The Spirit Purifies
- somewhere in your possession, you probably have something
made of gold
- if you have a ring, and you look inside of it, you
just might see a number followed with the letter K
- it refers to the purity of the gold piece – how
much is gold and how much is not
- a 10 carat piece of gold is 42% gold
- a 12 carat piece is 50% gold
- and a 24 carat piece of gold is – you guessed
it – pure gold
- of course, the more purity, the more value
-
- it’s my experience that there are 10 carat Christians,
12 carat Christians, and 20 carat Christians
- one of the Holy Spirit’s tasks is to refine us
as believers until we become 24 carat Christians
- now, this process is never completed in this life
- but it carries on continually
-
- this morning I want to talk to you about how the Spirit
goes about purifying us
- the ultimate goal is a simple one: to transform us
into the image of Jesus Christ
- that we progressively become more and more free from
sin and more and more like Jesus Christ in our actual lives
-
- we have to understand the Biblical picture of the human
condition
- according to the Bible, there are really only two masters
we can serve: sin or the Spirit
- many of us think it’s possible to sit on the fence
- the reality is this: if you’re not serving God,
you’re serving Satan
-
- when we become Christians, the Bible says we are new
creatures
- we stand justified before Holy God, and everything
about us is new
- (2 Corinthians 5:17) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
- but perhaps it has been your experience that you have
not always lived up to this new position
- sometimes our conduct does not match our position in
Christ
-
- the story is told that the emperor Napoleon was once
embarrassed by the behavior of one of his soldiers, who also happened
to be named Napoleon
- the emperor looked at his fellow Napoleon and said,
"Either change your behavior or change your name"
-
- once we’re saved, God looks at us, and instead
of seeing our sins, he sees the righteousness of Christ imputed to us
- we have a holy standing before God, not because we
are holy, but because Christ is holy
- the problem is, we still have this thing called the
sin nature
- the reality is, even the most mature Christian is not
perfect
- and the Holy Spirit’s job for the rest of our
lifetimes is to make our conduct match our position in Christ
- I’ll say it again: the Holy Spirit’s job
for the rest of our lifetimes is to make our conduct match our position
in Christ
- now how would you like a job like that?
- you think your job is hard!
-
- let’s start at the beginning
- before you believed in Christ, what were you like?
- you were probably a very nice person
- your mother probably loved you
- you probably had friends
- and compared to other people, you were probably a morally
upright person
- if you ask the average person on the street, they would
have to say that they were hoping to go to heaven because they’ve
tried their best to obey God
-
- but here’s the catch
- God’s opinion is completely different
- (John 16:8) When he comes, he will convict the world
of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:
- (John 16:9) in regard to sin, because men do not believe
in me;
- (John 16:10) in regard to righteousness, because I
am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;
- (John 16:11) and in regard to judgment, because the
prince of this world now stands condemned.
-
- the Holy Spirit begins to work
- and what a work he has to do
- this is the first purifying work that the Spirit ever
does
- if you read the passage, the Spirit convicts the world
of three things:
- first, the Spirit convicts the world of sin
- if you haven’t noticed, sin is a four letter word
in our society
- where do you ever hear the word sin?
- even in churches, the concept of sin is pass�
- it’s a lot easier to say "shortcomings"
or "blemishes" or "flubs"
- but then the Spirit comes along and convicts us of
sin
- here’s the reality he brings to our attention:
- (Jeremiah 17:9) The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
- (Romans 8:6) The mind of sinful man is death, but the
mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;
- (Romans 8:7) the sinful mind is hostile to God. It
does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.
- (Romans 8:8) Those controlled by the sinful nature
cannot please God.
- the Bible is very clear that we have a sin problem
- and the Spirit convicts us of our sin
- the greatest sin, according to John 16:9, is that people
do not believe in Jesus Christ
- because he is the only means of salvation given to
us
-
- the Spirit also convicts us of righteousness
- instead of measuring ourselves by other people, the
Spirit convicts us by revealing the holiness of God
- and like Isaiah, we cry "(Isaiah 6:5) "Woe
to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips,
and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the
King, the LORD Almighty."
- as we see the righteousness of Christ, attested to
by his return to the Father, we become convicted of our own lack of
righteousness
- we realize that God doesn’t grade on the bell
curve
-
- and the Spirit also convicts us of the coming judgment
- how do we know about the coming judgment?
- because Satan, "the ruler of this world,"
is already condemned
-
- Tony Evans has said that before the Spirit begins his
convicting work in our hearts as unbelievers, we are like a wasp that
lands on a sandwich
- the wasp begins eating the juice of the jam
- he is so busy enjoying the sweet stuff that he doesn’t
even notice that the person on whose sandwich it had landed had picked
up a knife to slice the sandwich in half
- in other words, that wasp was suddenly in great peril
- but it keeps on eating
- the unredeemed person is like this, eating the jam
of the world, but unaware that God is about to raise his arm in judgment
-
- if you’re a true and genuine believer this morning,
you’ve experienced the Spirit’s conviction
- but some people resist it
- when Christ appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus,
he said to him:
- (Acts 26:14) 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
It is hard for you to kick against the goads.'
- in other words, why are you fighting the Spirit’s
convicting power?
- before Stephen was became the first Christian martyr,
he preached a sermon in which he said this:
- (Acts 7:51) "You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised
hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the
Holy Spirit!
- it’s possible to resist the conviction of the
Holy Spirit
-
- this morning, it’s possible that someone has been
convicted of the Holy Spirit
- you know that you haven’t come to Christ in repentance
- if you were to die today, and you were to stand before
the judgment of God, you know that your all your righteous deeds and
efforts wouldn’t be enough
- you realize that your only hope is in Jesus Christ,
that he gives you an infusion of his perfect righteousness
- but you haven’t believed and trusted in him yet
- this morning I would say to you: "Why are you
kicking against the goads?"
- come to Christ this morning
-
- as I mentioned, when we come to Christ, we are new
creatures
- and the Spirit does an initial cleansing work on us,
making a decisive break with the patterns of sin that were in our lives
before
- Paul says of the Corinthians:
- (1 Corinthians 6:11) And that is what some of you were.
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
- he gives us an initial break with sin
- and we become new creatures
-
- the Bible is clear that from the point of conversion
on, we are no longer ruled or dominated by sin
- we no longer love to sin
- (Romans 6:11) In the same way, count yourselves dead
to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
- (Romans 6:12) Therefore do not let sin reign in your
mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
- (Romans 6:13) Do not offer the parts of your body to
sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God,
as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts
of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
- (Romans 6:14) For sin shall not be your master, because
you are not under law, but under grace.
- this means that we, by virtue of the power of the Holy
Spirit and the resurrection life of Christ working within us, have power
to overcome the temptations and enticements of sin
- sin is no longer our master, as it was before we were
saved
- although we sometimes sin, the Holy Spirit re-orients
our desires so that we no longer have a dominant love for sin in our
hearts
- this is the Spirit’s second great work of purification
- the first one was bring us conviction
- the second great work was in giving us a decisive break
from the mastery of sin at our conversion
-
- but if you’re like me, you still struggle with
sin
- no-one here can say, "I am completely free from
sin"
- the reality is that for the rest of our lives, the
Holy Spirit is doing his purifying work in our lives, gradually making
us freer from sin, and more and more like Christ
- (Romans 6:19) Just as you used to offer the parts of
your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness,
so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
- in other words, Paul says that our task is to grow
more and more in sanctification, just as we previously grew more and
more in sin
-
- we could all echo the words of the apostle Paul who
said:
- (Philippians 3:13) Brothers, I do not consider myself
yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is
behind and straining toward what is ahead,
- (Philippians 3:14) I press on toward the goal to win
the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
- I won’t dwell on this, because we will be talking
about the fruit of the Spirit in our lives in a few weeks
- much of the New Testament is taken up with instructing
believers on how they should grow in likeness to Christ
-
- the important thing to realize this morning, though,
is that the Spirit is at work in your life purifying you from sin until
you become more and more like Christ
- as a postscript, I can say that this work will only
be completed in one sense at our death, but ultimately on the resurrection
day
-
- it’s application time
- the third person of the Trinity is called the Holy
Spirit
- and it should come as no surprise to us that one of
his primary activities is to cleanse us from sin and "sanctify
us" or make us more holy in actual conduct of life
- my first application is that we ought to praise
God the Holy Spirit for taking on this great task
- it’s primarily the work of God
- we can take little credit for our spiritual growth
- Paul prays:
- (1 Thessalonians 5:23) May God himself, the God of
peace, sanctify you through and through.
- Paul tells the Philippians:
- (Philippians 2:13) It is God who works in you to will
and to act according to his good purpose.
- the Scriptures teach that the Holy Spirit specifically
works within us to change us and sanctify us, giving us greater holiness
of life
- Peter speaks of the "sanctifying work of the Spirit"
in 1 Peter 1:2
- Paul talks about the "fruit of the Spirit"
in Galatians 5
- the Holy Spirit is the spirit of holiness, and he produces
holiness within us
-
- my second application is that we have a role in
this
- the Spirit is purifying us, but we are not just passive
spectators
- we have a role in this as well
- (Romans 8:13) If you use your lives to do the wrong
things your sinful selves want, you will die spiritually. But if you
use the Spirit's help to stop doing the wrong things you do with your
body, you will have true life.
- Paul says we do this with the Spirit’s help, but
he also says we must do it!
- it is not the Holy Spirit who puts to death the wrongful
things that our sinful selves want, it’s Christians who must do
this – with the Spirit’s help, of course
-
- Paul tells the Philippians:
- (Philippians 2:12) My dear friends, you have always
obeyed God when I was with you. It is even more important that you obey
now while I am away from you. Keep on working to complete your salvation
with fear and trembling,
- (Philippians 2:13) because God is working in you to
help you want to do and be able to do what pleases him.
- Paul encourages them to keep on working to complete
their salvation, because God is working in them
- they need to further work out the realization of the
benefits of salvation in their lives
-
- the Bible never suggests any short-cuts by which we
can grow, but simply encourages us repeatedly to give ourselves to Bible
reading and meditation, prayer, worship, Christian fellowship, and self-discipline
or self-control
- we’re going to come back to this theme in a few
weeks when we talk about the fruit of the Spirit
-
- but let me ask you some questions this morning
- the Spirit has quite a job turning you from a sinner
to a saint
- have you been resisting the Spirit’s conviction?
- do you realize that you have been holding back, not
wanting to come to Christ in repentance and to let the Spirit give you
a new nature?
- if so, this morning is the time for you to come
-
- question two: do you praise God for continuing to
make you holier?
- aren’t you glad the Holy Spirit doesn’t give
up on you?
- aren’t you glad you don’t have to do it yourself?
- the Holy Spirit is at work in you even today, making
you into a holier person, day by day
-
- question three: are you cooperating?
- you have an active role in this, you know
- (Ephesians 4:30) And do not grieve the Holy Spirit
of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
- it’s possible to bring grief to the Holy Spirit
by resisting his work of sanctification in our lives
-
- let’s pray right now and ask him to do this work
in our lives
