The Work of the Holy Spirit in Redemption (Gifted Series)

You can hear the gospel a hundred times and still miss it. Then one day it lands with weight and clarity, and Jesus is no longer only a historical figure but your Savior. We walk through why that “wake up” moment is not self-improvement or better arguments, but the Holy Spirit’s work of regeneration, opening blind eyes and giving new life.

From there, we move into sanctification, the slow and visible process of spiritual growth. We talk about why holiness is not passive, why the Christian life requires real effort, and why the fight so often happens in the mind. Temptation becomes a question of belief: is God for me, are His commands good, and is what He has provided enough? We connect that struggle to what Scripture says about the Spirit as teacher and guide who helps us remember what is true.

Finally, we lean into preservation and assurance of salvation. Ephesians 1 calls the Holy Spirit our seal and guarantee, meaning God not only saves but keeps His people through every season until heaven. If you’ve ever wondered whether you can lose your salvation or whether you’ll make it to the end, this conversation is aimed straight at your fears with Bible-open clarity. 

Transcript

The Spirit’s Role In Salvation

SPEAKER_01 0:00

This morning, I want you to see what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit's role in your salvation. What is the Holy Spirit's role in God saving you for Himself? That's the question I want to pose. And if you grab some notes in the back, you know that there's three main points of Baptist preacher. They're not all started with the same letter, but I kind of tried, you know, so follow along to the best of your ability. It'll also be on the screen. Three words that I want to explain as we see the Holy Spirit's work in salvation. Number one, the word is regeneration. Big church word. Regeneration. And in short, we might just say our eyes open. Our eyes open.

The Gospel Message Defined

SPEAKER_01 0:55

If you're a believer in this room, when you heard the gospel, and just for the sake of clarity, this I don't always know who's in the room in any given Sunday, the gospel, when we refer to the gospel, we're talking about the good news that the just and gracious creator of the universe looked down upon hopelessly sinful men and women, and instead of destroying them in wrath, looked down in love and send his one and only Son to come and die in their place, our place, bearing the weight, the punishment of sin in the place of sinners, so that all who would draw near to him in faith would be saved from punishment of sin because Jesus already took it, and would also raise on the last day, just like Jesus was raised on the third day, to spend eternity with him by faith and not by their own word. That's the gospel message we're referring to. Well, the Bible teaches us that when we heard the message of the gospel and we believed it, there was a miraculous, hidden work of the Holy Spirit happening that you might not have just seen. But it was happening.

Regeneration As Waking Up

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Is anybody a deep sleeper? I used to be a very light sleeper. So I'm telling on myself, it probably my wife here, who's not her, she's downstairs in the nursery. Uh, but our kids most nights at some point in time come into our room and lay with us. Now I know good parents probably should take them back to their own room. We notice it's only for a season. We love it in some ways. But they come and they lay with us sometime around three to four. Do we wake up?

unknown 2:54

Nope.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

We just wake up at like 7 a.m. and that's where they are, or 6 a.m. or whatever time we're getting up that day, and they're just laying on us. And usually Kate, she was just sitting by me, her hands like that. All right? Well, we're deep sleepers. If you're a deep sleeper, maybe you can think of the few times where you woke up in the morning after a night of deep sleep. And it felt as if everything that had happened in your dream was real, and it takes a moment to almost take apart uh that didn't actually happen. You have to kind of come to yourself a little bit, right? Where am I at? You almost the funny thing is like your eyes are both wet and crusty when you open them. And you have to just think, what's real?

SPEAKER_00 3:37

And look around and see what's true.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

I say this because upon the hearing the gospel with conviction, God did a particularly beautiful work by the power of his spirit in your life. What he did by the power of his spirit, when you heard the gospel, many times before, but when you heard it and believed, what God was doing was removing the blinders off your eyes so then you could see Jesus not only as an historical figure, but as the sinless Son of God who's come to forgive you of your sin. You saw him not only as a person, but as your Savior. That was the Holy Spirit's worth, opening your blind eyes to see Jesus for who he is, to cause your deaf ears to hear. In the blink of an eye, just like you had been asleep, you woke up and God helped you see his son. The Holy Spirit did this invisible yet momentous work in your life. You know, the Bible says, you'll see on the screen behind me, all of us were formerly blind in some way to the goodness, grace, and gospel of God. Actually, I don't know if this is on the screen. 2 Corinthians 4, 4. It is the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to, you see it, keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. The God in this world, that is Satan, has blinded the minds so that they cannot see the gospel. You see, at one time, Jesus may have been important to your family, and in some way may be important to you, but not in your eyes, God. Christianity might have been a part of your life. Going to church might have been a family routine. Christianity might have even been a respectful religion, but not the all-encompassing truth for all of life. And then God's spirit worked wonders as you heard the gospel of Jesus. In fact, the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 2, that's the passage I told you to turn to, that you couldn't totally have received the truth of God without God's spirit. Not truly, not totally. And he's not able to understand them. Because the things of the Spirit of God are spiritually discerned. So you ask the question, okay, how can we understand what God has done for us in Jesus if we can't understand? 1 Corinthians 2. Look at verses 7 through 10. Paul says here, but the context is through the preaching of the gospel, Paul says, We impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. But as it is written, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him. These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. So, in his great love, God prepared something for us beyond our imagination, which we now know is the eternal salvation Jesus brought. And he has called us to receive such a gift, the gift of the forgiveness that Jesus offers us in Christ, that God offers us in Christ, by helping us see Jesus, not just as the son of a carpenter, but as the son of God. See Jesus for who he is, is a work of the Holy Spirit. John 16, verse 7 through 10. I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away, Jesus said. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, here it is, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. You will convict your heart concerning your sin. So that you sit in your sin? No, so that you know the righteous one. Concerning righteousness, so that you might walk in fullness of life after Jesus in judgment, so that you might turn, and you might warn. Because they do not believe me. Concerning sin, concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer. You would not have seen and believed Jesus if it were not for the Holy Spirit. That's why Jesus told his disciples in Jerusalem to wait until I send my spirit. He sent his spirit. Three thousand heard it believed. They formerly did. That's why Paul says, listen carefully, no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. Paul says that 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 3. So let me tell you something this morning. And please, if I may ask, let me get through the whole section about what I'm about to get through. So you might kind of understand what I mean.

Why Arguments Cannot Convert Hearts

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Told students this in the past, I've unstooded pastor for a number of years. How old pastor? Christianity is not convincible. And so hold on. What do you mean by that? Well, I am a big proponent of apologetics. In fact, we try to practice apologetics on the college campus. Apologetics is taken from the passage of scripture that says that we should have a defense for the hope or reason for the hope is within us. We should be able to share who we believe in and why we believe in the gospel. We should be able to bring kind of a defense for our faith, apologia, a defense. But without the Holy Spirit's work, we can communicate and communicate clearly to someone, or with the power of the Holy Spirit through us, but we can't convict. I can't convince you into a relationship with the Lord. So when we communicate the gospel, our hope cannot merely rely on our power to convince. We must rely entirely on the Holy Spirit to convict. So I'm about to go to Malawi in August. I'm going to go share the gospel in Malawi with a partner of our church. And we, you know, we send some money to this partner in Malawi. They have schools and they have a seminary there. Um and as I shared in the streets and in the villages, um, what I will do, and what I hope we all do as we go out and share the gospel, is we pray God to do a work that we cannot do as we're faith with the work he's assigned us. God, I'm going to go share the gospel. Help me to be emboldened and empowered by your spirit. But God, do a work I cannot do and open my eyes to not only see Jesus, again, as a real historical figure, but as the sinless Son of God come to take away the sin of the world.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

I can't do that. But here's the good news Jesus is come to seek and save the lost. He has spent sent his spirit for that work.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

God does just that as we share the gospel. Every salvation is a result of God's sovereign and hidden work, opening blind eyes to see and deaf ears to hear, understand, see Christ, and in response, embrace him. Have you ever noticed it is really, really, really hard to change someone's mind? You ever notice that? I know it's a brew pack. There it's a notice that you spent any time all on try to change someone's mind. How's it going? Like you're flapping your wings and he nowhere?

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Right?

SPEAKER_01 13:19

It's really, really, really hard to do. Well, it's impossible to change someone's heart, but take heart because the Holy Spirit is in that word. He changes your heart. He could change your cousin's heart. He could change your neighbor's heart. He could change your father's heart.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

He can change your daughter's heart. That's the work of the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Who for the joy set before him by Jesus speaks and points to Jesus. Look at Jesus. Open your eyes. That is a word of the Holy Spirit. You think about Nicodemus as just another example. Nicodemus knew the law of God. He knew the Old Testament. Jesus did not say study more. Not merely. He said, You must be born again. You must be born again. He didn't need new instruction, but a new heart, and that's the promise of Joel, and specifically Ezekiel. The

Born Again With A New Heart

SPEAKER_01 14:34

Holy Spirit will give you a new heart. He'll write the law of God on your heart. So I'd say about the word regeneration. You'll see it on the screen. Regeneration is the secret sovereign work of the Holy Spirit by which he gives life to a person who's spiritually dead. Regeneration is the secret sovereign work of the Holy Spirit by which he gives life to a person who is spiritually dead. You may get a new heart. Everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. This is God exchanging a dead heart for one that beats for him.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

This is the work of the Holy Spirit. Conversion.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

It was a work of God's Spirit as you saw Jesus for who he is, so that you might, with a new heart, walk after him. We can introduce people to the real Jesus. Only the Holy Spirit can turn people's hearts to love him. Regeneration. What role does the Holy Spirit take and play in our salvation? Regeneration. Here's another word.

Sanctification Is Slow Visible Change

SPEAKER_01 16:09

Sanctification. Sanctification. Another big church word. The same Holy Spirit that regenerates, sanctifies. Now I know these are church words. A lot of us know these words, but knowing their meaning is important for our message this morning. And for your life as a believer. Regeneration and sanctification are two different works of the same Holy Spirit. Regeneration is immediate and invisible. No one is halfway reborn. Sanctification, on the other hand, begins at a person's new birth and is progressive and visible. You see that work. Regeneration brings our heart to God. Sanctification brings our whole life in submission to God as we follow after Jesus. The biggest difference that we want to talk about, I want to talk about this morning, is between regeneration and sanctification is our participation, our effort, our work. You see, regeneration is a work with God alone. Just as you aren't responsible for your first birth, not responsible what, not entirely for your second birth. God gave you a new heart. You didn't go to the heart store doing. You heard the gospel, you believed. New heart. Sanctification, however, involves both the work of the Holy Spirit and you.

Holiness Takes Effort With Help

SPEAKER_01 18:56

So God by his Spirit is enabling and affecting your effort. As believers, we're called to be holy. 1 Peter 1:16. Our pursuit of holiness is necessary. Hebrews 12.14. We're to work hard, pursue Christ, put off sin. Bear one of those burdens. Bear the fruits of the Spirit. Endure difficulty. Obey Christ. Love people. Resist temptation. All with the promise that the Holy Spirit is working in us and is not giving up on us.

Temptation Is A Battle Of Belief

SPEAKER_00 19:31

What's the work? Odd arguing. The work but salvation is fought in the battle of the mind. Battle of the mind. Follow me here.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

When you became a Christian, you were called to no longer be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your by the renewing of your and you have not rhetorical at the time. Yet to do this. Okay. Alright. And Peter's call toward holiness, he instructs us to gird up the loins of our.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

What do you think it is? Mind? Mind?

SPEAKER_01 20:19

1 Peter 1 13. That means have your mind prepared for the battle and temptation. According to 1 Corinthians 2, God's Spirit has given us the mind of grace that we know what is right. The Holy Spirit is our teacher and our guide, leading us to know and remember what's true. John 14, 26, John 16, 13 to 14. So the battle of sin is the battle of not only obeying Christ, but obeying the truth of what he has said, believing Christ. Between what is true and what is alive? In temptation, who is God? Is he for me? Is he against me? Is he a stranger? Is he a friend? Is he a foe? Are God's commands burdensome? Are they a blessing? Are they unnecessary or antiquated? Is God holding out on me by what he tells me I should not do? Or is it better for my mind and for my body to pursue his truth truthfully? This is the battle of our minds. I used to say to students all the time, you know what temptation is?

SPEAKER_00 21:34

It is the brief but significant moment of evaluation between what God has provided for you and believing that it is enough and what is keeping you from believing in that do I believe?

SPEAKER_01 22:00

What he's given me is enough. Do I believe that that actually is bad because that looks really nice? Battle of temptation is do I believe God?

SPEAKER_00 22:10

I believe it.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Spirit of God as our teacher guides us in the paths of righteousness, helping us know and remember the truth of what God has inspired in this word, helping us to continue believing. Continue believing. The battle of setting our mind on things above so that we might walk in accordance with the spirit and not with the flesh. Last word, I know you're ready for the third point. Here it is.

Preservation As Your Future Seal

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Regeneration, sanctification, preservation, presermation. Want to just say, as we wage the war of visitation in our mind, thanks be to God, we're not battling alone.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Preservation. Here's the phrase: our future seal. Our future seal. Third and final work we'll talk about this morning of the Spirit in our salvation is His preservation. We see the Holy Spirit has regenerated our heart, a second birth. The Holy Spirit sanctifies us, informing us to the image of Christ, but also the Holy Spirit preserves us, guaranteeing our eternity with Christ. We know that when we believe, we are born again. The gospel teaches that all who believe in Christ, seek the forgiveness he provides, and follow him, will have eternal life. We know that God's goal is for our holiness, but how do we know that we will, in fact, reach that final destination?

SPEAKER_00 23:51

Heaven.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

How can we be sure that God will keep us through every season and through every situation life brings? How can you know that? Well, the Bible tells us he will, but also the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit is thine guarantee.

Sealed By The Spirit In Ephesians 1

SPEAKER_01 24:16

Ephesians 1, 3 through 14. In fact, this is the last passage I'm gonna have you go to. You guys have been hanging on really it's great. But if you would go to Ephesians 1, 3 through 14. Ephesians 1, 3 through 14. Ephesians 1, 3 through 14 is one of the most glorious expositions of the work of God in our salvation. The context is the Apostle Paul, and one long Greek sentence, he praises God for the blessing of salvation. And what you learn from those 12 verses, Ephesians 1, 3 through 14, we summarize all those verses in a sentence. What Ephesians 1 3 through 14 teaches is that the triad God has planned, has provided for, and will protect your salvation from eternity past for an eternal future.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Paul just says, I think he basically says, I don't totally understand it. But God praise him.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Praise him. He says, for his glorious grace multiple times, to the praise of his glory multiple times. And that's what you see. Verses 3 through 6, the Father planned our salvation before the Father of the world, foundation of the world. He chose us, verse 4, he predestined us to adoption, verse 5. The Father planned our salvation. Verses 7 through 10, you can see it. The Son provided for our salvation. Through the blood of Jesus, we have redemption, we have forgiveness, and then here for our purpose this morning, the Spirit protects our salvation. Verses 13 and 14. When you refer the gospel and believe, verse 13, you are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, verse 13, who is the guarantee of our inheritance, verse 14. What the Apostle Paul, inspired by the Spirit, says about the Spirit is that the Spirit is like a seal over our lives, keeping us until the return of Christ. Not only marking us as his, but keeping us through whatever may come. The Holy Spirit is God's promise. You see this in the string, that he will protect us and preserve us not from difficulty today, but for heaven tomorrow.

Kept Through Trials Until The End

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Who both disagree with each other, nail me? On six specifics in the book of Revelation. But there is at least, at minimum, a picture of God doing the kind of work he mentions in Ephesians chapter one, the sealing work, sealing unto redemption, the guarantee of our inheritance. There's a group of people mentioned in Revelation chapter 7, right after everybody heads for the hills because the wrath of God has been set upon the world. The kings are hiding in the caves. And they say this phrase, are you ready? Who can stand? Who can stand on the day of the Lord? Who's gonna make it? This dreadful and awful day, they say, who's gonna stand? And then chapter 7 happens.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

And Thomas says that chapter 7 is the answer.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Now, whoever you believe this group of people to be, 144,000 seal through it to make it to their soul. Now, how do you want to link that or not lake that with Ephesians chapter 1? Yes, that's fine. What a great picture of how God keeps us through everything that may come to remain safe and secure for him for never. What a picture. That's the picture of God sealing you by his spirit. It's as if, like John says, you're in my hand, you're in the Father's hand, and the pressure, the Holy Spirit's a whole shit. I'm not trying to get some Trinity mishap here, but you're being held by God, three persons of the trinea daraudet for your eternity, sealed by the promise of the Holy Spirit. God has marked you, His presence, and your life is the guarantee of glory.

Assurance Scriptures And Final Hope

SPEAKER_01 29:04

So, church, you trust Jesus, you can be assured of your salvation. If you have genuinely placed your faith in Christ, God is holding you until he returns. The Holy Spirit is the guarantee. This means you can't just lose your salvation. And I want you to know that. And I want you to see the truth in the scriptures. A few verses to remember, God keeps you. Are you ready? Romans 8 29 to 30. The love of God will keep us. Nothing can separate us from Romans 8, verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because you know he says up there. Because you have the spirit, you're not in the law anymore. What about Philippians chapter 1, verse 6? He who began a good work and you will bring it to completion. What about Jude 24 and 25? It says that he will present you blameless at the day of his return. You're gonna do that perfectly? No. Might do that perfectly? No. He will present you blindness, ready for his return. What about Ephesians chapter 1 that we just talked about a minute ago? Verses 13 and 14. The Holy Spirit is our guarantee, our seal. What about Ephesians chapter 2, verse 6? You've already been seated with him in the heavenly places. Let me tell you a quick little picture. Ephesians chapter 2 talks about our salvation. And verse 5 and 6, 4, 5, and 6, the apostle Paul says, While you were done your trespasses and sins, God stepped in. You have been raised to life and seated with God in the heavenly places. It is almost as if your choir seat is already in heaven, waiting for you to sing, praises the King Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

If you are God's, you are safe.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

This world can be taken from you, but the world to come cannot be. Believer, what a gift you have, and that the Spirit of the living God dwells in you and keeps you.