Person and work of the Holy Spirit, lesson 7 start
Mike Doyle · May 9, 2021
Holy Spirit (2021-23), No. 12
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261922476202

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

Okay, so we have graduated to Lesson 7. Everybody have a sheet for Lesson 7? Okay. So we were in the part of the personal work of the Holy Spirit under the heading of Conviction slash Regeneration. And the first question was in John 1, 11 through 13, What does belief in Christ constitute? So somebody read John 1, 11 through 13.

He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in his name. Keep going. Who were born not of blood, nor the will of flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. Interesting.

So what you have here is the word receive is the word lambano, which means to accept or to take or just to receive him. And then the ones that did receive him, notice the word in my translation says, to become the sons of God. That's the Ginnomai word, which is they came into an entirely new state of being.

So what's interesting about this verse has always been fascinating that everyone who is born of God is by God's will. It isn't by blood or bloodline, it isn't by whether you decided out of the flesh your will or the will of man, but it's of God. So the question being, belief in Christ constitute, what does that whole thing put together look like? We saw a situation where the Jews had been convicted and they had received Lombano Christ. In other words, how do you receive? What's another word? Faith? Yeah. Phone's for you. It's the Lord. So we're told in this verse that reception constitutes what? New birth, coming into a brand new, entire new state of being.

Their souls are, we use the term, born again, or they're born of God, and they now become his children, his legitimate organic offsprings. those who believe in him have received a Savior who has been rejected by the world. I've often marveled at the word Savior. Most men don't think they need a Savior. What do I need a Savior for?

I got it together. And it's interesting because the viewpoint that Rideout takes is that man doesn't have any right to this. He has no authority. He doesn't have any anything that would allow him to enter the scene by which this transaction is going to take place. So the entire transaction is by grace alone.

So God lays it out there by grace. And he says, here's the information. Here's my son. Here's what I want you to do is just believe in what he did and who he is. That's really as simple as that. yet profoundly hard to do, profoundly hard to do. And to come into the understanding that those who believe become something they weren't before. You know, so much of Christianity or salvation, the gospel message is presented in a way that I'm adding something on to me. I'm adding the Savior onto me.

That's not what this is saying. When you look at that word, when he says he gave them the power or the right to become the sons or the children of God, that is a whole new existence. You weren't that before. And so you don't add something to your fleshly Adam existence. So what happens? What happens in that transaction?

Question two. Who must do the new birthing? And the verse I wrote down is Romans 6, 2 and 3. So somebody read Romans 6, 2 and 3. I'll go ahead and read it. May it never be, how shall we who die too soon still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? So, who does? The question is, who does the new birthing? The Holy Spirit. Yeah, the Holy Spirit does it. And what does He do? How does He effectuate this new birth?

The water. The water? I don't see any word of water here. Does baptize always have to do with water? No, that's just immersion. Sure. Baptism, the water baptism is just an outward symbol of what took place spiritually. So the issue is what happened spiritually. According to this verse, we were placed into Christ. So again, back to the issue of the Holy Spirit doing the birthing. In order to be baptized into Christ, do you have to leave what you were before? Do you have to leave your position or your identity with Adam, the condemned sinful man, or not? Or do you just add Christ unto you and now you're good? No, you have to leave the old man.

Yeah, you do. The old man actually has been judged. He's crucified. The old man's been judged, that's right. And so notice, do you not know, verse 3, that those who have been baptized into into now, Christ Jesus had been baptized into his preaching in Palestine. It's death. Right. So the Christian life begins with death. That doesn't make any sense, does it? The Christian life begins with death.

We were baptized in, and if you draw a timeline, of the Lord Jesus' existence on the earth, you know, He was born and He was in the temple and He was baptized by John the Baptist and all the way up to He was crucified, buried, resurrected. When do we get hooked into Him by the Holy Spirit? When He dies. Why then? Why then? Because His timeline The Lord Jesus timeline is very critical to us as believers as to when we enter in. Why then?

Well, when Jesus died, we died. Right. In order for him to be separated from sin, he had to die. That's right. We died, and when we die, we're separated from sin. There you go. There has to be this separation that takes place in order to become a son or legitimate offspring of God. Guess what? You've got to be like God. That means you can't be like what you used to be in Adam. So you have to get separated from Adam in some manner.

Well, the way the Spirit of God did it was he gathered us up and placed us in Christ at the point in which Christ died and he died and so did we. What does death mean? It means separation. What did we separate from? the entire Adamic existence, the entire first creation existence, which is sinful. Because God can't have any sons or children that are sinful. He can't have it because he's a holy, righteous God.

I know most of you spend all of your time looking at your sins and your own navel. But who you really are in Christ is, you know, this church out in Aurora by Costco has got this big sign that says, sinners welcome here. I wonder when they get some Christians in there. Because a believer from a positional standpoint, and what this verse is telling us, is not a sinner anymore by position.

He's a brand new creature. He's the son of God. Starting at the very beginning of the Christian life, this doctrine is laid out. And it's critical for a believer in their growth to understand. You know Mike, when the first question, what does belief in Christ constitute? And I wrote down, reception constitutes new birth.

And reception is basically the same as Romans 6.11. you need to consider yourselves, and that's believe it to be true. You need to believe this to be true, that's when you get a new birth. Yeah. And it's simple. It's not, you know, the information is presented as the gospel, if you want to use 1 Corinthians 15. And, you know, I'm to receive it, which means I'm to believe it. That's how I receive it, is by believing.

And this transaction takes place in eternity. That's a stupendous transaction. You know, each one of us individually gets crucified, buried, resurrected and seated in Christ and we're a brand new creature. Now, you don't look any different, but a transaction has taken place and you have left something and been united to something new, brand new, Kainos.

You say believing is easy, but you know, it really isn't. No. You can believe it to be true mentally, but unless you really believe it internally, you don't really believe. And that's hard. That's hard for me at 19 years old to really put myself wholly in that position. Yeah, it's difficult, it is. Yeah, it's an easy concept to believe. But it's really hard to really make it internal. And it's still hard to make it internal.

Well, I mean, look at this information. What have we learned so far? That we were crucified with Christ. Is that pretty easy to just say, okay, no problem, I got that. We got this. Well, you look around and look at your circumstances and you think, wait a minute, there's no evidence, empirical evidence that I was crucified with Christ. I've got to take him at his word. He said it. Is that good enough for me? Yeah, better be. Yeah.

What I was saying is from John 3, 5, it says, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit. That's not referring to baptism. Right, that's exactly right. So, question three, is it possible to see spiritual things before the new birth? No. Impossible. So the natural man is incapable of seeing or apprehending the precious reality of God's spiritual, right out refers to his spiritual kingdom, because he has not been born again. So how many of you were saved as adults? I was 35, you know, or you, Courtney was young adults, 19, like you. Yeah, I can remember sitting and I got saved in a guy's office downtown. And he kept saying to me, well, you've got all the facts.

Why don't you, why don't you just believe them? And I, I didn't know why. I guess I was learning the fact that the Savior was going to save me, I wasn't going to save myself. But then he asked me, he said, well, what do you see? I said, to be honest with you, I don't know how to explain it any other way, but I recognize that if I believe what you're telling me, I'm going to die.

He said, yes, that's right, you are. I said, oh, hey, thanks a lot. But that was the reality. That's what I saw. So my perception of new birth was exactly correct. It was death. It was separation from all that I ever knew myself to be in Adam. That was going to be over. And for a while there I wasn't quite ready to abandon that ship.

Just your question, what does it mean, then, it is not by the will of man? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's not my will for salvation, it's God's will. And it's because the transaction is, as we've described here, only God can do it, you know. I think that it's, how do I say this? I think the gospel today is presented in such a way that it is my will.

Receive Jesus into your heart. No problem. You know, make Jesus the Lord of your life. Oh, sure. Okay. But to understand the transaction that's really going to take place and realize that there's nothing I can do to effectuate that transaction, I can make it apply to me just by believing what God says.

And faith is a non-meritorious act. I don't get any credit for believing. And the reason it's non-meritorious is because all the credit is in who I believe, not the fact that I did. And it fits perfectly under the heading of grace. If I could get credit for what I was doing, then I would be getting 99% grace and 1% me. So are we saying then that the word believe is a non-meritorious thing, but in our society, the word believe is a work that we do, which is wrong from a scriptural perspective. I don't think that's really clear, though, in our minds. It's not. In our society. Did everybody at home hear that? Okay.

So, yeah, I think that's absolutely right. I think that our society It's the power of positive thinking. That's what they think faith is. And that if I hold on and squint and all of that, that it's going to happen. It's just amazing. There's absolutely nothing that happens by my will.

I think it's important that when we present the truth, that we ask people to believe Christ who he is and what he's done versus you believe it. Oh, good point. In our society, you believe it puts it all on us. Yeah, no, that's a great point because and I think Roger says it better than anybody. He always refers to salvation as believing the Savior. Is the doctrine important? Yes. But you don't get saved by the doctrine. You get saved by the Savior. He's the one that does it.

See? And that's a really important... Gail? I don't know if I'm hearing everything that's being said. Okay. I believe personally that it's not possible to believe in Christ and be saved until a person is absolutely convinced that they need a Savior. I agree. A sinner and they can't stop being one. Right. So, you're shaking, nodding your head like that's correct. Yeah. Isn't that correct?

No, I think that's right and I think that's why the very first work that the Holy Spirit does is conviction. He persuades us that we're lost. You know, that you know from our perspective that well I'm going to go to hell and it isn't I can't do anything to change that. There aren't enough good works for me to do and there's a persuasion about that that almost is a hopeless situation but that's the work of the Spirit in a believer's heart. Now I'm not sure you have to have a thorough understanding about being lost but enough to where when the Savior is presented He's of value to me. I screwed up this morning. I should be in Iran. It would be hard this morning.

But on the flip side of being a non-believer and understanding that you're a sinner, I think on the Christian side, we know that all of our sins have been paid for and we've been placed into Christ. He's already paid for it. And the hungry poor heart for tomorrow is during the early carnal years, we are afraid to face up to the sinful nature within, not fully realizing that it was dealt with in condemnation to God's full satisfaction at Calvary. When we come to see that our old nature is taken down into the death of the cross and in Christ Jesus, we are completely clear of its penalty and power. the thought of being searched by God. He cannot stand to think of being found out in this true condition and character, but to the truly hungry hearted believer is a positive comfort to be assured. It is very important for us not to mix the that whatever I do today in sin, it's already been taken care of.

I don't think the young believer has that kind of understanding when he's first saved. My buddy Strong used to say, a person gets saved and there's a lot of joy that goes on, but at about the two-year mark, that scream you hear is him going off the cliff. because he's beginning to realize that his sin nature is more powerful than his ability to control it.

Right? So, and what's cool about that is the Lord has in place the answer for that. And you know, one of them is that, well, all of your sins were wiped out at the cross. And two is, oh, how did that happen? Oh, I got crucified with Christ. You know, when you think about it, it doesn't take a whole lot of faith in that sense, to believe just the plain gospel. But it takes a little more to understand. You mean I really did die? I think that's the point, is that the basic belief is simple. Sure, real simple. What must I do to be saved?

But the growth and the understanding, the totality of what it meant to be co-crucified, and the death of our own man, that no matter what we do today, That was paid for. And that's been separated. God doesn't even see that anymore. It's been totally taken away. And I think believers have a hard time, you know, the growth period of a believer is really trying to understand is what we're saying is it takes a lifetime to figure out that total separation.

Yeah, I agree. We were co-crucified. Yeah. And that, you know, it's just beyond that. Sure. Romans 6, 11. Yeah. Consider yourself dead. To sin. To sin. And alive under God. Yeah. And that's the process. Yeah. But look where Romans 6, 11 sits, though. It's in the perfect spot. Right. You know. Death first, as we're saying. That's right. Life. Right. Yeah, everything in the first creation is life unto death. Everything in Christianity is death first, then life. So it's totally different.

And I realize, as a matter of fact, the big tragedy in Christianity today is that very few places teach anything past Romans 5.10. And even that, even the salvation message is watered down and based so much on your performance and your faith and your effort and your whatever or your experiences that they never get to. I mean, how many people that you walk into, believe as you run into and you start talking and you discover that, wow, here's somebody that knows about Romans 6, 3, 4, 6. Very few.

And so without that information, I don't think you ever really settle down because the sin nature isn't going to stop bugging you. Like Calvin says, the sin nature is like having to wear earphones all day long and listen to CNN. So it bugs you all the time. If you don't understand the reckoning that's required in terms of being crucified with Christ, it'll bug you to death.

I would say that 60 or 70% of saved Christians battle with the security of their salvation constantly. Is it really, really true, thinking they have to do something to meet some standard? Well, if the salvation message was presented in such a way that there was something for them to do. The best example are all these Lordship Salvation people. You have to believe the Gospel and you have to make Jesus the Lord of your life. Oh, there's something else to do. And if I were able to accomplish that, then I'm always looking to my performance.

If I recognize John 1.11 through 13, that I'm saved by the Savior. and that my belief in the person and work of Christ is a non-meritorious act. He did it all.

If I get that from the beginning, I'm much more likely to settle down as we go forward, even if when you start to grow spiritually, which means that the sin nature is going to dog you, and you're going to wonder, you know, is my whole Christian life sin and confess, sin and confess, sin and confess, sin and confess? No, it's not. So enter in. all of this information that has to do with our identification with Christ, dead, buried, resurrected, and seated, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and we're to walk by faith. Faith in what? The facts!

You know, Romans 6.6 is in the sixth chapter of the first book of Christianity. Everything else is after that. So Romans 6 is basic stuff for every believer.

It's not Oh, really cool, high spiritual theology. No, it's not. It's basic understanding. But it's not relevant to me until I think I have some experience in my life of the sin nature being more powerful than my ability to, you know, like Courtney talks about that game at the carnival where the heads pop up and you hit this one and this one comes up and you hit that one. That kind of thing. So does God have a solution? for the sin nature. Yeah.

It's the cross. It was crucified. And if you if you reckon it'll stay crucified and you let the spirit of God hold it in the place of death. Titus 3 5 says not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.

The washing of regeneration, really interesting. The word regeneration means Genesis again. Understand what I just said? What happened in Genesis? Creation. The word regeneration means new creation, new Genesis. None of the old fix up, no holy water, no rehab, No fix and flip, none of that. Brand new. And we become members or sons of God through that process. When Courtney talks about seeing yourself in Christ only, that's really what it is. Who am I in Christ, not who was I in Adam?

And Adam is always going to try to convince you otherwise. We were talking coming down to church today. Is there anything in God's Word that the world is not against? That they have set up a system to be against everything that the Word of God says? And it seems to be flowering now. You know, God said male and female. Somebody else, now we've got 35 genders. Really? or just the most simple things that God did. Next week, my verses have to do with the body of Christ being like the human body.

How much can your mind and your will change what goes on in your human body? You get sick, you get a headache, you get whatever. Can you fix that by saying, oh, I'm going to fix it? Oh, gee, I said that, but I still got a headache. Or a part of your body doesn't function, and so it affects the rest of your body. And those of you who take medication know that one of the biggest struggles doctors have, well, if I'm going to give you one of these, it's going to cause a negative effect over here. I'm going to have to give you one of these, which might cause a negative effect there. To balance out medication is a science unto itself, because the body is so Well, imagine what it's going to be like with a brand new resurrected body that doesn't need a pharmacy. A couple of things, Mike.

One, going back to the new creation, that's again the 2 Corinthians 5.17. We're a new creature, brand new. So, I mean, that's number one. The other is, I think about, and maybe I said this last week, when I was at camp, we had the kitchen discussions and they were talking about all the genders and this and that. I don't know if I said this last week or not, but it just struck me.

The whole reason they're doing that is to take God out of creation. That's exactly right. God created man and woman. And they're now trying to take that foundational truth out, that God is not in creation. Because now there's 53 different genders. So the whole purpose of the gender, I think, is to get at God ultimately in creation. That he didn't create man and woman, he created 53 different, and God really wasn't there. I think that, you know, all the stuff that's going on is really to take God, ultimately to take God, and finally have creation from the very basis. Genesis 1, you know. And you know what's interesting about all of that? It's absurdity. Oh, yeah. I mean, when you just stop and think and analyze for a minute what the world offers you in terms of intelligence, it's totally absurd.

One of Donna's favorite things is these two amoebas crawled out of the plant and had a meeting and decided to become frogs. Oh, and two more of them said, no, we're not going to be frogs. We're going to be birds. Oh, is that how that works? And you got to go back.

Notice the other thing I noticed about these fools is that they keep extending the amount of years. Used to be a couple hundred thousand. Now we're up to 50 million or some crazy thing. You know, like something, if you give enough time, their theories will work.

I go to the fact that, you know, the two of me and Biz came out and created a frog. Yeah. Guess what? At the same time in that 500 million period, there had to be another frog that came together so they could reproduce. Oh yeah. At the exact same time. Sure. What is the probability of that? Oh, wow. Two of them at the same time had to be at the same place at the same time to be able to reproduce. Yeah. I mean, you start from the basic where the meat is, but they've never asked it that, you know, and that frog finally came together. Sure. There had to be another frog somewhere along there to reproduce.

It had to be at the same time and the same place. That's the old joke that a guy challenges God about creation. He said, I can create just as well as you can. And God said, OK. So the guy goes and grabs some stuff to do. And God says, no, no, no, you got to go get your own stuff. You know, you got to add one more. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say is Like Lockheed makes like F-16s, F-14s, Joint Strike Fighters, all that stuff. They spend billions to do it. It takes tons of engineering and processes and planes crashing. And I've got 50 different kind of birds in my backyard. We're doing just fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. OK.

I'm five minutes over. So we better close. So we'll pick up next week with question five. There'll be two questions. And then if need be, I can, well, it may take a whole class to get through those. So let's close. Dear father, how we thank you for the opportunity to be together and study your word. We trust you in spite of the circumstances that appear in our life to be so real and only your word is real and only you are real. So we rely on you to teach us and show us the person of the Lord Jesus that we could be conformed to his image. We pray in his precious name. Amen.