Guided by the Holy Spirit: Embracing Divine Truth
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Sermon Clips
"We're told that it is, it was him who inspired the word of God. And so if he's going to teach us the things we need to know, namely the word of God, and he is the author, he inspired it, I should say, he inspired the authors to do that, that he is more than capable of teaching us the things that we need to have. I remind you of 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16 and 17. All scriptures breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work. The word there, inspiration, that you see here, or breathed out, some translations have it, is inspired. That's breathed out is inspired. Okay. And it comes from the root word. It has the idea of breath or wind. And it's also spirit as well. So it's a very clear, there's no ambiguity about this of what this text is teaching is that the word of God was inspired or literally breathed out by God through the Holy Spirit. And note what it is profitable for. Note all that list there. We are completely equipped by the work of the Holy Spirit through the word." [00:09:10] (85 seconds)
"And so when Jesus says, I'm going to leave, but I'm going to leave my spirit. And, but he will teach you all things. He's solving the problem of ignorance. And what I mean by ignorance is just don't know, uninformed. We can't do something we don't know about. We can't make an action, an action plan if we don't even know what the problem is. And so what the Holy Spirit does is because he has the indwelling work in the believers, he's the one that's teaching us the things that we need to know. And he's the one that's guiding us. And he's the one that's bringing to our minds and illuminating the scriptures. So when we read the scriptures, it's the Holy Spirit is the one that works in our hearts. I remember my grandfather who, I think I've shared the story before." [00:10:42] (49 seconds)
"John chapter 14 answers the question because it's the Holy Spirit that will guide us and teach us. It's the Holy Spirit that will teach us every day. We go into the word. Now, I would love to stand here and tell you every time I open the Bible, I learned something new. That's not true for me personally, but I would say this, that the Spirit of God uses the word on a consistent, consistent basis to teach me things and to reveal things about my own heart, about something about the text. Maybe it's a fact, but usually it's about something about my own heart that I didn't even realize, a propensity that I had or a sin that I committed or an opportunity to praise God or something wondrous about God that I just hadn't really connected before. It's just amazing. The Holy Spirit will teach us. He solves the problem of ignorance. Ignorance here." [00:13:18] (50 seconds)
"I like what a theologian, John Frame said, a professor, a theologian. He said this in his book, Systematic Theology. He says, the author of the text opens the text to us. Talking about the Holy Spirit. It's the author of the text that opens the text to us because the Holy Spirit inspired the word and then he's the one that teaches it to us. So, you know, one way that we depend on the Spirit. Remember, that's what we're talking about for this whole sermon series is depending on the Spirit. One way we must, must depend on the Spirit is to pray for our hearts to be receptive to his teaching ministry. So, you've all had that, that, that you just sense. If you're a Christian, you know exactly what I'm talking about. This sense about the Spirit of God nudging you, teaching you something, and then the fight or the push or the, the argument. We've all been there. The Holy Spirit needs to teach us. And so we need, we must submit to the Spirit. If we're going to be dependent on the Spirit, we must be submitted to the Spirit. So the Holy Spirit solves the problem of ignorance. Secondly, the Holy Spirit solves the problem of forgetfulness. The problem of forgetfulness. This also is in John chapter 14 where it says after he will teach you all things. And then it goes on to say, Jesus says, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." [00:13:39] (85 seconds)
"Forgetfulness is something that plagues us and costs us from the beginning of time. God was aware of humanity's propensity towards forgetfulness. Moses, he knew of the human weakness of forgetfulness. So he admonished the children of Israel. He said, take care lest you forget who the Lord and forget the Lord your God. Deuteronomy chapter eight. Moses warning is not the only place where we see this. Samuel, he set up a stone of remembrance. Does anyone remember what he called it? Stone of remembrance? Someone said it. Ebenezer. Ebenezer. Yeah, you know, there's a song coming up, fount of every blessing. Here I raise my Ebenezer. It's not talking about Scrooge. It's talking about a stone of remembrance. Okay, it's like, it's because, it would be a time where they would come and they would see that. And the children would say, why is that pile of stones there, dad? And he would say, well, let me tell you why. This is a reminder that God brought us safely thus far, that God brought us here. Joshua did a similar thing in Joshua chapter four. A Passover was instantaneously instituted. Remember after the Exodus and the 10th plague there, the whole Passover that as the death of the firstborn, if they put the blood, the lamb on the doorpost and over the top, when the death angel came through, if they saw the blood of the lamb over the house, the death angel would pass over that house and the firstborn would be saved. And so after that, right after that Exodus, then they set up a Passover celebration to commemorate this. So they wouldn't forget what God did in the Exodus. The Lord's supper here is a gift to us to curb our forgetfulness. So all that to say is that forgetfulness is a problem that we all suffer from. God knows about it and has." [00:17:52] (111 seconds)
"from the beginning of time, active and active in work to curb that and to help us with the problem of forgetfulness. And you and I have the Holy Spirit indwelling inside of us to help curb the problem of forgetfulness. He will bring, according to John 14, He will bring to your remembrance all that I have taught to you. And so the promise in John 14 is absolutely stunning. That as we depend on the Spirit and call out to Him, He will bring to our remembrance what we need for daily life. And so again, I refer back to 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 -17, where it talks about the Word of God being inspired and that is helpful to us for all those things that we talked about here. And by the way, what the Holy Spirit reminds us of each day is actually far more valuable than Stephan Thomas' bitcoins." [00:20:05] (51 seconds)
"Memorizing Scripture is crucial in this. And I'm so thankful. I grew up going to a church that prioritized Scripture memory. And so as a child, we would be learning and memorizing Scripture. And I know that... This is to be true now, that when you're younger, it's a lot easier to memorize things. And so the older we get, the more we have to work at it. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. It just means we got to be more... We had to work harder at it. This is one of the reasons why the other team, we said, we really need to prioritize some Scripture memory. And we're really thankful, you know, for... You know, Rachel English was a big part of this and some of the things that she was talking about with Scripture Fest and things that they were doing. We had some good conversations and we really appreciated her spirit. And we were... We appreciated the priority of this. And we said, yes, this is something that we need to prioritize here. And so this is one of the reasons why we're doing what we're doing, trying to memorize Psalm 34 here. Because if the Holy Spirit's going to bring it to remembrance, it's far more helpful for there's something that's already there. Right? And He will bring that to remembrance. And so this is why we study the Word. This is why we memorize the Scriptures. So we must depend on the Holy Spirit to help us remember these things. So I, you know, in a prayer, I'll have as a slave, Lord, help me not to forget these truths." [00:21:12] (76 seconds)
"These are prayers that we should be offering because this is the role of the Holy Spirit for us. So he says, He solves the problem, we said first of ignorance and then of forgetfulness. But let's move on to the third one. And the third one is this, is that He solves the problem of confusion. Now, I'm in John chapter 16 here. So we can turn the page in John 16. It says in verse 12, Jesus says, I have many things to say to you, but I cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. Okay? So He will guide us into truth there." [00:22:31] (34 seconds)
"We live in a very complex, confusing time. We live in a time where people can make up truth for themselves, your truth and my truth. And this is not true, right? In a sense, it's not reality. But I love the promise here in John chapter 16 is that the Spirit of God will guide us into all the truth. Now, this isn't anything new for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been active in guiding people into truth from day one. We see the Old Testament prophets, that they were empowered by the Holy Spirit. We see this in Numbers. We see this in 1 Samuel, Ezekiel, Micah. We see the Old Testament prophets." [00:23:04] (38 seconds)
"They were empowered by the Spirit. We're told in John chapter 6 that Jesus actually, He spoke through the Spirit. We know that there was a very symbolic thing in His baptism, in His humanity. The Spirit of God descended upon Him. It empowered His ministry. We're going to talk about the empowering work of the Holy Spirit in two weeks in more detail here. But, but Jesus, even His teaching ministry was empowered by the Holy Spirit. The Apostle's message was also empowered by the Holy Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 1, 1 Corinthians chapter 2. We saw this in our 1 Corinthians study of how that, you know, Paul says, I didn't come to you on my own and through excellence of speech and all this stuff, but in demonstration, in the power of and demonstration of the Holy Spirit, he says in 1 Corinthians there. So this is nothing new, for the Holy Spirit to guide into truth. The Bible's referred to as the sword of the Spirit, after all, right? It's the sword of who? The Spirit. It's the Spirit that uses this, the Word of God, to help us remember these things, but to do what? To guide us into all the truth, thereby alleviating the confusion over what is true and what isn't. Pilate famously said, you know, before the crucifixion, they, you know, talking about truth, and he famously says, what is truth? Now, different people will take that statement in different ways, and you can interpret it in different ways, but I think he was just saying, I don't even know what to believe right now. I don't even know what to believe. But the Holy Spirit is the gift from the Father." [00:25:25] (101 seconds)
"Jesus didn't leave us as orphans. When he left, he says, I can't be with you always in terms of my physical presence, but the Spirit of God is going to come, and he's going to have an indwelling work in everything, every believer here, and he will guide you into truth, and all the truth, alleviating that confusion here. This is an assurance of Jesus himself. This is that indwelling work that we talked about last week. And so, I'll put it this way, is that the same Spirit who inspired the Bible, who anointed Jesus' teaching, and empowered the apostles' message, resides in every believer. And that's cool. I don't know how else to say that. That's amazing." [00:25:46] (49 seconds)
"It's the same Spirit who gives the Word, the same Spirit that was empowering the message of the prophets, and we read about them and read about how are they so bold, and how did they say these things, and read about the Apostle Paul and his boldness and his message and how courageous he was and how he spoke truth clearly. We read all about that, and we think, that was amazing. Man, I wish I could do that. And the reality is, the same Spirit that empowered them to do that resides in every believer. That's amazing. This is why we depend on the Spirit every day. Because we need His empowerment. We need His guidance into truth here. So, this is why we pray with, you know, Psalm 119. I mean, we should be praying this all the time. Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding that I'm, I keep Your law and observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the paths of Your commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to selfish gain." [00:26:06] (64 seconds)
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"And so when Jesus says, I'm going to leave, but I'm going to leave my spirit. And, but he will teach you all things. He's solving the problem of ignorance. And what I mean by ignorance is just don't know, uninformed. We can't do something we don't know about. We can't make an action, an action plan if we don't even know what the problem is. And so what the Holy Spirit does is because he has the indwelling work in the believers, he's the one that's teaching us the things that we need to know. And he's the one that's guiding us. And he's the one that's bringing to our minds and illuminating the scriptures. So when we read the scriptures, it's the Holy Spirit is the one that works in our hearts. I remember my grandfather who, I think I've shared the story before." [00:10:42] (49 seconds)
"John chapter 14 answers the question because it's the Holy Spirit that will guide us and teach us. It's the Holy Spirit that will teach us every day. We go into the word. Now, I would love to stand here and tell you every time I open the Bible, I learned something new. That's not true for me personally, but I would say this, that the Spirit of God uses the word on a consistent, consistent basis to teach me things and to reveal things about my own heart, about something about the text. Maybe it's a fact, but usually it's about something about my own heart that I didn't even realize, a propensity that I had or a sin that I committed or an opportunity to praise God or something wondrous about God that I just hadn't really connected before. It's just amazing. The Holy Spirit will teach us. He solves the problem of ignorance. Ignorance here." [00:13:18] (50 seconds)
"I like what a theologian, John Frame said, a professor, a theologian. He said this in his book, Systematic Theology. He says, the author of the text opens the text to us. Talking about the Holy Spirit. It's the author of the text that opens the text to us because the Holy Spirit inspired the word and then he's the one that teaches it to us. So, you know, one way that we depend on the Spirit. Remember, that's what we're talking about for this whole sermon series is depending on the Spirit. One way we must, must depend on the Spirit is to pray for our hearts to be receptive to his teaching ministry. So, you've all had that, that, that you just sense. If you're a Christian, you know exactly what I'm talking about. This sense about the Spirit of God nudging you, teaching you something, and then the fight or the push or the, the argument. We've all been there. The Holy Spirit needs to teach us. And so we need, we must submit to the Spirit. If we're going to be dependent on the Spirit, we must be submitted to the Spirit. So the Holy Spirit solves the problem of ignorance. Secondly, the Holy Spirit solves the problem of forgetfulness. The problem of forgetfulness. This also is in John chapter 14 where it says after he will teach you all things. And then it goes on to say, Jesus says, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." [00:13:39] (85 seconds)
"Forgetfulness is something that plagues us and costs us from the beginning of time. God was aware of humanity's propensity towards forgetfulness. Moses, he knew of the human weakness of forgetfulness. So he admonished the children of Israel. He said, take care lest you forget who the Lord and forget the Lord your God. Deuteronomy chapter eight. Moses warning is not the only place where we see this. Samuel, he set up a stone of remembrance. Does anyone remember what he called it? Stone of remembrance? Someone said it. Ebenezer. Ebenezer. Yeah, you know, there's a song coming up, fount of every blessing. Here I raise my Ebenezer. It's not talking about Scrooge. It's talking about a stone of remembrance. Okay, it's like, it's because, it would be a time where they would come and they would see that. And the children would say, why is that pile of stones there, dad? And he would say, well, let me tell you why. This is a reminder that God brought us safely thus far, that God brought us here. Joshua did a similar thing in Joshua chapter four. A Passover was instantaneously instituted. Remember after the Exodus and the 10th plague there, the whole Passover that as the death of the firstborn, if they put the blood, the lamb on the doorpost and over the top, when the death angel came through, if they saw the blood of the lamb over the house, the death angel would pass over that house and the firstborn would be saved. And so after that, right after that Exodus, then they set up a Passover celebration to commemorate this. So they wouldn't forget what God did in the Exodus. The Lord's supper here is a gift to us to curb our forgetfulness. So all that to say is that forgetfulness is a problem that we all suffer from. God knows about it and has." [00:17:52] (111 seconds)
"from the beginning of time, active and active in work to curb that and to help us with the problem of forgetfulness. And you and I have the Holy Spirit indwelling inside of us to help curb the problem of forgetfulness. He will bring, according to John 14, He will bring to your remembrance all that I have taught to you. And so the promise in John 14 is absolutely stunning. That as we depend on the Spirit and call out to Him, He will bring to our remembrance what we need for daily life. And so again, I refer back to 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 -17, where it talks about the Word of God being inspired and that is helpful to us for all those things that we talked about here. And by the way, what the Holy Spirit reminds us of each day is actually far more valuable than Stephan Thomas' bitcoins." [00:20:05] (51 seconds)
"Memorizing Scripture is crucial in this. And I'm so thankful. I grew up going to a church that prioritized Scripture memory. And so as a child, we would be learning and memorizing Scripture. And I know that... This is to be true now, that when you're younger, it's a lot easier to memorize things. And so the older we get, the more we have to work at it. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. It just means we got to be more... We had to work harder at it. This is one of the reasons why the other team, we said, we really need to prioritize some Scripture memory. And we're really thankful, you know, for... You know, Rachel English was a big part of this and some of the things that she was talking about with Scripture Fest and things that they were doing. We had some good conversations and we really appreciated her spirit. And we were... We appreciated the priority of this. And we said, yes, this is something that we need to prioritize here. And so this is one of the reasons why we're doing what we're doing, trying to memorize Psalm 34 here. Because if the Holy Spirit's going to bring it to remembrance, it's far more helpful for there's something that's already there. Right? And He will bring that to remembrance. And so this is why we study the Word. This is why we memorize the Scriptures. So we must depend on the Holy Spirit to help us remember these things. So I, you know, in a prayer, I'll have as a slave, Lord, help me not to forget these truths." [00:21:12] (76 seconds)
"These are prayers that we should be offering because this is the role of the Holy Spirit for us. So he says, He solves the problem, we said first of ignorance and then of forgetfulness. But let's move on to the third one. And the third one is this, is that He solves the problem of confusion. Now, I'm in John chapter 16 here. So we can turn the page in John 16. It says in verse 12, Jesus says, I have many things to say to you, but I cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. Okay? So He will guide us into truth there." [00:22:31] (34 seconds)
"We live in a very complex, confusing time. We live in a time where people can make up truth for themselves, your truth and my truth. And this is not true, right? In a sense, it's not reality. But I love the promise here in John chapter 16 is that the Spirit of God will guide us into all the truth. Now, this isn't anything new for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been active in guiding people into truth from day one. We see the Old Testament prophets, that they were empowered by the Holy Spirit. We see this in Numbers. We see this in 1 Samuel, Ezekiel, Micah. We see the Old Testament prophets." [00:23:04] (38 seconds)
"They were empowered by the Spirit. We're told in John chapter 6 that Jesus actually, He spoke through the Spirit. We know that there was a very symbolic thing in His baptism, in His humanity. The Spirit of God descended upon Him. It empowered His ministry. We're going to talk about the empowering work of the Holy Spirit in two weeks in more detail here. But, but Jesus, even His teaching ministry was empowered by the Holy Spirit. The Apostle's message was also empowered by the Holy Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 1, 1 Corinthians chapter 2. We saw this in our 1 Corinthians study of how that, you know, Paul says, I didn't come to you on my own and through excellence of speech and all this stuff, but in demonstration, in the power of and demonstration of the Holy Spirit, he says in 1 Corinthians there. So this is nothing new, for the Holy Spirit to guide into truth. The Bible's referred to as the sword of the Spirit, after all, right? It's the sword of who? The Spirit. It's the Spirit that uses this, the Word of God, to help us remember these things, but to do what? To guide us into all the truth, thereby alleviating the confusion over what is true and what isn't. Pilate famously said, you know, before the crucifixion, they, you know, talking about truth, and he famously says, what is truth? Now, different people will take that statement in different ways, and you can interpret it in different ways, but I think he was just saying, I don't even know what to believe right now. I don't even know what to believe. But the Holy Spirit is the gift from the Father." [00:25:25] (101 seconds)
"Jesus didn't leave us as orphans. When he left, he says, I can't be with you always in terms of my physical presence, but the Spirit of God is going to come, and he's going to have an indwelling work in everything, every believer here, and he will guide you into truth, and all the truth, alleviating that confusion here. This is an assurance of Jesus himself. This is that indwelling work that we talked about last week. And so, I'll put it this way, is that the same Spirit who inspired the Bible, who anointed Jesus' teaching, and empowered the apostles' message, resides in every believer. And that's cool. I don't know how else to say that. That's amazing." [00:25:46] (49 seconds)
"It's the same Spirit who gives the Word, the same Spirit that was empowering the message of the prophets, and we read about them and read about how are they so bold, and how did they say these things, and read about the Apostle Paul and his boldness and his message and how courageous he was and how he spoke truth clearly. We read all about that, and we think, that was amazing. Man, I wish I could do that. And the reality is, the same Spirit that empowered them to do that resides in every believer. That's amazing. This is why we depend on the Spirit every day. Because we need His empowerment. We need His guidance into truth here. So, this is why we pray with, you know, Psalm 119. I mean, we should be praying this all the time. Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding that I'm, I keep Your law and observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the paths of Your commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to selfish gain." [00:26:06] (64 seconds)
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