The Holy Spirit 3

amazing love how can it be that you my
king would die for me amazing love I
know it's true it is my joy to honor you
in all I do I honor you we don't always
fully measure up to that do we but the
desire to do that and the progressive
steps towards that as a function of our
growth increase in in grace and is
dependent on our revelation of who we
are in christ and last week I asked you
to do a little bit of homework and read
a good portion of Paul's first letter to
the book of Ephesians and I want to read
with you now the first 14 verses of that
and just to put the book of Ephesians in
context it's been eight years now since
Paul was in Ephesus on his third
missionary journey uh in those years
he's done a lot of traveling he has
finished his third missionary journey
when back to Jerusalem was taken
prisoner and is now enroll and while he
is a prisoner in Rome eight years
approximately later he is writing to the
ephesian church and this is what he says
to them let's read it together Paul an
apostle of Christ by the will of God to
the Saints in Ephesus notice what he
calls them saints that is people set
apart for God the faithful in Christ
Jesus grace and peace to you from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and
then he goes into this praise be to the
God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ
who has blessed us in the heavenly
realms
with every spiritual blessing in Christ
for he chose us in him before the
foundation of the world to be holy and
blameless in his sight in love he
predestined us to be adopted as his sons
through Jesus Christ in accordance with
his pleasure and will to the praise of
his glorious grace which he has really
given us in the one he loves in him we
have redemption through his blood the
forgiveness of sins in accordance with
the riches of God's grace that he
lavished on us with all wisdom and
understanding and he made known to us
the mystery of his will according to his
good pleasure which he purposed in
Christ to be put into effect when the
times have reached their fulfillment to
bring all things in heaven and on earth
together under one head even Christ in
him we were also chosen having been
predestined according to the plan of him
who works out everything in conformity
with the purpose of Israel in order that
we who were the first to hope in Christ
might be for the praise of his glory 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
this is the word of the Lord pray with
me father it's our collective prayer
this morning that you would open the
eyes of our hearts and that you would
show us a fresh who in Christ we are
what are the unsearchable
blessings in christ laid up for us in
heavenly places made real in our lives
by the power of the Holy Spirit so Lord
we pray that you will penetrate the
darkness that so much surrounds this
world and that sometimes even surrounds
our own lives and that you will give us
but a glimpse of your glory because
having received a glimpse of your glory
father we cannot but fall flat on our
faces and praise you for who you are and
what you have done so bless us in these
moments together give me the words that
I need and all of us here hearts and
lives to receive it and understand it
and to embrace it and to leave it out
father to the end that we might really
be the first fruits of a new harvest we
pray it for your glory in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ amen well we saw
last week that the job of the Holy
Spirit is to make real in our lives
God's plan of redemption accomplished
for us by the Lord Jesus Christ and if
God is the father who wants to see is
restored to himself restored to his
image so that he can bless us with his
blessings and if Jesus is the agent who
by his incarnation death resurrection
and ascension made it possible for us to
be restored to God the Father than the
Holy Spirit is the one who works it out
in the real world
in time and space and so last week we
look together at the first of three ways
in which the Holy Spirit does this
working out of our salvation he doesn't
we saw last week first and foremost by
bringing us to faith in Jesus Jesus said
nobody can come to the Father unless
nobody can come to me unless the father
who sent me draws him that drawing
happens by the Holy Spirit we saw last
week there are three phases to that
drawing it begins with making us aware
of our true condition our true condition
is one of sin and misery our true
condition is one of alienation from God
our true condition is an inability to
measure up to his standard we are dead
in the trespasses and sins in which we
once walked a terrible message but it
sets the stage for the revelation of
Jesus and that's the second thing the
Holy Spirit does is he allows us to hear
the gospel he allows us to understand
the gospel and then eventually he brings
us to a place where using last week's
illustration of Blondin and the highwire
activists we can actually step into the
wheelbarrow and trust Christ to take us
a cross and to restore us into the
presence of God I love the way that John
puts it in John's Gospel we've read
these verses before he came to that
which was his own that is to say the
Lord Jesus came to the people of Israel
but his own did not receive him but to
all who received him to those who
believed in his name
he gave the right or the power or the
authority is the word to become children
of God children born not of natural
descent nor of human decision are a
husband's will but born of God we call
this the new birth and just as a baby is
born into this world will see later on
and have the skills to interface with
this world the new birth means we are
born into a spiritual world and we are
given the spiritual skills to interface
with the spiritual world that's where
the Christian life really begins to take
off and that is the first phase of the
work of the Holy Spirit in our lives
which brings us this morning then to a
second thing the Holy Spirit does and
that is he imparts to us the benefits
that we have in Christ Jesus there's a
him that we have sometimes sung here in
the past really captures the essence of
this how vast the benefits divine which
we in Christ possess we are redeemed
from sin and shame and call to holiness
tis not for works that we have done
these all to him we all but he of his
electing love salvation does does bestow
the Holy Spirit makes real in our lives
the benefits that we have in Christ and
that is what Paul means here in verse 3
which is really our text this morning
where he says praise be to the God and
father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has
blessed us in the heavenly realms with
every spiritual blessing in Christ three
words
in that little verse that are of
critical importance for us to understand
this morning let me walk you through
them the first word is the word blessed
or blessing praise be to the God and
father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has
blessed us in the heavenly realms with
every spiritual blessing now to be
blessed by God is to have his favor and
to have the favor of God is not just to
have nice things come our way in the
course of living life the blessings here
are the blessings of salvation that God
has made available to us us will see at
a moment in Christ Jesus our Lord in
other words the blessings of which this
passage speaks are the blessings whereby
God takes us out of this world and moves
us back into this world and notice the
emphasis in the passage it has already
taken place we are all ready blessed
it's not something we have to earn so
that's something that's going to happen
simply in the future it is a present
reality so that's the first word we need
to note here the second word that we
need to note here is the word in Christ
notice how this continues if we can get
that slide up for a moment please praise
be to the God and father of our Lord
Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the
heavenly realms with every spiritual
blessing in Christ 89 times in the New
Testament the word the phrase in Christ
occurs 85 of those 89 occur in the
and in addition to that in the book of
Ephesians alone the phrase occurs 14
times and in the modified form of in him
it occurs and other reach ions you might
get the idea that it's an important
phrase to the Apostle Paul in Christ
what does it mean to be in Christ well
to be in Christ stands in contrast as
you might imagine to being in Adam to be
in Christ is to share the benefits that
we have in Christ as opposed to the
disadvantages that we have to being in
Adam let me explain it this way for just
a moment if we can get this chart up in
Adam let me put the question this way
why are we such miserable sinners I mean
we are and if you don't think you are
just ask you know somebody knows you
really well the Catechism tells us we
are by nature prone to hate God and hate
our neighbor doesn't mean we'll go
around killing everybody but when push
comes to shove by nature we do not want
to obey God we do not want to trust him
we do not want to go his way we want to
go our way because we just don't believe
that he can be trusted to really
fundamentally take care of us and when
push comes to shove no matter what kind
of relationships we have when it really
when we really have her back against the
wall it is self-preservation and loving
our neighbor goes out the window real
fast why is that well the biblical
message is because we are in Adam Adam
sinned he was exiled from the garden you
and I are the product
of Adam and Eve sinned and we share his
sin nature and we share his rebellion
that's why we need to be born again
that's why we need to experience God's
grace because no matter how hard we work
at trying to be good in Adam we cannot
be good we can only be good in Christ
and when we come to faith in Jesus the
blessings promise to Jesus are promised
to us and that's why this versus
significant Romans 519 for justice
through the disobedience of the one man
the many were made sinners so also
through obedience of the one man many
will be made righteous notice the
contrast the disobedience of the one
gets us all in trouble the obedience of
the other gets us into the blessings of
God so we have here the blessings of God
available to us in Christ the third
thing I want us to note is that these
blessings are spiritual praise be to the
God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ
who has blessed us in the heavenly
realms with every spiritual blessing in
Christ every spiritual blessing in
Christ what does that mean well it means
two things it means first of all if we
can put that up it means first of all
that the blessings are not first and
foremost of this age of this world under
the Old Covenant the blessings promised
to Abraham and to his offspring were
largely material God would bless them
in the year and now that's not a bad
thing the problem with the here and now
is that it only lasts a lifetime if it
lasts that long so under the New
Covenant and hear me well under the New
Covenant the promises of God are for all
eternity which is going to be unveiled
fully in the age that is to come so the
spiritual blessings are blessings in
heavenly places where they have already
been given to Jesus and if it's hard to
get our heads around that that
illustrates why it is that we need the
Holy Spirit to give us insight into
these matters and that's the second
meeting of the word spiritual it's
mediated these blessings are mediated by
the Holy Spirit it is the Holy Spirit
who makes the blessings of Christ real
in our lives helps us to understand them
not only but helps us to actually
experience them in such a way that the
spiritual becomes more real if you will
then the material world all around us
and of course these blessings have an
impact on the here and now we'll talk
about that later how God helps us to
live with the values of the coming
Kingdom in the world today that's one of
the challenges of being Christian so
here again in this short little verse we
have this Trinitarian formula of God the
Father who wants us to be his children
and wants to bless us as his children we
have those blessings mediated through
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who
by his death resurrection ascension and
and all the things that he went through
has procured the way of salvation and
then they're made real in your life
in my life by the Holy Spirit that's why
it's so important to have a Trinitarian
view of God if all you know of God is a
father then all you know that he is
probably far and distant and far removed
from you if all you know is God the Son
then yes you can rejoice and forgiveness
and you can rejoice that one day you're
going to go to heaven but it won't
impact your whole life a lot if all you
know is the Holy Spirit then all you are
is feeling and experience oriented you
need the father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit to get a full orbed picture of
God's redemptive purposes did you notice
in a reading of Ephesians 4 of Ephesians
1 how Paul is is so animated about God's
people understanding that it's God's
purpose to unite all things in heaven
and on earth in the person of Jesus God
has already accomplished it and he wants
to make it real in your life and in my
life by the work and by the power of the
Holy Spirit so what does that look like
because really that's where the rubber
hits the road doesn't happen all the
time that remains when we try to walk
you through four areas that you can be
on the lookout for or the Holy Spirit
should be intersecting with your life to
make real in your experience the
blessings that you have in Christ it's a
good way to test Paul writing to the
Corinthians says test yourselves to see
if you be in the faith now understand
this is going to be different for
everybody's life god meets us all the
way that we are in and makes allowances
for our personalities and all kinds
of things that are unique to each one of
us but these general principles ought to
apply in one way or another to all of
our lives to one degree or another so
how do these spiritual blessings in
christ get experienced in your life and
in my life well the first way in which
it manifests is that the Holy Spirit
makes us alive spiritually listen again
to these verses Ephesians 2 1 and 2
we've quoted them often here this is
from the revised standard version which
I prefer for this verse because it's a
little clearer you he made alive when
you were dead through the trespasses and
sins in which you once walked following
the course of this world following the
Prince of the power of the air the
spirit that is now at work in the sons
of disobedience what's the first thing
that happens when a new baby is born it
has life outside of the mother's womb
and because it has life outside of the
mother's womb it now has the ability
increasingly to begin interfacing with
the world all around him or her and
that's what happens when by faith we are
joined to Jesus were born anew we get
new life and this life now can connect
with the spiritual world it can connect
with God we know that he becomes our
Father the gap between him and us has
been crossed by Jesus in the power of
the holy spirit and our spiritual eyes
get opened in ways they were not opened
before and unless you experience that
you don't know what that means anymore
then if you've never been in love with
anybody you can read all kinds of novels
about love it all changes when you
experience it in your own heart I will
never forget when as a young man in
college I was challenged and many of you
know this story by some friends of mine
had I ever really given my life to Jesus
and I had never really thought about
that very much because unlike a lot of
you here I grew up in a Christian family
I grew up knowing all the Bible stories
I I grew up believing the Bible stories
believing the gospel in fact i was in
college studying for the ministry and
they said but have you ever given your
life to Jesus I said well I don't know
and they said well it's too important
not to know why don't you make yourself
seem like a pretty good bet to me and I
remember so clearly kneeling by my
bedside that one night and saying lord I
think I've done this before but just in
case I haven't I want to make sure that
I do I want you to be my Savior and
eventually for me it was a separate step
later on I want you to be my lord I want
to be in the wheelbarrow I want you to
cart me across because my salvation has
to be in you and you alone now here's
the interesting thing never felt a thing
no bells that rang no angels that blew
their trumpets no sense of oh my
goodness the weight of sin has rolled
nothing nothing absolutely nothing but
you know what as the days went by I knew
something had changed I knew that I knew
that I need
that God was my father I knew that I
knew that I knew that he loved me and I
knew that I needed that I was part of
his kingdom and that I wanted to live
for him and if you asked me to explain
what happened I cannot explain it to you
except that I knew I experienced a touch
of God deep in my spirit the spiritual
world became real in a way that it had
ever been real before some of you know
the story John Wesley founder of
Methodism was an ordained Anglican
minister had gone to the Americas to
preach the gospel on the way back
traveled across the ocean with a group
of meridians in the middle of a storm
saw that they had an element of faith
that he did not have he coveted what
they had they proclaimed to him the need
to put his faith in his trust in Christ
alone they later said that it was hard
to convert the wesleyan brothers because
the simple gospel was too hard for them
to grasp but the story went on and
eventually in his desperation John
Wesley found his way into a little
chapel service where the gospel was
being proclaimed the place was called
aldersgate which is why the Methodists
used that term we have a nursing home
here called aldersgate and here's what
Jon Lester what his experience because
in that moment the Holy Spirit got
through to his heart in a way that had
never happened before he said I felt my
heart strangely warmed I felt I did
trust in Christ Christ alone for
salvation and the new surance was given
me that he had taken away my sins even
mine and saved me from the law of sin
and death transformed his life he went
on to become an incredible reef
I villis preacher and it's been said
that the Methodist movement in England
prevented England from experiencing the
kind of horrors of the French leverage
revolution that took place on the
continent first job the Holy Spirit is
that he makes us alive were born into
the kingdom of god this is everybody's
privilege in Christ this is not
something reserved just for very special
people it's for you and it's for me and
we can claim it by faith as our eyes get
opened to what in Christ's are the
spiritual appetite increases the Holy
Spirit increases our spiritual appetite
Peter 1 Peter 2 vers to like newborn
babies crave pure spiritual milk so that
by yet you may grow up in your salvation
I like that word crave like newborn
babies crave pure spiritual milk the
word crave means to have an intense
longing what's one of the first
indications when you bring a new baby
home from the hospital that your baby is
a healthy baby your baby gets hungry in
fact it's pretty safe to say there are
three things that babies do for the
first number of weeks or months of their
lives they sleep alot they eat a lot and
then they do that other thing that keeps
you going with a washing machine right
when a baby doesn't eat you know that
you've got a problem
your hand well when you're born anew
into the kingdom of god and the holy
spirit is at work in your life what are
the first things that you will become
aware of is that there is a new hunger
for God and a new hunger for spiritual
things remember I said I experienced no
sensation whatsoever when I pray that
little simple sinner's prayer but I so
remember the transformation that I
became aware of as time went on because
suddenly I had a hunger for scripture
that I had never had before hymns that I
had sung all my life took on brand new
meaning as I understood the words in a
way that I had never understood them
before because now they were part of my
experience in fact I remember I remember
looking at nature and this is this is
something really weird I thought but I
remember looking at nature and the grass
was greener and the sky was blue ER it
was like something profoundly had
changed in me because I had a new
capacity to relate to God into the
things that God had made and that ought
to be the normal Christian experience
and i'll even go so far as to say that's
one of the most practical tests that you
can have as to whether or not you really
are in christ and growing the way that
you want to be growing is there a
spiritual hunger when you've been away
from gone for a while is there something
inside you that says I want to find my
father back if you've been away from
Christian community for a while is there
something inside you that says i miss my
brothers and my sisters when you've been
away from prayer or scripture or or
christian things is there something
inside you that says i'm getting hungry
I want to know God I want to grow in my
walk and in my relationship of God if
that's not the case then you need to do
some self-examination honestly you need
to examine first of all did you ever hop
in the wheelbarrow to get across to the
other side by faith in Jesus if you
didn't now is as good a time as any or
if UD had and you've lost your appetite
have you been feeling your life with
junk food have you have you quenched the
Holy Spirit have you grieve the Holy
Spirit have you lost your first love
have you gone your own way in which case
now is a very good time to repent and
say Lord I've wandered I've allowed seen
in my life I I have been rebellious I
have allowed broken relationships to get
in the way I i have i've gotten absorbed
in the things of this world instead of
the things of God please forgive me help
me to get back on track and help me to
find ways to get back on track the Holy
Spirit makes us alive the Holy Spirit
makes us hungry and then the Holy Spirit
strengthens our faculties to serve God
better listen again to what Peter says 1
Peter 2 to like newborn babies crave
pure spiritual milk so that by it you
may grow up grow up in your salvation
that you may grow up in your salvation
when you first bring your baby home the
can't really see beyond what is it you
know somebody inches doesn't necessarily
know its parents from a stranger has no
muscle tone has no ability to think
through life's complicated issues it's
just there it's got life but that life
is undeveloped and one of the great joys
of parenting is you watch the potential
that is present in that baby's life in
the natural you want you to come to
expression and and eventually they learn
to roll over and they learn to walk and
you cheer them on and then you wish
they'd ever learned to walk because now
you're running after them all the time
they learn to move from milk to you know
more solid food and they learn that walk
and talk and and you begin to see their
characters and their personalities take
shape it's one of the joys of parenting
as you know that's why watching children
become adults is well challenging but
tremendously exciting well spiritually
the same thing is true theatre says as
we drink the milk of God's Word we will
grow up in our salvation and let me take
a moment or two to talk about this we've
talked about this before but it's really
really important the definition of
salvation that I like is this that
process whereby God in Christ through
the Holy Spirit delivers us from sin and
all of its consequences and restores us
to himself and to all the benefits of
His grace salvation is that whole
journey from sin and the bondage to
Satan and the lostness of our lives back
into relationship and fellowship with
God and without spending a lot of time
on it for our purposes that process of
salvation has three phases justification
sanctification
glorification justification is just as
if I had never sinned it is a positional
place where whereby through faith in
Christ from God's perspective we are
already declared righteous we are
already in his presence and there is
nothing we can add to it and there's
nothing that we can take away from
glorification is the completion of that
process whereby at the end of time when
Jesus comes back he changes our bodies
he ushers in a new heaven and a new
earth and he gives us the keys to the
kingdom if justification is being
adopted into his family then
glorification is getting the keys to his
Lamborghini and a deed to his whole
enterprise that's where God's going with
you and with me in between those two is
this process called sanctification and
that's the process whereby God through
the Holy Spirit takes us out of the
world in which we are still living and
he moves us progressively into what in
Christ we are these two circles always
overlap because a Christian lives in two
worlds on the one hand were born into
the eternal Kingdom of our God and we
are his children and every spiritual
blessing at heavenly places is mine by
faith and we all have those moments when
through the Holy Spirit we just know
that we know that we know that's the
most important and beautiful thing in
life then you go home and you have a
fight with your wife and the boss fires
you and your car doesn't go and you
discover we're very very much in this
world and we have this tug-of-war
don'twe this tug-of-war between living
by faith knowing that God is for us and
and that he will provide for us and and
then they're all the places where we
don't trust him and all the places where
we don't like what's happening and we
have the spirit battling the fly
and sanctification as you know is this
lifelong journey where by God through
His Holy Spirit changes us from the
inside out and he makes us more like
Jesus so that we can be prepared for the
day that we can actually be in the
presence of God and we can receive the
fullness of his blessing the Holy Spirit
strengthens our faculties and so as you
grow in christ as you drink his word as
you join with other people taking
advantage of the means of grace you will
find things changing on the inside your
focus changes you begin to see God more
clearly than you ever saw him before you
will have moments when God just opens
your eyes and all of a sudden you see in
a new way what it means that God is your
father or the jesus is your Redeemer or
that the Holy Spirit is your present
communion I don't know about you in my
life they were three very distinct
phases where I discovered who Jesus was
who God was his father and who the Holy
Spirit was but we can expect God to
increase our spiritual faculties that's
why Paul keeps on praying for a spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of God so that our eyes may be
open to seeing what we are we have this
huge treasure with our name on it but if
you don't know that your name is on it
and that it is yours you can live like
the proverbial popper likewise our
desires begin to change by nature we
desire the world by nature we were busy
all day long thinking about how to keep
body and soul together as comfortably as
we can and he ran out but when the Holy
Spirit is in you and upon you that
begins to change because there is not
only a new awareness of see
but there's also a new desire to not
Cena not true you grieve about your own
sins in ways that you never used to
grieve and things that you used to like
you now hate and things that used to
hate you now begin to like because
things are changing on the inside God is
at work to will and to work for his good
pleasure and he gives you new abilities
new abilities to pray new desire to pray
new ability to understand his word you
move from milk to meet to solid food you
your faculties change you learn to stand
up against sin in a new way you begin to
fight temptation in new ways a little
forget as a young man certain sins that
were plaguing my life after I had come
to Christ the Lord began to convict me
and I'll never forget the day when for
the first time I experienced a victory
in an area of my life where I had never
experienced victory before I'll tell you
it is not hard to praise God when you
discover that his power in you is more
than your own power or the devil's power
to pull you down you with me your life
will change not all at once it's a
lifelong journey but it's preparation
for the age that is to come when we're
going to manage all of God's kingdom
eternally on his behalf and so as we
grow we learn to put off the old and we
learn to put on the new here's how Paul
describes it later on in Ephesians put
off your old nature which belongs to
your former manner of life and is
corrupted a deceitful lusts and be
renewed in the spirit of your minds put
on the new nature created after the
likeness of God in true righteousness
and holiness that's why if you read
through the book of Ephesians and all of
Paul's writings they follow the same
pattern he begins by explaining to us
who in Christ we are and what are the
benefits that we have by our salvation
and that he always brings it home to the
way that we live since these things are
true since you are seated with Christ in
heavenly places now this is how God
wants you to live this is how he wants
you to relate to your spouse this is how
he wants you to relate to your family
this is how he wants you to relate to
your boss this is how he wants you to
relate to the government this is how he
wants you to do life how you do life
flows out of who in Christ you are and
the more you grow in Christ the more
you'll experience the Holy Spirit
convicting you of things that you have
always taken for granted is being okay
and all of a sudden he says they're not
okay and the Holy Spirit will come along
and he will prompt you to step into new
things and a new way so that you could
live as a worthy child of God so here's
the question since you've come to Christ
have you experienced new life is there
something in you that resonates with God
in ways that maybe previously you did
not since you come to Christ is there a
hunger not all the time when your field
you don't need to be hungry but do you
get hungry hungry for God hungry for his
word hungry for his people and have your
faculties crawlin are you better man
woman today than you were a year ago
five years ago 10 years ago has your
love for God intensified do you
understand biblical community in a way
that you never under
stood before are you more able to
forgive and to get over your slights and
your injuries do you love more
passionately and more deeply is your
life a closer reflection of the things
of God and I'm not laying this on you to
make any of us feel guilty although
little guilt probably wouldn't hurt but
to drive us to an ease and to say we've
got all these riches in christ let's
embrace those riches let's invite him to
do in us what he needs to do so that we
can increasing will be a reflection of
the values of heaven instead of the
values of the earth you say I can't do
it of course you can't but in Christ you
can head in the power of the Holy Spirit
you give him half a chance ask him to
breathe on you the breath of God and He
will do far more abundantly then all
that you ask or think for his glory and
for his kingdom let's pray together
breathe on us Oh breath of God fill us
with life anew till all this earthly
part of us glows with your fire divine
praise be to the God and father of our
Lord Jesus Christ who has in Christ
blessed us with every spiritual blessing
in heavenly places even as he chose us
in him before the foundation of the
world thank you Father may your hearts
overflow with gratitude and with praise
you