THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

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1 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT It is a wonderful study, - the work of the Holy Spirit. It helps you more deeply understand how far God is involved with His people and how He has reached out to us and continues to dwell with us day after day. If we are seeking to please Him, our faith in Him never stands still. In His will it goes from strength to strength. It is our dependence upon the Holy Spirit that helps us to be closer to Him. It s what Paul meant when he wrote to the Philippians, 2:12 work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. In God s grand design His ultimate goal is to bring honour and glory to Himself. In order to achieve that goal He planned the salvation of His people. In this wonderful plan He has His own standards to maintain and without His help it would not be possible for anyone to achieve them. So even when we are progressing well in our faith our success is due to God alone. We must acknowledge that no matter how hard we try, our standards are based upon our own fallen righteousness, - we fail even before we begin, if we seek to live the Christian life on our own merits. We each have standards we desire to attain ad sometimes our standards might vary in different ways. However, there is a standard that is the same for everyone who has ever lived, anywhere upon this earth and it is God s standard. His standards are so high, Ps. 106:2 Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? who can show forth all his praise? Therefore, since we could never achieve His perfection He sent His Son and the Holy Spirit to suitably prepare us to enter into the eternal presence of God in Glory. God planned the work, the Son purchased us as a consequence of God s plan, and the Holy Spirit keeps us. God sent His Son to take upon Himself our nature and die for us. And God sent the Holy Spirit to awaken us to the wretchedness of our sin, to show us that Jesus Christ alone cleanses and saves us from our sin, in order to bring us to faith in Christ and be saved. The Holy Spirit never slackens in His work as He convinces sinners of the truth of the Gospel and how it is the only means by which God s wrath upon sin has been satisfied. Those whom He saves He prepares, and He is the Defender and Sustainer of their ongoing living faith.

2 2 Indeed, our faith without the Holy Spirit is dead. You cannot believe in Christ except for the work of the Holy Spirit. The Gospel will not touch the heart unless the Holy Spirit applies it. The Bible will not speak unless the Holy Spirit opens the mind and heart to its message of saving grace. Consequently, the work of God cannot be done apart from the Holy Spirit, - all things pertaining to God s work amongst us is revealed and given to us by the Holy Spirit. It is absolutely impossible to be holy and acceptable to God apart from the Holy Spirit working in us and with us. When we pray for Revival we recognise our own powerlessness to bring it about and we ask that God would send the Holy Spirit in all His powerfulness, - we are dependent today upon His work and upon His keeping. So therefore we must get it right concerning what we believe about the Holy Spirit. It is such an important doctrine! He is not a plaything to be used in childish pursuits. He does not endue us with gifts to feed our appetites for the spectacular and the dramatic. He is God, and to be believed in as God and to be worshipped as God. In this way, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is a dangerous doctrine to hold in error. Each of the aspects of God s Personality are foundational to our faith, - and what we believe about the Holy Spirit is also central to our faith. When you do not hold to what the Bible, - in its entirety, - teaches about Him your view of Who God is suffers. The Bible mentions a particular sin called blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, Mt. 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. 32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. Mk. 3:28 Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: 29 But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation. It is a sin, of course, to take the Lord s Name in vain and to curse and abuse the Name of Christ, but it is a sin, - very serious though it is, - it is not a sin that is unforgiveable.

3 3 Many of the people who stood around the cross and mocked Jesus were saved, - forgiven of their sins, - on the Day of Pentecost! Many people in their sin mocked Christ and yet the work of the Holy Spirit within them subsequently has brought to saving faith in the Lord Jesus. So why is it so more drastic to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit? Very simply, the Lord Jesus has returned to Heaven and it is the Holy Spirit Who is in the world today so He has become the object of contempt. How do you blaspheme against the Holy Spirit? Is it something I can do without even knowing I have done it?! Is it a sin you and I as believers can commit? No, you and I as believers cannot blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, but the danger you and I must contend with is that we do not quench the Spirit (I Thess. 5:19). Firstly though, what is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? It is when the Holy Spirit begins to deal with the sinner and points the sinner to Jesus, and brings the sinner to the only conclusion that Christ alone saves It is when the Holy Spirit shows the sinner these deep personal truths but they continually and arrogantly choose to reject them. They contradict Him and in so doing, - as far as God is concerned, - they pour scorn on His truth. They reject His message and they condemn it as untrue and unwelcome. They are denying Christ as their salvation. In this way they are blaspheming and calling the Holy Spirit a liar and a deceiver and a pretender in His presentation of Christ. They do not believe the message of the Holy Spirit that they need Christ. And therefore, it is absolutely impossible for a lost soul who continues to stubbornly reject the Gospel to be saved. You might say, While there is breath, there is hope. There will always be an opportunity to be saved right through to the end of life. But no, there is no guarantee that God will continue to give the opportunity to be saved, - we cannot be saved in a way or in a time of our own choosing. Many have been confronted by the Gospel and have rejected so often, and God has said Enough! Gen. 6:3 My spirit shall not always strive with man.

4 4 Some people also think the older a person becomes and the more frail, the likelihood is their hearts are softened and they will turn to Christ But no, that is not correct either. I have found many, many people just a step outside the doorway to Hell who have continued to say No to the Holy Spirit s appeal so that even almost at the very last moment their hearts are harder than ever they were and they would reject the Gospel inclined upon them by the Holy Spirit. But what about the Doctrine of Irresistible Grace? The doctrine that teaches the Holy Spirit irresistibly draws the dead sinner and breathes into them spiritual breath and makes them alive unto God the doctrine that teaches you can run and hide but if God has set His mind to save you, save you He will! Yes, I believe wholeheartedly in the Doctrine of Irresistible Grace, - that you and I would not come to the Saviour apart from the drawing-power of the Holy Spirit, - and I also believe God, Acts 17:30 now commandeth all men every where to repent: 31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness. No-one will be able to say to God, I m not saved because You did not choose me to be saved. No, the person who will stand in his/her sin before the judgement throne will be standing there because the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jer. 17:9). No one can blame God for their sin! You see, Rom. 1:20 the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood Why is it that the so-called atheists throw most of their anger at Christianity, and in particular evangelical and Biblical Christianity? They do not harangue Islam or any other religion in the way they insult our faith, why is that? It is because there is an inner voice that acknowledges God as King but all the characteristics of their fallen and sinful nature reject Him and they know the truth but they stifle it in their opposition to God, the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

5 5 They blaspheme the Bearer of the Message, - God the Holy Spirit, - and they reject His message and treat it as untrue and unfit for their attention. By rejecting the Message they also reject the Messenger! They continue and their unbelief envelopes them and blinds them to the light. The light, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostle John speaks about abiding in the light, I Jn. 1:7 if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. The Holy Spirit directs us to and keeps us in that light. Walk while ye have the light, Jesus said (Jn. 12:35). As regards each of the Persons of the Trinity the doctrine of the Godhead has been attacked from the very beginning and it will continue to be attacked until Christ returns. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit has been attacked from outside the Church and it has also suffered from error inside the Church. One of the greatest dangers has always been in the area of false prophets. In the Old Testament, each of the prophets called of God had continually to deal with men who set themselves up to speak for God. Jeremiah wrote, Jer. 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so. Isaiah also had to contend with these deceivers of Israel, 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Not only in the Old Testament, but also in the New and in our own day too many claim to have the gift of prophecy, - the gift of speaking on God s behalf, in addition to the Word of God. I was at such a meeting a few years ago when I heard mature looking men, - much older than myself, - and they claimed to be speaking a prophecy. Each of them agreed however, the content of their prophecy was in regards to a man s ministry in Kirkcaldy and their prophecies had no truth in them whatsoever. Such prophecies were not of God! Some of these well-meaning characters make utterances in the Name of God but if what they say is contrary to the Word of God, they are deceiving others and deceiving themselves. We have the Word of God, and the age of prophets is finished, but God s Word speaks on, - His Word is fully sufficient and up-to-date for today.

6 6 We preach from God s Word, we don t utter anything of ourselves, or make it up The Holy Spirit works in co-operation with the Word and He applies it where, when and to whom He chooses. His work is perfect and holy. When you consider the Holy Spirit it makes you to become more aware of the workings of God amongst us. On the flip side too, it spurs us on in our responsibilities because if we are not living as we should as believers, - in accordance with God s Word, - then we are being disobedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit. I serve Christ, we say yes, and the only reason we are spiritually fit and able to serve Christ is through the workings of the Holy Spirit within us. All Christ s concerns have been committed to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is our Guardian and our Keeper, our Paraclete, Comforter and Strengthener and He is the One Who draws me closer to the Lord Jesus. Rev. George Smeaton was ordained to the ministry of the Church of Scotland at Falkland in During the Disruption of 1843 he was one of the hundreds of ministers who came out to form the Free Church. He later became Professor of Exegetics in the New College, Edinburgh. He wrote a magnificent book on the Holy Spirit and in it he said, When we look at the doctrine from the practical point of view, a belief of this great truth is absolutely essential to the Christian man and to the Christian Church. Without it, Christianity would at once collapse. That is how important it is to uphold a Biblical view on the work of the Holy Spirit and that is why we must pursue its truth and ground ourselves in that which the Scriptures teach us about Him.