HOLY SPIRIT TRUTHS

#694                                              HOLY SPIRIT TRUTHS                                                               

Scripture  John 20:21-22; Luke 3:16 NIV                                                              Orig. Date 2/2/1978

Passage:

Luke 3:16   16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with[a] water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with[b] the Holy Spirit and fire.”

John 20:21-22  21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Purpose: To direct attention to the various aspects of consideration relative to the Holy Spirit, and the specific truths needed to be understood in the life of the Christian.

Keywords:        Holy Spirit                   Gift of Gifts                 Fruit Filling

Introduction

            Charles Swindoll: “I heard some time ago about a couple of nuns who worked as nurses in a hospital. They ran out of gas while driving to work one morning. A service station was nearby but had no container in which to put the needed gasoline. One of the women remembered she had a bedpan in the trunk of the car. The gas was put into the pan and they carried it very carefully back to the car.

“As the nuns were pouring the gasoline from the bedpan into the gas tank, two men were driving by. They stared in disbelief. Finally, one said to the other, ‘Now Fred, that's what I call faith!’

“It appeared to be foolish. Trouble was, those doubters just didn't have the facts. And were they ever surprised when those nuns went ripping by them on the freeway!”

Every person who has ever labored as an achiever has faced a time and circumstance when he realized that he needed additional resources if he were to succeed.  Every profession has only a limited number of super-stars.  Others succeed because they find a source of strength which simply enables them to achieve, sometimes far beyond their capability.  Our proper identification of and with Holy Spirit truth is the means whereby Christians (at least some) are able to serve God and man beyond the enablement of their own resource.

My wife and daughters have become interested of late in the writings of Elisabeth Elliot.  You may recall the name Jim Elliot, her late husband, as the name of one of several missionaries who were killed by the Auca Indians in Brazil.  Through the writings of Mrs. Elliot, the full story of her husband’s life, and death have been shared with the Christian community.

Had Jim Elliot left a will to be probated and divided among his heirs, not many people would have been impressed.  He had little of this world’s goods.  He had so much of God’s power, however, that the very Indians who felled him were themselves later converted to tell the whole story.  His was a dream energized by the Holy Spirit, to love the very people who were waiting to ambush and kill him and the others. 

The same Holy Spirit who energized her husband, enabled Elisabeth Elliot to continue his work, and then write about what he had been under the intriguing title, Through Gates of Splendor.  Perhaps one brief line from Elliot’s diary depicts the Holy Spirit’s control in his life.  He wrote, “He is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”

The Bible teaches us Holy Spirit truths.  If we would gain the richest resource for the Christian life, it must be by appropriating these truths to our lives.

I.          The Gift of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit Himself.  Acts 2:38 KJV Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  You may look all you please at the newer versions for variances on this text, and all that you will find different, is that the Holy Ghost is called Holy Spirit.

            There must first be genuine repentance.  Then, a covenant of trust that eventuates in baptism.  In this inter-woven act of faith that is repentance, baptism, remission of sin, there is the gift of the Holy Spirit.

            Please do not make the mistake of presuming that the Holy Spirit is a non-entity in unbelievers.  John 1:12-13, . . . he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  Titus 3:5, Not by works of righteousness which we  have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.

            Let me, on the subject of this Holy Spirit truth, share two all-encompassing guidelines.  (1)Don’t let the experience of other people interpret the Bible for you.  Let the Bible speak to you of the kind of experience God wants for you.  (2)Remember, it is never a question of how much of the Holy Spirit you have.  It is how much of you He has.

II.         The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are Gifts of Divine Initiative.  Hebrews 2:3-4 . . . deliverance was first announced through the lips of the Lord himself; . . . and God added His testimony by signs, by miracles, by manifold works of power, and by distributing the gifts of the Holy Spirit at (according to) His own will.  NEB

            The summum bonum of these gifts is, of course, salvation.  John 3:16, For God so loved the world that gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish but have everlasting life.  Romans 6:23, The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.

            Of exceeding importance however, is our comprehension of individual spiritual gifts given at the discretion of God to the believer at the outset of faith.

***THE REMAINDER OF THIS SERMON HAS BEEN LOST***