The teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit, Part 2, John 14:23-26Title: The teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit, John 14:23-26.
/The ministries of G/HS to the world are the restraining ministry where He restrains evil, and the convicting ministry to the unsaved where He presents the gospel in common grace.\
We looked briefly at these two ministries on Thursday.
/Nothing needs to be imposed upon fallen humanity to set up the great tribulation in the earth: that tribulation will automatically result when the Spirit’s restraint is removed. \
/No individual is capable in himself of believing on Christ to the saving of his soul, apart from the enlightening work of the Holy Spirit by which he receives the gospel of Christ as Savior and is inclined to receive Him by faith.\
The commission of the ambassador of Christ is to present the gospel clearly and when he does, God the HS is there to make it understandable.
/At the moment of personal faith in Christ there are 7 salvation ministries of the HS to the believer.\
Every person is born into this world spiritually dead and separate from God. This is the doctrine of total depravity.
When a person believes in Christ he is still spiritually dead and the faith of the dead is meaningless. But God the HS comes to the rescue in His first ministry.
/1. Efficacious grace: the HS acts as a human spirit to make the positive faith signals of the spiritually dead to be alive or effective for salvation.\
/Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that [grace and faith] not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; \
/2. Regeneration: God the HS makes a human spirit within you to which God the Father imputes eternal life. This is being born again.\
/Titus 3:5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, \
/Gal 3:27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. \
/3. Baptism of the HS: God the HS identifies you with Christ and enters you into union with Christ. \
Baptism is a transliteration of the Greek word baptismos which comes from the word “to dip” and so means immersion, however when this word is used of baptism into Christ by the Holy Spirit it means to come under the ownership or great influence of Christ and therefore identification is a better meaning.
You, as a Church Age believer, have been entered into the holy of holies. That is unique because in the previous dispensation everyone had to stay out. The holy of holies is Christ at the right hand of the Father and you have been entered into union with Christ. So positionally you live in the holy of holies, and the means by which this is accomplished is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
The baptism of the HS is not an emotional experienced, in fact it is not experienced at all. It occurs at the moment of salvation and it is not associated with tongues as it was at Pentecost.
It is entrance into the royal family. Our bodies are indwelt by the Holy Spirit whereby we become the holy temple of God for the indwelling of God the Father and God the Son.
/Acts 1:5 for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. " \
/1 Cor 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. \
/Col 2:12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. \
/Eph 4:4-6 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. \
Through this ministry we share Christ’s eternal life, righteousness, inheritance, election, predestination, royalty, and we become brand new creatures in Christ.
Water baptism was a visual teaching aide to the real baptism of the Spirit which was to come at Pentecost. It continued until the canon of scripture was completed. It is no longer necessary and is a distraction for those that think it is needed for salvation.
There are 7 baptisms in the Bible. Real: Moses, cross, Spirit, and fire. Ritual: John’s, Christ’s, and Christian baptism of the first century.
/4. Indwelling of the HS: God the HS makes your body the holy temple of God for the indwelling of God the Father and God the Son.\
/5. Filling of the HS: God the HS enters us into the PPOG where we can metabolize doctrine and enjoy His enabling power. This is lost in personal sin but recovered through the rebound technique.\
Filling means to be controlled or to fill up a deficiency. God the HS empowers us with divine power, which fills up our deficiency. When filling our soul He will metabolize doctrine that is being heard and will teach the believer everything that is revealed about God in His time.
When we are not filled with the Spirit we are either grieving or quenching the Spirit.
1 Thess 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit;
/Quench means to suppress or stifle the power of God the Holy Spirit. This is a failure to yield to His will and power no matter what and rather choosing to use another so-called power.\
L.S. Chafer concisely states the issue: “A yieldedness to the will of God is not demonstrated by some one particular issue: it is rather a matter of having taken the will of God as the rule of one’s life. To be in the will of God is simply to be willing to do His will without reference to any particular thing He may choose. It is electing His will to be final, even before we know what He may wish us to do. It is, therefore, not a question of being willing to do some one thing: it is a question of being willing to do anything, when, where and how, it may seem best in His heart of love. It is taking the normal and natural position of childlike trust which has already consented to the wish of the Father even before anything of the outworking of His wish is revealed.”
/One of the most important keys to the spiritual life is remaining in the PPOG or remaining filled with the Spirit. Rebounding without abiding in Christ will not lead to spiritual strength or growth.\
There has to be a way to overcome our enemies and remain in the palace, our very own palace, which is God’s plan for our life. God has found a way to give fallen man His very humility by which we submit to His authority.
An important field of yieldedness is in relation to what God has provided and to what His commands and boundaries are in the spiritual life. Often these seem contrary to natural desires of our hearts, and may seem outwardly from the human viewpoint of others to be a triumph of evil rather than of good.
We will all carry a thorn in the flesh. The “thorn in the flesh,” whatever its character, must be accepted in faith in the love and wisdom of God.
/The child of God who desires to live without quenching the Spirit must know the sweetness of submission to the will of God.\
It may often be observed that the suffering saint projects a sweetness of testimony and a fullness of the Spirit which is unknown in others.
Yieldedness to the Spirit includes, then, submission to the plain teachings of the Word of God, obedience to the guidance of the Spirit, and acceptance in faith of the providential acts of God. All of these are a part of the moment-by-moment experience of living in the will of God with an indwelling Spirit who is unquenched.
Christ is the supreme illustration not only of one in whom the fullness of the Spirit was manifested at all times, but one who was submissive to the whole will of God.
The classic passage of Philippians 2:5 – 11 reveals not only the glory and victory which belongs to our Lord, but His submission to the humiliation of the cross.
Phil 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
/Christ was willing to be what God chose: “a servant made in the likeness of men.” He was willing to go where God chose, into a sinful world which would reject Him and crucify Him. He was willing to do what God chose: “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” \
The Garden of Gethsemane with its struggle epitomized by the epical words, “Not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42), has had its lesser counterpart in the lives of all great Christians. The child of God who has “the mind of Christ” is one who is fully yielded to the will of God for his life in every particular as Christ was for the will of God in His life. For the fullness of the Spirit, it is absolutely necessary to be yielded to Him.
Eph 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
The Scriptures often testify to the fact that the Spirit of God is holy and that He is a person. The indwelling presence of this holy person constitutes the body of a believer a temple of God. In the nature of the case, the presence of sin in any form grieves the Holy Spirit.
Grieving is used as an anthropopathism, ascribing to God certain human characteristics for the purpose of clarity. We would not think God the HS to weep or in some way get sad over the presence of sin in the temple of God, but the word clearly displays His hatred of sin and the need for quickly rebounding.
/Grieving results in loss of fellowship and eventual misery if it is not remedied by confession. Divine discipline will result if this state continues in the believer. \
Accordingly, when the Christian is exhorted to “grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30), it is an appeal to allow nothing in his life contrary to the holiness of the Spirit. It is clear that the one cause of grieving the Holy Spirit is sin.
Quenching the Spirit may occur first. As we resist the will of God often sin is crouching at the door. In any case the remedy to sin is rebound.
/Quenching the HS is a mental attitude of rejecting His will whereas grieving the HS is isolated sin or sins. \ ] |