60. The Holy Spirit - Spiritual Guide Series

IN GOD'S IMAGE 60 - THE HOLY SPIRIT - SPIRITUAL GUIDE

This message is part of a series of 90 sermons based on the title, “In God’s Image – God’s Purpose for humanity.” This series of free sermons or the equivalent free book format is designed to take the reader through an amazing process beginning with God in prehistory and finishing with humanity joining God in eternity as His loving sons and daughters. It is at times, a painful yet fascinating story, not only for humanity, but also for God. As the sermons follow a chronological view of the story of salvation, it is highly recommend they be presented in numerical order rather than jumping to the more “interesting” or “controversial” subjects as the material builds on what is presented earlier. We also recommend reading the introduction prior to using the material. The free book version along with any graphics or figures mentioned in this series can be downloaded at www.ingodsimage.site - Gary Regazzoli

We have been looking at the role of the Holy Spirit as we live our new life according to the Spirit.

• Today we are going to continue to discuss the role of the Spirit as “teacher” as He instructs us on what it means to become God’s “holy people” as we live our new life.

• Last time we looked at the role the Spirit plays in the beginning of the sanctification process.

There are two aspects to the sanctifying work of the Spirit.

• The first aspect has to do with our calling, that special privilege of being called in this age and being set apart for God’s holy purposes.

• In the same way items in the tabernacle or temple of old were sanctified or set apart for God’s Holy purpose, so now as part of the New Covenant, the living stones that will make up this new temple in which God will dwell are set apart for His holy purpose.

• The ceremony of the “laying on of hands” at baptism is to signify this special status of being set apart as one of God’s holy people (Acts 8:14-18).

• We then spent quite a bit of time in Luke 15 discussing the heavenly celebrations at the return of the prodigal son.

• A new son of God has been born into God’s spiritual family.

• The birth of this new son is the culmination of the combined work of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit over many millennia to fulfil their purpose of “making man in their image.”

• That’s why there is such a celebration in heaven over “one sinner who repents.”

• However this new son is not the finished product and that will not happen until he stands glorified in God’s presence.

This is where we move onto the second aspect of the sanctifying work of the Spirit, teaching the newly adopted child to live their new life according to the Spirit.

• A recap of what has transpired in the life of a new believer should give us an indication of what this process of sanctification is all about.

• The new believer has been personally chosen to be a firstfruit by God the Father, embraced by the Holy Spirit to become a living stone in God’s temple (1 Peter 2:4-5).

• He has repented and repudiated his old life lived according to the dictates of the “flesh” (Acts 2:37-38; Romans 8:5).

• He has been justified and made righteous through His acceptance of Jesus as His personal Savior.

• He has been forgiven and adopted into God’s spiritual family as a son of God (Romans 8:15-17; Galatians 4:4-7).

• He is a new creation born of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 5:17).

• The Holy Spirit along with the Father and the Son have come and made their home in him (John 14:23).

• All of these together confirm his salvation is a reality.

• All this has come about without any contribution on our part. Our salvation has come about purely by the grace of God.

Having been through this redeeming process, what would you expect the mindset of this new son of God to be?

• After experiencing the liberating grace of God, would it be appropriate to immediately drop back into his old sinful lifestyle or would he rather be motivated to adopt the lifestyle of his new reality?

• Think back for a moment to the parable of the prodigal son.

• After being astounded by the loving reaction of his father, does the son now turn around and commit the same mistakes all over again?

• It would be a callous and heartless way for the son to act after having experienced such forgiving love from his father.

• No, this time around, chastened by the bitter events of his past life and now having experienced the embracing love of his father, one would imagine he would try to be a better son and try his best to emulate the loving nature of his father.