. The Gospel of the Holy Spirit.
I believe that all of us here today have two great spiritual needs.
The first is the need for forgiveness, to be right with God. The need for pardon and peace within. Secondly, there is a need for strengths of character, the need for power to live a full, abundant life in favor with God and man.
God's answer to the first great need, the cry for forgiveness, was given at the cross where Christ died in our place. And when we come to him in repentance and faith we can find forgiveness and the assurance of eternal life.
But God also knows about our second great need. The need for victory over sin and temptation. The need for triumph over those things that keep us from our full potential. That need was met at Pentecost through the out- pouring of the Holy Spirit
So, to the great gift of salvation and forgiveness, God adds the gift of the Holy Spirit. And we need both, we really do. And praise God we can have both. Christ not only saves us from sin but day by day he can give us the power to overcome it. As someone pointed out, “ I need Jesus Christ for eternal life. I need the Holy Spirit for my internal life.”
Unfortunately, this power has been ignored, misunderstood and at times misused. Like the man who bought a new car with a 350 hp engine. But he never drives it more than 15 or 20 km/h. What a waste! So the Christian church today has tremendous potential. We have all the mighty power of God at our disposal. But so many times we are trying to do the Lords work in our own strength, in the energy of the flesh, instead of drawing upon the power of the Holy Spirit.
Many believe, and I am one of them, that the only real hope for our country and for our world is through a genuine spiritual renewal that touches every area of life – social, economic, political, moral and spiritual. And we know we cannot have this apart from a supernatural outpouring of the Spirit of God. I want my message today to be true to Scripture. But I also want to include a few words of encouragement. I meet a lot of Christians these days who are very discouraged over all sorts of things including the work of the church. But as we move through this message I want you to hear words of hope and promise as we face an uncertain future, by the grace of God.
I want us to look briefly at three tremendous needs of the hour in which we live. You can see them listed in your bulletin. And I want us to see how the Holy Spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity, provides the answer to these three great needs.
First of all, our world needs to be gripped with the conviction of sin, leading to repentance and changed lives. The Holy Spirit is the answer to this need. In John 16:8 Jesus said,” When He the spirit comes, He will convict the world of sin, judgment and righteousness.”
A few years ago, a very highly respected psychiatrist by the name of Karl Menninger, wrote a book entitled, “Whatever Became of Sin?” I want to share with you a brief quotation from his book.“ Wrong things are being done, we all know. We are surrounded today by acts of evil. But is no one responsible? No one answerable? Anxiety and depression we all acknowledge and even vague guilt feelings. But has no one committed any sins? Indeed, where did sin go? What became of it?” Dr. Mennenger believes that sin must be taken seriously. He goes on to say that this denial of sinful behavior has led to a shift of responsibility for all forms of evil.
This thought is expressed in the words of a song by Anna Russell, where she exposes, in a humorous way, the folly of people refusing to take personal responsibility for their own behavior. These are her words:
“ I went to my psychiatrist to be psychoanalyzed,
to find out why I killed the cat and blackened my husband's eyes.
He put me on a downy couch to see what he could find,
and this is what he dredged up from my subconscious mind.
When I was one, my mommy hid my dolly in the trunk.
And so it follows naturally that I' am always drunk.
When I was two, I saw my father kiss the maid one day.
And that is why I suffer now from kleptomaniac.
When I was three, I suffered from ambivalence toward my brothers.
And that is the reason why I poisoned all my lovers.
I'm so glad that I learned the lessons it has taught.
That everything I do that's wrong, is someone else's fault.”
I'm off the hook! Everything I do that's wrong is someone else's fault!
How long has it been since you heard anyone, a politician, someone in sports or even religion saying? “ I have sinned; I was wrong; I am sorry; please forgive me.” It's very very rare to hear such words. And this flippant, easy-going attitude toward sin leads inevitably to a flippant, easy-going attitude toward God. If there is no such thing as sin then there is nothing for God to hate or to judge. It means there is no accountability in the universe, no sense of right or wrong. We are all jolly good fellows, which no one can deny.
But wait a minute, there's something wrong with that kind of reasoning. We cannot get rid of sin simply by wishing it away. And I believe one of the deepest needs of the human heart is to experience peace and forgiveness. There is no peace within until we are willing to go God's way, and that means the Bible way. The Psychiatrist may remove neurotic or false guilt. But only God can remove realistic or true guilt. And as we examine other world religions there is no provision for forgiveness of sin apart from the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The superintendent of one of the largest mental hospital said recently, I could dismiss close to one half of my patients tomorrow, if they only could be assuryoued of forgiveness. As Dr. Leslie Weatherhead wrote,” The forgiveness of God is the strongest therapeutic healing power in the world.”
The Holy Spirit is the only one who can reveal our sins to us. Notice I said ours. Not our neighbour or our ancestor or anyone else but our sin, your sins and mine. “Search me O God and know my heart. It's not my brother or my sister but it's me O Lord standing in the need of prayer.” God demands truth in the inward parts. There can be no conversion to Christ or fullness of God's blessing, without conviction of sin and there can be no conviction apart from the Spirit of God speaking through the word of God. We sometimes think that only non-Christians need to repent. But in the words of J.I. Packer, “The day by day practice of repentance is an essential discipline of a healthy Christian life.” Before the gospel can become the good news of salvation, it must be the bad news of conviction of sin, leading to repentance.”The Holy Spirit is the answer to this need.
When the Holy Spirit has been allowed to grip us with this conviction of our sin and deep need for God, we are ready for the next step. #2 Christ must be glorified as the universal Savior. The Holy Spirit is the answer to that need.
In recent years, a number of questions have been asked concerning some of the things said or done in the name of the Holy Spirit. Many sincere Christians are confused over the matter. I certainly don't have all the answers but let me make a few observations. First of all I believe that there is a place for healthy emotion in the Christian life. One of the characteristics of the early church in the book of Acts was their spirit of joy. Their joy was contagious and many people were attracted to the Christian community because it stood out like an oasis in the desert.
By contrast, in some of our churches today, the atmosphere is so cold and stiff that it feels more like a funeral parlour then a praise service. The story is told of a woman who experienced a beautiful conversion and felt the presence of God in her life. She had to go to the city on the weekend and when Sunday morning came she wanted to attend church. Being unfamiliar with the big city she found herself in a traditional church with a liturgical service. But she was moved by the beauty of the prayers and the words of some of the old hymns and she responded with a resounding, Praise the Lord! The lady sitting next to her glared at her and said emphatically, “we don't praise the Lord in this church.” But the man in front turned around and said, “Oh yes we do. It's on page 27 in the prayer book.”
So there is a place for healthy emotion in our Christian lives but we also need to pray for discernment. We need to know where to draw the line between the false and the true, between flesh and spirit because for every genuine work of the Spirit, Satan has a substitute, a counterfeit.
And so we ask, how can we know the difference? There is one test, one clear, basic test by which we can know if the experience is genuine or counterfeit. Man is not the judge here, God's own Word lays down the principle in the words of Christ:“ He, the Holy Spirit, shall glorify me” ( John 16:14). So we can ask of any teaching or testimony, does it glorify Christ? Does it honor God? Is the name of Christ uplifted and given a place of preeminence? If not beware! You're on dangerous ground. Any teaching or testimony that is contrary to the full divinity or true humanity of Christ is obviously not of the Holy Spirit. It is man- centered, not Christ- centered, because the work of the Holy Spirit is always to glorify Christ.
Dr. Paul Rees tells about a prominent Hindu woman who came to a Christian worker. She brought a young girl who had been used and abused as a temple prostitute. She was in a terrible condition, poor and bedraggled. The Hindu said to the Christian woman. I bring this girl to you to be saved. I once heard a story from your sacred book about a woman in this condition and how Jesus saved her. We have no such story in our religious book, so I bring the girl to you. God be praised, we do have such a story in our sacred book. And God be praised that because of the presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit, that story can be reproduced any time, anywhere as aching hearts reach out by faith to the Savior of the world. Yes the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ as the universal Savior.
This brings us to the third great need of the day in which we live. #3 As Christians, we need to practice what we preach so that our lives are full of Christlike qualities as we become salt and light in our troubled world. We were created to become more and more like Christ. The Holy Spirit is the answer to that need! God wants you and I to develop the kind of character described in Galatians 5:22, 23 where we have listed nine aspects of the fruit of the spirit. Christ is the only one who processed these aspects perfectly – love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, kindness, humility, self-control.
To have this fruit of the Spirit is to be like Christ and none of us can produce this fruit by ourselves. It is utterly impossible! It only becomes possible by the enabling power of God's Holy Spirit. How does this wonderful transformation take place? Will you wake up some morning and find yourself filled with all of these Christlike qualities. No, it's not that simple. Character developing always involves a choice. For example, It is not hard to love people who are lovable and who are loving us in return. But God teaches us how to love others by putting some unlovable people around us.
God teaches us real joy when in the midst of sorrow we turn to him. Likewise patience is developed in circumstances where we are forced to wait and tempted to blow a short fuse.
It may help at this point to draw a distinction between receiving the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches that all Christians have received the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:9 tells us, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to Christ.” We received the Holy Spirit through repentance and faith. We are filled with the Holy Spirit through daily surrender and faith. Notice I said daily. There is no such thing as a once and for all fullness. It means day by day, hour by hour, abiding in Christ. Every day turning from all that we know to be wrong in our lives. The Spirit of God cannot fill a dirty vessel!
So let me ask you as I ask myself. Are we willing to deal with anything in our lives that grieves the Holy Spirit, or mars our testimony as Christians?
Could it be a sin of commission or omission, like the little boy was asked to give a sin of omission. His answer: “those of the sins you should have done but never got around to.” What about prayerlessness or lovelessness? What about sins of disposition: an uncontrolled temper or tongue of gossip? What about neglect of Bible study and service? Is there something that needs to be made right in your marriage, your business, your neighborhood, or church relationship?
Or yes, there are all kinds of books and seminars on church growth to make our church's more relevant and how to use the latest technology. Programs have their place, and there are some excellent programs available, such as Alpha or the 40 Days of Purpose. But in themselves they cannot save us. Sometimes it is easier to become involved in a new program than it is to repent of a single sin or to deal with a deep-seated problem within the church.
What we really need is for each one of us to get alone with God and allow his Spirit to search our hearts and make sure we are right with God and right with one another. It may even mean going to someone, a friend, neighbor or working companion and making things right. I firmly believe that what we really need today is a vision of God in all of his Majesty, glory, holiness, wisdom, love and power. A vision of God that enables us to see ourselves as we really are. As Alexander Solzhenitsyn expressed it, “the line between good and evil is not out there between the church and the world. But the line between good and evil runs down the center of every human heart. The center of your heart and mind.” So we need a vision of God that places within us a burning desire to be right with God and one another.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the young German pastor who went to the gallows because of his opposition to Hitler, wrote these words from his prison cell. Words that should be inscribed on the walls of every church in North America. “Lack of repentance is the root cause of powerlessness in the church in this materialistic, self-indulgent age. There can be no spiritual power in an non-repentant church.”
Once the obstacles, the barriers have been removed, the blessings will flow and once again Christians will be the salt of the earth and the light of the world and the world will know there's something different about God's people. Our world today does not need a new definition of the gospel. Are you listening? What we really need is a new demonstration of the power of the gospel in the lives of professing Christians. And the proof of the fullness of the Holy Spirit is that we become more and more like Christ.
Some years ago, near the mouth of a harbour along the Atlantic sea coast, there was the hull of a sunken ship. It was embedded in the mud, blocking entrance to the narrow channel. Divers had gone down and burrowed into the mud, passing giant chains beneath the vessel. Then powerful tugboats had been attached to the chains and the effort was made to pull the old wreck from the mud. But it would not budge.
Finally, an older seamen, watching the operation, went to the engineer in charge and offered to help. The engineer accepted his offer and promised to furnish whatever was needed. The old sailor said, “ Bring me four of the largest barges you can obtain, and bring them empty.” They brought 4 enormous coal barges. Then when the tide was at its lowest ebb the barges were placed in position directly over the sunken ship. The chains were then drawn tight and made fast over the top of the barges. The man of the sea said, “That is all we can do, we must wait.” And far out upon the bosom of the sea, the tide was beginning to come in. On and on it came toward the shore, until it reached the barges. And then the tide, the tide, with the swing of a continent behind it and the pull of a planet before it. The tide put its mighty shoulder beneath the barges and lifted, lifted, lifted. Until when the tide was at its full, the old wreck floated free. What man's utmost power could not accomplish the tide easily brought to pass.
I hardly need to draw an application from the story. As we look at the task before us – the need for changed lives and revitalized churches. The need for people living at peace with God and with one another. The task seems impossible and it is impossible, humanly speaking.. As long as we are content with things as they are. As long as we think that we can fulfill our ministries all by ourselves, nothing is going to happen. Absolutely nothing of value. O my friends here today, the Bible makes it clear that revival must begin with God's own people. I'm sure that many of you are familiar with second Chronicles 7:14 and I invite you to repeated with me. “If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.”
God has been very good to us. In this area we have been exposed to the blessings and fruit of the gospel for many years. In the Old Testament, in times of apostasy and moral decline there was always a faithful remnant of individuals who were true to the Lord. And I believe that God is calling all of us here today to be part of that faithful remnant. To be intercessors, to lead the community, the nation back to God. As Dr. Menninger phrased it –“ Preach it! Tell it like it is! Say it from the pulpit! Cry it from the house- top! What shall we cry? Cry repentance, cry hope.”
But before Christians can lead others to God we must set our own lives in order. In this message I have mentioned the need for repentance. But nations cannot repent, even churches cannot repent; only individuals can. And so it has to start in the most painful place of all; in your heart and mine. And now in closing let me offer you a seven word prayer that can make all the difference, if you really mean it. Lord, change my marriage beginning with me. Change my family begin with me. Change my church, my job, my community, beginning with me.
“Come Holy Spirit, dark is the hour.
We need your filling, your love and your mighty power.
Move now among us,stir us we pray.
Come Holy Spirit, revive your church today.”
O God, we acknowledge that true revival comes from you.” Revive us again, fill each heart with your love, may each soul be rekindled with fire from above.” Lord, I give thanks for each and every one has come to this service today. You know each one of us by name and you know the need of every heart. Lord I believe your spirit can meet every need as long as we are honest and are willing to meet your conditions. Through repentance and faith we have received your Holy Spirit and we pray that now through a full surrender and faith we can be filled with your spirit.
Purify your church. Give deep repentance. Unify your church Lord. Remove the spirit of carnality and pride. Restore fresh obedience, faith and love. Love for prayer, love for your Word, love for Christian Fellowship, love for all those who need your great salvation. Fill us again with the joy of the Lord.
Make your church a flame of truth and righteousness moving across our nation. We pray that your glory might return and your power be seen in us and released through your church to a world that desperately needs your pardon, peace and power. These great and mighty things we plead, in the name of God the father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit. Amen
