In the Godhead, there is an uncommon concern by the Holy Spirit that goes far beyond any human concerns. He is jealous for the glory of Jesus Christ. As Jesus finishes His teaching about the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, “He will glorify Me” (John 16:14). You cannot find this kind of jealousy in human relationships. We are too preoccupied with our own importance.
Sanders continues on this theme, “Thus with a blessed mutuality, the members of the Godhead give honor and glory to each other. As the supreme Lover of Christ, the Holy Spirit is jealous of His glory and interests. He cannot bear to see a waning or cooling love for the Lord. As we give Him opportunity, He fans the fire of our devotion.” If you were to ask the Spirit to describe your devotion to the Lord, your intimacy with Him, what would the Spirit say? J. Oswald Sanders, Enjoying Intimacy with God, Discovery House, 2000, page 72.
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There is something very precious about Jesus calling the Holy Spirit “another Helper or Comforter” (John 14:16, 1 John 2:1). The Holy Spirit is not a different Comforter, but “another of the same kind”. Jesus wanted to assure the disciples that they were at no disadvantage in His death, burial, resurrection and ascension to heaven. “Another” divine person was coming to insure that they would lose nothing in His departure. In fact, they would gain. J. Oswald Sanders says, “This loving provision was made by the Lord, not only to console them (the disciples), in their sense of loss, but to make possible a continuance of the intimacy with Him that they had enjoyed…Our Lord’s departure from earth made possible a deeper, more constant intimacy with Him, even more than what they had experienced when He was with them.” That last phrase is so important; “to make possible a continuance of the intimacy with Him (the Lord)”. There are many aspects of the Spirit’s role in the Godhead, but rarely do we consider how vital the Spirit is in maintaining true intimacy. If you have lost the value of this in your heart, ask the Spirit to renew it by His presence and power today. Enjoying Intimacy with God, Discovery House, 2000, page 70-71. I want to follow-up yesterday’s blog on 2 Kings 5:19b-27. Gehazi did two things that ruined his life and ministry with Elisha. First, he marred the testimony of God through Elisha by nullifying what Elisha said to Naaman. Elisha told Naaman there was ‘no cost’! Paul insists; “What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.” (1 Corinthians 9:18). He further declares that salvation is a “free gift by…grace” (Romans 5:15-17; 6:23). By asking Naaman for money and clothing, he destroyed the message that Elisha had given. Elisha looked at this compromise as very serious, deserving severe consequences. SO SHOULD WE!! The second lesson in this account is the hideous nature of cover-up and lying about what Gehazi did to gain personal benefit (money and clothing). Such actions proved that Gehazi could no longer be trusted with the ministry he had. He was immediately exposed and given the physical effects of his sin, leprosy. The root of this failure was in his heart and that became exposed for all to see in this outward manifestation. The warning cannot be clearer. If we try to handle the work of God with duplicitous motives, God will both remove us from His work and place on us a reminder of how serious our failure is. This was a heart issue. Honoring God begins in the heart! All of us must examine our motives and unsparingly judge those that violate the character of God. In my personal devotions this morning, I read 2 Kings 5:19b-27. I began to see a larger picture that is more than just a Syrian commander being healed of leprosy. Naaman was so moved by his healing he said to Elisha, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept a present from your servant.” Elisha is very emphatic. “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none” (5:15-16). Gehazi went to Naaman secretly and asked for money and goods (see the next blog tomorrow). Leading a person to healing as an act of God’s mercy, i.e., Naaman, without a hint of money being involved, is how the gospel must be presented. When we mix the gospel message with money or some benefit, we compromise the character of God in the gospel. So important is this issue that Paul had to address the compromise of some who wanted to combine the free gift of grace with works of Law. Grace is no longer grace if we combine it with anything we do to merit receiving grace or a benefit other than eternal life and a personal relationship with the Savior. Of course, there are other benefits, but there is never a promise of material gain. In fact, Jesus explained the cost of becoming a disciple in Luke 14:25-33. Over and over, we have seen how money, social status through education or wealth, and western forms, including buildings, have hindered the spread of the gospel. Disappointment and delusion set into the soul when the gospel is received because of a promise of these. It is time we return to a biblical model! If you think these are harsh words, consider what Paul said; “But there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ…If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:7, 9). If we think that money and buildings are necessary for the propagation of the gospel, then we have departed from its truth and power. Be very careful not to mix anything with the pure gospel of grace; not with human requirements that distract those who receive it from becoming attached to Jesus Christ, the Author. I trust you had a wonderful Easter Sunday celebrating the resurrection of our precious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. But I want you to think about the resurrection in the way that Paul spoke of it as relating to his whole life.
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Philippians 3:8–10). To really know Christ is to know the power of His resurrection working in us. What did Paul mean by this passionate statement? It is not enough to “know” about His person. There must be a living, daily, intimate walk with Him in the power of the Holy Spirit that causes us to live Christ’s life in us. That is why Paul said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). There can be no resurrection power without the crucifixion of self, first. God wants us to be His emissaries through the power of Christ in us, not just a doctrine in the church. CHRIST IS RISEN SO WE CAN LIVE THROUGH HIS RESURRECTION POWER! “The Holy Spirit never creates hunger and thirst after righteousness, but in order that Christ may fill the longing soul.”
Howard Taylor, Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, Moody Publishers, 2009, page 154. What is your greatest hunger and thirst in life? Jesus Christ was resurrected that His power in new life through the Spirit might fill every void in your soul and life. During a very difficult time in Hudson Taylor’s missionary work in China, he sent home the following prayer request. It is timely for all of us today.
“Pray that the Lord will ever give me a single eye, clear judgment, wisdom and gentleness, a patient spirit, unwavering purpose, unshaken faith, and Christ-like love needed for the efficient discharge of my duties.” READ THIS PRAYER AGAIN. It is not only concise, it is also spiritually deep and broad in application to every area of life and ministry. We rarely pray like this, but prayers of this depth open the door for the Holy Spirit to develop godly character, spiritual stamina and endurance. GO AHEAD, use this prayer in your personal conversation with God for yourself and others. Howard Taylor, Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, Moody Publishers, 2009, page 148. It is very rare that I hear someone speak of “joy” related to the Holy Spirit. In fact, of all the books I have read on the subject of the Holy Spirit, very few refer to this joy. What is the reason behind this? I believe that most have never experienced a deep work of the Spirit in themselves. Just to make myself clear, I am not speaking of an emotional reaction to human motivations. I am referring to the joy that comes from intimacy with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus referred to this joy in John 15:11 which is in the context of giving the Holy Spirit and living fruitful lives.
Where else do we see this joy? One of the churches Paul and Silas planted was Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-9). When the gospel came to them, there was much conflict because of opposition stirred up through jealous Jews who incited wicked men. But this “affliction” did not stop the power and work of the Holy Spirit in these new believers. In fact, so powerful was God’s work in them that they had “joy in the Holy Spirit, so they became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia” (1 Thessalonians 1:6-7). Paul says in the last of his early letters, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). This confirms what I said earlier that this kind of joy does not come from emotional hype, but from fellowship in the mighty working of God. What is your “joy factor” and where does it come from? “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins” (Mark 2:22). Jesus draws from this illustration because the Jew was familiar with winemaking (see John 2:1-11) and could tell the difference between “poor wine” and “good wine”.
In this illustration, Jesus is comparing wineskins to the failure of the old Jewish religious system of demand and law, to receiving and containing the new gospel of grace which He brought. From a practical perspective, fermentation of new wine would build pressure in the old wineskin and will burst, losing all the wine. We can liken this new wine to the power and joy in Christ that is given through the Holy Spirit. Religious rituals and forms are like the old wineskins. They cannot contain the fresh work of God in a believer. It is interesting that Jesus points to both the old wineskin and the new wine being “destroyed” if they are put together. We must not conclude from this statement that we can do anything to destroy the gospel. What is destroyed is the effect of the gospel in me if I try to combine it with old tradition and forms that work against the freedom we have in Christ (Galatians 5:1). The flesh and human will, man’s methods and ways, hinder and quench the work of the Spirit. No wonder Jesus told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:5–6). This must take place before you are able to hold the “new wine” in your “jar of clay” (2 Corinthians 4:7). In Mark 2:21, Jesus gives the first of two illustrations that point to a New Era that is incompatible with the previous era of Judaism. “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.” The old garment (Judaism) had become spiritually weak, unfit and unable to become one with the new movement of God in Christ. The old was based on fulfilling the Law (self-righteousness and ritual), but the new was rooted in the gospel of grace (forgiveness, cleansing and God’s righteousness).
The new cloth represents a quality of purity in what Christ brought that could never be found or regained in the old religious system. If someone tried to sew the two together, “the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.” The word “tear” suggests a ‘split or division that cannot be overcome’. Notice that the old is what tears, not the new. God will not and cannot accept us on the basis of the old or any part of the old (see 1 Corinthians 5:6-8). In the same way, if we seek to blend the work of the Spirit with our old religious practices that are spiritually dead, we will invite a worse condition and miss the newness and freshness of His work. Likewise, God will never ‘patch-up’ the old man or his methods. He must die (be crucified and buried) so God can resurrect us in Christ as new – His life lived in us (Galatians 2:20). You must wrestle with this question; ‘Do I want to hold on to a dead system that is not producing fruit for God, or do I want God to work in “the new way of the Spirit”? “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:6). The new produces fruit for God. |
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