The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit finish 10 start lesson 11
Courtney Hemenway · Jul 11, 2021
Holy Spirit (2021-23), No. 21
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261923284674

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

All right, well, we will finish. We've been talking about where Mike left off. We have a couple different spots here where he may have left off. We think possibly there was a little bit left that he had on question four. I'll cover five and six and then question seven on the next lesson. So I'll throw that on my left. My lesson.

So again, let me get. in question five is read leviticus eight twenty three and fourteen fourteen and describe what the blood and oil represent. That was kind of an interesting thing when you read those about how it was put on the toe of the foot and up into the ear lobe and you know then the oil was put on and the cleansing aspects of that and it was just kind of interesting. Just thinking of all these medical things that we have talked about today. their medicine was put a whole lot of the fourth uh... your lover and there's a little oil and i know and uh... and i don't know which one it is which of the epistles were talks about the elders are to come lay their hands on and put oil on and so now when i think it's more actually was almost like a massage that uh... the context is that they were all they wouldn't be kind of physically manipulate them to you know get them to feel better so this one uh... I'll read Mike's notes on this. So, particularly in the case of the leper, we are told that the oil was put upon the ear, hand, and foot upon the blood. So they put the oil on top of that.

So the spirit of God seals us because of the blood, the work of Christ. It's not a matter of personal worthiness or personal faithfulness, but of the value of the work of Christ. And then the question was, have we rested in that? Do we rest in that? Yes, no, yes, yes.

Then we're sealed divinely, authenticated as belonging to God by his spirit. So, think of that trembling saint that this might be from right out. You're sealed with the king's seal, confessed and owned as his. And I think that's, let me get into some of the personal aspects, too, of our relationship with God in the next lesson. So we'll touch a little bit about that.

I want to move into question five. How does the author describe the seal believer immune from molestation? The first question I have was, molestation, what is that? You can't use the word in the definition. You know my rules. So what does molestation mean? So I went to the ultimate source. What is that? Webster's Dictionary. Webster's Dictionary.

The first one is an unwanted or improper sexual advance. I don't think that's what he's talking about here. So the other one, it says, somewhat old-fashioned, to annoy, disturb, or persecute a person in a manner of especially hostile intent or injurious effect. So I think that's it, that it's the attack, it's to create injury or damage to a person.

So, how does the author describe the sealed believer immune from molestation? So, when I looked at this question, I was thinking, are we immune from molestation, or are we immune from trials? Because we're guarded, we're sealed. And also, we know that God isn't going to permit things happening to the believer, or let things happen to believers that He doesn't permit. Exactly. Okay, go ahead. 1 Thessalonians 2 and 2 Thessalonians 3 says, The Lord is faithful. He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. There are many ones that will tell us that we are protected.

But I want to get at the difference between molestation and trials. Is that the same? No. Trials are allowed by God. for the building up of the believer. I just want to get clear on this one. It says that the sealed believer is immune from molestation. That's different than trials. I just want to make sure that we understand that. That's why I wanted to get to what molestation was. Because molestation is an attack. Like from the world? From the world, or from Satan, or minions, or whatever. So that's different than a trial.

Ultimately, it's all allowed. And what Joanne's saying is, all trials are allowed by God. And that's why I get into, even in my prayer, I think, you know, my thing is just always burned into my brain. God is sovereign. That means He's in control of it. And then with Romans 8, 30 series, we can't be separated from his love.

So if you know those two facts, when you go through a trial, that gives me what the Bible also says, God's word, is that the peace and rest and comfort that can only come from him. So when you go through a trial and you know he's the sovereign God and he's allowed that, You can go through it a lot differently than certainly an unbeliever, but also if you understand that he sovereignly allowed that for your growth, your benefit, and for his purposes. If you understand that, that gives you a piece that you can go through many of these trials with Ethan. ultimately understand he's in control of that and and you know it's tough and i don't minimize how tough that is but there's a deep underlying peace knowing that he's in control of that the world or a believer unbeliever doesn't even understand and and so that's just we're sealed from the from uh... attacks or prevented from that up until the point that God allows a trial. Different than just Satan or willful attacks from the world.

God has to allow that. So you wouldn't say that Job was molested, he was, both trials were allowed. Yeah, he was, you know, I think it's even said God allowed him to be sifted, I think, was the term. You know, which, yeah, he wasn't molested, he was allowed to go through trials that, he said, Satan, okay, I'm gonna let you sift Job. And so he was allowed to do that.

So I don't, you know, the molestation, I don't, you know, and maybe because he, you know, wasn't a believer placed in Christ. Maybe it's closer to molestation there that it's an attack. It seems to me that molestation is an attack with the intent of injury. It never allows us to be injured.

Right, and that's why I went to that definition. And injury, you know, but Job went through some amazing things. You know, he was injured. And that's, I guess, what I'm getting at. He was injured. But I think it's to the point of the spiritual aspect of us. You know, we can physically go through trials. I mean, Job went through horrendous things.

So, I mean, it was injurious to him, but only to the point that God allowed it. Yeah, and God completely brought everything back to him. Right. Doubled the amount. Right. I mean, in the end, it's like, yeah, everything, you know, he lost his family, but everything was doubled back to him. Completely restored him. He still had only 10 kids, but his flock to his original and better.

And you know, at the time though, we think about this, and that's why I love some of the speeches that God, between God and Job, you know, Job's going, wait, you know, what are you doing? And then God kind of gives him the place like, where were you when I created everything? You think I know what I'm doing here? So I mean, ultimately, it was, you know, God allowed to a certain point.

I guess my point was also that Job didn't know that at the time, that he was going to be restored completely doubled up and everything. He did not have that. And so he wasn't going, boy, if I suffer through this, I'm going to get double. He didn't know that.

All the things that Paul went through, trials with some of that molestation, I kind of think so. It's kind of interesting. It's sealed from molestation. Again, it's a word. That's why I tried to get to the definition of the word. We're not immune from trials. There's certainly enough scripture that tells us we're going to go through trials. Are we parsing words here? You know, molestation versus trials. What is the fine line between them? I look at it as the difference in condition and position.

In our position, where we're sealed, it's impossible for us to be molested. But in our condition, we're tried every day. We're molested every day in our condition, but not in our position because we're sealed and we're perfect in Christ and nothing can touch that. I think that's a good point. The positional aspects are, yeah, we're sealed, done, nothing can change that. And that's position by definition means it can't change. So condition, yeah, bad days, good days, trials, all those change daily on a conditional basis for us. I think that's a good point, Jim. This from Rideout.

A seal also secured from an act or instance of interference with or violence against someone. So under the terms of the citadel surrender, the Persians were allowed to pass without molestation through the midst of the Roman army. So again, there's this sealing, I guess, evidently in the historical perspective. The Persians, because of the seal that was given to them, they were able to pass through the Roman army. So the seal protected them, the historical one.

And then also, I guess from right out, when Darius issued his hasty edict based on pride and Daniel came under its provisions, he could not alter it or assign with his name. So he was sealed. The proclamation which snagged Daniel was a sealed one. You couldn't change it. And he knew it. He wanted to try and change it, but he couldn't because it had the seal on it.

So therefore Daniel had to be cast in the den of lions and the den was closed and sealed with the king's own signet. This was a garden, the den from all molestation, whether by friend or foe, no one could tamper with Daniel. you're thrown in with a lot and i don't know i'm thinking about that when i was there were two different way to reduce your mandate a worker in a in a pit with a lion uh... and i don't know if i'd really like that that little ceiling part but uh... so it says what a company does know that we are guarded from all molestation by the presence of god seal the holy spirit and again i think jimmy i think you bring up the point the correct point from a positional standpoint there's nothing that can be injure us, affect us, or do anything in our position.

Our condition, we can go through trials any day, every day. And so that's a really valid point, is that positionally, we can't be touched. That will never change. And that's by definition what position is, something that doesn't change, our spiritual position. So everything that comes to us is of His permitting. Nothing else can touch us. We are a garden enclosed, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. That's from Song of Solomon 415, for the Lord's own use. So any other thing on that? I think that's probably the best.

Things position and condition on this one because I mean again just what molestation means versus trials that you know I don't want to get the impression that anybody has that we will not see trials we will so Question six describe how the seal of the Holy Spirit is a seal of secrecy So is this a sign of secrecy? The sealing of the Holy Spirit Oh bookseal could be opened, content is read, so Satan can't read minds. I think this goes to, and thank you, Jimmy, on this, this is also to a little bit of the sealing, which is positional and then conditional, too.

We're sealed in him, nobody can touch us, the world doesn't know us. And that's, I think, from the conditional side. We have the position which we're sealed, That won't change ever. The conditional is, we also, are we known by the world? Pardon? Are we known by the world? Or does the world know us? Not really. Not really.

And that's, I think, the sealing part and the conditional part is that, and it comes from the sealing of like a document or that, it's sealed in there. And you can't, if that seal's broken, then the contents are exposed and that, but a sealed document is sealed. You can't, you don't open it. So, I guess the point of this one is, A book sealed could not be opened, and its contents read as in Revelation 5, 1 and 2, Revelation 10, 4, Daniel 12, 4 and 5.

So also the Lord's people are in one sense a special people. They are God's hidden ones. And so the apostle writes, this is in 1 John 3, 1, therefore the world knows us not as it knew him. What about the other scripture I was thinking about, too? What about Colossians 3.3? What does that say about us?

We're hid in Christ, in God. We're hid. So positionally, we're hid in Christ, in God. What a great position. Totally an awesome position. So the world cannot understand the secret of our joy, of our strength, of our growth, of our separation. For we are sealed, marked as peculiarly belonging to and understood by our blessed God. Thanks be to him for the seal. The Lord knows them that are his. The sealing is spiritual and the world is natural and it's impossible for them to understand the spiritual.

You know, and that's, you know, as I quickly reviewed this morning, the other thought I thought is, you know, when you go to a different place, very quickly, a lot of times, you can figure out who are believers. You know, as believers, we can see believers. The world doesn't see that. They may or may not see that we're, they just know we're different sometimes. But I know when we go to some place, or I'm working with somebody, and after a while, it's like, I think he's a believer. And so it's kind of, I think the secrecy is from the world. As the world didn't know Christ, I don't think the world knows us. And again, by the flip side of that, as believers, we can see other believers, usually very quickly. So again, it's a seal of secrecy, but I think it's from the world knowing us. So any other thoughts?

In 1 Peter 4, this is the Amplified. It says, they, the world, are astonished and think it very queer that you do not now run hand in hand with them in the same excesses of dissipation, and they abuse you. Yes. They don't understand. They can't see it. They don't understand why you're different. Yeah. It is a secret to them. Yeah. And that's, yeah, 1 Peter 4. I was going to touch on that, but you did. It is. It's like the world can't see us. They know we're different. I guess the thing I was thinking about this, too, was when they see us, what do they do? Well, it's as they abuse you.

Rejected. What did they do with Christ? They killed him. They killed him. So, you know, that verse on the end of it, that was what I was going to tell you, run not with them to the same excess riot or, you know, that basically they want to do harm to you. They want to reject you.

They want to do just like what they did to Christ. I think they can see in a Christian that they're different. They should see it. They should. But they don't understand it. Right. And so I think the secrecy part in here is that they just, they don't understand it. And I think that's the terminology. The secrecy part of it, they can't understand us.

How do you get through something, Ethan, or how do you get through something and something goes on and you're different? And that's why I say, I think for believers, I see believers, they're different and I understand it. Like I said, work people, there's a guy I work with and we kept talking and after a while, this is like, I forget, kind of those danglers out there that you kind of see if he's a believer or not.

And sure enough, you know, we both said, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And then he said, actually, after a while, we were walking out of a meeting and he goes, yeah. I liked your message last weekend." I'm like, what? What message? Did I send an email or what? He said, no, I listened online. I was Googling your name to find your address or something and, oh, I found your message. So anyway, but he was, the secrecy was off at that point. But again, I think the secrecy is the rejection of believers from the world. They don't understand this. They can't. You know, the carnal mind can't understand it.

So, all right, any other thoughts? All right, we'll move on to lesson 11. Hopefully everybody's got that. So, lesson 11, it's still in chapter two of Rideout's book. So, if sealing is from God's side, what side, what would our side be? So I just want to go back quickly to go back to the ceiling. Do we all agree that the ceiling is from God's side? And if not, why? Everybody's in agreement with that? It's from God's side? Okay, just a quick check. Make sure, you know, I think we did that on, you can also look in the Greek about how it's a, you know, passive, it's being done to us. So there's a lot of ways.

In Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, In him, you also have to listen to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise. It was given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of his glory.

And the Greek word, you were sealed, is in the aorist tense, passive voice, and indicative mood. So the passive voice indicates the sealing was done to us. So again, this is totally from God's side. We are passive in the action. So the sealing was definitely done by God. We can also look at 2 Corinthians 1, 21 and 22. Now he who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God. pretty much right there, who also sealed us. So again, continuing on who's doing this, God, who also sealed us and gave us the spirit in our hearts as a pledge. So again, there's no question that the sealing is done by God through the Holy Spirit. So we don't have any part of that, the actual sealing.

So back to the question. So what would be our part as the question asks, would be in our side of the ceiling. Maybe the beginning of the discovery of the eternal wonders of Christ. Okay, so in the ceiling part. So yeah, we see that, we kind of begin to understand that, but is there, what is, maybe the way the question is, and I think it's based on what Wright output, What is, I guess, more the response to the sealing? If God does the sealing, what is our part in that sealing?

Assurance. Assurance. And we have the witness of the Spirit. Witness of the Spirit. Yep. so that it again it's god is all the ceiling part ours is a response of basically by faith accepting it believe it's belief and the assurance and the assurance of that which we've gone through in great detail about how god's ceiling and the power of that ceiling that it's him that's why the beginning of the question is who does the ceiling he does it you want anybody else sealing you and you think that's a pretty faulty seal Absolutely not. So, from right out, he says, the seal is, as we have seen, God's authentication of his people. It is his side, as it were. In beautiful cemetery, we have our side.

The witness of the spirit, and with this close, he's closing his lecture, sealing is largely for others. For God may say, assurance is for us. So what would be the witness of the spirit? Are you on question two? We're getting to that, yes. What would be the witness of the Spirit? Yeah. So, we'll get into that.

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit, but what would be the witness of the Spirit? Or is this showing or witnessing that we are God's people? Is that what the witness... He says our side, the witness of the Spirit. in Rideout's response? Well, first of all, I think assurance is more than just believing. Assurance is a firm faith in what God has said. And the Spirit testifies to our spirit that, yeah, this is true. you know without the spirit's justification for testifying and uh... we may not be fully assured you know we believe it but you know maybe something else can cause us to not believe it so it's based on assurance but i guess that from from right out he said our side is the witness of the spirit so i guess what i'm trying to get at is is this sure you're witnessing that we are god's people or is this uh... seeing the holy spirit of christ through his people you understand the difference Is it witnessing that we're God's people, or is it to show the Holy Spirit in us as believers? When it says the witness of the Spirit, I kind of went on that.

What is the witness? What is that witness? The how are you saying about the how? No, it's not the how. What is he witnessing? I mean, you're a witness. I'm testifying of this. The witness of the spirit is Jesus working through other people. And if you can see that, then you're even more assured of what you believe. So I guess I go back to the two distinctions. Is this witness of the Spirit? Is it witnessing that we're God's people, so we can see that we are God's people, or is it seeing the Holy Spirit? It's seeing we are God's people. God's people, or witnessing the Holy Spirit? Holy Spirit.

So we have two differences. I think it's kind of both, actually. That's why I was kind of, when I went through this, I'm like, what's he witnessing? and you know and i think it's both actually i think it's it's a witness just we're discussing the last question are you know that you know can people see christianness i guess i was very witnessing of christ so i i think that that we are god's people but i also sees the people what's that difference is what's that difference what's the holy spirit in me you're seeing the holy spirit working So I think the witnessing is kind of a two-edged sword here. It's witnessing to other people that we are God's people. But it's also saying, what's different about you?

Well, it's the Holy Spirit indwelling in me. You're seeing the Holy Spirit. So I guess it's just our side of it is to witness for Christ. We are his ambassadors. How do people see Christ today? How do they see Christ today? Through us. That's how they see Christ now, is through us.

So again, I think that the witnessing is Christ through us. But it's also, again, the base of that is the fact that we have the Holy Spirit in us. And people know that it's something different. And the difference is the Holy Spirit. So again, I just wanted to kind of write out saying that our side of it is the witnessing. And I think it's the two-edged sword there. So any other thoughts?

I'm just wondering, we're at 945. Are we still on 945 time? I don't know the schedules. I think we're supposed to stop right at 945. I'm getting some head nodding here. So we'll begin with question two next week. And then again, they're kind of going on the same thing, how the spirit testifies with our spirit. Kind of these all are about testimony and different things. And then we get into some really cool stuff, the personal aspects of it. So, we will begin with question two on lesson 11 next week. Let's close. We thank you. We thank you for this time again, just where we can open up your word again.

And we see about the Holy Spirit, the indwelling Holy Spirit. We thank you, the permanency of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And again, the witnessing of it as we on our side of the ceiling is the witnessing of the Holy Spirit. One, that people know something's different in us, and that we are God's people. And the other is to see the Holy Spirit through us. That's our side of it, is to just be Christ's ambassador, that they see Christ through us. And the only possibility of that is through the working of the Holy Spirit.

So we thank you for that aspect of the ceiling and our response. And again, we'll get in as we get in further into this about just the intimacy and the relationship that we have with Christ and how people can see Christ through us through that relationship that we have with him.

So we just, we do just pray for Roger as he brings a message in the next meeting. And again, just we thank you for all your blessings and the trials that you give to us. We know all of it comes from your sovereign hand and that we cannot be separated from your love. We rest in that fact and have the peace that surpasses all understanding, realizing your sovereignty and your love towards us. So we just thank you for this time in Jesus name we pray, amen.