Who You Are In Christ, The New Presence & Power of the Holy Spirit
Randy Peterman · Sep 14, 2008
Who You Are in Christ, No. 37
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492611117237

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

I actually wanted to start out this morning by reading some lyrics to a song that were, to my knowledge, written back in the early 80s when I was probably running around in the very early parts of my youth. But lyrics that nonetheless I find to be humorous and yet also edifying. The song is called I Want To Be A Clone and it's by a guy by the name of Steve Taylor.

I'd gone through so much other stuff that walking down the aisle was tough, but now I know it's not enough. I want to be a clone. I asked the Lord into my heart. They said that was the way to start, but now you've got to play the part. I want to be a clone. Be a clone and kiss conviction goodnight. Cloneliness is next to godliness, right?

I'm grateful that they show the way, because I could never know the way to serve him on my own. I want to be a clone. They told me that I'd fall away unless I followed what they say. Who needs the Bible anyway? I want to be a clone. Their language it was new to me, but Christianese got through to me. Now I can speak it fluently. I want to be a clone. I kind of wanted to tell my friends and people about it, you know. What? You're still a babe. You have to grow. Give it 20 years or so.

Because if you want to be one of his, you got to act like one of us. Be a clone, kiss conviction goodnight. Cloneliness is next to godliness, right? I'm grateful that they showed the way, because I could never know the way to serve him on my own. I want to be a clone.

So now I see the whole design. My church is an assembly line. The parts are there. I'm feeling fine. I want to be a clone. I've learned enough to stay afloat, but not so much. I rock the boat. I'm glad they shoved it down my throat. I want to be a clone. Now that's a satirical song, so it's a little bit jaded. But the thing that struck me in my teenage years, when I actually came in contact with this song, was that I was struggling to figure out how I fit into the church.

I was struggling to figure out what the Christian life looked like. And I had grown up in a church where we believed in the Trinity. We had the Father, the Son, The Holy Spirit was the silent partner in the business and we pretty much didn't get taught about the Holy Spirit at all. And so this morning we're actually going to discuss the Holy Spirit, but one of the things that I think is most important for us to understand is that Christianity without the Holy Spirit and Christianity without a biblical understanding of who the Holy Spirit is, is not Christianity at all, and it's warped, and it's difficult to understand how your life in Christ is supposed to operate if you don't understand who the Holy Spirit is. You either fall into the clone mindset where, well, these are just my set of rules, and we all follow the same set of rules, and we all do the same thing, or the other, you know, okay, so I started out in churches where I felt like I didn't get taught accurately about the Holy Spirit, and then, since I had a void in my theology, when someone who's charismatic showed up, I had no idea that some of the things that they were teaching me were just completely whacked out either, but it was somebody teaching something about the Holy Spirit, and it was much more exciting than anything I'd heard before. So it was easy for me to embrace the charismatic movement that I got swept into, because I didn't have solid teaching, and I didn't understand who the Holy Spirit was.

So either side of those pendulums is going to get you in trouble, but hopefully this morning we're going to go over some key doctrines. There's two handouts. One of them is a double-sided handout that says the new presence and power of the Holy Spirit. And the second one is more supplemental. It's actually notes back from October of 96 that when Hal was teaching through some lessons he put those together and Sue put them into computer format. So if you were back in October 96 at Holly Hills then you may already have this. But I think it's a fantastic list. It's 22 things that are how the Holy Spirit is involved with the believer's life. This morning we don't have time to go over all of that for this series, but I did want to pick some high spots to go over.

As an introduction in the lesson, how many of you are familiar with the term pneumatology, if I say pneumatology? few people are. Pneumatology within theology proper is the study of what the Bible reveals about the Holy Spirit and who the Holy Spirit is. The Holy Spirit is, just like the Son and Father, referred to as male in the Scriptures. Sometimes you'll hear people refer to the Holy Spirit as it. which is not right. At least as revealed in scriptures the Holy Spirit is a he.

So this morning we want to look at a few parts of pneumatology in our study. In seminary I actually helped the president of the seminary put together an online course on pneumatology and I had to go all the way through a book and put together an outline and notes that he had selected and then it was never put online. But I did get to go through a pneumatology class so that was convenient.

We're going to go ahead and start off by reading a quote from Lewis Barry Schaeffer and it says, It is stated in Romans 5.5 that the Spirit is given unto us.

This is true of every person who is saved. The Spirit is the birthright in the new life. By Him alone can the character and service that belongs to the normal daily life of the Christian be realized. The Spirit is the all-sufficient One. Every victory in the new life is gained by His strength and every reward in glory will be won only as a result of His enabling power. that has got to be one of the more rich yet terse statements I have ever heard on the Holy Spirit's moving in the life of the believer and enabling the life of the believer. The first thing that he outlines there and that we've got as a heading is, the Spirit is a new birthright.

When you are born again, when you are become part of the new birth that is a young Christian believer, you are born as a new creation and indwell with the Holy Spirit. How many of you have heard other teachings on the Holy Spirit and being born again? How many of you have heard that the Holy Spirit comes as a second blessing? That was what I taught in the charismatic movement. Oh, well the Holy Spirit comes and goes and he comes as a second blessing. That's a real problem because if the Holy Spirit comes and goes in your life, what are some of the consequences of that? Trouble. Well, it's trouble. What are some of those troubling consequences? How about that? That's, oh man, the River City and everywhere else. It's that pool table. Yeah. It's at least, yeah. I'm going to refrain from that rabbit trail.

What are some of the problems of the concept that the Holy Spirit would come and go? Or come as a second blessing, as a later blessing? Well, a blessing... Think daily life, I'm sorry. When I think of blessing, it's something that is given to you and never taken away. It's like a gift and it's yours. So if the Holy Spirit is a blessing, but then he comes and goes with that.

That doesn't make sense. It also means you have to do something to get the Holy Spirit back. Yeah. And that leads to an insecurity about your salvation. Absolutely. Insecurity is a major problem that comes with that. The other thing is, go ahead Stan. It's also the same thing as saying that Christ's work on the cross was insufficient and that you have to complete it. Sure. That's absolutely part of the details.

When we talk about who the Holy Spirit is, if you will turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1 verses 13 and 14 and if somebody wouldn't mind reading that out loud that would be fantastic. Again Ephesians 1, 13 and 14. In whom ye are also tested. His possession under the praise of His glory.

Alright. That verse, or those verses, that concept was pretty shocking for me when I was coming out of the charismatic movement that I was in, simply because I was totally shocked to hear that, wait a minute, the Holy Spirit is a seal on me? Permanently there? Think about the concept of moment-by-moment relationship with the Lord. If the Lord and you, being a saved believer, have a moment-by-moment relationship, you have a relationship. It's there. If the Holy Spirit comes and goes, what does that mean for your relationship? You'd have a serious problem. Eternal security is one issue, but you'd have this emotional state that would be fluctuating. That would be problematic.

I remember praying very intensely on the way to church, thinking, you know, Lord, please bring to mind all of the sins I need to confess and ask for forgiveness for. Because when I got to church, I wanted to have my good emotional experience in worship. And the only way that could be had is if I had to cleanse myself or called for God's cleansing in my life for every single sin I had done. because I needed the Holy Spirit to come back.

That's a problem. That's a very serious problem. And the problem is, it's not based on scripture. That doctrine, or that idea, is not based on scripture. It was based on what somebody had told me. And they had based that on some experience. It was not based on the text of scripture.

So the Holy Spirit is given to us as a seal, and the Holy Spirit is a birthright for the new believer. So if you're born again, you have the Holy Spirit. even as a babe. Just as an addition, on kind of the flip side of it, you're going to have perceived times of void. It's not going to be present, so it's going to leave a void.

Sure. I mean, you're saying if you hold to the idea that the Holy Spirit's coming and going, then you have this sense of, and absolutely, you have this, oh no, you know, what's wrong? What did I do wrong? And I've got to figure it out. go through the repentance cycle rather than understanding that I sinned and I need to confess my having walked away and my relationship is restored. Bob?

Well, Randy, the term sealed, I think, in the Greek has significant historic and legal implications also, right? Oh, absolutely. A very punctate term with great understanding and meaning. Oh, yeah. The king would mark something with a seal and that would be it. That's legally binding now and it holds forward. It wasn't something that you could remove or renege.

So that's the birthright and it's one of those things that for me was highly liberating. It happens upon salvation that you are given the Holy Spirit. Now I wanted to move as we continue through this study of who the Holy Spirit is in our life to Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18.

This is one where much study went into Ephesians 5.18 when I was walking away from the charismatic movement. And it actually had to do with a song where they had said, make me drunk with the Holy Spirit. in this praise and worship song that somebody had written. It wasn't very praise-oriented and it wasn't very worshipful, but that's another story.

Ephesians 5.18 says, And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. And he goes on, because Paul writes a lot of good run-on sentences, but we're going to stop and just glance at this part of it. When he says that, the concept is not just about a cup with volume. It's not, oh hey, you know, I've got this cup and it's filled to volume with this.

But more, Paul is presenting the principle of whom are you focusing on? Are you focusing on the sin nature? Or are you focusing on Christ? Set your mind on things above. And then when you set your mind on things above, what is the result? What is the consequence of setting your mind on things above? At least according to this verse. that you would be filled with the Holy Spirit. That's the only two alternatives.

Well, let me rephrase that. The flesh or the Spirit. But Paul is saying, hey listen, if you're consuming enough alcohol to get drunk, you're not being filled with the Holy Spirit. We're not going to get off onto the discussion of alcohol consumption, which is definitely not the point of this class.

But when Paul writes this, he continues on and lists off a sequence of things or a list of things that should be true of the believer if they're filled with the Holy Spirit. So I'm going to go ahead and just read from 19 to the end of the chapter. And as I read this, listen through and think about how the Holy Spirit enables each one of these items or the concepts to happen in your life as you are filled with him instead of being drunk with wine.

Paul writes, Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. And be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, he himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourished and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of his body.

For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual amongst you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.

I'll stop there. But Paul writes about corporate body life and how we are to edify one another as the Holy Spirit moves in us, singing in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. He writes about a vertical relationship, our relationship with the Lord, that we're thankful, again, because the Holy Spirit's working in our lives.

And then he talks about the marriage relationship. Now, not everybody in this room is married, but it just so happens that even outside of marriage, there is an impact. But inside a marriage if you don't have the Holy Spirit operating in both spouses lives, this isn't possible. And especially if you were drunk with wine, you'd really have a humdinger of a time trying to make a marriage work.

I've heard a few stories. But the Holy Spirit... Oh Doug, I'm pretty sure that it was probably a Shiraz. That's the kind of wine it was. But the Holy Spirit has to be participating in your life actively for these things to be possible. So being filled with the Holy Spirit is incredibly critical. How does one make sure that one is filled with the Holy Spirit? Let's ask that important question. Where's your focus?

Colossians 3.1, which again seems to be a very thematic verse as we've gone through this long study of who we are in Christ. Set your mind on things above. If you're setting your mind on things above, the Holy Spirit is actively engaged in your life. You know that's taken care of. Steve? words currently on our part.

Yeah, well he says he gives you a choice and the Greek word there, I actually looked into that but I didn't put in any Greek notes, is pleuru and the concept is that it's active, it's not passive, you're actively doing it and you're participating in making a choice. Are you choosing to be filled with wine or are you choosing to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Now God does the filling and you're the agent but you're actively making the choice to let that relationship carry and reside. It's an act of faith, isn't it? Absolutely, it's an act of faith.

I don't like the term choice. Well, we've had that discussion before. The idea is not choice in... Maybe in our vernacular. Our vernacular is choice, but the truth of the matter is that Paul is writing to them as a logical imperative to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Right, and that's an act of faith, right? Yes. God says you're declared and sealed in the Holy Spirit. Sure. Now by faith, in that truth, the process of filling goes on throughout our lives, right? Yes.

But we turn to our own power to clearly make a choice. Faith is still an act of the will. I'm going to choose the spirit now, I'm going to choose the flesh. It's this intellectual process of living the Christian life. Sure, but faith is still an act of the will. It's the choice of walking in faith. Or responding in faith to what God has written in my life.

Okay, we can use all the other words besides choice, but there's still the wills involved. I'm going to object to choice every time. I know you do. I know you do. Because the way we think of choice It's our total choice. By the way, when I use the word choice, it is never implying free will, which is a whole other theological discussion. I think that's just the way we think of it, because in today's vernacular, that's what we say. I do understand, though, when I do use that word, that it's not meant in that context, because I don't want to ascribe to man that which is not true.

Now the next question I have on here or the heading I have on here is a question and you may recall back in the 90s particularly there was a big bracelet fad within Christianity, WWJD, what would Jesus do? And I worked at a Christian bookstore and We sold thousands of those bracelets in Carson City, and I remember reading In His Steps was a book that was basically where the concept came from. Well, that's a bit historically inaccurate. It came from before that book.

But when you've heard the question, what would Jesus do? Your first reaction is, hey, that's a really good idea. At least if you're a babe in Christ, you go, that's a good idea. I just need to mimic Christ. Here's the problem that I want to pose before you. How many of you are the Messiah? No hands, that's good. That would be a sign that we need to have another discussion. What would Jesus do asks a question that needs to be answered very, very carefully. Let's ask the question, what did Jesus do for his daily moment-by-moment relationship with the Father? He trusted Him. He depended on Him explicitly for everything. And whom was actively engaged between Christ and God the Father?

The Holy Spirit. So what did Jesus do? As we talked about in past discussions, we have this hypostatic union where Christ was fully God and fully man. But as a man, He walked in the Holy Spirit. That's what Jesus did by faith. And he modeled that before the disciples so that they could understand that and see that. And we as believers, when we ask, what would Jesus do? Jesus would walk by the Spirit in faith. That's what Jesus would do. You don't have to worry about whether you're called to go heal people and walk on water. Those are other things that people like. I can't walk on water. Well, that's okay. But you can walk in the Spirit.

Absolutely. Because Christ was the God-man incapable of sin, unlike our flesh, right? Yes. But yet, we're seen as risen in Christ Jesus, right? Yes. So in a sense, we're fully righteous before God. Oh, absolutely. What would Jesus do? Meaning, live by faith in the power of the Spirit is the same thing we're called to. Yes. God sees us in Christ, not in Adam. Yes. Don't you see the importance of having positions firmly cemented before these verses mean anything? Well, sure.

I wanted to address this mostly because we have Christ modeling out the concept of abiding in our relationship with the Holy Spirit for us because the doctrinal issue of Who's the Holy Spirit? Even in the life of Christ, the Holy Spirit was active. And as believers, we have that same Holy Spirit actively moving in us, directing us. Positionally, that's an incredible thing for us to remember, that the Holy Spirit enables us to have our condition aligned with our position. Which is actually the next point. Which is good. No, no, hey, you know that you're doing something right when it comes up because everybody's mind is on the same page. So the next heading we've got on here is every victory is through the Spirit.

Romans 8.13, if somebody will turn to Romans 8.13 and read that, that would be good. Romans is to the left of Ephesians if you're like me and forgot that for a second. For if we are living according to the flesh, we must die. But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body you live in. All right.

Romans 8.13 tells us that we're putting the deeds of the flesh to death if we're walking by the Spirit.

The lost person is bound to the power of the air, as Ephesians 2.2 tells us.

And let's ask ourselves something here. Speaking of identification and position and condition, how does this concept of putting the flesh to death, how does that tie into position and condition? Since positionally, we're dead. Well, we're dead to sin. And that happened at the cross, and so it's back in time for us, conditionally, here, and positionally.

But if we reckon ourselves dead to that sin, that's what frees us from the power of that sin. It's understanding, positionally, where you are with that. Because, you know, you don't have to be a slave to the sin. I mean, if you focus on the Lord and understand your position, I think eventually, you know, over time, your condition becomes very modified. Sure.

But it comes in the reckoning that our flesh has been crucified with Christ and When we reckon that, when we're living according to the spirit instead of living according to the flesh, the flesh is dead and has no power in our life at that point in time. Instead, where does the power for our life come from? From the Holy Spirit. enjoyed Galatians 5 19 through 21 when I realized that there was something besides just the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. So if you'll turn with me to Galatians chapter 5, and again in Sunday school I didn't, you know, who's the Holy Spirit?

I don't know. Lord of the fruits of the Spirit. And I could spat it off, but I didn't have any context. But let's go there and read the passages in context here. Galatians 5 19 through 21. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5.19-21 are the fruits of the flesh. We could go back and read Romans chapter 1 as well, which lists off a slew of other things that are results of the flesh.

We don't want to spend a lot of time talking about the fruits of the flesh. I'm sure you all have personal experience with at least one of these things. Hopefully not, but honestly I can't think of a person I've known who hasn't run into at least one of these. Part of being a descendant of Adam, I guess you could say. But the power of the flesh is not a source unto life. There is no spiritual life in there. I mean, you read that list, none of those things are good things.

When was the last time you heard a motivational speaker talk about, hey, you should do all these? Instead they tell you to be good and do well and be successful in life and they usually tell you not to do these kinds of things. However, without the Holy Spirit in the life of a lost person, which is of course every lost person, these are the natural behaviors.

This is the way that they're going to operate. through 20. And the reason I bring this up is this is really kind of a favorite section of mine that I think ultimately gets missed because it's not read to the final verse. So it's this I say therefore and testify of the Lord that ye henceforth not walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanliness with greediness. Verse 20, power of the spirit, right?

But ye have not so learned Christ. Yeah, this is a fantastic parallel. profound and deep. You've not learned Christ and is not that the power of the Spirit? It's just Christ. I just love verse 20. But just to call my attention to John 16 verse 7. Do you want to go ahead and read that out loud, just for the sake? 16.7 through what? 16.7 through 11.

But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper, who is the will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. And he, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe in me, and concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you no longer see me, and concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged."

That's a good passage as well. Boy, we're not on the Galatians passage anymore. No, it's good. It's a good passage to outline at least part of the elements that are there. Obviously salvation has to come through the Holy Spirit drawing us to the Father. And we've been discussing the Holy Spirit's active participation in our lives.

But the life of Christ working out in us is through the Holy Spirit and it's the opposite of the Galatians 5.19 or as you mentioned Ephesians 4. The passages, and there's more, I mean Paul writes all kinds of things of what the flesh is capable of and talks about the problems of that. I'm going to go to Romans 7. But instead we're called to the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And just for finishing the thought I had there, I'm going to go ahead and read 22 and 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.

When the Holy Spirit works in our lives, those things are going to be inherently part of Now, let's step back and take a big picture view of things for a minute. When we read through Ephesians 5, the last half of Ephesians 5, 19-33, the Holy Spirit is the only one that can enable those relationships to operate. The Holy Spirit is the only one that is empowering that marriage to have a life of Christ in it. When we look at that, we see that's there. The other thing is that here is kindness, here is gentleness, here is patience. Those things are also part of the Holy Spirit.

Those concepts are heavily intertwined. In your own relationships, and since there are those who are not married here yet, let's bring this to the relationship of a friendship. What can you do in your friendship, in the flesh, that can come close to those things that are patience, kindness, gentleness, and the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which exceed that list, by the way.

You can't. You come up short. When you've been wronged, and that's never happened to me, nobody's ever wronged me, I've just lived the perfect life, right? When you've been wronged, the reaction of the Holy Spirit is sometimes to just sit there and do nothing.

Sometimes it's turning the other cheek. Sometimes it's speaking back in a gentle and kind way. Last year, a little over a year ago, I had somebody just chew into me in a big way and it hurt. It was not a minor thing to have this person chew into me. When they did, the Holy Spirit just gave me this calm that I cannot explain because in the flesh I would have just punched right back, so to speak. It would have been pretty nasty.

But the Holy Spirit just seized my attention. And I listened to what the person was saying and I was like, there's not truth in this. This is not true. But I just, I listened to it and I was patient. I was gentle. I didn't respond in anger. I didn't respond, I'm going to cut you back and I'm going to cut you harder and deeper.

Last weekend I was in Frisco with my brother's family and my parents and my sister and her family. And my brother happens to be a prison guard. He doesn't refer to it as that. What do they call it? Correctional officer. He's a correctional officer. And what he said was interesting is that there's an entire system of respect within the prisoners.

And depending on how badly you disrespect another prison, they may just cut you a little bit. They may cut you a lot or they may kill you. Depends on how badly you disrespect. And this was, I thought, a very clear depiction of how the flesh powers and operates in our lives. How badly did you hurt me? Well, how badly am I going to hurt you back in response to that?

You know, the family feuds that go back and forth. Or the insults that we lay down. The Holy Spirit moving in our lives in a marriage. Think about that in a marriage. If you one-up one another in a marriage, It's not a big wonder that divorce happens within seven years for most marriages, statistically. One upping one another for seven years until finally you can't take anymore. You hurt me? Yeah, starting back at the beginning. You didn't have patience. You didn't have love. You didn't have kindness. That's big, Stan.

Okay, so I think the mistake I always thought that when you received the Holy Spirit it was an all or nothing, but it's not that, because you receive a portion or you don't necessarily, and I don't know how to describe this biblically because I don't have the passages in front of me, but if you're being filled all the time, that means that it's not just a thing that's all in one and it's either there or it isn't there.

Because if there's a filling, it means that there's a process that you're going through. It's also the fruits of the Spirit. I mean, I don't have total self-control. But as I grow in Christ, and as I focus more on my position and my condition, I can gain more self-control, so to speak. I grow. Well, yeah, I would say the Holy Spirit is filling you, and I would say it's more of a binary or a Boolean yes or no, true or false, you are abiding or you're not abiding state. But what you're describing is sanctification, where the Lord is pinpointing something here and now in this life event, whatever it may be, for your growth.

Well, the Holy Spirit is a person. He's not those elements. So you have his personhood in you. So you have that. I'm going to draw on this board just because everybody can see that one. You guys can't see this one as well. But the Holy Spirit is with you and then the sanctification process is progressive as your condition is being conformed into the image of your possession or your position. But the Holy Spirit is fully, the Holy Spirit in you. but he's going to focus on, as I'm going to confess my problems as a father, when my two-year-old throws a temper tantrum, he's working with me on patience right here and right now, but he may not be addressing something else. If I blow it, which has happened on a few occasions, I may be out of fellowship for a moment, but the Holy Spirit is still fully the Holy Spirit.

I'm just not listening. Does that make sense? But as soon as I confess the sin of my not listening, because that's the sin fundamentally. As believers, when we're not listening, we're sinning. And actually, at the Doyle's Bible study on Wednesday night, we went over this and some of you were there and may recall. But when we're not listening, we're in sin. It doesn't matter if we're murdering somebody or speeding or whatever it is that's a sin. The real fundamental sin is not abiding in the Holy Spirit or abiding in Christ and living in the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is fully the Holy Spirit and is fully indwelling you. Is there a passage something about in full measure?

Romans 12. Because the gifts are a result of the Holy Spirit. Absolutely and that would see again this we could do like a whole series and class on who the Holy Spirit is. We didn't even touch on the spiritual gifts. The truth of the matter is that, did that answer your question about receiving the Holy Spirit fully just because he's a person? It fits with sanctification. Really, that's where it is. Sanctification. The Holy Spirit is going to address certain aspects in our lives. We're going to close more specifically on that topic. I think grieving the Holy Spirit is the issue here. When we sin, we grieve the Holy Spirit.

And therefore he is sort of frozen in time until we turn back around the right way. Well yeah, we're not allowing him to operate. We're in fellowship with Holy Spirit again. Yeah, we're not allowing him to operate. He can work. Absolutely. Yeah. And that's why we want to describe... The Lord has put the Holy Spirit in our lives to participate in our lives and to know us and be active in us. The next section, and I don't know how much time I have left, but I won't worry about it. The next section that we're going to go into actually addresses this topically a little bit more specifically. So let's go ahead and jump there.

I've got the Holy Spirit helps us grow spiritually and Romans 8.26 tells us the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." The Holy Spirit knows exactly where I need to groan next and talks to God the Father about those things and prays for us and intercedes for us where we don't know. I've heard somebody say, do you know when you're being lied to? Well, sometimes you can figure it out, sometimes you can't. How about, do you know what you forgot? I don't know what I forgot. Once I forget it, it's already gone.

But the Holy Spirit doesn't have that problem. Being God, He knows our deepest, most innermost beings and parts. 1 Corinthians 2.11 talks about the Holy Spirit intimately knowing God and intimately knowing us, which is why He can pray for us specifically and intercede for us specifically because he's interested in our growth in our sanctification, conditionally us reflecting him. But we don't stop there.

A verse that again that we've come back to on multiple occasions, 2 Corinthians 3.18 talks about that sanctification process. But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. There's the Holy Spirit again, working in the sanctification, working in the process of us being transformed from glory to glory. The Holy Spirit actively, as a person of the Godhood, working for our sanctification, conforming us to the image of Christ.

And that's the life of Christ working out in us is going to mean that, okay, this trial comes up. We've talked about trials and sufferings lots in this class as well. The trial comes up, how do you respond? With the way the Holy Spirit says to respond, as He's moving in your life. But you know it's the Holy Spirit, so you know something is coming about from this that is God-directed. It's not just simply, oh, here's a tough time, I don't know how to deal with it, and you us to refocus on the Holy Spirit in our lives and God the Father. Who am I in Christ? What's my position? What's my condition?

Does that kind of tie things in a little better, Stan, with the understanding that the Holy Spirit is very actively involved with the sanctification process and the conforming I don't question that at all. No, I know that. I mean, the only way you can be sanctified is through the power of God. The power of God is through the Holy Spirit.

But I still question the filling in the amount. Because I think it does have, to me, it seems like it has something to do with volume and not just focus. Well, the language itself has to do with volume, but it's not... It's usually present tense if I'm not mistaken, right? Yeah, you're being filled. But the problem with it being a purely volumetric description is then, well let me put this in context for my exposure to charismatic theology.

I have more Holy Spirit than you have. I'm not saying that literally, by the way. The televangelist, the teacher comes and says, well Stan, this is what God is saying through me since I have more Holy Spirit than you. I've watched a guy do it, put his hand on the gown and say, you need to have more faith. Because her volumetric faith cup was emptier than his. And so when he says be filled with the Holy Spirit, it's the active concept of the Holy Spirit pouring in your life. And you being a vessel, more than the volume nature of it.

Are we saying the same thing and we're just talking past one another? If I had a teacher that told me that, I'd probably get up and I wouldn't. Probably, but I wouldn't because I have. But if I was standing in the presence of Paul, or if I was standing in the presence of Christ, that would be a different story. Because they are complete. They certainly have more. That's my take of it. That's why the Lord has given us so much a Paul stand, is that we have an opportunity to see what that filling process looks like. Keep in mind, we're sealed by the Spirit, so we're fully complete in Him, and He's part of the Triune God.

The difference between Christ and us isn't positional. It's the fact we've got this sin nature still hangs around here. And that filling aspect really reflects our act of faith. Do we believe the Holy Spirit is all that He claims to be? And as we continue to live by faith, that filling process continues to occur, not by our own power, but by what He's promised in us as we live by faith. So in a sense it is volumetric, but it's not because the Spirit's not fully complete and has not completely sealed us in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's just we have this sin nature that still shows up, right?

But we're to reckon ourselves to be indeed dead unto sin, right? And that carries us into that filling process as we live by that faith. I mean, but yet Paul, God gives us so much of Paul because he shows us what this human element is in a life of a believer, but what that process of sanctification and filling looks like.

Praise the Lord for Paul. Paul, if you taught Paul, I'm the greatest among sinners, right? That was near the end of his ministry. As he grew by grace in faith, he realized increasingly how inadequate he really was. And that's the difference between the teacher that he was talking about, which is the pride and the humility. Paul was an example of humility, so an outstanding example of being filled with the Spirit, where the teacher, when he's saying that, is filled with pride and you really have to question, you know, the truth of what he's saying. It comes right out of that. Good tree produces good fruit. Yeah. And it's a life not a list. Yeah. Which is what I call it.

Is it also, when I think of being filled, I don't know where I heard it somewhere, said that the cup is always full with the Holy Spirit. It's never just part way full, or you know, a fourth full, whatever. It's always full. So when I'm walking in faith, I have the complete Holy Spirit. I have the complete Fruits of the Spirit. That the Lord works through me. It's not, I only have a partial part of the Fruits of the Spirit.

It's all there. And the Holy Spirit uses it as He sees fit. As He's working through my life. Yeah. See, that's the way that I was trying to describe it. The fullness is there. The I've heard about two or three variations on how to be interpreted there. And because I'm not a Greek scholar, I have kind of a refrain from going into that.

But we're going into that. I'm taking the bottom out of it and it flows through that's filling being filled with the air. There's no bottom and it's passing through. You're being filled. That would be more of a present tense. The analogy breaks down, but that's what I mean. Sure. Well, the concept is more be a vessel.

At least in Ephesians 5.18, the concept is be a vessel. Are you being a vessel for the wine, or are you being a vessel for the Holy Spirit? The nature of the Holy Spirit doesn't change, so we get all of the personhood of the Holy Spirit there. were instead being filled and containing or getting direction from the Holy Spirit rather than direction from the flesh and the wine. Oh, yeah. Literally, practically shaking me and it didn't work. And I walked around with that guilt for probably four years. I wondered if something was wrong with me back when somebody prayed for me to have tongues and it didn't happen.

But it's not so much that people impart the Holy Spirit to you as learning Christ imparts that. And the revelation of Scripture is so critical. When I saw my topic, this pneumatology, and Hal's list of 22 things here that the scripture outlines that the Holy Spirit is doing in the life of the believer, there's no way we could go over it this morning. Yeah, the life of the believer with the Holy Spirit in your life, we have to rely on the revelation of Scripture to tell us who we are in Christ, to tell us what grace is in our life. We have to rely on the Scriptures to tell us how the Christian life gets lived out.

And that's been one of those things where if you go from life experience, or somebody else told me, and it's not in Scripture, Your Holy Spirit doctrine is messed up. Who you are in Christ is messed up. What the Christian life looks like, it's messed up because it's not the truth. It's not the revealed truth. We need to pray. We're done, but we can keep going after we're done praying.

I'll turn off the microphone and those who are listening to the recording will go, oh, he turned it off. Let's go before the Lord. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for sending your Holy Spirit and allowing him to be the helper, allowing him to direct us and guide us in our life, in your life, in us. We just ask that you would continue to show us what your word says, that we may learn and grow in you. And thank you that we are in the process of sanctification. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.