Where Two or Three Are Gathered Together (The Holy Spirit - Part 2)

Moore's Corner Church

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The Comforter (The Holy Spirit - Part 3)

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Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

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Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist

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D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

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If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message.

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If we abide in Christ, His Holy Spirit will be with us every step of the way.

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Isn't that what Jesus says, I will neither leave you nor forsake you? Well, Jesus is in heaven. He's gone away.

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No, He dwells in us. Amen? So we have nothing to fear, but this is something the disciples, we're living on easy street compared to them.

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So they knew this was a trying time, they had seen the persecution, and now their Lord is going to be crucified.

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And God, through Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, is comforting them. Look at verse 26,

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John 15, verse 26, Jesus says, but when the helper comes, whom

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I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the

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Father, He will testify of me. And you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning.

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And now we move into chapter 16, verse 1. These things I have spoken to you that you should not be made to stumble.

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They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers

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God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the

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Father nor me. But these things I have told you that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.

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And these things I did not say to you at the beginning because I was with you.

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But now I go away to him who sent me. And none of you asked me, where are you going?

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You would think they would ask, right? But they didn't ask. But none of you asked me, where are you going?

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But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.

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Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away.

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For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.

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But if I depart, I will send him to you. And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.

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Of sin because they do not believe in me. Of righteousness because I go to my

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Father and you see me no more. And of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged.

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And I still have many things to say to you. But you cannot bear them now.

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However, when he, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth.

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For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak.

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And he will tell you of things to come. And may

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God have a blessing upon the reading of his words. Such a great passage where Jesus himself is teaching on the

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Holy Spirit. So we need to establish a few things, okay? These are the, this is the stuff that you just have to say when you teach on the

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Holy Spirit. Because there's somebody listening, maybe not in this building later. Somebody hasn't heard this.

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So this is for them. When we talk about the Holy Spirit, we're talking about what? Or who, right?

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We're talking about a person. The Holy Spirit is a person. That doesn't mean he's a human being, obviously.

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But he is a person in the sense that he has personality. He can think. He has a will.

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He can be grieved. The Holy Spirit speaks. So the Holy Spirit is a person.

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Notice Jesus uses the masculine pronoun him. Okay, so those are his pronouns, he and him.

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Okay? The Holy Spirit is not an it. He is a person, he.

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The theological language is he's the third person of the Holy Trinity, right?

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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is kind of like Christianity 101. We need to know and be able to tell people these things.

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But what's the purpose of the Spirit being sent? That's kind of where people start to divide on these things.

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What's the purpose? We're not getting into all of the stuff that's out there. His mission, according to Jesus, his mission in the

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Gospels at the first, Is to come to give the disciples strength. His purpose is to come to be their helper.

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That's the name of the message. According to Jesus, the Holy Spirit is their helper. He is our helper.

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Amen? He comes to give strength and he comes to convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.

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We'll get into what that means in a few minutes. So, let's go through some of these verses. Jesus says in John 15, 26, and 27.

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Just flip back there for a moment. John 15, 26, and 27.

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But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the

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Father, he will testify of who? Jesus. Right. So, the Spirit's ministry is not to glorify himself or to speak of himself.

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It's always to point to Jesus. And you also will bear witness,

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Jesus says, because you have been with me from the beginning.

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So, the Spirit comes to be there and our helper. Many people are familiar with the wording of the

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King James Version, where the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Comforter. And we sang that hymn.

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The Comforter has come. So, the Greek word translated

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Comforter or Helper in the New King James, which I'm reading from, the Greek term is

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Paracletos. So, you've heard of the Paraclete, right? So, the Paraclete is the

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Holy Spirit. So, the Spirit is being sent by Jesus from the

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Father in order to help, in order to assist, in order to bring strength.

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At this point, Jesus knows his disciples are not up to the task.

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I mean, there's nothing extraordinary about these men, is there? They're fishermen. They're common, average, everyday

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Joes. Nothing special about the disciples except that when Jesus came and said, follow me, when a lot of people were saying no, what did they say?

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Yes. They said yes. Actually, I don't even know if they said yes. It just says that they followed him.

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You know, that's what God wants. That's what Jesus wants is for people to just follow.

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When he says something, say yes and follow. He'll cover the rest.

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All you have to do is take that first step of faith, leave the rest to the Lord. He'll take care of it.

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But the Spirit has come to give believers strength, to give help.

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So, they're not up to the task. They need assistance. The Holy Spirit will be their source of strength.

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So, they need to rely on him. Right now, they're relying on Jesus. Jesus is going away.

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Then they're going to have to rely on the Holy Spirit. And for the last 2 ,000 years, Christians have had to rely on the

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Holy Spirit. Again, living the Christian life is impossible without reliance upon the

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Holy Spirit. Remember when Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing?

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Remember that? Again, that's a reference to his Spirit, the Spirit of Christ.

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And this isn't a completely new concept. We think of the Spirit coming on the day of Pentecost.

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Oh, yeah. Yeah, the Holy Spirit came in Acts, Chapter 2. Some people think that he was never around before that.

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That's not really the case. This isn't completely new. We'll talk about the new aspect of his ministry in a moment.

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Zechariah, Chapter 4, Verse 6, says, Not by might, nor by power, but by my

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Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. So, when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, he came to empower the apostles for the work of ministry.

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But he's always been around. The Holy Spirit has always been here. He's God.

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God is everywhere all at once. So, up until this point, the disciples, and even after Jesus is arrested, you know they're prone to cowardice.

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And I know that you don't want to admit that, and none of us want to admit it, but at times we are prone to cowardice.

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When we are confronted about our faith, we can shrink back sometimes.

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We can back down. We don't want to say anything. Someone's going to get. We need to get over that. Amen. But Jesus knows they're not up to it.

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They're prone to cowardice, but after they were filled with the Spirit, everything changed. They became bold witnesses, and as one critic said that,

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These are they which have turned the world upside down. So, the

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Spirit also does many other things. He causes believers to persevere.

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The Holy Spirit is said to seal the believer until the day of redemption.

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If we didn't have the Holy Spirit, you would fall away from the faith. And people who do fall away from the faith, that's just evidence that they don't have the

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Spirit. Because if they had the Spirit, He would cause them to endure. So, the Spirit's ministry is essential in every area.

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We don't have time to talk about it all today. But it's common to hear people speaking about the

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Holy Spirit. And they want to talk about tongues and prophecy and miracles and healings.

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When you say the word Holy Spirit, that's often one of the first things that people speak of.

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Those things were primarily demonstrated by the apostles and their close associates back in the first century.

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But today, this is all I'm going to say on the matter. Today, instead of seeking after signs and wonders,

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Christians would be wise to first seek after the Spirit's assistance in causing us to lead an obedient and faithful life.

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We should be seeking after that first. Because what does that lead to?

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It leads to us being a good witness and a good testimony. And what God wants to do with us after that, hey, that's up to Him.

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That's up to Him. But that is the primary work of the

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Spirit to come to give us help, to give us strength, to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

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I think you know this, speaking and living God's truth in an ungodly culture is not easy, is it?

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Living it out in this culture is very difficult. Accomplishing anything for the

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Lord in this culture, I would say, is actually impossible. It's impossible without God's help.

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Again, Jesus said back in John 15, verse 5, Without me, you can do nothing.

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And that doesn't mean a little something. Not by might, nor by power, but by my

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Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. One of the problems in living the

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Christian life and in ministry is we're trying to do it ourselves. We're trying to do it ourselves.

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Our own strength, our own intellect, our own power, which doesn't amount to much, does it?

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Look at verse 2. Jesus says to them, They will put you out of the synagogues.

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To put it in modern terms, they're going to throw you out of the churches. If you're following God, they're going to kick you out of the church.

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That's a strange thought. You know, it's true. They will put you out of the synagogues.

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Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.

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Now, where does your mind go when you hear that? That someone would kill Christians and they think they offer

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God service. Right. Yeah, biblically, you think of Saul.

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Before God saved him, before he became known as the Apostle Paul, he was a persecutor of the church.

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He was hunting down Christians, getting them kicked out of the synagogues, having them arrested. And at least with Stephen, Stephen was killed and there was

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Paul standing by as if he was the one overseeing the whole thing. Paul was persecuting the church and even having

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Christians killed. And he thought he was doing God's work, didn't he?

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And these things they will do to you, Jesus says, why? Because they have not known the

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Father nor me. A lot of people say, I know God, I believe in God, and here's what

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I'm doing for God. And they're actually doing the work of the devil. Paul was. That's a biblical example.

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But these things I have told you, Jesus says that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.

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So don't miss this. This is so important that by preaching and predicting the future,

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Jesus strengthened their faith that when all these things took place, they say, yeah, it's just more proof.

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God is sovereign. It's happening just like he said. Also, knowing that the

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Lord is with us right here and right now. Do you know that the Lord is with us right here and right now?

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What did he say? Where two or three are gathered together? There I am in the midst.

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Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morse Corner Church. I'd like to listen to the complete message.

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If you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com.

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We'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, with the grace of God be with you.