Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Speaker A: Hello everybody, and welcome to the unveiling. My name is Mark, and along with my partner Ajay, we'll be pulling back the curtain on the one true gospel. We are so glad you joined us today, so let's dive right in.
Hey everybody. Welcome to the unveiling. We are so glad you have chosen to spend the time today to join us as we continue what we entitle the greatest hits of the Holy Spirit. And in the very first episode of this crucible, I mentioned how a lot of bands, after they have success, they feel compelled to release, release a greatest hits album. Well, we just had a five part series on the Holy Spirit that Ajay and I were really blown away by. We hope you are too.
Just taking that time to search and look in to the very reasons and purposes for which Christ sent his spirit to us when he went to the after he went to the cross and rose again has just been such a blessing to my life. I think I was telling Ajay I wish I would have done this 30 years ago. It's, it's been so revolutionary. But everything's in God's time, so we trust that.
But now we're going into part three of this crucible, Ajay. And another thing they had beside greatest hits records back in the day was what's called a double record album.
And we would have needed that because everything the spirit revealed is a greatest hit. So, so that's why we're going into part three of a Crucible for the first time. So let's dive in a right away so that we don't have to do a part four as well.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: Yeah, Mark, I'm thinking, you know, if you do one more on this, we'll have to do greatest hits on the greatest hits.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: I was thinking we'll do, we'll do a crucible on the prior four crucibles.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: How about that?
[00:02:07] Speaker A: Oh, man.
All right, brother, let's dive in. So we were, we were doing what I was jokingly called the lightning round. As we went through those five episodes through scripture, many purposes for which the Spirit was given were revealed and I made a list of them. Over the last few weeks, I've just been, as I walk in the mornings, been playing those podcasts over and over, parts one through five and, and I listed them and then I said to Ajay, like on all the game shows, they always have a lightning round where they just throw out and you have throw out a word and you have to answer quickly.
Well, that's not possible for rj, so, or me help I'll lump myself in there, too. But we will continue on and try to have our lightning be a little faster if we can. But speed isn't the only value, right, Ajay? In a lightning round. So. All right, man, so we finished off last week with one of the purposes that Jesus sent his spirit, he said, was to take what is what is of mine and declare it to you. Well, the next one in that list, the next lightning answer here, Ajay, is the Spirit gives us access.
What comes to your mind when you hear that?
[00:03:27] Speaker B: Yeah. So, Mark, I am looking at the scripture, right? Ephesians 2:18.
For through him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. I've been looking at this and you know, we have the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit here by him, or through him, through Jesus Christ, we have access by one spirit to the Father.
So for us, you know, like the work that our Lord Jesus Christ did, right? It's not just the forgiveness of sins. If we just had the forgiveness of sins and nothing else, right? We are still dead people. Forgiven dead people.
But the purpose of the cross is not just for our sins being forgiven, sins being forgiven actually cleared the deck for God to give us what he always wanted to give. That is the Holy Spirit, right? When we have the Spirit, only then we have fellowship with the Father and we have fellowship with Christ. And it also says, you know, we have access.
That means we have access to all our inheritance. Everything that Christ died to give us, we have access to it by the Holy Spirit.
[00:04:40] Speaker A: Yeah, that's an awesome point. And I'm reminded that what's the scripture that says the Spirit gives life because of righteousness?
Do you remember the address on that one?
[00:04:52] Speaker B: It is Romans 8. I can read that.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: I want you to read that for us.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: If you would just give me one second.
It's Romans 8, 10.
But if Christ is in you, then you, even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome. And you made a point, Ajay, there, about if we only had forgiveness of sin and we didn't have that imputation of righteousness that came by the justification that Christ brought us on the cross. If we only have that, we would not have life or the life of Christ because we would not have righteousness. Do you agree with that?
[00:05:38] Speaker B: Yes. You know, righteousness because righteousness was required so that we can have the Spirit. Because if we are still in our sins, the wages of sin is death.
So God could not give us life if we are still in our sins. That's why Lord Jesus Christ had to redeem us from sin, so that when we can receive the adoption of sons through the Holy Spirit. So righteousness is a condition. Righteousness means that no sin is imputed to us. Right. Our sins are removed from us.
Because there is no sin on us, death has no claim on us.
Where there is sin, death has claim. And where there is no sin, death cannot have claim.
Because our sins are removed, Lord is able to give us the Holy Spirit, which is life.
[00:06:24] Speaker A: You know, rj, that is such a super, super, super powerful truth.
And I gotta tell you, all my years in church, which have been about 45 now, I don't think I've. And you know, we sometimes come off sounding harsh toward pastors here. We don't mean that to be that way. But the gospel in its true pure form is of such importance. We can't just keep our mouth shut.
We've got to speak the truth. And I never have heard that taught anywhere. I've heard a million.
Well, that's an exaggeration, obviously, but probably a thousand messages on forgiveness of sin. But it usually kind of stops right there. You know, you don't hear much. I mean, you'll hear some. A few pastors I've heard especially like on radio ministries, preach on the imputation of righteousness, that Christ, while he took our sin, gave us his righteousness. Some call that the great exchange. I've heard that a few times. But even that is preached in a much. It's more of a minority. You don't hear it. And it's so important, in my opinion, to know that. To know that we have been justified, which gave us the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which then allowed the Spirit of God to come into us, Christ himself, to. To indwell us. And we're also in Christ. It's a union. Without that righteousness, we couldn't have it. So what a great, great point there.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: In fact, Mark, it is right here. Sorry to interrupt.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: No good.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: Yeah. In fact, you know, new KJV says like this. If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin.
But the Spirit is life because of righteousness, because of our righteousness, Spirit is life. If we didn't have that righteousness, we are in sin. And it says, you know, we are dead because of sin. It is righteous.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome.
All right, let's move on to the next one. And that is the Spirit speaks. The Spirit is the speaking voice of God. We read a couple scriptures on that. 1. But overall, generally, the spirit speaks. What would you. What's your impression on that?
[00:08:43] Speaker B: Yeah, you go first, Mark, on this, I think.
[00:08:46] Speaker A: Hey, yeah, I'm the game show host. You're. You're the contestant, man.
Well, you know, when we say speak, we don't mean for most believers. I think we don't. We don't ever in our Christian lives, our whole lives hear the actual voice of God, like perhaps Abraham did or some of the biblical characters. But he definitely speaks to us through scripture and he. I think he can speak to us through other believers.
And you just sometimes. Ajay, what do you like to say about hearing from God on the subject? It's about peace. The thing I'm trying to remind you of.
Tell us your litmus test.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: Yeah, Mark, you know, it's like when the Holy Spirit speaks. Right. You know, we have a lot of voices in our mind, but when we really hear God's word, it comes from within, from the heart, right? Not necessarily on the mind.
We must not confuse it all. The voices or even the things that devil is putting in our mind, they come from outside in.
But the voice of the spirit comes from within, inside out, you know. You know that there is this gentle impression or intuition. You will know from within. And there is also peace.
When there is peace, we know that is a spirit by. Because, you know, Bible says in Isaiah 55, let me bring that in.
Yeah. Isaiah 55:12 says, for you shall go out with joy and be led out with peace.
So our leading is with peace.
And we know that, you know, when the Spirit is leading us. I'm also thinking of other scriptures, but, you know, I'm also telling out of experience, when the spirit is speaking to us, there is a voice within, right. Not necessarily audible voice from outside, but in your spirit, in your heart, you will know.
And then, you know, there's no fear. When there's anxiety, you know, that's not the spirit. But when there's calm and peace, that is the spirit.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's. I'm glad we touched on this point in this way, Ajay, because I think this is a somewhat.
It's a difficult thing and it can be confusing and it's been abused by people.
And I mean, scripture's pretty clear. It tells us that when we feel we should test the spirits, when we hear voices, not just to say, oh, that must be God, I better go drink and drive my car. You know, I'm using an extreme example, but people sometimes will try to condone what they do by saying oh, the Spirit told me it's okay, but it's something that I think we have to be careful with and. And we need to test everything against Scripture. And I think it tell. Bible also tells us if we can get godly counsel and get a confirmation of two or three other believers, it's. It's always best to go slowly. But I love what you just added. The peace.
[00:11:56] Speaker B: Yes, yes. In fact, you know, I would finish.
[00:12:01] Speaker A: I was just gonna say, though, there are times when a human being has peace about what they're doing, but that peace isn't from the spirit, you know, so I'll just add that little teeny, be careful, you know. But I do agree with you, you know, after you're searching out for God, say it's an important decision, or do I go left or do I go right in this life decision.
It's not just peace, but peace.
That's an awesome confirmation from the Spirit.
[00:12:31] Speaker B: You know, couple of more things on this, because we are on this topic, you know, we are not. It's not feelings, you know, sometimes people just feel, you know, it's not emotions. You don't find the spirit in our emotions.
And it's also not our thoughts, thoughts that are coming from outside in.
But there is a knowing on the inside, you know, you will know when you are a child of God, you know, there is a knowing on the inside. We also call it as intuition, you know, that is a spirit. And also we, with regards to peace, right, as believers, we are always called to. We are called to peace.
It's not like, you know, when there is peace, I know it's the Spirit, because we are always in peace when there is no peace. That's when we know that's not the spirit.
[00:13:18] Speaker A: Oh, that's a great point. That's a great point, Andre. That clears that up a lot.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: Yeah. So because we have peace already, it's not like we are outside peace and looking for peace. You know, the Bible says we are called to peace, right?
And in Colossians it says we are called unto peace one second.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: So it's not so much we live our lives in turmoil. And when we feel peace, that's the voice of God telling us to do that. We live our lives in peace.
And if we feel troubled or turmoil about something, then we can, you know, another word for that is red flags, you know, in kind of everyday vernacular. So that's a great point, Ajay. And that really, I think to some extent gives us some guardrails, you know, gives us less freedom to Go off and follow our own feelings and emotions and say, oh, that, that must be God. Because I feel, I feel good about doing this. So, yeah, I like that. Let's live in peace.
[00:14:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Colossians 3:15 says, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body.
And be thankful. It says we are called to peace. And he's saying, let the peace of God rule your hearts.
So when the peace of God is not ruling our hearts, that's not the Holy Spirit, you know, that's why we also don't need to worry about everything, right? Okay, I'm eating breakfast today. I'm eating egg. Is it Holy Spirit? Is it the will of God? Right. Is the Holy Spirit leading me to drink coffee today? Is the Holy Spirit leading me to go to office? That's not it. You can, because, you know, now we are born again, right? You know, Christ is one in us.
All of us is Christ.
And we keep doing what we are doing naturally, and we are living in the will of God. But when there is no peace, right, you try to. You, you want to do something, but somehow there's unrest inside.
That's when you know, okay, this is not the spirit of God. I can give you one example also, like, it's not always about bad things.
One of my friends was running an orphanage and he wanted to give him some money for that. You know, normally I give it to a lot of people, but this time, you know, whenever I wanted to give, there was no peace and unrest. I was like, you know, I don't know why.
So I was like, okay, it's fine, and I'm not going to do that. So it just look for the unrest in your heart. When there's unrest, don't do it.
And otherwise you can keep doing what you're doing. You don't have to worry about for everything. Is it the will of God? Is God leading me?
[00:15:52] Speaker A: Yeah, great point. All right, let us move into our next topic. In the lightning round, the Spirit draws us to and reveals Christ. Now this is. A lot of these are linked together.
I mean, they have a relationship with one another, giving us access to the Father and revealing Christ and drawing us to Christ. Those are closely linked together. So what do you think about that?
[00:16:17] Speaker B: Yeah, Mark, in all our series, like when we were meditating on the names of the Spirit, we said all the names are an aspect of the gospel.
And what is the gospel about? Gospel is Christ himself. So his death, burial, and resurrection.
So the Spirit has given us to reveal the gospel. Without the gospel, nobody can know Christ. Right? And the Gospel is about our Lord Jesus Christ.
And in John 16:14, it says, he will glorify me, for he will take of what is of mine and will declare it to you. Good.
[00:16:55] Speaker A: All right, that's a quick one.
[00:16:56] Speaker B: Good.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: Lightning round there. Ajay, let's go on to the next one. We are told in 2 Corinthians 3:18, after the apostle Paul did his beautiful comparison between the Old and the New Covenants, having described the Old Covenant as a ministry of death, A ministry of condemnation, and a transitory ministry.
And it also describes the Old Covenant as a veil that covers our faces, that covers our hearts.
Then Paul goes on to say that the ministry of the New Covenant is a ministry of righteousness, of life and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And it is an everlasting ministry. Then after that beautiful comparison, the Apostle Paul goes on to say and summarize, and which I've always personal, personally thought was one of the most beautiful summaries of the Christian life. Paul says, and we all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed in his image from glory to glory, which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
So right there it's telling us our transformation to the image of Christ.
That's the Spirit of God's job.
That's we're not to do it. As it says in Ephesians 2, we are God's handiwork.
And you know, that's the problem in so many churches. They're trying to make you work on yourself. They're giving you motivational speeches and strategies and books to read and try harder and guilt us and at best cheer us on and encourage us. But still it's us working on ourselves to try to be more like Jesus. And you know, we brought this up once before the, the rubber bracelets. What would you Jesus do? That's just another example of that, of us asking ourselves that question so that we can try to do that too. But I want to market a bracelet. Bracelet that would say W, D, J, D.
What did Jesus do that he died for me on the cross. He gave me his righteousness. He gave me life, His Holy Spirit. He's given me the riches of his glory. Glorious inherits. We have the boundless greatness of his power toward us who believe.
So what did Jesus do is going to have more change in our hearts and our lives, and we will end up being transformed into his image. And we won't have to ask ourselves what Jesus would do because we're being led by him in that moment.
[00:19:48] Speaker B: That's an awesome point, Mark. You know, again, the scripture that you just read, I'm reading in nasb, but we all with an unveiled face, beholding, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit. So here, the mirror. What is the mirror? The mirror is the word of God. And you just said, you know, what did Jesus do? Where do you know what Jesus did?
It's in the mirror when you open the Bible and see what the Lord Jesus Christ did. And in fact, it's saying that beholding in the mirror, the glory of the Lord. You know, again, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is his finished work, the cross. Now, in John it says, now the Son of man is glorified right before the cross, the cross and the resurrection. The gospel is the glory of the Lord.
And when we see Lord Jesus Christ in the Scripture, we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. So it's not our job to transform ourselves.
Our job is to see Lord Jesus Christ. The more we see him, the more we are transformed or the more we become like him because our true self is in Christ. Basically, we are discovering ourselves when we see Jesus in the scripture.
[00:21:15] Speaker A: Yeah, that's good stuff. Another way I've heard you put it is that Christ is manifesting himself in us.
And another way that the Apostle Paul says is that Christ is being formed in us, but that's by his Spirit, by the Lord who is the Spirit. All right, good one. Let us move on. It's the Spirit himself who saves us through sanctification. And maybe, Ajay, if you've got one of the Scriptures there that tells us that we have been saved by the sanctifying Spirit of Christ. Can you find that?
[00:21:51] Speaker B: Yeah. But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood.
May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.
[00:22:21] Speaker A: Well, one of the reasons I thought that was an important one is because of the misunderstanding of sanctification.
And so many churches and denominations I've heard are on a spectrum with that, where they say you are saved by grace alone, through faith Alone in Christ. Alone. But now you need to get to work sanctifying yourself, making yourself holy. Now the better. So Scriptures, the ones we just talked about and read for all our listeners, say that it's the Spirit who transforms us into Christ. It's the Spirit who actually saved us through by sanctifying us. We couldn't have been saved unless he sanctified us.
So there's that truth. And I'm sure they know that truth. But then what they say is the ones that are, let's say, less legalistic and less, you better get to work and sanctify yourself. They'll say, we cooperate with the Holy Spirit. But if you look, if you look up the definition of cooperate, it is work alongside, it still works. And God did not give us His Spirit so that we could now perfectly obey the law. He gave us a Spirit to sanctify us. He's already done that work. And he will transform. He will manifest, inform Christ in us. So it's just important to know that, because I just feel like that's a real big confusion. And as I said, some churches are going to be completely, you need to work to sanctify yourself. Others are going to soften it a little and say, well, we cooperate with the Holy Spirit. And the Apostle Paul was always very adamant that if we work at all, we have something to boast about.
And he said, I will never boast in anything except my Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's the Christian life. The minute we work. And he tells us in that scripture about the wages of sin is death.
What's the rest of that?
[00:24:35] Speaker B: Gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
[00:24:39] Speaker A: Excellent. Yeah. So when we work, we earn wages.
[00:24:43] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:24:44] Speaker A: So if we are working alongside, we have something to boast about. We've earned some of our sanctification, even if we're just cooperating. But Paul says, no, no, no, no, no.
You know, all Jesus, all times, it's him. It's His Spirit in us. As he told us in 2nd Corinthians 3:18, we are transformed into his image by the Lord, who is the Spirit. And there are many scriptures that tell us that.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: Yeah, Mark, just want to add this. In fact, you know, you said right, in 2nd Thessalonians 2:13, it says, God has from the beginning chosen us for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.
So salvation happened through the sanctification of the Spirit.
Sanctification doesn't happen after salvation. In fact, sanctification is a necessary means of salvation without Sanctification we cannot be saved. So you're kind of putting cot before the horse, before the cart or whatever. Or cart before the horse, whatever it is. Yeah. So because sanctification comes before salvation. And also, if you think about it, right, sanctification is basically being set apart. We are God's people. We are set apart because we are set apart. We walk differently. Right. We walk holily because we are holy. We don't become holy by trying to walk holy, if you know what I mean.
[00:26:17] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Exactly, exactly. Alrighty. Cool. So I've got one final one here that ties in with access to the Father's Scripture you read, and it's that the Spirit ushers us in to the holy of holies. What's the scripture about? That we may now, through grace, approach, with confidence, approach the grace, the throne of grace. Can you look that up, ajay?
[00:26:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Hebrews 4:16.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.
And this also by the blood of Jesus. Right? Maybe that's what you're looking.
Hebrews 10:19. Therefore, brethren having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome. You made a point in our last podcast, Ajay, that God is not a God who sits off passively just waiting for us to come to Christ, that his spirit is not just an innocent bystander in the grandstands. He is He. His desire.
How did you put that? Do you remember, in the last podcast?
[00:27:29] Speaker B: He's eager.
[00:27:31] Speaker A: He's eager. That's the word, eager. So. And he's eager to usher us in to the holy of holies, to God's very presence. He wants us to know Him. He wants us to know Christ. He wants us to know the Father.
And in fact, you know, in. Is it 1st or 2nd Corinthians with the no eye is seen scripture?
[00:27:54] Speaker B: Yeah, it's in Second Corinthians. You want me to pull it up?
[00:27:57] Speaker A: No, that's okay. I just wanted to point out that in Second Corinthians, Paul tells us that no eye is seen, no ear is heard, no human mind conceived.
And Ajay pointed out, this isn't about secret knowledge in our lives or in other people's lives or in the world. This is the Gospel. And it's. And he follows. Follows that up by saying, and he's given us his spirit so that we may understand what he has freely given us.
All these things are. You know, when I think about all the things that we've been given through the cross and the resurrection, the gospel, it's all about leading us in to union and close experience of. Of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
[00:28:46] Speaker B: Yeah. In fact, Mark, you made this point, right? You know, it says having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. See, the holiest is not a place.
The holiest is the Holy Spirit himself, because like we just said, right. You know, spirit is life because of righteousness. What did the blood do? The blood took away our sins and made us righteous.
And then because of that, we have the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. That's why he is called the Holy Spirit.
So the entering the holiest by the blood of Jesus is basically receiving the Holy Spirit because our sins are forgiven.
So the holy place is the Holy Spirit himself in us. That's why the Bible says we are the temple of the Holy Ghost. How did we become the temple of the Holy Ghost?
Because in the Old Testament, the temple is signified by the holy place. Right. Where God's presence dwells.
Now God's presence dwells in us. We are the temple of the.
We are the temple of living God because the Spirit of God is dwelling in us.
[00:29:49] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a great point. And the writer of Hebrews makes a lot of that. He looks back to that temple and the tabernacle where you would move from one section to the next. And the most holy place, the holy of holies.
The chief priest was the only one who could go there once a year. And he had to bring blood, because without blood, there is no remission of sins. But the point of that holy of holies was God was there. The presence was there. The glory of God was there. And as Ajay just pointed out, it's not there anymore. It's in us now.
[00:30:28] Speaker B: Yeah, one more scripture, First Corinthians 3:16, says, do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
We are the temple of God because the Spirit of God dwells in us.
And that Spirit of God is the holiest. And we entered into that holiest by the blood of Jesus because our sins are all taken away.
[00:30:53] Speaker A: Awesome.
All right, Ajay. Well, that was an excellent lightning round show. Show him what he won.
All right, so anyway, I enjoyed that.
Do you have any points? Where would you like to lead us next, Ajay? We've got a little time left here.
[00:31:12] Speaker B: Yeah, Mark, Well, I think one thing for me is that, you know, as we are Having this. As we had this meditation, right?
One of the things that is evident is that, you know, sometimes we know things, but unless we go into the Scriptures and really understand them, we will not be convinced.
You know, after this study of Holy Spirit, you know, two things are made evident. The first is just like we just discussed, the holiest is not a place, right? You know, sometimes we think in terms of places.
Holy Spirit is the holiest or the holy place. And second one is again, heaven is not a place.
Holy Spirit in us, Christ in us is heaven. So when we eventually, you know, when we get new bodies, it's like, you know, heaven is more revealed in us. It's not like we are going to a place called heaven, but heaven is more revealed because Christ in us is heaven. And then when Christ returns and when we have our new bodies, now we become the heaven, the dwelling place of God. And of course, you know, Christ is also there in the bodily form.
But the purpose of our salvation is that God may dwell in us. If you read all Bible and if you go to Revelations, it says, you know, God himself will be with you. God in us and God amongst us. That's the purpose of salvation because he wanted us to be his family. A big household of God.
[00:32:50] Speaker A: That's a big amen on that one, man. That's killer.
So one of our favorite little conversations we had in one of the later episodes of the Holy Spirit series, we talked about the fact that as believers, we are meant to live in the supernatural.
Now, that can be a little bit of a controversial statement on the surface until we dig and we qualify that by saying we don't mean supernatural, like what you would see in a movie with magic and. And who knows what. Harry Potter, you know, Lord of the Rings, that kind of thing. We mean lived above the natural.
So the law, the law is the flesh, but the supernatural is the spirit. Our lives are in the spirit. It's above the flesh, above the law, above the way that seems right to a man, which is just doing it yourself, following the rules, trying to fly. Right. There's a million.
A million different colloquialisms they use for that.
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. We are meant to live in the supernatural. I think of that as above the natural.
[00:34:05] Speaker B: Yeah, that's another great point, Mark. You know, simply put, like you said, living in the spirit is living in the supernatural.
And living in the flesh, according to our old man, right? Without the spirit, without the resources of the spirit, he is living in the flesh.
[00:34:23] Speaker A: Good stuff. All right. Ajay, if we. I think I'd like to wrap us up now with kind of a final discussion. I'm going to talk for a moment, then I'll throw it back to you, and then we'll sign off. But one of the things we did and I did in one of the episodes is that I kind of gave, you know, I know we have pastors that listen to us and preachers that listen to us. I just kind of gave them a challenge.
[00:34:48] Speaker B: We.
[00:34:48] Speaker A: One of the things that jumped out through this series were the purposes for which the Spirit was given.
And I know pastors out there want their teaching to be with a demonstration of the Spirit's power. They want to teach in the Spirit. They want that.
But it's just key to realize as you're preaching, as you're preparing, as you're thinking about what you want to bring to your congregations, that you don't expect the Spirit to align himself with your agenda, with what you're trying to do, but that you align yourself with the purposes of the Spirit. If there's one thing we really know from First Corinthians, Chapter two is the Apostle Paul really teaches. It's, you know, it's very, you know, I know there are different letters that are pastoral letters that have been rewritten specifically, but this is an excellent pastoral scripture, and it's where the Apostle Paul and, you know, we've mentioned this one many times, but I don't think you can talk about it too much. Paul said that when he came to preach the gospel to the Corinthians, he said that he was determined, that he vowed that he was resolved to know nothing but. And in fact to forget everything else but Jesus Christ and him crucified. And then he said, he didn't say, I'm not eloquent, I'm not wise, I can't be strong and persuasive. He said he didn't come with that. He didn't come with eloquence, with human wisdom, with strong and persuasive words and arguments. He said, in fact, I came in fear and trembling. He came with a weakness.
But he said, my message and my preaching were with a demonstration of the Spirit's power. And what was the message he said was his only message? Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Any pastor and preacher out there, you preach that you will have a demonstration of the Spirit's power because that's what God the Father did. I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God. We've got to Stay in there. If we want the Spirit, we have to be in the new covenant, which is the ministry of the Spirit.
[00:37:07] Speaker B: Yeah, Mark, in fact, and I was going to say exactly the same thing, you know, you said.
How did you put it? I forgot. Like, you follow the agenda of the Spirit or how did you say that?
[00:37:19] Speaker A: Oh, I said, if you want to have a demonstration of the Spirit's power in your preaching, you need to align yourself with his purposes, not the other way around.
[00:37:31] Speaker B: Yes, yes, yeah. And what is his purpose? Right. Like you said, preaching Christ for Jews. You know, if you simplify everything. Right. If you want to make it very, very simple, what is Spirit's purpose? He came to glorify Jesus. So preaching Christ Jesus, the one true gospel, is what the Spirit want us to preach. So that is what is aligning with his purpose.
I want to close with this, Mark the same book, one chapter before First Corinthians, chapter 1, 22, 23. For Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom.
But we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block, and to the Greeks, foolishness. So Paul clearly said, you know, we preach Christ crucified.
That is the purpose of the Holy Spirit and that is the agenda of the Holy Spirit.
If you want to be safe, just preach Christ. That's it. Don't worry about anything else.
[00:38:36] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And you pointed it out as well, Ajay, that that's not limiting. As a pastor, you're not going to run out of sermon topics because as we just walked through this series, we came up with probably a couple dozen purposes of the Spirit. They're just different facets of preaching Christ. They're still preaching Christ, you know, taking of what is mine and declaring it what is some giving us access to the Father, transforming us into the image of Christ, revealing Christ, working resurrection power in us, teaching us all things. There are so many purposes, but there's still just facets of Christ himself. You will never run out. And I use the analogy that Ajay said he liked. It's like being thirsty and going up to the edge of Lake Michigan and taking a sip and saying, I hope I don't run out of water.
You're not going to run out of water because there's not a deeper, more powerful, life changing preaching than Jesus Christ and him crucified.
So on that note, we just pray that this series has been a blessing to you and that the Spirit himself will continue to reveal Himself to you so that you may know God better. We love you guys. Have a great week. Bye. Bye.
We hope you were encouraged by today's discussion. If so, please subscribe and share with your family and friends. The Unveiling podcast is available on most most major podcast apps. Thanks for listening and we will see you again the next time.
All of my days, Lord, I will delight in you all the days of my life in you I will delight in you I will play.
