Getting to Know Your Best Friend | Part 1

Could you be religious and still lost?

We'll be right back. If you have your Bible, turn now to Romans chapter 8 as Adrian Rogers begins with part 1 of Getting to Know Your Best Friend. Take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter 8 with me. The Bible says in verse 9, But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. And then Paul makes a very emphatic statement that if you don't mind underlining you ought to underline in your Bible. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

And in the Greek language that's an emphatic negative. And he's just saying plainly and clearly that if the Spirit of Christ doesn't dwell in you, you my dear friend do not belong to Christ, you are on your way to hell. Now in Romans chapter 8 is a great chapter on the Holy Spirit of God. Many things are taught in Romans chapter 8, but it is a great chapter on the Holy Spirit. And in Romans chapter 8 the Apostle Paul is making a comparison between the saved and the lost, the saints and the aunts. And that comparison hinges on the Holy Spirit, those who have the Holy Spirit, and those who do not have the Holy Spirit. What is the distinguishing mark of a Christian? What is the one test beyond all other tests that a person has been saved?

It is this. Does he have the Holy Spirit? Does the Holy Spirit dwell in him? Now just put your bookmark there in Romans 8 because we're going to come back to that and look with me in John 14 for just a moment.

And notice what the Lord Jesus says also about this comparison. In John chapter 14, beginning in verse 16, Jesus said, And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth. Now here he's talking about the Holy Spirit, and he calls him the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive.

And there again the Lord is making the difference. The saints of God have the Holy Spirit, they receive the Holy Spirit, but the world does not receive the Holy Spirit because it seeth him not. Now the word seeth him does not mean that the world doesn't literally see him. We know the world literally doesn't see him, but neither do you. He is a spirit, and a spirit can't be seen. The word see here means that the world does not perceive him. The world does not understand him. It's used in the same sense in which Jesus said in the third chapter of John, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. It means you can't perceive.

I'm talking to you about something. I say see. I mean do you understand that? And what Jesus is saying here is that the world can't perceive him. The world doesn't understand him. And then he says, neither knoweth him. Now you may know about him, but you do not know him intimately. You can't perceive the Holy Spirit. You cannot fellowship the Holy Spirit if you are of the world.

It is impossible. You may know about him, but you do not know him intimately because you have not received him. Now a good test as to whether you are saved or not is just simply this. Have you received the Holy Spirit? As a matter of fact in Acts chapter 19 Paul met some disciples and he had reason to believe, just wonder whether or not they were saved at all or not. And he asked them, he said, Have you received the Holy Ghost since you were saved or since you believed? And they said, We didn't even know whether there was any Holy Spirit. Paul said, Is that right? He said, What were you baptized for? Oh, they said, We were baptized with John's baptism. And then Paul realized that these people had come right up to the threshold of salvation, but they had never received the Lord. And he preached unto them Jesus, and they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus and received the Holy Spirit. The distinguishing mark of a child of God is this, that he has the Holy Spirit.

If you don't have the Holy Spirit you don't know anything about God. And we are coming back to Romans 8 in just a moment, but go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 for a moment. I want to read a passage of scripture that is often used at funerals, but it is taken out of context a little bit when you use it at a funeral. And turn with me, if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 9. The apostle Paul is talking about understanding or perceiving the things that belong to God. And he says, But as it is written, I have not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

Now so many times we use this as a funeral text and we say, Oh, isn't it wonderful? Aunt Susie is seeing what eyes can't see and hearing what our ears can't hear and knowing what our hearts can't know because now she's in heaven. But that isn't what this verse means.

Look at it right here. What he is saying is that your natural eye cannot perceive, understand, behold spiritual truth. Neither can your natural ear perceive spiritual truth. Neither your natural heart. What he is saying is that you will never comprehend spiritual things visually, audibly, emotionally.

Never. Not by the eye gate, not by the ear gate, not by your heart. As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But notice, God hath, not will someday, already has, revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. Now he's just contrasting two types of people, those who live by their senses and those who live by the Spirit. Verse 12, Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. What Paul is saying is you don't have to wait until you get to heaven to see and experience these things, but the only way that you're going to know them is by the Holy Spirit. Verse 14, But the natural man, that is an unsaved man, a man in his natural state, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for their foolishness unto him. Now if I preach the gospel to you and you say that's foolish, or if God's word appears foolish to you, well you're just giving proof positive that you have never been saved. They're foolishness to the natural man, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. He doesn't have the equipment to know them.

There's no way that he can know these truths. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, that is he discerns all things. Turn with me to next to the last book of the Bible, the book of Jude, and we're going to get back to Romans 8 in just a moment, but I'm really trying to set the stage and I'm trying to get you to see what makes the difference is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the distinguishing mark of a Christian.

And the book of Jude here, there's no chapter, it's just one chapter, so we don't give a chapter reference, but look in verse 10. He's speaking of the unsaved and he said, But these behaviour are those things which they know not. Why don't they know them? Because they're spiritually discerned. But what they know naturally as brute beasts, that is a man without the Holy Spirit has no head start over an animal in knowing God.

They're like a brute beast. And then look if you would in verse 19 of Jude. These be they who separate themselves sensual, that is they're living by their senses, having not the Spirit. So you have the sensual man and the spiritual man, the natural man and the spiritual man. I'm just trying to tell you in all of these verses what Paul has said in Romans chapter 8 and verse 9, If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Now, back to Romans 8, and I want you to see that God gives your best friend three descriptions. There are three references to the Holy Spirit and he has described three ways. For example, in Romans 8 verse 2, he is called the Spirit of life.

Do you see that? For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. There the Holy Spirit, and the word Spirit is capitalized in my Bible, it's talking about the Holy Spirit, he is called the Spirit of life. Your best friend is the Spirit of life. Now go down to verse 9, and there he's called the Spirit of Christ. Notice the last part, the Spirit of God is called the Spirit of Christ. In this verse he's called both the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ.

Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. So the Holy Spirit is called in verse 2, the Spirit of life. He's called in verse 9, the Spirit of Christ. Now go down to verse 15, he is called the Spirit of adoption. Now I believe in these three references you really have the office work of the Holy Spirit, your best friend, in your life. He is the Spirit of life, he is the Spirit of Christ, and he is the Spirit of adoption. And I want you to get to know your best friend, because this is his three-fold ministry to you. He ministers to you as the Spirit of life, he ministers to you as the Spirit of Christ, he ministers to you as the Spirit of adoption.

Now let's look at these. As the Spirit of life, he gives us our life. We have life by the Holy Spirit. I don't mean existence. Even an unsaved man has existence.

He will exist forever, but he doesn't have life. Jesus said in John 10, 10, I've come that you might have life. Well how do we get this life? We receive this life by the Holy Spirit. The Bible says it is the Spirit that quickens, it is the Spirit that gives life. Now the difference between the people of the world who are religious and true Christians is this, the people who are truly saved live by the impartation of life, the unsaved live by the imitation of life.

They just simply imitate the Lord, but a Christian is somebody who has received life. Jesus said in John chapter 3, we have to be born of the Spirit. When you're born, that's when you have life.

You're born literally from above which is life. You see, man is body, soul, and spirit. Now I know the theologians argue this and they say no, he's just physical and spiritual, but the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 23, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now man is more than a plant because he has a soul. Plants have a body, but they don't have a soul.

But man is more than an animal. Animals have a body and a soul, but animals don't have a spirit. Only man has body, soul, and spirit. And your spirit is that organ of knowledge, that part of your nature that enables you to know God. For the Bible says God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

And when we get saved, God's spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Now I want to point this out, that man by nature is spiritually dead. He may be physically alive, he may be soullessly or psychologically alive, but he is spiritually dead until he receives the Holy Spirit. Now it is the spirit that gives life. You cannot have life apart from the spirit of God.

You only have existence. And the reason that some people are religious but lost, they have never ever received the Pentecostal difference, the Holy Spirit of God. And that's the reason the Bible says if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

You're just dead, spiritually dead. You may have physical life, you may have emotional life, but unless the Holy Spirit has come into you, you're spiritually dead. You remember reading in John 1 verse 4 where John is describing Jesus and the Bible says, In him, that is the Lord, was life and the life was the light of man. The Lord has the life and the life is the light.

John 1, 4. All right, now what happened when Adam sinned is the Lord went out and when the Lord went out, the life went out. And when the life went out, the light went out. And now he doesn't have the Lord, he's depraved.

And now he doesn't have the life, he's dead. Now he doesn't have the light, but for a man to be saved again he's got to get the Lord back in. And when the Lord comes back in, the life comes back in, and when the life comes back in, the light comes back in. Now how does the Lord come back in? The Lord comes back in by His Holy Spirit.

Which brings up a very interesting question. Who lives in you? Does God live in you, God the Father? Or does Jesus the Son live in you? Or does the Holy Spirit live in you?

Well, all live in you. Romans 8 verse 9 says, If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of his. But in that same verse, that's called the Spirit of God.

And then in Colossians 1 verse 27, the Bible says it's Christ in you, which is the hope of glory. Don't ever make the mistake of trying to segment the Holy Trinity so precisely that you think that because the Holy Spirit is in you, that Jesus is not in you. The Holy Spirit is Christ in you. The Holy Spirit is God the Father's agent to make Jesus Christ real to you. Jesus is in us through the agency of the Holy Spirit, and there's no contradiction. And so your best friend, first of all, is the Spirit of life, and he gives our life. The life that I have now, I have because the Holy Spirit lives in me. What a difference that makes.

Let me give you an illustration if I can. God formed Adam out of the dust of the earth. That we know. Out of the dust of the ground, God made Adam, and there's Adam. Let's just imagine he's lying down there because he doesn't have any life yet. And God has formed him, and he's perfect. There he is. He's a specimen of a man.

Everything is perfect except for one thing. He doesn't have any life. I mean, God has made him absolutely totally perfect, but there's no life. Now suppose God were to say to Adam, Adam, get up and act like a man.

There's no way he can act like a man because he has no life. Then the Bible says that God breathed into Adam the breath of life. And the word breath of life may be translated the spirit of life. He breathed the spirit of life into Adam. And physically and spiritually and emotionally Adam is quickened. God breathes into this lump of clay life. Now God doesn't have to say to him, now Adam, act like a man.

Get up and walk around like a man. It's natural for him to walk around like a man. He doesn't have to be begged or instructed to do it.

That's just natural. The life is inside of him right now. May I tell you, dear friend, that the same thing is true spiritually. You are a spiritual corpse until God infuses you spiritually with his life until you receive the Holy Spirit. And to encourage you to live the Christian life before you receive the Holy Spirit is to encourage you in an impossibility. But once you do receive the Holy Spirit, once your best friend comes into you, it is perfectly natural for you to live the Christian life. I mean, it's just natural because you have the life of God in you. Well, is it a miracle?

Yes, it's a miracle. But once it is a miracle, you become supernaturally natural and naturally supernatural. There has been an impartation of life. So your best friend is called the spirit of life. You have no life, no spiritual life apart from the Holy Spirit of God. Now, not only is he the spirit of life who gives us life, but now, secondly, he's called the spirit of Christ. Now, what does he do as the spirit of Christ? As the spirit of life, he gives our life. As the spirit of Christ, he glorifies our Lord.

He glorifies our Lord. He is called the spirit of Christ. So it is Jesus in you who is the Holy Spirit. He is the spirit of Christ.

What is he going to do in you? When this man gets up and walks around, this man who has received the Holy Spirit spiritually, whose life is in him? What is the spirit of life? The spirit of life is the spirit of Christ. Now, if I have the spirit of Christ, who am I going to act like? I'm going to act like Christ. The Holy Spirit just reproduces Jesus Christ in me.

I've told you this many, many times, but I want to tell you one more time. There's only one person who has ever lived the Christian life. His name is Jesus. His name is Jesus. And if the Christian life is lived at your house, it will be Jesus in you. It will be the spirit of Christ, who not only gives us life, but glorifies our Lord. He is the one who makes Jesus Christ real in you.

I mean, there's no other way. Other than this, you'd just be a little cheap, tin imitation of Jesus. The apostle Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ who lives in me.

The life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Now the Holy Spirit is the spirit of life. And he's the spirit of Christ. He gives us our life. He glorifies our Lord. He gives our life.

He glorifies our Lord. He is the spirit of Christ. And by the way, if you want to know whether a person has the Holy Spirit, don't ask if they can speak with tongues. That's not the sign they have the Holy Spirit. Ask, are they like Jesus? Are they like Jesus? That's the sign whether or not a person has the Holy Spirit of God.

What a powerful word to close with today and a practical one as well. If you want to know whether a person has the Holy Spirit, don't ask him to speak with tongues. Ask if he's like Jesus. Are you like Jesus today?

Is he changing you from the inside out? We'll hear the conclusion of this important message tomorrow, but maybe today you have questions about who Jesus is, what he means to you, how to begin a relationship with God through Christ. Go to our Discover Jesus page at the website.

You'll find resources and materials that will answer questions you may have about your faith. Go to lwf.org slash radio and click Discover Jesus. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message in its entirety, you can call us at 1-877-LIVE-GOD.

Mention the title Getting to Know Your Best Friend. The message is also part of the insightful series Foundations for Our Faith, Volume Two for the complete collection, all 27 powerful messages. You'll find a link to that in the description below. For the complete collection, all 27 powerful messages, call that number, 877-LIVE-GOD. Or you can order online at lwf.org slash radio.

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