorious body. We'll be saved. We'll be saved from sin's presence. You're saved from sin's penalty, you are being saved from sin's power, and you will be saved from sin's presence when you're made like unto the Lord Jesus Christ. So there are three tenses in our salvation. Now, don't misunderstand. I'm not saying that you've got the first part done and you've got to keep on working to get the rest of it. It's God's work. And you live a life that glorifies God because of the great work of God within you. But understand this. Let God be good in you. He has assured you in the Scripture that he will complete. But what is the agent that he will use to complete the work that he began in you? It's the Holy Spirit. Now look what it says in Ephesians 1. And verse 13. If I remember correctly. Let me find Ephesians and I'll read it to you. Verse 13. in whom you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee," I think the King James puts it, who is the earnest, the guarantee, of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. Now, the Bible said when you were born again, the Holy Spirit comes to live within you and He is the seal and the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. In other words, when you're born again, the Spirit of God comes to live within you, sealing you, identifying you as a child of God, and He is the down payment. Now, I've never bought anything to amount to anything, but isn't that true that in the real estate world, when you make a down payment, don't they call that earnest money? Well, what is that? They're making a commitment. They're entering into a contract and they're making a commitment. I'm going to pay this much down, and when the deal is finally completed, there's more to follow, but I'm assuring that the deal will be completed because I'm paying this earnest money down as the guarantee of the completion of the transaction. Well, is that exactly what the Spirit of God is within you and me? Now listen, I am saved from sin's penalty. The Spirit of God is working in me. I am being transformed by the work of God into the likeness of Jesus Christ. But one day that work will be complete, and one day I will be just like Him. But the Spirit of God that lives within me is the guarantee or the down payment that the work that God began in me will ultimately be completed by the God who began it. being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it or complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. So the Spirit of God first of all shows me that I'm His son, but He also guarantees that what He began in me, He will complete it, thank God. I'm glad it doesn't depend on me to complete it. I'm glad it doesn't depend on my works or my efforts or my hanging on or my holding on, but I'm glad that God who began a work in me, His Spirit fills me, the Bible said, until the day of redemption in Ephesians 5.30, and He will complete the gracious work that He began in me. Regardless of my failings and my weaknesses and my stupidity and my stubbornness and my stumbling and bumbling through life, the God who in grace began a work in me, He has already given me evidence He will complete that work. Gracious, gracious God. Number three. The Spirit of God, not only does He attest to our sonship, guarantees the completion of our salvation, but He teaches and guides and comforts his children throughout life. Now, we won't go back and read them for the sake of time, but do you remember the scriptures that we read in John 13, 15, and 16? What was the Spirit of God called? First of all, in the New King James, he's called a helper, isn't he? And in the King James, I love the way it's put in the King James, he's called a comforter. And you all know, I'm sure, that it's translated from the Greek word parakletos, and it means one called alongside to help. The Spirit of God is the one sent from the Father to come alongside us, to help us, to sustain us, and to carry us through life. How many of you know that if it weren't for the sustaining, gracious work of the Holy Spirit, you wouldn't last through the afternoon? Not through the afternoon. Nor would I. He is the helper, the comforter, the one that comes alongside to help. Not only that, then Jesus called him the Spirit of Truth. The Spirit of Truth. He has the truth, doesn't He? He reveals the truth. And there are many references to the fact that He would guide us and He would teach us. He'll guide you into answer. He'll bring you remembrance. Those things that I said Jesus said. Have you ever had that happen? Have you ever been in a circumstance in your life and all of a sudden a scripture that you needed in that particular hour was brought home to your heart by the Spirit of God that lived within you and you remembered what the Lord Jesus said and that was the very piece of truth that you needed to sustain you in that hour? Well, I've had that happen so many times. Who's doing that? It's the Holy Spirit. He was committed to guide us, to teach us, to comfort us, and to sustain us throughout the course of our earthly life. Aren't you glad the Lord didn't save us and didn't dump us out in the road and say, just do the best you can? That's the way a lot of people view their Christian life. My dad said, I can't swim, but my dad, I've never seen him do it, he said he could. And I'm sure he could. But he said that he learned how to swim by somebody throwing him in a pond and saying, swim. Now, to me, that sounds like attempted murder to me. But that's exactly the way my dad said he learned how to swim. There's some friends thrown in the water, and he learned how to swim. You know, so a lot of people think it's Christianity, but what I'm saying is you need to douche out in the road and say, well, just go. Do good. Can't. Without the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, none of us would last a day. But He comes to guide us. He comes to teach us. When you set before the Word of God and the Word of God is opened up to you, who's doing that? When you get up in the morning and you read the Scripture and it comes alive to you, who's making it come alive? When you come to the service here on Sunday morning or Wednesday night, and you sit in your seat, and the Word of God lives and speaks to you and teaches you. Who's doing that? Is it me? It's not me. It's the Spirit of God. And you're so low, you just don't think you can ever get up and go again. And all of a sudden, the sweet peace of God floods your heart, and you get up and go another mile. Who's doing that? It's the Comforter. The One called alongside the Hymn. He guides us. I'm going to challenge you. When you read through the Book of Acts, which in our Bibles is called the Acts of the Apostles, which would better be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles. But whenever you read through the Book of Acts, have you ever noticed this? Paul said we were going to go here, but the Spirit said no. We were going to go over here, but the Spirit would let us. I was going to go here, but the Spirit stopped us. And then I had this dream that we discerned that the Spirit was telling us to go here. That's the way the church is supposed to operate. Right? That is the way the church of the Lord... I'm not talking about fanaticism. I'm not talking about somebody standing up and saying, the Spirit of God told me to tell you this, and we don't know where in the world that's coming from, and there's no scriptural verification. But it is not strange for the people of God to expect to be loved by the Spirit of God. That's not strange. A lot of people are amazed. A lot of people think I'm damn right foolish when they find out that usually I never know what I'm going to preach until the day I'm going to preach it. I've had people go, well, do you know a week ahead of time? Do you know two weeks ahead of time? Do you know... Most of the time, very rarely do I know before the Lord's Day morning. I get up on Sunday morning, most Sunday mornings I get up and I have no clue as to what I'm going to preach. Now, don't misunderstand me. Could God give it to me a month ahead of time? Absolutely, if He chose to do so. But I've tried to learn to rely on Him. You may be surprised, but I've got to speak as a fish and He knew who was going to be here this morning. And I bet He knows more than that. I bet He even knows the hearts of everyone that's here. And He knows exactly what we need from His Word. So I've learned that if I will abide in Him and depend on Him and wait upon Him and trust Him, He will give me not just a word, but a word in season. A word that speaks to the hearts of men in the particular hour of their life that they happen to be in. Have you ever left here feeling like I've been reading your mail? I ain't been reading your mail. But I know somebody that does. Now, the Spirit of God will guide us. Why hadn't we went out here and indebted the church for $500,000 and bought a piece of property? Because we're waiting. We're waiting. Why hadn't we got all in this teasing about, we've got to do this and we've got to do that? It tickled me to death. We were doing a little job over at Colwell Bank the other day and the lady who was the realtor who tried to sell this building to us come in there. And you know, I get a kick out of that. Because she called me and just, you've got to buy the building. You just, all this is enough. And she goes, I said, we don't want the building. She just could not understand, you know, it's like, they're going to put that poor church out on the street and they better do something about it or they'll be in bad trouble. So you need to buy the building. And she just couldn't understand that we were not bothered about it, that we had peace about it, and we were going to leave it in the hands of God. She just could not understand that. She thought we ought to be going and counting our pennies to see if we could get the down payment and buy the building. But as far as I know, everybody in the church sensed the same thing that we all sensed, that it wasn't God's will for us to buy the building. Because the Spirit of God can lead the people of God. And we need to be in tune to that. Now, quickly, number four. Go to Romans 8. And I've got to confess, this is one that Convicts me. The Spirit of God aids us in prayer, real prayer. Now, can I say something to you without making you mad? I'm going to say it either way, but I was saying that hoping you'd be ready for it before it comes so you wouldn't get mad. I don't think we pray, really pray. I think we say prayers, but I don't think... You know, I think that prayer is such a spiritual thing, such a mighty thing, and I think that for the most part, and I put myself at the top of the list, we haven't scratched the surface. Now why is that? Well, let's look at what the Scripture says here. Look at verse 26. Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought." Do you believe that? So how much of our prayers are simply us instructing God about things we don't have a clue about? I confess to you, I have all kinds of people I used to, especially when people hear me say what I'm about to say, they don't even ask you to pray for them no more. But I used to have people all the time come say, now this is what I want you to pray for, and this is what I want... I used to have a lot of guys in prison, this is what I want you to pray for, pray that God will do this, God will do that. Now sometimes those people, God has opened their understanding and given them some insight into how to pray, and I understand that. But sometimes they're just trying to get God to do what they want God to do. And I can't bring myself to pray that way because I feel like, God, I'm trying to boss you around. Who am I to tell you what to do or how to do it? When, God, you know their heart and you know their circumstances and you know exactly what they need. Do you understand that, and as I wrote this this morning, as I thought upon it, I had to say, this is me. I, for the most part, I do not know what to pray for as I act. Never do I feel more inadequate than when I kneel to pray. In between Sunday school and church, I went downstairs and I knelt down to pray. And as I kneel down before God, never do I feel more inadequate. Never do I feel more dumb. Never do I feel more incapable. How am I to bow before the God of heaven and tell Him what to do? Because I don't know what to pray for. I don't know. I don't even know how to pray. But it is the Spirit of God who helps our weaknesses and our infirmities and helps us to really pray. So that's what it says. That the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with bounties which cannot be uttered. Now, I don't claim to know fully what that means. But can I ask you this? Have you ever prayed? into such a place to where all you could do is just lay before God and you couldn't even speak? Who's taking over then? Notice what it says, Now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. I've got to confess, a lot of what I asked over the years hadn't been the will of God. But I'm glad that there have been times in my life when the Spirit of God in some sense that maybe I can't even begin to fathom, He overruled my inadequacy in prayer and He in me began to pray. And there have been times when I couldn't do anything but just stand before God and just like the lady in Sunday School say, Oh God, help me. I pray that for our church. Lately, my heart has been exercised desiring God to pour out His Spirit that we might have a real, not a man-ground, hell-state revival, but a real outpouring of the Spirit of God. And when I go before God and ask God, I say, Oh God, help us! That's about all I know to say. Desiring. So I'm not going to try to sit here and exegete these verses and try to put up a line and try to tell you that I know all of the great wonder of prayer. But I do know this, that we don't know how to pray. We don't know what to pray for. But the Spirit of God is our great helper in prayer. And we do well before we even begin to pray, to humble our hearts before God and say, Oh God, you enable me by your spirit to pray aright, to pray correctly. to pray according to the will of God. And I say this, and please don't get mad at me, but for the life of me, everywhere I go, not just here, but everywhere I go, all the prayer requests are about physical and material things. Everywhere I go. And our notion is going to hell, and there's people perishing all around us, and they laugh and don't know it, or they don't care. And churches are in a shambles. And Christianity is a joke. And don't misunderstand. Yes, God cares about our physical health. I understand that. And the Bible says that we should count the elders of the church and anoint those who are sick with oil and pray over them and that God will raise up the sick. I'm not denying that. But I'm saying, is God just a cosmic genie to make us feel good? And is prayer just us coming to rub His lamp and to get free wishes from Him? Or is prayer moving God to come onto the battlefield and to bear His arm and to manifest His glory in the darkness of the world that we live in? He aids us in real prayer. He equips us to serve the body. We won't turn it over for the sake of time. Read 1 Corinthians 12. The Bible said, The Lord places us in the body as it pleases Him, and the Spirit of God gives us gifts that are to be used to minister for the good of the whole body. Remember? The manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good of all. Right? So, your spiritual gifts Listen, this is not a natural gift, it is a spiritual gift. An enablement of the Holy Spirit that gives you the ability to minister to the body as a whole for the common good of the whole body. Now, when I was a little boy, not a little boy, there's a joke in our family that when our church I was raised in, they had a little kids choir before Sunday school. I was driving and shaving before mama ever let me get out of there. I'd be like a big giant up there singing, this little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. All these little bitty kids around me, and mama said, you're going up there. It's embarrassing. Humiliating. But you know what? When are you going to let that light shine? The gifts that God has given to you by His Spirit to minister to the good of the whole body, when are you going to bring them out of their case and get them dirty? You ever had a tool you liked so much you didn't want to use it, prayed you'd get dirty? The Spirit of God gives us spiritual gifts that enable us to serve the body of Christ for the common good of all. And I look forward to the day, if I ever live to see it, when the body of Christ begins to act like the body of Christ. And we begin to allow the Spirit of God to operate in us. Preaching. That's what real preaching is. Real preaching is through someone that God has gifted To open up the Word of God so that others can grasp the Scriptures. It's a spiritual gift. That's the only claim I have to it. Not because I went to school. I didn't go to school. Not because I have any natural abilities. I don't. But there are other gifts. A thousand of them. The gift of music and worship and things like that. The gift of teaching. The gift of encouragement. Have you ever met someone that you just knew had a supernatural gift from God that every time you saw them, they encouraged you? The Spirit of God equips us to serve the body, last of all. The Spirit of God, He produces in us and expresses through us the very character of Jesus Christ. Now, be not drunk of wine. Wine is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. And this way it goes down a few verses. Wives, submit to your husbands. Husbands, love your wives. What's the point? You can't do any of it without the Spirit of God. You can't be submissive. You can't be filled with love. You can't have joy and peace and happiness and be filled with the joy of God without the Spirit of God filling you. Now, the food of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, temperance, meekness. What are all those? It's the very character of God lived out in the life of the Christian by the presence of the Holy Spirit who dwells within them. So, if we're going to glorify God, and as the Bible says, if we are going to diffuse the aroma of the Lord Jesus Christ, In our workplace, our family, our community, how is that going to take place? Only by the Spirit of God living within us, living out the very life of the Lord Jesus through us. And you know what the world is dying to see? They've seen enough Pharisees. And they've seen enough religions. But you know what they can't explain when they see Jesus? Loving through you. Giving through you. Caring through you. Sharing through you. Me and Danny was talking about last night. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. You know what most preachers think the way to keep people from loving the world is? To preach about the world all the time. So they get up every Sunday with a club and beat you over the head with thou shalt not do this and thou shalt not do this. But you know what I found out? If Christ ever rules and reigns in your heart, this world will lose its power and attractions in your heart. And the love that we have for the world is replaced with a love for Christ. So much so that when you look at the world, it's like what Paul said, it's just rubbish. Compared to the excellency and the surpassing worth of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. So many times, I reflect to the world what I am. apart from Christ, instead of what Christ is. But you know what Jesus said? Without me, you can do nothing. But if you abide in Him, and you rely on Him, and you depend on Him, and you lean upon Him, you know what you'll find out? Gradually, many times, imperceptibly, He will change you to such a degree that others will begin to see Christ in you. That is the great desire of my life. Who is your father like? If I think about my daddy, he reminds me of kind of a John Wayne figure. If I think about my daddy, he reminds me of some great person. You know, I wish that my kids, I don't think they could say this, but I wish that my kids could say, you know, my dad, he sure wasn't perfect, but he sure was a lot like Jesus. Wouldn't that be a goal worthy to live for? Let's pray. The heart of a man, and this is invariably the way it happens. Have you ever been in a service where there was a room full of people and all of a sudden it was like you were all alone and God was talking directly to you? And you're just sitting there in your own world hearing the voice of God and you are just all alone in your thoughts because God is speaking directly to you That is what the Holy Spirit accomplishes. And can I tell you, you'll see a guy sometimes and he's loud and preaches loud and God will do that. But you know what you'll also find? Some old guy that doesn't even raise his voice and can't get away from his Bible. And when he gets done, you know you've been with God. So don't look at the message based on the envelope it comes in. You know, a lot of you know me. You've known me a long time. I used to be wild. I mean, I used to get all wound up. And I found out I was going to die if I didn't quit that. I remember one time I preached. I preached. I mean, I preached like an Indian on a warpath. I mean, I preached. I was in a prison. I preached. I preached. I preached. And there were some Pentecostal people there. And when I got there, you know what they said? That was a good little talk. I thought, man, I killed myself just talking. You know what I found out? That's all junk. Preach the truth and the Spirit of God takes the truth to the hearts of men. And if they won't hear this, they won't hear anything. One more and I'm done, I promise. The Spirit of God empowers our witness in life. Acts 1.8 Here's what Jesus said to His disciples. You shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and Judea and under the uttermost parts of the earth. Now notice what Jesus did not say. He did not say you will witness. He said you will be witnesses. We usually think of witnessing in the sense of going out with our Bibles to someone's house and trying to verbally communicate the Gospel. There is a time for that. But understand, Jesus was saying, My Spirit will come upon you and make you, your life, a witness to the resurrected power of Jesus Christ. So that when you read the book of Acts, everywhere they went, They turned the community right side up. Not upside down. Why? Because the Spirit of God that lived within them so filled their lives and their personality that everywhere they went, there was a visible expression of the glory of God and the nature of Jesus Christ lived out. by the way that they lived. Now, some things are better caught than taught. For instance, most of you know in your workplace or with your family, if you just go in there with a Bible and try to overpower them, they're not going to respond to it, are they? What do you got to do? You've got to be filled with the Spirit. And you've got to live in the power of the Spirit in such a way before them that your life continually witnesses. And they look at you and say, that's Jesus in her. That's Jesus in him. I've known him all my life and he would love that way if it weren't for Christ in him. I've known her all my life. And she would have done for on a fit if it wasn't for Christ. There's something happened to that person. You know what it is? In reality, it's not you witnessing for Christ. It's Christ witnessing Himself through you. By His Spirit that lives within you. Now, Lord Terry's I've got five, maybe more, five for sure that I want to share with you next week if the Lord tarries and He doesn't change the message. But let me say this. These five things that I've shared with you, if they do anything in the world, you know what they ought to do? They ought to drive us in dependence to God. We ought to understand We can't exalt the Lord without the Holy Spirit. We can't convince people of their lostness without the Holy Spirit. We cannot convert sinners and make saints out of them. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. We cannot communicate our faith effectually without the Holy Spirit. And frankly, when we gather here on Sunday morning and Wednesday night, if we don't gather here seeking the supernatural agency of the work of the Holy Spirit through the proclamation of the word, we do just as well to stay home. Years ago, I got some friends in eastern Kentucky. Years ago, I preached in their church. Simple message. Three men and three crosses. Simple message. Their daughter was visiting that night. They get these CDs that I don't think they'll mind me telling this. I think I've told it here before. But that evening after the service, we went to eat. Her daughter, I'd never met her, but she was real quiet and I thought she was just real shy. A few months later, her mother called and told me that her daughter Michelle had been saved. And I said, I thought she was saved. She said, we did too. But God's opened her heart and saved her. A few months after that I was over there and Michelle was home visiting again and she talked to me and she said, you know that night you preached that message on those three men and three crosses? I said, yes ma'am. She said, I remember thinking if I wasn't saved, I'd get saved after that. And through that the Spirit of God began to open her heart and show her that she hadn't been saved. Now who did that? Could I have ever in a thousand years done that? Never. Could I take any credit for that? None. That was a gracious work of God through the Holy Spirit. May God in His grace bring us in humility and desperation to bow before Him and say, Lord, please grant to us a gracious movings and workings of your spirit in our hearts, our homes and our house of worship. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we
The Work of the Holy Spirit Part 2
Sermon ID | 1206111338 |
Duration | 1:02:11 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday Service |
Bible Text | John 14:15-18; John 14:25-26; John 15:26; John 16:5-15 |
Language | English |
© Copyright
2025 SermonAudio.