The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit Lesson 38
Miles Driedger · Jan 15, 2023
Holy Spirit (2021-23), No. 93
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261929556609

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

Alright, so I've got two questions left, so I think we can do this and probably get on to Lesson 39. Right, we're on 38, right? So, last two questions of Lesson 38. Now, it was Question 4, I believe, that asked, are there any contradictions in the Bible? And I came across something just a couple nights ago in I don't know if you can read that.

Pauline Dispensationalism by Miles Stanford. And so I just wanted to share that in regard to the question, are there contradictions in scripture? Because I brought up the fact that if we fail to see certain important distinctions, we will find not just small contradictions, but massive contradictions, because we fail to see the proper distinctions.

And this is what This is what Stanford says he's on the other hand Scripture is harmonized and its message clarified when two divinely appointed systems Judaism and Christianity are recognized their complete and distinctive characters are observed No matter how orthodox they may be in matters of inspiration the deity of Christ his virgin birth and and the efficacy of his death, covenant theologians have not been forward in Bible exposition." And that really probably is the key distinction that's often overlooked, is the difference between Israel and the Church. And when we fail to see that distinction, we get into a whole slew of problems in terms of you know, what, as the church, how, you know, what is God's plan and program for the church, end up in a big, in a big law system. So, so there's no contradictions in scripture, but if we, if we don't see the distinctions that are there, then we're going to be living a very, we're going to be trying to harmonize a whole bunch of, just a whole bunch of contradictions. That's one of the things I really noticed in this book as he kind of, He quotes a number of different Reformed covenant guides and then speaks to that. I like what he said here. Scripture is harmonized and clarified when we see that distinction. But if we don't see that distinction, Scripture isn't very harmonious.

You're trying to square circles all the time. Anyway, that just kind of added on to that last question. Question six here. I was just going to add to that. I got caught up in that quite a bit when I first started studying the Word. When it came to understanding the Scriptures, harmonizing the Old and the New Testament, I ended up relying on covenant theologians to help give me an outline for how that works. And that outline was a system, and that system was something that bared on the Old and New Testament outside of it.

It said, here's the system that these two large volumes need to fit within. We need to make sure we check off this point, and this point, and this point, and this point. And it's very harmonious within itself as a system. Covenant theology is harmonious in the sense that it fits their system. What it starts with is man's system as opposed to God's division of Israel and the church. And that was something that took me quite a bit of time to understand. But once that distinction was made, the harmony was from God. It wasn't from my system. And so we've spent a lot of time with different people, each of us, and folks come to us with a system in mind, and you kind of have to figure out where they're thinking and how they've got things strung together.

But it very much is an important part of how we teach and what we teach from the scripture and rightly dividing the truth with regards to Israel and the church. That's still a big deal. You think we would have solved it. Myles' books and all the things that we've been put together over the course of the years would solve this distinction issue. But it's looked down upon in many, many ways by a lot of quote unquote seminary trained theologians. Why would God have just set it like it is? We've got to make sure we get it systematized first.

Adding to that, J.D., I remember, if you remember Wanda, Wanda was here, one of the older ladies who came from the Baptist Church. And, you know, when I was teaching and saying that the Lord's Prayer wasn't Hallowed Be Thy Name, it was more John 17, and she thought it was heresy. heresy that I said that. And I think she even ran into Ingrid and Erica at some shopping center. And I think she was, do you know what your husband's teaching?

Do you really believe in that? But if you look at the Lord's Prayer according to what everybody for all that, you know, when you look at the Lord's Prayer and that's one of those contradictions. If you take that as the Lord's Prayer and for us as believers, that doesn't make any sense at all. And I just remember after a while, she went to a bookstore, a Christian bookstore, and the guy said something about the Lord's Prayer. And she said, no, no, John 17 is the Lord's Prayer.

She was fully convinced, but man, I was heresy. But that's one of those contradictions. If you don't understand, that doesn't make sense to a believer. She almost beat you over the head with her purse. I know. Well, she confronted me. Do you know what your husband's teaching? Do you really know what he's doing? Yeah.

It's like going back to what you said, JD. the system, you know, of theological systems like Reformed theology or, you know, whatever. They have a consistency because it's created in God's image. We're logical, rational beings and we have to have something. We can't really be that comfortable with contradictions. So, essentially what happens within a system like that is they really have to ignore portions of Scripture or really you know, misinterpret them so that their system remains consistent. But what they're doing is they're sacrificing Scripture for the sake of the system, whereas what we'd like to do is have a consistent understanding of Scripture and have our system, if we've got to have a system, it should be what the Word of God says, right?

So, but yeah. So, great, great Well, there's a pull for young people to, even after they understand this distinction, still gravitate back towards the quote-unquote logical covenant perspective. There's more books, there's more teachers, there's more churches that teach and think this way. Reformed teaching is by far the most popular in many ways with the Protestant you know, evangelical realm, I would say Reformed teaching is probably at the forefront of that. So you see, you have young people that understand this distinction, but abandon it for a more theological, you know, systematized, seminary, stamped perspective. And we've, you know, Miles, you and I have seen a lot of buddies go that way over the course of the last several, you know, many years here now, 10 years or so. Well, here's a good question to take on to that. Why is Reformed teaching more popular? You know, actually, Miles, on that one, I think it fits in perfectly because I think the Reformed, it puts more on us, you know, just going back to the Lord's Prayer, Hallelujah.

We do it all. And the flesh loves that. It puts the flesh back in control. and it's earthly bound. We're more, you know, we kind of gravitate to the earthly and all that. So the flesh just loves it. And so I think it's rampant because the flesh is so strong that it's willing to, you know, convince people that we really need to get on board. We really need to get to start doing something. And that's why I think it becomes popular.

People just don't understand from identification. you know, position that, that, you know, we're done, you know, it's now all upon the Spirit and Spirit working through us. So I think that's, you know, it's just the flesh. I think that's really the key to the success of the Reform and Covenant too, just all, it's more on us as humans. Yeah, I totally agree.

Yeah, I think so that's the flesh wants to be put on center stage, you know And it's like that's what law will do when you put yourself under a law system It gets me it puts all the attention on me and what I can do, right? And that's all the that's really all it's in nature once you know, just get me get me up there get me active and get me some give me some glory, you know and I do think I think that's why it's so popular. I think that's why that's why what all the you know, I Basically all the seminaries are teaching and all the students are learning and gravitating to but it's almost a religion of Scholastics or how can I say that's class? Yeah.

Yeah, that's one thing. I don't know. I didn't mark that quote here in this in this book by Stanford but he talks about it as being in covenant theology being an intellectual and intellectualism, but then he has some really great, great words he kind of put around that. I don't know, Mike, can you remember what he said in there about the intellectualism of Covenant theology? But, yeah, anyway, it's very intellectual, but he said it's very... Oh, I can't remember his word now, but basically it's... a failed, you know, a failed intellectualism, you know, I mean, it's just wrong.

I'll just say it that way. If your focus is to rightly divide the Word of Truth, Reformed theology doesn't fit, because you can't rightly divide it. But on the other hand, you know, people that come out of seminars, in seminars they create controversy so they have something to talk about. And so, you know, and I noticed that dispensational guys will do the same thing, you know, they'll debate the major and the minors, you know, and so rather than just sticking with what God's Word says. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Alright, well that's good. I really appreciate that. Glad we tagged that conversation onto our last time together. But let's get to question six here.

How do we know that the Bible is the complete revelation from God? How do we know the Bible is a complete revelation from God? And last week I introduced that question, and just as we were wrapping up, and some people were starting to arrive here, and one of my friends, I think Mike, you would have met him, Martin, he was at our Bible study last week. I said, hey Martin, did you hear that question? I said, how do we know the Bible is a complete revelation from God?

And he kind of thought for a second, he said, well, he said, I don't think God is is through with revealing himself. I said, you know what? I think you're right. I said, you know, the Lord will continue to reveal himself to us throughout eternity, but this, how do we know that the Bible is a completed written word of God?

That is, if that makes sense. Um, and, and right. Oh, he, he, this, this was an interesting one to me cause I'd never seen this in, in Colossians one 25 before. But if you, if you go to Colossians one 25, um, right out quotes, this is the answer to that question. And it's Paul speaking there. And the translation, I didn't check which translation, oh no, this is the Darby translation, at least that I put into my notes.

And yeah, so if we were to look at, in verse 25 he says, "...of which I was made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given me towards you to complete the Word of God." To complete the Word of God. And that was really interesting to me. I actually got into looking into that quite a bit, and what exactly Paul thought about his ministry, and what the Lord was revealing through him.

When Rideout put it out, I thought, okay, that's interesting, because there are other authors of New Testament scripture, and Rideout doesn't ignore that. But he says that the other authors, like John for instance, you know, he wrote the last book, and Rydell says those were ministries that had previously begun and they were kind of continuing or wrapping up. But Paul was kind of the final word from God, so to speak, even though chronologically he kind of finished up writing and went to be with the Lord before the Apostle John. There was something about Paul's writing that was kind of the capstone of what God would reveal.

But if we continue reading down in Colossians 1 there, I just wanted to get to verse 27. So I'll read, now I'm in the NASB here, it says, starting in verse 26, that is the mystery, so this is what was being revealed, that is the mystery which has been hidden from past ages and generations, but now has been manifested to his saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. So Paul understood that the revelation of Christ in you, the hope of glory, was the completion of the Word of God. And this came a couple...

I mentioned last time I'd been listening to Dr. McGee at one point during the Christmas holidays, and so I put this in my notes back then, but I thought this was really good. He said, no word can be added to the word which is Christ. Actually, I'm not sure if that was McGee or if that was where I got that from. But no word can be added to the word which is Christ. This is what Dr. McGee said. He said, why has God been silent for 1900 years? Because Jesus Christ is the final word to man. He said, Jesus is the unabridged edition of God.

Jesus is the fullest manifestation of the Father. And then we know that in John 14, verse 9, Jesus says, He who has seen me has seen the Father. And I think if we understand that Jesus is the fullest manifestation of the Father, what could be added to that? In other words, there's nothing more to write. It's been said, you know, Jesus Christ has been revealed from the Father. And I think the Lord used Paul to most fully express that in his epistles. Just who is this Christ? What does this all mean? And that revelation is complete.

Miles, another way to look at this is if you were to take Paul's writings out of the Bible, what do you miss? What isn't there? The church. Grace isn't there. Gratification isn't there. Positional truth isn't there. The body of Christ isn't there. The intimacy and union between the person of Christ and the members of the body of Christ isn't there. Holy Spirit. What's that? The Holy Spirit isn't there. That's right.

So if the Word of God is about the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, then Paul is the one who completes that. to the believer in that the fullness of who Christ is, is in Paul's writings. And the work of the Spirit is in those writings. And even though, like Ryot says that Peter and John wrote later, they just were completing what was already put there. It's interesting to read Peter and compare him to Paul, that Peter, I think, was always learning from Paul.

Yeah. You know? Yeah, because one of the key verses for understanding that Paul's writings are Scripture on the same level as all Scripture comes from Peter. You know, because Peter says, you know, as something's hard to understand, you know, which the untaught distort, as they do the rest of Scripture. And so it's actually this little note from Peter that we really see that, okay, yeah, it's all on that level.

And then another thing with John and the Revelation is it's not a church book. I mean, it deals with the Church a little bit in the beginning, and then the Church is gone. That book is the last history book of what God's doing with Israel, primarily. I mean, and the Church doesn't come back in until the last couple of chapters when we return to reign with Christ. And so we see in that the connection. We'd have a much harder time, I think, understanding the interplay between the Church and Israel, if that's the right word, if it wasn't for what John had there about the reign of Christ at the end. But, I mean, we can put some of those pieces together through prophecy and that we know that the Church rules and reigns with Christ in his kingdom. But that's, I mean, I look at the book of Revelation more so as like a kind of, okay, but what about the program with Israel? Is that still on the table? Is that still going to be completed? And it is. God hasn't dropped that, but until the church is removed, that's That's on hold, really.

You know, Miles, this will never win an argument with anybody out there. Or, you know, we can argue all these things. On this side of the cross, as a believer, I go down to because God is solid. And he's the one in control of all this stuff. And you know, he'll never win an argument, but for me, God is sovereign, and he's allowed this to be the complete revelation. And I have the utmost peace that we're not missing pieces.

You know, that if we are, God would have exposed it and put it in there. And even to direct the canonization of the scriptures, you know, he was involved in that. He allowed it to be this, what we call the Bible today. And, you know, so, I mean, I'll never win an argument outside of a believer, maybe, but he's sovereign. He allowed it, and this is what he wanted revealed. And, ultimately, that's, you know, the simplest that he has put this out, and this is his word.

And, you know, the impact of his word, we heard something, I forget, it was a Focus on the Family guy or something, he was, but he, how much Christ has influenced the world. And when you think of, you know, and he went, you know, who he was, and yet for over 2,000 years now, how much he has impacted the world. And he said in music, in everything, everything Christ has influenced the world. And when you look at what his roots are and who he was earthly, it doesn't make any sense to have the impact that he's had on the world for 2,000 years, in every aspect of the world.

So, you know, I think again getting back to it is just God is sovereign and he's allowed this to be his word his revealed word And you know it is finished Mm-hmm Simple simple simple logic. Yeah, because God allowed it. Yeah Well, you know, it really all comes back to faith, right? It's um, I Is the conviction that the Holy Spirit gives that this is my word, you know, do you believe me? Do you take me at that, that this is my word that I've given to you and it's complete?

I always do find the note at the closing of Revelation. you know, pretty conspicuously placed that, you know, that if anyone adds or takes away from this book, you know, it's like, yeah, it's a pretty clear note. This book is closed, kind of thing. You know, this is it. If you add to this book, you're in big trouble, kind of thing. So...

Even in the order of it, you know, that was kind of a new revelation in Newell's book, how, you know, all of the books are laid out. They're not chronological. And it's Paul revealing more each and every time. And so even the way the book is laid out is God's hand in it, that we progress through what Paul is revealing to us about us and the Holy Spirit and all these different things. And so it wasn't just, okay, this book was written in 63, this is 64, this is 65. It isn't that way.

God had his hand in the order of it. And that, I didn't realize that until Newell had that in his book. I hadn't thought about how it's, you know, I just kind of stupidly thought it was all chronological, but it's not. So again, his hand is very evident in the canonization of the scripture.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I often think that I get the gospels, which most people in the church want to, want to think, you know, are spoken to the church. It's really not. It's, it's messages to Israel. primarily, you know. And then you got the Book of Acts, which, if we didn't have the Book of Acts, how would we know, you know, what was this transition, this change going on between Israel and the Church? And then you have Romans, which lays out, okay, this is what the Church is. And, man, if that order wasn't the way it is, I mean, it would be pretty confusing otherwise, so.

Well, even John in the Gospels John is completely different, but he was written after all of Paul's epistles. And his whole focus is Christ is the Son of God. He is deity. And it's completely different than the other Gospels. And, you know, kind of I think is, here's all Paul saying all this, and now Christ is who he said he was. Yeah, absolutely. Well, on the note of that, Christ is who he says he was, let's look at question number seven. What does the author say must happen in order to understand Christ's humanity?

I thought this was really neat. I never really thought about it from the way that Rideout says it here. But, do you guys catch the question? First I read the question, I was like, okay, I had to really go back and read. What was he saying there? But what does the author say must happen in order to understand Christ's humanity? In the print book, it's at the top of page 212. I don't compare this to the PDF. I'm not sure if it said on there what the PDF page was at. But essentially, I think as I kind of summarized his thoughts here, he says, we must first understand his divinity or we are foolish to speak of his humanity. We must first understand his divinity or we are foolish to speak of his humanity.

And I kind of thought, oh, that's really interesting because we tend to introduce Jesus Christ to people as Jesus, the baby born in the manger and grew up as a man and died on the cross. And oh, by the way, Jesus was God. You kind of know what I mean about that? Like, especially with kids, right?

First, we teach them Bible stories and it's just Jesus, the man and, you know, and then, oh, yeah, and he is God. And what Ryot is saying here is that if we don't first understand his divinity, it's foolish to speak of his humanity. And I had to kind of think about that for a little while, but I wrote down, if Jesus is not God himself, well then he's just a natural man. born to a father in Adam like any one of the rest of us, right? And if that's true, then Jesus was born with a sin nature and was completely unqualified to be anything that he was to be. I think you're right, Miles. Go ahead. I'll give a good example. There's all this promotion now for, what's the movie about Jesus that's going around now? Chosen. Chosen. Yeah. It's all about his humanity.

And it's done by pretty much Mormon people who don't understand or don't believe that Christ is God. And so if you don't connect perfection of godliness with the man Jesus Christ, then you don't really know who he is. Because he's the perfect man, and the reason he is, is because he's God too.

May I ask a question? Yeah. Concerning understanding Christ's humanity, do you think if people understood about the Kinsmen Redeemer, that that would help him understand why he had to become human? Yeah, it would help, I think, because the Kinsmen Redeemer had to be somebody from your life. They had to be like us. Yeah. And, like, I couldn't redeem you because I'm not from your family. But Christ could redeem humanity because He became human. And God cannot die. So there had to be a Redeemer who could die, who was one of us, so to speak. So you can't divide Christ up into 50-50.

He's 100% or 100%. So you always, I think, have to treat Him as one single God man, that's who he is. Schaefer says he's undiminished deity and true humanity and one person forever. And one person forever. And I'm thinking if people don't understand why he became human, to me it seems like the Kinsman Redeemer principle explains why he has to be human. I agree. I think that's a beautiful thought there, that really does that really does tie it together.

I kind of pondered on that a little bit in this past Christmas season here about, you know, God became man, you know, the flesh dwelt among us, you know, and, you know, I've been thinking about the virgin birth and stuff, and I guess I'm a bit nerdy, I don't know, think about biology and things like that, but You know, why was it that the Savior, the God-man, had to be born of a woman? You know, well, just strictly biologically speaking, A female of any kind, of any created kind, cannot bear the offspring of another kind. God structured the creation in such a way that if she was going to bear and give birth to something, she could only bear and give birth to a true man. And so in the virgin birth, and the fact that God didn't just transport Jesus down and poof into space, he was born of a virgin so that man could see he is like us. He is a genuine man, a hundred percent genuine man. But if we don't first understand that he is God himself, then he's nothing but a regular man. And that's a massive problem.

Miles also, you know, Nick had somebody who was at work who said, no, Jesus wasn't fully God, you know, and so the verse is Colossians 2.9, for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. That's kind of interesting way to think about what deity first in that body. The fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. So, deity is the focus before the bodily form.

There's that other principle in Genesis that is hardly ever talked about, that God, in his creative acts, if you were a creature that could procreate, you could only procreate after your own kind. Yeah. So coming down through all history, all of Adam's progeny has to be procreated after his kind. He's a sinner. And so that's why God changed the race of men to be in Christ. Because we as believers, really what happens is that we call it born again, but that's really what happens. We are now from the kind who is Christ himself.

He's the representative man, and I don't think that that principle is talked about enough in terms of, and actually when you think about it, that principle totally destroys informed theology. Totally, because they're just trying to apply the law to the old man. And you're dead.

I'll share in closing, I came across this verse this morning in Zechariah that I thought, this is awesome, and it ties in. But you have God Himself speaking, and He says, I am coming, and I will dwell in your midst. declares the Lord. Sorry, this is Zechariah 2, did I mention the reference? I don't think I did. Zechariah 2, starting in verse 10, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. And then jumping down halfway through verse 11, he says, then I will dwell in your midst and you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. And I don't know how the Old Testament Jew looked at that and said, you know, oh, he's not God. The Messiah is not God. It's like he says, declares the Lord, I will dwell in your midst and the Lord is going to send me to you. It's just, I mean, we can see it. We're the Monday morning quarterbacks, I guess. But, you know, couldn't be more clear that the Lord God himself will send him. I'm sending me. You know, so really cool little verse there. All right, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much that you did come, very God of very God, and complete humanity at the same time. And Lord, we know that that is still the reality of the God-man Jesus Christ with whom we are united in the heavenlies. And Lord, we look forward to the rolling ages of eternity that we will spend in perfect unity with Him. And thank you that we enjoy that today, this very moment, and nothing less than that. We just thank you for these things in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Thank you, Miles. Good job. Thanks, guys. Enjoyed that. Great, great input from all of you. We'll be praying for you and Carol. Really good stuff, Miles. I got stuck on Colossians 1, 25 through 29. I think there's some really rich content there that I don't know that I've noticed it in the same way until you mentioned it, kind of discovering some of that a little bit more. But yeah, there's some really good stuff there.

I also had a comment around, like, Christ died an earthly death to give us a heavenly life. And that speaks to both his humanity and his divinity. He could not have put us on resurrection ground if he wasn't God, but he couldn't have died if he was a man. You know, how does God's hypostatic union or the Lord Jesus' hypostatic union play into my identification?

That's how I see that. There's the earthly problem of sin. I need the Kinsman Redeemer to solve my problem. And I know you need to get going, but... No, it's okay. But we go on from there. It's not just solving an earthly sin problem that keeps us from having fellowship with the Lord. He solves a spiritual problem and he goes on to give us heavenly life. And there's no other combination of... We couldn't have just deity and just man. We have to have that union of the two. in order to have our problem solved. Otherwise our source remains an atom and not the last atom. He has to change our course.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, how can we have fellowship with God unless he is a fellow? I don't know. I mean, it's just like, right? We are felt he is. He is of the same. Jesus Christ is of the same kind as us because of the hypostatic union, right? Because he is fully God and fully man. We couldn't have that fellowship if we weren't of the same kind to have that similar being, if that makes sense. Yeah.

He died an earthly death to solve a spiritual problem. It had to happen on earth. It had to be blood. It had to be human. Yeah. At that life. Yeah, John speaks so much about that, right? Like, yeah. The other element of that is that the whole purpose of God creating man was so that he could be with God forever. In order to be with God, you have to be righteous, because he's righteous. And so that's, in essence, what the cross did. And when you believe in the personal work of Christ, you get the righteousness of Christ, which means you're qualified to spend all eternity with him.

Not in the same atmosphere, I mean in the same room, face to face. Yeah, I mean, also the Old Testament, God dwells in unapproachable light, you know, he's this... Right. And that hasn't changed, that is who God is, and yet with Christ, that unfathomable welding together, so to speak, I don't know how we even, you know, of that perfect deity with true humanity, and it all has to do with the fact that it allows us to have that intimacy with Him that otherwise is just impossible. You wouldn't have, that's right.

Actually, finishing too, for the Jew, didn't the, I mean, they're explaining where the Savior, what lineage He would come out of. So they knew that it had to come out of a human lineage. You know, so they, I mean, how did it come, you know, the Savior? Well, they said, well, line of David, you know, so it's fulfilled in that, but they knew it had to come from a human. Well, and it's kind of like Reformed theology. They developed a system. And they could see that he was going to be a man, because he was predicted to come from these human lines, and so they understood.

But they couldn't, I think most of them, couldn't understand the fact that he could be God. So they see that in Zechariah 2, and they just had to ignore it or brush it aside because it didn't fit. Because he couldn't understand that God would become fully man. Well, they wanted the Messiah to take over, you know, nuke the Romans, be the king. So they were looking for the guy who was going to, you know, solve all their woes and get rid of these Romans and do everything else. And it didn't fit what they wanted at the time, too.

Yeah. Their eyes were on earthly things rather than heavenly. Now, I mean, we know that they have earthly promises, right? The Lord will fulfill earthly blessings to Israel and so forth. And yet, Nonetheless, your eyes are to be on Christ, I think. Whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, that's where your eyes are to be, and let Him, and He'll take care of the details. Yeah. Take care of those earthly blessings, but yeah. Good job, Miles. Thanks.