John 14:25-26: The Helper and Growth in Sanctification

Philippians 2:12–13 Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

By grace through faith, the Holy Spirit works in us a New Heart with New Affections… New Loves… and New Desires.

God takes out our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:25-27).

He puts His law into our minds and writes it in our hearts.

Where we once hated God and loved our sin now we love God and we love His law.

This is what we call the New Birth.

We are New Creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

He died in our place for our sins and rose again three days later and by grace through faith we are born again…

We are forgiven… washed… cleansed… justified!

We are saved once and for all from sin and death.

This is so crucial because there is no sanctification without the gospel.

If you are here and you are not a Christian the rest of this sermon will be no help to you.

There is no salvation and victory over sin without Christ.

You must be born again (John 3:3).

If you weren’t here last week, I would really encourage you to listen to last week’s sermon “The Sanctifying Power of the New Affections” to get a full picture of what we are talking about here because this really is a part 2.

We work out what God works in.

God works in us a new heart with new affections… God works in us a new love for Christ…

And we work out that love in obedience to Him.

The question is How?

Left to ourselves we are so weak.

As Paul said For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out (Romans 7:18-19).

He even goes on to say So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand (Romans 7:21).

How do we put our sin to death and grow in holiness?

The answer is not buckling down and trying harder.

Trying to white knuckle your own holiness.

The answer is by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit.

In John 14, four times Jesus gives us the mark of true a disciple.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments (John 14:15).

But we cannot do it on our own.

Its not a matter of willing ourselves to holiness.

That’s why Jesus promised to send us the Helper… the indwelling Holy Spirit.

In John 14:16 He said And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth… He dwells with you and will be in you (John 14:16–17).

And in our passage…

John 14:25–26 These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.

The word Jesus uses for Helper is the Greek word paraklētos which is sometimes why you’ll hear people call the Holy Spirit the Paraclete.

Literally it means to call alongside with the idea being to call someone alongside for help, defense, or aid.

The Holy Spirit comes alongside of us… He dwells in us to strengthen us and empower us to live all of our lives for the glory of Christ.

And what I want to do today is look at sanctification through the lens of our relationship to the Helper.

What does it look like to depend on the Holy Spirit’s strength and power?

Because there is a lot of mysticism surrounding the ministry and work of the Holy Spirit that I think robs Christians of the Helper Christ has given them because we have no idea how to interact with Him.

We have no idea what it means to walk by or be led by the Holy Spirit thinking that to walk by the Spirit is some esoteric, emotional feeling that’s always out there somewhere leaving us to ask for God’s help but ultimately rely on our own strength for sanctification and growth in holiness.

So what I want to do is look at three commands regarding our relationship to the Spirit

Three commands that I think will all be familiar… but I think hardly any of us really understand.

Do Not Grieve the Spirit.

Be Filled with the Spirit.

And Walk by the Spirit.

What do those commands mean and how do they help us grow in sanctification by the Spirit’s strength and power?

Let’s start with point number 1…

I. Do Not Grieve the Spirit

Unrepentant sin

Mortification

Keep me back from presumptuous sins

Impulses towards Holiness

Jealous for godliness cut off pluck out

II. Be Filled with the Spirit

Ephesians 5:18–20 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now this is an interesting command… be filled with the Spirit… its an imperative verb its something you and I are commanded to do!

What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?

Aren’t we already.

Didn’t Jesus says He will be in you?

So let me make it clear… being filled with the Spirit does not mean some Christians have Him some Christians don’t…

Or that you can lose Him and get Him back like there’s this ebb and flow of being filled with the Spirit.

All Christians are indwelt with and receive the Holy Spirit from the moment of conversion… and once filled you are filled forever.

In Ephesians 1 Paul said … in the same book we are looking at now… In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:13-14).

So being filled with the Holy Spirit is not the same thing as being sealed or indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

The command is to be filled… and the idea is not that we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit as in we are some empty vessel like you are pouring water into a cup.

You are already full so the idea is be filled… be overflowing.

The same Greek word was used in three other senses in the time of the New Testament and those three senses give us a better idea of what Paul is commanding here.

Wind/Sails

The first is that it was often used to talk about sailing and the wind filling the sails… where the wind come in and carry the ship along.

That’s the idea of the Christian life we are to be filled with the Spirit and carried along by His strength and power.

Without the wind the boat just stands there.

Permeation

Second it carried the idea of permeation as in filling and invading everything.

Every nook and cranny.

Think of Jesus saying the leaven leavens the whole lump (Matthew 13:33, cf. 1 Corinthians 5:6, Galatians 5:9).

That’s to be the Spirit in our lives… invading and permeating everything where everything we think, say, do, want and desire is filled with the Holy Spirit.

Total Control

Finally to be filled was to be under total control.

The same Greek word is used in John 16:6 with Jesus and His disciples… But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.

The Bible talks about being filled with fear, faith, anger, and even Satan (Luke 5:26, Acts 6:5, Luke 6:11, Acts 5:3).

The idea is that someone is no longer under their own control but under the control of something else.

Drunk

This is the sense that is most important for us here because Paul contrasts being filled with the Spirit with being drunk with wine.

And do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.

Now drunkenness is a sin… alcohol itself is not a sin but drunkenness is a sin…

And when someone’s drunk we say that they are under the influence of alcohol.

They are not in control they’re impaired.

Now that’s not to say that being filled with the Spirit looks like drunken bafoonery like you sometimes see in charismatic churches

1 Corinthians 14:33 talking about the Spirit’s ministry in the church… For God is not a God of confusion or disorder but of peace.

Paul’s point in the contrast here is that we are not to be under the influence of wine but under the influence of the Spirit with the Holy Spirit controlling all of our thoughts, feelings, words, actions and desires as alcohol would if we were drunk.

We are to be controlled by… empowered by… carried along by… totally permeated with in all that we do… the Holy Spirit.

Fully submitted to His power and control.

Under His divine influence.

Jesus’ Example

We see this in Jesus’ own life.

After His baptism Luke says Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit and led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Mark even says The Spirit… drove him out into the wilderness (Mark 1:12).

Not that Jesus was forced against His will… there is no division in the Godhead… all three persons of the Trinity work together and completely unified in their will…

But that in His humanity, Jesus was full of the Spirit and submitted entirely to His control.

That’s the life of the Christian.

Definition

To be filled with the Spirit means to be completely submitted to His divine power and control.

We surrender ourselves to His influence where the Spirit permeates all that we think say and do and carries us along by His strength and power.

When we are asking to be filled with the Spirit, we are asking that He would lead us and fill our heart, mind, body, soul, and strength with an overflowing fullness.

That we would not resist Him in any way but follow Him… submit to Him… and obey Him under His total direction… power… and control.

Verb Tense

The tense of the verb actually gives us a better picture of this.

It is a present, passive, imperative…

Present meaning it is a continuous action.

Be filled with the Spirit and be continually filled with the Spirit.

Day-by-day, moment-by-moment submission to the Spirit’s control.

The Passive aspect meaning its not something we do but something that is done to or for us.

Well how can that be?

How can you have a passive imperative command?

You could literally translate this as be being kept filled.

How do you passively obey something?

How do you obey a command that God alone does in us?

Do you just sit back and say I don’t know and passively wait around for something to happen?

No. The answer is surrender.

The idea would be if someone commanded you to let them through.

You actively obey the command by passively allowing them to pass.

Now we don’t “allow” God to do anything, but we do yield ourselves and surrender to His will.

And that’s Paul’s idea here.

To be filled with the Sprit is to be completely surrendered to His will under His divine influence and control.

And the fullness of the Spirit is His power at work in us to grow and mature us in Christ.

Mysticism?

Well what does that look like because aren’t we just falling into the mysticism problem again?

Is being a “Spirit-filled Christian” just some kind of hyper-spirituality or spiritual feeling where we just go with the flow of some vague spiritual intuition or still small voice in our head completely disconnected from any kind of objective truth?

Is being a Spirit-filled Christian just following our own subjective “spiritual” feelings?

No!

Look at the parallel passage in Colossians 3:16.

In our passage, Paul says Do not get drunk with wine…but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But in Colossians 3:16, Paul says this.

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Instead of being filled with the Spirit, Pauls says let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.

Well what does that mean?

It means to be filled with the Spirit is to let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

The more we saturate our hearts, minds, and souls with the Word of God, the more we come under the Spirit’s influence and control.

This is why the preaching of the word and study of the Word is so important.

Jesus said But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Now this promise had special reference for the Apostles in their writing of Scripture.

All Scripture is breathed out by God (2 Timothy 3:16).

And Men wrote the Bible as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21).

But these words still have application for us today as well.

As the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit lives in us to illuminate Scripture and bring it to bear.

He leads us through God’s Word as we grow in our understanding of God’s Word and seek to live it out.

He teaches us all things… He illuminates Scripture shining a spotlight on truth and giving us eyes to see it…

And He brings to remembrance all that I have said to you by bringing it to bear in some particular moment or situation to conform us to Christ and lead us in spiritual maturity.

That’s that impulse towards holiness we talked about.

How does the Word of God command me to live?

If you’re in some moment or situation and Scripture comes to mind assume that’s the work of the Holy Spirit

And being filled with the Spirit is letting the Word of Christ dwell in you richly by living out that Word in that moment in your everyday life relying on the Spirit’s strength and power.

Hold the Word of God as your highest authority and live all of your life by it.

Surrender unto God’s Word… resolve to live according to it with all of your life… and you will be filled with and surrendered unto the Holy Spirit because it is by the Word of God that the Holy Spirit guides and directs you.

You are full so be filled.

Be completely submitted to the power and control of the Holy Spirit in your life

Be filled with the Spirit, and let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly carrying you along as wind in the sails and permeating absolutely everything in your life… thoughts, words, actions, desires and deeds.

Live all of your life under God’s Word in accordance to God’s Word depending on the Holy Spirit with every step of your life.

And that takes us to point number 3.

Do not grieve the Spirit.

Be Filled with the Spirit.

And Number 3: Walk by the Spirit.

III. Walk by the Spirit

Galatians 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh… If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

This is where everything we’ve said so far all starts to comes together.

We’ve talked about putting our sin to death… not grieving the Holy Spirit.

And we’ve talked about being filled with the Spirit and surrendering all of our lives to Him by submitting all of our lives to God’s Word.

Well when we are doing both of those… putting our sin to death and living all of our lives according to God’s Word… we are walking by the Spirit.

And the Key to walking by the Spirit is depending on the Holy Spirit’s strength and power… its not looking to ourselves trying to muster up or white knuckle our own holiness.

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (Galatians 3:3).

And what I want to focus on is this idea of a step-by-step dependance on the Holy Spirit.

Because when Paul says walk by the Spirit, he’s not talking about a once for all decision where you just say, “You know, I’m a Christian now, and that’s the direction I’m going,” only to never think about it again.

Its also not this vague general idea of trying to live a Christian life.

What Paul has in mind is a constant… continual… moment-by-moment… step-by-step dependance on the Holy Spirit.

You can only walk one step at a time.

So Paul defines walking by the Spirit as keeping in step with the Spirit as in a step… by step… by step… dependance and submission to the Holy Spirit in every area of your life with every moment and every breath.

Its only by the Spirit that you and I can live a holy, Christian life.

That’s been the theme of the last two weeks.

You can’t white knuckle your own holiness… you can’t do it in your own strength.

You need the grace and power of the Helper… the Holy Spirit.

Practically

Practically what that means is stop trying to live the Christian life on your own.

Listen… I’ve been there. It doesn’t work.

You can’t just grit your teeth and bear it.

You need to come to the Lord.

Say God I need your grace here.

God I’m insufficient here.

I’m weak here.

I can’t do this on my own… I need your power to be made perfect in my weakness(2 Corinthians 12:9).

All my life… every breath… every step comes from you.

When we face our weakness we run to God’s help remembering Jesus’ words in Luke 11:11-13…

What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Walking by the Spirit… probably one of the things most misunderstood by Christians… is nothing more than step by step constant dependance on the Spirit offering our bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is our spiritual worship (Romans 12:1).

Its offering our whole selves… everything we are and everything we do in life… to the glory of God being transformed by the renewal of our minds letting the Word of Christ dwell in us richly (Romans 12:2, Colossians 3:16).

Conclusion

How do you work out your own salvation by the power and the strength of the Holy Spirit?

We said three things:

Number 1… Do Not Grieve the Spirit.

Put your sin to death.

Be jealous for your godliness.

If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

Number 2… Be filled with the Spirit.

Surrender all of yourself to Him under His divine power and control letting the Word of Christ dwell in you richly walking in obedience to His Word.

And Number 3… Walk by the Spirit.

And depend on the Spirit by offering your life as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

If I could sum all that up into one word it would be: Surrender.

How do you grow in holiness through the preaching and teaching of God’s Word?

Surrender to the Holy Spirit.

Yield your life unto Him.

Follow Him wherever He goes by living all of your life in accordance with God’s Word.

And when you feel weak…

When you feel your sanctification is slow and hard going and you’ll never be free of that sin or you’ll always fall short of who you want to be in Christ…

Remember Jesus promised you The Helper.

The one who comes alongside with strength to give you help defense and aid.

Sanctification is hard, but Christ has given us the grace of the indwelling Holy Spirit.