We have looked at various aspects of the Spirit – his general role within the Trinity, his empowering in the Old Testament, the relationship between Jesus and the Spirit and last week we looked at the baptism or filling of the Spirit. All who are Christians receive the Holy Spirit but there may be occasions where the Spirit comes upon us in an especially powerful way. But in general we should follow Paul’s exhortations to keep seeking the Spirit, keep walking in him, abiding in Christ and seeking to live a Spirit filled life.

Tonight I want us to focus more particularly on the important subject of the Spirit working in an individual’s life. What exactly should we expect and what does the normal Spirit led Christian life look like. The next few talks will concentrate on the marks of the Spirit as we see them in the individual and the church.

But to provide a framework for the practical workings of the Spirit in our lives let me give you four theological parts or corners of the framework that we need to have in place if we are to appreciate what happens when the Holy Spirit comes into a person’s life. I want to use four prepositions to help illustrate this – of, in, by, with. There can be a lot of theology in the smallest words in the Bible.

1.    We are born of the Spirit  (we are born again)

2.    The Spirit is in each believer (indwelt by Him and united to Christ)

3.    We are controlled by the Spirit (growing by His power into  Christ-likeness)

4.    We are sealed with the Spirit (assured that we are his children of God)

Each of these statements reflects a particular emphasis of the Spirit’s work in the believer as he mediates Christ to us. Let us look at each one.

1.We are born of the Spirit. (John 3:3-8)

In this conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus we have many profound truths taught. We are born again due to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. To be born of the Spirit is to be born from above or outside of us. We cannot bring ourselves to birth any more than we are ultimately responsible for our physical birth. To be born again Jesus says involves being born of water and the Spirit. Commentators differ a bit on whether the water equals natural birth, or the baptism of John or whether it should be read with Spirit so that being born of water and Spirit means one thing a cleansing, purifying birth from above (and baptism may mean Christian baptism). But the point is clear whichever we choose – that we need to be born again, from above, by God’s Spirit. The point is emphasised in the contrast between flesh and Spirit or natural birth and supernatural birth. Like gives birth to like. Flesh gives birth to flesh and the Spirit gives birth to Spirit. When we are born physically that is being born of the flesh. But we need a spiritual birth and that happens by the power of the Holy Spirit.  We see it also in John 1:12-13 “yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God-children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husbands will but born of God.” In short all people are loved by God and created by God but only those born of the Spirit of God are actually children of God.

In Ephesians 2 Paul makes the same point in that in our natural human state we were dead in our transgressions and sin. A dead body cannot raise itself, it needs some external force to bring it alive.  Paul says in Eph. 2:4 “But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions…and God raised us up with Christ”. He does this making alive and raising up by the power of His Spirit.

Now there is mystery here because it is God who determines ultimately whom he brings alive. There is some element of responsibility with us but the Spirit initiates. We have the balance of the two sides of divine and human responsibility in a verse like 2 Thess.2:13 which says “God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth” God chose, but we also had to exercise belief in the truth. The Spirit so works in us that we are not forced against our will but he draws us to that point where we willingly want to give our lives to God. The Westminster Confession puts the mystery this way – God enlightens people’s minds “spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God; taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them a heart of flesh; renewing their wills, an by his almighty power determining them to that which is good; and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ; yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by his grace.”

Going back to Nicodemus Jesus seems impatient with him and says as a teacher of religion he should know about these things, in other words it is in the Old Testament. Probably Jesus is referring to Ezekiel 36:25f  “I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you…I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees..”  Ezekiel was speaking of being born of water and Spirit.

So to become a follower of Christ is not about turning over a new leaf, it is not about trying harder to live a better life, it is not about attending church more often, it is about a new heart and a new desire being given to us by God through his Spirit and this is why it is so important for us to pray for people. We need to pray that God will quicken them by His Spirit, we cannot do it but God can. With every person who comes to faith we see a miracle for they are brought out of the kingdom of darkness where their lord unknowingly is satan, into the kingdom where the Lord is the Son of God.

The theological term is here is regeneration. The Spirit regenerates, he gives life where before there was not life. This means that where before we had little interest in spiritual things we now are interested. Where before we could not understand why people get worked up about worshipping God, now it is our chief desire – to worship him. Without the new birth we will not see or experience the kingdom of God. Regeneration involves at least three things – illumination of the mind, we see and understand about sin, about Jesus as our saviour and we repent and trust in him; – liberation of the will from its bondage to sin. We are set free by the Spirit. We no longer have to obey our sinful nature. It is still a struggle (and we will talk more about this later) but we wish to live more in the light than the darkness. – we are cleansed and purified (Titus 3:5  “he saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit”).

2. The Spirit is in the believer. (Indwelt by His Spirit)

To be born of the Spirit is to say that now we are in Christ and Christ is in us by His Spirit. We now are identified with Jesus not just externally but internally. We are his. Paul seeks to explain this concept with the idea of the temple. In the OT the Jews were used to the idea of the importance of the temple and that is where God dwelt. But after Jesus, and especially after the temple was destroyed in AD 70 it became clear to the christians that God no longer dwelt in buildings, he dwelt in people. The christians are now the Temple of God. There is more mystery here but it is clearly taught in the scriptures.

Gal.2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”; Col.1:27  “God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”.   1 Cor.3:16 “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you.” In the context of how we should use our bodies and not use them for sexual immorality he says in 1 Cor.6:15f “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never…he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?” Paul again clearly says in Romans 8:9  “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to Christ”.  

To be in Christ and to be in the Spirit are the same thing. This is an awesome thought. We now belong to Jesus therefore as Paul says we need to honour God with our bodies (1 Cor.6:20).  If the Spirit of Christ is in us then we should be inclining towards how he thinks, how he would act in certain situations and so on. With a combination of God’s word and the Spirit within us we should know enough to live wisely in this world and to live lives that please God. God is not far away, he is with us all the time. This has profound implications for how we use our bodies and every aspect of our lives. This is strong incentive to live holy lives for Christ goes with us wherever we go and Christ sees what we see and hears what we hear.   So we are born of the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ dwells in us.

3. We are controlled by the Spirit.

The classic passage here is Romans 8:1-17 Note v.5-6 “those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace..”  Here we are talking about the area of sanctification, the process whereby we are made more and more like Jesus. We have his nature within us but there is a process by which he changes us from the inside out. This process we call sanctification or making holy.

A battle rages in our lives between the old selfish and self centred nature and the new nature. As we open up ourselves more and more to the influence and control of the Spirit then we are really changed. This is a process that continues for the rest of our lives but there ought to be real growth here.  Romans 7 articulates this struggle that Paul experienced. Perhaps if we do not see this struggle going on we are complacent or have given in to the selfish side. We need to feed the spiritual side of us. The story is told of an Eskimo who used to come into a town on a Saturday with two dogs -  black dog and a white dog. Each day they would fight and bets would be placed. The Eskimo would also place a bet and he usually got it right even though one day the white dog would win and another day the black dog. The secret was that the dog which he fed usually won because it was stronger that day. We need to feed the spiritual nature and starve the sinful side of us. The Spirit helps us in the battle. He works through prayer, bible reading, witness, service, the spiritual disciplines.  Packer says “habit forming is the Spirit’s ordinary way of leading us on in holiness”.    

We are not saved by the law but we are saved by grace in Christ which then helps us to keep the law. We are given a power within to obey God, we have a new desire to obey the Ten Commandments and to love God and our neighbour. The law of love is written on our hearts by the Spirit and we desire to keep it.   If Jesus is in us we should see the fruit of that and people should be right to question where is the fruit of God’s Spirit in us.

St Augustine once said Love God and do as you please. The point is that if you love God you will do as god pleases and desires. Ps.37:4 says “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart”.

Jack Eckard was the owner of a chain of stores in America. He was not a Christian but he met Charles Colson and was greatly influenced by him. Colson lent Eckard some books and about a year later Eckard came to faith. One day he was in one of his own stores and he saw a row of Playboy magazines on the shelves and his conscience was disturbed. He got his store managers to remove them from all the stores knowing that it would cost him 3million dollars in turnover. But he did it because Christ was changing him.

The Christian is controlled by the Spirit of God, he is changing the house. It’s like you are a house, Jesus buys you and starts to redesign and redecorate that house. He has moved in and as the new owner he is stamping his authority on it. What controls us? If we are Christ’s there are behaviours and thoughts that ought not to be, they are not honouring to him. Live by the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, be led by the Spirit. These are all ways in which we determine that God will have his way in our lives.

4.Sealed with the Spirit.

Finally God puts his mark upon us, his seal of ownership. Eph.1:13 says “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession-to the praise of his glory”.  Eph.4:30 says “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Sealed at the start of our Christian lives and fully redeemed at the end.

2 Cor.1:22  “He set his seal of ownership on us and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit”. This sealing of the Spirit gives us an inner assurance that we are the Lord’s. In Romans 8:16 Paul says “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children”. So the Spirit assures us that are God’s. But he also provides a down payment of what is to come. He gives us the first payment of the love and joy and peace that will be ours in the new heaven and the new earth.  2 Cor.5:5 says “God has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come”. We have the real gift of his presence in our hearts now but there will come a time when we are fully in his presence. We are engaged to be the Lord’s – the full marriage is yet to come but we have been marked by the Spirit. We see this idea again in Revelation with sealing of the servants of God. Rev.7:3  “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of God.”   

 Those who have been marked with the seal will be saved, this is a mark only God sees, but it is there. So here are the four corners of the framework in our understanding of how God works in the individual and it also helps us to answer the question of who will be in heaven? The answer is clear - the saved, the Spirit indwelled, the sanctified, the sealed. The Spirit is key in the life of the individual believer and we thank and glorify God for Him.

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