View Full Transcript
Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's Word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find [email protected] Be sure to also check out our Bible Study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Good evening.
[00:00:38] Speaker A: Welcome back to our Bible Study hour here at the Madison Church of Christ. If you're joining us online, we're grateful for your presence with us as well.
As many of you know, this morning we had a guest speaker with us, Dr. Justin Rogers from Free Hartmann University, speaking on the Holy Spirit. This morning we talked about who the Holy Spirit is and tonight he will present to us on what the Holy Spirit does so a good in depth study on a topic that oftentimes gets avoided for various reasons or overlooked. And so giving due appreciation to that tonight, I want to say thank you to Dr. Rogers on behalf of all of us for traveling to be with us today away from your family. And we're grateful for the opportunity for this study. He'll be around for a few minutes afterwards if you'd like to chat with him. If not, if you miss him, then get with one of the ministers and we can get you in touch with him to follow up with any questions or anything like that.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: All right? Good evening.
Thank you so much for being here tonight. If you were with us this morning, you know that we began by describing who the Holy Spirit is, or at least attempting to do so. And because we're talking about a subject that is so difficult and so expansive, we committed ourselves to only affirming what we could substantiate with scripture. And I think that's a pretty good practice on any religious topic, but especially on this one. And so tonight what we're going to do is not engage in speculation about what some people claim or about what some people think that they know, but rather just simply to follow the Bible in guiding us in what the Holy Spirit does.
Now it seems that there is a bit of tension in the religious world about the activity of the Holy Spirit, and it comes at least in part from the concept that if we admit a personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit, how do we know that the Spirit does not enable us today to do miraculous things? I mean, if you say that God is living in us, empowering us, and equipping us, and all these different things that the Bible says, then how can you guarantee that the miraculous is not still happening? People are really worried about that.
And so our response to that fear or that tension has generally been through the decades, not to talk about the.
[00:02:55] Speaker C: Holy Spirit at all.
[00:02:58] Speaker B: In fact, a number of you this morning on your way out made the point of saying, for years, I've been a Christian, and this subject just really hasn't been addressed, or at least not addressed as often as we would like. And I think that the reason I'm here today is to help maybe change that.
And so Brandon and Andrew, over the next several weeks will help to unpack many of these ideas and no doubt many more, so that we can gain an appropriate biblical understanding of who the.
[00:03:23] Speaker C: Holy Spirit is and what the Holy Spirit does.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: But I think this tension about the miraculous can be eased somewhat by acknowledging what the Bible says. And that is that there are measures of the Spirit that are taught in Scripture.
That is, whenever we read the Holy Spirit, we are not speaking always about exactly the same activity performed in exactly the same way. And that is key to understanding what the Bible does and does not teach about the nature and work of the Holy Spirit. For example, one of the things the Bible says is the Spirit is like fire that can be shared without any diminution to its original source. And the best way I can think of to explain this would be if I were standing up here and I had a candle that was lit, and all of you were holding candles that were not lit, and I were to start on one side of the auditorium, and one by one, we lit each other's candle. And let's pretend like we had a candle that actually lasts that long.
And then by the end of that process, all of us would have candles that were lit. But you would notice something about my candle.
And that is, the fire did not change.
It did not go out, it did not go down. It remained just as strong and vibrant and powerful as it ever was. And the Bible describes the Holy Spirit much in the same way that when God acts, he does not reduce himself in any way. You know, as human beings, we're fairly limited that whenever I exert myself, I lose some stamina. Mile 22 of the marathon does not feel as good as mile 21, unless you're really strange out there. That's probably the case for all of us, because we wear out and we grow tired. That is not the case with the nature of God. And because the Spirit is God, the Spirit never grows tired, it never wears out, it never loses force. And the Bible describes it that way in Numbers, chapter 11. In verse number 17, God says to Moses, I'm going to share part of the Spirit with the elders of Israel. He says, I will come down and talk with you there and I will take notice what the Bible says.
I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you so that you may not be able to bear it yourself alone.
What God is saying to Moses is you have the full measure of the Spirit. So I'm going to take a measure and I'm going to share it with the 70 elders of Israel so that they can help to minister to the people alongside you. That's a powerful statement about the fact that the Spirit can be parted out and measured to certain people for certain purposes as God sees fit. Now, I want to apply this principle now to the New Testament. When we go to the New Testament, it seems that there are two measures.
[00:06:22] Speaker C: Of the Spirit that are described.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: There is the non miraculous measure of the spiritual, which is retained in the hearts and lives of the Christian, received at the moment of baptism, but retained throughout the Christian life as long as we are faithful. But then there is that special miraculous measure of the Spirit that is given for specific purposes to specific people at specific times. And it is that measure that no longer is in play Today according to 1 Corinthians 13 and other passages that talk about the cessation of, of the miraculous in the age of the Church's.
[00:07:01] Speaker C: Infancy in the first century.
[00:07:04] Speaker B: But I want to explore this topic through the lens of an unlikely source.
So I remember a few years ago I was talking to a friend of mine who attends a church that does not distinguish between the miraculous and the non miraculous measures of the Spirit. And he said to me, it sounds like that that sort of teaching is dreamed up by those who want to deny the existence of miracles today. And so you just made that up. You made that up to fit a preconceived theological notion.
And the best I had to come back to that is no, I didn't, which by the way, is not a very good comeback. And so I found myself reading Rudolf Bultmann's Theology of the New Testament. Now, you don't need to know who Rudolph Bultmann is, but you need to.
[00:07:53] Speaker C: Maybe know One thing, he was no.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: Friend of biblical Christianity. In fact, he was one of the starkest critics of the reliability of the New Testament, of the reliability of the traditions about Jesus and the words of Jesus. He was a critic of New Testament Christianity.
And yet in his theology of the New Testament, he is simply describing what the New Testament teaches about the Holy Spirit. And this is what he says.
On the one hand, it that's the Spirit is the power conferred in baptism.
[00:08:27] Speaker C: Which makes the Christian a Christian.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: A power which already in the present takes him out of this perishing world and seals him for the one to come.
[00:08:41] Speaker C: On the other hand, it is the.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: Power given now and again for the occasion to the Christian, enabling him to accomplish extraordinary things.
Now here's a guy who has no theological interest to defend. Here's a guy who is not trying to argue that you ought to even follow the New Testament. In fact, he would say you can't follow the New Testament because it's unreliable. And yet he says there seems to be taught in the Bible a miraculous and a non miraculous measure of the Spirit. The non miraculous measure is what stays with the individual, making him a Christian. The miraculous measure is occasional and given for a specific purpose. He goes on to say the Spirit can be conceived as the power which seizes a man or is given to him for a specific situation or moment, causing in him a temporary condition or eliciting specific deeds for that soul time.
Or it can be conceived as a power permanently allotted to him, resting in him, so to say, which of course goes into effect on special occasions, but which also gives his whole mode of life a special character, imparting a supranatural.
[00:10:01] Speaker C: Not supernatural, supranatural quality to his nature.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: Now all we're talking about here is.
[00:10:11] Speaker C: A summary of what the New Testament teaches.
[00:10:15] Speaker B: It seems that the Holy Spirit is.
[00:10:16] Speaker C: Described in one of two the miraculous and the non miraculous, the permanent, that.
[00:10:24] Speaker B: Refines and purifies and sanctifies the people of God, and the temporal, which comes for a specific time and a specific.
[00:10:32] Speaker C: Place, but was never intended.
[00:10:37] Speaker B: Now he calls these the animistic and.
[00:10:39] Speaker C: Dynamistic views of the Spirit.
But both are substantiated in Scripture.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: Remember in Acts 2:38, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission.
[00:10:52] Speaker C: Of your sins, and you will receive.
[00:10:54] Speaker B: The gift of the Holy Spirit.
Well, what's that talking about? It's talking about anyone who is willing.
[00:11:01] Speaker C: To surrender their sins in humility to.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: Say to the Lord, I am wicked. And I cannot save myself. I need your saving grace to turn away from a lifestyle of sin and surrender our sins in baptism. Anyone who is willing to do that. The Holy Spirit becomes the seal that.
[00:11:17] Speaker C: Rests upon us, as we'll see tonight.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: On the other hand, the Bible says.
[00:11:22] Speaker C: That the apostles in Acts chapter eight, when Philip went and preached the Gospel to the Samaritans.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: He taught them the name of Jesus Christ.
[00:11:33] Speaker C: He shared with them the Gospel.
[00:11:35] Speaker B: He taught them the plan of salvation in such a way where they surrendered their sins in baptism, but they did not receive the miraculous measure of the Holy Spirit.
And so they called Peter and John to come up to verify that the Samaritans had indeed been included in the kingdom.
[00:11:50] Speaker C: And upon laying their hands on these people, they received the Holy Spirit.
That's that temporary, that miraculous indwelling that we sometimes see described in the New Testament. When we make that proper distinction, we.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: Eliminate a whole lot of the tension.
[00:12:08] Speaker C: That the religious world feels when the Holy Spirit is discussed.
And it's that fundamental distinction that I think maybe alleviates our fear of talking about what the Bible says when it comes to the nature of the Spirit.
[00:12:25] Speaker B: So what does the Spirit do?
We're going to talk about a number.
[00:12:29] Speaker C: Of things this evening, but I hope that this is only the beginning of your study.
[00:12:34] Speaker B: I don't want this to be a survey that ends the discussion of the Holy Spirit in this congregation or even in your own personal study, but only the beginning. The first thing that we want to.
[00:12:45] Speaker C: Acknowledge, which we've already mentioned, is that.
[00:12:48] Speaker B: The Holy Spirit is the power that actually possess or the that indwells the Christian. The Christian possesses the Spirit. Look at Romans chapter 8. This is verse 9 beginning Romans 8 beginning in verse 9. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ, who does not belong to him. Notice first of all that Paul says the Spirit is of necessity dwelling in you. If in any way Jesus Christ is in your life, you know, there is an ease with which people will say, well, I believe that Christ is in Me, but I'm not sure if the Spirit is in me. This verse says you can't say one without the other. If you are a faithful Christian, then absolutely it is the case that the Spirit of Christ is in you. Secondly, the presence of the Spirit seems to be equivalent to the Spirit of Christ.
Not only verse 9, but look at verse 10. If Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, The Spirit is life because of righteousness. What the Bible is teaching us is the life without Christ is a life dominated by the flesh, a life characterized by sin. But the moment we surrender our sins to Jesus Christ, the Spirit comes into us to give us new life, to place us on a different plane of existence, so that we are no longer living in pursuit of fleshly things. But now we're contemplating spiritual realities where eternity is on our mind all the time. That's what the Spirit does. And if you claim that Jesus Christ is in you, then the Spirit is.
[00:14:33] Speaker C: In you as well.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Number three. These verses teach that the presence of.
[00:14:37] Speaker C: The Spirit coincides with a righteous life.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: In other words, you cannot be righteous and not possess the Spirit. And then number four, the presence of the Spirit guarantees a future resurrection. Look at verse number 11 of Romans chapter 8.
If the Spirit of Him who raised.
[00:14:56] Speaker C: Jesus from the dead dwells in you.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: Notice how many references there are to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit just in these verses. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your.
[00:15:12] Speaker C: Mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
[00:15:18] Speaker B: The idea that God seems to be suggesting here is if you have the.
[00:15:22] Speaker C: Spirit, then that is God's way of knowing those who belong to Him.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: You know, we have these things at Freed Hardiman, these access cards, and they're magnetized and these get us in buildings that people otherwise cannot get into. And a few weeks ago I was talking to some of my co workers at Freed Hardam and they said, hey.
[00:15:42] Speaker C: Does your card work in the Main street gym anymore? And I said, yeah, my card works. And they said, well, ours doesn't work.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: And they were frustrated by this because they're supposed to have access. That card is supposed to know who they are and let them in. But for some reason the system is malfunctioning for them. Not for me, thankfully, but was for them.
[00:16:04] Speaker C: And it wouldn't let them in.
There are people who claim the name of Jesus whose churches may say Christ or Christian on the sign.
And yet by their living and by their worship and by their teaching, God is not going to recognize that they belong to him because they do not possess his spirit.
When he scans their hearts, he doesn't find what he expects to find because for whatever reason they've chosen not to surrender totally to the will of God in their lives.
The true Christian possesses the Spirit and it is God's ID verification for who he lets in eternity.
It's his way of knowing who to raise to live forever with him, and who to say, depart from me. I never knew you.
You cannot be a Christian and not possess the Spirit.
The Christian possesses the Spirit of God.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: But then the second thing, the Spirit.
[00:17:15] Speaker C: Is received, and we have the responsibility of maintaining its presence our lives.
[00:17:22] Speaker B: Notice in Galatians, chapter three, beginning in verse number two, Paul says this, speaking to the Galatians, who are teaching a system of righteousness that is Christ plus.
It is Christ plus the works of the law. It is Christ plus circumcision. We human beings do that. We complicate the will of God by adding things that God does not add because we want it that way. And Paul says, stop doing that. And he goes on to explain to them how. How they receive the Gospel. He says, let me ask you only this. Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? The Galatians were saying, it's okay to be a Christian. You just have to follow the law of Moses too. And Paul says, is that the Gospel you were taught?
Did anybody say to you at the beginning, we'll give you the Holy Spirit, but only if you keep the law of Moses? Nobody said that. You know why nobody said that? Because it isn't true.
[00:18:16] Speaker C: You've added it in verse three.
[00:18:18] Speaker B: He says, are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
The Spirit is cleansing you and purifying you and sanctifying you. And yet you're trying to add fleshly regulations to the work of God in His Spirit.
[00:18:36] Speaker C: The Spirit is received, but it also must be maintained.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Notice that it is received at the point of baptism.
It is received when people are willing to surrender their sins to Jesus Christ and to obey the Gospel. But it's received at the point of baptism. In Acts 2:38, as we've already mentioned, the Bible says, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins, and you will receive the.
[00:19:02] Speaker C: Gift of the Holy Spirit.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: Notice that it's something that we receive from the outside.
It's not something we can obtain on our own. It's not something if. If I just do enough of these commandments, if I teach enough people, if I serve enough of people, then I will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. No. It is a gift that can only.
[00:19:19] Speaker C: Be bestowed by God. But once received, it is maintained by our faithfulness to God's will.
[00:19:28] Speaker B: Remember, in Psalm 51, according to the superscription of that psalm, this is David's sin with Bathsheba. And whenever the Prophet Nathan in 2nd Samuel, chapter 12 comes to him and confronts him with the gravity of his sin. And David realizes not only is his.
[00:19:45] Speaker C: Sin known to his shame, but also he has separated himself from God.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: And so he pens one of the most beautiful psalms of repentance in the scriptures. In Psalm 51.
[00:19:57] Speaker C: And in verse 11, he pleads with the Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
Now that may have meant something very special to David, because you might remember in 1st Samuel, chapter 15, the Bible tells us that the Spirit of God departed from Saul.
[00:20:20] Speaker B: And at that point, Saul's entire life.
[00:20:22] Speaker C: And career begins to spiral out of control.
[00:20:26] Speaker B: And David knew what that would be like. For the presence of God to abandon him, it would mean that his success as a king and as an individual was entirely dependent upon his own talent. And let me tell you something. If you think you can make it on your own, spiritually speaking, you are deluding yourself.
David prays, God, do not take your Holy Spirit from me. In other words, the sin in David's life threatened the existence of the Spirit in his heart.
[00:20:52] Speaker C: In Jude 19, Jude says, it is.
[00:20:55] Speaker B: These people, these people who are causing.
[00:20:57] Speaker C: Trouble in the church.
[00:20:59] Speaker B: It is these people who cause divisions, and he calls them worldly people devoid of the Spirit.
If you have someone in your congregation.
[00:21:08] Speaker C: Who'S constantly stirring up trouble, who is.
[00:21:11] Speaker B: Trying to pit Christians against one another, who is trying to insist on their own way, you can be sure of a number of things. Not only are they a destructive force in your church, but I can promise you they do not have the Spirit because the Spirit of God promotes harmony and unity among God's people, not division.
[00:21:30] Speaker C: That's what Jude says here.
The presence of the Spirit in our lives is maintained by our faithfulness and our obedience to God in the seriousness with which we take our Christian call.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: Number three.
[00:21:43] Speaker C: The Spirit functions to mediate between God and humanity.
[00:21:48] Speaker B: In the first place, the Spirit mediates God's thoughts to us through his servants. In Acts, chapter one and verse number 16.
This is Peter preaching to the disciples who are gathered after the ascension of Jesus. And he says, brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas.
Notice how Peter describes the Scriptures.
The Scripture is a work of the Holy Spirit Spirit.
[00:22:23] Speaker C: How does that happen?
[00:22:26] Speaker B: It's because God's mind is mediated to.
[00:22:29] Speaker C: The human mind by means of the Holy Spirit.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: And this is the kind of language that is found in a number of Places. In fact, the production of Scripture is.
[00:22:40] Speaker C: Assigned not only to God, not only to Jesus, but also to the Holy Spirit.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: And Peter tells us kind of how that happens in a more comprehensive way in Second Peter, Chapter 1 and Verse 21, when he says, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man. In other words, what you read in the Bible is not something that seemed good to a human author.
The Bible, if it were the product of human beings, it might be a good book, but it would just be a good book.
It would never be a perfect book.
The only way the Bible could ever be a perfect book is if God was present in its production. And so Peter says, no will or no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man. But men spoke from God as they.
[00:23:32] Speaker C: Were literally carried along by the Holy Spirit.
[00:23:38] Speaker B: These human individuals spoke with their own voice.
They wrote with their own hand, they spoke their own language.
But the production was certified and guaranteed.
[00:23:51] Speaker C: By the mediation of the Holy Spirit.
[00:23:54] Speaker B: The Bible that you hold in your.
[00:23:55] Speaker C: Hands is a product of God's Spirit mediating God's thoughts to human beings.
For us, the Spirit is a product, or the Scripture is a product of the Spirit.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: But it also works the other way around, that the Spirit functions to mediate our thoughts to God.
Remember in Romans 8:26, the Bible says, likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
[00:24:28] Speaker C: How so?
Well, for we do not know what.
[00:24:32] Speaker B: To pray for as we ought to. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
[00:24:43] Speaker C: If you want me to explain exactly how that works, I'm not sure that I can. But I'll tell you what it says.
It says, there are times in our lives where we have needs that are.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: So deep and so difficult to articulate that we do not have it in.
[00:25:01] Speaker C: Ourselves to express ourselves in prayer.
[00:25:05] Speaker B: We cannot come up with the words adequately to express our emotions in prayer to God.
[00:25:11] Speaker C: And when those moments occur in our lives, the Spirit says, I got this.
[00:25:18] Speaker B: I know you better than you know yourself.
[00:25:20] Speaker C: And I'm going to translate your heart's.
[00:25:23] Speaker B: Desires to God the Father. And since he knows Me, since I'm part of him, he will understand completely and fully everything that you need.
[00:25:33] Speaker C: What a tremendous blessing that is.
[00:25:35] Speaker B: It's not about a magic ritual that we have to go through where we say exactly the right words in exactly the right order, with exactly the right introduction and conclusion. The Spirit is capable of mediating our.
[00:25:46] Speaker C: Innermost thoughts to our God in prayer.
What a tremendous blessing it is to know that the Spirit works on our Behalf. In that way, the Spirit mediates between God and humanity.
The Spirit empowers as well.
[00:26:04] Speaker B: It gives us capabilities that we would.
[00:26:06] Speaker C: Never have on our own to overcome sin and temptation. For example, in Romans 8, you'll notice we're spending a lot of time in Romans 8.
[00:26:15] Speaker B: It's a very important chapter for this. But In Romans chapter 8, beginning in verse 13, the Bible says this. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. That's a pretty simple proposition. If you live in pursuit of fleshly things, then you are going to die. You have no hope.
[00:26:32] Speaker C: Imagine what that would be like.
[00:26:35] Speaker B: For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
[00:26:38] Speaker C: But if by the Spirit.
[00:26:42] Speaker B: By the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the.
[00:26:49] Speaker C: Spirit of God are sons of God.
[00:26:51] Speaker B: The Bible says the Spirit is an instrument whereby we are equipped to slay.
[00:26:56] Speaker C: Sin in our lives.
[00:26:58] Speaker B: It's like I think about pulling Excalibur.
[00:27:01] Speaker C: Out of the stone, you know, and.
[00:27:03] Speaker B: You have this sword that you can use to hack away at temptation so that you have a strength that you would never have on your own. You have a determination you would never have on your own. You have an ability to overcome that is impossible without God working in your.
[00:27:17] Speaker C: Life by means of the Spirit.
[00:27:19] Speaker B: The Spirit is a way to lay to rest the sin that you've been.
[00:27:23] Speaker C: Struggling with for so many years.
We discount the power of God to which we have access when we don't talk about what the Spirit can do for us in that way.
But then the second thing, the Spirit actually helps us maintain our faith, our level of enthusiasm and understanding.
[00:27:45] Speaker B: In the book of Ephesians, chapter 1 and verse 13, the Bible says that the Spirit seals us so that God.
[00:27:52] Speaker C: Saves us and protects us from any harm that could fall upon us.
[00:27:57] Speaker B: Ephesians 1:13. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, notice that none of this is supernatural.
It is not something that happens outside of the Gospel or outside of our obedience to the gospel. But when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, here's the result.
[00:28:20] Speaker C: You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
[00:28:25] Speaker B: Notice that all the things that we.
[00:28:27] Speaker C: Have heard our entire lives about hearing the gospel and believing in the gospel.
[00:28:33] Speaker B: And obeying the gospel, all of these things remain true.
[00:28:36] Speaker C: But at the end of that process, the Holy Spirit is God's gift to seal his people.
You know, in ancient times, folks did.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: Not generally write their signature the way we think of it today.
[00:28:49] Speaker C: You know, today, if I'm signing a document, I might take an ink pen and I'll sign my name. Barely legible, of course, as I'm sure many of you do.
That's not how ancient peoples signed things.
[00:29:03] Speaker B: They would have a ring, or sometimes.
[00:29:05] Speaker C: It was like a charm around their neck, and they would take that signet ring or that seal, and they would.
[00:29:14] Speaker B: Dab some clay on top of the.
[00:29:16] Speaker C: Document, and they would press that seal into that clay.
[00:29:20] Speaker B: And these seals were very carefully and specifically designed so that everyone would know.
[00:29:26] Speaker C: To whom they belonged.
[00:29:28] Speaker B: And so anyone receiving those documents or that edict, in the case of a king or a dignitary, they would know.
[00:29:35] Speaker C: In whose name that document was sent.
When we walk around in this community with the Holy Spirit sealed on us, as it were, by the hand of God, everyone could see to whom we belong.
There's no mistaking who sent us.
[00:30:00] Speaker B: There's no mistaking in whose authority we speak.
[00:30:04] Speaker C: And we live because the Spirit itself is God's signature on us, claiming us as his own.
[00:30:12] Speaker B: In First John 4:13, the Bible says, by this we know that we abide in him, and he in us. We abide in him, and he in us. How do we know that?
[00:30:22] Speaker C: Because he has given us of His Spirit.
How do I know that I can maintain my faithfulness to God because He has given me the His Spirit so that I can know that he is in Me and I in Him?
The Spirit empowers me to do things that I would never be capable of on my own.
But then, finally tonight, the Spirit transforms us.
It helps to continue to work on.
[00:30:54] Speaker B: Us in Titus chapter three and verse five.
[00:30:56] Speaker C: This is a passage no doubt you've heard many times.
[00:31:00] Speaker B: The Bible says here, speaking of God, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness. In other words, he saved us not because we were so good that we.
[00:31:12] Speaker C: Deserved it, but according to his own mercy.
[00:31:17] Speaker B: Why did God save us? Not because of us, but because he was so merciful.
[00:31:23] Speaker C: Well, how did he save us?
By the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
Baptism is an act, but the work of the Spirit is a process.
[00:31:41] Speaker B: That whenever I surrender my sins in baptism, I go under that water and I rise to walk, as Paul would say.
[00:31:46] Speaker C: In Romans, chapter 6, in Newness of life.
At that point, my sins are washed away in the blood of Jesus.
But at that point, that's also when the Spirit's work begins to refine me and to transform me so that the.
[00:32:04] Speaker B: Life that I used to live the Person I used to be is gradually.
[00:32:09] Speaker C: Eroded so that what is left for the world to see is Jesus.
[00:32:14] Speaker B: Have you ever known somebody who lived.
[00:32:16] Speaker C: Their lives in sin, who were the kind of people that were just associated with wickedness and debauchery and sort of everybody knew it.
[00:32:27] Speaker B: But then a good brother or sister.
[00:32:29] Speaker C: Sat down with them and studied the Gospel plan of salvation and they surrendered.
[00:32:35] Speaker B: Their life to Jesus and they changed, they repented.
[00:32:38] Speaker C: And all of a sudden people notice their.
They're not talking the same way that they used to talk.
They're not engaging in the same sort.
[00:32:48] Speaker B: Of sinful activities with which they used to engage.
[00:32:52] Speaker C: There's something different about them.
[00:32:54] Speaker B: I mean, even when you see them.
[00:32:56] Speaker C: You know, there's just something different about them.
A couple of years ago at Freed Hardemann, we have a student from Iran who grew up, of course not Christian, but as a Muslim.
[00:33:13] Speaker D: And a good.
[00:33:14] Speaker B: Christian family, took the time to love.
[00:33:17] Speaker C: Him and take him in and share with him the Gospel of Jesus.
And I remember hearing President Shannon tell this story that he saw him at an event and he said, I won't say his name, but man, it looks.
[00:33:34] Speaker B: Like that you, you've got taller.
[00:33:37] Speaker C: Like there's something different about you.
[00:33:39] Speaker B: It's almost like you've grown like 4 inches since the last time I saw you.
[00:33:43] Speaker C: What happened? And he said, I became a Christian.
He said, I once used to walk around with my back bowed and my head bowed.
Now I have a reason to stand up straight.
When the Spirit begins to work to transform our lives, it gets rid of the person we used to be. And it transforms us into the kind.
[00:34:09] Speaker B: Of person God wants us to be. Because that's what the Spirit is.
[00:34:12] Speaker C: God in us. It renews us and changes us and transforms us in ways that we could never imagine.
And then the Spirit produces fruit in our lives.
There is evidence of that change that takes place when people see the way we act.
You know this passage? Our children sing it.
The fruit of the Spirit. The production of the Spirit. The produce of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
In the life of someone who has been saved by the grace of God through the blood of Jesus and who has the Holy Spirit restoring and reforming their lives.
You'll see that the outbursts of anger that once characterized them no longer do.
The hatred and pride that once dominated.
[00:35:10] Speaker B: The way that they treated other people.
[00:35:12] Speaker C: No longer do, because the Spirit is producing fruits of goodness in their lives.
These are just a few of the things that the Bible teaches us The Spirit can do.
When we study this subject, we'll find that there's so much more.
The richness and complexity of what the Spirit is doing in the life of the Christian is remarkable.
And it's a power that we ought to access and be thankful for every day of our lives.
The Spirit is a promise to the Christian that is as enduring as baptism itself.
In fact, the verse we often quote to refer to the necessity of baptism also extends the promise of the Holy Spirit.
And whenever the Lord's Church embraces what the Bible teaches, not going beyond what.
[00:36:08] Speaker B: Is written, not speculating on what the Spirit may or may not do, but just sticking with what the Bible simply.
[00:36:15] Speaker C: Gloriously affirms, we will have access to a power that will change the world just like it did in the first century the Church. Father Augustine once said, what the soul is to the body of a man, the Holy Spirit is to the body of Christ, which is the church.
May we all have access to this Spirit. May we all live through it. May we all refine our lives so that we can change this community and change the world.
[00:36:52] Speaker B: Let's pray together.
[00:36:54] Speaker C: Our Father in heaven, thank you so much for blessing us with a knowledge of your word which is mediated by your spirit. And also thank you so much for in your foresight, placing us in a church where those who have been washed clean by the blood of Christ have access to the Spirit.
Father, help us to be grateful for its work in our lives. Help us to surrender our sins and lean on its power not only in prayer, but as we rise up to slay the sin that so often trips us up.
We ask that you will bless us as we leave this place this evening and go out into the world where we live our lives. Help us to have the courage to be your living embodiments of Jesus with everyone we meet. And it's in his name that we pray these words. Amen.
[00:37:47] Speaker A: Say thank you so much again for joining us and for leading us through this study.
For the next couple of weeks, Andrew and Brandon will be going a little bit further on our Sunday morning through worship. They're going to do a series continue this on the Holy Spirit. So I look forward to learning even more and growing in our faith. What a great opportunity to gather in Bible study together. So thank you again for your presence and once again, those online, thank you for joining us. I'm going to ask Ronnie Misseldine if he would please join us for prayer. And then parents, you're free to dismiss to go and grab your kiddos we'll be done for the night.
[00:38:19] Speaker D: Thank you, Holy Father in heaven, we are so thankful that as your children, you accept us even in our weaknesses.
But, Father, we thank you for the forgiveness which comes through your son, Jesus Christ.
And, oh God, we are especially thankful tonight to know and to be reminded and maybe even to learn for the first time that your spirit lives within us and gives us the power and the strength and the ability to be what you would have us to be.
Because we can't do it on our own. But we know that your spirit helps us.
Thank you for Brother Rogers, for his coming, for his taking us to your Word and showing us very clearly and understandably and simply what your word says about your spirit. And Father, we accept it.
We bring it into our hearts. Help us to live it in our lives.
Thank you for your love, for the sacrifice of your son Jesus, and the love he shows us. And for the love of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, help us to live in all of you and you and us. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
