Alright, I want you to open your
Bibles with me to the book of 1 John chapter 4. Now I've spent some time in the last
two messages dealing with issues of confessing Christ, what it
is to confess Christ. Certainly that's a subject that
you can't cover in one message. And then also dealing with the
issue of false preachers. This chapter, chapter 4 of 1
John, begins with when he says, Beloved, believe not every spirit.
Talking about lying spirits there, or men who are energized and
motivated by a spirit other than the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of
Christ. Now, I want to read through these verses again, but I want
to speak to you on the subject, the Holy Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit of Truth. And
I want you to to be ready to turn to some scriptures this
morning. If you can't write them down, these are so important
for your own personal study. And I hope you do that. Sometimes a pastor, when he tries
to get people to really study and read the scriptures, it's
like a teacher trying to get kids to do their homework. It's
almost an impossible task. But I know that many of you do,
because I can tell by your your maturity and your knowledge and
how you're familiar with the scriptures. But do this. This
is something that, you know, we've talked about. These are
matters of eternal life and death. These are not just side issues. This is not just going to church
on Sunday, I hope. I hope it's a life pursuit. of looking to Christ and following
Him as a disciple. You know what a disciple is.
A disciple is not just a follower, he's a learner. That's what the
word means, discipline. That's what we get it from. So
I hope that we're all learning together as we go through these
passages, as we study God's Word. But I'm going to talk to you
about the work of the Holy Spirit. Now, the reason I had Brother
Ron read in Psalm 143 is because the last part of that psalm speaks
a great deal about the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation.
It talks about hearing, calls me to hear thy lovingkindness
in the morning, the psalmist wrote. You see, when we hear,
it's the Holy Spirit who gives us ears to hear. You may hear
what I'm saying, but it may not matter to you, or you may reject
it, and you can know there's no work of the Holy Spirit there.
But, you know, Christ told the disciples, He said, blessed are
your ears for they hear. In other words, you not only
just hear it with the physical ear, but you understand it savingly
and you love it and you believe it. That's what the Holy Spirit
does in His work. He implants the Word within your
heart, your mind, your affections, your will, your inner man, the
inner person, the Scripture says. That Word becomes a part of you.
It's a convincing, it's a power, it's an unction. And those are
all biblical terms that describe the work of the powerful work,
the invincible work of the Holy Spirit within. He says, "'Cause
me to know the way wherein I should walk.'" It's only by the Holy
Spirit of truth who leads us to Christ that we can know the
way that we're to walk. We don't know the way. Christ
is the way. We're going to talk about that.
And he says, teach me to do thy will in that psalm. It's God
by his spirit who teaches us in his word, leads us, he says. In verse 11 of Psalm 143, he
says, quicken me, O Lord. Well, he first quickens us in
the new birth when he gives us life. You must be born again. But he continually renews our
minds and our hearts to know the way of God. Now, let's go
back to 1 John 4. Let me read through these verses.
and give you some thoughts here concerning the Holy Spirit of
truth. Again, he said, bear with me as I go through these again,
but he says, Beloved, believe not every spirit, now remember
what he's talking about, spirits there have to do with preachers,
prophets who claim to speak by a spirit. They claim to speak
by the Holy Spirit. I'm claiming today, right before
your very eyes, to speak to you by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. What he says here, well, don't
believe everything you hear, he says, but try or test the
spirits whether they are of God. You need to know, you need to
know this morning that what I'm telling you is the Word of God,
not the Word of Bill or the Word of any man, but that it's the
Word of God. And that's not an easy task sometimes,
you know. We've looked at scriptures about
false preachers, how they come disguised in sheep's clothing,
Matthew chapter 7. how sometimes their error is
not just right out in the open. They don't wear a big sign that
says, look at me, I'm a false prophet, you know. It's more disguise than that.
Sometimes it's just confusion. And I'm going to tell you, children
of God, now listen to me very carefully. One fellow, when I
first got up here, and well, when I first got up here, Here's
a fella that told me this. He said, I want to tell you one
thing. I said, what? He said, sheep know when they're
being fed. And I like that. I mean, it's
not that complicated. I'm not saying that everything
in the Bible is easy on the surface for you to understand. I know
that. It takes some digging. It takes
some word study. It takes some knowledge to get
into the to the depths of the scriptures. But now, when it
comes to the simple gospel, preaching Christ and Him crucified and
feeding the sheep, the sheep know when they're being fed.
Now, the sheep know when they get up from the pew and scratch
their head and say, wonder what I just heard. They know when
they're being confused, too. And sometimes false preachers
will just confuse you. They'll bring in things you don't
understand. You'll get up saying, what's going on? I mean, how
would you like to sit down to your noon meal today and get
up with a frown on your face and say, what in the world did
I just eat? You know, that wouldn't be very good, would it? That
wouldn't compliment the cook. And it probably wouldn't nourish
you. But the preaching of the gospel
is much the same. It's a very simple message of
Christ and Him crucified. It tells me and you. That salvation
is of the Lord. It's not of me. It's not what
I do for God. It's what God has done for me
in Christ, in sending Him into the world to obey the law perfectly. You see, Christ obeyed the law
perfectly for me. I can't obey it. You can't either. It's not by my works, you see.
And sending Him to the cross, having my sins accounted to Him. Now, that's scriptural language.
There's a lot of words that describe that. One is imputed. Now, that
word imputed is not a fictional word. It's not a word that's
muddied up with non-realities, as some want to say. I heard
a preacher say, well, it's more than imputation because it's
real. Well, let me tell you something. Imputation is real. In Scripture
it is. And the only unreality is in
the fellow's mind. But the thing about it is, if
somebody puts something to your charge or to your account or
reckons it to you, however you want to put it, it's real. And
our sins, the sins of Christ's sheep, were reckoned to Him.
They became His. He owned up for them. He became
responsible for them. God laid them to His account.
God wasn't fictionalizing anything. He wasn't playing games there.
They actually became Christ's sins. He did not become a sinner,
but they became his sins, you see, because they were reckoned
to him. They were laid to his account, imputed to him. Now,
somebody said, well, how real was it? Well, I'll tell you how
real it was. He died. He died for them. He died under
those sins. He suffered, bled, and died.
That's real. Like no person ever suffered
and bled and died. He was buried and rose again
the third day because in that he drank damnation dry. He satisfied justice. It's a
simple message. God is just to justify the ungodly
based upon the obedience and death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, salvation is more than just something done for us. I hear
preachers arguing, well, what is it done for us or is it done
in us? It's both. It's both. Salvation is a great
work for us. That's what Christ accomplished
by Himself, without our help, without our aid, without our
interference. He did it alone. He walked the
winepress alone. He did it all for me, you see. It's of Him. His work, not mine. His suffering, not mine. His
righteousness, not mine. That's what He did for us. That's
the ground to salvation. That's the cause. That's the
basis. There's the heart of the gospel
right there. For God hath made Him to be sin. Christ who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. But as a result
now of what Christ did on the cross 2,000 years ago by Himself
alone, As our ground and our cause and our basis of salvation,
what He did 2,000 years ago, there is a result, there's a
fruit, there's an effect. As there is a cause, there is
an effect, you see. And the fruit of that is what
Christ by His Spirit does within us. That's the new birth. That's the giving of life. Now,
when God the Holy Spirit gave me life in the new birth, that
did not add to what Christ did on the cross. It did not make
what Christ did on the cross any more real. You see, what
Christ did on the cross is my whole salvation. And that's what
the Holy Spirit testifies of in the new birth. That's what
he leads me to. That's why he's the Holy Spirit of truth. So
there, it's a simple, simple gospel. You see, it's not complicated. It's not confused. But the problem
is, look at verse 1 again, he says, because many false prophets
are gone out into the world, there are many, many, many, many.
How many? I don't know. We can't count
them. But there's a lot of them. And he says in verse 2, Hereby
know ye the Spirit of God. Now, he's going to tell you how
you know the Spirit of God. And I'm interested in that, and
I hope you are too. And he says here, here's the
simplicity of it. He says, Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus that Christ is come in the flesh is of God. The way
you know the difference between us, God the Holy Spirit and the
preachers that are inspired by the Holy Spirit as opposed to
the lying spirits and the false prophets is it revolves around
the preaching of Christ. Now, the translation of that
phrase there Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh is of God is a little muddy in the sense that
many people look at that and they say, well, that means if
you just say Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that means
you're a true preacher. And that's not what it's saying at all.
First of all, this confession, he says, every spirit that confesses,
that's a present tense word. It means one who continually
confesses that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. In other words,
every time they preach, every message is a confession of Jesus
Christ as the Messiah. It's not just one here and one
there. Tonight I'm going to preach on
Isaiah chapter 28, and he speaks of those who have rejected the
truth of God, and whenever Isaiah the prophet or any true prophet
came and preached to them, To them, it was just the repetition
of the same thing, line upon line, precept upon precept. In
other words, he just preaches the same thing. You've heard
the story about the string band. These fellas, one playing the
banjo, one playing the mandolin. I have to say, I'm a bluegrass
fella, so we stick with bluegrass. And they're just going all up
and down the neck, you know, just going like that, just picking
that music, you know, grinning and all that. And there's one
fella, he's got his hand just right there. And he's not moving
his left hand at all. And after the set, the little
boy asked the man, he said, well, they were moving their hands
all up and down the neck, and you just had your hand on one
place. And they asked, he said, why? And the fellow said, well,
I found the note, they're still looking for it, you know. And
that's the way it is. Well, to some, it's line upon
line, precept upon precept. In some ways, that's not a bad
thing. You know, Paul said to repeat the same things unto you
is not burdensome to me and it's good for you. And Peter said
the same thing virtually to the ones he wrote to. I'm preaching
the same thing. And it may sound like the same
thing, but now to some it's the power of God unto salvation.
To some it's the wisdom and the power of God. Some it's our life.
We don't want to hear anything else. And everything else we
preach must be preached in light of this confession, this continual
confession. Remember I told you about in
2 Corinthians 11 where it talks about those who transform, the
transformers, young people. We're not talking about toys
now. We're talking about false preachers. And they transform
into the ministers of Christ, but they cannot stay there. They
cannot camp there because that's not where their heart is. It
won't be long they'll have to get off of him and get on to
something else. Well, this phrase here, let me
give you another reading of it that's just as good. He says,
By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses
Jesus as the Christ who has come in the flesh is from God. We
preach Christ and Him crucified. We preach Him as the way, the
truth, the life. We preach Him as the Lord, our
righteousness. We preach Him as the substitute. All the Old
Testament types find their fulfillment in Christ and Him crucified.
Everything that the old prophets and the writers of the Psalm
and Proverbs, all the wisdom books, Ecclesiastes, and go on.
And all of the prophets themselves, the Law of Moses, point sinners
to Christ and Him crucified. His blood and His righteousness
is the only way of salvation. Look at verse 3 now. He says,
Now in every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come
in the flesh, or every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus
is the Christ who is come in the flesh, that speaks of His
humanity now, His sinless humanity. He is God and man. Who he is,
what he did, why he did it, and where he is now. Well, if you
don't confess that, if you don't preach that, it's not of God.
And he says this is the spirit of Antichrist. Now that term
Antichrist, we've seen it several times here in the book of 1 John.
We hear it all the time in prophecy seminars. Who is the Antichrist? Well, here they are. According
to the Bible. You may be looking for some political
figure, that's all right, but don't let that get you sidetracked
off of looking for what the Scripture actually tells you. Isn't that
something? Here the Scripture lays it out
right there. Here it is. Here is the spirit of Antichrist.
Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus is the Christ,
who has come in the flesh, who settled the issue of salvation.
That's what that means. You see, that coming in the flesh,
that's a doctrine you build on. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. His name shall
be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted as God with us. And
you build from there. You see, you see the finished
work of Christ, the God-man. And he says, everyone who doesn't
confess that, doesn't preach that, that's the spirit of Antichrist.
So if you want to look for a political figure, go on. That's all right.
But don't let it sidetrack you or dissuade you from what the
Scripture actually says here. And he says, where have you heard
that it should come, and even now already is it in the world.
So that spirit is here. It's there in John's day. It's
here in our day. Now look at verse 4. He says,
you are of God, little children. You're not of the world. You're
not of the devil. You're of God. You've been saved
out of the world. You've been freed from Satan's
accusations. When he seeks to condemn you,
he falls on deaf ears with God, because there's therefore now
no condemnation in Christ. And he says, you're little children.
That's the children of God, born again by the Spirit. And you've
overcome them. Now, how have you overcome them?
Is it because you were so powerful? Is it because you were so good?
Is it because you're better than everybody else? Here's a group
that hasn't overcome them. But you've overcome them. Now,
why did you overcome them and they didn't? Are you better?
No. Here's the cause. Look. Because. Look at it. Verse 4. Because
greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
That's why. It's because greater is our God. You see? And he's speaking of
Christ in us, the Holy Spirit who indwells us. You see, this
is the issue. It's God through Christ by His
Spirit who keeps us from being deceived by false creatures and
false spirits. He who is within us is greater
than the devil. He keeps us from being deceived
by how? How does He do it? He keeps our
focus and our view and our hope and our trust in Christ and Him
crucified. That's how he does it. It's very
simple. He doesn't give you a magic pill.
He doesn't hand you a book of theology. He just simply keeps
your mind and your eye and your heart upon Christ and Him crucified. And those who keep their hearts
and their minds and their eyes by the power of the Spirit upon
Christ, they can honestly say, we're of God because greater
is He that is in us than he that is in the world. The Spirit of
God is within us. The Word of God is implanted
in our hearts, not man's word. You see, this is the issue. Verse
5, he says, they are of the world. Therefore, speak they of the
world, and the world heareth them. Now, what is the world
there? It's the world in opposition to Jesus as the Christ, who's
come in the flesh, who's finished the work. who is our whole salvation
by the grace of God, the mercy of God. Anything that stands
in opposition to that, now listen to it, anything that stands in
opposition to it, anything that belittles it, or devalues it,
and anything that confuses it, that's the world. That's the
flesh. That's the devil. Is that right?
They are of the world. The world lifts up the flesh,
speaks of the flesh. elevates man, devalues Christ,
and Him crucified. So they're of the world. But
look at verse 6, but we're of God. We are of God. We're in
Christ. We've been chosen from the foundation
of the world, justified in Christ based on His blood and righteousness,
redeemed by His precious blood. We've been called by the Holy
Spirit, given life out of the world and into the fold, and
we're kept by the power of God. And he says, he that knoweth
God, heareth us. Now, now, you know, that might
sound like a preacher who would say that, you know, well, if
you are, if you're a God, you're going to hear me. That sounds
like a boast, doesn't it? You know, if you're a God, you're
going to hear me. Now, if you're not God, you're not going to
hear me. You're going to hear him, whoever he is. But here's the key. You've got to understand this
now. Look at it. He says in verse 6, we are of
God, he that knoweth God heareth us, he that is not of God heareth
not us, hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. He who preaches the truth. Now
that preacher who glorifies God, preaches the glory of God in
salvation by Christ, his grace, who lifts up Christ in his preaching,
who leaves you with nowhere to go but to the Lord Jesus Christ
and what He accomplished at Calvary in His death, burial, and resurrection,
who leaves you with no hope but Christ in Him crucified, no rest,
no peace, no salvation but in Christ. That's the ones who are
of God. And if you're of God, you'll
hear Him. That's what He's saying. It's not lifting up the preacher.
It's just being like John the Baptist, simply saying, Behold
the Lamb of God who beareth away the sins of the world. Simply
saying, I'm not worthy to untie his shoes. He must increase,
I must decrease. Who is he? He's God's man. He's
the Lord of glory. He's the King of Kings. He's
the Potentate of Potentates. He's the Savior of His people.
He didn't try to save anybody. He saved His people from their
sins. He's the Lord our Righteousness. He's the Lord our Banner. He's
all things that God's Word says of Him, speaks of Him, and points
us to Him. That's what He is. And we lift
Him up. Now, what I've just explained
to you is the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation. Let me give
you these things about the Holy Spirit in salvation. Number one,
He's the Spirit of Christ and life from Christ. Turn to Romans
chapter 8. Now, the Holy Spirit is a person.
He's the third person of the Trinity, co-equal with the Father
and the Son and every attribute of nature. Now, listen to me. The Holy Spirit is not just some
ghost, even though He's referred to in the Scripture as the Holy
Ghost. That's okay. It's not a derogatory term. But
when we think of ghosts, we think about something haunting the
house. And that's not what the Holy Spirit is. He doesn't haunt
houses. He doesn't haunt you. He's a person. He's God, the
Holy Spirit. He's a person. And listen to
me. The Holy Spirit is not merely
an influence, though He influences us powerfully. Somebody said,
I've made the statement that the Holy Spirit was no more than
an influence. I've never made that statement. He's a person,
but He does influence God's people. He is the Spirit of Christ. The
Scripture calls Him the Spirit of Christ. Christ Himself in
John 14 called Him the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of life. And the Scripture tells us, look
at verse 9. Now, he's talking about you are not in the flesh.
Now, that's just another way of saying you're not unregenerate.
You've been born again by the Spirit. That's what he's talking
about. You have new life within you.
You see, your heart's been regenerated. You've been born again. He says,
but you're not in the flesh, but you're in the Spirit. Now,
the Spirit is in you, and you're in the Spirit. If so be the Spirit
of God dwell in you. That's how Christ dwells in us,
by His Spirit and by His Word. Now, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he's none of His. The Holy Spirit here is
called the Spirit of Christ. Why? Because He proceeds out
from Christ. Remember, His work in us is the
fruit, the result, the effect of what Christ accomplished.
Christ Himself told His disciples that in John chapter 16 and verse
7. He said, if I go not away, if I don't do my work on the
cross and die and be buried and raised again the third day and
ascend unto the Father, the Comforter will not come. You know why? Because if Christ did not do
His work on the cross, there'd be no comfort to give. Where
would we be if Christ had not come in the flesh and accomplished
His work of putting away our sins? and establishing righteousness
on the cross. Where would we be? We'd be, of
all people, most miserable. There'd be no hope. There'd be
no salvation. There'd be no life. Christ is
our life. Life comes from Him. You remember
He said in John chapter 12, if a seed of wheat falls in the
ground and dies, it brings forth much fruit. Well, what if it
doesn't fall into the ground and die? No fruit. No fruit. But He did die. And from His
death comes life. And the Holy Spirit proceeds
from Him to give life. He's the Spirit of Christ because
He leads sinners to Christ. Now that's right. The Holy Spirit,
I'm going to tell you something about His work in you. If it
is His work in you, you will end up nowhere but in Christ,
and looking to Him, and resting in Him, believing in Him, and
following Him. Mark it down. He's the Spirit
of Christ. Look at verse 10 now. He says, well, verse 9, he says,
now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Verse 10, and if Christ in you, the body is dead. If Christ be
in you, the body is dead because of sin. Now this human body is
going to die. And the reason it's going to
die is because this old corruptible body's got to put on incorruption.
We're going to exist forever in a new body. And so the body
is dead because of sin. So he's explaining here now,
you say, well, if I have the spirit of God within me and if
I have life within me, why do I have to die? Well, the body
is dead because of sin. But the spirit, look at that
verse 10, is life because of what? Righteousness. Now, what does that mean? Does
that mean that someday in your life that you just became so
righteous that the spirit of God couldn't help but come into
you? No. Absolutely not. What is he talking
about? The Spirit is life because of
righteousness. He says the Spirit is life because of Christ. That's what he's saying. Because
of what Christ did on the cross. Because of what he accomplished
in bringing forth righteousness. You see, sin demands death. The
body is dead because of sin. The wages of sin is death. But
righteousness demands life. And this is why you cannot speak
of Christ in such a way as to make his death in vain for anybody. You see, all for whom he died
will have life. You know why? Because the Spirit
is life because of righteousness. The Spirit of God must bring
life to every sinner for whom Christ died. He must. Because righteousness has been
established. Well, look at verse 11. Romans
8, he says, 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. What he's saying is there's in
the end, I believe that's what he's talking about here, is in
the end we're going to be raised again and we'll have a new body
because of the Spirit that dwells in us. Peter spoke of the Old
Testament saints, the prophets especially. He says they searched
what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in
them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ and the glory that should follow. They spoke of it. You must be born again, Christ
told Nicodemus, or you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. You
cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. You must be born again. That's
life. Let me give you the second thing. He's the Spirit of Truth. Now, we just read that, 1 John
4, 6. By this, here's the way you know the Spirit of Truth
and the Spirit of Error. In the book of John 14, in verse
6, Christ made this statement. He said, I am the way, I am the
truth, and I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Access to God is through Christ. And He's the only way. And if
you want to know any truth about God and salvation, you've got
to look to Him. And there's life only in Him.
In John 14 and verse 17, He says this, He speaks of the Spirit
of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him
not, neither knoweth Him, but you know Him. The world can't
see Him. But you know him, for he dwelleth
with you, and shall be in you, he says. He dwelleth with you. And then in John 15 and verse
26, he spoke of the Holy Spirit as a Comforter. He says, 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,
and here's what he says, he, this Comforter, shall testify
of me. He's going to testify of Christ.
So if Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and the
Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, where's He going to lead
you? He's going to lead you to Christ. He's not going to lead you anywhere
else. He's not going to lead you to look within. And let me
say this. I'm all for self-examination,
introspection. That's okay. Meditation. Don't
sit around like the weirdos and meditate on your belly button
or something like that. But I'm all for looking and seeing
the reality of what we are. And that leads me to this third
point here. He's the spirit of conviction. And that's good. And what I mean by that is conviction
of sin. Look at Romans chapter 7. The Holy Spirit is a spirit of conviction in
several ways. But the first way for us is he's
a spirit of the conviction of sin. And let me say this. I was listening to a reading,
an interview of a current pastor out in Texas who's supposed to,
I guess, have the largest religious organization in the United States
now. He's on TV, writes books. But if you ever listen to him,
he never really even mentions the name of Jesus Christ. And
a reporter asked him, he says, why do you never mention the
name of Jesus Christ? And here's what the man's answer
was. He said, he said, that is not
my gift. And I said, you're right. It's
not your gift. Because I want to tell you something,
salvation comes to any of us, it's a gift. And if it's a gift
that's being given to you, I'm going to tell you who you're
going to sing the praises of, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Well, this man, his ministry,
he says, is to make people feel good. Now, let me say this. That's the spirit of error. All
right? The Holy Spirit is not sent here
by our Lord, nor does He indwell us to make us feel good about
ourselves. Now, that's not to say. Now,
we're all the time going around just down in the dumps and crying
and complaining and talking about how wretched and rotten we are,
and we are. But he is the spirit of conviction.
Paul wrote of this in Romans chapter 7. He says in verse 7,
look here, he says, What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known
sin, but by the law. Now, what he's saying here is
this, before the Holy Spirit convicted him of sin, he looked
at the law and he saw it as a way to God. He concluded in his mind,
well, now here's the law. Now, if I can just keep that
law, then I'll be all right. God will smile on me, he'll bless
me, and he'll say, well done, thou good and faithful servant.
Somebody may come along and say, well, you need to keep it perfectly.
Well, I'll do my best. You know, that's, man lowers
the standard, you know. If you can't keep that, you know,
if you can't jump over that high bar, lower it a little bit. And
that's the way it, and what Paul is saying here, that he come
to see by the power of the Holy Spirit in conviction that he
could not keep the law and that if he did not keep the law or
did not have a righteousness that equaled the law, he was
damned forever. So he asked the question, well,
is the law sin? Is there something wrong with
the law? No, there's nothing wrong with the law. It's me.
I'm the problem. That's what Paul learned. Now,
who taught him that? The Holy Spirit did. Nothing
wrong with it. There's no flaw in the law. The
law is perfect and good. It's a reflection of the nature
of God and His holiness. The law is not the problem. The
problem is right here and in here. That's the problem. Now, who taught him that? The
Holy Spirit did. And he says in verse 8, look at Romans 7
and verse 8, he says, but sin, taking occasion by the commandment,
wrought or worked in me all manner of concupiscence. That word concupiscence
is just another word for lust. It means an unlawful desire.
He says, for without the law, sin was dead. When I did not
see the reality of the law, I looked at it and felt good about myself.
Sin was dead. Verse 9, for I was alive without
the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. When I saw the reality of the
law and how much it required, and I saw how far I fell short
of it. Now, who taught him that? The
Holy Spirit did. And he said in verse 10, the
commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death,
for sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me and
by it slew me. Did you notice what deceived
him there? It wasn't the law that deceived him. It was sin.
That's our problem. Especially the sin of self-righteousness. That's what deceives us. Now,
who's going to undeceive us? The Holy Spirit of Truth. The
Holy Spirit of Conviction. And He brings us to see our sinfulness
and our wretchedness and our rottenness. But now, hold on.
Here's the fourth point. He's not only the Spirit of Conviction,
He's the Spirit of Comfort. The Spirit of Comfort. The Holy
Spirit's work in us is not just to lead us into despair and leave
us there. Turn the page to Romans 7, look
at verse 24. He shows us our sin. He shows
us our unrighteousness. He shows us our sickness, our
impotence, every rotten thing that you can read in the Bible
about a sinner, that's us by nature. Somebody said, well,
I didn't do this, I didn't do that. Sin that dwells in us is
not only the potential, but the reality of what we are by nature. And he shows us that. Verse 24. Here's the conclusion Paul came
to under conviction by the Spirit. O wretched man that I am! Wretched! That's what I am. Who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? Now, the Spirit is the Spirit
of comfort. And I've often used this to show
you what I mean here. It's very clear. Somebody says,
well, I believe he's under conviction. And we use that word conviction. How do you know if it's Holy
Spirit conviction? How do you know if it's the Holy
Spirit? You know, a lot of things can convict us. Society can convict
you. That's right. Family can convict
you. Mama and Daddy can convict you. They can make you feel pretty
low, can't they? Other kids can make you feel pretty low, can't
they, young people? Some teachers can make some students
feel pretty low. No self-esteem. Conscience can
make you feel pretty low, convict you. How do you know if it's
the Holy Spirit who convicts you? And here's the answer. Where do you find relief? Where
do you find peace? Where do you find comfort? Where
do you find hope? Where do you find salvation?
Where do you find rest? If it's anywhere, or in anyone,
or any way, but the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified, it
is not Holy Spirit conviction. Because He's the Comforter. Now
look at verse 25 of Romans 7. I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. He's the one who's going to deliver
me from the body of this death. So then, with the mind I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin, that's
the inner warfare of the flesh and the Spirit. But look at chapter
8 and verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. You see, the Holy Spirit not
only convicts us of sin, but he convicts us of righteousness
in Christ. He convicts us of judgment, because
Christ took care of Satan on the cross, so that when Satan
condemns me, God doesn't. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
He's risen again, is seated at the right hand of the Father,
making intercession for us. When we sin, we have an advocate
with the Father. He's the Spirit of comfort, and
He comforts a sinner. by taking him to the Savior and
leaving him right there. And he'll never take you away
from the Savior. If any preacher tries to take you away from the
Savior or get your eyes off the Savior, mark it down. He's a
false preacher. He's the spirit of Antichrist.
The sheep find comfort in the shepherd and the green pastures
that the shepherd keeps them in. Isn't that right? He's also
the spirit of adoption and liberty. Turn back to Romans 8. This is
the fifth one. He's the spirit of comfort. He's
the spirit of adoption and liberty. Now, listen to this. Look at
verse 12 of Romans 8. He says, Therefore, brethren,
we're debtors not to the flesh, but to live after the flesh.
But for if you live after the flesh, you'll die. But if you
through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you'll
live. You don't owe anything to the flesh. And I'll tell you
why. Because the flesh didn't save you. You weren't saved by
your works. You weren't saved by your power.
You weren't saved by yourself. Therefore, you don't owe anything
to your works or to yourself. You don't owe anything to the
flesh. You were saved by the grace of God in Christ. You owe
Him everything. That's right. And if you mortify
the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, you'll live. How do you
mortify the deeds of the flesh? Recognize them for what they
are, dead. Dead works. They don't gain me
anything. These people talk about, well,
I can work hard and earn my rewards in heaven. You haven't mortified
the flesh, friend. You're still right there, living
after the flesh. My only hope for reward is Christ,
who is my reward. Right? So verse 14, for as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For
you've not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. That
is that legal fear that stirs up people to trying to work their
way into God's favor. You've received the spirit of
adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. We have a special relationship
with God our Father through Christ. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God in Christ. He's the Spirit of adoption.
He's the Spirit of liberty, not bondage. Free in Christ. We're
free. And then turn back to 1 John
4, and let me close with this. He's the Spirit of love and unity. He says in verse 7, Beloved,
let us love one another, for love is of God. And everyone
that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not
knoweth not God, for God is love. In this was manifested the love
of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son
into the world, that we might live through him. And herein
is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent
his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Our love, motivated
by the Spirit, which comes out from Christ, which is gauged
by His love for us, not our love to Him. But the Holy Spirit is
the Spirit of love and unity. I believe that so much division
among brethren. I've told somebody this, I said
it's a mark of the last of the last days. But I want to tell
you something, and I'm going to pick up there next week now.
When there is division over anything but the gospel, it is not of the Spirit. That's right. The Holy Spirit
is the Spirit of love between brethren. Unity. Peace amongst
the people of God. And the only time you see division
that is condoned in Scripture is division over the gospel.
which separates wheat from tares, sheep from goats, but not brethren. Because, you see, we rally around
and we're united by our mutual love and admiration and worship
of Christ, the Lord of Glory. All right. We're going to sing
as our closing hymn, hymn number 169, Holy Spirit, Faithful God,
169.