Amen. I want you to turn in your
Bibles to John 14. Then we're going to go to Romans
8 as we continue to work through the study tonight on this subject
of the ministry of the Spirit in helping the believer to yield
a credible testimony, a credible witness to the Gospel. We are
in 1 John 5 and we are working through the proposition that
John gives us in 1 John 5, verses 10-12. where he plainly says,
he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God hath the witness
in himself. And we have been taking a couple
of weeks to investigate that particular proposition, that
particular statement. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. That is a resident internal work
of the Spirit of God by which he bears record in the life of
the believer to all that the believer is called to do in the
privilege of being a witness to Christ. Now last week we dealt
with the opening works of the Spirit of God, the work of the
Spirit of God in the life of the believer. We dealt with the
idea that his job is to show us the things of Christ, to teach
us the Word of God, to guide us into truth as babies are guided
into truth completely helpless of themselves. And I think we
stopped at guided. We know we actually stopped at
empowered. We touched on that. It's the
Greek word dunamis. And we spoke about the necessary
power that the spirit of God must give the believer in order
for him to be able to validly and successfully testify to the
gospel of Jesus Christ. We must be empowered. And so
as the apostle put it in Romans chapter 1, 16 and 17, I am not
ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believes to the Jew first, then also to the
Gentile for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith for the just shall live by faith. That concept that Paul
is talking about is how the gospel and his power impacted him. When you and I talk about power,
we're actually talking about the supernatural power of God
to work in our life in a way that our own human strength cannot
accomplish. The Apostle Paul was actually
describing what he experienced on the Damascus Road where the
Lord of Glory met him and knocked him down and stripped him of
his pride. Paul came to understand something
about the power of God. We translate the word dunamis
in the English, the word dynamite, and I talked to you about that
last week. I said we use a sort of westernized interpretation
of the concept of dynamite, lighting a stick of dynamite, kind of
throwing it at a particular area and experiencing an explosion
But I say that that's a sloppy use of the term dynamite and
I would encourage you not to view the ministry of the Spirit
of God as kind of a sawed-off shotgun that kind of blows in
a certain direction and things get scattered. No, there's much
more intelligence behind the work of power. There's much more
intentionality behind the work of power. There's much more purpose
behind the work of power. It would be much like men who
use several forms of force and power to move things, to eradicate
things, to break through obstacles in order to make an advance.
And that's what the concept of power is when it comes to the
work of the Spirit of God. Even in demolition work or in
building work, they will put dynamite in strategic areas.
And today you can see wonderful illustrations of how they can
collapse buildings right adjacent to other buildings without destroying
those buildings. That's called a targeted, targeted,
um, uh, act of force or execution of force in order to progress
in one's agenda. And so we talked about last week
and I'll be reserving this cause I'm more compelled now than ever
to actually want to go through the book of acts. I'm hoping
to, be able to develop an outline for that between now and the
summer. So somewhere around the latter part of June, maybe we
will, um, uh, do a lengthy study in the book of acts for about
30 weeks. Um, but the idea of power again, it's not that the
spirit of God is just some force out there that is unintelligible. That kind of takes over us and
causes us to do things that we have no control over. The idea
of power in this sense is to enable, enable. So in your outline,
you saw some of the synonyms that we use. Dunamis means to
equip, equip, to furnish, to enable, to strengthen, to qualify,
and to produce. I hope those synonyms work for
you because what they really do is underscore the objective
of the spirit of God, his residence in our life, to actually accomplish
the goal for which Christ has saved us. I think sometimes when
you are in maybe secular business settings, I've heard this term
used before, when you are trying to acquire some knowledge in
order to do your job better, and you go to a seminar or an
event where they give you a whole lot of data, information that
you never had, Uh, I've heard the term used, uh, that, that,
that, that empowered me, that information empowered me. It
gave me the capacity now to actually break beyond the limits and the
barriers with which I was operating because I was ignorant of the
information and the data that I needed. And in the same way,
the gospel is designed when it is properly taught and, uh, and
you utilize by the spirit of God in our life. It is designed
to equip us and to empower us, to empower us. to furnish us,
to enable us, to strengthen us, to qualify us and to produce,
produce in our life, the testimony that God is calling us to. Now,
what I want to do in John chapter 14 is actually read a couple
of passages that establishes the promise, which is the basis
of the premise for the giving of the Holy Spirit. So that as
you and I work through these sort of eight characteristics,
as I've written up there more, The idea of the Spirit of God
showing us, teaching us, guiding us, empowering us, witnessing,
keeping, comforting, and glorifying us. I want you to understand
all of these resources that the Spirit of God brings into our
life is designed to meet this one promise that Jesus said in
John chapter 14. I want you to hear this and inherent
in the statement that Christ is going to make will be a very
clear understanding as to why the Spirit of God is given. And
John chapter 14 is where Jesus begins to tell the disciples
about his departure and his departure having very serious implications
with regards to their calling, because the apostles now are
going to take up from where Jesus left off. The apostles are going
to take up where Jesus left off. And for them, this is a daunting
task because they've learned after three and a half years
that if they're going to do what the Lord Jesus has done and demonstrated
for three and a half years, They're set up for failure unless something
comes along or someone comes along and gives them the same
kind of qualifying factors essential for them to accomplish the task.
They know by now, we don't always know this in our early Christian
days, but they know by now that in themselves, they have no ability
to bear record to the truth. They know this. They also know
that Christ has been repeatedly and increasingly telling them
that he must go to the cross. He must die. He must be buried. And then to return to the father.
In their mind, this, ladies and gentlemen, sounds like abandonment. Okay? Because for three and a
half years, they have been intimately engaged in, for virtually 24
hours a day, seven days a week, ministry with Messiah. This year
was a unique calling for these men of which nobody else in the
world have had that kind of privilege. Our master is leaving and he
says to them, I want you to understand. I know you are fearful. You are
now sorrowful that I am leaving, but I'll let you know that when
I depart, there will be a resource giving you that you might continue
the task. Here's how he puts it so that
we can understand the, a language. This is in the context of what
we call the promises of prayer, the promises of prayer, which
interestingly enough, that's on the other side of your outline,
which we will deal with next week. I'm looking forward to
getting into those passages that John talks about in first John
chapter five, as he closes out on prayer, because prayer becomes
a critical component in the success of the gospel and what it means
to be a witness. I've said it before. If you and
I are weak in our prayer life, we will be weak in our witnessing.
If you and I are weak in our prayer life, we will be weak
in our witnessing. So here's what our master says
after having told them several things by virtue of promise of
prayer over in verse 15. If you love me, you'll keep my
commandments. You'll keep my sayings. You'll keep my word.
You'll keep my gospel. And I will pray. Notice what it says. And
I will pray who's praying Christ. I will pray the father and he
shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you. How
long now? Now this is the master, the shepherd
talking to his sheep to comfort the sheep in what they know is
going to be for a moment, a, an unrealistic notion that the
master is about to leave them. He's leaving permanently. They
will not see him in the physical state anymore. So this particular
promise of another comforter, and then using the qualifier
that this comforter is going to be with you forever. What
he's doing now is allaying the fear that happens with children
when children experience the abandonment of a father or a
mother. Even if it's a temporary abandonment,
you know father may go to work for three months in the field
He may be in the military merchant seaman or whatever and the child
is extremely attached to dad or mom but either or when a parent
leaves the child knows there's a vacuum there and that He is
now vulnerable and there are weaknesses that are there because
only his father or his mother can supply those resources So
he's in a great state of trepidation and fear and this is true of
us as believers, too The idea of Jesus leaving is a very stressful
thing for them. So he says, I'll send another
comforter and he may that he may abide with you forever, even
literally the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive.
But because it sees him not, that is, it does not comprehend
him. The spirit is spirit. So you can't comprehend our spirit
physically. Neither does it know him. That
is, it doesn't have an intimate relationship with God through
the spirit. There's For the carnal man the
idea of a relationship with God by the Spirit. There is no reference
point for that this is what first Corinthians chapter 2 says the
carnal mind being enmity against God it thinks of these ideas
of a Relationship between God in your heart in your mind by
the Spirit of God is something Nonsensical the word is moronic,
right? I can't even find a reference
point to be able to identify with the analogy of the Spirit
being in our life the the carnal mind can't grasp that and the
promise then would be irrelevant to a carnal mind. And so what,
what crisis he will dwell with you and shall be what in you
now watch what he says in verse 18, this is going to be the premise,
the promise of the premise of the work of the spirit of God.
And I want you to grasp this because this is going to help
us with the rest of our study. And it'll actually encapsulate
everything we've talked about over the last two weeks. Here's
what he says. I will not leave you comfortless. You guys see that? So automatically
the master in love is recognizing that they are struggling psychologically,
right? At this moment, they are discomfited. They are not comfortable. The thought of Christ leaving
troubles them. Jesus says, you will not be without
comfort. I will not leave you comfortless.
See, that's a sympathetic high priest. That's a loving brother. That's a gracious shepherd. That's someone who actually knows
us better than we know ourselves. It is, however, a mature pastor. And I'm talking about pastor
in the quintessential sense. Christ is the quintessential
pastor. That's what a shepherd is. He
could penetrate into their hearts and their minds and think through
how they are feeling. And he'll say to them, listen,
fellas, I know that you are being unraveled right now by the idea
of our separation. I want you to know, I'm not going
to leave you comfort less. I'm not going to leave you discomfort.
I'm not going to leave you troubled. I'm not going to abandon you.
Literally the Greek term is orphans, right? I am not going to leave
you as orphans. Now I want you to think about
the use of that term on a psychological level as we begin to grasp the
ministry of the spirit of God in our life individually and
collectively as the church of God. The idea of orphans was
a very prominent thing, both in Israel as well as in Rome.
as it is all over the world. Quite remarkable, the Genesis
1, 26 and 27 account of which in biblical theology class, men
and women, we are constantly being exercised. And I've told
us before, for God's own prerogative and purposes, he's allowing the
world to proliferate and children are going to be born all over
the world. I don't care what the humanists say and what the
folks who want to kind of cut down the numbers of human beings
being born say, we're going to have children as part of the
glory of God. We're gonna have children. The
expansion of humanity is part of God's redemptive purpose and
his creation principle. We're gonna have children. They
glorify God. All the fruit of the womb is
the Lord's. Do you believe that? All the fruit of the womb is
the Lord. Every child coming from the womb is God's child.
Life comes from God. He produces it. He brings it
forth. No matter how harrowing the events that transpired by
which that child was brought into the world. We talked about
that before, how God can take a raggedy event and use that
event to bring forth a person, male or female, both and, and
glorify himself through those individuals. So it's not matter
how you get here, it's the fact that you get here, ordained by
God, determined by God, predestined by God, purposed by God. When
you get here, you got a purpose when you're here, right? So we
celebrate the birth of every child that makes it. We celebrate
it no matter how difficult or problematic it was. But the reality
is that there are a lot of children in the world that are orphans,
lots of them, lots of them. And if you've ever been an orphan,
you understand the vacuum in the mind of not being able to
own a father or a mother. Have you ever been an orphan?
Have you ever been abandoned by your mother or your father
and left to have to fence for yourself? And again, the unraveling
of the nerves about a world that you are in, that you know you
don't have any ability to negotiate or handle or deal with because
you just don't have the equipment to do it. An orphan child is
a thing to be sad about. No child should be without parents. Children didn't ask to come here.
They did not ask to come here. This was the exercise of the
will of two other people at best who brought this child into the
world. They are utterly obligated to take care of that child. So
that child comes into the world and finds all of a sudden they
are abandoned by their parents. What a horrible situation. Now
that I have your empathy, this is my point on a very profound
spiritual level. What Christ is plainly saying
is there is no way that God would do that to his children. There's
no way that God would leave his children in a sense or a state
psychologically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually as orphans. There's no way. And the reason
why he won't is because we were not born of our own will either. We didn't ask of our own volition
to be children of God. God did that by his grace, didn't
he? For as many as received them,
to them He gave the power to become the sons of God. As many
as received Him by faith, believing on Jesus' name, not of the will
of man, nor of the will of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
but of God. Of His own will did He begin
us again to be a kind of firstfruits unto God. It was the will of
God that made us children of God. So now that we are children
of God, by the will of God and by the grace of God, God has
to resource us with what is necessary for us to be sons and daughters
of God. And what that means is the resident
presence of God in our life. The resident presence of God
in our life. So listen to the proposition,
ladies and gentlemen, and then think of now the spirit of God
as answering this proposition in your life. I will not leave
you orphans. You will never be able to say,
the Lord Jesus says, that you were born again and then abandoned
by God to have defense for yourself in this world. God will always
be with his son. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
The spirit of the father and the spirit of the son will always
be with the children of God. Out of necessity, not only out
of volition, but out of necessity. I need a heavenly father with
me, resident in my life. I need the Lord Jesus Christ
with me, resident in my life. In order for me to execute my
calling as a son of God, I need the father, don't you? So we
can echo the words of our master when he says, my father is always
with me. He has never left me alone. You guys got that? You remember
that statement? My father is always with me. He has never left me alone. And
again, I want you to now just take a moment to objectively
think about the calling of the Lord Jesus as we deal with these
last three or four characteristics of what it means for the spirit
of God to bear witness in us. Think about the Lord Jesus. He
came from glory. Assume the human nature. There
was a real sense in which he left his own original home. And his father promised him that
he would not abide here alone. And he never was alone. The father was always with him.
What was the mechanism by which the father was with him? The
spirit. The spirit. We're going to see
how this works in our own life now too. So I want us to contemplate
what we're going to deal with now with the last four characteristics
of the work of the spirit, the witness of the spirit, the keeping,
protecting, guarding, preservation, and century of the Spirit, the
conformity of the Spirit in our life, and the glorification that
the Spirit produces ultimately and at last. So now I want you
to go with me in your Bible to Romans chapter 8, because I want
to deal with a couple of concepts in Romans chapter 8. So, when
you and I are born again, the Spirit of God enters into our
life by virtue of regeneration, renewal of our soul, and the
quickening of our spirit. This here is the simultaneous
work of implanting faith in our heart to believe the gospel and
thus giving us life and faith in Jesus Christ. And there are
some things that are to be established early on in the work of the Spirit
in the life of the believer. And the work of the Spirit in
the life of the believer is to assist the believer in not only
being able to bear record to the gospel to others, which is
our job as gospelers or evangelists, But the work of the spirit is
also to constantly reaffirm, constantly reaffirm in the life
of the child of God that he indeed is a child of God. The work of
the spirit of God is to constantly reaffirm in our life that we
are sons and daughters of God. So here's where we're going to
start to work through this, the idea of the spirit bearing record.
I'm in first, I'm in a Roman chapter eight. I'm going to start
at verse 14. and I'm gonna go through verse 17, verse 18 will
be a link, but I wanna read verses 14 through 17, and I wanna lift
up the relevant points that will underscore what Jesus meant when
he said, I will not leave you, what? Comfortless, orphans, fatherless,
verse 14. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the what? So that goes back to the top
of our list. When I said the work of the spirit
of God is to what guide, that means he leads, right? We're dealing with the term guide.
Remember we talked about that. That's at the top of your list.
It means to take hold of the hand of a person who is helpless
and lead them to where they need to go. a little child has to
be held by the hand to take him where he cannot go on his own. This is how Jesus used the terminology
in John chapter 20 when he said to, John 21, when he said to
Peter, Peter, when you were young, you did what you wanted to, you
went wherever you want to, but when you get older, when maturity
sets in, spiritual maturity, spiritual adulthood sets in,
that's the giving of the spirit, Another is going to take you
by the hand and lead you where you would not go And that's the
work of the spirit of god. He was telling peter peter without
the spirit. You denied me you cussed You
said you didn't know who I was But once the spirit comes the
spirit's going to help you stand before thousands of people and
tell the truth boldly clearly and convincingly Even to the
point of helping you lay down your life for the gospel. That's
a powerful work, isn't it? Ask why we have to have the spirit
of God taking us by the hand. So as I get ready to work with
this, here's what I want to impress upon your heart and mind. If
you're here tonight, you're not here by accident. If you have
been struggling in your walk with Christ, ask the question,
does God have my hand? Have I come to God in the simplicity
and the humility of utter dependence as a son to the father same father
take my hand And lead me on Is what we mean by dependence upon
god Because it's real easy to function in our lives without
the leading of the spirit We can just do whatever we want
to, and we can be oblivious to the reality that we're not walking
with God. We're so used to in our carnal
nature, navigating our own way. But have you come to the point
of waking up in the morning and going, Father, lead me in every
decision that I make today. Watch my mouth. Guard my words. Help me to do your will. Help
me to make right choices today. Have you done that? I'm 35 years
in Christ and I do it every day because I've learned the presumption
of getting up and out of rope form, not really acknowledging
intentionally the need for the father to take me by the hand.
You can accumulate patterns of carnal decisions that are based
upon an independent sort of walk that you have because you're
confident in your course. You know how we do those mundane
everyday things that we're just used to doing? And we're kind
of thinking that it's safe because it's mundane. But there's nothing
safe when you take your hand out of God's hand. Nothing is
safe. Take my hand, lead me on, help
me stand. Take my hand. For as many as
led by the Spirit of God, they are the what? Man, listen, that
verse right there is a serious verse, isn't it? Because if I'm
not being led by the Spirit of God, i.e., I am not a son of
God. For you have not received the
spirit of a bondage, again, to what? If we're going to do kind
of an expository development of verses 14 and 15, if verse
15 will serve for us as kind of an an expository verse of
verse 14 and exegetical. What verse 15 is saying when
a person is being led by the spirit, are you ready? It's because
they are not functioning out of a carnal fear. They are qualified
by being convinced of God that they can trust God. Thus they
put their hand in God's hand and let God lead them by his
spirit. Remember, the absence of faith is the presence of fear. And the presence of fear is what
you and I operated out of when we were unsaved. All our lifetime,
Hebrews chapter two, we were operating in the bondage of the
fear of death. So long as fear filled the vacuum
of our heart, we couldn't walk by faith because faith works
by what? And so long as love was not operating
in our heart, we were operating out of fear and we were doing
whatever we could to protect ourselves from what we didn't
know, even God. So the assumption is if I'm being
led by the spirit, I have been by the grace of God able to overcome
fear because faith is working in my heart based on love and
I can trust God. See, when you can trust God,
it's because he's removed fear and he's placed faith and faith
is fueled by the love of God in Christ Jesus. So is this is
not a small thing holding God's hand and asking him to walk you
down your course. It's not a small thing. So then
we go on for you have not received the spirit of a bonded of bondage
again, the fear, but you have received, you have received the
spirit of what? Ah, there's our word. That's
our word right there. Spirit of adoption whereby we
cry. What? So then the concept of
a huios, our relationship with God on an ontological level of
God having made us sons and daughters of God, presumes a father-son
relationship that's there. A father-son relationship which
causes us naturally to cry out to God, right? Naturally to call
on God as the Father. This is what John is saying,
I mean Paul is saying. He's saying we didn't receive
the spirit of fear, we had that in our unregenerate state. We
received the spirit of adoption in our regenerate state Even
though we are naturally carnally Adamic creatures Still identifying
with a lot of our fallen principles rooted in our old nature now
that we've been born again The spirit of adoption in us allows
us to comfortably and naturally and appropriately call God father
The spirit of God enters into our life because we've been adopted
the term adoption. Here's a critically important
term We are not ontologically in our nature, like Jesus, the
monogamous sons of God. We are sons of God by adoption.
That means we are simultaneously sinful and righteous at the same
time. We have a fallen nature that is antithetical to God,
but we also have a new nature now that loves God. So we're
actually operating in a new and a foreign relationship that we
have to become used to. I used to actually function as
an orphan where I didn't have a father. If I did have a father,
he was a devil. But now I'm operating under a
new father. He is my heavenly father, and
I've got to learn how to walk with him. Thankfully, he gave
me his spirit by which I naturally cry. What? And in the context
of that crying Abba Father, ladies and gentlemen, is again the context
of utter dependence upon God. It is not the cry of a bold and
confident, mature teenager or young adult who's been walking
with God for 50 years and is able to say, I know some things.
This is the cry of an individual, listen to me now, who realizes
that the father is present and he's going to take advantage,
full advantage, complete advantage of the presence of the father
as a little child would do. Those of you who are raising
children, you know this, you mothers and you fathers. Your
children, when they are brand new babies, for the first couple
of two, three years, wear you out. Don't they? They wear you out. Do you know what it is about
the child that wears you out? Their constant dependence upon
you for virtually everything. Are you hearing me, ladies and
gentlemen? The child, this is why for those of us, you and
Graham, you are, you're in grandparent mode like I am. Listen, I, my
grandkids come on over for two hours after that. You're going
back. Cause my energy level is so low
and me and my wife would sit up and we would go, how on earth
did we raise eight kids? That's because we were young,
right? When you get older, that energy
level goes down because there's a time and season for raising
kids. My point is this, that when we are in a father-son relationship,
the children in that state of regeneration are constantly depending
on their parents. Now we have a heavenly father
whose energy never runs out. His resources never wane. He
never gets tired of us calling on him. He never loses his energy,
his patience. He never gets perturbed by us
going, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy. What about this?
What about that? What about the other thing? Important. Important. Except you humble
yourself like a little child, you will not enter into the kingdom
of God. Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? And I'm here
to tell you right now, just on a practical applicatory level,
if you are struggling through why, Part of our lives are so
checkered with a lack of real affirmation of our sonship is
because we have not made as a priority, utter dependence upon God as
our father. You can work with that, test
it in your own, test it in your own. In any event, this is the
reason for which God gave us his spirit. Whereby we cry, Abba
Father. Now here it is, verse 16. Now
watch this, I wanna work with this now. The spirit itself,
bears witness with our spirit that we are the what? So in your,
excuse me, in your outline under witness, the Greek word is matur,
matur, that's a Greek term for martyr, martyr. In the Roman
culture, an individual who became a witness was a credible witness
even if it meant losing his life for his testimony. That's literally
the Greek word to be a martyr. But when a Christian then is
in a position of professing faith in Christ, he is doing so with
the potential of himself being killed for that witness. That's
what the Spirit of God qualifies you and I to do, to be a witness
for God. That implies, actually, that
when you and I become witnesses for God, you and I are witnesses
in an alien culture, a culture that is ready to get rid of you
for your testimony. That's what the word martyr means.
It's the word martyr. And they love not their lives
unto the death, Revelation chapter 12. And they overcame him by
the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. I love
not their lives unto the death. That's what it means to be a
witness, to be a witness, and to be ready to die for the truth.
Isn't that what Jesus did? He bore witness to the truth
and they killed him for it. The apostles bore witness to
the truth and they killed them for it. And the church has borne
witness to the truth for 2000 years. And many of them have
died for it. So I want you to understand the idea of bearing
witness for God is not some, uh, humanly glorious office by
which somehow you and I are exalted. When we are bearing witness for
God, we are actually bearing witness in an hostile environment
to a truth that's designed to apprehend people and bring them
to the reality of who God is. Even if it means causing the
ire of those people to be raised up so much that in hostility,
they want to kill you. God has to qualify you to be
able to testify to the truth in that context, right? So let's
break it down just a little bit so we can work with this. You
know, you and I are not in third world countries where we're suffering
like that, but you and I do know the subtle and sensitive dynamics
of being a witness in a culture where people are unbelievers,
right? And so you know the feeling of that antagonism, that antipathy
of sharing the gospel with people that don't like you. And automatically
you and I have that sense of vulnerability, don't we? Even
if it's just them not approving of you. Even if it's subtly ostracizing
you or you know that when you share the gospel with them, it's
going to change the relationship some kind of way. The atmosphere
in the room is going to change. That's called bearing record
to the truth as a martyr. Because for God, martyrdom is
not just simply taking you in your body and killing you. It's
people being angry at your testimony. Or people slandering your words.
are people doing something evilly to you because you are bearing
record to the truth. This is the Beatitudes. Blessed
are you when you suffer for righteousness sake, for yours is the kingdom
of God. For those of you who are persecuted
for righteousness sake, for those of you who are despitefully used
and maltreated, blessed are you because you are bearing record
to the truth. So Jesus is telling us, we've
got to have a change of mind when it comes to witnessing to
the truth. Witnessing to the truth is not always, and in most
cases, it is not people gladly receiving our word. I want to go on and work with this
a little bit more because one of the reasons why the spirit
of God is in our life is to offset to offset, I want you to hear
this now, the rejection that you get from the world, from
your relatives, from your friends, from your coworkers, from your
peers. One of the reasons of the resident work of God in our
heart and life is to offset that persecution and hostility with
the affirmation of your sonship. The equal rate of exchange of
being rejected by them and being accepted by him. The work of
the Spirit of God is when the world says no to you because
you're telling the truth in Christ, the Spirit is going yes to you. Where they reject you, the Spirit
receives you. Where they persecute you, the
Spirit affirms you. Where they cast you down, the
Spirit lifts you up. Where they assault you, the Spirit
comforts you. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? That's the role of him bearing record. I want to get
into this a little bit more exegetically, but it's a, it's very important
for you. You know, it's quite interesting where I'm going with
this too, is because one of the things that fascinated me years
ago was this, and I want to see if you can bear record with this.
What fascinated me years ago as God was growing me in the
truth of the gospel was that when once I started being persecuted
for the gospel, There was a strange sensation of joy in my soul because I knew that what I was
doing was other worldly, that it was of God. And he was giving
me a sense of what you're doing is right. Just hold on. You'll be okay. And see, this
is a testimony all through the Gospels and into the book of
Acts is why we're going to look forward to going through the
book of Acts. And the disciples are the apostles rejoice with
great joy, because when they testified of the glory of God
in the name of Jesus Christ, they were beaten by the rulers
and they went away rejoicing worthy to be punished for the
name of Christ. That's strange, isn't it? And
I'm simply saying you and I know something about the joy poured
into your soul when you suffer for the gospel sake. God gives
you the sweet when you have to take up the bitter and it comforts
you. Now, ladies and gentlemen, this
is designed to bear witness that we are the children of God. So
in your outline, there's another word that you see, not only Martar,
because the idea of Martar is the idea of witness, but there's
another word and it's called Sum Martar, Sum Martar. And the difference is that one
is a preposition, Sum, S-U-M, just like S-U-N, or just like
C-O-N. We've talked about that preposition
before, and it means with. Like Sally, Con, Joseph, when
you see all that silly stuff in the bathroom at school. What
was the word con? Did she con him out of something?
No, it means that she was with him, attached to him. It's a,
it's a joint proposition. It's a joining proposition. You
know what the idea is? The spirit of God joins himself
with your spirit. The spirit of God joins himself
with your spirit in order to affirm your witness to others,
to you. The spirit of God joins your
spirit in order to affirm your witness to others, to you. The spirit of God is working
first and foremost to tell you and affirm you and your witness
to others. I know I'm being redundant, but
I'm trying to help you understand what happens when you and I testify
to the gospel of Christ. because of all of the obstacles
that come along with it. First, the person to whom we
are witnessing is naturally unsaved. Therefore, they are not naturally
receiving what you're saying. What you're saying is hard for
them. Secondly, they may react in a very adverse way to it.
So first of all, they're unsaved. That's first Corinthians chapter
two, the card of my Romans eight. Secondly, they may react harshly
to it because it's moronic. Thirdly, now watch this now.
Thirdly, you also have a fallen human nature that doesn't like
to be hurt. So now we've got three categories
that we are working with over against a testimony that we are
bearing because we can't help ourselves because we're new creatures
in Christ, right? Three obstacles. The unsaved
person's mindset, the unsafe person's actions because of their
mindset or reaction to what you say. And then your own weakness
by nature of not wanting to suffer. So what is the role of the Spirit
of God? His role is to assist you and buoy up or strengthen
or maintain your witness in the midst of what you're going through.
Now watch this, ladies and gentlemen. Here's the reason why he has
to do this. Because if it wasn't for the grace of God in the work
of the Spirit affirming your sonship, You might not believe
the message that you are sharing with people yourself. Can I get a witness? So this
is why this class is so very important on the subject of the
spirit of God. So the spirit of God has to actually
assist us. Watch this now, in sustaining
a testimony that is alien to the carnal mind of those to whom
you are speaking, but to also your own carnal mind. I need
the spirit of God to preach the gospel to me while I preach it
to others. Are you with me? I need him to
witness to me while I witness to others. I need him to convince
me while I convince others. I need him to explain the truth
to me as I explain it to others. I need him to seal that truth
in my heart as I share it with others. I need him to cause that
truth to land on my heart and resonate in my soul as the very
truth of God, as I tell others, this is the very truth of God.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? Very important, very important,
very important. And see by inference, by inference,
what you are basically noticing is that as we are dealing with
that one category of the witness bearing work of the spirit of
God, the witness bearing work of the spirit of God, we're not
talking about a favorable environment where we are all believers and
enjoying the word of God and just having the word of God expounded
and we are growing. We're talking about an adverse
atmosphere. And that's really the area in
which this idea of the witness really has its matrix. Every one of God's witnesses
are people who are being prepared and qualified, furnished with,
empowered to actually produce a legitimate, incredible testimony
over against opposition. Opposition. Opposition. Because what God knows is when
you are a son of God or daughter of God in this world, You are
in trouble. That's what God knows. What God
knows is we are in trouble as sons and daughters of God in
this world. We are in trouble outwardly, and we are in trouble
inwardly. And this is why, I'm telling
you, this is why Peter, James, John, and the rest were apprehensive
when Jesus says, I'm out of here. What? You're gonna leave us to ourselves?
And you're talking about telling us to take this gospel to the
world. We might be able to take it to
Judaism and Jewry and maybe some of the Samaritan. But when you
talk about going to the Gentiles, those heathen dogs, they'll tear
us into 50 pieces. How do you think we're going
to get this done, Lord Jesus? He says, I will not leave you
comfortless. I will not leave you comfortless.
You will not ever be able to say that the father abandoned
you. You will always have the resident
witness of the Spirit of God affirming your sonship. Affirming
your sonship. He will bear witness with you.
Now, the other verses I want you to grasp with this in Romans
chapter 8 around the idea of the Spirit of God bearing witness
with our spirit is over in verse 26. In verse 26. I'm going to start over in verse... 24 and go to verse 26, because verse
26 is going to share with us how the Spirit of God actually
works in sustaining our witness to us as we witness to others.
Verse 24, for we are saved by what? Hope. What he's doing now
is sharing a particular aspect of our salvation with us that
really is also a challenge too. So when you talk about hope,
He just categorized that as a lack of credible evidence,
a lack of empirical evidence, a lack of evidence necessary
to bring comfort to you because hope is not seen. Hope is in
future things that have absolutely no present tangible evidence
to it. You and I are saved by hope.
You know what that means? That's kind of like telling you
that you are a multi, multi, multi trillionaire. But you don't
get one dime of those resources for the next 50 years. Just kind
of giving you a marred analogy. So I may be told that I may be
able to intellectually be convinced that I am a multi, multi trillionaire
with all of the blessed implications of that kind of extreme wealth.
but for the next 50 years, I'm operating out of one thing only,
hope. For the next 50 years, there
have to be resources given to me to sustain that promise in
my life. Am I making some sense? I have
to have the resources essential for me to continue hoping in
a promise that I am believing, though I cannot actually benefit
from it right now. So the promise is I will never,
leave you nor forsake you the promise is when we believe on
the lord jesus christ we become sons and daughters of god because
we are sons and daughters of god we are heirs and join heirs
with jesus christ we are wealthy beyond comparison with god all
the riches Of the wisdom and the knowledge of God are in Jesus
Christ and they are ours We have been blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places and the promises go on and on
and on and on and on Thankfully with regards to some of the promises
that we don't have to wait for glory. They get to trickle out
now And the promises that trickle out now are the promises of the
spirit of which we are talking Where he resources us and qualifies
us to be able to sustain our witness Watch this now as adopted
sons who have not entered into the full inheritance. I'm rich,
but you don't get to see it yet. I'm wealthy beyond degree, but
I don't even get to experience it in its fullness. There's a
process that I'm going through between being legally adopted
and publicly affirmed in that adoption by which God is shaping
my character as I testify to the world that I am a son, a
daughter of God. You guys got that? So the work of the spirit
of God in his bearing record is primarily his work in your
own life to sustain the witness and the testimony that you are
sharing to others in you. So now I want you to follow this
because this is really important with regards to some thoughts
that I have for us in this present generation, because I don't think
that any of you would deny the fact that there is a level of
apathy and a level of weakness, a level of impotence, a level
of just coldness, a level of a lack of zeal, a level of a
lack of power on the part of the believer today. Such a low
ebb of spiritual vitality in the life of the believer. I don't
think any honest believer would deny that on a collective whole,
we are in a pathetic state spiritually. I don't think any honest believer,
you might be one or two, you running around thinking that
you're doing a great job, but as a collective whole, as part
of the body of Christ, particularly in Western Christianity, right
about now, the zeal is so low. The passion is so low. The commitment is so low. The
boldness and confidence to testify to Christ is so low. As it says
in Daniel chapter 7, 25, And he shall think to change times
and laws and he shall work to wear out the saints of the Most
High God. We are worn out. The best we
often do is kind of put on a good show in the flesh among us Christians. Outside the doors of the church,
we are extremely impotent. We have very little influence
in the world. Compromise is much more the struggle that we have
than suffering for the glories of the gospel. Am I telling the
truth? That's my observation as a pastor.
So I know we've got problems going on in terms of this battle,
and a lot of it, I believe, is because we have not taken the
time to continue to study deeply, drink deeply of Christ, and hunger
and long more earnestly for the work of the Spirit of God in
our life. Now, the Spirit of God has been given us to teach
us, to guide us, to show us, to empower us, and to witness
in our life Um, then, then, then where is the problem? Listen
to what verse 26 is. I want us to work through this,
but if we, if we hope for that, which we see not, then do we
with patience wait for it thus in verse 26. So in this manner,
the spirit, so the subject is the spirit, right? The spirit
also, what's the word there? I want you to stay on that for
a minute. I want you to stay on that. What is another name
for the comforter? The helper. Do you believe that? If you don't, you can believe
it now. So I'm going to put that in your head right now, too.
So, Christian, child of God, believer in Jesus Christ, let
me ask you a question. Do you need help? Hither, here I raise my Ebenezer. Hither by thy help I come. and
again in thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Come thou
fount of every blessing to my heart to sing thy praise. We
raise our banner and we cry Ebenezer because God alone is our helper.
We've come this far by the help of God. We will only get to glory
by the help of God. But for us to acknowledge that
we need help is a grace of God in itself. So how pathetic are
we when we are functioning in a relationship with God, the
spirit, not recognizing we need his help. We are pathetic when
we are not saying every morning, Lord, take my hand, lead me,
guide me, help me to make the right choices and the right decisions.
I know that the accumulative choices and decisions that I
make over the course of this day will set me on a trajectory
for failure if you're not in it. It may not look that way. I may be successful in my business.
I may be successful in my schooling. I may be successful in other
areas of my life, tangibly speaking, but I will be in ruin on a spiritual
level if I'm not being led by the Spirit of God. Are you hearing
what I'm saying, ladies and gentlemen? What it will amount to is this.
I will look up and see certain things that I have accumulated
and acquired on a fleshly level. And they will be painfully vacuous
of any joy because I will deep down inside know that the spirit
of God is not as nigh in his comfort and endorsement of those
things as I would like. So I have stored up for myself
treasures where moth can eat and thieves can break in and
steal. but I haven't drawn near to God and God hasn't drawn near
to me because I haven't been intentional about it. And so
I can't even enjoy those things that I've acquired in the flesh
by the million choices that I made without the presence, power,
approval, and endorsement of the spirit of God in my life.
Am I making some sense? Am I making some sense? So I think with regards
to when I hear what first John chapter five, uh, verse 10 says,
and he that believes on the son of God, half this, have to witness
in himself, I am thinking through, how do I take advantage of that
particular promise and privilege of the Spirit of God's witness
in me? One of them is I have to recognize that the reason
why God, the Spirit of God is in me, is because even though
I am born again, I am totally inept in myself to get the job
done. Now we talk like that in sound,
historic, reform, Protestant theology. We believe, or we acknowledge,
or we testify to what we call total depravity. No real Bible-believing
Christian that is thoroughly biblically informed would ever
Frame his words and say I know within me there is some good
thing No, no true believer would say that not an honest bible
believing religious folk might do it But honest believers would
say with the apostle paul. I know that in me that is in
my flesh dwells. No good thing I know that in
me. I have no strength whatsoever. I know that in me I am as blind
as a bat when it comes to spiritual things. I know that within me
I am a coward and filled with fear when it comes to testifying
of the gospel to men and women without the spirit of god I can't
do anything Without me, Christ says, you can do nothing. That's the truth. And on any
given day, all God has to do is take his hand off of me for
10 seconds. And it becomes painfully clear
that I'm just like the apostles. The little Jewish girl said to
Peter, we know who you are. No, no, not me. Remember that? The spirit of God lifted up off
of Elijah for just the moment. Jezebel said, go get it. He took
off like a fleet. Didn't he? And you would have
too. Because we do it under less stressful
circumstances. We just deny God. We deny his
glory. We deny his truth. We keep our
mouth shut on the calls of the gospel. And it's remarkable to
us. What is there to teach us is,
here it is, I want you to get this now, we need help. You need help. We need help. We need help. So listen to the
language. The text says, likewise the spirit also helpeth. See the word helps. The word,
the Spirit also helpeth. It's a term, it's a very powerful
term. It means to uphold. It's actually
a term that means to come over alongside of you and to assist
you, assist you, to receive you and to assist you, to receive
you and assist you. It's a word that means that the
Spirit of God comes alongside of you and actually takes up
your issues Watch this now, takes up your issues that are too heavy
for you, but he doesn't take them away from you. He simply
actively takes them up, takes them up. They don't become his
in the sense that you no longer have these issues or these responsibilities,
but he lightens them so that you can actually execute them.
It's in what we call the active verb form. So what it's saying
is, likewise, the spirit also intentionally helps you. actively
helps you in the area of, what's the next word? Infirmities. See
the word infirmities? You guys see that? So the word
infirmities there is the Greek word osteo. And I've talked about
this term many times. When you take the little preposition
a, it's a preposition that is in the English, it's equivalent
to the word un or not. like unkind or unclean. It's the opposite of clean, it's
the opposite of kind, unkola, not. The word steneo, steneo
is from the Greek term, it's a medical term that means to
be strengthened. It's from the word from which
we get steroids, steroids. Steroids, synthetic steroids
is a derivative of parts of our bodies, elements that are designed,
molecules that are designed to strengthen the muscles, build
the muscles, steroids. This is where the Greek term
strength comes in at. Now watch this. The work of the
spirit of God is to intentionally and actively and constantly assist
us where we are without strength. Got it? Where we are without
strength. So what that would require on
the part of the believer is the humility of being able to acknowledge
and identify the areas in their lives where they are without
strength. And in those areas, acknowledge
the need and call upon the grace of the resident God to help us
in those areas. See what I'm getting at? See,
the apostles were without strength to actually testify to Christ,
to that Jewish mob, This is why Jesus said, you guys are boasting
that you will tell the truth, but I'm here to tell you, as
the scripture says, smite the shepherd and all the sheep will
scatter. You guys are going to scatter to the four winds like
everybody else, because right now you are without what? Help. And you are without strength.
So it would be like an individual whose muscles are not trained
to lift 200 pounds. And he's sitting under there
trying to bench press 200 pounds. Ain't nothing gonna happen. Right? Until the Holy Ghost comes
along and gives him a spot. Right? And that's what we do
when we're weight training, trying to build muscle. We're dealing
with weight that's heavier than our capacity to lift, and then
we get a spot. And the goal of the Spirit is
to give us a spot so that we can actually do what in our own
strength we cannot do. Can you give me a spot, man?
But if I don't tell him to give me a spot out of my pride, I'm
about to break my neck. Trying to lift that 250 pounds
by myself. And all of us have, I'm just
using analogy. But see what we're actually talking about, ladies
and gentlemen, is taking our sonship serious, taking being
Christian serious, taking the privilege of being a child of
God serious. And then also taking the promises that are attached
to being a child of God seriously, like taking the promise that
God will never leave me in a state where I am able to authentically
and legitimately say I'm an orphan, that God has forsaken me. So
since I can't say that God has forsaken me, I better figure
out the nature of the relationship that I have with God, the Holy
Spirit, who is in my life to help me do what God has called
me to do. I better figure that out, right? Because if I don't
figure out what is required for me to have a good relationship
with God and actually execute my calling, I'm going to experience
the failure that comes with the negligence of the relationship.
So let me mark, let me, let me press this part home. When you
and I are talking about being sons and daughters of God, we
are talking about a subject object relationship between God and
his children. The inference is relationship. Got it. So one can pretend that
they are all right with God. But in fact, you and I know that
we have a whole lot of areas that really need strengthening
that haven't been strengthened in a long time, if ever. And
we are really struggling with the affirmation of our sonship.
But we haven't asked the question, how serious am I about my relationship
with God. See what I'm getting at? Because
the assumption is if I'm a son of God, then I have God as my
father. And if I have God as my father, then I have resources
available to me by which I can enjoy a walk with God because
the spirit of God is there to empower me. Is that true? If
he's there to empower me, then I need to know what I need to
know about what I don't have and what I do have and what I
can have by which I can be what God has called me to be. But
if I'm presuming upon the relationship and I'm being ignorant of the
relationship, it might very well be that I'm just not calling
on God. Right. I may I may be playing with this
thing. I may not be calling on God.
Is that too much of a stretch? I may be just going through the
day and not calling on God. Is that a possibility? I may
not be taking the great privilege of talking to God while I'm walking
and saying, Father, you know, I haven't thought about it in
a long time, but This situation here actually requires your wisdom. So I'm just going to ask you
to give me wisdom on this situation today. I'm so inclined to actually
deal with this kind of matter out of my own intellect and my
own rationale, but I'm going to ask you father to help me
since your word plainly says, if any man lack wisdom, let him
ask of God and he gives it liberally and upbraided not. So I'm going
to father help me in this moment. You'll get all the glory by the
way, because all I want to do is to execute my calling in this
moment. Father, a situation came up here
where there is a broken relationship and I don't actually have the
wisdom to be able to say the right words to start the healing
process in this relationship. Can you give me the wisdom by
which this might be done? See what I'm getting at? So I
can conceive in my own mind, child of God, I can conceive
that the walk that my master had with his father was a walk
of continuous dialogue between him and the father all the time.
I do nothing of myself. That's what Jesus said. You know
what he said? So right now what I'm doing as
a child of God, privileged to observe the glory of God manifested
in the flesh. And we beheld his glory, the
glory of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and
truth and of his fullness have we all received and grace for
grace. Now what I want to do as I continue
to walk with my Savior is I want to be able to comprehend through
the scripture how it is that Christ walked with his Father.
because I have been made to be a partaker of the divine nature.
And therefore, I am a son of God, adopted son of God. And
I have the resident spirit in me, the same spirit that was
in Christ is in me. And now and then I also have
the word of God and the word of God is clearly laid out the
life of Messiah in terms of his earthly walk with his father.
And he was utterly dependent on his father, as you and I are.
Remarkable. God depended on his father. And
he said things that I have never said. I'm 35 years in my Christian
life. And my savior lived only to be 33, 31, 33, 35 years old. I'm 53 years old. I've been in
Christ as long as he was humanly alive. And I don't remember ever
being able to say one day, I always do those things that
please him. I don't remember one day saying
I do nothing of myself. I don't remember one day being
able to legitimately say only that which I hear of him do I
speak. I've never been able to say one
day as a whole the work that I am doing it is the father working
in me to do it. You guys get what I'm getting
at? So what we're actually talking about right now, ladies and gentlemen,
is the condescending glory, the condescending glory, the humility
of Christ, the sacrificial love of the son of God to take on
a human nature and model for us the kind of relationship that
the father and the son has by which the son was able to do
what the son did. See, when he left, no one could
say, that the son boasted in his own powers, because he never did. No one
could say that the son acted independently of the presence
and power of the father, because he never did. No one could say
that he exercised his own independent wisdom over against the father,
because he never did. He always did the will of his
father and the father actually worked through him to do it.
Read it for yourself. John chapter 13 and 14. It is not me doing
the work. Jesus is the father in me doing
the work. That's profound. The revelation
actually is the revelation of dependence. Am I making some
sense? It's dependence. Now, you and
I are not talking about what you and I need to do to get saved. We're not talking about what
we need to do to get God's approval. We've already got God's approval.
We already are saved ostensibly. But what we are talking about
is what Jesus meant emphatically in John chapter 15, verse six
through eight. If you abide in me and my words
abide in you. If you abide in me and my words
abide in you, you can ask what you will. For without me, You
can do nothing. Got it. Now, herein is my father
glorified that you bring forth much fruit. Your fruit will remain. And the John 15 text is really
the analogy of dependence upon the true vine as a branch, desiring
to do what God has called us to do, and that's bear fruit,
recognizing that the branch cannot, cannot, cannot bear fruit of
itself. Is that true? Cannot do it. So
I want to close with this. I just want to close with this
thought for you and I, with regards to him dispatching the comforter
to us. If you're born again, if you're
saved, if you're regenerate, you will never have a day in
your life by which you can say, the father left me. You never,
you're never going to have that experience, but the privilege
you have and the responsibility you have is strengthening your
relationship with the father. in humility, in submission, in
dependence, in calling upon God in such a way that you're asking
him by his spirit to do in you every day, minutely, in every
detail, all that he has called you to do so that the work gets
done since we have learned in our learning that it's not by
power nor by might, but by my spirit, of which without it,
nothing gets done, right? Nothing at all gets done. And
what a gracious reality for the Spirit of God to be there to
bear record that you are a son of God. Now, if somehow this
study has humbled you, you're on a good course. If it offended
you, you are in trouble. Right? If it offended you, you're
in trouble. Because this is Christianity.
In my weakness is his strength made perfect. See, I'm actually
sharing with you a crystal centric model of relationship with the
father. See, in our carnal thinking, we think we got to be strong
to have a strong relationship with God. No, it's the opposite.
You have to acknowledge your weakness. I don't think we always
do that. So here's the last picture I
want to put in your head. The Abba Father principle that
we recognize in Romans chapter eight in Galatians chapter four
is also in Mark chapter 14 where Jesus comes to the crux. He comes
to the crux and he's faced with the horrors of hell and he's
faced with everything that you and I've been through. Ridicule,
being maligned, being ostracized, being lied on, caught a wine
bibber, caught a glutton, caught a child of fornication, caught
a devil, being rejected, being denied by his disciples, everyone
forsaken him. That's a bad day, isn't it? It's
not a bad day. It's a bad day for the son of
God, but that's where he is. So he goes to prayer. See it. He goes to prayer. He didn't
call down his own power. He didn't say, you know what?
I'm God, I ain't got to put up with this mess. He didn't say
that. It was love that kept him in
character. Love for his father as a son,
obedient to the gospel, utterly, utterly committed to dependence
upon God. Here he is at that point. Ladies
and gentlemen, he's at the most human point any human being could
be. The most human. Abandoned by
everybody. He's a human being, isn't he?
He wasn't just an apparition, a phantom. He was a real man
with a real soul, with a real mind, with a real volition, with
real personality, with real emotions, wasn't he? He was just like you
and I, right? In this moment, let me share something with you.
In this moment, this moment here, Even the sensible presence of
God was gone. The sensible presence of God
was gone. My soul is troubled even unto
death. You know what I'm talking about?
The troubling of the soul that has you so low that you're thinking
God has rejected you. God has left you. None of y'all,
y'all don't want to be honest about that. That's okay. But
my master was there. And you know what it drove him
to do? Pray. And he goes into the garden.
And he doesn't go alone. Fellows, I need three of you
guys with me. Because I see my end. I see it. I see where I'm
going. I'm about to be my father's witness.
It's the word martyr. But everything in me is saying,
don't do it. Right? That's right. That's you and I. Human nature,
self-preservation. Bell out. He goes into the garden
with three. He says, just pray with me for
one hour. Just pray with me for one hour. Help! That's what he
was saying. Help! Help! They couldn't help. They fell
asleep on him. Cold. Cold. Our master is by himself. You
got that? He hits the ground and he starts
calling on his father. That's what I'm talking about.
That's what I'm talking about. See the beauty of it. See the
beauty of it. He didn't do opposite of what
he's telling us to do. He did exactly what he's telling
us to do, especially when everything abandons you, especially when
all the evidences and testimonies are gone and forsaking you, especially
when your own mind is saying it might be true. Maybe I am
a devil. Maybe I am a child of fornication.
Maybe I am not born again. Maybe I'm not a child of God.
All of that stuff, you know, you guys understand. Y'all don't
know what I'm talking about. This is holy ground. This is
holy ground. What we're talking about. Cause
this was, the apex of the salvation of all of God's people right
here. Had the enemy been able to, as
it were, completely thwart the plan of the father in the life
of the son right here, get him to step outside of character,
get him to not trust his father, get him to stand up and exercise
his divine prerogative in this moment, none of us would be saved. None of us would be safe. He
falls on his ground, on the ground. And he honestly says to the father,
I cannot bear this cup. That's what he said. Got it? You know what he's doing? He's saying, father, help. Help. Help. Help. If you can take it away, see
that option once it was expressed was absolutely phenomenal. If
you could take it away, take it away. If you could take it
away, save your people and I'm not violate your commands and
disobey you, take it away. It meant that there was an enormous,
enormous level of sacrifice into which Christ was about to enter
of which he had never experienced before. Watch this. As soon as he was
honest with the father about his human weakness, this is the
man talking. As soon as he was honest with
it, as soon as he was honest with it, the spirit of God helped
him. You know what he said? Nevertheless,
not my will be done. There was an immediate assistance
of the spirit of God to keep him in the will of God. Immediately. He was strengthened by the Spirit
of God immediately to say, not my will, but thine be done. And
from that point on, strength entered in. The angels helped
him. He gloriously took up his cross,
headed to Golgotha, and endured everything that the scripture
said. Why? Because he called on his father.
Cause he depended upon his father. He depended upon the spirit of
God. Am I making a caricature? I'm
not even penetrating into the reality of this thing. And what
I'm talking about for us as children of God is we have the great testimony
of our savior's walk with the father as a model for us. But
I just don't, I don't think we're ready to acknowledge our weakness. Let's pray. So without you, we can do nothing.
Not a thing, not one thing. And we cannot bear any fruit
apart from you. And we cannot love the things
you love without you pouring into our hearts, the spirit of
the living God, the love of God. And we cannot see the things
you see unless you open our eyes and give us sight. And we cannot
be passionate father for what you are passionate about in the
salvation of sinners, unless you give us a heart to love men
and women beyond ourselves. And we cannot tell the truth
as it is in Christ, Lord, unless you fill our hearts with the
knowledge of God and place them in our soul in such a way that
we are ready to return the favor by opening our mouths and just
allowing the word of God to come out freely and to have its way
in our life and in the life of others who hear us as well. We
are poor, pathetic witnesses and we can't do it without you.
We thank you that your promises do not fail. We thank you that
you will fulfill your work of grace in the life of your people.
We thank you that you have begun a good work and you will fulfill
it until the day of Jesus Christ. We are praying that we will be
objects of your mercy and grace that way. Don't leave us in our
weakness, Lord. Don't leave us in our feebleness. Don't leave us in our impotence,
Lord. Don't leave us in our apathy
and coldness. Don't leave us, Lord, indifferent
to your purpose and your will in this world. We want to be
able to stand. We want to be able to serve.
We want to be able to speak into lives of men and women. We want
to be able to share the gospel of the grace of God with power.
We want to be able to live to your honor and praise. We want
to worship you from the bottom of our hearts with everything
that's in us by the power of your spirit. We want to experience
the fullness of your grace and power by your spirit for your
glory. We want this and we pray it in
Jesus name. Amen. God bless you.