45
John
Introduction:
In
our previous text Jesus said that a river of water
would flow forth from the belly of the
person who believes
in Him.
Let me read again verses 37 and 38.
He, of course,
was not talking about literal water
flowing out of the
abdomen.
He was speaking figuratively about the work of the
Holy Spirit flowing forth from within the
inner spirit of
the person who believes in Christ.
John,
the writer of the Book of John, adds his own
explanation in verse 39, which is our text
verse. V. 39,
"(But this spake he of the Spirit,
which they that believe
on him should receive..." It is John's explanation of the
work of the Holy Spirit in the believer
that we will deal
with in this message. I will not attempt to cover every
thing pertaining to the work of the Holy
Spirit within the
believer.
For instance, I will not try to deal with the
work of the Holy Spirit in the security of
the believer.
Rather, I will confine my remarks to what
John was talking
about in this text.
I.
What happens when one believes in Jesus as Savior
To
be technical, the believer receives the Holy Spirit
at the time he believes in Jesus Christ as
his Savior. That
is, the believer receives the Holy Spirit
the very moment
that he trusts in Jesus to save his
soul. It is at that
very point of time, at that very instant
of placing his
faith in Jesus that he is born again and
he receives the
Holy Spirit at the same time he is born
again. It is the
Holy Spirit who produces the new birth.
Let
me explain the new birth. The new birth
is not a
physical birth. It does not change the physical nature of
the believer. The physical nature of the believer is the
same after he believes as it was before he
believes. His
physical nature will not change until the
resurrection. The
new birth does produce a change in the
spirit which indwells
the believer. In the inner spirit the believer is not the
same person that he was before he placed
his faith in Jesus.
He is a new man, a new person. II Corinthians 5:17 reads,
"Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature:
old things are passed away; behold, all
things are become
new."
This
inner change is not a partial change. It
is not a
patch-up job. It is not a remodeling job. It is a complete
change of the spirit which dwells
within. The old sinful
nature of the indwelling spirit is
completely gone. It is
gone forever. In its place is a new-born spirit which is
without sin. This new inner spirit partakes of the nature
of the Holy Spirit which produced it and
which still lives
within it.
It is without sin and will remain without sin.
This
change takes place instantly. It takes
place in a
split second. I takes place the very moment that the person
places his faith in Jesus to be his
Savior.
Therefore,
when one places his faith in Jesus Christ to
save his soul so that he not go to hell
but will go to
heaven, from that moment on he has a new
spirit dwellig
within him and the Holy Spirit of God
actually dwells within
the new spirit of the man.
This
is what John, the writer of the book, was
explaining. John says that Jesus was not talking about a
literal river of water coming out of the
literal belly of a
man.
John says that Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit
of God who has taken up residence within
the new spirit of
the man who has believed in Jesus.
John
says that the river which proceeds from with the
believer is the work of the Holy Spirit of
God coming from
within him. The Holy Spirit enlightens the believer, He
leads the believer, and He empowers the
believer.
He
enlightens the believer in the teachings of the Holy
Scriptures. When the Scriptures were being written, He
actually gave new revelations to the
writers. In fact, that
is how the Holy Scriptures were
written. The Holy Spirit
gave new revelations to the men and the
men wrote down those
revelations.
However,
now that the Bible has all been written, the
Holy Spirit no longer gives new
revelations. Rather He
gives enlightenment as to the meaning of
the Holy
Scriptures. He helps shed light on the meaning of the
Scriptures so that the believer can better
understand God's
word.
Furthermore,
the Holy Spirit leads the believer in the
will of God. This is in conjunction with the teaching of
the Scriptures and is in addition to the
Scriptures. For
instance, I asked God to lead me to the
which He wanted me
to marry.
I believe that God answered that prayer and that
He led me to the girl who is now my
wife. I believe that
the Holy Spirit led this church to call me
to be their
pastor and I believe that the Holy Spirit
led me to accept
that call.
I believe this to be in harmony with the
teaching of the Bible, but there is no
Scripture in the
Bible which instructed me to marry Frances
Russell. There
is no Scripture in the Bible which
instructed this church to
call Harold Davis as their pastor. There is no Scripture in
the Bible which instructed me to come and
pastor this
church.
Let
me repeat. The Spirit always leads in
complete
harmony with the teaching of the
Bible. He never leads
contrary to the teaching of the
Bible. For instance, He
would never lead anyone to do that which
the Bible forbids.
He would never lead anyone to commit a
sin. He always seeks
to lead the believer to overcome
temptation and to resist
sin.
He always seeks to lead the believer in doctrinal
truth.
He never leads into doctrinal error.
The
Holy Spirit also empowers the believer to do God's
will.
He enables the believer to resist temptation and to
do what is right in spite of the
temptations of Satan. He
enables the believer to overcome problems
and to have a
productive happy life in spite of great
problems. He
enables the believer to serve the Lord
even under difficult
circumstances.
He
seeks to lead the believer to live the kind of life
that would bring honor and glory to God
and bring blessing
to himself, to his family and to other
about him.
II.
The benefits which result from receiving the Holy
Spirit in the inner man
Let
me show you a passage of Scripture which lists some
of the benefits which the Holy Spirit
brings to a believer.
Galatians 5:22-23 reads, "But the
fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness,
faith, Meekness, temperance: against such
there is no law."
Love:
through the Holy Spirit the believer learns to
have a real genuine love for God and for
his fellow man. He
is empowered to have that kind of love.
Joy: The Holy Spirit enables the believer to do
the
will of God and to have greater joy than
he could ever
experience out of the will of God.
Peace: The Holy Spirit enables the believer to have
a
peace within his heart that passes all understanding. He
enables him to live peaceably with others
about him.
Longsuffering: The Holy Spirit enables the believer to
be longsuffering toward others and to have
a greater
tolerance for the faults and failures of
others than would
ever be possible any other way.
Gentleness: The Holy Spirit enables the believer to be
kind and gentle in his dealings with
others. He helps the
believer to overcome anger and bitterness
and to show
kindness to others.
Goodness: The Holy Spirit enables the believer to live
a good life in spite of the sinful body
and sinful world
that he lives in.
Faith: The Holy Spirit enables the believer to
depend
of God and to trust in God no matter how
bad the
circumstances.
Meekness: The Holy Spirit enables the believer to take
a meek and lowly spirit. That is the kind of person that
Jesus was.
It is said in Scripture that He is meek and
lowly.
Likewise, Moses was a meek man.
It is said in
Scripture that no man of that day was more
meek than Moses.
This kind of meekness is not achieved by
our own natural
inclinations. It is achieved by the help of the Holy Spirit
of God.
Temperance: The word, temperance, means "self
control."
It is not given to outbursts of anger and
rage. It does not
do things impulsively. It thinks things out and makes a
deliberate choice to do the better thing
-- the right thing.
III. What John said about the difference
between works of
the
Spirit as described by Jesus in His invitation and
the
outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost
But
now let us get back to what John said about the Holy
Spirit and His work in the life of a
believer. (V. 39),
"...for the Holy Ghost was not yet
given; because that Jesus
was not yet glorified.)" John said, in effect, that the
reader should not confuse the working of
the Holy Spirit
which is described in this passage with
the outpouring of
the Holy Spirit on the church on the day
of Pentecost
following the resurrection and ascension
of Jesus. What is
involved in this passage is the working of
the Holy Spirit
within the individual believer. What is involved in Acts
chapter two is the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit on the
church at Jerusalem on the day of
Pentecost which followed
the ascension of Jesus.
The
prophets of old had foretold that there would be a
special outpouring of the Holy
Spirit. Isaiah 32:15 reads,
"Until the spirit be poured upon us
from on high..." This
Scripture declared that the time would
come when there would
be an outpouring of the Spirit from on
high. That had to be
the Holy Spirit.
In
Isaiah 44:3 God said, "...I will pour my spirit upon
thy seed, and my blessing upon thine
offspring." So twice
Isaiah has prophesied that the time would
come when the Holy
Spirit of God would be poured out in a
special way.
Ezekiel
also gave a prophecy of this event. In
Ezekiel
39:29 God said, "Neither will I hide
my face any more from
them: for I have poured out my spirit upon
the house of
Israel, saith the Lord GOD." The fulfillment of this
prophecy involved only about 120
Israelites, but it was
fulfilled on the day of Pentecost
following the crucifixion
and ascension of Jesus.
In
Acts chapter two the record is given of this event.
I will not take time to read it now for I
am sure that you
are familiar with it. This was the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit upon the church which Jesus had
organized and left at
Jerusalem.
Contrary
to what many people think, Jesus organized and
founded His church during His personal
ministry here on
earth. It was not founded on that Pentecost day when
the
Holy Spirit was poured out. It already existed when the
Holy Spirit was poured out upon it.
In
keeping with Old Testament Scriptures there came this
special outpouring of the Holy Spirit on
the day of
Pentecost upon the church which Jesus had
established. This
outpouring of the Spirit on that Pentecost
day did not come
upon individual believers as such. Rather, it came upon an
organization -- a New Testament church.
The
purpose of the outpouring of the Spirit upon the
church as an organization was altogether
different from the
purpose for sending the Spirit to the
individual believer
when he trusts Jesus as Savior.
The
purpose involved in sending to the individual
believer was so that the individual
believer could grow in
grace and knowledge of the will of God and
could develop
into a strong Christian. The purpose of sending an
outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the
church at Jerusalem
was to give this church and other churches
which would
spring from it with special help in the
very early stages of
Christianity.
The
Holy Spirit would give the church and churches
special miraculous spiritual gifts which
would later be
discontinued. These special spiritual gifts included the
gift of miraculously speaking in other
languages so that
they could communicate with people of all
languages. It
involved the gift of prophecy. The New Testament had not
been written at that time. This gift would provide the
local churches with information from God
that was not made
clear in the Old Testament. It involved the gift of
miraculously discerning the spirits so
that when some fellow
comes along preaching or teaching some new
doctrine the
church would be able to know whether he
speaks from God or
from Satan's demons. It involved the gift of miraculous
healing so that the public could know that
the church people
were speaking the truth of God.
These
special gifts would not be needed once the New
Testament was completed. The Bible teaches that after the
New Testament would be completed these
special miraculous
gifts would be discontinued. There would, however, remain
three special gifts upon the churches to
assist them in
their work down through the ages. These three special gifts
are named in I Corinthians 13:13. They are faith, hope and
charity --- that is, faith hope and
love. These three
special gifts are still given to God's
churches.
Let
me repeat: The work of the Holy Spirit
as described
in John 7:37-38 is not to be confused with
the coming of the
Holy Spirit on the church at
Pentecost. According to the
invitation given by Jesus during the Feast
of Tabernacles,
any man who would place his faith in Jesus
to save his soul
would have a river of spiritual water which
would spring
from within his inner born again
spirit. This would take
place instantly when he trusts in
Jesus. It would take
place in every believer whether he was a
member of the
church or not. It takes place every time someone believes
in Jesus Christ and is saved. It happens to everyone who is
saved.
The
outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost following
the ascension is an altogether different
thing. This event
did not come upon all believers. It came only on the New
Testament church which tarried there at
Jerusalem and the
Spirit bestowed different gifts to
different people. What
Jesus describes in His invitation happens
to all believer;
what happened on Pentecost did not happen
to all believers,
only to the members of that church and
even then the same
gift was not given to all. Every believer gets the Holy
Spirit; only the local church got the
baptism of the Holy
Spirit.
And that happened only one time.
It never happened
again.
The special miraculous gifts were extended to all
the churches which sprung up through
persecution and through
mission efforts, but the outpouring of the
Spirit never took
place again.
IV.
A summation of the message
Let
me sum up this message in this way. God
saw fit to
inspire the Apostle John, who wrote this
book to make
special mention that what Jesus was
talking about in His
invitation was not the same thing as would
later take place
on Pentecost. In fact, it would take place on the very next
Pentecost following the Feast of
Tabernacles. Since God
thought it important for John to make this
clarification in
the inspired writings of this book, it is
important that we
make this distinction in our minds. Because it was
important to God, it should be important
to us.
What
was given on Pentecost is not offered to all, but
what Jesus was talking about in verses
37-38 is offered to
all.
Anyone who will come to Jesus placing his faith in
Jesus to save his soul will receive that
spiritual water of
life which springs up within his born
again soul. It is
absolutely vital that every man come to
Jesus and call upon
Him for salvation.
Conclusion:
Most
of you people in this congregation today have
already come to Jesus and trusted Him for
salvation. I am
calling those who have not yet done so to
come today.