Which Side of the Cross - Lesson 21
JD McCulley · Nov 19, 2017
Which Side of the Cross, No. 44
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492669423352

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

Alright, so we are on lesson 21, cruising through. Which side of the cross do you live on? So we're still in that third portion, faith. I do have to say, even as a privilege as it is to teach, it's such a privilege to also continue to learn, and I think this This third portion, and while we did an entire class on faith, sometimes you get the sense that it was just so drawn out that you may couldn't go back and pick on all the key points that were really aha moments for you, but I think it's been fun to kind of go back and touch on the highlights, these four principles, or four aspects rather. And just to kind of hit them in bite-sized chunks, I've picked up and been reminded of a lot of really interesting truths through this third portion, so I'm real excited to be able to go through this lesson with you guys.

So lesson 21, we'll just start at the top, and we'll open our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 2, 10 through 11. Actually, we'll back up to 9. We'll go 9, 10, and 11. If you guys want to get that open, we'll read that together. 1 Corinthians 2, 9, 10, and 11. So the question goes, do you know what these things are, the deep things of God, the humanly unsearchable things of God? So let's read. If somebody's got that, go ahead and read 9, 10, and 11 for us. Russ, you have a good reading voice.

Things which I have not seen here, which have not entered the heart of all that God has prepared for those who love them or to us, God revealed them to the spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God, from whom no man knows the thoughts of a man except the Spirit of the man which is in him. Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Okay, so backing up to verse 9 there, it communicates this things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard.

In the course of the last many lessons, where have we seen things pop up? We've looked at that word in different contexts. Do you recall when we looked at things prior to this verse? Hebrews 11. Okay, Hebrews 11. Yep, so we had faith is the substance, evidence of things being hoped for, of things not being seen, or of things not seen. So, we talked about some things here, right? And, you know, we did our Sergei Louis, if you remember.

Can you know these things? Because it's saying here that they're unsearchable. Which eye has not seen, ears not heard, which have not entered the heart of man. All that God has prepared for those who love him. Yes. Okay. You can know some things. What does the unbeliever know? A couple? None. Zero. So you're saying as a believer you know things of God. Do you know them all? No. So the answer really is, to this first question, the answer is no. We don't know all of them. We can't comprehend all of them. We do know some. And what are the some that we know?

So we know only the things that He's revealed to us, right? He's chosen to reveal some of the things about himself, things that were prepared for us, those who are loved by God. I want to go back to what an unbeliever knows. Romans 1 tells us that they know that there is a God. They know his divine nature and his eternal attribute. So that's what an unbeliever knows.

So he's without excuse that there is. This is true. You're right. No, they do know those two things, but they're not personal to him. And they're not even comprehensible in the fullness of what they are, but they do hold him accountable. That's a good point.

Romans 1.18 on that.

But in the context of a believer, we do know some of these things, but the things of God are infinite. He's an infinite God. And so we can only know those things that He has revealed to us. And how does that work? How do we even know those things? Look at verse 2. We have the question. If we're finite, and God's an infinite God, then number 2 comes up. Why does God then say He's uncovered them for us, and they are all uncovered, but we don't know them all? So look at what it says in verse 10. It says, but God has what? Revealed them through the Spirit. Okay. So there's the key there. He's revealed them through what? Okay. So without the Spirit, what do you know?

You only know Romans 1.18. Okay?

Without the Spirit, you only know Romans 1.18. However, it is through the ministry of the Holy Spirit that He reveals the deep things of Himself to us. That's the how. Okay? This is some of the things. This is some of the what.

But how we get to know these things is only through Ministry of the Spirit to us, right? Because in order to understand an infinite God, you need access to an infinite spirit. Does that make sense? You have a finite human spirit, right? So our spirit is not capable of understanding these things without the work of the Holy Spirit. Does that make sense? So it's only through the Holy Spirit that we can know them.

He's uncovered and unveiled everything He has for us. His desire is for us to know them and the Holy Spirit searches out, that's what it says, searches out all of these things. These are the deep things of God. He's a revealer. And I think a lot of times we pray, we say, and I mentioned this morning in prayer, just asking the Lord to reveal His Word through the Holy Spirit. That is the mechanism that He's given.

In some churches, the Holy Spirit gets a lot of attention, right? I mean, overly so, in potentially unbiblical ways. But we often talk about God the Father, God the Son. But remember, this is a triune God, and it's only because of His Spirit that we can even understand the things of Him.

Now, there's many different ministries, regeneration, indwelling, baptism, sealing, but again, I think going back to Courtney and Mike's class that I wasn't a part of years ago now on the Holy Spirit, what is the Spirit's number one job? To reveal Christ. And that relates to these deep things we're going to talk about here in a little bit. That 100% relates to these deep things of God.

So, in looking at number two, why does God then say He's uncovered them for us and they are all uncovered but we don't know them all? We don't know them all because He's infinite. However, we know everything that He has desired for us to know, but only through the Holy Spirit.

You think about Maybe in a time when you're studying or maybe you're struggling and you're not really learning anything. I went through this period in my Christian life where things were all new, and the things of God were just rolling, and I felt like I was always just getting these really aha moments. And then I hit the slow spot, where everything seemed to be just a review. It wasn't new. I've met believers that are like, I just am kind of hungry for something new.

Have you ever felt like that, or talked to someone that has conveyed being in a stall with learning. I even hear people say, like, you know, I'm not going to go to that class anymore because I'm not really learning anything new. Well, I think that might be true, and it may be that the teaching at certain times is redundant. I think if anything in this class we are redundant.

We go over the same thing a thousand times. And you know what? It's funny. There may be those that say, you know, I'm not learning anything, but there's others that say, you know, I learned that then and I'm being reminded of it now and I can't stop being reminded. It's something that I don't hear very often, and so going over it repetitively has helped me learn it.

But I think that the factor that is tied to that kind of stall has to do with you and the Holy Spirit, and the opportunity that... We talk about grieving the Holy Spirit, and there could be something there. I'm not saying that there always is. But I think for my own life, when I'm not growing and seeing these deep things of God, it has to do with my relationship with the Holy Spirit. And I'm potentially not walking by faith. There's areas in my life that maybe I've grieved the Holy Spirit and I don't have the working, listening ear of that ministry of God's very own Spirit.

And I think that that's important. I want to relate that back to our walk, because access to these deep things is only by walking by the Spirit. That is the entry point into understanding who God is, the only way He reveals Himself to us in those personal ways as believers. Through His Word, and then by the conviction and teaching of the Holy Spirit. Yeah?

Let's look at Romans 8, 26, 7. Romans 8, 26, 7, and 7. The reason I bring it up is that this is parallel to what we're talking about. And also, it's held to our weakness where we don't know what we should pray for, as is fitting. But the Spirit himself makes intercession with Romans, which cannot be uttered. that he who searches the heart knows what is the mind of the spirit because he intercedes for the things according to God.

Would you say that's parallel to what we're talking about? I do. I think so. 100%. And what I'm bringing up has to do with your own knowledge of where you are in relationship to the spirit. However, even when you're unaware or not thinking about it, he's at work in me. Added to it, I think, you know, I go back to John 17, the intimacy and the fellowship with Him. The more time you spend with somebody, the more you know them.

And I think, you know, when we don't have our focus on the Lord or the world takes our focus away, the Holy Spirit is always working to bring us back to that point. But when we take our focus or we don't spend time with the Lord, I think are more those drier times or the flat spots. And it's not because, you know, the Spirit is continually working 24-7, but we take our focus off or we're not fellowshipping or we're not spending time with the Lord. And I think that's where the flat spots are, I think.

Yeah, and it says that He's helping during our weakness and interceding for us in ways that we can't even understand. And it reminds me of another term that we use for the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and that is the comforting side. He is a comforter and He comforts by revealing who Christ is. We are comforted through the Holy Spirit by understanding who we are in Christ and understanding the person of Christ as it relates to us. not as a picture of Christ unattached from who we are.

I still fall victim to certain terminology at times. Over the years I think the Lord's helped me to be more careful with things along these lines, but God give me the strength to do X. Lord help me to get through this. I'm struggling." While that might be where we're at in our faith, I think from a biblical perspective, it's not about Him helping.

It's about us understanding who we are in Him. and being comforted in that reality. Those are adjustments in my thinking. It has to do with the person of Christ that I have been placed in. It's my standing. I'm comforted because of who I am in Christ, not because He's going to send me a feeling of comfort. Does that make sense?

Yeah, and I think that's why in those Romans verses, the next verse is is tied to the first two, in line with what you're just saying. For we know. I don't know how he starts out with we know. What do we know? This is 28. Verse 28. Yeah, and we know that God causes all things. Thank you. Apparently I'm teaching computers as well. She got it. That wasn't me. Whoever got it. That was me. I guess I go back to the sovereignty of God and His love. He allows us to go through these things. I think to realize our need and our dependency upon Him, He allows us to do that.

He's not a God that's just going to make us robots. I always think, I don't want to get to the point where you don't bring up anything, you need strength, you need, you know, and I go back to the Philippians 4, 6, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God. So, even if it's a dumb request or something that we... He wants us to come. And then the last part, and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and your mind in Christ Jesus. So, I don't think it's wrong to ask for anything.

And, you know, you shouldn't expect your answer. I think we come to the Father, that's what I said, the intimacy of God, I'm a Father. I think you come to Him with anything and everything. in time show you, you know, this is... You already have this. You already have this.

So I think, I just want to get away from the thought that you can't go to God with anything. I just say go to God with everything. I definitely don't want you guys to hear me saying that. I'm just conveying my own personal growth in the way that I converse with the Lord.

What's that? It's mostly from you teaching the kids, like we'll hear stuff on the radio, Christian music, and then we'll ask them, well what about that wording? What does that make you think about? Do you really need to ask for this or do you already have that in Christ?

That's kind of why it's a lot of the things that we talk about. Yeah, and that word reckoning comes to mind as an opportunity to, you know, and I heard that yesterday from a fellow believer that we just met yesterday. She used those terms and, you know, it's just one of those mental notes to self that, you know, that maybe they haven't had an opportunity to understand identification truths quite yet. I'm not saying that you shouldn't do that, but as we listen to ourselves and we think about those things, there's an opportunity to reckon on what we already have, as opposed to asking for those things that have already been given. I think it's come a lot through the kids and through my own prayer life and conversations that I've had with you guys, even at times.

If you're asking for strength, who are you depending on? Yeah, I mean, however, who are you going to? You're going to the Lord. There's a focus that's right, but there's something still yet missing to a biblical understanding of comfort or strength or healing. Healing might be a different factor, but these are the things, right? We're talking about the things that are being hoped for. So let's look at number three and we'll continue to build on that understanding. Question number three, how can the prepared thing of God be known? Okay, so, is that all? Okay, is that all? I'll give you a scenario. I'm a believer.

I read the Word of God. The Spirit makes it clear to me what it means. Do I know it? We often use the word, I know it objectively. experiential. He'll take us through it. Okay. How's that work? Something will happen. Something will happen. And if we either believe in Him or we don't, we'll either rest in Him or we won't. Okay. So there is the possibility of a believer reading and being revealed one of these things of God The source is right. It's the scripture. The Holy Spirit is teaching them. He is revealing. You understand it.

Now what? Do you believe it? That's a whole other ballgame, isn't it? And can you know it? Can you really know the deep things of God without believing it? That's what we're talking about, is that you can know objectively something and still be... have had its source in the Word of God, have it been revealed by the Holy Spirit, yet on your part, through your human will, you have not believed it. So much of God's Word falls into that category for me at different times in life.

For you too, I would imagine. I know it, I'm just not believing it right now. So, let's use some examples here. Someone You've done a really good job at work, you're up for a promotion, and the guy sitting next to you gets it instead of you, and you knew that you were the one that should have got that. Or you and another guy are working on the same deal, and you did everything right, you crossed it all out, dotted all the right places, but yet they got the deal. What is the human response to that? It's not fair. It's not fair. What else? You get a little frustrated? You take that home with you? You get a little discontent going on at home? You start building a little resentment towards that person?

That's what the human spirit does, right? I understand that. You understand that. What about Somebody blames you for something you didn't do. Somebody says, you said X, Y, and Z. And you say, they never say that. Or you misinterpreted what I said altogether. They don't change their mind. They're going all the way to the grave believing what they heard to be true, even though you didn't say it. How do you feel? It's not fair. That is so not fair. And how long do you have conversations with the trusted group of people about how unfair that is? Quite a long time. You get defensive. It's a communication breakdown. Yeah, but I understand it. I understand how you feel. I can empathize with you because I have the same human spirit. So I get how you feel. It doesn't mean that it happened to me, but I understand it. You got blamed. You've now become defensive. You've got your guard up. You start living with your guard up.

You've got the holiday seasons coming up. Family problems. Family problems inevitably sneak out and bite you. Right during the holidays. I don't know why. You can't change it. It's happening. They're impossible problems to solve. They're too intricate. The chain that caused the problems that are happening is too long. The history is too deep. You can't solve the problems.

And you are stuck with it. What do you feel? Irritable. Ugh! I can't take this. I just want to get out of this place. You know? You get a little angry. You can't fix it. I mean, you want to be in control. You want to be able to solve the problem, but you can't. It's too deep. It's too hard. So you get frustrated. You get irritable. You eventually get angry. You've got financial problems.

These are big life things, right? Between losing jobs and opportunities and being misunderstood and having people say that you did something that you didn't the family problems now you turn it over and you've got financial issues and you're discouraged because you can't take care of the problem you worked as hard as you possibly could to earn and you're hit with a thousand dollar break job right in the middle of the holidays or you hit a deer And you bust out your front headlight. And the deer doesn't die. He just runs off.

You've already had a bad weekend. I'm describing your week too. This is different. Financial problems. You get discouraged. You start getting... You mentioned anxiety. Boy, when financial problems hit and you don't know where the next ability to pay that bill and they're coming for you. Whether you're in that place right now or you will be or you have been, the anxiety that comes from financial problems is super intense. I know how you feel because I have the same human spirit that you do, right?

Health problems, this is the last on the list, at least for this question. Man, when you got problems that you don't know how to solve or where they're coming from or even you do know how to solve them and they create the financial problems and then you've got worry, right? And you go from anxiety about paying that health bill to all of a sudden now I'm hurting or I'm unhealthy and I don't know what's going on and all you can do is really kind of complain. You know, complain to anybody that will listen and eventually If that goes on long enough, you get bitter. You get bitter about the body, bitter about the system, because you're hurting.

And I understand how that feels because, you know, I'm a human and I have the same human spirit as you do. So how do I know that these responses to these kinds of problems are the same for me as the same for you? And I've been telling you all along. How do I know that? You're human. I'm human, just like you. It doesn't mean that I'm going to be dealing with the same types of problems, or even the same magnitude of problems. We all share different stuff. Mike, you mentioned it earlier. Some kind of thing. Right?

Because I have the same spirit that you have, I have the same sin nature that you have. We all share that same sin nature. It doesn't control us, but it is present. And in these situations, that's where you see your sin nature peek its ugly head and rear its attention towards itself.

And that's where your walk of faith really enters into knowing these deep things of God. It may be many other things. These are examples. These are big things. But I have the same spirit, so I know that the things of men and the sin nature works the same for you as it does for me and every other human being on the earth. So, we can relate. But, in order to know God, we need something more than the human spirit. We can understand a lot of stuff from one another, but we cannot understand the infinite things of God that matter most. The truth, the reality of the way things really are. Remember this? Without the Holy Spirit.

I mentioned that we met some new believers. We've been watching this family from our back windows. Our house is situated against a green space that's a good 50 yards wide to the other street. And so our kitchen looks out the back deck And we have these houses lined up on the other side of the green space.

It's like a soap opera that we never get to hear the audio to. So we're sitting there, cleaning dishes, preparing food. We're eating dinner. And the living room has a big window that looks out into that same soap opera scene. And so we've got all these different stories for all these different families that we've kind of talked through. That's what you do. You people watch. It's fun. It's also a little weird. Because there was a time... What? Well, I mean, we can't help but see the people interacting and doing the things that they do.

I mean, this one guy would wash his car literally every day. It was obsessive compulsive. We knew it. We got to know him a little bit better when he walked all the way around the neighborhood and told us that our dog was barking. And it was loud. And then we needed to take him inside. Yep. matches up to what I thought.

But we could tell you a lot of the behaviors of the people that are across the street. Well, Les has been looking to get a lot of our little girl clothes that we've stored up in the basement. We're in basement cleaning, get everything out. So we're trying to figure out where to give these clothes to someone that we know and we've checked all along the block We use Facebook to connect with our block. It's evil. Does anybody need these girls? Because we've got six boxes. Well, nobody needs them.

So, Les saw that this family that we've been watching, and we've kind of seen them interact, they always go out and throw the ball at their dogs. And their dogs are awesome to watch. They're so fast. And we're like, you know, they like kiss each other and talk to one another. It's like, they seem sweet, like we should really meet them.

And so we've been saying this for the last, I don't know, year? And we get their mail. So that gave Les an opportunity to go deliver the mail. A little awkward at first. I think you said something like... I said something dark like, oh we want you guys to play with your dogs all the time. And she goes, all the time? Thankfully you don't live in our neighborhood.

We really do have double doors, huge windows in the living room and then the next room over is our school room with a big window. It's like our whole back of the house is a window. We can see everything. We did get some binoculars, but that's another story. Just kidding. Although it did cross my mind, because I really wanted to know what they looked like one day. Anyway, even Aiden was like, Dad, can we go get some binoculars? Let's go to Cabela's and get some binoculars. I was like, no son, that's weird.

Anyway, long and short of this drawn out story was that we finally got a chance to, Les finally got a chance to meet them and they were having a baby. We saw that they had, we watched her, you know, be pregnant. You know, we think she's pregnant. Sure enough, you know, a couple months later, yep, you were right. They had the baby, so Les arranged to ask them if they needed the clothes. We did, and she did.

They were very super thankful. They were like, yeah, bring them over anytime. So I go over there for the first time yesterday, and I meet this family, and we just start talking, and they're so thankful. He works out at home too, and so he's actually a cop, and he takes me into his garage.

The whole time, in my mind, I was like, these guys have got to be believers. From everything that I've watched and everything that I've seen so far and heard, there's just something unique about them. You know how you get that vibe? It's not something you can really explain. But I walk in, and he's showing me some of his equipment, and he's got his Bible sitting there. And I asked him, and it's going to sound maybe a little bit invasive, but are you a believer? Are you guys believers? We've just been wondering. And he's like, absolutely. Are you? And so we start talking and all of a sudden we shake hands again. I already met him but he's like, you're a believer too? And we start talking and he shakes my hand again. It's like we're now meeting on totally different terms.

And we've spent eight years on this block and we've got all these different families that we're interacting with and praying for that they'll come to know the Lord. And then we walk across the street and finally meet another believer, a fellow believer.

And it was just something really special, right? I mean, it's just a really interesting feeling. And maybe you have those in your neighborhood more so, and so it's not as unique. But we've been praying that we would find some companionship that were believers around us. And it took a year of spying on this family before we finally went over there. Point of the story, long one.

Got a little laughs out of it. But the point is that it was the Holy Spirit. We had already met. in a human spirit kind of way. And we were getting to know each other just like you do in the human spirit. But once we started recognizing that we both shared a knowledge of the deep things of God, it was a whole different type of acquaintance that we knew each other on. And we don't even know them really that well yet. They had this when we left. It's just that kind of connection that we have with one another, and it's joined by the Holy Spirit. It's one thing to know each other on a human spirit level. We can relate to our typical responses to big life problems and challenges.

I find it so difficult when we find ourselves trying to counsel an unbeliever in a certain way. It's like you have this amount of information, but they can only understand one thing, and that they need to know the Lord in a way that you can share with them the rest of it. And to have all of that tucked away, the deep things of God, and not to be able to share that completely and totally, knowing that they'll have a chance to understand it and believe it, because they don't actually even know who He is yet. That's the bigger problem. It's a real thing and it's a real challenge. But what a joy it is to be able to continually share with believers the deep things of God and to know that they can be understood and believed because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The Lord prayed that they may be one as we are one. As we are one. Yep. It's his desire, isn't it? It's his desire that we share in the oneness of the Holy Spirit with one another. So let's move on to question number four. Why did God give us a spirit? which man's wisdom teaches, which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

Yep, it's different translations there, no worries. So it says in verse 12, now we have received. What is that? When did you receive, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God? And why did you receive it? It's something I believe, do believe, were involved by the Holy Spirit. That's right. So that received is actually, and it's the receiving of the Spirit of God, right? We're talking about the Holy Spirit here.

And that word received is actually in the aorist indicative, which means that it happened in the past and it has an ongoing effect in the future. What we could say is it's a reality. That receiving of the Holy Spirit is not something that just happened at one particular point in time and does not have ongoing effects. You now possess something that is real on into eternity. So, it's a reality.

It is a 100% fact that you received the Holy Spirit when you believed. And so, when you think about... I mean, we don't need to ask. for the Holy Spirit to come, right? A lot of songs would confuse. Is it wrong? It's not wrong, it's just not in line with the truth and it reflects maybe some lack of understanding about what actually happened the moment you believed. You received the Spirit of God and it is the reality that you now operate within. It's talking about the indwelling of the Spirit with you.

And so, in God's sovereignty, and in His grace, and in His love, and in His mercy, God gives us His Spirit so that we can know the things of Him. That's one of the reasons we've received the Spirit, so we can know the things of Him. So this is all tying back to this whole lesson on faith. And, you know, we talked about I think, Katie, you brought it up in one of the first weeks I taught.

Faith is a little bit harder to understand because it's like love. I understand love. I see love. I know what it's like. But to talk about faith, especially in its essence, is a really foreign concept. It's really foreign. But now, we're sitting here talking about the reality of God's Spirit indwelling with us. and indwelling us, and that reality is for the purposes of knowing the things of Him. Those verses all build on this essence, concept, that we've been talking about.

Faith is a reality. Outside of your personal faith exists whether or not you believe it. Faith exists as reality, and it's even not just existing imaginary in the background where you can't see it, there's evidence and proof of the things that you can hope for and cannot see. So God, as faith is in essence, is the outer operating system of how your personal faith works. It's triggered by the very things, our personal faith is triggered by the very evidence or proof of how God set it up. And that grows from the very first thing that you believe, which is, I have faith in the gospel message, the death, burial, and resurrection, and it's personal to me, and then it goes on. We're going to talk about that.

But without God's indwelling spirit as a believer, even though there's evidence and proof of the things that we cannot see, without God's indwelling spirit, we will never understand them. And it's so impactful to think that as unbelievers in the past and knowing unbelievers, they cannot see reality. That's a true statement from a biblical perspective. They cannot see God's reality. They can only see what we've talked about in creation. And they can know that He is present and that they stand as convicted sinners. Beyond that, they cannot see and know anything else in reality. All they know is their human spirit. They know all of the things that we just went through and talked about. The discouragement, the frustration, the anger, the temporary pleasures. We all share in those things.

That's the reality the unbelieving world operates in. That is not the world that we live in. And it may look the exact same because, again, these things are not seen. It looks the exact same to someone on the outside. Granted, as believers, we have an aroma of Christ, the Bible talks about. I've used that term, and I think that concept was present in meeting our neighbors across the street. We could just sense it. You could just see Christ potentially there, and you wanted to know more. Let's look at number five. So, question number four, why did God give us His Spirit?

What's the answer? Reveal the deep things of Himself. You won't know reality without Him. You won't have any concept of what is real. Question five, what would you say that the things of God, or would you say that the things of God are the things of Christ? So let's look at John 16, 12-15. Somebody read it when you get it. I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For 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. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you. When did the Lord Jesus communicate this in time? Before he died. Before he died. Okay.

So, did the disciples understand this? Probably not. Do you understand it? Has it been disclosed to you? Because for them it was future. But for us it's present. Right? It says in verse 15, all things that are the Father's, the Father has are mine. What do you think those guys were thinking when they heard that? I mean, we know you're special, but Yahweh? You guys have all the same things? Well, you are God. We don't understand Him. You're going to have to disclose that stuff to us later. But everything that is the Father's is Christ's as well. God prepared these things and He's shown us those things by His Holy Spirit. And they're the things of Christ.

So what we have not said, and what I don't believe that we've talked a lot about, we've got some pretty rigid characteristics. And by rigid I mean the ones you study in Theology 101. Get your definitions of theology down. Sovereignty, righteousness, justice.

They are things of God. When I wrote these things up, did you ever think of those things as of Christ? Or did you always think of them as things of God? Just wondering. Lately I've realized there are things of God. Jesus is Yahweh. He is. But it's interesting when we start talking about sovereignty, righteousness, justice, love, omnipresence, and so forth, we attribute those to God the Father.

And when we start talking about the things, we kind of have a box, it's an open box. I did leave it open. But we kind of put some of those things up here. How long would it take for us to put the things of Christ, who shares the things that are His Father's, on this board?

Well, you've got a Bible in your hand. That's it, right? I mean, that's the totality of it. Just to kind of pull this out, let's go back to Hebrews 11. and recognize that all the things that would be in this box are shared with Christ. Here's some of them. I'm just going to read a list that we have here.

So, Christ's life is my life. Is that one of the things? His very life is your life. That's one of the things that are revealed to you by God's Spirit is Christ's very life. And you share it. It's yours. His desires are your desires. His glory is your glory. His will, your will. His obedience, your obedience. Christ is yours. You're in Him. His righteousness, it's your righteousness. This is what the Spirit of God has revealed to us. We have Christ. His home is our home. Where He is, That's where we're placed. That's where we're seated. With Him. His sufficiency is our sufficiency.

You don't feel very sufficient? You don't understand about... You may be misunderstanding that God looks at you and finds satisfaction with you because of who you are in Christ. You share His complete and total sufficiency. His image, my image. Christ's things are my things. Love. Compassion, suffering, hope, good. You don't feel very compassionate? The Lord is working to reveal through His Spirit one of the things that you possess and that is Christ's very compassion is yours. It's one of the deep things. It's who Christ is. It's who you are in Him.

His victory. Our victory. Things are getting pretty bad out there. feeling pretty beat down, you're already victorious. You know the end result. You are in Christ. His riches, my riches, His wisdom, it's yours. How is that wisdom revealed? Through the Holy Spirit. It's one of the deep things of God. These things combined result in an understanding of the wisdom that you possess in Him. His thoughts are my thoughts. His ways are my ways. And I'll end with this one. His peace is my peace.

And so we could list so many things in this box that come from our understanding of who we are and the second person of the Trinity, the Son, who we've been placed into. We could continue to add so much to this. And I haven't even talked about the identification truths.

Specifically, His death, your death, burial, resurrection, ascension, eating, You've been placed into all of it. It's who you are and it's been revealed to you because of the essence of faith that you live in. Whether you've seen it or not, believer or unbeliever, it's real. As a believer, you took that very first truth that needed to be understood and you believed it, that personal faith. And from there, you are now entering in continually as you grow as a believer into the deep things of God being revealed by the Holy Spirit to you. for you to believe. Not objectively, but subjectively. They're yours. And you possess them through faith. That's the personal side. So, this box is not nearly enough. Take your Bible, it's more representative. It's completely representative. Yeah.

You know, other verses that, you know, on this one, the things of God are the things of Christ. John 17 7 and 8 now they have come to know that everything you have given me is from you and the words you gave me I've given to them and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from you and they believed that you sent me and then I think more the unifying one is in 20 22 and The glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one. I in them, you in me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you love me.

Again, Christ of God. Now, the beauty of that part is we're in the unity of men. And the Spirit is inseparable, right? And we possess and are indwelt by God the Spirit. God's very Spirit. It's overwhelming. In a good way. It's wonderful. And it's unsearchable because of that. That unsearchability of God, the infinite, and then knowing that we can have access to so many of the deep things of God, but yet there's more. And just to think about eternity and learning the deep things of God. That's how long we need. You made a great point last week, I think, too, when it comes to what we're saying right now, which is this point of this class faith. You know, as I said last week, humans have will for one reason.

Who is Christ? You believe Him or you don't. You made a good point. As believers, we have that same will. Do we believe this or not? That's right. And we have a will to believe. these truths. It's the Holy Spirit convincing and convicting us of these truths. But it still comes down to, do we believe that? These are incredible things, but do we believe them? No, it's true. Do you have a thought? Do you think sometimes that with all of this overwhelming information, it makes it more difficult to believe? Overwhelming meaning? Overwhelming.

That the God of the universe desires all of these things for us to know about Him. to have this intimacy with him on his level so that all of these attributes of God are knowable by us now. To me that seems like it's so big. It's so expansive. Would God really do that?

I think that that is the case for a lot of... I mean, I've seen it at Holly Hills. I've seen folks come in and say, it's just so much. Like, I don't know what's going on. It's just too deep or too, you know, head in the clouds. I think He meets us where we're at. That's a good point. That's where I was going with that.

You need to know, you don't need to know all of those things at the very moment you feel overwhelmed. You need to know what He's teaching you right now. And He's got specific circumstances, specific relationships around you and in your life at that very moment to teach you something about Him that is specific to you. And that's where you are.

The overwhelming nature of who God is, we want Him, I mean, He has to be infinite to be God. He has to be. Or else we're not believing in the God of the Bible. So, those things need to be infinite. Whether you feel overwhelmed or not, He is. That's who He is. But, my thought would be, in those moments of, you know, just take one of these. My mind is His mind? What is that? I mean, if that's where I'm at, that's the thing that He's revealing to me right now. And that's where you are.

We're all in different places learning these deep things. So, overwhelming or not, God is working with you specifically on a deep thing that's specific to you. And scripture emphasizes that in milk and meat and we're spiritual growth and you know those and so even though all of these things and the second thing is even though the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. He's the one revealing but in a process that takes us through spiritual growth. We're not all grandfathers and our spiritual growth. It's a process that he takes us through, revealing things at the right time. I really appreciate Miles Stanford's, one of the first things he goes into in the Green Letters is the tool of time.

God's tool of time. He's not bound by that tool, but he did create it and he uses it specifically to reveal things to us in time. So, there's no believer that understood the deep things of God the very first moment they were revealed to them. It just didn't happen. Time is a tool that God uses to teach us these things. And they're taught through the Word, revealed to us by the Spirit, and believed by us, hopefully, too. Not three.

Everything he tells us about himself and everything he tells us about us is true too. Alright, let's pray. Father, we do thank you for the overwhelming deep things of who you are. We should say infinite. And we thank you that in time, through your Holy Spirit, you reveal them by means of your word. And that we are all growing and learning and understanding, hopefully over time, in different ways, in different areas of our life. And I just thank you that you are able to manage those processes with all of us and that we would be patient with one another and even patient with ourselves for your timing and your convincing and convicting of your truths to us and I just again thank you for the privilege it is to to know you to be saved and to have to have your very life where we thank you for it We just pray that you would continue to guide us in the areas of truth that we all need now. It's in your name we pray. Amen.