Live By The Spirit - Lynn Martin

Clearly, our actions and attitudes have a lot to do with whether God's Spirit will fill us. The Spirit doesn't overcome us or possess us. We always have the choice whether to walk by the Spirit or to quench the Spirit.

God wants to work with us and through us, and it's our choice whether to obey.

Romans 8.

It follows that there is now no condemnation for those who are united with Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus, the life-giving law of the Spirit has set you free from the law of sin and death. What the law could not do because human weakness robbed it of all potency, God has done by sending His own Son in the likeness of our sinful nature, and to deal with sin, He has passed judgment against sin within that very nature, so that the commandment of the law may find fulfillment in us, whose conduct is no longer controlled by the old nature but by the Spirit.

Those who live on the level of the old nature have their outlook formed by it, and that spells death. But those who live on the level of the Spirit have the spiritual outlook, and that is life and peace.

For the outlook of the unspiritual nature is enmity with God. It is not subject to the law of God and indeed cannot be. Those who live under its control cannot please God. But you do not live like that. You live by the Spirit since God's Spirit dwells in you, and anyone who does not possess the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Christ.

But if Christ is in you, then although the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is your life because you have been justified. Moreover, if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then the God who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give new life to your mortal bodies through His indwelling Spirit. It follows, my friends, that our old nature has no claim on us. We are not obliged to live in that way.

If you do so, you must die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the base pursuits of the body, then you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

The Spirit you have received is not a spirit of slavery leading you back into a life of fear, but a spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit of God affirms to our spirit that we are God's children, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. But we must share His sufferings if we are also to share His glory.

For I reckon that the sufferings we now endure bear no comparison with the glory as yet unrevealed, which is in store for us. The created universe is waiting with eager expectation for God's sons to be revealed. It was made subject to frustration, not of its own choice, but by the will of Him who subjected it, yet with the hope that the universe itself is to be freed from the shackles of mortality and is to enter upon the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Up to the present, as we know, the whole created universe in all its parts groans as if in the pangs of childbirth. What is more, we also, to whom the Spirit is given as the first fruits of the harvest to come, are groaning inwardly while we look forward eagerly to our adoption, our liberation from mortality.

It was with this hope that we were saved.

Now to see something is no longer to hope. Why hope for what is already seen? But if we hope for something we do not yet see, then we look forward to it eagerly and with patience. In the same way, the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness. We do not even know how we ought to pray, but through our inarticulate groans, the Spirit Himself is pleading for us. And God, who searches our inmost being, knows what the Spirit means because He pleads for God's people as God Himself wills. And in everything, as we know, He cooperates for good with those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

For those whom God knew before they ever were, He also ordained to share in the likeness of His Son, so that He might be the eldest among a large family of brothers. And those whom He foreordained, He also called, and those whom He called, He also justified, and those whom He justified, He also glorified.

With all this in mind, what are we to say? If God is on our side, who is against us? He did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. How can He fail to lavish every other gift upon us?

Who will bring a charge against those whom God has chosen? Not God, who acquits. Who will pronounce judgment? Not Christ, who died or rather rose again? Not Christ, who is at God's right hand and pleads our cause? Then what can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or hardship? Can persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, or sword? We are being done to death for Your sake all day long, as Scripture says. We have been treated like sheep for slaughter.

And yet, throughout it all, overwhelming victory is ours through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that there is nothing in death or life in the realm of spirits or superhuman powers, in the world as it is or the world as it shall be, in the forces of the universe in heights or depths, nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. This morning, I'm going to be speaking about the Holy Spirit.

We hear a lot about the Spirit, both in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, and from other Christians, but I'm not sure we're always clear what it means to be filled by the Spirit. It can be hard to understand where the Spirit fits into the story. After all, God the Father appears in the Old Testament stories, and we see His Son, Jesus, in the New Testament stories. But the Holy Spirit shows up in more abstract ways and is less tangible.

It can also be easy to be skeptical when people talk about the Holy Spirit because we often see people who claim to be led by the Spirit, but they aren't in obedience to the gospel. Some people suggest that you aren't a Christian if the Spirit doesn't give you an emotional high in your Sunday worship.

And some churches don't go so far, but they might try to leave their Sunday services really open-ended and flexible, thinking that if they're spontaneous, that means they're Spirit-filled.

So what is it truly like when we are filled with the Spirit, and how is the Spirit important in our lives? In this sermon, I'll give an overview of what the New Testament teaches about the Holy Spirit.

So the Holy Spirit is divine and a messenger of God. Throughout Scripture, He is called the Spirit of God and the Spirit of the Lord.

This Spirit is the greatest gift God offers us, offers to those who are Christians. In Luke 11, Jesus tells us that if we ask, seek, and knock, God will give us the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Also, the Spirit is one of the persons of the Trinity, just as Jesus is. So by giving us the Spirit, God gives us His own presence as a gift.

Jesus says, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture says, streams of living water shall flow from within him." John tells us that he was speaking of the Spirit, which believers in him would later receive.

Again, Jesus says, "The water that I shall give will be a spring of water within him, welling up and bringing eternal life." So the Spirit is something that lives within us and flows out from us. The Spirit gives us eternal life, the life of the kingdom of heaven.

The Spirit is God's new way of relating to His people. In the Old Testament, God ruled His people through the law of Moses, but now He relates to us directly. Jesus says that New Testament Christians worship in Spirit and in truth.

Paul tells the Romans that though the Old Testament Jews were physically circumcised, Christians are now spiritually circumcised by being obedient. He says, "The real Jew is one who is inwardly a Jew, and his circumcision is of the heart, spiritual, not literal."

And now, Paul says, "We are released from the law to serve God in a new way, the way of the Spirit, in contrast to the old way of a written code." So we are now under the life-giving law of the Spirit. Instead of coming to a particular place like the temple or doing certain actions that are written down in the law, we now worship spiritually.

That doesn't mean that we don't do physical things like singing or kneeling to pray or raising our hands, but it does mean that nothing physical can keep us from being in the presence of God.

Paul says that the Spirit gives us access to the Father and also that God pours out His love to us through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit allows for communication both ways, from God to us and from us to God. Just as the temple veil was torn open when Jesus died, the work of Jesus allows us to come into the presence of God through the Spirit.

And the Spirit is, in fact, our new life as Christians, as we read in Romans 8. "But if Christ is in you, then although the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is your life because you have been justified.

Moreover, if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then the God who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give new life to your mortal bodies through His indwelling Spirit." So in Christ, we have died to sin and raised to life, and we have been raised to life in the Spirit.

We're spiritually resurrected, and Paul says that the Spirit is given as the first fruits of the harvest to come. So Christians can now come into the presence of God through His Spirit. We have died to our old selves, but our spirits have been renewed by the Holy Spirit. In the future, our bodies will also be redeemed, and we will no longer need to be groaning inwardly while awaiting our liberation from death, as Paul says in Romans 8.

And Paul tells the Galatians that it is by the Spirit and through faith that we hope to attain that righteousness which we eagerly await.

So that's what the Spirit is. How does the Spirit manifest Himself in our lives?

The Holy Spirit has been at work all through history, but at different times, He has manifested Himself in different ways. For example, the apostles realized that the Old Testament prophets like David and Isaiah were speaking through the Holy Spirit.

They prophesied things about the Messiah, and so through their prophecy, the Spirit helped to prepare the way for Jesus.

Luke tells us that John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit even from his mother's womb, and also that the Spirit revealed to Simeon that he would not see death until he had seen the Lord's Messiah. So the Holy Spirit was already at work long before the church was formed, preparing the way for the Messiah. However, He worked through individuals. Now He works through all Christians and through the whole body of believers.

Before He ascended, Jesus told the apostles, "John, as you know, baptized with water, but within the next few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will bear witness for Me in Jerusalem and throughout all Judea and Samaria, and even in the farthest corners of the earth."

So Jesus promised that they would receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which would come with power. Because of the Spirit, they would be able to witness for Him and spread Christianity. This was the main intention of the Holy Spirit for these men, that they could effectively bear witness for their Lord.

Then on Pentecost, the Spirit came to them visibly. There appeared to them flames like tongues of fire distributed among them and coming to rest on each one. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other tongues as the Spirit gave them power of utterance.

And in the early days, Christians often prophesied and performed miracles of healing in order to spread the gospel. For example, Paul says that when he first came to the Corinthians, "My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."

Today, we don't see as many miracles and physical demonstrations of the Spirit, but miracles are still being reported wherever Christianity is first preached to cultures that have never heard the gospel. And it seems that one of the Holy Spirit's main purposes for visible spiritual gifts is to demonstrate the truth of the gospel in contrast to other spiritual points of view.

In areas where the gospel has already been preached for many years, the miracles are not as necessary. However, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit was not just for providing signs, even in the apostles' day. From my study of the New Testament, it seems that the Spirit's main goal is to build the church. Before His death and resurrection, Jesus told the apostles that the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have told you.

So when Jesus was no longer physically present, the apostles would still have guidance in their mission to build the church. Paul tells the Ephesians, "You are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

In Him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit."

And he tells the Corinthians, "Surely you know that you are God's temple, where the Spirit of God dwells."

So the Spirit is working to build His church into a dwelling place for God. He worked through the prophets and then the apostles, and now He works through each Christian for this purpose. As I studied the passages about the Holy Spirit, I found about four different ways that the Spirit works to build the church.

First, the Spirit speaks through people. Jesus told His disciples that when they were brought before rulers and authorities, they would be given the words to speak. And indeed, when Peter and John were brought before the Jewish rulers, the book of Acts says that when Peter answered them, he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit also gave Stephen, the martyr, the wisdom to defeat the arguments of the unbelieving Jews. The book of Acts says, "And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the freedmen, as it was called, and of the Cyrenians and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen, but they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking."

We can also speak to God in the Spirit when we pray. Paul tells the Ephesians to continually ask God's help in prayer and pray always in the power of the Spirit. Jude also says, "Continue to pray in the power of the Holy Spirit."

In fact, as we read in Romans 8, "We do not even know how we ought to pray, but through our inarticulate groans, the Spirit Himself is pleading for us, and God, who searches our inmost being, knows what the Spirit means because He pleads for God's people as God Himself wills."

So the Spirit speaks through people. Another aspect of the Holy Spirit is that He's a witness. In Acts, Peter says that the Holy Spirit provides a witness of Jesus' death and resurrection, and that those who are obedient will receive the Spirit.

So even without having seen those events ourselves, we can know that the apostles' report of them is true. The Holy Spirit can confirm it for us.

Hebrews says that salvation by Jesus was declared at first by the Lord and was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will.

The Spirit is also how we know we are Christians. John said, "This is how we know that we dwell in God and that He dwells in us. He has imparted His Spirit to us."

Furthermore, the indwelling of the Spirit tells us that we can trust God's promises. Paul tells the Corinthians that it is God who has set His seal upon us and, as a pledge of what is to come, has given the Spirit to dwell in our hearts.

He says that in this present body we groan, yearning to be covered by our heavenly habitation put on over this one. What we want is to be covered by the new body put on over it so that our mortality may be absorbed into life immortal.

It is for this destiny that God Himself has been shaping us, and as a pledge of it, He has given us the Spirit.

So the Spirit is a witness and a pledge to believers, a proof to us and to all seekers that God loves us and fulfills His promises. Paul says that the Spirit of God affirms to our spirit that we are God's children.

The third work of the Spirit that I see is that we can gain spiritual wisdom and guidance. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 2. "So it was, my friends, that I came to you without any pretensions to eloquence or wisdom in declaring the truth about God. I resolved that while I was with you, I would not claim to know anything but Jesus Christ, Christ nailed to the cross. I came before you in weakness, in fear, in great trepidation.

The word I spoke, the gospel I proclaimed, did not sway you with clever arguments. It carried conviction by spiritual power so that your faith might not be built on human wisdom, but on the power of God.

Among the mature, I do speak words of wisdom, though not a wisdom belonging to this present age or to its governing powers already in decline. I speak God's hidden wisdom, His secret purpose framed from the very beginning to bring us to our destined glory.

None of the powers that rule the world has known that wisdom. If they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Scripture speaks of things beyond our seeing, things beyond our hearing, things beyond our imagining, all prepared by God for those who love Him.

And these are what God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit explores everything, even the depths of God's own nature. Who knows what a human being is but the human spirit within him? In the same way, only the Spirit of God knows what God is.

And we have received this Spirit from God, not the spirit of the world, so that we may know all that God has lavished on us. And because we are interpreting spiritual truths to those who have the Spirit, we speak of these gifts of God in words taught us not by our human wisdom, but by the Spirit.

An unspiritual person refuses what belongs to the Spirit of God. It is folly to him. He cannot grasp it because it needs to be judged in the light of the Spirit. But a spiritual person can judge the worth of everything, yet is not himself subject to judgment by others.

Scripture indeed asks, "Who can know the mind of the Lord or be His counselor?" Yet we possess the mind of Christ.

So God's thoughts are hidden to anyone who thinks in an earthly way. Paul says that an unspiritual person cannot understand God's wisdom. But to us, to Christians, God reveals things beyond our imagining by a Spirit who explores everything, even the depths of God's own nature.

Scripture shows us several ways that this works out. In Acts, the Spirit guided people like Philip and Paul in their ministries. And it's very clear that they weren't given spiritual insight for their own behalf or their own benefit, but for the advantage of the gospel, because the Spirit even led Paul to his death.

That's in Acts 20. The Spirit can give us wisdom and guidance when no one else knows what the right path is, but we had better be prepared to give up everything for the work that the Spirit has for us.

Finally, the Spirit brings corporate gifts to the body of believers. Paul says that the kingdom of God is justice, peace, and joy inspired by the Holy Spirit. He also speaks of the love that the Spirit inspires.

To the Ephesians, he says, "Be humble always and gentle and patient too, putting up with one another's failings in the spirit of love. Spare no effort to make fast with bonds of peace the unity which the Spirit gives."

So the Spirit gives the church peace and unity. And in 2 Corinthians, Paul talks about the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Besides bringing us together and giving us corporate joy and love, the Spirit consecrates us and makes us holy. Peter addresses his first epistle to those chosen in the foreknowledge of God the Father by the consecrating work of the Holy Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling with His blood.

In the same letter, he says, "If you are reviled for being Christians, count yourselves happy because the Spirit of God in all His glory rests upon you." So the church experiences the glory of the Spirit even in adversity.

So how can we receive the Spirit of God within us? Jesus connects the Spirit with baptism. He speaks of being born of water and the Spirit. And the apostles often gave the Spirit, or the Spirit came through the laying on of their hands.

In some cases, the Spirit came to people through the preaching of the gospel.

So it seems that there's no one action that instills us with the Spirit. But the Spirit is a gift from God that comes out or that comes when we reach out to Him in faith, often a faith that's expressed by physical obedience.

Paul reminds the Galatians that they received the Spirit through faith in the gospel. And in Acts, Peter says that the Holy Spirit is given by God to those obedient to Him. So responding to God in faith and obedience is the path to receiving the Holy Spirit.

And if we want to have more spiritual gifts, we should listen to Paul's advice for the Corinthians. He says, "Since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church." If we work side by side in the work that the Spirit cares about, God will give us the abilities that we need in order to do the work of the Spirit, that we don't get spiritual gifts just because we want them, but only when they're instrumental in building the church.

There are other ways that we can be open to the Holy Spirit.

Paul tells the Ephesians, "Do not give way to drunkenness and the ruin that goes with it, but let the Holy Spirit fill you. Speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and songs. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord. And in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, give thanks every day for everything to our God and Father." Here, Paul suggests that acts of worship, like reciting scripture, making music to the Lord, and giving thanks continually, will help us to remain open to the Spirit.

Each of these things focuses our mind toward God and His work. When we live in that focus, singing and giving thanks, we will be prepared for the Spirit to live in us.

But there are other actions that we need to do. Paul tells the Galatians that Paul tells the Galatians to walk by the Spirit and that if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Being filled with the Spirit will require us to attune ourselves to how the Spirit calls us to live.

We need to be obedient to the law of Christ. Furthermore, Paul warns us, "Do not quench the Spirit and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God." So clearly, our actions and attitudes have a lot to do with whether God's Spirit will fill us.

So the Spirit is not an on-off switch. Even if we have the Spirit, we might not be fully obedient to the Spirit. And we can always either allow the Spirit to work or we can quench the Spirit. It's not enough to have received the Spirit, but we also need to walk according to His direction. If we are open to Him, He will give us opportunities to take part in the work of the Spirit. But if we aren't open, we will be continually failing and disobeying.

So it's clear that the Spirit doesn't overcome us or possess us. We always have the choice whether to walk by the Spirit or to quench the Spirit. God wants to work with us and through us, and it's our choice whether to obey.

Anyone who believes and is baptized should have the Spirit of God. But since we can be either more or less open to the work of the Spirit, even people who sometimes walk by the Spirit might not be in the Spirit at other times.

So how do we know if we or somebody else is walking by the Spirit?

We need to be clear that the Spirit is not entirely predictable. The New Testament writers often point out that this world's wisdom will not be able to understand Spirit-filled people. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2 that the Spirit's wisdom is incomprehensible to those who don't have the Spirit.

And Jesus tells Nicodemus, "The wind blows where it wills. You hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going." So it is with everyone who is born from the Spirit.

But some things are predictable. The Spirit will not contradict itself because God doesn't lie. Scripture is inspired by the Spirit of God. So if we are being convinced to go against Scripture, we know that whatever is guiding us is a false spirit.

Since the main work of the Spirit is to build up the church, we also know that a Spirit-filled person won't cause divisions unnecessarily. If a church divides, we know that one or both of the parties weren't fully walking by the Spirit.

Paul tells us that the harvest of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control. Somebody who tries to influence the church in a way that is not gentle and peaceful is clearly not following the Spirit.

So although the Holy Spirit will not always guide us in predictable ways, we do know that certain things can be counted on. Everybody who walks by the Spirit will live according to the New Testament commands and will be working to build the church.

So I encourage us to examine ourselves and open ourselves to the Spirit. Let's make the work of building the church be our goal, and the Spirit will give us what we need to accomplish that work. And it's my hope that the Spirit, that the unity and fellowship of the Spirit can be in this congregation.