The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, Lesson 40 end, 41 begin

Okay, so I'm going to do one question and then Courtney will come up. So in Lesson 40, Question 6, the question is, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. Is it so to us? Is scripture profitable to you? individually? It's a great question. I don't expect you to line up and tell me, but it's, it's, uh, uh, is it, is it, is the scripture itself profitable in any circumstance you find yourself in? Absolutely. 100%. That's great. Everything. It's everything. Yeah. every hope, every, every fear is melted by his word. And I still have some fears, but it's still, I know I can trust him. I know he's real.

Yeah. It's interesting. It's interesting when you kind of get a handle especially a New Testament and online scriptures, that there's a real change of mind regarding trials and suffering that are portrayed in there that no place else, even in the Old Testament, has it portrayed such a way. And so, in that sense alone, it's extremely profitable because it gives us a road to walk on where we can rest no matter what the trial is and But I you know that doesn't come easily I think it comes with the trial Okay, so Go ahead.

Oh Sorry, is that Courtney? Yeah, go ahead. Well, I was just gonna say I think we we've been talking a lot about dependence and What do you depend on? Like, where does that dependence lie? And without the full body of truth, you're left to speculation, you're left to the news, you get up and read Fox or read CNN, whatever you read. And it's like, that's where that's what I've got.

But with God's Word, you have timeless truth that is far different than any other body of information that we could ever take in. And there's no dependence upon that information. We can't depend on what we're hearing outside of God's Word. It's just not sufficient.

Yeah. I agree. We can measure everything that we hear up against what He has to say to us. It's on a trial. It's down the road. It answers questions that we just don't have answers to. If we don't have any answers for it coming from him at the particular time, we know that something down the road has already been laid for us anyway, all we could do is work. Sure.

You ever find yourself in a situation where you're in a trial, and you go through all of the mind games like, well, why me? Next question is, well, what did I do to make him angry? Why is he picking on me? And you're looking for answers, and then something shows up in your reading material or through another person that explains exactly what he's doing.

And you understand, oh, I see now. I didn't see that before, but I see it now. You know, a simple verse like God works all things together for good. Does he or doesn't he? Pretty simple. He says it. Is that what he's doing? You're all things? The end of the word rocked me here last Sunday. Okay. This church body is finishing up in this room. It works at the Spirit because they're literally penching for strength. And the lights through the whole week just kept on popping.

And a friend of mine said, have you heard of David? No, I haven't. Of his church. And I said, well, that sounds awfully solid. Do you want to try on a Sunday there and see what you can do? Cool. Great. So that's exactly what we're talking about. That's awesome. And you know, that kind of thing happens.

You know, I think the other thing is, I guess two things. One, if it's profitable, is it to us? The other, I think everybody would say yes. The last part of it is... You wouldn't dare say no. Well, yeah. Or what is one proof? I think that's the trickier question of this. That really is.

You know, the other is that I think, you know, many times I think of without the Lord, I would be hard-pressed to live in this world with all that's going on and to not understand there's a sovereign God and to know Him in the midst of all this. The world cannot give us rest.

The rest only comes through Him. In the Philippians it says, you know, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication. With thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the key is, and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your heart and your minds in Christ Jesus. I think that's where the Word in this crazy world gives us the peace that surpasses all understanding.

And so the profitable part is how to live, but also just the peace of knowing Him. That's interesting. The next part of the question is, are you becoming sanctified by the truth? What does sanctified mean? There's the truth over there in Christ, and I'm walking around in the world that Courtney's describing. And I find out that if I go over there and abide there, I abide in the truth.

Certainly there's no truth here. You know, like there are certain movies I really like. One of them is called The Shooter. where this guy's a retired Marine sniper and he's at the end, towards the end of the movie, he's talking to a Senator and the Senator says to him, truth is what I say it is. And I think, yeah, that's pretty much describes what being in the world is. It's truth is what I say it is, you know?

Well, no, truth is, being set apart unto the Lord. He's truth. And he positionally took us over and put us in there. Okay, last part of the question. What's one proof? What is one proof that we're being separated or sanctified by the truth? You're looking for the word obedience. I am?

I think so. That's a write-up said in the book. However, I kind of want to talk about that a little bit. Sure. Can we go to Philippians chapter 2? Sure. Let's do it. Philippians 2, 12. And if you read through 12, you know, down through 15, 16. Um, if it didn't have verse 13 in the middle there, um, it would have a totally different meaning, but I don't know. Someone should I read it? Yes. Okay.

So, so then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. And a lot of people put a period there, right? But verse 13, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. And then it goes on into the, you know, do all things without grumbling and so on and so forth. But, you know, if we don't recognize that it is God who is at work, right, then we've completely missed the boat. I mean, the, And that's the fact that, you know, if you're talking about how is God's Word profitable to you, you know, if you see this obedience or this listening under the Word, you know, it's a work which only God Himself can carry out through your life, working powerfully through His Word, right?

That really stood out to me. I had those verses written in there. I don't know if I don't mention those verses, but anyway, I wrote them down here on my sheet. I can't remember. No, I think that's really good. And, you know, I think I read this last week about what's the difference in obeying God's law and obeying his word. What's the difference? You know, that letter or that thing written by Ironside about the child that helps her mom, not because she was told to, but because she knew she needed help and just went and did it. Because she loved her mom. Donna? You know, when we talk about it's profitable, I guess what runs through my mind is that there wasn't much profit to me until I understood the identification truth. That's right.

Otherwise, you're totally involved in it yourself. Now think about the difference in mindset between Having me as a Christian, and it centers in me, and God has got to come and do all this stuff with me, but I'm the center. When I hurt God, you've got to fix it. When I'm in a trial, God, you've got to fix it. Change that from being set apart to Him, and now it's His will that starts to matter above your own. And you don't really care what it is, increasingly. So, the Spirit of God working in us, both to will and to do, is to allow God to be God. And to allow Him, like an identification, to implement those truths in my life that I have been crucified with Christ, have buried and resurrected.

And I'm a new creature with a new life that functions in an entirely new way. And I'm in it. I think that's really important, Mike. As I look at that Philippians 2 passage that Myles brought up, there's a couple things that really stand out even as you read through the rest of that chapter. One of them is holding fast. Holding fast the word of life. You want life? You want the Word. And the Word is a person. And that intimacy with that person, it brings joy. It goes on to say that, I urge you rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me. Why is there joy amongst believers? Because they held fast to the Word of God. And that's a person.

And that's a different thing. And when we look at what Right Out says about obedience, I mean, I don't like that word. Who likes it? I don't know who likes it. Yeah. But there is an obedience that comes out of a relationship with a person. You want to please that person. You talk about Donna and how you get to know her and how you can tell everyone about them, but this is a situation where obedience comes from knowing a person. Is that fair? Yeah, that's good. And you think about it.

As I grow in the knowledge and grace and intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ, what do I discover? One, I discover he loves me. And two, there isn't anything that he wouldn't do and hasn't done and is doing to cause me to know him. He's proactive there. He wants me to know him way more than I want to know him.

So as that begins to unfold, as I grow spiritually, Obedience is not a hard thing. I mean, I don't have to be told to love Donna. I can't help it. I do. And so I don't have to work at it. I don't have to get the refrigerator list going on how I'm going to. I just do. And she loves me the same way.

So, well, we got that one in place. If I get an intimacy relationship with the Lord Jesus in place, then I walk in such a manner as you describe obedience as listening under. I'm always listening. You're always listening for Him because you want to do His will. You don't care what it is over time. You don't really care what it is.

I had a weird thought the other day. Well, let's see. So far, I've been on the earth 80 years. I might be on the earth 81 years. But I can't compare that eternity with him. So which is more important? You know, showing up with him, I get to be with him for all eternity. And it's because he decided that. That's really cool. All right, Courtney, you're up. So this is lesson 41. Hopefully you have lesson 41. And this is chapter 7 in Rideout's book. It's the last chapter. And let's see, it starts at page 230 in the book, if you have the book.

So this is the Holy Spirit before his incarnation in his early life. So we've kind of gone through a whole bunch of different aspects of the Holy Spirit. Now we're kind of seeing how the Holy Spirit's work before Christ's incarnation and then we'll move through while he was on the earth and then what he's working on now.

Question number one, what is the main purpose, goal, and focus of the Holy Spirit? So after what, a year and a half or two years? Can you answer those questions? So I broke it down a little bit. So what does Jesus refer to the Holy Spirit as when he introduces him? Comforter. Comforter. Yep. So that's how, when Christ is speaking of it's good for him to go away, it's actually better for him to go away because then we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

So he says, I'm not going to leave you alone. I'm going to leave you with a helper. And we see that in John 14, verses 16 and 17. I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper that he may be with you forever. That's a great comfort. That is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because he abides with you and will be in you. Again, we were talking about truth where truth lies guess where truth lies the spirit of truth So a lot of a lot of amazing things when when christ is introducing the holy spirit He's going to be with us.

How long? Forever so does that mean when we leave this earth will he be still with us? Yeah, that's kind of an you know, we kind of think uh He's our helper here, now we step into eternity and we're left alone, kind of where we're at. Is that what happens? He's with us forever.

Kind of an interesting thought. So we'll be in the presence of God and the Lord and the Spirit will still be indwelling us. That's going to be an interesting thing. These are just my weird thoughts. We're hindered by the flesh here. But when we step into eternity, we're not. I think it's going to be like on steroids. You know, what the Holy Spirit in us is going to be like. Because we don't have all the hindrances we have right now. The Roman 7, I think we may have lost everybody. Is everybody out? We're here. OK, yeah. It looked like on here, it looked like everybody dropped.

Anyway, so I mean, that's kind of just an interesting thought. He gives us so it's forever, and He abides with you and will be in you. Again, it's the understanding that He abides in us. Again, those things, you understand the truth. He's in us now. And I always think of that, you know, JD always gets me, Jeremy Camps won the same power today. You have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. All the things we read about in the Scripture, that same Holy Spirit indwells us now. That's incredible to me.

That same power is in us right now. He manifests in ways differently now. I think he's, as we've learned through this whole class, what his purpose is in our lives right now, to convince us, convict us of the truths, to bring us to that abiding faith. And that's what the Holy Spirit does now. But that's an incredible. And the other thing is forever. He's working continually with us.

The thing I was saying, just your last question, I always go back and the Lord's just been beating this into me for the last several years. His sovereignty and His love for us. If you understand that He's a sovereign God, He's in control of everything. And that He loves us.

So when the trials come, He allowed that. And all the scripture fits together. Be anxious for nothing, as I said. Well, how can you do that? Well, God's sovereignty is allowing that in your life. So you can have peace that surpasses all understanding. You shouldn't be anxious because he's allowed it. But he realized that it's not out of malice. He's not punishing you. He's not out of anger doing this to you.

The Romans 8, 30, what, 5 through the end of the chapter in 8, it explains that we cannot be separated from his love. So whatever he's doing in your life, he's not doing it because he's, well, and a lot of times I've felt for a long time, God's up there, things are going great, but he's got a hammer and he's ready to use it. That's so warped. when you think of, I can't be separated from His love.

So again, the Helper who abides in you, He's the one who gives us the peace, the rest, guides us into the truth. So, in the same introduction by Jesus, what will the Holy Spirit or Helper do for us? We see it in the same passage in there. What will he do for us? And that we've been a year and a half now, or whatever, or two years in the Holy Spirit. What will the Holy Spirit or Helper do for us? What did Christ say when he introduced the Helper? Yeah, do you want to hit the green button so they hear you? Remind us of what we need to be reminded of. Remind us of the things he showed us and taught us, and the reason why he drew us in a particular direction. He brings to our remembrance. Perfect. That's exactly the verses. And so it is. He's guiding us. He's showing us the truth. All the things we just talked about, that's what he's doing.

And in John 14, 26 is where he says, continuing on the introduction, But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Wow! He will teach you all things.

So who's the one who teaches us? The Holy Spirit is the one who teaches us. We think we're pretty smart, but He's the actual one indwelling us, teaching us, and we, by the non-meritorious effort, we by faith, we trust. in what he's telling us. But he's the one teaching us.

He's the one, you know, and I think about this, we've talked about this a little bit, you know, the scriptures. You can read it and then you read it again six months later and man, it just becomes alive to you. How did that happen? You know, it's the Holy Spirit working on you for that piece of truth. And it's alive. It's a living word. And it's the Holy Spirit always working on us. And that's when it becomes alive to you. I just read through, or Hungry Heart, that you read through five times and on to six times. Wow! That's incredible! That's the Holy Spirit working in you, teaching you all the time.

He's not just, you know, and He's not teaching you just some of the things. He's not holding back a little bit for you. He will teach you all things. and bring it to remembrance, all that I said to you. I think that one's a little, you still, that's a continuous, I should look at the Greek on that, that's a continuous thing, because I don't remember everything he said to me, you know, in the scripture.

Courtney, I was going to share one of the things that Rideout says, and I highlighted it and underlined it twice, it's like, this was rich for me, but He says that the Holy Spirit introduces us to the one in whose company we shall spend eternity. Kind of what Mike was talking about, but we oftentimes think about teaching and obedience, but this idea of introduction that the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives to acquaint us with the person whom we shall spend eternity with is a pretty rich thought there, too.

Absolutely. Mike, you're going to... I was going to say on Wednesday night we're studying the Gospel of John. We just got to 17. We're into prayer, but you know, 13, 14, 15, 16, all this information that the Lord Jesus is teaching the disciples, they haven't got a clue what they're talking about. And really believers read a lot of that. And it's just the beginning kind of truth in terms of oneness with Christ. You go to the Apostle Paul and you start reading through the Apostle Paul, and if you don't understand this, then you think, what is Paul talking about?

This idea, John 17 lays it out. He asked the Father that we would be one with him, like they're one. Boy, explain that to me. Oh, I know. The Spirit's the only one that can show you or enlighten you or illuminate you what oneness really is. And sharing His glory. John 17, again, is my favorite. That's the intimacy with God, with the Lord, and the intimacy between God the Father and God the Son. Oh, yeah. And then He includes us. That's the amazing part of that. And this beautiful prayer. Oh, yeah. I mean... It's crazy, crazy beautiful.

You know, he's he well, that's where he brings us in. He says not for only you but for you who believe That's us, right? He was talking about us at that point so now that's You know, you really start looking at all all the what the Holy Spirit is doing, you know That was thinking about what you said to they didn't have a clue, but they also didn't have the indwelling Holy Spirit at that point and that's why I think he said he will be a He's with you, but then he'll be in you. In you and bring to remembrance all that I said to you.

Because right now, before the indwelling, they're like deer in the headlight. And hey, I'm in the same boat. How many times have I read through Scripture before the identification truth, and I'm really understanding Romans 6, all of Romans, but Romans 6, our co-crucifixion.

How did I understand Galatians 2.20?

How did I understand 2 Corinthians 5.17? How did I get by those and not understand those?

And yet I did. And so, you know, I somehow read by him and didn't understand him. But as the Holy Spirit's convicted me of the, you know, what's true of us, our co-crucifixion, it all makes sense now. So, but that's him working in me. So what do you think about this statement? He does not merely enlighten us, but he introduces us to the one whom we're so right out. makes a distinction between enlightenment and introduction. It's interesting that he makes that statement.

And I think it's because we're not simply taking in Galatians 2.20.

We're introduced to the person of Galatians 2.20. And that's a different thing than simply just being like aware or understanding or seeing it. And I don't want to spend too much time on Rideout.

Obviously, you know, he's a man as well. But I do think that his insight is really interesting in the sense that it's not just about getting enlightened. It's about being introduced. I think that's a great point, J.D., that, yeah, it's not only the enlightenment. I think it's kind of like, how do you have enlightenment without the introductions? You know, you have to be introduced, you have to have that intimate relationship, I think, to really understand and be, quote, enlightened.

So I think that's a great point. I think the introduction is, and that's, you know, what Mike just said in John 17, that's really where I think the intimacy of our relationship with God the Father and Christ are, you know, shown, and that's just, that's mind-boggling. But that's the introduction. And then Paul goes through, I think, you know, who we are in Christ. And that's the enlightenment portion of it. So, no, great point.

Two different aspects that are different. But I think, yeah, you need the introduction first. Or how do you, you know, it's kind of what we're saying about relationships. If you're not introduced to a person or you don't know, you're not intimately, how do you really know them? And I think that's where the introduction begins, that relationship, and then we become enlightened.

Another one that I was looking at is John 15, 26. When the Helper comes, who I will send to you from the Father, that is, again, what he referenced, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me. That's what his purpose was, to testify about Christ, to tell, to enlighten us, to introduce us. That's what the Holy Spirit does. He will teach us all things about Jesus. He will testify about Jesus and then disclose everything about Jesus. That's the helper. That's the one that Christ introduced. It was good for him to go away because he would not have had the indwelling had he remained on earth. The indwelling came when he left, on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was introduced really as the indwelling in believers. If these things, the question, if these are the things that the Holy Spirit does, what does that do? What does that do that relates to Jesus? By doing all this, what does that do to Jesus?

I'm looking for a word. Glorifies Him. There you go. It glorifies Him. That's what it does. By all the things He does, He glorifies Christ. And it's summed up in John 16, 13, and 14. But when He, again, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. That's great.

Just what we were talking about. For He will not speak of His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak. And He will disclose to you what is to come. Incredibly comforting. And then He will glorify Me. He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.

So again, All of this, ultimately, is not just for us to be, you know, great and wonderful Christians. Ultimately, it's to glorify Christ. By bringing us all in and the relationship, it ultimately is to glorify Christ. You know, we think we're great and wonderful, but ultimately, it's to glorify Christ. And that's what his job is, through us, is to glorify Christ.

Yes, Henry. I was thinking that back to John 17, the first verse, the Father glorify me with the glory that we had before the world. Well, how is the Lord Jesus to be glorified and how is he going to glorify the Father? It's pretty simple. He's going to do it because he obeys. He did all that the Father... He does what the Father wants him to do.

And so, as we live and walk in dependence on the Spirit and do the will of the Lord, what are we doing? We're doing exactly that. We're glorifying because, like you started out to say a half hour ago, what an awful world we live in. And to have some human beings who walk in the Spirit and glorify God in spite of what the opposition is. It really does glorify Him.

Yeah. Ultimately, it's weird. The weird in this circular thought process is He's going to share that glory with us. How does that work? We're to glorify Him and ultimately, as in John 17, He'll share that glory with us. Yeah, those are those things you try to wrap your head around and it's, I think, until we shirk these bodies, we're not going to fully understand everything. But this is how Rideout puts it. And this is in relation to the question, what is the main purpose, goal, and focus of the Holy Spirit? Rideout puts it this way.

His work here is expressed in one sentence, he shall glorify me. He does not merely enlighten us, but he introduces us to one in whose company we shall spend eternity. I think it is fitting too that our present subject would follow the previous one. All the perfections of the written word are to exhibit those of the personal word. The scriptures have Christ for their theme, and in all enlightenment, in all application to heart and conscience, this is ever before the Spirit, to glorify Christ. So again, what's his main goal and purpose? Again, to glorify Christ.

So I think I'm just over here. So we'll start on question two next week. And yeah, well, I got there. I know we're wrapping up here. Fine. We have a couple of minutes. I love the fact that he says personal word and that kind of is that that's what hit me this morning is. you know, that statement about the introduction of whose company, like you're going to spend in company eternity with this person.

And right now you have access to his personal word. So I just thought those were really keen insights from right out. You know, I think, you know, going to the personal aspect to, you know, a lot of people, you know, I think covenant theology, you know, it's kind of the group Israel was a nation and all that. How does he deal with us now? individually, personally. And that's a great point. I mean, it's personal. Each one of us has that relationship. It's not as the nation goes. It's not as whatever. It's individually.

The Holy Spirit indwelling each individual is personally being worked on by the Holy Spirit. Yeah, when I think about it, I'm going to go read the Word. I'm now like being kind of funny in the sense of my brain. I'm going to go read the personal word. This is personal to me. This is 100% an introduction that the Holy Spirit brings me into, not only enlightenment, but company with.

And I just think that's a super, super cool summary of kind of where we're headed with the last questions. Oh, yeah. You know the expression, you know, I can read you like a book? Yeah. That's Jesus. We're going to go read him like a book. Good one. All right, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for this time, again, just so we can open up your Word.

And again, we thank you, again, as I say many times, you haven't left us alone. When you left, you left us with the Helper, the Comforter, the one who teaches us all things and discloses everything about Father, your Son, Christ. And we just thank you that the indwelling is forever. And again, that you have an eternal love for us, that each and every day, through the Holy Spirit indwelling us, is teaching us and telling us about Christ and the intimate life that we have with Christ.

And we thank you for that. And again, we just rest in your word. crazy world that we live in. We have peace that surpasses all understanding, and you guard our hearts. The Holy Spirit guards our hearts in all these truths. So we just thank you again for how you set this up. Just the indwelling that we have with the Holy Spirit, we thank you for that.

We just can't even think of not having that indwelling as we walk around this crazy world. So we just thank you and pray for Mike as he gives his message in the next meeting and again that all that we say and do will honor and glorify you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.