In our past messages we showed you from God’s Word that the Holy Spirit must work in our hearts the salvation that God gives to poor sinners because each one of us is totally depraved, dead in trespasses and sins, lying buried in the grave of sin, held captive by Satan at his will and therefore of necessity must be resurrected by a power greater than our own and greater than Satan.
We have shown you also that the work of the Holy Spirit as described in John 16:8-11 is to reprove, convict, and convince us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, so we will know our need of the Lord Jesus Christ who has been set forth as our Justifier and Deliverer from sin and its power, dominion and presence.
We have shown you also that the Holy Spirit must convict us of the awfulness of the sin of unbelief because it robs God of His glorious attributes and robs Christ of His glory and authority as the eternal Son of God, Lord over the living and the dead.
In today’s message I would like to set before our hearts the place the Scriptures give to the work of the Holy Spirit in all the phases of the salvation that God gives in Christ. I pray that He who has been given to open our eyes, the Spirit of truth Himself, will this day open all of our hearts to view this truth of the necessity of His work.
The Scriptures plainly declare in 1 Corinthians 2:11,14,13 these words: “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but by the Spirit of God. [for] the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned the Holy Spirit teacheth [those spiritual things to us]; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”
Again, the Scriptures declare in 1 Corinthians 12:3 that “no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.” Here we have the greatest proof of the necessity of His Work. We will not, and cannot, call Jesus “Lord” in a true saving way apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. No man will crown Jesus Christ as the Lord of his life until his will is broken, until he is brought to see and know his utterly lost condition without Christ. The Holy Spirit alone makes us willing in the day of His power. He gives us that which God requires: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psa. 51:17).
In the matter of the New Birth it is imperative that the Holy Spirit work, for the Scriptures plainly declare in John 3:3: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” When Nicodemus on this occasion asked our Lord how this could be accomplished, he was told it was by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. In describing this same thing, we read in 1 Peter 1:23 these words: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.”
Yes, the Holy Spirit takes the Word of God, the Word of Truth, and plants it in the heart of the sinner whom He will save; and that seed, that Word, watered and nurtured by the Holy Spirit, springs up into eternal life. The New Birth is not a decision you make; it is not a feeling you get, nor is it something that you can produce by any work that you might perform. No! It is the operation of the Spirit of the living God in your heart and affections that produces this New Birth by using the Word of God, the Word of Truth. Our Lord in John 3:8 declared unto Nicodemus that the operation of the Holy Spirit upon the heart of man is like the wind: “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit [of God].” The work in the heart of man is performed by the Holy Spirit in His own way and in His own time, for He is sovereign.
Let us give you an illustration of this. In Luke 1 we find the story of the visit of the angel Gabriel to Mary, the virgin woman who was engaged to Joseph of Nazareth. When Gabriel announced to the virgin Mary that she was to be the mother of the Messiah, her question was: “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” (vs. 34). Gabriel’s answer was: “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (vs. 35). Mary knew one thing if she knew anything, and it was that without the male sperm she was as helpless to produce a child as she could be. She knew that she could pray, beg, do all manner of penance, deny herself all things; but without the male sperm uniting with her female seed, the thing was impossible. She knew that though she lived to be a hundred years old she could not of herself produce a child.
Then she was told that the Holy Spirit would do it. He would come upon her; He would overshadow her; He would place the male sperm in her womb. He would guard over it, and that Holy Thing which would be born of her would be called the Son of God. As it was in the birth of our Lord in the womb of the virgin Mary, so it is in the New Birth or the birth of our Lord in our hearts—Christ’s being formed in us, a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:8-14; Gal. 4:19). It must be done by the Holy Spirit. We can beg, pray, do all manner of works, live morally clean lives, go to church, be baptized, take communion, preach, teach, give our money and our bodies to the Lord’s work, deny ourselves everything under the sun, but we cannot produce the New Birth; we cannot plant the seed, water the seed, give the seed life, nor form Christ in us without the Life-Giver Himself doing the work. This is the necessary work of the Holy Spirit.
What do the Scriptures say? “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). Praise the Lord, when He commands, it is done! Yes, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to brood over the sinner as He brooded over the earth when it was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep when He commanded the light to shine out of darkness. So in the salvation of a sinner, the Holy Spirit commands the light to shine into our souls convincing us of the darkness, sin, misery and deadness we are in; then grants us repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, giving us faith to lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ Who is offered in the Gospel as the Substitute for sinners, God’s Sin-Offering. Yes, He grants faith to see in Christ the precious Love-Gift of the Father to His people. Only then can the sinner see by faith that the Lord Jesus meets his every need, and that in His shed-blood there is the forgiveness of sin and the putting away of the wrath of God for him. In His light we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Again, the Scriptures declare that only by the Holy Spirit can the love of God be shed abroad in our hearts. In Romans 5:5 we read: “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us.” You see, there is no love of God in us, no love for God that we can produce of ourselves in our hearts and affections. Why? because by nature we hate Him. Scripture declares (Rom. 1:30) that we are by nature HATERS OF GOD. Therefore, if there is any love in our hearts for God we can rest assured that it was put there by God the Holy Spirit Himself.
O that you and I would know and understand this great truth more and more! that because we are totally depraved sinners, void of everything that would bring us to God, salvation has to be of the Lord or no soul would ever be saved apart from His work in him. Has the Holy Spirit ever shown you this?
Listen again, my friend, to the Word of God! It is plainly declared in both John 6:63 and Ephesians 2:1 that the Holy Spirit alone quickens our dead spirit and makes us alive in Christ. 2 Corinthians 3:6 declares that the Holy Spirit alone gives life, spiritual life, and therefore eternal life in Christ. Ephesians 2:18 tells us that by the Holy Spirit only we have access unto the Father on the basis of the shed-blood of our Lord Jesus. Romans 8:26 tells us that it is the Holy Spirit Himself who helps our infirmities. “for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
Also we read in 1 Corinthians 12:13 that by the Holy Spirit alone we are baptized into the body of Christ—His church—and made one with Him. Therefore, we see from all these Scriptures that there is no way to be born again—to see the kingdom of God, to get into the kingdom of God to be partakers of God’s divine nature, to be united to Christ and have access to the Father—but by the work of the Holy Spirit in us. I for one am going to ascribe all the work of salvation to my glorious triune God: to the Father for choosing me, to the Son for dying in my place and to the Holy Spirit for applying it to my heart and life.
O may we bow in adoration before our triune God and give praise unto Him for Himself as manifested unto us in His three Persons! Let us adore His wisdom, give thanks unto Him for His grace, love Him for His condescension to make Himself known unto us in the Person of His Son. Let us praise His holy name for His Holy Spirit who was sent to convince us of sin and bring us to Christ. Let us praise Him for seeking us out as lost sinners and saving us by His grace, if indeed He has done this work in our hearts.
Let me speak this last word today unto you who know the Lord Jesus. How much we should praise the Lord for the gift of His Holy Spirit to us in the salvation He has given us! We owe all that we have to His work in us. He is the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15). He is the One Who bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God (Rom. 8:16). He is the Spirit of Christ, for He is given by Christ and speaks of Him (1 Pet. 1:11). He is the Spirit of life, for He is the Communicator of the life of God, the Sustainer of the life of God in us (Rom. 8:2). He is the Spirit of Truth, in opposition to everything that is false and untrue (John 14:17). He is the Spirit of grace as the Bestower of all the graces of the spiritual life (Zech. 12:10). He is the Spirit of power as opposed to all that is weak and inefficient (Acts 1:8). He is the Spirit of holiness, therefore He alone can sanctify and make us like Christ in holiness (Rom. 1:4).
The list seems to be endless of the things the Holy Spirit does for us and in us. We are sanctified by Him, moved by Him, kept by Him, filled by Him; we have joy in Him, bear His fruit, sing in Him, pray in Him, rejoice in Him, and our body is His temple. Therefore, we should not grieve nor quench the Spirit, but be controlled by Him moment by moment; for He is the Father’s and the Son’s Love-Gift to us. We should yield to Him, be filled with Him, be controlled by Him and praise our living God daily for His presence within us.