Transformative Power of the Word and Spirit

Devotional

Day 1: The Spirit's Replication of Christ in Us

The Holy Spirit's ministry of replication is essential for believers. Just as the Spirit sanctified Christ through the Word, He seeks to reproduce this sanctification in us. This process involves living under the Word and allowing it to shape our lives through the Spirit's work. The Spirit's role is to replicate in us what was first produced in Christ, making us more like Him. This sanctification is both definitive and progressive, achieved through a life lived under the guidance of God's Word. As believers, we are called to follow Christ's example, allowing the Word to mold us through the Spirit's transformative power. [01:35]

"For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor." (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4, ESV)

Reflection: What specific area of your life needs to be more aligned with Christ's example? How can you invite the Holy Spirit to work in that area today?

Day 2: The Word as a Living Instrument

The Word of God is a living instrument in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Without the Spirit, the Word remains ineffective in transforming lives. The Spirit and the Word are inseparable, working together to bring about spiritual growth and understanding. The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the truth of God's Word, enabling us to comprehend and apply its teachings. This dynamic interaction between the Word and the Spirit is essential for believers to grow in their faith and become more like Christ. The Word, when empowered by the Spirit, becomes a powerful means of grace that convicts, rebukes, and sanctifies. [10:29]

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12, ESV)

Reflection: How can you create space in your daily routine to allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate the Word of God in your life?

Day 3: Preaching in Dependence on the Spirit

The Reformed pastor's role is to preach the Word in dependence on the Holy Spirit. This preaching is not just about accurate doctrine but about relying on the Spirit to quicken and bless the Word to the hearts of the hearers. The Word, when blessed by the Spirit, becomes a means of grace that convicts, rebukes, and sanctifies believers. It is through this dynamic interaction that believers grow in their faith and become more like Christ. The pastor's reliance on the Spirit is crucial for the Word to be effective in transforming lives and bringing about spiritual growth. [15:52]

"And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." (1 Corinthians 2:4-5, ESV)

Reflection: How can you pray for your pastor and church leaders to rely more on the Holy Spirit in their preaching and teaching?

Day 4: The Word as a Means of Grace

The Word, when blessed by the Spirit, becomes a means of grace that convicts, rebukes, and sanctifies believers. It is through this dynamic interaction that believers grow in their faith and become more like Christ. The Spirit opens our eyes to see the truth of God's Word, enabling us to comprehend and apply its teachings. This spiritual illumination is essential for understanding the depths of God's revelation and living a life that honors Him. The Word, empowered by the Spirit, is a powerful tool for spiritual growth and transformation. [21:45]

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God." (Colossians 3:16, ESV)

Reflection: In what ways can you allow the Word of God to dwell more richly in your life today?

Day 5: Spiritual Illumination by the Spirit

The Spirit opens our eyes to see the truth of God's Word, enabling us to comprehend and apply its teachings. This spiritual illumination is essential for understanding the depths of God's revelation and living a life that honors Him. The Spirit and the Word work together to bring about spiritual growth and understanding. Without the Spirit, the Word remains ineffective in transforming lives. The Spirit's role in illuminating the Word is crucial for believers to grow in their faith and become more like Christ. [13:44]

"Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law." (Psalm 119:18, ESV)

Reflection: What is one area of your life where you need the Holy Spirit's illumination to understand and apply God's Word more fully? How can you seek His guidance today?

Sermon Summary

In this lecture, we explore the profound relationship between the Word of God and the Holy Spirit in the life of the church and individual believers. The church, as the God-ordained context for Christian ministry, is where God meets and blesses His people. The primary means by which God beautifies His church is through His living, powerful, wise, good, and infallible Word. This Word is preached, made visible in the sacraments, and applied to the life of the church through Spirit-inspired prayer and singing. The Holy Spirit uses these means to make us more like Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit's ministry of replication is central to this process. What the Spirit first produced in Christ, He seeks to reproduce in the people of Christ. Jesus Christ's sanctification was both definitive and progressive, achieved through living under the Word of God. As believers, we are called to follow this example, allowing the Word to shape and sanctify us through the Spirit's work.

The Word of God is not merely a text to be read; it is a living instrument in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Without the Spirit, the Word remains ineffective in transforming lives. The Spirit and the Word are inseparable, working together to bring about spiritual growth and understanding. The Spirit opens our eyes to see the truth of God's Word, enabling us to comprehend and apply its teachings.

The Reformed pastor's role is to preach the Word in dependence on the Holy Spirit. This preaching is not just about accurate doctrine but about relying on the Spirit to quicken and bless the Word to the hearts of the hearers. The Word, when blessed by the Spirit, becomes a means of grace that convicts, rebukes, and sanctifies believers.

Key Takeaways

1. The Holy Spirit's ministry of replication is essential for believers. Just as the Spirit sanctified Christ through the Word, He seeks to reproduce this sanctification in us. This process involves living under the Word and allowing it to shape our lives through the Spirit's work. [01:35]
2. The Word of God is a living instrument in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Without the Spirit, the Word remains ineffective in transforming lives. The Spirit and the Word are inseparable, working together to bring about spiritual growth and understanding. [10:29]
3. The Reformed pastor's role is to preach the Word in dependence on the Holy Spirit. This preaching is not just about accurate doctrine but about relying on the Spirit to quicken and bless the Word to the hearts of the hearers. [15:52]
4. The Word, when blessed by the Spirit, becomes a means of grace that convicts, rebukes, and sanctifies believers. It is through this dynamic interaction that believers grow in their faith and become more like Christ. [21:45]
5. The Spirit opens our eyes to see the truth of God's Word, enabling us to comprehend and apply its teachings. This spiritual illumination is essential for understanding the depths of God's revelation and living a life that honors Him. [13:44]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:22] - The Church as the Context for Ministry
[00:48] - The Word as the Means of Grace
[01:14] - The Spirit's Ministry of Replication
[02:02] - Jesus' Sanctification Through the Word
[03:24] - Learning Obedience and Wisdom
[04:39] - The Role of the Word in Jesus' Life
[05:41] - Jesus' Knowledge of Scripture
[07:28] - The Spirit's Work in Believers
[08:12] - Sanctification Through Truth
[09:11] - The Word Hidden in Our Hearts
[10:04] - The Need for Spiritual Illumination
[11:32] - The Spirit's Role in Understanding
[13:03] - The Word and Spirit Together
[15:03] - Calvin's Contribution to Reformation
[16:18] - The Necessity of the Spirit's Ministry
[17:40] - The Role of the Reformed Pastor
[19:42] - The Spirit's Vivifying Ministry
[20:30] - The Word as the Template for Life
[22:38] - Preaching in Dependence on the Spirit

Sermon Clips

God's usual means for beautifying his children is the ministry of his living, powerful, wise, good, and infallible word. It is the word preached, made visible in the sacraments, applied to the life of the church and voiced in Spirit-inspired prayer and singing that the Holy Spirit uses to make us more like our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:44:37]

The New Testament tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ's sanctification was both definitive and progressive. In Luke 1, verse 35, we read, "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you (Mary), and the power of the High shall overshadow you. Therefore also that Holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God." [01:52:16]

He increased in wisdom by living under the word of God. We read in the 50th chapter of Isaiah, at the fourth verse, "The Lord God has given me," this is the Servant of the Lord, in the third of Isaiah's four Servant Songs. This is the Servant of the Lord who is Jesus Christ, the perfect Servant. [03:16:50]

The word of God was absolutely instrumental in the developing sanctification of our Lord Jesus. When our Lord Jesus was tempted by the devil, Matthew records this for us in the opening verses of the fourth chapter of his gospel. What did he do? Three times he brought to mind words -- permanent, pertinent, and powerful words -- from the book of Deuteronomy. [05:32:05]

What the Spirit first produced in Christ, he comes by his ministry of replication to produce in the people of Christ. So consider with me for a moment the Christian and the word of God; three texts in particular. John 17, verse 17. "Sanctify them through your truth." Jesus is praying to his Father. "Your word is truth." [07:42:62]

The Psalmist is coming to read the instruction of the Lord. That's what the law, torah, means: the instruction, the full-orbed, well-rounded instruction of the Lord. He comes to read God's instruction. But he prays, "Open my eyes." He recognizes that merely reading God's instruction is not enough. [09:50:23]

John Owen, perhaps the greatest of the English Puritan pastor-theologians, put the matter memorably: "He that would utterly separate the Spirit from the word, had as good burn his Bible. The bare letter of the New Testament will no more ingenerate faith and obedience in the souls of men than the letter of the Old Testament doth so at this day among the Jews." [10:25:25]

Without the ministry of the Holy Spirit, Owen is saying, and before him, Paul is saying, without the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we would remain in darkness. If you were to give a Bible to a blind man, would he say to you, "That's wonderful! Thank you very much indeed. That's so thoughtful and kind of you." [12:44:64]

The great means of grace is the word of God blessed and quickened by the Spirit of God. Until God gives us new eyes to see with, and new hearts and minds to understand with and feel, we're in absolute darkness. I came to faith through the life and witness of a boy at school. [16:13:29]

Reformed pastors, and Reformed Christians -- Calvinists, if you will -- are passionately pneumatological. We believe in the present, mighty, powerful, vivifying ministry of the Holy Spirit as he comes to take the word of truth and bless it savingly and sanctifyingly to the lives of the people of God. [19:26:06]

Wilhelmus a Brakel was a Dutch theologian who lived in the latter years of the 17th century. And he wrote these words, which I think are very fine: "It is there in the word of God that sins are set forth in their abominable nature, and spiritual life is revealed in its desirability. Scripture convicts, rebukes, threatens, and judges." [20:52:28]

The word is called the sword of the Spirit," Ephesians 6. The word that makes us wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. The word that is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. It's little wonder that therefore Paul's final exhortation to Timothy is, "Preach the word." "But Timothy, preach it in dependence on the Holy Spirit as a man upheld by the Spirit." [22:28:13]

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