"The Third Person" Pt 3
John 14:17, 16:13, 15:26-27
John 14:17 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.
John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
Introduction: Today is the third and last of three parts that have dealt with the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. In John 14-16 we learn a great deal about the Spirit of God. In part 1 we looked at His person and His personality. In part 2 we examined His work in the world and today we will investigate His word in among believers, those who have placed their faith in Jesus and are now working for and serving Him. First, let's examine:
I. HE IS AN INDWELLING PRESENCE
a. His abiding
In the OT the Holy Spirit is pictured as moving on, resting upon, abiding upon the men and women of God but there are passages that hint that there would be a time when the Holy Spirit would have a new and different relationship between Himself and people of faith. That difference is found in the distinction between two prepositions, "upon" and "in." Let me give a few examples:
1 Samuel 10:6 And the Spirit of the LORD will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.
1 Samuel 16:13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.
Notice the change in language when God tells the prophet Ezekiel about this new relationship...
Ezekiel 37:14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live...
b. His assurance
Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
c. His activity
The indwelling Holy Spirit produces enablement, empowerment, endowment, equipment and enduement in the life of a believer. His is the particular work of sanctification and He conforms us to the image of Christ.
2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
II. HE IS THE INSTRUCTOR OF PRINCIPLE
John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth...
a. The leadership He provides
The word guide is translated "lead" and indicates that the Holy Spirit gives the believer access to the Truth which in this case would be the truth as it is found in the Word of God.
John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
b. The liberty He provides
2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Listen what Gill has to say about this verse: "And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; which may be understood of the third person in the Godhead; where he is as a spirit of illumination, there is freedom from former blindness and darkness; where he is as a spirit of regeneration and sanctification, there is freedom from the bondage of sin, and captivity of Satan; where he is as a comforter, there is freedom from the fear of hell, wrath, and damnation: where he is as a spirit of adoption, there is the freedom of children with a father; where he is as a spirit of prayer and supplication, there is liberty of access to God with boldness." John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
To guide us to Truth the Spirit's work is two-fold. He must remove the blinders of unbelief and darkness and then shine the light of Truth to illuminate our hearts and minds.
c. The love He provides
The Spirit of God sheds (Greek -- pours out abundantly) the love of God into our hearts. This occurs when He indwells believers.
Romans 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
OUR LOVE SO FAINT, THINE SO GREAT
The great hymn writer, Isaac Watts, once asked in a hymn:
"Dear Lord, and shall we ever live at this poor dying rate? Our love so faint, so cold to Thee, and Thine to us so great?"
Isaac Watts goes on to write:
"Come Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, with all Thy quickening powers; come shed abroad a Savior's love, and that shall kindle ours."
III. HE IS THE INSPIRATION FOR PROCLAMATION
Finally, in verse 27 we have this statement that relates to the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer: "And ye also shall bear witness..."
a. The substance of their witness
A witness by its very nature begins with an experience. A literally translation of this phase would be "ye are witnesses". They had an encounter with Jesus and He had changed their lives! That was the basis of their witness.
1 John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you...
Ill - I remember well when the Holy Spirit helped me come to a conviction that I was a sinner and needed a Savior. I was a young adult of 20, married, and the father of one child at the time. I had been running with the boys and come to the place of desiring a divorce from my wife. Also, I was doing drugs, dealing drugs, and had an unhealthy fear of dying. I decided to go to a "fortune teller" along with one of my friends to find out more about my fate. It was there in Buena Vista, Georgia that the Holy Spirit continued the process of convicting me that the Help I needed was God.
This evil fortune teller asked questions and planted thoughts in my mind that would later be used by the Holy Spirit to convict me of my sinfulness. Questions like is your wife pregnant? Has she ever had a miscarriage? Just be patient, wait, you'll get your divorce in a year or so.
Well, we drove back home and when I got to the house Kathy asked me what the fortune teller told me. Of course, I didn't tell her everything, but as we talked she said to me, "Bruce, you know the Lord gives you something and if you don't live right, He'll take it away!" At that moment the Holy Spirit convicted me that something was not right in my life.
My friend had asked me earlier if I realized I had been talking about death for over a week. Well, I was under conviction! I went on to work on Monday morning, but by 11:00 am I could stand it no longer. I went to my dad and said, "I've got to go." He replied, "Where are you going?" "I don't know, but I've got to go." I walked right out with Dad's mouth standing wide open, got into my car, and reached down for a Winston cigarette when a pain in my chest drew me to a fetal position in intense pain and weeping. "Help, help I yelled!" Then I sought to get myself under control. As this intermittent pain and suffering occurred I drove in front of the First Baptist Church in Dadeville where I had joined as a 10 year old and made a rededication as a teenager.
My thought was, "This pastor doesn't know me and I don't know him, but if I can just get all this stuff off my chest I'll be okay." As I stood in front of the Secretary this pain came one more time and I fell to the floor rolling and yelling, "Help, help!" Well, I finally got with the Pastor and shared with him for over an hour everything I had ever done wrong. His response was, "Bruce, everything you've shared with me is what the Bible calls sin and it says, 'All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.' Bruce, what you need is Jesus." I said, "If Jesus is what I need, Jesus is what I want." Right there in the Pastor's Study we knelt and I prayed to receive Christ as my Savior. And it was the Holy Spirit who helped me know that it was Jesus I needed. Bruce Willis
b. The subject of their witness
Jesus plainly declares that the Holy Spirit would not speak about himself but would instead speak about Jesus. Why is this important to us today? First, it clarifies for us what the subject of our witness should be and second, it lets us know with a certainty how to distinguish the true work of the Holy Spirit from the counterfeit. Any ministry that draws attention to the Holy Spirit or to anyone besides Jesus is not a work of the Spirit but is a work of the flesh or worse!
A TIME FOR TESTIMONY
What if we had each person that witnessed the resurrected Lord come up here this morning and talk for 15 minutes giving a testimony to what they saw. If we listened to the testimony of all the people that Jesus appeared to, we would be here all day, and all night, and Monday and Monday night and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and sometime early Friday morning they would just be wrapping up the testimony. It would take over 128 strait hours just to hear, for 15 minutes each, the testimony of those that saw the Lord after he rose.
c. The strength for their witness
There can be no witness for Christ without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
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.
In fact, I want to take a look for a moment at an interesting chain of events in Christian history. I want you to see the importance of the work and ministry in the life of a single believing witnessing and telling others about our Lord. Case in point:
* Sunday School teacher Edward Kimball helped lead Dwight L. Moody to Christ;
* J. Wilbur Chapman attended a Dwight L. Moody evangelistic meeting in Chicago in the 1870's and received personal counseling and an assurance of his salvation from Mr. Moody. He later became a friend and coworker of DL Moody, hiring a former baseball star named Billy Sunday as an advance man for him;
* Billy Sunday held an evangelistic campaign in Charlotte in 1924 and a men's prayer and fellowship group, originally known as the Billy Sunday Layman's Evangelistic Club and later renamed as Charlotte Businessmen's Club (CBMC), grew out of those meetings It was this group that invited Mordecai Ham to Charlotte to hold evangelistic meetings in 1934;
* Mordecai Ham preached a sermon where a 16 year-old young man now known as Billy Graham went forward and received Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior;
* And, Billy Graham has preached to hundreds of millions of people all over the world and seen literally millions won to Christ.
