Address—Tim Ruga
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Others are coming, but we can start the meeting tonight with Vice singing.
Let's start with hymn #9.
And we'll sing that hymn #9.
All right through the desert.
Now the sweetest when I.
Got in heaven.
But I drew that smears hiding.
And his promise?
I've been waiting.
Certain time in minutes welcome.
Let's pray.
Our God and our Father, we just thank You for this time when we can come together as some of thy people to look into Thy word.
We pray that Thou would encourage us through it. That would be with the speaker to bring out those things which are according to my mind, and that would be of a blessing to each one who is here and above all a glory to thee and to thy Son the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank Thee so much for Him. We long as we just sang to see His face and hear His well known voice.
We pray that it might even be tonight. And so we commit this meeting to thee in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen. And so in that hymn, we sang.
In the second verse.
Says by the truth and spirit guiding earnestly of what's to come. I want to talk a little bit about that, the spirit guiding and what that means. And in the meeting tonight, I'm going to do my best to take up, first of all, somewhat of a doctrinal foundation for that because.
Because we need to understand what the scriptures say about a matter before we can begin to apply it. And if I can, I'm going to try to get.
Through that and enough time to get to the application in the second part of the meeting.
And so some of you here, I just want to say that you've heard me speak on this before. I trust with the Lord's help, I'll bring this out freshly. And I do know from talking to many that this is a question on the minds of many. And so I'll also try with the Lord's help to share some experiences I've had with this subject of the leading of the Spirit, how it is as believers that we.
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Are LED in our lives who are when we come together collectively by the Spirit of God. How does that work?
So first we want to consider the scriptures and what they say about this.
In fact, all the way through, you want to do that, but I want to take up the doctrinal basis for it. So let's go to Matthew.
Chapter 3.
And we'll just read about the baptism of the Lord Jesus and what was said just before that happened by John the Baptist speaking about a divine person who had come to earth and was about to begin his ministry. He says here in Matthew 3 and verse 11, John the Baptist says, I indeed baptized you with water and to repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.
He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.
Two things.
And so when the Lord Jesus is announced in his ministry on earth, a divine person come down from heaven living on earth among men for a certain period of time. At the very time when he was announced, there was also announced that there would be another event that would happen. And we'll learn that that's another divine person. He says he will baptize you with the Holy Ghost.
And with fire now the fires explain in the next verse. You can look at that yourself later. With us burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Those who would not listen to him.
And the ones who would listen? We're going to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
And so I'm not going to go trace this all the way through, but I want to look at a few key verses as to the coming of the Spirit of God and what was said about that, where we tend to be much more familiar with the coming and.
Ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth, and I'll just emphasize this at the beginning, the Lord Jesus Christ God, this Donna divine person, came down from heaven and came to earth and he was here on earth as a man.
For some 33 years and then he left this earth divine person who went back to heaven. We understand that, we all know that. But what of the Holy Spirit? Let's go to Matthew 7. I'm not, I'm sorry, John 7.
The Lord Jesus speaking on the great day of the Feast.
He says verse 38, He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living.
Water. And what was that? Well, it tells us in the next verse. But this he's this fake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive. For the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified. And so in this verse we learn at least two things. One, that the Holy Spirit hadn't been given.
And two, that he wouldn't be given until the Lord Jesus Christ is glorified. We spoke about the Lord Jesus Christ as a divine person, God the Son. He was here at this time.
On earth and shortly he was going to go back up into heaven.
And they glorified there, and after that the Holy Spirit.
Was going to come, let's go to John 16, John, I'm sorry, John 14 and see what the Lord Jesus had to say.
Then about the coming of the Spirit.
Because this has everything to do with our subject of the leading of the Spirit, to see how the Spirit was introduced and what His ministry was to be when He would come to earth. So John, chapter 14.
The Lord Jesus is speaking to the disciples in the upper Room after he had instituted the this supper, the Lord's Supper, and just before he was about to go to the cross.
And He taught them a number of things, and one of the things that he taught them about was what was going to happen after He left and there was going to be this other divine person. And we'll just take a few of those verses and look at them. John 14, verse 16. He says, I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another comforter, that He may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth in the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him.
For he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. Two things there, just want to notice them in passing.
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And the Spirit of God dwells with believers and in believers. The Lord Jesus said it right here in the beginning. This truth is expanded on by the Spirit of God Himself and the epistles. We don't have time to go into all that tonight, but every true believer who's here has the Spirit of God dwelling right within them.
And then as a company of believers coming together, the Spirit of God dwells with us as well. The Church of God is the dwelling place of God Himself by His Spirit. And so it's important to understand those two things, and the Lord Jesus introduced them here.
Just skip down for a moment to verse 26. It says the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit.
Whom the Father will send in my name. He shall teach you all things and shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. And so the Lord Jesus spoke about this divine person who is going to come, but I want to just back up and see how He introduced them. It's very important.
Back in.
16.
We just skipped right over. It says I will pray the Father and he will give you.
Now notice what it doesn't say. It doesn't say he'll give you a comforter.
Doesn't say that at all, He says it'll give you another comforter. That word is paracletos.
It means one who takes care of all the affairs of another.
And this tells us exactly what the Holy Spirit was to be. The Lord Jesus didn't say He'll give you.
A comforter because he already was the comforter who was here.
And if you were to go over to 1St John chapter 2, you'd find the same word used about the Lord Jesus Christ. It says there if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, same exact word, Jesus Christ the righteous. And so he still is that one in heaven, He's still that one who takes care of our affairs there.
We sin our great High Priest as well, we know this. But the Spirit of God is the one who came here to do the work that the Lord Jesus had been doing. And what was that?
Well, the disciples as they were on earth, they had needs. They needed to know what to do, where to go, what to say. And if they had any needs, they would go to the Lord Jesus and they would ask Him. He was their Lord on earth and it was plain and there was no question about what they would do. And now he's saying I'm going away, and when I go away I'm going to send another one.
And this another is a significant word. It's another of the same kind, the Holy Spirit.
Was going to be sent to carry on that ministry that the Lord Jesus had.
And if you and I get that point, it answers most of the question.
Because we would not struggle at all if the Lord Jesus was here.
There'd be no question what we do. We go and ask them what we should do.
But he's gone away to heaven. We don't see him now. And he sent the Holy Spirit. We don't see him either.
And we accept by faith that this is what has happened, but we have to accept that by faith we take all the word of God by faith.
And because the word of God says that the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sent his Holy Spirit and that Holy Spirit has come to do that work that he himself had been doing. Then we need to understand that and accept it. And if we do believe that by faith and we understand that we need to give the Holy Spirit His place on earth is that one who is here to take care of our affairs and to lead and to guide us, as is said in the last verses that we read to hide us into all the truth.
Chapter 16, we have this repeated again and brought out in a slightly different way. And so if we were to continue on and look at the teaching regarding the Holy Spirit, you go to Acts chapter one, the Lord Jesus says you just stay here in Jerusalem until you and you wait until I receive that promise of the Father.
Which of course, was which. John the Baptist has said that he was going to baptize them.
And then you go to Acts chapter 2, you find the Holy Spirit given, and shortly after in verse 33, Peter says that He being to the right hand of God exalted, He hath perceived the promise, and he hath poured out this which you now see in here. The Holy Spirit had been given.
That's accomplished. He came to earth. First Corinthians 12/13 tells us what he did. He took all believers and baptized them into one body. And now we've been formed into that body of Christ, the Holy Spirit himself being the one who formed it. And we go and we take up the rest of the New Testament truth, which we don't have time to do tonight, but we find the very same things that the Lord Jesus said, that the Holy Spirit of God, when you believed you.
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We're still with that Holy Spirit of promise that tells us in Ephesians chapter one. And then we find that he dwells in the church collectively, brought out in several places.
He's here.
Now, given that he's here, what does that mean to us? I heard a couple of women speaking behind me one time when I was getting on the plane to go to Malawi and they were believers, but they didn't believe this. I believe something else. I'm convinced I'll see them in heaven. Thank God for that. But they one of them was saying to the other, he said, you know, some people say that the Holy Spirit came to earth and he dwells in the church among believers. But how can that be?
Because the Holy Spirit is God, and as God is everywhere at once, so how could you say he came?
To Earth, that doesn't make sense, it doesn't work. And what she was trying to do is deny that because she had a view of the rapture that wasn't right.
Anyway, without going into that, the fact of the matter is the Holy Spirit can do that. Think for a moment about the Lord Jesus Christ. He was God, wasn't He?
John chapter 3 tells us No man hath ascended up into heaven, and save you came down from heaven, even the Son of man who is in heaven. John 313.
Son of Man, the Lord Jesus standing there right then before them, he says he's in heaven. Oh, he's everywhere at once. God is not found. He's omnipresent, and that's your beauty of God.
And so the Lord Jesus as a man on earth was still God in heaven and God everywhere else in the universe, the Holy Spirit having come with his ministry.
To indwell believers and be in the church is still God.
Everywhere, and he is here now and he will be here until he is taken away with the church. And we get that in a number of verses, most beautifully in Revelation 22. I can believe it's verse 17 where we have that expression. The Spirit and the Bride say come, the Spirit of God is seen there with the bride.
Asking the Lord Jesus to come.
Longing for that moment when he will come and then the bride will be taken away out of this world to be with the Bridegroom. The Spirit having done its work to draw that bride and bring it to the heavenly Isaac. Beautiful. And so the Spirit of God is a divine person and He is here and we need to give him his place. Now I want to just bring out.
A few of the direct teachings regarding.
The leading of the Spirit. Before we go on to the application and 1St, I want to talk about the leading of the Spirit in our lives as believers individually. Let's just go to Romans chapter 8 and see one verse on that.
I hope we understand that every single person who is trusted in Christ as their Savior, they come to know that salvation.
They are indwelled by the Spirit of God.
That's not the particular subject here, although it is said very directly. If you look in the end of verse 9 says now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is not of his.
But I want to go over to verse 14. It says for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Now this is not how to get to be a son of God. Many scriptures make that clear. Galatians 3 near the end of the chapter, forget which verse, Think 13 says you're all sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ. We know the scriptures clear about that. It's by faith in Jesus Christ that we become the sons of God.
But this verse is telling us that if we are the sons of God, we're going to be led by the Spirit of God.
Could read it that way and reverse this as well as the way it's written.
Every single one of us who has the Spirit of God is LED.
By the Spirit of God.
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Now you may say, I don't often feel the leading of the Spirit in my life.
But that doesn't change this fact. The fact is, if you've trusted in Christ, you are led by the Spirit of God.
The other question is do you follow? Do you hear his leading and do you follow it? But that doesn't affect at all the fact that he leaves.
This is a simple fact that the Spirit of God leads believers. Every believer you've trusted in Jesus Christ, you have the leading of the Spirit in your life. Whether or not you follow Him is a completely different matter. Now let's look not at personal leading of the Spirit, but let's look at it with regard to gifts, and we'll go to 1St Corinthians chapter 12.
1St Corinthians 12 verse one. Now concerning spiritual gifts, I'm going to stop right there. You'll notice gifts is in italics. It really shouldn't be there spiritual things.
Because as you go through these chapters, chapters 12/13/14, you'll find that it's not just gifts that are spoken of, particularly in chapter 14, you'll find other things that are brought out with regard to the Spirit of God. For instance, in the beginning of chapter 14, you'll find singing and prayer, and there's other things too. So these are spiritual things that he's talking about. That's the subject of these chapters. So he says.
Concerning spiritual things, brother, and I would not have you ignorant, you know that.
When you that you were gentiles carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. So he's talking about what they had been. And he said you were led by these dumb idols before they had the leading of idols. And he's drawing that contrast. And now what he's going to speak about in chapters 12/13 and 14, which is going to be, of course, the leading of the spirit.
Spoken of in terms of collectively in the Assembly, no doubt.
But that's his subject here. They had been led by demons.
The dumb idols, demons behind them. Now he says it's different. You're led by the Spirit of God and we don't have the time to take up this chapter. I'll just refer to a few key verses and we're going to move on. But in verse 11 it says that all these work at that one and the self same spirit dividing to every man severally as he will variously.
Giving as he desires. The Spirit of God is the one who's given that place to not only give out the gifts, but to give the exercise of the gift. If you have a gift, it's the Spirit of God who also gives you the way in which you're to exercise that gift. The words that you use, the way you do it, everything about it, it comes from Him.
And so he's the one who works that, and he divides it as he wills.
Very important. It's not left up to us, it's left up to Him. And we can usurp that authority just like we can usurp the Lord's authority, but we're not to do it. And if we understand the teaching of these verses, we'll know that this has been given to a divine person.
Not to man, not to an organization, or not to myself if we are to wait on the Spirit of God for the exercise of gift. Now, just a quick example if we go over to chapter 14.
There are a number of things spoken of, but just in terms of the prophets exercising their gift is a very clear example here to illustrate the point.
And it says in verse 29, Let the prophet speak two or three, and let the others judge if anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace.
For we may all prophecy 1 by 1 and so forth, but the point here is, if anything be revealed to another that sitteth by who's doing that.
Well, that's sort of being clear from chapter 12, right? It's this spirit that divides as he wills. It's not a person going saying, OK, now I'm showing you something that you go up and speak. No, the Spirit of God has that place and here's an example of how it was used. And so it's very important that in the exercise of gift, whether it's in the assembly or even out of the assembly, that there be that looking to the Spirit of God is to what it is that he wants.
Said or done, it's not left up to us. So.
So now we've talked about personal, we've talked about gifts and I just briefly want to go into.
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Our other area.
Priesthood and look at worship. Let's go to John chapter 4.
The Lord Jesus here speaking to the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman and opening up to her wonderful things. He spoke to her about God.
The Father and the worship of the Father. And this is what he says. He says in verse 23. The hour cometh and now is.
When the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Now these verses tell us something about what worship is that goes up to God. And it's not something that comes from the minds of man. It's not something that comes.
Having to do with the flesh and the enjoyment of our bodies.
But it's something that's in the spirit, and this verse is talking about our spirits. It's actually not referring to the Spirit of God. I'll get to that in a moment. But God is looking for worship that comes out of the spirit itself. And when we talk about spiritual worship, that worship needs to be guided. And I can guide my spirit with my mind. I generally do.
But when it comes to worship, we're going to see that that isn't the right idea at all.
And so let's continue on to see what this worship is. Hebrews 13.
Hebrews 13. We find out something more about it in verse 10. We have an altar wherever they have no right to eat, which serve the Tabernacle.
Verse 12 Wherefore Jesus?
Also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
Verse 15 by him, that's Jesus.
By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lifts.
Giving thanks to his name. And so now we find that that worship which is in spirit goes up to God by.
Jesus Christ.
And if we were to turn to Psalm 22, quoted again in Hebrews chapter 2, we find that the Lord Jesus.
Consequent upon His resurrection, takes up that place and glory of being in the midst of the assembly leading out worship and praise to God.
And so that is his delight, to be in the midst of the redeemed, leading their praise and their worship. And we know that the Lord Himself is in the midst leading that. But what of the Spirit?
What is his role in all of this? Let's go to Philippians chapter 3.
Philippians chapter 3 verse three says we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Now this is not a good translation. If you look in J&D or another critical translation you'll find that.
It says we have a circumcision which worship by the Spirit of God. And this is the point. Just like in my personal life, I'm to be led by the Spirit of God. And just like as the gift unto be led by the Spirit of God, so it is when it comes to worship to God himself, it is to be led by the Spirit of God. We worship by the Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ himself takes up the leading of that worship in the midst and then he uses the Spirit of God to go around.
Go around and draw out our hearts in worship to Himself. That is His role, that is His place. We don't have another one that is given to do that, but we wait on Him for that. Now, a few more scriptural thoughts and then I want to try to go into the practical application of this.
When it comes to that worship, there is liberty and we need to see that and what it means.
How it works. So Two Corinthians chapter 3 brings out this thought of the liberty.
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2nd Corinthians, chapter 3.
We'll just take first 17 now. The Lord is that spirit.
And with the spirit of the Lord is there's liberty. Now this is very interesting.
It means a number of things.
First of all, it means that wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. He is free to work where and when and how He wants. He's not limited by our thoughts or anything else we may want to do.
He is, however, as we will see shortly, limited by the truth. He can't deny himself.
But there's liberty. The Spirit of God, within the bounds of the Word of God, has complete liberty to work where and how and when He wants. However, it also means that when we come together and we're waiting on the Spirit of God, there's liberty. Now, what does that mean? Does that mean that you and I have liberty to do whatever we want because the Holy Spirit is there?
I hope the answer to that should be obvious. It certainly doesn't mean that.
It's his liberty. He has the liberty. You say, well, that sounds like ******* if you're speaking about liberty. But I can't do anything. It's only what the spirit wants to do. It sounds like ******* to me. It isn't ******* at all. The reason why is because.
As a believer.
You and I have a new life, the life of Christ, and that life has one motive, and that motive is to do the will of God.
And that life desires to know the will of God, and it will look to the Spirit of God to get guidance as to what that will is and to that life that I have, which is Christ. When it learns the will of God, it absolutely delights in it. That's liberty to it. Anything else is *******.
And so with the Spirit of God is there is liberty. And so when we come together as the Saints of God, waiting on the Spirit of God, there is liberty there. And it's His liberty to act and use this in whatsoever way he will.
Now the scriptures do show us that that liberty is hindered, and those are the final two things that I want to look at.
And before we look at some practical applications of this.
There is what Scripture calls the quenching and the grieving of the Spirit, and that can be a real hindrance to the liberty of the Spirit. Let's look at those important we see where they are First Thessalonians 5 through the quenching.
Verse 19 says quench not the Spirit. Now for the other one, Ephesians chapter 4.
Verse 30.
Says grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, we're by your sealed unto the day of redemption. And so there are these two things.
They're really the opposite side of each other. We've got the quenching of the Spirit, and this comes in when the Spirit of God.
Wants me to do something and I say no.
And so he wants to say speak to me. And I don't allow it. I quench him.
The grieving of the Spirit is the opposite side of that. He doesn't want me to do something. I go ahead and do it.
We may do either of these things, and we may do both in the same act.
But they both hinder the free operation of the Spirit of God, whether it's in my life or in the exercise of my gift, or when we come together in worship.
So it's very important that we see that Scripture clearly presents these things. This is the truth of God, and it tells us that this is how it works with regard to the operations of the Spirit of God.
As the divine person right now on earth.
Now, having seen that, the question is how do I put that into practice in many different ways?
Of my life, and I wrote down earlier a number of things that may give example to some of this. And I just wanted to go through some of those things point by point. And perhaps I won't cover everything that's on your mind. And if I don't, no problem, this question and answer, right? So go put a question in the box, but I'll try to cover at least the things that came to my mind.
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First, I want to talk about the Remembrance meeting.
So we come together to remember the Lord and his death. Wonderful privilege that we have as believers, right? And say, well, how does this work with regard to the remembrance meeting? I'm going to just suggest this for all those of us who are here and come to that wonderful occasion. Come with something. Come with something on your heart that the Spirit of God can use.
It doesn't mean that he will use it. He may use something else entirely.
But you ought to bring something, and there are scriptural grounds for that. There's the type in the Old Testament about the males that were to come up three times in the year to worship the Lord in Jerusalem. And it says very specifically in at least two places that they were not to appear before the Lord, Empty. It means they were to bring something there. Very important. The Lord is worthy.
Worthy of honor and praise, and we are to bring.
To him, what does this do?
When we get there, the liberty is the spirit. So I don't just come and oh, I got this. I'm going to share it here today.
No, that's wrong. But have something in the spirit of God may choose to use it, or he may choose to use something else entirely.
Now here's a question that I often had when I was younger. How would I know when the Spirit of God says I want you to say this or give out this Him or pray, How would I know that? You ever wonder that?
Well, I can't tell you exactly. There are things that you have to learn experimentally with the Spirit of God. They're not laid out prescriptively in the Scriptures. But I can tell you in my own experience that there have been many times and I felt something come up in my heart, and it was there very strongly, and I felt it more and more until I thought I needed to give expression to that thing. And there have been other times when I have felt that I had something in my heart.
Was ensuring that the Spirit of God wanted me to express it. And so I committed it to him and waited. And in time, the Spirit of God, who actually is God, has the ability to make his mind clear. Let's not forget that He's not limited. His arm isn't shortened. He can make himself understood very well.
The point that we find over and over in Scripture is dependence and waiting on Him.
There's no problem on His side. The problem is our hindrance on our side, and we need to get ourselves out of the way so that we can hear the Spirit of God. So that's just a few hints on that, but this is something that we all have to learn somewhat experimentally in our own lives before the Lord is part of our own individual walk with the Lord.
Now I want to give something that has been a big help to me because there have been times when I've come to the meeting and I haven't brought something like I said before, and I have sat there in the meeting in the presence of the Lord.
Cold and silent in my heart. Stoning. Has that ever happened to you?
I hope not, but if you're like me, it has. So what do you do? You just sit there the whole meeting like that. And there's one thing at least I found that works very, very well, and that is that I've started out in that meeting. Just confess it to the Lord. I should not have come this way. And I start to think.
About what was going to happen to me. As a spinner, I deserve judgment, but that is never going to happen. Why? Because Jesus Christ paid the price for my sins. He died for me. He suffered for me.
Nothing new. Don't we appreciate that thought? You don't have to go look for some special thing from here or there. Just getting into the very basics of what the Lord did for you. And then the next step is very important right there. Turn around and thank Him.
Pray to the Lord and thank Him from the bottom of your heart for what He did for you and then keep your train of thought on what He did for you and you watch and see what happens. The Spirit of God is going to start from there and work and work in your heart and He's going to bring out that praise. You know, in John chapter 4 when the Lord Jesus spoke to that woman at the well.
He told her about the He says the water that I will give him if he drinks, that he won't thirst again.
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And he said this water will be in him, a well of water springing up. And then he goes on to introduce to that woman all about this worship to the Father. So he's talking about the Spirit of God with respect to worship. And that indeed is how it is.
You take up with the Spirit of God and let Him work with you right at that time, and you'll find that.
It becomes like a well of water springing up. And if your brother who has the privilege of expressing what's on your heart verbally in the meeting, you'll find that this comes right welling up inside of you until the point where you say I have to give expression to to my Lord and Savior about this that the Spirit of God has given me to say and you'll say it without any thought of self and give glory to him.
Well, there are many who say.
The Spirit of God didn't lead me to speak. This is important because sometimes you get into a meeting and you go through this meeting and you get a lot of Stony silences and you say, oh, something seems wrong and you find even for yourself, you say, well, who am I? You know, I'm just a brother here. Why should I stand up and speak? Or what about that brother, right? And the problem is there's a whole lot of spouse involved and we're forgetting about the Lord.
And who he is and what's due to him.
And because of all these thoughts, sometimes the Lord gets robbed.
Right, left and center of his glory. It's sad.
You know, I thought of it this way. Consider this for a moment. Let's suppose we're in a meeting. We've come to remember the Lord and give Him. What does this do?
And while we're there?
It's silent and nothing's happening.
And I say I don't feel the Spirit leading me.
But you know what might be happening in that meeting? First of all, I assure you of this. The Spirit of God did not bring us together to be cold and silent.
He brought us together collectively to express that God, with our voice, prays to Him. That's what we read.
Hebrews chapter 13 The fruit of our lips giving thanks to his names, not the fruit of our hearts. Our hearts should be there, but God's looking for the fruit of our lips there. And to have the cold Stony silence is not from the Spirit of God.
And here's what I imagine might be happening sometime. I don't think I'm wrong.
Spirit of God comes to someone and he says, I want you to get up and say this. That person says no.
Spirit of God is clenched. He doesn't have liberty there. He goes to another brother.
Says I would like you to do this. The brother says no.
Spirit of God is clenched again. He goes to another brother. Brother says no.
Spirit of God comes to you, what do you say?
Is it no.
And so the Lord Jesus gets robbed.
These things are very practical.
Well, let's go on. I want to talk about the role of sisters, talking about brothers here. What about the sisters? I want to suggest the sisters have a very, very important role when it comes to the leading of the spirit. Even though they don't have this privilege that the brothers have of expressing verbally what's on their heart, yet they are there and they're part of the assembly and they're part of what is happening.
I'll try to illustrate that by a few examples, but one thing is that the sisters can sit there and they can pray for the brothers and they can pray about the meeting.
And they can be before the Lord as to what is happening.
It's very important and it can change the tone of everything.
For us brothers, we need to think about that too. Remember, there are sisters sitting there, many of whom are very gifted when it comes to gifts of teaching and other even gifts like that, that the Lord has given them as well. And all of them are priests, but they're not permitted to speak.
And if they're sitting there longing to express what's on their heart, and they know they can't, they're subject to the word.
And no brother is speaking. Then what anguish are we causing the sisters?
Brothers, this is very serious for us to consider what our role is in this matter, but the sisters can take that all to the Lord, and they have much to do with the tone of the assembly. A sister told me recently that when she.
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Is led by the Spirit of God to a verse, or to a hymn, or a certain line of thought, and then a brother gets up and expresses that very thing that the Spirit of God had put on her heart.
And it just causes her great joy because she feels that there we are collectively giving expression. The Spirit of God is leaving us out together.
And common thoughts of his son? Wonderful.
And she told me how much she appreciates that. But how often do we rob the sisters of that opportunity?
And sisters, don't be discouraged.
To take your own place before the Lord in prayer, in waiting on Him and entering into all those things, and trust that He will in His own way bring out that suited praise to Himself.
You know.
There is a case that I heard about a while ago, probably told me this about himself. Won't tell you who he is, but he said I went to a meeting once and I was the only brother there and I had to take all the part. He said I was not in a good state before the Lord. My heart was cold.
And yet I went ahead and I took part in that meeting and I gave out hymns and I prayed, I read scripture verses. And when it came time to break the bread, I broke the bread. And we had that whole meeting. And I ended up the meeting. I got something out of it, but I was pretty much cold all the way through. And he said after the meeting was over, his sister came up to me and she said, brother.
What you said was exactly what the Lord put on my heart.
She said. You expressed exactly what I wished I could express.
And she was so happy for it, he said. I was rebuked. The Lord used my mouth, he said. But he used his sister's heart. He was only speaking through me.
Well, brothers, are we willing even?
To be used by the Lord as a mouthpiece.
At least that probably was willing to speak. And sisters, are you willing to be used by the Lord in a case like that?
You may use just the mouth of a brother, but he's using your heart. Is your heart there for him to use?
Say something about the assembly when we come together for all of us.
If we believe this truth that the Spirit of God is acting in the assembly and he's moving and using as he will.
A similar idea to the whole, to the Lord Himself being in the midst. Do we actually believe that? And if we did, would we act like we believed it?
And come in a way that we believed in and showed that we believed it, not careless and indifferent as to things. And that leads me to another subject. We don't often talk about this, but what about coming to the meeting late?
All right now so.
We come to the meeting late sometimes, right? And I'm thinking that perhaps a lot of Christians haven't really thought through what that means.
But if you come to the meeting late, this probably goes without saying. If you're not there, the Spirit of God can't lead you to give out of Him, can he?
You actually have points to spirit can't lead you to pray.
The Spirit of God can't use you at all because you're not there.
Not only that, when you do show up late, you don't know what the Spirit of God had already been.
Bringing out an amazing.
And so you've also quenched a spirit in some sense from that.
And there's more, too.
You know, when we really want to recognize the spirit and give him his place in the assembly, it's a good thing that we're not even just on time, but to come early and wait on him, get in the right state of quietness before him. As to allowing him to even use us in that meeting. You can't just show up in the moment and have that happen. Brother was just reminding us from.
Luke 22 how it speaks there about.
When the hour was come, the Lord sat down, 12 apostles with them. He sat down. He was there, and they were there too.
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It's important that we pay attention to those things and not be careless about them. And think too, if you come late, the distraction that you make to others who are already there and maybe distract away from the Spirit of God trying to focus us on something that He's bringing before the assembly.
Lateness is actually not so light a matter as we think, and it's something that we need to be exercised about.
Well, in the few remaining minutes, I want to talk about the personal leading of the Spirit of God in our lives. We already referred to that verse in Romans chapter 8. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. And so let's just talk for a few minutes about what this leading means. And it's important that we understand at least something of that in our lives.
I would say first just to introduce this.
Among Christians generally, there's a range of thought on this, and I believe there's two ditches on this subject.
Number one, you've got the charismatics who teach that the Spirit of God just works in a completely free, wide open way with people such that they often walk around saying the Spirit told me this, the Spirit told me that. And usually you'll find that whatever or a lot of what they're saying isn't even in the Word of God, it's contrary to the Word of God.
And so they they seem to go way too far on the one end. On the other end though, there are.
The ones who are tend to be of the reform group, and if you know something about the Reformation, there were two major principles that guided the Reformation. One of them was sola fidelis, which means by faith alone wonderful the recovery of the truth that salvation is by faith in Christ alone, and that was recovered at that time. But the other one was also wonderful, at least in part as far as it went, and that was.
Sola scriptura, which means the Scriptures alone. And so at that time the Roman Catholic Church had been teaching that the Scriptures were not sufficient, but we also needed the traditions of the Church and the interpretation.
Of the fathers and then the teachers of the church to even know what it meant. And these ones said no, the scriptures alone are sufficient for faith and practice.
But when you go and listen to these ones today, you'll find that they take it too far.
They say that the Spirit of God does not work personally in the lives of lives of individuals.
Other than to teach us the meaning of Scripture. And so they say that the Spirit of God is given to just guide us into the truth as far as it says here in the Scriptures. And after that we are left ourselves to make our own decisions the best we can within the parameters of what's laid out there in the Word of God. And that's part of what they mean, sadly, by sola scriptura.
As they deny the personal presence and working of the Holy Spirit right now as the Divine Person on earth.
That's wrong.
We don't deny that we need to look to the Spirit of God and wait on His leading and guidance in our lives. Now I just want to say a couple things is bring out a few final thoughts here. People say, well, I would obey the Lord if I could hear him say plainly do this. Spirit of God would say this. Let's just look at a verse. I'm going to just turn to a few verses at the end of the meeting here.
First Kings, chapter 19.
And so give just a bit of the.
Idea of this that the Lord gives right through scripture but first Kings 19 verse 12 actually verse.
11.
The Lord is speaking to Elijah, he said, Go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord, and behold, the Lord passed by in a great and strong wind, Wren the mountains, and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord. Oh, you say, Well, that's impressive.
If the Lord would speak like a loud rushing wind, I could hear that, and that would impress me and I would do that. Well, it says here very plainly, the Lord.
Who is not in the wind?
And then it says after the wind and earthquake, but the Lord was not in an earthquake.
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And after the earthquake of fire? But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire what?
A still, small voice. And this we get repeated over and over in Scripture. When it comes to the leading of the Spirit, we're going to find two things. It's not going to be the loud voice. It's going to be the still small voice. And that voice is going to be heard in the path of obedience.
And there is no other way that we can actually effectively have a leading of the Spirit.
In our lives. And so let's consider some other verses about this, some well known verses in Proverbs 3.
Verses 5:00 and 6:00.
You see, I'm not seeking anything new here.
And trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thy own understanding. Now this fix first.
And all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path. It's talking about obedience in all of our ways, not to some of them. All of our ways, acknowledging him, giving him his place, giving him the 1St place, giving him the last place, and everything in between.
And he will direct bypass. God doesn't lie. This is what he says. He will do it.
We need to take it up by faith and trust and that is so and say I don't know how he will do it. I don't know why there's still small voice sounds like.
Take it up by faith. Our whole Christian life is a life of faith. We act in faith.
Simply trusting that the Lord is able to show us what that means. Guess what? He's going to show us what that means.
Psalm 32.
Verse 8.
Says I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee.
With mine I.
We'll read verse 9 two because it goes along with it. Be not as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding and so forth. Now we find something similar to the still small voice, but even closer. If you're going to be able to be instructed by someones eye, you have to see where that eye is looking. You've got to be close enough to that person and it's tentative enough to know where that eye is directing you to go.
It's talking about a very close and personal and attentive walk with the Lord.
And then he says, specifically, you don't be as a horse of the mule. What were they? Well, the horse wants to run ahead and the mule wants to drag behind.
He says no, you need to be attentive to go when the Lord wants you to go where where He wants you to go. You need to be that sensitive to Him. And that requires a will that is broken, not my own will, but completely yielded to Him.
Why don't you just go to Second Timothy chapter 2?
Just a few verses and we're finished.
Does this in large part.
Answers the charismatic.
Second Timothy chapter 2 verse.
13 Just the end of the verse that says he cannot deny himself.
Another characteristic about the Spirit of God when he leads, and we'll see more about how he leads, when he leads, it will always be in accordance with the Word of God. He is the Spirit of truth, He is the Holy Spirit. He cannot deny himself. And so you, if you think you've heard something, if you think you've had some direction in your life.
Make sure that it's in accordance with this word. If it's not, then it did not come from the Spirit of God.
Sure, test. And we need to do that. The Spirit and the Word are always found together in the Scripture, and we can't separate them either. Now let's go to Romans chapter 12.
Romans chapter 12, verse one.
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.
Wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world.
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So B transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Period. Well, that's how we might like to make it, but there isn't a period there, is there?
There's not a period there.
All those things we had up to that point are very important for what follows.
That ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And I'm going to suggest this, we will never hear the still small voice of the spirits leading in our life if we will not obey.
It's not going to happen. I'm not saying that he can't somehow overrule in our lives. Thank God that he does. I can say that from my own life.
But as to getting his leading and guidance for going forward, we are not going to hear it if we're disobedient. And this these verses plainly tell us that we need to take our bodies.
And yield them as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.
Will you do that?
Will I do it? Say no. I want to use my body for myself.
The second thing was here, don't be conformed to the world.
My soul desires the world.
My flesh, I might say.
Wants to go out after those things he says no, don't be conformed to the world. Finally there's a says be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And I'm going to suggest that that's the Scriptures and the mind may bring in more of the spirit. And so the body of the soul and the spirit here are all dedicated to the Lord. I pray God, your whole body, soul and spirit be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul says in First Thessalonians chapter 5.
That's the desire. But we ourselves have to yield our bodies, and we have to stay separate from the world and not be conformed to it, and we have to have our minds transformed by the Word of God.
And when we do that, then we're going to know what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Final verse. Those of you who know me knew this was coming, but Psalms 143.
And verse 8.
Caused me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning, for thee do I trust.
Caused me to know the way we're in. I should walk.
Before I lift up my soul into thee.
And you want to hear the leading of the Spirit of God if you haven't started out and given the Lord the 1St place.
Today.
Maybe you've blown it for today.
I'm not saying you still can't.
But starting tomorrow, why don't you give them the 1St place?
Caused me to know thy loving kindness in the morning. Don't stay up so late tonight that you can't get up in the morning. And before anything else, give place to God.
Give him the first part of your day. Take out His word and read it before you do anything else.
And pray to Him before you do anything else and seek to know what He wants for you.
Before all the rest.
If you're not going to give him the 1St place, how do you expect that he's going to come and make his good and his perfect acceptable well known to you?
He says, 'cause me.
To know the way we're in, I should walk.
And I submit to you that that comes from giving him the first place in our lives, as we said before, the last place as well, and then all the other places in between.
Let's close this prayer.
Our God and our Father, we thank you for that divine Person who has come.
What a privilege it is to have him here to teach us thy word and to lead us in that right way.
We thank You for the Divine One who came before that that one was given as the object of our affections, our Lord Jesus Christ, and that the Spirit of God is leading us home to Him. We pray that each one here would allow Him to kindle our affections for that one. It was so worthy of them all that we would go on and lead our lives in greater devotion to Him in praise and worship and service to as He sees that.
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We commit this time to Thee for Thy glory, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.