The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, Lesson 32
Mike Doyle · Aug 21, 2022
Holy Spirit (2021-23), No. 75
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492619289430

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

Okay, so we are, Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, Lesson 32. I sent out 33 this morning. Did everybody get a copy? Those of you who checked your emails? So if you don't have 32, there's some over there. And this chapter has to do with the work of the Holy Spirit in terms of worship, and in your book it probably starts around 152 or so and goes forward from there. So the very first question, and this will separate, I'm going to find out who's reading and who isn't. What is the key characteristic of the life of the Lord Jesus? What's the key characteristic? And if you read and you know what the answer is, be quiet. What is the key?

Yeah, the write-out says the answer is that he was totally and perfectly dependent. Does that ring a bell with you and me as members of the body of Christ and the conformity to image of the Lord Jesus, is that fit? That the work of the Spirit in you and me is to make us more and more and more dependent. Which means we are less and less independent. I don't care what the Constitution says. What do you think about that? Dependency, I think, is a scary thing.

Because from the time that we come out of the birth canal, our parents are telling us, we're going to train you, we're going to teach you, we're going to teach you how to be independent and survive in this world. Isn't that the way it goes? And then you become a believer, and most churches, they're still on that same game. We're going to give you All the tools so that you can be an independent Christian. And oh by the way, the Spirit's going to help you be independent. But the Lord Jesus was totally dependent. He said so. He said, I never do anything of my own. I only do what I see my Father doing. Wow.

That's something that's tough to get your head around, don't you think? I was thinking also like what we're studying in John, where every decision was made based on what the Father had directed. The timetable was all the Father's timetable. Yeah. You know, it's interesting. We're going to talk about that in the main service. Bringing every thought into the captivity of Christ. Oh, that sounds like a fun job.

You're going to stay up all night doing that. Do you think dependence is a good thing or are you afraid of it? Cowards. You know, I don't think you really value it early on in a Christian life until you begin to realize that we've been called to live a life that's totally impossible to live. So how do you do it? well, I'll give up. No, you can't give up. We're being taught to be dependent. What do you think trials and suffering are all about? To make us dependent. The reason that we have Bible studies is to make us dependent. Everything that God does is to make us dependent.

And it just, I really think there's, underneath the surface, there's resistance to that. You agree with that? You think that in us that there's a resistance to being dependent, especially we Americans who have been taught from the grave or from the birth that we need to be independent? It's not just American. Go ahead. That's global, not just American. I'm sorry, Miles. You're right. No, but it's true.

It doesn't come It doesn't come naturally. Even in a socialist country where we're taught to be dependent on our government, it doesn't come naturally to the flesh to live in dependence. Not on the Lord. We'll depend on human institutions and human agencies and ourselves, but we are resistant to depending on Him.

So this question isn't in your notes, but How do you link together faith and dependency? How do you put, how do you link those together? I see them almost synonymously. Like last week I was teaching on the principle of faith at the little church here, and I didn't bring up the word dependency, but it was in my mind quite a lot.

That's really at the heart of what faith, belief, trust, depend upon Him. When you think about it, the very first thing that we as believers are asked to depend on is what? The Christ died for our sins. We're dependent on Him for salvation. So our faith, everything that we believe as we go forward is a dependency on some aspect of the life of Christ. It's all there. Faith and dependency go hand in hand. I think they do. Don't you? You see how they do? Yeah. Okay. Question two.

Can a talented man be put in service of the body of Christ if he isn't a believer? Good example. Guy joins Holly Hills Bible Church. He's a professor somewhere or a teacher. in a school somewhere, and he's really good at it. Can we utilize his talent in the body of Christ? Or let's say he's really good with financial numbers. Should we utilize his talents? Or I don't know, what else can he do? Maybe he's a great speaker. but not a believer. Can we utilize his talents?

Yes or no? You can't accept it because he's unsafe. So what's the principle there? Paul said whatever is not of faith is sin. That's right. And he doesn't have a spirit. The spirit's not alive. Yeah. So you have to think about the body of Christ as a spiritual entity that exists in God alone. And we are the body of Christ. And it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to recreate us in Christ so that we can function in this new environment that we're in. And the new environment is in Christ.

If you are not, if you're not saved, you don't, you know, it's like Romans says that if you don't have the Spirit, you're none of His. You don't belong to them. You're not part of it. And I think, especially in 2022, there's so much emphasis for the church to go in and act like non-believers so that they can win some, rather than standing separate and saying, come to us. We're new life. Riteout says, until he bows to the grace and love of God and accepts the free gift of salvation, he cannot render any service in any connection.

There's no such thing as temporal affairs, like the words, in the Church of Christ. All things are sacred. What an object lesson! A man filled with the Spirit rightly to minister to the necessities of the saints, let us remember this. The point is that a super worldly talented man or woman who isn't saved can't contribute anything to the body of Christ and sitting right next to them is a believer who has no talents but is saved, they're much more usable in the body of Christ than the person with great talents.

And we do confuse that. We see it happening all the time. And I think there's a real similarity, you know, he emptied himself and became obedient. And I think when we talk about individuals ministering in the body of Christ, it really isn't them who ministers. I mean, it's the Holy Spirit who ministers the body through these people. If they don't have the Spirit, there's no ministry. That's right. I'll give you a good personal example.

I was saved on December 7th. On December 24th, Christmas Eve, I went to a Catholic Mass. I went because a buddy of mine always had this great party on Christmas Eve and we all go to midnight Mass so we didn't have to get up early on Christmas Day and go to Mass, right? Fulfill the obligation at night.

So I'm a brand new believer, three weeks. And somebody gets up on there and he reads the Christmas story, the birth of Christ. And because I was a brand new believer, I got tears running down my face. I'm so excited about what I'm hearing. Like I haven't heard it before. I heard it for 35 years. Then the priest gets up and gives us 25 minutes. He has no idea what that scripture is about. And boy did I see it.

I got up and walked out of the church and I've never been back in a Catholic church since. Because why would you sit there and listen to somebody who isn't saved? He didn't know the value of the birth of Christ. And you know, pious words and pompous and all the stuff that goes on, but he didn't know he wasn't saved. So, and I think as a non-believer you don't pick that up, as a believer you do pick it up. You do pick it up. Alright, name all the services the Holy Spirit enabled Stephen to accomplish. Now, you know who Stephen is? Stephen was a worker in the body of Christ in Jerusalem and pretty well known for his incredible energy and zeal.

And so what do they do? They haul him in and they put him on trial. And so he stands up and he gives them the what for. And he really did. So name some of the services that the Bible says that he did. First thing that it says he did, he attended the widows. It's cool. And then he attended to the poor flock who needed to be fed. The busy guy.

It was after his fearless assignment, arraignment of the Jews and their conviction of resting in the Holy Spirit. See, he doesn't, again, this shows the effort and the work of a person who is involved by the Holy Spirit in terms of what they do. And I'll tell you, the best contrast is Paul the Apostle before he was saved, or Saul of Tarsus before he was saved, and Paul the Apostle after. The ministry was totally different.

And he's one of those Jewish guys that had zeal, boy. He didn't slow down for anything. But look at his focus. His focus was law. And anybody who violated the Mosaic Law needed to be put into prison or killed. And I'm going to get them all. It's like me after the rabbits in my yard. I'm going to get every one of them.

And he's zealous about it, right? Then he becomes a believer and actually his capacity increased greatly And now, but he had a whole different focus and viewpoint and agenda now. But look what, how many years did it take the Lord to get him ready for service? How many? Three years in the desert, and then how many after that? Seven. At least seven.

You know, the Jewish, the apostles in Jerusalem, weren't so sure about him. And so when he went up to see him and they said to him, listen, you head back to Tarsus and we'll call you. Seven years later, he gets the call. So it took the Lord 10 years to get him ready, not because to get his zeal cranked up. But what was what was going on with Paul for those 10 years? What was happening? He was learning the relationship. And that's really huge.

He was learning that Christianity isn't the Talmud, the Old Testament law system where you learned all the facts. This was always about a person. Could we say he was learning to be dependent? Yes, we can. That's exactly what he was learning. And look at what happened to him on the road to Damascus. Was he dependent? Well, let's see. He was on the ground. He couldn't see. He's dependent.

And then the Lord sends a guy to him that says, Oh, hey, Paul, the Lord told me to tell you that the things you're going to suffer for him, he'll let you know about that. So, you know, if that's the job description, I'm not going for the interview. So here comes Stephen. Now, what's the unique thing about Stephen? Number one, Paul isn't saved yet, but he's there, and he's watching this, and he observes some things that really stuck with him. And I think that anybody who gets saved as a young adult or an adult can look back and see where the Lord, oh, I remember a circumstance here, and there was something different about that, and there's something different about this. So when the gospel message came, oh, now it makes sense. And I think Stephen was used of the Lord to show Paul some interesting stuff that he can write about later. What's the unique thing about Stephen?

He's the first person on earth to do something. What was it? What was he the first person to do? Huh? No. He was the first man, first person on the earth, to see the glorified Christ in the heavenlies. Because when he was standing there, it says in Acts, he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Paul was the second one that saw that. Stephen was the first. So only those two guys get to see the glorified Christ?

I don't think so, because 2 Corinthians 3.18 lays it out for every one of us. By spending time in God's Word, we are reflectively beholding the glory of God in Christ. We all get to do that. Why? Because we're suited out for it.

A natural man, turn the lights on. You know, that's why John the Baptist was here, was to tell the Jews, hey, the lights went on, boys. They're all sitting in the room and they're all blind. Somebody had to tell them the lights went on. That doesn't happen to us. We get to see the light. We get to see the light.

It was after his fearless arraignment of the Jews and their conviction of resisting the Holy Spirit, he was full of the Holy Spirit as he gazed upon Jesus in glory. Wow. You think we could do that? We get to do that? I would say that not a lot of believers really think that we get to do that. But I think that's what the Word of God is designed to do, is to get us to be able to gaze upon the glory of Christ in the heavenlies. The glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ.

I remember reading something about that. The reason he was standing is because he was getting ready to welcome Stephen home. So that's pretty cool. Think about quote-unquote dying. The Lord Jesus gets up to welcome you home. How cool is that? All right. Question four.

Somebody go to Acts 13, 52. And then somebody else. Somebody on Zoom, go to Ephesians 5, 18 and 19. Acts 13, 52 says that the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Yeah, that's it. So, we'll read and then I'll ask the question. Ephesians 5, 18 and 19.

Somebody on the zooms. Russ or Mark or Miles, any of you. Do I wait them out? Have you got it, Russ? Turn your mic on. Here we go. All right, go. Okay. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. Okay, so my question was, read those two verses.

Are these examples of natural exhilaration or something else? So notice that wine is what the natural man exhilarates over. Having a brother-in-law in the wine business, he's got a lot of exhilarating going on. But it's interesting, we know more science than Rideout does. Rideout says that wine is a stimulant. Alcohol is not a stimulant. It's a depression. You just think you're being stimulated. It's also a type of joy.

Drink too much wine? Here then we're warned against merely earthly joy, anything that merely exhilarates the natural man. I could go on all day about this. We as believers live in two worlds all the time and sometimes we're walking in the spirit and enjoying the joy of the Lord and then right away something happens and we jump right into the world and we begin to experience the worldly joy of watching the Broncos get beat.

No, watching them win. Do you see that contrast? I see that everywhere. I see it in the joy when your candidate wins. The joy when your team wins. The joy when your kids graduate from school. You think they're ready for the world. Are they? Probably not. Lots of joyful things.

You go to a secular wedding, lots of joy there, you know, but if you're a Christian, you look at them and think, boy, if the Lord isn't in the middle of that deal, that's a train wreck with holy water on it. Do you see the difference that right us trying to make in terms of the difference between merely exhilarating things to the natural man? Give me an example of without giving away the things you really like in the world. Exhilaration of the things.

Some people, like my son's got a UTV, a Razor. He's exhilarated to drive that thing up in the mountains. He says, Dad, you can't imagine how beautiful it is. I know. I've been up there. Or things like that that just are fantastic, really. But the problem is, is that can you contrast that, and I mean the word contrast, with the joy of the Lord? I'm not sure you can. I'm not sure you can.

Although I know we spend money and make time and give effort to enjoy earthly things. I like sports. I like car racing. Hey, John, how are you feeling? Looks good. We're going to go to Italy in September, and they're all going to the Vatican. Well, you know what? Having come out of Catholicism, going to the Vatican to me is like going on a camping trip with the Marines. But is it beautiful? Yeah. But it's the wrong joy to me. That's my thing.

They had, after faithfully preaching the gospel at Antioch, been expelled from the city. This is what the servant of Christ may expect. According to his master's word, but what was the effect of this persecution upon the minds of those devoted servants? Great question. Were they depressed or discouraged? Did they meditate giving up and returning to their homes? Right out says, oh no, they were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Thus the night only causes the pillar of fire to gleam out brightly with glory and tribulation. Courtney, I was down there at Elam the last Friday and I was just, you know, we were there to pick up Jacqueline. And I've been down there the last two Fridays. So it's a joyous place.

But this thought enters my mind that someday, when the world gets worse than it is today, they're going to want to shut this place down. And they're going to send their troops down that road. And they're going to evict them all and put them in jail. How joyful are they going to be when that happens? You know, I think if they're walking in the Spirit, they will be. If they're not, they'll be complaining. So the great thing about trials and tribulations in our lives is it teaches us personally where our joy should be and where it might not be. Okay. Cool. I might do this whole lesson in one day. And that brings up a point. Should I, well, because I'm this really cool Christian, should I not be thankful for something God does for me that's a plus? Absolutely not.

You know, before I get healed or I don't know, I have a great need and he takes care of it. You say, well, that's worldly. I shouldn't, at least I shouldn't exhibit as much joy as I probably Now the joy isn't in the fact that the thing got fixed. The joy is in the fact that the Lord was engaged for you personally because he loved you. That's where the joy is. It isn't that this circumstance got taken care of. Yeah, you're glad to have the heat off or whatever the circumstances are. But the joy is the fact that the Lord is even involved.

I've had people tell me in the last month or so, several people, that they marvel at the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ knows every single human being personally and knows exactly what they're doing. And we were going through Revelation and we were at the part where the letters that go to the seven churches He starts all of them by saying, I know you. Individually, and I know you as a church. I know everything about you. A lesser God couldn't say that, because he wouldn't care that much. But he does. What's the only thing that produces praise in believers, according to Rideout?

Yeah? That's really good. I took a paragraph out that says it was because of the holiness of God, who cannot endure sin, that he was compelled to forsake the spotless sin bearer, the Lord Jesus, But another thought is added, God inhabits and dwells amid the praises of his people and he must be known in such a way that his very presence produces praise. How cool is that? It does. When you come to the realization that as I stand here or sit here or whatever, the Lord is right here. He's in me.

It produces praise. The God of the universe has united me to him and you to him. Most beautifully does this accord with the former fact. Our Lord was forsaken in order that redemption might be accomplished and as a result praise issue forth from hearts forever delivered by grace. I wish I could write like that, how nice he puts things.

God must have a willing and a joyful people. It is only as this is the cause that there can be power. What do you think about that phrase? God must have a willing and joyful people, prerequisite to This is the cause that there, it is only as this is the case that there can be power. The power in the Christian life is willing and joyful people.

Now this afternoon we're going to have a class on how to pump up willingness. And then after that we'll do an hour on joy. How does that happen? How does that happen in a believer's life? You wake up this morning and say, you know, I'm not too joyful today. Matter of fact, I'm kind of grumpy. How does the joy come into your life? How does it happen? Think about it from a dependent standpoint. How does it happen? Put it another way.

Is it your responsibility? It's not your responsibility for it to show up. It's your responsibility, I think, and my responsibility to be a willing and joyful person, to be willing. Sometimes being grumpy, I want to be grumpy. Don't tell me otherwise.

But the joy of the Lord, I mean, that's what he's all about all the time. Kind of cool, huh? Sort of makes you, let's see, I've been awake five hours already today. I'm counting up the seconds I've been joyful and the minutes I've been grumpy. The joyful of the Lord. It's joyful for me to do this. It's joyful for me to have you here. Because what are we doing? We're sharing the Lord Jesus. It's the coolest thing ever. So should I go past 45 minutes? You guys practicing this morning? Can we go five more minutes? Okay. This is a longer question. I'll give two passages that demonstrate the power to speak boldly.

If you read the information, the first one was Acts 2.4, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. We all know that speaking in another tongue has nothing to do with gibberish. It's a language that is a known language, but that they didn't personally know it. And why were they filled in Acts 2 with the Spirit and this language comes out? Because they were the conduits of the gospel message.

And at the time, there was a feast in town. And you know, the Jews have three feasts every year. that you absolutely, no matter where you lived, you had to get there. And this was one of them, Passover. So you got all these Jews from all over the Mediterranean basin, mostly Greek environments, and here they are all in town, that doesn't mean they all spoke Hebrew. It's like all the guys, all the Hasidic Jews who live in my neighborhood, you know, some of them speak Hebrew, but most of them don't. They got the gospel message from these twelve men who could just speak in their language and give them the good news, and they hadn't learned it. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. That's what He can do.

I think He still does that. I had a thought about that the other day. If you're a missionary and you're trunching through the woods someplace and here comes somebody in front of you, or you walk into a village and you have no idea what they're talking about and they don't know what you're talking about, does the Spirit of God still do that? What do you think? I think he does, but that's my opinion.

The promised time had come and the Spirit was poured out. It was prophesied that this would be the time. His presence was visible and it was audible. Though more yet, it was personal and abiding. It is noticeable and significant that the form in which the Spirit appeared in coming upon the disciples and upon our Lord was entirely different. Upon Him, there came a dove.

And upon the disciples was a tongue of fire poured out on each one. Okay? Demonstration of the Holy Spirit's power. Yeah, I never think about that. When the Spirit came upon the Lord Jesus, there was a dove there. These guys in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, there's a pillar of fire over each one of them. That would spook the Jews big time.

You see those twelve guys down there with the fire? And Rite Out says, the reason is simple and beautiful, Acts 2, 8 through 10. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, you rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if this day be examined of the good deed done to the important men, infinite men, by what means he is made whole, be it known unto you all, And to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him does this man stand here before you whole. So he's, what is Peter telling them? Everything you see was because of Christ. And oh, and he's the guy you crucified. He's the one you crucified about 45 days ago. You crucified him. He was and is the Messiah. But now we have a whole new thing. We have an entirely new thing coming down the pike. Oh, sure he did. Well, look what they did to his master. And the Lord Jesus warned him. Whatever they do to me, you're getting it next. But they understood why.

And as a matter of fact, it was joyful for them to be included in that event. Amazing. OK, we'll pick up about halfway through that question next week. It's close. Father, how we thank you for your grace. We thank you for your word. And we thank you for men like Samuel Rideout, who's able to articulate in such a great way some of the wonderful truths about your spirit. We thank you. We pray in your son's precious name. Amen.