Person & Work of the Holy Spirit
Randy Peterman · Jan 20, 2013
Holy Spirit (2013), No. 03
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926341244034

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

So this morning we have less than one and then there's less than two. We have more less than two. I don't know that we have more. Can you ask him to make copies of less than two? Because we're going to we're on less than twelve or question twelve of less than one. So I just said out loud we're on question twelve of less than one. We left off actually in the middle of question 12 of lesson 1 last week. Mike asked another question that was in here, so we got off kind of on a rabbit trail. And as has been said before, we like the rabbit trails. That's OK. Do you have a different one? Are you ahead of us? OK. So question 12 is, what were the first works of the Holy Spirit right after the Fall? And this is based on the text of the book, The Person and Works of the Holy Spirit, by Rite Out.

I'm going to just come out right now and say that I have some hesitancy with his answer. And Mike mentioned that last week. And part of it is that There are certain things that are not explicitly revealed in the text of Genesis that the author implies and we just want to be careful.

Anytime something is not explicitly stated, what are you doing if you draw a conclusion? You could be getting off center. You're reading into the text. You're making a guess. Who knows how good it is. That's the problem. So when you start inserting ideas into the text of scripture that aren't originally there, there's a word for that. You might want to write this down so you can sound fancy someday. It's a $5 word. It's called isogesis. It's pretty awesome. It has Jesus in it, but it has nothing to do with our Lord. How do you spell it? S-I-G-E-S-I-S. It's pretty awesome.

Isogesis. But the exegesis is when you draw out from the text, right? When we study the word, we want to draw out the meaning of the author's intent. That's exegesis. E-X-I-G-E-S-I-S. And when you're reading into the text, what is not there, that's isogesis. That's inserting it. And you can remember that if there's ice in it, that might be great for drinks, but it's crummy in your theology.

But what we see here, the point that we can derive from this section of the book that is talking about the work of the Holy Spirit, is the author He is talking about the life of the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Spirit bringing life, I'm sorry, into Adam and Eve because they believe.

Remember, at the fall, what happened? There was death. They were separated from the Father. So, when they received the skins to cover themselves, that was an act of What? Crime? What was it an act of? Shame? No? Obedience? How about faith? They took that in compliance and faith that the Lord was providing for them. Okay? Yes? Well, is it wrong to say that that was the first blood offering? I wouldn't disagree that that was the first blood offering.

So this is another rabbit trail, so I'll try to be quick about it, but it is really important to recognize that before that moment, there had not been death on the earth. That's a pretty big deal to say, okay, right before the Lord killed animals to create a pelt covering for Adam and Eve, There had not been death on the earth.

And the Lord wanted to show them there is a reality of death is the consequence of sin. You sinned and now there is death. Do you think it was kind of representative of Christ's dying? I think that because we know that the Messiah was coming, that was going to crush the serpent's head from Genesis, we can say that we're going to get into the idea of things being representative. We want to be careful anytime we say something is representative if it's not explicitly stated as such. But they needed to know that a sacrifice had to be made.

And further on in Revelation, in the revelation of Scripture throughout the history of the Scripture, we will see that there's clear revelation that Christ was going to come. All they knew is that one was going to come that was the seed of Eve, who's going to crush the head of the serpent. So that's from Genesis 3, 15 or 16. But we have this principle here that life was given by the Holy Spirit to the believers because of their act of faith.

So let's talk about COMBS. I said there was an acronym before we got started. Here's an acronym for COMBS. C stands for content. O stands for object, and I'm going to talk about each one of these in a little bit more detail. M is for means, and B is for basis. Okay, means. Okay, so let's talk about O, M, B all stay the same. The only thing that changes throughout all of scripture is the content of what the believers believed. Because scripture is progressive, right? Time moves in one direction for humanity. It starts at zero and moves forward.

Did they have everything from Genesis to Revelation when Adam and Eve fell? What did they have? they had God, which is pretty awesome if you ask me. That's not a bad way to start. Except then they fell. So the content of their faith was that God had given them a skin and had prophesied that the serpent's head would be crushed by one of their Eve's seed. But that's all they had.

And then if you move forward, what did Abraham have to believe, I'm sorry, what did Moses say, or what did Abraham have to believe to be saved? Faith. Well, he had to have faith, but what was his faith in? What was the content of his faith? That God was going to give him descendants. So, the content of his faith was not a new revelation of who God was, So let's talk about object, means, and basis, and then we'll come back to content one more time to talk about the New Testament Saint. The object of their faith is always God, the Father. The means of their salvation is always faith. Can you be saved by the law? What if you try really hard? Still no? Okay.

And B is the basis. The basis is always the work of Christ on the cross. In the Old Testament, they look forward to Christ on the cross, and in the New Testament times, we look back. So the content changes, but the object is always God, the means is always faith, and the basis is always Christ's work on the cross. So in the New Testament, what content do we have that we have faith in?

We kind of just said it. Christ died on the cross and was buried and resurrected on the third day and then ascended. So we believe in the gospel message because the content of the revelation has progressed. At the time of Adam and Eve, the simplest thing they could do was take the skin. That was their act of faith. And they were interacting face-to-face with God. the Holy Spirit gave them life. Any questions on that with COMB or anything else that we said last week? Anyone confused? Did I do a terrible job of explaining that? Because that's possible. Go ahead, Holly.

So then the answer to number 12, the first works of the Holy Spirit, would be to give Adam and Eve life? That's right. That would be the simplest answer is to say that from the book, the quote is, let us thank him for the gift of life by the Spirit. Alright, question 13 is, did any of the Old Testament saints have life when they pleased God? Yeah. Abraham. Okay. This is a trick question here.

When they pleased God. Did they not please Him? I would disagree with that. Because we have places where the Lord was pleased by various things. Even the incense when they offered up sacrifices, the Lord was pleased by those things. There's times when that takes place. There's various people that the Lord worked with, but was it the pleasing of God that gave them life?

That's really why it's a trick question. What gives them life? Faith. Okay. And that's really the key thing. Now, this is something that's not in the book, but something from what you would have learned upstairs if you were there, listening, paying attention to all the tricky things. Right? That's not tricky. Talking about grace.

Could someone have displeased God by disobeying the law, but still been an Old Testament saint? We've got some nods. Those don't turn up on the tape recording, so I would like to repeat that. But yes, the answer is it's possible for someone to have sinned and disobeyed the law, but have been an Old Testament saint that believed. They just screwed up.

Even Moses. What did Moses do? Well he was angry and he disobeyed God and yet it doesn't say that he was condemned to hell or separation from God for eternity. In fact we know that he is in eternal life with our Lord. So 13 we need to make sure that we understand that we can fall. and stumble and that is not going to impact salvation.

That's a New Testament application of the principle. Alright, question 14. What does Rideout say is the common blessing of all dispensations? New birth, gift of life. That's right, the new birth or the gift of life. Could that be the gift of life by the Spirit? Yeah, well the Holy Spirit does that work in the Saint.

Nobody wants to argue about that? Come on. Mike always draws out a better argument than I do. I must be too passive and counter-antagonistic. Well, this is talking about eternal life or life by the Spirit. Not the same as having a pulse. Yeah, it's not the same. Is the consequence of being a saint in the New Testament different than being a saint in the Old Testament? We better make sure we draw a distinction here. The Old Testament saints were not in the church.

They were not under grace. They had grace. They were recipients of grace. The Lord was gracious because of the work of Christ that was to come. and grave reparation. It was building up to, it was preparation to those things. Do they, are they identified with Christ in this death, burial, resurrection, ascension and seeding?

No. No they are not. Okay. So that's just a, there's a distinction there. And what about David? I mean he wrote about what was going to happen. He did. But we're going to get into that in the next lesson, so we're not going to skip ahead. You'll ruin my lesson. I'm just kidding. I'm teasing. But David, we need to actually talk about that. That's a very good question. We'll get to that hopefully today or next week.

So question 15, which I just asked, what is the difference in the life given to Old Testament saints in the Christian life? Yeah, they weren't. Old Testament saints weren't indwelt by the Holy Spirit. They weren't indwelt by the Holy Spirit? No, on a continual basis.

On a continual basis, and I think we really need to draw out that distinction because it wasn't until I went to seminary and shot my mouth off in a class and showed my ignorance that I realized that I had made some assertions about the Holy Spirit or had some assumptions that were wrong. When did the Holy Spirit interact with the Old Testament saint? when he came upon them for just a time.

So the Holy Spirit would have inspired the writings of Isaiah, right? Can we agree on that? And he would have inspired Moses to compile and put together the writings of the law. The Holy Spirit would have inspired David to write the things that he wrote. But what does David write in Psalm 51? Let's turn real quick to Psalm 51 if you've got your Bibles. Starting in verse 10 of Psalm 51, somebody go ahead and read to verse 13.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a bright spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Okay, so how is the Holy Spirit interacting with the author of the psalm here?

Which is David. He comes and goes. He comes and goes. And David wants to have him there to depend on. Okay, so David wants the Holy Spirit's presence all the time. and he recognizes his sinful ways and he's praying, Lord let your Holy Spirit stay with me despite my foibles and flaws. Does a believer have to pray that same thing? I used to. Why not? He lives there.

We talked about the seal last week. The Ephesians tells us that the Holy Spirit is a seal given to guarantee our salvation. And so we don't have to worry about that. That for me would have been a great relief for about a decade of my life that I didn't understand that. That's a long time to constantly be praying, Lord, please let your Holy Spirit come and dwell me and not be sure of things. Try 60 years.

I would prefer not to, but I have empathy for you and I understand what you're saying. The chaos of not knowing that the Holy Spirit always and dwells in the believer leads you to have questions and doubt. And it ultimately leads you to not being able to grow. Because you don't know that you can rest in what's true of you in Christ.

So it's really, it was quite a relief. It's really wonderful to be able to trust that while the Old Testament saint could still be indwelled by the Holy Spirit for prophetic means and for various works. In the next lesson we'll get into even the Holy Spirit working in people who weren't saints, which is kind of fun. But for the believer, we don't have to worry about that. That's really cool. It's not only comforting, but it changes the way that you walk. If Paul tells us to walk by the Spirit, and the Spirit is constantly leaving you, that's a lot of turmoil to go through, but we don't have to worry about that. Alright, let's continue on.

Any other questions about Lesson 1 before we jump into Lesson 2? Besides, do we have Lesson 2 copies for everybody? That's Lesson 1. Here's Lesson 2. We have two copies of Lesson 2. Who needs them? Alright, is everybody comfortable with Lesson 2? If you don't have Lesson 2, I think April's getting some copies made.

Some of you turned to Numbers 24-2 and some of you turned to 1 Samuel 11-6. Those are the two verses that we have right there. So, if you think everyone else is turning to Numbers, you can go to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel 11-6, both those addresses are in the question there with Question 1 of Lesson 2. You will need to write that down.

So Numbers 24.2 we see, And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe, and the Spirit of God came over him.

So who is 1 Samuel 11.6? Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul mightily when he heard these words, and he became very angry. Now I have to say that this was initially a little disturbing for me. Wait a minute!

Why is the Holy Spirit involving the pagan or the secular mind in his work? We have to ask the question that we have here is, is the power of the Holy Spirit irresistible? What is the Holy Spirit doing in these secular minds, in these pagan minds? Okay, he's creating the work that he wants to effect. I think that's a really good answer. The Holy Spirit is bringing about something that is part of his plan even in the lives of people who really don't like it.

Bringing this to a modern context, do you ever think atheists say things that are true and it will drive them crazy when they get to eternity and the Lord reveals that? The atheist who denies God entirely thinks that God doesn't even exist and yet the Lord could even use them. That would just drive me bonkers. They didn't study scripture. Some of them do. They can quote things out of context and say, well, this, therefore this. Yeah, and they'll do that sort of thing. It's not a valid meaning they're giving to.

It makes sense that if the Holy Spirit did that throughout history that he could continue to do it now. Let's actually ask that question because I think it's really important. Does this mean that the Holy Spirit forces us in all cases to do his will? No. If we ask the first question we need to make sure We also asked that second question. It's not in your handout. But we need to ask, does this mean the Holy Spirit forces all those cases? And I think the answer is a resounding no. Everybody agreed with that. It doesn't mean that if he has some intentional plan that we get to just skip out on it.

But there are certain verses, like if we turn to Romans chapter 7. I found great comfort in Romans chapter 7 when I didn't understand Romans chapter 6. Does everybody understand what I'm talking about when I say Romans 7? What does he say in Romans chapter 7?

I can't do what I should do and I do what I shouldn't do. That's right. So in verse 15 he says, For what I am doing I do not understand, for I am not practicing what I would like to do. But I am doing the very thing I hate. What would he like to do? Obey God. Obey the Lord. But he's walking in the flesh at this point in time in the text. And the result of that is sin, which is not the work of the Holy Spirit, even though he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, as 1 Corinthians 2 tells us.

Or if we turn to Galatians 5.16-18, I'm totally going to steal my dad's lesson from the main service today. If you turn to Galatians 5, I won't steal the whole lesson, obviously, because he's going to spend 30-40 minutes on it.

But Paul writes, but I say walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law."

There's a lot of truth there. I'm going to let my dad unpack that during the main service. But what Paul writes there is that you have an abiding issue. You have an issue of, am I walking in fellowship with the Lord, or am I going to walk in the flesh?

And the Holy Spirit is not forcing you to always walk in the Spirit. That's what the secular mind would like you to believe, is that you should do that. That's why every time they say Christians are hypocrites, they really mean Christians are not walking by the Spirit all the time. And the Holy Spirit should force that upon the Christians, so therefore Christianity is false. They don't understand the truth that's revealed and so therefore they draw some false conclusions and that leads to weird assertions about what is real and what is not.

We should probably get back, because I rabbit trailed incredibly well, we should probably get back to the series of questions. The next question that we have on the handout is what is the difference between a judge and a prophet? And then of course Mike's noted page 7 for the answer. Judge is a menace for the prophet. That's good. That's the short answer and I think that's probably the best answer we can have is that we understand that a judge is an administrator. This one was so easy I didn't think it needed a lot of long discussion.

Any questions on that one before we keep moving? upon the failure of the priesthood, which very often happens, and I thought that was rather interesting. Yeah, well, and that's part of question three. We were on question two, that's all right. It is interesting, and that leads me to question three.

Which is, what was the reason that God communicated through prophets? Because the priest failed. The priesthood failed. That's a really big deal if you think about that. Now, we better ask an important question. Who are the prophets if the pastors fail in the New Testament church, if the elders fail?

I think we have the revelation of the scripture that still stands and the Lord may, through the Holy Spirit, move certain believers to irritate and poke sticks and hit the problem and write polemic letters and say, hey, this isn't right. We don't have prophets in today's church that come in and have new revelation that God is speaking to correct them. unless you believe in the Mormon Church. They actually still have that going on, or the Catholics, for that matter. The Pope speaks as an apostle.

But we don't have that in the New Testament context. But the priesthood failed, and that's a pretty big deal. When you look at the cycle of the history in the Old Testament, what happens over and over again? The priesthood fails, or a king who is righteous was succeeded by a king who is unrighteous? were a lot of kings who were unrighteous. And so, then the prophets come. But what happens at the end of the Old Testament before Christ comes?

How many years were there between the prophets, the minor prophets? About 400 years. So when the Holy Spirit comes and starts doing things in what we call the Gospels, That would have had their attention because it had been quiet for a while. You get 400 years of silence and then things start happening. So it's a really interesting thing that the prophets come when the priesthood failed. Alright, next question is what are the two things that prophets always did?

I have the answer from last week. Laid sin on people's consciences and pointed to the remedy for coming in the reign of Christ. Okay. Very cool. So let's ask this really, really important question because this is a principle that applies to Old Testament context and New Testament context. Does the Holy Spirit make you feel guilty? No. The Holy Spirit doesn't make you guilty. Oh sure, when necessary it does.

What did we just say though? Let's take a look very carefully at what he does. Convicts of sin. Okay, he convicts us to return us to relationship. How do you respond to guilt? Or at least how do I respond to guilt? I'm assuming that you're wired roughly the same as I am. You feel really bad. Does that fix it? And you're mad at yourself. Ah, so then you fix it.

Then you pull yourself up by your bootstraps and say, I'm not going to do that sin ever again, right? What does the Holy Spirit lead us to do? We confess the sin and then we return to fellowship. So if you start to feel guilty, you can know who that is. And it's not the Holy Spirit. It's you. And you can know that's wrong. So you can immediately say, hey, this is not time to feel guilty. This is time to Walk in the Spirit. Oh, I'm not abiding. Okay, let's walk in the Spirit. It seems like guilt puts the focus back on us again. Like, yeah, like we could have done better or we should have. Cornyn? I was just saying, you know, in the confession, the first John 1, 9, 9, the confession of sin, all that is saying is that I'm not acting who I am in Christ.

Yeah, it's not a list. It's not a list. It's just agreeing with God that that's not who I am in Christ. And I'm not fellowshipping. I'm not acting who I am in Christ. What you've told me about who I am, I'm not acting that way. And that's the confession part. It's not that we have to list out every sin that we have and do that. It's just restoring the fellowship that we turned away from and the intimacy that He wants we turn away from. tomorrow and the ten things. I'm not acting as who I am in Christ. So the confession is that you're not walking in the Spirit, that you're not abiding, not the laundry list.

And I think that's really key. Because let me tell you, I used to think it was, and when you have the, I have got to pray for the Holy Spirit to come back, and you're thinking, well what do I have to do? Because I've got to twist God's arm, right? Oh, I better run through my laundry list. Oh shoot, what if I forgot something? And I knew I'd forgotten something when I didn't have a good experience at church. That was always the telltale sign. So they have to really think hard.

This also goes back to the grace principle too. Grace is not predicated on your behavior. And how good I am or how bad I am or whatever. It's not based on that. It's based on Christ and His work. And so it's not whether you know, beating myself up for sin or whatever. Grace is not based on us. It's us receiving it, saying thank you. But if it was based on our performance... It wouldn't be grace. And we wouldn't get it.

Alright, so we worked our way to question 5, which is actually the question that you had had earlier that I said we couldn't answer yet. So we're going to ask question 5, which is in 1 Peter 1, 10-12, what did the Spirit tell through the prophets that would happen in the future? And if you'll turn there to 1 Peter 1, 10-12, whoever gets there first, go ahead and start reading out loud.

As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries. seeking to know what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that followed. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, and these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Alright. There is a lot of content in those three verses. We're not going to get to exposit all of what's out there and draw out everything that's in there. But the question is, what did the Spirit tell through the prophets that would happen in the future? I said they prophesied of the grace that should come. And He testified of Christ's sufferings long before they happened and the glory that would follow. Alright.

They keep talking about the remedy. What all did that cover when they speak of the remedy? The remedy? Well, what was the problem? Let's ask first what's the problem. The problem was death and separation and the sin, the issue of sin that controlled the saint. So the remedy was the work of Christ to bring a resolution to that. God's wrath was paid fully. Christ was in atonement. He was the propitiation.

So we have that. And all of the issues that came through being a descendant of Adam, the term that sometimes gets used is that he is the federal head. of the earthly race, Adam. And then there's a second federal head. Who's that? This is Romans chapter 5. Christ is the other federal head. When we believe, he becomes our new federal head. He is the representative one of whom we are the new type in him. Does that make sense?

So the remedy is that Christ dealt with all of the issues that sin brought and became the solution to all of those problems. The development of doctrine within the church age shows that there's new revelation and new things, but Christ pivotally took care of those things.

Is there anything you'd add to that, Courtney? And that, you know, the coverings weren't necessary anymore. There was now a new life in Christ. That God was satisfied with the payment for sin at the cross and with his death, burial, and resurrection. And at that point, the sin question was taken care of. That's not an issue anymore. Now the only issue is Now the only question is, do you believe in Christ, faith in Christ?

And that, that's, you know, so the micro issues, the guy across the street in the White House, has his sins been paid for? Yes. Yes. But whether he's accepted the free gift of salvation is the only question left for every human that's left on the earth. So the sin question is taken care of. That is, God is satisfied with the payments for all sins, all Does that answer your question good? Alright. That was grammatically incorrect. I said answer your question. I've been reading to my children at night a bedtime story that's a long book and one of the characters really likes grammar so I've been very self-conscious about that.

Let's move on to question six, and this is where we're going to start getting into some sticky wickets. The question is, in Genesis 8, verses 7-12, the spirit is shown as a type of dove. What did the dove teach us about the spirit's work? I want us all carefully to look at Genesis 8, verses 7-12 and see what is here, because this is where it gets sticky.

I'm going to go ahead and read it out loud and then And he sent out a raven, and it flew here and there until the water was dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove from him to see if the water was abated from the face of the land. But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him into the ark, for the water was on the surface of all the earth. Then he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark to himself. So he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark. The dove came back to him toward evening, and behold, in her beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was evaded from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, but she did not return to him again. How many references specifically to the Holy Spirit are there in that passage? Zero.

That's the right answer. So this is why it's a sticky wicket. What we're talking about here is something that in theological circles is called typology. Typology is a fancy word, if we're being honest with ourselves, to talk about something that represents a type or a class of something that is there.

The Holy Spirit is not specifically described as being the dove or representing the dove or the dove representing the Holy Spirit in that passage. So what Rideout is going to do here is he's going to make some assertions which I think are not clearly revealed and so I get hesitant about teaching it as though it is revealed truth. There are some principles that I can't disagree with that he's going to say but I'm going to warn you this is not exposition. This is supposition. So just be aware of that because it's important when someone says something is how it is and it's not clearly revealed that it is that way it's not gospel. So it's not that this is full of error, it's that we just need to take it in that context. He's going to make some assertions and we just need to be careful that it doesn't say that specifically. So now that we've said that, let's go back to the question.

He says, in Genesis 8, 7-12, the Spirit is shown as a type of dove. What did the dove teach us about the Spirit's work? I have that the dove went out to make known what was not visible. Okay. And that is also what I have in my notes. So the author continues on, the spirit of God can find nothing in a world under judgment to rest upon and returns as it were to Christ. Again, Noah is not Christ and we want to be careful with the typology there.

Then next the dove brings back something from the new earth, an olive leaf, pledge of fruitfulness after the judgment. He continues on, the dove lastly flies off into the regenerated earth and thus no one knows that the waters have departed. Now at the very end of that paragraph, or the second to last sentence, he says, no one can fail to notice to the appropriateness of the dove as a type of the spirit.

So he, as an author, is recognizing that he is being typological in this context. He should have started with that, and then I would have felt so much better. But it's just one of those things where you see that there's a pattern. When we talk about typology, I just want to clarify, there are other types that we could look at.

Like Abraham, when he goes to sacrifice Isaac, people who are talking about typology say Isaac is like a type of Christ. He would have been a sacrifice. Except for that Isaac didn't get sacrificed, so there's that. But within typology, that's where it gets sticky because it's not clear revelation.

I choose as a teacher to try to avoid jumping to typology because it makes for a really humdinger of a lesson because you sound really creative, but it's way better to just exposit the text, clear out. The truths of what he is implying, the principles that are there, can be derived from New Testament context and that's where I would go. That's probably a better way to handle that. Because otherwise you get into... there are some theologians that have come up with some very clever things from the scripture that are not revealed. They just go to typology and they win because you can't say it's not there or you can't argue that it's not there and so therefore it's not true because they've already embraced the typology. So you just want to be careful with that. Sure.

I was looking through this and the scenario that he brings about there and I think it was the world after the flood cured of all sin. The question is, was the world cured of all sin? Yes, after the flood. I think we could argue no. And that is because Noah was there with his seven relatives. And they carried the line of Adam with them. So they brought the sin with them through the flood. Now they were more righteous than the rest of the earth. And the earth was purified and kept for life. Yeah. The Lord hit reset. It was pretty awesome. I think that's where the Rocky Mountains came from. I'm a big fan.

But we have this... There are certain things that are a result of the flood, but I don't think that we want to... The parallels get sketchy real quick. Because the work of Christ on the cross was way more thorough and perfect than the purification that would have come from the flood.

That was handy. It was awesome. It was God's perfect plan that it would happen, but it didn't deal with the issue of sin. It did, however, lead to the first recorded instance of a barbecue. So I feel like that's good. In Genesis 9. Apologies for my sense of humor. I lived in Texas for five years.

So we have a pattern here though of cleansing and there is a sense of there is a relationship but we want to be careful that we don't draw too many parallels with it. Judgment is clear. Noah was a prophet. He was sent by God to tell people, hey, wrath is coming. Repent. Let's face it, if you were a statistics major, he had an absolute failure on his hands. Except for that, the failure was in the flesh of mankind, not in God's plan. Not in Noah. He did what he was told.

All right, any other questions on that? We can keep moving forward. We've got maybe time for one more question as we work through this. All right, let's move right from Genesis to Exodus 13-21. It's on page 101 if you have my Bible. The question is, describe the work of the Spirit in the pillar of fire in the cloud. What happened? There's a visible sign.

Guidance for day and night. Okay, it was guidance for day and night. And the author goes on to draw out New Testament principles that are in parallel, but again, there's this sense of typology that is part of the assertions in this section. And it's not that we can't draw those conclusions based on New Testament doctrines and revelation that's in the text. We just want to be careful that we don't just say, hey, here's a reference to something that God did and therefore represents this. I said the Spirit was ever with them in the Shekinah glory. I'm sure that's a write out. Yes. Would that be a true thing? That's part of it.

The idea is that, because if we're looking at what's there, that's the work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament saints' lives, that he would reveal that. So that is probably the best answer out of what's there in context for the Israelites. Yeah, it says the Lord and that's always one of those things where it's like, okay, is this a manifestation of the Spirit? The author is saying it is. The Hebrew there is Jehovah, so that's normally how I would say the Lord and imply the Father.

Again, this is a typological thing, and so that's where it gets kind of sketchy. We're going to go through these questions. I'm not trying to do this to, like, poo-poo the text, by the way, when I say it's typological. That's not my intent. The idea is more that we understand the context and how the author is approaching the text. And it's just better to go to New Testament context. and draw up these truths.

The bell is going to go off any second now and there's no way we're going to be able to make it through the next question. just like the Holy Spirit now that dwells with us. He puts in there that the Shatanic cloud is ever with them. And to me, I didn't understand that when I'm reading that. It's like, is it still with them? It goes away. That's the thing. I don't understand his answer in that. I don't believe it.

The idea is that it was perpetually with them until it wasn't. Which is really kind of not perpetual, as it turns out. So I think it goes back. agree with that or understand that. It's not the same as our indwelling in the Holy Spirit, which will never leave us.

It's not there today. I wouldn't write it that way. The awesome thing about the pillar is that if you were Israel, how many questions would you have about which way we should go? Let's go this way. I think it's that way. Makes it easier. The thing is, and there's a principle, and this is probably what I would want to emphasize from this example. The principle is that the Lord makes it clear when there's a direction that Israel needs to go. And he makes it clear that they need to follow Moses. And the Shekinah glory is in the pillar. is a sign to let the Israelites know that.

In the New Testament, when the church gets started, what happens in Acts chapter 2? Pentecost happens. And how would we describe that? Flames of tongues of fire come down from heaven. And that's a sign But it doesn't continue. Every time someone becomes a believer, do flames of fire come down? I can personally tell you that either I'm not a believer... I'm not a believer if that's a requirement, because flames of fire didn't come down when I asked the Lord to be my Savior. But there's something that the Lord does sometimes to say, this is a deal that I'm doing.

And they knew. God was leading them. With the cloud by day, the fire by night. Why did it take them 40 years to get there? It took them longer than that actually, which is pretty impressive. Because it took them, they were about ready to go after 40 years and then the children of Israel were so cranky and grumpy after 40 years that they revolted and the Lord wiped them out and brought the next generation and they went for 40 years The golden calf.

The thing is that all of that was happening because these people were not walking by faith and they had not all turned to the Lord. Not everyone that exited Egypt was a saint. There were some persnickety folks that came out there that were not trusting the Lord.

They were just walking in their own strength. And so there was a consequence if we don't have the cloud or the pillar and nothing ahead of us but we have to go by feet? Because that's how we're designed to walk, the answer is yes. But that is important. We should close because we need to all mosey on upstairs. I've got to tune a guitar. Let's close in prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the truth of your word. Thank you that we can understand it and read it and know it for ourselves. We just ask that you would, through your Holy Spirit, draw out the truths that are there so that we may walk in them and live out your life. We just thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.