“Understanding the Holy Spirit part 2”

July 3, 2005.  Pastor Matt

Last week:

-          We are not alone.  The Holy Spirit lives in us.

-          The Holy Spirit is our Guide so we must surrender to Him.

Other than an understanding and belief in who Jesus is and what He did for you, there is nothing of greater importance in the Bible than understanding who the Holy Spirit is and following Him.

The Christian life apart from the Holy Spirit is a new car without the key or owning a new car, starting the engine, and then pushing your running car wherever you need to go.

Once we put our faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit becomes the guide in our new life,

because remember that life with Jesus is not your old life, it is a completely new way to live.  It is a new way to be human. 

God is the Father, Jesus is the Son, but who is the Holy Spirit?

I worship the Father and pray to the Son but I don’t know where the Holy Spirit fits in.

If we are going to let someone guide us, we must get to know that person. 

If we are going to be led by Him we must recognize Him…when He is at work.  (Like Mandy talking to me and not hearing her.)

Who is the Holy Spirit? and How can we recognize Him?

The following are ways he is already at work in our life on a daily basis.

1.  The Holy Spirit is the one who convicts the world of the reality of sin.

Three ways He does this:

John 16:8-10.  When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;

A. The Holy Spirit is the one who convicts the world that they have sin. 

Not necessarily the specific sins in your life as much as the fact that sin, in general, is what separates us from God, heaven, eternal life. 

A genuine decision to follow Jesus always comes with a genuine understanding that you have sin and because of your sin, you can never get to heaven on your own strength.

When you are told of the sin in your life, you know within you that it is true.  The Holy Spirit convicts/convinces you.

Even if you are an unbeliever sitting in the pew today, you can be familiar with at least one way that the Spirit is working in your life.  He tells you, you have sin. 

The Holy Spirit uses Christians to convince the world that they have sin and need a Savior.  

John 15:26-27.  "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.  And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

“to testify” is to be a witness.  To say to you, “trust me, what I am saying is true.”

As a Christian, when we share Jesus, it is the Holy Spirit who convinces/ convicts the world that Jesus is who He says He is.  It is not up to us to convince others.  We can only present the truth.  The Holy Spirit can convict, but it is still ultimately up to the person to decide what to do with what they know to be true.  It is a sad thing when people know the truth and they still turn away from it.  Think about the Rich man who was told by Jesus to sell everything he had and come follow Jesus.  

Matthew 19:22.  When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

C.  The Holy Spirit reminds Christians to turn from the sin in their lives

For Christians, the Holy Spirit makes clear to us that God is a righteous God and sin is not acceptable. 

When we sin, the Holy Spirit is there to convict us of the sin in our lives that we may turn from it. 

Romans 8:8-9.  Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.  You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit,

2. The Holy Spirit is the one who helps you understand spiritual things.

John 16:12-15.  "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.  But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.  He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.  All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. 

Before you became a Christian, the only thing spiritual that you really understood was that you have sin and need a savior.

There are some things about the Christian life that you will never be able to totally explain to a non-believer

Grace, unconditional love, true forgiveness, never being alone, spiritual gifts, blessings from above

1 Corinthians 2:12-14.  We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.  This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.  The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The Bible becomes alive to you in a new way.  You were walking in darkness but now you see the light.

The world begins to make sense because it was meant to be seen from God’s viewpoint.

When you receive insight into the world, insight into the Scriptures, that is the Holy Spirit communicating to you.

It is important to mention that when you are learning to listen to the Holy Spirit,

John 16:(13)  But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.  He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears,

The Holy Spirit speaks what the father tells Him to speak.  He will never contradict the Bible. 

The Holy Spirit was the one who helped the apostles write the Scriptures and He is the one who helps us understand the Scriptures.

-          Who better to help us understand something than the one who wrote it.

-          Some things we just do not understand and we got to leave be

3. The Holy Spirit talks to you, if you will learn to listen.

Acts 20:21-23.  I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.  "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.  I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.

Paul had an inner compulsion. 

Something within Him was directing Him. 

Sometimes the Holy Spirit asks you to do something and you just can’t get rid of that nagging compulsion to get it done.

For some, it is a compulsion to respond to the salvation call.  For others it is to do something God wants you to do.  To do something morally right.  

When we are led by the Spirit, He often, will not let go of what He wants us to do.  If we refuse to do His will, we often find ourselves walking away from Him and living life without His guidance.  That refusal to do His will is sin and more often than not gets our life in a huge mess. 

When we turn back to the Holy Spirit, often the first thing He wants us to do is submit to what he already told us to do a long time ago. 

We can find release in finally doing what God has put on our heart to do.

To many people ignore the inner compulsions of the Holy Spirit and as a result we, and the church, miss out on the great things God wants us to do. 

It is a scary thing to listen to the “Man in your head” and do what He says.  But there is no other real way to live than to listen to what He is saying and obey Him. 

4.  The Holy Spirit is the one who reminds us who we are.

Romans 8:14-16.  because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.  And by him we cry, "Abba,  Father."  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.  

Romans 8:1 begins by saying that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

It is a chapter on sin, who forgave us, who we are to overcome it, and what happens to people who live in sin. 

It is also a chapter on the human life.  We all sin, but we shouldn’t sin. 

We all mess up but He forgives us and wants us to overcome those things we keep doing to mess up. 

When we did not know Jesus, because of sin, we lived in fear of what would happen to us when we die.

Now that you know Jesus, we do not have to live in fear that every time we mess up, we are no longer His children. 

Don’t sin, but if you mess up, he is there.

When we doubt our salvation because of our sin, the Holy Spirit reminds us that our sin was paid for.

(16)  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

He picks you up, tells you to lift that chin up, and then gives you the strength to overcome and carry on. 

Because He is in us we are reminded that above all, we are God’s kids and we are overcomers.

One way we see how He does this in how He helps us pray. 

Romans 8:26-28.  In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,  who  have been called according to his purpose.

When we are at the bottom and don’t know what to pray or where to go, he steps in and helps out.  He steps in and helps out because you are a child of God and He is there to help you.

Closing.

Think back, are you starting to recognize Him?  (As with when you buy a vehicle)

Recognize the Holy Spirit at work in your life and thank Him that He is there to help you with this crazy thing could the Christian life.

Is He convicting you of sin that you need to repent of?

Has the Holy Spirit been telling you to do something and today you are going to start doing that thing He wants you do.  Maybe forgive someone?

If you have never understood that you are a sinner, then told Jesus that you believe in what He did, then asked Jesus to be in control of your life, you are not saved.  Saved from what?  Hell.  Knowing who He is, is not enough.