1 John chapter 4. Many years ago, I read some old
writer who said this, he said, God the Father is God
above us. God the Son is God with us. And God the Spirit is God in us. That's what I call this tonight,
God in us. You see, in the Lord's regenerated
people, in those who are born of God, the Holy Spirit is God in us. That sounds so strange. And I can't even hear myself
say that without being full of wonder and amazement and the inability to explain it. It was mystery enough to think
about the incarnate Son. Great is the mystery of godliness. God manifests in the flesh, God
with us, Immanuel. But God in us, in us, in us? In Chronicles, in 2 Chronicles,
we find these words. But will God in very deed dwell
with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven
of heavens cannot contain thee. He was saying, this house that
I'm building can in no way hold you, God, because the heavens
cannot even hold you. But this is true of every person
born of God. If you look here, In 1 John chapter
4, in one verse, we find that's true. Look down at verse 13. Hereby know we that we dwell
in Him and He in us. You see that? The Apostle John is led by the
Spirit of God to talk about the Lord's people knowing some things. We know we pass from death unto
life and other things. He says, Now hereby know we that
we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of His
Spirit." We know that He dwells in us
because He hath given us of His Spirit. Oftentimes, in the Old Testament,
we find this very thing spoken of. Let me read you one instance
in Zechariah. He says, Sing and rejoice, O
daughter of Zion, for lo, I come and I will dwell in the midst
of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined
to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. And I will
dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord
of hosts hath sent me unto thee." That could be said of Christ
without a doubt. But I believe it is more particularly
spoken of the Spirit of God. And then Paul reminds the church
at Corinth of this very thing. This is something evidently that
we need to know and we need to remember. Listen to what he said
to them. Know ye not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and you
are not your own? Do we know this? Is this a reality with us? Know
you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which
is in you? Is that right? Well, turn back to
John's Gospel in John chapter 14. I've got some things that
I want you to look at tonight. John chapter 14. And look here
in John 14 and verse 16 at what Christ Himself promised. Verse 16, And I will pray the
Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may
abide with you forever. even the Spirit of truth, whom
the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him, but you know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall
be in you." It has to be true, because the
one who is the truth said it would be true. I will not leave
you comfortless. I will come to you. How's that? In the person of
the Holy Spirit. You see, the Holy Spirit is God
in us, and is therefore also said to be Christ in you, the
hope of glory." Now why would our Lord say that He would send
the Comforter, this divine Pericle, the Holy Spirit, why would He
say that He would send the Comforter And when that Comforter comes
to abide His people, what does He do? You see, each person of the Godhead,
the Father as well as the Son, and the Spirit as well as the
Father, or the Son, all are partakers in accomplishing the salvation
of God's elect. And where there is not a proper
ascribing and preaching of salvation by this triune God, there is
no glorifying God. And not only that, there is no
saving gospel. Because the Spirit of God was
sent of Christ after His resurrection in order to accomplish a work
in everyone that the Father chose, and also in everyone that Christ
had just gone to the cross and died for. The Spirit is sent
to accomplish a work. And that is a work of applying
the benefits of God's salvation. And I'm sure that I've not even
come close tonight to beginning to begin to tell all that the
Spirit of God does in this work. But it came to my mind at least
four areas that the Spirit of God does in accomplishing this
work in us. The first one is this. And that
is, he first comes to the Lord's people in time, wherever they
are, everyone that Christ died for, and he reveals Christ to
us and in us. He has to come. and reveal Christ
to us because we are blind, and in us because we have not faith,
we have not spiritual life, and we could not, if left to ourselves,
receive anything of Christ's work were it not for His work. Now let me read you something
that Paul, speaking out of his own experience, says concerning
this very thing, he says, But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb, and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, He's talking here about what
the Father purposed. He's talking here about what
the Son did in His cross death. And then He's talking also how
that the Spirit of God, in His experience, in time, did this
work whereby Christ is revealed to Him. and in him." Now, you
stop and think about it. Here is Saul of Tarsus, and he has done everything against
Christ and the church, and he is at that moment on the road
to Damascus, headed to Damascus, to do even more and worse against
Christ and his church and gospel. And when he gets to Damascus,
he is being led around to find a certain street called Straight
and a certain man called Ananias who is going to give him certain
instructions which he is going to obey. What happened? What happened? God revealed Himself. He revealed
the Lord Jesus Christ to him and in him, and where the Holy
Spirit is. You know, you hear people all
the time talking to us about how the Spirit was there, and
where the Holy Spirit is, Christ will be glorified. He says in John 15, 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. He'll testify of me. He won't
glorify men. He won't bear witness to man's
opinions and notions. When the Holy Spirit is sent
in the midst of a people, He bears witness to the truth as
it is in Christ. Look over in John chapter 16. This ought to be so clear. rather than giving somebody a
funny feeling or causing them to speak in utter rubbish and
gibberish and such as are ascribed to the work of God's Spirit.
Rather than that, he calls his men to see the Lord Jesus Christ. John chapter 16 and verse 13. Our Lord says, 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 show you things to come. He shall
glorify me. for he shall receive of mine,
and shall show it unto you." How is he going to do that? Is
he going to give you a vision? Is he going to speak in a voice
wherein you know everything there is to know about the Lord Jesus
Christ? What is it that he will use as
the Spirit of truth except the Word of truth? And he reveals the Lord Jesus
Christ. He reveals two things can be
summed up about it. He reveals who he is. And he reveals what he's done. I hear a lot of preaching sometimes
all around, you know, and there's always this emphasis on what
God will do for you if you do something. But the truth is, the Holy Spirit
reveals Christ for who He is and as what He has done through
the Bible, the Gospel, the Word of Truth, because He is the Spirit
of Truth. Paul said this very thing in
II Thessalonians. He said there was a great part,
the greater part, who received not the love of the truth. But he said to these believers
at Thessalonica this. He said, but we are bound to
give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the
Lord. Because God has from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth. God has chosen you to salvation
to find your own way, to learn your own things about salvation. No, He says through this work
of God's Spirit. wherein He enables us to believe
the truth. And the very next words were
these, wherein to He called you by our gospel. Now, in our day,
if I were to use that kind of language, I don't know what people would
do. If I were to say something like this, God calls His people
by our gospel. It would probably make somebody
mad, wouldn't it? But it would be true. Paul said it was his
gospel. And it's not only his gospel,
it's the gospel of God. They're one and the same. And
therefore, this gospel is our gospel, the gospel of all his
people, because it's the gospel wherein the righteousness of
God is revealed in Christ. in Christ. Christ said to some in His day, He said, And you have not His
Word, you have not God's Word abiding in you, for whom He has
sent Him you believe not. He says, I know. He knew for
one reason more than the other. But He said, I know you don't
have the Word of God abiding in you. And the reason is because
you not receive the one that He sent, Me. And the reason you have not His
Word in you and the reason you not receive Me is because His
Spirit has not done that work in you. We are blind to and dead
to the most glorious, eternal, spiritual blessings in Jesus
Christ unless we are found with God in us. And I'll tell you this, There
never has been one of his people that was so hard, so blind, so
dead, so lost, so ignorant of God. But what when the Holy Spirit
came and indwelled that one that God loved, that Christ died for,
the Holy Spirit could take and did take the gospel of Jesus
Christ, preached the plainest it may be preached, and revealed God's Son in thee. He reveals Christ to us and in
us. And then here is the second thing.
And that is, He bears witness in us of our adoption. Our adoption. You see, Paul writes in Romans
8, which we'll look at a little bit more in a little while, and
he says this. He says, "...the Spirit Himself, bears witness with our spirit
that we are the children of God. I've said this before, and I'm
sure I'm not even coming close to explaining how it is, except
to speak out of my own experience. And it seems like the most of
the time I spend in unbelief trying to
convince myself that I'm not a child of God. Is that being too honest? Because
of what I say, because of thoughts that come in my mind, because
of what I do, and a host of other things, it seems like me that
the weight of evidence is that I am not a child of God.
I have no right to such a position. I bear so little, if any, resemblance
to such a being, the children of God. But just about the time I come,
it seems, really close to convincing myself of it. I mean, just like
almost a hair breadth. It seems like the Spirit of God
starts to bring back to my mind the evidence that I am. which is never found in me but
in His Word. The Spirit Himself bears witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. That is the
only way that I could ever possibly come close to believing or hoping
or thinking or imagining that God counts me as one of His children. Turn over to 1 John, chapter
5. 1 John, chapter 5, and look first in verse 6. This is He, the Son of God, this
is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not
by water only, but by water and blood, and it is the Spirit that
bears witness, because the Spirit is true. Now, why is that necessary? Well, you just think about this
for a minute. Here are all these people walking
around God manifest in the flesh, looking at Him, hearing what
He says, seeing how He is. Here are all these people, and
there is only a few, comparatively, that know who He is, that believe
who He is. How do they know? How do they
know who He is? Because the Spirit of God bears
witness. Now, you look on down just a
little bit farther in verse 10. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. That's not of his own brain. That's not of something that
he is in his constitution that enables him to do that. The reason
why that any believe on Christ and are sure of Christ is they
have the witness, he says in himself. He that believeth not
God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that
God gave of his Son." Here is the outward record. That's a
witness. But how many look at that record?
Do you ever hear of that record? They don't believe. And why do
those who hear it and believe it, why do they believe it? Because
they have the witness in themselves. I believe things tonight that
thirty years ago there's not any way possible that you could
have convinced me of it. No way. And now I believe them, and while
I want the whole world in one sense to believe them, I don't
care if anybody else believes them or not. It isn't a matter
of apologetics where somebody can sit down and even take the
Bible and prove something to me. Because even though the witness
of God's Word is true, The witness within is what bears to my heart
and mine the weight, the evidence, the witness that this is the
true God, and He is Jesus Christ whom He has seen. And he that keepeth his commandments
dwelleth in him, and he in him, and hereby we know that he abideth
in us by the Spirit which he hath given us." You see, the Holy Spirit is stronger
than our unbelief. The Holy Spirit is wiser than
our ignorance. The Holy Spirit is knowledge,
truth, in the midst of our lack of it. Paul again to the Corinthians. Now, He which establishes us
with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God, who hath also sealed
us and given the earnest of the Spirit. in our hearts. You give somebody what they call
earnest money. What does that mean? That means
there's more to come. But what's to come is just as
good as that. And what you have right now in
your hand, it's as good as what's to come. He says earnest in us. Paul again to the Corinthians
says, "...now we have received, not the Spirit of the world,
but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God." Now, I know we talk about and
we desire to be led by the Spirit. led in all things in our lives
and decisions and everything. But we are first led to Him. Led to Him. That Spirit in us
leads us to Christ. And Paul, writing to the Ephesians,
he said of Christ, in whom you also trusted, After that you
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in
whom also, after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise." Sealed. I've seen a lot of elaborate
definitions and explanations of that, none of which sounded
too good to me. But I think it simply means assured. Assured that the promise is true
and assured that it is yea and amen in Christ. Assured, he says, you were sealed
with that Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of
His glory. That seal, that witness, that
assurance in us is the pledge that this work in us assures
that we have another work that shall be done to us. Turn back to Galatians chapter
4. Galatians chapter 4, and look
down in Galatians 4 at verse 4. Galatians 4 and verse 4. Paul writes, he says, "...but
when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that
were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit
of His Son into your hearts. What's He going to do? He's going
to assure you of this relationship. Sent forth the Spirit of His
Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. The Lord's people, before they
hardly even know what has happened, when the Spirit of God comes
to indwell them, they are broken at the thought of God's love
and grace and mercy to them, wherein in Jesus Christ He has
made them His children, and they, without hardly being able to
stop it at all, cry in their heart, O Father, for as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the
spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit
Himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God. He beareth witness to our adoption,
that we are God's children. And here's the third thing, and
that is, He brings forth His fruit in us. Galatians 5. Galatians 5. What some attribute to a new
nature, I believe, really is the fruit of the Spirit. And that fruit is not, as I said,
these tongues or visions, and especially not these extra-biblical
revelations. I've got a word from the Lord.
I've got a whole book of them. I've got a lot of them. Paul, when he wrote to the church
at Ephesus, he speaks in passing of this very thing. He says this,
"'For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness
and truth.'" I don't know a lot, but that pretty well sums it
up for me. The fruit of the Spirit. is in
all goodness and righteousness and truth. All right? Look here
in Galatians chapter 5, beginning in verse 16. This I say then, walk in the
Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. the chief of which is to seek
to stand before God and be justified and blessed based on your own
works. For the flesh lusteth against
the Spirit." You see, when the Spirit of God indwells us, when
the Spirit of God comes to live in us, we are still in this flesh. As
a matter of fact, that's all that we are in ourselves ever. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit
is Spirit. No improvements, and no need
of improvements. All right? The flesh lusteth
against the Spirit. He's not talking about my Spirit
here. It's in capital letters. He's talking about the Holy Spirit.
"...and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary
the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that
ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit,
ye are not under the law." Now the works of the flesh are manifest. Which are these? Adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like, of
the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in the
past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the
kingdom of God, but the fruit of the Spirit." But the fruit of the Spirit,
not fruits. Nobody can sit around and say,
well, which of them fruit do you have? Well, I've got love,
but the fruit singular, which means we either have it all in
some measure or we don't have any. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. You see what some attribute to
a new nature. Paul attributes to the fruit
of the Spirit. meekness, temperance against
such, there is no law. He brings forth His fruit in
us. If you notice here, faith is
not natural. And there is no faith in any
sinner until the Spirit comes and brings forth that fruit and
takes his abode in them. And faith is not the cause of
the Spirit's indwelling or the fruit, but it's the fruit of the Spirit. So where there's no love, Sorry,
there's no faith. Where there's no meekness, I didn't say to the degree we
would like for it to be and really need for it to be, but where
there is no longsuffering, no joy, no peace, no gentleness,
no goodness, no meekness, no temperance, no faith. Because it's the fruit of the
Spirit. And then here's the fourth thing,
and I'll just give it to you. And that is, He makes our bodies
like Christ in God's appointed time. You turn back and let us
read a few verses here in Romans 8. Romans 8. Romans 8 and verse 8. Paul says, So then they that
are in the flesh, those who seek to stand before
him as the flesh prescribes and desires, they cannot please God. Because the only way you can
please God is in Christ. All right? But you are not in
the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. If the Spirit of God dwells in
you, you're not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. Now, if any
man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ
be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life
because of righteousness. What you would do to please God,
Paul said, that's just fruit that brings forth unto death. But that one the Spirit of God
reveals, that righteousness that the Spirit of God points us to
in the gospel. That's life. That's life. But if the Spirit of Him that
raised up Jesus, all these are capital letters mostly, if you
notice, which means the Holy Spirit. But if the Spirit of
him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from
the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that
dwelleth in you." He reveals Christ in us. He brings forth His fruit, enabling
us to believe and to love and to be kind and meek and all these
graces. And He bears witness that we
are the children of God. And one day, the indwelling Spirit
is going to quick us, and that means in the sense to make our
bodies alive, make us like the Lord Jesus Christ. John said,
we don't know how He'll be. We don't know how we'll be, but
we'll be like Him. How? Because the Spirit of God
that raised Him from the dead, raised Him back to life, is going
to raise us to life and make us like His Son. He is God in us. If any man have
not the Spirit of God, he said he's none of His. None of His. And we're not to look at feelings. I believe for the most part feelings
are natural. But oh, if that Spirit gives
us faith to believe on Christ. if we are found among those who
cast off every other hope and are enabled to cling to Christ. You can just mark it down. God is in us. God is in us. Our Father, tonight
we thank you for your amazing Word. and for such a glorious, amazing
thing as you indwelling us in God the Holy Spirit. Lead us by your Spirit. Quicken
us by your Spirit. Bring forth these things in us
because of what Christ has done for us. Be that comforter to us. Bring forth that fruit, Lord,
which is not only faith but all these other things. and the life of God will be in
us. And in these things, Lord, you
will glorify yourself. And may all glory be to your
name. Keep us, we pray, from being
caught up in so many of the mystical notions regarding your Spirit. and cause us to be able to discern
what is of your Spirit and what is not by the Word that you give
us, because you bear witness to the truth. Help us, we pray, as we go out,
Lord, into the days ahead for as many as you give the week.
Bring us back, if it pleases you, to the Sunday hour to worship you in spirit and
in truth. We thank you for your good grace
to us. We thank you that you are the
way you are. And may all glory and honor be to you and to you alone, worlds
without end. Amen. Amen.