The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit lesson 14
Courtney Hemenway · Sep 12, 2021
Holy Spirit (2021-23), No. 30
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261924163375

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

We are in lesson 14. This is the Holy Spirit class, the personal work of the Holy Spirit. This is in chapter three of Rideout's book. And I think we got through question one last week. So we will start with question two, if I can find it here. I just moved it.

So question two, is Romans the formula for the believer's freedom for all that pertains to Adam? and then explain the identification truths are explained in four paragraphs in chapter 30 or page 35. So, who can lay out the identification, the basic identification truths? What are they? Mike, you shouldn't do it. You should have some other people do this. We use the identification. We're justified. There you go, Russ. I said we're justified. I said we're justified. And we're glorified positionally. What's the identification? What's the process? What does identification mean? Who are we identified with?

That should be easy. Yeah, with Jesus. There you go. That was the easy part. I mean, his death, burial, resurrection, ascension. If you didn't hear that from Mike, I don't know if he has a mic on, but death, burial, and resurrection, ascension, and feeding with Christ.

So basically, it's first, and we kind of went through this in the first question, kind of laid out everything in Romans. Romans is the kind of the foundational scripture that lays out what the identification truths are. And then we get more through the other scriptures, other epistles of Paul that lay that out. But basically, we started in Romans 3, up to 321, it's a sinner.

You're a sinner by birth, you're identified with Adam. And then by faith in Jesus, death, burial, and resurrection, I'm judicially co-crucified with him, separated from my Adamic life, and placed positionally into Christ, and I'm identified with Christ. And that's through Romans 6, 6, Galatians 2, 20, 2 Corinthians 5, 17, those will all point to that. And I'm now to reckon myself dead to sin and alive under God, Romans 6, 11.

So that's basic. And I don't know where I picked this up. It might have been from one of the Hungry Hearts. Kind of laid it out pretty well, some verses like Romans 6, 6, talking about our being crucified, Colossians 3, 3, we died and were hid in Christ, Romans 6, 4, burial and resurrection, and then Ephesians 2, 6, the ascension and seating in heaven. So those are just some quick verses to lay out the identification. But really, the key is in Romans 6 about our co-crucifixion. That's the key.

I think that's the key that most believers don't understand or don't know. They still are trying to polish up the old Adam and thinking now that we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, I'm now empowered to keep the law. They always go back to the law usually.

Or that now I'm empowered to live the Christian life. where it's critically important, I think, for growth to know and understand the identification truths. And we use that term around here quite a bit. I really hope that everybody understands what that means about the co-crucifixion. The endemic life was positionally crucified on the cross with Christ, judicially taken care of. And that's key to growth. Now, God sees us only in Christ. that we've been placed into him, baptized into his death, put place into his resurrection.

And now we are seated, Ephesians 2.6, positionally in heaven.

The Philippians 3.20, our citizenship is in heaven now.

All those things point to it, especially the Galatians 2.20, I've been crucified, it's no longer I live. but Christ live in me. So all these things point to the identification truth.

So I think it's critical that we understand those, because without that, it's very hard to grow and understand all the other things that Paul says in his epistles. They just don't make sense. And so I think it's critical that everybody understands that. I can quickly read right out, right out sums it this way.

And this is in that passage, but there is sin. Is it to reign in me? Here is holiness. It is not for me. The six and seven chapters develop the truth that emancipates. The cross is the end of me judicially. Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed. Then that henceforth we should not serve sin, Romans 6, 6. Thus, we are dead to sin in the death of Christ, and are to reckon ourselves so, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus.

God has put the stamp of death upon me as part of the old creation, so that faith can now say, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live, yet no longer I, but Christ liveth with me, Galatians 2.20. But this death puts me out of reach of law, not only as that which condemns, but as a rule for man in the flesh. into the struggles of the seventh chapter, I do not enter beyond stating the bare fact that so long as a soul seeking holiness turns to the law, it finds the bonds of sin draw tighter. For the strength of sin is the law, 1 Corinthians 15, 56. The law cannot afford help. Sin by the commandment becomes exceedingly sinful. But there can come no help from the knowledge of this, that two natures are recognized and two laws, but still no deliverance. And, oh, wretched man that I am, is a bitter cry. So that was a write-out summary of kind of the identification truths.

Yeah, Mike. In the very first line that you said, but here it's in question. The second part says, here is holiness. Is it not for me? Critical. You know, and you also think about that, you know, and I think I brought that up in one of the ones, that the sin reigned in me. You know, the beautiful part of the end of Romans 5 is what reigns now? Grace.

That's the reigning principle. That's how we operate now. Not under law. Sin doesn't reign. Grace reigns now. And now holiness, is that for me? Yes, that's the whole point of this, is positionally, where are we seated? In Colossians 3, I am now hid in Christ, in God. That's positionally where I am right now.

Do you feel that? Do you understand that? I guess more than feeling, do you understand that? That changes your whole outlook on how you live. And is holiness for me? If you understand you're positionally in Christ, it is. I think that's, in my prayer, I think that's how you can come before God and say, Daddy. Could you come before him if you didn't have the position in Christ? No, I don't think so. I don't think you can come before that. I think that's more in the Jewish, where it's very reverent, very distant, where now we have the intimacy of going before God and say, Daddy.

And that all relies, or is based on our identification, placement of Christ, placing us in Christ, in position where we are. We talk a lot about identification here, but what's the step? from knowing about identification and it be implementation to some degree in how I walk. Well, the scriptures tell me these facts that may or may not be clearly understood at first.

But I think what right out is after here is to show that through God's word, we are free. and that we don't have to respond anymore. I always say this. I think it takes the Holy Spirit quite some time to teach us, one, that we are in bondage to sin, and then once we realize that, that two, we've been freed from that bondage. We are free. that just came to mind this morning, Hungry Heart.

It was about the Holy Spirit ministers the truth of the word via the mind, that we may share the one who is truth via the heart. I really like that, that the spirit is one that gives us the word, basically, to the mind. But that is, also, it's the spirit that enacts it through us, through the heart, or the actual manifestation, or that realization of just not a truth, but a life. And it goes on on that one, but I just, I love the beginning of that one.

The word gives us the knowledge, but it's the Holy Spirit that basically makes it hard. Yeah. Yeah. I was just going to, one of the things that's frustrating sometimes is like you hear grace reigns now, but it's difficult. I mean, I think as Christians, we go back and forth a lot. Sometimes we're riding high on pure grace and other times we're not.

And I think for me, sin reigns totally, and it never quits reigning in my old man. And grace never quits reigning in my new man. And it's like I can't get rid of that old man. I mean, I see that a lot. I see him a lot. I experience the trauma of my old man a lot. And that's why I come crawling back to the word as often as I can to try to keep my eyes on Christ.

But it's a frustrating thing. And I think Paul says it best in chapter six of Romans. He had a problem with it too. And then all of a sudden in chapter seven, all of a sudden in chapter eight, it's like, I thank God through Jesus Christ. It almost makes it sound like he leaves it all behind and goes forward and doesn't have it again, but he does. And that's the conundrum that I face all the time, is just trying to stay on that wave, looking at Christ, trying to keep that sin behind me. Yeah, I think that's the struggle that everybody has. I think Romans 7 is a great chapter for us. But you have to move beyond 7 to 8. Therefore, there is now no condemnation.

And this is what Mike puts in the second one, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free. So I think you move beyond, you know, as you know Christ, as you spend more time in the word to know Christ, that's where it becomes, well, that's what I was saying, in what the hungry heart said. You get through the word, but through the Holy Spirit, you start to manifest that and to have it as a heart knowledge. And it's just spending time and I, you know, I get Jimmy that will kind of touch on that a little bit in this next question.

Hey, Courtney, can I just add something real quick? No. Oh, yeah. Okay. Thank you. So I was just thinking, I was just thinking about the not necessarily I don't know if practicality is the right word, but There's two different ways of looking at this.

One is how the Holy Spirit is working on us in the midst of these truths. And I'm going to come back to that in a second. And then there's those that we are, the Lord has put in our lives and we're sharing the truths of what Romans talks about. We talk about Romans being foundational.

And one thing that I'm trying to shy away from in my own thinking, not only for myself, but for those that I'm communicating with about these things is that the gospel message is a conviction and all the things that we've talked about in previous classes in terms of bringing one to the saving knowledge of what Christ did in his death, burial, and resurrection. And we talk about, you know, the full identification truths, the death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding as being kind of more advanced in terms of, you know, once they kind of get past the baby truths, as maybe we've called them in different settings, Then they get into the growth truths, right? But what's interesting about what Paul's saying is that the knowledge of that, you guys have differentiated between the knowledge and the actual reality of what has happened to us. It's not that those are advanced truths in the sense that a young believer as of they, I don't know, whatever, five even, say, doesn't need to know about those things.

It's just that, as you mentioned, it's the time element and the work of the Holy Spirit to bring them to a reality of that's who they are. So, Jimmy, when you're talking about that sin reigns in that old man, It pairs with the very first truth of identification, right? He's dead. He no longer has any... Now you may give it to him, and that's when we grieve the Holy Spirit, but he has no power whatsoever. So to understand death, it's not an advanced thing as much as it's a time-based teaching that the Lord is bringing to us over time. we work through that faith-based truths, those faith-based truths, in different ways over different times. So I just wanted to differentiate.

I think my main point is that it's not advanced truth, it's just the fact that it may take a lifetime, and it will take a lifetime, just like the conformity and transformation into the image of Christ, right? So that's very wordy, but I just want, I'm trying to shy away from the fact of thinking of it okay, here's the basic edition of my faith, and here's the advanced edition. They're all truths at the same level. The spiritual growth side takes a lifetime, whereas salvation is instantaneous, right?

Yeah, one of the things, too, is thinking about it, Michael. Jimmy, as I think about that, I think the latter part of spiritual growth is fully seeing the old man and how bad he is. I think the young believer doesn't really see that. As you are exposed to your old man, that is when you... I think the hardest thing for a believer to do is to see how bad the sin is, the sinful flesh is. I think that's the hardest thing for people to understand.

And I think that happens later in the growth when you suddenly start realizing kind of in the Paul part of things where I want to do what's right, but why can't I? Why is it still dragging me down? And again, you're kind of in that position of now seeing there's no good thing in my flesh, as Paul expounds. And then he moves on. He starts realizing that there's nothing good in me.

I think that is the spiritual growth, is when you start identifying that. I think in the early part where you don't identify that, you just think you're a one nature person. with this great spiritual, new spiritual life, that's the early part. The later part as you start growing is to identify how much that sinful flesh really is a force in you. So I think that's the good part of growth when you start identifying that.

What I know is I have sins that I commit every day. And I think, oh, if I get rid of this sin, then the spirit will walk with me. But it's a matter of me walking with him. But all these sins, I see that they're coming from me. Because sin don't die, I die.

And it's hard to see that because we're hanging on to something in this world. It may be a wife or a friend, a woman, a girlfriend that, and you, he loves us more and we love him more than that. And that's getting down to the bottom of it where We let everything go. We have to just let everything go. Yeah, we'll address actually part of that in this next one, yeah. I think the element we're missing here is the element of faith. That element is that God makes statements about sin, the principle of sin, the fact that it's a dominating factor. Now the issue is, how do I respond to that? Will I have the information if I'm blessed enough to have read about it or have been taught it?

How is it implemented in my life? So the question is, how is it implemented in my life? I mean, how has it become real so that I'm walking that way on a daily basis? Mike, you said, how does it become real? To me, personally. Right. Is it real? Yeah, it is. Regardless of whether it's real to you, it's still real. There's no question about that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

The problem is that you have sin nature at war against, interesting, that verse that talks about the spirit lusts against the flesh. and the flesh against the spirit, how long does it take me to realize that the spirit is in the fight, not me? And so, it's pretty simple, I think, in terms of, I'm just to take God at His word and trust Him. If He says that I died to sin, then I did. And I don't have to say, or I don't have to wait for an experience. I trust him because he says so. I trusted him to save me. Right, that's what I was going to say.

I think faith is the basis for everything in our Christian life. From salvation through spiritual growth. And it's that growth of faith is what has us grow. As we, by faith, Take what God says about us, and what's true about us, and what he's promised us, and what he's doing in our life. That's really the key. One of my mantras is faith. That is such a key to everything. You have to trust him at what he said.

That's why I brought up experience, because so many believers are looking for an experience. The objectivity of faith is not experiential. The subjectivity, my personal faith, may or may not be experiential, but it's based on, do I trust God and what he says? Or do I trust how I feel? Or do I trust the sin that's dogging me? Who do I trust is what it comes down to. And that's what the Spirit of God is doing in terms of His work inside the believer's heart. He's teaching us, you trust God and His word. Trust the Lord Jesus that He did what He said He did. And it's you. And it doesn't matter what the circumstances are.

What he says is so. Right. Well, that's that. I really love I really love what you're saying, Mike. And what I would add to that is that it's like, nevertheless, we are a spectator of this war that's going on between the warring between the spirit and the flesh. And I think that's what I'm getting at. I totally agree. It's like the spirit has to do the work. I'm sitting there in the stands watching this and I'm connected to it.

And it's misery. I mean, and that's what I, where the verses were dying daily, all of these wonderful verses that really it's, you know, while we're on this earth, a lot of it is experiencing death and death is a little bit bitter. Of course, you keep your eyes on Christ and that's where you kind of rise above all of that. But we are a spectator and it can be overwhelming at times when you're watching how ugly your old nature is. It's, it's nasty. No. And it isn't going to improve. No. I think that's right, and that's what I said. I think the maturing believer is the one starting to realize how bad the flesh is, and that there's nothing good in it.

That's hard for us to try and wrap our hands around, because we still think we're great people inside the flesh. Especially now that we're Christians. Now that we're Christians. Yeah, we're just special people. And I think that's the hardest thing, and that's what I say, I think that's as we progress, that's the hardest thing to really say is that God was right to crucify us. That's the absolute best thing he could do.

And sometimes do we find ourselves saying, oh Lord, if you could just give me some pleasantries down here on earth for the next five years while I'm hanging out here. until I get to you, and it may not be that way. We may be suffering all the way right up to the point of departure, and the flesh doesn't like that. Oh, the flesh hates it. It tries to raise its ugly head and make us do all sorts of things. But we don't do. We receive. And that's the biggest thing. And I want to go back, Jimmy.

And one of the things, as you go through this, I said it last week, and I keep ringing in my ears as we are studying the Holy Spirit. What is the fruit of the Spirit? joy, peace, patience, gentleness, all these things. That's when you're, by faith, following what he's telling us about us. You have that peace, you have that rest. We're gonna talk about that, the rest. Well, in fact, we'll get into that in this next question. We'll touch on that. This is the one I kinda wanna get to. So, yeah, we have some time here. Question three.

Is there any endeavor by man that will refresh him or wash him to make him clean? It's at the bottom of page 35 to 36. My first question on this was, first, let's look at what can man do to refresh himself? What does the world offer with respect to refreshing us?

What are some things? Milkshakes. I thought chocolate would be the number one. Chocolate milkshakes. What are some of those things? Because the world offers a bunch of things. What are some things? Prescription medication. After going through my sciatica, I heartily agree with it. Ibuprofen is a wonderful thing. And muscle relaxants.

Philanthropy. Philanthropy. This question goes to what Jimmy's talking about. What things are there? I put money. Money, you can buy things, you can do all sorts of things. What about travel? You can travel the world and see the splendors of the world. You know, all that God created, you can travel, you can see, you can rest, you can do all sorts of things.

Okay. How about, how about, how about, and this is kind of going back, Mike Polo, what you're, you're saying the, uh, what about personal relationships? Those offer comfort. I'm just asking. You're trying to find joy in everything in somebody else. That's kind of the key. The world offers us all sorts of things. All sorts of things that dangle in front of us that promise refreshing, promise rest, promise yada, yada, yada, yada.

Relationships. Are they guaranteed to refresh us? And for how long? No, as much as we think they do. And I've had long lasting lifetime relationships with people. I don't discount that. I don't say that that's bad, but I can't rely upon that. The relationships eventually, and there are people I've known who have been great people who have let me down after all. I'm not looking at you, Mike. Not this time.

Um, you know, no, there have been people that I've, you know, just had, um, you know, people that I've trusted, had great relationship with, but have just astounded me by their failures. And, and, you know, there, you, you look at in ministry, there are tons of people who have really powerful ministries, but then you find out you pull the curtain back and find out these are pretty much bums, you know, who have done horrible things. You know, I think about all the people who relied upon that great teacher. So, even with myself, Mike, any teacher, anything like that, if you rely solely upon us, you're on the wrong rock. You know, you need to be on the rock, Christ, which we'll get into a little bit later, too.

So, I guess the other question I have is, what things in this earth last? There is nothing. So why are you putting your faith and trust and your rest in something that won't last? So the question about how can we refresh? Can we do anything? The answer is no. The world offers nothing, nothing lasting, and nothing that will give you rest. You may think so temporarily, but it doesn't.

What we can do is like the picnic, my perspective at the picnic was I felt joy, peace, love, kindness, gentleness, just flowing. And it wasn't so much the people, which we love, but it was the spirit that was there with us. the fruit of the spirit was just coming out. And that's a place to get some rest. That was great. Mike is real carnal. He says it was the brisket. So no, Jimmy, I agree.

And that's the thing, the Acts 242, the four things, fellowship, prayer, teaching, and what's the last one? Breaking of bread. It's the fellowship. That's what we felt. I feel, I totally enjoy getting together. That's why, especially around a meal. A meal just for some way we relax, we slow down, and then we have the fellowship. And yeah, it's something that you only experience, I think, with other believers like that, Jimmy. I think it's, you know, if you went to a company function, you know, and you're in a big corporation, you go to the company meal. I don't think it's the same as what we experience as believers. coming together. Yeah, angst, insecurity, jealousy, all those other things, right? Yeah, when we gather, peace, joy, love, all the fruit of the spirit start coming out because we are fellowshipping around something that's common to every one of us, Christ.

And that's the key. So from the world's perspective, there's nothing that offers us rest. But we look in Matthew 11, 28, and 30, a very familiar one that I think is great. Come to me, this is Christ. who are weary and heavy laden, and what? I will give you rest. Not a maybe, not a sort of kind of maybe. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart." And quote, you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Where is that? Matthew 11, 28 and 30.

Courtney, can you explain the yoke? Yeah, I think it's just, I think it's the coming together, the union. kind of in the same control as that person driving you or whatever. Or you can have a double yoke. I just think it's the union part. It's take my yoke. Rest in me. A double-minded man is unstable. James, but this is, I think it's the union part. The yoke is the union. And it's that intimacy, that relationship. If you have that relationship, you will find rest for your souls. Yeah. I think of the yoke as slavery. We are either slaves to sin or slaves to Christ. Yeah, I mean, we're slaves to righteousness. It says we're slaves to righteousness.

So again, the yoke part, you can take it that way. I think in this one, it's the coming together, that union with him. I look at this yoke as not, but it is, exemplary or example of that, that the slave to righteousness. But in this instance where you'll find rest, I think it's just that coming together, that union that we see in John 17. So as soon as you have that, that's where I get rest for my soul. If I'm in union with him, am I going to have turmoil and all this stuff? Or am I going to have rest? In the union, I have rest with him.

So more of an example would be like the exchanging of rings at a marriage. I mean, you know, it's like a yoke, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, that's just a symbol of what, it's kind of like, you know, it's a symbol of your commitment to each other and all that. I think an example would be the yoke that the Egyptians had over the Jews.

That's the opposite of what Christ is offering us in terms of yoke. Right now, this yoke is nothing bad. And again, it's the slave to righteousness. If you want to look at it as slavery in the yoke, as in with the Jews, with the Egyptians, we now, we're slave to Christ, to righteousness. Awesome. He said, my yoke is easy. My yoke is easy.

But I love the, you will find rest for your souls. Your soul is the innermost part of you. You have rest here. And that's where I think the fruit of the Spirit, joy, peace, rest, all those things, if you're in union with Christ and your focus is Him, that's what He said. And He's saying the Spirit will provide that.

And the other one which I like, which is, again, where the question is, anything the world can give to us, John 14, 27, peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you, Christ speaking. Not as the world do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. He gives us peace. He promised it. It's for us to receive it. What in grace? What is the thing in grace? The only thing you can do in grace is say thanks. It's nothing, no effort, no thing that we do.

It's receiving. We just have to receive what he's promised us. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. Is that where the rest for your souls that he promised in Matthew? Absolutely. So, I guess getting back, can you find any real rest or peace in or from the world? This type of peace is like the war's over, right? I surrender. Well, yeah, I mean, it's the by faith understanding what he says of us. The question I have, and this is probably the one that I think is challenging. Think about that.

What in the world can give us rest or peace? The second part of that question is, where or what do we spend our time on? Where do we spend our time? That, I mean, it hit me square in the face when I started laying this out. It's like, where do we spend our time? In the place that doesn't give us rest. Well, it may for a season.

No, it doesn't. It doesn't. Money. Man, it doesn't. Money is time. If you have money, you want more money. Right. If you do whatever, you want more. It doesn't satisfy. It shows us we're greedy. It shows we can't. So I haven't even got through. I still got question two, and I see the other class leaving, and we're late. I'll finish this question up and we'll get through it. But it really hit me, and I'm glad I got to that part of it. The world can't give us peace, and yet where do we spend our time? This is a challenge to me.

Again, spending time in the Word or just not even in the Word. I mean, you need the Word, faith in the facts and the tracts and all that. You need that. But it's that just that time with the Lord, thinking about him daily. I go by the sovereignty of God. When I think of this day, God is still in control of it. He's everything that he's using. And I try to look out and see how God is working in my life now, today, with all of you and what's going on. I see his hand working all the time. And that's exciting. I try and see him in my life all the time. And that's where I try and spend, but I get so distracted by the world. We're going to have a Bronco game today.

Cool. Yeah. Not bad. I'm saying that's not, but that it is off. So it's not that you have to go in your room and, and meditate all day long and do all this. It's just a constant thought of, of your relationship with Christ. Yeah. I was going to say, this is a great lesson, and people at this table will be blessed. And what James Rickerhoff said about the reality of struggling with the old man, the honesty and the beauty of what he said is just a monument. Well, I think it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing, because you start seeing, you're starting to see the old man. That's key.

So, you know, I think we're all gonna take up a collection for you, Russ, to get a better internet. You keep, you kind of cut in and out. So we want to hear what you say, but you're in and out. So we may put an offering to get you a higher speed or something on your computer. Yeah, yeah, you're the engineer on this.

Come on, man. okay i like what you say but you come inside it kind of like the cyber cyber chicken sometimes you understand i'm sorry no no it's all good all right let's close heavenly father we thank you we thank you for this time we thank you for these truths and uh We thank you again, just the peace and rest that we have in Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who gives us that joy, peace, patience, comfort, all those things are when we just rely upon the Holy Spirit to show us all the truths about who we are in Christ and what that means and the relationship we have with you, Father, and with Christ.

And we just thank you for that relationship that we have. And again, we just want to come to you for rest and peace, not the world, not all the things that draw us away from focusing on you. We ask that, again, our focus would be on Christ. And again, just your ability through trials, blessings, all this. all used in love to conform us to the image of your Christ, of your son Christ. So we thank you for all these things and we just pray for the next meeting again that your word will be brought out accurately and just prepare our hearts to receive it. We thank you for this time in Jesus name we pray, amen.