Right Let's go back to John chapter 16 tonight John chapter 16 Last week we started a discussion on the work of the Holy Spirit, His primary overarching work under which everything else falls. John chapter 16 beginning in verse 12. I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify me. He will glorify me. For He will take of mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are mine. Therefore I said that He takes of mine and will disclose it to you. Well, the Holy Spirit's work can be easily misunderstood. There's a lot of facets to it, a lot of facets to the work of the Spirit. I think one of the basic reasons though that we may have a hard time really getting a hold on the work of the Holy Spirit is we've kind of pulled away from the moorings. of the basic fundamental teachings of the Word of God concerning the overarching fundamental work in which He is engaged under which serves kind of as an umbrella under which everything else falls that He does. So what was the fundamental core work of the Holy Spirit that we discussed last week? Well it is simply this, it is to give us the presence of Christ. It is to give us the presence of Christ out of that work, out of that work flows everything else. It is the core work of the Spirit. Now, you understand I'm talking in terms of His work in us as a child of God, His relationship with us as a Christian. I realize that the Holy Spirit has a lot of other avenues through which He works, the creation, He was involved in that, in prophecy and inspiration, conviction of sin, illumination of the scriptures as we read it. The Holy Spirit is God, the third person of the Trinity. All of those are equally works of the Holy Spirit and who He is. But we're primarily concerned tonight with His work in us. When Christ ascended and he finished his earthly work and he expanded the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of his people. The Holy Spirit has always been at work in the lives of us saints, Old Testament, New Testament saints. But in the New Testament Christ enhanced the work of the Spirit in our lives in a sense of giving us a greater sense of the presence Spirit. This is specifically a New Testament work for the Holy Spirit. And one of the ways that we know that it is the primary work of the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ's works are intertwined is through the Scriptures. You can write these down, you can jot these down, you can go home and look them up on your own, and you can get out your concordance and do your own study here. But the work of the Holy Spirit and Christ are often equated in many ways. Let me give you some scriptures. Acts 16.7, And after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Jesus, pardon me, the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them. And again in Romans 8 and 9, However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. So you get all three of them there. And in Galatians 4.6, Galatians 4.6, Because you are sons, God has put forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Like I said there are a ton of other scriptures in the New Testament that verify what I'm telling you tonight, how many times the Spirit is often equated with the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And so the Spirit who indwells us then is the Spirit who was in and on the Lord Jesus Christ. The scripture says again Luke chapter 3 verse 22, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of Heaven saying, my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." And again in Luke chapter 4, Luke 4 and 1, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, was led around by the Spirit into the wilderness. In Acts 10.38, it says, You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. So the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which we have, which we receive Christ as our personal Savior, we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who is often referred to in the Scriptures as the Spirit of Christ. The same Spirit that was dwelling in Christ, upon Christ we have. However, the Bible says in Romans chapter 8, in Romans chapter 8 verses 9-11, this is an incredibly important passage of Scripture, Paul said, However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, and there he goes, he's talking about the Spirit of God, he's talking about the Spirit of Christ, he's talking about the Holy Spirit, he's putting all those terms together in the same passage of Scripture. He says, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you you who raised he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies Through his spirit who dwells in you so you have this constant interchange the Spirit of God the Spirit of Christ You know going on and on and on and on all throughout the New Testament now danger Don't think that because these terms and these phrases are often used interchangeably that there is no distinction between Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ remains His status as a second person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit retains His position as a third person of the Trinity. Yes, their works are interchangeable to some degree, but they retain their own identities. Okay? They're not in that sense crossing over from one to the other. They have their jobs to do. So as John was saying, his job is to glorify Christ. That's what we saw in John 16. His work is to make us look at Jesus Christ. That is His job, to make us keep our eyes on Christ. When people are glorifying the Holy Spirit, and if you turn on your TV set and you watch some of these TV preachers out there, all they do is say, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit this, the Holy Spirit that, you know, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit. They hardly ever talk about Jesus Christ. They're not following the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is not making something out of Himself. He's not doing that. Now I'm not saying that we don't need to study the work of the Holy Spirit and study the Holy Spirit is. We need to do that. But when people are constantly magnifying the Holy Spirit, we need to take note of them and at the very least, check them out. At the very least. Because the Holy Spirit is never going to say, look at me. The Holy Spirit is never going to do that. The Holy Spirit is never going to say, look at what I am doing. Look at my work. He's not going to do that. The Holy Spirit is always going to direct you toward Jesus Christ and He's going to say, look what Jesus did for you. See how Jesus died for your sins on the cross. See how Jesus shed His blood for you on the cross. See how Jesus Christ secured your eternal salvation. See how Jesus Christ brought you into a living relationship with the Heavenly Father. That's what He's going to do. That is His job. That's how He magnifies Jesus Christ. Now, at the danger of sounding New Age, okay, there is a sense And take, you know, take it with a grain of salt. There's a sense in which we as Christians experience the reality, experience the reality. And that word experience, you know, it's kind of a touchy word there, you know, of Christ living within us. Okay. A. W. Tozer was a a prominent figure, and he was hooked up with the Christian Missionary Alliance, and so I'm, you know, that's kind of a warning. But he made this observation in 1920. 1920. This is what he wrote. I want you to listen to what he wrote in 1920, okay? He said, one of the serious weaknesses in present-day evangelicalism is the mechanical quality of its thinking. A utilitarian Christ has taken the place of the radiant Savior of other and happier times. This Christ is able to save. It is true. But He is thought to do so in a practical, across-the-counter manner. paying our debt and tearing off the receipt like a court clerk acknowledging a paid-up fine. A bank teller psychology characterizes much of our religious thinking and the tragedy of it is that it is true without being all truth. He used the term utilitarian Christ. We look at Christ from a utilitarian perspective. What did he mean by that? Basically, he meant Christ is useful as far as salvation is concerned. But that's about it. You get saved, you know. Our evangelism is utilitarian. It's mechanical. We present Christ as a means to eternal life and a way to escape hell, you know. But we don't present Christ necessarily as a way to enter into a living, vibrant, pulsating relationship with God. You know, we get people to agree to, yes, Christ died on the cross for your sins, and they say, yeah, I believe that Jesus Christ died on my cross for your sins, then you need to pray this prayer, and we give them this mechanical prayer, you know, that they need to pray, and it doesn't really come from their hearts, but they're following your lead, you know, and they make the prayer, and they're not saved. It's all mechanical. You've torn off the receipt, you know, and you say, here you go, you're going to go to heaven because you made this particular prayer that I told you to pray, so you've got to be saved. No! No! It's all mechanical. No true conversion takes place. There's no real ultimate relationship with Christ. No indwelling of the Holy Spirit. There's no true consciousness of Jesus Christ. The scripture says in verse 14, He will glorify me. He will glorify me. That means to give Him honor. That means to give Him praise. That means to make Jesus Christ great. To glorify Christ. To make Jesus Christ great. That is His main job. Okay? Now, I know you get tired of me giving warnings, you know? But there's so much confusion, sometimes I feel like I just got to make these, say, here's some danger signs, okay? Some things that the Holy Spirit can be confused about as far as glorifying. Number one, the Holy Spirit is not going to glorify doctrine. Okay, just, you know, don't go off the deep end with me here. Just hang tight for a little bit. The Holy Spirit is not going to glorify doctrine. And I may be specifically talking about systematic theology. Now, I am not downplaying doctrine, and this is what I want you to understand. I am not downplaying systematic theology at all. You walk into my office, You look behind my desk and you're going to see a row of books. And on that bookshelf are going to be all kinds of books on systematic theology. It's important and we need to study it. But my point, the point I want to make is that doctrine alone doesn't bring salvation. truth alone Does not bring salvation sharing truth alone does not bring about salvation our children, you know your grandchildren Probably know some doctrine concerning Jesus Christ dying on the cross for their sins and they can tell you that's that what Jesus Christ did and that you need to be saved by putting your faith in Jesus Christ your children and grandchildren could probably tell you that from out and But knowledge doesn't bring conviction. And truth doesn't bring conviction. And we got to remember that when we're dealing with these things, you know, and the Holy Spirit brings conviction. That's his job. That is his job. Now, he takes those instruments of truth and knowledge and he uses those things, but everybody here, everybody here knows what's right to do. Okay? I can ask you about any moral situation, and I can ask you what the right thing to do is, and you're going to tell me the right thing to do. And if I ask you if you always do the right thing, what are you going to tell me? No. You got the knowledge. You got the truth. But that in and of itself is not keeping you from doing what's wrong, nor is it keeping you doing what's right. It takes more than that. That's doctrine and we need that. I'm not saying that we don't need that. We need to keep our doctrine. Doctrine keeps us from going off balance. Doctrine keeps us in line. We've got to have it. I'm going to preach it and I hope you learn it. I want you to be doctrinally fit. I want you to be that. There's no such thing as good preaching without doctrine. You've got to have it because it keeps you on target. Okay? So I'm not downplaying it. I'm afraid that there are some people who are saved simply because they've gone through this route thing, and the Holy Spirit is nowhere in sight, and Christ has not been magnified in their salvation experience. And if the Holy Spirit is working in their hearts, the Holy Spirit's going to be the one who brings them under conviction. And then there's going to be a magnification of the work of Jesus Christ, dying on the cross for their sins. That's the way it works. That's how God intended for it to work. The Holy Spirit takes the historical Christ that you read about in your Bible and makes him a living entity in your heart. That's what he does. Number two. The Holy Spirit does not magnify our human experiences. The Holy Spirit does not magnify our human experiences. This is kind of where the charismatic and the Pentecostal preachers kind of miss the boat here. They tend to exalt your experience, your feelings, your emotions, you know, and develop these worshipful feelings. You can generate a feeling of worship. Did you know that? You can generate, you can generate externally a feeling of worship. And you get some good music together, and you get a high-powered communicator together, and they're working together, you can generate a very spiritual, okay, experience. An experience in that way. And we've got to be dangerous about that. And I've got to be honest with you folks, I've been to some church camps, and they're dangerous. And I'm not trying to downplay them, okay? I've been to some vacation Bible schools. It can be dangerous for children, generating a salvation experience, you know? The Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, listen, the Holy Spirit is not, in his terms of salvation, the Holy Spirit is not necessarily going to bring about within people a fear of hell. And we think sometimes on another that people need to be saved because the Holy Spirit is working in them this deep conviction of the fear of hell. No. What the Holy Spirit is going to do is He's going to bring about in people in their salvation experience a fear of God. And they're not the same. Yes, hell is real. Yes, Bible teaches that it is the condemnation of God. Yes, the Bible does tell us that it's the eternal dwelling place for those who reject Jesus Christ. But more importantly than the fear of hell, folks, the Holy Spirit is going to bring you to realization that God is holy, that God is just. that God is righteous, and in light of the righteousness and holiness of God, you're going to fear him, and you're going to see your need for Jesus Christ. And that's what the Holy Spirit does. He brings you to that need for Jesus Christ because of God's righteousness and God's holiness. And yes, you're going to know about hell. I'm not denying that, folks, at all. I'm not trying to shy away from that. But his conviction is going to bring about the reality of God. is going to glorify the work of Christ. Okay, number three. The Holy Spirit doesn't glorify the law. This is kind of a kiss and cousin of what I've just told you though. But the Holy Spirit doesn't glorify the law. What I mean by that is the Holy Spirit is not going to take the law and raise it above the work of Jesus Christ. In other words, our obedience to the law sometimes can be out of sheer willpower. I am going to do what God told me to do, you know. And so we make up our minds, you know, and we call all of our willpower together, you know, and all of our determination together, and we're going to say, I'm going to do what's right. I'm going to obey the law, you know, so to speak. And we put the law up there above the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts that actually enables us to keep the law. We use a law as kind of a force to obedience rather than an obedience through the work and the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, that's not to say there's not a place for the law. There's a place for the law, okay? And truly, we cannot be saved without the work of the law. That is so true. But it's never going to be enough for us, like I said earlier, to know. It's never going to be enough just to know what's right and to know what we ought to do and what we should do and what is good and what is just. Now don't get me wrong. We need to grow we need to learn I'm not trying to discourage you from going home tonight and open up the Word of God, you know and studying the Word of God and meditating on the Word of God and thinking about the Word of God and and Getting the Word of God in your heart. We need to do that, but I'm telling you I'm just telling you that the thing that's going to have the most impact on what you think the thing is going to have the most impact on your motives and your desires your wheels your choices behavior and your habits is going to be the presence of Jesus Christ That is the power and work of the Holy Spirit of God. That's why Jesus is telling his people here. Jesus Christ is a person. And when I say that Jesus Christ is a person, I am not devaluing Christ. I'm not bringing Christ down when I tell you that Jesus Christ is a person. He is God. He is divine. He is all of that. But he is a person. Why is he a person? Because people have relationships. It's our personhood. Jesus isn't He had a human body, and once since he was a human being. But it's not the human beingness of Christ that gives us a relationship, it is the person of Christ. It's our persons that make us relational. And that's true with Christ. That's not demeaning Christ. I'm not, you know, I'm bringing him down. By saying that, I'm simply saying that we commune with Christ. And that's what the Holy Spirit brings us into. He brings us into a deep communion with Christ. Into a deep communion with God. Here, one more scripture. In Romans, chapter 5, verse 5. Romans 5, 5. Paul said, and this is kind of at the end of a statement that he was making. Kind of a summation of a statement that he was making. He said, and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within your hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us Paul said, and I don't think Paul knew exactly what he's talking about here. I think he was, Paul understood what the Holy Spirit was doing within him. He said, the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. The love of God here is not how much you love God. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You need to love God. We're told, we're commanded to do this. First commandment, you love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul. But what Paul is talking about here is that the Holy Spirit reveals to you and me how much God loves us. One of the greatest, probably the greatest motivating factor in your Christian experience is how much God loves you. Yes, you need to love God. I pray that you do love God and I pray that you express that. But I am telling you that the greatest part of your salvation experience is coming into this position where the Holy Spirit pours out within you the reality that God loves you. And that love of God that He has for you is what carries you basically through the hardships and the difficulties and the experience of life. Your love for God, beloved, praise God that you've got love for God. But I'm going to tell you, and maybe I'm wrong, and I might be, and I might die wrong, I don't know. But I'm going to tell you what, just from personal experience in my own life, I don't always love God like I should. That's just honest, true confession. And you're my priest, you know. But God always loves me. He always does. And He can make me know His love through the work of the Holy Spirit. When I know God loves me, like it says in Romans chapter 8, that love that God has for us in Romans chapter 8, that's what carries you through. That's what Paul's saying. It's the work of the Holy Spirit. Paul suffered tremendously for the cause of Christ, but it was based on what he said here. The love of God has been poured out, and I'm going to say in his heart, through the work of the Holy Spirit who was given to him. Listen, you can't work this up. You cannot work this love of God up in your heart. You can't manipulate this. You can't decide, I'm going to make it happen. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. But I'm afraid today that there are churches who are gathering together for worship and they're trying to create an atmosphere of worship. That bothers me. Creating an atmosphere of worship. The Holy Spirit's job is to lead us to worship. That's His job. You can't manipulate the work of the Holy Spirit. He does what He does by design of God. When I'm telling you that God loves you, I'm not talking about having a warm, fuzzy feeling in your heart. Oh, God loves me. You get crying and tears and you get all emotional. No, no, no, no, no. And that's not the love that the Holy Spirit pours out in your heart. And I'm not saying that there may not be some emotional experiences attached to knowing the love of God. I'm not saying that at all. I have had very many emotional experiences when I've thought about the fact that God loves me, okay? But it's not a warm, fuzzy feeling. It's an assurance put in my heart. God loves me. It's an assurance. And it's not a warm, fuzzy feeling. It's that conviction of the Spirit of God that He loves me. And I have no doubt in my mind about it. And the Holy Spirit put that there. And I didn't manipulate it. I didn't make it happen. It's His job. It's this assurance of the love of God that overflows into the presence of Christ. It's assurance of the love of God that overflows into the presence of Jesus Christ. You say, preacher, I don't know if I've ever really had that. You know what? That is nothing to be ashamed of. It's something to get right. Okay? The love of God and the presence of Christ are interchangeable. Where are you going to find one? You're going to find the other. You're going to find the other.