The Priority of the Spirit -- 10/28-12

Sunday, October 28, 2012

THE PRIORITY OF THE SPIRIT

* This is not the way I preached it.  Used the basic concepts, but departed at several points.  (See notes in “Briefs” and listen to CD)

            Seven weeks ago I shared a message entitled “The Spirit and the Word.”  We spent our time that morning examining the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the written Word of God.  Of course, that is a very close relationship, and it begins with the fact that the Spirit of God is the author of the written Word.  Holy men of God spoke, as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (II Pet. 1:21).  Though humans were used to actually write down the words, the ultimate author of the entire Bible is the Spirit of God.  That’s why we read that every scripture is God-breathed, or “God-Spirited.”  We have the written Word because of the work of the Spirit.

            Today I want to explore this relationship between the Spirit and the Word in more depth.  My purpose is to help us understand how vital the ministry of the Spirit is and how desperately we need Him to work in our lives.  You may say, “We know that.”  Maybe, but I’m not convinced we know it at the level we need to know it. 

            Let’s begin in John 5.  In the latter part of this chapter Jesus is speaking to the Jewish religious leaders (verses 10, 15, 16, 18).  They accused Him not only of working on the Sabbath by healing the lame man, but also of making Himself equal with God.  Jesus responded by explaining to them that He had many witnesses of His true identity, including John the Baptist, His own mighty deeds, and the Father Himself.  Now let’s pick it up in verse 37 and read John 5:37-40…

And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. 38 But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. 39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

            I am aware that in verse 39 of the KJV, “Search” is a command.  It is a matter of translation, as the original word can be taken as a command or a statement.  It seems much better to understand Jesus as saying, “This is what you do; you search the scriptures.”  But either way you take the word “search,” Jesus is saying that these religious leaders think they have life because they spend their time poring through their Bible.  Get that picture in your mind.  These scholarly men thought they would receive eternal life because of their great acquaintance with God’s written word. 

            On the surface, that may sound really good.  However, there was a problem.  Do you see it?  The Bible they read bore witness to Jesus, but they refused to turn to the Jesus to whom their Bibles pointed.  While it was certainly a good thing to read and learn the scriptures, they were unwilling to come to Jesus for life.  Those leaders clearly said that they loved and honored the Word of God, but they despised Jesus and accused Him of having a demon.  The Bible, yes; Jesus, no. 

            Please do not take this lightly.  This should stir up some questions in our mind.  How is it possible to be such a diligent student of the Bible and absolutely miss the will of God?  How can a person spend his life studying the Bible and reject the Son of God?  Surely that is not easy to understand, and yet, according to Jesus Himself, that is exactly what happened to these guys.  Now comes the big question:  Can the same thing happen today? 

            Please turn to II Timothy 3.  Here in the latter part of this chapter Paul is talking about the very Word of God that those religious leaders were searching, the Word in which they thought they found eternal life.  Let’s read II Tim. 3:14-15, “But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”  Paul says that the scriptures Timothy learned from a young age were able to make him wise for salvation.  In other words, those scriptures pointed the way to salvation.  Those religious leaders to whom Jesus spoke did not find the way of salvation in the scriptures, even though they studied them all of their lives.  Those same scriptures made Timothy wise unto salvation.  Understand that both Jesus and Paul are referring to what we know as the Old Testament.   The truths contained in those Old Testament books led Timothy and many others to salvation, but not so with the Pharisees and other religious leaders of Jesus’ day.

            Now let’s move forward a couple of thousand years.  We too have the scriptures.  Those people lived on the other side of the cross; we live on this side of the cross.  As they had the written Word of God, so we have the written Word of God, but with one major difference.  We have a much clearer and more complete written Word than they did.  The Old Testament looked forward to the coming of the Messiah; through the New Testament we look back at His death, resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of God the Father.

            It is not difficult for us to see that though the Old Testament was the inspired Word of God and its truths were crucial for the people of God, it pointed to someone greater.  Its goal was to make its readers wise unto salvation, as we read in II Tim. 3:15.  The stories about Abraham, Moses, David, and Elijah were very important, but they meant little, if the Old Testament reader missed the truth about the Messiah.  Remember that the Pharisees claimed Abraham was as their father, but the fatherhood of Abraham ultimately had no value for those who rejected Jesus as the Son of God.  The value of the Old Testament was finally in the fact that it pointed to Jesus as Lord and Messiah.

            Now let’s think about the New Testament.  It would be true to say that New Testament is a continuation of the story of the Old Testament.  However, that doesn’t give us the whole truth.  Many illustrations have been given to picture the relationship between the Old and New Testaments.  Someone has said that the Old Testament is the bud, while the New Testament is the flower.  What was prophesied in the Old Testament comes to fulfillment in the New Testament.  The outward forms of the Old Testament are referred to in Col. 2:17 as shadow, but the reality is in Christ, whose life, death, and resurrection are clearly recorded in the New Testament.  Both the Old Testament and the New Testament are the Word of God, but the New Testament is superior, just as we would prefer the flower to the bud.

            Having said that, we are likely to conclude that the written words of the New Testament are the ultimate reality. What could be better than to have the written record of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ?  If the Old Testament was able to make people wise unto salvation, how much moreso is that true of the New Testament!  Is it any wonder that godly parents want their children to read and grasp the Word of God, especially the great truths that are unfolded in the New Testament.  But it isn’t just for children.  We encourage one another to read it, memorize it, meditate on it, and obey it.

           

            Now I want to ask you a very sobering question:  Is it possible to idolize the Bible?  Many years ago I was accused of bibliolatry, of worshiping the Bible.  That accusation did not come from some pagan professor, but from another Christian.  Is it possible to idolize the Bible?  Can we ever put too much emphasis on the written Word of God?  It is difficult to answer that question without some frame of reference.  In response to the question about placing too much importance on the Bible, someone might ask, “In comparison to what?”  If I am comparing emphasizing the Bible to emphasizing other reading or viewing material, I could never put too much emphasis on the Bible.  But what if I am considering the importance of the Bible in relation to the importance of other spiritual realities?  Are there other spiritual realities that are of even greater importance than the Bible?

            Let me put it like this:  Is there always value in a person learning the truths of the written Word?  I answer that question with a “Yes and No.”  There is value in all learning of scripture, in that those truths can lead us into reality.  On the other hand, what value is there in learning scriptural truth, if that truth doesn’t lead us into reality?  In saying that, I am making an assumption.  I am assuming that there is a reality beyond the words of the Bible.  Is that true?  Is the reality in the words themselves, or in something to which those words point?  Think about that.

            As you think, let me read you a statement from William Law, written 250 years ago.  At this point I must tell you that this little book ­(The Power of the Spirit, by William Law) has opened my eyes to some things.  I am going to paraphrase just a little bit of his statement to make it a bit clearer:  “The Bible should be reverenced as doing all that words can do to bring us to God--that is, to point the way.  But the life-giving power of Christ does not reside in intellectual study of the Bible, but in the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, for ‘the gospel is not in word only, but in power and in much assurance of the Holy Spirit’ (I Thes. 1:5).’”  William Law is implying that while the words of scripture are to be highly valued, the words themselves do not bring us to God.  Unless the Holy Spirit does a work beyond the words written on the page, they will never produce anything in a human life.  Law goes on to say, “What folly to ascribe to the letter of Scripture that power which the words themselves most plainly tell us is solely in the life-giving Spirit of God” (p. 36).  [Read II Cor. 3:1-6]

            We might illustrate this truth by comparing it to Gal. 3:24, “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”  If we read this verse at a glance and apart from its context, we might get the idea that the law itself saves a person.  However, the larger context of Galatians and the entire Bible makes it clear that the law brings us to Christ by showing us that we don’t have the power to obey its precepts.  Then when we realize this powerlessness to come to God by obedience to the law, we are left to look for another solution.  That solution is Christ, who was sent to bear our sins.  As our eyes are opened to the truth of His crucifixion and resurrection, then we trust in Him and God declares us righteous in Christ.  The law was preparatory to the gospel of Christ.  That doesn’t mean the law is not important, but it does mean that the gospel is superior to the law.

            William Law graphically illustrates this same truth by taking us back to one of the first texts we examined in our study of the Holy Spirit.  Listen to his criticism of studying the Bible without a few to present fellowship with the Spirit…

         This basic error is much encouraged by the pitiful reasoning of great Bible scholars and preachers who affirm that God no longer communicates with men except through the words of Scripture: and who, on the grounds of a completed canon, deny the reality of the Holy Spirit’s inspiration and communion presently active in the soul and spirit of man. Let us put their doctrine into the letter of the text, which will best show how true or false it is. Our Lord says, “It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.” That is, it is expedient that I discontinue teaching in audible words, that you may have the written page to look at with your eyes: for if I go away, I will send written words which shall lead you into such a truth of doctrine as you could not have while they were only spoken from my mouth. These will be the heavenly Comforter abiding with you—the most supreme illumination you can receive from me. According to these teachers, the fellowship Jesus offers is nothing so extreme as the reality of the Holy Spirit actually manifesting Christ to our spirits and His works in our lives; rather it is the wonderful, heavenly, sublime communion between our intellects and the letter of Scripture.

         What can this intellectual approach bring to the study of Scripture except that which the most wicked scholar could also boast through a knowledge of Greek and his natural memory? A historical, intellectual or grammatical learning of the words of Scripture can do no more towards removing the fleshly nature and its works from the soul of man than the same human knowledge of mathematics or literature.   (p. 36-37)

            Here is the bottom line:  Both the ministry of the Bible and the ministry of the Holy Spirit are vital in our lives.  We don’t choose between one or the other.  As we have stated a number of times before, the two go hand in hand.  That makes perfect sense, as it is the Holy Spirit who gave us the Bible.  BUT the words of the Bible are preparatory for the ministry of the Spirit.  To put it another way, the ministry of the Holy Spirit goes beyond what the Bible can do.  One of the ways we understand that is to remember that the Holy Spirit is a person and He is God.  While the written Word of God is vital for the believer, it was never intended to take the place of a person, of God Himself.  We don’t fellowship with the written Word, but we do fellowship with the Holy Spirit.  Listen to the way Paul closes his second letter to the Corinthians:  "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  Amen" (II Cor. 13:14).  That word “communion” is the normal word for fellowship.  The Bible is a tool that leads to something greater -- fellowship with the Spirit of God.

            So can a person be guilty of bibliolatry?  Yes.  While there are other ways we can do so, William Law focuses on one particular aspect of this idolizing of the Bible in his book The Power of the Spirit.  The original title was An Humble, Earnest, and Affectionate Address to the Clergy.  Yes, it was written to preachers.  Later, the title was changed in order that it might reach a wider audience.  Law was especially concerned about scholarly study of the scriptures.  This is what he saw:  He saw men giving themselves to diligent study of the Word by various means -- study of the historical context, research into the customs of biblical times, the learning the original languages Greek and Hebrew, etc.  Was he opposed to Bible study?  No, but he was violently opposed to Bible study methodology that neglected the necessity of the Holy Spirit’s power.   Listen to this scathing rebuke of Spiritless intellectualism…

         Vain men give to one another a special recognition as having great power and position in this heavenly kingdom by virtue of a proficient learning in languages and Biblical history, or skill in doctrinal analysis. If the faith of illiterate fishermen did more for the establishment of the church in a few years than centuries of prodigious scholarship, one may readily understand that a trust in the wisdom of men and the letter of Scripture has caused the church to fall from its first gospel state in much the way that Adam fell through eating of the same tree of knowledge. The Bible teacher and religious leader who gain and hold a church position through intellectual attainments and oratorical skills can be said to differ from lesser men only as the serpent differed from the other beasts of the field—in that it was more subtle. And the old Serpent has elevated many of his servants through this same subtlety into places of authority and influence within that which pretends to be the Church of Christ.  (p. 41)

Conclusion

            I want to conclude by reading you a portion of a kind of parable that William Law constructs.  He begins it with these words:  “Let me here relate to you a little piece of history which a friend, Academicus, has given of himself.”  In his little story Academicus represents those who rely upon their mind to open up the truths of the Bible.  So Academicus, armed with a sharp mind and a thirst for learning, begins his story…

         When I had taken my degrees in the university, I consulted several great divines [biblical scholars] to put me in a method of studying divinity.  It would take half a day to tell you the work which my learned friends suggested…

One told me that Hebrew words are all; that when the Old Testament is read thus, it becomes an open book…

         Several friends of high repute and leadership in the church told me that church history is the main matter, that I must begin with the first Fathers and follow them through every age, not forgetting to diligently study the lives of the Roman emperors, etc…

         Another, who is not very fond of ancient matters, but wholly bent upon rational Christianity, tells me I need go back no further than the Reformation; that Calvin and Cramner were great men…

         The last person I consulted advised me to get all the histories of the rise and progress of heresies… These histories, so he said, contract the matter, bring truth and error close in view, and I should find all that collected in a few pages…

            That is just a summary of what Academicus said.  He went into great detail to explain how all these very educated friends advised him in a particular line of study that would open up the great truths of the Bible.  But now listen to these closing paragraphs.  Here we are going to be introduced to a character named Rusticus.  The name is taken from “rustic,” which the dictionary defines as “an awkward, coarse person,” “an unsophisticated rural person.”  In other words, his name speaks of an uncultured man who doesn’t have the privilege of an education, etc.

         Following the advice of all these counselors as well as I could, I lighted my candle early in the morning and put it out late at night.  I had been thus laboring for some years, till Rusticus, at my first acquaintance with him, seeing my way of life, said to me, “Had you lived about seventeen hundred years ago, you had stood just in the same place as I stand now.  I cannot read, and therefore,” says he, “all these hundreds of thousands of doctrine and disputing books which these seventeen hundred years have produced stand not in my way; they are the same thing to me as if they had never been.  And had you lived at the time mentioned, you had just escaped them all, as I do now, because thought you are a very good reader, there were then none of them to be read.  Could you therefore be content to be one of the primitive Christians who lived before these writings, and who were as good disciples of Christ as any that have been since, you may spare all this labor.”

         It is not easy for me, says Academicus, to tell you how much good I received from this simple instruction of honest Rusticus.  What project was it, to be grasping after the knowledge of all the opinions, doctrines, disputes, heresies, schisms, and decrees which seventeen hundred years had brought forth through all the extent of the Christian world!  What project this, in order to learn the reality of the power of Christ as a deliverer from the evil and earthly flesh and blood, and death and hell, and to become a preacher of a new birth and life from above!  For as this is the divine work of Christ, so he  only is a true and able pastor who can bear a faithful testimony to this divine work of Christ in his own soul.

         How plain it should have been for me to see that all this labyrinth of learned enquiry into such a dark, thorny wilderness of notions, facts, and opinions could signify no more to me now, to my own salvation, to my interest in Christ and obtaining the Holy spirit of God, than if I had lived before it had any beginning.  But the blind appetite for learning gave me no leisure to apprehend so clear a truth.

         Books of divinity, indeed, I have not done with; but will esteem none to be such but those that make known to my heart the inward power and redemption of Jesus Christ, through the indwelling and working of the Holy Spirit.  Nor will I seek for anything even from such books, but that which I ask of God in prayer:  how more to abhor and resist the evil that is in my own nature, and how to better obtain the full outworking of the divine life brought forth by a supernatural birth within me.  All besides this is waste and folly.

            Do you see the point?  Today we are blessed with hundreds of years of accumulated biblical knowledge.  And because we live in the age of technology, we have access to all of it.  We can read the Bible from every translation imaginable.  In audio form we have it on cassette, CD, DVD.  We can listen to it on our smart phones, pods, and pads and every other device imaginable.  We can go online and learn from those who have studied the scriptures all their lives.  We can tune into the best sermons available.  Bible concordances, dictionaries, and commentaries are constantly at our fingertips.  But with all that, are we any better off than the first-century Christians who had none of that?  They didn’t even have the New Testament in written form.  Yet these every-day Christians followed Jesus and proclaimed the gospel.  Acts 17:6 testifies that these early disciples turned the world upside down. 

            So why is it that with all our advantages, we aren’t doing any better than they did?  As a matter of fact, though we don’t want to idolize those early Christians, we long to see God work through us as He did through them.  The answer is simple.  Though they didn’t have many of the things we have, they experienced the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They understood that the power for living and ministry doesn’t come through learning.  Knowledge, even knowledge of scripture, is only a tool.  It is only preparation for something far greater, and that something is fellowship with and complete reliance upon the Spirit of God.  To the extent that biblical knowledge leads us to personal involvement with the Holy Spirit, we praise God for it.  But the truth is that far too often we have seen the Bible as an end in itself; we have been deceived into thinking that if we just know the Bible, we will grow in the Lord.  No, that is not the case.  A person can quote the entire New Testament and know nothing of real spiritual truth.  That is he message of I Corinthians 2.  “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (I Cor. 2:14).

            We must never elevate the Bible to a place where it is on a par with God.  God gave us the Bible; the Bible does not give us God.  Eternal life is to know God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.  That knowledge is personal, intimate acquaintance, and it comes through the Holy Spirit.  Bible learning that is not accomplished in the power of the Spirit means nothing.  The truth was evident in the lives of the Pharisees.

            I have spent our time this morning warning us of intellectual biblical knowledge that neglects the Spirit, but praise God that it doesn’t have to be that way.  The Spirit can give us a thirst for the Word that goes far deeper than the brain.  He takes that Word and uses it to prepare us for fellowship with the living God, to lead us to worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

Immersed In the Spirit -- 10/21/12

Sunday, October 21, 2012

IMMERSED  IN  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT

            Two weeks ago most of us saw Annie baptized.  By the way, wasn’t it a great experience?  If you were unmoved by what happened here that Sunday, you have reason to be concerned about your spiritual condition.  Before the baptism, we heard the gospel proclaimed.  Someone later made reference to that old hymn, “I Love to Tell the Story.”  One verse says, “I love to tell the story, ‘Tis pleasant to repeat; What seems each time I tell it, more wonderfully sweet.”  And again, “I love to tell the story, For those who know it best seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest.”  The chorus goes:  “I love to tell the story, ‘Twill be my theme in glory -- to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.”  We heard that old, old story.  And then Annie shared that the gospel is more than just an old story, but it has power to change lives today.  She shared in her own words her deep conviction that her sin separated her from God, but Jesus died to save her from her sin, and she is trusting Him for salvation and life.  Then the climax came when Annie was put down into the water and raised up again, testifying that this is what happened to Jesus and she has been made a part of His death and resurrection.  May our mighty God continue to change lives for His glory.

            So we baptized Annie.  I want you to think for a minute about that word “baptize.”  Consider this question, “Do you believe in baptism by immersion?”  That is really a ridiculous question.  It’s like asking, “Do you believe in immersion by immersion?”  “Baptize” is a word that we brought directly over from the Greek language of the New Testament.  At first, you might think that is a noble thing.  Wow!  We thought that word was so important that we just brought it over and made an English word out of it.  Yes, that’s what we did, but it isn’t such a great thing.  The problem is that by doing that we didn’t give it any meaning. 

            What would you think, if I opened my Bible and read these words from Jesus:  “I am the artoV thV zwhV”?  Would it help, if I followed it up with these words from Jesus:  “I am the fwV tou kosmou”?  Now some of you might be able to figure it out after a while, but most of you are thinking, “That is stupid.  Why don’t you just give us the English translation of the words?”  Okay, Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” and He said, “I am the light of the world.”  Do you prefer that?  Of course.  So now I read from Acts 2:41, “Then they that gladly received His word ebaptisqhsan.”  Let me translate that Greek word into English:  “Then they that gladly received His word were baptized.”  Do you see?  We didn’t give an English meaning to the Greek word.  We say, “We know what ‘baptize’ means?”  Do we?  In our religious society, it can mean pouring water on someone, sprinkling someone with water, or dipping someone into water.  We hold that definition because of the various practices we have seen, but what does the Greek word actually mean?

            Even modern translations retain the transliteration “baptize.”  The practice began over 400 years ago and it continues today.   Perhaps we cannot be sure, but it seems most likely that the early English translators were not free to translate it “immersion,” as that would be offensive to the Anglican Church, which was practicing sprinkling at that time.  In order not to mistranslate it, they simply left it untranslated.  That is unfortunate, because the word itself means “to immerse.”  It speaks of dipping something into a liquid.  Even in secular literature, it was used in that way.  If a piece of clothing needed to be dyed, it was baptized (immersed) into the dye. 

            Immersion does give us a beautiful picture of what happened to Jesus.  As Annie was dipped down into the water, so Jesus died and was buried in the ground.  Yes, He truly tasted death for every man and was buried.  Annie, did you know when you got wet?  Did we all realize that Annie was wet, that she had been dipped into the water?  We certainly did, because her clothes were dripping and her hair was drenched.  Annie, along with everyone here, was well aware that she had been dipped into the water.

            This morning I want to read you some passages from the New Testament, applying what I have just talked about.  Instead of transliterating the Greek word baptizw, I am going to render it with the word “dip” or “immerse.”  As much as we can, let’s try to listen in a fresh way, almost like reading it for the first time.

Matt. 13:1-17… In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.' " 4 And John himself was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him 6 and were immersed by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his immersion, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, 9 and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. 10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 I indeed immerse you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will immerse you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be immersed by him.14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I need to be immersed by You, and are You coming to me?" 15 But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed Him. 16 When He had been immersed, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Mark 1:1-11… The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in the Prophets:"Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You." 3 "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.' " 4 John came immersing in the wilderness and preaching an immersion of repentance for the remission of sins. 5 Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all immersed by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel's hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, "There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. 8 I indeed immersed you with water, but He will immerse you with the Holy Spirit." 9 It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was immersed by John in the Jordan. 10 And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. 11 Then a voice came from heaven, "You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Luke 3:1-17… Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching an immersion of repentance for the remission of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough ways smooth; 6 And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.' " 7 Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be  immersed by him, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. 9 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." 10 So the people asked him, saying, "What shall we do then?" 11 He answered and said to them, "He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise." 12 Then tax collectors also came to be immersed, and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?" 13 And he said to them, "Collect no more than what is appointed for you." 14 Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, "And what shall we do?" So he said to them, "Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages." 15Now as the people were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not, 16 John answered, saying to all, "I indeed immerse you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will immerse you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire."

John 1:19-34… Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ."21 And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No." 22 Then they said to him, "Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?" 23 He said: "I am 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Make straight the way of the Lord," ' as the prophet Isaiah said." 24 Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. 25 And they asked him, saying, "Why then do you immerse if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?" 26 John answered them, saying, "I immerse with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. 27 It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose." 28 These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was immersing. 29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is He of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.' 31 I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came immersing with water." 32 And John bore witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. 33 I did not know Him, but He who sent me to immerse with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who immerses with the Holy Spirit.' 34 And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God."

            So why did I read those four passages?  Didn’t we talk about baptism two weeks ago?  I read them to make one simple point -- to be baptized in the Holy Spirit means “to be dipped in the Spirit,” “to be totally immersed in the Holy Spirit.”  I realize that I said two weeks ago that we were going to be looking today at being filled with the Spirit and walking in the Spirit.  However, there is a third New Testament concept -- immersion in the Spirit.  I am deliberately using that phrase “immersion in the Spirit” instead of “baptism in the Spirit,” because the latter terminology has so many connotations connected with it.  When most of us hear the phrase “baptized in the Spirit,” our minds run here and there because of so many past associations.  But when we read the more accurate and more descriptive phrase “dipped (immersed) in the Holy Spirit,” we are better able to come as a child and read it in a fresh way.

            While you are adjusting to that idea, let’s now read from the second part of Luke’s two-part account.  The Gospel of Luke is his first part; what is the second part?  That’s right -- Acts is the continuation of Luke.  Both are written by the same author.  While the Gospel According to Luke tells us what Jesus began to do and teach while He was on the earth, Acts gives us the continuation by telling us what Jesus did through the Holy Spirit after He Himself ascended back to heaven.  So let’s read from Acts 1:1-11…

The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, 3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. 4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly immersed with water, but you shall be immersed with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." 6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7 And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." 9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel,11 who also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven."

            Now please turn to Acts 10.  We aren’t going to read the whole story; you can go back and read it later.  This is the account of how a Roman centurion named Cornelius was wholeheartedly seeking God, when God sent him an angelic messenger.  That angel told him to send for a man named Peter and told him where to find him.  Cornelius obediently sent for Peter, and after some heavenly persuasion, Peter agreed to travel back to the town where Cornelius lived.  When he arrived, he found that Cornelius had gathered his family and friends, who were eagerly waiting to see what Peter would have to say.  Now let’s pick it up and read Acts 10:44-48…

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. 45 And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. 46 For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answered, 47 "Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be immersed who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" 48 And he commanded them to be immersed in the name of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay a few days.

            When some of those back in Jerusalem heard that Peter had gone into the house of a Gentile and even shared a meal with them, they were more than a little bit concerned.  When Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, they confronted him with their criticism.  At that point, Peter carefully recounted the whole story.  We find this in Acts 11.  Now let’s pick it up and read Acts 11:15-18…

And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, 'John indeed immersed with water, but you shall be immersed with the Holy Spirit.' 17 If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?" 18 When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, "Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life."

            After reading all these passages, substituting either the word “immerse” or “dip” for baptize, please consider one other small detail.  You probably noticed that your translation said repeatedly “baptized with the Spirit.”  When the preposition is expressed [not always expressed, because the Greek language can basically use a prepositional phrase without actually including the preposition], it is the word “en.”  That word can be translated “in,” “with,” or “by,” depending on the context.  So why do most all translations render it “baptized with the Spirit”?  I believe it is because “with” goes together well with “baptize.”  If we think of baptism as being the act of being immersed, or sprinkled, or having water poured upon you, then “with” is a perfectly good way of expressing it.  However, if we see baptism as immersion, then the best choice of words is “in.”  It is more accurate to say that Annie was immersed in water than to say that she was immersed with water.  The word “with” is appropriate for pouring and sprinkling, but the word “in” is best for immersion, for dipping.  We dip something in water, not with water.

            Now I want to go back and read all six of these verses which speak of being immersed or dipped in water…

Matt. 3:11… I indeed dip you in water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will dip you in the Holy Spirit and fire. 

Mark 1:8… I indeed dipped you in water, but He will dip you in the Holy Spirit.

Luke 3:16… John answered, saying to all, "I indeed dip you in water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.  He will dip you in the Holy Spirit and fire. 

John 1:32-33… And John bore witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. 33 I did not know Him, but He who sent me to dip in water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who dips in the Holy Spirit.'”

Acts 1:5… for John truly dipped in water, but you shall be dipped in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

Acts 11:16… Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, 'John indeed dipped in water, but you shall be dipped in the Holy Spirit.' 

            You will notice that this reference to being immersed or dipped in the Holy Spirit is in all four gospel accounts.  That is very rare.  Other than Jesus’ death and resurrection, most things about Jesus are recorded in one, two, or maybe three of the gospel accounts, but not all four.  One thing I remember about the feeding of the 5,000 is that it is in all four accounts.  I remember that because it is so unusual.  Even Jesus’ birth is recorded only by Matthew and Luke.

            Not only is the dipping in the Holy Spirit mentioned by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but John the Baptist makes a big deal out of it.  John the Dipper (to be consistent) used this very fact to identify Jesus as the Messiah.  Notice, for instance, in Matt. 3:11 that John uses Jesus’ immersing people in the Spirit to link Him with the one who is mightier, whose sandals he is not worthy to carry.  This pointing to Jesus as the One who will immerse in the Spirit is a vital part of John’s ministry. 

            Suppose I were to ask you, “How did John identify the Lord Jesus?”  Generally we answer like this:  “John pointed to Jesus and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.’”  He said it twice.  Where do we find that account?  We find it in the first chapter of John, in verse 29 and again in verse 36.  So one of the gospel writers includes John the Baptist identifying Jesus in this way.  But in all four gospels John the Baptist identifies Jesus as the one who will immerse in the Holy Spirit.  This is the primary point of identification.  Jesus, and no one else, immerses in the Holy Spirit.  That’s how you will know that He is indeed the Son of God and the Messiah.

            Here is the question with which I want to leave us this morning:  What does it mean to be immersed in the Holy Spirit?  What are the implications of being dipped in the Spirit?   John immersed in water; Jesus immerses in the Holy Spirit.  When Annie was dipped in the water, she knew it.  When a person is dipped in the Holy Spirit, will he know it? 

            Perhaps you are thinking:  “Now where are we going with this?”  I understand that question.  We become so predictable that anything that doesn’t fit immediately into our little box is questionable.  So how are these questions going to fit into our box of what we believe about the Spirit?  I don’t know.  That in itself is frightening to some of you.  Why?  Because we have a tendency to be very much afraid of the unknown, and we have the same tendency to be afraid of the Holy Spirit.  Remember when we talked about the Spirit and the Word and how we are stronger on the ministry of the Word than the ministry of the Spirit?  And why is that?  A big part of it is because we think we have some control over the Bible.  After all, it is made up of words on the printed page.  But the Holy Spirit is different.  He is a person.  Instead of us leading Him, He leads us, and we don’t know exactly where He is going to lead.

            Brothers and sisters, most of us have a desire to be stable.  We like to think we know what we believe, because we are grounded in the Word.  The truth is that often we are so certain of what we believe we refuse to allow God to change what we believe.  And if a person we consider to be a mature Christian is open to change in his beliefs, we label him as unstable.  Because we want to be stable, we are in danger of becoming static.  Do we want the Lord to open our understanding? 

            If you are afraid something we believe about the Holy Spirit might change, get over it.  I will go on record as saying that my understanding of the Holy Spirit is subject to change, and I assure you that I desire my experience of the Spirit’s work to be enlarged.  I need the Lord to work in me by the power of His Spirit.  If that requires opening my understanding to things I haven’t yet grasped, so be it.  I remind you that the most doctrinally orthodox people of Jesus’ day were the Pharisees.  Their minds were full of knowledge, but their hearts were hard and dead.  We don’t want to be like the Pharisees. 

            Don’t misunderstand.  The Holy Spirit will always lead according to the Word of God, for He is the author of that Word.  But at the same time we must realize that the same Holy Spirit is the one who is fully capable of opening our minds and hearts to better understand that Word.

            So please chew on these questions:  “What does it mean to be immersed in the Holy Spirit?  What are the results of such an experience?  Is it something of which we are consciously aware?”  Let’s cry out to God for answers.

God Sides with the Thirsty Saint -- 10/14/12

Sunday, October 14, 2012

GOD IS ON THE SIDE OF THE THIRSTY SAINT

            This morning we will continue to think on, pray about, and seek the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  Two weeks ago I said we were going to be looking at being filled with the Spirit.  Wednesday evening I said we would plan to take a fresh look at baptism in the Spirit.  Now I stand before you to say that we will not do either of those.  I give you my apologies.  The way I see it, I have two options:  I can press on and pretend that I have it altogether, that I have a thorough understanding of the ministry of the Spirit; or I can be honest and confess to you that I myself desperately need to experience far more of the Spirit’s ministry than I have tasted.  I am choosing the latter road.  If you conclude that a pastor ought to be much farther along than I am, you are absolutely right.  The only way I know to change that is to honestly seek Him with all my heart.

            You may also get the idea that we aren’t making much progress, that we aren’t covering much ground.  Again, I suppose you would be right.  However, our goal is not to cover ground.  Our purpose is not to wrap this thing up and say, “We have studied the ministry of the Holy Spirit.”  What if we do that, but nothing has really changed in our lives?  That is what I fear most of all.  This seeking after the ministry of the Spirit is no small thing.  If we can look squarely at the Holy Spirit as portrayed in the Word of God and not be changed, what does that say?  It says we are on dangerous ground.  It puts us in company with the Pharisees, who, after carefully examining the life of Jesus for three years, rejected Him.

            My intent is to deliberately slow us down, to encourage us to look not only at what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit, but to look at our own lives and ask how the Spirit is impacting the way we live day by day.  Brothers and sisters, for most of us that will not happen unless we deliberately slow down and pray with purpose. 

I.  The Ministry of the Holy Spirit is Vital to Our Lives

            Let’s begin this morning by reminding ourselves of this simple truth:  The ministry of the Holy Spirit is vital to our lives.  There is no way that we can be too strong on that truth.  The ministry of the Spirit is absolutely necessary in our lives.  We need Him to work in and through us day by day. 

            Let’s look again at those foundational passages that we have been going over.  John 14:15-20…

If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. 19 A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. 20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

            Jesus told them He would not leave them as orphans.  What did He mean by that?  At that point, they had walked with Jesus about three years.  He was their everything.  They couldn’t imagine facing life without Him.  To have Jesus leave them was like being orphans, because He had been like father and mother to them.  Jesus knew the pain they were experiencing, as He began to tell them He would leave them.  But praise God, He would not leave them as orphans.  Instead of leaving them as orphans, He would come to them.  But how?  That’s what He has been saying.  “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper (One like me).”  Jesus would come to them in the person of His Holy Spirit.

            Without the presence and work of the Spirit, we who know the Lord are like orphans in this world.  Why?  Because this world is not our home.  Jesus has delivered us from this present world and our citizenship is in heaven.  Jesus said we are not of this world, just as He is not of this world.  If we were of this world, the world would love us, but we are not of this world.  That is why the world won’t claim us.  We are outcasts in this world.  So what shall we do?  It’s not what we do; it’s what Jesus did.  He went to the cross, bearing our sins in His own body.  Then He rose from the grave and ascended back to heaven.  From the right hand of the Father, He has sent His Spirit to live within us.  Yes, He really has come to us.  Praise God for that marvelous truth.

            Now let’s read John 16:5-7…

But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?' 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.

            We have been over this a number of times, but let us be reminded again that when Jesus departed and sent His Spirit, that was the best thing He could do for His apostles.  It was better that He depart and send the Spirit than that He remain with them in the flesh.  In the same way, it is to our advantage that Jesus is not here in the flesh but is present with us through His Spirit.  To a limited extent we might say that this is heaven on earth.  We experience what Abraham, Moses, and Elijah never experienced. 

            A graphic way to see the necessity of the Spirit in our lives is to compare Peter’s life before Pentecost with his life afterward.  Though he had walked close beside Jesus for some time and had just said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Peter turned around and rebuked that same Jesus.  Do you remember the story?  After Peter’s great confession, Jesus began to tell His apostles that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer and die there.  That’s when Peter said, “No, Lord, it will never happen to you.”  His words and his heart were so far from that of His Master that Jesus had to say, “Get behind me, Satan; you are an offense to me, for you do not set your mind on the things of God but on the things of man.”  It was that same Peter who later boasted that though everyone else might deny Jesus, he would never do so.  He would even be willing to die for Jesus.  Of course, we know that end of that story.  Just as Jesus predicted, he denied His Master three times.

            But then came the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of God was poured out on Peter and the other 120 who were waiting for the promise from the Father.  What a difference the coming of the Spirit made in the life of Peter.  He boldly stood up before thousands and told them that the Jesus they had crucified was both Lord and Messiah.  Three thousand were saved that day.

            The ministry of the Spirit is vital to the life of the Christian.  Are we all agreed?  If you disagree but are not willing to say so in front of all these people, please come and talk to me.  If you question this in your heart, let’s sit down together and open God’s Word and see what else it says on the subject.

II.  Various Views Concerning the Ministry of the Spirit

            Though most all Christians will agree that we desperately need the ministry of the Spirit in our lives, there are varying views concerning the specifics of that ministry.  We don’t have time to explore all those views this morning, but let me say that there are two large opposing camps when it comes to understanding the Holy Spirit.  I am going to refer to these groups as the charismatics and the fundamentalists.  I recognize that there are other viewpoints, but these two still represent very large portions of the Christian population.

            Most charismatics would strongly maintain that all the gifts of the Spirit present in the New Testament continue to operate in the church today.  Most fundamentalists contend that certain New Testament gifts of the Spirit ceased to function when the assembling of the New Testament was completed.  The charismatics, including the various Pentecostal groups, commonly teach that while all Christians have the Holy Spirit, believers should seek a second experience most often referred to as “the baptism of the Spirit.”  Most fundamentalists, on the other hand, stress that all believers were baptized in the Spirit at conversion and there is no genuine second experience.  Fundamentalists often see charismatics as being guilty of many abuses in relation to the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  Charismatics sometimes counter by saying that fundamentalists are fundamentally dead.  These two groups have often opposed each other, sometimes bitterly.  Many Christians will identify with one group or the other, most often depending upon the background in which they were raised.

            Brothers, and sisters, I want to encourage you to resist being forced into either camp.  Don’t let anyone tell you that you have to fit in one or the other of these boxes.  I believe there is truth from both sides that we need to grasp.  Charismatic groups have indeed often been guilty of abuses, but it is also true that fundamentalists groups, with all their right doctrine, have sometimes portrayed a living death.  We don’t have to fit into either one of these traps.

            I can’t fit into either one of these camps.  Though I was raised in a fundamentalist-leaning environment and often warned against the abuses of the charismatics, I can’t espouse the fundamentalist teaching that some of the gifts of the Spirit ceased with the completion of the New Testament canon.  I believe it is one of those doctrines that arose as a justification of our lack of the Spirit’s power in our current religious society.  And I confess that though there were times when I thought I had the Holy Spirit figured out, the plain truth is, “I don’t.”

III.  God Is on the Side of the Thirsty Saint

            So we might ask, “What about the Lord?  Which side is He on?  That’s all that matters.”  The Lord won’t fit into either camp.  Rather, God is on the side of the thirsty saint.  I must confess that I borrowed that little statement from an interview entitled “Can Evangelicalism Be Saved?”  A man named David Enlow was interviewing A. W. Tozer in 1954.  (I found it in Keys to a Deeper Life, A. W. Tozer, p. 92). 

            When we think of differing views concerning the ministry of the Spirit, don’t ever forget that God is on the side of the thirsty saint.  That thirsty saint may be a charismatic, or he might be a fundamentalist.  He might not fit in either camp.  But far more important, he is thirsty to know God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.  His practices may seem a bit strange to some; or his theology may appear weak, but he is hungry for the living God.

            The Lord delights more in the thirsty saint than in the theologically orthodox.  A person may be very sound in all his beliefs and not be thirsty to know the Lord.  On the other hand, one may jump up and down and seemingly exercise gifts of the Spirit and lack that all-encompassing longing for Jesus.  The Lord is on the side of the thirsty saint. 

            If the Pharisees were here today, they could take the enthusiasm of the charismatics and the doctrinal preciseness of the fundamentalists and roll them into one.  We are well aware that the Pharisees were zealous for right doctrine.  They gave their lives to a study of God’s law.  They read it, memorized it, meditated on it, interpreted it, and taught it.  No group mentally grasped the law as well as the Pharisees.  On the other hand, they were religious enthusiasts.  They zealously went after God, though not according to knowledge.  They prayed, not being ashamed to pray to the Lord in public.  They fasted consistently.  They gave a tithe to God of everything they possessed.  Yes, they were both fundamental and charismatic, but they were not thirsty for God.  All the evidence we need is to hear them accuse the very Son of God of casting out demons by the power of the devil. 

            So what am I saying?  You can have great knowledge of the Holy Spirit, understanding who He is and what e does, and still have little or no experience of His presence and power.  You can read a dozen books about the Holy Spirit and be no better off for it.  We talk of the difference between knowing about God and knowing God, and so we should.  To many who know all about Him, Jesus will say, “I never knew you; depart from me, you who work iniquity.”  In the same way, there is a great difference between knowing about the Holy Spirit and experiencing His presence and power.

            It is also possible for a person to talk about experiencing the power of the Spirit without having the reality.  He may raise his hands in the worship service; he may often say, “God told me this or that;” he may appear to be filled with a holy excitement, but such outward actions are not necessarily a demonstration that he has a genuine hunger for the Lord.

            Brothers and sisters, nothing can substitute for that deep heart hunger.  Yes, God is on the side of the thirsty saint.  But why?  Because “blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matt. 5:6).  Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  He who believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).  John then tells us that the whole process is the work of the Holy Spirit.  “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps. 37:4).  Listen to the words of the Lord from Is. 44:3, “For I will pour water upon him who is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.”

            When we hunger for the Lord and keep on hungering, we will not be disappointed.  We will not be turned away.  The Lord is not hiding from us.  II Chron. 16:9, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.”  John 4:23, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.”  Heb. 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”  The Lord is seeking people to hunger and thirst after Him, and He will reward such thirsty saints with no less than Himself.

Conclusion

            Perhaps that seems a bit simplistic to say, “The Lord is on the side of the thirsty saint.”  It is my conviction that there is nothing more timely for us to hear.  But we already know that.  How many times have we talked about hungering and thirsting for the Lord?  The issue isn’t how many times we have heard it.  The issue is simply:  “Are we doing it?” 

            Realize that there are key concepts about which every believer has to decide.  For example, when we consider the gifts of the Spirit, either all those gifts are for today or they aren’t for today.  It’s one way or the other.  And I cannot say that this is not an important issue, because it is important.  We must seek to discern and believe the truth.  However, we must understand that holding the truth about the Holy Spirit and experiencing His presence and power are two different things.

            How do we apply what we have heard this morning?  We believe the truth that there is nothing more important than thirsting for the Lord.  Yes, we should strive to have the right beliefs, but if those beliefs do not cause us to hunger for our Lord, they are of no value.  Yes, we should be diligent to understand what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit, but all the biblical knowledge of the Holy Spirit in the world does no good, if we are not motivated by it to seek the Lord with all our hearts.

            So hunger and thirst for the Lord.  But how do I do that?
a.  Ask Him for that hunger and thirst.

b.  Go to the Word and take time to chew on what you read.

c.  Spend time with the Lord.  Delight in Him, and you will hunger for more of Him.