The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit lesson 39 end begin 40
JD McCulley · Feb 5, 2023
Holy Spirit (2021-23), No. 96
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926193067442

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

Alright, so I've got a couple questions here and then Mike's going to pop up. We're dealing with Lesson 39, talking about inspiration. And I was thinking about this a little bit today and last night. I just don't know what to make of all this news that's going on. You know, like we're shooting balloons out of the sky and is it a good thing, is it a bad thing? Goodness, I really don't know what's going on out there. And every time I open up the news, I feel like I'm not illuminated. You ever feel like that? Surprise, surprise. Surprise, surprise. Why do I not understand what's going on out there in the world? Or do I?

Question five says, define inspiration and illumination, which is common to all believers. I thought that was an interesting way of stating the question. Like, why is that common? Is it really common? So I'll kind of set you up with that and let you go for a minute and we'll see how this unfolds.

Define inspiration and elimination, which is common to all believers. Is it really common to the kid on the block that just knows that they're saved? Is it common to the age old grandparent that you have that has been studying the scripture for 50 years. What makes illumination common to all believers? And is it common to all of them, no matter what stage they're in?

What do you think? It seems like in the believers in the name of the Holy Spirit, that it would be. If they're open to teaching and enlightenment. I think you're right. Joanna, I absolutely think you're right. The kind of question that this poses in my mind is how studied do you have to be in order to be illuminated?

It's one of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, isn't it? It is, but don't we have a little bit of a question in our heart about this is a brand new believer, what do they know? Just a thought. Ralph's dog has the same question. Is the question It says define inspiration and illumination. Is the question which one of those is common to all believers? Is that the question? Is it inspiration or illumination or both?

I don't know. I think what we're talking about here is the fact that God uses human instruments to communicate his word. No matter where you are in your spiritual journey, whether you're a brand new believer or a studied believer, the role of the Holy Spirit in inspiration and illumination, let me say that differently, the role of illumination is the same for every believer. Are you inspired? No. Who was inspired?

It's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit inspired human instruments, men, so that they could open up the mind and illuminate you, no matter where you are in your spiritual journey. He used illumination in your life to reveal himself to you. That's the role of the Holy Spirit. Are you tracking with me?

Yes. J.D., I put down here that inspiration is the giving of the text by the Spirit, and illumination is the unfolding of its meaning to our hearts by the Spirit. They're both an act of the Spirit, but one is the giving of the text, and the other is the unfolding of its meaning. That might have been straight out of Rite of, I don't know. No, that's perfect. So, illumination is revealing, opening up to you the Word of God. That's a different thing. We've talked about that. We've said that God uses the human element of inspiration to make his thoughts known. But how does he illuminate you to those thoughts? It's the work of the Holy Spirit. Go ahead.

One of the things we've been looking at in the main services in Romans chapter 1 is that God gave man over to a degraded mind and that he cannot, the non-believer cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God because he just can't know them because God gave him over. Now in the Old Testament occasionally God would show a person something but Not anything like we have because we've been recreated in Christ and we have a capacity with the Spirit just to study the Word of God and He'll show us what it means because we, you know, we have two natures which has two minds. Like you're talking about, gee, you pick up the paper every day or you read on the phone every day about what's going on in the world. Well, they're all nuts. because of what God did. They can't get it together. They're thinking themselves wise, they've become fools. So if illumination, you won't ever see a guy like Joe Biden illuminated. He doesn't have the capacity. Why? Because he's not in Christ.

That's right. I think that's really kind of our point here is that The Lord opens up His Word. When we approach the scripture, it's far different than when we approach any other text, any other news, any other source of information. He opens up and helps us to understand through the work of the Holy Spirit. That is a privilege. And I forget that sometimes. So I had this other question. We'll get to question six here and I'll wrap up. But I kind of made up my own question six.

How important is it to be in fellowship with the Lord when reading his word? I think it's critical. It's critical? I had a buddy of mine, he's a pastor in Spokane now. Every time he starts teaching, he prays that each person would be in fellowship with the Lord and he gives them time. So take a few minutes, do what you need to do because illumination is very real and we're going to open up this word and the only way it's going to be enlightened in your mind is if you're walking with the Lord.

Otherwise you're reading. Now, I'm not saying that you can't get conviction from the word. I'm not saying that you're not going to be illuminating salvation truths. But if you want to understand spiritually what's going on in the scripture, you got to check yourself. 1 John 1, 9. Do you believe that?

I guess the caveat is, you know, when I feel like I'm out of fellowship, I go to the worst. So, you know, if I'm just, I need the Lord, you know, and he draws me. I may be not in fellowship, I go to the Word, but He draws me to His Word to bring me into fellowship. So that's the only caveat I'd say is I don't have to be just totally thinking about the Lord and being in deep thought about the Lord before I can go to the Scripture. A lot of times, you know, scripture, you know, be drawn to a scripture or something, or why, or, you know, reading the Hungry Heart in the morning, it's like, wow, you know, that brings me into fellowship. Yep. So, I mean, I don't say that you have to be in fellowship before you go to the Word. I think you can be brought into fellowship by going to the Word.

What do you guys think? I think both are true. Yeah, both are true. Yeah, that's I guess what I'm saying. Both are true, you know, and when you're in fellowship and you want it, it's great and just magnified a thousand times, but there are those times where I'm drawn, when I need the scripture, return me to fellowship, walking with the Lord, walking in the Spirit. You know, I think those are, yeah, both are true. I was going to say what's different from both of those is the approach of, well, I need to do my duty, need to do my daily chapter or whatever. That is the fruitless approach, I would say. Maybe not fruitless.

The Lord may use his word at some point, but when you're in that state of mind that this is something I'm doing, you know, something I'm doing to, you know, earn something or, you know, it's kind of my routine, my, you know, I don't think you're in the, you know, you're not, I mean, if you're out of fellowship and the Lord draws you to the Word for something that He wants to show you, or if you're in fellowship and you're hungry to be in the Word, but We've talked a lot, again recently, about heart hunger and that kind of thing, and the Lord does develop that, and then He feeds that hunger. But when it's a person just working out of themselves, working out of their own, you know, their own selfish desires or whatever. It goes to motive. And I've used my example a hundred times where in the old brethren, you know, these guys would stand up and they could quote scripture all the time.

And I thought, I've got to memorize scripture. And it was for selfish reasons. So I could be like those guys. And I never got anywhere with it. And then, yeah, that's the motive. I'm doing it because of, I want to show off that I know these scriptures. That gets you right into a wall. You're not going anywhere. So yes, I agree, Miles. I think it's the motive. If you're doing it because you want to win points or you think the Lord's going to smile on you a little bit more because you're doing it, it's not going anywhere. Yeah, I keep kind of... Question six says, what is the secret clue to finding the exhaustless treasures in the Bible? And you've got the answer.

I was thinking that like a good example for me is because I teach a lot, like the Tuesday this week, you know, I said to the Lord, I said, I don't know. I don't know. How am I going to get this sermon done? I'm stuck. You know, you're going to have to show me something because I don't get it. You know, I've looked and I've spent some time, I've done I'm researching, I'm listening to people and I just, it just isn't there, you know, kind of sure. Next morning, first thing I read, Bowman was there. You know, it's just something I read.

So I think there's a, there's a principle involved where he, one makes you dependent on him because you realize after you go around and exhaust all your, resources, you have to, you know, it's like Miles used to say, you have to trust the Lord, it's come to that, boys. Like, oh man, Bible knowledge commentary is kind of coming up short today, I don't know what to think about this subject. Yeah, I go through that quite often, you know, like I don't really understand what I'm looking at, what I'm supposed to talk about.

Well, I think that what you said is pretty cool in the sense that When you're dependent, you're dependent upon a person. And you're looking for, we're not looking for that, like, how can I be so clever and explain this truth in a way that nobody's ever explained it before? How can I wow the folks that are listening to me? It truly is, when it comes down to the secret clue, it's about spending time with him.

You know, we do, we read the scripture, sometimes we read the hungry heart like it's just another piece of news, you know, and we brush through it like, oh, that's a cool idea, that's a cool thought. But when it really impacts your heart, when it impacts your life, it's through the light that the Holy Spirit is shining on that truth to you.

And that is a deeper relationship with those truths than what you get from reading about what's going on in the world today. You're not going to get illuminated to those things. You're not going to know why we didn't shoot the balloon down sooner. You're not going to know.

And the reason is, is that the Holy Spirit is interested in you individually. And the scripture is written to you and it shines upon the truths in your heart that you need at that point in time. And it's specific. It's, I don't want to use the word, I don't like this word, but I don't know how to explain it. It's so specific and like surgical. It's like, I want to know what my issue is, my health issue.

The Holy Spirit looks at your spiritual health issues and applies his word specifically to that situation. You never have to worry about getting the right prescription. You never have to worry about, man, do these guys really know what they're doing for my body? The Holy Spirit knows exactly what he's doing spiritually, and he's working individually with you to bring about a change that conforms you to the image of Christ.

And I think that We do have to think about being in fellowship when we approach the Word. I think it is critical. And to Courtney's point, it doesn't mean that His Word won't draw you in, cause you to be conscious of the fact that, hey, I'm not walking with the Lord right here. I am reading His Word. It's impacting me and convicting me.

But the result is to bring you back into fellowship so that you can talk with Him about the truths of what He's said. And I guess what I want to say is that this is not like we just read and absorb. We shed light on the truths that we need to know for the purposes of creating greater intimacy with God Himself. And that's the beauty of what both the inspiration of God's Word and the illumination of God's Word is in our lives. So as we continue to to learn and take time to spend, you know, in the hungry heart or in the scripture. Those are opportunities for you to have a conversation with him. And that's what he's doing. He's drawing you to himself so he can talk to you about the truths. And that's where illumination gets personal. You know, Rideout says, no romance could so attract, no human production could so absorb to what is the secret clue to the holy light that shines upon its truths and into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

It's a different situation when the word of God gets a hold of your heart and the Holy Spirit magnifies that to your own perfect situation. That is something very personal, very real, something very different from taking in any other information in the world that you live in.

It's a privilege that we have as believers, and it's magnified through fellowship, is what I would say. The Word can draw you for conviction, but the privilege we have as believers is walking in fellowship and actually having that illumination. What does illumination mean? Light being shown on things that we could not see before. And that's a privilege of us as believers. I like the idea of, you know, we do have, there is a secret clue to figuring out in the scripture.

It's called walking with the Lord in fellowship and having his word revealed to you in a way that only he can do. That's his role. That's his job. Your job is to be in fellowship and actually take in those truths. and allow him to process them. So, I don't know, just maybe some more mechanics there than what you might have been expecting this morning, but I do think about it a lot. You know, it's like, we can get into the scripture and we can, like, oh, I'm struggling with X, look it up in the index, find it, you know, going to, got a love problem. But what he's really doing is not only teaching about the topic of love, he's showing you what love is through a person. And the Holy Spirit is, that's actively the agent that is part of our lives that gives us that illumination and enlightens us to the truth. So, anyway, I'll stop there.

I think about this and maybe illuminations. I think it's kind of the difference between knowledge and wisdom. The definition I always have of knowledge is knowledge is like facts. That's almost the inspiration. They've given the facts. Here is everything inspired, given by God. But the other illumination to me is the equivalent of wisdom. You have facts, you have everything. Wisdom, I had defined always as the skillful application of knowledge.

And that's kind of where illumination is. I think we have the facts, but illumination is where we skillfully apply or understand those facts that are written in the Word. And it's just, you know, kind of the illumination kind of is where I take that Word And it impacts me. Mm-hmm. And I you know, there's in 1st Corinthians, what is this? Well, a full one is given the word of wisdom through the spirit That's where I think the illumination and where does it come from the spirit? Mm-hmm.

So I like that comparison. I think it's right Yeah, no, I was gonna say if you I'd like I'd like to personal intimacy approach probably better because it's like it's like in my life I meet a court and on and off over time you know we get together and kind of learn about each other and over time I begin to see him for Here are his assets, you know, and also he's like me, he's got, you know, things that aren't assets. What?

And I think that inspiration or wisdom that you talk about is that I kind of know the guy pretty well and I kind of know how he's going to react in certain situations. I can go to him for information and I can share the Lord Jesus with them, that kind of stuff.

Where the guy's standing next to him, I can't do any of that because I don't know him very well. I know mechanically It's like Donna tells me, you're really good at work in a room. You walk in a room, you've never met anybody, and before it's over, you've talked to everybody there. That's a mechanical thing.

But over time, with relationships that build up, it's the same thing with the Lord Jesus. I think the Holy Spirit is revealing more of Him to us all the time, where He's predictable, We know how he's going to react in certain, find out that he loves me. The conclusion, well, Courtney didn't give his life for me, the Lord Jesus did. And he's the only one that's ever done it.

Those kinds of things you learn and that's part of, I think, and then you read in scripture and all of that's there. Yeah. Music is such a big part of my life, and I love trying to unravel lyrics that musicians have come together with. But at the end of the day, I end up trying to interpret what those things mean. I kind of make them important to me because I love that song, right? The scripture works in an even more intimate and more special way than even the lyrics of a song. You know, we can really get gravitated towards, like, that's my song. You know, that's me. That represents me. The scripture is like that a hundred times more. It's not just you relating to another artist.

It's you actually coming into fellowship with the Lord through his word. And that kind of relationship, that kind of conversation, that illumination that we enjoy, means far more than what we could get from any other connection that we have with other human words. God used human men, human instruments, and their own voices to bring about the truths of what you need to know most in your life. And he does it in such a way that it will ring in your mind more beautifully than any lyric that you'll ever sing in another song.

The scripture, God's word, has a special place in our lives as believers, unlike anything else, because it's personal. And because the Holy Spirit unlocks that clue to figuring out who you are, where you come from, why you're here, and where you're going, that's his job. And that's a privilege that we have as believers.

So that was the end of my my lesson here. We could go on, but I'm going to let you. We're going to go on. Let's go on. Okay, who's got a Bible with them? Did I do that wrong? Well, I have the scripture written down on my notes, but the reference is wrong. So I'll read it.

First Corinthians 2.9.

First Corinthians 2.9. The first verse is, I has not seen nor ear heard. Neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love him. Okay, then it must be 2.14. Somebody read 2.14. Sure.

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are a foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are not as spiritually appropriate. Okay, so Paul the Apostle writes that It has never entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him. That includes everybody? That's not in Christ? Absolutely.

But then he makes, you know, you read that and you hear so many people say, oh yeah, that's right, maybe that's, even us believers don't get what God has prepared for us. even though we love him, but then he says, the natural man can not receive the things of the Spirit of God, they're foolishness unto him.

But then he says, at the end of verse 10, God has revealed them to us. Now that's one of those verses where you, when you read it, you think, oh, there's so much I don't know. Is God lazy when it comes to me? Or am I one of those Christians that's just not savvy enough or work hard enough or whatever? God has revealed them to me. So what has never entered into the mind of a non-believer, all the things that God has prepared for those who love Him, He's revealed them to us.

Okay? Yes? No? Has he? Is he in the process of doing that? Yeah, I think he is. So, Rideout says, spiritual discernment of what is revealed is the result of the spirit's illumination. Don't you find it interesting how careful and how proactive God is in communicating to us the things that we need to know from him? The number one thing is that He loves us.

He wants us to know that. He wants us to know everything that's in the scriptures. He wants us informed. He doesn't want us walking around with our head in the clouds or with some sort of opinion about what He says. He wants us to know. So He sends the Spirit to teach us, to show us everything that He means.

Now I must admit, As time goes on, you want more, because what happens is, like JD is talking about, what happens is you start out learning facts, right? Information are factual and you start to see how some of the pieces fall together. But as Miles Stanford used to say that the study of God's Word goes from objective fact to love and affection with a person. Objective fact to love and affection with a person.

And what you find with a lot of these scholars is that they've got the facts down but they don't have the love and affection down. And I always, when I listen to somebody or somebody has recommended or I'm reading something about somebody, I always look for how well does this person who's writing or speaking, how well do they know the Lord Jesus? How intimate are they with him? How important is he to their heart? Because you can listen to a lot of guys that are really smart and can give you lectures and sermons that just blow you away. but they don't know who they're talking about. You get that? You find that to be true? So... I have a question. Yeah.

So what do we do with this statement, faith in the facts is like the train on the tracks? You give it to Courtney. Faith in the facts. Well, I think one of the cool things that you're talking about and how Miles kind of set that up is they are two different things, but they're both true of us, right? So what's wonderful about the scriptures is that we do have facts. Without facts, we don't have anywhere to place our faith.

I agree. So it's very important to understand the facts and recognize that the feelings do follow, but there's another part to that statement that maybe isn't there. is that now I'm walking with a person that's factually revealed himself to me and I don't have to wonder, like, do you have something hidden about yourself that I can't trust?

Is there, do I really know you? Because we do that in human relationships, right? We're kind of like, I'll trust you as much as I know you, but... And that's kind of where we go. Yeah. You know, and it's like that, I talked about Courtney, in a building relationship, there comes a point when I know that I can ask him for something and he'll do it for me. And he won't, you know, he'll trust me. And I trust him. I feel comfortable asking him or sharing something with him or I go to him for his opinion.

What do you think about this? Or, this, this, this, this is going on, what do you think? And that's, you know, that same kind of thing to some degree is with the Lord, except I'm dealing with the one who has all knowledge about everything. And so, you know, the discussion isn't very long with the Lord. It's like, well, you know.

At the same time though, sometimes the discussion doesn't end quickly because He likes my company. And he doesn't want, you know, because if I get the answer right away, then I'm going to leave. And he says, no, well, why don't you stick around a while? Well, why should I? I got my answer. I'll see you. You know, so maybe that answers the question of why the answer doesn't come real fast sometimes. So.

Right out says how completely dependent and we'll talk about dependence upon the Holy Spirit in the chapter from which I've just quoted, we are told that the truths of God are revealed by the Spirit, communicated by the Spirit, and received by the power of the Spirit. The only way I understand them or can receive them is because the Spirit's in me. I don't understand the things of God. The only thing, the only two things I can understand about God, if I don't have the Holy Spirit, what are they?

We've been talking about them on Sunday. What are they? Yeah. I know that God exists, that he's powerful, and I need to appreciate him. I need to be thankful. I need, and you know what? The verses we're going to talk about today says that everybody knows that. Even if they deny it, they know it. And he holds us accountable. Well, this is way beyond that. Because we're involved by the Spirit, the intimate things of who God is, maybe put it this way.

Why did God create human beings? Why did he do it? Because he had nothing to do? Kind of bored? Why did he do it? Why did he create Adam and Eve? What's that? Fellowship. He created human beings in such a way and gave us enough characteristics in our created state that we could at some point just have fellowship with them. And it isn't because he's egocentric at all, he just knows who he is and he thought, wow, you know, I could create these creatures that would receive who I am and appreciate and be blessed by who I am. Okay?

So is that changed over the however many thousand years that man has been in existence? It's never changed. Never. His purpose is still the same. So at the cross, or at Pentecost, he recreates human beings through the cross and gives them his own righteousness and his own position for what purpose? Fellowship. So for all eternity, all of us get to be in the presence of the God of the universe and enjoy him for who he is.

Well, we have that capacity to do that, you know. It's interesting that angels don't even have that. They don't. No other creature has it. And another friend of mine used to say, imagine what God has done. We're a virus on a planet and he's created us in his own image. Angels look at us and say, we don't get it.

Enlightenment of the spirit enables not merely to understand the detached text and portions of God's truth, but merely, not merely to have clear views upon certain doctrines, which is important, but to gain familiarity with the entire book, to fall into the current of its thoughts, I would say his thoughts, in fact suggested by the word rightly dividing the word of truth, 2 Corinthians 2.15. So if you understand that, if you understand that what God is doing and what the Spirit of God has been given to us to do, then your personal approach is always that I may know, you know, like Paul said in Philippians, that I may know him.

I want to know him more and more all the time. But the other thing that happens is that desire translates to other believers. You want other believers to know him. If I have a, assuming that Courtney is my best friend, I want everybody I know to know him. Because I think he's a terrific guy to know. You see that? Well imagine, you grow up in the Lord Jesus, you want everybody to know him.

And it's not because somebody said, well, that's what you should be doing. You can't help it. That's the way grace works. You just can't help it. I'm sure you've all been in a place where there was a gathering of people and one of your friends would come up and say, come here, I want you to meet this person. You'll really like him. And right away, my psyche says, well, maybe I won't meet him. But it's rush over and meet them because your friend really liked them.

Well, it's like us. We want everybody to know the Lord Jesus and not from the standpoint of just objective doctrine. We want them to know Him personally and intimately. And then that translates, and I just noticed I'm over time. And that translates into fellowship, you know. I loved Stone, J.B. Stone, he said one time, I know I repeat this a lot, he said, you know, it's great to get together with believers and share and that kind of thing, but he said, how often do you get together with them and you just sit down and talk about the wonders of Christ? How often do you do that? Not very often, but when you have that kind of relationship with another believer, you seek that out more and more all the time.

Okay, so we're going to stop right there. Father, how we thank you for your word, how we thank you for your son, the Lord Jesus, and how we thank you for it was your purpose that we should have fellowship with you, the God of the universe. That's a gift that you just can't put a value on. It surpasses anything, the most valuable thing there is. So we thank you, Father. We pray in your son's precious name. Amen.