The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit Lesson 38

Alright. So, we are in Chapter 6 of the Person, Work of the Holy Spirit. This is Lesson 38. And, yeah, it's been some really good discussion. I really, I almost want to just carry on with what JD was teaching last week and all the discussion we had around around these topics. It's really good. I've been really enjoying this.

Just talking about the Scripture and how the Holy Spirit has conveyed that through His chosen instruments and how He's brought that to us and how we can trust it and have confidence in it. So, so much good content here, but getting into Lesson 38, and in Question 1, it kind of begins on page 206 of the printed book that I have. I think, Mike, it might have said 204 on the handout of questions, but kind of getting a little bit more so on 20206.

But anyway, the question, question number one is, what does the Old Testament prove about man? And these are kind of big questions, especially question one and two, the sort of big, big, broad sort of questions. You know, if you take the whole Old Testament, and kind of summarize it, I guess, around this question, what does the Old Testament prove about man? And what does, either someone who read the book or someone who's read the Old Testament and knows the answer, what do you guys see in that question?

He said, man is a guilty, helpless, hopeless, ruined, absolute need of a divine redeemer. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. There's a couple of the quotes here I've, I wrote down from, from right out. Yeah, I, my, my, my one, my one phrase kind of summary answer is, yep, he's dead. All right.

And, you know, I think when we look at, you know, the Old Testament, when we look at all the scripture and we look at how God has revealed to us what, you know, what's going on, what He's communicating to us, you know, there were two trees in the garden, right?

The one we usually forget about is the tree of life. And the other we always refer to as, as the Lord does, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But we remember that that tree is the tree that led to death. And so really we've got the tree of life and the tree of death, you know.

And from that point on, you know, if there's any question left in our thinking as to whether Adam's race was truly dead, well, the Old Testament makes that abundantly clear that man is most certainly dead in sin, so. And yeah, that's what Rideout, that's... That's what he says there. I read in reading along just after what Ceylon just talked about there is the result is that man proves himself to be what God declares him. I think that's interesting. And man is completely involved in that expression of what God says he is. And there's no shading it. It's quite clear. Yep, I'm exactly what God said I am I'm separated from him and without him These are the things I do and that's kind of the expression of the Old Testament and in whole Had it not been for the you know, God's coming upon different individuals.

I was thinking about the other day. I was like, I wonder what David would have actually been like had he had the indwelling Holy Spirit and You know? But that was not his purpose, and that was not his time. His time was to convey the fact that under every condition, man needs a Redeemer, you know?

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I highlighted that, that man proves himself to be what God declares him. And that's kind of what Rideout has been talking about here. It's like, I think we were talking about that last week, right? The fact that the authors of Scripture, they don't hide anything in terms of, you know, who they were, what they were. You know, like you mentioned David. I mean, my middle name is David, so you always kind of, oh yeah, you know, the giant slayer, you know, the hero, and he's doing everything right, and then you get these stories where he just does, it's so wrong, and you're, you know, and it's very, it's very intentional of the Holy Spirit, you know, I mean, of all that he could have captured, you know, historically speaking, what he captured and purposed to put in the Old Testament is very specific to what we need to see and know and understand. And so, yeah, you see that anatomy and you're like, ugh.

You know, it's just, he's not the, he's, he's, it's really, it's really interesting. We're going to get into that a little bit more in, in question two, but, um, but, you know, we see it over and over again, like Noah, another example, you know, the hero that he, he builds the big, the big boat. He does, you know, he's walking by faith. He's, he's doing it right.

And then he, and then he gets drunk and naked. And there's that, that's the last thing that's said about him too. It's just like, is Mike, Mike, are you, I've had a thought in my heart for a long time about Old Testament versus the New Testament. I'll put it out there and you can tell me what you think about it. I think that the Old Testament did prove that man in and of himself can't get redeemed. He can't do anything to change his his lot. And even with God's grace being shed upon him, he can't do anything.

So what God did is he came along through Christ and he solved all of the problems and he reduced man's responsibility down to one thing. And the one thing was, or is, do you believe I fixed it? Do you believe that my son on the cross, his death, prayer, and resurrection solved all of your problems? And if you believe that, then I will save you for all eternity. And the one thing that the Old Testament proves is that without the work of Christ, there isn't going to be any redemption.

What do you think of that, sir? I think that's really, really good. There's a lot packed into that. The way you said that actually, that Christ solved all the problems, let's just put that on a sticky note. If we were in JD's Bible study, we could put that on a sticky note up here. Because we'll come back to that in question three. I think it's really good. I have a quick question.

So you're saying that the Lord reduces us down to faith. And we see that throughout the Old Testament, the results are a little different, in the sense that, yes, there's salvation, you don't have that indwelling Holy Spirit, which is really the point of, and I think it's interesting to flip this comment, the result is that man proves himself to be what God declares him, and flip that into the New Testament. Because I think that's an interesting conversation too. However, he reduces us down to faith in what he fixed.

And that's where all mankind stands. Did I fix it or didn't I? I guess one thing adding to it, you know, the Old Testament, you know, proves, you know, all the failures and all that. I think it culminates when we cross over into the New Testament early on in Christianity 101, which is Romans 3. And some of my favorite, even you think of David, you think of all the heroes of the faith and all that, but they all had failures. And that's summarized in Romans 3.

All have turned aside, together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There's not even one. So I think all of the Old Testament points to all these heroes. Like I said, David, great things, a man after my own heart. out on the old veranda looking at Uzziah's wife and, as we were saying last week, all these things. But there's not one good person, not any of the heroes of the faith. They all have the same sinful nature. And then, as Mike says, how do we get out of that? How do we repair that? How do we change that? It's only through the cross.

Yeah, I think that's really good. I actually kind of was noticing that too, how much the book of Romans summarizes, in a way, all of that truth. You know, the fact that, like you said, the whole Testament shows is that, you know, as in Adam, I'll die, you know, and then we get to Christ, you know, so in Christ all will be made alive. And that's kind of the summary of the whole thing.

Well, it also shows that the man in the Old Testament and in the New Testament can't be reclaimed. He's got to be crucified and replaced by the resurrected life, a new creature in Christ. And so, that's it. You know, if anything proves identification, it's the man in the Old Testament. That that was God's remedy, was a new creation with a new man. the new head of the human race, Christ, rather than Adam. Well, those Old Testament saints, they didn't get to see that new man. No. All they got to see was the sacrifice. That's right. Yeah.

Yeah, that's very, there's a lot in that. And that, yeah, we're going to get into that pretty big in question two here. So maybe, Yeah, we're almost ready to move into that question, I think. But yeah, I mean, sorry, some of you are saying Mike, and I lost the trail of thought. But that's OK. But yeah, the fact that I know where I was going.

Really, we were talking there about the fact that the they didn't have the new nature, they didn't have the new, you know, they were all in Adam, and so they were all functioning out of that good and evil, I call it kind of the good and evil spectrum, right? So we see all this good stuff coming out of them, but it's not the life of Christ. It's the self-life, I think we could call it. And so we see all this good and great stuff, and I mean, I kind of, I want to understand it better, but how is it that believers... It's just such a totally different thing. A believer in the Old Testament, it's a different thing than what we've got going on today. They didn't have the life of you know, the life of Christ being lived.

Oh, they didn't have Galatians 2.20, right? They didn't have the no longer I but Christ.

And yet we see all this. We do see them walking by faith. There is that reality. They have certain truths and they can trust those and walk in light of those and so forth. But But at the end of the day, they're still operating out of that Adamic nature. And when it shows, it shows. But I mean, I guess I think about it too, in terms of the fact that even the good stuff, even the good things that are sourced in self, what's the ultimate value in that before God? It's just the self. The atom the atom nature cranking on something.

What do we think about that though? I'm curious because that really interesting thought there so They don't have the new nature. All they have is the endemic nature and The sacrifice that they brought to the altar continually was an outward expression of their faith, but yet their nature didn't change. So the Holy Spirit is said to ascend on these believers, but they don't have a new nature. So the only good that gets produced is what the temporary, and I'm working this out right now, the only good that is produced is when they're walking by faith and the Holy Spirit produces good in them, yet they do not have a new nature. But they have life that they didn't have before. They do have life. Yeah. I think one of the things is, you said it several times, but I think the takeaway or the positive aspect is the faith aspect.

We see it in Hebrews 11. All of them are pointing, you know, the heroes of the faith. What comes out of it is faith. And that's what everything in the New Testament is based on. Faith I think the positive is it showed what the benefits of their their being faithful to God In the Old Testament points to us and that you know everything Fifteen pages of notes on faith, you know that that everything in the New Testament is based on faith You know and that so I think Their their their demonstration of faith is an example for us and that, you know, all of our new life is based on faith. What Christ did and do we believe it? And so I think that's the positive aspect that comes out. Even though they had words and, you know, all the bad things that they did, peeling all that away, it's that they had faith in God, ultimately had faith in God. And that's what we ultimately have to have.

And wasn't that true of all the Old Testament saints too? I mean, if Hebrews 11, that's exactly what he says. You know, that there's this one principle by which a man, whether he's Old Testament or New Testament, there's one principle that pleases God and that is that we believe him.

I'd be interested to dig into the life that the Old Testament believer had and how that varied, but that's probably not the right time to dig into it, but having life and then having new life. Yeah, no, this is really good. I mean, see, this is where I say, like, I've got all this stuff is kind of swirling around in my mind as I'm, you know, reading through these questions and preparing for this. There are huge, huge things that play in these types of questions. What is the difference between the Old Testament believer and the New Testament believer? But, Courtney, you really nailed it there.

What is consistent, or what is the same, is faith. Beyond that, there are some massive, significant differences, which is really interesting, because we're all saved on the same basis. There's only one life, And yet the Lord has done something significantly different with us and how we, in the church, and how we operate, how we walk, compared to what David had. He's been kind of our example this morning, right? He was a believer. He'd had faith. He had life in that sense. But he didn't have the life of Christ lived out through him.

And so, you know, there's these big and interesting differences between the two. And some of them are starting to become more apparent to me. I'm going to move into question two a little bit more directly here, and then some more of these things will come up and keep circulating around as we go. Because question number two is, what is the positive purpose of the Old Testament? And we have kind of jumped into that already a bit.

The negative purpose, as we kind of said it or right out, I think he called it the dark. How do you phrase that in there? But yeah, the dark side of it is that the Old Testament clearly demonstrates what I've just termed the deadness of all of Adam's race. There's their, you know, their dead condition separate from God. And the way Rideau turns around, he says that God had other purposes in view, even as salvation of men through the work of Christ his son. And I kind of said, you know, the Old Testament clearly demonstrates the deadness of all in Adam's race, and all the more clearly points us toward the last Adam, who is the life.

What Rydell gets into here is really interesting, and I've not been well taught in this over the years, but he talks about types of redemption. throughout the Old Testament. And he mentions the coverings of skin for man's nakedness, he talks about Abel's sacrifice, he talks about the ark, the sheltering blood of the Passover lamb, the deliverance to the Red Sea, and on and on and on it goes.

Those are the ones he mentions. And then he also talks about individual menace types. He talks about Moses, who was rejected at first, but accepted on his second coming to the people to deliver them. He talks about Aaron as a mediator, being a type, and David being a type of Christ. I think Joseph is a wonderful type of Christ.

And this whole realm of typology has been, I think, really abused in many ways. I mean, there's been those who, you know, was it Origin, was one of those early church guys who kind of went wild with some of this stuff, and everything became, you know, a spiritualized meaning, and there was no... I mean, to the point that, you know, they didn't care whether there was historical, you know, truth to to these events and so forth, and it all just became, you know, really wild allegory and pictures. And yet, you know, in kind of dwelling on this and thinking about this and how the Holy Spirit has orchestrated this, coming to a new and greater appreciation for just what the Lord has done in orchestrating that.

The word type is really just kind of a transliteration out of the Greek, tupos, which means a mark or impression made by striking. I was thinking the old-fashioned typewriters are a bit of a good example of that. You know how to hit the key and it strikes the page with that little cast metal and imprints the letter on the page.

And there's so many other examples, like a hammer blow leaves its imprint. But interestingly, In the Gospel of John, it talks about the nail prints in Jesus' hands and feet, and he uses the word tupos. There's an impression left from these nails. He bears the impression of the nails on his hands.

So, just kind of keeping that in mind, that there are these that this is what was meant by the idea of a type. As I read some of the resources, Bible dictionaries and so forth, on the word type, they always wanted to speak of a type as being foreshadowing. But I don't think that the word foreshadow is maybe the best way to think about them. you know, as if Jesus' shadow just kind of preceded his arrival. But a type or an imprint is simply an impression of what is of something real, if that makes sense. You know, if there's to be an imprint of something, then the real thing has to be there to make that imprint.

Romans 5.14, I think, is a really clear example of this.

It says that Adam was a type of him who was to come. And in that context, we know very clearly that Paul has a specific way in which Adam typified Christ, and that's that he was the head of a whole race of men. And Adam is the head of a race of men, and Jesus Christ is the head of this new race. And so we see that clear example there of how Adam was kind of an imprint or an impression or a type of Christ. What's interesting is that Adam was the imprint or the impression of Jesus. In other words, Jesus isn't similar to Adam, but it's Adam who bears a similarity to Christ.

That's kind of what I'm trying to talk around to get back to here. Well, it goes back to that likeness, that likeness created in the image, let us make man in our image. And so you have that personhood, you have that unique personhood that God has the opportunity to communicate with, expresses love to, but it's not the life of Christ. It's the image, the likeness, the personhood of God. And the father, the son, both, because it's us created in our likeness and our image.

But then it uses in that verse, you know, who is a type of him who was to come. And I think that really proves the point that you're trying to make there. That verse, Romans 5, 14. Yeah. Yeah, Romans 5, 14, we're doing Romans in our Wednesday night study here, and that's kind of just been, I've been right at that point, and kind of working through that idea of a type and so forth, and then came to this section right out, and that's what he's talking about.

Types, and it's not just Adam, you know, it's David, Moses, and Joseph, and so many others. I just put a few little phrases out of John. John is really good at this. In John chapter 1 and in 1 John, you know, you just think of the way he talks about this. He says, Jesus was with God in the beginning, you know, John 1-2. Apart from him, nothing was made that has been made, you know.

And then in the In the book of Revelation, of course, we have Jesus, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And then we think about that, and then so many others. That's just a few of the really clear ones that came to mind really quickly. Go ahead.

I think when you start talking about types and Adam and Christ, I think one of the really important points about what the similarities is that they both communicated the type of life that they had to those who were their offsprings. So, you know, like all of us, because we're born in Adam, we're like him in terms of characteristics and life and that sort of thing. And so those who are born of Christ are like him, have his life. And so therefore, that's the distinction I think that's really most important because both men Speaking of Christ as a man, head of a race of human beings, it goes back to the Genesis principle of like begets like. I'm exactly like Adam because I'm from Adam. The thought that, well, if I was in the Garden of Eden, I wouldn't have eaten a fruit. Heck, I wouldn't have.

I'm exactly like my father. Well, you translate that to, as we grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then we come to see, oh, I'm exactly like him now. And he is totally accepted by the Father, so I'm totally accepted. I may not be in my actions, you know, perfection, but from my position, I'm exactly like the one I came from who's the resurrected glorified Christ. So in the types. Yeah, that's a really that's that's, you know, it's so interesting.

I'm so glad that that Paul points that out specifically there in Romans five, that Adam is a type of Christ, because then we can see, you know, exactly what a type is intended to be, as the Holy Spirit intended it. It all of a sudden makes it very clear to us, in a much, much greater way, what does it mean to be in Christ. Because I've heard so many people, and for myself, reading over the phrase, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, and just not able to understand what does it mean to be in Christ. Well, what did it mean to be in Adam?

And take that basic concept, and transfer it over. That's what a type allows us to do. Right. Exactly. And I mean, again, like I kind of started out saying, I mean, there has been that tendency to take typology. It's got its own ology, right? Usually things that are ologies are, I don't know, dangerous. But, you know, that just goes wild with it. It turns everything into a type without the clear connections that Scripture gives us, right?

And just kind of all kinds of... I mean... Yeah, you can just touch it. It's the whole idea of like, what would Jesus do? I mean, you can think of yourself as a type of what Christ... Oh, I'm in Christ. So Christ is... I'm going to be a type of Christ.

And you lose out on that whole, that I may know him. Intimacy. This is a relationship and a fellowship that is deep. It's not that we're a type. And so that's different for us, for sure. But yeah, I think you're right. The ologies, typologies, and so forth can go quite far.

And we can mimic things and we can think of ourselves as a type of Christ. Think a lot of the church does that and I think that I've done that right. I mean, how do I kind of become a type of Christ? How do I display the life of Christ? well, I got to get into the you know to the to the Gospels and and really understand Jesus life and make sure that I you know, take up my cross daily and and and get after it, you know, and, you know, I'm a type of Christ. But truly there are the types of the scripture that communicate, you know, what we're supposed to get out of the Old Testament. And, you know, that verse from Adam until Moses, the whole point was to show that he was in the likeness of Adam. That sin was there, and he needed a sacrifice. And that was the only way that he could be pleasing before God. And so it required him to operate by faith.

And so we get back to that whole idea of what was that positive purpose of the Old Testament? And what did it do? I think it pointed us. I think it was pointing us consistently to the same solution. even though those sacrifices were a tiny bit. They were representative of the one true sacrifice. They had men completely at a place of vulnerability and trust. And that trust was in what God said was the way. And that way was through blood, consistently. It required that blood sacrifice. It required it regularly. And so they had to revisit this sacrificial offering regularly.

But it was because of their likeness in Adam like Mike was saying because he man inherited That very nature of Adam he had to have that sacrifice We needed a Redeemer So and and all of those sacrifices were a type of the one Sacrifice that would come Yeah Sorry to kind of rant there a little bit, but really where I was my head was going is that I?

It wasn't a mimic, it was a pointing. And it was very much real. When we sometimes speak of it as a foreshadow, foreshadowing, or that all of the Old Testament law and sacrifice all foreshadowed. I mean, maybe there's a use of that word that's okay, but it almost makes it sound like it wasn't real.

It was, yeah, as if it was of no purpose but to you know, but to point to Christ, and yet, you know, I kind of think like, well, if I was one of those, you know, people living back then, I, you know, the Lord was doing a real thing in the lives of those people, they're believers, they have their, you know, the Lord's doing something, you know, through them too, or was, but, and yet all at the same time, He's all the while pointing to Christ, who we have to get into next week, but who solved all the problems, as Mike said. All the things are summed up in Him.

Let's close in prayer there. We'll have lots to pick up next time, I think. Heavenly Father, I thank You that You've just filled Your Word with such depth, such riches that you will never get to the end of that. And we thank you for just showing us just a little bit more this morning of what it is that you've intended to communicate. And we just pray that you would continue to guide our thinking into a greater knowledge of you, a personal knowledge, a deep and intimate knowing of you, as you have revealed yourself to us. And we pray that you continue to work in our minds in that regard. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.