No other time in history has there been such advancements in technology. Our communications have never been better and yet…
People are father apart today than any time in history.
It would be hard to imagine another time in history when people were more confused, morally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.
The sad part of it is this has seeped into the Christian church. At no other time in church history have heresies abounded as they do today and accepted by the majority of people even Christians.
Few people check out what is being taught today by preachers with the plain teaching of the Word of God.
I like what the Scripture says concerning the Christians in Berea.
“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11).
We live in such an age that we must check, recheck, check again, and compare Scripture with Scripture because there are many heresies out there. Heresy on the surface has truth and says what is true, but what they do not say is what makes them dangerous.
I believe the problem can be summed up in one word: Religion.
My relationship to God is more than and deeper than all of the elements of religion together. In fact, religion can get in my way of really knowing God.
To lay a foundation for this today I want to show you what Jesus said about the religion of his day and how he condemned it.
“And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you” (11:39-41).
Religion can only deal with external things. Even though things in the outside look clean, the inside may be absolutely filthy.
Then Jesus pronounces six woes on religion.
1. [42] “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
2. [43] Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
3. [44] Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”
4. [46] And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.
5. [47] Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed.
6. [52] Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”
The thing keeping us from being all that God wants us to be are the accouterments of religion. Somehow, someway we must rise above the tyranny of religion and discover the freedom we have in Jesus Christ.
This can only be done through an aggressive interaction with the Holy Spirit. Such an interaction that will lift us above the human elements that is so important in religion to that divine element of fellowship and communion with God.
The parable before us is concerning the inner light (33-36). This, of course, is in reference to the work of the Holy Spirit deep within my heart. Anybody can change their behavior on the outside. It is called behavioral modification. Only the Holy Spirit can penetrate the soul, which was created in the image of God.
This light, as I mentioned, refers to the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. I want to emphasize that it is in the life of the believer, and not the unsaved person. The Holy Spirit cannot penetrate the unsaved person because of the rebellion of sin. The person that has accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, and is born again of the Holy Spirit, is the only one that can receive this work of the Holy Spirit deep within their heart.
That is what I want to focus on today.
There are two basic sections of this “inner light.”
1. Revelation…
2. Illumination…
It is these two phases of the Holy Spirit within the heart and soul of the believer that is responsible for the relationship that we have with God. Apart from these two things, it would be very difficult to have a continuing relationship with God.
Let me mention this, this work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer is contradictory to all the elements of religion. Religion controls a person from exterior pressure. Christianity controls the person by the “inner witness” of the Holy Spirit.
I. Revelation.
This is a very important aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit in our life. Both, Revelation and Illumination, are rooted deep in the Word of God. Keep in mind that the Holy Spirit is not working contrary to the Word of God but in complete harmony with the Word of God. The more I know the Word the more I will understand the work of the Holy Spirit in my life.
The work of Revelation is when the Holy Spirit reveals truth to us about the work of God. The Holy Spirit enables us to identify the work of God. We cannot “blame” God for everything.
Revelation enables me to appreciate what God does.
This is very basic for us to understand.
This may be in the area of answered prayer.
It may be also in the area of divine guidance in my life.
It is composed of everything that God does. The work of God in our world and in our life.
This is what our testimonies are built upon. We get up and tell people how God has worked in our life and we give praise to Him for it. This is something that we need to do.
The Holy Spirit reveals to us day by day, what God is doing. Something may be happening in my life creating confusion and it is the work of the Holy Spirit to reveal to me that God element in all that is happening in my life. Behind the scene, God is working and doing.
This is rather basic to my Christian experience. But it is only basic. It is the first level in my Christian experience. This work of Revelation makes the Word of God very practical to my day-to-day living.
Revelation prepares the way for illumination.
II. Illumination…
This too is the work of the Holy Spirit and it is based upon the work of Revelation.
Illumination reveals truth about the person of God which enables me to adore God for who He is.
Revelation enables me to appreciate God for what He does and in particular, what He does for me.
This would be like a young child at Christmas time getting presents from his parents and appreciating those presents. It takes a child a long time to come to the point where they love their parents for who they are and not so much what they do or give.
God desires me to advance in my Christian walk.
This is an area where very few Christians have gone. This teaching is not very common in Christian churches today. I believe it is probably the most essential aspect of my Christian experience.
Yes, I thank God for what He does for me.
More important, I adore God for who He is; His nature, His character.
One great devotional writer referred to this as “The Cloud of Unknowing.”
This has nothing to do with Agnosticism; the view that the existence or non-existence of any deity is unknown and possibly unknowable. I have heard some refer to themselves as Christian agnostics, meaning that they believe there is a God but this God can never be discovered or known personally. You perhaps heard the phrase that some people use, “Somebody up there likes me.”
When our devotional writer refers to “The Cloud of Unknowing,” he is talking about something altogether different than this.
He is referring to the fact that there is a level of my relationship with God that supersedes human thought and reason and logic. These human tools are helpless if I am to pierce “The Cloud of Unknowing.”
If I am to worship and adore God, as He deserves to be worshiped and adored, I need to do it on His terms.
David the psalmist understood this when he said,
“Be still, and know that I am God…” (Psalm 46:10a).
We sometimes misunderstand the phrase “be still.”
It does not mean just to be quiet, although that is part of it. It has behind it the meaning of a complete cessation of human effort. That means, we are to be so yielded and surrendered to the Holy Spirit that He is able to illuminate God as He truly is.
Many refer to this as the Mysterium Tremendum, crossing the line and coming into God’s territory, the manifest presence of God. (Rudolf Otto - The Idea of the Holy). A territory quite unfamiliar to most Christians.
Examples of this are found all through the Scriptures…
• Jacobs ladder.
• Moses at the burning bush…
• Moses on the mount getting the 10 Commandments…
• Isaiah in Isaiah 6.
• Ezekiel in Ezekiel chapter 1.
• Paul in the New Testament who was caught up into the third heaven.
God delights in manifesting Himself to his people.
This is the ultimate agenda of the Holy Spirit’s work in my life. To bring me into the manifest presence of God to see God as He desires to be seen. To know God for who he truly is, and not simply for what He does.
It is at this point that I begin to understand who God is.
St. Augustine tried to explain this when he wrote, “Oh God, Thou has created us for Thyself and we are restless until we rest fully in Thee.”
God created Adam for this kind of fellowship. Sin destroyed this and now God’s agenda is to bring you and me, as believers, back into this kind of fellowship. A fellowship based upon the absolute adoration of God for what He is.
As we grow in the Lord, we are moving closer and closer to God and therefore moving further and further away from the world. As this light shines within us in Revelation and Illumination, it creates within a restlessness with the world around us.
If you are comfortable in the world, something is wrong.
If you are seeking the accouterments of the world, something is wrong. You are missing the purpose of your creation and re-creation.
It is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
We appreciate God for what He has done, but we adore Him for who He is. The Holy Spirit is faithful in leading me along this line and everything he is doing in my life has this as its ultimate purpose. If I understand this, I will begin to appreciate the things of the Holy Spirit in my life today.
Once it was the blessing,
Now it is the Lord;
Once it was the feeling,
Now it is His Word;
Once His gift I wanted,
Now, the Giver own;
Once I sought for healing,
Now Himself alone.
(Albert B. Simpson)
