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Every Wednesday We Post Studies in the Word
"Holy Spirit Study"
12 Studies in the Holy Spirit Weekly
(currently)
-Chuck Smith-
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In our lessons on the subject of the Holy Spirit, we have currently been looking at the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Last time we saw that this experience is often referred to as the gift of the Holy Spirit, or the filling of the Holy Spirit, or the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We looked at how this was separate from, and subsequent to, the experience of salvation and being born again by the Spirit and baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ. This was a subsequent experience that the disciples received sometime after believing and we saw it in the Book of Acts with the disciples themselves.
We saw this experience in the case of the Samaritans who had received the gospel. We saw it in the promise that Peter gave to those who were asking what they should do to compensate for their crucifixion of Jesus; Peter told them to, "Repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." We saw it in the life of Paul the Apostle, who was converted on the road to Damascus, and yet was then filled with the Spirit when that disciple in Antioch named Ananias came and laid hands on him. Finally, we saw in the church of Ephesus in Acts 19.
Now I would like you to turn to the Gospel according to John 7:37, as we see what the experience is (that is, the experience of the baptism, or the filling, or the gift of the Holy Spirit). We are told here by John, that in the last day—that great day of the feast, and from the context, we know that this is the Feast of Tabernacles—Jesus had come to Jerusalem. And He had more or less remained in seclusion until the last day, the great day of the feast. They were actually wondering whether or not He was going to show up at the feast. And then as He did, He said, "You are going to seek Me and you will not find Me. Where I am, you cannot come." And as they are wondering about this, the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood in the midst of the multitude and cried, saying, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink" (John 7:37).
The Feast of Tabernacles was also known as Succoth, or the Feast of Booths. The feast actually commemorated God's preservation of the nation of Israel during the forty years that they wandered in the wilderness. God preserved them. It was a miracle that they could survive for forty years in the wilderness. It was an obvious miracle of God and this feast was to commemorate that wonderful miracle of preservation during the wilderness wanderings.
Now there were many things that they did to remind them of God's miraculous preservation. Even to the present day with the Orthodox Jews, they build little lean-to type of thatched rooms outside of their houses—usually up against their house. And over in Israel during this time of the Feast of Tabernacles, you will see these little palm-thatched rooms that they have built outside of the house. The family moves outside for a week and lives in these little palm-thatched rooms. And they leave enough space between the palm thatches so that, as you lie there at night, you can see the stars. And the idea is that the children will say, "Oh, I see the stars up there!" And their parents then have the opportunity to say, "Our fathers lived out in the wilderness for forty years, out under the stars and our God preserved them during that forty-year time." And so there were those things that would remind them.
In the worship at the temple, the priests would take these water jugs, bearing them on their shoulders. They would go down the many steps to the temple courtyard to the Pool of Siloam, down in the Kidron Valley below. And there they would fill these water jugs and make this solemn procession back up the steps and on into the temple courtyard, where the thousands of people would be gathered worshipping God. As the priest would come into the courtyard area with these water jugs, the people would break forth singing the hallel psalms. And as they were singing and worshipping God, they would pour the water out on the pavement and let it splash there on the pavement. And they were reminded of how—when their fathers were dying of thirst in the wilderness—Moses took the rod and struck the rock according to the commandment of God. They were reminded how the water came flowing out of the rock and their fathers did drink and were preserved when they were dying of thirst. And so there were many things to remind them of God's divine preservation of their fathers, during the wilderness wanderings.
Now on the last day, the great day of the feast (which was actually the eighth day of the feast), there was no procession by the priest to the Pool of Siloam and there was no pouring out of water on the pavement. This also was significant because it was the acknowledging of God's fulfilled promise. He had promised to bring them into a land that was well-watered—a land that flowed with milk and honey. They no longer needed the miraculous water out of the rock. They now were just enjoying the land of promise that was well-watered. And thus, there was no procession on the eighth day, the great day of the feast.
Now on this day, as the people were gathered there worshipping God—tradition has it that it was at that time of the day when they usually were pouring the water on the pavement—that Jesus stood and cried to the thousands upon thousands of people that were gathered there in the courtyard: "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink" (John 7:37).
Now the fact that Jesus was standing was significant. According to their culture and practices, when a rabbi was teaching, he would also sit and the pupils would always stand. Somehow today we have things mixed up. But then it was customary for the teacher to sit and the pupils to stand. It kept them awake! However, when a person was going to herald or make a proclamation—herald a truth, they would stand. And the fact that Jesus is standing and crying indicates that He is now heralding a truth to the people. Jesus is giving an invitation to those who are thirsty. "If any man thirst," He said, "let him come unto me and drink" (John 7:37).
The land of Israel is basically a very arid land. And thus, the people were all familiar with thirst. In that dry and arid land you become very conscious of the need for water, in order to survive. But Jesus was not making reference to a physical thirst.
Now man is a threefold being. Man is spirit, possessing a consciousness and living in a body. And so, there are the three parts that make up you and me—body, mind, and spirit. Now according to the Scriptures, when a person is living in sin, the spirit is dead. The spirit of man does not come into life until he is born again by the Spirit of God. But man exists on the three levels of body, mind (or emotions), and spirit. And as such, man can experience physical thirst, he can experience emotional thirst, and he can experience spiritual thirst.
We all are very familiar with the physical thirst. Our body needs a certain amount of moisture in order to survive. And thus, one of the strongest physical drives that you have is your thirst drive—second only to the air drive. And when the body moisture content begins to get low, God has built into your body a little monitoring device that is constantly monitoring the moisture level. And in the monitoring of the moisture level, when it starts getting too low it sends out signals to your brain and signals to your throat. Your throat gets dry and it feels like you have cotton in your mouth. And about the only thing you can think of is, I need a drink! You get desperate—"I have got to get a drink of water! Is there a fountain around? I have got to get something to drink." And you can get really worked up and desperate over this need that the body has for moisture. It is a part of what is known as the homeostasis, or the body balance. And it is just something that God has created, this thirst drive. And it can become extremely strong when the body moisture level gets dangerously low.
We have what are called the sociological drives. We have discovered that we need love and there is that drive for love. I need to be loved. Tests have been done with babies, studying various ways of caring for them. Some babies went without physical touch, without caressing, without holding, but were mechanically fed with bottle holders, thus depriving the child of physical touch.
In institutionalized care, they have done this kind of experimentation and they have discovered that a child who does not experience the cuddling, the holding, the touching in six months, who goes without being held and loved, and touched—the child suffers irreversible, irreparable mental retardation. There is that need for love and usually the child will die by two years old under institutionalized, mechanical type of care. They quit the experiments when they discovered how desperately children, even little infants, need touching and need loving.
There is also the need for security, which is another emotional need. There is the need to be needed. We have all observed how couples who have lived together for years, after one dies, often the partner dies within a year or so. This is because the need to be needed is no longer met. As long as the husband was still alive and not feeling well, he needed his wife to be there to cook the meals and to take care of him. But when he finally died, she died within a year because she no longer felt needed. And that need to be needed is so strong, that when you do not feel needed any more, there is that sort of giving up. There is the need to be needed—one of the sociological or emotional drives.
There is also, deep down in the spirit of every man, a need for God. Romans 8 tells us that the creature was made subject unto emptiness—and that was by the design of Him who created him. Down deep inside, the spirit is crying out and yearning for a meaningful relationship with God. That need is built in. Man is incomplete without God. And without God there is, down deep inside, that yearning—that desire to know God and to experience God. It is universal. And when Jesus cried, "If any man thirst," that is the thirst that He was referring to. He was referring to that deep down thirst, in the spirit of every man, for a meaningful relationship with God.
Although we are made up of the three parts—body, soul, and spirit—they are integrated to the extent that it is often difficult for us to even discern what is soulish and what is spiritual. We are so integrated as body, soul, and spirit, that whatever affects you physically will affect you emotionally. And whatever affects you emotionally will affect you physically. More and more we are finding the tie between the emotions of a person and their physical well-being. It was hinted at in the Scriptures in Proverbs 17:22, which says, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." And it was recognized that a happy attitude, a merry heart, is valuable like a medicine. There is a healing power to it.
On the other hand, bitterness, sorrow, grief, can have effects upon you in a physical way. It can be physically detrimental because these emotions create certain chemicals in your body that become a poison to you. And so, we are learning how closely allied are the emotions to the physical well-being of a person.
But also, whatever affects you spiritually will affect you emotionally, and will affect you physically. Whatever affects you emotionally will also affect you spiritually. They are so integrated and so tied together that it is difficult, many times, to even know whether I am under an emotional attack or a spiritual attack. And it is hard to discern sometimes. Sometimes we think it is just emotional. Oh, I am just an emotional basket case, you know. And in reality it is a spiritual attack of the enemy—and you are under a strong spiritual attack.
The Bible says,
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)
God's Word can make that keen division. Many times people think that they are having deep spiritual experiences, when they are only having emotional experiences. The Word of God is that which makes the difference between the feeding of the emotions and the feeding of the spirit. Many services feed the emotions of people. The Word of God feeds the spirit of man—it is the spiritual food.
Now, although I am integrated body, soul, and spirit—so integrated that what affects one part of me affects all of me—yet there is the distinction and separation, so that you cannot fill an emotional need with a physical experience. Nor can you satisfy a physical need with an emotional experience.
My body needs moisture to survive. If I am out in Death Valley where the humidity is down to three percent, the body moistures are sucked right out of your body in that kind of aridity and you cannot survive very long without moisture. Let us say that I am driving through Death Valley and I have car problems. I have an off-road vehicle and my motor conks out on me and I realize that I cannot survive here long. I have got to get help. And there is no one who is going to be driving by this place. And so, I make the mistake.
Now, let me just say if you are in that kind of situation, stay with your vehicle. Many times the authorities find the vehicle before they find the dead body. And you are better off staying with the vehicle, because it is easier to spot than to spot you going through the desert area. And many people have made the mistake of hiking out. It is better to get some shade and just stay in the shade and keep yourself from physical exertion, because you can sweat and lose your moisture in a hurry and die in a few hours.
But let us say I am foolish and I take off. And as I perspire, the body moistures are being sucked out of me and I finally become so weak, as a result of the lack of moisture, I fall on that hot sand and I am lying there and just say, "Water, water." And instinctively I try and dig into the hot sand because there is something in your mind that says there must be water underneath here some place. And the last thing you do is dig into the hot sand trying to find the water. And as I am digging in the hot sand saying, "Water, water," someone comes over the sand dune and says, "Hi, aren't you Chuck Smith?" I respond, "Yeah. Water." He says, "I have seen you on television. I have listened to you teach the Word. I want you to know, I think you are the greatest teacher that ever came along!" And he might be fulfilling my emotional need for love and to be needed, but I am dying right there in his arms saying, "Water, water, water." And I am a goner because you cannot fulfill a physical need with an emotional experience.
Conversely, many, many children are suffering today from a lack of real love. Physically they have been given everything. And so many times we have heard parents say, "I cannot understand what is wrong with my child. We gave him everything." And true there are TVs, there are VCRs, there are video games, and there are bicycles. There is everything you can think of physically speaking. But there is no real closeness, no real love. The child feels like he is alone. Rather than having companionship with his parents, he is always being told, "Now, do not come into the kitchen. You make me nervous. Just go in and—we bought you the TV. Go in and play your games or get out of here! You know—I am trying to listen to Oprah." And you are pushing the kids away and they are dying for love, even though they have every kind of physical device to entertain them.
In a very real sense—and one of the real problems in the world today, is that there are those who are trying to satisfy the spiritual thirst that is in every man's heart. They are trying to satisfy it with physical or emotional experiences. And this is so common today. And people get caught up in religions where they have all kinds of emotional experiences, but they are trying to satisfy a spiritual thirst. Or we see people go from one fad to another, from one thing to another, trying to satisfy a spiritual thirst. They have every toy that has been devised. And when you see them on the weekends, they are heading out in the their campers. They are pulling a boat. They have hang gliders tied on top. They have the motorcycles tied on the boat and they are going out to find it this weekend, you know.
But there is this deep thirst for God inside and they are trying to fill that thirst with physical or emotional experiences. And it just does not work. You find out, as Jesus said to the woman of Samaria when He was talking to her about the water of life—the water that only He could give—He said, "If you drink of this water," referring to Jacob's well, "you will thirst again." And those words ought to be inscribed above every ambition in your life. Drink of the water. Achieve it, but it will not satisfy. You are going to thirst again. Over every physical thing that you want to purchase—that new car, that new boat, that new house—"Drink of that water, but you are going to thirst again." It is not going to satisfy because the thirst is a spiritual thirst. It is a thirst for God and it cannot be satisfied by any physical or emotional experience.
And that is the big mistake being made by the people in the world today. They are trying to satisfy that spiritual thirst and searching the world around, and they are searching into all kinds of religious experiences. I have often said it is amazing the stupid things people will do and people will believe, once they have rejected the truth of Jesus Christ. You become a prey and a sucker for every charlatan that comes down the pike. They know basic nature and the emptiness that is there, and so they promise, "Just sit and meditate on your navel and chant, 'Om' and you are going to have it, man. You are going to find it." And you see these are brilliant people. They are college professors and the like, and they are sitting there cross-legged going, "Om. Om." But it is because they have rejected the truth and there is that search. There is that emptiness. There is that thirst.
And that is the thirst that Jesus was addressing when He said, "If any man thirst." What is the answer to the thirst, the spiritual thirst? Jesus said, "Let him come unto Me and drink." Here again, in an indirect way, Jesus is claiming to be God. Knowing that the deep thirst in the spirit of man is for God, Jesus declares, "If any thirst," (that is, has that deep spiritual thirst for God), "come unto Me. I am the answer to your thirst for God."
Many times Jesus proclaimed that He was God, but then He also acclaimed it indirectly. Here is one of the indirect places. Another such instance is when the rich young ruler came and knelt before Jesus and said, "Good Master, what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said, "Why do you call Me good? There is only one good and that is God." Now Jesus was not saying, "I am not good." He was affirming, "I am God. Why did you call Me good? Because I am God." The ruler had come to a consciousness, an awareness, and Jesus is trying to wake up this consciousness that somehow gripped him when he said, "Good Master."
And so Jesus is saying, "Let him come unto Me and drink." There you have the gospel in just a very simple, beautiful form. Thirsty? Is your heart craving after an experience with God? "Come unto Me and drink." Now the result, Jesus said, is that, "he that drinketh of the water that I give, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water." Now Jesus is probably, as the Scripture said, making a reference to Isaiah 44:3. For in Isaiah 44:3, we find God promising,
For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.
So the promise of God: "I will pour water on him that is thirsty, floods upon dry ground, my spirit upon those, thy seed, thy offspring." The King James translation here of the Greek text, does not really give the intensity of the Greek text. Where we read in our King James translation, "Out of his belly there shall flow rivers of living water," the Greek text, being more intense, would better be translated, "Out of his belly [or innermost being], there will gush torrents of living water." From the King James text, you might be picturing a gentle little stream trickling through the woods. But the Greek text would rather picture a mighty deluge, cascading down a mountain gorge. There will gush torrents of living water.
At this point I can see Peter turning to John and saying, "John, what is He talking about now? He is speaking in riddles. What do you suppose?" John probably said, "Beats me, man. I don't know."
But notice the prophecy of Isaiah. "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, floods upon the dry ground. I will pour My Spirit upon your descendants" (Isaiah 44:3).
Now John wrote his Gospel many years later when he was in Ephesus, near the end of his life. Probably some sixty years later is when he penned his Gospel. And now he has a lot more understanding of what Jesus said. He now is looking at these words of Jesus with that great advantage of hindsight. He was thinking back now on that day when Jesus stood and cried to the multitudes, "If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink!" And now looking back, John explains what Jesus was talking about. And so you will notice in the Bible it is generally put in brackets indicating that John is now giving us a commentary on what Jesus was talking about when He said, "If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink." And John's commentary on this is:
But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet [given]; because that Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:39)
"But this"—Jesus was speaking of the Holy Spirit, which those who believed on Him were to receive.
What is he saying of the Holy Spirit? That it would be like a torrent of living water flowing out of your life. Now, we know what it is to have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We know what it is to have our bodies as the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in us. We know the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, as He conforms us into the image of Jesus Christ. But this is something different. This is something that is flowing out of your life—out of your innermost being will gush torrents of living water. This is speaking, John said, of the Holy Spirit.
Putting aside all of the debate over terminology, I really do not care what you call it. Call it the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the filling of the Holy Spirit—it really does not matter what terminology you might give to the experience. But this experience that Jesus is talking about, where the Spirit will be flowing, gushing forth out of your life is like a torrent of living water. My question to you is: Does this describe what is going on in your life? Does this describe your relationship with the Holy Spirit? Can you say, "Yes! Praise God! There is flowing forth from my life a torrent of dynamic love, and power, as a result of the Spirit overflowing my life."
The question is not whether you are baptized, or filled, or if you have the gift of the Spirit. The question is, is there this overflowing—gushing forth—torrents of living water from your life? If it does not describe your relationship with the Holy Spirit, then may I suggest to you that God has something more for you than what you have yet experienced. And should you not desire that which God has? And should we not seek that which God has promised of a life that is overflowing with the dynamic power and love of the Holy Spirit? I, for one, need and desire all the help I can get and all that God has for me. As Paul prayed for the Corinthians that they would not come short of any spiritual gift, that is my prayer for you. I pray that you will not come short of that which God is wanting to do in your life through this mighty dynamic of the Spirit, being released to where it flows forth out of your life like a torrent of living water.
Shall we pray?
Father, we thank You for the promise that those who hungered and thirsted after righteousness would be filled. And Lord, as You cried to the multitude, "If you thirst, come unto Me and drink," and as You promised that You would pour forth water upon the thirsty, so Lord, fill until we overflow with Your Holy Spirit. So that what You have done in and through our lives might be poured out for others, that they might experience Your love, Your life, as it flows forth from us to a thirsty world in which we live. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
[Unless otherwise noted, all Biblical references are quoted from King James Version.]
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Now let us turn in our Bibles to John 14:16, where Jesus, talking to His disciples said,
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but you know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (John 14:16-17)
In this lesson we would like to begin sort of a mini-series within the series, as we look at the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. We have been talking about the baptism, or the filling, or whatever you want to title it—this relationship that a believer can have with the Holy Spirit. It is the releasing of the Spirit and the out-flowing of the Spirit from my life. It is one thing to be filled and another thing to be overflowing. It is one thing to have the Spirit indwelling me and coming into my life and another thing to have the Holy Spirit flowing forth out of my life. It is that work of the Holy Spirit in my life that we would like to take a look at. And then we will look at the gifts of the Spirit and how the Holy Spirit flows forth from my life and the various gifts of the Spirit. We will be looking at that inward work of the Holy Spirit.
In this phrase, "another Comforter," the word "another" there in the Greek is allos, which means "of the same kind, or equal quality." It means another of the same order, the same kind, or equal quality. There is an additional Greek word that is translated "another," and that word means of "a different quality." You can have another. You know, you might be going to pick up a Hertz rental car and the employee says, "Well, you have ordered a little compact Geo, but we happen to be out of that right now. But we can give you another car, a Lincoln Town Car, for the same price." That kind of "another" would be the word heteros. It is not the same quality or the same kind. If you had ordered a Town Car and they said, "Well, we cannot give you that, but we will give you a Cadillac or something." Then that is sort of the same quality (allos).
So, when Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit being of the same quality, He is actually here ascribing to the Holy Spirit, the quality of divinity. He is declaring that the Holy Spirit is God. "I have been with you. I am going away. I will pray the Father, He will give you another [allos, of the same quality, the same kind] Comforter."
The word "Comforter" in Greek is paraklete, which means, "one who would come alongside of you to take up your case, or to plead your case," or, as it is used here, "to aid you in any way." Now I am going to pray the Father. He is going to give you another Comforter, one with the same quality, who will aid you in any way.
Now Jesus has been talking to His disciples about His being betrayed, being put to death. He has been telling them that He is going away and where He is going they cannot come right now. And they do not understand Him. They cannot comprehend the delay of the establishing of the kingdom. In their minds, Jesus is still going to set up the kingdom almost immediately. When He talks about going away and says you cannot come now, it troubles them. When He talks about death, it troubles them. And so, at the beginning of this chapter, He said, "Let not your hearts be troubled." For they were indeed troubled. He said He was going away to prepare a place for them. That He would come again and receive them unto Himself. But these are mysterious sayings. These are troubling sayings for the disciples.
You see, Jesus had been a real defense for the disciples. The scribes and the Pharisees liked to pick on them. We read in Mark 9, where Jesus saw a great multitude of people gathered around the disciples and the scribes were there questioning them. It had created sort of a big crowd. And you know when you get people arguing, often a crowd will gather. And Jesus came up and He said, "What are you talking to them about? —they are My little lambs, you do not pick on them!"
And the religious leaders would say to Jesus, "Now why do Your disciples eat with unwashed hands?" Well, Jesus always had such a good defense. He could just lay it out and silence them. The scribes and Pharisees asked, "Why do Your disciples do that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day?" And Jesus talks about David eating showbread, which was not lawful, and so forth. He was such a powerful defender.
Now how are they going to defend themselves against these scholars when they have not had the same advantage of an education within the religious schools—within the Scriptures? And if He is talking about going away then, what are they going to do when the Pharisees come and challenge them or the scribes challenge them? They are troubled about this and rightfully so.
But Jesus is saying, "I will pray the Father and He will give you another Comforter; one who is alongside to plead your case; one who will be here to help you and to aid you." Jesus went on to say,
But the Comforter, [this one who comes alongside to aid you, to plead your case. And here He identifies Him.] which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you. (John 14:26)
So, the work of the Holy Spirit within the life of the believer is comforting; just the name "Comforter" itself implies one who will be there to plead your case and to aid you in any way.
But now He is going to also teach you all things. Now Jesus, even at this late date said, "I have many other things to say unto you, but you are not able to take them now. You are not able to receive them. But the Holy Spirit is going to come. He is going to teach the disciples and He will aid them in the understanding of the Scriptures. They will not have to really worry about their lack of understanding. Jesus said, "For as I have taught you, so shall He teach you."
To study the Bible is a tremendous privilege. It is a marvelous book. The more I study it, the more I am amazed at this book. It is a blessing indeed. To aid and to assist in the study of the Bible, it is handy to study the original languages in order that you might be able to milk from the original languages some of the little nuances that do not translate well into English. And there are those little nuggets that you discover every once in a while. I know that there have been times when I have felt that it is wonderful I had studied Greek, so I can find these blessed little nuggets of truth. I studied Greek. I did not say I learned Greek, but I studied it. I am not a natural linguist. Languages are extremely difficult for me. My brain is not constructed properly to learn foreign languages. There are other areas in which I find a natural aptitude, but not in linguistics. Yet I have had enough Greek that I can dig into it, but it is tough. However, in digging through the Greek you find a nugget and it is worth digging to find these nuggets every once in a while
When I was pastoring years and years ago in Huntington Beach, we had a blessed saint of God there in the church who only made it through sixth grade. She was from Oklahoma and after she had gone through sixth grade, she quit school. And she loved the Lord. She was a real saint of God. And I would be studying in Galatians and digging through the Greek and trying to find some of these little nuggets of truth that show up in the Greek language. And I would get hold of one of those and I would think, my, this is wonderful! It is great to know a little Greek. And she would say, "Brother Smith, I was reading the other day in Galatians and I read this and I thought, you know, this must mean..."—and she would come out with the same truth. And I thought,it is not fair! All of the midnight oil and trying to maintain a grade in Greek, and here she just gets it without any Greek.
But this is what Jesus is saying. The Holy Spirit will teach you. And so He is saying to the disciples, "You do not have to worry about your lack of understanding of the Scriptures. As I have taught you, He is now going to teach you." In First John 2:27 John said,
But the anointing which ye have received of him [that is, the Holy Spirit] abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
So you really do not need any man to teach you. You know, this is interesting because practically every cult insists that you do need man to teach you. They are heavy on selling you their books, getting you to read their books. Why is it so necessary to read their books? It is necessary because you would never come to the same screwy interpretations that they have unless you were led to them by their books. I am not at all afraid of what you will come to believe if you just read the Bible. I have no qualms in just saying, "Well, read the Bible!" I believe that as you read the Bible and ask the Holy Spirit to teach and instruct your heart, that He will lead you into all truth.
Now this idea that you have no need, that no man should teach you, in reality God has established in the church teachers. Pastor-teachers were appointed for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry. But it is an interesting thing, that though we may be teaching the Word of God and the truth of God's Word, unless the Holy Spirit bears witness to the truth in your own heart, you are not going to really learn. It is the Holy Spirit that actually teaches us the Scriptures. And how great it is to have the author of the Scriptures to help us understand what He wrote!
You know, sometimes when I read a book I would like to talk to the author and ask, "Just what kind of a point were you trying to make? What are you trying to say?" How wonderful it is that we have the author of the Bible, the Holy Spirit, to teach us!
In Mark 12:36, Jesus declared that the Holy Spirit spoke by the mouth of David. In Acts 1:16, Peter declared that the Holy Spirit spoke by the mouth of David. And going back to Second Samuel 23:1-2, as you deal with the last words that David spoke, David declared that the Spirit ofYahweh spoke by him. So, David declared that he was speaking by the Holy Spirit, Peter confirms it, and Jesus settles it, declaring that he spoke by the Holy Spirit. On the one end of the line, the Holy Spirit provided the inspiration. On our end of the line, He provides the illumination. He inspired it, but He illumines it to my heart. And that is what Jesus is saying,
The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. (John 14:26)
Have you ever had the experience of talking with someone and suddenly you begin to quote a Scripture you did not know you knew? That happens to me so often. I will start to quote a passage of Scripture and it just keeps rolling out. And I did not really realize that I had memorized that Scripture. Yet, in that time the Holy Spirit just gives you that recall and the remembrance of those passages of Scripture.
Now Paul writes about the Holy Spirit enabling us to understand the Word of God. In 1 Corinthians 2:9, he said,
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, the ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by is Spirit: For the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9-12)
The Holy Spirit, which we have received, is to help us so that we might know the things that God has freely given unto us. Paul said,
Which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing the spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:13-14)
Now one of the problems that we have today is that there are men who have spent years in the study of the Scripture in seminaries. They teach in seminaries. They are known as scholars and they have studied the original languages. And they have written many books about the Bible, about particular texts in the Bible. But there is one big problem: they are not born again. And so, they are looking at the Bible purely from a humanistic standpoint. And it causes them to be so brazen as to assert that they can tell you which of the statements Jesus really said and which ones were just written by the apostles and ascribed to Jesus. And they can tell you how many different authors the Book of Isaiah had. And they can tell you all of these things about the Bible, as though they are the final authority.
There is one problem—major problem—with telling a person what part of the Bible is genuine and what is not. And the major problem with that arrives the moment I set myself up as a scholarly authority. These scholars have studied the styles in the Hebrew and so forth; and so, with the change of style, they say the difference in writers becomes obvious. They can show you the different changes of style in the writing of the Hebrew; and thus, it is obvious that the one writer of Isaiah only wrote so much and that others took care of the rest. So, they say, you cannot really trust this and you cannot trust that, but their opinion you can accept.
Or with the words of Jesus for instance, it is the same as these fellows have just done. When anybody sets himself up as an authority to tell you what part of the Bible is genuine and what is spurious—the minute they set themselves up as that kind of an authority, the Bible no longer becomes the authority. They become the authority. But the problem with that is that these authorities are arguing with each other. So, which authority do I believe? The whole ultimate end of the matter is total confusion.
Now I believe that if I cannot trust the whole thing, I cannot trust anything. But I believe I can trust the whole thing (that is, the Bible). I have no problem at all trusting the entire Bible as being inspired by God, the inerrant Word of God. I do not have any difficulty with that at all. And I am glad that I do not.
Now, in reality, a Spirit-filled child of God, like this woman I mentioned in Huntington Beach who was filled with the Spirit, in love with the Lord and in love with His Word—she is a truer guide into the truth of God than some fellow with a PhD, who is not born again but knows the original languages. Because the natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit, neither can he know them. They are spiritually discerned. If you try to understand the Bible, apart from the help of the Holy Spirit, you are going to get into all kinds of weird things. All of the weird twists come from people who have not the Holy Spirit, but with the natural intellect and the natural mind are trying to comprehend spiritual things. And so that is why Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would teach us. We did not have need that man should teach us. God has revealed His truth unto us by His Spirit, because He searches the deep things of God.
We certainly see this manifested in the Book of Acts. We see how the Holy Spirit brought to their remembrances remote and obscure passages of Scripture, but gave real sense to them. When Peter spoke, every time he spoke he was quoting Scriptures. He had a tremendous working knowledge of the Scriptures. He was enabled by the Holy Spirit to just quote large passages of Scriptures, as well as making sense and application out of remote, obscure passages. When he gathered with the disciples and the Holy Spirit was poured upon the church, the crowd was sort of mocking him. They were saying, "Well they have some new wine." Peter began to explain to them, quoting quite extensively from the prophecy of Joel, showing to them exactly what was going on. They were saying, "What meaneth this?" And he said, "This is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel." And then he quotes the prophecy.
But then as Peter goes on to preach to them about Jesus. He begins to quote from the Psalms, how that David, by the Holy Spirit spake saying, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither will you allow the Holy One to see corruption." And he is quoting passages of Scripture all the time, as the Holy Spirit brings to his remembrance, as the Holy Spirit gives him understanding, and application of the Scriptures.
When Stephen was facing the Jewish council, as he was challenged by those of the synagogue, it says they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. Here were all of these leaders of these various sects, Libertines and so forth. And Stephen, though just a deacon in the church, has such an anointing of the Holy Spirit, such wisdom, that they were not able to resist. They could not hold up to this fellow.
And then when they brought Stephen before the whole council, he went right from Genesis through the Prophets. He just really laid out the Scripture in a masterpiece, as he showed to them how their illustrious fathers were as blind as they were. "You keep talking about, well our fathers this and our fathers that, but your fathers sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver to be a slave in Egypt, not realizing that God had ordained him to preserve the family." And it was not until the second time around that they recognized the position of Joseph. He was ordained of God for the purpose of leading the family. They had rejected that. When he told them of his dreams they rejected Joseph as the leader. However, the second time around they saw how God had anointed Joseph, but they were blind to it the first time.
Moses thought that the Israelites would understand that God had chosen him to lead them, but they did not. He fled for his life and was gone for forty years. It was not until the second time around that they recognized that Moses was indeed God's chosen leader.
The first time around, they rejected Jesus. The second time around, they will recognize Him. Stephen said, "You are following a pattern of your fathers." And so he said, "Which of the prophets did not your fathers stone or imprison?" And he said, "But you are worse than them because you killed the One they were all prophesying of." That did not go well with them. But it was masterful. It was absolutely masterful.
And we read in Acts 7:55-56,
But he [Stephen] being full of the Holy Ghost, [this was at the end of the message]—looked up steadfastly unto heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And he said, "Behold I see the heavens open and, the Son of man standing on the right hand of God."
Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit had inspired and put together that whole message and the Scriptures in such a masterful way.
The Holy Spirit would inspire their responses to charges that would be leveled against them. Jesus said,
And when they bring you into the synagogues, and unto the magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what things ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say. (Luke 12:11-12)
Jesus was telling them "The Holy Spirit will be there to defend you, to give you the words. You do not have to think up fancy little speeches. The anointing of God's Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will have the answers and the responses."
We have already seen how the Holy Spirit aided in the case of Stephen. But then we also read concerning Peter, when he was brought before the Jewish council because of the healing of the lame man:
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit said, "Ye rules of Israel, if we are called this day in question because of the good deed done to this lame man." (Acts 4:8-9)
Then Peter went on to preach to them such a convincing, masterful defense, that they marveled at his responses because they perceived that he was ignorant and unlearned.
In John 16:13-15 Jesus said,
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.
So the Holy Spirit is guiding them into all truth.
And then the Holy Spirit is bringing Jesus' words to their remembrance. In John 2:22 we read,
When therefore He was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that He had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said.
You see He said He would bring to their remembrance the things. And when Jesus rose, then they remembered. Oh yeah, I remember He said that. But it was the Holy Spirit quickening their memory.
In John 12:16 we read,
These things understood not His disciples at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.
At first they did not understand when Jesus was talking about these things. But later on, after Jesus was glorified, the Holy Spirit then brought it back to their remembrance and put the whole thing together for them.
So the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is first to illuminate the Word of God to his heart. It is to aid in the understanding of the Scriptures and to help in the defense of the Scriptures, bringing to remembrance the Scriptures, the Word of God. And thus, this glorious work of the Holy Spirit in our lives regarding our study and our understanding of the Bible.
Father, we thank You for the help of the Holy Spirit. And Lord, we look to You and we rely upon You for that help. And we thank You that You have given to us the Spirit to teach us all things, to guide us into all truth, to help us in seeing the proper application of the church. Lord, we pray for the mind of the Spirit and the understanding of the Spirit, so that we would not make the mistake that so many do, going to the Scriptures with the natural mind and wisdom. But Lord, going and understanding our need of the Holy Spirit to illuminate that which He inspired in the hearts of the writers. In Jesus' name, Lord, we thank You and we bless You for the Holy Spirit and the help that He gives to us and the understanding of all truth. Guide us, Lord, into Your truth. In Jesus' name. Amen.
[Unless otherwise noted, all Biblical references are quoted from King James Version.]
(3)
Let us turn in our Bibles to Acts 1, as we continue on the subject of the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. Last week we saw the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer as teaching and instructing us in the things of God and in the Word of God. Tonight we would like to look at the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer as He empowers us to be witnesses.
In Acts 1:4, Jesus was with His disciples and He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem until they had received this baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now the disciples asked Jesus a question that was irrelevant to what He was talking about. It was an important question—one that Jesus was very concerned about. But their question was not relevant to what He was talking about—their receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They said, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"
Now this is what they were expecting the Lord to do. They did not expect Him to be crucified. They were expecting Him to restore the kingdom to Israel, so that Israel might rule over the world with their righteous King according to the promises concerning their Messiah. And Jesus had been talking with them for forty days, concerning the kingdom. But now He is talking to them about another subject, and that is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
It is interesting how often we can get diverted from the main topic by an interesting question on a subject that we really love. And so, often we get so far afield of the original issue, that we forget what the actual issue was. Jesus dismisses their question without really any explanation and He comes back to the subject at hand: their receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And in verse 8 He declares,
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:8)
So the baptism of the Holy Spirit was to give them power to be witnesses unto Jesus throughout the entire world. It is interesting as we follow the story in the Book of Acts that, first of all, they did bring witness of Jesus to Jerusalem—so much so, that they were accused of "filling the city with this Man's doctrine." When persecution arose in Jerusalem, the church was scattered abroad throughout all of Judea. And they went everywhere preaching the Word. And so they began to spread the message into Judea. And we find in the record in Acts that Peter went down to Lydda and met with certain disciples there. While he was there the disciples in Joppa called him over to minister to one who had died in Joppa. And so, there were these pockets of believers throughout Judea.
Then we read that Philip went unto Samaria and preached Christ unto them. And then as we get into Acts 13, we find the Holy Spirit saying, "Separate unto Me, Paul and Barnabas for the ministry where I have called them." And they fasted and prayed and then laid hands on them and the Spirit sent them forth. And they began the task of carrying the gospel unto the uttermost parts of the earth. And for the most part, the rest of the Book of Acts has to do with Paul's missionary journeys, as he is carrying the gospel to the world. Now this was all done through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that they were enabled to take the gospel to all the world.
So, many people associate witnessing with just the verbalizing of your faith, or your testimony, to someone else—talking to them about the Bible, about Jesus Christ, about salvation, about God's gift of eternal life. And we think of witnessing only as verbalizing to others concerning their need of Jesus Christ. But witnessing is far more than just giving a person an invitation or telling someone about Jesus Christ. A more powerful witness than simply telling someone about Jesus Christ is a believer living the life of Jesus Christ before them.
I was up at the high school camp yesterday, enjoying a wonderful day with those beautiful young people. It was a thrill to see the work of God's Spirit in their lives as we ministered to them yesterday. A young girl came up to me just as I was leaving last night and she said, "Pastor Chuck, I want to witness to my brother and I do not know how to witness to my brother." I told her, just live the Christian life before him. Let him see what Jesus has done in your life. And that is the strongest witness that you can possibly give to him.
When we talk about being a witness for Jesus Christ, we are talking about the life that bears witness for Jesus Christ. Often times, what we say is thoroughly discredited by what we are and by what we do. You see, you can be witnessing to someone verbally and you can be telling them how wonderful the work of Jesus Christ is in your life. "He gives you such glorious peace and you need to know this peace of Jesus Christ." But that witness can be discredited if, while you are working beside them, any time any little irritant comes along and you blow up, and you get mad, and yell at everything and everybody, and then you say, "but Jesus gives you such glorious peace." Or if you are talking about the joy of the Lord and you are always going around grouchy and grumpy and snapping at everybody—what you say will be meaningless to them because of what you are. So, it is extremely important that our life bear witness of the peace of Jesus Christ and the love of Jesus Christ. And then they will see, as it is worked out in our lives.
It is interesting that people get a lot of weird ideas concerning the Scripture and think that they have received some revelation from God. And many times they feel that they need to share this revelation with the church. We get requests quite often from people who want to come and share some revelation of scriptural truth to the body of Christ here. They want to share some twist on an interpretation that they got in some kind of a dream. I think it was more inspired by the In-n-Out burger with onions than it was by the Spirit. Often I will say to them, give us the opportunity to observe how this truth has affected your walk and your life. Let us see how it has brought you closer to Jesus. Let us see the peace and the joy that it has brought into your life. And when we see the fruit of this truth in your life, then we will be coming to you and asking you to share with us just what is it that makes you different.
It is important that our lives agree with our testimony. And that is what a real witness is. It is when your life is in agreement with your testimony and they can see it worked out in your life. They can see the example of it in your life. That is why Paul said to Timothy, "Be thou an example unto the believer." And when Paul talked to the elders of Ephesus, he said, "I was with you teaching you and showing you. My life was the demonstration of the truth that I was sharing with you."
In the Book of Revelation, it speaks of Jesus as the faithful and true witness. He was a faithful and true witness of the Father. So that if you want to know what God is all about, and if you want to know what God is like, you can look at Jesus and discover exactly how God thinks—how God feels and what God is like. He was a faithful and true witness of God. So much so that when Philip said to Him,
Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, 'Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou [then], Show us the Father?' (John 14:8-9)
Jesus could declare that because He was a faithful and true witness. You can know what God is like by looking at Jesus.
The name Christian was coined in Antioch by the world. As they observed the lives of the believers in Jesus Christ, they called them Christians, which meant Christ-like. It is wonderful when the world gives you that title. It is not something that you have to go out and declare. Well, I am a Christian, are you? Are you Christ-like? It is glorious when that title is given to you by others after having observed your life. They say, "Oh, he is a real Christian. He is really like Christ."
If a person would say to you, "Oh, but I would love to see Jesus Christ," You should be able to say, "Well, if you have seen me..." You see, that would be a faithful and true witness. Jesus was able to say that of the Father. "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father." He was a faithful and true witness of the Father.
Now He wants you to be a witness of Him. He wants your life to be so like His, that it is a witness of Him. And people will know what He is like as they observe you. And if you want to take a test of self-examination, just read 1 Corinthians 13, removing the word charity and inserting your own name, and you will find out how true a witness you are. You see, you can take out the word charity and insert the name Jesus and you do no violence to the text at all. It flows. It fits. But unfortunately, when we insert our name it does a lot of violence to the text. But that is an indictment against us. It means that we have not yet yielded fully to the work of the Holy Spirit, who God has sent to help us, to give us the power to be witnesses.
Several years ago someone wrote a book on the imitation of Jesus. And the book suggested that before you responded or reacted to the various circumstances, adverse and others, that you first ask the question: What would Jesus do? And then seek to do what Jesus would do in those circumstances. Well, I can assure you that if you want to become totally frustrated, just try it. Just try in your own ability to imitate Jesus Christ. Try to respond and to react as He did and as He has commanded us to do. Jesus: who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; who said to us in Matthew 5, "Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who despitefully use you, and so shall you be the children of the Father." And if you just try to live like Jesus, try to act like Jesus, you will find that it is an impossible task in your own ability or self control.
Paul the Apostle tried to imitate Christ. And he writes in Romans 7 about his experience. He said in verse 15,
For that which I do, I allow not: [In other words, I am doing things that I really don't want to do.] For what I would, that do I not. [I am doing the things I do not want to do. I am not doing the things I do want to do.] But what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. (Romans 7:15-18)
This was Paul's struggle. The will is there—"that which I want to do, I do not do. That which I do not want to do I am doing. It is because of the sin that dwells in me, this sinful nature."
Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. (Romans 7:20-22)
I listen to the law of God. I hear what Jesus says and I say, "Yes! That is right. Yes, I want to do that. Yes, that is the way I want to respond." That is the way I want to react. That is the kind of a person I desire to be—kind and loving and forgiving and generous and compassionate, merciful. That is the kind of person I want to be. I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law that is working in me, that wars against the law of my mind and brings me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my body. Paul cried,
Oh, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24)
I am living in an unredeemed body that is still in rebellion against God—a body that does not want to serve or be subservient to the Spirit. I am living in a body that wants to usurp authority and control over my mind and over my life with body appetites that are demanding fulfillment. And my spirit yearns after God, to be like Jesus. But when I try, I find that this other nature, the nature of my flesh, is there battling against the desires of my spirit.
In Matthew 26:41, Jesus said to Peter, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." And all of us have experienced that. It is not my mind that really is in rebellion against God. In my heart I desire to please God. I want to serve God, but there is the battle that goes on between the flesh and the spirit. And these two are contrary, so that Paul, in writing to the Galatians says, "We do not always do what we would." In fact Paul says even stronger, "so that you cannot do the things that you would." It is because of this battle between the desires of the spirit and the desires of the flesh.
Thus it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that I can have and experience victory over my flesh and over the desires of my flesh. The writer of that hymn, "Have Thine Own Way Lord," really struck the right chord. I think it is the third stanza where he wrote,
Have Thine own way, Lord. Have Thine own way. Hold o'er my being absolute sway. Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see Christ only, always, living in me. (Adelaide Pollard)
It is only as I am filled with the Spirit and as I am yielding to the Holy Spirit that I can then, through the power of the Spirit, be a true witness.
Jesus said,
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me. (Acts 1:8)
But I cannot be a witness apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. The word power in the Greek is dynamis, from which we receive our English word, dynamic. And so, you will receive the dynamics—and how we need the dynamic of the Holy Spirit in our lives, in order that we might be true and faithful witnesses of Jesus.
Now in the life of Peter, we see a classic example of a man who has the right desires, but lacks the power of the Holy Spirit, so that he cannot do that which he wanted and desired so desperately to do. Jesus, the night He was betrayed, as He was eating supper with the disciples, He said to them, "All of you are going to be offended tonight because of Me." And Peter said, "Lord, though they all are offended, I would never be offended." And Jesus said, "Peter, before the rooster crows you will have denied Me three times." Peter said, "I would never deny You! If they would kill me I would not deny You. If they were torturing me, I would never deny You!" And Peter was expressing the desire of his heart: to be a faithful witness of Jesus Christ. That was the heart of Peter, not to deny Jesus, but to be a faithful witness.
And yet, we find Peter standing outside of the house of the high priest where Jesus has been brought before the religious tribunal, this august body of religious leaders, and they are trying Him in this mock trial. And as Peter is standing outside with the soldiers, warming himself by their fire, a young maiden comes up to Peter and says, "Aren't you also one of His disciples?" Peter says, "No. I do not know Him." A little later she comes back and she says, "I am sure I have seen you with Him." He says, "No, no. You do not know what you are talking about. I do not know Him." And finally the soldiers say to Him, "You must be one of His disciples. You have a Galilean accent." And Peter begins to swear, denying that he ever knew Jesus. And the rooster begins to crow.
Peter was sincere. When he said, "Lord, if they would kill me I would never deny You," he was talking from his heart. He was expressing the desires of his spirit and his heart, of being faithful to Jesus. His spirit indeed was willing, but his flesh was weak.
Now it is a few weeks later. The scene is the same. The religious council of Jerusalem has gathered together. But this time Peter is not outside, he is a defendant standing before them. And the prosecuting attorney asks him a very leading question. "Tell us, by what power or by what name did you make this lame man walk?" And then we read,
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, 'Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; be it known unto you all, and to all of the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.' (Acts 4:8-12)
And Acts 4:13 says, "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter..." What a changed man! What is the difference? He has received what Jesus promised. "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be witnesses unto Me." And here we see Peter giving a very powerful and dynamic witness of Jesus Christ to these men who, only a few weeks earlier, were standing outside of that august body where he was cowed into a denial of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit is given to you as a gift of God to empower you to live as a witness for Jesus Christ and to share that witness verbally with others. But as we said, what you say can never be greater than what you are. What you are oftentimes speaks much louder than what you say.
A little bit further in Acts 4, we again see the boldness it takes to witness. Peter was threatened not to speak any more of this man in the name of Jesus. They commanded him not to speak or teach, but Peter and John answered and said,
Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. (Acts 4:19-23)
They reported their whole experience before the chief priests and the elders. And when the people heard what was going on, the persecution that was beginning, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord. And they prayed,
And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:29-31)
They were filled with the Holy Spirit, which gave them power to speak the word and to witness with boldness. Jesus said, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you shall be witnesses unto Me," We need that power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the weakness of our flesh.
Shall we pray?
Father, we thank You for the promise. And Lord, we are aware of the warfare that goes on within us. We are aware of the weakness of our flesh. But Lord, we are also aware of the yearning of our heart and of our spirit to be, Lord, a witness for You. Lord, we recognize that we cannot do it in ourselves. We have tried, Lord, and like Peter we have ended up frustrated. We find this other law at work that when we would do good, evil is present. The law of the flesh is warring against the spirit. Lord, we need the dynamic of Your Holy Spirit. And so we come tonight, Lord, and we ask You to have mercy upon us and our weaknesses. And we ask, Lord, that You would fill us with Your Holy Spirit, that we might have that power to be the kind of witness that will bring glory and honor unto Your name. We desire to be faithful witnesses of what You are and bearing that witness before others. Help us, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
[Unless otherwise noted, all Biblical references are quoted from King James Version.]
(4)
We will continue our study on the subject of the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. In this lesson we would like to look at the work of the Spirit in conforming us into the image of Jesus Christ.
God has placed certain ministries in the church. Paul declares first of all, that there were the apostles, and then some prophets, some evangelists and some pastor/teachers. These are various gifted individuals within the church that God has placed within the body for the purpose of the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry. Paul declared that he was an apostle not by the will of man, but by the will of God. He also asked the rhetorical question: Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Do all heal? Are all pastor/teachers? And the answer is obviously, No. There are these many different ministries within the church, but the purpose is the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, which is the building up of the body of Christ.
And so, that is really why we are here tonight. To study the Word in order that there might be a perfecting of the saints and that you might be edified—built up in Jesus Christ. The Lord wants to bring all of us into a full maturity in our Christian walk. There are too many Christians who have really never developed spiritually. They have what could be classified as an arrested state of spiritual development that began when they were about two months old in the Lord. Paul speaks to them as babes in Christ. He said that he had fed them with the milk of the Word and not with meat, for they were not able to bear the meat and were still not able to take it. The writer to the Hebrews said,
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. (Hebrews 5:12)
Now milk is a good and proper diet for babies, but there should be a development. There should be a growth in our Christian experience. Peter wrote and said, "As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word" (1 Peter 2:2). There is nothing wrong with that for babies. But the time comes when a child needs to be weaned from the bottle and begin to eat meat. And this is true in a spiritual sense. There needs to be a development—a growth in our walk in the Spirit.
Paul tells us here in Ephesians 4, that "till we all come to the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man." The word perfect there is fully matured. Until we come into a fully matured state. And what is the mark of that fully matured state? "...unto the stature, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).
Infancy is a natural state after birth. There is nothing wrong with being a babe in Christ for a while. But when you have been around for twenty-five years and you are still in diapers and holding on to your bottle, it does not take the gift of discernment to understand that something is radically wrong. You should have developed. You should have grown during that time.
Now Paul tells us God has predestined that we should be conformed to the image of His Son. In the beginning, we read that God created man and Scripture declares that He created him in His likeness and after His image. When God said, "Let us make man in our own image, after our own likeness," God is a spirit and thus He was referring to that spiritual aspect of man's being. So man is created in the image of God. God's chief moral characteristic is righteousness and thus He created us with a desire for righteousness. God's chief governmental characteristic is self-determination, so God created you as self-determinate being. He gave to you the capacity of choice. God's chief emotional characteristic is love. And He created us with the capacity of giving and receiving love. So we are created in the image of God. We have a desire for righteousness, the capacity to choose, and the ability to love and to receive love.
Now man fell from the image of God. He became selfish, cold, indifferent, and vengeful. And thus to understand the real purpose of God in the creation of man, you cannot really look around at mankind today and understand God's divine intent in the creation of man. This is a mistake that many people make. They look at fallen man in his fallen state, and then they question the goodness and the love of God that would create such a man. Look at him, how horrible he is! He has the capacities to do so much evil and how could a God of love create such a horrible creature as man? You do not see God's intent by looking around at man today, because you see man in his fallen state. You do not see what God intended man to be.
Now the Bible describes man in the fallen state. Romans 1:29, Paul said,
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, and unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:29-32)
This is a pretty sad state. When you look at it, it is pretty sad to see the condition of man when he turns his back on God. And it is amazing when a man turns his back on God and the love of God and the things of God, how deep he can go into moral depravity.
In writing the second letter to Timothy, Paul gives him a list too saying,
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men will be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. (2 Timothy 3:2)
Now, when you read that list, I can assure you, that was not God's intention for man. That is not the way God intended us to live. To know and to understand God's intention for man, you have to look at Jesus Christ. And in Jesus Christ you see the intention of God for man. He lived as God would have us to live. You see the Bible tells us concerning Jesus that He was the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. So that Jesus came and lived in the image of God and in the likeness of God. In His life He demonstrated to us what God is like and thus, how God created man in His image and how God intended and desires men to live. We read:
And the Word was made flesh and He dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
And then in 2 Corinthians 4:4 Paul said,
In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God...
So you see how God created man when you look at Jesus Christ. He is the image of God. God created man in His image. And so, you also see how far man has fallen from the original divine intent of creation. God did not intend that we live as we are living today. God did not intend that man be living after the flesh—soulish and sensual. That is not God's intention. Jesus said to Philip,
He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father. (John 14:9)
Christ was and did live in the express image of God. In Colossians 1:15Paul said,
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.
Now is it God's desire and purpose to take us fallen creatures and to restore us back into His image. God wants to nullify the effect of sin and the fall of man and to restore us once more into the image of God. And so Paul said in Romans,
Therefore brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:12-13)
You will live as God intended you to live. Romans 13:14 says,
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lust thereof.
God does not want us living sensual, fleshly lives. He wants us to live a life in the Spirit and after the Spirit. And in Galatians 5:16-17 Paul said,
This I say then, walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh: For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that ye would.
Galatians 5:24 says,
And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and the lusts.
Colossians 3:5-10 says,
Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience: in the which ye also walked some time when ye lived in them. But now also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, and filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not to one another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.
So, God wants you to put off the old man, the old nature, the corrupt nature, which is corrupted by sin. And He wants you to put on the new man.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Jesus said to Nicodemus,
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3)
There has to be a new birth, a new man. You put off the old man. By the power of the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh. You are no longer living after the flesh, but you are now living after the Spirit and the things of the Spirit.
Now we see the new man in Christ contrasted with the old man after the flesh. And when I see the ideal—I look at Jesus and I read of the characteristics and I observe His characteristics. He was kind. He was sensitive. He was compassionate. He was merciful. He was forgiving. And when I see these characteristics, I say, "Oh, yes! That is how I want to live." I hate it when I get in the flesh and do ugly things. The flesh is so ugly and distasteful. And I desire the ideal. When I read the contrasting list, I say, "Oh God, deliver me from the flesh, from all of the anger and malice and strife and envy and bitterness and all of those horrible things that are destructive. God, deliver me from that!" I desire to be very compassionate, loving, giving, kind. I long to be like Jesus.
But as Paul said,
I know that in me, that is in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not. (Romans 7:18)
And that is the problem—how to perform that which is good. We see the ideal, desire the ideal, but our inability to attain the ideal is frustrating. That is one of the problems with the religions of the world. Buddha pointed to an ideal. Buddha, in a sense, was on track in many ways. Buddha maintained that man's problems came from his desire for material things. And as long as you were mastered by the desire for material things you were always going to be upset, angry, warring, and filled with strife. This desire to grasp material things is sort of the idea that the Scripture says,
For the love of money is the root of all evil. (1 Timothy 6:10)
And that lust and desire for money brings striving. It brings this envying and it brings jealousies and all of these negative things. And Buddha said the answer is to lose all desire for things material and if you can ever achieve and attain that state, where you have no desire for material things, even food, that you will then be in nirvana. It will be peaceful bliss: "I am happy. I am satisfied. I do not want a thing." And so that, to Buddha, was nirvana.
Now in a sense, Jesus said the problem that we have with anger and all of these things does stem from the material life, the life of the flesh. And so, we need to live after the Spirit, for the life of the Spirit is superior to the life of the flesh. Jesus taught the superiority of the life of the Spirit over the life of the flesh, much as did Buddha. One vast difference is that Buddha pointed to the path that would bring you to nirvana, but he had no capacity to help you walk that path. So that just gets frustrating.
A few years ago we had the king of Laos visiting here at Calvary Chapel. He was here with his cabinet and we had a large group of Laotian people, who had come to meet the king of Laos, who had come to Orange County to talk to the Laotian population here. I was asked to explain to the king and to his cabinet and to the Laotian people that were here, what Christianity was all about. And it was a beautiful opportunity to share. Now the Laotian people were basically Buddhist. And so, like Paul the Apostle, I started on their turf.
When Paul was in Athens he said, "I perceive that you are very religious people. I have been going through your city and I found idols, you know, to everything. And I even passed one altar and it was inscribed, 'to the unknown god.' I would like to tell you about this God. He is the one that created the heavens and the earth." And so Paul started on their turf, but he led them into his own turf.
So, I started talking to the Laotian people about a lot of the things of Buddha—his teaching, the basic philosophies and all of Buddha's teaching. And then I brought out how he taught about a good way of life. It would be wonderful if people actually could follow the teaching of Buddha. It would be wonderful if people would be kind, and would be considerate, and would be giving, and did not have any desires for themselves. But the problem is that I have never met a Buddhist who could say, "Well, I am satisfied," because none of them had attained nirvana. Because there is something within us (that fleshly nature), that though I may desire, see, or recognize that, yes, this peaceful life would be good—that it would be wonderful to be able to live like this, to never get angry, to never be upset, to always be in a happy, good frame of mind—try as I may, I am still living in this body of flesh and there is this warfare that is going on. And I do not always do the things that I would. And thus I get upset and frustrated.
Now Jesus said, this is how you are to live: after the Spirit, denying self, the self-life, taking up the cross, and following Him. But then He said, Now I am going away, but I am not going to leave you without any help. I am going to pray to the Father and He is going to give to you another Helper, even the Spirit of Truth, that He may abide with you forever (cf. John 14:16).
And Jesus promised that when we receive the Spirit we would, with the Spirit, receive the power of that Holy Spirit, dwelling in us, doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
So, the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to indwell your life and to give you the power to live as God would have you to live. As He, dwelling in you, working in you, does His works of conforming you into the image of God. He is restoring that which man lost as the result of sin. He is restoring man back into the image of God. Now this cannot be done by human resolve. It cannot be done by self-effort. Job said, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" No one. David said, "Oh that my ways were directed to keep Thy commandments." Oh God, how I wished that this were so. That my ways were directed to keep Your commandments. And then he said, "Behold I have longed after Thy precepts." I see them. I long after them. I admit and confess that they are right. I desire them.
So my dilemma: I love Jesus; I desire to be like Jesus; I want to be conformed into the image of God; I have a strong desire for these things. But my flesh is weak. And thus, Christians often find themselves in the state of great frustration, having the longing, seeing the ideal, desiring the ideal, but yet, defeated so often by the flesh. Must I always live in this condition of spiritual defeat?
Thank God, the answer is no. There is true victory for every child of God.
When the children of Israel were led by Moses out of Egypt and journeyed through the wilderness to the Promised Land, their whole experience was an allegory and has parallels in the Christian life. They were saved by the blood of the lamb that was put on the doorpost of the house. They came out of Egypt, which is a type of the bondage in a life of sin. They came to the Red Sea, which is a symbol of baptism. And they began their journey through the wilderness towards the Promised Land. Unfortunately, when they came close to the border and close to entering in of the Promised Land, Moses made the mistake of sending in the spies to spy out the land. And ten came back with an evil report. Two spies came back with an encouraging report. But the people listened to the discouraging report and sought to get a leader to take them back to Egypt.
They said, "Our children will be killed. We will be destroyed. We cannot do it." And God said, "Because you have failed to enter in you will wander for forty years in this wilderness until you have all died and the children whom you said would be as prey, they will go into the land." And so, there began a long funeral procession for forty years, as they were waiting for everyone to die off of the old generation.
Finally after forty years, they came again to the border of the Promised Land, but this time having gone around, they came to the river Jordan. And coming through the river Jordan, God actually stopped the river and they came across the Jordan. This is a type of that place in your Christian experience where you are tired of wandering in the wilderness, which was marked by complaining, and murmuring, and just challenging God constantly. They came to Jordan, which is a type of the death of the old nature, the old man. That is the reckoning of my old nature to be dead, or the mortifying of the deeds of the flesh by the power of the Spirit. And they began to possess what God had promised, a new land—a land that was flowing with milk and honey.
They had a lot of battles in the wilderness, but they never gained anything from them. They never really gained any territory. Now there were still battles, but they were gaining territory all the while. When you come into this life in Christ, the life of the Spirit, there are still battles. There are still struggles, but our lives are now being directed by the Spirit of God. We are gaining territory all the time, as we are laying hold of the promises of God and possessing our possessions—those things that God has promised to us.
So, the Holy Spirit has been given to conform us into the image of Jesus Christ, to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. I find in my own life a very interesting pattern. And though I can observe it, I do not know why I just cannot seem to break it. God continues to show me areas of my life that are not yet surrendered to the Spirit, where the next battle is going to be. You know, when we have taken Jericho, and Ai, and Bethel, but there is still a lot of territory that is not yet conquered. And the tragic story of the children of Israel is that they never did conquer all that God gave them. And I see those areas in my life. And thank God He did not show them all to me the first week or I would have been discouraged.
But just about the time you think you have arrived, just after a great victory, it is then the Lord shows you the next place. He shows you that area where the flesh still is dominant. And invariably, as the Lord will reveal to me—this area where He wants to work, I will say, "Oh Lord, that is horrible. Get out of the way and I will take care of that right now. I will not do that again." And the Lord lets me flounder in trying to exercise my will-power, and my resolve, and my strength, and I keep stumbling. And after a period of time, I really begin to be almost defeated spiritually because of my inability to conquer this area of the flesh. Until I finally come in utter desperation and hopelessness and say, "God, I do not know what is wrong with me. I just cannot do it. God, You are going to have to help me." And then the Spirit takes care of it and I have great victory. And the Lord shows me the next area and I say, "Oh Lord, get out of the way. I will take care of this right now. This is horrible. I did not realize this." I mean, when am I going to learn? But it seems to be a pattern that fails. I have to get to the place of helplessness and confess, "Lord, I cannot do it."
Now the net result of this is that as He does it, I have no place to boast in and of myself. I cannot go around bragging about how I conquered over this, or I used to do that, but I have determined that that was wrong, and I—See, I cannot boast. All I can tell you is that God can do a wonderful work where I was so weak, and He has done a beautiful work! And you know when God does it, so many times it is so beautiful that it is almost unconscious to you. You are not even aware of it until after a period of time and then you realize—wow, I have not done that for a long time! I do not even want to do it. Isn't that glorious! You know, and then you realize, oh Lord, You have given me the victory. Oh, bless Your name! That is wonderful!
We had a fellow here in the church who was a retired naval officer. And through the years in the navy he had learned navy talk and had a real foul tongue. But he came and accepted Jesus Christ here at Calvary Chapel. About six months after having accepted the Lord here, he was out in his backyard mowing the lawn—whistling, "Love, love, love, love. Christian this is your call." And he was not paying close attention and he went under the tree, but he did not duck low enough and the thing caught him right in the forehead. It laid him on his back and his automatic lawnmower just kept going and hit the fence. And as he was lying there on the ground, pain throbbing on his forehead, he jumped up, ran over, turned off the lawnmower and went running into the house and said, "Honey, honey, guess what happened?" She looked at the big welt rising on his forehead and she said, "What did happen, sweetheart?" He said, "Oh no, no, not that." He said, "I hit a tree, but," he said, "I did not cuss." And she said, "You know, I have not heard you use a swear word in six months." He said, "I haven't?" I mean it was just one of those things. The Spirit does that you are not even aware of, but then what rejoicing there is in what God has done!
And I think that is why God so often lets us try. He lets us struggle. He lets us see our weakness, so that we will not go around boasting or bragging when he does it. He lets us get to the place of hopelessness and that recognition of total inability, so that when He then does work, we are careful to give Him praise and glory. This is victory through Jesus.
When Paul wrote to the Corinthians saying, "But we all with open face"—or unveiled face—he was talking about how, when Moses came down the mountain with the law, he had to veil his face, so the people did not see the shining or the fading of the glory that was on his face. But Paul said that when the Jews read the law today there is still a veil over their faces. "But we with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord"—now you remember that is what caused Moses' face to glow. He got a glimpse of God and it caused his face to glow. So, "we with unveiled faces beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed from glory to glory into the same image, by the power," he said, "of His Spirit working in us."
So here is the key: as we, with unveiled faces, begin to see the glory of the Lord—as we begin to worship the Lord, the Spirit of God reveals to us the glory of the eternal God. As we behold that glory, we are being changed—brought from glory to glory to glory—as we are being molded and changed into His image by His Spirit that is working in us. And so, the work of the Holy Spirit in your life is that of changing you from glory to glory, as He brings you into the image of Jesus Christ.
Now God says, basically, these are the laws by which you should live. These are the rules. This is the kind of a person you ought to be. These are the things you should be doing and these are the things you should not be doing. And if you do these things you will have a rich, full life in fellowship with Me. And I say, "good! I love it. I want it. I agree that is a good life and I will live that way." And then I immediately discover that there is another law that is working in me that is fighting against the law of my spirit. Now God's law is good. I consent to the law of God, that it is good. But how do I perform the law? How do I do what is right? How do I keep the ideal? I do not know. And that is the problem. I need the power of the Holy Spirit because I just cannot do it myself.
So, Paul then concludes in Romans 8:3 ("For what the law could not do") that there was no fault with the law. The law is good. It is right. It is holy. I mean, it is the right way to live. But "what the law could not do..." What could the law not do? It could not give me the power to keep it. You see, I was still weak. I am still me. So though the law is good and I consent the law is good, the law cannot give me the power to keep it. It can only point an accusing finger at me when I am not keeping it.
So, the law could not make me righteous. It could only condemn me. "So what the law could not do, in that it was weak through my flesh"—that was the weak part of the chain, my flesh. That is where the whole thing broke down. The law is good. My flesh is rotten. My flesh is weak. "So what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh." And then His Son sent me the Holy Spirit, and through the Spirit, He gave the power to live a life of victory over the baser desires of my flesh. I have received power through the Holy Spirit to be what God wants me to be and to do what God wants me to do. And through the power of the Holy Spirit, I am being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.
Now I would be less than honest if I told you His job was finished. There is still a long way to go. But as the fellow said, I am not yet what I am going to be, but thank God I am not what I was. I am on the way. And I am experiencing in one area of my life after another, the power of the Holy Spirit, empowering me, changing me, transforming me into the image of Jesus Christ. I am growing.
Beware when you get to a place of becoming stagnant, when you cannot see any growth. And be doubly aware and concerned when you can look back and see a time when you were closer to the ideal than you are today. That is bad. See, I have not arrived, but I am closer today than I have ever been. And I have this confidence that He who has begun a good work in me is going to complete it. He does not start anything He does not finish.
And so, it is important for me to remain yielded to the Holy Spirit. It is important that I receive the power of the Holy Spirit—that power of the Spirit whereby I mortify the deeds of the flesh— that power of the Holy Spirit whereby I am transformed into the image of Jesus.
Shall we pray?
Father, we thank You for that work of Your Holy Spirit in us. Oh Lord, how grateful we are for all that You have done. Lord, when we see what we are today and we remember what we were— Oh Lord, we have come so far! We are so thankful. Lord, as David asked, we ask that You would continue Your work and search us, Oh God, and know our hearts. Try us and know our thoughts. See if there is some place of wickedness that is there still. And Lord, continue to lead us in Your path of righteousness. Continue, Lord, to conform us into the image of God through the power of Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
[Unless otherwise noted, all Biblical references are quoted from King James Version.]
(5)
In this lesson we will look at the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, as He helps us in our prayer life and enhances our prayer life. Romans 8:26-27 says,
Likewise also the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
"He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." It is important that we realize that the purpose of prayer is not to change the mind of God. It is not to convince God to see things your way. Many people make a great mistake in thinking that by prayer, they will be able to change the mind of God. That is not the purpose of prayer at all. You would not want to change the mind of God. God said,
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. (Jeremiah 29:11)
God's plan for you is much better than anything you could ever devise for yourself. And for you to think that you can improve upon the plan of God is sheer folly.
The purpose of prayer is not to change the mind of God. You say, "Well if it is not to change the mind of God, then why should we pray? What is the purpose of prayer?" The purpose of prayer is to open your heart and your life to allow God to do the things that He wants to do—those things that He knows are best for you.
You see God has given to man this gift of free will. We have the power and capacity of choice. And God will not violate that free will, for to violate it would be to invalidate it. Now God will do things to influence our choices—like the old song in the South says, "He will not compel you to go against your will, but He will sure make you willing to go." And God will allow circumstances, pressures, or difficulties to come into your life in order to help influence the choices that you make. But He will not violate that choice that He has given to you. God will allow you to resist His will. He is the awesome, sovereign Creator, and so many times, here is man, puny little man, resisting the will of God. And He allows him to do so. He will not violate your free choice.
So the purpose of prayer is not to change the mind of God. I am convinced that every good and right thing you have ever prayed for, God intended to give to you before you ever prayed. Jesus said, "Your Father knows what you have need of before you even ask Him." But prayer opens the door of our will, whereby we allow God then to do those things He desires to do for our benefit and for our good.
Jesus said to the disciples in John 15:16,
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
It does not say He shall give it to you. It does not say He might give it to you. But it says He may give it to you. In other words, God wants to give it to you. Through prayer you are opening the door to allow God to do the things that He desires to do. You are giving Him permission to do in your life that which is His purpose.
True prayer moves in a cycle. True prayer begins in the heart of God, in the purposes of God, and in the desires of God. And God places those desires upon our heart—"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do" (Philippians 2:13). And so, He writes His law on the fleshly tablets of our heart. As the psalmist said, "Delight thyself also in the Lord and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart" (Psalm 37:4). He puts His desires in our heart. And as He places His desire in my heart, I then express it to Him in prayer. And as I express it to Him in prayer—you see, it began with God. It moves down, touches my heart, and then it goes back to God. And thus the cycle is complete, and the door is now open, and God has the opportunity now to do those things He wants to do for you because of His intense love for you.
The prophet said to King Asa in 2 Chronicles 16:9,
For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.
In other words, God is just looking for people whose hearts are in harmony with His. He wants your heart to be in harmony with His. He is looking throughout the entire world. The eyes of the Lord go and to and fro throughout the entire earth to show Himself strong, to manifest Himself, His power, and His love to those whose hearts are perfectly in harmony with His heart. God is just looking for instruments through which He might accomplish His work, and through which He might pour His resources unto the needy world. And so, He seeks to bring our hearts and our minds into alignment and harmony with His. And He then channels His love and His blessings through us.
So, the most important thing is to just discover the will of God. Get your heart in harmony with God's heart. Get your heart beating with God's heart. John said,
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us. (1 John 5:14)
Now, remember the Holy Spirit makes intercession with us according to His will. And this is the confidence that we have: "if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us, and if He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have desired of Him" (1 John 5:15). If we are praying according to the will of God, we can pray in confidence that we have the answers to those petitions, because we have now opened the door for God to do what He desires to do. The key, of course, is asking according to His will.
Now that brings us back to the basic issue that we started out with and that is the difficulty of knowing the will of God. "The Spirit also," Paul said, "helps our weaknesses, our infirmities." And one of the infirmities that we have is that we do not know how to pray as we ought because we do not always know just what God's will is in every particular matter.
For example, people who are careless with their finances are, as a result of their carelessness, in a real financial bind. They have spent money foolishly. Although they did not have the money, they were on the phone long distance and now they have a $127 phone bill. They do not have the money to pay for it and the phone is going to be shut off. How shall I pray for them? God send them the money so they can pay the phone bill? Well, maybe God wants to teach them how to be wise and prudent in the expenditure of their money. And maybe if I go in and pay their phone bill for them I would be defeating what God is trying to teach them.
You see, we do not always know how to pray as we ought to pray. We do not always know what God is working out in a person's life or working out in our lives. And that is one of our weaknesses. God said, "My ways are not your ways. My ways are beyond your finding out" (cf.Isaiah 55:8-9). And I have discovered through the years by experience, and as time has gone on, that I am able to see the picture more completely. I have discovered that many of my prayers were completely out of the will of God. Things that I asked God to do and things that I asked God for were completely out of His will. At one time, I was almost insisting that God do certain things; but in His love and goodness to me, He did not do them. And so, as the years have gone by and I have gained understanding by my experiences, I am as thankful for the prayers that God did not answer as I am for the prayers that God did answer.
But you see I did not always know what the will of God was for my life. And so many times, not knowing the will of God, I prayed amiss. I have prayed for the wrong things. And that is where it is dangerous—to get insistent with God and to start demanding of God. And there are people who are so foolish that say, "God if you do not answer this prayer, then I just cannot trust You and I am not going to serve You or believe in You any more. If You do not succumb to my will and to my desire in this issue, Lord, I am through. I am walking away." How ridiculous! How utterly foolish! And so, one of our human weaknesses is not knowing the will of God.
Now, how does the Holy Spirit help us with this problem? The Spirit Himself will make intercession for us with groanings, which cannot be uttered. I think of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, the wife of Elkanah, and how she shared her husband with another wife by the name of Peninah. Jesus said, "No man can serve two masters" (Matthew 6:24) and I do not think any man can love two women equally in a marriage situation. There would be conflicts and there were conflicts for Elkanah. Peninah was able to have children. She would get pregnant every time he turned around. But Hannah could not have a child. And in that culture it was considered a curse not to be able to bear a child, or not to be able to give your husband a son. That was considered a curse.
And so, because Elkanah sort of favored Hannah, Peninah was constantly just getting on her. "Ya, ya! You cannot have any children. Look at all I have. You have not given Elkanah any children." And she was just vexing Hannah sorely. Well, Peninah did not realize there were advantages to not having children. When her husband went up to the tabernacle for the feast, Peninah had to stay home and take care of all of her kids. But Hannah was free to travel with him and so as they were travelling together, she was in such great distress. Peninah had just given her a bad time again about her barrenness. And Elkanah said, "What's wrong? You are so sad. We are taking a vacation and you ought to be happy." She said, "Give me a child or I am going to die!" He said, "What, am I God, that I can do that?" And he said, "Look, I love you. Am I not worth many children to you?" Husbands do not always understand a lot of things. So they got to the place of worship, the tabernacle—and let me just read what the Scripture says concerning that:
And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head. And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the LORD, that Eli marked her mouth. Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken. And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD. Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto. Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him. (1 Samuel 1:10-17 KJV)
Now first of all, we see how God, through circumstances, brought Hannah into harmony with His desires. You see at this particular period in the history of the nation of Israel, things were bad, very bad. Eli was the high priest—a fairly good man. But his sons were totally wicked and evil. And they were turning people against God because of their wickedness and their evil ways. And they were to take over the position of religious leaders of the nation at the death of their father, Eli. The nation was in a desperate condition. Spiritually, it was at the bottom.
God needed a man who would be a spiritual leader, who would lead the nation out of this spiritual morass and into a real relationship with Him again. God had to get a woman before He could get a man. And so, He closed up Hannah's womb so that she could not bear any children. And it finally became such an irritant to her—she was so desperate that she said, "Lord, if You will just give me a child, a man child, I will give him back to You. He will be consecrated, dedicated to You. I will give him back to You, Lord, all the days of his life." Now Hannah is in harmony with the purposes of God. God has brought her into harmony with His will. And now God can do for her what He wants to do because He needs a man, a spiritual man, one that would be dedicated from youth unto Him. He needed that kind of a man to lead the nation spiritually.
Now notice though, secondly in the story, how the burden of Hannah's heart was so great that no words were coming out. It was just a groaning—a groaning in the spirit. Hannah's lips were moving without sounds. No utterance was heard because the grief and the pain was so deep. This was the groaning of the spirit. She was just lying there in deep agony, groaning in the spirit. To the extent that the priest thought she was drunk and rebuked her for drunkenness. But that was an example of groaning in the spirit, as God brought her into harmony with His desires.
Another example that we find in the Old Testament of groaning in the spirit is the case of Hezekiah, the king of Judah. When the prophet Isaiah came to the king and said, "Set your house in order. You are going to die and not live" (Isaiah 38:1), the king turned his face to the wall and began to pray unto God. And he speaks about how he was praying all night long. And he describes it in Isaiah 38:14,
Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: 'Oh LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.
Hezekiah was groaning and mourning like a dove. He was chattering like a sparrow or a crane. Unintelligible sounds were being uttered unto God from the desperation of the spirit—the groaning of the spirit.
And even so, in our hours of great grief, sorrow, and pain, there are times when we cannot even articulate our requests to God. We are hurting so deeply that all we can do is just, more or less, groan. But it is so beautiful to know that God interprets those groans as intercessory prayer, according to His will? Even though they may not be our articulated words, God understands the sorrow and grief of your heart and responds.
Now we are commanded in the Scriptures to pray in the Holy Spirit. In Jude 21, as he is giving these exhortations, he tells us that we are to pray in the Holy Ghost and to keep ourselves in the love of God. When Paul was writing to the church in Ephesians 6, he talked about the spiritual warfare in which we are engaged and how important it is that we have the whole armor of God. He instructed us, that we might stand against the wiles of the devil. And having done all to stand, having placed the armor upon us, having girded us with the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit and the helmet of salvation and the feet shod with the preparation of the gospel—finally, having then gotten us all outfitted, Paul said,
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. (Ephesians 6:18)
Praying in the Spirit—How do we pray in the Spirit? Well, one way we pray in the Spirit, which we have already mentioned, is that groaning in the Spirit. The second is found in 1 Corinthians 14, as Paul said:
For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest? For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified. I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: (1Corinthians 14:14-18)
So Paul is saying, when I pray in an unknown tongue my spirit is praying though my understanding is unfruitful. I do not know what I am saying. What shall I say then? Well, I will pray in tongues and I will pray with understanding. I will sing in tongues and I will sing with understanding, but not in church. I would rather speak five words in a known language than ten thousand in an unknown language, that the whole church might be benefited. And if you are in church and there is no interpreter present, then keep silent and do not exercise the gift of tongues. Because if you do speak in tongues, those who are sitting there in the seat of the unlearned—will not understand the language. How can they say, "Yea, amen!" at your giving of thanks, if they do not understand what you are saying? Indeed, this is a good way to give thanks and it is a good way to praise the Lord, but not in church. It is appropriate in your own private devotional life.
If you have the gift of tongues, you can pray in tongues and thus be praying in the Spirit. And I think the basic difference between groaning in the Spirit and praying in tongues is just that the groans are not articulated. And yet in both, you are being assisted, aided, guided, and directed by the Holy Spirit. And you know that the Holy Spirit is thus guiding your prayer. It is according to the will of God.
So what are the advantages of praying in the Spirit when you do not understand what you are praying? Well, the first advantage is that you can be assured that your prayers are according to the will of God. If the Spirit, knowing the mind of the Father, makes intercession, you know that it is according to the will of God.
Secondly, it eliminates selfishness as the primary motive behind our prayers. Have you ever noticed how many of your prayers are prompted by selfish motivation? James said,
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. (James 4:3)
In other words, this kind of prayer is selfish. It is something for you. It is something that you desire for yourself—a selfish motivation. "God, I want this! I want this, Lord!" And it is for you—a selfish motivation. And you ask and receive not because you ask amiss, that you might consume it upon your own lust. But if you are praying in the Spirit in an unknown language, you are not understanding. It eliminates selfishness as a motive of your prayer.
Thirdly, it enables you to pray for things that you have forgotten to pray for. Many times a person has said, "Oh my, I am really in desperate need. I do not know what I am going to do." And you say, "Well we will remember you in prayer." And how many times you have forgotten to remember. You promised you would pray. There was definitely a desperate need for prayer and you intended to pray for them, but somehow you forgot. Or maybe you do not do that. Maybe that is just me. I have some clothes in the backseat of my car that I have been planning to take to the cleaners for two days. I keep forgetting. They are in the backseat and I am going to throw them into the front seat tomorrow, so I cannot forget. There are just things that I forget.
But the wonderful thing about allowing the Holy Spirit to guide my prayer and intercede through me is that He is able to pray for those issues that I have forgotten—those needs that I have forgotten to pray for. And so it gives me a great opportunity to just cover all the bases and to pray for all of those who have asked for prayer, because He knows their needs and He knows my promises to pray for them.
Fourthly, praying in the Spirit allows the opportunity to give unto God the full expression of the praise and the thanks that you feel in your spirit but have difficulty expressing to God because of the limitations of the human language. I feel in my spirit much deeper than what I am capable of expressing verbally. In fact, many times in just the endeavor to express it, I feel that I am lessening that which I am feeling. Just the very attempt to express it in words seems to diminish that sense of gratitude, of love, of appreciation, of just being so totally overwhelmed by God's grace, God's mercy, and God's goodness to me. I feel it in my heart and in my spirit—it is just a pressure, just oh! But words, words, words! They are not there. "Oh, thank You, God." No, that is not enough, it is more than that! And so, the words that I use of thanks and appreciation seem trite in comparison to that which I am feeling in my spirit of rejoicing, praising, thanksgiving, and loving.
Now when Paul said, "when you bless with the spirit," and he speaks about giving thanks, and indeed, you do give thanks. When I pray in the Spirit and I do not understand, really it gives a far vaster expression unto God because it does not have to be channeled through the narrow funnel of my intellect. It can just go directly from my spirit to Him. And it does not have to be all pressed through this little narrow channel called my brain. Rather, it is just an open, full expression of the Spirit.
Now, if you do not have the gift of tongues, at least groan. Give the Spirit an opportunity of interceding in your prayer time. But do not spend it all groaning; Paul said, "I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray with understanding." So there is the value of praying with understanding. There is the value of seeking to articulate our needs and our requests. And there is real value in that. But even before seeking to express them in English, ask the Holy Spirit to guide and to direct your thoughts concerning the things that you are praying for. Our desire is that we might pray according to the will of God in order that we might have that kind of confidence in our prayer time. Then we know that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us; and if He hears us, then we have received those petitions that we have asked of Him.
Now there are a lot of things we know are the will of God because God has expressed them as His will in His Word. So we can have confidence when we pray over these things that God has already expressed as His will. You can pray with confidence that the Lord will draw you closer to Him. You can pray with confidence that the Lord will fill you with His Holy Spirit. You can pray with confidence that the Lord will help you to be bold in your witness for Jesus Christ. These things are all the expressed will of God for us; and so, in these things we can pray with confidence. There are other areas, in which we cannot know the will of God. That is where the Spirit comes in and helps us with weaknesses that we have. And He will intercede through groanings, or through unknown tongues, if you have that gift. And you can be thrilled as you see God working and moving in a greater way in response to your prayers than you have ever known before.
Shall we pray?
Father, thank You for the help that You give us. And oh, we need it! Thank You, Father, for the Holy Spirit and for the assistance that He gives to us in so many ways, and especially in our prayer time. Lord, fill us with Your Holy Spirit until, Lord, our lives just overflow. Fill us until there springs forth from us that glorious flowing of Your Spirit like a river of living water, springing up from within, flowing out from our lives—flowing unto the needy world around us. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen.
[Unless otherwise noted, all Biblical references are quoted from King James Version.]
So Paul, in talking to the Ephesians about the many wonderful blessings that they have, begins the chapter by saying,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3)
And he is talking now about these wonderful spiritual blessings. He has called us, adopted us, and forgiven our sins. And now he says,
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)
In Paul's writing to the Ephesians, he talks about their being sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. In the days when Paul was writing to the church in Ephesus, it so happened that at that particular time in history, the city of Ephesus was one of the major seaports of Asia Minor. Most of the goods coming from the East to be sold in the western empire of Rome came through the port of Ephesus. It was the merchandising center of the world. Great caravans would come from the East bringing their wares. Merchants from Rome would gather in Ephesus to purchase these articles that were brought, in order that they might be sent to Rome and distributed through the Roman Empire.
The great port city of Rome was Petiole and the merchants would purchase the goods there in Ephesus and then pack them for shipping to Petiole. And having packed their goods, they would then seal them. They would put this wax seal on the merchandise and then they would put the imprint of their signet ring, which was their mark of ownership. And then the goods would be placed on the ship and sent to Rome. When they would arrive at the port of Petiole, the servants of these merchant men would go down, as the ships were being unloaded, and they could identify their masters' goods because of this seal that was upon them. It was the stamp or the mark of ownership.
Paul is saying to the Ephesians that God has put His stamp of ownership on them. And that stamp of God's ownership is His Holy Spirit. How glorious it is to receive and to have the Holy Spirit because I have that assurance that I belong to God. That is His seal on my life to prove His ownership of me. Jesus, you see, purchased you from the slave market. You were once a slave to sin. You were in the bondage of corruption, but now you belong to Him.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians,
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19)
In other words, do you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? You are not your own. "You have been bought," he said, "with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are His" (1 Corinthians 6:20).
I am really not my own to direct; I am not to live as I please. It is not mine to order my own life—to choose the way I would go. I belong to God. He purchased me. He put His mark of ownership on me. And now I live according to His will for He purchased me. I belong to Him.
Peter wrote,
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. (1 Peter 1:18-19)
You have been redeemed. You have been purchased, not with corruptible things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus. God purchased you and now He claims you as His own. You are His purchased possession. He has placed His seal of ownership on your life. Actually, we are like merchandise on the ship headed for the home port of heaven. And when we arrive Jesus is going to say, "Yes, that is Mine. I have My stamp on it. There is My seal. They are Mine." And Jesus will acknowledge you as His possession.
Now as a child of God—think of that one for a moment—as a child of God, He has promised you a rich inheritance. Paul, in writing to the Romans said,
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Romans 8:16-17)
Peter said,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God. (1 Peter 1:3-5)
This is a glorious inheritance. Thank God! We have this inheritance that is incorruptible. It is undefiled and it fades not away. It is reserved in heaven for you who are being kept by the power of God. The psalmist said,
Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! (Psalm 31:19)
Oh how great is the goodness that God has laid up for you and for me. How marvelous! How great is that goodness. Paul speaks of the riches of God's goodness, the riches of His glory, and the riches of His grace.
Now, Paul tells us here that the Holy Spirit is the earnest of that inheritance. The earnest was a down payment or a deposit. We have the phrase earnest money, and that is the money that you put down to show that you are earnest in your intent to purchase certain merchandise. If I want to prove to you the earnestness of my intention, but I do not have all the money with me right now, I am going to give you a deposit of earnest money. This money indicates to you that I am intending to complete the transaction.
Should you advertise a car for sale and someone comes over to look at the car, they might take it for a ride. They might say to you, "I like it. I want it. I am going to buy it. Save it for me. I do not have the money, but I am going to go to the bank and see if I can negotiate a loan. But I do not want you to sell this car to anybody else. Save it for me because I really want this car."
Now if you are wise you will say to them, "Well, give me a deposit. Show me that you really intend to buy the car—that you are earnest about this." Because you see, if you just say, "Okay, it is yours," and they go off, you may never see them again. And it might be that many people will come by and say, "Oh that is just what I am looking for. I want to buy that." "Oh no, no, I have already sold it." However, that first person may never return and you may pass up a lot of potential buyers because you are holding it for someone who is never going to come back, simply because you did not get a deposit. Maybe while they are on the way to the bank they went by a used car lot and saw another one that was a little better than yours at a cheaper price and so they bought it. You know, they do not have any obligation to you except their word because they did not give you any earnest money.
So, God wants you to know that He is really sincere about redeeming you. He intends to go through with this transaction. He does not plan to back down. And so, to show His intent, He has given you the deposit of the future glory that He has promised to give to you. And that deposit is the Holy Spirit. And when a person is filled with the Spirit, the fruit is love, joy, peace, and longsuffering. When you are filled with the fruit of the Spirit and you are so blessed and so overjoyed, you might think, "Oh, this is such a rich and glorious life, filled with the Spirit!" Hey, that is just the deposit. That is just the beginning. And so, God is just showing you that He is earnest and sincere in His intention of that full redemption. And so, Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.
In Ephesians 4, Paul said,
And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30)
So, God has His mark of ownership, the Holy Spirit, upon your life. It is the seal. It is God's mark of ownership. It is the deposit, which God has given to you as sort of a down payment to show to you that He is earnest in His intention of redeeming you. But now Paul tells them, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God that has sealed you unto the day of redemption."
One day God is going to come and He is going to claim you as His. He has agreed to redeem you. He has made the deposit and He has given to you the Holy Spirit to prove His earnest intent. In2 Corinthians 1:22, Paul said,
Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
This is much the same idea as in Ephesians. God has sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. And then Paul goes on to say in 2 Corinthians 5:5,
Now He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of His Spirit.
Thus, the gift of the Holy Spirit gives me great comfort and great consolation. I know that God is going to complete that which He has begun of my redemption. He is going to claim me as His own.
Now in Ephesians 4, Paul exhorts them not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, "whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption," and in the context of that verse, Paul shows to us things that do grieve the Holy Spirit. Beginning with verse 25, Paul said,
Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. (Ephesians 4:25)
One of the first things on the list that Paul gives us of things that grieve the Holy Spirit is lying. Under the law, God said you are not to bear false witness. You are not to lie. God desires truth in the inward parts. And lying grieves the Holy Spirit. He said,
Let not the sun go down on your wrath. (Ephesians 4:26)
And being wrathful is another characteristic that grieves the Holy Spirit. Actually it sort of grieves us at times too, when we have lost it and we lose our temper and we do some dumb thing or say some dumb thing. We are often grieved ourselves over our display of wrath and anger. And we often feel very badly after such an experience, but it also grieves the Holy Spirit. Then in verse 28 he said,
Let him that stole steal no more. (Ephesians 4:28)
Taking something that does not belong to you grieves the Holy Spirit. And then Paul said,
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. (Ephesians 4:29)
Corrupt communications, filthy stories, stories with unclean innuendoes, these things grieve the Holy Spirit. Corrupt communication grieves the Holy Spirit. And that is where he says,
And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. (Ephesians 4:30)
It comes there just as he is listing these things, because these are the things that grieve the Holy Spirit of God. And then he goes on with the list, which includes bitterness. "Let all bitterness..." What a horrible thing bitterness is. We are warned that bitterness can actually hinder our prayer lives. It can take hold in your life and defile you. The Bible tells us to put away all bitterness.
There was a classic example in the Old Testament of a man who became bitter. And his bitterness led to his ultimate suicide. He was bitter. The man was Ahithophel and you may recognize that name as a name that is associated with King David. Ahithophel was one of David's chief counselors—a close friend and confidant. In speaking of the breach that came in their relationship, David said, "If it were an enemy that had reproached me, then I could have born it. But it was you, my close friend. We went into the house of God together. We enjoyed the companionship. But to have you turn against me..."
Ahithophel had become bitter with David and he left David. He left the court of the king and lived in bitterness until the time that Absolom, the son of David, decided to rebel against his father and by force take the kingdom from his father. And Ahithophel came to Absolom and volunteered his services. He volunteered to help Absolom drive David from the kingdom and bring the kingdom into the hands of Absolom. As Absolom came with the army that had gathered to him in Jerusalem, and David had fled the city, this man Ahithophel, so bitter against David, said, "Take and put the tent on the roof of the palace and go in publicly in the eyes of all of the people to your father's concubines." He was just wanting to totally disgrace David, to show total disdain for this once great king. And then Ahithophel said to Absolom, "Let me take some of the army and let me pursue after your dad and I will kill him and the kingdom will be established in your hands." He was wanting to kill David himself.
How is it that bitterness can get such a hold on a person that he turns against someone who was once a close friend—someone who used to go into the house of God with? Such was the case with Ahithophel and this bitterness was eating him up. David had put a spy in the camp of Absolom. David left his son another wise counselor. He was an older man and he said, "David, I am going with you." David said, "Oh no, you can do me more good by just staying back here and trying to thwart the counsel of Ahithophel." And so he stayed back. And when Ahithophel said, "Let me take the men, we will pursue after David. He is tired and all. We will catch him. I will kill him. And the kingdom will be yours."
This friend of David said, "That is not good counsel. You know, when you get a bear cornered, I mean, that is when he is really dangerous. And David is cornered and his mighty men that are with him. When you get those fellows cornered, you have a wild—it is like cornering a wild animal. You have gotten into a dangerous situation. Better to wait and get the whole army, so that when you go after David you will be insured of victory."
And Absolom listened to the counsel of this other fellow and Ahithophel realized that it was poor counsel. And thus, he was so angry and so bitter, because his counsel was rejected and he realized that this other counsel could be disastrous. Ahithophel went out, knowing that he had cut the bridges with David, and he killed himself.
Bitterness. You say, "Well, what could make him so bitter? If you will check the biblical record closely, you will discover that Bathsheba was his granddaughter. And when David had gone in to Ahithophel's granddaughter and then had his grandson by marriage (Uriah) put to death, he became bitter. And this bitterness was there and festered until it finally destroyed him.
If you allow bitterness to fester in your heart, ultimately it will destroy you. But in the meantime, that bitterness grieves the Holy Spirit. If you have bitterness in your heart today towards someone, you may have every right in the world to be bitter as far as rights go. It could be that they have genuinely, deliberately injured you. And you say, "I have a right to be bitter over this!" And you can maintain your right to be bitter. But let me tell you something: your bitterness is hurting you more than it is hurting them. And the bitterness will ultimately destroy you, because it grieves the Holy Spirit. None of us can afford to hold on to bitterness.
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice. (Ephesians 4:31)
These things—this is a list of things that grieve the Holy Spirit. Put them away from you. Do not keep company with them. "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by which you have been sealed unto the day of redemption." But Paul goes on with the list in Ephesians 5:3 where he said,
But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints.
These kinds of attitudes: (bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and malice) grieve the Holy Spirit. But these kinds of actions also grieve the Holy Spirit: fornication, sexual impurity, and covetousness. And he goes on: neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient (that is are not proper). There is an undertone of suggestion and evil. "For this know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolator, hath any inheritance" (Ephesians 5:5).
Now we have talked about the glorious inheritance. God has sealed us till the day of redemption. But you can grieve the Holy Spirit of God; and if you get involved in these things, you will grieve the Holy Spirit of God. And if you become a fornicator, or whoremonger, coveter, or idolator, know that you will have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Paul said,
Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. (Ephesians 5:6)
Do not let someone deceive you into thinking that you can go ahead and do these things and still inherit the kingdom of God. Do not think that you can allow these attitudes or you can participate in these kinds of activities as a child of God and still maintain a relationship with God. He is a holy Spirit and He is grieved by these things. We are exhorted not to grieve the Holy Spirit, who has sealed us until the day of redemption. So Paul said do not be a partaker with them. But then he goes on to show the things that enhance the Holy Spirit's relationship with us, and us with Him. He said,
And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32)
Do not hold on to bitterness. Do not hold on to anger, to malice, or to covetousness. But be kind, be tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. You say, "Chuck, that is all well and good, but you do not know the evil that they did to me— how it has scarred me, how it has almost destroyed my life, and how I just am tormented in my mind over those things that were done. And I cannot forgive them." And I do understand that there have been things that people do that are so vicious, so vile in the natural, that you cannot forgive. I understand that. But we are not talking about the natural. We are talking about the supernatural. We are talking about what God wants to do in your heart and in your mind if you will but let Him. We are talking about the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit's indwelling you, sealing you with God's mark of ownership, until the day that God claims that which is His own—that which He has purchased.
We have been dealing with the subject of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, to give us power to be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Peter said to consider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, who when He was reviled, reviled not again. Instead, He prayed for those who were so abusing Him saying, "Father forgive them." And He can give you the capacity—the Holy Spirit can give to you the power to forgive. And you will not start being healed in your own mind until you do forgive.
The reason why this thing still troubles you, and the reason why you still have so many problems as the result of it, is because you have not forgiven. You are holding on to it. It is festering. That bitterness is just festering and it destroys. It is really not an option but a necessity that you forgive. It is vitally important because bitterness defiles. It is vitally important that you bring this thing to the Lord and say, "Lord, help me! Give to me the power of the Holy Spirit to forgive those wrongs, those evils that were done against me by those evil persons. God, help me to forgive them that I might be freed, and that I might be cleansed from this which will only defile."
As long as I am hanging on to it, it is going to keep me defiled and less than what God would have me to be. Unforgiveness will hold back the blessings of God as I hold on to these things. It grieves the Spirit of God. Ask for God's help. He will give it. He can do it. He can wash this out of your mind. He can wash this out of your life. "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature. The old things are passed away." Let them pass away. Let them go. "All things become new." Go on from there. But grieve not the Holy Spirit of God who has sealed you to that day of redemption.
Father, we thank You for the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit in sealing us. Thank You, Father, for this gift of the Spirit whereby we know that we are Yours. Your mark and stamp of ownership is on our lives as the down payment. Thank You, Lord for the joy, the glory, and the blessedness of walking in the Spirit and living in the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit. Thank you for that overflowing cup and that rich overflowing life. Father, how we thank You for it. Lord, help us that we would not allow any attitude to master our hearts that would grieve the Holy Spirit of God. And may we not get involved in any activity that would grieve the Holy Spirit of God. But may we be holy for You are holy. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
[Unless otherwise noted, all Biblical references are quoted from King James Version.]
(13-17 next week)
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