Major Bible Themes

We've been going over the Holy Spirit. Again, we have not followed the book. We've been following the notes that Roger and Hal put together a couple of years ago. And so we're in chapter, well, what would be chapter 19. It is not chapter 19 in the book. So we will go on. Let's see here. Okay.

So we've already gone through a bunch of the ministries of the Holy Spirit. Again, this is just for those on the tape, the Lewis Berry Chafer major Bible themes on the Holy Spirit. Again, we're following the notes and the overheads. And we've been going over the Holy Spirit and his ministries to the church. The first that we went over was he shared Christ's glory with you. He called you and he chose you. You know, as I went through that, he chose you.

What does that mean? Is that election? Yes? No, you're shaking your head, aren't you? I'm just watching you. Chicken. He chose you. It was in him to think, OK, I'm going to choose you. So we had no choice before. When we were born, we were already selected. That's what she's saying.

You are such a chicken. You are such a chicken. You are hiding behind him. Now you are throwing your wife under the bus. Call us for his blurry. So Mike, before we were even born, we had no choice. You are involved in the choice, but he chose you. He brought you to, without coercion, He brought you to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and you believe in Christ, and you're saved. The key point is, the selection is, and Monique actually said, and Bruce is just waffling in the middle here, the thing is, you're chosen in Him. Once you make that choice by faith, the non-meritorious act of faith, believing in Him, you're placed into Christ, and then He's known you. He's chosen you.

All those things are in place. So I just want to go over that when we look at this because there's big debates out there about free will and election and all that. I just want to be clear on what that meant. He regenerated you. He baptizes you. Second one was He shares Christ's glory to you and through you. How the Holy Spirit shares Christ's glory through His Christ. He fills you. Did we get repeated fillings of the Holy Spirit? I have a question. Oh, you do? I think it's in Ephesians where it says, work out your own salvation. Doesn't that go against what you just said? Work out? Read the rest of the verse. Yeah, read the rest of the verse. Exactly. I don't have it right in front of me.

God knows everything. He knows how the end of the world will be. Yeah, this is one of those ones where I really liked and I think it was Mike's study when we were going through Ephesians. Because it's all in the first word, predestined and all those things. But every time that is said, it's in Him, in Christ, in Him. That's where all those pre-selections are. And I like the way, when we look at it, it's like a doorway.

When you believe, you go through that doorway, and you look back, and now your past is what? Associated with Christ? So that goes all the way back to the beginning of time. So, but it's that transformation when you go, when you believe, then you're placed into Him, now what's your history? All your history is based on Christ.

Well, when was that? That's all the way back. So, I like that metaphor or whatever. You go through the door, you look back, and now he's known you from eternity past, because you're placed into him. So, work out your salvation. Are you okay? I'm okay.

Alright, the repeated fill of the Holy Spirit? Can we run out of the Holy Spirit? No. Do you need to be filled up every two weeks? No. No. No, no. But, keep being filled. Right? There's a verse. Keep being filled. So what does that mean? You're shaking your head. I'm agreeing with you. Sort of like that water fountain. A water fountain has water constantly cascading out of it. But as it cascades out, more is put in. Ah. So the Holy Spirit is constantly refreshing and refilling. Aha. Okay.

I think you have to keep in mind, though, that it's doing service. And so, I mean, you can take a nap without being filled with the spirit. Well, again, the indwelling, that's really what I was going to get at, is the indwelling part. You're always indwelling. There's never like in the Old Testament where the Spirit left you. It's always indwelling you. But, as Mike says, filling for whatever you're doing, whatever ministry, whatever you're doing, filled with the Holy Spirit will guide you, walking in the Spirit.

Well, what happens if you screw up? You're a complete screw-up now. And you've made mistakes left and right, and you're looking at things in a different way, but you're filled with the Holy Spirit, but it's like falling off a train. You can pick yourself back up. I mean, the Holy Spirit is still in you, right? Oh yeah, never leaves. So what... So then the Holy Spirit rolls you back. I guess a couple of things. Who allowed you to fail? Who allows you to fail? Me. You. Me? No, I mean you. I don't allow you to fail. You allow yourself to fail. God allows, God lets you. God lets you. He gives you free choice. Right, what's he trying to do? Just be mean? You're such a wimp. You are such a wimp. I don't want you to help me. You can say, you can talk for yourself. Can he ever be separated from his love? No. Never. So, if he's taking you through something, letting you fail, is that mean? No. He's doing what?

He's drawing you to him. He's drawing you to depend on him. You know, you may have something that you're depending on yourself. Well, is that what he wants? No, he wants you to depend on him. So he allows you to fail, which what? You look up and you go, hey, I need you. Draws you closer to him. He always allows these things. It's the child training, the chastening. He allows that, what? To conform you to his image. To bring you closer to him. He wants the intimacy. He wants the fellowship. We're the one turning and going the other way. He, through his sovereign control, wants to bring us back and focus and depend on Him. And you never can lose your Holy Spirit. Never.

I think the confusion here is the fact that there's the difference between indwelling and filling. Right. There is a difference. Do you understand that? No. Indwelling is a position. It's something that never changes. We'll always have the indwelling and the Holy Spirit. It's just like being placed into Christ. That's a position that will never change. Yeah, I was just going to say, it's like... Never change. Right. Always. Eternal.

That's the difference. You know the difference between position and condition? Yes. Condition is variable. It changes. We stumble, we fall. That's our walk. It used to be standing and walk, I think. Standing and state. That's the way the old brethren used to say it. Standing and state. And standing was your position and state was your condition at the time. We now have position and condition is what we do. But position is something that never changes. Doesn't matter what we do, it is totally not dependent on anything we do. It can't change. We can be the biggest screw up and it will never change. Position, forever.

Condition, That's what I mean. Condition can be bad, but your Holy Spirit will always be there. But that's a positional truth. And the filling of the Spirit is a conditional thing. Right. Oh really? Yeah. Because it's an enablement to live the Christian life and to conduct whatever gift He has given you to carry out within the body of Christ.

It's His filling that allows that to happen. And so it doesn't affect service within the body of Christ, say a teacher or an exhorter or whatever, it takes a filling of the spirit in order to accomplish that. Or put it this way, it takes a filling of the spirit for a husband and a wife to fulfill their roles as husband and wife. A husband can't love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it without fulfilling the spirit. He can't do it.

It's impossible. Yeah, if you look at the criteria, what I was supposed to do, there ain't no way I can do that. The only possibility is through the filling of the Holy Spirit. It's the only way I can do it. There's no criteria in the sense that, well, I've got to do these seven steps in order to be filled.

But like Courtney was talking about, the Spirit of God creates circumstances in which He causes you, almost forces you, to be dependent on Him. to carry out what he wants you to do. And the circumstances change depending on the situation. Exactly. And if you revert to doing it in your fleshly manner, you're going to fail. And he allows that so that you again turn to him. Right. Sure.

And, you know, different facets of it, you know, it's like, I think, what I always say, you know, peeling the onion off, you know, he'll work on different aspects of you. You know, different circumstances will work on different, you know, things that will And again, when you put it in the context of can you ever be separated from his love? No. So, whatever he does is in love. And what is it?

To draw us to him. And that's the whole purpose of any chastening or child training. It's not that he's got a big club out there and he's going to just whoop you. It's he wants you to return to him. And have that intimate fellowship. And like I said, how stupid is this? We're the ones who go in the opposite direction. He wants intimate fellowship with us. Intimate fellowship with the God of the universe?

So as far as filling, we have all the Holy Spirit where we're going to get. It's not like we get more. He's not filling us up with more of himself. Yeah, you have the full indwelling of the Spirit, but it's like for, you know, different aspects to, you know, your ministry. For her ministry with kids, you know, filling and enabling her to fulfill her ministry. But it never leaves you.

It's a positional truth that is indwelling. So I just want to go through some of those things because we had them on the targets and it's been weeks since we've done it. So as I was going through it, studying it, I was like, you know. All right. So next one, his continuing ministries. In your walk. And this is where I actually changed the slide a little bit or bolded it down. It's a condition. The walk is a condition.

Okay, and then he glorifies the Father and Son in and through you. He manifests in you and through you what? The fruit of the Spirit and the glory of Jesus Christ. What does manifest mean? The only person answering is Monique. Monique always answers. Come on, you guys. Manifest. When it all comes together. It's exhibited in your life. Exhibited in your life? Silent children. Well, any others? Exhibited. Show forth. Show forth? I feel like exhibited. Exhibited? Webster's defines manifest as to make evident or certain by showing or displaying. Synonyms are demonstrate or exhibit. Does that seem like a good definition? Yeah, I think it is.

So if the Holy Spirit glorifies the Father and the Son through us, how does he do it? Say that again. So if the Holy Spirit, just what we're saying, glorifies the Father and the Son through us, how does he do it? In the fruit of the Spirit. What? In the fruit of the Spirit living through us. Good. Others?

I think the process is the ongoing process of conformity to Christ's image, and the more the conformity and the transformation takes place, the more the life of the Lord Jesus is manifested or displayed through us. It's a work of the Spirit. That allows God to be glorified, not only to us, but through us. through the fruit of the Spirit and through revealing the glory of the Lord. It's a process, what Mike was saying, through conforming us to the image.

As we become more like Him, we know Him, we intimately know Him, we know who we are in Christ, then we begin to manifest that. It's who we are. It's like in Adam, we manifest who we are in Adam. Yeesh! As we become more controlled by who we are in Christ, our new creation in Christ, as that becomes more manifest, we show the fruit of the Spirit, and we glorify the Lord.

Don't you think it's also the more we study God's Word and praise that that really is the key? As we get to Mike's favorite verse, the mirror. What is the mirror? God's Word. It's a reflection of you. Well, it's God's Word. The mirror. And as we study that, We what? We become transformed. And it's because we... I think that the word behold there is the key word. Yeah, behold.

I would not agree with what you said, and praying, because the Word of God is a specific tool given to us by God in order to behold the glory of the Lord. Now, in praying, maybe, maybe not, but this is designed specifically to know Christ, and that's why I'm there.

I'm not there to be a theologian or a scholar or to impress anybody with my, you know, ability to recall verses. It's not that at all. But I think in the praying side is the intimacy with Him and that's getting, you know... The facts are in the Bible, but I think it's that intimacy, that drawing near is partly in prayer too. I think that is part, but you know, I always, you know, use prayer as, you know, Lord, what do you want me to, Lord? What, you know, I don't understand this, but reveal this to me, you know, to the Holy Spirit, you know, I don't understand this.

You know, those are things, explaining the word. So, I mean, I think it's part of that, but Mike is right. I mean, the verse is really the mayor is the word. That's where you pick up. And through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who is the one doing work.

See, and I think that transformation process that goes on, you're not aware that it's happening. Because it's important, I think, to think about, well, if the Spirit of God is transforming me or conforming me to the image of Christ, what am I aware of at that time?

What am I doing? I'm beholden. effect on me. It's transforming me or conforming me into his image, but I'm not watching that happen. My focus is on him. Yes, once you focus on you... I don't know if you're going to go through John 15, but the vine and the branches, we're always peeking back to see how the fruit's doing. That's not our job. And we're getting into that right now.

So, the definition of manifest in one bit before we got to this one. The actual Greek word is this Phenerou. Phenerou means to make visible, clear, known, to uncover, lay bare, or reveal. That's the actual Greek word in the text that's used. Usually it's translated as display. Alright, so let's look at I was looking at some other words.

What are some other scriptures that talk about manifesting God through us? What are some other examples of God manifesting through a human? Can you think of any examples where God uses a human to manifest His glory? Well, because you could be a disaster of a person and then have transformed yourself because you now have faith. Yeah, examples in scripture. How about Joseph? Stephen? Joseph and Stephen? Who was being stoned to death? Oh, Paul, yeah, you're right. Paul? Yeah, I mean, and Stephen too, I guess I was thinking about that.

He revealed what was going on more than to glorify him. I'm thinking of specific ones that... Lazarus. Lazarus. How about doubting Thomas? Did he then, at the end, believe? Because he had to have proof. So what does that say? Yeah, but there was, I mean, were a use of human to glorify. One of the ones is Lazarus. You know, because... and I'll get to that one.

But the other one I looked at was the... in John 9, verses 1 through 3, the blind man. Remember the blind man? It says, as he passed by, this is Jesus, he saw a blind man from birth. As his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind? Jesus answered, it was neither this man's sin nor his parents.

But what? It was so that the works of God may be displayed in him. Okay? And then the other one that Bruce brought up is Lazarus, John 11, 1-4. Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary, of Bethany, the village of Mary and his sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick. So the sister sent word to him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. But when Jesus heard this, he said, the sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God. What? So that the Son of God may be glorified by it. So these are instances where, through a human, we glorify God, through circumstances, whatever, that we end up glorifying God. It would be Job and Nicodemus also. Nicodemus? How's that with Nicodemus? Nicodemus, wasn't he the one that had the sick son?

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, for the son. And then what was the other one you said? Job? Yeah, actually in the end. afternoon speeches and that. Yeah. Joe was out through the fire and all the changes. Yeah. So, I mean, I guess what the point is, we have examples in scripture where God uses a human to glorify him, to show his glory. Maybe the best is Moses up on the mountain and he comes down with a glowing face. Yeah, but he tried to hide that though. He did. I mean, that's the thing that he tried to hide the glory. Because it was fading. And which we'll get into. There's that verse that says it had an intimidating effect on the Jews. Right.

So he put the gunny sack over his head or whatever. He tried to hide it or it was because of the magnification of what he had seen was so strong that the others couldn't look on it. Well, they were intimidated. Yeah, and I forget whether he covered his face because they wanted him to or because... I thought he did it before. Yeah, I think he did do it before. Before he got down, because he did not want this intimidation.

So he put the gunny sack over his head or whatever just to cover up his glowing face, which we'll get to, actually, in the fading away. There's some verses we can look at. So let's go on. The bearing of fruit. It's the bearing of fruit that glorifies God. So, when we say, how do we glorify Him? It's through the bearing of fruit. So, probably the best verse that explains this is John 15, 1-5 and 8. I'll read 1-8, just for context here. John 15, beginning in verse 1. I am the true vine, and my father is the vinedresser.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit he prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you, as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the true vine, you are the branches, He who abides in me, and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up, and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. Key verse, verse 8. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. Just kind of a quick aside, a little bit. He says at the beginning, I am the true vine. In John, he goes through a whole list of I am's. I counted eight different ones. This is the last one. This is the last of the I am's.

He said in John 6.35, he is the bread of life.

John 8.12, light of the world. 818, he who testifies about myself, that one, he's talking about himself. And 824 and 828, I am he. And then John 9, 5, he is the light of the world. In John 10, 7, he's the door of the sheep. In John 10, 11, he's the good shepherd. And then this last one, he is now, he is the last of the I am's in John, where he says, I am the true vine.

There are three entities spoken of in John 15 passage. Who are they or what are they in the passage that we just read in John 15? There are three entities. What are the three entities? The Father, the true vine, and the branches. Exactly. Three different entities. The true vine, the vine dresser, and the branches. So, what does it mean when Jesus says he is the true vine? From him, everything springs forth. Okay? What does it mean, true? True vine. You dodged that one. He did. I know. He's a weasel. He's weaseling today. He's throwing his wife under the bus. I had a good teacher.

You're looking for another word besides true? What does it mean, true vine? I'll be deity. Deity? Others? The only one. The only one. That's good. As opposed to false. What did you put in his coffee this morning? I don't know. I don't think he had any. He needs some. Yeah, the Greek word here is alathinos, which means true or genuine. And from Zodiates, the definition of that word, spoken of what is true in itself, genuine, real, as opposed to which is false. There you go, Bruce. Zodiates agrees with you.

Alright, God the Father is called a vine dresser. What is a vine dresser? We don't use that term. In fact, when I first looked in my old dictionary for it, I didn't even have it. I had to go online. In Isaiah 5, 7 it says that for the vineyard of the Lord of the host is the house of Israel. So Israel considered themselves to be the true vine until Christ came along and said, I didn't go over that, trying to rush through a little bit. And that passage actually goes through the whole, actually a lot about the care of a vineyard. And then the true vine is where he says he is the true one.

He is the, I guess, deity, but he is the one which all life springs from. He's the only one. He's the only one. This is the true one. Yeah. This is the genuine one, not as the Jews were looking for on an earthly one. This is, like I said, deity, the truth, the genuine. The one who had life. The one who had life.

All right. So, Webster defines a vine dresser, the online one, a person who cultivates or prunes grape vines. Okay? So, who or what are the branches? We are the branches, right? Okay, what about in verse 2, pruning versus taking away. Calm down, Mike.

Let me read it again just to get it here. In verse 2 it says, every branch of mead that does not bear fruit, he takes away. So what does that mean? Those that reject him will be taken away, gathered, and tossed in the bullet barn. That's later. The verse that's after 8 or 7 or 8. No, 6 or 7. No, that is not correct. The one time you speak up and you're wrong! Alright! What does it mean? This is a very terrible translation. This is a terrible translation. When you look at the word taken away.

He doesn't bother. Now, what the actual should be in this, and I don't know why they haven't changed that or gone back on this. I think the new American standard changes it. No, I'm on the new American. It doesn't. That's what it is. It's taken away. It really means lifted up. Not taken away. So what does that mean? Lifted up? It takes away. Yeah, but it's a bad translation, Monique. It should be, he lifts up, is the actual word. They may bear fruit. What? He takes it away so that it can be pruned, so that they may bear fruit. Right, he lifts them up, you know. And I have this, I think hopefully this works. Yes.

This is actually a grapevine. See how they're off the ground? They do that to bear fruit. If they're laying on the dirt, they don't bear much fruit or any fruit. So they have to be lifted up on a wire or a trellis or something to bear fruit. So this is saying about lifted up. He lifts it off the ground to bear fruit. He lifts it back up on the trellis or the wire to bear fruit.

So this is not taken away, and there are whole people who take this and go crazy, that you can lose your salvation, you can be taken away if you are not bearing fruit, God is going to kick you out. Think about what identification is. If you really think about identification, this makes no sense. You can't be, if you are in Christ, how are you taken away and burned up? You can't be. So, when you look at the translation, it's a terrible translation.

It should be lifted up. Which makes sense, because we're talking about a vine and a vine dresser. He lifts it up to what? Bear more fruit. If you're in the dirt, if you're wallowing in the dirt, he lifts you up to bear more fruit. But the true vine dresser, at the end of the season, after the fruit has been all the branches get trimmed back to just the vines. So that if you ever go buy a vineyard in the wintertime, all you see is these little stumps.

You know what though? Do we ever get to the harvest time in this? Yeah. Well, in this instance, it's not talking about, I don't believe it's talking about like going through seasons where we're completely trimmed back. This is in the growth. This is in the bearing of fruit. This is in the season. During the church age we are bearing fruit, but at the end of the church age... There you go. That's what I'm trying to get at. In our Christian life we are bearing fruit. This is in the bearing season.

I don't think it's ever where you're saying beyond the season we go and we get completely pruned back where all the branches are pruned back and then we start again. I don't think this metaphor or this analogy is for that. You mean it means you get more knowledge? I'm sorry, we got started late and we got a lot of different things.

Again, what I want to show on this too is the vine and the branch. And then the fruit comes off the branch. Do you want to have some time next week? Maybe. And I'll get my computer fixed. I will. I'm going to stay after and I'm going to figure out what does this. so so this you know we're actually looking at here again was and what I want to show is the difference between you know lifted up so that's what meant that taken away means lifted up so it's just putting it back up so it can bear fruit.

The other key thing is the vine versus the branch. Where does the life come from? The branch or the vine? The vine. Who is the true vine? The Lord Jesus. Alright, and we see that in verse 4 and 5, Abide in me and I in you, as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Okay, now the key question is, Do we produce fruit? No. Yes? We don't produce it. We don't? We're the branch. No. It hangs on us but we don't produce it. That's the key. Most people think, I've got to go out and produce fruit. I've got to produce fruit. I'm a branch. The vines are... I'm to produce fruit. No. Is the quality of the fruit dependent on the branch? No. No? Yes? No. No, good, good. The branch only produces what is provided by the vine. The vine gives you all the water, the nutrients, everything. You add sunshine and all that, it makes the branch produce fruit. The branch is totally dependent on the vine.

We see that in the verses. Also, if you note in the John 15 passage, there are four comments on fruit bearing. In that passage that we read, there's not fruit bearing, there's bearing fruit, there's bearing more fruit, and there's bearing much fruit. There's actually four different classifications in this.

Based on this, can we resolve to bear fruit? Because you can bear more fruit, you can bear much fruit, you can bear fruit. Can you resolve to bear much fruit? Can you say, I'm going to bear much fruit? No. As well as you can do your own salvation. No, you can't.

You know how many people are frustrated by that and want to go and bear fruit? They say, I'm going to go out and I'm going to bear much fruit. I'm going to be the vine with the most fruit on it. I'm going to resolve to be that vine that's just hanging with fruit, just drooping with fruit.

It's just when you're living in self as opposed to living in Him. Exactly. All this is, and this is a great, when I started going through this analogy, it was really good. I mean, it shows so many things about our dependency on the Holy Spirit. He's the one who does all this. All we are is a conduit to be used of Him. And it's not our resolve, it's not our efforts to do this. It's resting in the Lord. Once you rest in the Lord, you walk in the Spirit. It's kind of a weird thought, you rest but you walk. As you rest in the Lord, offer yourself efforts You then can be used of Him and walk in the Spirit.

Okay, so we are the fruit and Christ is the vine. Christ is the vine. We're the branch. We're the branch. Not the fruit. Yeah, we're just the branch. That's all we are is the branch. We're just a conduit for Him to produce fruit through us. Not in our efforts. We just allow Him to work through us through the Holy Spirit. To produce fruit. So we're just a branch. We're just a branch. And that's what I want to say in this mind arrestor. Why is there fruit then, if we're just a branch?

The fruit is the good works that God does through us. So why? For His glory that others may be brought to the Lord. To glorify Him. To glorify Him. That's what it says. Remember the last part of verse 8? Look at verse 8 in John 15. It's like those that teach you're saved by grace but then you've got to earn it to keep it. So verse 8 it says, to glorify Him is those who bear fruit. So the bearing of fruit is to glorify Him. I'm going to hear 40 minutes in advance to pray this out. He needs it. I do. I know my computer needs it. Alright, let's close.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. Father, we thank you for any time we can just look into your Word. We thank you, again, just in amazement that it's everything you do. It's not our efforts. It's not what we resolve to do. It's just us resting in you, being conformed to your image. And then just being who we are in Christ, and that manifestation of you through us that produces that fruit.

So Father, we just thank you so much for the plans that you have. If we had it our way, we'd screw it all up. And we are so thankful that you are the one who has this plan, the plan of salvation to begin with, and then the plan for each and every one of us, and how you function through us. And we thank you that it's to glorify you. And we pray that as we go through this day, we'll glorify you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.