Growing in Grace #4 - the Holy Spirit and the Grace of God — Bob Hoekstra

Father, we give you thanks, we give you praise and glory, we give you honor, Lord. We come humbly before you, admitting our great need for you. Not just a partial need, Lord, but comprehensive, deep, constant, daily.

Thank you that you give grace to the humble. And we humble ourselves before you and ask that you pour out your grace in mighty measures today, graciously speaking to us, graciously touching our hearts, graciously working in us to will and to do of your good pleasure, and graciously, Lord, transforming our lives to the image of Jesus Christ.

By your Holy Spirit now, unfold your word and make it life to us. Your words are spirit and they are life. And Lord, we confess we can only live by every word that proceeds from your mouth. So speak to us, we're ready to hear, in Jesus' name, amen.

The Holy Spirit and the Grace of God

Our fourth study in the series of Growing in the Grace of God is about the Holy Spirit and the grace of God. This study builds very much on our study from last time, where we were looking at living daily by the grace of God.

We're asking the question, how do we live day by day by the grace of God? Well, another perspective on this is our study now, and that is God's Spirit must be at work in us and on us and through us, applying God's grace to our lives.

And there's a profound relationship between the Holy Spirit and the grace of God. In Zechariah 4, verses 6 and 7, give one of the wonderful joining words of the scripture that show us how the Spirit and God's grace are just linked completely together.

So he answered and said to me, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain, and he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of grace, grace to it.

The relating of the work of the Spirit of God to the grace of God. We cannot walk in the grace of God without the work of the Spirit of God. And whenever the Spirit of God is at work, it's the grace of God that is being provided.

Verse 6, Zerubbabel was the leader of the people of God. The word of the Lord to his people, not by might nor power, but by my Spirit. The Holy Spirit must be the dynamic agent in the work of the building of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Zerubbabel was leading the people back from captivity into the promised land to rebuild the temple of God. This was to be done not by the might and power of man, but by the work of the Holy Spirit. We are the temple of the living God today.

The building up of the church, the building up of our lives is not by our might or power, but it's by the work of the Spirit of God. In Zerubbabel's day, when he looked at the task of building again the temple of God in a hostile alien world, the task looked to him like a great mountain, no way.

The word of the Lord to Zerubbabel was that this mountain would become a plain, just a flat place to march across when God was through with his task. And then ultimately, Zerubbabel would bring out the capstone, the last stone for the temple.

That final piece set in place. And what could be said to that last stone but a word that explained the whole work of God building the temple in that day. Grace, grace to it. So it is in our lives. Our lives must be built by the work of the Holy Spirit.

And when that last piece is put in place in our lives and in the life of the church before she is raptured to be with the Lord, what can be said at that time about the whole process? Grace, grace to it.

John 1 .16, grace upon grace we looked at before. That's how God works in our lives. Of his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. In our lives God works by grace. In the New Testament there is a linking together of the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit.

The New Covenant of Grace and the Ministry of the Spirit

Luke chapter 22 verse 20, likewise he also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you. At the Lord's Supper when we take the cup that speaks of the blood of Jesus Christ it's the cup of the new covenant.

The new arrangement for walking with God. The new covenant of grace. The old covenant was the law of Moses. If you want to jot down in your notes, Ephesians 1 .7 makes it very clear that the shed blood of Jesus Christ was a work of the grace of God.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. When the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood for us, he was purchasing for us the new covenant, a new arrangement between us and God.

Here we're told when he was shedding his blood to give us forgiveness of sins, it was according to the riches of his grace. The new covenant is a covenant of grace. It's what we've been looking at in these studies together.

Second Corinthians chapter 3 picks up this theme of the new covenant and in verses five and six show us the deep necessary involvement of the Holy Spirit in this new covenant of grace. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers, that is servants of the new covenant.

Not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. We who are in the Lord Jesus Christ through faith in him, we are servants of the new covenant. We looked at that in our second study, the grace of God.

We don't relate to God, build a life with God through our best efforts to live up to the law of God. We begin and maintain a relationship with God through the grace of God. That is echoed here in these words.

We don't come before God on our own sufficiency, we don't serve God by our own sufficiency. We are not sufficient to live up to the standards of God, the perfect holy law of God. In fact, we're not sufficient of ourselves, verse five says, to think of anything as being from ourselves, anything that matters.

This echoes John 15, where Jesus said, apart from me, you can do nothing. Some of us were speaking the other evening about that. It seems like we can do so much and that unsaved people can do so much.

Yes, but it amounts to nothing. People can do great works of art and make discoveries and explore and travel and theorize and impress one another. Sure. But none of that can save a soul, transform a life, prepare anyone for glory, or let them be used now for the glory of God.

What does that amount to? Nothing. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Oh, many, many busy things, but they amount to nothing. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as coming from ourselves.

That's the word of humility. We talked about humility and faith, how there's so much at the heart of living by the grace of God. There's the humility. Our sufficiency isn't enough. Here's the faith. But our sufficiency is from God.

We don't have what it takes. He does have what it takes. We humbly confess our insufficiency. By faith we trust in His sufficiency. And that makes us sufficient servants then under the new covenant. Not of the letter.

Not rules to try and keep, but of the Spirit, a person of the Godhead to work in us. How important is this? The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. This is a life and death issue. This is not just an interesting doctrinal point.

Oh, should we or shouldn't we put it on our statement? Will I or won't I sign it? This is a life or death matter. Living by the letter, that is, rules even from God to keep by our own best effort, kills us.

It says you didn't measure up and you can't. But the Spirit gives us life. The Holy Spirit supplies the life we need and changes our lives. The new covenant is lived day by day in humble dependence on the Holy Spirit to be supplying the sufficiency of the grace of God into our lives.

Now that's by way of introduction, linking the Holy Spirit and the grace of God together where one is involved, the other is. If we need one, we'll find the other comes along. We need grace, it must be by the Holy Spirit.

New Birth by the Holy Spirit

We want the Holy Spirit to work, He works delivering the grace of God. How do we live day by day? By the grace of God, it has to do with the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Initially, we're given life by the Spirit, our next heading.

By the grace of God, we must receive spiritual life by the work of the Holy Spirit. John, verse 3, chapter 3, verses 5 and 6. John 3, verses 5 and 6. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. The life of flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Everyone on earth is here by way of a flesh birth, a natural human birth by human resources.

That life cannot go into the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of God is populated by those who are children of the family of God through new birth. New birth, new life by the Spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, it'll never change.

It might get religious, it might get zealous and dedicated, it might want to turn over a new leaf. But when it turns over the new leaf, underneath is more flesh. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.

We don't need a better flesh, we need a new life. And we get that by the Holy Spirit. When we believe that Jesus died for us and we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, confessing our sin and our need for salvation and forgiveness, By the grace of God, the Holy Spirit brings us new life in Christ.

New birth. John chapter 6 adds to that. John 6 .53, toward the end of the verse says, You have no life in you. That is no spiritual life. No life that is forever, no life that can relate to God. All we have is a physical life existence.

We don't have real life in ourselves. Verse 63 says, It is the Spirit who gives life. Again, we have humility and faith. Here's the humbling word. You and I have no life in ourselves. Innately, we cannot supply the life that's needed to know God and walk with God and serve God.

But here's the matter for faith. It is the Spirit who gives life. We can count on God the Holy Spirit to bring us the life we need. Initially, this is so in new birth. Continually, this is so day by day.

The spiritual life we need must be supplied by the Holy Spirit. Consequently, it is vital for us to be walking according to the Spirit. And that's our next heading to consider. Walking according to the Spirit, Galatians chapter 5.

Walking According to the Spirit

So many great revelations in Galatians about the work of the Spirit. Especially in chapter 5, though not exclusively. Walking according to the Spirit, Galatians 5 .16. I say then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

What is our hope? That we will not indulge the natural base cravings of just human flesh. Is it trying to change or trying to avoid or trying to get control? No, it's walking in the Spirit. Every step of every day in dependence upon the Holy Spirit.

That's what gives us that confidence that we shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Walk in the Spirit. Every day in every way, every step, every issue. Face it with hope and confidence in the Holy Spirit at work in our lives.

Verse 18. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Each day we should be guided by the Spirit of God. What to do, what to say, what to get engaged in, what to pass by. How to do it or whether to do it.

Be led of the Spirit. Then we're practically experientially not under the law. We're not following rules. We're following God as He works in our lives. Conversely, when we were looking at Romans 6 .14 that you are not under law but under grace.

When we do not walk by the Spirit, not led by the Spirit. We're led by our own will and our own drive and our own resources. We put ourselves back under the law. Now we have to live up to the commands and demands and standards of God on our own best effort.

No way to live. It's always failure. So we want to be led by the Spirit every step, every day. Learning to be led by Him. Verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

The fruit of the Spirit. We looked in a previous study at living daily by the grace of God. If we want day by day fruitful lives, we saw it must be by the grace of God. The Word of His grace effectively produces fruit in our lives.

Here we see it's also tied into the work of the Holy Spirit. That fruit is the fruit of the Spirit. It's not something we conjure up or muster up or forcefully try to bring out of our lives. It's the growth of the Spirit of God working in and through us the things of God.

The fruit of the Spirit is described in these ways. Really a description of the life and character of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 25. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. If we have found new life by the work of the Spirit in new birth, let's grow and serve day by day by the work of the Spirit.

Grace and the Spirit in Galatians

Walking according to the Spirit. These verses in Galatians brought to my mind a quote out of Pastor Chuck's wonderful book on why grace changes everything. We've been using, this is one of our textbooks at the Bible College in the class I've been teaching on growing in the grace of God.

Pastor Chuck wrote on page 217, Paul opened his letter to the Galatians with the salutation, grace be to you. He closed it with, quote, brethren the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, amen.

His benediction takes on a rich depth of meaning in light of the letters sharp focus on the glorious grace of God. And that is the primary focus of the book of Galatians, the glorious grace of God. Then Pastor Chuck adds, the grace of Jesus, not the law of Moses was the Galatians greatest need.

To walk in the power of His Spirit, not in the vain efforts of the flesh was their calling. Pastor Chuck sees here in his writing the very point we're making in the study today. The linking together of the grace of God and the Spirit of God.

The grace of God, the primary theme of Galatians. But in that book, much revelation about the work of the Holy Spirit, including the fact that we must live day by day by the work of the Holy Spirit. Why?

Because that's the only way the grace of God comes to bear on and in and through our lives. Notice in these two parallel sentences, how Pastor Chuck ties the grace of Jesus Christ into the power of His Spirit.

Grace and the Spirit linked together. He said the grace of Jesus, not the law of Moses, was the Galatians greatest need. Then he restates it another way. To walk in the power of His Spirit, not in the vain efforts of the flesh, was their calling.

Mind-Set, Life, and Peace in the Spirit

It is the Holy Spirit, powerfully at work in us, that applies the grace of Jesus into, upon and through our lives. Romans chapter 8 also speaks of this matter of walking according to the Spirit. Romans chapter 8, verses 5 and 6.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

In verse 5, things of the flesh and things of the Spirit. Those who are living according to the flesh, they're living by drawing just on human resource in thinking, deciding, acting, relating. They're setting their mind on the things of the flesh.

In other words, they're putting their attention on things like this. My will, my glory, my sufficiency. Now on the other hand, those who are walking according to the Spirit, day by day, step by step, they're looking to the resources and work of the Spirit of God.

They set their mind on things of the Spirit. They set their mind on God's will, God's glory, God's grace, which is our sufficiency. Verse 6, contrasts the carnally minded with the spiritually minded, and again we see the contrast in the choice is life or death.

Sometimes along the way, folks have said to me in some of these studies, now wait a minute, you know, law and grace and things like this, aren't you just kind of splitting theological hairs? I mean, isn't it all just things of God to try to learn and get into?

I want to assure them that it's not just splitting hairs. But even if they're convinced it is, I still like to exhort them on this issue. If it is just splitting hairs, be sure and split the hair carefully.

Because one side of that hair is death, and the other side is life. That's how serious it is. See? Verse 6, to be carnally minded, that is flesh resource thinking, is death. But to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

We're not talking about what color carpet to get, or whether or not to hang a Maranatha dove, or what kind of chairs to get, or whether you want pews. We're choosing between life and death. That's how critical it is to understand law and grace, the spirit of God at work, or our own flesh resource.

Those who are carnally minded, it leads to death, spiritual deadness. It produces things like fear and doubt and selfishness. The spiritually minded produces life and peace. It brings into lives faith and hope and love, evidences of God's life at work in us.

Walking according to the spirit. It's God's will for us. Verse 14 puts it this way. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are sons of God. The practical fact is, if we want to live as children of God, we want to be led by the spirit of God.

As many as are led by the spirit of God, we know those are the children of God. A life day by day that gives evidence and indication that they're following the leading of the Holy Spirit, that's a child of God.

The world has no interest in such things, and if they did, they couldn't do it. They don't know the true and living God. Walking according to the spirit, vitally important. If we want to grow in the grace of God.

Being Filled With the Spirit

God wants to intensify this issue though. He doesn't want us just walking according to the spirit. He wants us to be filled with the spirit. We not only are called to be walking independent step by step, day by day upon the spirit, but God wants to have our lives filled to overflowing with the work of the Holy Spirit.

That's the only way we can be abounding in the grace of God. Is if our lives are just overflowing with the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the spirit. Ephesians 5 .18 speaks of this, recall?

Ephesians 5 .18. It's that classic command the Lord gave through the Apostle Paul. And do not be drunk with wine in which is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit. That could be translated, be always being filled with the Holy Spirit.

It's kind of the present progressive tense, all the time, every day be filled. Our lives are not to be controlled by things like human influences, wine and other things that dissipates our lives. Tears them down and wastes them.

But we are to be filled with the spirit. What are the evidences by the way of being filled with the spirit? Been many debates through the years on this subject. Many people start the discussion if they've been filled with the spirit by whatever happened to them.

That's the easiest standard to think as the absolute and only one. Years ago I read a book called Let's Stop Fighting About the Holy Spirit. I read it back in the mid 70s. In it the author tells about two blind men sitting on a bench.

Amazing thing about these blind men is they were blind no more. They both been healed by the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're sitting there talking and they begin to realize they had a relationship with and encounter with and touch of Jesus on their lives.

And they're starting to give each other their testimonies. Well, tell me how you were healed. Okay, then I'll tell you. And one says, well, here's how I was healed. He just said, receive your sight. And I could see.

And the other previously blind man says, wait a minute. You mean no spit, no clay, no go wash it off? No. He says, then you weren't healed. We so often measure the work of God by what we went through instead of what the Word has to say.

I was teaching once as I have often in the past dozen or more years at family camps up at Twin Peaks. And Brian Brodersen and I were teaching and alternating. And the Lord led us by His Spirit to teach about the Spirit quite spontaneously on the first night.

And I taught about worshiping in the Spirit, Philippians 3 .3. And the next message Brian taught on being filled with the Spirit. And that afternoon I went to my room and I thought, Lord, that just stirred my heart.

I want to get in Your Word, Lord. Show me some of the indicators, the evidences, the signs, the expectations people can have if they are filled with the Spirit. And I know there are many more of them, but just that afternoon I was running through the Word and wrote down 24 different indications of being filled with the Spirit.

How narrow-minded we can get, you know. You can build denominations just on that. The wind and cloven tongues of fire denomination. That's a pretty small group because that only happened once. Then the tongues denomination, the prophecy denomination.

The denomination that when you're filled with the Spirit you proclaim and everybody hears in their own language. That's a pretty small group too, that's only recorded once. Then the tongues denomination, the prophecy denomination.

The denomination that when you're filled with the Spirit you proclaim and everybody hears in their own language. That's a pretty small group too, that's only recorded once. But you know in the New Testament the most extensive, broad, and practical explanation of the fullness of the Spirit.

And it doesn't set aside any of these others. I mean, God can do any and all of these. And in some lives does many of them and some a few. Right here in chapter 5 Ephesians where it says be filled with the Spirit, there's a list of what happens to people's lives when they're filled with the Spirit.

What should be expected? Be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Ministering to one another. Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. That's an indicator of a life filled with the Spirit.

Giving thanks always for all things. That's an indication of a life filled with the Spirit. Look at this one. Aren't many people lining up fighting to get this one? Submitting to one another in the fear of God.

When you see someone walking in great submission and humility out of reverence for God, it's an evidence of the full work of the Spirit of God in their lives. These are tied immediately, grammatically, contextually, directly in to being filled with the Spirit.

Spirit-Filled Living in the Household and Workplace

Do you know the amazing thing? After verse 21 God begins to expand on that verse. And we say submitting to one another? How does that work? Who to whom and where do we do it? That's what brought in to the scriptures the major classic passage on Christian household living and working on the job.

How do we submit? What does it look like? Who does it where? Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. Verse 25. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church. It doesn't end there. Chapter 6.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Then verse 5 goes on to the employee and then verse 9 of chapter 6 to the employer.

The most extended explanation of Spirit-filled living is Ephesians 5 and 6. Living at church, at home and on the job. Thank God for the power and the fullness of the Spirit to go out in witness. Thank God for the fullness of the Spirit to gather in corporate worship.

But how many of us too much of the time have forgotten the fullness of the Spirit is for daily living at home and daily work on the job. See, we need God's grace at home, don't we? If you don't need God's grace at home, you have a very unusual home.

And if you don't need God's grace at work, you have a very unusual job. The grace of God is not just some theological issue that we learned where to put it in our outline of our theology. It's for living and serving and working day by day.

And we're to be filled. We're to be being filled with the Spirit. How does that take place? Well, one simple answer is Luke 11, 13. Luke 11, 13. Jesus said, if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?

God the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. This has an application both in salvation as well as the fullness of the Spirit for sanctification and the work of grace growing in our lives.

If the Spirit of God is not in our lives, we're not born again, we humbly ask the Lord Jesus for forgiveness and new life, admitting our need, the Father will send the Holy Spirit with new life. But many Christians fail to apply this verse to their own lives.

Sometimes I've read this verse with Christians and urged them to ask the Lord for the fullness of the Spirit. And they say, I don't need to ask for the Spirit, I have Him. Yes, but does He have you? Sure, if you're a Christian, you have the Spirit.

But the fullness of the Spirit means He totally has you. He has room to work in every area of your life in every way He wants to. And we who have the Spirit can ask the Father to send the Spirit's full work upon us, which the Scriptures speak of so often, from Acts 1 -8 and elsewhere.

The fullness of the Spirit is for those who ask. See, it's a work of the grace of God, so you can't buy it, you can't earn it, you can't conjure it up, you can't make it happen, you just ask. Humbly ask.

The asking is humility and faith. The asking is, I need it. Humility. But the asking is, I believe you'll give it. That's faith. Being filled with the Spirit. It's for all those who ask. Just humbly ask and walk on and you'll see the evidences more and more and more.

Prayer for the Fullness of God

Ephesians chapter 3 has a great prayer in it that also is related to the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Seldom do we think of this prayer as about the Holy Spirit, but it definitely deals with the fullness of the Spirit.

There are two great prayers in Ephesians, chapter 1 and chapter 3. Two of my favorite prayers in the Bible. I pray them often for nearly 20 years. It took me almost 10 years as a Christian to discover these prayers.

And that I shouldn't just be reading them, but I should be praying them. And I've been praying them for those many years to the Lord. For my life and others and family and church and ministry. Chapter 3, verse 16, a prayer that He, God, would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.

That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ.

The great dimensions of the love of Christ. Which passes knowledge. In other words, get to know experientially the love of Christ which is far beyond mere head knowledge. To what end? That you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now a prayer that God would work in our lives by His Spirit letting us know the dimensions of the love of Christ to the point that we're filled with all the fullness of God is directly related to being filled with the Spirit.

Being filled with the Spirit of God, who is God, Himself, the third person of the Trinity and being filled with the Spirit are not two different things. They're directly related. If we seek the Lord in such a prayer, we can expect that our lives will more and more characteristically be filled with all the fullness of God.

If we ask anything according to His will, we've been heard and we have the requests we ask. There's no safer prayer than prayer that is directly out of the Word of God. The Word of God is the will of God.

It's our prayer list. Sometimes folks say, you know, I like to pray but I just don't know what to pray about. Kind of want to hand them a Bible and go, start here. And when you're through there, as if they ever could be, that's our prayer list.

Rivers of Living Water

Above all prayer lists, the Word of God. Prayer that we might be filled with all the fullness of God. One other wonderful description of the fullness of the Spirit is in John chapter 7. This was one personally God used to change my life back in the early 1970s after struggling as a Christian under the letter of the law and killing people for five years as a pastor with the letter of the law.

It's not bad enough you live under the law yourselves. You bring people together and have a corporate execution. Here, go out and try to live by this. I know you can do it. You didn't do it? Come on, try harder.

It's dying by degrees week after week. This is where God touched my life mightily on this issue of the fullness of the Spirit. John 7, 37 -39. On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. What is that all about? Well, verse 39 explains,. But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Once the Son, God the Son, would be back at the right hand of the Father, the Spirit could be poured forth. And Jesus is talking here about how one can enter into that fullness. Look how simple it is.

It's so subtle almost. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. If anyone has a spiritual need, a yearning, an aching, a lack, a desire, bring that to Jesus Christ. Let him come to me. And then drink.