-
1 John 3.
-
And I had hoped to deal this morning
-
with testing the spirits.
-
But as I wrestled with what exactly
-
I should pull out of
these verses and stress,
-
I was somewhat convinced that I should not
-
move beyond chapter 3 into 4.
-
Lord willing, next week,
-
I intend to deal with testing the spirits.
-
I want to kind of transition
into that today
-
by looking at these last two verses
-
of 1 John 3.
-
Let's read them together.
-
"And this is His commandment,
-
that we believe in the name
of His Son Jesus Christ."
-
Now, that's interesting.
-
I'll just pause right here for a moment.
-
I've always looked at this as kind of
-
a companion verse to that which we find
-
in Acts 17 where we are commanded -
-
"God commands all men
everywhere to repent."
-
Here we have a commandment to believe.
-
Yes, we are invited to believe.
-
Yes, God exhorts us to believe.
-
He earnestly pleads with us to believe.
-
He reasons with us.
-
"Come, let us reason together."
-
But remember, behind God's invitation,
-
when the people didn't show up
-
to the banquet,
-
the Master was angry.
-
It's expected that you will
answer the invitation.
-
It's commanded.
-
Isn't it amazing God has to command us
-
to not go to hell?
-
God has to command us to have life.
-
Do you recognize that?
-
You are not at liberty to go to hell.
-
Did you ever think about that?
-
God commands us
-
to believe on His Son and be saved.
-
And, we've been looking at this:
-
"...To love one another,
-
just as He commanded us."
-
Now, notice this,
-
"Whoever keeps His commandments
-
abides in God and God in him."
-
And this is what I want us to focus on.
-
We've been looking at those things.
-
Remember? I told you before,
-
John is circular.
-
He's like the bee that
flies around the flower.
-
He keeps hitting the same
things over and over.
-
Whereas sometimes as he's circling,
-
he begins to introduce some new truth.
-
Well, here in this last sentence
-
of 1 John 3,
-
John introduces something to us
-
that he has not yet introduced.
-
"By this we know that He..."
-
I'll just put "God" in there.
-
"By this we know that God abides in us,
-
by the Spirit whom He has given us."
-
That's where I want our attention.
-
That last sentence.
-
Now, let's think about this.
-
"By this we know that He abides in us."
-
Now, that may just seem -
-
He abides in us.
-
Stop and think.
-
He abides in us.
-
We have Scripture.
-
We have Scripture.
-
We live in an age - and I'm sure
-
all the ages have been like this
-
ever since man has fallen -
-
we're so circled by the ideas of the world
-
and by the deceptions
-
and by people's opinions.
-
But we have the Word of God.
-
We can come to it.
We can stand on it.
-
This is truth.
-
That's why we preach.
-
Have you ever thought about it?
-
The foolishness of preaching?
-
Do you ever think about
-
you guys actually come to
this place every week
-
and you sit there and you actually listen
-
to a guy that stands in a pulpit.
-
Does it ever just once in a while
-
you think that's ludicrous
that we do that?
-
Why do we do that?
-
Well, because God designed it.
-
But see, what it is, it's
the channel of truth.
-
Because I'm not preaching to you without
-
this book in front of me.
-
I have this thing here.
-
The idea of a preacher
-
is somebody who is able to come up
-
and stand before you and give you
-
the facts as they are found in this book.
-
That's what we do.
-
That's what this is all about.
-
This is all about giving you a steady diet
-
of God's Word - not of my opinions.
-
And the beauty is we can dive in here
-
wherever we dive into this book,
-
we find truth.
-
And one of the truths that we find
-
repeatedly in 1 John
-
is that the Bible does not shy away
-
from defining Christianity.
-
Over and over and over.
-
I mean, we need this.
-
We need this.
-
Because we've got religion all around us
-
that doesn't correctly
define Christianity.
-
We've got a world that looks out there -
-
they've got all their opinions.
-
We've got the news.
The news has ideas about Christians.
-
Who was it?
-
Oh, it was Brandon Davidson
-
who just did a message
on Coptic Christians.
-
You know how they were making a big deal
-
about the Coptic Christians in Egypt
-
because a number of them were beheaded
-
by ISIS?
-
And Brandon responded by showing
-
that these Coptic Christians
-
don't really fit the definition
of biblical Christianity.
-
But you see, the world,
they interpret things
-
however they want to interpret them.
-
But, John knows -
-
God knows who inspired John -
-
that we live in a world
-
where we need to be reminded
again and again and again
-
what true Christianity looks like.
-
That's what we have.
We need the facts.
-
Our only hope in this world -
-
is it not true?
-
Our only hope in this world rests
-
in being a Christian.
-
There is no hope outside
of being a Christian.
-
There is no other hope.
-
And so it's important that
we define what it is.
-
The title of my message:
"How You Know You're a Christian."
-
Now, obviously, John's been showing us
-
numerous ways we can
know we're a Christian.
-
What are some of the other proofs?
-
1 John 2:3 - you can just
glance right there.
-
You're right here in 1 John,
but we've already looked at these.
-
"By this we know that we
have come to know Him..."
-
How? "If we keep His commandments."
-
We read that in v. 23.
-
V. 24, "Whoever keeps His commandments
-
abides in God."
-
(There at the beginning of v. 24.)
-
We saw it back in 1 John 2:3.
-
"This we know, that we
have come to know Him,
-
if we keep His commandments."
-
Again, this is kind of
reiterated in 1 John 2:5.
-
"Whoever keeps His Word...
-
in him truly the love of God is perfected.
-
By this we may know that we are in Him."
-
See, you get these: "We know."
-
"By this we know..."
-
"We know that we know Him
-
if we keep His commandments."
-
"We know we know Him
if we keep His Word."
-
1 John 2:29,
-
"You may be sure
-
that everyone who practices righteousness
-
has been born of Him."
-
So you've got this:
"keeping His commandments,"
-
"keeping His Word,"
"practicing righteousness."
-
1 John 3:14, "We know that we've passed
-
out of death into life," how?
-
How can you know you're a Christian?
-
How can you know you've truly
passed from death to life?
-
"Because we love the brothers."
-
You see, he's been hitting this all along.
-
What we have here is we have a new one.
-
We have a new proof.
-
Before we look at the proof,
-
I just want you to see something
-
about what a Christian is.
-
I think sometimes we
need to stop and think,
-
what is a Christian?
-
Well, somebody that's been saved.
-
Yeah, but we have to think about
-
what it is that we've been saved from.
-
Do you ever recognize when Adam
-
would walk in the garden
-
in the cool of the day,
-
what happened?
-
God came to him and walked with him.
-
Have you ever thought about what he lost
-
when he fell into sin?
-
Brethren, look at chapter 3:24
-
and the beginning of
the last sentence there.
-
"By this we know that He abides in us."
-
John wants us to be clear
-
about what it means to be a Christian,
-
and here in this last verse of 1 John 3,
-
here is the basic premise.
-
A Christian is a home for God.
-
Let that sink in a second.
-
I mean, that's what it talks about.
-
Abiding. God abides.
-
You look up the meaning of that word.
-
That's to make a home with.
-
John is saying, Christian,
do you understand,
-
you are a dwelling
place for the Most High?
-
Does Paul not say,
-
"you are God's temple"?
-
God dwells in you.
-
That's what it is to be a Christian.
-
God comes to us.
-
God lives in us.
-
God makes His temple -
-
we are the dwelling place of God.
-
That's what we lost.
-
That's what Adam lost when he fell.
-
We lost God. We lost God with us.
-
We lost the life of God
-
in the soul of man - abiding in us,
-
dwelling with us, communing with us,
-
communicating, fellowshipping with us.
-
We lost Him.
-
Like the KJV says -
-
God says to Abraham,
-
"I am thy exceeding great reward."
-
That's the reward. That's the treasure.
-
It is Christ. It is God. It is the Spirit.
-
It is this Triune Godhead dwelling in us.
-
Manifestly dwelling in us.
-
That's what this is all about.
-
That's what he's laying on the table here.
-
Brethren, we need to face the reality
-
of what a Christian truly is.
-
A Christian is no ordinary man
-
like everybody else out there.
-
We're not just like everybody
else, but we go to church.
-
Brethren, think with me.
-
Think with me just about
dwelling places of God.
-
I mean, if you think in Scripture,
-
burning bush.
-
God dwelt in the burning bush.
-
Moses sees a burning bush.
-
It's burning. It doesn't get consumed.
-
I'm going to go over and check that out.
-
And God says, "Stop,
Moses. Stop right there.
-
You take your shoes off your feet."
-
Why? Because where God dwells,
-
it's holy ground.
-
You think about the holy of holies
-
inside the tabernacle.
-
The shekinah glory was so intense,
-
you did not go in there or you died -
-
except one man once a year
-
and only with blood.
-
The place where God
dwells is a holy place.
-
It is a fearful place.
-
It is a place unlike all other places.
-
Think about Heaven.
-
Heaven is the place where we think of
-
where God dwells.
-
And Isaiah looks at it as His beautiful
-
and holy habitation.
-
That's what it's like where God dwells.
-
And then you think about this.
-
John says to be a Christian
-
is to be one of these places -
-
we are the temple.
-
Inside that temple was the same thing
-
that was inside that tabernacle.
-
The tabernacle became the temple.
-
Inside there is the holy of holies.
-
It is where the manifest
glory of God dwells.
-
And what we are being told in Scripture
-
is we are that temple.
-
You see what God saves people for -
-
to inhabit them; to dwell with them;
-
to walk with them; to fellowship;
-
to manifest His glory there.
-
That's what it is to be a saint.
-
It's not this Catholic idea -
-
Saint Anthony - we were talking about
-
meanings of names the other day.
-
San Antonio. What's that?
-
I don't even know who Antonio was.
-
It might not have even been
a true saint whatsoever,
-
but we have true saints in here.
-
And what does it mean?
-
To be a saint is to be a holy one.
-
We're holy ones because we are
the place where God dwells.
-
What is a Christian?
-
We need to come back to that
-
again and again and again.
-
We need to be clear on this.
-
We are the church of the living God.
-
If there is going to be
somebody in this world
-
that need to be faithful
-
to be communicating truth,
-
it's got to be us.
-
It's got to be those of us
that have the Word of God.
-
What is a Christian?
-
A Christian is this -
-
is a Christian a moral person?
-
Is a Christian simply a good person?
-
Is it simply a member of this church?
-
No.
-
That's not it.
-
A Christian is one who God comes to
-
and manifests His presence in.
-
This is a spiritual reality.
-
The life of God possesses them.
-
Now, here's the thing.
-
Here's what you need to see
-
in the last part of the last sentence.
-
Read it with me.
-
"By this we know that He abides in us."
-
By this we know we are a temple of God.
-
By this we know we are
His holy habitation.
-
How?
-
"By the Spirit whom He has given to us."
-
See, John says, your
Christianity can be proven.
-
That's what he says here.
-
If you want proof of the fact
-
that a man is a Christian -
-
one who has God dwelling in him -
-
John says here it is.
-
Every individual who
possesses the Holy Spirit
-
may know that he himself
-
is such a dwelling place for God.
-
But then of course, the next question:
-
Well, how can I know if
I possess the Spirit?
-
But I think you can all feel this,
-
John expects that we can tell.
-
Don't you get that feel?
-
By this you can know
that God abides in you,
-
how?
-
"By the Spirit whom He has given us."
-
He expects us to be able to know
-
if we have the Spirit.
-
You can see that right off.
-
Every individual who
possesses the Holy Spirit -
-
he believes he's going to
know they possess Him.
-
That's the proof.
-
And that's the proof that God
has taken up residence in us.
-
How can we know?
What is the proof?
-
Holy Spirit.
-
He's certainly not the only proof,
-
but it's one of the proofs.
-
You know this very well, many of you.
-
Romans 8:9, "Anyone who does not have
-
the Spirit of Christ does
not belong to Him."
-
So here it is.
-
We're face to face with this
great truth of Scripture.
-
You have the Spirit or you don't.
-
If you have the Spirit,
-
God abides in you.
-
If you don't, He doesn't.
-
That's what he's laid on the table here.
-
It's very clear.
-
This is our Christian reality.
-
We have the Holy Spirit.
-
It's essential.
-
The Holy Spirit is essential
-
to your Christian life,
-
to your Christian standing,
-
to your Christian experience.
-
I'm afraid we forget
how essential this is.
-
I forget how essential this is.
-
You know what?
-
Every time I read through John
-
and I come across our Lord Jesus' words
-
where He says to His disciples,
-
"Nevertheless, I tell you the truth,
-
it is to your advantage that I go away."
-
Why? Why is it to our advantage?
-
"For if I do not go away, the Helper -
-
(or the Comforter) - will not come to you.
-
But if I go, I will send Him to you."
-
I often want Jesus to come.
-
I'm out in the field praying.
-
I want Jesus to come.
-
I long to be like the
disciples, like John,
-
who could lay at the breast of Christ.
-
I want that.
-
Don't you want it?
-
I mean, I want that,
-
and when I come to this,
-
I find I don't fully believe it.
-
Because I want that.
-
Because I don't have what I want.
-
I want to be able to touch.
I want to be able to see.
-
I want to be able to talk.
-
We want that!
-
And so when I come across
this verse time and again -
-
you know, we have to sit back and say,
-
I need to believe that that's true.
-
(Incomplete thought)
-
Listen, Jesus is saying having the Spirit
-
is more advantageous to you
-
than to have Him do the things He did,
-
incarnate, walking with His disciples,
-
the way He did.
-
This is better.
-
This is more advantageous.
-
We need to believe it.
-
Which means, there's some advantage.
-
And this is where John is pulling from.
-
There is an advantage in your life
-
that is observable.
-
And you can tell where that advantage is.
-
You can tell where the Spirit is.
-
And by that, by the
evidences of His presence,
-
you can know that you are one of these
-
dwelling places of God.
-
That's his basic argument through here.
-
And we see this truth reaffirmed
-
in chapter 4:13.
-
You can just look there.
-
1 John 4:13, "By this we know
-
that we abide in Him
-
and He in us
-
because He has given us of His Spirit."
-
So, the thing I want to ask is this -
-
this is the next obvious question.
-
What sort of proof is this?
-
I mean, you say to me,
"how can I know I'm a Christian?"
-
And I say to you, "by the Holy Spirit."
-
What sort of proof is that?
-
I mean, John the Baptist said this:
-
God told me the One upon whom I see
-
the Holy Spirit descend is Him.
-
Okay, John saw the Spirit
descend like a dove
-
and it remained on Jesus Christ.
-
And God had told him,
-
you're going to know the Messiah;
-
you're going to know the One
you're the forerunner to
-
because the Spirit of God is
going to descend on Him
-
and rest there.
-
But how do we know?
-
I mean, how do we know by the Spirit?
-
We don't see that.
I've never seen that.
-
What are the evidences?
-
What sort of proof is this?
-
Well, I'll tell you, I have twelve.
-
Jesus said it's to our advantage.
-
Well, there are advantages.
-
There's proofs.
-
And I get all these from Scripture.
-
I've got twelve of them.
-
And I don't want to go any
further than this today.
-
I'm going to give you twelve proofs
-
that Scripture gives to us
-
that are evidences of the presence
-
of the Holy Spirit, which in turn
-
is evidence that God abides in us
-
and we abide in Him.
-
That we're real; we're genuine.
-
So what are these things?
-
What are they?
-
How to know you are a Christian.
-
That's the title.
-
Or, how to know you have the Spirit
-
by which you know you are a Christian.
-
So here's the first one.
-
Jesus Christ told us this.
-
John 16:8 - you can mark these down.
-
You can try to turn to all of them,
but I'm going to go through them fast
-
and I think by the time you get there,
-
I'm already going to be
done with the point.
-
So, you might just want to hear these.
-
I'll give you the reference
because I want you to see
-
that all of these are
truly coming from Scripture.
-
John 16:8,
-
The Holy Spirit -
"He will convict the world
-
concerning sin and
righteousness and judgment.
-
Now, you think here.
-
We're going along in our life.
-
We're going along happy in our sin.
-
Remember that?
-
Remember how that was?
-
You're looking forward to your sin.
-
But then something happens.
-
What happens?
-
Something happens.
-
Something happens in the conscience.
-
Suddenly, there's a disturbance.
-
That's what conviction is.
-
It's a disturbance.
-
Suddenly, we're troubled.
-
We feel something.
-
Sin suddenly is not just
-
the vomit of the dog
-
that I want to run over and
can't wait to get to.
-
There's a hesitation.
-
That doesn't mean I totally
lose the pull of that sin,
-
but there's a check in my soul.
-
Something isn't right any longer.
-
That's what he's talking about here.
-
Conviction.
-
There's a gnawing disturbance.
-
There may be a hollowness
-
or an emptiness.
-
Things are not right.
-
Something is wrong.
-
Something is happening.
-
This is the Spirit's doing.
-
I used to be able to
easily dismiss my sin.
-
I could justify it like that.
-
But then something happened.
-
And you can't just dismiss it so easily.
-
I used to think of God out there.
-
Oh, He understands my sin.
-
He just overlooks it.
-
But now something had happened.
-
I could no longer enjoy
my sin as I once did.
-
I'm unsettled.
-
This is what Jesus says
the Holy Spirit will do.
-
You know, my friends, my family
-
couldn't understand me.
-
You know, the people out there
-
still enjoy all their sin
-
who are your companions in the sin,
-
who run with you in the sin,
-
suddenly there's a check in your spirit -
-
they don't understand you.
-
What's wrong with you?
-
You need another drink.
-
Shrug that off.
-
But you can't shrug it off. Why?
Because of the Spirit of God.
-
And He's speaking.
-
What's the next thing?
-
That's not all.
-
There's something else.
-
We read in Romans 8:14,
-
"All who are led by the Spirit of God
-
are sons of God."
-
So the Spirit not only convicts,
-
the Spirit leads.
-
I mean, something else happens.
-
Suddenly - well, it may not be so sudden.
-
Sometimes it's not as sudden.
-
In some it's sudden.
-
In some, it happens almost undiscernibly
-
like the rising of the sun,
-
but it's happening.
-
What's happening?
-
Desires.
-
My desires, my impulses,
-
I'm being led in ways
I was never led before.
-
What led me before?
-
Animal passions.
-
Base lusts.
-
My desire for what I wanted led me.
-
But something happens.
-
I'm being led by desires
I never had before.
-
There's impulses that shoot through me
-
that are rising beyond
my bodily appetites.
-
I'm being pulled by something else.
-
And you know what? You know it.
-
You know it. It's different now.
-
And people are looking at you -
-
what's wrong with you?
-
Well, you feel it inside.
-
I'm being pulled.
-
I'm being pulled away from that sin.
-
It's a pull towards God.
That's what it is.
-
It's a pull not just forward,
-
it's a pull upward.
-
You feel something happening.
-
There's leadership.
-
There's conviction. There's leadership.
-
How about the thought life?
-
You know, in Romans 8:5, we get this:
-
"Those who live according to the Spirit
-
set their minds on the
things of the Spirit."
-
So, if you live according to the Spirit -
what does that mean?
-
According to His power;
according to His presence;
-
according to His operation in your life;
-
what happens to your mind?
-
What happens to your thoughts?
-
The mind is drawn towards things of God.
-
You know that! You know that!
-
Not only did conviction come;
-
not only did this lead come,
-
but suddenly your mind -
-
you are thinking about spiritual things.
-
They're on your mind now.
-
You wake up and you start
thinking about eternity.
-
You start thinking that
there is a God out there
-
who I'm going to have
to give an account to.
-
You start thinking about
what is the cross all about.
-
What did Christ actually do?
-
You're troubled.
-
You're thinking of eternity.
You're thinking of judgment day.
-
Suddenly the mind is going
to these other things.
-
Any interest in religion before,
-
you know it was mechanical.
-
How can I do my thing?
-
I remember how it was.
-
It's this idea of the good and the bad
-
and hopefully the good will outweigh.
-
Once in awhile, you need to
-
do something kind for one another.
-
But suddenly, your thoughts
-
are not just mechanical thoughts
-
about religion.
-
The thoughts.
-
The Spirit pulls the mind towards God
-
and towards the Word of God.
-
The thought life.
-
Led to think about God
-
and think about sin
-
and think about eternity
-
and think about judgment.
-
One becomes amazed.
-
Isn't that what happens?
-
We wake up and suddenly we're amazed
-
that we didn't think about the things
-
that we're thinking about right now;
-
that we walked so long in the dark.
-
Then, oh, there's more.
-
What?
-
In John 16:14, Jesus says this.
-
The Holy Spirit will glorify Me.
-
You know what? We basically spend
-
our lost lives dismissing
-
the Christ of the Bible.
-
Trivializing Him.
-
But then, it happens.
-
I mean, it happens.
-
Suddenly, gradually, it happens.
-
We see Christ as we've
never seen Him before.
-
It sets us back.
-
The Spirit causes us to see.
-
He doesn't just make it
possible for us to see.
-
He sets Christ before us
-
and gives us eyes to see Him.
-
That happens.
-
He causes us to wake up.
-
I mean, there suddenly is an attraction.
-
We behold a beauty,
-
a magnificence in the Lord Jesus Christ.
-
Christians, do you
remember that happening?
-
He's no longer just a historical figure.
-
He is the historical figure.
-
You recognize that everything
revolves around Him.
-
You begin to recognize,
-
wow - everything in
Scripture is about Him!
-
Everything about creation is for Him
-
and in Him and through Him
-
and He sustains it all.
-
And suddenly, you just recognize,
-
He's not just one among many.
-
He is the One.
-
Everything else revolves around Him.
-
He is like the sun in the solar system.
-
Everything revolves around Him.
-
Everything has to do with Him.
-
Everything comes back to Him.
-
However you saw it,
-
Christ - when the Spirit comes,
-
Christ just is getting bigger
-
and bigger and bigger and bigger.
-
That's what happens.
-
There's no greater proof
of the Spirit's presence
-
in an individual or in a church than this.
-
You want to look for evidences
-
of whether the Spirit of God -
-
people love to talk
about the Spirit of God,
-
but one thing we find about the Spirit,
-
He is not self-promoting.
-
He is Christ-promoting.
-
You can tell His presence
-
not by where there's a
lot of talk about the Spirit.
-
You can tell the Spirit's presence
-
when you find them
preoccupied with Christ.
-
That's where the Spirit is.
-
That's what we find here.
-
Isn't that what happens?
-
You begin to find I have no hope
-
without Him.
-
I begin to face all the facts about Him.
-
It is Him.
-
I recognize without the incarnation,
-
there is no hope for me.
-
I recognize that if He
doesn't go to the cross,
-
there is no hope.
-
I recognize if He doesn't
rise from the dead,
-
there is no hope.
-
I recognize Him ascending to God -
-
in that is my hope.
-
All of this - what Christ did,
-
all the way through,
-
my hope is built on that.
-
I begin to see these things.
-
He came. He was incarnate.
-
He did these miracles.
-
He went on trial.
-
He faced Jerusalem.
-
He went there.
-
They beat Him and they buffeted Him.
-
They scourged Him.
-
They laid that cross on Him.
-
He went up there to Calvary.
-
They nailed spikes in His hands
and they crucified Him.
-
And you begin to look at all this
-
and you recognize,
-
this is not just some
other part of history
-
to throw out there
-
like the study of World War II.
-
This is it.
-
Everything revolves around this.
-
That's what the Spirit does.
-
Our eyes are opened to it.
-
We're rocked by the reality.
-
They crucified Him.
-
And suddenly, the Spirit does this.
-
How do you relate to this?
-
This is a proof of the Spirit's presence
-
which in turn is the proof
-
that we are God's temple.
-
We're going along.
-
We're going along absorbed
with all else but Christ.
-
Then something happens.
-
We sing it in the song.
-
Almighty love arrests that man.
-
We're arrested.
We're spiritually arrested.
-
And like Paul, we talked
about a few weeks ago,
-
"Who are You, Lord?"
-
"I am Jesus."
-
And suddenly, that name...
-
that name's not a curse word.
-
That name's not just
religious terminology.
-
The Spirit opens our eyes and our soul
-
and draws it out to Christ.
-
The Spirit always glorifies Christ.
-
Our estimation of Christ
is altogether reworked
-
by the power and
influence of the Spirit.
-
This is Christianity.
-
That's Christianity.
-
Being absorbed with Christ.
-
Honoring Christ.
-
Finding in Christ our all.
-
This is the heart and
soul of Christianity.
-
Brethren, I remember how it was.
-
Suddenly Christ's deity is
-
the most important thing
you ever imagined.
-
The cross is the most important thing
-
you ever imagined.
-
The resurrection -
-
the most important
thing you ever imagined.
-
Christ's perfect obedience -
-
the most important
thing you ever imagined.
-
Pleasing Christ - the
most important thing.
-
You say, they can't all be most important,
-
but that's the way it is.
-
The Spirit shows you one thing
about Christ after another,
-
and it's like that's the greatest thing!
-
Oh, look over here!
That's the greatest thing!
-
Because everything about
Him is just so great
-
and for the first time in your life,
-
you're made aware.
-
That's what the Spirit does.
-
What else?
-
What other proofs that the Spirit's there?
-
Romans 5:5 says,
-
"God's love has been
poured into your hearts
-
through the Holy Spirit
-
who has been given to us."
-
So when the Holy Spirit
has been given to us,
-
it seems like by nature all of us -
-
now, you think about this -
-
by nature, all of us create a god
-
of our own imagination.
-
This god approves of us.
-
This god loves us whatever
condition we're in.
-
I mean, that's the sort of god
-
that appeals to the natural man.
-
But what happens?
-
The Spirit brings conviction of sin.
-
The Spirit hits our consciences.
-
We're aware of sin and judgment
-
and how righteous God is
-
to bring us to judgment.
-
It breaks in upon us
-
that there is a living
Almighty God out there
-
with whom we have to do,
-
and He's so holy, He can't look upon sin.
-
I mean, this is what we're awakened to.
-
This god of our imagination -
-
like a mist that goes away.
-
Suddenly, we are face
to face with a big God.
-
And what this is all about
-
is when we see this holy God -
-
we see this God who cannot look upon sin -
-
not the God of our imagination.
-
The true God. The living God.
-
The terribly holy, holy,
holy God of Scripture
-
before whom the seraphim
shield their faces.
-
The Spirit says that God loves me.
-
He loves me!
-
He gave His Son for me.
-
That's what's being communicated.
-
You just look at the context of Romans 5.
-
He showed His love,
-
and it's shown on the cross.
-
And suddenly the Spirit communicates that.
-
I remember my brother-in-law Rick.
-
He said he was laying in bed one morning,
-
and just like a lightning bolt...
-
he was musing on, contemplating the cross,
-
and God just said, "Rick, it's for you."
-
"I did that for you."
-
That's what happens.
-
The love of God.
-
He sent His Son to die for me.
-
And this one's so closely related.
-
Romans 8:15
-
"You've received the Spirit
of adoption as sons."
-
Here's the Spirit.
-
The Spirit of adoption. We receive Him.
-
What does He do?
-
"...By whom we cry, 'Abba, Father.'"
-
There it is.
-
God is not just some
distant power anymore.
-
He's no longer the pushover
god of our imaginations.
-
He's the God of Scripture.
-
But He no longer presents Himself to me
-
as an angry God
-
whose wrath I'm under.
-
But now, look at that.
-
The Spirit makes us conscious
-
of the fact that He who
is the Most High God
-
is my Father.
-
He cares for me.
He loves me.
-
He sent His Son to die for me.
-
I cry to Him now as a Father.
-
Father, Father.
-
What a title!
-
Christian, when you pray -
-
I hear some Christians that
address God as God.
-
Now, theologically, there's
nothing wrong with that.
-
But it always feels impersonal to me.
-
To keep addressing God repeatedly as God,
-
when the Spirit comes and says,
-
He is God,
-
but He makes Himself known to you
-
as your Father.
-
Not just as Father - Abba.
-
I mean, what an endearing word.
-
Do you know this reality?
-
Brethren, we want true Christianity.
-
The kind of Christianity that God
is not just a far away power,
-
not the pushover god of my mind,
-
but it is the God of Scripture
-
in all of His highness and transcendence
-
and vastness.
-
He's personally come to me
-
and He says, "I'm your Father."
-
This is an operation of the Spirit.
-
By this we know God dwells
within and we're real.
-
How about this? Romans 8:16.
-
"The Spirit Himself bears witness
-
with our spirit that
we're children of God."
-
There's the Spirit on the witness stand.
-
The devil can come
and sling his accusations.
-
But the witness is this:
-
"I own you as My own.
-
You are My child. You are My son."
-
But there's still sin.
-
"Yes, but you're My child.
-
I've sent My Son to die for your sin.
-
You belong to Me.
-
I bought you with a price.
-
I brought you into My family."
-
The Spirit bids us
-
to see this sonship.
-
He witnesses to us.
-
What does a witness do?
-
What do you want a witness to
do when they go on the stand?
-
Just give the facts. Tell the truth.
-
That's it.
-
That's what the Spirit's doing.
-
You want to know what the truth is?
-
You haven't just been saved from sin,
-
you've been saved
from just wandering, lost.
-
God has brought you into His household.
-
He's your Father. You're His son.
-
He's bestowed His love upon you.
-
That's it.
-
The Spirit does that.
The Spirit witnesses.
-
How about number 8?
-
Romans 8:13,
-
"By the Spirit, you put to death
-
the deeds of the body."
-
If you do that, you live.
-
That's life.
-
Remember?
-
We're alive. We're Christians
if we have the Spirit.
-
By the Spirit, we know
-
that God abides in us.
-
If you have the Spirit, what do you do?
-
You put to death the deeds of the body.
-
The daily practice of killing sin matters
-
because it's an evidence of
whether the Spirit's there or not.
-
And look, a lot of people in the world,
-
they intend to make changes in their life.
-
They make New Year's resolutions
-
to make changes in their life.
-
They grit their teeth to
make changes in their life.
-
But I'll tell you this, true change -
-
radical change, the purity
-
that God desires from us -
-
the only way that we can do that;
-
the only way that we truly
-
can put off these deeds is by the Spirit.
-
God's Spirit is the Holy Spirit.
-
He will not leave God's people unholy.
-
God's Spirit is a mighty Spirit.
-
He is more powerful than our sin.
-
I mean, this is the thing.
-
When the Spirit is put
within the child of God,
-
you have to think about this.
-
You've got sin. You've got the Spirit.
-
Sin is viewed in Scripture as
this kind of dark force
-
or a dark lord.
-
"Sin reigning in the mortal body."
-
That's how Scripture describes it.
-
Then you have the Spirit who comes up
-
and takes residence in the Christian.
-
You've got these competing powers,
-
but who's stronger?
-
Of course, the Spirit is.
-
And the Spirit will always win.
-
The Spirit will always win.
-
He is in the business of making saints;
-
of making holy people.
-
Men can create.
-
Men in their own strength -
-
think about what men in
their own strength can do.
-
Well, they can come to church.
-
They can create religious settings.
-
They can do that.
-
They may create morality
-
or formality or civility.
-
Customs, rituals, ceremonies -
-
all that's possible.
-
Church attendance, baptism.
-
But there's no mistaking it.
-
Whenever and wherever somebody's desire -
-
you have to think about this.
-
This is really what it is.
-
We're not told that the Spirit comes in
-
and turns off bodily desires.
-
You know how it is we put to death
-
the deeds of this body?
-
It's not because all of a sudden
-
you've lost all your longings
-
to please this body and gratify this body.
-
What happens?
-
Your desires to please
Christ become stronger.
-
That's what happens.
-
It's a battle of desire.
-
And where the Spirit is -
-
look, just because you get saved
-
doesn't mean you lose sexual desire.
-
Just because you get saved doesn't mean
-
you lose desire to feel pleasure
-
or to feel relaxation;
-
to feel good; to eat food; to drink.
-
The body has appetites.
-
But what happens is it's like Joseph.
-
Do you think there
was temptation in Joseph
-
when Potiphar's wife came?
-
I mean, she's the wife
-
of a high ranking official.
-
She's probably beautiful.
-
And who's going to know?
-
God's going to know.
-
And there's a desire there.
-
I'm not going to sin against God this way.
-
I know He's watching.
-
My fellowship with Him is more important
-
than my gratifying this bodily appetite.
-
And that's where the battle is won.
-
Our desire for other
things become greater.
-
And that is the proof that
-
there's just no other
explanation when that happens
-
than the Spirit of God is doing that.
-
And where He does that,
-
God has taken up residence.
-
How about number nine?
-
Christlikeness.
-
2 Corinthians 3:18
-
Many of you know this.
-
"We all with unveiled face
-
beholding the glory of the Lord
-
are being transformed
into the same image..."
-
What same image?
Well, the image of the Lord.
-
"...From one degree of glory to another.
-
For this comes from
the Lord who is the Spirit."
-
Here's another operation of the Spirit.
-
What does the Spirit do?
-
Transforms us into the likeness of Christ.
-
Now, this is kind of
similar to the last one.
-
Killing the appetites of the body.
-
How is it similar?
-
Well, it's kind of the opposite.
-
This one here in 2 Corinthians comes at us
-
from the positive side,
-
whereas Romans 8 comes at us
-
from the negative side.
-
Romans 8 is the negative - we kill sin.
-
Here in 2 Corinthians,
we have the positive.
-
It's the image of Christ -
-
more and more resembling Him.
-
It's like the mercury
rising in a thermometer.
-
It's just going up and up and up.
-
That's how it is in our life.
-
What is that?
-
Well, if you imagine,
-
sometimes people do
these time lapse photography.
-
You've seen that kind of thing?
-
You know, I saw just recently,
-
I was on Drudge and I
saw somebody did that
-
on Hillary Clinton
-
from when she was in her
20's or whatever to now.
-
And they just went
through all these photos,
-
and they kind of morphed
them into one another.
-
But you've seen time lapse photography
-
maybe of a flower or something.
-
But if you can do time lapse
photography on a Christian,
-
this is an operation of the Spirit.
-
But if you do the time lapse,
-
they are becoming more and more beautiful.
-
And I'm not saying a time
lapse on your outer body.
-
Because that's getting uglier and uglier.
-
I say that based on Scripture.
-
The outer man is what?
-
(Wasting away). There you go.
-
Except for my wife.
-
Seriously, she is becoming
more beautiful all the time.
-
But if you could time
lapse us spiritually,
-
you know what you see?
-
It's like wow!
-
The ugliness, the blemishes
are falling off.
-
The wrinkles are disappearing.
-
How is that happening?
-
The Spirit.
-
That's what happens.
-
The Spirit. Christikeness.
-
We heard it from our brother.
-
It's like the dawn
-
shining brighter and brighter
-
until the full day.
-
That's how it is.
-
If you look at the sun,
-
you can't visibly see it,
-
but it is by degrees
climbing higher in that sky.
-
And it's the same way here.
-
You know how it is with people's children?
-
We just went out to
the Community conference
-
and you see people -
-
you see people and it's
like the last time I saw you,
-
you were this big!
-
And you just went forward and bang!
-
There's this difference.
-
Well, that's how it is
-
if a true Christian -
if you don't see them
-
for five years,
-
there should be noticeably
something more Christlike.
-
Why? Because that Spirit has operated.
-
This is exactly what He does.
-
How about fruit?
-
This is the tenth.
-
Galatian 5:22.
-
You know this very well.
-
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
-
peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
-
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
-
Against such things, there is no law."
-
Once the Spirit comes in,
-
fruit. Fruit begins to show.
-
And I know this is
similar to the last one.
-
I have fruit trees in my yard.
-
I have a lemon tree. (Thank you, Haney's.)
-
And it bears.
-
I have two fig trees.
-
And I have a number of peach trees.
-
And all of them are producing
-
already this year.
-
Fruit.
-
The fruit is coming out.
-
The trees are known by their fruit.
-
And I'll tell you this,
-
where the Spirit is cultivating
-
and fertilizing and gardening,
-
beautiful things come forth.
-
That's what we have.
-
Beautiful things grow.
-
Love. Love for God.
-
Love for the brethren.
-
A joy.
-
Brethren, a joy the world can't take away.
-
Why? Because our hope
-
is in something higher.
-
Our hope is outside this world.
-
Our hope is beyond our circumstances.
-
Brethren, do you know
-
that even if CPS showed up at my door
-
and took my two youngest children away,
-
my hope in Christ is unshaken.
-
I have a joy that transcends
-
my circumstances in this world.
-
A joy that passes understanding.
-
There's peace in the soul;
-
a sense of sins forgiven.
-
This is what the Spirit does.
-
The Spirit makes unkind people kind,
-
and harsh people gentle.
-
He changes people.
-
People say, "Oh, you got religion."
-
I'll tell you this, if
it's God's religion,
-
you're going to get more than that.
-
You're going to get a lot more than that.
-
You're going to get this -
-
self control.
-
You're going to become good by degrees,
-
but it's real, it's true.
-
Brethren, this is what
our Bibles teach us.
-
This is what it says about
what true Christianity is.
-
This is what it says
about where the Spirit is.
-
Eleven: Alienation.
-
You say, what do you mean by that?
-
Ephesians 4:30.
-
"Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God
-
by whom you were sealed
-
for the day of redemption."
-
Look, the Spirit is the member
-
of the Godhead that we are told
-
is grieved by our sin.
-
I mean, listen,
-
David describes this
sort of thing in Psalm 32.
-
Don't turn there, but listen.
-
David says this, "When I kept silent..."
-
In other words, when I did not deal
-
with my sin before God,
-
"my bones wasted away
-
through my groaning all day long.
-
Day and night Your hand
was heavy against me,
-
my strength was dried up
-
by the heat of summer. Selah.
-
I acknowledged my sin to You.
-
I did not cover my iniquity.
-
I said I will confess my
transgressions to the Lord,
-
and You forgave the iniquity of my sin."
-
And I would just ask you, Christian,
do you know this?
-
Do you know this about
the presence of the Holy Spirit?
-
Do you know the reality of the
bone-wasting work of the Spirit?
-
You know what I mean.
-
(Incomplete thought)
-
You know how it was when you're lost?
-
You sinned and you were happy
-
and you wanted more.
-
That's not what
happens in the child of God.
-
You sin because you think
it's going to make you happy,
-
and your bones waste away.
-
And it's not happy.
-
Where'd the smile of God go to?
-
Have you had that happen?
-
You know what happens
when God smiles on us?
-
We can get careless.
-
Oh, this is great!
-
Sun shining. Birds singing.
-
Life is great! It's wonderful
to be a Christian.
-
And you get sloppy in your Christian life.
-
And what happens?
-
Suddenly, you look up -
-
where'd the smile of God go?
-
And beyond that, you begin
to feel it in your bones
-
like David did.
-
You feel this.
-
Bone wasting. Why?
-
Because God is grieved and it's the Spirit
-
who expresses His grief.
-
Why would He say don't
grieve the Holy Spirit?
-
Why? Because the Spirit of God is the one
-
who so actively is doing all these things
-
in our life.
-
And it's so much to our advantage
-
that we have Him,
-
even beyond the advantage of what it was
-
to have Christ Himself walking,
-
and you grieve that Spirit,
-
and you are going to
bear the consequences.
-
You don't want to say,
-
well, I'm saved by the grace of God
-
and I'm under the blood,
-
and so you know what,
my sin shouldn't matter.
-
It should be forgiven.
But you see what happened.
-
It was forgiven in David,
-
but it wasn't until he repented of it
-
and he acknowledged it,
-
and then the joy of
his salvation returned.
-
But this is another work of the Spirit.
-
Christian, do you not know what it is
-
to have that happen in your life?
-
The Spirit is going to see to it:
-
Sin is not going to be a joyful ride.
-
He's not going to allow you
to enjoy it like you once did.
-
Christian, the Spirit sees to it
-
that you hurt for sin.
-
He'll make you groan under it.
-
And here's the last one,
-
and this really is going to lead out
-
into what I want to deal with next week
-
in testing the spirits.
-
But you see this truth in 1 John 4:2,
-
where we're going next week,
-
but it would be this: right doctrine.
-
John argues that - this is interesting -
-
John argues that there are spirits
-
behind doctrine.
-
Whether good or bad.
-
In fact, Paul talks about demon doctrines.
-
When you hear people or religions
-
that speak truth or that speak error,
-
there are spirits behind that.
-
And what he says here in 1 John 4:2,
-
"By this we know the Spirit of God..."
-
In other words, those who have
-
the Spirit of God can be known. How?
-
"Because every spirit that confesses
-
that Jesus Christ has come
in the flesh is from God,
-
and every spirit that
does not confess Jesus
-
is not from God."
-
John argues that there's
always spirits behind doctrine.
-
The Spirit of God is the Spirit of truth.
-
The Spirit of God is the Spirit
-
who carried along
the authors of Scripture.
-
In fact, if you go down a little further,
-
you can find that whoever is of God;
-
whoever has the Spirit listens to us,
-
John says.
-
In other words, they
listen to the apostles.
-
They listen to the apostle's doctrine
-
which is in here.
-
You can know the Spirit of God
-
because the Spirit of God will always
-
affirm and assert what
is written in Scripture.
-
He will never contradict it.
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We can test the spirits that way.
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We can know the Spirit by which people
-
are indwelt by their doctrine.
-
And especially, he's saying,
by their doctrine of Christ.
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Listen to what people say about Christ.
-
His Person. His work.
-
That's what we find here.
-
The Spirit of God - mark a man's doctrine;
-
especially His doctrine of Jesus Christ.
-
Who Christ is;
-
what Christ has accomplished.
-
The Spirit always proclaims
a glorious Christ.
-
I mean, when you see doctrine;
-
you hear doctrine;
-
you read doctrine - doctrine is teaching -
-
it sets forth Christ glorious.
-
The Spirit always is going to proclaim
-
a salvation that leaves us
-
not boasting in ourselves,
-
but boasting in the cross
-
and boasting in Christ.
-
That's absolutely essential.
-
The Spirit shows us a Person.
-
The Spirit shows the person
-
that He indwells,
-
that He is active in.
-
He shows them that Christ matters.
-
What we think about Christ matters.
-
The real Christ. The biblical Christ.
-
The true Christ.
-
This is the Spirit of Christianity.
-
Right doctrine.
-
So you think about all these.
-
If the Spirit is present,
-
we have conviction,
-
we have His leadership,
-
we have a thought life
-
with a mind set on
the things of the Spirit,
-
Christ is glorified,
-
five - the love of God is shed abroad
-
in our hearts by the Spirit;
-
six - the Spirit of adoption
causes us to cry, "Abba, Father;"
-
seven - the Spirit bears witness
-
that we are children of God;
-
eight - by the Spirit, you put to death
-
the deeds of the body;
-
nine - by the Spirit who is the Lord
-
we are transformed
-
from one degree of glory to another
-
in this image of Christ;
-
ten - the fruit of the Spirit:
-
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
-
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
-
self-control -
-
that is going to be evident;
-
this grieving of the Spirit,
-
the alienation that when Christians
-
fall into sin, we grieve the Spirit;
-
we reap consequences in the bone-wasting
-
work of the Spirit;
-
and then this last one, number 12,
-
was right doctrine.
-
The Spirit teaches us and leads us
-
into the truth -
-
especially the truth concerning Christ.
-
These are 12 evidences.
-
And remember what John says.
-
"By this, we know..."
-
By this, we know
-
that God abides in us.
-
We are the dwelling place of God.
-
How?
-
By the Holy Spirit.
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So that's what John teaches us
-
in these passages.