The Holy Spirit, Part 2: God’s Spirit at Work
Series: Acts, #3
Chuck Sligh
February 9, 2014
There is a PowerPoint presentation available for this sermon upon request by emailing me at chucksligh@hotmail.com.
TEXT: Acts 1:8 – “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – An American was showing an English gentleman the Niagara Falls one day. The American said to his English friend, “Come over here and I’ll show you the greatest unused power in the world!”
Taking him to the foot of the Niagara Falls he said, “There it is: the greatest unused power in the world.”
The Englishman watched in awe the mighty, thunderous falls for a moment, and then replied, “No my brother, not so! The greatest unused power in the world is the Holy Spirit of the living God.”
Last Sunday we launched into a study about the Holy Spirit.
• We began by examining WHO He is. – We learned two important facts:
> First, that He is a PERSON—not some impersonal force or entity.
> Second, He is DIVINE—as truly God as is God the Father and God the Son.
• Then we saw WHEN the Holy Spirit came from Acts 1:4-5.
In these verses Jesus promised a “baptism with the Holy Spirit”— which we discovered is not an individual experience after a person’s salvation, but a collective event that occurred once in history—on the day of Pentecost—when Jesus simultaneously baptized ALL believers of the church age with the Spirit into His body. Since then, the Spirit has indwelt all believers the moment they are saved.
Today, let’s think about what the Holy Spirit does in our lives. The Holy Spirit is a person, but what does this Person DO? Jesus promised that when He ascended to heaven, He would send another Comforter.
But why? What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers and even non-believers? What are His activities that affect our lives personally? The activities of the Holy Spirit on earth break down naturally into two categories:
• His activities in the lives as believers and…
• His activities in the lives of non-believers
Let’s begin with…
THE ACTIVITIES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN YOUR LIFE AS A BELIEVER
• If you are a Christian, there are a number of activities of the Holy Spirit in your life.
1. The first is TO KEEP YOU ETERNALLY SAVED – Look with me at Ephesians 1:13 – “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.”
What does Paul mean when he says that believers were “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise”?
A seal in New Testament times signified a finished transaction. In those days, when a business deal was completed, instead of signing their signatures, as we do today, they used a seal. A seal was a signet or a ring that made a distinctive impression in soft clay. It was applied to the clay and attached to the contract and hardened, signifying that the parties to the contract would fulfill the terms of the contract. Even today, when legal documents are processed, they’re stamped with an official seal to signify the completion and finality of those transactions.
So Paul was teaching that when you trust in Christ and are saved, that transaction “closes the deal” between you and God and you enter into a permanent partnership with God that cannot be dissolved. In other words, the deal is “DONE”! The matter of your eternal salvation is finished—settled—IMPOSSIBLE to undo or reverse. God will not go back on the terms of His contract.
What were the terms of that contract? Jesus said in John 3:15 – “That whosoever believeth in him [i.e., Christ] SHOULD NOT PERISH, but have eternal life.”
The contract is this—If you place your faith in Christ who died for your sins as your Savior, He promises He will save you for all eternity.
And God doesn’t go back on His Word! “Let God be true and every man a liar,” says Romans 3:4. Titus 1:2 tells us that God cannot lie. God never changes His mind and will never cancel the contract of eternal salvation.
What this means is that you can never “lose” your salvation. It’s settled—the transaction is done!—It’s SEALED forever!
For how long?—Paul says in Ephesians 4:30 – “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”
The “day of redemption” refers to the day of Christ’s return. Paul’s saying that the Holy Spirit seals the believer ALL THE WAY TO THE END till Christ comes to take you home.
What a promise!—I am sealed FOREVER with the Holy Spirit!
This parallels what Jesus taught in John 6:37-40, so let’s turn to that scripture now: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me [all that the Father gives to Jesus are those who place their faith in Him]; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. [The phrase “in no wise” literally means “certainly not” or “by no means.” Jesus is saying that no one whom the Father gives him will he ever under any circumstances cast out for any reason whatsoever.] 38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” [Jesus is clearly stating that NO ONE who believes on Jesus Christ will God lose; and that EVERY SINGLE BELIEVER WITHOUT EXCEPTION will be resurrected from by Christ.]
2. A second activity of the Holy Spirit in your life if you’re believer is TO TEACH AND GUIDE YOU INTO TRUTH – John 16:13 – “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.”
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2:14 that the Bible is “spiritually discerned,” meaning it cannot be understood without the aid of the Holy Spirit.
When a person without Christ reads the Bible, much of it is meaningless to him. He can’t make heads nor tails out of it. As my dad used to say before he came to Christ, reading the Bible was like reading Shakespeare to him (my apologies to any Shakespeare lovers here).
But when you’re saved and the Holy Spirit who is the very author of the Bible, comes to dwell within you, the Bible begins to COME ALIVE for you! You begin to understand more and more of it as the Holy Spirit teaches you and guides your understanding.
Illus. – The great preacher, Charles Spurgeon made a wonderful analogy about the Holy Spirit’s role in leading us into God’s truth. – Listen to this…
Truth may be compared to a cave or grotto, with wondrous stalactites reaching from the roof, and others reaching from the floor, a cavern glittering with spar and abounding in marvels. Before entering the cavern you enquire for a guide, who comes with his lighted torch. He conducts you down to a considerable depth, and you find yourself in the midst of the cave. He leads you through different chambers. Here he points you to a little stream rushing from amid the rocks and indicates its rise and progress. There he points to some peculiar rock and tells you its name, then takes you into a large natural hall, tells you how many persons once feasted in it, and so on.
Truth is a grand series of caverns, it is our glory to have so great and wise a conductor as the Holy Spirit. Imagine that we are coming to the darkness of it. He is a light shining in the midst of us to guide us. And by the light he shows us wonderful things. He teaches us by suggestion, direction, and illumination.
I’m glad the Spirit teaches and guides us through the labyrinths of His marvelous truth!
But you know what?—no matter how much the Bible can comes alive to you as a believer, and no matter how much it can potentially help you…it is practically speaking a DEAD BOOK unless you actually use it and apply it to your life! If you’re a believer here this morning, the Bible is of NO VALUE to you unless you read it and study it and memorize it and apply it in your life.
Illus. – Once a preacher was talking to a little girl…
“Do you attend Sunday School regularly?” he asked the little girl.
“Oh, yes sir.” she replied.
“And do you know your Bible?”
“Oh, yes sir.”
“Could you perhaps tell me something that is in it?”
“I can tell you EVERYTHING that is in it,” she said.
“Oh, you can?” smiled the preacher. “Well, tell me then.”
“Well, my picture is in it, and one of Mommy’s recipes, and a lock of my hair cut off when I was a baby, and the receipt for Daddy’s watch is in it.”
Brethren, does your use of the Bible resemble that? Instead of being the source of strength and guidance for your life it ought to be, has it become a repository of odds and ends and bits and pieces of life? God help you to avail yourself of one of the most important works of the Holy Spirit in your life—the ministry of teaching and guiding you into truth.
But remember—it’s GOD’S WORD the Spirit uses to lead us into His truth. So you should spend time in the Word by scheduling a quiet time in God’s Word each day, away from the hustle and bustle of life, to hear the Holy Spirit’s voice and allow Him to lead you into His truth.
3. A third activity of the Holy Spirit in your life as a believer is TO DEVELOP IN YOU GODLY CHARACTER – Galatians 5:22-23 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance [which means “self-control”]: against such there is no law.”
The traits found in these two verses are called in verse 22 the “fruit of the Spirit.” Fruit is the result of being attached to the root. It’s what grows out of a living process.
When you come to faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit comes into your life and He begins a process that theologians call “progressive sanctification.” This is just a fancy name for this ministry of the Holy Spirit—to work in your life to produce godly character in you. Each day, unless you allow sin to frustrate this process, the Holy Spirit is seeking to make you progressively more like His Son, who modeled the fruit of the Spirit in His life to perfection. As you submit to the Holy Spirit and as He transforms you and makes you more like Christ, YOU begin to show in your life the fruit of the Spirit too—love and joy and peace and longsuffering and gentleness and goodness and faith and meekness and self-control.
Christian, are you growing in the Lord? Are you showing more of the fruit of the Spirit today than you were a year ago? Are you more like Jesus today than last month? When people see you, do they see more love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control than they used to?
If not, then you have let sin get a foothold in your life.
Illus. – Donald Grey Barnhouse tells of a flowering tree in his garden. A price tag was attached to one of its branches by a tiny wire that he had never bothered to remove. As the branch grew, the wire began to cut into it. He saw that the leaves were not flourishing like those on other branches, so he removed the wire. In only a matter of days it was growing again to such an extent that the branch began flowering.
Christian, sin is like that wire. It will constrict the working of the Holy Spirit in your life. It will cause you to spiritually wither so that you cannot bear the fruit of the Spirit in your life.
Don’t let sin cause you to wither on the vine spiritually. Obey God and continue to grow more like Christ every single day!
4. A fourth activity of the Spirit in a believer is TO COMFORT IN TIMES OF TROUBLE – John 14:16-17 – “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”
In telling His disciples about the Holy Spirit whom He would give them, notice that Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as the “Comforter.”
One of the most wonderful ministries of the Holy Spirit in our lives as believers is His comforting ministry in our lives! How many times have I been distraught, and the blessed Holy Spirit comforted my troubled soul! How often in the midst of fear and confusion has the Spirit calmed my fears.
Illus. – I remember when I had my cancer surgery in 1979. Knowing my surgeon’s propensity to not always tell patients their real condition, Susan promised that when I came out from the anesthesia, no matter how bad the news, she would tell me the truth about my prognosis.
When I woke up from the anesthesia, I turned to her in my bed and whispered hoarsely, “What did the doctor say?”
She began to weep and told me, “It’s cancer and Dr. Kumar says you have about six weeks to live.”
What happened next I cannot explain. When the news hit me, I felt a sudden, tangible sense of peace go over me I could literally FEEL that bathed me from head to toe.
What happened?—The Holy Spirit gave comfort in my greatest time of need; something so tangible that no other explanation is explicable except that the Holy Spirit gave me that peace. But that shouldn’t have been surprising: That’s one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit in our lives—to bring us comfort in catastrophe, solace in the storm, help during hopelessness.
You know, it’s sad to think that the lost have no Comforter in time of need. How sad to not have the Holy Spirit to turn to in times of sorrow, grief, disappointment, betrayal, and trial. If you’re not saved, dear friend, let me invite you to come to Jesus today! And when you do, the wonderful Holy Spirit will come into your life and become your Comforter!
Now it’s sad not to have a Comforter—but it’s almost as tragic is to HAVE the Comforter, but NOT GO TO HIM FOR COMFORT! All too often, when we as Christians experience a trouble or a trial, the LAST person we go to for comfort is the Lord.
Christian, one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit in your life is to comfort and encourage you! Go to HIM for solace and consolation and care—“Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)
CONCLUSION
Illus. – You know—the human body is a most remarkable machine. It can maintain a constant temperature of about 98.6 degrees no matter what the weather is outside. Whether a person is at the Arctic Circle or the equator, his body temperature is about the same. There is an inner mechanism that makes the difference.
In the same way, the Holy Spirit dwells within you as a Christian to achieve this kind of stabilization in terms of spiritual health. Whether you face good times or bad, whether you’re spiritually strong or undergoing temptation, the Holy Spirit keeps you stable within.
How?—By His various activities in your life.
• By keeping you eternally saved. – Be sure to thank Him for that blessed fact today!
• By teaching you and guiding you into His truth. But remember—the Holy Spirit teaches us through God’s Word. So, are you reading and applying God’s Word so He can teach and guide you?
• The Holy Spirit is developing godly character—the character of Christ—in your life. But is it possible you’ve let sin choke out the Holy Spirit’s power to change you? Do you need to confess and forsake that sin to the Lord this morning?
• Finally, the Holy Spirit comforts you in times of suffering, struggle and trial.
Praise God for the blessed Holy Spirit! Believer, let Him have full sway in your life; obey His voice; keep sin out of your life. And if you’re not a believer, let me invite you today to meet the Holy Spirit by coming to Christ and placing your faith in Him as your Savior.
