Address—Tim Ruga
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Good afternoon. Could we start the meeting this afternoon by singing hymn #268 in our Little Flock hymn books?
#268 And reading from verse 2, Lord, by thy word and spirit lead we shall not in the desert stray.
Or light for our direction need or lose if dark and rear our way. Still kept from danger and from fierce and sigh. Almighty love is near 268.
Salvation.
Captain.
If I shine a long dream of a pilot, it grows a little configuration on.
August 25 grade all my throat.
I saw her and where I went.
So we pray, our God and our Father, we thank you so much for this privilege and opportunity we have this afternoon to open Thy word and consider together a portion we cross which will be from myself. We just look to Thee for that. Let us know our God, Thee weakness of the vessel presenting.
And also the need of the hearers. We pray.
That was me both. We just pray that each one of us would be encouraged is consist as we consider again what that was said. We pray especially that we would come to know more and be drawn closer to our precious Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ and whose name we ask Amen.
This afternoon the subject in my heart is the leading of the Spirit, and some who are here have heard me speak on this before.
I trust with the Lord's help I'll bring it out freshly, but this is a subject that as I talk to different ones, I find that it's well known among us what the leading of the Spirit is.
But what is not so well known sometimes is what the Scripture has to say about it, and why it is that we practice what we call the leading of the Spirit. And for that reason I.
Feel it on my heart to take up the subject I was vividly.
I vividly had this brought to my attention when we went to Africa and while there was observing some of the brothers before a meeting and I had seen them do this before, but I got close and I saw exactly what was happening there. That was two or three brothers all together and they were deciding who is going to.
Give out what hymns, who is going to read what passages and who was going to pray. And that's what they did. And so it was very clear and it was orderly. No problem with that.
Looking at that, saying this isn't right, and we all would look at that and say this isn't right. But the question is why do we say this isn't right? You can't go there and say, well, that's not what we do because this is what they do, but what they did, and many of them still do. The question is, what does God say about it? And that brings up an important point.
That I want to make here at the beginning of the meeting today. You know, when we look at any subject from the Word of God, or really anything at all in our Christian life, it's very easy and very natural to say, well, what is it that we do? And it's easy to take up a Christian practice from the standpoint of tradition rather than thus saith the Lord.
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And so we often get into this dilemma sometimes in the assembly where.
We basically know what is done and we can get lazy and not go back to find out what the word says about that. And This is why we have in the Word of God that part that we call doctrine and that part that we call practical. And the doctrine we find in more than half the epistles comes in the first part of the epistle. Afterwards we get the practical.
The doctrine is very important.
We need to take it up. There's a tendency, I'm afraid sometimes to skip over the doctrine and and just say, just tell me what I need to do. That is to say, I don't really want to know the reason. I just want to know what I have to do. It's really nothing more than a form of law to take up with spiritual things that way. We need the teaching. The doctrine is that foundational part on which the practical is based. And if we give up the doctrine.
We may hold on to practice for a while.
But after a while that practice will slip, and eventually it might be lost altogether. So we really want to look into the Word of God for any of these things. A great many subjects, really every subject should be taken up that way. What does the Word of God have to teach about that? And then what is my responsibility? And so to start on this subject, let's go to the Gospel of Matthew.
And chapter 3.
And I just want to at the beginning here trace out.
This subject from the beginning.
As it's presented in the New Testament.
It's really, I believe, the beginning of how the Spirit of God presents the subject. Matthew chapter 3 and John the Baptist is speaking in verse 11. He says, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He's so baptized you with the Holy Ghost.
And with fire. And so John the Baptist is speaking about.
The one who is coming after him, who is far greater than himself, clearly he's speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ, and he says that when he comes, he's going to do 2 Things. He's going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and he's going to baptize you with fire.
Now many who take the last part of that and teach well that is speaking about the spirit as well and they like to go to Acts chapter 2 and and show that the Holy Ghost when he comes down, he appeared on them with tongues like that's a fire. And they say it's the same thing, but it's not.
That's not what John the Baptist is referring to when he says that the Lord Jesus would baptize him with fire. He's talking about something else entirely. And that's explained in the next verse, says in verse 12, whose fan is in his hand. And he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. And so this is what the Lord Jesus.
Has come to do in this time. There are really two groups of people.
Those who receive him and those who don't, and for those who don't, there will be judgment. That's what the fire is speaking about. And for those who do trust in the Lord Jesus Christ in this period of time, there would be a different baptism altogether and we'll see that. But he says here that that fascism would be with the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit. And so that's really the opening of our subject and I'd like to trace it going onwards and turn over to John chapter.
4.
In John four we have this account of the Lord Jesus meeting with a woman.
That's a well and he asked her to give him a drink of water, and then he offers her water of a different sort. And that's what we want to look at in verse 13. The Lord Jesus answered and said unto her.
Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drank the drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.
But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. And so the Lord Jesus is speaking about something that is entirely different from the water that He asked from her, entirely different from physical water. And here he's talking about water that he would give, and that water would come up out of the person, and it would, as he says here, spring up unto everlasting.
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Life. Incidentally, I just mentioned that He says that He will give us and it will happen. That woman did not receive that water yet at that time. It was yet a promised thing, as we had in the meeting before. Later on, after the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, she would have that eternal life, but He still speaks of this.
And when he speaks about it, he speaks about a spring of this water.
That was going to be inside the person and it was not going to be an exhaustible supply. It was going to go on and on and on and then the Lord.
Brings it up in connection with another subject in this chapter and we're not going to take the time to go through that. But if you read on down a little farther you'd find that he takes up the subject of worship to the Father and we find out that this well of water springing up is not just to.
Eternal life, but it also brings with it that which produces the true worship that God the Father desires. And so the Lord mentions it here. It's the Holy Spirit that He's talking about, and He mentions it here in connection with worship. Now you might say, how do we know it's talking about the Holy Spirit? Well, the Lord is going to go on and make that very clear. And let's see that in John Chapter 7, because He says something.
Not quite striking there.
Has very much to do with our subject.
John 7 and verse 37 says, In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
Very similar now, isn't it? But he's not talking about physical water.
Verse 38 he that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. So now the Lord is talking about water that he would give. And this time it's not the water that springs up to eternal life and goes on welling up to worship to God the Father, but now it's rivers of living water. And the Lord says that the Scriptures have said because in the Old Testament.
We find a number of passages that talk about the Spirit of God going out and flowing out into the desert places of this world, like those refreshing springs. And that's what he's talking about here. He speaks of rivers, of living water. And now it's not just eternal life in view, but it's the going beyond all of that.
In testimony and we have the Spirit of God giving testimony.
Through those who drink of this water. And so there's worship and there's testimony that the Lord brings thee forth. And as I said before, speaking about the Holy Spirit. And this time we're told so plainly. The next verse 39.
The 50 spake 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.
Hi, You see, we're giving some details about that, that those who would receive this water and it would spring up in them to eternal life, and it would go out then and worship to the Father in the power of testimony.
That was a promise. It was going to come. It wasn't there yet. Why? Because the Lord Jesus wasn't yet glorified. He was still here as a man going about in his ministry on earth, and the time was yet to come when He was going to be.
Crucified on the cross, and then he was going to die and be raised again from the dead, and then he was going to ascend up into heaven and be glorified as a man there in heaven. And the Spirit of God himself gives this explanation verse in verse 39.
That these ones would receive the Holy Spirit in the future, but they had to wait until when? Until the Until the Lord Jesus was glorified.
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It's a very important, uh, mark this time as to our subject, and I'm going through this, uh, and just to lay down some fundamental foundational principles.
I just want to say why for a moment. When you talk to a lot of Christians, you find that many other places, they don't even consider the possibility of the leading of the Spirit. And the basic reason is that they don't see fundamentally what the Word of God has to say about him. And so that's what I'm trying to bring out in these verses. What is the Holy Spirit's present ministry on earth?
And these are the first verses that reveal that. Let's go over to John chapter 14.
John 14.
In John chapter 13.
The Lord Jesus has said to them, verse 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you, You shall seek me, as I said unto the Jews, whether I go, you cannot come. So now I say to you.
He told them this it troubled their hearts the Lord was going to go away made them very sad. He says in chapter 14 verse one not let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. He speaks now of himself is that object of faith and then he speaks about the fact that he's going to go away but.
He says.
In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I'd go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And so he comforts them by saying, I'm going to go away, but I'm going to come back again.
In the meantime, what? And that's really what has to do with our subject. The Lord has something planned for them.
And that is the Holy Spirit which we still have today. This is verse brought out in verses.
16 and 17 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. And if you skip down to verse 26, it's with the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name. He shall teach you all things.
And so on.
And so here the Lord introduces in a very definite way that He was going to pray to the Father, and the Father was going to give another comforter. And what was this comforter going to do? Well, he's going to abide with them forever. And so this is what happened. But I had to wait in John 7 until the Lord Jesus was glorified. Now when that occurred.
Well, we can just go and read that. That's when it's found in the beginning of Acts, and let's just look at that for a moment.
Acts chapter one.
Speaks in the beginning of the chapter about how the Lord Jesus was with them.
And for 40 days, he was there.
And then he says at the end, verse four, and being assembled together with them, he commanded that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he. You have heard of me. We just read that John 14.
Verse 5 here, Acts one, verse 5 for John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Now he's going right back to the beginning of what we had in our meeting to what John the Baptist had said in Matthew chapter 3, when he said, there's coming one after me, the last year of Hushu I'm not worthy to unloose. And he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Lord refers to that here and He says you're going to be baptized now with the Holy Spirit and it's not going to be many days from now. And in fact it was about 10 days later. Acts chapter 2, verse one, it says when the day of Pentecost is fully come. They were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
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And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like eyes of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance, and so forth. And so this traces forth, or traces through then all the way to the fact of the Lord Jesus.
Having told them that the Spirit of God was going to come, and then if we had continued to read in Acts One, I should probably should have we find that the Lord Jesus who succeeds up into heaven out of their sight.
And he was glorified there, and shortly after he received that promise of the Father, and he pours out the Holy Spirit, and they're baptized with the Holy Spirit on this day. Now we further know that because Peter makes the point very, very clear a little bit later in this chapter. So let's just go down Acts chapter 2.
And verse 32 Peter is speaking here, he says, This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, by being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath shed forth this which you now see and hear.
And so, on this day, that promise was fulfilled.
And the Spirit of God was given the Spirit of God. Now that became that power of divine life and power of testimony. And if we were to go on and trace this further in First Corinthians chapter 12, we see there in verse 13 that it's by that same one spirit that we have all been baptized into one body.
And that one body, of course, is the body of Christ brought out in many scriptures. But.
The end of Ephesians chapter one, we are told that there He is exalted in heaven, given to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all. And so since that day all believers have been formed into that one body of Christ. And as the Lord Jesus said in John 14, as we just read.
That every that the Spirit of God is given to us, that He might abide with us forever. The Spirit of God. Then as we consider these verses and as we've traced through what the Word of God teaches us about his coming, we're not up to His ministry yet, but that is coming, we find that he had been promised. He was to come when the Lord Jesus was glorified.
And then he was given.
He baptized believers into one body, and he's still with us here today. Now, to say it another way, I want to put it this way.
There was a time when a divine person was on earth, and he was on earth in a way that was unique.
That, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ. We know about His first coming, His incarnation, when he was born as a man into this world. Had he ever been here in this world before? Certainly he was.
They were what we call theophanies in the Old Testament, where the Lord Jesus came and he appeared and he appeared to different ones, Abraham and so on. He had been here. And of course there's Almighty God himself. The Lord Jesus Christ is that one who is omnipresent.
He couldn't help but to be here, but He had never been here as a divine person personally himself on earth until He was born into this world. And He was here until that time when He spoke of when He would go away. And now He is gone in that sense, and He will come back again for us in the same sense that the disciples knew Him at that time.
But in the meantime, he says, there's going to be someone else who is going to come.
Another divine person who's going to come in that capacity and he's going to be with you. And it's of all importance to get a hold of that because most of every true believer understands that the Holy Spirit is God just like the Lord Jesus is God. And therefore as an attribute of God there the Spirit of God is present everywhere with or can I go from my spirit? Psalmist says there's no where that you can go to get away from.
Of God, he's everywhere, but that is not what we have today in Christianity we have the Holy Spirit of God here in our presence among believers in a way that is unique, a way he had not been here before. And it's important. It's important to the teaching of the word of God and the application too as to what his ministry is to understand that fact before all else because that presence of the.
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Spirit in a divine personal way among the Lord's people today is, if not flat out denied by many Christians, it is practically denied. And we're going to deny it too, unless we get a clear sense of the doctrine of Scripture in this regard and then the practical side of it as well. And so I want to go back and I want to trace out the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ with I'm sorry.
Holy Spirit in connection with our subject.
There are many other parts that we could take up as well. We already talked about the Spirit of God as being that divine spring of worship to the Father and of being in that source of rivers of living water going out. And in testimony And this morning, we're talking about the Spirit of God, at least briefly, as being the one who's the source of divine life that he has been in all time.
For all time, for all, whoever are born from God, it's the Spirit of God who gives that life.
This is all his ministry, and there's many other parts to his ministry too that are wonderful to consider. But what I have in my heart is really this part of it. And that is the leading of the Spirit in our lives as believers, individually and as collectively. And so let's go back and just look over some of the same ground again, and we'll start again at the.
Time of the Lord's Upper Room ministry or actual code just before that.
Back to Luke chapter 22.
Luke, chapter 22.
Passage, I think, well known to all of us.
Verse seven And then came the Day of Unleavened bread, when the Passover must be killed. And he that's the Lord Jesus sent Peter and John saying, Go and prepare us the Passover, that we may eat. And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare? And he said unto them, Behold, when you are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water.
Follow him into the house where he entereth in.
And you shall say unto the good men of the house, the Master saith unto thee, Where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples, And he shall show you a large upper room furnished. There make ready. And they went, and found as he had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover.
Now.
It's very instructive. I believe here that when they came to the Lord Jesus, he didn't tell them where to go. He was just about to leave this world, about to go to the cross and be crucified and then ascend back up into heaven. And we've already seen what?
He has said to them shortly after this, but here's the way he introduced the subject. He says you go into the city and there is going to.
A man is going to meet you. There shall a man meet you.
And he says.
You follow him.
That's a important object lesson that the Lord gave to them, not telling them where to go, not telling them who this man's name was. He really didn't tell them anything else about the man except for one characteristic, and that was that he was going to be bearing a picture of water. And I would say that's very clear to us as well if we look into the Scripture. I'm not going to take it the time to do it now, but many places such as.
Ephesians chapter 5 we find that the water.
Is referred to as the Word of God and the Spirit of God and the Word of God we find running together in Scripture. And so this man no doubt was given as the Lord by the Lord as an object lesson to the disciples as to what he was going to do. He was going to be leaving and it was going to be someone else.
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That they would have to follow and.
That one was going to be inseparably connected with the Word of God. No doubt they didn't understand all of that at this time. And so the Lord doesn't say more than that. He simply gives them this instruction. They went, it says, and they found that He had said unto them. When they got there, the Lord Jesus himself came there, and we find then that He instituted the supper.
And after supper.
He sat down, He watched the disciples feet. He begins there with his work as the advocate of working to cleanse away that defilement. He ends as we had in the meeting this morning. It's the great High Priest. And in between he tells them some very important things they need to know.
And of course, one of them is the subject that we have before. So let's go and just take off that part of it again.
In chapter 14, John 14.
We've already read these verses.
But I want to just consider some detail on them. John 14 and 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.
Spirit of Truth.
Of course, the truth is the word of God, isn't it? Sanctify them through Thy truth. We just had in John 17. We didn't discuss that, but we read it. Thy Word is truth. And so we have the Spirit here presented as a spirit of truth. Now the Lord Jesus going to explain something to them about this.
Divine person into whose hands he is going to commit them, and he says here.
I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter. That word comforter explains a lot and no doubt it means comfort. Their hearts were troubled and the Lord Jesus is saying, oh, if it's going to be one who's going to give you comfort? He says I'm going to give you comfort. Now with this one that I will send that will be poured out on that day. He's going to be a comforter.
But you know, this word doesn't just mean comfort.
The word that is used in Greek is just like most of our English words. It has synonyms and it has a certain breadth of meaning and comforters. Really only one part of the meaning of this word. It's really paracletos, as I understand it. It's a Greek word and what it means is one who takes care of all the affairs of another.
And comfort would be a very big part of that, and very directly related to what the Lord had just been explaining to them.
But it's more than that. It's one who actually will come in and take care of the affairs. I think, uh, Mr. Darby says in a footnote to the new translation that perhaps the closest word in the English is solicitor. But that doesn't do it justice either. You think of the solicitor. It isn't exactly the thought of comfort, but it's, uh, somewhat a broad definition of meaning. And this thought is at the center of it. It's one who takes care of your affairs.
And to me, that is most significant in our subject because the Lord Jesus always is the one who took care of their affairs. He, He was the one to whom they would turn and go to for direction if they needed to know what to do. He was the one who guided them as to what to do. In fact, that's what just had happened, wasn't it? They wanted to know where to prepare the Passover.
And they did as they always did. They went to him and then he.
Gave that object lesson that we just considered.
Now he says there's going to be another one. He wasn't going to be there to do that for them, but there was going to be another one to take care of their affairs. And as far as I'm concerned, if we get a hold of that thought by itself, it answers much of the question. There are other scriptures that we'll consider that give teaching directly.
About the present ministry of the Holy Spirit in this regard. But here it's laid out in its kernel form, and the thought is that the Holy Spirit is a divine person here on earth today to give guidance and direction. And if you go down a little bit farther here, well, actually we'll look at it in a moment in chapter, in chapter 16.
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We'll find that very directly said about what some of that guiding is.
But before we go on to that, I just want to consider, uh, one other part of this because you might say, well, if the word is a broad definition of meaning, is it possible that the Spirit of God is a comforter of a different sort?
In some ways I believe that Word of God teaches us that there are some differences, but as to a different sort, the answer is no. And that really is laid out in the 16th verse. He says He shall give you another comforter. He doesn't say he will give you a comforter. He says He will give you another comforter.
And I understand that that word, another really is stronger than we have in our Bibles. I'm told that the Greek word for that is Alice. That means another of the same kind. And if you were to go to, uh, in Galatians chapter one, you find that the apostle Paul is talking to the Galatians about how he marveled how soon they had been removed from that gospel that they had.
And what does he say there? He says into another.
Gospel. Now that is not the same word.
That another is the word I understand heteros, which means another of a different sort. And the apostle says you've been removed into another heterose of a different sort, another gospel, which is not another aloe. It's not another of the same kind, stronger in the Greek composed than what we have in our King James.
So what we have here is the Lord Jesus saying that I'm going to give you another comforter, another of the same kind.
This one like himself, that was going to be given to them. And so in this thought about where they should go and what they should do.
And the Lord says there will be one that I'm going to send and He's going to be given to answer that for you. Let's just go down to chapter 16.
John 16.
And.
In verse seven he says, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient that I go away, for if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And there are other verses that give the same line of things.
But we just go down to verse 12. The Lord Jesus says, I have yet many things to say unto you.
But you cannot bear them now. The Lord Jesus wasn't finished speaking. When he was a man here on earth, He had much more than he had to bring before the disciples, than he had to convey to all of us who would follow them. We are those who would believe.
On their word, as we had considered in John 17 and the Lord said, I'm going to speak about those things.
But what does He say here? She says You cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all the truth. For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come, and He shall glorify me, for He shall receive of Mine.
And shall show it unto you all things that the Father hath our mind. Therefore said I, that he shall take of mine.
And shall show it unto you.
Now this is the very first thing that the Spirit of God would guide in or lead in, and that is the word of God. And the Lord Jesus, of course, did go on to speak many things after he ascended, helping to glory. We have that in the book of Hebrews. God in this these last days has spoken unto us and the person of his Son. And then later on, I believe it's in chapter 12, it says, see that you're free. You refuse, not him.
Who now speaketh from heaven? And so the Lord Jesus ascended up, continued.
To speak those things which were from Himself, but He did it through the Holy Spirit and that is given to us complete and the revealed Word of God. We have the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ given by the Spirit of God in these pages. And today, now we have this ministry spoken of here that He will guide into all the truth.
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And so the number one thing when it comes to this subject of the leading of the Spirit.
After we understand that he is even here to leave is that He desires us to leave to lead us into the truth of God, and not just the truth of God generally, but the Lord Jesus says he shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine. That which concerns the Lord Jesus Christ is the primary ministry of the Holy Spirit of God, and He wants to take this precious word of God.
And from it, take all those things that are written about Christ and bring them home to each one of us so that we may know more of Him. That is the beginning of the leading of the Spirit of God. And we get a hold of that. Then it's really going to set the tone for everything else. What else is there of the leading of the Spirit of God? Whether it's in my life.
Individually or it's among the Lord's people collectively?
What else may there be? Well, there's no doubt plenty else.
But it will be of no value to me unless I have a concern to know what it is that the Spirit of God wants to lead me into in connection with the glory of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so we can't go beyond, but we can't go past that point where we consider the leading of the Spirit of God in our life. Really, He begins with Christ and everything else that comes after that. It comes as a secondary thing, although very important. Now I want to go and look at some of the direct scriptures that tell us some of these things in the different parts of our lives.
First of all, we can look at individual.
Umm, and then we can go on to the collective, like where do we have in the Word of God anything about the Spirit of God leading in the meeting that I referred to in Malawi? It's here. Word of God teaches us about that, but it's of no use to look at those things until we get the fundamentals first. And that's why we went through all that we have. But let's just go to Romans chapter 8.
Look at the individual first.
Romans 8, verse 14.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. If you say that the other way around, we're told in Galatians chapter 3, you're all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. It's the only way to be a son of God by faith in Jesus Christ. And so you can't take this verse in the wrong way and say, well, if you're going to follow the leading of the Spirit of God, then you're a son of God, no.
Scripture doesn't teach that and this first doesn't mean that with the verse is saying is as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
In other words, everyone is a child of God or a son of God is they have it here is led by the Spirit of God. You say, well, I don't know. I don't necessarily feel the leading of the Spirit in my life. Does that mean I'm not a son of God? No, that has nothing to do with what's being said here. This verse is an absolute statement of truth. Every single one.
Who is the Son of God is led by the Spirit of God, without exception.
That's what the Spirit of God does. We just have that. That's His ministry here on earth. He leaves. Whether or not we follow is a whole other matter. It's a different question, but here we find that He leaves and.
Because He leads, we therefore know that in our lives there is such a thing as a leading of the Spirit. This first tells us so in very clear terms.
And that does lead to the other question, will I follow? Now there's another question many other people ask, and that is how do I know about the leading of the spirit? How do I know what he's saying? And these are my purpose to go into the all the practical applications. This can take a whole another meeting on that. But I just want to share something that a brother who is here today.
Shared with us just a couple of weeks ago that I thought was very helpful. There's many helpful points on this, but he referred us back to.
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First Samuel chapter 3 and how Samuel didn't know the voice of the Lord at first.
And I, I was glad he mentioned that it was very helpful because this is, uh, subject in the word of God that really is experimental. How does God speak to us by his spirit? The word of God doesn't say exactly how he does it. It gives a lot of examples. It speaks about a still small voice in First Kings. It speaks about, uh, guiding with his eye.
A voice behind all kinds of ways are presented in Scripture. But you remember Samuel? He didn't know.
The voice of the Lord at first. And so he asked Eli, what is this? And Eli perceived what it was. He says, when you hear that again, he says, you go and say speak Lord, but I serve and heareth. Well, Samuel wasn't sure a background, so he was he just said what he was sure of, which is a good idea. We can take off with God where we are. He just says, speak with thy servant, heareth.
And the Lord spoke to him, and before long Samuel knew exactly the voice of the Lord.
And he learned what it was to hear that voice, and he knew what that was in his life, but he learned it directly and by experiment, or might say by experience from the Lord Himself. And I believe that when we go and we walk with the Lord, the number one thing is to do what we already have presented to us. We follow the leading of the Spirit as to the truth of God. He wants to take the precious truth of God and show us Christ. And in doing that.
We will walk in communion with the Lord and He will make Himself known to us. And don't doubt it. The number one thing with any part of Scripture is to take it up by faith and those who doubt the fact that the Spirit of God is the divine person on earth.
It typically is connected with this very point that it's connected to faith. We don't see him, He's not here. I don't hear him speaking to me. Who is different from when the Lord Jesus was on earth? The disciples.
See him and hear him. He could tell them exactly what to do. But it's different, isn't it? We don't see the Spirit of God here telling us exactly what to do. I didn't see him tell a brother to get up and pray or give out of him. And so how do I know that? I know it one way, That is by the Scripture. And that's why we take up the doctrine. We need to see it here.
As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. So you lay hold of that by faith, and you say the word of God tells me that God has said it.
And therefore so and I'll wait on him to find out what he's going to say to me and how he's going to lead me.
And then I will know what about in the assembly. Well, what about gifts and take off that part because we have that's that's also individual. Before we even get to the assembly. We have that which the Lord has given us a gift and we find in the word of God very directly presented that the Spirit of God is the one who leads in the exercise of that as well. The Lord Jesus ascended up into heaven as the one who gave them that we.
Ephesians chapter four, he gives those gifts, but we have the Spirit of God who is the one who ministers them and let's just look over and 1St Corinthians chapter 12.
1St Corinthians 12.
Verse one Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. I was going to say something about this and notice before we go on that gift is in italics. It really doesn't belong there. It's spiritual. You might say manifestations think spiritual is how.
Maybe it's the closest, but that doesn't make a lot of sense in English. So spiritual things.
Is perhaps the best thought here. He's going to talk about spiritual things. He says. I would not have you ignorant. You know that you were gentiles carried away unto these dumb idols. Note what it says next, even as you were led. Interesting, isn't it? Before we were saved we were led to, and that was led by dumb idols. It's not the only thing idols that can leave an unbeliever.
Or, sadly, a believer. When we're away from the Lord, that can be, of course. We can be LED astray of our own thoughts, our own flesh, and even worse. But he's directly drawing a contrast here between what he's going to tell them about spiritual things and the way they had been LED before, which is by dumb idols. Idols that could not speak.
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And he goes on. He speaks then about these gifts that have been given.
And he then goes through a number of these different gifts. And I just want to notice what it says after he comes to the end of that, the end of verse 10.
Really the beginning of verse 11 he says, but all these worketh that one and the self same spirit dividing to every man severally as he will. Now he says when it comes to guests that have been given us the Spirit of God now who exercises them not only in the.
An abundance of them, but the exercise of them, everything about them. It's the Spirit of God who's directing and that gift is the gift of an evangelist. The Spirit of God directs in that gift. The evangelist doesn't go out on his own and just say, well, take the word of God and just do my best. No, he waits on the Spirit of God to help, to guide, to direct.
In his footsteps, is it one who's a teacher or a prophet or any of the other gifts that are mentioned?
They all wait on the Spirit of God and as we're told in first Peter, as each of you have received a gift to let a minister, every single one of us has to has received a gift. And it's the Spirit of God that leads in that. And so whether it's our personal life as we had in Romans 8, or whether it's a gift that we've been given from God himself.
We find very directly that it's the Spirit of God who leads.
And the activity of that guest, the youth and the carrying out of it. And we get this very directly to in Chapter 14 of just go there for a moment for some examples worked out in practice here. And I just want to look at 1:00 because I think it's sufficient, uh, for the time that we have it says about the profits.
And it says in verse 29 that the prophets speak two or three.
And let the others judge if anything be revealed to another that sitteth by. That's the first hold his peace. Well, who's going to reveal that? Is there somebody walking around the meeting to say, OK, now I'm giving you something to speak about here?
No, we don't have that. If we understood anything of the doctrine, we know that there is a pair of plitos, a comforter, the Spirit of God Himself, who is given to have that role.
In the meeting to come and do this. And so it's a very vivid example. We could go and find many more examples too in the exercise. If you go right through the book of Acts, you find the Spirit of God directing where Paul should go and what he should do and speaking directly by various means to give that guidance and the exercise of his gift. So no question about this ministry of the Holy Spirit when it comes to.
The exercise of gifts. And here we have it in a collective way, isn't it?
It's not just individual exercise at all here because this is one who administer as a prophet in the assembly and the Holy Spirit is shown here to be, uh, acting in the assembly. And so it's very clear that this is the ministry, the present ministry and operation of the Holy Spirit of God and earth when it comes to leading. What about worship?
Well, that's clear as well. Have we gone on a little bit further and and John chapter four, we find that the Lord Jesus speaks about the.
Worship in spirit and in truth. And while he doesn't dare say it's the Spirit, he's speaking about spiritual worship. I don't doubt that maybe the primary thought there is it's by our spirit. But the spiritual thing, no question that our spirit is working together. And I take it with the Holy Spirit because that's who was introduced in that chapter. He is the spring of worship.
But to see the point made very directly, let's go to Philippians Chapter 3.
Philippians 3 and verse three it says we have a circumcision which worship God in the spirit.
And so on. Really that should be, you can look it up in the J&D translation says worship by the Spirit of God. And so it's by the Spirit of God that we worship in our spirits and everything that we do.
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In spiritual things, because that's really the full meaning of what we had in First Corinthians 12. It's the Spirit of God who leads in that, and we get our leading and our guidance from Him.
Now I just want to go on and mention two other things briefly. We won't turn to them because our time is gone, but the Word of God brings in two negative things with the leading of the Spirit as well, and we really need to consider that.
Now the first one that I would refer to is in Ephesians chapter 4 says and grieve not the Holy Spirit.
It says we're not to grieve him. You know you grieve the Holy Spirit when you do something that he doesn't want you to do.
First Thessalonians chapter 5 gives the corresponding passage. And that is quench, not the Spirit. That is, the Spirit wants to use us. He wants to use us to do something. He's leading, He's guiding, He's directing, and he wants to use you or myself in a certain way. And I say no, I'm not doing it. And what have I done?
I've quenched the Spirit of God. So what? We don't do what He wants us to do.
We quench him when we do what he doesn't want us to do. We grieve him. And each of these things are possible in our lives well.
Perhaps I'll stop with that, go on about many examples in scripture of how this actually works out in practice, but that's of no use unless we get the doctrine, unless we see that the scripture teaches.
That the Spirit of God is indeed here as a divine person on earth today, and He does have this ministry of leading believers in both an individual and a collective way. And then to have the faith, understanding that to trust that God can make himself known, that He can lead me in my personal life and that He can lead me as to the exercise of gift that he.
Believe me as to maybe speaking in a meeting or any other aspect that may come in in my Christian life.
Then we can wait on Him and allow Him to workout all that part of it. And yes, we can get good examples in Scripture in that as well, but it's sufficient at least to see the principle and then wait on the Lord for the rest. So let's just close in prayer. Our God and our loving Father, we just thank Thee so much for.
Thy precious word, we thank Thee for that gift that has been given of the Holy Spirit.
Poured out that One who has been given to abide with us forever. We thank Thee so much that He is here to guide each one of us in Thy truth and to lead us in every part of our lives. We thank Thee that He is taking of Thy word and writing in our hearts day by day.
That precious truth regarding the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And that each day He writes Him, and He transforms us as we see His glory, and He transforms us even more from glory into glory into His image. We thank Thee for that ministry, and we pray that Thou would help us to realize more of it, that it would have its place in our lives, and that we would live.
In the power of thy spirit.
And following His leading each and every day, we commit this meeting to Thee. We pray that if there are have been those things which were not for myself, that they would fall to the ground. And that which is from Thee, we pray that it would go into each one of our hearts. We ask it in the name and for the glory of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.