Person & Work of the Holy Spirit

We are on Lesson 4, I believe. Let's see, Lesson 4, The First and Work of the Holy Spirit. I'm going to go back over, because I listened to the tape the other day, and it sounded like you got to just to the question number one and started, and that was kind of one of those, well, what salvation? Okay, we got done, we're done. So let's go back over the first question, and this is on chapter 2 of Rideout's book on the Holy Spirit. What is the page number? It's page 16. 16 is where we're going to be starting on conviction. So this is on page 16 is where you find it.

So what does the word salvation mean? Regeneration, new birth. Regeneration, new birth. Yeah, I guess that part of salvation is regeneration, I guess. I like your definition. I like the being alive after death. I heard that last week, yes. And deliverance from the power of sin. Yep. I think there are all bits and pieces of it. The regeneration is part. He brings out, well, a couple of things.

He says salvation is a term of quite varied meaning in the scriptures, ranging from the deliverance out of any special straight as Paul out of prison, Philippians 1.19. The victory over daily trials and temptations, the redemption of the body and the spirit. So salvation can be used in a lot of different things. Like Paul getting out of prison, salvation, he was using that.

The actual Greek word, if you look at it, if you look at some of the passage in Romans is the Soteria. It means Savior, Deliverer, or Safety, Deliverance, Preservation from Danger or Destruction. So basically, I think the Safety, Deliverance, Preservation from Danger or Destruction, that's like talking about Paul being saved out of the prison, those type of things. But salvation, as we look at it, is the regeneration of being alive again, Now that's the Savior or Deliverer aspect of the word, that so-te-re-ee, so-te-re-ee, re-ah, if I can get it.

I'll have to have one more cup of coffee to get my tongue working here. So Whitehead gives how the Trinity is related to salvation. So he named three or four different things here on that page. Can you, how, Yes, all parts of the Trinity are related in the Holy Spirit, or in the work of salvation. Excuse me. It's on page 16. The seal. Seal? The seal, assurance of salvation. So he, yeah, the seal, that's the spirit. The spirit is, well actually, I should go on this one.

He was talking about the Savior in the salvation. He said, God is the Savior of all men in that he preserves and sustains flesh. So this is in relation to salvation. It's not only the Spirit, but in salvation. And how the second one is we have the Father is the Savior in that it is His grace and love that He gave His Son and chose us in Him. So you have God the Father, God who is the Savior of all, then the Father who gave the Son. And then the Son is Savior because He laid down His life for us, accomplishing a work which has both glorified God and met our every need. And then the last one is, the spirit is savored by virtue of the work of regeneration and all that is connected with that, including, as you said, the seal of assurance of salvation. So, the interesting part, so you understand all that, actually how all three of the Godhead were involved in salvation. It was interesting though, if you look in the book, I can put these questions together, so I have more. I always have all my weird questions in thinking.

If you read in that section, there is an interesting aspect that Rideout brings out in the last paragraph on page 16. If you look at that, Rideout says, before, however, we come to our subject, just to let you know, these were lectures by Rideout that were then transcribed. So if you read that and it's like, tonight we're going to, or some of those things, when you read that, just to let you understand, he was giving lectures on this, and they just transcribed his lectures. So when you see some of these things, like here, before we get to the subject, before we come to our subject, he's lecturing.

There's a work of the spirit man which, for want of a better term, we may call ineffectual. That kind of perked my ears up. So what do you think is the ineffectual work of the Holy Spirit? Well, it's like the soil and the seed. It hits bare ground and nothing happens. And I think that's what happens with the Holy Spirit sometimes. They know all about it, but it never sinks in. They don't accept it. I never thought about the ineffectual work of the Holy Spirit.

Oh man, that kind of perked my ears. But I always liked that Greek word, zoi, that he talked about when he talked about salvation. And when you investigate that, it very well describes the miracle that has happened. You have been, in fact, born again. Yeah, but the ineffectual. What does ineffectual mean? That it doesn't affect? That's what in effect means. Usually I look up the Webster's but I didn't. But that is of no effect. It didn't make sense when I read it. I'm thinking how could that be?

I think Winnie's got it. I'll ask a second question because I think it is that the Holy Spirit is working on all that all may come to know. and that none shall perish. But is that true? Does everybody come to? No. I think what he's talking about here is that it isn't that the Holy Spirit's work is defective in any way.

Say that again. What he's talking about is that the Holy Spirit's work is not defective. Oh, defective. It's not defective. Correct. But it is the response to the Holy Spirit's work. Right. It's a reading of people's response to the Holy Spirit's work. Right. And that's what I want to make sure when you read this, if you have a question about that.

When I was going through it, I was like, what does it mean? It's really that the Holy Spirit is working on everybody. Everybody. Can there ever be somebody who is in the deep dark woods or jungles of Africa that can say I was never reached by God or the Spirit? No. Everybody.

And if you read Romans 2, you can see the power that there is a God, and that God has power by reading Romans 1, that it's been revealed to all his power through nature. So everybody knows there's a God, and that's why if you look at some of the things through history, everybody, even the Incas and the Mayans and all, they were sacrificing children and people to the gods to satisfy them. They knew there was a God and he was angry, so we need to sacrifice. Everybody in their heart, they know that there's a God.

That's why I think there is no knows that there's God. They're just in denial. So the Spirit is working on everybody, but not all come to know. And so that's where the ineffectual, I think that's great, Marlon. It's not the effect of His work, it's just that not all come to know.

And what does that signify? I kind of went along with my rapid trip. What does that mean? That the Holy Spirit is working on everyone. What does that mean as somebody who rejects. We have free will. Free will. It finally comes down to a choice. And this is where I get into people who say that you are pre-selection. You have been selected and God has ordained that ahead of time. Does that ring true in this when you look at how the Holy Spirit works and that it's ineffectual that some don't come?

God isn't a mad God right now. I don't care what somebody says. Ever since Christ died on the cross, he is happy as he can be. Yeah, this was, you know, people who don't know and they knew there was God and they thought he was angry. So that's why they sacrifice, you know, give him something. But it kind of, this is when the ineffectual got me rolling on a train of thought that basically says, you know, this does come down to us having to believe. It's still the Holy Spirit is working on everybody, but it comes down to you finally have to know what that final question is. Who is Christ? That's what it comes down to.

The Holy Spirit is working all the time trying to convince that. What it also tells me is how hard and how tough the old man is. And how powerful the sin nature is. To have this gift, free gift given to you, and you reject it. The old man rejects it. The Holy Spirit is convicting, convincing, and yet you turn it down. That tells me two things. One, that we have to make that choice. We're not robots or autobots that God has already pre-selected. The Holy Spirit is convicting, wooing, and drawing us to Him, and we have to make that decision about Christ.

Who is Christ? But other is how hard the sin nature is. that the Holy Spirit can be convincing, wooing, and yet you go, no. And the creator of the universe is wooing you, and yet you go, no. So yeah, this was like I said, it was just kind of an odd thing. You couldn't go to Rabbit Trail off of Rabbit Trail. Mike, I'm sorry when you listen to this.

Does it say in the Bible that God pre-selected or does it say He foreknew who would? See, this is where it, you know, years ago, When you look at Ephesians you see a lot of predestined and pre-known and all these things where I think a lot of people draw that God has already pre-selected you. Pre-known, fore-known. Well I could see fore-known.

Because then it would be like, okay, he knows who's going to choose him versus preselected that I choose you to know me. But that foreknow, so if the foreknow is, okay, I know, I look down in the corridors of time and so I know you're going to do it, but Russ isn't. Russ, you're, you know, I'm not even sending the Holy Spirit to you because I know, you know, you're gone. I was going to say that I think the confusion is in Romans 8 where it talks about predestination.

The predestination there has to do with our conformity to the image of Christ. That's post-salvation. That's not pre-salvation. See, that's the whole thing. That's what really finally, finally triggered me is the identification truths. That's what makes it... Everything just went... All those ones, especially in Ephesians. In Ephesians it really says about predestined, foreknown, this and that. But every one of those is followed by what?

Conformity to Christ? No. In Him. Right, okay. So, once you're in Him, His life is our life. His history is our history. So how long ago did God know Christ? God the Father? So if our history is his history, how long has he known us? So once we're in Christ, his history.

So all those verses just went, bang, I understand it now. It's not that we were, you know, okay, you got it, you're, no, ooh, no, no, yes, yes, no. It wasn't that. It's once you're in Christ, and that's why the identification truths are so powerful, is that once you understand that, read all those ones about predestined or any of those. They're all followed by in him. We're forno in him. We're in him. That's how the fornology is.

Just the fact that the Holy Spirit was driving the convicting would prove that, you know, I mean, why would he do that? Great point. You're selected. Well, why would he bother to? Excellent point. Right, and that's what this whole ineffectual got me rolling at, because I looked at what striving was. What does striving mean? It's continuing, not stopping. Well, it's an effort. He's laboring to do this. If he's laboring, if we're pre-selected.

Kind of a waste of labor. That doesn't make sense. Anyway, I just thought that ineffectual, we should bring that out, because when you read through that real quick and you go, ineffectual, what the? Holy Spirit, what do you mean ineffectual? And I think Marlon's a great point. It's not defective what his work is, but it's ineffectual in that there are people, the heart of their heart, that just will say no. To all the wooing, all the drawing, all the bringing to this free gift of salvation, and they still say no. I just want to go through that because when I was reading through it, that voice, let me read this, it's ineffectual. I thought it was ineffectual for everything. Alright, any other questions or thoughts?

I was going to say one time when a close relative was dying and they weren't saved and I was trying to talk to them about Jesus and kind of the last word I heard her say was Why would I trust in him? He couldn't even save himself, you know, just right down to her last breath. Well, Mike says that, and I get to be more and more in agreement when you see in things like this, the hardness of the heart. You know, when they stand before God in the judgment seat, they're still going to raise their fist, and I want to go into eternal Damnation. Eternal hell. Separation from you. They'll want that. What do you mean? You're before the Lord. What do you mean you're going to choose that? But you will. They will. I think of that too. If you think about this.

Adam. walking in the cool of the morning, fellowshipping with God, walking through. What did he do? He chose the one thing he said not to do. What did he do? He was face-to-face, fellowshipping with him in the cool of the garden, in the morning, and he still chose So you put that in perspective, when they're standing before him, those who have the hardened heart, who do not have Christ as their life, I'd rather choose that.

That's just mind-boggling to us. Alright, moving quickly on to number two. What were the convicting factors after the fall by the Spirit? This is on page 17 at the top. It's the repentance and persuasion and promise of Jesus Christ. Others? Well, I had that God left man to the light of nature, his own conscience, and the striving of the Holy Spirit. Yep. Convict him. All good. Others?

He basically summarized mankind from the fall to the flood, and he used Genesis 6.3 where he says, Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh.

I added in, if you look in and continue on in that in Genesis 6.5-8, I think it even adds more to this.

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil, continually. The Lord was sorry that he had made man on earth, and he was grieved in his heart. The Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, for I am sorry that I have made them.

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." Was man doing a really good job? Thought he did a real bang up job there. I look at that and I marvel at the thought that the Lord was sorry that he had made man on earth. I think about that. put that into perspective, he was sorry, so sorry. That's how frustrated he was with mankind. And he wiped out everybody but Noah's family. Think of that though. He was so frustrated at mankind that he was sorry he even created them.

It says at that point. But what did he do? Send his son. Send his son. If you don't have a better definition of love than that, I don't know what. He was sorry he created him, but he gave his only son, put all the sins that that crazy mankind had done, put it on his son, had him crucified for that flesh that he created, that mankind that he created. And I thought, you know, from this perspective, he was kind of just a real condemning, I'm sorry that I created him, you know, but then he gave us his son. So that was like the only way to get us out of the way. It's a perfect, you know, I go on all day on the defecation cruise.

The only way is to get rid of the flesh and the old man. There is nothing good in the flesh and the old man. And nothing ever will be. Nothing ever will be. So I don't care how many purpose-driven lives and other programs and the fix-it-ups and the refurbishments and all that. God's done with it.

So, I mean, things like this lend itself very well to the identification. The best thing that God could have done is to get us out of Adam. Separate us from... I'm sorry I created him. But is he sorry that he created us in Christ? Absolutely. He loves that. That we're now in Christ. He looks at us through his Son. He sees us in his Son. Do you think he ever says he's dissatisfied now? Do you think he'd ever say this of us now as new creations in Christ?

Never. It's an awesome change. It's incredible. So right out notes the instrumentalities used by the Spirit of God in striving with man's conscious. Again, the striving part I like for the Holy Spirit. Striving, I did look that one up actually in the dictionaries. To make an effort, labor hard. To struggle in opposition. So the Holy Spirit is striving with man's conscience.

So you see that in the fall. These are the things he used. The fall, the sin, and the judgment. So he used that. His power and goodness leading man to repentance. And you see that in 2 Corinthians 2, 15, and 16. And then the promise of the woman's seed. He said, there is a promise coming. And then there's also the witness of death, well calculated to call upon man to prepare to meet his God. So, was there death after the fall? That's kind of a wake-up call to you. There's now death.

So, uses all these things to, the Holy Spirit uses all these things to what? Draw us. All these things, the promise of a seed, the fall, the judgment, he uses all those things to draw us and uses them all. And then, all this work of the Spirit was upon man's moral nature. It was the persuasion as of a man only with divine wisdom and yearning to lead him from the paths of folly. So, all this work of the Spirit was upon man's moral nature.

And again, when you look at man from the fall, beyond. How are we doing there? You know, not too good. So the Holy Spirit used all those things to draw us. And I think the promise of the seed, that there will be, to the Jewish nation, the Messiah and that, that they were looking for the Messiah. But the promise of the seed, that there was going to be salvation. And I think that's kind of like the carrot. The seed is out there. It's coming. There will be an out for this.

So any other thoughts? What keeps going through my mind is that right now when we have all these wonderful television shows and the wonderful telescopes so we can see all, and how we keep trying and wondering whether there's life on Earth, life anywhere out there, and you think about the Earth and how perfectly it's situated, And so how much work, how much foundation God had already laid down before he put man here. And you can see his disappointment. The only place as far as we know in the universe that man could live.

But it was all by accident. You make such a mess of things. It was all by accident. It was a big bang and it all just worked out. This just worked out just perfectly by accident. The statistics show that it happens frequently. You know, I mean that's perfect what God has done and built in right here. Everything. Just one inch more closer to the sun or something and it couldn't have happened. Yeah, all this. And all of that.

All the creation, all the different things. You have to have more faith in the Big Bang and evolution than you do in God creating us. When you look at all these different things, there's no question. We're fearfully and wonderfully made. I go into a lot, just even the science of different things. Entropy, mechanical engineering, entropy. Things go from a state of order to disorder. So wait a minute, how does evolution go? a whole bunch of different things.

I'll tell you, having recently just been up there, the miracle of birth. My new granddaughter from a one cell to this beautiful little girl. That was just by accident. I got my back. Mike, I'm sorry. The other one that I love is the fact that if you think of evolution, I probably told some of these people. It blew me away years ago with a guy who came up to CSU when I was up there at school. They had a debate between Gish and everybody and said evolutionists. I was blown away by the fact that he said, Gish said, well, there's never been a transitional fossil found, never. I thought, well, I've seen it in the books.

Always it's an artist's rendition. I'm the engineer. I'm going, wait, you have fossils on every different level, but nothing in between. Statistically, that doesn't work. But the other thing that cracked me up is... We think it's right. And we have this great transition from whatever it is, a reptile or amphibian to a reptile, whatever it is. Anyway, so you've got to have that. So think of this. So miraculously that happens.

There's out in the ocean or the pond, the amphibian suddenly goes, I'm going to be a reptile. And he gets out. So how does he recreate himself? Doesn't there have to be two at the same time? So I'm the lucky frog that came to be an amphibious reptile. Where's my partner? I'm looking pretty lonely out here by myself. So how do I reproduce myself?

There's a lot of these things that just don't make sense if you put it together. It had to be perfectly timed. And so it happened in Aurora and I'm in Parker. We turned into reptiles. We had to be in the same pond at the same time. When you think of all these things, it's amazing how we're made. Alright, number three. What were the results of this driving? I think we're still on page 17.

The earth was utterly corrupt and filled with violence. Corruption and violence. And then, you know, he's telling, right out, tells all these bad things. including drinking and marrying and giving in marriage. So what is he saying? That's a terrible thing.

Well, I think I think. I think some of that, you know, drunkenness or you have five wives or 29 and there's no, back then you'd have so many wives and it didn't matter. I think you'd dispose of your wife if she burnt a toast type of thing. They had toasters? No. They put it on a rock and it exploded. There was a lot of that. And just the sexual immorality that was going on. Check out Sodom and Gomorrah. There was a lot of immorality and I think that's what they're saying in marriage and that all that was corrupted to what his plan was for marriage. So I think he's just saying, look at the state of the earth when man's conscious is driving the boat.

My first thought was, oh, it's wrong. You shouldn't marry. No, wrong. It's kind of like now, it's probably the politics, civil unions or gay marriage or things like that. Is that the way God planned it? I don't believe it is, based on scripture. So, I mean, things like, you know, in Sodom and Gomorrah, men were doing things with men and women and unnatural and all the different things. So, it's those type of things that he's calling out at that time. So, marriage is not bad. God planned it to have a man and a woman. So, I mean, this is when man's running the boat.

Raya says, the earth was utterly corrupt, filled with violence. Every imagination of man's heart was only evil continually. Judgment begat no terrors. Mercy and goodness produced no softening. They went on as ever, eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the flood came and destroyed them all.

If you look at that Genesis 6, 5-8 it kind of basically summarizes what the write up just says there. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that he had made them on earth, and he had grieved in his heart. The Lord said, O blot out man, whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals, creeping things, to the birds of the sky, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord."

Again, think of this with respect to the future. Again, with Christ, He's going to give us His Son, and He's talking about how bad we are, the striving, that the Holy Spirit is going in man's conscience. And yet he will ultimately give us Christ and salvation through grace. And you think of how bad we are left to ourselves and yet God still gave us his son.

I look at it too, that was the plan from the beginning, from the foundation of the covenant. So he knew what was going on when he created us. He's sorry about it. At this point, we're going crazy on our own. And yet he still provided the Savior for us. He still provided us a way to get out of Adam and into Christ. And that to me is the greatest definition of love.

We weren't real pretty. If you remember in our identification class at the beginning, the first three or four weeks we talked about what startling individuals we are. You know, we are basically. You know, the most evil, wicked, nasty, nothing, you know, our throat is an open grave.

You know, we're just, we're pleasant people, you know, and yet God provided Christ as our Savior. You know, that again, if you look in Webster's, that should be the definition of love. There's no greater love than that. You know, as beautiful as we were, yet He still gave us His Son and placed all of our sins on Him. That's amazing.

Alright, did this driving continue in Israel? Bottom of page 17. No, they got out of it. Once they were the chosen, they decided, I'm the chosen. I'm sure they were thinking about wandering in the wilderness for years. They had the Israel team jerseys and they were great. They were the chosen. They kicked it up a notch, right? So, did it continue with Israel?

Absolutely. And the quote from Acts 7, 51, Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did, so did ye. Pretty much carrying on the tradition. It goes on with several different ones. Stephen had been reviewing the history of Israel under the promises and revelations of God. He had shown that at every fresh step in the unfolding of his purposes of love, God had been met with opposition. Moses had been sent, the people had been brought out of Egypt, had been set in the land, the tabernacle had been established as a divine center, the kingdom set up under David, a temple built under Solomon. Each step had been taken after failure on the part to enjoy what had been previously bestowed, and each step afforded but fresh occasion for them to resist the Holy Ghost.

I love that. Each step, it gave him a new opportunity to have the Holy Spirit strive. Each time I gave you something, you know I love with Israel, we want kings, we want kings. Okay, here you go. That was a wise choice, wasn't it? They had some winners going through there. So each step comes along and he gives them, under David and then this temple built by Solomon, all these different things.

And did that help? No. The Holy Spirit is still striving to get him through what man's Adam, the fallen, what a startling individual that is, who we are in Adam. Again, this shows us why the co-crucifixion, the Romans 6, co-crucifixion and our separation out of Adam, why that was necessary.

They despised Moses, they set up a golden calf, turned back in heart to Egypt, failed to drive out the Gentiles in the land when brought there by Joshua, despised the Lord's offering, and compelled him to forsake the tabernacle at Shiloh. And when the temple was built and Solomon's reign of glory had been inaugurated, deeper apostasy marked both king and people, and the darkness deepened till the nation was carried away to Babylon.

So, Israel stepped to the plate, the chosen, And they showed that it's feasible to move on without the Holy Spirit or without that, right? They had a better plan. Now, it still continues. So, we in the glass house throw at Israel because, you know, first the fall to the flood, you know, oh, they failed. Israel, they had it all and the temple and all this. They had it right. No, we throw rocks at them.

Question 5. Did the resistance continue in the early church? Bottom of 17 and top of 18. Now once the church was established, perfect. Perfect. Correct? The Holy Spirit took the day off. It was done. Right? So, right when the church came, it all was hunky-dory, correct? What? It wasn't?

The early church didn't just march in lockstep together and perfect, and the Holy Spirit was sitting on the sideline, taking a rest? Now, the same has been true under Christianity. added light had been given, and greater inducements than could have been conceived to lead men to accept the love of God." There is so much. Christ on the earth, all this, and Holy Spirit given, and what?

Resisted to give. Because why? Two natures in us, right? The sin nature is still in us. We have two. We're both new creature in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5.17, Galatians 2.20. All these show that we have Christ, we have a new creation, but we also have the old nature. And so, when we're walking by the spirit, wonderful. When we're walking by the flesh, Read what we've just been reading. Same guy. Same thing.

I think of Paul in Galatians. This was talking about the early church and thinking about what's going on at that time. I think of Paul in Galatians. He's trying to tell the early Jewish believers to understand God's grace system versus the old tried and true law system. Did they just drink that up and say, we're great and wonderful? Yep, Paul, got it. Read Galatians. This is Paul desperately trying to tell them about grace versus law.

They resisted him. I think he wrote Galatians after the Council of Jerusalem. I think he wrote Galatians after that, basically saying, look, we're under grace. We're not under law. And they resisted at every turn. What about in Corinth? They were sharp, weren't you? They were right under the Holy Spirit. They understood everything. They did not have the Holy Spirit's drive, did they?

Look at 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For ye have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body." So, he's telling him that the Holy Spirit is where? Within you. So what are you guys doing? Don't you know? He's telling him, what are you doing? Why are you causing the Holy Spirit to strive? Don't you know? that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

So obviously they weren't up to snuff, you know, as far as still, today, the striving of the Holy Spirit, you know, to convince us of who we are in Christ. And we can get into conformity. Yeah, Marla. I had a question about one of his sentences from 17 halfway up the beginning of the paragraph. It says, without doubt the striving of the Holy Spirit has continued and will continue till the close of the day of grace.

So that means at rapture this stops. So in the millennium the Holy Spirit will not be striving with people. I think as Mike said last week too, what happens to somebody who sins in the millennium? Judged just like that. It's not a striving. The judgment happens immediately there.

Like with us, how God and the Holy Spirit Are we striving with the Holy Spirit when we go left instead of right? The Holy Spirit is continually working on us. Continually working on us. To what? To conform us to the image of Christ. But in the millennium, it's not a long period of time trying to conform.

If you sin, what happens? Immediate punishment. That's because the law is written in their heart. Jews, the law is written in their heart. They don't need to have rabbis anymore. So they know in their heart the scripture, the law. You said immediate punishment? What's the punishment? You know, I'm not, you know, what that is, but it's immediate because there is no... Is it immediate punishment or immediate conviction?

I'm not 100% sure what it is. I just know it's dealt with immediately at that point. It's not drawn out. And I'm not sure what it means. You're immediately terminated? Basically that's what I don't know. And I really don't know if it's immediate cessation at that point or what. I really don't know. I'll look into that.

Do you know? Because they're bound to the law, it would probably be conditional to the law. Yeah. Yeah. I'll look that up. But, you know, I'll research that a little bit. And that may be it that, you know, law had certain punishments for certain things. And that might be it.

Think how wonderful what position you have. We will be there ruling and reigning. That's the beautiful part of this. We return with the Lord and we'll rule and reign. That's the awesome part of that. We don't have to worry about this part. We won't have the old man. Just think of what it's going to be like without the old man. Tempting and doing all this stuff. When we shirk these shells, man is that going to be good. If we don't have that constant pulling of the old man. Even though we're to reckon ourselves dead.

And as you grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, that influence of the old man diminishes as you grow in the grace and knowledge. And that's the maturity, the spiritual growth, the conforming, as you're conformed to that image. I think there's a lot, you know, we've talked about this a lot where, you know, things that you used to do and suddenly now, it just doesn't affect you as much anymore. That's the growth that you've understood that it's the old man desiring, wanting, getting angry at the guy cutting you off or whatever that thing is that you kind of go, no, it doesn't bug me anymore. That's not me. That's not who I am in Christ. That's the growth and the maturity that you get and that lessening of the influence of the old man.

But I'm constantly amazed at how I think I've got something just, I got it. Lord, you've worked on it. You've hammered it out of me. I'm good. Boy, is that dumb. Look over here. Anyway, I think we're about out. I don't want to start this next question. We'll start with question six. Well, we've pretty much answered this. Well, maybe we can get to it before this. Does the resistance continue today? Yes. I wanted to mention over there in the building, my very best friend is a Jewish girl. who was raised with a strict, strict Jewish, all the things they went through.

And she, but she's given it up, but she hasn't accepted Christ. Now she likes me, I like her, and you know, it worries me because what happens suddenly, we're in in times when he was not saved. So what do you do? I mean if you thought too much you draw him back. I'll tell you what. You let the Holy Spirit do it. It's not your responsibility. Absolutely. Who was I talking to yesterday? Somebody about that yesterday. And they were talking about that. you know, and they're all anxious about, you know, I'm doing this. I said, why are you worried? It's the Holy Spirit's time frame and God's time frame. It's not me. It's not me. And that's what I say, if you say something today and you just are so frustrated because they didn't respond to the identification for us. And I'm getting anxious.

Well, number one, I was pointing at them. Guess what? Three back at you going, why are you anxious? You know, so I mean, there's God's work in these situations always on both parties. Why are you anxious? It's not your responsibility. But I think too, a lot of times, if you plant the seed, you're just the planter. You're the one who said something that five years from now, that lady may go...

You know, an interesting thing, she was so concerned right after the fiasco over there at U-Hills, and I just quit going and thinking about anything. And she got really worried about me. And one day she said, did you ever find a church? And I said, yeah, I think I found one that I like. And she said, oh, I'm so glad. Glad for you, but not for me, but for you. She knows where you stand. See, don't be anxious about it.

The guy we used to know, he was a great evangelist too, and he's with the Lord now, but he always carried around a little flexible tube. And he says, that's what we are. He used to carry a straw, but he said that was too rigid, so he brought a little tube. He said, that's what we are.

We're just tubes. We're just a conduit for God to work through. We're not the one who has to do everything. We're just there. to be there to say one thing maybe to that person. And there's 50 other people that are going to be doing that, and God's working on that person. It's not my responsibility. It takes all the pressure off. It's really cool.

When I used to work with Lockheed, I had a friend that was an engineer, and we'd walk out and look at the A7s back in the old days, and I'd be talking about Jesus, and he said he kind of got thrilled birds and all that sort of thing. What's funny is on Facebook, he's like so on fire for Jesus, and I've lost track of him, but he's like just... You know, I can tell, again, a story about, and I've told this several times, but we won't now, it's about a Bill Faye, a guy who, you know, a guy, and what he did, and a guy, a Christian who said something to him, this guy who had everything the world could offer, everything, and a Christian said something to him, and when all the world fell apart, years later, and he's in prison, and he's doing this, and he's waiting for the mob boss, you know, and nobody shows up, It came back, this guy, the Christian told him, the believer said, I have a piece that you don't have.

And this guy had everything. Everything. I mean, money, women, all this stuff. And he didn't understand it at the time. He didn't understand it. But years later, when everything got peeled off and everything got thrown and he's sitting there by himself in a jail cell, he remembered what that person said. And what was it that gave him the piece? It was Christ.

Isn't it funny too, I hear stories like that and you know people kind of take them and say, well those are the words to say. I have a piece or whatever and so we're always kind of figuring out how to work it. Fingers, toes, knees, we're all different. And again the point being is that we tend to be a fast food generation. I want my coffee heated in one minute in the microwave. Every three seconds it's changing. We want it now and we want it fast.

God doesn't work that way. He may. He could choose that. It could be like that, but he could take 10 years. He could take 50 years. He could take 80 years. It's his time frame. I'm not worried about it. It's his work, not mine. I'm just the tube. All right, we better go. We thank you for this time. Thanks for any time again that we can study the Word.

We thank you that we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and just the striving as the flesh and the old man just strive against the Holy Spirit. We'll look at some of the scriptures that tell us that the fight is between the old man and the Holy Spirit, and what enmity there is between those, and why it causes all this striving. So Father, we thank you that we are new creatures in Christ, we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and what that means to us, and what peace and joy and comfort that gives us. And Father, we just again thank you that you've left us with your word and the Holy Spirit, And Father, we just thank you for what an awesome God you are and what an amazing system of grace that we live in right now. And so Father, we just thank you for this time. We do pray for upstairs with Vern that you'll prepare his heart and prepare our hearts to receive the word. So we just thank you for this time in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.