the Person and work of the Holy Spirit lesson 5 end, begin 6

We are in the personal work of the Holy Spirit, lesson five. And we had worked our way down through question five. And what we're talking about in this series of questions is the Holy Spirit striving and humanity resisting. The striving had to do with the work of the Spirit in all aspects, and you see it in the Old Testament and all of the patriarchs and the saints, and how much they're, as the spirit is striving for godliness, man just automatically resists and pushes back.

And even coming up and through the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ and the beginning of the church, that even in the church, it's still true that there's pushback all the time. There's resistance, resistance, resistance. And we have way more grace, way more understanding to accept the love of God, and yet we don't. So verse six says, or question six says, Does the resistance continue today? And obviously the answer is yes.

But give me examples of it. Right out says that every testimony of God, even providential act, is used by the spirit, but now often in vain. You know, in your own life, whether you've observed it in other circumstances or your own, Do you resist the Holy Spirit or are you always compliant? Nobody's gonna allow it so that they're compliant all the time, huh? I'll say no. You're an honest man.

It's interesting, there's such pushback today Especially today, maybe, I don't know. I've looked at human history over the last 2,000 years. It seems like there's a greater pushback today in the work of the spirit than in most any other time. Well, probably through the dark ages, it was really bad.

But even within the body of Christ, just the simple truths that accompany salvation are so misused and are so watered down that it's a wonder anybody can get saved today. And then in most churches they don't study the Word of God, the Bible, and so therefore it's all topical and it's all psychobabble in my mind. So there's just such resistance to the Spirit of God.

Why do you think that is? Church, outside the church, and just humanity. Why is there such resistance to what the Spirit of God is trying to accomplish? What do you think? Do I need to call on somebody? Well, it's in nature for one thing. Well, in unbelievers, that's what it is. But, I don't know, people, there's just so much going on in the world. I don't know.

I think you're right, Cheryl. I think that's... We're getting close to the end, I think, because things are getting worse and they'll never get better until... I sure hope you're right about that. Really. Darkness doesn't like me. You guys hear Courtney all right? Yes. Yeah, darkness doesn't like the light.

So the Holy Spirit exposes the activities of the flesh, darkness, all that, and they resist by being exposed. The Holy Spirit convicts or is trying to convict them, and they don't like that. That's a point. And I think we all come to the point where we recognize that this You know, we think having a sin nature is like having a headache. And if I take an aspirin, it won't bother me. But it's active and proactive all the time. And there's resistance. There's built-in resistance to the things of the spirit that are 24-7 going on. And in the most subtle, subtle ways and small ways that when he's when he's about the business of striving with humanity.

I know in my own life, I push back sometimes and think, well, I don't want to go there. I don't want to do that. Or that doesn't sound too cool. I don't want to do that thing. And don't bother me. I'm thinking this way right now. I'll get back to you later. That sort of thing. Well, I think it's also evident in Romans 7 with Paul. Sure.

You know, and what is the end result? In me, in my flesh dwells nothing good. No good thing. Nothing good. And he, you know, after striving by himself and trying to do all that, here's Paul too, who has just told us, you know, in Romans 6 about the crucifixion and all this. but that he tries to strive on his own, and flesh is such a powerful influence. Well, think of those who do not have a new spirit in them, being convicted or being, you know, the flesh. If there's any kind of exposure to the Holy Spirit, it is going to fight with everything it can to go against the Holy Spirit. And then, you know, even that, what is it, Granton's about the spirit wages against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit. I mean, that's happening. Yeah, that's...

I keep going back to Galatians 5.17. The flesh desires what is against the spirit, and the spirit desires what is against the flesh. These are in conflict with each other, so you don't do what you want to do. What we really want to do is the right thing, righteousness, you know? Believers do, for the most part. Yes, they do.

Galatians 5.17 is talking about believers. Well, the resistance in the unbeliever is that conflict. It's the conflict. You're resisting that conviction by the Holy Spirit. So there's going to be resistance to that.

Even in a believer, they're waging like Paul in 7, trying to do something in the flesh. Yeah. Well, it's like Jim and I were talking earlier about the hungry heart this morning. that talked about how many times the word I, me, or personal pronoun is used in Romans 7. 47 times. 47 or 48 times. Crazy. Well, the I is where the resistance is. The fact that the Christian life is lived by faith and trust and dependence on the Holy Spirit eliminates the I. When the I's there, there's automatically resistance, because that's the sin nature. Like Jim pointed out, he can't find in scripture any place where somebody wants to be pleasing to God. You know, what pleases God? What is the thing that pleases God? Our faith, but who does the pleasing?

He does. It isn't me, you know, so. Yeah, I find it pretty subtle how how the resistance to the work of the Spirit is so pervasive. A non-believer is a slave to sin, and the big deception is that they think they have free will. But a believer... Donna? Could you say that any interaction with the world is a prompt for the sin nature to respond? Everybody hear the question? It definitely is. Yeah, any interaction with the world. Yeah, it is. Sure, I agree. So there would always be a resistance. Yeah, I think we as believers live with resistance. Don't you think we do? I think we do, too. And it's built into us.

And not only that, we live in an entire fallen world that resists God. The whole mindset of the world, the cosmos, resists God all the time. It's interesting that you mentioned the term pronoun because now in today's business world, and I don't know if anyone else is coming up against this, that you have to define your pronoun. I'm a he, I'm a him, I'm a she, et cetera. And it's so invasive. And to be honest, it really frustrates me, but I'm just recognizing the fact that the world is now trying to define the person where The Holy Spirit has nothing to do with that.

That's right. That's right. Have you guys noticed this? I certainly have. Yeah, it's... I haven't, but Sue has in her teaching, you know, that some kids wanted to be referred to as they. Yes. You don't call them him or her or she, they want to be called they. And I'm thinking, wow, really? All I want to do is sign up for a design conference, but I have to define myself so as to be referred to by a certain way. Job applicants have to define themselves in a certain way.

So it's an interesting point. And I'm kind of stealing the topic here, Mike. I apologize. But there's this definition of self that is being taken away by this agenda, and especially in today's world. And it's driving me crazy, personally. Yeah. The effort I see is that to move God totally out of the picture, that there's no dependence, that all the dependence is on man to fix his own problem. And imagine that this is what we've come up with. The solution to division is inclusion, or what's the latest term, equality, and that we have to all somehow be equal.

Well, you know, we're such sinners that none of us is ever going to satisfy the person sitting next to us. It's never going to happen, because there's going to be something about us that isn't wokey enough for that person, and vice versa. So eventually, I mean if you carry it out to its logical end, what happens? You end up in hell. And in hell you have all of these self-centered sin natures who will go into all eternity with a lot of pain. self-centered. That's what it's all about, self-centeredness. J.D., I think one of the things is this. It's trying to get to the foundations, all the way back to Genesis.

God created man, God created woman. I think they're now challenging that to the very basis of creation. that now that is not man and woman. It's now the 53 or 89 or whatever distinctions. But it's trying to get at the base, I think, of creation, that there is a God who created man and woman. He didn't create 53 different genders. And I think it's trying to attack the very basis of God and creation. Did God really say? And that's Cheryl, I think that you just said that. I think that's really the biggest point to take away from there.

Does God have any role in defining who we are? I mean, does he create man and woman? And I've got a little puppy and, you know, Erica's got a puppy too. And we kind of know, I don't, not even the word kind is not a good, not a good word, but we know what kind of dog it is. Yeah. Him or her. Yeah, it's a him or her and men and women. Yeah.

The world redefines everything. And so to bring us back to maybe your question, is how does the Holy Spirit play in not our dogs, not our pets, but in our identity? Where does that fit? We're a man, we're a woman, and we have the role as believers of not role, but we have the position of the Holy Spirit within us, and that redefines how we behave, but everything in the world is trying to take away any kind of identification. And that, I think, involves the Holy Spirit and the work and the person of what we're talking about.

It's an attack, and it's a massive attack. It's just... You know, it's interesting, J.D., about that, is that if you look at Paul's epistles, and he begins to describe, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Well, what does that new creation look like?

Well, all of these gender identifications go away, you know? I have no idea what is going to... what we're going to look like when we're in eternity and in Christ. But all of the things that we're all so whipped up about now won't be an issue. And I as a believer living on the planet as a male or slash as a female, whatever God made me, I recognize from a positional standpoint that I'm not really any of those things now because of my position in Christ. You know, I'm a son of God and all that that means in terms of a spiritual being from heaven. And I think that the spirit of God's focus is on positional truth so that we can rest in who we are in Christ and not get engaged so much in the cultural battle of gender identity. that it's one of those, I'm convinced that a division in our society is based on the fact that I will create a problem and then I'll claim to fix it if you'll support me, but I never really will fix it because if I do, then I don't have a job anymore. And so gender identity is a problem. It would be interesting, Mike, to the point you just made, if my pronoun was heavenly. That's my position. That's where I stand.

Sure. I mean, it would not be accepted, obviously, by all of the different factions that we have to deal with, but there's a very important point there in today's world, because I don't think that this has happened in history. I mean, there's a lot of things that are repeating itself right now, but This is one of those areas that I'm finding myself just perplexed with. Yeah. Well, it shows you that the... I can't think of the right word, but it shows you that the resultant behavior of the sin nature left to do whatever it comes up with.

And Donna and I were walking into Target the other day, and here's this tall, skinny guy wearing women's boots. And we couldn't decide what gender he was. We were going to refer to him, as you say, JD, as they. But we didn't know. But he was loud and proud about who he was. And I don't know where you buy women's shoes that big. This guy was 6'4". Anyway.

You know, Mike, and JD too, you know, yes, if we look to the future when we're present with the Lord, there is no identity. There is, you know, Paul clearly says that there is no male, female, Jew, Greek, anything, but we're living in a world now and even that we can stick to the definitions because husbands love your wife, fathers and mothers, children, they're still functional things that we do now living in this world.

And he's defined that. And there isn't they or the 59 other things. So I think we still have to live in this world, but be strong in the definitions that God has given us. And he's proclaimed in his word. There are very clearly, starting from Genesis, as I said, man and woman. But then there's also husbands, fathers, mothers, wives.

Children, you know, they're all there are still those identities that he's given to us here now and and we should resist the worldly Erasure of that. Yeah. No, you're right and JD I was also gonna say like I think that, as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days before the coming of the Son of Man.

And you look at what that was like, and I mean, every thought of man's heart was only evil continually. And I mean, I think it's just what we're seeing. I mean, just this desperate effort to erase, you know, the distinctions of the created order, right? Just down to the most fundamental things like male and female even, right? Sure. Yeah.

I'm going to talk a little bit about that in my message today, that the church is really the only place where there's harmony and unity. If you look at the world, it's totally designed to fracture, to get people separated, to get them at odds with one another.

And it doesn't matter. And I think it goes back to God. In the creation, God made it the way he wanted it. and it was perfect. And then when Satan fell, Satan's never had an original idea, so he looked at what God had done, and he said, well, I'm gonna do the same thing, only I'm gonna be against everything God did. But I'm not gonna offer an alternative, I'm just gonna tell you that everything that God did isn't right. And so that's how it comes down. There isn't anything that God did starting in Genesis 1, 1 forward, that the sin nature, Satan, the world would agree with.

He wants to change the viewpoint of everything only because it's the way God did it. So when we come together in the body of believers, as a body of believers, it's the only place where there's unity. Because we all understand and recognize who we are in Christ. And we live and walk by faith. We love one another.

And anxiety and dissension, that's what Paul's arguing about in 1 Corinthians. He's saying, look, you guys, aren't you worldly? Because there's dissension among you. That's not consistent with who you are as members of the body of Christ. The body of Christ is a place of solace and unity. I think one of the things that I've been pondering on is distinction is not wrong. God distinguishes, he distinguishes himself creator, creature. That's the first distinction he makes. Who are you? You're a creature. Who am I? I'm the creator. Okay, number one. If we take that and we don't take it to heart, believe it, then all of a sudden now you are your own God and you can do what you want to do. And that's what man does by nature is replaces himself with God.

But distinctions are not wrong. And that's where the world is really making a very heavy effort today. to remove any distinction among the creator, the creature, man, woman, husband, wife, all the things that you guys just talked about. And it's, it's a real battle.

Um, and we're, we, we don't have to, you know, it's not doomsday or anything in the sense that for us it's not. Um, and that's where the person in the life of the Holy Spirit matters Immensely. Does that make sense? Yeah. I think also, too, that we're to be light and salt in the world. We are.

How do people see price now? It's through us, and I think it's the Holy Spirit. It's our challenge to put on the full armor and stand firm in what God has proclaimed, and to not succumb to the woke community and the cancel culture and all that. We, through the Holy Spirit, You know, we're to be the light in the salt, to stand against that, to be a light for other people too, because I think the vast majority of people don't believe this crud, you know, and I think it's incumbent upon us to be the light and show people that there is distinctions and good distinctions. I think that's a great point. And I think that Hal Malloy used to say that, that we may walk in such a manner that other people would come to us and want to know about the rest and peace that we have in our hearts.

That's the thing the world can't offer. It's always been the issue. The Lord Jesus said when he was here, if you come unto me, I'll give you rest for your souls. Well, there is no rest in the world. No matter what they change or what they try to skew the view, there is no rest for sin. The only rest for sin is in Christ, and that's the visibility of the body of Christ, that there's a rest about the people of God, members of the body of Christ, that's attractive to those who have been in angst their whole life about everything.

You know, and that's the thing I've noticed about worldly people is that, well, whatever they were chasing three months ago is now passe, and they got a whole new thing going. What are they looking for? They're looking for rest. Donna. And the sin nature does what? Desires. Desires. That's a good point. Donna said the sin nature desires, and that's all it does. It desires, it desires, it desires. But it doesn't want what is of God. Never desires the rest, that is. It never achieves the rest. Never. Never.

You know, another thing is I think Satan's been real busy. making sure that there's a thousand different religions that you could go and believe in and to try to tell someone that Jesus Christ is the only way to get to heaven. He's the only way to the Father.

That just blows people's minds. What about Buddhism and Hinduism and Jehovah Witnesses like Satan is just smokescreen the whole thing where people want to be their own boss. If I try to say Jesus is the only way, they hate that, and that's part of the resistance is there's so many religions. I don't know if my voice is breaking up, but basically I try to tell someone about Jesus and they say, well, that's one opinion.

Not only that, Russ, within Christianity, how many denominations are there? So there's always, part of the program is to offer enough options that it keeps you on the merry-go-round, whipsawed, even as a Christian, as long as possible, so you don't ever rest, you know? So, all right, I gotta do the last question. The last question is, what would be the next logical step for those resistors to take in regards to the Holy Spirit? In other words, if they've been resisting, now comes the next logical step. What would it be, according to Rideout? Blasphemy. Blasphemy? Yeah, what is blasphemy? That was still my first question, Mike. Oh, is it? OK, well, we won't answer it then.

Actually, the focus here, it's blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It isn't passive resistance anymore. It's open and aggressive for people to blaspheme against the Spirit of God. That's really what the next logical step is. And I think we see some of that going on today. Well, the definition of blasphemy is willfully, knowingly calling the Holy Spirit the devil.

And there's only been one group of people that did that. Oh, Jews, right? Yes. I'm going to segue into that, Jim. You got the mic, go for it. Lesson six. First question. What is the unpardonable sin? This is one of those that will get you. So dig deep and give me some thoughts. Well, it's attributing to the Holy Spirit, Yeah, the Holy Spirit, the work of the devil. They told, when Jesus was doing miracles and stuff, they attributed that to the devil. He's with Beelzebub and all that. The unpardonable sin. It can't be committed. today because Christ isn't on the earth.

That's question two. She just answered the first two questions. I'm moving on to question three now. Let's finish question two. Well, that is the unpardonable sin, right? You're right, Cheryl. I'm just giving you a hard time. Yeah, I think it's One, I guess, can't. So you already answered this, but maybe I'll ask the question, the follow up question. Why is the unpardonable sin not something that can be committed today? And Cheryl, you can't answer.

OK. Because Jesus isn't living on the earth, walking around healing people. There he is. He's in you, Russ, walking around. No, but he's, Russ is actually on the right track, Mike. I know. It's better to clarify it as because Jesus Christ works are not seen anymore. His miraculous power is not clearly shown anymore. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

And I think it's helpful to talk about the fact that his miracles at that time were an authentication of his kingdom offer to the Jews, right? Things that he did showed that he was the rightful king and they were rejecting that. Very good point, Miles. What we're saying, and Christians, I mean, of all flavors and types, get really bunged up on this situation of unpardonable sin. So somebody read Matthew 12, 31 for me.

Jim's there. I think he's gonna beat Russ. Who's gonna beat him? I'm working on it. There we go. Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven. Wow. So, talk to me about that.

What... I mean, if I read that as a brand new believer, I'm going to faint. It scares me to death. It scares you to death? Yeah. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. You scare me to death too. Have you ever blasphemed the Holy Spirit? How do you interpret that? And then what's the correct interpretation is the follow-up question. Well, he says it, it shall not be forgiven. You know, anytime you blaspheme me, it's not going to be forgiven, you know, and I'm thinking, how many times have I blasphemed the Holy Spirit, you know, blasphemed God and just thinking, you know, that can be really scary, you know, but you have to define what blasphemy is. It's impossible for my man in Christ to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. My old man can blaspheme every day, and he's going to death. But my new man, it's impossible.

I'm in God, I'm in Christ. I agree. That's 1 John. Very well put, Jimmy. I think that's the point of of interpretation here that needs to be understood for believers, because otherwise, we're left in a state of fear. I mean, we're going to lose something. We're going to find ourselves outside of the favor of our Lord, and that's not the intention of what this verse has to say at all.

You guys agree? Yeah. Yeah. He was talking to the Pharisees at this point, wasn't he? He was. And he declared that the Pharisees have committed the unpardonable sin. So somebody grab Hebrews 10, 28 for me. And 29. Let's read both those verses. I'm moving on to question two. Hebrews 10, 28 and 29. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the Spirit of grace?

Wow. Yeah. That's a big one, right? It is. So let's focus on the insulted the spirit of grace. How does that tie in? Now that one is scary. Yeah. Have you ever insulted the spirit of grace? In the flesh, yeah. Goes back to what Jimmy was talking about. As a believer. You don't have that ability anymore. You can't insult the spirit of grace. What define grace for us?

You're you. You always chime in with this one and always appreciate. And great. You're cutting out. based upon adequate... Unlimited, unmerited. Yeah. And grace is the unmerited and unlimited blessings of God based upon the totally adequate work of Christ. Okay.

Can you insult that if you stand in a place of grace as a believer? I'm gonna say yes. I can do it by functioning under a law-based system as a Christian. I would like to use the word grieve. Grieve the Holy Spirit. But I don't think that you have the ability to insult God's grace as a believer. I think you can grieve the Spirit. I'm not sure that this particular verse, given its context with Judaism and the Law of Moses and its comparison to what the Son of God has done, would allow us to insult.

But, since we're at time, I'm going to let you think on that. We'll pick up with it next week. Okay, great. Thanks, Jim. You're good to pray. Thanks, Jim. Let's do pray father how we thank you for the person and the work of the Holy Spirit how As believers we are constantly convicted and convinced of who you are and what you've done on our behalf and That were pointed back to you our purse are all of our perception our pronouns our Thinking is related to the Word of God and how you illuminate and enlighten our thinking in relationship to the Son of God and ultimately to the Father. And so Father, we do just thank you for your goodness, your grace. We just pray for the next session here for Mike as he teaches. And Lord, we just thank you for the time that we were able to spend in unity together this morning. Thank you.