The Conforming Work of the Holy Spirit
The God Within Us • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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I. THE STANDARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
A. In Matthew 5:20 Jesus told the disciples that they had to be more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees, who rigidly followed the law, if they wanted to enter the kingdom of heaven.
B. In Matthew 5:21-47 Jesus gave illustrations of how the law should be kept. The Pharisees practiced an outward righteousness that conformed to the law, but Jesus said the law required inward purity also.
C. In the last verse of Matthew 5, Jesus told them to be perfect even as the heavenly Father is perfect.
II. SALVATION THROUGH JESUS CHRIST.
A. Since we cannot reach the standard of righteousness that God requires, He has given us another way to come to Him. In John 6:28-29 when the people asked Jesus what they should do in order to do the works of God, He told them to "believe on Him Whom He hath sent."
B. When we invite Christ into our lives, the Spirit of God also comes in and begins to work within us to make us more like Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
C. Jesus is the example of what God intended man to be when He created him
(Genesis 1:26). In John 8:29 Jesus said that He always did the things that pleased the Father, and in Matthew 3:17 God said of Jesus, "This is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased."
III. THE SPIRIT CONFORMS US TO THE IMAGE OF CHRIST
A. God's Spirit works in us to change us into the likeness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13).
B. God's predestined purpose for us was to conform us into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29).
C. When we see the divine ideal for man in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit changes us from glory to glory into that same image (2 Corinthians 3:18). We have to see Christ with an open or "unveiled" face, a face that is not blinded to the truth.
D. We can only see Christ in the Word and we need the Spirit to make the Word alive to our hearts (2 Peter 1:4).
IV. WE BECOME SONS OF GOD THROUGH CHRIST
A. We become sons of God, not through any righteousness of our own, but by our faith in Jesus Christ (John 1:12, Romans 8:16-17).
B. As we become more like Christ, our problems arise from living as redeemed spirits in unredeemed bodies. We desire to be delivered from these bodies of flesh so that we can enjoy the full, rich, overflowing life in the spirit (1 John 3:2, 2 Corinthians 5:4, Romans 8:22,23).
C. As the Holy Spirit continues to work in us, we find that our joy is in growing continually more conformed to the image of Christ. "I shall be satisfied when I awake, with Thy likeness"
(Psalm 17:15).
