Ephesians 3:1-2

September 25, 2022

The Work of the Spirit of Truth: How We Understand the Scriptures

Part 1

God has created a supernatural oneness in the New Humanity of the Church. Our part to play in that is the faithful exercising of our spiritual gifting to serve the Body.

So we are here in Ephesians chapter three. And we've seen now Paul has clearly brought out what the point of the book is, the point that he's making is all about the church. Ephesians is a letter about the nature of the church, and the character of the church, specifically, the oneness, the new humanity that is created in Christ Jesus, the believing Gentiles, and the believing Jews, who once hated one another. Now, they don't just get along with one another. They're not just friends with one another. They're not just put aside their differences. God has made them one, he has fused them together in their souls, he has made them one new humanity. And this is the glorious truth of the gospel―how the gospel breaks down every social barrier, every human barrier known to man, the gospel is capable of crushing that, and making one new man out of those who were enemies, those who had nothing otherwise in common with one another, those who shared no background with one another, the gospel makes them one. Today, we're gonna look at some other things in verses one through seven. But next week, we really are going to return to this topic of the oneness of the church and the purpose of the church, the nature of the church and the character of the church. Next week, we'll really delve into that more as we return to that next week. This week, as we look at verses one through seven. Let's all―we’ll begin by reading verses one through…I'll read down through verse 14, or 13, (I'm sorry). So let's begin to verse one. “For this reason, I Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men and other generations, as it has been now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, Of this gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's Word, God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone, what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that He has realized in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him. So we asked you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.” So as we begin here, in verses one through seven, the way I want to approach these verses, I want to kind of work backwards, just because I like to do things backwards. So we'll begin, we're going to cover through verse seven, and we'll begin down at verse seven. And we'll start there and we'll work backwards and look from there to some things in verse two. So beginning from verse seven of this gospel, “I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of His power.” So just make note here of what Paul calls himself, he calls himself a ‘minister,’ That word minister, we all are familiar with that words, the word ‘diakonos,’ which we know to mean ‘servant.’ There's, of course the office, the church office of deacon, or servant of the church, but we all are servants. But notice here how Paul just embraces this title servant of Christ. It's as though that is a type of badge of honor for him that he would…he doesn't see a servant of Christ as something that's maybe a stepping stone to something better. He's a servant now, but he's going to be something better in the future. He looks at the servanthood that is his in Christ and he sees that as his highest possible accomplishment. If he could be a servant of Christ, he's overwhelmed that Christ would make him a servant. So notice how his servant heart just embraces this, he calls himself a servant here to the to the Ephesians. He will do the same thing to the Corinthians, in First Corinthians chapter four, he says, “This is how you are to think of us, (you're to think of us in two ways: one) as servants of Christ and (two) as stewards of the mysteries of God.” So it's the same two things that he's talking about here: servant of Christ and steward of the mysteries. Again, in Second Corinthians, he'll say to them, “I am your servant.” So think of me as your servant. This is the apostle Paul. And this is not a young Apostle Paul, this is now an elderly Apostle Paul, who has been the leader of the church, a revered leader of the church for decades, now, He says, “I'm your servant, think of me in that way.” Or in Acts chapter 26, as Paul is speaking here to Agrippa, and he's recounting to Agrippa his story of this Damascus Road encounter with the risen Christ. And he says, to Agrippa that this is what Christ said to me, “Rise and stand for this purpose, I will make you a servant.” So this was Paul's identity. He embraces this identity of a servant of Christ. He calls himself to the Philippians, a slave of Christ, he will say that he is in this passage in verse eight, he says that he's the very least of the apostles. The phrasing that Paul uses, there is translated “very least.” But what he's saying here is, “I'm not just the least, I'm the least of the least of the least.” He calls himself to Timothy, “the least of the saints,” the most sinful heart was his own heart. And so he has this view of himself that is enveloped in this humility that sees himself as he says to the Romans, he sees himself rightly, as a servant of Christ. So this humility, that is Paul's, I want to suggest to us is a real insight into the power that God placed upon the ministry of Paul, how Paul through his entire life through this conversion experience on the Damascus Road, to the end of his life, he consistently sees himself in humble terms―terms of humility, not exalted, but lowly. And I think this is an insight to God's hand upon his ministry, because as we know, the Bible tells us in multiple places, like for example, James chapter four, verse six, that “God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.” So in a very clear fashion that tells us that God stands in opposition to human pride, but to humility, God stands in a relationship of favor. And so God is pleased to favor the humble. And I think that this is a real key to God's favor upon Paul's ministry, and Paul's life―is Paul's humility here. Now, what's really interesting to me is that this humility wouldn't have been an easy thing for Paul to maintain, seeing as how he was the main vehicle for the revelation of God to the church. God uses Paul to reveal to Paul things about the character of God, the nature of our salvation, the church, these things that we talked about in chapter one, Paul has been the receiver of such incredible revelations from God, that that must have been a difficult thing for him to maintain his humility. However, what he says to the Corinthians, in Second Corinthians 12, he says that it is actually the grace of God that enables him to remain humble so that he can receive more grace―remember the thorn in the flesh? And he calls that thorn in the flesh to the grace of God, that God gave to him, to enable him to maintain a humility in the face of this extraordinary grace that God was showing to Paul so that God could show him more grace, see how that works? What a beautiful thing God is doing here for Paul. And it just shows us, I think, some indication of just how greatly God is pleased to favor the humble. And so he calls himself this servant of Christ, this lowly steward of Christ, but take a look. Now we'll leave from verse seven. And I want to just make note of that. And now let's go back up to verse two. And let's pick up from verse two from verse one. “For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, (verse two), assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you.” So I am this prisoner for Christ on behalf of you Gentiles. And I want to make this assumption―we'll come back to this―assuming that you have heard the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you. So notice how Paul refers to this grace. We mentioned last week that grace is often what we think of in terms of God's saving activity in the sinner, in the life of the sinner, of the heart of the sinner. But here Paul uses grace in a little bit of a different manner, not to, to mean the grace that comes to us to save us to make us alive to God. But instead, he speaks of grace as something that's given to him for others, that he's made a steward of. God has given this grace to him. And the grace is intended for the Ephesian believers, and by connection, other believers as well. So God gives a gift of grace―twice Paul calls it a gift―He gives this gift of grace to Paul, that's really for the Ephesian believers, and other believers as well. So notice here how he calls himself a steward of this grace, your translation might have ‘dispensation.’ But the word here just simply means: one who doesn't own anything, but instead is made the manager of someone else's property or someone else's affairs. So we, we understand how a steward sort of works: you care for someone else's stuff, or someone else's affairs, you manage someone else's itinerary, or you manage someone else's property, or something of that nature. So Paul refers to himself as a steward of this grace of God, God gives this grace to the Ephesians. But he gives it to Paul to give to them. He says, here's this grace that I want to get to the Ephesians, and the grace is the revelations, the mysteries, the understanding of who they are in Christ, their blessings, their privileges in Christ, their new standing in Christ, this grace that Paul that God gives to the Ephesians, he gives it to Paul and says to Paul, “it's for them over there.” And so Paul is the steward of the grace that God has given to them to them by way of Paul here. So Paul has this gifting from God, and the gifting has indebted him to the Ephesian believers, that God has given these revelations to―follow Paul's train of thought here. So much like Paul refers to himself in Romans, chapter one, verse 20. In Romans one, verse 20, Paul says, “I am a debtor, I'm under obligation to the Greeks and barbarians.” So he says, I owe this debt to the Greeks and to the barbarians, and to these others, and the debt that he owes them, is the debt of the gospel. So we've talked about this not too long ago, how we can owe a debt in two ways. There's two ways that you can owe a debt. You can I owe a debt, if someone gives you something and you need to pay them back for it, or someone does something for you, and you need to pay them back for that. You can owe a debt in that way. But you can also owe a debt in the sense that someone gives you something that's intended for someone else, and they put it into your care. And they say this is for them. Will, you give this to them. And until you do that, you owe that to the person that it's given to. If I were to give Abby $20, and I'd say, Abby, this this $20 is for your mom, Leanne, give this to Leanne. First of all, that's kind of ridiculous. I don't ever have $20. But if I did, you would, then owe, not me, you would owe Leanne. And that's the sense in which God or Paul says, I'm a debtor to the Greeks, because God has given me this gospel for them. And until I deliver it to all these, all these people that need to hear this message, I owe them that message. In the same way, Paul says, I am a debtor, I am under obligation, I am a steward of your gift of grace. God has sent this message of grace to the Ephesian believers, and I'm under obligation to give this to them. So there's this gifting that Paul has. This gifting of the revelations, the understandings that God has given to Paul, there's this gifting. And Paul says, this gifting is not for me, this gifting is for you. And so let's just take a moment and just recognize that that is the nature of all spiritual gifting in the body. As believers, all of us―the Scripture tells us―that God gifts, all of us with spiritual giftings. All spiritual giftings are given for the purpose of the church. All spiritual giftings are given for the use within the context of the church. The New Testament knows nothing about any kind of a spiritual gifting that is not intended to be exercised in the context of the church. Now, this is just something I'm going to introduce right here, because Chapter Four is really going to bear down on the on this topic, of how the church is to view the giftings of God. And so we'll deal much more with this in chapter four. But here's a great opportunity just to introduce this and say: God gifts, no one in the body of Christ, with some type of a spiritual gift that is not intended for use in the church. Let me show you from the scriptures. How the Scriptures teach us this very thing. First Corinthians chapter 12, verses four through seven. Now, First Corinthians in a real sense, the entire book is really dominated with the topic of spiritual giftings, because there's been a lot of misunderstanding and abuse of spiritual giftings within the Corinthian church. And so in large measure, that letter is written to help correct some of those misunderstandings about spiritual giftings. But we can't look at the whole letter but it's sort of comes to a climax here in chapter 12. In chapter 12―really, the whole chapter is dealing with this very subject―but just to kind of look at a couple of verses, verse four. “Now there are a varieties there are varieties of gifts.” People in the body have all kinds of spiritual giftings. All sorts of giftings from the Lord exists within the within the body. “There's a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit, there are varieties of service, but the same Lord, and there are varieties of activities. But it is the same God who empowers them all to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit (and here it is) for the common good.” So each one in the body receives from the Lord, a type of spiritual gifting. And that spiritual gifting is always intended to edify the body, to build up the body, to be used within the context of the body. God gifts, no Christian, with some type of a spiritual gift that can only be used outside of the body of Christ. All the giftings that we're going to talk about in chapter four, all the offices and the different occupations and activities within the church. All of those are giftings of the spirit, that God says I'm giving this to the church, Romans chapter 12, we could look at that. But take a look at First Peter chapter four and verse 10, “As each of us has each has received a gift, use it to serve one another.” Use it to serve one another. Chapter four, verse 10, through 13, is going to say much the same thing to this same type of effect. So Paul says, I've received this gift. And this gift is not for me to sort of go around through the Gentile world preaching to unbelievers and making a big deal out of myself. This gifting is for the church. And I am to use it in such a way to minister to the body in that way. And so Paul is the receiver of these revelations. So with that being said, here's the takeaway, and then we'll move on. First of all, the Ephesians have an important role in the supernatural unity of the body. And this is what Paul is introducing right here. And again, chapter four, he's going to take this and bring it to the surface. But here, let's just notice it. Let's just see it. And then we'll sort of put it on the backburner. And we'll come back in chapter four. Here's the truth. This, the Ephesians have a role to play in this supernatural unity that God has created, this one new man, this one new humanity. Their role that they play, is not what we often think our role in church unity is. We think about church, togetherness, church, a oneness. And we think, what do we contribute to the unity of the body? And what we always want to think as well, the way that we contribute to the unity of the body, is we get along with everybody. We don't make ourself hard to get along with, we don't enter into conflicts within the body. Thinking that the unity of the body is something that's rooted in grounded in the absence of conflict. However, that's not what Paul's message is. Paul's message is going to be. God has created a supernatural unity in the body, but you have a role to play. God doesn't just create this unity, wrap it up in a nice bow and say, “Here, here's the oneness of a church, enjoy.” Instead, God creates this unity, he gives it to the church. And he says, “Your part in this unity is to exercise your spiritual gifts within the context of the church and do it faithfully.” That's the role that we play in the oneness of the church, the role that we play in this new humanity, in order to strengthen, in order to nourish, in order to grow this oneness, the supernatural oneness that God has created, what we do, is not so much avoid conflict, as it is exercise faithfully, the giftings that God has given to us, which he really has given to who? The body, our spiritual giftings are yours. My spiritual gifting of teaching and preaching is not mine, it's yours. This this is what God has given to you. Now, we often think about spiritual giftings as the obvious ones, right? The preaching, the teaching the music, or the serving, like, like Sister Alicia, the obvious the visible ones. But Chapter Four is going to show us all kinds of ways that the Spirit gives gifts of grace to the body, and he does it through a member of the body, a part of the body. And so that's the role that we play in this whole oneness of the new humanity thing. Our role is not so much avoiding conflict because you know what? conflict within the body is not necessarily an inhibitor of oneness. We often think that oneness in the body and conflict in the body are the opposites. They're not always the opposites. Oftentimes, God uses conflict, to increase oneness. We'll talk more about that in chapter four. But our role, what we do to nurture and grow and strengthen the oneness of the body is faithfully exercising our giftings to serve the body

Part 2

The Spirit of Truth does not bypass the need for applying ourselves to understanding the Word, nor does He remove the need for gifted preachers and teachers of the Word.

Verse 2, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you. So this phrase, “assuming that you've heard this,” let's talk about this for just a minute now, assuming is not in the original text. It is supplied, but it's a good supply. That's Paul's train of thought, and so he says, assuming that you've heard of this gift of grace, assuming that you've heard the revelations, the mysteries that have been given to me, assuming that you've heard this, let me go on. Why would he say, assuming that you've heard these revelations that God has graced me with? What Paul is doing here. He's not hoping that they've heard about the revelations that God has given to Paul, he's not hoping that the Ephesian believers have heard about God's gifting a Paul. He's using instead a rhetorical device, so to speak, in order to make a point. And the point is this: If we are not in agreement on this, then there's no need for me to continue. If we are not in agreement, if you are not in recognition, that the things that I'm writing to you are the revealed word of God, then Paul's point is: you can stop reading right now. Because nothing that I have to say to you in this entire letter means squat―if you don't recognize that what I'm writing to you is the revealed word of God. And so likewise, in the same way, this morning, you can leave right now, and get the same amount of benefit, if you, too, are not under the understanding that what you are hearing is the word of God, I have nothing beneficial to say to you, you will benefit nothing, if you are hearing this, not believing that this is the word of God. In the same way that Paul says, I'm assuming that you and I are on agreement that I'm speaking to you have these revelations that I've received from God. And based upon that assumption―now, let me go on to say the other things that I'm going to say. So what Paul is not saying to them, he's not saying, let me sort of lay out my point of view. And hopefully I can convince you that my point of view is the correct one. No, that's not what Paul is saying. Paul is saying: what I am laying out for you is the revealed word of God. And for the revealed word of God to impact your life, you must receive it as the revealed word of God. As Paul is going to say to the Thessalonian believers in First Thessalonians, he's going to commend them, saying that, “You received the word when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as what is it what it really is the word of God, which is at work and you believers.” So Paul's not saying: I hope to, I hope that you will concur with my views. What Paul is saying is: What I'm about to say to you will only matter in your life will only make any difference in your life, if you accept and believe with confidence that what I'm saying to you is the word of God. The oneness in the church, is not based upon the tolerance of divergent ideas. The oneness in the church is based and grounded upon right doctrine that is rightly preached and rightly received. Let me say that again. Oneness in the church is not based upon the tolerant acceptance of divergent ideas. Oneness in the church is rooted upon, grounded in, founded upon the right preaching and teaching of God's word and the right receiving of God's word. That's the foundation, that's the basis. That's the grounding of oneness in the church. Take a look at Paul's words to the Philippians, in Philippians chapter one, verses 27 And verse 28. “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm and here it is in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel and not frightened in anything by your opponents, this is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation.” A clear sign of your salvation, says, Paul, is that you are one mind with the other believers. Or he’s gonna say chapter two verse two, “Complete my joy by being of the same mind having the same love being in full accord and of one mind.” So the unity of the church that Paul is talking about, is rooted and grounded upon the right preaching of God's Word, and the right receiving of God's word as what it is―God's Word. Now, let's sort of flesh this out just a little bit. The church, as we said, is not a place for the free exchange of divergent ideas. Instead, the church is a place for us to come to hear the right, true and correct preaching of God's Word. And God's word has a right and true preaching of it. Take a look at Second Timothy chapter two and verse 15, “Do your best to present yourself to God is One approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed,” and you have no need to be ashamed as Paul because you “rightly handle the Word of God.” That word rightly, literally means cut straight. Now, there's only one way to cut straight, right? I mean, you can't cut a straight line four different ways. There's one way to cut a straight line. And that's a straight line. And so Paul is saying, there is one way to handle the Word of God, and that's a right way, and the others are wrong. So if there is a right way to handle the Word of God, then there is a wrong way to handle the Word of God. How many have heard this said, you don't have to raise your hand because it will be everybody in the room. How many have heard this said, “That's his interpretation of the scriptures. I have my own,” or “Everybody has their own interpretation of the scriptures. And nobody knows what's right?” How many times have you heard that? I quite honestly, I've heard that I'm sick of hearing that. “Everybody sort of has their own interpretation of Scripture, nobody knows, which is the right interpretation of Scripture.” Let me tell you: that's not how scripture sees itself. Scripture views itself as having a right interpretation and a right understanding. And that right understanding is not based upon your understanding or your understanding or your understanding or my understanding. It's based on God's meaning. Peter says, in Second Peter chapter one, verses 20 and 21. “No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.” So this receiving of God's word as God's word, this recognition that it is God's Word in the recognition that God's word has a right and true understanding and a right and true interpretation, and we are here as God's people to hear that―that is not something that we would believe that and accept that and say, well, “let's just toss aside the whole spirit of the Bereans.” Remember the spirit of the Bereans? Acts chapter 17, Luke commends the Bereans he says, “The Bereans received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” So that's what we sometimes call the ‘spirit of the Bereans.’ It's just a spirit that says, I'm gonna measure everything by the word, right? So we embrace that, we affirm that we hold on to that, while recognizing that scripture has one meaning, Scripture does not have multiple meanings. Scripture does not have one meaning for this person and one meaning for this person and one meaning for this person―it has one meaning, Our task is to discern that correct and true meaning and receive that correct and true meaning for what it is. So that's the task that’s set before us, understanding that, you know, if we want opinions, if that's what we really want, then you can save a lot of time on Sunday morning, because the world has tons of opinions for you. And they're happy to give them to you. If you want the right and true understanding of God's word, then the church is the place to find that. So the question then becomes, how do we know? If the Scriptures teach us that Scripture is not just open to whatever sort of understanding you want to apply to it or whatever meaning fits you? Instead, Scripture has one meaning, how do we know what that one meaning is? How do we rightly ascertain that. And that's where the Spirit of truth comes into play. So we'll talk a little bit about the spirit of truth and how the Spirit of Truth works, and how it is that the Holy Spirit works in the believer to assure us of the true and right meaning of Scripture. But before we do that, let's just recognize that Scripture is given to us with certain points of emphasis. And certain points that are not as emphasized, right? God doesn't spend the same amount of time on all topics. There are many things in the pages of scripture that God spends much less time on. And by doing so, he is indicating to us that this is of lesser importance, there are things in the scripture that are of lesser importance, and things in the scripture that are more difficult to understand. So this is not to say that there's not grace―that the scriptures that does not give us the grace of coming to certain parts of the scriptures that are not fundamental to our faith, that are more difficult to understand, while recognizing Well, you know, brothers and sisters can understand this differently and still worship together and still be a part of the same church. It's not to say that at all, but it is to say that all those passages do have one meaning. Our difficulty is to discern the right meaning. Now our problem is that we are still sinful, fallen people. And so as we ascertain the meaning of Scripture, as we seek to understand the meaning of Scripture, we're doing so through a lens of a fallen mind, a heart that still attached to this world, a heart that is still in some level, alive to sin. And so those are the things that we must battle against. But none of that is to say, Well, okay, now scripture has multiple meanings. It doesn't. Scripture has one meaning―each passage of scripture has one meaning. So again, the question is, how do we understand that? How do we know that? How do we know what meaning is the right one? And what meaning is the wrong one? Because haven’t would we all heard people who are skilled at taking a Bible and showing you this verse and that verse and telling you what this means. And that means and then what where they end up is, is a different place than where somebody else ends up? Have you all experienced that? How do you know? And this is the role of the Spirit of Truth, otherwise known as the Holy Spirit. So how does the Holy Spirit lead us to know with certainty? What is the truth of scriptures, of the scriptures? How does how does the Holy Spirit do that? And more importantly, let's try to understand what the Holy Spirit does, and what the Holy Spirit doesn't do. Because I have found that I think a lot of believers have an understanding of what the Spirit of Truth does, that's not really what he does. And that can lead us to some false expectations of the Spirits work in the believer. And quite frankly, it can lead to some frustrations in our heart, when the Spirit doesn't do what we mistakenly think he's supposed to be doing. Okay. So what does the spirit of truth do? Let's start by saying what the Spirit of Truth or the Holy Spirit does not do. The Holy Spirit does not teach you the meaning of Scripture. Now, that sounds provocative, I understand that. But let me show you from the scriptures how we know that the Holy Spirit's role is not to teach us the meaning of Scripture. The Holy Spirit doesn't whisper in our ear. What this passage means. And I think that's where a lot of believers can get frustrated. They think that if the Holy Spirit indwells them, and they open God's Word, and the spirit is acting in their heart, that he's going to communicate to them what that passage means. And then they read it, and he doesn't. And the close their Bibles thinking, “Well, I guess the holy spirit isn't working for me.” Or, “Maybe I'm not really a believer, after all, you know, the light didn't go on for me just illuminating what the meaning here is in this passage.” And that's not the role of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not called the spirit of comprehension. Instead, God has made us as people who are capable of comprehending the meaning of the words and the phrases and the sentences in Scripture. All of us in the image of God, we are capable of reading and understanding the meaning of the Scripture. And so God doesn't give us His Holy Spirit to say, well, I'm going to short circuit, I'm going to bypass over that whole comprehension thing, and I'm just going to supernaturally give you the comprehension of the message. That's not what the Holy Spirit does. Instead, we as people in the image of God can read the pages of Scripture, and we can understand what that meaning is. Romans chapter one, and verse 20. Paul says that “His invisible attributes have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation, namely his divine power and His eternal Godhead in those that have been made, so they are without excuse.” So Paul says, even without the scriptures, we're capable of perceiving. And we're capable of understanding and comprehending what God's message to us is. So we're capable, without the Holy Spirit of opening the pages of Scripture and understanding what the paragraphs mean. So, you might say, Well, wait a minute, doesn't the scripture say that that's what the Holy Spirit does that he will “lead you into all truth.” Doesn’t the scriptures say that? It does say that, and says that on more than one occasion. In John's gospel, first of all, in chapter 14, here's what we read in John chapter 14. “But the Helper,” and just to be clear, Jesus says, by the Holy Spirit. That's who I'm talking about, “the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things.” So doesn't that say to us that the Holy Spirit teaches us the meaning of Scripture? No, it doesn't. What that says to us is that the Holy Spirit will teach the apostles all things, because that's who Jesus was talking to. You see, one of the mistakes that we can sometimes make in in studying our scriptures is we can sometimes assume that everything God says in the scriptures, he said to us, and that's not always the case. Often, God is speaking to a certain group of people, or to a certain person, and what he says to that person, or that group of people, he means for all people. But that's not always the case. There are some things in Scripture that were communicated in a certain context to certain people or to certain persons, and it wasn't necessarily intended for all of us. We can just continue reading in this in the rest of the sentence and see that. “The Holy Spirit He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance, all that I have said to you.” Now, does the Holy Spirit do that for you? Does he bring to your remembrance what Jesus said to you, because I wasn't here when Jesus was on the earth. Jesus hasn't said anything to me directly. All the that Jesus has communicated to me he's communicated to the Holy Spirit. And Holy Spirit is not bringing reckoned recollection of words, Jesus spoke to me. So clearly, Jesus is saying to the apostles, “The Holy Spirit will lead you into all things, the Holy Spirit will teach you all things, and he will bring back to your remembrance, everything I've said.” Jesus said a lot over three years to his apostles, right? I doubt that they humanly would have been able to remember it all. But do you ever read through the Gospel accounts and a gospel writer… …You ever read through the Gospel accounts, and you ask yourself, how this gospel writer is…So he's writing this interaction, or this thing that happened or this conversation that took place, maybe the first year of Jesus's ministry, and he's writing this 20 years after Jesus has ascended to heaven? How did he remember all that? Holy Spirit brought it to his recollection. Okay. So Jesus is in the upper room right here, only the apostles are there. And he's saying to only the apostles: here's what the Holy Spirit will do. Now, take a look at the second instance, John, chapter 16, verse 13, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth or he will not speak of His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak. So there you go, Holy Spirit, leading us into all truth, once again―to the apostles, because here's how the sentence ends, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. Is anybody here this morning, that the Holy Spirit declares to you the things that are to come? Not me. The Holy Spirit doesn't teach us things that are to come, he doesn't work that way in your heart, he doesn't tell you this is what's going to happen to you in the future. Instead, Jesus is speaking to the apostles, who would be the writers of the New Testament, and the foundation of the church. The teaching of the apostles, and the writing of the New Testament, that is the body of teaching that God will build his church upon. And for those apostles, the Holy Spirit worked for them in a specific way, to lead them into all truth, to lead them into all understanding, and to bring to their minds everything that Jesus taught. But that's not how the Holy Spirit works for us. Instead, the Holy Spirit does not bypass over our efforts of comprehension. God wants us to exert effort to understand what he's written to us. He's made us capable of understanding the meaning. And he wants us to exert the effort to understand that meaning. Why? Because we are benefitted through the effort of applying ourselves to the Scriptures. That effort, that application of ourselves to understand the scriptures is beneficial to our soul. And God wants us to do that. Take a look at Peter's words, in second Peter one. He says, “For this reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with knowledge.” So the Holy Spirit does not take away the need for us to read the scriptures, comprehend the scriptures or listen to the Scriptures preached, or listen to the Scriptures taught, and apply ourselves to understanding the meaning. The second thing that Holy Spirit does not do is the Holy Spirit does not take away the need for preachers and teachers of the word. So if the role of the Holy Spirit was to teach you the meaning of Scripture, why doesn't the New Testament say somewhere, now that the spirit has come, you don't need preachers anymore? Why now the spirit has come you don't need teachers anymore. You don't need to be taught anymore, you got the spirit. The New Testament never says that. In fact, the New Testament says the opposite. Think about what James says about teachers and a stricter judgment placed upon them. Or just think about the increased revelation that the New Testament brings to us. The need for teachers is even accentuated under the New Testament, under the under the new covenant. So the Spirit's being given, he doesn't teach us the meaning of Scripture, and he doesn't take away the need for us to have teachers and preachers of the word. So take a look with me at Ezra chapter seven, Ezra chapter seven, verses nine and 10, “For the good hand of his God was on him (speaking of Ezra,) for Ezra had set his heart” To do what? “Study the law of the Lord, (or the Word of God to study the law of the word) and to do it and to teach his (meaning God's) statutes and rules in Israel.” So here's Ezra, and Ezra sets himself to first of all, study the Word. Secondly, live the Word, and thirdly, teach the Word. Now, look with me in Nehemiah chapter eight, Nehemiah chapter eight verses…Nehemiah and Ezra are parallel books, they're really they're relating to us essentially the same timeframe and the same events. So Nehemiah chapter eight, beginning from verse one, “And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Watergate, and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. So as were the priests brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could…understand what they heard.” So there is another recognition that these people who gathered for the preaching of the word were capable of understanding it. So verse three, “He read from it from early morning until midday, and the ears of the people were all attentive to the book of the law, and Ezra opened the book in the sight of the people, and he was above the people. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, ‘Amen. Amen.’ Lifting up their hands, and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground, also, Jeshua…” And there's 13 difficult Jewish names there that I kind of skipped over―felt a little bit bad for that, you know, you think, you get your name in the Bible, and then some preacher puts an ellipsis over your name. But Jeshua, Pelaiah and (11 other) Levites (look at this) helped the people understand.” Literally, they ‘caused the people to understand.’ So here's what happened. Ezra was was preaching, he was teaching, and there was these 13 Levites, going around helping the people to understand what Ezra was teaching. They were going around, maybe like in little groups and saying, “Now, do you get this? He was just talking about this? Did you understand what he was saying? Let let me further explain if he didn't quite get that.” So then we read this, “While the people remained in their places (verse 8), they read from the book from the law of God, clearly, and they gave the since.” Literally, that means they ‘set the meaning.’ They gave the sense, they set the meaning, “so that the people understood the reading.” So here's what they're doing. Ezra is preaching from the law, he's reading from the from the Word of God, he's teaching from the Word of God. And they're also explained that this, this is the meaning, this is the setting. This is the context. This is what this means. In other words, they're doing what I do, right now. This is what we're doing. We're setting the meaning, we're we're taking the Word of God and we're saying, This is what this is saying to us. So let me be careful here to say that this coming of the spirit, the coming of the spirit of truth does not mean that we no longer need teachers and preachers, but also at the same time, that doesn't mean that what I say is perfect. I'm human, I'm sinful, I’m fallen. And so sometimes my sinfulness can inhibit my understanding of the Scriptures. Instead, it’s say, it’s saying that the Spirit uses both the speaker and the hearer, and he's working on both ends. And God is using both of those. So the spirit of truth does, here’s the first two things, or here's the two things to make sure that you understand the spirit of truth does not do: The Spirit of Truth does not teach you the meaning of the passage. Nor does the Spirit of Truth remove or negate the need for teachers and preachers. So if the Spirit of Truth does that does not do that, what does the Holy Spirit do? How does the Spirit of Truth lead us as God's people into the right and correct understanding of God's Word?

Part 3

The Spirit of Truth leads us into all truth by teaching us to rightly judge the Scriptures.

The Spirit of Truth does not teach you the meaning of the passage. Nor does the Spirit of Truth, remove or negate the need for teachers and preachers. So if the Spirit of Truth does that does not do that, what does the Holy Spirit do? How does the Spirit of Truth lead us as God's people into the right and correct understanding of God's Word? Now to see that let's take a look at a well-known passage that's found in First Corinthians chapter two. We're familiar with this passage, I refer to it regularly. Because this, the whole chapter is about this, the whole chapter is about how it is that the Spirit-indwelt believer knows and understands what is the truth of God, and what is not the truth of God. Now, we're not gonna take the time to go through the whole chapter, we could, it would be helpful, but we won't take the time to go through the whole chapter, I just want to skip to one part of a chapter. And from this, what I want us to see is this: The Scriptures are teaching us very clearly and very plainly, what the Spirit does and how He does it, so that we, as believers can know what to look for know what to expect, know what to ask of God to do in our hearts, so that we won't expect the Spirit to do what the Spirit doesn't do. But we will expect the spirit to do what the Spirit does. Do that make sense? Okay, so now, let's take a look at verse 12. From verse 12. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit, who is from God's speaking of the Holy Spirit, we are the recipients of the Spirit of God, all believers, we know are indwelt by the Spirit of God, so we've received this Spirit. Why did we receive it? That we might understand the things freely given us by God? So that's the question, Paul. That's the purpose. The purpose is that we might understand that things given us from God, but the question is still, how? How does the Spirit do that? He's gonna explain: verse 13: “And we impart this in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.” So there he says, “We teach these things. We're teaching spiritual truth, spiritual concepts. And we do this not by human words, but the Spirit Himself is doing this.” And you see that word interpreting. You know, what interpret means, interpret means to assign a value or an understanding, to relate an understanding of a thing, okay. So we impart this truth, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truth to those who are spiritual numbers 14 The natural person. So let's stop right there, the natural person. And let's understand who the natural person is. The natural person is Paul's way of referring to one who does not have the Holy Spirit. There's one other instance in which this same phrase is used, and I'm sorry for the awkward page break, but it's on the back page. Jude, verse 19. This same phrase shows up the only other time in Scripture and here's how it shows up. “It is these who cause divisions.” And then Jude says, “worldly people, devoid of the Spirit,” so that worldly people, that's the same phrase, worldly people or natural man, natural woman, Natural Humanity, devoid of the Spirit, the additional description there is that these are people who have not the Spirit of God. So Paul says, the person who has not the Spirit of God, the natural person does not what? Accept Accept the things of the Spirit of God, why? For they are folly to him or foolishness to him. So there's two words that really help us in this passage to understand what Paul means, how the Spirit works, how the Spirit works in the believer. And the first word is folly or foolishness. So he says, The one who does not have the Spirit doesn't accept the things of God. And why don't they accept them? Because to them, they are foolishness. Chapter one verse 18, of the same book, Paul, use that same word to say that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are being lost those who are perishing, okay? So the natural person hears the truths of the Spirit hears the truths of God, does not accept them, and the reason they don't accept them is because they are are foolish. Paul did not say that they're nonsensical. He did not say that they're undiscernible, undecipherable. He didn't say that they're gibberish. Paul didn't say that the natural person doesn't accept the things of God because they don't understand them, or because they're gibberish to them. He says that they evaluate them, and assess a value of foolishness to them. In other words, they have to understand in order to call them foolish, to call something foolish. You understood it. And so the natural person hears the truth of God and says, That's foolishness. Now, let's continue on, we'll see the other words that’s really helpful for us to keep that in mind. We'll come back to it, verse 15, the spiritual person, on the other hand, judges all things but he himself is judged by no one. So it's really unfortunate that there is no translation that translates this passage consistently. And what I mean by that is, you see this word ‘discern,’ end of verse 14, and then you see judge or judges and then judged, verse 15, they're all same word. They're, they're the identical word. It's unfortunate that they're not translated the same way every time because I think that would help us to make an important connection. If we saw in the English Paul uses the same word three times, first of all, the natural person judges, but the spiritual person also judges all things was not judged by anyone. Okay? . So the connection that we're to make here is this: the natural person makes a judgment. Now the word judge there, we can think of judge in a couple of different ways, right? You can think of judgmental, somebody that's very judgmental, very critical kind of spirit, right? Or you can think of God's final judgment, right? We can use judge in that sense. That's not the sense here. That's not the word here. The word here is more like the word appraise. You know, how ‘judge’ can mean appraise. You, you judge something to be valuable. You judge something to be a waste of time you judge something to be unworthy of your effort, whatever, right? We use the word judge in that way. That's what Paul's meaning is here. So the natural person appraises the things of God as not undiscernible, but discernible, yet foolish, and that's the key. That's the whole key to the work of the Spirit. And understanding how it is the Spirit leads us in a different way into truth than He led the apostles into truth. Because the natural man, the one who is without the Spirit, is not capable of appraising the truth of God rightly. They instead appraise it as foolishness. Now what is foolishness mean? Foolishness foolishness means something unwise, unproductive, unuseful, just something that should be discarded. The Scriptures are not gibberish to anyone. No one who is capable of reading, reads the Christian scriptures and says, that's just gibberish. You ever read the sacred writings of any other religion? Has anybody ever read sacred writings of Islam or Buddhism or Confucianism or it, they're all the same. They are gibberish. If you've never read them, trust me, you don't want to but they are nonsensical. They're just gibberish. The Christian Scriptures are not. And the Christian scriptures never imply that they are gibberish, to the unsaved person. Rather, the scriptures understand that they can be understood by all people. But what can't happen without the Spirit is the right judging or the right appraisal of the Scripture. So there's two things that the Spirit of Truth, by making us alive to God, there's two things that the Spirit of Truth enables you to appraise or judge rightly. And that is, first of all, you are able to rightly appraise the truth value of the Scriptures. You're able to rightly appraise or rightly judge the truth value of the scriptures. So without the Spirit of truth, we would read the scriptures as natural man would read the scriptures, understanding their meaning, and dismiss them as foolish untruths. “That's not, that's not true. This person dying 2000 years ago and taking away the penalty of sin, or a God who holds people accountable for their actions,” or any of the truths of the Bible. Without the Spirit of truth, the natural man reads those understands them, and dismisses them as foolish untruths. The Spirit of Truth, on the other hand, enables us, or teaches us to rightly appraise the truth of the scriptures. So the spiritual person reads the scriptures, and the Spirit of Truth says to us, “that's true.” Now by connection, that's how we recognize the right teaching and the right preaching of God's word. Because the Spirit of truth, who wrote the Scriptures―the Holy Spirit is the author of the scriptures, he wrote them―and the author lives in you. And when the author of this, here's what he wrote, being rightly explained, he tells you, that's right. That's truth. You can believe that. And that's how the Spirit of Truth guides us into truth. He doesn't whisper the meaning into our ear, rather, when we study it. And we think, “Okay, I think that this is what's God, God's saying to me here,” the Spirit of Truth says, “Yes, that's what he's saying.” That's what he means.” Or the Spirit of Truth says, “No, we're not there.” Or when you hear the word preached, the Spirit of Truth says, Yes, that's it. He's on it. That's, that's the right track, or no, this is not really, that's not really ringing home, right? Because the Spirit of Truth residing in the believer, isn't having to interpret truth. He's listening for his truth that he wrote to you. And so there's this resonation that occurs there. Philippians chapter one, verse nine and 10, I, I didn't think, I didn't make this connection until after your notes were printed. But Philippians chapter one, verse nine and 10, Paul says, “I made my prayer in this way, that's your love would abound more and more in knowledge that you would accept what is excellent.” That's what Paul's saying that as you grow in your vibrant relation with the Spirit, that spirits voice gets stronger, and stronger, and clearer and clearer to tell you when you've heard truth, so that you can recognize it. I know that you've heard me use this, this is my favorite illustration for the work of the Spirit. Because I think this is the clearest way to understand this. And it's the illustration of resonance. Resonance is a phenomenon of physics. Nobody really can explain why this happens. But this is a fact of physics, that if there are two strings, that are tightened to the same pitch in the same room, and one of those strings vibrates, without touching the other one, the other one will also vibrate. So we have one guitar up here. If we had two, I could go to one of these guitars, and I could pluck the low E string. And without touching the other one, the low E string would also vibrate, assuming they're both tuned. That's called resonance. That is the Holy Spirit. That is how the Holy Spirit works. The Holy Spirit leads you into right understanding of his word. Because when you hear it rightly proclaimed, the Spirit testifies to you, you've heard it. He has taught it rightly. Likewise, when you hear it taught wrongly, if you are in dwelt by the Spirit, then there should be the same indication in reverse. Now, the thing is, we're all sinful people. We're all fallen people. And so that voice of the Holy Spirit, so to speak, is not always as clear as it should be. And we don't always understand it perfectly. So this isn't to say that because Holy Spirit lives in us that we always preach His word rightly. And we always hear His word rightly, we don't ever make mistakes. That's not the case at all, because of the effects of sin upon us. But that is to say that it is absolutely not true, that the real true meaning of Scripture is beyond our knowing, that everybody has their own understanding and who knows what the right understanding is, that is a lie. If the Holy Spirit exists, then we know the right meaning of what he wrote, because that's what he testifies to it. So that's the first thing that the Spirit does. The second thing that the Spirit does, is he teaches you to appraise not only rightly appraise, the truth value, but also rightly appraised the moral value. So the Scriptures say to us a lot of things that the natural man would hear and understand and say, That's foolish, because that's a worthless sort of exchange. Just some examples, there's so many examples, but just one example: the scriptures would say to us, it is of infinitely more value, that you lay up treasures in heaven, instead of treasures on earth. Okay, so that's a moral value, we're assigning, the scriptures are assigning a greater value to the next life than this one. The one devoid of the Spirit would hear that and say, That's foolishness. Because this life, this life is the here and now. So you see that? I mean, that's, that should be plain to us, that the Holy Spirit communicates to us a different way of assessing moral value. Jesus says, The first will be last, the last will be first, The natural man hears that says, “that's foolishness. I understand what Jesus was saying. But if what he's saying is foolish.” Or the scriptures would say to us, that infinitely more precious is the righteousness of Christ given to us by faith, rather than the righteousness that I can achieve on my own, the scripture say infinitely more valuable, infinitely more precious is the righteousness of Christ. The one devoid of the Spirit hears that and appraises the wrong value, appraises a higher value on my own righteousness. Or the praise of men. The scriptures say to us, far more valuable is the praise of God, than the praise of men. The one devoid of the Spirit hears that understands it and says, Well, I really like the praise of man more. So the Spirit of Truth teaches you to appraise or judge the right moral value on what the Scriptures present to you, so that the one who is indwelt by the Spirit―the Spirit is communicating to them when we hear that right preaching of the word that says, value, the praise of God over the praise of men, the Spirit of Truth says to us, “yes,” and enables us makes us alive to God so that we are enabled to do just that. Now, having said all that, can you see how frustrating and discouraging it would be if we understood that the Spirit's work is to teach us what the Scriptures mean? And then we open our scriptures, we pray, God, show me what this means. And we read it. And we don't get it at first, close, close the Bible. Well, I guess, I guess this whole bible thing doesn't work for me, or I guess the spirit really isn't talking to me. But that's not what the Spirit does. The Spirit wants you to exert yourself, and to use the capacity that God has given to men and women to understand his word which is clearly written to us. That's called the doctrine of the Perpescuity of Scripture. So just a really fancy word that means God is not ambiguous in the Scriptures. He wrote them plainly. That's not to say that they're not parts of it that are harder to understand than others. But the scriptures aren't ambiguous. They're not hidden. They're not secret they're plain. And so the Holy Spirit wants us to apply the God-given abilities to comprehend. And then the Spirit’s works comes along to say, now you're getting it. Now you're understanding it. He's preaching it true. He's preaching it correct. And that's how the Spirit of Truth works.