The Holy Spirit is presented as a distinct, intelligent person, not merely an influence, who is essential for the Christian life and ministry. The sermon contrasts the dangers of focusing solely on Scripture or solely on subjective spiritual experiences, emphasizing the necessity of both the Word and the Spirit working in harmony. It details the Spirit's personhood, attributes, will, and actions, highlighting His role in convicting of sin, enabling faith, uniting believers, assuring salvation, indwelling believers, producing fruit, and glorifying Christ. The sermon concludes by stressing that ignoring or grieving the Spirit leads to emptiness and powerlessness, while embracing His fullness is the greatest need for believers to effectively live for God and glorify Jesus.
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I think that during these morning hours, which I have a little responsibility, I would like to direct your thinking toward the person and the work of God the Holy Spirit. And this morning we're going to think of the Holy Spirit as a person. And I am afraid that this may be just a wee bit technical, but don't let this discourage you, as I think we shall move on with God's help. during the days we are together into that which is both personal and practical. I want to read just one verse from the eleventh chapter of the Gospel according to Luke, verse thirteen.
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. And then we are reminded of what was true of the Lord Jesus after he was risen from the dead and he met with his own. And we read that he breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Spirit. In this age of grace, God has given us two great and wonderful gifts. Over and above His unspeakable gift to us, the Lord Jesus.
He has given us His Holy Word, His Word written, and He has sent into our hearts, as believers, God the Holy Spirit. As Christians there is a tendency to go to one of two extremes. There are those Christians who rightly concentrate upon the Scriptures. as the objective record and declaration and revelation of God and His will. They study God's Word. They seek to use all the faculties that God has given them to understand the meaning and the application of God's Word. They use their mind.
They use their reason. They seek to understand and they expound the Scripture. But in so doing, they tend to neglect the ministry and the person of God the Holy Spirit. And so often what is to be a message of life becomes something that is dry and doctrinaire and rationalistic. There's not very much life, although there's a great deal of truth understood intellectually. Then there are those who have concentrated upon the Holy Spirit to the neglect of God's objective Holy Word. and they have tended to become subjective and emotional and unstable.
They have tended to look within and have not been guided by God's word written, and as a result they have been led off into excess and enthusiasm. What we need, and what has always been true in terms of authority in the history of the church, is we need the Spirit and the Word, the Word and the Spirit, neither one without the other. The Word of God never contradicts the leading of the Spirit of God, nor does the Spirit of God ever lead in a way that would be contrary to the Word of God. God's great gift to the world is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The great gift of the Lord Jesus to the church, not to the world, to the church, to the believer, is God the Holy Spirit. next to the cunning of Christ into the world, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in full measure, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer is the medium, is that which is the greatest blessing that we have in this age of grace. I think we need to realize that every special blessing, every particular and specific grace, that is ours as Christians, as believers, is mediated to us by the Holy Spirit and through the Holy Spirit.
We need, of course, to distinguish between the blessings of what theologians call common grace and special or particular grace. By common grace we mean all the blessings of God that He sheds upon the just and upon the unjust. Sunshine and harvest. the seasons of the year, health and strength, the glories of nature, and all that He gives us physically to sustain us in physical life. For God is blessing this world, and God is blessing humanity as a whole, apart altogether from their response to the Lord Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice for us at Calvary. But for we, for us rather, who are recipients of the blessings of Calvary, who have been led by faith to receive the Lord Jesus, God gives us special blessings, special graces, and all these special blessings which are God's bounty to the Christian are ours in and through the Holy Spirit.
We need to remember that if we ignore God, the Holy Spirit, we are really ignoring God. If we are living without conscious realization of the Holy Spirit and our lives and dependence upon Him, we are losing God's best, we are losing God's fullest, and we are in measure depriving God of His glory in and through us. Some of us have been afraid of the truth of the Holy Spirit because of the excesses of some who have not properly followed God's Word. I do think one of our great needs today is to understand and to rethink and by faith to appropriate all that God has for you and for me.
We need to remind ourselves that the Holy Spirit is Christ's special representative. It is by means of the Holy Spirit that the Lord Jesus Christ is real in our hearts. But all too often the Holy Spirit is an unrecognized, unwelcome guest. But all what a difference. when he is welcomed in all his fullness and allowed to fill us completely. Now just a few preliminary thoughts this hour concerning the person of the Holy Spirit. One of the things we need to understand is that the Holy Spirit in reality is a person. He is a personality. Just as much as the Lord Jesus Christ is a person.
The Holy Spirit is not a thing. He is not a mysterious influence. He is a person. In his essence, he is spirit. As God is spirit, he is spoken of as wind. He is spoken of as breath. The name that he's given to him is that of holy spirit. And that signifies his nature, holiness. He is referred to in Scripture as that good spirit. As the spirit of God. As the spirit of the Son. As the spirit of Christ. Of course, this all brings before us the mystery of the Trinity. There is only one God, not three gods.
And God is of one essence, and God is of one substance. And yet God, the Holy Spirit, is a distinct personality or person. It's beyond our understanding. This is something we have to accept by faith. But whatever is ascribed to God the Father and to God the Son is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit in reality is a holy, intelligent person. All the various attributes of God, His holiness, His righteousness, His eminence, His power, His presence, His knowledge, all of this belong to the Holy Spirit as to the Lord Jesus or as to God the Father.
We need to remind ourselves, I think, that the Holy Spirit is a spirit of understanding and wisdom because He is a person. A will is described to the Holy Spirit. We read that the Holy Spirit divides to every person according as He wills. He has to act himself. The Lord Jesus referred to that in John chapter three, where we read, the wind blow us where it lifts us, and so on. And then we read, so as every one that is born of the Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit has a will to perform, and the Holy Spirit does perform his ministry in us and in the world.
The very work the Holy Spirit does suggest to us he's a real person. The Lord Jesus said, He was sent to teach us. We read in John fourteen that He shall teach you all things. The Holy Spirit acts. The Holy Spirit acts and approves. We read in Acts chapter twenty, the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. In other words, here we have the thought of the Holy Spirit actually acting. Do you know that the Holy Spirit is a person who can be lied to, even as Ananias and Sapphira lied to him?
He's a person who can be sinned against, and yet he is expressly called God in that same chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. What is the relationship of the Holy Spirit to God the Father and God the Son? The Godhead really is undivided. When God the Father acts, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are acting. When God the Holy Spirit is acting, God the Father and God the Son is acting. You see, there's only one God. It's never a case of God the Father acting in one way, and God the Son acting in another way, and God the Holy Spirit acting in another way.
They are one in essence. It's awfully important that we understand this. Sometimes we're afraid of the Holy Spirit, lest in our concentration upon Him we should fail to give glory to the Lord Jesus. But we need to remind ourselves it's the purpose of the Holy Spirit, really to glorify the Lord Jesus. God is said to give His Spirit, to send His Spirit, to minister His Spirit, to pour out His Spirit, to put His Spirit upon people. And this is the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ in sending His Spirit into our midst.
We read that God the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, He also proceeds from the Son. We read He is sent by the Father and He is sent by the Son. We read that He comes as Christ departs. And yet the Lord Jesus makes this tremendous statement in John fourteen where He says, I'm going away and then He says, I will come to you. Emphasizing the fact that God is one, that though God incarnate is going to depart, God, the Lord Jesus is going to send his Holy Spirit and in sending his Holy Spirit, Christ, and I will come to you. For the Holy Spirit is Christ's alter ego, Christ's other self. He is the representative of the Lord either.
And so we read he falls upon believers. He rests upon believers. He abides with believers. And also he departs. You know that strange story in Samuel of the Holy Spirit departing from Saul and of the prayer of David, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. And yet we have the promise of the Lord Jesus that in this age he will never leave us completely because the Holy Spirit has come to abide with you and abide with me forever. And yet the Word of God does suggest that there can be a partial departure or withdrawal when the Holy Spirit is grieved.
He abides with us. He dwells within us. And the Word of God suggests to us that when we have the Holy Spirit, we have God the Father. And when we have the Holy Spirit, we have the Lord Jesus dwelling in our hearts. For the Lord Jesus and God the Father dwell within the heart of the Christian in the person of God the Holy Spirit. we read that he shall be in you and so on various names are given to describe the Holy Spirit in his relationship to us as Christians he is called the comforter and when we use the word comforter we're not thinking of something nice and warm and cozy we pull on over the bed at night when we're cold rather it's a strong word it means water was called alongside us to strengthen us it's the old concept of comfort.
One who was called alongside to strengthen. A similar thought, of course, is in the word that is used, paraclete. One who was called alongside to be with us. He is also called Christ's Advocate. We know the two advocates there are. We have an advocate in heaven. Who is our advocate? The Lord Jesus, Jesus Christ the righteous. But Christ has an advocate, one who represents him, who speaks on his behalf, and that is God the Holy Spirit. Did you ever pause to consider some of the ministries of the Holy Spirit in your heart and mind? He is the one who first convicts us of sin and makes us aware of our desperate need.
She is the one who opens our eyes to understand that when Christ was crucified, He died for our sins. He died for you and me. Apart from Him, we'd never, never really understand that. He gives us that enablement whereby we lay hold of the Lord Jesus by faith. We appropriate Him. When we put out trust in Him, He baptizes us into the body of Christ, which means He unites us with Christ. and with all believers in Christ's body. He is the one who assures us. For you know there are three grounds of assurance in the New Testament. There is the objective testimony of God's Word, of which we heard last night.
He that hath the Son, hath life. The Word of God is our past book, declaring that our names are written in the Book of Life. But that is the objective assurance we have concerning salvation. But then there is that subject of assurance, the spirit witnessing with our spirit, assuring us that we belong to the Lord Jesus. And then there is the assurance from the world, by their fruits ye shall know them. And the only way the world knows that we are in Christ is by the evidence of a Christ-like character and a Christ-like life. The three grounds of assurance. but in subjectively personally to me it is the Holy Spirit who seals it is the Holy Spirit who assures he indwells us he makes his tabernacle within us he makes his home in our hearts he is the one who is to fill us with all the fullness of God and it isn't so much that we have more of the Spirit but rather the Spirit has more of us he is the one who enables us it isn't our organization not our plans not our techniques the only thing the only power we have the only enablement we have
is God the Holy Spirit it is God the Holy Spirit who indues us sometimes for special ministries I believe in his own sovereign way it is the Holy Spirit who gives gifts of the Spirit to his church I sometimes wonder why in our assemblies There is not a greater concern that in the local church there is a greater degree or amount of gift of the Spirit. I hope the day is going to come when in our assemblies we're going to have the assembly looking to the Lord that the assembly may receive the gifts of the Spirit for the work of the ministry that God intends.
And then it is God the Holy Spirit who produces His fruit in the individual believer. We often get so confused between the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is that miraculous supernatural work whereby the character, the graces of the Lord Jesus, are reproduced in you and me to the glory of the Lord Jesus. That there may be something of the fragrance of Christ in us and through us. And yet sometimes you see an individual who has a great gift of the Spirit and there's not much fruit of the Spirit in his life. And we say, how can such an inconsistent man be used so greatly?
I think we need to distinguish and understand the gifts of God are without repentance or recall. There's no merit to the individual in the exercise of the gift of the Spirit in the church, but all what the Lord Jesus longs to see in you and me is the fruit of the Spirit that He can produce. He is the one who witnesses concerning Christ. He is the one who leads us. He is the one who enumens our heart. He is the one who inclines our heart to please the Lord Jesus and to obey Him. He is the one who helps all our infirmities, who helps us as we pray. And I think we need to realize that He speaks to the Father.
The authority of the Holy Spirit is the authority of God. He speaks with the authority of Christ, even as Christ spoke with the authority of the Father. We need to understand something of what theologians call the progression or the procession of the Spirit. That God the Father sent the Son, and the Son represented the Father and spoke with the authority of the Father. And now in this age of grace, God the Son sends the Spirit. And the Spirit speaks with the authority of Christ, to the glory of Christ. He manifests to make real the Lord Jesus. He glorifies the Lord Jesus.
And just as the Lord Jesus didn't speak of his own authority and didn't manifest his own glory, but he manifested the glory of the Father and spoke with the authority of the Father. So the Holy Spirit has come in the name of the Lord Jesus. And all that was suggested yesterday morning about the name of Christ is true in terms of the Holy Spirit. He represents Christ. He speaks for the authority of Christ, for He comes in the name of the Lord Jesus. He is the regent of the Godhead in this dispensation, in this age of grace. He is the authority of God acting in the believer and carrying out the will of Christ in this world. But all we also need to understand, There is an awful and terrible side to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
It isn't all sunshine. For God the Holy Spirit hardens men's heart. He blinds their eyes lest they should believe. He compounds their blindness in their refusal to submit to the Lord Jesus. My spirit shall not always strive with man. Oh, what a terrible thing. It is whether saved or unsaved to have God, the Holy Spirit, working in our hearts and to resist that spirit. For believer, God, the Holy Ghost, can work in your heart. And if you are not submitting to the authority of Christ, there can come, in your experience, not a complete withdrawal of the Holy Spirit, for He's come to abide forever.
But so far as ministering Christ, He leads us to our own worldliness. and our own hardness of heart. He is our teacher. He is the one who witnesses of Christ. He is Christ's advocate. And so to us. What then is the ministry of the Holy Spirit God would? It is to glorify the Lord Jesus. And if you and I are ignoring God, the Holy Spirit in our lives, God is dishonored. Christ is being refused and denied. Supposing I were to speak to you and you were just to walk away without taking any notice. That would hurt me and that would be discouraging.
And yet how often does God, the Holy Spirit, speak to us and we ignore him? If you were to write me a letter, I now don't even bother to reply, I just ignore you. You know how you would feel. How often is God ignored because we ignore the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our midst? To us, what does the Holy Spirit mean? He means that all the special blessings that God has for us are ours in and through the Holy Spirit and to the world. That if we are not spirit-filled believers, our lives are barren. Our lives are unfruitful. We tend to become worldly.
We can go into a backsliding condition and at best all we shall have is self-effort. In closing I would like to remind you of the difference the Holy Spirit makes in the life of a person. Do you remember the story of King Saul? He was a strange man. I don't think he was a person who had not much intelligence or many brains. He was a big fellow. Probably if he'd lived in our day he would have played football. he towered head and shoulders above the people when the donkeys were lost he wasn't even able to find them and yet for some extraordinary reason God chose him to be king over Israel and then when God chose him to be king over Israel he didn't send him to theological seminary he didn't send him to university he only did one thing to make King Saul a king that big old country boy and what did he do he gave him the Holy Spirit And then we read in God's word two descriptions of what was true of Saul.
When God the Holy Spirit came upon that man, the God's word says he became a new man. And God gave him another heart. And there was such a fantastic, unbelievable change in that man. That they said, why this is impossible. Is Saul also among the prophets? They couldn't bring themselves to believe that this fellow could act in this way. Yes, all that God did to make this big man a real king was to give him his spirit. And for a while Saul was a real king. But then there came a time when that poor fellow began to imagine that he was king in his own right and himself, and not on the basis of the Holy Spirit whom God had given him.
He began to think he amelt it for something, and he began to disobey God. And you know the story, but there is no more terrible chapter than that chapter in First Samuel, when God had sent Saul to kill Amalek, all the Amalekites, and Saul didn't obey God, obey God perfectly. And then there came those awful words from God through Samuel. To obey is better than sacrifice. To hearken in the fat of rams. Because you have rejected me, I have rejected you from being king over Israel. God was through with Saul. And then what did he do? Did God smite him dead? No. Did God make him an invalid or a sick man?
No. God did one thing. He simply removed his spirit from Saul. And at that moment Saul ceased to be a king. He was only a caricature sitting there with his robes and his crown on his head. A make-believe king. A peter king. He wasn't a king anymore. The one thing that made him king of Israel was a person, the Holy Spirit. And then you have that awful picture before his death of Saul trying to call up the Spirit of Samuel. And Samuel saying again, don't you realize God is through with you? You've had it. You're finished. And he was finished because the Holy Spirit was removed. And then think of David. David had sinned.
Bathsheba, Uriah, he disgraced God, he'd sinned against the nation. And then when David came under conviction, and when he confessed his sin against thee and thee only have I sinned, what was the awful cry from his heart? Oh Lord, whatever else you do, don't take your spirit from me. David knew what had happened to Saul. David knew that once the spirit of God had gone from Saul, Saul was through. And David knew. that if God did the same thing. If God removed His Spirit, He was through. And so His awful cry was, O Lord, whatever else you do, please don't take your Spirit from me.
Now in the age of grace, because it's all of grace and not of works, in the grace of God, the Holy Spirit has come to live in your heart forever. until the Lord Jesus comes back again. But all that we may know more of the fullness of the Spirit in our lives, all that we may understood, understand that all that we are and need is ours through the Holy Spirit. And to ignore the Spirit, to grieve the Spirit, to refuse the Spirit means to refuse God, and it leaves us empty and powerless and ineffective and God is not glorified.
I believe in this age of grace, for us who are ignorant, our single greatest need is the fullness of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I repeat that. That being born again, our single greatest need is the fullness and the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We can have all the information. We can understand all the doctrine. But if we haven't got the enablement, we are unable.
God grants us that we shall be concerned about these things. And that as we go on morning by morning, there will be a hunger and thirsting after God in all His fullness that we may enjoy all that God has for us. Tomorrow morning, God willing, we're going to consider something of the mystery of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Lord Jesus on earth and I think that suggests what God the Holy Spirit can mean to you and to me