Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Functions of the Holy Spirit Msg 4 16

Transcript

Functions of the Holy Spirit Msg 4 16 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

0:01
Speaker 1: Perhaps one of the most challenging subjects in all of
0:04
Speaker 1: Scripture to tackle is the subject.
0:07
Speaker 2: Of the Holy Spirit.
0:10
Speaker 1: For many years, there has existed confusion and controversy over
0:15
Speaker 1: the role, the nature, and the function of the third
0:20
Speaker 1: person of the Trinity. I confess to you that, after
0:24
Speaker 1: decades of studying the scriptures and teaching about the ministry
0:28
Speaker 1: of the Holy Spirit, I too have many unanswered questions.
0:34
Speaker 1: Much remains a mystery. In one delightful account of a
0:39
Speaker 1: children's Sunday school class studying the Trinity, the teacher ask
0:45
Speaker 1: her students, can any of you tell me who makes
0:49
Speaker 1: up the Holy Trinity? The children excitedly raise their hands,
0:55
Speaker 1: begging to reply. Unwilling to wait, little boy blurted out
1:01
Speaker 1: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Smoke. Now that's
1:07
Speaker 1: a funny story, though not far off from describing the
1:11
Speaker 1: confusion many people experience about the nature of the Holy Spirit. Thankfully,
1:18
Speaker 1: God's Word, and particularly this section from John's Gospel, dispels
1:25
Speaker 1: much of the fog with clear teaching on the functions
1:30
Speaker 1: of the Holy Spirit. But you'll need to listen carefully
1:35
Speaker 1: to get these distinctions. So I invite you to join
1:39
Speaker 1: me in your Bibles as I read John chapter sixteen,
1:44
Speaker 1: verses four to fifteen. It's a brief passage, but it
1:48
Speaker 1: will serve as our backdrop for all we will consider
1:52
Speaker 1: today in our study of the Holy Spirit. I'll read
1:56
Speaker 1: John sixteen four to fifteen from the New Living Translation.
2:02
Speaker 1: Jesus is speaking, Yes, I'm telling you these things now,
2:07
Speaker 1: so that when they happen, you will remember my warning.
2:12
Speaker 1: I didn't tell you earlier because I was going to
2:15
Speaker 1: be with.
2:16
Speaker 2: You for a while longer.
2:18
Speaker 1: But now I am going away to the one who
2:20
Speaker 1: sent me, and not one of you is asking where
2:24
Speaker 1: I am going.
2:26
Speaker 2: Instead.
2:27
Speaker 1: You grieve because of what I've told you, But in
2:31
Speaker 1: fact it is best for you that I go away,
2:35
Speaker 1: because if I don't, the advocate won't come. If I
2:40
Speaker 1: do go away, then I will send him to you,
2:45
Speaker 1: and when he comes, he will convict the world of
2:50
Speaker 1: its sin and of God's righteousness and of the coming judgment.
2:58
Speaker 1: The world's sin is that it refuses to believe in me.
3:03
Speaker 1: Righteousness is available because I go to the Father and
3:07
Speaker 1: you will see me. No more judgment will come, because
3:11
Speaker 1: the ruler of this world has already been judged. There
3:16
Speaker 1: is so much more I want to tell you, but
3:20
Speaker 1: you can't bear it now. When the Spirit of truth comes,
3:25
Speaker 1: he will guide you into all truth. He will not
3:29
Speaker 1: speak on his own, but he will tell you what
3:32
Speaker 1: he has heard. He will tell you about the future.
3:38
Speaker 1: He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he
3:41
Speaker 1: receives from me. All that belongs to the Father is mine.
3:46
Speaker 1: This is why I said, the Spirit will tell you
3:50
Speaker 1: whatever he receives from me.
3:55
Speaker 2: One of my most unforgettable moments came when I was
3:58
Speaker 2: about ten or perhaps eleven years old, was on the
4:02
Speaker 2: heels of the Second World War, and it relates to
4:07
Speaker 2: my father, who was just a little bit too old
4:11
Speaker 2: for the draft or for voluntary service in the military,
4:18
Speaker 2: and chose to spend his days in the war in
4:21
Speaker 2: a defense plant where he built all sorts of interesting
4:25
Speaker 2: equipment for the great massive tanks, for the planes that
4:31
Speaker 2: flew and the bombers that did their work in the war.
4:37
Speaker 2: But he worked too long, and he worked too hard,
4:40
Speaker 2: and he suffered a physical breakdown along with it an
4:45
Speaker 2: emotional trauma that simply puzzled the doctors to the point
4:51
Speaker 2: of dismay. They had no answer. And I recall when
4:58
Speaker 2: we came to the end of of our rope with
5:02
Speaker 2: no counsel from any physician. I was convinced in my
5:06
Speaker 2: heart that he would die. It seems as though he
5:13
Speaker 2: was also, because he called me into his room one night,
5:21
Speaker 2: and I remember as a little lad walking to his bedside,
5:25
Speaker 2: and he could hardly speak above a whisper, and he
5:29
Speaker 2: spoke to me in terminal turns. I thought I was
5:36
Speaker 2: hearing him for the last time, and he gave me
5:40
Speaker 2: counsel on life, how I should live, how I should
5:48
Speaker 2: conduct myself as his son. I remember the council wasn't long,
5:57
Speaker 2: and then I left and went across the hall in
6:00
Speaker 2: that little home where we lived, to the room that
6:04
Speaker 2: I shared with my older brother. No one else was
6:08
Speaker 2: in the room, and I closed the door, and I
6:12
Speaker 2: laid down and sobbed, convinced that I probably would never
6:19
Speaker 2: see him alive again. That scene haunts me, even though
6:26
Speaker 2: I am now an adult and many years removed from
6:32
Speaker 2: that time with my dad. I remember the night he
6:39
Speaker 2: talked with me. There's something that is very significant about
6:45
Speaker 2: final words, isn't there. In less than less than twelve
6:56
Speaker 2: hours after the night that disciples were with their Savior,
7:02
Speaker 2: he was nailed to a cross, and in a few
7:06
Speaker 2: more hours he was dead, and that moment that they
7:12
Speaker 2: spent with him, I call it a moment because it
7:14
Speaker 2: must have passed as fast as light passes through space.
7:21
Speaker 2: That moment with him was so significant because it was
7:26
Speaker 2: his last counsel, and he gave them truth for living
7:33
Speaker 2: that would indeed carry them for the rest of their days,
7:38
Speaker 2: transforming truth. In that little room where they pushed aside
7:44
Speaker 2: some wooden bowls and cups, and every eye fell on him,
7:50
Speaker 2: and every ear was attentive to his voice. They sat
7:56
Speaker 2: hearing the words of their Lord regarding how they might
8:01
Speaker 2: live on without him. Now, as I uncover this information
8:09
Speaker 2: from week to week with you on Sunday mornings, I
8:13
Speaker 2: at times remember that scene with my dad, and it
8:19
Speaker 2: comes upon me in such a way that the passage,
8:22
Speaker 2: each one seems to come alive as I'm reading living
8:29
Speaker 2: truth from dying lips recorded by a man who was
8:34
Speaker 2: there and had meditated upon them about sixty years before
8:40
Speaker 2: he put them into writing, the only one on earth
8:45
Speaker 2: who ever wrote what was said that night. So we
8:50
Speaker 2: have a unique body of truth regarding the Christian life.
8:55
Speaker 2: There is nothing more significant than this upper room discold.
9:01
Speaker 2: And I hope as you turned to John sixteen with
9:04
Speaker 2: me this morning, that if nothing more, just the setting
9:07
Speaker 2: of that event will attract and alert your attention to
9:11
Speaker 2: the truth we are going to see today. As a
9:15
Speaker 2: matter of fact, as I read through these verses beginning
9:20
Speaker 2: in chapter thirteen and ending in chapter seventeen, I come
9:23
Speaker 2: to the conclusion that, first of all, that didn't take
9:26
Speaker 2: more than thirty minutes to say, you can read it
9:30
Speaker 2: all in less than thirty minutes, so it wasn't a
9:33
Speaker 2: lengthy this course. But also I come up with two
9:37
Speaker 2: secrets that Jesus gave his men. He said many things
9:43
Speaker 2: about many related subjects, but at the core there seem
9:47
Speaker 2: to be two columns of truth that support all the others,
9:52
Speaker 2: two great massive pillars that bring everything to bear upon
10:00
Speaker 2: life after his death. The first related to him and
10:05
Speaker 2: the second related to them. The first had to do
10:09
Speaker 2: with something that happened when he came, and the second
10:12
Speaker 2: had to do with something that will happen when he
10:15
Speaker 2: leaves and has since happened. Let me give you the truths.
10:20
Speaker 2: The first one is this. The secret of his victorious
10:25
Speaker 2: life was his vital union with the Father. And he
10:31
Speaker 2: mentioned that time and again as he talked with his men,
10:35
Speaker 2: that night. He told them that when he came to earth,
10:39
Speaker 2: it was with the father's blessing. It was in the
10:42
Speaker 2: father's power. It was through the father's guidance that he
10:46
Speaker 2: was able to minister. It was the father's will, the
10:49
Speaker 2: father's word. And because there had never been a break
10:53
Speaker 2: in that vital union, he had been able to live
10:57
Speaker 2: a perfect life, to die as the sin offering before man.
11:05
Speaker 2: But he didn't stop there. The second secret was this,
11:10
Speaker 2: that their victorious life would have to do with a
11:14
Speaker 2: vital union with the Holy Spirit, and if they would
11:19
Speaker 2: be habitually empowered by the spirit that dwelt him, they
11:24
Speaker 2: could know the kind of life he had lived. Ian
11:27
Speaker 2: Thomas put it this way. The life that he lived
11:31
Speaker 2: qualified him for the death that he died, and the
11:34
Speaker 2: death that he died qualifies us for the life that
11:38
Speaker 2: he lived. That's profound, But he doesn't tell us how
11:44
Speaker 2: that life can be lived. Jesus tells us that the
11:48
Speaker 2: life that he lived is possible to be lived again
11:52
Speaker 2: and again when we draw upon the Spirit of God
11:59
Speaker 2: who lives within us us. You see, this is so
12:03
Speaker 2: vital to life that it says, though you're stepping into
12:07
Speaker 2: the chamber with Jesus his last night and hearing his
12:12
Speaker 2: final words telling you how to go on without him. Now,
12:18
Speaker 2: as I read the passages, I come to the conclusion
12:22
Speaker 2: that there is a growing panic in the heart of
12:25
Speaker 2: the disciples. They might have wept, They certainly were filled
12:30
Speaker 2: with remorse, so much so that their mind was paralyzed.
12:34
Speaker 2: They couldn't even ask curious questions about his destiny. And
12:39
Speaker 2: Jesus told them that their reaction was because of their fear,
12:44
Speaker 2: because of their grief. Let's look for example at verse
12:47
Speaker 2: four down through verse six. Follow along and noticed the
12:52
Speaker 2: reaction there has developed what I call an orphans syndrome.
12:58
Speaker 2: They have felt like orphans, and therefore they can't take
13:02
Speaker 2: in what he's saying verse four. These things I've spoken
13:05
Speaker 2: to you that when their hour comes, you may remember
13:09
Speaker 2: that I told you of them, And these things I
13:13
Speaker 2: did not say to you at the beginning because I
13:15
Speaker 2: was with you. But now I am going to him
13:19
Speaker 2: who sent me, and none of you asks me, where
13:25
Speaker 2: are you going. Let me pause just a moment, and
13:29
Speaker 2: have you notice Jesus points out that they haven't even
13:33
Speaker 2: been curious. They were unable to cope with that information
13:41
Speaker 2: of his departure just as I, as a little boy,
13:44
Speaker 2: couldn't cope with the fact that my dad quite possibly
13:48
Speaker 2: would be gone by morning, and wrestling with that and
13:52
Speaker 2: unable to handle it, I dissolved in tears. Jesus tells
14:00
Speaker 2: us that sorrow fill their heart see verse six. Because
14:05
Speaker 2: I've said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
14:10
Speaker 2: The Greek word means grief, the same word that accompanies
14:15
Speaker 2: feelings when we lose a loved one. They were paralyzed
14:21
Speaker 2: by grief. I could hasten on to the solution Jesus gave,
14:26
Speaker 2: but before I do, I want to pause and point
14:29
Speaker 2: out something that I see in between the lines of
14:32
Speaker 2: these three verses. We all want very much to give
14:37
Speaker 2: the impression that we can handle anything that comes. If
14:42
Speaker 2: there's one thing we want to do as adults, it's
14:45
Speaker 2: appears secure. We often appear very insecure while we are
14:51
Speaker 2: trying to look secure, But the big lie is we
14:56
Speaker 2: can't handle everything. Deep down within, we long to be kept.
15:04
Speaker 2: We long to be held securely, and when for some
15:10
Speaker 2: reason that keeping is taken from us, the whole lurings
15:16
Speaker 2: of our foundation shift. It happens when we face the
15:23
Speaker 2: possibility of a terminal illness or open heart surgery, our
15:30
Speaker 2: imminent death of a loved one, or danger in the battlefield.
15:36
Speaker 2: How many go berserk on the landing craft before they
15:43
Speaker 2: ever hit the water with their own body. You see,
15:47
Speaker 2: the imminency of danger or separation brings about feelings of
15:54
Speaker 2: desperate insecurity. And that's what happened with these men. Jesus said, look, man,
16:01
Speaker 2: sorrow has filled your heart, grief has paralyzed you. Well,
16:07
Speaker 2: then he went on to say, I have an answer.
16:09
Speaker 2: I have a solution for you. And the solution that
16:13
Speaker 2: Jesus gave them was the person of the Holy Spirit.
16:19
Speaker 2: Before I look at that verse and then go on
16:21
Speaker 2: in the passage, I want to say that we are
16:24
Speaker 2: entering now a doctrinal message, and I'm glad. Practical messages
16:32
Speaker 2: and biographical messages are great and have their place. Allah, Moses, Elijah,
16:40
Speaker 2: who could measure the benefit of seeing truth lived incarnate
16:44
Speaker 2: in those men of God, in those women of God.
16:48
Speaker 2: But there's nothing like grounding ourselves in doctrine and finding
16:54
Speaker 2: out the delicate areas of where we stand as we
16:58
Speaker 2: relate to God and life in light of scriptural truth.
17:03
Speaker 2: We have come to that place this morning. The passage
17:07
Speaker 2: doesn't hang together on feelings. It's linked together on facts,
17:11
Speaker 2: and it's like a series of mathematical equations that lead
17:15
Speaker 2: you to an answer. You can't go to sleep at
17:18
Speaker 2: any point or you'll never appreciate the end of the equation.
17:23
Speaker 2: You've got to follow through, thinking along with the writer
17:27
Speaker 2: as he builds the case that leads to an incredible
17:30
Speaker 2: truth that we're going to uncover this morning. It all
17:33
Speaker 2: relates to the Holy Spirit. Now, first of all, he
17:37
Speaker 2: gave them the solution verse seven. I tell you the truth,
17:40
Speaker 2: said Jesus. It is to your advantage. The word means profit.
17:47
Speaker 2: It is for your benefit that I go away. For
17:53
Speaker 2: if I do not go away, the Helper shall not
17:57
Speaker 2: come to you. But if I go, I will say
18:00
Speaker 2: him to you. There's the solution to your trauma, to
18:04
Speaker 2: your sorrow. You struggled with insecure feelings within that expressed
18:10
Speaker 2: themselves in inward grief. Man, I promise you that in
18:16
Speaker 2: my going I will send one who will handle that problem.
18:23
Speaker 2: He will be the Holy Spirit, the helper, the one
18:27
Speaker 2: called alongside to bring assistance when you need it. The
18:32
Speaker 2: most question that comes to my mind, and probably yours,
18:36
Speaker 2: is why was it advantageous? For Jesus to leave. Why
18:42
Speaker 2: is it more beneficial for us to have the Holy
18:46
Speaker 2: Spirit than Christ himself. That's not too difficult to answer.
18:53
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, while on Earth, inhabited a body. Therefore, he
18:59
Speaker 2: could be only one place at one time. When he
19:04
Speaker 2: was in Nazareth, he was not in the Jerusalem. When
19:09
Speaker 2: he was in the northern shores of Galilee, he could
19:11
Speaker 2: not be down near the Dead Sea. He could only
19:14
Speaker 2: be one place at one time. However, when he left
19:19
Speaker 2: the earth and sent the Spirit, the Spirit of God,
19:25
Speaker 2: being omnipresent everywhere at once, could fill and empower with
19:32
Speaker 2: the same power one man in Israel, another man in Syria,
19:38
Speaker 2: and yet another in Italy at the same moment. You
19:42
Speaker 2: can experience power just like Jesus' experience from the Father
19:47
Speaker 2: right here in the States, and a believer in Angola,
19:52
Speaker 2: or in Alaska or the southern tip of Australia can
19:56
Speaker 2: be experiencing at the very same time the same. Why
20:02
Speaker 2: it's advantageous that I go, says Jesus. That way, you
20:06
Speaker 2: don't have to be with me physically to have my strength.
20:12
Speaker 2: I'll give you that strength you need down inside, and
20:16
Speaker 2: it will never leave. That's a great plan. The reaction
20:24
Speaker 2: was fear. The solution the Spirit of God, and the
20:30
Speaker 2: functions of the Spirit are numerous. I've outlined them on
20:35
Speaker 2: the back of the insert you received in the bulletin
20:38
Speaker 2: this morning, and I don't plan to go further into it,
20:41
Speaker 2: simply to call your attention to the fact that those
20:44
Speaker 2: functions are there. You will notice them as being divided
20:48
Speaker 2: into several different groups, and I leave that for your
20:51
Speaker 2: own study. But the passage of scripture we're looking at
20:55
Speaker 2: this morning deals with both sides of the cross. Humanly speaking,
21:01
Speaker 2: the Spirit of God has a ministry among the unsaved,
21:05
Speaker 2: and the Spirit of God also has a ministry among
21:08
Speaker 2: the believers. His ministry is divergent, it is always effective,
21:16
Speaker 2: and how enlightening it is to discover those ministries of
21:20
Speaker 2: the spirit. Let me say to you as you sit
21:23
Speaker 2: here this morning, many of you children of God and
21:26
Speaker 2: knew in the faith, there is resident within your system,
21:33
Speaker 2: your spiritual system, the very same power plant that was
21:40
Speaker 2: implanted in Jesus Christ. That's incredible, the very same source
21:47
Speaker 2: of power he received from the Father. You receive from
21:53
Speaker 2: the Father in the person of the Holy Spirit. And
21:56
Speaker 2: he is there not to remain dormant, but to be
22:00
Speaker 2: useful in the carrying out of God's plan on Earth.
22:09
Speaker 2: Now this morning, in these verses that follow eight through fifteen,
22:13
Speaker 2: I want to look at two realms of the Spirit's ministry.
22:18
Speaker 2: The first realm has to do with his ministry among
22:22
Speaker 2: those who don't know Christ. And the second, of course,
22:27
Speaker 2: is among us who do those of us who know
22:30
Speaker 2: the Lord? What does he do in our midst The
22:33
Speaker 2: passage describes or answers that question. Now, this is the
22:40
Speaker 2: fourth or fifth time that I have taught the Gospel
22:43
Speaker 2: of John, and I freely confess to you that every
22:47
Speaker 2: time I go back into a passage of scripture, I
22:51
Speaker 2: uncover things I've never seen before. It's not that I
22:56
Speaker 2: have come to the place to say what I used
22:59
Speaker 2: to teach each is wrong. It's just that now I
23:03
Speaker 2: feel I have a fuller grasp of what I once
23:09
Speaker 2: saw in part. Let me explain it this way. The
23:13
Speaker 2: orthodox position in verses eight through twelve is that the
23:18
Speaker 2: Spirit of God works directly among the worlding to bring
23:24
Speaker 2: about conviction. The Spirit of God works on the unsaved
23:30
Speaker 2: to show him sin and righteousness and judgment. That is
23:36
Speaker 2: the most common position, and it is the accepted position. Traditionally,
23:42
Speaker 2: it is the position I've held. I believe that there
23:48
Speaker 2: is something I overlooked in coming to that position that
23:53
Speaker 2: I want to show you. Now it's found in verse seven.
23:56
Speaker 2: And since these were never given as verses, but as
23:59
Speaker 2: trains of thought, you can't separate the thoughts. Verse seven
24:05
Speaker 2: in thought leads into the following thoughts eight and following
24:08
Speaker 2: look at seven again, I tell you the truth. It
24:12
Speaker 2: is to your advantage that I go away. Market your advantage,
24:20
Speaker 2: for if I do not go away, the helper shall
24:24
Speaker 2: not come to you. Mark those words your advantage. The
24:33
Speaker 2: helper shall not come to you. But if I go
24:37
Speaker 2: I will send him to you. Everything that follows must
24:45
Speaker 2: fit that thought. In other words, the worldling never has
24:53
Speaker 2: the Spirit. John fourteen teaches us that verses fifteen and
24:58
Speaker 2: sixteen tell us that the worldorld cannot receive the Spirit,
25:02
Speaker 2: doesn't know him, but you receive him when you believe.
25:08
Speaker 2: We receive the Spirit of God. He has come to
25:12
Speaker 2: the child of God. Then if he convicts the world,
25:19
Speaker 2: he convicts the world through the believer. Now doesn't that
25:26
Speaker 2: make sense? Don't answer yet, because some of you would
25:30
Speaker 2: say no, it doesn't make sense. Let me show you
25:33
Speaker 2: in this passage how it all of a sudden makes
25:36
Speaker 2: palitable and meaningful verses that have rested on a doctrinal
25:41
Speaker 2: sheet in our mind. When the Spirit of God comes,
25:45
Speaker 2: he will come to you and implied through you, he
25:52
Speaker 2: will do a work of convincing of sin, righteousness and judgment.
25:59
Speaker 2: Look at verse A. He when he comes implied to you,
26:06
Speaker 2: will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.
26:12
Speaker 2: And now in the next three verses he amplifies that
26:15
Speaker 2: one that verse verse nine, concerning sin. Then he amplifies
26:21
Speaker 2: it verse ten concerning righteousness. And he goes further verse eleven,
26:28
Speaker 2: concerning judgment. And he explains that, in other words, all
26:34
Speaker 2: four verses A through eleven are talking about the convincing
26:40
Speaker 2: or the convicting of the spirit upon the world. I'm
26:46
Speaker 2: suggesting through the Child of God. Now let me show
26:52
Speaker 2: you how it fits together concerning sin. Because they do
26:58
Speaker 2: not believe in me. The Child of God living on
27:04
Speaker 2: this earth, empowered by the Spirit of God, is a
27:08
Speaker 2: living letter observed by the world. As the world observes
27:16
Speaker 2: the Child of God, you and me, controlled by the Spirit,
27:22
Speaker 2: the world witnesses a transformed life. And that incredible life
27:31
Speaker 2: that's able to carry on in a unique way in
27:36
Speaker 2: his same world where he's failing or frustrated. He becomes
27:41
Speaker 2: aware that there is a difference, and the Spirit of
27:46
Speaker 2: God convicts him of his unbelief in Jesus Christ, as
27:54
Speaker 2: he discovers your source of power. When the spirit of
27:59
Speaker 2: God comes, he will convict the world of sin. He
28:07
Speaker 2: will be aware of sin, not by looking at the
28:10
Speaker 2: mountains that tell of the glory of God, the nature
28:14
Speaker 2: that reveals the majesty and power of God. He will
28:19
Speaker 2: witness living truth and will be convicted thereby. Let me
28:25
Speaker 2: show you an example. First Corinthians, chapter seven. Before I
28:32
Speaker 2: never connected these two passages, but now all of a sudden,
28:37
Speaker 2: they fit together. I always wondered what it meant in detail.
28:43
Speaker 2: I wondered about this business of being sanctified as an unbeliever.
28:50
Speaker 2: Let me show you how it makes sense. First Corinthian
28:54
Speaker 2: seven is a domestic passage. It talks in detail about
29:00
Speaker 2: a mixed marriage where there is a believing wife and
29:06
Speaker 2: unbelieving husband, or vice versa. Verse twelve. The middle of
29:12
Speaker 2: the verse continues, if any brother has a wife who
29:17
Speaker 2: is an unbeliever. Now notice the man is called a brother,
29:21
Speaker 2: so he's born again. His wife is clearly revealed as
29:25
Speaker 2: an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him. Let
29:32
Speaker 2: him not send her away. It's clear, isn't it. Here
29:37
Speaker 2: is a believing man with an unbelieving wife, but she
29:40
Speaker 2: wants to live with him. Don't send her away, stay together.
29:46
Speaker 2: Look at the next verse and a woman who has
29:49
Speaker 2: an unbelieving husband. This is the contrast of illustration, and
29:54
Speaker 2: he consents to live with her. Let her not send
29:58
Speaker 2: her husband away. Here is a believing woman who has
30:03
Speaker 2: an unbelieving husband. The lord says, don't send that man away.
30:09
Speaker 2: Don't get a divorce why Verse fourteen, for the unbelieving
30:18
Speaker 2: husband is set apart, sanctified, brought under conviction, made aware
30:29
Speaker 2: of sin of unbelief through his wife. And the unbelieving
30:35
Speaker 2: wife is the same through her believing husband, and it
30:41
Speaker 2: even affects the children. Goes on to say, now, back
30:45
Speaker 2: to John sixteen. This answers for me, how are the
30:51
Speaker 2: mechanics of how sin or the awareness of unbelief is
30:56
Speaker 2: implanted in a heart. Now I'm not saying that you
31:01
Speaker 2: and I are able to create a conviction of sin.
31:06
Speaker 2: The only thing that can break The barrier of an
31:08
Speaker 2: unbelieving heart is the Holy Spirit. But he works like
31:13
Speaker 2: an arrow. He pulls the arrow out of our quiver
31:16
Speaker 2: and sends it into that heart, and it penetrates deeply,
31:20
Speaker 2: revealing unbelief. Look at the next one, verse ten, concerning righteousness,
31:29
Speaker 2: because I go to the Father and you no longer
31:31
Speaker 2: behold me. Now the same subject is the work of
31:38
Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit, convincing of righteousness. This is the positive side.
31:43
Speaker 2: Sin is the negative. He's aware of his unbelief because
31:49
Speaker 2: he witnesses a righteousness that he can't produce, and realizing
31:56
Speaker 2: the incarnate righteousness brought about in that life, your life
32:01
Speaker 2: and mind, he is convinced or he is convicted. It's
32:05
Speaker 2: not in his You see, I never could understand the
32:10
Speaker 2: latter part of verse ten. I go to the Father
32:13
Speaker 2: and you no longer behold me. What does that have
32:16
Speaker 2: to do with righteousness? Well, this as long as Jesus
32:21
Speaker 2: was on the earth, if anyone wanted to know what
32:24
Speaker 2: righteousness was like, travel to Israel and take a look
32:28
Speaker 2: at God in the flesh. But Jesus said, I'm going,
32:34
Speaker 2: they'll no longer witness righteousness in me. Where will they
32:38
Speaker 2: see it in those who are filled with the spirit,
32:44
Speaker 2: and through that witness, there will be created in that
32:48
Speaker 2: heart by the power of the Spirit, a realization that
32:52
Speaker 2: that lifestyle he's living is unrighteous. He will see righteousness
32:59
Speaker 2: living for him. Third, concerning judgment, because the ruler of
33:08
Speaker 2: this world has been judged. Now look and think very carefully.
33:14
Speaker 2: This is not talking about something future. This is talking
33:18
Speaker 2: about something past. How often I've heard verse eight quoted
33:22
Speaker 2: When he comes, he will convict the world of sin
33:25
Speaker 2: and righteousness and judgment to come. That's not in the passage.
33:31
Speaker 2: The work of the Holy Spirit is to convince and
33:35
Speaker 2: convict the worlding of unbelief, his lack of righteousness, and
33:42
Speaker 2: the fact that his ruler stands judged. Again, if I
33:47
Speaker 2: may use the same analogy, as he sees a new
33:51
Speaker 2: life lived under another ruler. In the believer, one man
33:58
Speaker 2: writes it this way, the power Satan is already broken
34:01
Speaker 2: in the lives the whirling observes. Here are people who
34:07
Speaker 2: live by different standards, follow a different system of morals.
34:12
Speaker 2: They're no longer tied up in themselves, bound up within,
34:17
Speaker 2: tortured by tensions and fears. When the world sees this,
34:24
Speaker 2: it sees a Christian or at least that's what the
34:29
Speaker 2: world should see personally. I find no contradiction in this
34:36
Speaker 2: amplified idea of these verses. Now I leave it with
34:40
Speaker 2: you for you to think upon it. I should add
34:43
Speaker 2: a couple of clarifying factors. First of all, not everyone
34:46
Speaker 2: who witnesses the saved will be saved. I wish they would,
34:53
Speaker 2: but that's not the Father's plan. He does say in
34:58
Speaker 2: his word that it is not the Father's desire that
35:00
Speaker 2: anyone perished, but unfortunately many will because they reject Jesus Christ.
35:08
Speaker 2: Not all will believe. That explains why in your family
35:12
Speaker 2: you've been saved, but so many have not. And you
35:17
Speaker 2: lived the life of Jesus Christ as best you can
35:20
Speaker 2: by the power of the spirit. And a few have responded,
35:22
Speaker 2: but not all. This is not a guarantee that every
35:26
Speaker 2: unsaved person will respond. He may live with that conviction
35:32
Speaker 2: but not respond to Jesus Christ. Some of you have
35:35
Speaker 2: been made aware of a righteous life that is possible
35:39
Speaker 2: through Jesus Christ, but you have not yet given your
35:42
Speaker 2: heart to the Savior. You've not yet accepted the gift.
35:46
Speaker 2: And it's gone on year after year, and the conviction
35:50
Speaker 2: is increasing, just like the building of a pyramid. Now
35:55
Speaker 2: the work of the Holy Spirit is to deal with
35:58
Speaker 2: your heart and to bring about that change that only
36:02
Speaker 2: he can do. Your Christian friend can't do it for you.
36:07
Speaker 2: If he could, he would. Some of us try, but
36:10
Speaker 2: it's in vain. Now. I feel a little bit like
36:14
Speaker 2: the Lord Jesus at verse twelve. I have many more
36:18
Speaker 2: things to say to you, but I don't have the
36:20
Speaker 2: time right now. He didn't say time, but he had
36:24
Speaker 2: in mind the same frustration. I want to go deeper
36:27
Speaker 2: into this. There are some mysteries in it that I've
36:30
Speaker 2: thought about, but they're still at the heretical stage, and
36:34
Speaker 2: so I don't want to shock anybody at this point.
36:36
Speaker 2: I just want to leave this much with you. If
36:40
Speaker 2: nothing else, it will really motivate the godly life when
36:45
Speaker 2: you realize you are, in fact the only Bible that
36:48
Speaker 2: many read who come in contact with you. You're writing the
36:52
Speaker 2: Gospel of John chapter sixteen tomorrow morning at work. You're
36:57
Speaker 2: finishing it tomorrow afternoon, and you're writing seventeenth the following morning.
37:02
Speaker 2: You're writing a gospel and the world reads it, and
37:06
Speaker 2: what it reads they discover to be truth. Are faults
37:12
Speaker 2: depending on it, squaring with scripture. Now, the Spirit of
37:16
Speaker 2: God uses that to reach lives. Now, if you think
37:20
Speaker 2: that's exciting, hang on, look at verse thirteen. His ministry
37:25
Speaker 2: to us is even better than that. Look at what
37:29
Speaker 2: he's doing. When he, the Spirit of Truth comes, he
37:34
Speaker 2: will guide you into all the truth. Isn't that great?
37:45
Speaker 2: He knows the full truth of God. There is no mystery,
37:50
Speaker 2: There is no secret to the Holy Spirit's knowledge. I mean,
37:54
Speaker 2: he's in the Godhead and he knows the Father's mind,
37:59
Speaker 2: he knows the son's mind. But he is the link
38:03
Speaker 2: of communication. This is called the ministry of illumination. And
38:08
Speaker 2: the Spirit of God takes truth from God and through
38:13
Speaker 2: the Word of God, he communicates it to you and me,
38:19
Speaker 2: and his desire is to guide you into all the truth.
38:26
Speaker 2: Some of you are learning things this morning for the
38:28
Speaker 2: first time, or they're being affirmed. You know who's teaching you,
38:36
Speaker 2: It's not I. In a beautiful, mysterious, divine fashion, the
38:42
Speaker 2: Spirit of God is hovering upon this place, and he
38:49
Speaker 2: is separating truth and dispensing it into one heart after another,
38:57
Speaker 2: meaning one thing to one and another altogether to someone else.
39:04
Speaker 2: It is the divine encounter where the Spirit of God
39:10
Speaker 2: takes truth that is on this page and rivets it
39:14
Speaker 2: into your life and mind. Now he guides us into
39:18
Speaker 2: all the truth. How can I know that it's the
39:21
Speaker 2: Spirit of God who is teaching me, or how do
39:26
Speaker 2: I know that it's that it is an error? Well,
39:31
Speaker 2: if you look closely here, you will notice a couple
39:33
Speaker 2: of things about truth. When the Spirit of Truth teaches,
39:39
Speaker 2: he first of all, doesn't speak of himself, doesn't speak
39:43
Speaker 2: on his own initiative. And secondly, when the Spirit of
39:48
Speaker 2: God teaches verse fourteen, he glorifies Christ. When you are
39:54
Speaker 2: spirit taught, you learn deep things of Christ, and it
40:04
Speaker 2: exalts the Son of God. You know, I am a
40:09
Speaker 2: bit weary these days of people who are saying, if
40:13
Speaker 2: you really want to get into the deep things, you've
40:16
Speaker 2: got to get into the realm of the spirit. Really,
40:23
Speaker 2: I find that when it is spirit taught, it is
40:27
Speaker 2: the things of Christ that are exalted. The Spirit of
40:32
Speaker 2: God lives loathing the limelight. He does not even wish
40:39
Speaker 2: to be mentioned are exalted. He wants the Son of
40:44
Speaker 2: God to be exalted. And when the Son of God
40:47
Speaker 2: is exalted, the Spirit of God has performed one of
40:50
Speaker 2: his highest functions. Now let me wrap it up altogether.
40:55
Speaker 2: I see something here that might help you put it together.
41:01
Speaker 2: He knows all that there is to know of God.
41:05
Speaker 2: The Bible is of course an open book. He wrote it,
41:10
Speaker 2: and so, knowing the complete pleroma of truth, he is
41:16
Speaker 2: ready to give it all to you at once. But
41:20
Speaker 2: you and I can't take it like that, so he
41:24
Speaker 2: dispenses it piece by piece. A number of miles from
41:27
Speaker 2: the La Basin there is a river. The river has
41:32
Speaker 2: been dammed up by man, and through the genius and
41:36
Speaker 2: innovation of engineers, they have put together a dam that has,
41:43
Speaker 2: in its process of working, housed electricity hundreds of thousands
41:49
Speaker 2: of volts that are fed into the La Basin. And
41:54
Speaker 2: if you were to go to that area and see
41:57
Speaker 2: the source the plant, and follow the lines that come
42:01
Speaker 2: in our direction, you would come to various transmission plans
42:06
Speaker 2: along the way that would be marked danger high voltage,
42:11
Speaker 2: no trespassing danger. Hundreds of thousands of volts available in
42:20
Speaker 2: energy for your home and mind. But who needs one
42:25
Speaker 2: hundred thousand volts unless he wants to burn up his home?
42:31
Speaker 2: Knowing that they have built into the system transformers, not transmitters,
42:38
Speaker 2: but transformers, and the transformer does nothing more than break
42:44
Speaker 2: down into meaningful units, just the electricity you need. And
42:53
Speaker 2: I have in my home, for example, another transformer. This
42:58
Speaker 2: past Christmas, I gave myself an ho gage train. I
43:02
Speaker 2: put my son's name on it, but it was really
43:04
Speaker 2: for me, and you don't tell him, he'll never know.
43:08
Speaker 2: So we had a great time getting it all together.
43:10
Speaker 2: And there's a little tiny unit called a transformer in
43:16
Speaker 2: that train set, and it breaks down the one hundred
43:20
Speaker 2: and ten from the wall to even less. Why if
43:25
Speaker 2: you plugged in a straight one hundred and ten, that
43:28
Speaker 2: thing would go for one second and be burnt up,
43:31
Speaker 2: be one little crisp. But that transformer breaks it down
43:35
Speaker 2: to where that little tiny train, whose engine can be
43:39
Speaker 2: held in your fist, can just put but put all
43:43
Speaker 2: around that train and entertain me for hours on end
43:48
Speaker 2: because there is a little transformer that dispenses it in
43:53
Speaker 2: the level I needed. But he, when the transformer is.
43:59
Speaker 3: Come, will take the majestic truth of God, and we'll
44:07
Speaker 3: dispense it just the way you need it.
44:11
Speaker 2: Give it to you with handles that you can take
44:15
Speaker 2: and use. With some it's an h O gauge. With others,
44:20
Speaker 2: it's a washer dry. You need two twenty from time
44:24
Speaker 2: to time with others. It's a it's a can opener,
44:27
Speaker 2: a little electric can opener you plug in. But every
44:30
Speaker 2: one of us, at various levels, is in need of
44:34
Speaker 2: particular truth. And it is the Spirit's delight to take
44:40
Speaker 2: the full truth and make one thing meaningful to that woman,
44:46
Speaker 2: something altogether different to that man, and something altogether different
44:51
Speaker 2: to that fellow down here. That's the work of the Spirit.
44:56
Speaker 2: And having the mind of God, he never makes a mistake.
45:02
Speaker 2: He gives you just what you can handle. Now, then
45:07
Speaker 2: I find in this section a couple of sweeping, practical
45:15
Speaker 2: principles that will make it stick. What does it mean
45:19
Speaker 2: to the Saint, this ministry of the Holy Spirit? Well,
45:23
Speaker 2: I find two things. If I could just drill them
45:26
Speaker 2: on to your mind and let them stay for a while,
45:31
Speaker 2: you'll see what we've been trying to say. Here's the first.
45:35
Speaker 2: In convicting the world, the spirit desires to use a channel.
45:44
Speaker 2: This building doesn't convict the world. That piano doesn't convict
45:49
Speaker 2: the world. This wooden pulpit doesn't convict the world. The
45:55
Speaker 2: mountains as beautiful, are the serf as majesty, They don't
46:00
Speaker 2: convict the world. You convict the world, your life, your
46:07
Speaker 2: control under the Holy Spirit in a circumstance that is
46:12
Speaker 2: altogether impossible in the flesh, and you're handling that by
46:17
Speaker 2: the power of God. Is a conviction to the world.
46:20
Speaker 2: He's looking for channels. Mary Maxwell, a twentieth century hymn writer,
46:24
Speaker 2: put words together and in the chorus she described what
46:27
Speaker 2: I'm trying to say. Channels only, Blessed Master, But with
46:32
Speaker 2: all thy wondrous power flowing through us, thou can use
46:37
Speaker 2: us every day and every hour. That's the channel. Here's
46:45
Speaker 2: the second. In communicating the word, the spirit desires to
46:52
Speaker 2: see changes. In convicting the world, he desires to use channels.
47:00
Speaker 2: But in communicating the Word when he teaches, he desires
47:05
Speaker 2: to see changes. Any changes happening in your life these days.
47:14
Speaker 2: You know he's not going to change a circumstance. He's
47:18
Speaker 2: going to change you. I cannot give you any promise
47:22
Speaker 2: that your circumstance will change. One psalm begins, for the
47:26
Speaker 2: psalmist is on his face. Everything is broken, loose, the
47:29
Speaker 2: rug's pulled out from under him. He has nothing to
47:31
Speaker 2: turn to, and he's finished. He's complaining to God. And
47:35
Speaker 2: at the end he's praising only took him probably an
47:39
Speaker 2: hour to write the whole song. Had his circumstance changed, No,
47:45
Speaker 2: he had changed. That's the work of the spirit. When
47:52
Speaker 2: you are transformed, you are the channel. It's changed that
47:58
Speaker 2: makes the channel so good, so good, But the Spirit
48:05
Speaker 2: of God teaches. I got a letter this past week
48:08
Speaker 2: from a fellow in our church. I suppose if I
48:12
Speaker 2: were to give the letter a title, it would be
48:14
Speaker 2: two words, I'm transformed. It all began back in nineteen
48:21
Speaker 2: seventy five, where the man began to experience, through the
48:26
Speaker 2: ministry of the Word and the ministry of the Saints changes.
48:34
Speaker 2: Things weren't easy. His wife left him along with the children.
48:40
Speaker 2: His business built up into pressures that he had never
48:42
Speaker 2: known before. He was literally at the end of his rope. Then,
48:48
Speaker 2: he said, with enemies all around, I suddenly discovered, through
48:54
Speaker 2: the information I got from God's Word that I could
48:58
Speaker 2: love those that hated me, and I didn't have to
49:02
Speaker 2: live with the acid of resentment eating away in me.
49:06
Speaker 2: And I could, in fact pray for my wife and
49:10
Speaker 2: loving her as I love the little ones who've been
49:13
Speaker 2: taken from me. And he said, they've been the hardest
49:17
Speaker 2: circumstances I've ever known, But I am transformed. Isn't that miraculous?
49:26
Speaker 2: And he wrote just to say, praise God. He's still
49:32
Speaker 2: kissing frogs, you know, He's still picking up nobody's and
49:38
Speaker 2: making them into somebody's. The spirit of God a theoretical doctrine. No,
49:48
Speaker 2: he's truth spoken from dying lips to living saints. It's
49:57
Speaker 2: about this morning show me. I want to address my
50:03
Speaker 2: remarks to you that are without Christ. Please stay still
50:08
Speaker 2: and don't move about. I won't keep you unnecessarily long.
50:15
Speaker 2: You that are without Christ are surrounded by a strange
50:18
Speaker 2: group of people. They've sung to someone that they've never heard.
50:25
Speaker 2: They've prayed to a god they've never seen. They obey
50:29
Speaker 2: one whose original rules they've never witnessed. They worship the
50:37
Speaker 2: invisible God only wise as silent as light. But if
50:48
Speaker 2: I read you correctly, you long for that kind of faith.
50:57
Speaker 2: And I want you to know that the Spirit of
50:59
Speaker 2: God has red feel this morning enough information for you
51:03
Speaker 2: to know that that uneasiness you're living with is conviction.
51:10
Speaker 2: You cannot put it off. You dare not others? May
51:17
Speaker 2: you dare not? A simple act as simple as a
51:23
Speaker 2: child accepting a gift from his Father, you can accept
51:29
Speaker 2: the gift that God offers. You ask Jesus Christ at
51:34
Speaker 2: this moment to become alive in you receive salvation. You
51:46
Speaker 2: use your own prayer, something like, Lord, I don't understand
51:51
Speaker 2: everything I've heard today, but I know I'm lost spiritually,
51:59
Speaker 2: I'm dead. I want life, I want direction. I accept
52:06
Speaker 2: Christ right now. It's never been the policy of our
52:13
Speaker 2: church to have you walk forward or demonstrate in some
52:20
Speaker 2: tangible way before everyone else a decision that you've made
52:25
Speaker 2: in the private chamber of your heart. But we don't
52:32
Speaker 2: want you to think that we're not interested. You might
52:37
Speaker 2: need real help in knowing the techniques of living in
52:45
Speaker 2: a world that doesn't want Christ. You might be going
52:49
Speaker 2: home to a pressure that man nobody would believe. Maybe
52:55
Speaker 2: you've just received the Lord just this past week. You'd
53:00
Speaker 2: really like to know how to get it together. We
53:05
Speaker 2: want to respect your privacy. At the same time, we
53:10
Speaker 2: don't want to put off a decision that you need
53:12
Speaker 2: to make right now. Receiving Christ is not a matter
53:16
Speaker 2: of going to a room. It's a matter of making
53:18
Speaker 2: a decision in your life right now. If you have
53:24
Speaker 2: done that or wish to do that, and don't know
53:27
Speaker 2: how we're talking about children of God. You've known most
53:36
Speaker 2: of your life about the Holy Spirit, but it's about
53:40
Speaker 2: time that he brings some changes. He's grieved that you're
53:46
Speaker 2: still calling your own life. He's jealous for the throne.
53:53
Speaker 2: He wants your heart submissive, meek, teachable, willing, especially willing
54:01
Speaker 2: to give up your own rights that he might tell
54:05
Speaker 2: you what your rights are all about, transform your whole system,
54:12
Speaker 2: change you, leaving your circumstances exactly where they are. Tell
54:18
Speaker 2: the Lord this morning that he's got your life without reservation.
54:25
Speaker 2: Abide in Christ, and you will be able to face
54:29
Speaker 2: that circumstance regardless. Lord, thank you this morning or communicating
54:38
Speaker 2: to us living truth that we have needed. Thank You
54:46
Speaker 2: for dealing with some who don't know the Lord. We
54:51
Speaker 2: pray that they might be brought face to face