The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit end lesson 17 begin 18

All right, we are going to finish this lesson. We have two more questions. If I can get my computer to move here. We'll be doing questions 9 and 10 on lesson 17. The person who worked at the Holy Spirit, for everybody online. So, in question eight, we went over Ephesians 6, 14 through 18. I'll read that real quick, because we're kind of answering that in question nine.

So, Ephesians 6, 14 through 19. Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, excuse me, which is the word of God, with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the spirit. And with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.

So I went over that and what that means, but now we're in question nine. How is a believer to be victorious in this unequal fight? The fight was about the flaming arrows and the evil one. First I want to clarify the premise of the question. What is meant by being victorious or defeated? Can we as believers be defeated by evil such that we lose our position in Christ?

We had a very weak no over here. I thought there would be a resounding no on that. No. So this is a conditional situation. So this is nothing about our position. He can fire all the fiery darts and everything and try all that he has in his quiver. but we cannot lose our position. So this is nothing about our position, about being victorious or defeated based on our position. So this is conditional.

So as expressed in the previous question, what if possible is defeat? What would be defeat? Or it's cricket class today. I think, I think it's, um, it's, it's only on a conditional basis and it's, it's the feeling of loss of a little bit of faith, loss of a little bit of belief, believing that you're defeated, feeling you're defeated and not, uh, going back to your resources in Christ. Okay.

Others remember in the class, it's your mic. so i think that this is a condition that's basically what what we say when when we i don't think that she did or were were not what christ isn't in front of us what we lose rest fellowship we lose fellowship with them so it's so this is conditional this is a temporary loss of fellowship with god and christ also which side is that on that our side of god's side Always on our side.

Does God or Christ ever give up on us or change? Does He ever stop loving us? Does He ever stop caring for us? Does He ever say, oops? That's one of the things I always think of. Have you ever heard, would God ever say, oops? Missed that. It's not in his vocabulary. Well, if he did, it would be, he's not God. Yeah, exactly. He's not sovereign. He's not sovereign. He's not God, period. So, I always use that, God never says no. So, that should give you comfort. It's never a point where he goes, you know, you think, oh man, he doesn't know, he really doesn't understand where I'm at.

Remember all the verses in Romans 8 about the Spirit? He searches the mind of the Spirit in us when we pray. So He knows everything about us. He searches the heart. That was one thing in Romans 8. It's God the Father that's doing the searching of our hearts. So there's never a time where He doesn't know what's going on with us. Not a second. Not a millisecond. He knows everything about us.

So again, the loss of fellowship, I just want to point out, is on our side. We turn away. We get our focus off Christ. God and Christ never take their eye off us. And we always have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So never does that disappear, or in the Old Testament, it would be removed, or whatever. In a believer, we always have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Never a time does he leave.

So again, the loss is just temporal and it's on our side. We turn our back, we turn our eye off Christ. That's the defeat. So I said, so with all the defensive weapons, remember we just read that, all the defensive weapons raided by the believer and the offensive weapon of the word of God standing firm with prayer, we become more than conquerors. The defeat is when we take our eyes off this. We don't use all the weapons that we have that I just read. That's when we lose fellowship. That's when we're, quote, defeated, when we pull away from the fellowship.

So, did you want to say? No. So, Rideout has this. Ah, brethren, if we are to be victors in this unequal contest, it is in the power of the Spirit. There must be dependence and prayer. Coupled with it is watching and intercession for all saints. It is only in the power of the Spirit that we can thus fight or pray. Left to ourselves, we would fall as easy prey to this mighty foe. But thank God that in the very time of greatest weakness, the Spirit leads out our hearts in believing prayer.

I think that was a good summary. If we're not in the word, if we're not dependent upon the Holy Spirit and his word, that's when the defeats come. When we take our eyes off Christ and we focus on the worldly things, the things that are not of God and Christ, that's when we get the defeat, and the defeat is just loss of fellowship.

So, any other comments on that, or we'll move on to question 10? All right. What does Rideout say is the threefold blessedness of prayer and the spirit? Anybody write that down? He says. Do you have your mic on? Is she green? She is now. Okay. It takes a long time to train me. Rideout says that the threefold blessedness is our infirmities are helped. Our faith is established, our courage emboldened to take hold of the living God while we use the sword of the Spirit. That was his quote. Those three. So I'll read above what he put about that. Prayer in the Spirit.

We pray thus, are our seasons of private prayer or public under the particular guidance of power and faith in the Spirit of God. How little true prayer there is, yet how many words like that. The Lord stirs us up to know the threefold blessedness of prayer in the Spirit. If you didn't hear, our infirmities are helped, our faith established, and our courage emboldened to take fast hold of the living God while we use the sword of the Spirit. A couple of things. I kind of had an issue with number one. Our infirmities are helped. Is that the case every time? Yes. It is? Okay, explain.

I think it is because we look at infirmities and pray that he would eliminate them, when in fact what he's doing is teaching us to live above them and not get rid of them, that they're there. And how are the, the infirmities aren't helped. I'm helped about them. That's the point. That's why this is. That's why I didn't like the way he phrased this is the infirmities may still be there. Sure. That's why I didn't like, he said the infirmities are helped. Well, I don't think the infirmities are your health. Yeah.

You have the peace that surpasses all understanding. You have the comfort, as in 2 Corinthians 1, that we can share and all that. A little tweak on this was, we are helped by it, through infirmities. I think is a better interpretation of that, rather than the infirmities or health.

Because as I remember, when I first came here and they were praying, please remove this. Well, God may not want to remove it. So I didn't ask for any prayer requests for many months or a year or so before I figured out. I just want the clarification on that. That doesn't mean that you pray and your infirmities are gone. He will comfort you through those infirmities. He's using those infirmities for His purposes.

So our faith established, I think that is when we have that communication with God through prayer, I think our faith is established. And then our courage and boldness to take fast hold of the living God while we use the sword of the spirit. I think this is the relationship. This is the intimacy part of praying. When we pray, we have that intimacy with God. So I kind of have the overlying question.

And nobody's going to answer this one, because I know. Is this how you view prayer? That your faith is established, you're emboldened to take fast hold of the living God while we use the sword of the Spirit? Is that how you pray? Is that how you do it? I know there was going to be crickets on that one. Nobody was going to say that one. And I will be the first. Well, the way you set it up, nobody would ever dare say anything. But this is the way, I always look at things differently. You all know that, that I am strange.

So this is one that's like, when we read this, I mean, yes, it sounds really good, but do we do it? And this is, should we? I think we should. I think this is, when we look at some of these things and we all nod our heads and oh yeah, those three things, but then we never do it.

I do think, though, that going back to previous questions about not knowing how to pray, I think as the Spirit works in us, this is where He's moving us, too. That this becomes how we pray, because we don't know how. that that's kind of what i was getting at i think this is what we should be shooting for and and and when we when we pray yeah and that's why i think it's really important when we look at the romans eight passage about i mean and i have so many one that that we can pray anything anytime anywhere that's the overriding thing that really want to get out that so many of us as we went through in class it's too small for god he doesn't care about that now it's too big for him those are all non-issues when we pray.

Abba Father, Daddy, we come before him intimately with anything. Now, we may not be praying anything in what he wants us to do, but we have that position to be able to come before him with anything. And the ultimate goal is to have these things done as our faith established, our courage emboldened in God. All those things are the end root of all this, is that as we pray and we know his Intimately, we begin to know him more and more through his word and the indwelling Holy Spirit. These things will become manifest as we move forward.

So, any other thoughts? Can I go back to the infirmities just for a second? I was thinking about the time when Christ was on the boat with his disciples and there was this raging storm and Christ initially didn't ask his father to take the storm away. He slept in total peace.

And I think that's an example of what God's trying to teach us is to have faith in God and have peace. And that's why He gives us the infirmity, so that He can glorify us through faith, not through change my condition back to where I feel safe again and comfortable. And through those trials, I think we gain. And so I think God's trying to teach us to keep our eyes on the glorified Lord, and then you'll forget about your infirmity.

I go back to the strange one that I did in memorizing was James. Consider it all, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith That's the key, the testing of your faith, that it'll produce, I have to start again. Consider all children of brethren on the account of various trials, knowing that testing of faith will produce endurance and let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete. So the trials are meant for the testing of our faith. Do we believe what God said about us? Is it true what he says? Is he in control of all things? Is he using all things to work together for those who love him?

That's the testing of the faith through a trial. The testing for approval. Not for failure. Yeah, not for failure. So no, this is to bring us to the point of dependency so we can sleep on the boat when the boat's rocking. So we have the full assurance that God is in control. He told us he's a sovereign God. He's in control of all things. Do we believe it? Do we rest in that? Do we have comfort in that?

When the trial comes, when the winds come, and the boat's rocking, do we believe it? Consider it all joy, my brother, when you encounter the various trials, the testing of your faith. It's our faith that he's testing. Do we believe what we see? I had this vision just now that the lord jesus is asleep i'm in a trial and i'm over there shaking his left lapel shake his bed wake up you don't know what's going on what are you doing to us yeah yeah that's us yeah that's from our side yeah all right anything else otherwise i'll turn over to mike yeah um pulse is much the same thing in romans 5 3 Not only that, we rejoice in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, endurance proven character, and proven character hope. I finally realized that after memorizing it for years, and 15 years later I figured out it's not like for us to go out and fight and do all this in the trial. It was a testing of our faith. Recently in The Hungry Heart, he was talking about joy through the trials. If you can actually rejoice Ian, while you're going through trials, then you've hit the mark.

But how many of us actually do that? I think that's the point we're getting to, though. That's where he wants to put us. Exactly. That we can have comfort in a trial. That's why I think those pounded at me. Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials. I keep going, consider it all joy? How do I get to that point?

But you know, I've been listening to Hal's Trials in Faith series. It was about a six-month series. And he keeps talking about, you know, when he was talking to his son, his son was telling him, you know, Dad, I'm just going through all this stuff. And Hal says, that's great. You know, I really and you said, Dad, what are you talking about? But he said a couple years later, he called his dad at two in the morning. He says, Dad, I see what you're saying.

Yeah. You know, so It gives me hope that maybe we will come to that point. It might take a while, but I'm not there yet. It's spiritual growth, and it doesn't happen overnight. That's the thing. That's why he graciously takes us through these things, slowly growing us in the faith. That's the key. I'm looking forward to getting to the point where I can be joyful in the trials. Man, I'm not there yet. I'm getting there, I hope. You know, there's still pain. I think it's more the fact of comfort.

You know, in the 2nd Corinthians 1, I think it's through this. When we bring all these things, and what does He promise us is the peace that surpasses all understanding. The other one is He guards our heart. Those are the things when we come to Him with prayers, is that He guards our heart and He gives us the peace that surpasses all understanding.

I don't think it's to the point where I'm doing cartwheels and whatever. It's the inner joy and peace. Yeah, it's not that I'm doing the rah-rah-rah, this is great, I love this, great trolley is taking me through. But it's that inner peace and joy. What's the fruit of the spirit? Joy. Love. All those things.

So when we put them all together, when we cobble it all together, it makes sense. Why fellowship is so important, because we can comfort one another. And when we're comforting one another, doesn't it seem like our anxiety about those afflictions kind of go away temporarily?

Yeah, the focus is off. It does for me. I'm lifted up. Well, that's with going out to see your buddy. I mean, that's what we're supposed to do, is come to side and comfort. That's great that you're able to go out and do that, Jimmy. You know, I think that's awesome.

And I think both of you will focus on the Lord at that point. That takes him away from the focus of the trial and on the fellowship. And who's the fellowship through it? Christ. So yeah, the focus is off the trial and onto Christ. Any others? All right.

So we're going to pick up now in lesson 18. And we're moving from just the discussion about prayer in the spirit to the actual walk in the spirit. How does this work out in shoe leather? And I think there's a part of, especially Romans, where the positional truth is laid out in terms of who we are in Christ, how we got there, what we have, to Romans chapter eight, which is the walk part. This is what the walk looks like.

This is how it goes. And so the first question is, with Rideout, he says, what characterizes a Christian? and distinguishes him from the world. One thing. What do you think it is? The walk in the spirit. The walk in the spirit, that's what characterizes a Christian. By characterizing, I mean that's what is visible. That's what he's about. It's about how he, and it's contrasted with a walk in the flesh.

And I think we're very familiar, we are obviously, very familiar with a walk in the flesh. We've been doing that ever since your feet hit the floor, you know, because you were born of the flesh. And I think Romans chapter eight is the explanation of that. Right out says that broadly we may say every Christian is marked thus. If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he's not This is an interesting statement. That is not the disposition of Christ, but the Holy Spirit given to the believer, he is none of his.

So the next question had to do with, I was thinking, I said, read Romans 8, 6 through the end of the chapter. And then I thought, well, I don't think I want to do that. From here, although if I learn nothing else from going to that Bible conference in Duluth, they read every word, every time. And they think it's really, really important.

And so rather than, I don't want to piecemeal eight, six through 39, but what Romans chapter eight is, is the Christian life. You know that Romans 3 is salvation, Romans 4 is appreciation of salvation, Romans 5 starts talking about intimacy and then from 12 on we have the doctrine of the two men, identification truths come, pushback about identification and how to try to live the Christian life by the law. None of that is the Christian life. All that is is a preparation for the Christian life.

That's all positional truth. This is what's happened. When you get to Romans 8, 6, this is what it ought to look like based on the position that you have. So that's why Romans 8 is such an important thing. I've thought for years that, you know, gee, if you want to study the Christian life, it starts in Romans 8, 6. It doesn't start in Romans 3. In terms of the practicalness of it, it starts in Romans 8. So just so that we can be prepared to answer a few questions, I'm going to read from 5 up to a certain point.

For those who live according to the flesh, who are those? Non-believers. What do they do? They set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. Boy, what a contrast right away. So when you turn on CNN, what are you watching? The flesh or the spirit? When you're reacting negatively to some news in the world, are you walking in the flesh or in the spirit? It's the flesh.

Now, the New King James says, to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. I think it's better translated to say that the mind of the flesh is death. The whole mindset, focus, view, everything of the flesh is death. And what does death mean?

It means separation. Separation from what? communication or intimacy with the resurrected Christ because I'm separated from him in the flesh. Now my flesh is probably better than your flesh because I'm a Christian. No, it's the same. Could be worse. That's probably worse. It's probably worse because I know better. I have a question for you. When you said walking in the flesh, those are not Christians, but can't you look at it also when we're in our condition, when we take our eyes off Christ and put our eyes on the world, we also can walk in the flesh, and that is death for us. There's no question. There's no question, that's right. Verse 5 talks about a position of paying attention to understanding and being captivated by the things of the flesh. That's the way the flesh is.

Your flesh, or put it another way, your fleshly mind never did appreciate anything of the spirit of God, and it won't. It just won't. Because it can't. It isn't whether it wants to or not, it can't. In 1 Corinthians, it's pretty clear that Spiritual things can't be understood by the natural man. He can't know them. Why? Because he's only got one apparatus, and that's a fleshly mind. And that fleshly mind does not pay attention to the things of the spirit of God. It never does. Why? Because that's where he comes from. So it's impossible.

Now, as a believer, like Jimmy is saying, as a believer, if I'm walking in the flesh, am I operating in the same environment that someone who is not a believer is operating in? Absolutely, I am. So many Christians spend their whole life trying to put holy water on the flesh and make it look like Christ. That's a fruitless exercise. And that's what law does. That's why reformed theology is so dangerous, because it deals with trying to make the flesh perform and look like it's holy. It's not. and it isn't going to get holy.

Mike, can I ask a question, kind of make a comment? Alyssa does a ladies' group study, and they were, the other week, talking about love, just the concept of love from a Christian perspective. And Alyssa kind of raises the question, based on the fact that love is a fruit of the Spirit, is it possible for the unbeliever to love? And a lot of people say, well, of course they can, of course they can, kind of thing, right?

But thinking about it, I mean, I guess this came to mind because you're talking about the distinction of the believer, but I think some of the times it's really hard to distinguish purely from externals, like just looking at another person. Because it's true, the world has things that look like like the fruit of the spirit, maybe just from an external viewpoint. Because I think there's sort of mimics and counterfeits of what walking by the spirit looks like. But I think in reality that the true fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, you know, can only be produced in the life of a believer. Because I've kind of become convinced just that there's, you know, the The unbeliever only able to walk by the flesh can never produce anything other than the fruit of the flesh, right?

So I don't know if that. No, that's a good point. I would add just one thing to that, that God's word specifically says that men love the darkness greater than the light. That word for love is agape, that they find great affection and desire for darkness. So what has to change with the believer? The object has to change. God so loved the world. What's the object? It was his creation. God doesn't love darkness. He loves human beings, okay? And with that love, what did he do? I, as a believer, with the food of the spirit, is love. It's the love of the Lord Jesus Christ that life manifested in me that I can even approach finding great value in another person.

Where I would actually be sacrificial towards them. only the spirit of God can do that. The non-believer can be sacrificial towards darkness, no problem. Watch them operate, watch the stuff they do. They sacrifice themselves for darkness, for evil, you know? So I think that the issue with the word agape, which is the word for love, joy, the word for love and the fruit of the spirit, has to do with the object. The natural man has a love, all-encompassing love. It's for darkness. Mike, I think also, and Miles, I think you touched on it too. The non-believer is a knockoff copy. Satan is the deceitful one and he's the one who mimics and comes close. I was looking in 2 Corinthians 11-14, no wonder for even Satan disguised himself as an angel of light.

A lot of the love I think in the world is, I would say, what is the motive or what is the object? Those two things. If it's worldly, it's not on Christ and it's usually self-oriented. And so, even though it may appear, I think, Satan is a great deceiver. And so, I think a lot of the worldly stuff is deceived. The motive isn't. It's typically selfish, and it's definitely not Christ-focused. So, it's out there, purposively, I think, by Satan for deception.

I really appreciate both of those comments. I think the way Alyssa asked into the group was, is the Unbeliever capable of genuine selfless love? I think the answer is no, but yeah. Nick, one other way to look at it is, where does the love come from? Our love comes from the glorified Christ. It doesn't come from us. It comes from the seed of Christ. Their love comes from their flesh and their fallen nature. So that's an easy way to compare it. I mean, which one's good and which one is a counterfeit, right? I do think, though, that the non-believer has the capacity to love evil sacrificially. I really think that's possible.

I've told you that story about the guy, the golfer at the driving range. I said, boy, you can really hit the ball. He said, golf is my thing. He loved golf. Agape. He loved it. Again, it's the object, and the thing about The thing about the love of Christ and the fruit of the Spirit and love is when you come to the realization, notice love is not a concept. It's a reality between two persons.

To come to the realization that the God of the universe intensely loves me, for my benefit, not his, and will not, how do I say this? He won't, there isn't any bridge he won't cross to bless me. He will do anything for my benefit to the point that he even died for me. He even died for me, a horrible death. He demonstrates his love for me And you think, wow, no one ever loved me that much. Nobody ever did. But he did.

And that's the nature of the character of just one of the aspects of the fruit of the spirit. And they all go together. That's the great thing. The fruit of the spirit is singular. It's not plural. It isn't a bunch of different fruits floating around, some to the top and some, it's all at one time, Donna. Is there a distinction? I guess I'm thinking of the two trees, the distinction of good and evil. In Adam, I think we can love the good, but it's from the tree of the good and evil, and it has nothing to do with the tree of life, which is holy.

I agree. Did you guys on the web hear that? OK, that's a good point. Yeah, I was wondering. Yeah. Go, Russ. I just wonder, all the millions of unbelieving mothers, maybe in the wrong way, but it seems like most mothers love their babies. Yeah. Sort that out. Well, think about this, and then I just notice the time. We're over.

So what is the one characteristic that sets God apart from everybody else? He's holy. That means he's totally separate unto himself, okay? He's everything by himself. He doesn't need anything. And part of that is agape. So it's not necessarily good versus evil.

It's really flesh versus holiness. So what God has done through including us in the cross of Christ is to put us in that holiness. When the Lord Jesus said to the disciples, you've got to be holy as I am holy. You need to be there. That's what he was talking about. In that holiness is the love of God. It doesn't exist anywhere else. See that? We've been placed in there. So we have, with the resurrected life of Christ, this life. And that life controls our spirit, controls our soul, and everything we do, we love.

And it isn't just going from the evil branches to the good. Because what did Jesus say about the Father? There's nobody good but him. Nobody. So what is goodness? It's holiness. Okay, I'm over. Gotta close. So we'll pick up next week and the next two lessons are 18 and 19 are both about the walk in the spirit. JD will pick up on 19 when I get done with 18. So anyway, let's close.

Our dear father, how we thank you for your grace. How we thank you for what you've done and that we are by gathering together and studying your word, coming to a greater knowledge of the intensity of the love you have for us and the life that is to be shared separate unto you. We thank you. We pray in your son's precious name. Amen.