The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit lesson 21
Mike Doyle · Feb 20, 2022
Holy Spirit (2021-23), No. 50
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926192601108

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

So we are in lesson 21 of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Those of you who have the PDF form, it's probably page 45 to 51. If you have the paperback, it's page 107 to 111. We're working through. And we just got started in this last week with the first question that was, What relationship did the Gentiles have to God in regards to the law? You get one or two choices.

Say it another way, did the Gentiles have any relationship to God's law? No. Absolutely no relationship whatsoever. So, a question that's not on your sheet is, well, what about that verse that says that the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ? If I'm a Gentile and I've never been on the law, do I have any schoolmasters? Or I'm just floating around out there.

I suppose you have sin and death and all the things that we suffer and the glory of the heavens that we see above us. Well, if you take a good hard look at Romans, the end of chapter 1 going into 2 and 3, it talks about every man is a law unto himself. You create your own moral principles to live by if you're not a Jew or you're not a religious person.

We kind of are built that way because one of the fascinating things, I remember years and years ago when, I think Denver was one of the only cities to get the Aztec thing at the Denver History Museum, the Aztec culture from Mexico City. It was fascinating. And the most fascinating thing to me about it was that they had an incredibly strict legal religious system in which they sacrificed to the gods and what they thought that were the gods and even human sacrifice. I guess if you're going to do some sacrifices, if you get to the humans, you're really at the top of the list. And of course, if you get virgins, they're way at the top of the list. And so I was amazed at how, how did they know? Just think about that. How did the Aztecs know that to please God, you needed to sacrifice something to him, a blood sacrifice? How'd they know that?

That's the Romans one. Everybody knows that there is a God. Sure. That all creation reveals that there is a God. So there is no one without excuse that there is a God. And they know he's mad. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if they, I don't know, they figure out that, I don't think it says in Romans 1 that he's mad, but they figure out that they better do something because there's a God. They gotta do something to please him. Yeah, please him or do whatever. They have to do something. Yeah, it's kind of built in.

I think they do know that God is angry because in Romans 1, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness for those who suppress it. There's some sense in which people know this God is... Now how much of that goes back to the fact that we all came from the same family and this is just known since Adam and Eve that we have a problem with this God, but some way God's put it in you, you know you have a problem with God. That's right. And so there's a difference between what's built into a man in the Mosaic law system. Do you see that? That's the point, is that the Gentiles, all Gentiles had absolutely no relationship to God's law, the Mosaic law, none, okay?

So, question two, what were Jews in desperate need, in desperate need of to reconcile themselves to God? What were they in desperate need, according to Rideout, in order to reconcile themselves to God? Don't get it. Early on, I would say faith, and then after coming with Christ, belief in Christ.

The law, Rite Out says that the law of commandments contained in the ordinances was the witness of the separation or the enmity existing between the Jew and the Gentile. So, so long as they stood in the flesh, they were alienated and rightly by this law. But the Jew could not boast. Why couldn't the Jew boast about the law? What was lacking in the Jewish system to make it right? Righteousness? Yeah, and where did righteousness come from? And when did it show up?

Yeah, I was just doing some study in Romans 9. I was just looking for the verses again here. But what the Jews sought after by works, they did not receive. But then it says what the Gentiles received by faith, they did receive. And it's talking about righteousness. Right. And the father of faith was Abraham. Right. was a credit of righteousness. That's right. It was a credit waiting for what? Waiting for the person, right? I think that's where we're getting with that. That's right.

But there was a credit of righteousness, but it was based on the future work of Christ. That's right. And so the point being is that they needed the death of Christ, the Jews did, just as much as the Gentiles needed it. Because Abraham was declared righteous, but if Christ doesn't come and die, God isn't satisfied about the sin issue, no matter how much faith he had. And the credit's not worth anything either. What's that? The credit's not worth anything either. No, it's not.

So it's important to understand that Abraham's faith was based on a promise. What's our faith based on? Actual facts, things that have happened, already true. That's a huge advantage that we have. A huge advantage because we can look in God's word and see what God has done. And he says, remember me and believe me. And that's where the righteousness come from.

But there is no righteousness without the death of Christ. There can't be because there's no satisfaction for sin. You see that? Mike, also, I think the Jews up until that point only covered the sins. Nothing took care of the sins. When he came, it's, I take away the sins. That's right. And so that's why they needed the death every bit as much as we do as far as the separation from the sinful flesh. You know, that's a great point. And up until that point, they only did a covering. Yeah. And Christ came to take them away, take the sins away and not just cover them, which was a big distinction.

You think about all of those Jews that were being baptized into John the Baptist, right? And what they were doing was identifying with him and his attempt to resurrect the original Jewish system because it had been so dismantled by the contemporary Jewish leaders. And when he turns to say that behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the take away part, the Jews must have thought, what? What does he mean take away?

Because we, our sins are covered. But it doesn't say they're taken away, so there was a paradigm shift right there. That now, John the Baptist says this one right here is gonna take away the sins of the world, take them away. That's pretty cool. Not just cover them up, get rid of them. That's a neat thing. So.

Does Paul suggest the Jew or Gentile concern himself or herself with earthly ethnicity inside of the church? Now, I thought J.D. would be all over this, because he's having them refer to people as they. I can't tell you how many conversations we had this week on this ethnic issue. I was asking the question, though, and so you said, does Paul care about ethnicity in the church or what it should be?

I say absolutely not. Yeah, I mean, it's like, boy, if I'm living and I have this principle that's the most important principle, to me, there is, and someone comes along and says, well, based on God's Word, that's not a big deal, then I'm upset about that, you know? So basically— I should say Canadian or American, there's no distinction. Yeah. That probably rubs you guys. Yeah, I know.

You don't like that one. I know they don't, because they hang their hat on these identities. So, how many identities from the biblical standpoint are there in the world? How many? There are two. Adam and Christ. What's that? Adam and Christ. Basically, it's the lost and the saved. You're either lost or you're saved. You're either in Adam, lost, or you're in Christ and you're saved.

That's the only distinction there is. And that kind of takes all the other flavor off of it. What does it matter? I don't care that J.D. has red hair. Yes, I do. We all care about that. I don't care. I don't care if Alan doesn't have any hair. So Mike, it's kind of summarized in Colossians 311 after where I've been.

Put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him, a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all in all. There is no distinction. No distinction. From God's perspective, there is absolutely no distinction.

You're either saved or you're not. since you brought me up. The issue, you talked about all the other stuff is what you just said. Yeah. You know there's your in Christ or your in Adam and then there's all the other stuff. Right. And it could be the color of your hair, the color of your skin, etc. But what's happening in today's world is an attack at the central identity, right? So that's why the word identity, your ID, you know, where's your ID card? You know, we have that concept in our mind, but spiritually speaking, we have an identity of in Christ or in Adam. And all the other things have become paramount and replaced who God created us to be with who we decide we're going to be. What that does is it puts the ability for you to determine your identity within the creature realm.

And to deny the created order of how God created things in my kind. So it's a strike at the most personal thing that you can claim about yourself, this side of heaven, so to speak. And so for the Jews and the Gentiles, it had to have those, all the other things too. I'm this kind of Jew.

I'm in this, you know, we have, but a lot of that identity had to do with how they treated the law. So for some, it was, we're going to add additional laws outside of the law just to protect us from actually ever getting to breaking the real law, right? Right. And others would say, we're going to explain away portions of the law and reinterpret it so that we have a capability of being more licentious in our lifestyle. So you had this pendulum of legalism and licentiousness, even within the law itself. That's right. So you claimed those extra things about you, and you tagged them on to, for the Jew, the law and how you viewed the law.

For the believer, I'm sorry, for the unbeliever, it became the vain philosophies of men, the deceptive thoughts. Right. And it got organized. You know, Greek philosophy was very organized. It's due of who I am, where did I come from, where am I going? Now, the basic questions of philosophy, they answered him, but they answered them all from a single perspective. That perspective was from a creature perspective and a denial of the creator. And that's the same thing that's happening. And we have to believe as believers in today's environment.

Remember, you're striking at your you're sitting in God's lap to slap him in the face about who you are. You're saying, I'm going to assume you're true. You made me. You didn't make me right. So I'm going to slap you in the face, correct you. and claim control over this matter to the point that you are an accident. You accidentally made me who I'm not. You did something wrong. You're a guilty God. That comes right out of Adam's mouth. The woman you gave me? Whose fault? Who's he blaming? Not the woman. He's blaming God. You gave me the woman. It's your fault. So why?

When you get a grasp of what you just described, Do you see why it is critically important about the doctrine of the two men? It's absolutely critical that believers understand that they were co-crucified with Christ, and what all that means, buried and resurrected to newness of life. This resurrection to newness of life leaves all of that conversation behind. And it's sad to say how few believers really understand what happened. They know what happened for them, but they're very ignorant about what happened to them, that they were crucified. Crucified means that they were snuffed out. They died. To what? Death means separation. What did they die to? That whole conversation that you just had. Buried? because you only bury dead people, and resurrected in Christ, the newness of life with a new man in Christ, that none of those distinctions are relevant. If I don't understand that as a Christian, I get sucked back into that, and I'm somehow trying to weave my way through that labyrinth of just insanity. Well, am I a he or a she, a it or a they? Am I a male or a female? I mean, all of this stuff that goes on... You can be a wolf now, if you want. I can? You guys have seen this.

I'll have to think that one over. And even before the modern-day problems, just people admitting that, oh, well, we are God, and that He birthed us to be Him, and we are creators, and we're separations of a million. It's the same problem. We were talking about that on Wednesday night, how how, and I mentioned a friend of mine, his son is 40 years old, and he's a, what do you call a 40 year old today?

Huh? Yeah, yeah. Compared to me, you're really young. Yes. I mean, his son is, I can't think of the term. Their generation, though? Yeah. And that son has two daughters. And that son and his daughter are trying to figure... He's trying to be a good dad and she's not having any of it. Because she's the next gen. Millennial. Yeah, he's a millennial, she's the next gen. You know what she says?

All morality resides in me. I decide what I am. what I'm going to do and where I'm going to be, and you can't tell me." And he says, well, I kind of agree with you, as he was progressing down the millennial line, you know, and starting to... I remember that when this kid graduated from college, he came by to see us, and when he left, I called his dad, and I said, you know, your son's a communist. He said, I know, and he will be until he gets a job. So, but now the son has this high school aged daughter and he is really trying to be a good role model disciplining father.

She's having none of that because of everything she's learned about being. In me resides all the decisions. I get to decide what gender I am, what you're gonna call me, everything, you can't tell me. And she thinks because the society has taught her that, that she's on good ground.

I said, go back and teach your son the word of God, and then maybe you'll get somewhere. Yeah, it was like, I can't exactly remember the passage, but it'll tell you in the beginning that children don't know anything. That's exactly why parents lead them. And that's as simple as some of the first chapters in this book. It's ridiculous.

Isn't it interesting how simple God has made it? He really has made it simple. when you think about what he's done by recreating us in Christ and by us being indwelled by the Spirit of God. It really is a lot simpler than trying to live in the world system. Now old guys like Bob and I thought that 30, 40 years ago it was a lot easier than it is today. I'm not so sure it was. Okay, question four.

Reading Ephesians 2.20-22, is the new temple in Christ about an earthly meeting place or something else? And the second part of that question is, what is the significance of this?

So somebody read Ephesians 2.20-22.

One of you resurrected people that can read English. having been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

So, the Jews absolutely loved their temple, and they should have. I mean, it was a magnificent place. But now, the apostle Paul tells us Well, the building has changed now. The building materials are different now. What are they? What is the temple now? By the way, what is a temple? Maybe we ought to start there. What's a temple? What does a temple do? It's a building, right? And why do they call it a temple rather than a gymnasium or an arena? Why is it called a temple? It's the house of God. Because in that house, God resides.

Okay? So, we know where the temple is. We know up until the time of Christ, every... the building is what mattered. You know? The building mattered. And the location of it, you know. But now, where's the building? We're the building. Isn't that interesting? We are the building.

Don and I went for a drive last night and we were down in Parker and we drove by that new restaurant that we talked about down there and they're gonna, looks like they're gonna reface it all with used brick. So there's stacks and stacks of brick in the parking lot. And I'm thinking, you know, that's what most Christians do. They just put new brick on the same old building. rather than, this is an entirely new building and it's not made with sticks and stones. It's not made with two-by-fours and plaster and bricks and mortar. It's not made with that. What's it made with? What is this building made with, according to the Ephesians? Notice. Flesh. It's made with what? Flesh. Flesh.

The foundation of the apostles and prophets. And who's the chief cornerstone? The Lord Jesus himself. So this new building is human beings. New human beings in the cornerstone. And it's all fitted together. There was a blueprint somewhere. It's all fitted together and it's growing into a holy temple of the Lord. So you know what's cool about it? It's not stuck in one location.

It moves around, and it's all over the place, this temple. Individually, we're temples, we're going to find later, we're temples of the Holy Spirit, so it's important to understand that who we are, in a corporate sense. We are the temple. And the temple, who indwells the temple? God does. I think that last portion of Ephesians 2 really ties that together.

If you were to ask yourself, am I in the same quote-unquote building as you, spiritually speaking that has to do with the Spirit's presence. is the spirit dwelling in that person or not defines quote-unquote your membership to that dwelling. And that's why the Jews and Gentiles had no distinction because the spirit is what joined them at that quote-unquote membership level. That's what distinguished them from the rest of the world but they were the same in the sense that they were in the spirit.

Yeah, it's interesting and not only that but as members or as elements of the temple, you're different. He didn't take up the old brick and just stick you in the temple. You were taken through a process of death, burial, and resurrection to be qualified to be a brick in that temple.

Maybe put it that way. Right out says, the body suggests the link of life with the risen Lord Jesus. and the grace that has so united us. It also suggests the vehicle for the activities of divine love. Isn't that a cool statement? The church is the vehicle, the building, using that metaphor, as activities of divine love. That's what we're doing here. He also says the house is looked at, in the passage I've quoted, in two ways.

It's built upon a foundation, fitly framed together and growing into a holy temple in the Lord. So it's a growing building, into a temple of the Lord, growing. It's not yet completed. but will be in the glory from this habitation. The point being that the temple is an ever-expanding building. Again, using the metaphor of a temple. It's an ever-expanding building, and it grows all the time.

I like what you said. You distinguish between Do you want to maybe explain that a little bit? Elements and members. Okay. Elements. Are we both? What's that? Do you think we're both? Well, yeah, probably. But I think the interesting point you had there, the way I took it was, from an element perspective, you had the tabernacle furniture, right?

And they all served their purpose, and they were unique in that purpose. And that was obviously a temporal dwelling place of the Lord before the establishment of the temple itself. But using that term, elements, and you think about the elements that made up that temple, how their significance was unique and different, but it all served together. And so when you said that we are all elements within the temple, it made me think of how unique earthen vessels we are, but yet we all function for the purposes of the dwelling of the Spirit. Right. Actually, and that's what I'm going to talk about in the next session. Well, we don't have to go now. No, it's okay, because it's really the issue.

How do the elements and the members of this temple function and operate? What do they do that's different than what they came from? The most important thing is that they are servants of one another. This isn't about me. It's about them. So you imagine this new temple that every element of it and every member of it is focused on serving everybody else.

There's no, you've got to do me. Not that at all. So there's a change in that focus, and in order to have that change in that focus, you have to replace the whole life system that was with a new one. which is the resurrected glorified Christ. And I say you have to replace the whole sacrificial system. And the sacrificial system ended.

I think it's a big distinction between an element and a member. A member is like you go into a building and you're part of it or whatever. I think maybe the two distinctions are the element, based on what we're talking about now, we are the temple of God right now. That's where the building blocks were all this. I think where maybe the membership would come in is the similar analogy with the body concept.

We're all members of the body. And the members, you know, we're all different. We have different functions. We all, you know, fight with Christ as the head. So as the building, Christ as the foundation, we're all elements of that building. Yes. But the similar analogy is we're one body in Christ with Christ as the head, all different members of that body.

And that leads to right out second point, which is really a cool one, who says, but it is also spoken of as a present building and a present habitation of God through the Spirit. And this is the interesting part. In this aspect of the church, we have, I think, the side of order, government, discipline. The holiness that becomes God's house. I like that phrase. the holiness that becomes God's house. Because we're God's house, there's a certain modus operandi in that house. The church is not only the body of Christ, but it's a habitation of God, which gives us unbelievable privilege, but also great responsibility.

What's the responsibility? What do you think? Do we have one to start with? As members and as elements, do we have responsibilities? Answer, yeah, we do. Even though we live under this element and environment of grace, there are responsibilities under grace. What are they?

Give me one, or give me a definition. I would think maybe what I said earlier about being the vehicle of divine love. And that is one of our responsibilities to have received this grace. We need to be the divine love in the world for God as well. Okay. Identification of the body. Say that again. Identification of the body. Identification of the body. From an individual standpoint, what's your responsibility? What's that? That's it. That's the first one. Okay.

You have to believe to get in, and you walk and live by faith under grace, and from there you have a responsibility to serve. But the power to serve doesn't come from you. It comes from the one who dwells in the temple, God himself. It has to, because it's his temple. Not only is he the building, but he's the electricity, too.

I mean, is it too far-fetched to say that our responsibility is to let God run His building the way He wants to do it, and we believe Him, and we allow Him to conform us to the image of Christ so that we can serve Him in His building commensurate with who He is? I don't think that's too far off the trail. What do you think? The one cool thing that faith does is it allows God to do what he wants to do.

He wants to conform us to Christ. He wants us to serve him and the other members of the body in his temple. And he wants us to love one another. He wants the implementation of the fruit of the Spirit to be active in every member and every element of that temple. Boy, what a different environment that is.

I think one of the distinctions is, and this is under the grace realm, is that when you say what's our responsibility other than believe, there's no requirement for us to do anything other than under grace say thank you. I think the thing is, as we grow in Christ, we begin to manifest Christ, and that's our natural outcome. There isn't a requirement or law or anything under grace. It's just the way you phrase something. It's like, what do we have to do? There's nothing we have to do other than believe. say thank you, under grace.

So it's, the thing where it says, you know, our manifestation of that is, and it will come out if we, you know, become conformed to the image, we're transformed, we're renewed, then it's a natural outpouring of who we are in Christ, and then the services from that.

Yeah, I like the words that Rideout used. He used the word order, government, and discipline. And I find as I live under grace and walk by faith, there's extreme order. There's control of me by the Spirit of God, and there's discipline. You got three seconds to get out of the room. No. There's incredible discipline, and we're so thankful for it. Because if he didn't, we would go right off the bridge, out of the temple, back out on the street. I'm so thankful that God is a God of order and discipline. Discipline is that he is child training me to be a more effective member in his body, in his temple.

You know, I don't make the rules up. I don't decide where he wants to put me. He does. And so he implements a curriculum for me in order to qualify me to be involved in wherever he would put me. It doesn't matter what it is, and you don't care what it is.

But every single one of us as members of the body have a specific slot that we are trained for, disciplined for, graced for, and conformed for, that we serve, and it's not, oh, I gotta do this so I'll make God happy. We just find ourselves, we couldn't do anything other than that. Does that make sense?

And I think going back to the order portion of it, it's like when we taught grace, There's also, we're not gonna blow up, for all those in video lab, the projector just overheated. In grace, they're carved out authorities, and that's the order. It's elders over the church, parents over kids, husbands and wives. There's authorities given under grace, and so he's established order in the body too.

Yeah, yeah. So there is, there's incredible order in the church, I think. Don't you? I mean, I see it everywhere. And what's cool about it is, is that very seldom do you have to, there's no inquisition. It's like you look around and say, well, God has called this person to do that and that person to do that. And you just line up with what God is doing. Okay, I'm told that we have to quit at 9.45 so that the musicians can go practice, right? That's if Erica gets here by then. So we'll pick up at question five next time. It's closed.

Dear Father, how we thank you for your word and how we thank you for your body, which is a temple, and the fact that we are members and elements, as J.D. said, of that body. We desire to grow in the knowledge and grace of your dear son, the Lord Jesus, and to be perfectly suited out and fitted to serve you in whatever manner you would desire. We thank you and we pray in your son's precious name. Amen.