The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit lesson 9 begin
JD McCulley · Jun 13, 2021
Holy Spirit (2021-23), No. 17
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261923102149

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

Well, maybe we should change today's lesson. Um, yeah, both of my cars went out this week. Uh, my sprinkler system went out this week. So I wrote down this word earlier. Um, we're tired. Things are busting, they're breaking. Um, whether it be bodily or mechanically, appliance-wise. There's so many things that are going on right now that just seem to be, I don't know, I'm just taking a little bit of freedom here that I hope I have my, let me know. I can jump back on these six questions real quick in a minute. I think we're just, we're kind of tired, things are really seeming to be rougher for some of us. Not all of us. There's some heavy things going on. I want someone to read Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, and then we'll kind of segue into that concept of being tired, because I think it's a big thing, at least for me.

Russ, you've got it? Yeah. In him, you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with the view of the redemption of God's own possession under the praise of His glory.

There's a couple things there. Anyone notice, what sticks out to you guys with regards to that verse? Because I don't want to just speak, but I want to hear. What's the theme of that verse? Verses. I think it's an incredible verse. I'm just going to say it talks about you have to believe in order to be saved and that's the unmerited peace. It talks about being filled with the Holy Spirit and sealed in him or at least it talks about enjoying of the spirit and sealing Safe and secure forever in Christ, that's one of my favorite verses. Thanks Russ, that was, yeah, I totally agree. What's the unmerited thing here? Faith and belief. Sealed for salvation. Sealed for salvation.

Okay. I think you're right, Jim. I noticed that all of this is true after you believe, not before. Not before. Yeah. Having believed. Yeah. And my version says in whom you trusted. Whom you trusted, yep. So it's personal. It's the person you trusted in after you heard the word. And there has to be an object of that faith, right? So these two verses really speak to, excuse me, they speak to the object and also the belief, right? The believer.

You had something to say, I feel like we cut you off maybe a little bit. One thing I was gonna say is that just kind of speaking to what you were talking about just a little bit earlier, It's that he's saying that after we trusted in him, it's like, don't worry, you've been sealed forever for salvation. So don't worry until the redemption of the purchased possession. So as we go through these trials, like you were talking about, beautiful verse and say, no matter what happens, we've been sealed, we can't be unsealed. And we just have to be patient all the way through to the end, to the glory of God.

Oh, you packed in a bunch there. That's great. Thank you for that response. It's interesting that there's some really interesting words that go on here, in whom you also trusted and then sealed with the Holy Spirit a promise. That's an interesting word, promise. The fact that I don't think the world knows anything about promise. I mean, we live in an ever-changing environment. Yet here, Paul's talking about you are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

And then you've got another really cool word. inheritance and then you get another really cool word until the redemption of the purchase or the purchased possession I mean this is packed full and then you get to a really cool crescendo of the end of it unto the praise of whose glory?

What's that? Oh, there's the red carpet room. I just told Nick to come in and change the camera so you can actually see us rather than the mysterious whiteboard. I'm just gonna like count you out. I'm gonna see who's in there. No, I'm just kidding. Good to see you guys. So yeah, we've got a lot of really cool words here. But what is, so let's think of, Think of two things.

What is the initiation and then the result? So the initial, maybe not initiation, but initial and then the result. Initial is trust, right? So we can use all of the different words, trust, belief, in a specific message, right? And we have the word gospel. in that verse, and then what happens after that fact is you're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. I'm still trying to get my mind around that, and it shouldn't be hard, but sometimes it feels hard, because we get tired, we've got trials, we've got stuff, but here we have one person of the triunity of God who is sealing us with promise. And the way I interpret it, and maybe I'm wrong, Mike can correct me or Courtney or whatever, You're wrapped, no matter what the trial is, you're wrapped with the, and you're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

You don't have to worry about that. And the Lord says, I guarantee it to the end. I guarantee from our creator. That's right. And it comes from here. And what it, it also includes the, an inheritance. Oh wow. Okay. What do I inherit? What do you inherit? Every spiritual blessing, for one. Okay. Every spiritual blessing. No matter what you're going through, no matter what's happening, you have an inheritance. Not to mention the love and glory of Christ Jesus. I think that's where I was kind of thinking as well. It's a person. Yeah, this goes back to God's own possession. We're his possession. We're his family.

We, you know, the John 17 unity that that's, you know, we're sealed with the Holy Spirit for that unity, eternal unity. And, you know, it's really, it says it's brought out in John 17, I think very clearly, you know, about we are, we have a direct unity with the God of the universe. And it comes down to, do you believe that?

And, you know, even with all the trials, the things that go on, I still go back to the Romans 8, 30 passages where we can't be separated from his love. Even in the trials, he loves us with an eternal love. And if we're his possession, he's not doing any of this out of malice. He's doing it for his purposes, which are ultimately to glorify him and to conform us to the image. and that's every no courtney that's really important because that's the very end of it to the praise onto and that's what's happened to the praise of his so here we are we believe uh... and obviously in there's an object to what we believe it's not just uh... vapor type of thought I mean we believe in a certain message and around a certain person or to a certain person rather so the gospel of your salvation and then we get sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise and then we get an inheritance and the result is unto the praise of his glory So these two verses, go ahead.

I like what you say about it's personal. Five times in these two verses he refers to I don't believe what you tell me, but it's based on whether I trust you personally. That's what he's saying to us here. Yeah, thanks for adding that, Mike. I think that's really true.

I'm going to read a little bit from my notes and from right out. has come by hearing the word of truth. The gospel of their salvation was preached and accepted, and Christ was trusted in. That's the most important part, and Christ was trusted in. The souls were saved, justified. We can talk about those, it'd be a whole study in and of itself. But, and accepted before God. He now gives them the Holy Spirit as promised, as a seal, big word. upon the work of Christ. And so let's think about that for a second. Belief leads to the Holy Spirit who seals you based on what? The work of Christ.

Nothing else. That's what he did. There's actually something in the Greek part of it. The possession is a purchased possession. Yeah, that's a good point. It's purchased by who? By Christ's blood. We are purchased possession, and it was purchased through the blood of Christ. That's how much God cares for us and wants us to be in this union, as he gave us his son. He purchased us. That's a really good point, Courtney. Ephesians 1, 13 and 14 are tough not to spend several, more than a couple hours on, just because there's so many excellent truths embedded in it.

But I was going to just make that statement, and thank you for that, but I was going to make the statement that the Spirit comes upon every believer as the divine mark that he belongs to God. That's yours. He's given it to you and he purchased it for you and provided a promise and sealed the deal. I mean, that's pretty cool. Whenever you're just shaken by whatever you're shaken by, because we all get there and we all go through it, you're sealed. You've trusted, you're sealed, you have the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest, we didn't get to that word. An earnest of inheritance. You're purchased. And who purchased? Who did that? Just like Courtney said. Christ himself, and now you're a possession unto the praise of his glory.

Pretty cool stuff, I think, especially in the midst of anything that you're going through. You can grab onto these verses, and there's so many that you can, but for some reason, these just hit me this week, so go ahead. There's a principle here that that we see in, I think, a lot of times, that if God did this, which was a major thing, would he do the lesser thing? What would be the lesser thing?

Just to... Fixing your problems. Or not fixing your problems. Growing you up in the middle of them. Whatever the circumstances may be, the lesser thing. If he did this, then you can trust him with the smaller things that are going on. in the process of conforming it to Christ's image. Excellent point. So I'm going to bring up something that you just made me think of.

It's a position versus condition thing here. Right? So your condition is kind of crappy. It doesn't seem great right now. But this verse tells you everything you need to know about how to reverse that mindset and that trust and focus on what you really are and how things are really functioning.

Yeah. Is that fair enough to say? Yeah. Yes. Another thing, JD too, just on the greeky geeky stuff, the sealed part is indicative, it's a fact. It's a matter of fact. No disputing it, no changing it, it's positional, it's a fact. How does that matter to us? And I'm going to ask the class and not... No, you're good. No, you're not. You don't have to be sorry.

The graffiti is awesome. I love it. But it matters because there's nothing we can do to undo that. And that's our natural tendencies to worry about salvation and the future and everything. But God said there's nothing you can do. I've taken care of it all the way to the end.

Well, and I think that comes down to who do you trust? It's important what you trust. but is God good as his word? You know, is he trustworthy? When it appears like, you know, we have a tendency to think that, well, now that I'm a Christian, everything is gonna be health, wealth, and wisdom. We get a free ride from here on. And then when things start to come apart at the seams, especially earthly things, do we still trust him? Is he trustworthy? Is he really the author of what's happening? And will I stay with him, or will I jump off the ship into the shark waters? Can I ask a question about that?

As you know, I've been going through quite a series of trials in my life. And I've come to this notion that I fully trust our Lord in my mind, but my body, my flesh just doesn't want to come along. And I just feel this death in my flesh all the time. And I just keep going to the Lord and saying, Lord, I trust you. And I go back to Romans 7, it's like, With my flesh I serve sin, but with my mind I serve the Lord. I can't seem to break that, but that's where I am. But I just keep holding on to that trust.

How does he break us away from trusting the flesh if we don't find out through the process that it's not reliable? For us as believers, to walk in a way in which we trust God no matter what the circumstances are because he's above them. And I think he wants us to live above them. And it's hard because you think, well, this is who I am. Well, based on these verses that we're just looking at from a positional standpoint, what we are is way above how we feel about it or how my flesh is reacting. You know, these are astounding proclamations to a believer of just about how valuable he is to God and what it cost him to get you.

And your flesh is going to be against that every step of the way. Yeah, so Jimmy, I hear what you're saying, and I'm right there with you, Ben. It's where we're probably most of us are. Except for Mike. Go for it. Go for it. The sealed is passive. It's all him. We just perceive it. And when you realize it, it's him, not us. And that's the key in all this, is that he's doing this, he's trustworthy, he's sovereign God, and he's the one enacting this.

And sometimes I kind of think after listening, I keep thinking we're going to have t-shirts, we survived 2020, but I'm beginning to think that 2020 was just a warm-up lap. 2021 is shaping up with the same thing. Our truck blew up, washer, dryer, everything. It's kind of like the Lord's going, okay, that was good 2020. Let's really go 2021 and see how we do here. I totally agree. How about we survive the war with our flesh? Yeah. Miles, I saw you come off of mute a couple of times. I didn't know if you wanted to add anything.

Oh, my mind's just going, because I've been studying 1 Peter, and the theme there is suffering, you know, trials for believers. And the word glory comes up over and over and over again. And it's all about his glory. I could pick out so many texts, but chapter 5, verse 10 kind of sums up some of it. After you have suffered for a little while, The God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

And it's just, oh man, there's so much in this book that speaks to that, these trials, these sufferings. And hearing what you're going through, and it sounds like a lot of people are going through what we're going through here, I just can't help but feel that God is, He's really, really at work in the lives of His body right now. Like, it's the sufferings, it's the trials that cause our growth, and there's a lot of it going on right now. So, yeah.

Thank you for that. Maybe I'll not comment and let anyone else want to comment first. I had a question of Miles. Yeah. Would you say that we are experiencing one of the most blessed times from the Lord that we have over the last few years? Oh, that's a trick question. No, it's not.

Yeah, I don't know how, um, I've seen, I was gonna, I thought that came to my mind this morning is that the thing I'm seeing that the seems like the hunger of believers around here is directly proportional to the oppression of the government. Let up some of the restrictions here now and stuff. And it's amazing to see the hunger dwindle a little bit. Oh, let's get back to our, let's go to the zoo today or whatever. But the more oppression there was, the more suffering, you know, the more people were just, the hunger was growing and that kind of thing.

And so, um, Yeah, but so in that indirect result of that, you see the blessing of enduring those sufferings, learning to trust the Lord, you know. I was struck by the fact that that you actually are sneaking off to be with other believers, where here, where you can come and go as you please, nobody's sneaking off. I may have something else to do today, so I probably won't go to church. And you're risking fines and imprisonment just to get together.

Yeah. Yeah. And in the last couple of weeks, they've actually, they're loosening some of those things. It's just interesting to see that, how it affects. But I've just become really aware that the more pressure, suffering pressure and so forth, the more you see growth, you see hunger. Well, I want to just kind of segue off to your question, Mike. And thanks, Myles, for that, because I think that was a really interesting way of thinking about it and accurate.

One of the things I would put together is the fact that regardless of our situation, the Lord's blessing is never different. Never different. You may sense something personally, but it doesn't mean that, it doesn't change the fact of Ephesians 1, 13 through 14, that you're sealed. You are purchased unto the praise of his glory.

So that's where we're always going to exist in. It's not going to change based on our circumstances. We may feel like it does, but courtney can quote that the train on the tracks based on the facts no i can't go to the top of your head i know it but no it's the faith in the facts are what i'd like to train on the tracks and feelings follow right so it's a good news uh... no matter what we are feeling our faith has to be in the facts and i think just to wrap this back around for the next two minutes for a prey uh... and distances uh... uh... i'd like to hear there's two things that i want to come up with my team at the mission will i stay with him but the bigger question in my mind is will i uh... but will he stay with me So sometimes you get a little divergent and you go a little rogue, and that's what happens. Jimmy talked about that a little bit, but he will always stay with you. And that's the promise that's mentioned here. And you also mentioned, Mike, that this is an outstanding proclamation, I think is what you said.

And it is, I think that these three, or two verses rather, are really important to this particular lesson and this class. And not only lesson class, but to your understanding of what the Holy Spirit as a person is doing presently in each believer's life. And that means every one of you that I can see your faces.

I'm just going to poke you all. Don't forget. This is good stuff. I got through one question. Courtney, I am feeling pretty good right now. I got through two last week, so I doubled you last week. You know, one other thing, I just want to add to what you said. Of course, I can't, I'm going to cut my mic off.

The, you know, the other is that, you know, we're his possession and we can't, or, you know, he will never fail us. You know, and we go rogue. I think the biggest thing we have to remember too, is we're still his possession. Even when we go rogue, when we fail miserably, When we turn and walk in the flesh, we're still His. And that's something that's never going to change. No matter how rogue we go, how much the flesh, Romans 7, we're still His possession. And I think that's got to be the bedrock underneath all of us, is the fact no matter when we fail, it's not a matter of if, but when, we're still His possession. He still loves us. And he's allowed us to fail. And that's what I always think of the sovereign God. He's allowed us, you know, in these fleshly bodies to fail.

And when you understand that, you know, it gets you through these things a whole lot easier, I think, or brings you back to that relationship. Yeah. Thank you for that. That's very, I love some of the things that you said there. No, I did some, but I love everything you said. We'll talk about the extraneous stuff later. You're spot on.

Well, let's go ahead and pray. I know we've got to get ready for the next service, so let's pray. Father, how we thank you for the truth. of the unmerited thing that you have done for us. And the word things just doesn't seem to be a most adequate word.

But I know, Lord, based on your word, that through our belief in the gospel of your salvation, that we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. And what a glorious thing. You've also given us an inheritance in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who purchased us. as a possession, which is not a bad thing. It's a wonderful thing. It's a glorious thing. And it is all to your glory. And as Courtney mentioned, it's the bedrock of your love for us.

And so the person in the work of the Holy Spirit in this verse is so immense that we just want to thank you for that. It's a gracious thing that No other belief system has this concept of being sealed by the person of the Holy Spirit, and that changes our day-to-day game. It changes everything. And so, as we go through the game of life, Lord, we just pray that you would continue to direct us to the truths of your word, knowing that what we might Experience in our condition is not our position. And so we know that you will stay with us and you will complete all these things unto your glory. And so we just thank you for that. It's your name we pray. Amen.