Person & Work of the Holy Spirit

Lesson 24 of the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit. So this is reading, this is in chapter 7 of Rideout's book. And it's the Holy Spirit before his incarnation, his early life. And these will be on pages 103 to 108. So, beginning with question 1. What is the main purpose, goal, and focus of the Holy Spirit according to Rideout? To glorify Christ. glorify Christ. His work here is expressed in one sentence. He shall glorify me. Has anybody looked that up? Where in scripture that is? John 16 verses 13 through 15. Now read those.

But when he, the spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. or he will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of mine, and will disclose it to you." So right out basically this is his purpose. This is in John 16 where he is talking about the Holy Spirit coming and what he is going to do. And this is his main purpose and goal or focus is to glorify Christ.

We're going to get into the next question and all the different things, but that's the overriding principle or focus of the Holy Spirit. We're going to go to the next question and go through all the things we've been through in this series or this study of the Holy Spirit, but that's the overriding principle in all of it. When we go through all the individual ones, think about that, He will glorify me and all these different purposes and different things that we have focused on over the last 23 lessons. The overriding principle or goal is that the Holy Spirit will glorify Christ.

So, going back a little bit, what does glorify mean? And how does the Holy Spirit glorify Christ? First of all, first question, what does glorify mean? He shall glorify me. What does that mean? Put up billboards, advertisements. What does glorify mean? Are we going to have to get back to basic words now? See the overriding principle is he will glorify me. None of you know what that means right? None of you know what that means.

To reveal his radiant essence. Any other thoughts? The overriding principle of the Holy Spirit is to glorify him. It's almost like to give him, this is my own words, to give him credit for it, to recognize him, you know, to not give credit to ourselves, but to give credit to God, to recognize that he's the power. That's good.

You're nibbling around all the edges of that. I mean, if I was to glorify Nick, What would I do? Give you lots of stuff. Give you lots of stuff. Send more money. Spoken from age. Send money. So what do I need to glorify? I don't remember reading it. Well, I'll get it. This is the overriding, he shall glorify Christ.

So, if you look at the Greek word, Dax adzo, which he defines as a zodiac. He's my favorite one to look for definitions. The consequential meaning from the opinion which one forms is to recognize, honor, praise, invest with dignity, give anyone esteem or honor by putting him into an honorable position. That was a mouthful. He has a shorter one.

In the application in John 16, 14 verse, is to honor, bestow honor upon, exalt in dignity, render glorious. Therefore, with that definition, the Holy Spirit's purpose here is to honor, bestow honor upon, exalt in dignity, render glorious the Christ Jesus, the Son of God. Sound right? So, it's to exalt, to render glorious, to basically say how wonderful Christ is. he's also going to conform us to the image, right? So he's got to tell us all about him. So he's going to reveal, he's going to convict, he's going to convince. All these things we're going to go into in the next question. These are all the things that he's going to do to glorify Christ.

So, I like one other sentence that Rideout has. He basically says, he does not merely enlighten us, but he introduces, may I say, us to one in one Let me say that again. He does not merely enlighten us, but he introduces us, may I say, us to one in whose company we shall spend eternity. I like that.

He's telling us who we are going to spend eternity with. He is telling us, or the Holy Spirit is telling us about who we are, because we're in Christ. But we're also telling about the person we're going to spend eternity with. I think that's incredible when you think about that. He's enlightening us, exalting us, but he's telling us about that person who we're going to spend eternity with.

I think that's pretty important. If I'm going to spend an eternity with somebody, I want to know as much as I can about them. And how glorious is that? The person he's telling us we're going to spend an eternity with is Christ, God's only Son. Incredible.

That's his reason to glorify Him, what he does to glorify Him. So, any questions on that? About what is purpose? Excuse me, right off I made a point that glory has to do with the perfections of Christ. That what he is revealing through the word is the glory of Christ. You could almost substitute the word perfection, but his perfections which are perfect in every aspect. Yeah, I think he gets in a little bit that way with some of these others. Is that the same as all the perfections of the written word are to exhibit those of the personal word?

Exactly. And that's it. And that's because we just finished, which we'll get into one of the later questions about that. We just finished about the perfect word. And what is that? The living word. So, yeah, it's the perfect word is explaining. We're talking about the perfect living word.

But I like the fact that it basically, I like that one statement, in whose company we'll spend an eternity with. I think that made the best sense to me. The Holy Spirit is revealing the one who we're going to spend an eternity with. It's almost two halves of that. That's the one we're going to spend an eternity with.

But more importantly too, I think for us, is we're being conformed into his image by the Holy Spirit. So he's revealing Christ so we know who we are. And that's why, as I said, what Mike told me years ago, you know, read the New Testament basically as to know Christ. To read it as just to see who Christ is, because that's who we are.

That's who, as this says, we're going to spend an eternity with. I want to know everything about that person I'm going to spend an eternity with. It's kind of like the bride thing, you know, like, yeah. Exactly. If you didn't know who you were going to marry, you suddenly got thrown in. It's kind of like an arranged marriage somewhere, where you're going to marry Sally. Okay, I don't even know her. It's not like you know somebody, and you've come to know them, and then in that relationship over a marriage, you've gotten to know them so intimately, that you know everything about them, and you want to spend time.

It's one of those things, too. There's a couple of other ones where we talk about the object of love. You don't want to be anywhere but with that person. Are we that way with Christ? Do we want to spend time? When we are not spending time, we're longing for time.

And I think this is where the Holy Spirit is convicting, convincing, doing all these things to get us to know who we're going to spend eternity with. And what a glorious thing that is. I mean, the more you find out about the Lord Jesus and who He is, His love for us can never be broken. I mean, that's for an eternity. What kind of relationship on earth do we have that can match that? Nothing.

I thought that was a really good one. And I guess too, when you don't have the facts, you just kind of make stuff up in your head. you know, like you would about another person that you didn't know if there was an arranged marriage. You'd say, oh, they're probably like this, or maybe they're like this. But, you know, when you have the facts, then that's where you can look.

You know, in ours too, it's not only, if you think about it, you know, if I get to know, you know, you or whatever, I spend time to see you, whatever, we have, we have the, added advantage, I think, if you really put this in perspective, we not only have the word that tells us about that person, but we have the Holy Spirit convicting, convincing, and doing all that. So it's not just our merely experiencing or reading this, we have the Holy Spirit.

His job is to glorify. His job is to present Christ. His job is to convince, convict, show us Christ. So we not only have a relationship, but we have somebody who is working actively 24-7 to reveal that person. So it's more than just getting to know a wife or a friend or something like that. We have the Holy Spirit, which is a whole different thing.

Page 104A. List the previous subjects covered up until now. I love these kind of things because I usually go back and review. I think we get so myopic and when we're so detailed as we go through this trail, 23 lessons, where have we been? And I would do this anyway. So I'm glad this was in Rideout's lectures that he did. So what was the first subject that he talked about?

The Holy Spirit and the dispensation. So what were the three periods in which the Holy Spirit's work was shown? before Christ, the church age, and the millennium. So what was the Holy Spirit's work before Christ? Preparation. Preparation. Was that the Galatians 3, 23, 24? The tutor?

The law and all that stuff? before it was a tutor to point us to Christ. But once Christ has come, the law or the tutor is no longer necessary. I think all the law prior to his incarnation, that was to point us to Christ. But once Christ is here, there's no longer need for the tutor of the law. Because we have Christ here.

So what about the Holy Spirit in the present age? there is in him. Again, what we're talking about on the first one, what the Holy Spirit is doing now is revealing Christ so we can be conformed to his image, to know that one we're going to spend eternity with. So what about in the millennium? Lord and King over all the kingdom, all the earth, open. And something in the Bible I see. Yeah, in the Millennium, when our Lord will be manifested as King over all the earth, His word will be one of open and manifest blessing. Thus, the Spirit reflects the thoughts of God as to Christ in each age of the world's history. So, He reflects, and if we go back to that John 16 verse, what is His purpose?

To honor, bestow, or no, let me get to the verse here. But when He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you in all the truth. For He will not speak of His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine, and will disclose to you.

So, that's where he is, where Rideout was saying in here, thus the Spirit reflects the thoughts of God as to Christ in each age of the world. So he's taking of God and presenting it. So it's not anything of his own, but he's only bringing what God has revealed, or had him reveal about Christ. And then in the present age, he's revealing Christ to us to know who we are, and again, the relationship, the conforming. And then in the millennium, he basically is manifesting himself, manifesting Christ as king.

So, I did ask this question, what is the difference between the Holy Spirit in the first one prior to his incarnation to the latter? Was there a difference in the Holy Spirit's, how he operated? These are not in write-outs, these are my own thoughts. Well, before there were types shown and the need for salvation. Yeah, how did the Holy Spirit operate? prior to Pentecost, let's put it that way. How did he operate?

Not being within us, but kind of coming and going. Yeah, there was no permanency to it. He would come upon and leave. He could come upon and leave. What about today? Is that what he does to the believer today? No, it's completely different. He's indwelling, can't ever leave. So I just want to make that distinction because there was a difference. Because you see in the scripture how the Holy Spirit came upon people. But now it's different. It is permanent. Never to be non-indwelled. So the next one, do you know what the next one? Right at the next topic we had dispensations. What's the next topic? Salvation. So how is the Holy Spirit's work in salvation further defined?

We broke it up into three or four different topics. conviction of the birth, sealing, sanctification. Yep, so conviction of sin we saw was because of the world's rejection of Christ and then the new birth was marked by faith in the Lord Jesus. Sealing was upon that faith was simply the record of God's appreciation of those who believe. Sealing is never connected with attainments or experiences, never made to depend upon the extent of our knowledge of the truth. Where there is faith in the person, there God sets his seal of ownership upon the weakest and most ignorant believers. So that was right as description. So the sealing, I think the last part I kind of like, on the weakest and most ignorant believer. So do you have to be sealed? Do you have to be a PhD? You have to know everything about Christ before you get sealed? It's kind of neat because it's like what Russ said about his friend. And then Mike, what you said about, you know, it's not important to believe everything all at once, you know. Do you remember that?

Oh yeah, we were talking about... She couldn't get over the virgin birth. The virgin birth, and that's not the issue. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, I like that one statement, like I said. The seal is upon every believer. whether you're a PhD or a child. It doesn't matter. There isn't a test that says, you know, like at the end, you pass the test, you get a name, you get a seal. It is not that way. He seals on every one of us. So I like that fact that you don't have to be a brain surgeon to be able to figure this out.

And once you know and believe, by faith, you're sealed. Done. So what does it mean to be sealed? You have a God-sealed seal of ownership based upon faith in God's Son. That's good. I like that. Look at Ephesians 1, 13 and 14. This is where it comes about the sealing.

In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise. who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of his glory." So, it says we're sealed with him, in him. I love that again. I love the in him's wherever it is in scripture because that just bolsters the identification truth that we are placed in him, we are sealed in him. So, again, the definition that Zodiates had for sealing is generally to set a seal or a mark upon a thing as a token of its authenticity or provenness and it's used for, in scripture, used for persons, the sealing of a person in Christ. So it was a seal that basically authenticated what Christ had done and who you are in Christ. Sealed, done. Never to be removed. It's not like a broken seal. You can't break that seal. Last one is assurance.

That was another one of the topics. Basically, it's simply bringing home to the soul the perfection of Christ's work and His love. Thus in salvation, the Spirit glorifies Christ. So that was one of the other topics he had on that, on the Holy Spirit and salvation. So any other thoughts on salvation, His work in salvation? Okay, we'll move on. What's the next one? Dispensations, we've had salvation, then what did he move on? What?

Sanctification. So, from right out, he's, the next one, the same is true in the sanctification of the believer. We find that the Spirit comes as a representative of our absent Lord. He takes upon His abode, He takes up His abode in us, lends out our hearts, out to share the thoughts of God as to Christ, sets us apart as belonging to Him, and enables us to walk as glorifying Him. Here again, it is Christ whom the Spirit exalts.

So, what does sanctification mean? Growth? Sanctification? No. I thought I remember reading in green letters he compared sanctification to growth. Typically what is our definition of sanctification? Set apart. Set apart as belonging to Christ. Right. It's a set apart. The growth can happen through sanctification by being, maybe that's where in the green letters, but the sanctification means to be set apart. Okay. So the important part.

Isn't that what holy means? Huh? Does holy mean set apart too? I don't know, I would say you're set apart as holy. No, holiness is the same word. Yeah, is it the same? I just don't remember if it's in a Greek. When you look at it from the standpoint that sanctification, as Rideout says, is to exalt Christ, then that's what holiness is. It's Christ exalted. I'm just saying also holiness is the perfect... I think sanctification is in holiness, but I don't know.

Well, I think maybe we need to distinguish between position and conditional holiness. Do you remember how right I've distinguished between positional and conditional sanctification? That was my next question. So, positional. What does positional sanctification mean? It means placed in Christ. What's that? Placed in Christ. Placed in Christ. Yeah. And to walk is glorifying Him. Okay.

I want to get into the positional aspect. What's our definition of position and condition? What is position? What does that represent? What? Position is permanent and it has to do with your standing. Okay. Your standing in God's home. It's part of his family. Yeah, the position is... Yeah, the first part is what we're looking at in position. It's something that is permanent, unchangeable. Where you're located. Location, location, location. Real estate. That's a position that is unchangeable, can't be changed at all. What is conditional? Don't scratch your walk. Is it changeable? I mean, yeah.

So you can walk in the spirit, walk in the flesh. It's your daily walk or your daily abiding with him. So when you go back to what Holly said, One of the interesting things about the Green Letters is that it is a book that describes the process of conditional sanctification. Yes. So growth would be the appropriate word. If you're talking about sanctification of holiness from a positional standpoint, then it wouldn't be.

Right. Right. And that's, yeah, that's right. I was a little bit. When you define it as conditional positional. Yes. I mean, We're positionally, and this takes into account all the identification truths, our co-crucifixion with Christ, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and our positional seating with Christ. So, never to be changed. Positional sanctification.

We are placed in him, is it later when we die? Or our physical death. Let me say our physical death. In baptism the Spirit puts us into the body with Christ as head. Yep, so again, positionally we're placed into Christ. Co-crucifixion, death of the Adamic, placed into new birth into Christ, the new creature, the new creation. We're placed into Him. That happened at the cross.

So now, that's why I love when I look in the conscription, I see all the in hymns. We're in hymns now, positionally. That's how God sees us right now. He doesn't see us any different. And that's why I said it makes a whole different whole different way you look at your life if you understand that God only sees you in Christ. He only sees you in Christ. So when you're worried about this or that or whatever, God only sees you in Christ, positionally. That's a tremendous relief, is to understand that truth.

It takes all the pressure off. It's not a law based condition. If I do this, I get this. It's already positioned. We're done. We're in Christ. That's how God sees us forever. So, position and condition are only terms that apply to believers? Well, I think positionally, you're in Adam. You can be in Adam. But you define position as a permanent. Yeah. Which, true? Yeah. I guess that makes sense, that if in Adam you can get out of Adam by death, by belief in faith in Christ, the co-crucifixion, yes.

So that's not a permanent unchangeable, it can be changed. So is there a different term for, I understand, I can't think of the word that's been used to describe your lineage back or you're born in Adam. I'm trying to think of that positionally in Adam. The flesh is always associated with Adam. So that's a permanent position. It is a position that can't be changed. Adam is always associated with the flesh.

So we get out of that by the co-crucifixion, who we are, our essential entity, our spirit. There's nothing we can do to escape Adam, just like there's nothing we can do to escape being in Christ once you're in him. We get into Christ by faith in what somebody else did, his death, burial and resurrection. It's like our identity is now changed from that position in Adam to our position in Christ.

I hadn't thought about that. Whether that Adamic is a position that can't be changed. Because Adam is always associated with the flesh. So the only way we get out of that ourselves, because Adam is still associated with the flesh, is to get out through faith and be positioned in Christ.

Or would it be correct to say that our position is as a result of where and what we're placing our faith in? We put our faith in Christ, therefore our position becomes different than what it was before. Yes, but it's not conditional. The way you phrased it, it sounds like conditional. If we have faith today, we're here. If we have faith there, it's kind of a conditional aspect of sanctification. The faith is a permanent, once we believe Christ, all of death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. Then, yes, it's done. I don't mean to make it sound like I'm saying you bounce back. You make this decision to believe.

Then it's the severing, the co-crucifixion that takes us out of Adam and places us permanently in Christ. So how about the word instead of permanent, how about eternal versus Temporary, like we're temporarily in Adam until we die physically, right? But we're eternally in Christ. Yeah, but if you die in Adam... It's temporary. It wouldn't be permanent. No, you're associated, if you die without Christ, you're associated with Adam, I think, forever. That's true, that would be eternal. Eternal too, yeah. Like I said, the only thing is, and that's why I think getting back to your question, That permanency of Adam is still Adam. Adam and the flesh are forever.

And if you die in Adam, you're an Adam. If you die in Christ, you're in Christ. I mean, you believe. You die in Adam, placed into new creation in Christ. I have to think about that. Give that some thought. But my initial reaction is they're both positional. If you're positioned in Adam, and you die physically in Adam, you're associated with Adam through eternity.

So we have positional, sanctification, and then conditional. So that was an important distinction between the sanctification. Positional were put in Christ, eternal not to be changed. Conditional sanctification was variable for each believer, and it's related to our transformation and confirmation to Christ. are conforming to Christ.

We also looked at the Holy Spirit's anointing. What does anointing mean? If you look at 2 Corinthians 1, 21-22, Now he who established us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge. So what does anointing mean?

A little bit of oil, a little touchy-feely. Rub it on your head. It's the Greek word to anoint is charisma. I think it's everything that happens when you become a believer. Instantly. So what is the anointing? But can't you be anointed to do something in particular and then it's done? Temporarily anointed?

With that verse, Christ anointed us. Now he established us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge. That is, if Christians as anointed are consecrated, set apart for the service and ministry of Christ, and is gospel by the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So again, it's again almost, and that's... Set apart. Set apart, right. And holy, it was more of being set apart. I looked, and this is when I looked up in the Webster's dictionary about consecrate, and I liked the way they had it. Well, first I looked up anoint, and consecrate was one of those. And then it went on, looking at consecrate, to declare or make sacred, to devote solemnly to a purpose. Therefore to be sanctified and anointed by the Holy Spirit is to be set apart solemnly for a purpose and declared or made sacred. And they were saying that Jesus himself was anointed by the Holy Spirit, wasn't he?

Yeah. Okay. I have a question then. Sorry. Just one I was wondering. So prior to when the Spirit, like when Jesus was a young kid and young guy, He didn't have the Holy Spirit, right? The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus at a certain part of his life, like when he was in his thirties. Oh, Carol? Yes, Carol?

He couldn't have lived all his life sinless if he hadn't had... Sure he couldn't. He didn't have a sin nature, that's what I was saying. He was operating all the time. Mine would be that he didn't have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit because he didn't have a sin nature so it wouldn't be that he would sin.

I'm just confronting this for a specific purpose to be carried out. for the Lord Jesus to be anointed for his ministry by the Holy Spirit in order to carry out the ministry he's been sent to do. It took the power of the Holy Spirit to do it. So here he is anointed. Up until that time his ministry hadn't begun. And I think it's the same way for believers that God has called each one of us to certain things he wants to do through us and he anoints And this is where he created his workmanship for his specific things to do. So you would say when he was young, he...

Yeah, I don't think he was anointed by the Holy Spirit until he was baptized. Yeah, because that's when the Holy Spirit descended upon him. And again, from Carol's point, he didn't sin because he didn't have a sin nature. So it wasn't that he had the Holy Spirit convicting him. He didn't have to. He didn't have a sin nature. And here's the thing about sin. Sin is falling short of the mark. It's like he's the mark. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, that's right. Yeah. Was that the second one? Yes. Thank you for answering that.

Lots of good questions today. Those are those are ones that you kind of ponder. Those are good questions. Have to think about those. Those were really good questions. We'll continue on. We'll get through question number two. I like it because it reviews a lot. I really like that part of it. I know after I've been through all this, to remember all the things we've done, I like to go back and take a look and just go over some of these things that we've looked at. We'll continue on question two and then we'll blow through lots of questions after that.

Let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. Thanks for any time again that we can open up your word. Thanks for just these questions and thoughts about all the things we know about the Holy Spirit. Thank you for the Holy Spirit. You haven't left us alone. You have the indwelling Holy Spirit and we thank you for that.

We thank you for your word and we thank you for our life in Christ and what that means positionally for an eternity and just that thought that the Holy Spirit is presenting the Lord Jesus Christ so we know who we're going to spend an eternity with. That's just an awesome thought to think about the eternity face-to-face with the Lord Jesus Christ and you Father. We just thank you for that great thought that we have. Again, just positionally, we are in Christ right now. We don't have to wait on faith in Christ, we are placed in Him. So we thank you for all these things that comfort us and give us strength in knowing all that is true about us now in Christ. So Father, we thank you for this time and we just pray for Vern giving the message upstairs. Again, just to clearly bring forth your word and prepare our hearts to receive it. Father, we do all these things in the name of your Son, the Lord Jesus.