2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 says, “God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This is an amazing verse about God’s plan of salvation. On the one hand we have the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, and the call God puts on our lives through the preaching of the gospel. And then, on the other hand, we have man’s responsibility to believe in the truth and obey the gospel.
There is nothing inadequate, ineffective, or insufficient about God’s hand in salvation. >> In the beginning, in Genesis 1:2, were told how the earth was formless, empty and dark. Yet there is the Holy Spirit, hovering over the earth and its waters, as God speaks. In creation God’s Holy Spirit is alive, active, and powerful.
>> In Ezekiel 36:26-27 God promised Israel, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to {obey my laws} observe My ordinances.” Here we see that God’s Holy Spirit is powerful to change hearts and minds and change behavior. What wasn’t possible, following God’s commandments, suddenly becomes possible!
>> Before Christ ascended into heaven Jesus promised to send forth his Holy Spirit into the world. In John 16:87 Jesus says, “When he comes, he will prove {convict} the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment.”
Again, there is nothing inadequate, ineffective, or insufficient about God’s hand in salvation. But when it comes to sinful man, 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 describes how people perish because “they refuse to believe the truth and so be saved.” Not only do they believe lies {instead of the truth of God}, but they delight in wickedness. 2 Thessalonians 1:8 is even more exacting: “God will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the Lord Jesus.”
The knowledge of God is available, some just choose to not know God. The perspective of Paul in Romans 1 is that men “suppress the truth by their wickedness.” They fight it, resist it, discredit it. But make no mistake about it—everyone has an opportunity to know God. In Romans 1 bible says, “what may be known about God is plain to {people}, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
>> You see there is a willfulness, a rebelliousness. Not only do people not want to hear the truth, and know God, but they also refuse to obey. And what choice does God have but to turn us over to such unbelief and disobedience? If we perish, it’s never because of the inadequacy, ineffectiveness, or insufficiency of God.
Since we talked at length about the important of obedience, this morning I want to focus on the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit as an evidence of God’s grace. My prayer is that you will consider three aspects of the Holy Spirit’s work in our life...
First, the Holy Spirit is Convicting Us.
The Holy Spirit wasn’t just hovering over a formless, void, disordered earth. He hovers over all creation, all people. He hovers over souls void of meaning and purpose, souls not yet formed into the image of Christ Jesus, souls disordered because God is no longer supreme. The Holy Spirit is at work to put things into place as they should be.
Jesus himself said, the Spirit will convict the world in regard to sin, righteousness, and coming judgement. [SIN] In our world… in your life… there are things that are bad, wicked, evil, broken, stained, corrupted, dark, disordered... “utterly sinful.” There are things you are not proud of, things you are ashamed of them, things you hope nobody every finds out. There are lists of things you would change about yourself in a second if you could—attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, habits, thoughts, weaknesses, vulnerabilities, temptations. You don’t feel whole inside. You don’t project the holiness you know you should. Your conscience is condemning you, and maybe people too!
[RIGHTEOUSNESS] In our world… in your life… there are things that should be beautiful, lovely, virtuous, moral, good, and righteous. You no doubt have hopes, and dreams, and aspirations. You are idealistic about how people should think and feel, what a good person should be, the values that ought to govern humanity. When we read the Ten Commandments… when we see Christ’s righteousness… it awakens our soul. Suddenly we find ourselves saying, “I want to good, loving, just, moral, righteous, hopeful, forgiving, truthful, generous, a great dad, a great mom, a great employer, employee, citizen…”
[JUDGEMENT] In our world… in your life… there are things must change. We acknowledge there is a dire need for sinful things to either be made holy, righteous and good or else be destroyed in judgment. Isn’t it interesting to look around our world? What do we see? We see people absolutely convicted about all that is sinful and corrupt in our world. We see people absolutely convicted about what our world could be, and should be. And we see people who feel things absolutely must change, that there should be a kind of reckoning, an accountability to God for justice/truth.
You remember the old cartoon depicting the devil standing on one shoulder saying “sin, sin, sin”, and the angel on the other saying, “obey, obey, obey.” And then in the middle… is sinful man, who is accountable. All this conviction is the Spirit of the Living God, pleading with our human spirit, “Believe! Repent! Trust! Obey!”
I read a fascinating book a while back called the Righteous Mind. It written by an Atheist, who is a Moral Psychologist of all things. What’s fascinating is how he marvels about our moral intuition as human beings, and tries to unpack the mystery of our collective psyche. He observes that people have a moral matrix that comprises of six basic components.
>> CARE/HARM. This means cherishing and protecting everyone around us, giving what’s truly needed… refusing to do harm to the unborn, children, weak, or elderly… providing affordable medical care/access where its needed.
>> FAIRNESS/JUSTICE. Things ought to be just and proportional. There ought to be shared rules. Nobody ought to cheating and gaming the system—either from the top or from the bottom. Everyone ought to be contributing their share; People should be rewarded proportionally for what they do.
>> LIBERTY. People ought to be free from tyranny. Nobody should be oppressed because the color of their skin, their ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexuality. We have the freedom to speak, assemble, bear arms, have a vote… press ought to be free.
>> LOYALTY. Loyalty is that you ought to stand strong for your family, your group, your team, your nation. Honor your war heroes. Never betray your kinfolk!
>> AUTHORITY. Tradition and legitimate authorities, ought to be obeyed for the good of society and safety of the individual. Those who subvert the greater good ought to be punished, disciplined, jailed, and held accountable. Lawfulness is in everyone’s interest.
>> SANCTITY/PURITY. Life itself is sacred, marriage is sacred, sexuality is sacred, the environment is sacred. We dare not tread upon these divine gifts.
Now why am I sharing these things with you? Well, number one, all six of these moral themes are deeply anchored in Scripture, and the nature of God. Number two, all six of these moral themes reflect the convicting work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Number three, if you’ve spent the week berating Democrats or berating Republicans, its time you deepen the conversation. So often we are advocating one moral principle while completing disregarding two or three others.
Some of you have a taste for sweets. Some of you have a taste for things that are hot, spicy, salty, bitter. Some of you have a taste for things that are fresh. Imagine if you imposes your exact tastes on every human being—and judged anyone who didn’t quite have your same tastes. This is what we do morally. Instead of taking time to understand people, and discerning the underlying values that lead them to vote the way they vote, or think the way they think,… we demonize them!
I believe people’s politics are often touchpoints for the gospel, they are places where the Holy Spirit has been stirring a person soul. . . convicting them in regard to sin, righteousness, and the coming judgment. They are places where we can say, “Hey, God cares about that! God is love, he cares, he does not harm. God cares about what is just and fair. God defends liberty/freedom—even at the cost of his own Son! God is fiercely loyal/faithful to his people—he honors his promises, his covenants, his every word! God advocates for authority. Not only is he Lord, but he asks that we live peaceful, godly lives in all reverence and submission to those he’s appointed over us. God cares about what is most sacred—life, marriage, sexuality, the earth.”
Second, the Holy Spirit is Calling Us
The Holy Spirit is calling us to do something about convictions. I know that what is true about me is true about you. I am convicted far beyond my level of obedience. The more I explore the moral richness of another person’s viewpoint, the more I realize the inadequacies of my own views. The more I explore the moral perfection of God, the more I perceive the ever-expanding gap, between God’s holiness and my shortcomings. The longer I live the less able I am to justify myself. I realize that I’ve sinned far more than I could ever imagine, that I continually fall short of the glory of God, that I need far more grace and mercy than I deserve, that I’ll never be able to justify my conscience before a Holy God.
This means I have one choice. I must repent, and turn to God, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit, to do for me what I cannot do for myself. I need forgiveness, though I deserve God’s wrath. I need eternal life, though I deserve death. I need truth, though I have believed so many lies. I need strength, though I’m so weak in the flesh. I am exhausted trying to justify myself, so I need God to justify me, that my conscience be unburdened, and I be acceptable in God’s sight.
>> Through the gospel God calls upon us to believe on Jesus. In Christ Jesus, we have the forgiveness of sin. Christ’s righteousness becomes our righteousness. We have the promise of the eternal life. All who believe can become children of God.
>> Through the gospel God also calls upon us to receive his Holy Spirit. Why does that matter? In Ezekiel 36:26-27 God promises Israel, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to {obey my laws} observe My ordinances.”
I don’t just want to be forgiven, I want to be set free by His Holy Spirit! In the gospel God is calls us to a whole new life! God can do for us, and create in us, and foster in his kingdom, all that we’ve been convicted of!
2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.”
Let me end with this…
Third, the Holy Spirit is Changing Us
2 Thessalonians 2:14 holds out the prospect “that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
When I was younger, I would have taken the bait, and entered into the political fray. Democrats are scolding republicans; Republicans are scolding democrats. I’m of the same mind today after this election as I was before the election.
First and foremost, my solidarity is to one person and one person only—our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the is the image of the invisible God. He is the exact representation of all God is. To know the Father is to know the Son, and to know the Son is know the Father. He is Lord. He is Savior. Only God is holy, righteous, and good. My one life ambition is that Jesus Christ be glorified by my life… that my life ought to point people to no other personality except Jesus Himself. He is a salvation, our redemption, and eternal hope.
First and foremost, my solidarity is the Kingdom of Christ. God is doing a new thing in His people, by His Holy Spirit. He is changing us, with ever increasing glory, into the likeness of his Son Jesus. God is giving us eternal encouragement and good hope… he encourages our hearts and strengthens us in every good deed and word. Political parties come and go. They rise and fall in popularity, as do political personalities.
What is always rising, and what is never defeated, is the Kingdom of Christ. Only the Kingdom of Christ can satisfy our deepest yearnings. God is making possible not just new creations… transformed people… but a new society, a holy city, a royal priesthood, a people filled with Spirit, becoming like his Son.
God simply asks that we believe/obey… receive the Spirit…