WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.919 So, in the evening worship, we're looking at the person of the Holy Spirit. 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:07.500 We've done that for a couple of weeks and we're going to be doing it for quite a while 00:00:07.500 --> 00:00:16.199 as we look into His life, into His character, into His life and also His role and what it 00:00:16.199 --> 00:00:20.539 means to have the Holy Spirit in our lives. 00:00:20.539 --> 00:00:22.839 We recognize Him as God, don't we? 00:00:22.839 --> 00:00:28.320 We see Him as the third person, the Trinity, God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:33.799 The equal in power and in glory with the Father, the same in substance. 00:00:33.799 --> 00:00:38.480 Now, what I want to do this evening, what we're going to look specifically at this evening 00:00:38.480 --> 00:00:43.719 is His role as a revealer, okay? 00:00:43.719 --> 00:00:46.760 Inspirer or teacher. 00:00:46.760 --> 00:00:52.439 And we're going to look at two things with respect to the role of the Holy Spirit in 00:00:52.439 --> 00:00:53.439 our lives. 00:00:53.439 --> 00:00:58.559 First is that, seeing that He's the divine author of the Bible. 00:00:58.559 --> 00:01:02.439 Now, there's kind of, they are basic truths, but very important truths. 00:01:02.439 --> 00:01:06.560 In other words, He's the one who brings life to the Bible. 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:07.920 He has breathed life into it. 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:17.479 It's God's word and it's a living word and the Holy Spirit is integral and critical in 00:01:17.479 --> 00:01:20.000 the inspiration of Scripture. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:25.200 And also, the second thing is He's the divine revealer of truth. 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:31.640 So not only does His word, or does He bring life through the word, but He brings light 00:01:31.640 --> 00:01:34.439 as He teaches and illuminates that word to us. 00:01:34.439 --> 00:01:38.000 So these are the two things we're going to be looking at this evening with respect to 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:43.159 the person of the Holy Spirit and applying that, I hope, to our own lives and hearts. 00:01:43.159 --> 00:01:47.079 So He's the divine author of the Bible. 00:01:47.079 --> 00:01:54.239 We read in 2 Timothy 3, very famous, verse 16, all Scripture is breathed out by God and 00:01:54.239 --> 00:01:59.000 profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and training and righteousness. 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:05.039 The man or the person of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 00:02:05.039 --> 00:02:10.479 So the Bible, the Scripture is breathed out by God. 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:18.199 The breath of God, the spirit of God is what makes the Bible living and authoritative and 00:02:18.199 --> 00:02:22.839 unique among all the books that have ever been written in the world. 00:02:22.839 --> 00:02:31.039 There's roughly, I'm told by that great source of all knowledge, Google, that there is around 00:02:31.039 --> 00:02:38.280 130 million books being written since the printing press in 1440. 00:02:38.280 --> 00:02:45.280 And among all these books, the Bible is completely and utterly unique. 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:46.280 It stands alone. 00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:52.120 So the fact that we have the Bible this evening, we'll read in the Bible, is a significant 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:56.840 reality for us because it's a unique book that we have because it's breathed out. 00:02:56.840 --> 00:03:01.639 All Scripture is God breathed, is spirit breathed. 00:03:01.639 --> 00:03:03.560 It comes from God's breath. 00:03:03.560 --> 00:03:12.199 It is given by God, a book of divine origin that the Holy Spirit was integral in being 00:03:12.199 --> 00:03:15.520 involved in its composition. 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:22.080 Second Peter 1, 2021, it says, above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:26.000 came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things for prophecy. 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:30.800 Never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:33.920 they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 00:03:33.920 --> 00:03:37.120 I'll say a little bit more about that in a moment. 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:41.680 But the context of that is Peter is speaking to those to whom he's writing, and he's saying 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:49.000 that they were eyewitnesses of the glory of God, that they were those who saw what Jesus 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:50.000 had done. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:51.800 They saw Him on the Mount of Transfiguration. 00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:53.400 It's not stories they'd made up. 00:03:53.400 --> 00:03:54.400 It was fact. 00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:55.800 It was true. 00:03:55.800 --> 00:04:04.320 And he then goes on to speak about the Holy Spirit, breathing life into what they had 00:04:04.320 --> 00:04:07.840 recorded and what they had seen primarily. 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:10.960 It speaks of the Scripture that was written in the Old Testament. 00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:16.519 But we know that in 2 Peter, for example, he calls Paul's letter Scripture. 00:04:16.519 --> 00:04:22.960 So there's this recognition that the work and the message that was brought by the apostles 00:04:22.959 --> 00:04:30.039 and by Paul were to become Scripture, both the Old and the New Testament. 00:04:30.039 --> 00:04:35.639 And it's that Scripture which Jesus spoke of in John saying, it cannot be broken. 00:04:35.639 --> 00:04:41.199 So there's this recognition that what God has inspired and brought through the New Testament 00:04:41.199 --> 00:04:48.359 writers and through the Old Testament writers is uniquely God's word that cannot be broken. 00:04:48.360 --> 00:04:53.920 He is, as we know, and as we've seen in our various studies, he's the spirit of truth, 00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:54.920 John 16. 00:04:54.920 --> 00:04:59.960 But when he, the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. 00:04:59.960 --> 00:05:01.600 He will not speak on his own. 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:03.520 He will only speak what he hears. 00:05:03.520 --> 00:05:06.639 He will tell you what is yet to come. 00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:11.600 And in that whole passage in John, you've got the idea of a Trinitarian involvement, 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:19.840 a Trinitarian word being brought to ultimately to our hearts from the Father through the 00:05:19.840 --> 00:05:26.040 Son and by means of the Holy Spirit given to us. 00:05:26.040 --> 00:05:29.760 And so the Bible is his inspired word. 00:05:29.760 --> 00:05:34.160 It's breathed out by God, and that is the work of the Holy Spirit. 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:38.160 And we remind ourselves that that then makes God's word infallible. 00:05:38.160 --> 00:05:39.240 It's true. 00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:47.199 It's not exhaustive, doesn't tell us all truth, but the truth that it tells us is absolutely 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:48.199 accurate. 00:05:48.199 --> 00:05:58.360 It is the account of God's redemptive historical work, a word that Jesus had confidence in. 00:05:58.360 --> 00:06:03.680 And we recognize that it's a complete book in itself. 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:10.240 And within that then we recognize that it's a progressive revelation, and that's important 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:11.319 to know. 00:06:11.319 --> 00:06:19.600 We also recognize that it's a book which interprets itself as it's inspired by the Spirit of God. 00:06:19.600 --> 00:06:24.399 And we recognize that it gives us all that we need to know. 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:31.040 Not about everything, but it gives us all we need to know about living, following, being 00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:35.040 saved, and coming to know and following Jesus Christ. 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:40.720 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through the knowledge 00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:45.640 of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness, 2 Peter 12. 00:06:45.640 --> 00:06:49.600 So it gives us, it's exactly what we need. 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:57.920 The Spirit has made sure that that is the case, that the Bible has just not too much 00:06:57.920 --> 00:06:58.920 and not too little. 00:06:58.920 --> 00:06:59.920 It's exactly right. 00:06:59.920 --> 00:07:01.960 It's exactly what we need. 00:07:01.960 --> 00:07:07.199 And it's infallible as God's Word brings truth to us. 00:07:07.199 --> 00:07:11.000 But of course it's truth that comes through human authors. 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:14.480 And that's important to recognize. 00:07:14.480 --> 00:07:20.000 That passage that I quoted earlier in 2 Peter speaks about the Holy Spirit carrying the 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:21.000 authors along. 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:28.840 And the word that's used there is the same word for a boat being moved along by the wind 00:07:28.839 --> 00:07:32.439 and its sails. 00:07:32.439 --> 00:07:36.199 That's recognition that if a boat is going to be moved by the sails, there's got to be 00:07:36.199 --> 00:07:38.919 people in the boat and they've got to be putting the sails up. 00:07:38.919 --> 00:07:43.919 But there's this sense in which the direction and the way it's going is carried by the power 00:07:43.919 --> 00:07:47.439 of the wind, by the power of the Holy Spirit. 00:07:47.439 --> 00:07:52.439 So we move away from the idea that it's like the Mary Celeste boat, which is empty of any 00:07:52.439 --> 00:07:55.359 kind of human involvement. 00:07:55.360 --> 00:08:01.960 The inspiration of God doesn't make the people like Celestial tape recorders. 00:08:01.960 --> 00:08:02.960 That's an old illustration. 00:08:02.960 --> 00:08:05.600 No one would have heard of a tape recorder anymore. 00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:08.120 Actually, the people over 70 are laughing. 00:08:08.120 --> 00:08:10.680 Sorry, 50. 00:08:10.680 --> 00:08:11.920 But it's not like that. 00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:13.080 It's not necessarily... 00:08:13.080 --> 00:08:20.600 It's not simply the Spirit dictated His truth to everyone, although there was instance when 00:08:20.600 --> 00:08:21.680 He did. 00:08:21.680 --> 00:08:27.480 So we recognize that the writers were still children and prophets of their own time. 00:08:27.480 --> 00:08:33.480 And so it's good and important for us as students of the Word, inspired by the Holy Spirit, 00:08:33.480 --> 00:08:38.960 to understand the context and the culture and the social and the spiritual background 00:08:38.960 --> 00:08:41.159 into which the Scriptures were written. 00:08:41.159 --> 00:08:43.000 That helps us understand. 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:45.960 God expects us to use our minds so to do. 00:08:45.960 --> 00:08:49.799 They're not magically divine words. 00:08:49.799 --> 00:08:55.559 They are words that the Spirit of God inspired through the human authors. 00:08:55.559 --> 00:08:57.279 He worked through them. 00:08:57.279 --> 00:09:02.159 There was times when He dictated messages to them, thus says the Lord. 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:08.120 There's times He wrote Himself and the stones of the Ten Commandments. 00:09:08.120 --> 00:09:17.199 But there's other times that the Spirit inspires authors to be carefully investigating truth 00:09:17.200 --> 00:09:22.720 or to organize things in certain ways, whether it's the writers to the Proverbs or Dr. Luke, 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:28.800 saying that He witnessed, He interviewed many different witnesses, eyewitnesses of Jesus, 00:09:28.800 --> 00:09:35.920 or whether it's through the poetic creativity of David or Asaph or the wisdom of Daniel 00:09:35.920 --> 00:09:44.280 or the personalities of Peter or Paul or John, indeed, as we're seeing in One John and His 00:09:44.279 --> 00:09:48.879 characteristic style of writing. 00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:55.000 But the Holy Spirit inspired them, oversaw them, governed what they were saying and what 00:09:55.000 --> 00:10:01.360 they wrote down so that they said what He wanted them to say, so that these writers were 00:10:01.360 --> 00:10:10.720 bringing God's Word to us, so that we might be saved and God might be glorified. 00:10:10.720 --> 00:10:18.200 So there's a redemptive theme from Genesis to Revelation, and there's a clear message, 00:10:18.200 --> 00:10:26.120 a God-given message that comes through each of these authors and binds them together. 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:35.399 These 66 books by 40 authors over 1,500 years speak one message, speak one clear message 00:10:35.399 --> 00:10:45.879 of redemptive historical revelation that focuses on and is centered by the revelation of Jesus 00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:54.139 Christ, great unity in that that comes from God's Spirit who oversees the Scripture. 00:10:54.139 --> 00:11:03.559 And because it's inspired by God and because it is breathed out by the Holy Spirit, it's 00:11:03.559 --> 00:11:07.279 therefore self-attesting. 00:11:07.279 --> 00:11:12.479 It can't look to any higher authority to claim its authenticity. 00:11:12.479 --> 00:11:15.599 It can't cite anything greater than itself. 00:11:15.599 --> 00:11:21.039 It is self-attesting at that level. 00:11:21.039 --> 00:11:26.639 We are convinced of its truthfulness and by its claims because of the internal witness 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:27.639 of the Holy Spirit. 00:11:27.639 --> 00:11:30.519 I'll say a little bit more about that later. 00:11:30.519 --> 00:11:34.439 And that seals its truthfulness and validity to us. 00:11:34.439 --> 00:11:46.279 But it is clearly an inspired book that is confident and comfortable in its own claims. 00:11:46.279 --> 00:11:52.799 The New Testament itself quotes the Old Testament as authoritative 900 times. 00:11:52.799 --> 00:12:01.240 And God said or God spoken is over 3,000 times in the Scriptures. 00:12:01.240 --> 00:12:09.219 It's its own self-attesting testimony of the Word of God from God inspired by the Holy 00:12:09.219 --> 00:12:12.359 Spirit. 00:12:12.359 --> 00:12:18.559 So the Scripture is divinely authored and inspired by the Holy Spirit. 00:12:18.559 --> 00:12:24.079 Now the implications, I'm sure are many for that, I'm just going to say a couple. 00:12:24.079 --> 00:12:33.199 The first that we recognize that as it's unique and it's uniquely from God and has this divine 00:12:33.199 --> 00:12:39.919 intentionality that is governed and overseen and given by the Holy Spirit, it must, we 00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:42.439 should treat it accordingly. 00:12:42.439 --> 00:12:44.559 We should treat it accordingly. 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:46.639 We should value it greatly. 00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:55.319 It's a great peril of rejecting or ignoring or adding to or taking away from Scripture. 00:12:55.319 --> 00:12:56.840 We might not add to it. 00:12:56.840 --> 00:13:00.480 Well, sometimes we do. 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:08.080 But maybe we're more prone to take away from it bits we don't like, bits we don't understand, 00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:13.840 bits that seem contradictory, bits that are out of date, bits that make us walk a different 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:16.680 way to the world in which we live. 00:13:16.680 --> 00:13:24.920 We need to remember this incredible work of the Holy Spirit that is given specifically 00:13:24.920 --> 00:13:35.440 to us by the Holy Spirit, inspired for us, molded and governed and overseen for our lives, 00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:40.800 for our knowledge, for our salvation, and for our growth in grace. 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:50.919 He takes the word of the Father and He makes it suitable for us and for our lives. 00:13:50.919 --> 00:13:58.399 So as Christians, if we are Christians this evening, you need to know it and protect it 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:04.359 and learn all about it and wrestle with it and wrestle with the difficult bits. 00:14:04.360 --> 00:14:15.399 Don't just ignore them or reject them or go for a quick Twitter-type snapshot every day. 00:14:15.399 --> 00:14:24.919 Don't just go for the easy passages that we can grip, but work through its truth, listen 00:14:24.919 --> 00:14:34.919 for what it's saying, and recognize it's His living Word, it's much more than simply 00:14:34.919 --> 00:14:38.319 historical revelation. 00:14:38.319 --> 00:14:40.839 It is His ongoing living Word. 00:14:40.839 --> 00:14:46.439 It is good to contextualize, it is good to look at the authors, it is good to see it 00:14:46.439 --> 00:14:53.279 in its original context, but never to forget that it remains a living Word for today and 00:14:53.279 --> 00:14:56.799 a living Word from the living God inspired by the Holy Spirit. 00:14:56.799 --> 00:15:05.799 When we loosen our grip or we shrug our shoulders or we say God is wrong, we're listening to 00:15:05.799 --> 00:15:13.799 another Spirit and it's not God. 00:15:13.799 --> 00:15:18.439 And there's the recognition that we're in a spiritual battle. 00:15:18.440 --> 00:15:25.240 And there is one who will take the Word of God and one who seeks to be an angel of light, 00:15:25.240 --> 00:15:32.200 who will disrupt and twist and confuse us. 00:15:32.200 --> 00:15:36.560 God speaks to us through His living Word, it's unique. 00:15:36.560 --> 00:15:43.440 And that brings me to the second point, which is not as easy as the divine inspirer of Scripture, 00:15:43.440 --> 00:15:49.880 but He's the divine revealer of truth. 00:15:49.880 --> 00:15:57.160 Cory this morning was speaking about assurance, and he mentioned the fact that there are ways 00:15:57.160 --> 00:16:01.240 that we can be assured that we're Christians, and that's a great theme, a great topic. 00:16:01.240 --> 00:16:05.560 And we'll maybe say more about the assurance of the Spirit at another time. 00:16:05.560 --> 00:16:10.400 And we'll also say more about the critical need for the Holy Spirit in our rebirth, in 00:16:10.399 --> 00:16:14.840 our coming to faith in Jesus Christ. 00:16:14.840 --> 00:16:23.559 But I want us to focus a little bit on the fact that not only does He inspire Scripture 00:16:23.559 --> 00:16:29.559 for us as Christians when we become Christians through His power, but He continues to illuminate 00:16:29.559 --> 00:16:36.480 Scripture to be the light that we need to understand Scripture. 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:40.920 And He testifies with our own spirit. 00:16:40.920 --> 00:16:50.800 There's an internal work that goes on of God, and that is an ongoing work where He applies 00:16:50.800 --> 00:16:53.159 what Jesus has accomplished. 00:16:53.159 --> 00:16:57.360 He assures us, spoke about assurance this morning, He assures us that it's the Word 00:16:57.360 --> 00:16:58.360 of God. 00:16:58.360 --> 00:17:01.720 For example, we could have a couple of people come to, I could have one of you down here 00:17:01.720 --> 00:17:07.319 as a Christian, and you could sit down there, and you could have another person beside you 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:13.519 who's not a Christian, and you could both read the crucifixion story together. 00:17:13.519 --> 00:17:20.920 There's no difference between these two people intellectually, or maybe in age, or even culture 00:17:20.920 --> 00:17:23.640 and background. 00:17:23.640 --> 00:17:30.360 One of them doesn't believe it, and one of them as a Christian clearly does. 00:17:30.359 --> 00:17:34.519 And the difference is the work of the Holy Spirit in that person. 00:17:34.519 --> 00:17:36.639 He enables us to see things differently. 00:17:36.639 --> 00:17:41.159 He illuminates Scripture for us. 00:17:41.159 --> 00:17:47.399 And so His work is not simply to inspire the Word of God itself, but He is the one who 00:17:47.399 --> 00:17:49.719 reveals God to us. 00:17:49.719 --> 00:17:50.719 Primarily reveals God. 00:17:50.719 --> 00:17:56.399 Remember we've been talking about that from 1 John, that fellowship with God is kind of 00:17:56.400 --> 00:18:00.880 the aim of our lives, to just know God and to love Him and serve Him. 00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:02.720 Well He reveals God to us. 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:04.160 One Corinthians 2, we read that. 00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:09.000 However, as it is written, what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no human 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:12.640 mind has conceived, the things of God is prepared for those who love Him. 00:18:12.640 --> 00:18:16.720 These are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit. 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:21.240 The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 00:18:21.240 --> 00:18:27.079 It's impossible for us to know God, to be in relationship with God, to trust our lives 00:18:27.079 --> 00:18:31.400 to God, to love Him without the work of the Spirit in our hearts. 00:18:31.400 --> 00:18:37.519 We need Him to reveal to us the deep things of God, tremendously significant. 00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:43.319 It's never simply an intellectual truth or knowledge that we have of God. 00:18:43.319 --> 00:18:50.200 We need the person of God and the person of the Holy Spirit to be in us, illuminating, 00:18:50.200 --> 00:18:57.080 restifying, bringing it to life and making us say, yes, absolutely. 00:18:57.080 --> 00:19:02.160 I believe that and I'm entrusting my life to Him. 00:19:02.160 --> 00:19:11.960 If we only have the Bible alone and we're reading it kind of simply intellectually, then 00:19:11.960 --> 00:19:16.559 it's a dead word to us. 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:23.159 And I think sometimes there's a danger of us falling into deadness even as believers 00:19:23.159 --> 00:19:30.279 and failing to recognize and see that it is the Spirit alone who will take us into the 00:19:30.279 --> 00:19:35.559 deep things of God who will reveal to us, who will help us to search all things and 00:19:35.559 --> 00:19:43.159 to know God and to deepen our relationship with Him as our Father and as our King and 00:19:43.159 --> 00:19:44.359 as our Lord. 00:19:44.359 --> 00:19:48.639 So He reveals God, He reveals by bringing light. 00:19:48.639 --> 00:19:53.559 He inspires and brings life to it, but He reveals by bringing light and He not only 00:19:53.559 --> 00:19:59.039 teaches and reveals God to us, but He teaches us God's truth. 00:19:59.039 --> 00:20:03.879 Now if you do have time this evening or some other time, read John 14 to 16. 00:20:03.879 --> 00:20:07.359 It speaks a lot about the work of the Holy Spirit. 00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:13.439 And one of the things Jesus says in John 14, 26, is the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom 00:20:13.440 --> 00:20:20.600 the Father will send in My name, Trinitarian, call again, will teach you all things and 00:20:20.600 --> 00:20:26.519 will remind you of everything I have said to you. 00:20:26.519 --> 00:20:32.480 And that takes us back to the original passage in 2 Timothy where the Word of God is, Scripture 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:39.080 is breathed out and is able to teach us and rebuke us and correct us and train us in righteousness. 00:20:39.079 --> 00:20:46.159 Because that's what the Word of God does as the Holy Spirit works with us and works through 00:20:46.159 --> 00:20:49.740 us to help us understand more clearly. 00:20:49.740 --> 00:20:56.879 So when we open the Word as believers, the great thing to remember as we open the Word 00:20:56.879 --> 00:21:02.240 is that the Spirit of God is with us, that we're not alone in other words, that God is 00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:04.480 with us as we open the Word. 00:21:04.480 --> 00:21:08.919 He is in us and He's with us forever. 00:21:08.920 --> 00:21:18.200 It's a powerful reality, and His work is to reveal God and to teach us wisdom for living, 00:21:18.200 --> 00:21:20.360 to understand ourselves. 00:21:20.360 --> 00:21:29.080 That's why the Bible I think is called the Mirror of Scripture, because it reveals ourselves, 00:21:29.080 --> 00:21:32.360 it reveals what we're like. 00:21:32.359 --> 00:21:40.759 It is, and challenges and transforms us, so we find out and understand much more about 00:21:40.759 --> 00:21:48.519 ourselves as we cooperate with the Spirit and as we recognize Him as our teacher. 00:21:48.519 --> 00:21:51.759 And of course He works through others, of course. 00:21:51.759 --> 00:21:57.799 And we will see that the Spirit of God will enable us to learn what to do. 00:21:57.799 --> 00:22:00.159 He will guide us. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:04.279 He will show us what to say. 00:22:04.279 --> 00:22:10.320 He will give us the wisdom we need, and He will move us towards peace, shalom, even 00:22:10.320 --> 00:22:18.279 in the hardest of circumstances, enable us to be unafraid and strong when we feel weak, 00:22:18.279 --> 00:22:26.720 and open up true life to us, and the blessings and joy that it brings. 00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:31.000 So we see the two things there that the Holy Spirit is the revealer. 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:33.480 He's the Inspirer of the Bible. 00:22:33.480 --> 00:22:36.400 He's the one that brings it alive. 00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:39.200 It's a living word for us. 00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:45.839 And He's also the one who takes His living word and teaches us and guides us and leads 00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:48.519 us. 00:22:48.519 --> 00:22:55.200 So I think in closing the implications of that for me are twofold at least, and I'm sure 00:22:55.200 --> 00:22:56.200 many more. 00:22:56.200 --> 00:23:06.840 The first is to know, to understand how much you are loved by God. 00:23:06.840 --> 00:23:14.840 It's kind of as if the Holy Spirit is assigned to you as a specific role. 00:23:14.840 --> 00:23:19.960 He's assigned to God's people. 00:23:19.960 --> 00:23:27.440 He's been given the role of revealing God to us in His Word, to inspire the writers 00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:32.240 so that they bring to us what we need to hear from the living God. 00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:38.840 And Jesus goes back to the Father and He sends the Holy Spirit to us. 00:23:38.840 --> 00:23:45.559 He is given, that's how much God loves us, that He gives us Himself, of course, in the 00:23:45.559 --> 00:23:48.000 person of the Holy Spirit. 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:52.880 He has this assigned role to enable us to live our Christian lives. 00:23:52.880 --> 00:24:01.440 And He's a God His Spirit and the Spirit of God is invisible to us, and we often think 00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:05.480 we're alone, I think, as Christians. 00:24:05.480 --> 00:24:12.440 But it couldn't be further from the truth that we are in dwelt and we are befriended, 00:24:12.440 --> 00:24:19.360 and the specific role of the Holy Spirit is for His people, is for you and for me. 00:24:19.360 --> 00:24:23.160 And I think that's important and significant. 00:24:23.160 --> 00:24:31.320 There's of all the persons in the Godhead, in many ways the Holy Spirit is the most intimate 00:24:31.320 --> 00:24:32.320 to us. 00:24:32.320 --> 00:24:35.160 And I don't think we often think that. 00:24:35.160 --> 00:24:40.600 We mostly think of Jesus as the closest, most if we can, I'm not sure if it's right 00:24:40.599 --> 00:24:47.839 to talk in these terms, but we often think of Jesus as the one, or even sometimes God 00:24:47.839 --> 00:24:48.959 the Father. 00:24:48.959 --> 00:24:55.639 And the Spirit seems a little bit ethereal and a little bit wispy and a little bit impersonal, 00:24:55.639 --> 00:24:57.199 maybe. 00:24:57.199 --> 00:25:02.759 Some of us maybe have grown up hearing it called the Holy Ghost, and maybe that's just, there's 00:25:02.759 --> 00:25:04.919 a bit scary about that as well. 00:25:04.920 --> 00:25:12.640 But yet in a sense, the Holy Spirit is the most intimately close person of the Godhead 00:25:12.640 --> 00:25:19.960 to us if we can talk that way, in His role at least, specifically for us. 00:25:19.960 --> 00:25:28.440 And also the other implication surely is for us to have a tremendously strong independent 00:25:28.440 --> 00:25:32.080 life of prayer, independence on the Holy Spirit. 00:25:32.079 --> 00:25:37.759 When we come to Scripture, that we pray God's Spirit to illuminate and to enlighten us. 00:25:37.759 --> 00:25:41.519 We pray for wisdom as we live our lives. 00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:48.480 We pray each time we come to church that God will use His Word that will become an inspired 00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:56.199 and powerful time together, that we simply live lives of dependent prayer. 00:25:56.199 --> 00:25:58.199 Don't depend on your knowledge. 00:25:58.199 --> 00:26:01.000 Don't depend on your intelligence. 00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:06.240 Don't depend on the Holy Spirit and show that by a life of prayer. 00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:13.400 May that be true of each of us as we learn a bit more about the Spirit as the Inspirer, 00:26:13.400 --> 00:26:19.440 the Divine Author of Scripture and the Divine Revealer of Truth for us. 00:26:19.440 --> 00:26:20.440 Let's pray. 00:26:20.440 --> 00:26:23.519 Father God, help us to know You better. 00:26:23.519 --> 00:26:27.680 Help us to thank You for the Holy Spirit's work. 00:26:27.680 --> 00:26:35.680 Thank You for this great Word, the Bible, the complete revelation of God for all we need 00:26:35.680 --> 00:26:40.279 to know for life and for salvation. 00:26:40.279 --> 00:26:45.039 Thank You for its wisdom, for its living relevance. 00:26:45.039 --> 00:26:52.200 May it become the bedrock of our lives as it reveals the Word Himself, Jesus, and as 00:26:52.200 --> 00:26:57.279 the Spirit takes that revelation and applies it to our hearts. 00:26:57.279 --> 00:26:59.960 Thank You for the intimate work of Your Holy Spirit. 00:26:59.960 --> 00:27:05.559 And Holy Spirit, we thank You this evening for what You do for us, for Your incredible 00:27:05.559 --> 00:27:12.319 patience and interest in our lives, for Your gentle, powerful teaching, for the way You 00:27:12.319 --> 00:27:19.839 lead us and keep us in many ways, maybe in a million ways we don't know, keep us from 00:27:19.839 --> 00:27:25.559 danger and from error and schism and failure. 00:27:25.559 --> 00:27:31.279 And yet we give thanks and rejoice that You continue with us and are committed to us in 00:27:31.279 --> 00:27:38.679 Your role as the teacher and as the comforter, as the one who comes alongside. 00:27:38.679 --> 00:27:43.839 And we pray that You would continue to help us understand the living God more and more 00:27:43.839 --> 00:27:46.759 in our lives. 00:27:46.759 --> 00:27:49.159 Bless us, we pray, in Jesus' name. 00:27:49.160 --> 00:27:56.160 Amen.