The Holy Spirit and the Church Today #1

The Holy Spirit to use the technical world. The Holy Spirit illuminates us, gives us life gives us understanding, he imparts the ability to grasp truth that God has revealed in his word. The holies that third person of the Trinity accomplishes many things in the true Christian body also works in a powerful corporate way in the church and its pastor Don Greene's focus today as he continues in his ministry of teaching God's people.

God's word on the truth pulp. I am Bill Wright and representing more of a series titled the Holy Spirit today and on for those just joining us in this series. Speak again if you would brief as to why this topic is so important. Glad to do that, Bill, you know, my Christian brother sister joining us on the broadcast today. I just want to say this, people speak and think so carelessly about the Holy Spirit in the church today, you've been conditioned to think about him in spectacular ways and emotional ways, but the real work of the Holy Spirit is distinct from those kinds of counterfeits. We want you to know the truth about the Holy Spirit and his work today hears Bill to help us get started okay.and friend.

Have your Bible open and read as we join Tom Green now in the truth, pulp last time we looked at regeneration indwelling in sanctification.

Today we want to continue on and build on that and last time you could say that we looked at the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer kind of looking at the way the spirit applies salvation to an individual heart what he does he comes and indwells an individual believer has a sanctifying impact on the individual believer, the spirit of God regenerates us and indwells us, and what follows is a work of sanctification that ever conforms us to close or conformity to the image of Christ.

Now we want to build on that and expanded out a little bit because what happens. What happens when a church comes into being like truth Community Church well a a true church, the true members of the true church are true Christians, which means that all of us that have been born again participate in a common life in Christ we have been given the same gift of salvation worked out in our hearts by the same spirit and we enjoy the same benefits. I don't have a better salvation than you do. You don't have a better one than I do. God has saved us imperfection, and so we share in that forgiveness we share in the indwelling spirit we share in the eternal purpose of God that he works out among his people from eternity past into eternity future were greatly blessed to share in all of these great gifts together and what that means is we come together as the people of God as we come together in the context of the local church. This is so important in this individualistic day and age in which we live is not simply that God is doing a work in us individually, as if we were 250 different silos on a field someplace. There is a corporate work of the spirit that takes place that we need to understand that we need to respect that is going to reprove, correct, and help us as we go through it here today. Now as the spirit indwells us were going to cover four aspects of the work of the spirit here today looking toward a corporate dimension to this work and first of all, what is true of every believer there is a work of empowerment that the Holy Spirit does. There was a work of empowerment that the Holy Spirit's, the Holy Spirit gives us the ability gives us the strength to serve God in the Christian life and I'm just going to touch on this and when it happened very lightly and move on every point from last in this week could, and in some ways should be the subject of a multi-message series in and of itself were just tapping on things to remind us of what the spirit does through his work in the life of believers in Philippians chapter 2. If you would turn the turn there with me. Philippians chapter 2. This work of empowerment that the Holy Spirit does for us, remembering that it is the spirit of God who is who is in us, who is working in us. The apostle Paul tells the Philippian church were going to study this letter after the series is over. Eventually, Philippians chapter 2 verse 12 so then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my presence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Now, beloved something that I just wanted to point out to you here is that as magnificent as the work of the Spirit of God is in our hearts as magnificent as his ministry is to us. We need to understand that that that that the holy nature of what he does in us is grounds for fear and trembling. That is why Paul says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. I said at the beginning that we need to deal with these matters earnestly.

We need to take them seriously. We need to not treat them lightly.

Apparently what the work of the spirit does has an impact on life that we are to respond to that we are to build our lives in obedience to Paul says, just as you have always obeyed.

Now obey in my absence.

And here's the obedience on looking for work out your salvation with fear and trembling, the very nature of the aghast majestic salvation that God has given to us in Christ.

All it fills us with joy, for sure, but we understand that there is a corresponding responsibility to let the work of the Spirit have its way and to cooperate with that work of the Spirit in our sanctification and to follow in loving obedience to the work of the spirit that's critical to what were going to say later and so we don't treat this lightly. We don't treat treated flippantly. We realize that this calls for our earnest response. Now look at verse 13. With that said, looking at the work of the Spirit in the church today for it is God who is at work in you. It is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. This is a wonderful truth. Yes, we need to work out our salvation, not in the sense of her going to add to the work of Christ, not there were going to earn it.

Not going to lose it. If we stumble in sin, but rather there is a recognition of responsibility. The what God has given to me is meant to be lived out into be grown into in life. God is at work in you and so this is a wonderful truth. This is an encouraging reality as we seek to grow spiritually as we worship individually and corporately on a Sunday morning, for example, as you grow in Christ.

As you evangelize the young, the lost as you deal with adversity as you study Scripture you are not alone in that the Holy Spirit is with you to provide a supernatural help. A supernatural empowerment a supernatural enablement that lifts you beyond your natural abilities and helps you to grow in a way that you could not do if you were simply doing it in your own effort. This is the work in the ministry of the Holy Spirit in believers and among his body. The body of Christ. The indwelling spirit carries us the indwelling Spirit helps us, assists us in that process of sanctification in that process of spiritual growth. Jesus described the spirit in this way. In John 14 verse 16 he said, I will ask the father and he will give you another helper, that he may be with you forever. That is the spirit of truth, beloved, that's really precious. The Lord Jesus, the eternal son of God expressing and what he says here he says I recognize that you're going to need help in the life that lies ahead. I've provided for you in advance. I've asked my father to give you the spirit in the spirit will be to you as one who helps you. The spirit will assist you. He will guide you and he will be with you forever. Once you have the spirit he doesn't leave.

He may bring discipline into your life as you stray into disobedience and sin, but he's always having that sanctifying influence. He's always having that helping ministry in the life of true Christians and therefore we are not seeking our spiritual growth in our own power. It is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. S. Lewis Johnson, who is now with the Lord. After many decades of great and fruitful and wonderful ministry said this and I quote he said the disposition to be obedient to the word of God is something the Holy Spirit gives us so internally and irresistibly we are wrought upon by the Holy Spirit that we are led guided and enabled to do the work of God."

So we have this eternal Holy Spirit working in us to advance our progress in the Christian life.

That's wonderful, isn't it, and not an encouragement when you're struggling when you stumble to realize that the spirit of God is given to you not as not as a referee, not as an umpire to judge you when you fall short to throw a flag on you, but rather, rather, to help you to undergird you to strengthen you in the midst of that how great the love of the father to give us a salvation like this not only to take away our sins at the cross, but to give us his own spirit to help us live out the work that he first began in us, blessed be his holy name.

So, my friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ when you're weak when you are discouraged when you have stumbled, you may ask for help from the Holy Spirit to empower you with the assurance with the knowledge, with the expectation that God will gladly answer that prayer.

I'm reminded of Matthew seven which we studied several months ago asking it will be given to you seek and you will find knock and the door will be open for you. This is in the context of the work of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.I need the help your spirit to grow.

I need the help of your spirit to come out of the sin in which I stumbled, and so we have one upon whom we can call it's not that you need more rules to help you be sanctified. It's that you have a spirit that is willing, able and given to you for exactly that express purpose to give you power that you lack that you might grow in a way that you otherwise would not blessed be his name. How does he do that and what does the work look like, well, let's go to a second point, there is a work of the spirit we could call his work of instruction. His work of instruction. You know, if you are a Christian and you've been a Christian for any length of time you should be able to to look back and say you know what I understand things now that I didn't understand before. There are aspects of Christ in Christian living there aspects of the attributes of God and the work of Christ on the cross. I understand things today that I didn't understand some time ago. Why is that how does that happen. Where does that growth and understanding come from well the spirit of God that is part of his ministry to believers.

He guides us into all the truth by giving us the desire and the capacity to understand the word of God truly my friends into speaking very broadly here. I've said this many times I should say a lot more than than what I do. One of the marks of a true Christian that is present in every true Christian, without exception, because it is the nature of the ministry of the Holy Spirit to do this is to have a some kind of a hunger and a desire for Scripture to know it to understand it to read it to want to be instructed in it to learn from it because and if you think about it.

It could be no other way. If the spirit of God delivered for us the word of God which he did in the spirit of God comes to indwell true believers and to shape their desires by his work in their hearts. What's the outcome of that naturally and understandably and logically going to be the spirit of God is going to place in your heart desires for the things of God where are the things of God found where the spirit of God revealed in what we hold in English as the 66 books of the Bible. And so when you see someone who has an earnest desire for Scripture. Assuming a seemingly unquenchable thirst for Scripture you're seeing the mark of someone who's truly been born again. When you see someone who'd just that's just foreign to their life. It has nothing to do with what motivates them, what they care about at all speaking in absolute terms to allow some room for different measures of growth at different periods of time when you see an utter absence of that there should be an immediate concern whether that that that person has never been truly saved because the spirit of God works in us to instruct us and to lead us into the word of God. He does that, individually, and when the spirit of God is at work in a true church.

He's doing that corporately in the life of the true church as well. Let's look at a couple of Scriptures to see this look at first John chapter 2 first John chapter 2 beginning in verse 21st John chapter 2 verse 20 where the last living apostle said, you have an anointing from the holy one, and you all know I have not written to you because you do not know the truth but because you do know it and because nobody is of the truth. You see, the Holy Spirit, abides within true believers. He indwells them he he continues with them.

He remains with them and he is given as hell and part of his ministry is so that you would know the truth, and John says here to speak writing the true Christians.

He says you have the Holy Spirit you have this anointing from him and he is given you in knowledge and understanding of the truth so he can go on to say in verse 27 he says. As for you, the anointing which you received from him abides in you and you have no need for anyone to teach you, but as his anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in him, the spirit of God teaches true believers the spirit of God abides in them and he imparts truth to them. He opens their mind and communicates understanding. He conveys understanding to the mind and into the heart in a way that secures their understanding of the truth that he himself revealed. Now, as I said in the past.

The fact that John says you have no need for anyone to teach you, doesn't mean that were supposed to go off by ourselves and live the Christian life in isolation. It's not that God is given, pastors and teachers, Ephesians, chapter 4, to teach and instruct the church to build them up and help them to grow in maturity. What John is saying is you don't need special revelation from self-appointed profits. You don't truly know God. You don't need something outside of Scripture because you've already been given the Holy Spirit and is he communicates an understanding of the word. You have all the spiritual resources that you need. Think about it again. As I've said in the past. If John meant absolutely that they needed no teacher whatsoever. He would've written this letter to them. He wrote the letter to them to instruct them and so we understand that he's talking about. We don't need outside sources of revelation to give us secret knowledge that we otherwise would lack God graciously in Scripture. God graciously by the spirit has given us all that we need for life and godliness within the four corners of the 66 books of the Bible and we stand on that and we stand only there and we reject everything else the claims to be revelation from God, look at first Corinthians chapter 2, as we see this ministry of of instruction that the spirit gives to us in verse seven of first Corinthians chapter 2 first Corinthians chapter 2 verse seven, Paul says we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory, the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

But just as it is written verse nine look at this is so precious things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him. God has a special gift that is reserved only for true Christians, and it is called an understanding of his revelation to to be able to read the Bible with understanding to be able to understand unseen things that are hidden from unsaved people to understand eternal matters while you are living in a temporal life is a great majestic gift from God that we take all too lightly afraid, but it is a gift from God. Now how do we how how are these things communicated to us. Is it because of our superior intellect is because we tried harder because we were somehow more worthy. No verse 10 42 us to true believers. God revealed them through the spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God for who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him. Even so, the thoughts of God. No one knows except the spirit of God, the Spirit of God, who alone knows the thoughts of God is the spirit of God, who indwells you as a Christian, the spirit of God, who was involved in your regeneration and what is his purpose for us. Now that we have received the spirit. Verse 12 now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, we have received him, he is God's gift to us and what does the spirit of God do for us what is part of his ministry to us in what capacity does he deal with us. Look at the end of verse 12, so that, for this purpose so that we may know the things freely given to us by God the Holy Spirit to use the technical world.

The Holy Spirit illuminates us he gives us light he gives us understanding, he imparts the ability to grasp truth that God has revealed in his word.

So if you are one of those that I described earlier, you have a hunger for the word of God you can say I've been growing in the word of God.

Over the course of time, God's word makes sense to me. God's word matters to me. God's word is important to me.

Beloved. What you need to see is that is the evident mark of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life and you give thanks to him for that.

Now third point we saw his work of empowerment. The work of instruction never going to look at the spirits work of filling the spirits work of filling and as I'm speaking here, I invite you to turn to the book of Ephesians chapter 5 Ephesians chapter 5. Christians are to be filled with the Holy Spirit as their pattern of life and say what does that mean what does that look like, well, let's take a moment to unpack this. It is the will of God for us.

Verse 17 of Ephesians chapter 5. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is what is that will Paul describes it expands on what he saying in verse 18 he says and do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit. Don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the spirit.

These are parallel concepts that help us understand what Paul means by being filled with the spirit in the church corporately.

The Holy Spirit empowers and instructs as we been reminded today here on the truth pulpit pastor Don Greene will show us two more works of the spirit. Next time as we move further into our current series.

The Holy Spirit today. We hope you'll join us. Then meanwhile, we invite you to visit our website. The truth pulpit.com.

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