The Temple of the Holy Spirit – The Spirit of Truth

And we're moving through our series called The Temple of the Holy Spirit.

Can you say the temple of the Holy Spirit?

And it's so important, people of God, that you recognize who you are as a child of God.

No, not are you only just a son or daughter of God, but you have the Spirit of God dwelling within you.

You are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Can you say, I am the temple of the Holy Spirit?

We're reminding ourselves who we are.

Watch, who we carry and the purpose we've been given.

We gave our lives to Jesus Christ, and there was a change that was made inside of you and me.

We became equipped for greater things.

Ephesians chapter 2 says this for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for what?

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

That's why he created you.

For good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

The enemy wants to give you a bunch of other reasons to use your body.

Give you a bunch of other reasons to use your mind and your mouth.

But realize that God has created you beforehand, destined you for good works.

Amen.

It was God's plan from the very beginning that we would accomplish good works.

Scripture reminds us He created us to do this.

But sin marred God's beautiful creation.

And instead of accomplishing good works, what does man do?

Chases the desires of the flesh, and we find ourselves constantly on the road to destruction.

So Jesus gives his life.

And now the Holy Spirit dwells within us and is reviving our spirit to do good works again.

And not just good works, but we talked about it last week.

Greater things, as spoken by Jesus Christ.

John chapter 14, verse 12.

John 14:12

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I have been doing, and they will do even greater things.

Say greater things.

Could you imagine greater things than what Jesus was doing?

Because I am going to the Father.

And we know when he went to the Father, he poured out his spirit.

We saw this in Peter's life.

Peter, a fisherman, now filled with the Holy Spirit, calling off, calling people off of their deathbeds, or just walking down the street, and as his shadow passed by, people were being healed.

That's the power of the Holy Spirit that God wants operating inside of you and around you and everywhere that you go.

This is just a glimpse of what God wants to accomplish.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 19 through 20.

1 Corinthians 6:19–20

Read this with me.

Or do you not know that your body is oh come on, let's do that again.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?

Whom you have from God that you are not your own, for you have been bought for a price, therefore, glorify God in your body.

As the temple of the Holy Spirit, you have been resourced with everything that you need to live a purposeful, peaceful, fulfilling life on earth and into eternity.

Not only have you been resourced with the ability to do great things, but we're going to talk about something today that you have been resourced with.

As the temple of the Holy Spirit, you have now gained full access to the Spirit of truth.

Can you say Spirit of truth?

John chapter 16, Jesus says this in verse 12 I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them at this present time.

John 16 · chapter mention

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, the Holy Spirit comes, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will disclose to you what is to come.

He will glorify me, for he will take from mine and will disclose it to you.

Say amen.

See, while Jesus was here on earth, he taught his followers so much about life and what it truly means to live.

But could you imagine there was still more that needed to be revealed?

Imagine with all the things written down in Scripture, Christ had more that he wanted to share with you as you go about your life every single day.

There was more that you needed to understand.

Jesus might have laid it all out, but you needed understanding to all that he said.

And so the spirit of truth needed to come.

Jesus sent the helper, say helper.

That's the Holy Spirit, that's your helper.

The Holy Spirit would continue to guide, to teach, and reveal truth to God's people.

We see this with the disciples.

We see this with the apostles being sent out, and by divine revelation, whether Paul or Peter, we're starting to see the things that Jesus spoke as the Spirit of truth brings revelation to it, it starts to all make sense in our everyday walk and life.

Jesus told his disciples that the Holy Spirit that is being poured out, the Holy Spirit that is going to be dwelling in you is the Spirit of truth, meaning that the Spirit is still revealing God's truth to you and I today.

Realize that you're not going to make it far without A, the Holy Spirit operating in you, B, listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

God wants to reveal things to you.

He wants to show you things that you're not going to be able to find anywhere else.

We live in a world where truth is constantly changing.

Do you believe that?

What people call true one day may be rejected the next day.

You don't know.

We can build our lives on all of these truths and find ourselves in a very scary situation a month, a year, five, ten years from now, because we're just relying on what people say.

What do I mean by this?

I think of the year 2006.

How many were there?

Good year.

Some are like 2006, that was yesterday.

In 2006, could you imagine all of a sudden, after years and years of being taught and quizzed in school, we finally decided that Pluto was not a planet.

How many were there?

Do you remember that?

Do you remember the shock and awe?

I remember.

Pluto is not a planet.

Are you kidding me?

I had to memorize songs about this.

I had to recite them in Royal Rangers in order to earn badges and put it on my uniform.

After 76 years of being called a planet, Pluto is knocked off the planet list and is now called a dwarf planet.

Imagine all the books that had to be rewritten, all the books, I remember even in our life, throw them away, they got Pluto as a planet.

It's no good.

Don't trust it.

What was once truth is now truth no longer.

How about the truth that if you swallow chewing gum, it takes seven years to digest?

I remember plenty of times accidentally swallowing a piece of gum and counting the years, oh no, that it's gonna get out of there.

And could you imagine if you look it up, doctors say now it only takes 24 to 48 hours and that thing's passed?

Think of all the anxiety that we went through as children, and now we have to figure it all out later.

Because we didn't know the truth about these things or what once was truth is no longer.

I don't know if they said gum swallow was a truth or not, but we believed it.

And here's the thing people are allowed to make mistakes.

Why?

Because they're people, they're not perfect.

Only God is perfect.

People are allowed to make mistakes, it's called research, it's called practice, it's called testing, it's called proving.

And we as people, we naturally rely on human opinions to define truth, but we're not operating in the natural as children of God.

We need to be operating in the what?

The supernatural.

Because the problem is people change, but the thing is, is God never changes.

People change, but God never changes.

God's word never changes.

He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And because God is unchanging, we can trust that real truth can come, real truth comes from Him alone.

We are allowed to understand, we are allowed to trust, and we are allowed to believe, but we should only be building our lives on the truth found in God's Word.

We shouldn't be building our lives on any other truth except the truth that comes from God Himself.

Can you agree with me and say amen?

Everything in God's Word is true.

And as the temple of the Holy Spirit, one of the Holy Spirit's roles in your life is to reveal to you the truth of God's word.

The Holy Spirit's role in your life as a believer is to reveal and apply that truth to our hearts in a way that we can understand.

Realize this as you open up God's word, the Holy Spirit desires to reveal the mysteries of God's word to you.

You might say, I don't open up God's word because I don't understand it.

The Holy Spirit wants to reveal it to you.

He wants to reveal these mysteries, the beauty of God's word, so you can discover your identity and live confidently as sons and daughters.

But in order for the Spirit to reveal these things, we must be people who listen to his voice, that still small voice leading us towards what is right, what is good, and ultimately towards truth.

I love what Revelation chapter 3, 6, chapter 3, verse 6, the one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

Scripture reminds us listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

How does the Spirit speak?

Through the Word.

And as you get the Word inside of you and in your mind and in your heart and you begin to practice it, the Holy Spirit has a full resource to be able to pull from and remind you of as you walk through your everyday circumstances.

That's how the Spirit of God works.

As the temple of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit can speak to us, revealing God's truth throughout our lives as we make even the simplest of decisions.

And we operate under the leading.

We need to realize the spirit of truth.

Say, spirit of truth, it's residing in you.

The spirit of truth is residing in you.

The spirit of all truth, it is life-powering, it is life-giving.

The spirit of truth is the source of life itself, and that is who is operating inside of you.

God, I don't know what to do.

Allow the spirit to bring revelation.

Allow the spirit to lead you to God's word.

Allow as you read the spirit to reveal and say, Oh, I get it now.

I want to look at a someone in the Bible this morning, a deacon in the Bible by the name, a great name.

His name is Stephen.

There's a guy by the name of Stephen.

He's a deacon in the Bible, and his account is found in Acts chapter 6 and 7.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

And if you read Acts chapter 7, it's just a little blurb.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

But you see what's going on in the life of this individual.

After the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the apostles, if you read the book of Acts, they're going about the Great Commission.

Churches and ministries are being activated and set up all throughout the area.

People are having a revelation of who Jesus is and what God wanted to do through his son, dying on a cross and giving us new life and giving us freedom and giving us access to the new supernatural realm.

People are receiving the gospel message and their lives are being transformed by the Holy Spirit.

And if you read in Acts chapter 6, because Stephen had a reputation, a good reputation, and he was full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, Stephen is actually chosen first as one of the deacons to help out the church to look after the widows and to serve.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

And in the same chapter of Stephen's appointment as deacon, we find Stephen's life is on the line because he wasn't afraid to speak the truth, the truth that was now dwelling inside of him.

And despite popular opinion, as we look at this account of Stephen, we see there's a confidence, there's a knowledge, there's a supernatural that he's operating in because he knows who he is as a child of God, as a temple of the Holy Spirit.

Acts chapter 6, you can turn in your Bibles, verse 8.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

It's a long passage.

And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.

But some men from what was called the synagogue of the free men, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen.

But they were unable to cope with his wisdom and the spirit by whom he was speaking.

Do you see that?

They couldn't even cope with it.

It was so out of their realm.

Then they secretly induced men to say, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.

And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came up to him and dragged him away and brought him before the council.

They put forward false witnesses who said, This man does not stop speaking against this holy place and the law, for we have heard him say that the Nazarene Jesus will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses handed down to us.

And all who were sitting in the council stared at him, and they saw his face, which was like the face of an angel.

A temple of the Holy Spirit.

As he was speaking, they couldn't even understand it.

It was so out of their league.

As he's speaking, his face shone like the face of an angel operating under the leading of the Holy Spirit.

And if you turn to the next chapter, you find Stephen, and I'm not going to read the whole thing, because Stephen does he pull from deep inside to preach this sermon at his death hearing that would shift the movement and understanding of the early church.

A sermon that could only come from the spirit of truth that was being activated inside of him, that was at work inside of him.

And unlike Peter's sermon, which you would have read in Acts, earlier in Acts, Peter's sermon about repentance and about salvation through Jesus Christ, Stephen starts to pull revelation from the spirit of truth that is that is abiding in him, and he begins to walk all throughout Jewish religion history, from Abraham to Joseph to Moses to David.

And then he closes with this in verse 51.

He says, This you men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit.

Do you see that?

Always resisting the Holy Spirit.

You are doing just as your fathers did.

Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?

They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the righteous one, and you have now become betrayers and murderers of him.

You who received the law as ordained by angels and yet did not keep it.

What is Stephen saying there?

He's saying, you guys have the truth.

You have the truth, but you're lacking the understanding because you're resisting the Holy Spirit operating in your life.

You're resisting the Holy Spirit and where the Holy Spirit wants to bring you and reveal to you as it is the spirit of truth.

Could you imagine the people that he's speaking to?

They would have had direct insight into the account of their fathers and their grandfathers as the stories had passed down the line.

But what does Jesus say in John chapter 14?

John 14 · chapter mention

He warns Stephen and everybody else about this in 14 verse 17.

The helper is the spirit of truth, whom what the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because he remains with you and will be what?

In you.

Some people want to know why in life they always make the wrong decisions.

Why life, no matter where they go and what they choose and what they do, they always end up back at square one.

Well, first of all, you need to give your life to Jesus Christ.

Because without giving your life to Jesus Christ, there is no understanding.

You will always be deceived.

There is no truth.

You need to give your life to Jesus Christ.

Why?

Because then the Holy Spirit indwells within you.

Now, because of the because of the blood that was shed on the cross, you can be found blameless, and now community with God can be made whole again, and the Holy Spirit can now dwell in you, and the spirit of truth can bring revelation.

Where you're not now operating on your own ideas and your own thoughts, although that's part of creation, but your ideas and your thoughts were were created to be teamed up with God's ideas and thoughts, and to take you to a whole different level than you could ever imagine for yourself.

These religious leaders and their lack of understanding, their complete ignorance to the new thing that God was doing through Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they couldn't understand it.

The Bible says they couldn't cope with it, so what did they do?

Many of you know the story of Stephen in verse 54.

It says, Now when they heard this, they were infuriated and they began gnashing their teeth at him.

But he, Stephen, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God.

And Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, Imagine in his final moments, Stephen is standing there.

He says, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

This is all fresh in the early church.

What's happening here?

But they shouted with loud voices and covered their ears and rushed at him with one mind.

And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him.

And the witnesses laid aside their cloaks at their feet of the young man named Saul, who we know would later be Paul.

They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

Then he fell on his knees.

And cried out with a loud voice, Lord, imagine in his last breath, similar to Christ Himself, do not hold this sin against them.

And having said this, he fell asleep.

Stephen, if you read, he would be the first recorded martyr for the for the Christian faith.

For the Christian faith.

As he listened to the voice of the Holy Spirit, and he pulled from the truth in which the Spirit would provide in him.

You think Stephen knew all this stuff?

It was revelation of the Holy Spirit.

And in his final moments on earth, see Stephen saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

Sometimes people give their lives to Jesus Christ, but they ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit.

They ignore the voice of truth.

And instead of listening to the voice of truth, they walk in the opposite direction.

And if you've ever watched somebody walk in the opposite direction of the voice of truth, it's a sad case to watch.

The things that they prayed for fall apart.

The things that they've they've worked for all of a sudden just all crumble to the ground.

Because they're not listening to the voice of the Spirit.

They depend on their so-called truths instead of pulling from the spirit of truth that is at work within them.

They pursue things that are not good, things that are untrue, things that fail to produce fruit in their lives or in the lives of others.

They may pursue things that bring glory to themselves and fail to point people toward God and the life-giving truth he desires for us to display and experience.

Our focus should be on how the truth of God's word can come alive through us.

Amen.

See, I know we have jobs, but realize this your job does not define who you are.

People can live a hundred years and have ten different jobs.

But people can live a hundred years and realize that they only have one true assignment.

And that is to live out their lives as a child, as a son or daughter of God, as a temple of the Holy Spirit.

So many times we waste and we make decisions based on all of the temporary of the flesh.

And realize that you are on an assignment.

No matter where you go, no matter what title you hold, you are on an assignment.

And that's assignment is by Jesus Christ, who filled you with the Holy Spirit or gave you access to the Holy Spirit.

As we grow in our sensitivity to the voice of the Holy Spirit, he will guide us into all truth.

He will turn our attention to God's word, allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal the life-giving truths that are found in it.

This morning I want to close, and we're going to close with communion.

But before we take communion, and if you don't have a communion cup, you can raise your hand and someone will bring it to you.

This morning, as we close, before we take communion, I want us to ask the Lord for a fresh revelation of truth in our lives.

You know, sometimes I hear of circumstances and stories, and I say, how did they get so deceived?

How did they get so confused?

How can they not see the bigger picture as to what is going on?

How can they not realize when God's word says it that the enemy is out to deceive, is out to destroy, is out to kill and steal from you.

This morning, over every brother and sister in this sanctuary and watching at home, I want us to pray for a fresh revelation of God's truth.

I'm not being taken advantage by the enemy anymore.

I'm not going to be used to facilitate his purposes, to just spread my bad attitude, to just to spread around my filthy mouth and my thoughtless ideas.

I want a fresh revelation of God's truth, of the spirit of truth that's operating inside of me.

I want a sensitivity to the voice of the Holy Spirit that will give a deeper understanding of God's word.

And so when I open it, the mysteries of God's word, things that I could never understand, they come alive.

You got to be intentional.

You have to be intentional.

Stephen, who we read about, was able to stand, watch, in the shadows of death.

And he didn't fear it.

He was not afraid.

Because he was full of wisdom.

He was full of the Holy Spirit.

Stephen was able to stand in the shadows of death, and he was pouring truth out of him.

He couldn't help it, but pour out truth.

The people around him couldn't even come up with the words to refute the truth that was coming out of them.

So they took to violence, they took his life.

Let it not be you and I who remain ignorant to the truth that the Holy Spirit wants to reveal to us.

Let it not be you or I who are ignorant to God's word that needs to be hidden in our hearts.

Let us not be ignorant to allowing the Holy Spirit to manifest God's truth in and through our lives.

As we shut our eyes this morning, if you need a fresh revelation of truth, of discernment, you're tired of being deceived.

You're tired of feeling like you're making the wrong decisions all the time.

Can you just lift both hands this morning, right where you're at?

Oh God.

For too long I've been deceived.

God, I might have made some really good choices, but along the way there's been some really foolish ones.

I don't know what's happening.

But God, all over my finances, all over my family, all over the choices that I make, God, and work and all the different choices that you've given me the opportunity to.

God, buying cars, buying houses, putting money and investing, buying things, God, I need a fresh revelation of truth of what this is all really all about, God.

God, I need your spirit that is within me because I've given my life to Jesus Christ.

I need your spirit to stir that truth.

God, and when the untruths are being spoken, God, I pray that such a discernment, such a conviction would rise up that I would say, no, no, no, that's not the truth.

And I will not be deceived any longer.

God, I pray for those raising their hands.

God, a fresh hunger for your word, knowing that your truth is found in it.

God, as a spirit, rises up within us.

Let us be in tune with the voice of the let's just be sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

So, God, like Stephen, we can stand in the fullness of your glory, knowing who we are, who we carry, who we've been called and created to be.

God, those words that have that we've used that are destructive, I pray that you would remove them from our mouths once and for all.

God, those words of filth and those words that don't belong in our mouths any longer.

God, because they only bring destruction, I pray that you remove them in the name of Jesus.

They're no longer part of who we are.

But we're gonna speak life.

We're gonna discern truth.

We thank you when we praise you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.