God's Spirit is at work The Lord Jesus promises His Holy Spirit. John 14:16-18 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; (17) Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (18) I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
God’s work by his Spirit is eternal, personal, and internal. The Spirit will abide with you forever. He has been forever and He will be forever. And God promises He will abide with you forever. He will be constantly by your side. He’s called the Comforter – “one called alongside to help." God’s Spirit does an eternal work in us. He saves us. God is forever. And God is for you! We can know God's presence even in the worst of times.
The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth. He is Someone Whom we can come to know personally – in a very close and personal fellowship and communion. It says, “ye know Him”. Christianity is about knowing God personally, directly. It is relationship between God and mankind. His Spirit works on the soul of man, one by one. He performs an operation in each heart, person by person. The Holy Spirit is a person, a friend. He is active and at work in lives of Christians today. He guides us, He leads us. Not in contradiction to His Word. He does a personal work.
The Holy Spirit dwells in us. He works within us. He does an internal work. We have no revival when we are stopping God working within our hearts. He wants to work in each and every believer, bringing conviction, giving gifts and ministries, leading us, making us holy. He makes the Word of God come alive to us. He makes us spiritual men and women. He is God, indwelling, enabling and equipping us with energy and power for His work. He activates us and empowers us for God’s service, to be His witnesses. Will you surrender? Will you let God do a work in you?
In Ephesians 3:19 Paul prayed that his readers might be "filled with all the fullness of God." This is the whole goal of the Christian life. When you are filled with God, then God himself will dominate your life. He desires to pour his life into ours and to fill us until we're full.
(Unfortunately only a portion of this message was filmed.)
[0:00] Of course it's Pentecost Sunday. It's a day when all around the world people are remembering the day of Pentecost and where the Holy Spirit came in evident form to be with God's people in the gathering of the saints.
[0:29] John 14. Our Lord tells us about the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. John 14 from verse 16. John 14 from verse 16. By the way, if anyone would like a Bible, if you'd like a Bible, wave your hand and we'll get you one real quick. If anyone would like a Bible, just sing out and we'd be glad to give you one.
[0:52] John 14 from verse 16. Thanks Joshua. No one's put their hand up. Thanks for being willing to help there.
[1:03] John 14 verse 16. And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him. For he dwelleth with you and shall be in you.
[1:26] I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. The Lord Jesus Christ says, I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you.
[1:38] This word comfortless has got the sense of being left like an orphan. He will not leave us on our own. He will not leave us alone. He will come to us in the presence, in the person of his Holy Spirit.
[1:50] And the Lord Jesus Christ promises his Holy Spirit. And we learn three things about the work of God's Spirit. We learn three things about here and here.
[2:02] The working of God's Spirit is eternal, personal and internal. We're going to look at those three things just looking at this passage here, largely spending our time here.
[2:15] In John 14 verses 16 to 18. First, we need to grasp a sense of the eternal. How easy it is to get all caught up in that which is not eternal.
[2:29] Amen? We get all caught up in that which is the day by day, the living space of the present. And don't consider the eternity, the eternity that we are all within.
[2:42] And we lose that grasp of the eternal. And the comforter, the Holy Spirit, he is eternal. In verse 16, our Lord says of his Spirit that he may abide with you forever.
[3:00] That he may abide, dwell, reside, indwell, live with us forever. Forever. The Spirit of God will abide with you forever.
[3:14] Our Lord promises that. And the Holy Spirit has been at work way back at creation, at the very dawn of time. He was moving, it says in Genesis 1 verse 2, over the surface of the waters.
[3:30] He was there, right there in Genesis 1 verse 2. I'm sure he was in Genesis 1 verse 1 as well. He was right there, right from the very start of your Bible. And he is still with us and will be with us forever.
[3:44] He has been forever and he will be forever. Forever. And friends, what a blessing it is. What a joy it is for you, for me, for each one here today.
[3:56] We can know that he has promised that he will abide with us forever. You know, when someone abides in a house, it means they take up permanent residence.
[4:09] That's what it means. That's the sense of it. If you're a Christian, if you become a Christian, when you become a Christian, he will abide with you. He will take up permanent residency within your heart and he will make that his abode.
[4:23] He will abide there forever. He will stay there forever. He will be constantly by your side. He will never go away.
[4:35] He will never go away. He abides. He stays. He dwells. And friends, he's called the comforter. The comforter. Now, this word comforter, it means one called alongside to help.
[4:49] He's one who comes alongside to help. I need help. Amen. He comes alongside to help. We all need his help, his grace. And here's that one who comes alongside us.
[5:00] And this word comforter, in the Greek here, it means that he is working like an advocate in court to defend and represent us.
[5:11] He's our legal counsel. He's the one who comes alongside and represents us and advocates for us. Elsewhere, this word that we have here, comforter, is translated advocate.
[5:27] We have an advocate. He is the advocate. He is the comforter. So, what it's saying there is, you know, one day we've got to have our day in court. Praise God, he's going to be right by our side.
[5:42] Amen. Amen. He's going to be right there with us, guiding us, standing for us, representing for us, advocating for us. And he will be guiding, defending and supporting us.
[5:54] He will not leave us comfortless. He is the comforter. He guides, he strengthens, and he is here to help us, right here and now. Amen. Isn't that good news?
[6:05] Glad news, great news, that he is with us and he will abide forever. So, his spirit is doing an eternal, eternal work in us, a forever work.
[6:19] He saves us and he saves us forever. We are saved here, now, and forever when we're saved. When we are saved, his spirit draws us to Christ.
[6:33] God is not temporary. He's not some passing trend or some casual interest that waxes and wanes. You know, like, you know, as a youngster I used to collect stamps.
[6:46] And I used to collect coins and I actually had some medals, some World War II medals and different things like that. I used to like collecting lots of things and aircraft books.
[6:57] I don't do any of that now. I chucked it all away. Because that's not forever. That was just a passing trend, a passing interest, a passing fancy. But he is forever.
[7:10] He is forever. This is not just some hobby, being a Christian. It's life. Life eternal. And when we are saved, his spirit draws us to Christ.
[7:22] God is for you.