(To download an mp3 file of this sermon, click on the title above. To listen online, click the play button of the audio player here.)
This sermon is a follow-up to last week's message, which presented evidence from Scripture concerning the problems all humans have with sin and the sinful nature. Because of our problem, we cannot have a relationship with God. But God provided a remedy through the death of Christ and the blessing of the Holy Spirit.
Written Excerpts:
Matthew 3:11 (NKJV) I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Introduction:
One of the remarkable traits of humanity is the desire, the capability
and the success in wiping out globally devastating diseases and other similar
threats. This is only one of the many ways that humans differ from animals. We
have a history of discovering the causes of devastating epidemics and then
proceeding to eliminate them through the development of effective solutions.
One such example is the discovery of a vaccine that eventually led to
the elimination of the “smallpox” disease. Edward Jenner made a discovery in 1796 that he continued to develop and
experiment with until 1801 when he published a treatise “On the Origin of the
Vaccine Inoculation,” in which he announced the vaccination and hopeful
elimination of smallpox.
Some sources report that there were approximately 30 million deaths
throughout the world that were caused by smallpox during the 20th
century, which was still a century later than when the vaccine was discovered. The Center for Disease Control reports that the last known case of
death from smallpox was in September of 1978. In May of 1980 the World Health
Assembly officially declared the world to be free of the disease.
This is only one example of remarkable cures that have been discovered
and implemented in the medical field, let alone the myriad of other problems
that have been solved and permanently eliminated as a result of human
inventions.
Last Sunday I preached a message about a problem far bigger than the
smallpox epidemic. I tried to describe a problem that has plagued the entire human
race ever since the Garden of Eden and continues to do so today. It is inherently a spiritual problem, but it affects every part of our
lives and it not only destroys physical lives and health, but our eternal
happiness as well.
It is the problem of sin that has corrupted our hearts and motivations,
causing us to deliberately rebel against the authority of God and insist in
having our own way. The Bible describes this condition as the fleshly mind,
which is “not subject to the law of God, neither can be.” (Rom. 8:7) This inherited depravity has been the source of every kind of evil that
has ever been manifested throughout all the areas of the world for all times.
I finished up last week’s message by briefly stating that God has
provided a remedy, which is summed up perfectly in the words of 1 John 3:8 “…
for this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works
of the devil.”
In a sermon I gave several years ago I pointed out that the meaning of
this verse, when taken in context, includes the destruction of a spirit of
lawlessness, which John says is the very definition of sin. The overall problem I described in the message last week was a
rebellious or lawless heart. And, John says that Jesus came to destroy that
work of the devil in us.
The problem may be great, but Jesus was revealed to this world for the
express purpose of destroying the work of the devil in the hearts of humanity.
Jesus can and will destroy every seed of rebellion that Satan plants in the
human heart. The remedy is Jesus. But what does the Bible say about how Jesus
provides the remedy to our human problem?
Let us consider several other passages to find the answer to this
question.
(Again, today I will be sharing bits and pieces from the notes I jotted
down from Dr. John Oswalt’s messages at the Pastor’s conference I attended in
2014.)
I. The remedy is predicted by the OT prophets
There are a number of passages
throughout the OT prophets that make reference to the work of the Holy Spirit.
Many of them speak about the Spirit’s work in specific individuals of the OT,
and others speak about a day when the Spirit will be poured out on all of God’s
people.
Isaiah 11:1-2 (NKJV) There shall come
forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. 2
The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and
understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the LORD.
The Messiah would have the fullness of the Spirit like no one has ever
had prior to Him.
Isaiah 32:14-15 (NKJV) Because the
palaces will be forsaken, The bustling city will be deserted. The forts and
towers will become lairs forever, A joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks-- 15 Until
the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, And the wilderness becomes a
fruitful field, And the fruitful field is counted as a forest.
When the Holy Spirit is poured upon us, he changes the desolate places
into flourishing places. Things cannot remain the same when God’s Spirit comes!
Joel 2:28-29 (NKJV) "And it shall come
to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons
and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young
men shall see visions. 29 And also on My menservants and on My
maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
These and many other passages in the OT prophets predict the day when
the Holy Spirit of God would be available to cleanse, fill, and empower the
people of God. There were many indications that the Old Covenant written on stone
would be replaced by a New Covenant written on the “tables of the heart.” That
would be accomplished by the personal presence of the Holy Spirit.
The prophet Jeremiah makes a specific prediction of this sort. God will
write His law on the heart rather than on stone.
II. The remedy is predicted by the NT prophet (John the Baptist)
Matthew 3:11 (NKJV) I indeed baptize
you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than
I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy
Spirit and fire.
John Oswalt – John the Baptist did not say, “I will baptize you with
water, but He will die for your sins.” John certainly believed in the sacrifice of Jesus as the atonement for
our sins, but John was describing the ultimate plan for disciples and followers
of Jesus – to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Jesus would provide the possibility for His followers to be cleansed by
the Spirit (analogy of fire) and to be filled up with the Spirit. John is alerting his listeners to the fact that the “Lamb of God” will
provide for them something that no other person has ever provided. He will
provide a baptism with the Spirit – a life lived through the power of the
Spirit of God Himself.
III. The remedy is promised by Jesus Himself
Luke 24:49 (NKJV) Behold, I send the
Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are
endued with power from on high."
Dr. Oswalt – There were a lot of cases in the gospels where Jesus said
things to His disciples, and they would question Him about it later because
they didn’t understand what He was trying to say / teach them. But when Jesus makes this promise, they do not question. It is as
though Jesus has finally said something that they have expected to come from
the Messiah. They expected Him to make the Spirit available to them so that
they could keep the covenant or live by the covenant with God.
Acts 1:4-5 (NKJV) And being
assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said,
"you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with
water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from
now."
Dr. Oswalt – When Jesus first told the disciples these words (I read
from Lk. 24:49), they did not realize that the only way He could give this gift
of the Spirit was through His death on our behalf.
Now, in Acts, Luke provides evidence to show that even after His death
and resurrection, the disciples are still looking for something other than what
Jesus meant. In their minds the promise of the Father – the empowerment of the
Spirit – meant power to overthrow the Romans and establish a kingdom on earth. But, Jesus has to explain that this Spirit and this power would not be
for political purposes. It would be a power for witnessing. They would be
filled with the power to be transformed and to be a testimony to the world
about what Jesus has done for us and can do in us.
IV. The remedy is presented by the Apostles
Acts 19:1-6 (NKJV) 1 And
it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the
upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples 2 he
said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" So
they said to him, "We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy
Spirit." 3 And he said to them, "Into what then were
you baptized?" So they said, "Into John's baptism." 4 Then
Paul said, "John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to
the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is,
on Christ Jesus." 5 When they heard this, they were
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid
hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and
prophesied.
Writers in NT Commentaries indicate that these people at Ephesus had
only been taught about John baptizing and exhorting people to repent of their
sins. By the time that message had gotten to them, it had somehow gotten
separated from John’s presentation of Christ. They apparently hadn’t heard about John’s words we quoted earlier, “He
shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” They knew about John and repentance, but they didn’t know about Christ
and forgiveness and empowerment by the Spirit. So, as soon as they were baptized in the name of Jesus, the Spirit came
upon them!
Paul not only presents the message to the people of Ephesus as recorded
here in Acts, but through his epistles to the various churches he also
repeatedly presents the message of what the Spirit of God can do and is
expected to do for the believer.
Dr. Oswalt - Paul’s most organized
presentation of the message is in the book of Romans. This is how he summarizes the first 8 chapters of the book:
Rom. 1-3 – All have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. (nobody comes to God on their “own hook”)
Rom. 4-5 – We have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Rom. 6-8 – By the Spirit, Christians do not sin.
6 – [The
expectation is] Do not sin.
7 – If you walk in
the flesh, you cannot help but sin.
8 – There is no
condemnation for those who do not WALK by the flesh, but by the Spirit. [Those
who are filled with the Spirit and are controlled by the Spirit find the power
to overcome the flesh and live pleasing to God.]
Conclusion:
The remedy to the problem we have is a baptism of the Spirit. That baptism begins when Jesus saves us. His Spirit begins working
God’s grace into our lives and actually imparts righteousness to us so that we
can live victoriously over sin.
But the need of our hearts is for a complete filling by the Spirit and
a perpetual refilling and refreshing provided by the Spirit. There are verses in the NT that imply some of the Spirit’s work is
instantaneous. There are other verses in the NT that imply the Spirit’s work is
continuous and progressive. Both are true.
So the question is, do you have the Spirit dwelling in you today? Do
you have His cleansing, His filling and His abiding presence? Have you been simply contented to seek His forgiveness and failed to
seek His Holy presence in your life to make you a holy person?
The closing song I’ve chosen for this morning is a hymn that asks a
series of questions, then provides the answer to those questions in the chorus.
His Way with Thee
He can have His way with you if you will ask Him and completely
surrender to Him – not only today, but every day.
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