The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit lesson 39 week 2

Okay. Well, we're in Lesson 39. I'm not sure the pages are right on the notes, but we're looking through the topic of inspiration. We're reviewing it. We've done this. We've been here before. And circling back to it, I think it's always fun to kind of go back and get a sense of Where have we come? We talked about this maybe a year ago, maybe a little less, I don't know. We've all been through the ringer since then in so many ways, but the first question that we looked at last week had to do with how God makes use of the human element in inspiration. I think we had a really fun conversation around that because We just talked about the grace that's involved in using human instruments to bring about God's thoughts.

Why did he do it that way? Why would he allow men and all their imperfections to be involved in communicating the most important message ever? Why did he do that? We talked about how he used men as free agents, but yet pre-agents in perfect harmony with the very word that he wanted to communicate.

We talked about how he allowed the language of each individual and that language was appropriate to each of them. You've got peasants and kings and statesmen and all kinds of life, you know, different lives of men bringing together an absolute divine message.

So we looked at that question one and one of the things that we took away Last week, I think, was a point that Courtney made around remembrance, that you would remember these things. And so that was something that we talked about last week. I just wanted to kind of get us reviewed there a little bit. This next question, question two, is what we're on this week.

And it reads, how are we to make use and understand the Word of God. How are we to make use of and understand the Word of God? So a lot of people, the Bible is just a big book with a lot of dust on it. You know, it's got some really cool gold inscription on it. You know, it's like, oh, it's the Holy Bible. And you know, there's some neat, maybe, page edges that look a little different than other books. But what makes the Scripture different than any other book. How are we to make use of it and understand the Word of God, this Holy Bible, meaning unique book? Why is it so unique? What makes it unique? What makes it holy?

Because we've got a book here sitting on the desk. It's called The Person and the Work of the Holy Spirit by Samuel Rideout, but it doesn't have gold edges. And it's not a unique book. But why? We like it. We've taught it for several years now. But why is the scripture itself holy? Why is it different? How do we make use of it and understand it?

Well, it's inspired by the Holy Spirit. It's from God. I mean, it's His Word to us. There's no other book like it on the face of the earth. But we know from that book that the natural man doesn't receive the things of it. It's spiritually discerned. Spiritually discerned? Okay. The thing is, is you may know everything about that book.

You may have a really nice leather-bound special gift that says, you know, this was my first Bible I got when I got baptized. I remember, you know, I had a really nice inscription on the front page. It was like, James David McCulley, baptized on so-and-so in the Baptist church, and here you go. Now you have everything you need. You know, but getting to the meaning of it, it's like, I remember first, when I first really wanted to know what the scripture had to say for me, it came out of a need, a deep need. I was confused, I didn't understand, and I thought, you know, Mom and dad have always told me about this scripture and told me about the Bible.

So I'll start to dive in. And what I did is I got really excited about, well, the Old Testament is in Hebrew and the New Testament is in Greek. And maybe I need to start learning some Greek and some Hebrew if I really want to understand what's going on in this special, unique book. You guys been there before?

Or something along those lines. Maybe you needed a commentary. Maybe it was the Bible Knowledge Commentary. You know, their Dallas Theological Seminary. They've got it figured out. I see some shaking heads out there. Nobody got interested in the archaeology side of things. That was something that Vern brought up quite a bit. History and the culture.

Very useful. Very helpful. and not to take away from it, but I think sometimes we get really interested in the way the book was written and how it looks and how it functions and all the little trappings that go on about really trying to figure out what this book means. And we usually come at it from a real need, you know. It starts as a real need. I love how a write-out talks about He says, a glance at many of the learned commentaries will illustrate history, archaeology, science, they're all imposed upon the word and they're wealthy, but he calls it a side light.

Isn't that cool? The contrast there and the reason that it's cool is because he says, you first of all need the sunlight. And I like sayings like that. You know, I like the illustration of the moon doesn't have any light of its own. It's a reflection of the sun. Those are really good analogies. And I think that one that he makes here is that he says, you will understand that I value the sidelight, but only after I have the sunlight. What do you think he means by that? science history, focus on events.

In the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, events of incredible magnitude with the Jewish people and creation and that kind of thing, but it isn't what the Bible is really all about. And I'm not sure you kind of figure that out early. What is the Bible? I mean, if there is this book that was given to us by God to explain to us what?

What's he trying to communicate to us? Trying to reveal himself to us? And he's taken great pains to do that. and also reveals other things like sin, but the focus is the Lord Jesus Christ. And it takes a while to figure out that that's really what it's about.

I often think about getting a hold of the Bible for the first time in jail. And this is kind of a weird scenario, but work with me here. How does that person go about understanding the scripture without all the extra commentaries and resources and perspectives and maybe they maybe has access or she has access to a chaplain something like that but how in the world does that guy or gal in jail wrapped up in a cell with just a bible figure out what in the world is going on doesn't he need a class like this You know, that's what I mean. I was going to say on this, how you came to board.

For me, the engineer that I was, and I am, I guess. The, you know, Josh McDowell evidence that demands a verdict. Factual, you know, assuring things. Our engineer needed those things. Holy Spirit working on individuals. And He works on individuals. It was you in Greek, Hebrew, whatever. It was me and it's none of our... The prisoner in there doesn't need anybody. He needs the Holy Spirit and the Word.

Those two things are what ultimately draws people to the Lord. But he may need a chaplain. Guess what? The Lord will bring him a chaplain. you know, evidence of man's verdict. Very, you know, important when, before I became a believer. More than a carpenter. Yeah, I mean, you know, all these, all these different things, but it's individuals. And he may bring you through a trial. That's, you know, and I go back to even what we're studying in Romans 1.

Everybody knows there's a God. They are without issues. They have to deny it. So you're starting with humans that know that there's a God. And it's the Holy Spirit working in individuals to get them beyond the denial of that. And it's between the working of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Those are the two things. The literal stuff is, I think, individual things that the Holy Spirit brings or the Lord brings to you to get you to understand the Word of God.

Okay, so question for you, for the class. We've got geography. Do you know where Jesus was at the Sermon on the Mount? Is that illumination? Knowing the location? No. But it's pretty cool to be there. It's pretty cool to be there, Courtney says, because he's been there.

But the thing that Rideout points out here is that he says we can thank God for everything in the way of geography, in history, and it illustrates the scripture but that's not illumination. You can wrap yourself up in a Bible atlas and know everything about where Paul traveled. You can see all of his journeys through the book of Acts and track it through. Is it useful?

It's important. It was recorded because it's human and it's real and it happened in time and space with real people in real time. But the illumination of God's Word doesn't have to do with understanding geography. It has to do with exactly what Korten was talking about, and that is that we need a teacher to understand these things. Just knowing where it happened, even being able to walk and set foot in those places, doesn't change the role of the Holy Spirit in illuminating your heart to the truths of God's Word. Go ahead.

Yeah, as you're talking, I'm thinking if you grow up in a denomination, you learn the denomination's doctrine. And it may or it may not be what the Bible is really intended for. Like if you grow up in a, like I grew up in a Catholicism or you grow up in a Baptist church or whatever, you get fed all the time whatever, what they say the Bible says. And I remember as a young believer, my mom sent me a Jerusalem Bible, which is the Catholic version. So I went to certain scriptures to look at them to see if they said, and I'd look at the footnotes, and when it got over their head, the footnote would say, well, this is a mystery.

We can't understand it. And that's really what Catholicism does. I mean, they're full of mystery and mystique and all this other nonsense, but they never, ever get you to the issue. And the issue is you and Christ. That's the issue. Legalism, like in the Baptist church or somewhere else, keeps you from Christ. Yeah. Miles, you were talking to me about that the other day. There's all kinds of legalism.

And I think one of the things, even in well-meaning Bible students, there's this desire to really have, like, I want to get greeky and geeky and really explain to you these words so that you can understand. I can empower you to be a better believer, a better Christian, to do the things that service really means. But question three says, what kind of teacher do you need? Do you need me? Now, in the scripture, God places men and women in places where teaching is needed. But I'm talking about divine teaching.

That's a different thing. What I do, what Mike does, what Miles and Courtney, all of us, Andrew, Bob, Roger, what do we do? Do we illuminate you to the scripture? Nope. We do not. That's the job of the Holy Spirit. We deliver it to you and he illuminates. He brings a light to God's word in a way that I can't do that. Regardless of what kind of really cool stuff that I have in my brain, I'm not the one that wakes you up and makes you realize what is true about you. The promises that are in the scripture, cannot be understood by me explaining to you what God said.

He'll sustain you. He'll keep you. There'll be no valley that He will not walk with you through. Do you believe that? That's between you and the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit in your life and processing it by personal faith. And that's something that I can't cause to happen. I can't do it with my kids. I can't do it with you guys. But one of the things that is possible is that I can have that experience because I believe in the words that are spoken.

And because as a believer, I have the Holy Spirit dwelling me, He is actively illuminating me, but only to the Word of God, not the other cool stuff. It's just the Word of God. That's what He has to say to us. So when we look at question three, what kind of teacher do we need to illuminate scripture and why?

Maybe the class can read me back what I just said in your own words. As you're talking, I'm thinking one of the things that all the guys you mentioned recognize about what their job is. is to get your students focused on God's Word. And you may be able to say, you know, a phrase or an idea.

Well, as an example, you wake up one day via inspiration and you find out that what the Word of God is really all about is knowing Christ. And that's a big revelation. That's a big deal. So you run around and start telling people that. It's not about knowing the Bible? No, it's about knowing Christ. A little different. Yeah. But you haven't got it all figured out yourself, you know. Is that an accusation? Yeah.

But what you find is, I think sometimes, is that we're all, when we fellowship together, you know, that's the one cool thing of fellowshipping around the Lord Jesus is that He's the topic. And we learn from each other. I think we are inspired by each other from fellowship. I think that's really important. It is really important. Let me give you a scenario. You and I get together over lunch.

We sit down and we have a really great conversation about the geography of Israel. It's all scriptural. We're walking through the Gospels and we're like, did you see how, you know, he was here and this is what he said and what he did. Do we have fellowship in that conversation?

Maybe, maybe not. But what is it about you and I having a conversation over lunch that is true fellowship? What's the content? I'm going to pose this answer, and then we can dissect it a bit. I think when the Holy Spirit illuminates you to the promises and the truths of God's Word, and when the Holy Spirit illuminates me to the promises and the truths of God's Word, can we start talking about that stuff?

That's where the fellowship happens. Yeah, I agree. It's not about talking about the Bible. It's not about going to a Bible study. It's not just talking about Samuel Rideout's book. It's the fact that we have both been illuminated through the Holy Spirit to the truth of God's Word on a particular subject, and we rattle through it, and we work through it, and we think through it.

Why do we disagree so much then? Not that you and I disagree too much, just a little. I'm up what you do. You know, one of those hungry hearts, I don't know where it is. I think it's in the Hungry Heart. I know it's a J.B. Stoney quote. He talks about getting together to fellowship and that you sit down and you're talking about the Lord and experiencing that kind of thing. And then he said, that's fine, but he said, when's the last time you sat down with a guy, with another believer and all you talked about was the wonders of Jesus Christ?

Oh, we did it. We got the chance to go with Mike and Donna and John to eat some barbecue on Friday night, and it was so cool to be able to sit down with John and have a rich conversation around Jesus. Yeah, we've got work. Yeah, we've got management skills that we need to think through, and there's a lot going on.

But at the end of the day, what really brought us together in that particular moment was the fact that we both were really excited about the Lord Jesus. And there were truths that we were working through and talking through on Monday nights, some of you along with us. And it was the fact that God was working to illuminate, through His Holy Spirit, the truths of who Jesus is to John, and He was doing the same thing in me. And that caused a wholly different type of conversation. So what kind of teacher do we really need to illuminate the scripture? goes back to what we're talking about, the Holy Spirit.

You know, I want to go in, I think it's terminology. Fellowship versus illumination. Fellowship can be about anything. And I, you know, just being with believers and talking about stuff, you know, in Israel, when we're in Israel, just, you know, here's where Jesus stood. That was, that was amazing. you know, as a believer, and we just fellowship around that. That's fellowship.

Illumination is something else, I think, where you're really trying to Expound on the word, you know, and I and I think you know in the scripture they're given as teachers to Teachers, you know, what do we what are we as teachers? You know, there was just specifically called out There are teachers pastors, you know, and and we are to you know Teach the word illuminate and that may be as they go back as individuals You know you're teaching or my teaching or bikes or anybody's or just fellowship around the word and God uses all those things and the Holy Spirit uses all those things maybe to teach.

And it's individuals and how He uses it. It may be this Greek word that you found. Wow, that's so you know that changed me or whatever and you know and you talked to me about that. That's exciting to me That's fellowship that may be teaching to illumination that I didn't see that word or I didn't see what that meant and you know, so I Yeah, I'm terminology of fellowship versus yeah, I probably should be a little bit looser with how I Not that I'm trying to define fellowship, but I think what's really interesting about what I'm picking up here is that I? We have a God-given teacher, and he is the Holy Spirit. So he's working to illuminate you to a truth, and he's also working in me to illuminate a truth.

And I guess maybe it's like super fellowship when you talk about those things, as opposed to just hanging out and having lunch and talking about the things. I mentioned this last week, we have a one talk. And that one talk is because we have the same teacher, and that same teacher is the Holy Spirit.

And Beideck goes on, he says, we do need, we must have an infallible guide to explain to us what the Bible teaches. Who and where is he? We need a God-given teacher, an infallible guide to enable us to understand our Bibles. Who is he? The Holy Spirit, the author of the book, It's the expounder. He is the expounder. How precious and how like the grace of God that this should be.

The cool thing is, is that you don't have to get your degree from DTS to read the scripture. You don't have to actually live outside a jail cell to understand the scripture. There's a divine teacher and what he teaches is consistent with every single believer.

That's what kind of blows my mind. He's consistent. You may take it and run with it, and we do, and I have, and you have probably too, but he's consistent 100% of the time in illumination. Here he is, and he's an infallible guide. Can somebody read Luke 24? We're going to go verses 25 through 32. Question before we go there.

One of the things I was thinking is that as a teacher, as a person, a teacher is usually a broken or dependent. You have to have a relationship with Jesus Christ in order to teach me about Jesus Christ, right? Yes. Dependence, I think is what you're...

Otherwise you can instruct. I can instruct. I can tell you all kinds of good stuff. So can Mike and so can Courtney and all of us can instruct one another. But at the end of the day, it's the divine teacher that illuminates you to the truth and give you an opportunity to believe it.

You know, JD, there's a popular secular university professor in Canada, Jordan B. Peterson, and he's recently released a series about biblical marriage, and he's a right-wing conservative, and a lot of believers are really excited about this marriage series, and like, oh, he's not a believer, but this is great stuff, and you think about that, he seems to think there's something good about the institution of marriage but what will he never ever in a million years apart from the Holy Spirit understand is that marriage is designed to show us about intimacy with Christ first and foremost you'll never get that right that's the difference between you know worldly knowledge intellectualism and the Holy Spirit's illumination yeah so Jordan Peterson is one of the most outspoken and coveted right-wing conservative voices today out of Canada.

And he's got, oh goodness, you know, I read, maybe I shouldn't say this online, just kidding. I've read Jordan Peterson and I've listened to him and he is prolific and he is a million times smarter than this guy. And most of us he's profound in terms of what he sees and understands But he doesn't He's not illuminated to the scripture itself. He's explaining it And maybe that's not always the case.

I'm not sure I can't speak for all of his writings and nor do I know where he ultimately stands however I know that it comes across in the most scholarly way that you could ever hear it and it's very convincing It's very exciting Because, like, hey, we've got somebody that's smart.

It's communicating God's Word out there on mainstream media. But is He illuminated to the Scripture? In order to answer that question, you have to ask, are you a believer, and is the Holy Spirit doing that illumination? Or is that your intelligence that's being placed on the Scripture?

Is that a fair way to articulate what, or kind of further the thought there, Myles? Yeah, for sure. I think you're right on. Yeah, this is a guy that, like I said, extreme intelligence, very smart, very well spoken. But is he explaining the truths of God's Word based on illumination or observation and study? I haven't read a whole lot of his stuff. Latched onto him as the one who's going to explain.

Yeah. So let's read Luke. Thanks, Miles. Sorry, you're cutting up a little bit there. So I'm just going to move on to question four real quick here. Question four says Luke 24 through or chapter 24, 25 through 32 relates Jesus opening up the scripture to the two disciples. Do we do we today have an advantage over them in understanding the scripture? So let's read.

Somebody has got that up. Go for it. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the woman also had said to him, and they did not see Myron in the right place, you know. And he said... You're in the wrong place. He said to them, O foolish men, it is slow of heart to believe in that the prophets have spoken.

Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory? Keep going, 32. It flipped away. Okay, I'm back. I got it back. So they said to one another, we're not, our heart's burning within us while he was speaking to us on the road, while he was explaining the scriptures to us. And they got up that very hour. Now I went too far, didn't I? What am I doing? You want me to blow through? Yeah. I'll go. It's from 24 or 25. Yeah. 25? Yeah. And he said to them, O foolish man, slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?

Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. And they approached the village where they were going, and he acted as though he was going further. But they urged him, saying, Stay with us, for it is getting towards evening, and the day is now nearly over. So he went in to stay with them, and when he reclined at the table with them, he took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, he began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight. They said to one another, we're not our hearts burning within us, they're within us while he was speaking to us on the road, while he was explaining the scriptures to us.

We have a, you know, many of you know that I joined a ministry, Good Seed, and Good Seed's main resource is called The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus. That's where this comes from. Who is this stranger on the road to Emmaus? Because he's walking along with these guys and he's explaining stuff, but they don't get it. And then their hearts are opened, and they start to understand certain things. Do we have an advantage over those guys on the road to Emmaus? I mean, here, think of that scenario, right? You're walking along with the risen, resurrected Christ. And you don't understand who this guy is. You don't get it, but their hearts are open.

Do we have an advantage over those guys or would we rather be the two on the road to Emmaus? I think we have a huge advantage over those two, those guys, because one, because we're enthralled by the Holy Spirit and they weren't. Pentecost hadn't happened yet. And two is we have God's Word, which wasn't completed at that point.

So I have a question for you. Is inspiration when their eyes were opened? Let's define it. Question five. Define inspiration and illumination. Can we answer that? Can we have both? Yeah, let's do them both. Can we have both? Have them there and then we still have the word and the Holy Spirit? I like that scenario the best. I do too.

Because actually, you know, thinking about it, when they, you know, afterwards, going on there, and they got out that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and gathered the eleven and those who were with them saying, the Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon. They began to relate their experience on the road and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread. How well did they know him?

Yeah. Well. At that point. Yeah. They knew it. They knew he was the resurrected Lord. That was phenomenal. Yes. Because now they can testify to that truth. What do you know about the Lord? Well, remember he said, you know, it's near the end of the day, stay here. These guys jumped up and ran back the other way at that very hour. Yeah.

So as they're walking along the road and their hearts are burning because he's explaining things to them, they're getting, is that illumination? Well, that's a time-space limitation, right? I can only learn things as long as I'm on the road with Him. But you're not on the road with Him in that way. You're in a constant fellowship and relationship with Him. And the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to reveal Him to you, not just on the road, but for the rest of your life. That's an advantage, I would say. Now we have not just the Scripture opened up to us so that we understand But who the Messiah is, we know that we are in the Messiah.

They don't get that, right? I wanted to tell you this kind of rabbit trail a little bit, but it's just through my daily reading, you know, I'm going through Acts right now, and going through Paul's missionary journeys and all this, and I keep thinking this, like, What did they talk about, you know? They were doing miracles and signs and stuff, but then they leave the church. And he's going back on the second journey. He says, let's go revisit the churches.

What did they, I mean, they didn't have the full scripture. What, I mean, as I said at the beginning, the two things we need is the Holy Spirit and the word. What did the early church have? I mean, just maybe overwhelming presence of the Holy Spirit. you know, to have them grow. But, you know, Paul after Shavuot goes back to, you know, all these churches. Yeah. What were they teaching every Sunday or every day? Or was it just the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in them illuminating?

The truths that Paul and Barnabas and all of them shared, you know, I think just yeah, I think it was yeah But it's it's harder for us to understand how how the Lord established his church Just because we get to benefit by looking back and understand Yeah, you guys must have run out of some things to talk about.

You know, we don't have that problem today. I we can talk about it and look into it consistently, but I do think that's exactly right. I think it was the manifestation of the Holy Spirit that it would have just been a very unique point in time for many reasons, obviously the signs and the wonders and all that was needed to accompany the start of the Church.

But I just think that, and I'll wrap it up here on that time, I think that for this question, The advantage is, I think it's one of the things that's hard for me to kind of swallow if I think about it, is I can walk side by side next to Jesus and not have nearly the advantage of understanding who he is without the Holy Spirit. I may not get to walk side by side, kick dirt, with the Lord Jesus like these two guys did. But I have the very Spirit of God who is working to reveal the person of Christ in every single word of the scripture, which means my journey and my road is 100% illuminated and continuously in fellowship with Him in terms of He reveals the person and the work of the Lord Jesus to me and then applies it in my life.

These guys didn't get anything applied to them other than the knowledge that they had. The cool thing about the Spirit in your life is He's not only illuminating you to His Word, He's also conforming you to the very image of Christ. That's something that these guys didn't have. Just a couple thoughts. Go ahead, Mike.

I remember reading a monstant for somewhere that what the Spirit of God does is expand us to contain. In other words, He spends a lot of time expanding our understanding so we can contain more of Christ. So we have more of him all the time. And the conformity process goes on. So a lot of what the work is, is this expansion of my faith. He's stretching us, constantly stretching us out so that we can know more of who he is. I think that's awesome.

All right, well, I'm at time, so we'll close in prayer here. Father, how we thank you that we have the very person of the Holy Spirit working to illuminate the gift of your Son, Jesus, and that it's not just a knowledge, it's not just an understanding, it's an application of the things that you have said are true about us because of what we are in Christ. And so Lord, I just pray that we would be thankful for that advantage, that we would look to you to continue to illuminate us and bring us to a more dear and intimate knowledge and the grace of your son Jesus. And so we just pray for those things. We also Lord, we thank you again for the work of your Holy Spirit in our lives to illuminate us to the very person of the Lord Jesus. And it's in your name we pray. Amen.