The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, Lesson 19 end
JD McCulley · Jan 23, 2022
Holy Spirit (2021-23), No. 46
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261925402871

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

Well, we are on lesson 19. I have a little bit left in question number 5. So we'll start there, and then we'll move on to lesson 20 if we get there today. And OK, so last week we talked about, we looked at the grieving of the spirit. And we started with, in question number 5, what's the purpose of the grieving of the spirit? We talked about how many times as a child of God that we've been brought to the Lord in the consciousness of having grieved the Spirit. And I want to kind of focus on that term consciousness for just a minute. And why is the consciousness of having grieved the Spirit an act of God's mercy?

Why don't we say that? Have you ever done something and been accused of having done something and you had no idea you weren't supposed to do it? I've claimed to do that. Yeah, we've claimed to do that. Yeah. Does the question make sense? Why is the consciousness of having grieved the Spirit an act of God's mercy, or is it? Well, I was going to say, if all of a sudden we can tell the Holy Spirit is trying to get our attention, then it helps us pull us back to... I know just doing confession and sinning and... confessing and sinning is the wrong way to go, but to get back in fellowship, if I know I breathe the Holy Spirit, the Living God, and if I am made aware, then I can get straight with God, through confession, and so it kind of saves me from just living in a disconnected state. Yeah, I think you're right. What's the opposite? What does the opposite look like? There's no grieving. So you carry on carelessness, right? You engage in carelessness. There's nothing that weighs on your conscience as to your walk. And so you fall deeper and deeper into sin.

And what do we call that? It's the hardening process, right? We've all been there. We've all seen that. But it's actually the work of the Spirit and applying the word to our heart and conscious that is an act of God's mercy. And the reason why that is, is because then you have a choice. Am I right? Does that make sense? Without a choice, you harden. You consistently harden. And we know it. And we know because of Romans 1, That we are, that all mankind is aware of God's invisible attributes, His divine power.

And so they don't stand innocent. They're guilty as charged, correct? So, but the grieving goes a step beyond just the consciousness of having offended God. It goes into a specific personal offense and a specific personal sin. And the Lord starts to reveal his word and apply his word to your circumstance with regards to that sin. And when sin is judged, and judgment requires a decision. It requires a faith-based decision. Because of my ability to judge my sin, to call it what it is, to agree with God about what it has done by creating a lack of fellowship or breaking fellowship with Him, I can have joy restored through the process of having grieved the Spirit. and have come to light in terms of living by the Spirit.

So if we look at Galatians 5.16 through 25, I'm going to read it. It's a long passage, but just thinking about how the grieving of the Holy Spirit works and that it's not meant to be the norm, rather living by the Spirit. So I'll read here, Galatians 16, but I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.

For the flesh has the desires that are opposed to the spirit, and the spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh. For these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want. But if you are led by the spirit, you're not under the law.

Now, the works of the flesh are obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions. envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before, those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Now, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. So, one of the things that we talked about last week was, what is this Christian walk? Where does death, where does crucifixion fit? And I was talking to Adi a little bit after the lesson last week, and I came up with the idea that the Christian walk is not some kind of operation resuscitation. The idea of the lipstick on the pig, we're going to resuscitate the old man.

Does that make any sense? Trying to resuscitate the old man. It's like the, you know, it's kind of the idea of redecorating that that main, you know, your main house when you've, you've thought that you had put the old man in the mother-in-law suite, but here it is. You've allowed it in, and the redecoration and remodeling starts to take place. And so that's kind of equivalent to the idea of this operation resuscitation, but it's trying to bring back what has been crucified. It's an attempt to make the old self more pleasing to God. But rather, it's Operation Crucifixion.

Maybe we could say it that way. We try so hard to clean up the old self. And in question number six, we have an example of the farmer trying to clean up the old self, really overcoming evil with good. Are you familiar with the illustration that Rideout talks about? Probably in some ways, but we know that The curse of sin produces thorns and briars, right? We know that from the fall. But what is the process of trying to remove all of those thorns, the weeds that grow up around your crop? How do you go about getting rid of those?

Yeah, Mike, are you raising your hand, maybe? Yeah. Yeah, cool. A couple of thoughts. One is, as a believer, I like the fact you used the word consciousness. rather than the word conscience, because I can't depend on my conscience as a believer. Because if I'm convicted of sin by Satan, then it's remorseful, and I'm never going to get better, and it's just down in the dumps, rather than the work of the Spirit.

And convicting is a restoration process in which there's hope. And it turned me to Christ, and the fact that I was crucified, and also resurrected. at the same time, so that when I say the same things as God says about me, well, who does he say I am? He says I'm in Christ resurrected. I have already been crucified. I've been separated from, and my acknowledgement is, is that I've been functioning and acting as though none of that was true. And that's where the sin is. It is true, and I believe you.

And so, what I find interesting, I think it takes a while to sort of be able to distinguish between the work of the Spirit in your heart in terms of restoration and walk, and just the self-conviction and remorse and that you feel like You feel like, well, I have to do some penance here in order to be back acceptable with the Lord, rather than it's his work that makes me acceptable. And I have it and I live in it now.

And I like what the example of the farmer that he plants, rather than dig it up, dig up his field, he plants grass. to replace the weeds. And then I got to thinking, well, we don't do that today. We just put weed killer on there and get rid of it. But the point being is that God is in the replacement business, not the fix-up business. Yeah, I like the word. Say that one more time. God is in the replacement business and not the fix-up business.

Yeah, it's this idea of overcoming evil with good. Yeah. And it has, it's an equivalent analogy to the walk in the Spirit, because if we're beholding the positive things of our Lord, and we're filling our heart with who He is, and we're letting the Word of God dwell richly in us, we have a lot less room for the flesh and its lusts. Right? So it's an occupation thing, isn't it?

When you're grieved and your consciousness is aware of that merciful act that the Spirit applies the Word of God into that environment, there's an opportunity that overcoming evil with good can exist in that situation. And there's no room when you're filling yourself with the person of the Lord Jesus. I used to ask a class once in a while that if you feel sorry for your sins and the person next to you doesn't, which one gets forgiven quicker? They're both the same. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah. You know, J.D. Elsa, I think, you know, one being a gardener, I understand this very well when I dig up and try pick up the weeds in the garden, it grows back harder and more, and until you get, if you want an organic one, it's very hard to keep it. If you use weed killer, yes, you can do that, but I think the thing is, I think of this in Paul in Romans 7, where he tries, he tries, he tries, he knows what's good, and he tries, and he tries, and he tries, and it just keeps multiplying, finally coming to the end of himself, where thanks be to God. And I think that's really, with good, and you try to beat the flesh with being good, and it doesn't work. Right.

Yeah, it doesn't, so why don't we just, why don't we just surrender? Why isn't, why is, what's up with the word surrender? And I might, you might say to yourself, you might say to someone, a fellow believer, you know, I can see that you're stuck in this sin pattern.

Have you been baptized by the Spirit? Have you received your second blessing? It's not obvious that you have. There's a higher calling and a higher life for you. I'm not sure that you're quite aware of it. There is a perfect love and there is a perfect sanctification. There's a Spirit-filled life that you're really missing out on. You need to pick up your cross and carry it daily. Surrender. Surrender yourself to the Lord. Give it all over. So what do you surrender? Do you surrender the old man or the new man?

That's a really good question because all of these terms have something in common. Yeah. J.D. Another thing that makes it tricky is that every one in the Sunday school class is positionally righteous and perfect, absolutely. And Paul says, if we sin and sin and sin, God's grace will just be greater and greater and greater. And so, it's not something to count on to keep you from I mean, and also Romans 8, 1, where there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. It's just because God has created such an amazing salvation, it's not a matter of me going, I'm not going to make it to heaven if I don't repent right this minute.

You understand what I'm saying? Yes, absolutely, yeah. Any thoughts there, class? Would you call surrendering or yielding a work? That's a really good question. That's really the question. You get to answer it. Well, sure. The thing that each of these terms that I mentioned have in common is that they are 100% dependent upon the surrender of self. So, yes, absolutely. We're talking about the experience, the dependence upon the surrender of self, as it's called.

And we're not trying to suggest that believers come into different areas or stages in their life where blessing is a big part of it. But it's not the surrender that leads to blessing. And that's usually the way that the surrender message is communicated to a struggling believer is you're missing out on blessings. If you just surrender, if you seek this spirit-filled life, you'll have a perfect love and a higher calling, a higher life, a second blessing.

And there's all of these terms that are applied to an experience that is dependent upon the surrender of you, your effort, your work. Again, but just because there is blessing from walking with the Lord. I like the way right out puts it, he says, we should be careful not to construct a theory out of it, which is what a lot of the higher life spirit filled life carrier cross daily surrender have in mind is just that that will lead to blessings, right? The Joel Osteen methodology.

J.D., I think when surrender, just kind of going to the base of Christianity 101, getting back into the Romans 6, I think the surrender to me is reckon yourself dead unto sin. That's the surrender. And then the other surrender is, you know, reckon yourself alive unto God. Those are the two positions. You reckon yourself dead unto sin, and then you're alive unto God. Those are the surrenderings, I think. Yeah, and it's interesting that if we couch the surrender in that context, who does the dying and who does the living?

The way Rideout put it in his notes is, if I'm in the right context, he says, it has to be a crucified self that the Spirit of God fills and uses. Not a surrendered, yielding self, I guess. When we're occupied with the Lord Jesus, where does that start? It starts with the death, starts with the crucifixion. So it's not a reset operation resuscitation. I like the fact that you said operation resurrection, but in between that, there's that operation crucifixion.

And I think that we as believers, we tend to look at what can we do? And whether we use the term surrender or complete devotion or whatnot, there is the mental faith-based surrender of what Courtney was talking about in the truth of who we are in Christ. If we want to apply the term surrender there, it's the decision to trust in the Spirit's application of God's Word in a matter, right? But this idea of us surrendering through self-effort or having been given something that's in addition to what the Word of God talks about, has us focusing on ourselves and occupying ourselves with ourselves rather than on Christ. And it tends to divide God's people. It puts those that are further surrendered in one category and those that are not willing to surrender in another category.

Some have experienced the blessings and others have not, and you begin to do what? You begin to kind of start to analyze that situation. Your finger starts, you know, I'm looking at each of you in the room and I'm like, blessing, yeah, no, yeah, maybe, the guy up front, definitely not. But you do, you get into this perspective of what does the experience, how is the experience in blessing being applied across different groups of people?

And are there stages of maturity in life for the believer? Yes, there are stages of maturity. The scripture talks about fathers, young men, and children, but it's not based on a surrender, is it? So maturity is not based on surrender. What is maturity based on? What is it? It's probably based on God's Word. And what does God's Word applied through the Spirit do? Yeah, it's interesting. Maybe I'll say it this way. There is surrender involved. But the question is, who's doing the surrendering?

Is it the old man in order to be improved, or is it the new man because of his recognition of what's happened, not only to him, but for him in Christ? It's not a hard thing to... reckon on the truths of God's word from your position in Christ. That's not a hard thing to do. It's a real easy thing to do.

And if surrender is required, I'm there. But I don't surrender because I get something. I surrender because it's the normal outcome of what's already true of me. As the son surrendered to the father at the cross, he didn't gain anything. That wasn't the reason he surrendered. The reason was, is that they had a plan together to reconcile or to resolve the sin issue between them. And so they both agreed and surrendered to each other's will that way. And it's because the facts of what they were trying to accomplish, like the facts of my position and your position in Christ, What they dictate to us is, in the case of a surrender, that's not a problem. But if I'm trying to achieve, let me put it this way.

Miles Stanford used to tell the guys that if your focus is on your own spiritual growth, you haven't figured it out yet, which meant that I'm working on me. Well, it seems to me that the message of the cross in God's word means that I don't need to be worried about me anymore. The me I'm worried about got crucified, and the new man in Christ resurrected is perfect, so what am I worried about? That's right.

JD, I think also kind of the base of all that, and to me, I think of maturity, is it's based on faith. when you believe what's told of you. And you grow when you believe more and more of what God tells is true of you. And when you look through scripture, almost all the time, it's fight the good fight of faith. you know, consider it all joy, testing of your faith. It's always, I think the growth comes from, you know, believing what God says is true about you. And that goes to the, do you believe you're co-crucified? Do you believe, you know, it all comes down to do you believe what he says about you? And so I think the growth maturity comes from the spirit working on you and getting down to that base level of faith in what's true about you. Yeah, I appreciate both what you guys just said. And Mike, you mentioned the fact, the facts of God's Word. And Courtney, you mentioned the belief in those facts.

And I'm not going to go into that analogy. Where all of these systems of surrender fail is that they do, they put you in the center of it. But where there is a biblical surrender, you're finding yourself beholding the cross and where you are in it. And where are you in the cross? You're right there on it. You've been crucified.

So it's not this idea of surrender. Not that we carry our cross daily, it's that really our cross carries us. It goes before us. So if we look at question number eight, if it's not surrender, then what is it? We just talked about a lot of that. But it's not a surrendered self, but rather a crucified self. That I think was a key portion of this lesson, is that it's not a surrendered self, it's a crucified self that the Spirit of God fills and uses. Now we're talking about service. Wow, it's the crucified self that the Spirit of God fills and uses.

I like how you look at the, we've talked about this a lot in Romans, but Romans 6 comes before Romans 12. In Romans 6, we've got the surrender, but it's not to get or to attain. It's because he has entered into what is his. That's an interesting way of putting it. And that's talking about us. In Romans 6, we have to surrender, but it is not to get or to attain surrender. It is because he has entered into what is his.

He has accepted the precious and wondrous fact of his death with Christ. and of the Spirit's presence and power. And I love this part. A crucified man has no experience to speak of. To him, Christ is all. So how long do you think it takes the Holy Spirit to get you there? I think it's your whole life. That's what Jim just said.

It's like we're on that road and it, you know, Reckoning is a really interesting word, you know, Romans 6, 11, I reckon myself dead unto sin and alive unto God, okay. But reckoning is not like surrender. It's not that kind of a word. It's a word that I reckon because I know, and I know it's true. I reckon it to be so. Now, it's so subtle there because a lot of these incredible facts, we reckon on them and then quietly wait for some sort of spurious experience that what we've just done is verifiable by my feeling good about it. We think about I just reckon and wait? Do I reckon and move on?

I mean, what happens there? Well, the question is, what are you looking for to happen there? Because if you're looking for something to happen, it tends to drum up the experience side of the feelings that you just mentioned. What am I, if I'm filled by the Spirit and I'm carrying my, like there should be some kind of experience that I enter into. We don't enter into an experience, we enter into a person.

Christ is all. So we often use the term, Christ does the living through us, it's through this understanding of God's facts in his in his word being believed and coupled with the the truth of the matter that you are the old man is crucified and has been separated and you have entered into what he is and he does the living through you yeah it's not and so Even if things get done as a believer, and they do, right? Paul was very busy about his work for the Lord. But was it his work? Was it his experience that was driving him? Was it the spirit-filled life, the surrender that he had given himself to, that we hear of in modern-day Christianity?

Well, it's all through Christendom, but no, I really liked the Abide Above this morning, the Hungry Heart. Anyone else read that one this morning? Sure. It's called feet first. And it starts off with Luke 10 39. I'll just go through it with you. Mary said it, Jesus feet and heard his word. But Martha was encumbered about much serving.

So a malingering student will make a poor servant. Uh-oh. A diligent student will make a good servant, even better. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, right? So we got 2 Timothy. We know that studying, you know, the role of studying is very important in being a servant. So he goes on in the Hungry Heart entry.

It says, do not look for service. I'm like, what? That would come across in a very startling way to most. Don't look for service, look for preparation for it. Everyone has to serve an apprenticeship. We do not know what we are to be fitted for, but if we keep at his feet, and that's the key part, if we keep at his feet, he will prepare us for the very thing which he has designed us. We hinder both ourselves and his work by attempting things to which we have not been called. And that's oftentimes one of the things that happens through Operation Surrender is now we got to fit you in. Now that you've given all up, you know, and you're ready to carry your cross daily, we got to fit you into service. Let's get you, you know, doing this thing or doing that thing.

But if you begin with serving, as many do nowadays, you will never truly sit at his feet. Whereas if you begin with looking unto him, you will soon serve well, wisely, and acceptably. When the serving quiets the conscience, and the sitting is overlooked and neglected, the enemy gains an advantage. For it is the sitting that the conscious is enlightened, and the pleasure and mind of the Lord become known better.

I never met with anyone making his service prominent who knew what it was to sit at the master's feet. I know tireless workers who enjoy sitting at his feet above any service. That's really key. How much do we enjoy sitting at his feet above any service or act of surrender and experience?

It's clear that those who abide in him must be most competent to serve and most in his confidence, which after all is the clue to all effective service. So it's not a surrender and serve, it's rather sit or behold and serve. And what do you behold? Identification truths. And where does the identification truths begin? That's right.

So to me, to live is Christ. It's not about my surrender, the experiences or the blessings that may come from that. It's rather himself that we sit at his feet and we behold him. And I like how in The Hungry Heart it mentions, we don't get wrapped up in the service part. For those that are beholding the Lord through his word, sitting at his feet, that service comes out of the Lord's life. We don't have to analyze it for ourselves or for others.

Just a matter of where is your perspective? Where's your focus? Where's your attention? Is it on the Lord and what you attained in Him by faith? Or is it in yourself and what you plan to attain through surrender, through some sort of self-made effort to weed out what is bad and replace it with what is good? Or is it being occupied fully with the truth of who you are in Christ? It's a matter of occupation of mind, right? I'm not going to answer, because that's what my whole sermon's about. Okay. Well, I just hit the 945 mark here. Any final thoughts on the lesson, or are we ready to go with the prayer?

You know, J.D., one thing I was thinking, and I think Mike said it, do we ever get spiritual maturity? Do we ever reach full maturity? And I think the answer is no, not until we step into eternity and get rid of this fleshly shell that we have. I keep thinking about being conformed to the image. Who can raise their hand and say they're fully conformed to the image of Christ?

It's a life. image and that spiritual maturity is a process just like growing from a baby to an adult. And it will take our entire lifetime of the spirit working in us to bring us from child to adolescent to young adult to adult. And it's a process. It's a lifetime. I don't think we ever can stand up and say I'm fully conformed. And so it'll be until we step into eternity. Yeah. Hey, JD? Yes.

You can't answer this today, but one of the things that have confused millions of people is when Jesus says, pick up your cross and carry it daily. Jesus taught us to do that, but it doesn't apply to us. That confuses a lot of people. It really does.

Who did He say it to? Say again? Who did He say it to? The disciples. Yeah. Is that the answer? It's part of it. Well, you understand that the disciples at the time in which He said, weren't crucified with him, weren't buried, and weren't resurrected into newness of life. Good point. Thank you. Yeah. Awesome. Well, let's pray.

Father, how we thank you for the truths surrounding the person in the work of the Holy Spirit. And Lord, I thank you for the merciful act of conviction of the heart, for recognizing that we each individually grieve the maturing process that you desire for us. And through those circumstances, Lord, we thank you that you continue to wait patiently, yet draw us to yourself through the process of reckoning calling sin what it is and having that confession before you that restores us to fellowship. We're thankful for that process and all that it entails, that it isn't some kind of effort of surrender of the body and some kind of physical understanding of the blessings that we may have received because of our surrender, Lord. It's purely the opportunity to comprehend and more fully grasp who we are in you and what we've attained, having been placed in you and identified with you. And so we just pray this morning that we would recognize that beholding you through your word, will guide and direct us through both our personal walk, but also the direction that you can have us to go in terms of service and that it is a quiet rest. It's a joyful liberty to know that we have been crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascended with you. And so we just thank you for those truths. We pray now for the next hour and just that your word would be clear. and that hearts would be drawn to yourself. And it's in your name we pray. Amen.