The Holy Spirit
Tom Shrader examines the person and work of the Holy Spirit, establishing that He is distinct from but equal to the Father and Son. He teaches that the Holy Spirit gives birth to all believers (the new birth), enlightens them to understand spiritual truth, provides power for Christian living, and produces fruit in their lives. Shrader emphasizes that without the Spirit's work, no one can understand spiritual things or enter God's kingdom.
“Unless you're born of the Spirit, you will not enter the kingdom of God.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Christianity 101 (2004)
Duration: 42 min
Themes: holy spirit, power, new birth, spiritual growth, understanding, basics, foundation, transformation, new believer, questioning faith, seeking understanding, spiritual confusion, young christian, needs foundation, pastor, teacher
Scripture: John 3:5-6, Mark 1, John 7, John 16, 1 Corinthians 2:12-14, Acts 1:8, Romans 8, Romans 8:28, Galatians 5:22, Philippians 1:6
Theological Themes: pneumatology, regeneration, new birth, spiritual illumination, sanctification, trinity, spiritual discernment, biblical doctrine
Full Transcript
We're looking to reach the halfway point and pass it today. This is session 5, if I'm not mistaken, session 5 on this series Christianity 101. For me personally, this is the kind of stuff I like because it just takes us back to the basics. We can get off track so quickly, so rapidly, in so many different ways as we're looking and examining and talking about our Christian faith. We need to go back to those basics.
I don't think because we did it the first two or three weeks I want to build that whole case again, but whatever endeavor you're involved in, whether it's athletics, you're a golfer, we go back to the grip, the stance. If it's business, are you making the calls, what's the presentation, whatever those things are, those basics are there for a reason and they're important. In most instances, if you mess up the basics, you're going to be messed up down the road.
The Foundation: Belief Before Behavior
Here's what we said the first couple weeks: doctrine is critical. What makes us Christians is not how we behave, but what we believe. That belief is absolutely critical. That belief will inevitably affect the behavior, to be sure.
If we say we're Christians, we'll behave like it. But the behavior does not necessarily mean that we're Christians. You've got lots of Buddhists, lots of pagans, lots of people from the nation of Islam who are down there feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and holding doors open for people and all that stuff. They're no more Christians than this lamp. It's the belief that makes us Christians, the behavior subsequent.
That's a huge, gigantic point that is absolutely lost in most of even the Christian community today. Once we said belief's important, we said, where do we go to get them? We said, well, that's the Bible, that's the scripture, that's where we go. If you want answers to questions and you do, then you've got the answer book. There's a sense in which life is an open book test. You're going to throw challenges, difficulties, things at you. You go here, here's the answer to the question.
Building on the Basics: God and Jesus
Now we're ready to tackle the big issues. We said, let's start with the very biggest of the issues, God. Who's God? Lots of confusion in the world. Again, I don't sell the tapes, I don't get any money from the tapes, I don't make any living, the tapes don't do me any good. When I say get the tapes, they're free. Next week, when that tape's here, I think the first side of that especially, there's about a 30-minute conversation in there dealing with God, confusion of God, who's God, how do we decide who God is, that I thought was very helpful, especially in the culture you live in.
The second week, we talked about Jesus. We said, now, here's the dividing, cutting edge. Lots of people get together and talk about God, and we're excited about God. Put me down for yes, I believe in God, God, God, God. Ninety-five percent of the American public say they believe in God. But once we start to define that God, and we say, whoa, this God had a son, Jesus. Now people are going, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a second. I'm not sure I'm up for that.
We said last week, and again, hopefully on the CD you get the sense of that, that as we deal with this, we're closing doors. At the end of the day, you've got one option. Either Jesus is God, and who He said He was, or He isn't. If He's not, let's go home and go to bed. If He is, let's worship Him and live accordingly.
The Holy Spirit: Person, Not Force
Today we look at, and just as very nature would emphasize the almost mystical side of it, today we look at the Holy Spirit. When I was a kid, it was the Holy Ghost. Just that whole term conjures up all these pictures, minds, in our mind's eye of these mystical things. What is it?
Listen, the Holy Spirit is not just some sort of force that's out there. The Holy Spirit is a person, a personality. The Holy Spirit has a mission. In fact, there's an absolute truth that when I say to you, what is God doing in your life, what I'm really saying to you is, what's the Holy Spirit doing in your life?
Most of the time in our day and age, our culture, when we talk about Holy Spirit, most of us end up in discussions on tongues, and slaying in the Spirit, and healing, and all these other things. As you look at your outline, you've got eight points in there, and none of them are dealing with that. We want to talk about who is the Holy Spirit. We'll take our time, we'll navigate our way through it. Yesterday, we got bogged down a little early, but because we're taping, we'll try to cover all eight points, and we'll do the best we can.
The Spirit is Distinct from Father and Son
Here's the first one, from Mark chapter 1. The Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is distinct from the Father and the Son. This is the story of Jesus' baptism. "At the time Jesus came from Nazareth to Galilee, He was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming out of the water, He saw from heaven being torn open, the Spirit descending like a dove, and a voice from heaven saying, You are my Son, in whom I am well pleased."
What we see there is one of those rare times in Scripture, where we see Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all present at the same time. Jesus, that's obvious, the Son, the Holy Spirit's presence. He comes, and do you get the phrase in there, like a dove? Is the Holy Spirit a dove? No, He comes like a dove.
There's imagery all through the Old and New Testament of the Holy Spirit. He comes and He's described as fire, or oil, or a pledge, or a seal, as a servant, as water, as wind, as clothing. The Holy Spirit's there, and then we hear the voice of the Father.
Let me spend a second on this, because this point is crucial. The Father is not greater than the Son, and the Son is not greater than the Spirit, and the Spirit is not greater than the Father. They are all equal. Now I understand, especially if you're here with an inquiring, skeptical mind, you're going to say, explain that to me, and I'm in real trouble right away. I have to
I fall back on what Daniel Webster said when he was asked, "How can 1 plus 1 plus 1 equal 1?" He said, "I don't presume to understand the arithmetic of heaven." I don't know, but I do know the Bible teaches it, and I do know that because the Bible teaches it, it's true. Whether I comprehend it and understand it or not is irrelevant.
What we've got to get past is when we see a Father and a Son, and the Father sends the Son, we have a sense in which we say, "Oh, they're not equal. The Son's inferior to the Father." Not at all. Here, and this is a social problem for us, in our dialogues, if something's not identical, we tend to think it isn't equal.
Equal but Not Identical
In our society, we've tried to base something where we have equal rights, but that does not mean we're all identical. Some of us just flat lost the lottery at birth. It just isn't going to happen for you. I try to tell this all the time with dads who are driving their kids into all these athletic endeavors. Your kid is not—look at it—your son is 5'4" and 128 pounds. He isn't going to play in the NBA, and he's not going to play in the NFL. It isn't going to happen. He lost the lottery at birth. He got your genes. It can't take place.
That's not fair. I don't know if it's fair or not. It's not identical. I'm watching the other night, and I do this stuff for you. I don't do it for my own enjoyment. I'm watching this thing the other night on Paris Hilton. This chick and her sister have $360 million that they didn't even get from the father, but from the grandfather.
It's ironic. I'm watching this, and I'm flipping through, and I get to one of these things where they're trying to raise money for a Christian children's fund or something. Here's this kid living literally in a garbage dump. On the next channel is Paris Hilton spending $5,000 on dinner. We're not identical.
A few years ago, when Joe Montana retired, this is a fascinating story to me. They had this retirement event. 25,000 people showed up that night on the evening news—ABC, NBC, CBS, all three networks. The last story that night was Joe Montana's retirement. Write this down. Take it to the bank, because it's never going to happen.
You are never going to have 25,000 people come together for the retirement announcement of a left offensive tackle. It's just never going to happen. It's not going to happen in the history of the NFL. John Hannah, arguably as good a lineman as there ever was, you know, his family and two others gather together, and he says he's retiring. It isn't going to happen.
The quarterback and the lineman are equal in status, but different in role. Now you give me—you're smart people—give me another example of something where that's true. That same principle. Marriage.
Marriage as an Example of Equal Status, Different Roles
We hear this all the time, especially from those who want to come in and say, "Well, this whole Christian thing makes the woman not equal to the husband." No, the woman's no more not equal to the husband than the Son's not equal to the Father. They are equal in status, different in role.
Why submit to your husband? I didn't write it. I didn't make it up. It's there. That's what He says. I'll have person after person, generally of the female persuasion, who want to say, "Let's get this out of here." You know what's fascinating to me? They'll say, "It's the culture, it's the time, it's an ancient word."
The last part of that verse, and the next verse is, "Husbands love your wives," and I've never had one person suggest to me, "Let's get that out of there, that's cultural." The one is no more cultural than the other. That's God's plan for marriage.
I've sat with this couple—they can't agree on anything, they're arguing, that's why I'm talking to them. I'll say, "Well, how do you run your marriage?" "Well, we don't run the marriage the way you suggest." I said, "I don't even have a suggestion, so how would you know?"
He goes, "The husband and wife submit love." I said, "But that's not my suggestion, that's the biblical edict. So I don't have a suggestion." He said, "We don't do that." I said, "Well, what do you have?" They said, "We have a 50-50 marriage."
That's one of those rare moments when probably my response wasn't as biblical as it ought to be, but I just laughed. I said, "That's just silly. You can't possibly have that. How do you make a decision? How do you decide anything?" Here's what the guy said. Let this sink in. If this isn't a prescription for marital problems, I don't know what is.
He said, "Here's what we do. When we can't agree on something, the one who feels the most passionate about it gets their way." So whoever can argue the loudest. I just said, "You know, that's just stupid. It's just silly. It doesn't make any sense." Beyond whether it's silly or stupid in my judgment, it's not God's prescription.
It's not like you have on the refrigerator a possession arrow, like in a jump ball in college, and "Well, you got the last one, I get the next one." God said, "Wives submit to your husbands, husbands love your wives." They are equal in status, different in role. The point is singular. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are equal.
The Holy Spirit Gives Birth to All Believers
Here's the second point. The Holy Spirit gives birth to all believers. In your Bibles, and you got Bibles with you. In your Bibles, in the front or the back, and probably in both, there are a couple of extra pages, blank pages. On those pages, you should have a section where you're just writing down Bible verses. Not every Bible verse you ever read, but Bible verses that you come to, and they either
speak to you at that moment, they seem significant to you, or verses that we go back to again and again. Here's one of those verses. John chapter 3. Nicodemus has come to Jesus. He has not even posed a question, but Jesus is answering what's on his mind. And He says, "I tell you the truth. No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and of spirit."
Let's stop there. We don't need Greek. We don't need to be Bible scholars. All we need is a little understanding of the English language. Jesus is making an extraordinary statement. He's making a very exclusive statement. I will add this, and this you would not know just from English. When He says, "I tell you the truth," He's saying, "verily, verily, truly, truly. I swear to you." He's drawing attention to it. It's a point of emphasis. It's like a red flag. It's like you highlighted it and yellowed it. He's saying this is an extraordinarily important statement.
Look at the terminology. No one. So He's taking this entire universe of people who live. What is it? Seven billion on the planet now, and another six or seven billion that have lived before. So 14, 15 billion people who've ever occupied this earth. None of them. No one. No one can. No one can what? No one can enter the kingdom of God. So what He's talking about here is heaven, salvation.
The Exclusive Nature of Salvation
No one can enter the kingdom of God. So if you're one of those people who say, "What do I have to do to go to heaven? What do I have to do to be saved? What do I have to do to enter the kingdom of God?" You better get this right. Because He's telling you the answer. No one can enter the kingdom of God. What's the next word? Unless. There has to be a pre-existing condition. There has to be something that takes place. There has to be something that occurs.
In other words, again, you see this? We're not talking Greek here. We're not talking Bible here. We're just talking English. No one can enter the kingdom of God unless something happens to them. Whatever comes next is going to tell us what needs to take place for us to enter the kingdom of God. "No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and spirit. The flesh gives birth to the flesh. The spirit to the spirit. You shouldn't be surprised when I say you must be born again."
Here's what He's saying. Unless you're born of the spirit, you will not enter the kingdom of God. Now, we'll talk about what that means in a minute. But let that sink in. Do you see that? There's the exclusive nature of this. There's the definitive word.
So when somebody says to you, "I'm not one of those born-againers," if they say that to you and they understand what they're saying - a lot of times that's just a statement that's just uninformed - but if they know what they're saying, then at that moment, you're not dealing with discipleship. You're dealing with evangelism because you have an unbeliever in front of you. You see that?
Distinguishing Evangelism from Discipleship
Somebody says, "Listen, I'm not a born-again guy. I got my own little system here. I deal with God on my terms, my way. God and I have our own individual arrangement. We have a side agreement. He has this agreement with all of humanity. He has this one agreement with 14 billion people, but I'm the exception to the rule. We have my own thing. I'm in good standing with Him." You're dealing with evangelism, not discipleship.
When somebody says to you, "I'm a Christian," again, you know these. These are my favorites. But I've had people say to me, when I ask them, "Are you a Christian," and they say, "Not in the biblical sense," then I know what we have here before us is not a case of discipleship. The guy's not a believer. He's not a Christian. She's not a Christian.
And this is brought about by the Holy Spirit. Flesh begets flesh. Your mom and dad come together. They have this exciting night of passion. You're the result of that. Flesh begets flesh. The Spirit gives birth to the Spirit in you. If you want to be born again, if you desire to be born again, if you have been born again, it's because of the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Work of the Trinity in Salvation
God saves sinners. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit before the foundations of the earth. God chose those that He would save. Christ dies on the cross for that group of people. And the Holy Spirit, at the appointed time, comes along in your life, opens your eyes. I can sit with Jim, and I can share and share and share and share, and he goes, "No, no, get out of here, get out of here, get out of here." And all of a sudden, one day he says, "I see it."
What happened in that moment? Did all of a sudden he get smarter? Did all of a sudden I explain things more clearly? No. At that moment, God opened his eyes to see the truth. The Spirit is the one who gives life, birth, to all believers.
In the Gospel of John, as John's writing this magnificent Gospel, early on, John chapter 1, verse 12 and 13, John writes this: "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of the blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man, but the will of God."
God is the one who causes you to be born again. The Spirit is the one who does that. The Spirit is the one who convicts you of your sin, and opens your eyes, and gives you life. That's how you are born again. So do you get this? You must be born again, and the only way to be born again is when the Spirit of God invades your life.
The Source of All Life Within the Believer
Third point is this. He's the source of all life within the believer. Again, this is Jesus. He's interacting. He's teaching. He says this, John 7: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me, whoever believes in me. So Scripture says, streams of living water flow in him." And by this, He meant the Holy Spirit, with whom those who believed in Him would later receive. So there's some transition that's taking place, but He's talking about the role of the Holy Spirit. He's saying to you and me
that once we come to Christ in repentance and faith, that crucial longing, that need for a Savior, that need for that intimate relationship with God, is met once and for all. Let me give you a distinction here. We're going to lose some of you right here. And I know that. And I know it's confusing. So if we lose you in the next 60 seconds, we'll be back to you in like two minutes. That's okay, because I want to make this point.
Some of you understand this. Most frequent question we'll get is this: Can I lose my salvation? Last night—I'm sorry, Tuesday night—Sarah's got a small group that she meets with, these girls. And they're going to break for Christmas, and they said, we don't want to break. So she said, well, we'll go over to my folks' house. So Susan spent Tuesday baking cookies and making chili.
Can I Lose My Salvation?
When I got there, there were the girls, half a dozen of them, or whatever, a couple more or less. And so they do all this, and then they said, well, you take us out on a little boat ride. Because we've got that little boat now out in the back. So we're out on this boat ride. And I mean, the chatter level is at just this unbelievable pitch. They're just chattering and chattering.
And not a word has been spoken, but they're chattering and chattering and chattering and chattering. And finally, this one little girl says, I always thought I could lose my salvation. I was in a church that taught that you could lose your salvation. And so in our environment, that's a little bit like raw meat. All of a sudden, five people are going to want to participate in this discussion.
And this other girl, who's been somebody that we've had in our church since she was a little kid, is going, why would you even think that? I mean, the Bible is very clear on this. And she said, well, my church taught that you could lose your salvation. So I know some of you have been raised with that poor Bible teaching.
Security vs. Assurance of the Believer
Can you lose your salvation? No. When we talk about the security of the believer, now here's the subtlety. We talk about losing salvation, we use two different phrases. The security of the believer and the assurance of the believer. Are those familiar to you? The security of the believer and the assurance of the believer. We use them interchangeably, but they're two different things. Again, this is a nuance, but I think it's important.
Security of the believer is totally a work of God. Assurance of the believer is how that works out in our life. Security of the believer is God saying what Paul writes for us in Philippians 1:6. He who began a good work in you will continue it to the day of Christ Jesus. My sheep hear my voice, I know them. No one can snatch them out of my hand. That's the security of the believer.
That's based on God's promise, God's word, and that's what we're talking about here. That's based on the work of the Holy Spirit. The assurance of the believer, that's you looking at your life and saying, you know what? I indeed am acting like a believer.
So there may be times when indeed you have the security of the believer, but you don't have the assurance of the believer. Do you see that distinction? I think it's important. Assurance is me looking at my life and saying, I believe the right things, I'm doing the right things, I have this assurance. Security is totally a work of God. Very similar, but really miles apart. One's all that God's doing in your life, the other's the evidence of that.
The Holy Spirit Enlightens You
The Holy Spirit, third point in your outline, is the source of life within you. Here's the fourth thing, the Holy Spirit is the one who enlightens you. Jesus is speaking, John 16, He says, but when the Spirit... And let's stop and just point out to you what, again, may be obvious to you, but not necessarily everyone. That S on Spirit in your Bible is a higher case, it's capitalized. And that is where the translator is telling you He's speaking here about the Holy Spirit.
But when the Spirit of truth comes, He'll guide you into all truth. He will not speak in His own, He will speak only what He hears. And He will tell you what is yet to come. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings wisdom to us and understanding to us.
Remember I said in the back you ought to be writing down verses you go to again and again and again? And we started with John chapter 3, verses 5 through 6. Here's the second one you need to write down, 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 12 through 14. This is an absolutely critical verse.
Now when we receive, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 14. But natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. He cannot understand them, they are spiritually appraised.
Natural Man Cannot Understand Spiritual Things
Here's what He's saying, that unless the Holy Spirit is living in a person, they cannot possibly understand spiritual things. So, is that an important verse? Let me tell you something, I want to build on that for next week. But that's absolutely critical.
You've got this whole giant doctrinal issue about does God choose man, and that's why man's saved, or does man choose God? Well what this verse tells you right here, is there's absolutely no circumstances under which a man could choose God. You see that? And if I'm a natural man, natural man means I'm not a Christian, I don't have the Spirit of God living in me. If I'm a natural man, this is really simple, and I know great minds have argued about this, and churches have split over this, and no one for decades has been able to agree on this, but you know what, you're going
Number one: natural man. Can a natural man understand spiritual things? Absolutely not. Is the gospel a spiritual thing? Could natural man understand the gospel? This isn't that tough. There is no way that a man, woman, boy, or girl could make a decision for Christ. They don't have the ability. They can't. Why? They're in the flesh. They can't get it.
We've just climbed a mountain that theologians have been trying to get over for thousands of years. You don't need more degrees than a thermometer to figure this stuff out. It's pretty simple. Natural man isn't going to get a spiritual thing. The gospel is a spiritual thing. Natural man can't get it unless the Spirit of God opens his eyes to see that truth.
The Spirit Opens Our Eyes to Truth
Now, the Spirit of God lives in you, and all of a sudden, it's one of the great indicators. It's one of the great ways to know that you're a Christian. When I talk to somebody, or they come to the study, or they come to church, or you meet them, and they say they got converted, I'll ask what difference they saw. Almost always I'll hear this: all of a sudden, the Bible started to make sense to me.
Here's why. Before, you didn't have the Spirit in you to understand the spiritual things. Now you do, so it makes sense. The Spirit of God opens my eyes. All of a sudden, I can see this truth.
Now, let me tell you this: it still takes work. I don't just sleep on that Bible at night, and osmosis takes place. You still work at it. You still have to labor. Here's one practical illustration: you've realized there's a big difference between joining a gym and being in shape. There's a big difference between owning a Bible and even having the Spirit in you.
There is still what Paul encourages us to do, which is to labor and to strive and to work and to dig it apart. There will be things that we're not really ever going to understand and fully comprehend, but you've got the Spirit of God applying the Word of God to the heart of the man or woman of God. Something special is taking place there.
The Source of All Power
Here's the fifth thing: the source of all power is in the believer. Acts chapter 1, verse 8: "You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you." If I say to you, Peter, and an event from his life, you tend to mirror back to me denial, right? So if I say Peter, you go, "I don't know Him, I don't know Him, I don't know Him." It's extraordinary to me. That's how we love to deal with people.
I'll have a situation—this life has such interesting things in it, but this is one of my favorites. There'll be somebody who comes to the study, and I'll be standing over there, and they'll say, "Is that John Smith over there?" I'll say yeah. "John Smith comes to this? John Smith is a Christian?" Then they say, "Oh, wow! Let me tell you what this guy used to be like."
About ten minutes later, I'll be on the other side of the room talking to John Smith, and he'll say, "Is that Bill Jones over there?" I'll say yeah. "Is he coming here?" I'll say some guys brought him a couple times. "Is he a Christian?" And he goes, "Holy cow, let me tell you about this guy."
Here's what we think: we think that we can change and grow and develop, but we don't think anybody else can. You have that same idea. You're going back home for the class reunion, and you still see the little guy that was the little geeky guy. You still see him as the little geeky guy that everybody used to stuff his head in the toilet. Now the world sees him as Bill Gates. You still see him as the little geeky guy used to stuff in the toilet. We see everybody else locked in space and time, and they can't grow and develop, but we do.
Peter's Transformation
You ought to take the time somewhere here in the not-too-distant future, sometime this week, to go ahead and reread the account of Peter's betrayal, Matthew chapter 26, verse 69 and following. When you're done with that, turn over and read Acts chapters 2, 3, and 4, and realize that's the same guy.
I say Peter, you say denial. And the guys in Jerusalem are saying, "You should go hear this guy preach. He delivered a message last week, and 3,000 people were saved. He's extraordinary." Same guy. One extraordinary difference. Matthew 26, the Holy Spirit's not living in Him. Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit indwells Him, and now He has power. He has power.
Here's what's exciting to me: the same Holy Spirit that indwells Him is the same Holy Spirit that indwells you. It seems to me the Scripture's really clear. Apart from Him, you can do nothing. With Him, you can do mighty things. Are there times when you look at the Christian life and you say, "This is so overwhelming, there's no way I can do this?" Obviously. That's the whole point. If you could do it, we'd say do it. You can't do it. But you have the power of God, the Spirit of God living inside of you.
The Spirit as Intercessor
Here's the sixth thing: the Holy Spirit's also an intercessor. Romans chapter 8: "In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We don't know what we ourselves ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us." There are times when you're so angry, so frustrated, so hurting, so overwhelmed, so bewildered, so confused, so on the brink—
of giving up, so discouraged, that you don't even know what to say to God. Forget talking about it. You don't even know what to say to God. Have you ever had that? Have you ever been in that experience? I have. When I go and I say, I don't even know what to ask for. I don't even know what to ask you to do. I don't know. I don't know. Help me see it I guess would be good.
What Paul tells us in Romans is in that moment when we don't even know what, we just ache and groan, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with the Father. Now, what to me is important to that is the next verse that we don't have included in there, which is Romans 8:28, and that is, and we know God causes all things to work together for good. So we have an advocate who knows us and who is God, who intercedes with the Father, and God takes everything in our life and works it for good ultimately. That's not to say we get what we want. It is to say we will get what we need.
The Source of Wisdom
Here's the seventh thing. He's the source of wisdom for all believers. Our problem, generally, is not knowledge but wisdom. The Holy Spirit, it says, searches the mind of God. Searches our mind and brings those two together. And all of a sudden, we are allowed to see life as it really is.
I miss, and I really miss being able to pick up the phone and to call Larry. Not just to hear his voice and go through the whole discussion, but be able to say, I've got this thing, what do I do? And Larry would not typically go to a passage of Scripture that I've never seen. He would typically take Scripture and bring wisdom to it. It was the wisdom of God.
That's the advantage of having a godly man in your life, a godly woman in your life. Men with men, women with women. That's the huge advantage of that. There is no resource that's more valuable to you than to have guys to have a man who's walked with the Lord for 30, 40, 50 years and is just jam-filled with wisdom. Ladies, to have somebody who's walked with the Lord who's jam-filled with wisdom. And the source of all of that is the Holy Spirit. If you lack wisdom, it says all you've got to do is ask and He gives.
The Source of Life Change
Here's the last point. He's the source of life change for the believer. I mentioned Larry. I remember being with Larry and this guy came up and he had this huge problem in his life and he said, you know, I've fixed it. I've turned the corner. I'm back. That's great. And Larry said, oh, that's great. He walked away and I said, that's pretty cool. And Larry's comment was, we'll see. And I thought, well, you cynical old man. And what I learned was the wisdom of the man is anybody can yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap. But the proof is in the life change.
I will have people periodically, this may strike you as odd, who will come up to me and say, that message was really good. And I'll say, that's real thanks. You know, that's God. God's good. Or somebody will say, I was really hurting and that's just what I needed to hear. Okay, that's good. What's really cool for me is when somebody comes up and says, you know what? Three years ago, you were teaching this and it convicted me and for three years, God's changed my life.
I, yesterday was saying, in the back of your Bible, there should be something. And this guy came up afterwards and he said, this is my wife's Bible. And when you said that, I turned to that and he said, look at this. And it was filled with notes that I'd done in some teaching in 1995. That was just really a cool moment.
The Purpose of Biblical Life Change
Why does priority living exist? Priority living exists for this reason. To cause biblical life change in businessmen and women by teaching the timeless word of God in a contemporary context. That's why we're here. I happen to be involved in a church, East Valley Bible Church. Why does that church exist? To help one another learn God's truths and to biblically change lives.
There's a phrase that's present in both of them. Did you catch it? Biblical life change. If there's not biblical life change, then this is just an academic study. We might as well move this down to ASU or down to the U of A or over to Wharton School of Business or whatever, move it somewhere else because at that point, it's just academic. This is about changing lives.
How the Holy Spirit Produces Change
Now, how does the Holy Spirit do that? Well, Galatians 5:22 tells us that the Spirit of God works in our life to produce the fruit of the Spirit. And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.
What's interesting about that fruit of the Spirit is this. You really are not going to know if it exists unless you're in difficult circumstances. You aren't going to know if you have love. When Susan's doing exactly what I think she ought to do, and more, and the kids are doing exactly what I think they ought to do, and more, I have found it very easy to love them. It's not too tough. My challenge to love them is when they aren't responding the way I think they should respond or even when they aren't responding in a biblical way.
It's pretty easy to have joy when you open the mail and you see that the stock market's exploded and that stuff you bought for $2 is now worth $50. Praise the Lord. That's not a terrible challenge. I don't find that a real test of my faith. But when the stuff I bought at $22 is at $2, a little tougher.
We could do this through the whole list. Here you go, the last one. Self-control. It's pretty easy to have self-control sitting in this room at 7 o'clock on a Thursday morning. It's not as easy when you're on the road in a hotel room with no one to hold you accountable. It just isn't.
The Vine and the Branches
The fruit of the Spirit, those things that the Spirit produces in your life, are from Him. He does it. What do you do? You're hanging in there. He's the vine. You're the branches. All you're doing is hanging in there. And Him doing what He does in His life produces fruit.
Let me close with a story. There's a guy, and I'm talking to him one day, and he's
talking about his wife. I said, she seems terrific. I said, how'd you meet her? He said, well, it's really interesting. Somebody set us up. We went out on a date. He said, I said hello, and we went out, and it was unbelievable. We clicked from the first moment we met. We stayed out the whole night. We stayed up and talked the entire night.
I was taking her home, and she said, can I ask you something? He said, sure. And she goes, you never tried to hit on me the whole night. We were out the whole night, and you never tried to hit on me. I've got guys that pick me up and try to hit on me to try to figure out whether they're going to buy me dinner or not. He said, well, I'm a Christian. I mean, I have self-control.
He said, she began to weep. And said, I want this in my life. He had the privilege of sharing the Lord with her, of getting her in a relationship where a woman could disciple her. He'd come along, and they have these two extraordinary people married together.
Living Out the Christian Life
Do you see what he did there, by the way? All he did was to do what God called him to do. Sometimes we think of evangelism, we've got to... Do you know Jesus? No. Well, you're going to hell. No. That may be part of it, and there may be a place for that. But what he did is he lived that Christian life.
That's evangelism. Evangelism isn't just your mouth moving. It is your action. It's biblical life change. If there's no biblical life change... Let me go back to the middle of the lesson. If there's no biblical life change, then you have no assurance of your salvation. Because you must be born again, and if you're born again, it'll produce fruit. If you're not producing fruit, something's wrong.
Looking Ahead
Well, here you go. We've talked about doctrine. We've talked about the Bible. We've talked about God. We're going to talk next week about your favorite subject. I guarantee you, your favorite subject next week. We're going to talk about you. This will be good.
Father, help us see this truth. Apply it to our life. God, thank You for Jesus. Thank You for His death. Father, thank You for the Holy Spirit that opens our eyes, that gives us life, that allows us to see this, that gives us wisdom, that gives us birth, that gives us power. Father, thank You for You and Your love for us. We pray to You in Christ's name. Amen. Have a great week. We'll see you next week. Amen.