The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit lesson 16 question 8

Well, we're on question number eight. Let's see if I can find my notes here. All right. So let's read question number eight. We're gonna be in 1 John 2.20, and then also verse 27.

So if someone can grab 1 John 2.20 and another grab 1 John 2.27.

We're looking at two things here. regarding the anointing of the Holy Spirit. So that's what we've been talking about. We've established that anointing has different capacities in the Old Testament. We talked about just the example of Aaron as priest. He was anointed and the anointing oil was poured upon his head. And we said that that word anoint means set apart. What's another word in Christianity that we define as being set apart, aside from anointing? Sanctified? That's right. Yep, you're right on. So sanctification and anointing are closely related.

Anointing, especially in the Old Testament, had a specific role, just as all anointing does, but it's different for the believer in the New Testament. We said that Christ is He carries two titles, Messiah and Christ, and both mean the anointed one. But yet you see a significant sample or example of what anointing did for Aaron in the sense that he was set apart to be a high priest. So we talked about that last week. We also looked in Exodus at the tabernacle furniture. and how the furniture itself was anointed and it was set apart for the purposes of the sacrificial system and also the presence of God being with the Jews. the high priest being Aaron anointed to actually go into the Holy of Holies, right, to pass through that curtain to represent the sacrifice that was being made on behalf of each Jew. So we saw the priest anointing to priesthood, anointing of the individual items that were involved in the tabernacle ceremony.

And then we looked at Samuel as well. We said that he was anointed as what? I'm sorry, David. Yeah, it was David in the book of Samuel. How was he anointed? As king, right? He was anointed and set apart as king. So we've used the term, or the working definition, setting apart to a specific position or office.

So we get now down to question number eight, and we read 1 John 2.20. So can someone read that for me, please? You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.

I've not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it. Because no lies of the truth All right, so what are we noticing here? We've got in our question We all know that we need or we don't need what do we what do we not need here? Is it that you don't need to be taught? That's what he's saying there isn't it?

So it starts off by saying that you have the anointing. So this goes hand in hand with the fact that in Acts 10, we talked about the fact that we're anointed with power, right, Russ, the dunamis? Yeah. That's right. So that Greek word dunamis is where we get our word dynamite, and it says that we're anointed with that kind of power. And when we look at the strength and might, and we talked about in some translations it says strength and might, we just talk about how impactful it is for us to have the very person of the Holy Spirit anointing us as believers.

And so, are there any believers, question seven, not anointed in Christ? That's the first thing 1 John talks about there. It's common to all saints, right? for all those that believe are anointed, whether they know it or not. Have you been in a situation where maybe yourself or others didn't even know that that was a factor in their Christian life? It's not talked about very often. I mean, especially in evangelical circles, maybe as much as others, but we talked about some of the directions that you can take anointing. I think you mentioned some holy laughter and really speak in tongues that are not understood or fully grasped.

But there's a whole language that's developed around this concept of anointing that's special and it comes upon you. And we kind of discredited that by looking at how the Word of God uses that term and what is the specific nature of this anointing? So we know that we all have it now. We all are anointed by the Holy Spirit, set apart with strength and might, and we don't need what?

And it was just mentioned, 1 John 2.20, it's just that we don't need, like Jim said, the teaching of whom? That's right, whoever said that. You don't need the teaching of any man.

So that means we should go ahead and shut down this morning, right? You don't need it. Why? Is that okay? You're supposed to go to church and listen to Sunday school teachers and stuff. We were supposed to listen to Mike. Is Mike wasting our time based on 220? I think it's interesting that this is here. So let me ask you another question before we move further here. At what age do you not need, let's say not physical age, but spiritual age, how long do you have to be a believer in order to not need the teaching of men anymore? In your faith, how old? What stage? The sanctification stage? The salvation stage? The glorification stage? There's no stage. There's no stage.

Always needed. Always needed. So... Let's say that you have the privilege of being used by the Lord to lead someone to the truths of salvation, and they believe. Do they have the anointing of the Holy Spirit at that particular point in time? Yes. Does it ever change? No. No. Do they need any more teaching whatsoever? This is a trick question. Yes, they do.

They can grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. But they don't need a man to tell them that. A Bible helps. Presumably when you guys are teaching us, the Lord is working through you to teach us. So it's not relying on man, we're relying on our Lord Jesus Christ to teach us. And he's working, he's using all of us, all of his lambs to feed. Yeah, I like how you added the presumably part at the very beginning. Mike, that was, I don't know, he said presumably we're teaching him the Word of God.

We need a fact checker in here. I'm so good. I'm so used to getting my hand slapped when I come up with an answer. And so I'm relying on Christ. I'm relying on Christ through you and Christ. That's right. So I joke about presumably you're exactly right. And, you know, the confidence needed to come in and teach the word of God is not one of head knowledge. Right.

It has to do for us as teachers with that gift, as well as And most importantly, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, because that's how we learned, right? And so, if we're sharing that which was taught to us by the Spirit, through the Word of God, then we're in safe hands.

But when I get on a little trail, well, more specifically, Mike gets on a trail, a big rabbit trail. You're in the shadows this morning, Mike, on the camera, so I can't see your facial expressions. It's probably a good thing. That's right. So I think you're right, JD.

I think that the Spirit of God is the one who does the anointing, and He's the one that dwells us. So we have within us the one who knows all things. And like Jimmy was saying, the reliance is off of my own intellect and what the world teaches and now goes on to God's word and the spirit of God to teach us all things. And so he's reliable. And so I think the word of God can say that we know all things. Well, we have the one within us who does know all things. And we are knighted to the Lord Jesus.

So it doesn't mean that on a conditional basis walking around every day that we have it all in front of our brain so that we can speak it out. uh... we we have uh... because we have the holy spirit we do have the omniscience of god himself that's right yeah no totally so given that uh... uh... i want to go back to this term know all things it's pretty it's a pretty big statement because we have the anointing from the Holy One, we know all things.

Do you think of yourself when you wake up that way, about yourself that way in the morning? I know all things. I said it like it's a selfish thing, but... No, it's not that so much that I know that the One that indwells me does. That's exactly right.

This anointing is not a spiritual process exempt from the person, is it? And that's where many times this gift of anointing, as it's referred to, Talked about in reference to how much faith you have. You ever heard that? You don't have enough faith, you're not anointed with this gift. You don't believe enough.

JD, the contrast is actually 1 Corinthians 2.14 where it talks about the natural man and the spiritual man discerneth all things. That means the one who has the spirit.

I like that word discern. What are you discerning? What is a believer do we discern? If we have this anointing, we're being set apart to God for service to Him with strength and power, the dunamis, right? So we have everything that we need in order to understand the Word of God and to understand and know all truth. So why is it that Christians don't know all truth? Why are they not able to discern, as was mentioned there, What is the discernment of?

I think a lot of the discernment is of error. The write-up says that right here. The saint is able to discern error, and he needs no one to teach him. But a lot of it's between what is right and what is wrong. The Spirit shows us what is right, and so we can discern what is wrong, what is evil.

I was going to say that I don't think it's the spirit when, say we're confronted with someone who's telling us half-truths, say, and how do we know that it's half-truths? I don't think it's because we have an intellectual apprehension of all sides of the argument. there's a work of the spirit that sort of alerts us to wait a minute, this is not all of the Lord Jesus because it's not how I know him. I've always, I've thought that for a long time that when you listen to read, read books or listen to people speak as Christian leaders, in my mind, the criteria is, is how well do you know the Lord Jesus? And that is a function that the spirit of God does, that he reveals Christ to the believer. And a lot of times you hear these or read that someone's spouting off on a doctrine and the realization comes to you that, well, he doesn't know Christ in this aspect or respect at all.

This is some theory or some theology that he or she have put together on their own, and it's not from the unction of the spirit, maybe. Yeah, and you may not be able to explain why you believe that he's wrong, but you know in your spirit, because the spirit tells you, that's what's wrong. There's something wrong there, and you can't explain it. You just know what's wrong. uh... i would miss it are our life is grafted into christ it's not i but christ it's christ life that we're living it's not our old life that we're living in christ is the head and christ knows everything and he may not reveal everything to my national man obviously my natural man doesn't know where much of a anything we're in christ and therefore we know all things and when he chooses to reveal things to us will not will will understand as well that's right Yeah, no, I think that it's really good. So this discernment of error, looking at question, so to answer question number eight, we have, we don't need the teaching of any man because we have the anointing of the Holy Spirit, right?

But that leads us to some other questions. So we've got this discernment factor that we need to talk about a little bit. And I think you hit on it really well there. Question number nine says, based upon these facts, does a believer need a special gift of discernment? We just said basically no, but let's maybe... I put that question in there, but Courtney isn't here. Because he thinks he's got special discerning powers that others don't have.

I like this question because it reminds me of a... Reminds me of a good example. How many of you guys have dabbled around with counterfeit money? Anybody? There's some conversation in the back corner there. Remember when we did that one time? The better the counterfeit money, the better it does what? The better the counterfeit money, the better it does what? Thieves, fools people. But the better you understand real money, the less the fake money looks real. That's where I was going to go. You stole my thunder. I'm glad you did. I'm just kidding. You did. That's right.

So I joke about the counterfeit money side of things, but in the sense, any type of fake, anybody heard the idea of masquerade as an angel of light? Counterfeit doesn't present itself as being blatantly different. It slowly lulls you into error over time and you begin to buy the counterfeit. You use the counterfeit because you've equated it as being real in your own mind. Has any of us been into areas of truth that we thought were biblical, so to speak, and then later came to find out, oh, turns out I hadn't discerned that quite correctly at the time. Is that OK if you get to that place as a believer?

Can I give you an example? Yep. When I was in college, I spent a summer being taught by Jehovah's Witnesses before I was a believer. So, I didn't have a discerning spirit and I learned from them for 3 months everything wrong that Hal Malloy had to untie. and fix me, because I didn't believe Jesus was God. He's a little God. Man, what a mess. Yeah. Jimmy, are you talking? Sorry, I thought you were talking.

No. Well, if you grow up in a fairly strict denomination, like Catholicism, you really do, for however long you're in it, learn the error. You learn all this peripheral stuff that is total error, and until you at some point are presented with the Lord Jesus and the truth of the gospel, you don't really know. And so that alone proves the point that when you have an unction from the Holy Spirit, without Him, you're going to be a Catholic forever. You think you're right, you know? So, in a situation where you've got the wrong truth, and you all of a sudden realize it, what do you do with that? How does it change?

So if you notice, and I'll use Catholicism as an example, it's not the only example, but what are one of the, and I'm gonna say it this way, what are one of the tactics used to establish authority in the Catholic Church? And that's, I'm gonna go ahead and answer the question. So if I can get you away from the word of God, and the functioning anointing of the Holy Spirit in your life, and have you rely on me as, let's say in this example, a Catholic priest or whatnot, if I can have you rely on me for interpreting all of that, what have I done there? I've rejected the work of the Spirit in me.

That's right. You've put yourself in the place of God. Yeah. That's right. Yeah, if we cannot read the very word of God, be anointed by the Holy Spirit, set apart for his service with power and might, and still not gain truth and discern it against error, then this passage isn't true at all. If that's not our life, then this passage is wrong altogether, because that's exactly what it says about us. JD, I think this is a really good Reformation Day message. I mean, it's back to the Word of God, right?

And people having access to the Word of God, and people teaching clearly from the Word of God, because in the context there in John, it's about false teachers and, you know, anti-Christ. Excuse me. anti-Christ teachers. And that's where people were before, like in Europe with the Latin Bible and people couldn't read it. And there were men who were telling them what it said, but they were liars predominantly. And people didn't know until they had access to the scripture. And then men started teaching from the scripture and it changed everything. Yeah, it did. It did. So is that still the case today? Yeah, sure is. Sure is.

So there's two extremes that we can go with this. One is we, as let's call it, just average nosebleed believers up at the top, we don't have the ability to discern error uh... and we don't have the ability to understand truthfully without a proper interpretation from a more qualified person so that's one extreme another extreme would be say for example we don't need biblical teaching anymore why might i say that based on this this passage well i i think you see that the lack of biblical teaching in most churches today very few churches teach from the word of god They teach topically and socially and all other platforms, but exegetical teaching is not available in most churches today. Yeah, you're right. I think you could go to the other extreme, right?

You could swing the pendulum the other way and say, well, if we have the anointing of the Holy Spirit and he teaches us all truth, then I'm going to go climb, you know, a mountain this Sunday and I'm going to get in tune with, you know, God at the top of this peak.

He's going to speak to me. He's going to show me something. I'm going to come back down and I will have endured a long, you know, physical trek that represents my spiritual journey to the top and back down. I mean, I've heard these kinds of stories. They're pretty popular, especially around here. So, I don't need the Word of God. I have the Holy Spirit. Or I have some kind of a spirit. And I'm not, maybe I'm going into unbelief, but for a believer, if you get to a stage where I don't need that, I have the Holy Spirit.

So, what ends up being the error that happens when that path is chosen? Sounds like Moses. Okay. Yeah, we have a lot of examples of when God was clear and yet man thought he knew better. Yeah. Well, the problem I see with that is without the correct doctrinal teaching of good godly men, godly people, you can misinterpret the word of God and go off on a tangent that just is not correct. Like Calvinism. I was under John MacArthur's Calvinism for, I don't know, 11 years or so. And then I came to this church and gradually understood that that is incorrect teaching. So it's who you put yourself under that's very, very important.

You have to somehow, I don't know how, but you have to somehow find the truth of the word of God by your own study, a correct study. of God's Word, and you have to learn how to study God's Word properly. J.D., what do you think of a write-out statement where he says it's no question of attainment or even experience, it's a divine instinct enabling us to detect and refuse error? So my thoughts on that is it's exactly right. So there's a term here in 1st John 2, 27. At the very end, it says you shall what? Truth and truth will set you free. 1st John 2, 27, at the very end, it talks about you shall abide in him. she'll abide.

So if we're talking about experience in relation or in comparison to, so I've got my human experience and I'm placing that on a pedestal of truth, what's not abiding in me? Who? Yeah, in this case, it says that the Holy Spirit abides with us, and we're also told that we abide in Him. So there's a whole lot of abiding here. And when I think about the discernment from truth versus error, it has to do with these truths abiding in me. This is a reality that abides in me.

So I think someone mentioned earlier, it might have been you, Jim, but just that the Spirit notifies you internally in your heart that, hey, there's something wrong here, but I'm not gonna leave it for you to go drive down the highway and get a billboard sign so you know what it means.

What does he do? What does he draw us to? He draws us to the word of God. And so for Russ, in your example, it wasn't Holly Hills that enlightened you to the truths of God's word, it was who? Holy Spirit. That's right. And what does the Holy Spirit point to in the Word of God over and over, especially as we look at the New Testament truths that apply to us in the church age? Where does he point us? He points us to the person of the Lord Jesus. The person of the Lord Jesus.

So why were you anointed? What's the purpose? You know, it just hit me that in John 17, The Lord told his disciples that eternal life was to know me and the one who sent me. So here comes this, we're anointed by the spirit for the purpose of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ.

So that he being the truth, it really boils down, I think, to an intimacy with a person who is the Lord Jesus and what's true of him and what isn't true of him. That's really where, and the Spirit's job is to reveal Christ to the believer. On a personal level, like J.D., if someone called me up on the phone and said, you ever met that J.D. McCulley, that guy with the gray hair? I would say, oh, wait a minute, he doesn't have gray hair. You know? So, have you ever met the Lord Jesus, the one that teaches there? No, I have never met that one. You know?

That only halfway works because I've got some greys coming in. No, you're right. You're right. We think about counterfeit money, but if you think about counterfeit truth through a person, the angel of light, Satan himself is going to attempt to be very beautiful and approachable. And it's personal, too. It's not just law. I mean, that's one method, but he's going to woo many to himself in that way for power and for what will be false, but will come across as truth when As believers or unbelievers fall into the category of not being able to discern truth from error, it's because they're leaning on their old man in order to interpret it, as opposed to the anointing of the Holy Spirit, who leads us to the person, the Word of God, who is a person, right?

And that's a very, very different thing. It's an ability that's granted to us as a gift in the process of our salvation. It starts at the very beginning of salvation. So when does sanctification start? If this all is about setting apart, discerning truth from error, etc., when does it start? Day one. Sanctification starts the same day salvation starts, right?

Because we're set apart, we're anointed. So let's look at question number 12 real quick here. The believer is anointed, oh, we just talked about for what purpose, I'm sorry, question number 13. Right out says, the Holy Spirit oil is upon us. What does that mean? What does this suggest?

It says in Psalm 23.5, thou anointest my head with oil. You anoint my head with oil. In Ezekiel, we see God's adorning being placed on the nation of Israel.

So we have this anointing as it results in adornment. What does adornment mean? If you were to go out tonight and you adorn yourself with certain things, what might that look like? uh... it would look like uh... but what was that saying last week country formal uh... i can see that conversation between the two of us she's like like that is not country formal at all Yes, the idea of adornment. What is adornment?

It's an outward show of something that has been placed, in this case, on Israel. We also see the anointing bringing about honor. like that second chronicles passage uh... where the captives of judah are being they're being reclosed their fed and anointed and then they return to jericho to uh... their fellow israel uh... to fill the fellow brethren right so you have this this rescue mission that is being spoken of about the Jews in relationship to them, they're being removed from captivity, right?

So being reclothed and fed and returned. And so you see an honor, God's honoring what his promise is to them despite their what? Behavior. Here we see grace, right? This is a, But anointing in a place of honor, in this case, shows God's grace to the captives of Judah there. And in Ezekiel, we see adornment again.

J.D., I was thinking from a military standpoint, when you go to recruit training or boot camp, and after however long it is, you get to put on the uniform. And when you walk around with that new uniform on, you're newly adorned, and everybody knows who you are. I like that. Yep. That's exactly right.

And then there's Isaiah 61.3, where the oil of joy is given instead of, what's the opposite of joy? Obviously sorrow, mourning.

If we're given the anointing of joy, or the oil of joy, anointing with the oil of joy, does that mean we're talking about holy laughter again, or what does that mean? Oil of joy. We talk about being a light, right? bridging act ice i'd i'd i think of uh... sprice said about the peace i get not as a world is but it as i give you i think that is the will of joy as i'm listening use of christ what i want that twenty four seven yeah i would add to that jimmy that we're talking about them conformity to christ that it's he is visible through us as he conforms us to his image So if we have this anointing as believers, what does that talk about?

How does that make you, if you have to rely on the Holy Spirit, that means that you don't get to play as much in the discernment role that you used to, right? So how long does it take for you to start discerning and recognizing this joy, this adornment that is set upon us permanently What does it look like? Again, back to the military boot camp example. They spend half their time taking the civilian-ness out of you, and then the rest of the time to recreate in you the military view, the military stature that they want.

And so what the Lord Jesus does through, or the Holy Spirit does through trials and suffering, gets us to abandon, eventually abandon over time, my sin nature and begin to rely solely on the Spirit of God to live the life that I've been anointed to live. Right. That's right. So, for the purposes of this class and wrapping up, I'm gonna, who's teaching next, Mike? Me. Okay. Or Courtney, I'm sorry, you'll teach next. Okay, Courtney. So I'll set this one up for him.

So with the military example, as believers we are adorned with, we're shown honor by being closed in the proper uniform. It says who we are and what we committed ourselves to, so to speak. And there's a proudness or maybe a pride, rather, a pride and a joy in terms of being set apart in that way. But now what? And so the question is, once you're, you know, decked out in your military uniform, Is that the purpose, just to set you apart? What did you set apart for, is the question, right?

All right, I'll try to pray real quick. Yeah, you can't get up back there in the back. Father, how we thank you for that, how we thank you for the truth of anointing, how it sets us apart for your service and strength and might. And Lord, as we look to how we are adorned and set apart in that way, uh, we just pray that you would guide us into the truth. He would do that as we go into this next service. And we thank you for being the word of God, a personable, intimate. Um, and we love you and we thank you. So you never pray. Amen.