Turn back to John 14, and we'll have a look at chapter
16, verses 7 through 14. The title of the message is The
Work of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord has something to say
about the Holy Spirit and His work, what He will do when He
comes. The Holy Spirit is the third
person in the Trinity. That does not mean that he is
lesser than the Father and the Son, because he's God also. You got God the Father, God the
Son, God the Holy Spirit. When we are baptized, when a
person confesses Christ, they are baptized what? In the name
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Man told me one
time he said the work of the Holy Spirit is not as important
as the work of Christ Without him you're not gonna be saved
you'll not be saved apart from him Now he's one of the three
of the Trinity and the scripture says these three are one in first
John 5 7 for there are three that bear record in heaven the
Father the The Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. They're one God. We live in a time, though, when
there's much ignorance, and I do mean ignorance, concerning the
work of the Holy Spirit. Usually when the Holy Spirit
is mentioned People think of speaking in tongues, healing. That's so widespread anymore. That's what it's all about. No,
that's not the work of the Holy Spirit. That's the work of Satan.
It's all this gibberish and all this getting his flesh excited. That's not of God. That's not
the Holy Spirit. He tells us in these verses,
He tells us when the Holy Spirit is present, this is what's happening. I'm gonna give it to you here
in a little bit. It's written in verse 13 of John 16, how be
it when He, the Spirit of truth, When he's come, he will guide
you into all truth. That's one of the things he's
gonna do. He's gonna guide you into all truth. For he shall
not speak of himself. You see, he's not gonna be the
center of attention. He's not gonna draw attention
to himself. But whatsoever he shall hear. Our Lord said that,
he said, as I hear, I speak. And he will show you things to
come. The Holy Spirit does not, first of all, glorify Himself.
He does not glorify Himself. He glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. You can be sure that when you
hear someone always talking about the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit,
it's not the Holy Spirit talking. Because when you hear Him talking,
you're hearing about Jesus Christ. Christ is the center of attention.
But we do recognize, we do recognize that He is a very important part
in our salvation. We're not saved without Him.
We're not saved without Him. And we cannot know Christ without
Him. We are sealed with Him, and it's
Him, it's the Holy Spirit in you that reveals Christ. He's
the revealer of Christ. You see, the Father purposed
salvation. The Son purchased salvation,
and the Holy Spirit applies salvation. They're all three involved in
saving of a sinner. Now I want us to look at the
work of the Holy Spirit this morning. Well, the first thing
He does, He quickens us with the Word of Truth, with the Gospel,
but He quickens us. He gives us spiritual life in
Christ. You know, faith and repentance
is the evidence of salvation, not the cause of it. The very
evidence that God has quickened me, that God has saved me, that
the Holy Spirit has given me life, is this, I believe God. There was a time I did not believe
God, now I believe God. As I told you last week, I believe
God because I can't help it. When the Lord reveals Himself,
When He makes truth known to you, when He gives you a heart
to believe, as He said in Ezekiel, I'll give them a new heart that
they may know me. When He gives that new heart,
that new heart cries out to Him, looks to Him, believes Him. That's the evidence of it. Faith
and repentance is the evidence of life, not the cause of it.
It's not the cause of it. So he quickens us, he gives us
spiritual life in Christ, it's called the new birth. You know,
when the Lord told Nicodemus, Nicodemus came to the Lord by
night, and he was gonna ask him some questions, no doubt about
the kingdom of God. And the Lord said, stop him,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,
he cannot understand the kingdom of God. And then he went on to
tell Nicodemus, the wind bloweth where it listeth, you hear the
sound of it, But you can't tell where it comes and where it's
going. So it is with the Spirit. He's speaking of the sovereignty
of God in salvation. God is sovereign in all things.
When he created the heaven and the earth, did he ask anybody?
Did he ask anybody how they wanted it? There was nobody to ask.
He's there by himself. He created everything. as he
pleased. And then he created man, he created
Adam, then he put him in the garden, and Adam provided nothing.
He brought nothing into that garden until he sinned. God provided
everything, and that's exactly how it is in salvation. God provides
everything in salvation. He saves whom he will. You have
to throw the Bible away to deny that. I'll have mercy on whom
I'll have mercy, and whom I will I'll harden. Does he have the
right to do that? Does God have the right? Does the potter have
the right or the power over the clay? Does he have that right?
That's who God is. That's who the God of this Bible
is. He's the sovereign God of heaven and earth. He doesn't
ask if He can do something. God did not ask me if He could
save me. Did He ask you? He didn't ask
me. You know what He did? He saved
me. You know what happened? I asked him to save me. Because
he saved me. If he hadn't... You know, dead
people don't ask you anything, do they? If you're spiritually
dead, you're not going to seek the Lord. But if the Lord gives
you life, you're going to seek the Lord. You're going to seek
the Lord. He quickens us, He gives us,
He births us. Scripture says, And listen to
this, you cannot put new wine into old bottles lest they burst,
lest they burst. Until we are born again, and
we are born of God the Holy Spirit, we have nothing to put truth
in. You don't put truth in an old bottle, it won't take it,
it won't take it. This is why my pastor said, and
I understand what he said, he said, you cannot counsel lost
people, there's nothing to work with. There's nothing to work
with. If they'll not listen to God,
they'll not listen to the one who speaks from heaven, they're
not going to listen to his messenger and they're just not going to
listen. You have to be given life. You
have to be given a new heart. You have to be given eyes to
see, spiritual eyes to see and ears to hear. And the Lord said
he gives those, the seeing eyes of me and the hearing ears of
me. It's of God. The Holy Spirit also here. He
teaches, that's what he says. He teaches. He teaches his people
and all his teachings. Now listen, are Christ-centered. They're all Christ-centered.
Listen to John 6, 45. It is written in the prophets. And they shall be all taught
of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and learned of the Father, what does he do? Cometh unto
me. He's the center of the message.
Christ is the message. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. He is both lesson and teacher.
He's always, when the Holy Spirit is present, Jesus Christ is being
preached. Jesus Christ is being lifted
up. Jesus Christ is being magnified. That's what's happening. The
Holy Spirit has to remove our ignorance and give us a spiritual
understanding. And when he does that, when he
gives us a new birth and gives us spiritual understanding, when
he, by the Word of God, teaches us, we now have something we
can put truth in, a new heart. that new wine bottle. He said,
you don't put new wine in old bottles, they'll burst. Here's
what you do, you put new wine into new bottles. God gives life
to a sinner and he's born again. Now you can put the new wine,
you can put the truth. Christ said, I am the way, the truth.
Now Christ could dwell in you. There's a place for him to dwell.
There's no place for him to dwell apart from that new birth, from
that new heart. I said to a family last week,
you know, give Christ your heart. I said, he don't want this filthy
heart. You know what I need? I need Christ to give me a new
heart. And that's the heart he dwells in. That old heart is
a wicked heart, and there's nothing good about it, and the only thing
you need to do with it is bury it and leave it in the grave. That's what needs to be done
with it. That's the truth. And when the Holy Spirit is present,
he always teaches through the gospel. It's always through the
gospel. Turn over to 2 Timothy. Over
to 2 Timothy. In 2 Timothy chapter 1, let me
look at the verses I want to read. In verse 8, Be not thou therefore
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner,
but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God, who hath saved us and called us. You know, I like that, he who
has saved us. What does the scripture say eternal
life is? Well, first of all, it says it's
a gift of God. It's not an offer. It's what God, God gives it to
you. He gives it to you. Who has saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. but is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death
and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."
Through the preaching of the gospel, we learn the truth. We learn the truth. Then the
Holy Spirit is our guide. It says in John 16, 13, "'Howbeit
when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you, He
will guide you into all truth. He's not gonna leave his children
in error. He's gonna guide you into all truth. The scripture
says, it's not in man that walketh to direct his steps. That's what
it says in Jeremiah. It's not in us. Do you know which
way to go? Really? You know what's gonna
happen in the next minute from now? Then you don't know which
way to go. But God does. It's in God to
direct our steps. The steps of a good man, a good
man is one saved by God. Steps of a good man are ordered,
not just guided, but ordered by the Lord, every step. I'm
not here, it's just not by accident or incidental that I'm here.
I'm here by the will and purpose of God Almighty. That's why I'm
here. He's guided my steps. He ordered
my steps to come to Spring Lake. It's an order. And I thank God that it is. I
thank God my life is ordered. When David said, you've made
a covenant with me, ordered in all things, ensure. You know,
the covenant of grace is not a conditional covenant. It's
not conditioned on me. If it were, it would be over
with. It would already be over with.
It was conditioned on Jesus Christ, his obedience, his blood, his
righteousness. And all the blessings of the
covenant are ordered and sure to every one of God's children,
every one of them. He's our guide. Listen, if he
didn't guide us, we wouldn't know which way to go. We wouldn't
know which way to go. You know, I know a particular
person what I call church jumping. He's been to about four or five
places, and he just can't settle down. Are you going to go anywhere
else? Is there any place else? When God's people hear the gospel,
they are settled. That's it. I don't need to go
anywhere. I'm not looking no more. I have
Christ. Here he is. He's here in his gospel, his
presence is here. Wherever his gospel is, his presence
is. And the Holy Spirit will for
sure take the things of Christ and reveal them to his people.
And that's how you and I grow in grace and in knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we grow. Listen to
John 14, 5. Thomas said unto him, Lord, we
know not whither thou goest. How can we know the way? What
was the Lord's response to that? I'm the way. How can we know
the way? I'm the way. The truth and the
life. I'm it. He's not going to just show me
the way. He is the way. He's not a part of the way. He's
the way to God. No man comes to the Father but
by me. And the Holy Spirit teaches everyone whom God saves. Christ
is the way. The only way. In him I'm complete. I don't need anything else besides
Jesus Christ. I have in Him wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. I don't need any more than what
God has provided in Christ. I have it all. Now, more specifically,
He teaches us when He gives us life, when He quickens us. One of the first things He teaches
us is our complete depravity. Well, I'm not that bad. Well,
if He saves you, you'll change that around. I promise you, you'll
change that around. No one will confess and honestly
believe in their heart and apply it to themselves. None good. No, not one. I wrote out by that
verse, even me. He wasn't talking about my neighbors,
talking about me. God has to save us in order for
us to confess. To confess, as the Apostle Paul
did, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Paul would have choked
and went to hell if God hadn't saved him. But boy, when God
saved him, he's like, oh, wretched man. Not that I was. I am. That old nature is still
there. That old wretched heart that
I was born with, that old wretched nature is still there. And Paul
says, in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. God has to save a man or a woman
for them to really say that and believe it. Those whom the Lord saves know
they are hopeless and helpless and desperately desperately need
the Lord Jesus Christ to save them. I need God to save me. I need him to save me. I need
him to reach down and lift me out of the pit that I was born
in. I need him to set the captive
free. I need him to break the shackles. I need him to break
the power of canceled sins. I need him to do it. And I thank
God. I know that it's not a cooperative
effort between me and the Lord, it's the Lord saving me. I did
the sinning, he did the saving. Salvation's of the Lord, that's
what Jonah said. If you're in the belly of a whale,
and you're down in the deep, you know if you're coming out
of there alive, God's gonna have to do it. And that's exactly
what every sinner knows, whom God saves. If I'm gonna be saved,
God's gotta do it. And Jesus Christ is God. And
he's the only one that can do it. Then he teaches us of the
nature and character of God. You know, the more we learn of
God, the more we see him, the more we see ourselves. We see
what we are. When we see who he is, we begin
to see who we are. You'll never understand sin until
you start to understand holiness. Pharisees the Pharisees they
thought they were they were keeping the law they thought they were
righteous and the Lord the Lord gave them a true Interpretation
of the law he that looks at a woman To lust after her has committed
adultery already he that hates his brother without a cause has
committed murder already They were standing nothing, but a
bunch of adulterous murdering self-righteous Pharisees and
Every one of them believed we were good people What good people? And their morality became their
undoing. They didn't see no need of Christ. They saw no need of
Jesus Christ. I don't need your righteousness,
thank you, I got enough. If he does not empty you and
empty me, he'll not fill us. He has to empty us in order to
fill us. He has to strip us of our own righteousness in order
to clothe us in the righteousness of Christ. He teaches us, as I said, of
the nature and character of God. God, listen, God is not who we
naturally think He is. I've repeated this verse many
times. You thought I was altogether
like yourself. You think I'm like you. You think I'm like
you. We will imagine and conjure up
a God, and then when God reveals Himself, you have to take everything
you thought, throw it in the trash, and then learn. who God
is. I know that God can be seen in
creation. It says the heavens declare the glory of God and
the firmament showeth his handiwork. But only the Holy Spirit, taking
the word of God, can reveal to us the very being of God, the
very fullness of God in all his attributes. I can look at a tree
and I cannot tell you how God can be a just God and a Savior.
Can you? I can look at any part of creation
and I cannot, I can see the power of God. I can see something of
the wisdom of God, but I cannot really fully understand how God
can be a just God and save me. I can't do that. That comes through
the gospel. That comes through the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God, can you understand where
righteousness and peace can, where mercy and truth can meet
together, righteousness and peace kiss each other? Can you see
that in creation? You see that at the cross. You
see that in Christ crucified. That's how God can be just. In
Christ, mercy and truth. Here's the truth. I'm no good.
But mercy says set him free. How is God going to do that and
be just? How is he going to do that and
be God? You see, righteousness demands my death, but peace cries
for my release. None of that can happen except
in Jesus Christ. You cannot see that anywhere
else. In Christ, we see the full character of God. And then he
teaches us who Jesus Christ is. What a mysterious man. What a
mysterious man. 1 Timothy 3, 16, and without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh. That man, that babe laying in
that cradle is God. He's God. That man walking down
the streets of Galilee is God. That man that spoke in the temple
is God. Now God, God, God, the Holy Spirit
in the new birth has to give us eyes to see the difference. He has to give us eyes to see
the difference. He has to give us eyes to see,
to see God in Christ, that he's God. Other than that, he's just
a good man. That young man came to him, you
know what he said? Good master, and the Lord stopped him. He
stopped him dead in his tracks. He said, why callest thou me
good? There's none good but God. You
know what he's saying? If I'm good, if I'm really good,
I'm God. He was just coming to him as
a good master, a good man, like anybody else. You know, he does
good things. He heals and he's a good man. If I'm not God, I'm not good.
If I'm not in Christ, I'm not good. That's the truth. And only the spirit of God can
teach us this. This is why Christ must be revealed,
because he's a mystery. He's a mystery. You remember when our Lord was
on that boat I spoke of earlier in the Bible class? The winds
and the waves, they were boisterous and filling the boat. And he
said, hush, be still. And the wind and the rain, the
waves, it all was what you'd call a dead calm. Just calm. You know what the disciples said?
These are the ones that have been following Him. What manner
of man is this that even the wind and the waves obey Him? I'll tell you what manner of
man He is, and you'll not know it until God saves you. He's
the God-man. He's God as if He were not man. He's a man as if He were not
God, yet He is one undivided person, the God-man. The one who hung on the cross
is the God-man. As it says over in Acts chapter
20, that God purchased the church, God purchased the church with
His own blood. God as God has no blood, He's
Spirit. God as a man now has blood. Now
He can sacrifice, He's a sacrifice. He's got a body. A body hast
thou prepared me. That's what the Lord said. To
what? To obey the law and to be a sacrifice
for the sins of His elect. That's exactly what it is. It says back in that verse, He
will take the things of mine and shall reveal them unto you.
That's how you know the truth. And the truth, he said, shall
set you free. There were many who saw Christ, heard him preach.
They saw him walking on this earth in the flesh, but they
didn't believe him. They didn't believe him, just like the Israelites,
all those miracles they saw. They came up to the edge of Canaan,
right to the borderline, and they couldn't enter in because
of unbelief. And they saw Christ raise the dead, feed 5,000, do
all that. And they believe not. They believe not. Those who do believe, believe
because the Lord has revealed himself to you. Listen to this
in Matthew 16, 17. Remember the Lord said, who do
men say that I am? Some said, well, some say you're
a prophet, one of the prophets. And some say you're Elijah. Some
say this, some say that. Who do you say that I am? Peter
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And the
Lord said to him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, and this
fits everyone here who believes, blessed are you, for flesh and
blood has not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is
in heaven, he made it known to you, he revealed it to you. One day you heard the gospel
and you was like, I see, I see, I understand. The reason why
is that the Father has revealed Christ to you by the Holy Spirit. We are not educated into the
kingdom of God. You cannot educate anybody into
the kingdom of God. We're born into it and then we're
taught. There's nothing to work with
until you're born in God. We are born into the Kingdom
of God, and then we're taught of God.
And then last of all, the Holy Spirit must give us eyes to see
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He must give
us spiritual ears to hear his voice in the message. Speak,
Lord, thy servant heareth. Until then, you'll leave here,
and you won't think anymore about what you heard, and you'll do
anything. It'll just go away. But those whom God saves, this
is bread. This is our bread. This is our
water. This is our drink. Christ is our life. He's our
everything. He's not a part of our life. Jesus Christ is not
a part of my life. He is my life. He's the reason
I exist. He's the reason I breathe. He's
not a fire escape from hell and he's not a life insurance policy.
He's my Lord and my God. That's who he is. When the Holy Spirit reveals
and guides sinners, when he's revealing the gospel and he's
guiding sinners, listen, Jesus Christ becomes all in all. He
becomes all in all. He's my wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. And for the first time, I realized
that in Him and in Him only, I'm complete. I don't need anything
else. I'm complete in Him. The work
of the Holy Spirit lies not in speaking in tongues. It lies
not in healing. You know, the healing I need
is spiritual. You know, it's fine if I have health. I mean,
it's great if I have health. And if I'm healed, all healing
is of God. Really? You know, God's a God of means.
He may use medicine to heal you, whatever it is. Or He may speak
a word. But that's nothing compared to
the healing of my soul. That's what I need. That's what
I need. I need God to heal me and enable
me to love Him and love you as I ought to. and love all men
as I ought to because they're, in Adam, they're my brothers
and sisters. Like old Scott Richardson said, the guy, he was getting
gas one time, and he spoke to a man that, the person that was
with him knew the guy he spoke to was a rotten rascal. And he
said, hey, brother. And he called him his brother,
and that guy said, why'd you call him brother? He said, well,
if I don't get him in Christ, I'll get him in Adam. I'll get
him in Adam. The work of the Holy Spirit is
not in speaking in tongues. You know, that was for that day.
It's not in healing. It's in regenerating, revealing,
guiding into all truth of which Jesus Christ is the embodiment
of truth. When the Holy Spirit is present,
now I'm telling you how you know. It's not goosebumps. I've heard people come and say
to me, they say, boy, we had a Holy Spirit meeting. Was Jesus
Christ the center of the message? Was Jesus Christ honored and
lifted up? Was he magnified? Did you learn any more about
Jesus Christ? If not, that was not a Holy Spirit meeting, that
was another spirit. That's another spirit. Every time somebody steps
in a pulpit and preaches, it's by a spirit. It's either the
Holy Spirit or it's an evil spirit. The man is never standing there
speaking by himself. That's why John said, try the
spirits, whether they be of God, because many false prophets have
gone out into the world. You take the Bible, even as much
as I preach here, you take the Bible and you check out what
I'm saying. You check it out. The work of
the Holy Spirit is to take the things of Christ, reveal them
to us, and magnify the Son of God. That's a Holy Ghost meeting
when Christ is lifted up. All right.