The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit Lesson 13 start

Lesson 13 from chapter 3 of the book that we're studying, The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit by Samuel Rideout. The first question, what I've been trying to do, hopefully it's helpful to you, trying to put The page numbers, I'm worried you can't find the answers. And the page numbers have to correspond with the PDF of the book that I sent out on the web. If you've got a hard copy, they probably don't line up. No, not at all. I did it with the PDF because I figured most people had the PDF, but I may be wrong. but it's chapter three, it's chapter three that we're working through now.

Okay, question number one is, how did the death of Christ pronounce a death sentence on the whole human race? When he died, He provided, his write-up says, he provided the perfect atonement. But that death that he died pronounced a death sentence on the entire human race. How did it do that? Phil says death of the law? More than that? Think about this.

At that point in time, There's only one race on the planet, and that's the human race, all from Adam. Christ goes to the cross and he dies, which pronounces a death sentence to the entire Adamic race. That's the word death means? It's pronounced a separation for the entire human race, separated from two, or just separated from. a death sentence. What's that? That's exactly right, sin in the flesh.

The quote, our old man was crucified with them and the old man's worthlessness was declared. I love that statement. We spent so much time making the old man worthy of something. But what the death of Christ showed was the worthlessness of the old man.

And the quote that Rideau uses, if any man be at Christ, there is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. That doesn't mean that you traded in the Ford for a new one. Old things passed away mean that everything from Adam was taken care of at the cross. Pretty strong language, huh? So, yeah. Right up makes a very interesting point here. He says, I don't touch the fact that the presence of the old nature and the deeds of the body to be mortified, but there's a new man.

The point is, is that, how do you describe, how do you describe, we were all born in Adam, right? And so we inherit, as human beings, all that Adam is, which includes the wonderfulness of the sin nature, right? And then every Adamic person, the sin nature totally controls them. And notice that back in the Garden of Eden, what was the tree that Adam lived in?

What was it called? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, right? So we automatically think that, well, the only thing that really happened at the cross is that God got rid of the evil. What about the good? Get rid of that too? Answer, yes, he did. Because Adam was a good and evil guy. So what was the plan? What was the plan? Life. Huh? Life. The tree of life. The tree of life. The tree of life. Yeah, well, that's that other tree in the garden.

And we just automatically think from Adam's viewpoint that really what happened was is that we just sort of moved off of the evil branches over to the good ones. Right? Well, I'm on the good branches now. I'm not going to touch my Adam because I'm good now.

No. The whole tree was crucified. So what happens to us? What happens? You have to come down out of that tree, go around the garden, find the tree of life, and get up in that one. You change trees. You change man. And that's the point that Rideout is making about the crucifixion. The crucifixion totally ends for the believer, Adam. Now, we live in an Adamic creation. Everything around us, all the sensory stimulus that we have comes from this world, is all the Adamic world. And oh, by the way, even though I'm separated from Adam, he's still screaming at me. I still have that same nature operative in me.

But unless I'm told through God's word and rest my faith in the fact that I don't have to respond to it anymore, why? Because I've been separated from it. I died to it. It will still control me whether you like it or not, because all I'll do is move over to the good branches. And every once in a while, I'll be bad. But for the most part, I'm a good guy. Trouble is, you're in the wrong guy. And that's the point.

So when that verse says, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation, what is a new creation? It isn't a home rehab. It isn't even a home built in this planet. It's a brand new environment, totally created at the resurrection of Christ. totally new, in which... What doesn't exist in the new creation that exists in our creation?

It's in nature. It's in nature? What else? I can tell you're really familiar with it. What else? Flesh. Flesh? What else? It's hard, isn't it? I mean, you talk about trying to think outside the box. Try to think outside of Adam. And the only place you can find out about that is in God's word. And it's specifically in Paul's epistles. Think outside Adam. It's hard to do. It's the only place that it is, though, explained and laid out for us is in God's word. It's the only place. You know?

So when you start talking about a brand new creation, he's talking about something that is new, totally, and kind, and quality. Never been that before. But we have no experience. There's nothing in Adam that would qualify you to function as a new creation. It's all new. Entirely new. New state of being.

So if you get that thought in your mind, you'll realize, I think, as you walk around it during the day, well, just because it's good, it may not be of the new creation. You see that? Just because I avoided sin doesn't mean I'm walking in the spirit. Does that make sense? Or is that kind of a stretch? It's a hard stretch, you know?

So, to answer the question, how did the death of Christ pronounce a death sentence on the whole human race? That's exactly what happened on that day when he died. He pronounced the death sentence. The entire human race of Adam. In the new creation, everything is of God, and the spirit will have no occasion to leave, for there's no condition upon which he remains, except for the fact of the accomplishment of redemption. Point is, is that at the end of the time, the spirit is not going to be, let me say this right, he'll be totally in and occupied in the new creation, and that's what he's doing. Are you alright with that? Some of you are nodding your head, some of you are kind of like...

But that's the real secret to what we call the identification truth, is the separation from the old man, and all that belongs to him, and the union with the resurrected Christ, and all that belongs to him. You know, you're saying that all of humanity was separated at that point.

We were separated at Adam's sin, right? I mean, all of creation was separated, so I'm thinking about your statement that all all of Adam's race was crucified at that earth. No, I meant condemned. Condemned, yeah. I mean, we were separated at Adam's sin. All of humanity was separated from God at Adam's sin. No, I don't think so. If I said that, I misspoke. The question was, did the death of Christ pronounce a death sentence on the whole human race? pronouncement of a death sentence? Yes.

Because what connection does Adam have with God? God said to him in the garden, what did he tell him? The soul that sins it will die. If death means separation, then he's separated from God. Okay, now God stopped dealing with him, but he dealt with him based on what God knew was gonna be with Christ. But there's a separation, there's a pronouncement for a death sentence that hasn't been totally carried out yet for the whole entire damn race. It's not the sins committed, but the guy who's doing the sin that's taken care of.

How do you mean that? Well, just that it's the source that's put to death. As in Adam all die. What does that mean? That all people that are in Adam physically die? No, that doesn't work. Because there have been some people that were in Adam that didn't die. Physically.

I'm trying to figure out from what this is, the difference between what Adam did in the separation versus at the cross. Christ paid for all the sins, and then I'm trying to see the death sentence on the whole human race. It seemed like there was already a death sentence because we were identified in sin. The cross just allowed an option of grace, to be saved by grace through faith.

Yeah, Courtney, I agree with what you're saying. We're talking about, and when we talk about death, we have to talk about it physically and spiritually. And so we're talking spiritually here. Um, at, you know, in Eden it was, it was a spiritual death. Um, yes, there was going to be a physical desk long time for Adam. He had, he had a lot more years than we did. But, um, Yeah, so the cross was a place of, it did represent a death, but it also represented, Mike, to your point, that new life that comes through death, and that's spiritually.

And we just have to keep that in mind, I think. Yeah, and I guess I think the cross just allowed two paths at that point. the path of saved by grace through faith, and then you're separated from the Adamic life at that point and placed into Christ. Those who are not are still identified with Adam. But I'm trying to think what the difference is at the cross when you say the whole human race was The death sentence was pronounced against them at the cross. Yeah, maybe just the pronouncement of it. It's like a trial happened. You lost. You've been condemned to death. You're separated. You haven't gone to the gallows yet, but your day's coming. without faith. Well, I mean, think about this.

I, as a human being, if I, at some point in my life, I accept the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, what happens to me? When I die to Adam, I'm resurrected. I'm buried with Christ and I'm resurrected in him. So that's what I'm saying. I think that's the difference. I mean that you are then co-crucified with Christ versus the whole world. That's what I'm trying to figure this out. The whole world was pronounced dead. I guess when we, by faith, except Christ, then we are placed into Christ. But when do we go in? That's a critical part. At what point in the timeline of Christ do we get placed into Him? When He dies. Right.

That's kind of what that passage we're referring to in 1 Corinthians 15, 22, where it says, For as in Adam all died, and so in Christ shall all be made alive. Ahead of that, though, it talks about, But now has Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept? For since man came to death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. And then, in Adam all died, and Christ shall be made alive.

Yeah, see, I mean, in my mind it's pretty simple. If I'm a member of the Adamic race, I've been condemned to death. And that sentence was pronounced at the cross. That's when the pronouncement of it was made known. Because up until that time, what was God doing? through the Jewish nation and through all that he was doing, he was pointing towards the cross, but they didn't know that. He was trying to get Adam to function. And Adam proved, in the span of all that time and effort, that he was irredeemable. You could not redeem Adam. What does Romans 8-3 say? What the law couldn't do. and that it was leaked through the flesh. God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, what did he do to the sin nature? He condemned it. That's the pronouncing of the sentence right there. The condemnation or the pronouncement of the death sentence against all that come from Adam. All.

Well, you know, there are people walking around on Colfax Avenue right now that are in Adam, who have been pronounced dead, but they're still walking around. We think of death as something that's inactive. Turn on your TV. What you're watching is death. Death is very active. The problem is it's separated from the source of life through God himself. Death doesn't mean inactivity. It just means separation from the source of life. You know, this afternoon just go someplace, go to a mall and watch all these non-believers walk around. You know what you're watching? Death. Zombie land. No, just death. That's all you're watching. Just death. Anything on television, it's death.

Including the religious programs. It's just the way it is. There's activity, yeah. I kind of found it interesting when I was taking care of my mom, and she was in hospice care. The nurse had said, yes, she's actively dying. And it's like, that's kind of different. That's awesome. Yeah, it was very interesting.

Well, that's why I think the apostle Paul, in his epistles, when he refers to a believer physically dying, he never uses that term. He talks about them falling asleep. Why? Nobody died. They're resurrected. They're just changing addresses. They're going home.

So that's what to realize. The death sentence placed on the Adamic world and nature is an assault against your goodness. You really think, oh, I can find goodness in this world. I'm going to get along. No. No, you're not. It's like being a Christian with a big sign in Kabul. How much chance you got of making it to the airport? Not a lot. They're going to get you. They're going to hunt you down.

Hey, Mike. Yeah. Quick question. So we're talking about, I really was intrigued by the thought of the truth of the trees, knowledge of good and evil, and tree of life. Yeah. And we're also talking about the cross. All of us believers were there with Christ on the cross. We experienced that death.

So where does the Holy Spirit fit in this question? Just as a, just a thought I wanted to pose. This has to do with the fact that, actually, over the next couple of questions, that the Holy Spirit is the one that implements this in the understanding of the believer. And one of the most important aspects of that is that if you have been included in the death, burial, and resurrection of the cross, then the Holy Spirit is a permanent resident within you, and he can never leave.

Yeah, and I think that's a really, really good... Because of the kind of creature you are. That's right. Yeah, that's something that I was just wanting to... You're just trying to move me along, I know what you're doing. Hey Mike, can I ask a question? Mike, I was going to say, you know, the death sentence was... placed on all mankind, on all mankind, but not on the new man that's within every believer. Why not? So we are, because that's why we, that's one of the reasons becoming a Christian is wonderful.

Heaven. You're freezing up, Russ, a little bit. It has eternal life already. It's already begun. That's why Russ's understanding that as the verse that Alan quoted, that believers have been crucified with Christ, buried in resurrection. Well, where does our life come from? It comes out of resurrection. Resurrection to newness of life. It's a new kind of life.

So the reason a believer can't die again, one, he's already dead, but two, he's in the resurrected Christ. Christ is never gonna die again, so neither can you. You'll never be separated from God because you have resurrected life. That's life that's impossible to die. Just like it's impossible for God to die, God had to become a man in order for him to die.

Maybe I was just taking this wrong, but my thought was on that question that because Christ did have to die, he lived a perfect life, that was like verification that sin did have that power. When the sin was put on him, he had to die. And that was the verification that that was true for the entire human race, because we were all not sinless. Well, the verification before that was the fact that there are these little places called cemeteries. How many people made it to heaven without dying from Adam to the cross of Christ? One, two, three. Elijah. Elijah. Who else? Enoch. Enoch. Who else? Well, those are pretty tough odds. Yeah, you're right, Donna.

The cross of Christ proved, I think maybe is a better way to say it, that when God made the pronouncement of death on the soul of his created Adam, he said, the soul that sins, it will die. Adam died physically. He died spiritually the second that he took the bite. But his soul is going to die too. and it was replaced, death was replaced with a sin nature. You talk about death operating, that's a sin nature. It operates in death, it's functioning, it's moving, it's committing, it's doing all of those things, but it's death, because it's separated from God, who's the source of life.

So, I know a lot of times when you have this discussion, it seems like It's one of those, oh gee, everything's sort of ending and blooming. But that principle of Adam, in Adam I'll die, is a wonderful principle because if you're in Christ, I love that because location's everything to me. I'm a realtor, right? Where you are is a lot more important than what you're doing. Where you are is the real, cool things. Where am I?

I'm in Christ. And whatever's true of Christ for all eternity, it's true of me. And you. And the fact that it's non-experiential. It's positional. It's a positional truth. Right. Again, back to J.D.' 's point, you know, what's the Holy Spirit up to? One of the things He's up to is making us experiential in our life, so we know not only intellectually, spiritually, but experientially, that this is really true. We're persuaded about it. And because the unbeliever doesn't know this, the dead are still walking around.

Oh, sure. Oh, sure. And without the Holy Spirit, no unbeliever would ever come to Christ. That shows you the all-encompassing sphere of death that all in Adam lived in. All right. Hey, Mike? Yeah. Is it also true that, like, because believers, when they put their faith in Jesus, now they're crucified to the old man, and they have the new creation inside and they're placed into Christ. Yeah. But the non-believers are not crucified to the old man. They're not separated, right? Correct. Which isn't a good thing.

Well, you know, that's the big problem for them because when Christ died as a substitution and paid the penalty and the guilt for all of mankind's sins. He got them all, including all the non-believers' sins. So if every non-believer's sins have been paid for, why is that non-believer going to be separated from God for all eternity?

Why is he going to spend his time in a place called hell? forever. Why is that happening? The reason is, he's still attached to the sin nature, or his Adamic nature, which has been condemned at the cross. So when you leave the planet, if you're still attached to Adam, guess what?

You're in big trouble, even though your sins have been paid for. And the sins of being paid for is a real simple thing. God had to satisfy the insult of sin against him personally. And so every sin that was ever committed, Christ paid that insult on the cross. But it doesn't accrue to any human being without believing in what Christ did. And the great thing that happened on the cross is way more than just forgiveness and atonement.

The great thing was is that we got recreated. which meant in order to be a new creation, you gotta die to the old one. And so that was the fact that God couldn't have, well, maybe I'll put it this way. Let's say that identification didn't happen, but all of our sins got paid for. Courtney knows the question. Do you or any of us have a right to stand in the presence of a holy God being a forgiven sinner? Answer, no. Why? You're still a sinner. Sinners don't get to be in the presence of God.

See that? So God was the one that knew all that. He didn't tell anybody he was going to do this. He just did it. Because he knew that if he was going to have humans in his family, they couldn't be sinners. Which means they couldn't be beings that had sin natures. Couldn't be.

So being recreated in Christ, we have his life. Our only home now is with him. Okay? Question two. List the reasons why the Holy Spirit will never leave the believer. Because he's indwelled us and he's sealed us in Christ. One reason. Yeah. Right off it says, it can't be too clearly understood that the indwelling is not because of anything in us. I'll repeat that. It's not because, or either at the beginning or at any stage of the Christian life.

From first to last, the spirit dwells in us, one, because of the unchanging value of the work of Christ. His work doesn't change in terms of value. Two, cease forever to dishonor the value of that work by doubting the person of the Holy Spirit. In other words, it's tough with us because we make agreements with people all the time, and they change their mind, or it doesn't work out the way you think.

When God makes a deal, it doesn't change. Your resurrection with Christ, our co-crucifixion with Christ was something that God did and it will never change. Burial, resurrection, ascension, glorification will never change. Why? Because God doesn't change.

Does that make sense? Think this backwards for a minute. if, let's say, Jim Russell was to lose his salvation, what would have to happen spiritually with God? The Lord Jesus would have to come, lose his glory as a man, come back to the earth, get back in the grave, come back up the other side, go up on the cross, come back to life, step down off the cross, and say, I'm done. Because that sacrifice wasn't accepted. That's right. So he would have to do all of that. You wouldn't have anything to say about it. But he didn't do it that way. He did it this way. And he took us with him. And how much did we have to... Did he call any of you up ahead of time and say, hey, I'm thinking about co-crucifying you with my son. What do you think? Want to be in on that? I think that's a good idea. He just did it, because he knew.

Mike, I think also the permanency is that I've been placed into Christ, never to be removed. Well, if I'm in Christ, how can I be separated from the Holy Spirit? They're triune. That's right. And I'm just going through my readings, just going to my favorite one yesterday, John 17. You know, and the union we have with God and the Father, and by association of Triune God with the Holy Spirit.

If we'd been placed into Christ, there's no way we'd get out of being in Christ. Isn't that great? Then we can't have the missing indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That's right. They are, you know, a Triune God, and if we're in one, we're in all. And never to be separated. That's right.

And that, you know, it's the sealing. It says we're sealed. There's no way we can get out. Through that, the sealing can't be undone. So, there's no way that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit will ever go away. Well, it's a great thing it's not left up to us. Right. We have nothing we can do.

Another way to answer your question is that will never be separated from the Holy Spirit because Christ told us we would never be separated from the Holy Spirit. Well, he said, yeah, you'll abide with him forever. That's what Riteout says. It's interesting how he puts it. He says, all is stability and permanence in the new era of reality. I like how that is.

Where all is based upon the finished redemption and Christ taking his place on high. It's all based on what they did. Don't you find it interesting that God goes thousands of years with the Old Testament saints, and they just don't measure up? None of them ever, I mean, there were certain men that believed, but every one of them, starting with Abraham, was just a loser. They couldn't. But then the Lord Jesus comes, goes through this process of living and dying and resurrecting, and he includes us in that process, it took a recreation to have a grace of men who were holy 24-7.

And he said, okay, I'm not leaving that into the responsibility for your holiness up to you. I'm gonna take it over, and I'm gonna put you in my son, and I'm gonna enjoy you with the Holy Spirit, and he's gonna do it all. All you have to do is trust. That's good for me.

You know, Mike, I was thinking about it quickly before, maybe that is thinking more about how the cross represents the death sentence. And the difference between just Adamic is Abraham, he's saved by his faith, but he's not placed into Christ. It's different. After the cross, there is no option. There isn't just being good or faithful to God's word. It's faith in Christ. So maybe going back to the death sentence, it is different at that point, because you can't be faithful like Abraham and make it out, so to speak. At that point, from that point forth, it is only in Christ or out of Christ, or in Christ or in Adam. Those are the two options at that point.

I know we're out of time, but that's okay. That's what we've been talking about this morning. Why aren't we preoccupied with it? Why doesn't it fill our thoughts all the time? It's in nature. It's in nature. You're exactly right. It shows you the power that's in nature. And it shows you that it took the cross of Jesus to deal with it.

We still love ourselves. This gives the reason for the Holy Spirit is to convict us the position, moving our condition into conformance with our position. That's the whole reason for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is to overcome the power of the flesh and the sin, the sin of nature. And I think for a long time as a young Christian, you're not sure that you're strong enough.

You know, it's powerful enough. Alright, let's close. Father, how we thank you for your word, how we thank you for She thinks today that the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross, and our inclusion in it, and the continued work of the Holy Spirit to manifest the life of the Lord Jesus, not only in our lives, but to us, so we can rest in the stability and the permanency of being in Christ Jesus. Thank you, Father, we pray in your son's precious name. Amen.