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(Feast of Trumpets—LIVE)
Lyall Johnston—September 16, 2023
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Last time we covered two scriptures that Paul gives to us, which have to do with the witness of God's Spirit within us. It has to do with what the Holy Spirit is, not 'who' the Holy Spirit is.
I would like to mention that we have—you will actually see this online now—a new booklet on the Holy Spirit—The Holy Spirit, Power of God: A Scriptural Perspective—and this is an enlargement of our previous document. We have three appendices in this.
- Appendix A—Fourteen Rules for Bible Study
For those who are struggling with your Bible Study, these 14 rules are absolutely incredible. They can just help you so much to come to a greater understanding of every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
- Appendix B—Exegesis for the Translation of the Phrase "the Holy Spirit" as Antecedent in John 14, 15 and 16
This is actually Appendix K from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version. So, here it's now part of this new book!
The translators—and we mentioned particularly the King James—were influenced by the teachings of a false doctrine, and that is that the Holy Spirit is a person and not the power of God. Totally contrary. 180 degrees in the other direction of what God is teaching us! It is a lie. It is not the truth. So, I would recommend that you write for this book.
- Appendix C—Catholicism's Trinity Doctrine: Athena's Ancient Spell on Modern Christendom by Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr.
Isn't that interesting? There's a spell on modern Christianity because of the doctrine of the Trinity, and it goes back to the origins. So, that's going to be a very interesting book.
Let's continue with the statements that Paul made about the inner workings of God's Holy Spirit:
- how we can have access to it
- how we need to be able to use that Spirit
- how God has provided His Spirit for us there willingly
What is required in order to receive the Spirit of God? We must continue in obedience to the Law of God!
If we reverse our decision and begin to turn around and go the other way, God is not going to feed us with His Spirit. We are not going to grow. In fact, let's just turn to Heb. 5 In fact, the whole book of Hebrews is such an important book for all of God's people. Paul is revealing the whole role of Jesus Christ:
- as our High Priest
- as our Lord and Master
- as our Savior
- as our coming King
So important!
The Hebrews had a problem and Paul was correcting them. We understand how great the knowledge of Paul was; he was fully taught in the teachings of the Old Testament. Mind you, also in the false teachings of Judaism, which he had to repent of, but also fully equipped with God!
Paul understood all about the sacrifices of the Old Covenant, which had everything to do with the life and teachings and the sacrifice of Christ Himself. So, through the Spirit of God Jesus Christ taught him how that He had magnified the Law of the Old Covenant and was able now to teach it as Spirit, as it says about Jesus in:
Isaiah 42:21: "…He will magnify the Law and make it glorious."
He came, or he was coming to magnify the Law, to make the Law greater. He didn't do away with it. In fact, he said he did not come to do away with the Law, but to fulfill it! In other words, to fulfill it up to the very panicle of what the Law stood for. The Law stood for the obedience to God for those who are converted. As we keep the Law, God grows His Spirit within us! God Himself, Jesus Christ Himself is growing within us! Do you realize that? That you and I possess the Spirit of God; that it is God Himself Who is doing the inner workings.
Every time I read about God in us, I like to think also of God within. God within me, Jesus Christ within me!
- Did that tell me how I should order my life?
- How did Jesus Christ and the Father, become a part of me?
- How was it that they became a part of you?
At the time of your baptism!
If you are not baptized yet, this indeed will be true for you, also, when you are baptized. Once we receive the Holy Spirit, we belong to God! We are His possession!
Because the Father and the Son—through the Holy Spirit—are dwelling within us, They're doing Their inner workings to cause us to grow in Their likeness, to become like Them!
We were already like Them in appearance, but now they are converting, they are transforming our mind and our heart! And not only that, but as They'll transform our mind and our heart! The whole response of our body—because They are dwelling within us, the Father and Christ, as we obey Them—are causing us to grow in Their spiritual likeness!
We're beginning to see more and more day-by-day. Remember, we were purchased with a price. We belong to Them! (1-Cor. 6)
We do not belong to ourselves, so we have no debt to the flesh, but we owe everything to God the Father and to Jesus Christ:
- in obedience
- in love
- in growing
- in Their grace
- in Their knowledge
Heb. 5—here are some brethren who were not growing, and yet they had been in the Church for quite a long time
Hebrews 5:6—talking about Jesus Christ: "…'You are a Priest forever according to the order of Melchisedec'"—by selection of God, His Father!
Christ did not choose this; God has made Him and given Him a name and an office and power above every other principality and power that was ever created!
Verse 7: "Who [Jesus] in the days of His flesh, offered up both prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears…"
- Why would Jesus have to do this?
- Why would you and I have to do this?
"…to Him… [the Father! Jesus was praying to His Father Who was able to save Him from death…" (v 7).
That was second death, not the first death, because Jesus became a man and because death comes to all men (Heb. 9).
Jesus was a man and one way or the other He came to die. If He had not been crucified He would have lived out His life and He still would have died, we would not have a Savior! He had to be crucified! His blood had to be shed!
He cried out "…with strong crying and tears to Him Who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because He feared God" (v 7).
- How do we fear God?
- How did Jesus fear God?
David tells us that Jesus hated evil and loved righteousness!
That's why Paul called David Acts 13:22: "…David, the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart…"
- David repented
- David remained humble
- he had a contrite spirit
- he trembled at God's Word
So. God loved him because he saw in David what he said: "…David…a man after My own heart…".
- we know David had God's Spirit
- we know that David possessed within his person the Holy Spirit, the mind of Christ
Even before He came, Christ was giving His life within and through David as an example for you and me.
We come down near because of that this is what Paul goes on to say
Hebrews 5:10: "After He had been designated by God as High Priest according to the order of Melchisedec; concerning Whom we have much to say…" (vs 10-11).
In the book of Hebrews Paul has a lot to say about Jesus Christ and His role as High Priest.
"…and hard to explain… [Why?]: …since you have become dull of hearing" (v 11)
These were no newbies, these were no new converts, because new converts, new Christians, need the milk of the Word. These people needed the most solid food!
Verse 12: "For truly, by this time you ought to be teachers, but instead you need to have someone teach you again what are the beginning principles of the oracles of God..."
Now just keep that in mind "…the beginning principles…"—that little phrase, because we'll come to that again, become those in need of milk.
They weren't ready growing. They weren't growing, their growth had stopped. They weren't studying the Word of God as they ought. They were perhaps turning back into the world by lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pretentious pride of life. Quite happy with where they were at. They had to go back to:
"…the beginning principles of the oracles of God and have become those in need of milk, and not of solid food. For everyone who is partaking of milk is unskilled" (vs 12-13).
That's not a criticism to those who are new in the Body of Christ because they must grow just like we had to grow once we were born, once our mother produced us, once we began to breathe. We have to continue growing!
But now as we grew we had to take responsibility for our own growth. We have to begin to learn to feed ourselves. These people apparently claiming to be Christians were struggling. They weren't feeding themselves on the Word of God—man shall not live by bread alone—and probably don't live by every word proceeding out of God's mouth!
So they become those in need of milk and not solid food.
Verse 13: "For everyone who is partaking of milk is unskilled in the Word of Righteousness…"
Here Paul is addressing the mature—or those who should have been mature—in the Word, but were not.
But notice what he's talking about "…unskilled in the Word of Righteousness…" How do we understand the Word of Righteousness? God is the Spirit of Truth! God gives us His own Spirit, which gives us understanding. That gives us great power from the One Who has created all things.
He gives us great power to become like Him! The process of conversion, the process of coming out of this world and more and more entering into:
- God's world
- God's mind
- God's thinking
Before God called us, He says, 'Look, My thoughts and My ways are as high above your ways than the heavens are above the earth. Once we humbled ourselves before the very Throne of God, once we confessed our sins, that all change and God now has given us and will work in us with His inner workings of the Holy Spirit to make us in:
- His likeness
- His character
- His mind
More and more as we study the Word! We begin to think about God in every trial every problem in life. We go to the Scriptures and say: How does God look at this? I want to know God's answer to this question!
- I don't want to hear from my neighbor.
- I don't want to hear from the local gossip
- I don't want to learn from these tele-evangelists who end up asking for money
If we don't pay the money, we're called 'hypocrites.' What a lie! They end up with multiple millions of dollars and some countless hundreds of millions of dollars.
- What are they doing with all that money?
- Are they feeding the Truth to the people? No! They're deceiving the people!
God will have His just retribution against such false prophets. The ones who have God's Word but are not teaching God's Word. They're teaching lies and they're lining their own pockets.
Heb. 6—Paul tells us that as we mature, what we need to be doing, and this is very important, men as whole part of the inner working of God's Spirit, with the way we're using and utilizing the power of God's Spirit that He's given to us.
This is very interesting. It's amazing. It's incredible. In fact, because you're not growing because you're immature, because you're still eating milk and not meat, he shows us what the milk doctrines are. Then he also begins by telling us what the meat doctrine is. He mentions that first.
Hebrews 6:1: "Therefore, advancing beyond the beginning principles…"—that we read in Heb. 5, which are the doctrines of Christ!
We should go on to perfection. What's Paul saying here? It's really simple, really. I just wanted to ask that question. Therefore, advancing beyond the beginning principles, he mentions them all here. These are the beginning principles. What he's saying is we have got to be advancing beyond the beginning principles. We don't scrap them. We don't rubbish them. They're the foundation that we've got to build on! Then he outlines what these are. Let me read that again:
Verse 1: "Therefore, advancing beyond the beginning principles of the doctrines of Christ, we should go on to perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works..."
Paul is not rubbishing these. He's saying these are beginning principles. They're absolutely essential part of our growth. They're the foundation. That's where we began, but we can't stay there. We've got to move on. We've got to advance. We should go on to perfection.
- Are the doctrines of baptism important? Yes!
- Laying on of hands, is that important? Yes!
Without that, you can't receive the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is given—once we've repented—by the laying on of hands and of the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment. These are all basic doctrines, foundational doctrines!
We will do this; we will advance beyond the beginning principles of the doctrine of Christ. We should, we will, and we ought to be going on to perfection!
How do we go on to perfection? I'd like to make three offers for you. You know what these are, but these are things that we need to be studying.
First, we have Gal. 5, the fruits of the Spirit! The fruits of the Spirit are the mind of Christ and the mind of God the Father! Examine them, you'll see this is it. So, as we are producing these fruits, the mind, the life, and the power of God the Father and Jesus Christ, we are maturing. We're becoming more like God the Father. We're becoming more like Christ.
2-Peter 1—Peter gives basically the same things. He's actually talking about putting on the Divine nature, which is through these spiritual attributes, these characteristics of the mind of God. To that we can add Eph, 6, because we need the full armor of God, because the full armor of God is going to be there to protect us and it's going to help us to continue our march.
Because of His armor, we are God's warriors. As Paul said to Timothy, we had a question recently: Is it okay for Christians to vote? Well, the answer to that one from the perspective that I have is what Paul said to Timothy. Once we are soldiers, once we've been called by Christ and His army, we don't get involved in the affairs of this world. So, that's just a basic Scripture, basic understanding that we have. Of course, just in just a few weeks, we've got elections here in New Zealand. Of course, a major focus, which is going to have an impact worldwide, the election is about to take place next year in the United States, November. So much is going to happen before then.
Whatever happens one way or the other, our lives are going to be affected. So, it's very important that we are maturing in the perfection of God the Father! We do this because God is doing His inner workings.
So, let's have a look now at a third Scripture. We'll cover the others at another time.
Eph. 3—I won't read a lot of the other associative material, the majority before and after, but I'd like you to go and read the Scriptures I've given so far in the previous message:
- Gal. 5:6
- Eph. 1:19
Ephesians 3:6: "That the Gentiles might be joint heirs, and a joint body…"—of Christ!
We became part of this when Christ entered us, when the Father entered us through the Holy Spirit. We became partakers of the very nature and mind and character of God!
"…and joint partakers of His promise in Christ through the Gospel" (v 6).
Verse 7: "Of which I became a servant according to the gift of the grace of God, which was given to me through the inner working of His power.
We must be constantly aware of the inner workings of God's power within us!
Verse 16: "That He may grant you, according to the riches of His glory… [yes, He wants to] …to be strengthened with power..." (v 16)—by His Spirit!
The Holy Spirit is not a person. The book on the Holy Spirit goes through the very basics. How the translators took the personal pronoun, where it should read "it" in the neuter gender and put the masculine gender there against every principle of Greek grammar.
They knew better, but they were influenced by the doctrine of the Trinity, which is a lie! It is a heinous lie, because a guy is against the very teachings of God and His plan.
Verse16: "That He may grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power by His Spirit in the inner man"—and let's just add that within you and within me, within the inner man, which is where God's Spirit is functioning and working within us.
Verse 17: "That Christ may dwell in your hearts, by faith.…"—or within!
I believe that's compatible. It's not adding something to the Scripture in or within your hearts. Both mean the same thing
Verse 19: "And to know the love of Christ, which surpasses human knowledge…" is wonderful.
The love of Christ which passes human knowledge, because it has to do with the Spirit,
"…so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (19).
Yes, God wants to be within us to the very fullness of His being. He wants us because He is building His mind and His character within us. The war becoming His sons and daughters, and He's doing that from within with all His power as much as we are able to engage with Him in that through our prayer, our study, and fasting as we have a need.
To Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or some according to the power that is working in and within us. God's power is within us, His Holy Spirit, and His Holy Spirit is a part of Himself.
It is God's Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit that He gives us, which we announce when we baptize a person that the Holy Spirit, and as Jesus said, emanates from the Father to us.
I do hope that you'll be able to go back and read those Scriptures. In fact, just do a search for that phrase, the inner working, the inner working of God within us, because God is preparing us for the resurrection. He's also preparing us to endure the end-times as we face them.
I know this is a very helpful subject, and I hope that you will continue to learn and to study more on this as we look, as we pray, as we study that we're seeking more and more of the presence of God within our heart and within our mind.
Remember, as Paul said, He's writing His laws and commandments in our heart and in our mind. In fact, He's inscribing them.
Scriptural References:
- Isaiah 43:21
- Hebrews 5:6-7
- Acts 13:22
- Hebrews 5:10-12
- Hebrews 6:1
- Ephesians 3:6-7, 16-17, 19
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- 1 Corinthians 6
- Hebrews 9
- Galatians 5
- 2 Peter 1
- Ephesians 6
- Galatians 5:6
- Ephesians 1:9
Also referenced: Book:
The Holy Spirit, Power of God: A Scriptural Perspective by Fred R. Coulter
LJ:bo/bo
Transcribed: 9/20/23
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