Changes Produced in us by The Holy Spirit

Introduction: Major Principles of Christian Living and the Reality of Tension

0:03 This adult Sunday school class was held on June 20th, 1982 at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now we return again this morning to our study in a very broad and vital theme of the Word of God, a subject that we are handling under the general title of Major Principles of Living the Christian Life. And in handling this subject, we have a three-fold goal. We want to sketch in a working, a practical theology of living the Christian life.

0:39 We desire to immunize you against many of the errors that are presently plaguing the Church, and some of which have plagued the Church throughout its history with respect to living the Christian life, and then also, perhaps by the blessing of God, to purge out any erroneous thinking that may be resident in your mind, and thus far in our study, we have considered two of these major principles. The first one being...

1:10 Why, that's a lovely new blackboard. Thank you, deacons. I thought the thing had stretched some, and I just noticed all kinds of new knobs and all the rest. All right?

1:21 The first major principle of the Christian life that we examined is... Anyone from the class? All right?

1:28 All right, there is no one master... or key to living the Christian life.

1:38 All right? That's Martin's shorthand. Okay? Now, the second major principle that we are presently considering is someone from this side of the class.

1:52 All right, Howard? All right, no release from tension and conflict in living the Christian life. And we hope to conclude our study of this principle this morning. Now, what we have done, since this is such a vital principle, we've spent more time...

2:10 We've spent more time on this one than we'll spend on anyone in this series of studies. And we are considering the reasons why this principle is valid. And thus far, we've examined three of these principles, and they are the teaching of the Word of God with respect to what? Number one, why there is no release from tension and conflict in living the Christian life.

Three Reasons for Inevitable Tension and Conflict

2:35 Jerry? All right, the reality, the activity of individualism, indwelling sin. Sin will be a reality for the most mature believer. It will be a reality up to the moment of his death or up until the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

2:53 And because of that reality, because indwelling sin is always active and always powerful, Romans 7 and Galatians 5, there can be no release from tension and conflict because there is no release from indwelling sin. All right? Second, reason, which establishes our principle. Yes, Jerry?

3:14 All right. There is the pressure of the world. So the world system is constantly pressuring us, seeking to squeeze us into its mold, and the Lord has not immunized us from that pressure. He has not insulated us from it.

3:32 He has not taken us out of it. And so because the world is constant, incessant in its attempt to squeeze us into its mold, if we are determined to live as the citizens of another world, in this world system, there can be no release from tension and conflict. And then the third factor, which makes this principle true, is,

3:57 all right, Denise? All right, the activity of the devil, which according to such passages as 1 Peter 5 and verse 8, is both vicious and aggressive. Your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion, and walks about seeking whom he may devour. And there's nothing in the scripture to indicate that anyone ever reaches such a pinnacle or plateau of Christian experience that he is out of reach of this vicious, devouring activity of the devil.

4:30 There's not a hint in scripture that the only perfect man after Adam fell was ever present on the face of the earth, even our incarnate Lord. The devil did not think it beyond his best interest. Vicious attacks upon men to come to our Lord himself and attempt to seduce our Lord, to induce him to sin. And if our Lord was not exempt, even though there was no indwelling sin in him, then who are we to think that we will ever be exempt from this activity of the devil?

Resisting the Devil: Watchfulness and Decisiveness

5:04 And as long as there is an active devil, there can be no release from tension and conflict in living the Christian life. Now then, to conclude, our consideration, and then we'll take up the fourth reason for this principle, what I want to do is just read a couple of pages from a recently reprinted commentary on the book of James that perhaps more accurately and comprehensively than anything I have come across summarizes everything we have seen in the scriptures with respect to the activity of the devil and our responsibility as believers in the light of that activity. We saw in our study last, there is no scriptural indications that we are to talk to the devil, no warrant for rebuking the devil, and we saw that in every passage in which the activity of the devil is brought forward as a reality in relationship to the believer, it is in a context in which the believer is called to deal with the devil in terms of the pursuit of a life of humility, of prayerfulness, and universal holiness. And John Stone, in his commentary on the book of James, commenting on the verse, Resist the devil and he will flee from you, has captured the essence of all of the things that it took us about an entire class to consider. Now those who desire to submit themselves to God, quoting from James chapter 4,

6:32 must energetically resist the devil, for he makes the fiercest struggles to keep his subjects, and even after they have escaped, to the devil, to drag them back into the kingdom of darkness. This cruel, cunning, powerful foe must be resisted in the divine strength obtained by the power of faith. And then quoting Ephesians 6, the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God. I'm sorry, that's 2 Corinthians 10.

7:04 Not otherwise. He has provided for us all needed weapons for offense and armor for defense. Let us then put on the whole armor of God, and then he quotes the Ephesians 6 passage. Thus arrayed, let us be watchful, knowing that at any moment, from any quarter, with the most varied weapons and in the most varied guises, our fell adversary may be upon us.

7:34 Let us watch the avenues where we know our position to be weak. Let us watch the sides, too, where we think, where we think ourselves to be strong. Watch the avenues where we know ourselves to be weak. Watch the sides where we think ourselves to be strong.

7:52 Not without profound significance and tender grace was it written aforetime for our learning that Abraham, preeminently a man of faith, told a lie through faithless cowardice, that Moses, habitually the meekest of men, sinned through impatience with his brethren. That Peter, the bold and loving, denied his master. One can imagine a sentry on a post of danger to be faithful, and yet to betray the position by unduly narrowing the area to which he directs his attention. See what he's saying?

8:29 Here's a man who's not asleep at his post, but he's watching only one dimension of the whole area that he is to guard. And he can betray his trust by narrowing the field, the field of his concentration. Look at him. Every look, every motion, betokens concentration of his thoughts and feelings on the danger which impends.

8:54 Perhaps he is motionless. But it is only that his eye may be the more steadfastly fixed upon the point from which the enemy's approach is apprehended. You can see at a glance that he's ready for even the faintest intimation of a moving object on that horizon. But while he stands like a statue, behind him are forms, becoming every moment more and more defined.

9:16 He hears them not, because their step is noiseless. He sees them not, because his eye and all of his faculties are employed in an opposite direction. And while he strains every sense to catch the first intimations of approaching danger, it is creeping stealthily behind him. And when at last his ear distinguishes the tramp of armed men, it is too late, for a hostile hand is already on his shoulder, and if his life is spared, it is only to be overpowered and disarmed.

9:49 You catch the vivid imagery? There's a man who's all eagerness in watching, but he's narrowed down the field of his vision. He does not periodically peer 360 degrees from every direction, which might mean a possible approach of his enemy. And this is the exhortation that Johnstone is giving to us, that in our watchfulness with respect to our adversaries, the devil, we must not watch only our weaknesses, but our strengths as well.

10:20 And then he makes this point that is so helpful. When the enemy does appear, brethren, let there be no dallying with him. If we give place to the devil, granting him room to stand with us and negotiate, we are in the most peril. On many subjects, second thoughts are best, but in matters of moral, moral duty, the first thought of a person whose conscience is reasonably enlightened are almost always true thoughts.

10:53 If second thoughts be waited for, they often bring in worldly considerations and tend toward a compromise. Now that's an unusually perceptive insight. You think in your own experience most of your troubles come on moral and ethical issues when you do not follow, follow your reflexive spiritual instincts concerning the rightness or wrongness of a contemplated course of action. And when you give yourself time to consider, you're giving yourself time to rationalize and to equivocate, and you leave yourself vulnerable to the ongoing attacks of the devil.

11:36 And then he goes on to say, when Satan finds that first clear, instinctive know of the conscience, as the utterance of a strong will which holds to its words, he knows well that his efforts are in vain with that soul, for it is God's spirit that has made the will strong. If prayerfully and watchfully we resist the devil, he will flee from us. And then he goes on to amplify that this is precisely what our Lord did in the wilderness. At the first approach of the devil, he stood his ground with respect to the revealed will of God in Scripture, and that was the end of the discussion.

The Dynamics of Holy Spirit-Produced Changes as a Source of Tension

12:17 And so must we, as we seek by the grace of God in the consciousness there will be no relief from tension and conflict because of the activity of the devil, by the grace of God to resist him. Now then, we come forth and finally to this fourth principle which establishes, I'm sorry, this fourth fact which establishes our principle that there can be no release from tension and conflict in living the Christian life, and it's what I have entitled The Dynamics of the Changes Produced by the Holy Spirit. The Dynamics of the Changes Produced in Us by the Holy Spirit. Now the word dynamics is defined in the dictionary as the forces at work in any given field. You will hear someone speak about the dynamics of international politics, that is the forces that are operative. When the great leaders of the earth come together for a summit meeting. When various ambassadors gather to discuss international problems and tensions.

13:24 The forces operative between them are the dynamics of international politics. You might hear someone talk about the dynamics of group interaction, the forces that are operative when a group of people are together such as we are in this class. What constitutes the forces of the interplay of one mind with another, and a group of minds together occupied with the same concerns. So, in using the term dynamics, I'm using it in that sense.

13:57 We are addressing ourselves to the forces that are at work in the believer because the Holy Spirit has wrought some marvelous changes in him. Now, when we are born of the Spirit of God, God begins his work in us, which according to the Scripture, when completed, will result in what? When God is done with us, his work in us, what will the result be? Jerry?

14:28 And how do you know that? Ah, you broke one of the rules. He who asserts must demonstrate. Someone bailed Jerry out.

14:40 He went halfway and he made a true statement, but now he needs the passage which says, Total. Total moral conformity to Jesus Christ is that which God intends when he begins his work of grace in us. All right, Andy? All right, Romans 8, 29.

14:57 Read it for us, if you will, please.

15:01 All right, and read on to verse 30, if you will, please, Andy. All right, now you'll see there's a parallel between the term glorified and the language of verse 29 conformed to the image of his Son. So here we are informed that God's purpose is nothing less than the conformation of the believer in the totality of what he is to the image or the likeness of Jesus Christ. Now that does not mean that whatever the physical characteristics of the face and body of our Lord are as to size and shape and dimension, we will bear a physical resemblance in that sense, but it does mean conformity, body and spirit, to the moral perfections of our glorified Lord. And that's God's purpose. And when we are born of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the earnest, the araban,

16:23 the down payment, the pledge, the earnest money that this goal will one day be fully realized. Now when you pay earnest money, you're giving a part of the entire payment that you intend to give at the completion of the financial transaction. And so the Spirit of God is given to us as an earnest, as a down payment, as a pledge, that the work begun in us will indeed result in perfection. That perfection not being Godhood.

16:58 Now that's the cursed teaching of the Mormons. Now they don't parade that when they're young, clean-faced, dark-suited, quote, elders come to the door and tell you they are ministers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They don't tell you that, but that is official Mormon teaching. That we shall all ultimately be gods.

17:18 And it's polytheistic, it's pagan, it's not a Christian religion. Sorry to be so blunt, but facts are facts. All right? Now, we are not going to be little gods.

17:29 We will always be creatures. We will always be redeemed. We will always be redeemed sinners. But we shall be redeemed sinners, creatures of God conformed to the moral likeness of Jesus Christ.

17:43 Another passage that makes this very clear is Ephesians 5. Christ gave himself to the Church for what purpose? That he might sanctify, have him cleansed, that he might present it to himself. A glorious Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, this is the purpose of God in Jesus Christ for every sinner.

Four Unfulfilled Longings that Create Tension

18:08 Now, the presence of the Spirit is the down payment. But not only is the Spirit within us the down payment, but the Spirit within us has given us longings and passion to be that which we one day shall be. Now, in that state of perfection, some of the things we will enjoy are, number one, perfection and holiness. Perfection and holiness.

18:38 Whatever graces will be present in heaven, the grace of repentance will no longer be needed. We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Now, get the picture. If we are marked for perfection, alright, and if here and now the Holy Spirit has come to indwell us as down payment of that which we shall be, and has created holy longings for what we shall be, do you see why there can be no release from tension and conflict?

19:13 Will we ever have the fulfillment of our deepest longings while we are yet in the flesh? No. Well, what creates greater tension than unfulfilled longings? Some of you know what that is, don't you?

19:29 Unfulfilled longings, longings that are legitimate and God-given, are painful. They can be described as nothing less than moral and spiritual pain. And that's why there can be no release from tension and conflict. We're marked for perfection.

19:45 We shall one day be perfect. The Holy Spirit who will effect that transformation in us, in our glorification, dwells within us, prodding us, as it were, giving us holy longings, giving us, may I say reverently, and we'll see that this is scriptural imagery, birth pangs for that which we shall be. For that which we shall one day be, but we are not yet there. So we come to a passage such as Philippians chapter 3, and we find something of that tension and conflict in the language of the Apostle Paul.

20:16 Philippians chapter 3, verse 12. Having spoken of that which he shall be at the resurrection, he says in verse 12, Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect, but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which I was also laid hold on by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not count myself to have yet laid hold, but one thing I do, forgetting the things that are behind and stretching forward to the things that are before, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. So here he is. Conscious he is not yet what he shall be, and yet he is pressing towards it, amidst the reality of indwelling sin, the pressure of the world, the activity of the devil, and now these dynamics of the changes wrought within him add to the tension and conflict, because he longs for the perfection that will one day be his, but is not now his own experience. Another characteristic of that state, will be uninterrupted communion with God, what is of greater delight to the healthy soul of a Christian

21:43 than communion with God. Child of God, think back now on some of those periods through which you have come, in which you may have had many external trials, financial, physical, social, pressure, but those seasons in which your communion with God was most real and constant, were they not your most blessed seasons, no matter what the external circumstances were? Some of us can think of seasons of unusual physical trials, and we would be willing to undergo them again if we could know something in our ordinary more healthy days of the communion we experienced with God. This is life eternal, John 17, 3, that they may know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. The healthy soul of a Christian can say with dignity, in the language of Psalm 23, Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none that I desire upon the earth besides thee. God himself and the enjoyment of communion with him is the great delight of a Christian. And in that consummation, we shall enjoy that communion without interruption.

22:56 It says his servants shall see him, they shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he go, there will be no need of a temple, no place where there is special communion, for God himself will dwell with them, and be their God, and they shall be his people. That's the great promise of heaven in its consummate joy and bliss. Now do you see why there can be no release from tension and conflict? When you've got a creature who longs for that perfect, uninterrupted, unclouded communion, who has little taste of that sheer delight of communion with God now, but the levels of his communion with God vary like this.

23:41 How can there be release from tension and conflict as long as this situation obtains when God has placed within that redeemed sinner a longing, a passionate longing for uninterrupted communion with himself? There can be no release from tension and conflict. Cannot be! Because all of these factors are constantly being pumped in to this very sensitive area of our communion with God.

24:10 And there are times when we are so ashamed because we have fallen before some dimension of indwelling sin, or we've allowed the world to so spoil our taste for holy things that we come into the presence of God with a conscience full of accusation, with a heart that is filled with a sense of reluctance, even to draw near to God. And there is that consciousness that our communion with him is not what it ought to be and not what it one day shall be. Pastor Clark, did you have a passage you were going to? Oh, all right.

24:49 I saw you turn to a passage and I thought you might be waiting for an opportunity to... Yes, that's one of the passages we're going to come to in a bit.

25:01 Good, you're anticipating. All right, very good. All right, now a third thing that we'll have in that consummate, in that state of the consummation of redemption, not only moral perfection, uninterrupted communion, but unflagging zeal in the service of God. Now, when the Holy Spirit comes to regenerate a man, he implants within his heart a longing to love God with all his heart, mind, soul, and what's the next word?

25:32 Strength! Strength! Now, you can't love God with all your strength unless this physical frame with the delicate interplay of mind and body, the tangible, the intangible, the psychosomatic entity and interpenetration. You cannot love God with all your strength while in this very body there are still the actings of sin and the effects of sin.

26:03 And one of the most painful things to a true believer is that while he longs to serve God with all of his might and zeal, with unflagging zeal, he is consciously and constantly brought to the awareness of 2 Corinthians 4, 17, the outward man is decaying. The outward man is decaying. And where in his heart he may feel what we might call a thousand watts of spiritual energy to serve God, all he can get over the wires of this frail humanity is about 23. And he feels that frustration.

26:47 He would pray longer and with greater zeal, but after half an hour he gets sleepy like the disciples. And he's ashamed because God has implanted within him a longing to serve God with something more than that. Those of us who are called to preach, there are times when the truth of God so burns in our hearts we wish we had a voice as loud as a thousand trumpets to proclaim it. We wish we could have a voice that at times would come down like thunderclaps on the ears of men and that other times would be like the sweetest of music to entice men to consider the loveliness of Christ.

27:28 And yet we find having to work with the apparatus we have, the mind affected by the limitations of our present state and by sin and a body with vocal cords that at times give out and stomach muscles that give out, we just feel a terrible frustration that we cannot do justice to the glorious truths we're trying to convey because we're conveying them with such frail apparatus. We have the treasure in clay vessels, Paul says. Clay vessels. Again in 2 Corinthians.

28:02 So you see, how can there be release from tension? Unless you're going to be content to serve God with your present level of strength and zeal, you're going to have tension. You can't help but feel tension. And finally, there will be undimmed perception of the truth of God in the consummation.

28:18 Undimmed perception of the truth of God. We will no longer in the language of 1 Corinthians 13 see through a glass darkly. Now we see, thank God, but he says we see through a glass darkly. But then, face to face.

28:38 No longer this clouded, clouded knowledge of God. Accurate as far as it goes. But we shall see face to face. Now when the Holy Spirit comes to envelop us, he gives us a longing for that undimmed perception of truth.

28:53 To have all the cobwebs taken out of our minds with respect to God and his glorious attributes and the interaction of his sovereignty. And yet at the same time, my responsibility as a creature, things that tremendously perplex me, they come to us now. We shall not have the mind of God in that day and become omniscient. No.

29:17 But we shall have all of the effects of sin taken from the noetic, from the whole area of the thinking processes. Well, if that's true, you see why there has to be tension and conflict? Because we've got a longing for that now. And there are things we ponder and wrestle over and pray over and we can't seem to bring them together.

29:40 And just when we think we see something here, we come across something else in the word over here that says, no, that conclusion can only be tentative. And there's that pressing after the full knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. But thank God we shall come to a level of it in that day in which the cobwebs will be taken away and it's my own conviction and I think it can be supported from the scriptures so I'll not take time to do it. But whereas there will be a radical difference, there will be a radical difference between our knowledge here and our knowledge the moment we look upon him, that knowledge will not be static.

30:16 God has made our minds to grow. And one of the glories of heaven is that there will be increasing intellectual perception of God and of all reality for all eternity. And because God is infinite, we'll never exhaust him. And because we are finite, we'll never become God.

30:34 Now, if you want something to blow your head, go home and think about that for a while. I find it a most salutary thing to dwell upon this aspect. Well, now in the light of those things and other things could be mentioned, but I wanted to flesh out what I meant by the dynamics of the changes wrought in us by the Holy Spirit. Do you see why there can be no release from tension and conflict in living the Christian life?

30:58 Those dynamics have produced within us the down payment and longing for what we shall be in the state of perfection, creatures of moral perfection, creatures in whom there is uninterrupted communion with God, unflagging zeal in the service of God, undimmed perception of the truth of God. And while we cannot have those things now, we shall have them. We long for them. And that reality produces the validity of our principle.

2 Corinthians 5:1-5: Groaning as a Mark of the Spirit's Presence

31:31 No release from tension and conflict. Now, the two key passages I ask you to look up and consider if you had time, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Let's look at this one and then the Romans 8 passage. Alright, 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

31:53 Alright, Jeff, would you read for us please the first five verses. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven.

32:20 It so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For indeed we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened. Not for that we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life. Now he that wrought us for this very thing is God, who gave unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

32:45 Alright, do you see in these verses a distillation of everything we've been establishing this morning? Here the apostle describes himself along with his fellow believers as those who are in what kind of a state? What's the key word? A what kind of state, Frank?

33:03 Okay, alright, someone that got the question. What kind of a state are we in, Jane? Earthly, yes, but an earthly state which produces a condition of, Andy? Groaning.

33:20 Groaning. Now the word groan, what does that have to do? With delight? With pain?

33:25 Or pleasure? Groaning. We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened. Now that sounds to me an awful lot like tension and conflict, disappointment, unfulfilled aspirations and longing.

33:45 That does not sound to me like someone who had learned, quote, the secret of the victorious life. Who knew nothing but unmingled, uninterrupted joy and peace and happiness in the Holy Ghost. Now if there is such a secret of such a life, Paul never learned it. Andy never taught it.

34:06 And when people learn stuff Paul didn't and teach stuff he didn't, I'm scared of it. That was the thing that finally released me from giving myself to the deeper life teaching to which I was exposed and tried desperately to espouse. It was passages such as these. I said, these people are saying they've got something Paul didn't have.

34:26 And they're teaching something he didn't teach. And God nowhere said that they were apostles who wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but he has established that with regard to Paul. So I reject their teaching as being unbiblical. Now that does not mean I reject their persons as being unchristian.

34:46 See the difference? We're separating personalities from principles. The teacher from the thing taught. And here the apostle says we that are in this tent, this present state of existence, do groan being burdened.

35:01 Now that cuts two ways. It says if you're content in this present state, you are probably not a Christian. The mark of a worldling who is still a child of the devil is their portion is in this life. That's the word they described in Psalm 73.

35:19 So if you sit here this morning and say, this tension, conflict, what in the world is that preacher talking about? I mean, life's been good to me. I have reasonably good health, my bills are paid, got a good wife, couple of nice kids, nice home, everything's fine. My friend, if everything's fine, it's because you're so blinded by the devil, you're his dupe and his lackey.

35:40 You're his slave. Don't pride yourself in that state. So it cuts that way, exposing the fallacy of a worldling's contentment. And on the other hand, it cuts the error of perfectionism in all of its kinds that says we can attain to a level of Christian experience here and now in which there is no tension and conflict.

36:04 No, this passage says, if we are believers who have, notice verse 6, the earnest of the spirit, Paul gives that as the bottom line as to why he's in this condition. He says, he that wrought us for this very thing is God who gave us the earnest, the down payment, the initial installment of the Holy Spirit. And in that condition is one born of the spirit with these longings for what he will one day be. He says, until we attain to it, we are in a burdened, groaning state.

36:41 Now does that mean the apostle went around with a long face and every time you met him and said, how are you doing brother Paul? Oh, terrible. Oh, terrible. I mean, did he go around proving that he was in a groaning state?

36:58 No, I doubt that was true. There's nothing to indicate that in the little biographical glimpses we get of the apostle in the book of Acts and in his epistles. He said the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. But his inward disposition and no doubt one upon which he reflected himself consciously was aware.

37:22 Every day was that groaning and there were probably times in his secret place of prayer if you and I could have walked by and put our ear to the door where he shut himself in to pray with God, we would have heard him groaning. Oh God, how long? Oh God, how long must I, Paul, experience the pain of a heart that wants to serve you with unflagging zeal? But I have a body and a present state of affairs that will not allow me the luxury of serving you as I long to and as I one day shall.

Romans 8:18-23: Creation and Believers Groaning with the Spirit's Firstfruits

38:02 We that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened. Alright, do you see the teaching in that passage? Any question on it in that passage? Alright, let's turn over to the other key passage, Romans chapter 8, and this is of particular significance because what is the chapter that many deeper life teachers major on in their teaching?

38:27 Well, if you don't know it, I'm going to tell you. It's Romans 8. You're told, get out of Romans 7 and into Romans 8. Get out of the conflict of Romans 7 and into the life and the spirit in Romans 8.

38:43 How many have ever heard or read such teaching? Alright, so, now the rest of you, hold your hands up, alright? The rest of you look around so you know I'm not creating straw men, straw dummies, okay? There's a real dummy out there, alright?

38:56 He's not straw. He's not straw, alright? Now, in this very chapter which speaks of the reality of the spirit's present work and of his future work, and this is particularly underscored in the first 11 verses, in this very chapter, notice what the apostle says beginning now with verse 18. Here some try to prove, you know, that Paul must have been a southerner.

39:25 He said, For I reckon, alright? For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed to us-ward. For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the revealing of the sons of God. Now, he's going to show that there is an interplay between the state of the sons of God and the state and condition of the whole creation.

39:55 And the whole created order is waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. That's a term which is describing that which in other places is called glorification. When the sons of God will be revealed for what they truly are. And that will not be done until the Lord returns and we are glorified with him.

40:16 Then it shall be manifested in the language of 1 John 3 what we really are. The world doesn't know us. They look at us and say, who are you? Say, I'm a child of God.

40:25 Joined heir with Jesus Christ. Indwelt by the Holy Spirit. They say, no, you're nothing but a religious nut. But a pie in the sky religion.

40:33 That's all you are. They don't know who we are. We know, but they don't. But it says in that day we shall be manifested.

40:42 And all creation will see and know what we are. All right? So the whole creation is waiting for the revealing the manifestation of the sons of God. Now why is this true?

40:53 Verse 20 will explain. For the creation was subjected to vanity not of its own will. The created order did not rise up against God and become subject to vanity the influences and effects of the curse. But by reason of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

41:21 The earth was cursed for man's sake. Do you remember after the fall God came and said to Adam cursed is the ground for thy sake. And so the effects of sin have touched the whole created order because man sinned and fell from God. Verse 22.

41:40 We know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. So this created order is a cursed order with all of its beauty and harmony. There are constant reminders of the fact that it's a cursed earth. All we need is an earthquake that swallows up whole towns and tragically snuffs out hundreds and thousands of lives or a tornado or a typhoon.

42:08 And we know something of the reality of this passage. The whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. But now look at verse 23. And not only so but ourselves also who have the first fruits of the spirit even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for our adoption that is the full manifestation of the privileges of adoption to wit the redemption of our body.

42:44 Do you see what he's saying? There's a groaning and travailing creation waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. When they are glorified the world will be released from the curse under which it has been placed for man's sake. And so Peter tells us at the return of Christ he will come with flaming fire not only to take vengeance on his enemies 2 Thessalonians 1 but he will renovate the existing order and there will be ushered in a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness.

43:19 And so the creation is groaning travailing waiting for that hour. But not only do you have a groaning and travailing creation you have groaning believers. And not only so but we ourselves also. And why do we groan?

43:36 Because we have the first fruits of the spirit. You see why I talked about the dynamics of the change wrought in us by the Holy Spirit? We groan because of the spirit. In other words the mark of the presence of the spirit is not being lifted above groaning but being brought into a state of continued groaning.

43:59 Now before the spirit came to indwell us we knew what it was like to groan when we didn't get the promotion we had worked for and hoped for and planned for. We knew what it was to groan at financial disappointment social disappointment personal frustration. We knew what it was to groan about many things. But before you were a believer before you were born of the spirit of God did you ever groan because you couldn't serve God with greater zeal?

44:30 No, you didn't care to even serve Him with the measure of zeal and strength you already had. You're just concerned to serve yourself. And if I'm talking to someone this morning who's only concerned to serve himself my friend, that's the mark the clear evidence you're not a Christian. You're living unto yourself.

44:47 But Paul says we have the first fruits of the spirit. The spirit of God has regenerated us. We have received the gift of the spirit and he has put within us the longings for the things we will one day know and experience. The result is the unfulfilled longings produces groanings.

45:05 Even we ourselves who have the first fruit of the spirit groan within ourselves waiting for this our adoption the consummate joy and privilege of the adopted state namely the redemption of God. Our bodies. So for anyone to say that he has attained to a state of the fullness of the spirit that has lifted him above groaning you know that either he's poorly describing what he's experienced or he's deluded. The more you are full of the spirit not only will you have more joy more love more peace more long suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness Galatians 5, 22 and 23 you're going to have more groaning. More groaning. Not less. More groaning.

45:55 Because the more you are full of the spirit the more you're going to long for everything God's marked you out to be. And the more keenly you will feel every deviation from that. You see it's the spirit-filled person who has the most sensitive conscience who blushes and weeps over things that don't even make other men twitch. You think of that.

46:22 So you measure your Christian life among other things measured by this measured by this to what extent are you growing in holy groaning? Can you say I groan long for the adoption? Or you like it pretty much down here the way it is? You're pretty comfortable?

The Paradox of Spiritual Growth: Higher Standards, Deeper Groaning

46:41 Business as usual? Conscience feels at rest because you sit under a true ministry and go to a church that believes the Bible? Do you know anything at this groaning? You say, Pastor Martin I thought there was something wrong with me.

46:56 It seems the more progress I attempt to make the more I see how much I haven't made. And I wonder if there's any progress at all. Well, let me let you in. I'm not on a secret but on something that ought to be very evident to you.

47:08 They don't use the word secrets around here. We have no secrets. No mystery religion. This will get cured after a few washings.

47:15 Some of you may be thinking what kind of chintzy blackboard did we get?

47:22 If you ask me if I'm a mind reader I say no because my mind thought the same thing. Then I remembered blackboards operate that way until they're washed a few times. So it's a good blackboard. It improves us in time.

47:35 All right? I had occasion the other day in counseling with someone to point out this principle and I have just a couple of minutes now and I want to lay it before you if I can visually. You see, when we first embark upon the Christian life we have an understanding that the level of conduct attitude and disposition God requires of us is here. Now as we begin to walk and live as Christians several things happen.

48:15 We begin by the grace of God to make some progress in the direction of that standard while at the same time the Holy Spirit is illuminating our minds more and more to the fullness of the standard in the word of God so that we see that the life we're called to is not here but here. So though we've gone from here to here in our experience we still seem further away from the goal. And as we make progress up to here by then we've seen the standard up here. So that in a sense it seems the more we press on the higher the standard becomes and we say, have I made any progress at all?

48:57 Now that's not an unhealthy state of mind. It's the mark of a healthy soul that it sees more and more of what total conformity to Jesus Christ involves. And feels more and more keenly the degree to which that conformity is not worked out in thought and motive and disposition. When most of us were first converted we thought the beginning, middle and end of the Christian life as if we could only stop this habit and stop that habit and start reading our Bibles every day and praying for ten minutes.

49:31 Boy, if we got over those hurdles we were well on our way. I mean we weren't too concerned most of us in our early days about the motives about the fickleness of our affections if we prayed for ten minutes we felt good, never occurred to us to ask what were the motives that were prompting my prayers and pulsing through them. And the more we grow, the more we understand that God's law touches the deepest springs and thoughts and intentions of the heart and that conformity to Christ is not a wooden external conformity but touches dispositions and attitudes and perspectives and all of the rest. So child of God, don't be discouraged if the more you attempt to grow the more you groan that may be a wonderful sign of health in your Christian experience. Now if all you do is grow in groaning now there may be some imbalance you ought to grow in joy and all of the graces of the Spirit but don't expect any release from tension and conflict while you are yet in this present state. Well we've got just about one minute. Anyone have another passage that's come to your mind that you want to contribute?

Christian Hope and the Sickness of Deferred Desire

50:44 A little more teaching this morning than eliciting things from you. Yes, Pastor Nichols. Speak up. Yes.

51:50 Amen. And so all of those things you were talking about longing for and growing that we don't have we shall someday have and that growing and that longing is told somewhere it fits into the biblical doctrine of hope. Right. Of having hope.

52:09 Yes. And hope is not just wishful thinking, it's a certain expectation of promised blessings. Yes. And then that also could creep from us from a despondency that's growing and that we're not wanting to be in the midst of it.

52:45 Hmm. Good point. In the midst of it there will be that joy of knowing I am not what I shall be but I'm not what I once was and I'm not yet what by the grace of God I know I will be. Hmm. All right. So you would change my fourth point to the very nature of Christian hope. Okay. All right. Okay. For those of you who find his wording more helpful you may put hope. Some of us will stick with our own wording. If for no other reason but to maintain our own independence. All right.

53:33 Now but put in that context that is good. Yes. Kathy. Yes.

53:44 Excellent. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. And because our hope is deferred it's not cancelled but it's deferred the heart is sick. It's sick with the longings of holy love.

53:57 But when the desire cometh it is a well of life. And we shall know that desire when we see it. Good. Good addition.

Embracing Biblical Tension: Joy and Groaning

54:05 Yes. Steve. The heart is sick but at the same time it is real. That's right.

54:19 Because we have tasted. And what we've tasted is real. So that's why the Christian is a contradiction to himself and to the world. But he understands something of his own self contradiction.

54:32 Because he interprets it biblically. And you see that in all of us there is that longing both intellectually and experimentally to get rid of tension. You have the teaching of the Bible God is sovereign. Man is responsible.

54:46 That creates tension. And so what men do is they hold to one and relinquish the other and end up either classic Arminians or hyper-Calvinists. And at the core the Arminian and the hyper-Calvinists have this in common. They're giving up one strand of biblical truth because they don't like the tension that comes from holding both.

55:04 So the same thing here. Some say well if we have hope and with it there is joy then the joy must so overwhelm us that the groaning goes. That's the teaching of the deeper life in many areas. Others say well if you're really taking your sins seriously and how far short you come there'll be nothing but groaning.

55:24 And if anyone shows any joy he's looked upon as someone who's been infected with Pentecostalism. That's right. Or he's looked upon as someone who's a fanatic who's deceived. If someone speaks of having joy in the certain knowledge he's a Christian and that one day when God's done with him he's going to be made the very likeness of Christ.

55:44 They say well that's terrible. You ought to be groaning and moaning and have no assurance no joy. Well you see it's that attempt again to hold one truth at the expense of the other. And I trust that God will always give us two healthy hands to hold all of those sets of truths which God himself has revealed and though they create a sense of tension in our own understanding and in our own experience we're prepared to live with that tension until God resolves it in the coming of his own dear son. Well our time is gone let's pray and ask God to seal his word to our hearts. Our Father we do thank you that we have not been merely opening up truths from your word that are set before us in abstraction as theories to be admired and considered but we thank you that we have been dealing this morning with those things that lie close to the heart of every true believer and we pray that you will help us to be well established in the fact that tension and

56:57 conflict will be our portion until we see our Lord Jesus face to face in the midst of that tension and conflict we thank you that there is the reality of joy joy in the Holy Spirit joy in the knowledge of sins forgiven peace in the knowledge that your wrath has been turned away through the sacrifice of your beloved son oh Lord help us to live and think and walk and act and react in the light of these truths write them upon our hearts we ask these things through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen