I want to say hello. It has been a month since I have been here on a Sabbath with
you all. I have missed you and it's good to be back. I don't know how much you've
missed me and that's okay. Right now I get to say I've missed you. Right now I
get to express my happiness to be back here at the Ringgold Seventh-day
Adventist Church where we as a church family, that's what I have come to call
us regularly because I mean it and I believe it, thank you, where we as a
church family can open up the Word of God where we can encourage and love one
another and it's good to be a part of that after a month's hiatus. My month
hiatus has been because of a whirlwind of activity between camp meeting and
family vacation and then NAD pastor meetings and other things. It's kept me
away. In that month we have had several exciting things happen. Our church has
had a general conference session that was delayed for two years due to COVID
and now whatever happened at that has a three-year lifespan because they're
going to get back on their normal five-year schedule. In case y'all didn't
know most of the officers at our general conference, the incumbents got voted back
in. There were a couple of new faces. You can find it online. I encourage you
to do that. Be aware of what our world church is doing because yes our greatest
amount of impact and yes our greatest amount of attention is paid here in the
local area. It is good to know that we are part of a worldwide movement
spreading the gospel to every corner imaginable on this green earth. I'm glad
to know that I'm a part of something bigger than me that we contribute to,
that we support, that we pray for because there are men and women in countries all
around the world that need our prayers, that are doing in their local corner
what we are doing here in Ringgold and I praise God for that. We are not just
isolated islands when it comes to his church. Additionally, we had just this
past week I went to the North American Division pastors meetings and so that's
very enjoyable. It's a way for us to get a little extra training. It's a way for
us to meet some of our fellow colleagues in ministry and it's good for
us to kind of be revitalized a little bit. So I had a good time with it but it
is I am glad to be back home. I had the benefit of having it be in Lexington,
Kentucky which is where we moved from so I didn't have the hassle of finding a
hotel. I could stay with my brother and so that's always good when you can stay
with family instead of just with a with a bunch of strangers in some some big
hotel that you don't actually care for. So I want to turn to today's topic at
hand which if you'll notice by the sermon title is the Holy Spirit forever
promised forever present. Let us pray. Heavenly Father I want to thank you for
your love. I want to thank you for your grace. I want to thank you that without
both of those things we could not even begin our journey towards you away from
sin and into your loving arms. So thank you for being the author of our faith.
And now as we look into your Word I pray that we find that you are also the
finisher at which you have promised is with us forever and ever all the way to
the end of the ages. This we pray in your name amen and amen. We are we are in the
midst of preparing for a spiritual gifts Sabbath as has already been noted. We
have now had two sermons on the Holy Spirit. One focusing on Pentecost and one
last week. Last week I believe was on the Holy Spirit and Philip and his
daughters. We have been looking at the need for the presence of the Holy
Spirit. We have been looking at the want for the presence of the Holy Spirit and
we have been looking at some of what we can expect or see and what is really in
your life when the Holy Spirit is there. I really want to encourage you to be here
on July 9. EW Dempsey from the conference is going to be present. He's
going to be our guest speaker. It'll be two parts a sermon and an afternoon
seminar on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Each one of you has a gift. You just may
not know it. You may have more than one. You may not know how to identify it. You
may not know how it could be affirmed or put to good use. That's July 9. I'm going
to have something to hand out for you in preparation for that but before then I
want to talk about the presentness of the Holy Spirit. Why do we need to talk
about the fact that the Holy Spirit was promised and is present? As I've talked
to others, as I listen, as I have these conversations not only with Adventists
but also with other denominations in our Christian fellowship, I have
come to realize that amongst several opinions about the Holy Spirit, two kind
of come forward. One is that the gifting of the Holy Spirit, the empowering of
the Holy Spirit in his fullest sense, was realized in the apostolic era right
after Christ's ascension at Pentecost for the establishment of the Christian
Church and once the Christian Church was established and spread like wildfire,
then some aspects of the Holy Spirit were no longer needed. It seems that
those aspects of the Holy Spirit that are no longer needed tend to fall on the
more miraculous ends of it. Healings, prophecies, tongues, etc. That the
administrative aspects of the Holy Spirit are still present. So in other
words, probably well-intended Christians have said the workings of the Holy
Spirit in its fullest capacity was then but I've determined that some of
it is not present today and to claim otherwise means that you're claiming
something not with the Holy Spirit. I think we should hesitate on that as we
are about to see. Two, what I find is that in Adventism in particular, there is this
idea that God's grace and Christ's atonement and the gifting of the Holy
Spirit gets us to a point and then we must stand before God without a mediator,
without the Holy Spirit, on our own and we finish the work. There is an entire
theology built around, and that's in a nutshell, it's more complicated than that,
but there is an entire theology built around the fact that the last generation
on earth, those prepared for translation, will be struggling under their own
mightiness and then they will welcome Christ in the clouds. I would propose
that that is also unbiblical and we should shy away from those kinds of
conclusions because Christ is the author and the finisher of our faith and that's
without limitation. I want to turn our attention to the Holy Spirit. I want
to turn our attention to our verse for today and I want to look at a couple of
aspects about the foreverness and why we still not only have but need the Holy
Spirit. If you still have your finger in the gospel of John and chapter 14, that
is where we begin and this is the thesis for today. John chapter 14, this is the
beginning of Jesus' final dictation, his goodbye sermon if you will. He knows that
the cross is right before him. He's been standing in its shadow for some time now.
He knows that he is soon to go back to his father and the Apostles and the
work that he has laid the foundation for is now not that he's abandoning it but
now necessarily he's going there and there the men and the women are now to
take care of it. And they might have faced that with some trepidation which
is why Jesus begins in 14 verse 1, let not your hearts be troubled, you believe
in God, believe also in me. I think that would be good for us to remember and
to keep in mind when we look at all the things crashing down around us. As we
understand it, the closer we come to Christ's return, the more challenging it
will get, not the smoother. So let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in
God, believe also in Jesus Christ. And if you believe in God and then you also
believe in Jesus Christ and your hearts are not troubled and a peace he has
given you, then you also will accept what he says beginning in verse 15. If you
love me, you will keep my commandments. This is a building upon in addition to
earlier in John where Jesus gives that new commandment, as I have loved you, so
love one another. That's the new framework. We have Christ as our example.
But now Christ is adding on to it. If you love me, out of you will be obedience. If
you love me, you will keep the word that I have commanded you. If you love me, you
won't shy away from proclaiming my name. If you love me, you will tell of the
works that I have done and you will open up the Word of God and you will
share with others what I have shared with you and you will do it
faithfully. You will keep my commandments. You will keep my Word and you will keep
my charges. You will do that. Verse 16, and I will ask the Father and he will
give you another helper to be with you forever. And then we in verse 17 find
out who that helper is. 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 or and is in you. We start with the fact that as Jesus leaves,
he is comforting his apostles and his disciples with the fact that he is not
abandoning them but rather giving them another person like him. And we see that
in the word another. Another helper, another counselor, another comforter,
another advocate. That word translated helper encompasses all four of those and
even a little bit more. When he says another those words, he is saying I'm
sending you another person like me because Jesus is also our helper, our
counselor, our comforter, and our advocate. You can find that throughout
Scripture. He is not sending another person who cannot relate to the
Godhead. He is sending that third person of the Godhead. Another one like me to be
with you forever. And that's that nail in the theology of the
limitations on the Holy Spirit. Because forever can be for eternity but it can
also be until all things are accomplished. Much like how Samuel was
dedicated to the service of God forever. Well when he died his service ended. When
we go to heaven, we might find ourselves in a different relationship with how
the Holy Spirit works in our lives. But we're not there yet. And so the Holy
Spirit is promised to us forever without end. Carrying us through. I can imagine
that as the final plagues are falling on earth and I can envision a time when
persecution is at our doors and it's not just a little discomfort, it's legitimate
persecution. When that is going on and the world is topsy-turvy and we can see
institutions crumbling and breaking and falling and we wonder how much longer oh
Lord, I'm gonna be grateful that the forever is literal with the presence of
the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna praise God that that comforter, that peace, that
advocate is with me in the midst of it and I'm not trying to stand on my own
righteousness. I'm gonna praise God that when he promised forever that it is
present forever. I'm gonna be grateful for that. When we continue we can see
that the Spirit of truth, that other helper, is promised to you and to me.
He is not promised to the world. In fact the world cannot receive him. The world
doesn't know him. The world cannot understand the workings of the Holy
Spirit and Jesus says it's because whom the world cannot receive because it
neither sees him nor knows him. We'll see another verse in a moment for why
that is. You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. You see as you
love Christ and as you follow Christ, as you submit your will to his will and to
his guidance and to his leading, you have come to know Jesus and you've come to
receive him. As you receive Jesus you receive the Holy Spirit. That's the
source. That's where he comes from. That's the reality of it. The Spirit
of truth dwells with you and that is just another way of re-emphasizing abiding,
staying, living, filling, etc. It's a beautiful promise and this is a promise
that if you are taking the name Christian upon your lips, this is
for you. Now why does it say that it's not for the world? Because this is the
role for you and for me. Why does it say it's not for the world? Well there is
another working of the Holy Spirit if you maybe if you need to turn a page.
John chapter 16 we see that rather than as a helper, the Holy Spirit has a
different role. Rather than as a comforter, the Holy Spirit has a
different purpose. Rather than perhaps even as an advocate, the Holy Spirit takes
on another charge. John chapter 16 beginning with verse 8 leading up to
that Jesus is simply saying I have to go and then the helper will come to you. If
I don't go the helper will not come to you, but if I go I will send him to you.
There is some debate over whether or not Jesus and the Holy Spirit can be
present in the same place at the same time. I say yes. I think that's I think
that's certainly true. When Jesus died and then ascended that was the catalyst
for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It's not that they couldn't coexist in
the same place, it's that when Jesus went home that was that catalyst, that
jumping point to now fully fill all of his disciples with the Holy Spirit. But
what does the Holy Spirit do when he comes? When he comes the Spirit will
convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. Note that
he's convicting whom? The world. That is in contrast a purposeful contrast to the
world cannot receive. John is drawing a distinction between the world and the
Christian. Between the non-believer of Christ and the believer of Christ. So when
we read that he has come into the world and he's doing these things for the
world, maybe that applies to you, maybe that applied to you, but this is the role
of the Holy Spirit in a different way. One, verse 9 concerning sin because they do
not believe in me, Jesus says. You can't receive the Holy Spirit without
receiving Christ. If you are still wrapped up in sin then you are not
obedient to the will of God which means that you do not love God. If you don't
believe in Christ, if you don't, this is all building on something, if you
love me you will keep my commandments. Well if you are committing a sin, if you
are living in sin then you have violated the commandments. But the Spirit's job is
to convict the world concerning sin. I believe that the foreverness of the Holy
Spirit is because there is still a sin problem in this world and until that sin
problem is fully taken care of then the Spirit's got a job to do. I happen to
think that we are at a point now when people have, they have become so
comfortable with sin, either in wholly accepting it or in finding a work around
so they can still have it and yet feel justified, that the Holy Spirit's job
needs to continue. People are no longer sensitive to the working of the Holy
Spirit because they want their sin and they don't fully accept Jesus. Because
yes Jesus does love you while you are yet his enemy, that's true, he died for
you while you were an enemy of God, that is true. He does not intend to leave you
as an enemy. He doesn't intend to leave you in sin. He might love you while you're
sinning but he does not want you to remain sinning. And so that convicting of
sin is to turn you around into that loving relationship with Jesus. You need
to know what's going wrong in your life and you need to turn from it. Let the
Holy Spirit work on you and when your heart is pricked about a certain
something, don't scour Genesis to Revelation to figure out the half of a
verse that allows you an out. Be convicted and submit to the charge of the
Holy Spirit because concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father
and you will see me no longer, the standard for righteousness is Christ not
you. You are convicted of sin because we actually have an example. The more you
read the Word of God, the more you come into a relationship with Jesus, the more
you look to the cross and what it cost heaven to redeem you from sin, that's the
standard for righteousness. Don't look to your favorite preacher, don't look to the
holiest elder, don't look to the greatest humanitarian or fill in the blank, they
are not your standards. Jesus Christ and His righteousness is that standard and
that's the standard that the Holy Spirit is going to bring before you. Please
allow Him to do so. Remember that this is the working in the world and if this is
still going on in your life, praise God that He's not done with you yet and He's
bringing you from the world and into His saving grace. But Christ is the standard.
See we don't have the benefit of the second person of the Godhead, the the
Son of God, the Logos made flesh walking among us for an example. We don't have
that benefit. What we have are the recordings of scripture and we have the
Holy Spirit's presence and so between those two we can clearly see the example
in Christ. That's the righteousness standard that we are called to but the
Spirit is not done there because we needed to overcome sin. We have Christ's
righteousness to look at as our example because there is a judgment. Concerning
judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. I like that distinction that
John writes in there because when even when we look at that lake of fire it was
prepared for the devil and his angels. The people that find themselves outside
of the walls of the New Jerusalem, the men and the women that find themselves
in that lake of fire are not there because one God is arbitrary, that's not
the case, and two they're not even there because they themselves are the ones
that it was prepared for. The people that find themselves outside of the holy
city's walls are there because they have aligned themselves with the ruler of the
world, with the Prince of Darkness. Now you and I do not come to worship because
we're looking for something self aggrandizing. You and I do not read the
Word of God just so we can be good humans in society. You and I read the
Word of God so we can be saved from sin and we can turn our back on the enemy of
souls. You and I read the Word of God and we are sensitive to the to the pricking
of the soul by the Holy Spirit because we are wrestling against principalities and
powers. Because God wants us to choose light and we are warring against
darkness and we forget that sometimes I think. You see if you find yourself in
this scenario where the Holy Spirit is driving a point home, I would encourage
you to fall on your knees and say Lord I don't want to be counted among the world
but rather among those who receive the Holy Spirit because I have received you.
As what you will regularly find and consistently see as you read through
what does the Holy Spirit do? Well the Holy Spirit's job doesn't even point to
himself and it certainly doesn't point to you because as we see that the Holy
Spirit is the spirit of truth, when Jesus says I am the way the truth and the life
the Holy Spirit's job is to direct our minds to Jesus because he saves. The Holy
Spirit's job and this is this is going to get around to something, the Holy
Spirit's job as our as our helper is not so we can go to him thinking that it's
his job to serve us. That's an incorrect way of looking at helper. The Holy
Spirit is not that vending machine that you put your dollar in and say now give
me a gift. That's not what the Holy Spirit's job is. The Holy Spirit's role
its purpose in our life, its purpose in your life is to bring us out of the
world and towards Jesus Christ and that's a work forever. Forever. When we
look at this word helper and that's why I added and shared with you those
additional translations counselor and comforter and advocate and so on is
because if all we do is focus on the word helper at least in the English to
the American way of looking at English helper is is well you're here to serve
me are you not. We refer to quote-unquote the help. They're the servants right
they're the they're the blue-collar they're the ones that maybe will leave
a tip for them if they've done it the way that I want them to do it. Just just
as a side note most servers and waiters at like restaurants they don't get paid
minimum wage. They actually rely on I was a server once at that time it was three
dollars and thirteen cents an hour that is not minimum wage. The tips make up the
difference but if we look at the Holy Spirit in that manner as if he were
quote-unquote the help we have it wrong because you see that we do not earn the
we do not the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit one is not given to us because
we've kept the commandments as if it were a quid pro quo kind of arrangement.
It's not you keep the commandments therefore God owes you the Holy Spirit.
It's not even you keep the commandments and so then you can claim something from
God because we can claim nothing from God that's grace. You can't claim it. We
do not earn the Holy Spirit any more than we can earn salvation but in the
process of responding to the Son of God because we understand that obedience is
even in that same way. The obedience is in response to God's grace working in
our lives not to earn the grace. It's response in the process of
responding to the Son of God we discover that Jesus has already provided the
divine agent for us that are still living in this world. The Holy Spirit is
already there in the process of responding to God's grace we discover
that divine agent is there ready for us ready to come beside us ready to gift us
and fill us and fruit us we have the fruits of the Spirit that we can look
forward to but that is a part of the process of responding to the grace of
God. It's not that's not just putting in putting in what we want and then
thinking we'll get it just get it back. And then when the Spirit of truth comes
he will guide you into all truthful he will 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. Jesus says that he the Spirit will glorify me for he
will take what is mine and declare it to you. The Holy Spirit is still necessary
in God's church. The Holy Spirit was promised by Christ right before his
ascension with that word forever. We need the Holy Spirit. We need that
convicting of sin when we find ourselves out of line. We need the drawing into
Christ's righteousness and then we need to be saved from our sins. I want to
encourage you the next step is to look at the gifting of the Holy Spirit
because if we again think that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are limited to an
era bygone days past then we have imposed a limit on Christ you don't
find in the Word of God. And then two there is a purpose to those gifts the
building up of God's kingdom the spreading of the gospel. We participate
with the Holy Spirit through the various gifts in directing others to the cross
into Jesus Christ. That's beautiful. That is a wonderful engagement and I would
encourage you to come and learn more about the gifts of the Spirit what they
are maybe they're in your life maybe some don't make the list in canon but
they are still a gift. For example singing. Singing is not listed as a gift
of the Spirit in the Word of God but I know that there are people especially
gifted with song in order to lead others to Jesus Christ. I am not that and I'm
grateful for those that are. I believe that there is more to the gifts than
what is recorded here but we start with what is recorded in the Word of God.
Don't limit what God wants to do in your life. Don't limit what God wants to do
around the world. Don't limit what God can do if we would only allow him
because God has forever promised and God is forever present. Let us pray. Heavenly
Father I want to thank you again for your word. I want to thank you for the
assurances that we find written in it and I pray that we would never forget no
matter what we go through no matter what challenges we we have to overcome you
have promised the presence of the Holy Spirit through it all. We are never
abandoned. We are not alone. You have not made us orphans when you went back home
but rather you have sent another to be with us forever. We praise your name for
that and we thank you for we pray in Jesus name amen.