The Indwelling Spirit

 

Scripture Text

1 John 3:23-24

Intro: God's word says that we are partakers of the divine nature of God. This means that God Himself indwells us by His Spirit.

I. Christ's Spirit lives in us. [1 John 3:23, Romans 8:10-11]¹⁰  And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹  But if the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. The indwelling Spirit provides believers with the very presence of Christ. Because the Holy Spirit lives in Christians that means that Christ lives in us and has given us His righteousness. Therefore we have a right standing before God. When we were saved, the Spirit baptized us into the body of Christ and His Spirit came to live in us to keep us. There is a mutual relationship—we believers live in Christ as He lives in us. This mutual relationship shows itself in people who keep these three essential commands in 1 John 3:23 (NKJV) ²³  And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.                                             (1) They believe in Christ, Mark 16:16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.                 (2) They love the brothers and sisters. 1 John 4:7-11 ⁷  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸  He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹  In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. ¹⁰  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.                                (3) They live morally pure upright lives. 1 John 3: 3 And everyone who has this hope in Jesus purifies himself, just as He is pure. The Spirit’s presence in us makes a definite change in the way we live. Our conduct as Believers’ verifies his presence. Christ is training us to keep our focus on His presence in us. We can only keep His commandments as we look to Christ's Spirit in us for the power we need. How many try to live the Christian life by their own power not stopping to realize without Christ they can do nothing? John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 

II. We are sealed and kept by the indwelling Spirit. 1 John 3:24 (NKJV) Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. The person who keeps God's commandments dwells in God and God in Him. How do we know that God dwells in us? By keeping His commandments and by the Holy Spirit. This is made abundantly clear in this verse. READ IT! Eph. 1:13b says when we were saved “we were sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise.” ¹⁴  who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. The Holy Spirit seals and guarantees us that we belong to God.          We are also kept by His Spirit. His Spirit gives us absolute assurance of eternal life. Romans 8:16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. He lives within us, He talks to us, shares with us, empowers us, leads and guides us, disciplines us, convicts and convinces us of the truth. God makes a home in our hearts by His Spirit. All that is involved in Christian living, the Spirit of God does within us. He is our constant and permanent companion. He never leaves us nor forsakes us. He keeps us. He is always assuring us of God's presence in our lives and giving us confidence in God and in His presence and power.  Note that we also dwell in God. This means that we take up residence in God. In him is everything we need for life. When we dwell in God, we make our home in Him. Acts 17:28 says “For in Him [God] we live and move and have our being, 'For we are also His offspring.' This means because we are God's children we are always conscious of his presence in our lives. We experience a closeness, peace and contentment with God, and we experience an awareness of His greatness, His power, wisdom and love working in our lives making us the people He wants us to be and helping us to live as we should.

Conclusion: We can only hope to live for Christ as we look to His Spirit presence within. We are not adequate in our own strength. Jesus said in John 15:5 “If we abide in Him and He abides in us we will bear much fruit for without Him we can do nothing.”

Invitation: Does the Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God as mentioned in Romans 8:16? if not now is the time to make sure you are His child before its too late. Just confess your sins to Christ and ask Him to forgive you and then invite Him into your life to take charge of you. Then be baptized in His name!