The Liberating Role of the Holy Spirit

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

So let’s dip a little bit more into Romans 14. You know that verse we talked about yesterday, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And I wonder if you’ve given much thought to the character of the Holy Spirit, who is in our hearts wanting, or not simply wanting, but giving us joy. The very idea that the aim of the Holy Spirit is to give us peace and joy and to remind us of the righteousness of Christ that exists for us, isn’t that just startling? Isn’t it wonderful? You remember that Paul says a little earlier, now hope does not disappoint us because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. So the Holy Spirit pours God’s love into our hearts. This idea totally was foreign to me years ago. In my legalism, I saw that the only work of the Holy Spirit was to rebuke and to convict of sin. And since I had so much sin in my life, and had therefore so much guilt, I felt that the Holy Spirit was endlessly poking me and telling me, repent, repent, repent, repent. And I grant you, of course, that the Holy Spirit does rebuke. But he doesn’t nag. And the Holy Spirit, it seemed to me back in those days, was nagging. When people came up with a sermon or when preachers came up with a sermon on the Holy Spirit, I sort of shrank back. I didn’t like to hear about the Holy Spirit because I thought that he was only nagging me. Well, you say, Colin, but wait a minute. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will convict of sin and righteousness and judgment. It says that in John 16. Well, yes, it does, but it doesn’t mean what you think it means. You say, how do I know that? Well, read carefully the verses. And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. You say, there you are then. Well, wait a minute, read on. Of sin, because they do not believe in me. So what is the Holy Spirit doing when he’s convicting of sin? He’s pointing to Jesus Christ and the urgency and necessity of trusting him as your Savior. So, in fact, the Holy Spirit is not simply pointing out sin, but pointing out the remedy to sin, the fact that Jesus is our Savior of sin because they do not believe in me. And what about righteousness then? Is he convicting you that you’re not righteous enough? No, what he’s convicting of, according to the next verse, is this, of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see me no more. Well, what’s the significance of Jesus going to the Father? The significance of Jesus going to the Father is that his life and death and resurrection were approved by God, and the proof of that is in the resurrection itself. Jesus was confirmed as the Savior by resurrection from the dead, and so he’s going to the Father, and the Holy Spirit is convicting the world to have the righteousness of Christ in their faith so that they can be saved. And you say, well, what about judgment then? Of judgment? Is it your judgment? No. Verse 10, rather verse 11, of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. So what’s that about? Well, that is about Christ’s victory over the forces of evil and and the Holy Spirit is convicting the world of Christ’s victory over the world, that the enemy has been defeated, and therefore we should trust in him because the ruler of this world is judged and cast out. You see then that the Holy Spirit’s work is to encourage us and to give us the courage to hope when everything seems hopeless, to give us peace when there seems to be no peace at all in our hearts. You say, well, Colin, I just can’t experience it this way. I feel guilt and shame all the time. Well, let me tell you this. God gives you not only the Holy Spirit, but with the Holy Spirit he also brings faith. I should say it this way. The Holy Spirit brings faith to you so that you can have that peace and that joy. Now, how does that work? Well, you and I are called upon, once we’ve been given the gift of faith, to exercise it. Now remember that faith is the very opposite of the way your mind thinks. Your mind and my mind are in the natural world of the fall of Adam under the power of sin and death, and so we naturally feel guilt. and shame, because this is what our human nature is all about. It’s broken, it’s dysfunctional, it inclines towards the downward drift instead of the upward lift, and we are in a state where we are broken human beings. So your mind is never going to assure you of anything. But faith comes from God, tells us that Christ is our atoning sacrifice, our judgment for sin. And when that faith tells us that, then we start exercising it against, now listen, against the inclinations of our mind. So we say, Father, I feel broken, I feel defeated, I feel guilty for all my failures. Lord God, I acknowledge that, but I thank you that that humanity of mine is no longer counted against me because Jesus took the judgment for it on the cross, and through him you give me peace. I thank you for the peace that I have, and right now, Lord, I’ll sing a little song in my heart that will give me joy because you, Holy Spirit, are with me to give me joy. Think of it this way. Before the creation of the world, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, knowing that the world would fall into utter devastation, They discussed, we might say in human terms, how are we going to prevent the people of the world from just killing themselves? How are we going to prevent humanity from committing suicide by all of its overwhelming weight of guilt and shame and fear? And the Holy Spirit speaks up and says, I know. I will go to the world. I’m speaking in human terms now. I’ll go to the world and I will whisper into the hearts of everyone the joy of the Lord. Your joy, dear Father, your joy in creating humanity, your joy in redeeming humanity, your joy in giving them hope for the future, your joy in promising them eternal life. And the Father and the Son say, yes, that’s what we’ll do. I, the Son, will go to the world and take the judgment of their sins, Holy Spirit, and you will go there and you will tell them all that that means, and it will lift their hearts. So you see, the Holy Spirit has been given us to encourage us so that we don’t despair, to lift up our hearts when we feel bored and with no motivation and just broken down. Now, you’re not going to believe this if you haven’t yet grasped the gospel. I found it almost impossible to believe. In fact, I didn’t even see the significance of the idea or the truth that the Holy Spirit would be coming to my heart and bringing peace and joy. I just couldn’t comprehend that because there was too much shame and guilt. I felt I had no right to to lift up my heart to God and say, Father, I thank you that I have peace in you. Father, I thank you that I have joy in you. It just didn’t seem right. It seemed almost sacrilegious. I was brought up in a rather legalistic church, and when I would sort of look across the road and see the other church believers in other denominations having joy and praising God and singing praise songs, I liked the songs, but they didn’t fit into anything that I was being taught in my own church. it seemed that they were being indulgent. They were being too, they were sort of congratulating themselves too much. They needed to be more careful and watch out for the dangers ahead. And it was always about watch out for the dangers. But the more you receive the gospel, the gospel that says that God justifies, that is, declares innocent the ungodly, the gospel that says Jesus has transferred the world, all the fallen race, out of the kingdom of Adam, of sin and death, into the kingdom of righteousness and life, that’s Romans 5.18, when you receive the gospel like this and you believe it, Then you realize you have the right, listen to me, the right to embrace peace and joy. Satan will endlessly nag at you as if he were a righteous person himself. By the way, you see, he’s taking the place of the Holy Spirit. That’s what he tries to do. He’ll nag at you and say, you have no right to peace and joy. You’re a sinner. You haven’t kept the law. God has disqualified you, and you are tempted to believe what Satan says, and you therefore disqualify yourself. Unbelief is self-disqualification. But we say, Lord God, I know I have no rights in myself, but I have every right in Jesus Christ. For Jesus Christ is my righteousness. He is my justice. He is my peace. He is my reconciliation to you. And thus you take meaning out of Romans 5 verse 10, for instance, that says that we are reconciled to God while we were enemies. through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s not through us. We’re not reconciled because we’ve been able to put everything right. We’re reconciled because Jesus has put everything right, and it’s in him and his righteousness that we trust, you see. So I really want you to grasp this Romans 14, verse 17. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. It’s not a doctrine on who eats the right food and who doesn’t eat the wrong food and so forth. The kingdom of God is about righteousness, that’s Christ’s righteousness for us, and peace through him, of course, and joy in the Holy Spirit. You see, that takes believing, and believing takes practising. And so each day, you may get up in the morning and you may say, well, Lord, I don’t feel great this morning. I feel a bit miserable and I have to go to work and I don’t like my job and all the rest of it. But I lift up my heart and thank you that I have righteousness in Christ and peace with you through Jesus. And thank you, Holy Spirit, for reminding me of this and lifting up my heart every day. Well, thanks for listening, everyone. Colin Cook here, and how it happens, you can hear the broadcast any time of the day or night on your smartphone. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com, and key in how it happens with Colin Cook when you get there. Would you also consider a donation? This is listener-supported radio, and each program costs $39 per 15 minutes or $200 for a week’s programs. You can make your donation by sending it to FaithQuest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160, or you can make your donation online at faithquestradio.com. 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