The Person and Work, of the Holy Spirit lesson 30 Part 3
Courtney Hemenway · Jul 3, 2022
Holy Spirit (2021-23), No. 68
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261927364853

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

All right, we are in Lesson 30. We have gotten, we're starting Chapter 2 and Question 4. And we've gotten through, what are the threefold areas of conviction by the Holy Spirit? The threefold areas outlined by Rideout was conviction of sin, of righteousness, and judgment. We had gone through about sin fairly easy, righteousness, and then with respect to judgment. We just started doing that. And we brought out in Rite Out. Rite Out says, thus the cross declares the judgment both of Satan and the world.

Not an uncertain thing as we've seen in the future. but an accomplished fact in the head and representative of all, the one whom the world had chosen for itself. Here again, however, for faith, very conviction of judgment brings a promise or deliverance. Is a ruler one who held me in bondage judged? Has he who had the power over death been annulled? Then is there no deliverance for me if I do not but accept this judgment of the cross and flee in faith to the one there smitten for me. So again, we got through that, and we're now moving on to the Holy Spirit, question number five. The Holy Spirit involved in regeneration, or how is the Holy Spirit involved in regeneration or new birth? So, new birth. New birth?

Yeah. Where did that come from? Let me see if I can get this. I'll work the computers here a little bit. All right. So, I said first, is the Holy Spirit involved in regeneration or new birth? Is the Holy Spirit involved? Yes. Yes. Very much so. So, if you say yes, guess what the next one is? Why or what? Yes, how, why? Well, he's the one that invents and indwells us. I mean, that's what he does. Well, The Spirit is, according to Rite Out Savior, by virtue of the work of regeneration, all that is connected with it, including the seal and assurance of salvation.

Which we'll get into a little bit more in those aspects. I beg your pardon? We'll get into those later aspects in a little bit. Yes, exactly. But, the Holy Spirit is involved. And you know, I think about that too. You know, is He involved before you're a believer? Isn't He convincing you? Yeah. That's what I said, I guess you're not hearing me. Oh yeah, no, sorry. You were a little quiet on that first one.

Yes, the Holy Spirit is working in everyone. Everywhere, every place. And I think it's... the flesh rejecting the conviction of the Holy Spirit. But I think the Holy Spirit is working in everyone. I think that's the only way you can come to a point of faith in Christ, is the conviction of the Holy Spirit working in you. And those who don't, reject it, and reject that conviction.

So it definitely is, prior to our rebirth or regeneration, But it's also in the regeneration. So we look at John 1, 12 and 13. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. Then moving on to John 3 through 8. This is with Nicodemus.

Jesus answered and said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he? Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter in the kingdom of God.

That which is born of flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

So again, quite clearly the Spirit is involved in our rebirth or regeneration. Is there any question of that? The Holy Spirit's convicting us prior to our acceptance by faith of Christ's finished work on the cross. But then at that point, too, He's the one we're born of. He's the one who is the power behind our rebirth. So, any questions on that?

One thing that comes to mind is when we think of being born again, and that's used in a lot of different contexts, For us, it's perfectly scriptural. For the rest of the world, it's a very strange thing to think that we have to be born again of spirit.

But I think that the word new comes to mind. It's like all things have to be new, spiritually speaking, for you to be adopted. So, it's not just a matter of a change, it's something fundamentally different. It's a new person, right? And without the person of the Holy Spirit, we don't have that privilege of becoming new in the eyes of our Creator. And so, when I think of born again, I oftentimes think about it's a brand new life. It starts, it's brand new, it's unique, it's one of a kind. And, yeah, so anyway, that was just something that we need to think of, is that not only being born again in order to be saved, but what is new?

And what does the Spirit do? And that's all the things you're about to talk about. I was going to say, question six. Right. But it is, it's a new life, altogether new. And we can spend most of our Christian life not knowing what is new about us. I think, you know, I think you just expressed Nicodemus and what the world, how the world, you know, what do you mean, new birth? I think he questioned that. He didn't, he couldn't understand that, didn't, you know, what is this new birth? And new? And, you know, he was thinking of physical birth.

Right. This is a brand new spiritual birth. And so, you know, It's not a restart. You know, it's not like, oh, let's restart this thing over and get a second chance at life. That's not the way, Scripturally it's presented. It's it's not a second chance.

It's a whole new life. It's a rebirth literally So we'll move on to question six And so what is new birth? I said we see this when Jesus meets Nicodemus He states in John 3 3 unless one is born again He cannot see the kingdom of God and then again in John 3 7 do not be amazed I said you must be born again and We also see this in 1 Peter 1, 3 and 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and eternal and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.

Again, We'll get into the 2nd Corinthians 5.17, which is a new and kind, totally new.

It's not a regeneration of the old Adamic flesh and man. So, again, the new birth. It's brand new, just what JD was saying. New and kind, new and quality. This isn't just like a physical rebirth. This is brand new. And again, I don't think a lot of the world understands this. When we say born again, or people use that term, I think most people think it's just, now I'm empowered by the Holy Spirit to carry out the law. And that's what the new birth is. It's a new power in me. And it's not. It's a brand new life. New in kind, new in quality. Also a new nature. Yeah, new nature. Well, it's spiritual. It's not fleshly.

That's where Nicodemus was struggling. He was trying to do it as a fleshly. He was thinking, man, how do you do this? How do you get back in the womb and come back out as a new flesh? He didn't understand it. That's why he goes through it and says, no, it's new in kind. It's new in spirit. So it's a new life, a new spiritual life, not an Adamic or fleshly life.

We see it, let me go down here. I thought I had writeouts, comments in there. I think I got one here, yeah. Right out says this, birth is the beginning of man's earthly life, looking upon the impartation and birth as parts of one whole. A child begins, for us, to live when he is born. He receives life at his birth. So following the analogy, at new birth, the man receives life, spiritual life. He begins to live to God and is now his child. So that's the difference between a fleshly birth and a spiritual birth. And I like the way he does that, you know, a new birth man receives life, spiritual life, and he begins to live to God and is now his child. Could we live to God before we had that new birth? Is there anything that we could do to live to God?

Remember the citation I had from Romans 3, that's who we are. In the flesh there's no not one, not one righteous, not one who doesn't thirst after blood. That's who we are in the flesh. So we can't live to God under that nature. So it's only when we have an impartation of a new life to us that we can live to God.

Connecting this verse with the verse just quoted and remembering that faith is an integral element in new birth, we have the simple and self-evident fact that new birth is the impartation of spiritual life, of divine eternal life to the soul. That was how I write out and finish that.

Imparting new life to the soul. What are we composed of? Body, soul and spirit. So we're imparting new life to our soul. Our soul and a new spirit. And someday we'll get rid of this body and have a new body. So that's what we're still going to be composed of, body, soul, and spirit. A new body, same soul, who we are, the ID of who each and every one of us is, but a new life, a new spiritual life.

I said, is the new birth just imparting eternal life to our existing state? We have eternal life anyway. I mean, we live forever. I'm going to touch on that a little bit. Yeah. So is this imparting eternal life to our existing state? Well, our existing state is, as unbelievers, is a state of death in its nature. You know? So, you can't impart life to death. You have to be removed from death and placed into life. Understanding life as union with God and death as separation from God, right? And hence, why there's new birth. Just as you can't impart life to death. It has to be new. The separation is there now.

We have to have a new new life in order to bring that that Union together, and I think this is a very important concept the misunderstanding of this leads to endless frustration Are all are all people eternal? Yes, oh Yeah So it's not your button or whatever. Everybody lives forever, but that's not eternal life. No. And that's a concept that I don't think a lot of people understand. That's what I'm getting at, that most people don't understand, that if you're a non-believer, You know, they think they'll end up as a tree or rebirth as whatever. Or it's just over. We're done. That's not true.

They will live on in judgment forever. I was going to say, when I talk to kids, I often tell them, you know, you were born dead, you know, you were born dead, you exist dead, you are dead and you will be eternally dead apart from the life of Christ. That's right. So it's not that we live forever or that unbelievers live forever, but that they exist forever. And that's the that's the point. They exist forever.

And I don't I don't think many people understand that. You know, they have, their exit is whatever they come up with. You know, in different religions, different things, they have an off-ramp that they think either, you know, come back, like I said, as a tree, or they'll come back as somebody else, or just end. It just ends. A lot of people think it's just, this is it, and you go through life and that's it. It isn't. Can I say somebody's name? Yeah. interesting.

He said, this life now is the best that life will ever be for an unbeliever. And this is the worst it will ever be for a believer. And that's absolutely true. And the scary part is the unbelievers don't understand that. You know, and that's the scary part. We understand. I mean, we look forward to face to face with our Lord. That's exciting. I mean, We don't have mortgages, we don't have politics, we don't have bad hips, we don't have anything when we step into eternity. That's incredible.

This is, as you said, the worst it's going to be. But for the unbeliever, I don't think they understand that, that this is the best it's going to be. You know, when we have COVID, when we have inflation, we have all these, you know, murders and whatever, and all the strife and struggle that this, and there's no rest in the world. That's another thing, is there's no rest in the world.

The best that they're going to have. That should be broadcast to everyone. Yeah. I would close that most believers don't understand it, too, because they're so worldly. The influences and the cares and woes of the world dominate their existence. So they think somehow I'm to enjoy the best that the earth has to offer. And the thing that is exciting about going home is not I'm free of this. I get to be face-to-face was my eternal life. That's why I said the face-to-face part.

Whatever we think of the world, the best house you have, the best car you have, none of that matters. It doesn't matter in the face of the Lord. Nothing matters that we have here. I find it interesting in Christianity that so little focus and conversation is about the beauty of the Lord Jesus.

Well, His glory and the fact that God has made every provision for us to know Him now. Well, I think some of the things that we talk about and I talk about a lot, intimacy with the Lord. All of our ministries and everything are reduced if we don't have that relationship with the Lord.

So, you know, I think a lot of the hungry hearts have had that where you know, we throw missionaries out We throw service people into service all the time before they have a real knowledge of the Lord and that hamstrings their ministry or whatever because that Well, it's Mary and Martha which would you rather have somebody which would the Lord rather have somebody is at his feet and Loving him and having that relationship or going out and having the biggest ministry ever The answer is the one who is at his feet worshipping him and seeing him and loving him and that's yeah, I think a lot of believers don't don't understand that that Spending time in the word is getting to know him and just you know, even the prayer time Yeah, I think about that the other day and I think it's one of the hungry hearts that have that that you know just our time with the Lord just in prayer and This time with the Lord, it's a relationship. You know, there's one of those. I don't know if it's in the Hungry Arts, but it's...

J.B. Stoney talked about the fact that when you get together with other believers, you talk about the cares and woes of the way. And then you talk about all the cool things that God has done for you lately. But he said, when's the last time you just sat down with another believer and you talked about the glories of the Lord? What I find interesting about that is, try and find one of those guys.

Or a man or a woman, because they're wrapped up in the world. They may be believers with eternal life, but they're wrapped up so much in the world and their sphere of influence and everything they do is worldly. And there really isn't a heart for the Lord Jesus that ought to be there. And that was one, I think, just recent in the Hungry Heart. It was yesterday. It was yesterday, yeah. I know, because I read that, and it was like, that really makes, you know, I don't know. Yeah.

The Lord Jesus longs for fellowship with us. He does not want patronage. It does not meet the desire of his heart to be followed or admired. or gaze at because of what he can do or give. He delights in a heart taught of the Spirit to appreciate his person, for this glorifies and gratifies the Father. Oh yeah. I think he talks about marrying Martha later in that one too. And it is. You'd much rather have the face-to-face and the relationship than anything you think you can accomplish for him here. It's the intimacy and the knowledge of him.

Ultimately, what is the job of the Holy Spirit? To conform us to the image of Christ. How do we do that without knowing Him? You know, the more we know Him, the more we'll be conformed to the image. I think a lot of believers, a lot of people become believers, are born again, and now they have eternal security, fire insurance, so let's get back to the world and enjoy as much of it as we can, rather than There's a whole new life here. And it's a heavenly-based focus on the God of the universe, the Lord Jesus, who, like that quote was, His desire for us to know Him is much greater than ours is.

And we get into, you know, we talk about this too, when you get into, when something great happens to us, we think more of what happened rather than the giver. That's right. The gift is more important than the giver. And that's where we lose focus. And the gift becomes the object of our affection or our emotions or whatever. And it's the giver that's the important part. It's not the gift. So let's see.

So yeah, again, I just thought this was a very important concept about unbelievers will have eternal existence, but they don't know that this is the best it's going to be for them. And that motivates me thinking about those who are unbelievers. Do they really know that and understand that? Actually, it was kind of nice.

This is for the Camp Elam fans. Dan relayed on that this last week. I think there are 44 professions For Christ didn't know Christ 44. That was almost half the camp had Talked to them afterwards about knowing the Lord. That's incredible. Those are a good theory. I That's eternal decisions internal life for those kids. It wasn't just a week at camp It changed their lives for eternity 44 kids, you know, man, so so that was pretty exciting exciting news from down at camp.

So So we're doing this question about the new birth It really goes back to and we talked about this a little bit second Corinthians 517 therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature and And that word for new is new in kind, not a refurbished one. It's completely new in existence. That the old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. So again, the new birth is a new birth. Completely new. Not a repowering of the old man. Not a restart of the old man. This is completely new.

One thing, Courtney, I was going to say is the one thing that's, I guess, it is new because it applies to us, but we're also given Christ's history, right? So it's also something that is old in that sense, but it's new to us, right? But from a time perspective, we don't need to get into getting hung up around that. But he not only applies everything new forward, but he also applies new backwards. to our history, which is also an interesting aspect of what is new to us. Yeah, our history is his history. I mean, his life, now we have that life. Well, that life has been eternal from past to future.

I think it was here when how and when we're identified with Christ. It's kind of strange, but it's this door to my right here, where I think we were in the Bible study here, and we were talking about that. And what does that really mean when you suddenly have the life of Christ and that history? And I remember it kind of made sense.

It's like going through a doorway. So you see, and you come, and you make that by faith in Christ, and you go through the doorway, close the door, and now all of your history is His. You look back, and now that's all of His history, and His life is now imparted to us. When you walk through that door, you suddenly can look both ways, back and forward, and it isn't like you're just always looking forward. I can look back now, and my history is Christ, His life. And that gut punch, yeah, I mean, it was weird sitting in this room, my Tuesday Bible studies, you know, and we started talking about that, and I was like, yeah, how do you understand that? And it was like, you come to that point of, by faith, accepting it, you go through the door. Now that history is, you look either way anyway, and it's Christ's history. So, question seven.

What does it mean to be sealed by the Holy Spirit? So, what does it mean to seal something? To seal the deal? Seal the package? What does it mean to seal? I know the real estate guy is just itching to answer this one. No, we've been studying Revelation on Tuesday, and they talk about way back in the beginning that when the books are open there's a seal on them. There's only one person who's worthy to break the seal to open it up and see what's inside. And because the seal is the guarantee that what's inside is real.

That you can't, no one in the sphere of influence, no one outside of The one who's worthy to break the seal can actually open it. And sealed means it can't be changed. It can't be changed. That's, I think, the important part with our sealing, is that when you seal a package, you know, if you seal it right, it shouldn't be open except by the recipient or whatever. But it's sealed. It's sealed. You can't get into it. You can't modify it. You can't do anything about it when it's sealed until it's opened.

And in ours, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, in Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who was given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.

So we are sealed in Him, So the important part is, where are we sealed? In Him. Where are we? I mean, that's almost as important as the sealing. We are sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise. And that's given as a pledge. And the pledge is a bond. Well, we'll get into the last part of this about who gives a pledge and what that means. We're sealed in Him.

So the important part, we're sealed, but more importantly, we're sealed in Christ. And with Holy Spirit of promise. And we can also see in 2 Corinthians 1, 21, 22. Now, He who established us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge. So again, the same thing, sealed with the Spirit. and it's a pledge.

Also Ephesians 4.30. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. So the Holy Spirit is the one who seals us. Several scriptures tell us that.

2 Corinthians 5.5. Now he who prepared us for the very purpose is God who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. So no question About the sealing is done by the Holy Spirit the important part were sealed in Christ And it's given as a pledge never to be broken Courtney I really like the way right out put it. He says God does not leave his work without his stamp upon it, right?

And yeah You know I have a conversation this week was a guy. We got he got to talking about The temptations that come into his mind Yeah. And what's interesting is they sound exactly like this temptation that Satan brought to Eve. And it starts out like this, did God say? Interesting. And that's what he said, you know, it's just like that. He said, you know, I'll be going along and this thing comes to my mind.

Did God say whatever the issue was about the seal, about anything like that? And he said, you know, The thing is, is that you don't have to engage in that. Instead, you just say, wait a minute, the word of God says I'm sealed. Because once you find out about sealing, you're going to get challenged on, did God say it? Did he really mean that? He said so right here.

So I'll get to the second part of that in a second. But so are sealing a thing or a person? It's not a thing. And, you know, it's a person. He, the Spirit. You know, we went through that in the last chapter of the book, or lesson, where we're talking about it. It, the Holy Spirit. No, He, the Holy Spirit. It's a person that seals us. He, the Holy Spirit, seals us.

But, and to your point, how secure is the sealing of flesh? How secure is that? Now, explain why. I like the way Whiteout explains sealing. He says that it authenticates us as belonging to God by his spirit. It's our guarantee of the security of our salvation. It's a guarantee God will fulfill his promises. A lot of us, every assurance you could want to know that you're sealed. The way I put it was, it is secure as the one who gave it. It's as secure as the one who gave us the pledge. How secure is that?

The Holy Spirit and God. Not a bad place, not too insecure in that. And that's really the key, the doubts and the things that come up, you're saying. No, God said it. The Holy Spirit sealed it. He's our pledge. That's a guarantee that is better than any worldly guarantee, any worldly contract, anything. It's a ceiling that can't be broken. Any other thoughts? All right.

And remember, I'm trying to, with these questions, we're going over the last year and a half in three or four chapters in a few questions. So these are all review questions because we're going over, I thought, talking to Mike, that it would be good to review these since we've gone into so much detail over a year and a half getting through four chapters that kind of go back and give some review.

So we're now in Chapter 3, the Holy Spirit in Sanctification. So, is sanctification positional, conditional, or both? I remember the discussions we did. We debated this when we went through this. So, kind of go first. What does sanctification mean? Set apart to God. Set apart. So, sanctification is being set apart.

Now, what about position and condition? I just want to clear up. What does position mean? What does it entail? In Christ. In Christ, but there's a difference between position and condition. What is the main thing between position and condition? A condition is variable. And position is? Not. Not. Got me on that one. Yeah, position I said is a permanent truth about us the instant we have faith in Jesus. Forever. This is, you know, the Lewis Barry Chafer 33 things that are true about you instantaneously, and those are never changed. Never to change.

And then conditional. Conditional are things that can change over time with the positional truth still intact. The desire should be to have our condition closely match our position. But conditions vary. So, now is sanctification positional, conditional, or both? Both. Do we have any other contradictory thoughts? Think it's only positional? Only conditional? It's both, at least from what we discussed. And I think we went through this a little bit, and I don't know if this was J.D.' 's lesson or the Boad, but Positional, we have at least 33 things that are true of us when we believe that Lewis Ferry Chaffer brought out.

The Holy Spirit brings us new life that places us into Christ. We are now called saints or set-apart ones, positional. However, the Holy Spirit works continually in us to conform us to the image of Christ and set us apart, sanctify us from the world.

So, he works in both ways. The sanctification being set apart positionally. We are positionally, eternally placed into Christ. But the sanctification also being set apart right now. We're being set apart now as saints. And being conformed to the image. How does the image of Christ, is that being conformed to what the world is? Completely different. We're being set apart. We're different than the world. And that means we're being set apart. Yes.

Can we look at sanctification as past, present, and future? We were sanctified at the time we were believed. That's permanent. And positional. And in the present, it could be both, because our walk is variable. And then in the future, when we go to be with the Lord, again, that's permanent. So, I don't know, that's the kind of way I look at it. Yeah, actually, and that's a good thought, past, present, and future. I mean, the past is positionally, I think, and also a future position, but the conditional part, we're being set apart right now.

And, you know, it's kind of weird, and this gets into things, you know, we're the bride of Christ, we're in Christ. There are going to be saints, Old Testament saints, that have life, but not the life that we have. And so there is going to be differences in eternity. I don't want to get into great rabbit trails, but it's different. And so we're set apart in Christ even in eternity. So, I mean, the sanctification is in the future too. And I think the scripture tells us that because it says, I can't think of the verse, Walk in the Spirit and you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. That's in the present. That's the present. Right.

I think the best example of that in saints is the fact that when Donna and I got married we were set apart to each other. No other human being could interfere. When we become the bride of Christ we are totally set apart. from every other creature in the universe. There are a lot of other saints around, but not set apart like we are. That's what I think Joanna was saying about even into the future there's going to be a set apartness you know, even from angels. We're set apart from angels. We're different than angels.

You think about Hebrews talks about the fact that we are child-trained so that we might become partakers of God's holiness. His holiness is the ultimate set-apartness unto Himself, holy. Right, and He shares that holiness with us. You know, that's, well, John 17, sharing His glory. What? With us? Yeah, we're different.

So, Rite Eye puts it this way, we are perfectly sanctified by the blood of Christ, setting us apart to God in all its value, perfectly sanctified by new birth, in which we have received a new and sinless nature. But there is a practical work in us which is progressive, and this is the work of the Holy Spirit. So this is the conditional side of the Holy Spirit's work in sanctifying the believer. That's what we're in.

We have a conditional sense right now. Future, we're not going to have the conditional. We'll have positional only. So we are close. What are we after? Yeah, we better close it up. We'll start with question nine next week. And I'll have to do it. I'll be in Alaska next week. So I'll have to be a remote teach on that one. But we'll hopefully get through. It'll speed up a little bit in some of these, as we get, especially in Chapter 4, which we just finished. All right. Let's close.

Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you again just for All these truths that we have, and we were just talking about, you're sharing your glory, you're sharing your holiness with us, and as we realize we're sitting in sinful flesh, that is somewhat hard to fathom.

But your word says it, and it's true. And we rest in those positional truths that we have right now as set apart in Christ through the Holy Spirit and the power of the Holy Spirit. We just revel in all the joy that we have in that. But again, the focus is on you, Father. Ultimately, it's to glorify you, be conformed to the image of Christ, And again, we thank you that you have left us with your word so we can have that intimacy, that knowledge of the Lord. But the more important part, I think, is the conviction and the work of the Holy Spirit, the person and work of the Holy Spirit, which we're studying. We thank you again just for all these truths. And again, we just thank you for this time. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.