Today’s message summary of June 23, 2019 from Pastor Gus Brown:
It is important to recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. He is actively working each day.
Note that Satan is not fearful of our preaching of the Word of Christ; however, he is afraid of people being subject to the authority of Christ.
When submitting yourself under the rule of Christ, that is where the battle with Satan will be experienced, and that is where victory can be obtained over him.
The primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is not for our benefit (although there is clearly a benefit in His presence) but for the purpose to promote the program of Jesus Christ through us. Our role is to show and prove that Jesus Christ is the Son of God in the life of a believer.
Faith is the principle by which we obtain eternal life.
Obedience is the principle by which we live out our lives.
If God gave His very son for us, what would He deny us? It is about learning the lesson of dying to self and living for Christ.
Now, how do we live in this way? That is where many will struggle.
It is through faith and obedience that we, through the working of the Holy Spirit, carry out the program and the work of Jesus in our lives.
John 14:16-17
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
The Holy Spirit helps us to carry out this work. He is with you every moment of your life wherever you are or wherever you may go.
He is our Guide that is the Spirit of Truth. He will always speak the truth to you.
Note that sin creates confusion in your life. The church is being pounded left and right to follow the ways of the world. It is the last battleground.
To see the Spirit (v. 17):
To be a spectator, to look at, to behold, to view attentively, to survey to view mentally, to consider, perceive with the eyes, to discern, to find out by seeing
We cannot see the Spirit in bodily form, but He is present, nonetheless, in the life of the believer.
You are the spectator in the life of a person as you see how the Spirit transforms. Old things pass away, and behold, new things are taking place.
You are discovering the powerful work of the Holy Spirit.
To know the Spirit (v. 17):
To learn to know, to come to know, to get a knowledge by perception, to feel, to become known to understand, to perceive, to have knowledge of, become acquainted with.
To know, as represented in this passage, is a Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse between a man and a woman (Genesis 4:1). It is an intimacy where nothing is hidden any longer.
Follow this train of thought in the passage John 14:16-17. The Holy Spirit and the believer have a special intimacy that is not present between the Spirit and an unbeliever.
The Holy Spirit reveals Himself in this personal relationship with the believer.
It is an intimate relationship intended only for the believer; therefore, the unbeliever knows nothing of this relationship with the Spirit. (It is not that unbelievers are not familiar with the Spirit through interaction, but the relationship is not the same as that of a believer’s relationship with Him.)
The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. There is no intimacy.
John 16:8
And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.
The world must be convicted of sin. The Spirit reveals truth to us and convicts us as to what is true in order that we no longer believe or live a lie.
If a person is changed, his condition changes. The believer sees the Spirit working and knows it is His work.
John 8:44-45
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.
Satan will try to steal a kingdom that he does not have. He will deceive and cause you to believe that you can control yourself–but you have no self-control with the Spirit.
Your perspective changes once you become a believer. Before becoming a believer, you were being taught and lived according to worldly values (taught by Satan). After becoming a believer, you see things differently and live differently because the Spirit teaches you what is truth.
John 16:13-14
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to speak truth and guide you into all truth. He wants to renew our minds.
Ephesians 4:20-24
But that is not the way you learned Christ!–assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Philippians 2:1-2
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, and comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
2 Thessalonians 2:9-12
The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Hosea 4:6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
Jeremiah 10:14-15
Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them. They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their punishment they shall perish.
The Holy Spirit will not speak on His own. The Holy Spirit recognizes the mission of Jesus, and it is not about Himself. He acts in the same way that Jesus does.
John 5:30
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”
John 6:38
For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
It is not just His program or His work. It is their work (God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Spirit).
Matthew 28:19-20
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The Spirit speaks only what he hears. He speaks out of the counsel and wisdom of the Trinity.
The law of the land is not spoken out of the mind of one person, but of the mind of several people. Our lives are not determined by one but of the Trinity.
Genesis 1:26
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-14
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
The Holy Spirit will tell you what is to come. Man cannot tell you this.
John 3:3
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again[a] he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
The Spirit will continue to make things known to you at the appropriate time. He will share with us His grace and teach us His truth.
2 Corinthians 3:18
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Ephesians 1:3, 14
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
John 16:12
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”
John 1:17
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Akron Alliance Fellowship 