The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, Lesson 13 begin Q. 3
Mike Doyle · Aug 29, 2021
Holy Spirit (2021-23), No. 28
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926192463058

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

Okay, so we are in lesson 13, and we are at question three. And this lesson has to do with the person and work of the Holy Spirit, and primarily focused on the indwelling of the Spirit. So question three is, what would be the effect on believers who actually realized the permanence of the indwelling Holy Spirit. I'm going to ask it again. What would be the effect on believers who actually realize the permanence of the indwelling Holy Spirit? I'm going to read a paragraph from Rideout. And then if you read it, you'll know there are some issues here, Really cool answers.

He says, but what holy ground we are upon here. If Solomon could ask the wondering question, quote, but will God in very deed dwell in man on the earth when his visible glory filled the temple? Second Chronicles 5.14. What shall we say? When the living God and the person of the Holy Spirit comes to abide in us, my brethren, I am persuaded we little realize what this means.

If we did, now it's your turn. What if you realize that? You come to realize what's the effect? What kind of an effect is it gonna have on you? We'd be marked by lowliness. an abhorrence of sin, quick to fear God, and the detection of any sin that we could be involved in, we would abhor it. You get the gold star, Russ, that's it. That's really cool. It would cause us, and Jim said it too, what lowliness would mark us. Yeah.

What abhorrence of sin. Yeah, I've read stuff from some of these brethren guys that say we don't abhor sin. We're too comfortable with it. And what the quickness and the fear of the Lord. In other words, this word fear is not being afraid of the Lord. This is respect and honor. The detection of the most suitable forms of evil.

I'm sure, and I've probably had this conversation with over half of you, from the time that you're saved, I got saved at 35, but I remember as the years started to go on, man, I got to thinking about sins I was committing that I never even thought about. And the spirit of God once in a while go, what about that one? and said, oh yeah, I shouldn't think that way, or I shouldn't, you know. Because it isn't of you, Lord. It's not that I need to clean up my act. It was, gee, this is not of the Lord. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Much greater sensitivity to the things that are not of Christ. Yeah. Oh, it's a woman. No, it's a man.

But once you both talk at the same time, you know, you know, Mike, Mike, I guess there's one of the when I was looking at that, the most subtle forms of evil, I think, you know, I don't know if that's it or as the spirit reveals more of the flesh. Yeah, I think that's more, you know, determining a subtle form of evil.

I didn't I don't know about that. It just seems like it's more like And a lot of the Hungry Heart kind of follows through on this. The hardest thing is to see who we are in Adam and the flesh. And I think that's when he started saying about the things you're doing, well, that's really the flesh. I don't know if it's detection of most subtle forms of evil. I think it's detection more of the old man and the flesh and how bad he is. Yeah, I'll give you a good contemporary issue.

Should we wear a mask or not? if you have grown enough, and I'm not scolding anybody, but to have the mindset that goes off of you and your rights onto the benefit of somebody else is something that this Holy Spirit has to do. Because we're all tough guys, and we're all conservative, and we're all this, and we're all that, and I'm not wearing a mask. Well, would I sacrifice my freedom, like Paul says, all things are lawful to me, but all things are not expedient. Would I actually be okay about that? And not make a big deal out of it if I'm gonna be around you and I know I'm gonna be around you and you're very sensitive about wearing a mask, I'm gonna wear my mask. Is it evil? Not necessarily, but if I don't wear the mask, what am I saying? You gotta suck it up, buddy. you know, because I'm not wearing a mask, rather than my, this lowliness issue of I will be lowly for your benefit.

So I think that that's really the essence of how do you live your life in terms, especially around your brothers and sisters in Christ? Will you sacrifice your freedom for them? Because you have the freedom. You have it, there's no question. But will you sacrifice it, and will you do it in such a way that's not a big deal? You just do it, because it's part of the life of the Lord Jesus. He who gave life to us. Go ahead. This goes back to our Romans class. Yeah.

And on the subject under who puts in the authorities, God puts the authorities in. We're subject to Him. And then we also went into, you know, about a weaker brother and or sister, whatever, and and how you respond and you give up your freedoms. But we also, you know, which one of the things is how far down do you spiral to somebody, a weaker brother or sister? Sure.

And that so this is kind of, you know, landing on a hand grenade, you know, talking about the mask, because how far down do you go to your weaker brother or whatever? so i mean because i think i have somebody in class actually brought that up how far do you go until they just the weaker one commands the stronger one so i mean it's a little bit of a hand grenade this where is that limit because we went through this in the romans class you know you are subject to the rules if you don't like those you move out from underneath that authority and well i i think they're plenty examples of of the apostle paul in the in those circumstances where He would humble himself before his brother, but if the brother took advantage of the humbling, he did look out, because here he comes.

He's going to do some correcting. I'm studying 1 Corinthians. He's doing correcting in 1 Corinthians, and some of that stuff is pretty harsh. You know, and he, yeah. Well, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, but I was just gonna say another angle on the effect of the Holy Spirit is this concept of this continually dying and we suffer.

We're suffering in the flesh. We have this incredibly sinful flesh that we can't get rid of. It's in our body. Yeah. It resides in us. And I think with the advent of the Holy Spirit in us, It's constantly, it's commingled there. It's like it's suffering. We're suffering because we're looking at it all the time if we look at it and there's a suffering that goes on. And that's, I feel like for me, that's a huge impact of the Holy Spirit is constantly reminding me of what my flesh is and this is what Christ is.

I think in order to turn you away from your flesh to Christ, You know, it isn't a matter of do I occupy myself with the flesh or do I not occupy myself with the flesh? No, if I occupy myself with somebody else, see, and that's the real work that the spirit does is to reveal Christ to the believer in place of self-centeredness. Okay, and I think one thing here too, addressing what Courtney was saying, as we walk in the spirit, there doesn't really need to be a checklist of how I'm doing. You have to trust him that he is manifesting the life of the Lord Jesus through you so that you precisely are functioning the way he would have you function. not too much, not too little, rather than, you know, how far can I go here and how less, you know, he'll let you know that that's far enough, you know. Another story, Miles Stanford had to correct me about something one time and he took me aside and corrected me graciously. And then he paused for about 10 seconds and then he said, did I get by with that?

He was so concerned about how he did it that he wanted to make sure that he did it in such a way that it had the effect on me graciously. And I said, oh, yeah, I totally got it. Thank you. And it had to do with something I was doing and teaching a class. He wanted to correct me. If you take it upon yourself to correct somebody, that's really dangerous ground.

Yeah. You know, when Rideout says, what quickness in fear of the Lord, to me that speaks of obedience. It does. Not out of the flesh, but out of the spirit. Sure. Not because of what it can get us, but because This is what the Lord would do. As we grow and mature in the Lord, we are more obedient because it's just the way grace works. That's the way grace works, and you recognize who you're dealing with here. You're dealing with the God of the universe who gave his son for me. And, you know, as I grow and mature, I fear evil more and more. And I hate it more and more.

So I don't want to do it anymore. Well, and like Jim was saying, you become way more sensitive to the intrusion of the flesh. You don't want to go there. And you don't want to analyze it. You don't want to have anything to do with it if you can help it. The Hungry Heart was speaking about that this week. You know, it's just, yeah, it's scary. You know, I just don't want to do it anymore.

That's right. Yeah, because I'm now experienced enough in the resurrected life of Christ. That's where I want to be. There's all kinds of benefits over there, like peace and rest. No struggle. Well, struggle, yeah, but not the kind of struggle you have with sin. Joy. Yeah. That type of thing. Yeah. I just don't want to be around evil anymore. Yeah, and it dogs us.

And I will thank God for the identification truths. There's some information that I can reckon upon that actually allows freedom in my walk every day. Right out sums this up by saying, who can describe the sanctifying effect of simply a deep realization of the stupendous fact? I can but speak of it and pray that all of us may know practically what is the consciousness of this abiding would bring.

So it's, again, asking the question, and believers who actually realize the permanency of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that even when you're at the peak of your worst day, he's there. He's probably not being able to break through, but he's there. Have you ever heard this sound from the Holy Spirit? How's it going there, big guy? You know, oh, oops. All right, question four. What does John 16, 13 and 14 teach us about the Holy Spirit? So somebody read John 16, 13 and 14.

But when he, the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of mine and disclose it to you. That verse tells us more about what the Holy Spirit does in our lives than any other verse in the Bible. He's the spirit of truth. And the Lord Jesus declared when he was here that he was the truth. So the truth isn't 14 volumes in a library someplace. The truth is a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, Him. He's the truth. And so the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth and when He comes, He will guide you into all truth.

You know what's cool about that? When you first read that, you think, oh, well, I'm just going to get intellectually stimulated and memorize all the truths. No, that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about, for he shall not speak of him himself, but whosoever he shall hear, he shall speak, and he will show you things to come, and he will glorify me. So think about that. Yeah, we're going to learn the elements of the truth. But in the process, you're going to learn the source of the truth, personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's what he's up to. Because you can't know intimacy with Christ without knowing Christ and without knowing the truth. Because he is. So Reinald points out that these scriptures teach us the character this indwelling of the spirit, how he operates. He says, I will ask you to notice particularly that he works by the truth. He guides into all truth. God is light, and when he takes up his abode, he must be enlightened.

So, The Holy Spirit may encourage us to study, to pray, to whatever. But however method he uses, like in my case, I have to prepare all the time. And boy, I tell you, if you just have the slightest inkling that God wants you to be a teacher, go for it. Because you get to do this preparing time, which is super cool, because you're with the Spirit doing it. most of the time. And you find out that this is his desire, and this is what he's doing. He's creating an environment within the believer where there's a growing intimacy with the person of the glorified Christ who is the truth. So you don't have to rely on having your textbook under your arm so that you have the truth. Now, sometimes you do. But most of the time, if it's him, it's the truth.

OK? Yes. In verse 13, the Amplified says that he will announce and declare to you the things that are to come that will happen in the future. Does that line up with your version? I think so. I think there's things that are present, but things that are coming. I'll take the issue of where am I going when I die? Well, I know where I'm going and I know a lot about it now. Why? Because he's shown me in his word about things that are gonna happen. He's shown me, he's shown you that when you come up to the day that the Lord's gonna take you home, it's not a fearful thing.

As a matter of fact, I can't hardly wait to go through that door. And you begin to see that the things to come, that's why positional truth is so important for us. There's all this positional truth that we learn, but our condition may not line up. And the coming is to enter into all of that position, to be known as we are known, to live and function in the glorified Christ for all eternity. Wow. Imagine what that's going to be like.

Mike, one of the things you were saying about teaching, I totally agree. When you're a teacher, you have to get into the word and really study and do it. But I go back to probably the greatest advice you ever gave me was just read. Read the scripture.

Don't make it an in-depth study all the time. I mean, yes, there is, when we look at these lessons and we look at books or whatever, yes, But the greatest value you gave me was to just read it to no one. And that's why my daily reading and that is, it's not an in-depth study, but I have so much revealed to me when I do that, just reading and seeing what the Lord, just being exposed to the Lord and what Paul talks about us in the Lord and all these things. It's not that you have to be a teacher. I think you just have to, I think maybe now that I think about it, it's the next question or something about what the word means. It's writing his word and talking about it because, again, just reading it like a story and knowing who he is, I think that's, again, developing the intimacy with him, not in a deep study. I mean, you still need deep study, but I think just to read and to know him is, You know, what non-teachers or whatever, I think that's the biggest thing, is just spending time with him.

If this part of this person at work in the Holy Spirit teaches us nothing else, it teaches us that, one, when you go to spend time in God's word, it isn't just cram your head full of facts. It's to let him do his job. What's his job? To reveal Christ to me. So here I am. I'm reading your word. I'm not taking copious notes. I just want to know Christ. And I know that the process is to read the word in dependence on the spirit, to do what he says he's going to do. And that means you've entered into this enterprise by faith. You trust him to do what he's going to do. And you got the word right in front of you. Perfect. Perfect. Hey, Mike? Yeah.

What I've gotten from this is John 16, 13 is the Holy Spirit works primarily with the truth. Even Jesus, when he prayed to the Father, John 17, 17, he says, sanctify them in the truth. And then he spells it right out. Your word is truth. This is absolute truth right here. The world doesn't like to hear that, but it is. It's absolute truth, and we can depend on it. Sure. That's exactly right.

It's like the question that we started with. You know, would it make a difference if you actually realize the permanency of the indwelling Holy Spirit? What a difference it would make in your life if you actually realized and trusted him, he's going to teach me the truth. And we're not going to take any tangents inside, you know, we're not going to chase any rabbits. We're going to stay right here on the Lord Jesus and the truth.

And you trust him about that. I think that's right. You know, I was going to say, I think during the reading, you know, if we're trying to study in our this and that, in the 13, he will guide you into all truth, he will. And I think when we do, we just spend time, he will guide us in that truth. And the more we fight it or we try and do it ourselves, I think is the limit. We have to rely upon him and he's the one who will guide us in truth and he will glorify me or take of mine and will disclose it to you. Just what you said, it's his job to do that. We just have to let him. Yeah. Hey, Mike. Yes, sir.

Let's just say something very comforting about all this was a paragraph that says, it cannot be too clearly, too clearly understood that his indwelling is not because of anything in us. I can't read my own writing. It says, because of his unchanging value of the work of Christ, cease forever to dishonor the value of that work by ever doubting his presence of the Holy Spirit who's within. And your feelings and your faithfulness have nothing to do with these basic facts.

That's right, Russ. That's really good. That's really good. Right out sums us up along with what Jim was saying. He refers to holiness of truth. Think about that concept, holiness to be totally set apart of truth. is an expression in the epistle to the Ephesians that suggests how it is secured. It is by the truth, even as our Lord prayed, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. Set them apart to me by the truth, and your word is truth.

Wow. And so on Wednesday night, we're studying God child trains us for what purpose? That we might become partakers of his holiness. What is that? Set apartness. And that's now. That isn't, yeah, we got a lot to look forward to when we leave the planet, but now to be set apart to him more and more all the time by his truth, to rest in him and to behold the glory of the Lord Jesus, even though it's reflective at this point. So the word is the reflector. OK, we've got time.

Question five, how important is the word of God to the spirit of a believer? So I wrote down several things. It is the spirit of man that understands. This is the highest part of his being, controlling all the rest. Now, that just sounds like a statement that May or may not be important, but I think it's hugely important. Let me tell you why.

The lost person is spiritually dead. If you're not a believer, you're spiritually dead. So what controls you? It's your soul occupied and controlled by the sin nature. So you become a believer now. your whole history is based on my soul, my mind, emotions, and my will infected by the sin nature controlling me. And now that I'm a believer, I just jump off those evil branches and go over to the good ones. The problem is I'm still relying on the same thing. Now we're in Christ. We have an entirely new life.

And the man is to be controlled by his spirit. That's the controlling entity in a human being, his spirit. Why? Because it's the direct line from God to you. So here comes the Holy Spirit. He indwells every believer. He makes alive your spirit again so that you can do what? You can apprehend spiritual things.

And more importantly, you have the capacity to actually begin a relationship, personal, with the Lord Jesus Christ. And who is he? He's the second person of the Godhead. And he will reveal the Father to us. But you can't do that unless you're spiritually alive. And that's what the Holy Spirit does. Go ahead. I was just going to say that.

How important is the Word of God to the spirit of a believer? It's akin to how important is food to the natural man? If you don't eat food, you die. And for me, my experience is, going along with what Courtney was saying earlier, reading the word every day, if I don't ingest the word of God, I feel like I'm starving.

I'm walking around this world, it's like I need that food to have rest in Christ. It's just a daily take. Yeah, I think that's right, Jim. It is, you do pretty soon realize that, boy, if I skipped a meal this morning, quiet time with the Lord. I do starve all day long. It's like us old people who don't drink enough water. We need to be drinking more water. The next point that Rideout makes about this is this is God's order.

When the spirit engages in his sanctifying work, it is through the action of truth. You will notice that again and again, and he will return to that, this fact. Spiritual truth, spiritual truth, set apart, spiritual truth. None of us know anything of God's word or the Lord Jesus Christ or anything, soullessly in that sense, because he does not reveal this to the flesh.

Now, what the flesh tries to do is through denominationalism and legalism and ritual and tradition to recreate. It's like you see in these churches, we're gonna have a worship service. Really? Yeah, we're gonna have a lot of music, a lot of happiness and all that. Well, what is worship? You can't have worship that lines up with who the person of God is unless you know him. And so the spirit of God, what is he doing? He's revealing Christ to us. We don't have to worry about whether we're gonna worship him, trust me.

If he showed up in a room right now in his glory, we'd all be on the floor. Look what happened to Paul on the road to Damascus. At least he's being a little careful with us and revealing slowly. Imagine what Paul experienced. The first thing is he's blinded, and he's on the ground, and the third word out of his mouth is Lord. There's the worship right there. Here he is rounding up the Christians to put him in jail or to kill him, and he meets the glorified Christ, and the third word is Lord.

It was so good that look what happened to the rest of his life and what he suffered to gain the prize. That's right. That's exactly right. So this indwelling of the Holy Spirit amplifies the intimacy with Christ, but it totally radiates out through the life. Number three, spiritual intelligence. is the very cornerstone of piety.

Now, piety is a write-out word. What is piety? Boy, if you come out of Catholicism, everybody's pious. What is piety? Humbleness. Actually, what piety is, is the life of the Lord Jesus being manifested through you. That's what his life looks like. You know, we think of pious as this, you know, that I got clergy on my car and I got my collar on backwards and I have a certain demeanor about me and I'm pious and you better recognize it. Last one, he says, the truth of God is embodied in his word in that we have the full revelation which he has been pleased to make himself and his counsels centering in Christ. So I'm gonna stop right there even though I haven't finished the question because it's a good place to stop.

Just to ingest just the stuff we've talked about this morning is life-changing. what the person and work of the Holy Spirit is really all about personally to you and I as believers. So let's close. Father, how we thank you for your word. We thank you for this study vis-a-vis the Holy Spirit. We trust him to manifest the person of the Lord Jesus Christ to us, to reveal to us precisely what you mean in your word. and to be able to just abide and rest in the Lord Jesus. And we pray in his precious name. Amen.