The Person and work of the Holy Spirit lesson 6
JD McCulley · Apr 25, 2021
Holy Spirit (2021-23), No. 10
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926192237363

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

All right, so we're on lesson number six. We got halfway through question number two, so I'd like to come back and talk about a few things around question number two. Let's see here. So there's this idea of, we talked about insulting the spirit of grace in Hebrews 10, 28 and 29. We covered that at the very end of the class.

But one of the things that I'd like to cover is this idea of those that were made partakers of the Holy Spirit. And what does that mean? because it would seem that these are not believers but they partook of the Holy Spirit. So how do you make sense of that? What do you think the scripture is trying to communicate there? If you take a look at what Rydout has to say, he says that who made a profession, people who made a profession of Christianity.

Among other things, he says, were partakers of the Holy Spirit. He said the passage, as well as the general subject of the epistle, will show that the blessings enumerated were external and not vital. Yeah, so OK, I was interested if somebody would mention that. So let's take this contrast of external versus vital.

What do you think Brian is trying to say there? Anyone? I'm going to start calling on people. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. No, I don't do that. But external versus vital. I was thinking about it this morning, and I was wondering if the word internal was better. But then the more I thought about it, what does vital mean? It's of extreme importance, right? It's vital to your life.

So there are those that partake in, let's call them the traditions. Maybe they go about the basics of what is on the external side of a profession, but they never, they partook, but they never truly believed. I think that's where it ends up getting more practical in my mind. Do we still have that today? All the time, yeah.

J.D., I think that most of the Brethren writers that I have read, this is a position they take on Hebrews 6, that these people were never really saved. and they just profess to be Christians and so at some point in time they turn back and turn away and so they would say it was just an external profession and it didn't effectuate a rebirth to them. There are others now though that look at this passage rather than a birth passage, a spiritual growth passage where where believers are saved and they come and are faced with, I'll put a label on it, the growth truths, identification, position, condition, grace, and that kind of thing. And they initially get pretty excited about that, but then they turn away from those and go back to legalism, some sort of legalism, which I think has maybe even more validity for the understanding the passage rather than the old brethren viewpoint that these people, professors are not believers. That's an interesting point because, can you tell the difference between the two?

I think over time you can. Okay. You know. But, you know, that also necessitates being a spiritual ID checker, and I don't want to be one of those. I wasn't going to use that terminology, but that was one of the things where we ultimately can't fully know what the heart of a person is. I agree.

And what we do know is that if we spend time, like personally speaking, if you spend time with someone and you know that they have heard and understood the gospel, and if they say they believe it, yet there's an insulting nature of their life that comes about later on down the road. What is our role in that situation?

You know, these are folks that could be partakers, could have believed, and it's that part of Hebrews 10, 28 and 29 there. Despite what they've known, they insult the spirit of grace. uh... and and i think that the the term or the idea of turning back to legalism is is really important to this particular passage it's not it's christians going back to judaism right that's the that's the context of this particular verse but in our world it could be you know going back to catholicism or you know whatever There's just, there's some kind of comfort that a person gets. and turning back to some kind of legalism. And I think the point here is that it could be external and not vital. It could be that it's a spiritual growth pattern.

But ultimately, what is our role there? And how do we, maybe even we deal with that, I don't know. But I think the term spirit of grace is really important here is that, when you lose sight of the spirit of grace, because that's the topic, the person and the work of the Holy Spirit, grace is a vital factor. Any thoughts there?

I have some thoughts about that, because I'm going to talk about that in this sermon today, about these people that were disrespecting the Lord's table. So there's a bunch of warnings there, and a bunch of warnings through the whole book of Corinthians. I think you have to introduce the idea of principles here that are consequences. There are consequences for a believer who engages in some sort of behavior that isn't consistent with what he ought to be.

You know, it isn't that he doesn't live under grace, he does, but actually the consequences are gracious because one of the verses that we're going to cover today is that the child training is designed to keep us from being condemned with the world. And that's a gracious thing, you know, that if I won't judge myself, then the Lord will come and judge me and train me and it might be severe.

But yet gracious. But it's gracious and the point being is that I don't get by with it. Grace doesn't mean that I get a free ride. I can do whatever I want. There are consequences for what I do. I think that that's a, first of all, that's a mature perspective on child training in light of grace.

But I guess the one question is, does it scare you? Should that kind of thought scare you as a believer? It's just a question that I had in my mind. Do you sometimes fear God's child training in grace, even if you know that that's where it's coming from? You know, for me, it's not so much fear as I just don't like punishment. I don't like problems. It's sometimes hard to obey. I want to do it as much as I can, even though the flesh rebels against that. I'm not afraid of it, because I know that God will administer it to me in grace.

No, that's really interesting, Jim. Thanks for saying it that way. I think that's a really good point. And Paul struggled with this as well. You know, I do what I don't want to do, et cetera. And we are all in that situation at times. But I think that it's important for us to recognize that all of that is done in grace. And that helps us understand what's going on far better than, hey, I'm just getting a whooping right now. And I don't know where it's going, and I'm not sure why I'm getting it, but I am. So let's look at question number three.

What is the first work of the Holy Spirit when it comes to the salvation of the lost sinner? What's the first work? The commission of sin, of course. Yeah. The new birth. Well, I think that that follows for sure, Russ. I think it was mentioned that there's a conviction first. And the only reason I would say that that's the first work is because someone may not be born again or may not believe. However, convicted is definitely something that takes place with with every unbeliever. The Holy Spirit is effectually convincing each believer of their own sin. We see that in Romans 1. I loved what Rideout said around this. He said, Unbelief makes common company of all men. There you go.

And J.D., I think that's where the conviction really comes in. We can be convicted about our sinful behavior, but I think the real issue is God is offering salvation on a grace basis, and all we have to do is believe it. And by not believing, it's sinful. And that's where the conviction is, I think. You know, I mean, granted, there are people that think they're such great sinners that God can't save them because they've just done too many bad things. But that's really a prideful thing, I think. Oh, OK. Yeah, you went ahead and said it. I was going to say, that's where that ends up getting us.

Yeah. I know more than God about my own sin, and therefore I can't be saved. Yeah, and who's God to forgive me? I'm a bigger sinner than you are. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think, yeah, so any other thoughts on question number three with regards to that very first aspect of the Holy Spirit in terms of salvation is conviction of sin? Any other thoughts?

It seems like there's an opening of your eyes. He has to soften your heart and open your eyes and allow you to believe, allow you, because if he doesn't do it, you'll never believe. I like the fact that you said, open your eyes. What was the other part you said about soften your heart? Yeah, I think those are good ways of explaining what that conviction does in the life of a believer, right?

So the opposite of that is what? Stiff-necked Jews. Pharisees the Sadducees Yeah, so just to use the terms that you mentioned there. You don't open your eyes you refuse I often use the in terms of the Romans 1 Truths It's like a jack-in-the-box the Holy Spirit is like a jack-in-the-box and he pops up and And he convinces you of what is true about God and who you are as a sinner. And if you shut him, you'll push him back in the box.

I mean, we all have at some point in our lives. We did. And I'm not talking about believing lives. I'm talking about our unbelieving lives. We've all been there. But you push him down and he pops back up and maybe you respond. Maybe your eyes are open and your heart is softened. But the opposite effect is you continue to push that Holy Spirit conviction back in the box and you harden your heart and you close your eyes to what you know is true. And that's kind of one of the illustrations that has been useful for me at least in even teaching my kids and teaching Sunday school for a while with kids, just that you are convicted of the truth. That's his job. That's the very first thing that he does.

Does conviction stop after you become a believer? Does that role of the Holy Spirit stop? No. It's different, but it's still conviction, but it's conviction of a different thing, right? Yeah. And what might that difference be? from the initial salvation conviction versus a believer's conviction in their walk?

Sending causes loss of fellowship, so it would be getting back to convicting to get back in fellowship, to confess I think that's a really good point, Cheryl. I like that terminology because in the conviction of the unbeliever, it's about a relationship, like getting into a relationship. Whereas with a believer, it's about maintaining a fellowship.

We don't stop being sons of God. you know, of the family of God, we don't. That's not something that the Holy Spirit convicts believers about. But our fellowship is definitely something that I think conviction of the Holy Spirit is active in our lives with. Is that fair to say? Yes. Yeah. Cool. Well, let's look at question number four.

So what is the entire work of the Spirit in regards with, what is he doing in the world, basically? What's the entire work that he's involved with in the world? Basically, he shows plainly the works of darkness. His entire work is conviction or reproof, but that's to show plainly the works of darkness. Well, so there's a new concept there with regards to conviction is to illuminate or to shed light on the darkness. And darkness being what? Sin, right?

You already mentioned it, Jim. You're on target. Conviction or reproof. I like the idea of... Let's go ahead and read John 16, 8-11, and then I'll make my comment. Somebody grab John 16, 8-11. I'll read it. And he, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe in me, concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you no longer see me, and concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged.

Any thoughts about that before I make a statement? I mean, we've got the conviction part, we're seeing that there's a reproof, maybe we can talk about that a little bit, but a shedding of light on darkness and those concepts. What else do you see there that might be interesting to what the Spirit is doing in regards with the world at large?

I was going to say, I wish he'd do a little bit more of it. But then I realized, I think he is. But I think what the world is doing, in large part, is hardening their hearts to it. Rejecting him. Yeah, and they're searching for their own solutions. They're quite aware that there's a problem, right? They're convicted that they don't have... things aren't right. They don't have righteousness. I don't know. It just seems like the world is pretty desperate right now to solve all their problems through all their own means. They're pretty hell-bent on it here. They reject God and they make a supplement to Him. Instead of believing in creation, they believe in evolution, and so on and so forth. They keep doing that. We don't believe in God, we've got to believe in something else.

I've often thought that the number one tool that is used on the world is deception. And that's what Satan does. He deceives the world in a couple of ways. One, by persuading them that what groups think is reality, and that we're not sinners, we're doing a good job, and God's gonna grade on the curve, and we're all gonna go, if there is such a place as heaven, we're all gonna go there eventually. uh... no matter what religion tells you and that uh... you know he's got everything under control we're doing fine and uh... when the spirit of god begins to to convict the world of just say the first one of sin it's a shock to some people that oh my goodness i am a sinner you know in other words what the spirit what the spirit does is it lifts the fog and starts to show reality from God's perspective, and that that reality is what you can count on, not the deception you've been believing all your life, whether it's religious deception, or cultic deception, or cultural, or wherever it came from. Any invention that man came up with out of his own sin mind is deception, and so now he gets a a dose of reality or a dose of perspective from God's viewpoint because of the work of the Spirit.

And those verses cover all the issues, sin, righteousness, and judgment. Those three things are the things that the world has been deceived about. Yeah, and that really rolls into question number five. What is it to be convicted of righteousness? You mentioned sin and judgment in conjunction with righteousness.

I just want to move into question number five, but also ask or make a quick statement around the idea of this idea of final authority. I've brought it up before, but, um, If the Holy Spirit is convicting, we haven't actually said what is He convicting you of to the degree that I think is complete. Yes, it's the sin, but what is He also convicting us of in terms of a final authority? That you can reject and like you said Mike we can replace it with whatever and miles you said it as well We can replace it with whatever you know buffet we want of an authority I mean we can just go pick our pieces and put them all together and Chipotle style or whatever You know a pizza whatever you want to call it but he There's a final authority here that is either accepted or rejected.

And there's also not just the conviction of sin, it's the conviction of some other things too. What are those things? Well, it's the conviction of righteousness. You know, Rite Out says, the righteousness which the world would not have, God has received into heaven and enthroned it there. So the fact that Jesus is now with the Father, that's the conviction of righteousness. God's proof that Jesus is righteous is that he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand, condemning the world for their rejection of righteousness. I thought that was pretty phenomenal and very explanatory too. That's a great explanation. There's a conviction of righteousness, and what does righteousness really mean?

Put it in layman's terms, for lack of a better term. Basically, it's everything that is right about God. So it's interesting, because I wrote down the great work of the Holy Spirit's conviction is to guide each of us and all men into truth. What do you think about that? That's good. That's good.

I would add to that, when I was first a believer, I found myself in a discussion with my mom, who's a Catholic. and her priest. And after two hours of discussion, it came down to a question. What's the final authority of everything you believe? Well, to me, it was God's word. To them, it was the church. And I think you'll find a lot of the denominations that the final authority is what the church teaches, not what the word of God teaches.

And they may not be the same thing. And so I think the spirit of God and his work of conviction is to persuade us or to show us that there's only one opinion that counts, and that's God and his word. That's it. I totally agree. There's so many things I could say about that. But one thing that comes to mind is I know that this gets a little bit more into conviction of righteousness.

This happened to be something that popped into my head this moment, but even when we're reading other people's works outside of the scripture, what is the Holy Spirit doing with what we're taking in? Because are we listening to a final authority? Maybe if they're quoting scripture, maybe if they're not. Especially if they're not, what the Holy Spirit's role in He's a person, so I don't want to just limit it to a role per se, but he's working and actively guiding us into truth. And so, you know, the question for a believer might be, how do I know what is right when I read these books off the shelf?

Because I remember a very fervent effort in my life. When I first became a walking believer, it was around my college age, and in Texas you have these really big, you used to have, everything's kind of closed down, these really big bookstores, Christian bookstores. And man, I spent hours combing through that stuff. And I went through various belief systems. I went through reformed theology was very convincing because it was a system and I could grab it. And then I kind of ventured into this one nature concept.

And we've got all these terms that we put to stuff, but it's interesting to think about how the Holy Spirit is really convicting and reproofing us around the Word of God, the very truth, not just a man's idea or a woman's idea. Does that resonate or make sense? Yeah. I was going to say, I often try to keep the word convict or conviction associated with convince in my mind because I'm simple-minded. That's a good thing. But it's always associated with being convinced that something's true, right? It's always the truth. Yeah, I think that the word truth, excuse me, guide them into all truth. That's where he is working.

And it doesn't just happen at the beginning of salvation or prior to salvation. It happens throughout the rest of our lives. So we're talking about question number five and righteousness. And I think I just wanted to reiterate one point that God's righteousness is, like Jim said, manifested in the resurrection and seating of Christ in glory.

If that were not something to be convinced about, where would we be with regards to Christ? That's kind of an odd way of phrasing a question, but we'll see how it goes here. Ask it again. Yeah, so had Christ not been seated, resurrected and seated in glory. What does that leave us with regards to what the Holy Spirit has to convict us about? Off the top of my head, it leaves the door open for doubt.

It leaves the door open that the work of Christ wasn't enough. Or it wasn't acceptable to the father because you read in Hebrews about the eternal covenant, what it is between the father and the son. There are parts to be fulfilled by the son and the father, and the son fulfilled his part, and so the father fulfilled his part. If the father didn't, then the son's work wouldn't have been. up to snuff, and so there wouldn't have been any resurrection and seating and heavenlies, and it would have been an exercise that didn't complete its task. Yeah, no acceptance, right? Yeah. And therefore a lack of proof with regards to God's righteousness, or the Lord Jesus rather.

Yeah, that's a really good way of stating it for sure. You know, I like what Rideout did about that all that God's work proves that He can forgive And he can justify anybody who believes in Jesus because he has made it righteous to do that. So he does both works. And to have both ends of that spectrum. accomplished by him is amazing.

So I want to ask the class around the question of both works. And I don't want you to answer, Mike, if you don't mind. What are the two works of righteousness that are really going on here? Because there really are two, I think. I'm hoping people are pondering on their Zoom right now.

Well, we know the one. What's the obvious one? The obvious one is he can now righteously forgive the sinner who believes in Jesus. Okay, so we've got the Lord Jesus, and then the idea is that if the world receives the righteous one who sits in glory with the Lord, what do you get from belief? His righteousness? You do. And that's really what I, and maybe Mike, you had something different in mind there, but it's not only the acceptance and the proof that God rose Christ and placed him at his right hand, and that it was a righteous act, but believing in that gives you that exact righteousness.

Well, the other thing that's cool about that is that God is totally just because that's what happened. He's not giving you a break just because you're a good guy and a swell dancer. That has nothing to do with it. It has everything to do with who God is and what he did with his son. He's perfectly just in justifying you if you believe him. He's not bending the curve at all.

He doesn't sweep things under the rug. Yeah, that's a good way to say it. I think there's a lot of temptation in the world to believe that God can do that, or would do that. But that's not what grace is either, is it? No. He remains just and righteous and gracious equally without ever sweeping something under the rug. Well, in terms of Grace Jade, it's interesting because if he's the just and justifier of him that believes, he could have just been the just and justifier. And if he didn't offer you the opportunity to believe he's still just, he's still the justifier.

You just don't believe him. Yeah. And we often say, often use the example that love is balanced with his sovereignty. He could be sovereign without love if he wanted to, but that's not his nature. It's balanced out because of his love. And love is is one of those larger characteristics of the Lord that brings about grace. If he didn't love us, he would not be gracious to us in the way that he is. But he chose to do that. That's his choice. And we're better actors of it, right? Yeah. Yeah. Hey, JD. Yeah. Hey, Russ Webb.

I was going to say, one of the things that Wright pointed out so well is that because of what God did, he brought his son, came to earth, died for us, and he was buried and raised, and he's sitting at the right hand of God, and every single person who says, I do not need this Jesus guy, is just done the most horrible thing to the loving God who sent Jesus.

And it's not going to be a bunch of happy campers in the end, because they've just really trampled on the blood of Jesus. And it's not a good scenario for unbelievers. And you know what, Russ, I think that at the end of the day, And those that don't believe aren't going to believe then, they're going to believe he's sovereign, but they're still going to hold on to their opinion, you know?

They're going to change their mind. It's like you wonder, wouldn't they think that the bright angels, the ones that fell, wouldn't have figured it out by now? No, they haven't. Good point. It goes back to that final authority. Yeah. Once you've dug your heels into that authority. Yeah. Yeah.

And you mentioned deception. Deception, we often think of that as appearing as something maybe darker or evil in its appearance. But we know that Satan appears as an angel of light. He's disguising himself in the broad daylight. Even though there's darkness with all that is surrounding his efforts, we won't see him that way. Not at this particular point in time while he's Prince of the Earth, right?

So, you know, that counterfeit concept comes up. And a lot of people just cling on to the counterfeit. Oh, sure. I mean, think about a counterfeit of a guy in a red suit with a pointed tail. That's the devil. You could be an action hero, for all we know. Be in a Marvel movie?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're coming up to time here. We'll get into question number six. Mike, you mentioned this is going to be a longer class. It's going to be. I've got some stuff. Let's talk this week. I'll bring you up to speed on what I'm thinking. OK. Perfect.

All right, well, let's pray. Father, how we thank you for the fact that you do convince and convict us, even as believers, and that you guide us into all truth. And we know that we can place our hope and our faith in the final authority of who you are, Lord. And so we just pray for the next hour and just the various truths that will be taught there with regards to believers and unbelievers with regards to the Lord's table and just love you so much and thank you for your grace and it's your name we pray. Amen.