Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20040620.htm

ADAPTING TO THE HOLY SPIRIT'S PRESENT MINISTRIES
Part III: Adapting To The Holy Spirit's Illuminating Ministry

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

It is an obvious fact that Christendom today is very divided over a variety of interpretations of various passages in the Bible:

(1) For example, the 2002 July-August issue of The Biblical Evangelist had an article by George Houghton, Th. D. Of Faith Baptist Theological Seminary in Ankeny, Iowa in which Dr. Houghton expressed concern about "The toleration by some evangelicals -- especially in academic settings -- of deviant sexual lifestyles, particularly homosexuality." (emphasis ours) (Ibid., p. 6)

Now, Genesis chapter 19 and Jude verse 7 assert God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for the sexual orientation of homosexuality. Indeed, Romans 1:21-27 teaches God gives people over to homosexual and lesbian sexual orientations and activity as judgment for having rejected Himself. One then wonders how evangelical scholars can interpret such passages to tolerate homosexuality!

(2) A whole segment of Evangelicalism believes that the spiritual sign gifts such as speaking in tongues, physical healing and prophecy are present in the Church today. However, all too often Christians have put their trust in such a belief only to fail to speak in tongues or fail to be healed of a serious physical problem or fail to prophecy accurately much to the confusion and harm of their faith.

On the other hand, many like we do claim that these gifts once existed in the Early Church, but now have ceased, so Christendom today is divided over whether such sign gifts are for today's Church.

(3) Christendom holds a variety of opinions on the forms of Christian music to be allowed in worship. Charisma magazine's April 1997 issue (p. 26ff) told of Christians in Britain who used "evangelistic night clubs" with "strobe lighting, Celtic music and tribal rhythms" to reach unsaved visitors to these gatherings (Ibid., The Biblical Evangelist). We and others would not approve of such forms of worship or outreach to the lost, but possibly many more would DO so!



With such DIFFERENCES of belief in Christendom on these issues and many others like them, HOW do WE KNOW that WE ACTUALLY HOLD to the TRUTH?



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "With the many differing Bible interpretations that exist and the serious divisions they often make, am I destined NOT to be SURE I know God's truth?! If I CAN know it, how may I DO so?"
  1. Jesus claimed the believer could know all of God's revealed truth in Scripture, for the Holy Spirit would GUIDE the believer into ALL of God's truth revealed in His Word, John 16:13a.
  2. However, there are several ways the Holy Spirit's ministry of ILLUMINATING God's truth TO a party can be BLOCKED so that the party does NOT DISCERN God's TRUTH (as follows):
    1. One who has not believed in Christ for salvation is himself helplessly ignorant of God's spiritual truths:
      1. The unbeliever does not have the Holy Spirit, Romans 8:9b.
      2. Thus, 1 Corinthians 2:14 claims he is unable to learn God's truth!
      3. Further, Satan blinds the unsaved party's mind to the Gospel lest he perceive its truth and believe it to be saved, 2 Corinthians 4:3-4.
    2. Then, one who trusts in Christ but who is controlled by his sin nature has that sinful nature block the Holy Spirit's illumination of the truth:
      1. One who believes in Christ still has a sinful nature that he uses for his state of thinking whenever he is in a state of sin, 1 Cor. 3:3.
      2. As he then sins, this "carnal" believer is not able to receive God's truths, and he even views them as of no value, 1 Corinthians 2:14.
      3. As such, he lives his life in spiritual darkness, a state that comes to hurt himself and others who follow him, 1 John 2:11; Matt. 15:14.
  3. Believers experience various DEGREES of the BLOCKAGE of the Holy Spirit's ILLUMINATING ministry due to their HISTORY of living a MIXTURE of GODLY and CARNAL lives as follows:
    1. The Apostle Paul claimed his Corinthian Christian readers could understand elementary truths but not deep truths since they had spent time as believers living in a state of sinfulness, 1 Corinthians 3:1-4.
    2. The author of Hebrews taught a similar truth: as his readers had failed to heed Scripture to grow in their discernment of good and evil, they had become stuck on discerning only elementary truths, Heb. 5:11-14.
  4. Accordingly, with an unhealthy mix of UNSAVED people and VARYING DEGREES of CARNAL, IMMATURE Christians, Christendom TODAY has become divided up by a confusing mix of errant, partly errant or immaturely applied true beliefs!
  5. Thus, to ENJOY the SPIRIT'S ministry of ILLUMINATING ALL of God's Bible TRUTHS to ALL of us, ALL in Christendom must START to RELATE WELL to GOD as follows:
    1. First, if we have not yet done so, we must believe in Christ as Savior from sin to be justified by God so as to receive the Holy Spirit that we might begin to be equipped by God to discern the spiritual truths the Holy Spirit longs to teach us, John 3:16; Rom. 8:9b with 1 Cor. 2:12.
    2. Second, as believers, we must confess our post-salvation sins that we might be forgiven them and be released from thinking by way of our spiritually blinded sin natures, 1 John 1:9 with 1 Corinthians 2:14.
    3. Third, as experientially righteous believers, we must RELY on the Holy Spirit to live righteously over TIME so that the Holy Spirit has time to teach us Scripture's many truths, Gal. 5:16 with Heb. 5:14.
    4. Fourth, WHILE thus relying on the Spirit over TIME, God wants us to read and think about His Word as it applies to our lives so that the Holy Spirit can ILLUMINE God's many truths to us, cf. Psalm 1:1-3 with 1 Peter 2:1-2 et al.
    5. Fifth, when we come to understand Scripture as applied to life like this, we must HEED its directives so as to mature (Heb. 5:11-14) or we SIN and walk in darkness, 1 John 1:6. [Here is how many fail: thinking all is fine since they have a basic grasp of Bible knowledge, they rationalize away full obedience to God on more advanced truths that God reveals to them, and so slip into a hardening of the heart to the threat of God's discipline, Heb. 3:7-4:11! Jesus critiques such believers in His Revelation 3:17, 19 message to the Laodiceans!]
    6. God then continually reveals truths to us to our great blessing: like Paul who, though awaiting martyrdom at the end of his great life of Christian service, he asked Timothy for "skins of vellum" that had the Old Testament and "papyrus rolls" used for writing as he "still wanted to study!" (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, ftn. to 2 Tim. 4:13).
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ as Savior from sin to be GIVEN the Holy Spirit to guide us into all of God's truth. (2) As BELIEVERS, may we (a) confess our post-salvation sins and (b) rely on the Holy Spirit while (c) READING and (d) heeding Scripture, and (d) DO so as a WAY of LIFE. (3) THEN we will be GUIDED into ALL God's TRUTH with His great blessing.

Lesson: The current state where differing interpretations of the Bible cause divisions in Christendom is NOT a HEALTHY one. GOD much prefers to GUIDE us ALL into ALL His REVEALED TRUTH, but WE must ALL HEED His Word and leading in LIFE for that to OCCUR!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 To illustrate how the Holy Spirit guides us into all God's Biblical truths, I have an example to give you as follows:

Many of you know our Charismatic brethren believe the gift of speaking in tongues existed not only for the Early Church, but for today. Yet, since the gift as presented in Acts 2 and in 1 Corinthians 12-14 clearly is one where a party is able to speak in another human language that he was not trained to understand, I with many others hold the gift of tongues is not present today.

However, decades ago, there was a debate among my Bible college and seminary profs on whether we had sufficient grounds for saying that the gift could NOT exist for today . However, Dr. John G. Mitchell, founder of the Multnomah School of the Bible and a renowned Bible teacher once told us in a class back in the 1960s these words: "Young people, wherever I see the gift of tongues in Scripture, Jews are present! So, mark my words -- someday scholars will learn that tongues was for the Jew, and since God is not trying to reach Israel as a nation anymore, tongues should not appear again in the Church!"

Decades later I read an article by Dr. Renald Showers from the Philadelphia College of the Bible where he noted the gift of tongues was a fulfillment of prophecy to the Jew in Deuteronomy 28:49: for sin, God there predicted He would bring a Gentile nation against Israel whose "tongue" or language Israel would not know! Dr. Showers showed how Isaiah 28:11-12 recalled this theme and that Paul in turn alluded to those Isaiah verses in 1 Corinthians 14:21-22 to explain the proper use of the gift of tongues. Then, in Acts 2 where the gift of Gentile languages appears, Peter warns Israel to repent for rejecting Her Messiah, Acts 2:1-14, 36-40. Dr. Showers argued that since God ceased trying to reach the NATION Israel at Jerusalem's fall in A. D. 70, the gift will NOT arise AGAIN in the Church era!

When I read Dr. Showers' explanation on tongues that PRECISELY AGREED with what Dr. Mitchell had DECADES EARLIER PREDICTED with his PARTIAL UNDERSTANDING on the New Testament gift of tongues, I saw the HOLY SPIRIT had been LEADING BOTH men INDEPENDENT of each toward the TRUTH, and that I was to PAY HEED to what they taught!

May we ALL heed the Spirit's ILLUMINATING ministry!