The Spirit of Truth Part 3

God demonstrates His love to us in a variety ways. As we see in the Scriptures, one of them is "The love of God has been poured out, or shed abroad, within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."(Rom.5:5) The Spirit is our teacher, sanctifier, and guide. In John 14:26 He will teach us all things and bring to our remembrance all that Jesus said to the Apostles. Remember, those who wrote down the words of the Scriptures were men moved by the Holy Spirit and spoke from God (2Pet.1:21).

The Spirit is our sanctifier (Rom.15:16). It is the carrying on to perfection the work begun in regeneration. It is becoming holy as God is holy. Let's take a moment on this one. The work of regeneration is ascribed to the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). It does not originate with man, but with God. The word regeneration in Titus 3:5 literally means new birth. It denotes a change of heart, elsewhere spoken of as passing from death to life (1John 3:14), becoming a new creature in Christ(2Cor.5:17), being born again (John 3:5), a renewal of mind (Rom.12:2), a resurrection from the dead (Eph.2:5).

The Spirit is also our guide. Jesus states in John 16:13, that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all the truth. A guide is one who has great knowledge of something, this guide is the Holy Spirit. He knows the truth. He will reveal the very truths of God to men. No one knows the things of God, except the Spirit of God (1Cor.2:10,12). Theologian Charles Hodges said, "The works of the Spirit are the works of God. He fashioned the world, He regenerated the soul, to be born of the Spirit is to be born of God. He is the source of all knowledge, the giver of inspiration, the teacher, the guide the sanctifier, the Comforter of the church in all ages. He fashions our bodies, He formed the body of Christ, as a fit habitation for the fullness of the Godhead, and He is to quicken our mortal bodies (Rom.8:11).”

The Spirit's special office, that which He executes is to convict and convince the world of sin, to reveal Christ, regenerate the soul, and lead men to faith and repentance and to personally dwell within them. It begins with comprehension, man must understand the Bible, for he does not, as in 1Cor.2:14, "The natural man does not accept the things of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised." Where the Holy Spirit is at work in man, understanding naturally follows. Then conviction will follow. Man will begin to see what God desires and what He does not, what pleases God and what does not, and what glorifies God and what does not. Man is not constrained by the Law any longer, but he is constrained by God and then committment. The Spirit will help him to get to his desired haven, that is into the presence of God, where there will be fullness of joy and pleasures forever more, a place where sorrow cannot live and joy cannot die.

One more comment for this article: Have you ever thought why He is called the Holy Spirit? The Father is called Father, the Son is called the Son, though both are holy, but why is the Spirit called Holy? D. Martyn Lloyd Jones states, "He is described like that because He is holy. But that cannot be the true explanation because the purpose of a name is to differentiate someone from others, but God the Father is holy, and God the Son is equally holy. Surely the explanation is that it is His special work to produce holiness and order in all that He does in the application of Christ's work of salvation. His objective is to produce holiness, to make us a holy people, holy as the children of God." There is much more to say of the Blessed Spirit of Truth, we will continue next time of making much of the Spirit of God!

Elder Randy Slak
7/11/23