The Holy Spirit and the Believer Today #1

The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Blessed Trinity. And the question is, that we're going to answer, is what is the Holy Spirit doing in believers today?

Do you believe in the work of the Holy Spirit? Well, that could be a loaded question, as we'll see today on the Truth Pulpit as Pastor Don Green continues teaching God's people God's Word. Hi, I'm Bill Wright, and we're beginning an important series titled The Holy Spirit Today, beginning with a look at the Holy Spirit and the believer today.

So, Don, what led you to tackle this subject? Well, Bill, I think this is one of the most important subjects that is facing the Church on an ongoing basis in our age in which we are living. We're called to understand Scripture and to understand God and to understand the Holy Spirit and the work that He really does.

And it's so misrepresented today with so much superficial emotion rather than the deep theology of Scripture, regeneration, indwelling, sanctification. My friend, I'm glad you're with us here on the broadcast today. We're going to get started on a wonderful series that will give you clarity on these things right here on the Truth Pulpit.

Thanks, Don. And, friend, let's join our teacher right now in the Truth Pulpit. What does regeneration mean? Regeneration is a secret act of the Holy Spirit. Regeneration is a secret act of the Holy Spirit in which He imparts divine life to a sinner. Regeneration is a secret act of the Holy Spirit in which He imparts divine life to a sinner so that the sinner will repent of sin, believe in Christ, and serve Him in newness of life. Regeneration is a secret act of the Holy Spirit in which He imparts divine life to a sinner so that the sinner will repent of sin, believe in Christ, and serve Him in newness of life. Beloved, that is the great work of the Holy Spirit in the age in which we live. He does many, many great things that we are going to describe, but apart from the Spirit's work of regeneration, every one of us would still be dead in sin and condemned by God. It is because the Holy Spirit comes with power through the Word of God to the heart of man that anyone believes.

No one believes on his own power. No one comes to God on their own. It takes a work of the Spirit of God inside the soul, inside the heart of a man, to give him understanding, to awaken him to sin, and to reveal to him the glory of Christ and the power of Christ to save him and deliver him from his iniquities.

This act of regeneration, this work of regeneration, is necessary. No one is saved apart from it because the natural man does not have the capacity to respond to the gospel in faith. He does not have the power to come to Christ on his own, apart from the help and assistance of the Spirit of God. With that little bit of introduction, turn to the Gospel of John chapter 3 with me. John chapter 3. You'll remember this famous story as one of the great teachers in Israel interacted with Jesus.

Chapter 3 verse 1, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. And so he's kind of flattering Jesus. He recognizes something about Jesus, and he is a leading teacher in Israel as you'll see later on.

But Jesus doesn't buy into the flattery. Jesus immediately confronts him with something that the man did not see coming. Jesus said to him in John chapter 3 verse 3, look at it with me, Jesus answered and said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. It is an impossibility for a man to enter into heaven. It is impossible for a man to be saved unless he is born again. Verse 4, Nicodemus immediately recognized that his worldview had just been attacked, had just been blown apart, and he did not understand. Nicodemus said to him in verse 4, how can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he? He's saying, what is this new birth of which you speak? And Jesus said to him in verse 5, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Water is a symbol of the cleansing from sin. The Spirit is a reference to the Holy Spirit, unless the Holy Spirit does a work in your heart and you are born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

You are excluded, you are outside looking in. Now, the one thing that this does, among many others I suppose, the one thing that this does is that this crushes the pride of man. This humbles man completely to be told that you cannot go to heaven on your own merit, that you require a work of God from outside you, upon you, that you have no control over. You must be born again. Verse 6, Jesus says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Do not be amazed that I said to you, you must be born again. Verse 8, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. You can see the effects of the wind as the leaves of the tree rustle, but you can't see the wind, you can't see its operation, you only see the fruit of it.

It is invisible to the human eye. In like manner, Jesus says, so is the work of the Spirit that brings a man to new birth. It is work that is done by his power, you cannot control it, you cannot force it to happen. The wind blows where it wishes and that's what the Spirit does with the saving gospel of Christ as he applies it to hearts when and where and to whom it pleases him.

He says, look at it there again in verse 8, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So, in like manner is everyone who is born of the Spirit. You must be born again. And one of the primary works of the Holy Spirit and the believer in this age, the primary work of the Holy Spirit among men today is this work of regeneration. Taking the word of God, applying it with power to the heart to humble a sinner who might flee to Christ for salvation. And that is a work that only the Holy Spirit can do.

We don't have the power to do that on our own. So, question is, do you believe in the work of the Holy Spirit? Beloved, listen, absolutely I believe in the Holy Spirit or I wouldn't do what I do.

I would close the Bible and go home because I don't have the power to reach into any one of your hearts and change you. I don't have the power to impart to you new life. I don't have the power to humble your pride. I don't have the power to assault your love of sin.

I don't have the power to cause you to believe. That is totally outside the human realm, but it is fully within the work and power of the Holy Spirit and that is one of his primary works today. Look over at the book of Titus toward the end of your New Testament prior to the book of Hebrews. In Titus chapter 3, just to review the utter lostness of man, we'll start in verse 3. You know, you don't have to read Scripture too deeply to see these things. You don't have to read Scripture too deeply to realize that it makes a frontal assault on the condition of man and humbles us.

In Titus chapter 3, verse 3, you see this. The Apostle Paul says, We also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Paul says we were enslaved to a dark manner of life. To be a slave is to have a master over you. To be enslaved to sin, to be enslaved to your lust, is to say that you are not free, that these things own you, that they dominate you, that they direct the course of your life. And sometimes that's expressed in great dark behavior, in drunkenness, in gross immorality, and things like that. Beloved, I should tell you at the same time, remind you of things that we've said in the past, that that enslaving desire for sin, that enslaving rebellion toward God, is often also expressed in utter spiritual indifference.

And you just say, whatever, that's your truth, that's fine, it's not my truth, I'm going to go on. You understand that even if that person is outwardly moral with the air quotes around it, for the benefit of the transcript later on, even if you're outwardly moral, that that kind of indifference is a blatant act of rebellion against the truth and revelation of God. How can you be indifferent to the fact that God, the Creator has spoken, God the Judge has spoken, the holiness of God has been revealed in the heavens and in the Word.

How can you be indifferent to that? That indifference, that passive resistance, that complete lack of openness to what the Word of God says is just a mark of spiritual slavery as anything else. And so don't deceive yourself, don't think just because I'm outwardly moral I must be okay, that's not true. The question is, are you alive to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit or not? Paul says in verse 3, we were foolish, enslaved and on it goes. But look at what he says in verse 4. Into that darkness, into that spiritual nightmare that is the existence of all humanity, Paul writing to believers, writing to Titus for the benefit of the church at Crete, he says in verse 4, but when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, what did he do? He saved us. He saved us. He delivered us from that spiritual slavery. He redeemed us from that spiritual slavery. He brought us out of the slave market and brought us into a new place where there was darkness in your mind and soul, now light appeared. How did that happen? Must have been something you did, right?

No. Verse 5, he saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness. Paul just delivers a crushing blow to the idea of human merit. He says if you are in Christ, it's not because of anything that you did to deserve it.

There is no righteousness in you to prompt a response from God as if God needed some kind of futile, feeble, moral effort from you and that that somehow gave something to him that obligated him to give something back to you. It doesn't work that way. That is not the economy of the kingdom of God at all.

It's not. Look at verse 5 with me again. It is not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness. How was it then that he saved us? How was it that this gift came with power to our souls?

I'll look at it here. But according to his mercy, according to that kind compassion of God to you and your need, there you were in spiritual darkness, there you were in spiritual slavery, and God had mercy on you. And by what means did he deliver that great gift of salvation to you by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit? The washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit came upon you, washed your filthy soul, renewed your dirty mind, and imparted new life to you. This was an act of spiritual power that belongs only to God.

No man has the power to do that for you. There's no priest that can awaken your soul to sin. By the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit did this work of regeneration. Jesus said, you know, it's like the wind. He says you don't know where it comes from.

You don't know where it's going. There's a certain element of mystery to how this happens in each individual heart, but we know enough to declare and to understand what it is that the Spirit does. When you come under the sound of the Word of God, the Holy Spirit attends the Word, blesses the Word, sends it forth to your mind and heart with power to open up what previously had been closed, to open up your mind so that you can understand, and not only understand, but He breaks that dominant power of sin in your heart and imparts new life to you so that you could go forth and willingly respond to Christ in repentance and faith. The Spirit of God, metaphorically speaking, went and took those massive chains that were around your heart, the massive chains around your mind, the massive lock that kept your soul from exiting and going to the kingdom of God. The Spirit of God broke that through the power of the Word of God and enabled you and put you in a position where now you were able to repent and believe.

Apart from that work of the Spirit of God, no one is saved at all. 1 John 4.19 says, We love because He first loved us. Men lack spiritual power to reach out to God.

Charles Spurgeon said this, and I quote, it's a little bit of a long quote, so stay with me. Speaking of this regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, he says, The gospel says repent, but the unregenerate man loves his sins and will not repent of them. He presses them to his bosom, and until his nature is changed, he will never look upon those sins with abhorrence and sorrow. The gospel says, Believe, cast away all confidence in your own merits and believe in Jesus. But the carnal mind is proud and says, Why should I believe and be saved by the works of another?

I want to do something myself that I may have some of the credit of it, either by good prayers or good works of some kind. Continuing the quote just a little bit longer, Charles Spurgeon says this, Brethren, we must be born again because the truth of the gospel cannot be understood and the commands of the gospel cannot be obeyed except where the Spirit of God works regeneration in the heart, end quote. That's the work of regeneration that the Spirit of God does. He imparts new life to sinners according to the will of the Spirit, according to the will of God, according to the plan of God. The Spirit of God imparts new life into dead hearts and spiritual change is produced as a result. And he does that in connection with the Word of God. The Spirit of God takes the Word of God and applies it to the soul with power in a way that produces salvation.

In Romans chapter 1 Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. And so the Spirit does this work of regeneration in the believer today. Secondly, I want to talk about the Spirit's work of indwelling, the Spirit's work of indwelling. What else does the Holy Spirit do?

Here's one of the blessed things about the nature of the work of God in salvation is that he comes to us with power through the Word, but he doesn't then just abandon us to leave us to sort it out on our own. The Spirit of God comes and indwells every true believer permanently as their guide, as their resident presence of God in a way that results in various spiritual changes that we'll look at in a moment. First of all, let's just see this work of indwelling stated as it is attributed to the Holy Spirit. In Romans chapter 8, look at it with me, Romans chapter 8, Scripture describes the Holy Spirit as indwelling every believer. And in chapter 8 verse 9 of Romans, the Apostle Paul says, you are not in the flesh, you're not in that human realm of rebellion against God, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you, but if anyone does not have the Spirit of God, he does not belong to him.

So there's two classes. There are those who are not Christians who do not have the Spirit of God, and there are Christians who do have the Spirit of God and the Spirit dwells within them. The Spirit indwells every true believer. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 16 says, Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

Talking to true Christians there. By one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, we were all made to drink of one Spirit. And so the Spirit of God does this remarkably personal work in the heart of every true Christian. The Spirit of God comes and indwells them.

The Spirit of God comes and somehow inhabits them in a way that makes him a permanent part of their lives. He abides with us. He guides us in the truth. In 1 John chapter 4, I know we're kind of bouncing around to a few different texts here. In 1 John chapter 4 verse 2, you see the mark of the Spirit of God. 1 John 4 verse 2, it says, By this you know the Spirit of God. 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. This is the Spirit of the Antichrist. And then in verse 4, You are from God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he who is in you, that is, greater is the Spirit of God who is in you, than he who is in the world. And so we have this abiding indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

What's he doing that for? Well, what the Spirit of God is doing is, he is mediating. He is the instrument of communicating the presence of Christ to your life. He abides with you so that Christ, as Jesus said in Matthew 28, he said, I am with you always, even to the end of the age, the Spirit of God abides in us, and thereby we are abiding in the presence of Christ through the work and power and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Scripture describes believers as being in union with Jesus Christ, that we are in him, and the Spirit is the one who mediates that to us in a way that cannot be broken, in a way that guarantees that your salvation, the one that is really received, cannot be lost. The Spirit of God doesn't come and go and save you and then cast you aside, as if God were changeable in response to your behavior. No, the purpose of God was to save you before the beginning of time.

Before time began, he chose us in Christ, before the foundation of the world. Now, in time, the Spirit of God makes that a reality, a great, invisible work that no man can do. Regeneration and indwelling are two works of the Holy Spirit today. Pastor Don Green will look at a third work, as well as fruits of the Holy Spirit, on our next broadcast. We're just beginning this vital series titled The Holy Spirit Today, and we hope you'll join us each day here on The Truth Pulpit.

Right now, though, Don's back here in studio with some closing words. My friend, if you enjoy these broadcasts, I am sure that you would enjoy the livestream of our church services from Truth Community Church. We meet Sunday morning at 9 a.m. Eastern time and Tuesday evening at 7 o'clock. You'll find the livestream link prominently displayed at the top of our website, thetruthpulpit.com. And friend, just visit thetruthpulpit.com, where you can also learn more about podcasts and free CDs of Don's teaching. I'm Bill Wright, inviting you back next time as Don Green continues in his ministry of teaching God's people God's Word here on The Truth Pulpit.