The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, Lesson 31 from Question 1 recap
Miles Driedger · Jul 31, 2022
Holy Spirit (2021-23), No. 72
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261927546172

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

Alright, so last week we were just working through question one. We'd kind of pretty much finished up that question. I'll just recap it. So this is a continuation of lesson 31, which is looking at chapter 5 in the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit. And the first question was, what does Rideau say is the first conception man has of God? And we said that power is what is clearly seen.

We looked at Romans 1.20 and the fact that God's eternal power and divine nature are clearly seen through what He has made. And it's really interesting that that's not That's not hidden from anyone. And it's clearly, you know, obvious to them.

And so what ends up happening is that people have to make a really concerted effort. It takes a lot of effort to suppress that truth. That's something JD was teaching us years ago, kind of through the framework, and how hard man tries to suppress the knowledge of God. to the point that they'll call themselves atheists. I don't know who said it first, but God doesn't believe in atheists, right? But God's power is immediately recognized by all men, and then they turn around and suppress it.

But one of the things I I noticed, as I was studying for this, is that, you know, that's Romans 1.20, is that all men see the power of God.

But if you back up to Romans 1.16, it says, the gospel, it says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. And what's interesting is that what Riteout says there, he says, that with every fresh revelation of Himself, there will be a fresh manifestation of His power. And the concept of revelation is very closely connected to the reality of God's power. And I've kind of been thinking on that a fair bit, that God's Word is what communicates powerfully within the created realm.

And so, we looked at 1 Thessalonians 1.5, he says, For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. And so we see that, we talked a little bit about the fact that in Genesis, God creates, He created this universe by the word of His mouth. You know, in a very similar way, there's this new creation of which we are a part, which comes about by the Word of the Gospel, and which we receive by faith.

And that's... That's a very, very key principle, I think, in understanding what we're talking about here with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the communicator of truth. He's the one who reveals and communicates the truth of God. And when we receive that by faith, that is how His power is carried out through us. Any thoughts on that? We kind of talked about that last week, but anyone been thinking about that over the week or want to add anything to that?

A couple of verses that came to mind, obviously Hebrews 4.12, the Word of God is living and powerful. That's kind of the core idea there. No, it's the Word of God that is powerful. And that's what the Holy Spirit, I think, is all about, is communicating the Word to us.

Another thing that I'd come across this last year teaching Romans 4 in our Bible study at home here is that In Romans 4.17 it says, God calls things not existing, existing. Depending on your translation, some say God calls things not existing as if they exist or something like that. But in studying that and looking at the language, it really says, calls things not existing, existing. And that's the creative power of his word. When God calls something existing, it is. You know, that's what we see in Genesis when he created this universe and that's what we see when he makes a new creation out of you. He calls something existing that was not previously existing. It's a creative act by his words.

The next question there, number two, Did everyone get that? I know it was sent out now, the list of questions, so I'll read through them, but hopefully you've got a copy of them there. It says in Luke 24, 49, in Acts 1, 8, what was promised and for what purpose was the promise given? So, let's look at those verses, let's look at Luke 24, 49, in Acts 1, 8, and if someone wants to read each one of those, or someone take one and someone take the other, That's Luke 24, 49. Luke 24, 49 into King James. And behold, I send the promise of my father upon you with charity in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.

Thanks. And then Acts 1, 8. Does someone have that? I've got that. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth. Okay, thank you.

So, yeah, we see there that we're talking about the disciples and they were instructed to wait for the promised Holy Spirit. And so, I've got a print copy of the book, it's page 146, at the bottom of the page, right out says, in these two passages we have the distinct promise of our Lord after his resurrection, that the disciples should receive the Spirit promise of the Father, and should thus be endued with power from on high, which would enable them to be witness-bearers of the Gospel, first in Jerusalem, then in ever-widening circles, until they reach the uttermost ends of the earth." So, the promise was given, for what purpose was the promise given? And the There's power that's promised, and we'll get to what the purpose of that is. It's clear in that text.

But I wanted to ask the question, first of all, what is power? That may seem like a really a really basic question, but I know there's a lot of engineers at Owing. I don't know who all is an engineer. How would we define power in a very basic sense, in a very mechanical kind of a sense like an engineer might think?

Someone want to chime in on that? Force equals mass times acceleration. Oh, wait, no. I thought we might get something like that. Nick can probably chime in too with a whole bunch of mechanical definitions. Isn't the word for power dunamis, where we get the word dynamite? Yes. Yeah, that's one of the Greek words is translated power. That's sort of the potential energy or ability, right? And then the other, I'm not very good at pronouncing Greek, but the energeo, that other word there.

I don't know where I first came across this. It was through some sort of science-minded person, but essentially, power is the rate of work done or energy converted over time. Essentially, what you can see is that work takes power, work requires power.

And in the created realm, we see that as if there's any work that's going to be done, it requires power over the course of time to be completed. And what I kind of realized in thinking about that is that that's only within the created realm, because God is outside of time. And so for us, if we're to see work accomplished, It has to take the process of time, and that combination of power working over time is what accomplishes work. So that's from our perspective as finite time-bound creatures, but essentially work takes power. So if we're going to do work, it's going to need a source of power. That's kind of the key that I wanted to get at. So if we're going to do work, or if work is going to be done, it needs a source of power.

This came up, I think, in recent weeks, but we probably know it by heart, but if you go to Ephesians 2.10, turn to Ephesians 2, because we're going to kind of compare it here, even if we know what 2.10 says, it would be good to be in that chapter.

And, of course, Ephesians 2.10 is the, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. So there's some really interesting things that come up in that, um, in that verse alone there. Now that we've kind of set the, set the stage a little bit for what is, what is power. Um, and we've talked a little bit about the new creation. because you'll notice there that that's the theme of that verse.

Because you are created in Christ Jesus, and only because you are a new creation in the body of Christ, you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you. So, because you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you, you have the source of a believer's power present within you. And so if we look at that, because we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. So as a believer, what we see going on here is that God has created you anew.

He's placed his spirit within you, which energizes and carries out his work. in the life of believer anyone want to comment on that as you like you're You're thinking I'm not I want to I was gonna say because I'm such a greenhorn I I want to be careful that I am being corrected as they go That's my job good I would say a couple of things one is that I In order for the Christian life and Christianity to function on the earth where Satan has power, there has to be the infusion of the power of the Lord to carry out what he wants done through the body of Christ on the earth. And so when he told the disciples to wait, They're waiting to be indwelt by the Spirit, which is the power to carry out what God has called them to do. And I think that it's important for us to understand that we have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and it's not so that we have somehow occasionally the warm fuzzies, but it has to do with You know, God has called each one of us to do something in relating to either the expansion of or his body or edifying his body, mostly edification.

And that takes power to do it. And it takes power from the Lord. And every one of us have that. And that's kind of cool that he's done it that way. Which means that the glory redounds to him. And so you can't, you should understand as a believer going forward that whatever work is done in your life, it's by God's power alone. You don't have the power to do it. But we're graced to be the receivers and the channels through which the powers use. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, not I, but through Christ in me, right? Yeah.

You know, I always go back to the Jeremy Camp song, you know, Same Power. I don't know if we realize the power that we have in the Holy Spirit now. You know, we look at the miracles and all the things done and what Paul and all we see in Acts and, you know, throughout Scripture, but that same power resides in us. And I'm glad you tied it to the good works. You know, that's what allows us to do those good works, which he's created, and Mike kind of alluded to that. We can't do those works without the power of the Holy Spirit. I think the other is the conforming us to the image of Christ is done by the Holy Spirit. the Holy Spirit to convince us of all these truths. Just that He is the power within us. He is convincing us that we do have the power.

The first verse in the Was it in Acts? Was that the Acts 1? Acts 1.8. You know, that was for witnessing. But that's one aspect of the power.

You know, we shouldn't be ashamed of the gospel. We have the power of the Holy Spirit to relay that message to anyone, any place, anywhere. But I think the other is the works. You know, He's got a whole bunch of things for us to do. Or maybe one thing, I don't know. You know, it could be one thing in your life and that's what your work is. Usually it's works, it's plural.

Again, it's just realizing the Holy Spirit's power. That, to me, always amazes me, that we have the indwelling Holy Spirit. Each and every one of us has that same power. That's why I go back to that song so much. It's like we all have that same power residing within us to accomplish all of His good works, and ultimately, again, to conform us to the image which ultimately brings glory to God. I like that. I would say one thing that, and I had a long conversation with a guy yesterday on this very subject.

The power from the Holy Spirit is not added to me on to me who I am in Adam so that I can go around spewing Bible verses. All I've really done is put more gas in my tank. The believer's spiritual growth, I think, is a system where I learn to be dependent on him only. And he's not helping me score touchdowns. You know, he's not helping me do anything. I have to learn to be the receiver of that power and the vessel through which the power is going to work. But I don't get any credit for it. because it's doing it.

And my sin nature is so strong and so ready to grab God's glory whenever it can that no wonder the Lord takes such a long time to get us ready so that he can use us without us getting in the way. And so I find that the church today is loaded with people who think the Spirit has come on them to do whatever they want out of the flesh, they just have more power to do it. And they don't realize that there's this whole other aspect going on, and that's the application of the cross to the old man in a practical sense, so that only it's the power of the Spirit that comes through, not me energized by him using my own strength plus his. Yeah, really good points on that. Yeah, I think it's just so important to recognize that the source of anything worthwhile that can come out of me, it has to be Source. It's not coming out of me, you know. It's sourced in the Holy Spirit, right? And He does it through me. And because of that, it is all to His glory, you know.

And, um, you know, it's interesting to talk about the process, the time that it takes and a huge part of that time that it takes to do some of these things is because of our, uh, slowness of heart, our, our need to recognize, to get ourselves out of the way, you know, so that he said he's the one getting the glory rather than us. Um, you know, uh, trying to, trying to do our own, you know, produce our own work. Um, And there's definitely a time process to that.

And I think, you know, one of the things that is important in this, that we see here in this Ephesians 2.10, you know, sometimes when we think of the Holy Spirit coming on the disciples, at least kind of in, you know, some of the circles I grew up in or some of the influences I had, we tend to think of, you know, all of the miraculous activities of the early church.

And we think, oh, the Holy Spirit came on them to, you know, carry out all kinds of miracles and so forth. And if you have been, you know, sort of involved or connected with the more charismatic areas of Christianity, they tend to have this idea that when the Holy Spirit comes on or indwells people, or however they want to phrase it, it has to do with big displays of power, things that look impressive. But I think what's interesting here is to see that in these verses that we read, the power that was given to them was for the preaching of the gospel, you know, to bear the gospel to the ends of the earth. That was the powerful act that God really desired to do with them. The miracles were there to authenticate, you know, that these guys were were his apostles, that they were writing, you know, Scripture and so forth. But what's the real powerful activity that they were engaged in was bearing the Gospel.

And in connection to Ephesians 2.10 there, I wanted to look at briefly Just the question, do unbelievers have a source that energizes them?

So we see in Ephesians 2.10 that we have this source, we have the Holy Spirit.

But if we flip back and we look, it's kind of interesting that the language that we see there in Ephesians 2.10 back up a few verses to the beginning of Ephesians 2, we see that as unbelievers, we also had a walk. And I'll just read verses 1 through 3.

It says, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." I'll stop there. And that's, you know, I was looking at it, that's the way Paul introduces this, and there's a contrast there between the way that you once walked, according to the power of the air, according to the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience.

So, there is work being produced in all people. You either have the work of the Holy Spirit, or you have the work that is according to the prince of the power of the air, according to that spirit. And it's interesting that in both cases, it's a walk. It's the way that you walk. As believers, we walk according to the Spirit. The word according is kind of an interesting word.

I've spent a little bit of time. We don't really use that. It's kind of one of those words you grow up in church hearing, memorizing the verses. you know, and it's... I didn't actually prepare this for today's lesson, but I know I've looked at it in the past, and it typically is the word kata, I believe.

And it means down from, or kind of consistent with, is sometimes the way you see it rendered in the Greek dictionaries and stuff. And you're either going to walk consistent with the power of the Holy Spirit, or you're going to walk consistent with the power of the Prince of the Power of the Air. So, just want to kind of look at that contrast there that shows up in Ephesians 2, because it's interesting that there is a source. regardless of where you're walking. And for us in the body of Christ, that source that is the same power, as Courtney said, the same source is at work in every one of us in the body of Christ.

I have a question. Yeah. Is it important for a believer to be able to distinguish between where the source of the power is coming from to those who teach him or to books he reads or conversations he has, should he be able to discern the source of, even though the person that's giving the information is making it, trying to make it scriptural, but is it important for us as believers to understand what's the source of the power of that, those words are. Is that a clear question? Partially. Is it important for a believer to be able to discern what the source behind or the source of what, say, a teacher or Where that's where this what the power is being sourced in is that kind of?

Yeah, Courtney and I over the years have had great discussions about a discernment How do you discern? What's coming or whatever circumstance you run into there may be an appeal for? financial help there may be an appeal for you to adopt a doctrine or to do something and and really it goes back to what's the source of Where's that coming from? Is it coming out of the Spirit of God in the person or is it just the flesh trying to act holy? Do we have the capacity as believers to pick up on that just because we've been indwelled by the Spirit?

Yeah, that's a good question. I think it is important to be able to discern that. I don't know that it's always readily apparent. You know, sometimes it will take some time to discover that. Miles, also I think, too, it's going back, you know, ultimately you go back to the Word, and are they following your Word? Yeah. If they're not, then you know it's more fleshly based.

But, you know, I also think, you know, several of the hungry hearts say, you know, the hardest thing is to identify the old nature, the sin nature in us. And how evil, I think even this, I don't know, this morning or the other day was, you know, just identifying how bad the sin nature is. kind of to be an effectual, ineffectual service, you have to really identify that. That the old man and the sin nature, how powerful it is. Before you can be used mightily in a ministry or something, you have to realize how strong the sin nature is.

And that, I think, is one of the toughest things for a believer, is to see just how wicked you are. All these things we see about how wicked the unbelievers are and all this, that's inside of you too. that same sin nature and as you try and as you grow in the spiritual growth, that old sin nature fights harder and harder. Think because it's it's being eradicated not eradicated can't be you always in nature but it's being suppressed and it doesn't like that and And again, we have the same power the same power of all these things, you know, if you look in you know Romans 1 or you know in that that passage or Given over to evil, you know if you're I think in the Ephesians one tells you about how bad and all these different things That's inside of you, too You're fully capable of doing all that, but it's the power of the Holy Spirit convincing us that that's not who we are. We have been crucified to that, and we don't have to be subjected or bonded to that power. I think that's the hardest thing for a believer, is to understand how bad the sinful nature is inside, and how powerful it is.

Yeah, would you agree that it's correct to say that there are two energizing sources within the believer, according to which we may walk. You know, we see in Ephesians 2 there, as an unbeliever, there was only one energizing source, only one source of power, you know, and it was consistent with the prince of the power of the air. We now have the energizing source of the Holy Spirit.

But we we have this Opportunity so to speak to walk according to either one in any I think you're walking the spirit if we were talking about that What does that really mean? Yeah, I think the last lesson when I was talking about that What does that really mean? We use that a lot in Christianity and we say walk, but what does that really mean? And and walk according to the flesh, you know walk according to spirit, you know, those are you know, I get again I think it's just which power are you allowing to be manifest in you? And it's incredibly powerful, this in nature. And it's which one are you walking according?

And this also, which I think we, it's undeniable, Mike and I talked about this, some of the one nature people, that when you're a believer, you suddenly, you're only one nature. You're a spiritual creature only. There is no sin nature because, well, wait a minute. Clearly there's lots of scripture that says, I'm fighting with the old sin nature. And there are definitely two natures within us, two power sources within us. A spiritual life with the Holy Spirit and a horrible sin nature in the flesh. Paul in 7, there's nothing that is good in my flesh. Nothing. Yeah, two absolutely diametrically opposed power sources.

Actually, one other thing too, and I was just reading through it, and we've talked about this before, it's the spirit versus the flesh, the flesh versus the spirit. Those are the two waging war within it. And we're kind of not innocent bystanders, but we succumb to either side. But it's the flesh against the spirit. Those are the two entities battling.

Mm-hmm, and and I think to connect this with what we're talking about in question one about, you know revelation and power, you know It does essentially come down to what are you trusting to be true? Are you? trusting what the Holy Spirit has revealed in a word about who you are in Christ who he has made you to be and the and the power, his power, that is available, I don't know if that's quite the right word, to you, or through you, or are you believing what are essentially lies about how you should operate. But when we, by faith, trust what has been revealed by the Holy Spirit about who you are in Christ, then He produces that powerful ability through you, if that makes sense.

How are we for time here? I was thinking we might get on to the next question. You've got plenty of time. Should we go on to the next question, Mike? Because this is the question, should we wait for the Spirit to come to us and give us power? I'll read Rido, the little quote from Rido, it's at the bottom of page 147 in my book. The answer, actually I think the quote starts here. I'm not sure, Mike, this part you sent me, it says, the answer seems most clear and simple. I think the quote starts here, what were the early disciples waiting for?

And now he said that they were to receive power, but he says, you're not power primarily, but the descent of the Holy Spirit, and with him came power and all else. Now we have seen abundantly that the Spirit has come from heaven once for all, that he comes to every believer once for all, healing, baptizing, indwelling.

What then are we to tarry for and pray for? Not surely for that Spirit whom we already have. Prayer and waiting always have their place, but not in connection with the gift of the Holy Spirit. Nor can this passage be used in the way mentioned. I'm going to share another quote from Watchman Nee, in The Normal Christian Life, and Mike shared that with me, I've been really enjoying it, almost through it now.

He says, the basis upon which we receive the endowment of the Holy Spirit is not our praying and fasting and waiting, but the exaltation of Christ. Those who emphasize tarrying and hold tarrying meetings only mislead us, for the gift is not for the favored few, but for all, because it is not given on the ground of what we are at all, but of what Christ is. The Spirit has been poured out to prove His goodness and greatness, not ours." And I know, you know, in my earlier Christian years, There was a lot of emphasis and maybe especially because it was kind of in my youth years and with youth conferences and so forth, you know, big emphasis on whipping up a lot of emotion.

You know, I've mentioned this one time in the past how, you know, a guy said, oh, why did we stop the music? The Holy Spirit was just starting, just beginning to move. As if, like a puppet on a string, we can play the right combination of chords long enough to get the Holy Spirit moving. And I'm not as familiar with these, you know, these guys were writing, you know, a hundred years ago, and tarrying meetings and so forth.

I'm just, from what I understood, that just to me sounds really similar to some of these, you know, worship evenings and so forth, you know, where where there's lots of, you know, low light and candles and sometimes other strange activities in which people engage in order to experience a sense or a feeling of power, some powerful experience. which is really just an emotional experience. But what you'll find is that that's also very short-lived. You know, it may last until you lay your head down on the pillow. You wake up the next morning, you're feeling kind of rough because it was a late night. And so it's a very temporary and you realize that it was essentially self-serving emotional experience.

Interestingly, the way that Rideout opens Chapter 5, he says, compared to the past two chapters, we will take an outward look in this chapter. It is the outflow of divine life that is before us, and whether an individual church or individual or church, it is of the greatest importance.

And what we need to recognize is that the Holy Spirit's work in you, His indwelling presence, is for His working out from you. And that's what we see with the apostles, when the Holy Spirit came on them, it was for the gospel to go out, to go forward. And I think that that is what we also need to recognize. It's not about your personal experience or feeling in having this Holy Spirit indwelling you.

The musicians are leaving, so we probably ought to quit. I saw that, so that's a good place to quit, and we'll pick up, we'll kind of recap that question next week, so let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this time that we've had to talk about you and talk about what you are doing, and the way that you have provided your Holy Spirit to each one of us, to indwell us. permanently, constantly. And Lord, I pray that we would just understand that more clearly so that we would trust and depend on you more consistently for your work to be carried out through each one of us. In Jesus' name, Amen.