Divine By-Product

The reality of Almighty God in your life is a by-product of the presence of the Holy Spirit. People will know, beloved. They will know that God is real when they touch your life.


Scripture: John 15:18-27

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends, how in the world are you? That greeting, “how in the world are you,” is particularly apt as we look at John 15, where we’re studying. He said, “I have chosen you out of the world. You’re not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. Therefore the world hateth you.” You’re in the world but you don’t have to be of the world. Aren’t you glad that’s true? Peter says, “You who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last day.” The Lord knoweth how to deliver the righteous out of temptation. “Because He hath suffered being tempted, He is able effectively to help those that are tempted,” says the sacred writer. “Let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” You can run to Jesus anytime, and He meets your need. Hallelujah.

Your first need is mercy. I never forget that I come to Him as a person, who, a guilty sinner, has to have the righteousness of Christ. And I take by faith all that He gives, mercy, and then grace to help in time of need. Thank God for Jesus. How wonderful it is to be chosen out of the world while you’re still living in it. You’re not part of the Devil’s crowd anymore. We’re looking at John 15, and I was approaching, the last time we got together, the question that is on so many people’s minds, “Why do they hate me so? Why do people dislike me?” Now, if you are disagreeable by nature, don’t blame God. You remember the man who went to the psychiatrist, and he was telling his troubles to the psychiatrist? The dear doctor was weary and wasn’t listening too closely, and he stopped and he said, “What was that you said?” And the patient looked at him and said, “I said, for some reason, nobody seems to like me. Why don’t you pay attention, Stupid!” [laughter]

Some people are disagreeable by nature. They’re born in the accusative case, as we say. And so if you are a disagreeable person, don’t blame that on God. Work on being better. You can be, you know. You can learn to smile, you can learn to say “please” and “thank you,” and, “What is your opinion,” and, “I am proud of you.” Yes, you can learn. You don’t have to be an accident going somewhere to happen. You can learn to be a nicer person. Pray about it and work on it. But the fact is, the nicest person, full of the Holy Spirit of God is an unspoken rebuke to those who are rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the question, “Why do they hate me?” Well, Jesus said, “They’re not trying to get at you, they’re trying to get at me, they hate me. And you represent me.” You see, He, the Holy Spirit, dwells within you, and He is, what our Lord Jesus called, the Spirit of Truth. There is something about a Christian full of the Spirit of God that makes it impossible for the Christ-rejecting heart to hide behind any excuse.

The Holy Spirit is a spirit of truth. And people are face to face with God’s truth when they’re face to face with your dedicated life, my beloved friend. Someone asked me a while ago, “Why is it that I seem to be a threat to people?” Well, it’s because, full of the Spirit of God, other people find it impossible to dissemble, and then that makes them uncomfortable, perhaps. Now, He says, “I’m gonna send the Spirit of God,” and we know that the Holy Spirit came to the church at Pentecost. And that now He, the blessed Holy Spirit, indwells every believer. And so, today, the Holy Spirit of God who is, Jesus said, the spirit of truth, makes you, beloved, the embodiment of God’s truth, God’s message, God’s mandate to the human race. He is going to testify, it says, “Of me.” The best ministry of the Holy Spirit is not in the gifts that He gives. The Bible lists them, of course. Nor, indeed, in the fruit of the Spirit which is listed in Galatians 5, the characteristics that show up in your life as a result of the control of the Spirit of God.

But the best work He does is to point unerringly and accurately to the Lord Jesus Christ. “He shall testify of me.” That’s a great word in the Greek New Testament, “mártureo.” We get our word martyr from it. Means to tell the truth, to establish the truth, to say for the record, to testify, to witness. All of those different meanings are used in the scripture from that one Greek verb “mártureo.” “He is going to tell the truth about me. He’s going to say it for the record. He’s going to be a faithful witness for me. He’s gonna testify about me,” Jesus said. And now the Holy Spirit dwells within you, my beloved friend. You’re a believer. You love Jesus. You get down on your knees and pray and ask Jesus to guide you and He does, but in the process you become the embodiment of God’s truth. What a precious, wonderful privilege that is. And God takes the casual words that you may speak, and freights them, loads them with His power as the Holy Spirit uses what you are, and what you say to point to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Oh, that’s what I want for Bob Cook, and I know that’s what you want for yourself as well. Let us trust God that that may be so every day of our lives. I don’t wanna live to see the day when the blessing of God doesn’t spill out of my life. I just pray that I might be with you, the packaging, the embodiment of God’s message concerning Jesus, our blessed Lord Jesus, who is Lord of all. Well, He said, “Ye shall testify of me and ye also shall bear witness.” See. Holy Spirit lives within you, you then become God’s witness. Well, our Lord Jesus said that, didn’t He? As recorded in Acts 1, He said, “Ye shall be witnesses unto me, in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and unto the outermost part of the earth.” Used the same word “witnesses.” And Peter and the rest after the Pentecost when they were speaking to the crowds there in Jerusalem said, “We are His witnesses of these things.” Same word. Bear witness. You are the embodiment of God’s truth, because the Holy Spirit dwells with you.

It says… Well, here’s another thing I just want to get in. It says, “The spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father.” The perennial question, “How do you know God is real?” You, my friend as you walk down the street, and interact with people in the various walks of life, as the Spirit of God is in your life; it says, “He proceeds from the Father.” The reality of Almighty God in your life is a by-product of the presence of the Holy Spirit. People will know, beloved, they will know that God is real when they touch your life. Now, I want to turn the coin over and look at the obverse side of it just for a moment, because periodically we are heartbroken over the failure of those who have some visibility in human society and who, unfortunately, have failed in their lives, even though they have a Christian profession. And I want you to see what the Devil’s strategy is. The Devil is against the Lord Jesus, Satan hates Christ. And the world system, which is under the control of Satan, not the world of trees, and flowers, and mountains, and cups and saucers, not that world; the world system. The philosophy of the world as embodied in unbelieving hearts by the millions.

“The world system,” Paul says in Ephesians 2, “Is under the control of Satan.” That being so, that opposition is focused, as I said, upon the Lord Jesus. Now, I want to give just this word of loving concern to you as well, God knows, as to my own heart, “Don’t let the Devil get at Jesus through you.” Don’t let Satan’s crowd smear the testimony of the Lord through you. Don’t do it. Let the Holy Spirit be in control. He testifies about Jesus. The Holy Spirit will never lead you to do anything that will tarnish that blessed, clear, ringing witness to the power and love of your Lord Jesus. Just remember the attack is not on you, it’s on Jesus. And so, your life, full of the Holy Spirit, actually under God, not only presents Him to people, but protects His reputation in the world. Don’t let them get advantage through you. Let Jesus be Lord of all in your life.

Now, He said, “All these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent me.” And then follows these words, “If I had not come and spoken, they would have an excuse, but now they don’t have an excuse. If I had not done the works that nobody ever else did, they would have had an excuse. But now they don’t have any excuse. They’ve both seen and heard me and my Father.” It’s the Word and the works. It’s His Word and His works that provide not only proof that Jesus is real, but a sweeping away of every possible excuse. You don’t have to argue the Gospel, beloved. You don’t have to defend it. All you have to do is be living proof of it. That’s all. Even the heathen philosophers and those who have been active in the field of education have had to admit that you cannot successfully argue against a transformed life.

Someone who has met the Lord and whose life has been changed, you can’t argue against that. It is in itself, the evidence that God is real. Would you, today, give thought and prayer to the matter of being living evidence that the Lord Jesus is who He says He is, and that He can do what He says He can do? He said, “I spoke to them. If I had not come and spoken to them.” It’s His Word. And then He said, “If I hadn’t done the works,” it’s His Word and what He does in your life that convince people that Jesus is real. Be full of the Word of God today and let Jesus work in your life today. Amen.

Dear Father today, may we be living proof that Jesus is real, oh, grant it for His name’s sake. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!



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