Verse 13 is going to be my subject
this evening. We'll deal with one verse tonight. Hereby I know that we dwell in
Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. Now the Apostle has been dealing
with love, God's love for us, here in His love. Not that we
love God, but that He loved us. And this was manifested, the
love of God that He sent His only begotten Son to be the propitiation,
the atoning sacrifice for our sins. And then He talked about
our love for Him and our love for one another. And He says
that love for one another is the evidence of knowing God.
Look what He said in verse 7 and 8. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God, And every one that loveth is born of God,
and knoweth God. He that knoweth not God, he that
loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. And another thing
that he says about this love is that this is also how we know
that God dwells in us. And he said in verse 12, No man
hath seen God at any time. We've not seen Him, we've not
felt Him, we've not touched Him. If we love one another, and this
is what He said, God dwelleth in us. God dwells in us if we
love one another. And His love is perfected in
us. It's complete in us. Finished in us. Perfected in
us by our love one toward another. But here in verse 13, He gives
another proof of God dwelling in us. If we love one another,
that proves that God is dwelling in us. God dwells in us if we
have love one to another. God dwells in us. And here in
verse 13, He gives proof again of God dwelling in us. And us
dwelling in Him. And He says, Hereby we know.
We know that we dwell in Him. And He in us, because He hath
given us of His Spirit. And when he talks about this
love, where does this love come from? This love that causes God
to dwell in us. And he talks about the Spirit
here. Since the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, how? By the Holy Ghost, by the Spirit
of God. So he says, God dwells in us
because we love one another. And then he comes down and says,
we know that God dwells in us and we dwell in him because that
love of God was shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.
And the Holy Spirit is what's in us if we dwell in God and
he is in us by the Holy Spirit. And I tell you what, those who
possess this love that our Lord's talking about here, John's talking
about, they also possess the Holy Spirit. And John says here,
we may know and should know that we know God. We should know that
we know God. He that is for lovers of God
and everyone that loveth God is born of God. And to know God. And it's this idea that we know
God and we should know that we know Him. That we're in Him and
that He's in us. And that's what John says here,
"...hereby know we." Know we. And that's something we can be
certain of. He says we know, we are certain. And how many
times has He told us? There's several times that we
know, we know, we know. Look over here in verse 13 of
chapter 5. And we know, we know. It's the nature of a believer
to know God. It's the nature of a believer
to know the Holy Spirit. It's the nature of a believer
to know some things. And he says, These things have
I written unto you, that believe on the name of the Son of God,
that you may know. Did you see that? That you may
know. Not think about it, not ponder about it, not wonder about
it, and not hope about it. That you may know that you have
eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son
of God. And he said the same thing in
John Gospel chapter 20 and verse 31. He said, of all the things
that our Lord Jesus done, He said, these things are written,
that you may know that Jesus is the Christ, and believing
on Him, you might have life through His name. And so we're taking
what God says, not what we feel or anything else. And He tells
us we know. We know. We know some things.
And here He says, thereby know we, that you may know. And I'm
gonna ask a few questions tonight. And he says, that you may know
or that you know ye. Do we believe God? Do we believe
God? Are we children of Abraham? Do
we walk in the steps of our father Abraham? The steps of that faith.
That's what he called the steps of that faith of our father Abraham.
Do we believe God? Do we believe what he says? Do
we desire to honor our Lord's life, our Lord's death, our Lord's
resurrection? And I said in one of the services
the other day that to doubt and to worry and to fret and not
believe, there's nothing, that's God dishonoring, it's sin. But
to believe God is the most honoring thing that a soul can do on top
side of this earth, is to believe God. Nothing honors God like
faith does. Nothing honors the Word of God.
Nothing honors the glory of God. Nothing honors the faithfulness
of God and the sovereignty of God and the providence of God
and everything He sends in our life than to believe Him. We
just sung that song. I read that song. We're going
to wait on God. My soul waits on God. I'm waiting
for my salvation. That means that he was in trouble,
so he's going to wait until God comes and saves him from his
trouble. And so see, and to believe God
honors him, honors him. But let me go back to this thing
by hereby we know. Let me tell you some things we
know. We know this. We know this, that we were dead
in sins. We were dead in sins. We had
no spiritual life, no life of God in us. We had to be born
again and John talks about the new birth several times. He talks
about the new birth, being born again in verse 1 of chapter 5.
He talks about it again there in verse 4 of chapter 5. He talks
about it again there in verse 7 of chapter 4. He talks about
being born of God, those that are born of God. And since we
were dead in trespasses and sins and had no spiritual life, we
had to be born again. And what the new birth is, is
the life of God Himself coming into a man's soul. It's God coming
to live in us, dwell in us. Our Lord Jesus said, we will
come and take up our abode with you. You hear my word, you believe
my word, and I'll come and abide, we'll come and abide with you.
And oh, and listen, let me ask you this, can a man have this
life of God in his soul? And this new birth, this life
of God that God dwelled in him, and not know that they have gotten
life from God? Could you have life of God and
not know it? Oh, the presence of God in us.
We know what it is now and we also know what it was like before
we had it. It was awful to be without God.
And here now we have the presence of God for us, the presence of
God in us, and we know what it was like not to have Him in us
and not to be one of the children of God. But we have to have spiritual
life, and that's what he's talking about here. God coming and dwelling
in us, and us in Him. Well, how do we know? How do we know that God dwells
in us? He says, He tells us prayer plainly.
He gives the answer Himself. How do we know that God dwells
in us? And we dwell in Him, because He hath given us of His Spirit,
the Holy Spirit of God. That's how we know. Huh? And let me ask you, this is some
questions that we have to answer for ourselves about whether God
dwells in us or not by His Spirit and whether we in Him. The first
question I want to ask is this. Are you interested in spiritual
things? Are you interested in eternal
things? Is that the main interest of
your whole life? Is the things of God, the things
of the Word, The things of eternity? The things of your soul? The
things of spiritual things? Is that your greatest interest
and greatest desire? Is to know God? To have your
interest in eternal things, your interest in spiritual things?
Or things of the world? Oh, the things of the world.
What does that compare to this? And I'll ask you this, are you
concerned for your soul? Are you like the Apostle Paul
said, I want to know Him, I want to be found in Him, I want to
win Him. That was a man who was a saved
man, but still yet his desire was as hot after God as it was
the day that God saved him. And that's what I'm talking about.
Are we concerned for your soul? More concerned for your soul
than anything else? Are you more concerned about
knowing God than anything else? That's how we know God dwells
in us. We wouldn't have this without the Spirit of God in
us. People apart from God, do you know what they do? They mind
earthly things. Philippians 3.17 says this, that
whose God is their belly, whose glory is their shape, and their
mind. That's their desire. That's what
they're interested in. Earthly things. Trifling things. Things, trinkets, and toys of
this world that pass away. And how do we know God's Spirit
dwells in us? What's your greatest desire?
Is your heart set on eternal things, spiritual things, on
knowing God, knowing Christ, resting in Christ and honoring
Christ? And let me ask you another question.
How do we know that God dwells in us? What's your sense of sin? What do you know about sin? What do you know about sin? Do you know, do we know, that
there's an evil principle in us. I mean an evil principle. Not that you don't do certain
things and you do certain things and don't do other certain things
and you do this, that and the other, but do you know that you
have an evil nature inside of you? A nature that's against
God, a nature that the sin and the soul, there's a foul nature
in us. We're like the Apostle Paul,
this is how we know God's Spirit dwells in us, by our sense of
sin, what we know about sin. You know, Paul says, when I would
do good, I do evil. That that I would do, I don't
do. I see then that that that I hate, that's what I do. And
that that I love, I don't do. So I see a war in my members. And He cried out, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? How
would you know anything about this evil nature that's in you?
This foul nature that's in you? nature that can put God off and
this awful nature. Do you feel this way about yourself? Do you come to the place that
at times you abhor yourself? That you actually hate yourself? Oh, ain't nobody ever felt this
way or known this about themselves until God comes in by the Holy
Ghost. Man don't have a clue what sin
is until God comes in by the Holy Ghost. And not only what
he does is sin, but what he thinks is sin, how he feels is sin. And nobody can get in his mind
but God. Nobody knows what's going on
in a man's heart but God. But a man, because of that nature
that's in him, He'll come to say, O God, O God, I despise
myself, I abhor myself, and I long for the day when this old man
will be buried. And if Paul didn't come back
and say that there is now no condemnation to them that are
in Christ, how awful would it have been if he left us in Romans
7. You remember Todd come down here a few years ago, and one
of his messages was, Are you a Roman 7 sinner? You remember
that? Are you a Roman 7 sinner? Yes! And I'll tell you another thing
how we know God's Spirit dwells in us. And we're in Him. By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what He says there in verse
14 and 15 and this is what I'll deal with hopefully next week.
And we have seen and do testify This is what the Spirit in us
calls us to happen. And you notice that Spirit is
capitalized. That's God the Holy Spirit. And we have seen and
do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the
world. And whosoever confess that Jesus
is the Son of God, God dwells in him and in him God. So yeah, we say, who else are
we going to go to? We're like the disciples. We're
like the apostles. When all these people turned
away and the Lord Jesus looked down and said, Are you also going
to go away? He said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You've got
the words of eternal life. Where are we going to go? Who
are we going to go to? Who else loves us like He did?
Who else? could put our sin away like He
does. Who else can be touched with the film of our infirmities
like He does? Who else can we pour our hearts
out to? Who else do we say, I need Thee,
oh I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. Oh Most
Holy One, I need Thee. Oh the princes of this world,
look over, keep this and look with me over at 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. Let's look at this just a minute. But oh my, look what happened.
The princes of this world didn't recognize our Lord Jesus Christ. Look there in verse 8, 1 Corinthians
2.8. Which none of this, talking about
God, talking about our Lord Jesus Christ, which none of the princes
of this world knew. They didn't recognize Him. They
didn't know Him. For had they known it, they would
not have crucified the Lord of Glory. The Lord, Jehovah God, that's
what that means. Not just Jesus is Lord. And we
know He's Lord. But when it talks about no man
calleth Jesus the Lord but by the Holy Ghost, you're saying
that He is God. Nobody can call Jesus God but
by the Holy Ghost. And that's what we're saying.
We have faith. We know that the Spirit of God
dwells in us and us in Him because we believe, we have faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me ask you another question,
how we can know God's Spirit dwells in us and we in Him. Is
there a struggle? Do you have a struggle? Do I
have a struggle between the flesh and the Spirit? Do it. Galatians 5.17, you all know
this very well. The flesh, that's that old nature
we was talking about. lusters, wars, fights against
the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. And they're contrary. I mean they're opposites to one
another. They're contrary to one another. So that you cannot
do the things that you want. You can't do it. And this is
what we... People, I don't understand...
I know three or four preachers that deny that we have two natures. I cannot, for the life of me,
figure out how they can go to the Scriptures and buy their
own admission, and buy what the Scripture says. That if you don't
have two natures, why is a war going on? Why do you have this
struggle between the old man and the new man? And that's what
He calls the new man's created in righteousness and true wholeness,
but that old man is just like he was the day he came out of
his mother's womb. And I never had a bit of struggle
with my flesh until I got that new nature. And when that new
nature comes, we're just buttin' heads like ghosts. We're just
buttin' heads all the time. In fact, we get so ornery in
ourselves that we go off to get away from somebody, so our orneriness
won't show. Do y'all ever do that? I need to go sit on the porch,
I need to go walk through the field, I need to go somewhere.
I'm so ornery in myself. But oh my, the One, this One,
this One of these natures in us, He wants the heavenly things. He wants the spiritual things.
He wants the things of God and He delights in the things of
God. But all that other nature, He
wants to keep you from the things of God. He wants to keep you
from spiritual things. He wants to keep you down and
fill your mind with worries and anxieties and troubles. and lets
you zero in on those anxieties and those troubles and the things
and the fears and doubts that you've got going on in this world.
And that's why you have this struggle. You come in a service. You're in a service here tonight.
And a lot of you having struggles tonight because you want to be
involved in this service and yet at the same time your flesh
is here yonder and everywhere else. And you know why I know
that? Because that's the way I am.
I know that because that's the way I am. Oh my. And I tell you what, this
too nature is proof that the Holy Spirit's in us. If you have
that. And let me ask you another question.
Oh, I love these questions. Here's another. How do we know
the Spirit of God dwells in us? How do we know that God dwells
in us? Because the Spirit is given to us. Are you conscious
of God working in you? Of God dealing with you? Philippians 2.13 says, Work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God
which worketh in you, both to will and to do. Are you conscious
of God working in you? Dealing with you? And are we aware that God deals
with us? You know, and what I mean by
that, we don't decide to do things. We don't get up one day and decide,
well, we're going to go to church. We don't get up and decide we're
going to be religious. We don't get up and decide, well,
I'm going to read some today. We don't live by decisions. We live by the Spirit of God
in us. That's what I'm talking about.
The Holy Spirit moves us. He moves us to the gospel, moves
us to hear. He moves us and He works in us
both to do and to will. Whether we're reading the scriptures,
listening to the gospel, meditating, you feel God rise up in your
soul. You feel God rise up in your
mind. And you're amazed. You just stand
amazed at God's dealings with you. You come in here wore out
and you leave here rejoicing. You come in here and God strengthens
you when you're weak. And you say, oh God, how did
you know what was going on? God knows. Huh? Are we aware,
and we are aware of this wonder-working power of God in us. And it is
a wonder-working power. I mean, it's a wonder-working
power that causes you to sit here and listen to a two-by-four
preacher week after week after week after week. That's a wonder-working
power. You know, working in you, moving
you, disturbing you sometimes. He disturbs you. He disturbs
your heart. He disturbs your soul. He leads you. He persuades you.
He's drawing you. and causes you to keep on believing. God does that in us. God does
that. I wonder, you don't have to answer. This is a question you don't
have to answer. How many times have you thought,
well, I'm just too tired to go to the service. I'm just too
tired to go. I've worked hard today. But, you know, I need
to go. I need something for myself.
And so you keep, you just get up and you come on. You know
what did that? God did that in you. If you listen
to your flesh, you know what you'd have done? You'd be asleep
on the couch. You'd be watching television. But God, that's what I'm saying,
He moves us and He draws us. And He keeps us. And we're conscious
of God. Are you conscious of God speaking
to you in the Gospel? Are you conscious of God disturbing
your soul every once in a while over something? That's God working in you, both
to will, and not only will, but to do.
He wills something, and you do it. And then last of all, this is
my last question. Why do we know that God's Spirit
dwells in us, and that God dwells in us? And so if we know the
Spirit dwells in us, then we know we dwell in God, and God
dwells in us, and we're in Him. And here's the sixth thing. The
Holy Spirit produces fruit. The Holy Spirit produces fruit.
Wherever the Holy Spirit is, there is fruit. Look in Galatians
5.22. Galatians 5.22. Here we go. 5.22. He's talking
about this is the difference between the flesh and the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit produces fruit.
And I know that That young trees don't bear much fruit, but they
still bear fruit. And that's what he says. But
the fruit of the Spirit, capital S, Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the
fruit of the Spirit in you, God dwelling in you, is this, love,
joy, and peace. Those are all things that's inside
you, as are the things that blesses your heart and blesses your soul.
You have the love of God in you. You have love for God. You have
love for one another. You have joy. The gospel produces
this joy. The gospel produces peace. And
this is how we react to other people. Long-suffering. Long-suffering with one another.
Gentleness toward one another. Goodness toward one another.
And then look at the things before God. Faith. Oh, the Holy Spirit produces
faith. We believe God. It produces meekness. That word meekness means that
you're pliable. In God's hands, you say, Lord,
your will be done. You're the potter, I'm the clay. You shape and mold me whichever
way you want. And temperance. Temperance before
God. Not extreme in any way. Not extreme
this way, that way, with the flesh, you know, we're not extreme. And against such, who in the
world would find anything wrong with that? Who would raise up
a law against that? Huh? And beloved, hereby know
we that God dwells in us and we dwell in Him. How? by the
Spirit which He has given us. And all the things that I've
mentioned tonight, if you answer, oh, that's me, that's me, that's
me, then that's a pretty good indication that God dwells in
you and that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Oh, blessed Father, gracious
Father, holy Father, Oh, the glorious, glorious name of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, Your Word. Your Word is clean. It's pure. It enlightens the
eyes. It teaches us, instructs us. And we're thankful for that.
Oh, how thankful we are for Your Word. Thank You for the Holy
Spirit. that's in us, that takes the
things of Christ and shows them to us, that makes us whatever
goes on in our life, it drives us to You, Lord Jesus, always
drives us to You. And Lord, You keep us where we're
calling on You, looking to You, and trusting You, and believing
You. Never let us stray. Please keep
our foot from slipping and our minds and heart and soul fixed
on you. For they'll be fixed on you for
eternity someday. But Lord, we want them fixed
on you now. We bless you in Christ's name.
Amen. Amen. Let's sing that, just one
chorus, that last line in 318. Just last verse in 318. Let's stand together and sing
that. Just that last verse. 318. Then you'll be at liberty to
go. 318. Just the last verse. Thine indeed, every hour, Most
Holy One, O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son I need Thee,
O I need Thee Every hour I need Thee O bless me now, my Savior,
I come