A Bank Card Without the PIN Is Just a Piece of Plastic

Sermon outline

You cannot live the Christian life or represent Christ in your own flesh; the Holy Spirit is Christ in you, and maturity comes from knowing Him and living aware of Him.

1. It is expedient that I go: the Spirit now lives in us

   Before the cross the Holy Spirit came when God willed it. Jesus said His going was necessary and beneficial so that the Spirit could come and remain on the earth and inside every believer. When we are born again we may not feel it at once, but the nature of Christ now lives in us, and the daily washing of the word renews the mind. Whatever contradicts the word, on the news or from someone we love, must be cancelled at once: let God be true and every man a liar.

   “We may not feel it immediately, but something has already taken place in the Spirit.”

   • John 16:7
   • James 2:26
   • 1 John 4:17
   • Romans 3:4

2. We cannot mature without the Holy Spirit

   Jesus did not commit Himself to the crowds because He knew what was in man. Even the disciples, after years with Him, could not adequately represent Him until the Spirit came, and the sons of Sceva were beaten by the demons they tried to cast out. The Christian life cannot be lived in the flesh, any more than a soldier can fight without uniform, authority or weapons. The Spirit is with you, but you must develop a relationship with Him, as you get to know a spouse.

   Illustration: You can own a piece of clothing, but until you wear it you do not really own it. A bank card without the PIN is just plastic, and only the account holder can get the PIN.

   “A bank card without the PIN means you just have a piece of plastic. The authority is in what you know about that card.”

   • John 2:23-25
   • Jeremiah 17:9
   • Ephesians 2:3
   • Acts 19:13-16
   • 2 Corinthians 10:4

3. Without the Spirit we fall back on gimmicks

   Without the Holy Spirit the church tries gimmicks, sermonettes and a seeker-sensitive approach that is sensitive to what people seek but never shows them who Christ is. Only the seed in the ground germinates. We cannot change people; we can only tell them what we know, and it is the Spirit who convicts and changes.

   Illustration: T. L. Osborn went to India early in his ministry, tried everything in his own strength and saw no impact. When he sought the Lord, he was told that signs, wonders and miracles had to come through the Spirit of God, not the natural man.

   “We can't fully represent Christ without the Holy Spirit.”

4. The Spirit makes the impossible life possible

   Turning the other cheek and blessing those who curse you are impossible for the natural man. A man with the Holy Spirit stops seeing colour and the prejudices he grew up with, and sees the heart of God in the person in front of him. The former gangster who says the anger simply left him is the Spirit's work, not willpower.

   Illustration: He tells the story of Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa being turned away from a white church, and of his saying he would have been a Christian had he not met one. Those church members may have loved the Lord, but they were not living by the Spirit.

   “A man with the Holy Spirit does not see colour.”

   • Matthew 5:39
   • Luke 6:28

5. Jesus put more emphasis on the Spirit than on Himself

   If Jesus were physically present, there would not be enough chairs in all of Durban, yet He said it was better for us to have the Spirit. This is the same Jesus who divided history, turned water into wine, healed the blind man with mud and rose again. In His mortal body He could be in only one place at a time; by the Spirit He is ever present and never leaves us. At Pentecost a hundred and twenty were filled, then three thousand, then five thousand, and now millions.

   “The Spirit of the Lord came and a hundred and twenty Jesuses were born.”

   • John 2:1-11
   • John 9:6-7
   • John 21:25
   • Acts 1:4-8
   • Acts 2:1-4
   • Acts 2:41
   • Acts 4:4
   • Colossians 1:27
   • Hebrews 13:5
   • Matthew 28:20
   • Romans 8:11

6. Live aware of the Holy Spirit

   He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Like the old WWJD bracelets, an awareness that the Spirit is with you all the time changes how you talk, what you watch on Netflix and whether you light the cigarette. Grieving the Spirit is ignoring Him and doing your own thing until He has had enough, as a parent eventually does with a child.

   Illustration: He smoked as a youngster but never in front of his parents, out of respect. Had he known Jesus was standing beside him and living inside him, he would never have done it.

   “We wouldn't do half the things we do if we knew that the Holy Spirit was standing next to us all the time.”

   • 1 Corinthians 6:17
   • Ephesians 4:30

7. Deliverance comes after the decision

   Every secret sin you want to be rid of starts with a decision. When you are truly sick of it and say enough is enough, Christ comes in and seals it, and you hold it by casting down the imaginations that argue for it. He uses smoking as the example, but it applies to anything.

   Illustration: You can wean yourself off cigarettes with patches and programmes, but the moment you crush the packet and say enough, that is deliverance.

   “The deliverance only comes after the decision.”

   • 2 Corinthians 10:5

In this message