The Hound of Heaven - Part A

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That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. This dog is persistent and he loves to run. He doesn't really like to go on walks, at least with me, I don't take him on a walk. He goes on a gallop, quite frankly. He loves to run at full speed and so he thinks he's big enough where when I take him on the run, I'm sitting on a bicycle, he's on the leash, he pulls me. This little dog pulls me on my bicycle, he wouldn't have it any other way.

Neither way. He can't keep up that pace but he will for a long time and then he'll just happily gallop at full speed for a long period of time next to the bike. Now here's his MO. Whenever I'm home, he'll follow me from room to room to room until he gets his run.

He's all about the run, the chase. He's the hound of the Heitzigs. I really want to speak to you today about the hound of heaven.

No disrespect to the Holy Spirit. There was a poem written in the 1800s called The Hound of Heaven. It was written by Francis Thompson. Francis Thompson was a medical student. He was going to be a doctor. His dad wanted him to be a doctor. He didn't really want to be. But he was in medical school, went through the motions, but eventually he dropped out, hit the streets of London, became a drug addict in the 1800s, addicted to opium, and became suicidal. Attempted at taking his life a couple of occasions.

It was unsuccessful. But he eventually wrote a long poem, 182 lines, called The Hound of Heaven. He speaks about how he ran from God and he ran for years and went here and went there. But God was always patient and faithful to draw him back and that God, the Holy Spirit, was the hound of heaven. That's what I want to focus on today. Last week we looked at several verses in John chapter 15 and 16 to speak about the person of the Holy Spirit generally, but now I want us to look at something more specific, and that is how the Holy Spirit works at large in this world.

He's about doing one thing, drawing people, showing them, revealing to them the need that they have, and the need is met in Jesus Christ. I suppose if we were to put that chase in a modern terminology, computer terminology, it would sound like this. The maker of all human beings is recalling all units manufactured, regardless of the make or year, due to serious defect in the primary and central component of the heart. This is due to a malfunction in the original prototype units, code named Adam and Eve, resulting in the reproduction of the same defect in all subsequent units. This defect has been technically termed, get this, sub-sequential internal non-morality, or more commonly known by its initials, SIN.

Symptoms include loss of direction, foul vocal emissions, amnesia of origin, lack of peace and joy, selfish or violent behavior, depression or confusion in the mental component, and rebellion. The manufacturer is providing factory authorized repair and service free of charge to correct the SIN defect. The repair technician, Jesus, has most generously offered to bear the entire burden of the staggering cost of these repairs.

There is no additional fee required. Call toll free the number, P-R-A-Y-E-R. Once connected, please upload your SIN through the repentance procedure. Next, download atonement from the repair technician into the heart component. As an added upgrade, the manufacturer has made available to all repaired units a facility enabling direct monitoring and assistance from a resident maintenance technician, the Holy Spirit. The thing, it continues.

Continuing to operate the human unit without correction, voids the manufacturer's warranty, exposing the unit to dangers and problems too numerous to list and will result in the human unit being permanently impounded. The one who's doing the convincing that we need the recall is the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit who basically comes along and says there's something wrong with your unit. You need to do something about that. So we're gonna look at that today and we're gonna look at a few verses in particular. Honing in on what we looked at last week, we begin in verse five where Jesus is speaking saying, but now I go away to him who sent me and none of you ask me where are you going. But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you. And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, of sin because they do not believe in me, of righteousness because I go to my father and you see me no more, of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. First of all, when it comes to how the Holy Spirit of God works in this world, his necessity is undeniable.

Those disciples would need him, would need the Holy Spirit in days ahead. Did you notice what Jesus said? He said sorrow has filled your heart.

I've told you these things and sorrow has filled your heart. The word fulfilled is the word in Greek, playrao, and it means to fill something so full that you can't fit anything else in it. So imagine pouring water into a glass to the brim. It's completely filled up.

Or putting gasoline in your car so it's so full that it starts to bubble out a little bit. That's playrao. That's filled to the max. So the idea is that anxiety had so controlled their thought processes, or to put it in Jesus' words, sorrow has filled your heart.

You can't think about anything else. Why? Because Jesus said he was leaving. He's leaving. Their best friend is leaving them. The one that healed their families, the one that calmed their storms, the one that turned water into wine, the one that gave them free lunch in Galilee.

The one that said go get that fish and you'll find a coin in its mouth and you can pay the IRS this year with the money you find there. Handy guy to have around. He's going. And besides all that he's done for them, they just love him and he's leaving them. Here's the big idea. They don't understand it.

This is not what they have expected. As Jews living 2,000 years ago in and around Israel, they had in their minds, most did, an idea of what would happen when the Messiah would come. There was sort of a four-stage series of events, or I'll call it eschatology, an unfolding of end time events that they expected with the Messiah's arrival. Number one, they thought that before the Messiah actually comes there will be a period of upheaval, turmoil in the land, which they saw as being fulfilled with the Roman occupation. Number two, prior to the Messiah's arrival, an Elijah-like forerunner would come on the scene announcing the coming of Messiah. To them that was John the Baptist. That's why so many people were interested in John's baptism. Number three, the Messiah would arrive and when he arrived he would defeat his enemies. He would establish his kingdom.

And number four, scattered Jews from all over the world would return to Israel and Jerusalem would be established in peace. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, Nate Heitzig has written a children's book just in time for Christmas. And this month we're offering it to you as thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig. Christmas Under the Tree follows the timeless story of Jesus Christ from the cradle to the cross through the eyes of an unlikely character, a humble tree. This beautifully illustrated book, which includes a companion audio experience, is a wonderful way to tell the Christmas story and the story of Christ to the children in your life. This resource is our thanks for your gift of just $25 or more today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig.

Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give $25 or more today to reach people all around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. The disciples believed they were somewhere between stage two and stage three. John the Baptist had come, the Messiah had come, next was the setting up of the kingdom, but Jesus said he was leaving, not staying leaving. It didn't compute to them.

That didn't make sense. So sorrow has filled their heart. This is not what they have expected.

But here's what I want you to notice. These disciples are focusing on what they're about to lose rather than what they're about to gain. They're so bummed out and so filled with sorrow because Jesus said he's going, but they're not even registering what he's told them in terms of what they're going to receive. The Holy Spirit, the Helper is coming. It's to your advantage that I go.

If I go, I'm going to send the Spirit to you. How many times do you meet people who do exactly that? They focus on what they're losing or have lost rather than what they're gaining. I've met unbelievers who said, oh, I can't give my life to Christ. I might lose my friends.

Yeah, but you'll gain a friend who sticks closer than a brother. I can't give my life to Christ. I'll lose my old life. Yeah, but you'll gain eternal life, everlasting life, abundant life.

Think about what you're gaining. Some of you have heard of Jim Elliot, that legendary missionary to the Alka Indians. Probably the most famous thing he ever said was a simple sentence. It goes like this, he is no fool to give up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. I'm leaving, boys, but the Holy Spirit, the Helper is going to come, and Jesus said he will abide with you forever. By the way, if you do lose something, I believe God is in the business of replacing it with something better. You may not know it at the time, but Jesus put it this way. Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my name's sake will receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life.

These disciples are going to need the Holy Spirit desperately in days to come to mitigate against the sorrow they're now feeling, but secondly, because the task that Jesus sends them on is enormous. Right before Jesus leaves, he's going to say, go into all the what? Go into all the world. Have you ever thought about that? Go into all the world and preach the gospel to whom?

Every creature. That's an enormous task. That's a big job. In fact, let me put it another way. It's an impossible task. It's like me telling you, if you're standing at the dock in front of a sailboat, me saying, make that sailboat go forward by blowing into the sails.

Go ahead, try it. You can do that all day long, and that sailboat isn't going to move. You don't have what it takes to make that thing go.

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. They don't have what it takes to do that on their own. That's the point. I'm leaving, but another is coming, and he has a job to do through you in the world.

It sounds impossible. They can't do it without the Spirit. So his necessity is undeniable. The second thing I want you to see is that his activity in the world is unmistakable. Verse 8. When he, that is the Spirit, when he has come, he will convict the world three things, of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. If you were to take out the word convict and replace it with the word convince, that would be another way of looking at that verse. He's going to convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Then he explains, verse 9, of sin because they do not believe in me, of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see me no more, of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. Now, we just breezed over those verses last week. I'd like to unpack them because right there is the kernel of the activity of the Spirit of God in this world. First thing he does is convict the world of sin. Or here's another way of putting it. The Holy Spirit will convince people that they're sinners. Now, why would he need to do that?

Simple. No one will ever look for a Savior until they think they need one. And the only people that think they need a Savior are people who know they're sinners.

They have to be convinced, I need help. I'm a sinner who needs saving. So the Holy Spirit will convince people of their need for the Savior by convincing them that they are sinners. Now, I've discovered most people need convincing of that because most people don't admit that they're sinners. In fact, they don't even like the term sin.

They hate that word. By and large, the world denies that sin exists. I'm not a sinner. I might have a hang-up.

I might have a few issues, but I don't have sin. Or they will blame their behavior on something or someone else, like their environment. I am the way I am because what my parents said to me, they made me eat spinach when I was five years old and I've never been the same since. So there's a shifting of blame. Or they want to blame their genes.

I don't mean their Levi's. I mean their genetics. I have a propensity to anger. It's part of my genetic structure. It's not my choice. It's who I am.

There's an enormous amount of blame shifting, and it takes the Holy Spirit to convince people of their need by convincing them that they're sinners. I had a man come up to me the other night, Wednesday night. Sweet man. He's big guy, strong. I'm glad he was sweet. He said that he had been coming for a while, but it wasn't until recently that he said, God is just doing something really deep inside my life. It was a conviction of the Holy Spirit he was describing. He said, I've been here.

I've heard many messages before, but recently I feel something much deeper. That is the conviction that only the Holy Spirit can bring. And by the way, that is his job, not yours. Your job isn't to convict people that they're sinners.

And if you try to do that, it's gonna just come off sounding like condemnation. There was a little 13-year-old girl named Elizabeth Brinton. She sold, get this, 11,200 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. Boxes. 11,200. She broke the record. Somebody said, how did you manage to sell that many boxes to people?

She said, it's not that hard. You gotta look him in the eye and make him feel guilty. That might work with Girl Scout cookies. It doesn't work with the gospel. It's not your job. It's the job of the Holy Spirit to bring conviction. Case in point, Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, post-Holy Spirit coming on the day of Pentecost. He spoke to the crowd. And while he spoke, listen to what it says. And when they heard these words, they were cut to the heart. Another translation says they were convicted in their hearts. They weren't convicted in heart because Peter was a masterful sermon maker. He was a fisherman.

He was just kind of learning this stuff. They were cut to the heart because the Holy Spirit was convicting the world of sin. And they said, brethren, what must we do?

That day, 3,000 people were saved. I want you to notice what it says in verse 8 and verse 9. Notice it's sin in the singular, not in the plural. He will convict the world of sin, not sins, in verse 9, of sin, not sins, because they do not believe in me.

Rather than just convicting the world of particular sins of bad behavior like murder or adultery or stealing or speeding, I've discovered the conscience, if it's working correctly, does a good job of handling those things pretty well in most people. But rather, the Holy Spirit will convict a person of sin, singular, and especially the kind of sin that the conscience will never convict a person of, and that is of unbelief. Unbelief. The world doesn't think unbelief is a sin. If you ask an unbeliever, do you think your unbelief is a sin against God?

No. Do you think murder's a sin? Okay, I can agree that murder's bad, but I don't think unbelief is bad. The world doesn't see that as a sin. In fact, many worldly people see unbelief as a badge of honor. You've heard it. I'd really like to believe like you because you're just so simple-minded. Me, I'm a little more intelligent than the average bear. I'd like to believe that. I really would love to believe that, but I'm just too smart for that stuff. So they see their unbelief as something to be sort of enshrined.

They're proud of it. But it's actually the worst of all sin because it's unbelief that prevents the forgiveness of all other sins, sin because, he said, they do not believe in me. Only the Holy Spirit can convince a person that that unbelief has to be dealt with. By the way, if you happen to live with anybody who's under conviction or work around or be around somebody in close proximity who's under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, be sure to let us know so that we can support you in prayer. If you're around a person under the conviction of God and they just are stubbornly fighting him, they can act horribly and say hostile things to you.

It's hard to live around those who are living under conviction. True story, there was a professional golfer who was playing a tournament with Jack Nicklaus, President Gerald Ford, and Dr. Billy Graham. This was years ago. He was playing a tournament. At the end of the tournament, somebody asked that professional golfer, hey, what was it like playing golf with the President and Billy Graham? This man said, I don't need Billy Graham stuffing religion down my throat. Well, what was weird about that is, come to find out, the entire golf game, Billy Graham never brought up God or religion at all.

But the fact that he was there playing and this man knew who Graham was and what he stood for was just enough to bring that conviction to the surface. I don't need him stuffing religion down my throat. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resource that will help you and the children in your life see the timeless story of Christ with fresh eyes.

Nate Heitzig's book, Christmas Under the Tree, with Forward by Levi Lusko, gives thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copy when you give $25 or more. Call 800-922-1888.

That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. And did you know that you can find full message series and libraries of content from Skip Heitzig on YouTube? Simply visit the Connect with Skip Heitzig channel on YouTube and be sure to subscribe to the channel so you never miss any new content. We'll see you next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. Make a connection Make a connection At the foot of the crossing Cast your burdens on His Word Make a connection Connection Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.