Person & Work of the Holy Spirit

All right, so I believe we left off with question seven. So we'll pick up with question seven from last week. Now, I mentioned last week that we have some typology that's going on here, and that's not my preference for studying. So we'll take a look at what's here, and we'll talk about what the author says. But I want to just clarify that most of the principles that he talks about can be derived from New Testament verses. And since we're going to get into that in the coming weeks, I'm not going to go into that.

But the New Testament verses would always be the place I would go to to prove a point. And I'll explain why when we get to question eight, simply because I thought that was a good example that I was able to find. But we'll start with seven in Exodus 13 21 described the work of the spirit in the pillar of fire in the cloud Who has a an answer from from the book I Not word for word, but I have that he, and plus this was two weeks ago, but I have that he guides us and is always with us. Okay, that was a summary of what was there. Okay. Visible sign. It was a visible sign, the presence of the Lord.

Now one of the reasons why I have a problem assigning the Holy Spirit to this is because if you turn to Exodus 14.19 you'll actually see that Moses assigned a personhood to the pillar and it wasn't the Holy Spirit. So that's why I personally get a little twitchy about typology.

So Exodus 14.19 says the angel of God who had been going before the camp of Israel moved and went behind them because Egypt was pursuing Israel. And so the pillar moved behind him and it wasn't the Holy Spirit, it was the angel of the Lord, or it was an angel. That for me is a bit of a thing.

Now, can we go to New Testament passages and we can find that the Holy Spirit sticks with the believer and is with the believer and guides the believer? I'm getting no response. So can we lose our salvation or does the Holy Spirit leave us and depart from us? No. Mike went over this in week one. Somebody has to remember something. We're sealed. There we go.

From Ephesians. So the principle that the Lord was with Israel is absolutely true. The typology makes me a little bit nervous. In question 8, Exodus 27, 20-21, it says describe the Spirit's work. Let's go ahead and read it. We should always read the Bible verses when we have the chance. Exodus is in the Old Testament, right after Genesis. Alright, Exodus 27, page 123. you shall charge the sons of Israel that they bring you clear oil of beaten olives for the light to make a lamp burn continually in the tent of meeting outside the veil which is before the testimony Aaron and his sons shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the Lord it shall be a perpetual statute throughout their generation for the sons of Israel alright again we see that there's not a reference to the Holy Spirit there but What does the book talk to us about as the principles that we can observe from here? The Holy Spirit illuminates Christ. Okay. That's good. Any other things from that section? was active in telling people how the tabernacle was to be built and it was to represent Christ. So the Lord spoke to Moses and clarified and inspired by the Holy Spirit and helped him remember the exact dimensions of the temple and what's there.

The thing that I found was interesting is that I found that The typology here was used to describe Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the believer, depending on which teacher you went and looked to. So by taking that, when I was saying there's some concerns with the typology, it's simply that when you go there you can find relationship between things like that. But if it's not specifically revealed, you get some interesting conclusions that come with that. I do want to stop here and point out something I thought was interesting.

If we go to Exodus 25, 31 through 37, which is not too far from where we were already at, we're going to see the description of the lampstand that's there. And I think that's kind of valuable if we're going to talk about the Holy Spirit being represented in a lampstand. We at least ought to have a rough idea of what the lampstand is. So Exodus 25, 31 through 37.

He says, Then you shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand and its base and its shaft are to be made of hammered work. Its cups, its bulbs, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it. Six branches shall go out from its side. three branches of the lampstand from its one side and three branches of the lampstand from its other side.

Have you seen this before? Does this sound familiar? Like a menorah, if you've seen that. So you have seven pieces there. And he goes on to describe flowers and various parts that were the makeup of this lamp. Our estimates are about six ounces of olive oil went into the lamp in each cup. OK? I look this up because I'm a nerd, OK? You'll have to forgive me. But it would take about 294 ounces of oil a day just to keep the lamp going.

And where did they get the oil, the olive oil? Olives. So when God brought this to Israel and he said, hey, you're going to have to do this, the people had to work. Because I'm a nerd, I looked it up and it was a little over 25,000 olives or so to keep this going by hand pressing this. So that's a lot of work involved. Yeah, it's a lot of work. But they would use, they'd be able to use animals to be able to press the olives and things like that. But it would definitely have been a lot of labor.

But the idea was The Lord was using this tent of meeting for what? And this is really where the Holy Spirit comes into play. What was the tent of meeting for? Or the tabernacle for? It wasn't just a reminder, it was a place of meeting. It was for Israel to come and be with the Lord on a one-on-one level.

It was a place for them to come and focus on their relationship with the Lord, and that's a valuable piece of this, and the Holy Spirit is definitely involved with that. Alright, now we're going to jump ahead and we're going to talk about the New Testament context of the Holy Spirit, which is only just the tip of the iceberg because the next set of weeks...

Can you hear me? Breaking, testing, testing... There we go. Okay. That was exciting. Alright, I got all excited about the New Testament, so let's turn that off. Alright, let's go ahead and jump to Matthew chapter 3 verses 10-12. The book specifically references verse 11, but let's read 10-12. If you get there, go ahead and start reading.

The axe is already laid at the root of the trees, therefore every tree that does not bear Good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clear his threshing floor. and he will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaps with unquenchable fire. Alright. So, now we have John the Baptist coming.

What is the difference between the different baptisms there? One is physical. One is water. One is repentance. So John baptized, and what do we do when we say John baptized by water? To repentance. They were out on the river and you got a dunking. You were immersed. And that was an outward sign of what? Cleansing. Okay, well it was a submission to God. It was an outward sign of a submission to the Lord. Of faith for the children of Israel. Did it save them? I have a question.

Before John the Baptist there was no baptizing? There are instances of baptizing in the Old Testament but it was more of a sign of discipleship culturally but it wasn't The principle of baptism that we have in the New Testament is a different concept than might have been normal for a Jew. So John just came before Jesus as like a get it going, pointing to Christ kind of thing? Yeah. Mike? Baptism, like when people were baptized for Moses, it meant that they identified themselves with what he was doing. teaching and leading. It's the same thing with John the Baptist.

The nation of Israel and the Jewish worship system had been so convoluted that John the Baptist was taking us back to the original concept of Judaism and repentance of sins and if they agreed with him they would demonstrate publicly their agreement by being baptized. So the repentance or the change of mind was really a change of mind from the Jewish system that was of the present day which wasn't what God had ordained to what God had ordained. And the issue about their sins. So John the Baptist was the first prophet in Israel in 450 them from God, and so that's what that was about. Yeah, John came, and he was a bit shocking, and after the series, the quietness and waiting and waiting for the Lord to say something to the nation, it was a shocking event.

The second part of this statement here is that he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. What are those two elements? The book talks about those. What's the baptism of the Holy Spirit? This is really important actually that we understand this doctrine. Do we get dunked into the water and then we're baptized with the Spirit? Okay so the Holy Spirit indwells us, so we are placed into the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is placed into us. And the same thing is true of we are placed into Christ and Christ is in us.

That's a big deal, but how about this fire business? Baptized into the fire. It's kind of referring back to a similarity there to verse 10. The unacceptable part is thrown into the fire. More of a judgmental aspect. So Christ is, if you're not baptized in the Spirit, the alternative is baptism into fire?

Could we say that comfortably? I think that's what the book was saying. Well, comfortably may be the wrong word. I'm not comfortable with that at all. I think that's what the book was saying. It has to do with punishment. Well, verse 12 says it explicitly. That's why I had Cheryl read it.

His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clear his threshing floor, and he will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Okay, so it's talking about a coming future wrath. So are you talking unbelievers versus believers or believers with worthless calf stuff? This is believers and unbelievers.

Oh. Okay, so the concept is that Israel had a decision to make. Didn't they? John says, hey, a decision is coming that you will have to make. And there will be those that go with God's plan and they'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit and there will be those that go with man's plan and they'll be baptized with unquenchable fire. Well what about the Pentecost? Wasn't there tongues of fire? There's tongues of fire there.

It's different? It is different and we'll talk about that in question 10. But it is different because This is talking about wrath and punishment in this verse. So to redefine that out of context is tricky, at best, if you're going to take that route. But we have the reality that John came before and he's telling Israel they need to repent and turn to God's plan. And here's God's plan. You either repent and you get the baptism of the Spirit or Well, you have this other alternative. It's just not as pleasant.

Steve? I'm trying to recall, are there misunderstandings of fire in this application with some circles of people where they view it more as an emotional peak of experience of some sort? I am not personally familiar with that, but that doesn't mean somebody hasn't said that. I've never heard anyone describe it that way, because the concept of burning up with the chaff, the chaff was the waste.

So to me, it would be hard to derive that, but I could be wrong. I've heard theologians constrain stuff. where it's Pentecost and they kind of associate that with the Holy Spirit coming down. Well, but that's not what this is talking about. Because we're going to look at that next in Question 10, and this has nothing to do with that. You'll have a hard time pushing for that because this is not... Verse 10, the axe is laid to the root of the tree. We're going to kill this thing. We're done with it. It's hard to make that a... a positive spin. Well, it could be a positive spin if that was sin.

Well, if it was sin, but he's talking about Israel needing to be aware of where they're at. Because John is speaking to Israel, talking to them about their relationship with God. This is still Old Testament. And it is Old Testament, yes. So let's move to Acts in question 10 because that carries on the the principles there and we can talk about the fire and the Holy Spirit.

So Acts 1.15 I think it's 1.5, yeah. Yeah, sorry, 1.5. That is 1.5. Okay, so Acts 1-5, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit so many days or not many days from now.

So, is he talking about the fire or is he talking about the Holy Spirit here? After referencing John's... He's talking about the Holy Spirit, not the fire. So we have a clear statement from Christ to the disciples. And then now let's jump forward into Acts 2 in verse 3.

And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance. So the visual appearance of something was of fire, which would be something that would definitely get your attention. At least you'd have mine. But the result of that is it is a physical or a visual appearance of something that leads to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which leads to utterances.

And what are the utterances? Other languages. Other languages, okay, but what are they saying? I didn't keep reading, but I'm asking. I'm hoping you did when you did your homework. Well, the Spirit gave them the words to say. Okay, but what were they talking about? Were they telling them about really great deals that they found in the market? What did they talk about? This is important.

The Holy Spirit comes upon them and what's his first act? the mighty deeds of God. The Holy Spirit gave them utterance and they were hearing about the Gospel. In verse 6, and when this sound occurred, the crowd came together and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. And then Peter goes on to speak very clearly and present the Gospel and how many people were saved that day?

3,000. So the church starts, it's a big deal, but the Holy Spirit is intimately involved and he indwells with the disciples and we find no evidence that from that point forward anyone who believes ever has the Holy Spirit take a hike. That's a really big deal. So this baptism of the Holy Spirit is a submersion and it's changing. It's permanent. And it also leads into, go ahead Holly.

Well, wasn't there at that time you could still Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? With Israel, as the Gospel was spread, Israel rejected Christ, which is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. They rejected the Holy Spirit's work. It was blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. So it's not a loss of salvation. The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is not something that you can do as a believer and lose salvation because you are already saved and already in Christ.

So that's question 10. Any other thoughts on that or otherwise Mike's going to come up and keep going because we're going to talk about the millennium and stuff. All right. This is always the fun part because they come down from the sound room and they say, now who taught this morning? Now there's question 3, lesson 3 should have been handed out last week when my able assistant was asleep at the switch.

I have a question, why do you think that God determined that at Pentecost there should be these tongues of fire that were visible? Why do you think he did it that way? I mean couldn't he have just filled them with the spirit and that would have been it? Why did he do it?

Wasn't it kind of in keeping with Jewish perspective that they always had that? The Jews demanded a sign. They had to have a sign. And you'll find that when you study the book of Acts that the Jews always had to have a sign to verify the ministry of whoever was ministering. The Greeks didn't demand a sign or the Gentiles. They wanted wisdom. which meant they used their brains, you know.

So, the first question you'll notice is, what is the baptism by the Spirit? As we're talking about here in Acts 2. What actually is happening? Isn't it when this Holy Spirit comes to live in us? Alright, now there's two issues going on here. 1 Corinthians 12, 13 says, for by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. whether it be Jew or Gentile, whether we've been bound or free, we all have been made to drink into one spirit. Two things are happening. Number one, the focus so far is that the Holy Spirit has come to indwell believers, right? What about the believers? What happens to them? They just start speaking in a weird language? They're baptized into into Christ.

Now see, this is a really important point here. This is the very beginning of the church. This is the beginning of the body of Christ. This is so important for us to understand this because in contemporary theology, especially with Reform and Covenant, they're going to tell you that you are just an extension of Israel.

You're not. If you have been taken by the Holy Spirit and placed into the body of Christ, for those of you who were in our last class, how did he do it? In other words, what was the process he went through to get you into the body of Christ? Death, burial, resurrection. That's exactly right. You were identified with Christ's death, his burial, and his resurrection.

Romans 6.3 says, don't you realize that when you were baptized, you were baptized into Christ's death.

You know, not when he was running around on the earth as the Jewish Messiah. Not when he was performing a bunch of miracles. When he died, you died and that's when you went in. Why is that really important? For the context that we're talking about, nobody who's in the flesh can be in the body of Christ. flesh can be in you, but you can't be in it anymore. So when the Spirit comes at Pentecost and He takes these 3,000 folks and He baptizes them or places them into Christ, He places them via, through the cross. That's how He does it, spiritually. It's a spiritual event. So now they are resurrected in Christ, they are now members of the body of Christ.

From a positional standpoint, They have been totally separated from who they are or who they were before, not only physically, because he says in 1 Corinthians 12, you're not a Jew or a Gentile anymore. Well, what am I now, a Republican? What am I, a Bronco? I'm a member of the body of Christ. I'm a son of God. And my position is now as a son of God, different race of humanity. It seems like we're baptized through the cross, through the death of Christ, but we're also in the resurrection, right? It seems like sometimes we're stuck in the death, but it's really the resurrection.

Really good point. Really good point. As you grow spiritually and you begin to understand the identification truths, it's important that you understand death and resurrection, death and life at the same time. Reckon yourself indeed to be dead unto sin and alive unto God. It's not one without the other. You can sort of get stuck in the death part, but it's death to one and life in the other.

They go together. So what's going on here is that the church is the body of Christ. It's a unit. according to Rideout. It contrasts the previous national and social distinctions of Israel. The Spirit unites all members into one living organism. Everybody in this room is one living organism and you're not the board. Some of you know what I mean. They're not living, are they? No, they're not. So, that's what's going on there. Now, do you think that the Jews understood what was happening? Had no idea. Didn't have a clue. Didn't have a clue. So, question two.

What is the difference between the baptism of the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit, and hopefully you have read ahead, or read to page 10, you'll hear being baptized of the Spirit, which is what we've just talked about. But then you hear this other comment that says being filled with the Spirit. What's the difference?

We looked at Acts 1.5, John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days. And then we went over Acts 2, we looked at 1 Corinthians 12-13, talked about the body. The baptism of the Spirit is what?

It's a work of the Spirit to put you into the body of Christ, to make you who you are as a believer, a Christian maybe we could say. Every single Christian has had the baptism of the Spirit and you don't need a second blessing or anything like that to enhance your position. When we teach position and condition, we spend an awful lot of time talking about what is your position in Christ and can it be affected by any outside influence. No, it can't. because the Spirit of God is the one who is responsible for your position.

He placed you into Christ. He indwells you. He's the seal of you. You can't do anything to change it. I used to call up the guy that led me to Christ and I'd be complaining about something and his answer was, it's too late for you, Buster. You already are in Christ. You can't go back.

See? So, now, that's the baptism of the Spirit. What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? Okay. Now, so everybody on this side of the room is filled with the Spirit because they all got ministries. You bums over there don't know. So you must not be filled with the Spirit, so you have to sort of sit around and wait. That was a question. I answer a question with a question. To be filled with the Spirit is to be enabled by the Spirit for whatever ministry He's called you to have. Now, do we all have a ministry? You know what yours is? You know what yours is? You know what yours is? He knows.

I don't know what it is, but he does. In order to carry out, let's put it this way, the Holy Spirit suits every single individual out for a specific purpose in this organism called the body of Christ. and it may be something that's not visible or high-profile or anything like that.

But to have an organism work like a physical body, every little piece has to function to contribute to the well-being of the whole, right? And you may be a molecule someplace, but if you were taken out of the picture, the whole body would get sick. So every single one of us has been equipped by the Spirit for a specific job within the body of Christ. Every one of us.

Now you may know what it is, you may not. In order to carry out that equipping, you must be filled by the Spirit. Donna? Is there a differentiation between Old Testament filling with the Spirit? The question is, is there a difference between the Old Testament Saints being filled by the Spirit for a specific thing, and us? Answer yes, because once the job is done, the Spirit left.

When God called these guys to build the temple, He enabled every one of them to do this incredible craftsmanship, and I would dare say none of them had experience in what they were doing. He didn't go around and pick the best stonemason, He said you're going to be filled with the Spirit and you're going to do the stones.

And you know they pulled these huge blocks out of the quarry and when they fit them together you couldn't slide a piece of paper between them. I'd like to see you buy bricks like that at Home Depot today. It makes sense for the Holy Spirit to do it that way, because otherwise if he would have used the ones who are really good at their craft, they would have taken credit for it.

That's exactly right. And they couldn't have built it the way he described it anyway. Yeah, they would have done it their way. Because the body of Christ is a living organism that functions perpetually, every member must be dwelt by the Holy Spirit permanently to carry out their function. They have to. Because, you know, if you have say the spiritual enablement of exhortation, you know, after next week you're done. What happens to a believer when his job is done? He goes home. Bye.

So it doesn't change? We always have the same? No, I think you can do more than one. So maybe you get a different one. Oh, maybe. But that doesn't mean the other one goes away. Now let's talk about this gifting thing. It isn't like I give you a gift. Let's say I give you the keys to my car and it's a gift to you and you can use it and you can say it's my car because Mike gave it to me. That's not what a spiritual gift is like. A spiritual gift is more like each one of you is a piece of PVC. And through the PVC, the Spirit works. You understand? You get no credit. You get no glory. You get none of that because He does everything. You're just the conduit through which He works. Okay? So Paul could say in 1 Corinthians, Hey, you know, I plant in a Paul's waters. Good analogy, right? But it's God who gives the increase. And so he says, so Apollos and I share exactly the same thing. You know what we share?

We're nothing. And if you know anything about manifesting spiritual gifts to the body of Christ, there's no better attitude to have than you're nothing. Because then you don't get elated when things go good and you don't get down when things go bad. Because the results are not up to you.

You see that? Although, sorry, You can be elated that Christ worked through you, right? The Holy Spirit worked through you? Well, what happens is that when you see the work of the Spirit and maybe you were involved, the glory goes to Him because you realize that you had... That's the cool part. It's a very cool part, but He's very careful to do that because Well, those of us who teach, sometimes we have a good class and sometimes we do this.

About halfway home, the Spirit of God goes, hey, how's it going there, big guy? You kicked them, you really nailed them today, didn't you? Kind of, you know, oh gee, it wasn't me, was it? It wasn't me. But then, to know that it was the Holy Spirit working through you is pretty cool. But see the point I'm trying to make is that he works through every one of us. Oh yeah, yeah. Every single one of us. None of us are left on the shelf. You see that? All of us are enabled by the Spirit.

Now it isn't that you're running around all fired up all the time. Right. Because the need for your involvement may not be 24-7. I guess my thing though is that it seems like sometimes the Holy Spirit isn't recognized for what he's doing. It's interesting because he doesn't do it in a way where he's trying to steal some of the glory. He's always glorifying Christ. That's his job.

But then it's like, I don't hear much. of like, you know, And it's how I was brought up and I didn't understand it at the time, but sometimes you hear people say like, you know, glory to God or whatever, it's like that's where it is. It's kind of like you can go on and not recognize that it was the work of the Holy Spirit or it's for God's glory. It's just kind of how it happened. See, that's why I think that the metaphor of a body A human body is really a good example.

All of you are sitting here right now and there's millions and billions of functions going on in your body. And if any one of those functions wanted to raise its hand and take credit for what it's doing, your body wouldn't function right. See? So, you know, that whole scenario does the finger tell the hand what to do and that kind of thing. It's all up here in the body of Christ. What's the head? It's Christ himself. See? And he's the one that dictates the life flows throughout the body to do what the head has decided to do.

To me a humbling thing is that God uses the unbeliever to get his job done. Yes he will. Yes he will. That is very humbling. He just doesn't use the believer. The result of that should be just rest. It's rest but it's also a keen involvement with the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Because you're not a... Mount Stanford used to say there are no spectators in the body of Christ. Everyone's in the game. We're all players. you know, being used or whatever.

I think this goes back to what grace is. The only thing you can do in grace is say what? Thank you. Yeah. I mean, I think that's the, we operate in grace and that's where, you know, if you're being used by him, it's not, you don't take credit. You just say thank you. Right. It's, you're being used by the Lord and thank you. Right.

And it seems like, um, I guess I'll say it myself for me. Sometimes that, um, I maybe don't recognize the thank yous as much as like, you know, I'd say like, oh, it's circumstances or how it turned out. But it's like the recognizing, you know, this is this is from God, you know. And of him. And not only from him, but of him. Yeah. the growth. Sure it is.

He's starting to understand that more and more and understanding when he's working through you and saying thank you. I think it's early on that, you know, it's the pound your chest and think you're great and thank, ooh, this is a cool that, you know, but I think after a while it's just, again, I go back to what we started to, it's a life. Yeah, but I'm saying, though, too, it's like even when we pray, like in, before our classes, you know, we'll pray for stuff to come out good and then it does. I guess I'd like to hear the, you know, like all the stuff that came out good and to thank God for that. You know what I mean? I do. I do. Okay, streaking ahead. Okay, sorry. Question three.

What are some of the distinctions and contrasts between this and the previous social and cultural distinctions? In other words, what I'm trying to contrast here, or write out contrast, is that the nation of Israel had a lot of social and cultural distinctions about it, most of them given to them by God through the Mosaic system. And there's a real difference between what the Mosaic cultural and social and religious system was and the body of Christ.

And Rideout starts out this section with a really important sentence. He said, persons who have not understood this fact have spoken of the church as the beginning with the call of Abraham. That may be foreign to us, but most Christians would buy that. Or with the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, they would apply the glowing predictions of the prophets as to the future glory of Israel to the spiritual prosperity of the church.

This is a short lesson in covenant theology. Now, not only does the utmost confusion result from this, But the positive injury is done to the saints of the present age by linking their hopes and interests with the development of an earthly kingdom. Instead of showing their destiny as members of the body, the bride of Christ, to be heaven and its glories, there is no greater distinction between the nation of Israel and the body of Christ as heaven is from earth. The body of Christ is a heavenly organism. Lots of times believers say, well, gee, you know, Dallas Seminary, it was really cool, and now it's going off the bridge. And so was Grace Seminary, and so was this church. Have you ever noticed that God does not allow really great earthly organizations to survive very long? Why not? Because the focus is to be on heaven, not on the earth.

He may use institutions. The greatest tool that God has on the earth is right here. It's the local church. And that's the organization he's put together to equip saints for the ministry. It's not a seminary. It's not a mega-church. It's a little group of believers who are focused on the Word of God and dependent on the Spirit of God. Now, differences. In the work of the Spirit today, He baptized by the Spirit. We are introduced into the Church of the Body of Christ.

That's heavenly, not earthly. He dwells in them never to leave. This blessed comforter or advocate would testify of Christ, would bring all things to their remembrance and show them things to come. The Spirit of God is here to bring everything to your remembrance out of here.

He's the teacher. If He doesn't teach you, you might as well go to the movies. Watch the Broncos. Replays. I don't know. Something other than studying the Word. The Spirit of God is the teacher. He's the only teacher we have. Our Lord tells His disciples that it was expedient and advantageous for Him to go away in order that the Spirit might come.

Now, we'll talk about that in the next question, why that's so important. He had not said it, had He not said it, who could have conceived the possibility of there being any privilege greater than personal contact and association with the Lord Himself? Who were we talking to about this in the last couple?

Oh, it was Kathy Sherman. What would you rather be? John the Apostle, hanging out with Christ on the earth, or you? Which would you rather be? If I could transport you back 2,000 years, put you in the upper room, or if you're having the last supper with the Lord Jesus, and here you are, John the Apostle, and you lay your head on his chest, and I mean, you're loved by Christ Would you rather be him or rather be you today? How many say, I'd like to be back there with John? Come on you chickens, get your hands up. How many say you'd rather be you today? Why? Because we, by being baptized by the Spirit into Christ through this identification process, we now have the resurrected life of Christ. We have a capacity for intimacy with him that John the Baptist never had. until after Pentecost.

You see that? It's like having a relationship. Come over to my house and hang out with Zeke. You know who Zeke is? He's my Labrador. He loves everybody. He's really responsive. He's a great dog. But you know what? I can't marry him. Not only is he a boy, but he's a dog.

You see, for us to be the bride of Christ, God had to raise us up to the level of existence that Christ is. That's who we are and that's the elevation that the Holy Spirit promotes in the body of Christ. So that you know who you are. You see that? That's why it would be much better for you to be a believer today than it would have been in Palestine before the death of Christ. A couple more things then we'll shut it down. We'll pick up with question four next week.

Know you not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own, you are bought with a price. So you're a temple. in whom you are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. The subjects here are not individual saints, but all who are upon the foundation of Christ. I think one of the really important things that believers miss is being part of the temple in the body of Christ. Because the manifestation of the Spirit of God is not only through individuals, but it's through the whole body too. The influence the body of Christ has on society is incalculable. You can see it in our country. Since we've walked away from the Lord in the last 50 or 60 years, the influence of the Spirit of God in the body of Christ is less than it was, and look what's happening. We're sliding. Okay, let's close. We'll pick up next week. And I brought questions for Lesson 4, but I think I'll hold on to them. We'll do them next week. Because you're not... Well, I'll put them up here, and if you want to take them, you can. Dear Father, how we thank You for Your Word, and we thank You for Your Spirit that reveals the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ to us, that we may know Him and grow in the knowledge and grace of Him. And we pray in His precious name. Amen.