Person & Work of the Holy Spirit
Mike Doyle · Aug 4, 2013
Holy Spirit (2013), No. 30
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926358385605

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

OK, we're supposed to streak on into lesson 15, but we have somebody who wants me to revisit question 12 from last week. Right. What didn't you understand? I thought I was OK. I thought I was so clear. I understand the line of privilege, but I don't understand these branches are obviously part of a tree. They're one with the tree, and you're yanking branches out and putting other branches in, and other branches come in, and other branches get yanked out. For instance, this says that Jews were broken off because of their unbelief. Well, I don't think they were broken off, they just didn't accept Christ.

What's the metaphor of the tree? What is the tree according to right alchemists? The privileges of grace throughout the history of the world. So the tree is a metaphor for grace. It's not a metaphor for Israel or the church or anything like that. It's a metaphor for the thing, grace itself.

Can you be broken off from the tree of grace? Sure you can. Through unbelief. Doesn't mean you lose your salvation, but you don't get to live under the umbrella of grace. Well, because your salvation is secure, you are under the umbrella of grace for them. Well, if you're a Jew, are you saved by grace? Yeah, you are. By faith. What number do you need? The fact that the tree is grace? Talking about grace, because last week I said, well you can't lose grace, your grace can you? And you said yes.

Maybe put it this way, we've had a lot of discussions about position and condition. We all have a position that can't be touched by anything we do. We arrived at that position because of God's grace alone, right? What you did is you believed, which is a non-meritorious act, and you were put into this position by the Holy Spirit in Christ. That position is grace, it's salvation, it's all of the privileges that are afforded a believer because he is positioned in Christ. That does not necessarily mean that he is going to live his life and experience all those gracious provisions, right?

Because we have a thing called condition, which is your walking around everyday life. If you don't walk by faith, you don't live under grace. In terms of your experience, does it mean that you're outside the umbrella of grace from your position? No. But it certainly could mean that you don't have any fellowship, with the Lord Jesus Christ, which means you don't. You're not walking in a gracious experience. The confusing part I think is the grace is not predicated on our action.

Grace and God is still full on. It's like living in an ocean. It's around us. I think, accept the grace, and accept that grace is full on all the time from God. He doesn't go, oh, you're pretty bad today. I'm shutting it off. We turn around and don't accept it. Grace is not predicated on our behavior, actions, or anything. God is full on all the time. pouring his grace out to us, it's whether we accept it or not. We turn our back on it and don't accept it, don't say thank you. Let's go at it from another perspective.

We've talked about the doctrine of the two men, Adam and Christ, right? Does Adam live under grace? No. No, he doesn't. Do you still have an Adamic nature hanging around inside you? Yes. Absolutely. make a determination to live in the flesh. You're living in Adam. Is Adam living under grace? No, he's not. So you're not, in terms of your experience.

If you by faith abide in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're now living in the environment that you were recreated to live in, which is grace. You see the difference? In other words, if I decide to walk in the flesh, I don't get to have any of the privileges of being in Christ. I am cut off from fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm cut off from the stream of grace as an experience. I don't have any rest. My life is in chaos, done.

Well, and experientially, isn't that a moment by moment? Which one? The experience of living under grace as to who you are depending on, right? Yeah. You can, boom, you can be walking in the flesh, or maybe you're always walking in the flesh. Can you walk in the flesh and not sin? No. Because Paul said, he made a very interesting statement, he said whatever is not of faith is sin. The old man doesn't function by faith, he functions totally by experience. So he's not operating in faith, therefore he's not operating under grace.

The nation of Israel as a nation, now keep in mind Christianity is individual, Israel is a nation. The whole nation goes down, not just one or two guys, the whole nation. In Christianity it's individual. So when the nation turns its back on God, they get unplugged from the tree of grace. Now what's God going to do with Israel? He's going to restore them. He's going to graft them back in as a nation. It's really important to make that distinguishment. The church of Christ is made up of individual believers. The church never gets set aside as a church, but you might be because you're walking in the flesh. Not set aside, but not walking in grace.

Does that make sense? But just let's say I'm driving along and somebody pulls out in front of me and I say, you blah blah blah. Okay. Well then I'm in the flesh. Yes, you are. So then I said, Lord, I'm sorry. You know I didn't mean that. It was just that came from that.

So you're restored. Okay, that's awesome. So isn't that God's grace when we're on a fellowship that His grace is that He's always working and the Holy Spirit's always working? to get us back in. It's not like, you're out, too bad, too sad, come back. That's exactly right. Just because you're being an idiot doesn't mean that he's going to say, well I'll let you go for a couple of days. No, he's always trying to restore.

So then along that same line with Holly was saying, the Holy Spirit is revealing Christ to us. But if we turn to Adam, then he's trying to restore us. Well, yeah, how does he do the restoration? I think the first thing he does is he shows you, he convicts you of what you're doing. Oh, wow, I see what I'm doing. And once the conviction is there, then the restoration is there.

It seems to me that it depends on the context of where you stand. Like, what is your attitude? Because sometimes it seems to me that the restoration goes like, OK, so you chose the doing so I'll give you so much doing that you will not be able to do it if you won't do it and that's where you need to realize ok so grace but sometimes it's a thing like he rather than doing doing is like ok grace grace grace grace grace like he shows you right away seems to me I'll give a good example of that I think I've had people come to me and say I'm sick and tired of reading the Bible I don't get anything out of it. What am I supposed to do? And I say, well, close it up and stick it up on the shelf. That's heresy, right? No, it's not.

Because if you do that, it isn't long before the Spirit of God develops a hunger in you to take it down and read it for the right reason. There's too many scholars and too many theologians that study the Bible to accumulate facts so that they can be smart in our class. But that isn't why the Bible is there.

What's the word of God there for? Why did he give it to us? So we could know Christ personally and intimately. The transition from that mindset of being an academic to wanting to know Christ is a really tough work that the Holy Spirit has to do in a believer's heart.

And you have to come to the end of this part in order to get going on this part, I think. Now, don't go home and stick your Bibles up in the shelf and tell me when I told you to do it. If you come to me and complain about your study of the Word of God, that's what I'm going to tell you. Okay, let's go on to lesson 15. Lesson 15 has to do with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So if you are charismatic you need to go to another class.

The first question I said, what does Rideout say is nearly always the significance of baptism? Signifies introduction into a place. I think you'll find, he says, in taking up the teaching of scriptures upon the subject of baptism, it nearly always, if not entirely, signifies introduction into a place.

Yes? I don't think it's a place at all. It's a position. It's always a position. You're in relationship with Moses, or you're in relationship with Christ, or whatever. It's not a place. You might call it a space. particular place of relationship but I think it's just a position. Is position a place? Sure it can be. But a place isn't necessarily a position. Place is really important to me personally. You know why? Because I'm a realtor. Location is everything. It's not location that's more important than position. I'm a child of God. That matters a lot more than being placed somewhere.

So he quoted 1 Corinthians 10.2.

They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And he says, here's how he describes that, that they were brought out fully into a relationship with Moses, who was their leader, and the cloud and the sea marked this connection. It was in contrast with their previous servitude to Pharaoh. We seldom talk about the fact that those Jews that escaped out of Egypt were actually baptized under Moses.

They identified with him. Same thing with John the Baptist. Keep this in mind. He says that John the Baptist's baptism is not Christian baptism. Do you agree with that? As we go on we will explain why. But it was a badge of discipleship for those who heard and bowed to his message.

They owned their sin and that they deserved death and in a token of it were buried by baptism thus they were marked as John's disciples, John 4.1. Baptism was an identification that made them disciples and they identified with the message that he was giving.

You have to understand that one of the things that was going on in Israel at this time was that the the religion of Judaism had been so messed up over the last 450 years. John the Baptist was the first prophet in Israel in 450 years. So here they are wandering around without any real leadership for 450 years and so what did they do? They came up with a system that they called Judaism but it had very little identity with what God gave Moses on the Mount Sinai. They had a system, they had 620 laws. So they decided the way to not break these laws was to invent 620 other laws so that as long as they didn't break these they weren't going to break these. So they had this system that was just insanity. It's kind of like how we function today with political correctness. That's exactly what it's like. We're not going to do this so we don't offend anybody. Because offending people is the worst thing you can do. Really?

So understand that the baptisms of John and Moses were so that people would identify themselves and become disciples of the message and the person that delivered the message. Question two, what did water baptism of the new Christians signify? Discipleship, allegiance to God. So that's an interesting question because does your being water baptized make you a disciple of Christ?

No. It doesn't? It's a picture. There's no question that water baptism is in connection with Christianity, right? I mean, it's all over the place. Here's what Rideau said. He said, no candidate or impartial person who reads intelligently in the book of Acts together with frequent references throughout the epistles would fail to see that water baptism has a distinct place in the Christian economy.

And he quoted Acts 2.41, when they had gladly received the word, were baptized, and the same day there were added about 3,000 souls. That was the day of Pentecost. These were Jews to start with and later Samaria, Philippi, wherever the gospel would receive Gentile converts received water baptism. Would you say that this water baptism in early Christianity was a badge of discipleship? Yes it was. Yes it was.

Because think about it, if Peter stands up on the day of Pentecost, gives that nice little sermon of his, tells the Jews that they need to repent, which means they need to change their mind, about what? Who Jesus of Nazareth was. And we've talked about this before, when I say or Paul says Jesus of Nazareth, it's like saying Donna of Conner City. It's not a nice term. It's Jesus from the wrong side of the tracks is what that term means. And he says to them, you Jews need to change your mind about who this Jesus from the wrong side of the tracks really is. He's the son of God and he's the Messiah.

That was the repenting that they were to do. So when they were baptized that day, what are they doing? They are identifying with the message. They were all saved that day, the 3,000 were saved, but to identify with the message they were baptized. Had any information been revealed to the Christians at that point about their identity and oneness with Christ, about their identity and the cross? about their position. No. So it was initially a baptism of discipleship. They were aligning themselves with the message that Peter was giving.

Did you see that? It marked the new position they occupied of a vowed allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our Messiah. We believe that He is. He is our Savior. They were therefore baptized under his name. Don't get nervous, we'll get to what it really means for a believer to be baptized. We are all baptized unto the church, not Christian. Why are all baptisms up to the church not considered Christian baptism? Do you understand the question?

Christ hadn't died. See how simple that is? It's real simple. Christ didn't show up yet. So every baptism up to that time, there wasn't any Christianity, there wasn't any Christ yet. He quotes 1 Corinthians 12, 13, for by one spirit we're all baptized into one body. Ooh, new information. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, all have been made to drink of one spirit. Acts 19, 1-5. Acts 19, 1-5 is Paul running into these guys in Corinth, where Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus and he finds these disciples there. Notice he calls them disciples.

And he said, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Good question, right? And they said, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. What are you talking about? He says, under what then were you baptized? Under what were you baptized? And what did they say?

They said, unto John's baptism. So he says, John baptized with a baptism of repentance, a change of mind, telling the people to believe in him who was coming after him, that is in Jesus. And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now, before Paul shows up, these guys are sincere, They're walking and believing in the baptism that they heard from John the Baptist.

Were they Christians? Not yet. We'll talk in a minute what makes you a Christian. Question 4. What does Spirit Baptism accomplish? Now we're down to the nuts and bolts. I say it marks our passing from the realm of profession to the sphere of reality. We have been made to drink into one sphere. It has put us into the real body.

Donna? I just wanted to backtrack for a second. So those disciples, if any of them had died at that point, They weren't in Christ, right? Or were they? I don't know, to be honest with you. I really don't know. Because, you know, once Christ ascended, and once Pentecost happened, then the church is born. Right. Could you still get saved unto the kingdom? I know that there's a transition period going on. And I don't think God let anybody slip through the cracks, so to speak. So, I don't know, to be honest. I really don't know. But I don't think you can be in Christ if you don't have the right information to believe. And they didn't. Were they saints? Would they have been saved from the kingdom? Yeah, I think so. Because they believed that Jesus was the Messiah, right? Yeah, and that he was coming after John, yeah. Okay, now...

The first question we asked was, what does Rideout say is nearly always significant of baptism? And he says it's an introduction to a place. So keeping that in mind, when we ask the question what is spirit baptism, what do we get introduced to? What place do we go to? Now we've got to get this clear.

You get baptized into the body of Christ, not into the spirit of Christ. Because he's the one that does the baptizing. See that? He's a different person than Christ. His job is to baptize you into the body of Christ or to baptize you into Christ. To put you in there. Because things change now. And here's the deal.

When I mistakenly read a minute ago, for by one spirit we were all baptized into one body. Or that you'd be Jew or Gentile. Oh my goodness. The Jews didn't like that statement. whether you be bond or free, whether you are a free man or a slave, and have all been made to drink into one spirit. So what's happened here?

The Holy Spirit has taken these folks in the spiritual realm and this is identification. He has taken you out of Adam and put you into Christ's body, which means he's put you into Christ. What was the journey from heaven to Christ? Romans 6, 3 and 4. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, in other words you guys ought to know this, have been baptized into his death. So when the spirit grabs a hold of you around the neck, and places you into Christ.

You go in at the point in which he dies. Why is that so important? We didn't go in at the point in which he was resurrected. We didn't go in at the point in which he was going up to heaven or when he performed a bunch of miracles on the earth. We went in at the point in which he died. What does death mean?

What was he separating from? of our whole identity in the Adamic race. So wouldn't it maybe be better to say the power of the sin nature, since we still have the sin nature, so we're not exactly like separated from it being gone, we're just separated from its ability to have such influence over us? Or authority over us. Authority over us? Yes. It's not gone.

We have two natures as believers. so we have been separated from it. And the separation comes when Christ was made sin for us, our sin natures were put on him. He not only died for your sins, which are all the really cool things you've done, but he took you and separated you from the source of those sins, your sin nature. Your sin nature was put on Christ and you know when that happened because when he was on the cross and he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? At that very moment he was made sin for us and the Father looked away from him and he died.

He separated from all of those Adamic natures, and you were in him when that happened. And when you became a believer, the Holy Spirit baptized you into that instant, that very instant, right there, so that when he died, so did you. You were separated from all your identity in Adam, positionally. Now you may walk around looking real Adamic all the time, but physicianally you are not connected with him anymore. Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death. True statement, when he was buried you were down in the grave with him.

So that as Christ was raised from the dead, through the glory of the Father, you too might walk in newness of life. The newness of life is the resurrected life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice it says that you might walk that way. You have the life, you are resurrected in Christ, you've been baptized into Christ through that entire process. You have now the privilege and the capacity by dependence on the Spirit and living by faith to walk that way.

You see that? Does that make sense? It's a grace transaction, not a legal transaction. Once you come to realize through the work of the Spirit that this is true of you and me, and you rest by faith in it, you realize that wow, I not only have been placed into Christ, but the Holy Spirit has been placed into me. came into me and he is going to enable that life to be lived through me.

That's really something, isn't it? That's a little different than trying to obey a bunch of laws and look like a Jew. Better act like one. Come over to my neighborhood. I've got plenty of Jews around in those black suits and fedoras. We can split you right up. So, I think, although right out of 1 Corinthians 12, I think that Romans 6, 3, and 4 is a more appropriate verse.

What God has done, via the Holy Spirit, is fulfill the prayer that the Lord Jesus prayed in John 17. What did he say? This is Courtney's favorite book. What did the Lord Jesus ask the Father for? As they be one, as we are one. Father, that they might be one, as we are one, that they might be one in us. Wow. And the Father said, I don't want to get around to that.

So when he says, he that is joined to the Lord, in 1 Corinthians 6, 17, is one spirit, there it is, there's the answer. The Father has answered the Lord Jesus' request Right then, you and I are one spirit with the Lord Jesus Christ, because of what the Spirit of Christ did by baptizing you into him. See that? The moment one believes upon the Lord Jesus, he receives the Spirit and by the very fact is united to the Church, united to the Body of Christ, and united to Christ.

Thus, he is joined, united to the Lord. How unlike God it would be to leave the newborn soul anything so momentous as membership in the church, but it will still be pressed that the new convert is expected to select some church, some body of Christians and unite with the church of his choice. We should be laughing. So my next question was, what isn't spirit baptism? What isn't it? First thing is that it's a big mistake to think that water baptism is putting us into a church.

But then what does it say that the church is? What the real church is. What is the real church? It's the body of Christ, right? It's not Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, none of those things. It's the body of Christ. How could water, dear friends, mere water put us into a divine position? I came out of Catholicism. That's what they believe. They believe that the water of a water baptism is like taking a spiritual shower. It washes away your sins. And that's why they baptize little babies. That's right. The problem is that their baptism had nothing to do with the sin nature.

Why would you want to go around and break all the whiskey bottles? You might as well blow up the factory. That's what God did. How empty are the claims of ritualism here? He says, but do not many who abhor ritualism fall into the very same error by claiming that baptism introduces into a church?

You guys came out of a Baptist church, didn't you? A lot of you? Baptist, Catholic, blah, blah, blah. I know that if you join a Baptist church, I've never been in a Baptist church, but if you are going to identify with the Baptist Church, they want to baptize you again, don't they? Don't they go through this water baptism thing? What do you mean they can't? Well, let's say I belong to the First Baptist Church of Aurora.

And when I joined there, they said, No, you don't have to do that. I have been baptized of my own professional faith. Good, that's great. Let's see. The point is that water baptism has been construed to mean that it gives you some sort of identity with the believers that you are hanging out with. No it doesn't. As a matter of fact, we have a baptismal in this church and it's right up over here and when it's working right the water is warm. When it's not working right it's a little cold.

But you know where that baptismal should be? It should be right out here in the front lawn. Because what am I saying? As a believer, what am I saying when I submit to being water baptized? What am I really saying? But I have already been baptized by the Holy Spirit. Into Christ? Yes.

And so as you go down in the water you should be waving goodbye to everybody who's driving by because you're about to leave the world. You go down in the water, you die. When you're raised up again, you're in newness of life. You just told them, I left.

I'm now over here in Christ. That's really what it symbolizes. But that's not what transpires in that action. It's just signifying that that action has already transpired. The baptism does not do that. You're identifying with what's already transpired. It's a public proclamation. Everybody hear that? Important point. You're not doing anything new, you're just using the baptism, water baptism, to demonstrate what's already happened spiritually to you.

Holly? And how big of a deal is it that it's public? Because I hear people will say, you know, like, with one other person, they kind of were baptized. I mean, is it? I mean, I can see back in the Jewish Gentile days to do that would have been like, oh my gosh, people would have seen and kind of known. Whereas, you know, is it like less of a big deal now to be so public?

It's a public display, but I'm not sure how important it is to be public. Like these disciples that Paul baptized, you know, he probably took them down to the river, but on the way down he didn't say, come on along, we need an audience. He just did it. I don't think you need a public display, although water baptism, I know people have been baptized in swimming pools and rivers and all kinds of stuff. I don't think that part is necessary. And baptism I think should be explained to every young believer exactly what it represents.

Your death, burial and resurrection with Christ. That's what it really represents. So what does it mean to be in the body? And that's also the definition of gospel isn't it? Death, burial and resurrection. It is, except here's the difference. The gospel message is that the death, burial and resurrection was what Christ did for you to pay the penalty for your sins. What baptism signifies is what God did to you. He crucified you with Christ. He buried you and raised you to newness of life. It's the difference between something being done for you, which is the gospel message, and something being done to you by the Holy Spirit.

There are simultaneous transactions. I just thought that was an outward evidence of what had been done to you internally. But it's not evidence. Otherwise the ritualism would just be. It's not really evidence that Christ died for you. What baptism, water baptism really demonstrates is what you did in terms of your dying with him. When he died for you, he took the penalty of your sins, which he did by himself. But then your dying with him, you were included in his death.

Alice just made a really great point there. She said that the gospel message was for all men, and that the baptism is personal. Everybody hear that? That the gospel message is for all men? Baptism is just for believers. Gospel is for all men and baptism is just two believers. What does it mean to be in the body of Christ?

And I paragraph of page 53 I think I put 52 and then 53 paragraph 2 into one body. We've already seen how this is a characteristic name of the church. There is one body, one spirit, even as you are called, and one hope of your calling. Here is the unity of the body the church is associated on the one hand with one spirit who has formed it and on the other hand one hope to the heavenly glory which is destined.

He talks about the twelfth chapter of Now, I want you to understand, when you see in the word of God that we have been, we have a hope as believers. What's the hope that we have? That Christ is coming again? No. Will we be raised from the dead? Here's what the hope of the church is, is to be glorified. Understand what that means? It means that to be totally conformed to the image of the glorified Christ. I think it's important for believers to understand that when the rapture happens and all of that seven years goes on and we come back to rule and reign, and this is the best way I know to describe it.

In the millennial kingdom, Jesus is here ruling and reigning from Jerusalem and you're here in Denver with me. How do they know that we are sons of God? We're walking down Colfax Avenue, you and me. And there's a bunch of Gentiles and some Jews. How do they know that we are members of the body of Christ? We are the bride of Christ. How do they know?

Here's what I had to ask. I answered this with one of the things you said up here. It says it means we've been baptized and added to, along with all those of every ethnic persuasion, The body of Christ after having gladly received his word. That's what it meant.

But what's the destiny? The destiny of the church is to be glorified. When you and I in the Millennial Kingdom, we're here ruling and reigning with Christ, you know how they're going to know that we're not still? Is that the glory of God will radiate out of you, and out of me, and they'll see it.

Because you'll be a, oh wow, there goes one of those members of the Bride of Christ. You won't have to wear a name tag. They'll just see the glory and that's the destiny. We will be glorified as a bride collectively and glorified individually. The radiance of Christ's glory will permeate out through every one of us. And when Christ was transfigured, that was the glorified Christ. Is that how you would feel? It's just kind of a forerunner of it. Yeah. But see, when Christ comes to rule and reign on the earth, where's heaven? Heaven has come down. That's right, isn't it? And his glory isn't diminished because he came to Jerusalem. He didn't have to check his glory at the door. You know, he's glorified. And if you come with him, You're glorified too.

That's the destiny of us as members of the body of Christ. See, there's nothing that's going to be true of Christ from now on that isn't true of you. That's not good. It's a good gig if you can get it. Each member has a specific function. Dry Out makes an interesting point. He says, what do the more uncommonly members receive? Does anybody know what uncommonly means? What does it mean?

Unattractive. Unattractive? Ugly. Ugly, she said. The more uncommonly, the more essential. So you could say that the more ugly ones are, Each member has its own function. How clear it is that each individual is here contemplated. None is so insignificant or ugly as to be omitted. Each has a place in the body according to the sovereign will of the Spirit of God. The more ugly parts are more essential and upon them greater care has to be bestowed.

I love that because I fit right in with that. What page is that? It's right here. We all have a position that Christ puts us in. Some of them are high profile, some of them aren't. Some of them are kind of just stuck off and it seems like off in the corner someplace. Those are the ones that are deserving of, as he says, greater care. That's really cool because none of us are shoved off.

If I could get my wife and a friend to shut up. Oxford American Dictionary definition denoting the absence of equality or state. Unabashed, unacademic, unrepeatable. I like the word ugly better. I guess I'm trying to figure this out, you know, when we say uncomely or ugly or anything. God sees us in Christ, what's ugly or ungodly? When he's talking about, he's talking about positions you occupy within the body of Christ. Now. And use the human body. Now. Use the human body.

Some of our members of our body are kind of attractive, others aren't so cool. I've seen your liver, it ain't cool. The other point he made was that we are so connected to each other that if you have a stomach ailment, you don't say my stomach ails, you say I'm sick. When someone in the body of Christ is ailing, the body ails, the whole thing. Let's close.

Father, how we thank you for your grace. We thank you for the fact that we are members of the body of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are so united to him. that all of his attributes and all of his characteristics and everything about him that's pleasing to you is part of who we are. So we thank you for that. We pray in your son's precious name. Amen.