Holy Spirit: Forever Promised, Forever Present (Pastor Aaron Trelfa, 06/25/22)

I want to say hello. It has been a month since I have been here on a Sabbath with

you all. I have missed you and it's good to be back. I don't know how much you've

missed me and that's okay. Right now I get to say I've missed you. Right now I

get to express my happiness to be back here at the Ringgold Seventh-day

Adventist Church where we as a church family, that's what I have come to call

us regularly because I mean it and I believe it, thank you, where we as a

church family can open up the Word of God where we can encourage and love one

another and it's good to be a part of that after a month's hiatus. My month

hiatus has been because of a whirlwind of activity between camp meeting and

family vacation and then NAD pastor meetings and other things. It's kept me

away. In that month we have had several exciting things happen. Our church has

had a general conference session that was delayed for two years due to COVID

and now whatever happened at that has a three-year lifespan because they're

going to get back on their normal five-year schedule. In case y'all didn't

know most of the officers at our general conference, the incumbents got voted back

in. There were a couple of new faces. You can find it online. I encourage you

to do that. Be aware of what our world church is doing because yes our greatest

amount of impact and yes our greatest amount of attention is paid here in the

local area. It is good to know that we are part of a worldwide movement

spreading the gospel to every corner imaginable on this green earth. I'm glad

to know that I'm a part of something bigger than me that we contribute to,

that we support, that we pray for because there are men and women in countries all

around the world that need our prayers, that are doing in their local corner

what we are doing here in Ringgold and I praise God for that. We are not just

isolated islands when it comes to his church. Additionally, we had just this

past week I went to the North American Division pastors meetings and so that's

very enjoyable. It's a way for us to get a little extra training. It's a way for

us to meet some of our fellow colleagues in ministry and it's good for

us to kind of be revitalized a little bit. So I had a good time with it but it

is I am glad to be back home. I had the benefit of having it be in Lexington,

Kentucky which is where we moved from so I didn't have the hassle of finding a

hotel. I could stay with my brother and so that's always good when you can stay

with family instead of just with a with a bunch of strangers in some some big

hotel that you don't actually care for. So I want to turn to today's topic at

hand which if you'll notice by the sermon title is the Holy Spirit forever

promised forever present. Let us pray. Heavenly Father I want to thank you for

your love. I want to thank you for your grace. I want to thank you that without

both of those things we could not even begin our journey towards you away from

sin and into your loving arms. So thank you for being the author of our faith.

And now as we look into your Word I pray that we find that you are also the

finisher at which you have promised is with us forever and ever all the way to

the end of the ages. This we pray in your name amen and amen. We are we are in the

midst of preparing for a spiritual gifts Sabbath as has already been noted. We

have now had two sermons on the Holy Spirit. One focusing on Pentecost and one

last week. Last week I believe was on the Holy Spirit and Philip and his

daughters. We have been looking at the need for the presence of the Holy

Spirit. We have been looking at the want for the presence of the Holy Spirit and

we have been looking at some of what we can expect or see and what is really in

your life when the Holy Spirit is there. I really want to encourage you to be here

on July 9. EW Dempsey from the conference is going to be present. He's

going to be our guest speaker. It'll be two parts a sermon and an afternoon

seminar on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Each one of you has a gift. You just may

not know it. You may have more than one. You may not know how to identify it. You

may not know how it could be affirmed or put to good use. That's July 9. I'm going

to have something to hand out for you in preparation for that but before then I

want to talk about the presentness of the Holy Spirit. Why do we need to talk

about the fact that the Holy Spirit was promised and is present? As I've talked

to others, as I listen, as I have these conversations not only with Adventists

but also with other denominations in our Christian fellowship, I have

come to realize that amongst several opinions about the Holy Spirit, two kind

of come forward. One is that the gifting of the Holy Spirit, the empowering of

the Holy Spirit in his fullest sense, was realized in the apostolic era right

after Christ's ascension at Pentecost for the establishment of the Christian

Church and once the Christian Church was established and spread like wildfire,

then some aspects of the Holy Spirit were no longer needed. It seems that

those aspects of the Holy Spirit that are no longer needed tend to fall on the

more miraculous ends of it. Healings, prophecies, tongues, etc. That the

administrative aspects of the Holy Spirit are still present. So in other

words, probably well-intended Christians have said the workings of the Holy

Spirit in its fullest capacity was then but I've determined that some of

it is not present today and to claim otherwise means that you're claiming

something not with the Holy Spirit. I think we should hesitate on that as we

are about to see. Two, what I find is that in Adventism in particular, there is this

idea that God's grace and Christ's atonement and the gifting of the Holy

Spirit gets us to a point and then we must stand before God without a mediator,

without the Holy Spirit, on our own and we finish the work. There is an entire

theology built around, and that's in a nutshell, it's more complicated than that,

but there is an entire theology built around the fact that the last generation

on earth, those prepared for translation, will be struggling under their own

mightiness and then they will welcome Christ in the clouds. I would propose

that that is also unbiblical and we should shy away from those kinds of

conclusions because Christ is the author and the finisher of our faith and that's

without limitation. I want to turn our attention to the Holy Spirit. I want

to turn our attention to our verse for today and I want to look at a couple of

aspects about the foreverness and why we still not only have but need the Holy

Spirit. If you still have your finger in the gospel of John and chapter 14, that

is where we begin and this is the thesis for today. John chapter 14, this is the

John 14 · chapter mention

beginning of Jesus' final dictation, his goodbye sermon if you will. He knows that

the cross is right before him. He's been standing in its shadow for some time now.

He knows that he is soon to go back to his father and the Apostles and the

work that he has laid the foundation for is now not that he's abandoning it but

now necessarily he's going there and there the men and the women are now to

take care of it. And they might have faced that with some trepidation which

is why Jesus begins in 14 verse 1, let not your hearts be troubled, you believe

in God, believe also in me. I think that would be good for us to remember and

to keep in mind when we look at all the things crashing down around us. As we

understand it, the closer we come to Christ's return, the more challenging it

will get, not the smoother. So let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in

God, believe also in Jesus Christ. And if you believe in God and then you also

believe in Jesus Christ and your hearts are not troubled and a peace he has

given you, then you also will accept what he says beginning in verse 15. If you

love me, you will keep my commandments. This is a building upon in addition to

earlier in John where Jesus gives that new commandment, as I have loved you, so

love one another. That's the new framework. We have Christ as our example.

But now Christ is adding on to it. If you love me, out of you will be obedience. If

you love me, you will keep the word that I have commanded you. If you love me, you

won't shy away from proclaiming my name. If you love me, you will tell of the

works that I have done and you will open up the Word of God and you will

share with others what I have shared with you and you will do it

faithfully. You will keep my commandments. You will keep my Word and you will keep

my charges. You will do that. Verse 16, and I will ask the Father and he will

give you another helper to be with you forever. And then we in verse 17 find

out who that helper is. Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive

because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him for he dwells with you

and will be in you or and is in you. We start with the fact that as Jesus leaves,

he is comforting his apostles and his disciples with the fact that he is not

abandoning them but rather giving them another person like him. And we see that

in the word another. Another helper, another counselor, another comforter,

another advocate. That word translated helper encompasses all four of those and

even a little bit more. When he says another those words, he is saying I'm

sending you another person like me because Jesus is also our helper, our

counselor, our comforter, and our advocate. You can find that throughout

Scripture. He is not sending another person who cannot relate to the

Godhead. He is sending that third person of the Godhead. Another one like me to be

with you forever. And that's that nail in the theology of the

limitations on the Holy Spirit. Because forever can be for eternity but it can

also be until all things are accomplished. Much like how Samuel was

dedicated to the service of God forever. Well when he died his service ended. When

we go to heaven, we might find ourselves in a different relationship with how

the Holy Spirit works in our lives. But we're not there yet. And so the Holy

Spirit is promised to us forever without end. Carrying us through. I can imagine

that as the final plagues are falling on earth and I can envision a time when

persecution is at our doors and it's not just a little discomfort, it's legitimate

persecution. When that is going on and the world is topsy-turvy and we can see

institutions crumbling and breaking and falling and we wonder how much longer oh

Lord, I'm gonna be grateful that the forever is literal with the presence of

the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna praise God that that comforter, that peace, that

advocate is with me in the midst of it and I'm not trying to stand on my own

righteousness. I'm gonna praise God that when he promised forever that it is

present forever. I'm gonna be grateful for that. When we continue we can see

that the Spirit of truth, that other helper, is promised to you and to me.

He is not promised to the world. In fact the world cannot receive him. The world

doesn't know him. The world cannot understand the workings of the Holy

Spirit and Jesus says it's because whom the world cannot receive because it

neither sees him nor knows him. We'll see another verse in a moment for why

that is. You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. You see as you

love Christ and as you follow Christ, as you submit your will to his will and to

his guidance and to his leading, you have come to know Jesus and you've come to

receive him. As you receive Jesus you receive the Holy Spirit. That's the

source. That's where he comes from. That's the reality of it. The Spirit

of truth dwells with you and that is just another way of re-emphasizing abiding,

staying, living, filling, etc. It's a beautiful promise and this is a promise

that if you are taking the name Christian upon your lips, this is

for you. Now why does it say that it's not for the world? Because this is the

role for you and for me. Why does it say it's not for the world? Well there is

another working of the Holy Spirit if you maybe if you need to turn a page.

John chapter 16 we see that rather than as a helper, the Holy Spirit has a

John 16 · chapter mention

different role. Rather than as a comforter, the Holy Spirit has a

different purpose. Rather than perhaps even as an advocate, the Holy Spirit takes

on another charge. John chapter 16 beginning with verse 8 leading up to

John 16 · chapter mention

that Jesus is simply saying I have to go and then the helper will come to you. If

I don't go the helper will not come to you, but if I go I will send him to you.

There is some debate over whether or not Jesus and the Holy Spirit can be

present in the same place at the same time. I say yes. I think that's I think

that's certainly true. When Jesus died and then ascended that was the catalyst

for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It's not that they couldn't coexist in

the same place, it's that when Jesus went home that was that catalyst, that

jumping point to now fully fill all of his disciples with the Holy Spirit. But

what does the Holy Spirit do when he comes? When he comes the Spirit will

convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. Note that

he's convicting whom? The world. That is in contrast a purposeful contrast to the

world cannot receive. John is drawing a distinction between the world and the

Christian. Between the non-believer of Christ and the believer of Christ. So when

we read that he has come into the world and he's doing these things for the

world, maybe that applies to you, maybe that applied to you, but this is the role

of the Holy Spirit in a different way. One, verse 9 concerning sin because they do

not believe in me, Jesus says. You can't receive the Holy Spirit without

receiving Christ. If you are still wrapped up in sin then you are not

obedient to the will of God which means that you do not love God. If you don't

believe in Christ, if you don't, this is all building on something, if you

love me you will keep my commandments. Well if you are committing a sin, if you

are living in sin then you have violated the commandments. But the Spirit's job is

to convict the world concerning sin. I believe that the foreverness of the Holy

Spirit is because there is still a sin problem in this world and until that sin

problem is fully taken care of then the Spirit's got a job to do. I happen to

think that we are at a point now when people have, they have become so

comfortable with sin, either in wholly accepting it or in finding a work around

so they can still have it and yet feel justified, that the Holy Spirit's job

needs to continue. People are no longer sensitive to the working of the Holy

Spirit because they want their sin and they don't fully accept Jesus. Because

yes Jesus does love you while you are yet his enemy, that's true, he died for

you while you were an enemy of God, that is true. He does not intend to leave you

as an enemy. He doesn't intend to leave you in sin. He might love you while you're

sinning but he does not want you to remain sinning. And so that convicting of

sin is to turn you around into that loving relationship with Jesus. You need

to know what's going wrong in your life and you need to turn from it. Let the

Holy Spirit work on you and when your heart is pricked about a certain

something, don't scour Genesis to Revelation to figure out the half of a

verse that allows you an out. Be convicted and submit to the charge of the

Holy Spirit because concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father

and you will see me no longer, the standard for righteousness is Christ not

you. You are convicted of sin because we actually have an example. The more you

read the Word of God, the more you come into a relationship with Jesus, the more

you look to the cross and what it cost heaven to redeem you from sin, that's the

standard for righteousness. Don't look to your favorite preacher, don't look to the

holiest elder, don't look to the greatest humanitarian or fill in the blank, they

are not your standards. Jesus Christ and His righteousness is that standard and

that's the standard that the Holy Spirit is going to bring before you. Please

allow Him to do so. Remember that this is the working in the world and if this is

still going on in your life, praise God that He's not done with you yet and He's

bringing you from the world and into His saving grace. But Christ is the standard.

See we don't have the benefit of the second person of the Godhead, the the

Son of God, the Logos made flesh walking among us for an example. We don't have

that benefit. What we have are the recordings of scripture and we have the

Holy Spirit's presence and so between those two we can clearly see the example

in Christ. That's the righteousness standard that we are called to but the

Spirit is not done there because we needed to overcome sin. We have Christ's

righteousness to look at as our example because there is a judgment. Concerning

judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. I like that distinction that

John writes in there because when even when we look at that lake of fire it was

prepared for the devil and his angels. The people that find themselves outside

of the walls of the New Jerusalem, the men and the women that find themselves

in that lake of fire are not there because one God is arbitrary, that's not

the case, and two they're not even there because they themselves are the ones

that it was prepared for. The people that find themselves outside of the holy

city's walls are there because they have aligned themselves with the ruler of the

world, with the Prince of Darkness. Now you and I do not come to worship because

we're looking for something self aggrandizing. You and I do not read the

Word of God just so we can be good humans in society. You and I read the

Word of God so we can be saved from sin and we can turn our back on the enemy of

souls. You and I read the Word of God and we are sensitive to the to the pricking

of the soul by the Holy Spirit because we are wrestling against principalities and

powers. Because God wants us to choose light and we are warring against

darkness and we forget that sometimes I think. You see if you find yourself in

this scenario where the Holy Spirit is driving a point home, I would encourage

you to fall on your knees and say Lord I don't want to be counted among the world

but rather among those who receive the Holy Spirit because I have received you.

As what you will regularly find and consistently see as you read through

what does the Holy Spirit do? Well the Holy Spirit's job doesn't even point to

himself and it certainly doesn't point to you because as we see that the Holy

Spirit is the spirit of truth, when Jesus says I am the way the truth and the life

the Holy Spirit's job is to direct our minds to Jesus because he saves. The Holy

Spirit's job and this is this is going to get around to something, the Holy

Spirit's job as our as our helper is not so we can go to him thinking that it's

his job to serve us. That's an incorrect way of looking at helper. The Holy

Spirit is not that vending machine that you put your dollar in and say now give

me a gift. That's not what the Holy Spirit's job is. The Holy Spirit's role

its purpose in our life, its purpose in your life is to bring us out of the

world and towards Jesus Christ and that's a work forever. Forever. When we

look at this word helper and that's why I added and shared with you those

additional translations counselor and comforter and advocate and so on is

because if all we do is focus on the word helper at least in the English to

the American way of looking at English helper is is well you're here to serve

me are you not. We refer to quote-unquote the help. They're the servants right

they're the they're the blue-collar they're the ones that maybe will leave

a tip for them if they've done it the way that I want them to do it. Just just

as a side note most servers and waiters at like restaurants they don't get paid

minimum wage. They actually rely on I was a server once at that time it was three

dollars and thirteen cents an hour that is not minimum wage. The tips make up the

difference but if we look at the Holy Spirit in that manner as if he were

quote-unquote the help we have it wrong because you see that we do not earn the

we do not the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit one is not given to us because

we've kept the commandments as if it were a quid pro quo kind of arrangement.

It's not you keep the commandments therefore God owes you the Holy Spirit.

It's not even you keep the commandments and so then you can claim something from

God because we can claim nothing from God that's grace. You can't claim it. We

do not earn the Holy Spirit any more than we can earn salvation but in the

process of responding to the Son of God because we understand that obedience is

even in that same way. The obedience is in response to God's grace working in

our lives not to earn the grace. It's response in the process of

responding to the Son of God we discover that Jesus has already provided the

divine agent for us that are still living in this world. The Holy Spirit is

already there in the process of responding to God's grace we discover

that divine agent is there ready for us ready to come beside us ready to gift us

and fill us and fruit us we have the fruits of the Spirit that we can look

forward to but that is a part of the process of responding to the grace of

God. It's not that's not just putting in putting in what we want and then

thinking we'll get it just get it back. And then when the Spirit of truth comes

he will guide you into all truthful he will for he will not speak on his own

authority but whatever he hears he will speak and he will declare to you the

things that are to come. Jesus says that he the Spirit will glorify me for he

will take what is mine and declare it to you. The Holy Spirit is still necessary

in God's church. The Holy Spirit was promised by Christ right before his

ascension with that word forever. We need the Holy Spirit. We need that

convicting of sin when we find ourselves out of line. We need the drawing into

Christ's righteousness and then we need to be saved from our sins. I want to

encourage you the next step is to look at the gifting of the Holy Spirit

because if we again think that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are limited to an

era bygone days past then we have imposed a limit on Christ you don't

find in the Word of God. And then two there is a purpose to those gifts the

building up of God's kingdom the spreading of the gospel. We participate

with the Holy Spirit through the various gifts in directing others to the cross

into Jesus Christ. That's beautiful. That is a wonderful engagement and I would

encourage you to come and learn more about the gifts of the Spirit what they

are maybe they're in your life maybe some don't make the list in canon but

they are still a gift. For example singing. Singing is not listed as a gift

of the Spirit in the Word of God but I know that there are people especially

gifted with song in order to lead others to Jesus Christ. I am not that and I'm

grateful for those that are. I believe that there is more to the gifts than

what is recorded here but we start with what is recorded in the Word of God.

Don't limit what God wants to do in your life. Don't limit what God wants to do

around the world. Don't limit what God can do if we would only allow him

because God has forever promised and God is forever present. Let us pray. Heavenly

Father I want to thank you again for your word. I want to thank you for the

assurances that we find written in it and I pray that we would never forget no

matter what we go through no matter what challenges we we have to overcome you

have promised the presence of the Holy Spirit through it all. We are never

abandoned. We are not alone. You have not made us orphans when you went back home

but rather you have sent another to be with us forever. We praise your name for

that and we thank you for we pray in Jesus name amen.