Okay, well I'd like for you to
turn with me to John's Gospel, chapter 16. I'm going to look
at the first 15 verses of this and I've entitled this message,
Blessed Holy Spirit. Blessed Holy Spirit. There's
a lot of things along these lines in these chapters of John's Gospel. The discourse before Christ went
to the cross this intimate discourse with his disciples and he's preparing
them for him going away he's preparing them for the traumatic
events that are about to happen he's preparing them that they
should not be surprised when it happens that they should know
well he did forewarn us of these things and he's been forewarning
them of the opposition of the world and particularly of worldly
religion and how opposed to the doctrines of the gospel that
Christ came to preach and establish how opposed the world and the
religious world is to those things. And he says in chapter 16 and
verse 1, these things, these warnings have I spoken to you
that you should not be offended. You shouldn't say, well, nobody
told us that this was going to happen. That you should be aware
that this is what to expect. If you believe the things of
the gospel of grace and of particular redemption, then don't be surprised
if the religious world, because the religious world has its own
way of salvation. It has do-it-yourself salvation.
You are good enough for God. You do the things that will make
you acceptable to God. That is the world's salvation. That is worldly religion's salvation. And even those who talk and sound
as if they're dealing with biblical Calvinistic doctrine, even they,
when you dig and you start to look, They say, ah, well, no,
let's have a Calvinism for the 21st century. Let's have a modern
Calvinism. Let's adjust it. Let's move away
from these mileposts, from these landmarks, these doctrines of
grace and of particular redemption. Be aware that opposition is coming. He says in verse 2, he says,
they'll put you out of the synagogues. The time comes that whosoever
kills you will think he's doing God's service, and so you look
back at your history books, you look back at those early days
of the church, of Stephen the first martyr, read the book of
Fox's martyrs, read the reformation in England, read the history
of the reformation, and read about what was done in the name
of religion to those who believed the gospel of grace and preached
it. They thought they did God's service.
Those Pharisees who put out the man who was born blind, who Jesus
gave new eyes to, thought they did God's service by putting
him out of the synagogue, and so it will be. These things they'll
do because they don't really know the Father, nor me. This
is what he says. But these things I've told you
so that when the time comes you'll remember that I told you, and
you won't be surprised. Anyway, he says, he's going away.
None of you's asked me, where am I going? Because they were
in this state of shock. They were in this state of confusion.
They thought when he'd said about going away that maybe it was
a physical going away to hide himself from this opposition.
Nobody had asked him where he was going. And he said, because
I've said I'm going away, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless,
verse seven, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you. It is
good for you. Believers, it is good for you
that I go away, because if I don't go away, the Comforter will not
come to you. But if I depart, I will send
him to you." We have the promise of the Comforter, and we have
the promise that it's expedient, it's good, that he goes away
that he might send this gift of the Holy Spirit to all his
people, to his church, this gift of the Holy Spirit. There's a
lot of talk in these days about the Holy Spirit. Charismatic
circles are absolutely full of it. A distorted view of the Holy
Spirit and the Holy Spirit's work and the relationship of
those who are supposed to be believers with the Holy Spirit.
There's a lot of erroneous stuff that is talked about it. But
in general, I really do believe, and I'm talking to myself, that
we have only a fleeting glimpse of the benefits and the good
of this gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church. Yes, we walk in
the good of it. Yes, of course, all believers
have the Holy Spirit, but oh, we don't really grasp the depth
and the power of this truth. Now here in these verses, I want
us to see five things. Five things about the Holy Spirit
and what He would do, because Jesus says in verse 8, when He
is come, He will, and then do certain things. And I've got
five of them, and you know I said only the other week, that I'm
not very good with alliterative titles, you know, where they
all begin with the same letter. Well, I've got five again, all
beginning with R this week. Reproof, Regeneration, Reformation,
Revelation, and Reassurance. And the summary of the sermons
in the bulletin anyway. Reproof. He says, when he is
come, he, notice he doesn't say it, Jesus doesn't talk about
the Holy Spirit as an it, he talks about him as he, a person,
he is God, he is the third person of the Blessed Trinity. When
he, that third person of the Trinity is come, He will reprove
the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin, because
they believe not on Me. Of righteousness, because I go
to My Father and ye see Me no more. Of judgment, because the
Prince of this world is judged. When He is come, when He goes
away glorified to His Father, when He returns to the glory
which He had with His Father from before the beginning of
time, When He goes back there, He will send, the Father and
the Son will send the Holy Spirit to His people. And when He has
come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness,
and of judgment. How would this band of feeble
fishermen because you know even with all of Peter's bravado we
know how weak he was we know how quickly all of that strength
evaporated and that strong fisherman when a young maid said to him
aren't you one of his disciples and he denied it with cursing
he denied it vehemently and all of that strength evaporated from
him how would this motley group of fishermen influence the world
with Christ's message? How would they do it? The world
is so hard. Look at the world around us here
in Nedworth. The world is so hard. to the
gospel of grace. Their hearts are like an impenetrable
fortress. If you read Bunyan's Holy War,
that's an allegory of what the situation is like with the heart
of the typical man or woman. It's a fortress. And there's
Satan in the center of it, ruling. And that fortress is set up against
the kingdom of God. It's a fortress. As Jeremiah
says, Jeremiah says this, the heart of man is desperately wicked
and deceitful. Who can know it? Who's going
to break in there? Is this group of fishermen and
tax collectors, uneducated, northerners from Galilee mostly? How are
they going to break in there and influence the world with
the message that they've been hearing of the Kingdom of God
from Christ for these three and a half years? Not in their own
strength. But when He has come, He the
Holy Spirit has come, He will come with irresistible grace.
He will come with the power to knock through those embattlements
of the hardened human heart. He will come with the irresistible
grace of God to break those down. It's not down to the disciples
to convince people. It's not down to them to do things
that will persuade. It's not down to them to do things
that will make them soften to the idea of these things. It's
down to the Holy Spirit. the Holy Spirit. What we know
is that we are to preach the message. We are to preach the
message, but He comes and convicts the world of sin. He convicts
those who are the elect of God out of the world of sin and of
righteousness and of judgment. You preach that message. You
say, as Jesus said, come unto me. all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Note who the message
is addressed to, you who labour and are heavy laden. Who causes
the labouring and the heavy laden sense? It's the Holy Spirit.
He gives that sense to the dead heart of man. He gives that sense,
and He makes alive to hear the gospel of grace. He convicts
the world of sin. He gives that sense of sin that
the man or woman going through this life as if there's all sorts
of interesting things to do but no thoughts of eternity he gives
that sense of sin and of offense of the living God. and that it
is appointed to man to die once and after this the judgment he
gives that sense of impending judgment that we must all stand
before the judgment seat of Christ and how am I going to stand there
for I am a sinner and in my sins he must justly condemn me and
oh how I need righteousness how I need righteousness without
which no man shall see the Lord and how I know that there is
a judgment coming and in that day we must face that judgment
how I know that that is coming And then he shows the gospel.
He shows how Christ was made the sins of his people. That
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He shows us that
Christ is the Lord, our righteousness. He shows us that in the Lord
Jesus Christ and his shed blood, the price of justice has been
paid. I have found a ransom, let him go free. He convicts
the world. Those in the world who are the
people of God, the elect of God, He calls them out and He convicts
them of that gospel of grace. And wasn't it such with you who
believe? Wasn't it such? You had your own views of religion
and He came. And a preacher came and preached
that gospel of grace and you heard it. And where there'd be
nothing other than confusion, all the boxes were ticked. All
the lights went, this is it. This is the message. That there
is a salvation that is absolutely accomplished in the Lord Jesus
Christ and all that he's done. You say, well, how must it have
seemed to them? There they were, hiding away
in an upper room. You know, nothing other than
opposition. Some of them knew that Judas had just gone out
to do that which was most treacherous, to betray the Lord of glory.
They knew what the Jews intended to do. They knew that dreadful
things were about to happen, and yet they're being promised
that he's going to convict the world of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. What happened seven weeks later?
Seven weeks later on the day of Pentecost, on the day of Pentecost,
the Holy Spirit, this promised gift came upon all of those in
that upper room, the apostles, the 12, there were 120 there
altogether, as tongues of flame, and the feeble fisherman, Peter,
he was changed. into the intrepid evangelist.
He was changed. He was given power to preach
the gospel. They spoke with tongues, other
tongues, the tongues of all those different people that were there.
The power of the gospel came. And that world, many of those
Jews who had convicted him, who'd cried, crucify, crucify, the
morning after this, crucify him. Seven weeks later, They're beating
their breasts. Men and brethren, what shall
we do? What must we do? They convicted. The Holy Spirit
came and convicted them of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
And they saw in the Lord Jesus Christ, whom they had crucified
by their wicked deeds, yet according to the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, according to all of those things in the
purposes of God, they had done it. They had done that most dreadful
thing and yet they saw that in that their sins were paid for. Their righteousness was established.
Their place in judgment was assured. They could face judgment because
of Him. They knew that the ransom had
been found. Those unbelieving Jews at Pentecost, they believed
and they felt the power of Christ's righteousness and redemption.
And that was because the Holy Spirit came and reproved the
world, and so he does down all ages. What about here today in
Nebworth? Do you lose heart? Do I lose
heart? Yes, I do. In my flesh, I lose
heart. I think we'll never break through
anywhere, but God, the Holy Spirit can. And if He wills, He will,
and no man can resist. And He can come in power and
call men and women out of darkness into the marvelous light of our
God and Savior. Secondly, and on this same few
verses, regeneration. He does this. He regenerates.
In reproving, He regenerates. In convicting of sin and of righteousness
and judgment, He regenerates those who are dead. Regenerate
means make alive. Make alive. In convicting, He
leads to repentance. We read in Acts chapter 5 and
verse 31 about the gift of repentance. Repentance is not a remorseful
feeling. Repentance is the gift of God.
It's a gift of God that's working in a life that he has determined
to save. it's a rethinking that's what
the word means it's a turning around an absolute turning around
I was going that way and now I've repented of it and I'm going
the other way and that's the gift of God and it's the gift
of the Holy Spirit leading to repentance and he regenerates
makes alive those who are naturally dead you know the verses in Ephesians
chapter two he says you hath he quickened you hath he made
alive is what that means quickened means made alive you hath he
quickened who were dead spiritually dead spiritually dead no sense
you know it death is a dreadful thing and to our natural human
natures seeing somebody who is dead who you knew was alive it's
just an awful thing you just see that shell and where there
was life and conversation there is now nothing Well, that's how
we are, the Scriptures say, by nature, spiritually dead in trespasses
and sins. He goes on to say, you were children
of wrath, even as the others. You were dead, you looked from
the outside as dead as everybody else, spiritually. But the Holy
Spirit comes and makes alive Whereas the natural man, says
Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, the natural man cannot receive
the things of the Spirit of God, for they're foolishness to him,
neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.
Where do you get that spiritual discernment? The Holy Spirit
comes and gives that spiritual discernment. We were looking
last week in the message for a moment at Psalm 65 and verse
4, blessed is the man whom you choose and cause to approach
and dwell and be satisfied with the things of your house. That's
what the verse says and we applied it and it applies to the Holy
Spirit causing the elect of God to approach Blessed is the man
whom you choose and cause to approach and dwell, not just
visit, dwell, and be satisfied with gospel blessings. He regenerates. The heart that couldn't stand
the things of the Spirit of God, the heart that rejected the gospel
of grace, suddenly sees in them the most sweet and beautiful
things you know it's uh... we sometimes get these these
complete transformations that take place in attitudes and you
know i i i know of people i i love classical music and i know of
people who've absolutely hated classical music until they've
stopped long enough to actually start to listen and they suddenly
start to hear something well it's a very very poor illustration
but the things of the Spirit of God which were foreign to
us. Suddenly, they're not. They're
so clear, they're so sweet, they're so blessed. These things come
and He regenerates and makes alive. You see, the Holy Spirit
is God. He's the third person of the
Trinity. He's co-equal with the Father and the Son. Three persons,
one God, only one God. There is only one God. But He's
manifested in three distinct persons, the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit, we read
in Scripture, is active in all sorts of ways. He was active
in creation when the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters. We read right at the start of
Genesis. He was active in the incarnation
of our Lord Jesus Christ. For Mary was found with child
of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came and that
virgin womb, in that virgin womb was planted that embryo which
was the Lord Jesus Christ. Incarnation. The Father elected
a people. An innumerable multitude, but
a definite fixed multitude. From our perspective, innumerable.
As impossible to count as the grains of sand on the seashore
or the stars in the night sky. As impossible to count as that.
That number is impossible to count, but known to the father,
every one of them, individually, just like the stones. I love
that illustration. The stones that made the temple
quarried from the quarry, and every one fitted in its place. Like Ezekiel's valley of dry
bones, and they rise upon their feet when they're clothed with
flesh, a mighty army. And I keep using the illustration
as well. Horse guards parade. Trooping of the color. Boy, you
know if one of them's missing. They're all there in their ranks.
Specific number. The father elected. The son redeemed. In the covenant of grace, they
struck hands, as it were, in eternity. And the son covenanted
to be the representative of every one of them. That where righteousness
must be, because God is righteous and God is holy, and he must
have righteousness, for without righteousness and holiness, no
man shall see the Lord. And the son covenanted. to establish
that righteousness for those people and then to go to the
cross and to pay the sin debt to pay the ransom in his precious
blood to pour out his life blood for the life is in the blood
and in pouring out the blood it was the life of the Son of
God which was the ransom for the sins of his people so that
he who knew no sin was made sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him but you know as fixed as all those things are,
as fixed in eternity as the sovereign choice of God, election unto
salvation, as definite in time is the coming into this world
at the appointed time of the Son of God to live and die in
the place of His people, as definite as that was, not one of His people
will apprehend it or appreciate it or know anything about it
unless the Holy Spirit comes and regenerates. He must come
and regenerate and plant that new life of the Spirit of God.
What is it that Jesus said to Nicodemus in John chapter 3?
You must be born again. A woman in Spurgeon's congregation,
you've probably heard this, said to him, Mr. Spurgeon, you keep
on going on about you must be born again. Why do you keep on
saying you must be born again? And he said, because, madam,
you must be born again. You must be born again. And then
thirdly, reformation. Now this is what's promised,
reformation, reformation. You see he says, I have many
things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now. How be
it when he, the spirit of truth, is come? He will guide you into
all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he
shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to
come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and
shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath
are mine. Therefore said I, that he shall
take of mine and shall show it unto you." Reformation. We tend
to think of the Reformation as being those historical events
that happened when, in the face of Roman Catholic abuse in the
Western European world, there was this great movement of the
Spirit of God and people returned to the Scriptures and publicly
men of standing and of letters and of education discovered the
gospel of grace the times of Luther and of well before that
even in many ways with Tyndale and the scriptures being translated
obviously I'm not going to give you a history of the reformation
now but that's what we tend to think of as the reformation and
rightly so but you know I think what happened at Pentecost is
a greater reformation and that's the reformation that Christ is
talking about here he's saying that What is going to happen
is going to be a radical change. A dramatic change. A dramatic
change from the Old Testament dispensation to the New Testament
dispensation. Don't worry, I'm not a dispensationalist.
But the things were different. In the Old Testament, things
were different. There was the same gospel of grace, absolutely,
but it was all there in picture and type. And the law was in
place and had to be obeyed, absolutely, strictly to the letter. And that
finished, and a New Testament age came in. And this is the
reformation that the Holy Spirit brought. On the back of the bulletin,
I put a quote by Pink. by Arthur Pink, in the grey box
at the bottom there, about Pentecost. And would you believe it, you
always check your bulletins for, you know, you proofread them,
and you proofread them, and you can't see it. And then you print
them all off, and the first one you pick up, it stands out that
I'd actually put the Holy Spirit and not the Holy Spirit. So please
excuse that. I did try and write in biro on
all the copies. But this is what he said, at
Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came as he had never come before.
Something then transpired which inaugurated a new era for the
world, a new power for righteousness, a new basis for fellowship. On
that day, the fearing Peter was transformed into the intrepid
evangelist. On that day, the new wine of
Christianity burst the old bottles of Judaism, and the word went
forth in a multiplicity of Gentile tongues. There was a dramatic
change, a dramatic change. In the Old Testament, believers
had the Holy Spirit in a measure, In the Old Testament, the Lord
Jesus Christ appeared in theophanies. He appeared to numerous people
throughout the Old Testament, but not in the way that he did
when he came in the incarnation and was born a man, made of a
woman, made under the law. Not in that way, but he had been
there before, and in a similar way the Holy Spirit had been
there. He was there to inspire the writers of Scripture. He
was there to give strength for certain occasions. How on earth
could Jonathan have done that most amazing military thing that
he did, almost single-handedly, with just somebody to help him
in, was it 1 Samuel? I think it's 1 Samuel, somewhere,
I can't remember the details. But how could he have done that
without the Holy Spirit strengthening? And wisdom, Solomon asked for
wisdom and was given wisdom way, way above that of his fellows.
Wisdom. But now in the New Testament
with Christ glorified, returned to the glory, he says in 17 verse
5, And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self,
with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Christ
is returned to glory. There's a completely different
situation now. The Holy Spirit is sent in abundance,
overflowing. The knowledge and the apprehension
of salvation by all of his people is on a different scale to what
it ever was before. Jeremiah alludes to this era. In Jeremiah 31-34 he says, And
they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man
his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know
me. This is the blessing of the Holy
Spirit. They shall all know me from the least of them to the
greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity
and I will remember their sin no more. The Feast of Pentecost
was seven weeks after the Passover. This night, John 16, was the
night before the Feast of the Passover when Christ, our Passover,
was crucified for us. Seven weeks later was the Feast
of Pentecost. You can read about it in Exodus
and Leviticus and Deuteronomy. You can read there the details.
Seven weeks, seven Sabbaths, fifty days afterwards, there
was to be the Feast of Pentecost. And on that, it was at the start
of the wheat harvest You know, the seeds have been sown in the
spring, and this was the start of the wheat harvest. And they
were to bake bread with the first fruits of that harvest, and they
were to wave the loaves before the Lord as a wave offering,
symbolical of this, that there would be a first fruit of that
gospel and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as those Jews
on the day of Pentecost came into the kingdom of God, came
to the knowledge of salvation, and then wider as the message
went to the Gentiles, two loaves symbolizing Jews and Gentiles
as the fruits of redemption in this New Testament order. But
verse 12, that's why he says, I have yet many things to say
to you, but you cannot bear them now. These disciples were Jewish
disciples they were totally steeped in the culture and the nation
of the Jews and Judaism they were totally steeped they wouldn't
understand it that's why he says you won't understand it what
won't they understand they won't understand that in the purposes
of God there's an elect remnant of Jews but in the purposes of
God the Jews as a national people of God were rejected for all
time They wouldn't understand that the Gentiles were going
to be called in vast numbers. They wouldn't understand that
the Mosaic law that was so part and parcel of their life and
of the temple would be abrogated when the Holy Spirit came. They
wouldn't understand that the kingdom of God would be expressed
in the gospel church in the gospel age. and here's another thing
that would happen as a result of this reformation the whole
church of Christ was baptized on that day in the Holy Spirit
once and for all a once for all thing not to be repeated yes
when the gospel came to the Gentiles in Acts chapter 19 you see their
little mini days of Pentecost as it were to show that that
message is going to those people but for us now We, as the members
of the Church of Christ, are baptized in the Holy Spirit because
of what happened on the day of Pentecost, not because of anything
that happens in any individual heart now. This stuff about charismatic,
you must be baptized in the Holy Spirit, you become a Christian,
and then a little bit later you go up to a higher plane when
you're baptized in the Holy Spirit, there is no support whatsoever
in the Word of God for that. It's a complete delusion. A complete
delusion. You are baptized in the Holy
Spirit by virtue of being a child adopted into the kingdom of God
because the whole church was baptized in the Holy Spirit on
the day of Pentecost, immersed in the Holy Spirit once and for
all, not to be repeated. If anyone does not have the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. If you're a child of God, you
have the Holy Spirit. You don't need the Holy Spirit,
you have the Holy Spirit. And then, moving on quickly,
fourth point. Revelation. In these verses here we saw,
verses 13 to 15, Revelation, the Holy Spirit comes and teaches
His people the Word of Truth in a way that had never been
known before. He reveals the gospel mystery
to the saints of God. He inspired the Word of God. We read in 2 Timothy 3.16 that
all scripture is breathed by God, inspired by God, and is
profitable for doctrine, etc. He's the spirit of truth, and
he reveals the mystery of the gospel to the saints of God.
Colossians 1.26 says this, Even the mystery, which hath been
hid from ages and from generations, but is now made manifest to his
saints. How is it made manifest? By the
Holy Spirit. By the ministry of the Holy Spirit,
this promise of Christ to His church, He will come, He will
lead you into all truth. He won't speak of Himself, but
whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak. And He will show
you things to come. He will show you the truth of
the gospel of grace. He will glorify the Lord Jesus
Christ. Verse 14, He shall glorify Me,
for He shall receive of Mine. He shall not speak of Himself,
in verse 13. I know I've told you this before,
but it's worth repeating. Wherever, wherever, we're focusing
on the Holy Spirit this morning, and rightly so, but wherever
you come across those whose total emphasis is on the Holy Spirit
to the exclusion of Christ and the gospel of His grace, you
can be absolutely sure the Holy Spirit is not there, because
the Holy Spirit will not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He
shall hear. He shall glorify Christ The Holy
Spirit glorifies Christ, not Himself. Oh, we worship Him as
God, but He glorifies Christ. He takes of the things of Christ
and shows it to us and reveals it to us and makes it real to
us. He holds up Christ, not Himself, to the eye of faith. He shows
Christ as the all-sufficient Savior. He seals the gospel promises
to the believer. He applies the blood of Christ
to the conscience. Read Ephesians chapter 1, we
won't for the sake of time now, but read those blessed verses
there. He applies, the Holy Spirit comes and applies the blood of
Christ to the conscience of each individual believer so that you
know my sins are forgiven for my Savior has died in my place
and paid the price. He displays the glory of Christ. You know, the glory that the
writer to the Hebrews writes about in those first few verses.
He being the brightness of His glory. The outshining of His
person. Christ is the outshining of the
person of God. And who is it that shows that
to His people? It's the Holy Spirit. All gospel
truth. All gospel truth. begins with
the Father, and flows through the Son, by the Spirit, to the
Apostles, and through the Word, the written Word of God, by preachers
and teachers to faithful men, as Paul writes to Timothy, who
will be able to teach others also. You see, it's by the Holy
Spirit that we have the revelation of the Gospel of Christ. It's
by the Holy Spirit that the Apostle Paul could say in 1 Corinthians
2.16, We have the mind of Christ. That's just after he said about
the natural man not being able to discern the things of the
Spirit of God. But he says we have the mind
of Christ. How? By the Holy Spirit revealing
him to us. In 1 Corinthians 12 verse 3,
just starting the section on the gifts of the Spirit, there
Paul says that it's only by the Holy Spirit that any man can
speak the truth of Christ and the gospel. He says no man can
call him Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Now you mustn't just
take that superficially because there's all sorts of people jumping
and chanting in the aisles saying Jesus is Lord. It doesn't mean
that. It means to get to the essence of the
gospel of grace it's only by the holy spirit that you can
do that it's only by the holy spirit that you can speak the
truth of christ and the gospel and so finally fifth point reassurance
this is whom christ promised to his people he promises it
here he'd already promised in chapter fourteen verse sixteen
i will pray the father and he shall give you another comforter
that He may abide with you forever. This is the promise, that He
will abide with you forever. In 1 John chapter 4 and verse
13 we read, Hereby we know that we dwell in Him and He in us. God dwells in us. We dwell in
God because He says He has given us of His Spirit. That chorus
that I sometimes mention, he walks with me and he talks with
me along life's narrow way. You ask me how I know he lives?
He lives within my heart. It's by him that as Paul says
to the Colossians, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
Let it dwell in, it's by the Holy Spirit's presence, Him abiding
with us. He orders all things for the
good of the people of God. He walks with us, He leads us,
He guides us. This is providence, the providence,
the reassuring providence of the Holy Spirit. As we close,
just turn to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Look at these
first 16 verses. of Romans chapter 8, to see the
Spirit of God reassuring the people of God and walking with
them. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after
the Spirit, the Spirit abiding with them. For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law
of sin and death, For what the law, the Mosaic law, could not
do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh, but here it is again,
but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit,
the things of the Spirit, that Spirit of God abiding with His
people, causes us to mind the things of the Spirit of God.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind, the
fleshly mind, is enmity against God. It is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in
the flesh, Those that are struggling in the flesh to obey the law
for righteousness cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. The Spirit of God is dwelling
in you. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any
man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ
be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness. 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, make alive your
mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. You see? Spiritual
life in that dead flesh spiritual life in it, the new man of the
Spirit of God. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors
not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if ye live after
the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the Spirit
dwelling in you do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, They are the sons
of God. This is the Spirit of God. This
abiding presence that he promised would be with us, with his people.
If you are led by the Spirit of God, then you are the sons
of God. For you have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit
of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. How
good it is to be a child of God in these dark days. You say,
oh, you know, we're so alone. There's so few of us. I mean,
you know, churches are abandoning the truth of God and abandoning
the way markers of sound doctrine. And oh, what a dreadful time.
No, what a blessed time to be living. How good to be a child
of God in these dark days. Or wouldn't it have been so good
to have been there with these disciples in that upper room,
listening to the Lord Jesus Christ? Wouldn't it have been so? No,
he says it's better for you now. It's better for you now because
you have the Holy Spirit with you. So we can meet here with
the Holy Spirit's presence, showing us all the things that Christ
would show us. And others can. Hopefully later
today our brethren meeting in Danville will be blessed with
the truths of the gospel of grace that they hear there by the presence
of the Holy Spirit there showing them the things of the Lord Jesus
Christ. To have the Spirit's presence
is such a blessing. To hear His word and to know
the truth of the gospel of grace that He imparts. To be assured
by Him dwelling within of His presence, the presence of God,
the hope of eternal salvation. Let's rejoice in the good of
it. Let's be glad that we're living in these days when so
much is happening, so much truly is happening. It seems so quiet
but actually in truth, so much is happening for the truth of
the gospel of grace. Jesus said in chapter 15 and
verse 11, these things have I spoken to you that my joy might remain
in you and that your joy might be full. or that our joy would
be full in knowing God through the presence of his Holy Spirit
within, showing us the things of our Lord Jesus Christ.