If I may just bring a brief word
of exhortation prior to turning to the scriptures and our study
therein. I've noticed in the previous
meetings last night, this morning, and again tonight, that apparently
some of us have not yet found it able to make the transition
from our own church life to our gatherings here. And I'm sure
Mr. Wenger was aware of this this
morning, even before the final benediction was pronounced. There
was a buzzing of conversation going on after the singing of
the last hymn, and almost a raucous talking and chatter prior to
coming to the word of God. And I'm sure that 98% of the
talk is perfectly innocent, legitimate talk, but I do think it would
help to set our minds in the direction of the seriousness,
the awesome privilege of coming into the presence of God in that
peculiar way in which God is present in the midst of his gathered
people, if all of us would appoint ourselves committees of one,
to be sure that when we come and have a few minutes, we do
not use the time for chatter, but that we open the word of
God or quietly meditate therein, and likewise in between the offering
and the servants of Christ ministering to us. Unless my ears are grossly
deceiving me, a number of you are taking this as opportunities
for, I'm sure again, innocent conversation. But let me remind
you that we are coming in a very special sense into the presence
of God when we come as his gathered people. This is not scolding.
It is a little word of pastoral exhortation, which I find I must
periodically bring to my own people, and I trust you will
suffer the word of exhortation, and particularly that we as adults
will in so doing set a good example to the younger ones. Now for
the benefit of those who were not with us last evening, and
I know there are quite a few of you who have come in today,
I will take just a few minutes to review the main threads of
thought that I sought to lay before you from the scriptures
and then proceed with what I did not finish last night. The subject
matter assigned to me was that of the person and work of the
Holy Spirit, and I suggested to you last night that rather
than come and attempt to give some kind of a broad, sketchy
overview of that very vast biblical subject, that I would rather
lay out some very broad principles which apply to all of the facets
of the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit, and then zero in
more particularly upon His regenerating work, which I trust to begin,
God willing, tomorrow night, and then conclude with an exposition
of Ephesians 430 on grieving not the Holy Spirit. Last evening
I sought to lay before you something of the importance of having a
biblically framed understanding of the person and work of the
Holy Spirit, and I drew out three lines of argument or three lines
of thought relative to the tremendous importance of this subject. And
I suggested to you from the scriptures that first of all our conception
of salvation is less than biblical. unless it is decidedly and self-consciously
Trinitarian. Secondly, our worship is not
biblical unless it also is self-consciously and decidedly Trinitarian. And thirdly, our service is less
than biblical unless it partakes of that same self-conscious Trinitarian
perspective. Christians are those who have
been wrought upon by the living God in a way of grace, and the
God who thus lays hold of them is the God who is Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. And the failure then to give
the Holy Spirit his rightful place, both in our thinking of
salvation, in our worship, and in our service, has had three
very tragic results. First of all, and most tragic,
it has robbed God of much glory that is due to Him. Secondly,
it has created a climate in which man has too much authority and
glory. And last of all, it has created
a vacuum into which extreme views on the work of the Holy Spirit
have rushed. And so if we are dead in earnest
about giving God the glory that is due Him, and every Christian
is, if we are dead in earnest, that God shall be magnified in
the midst of His Church. That's one of the great purposes
of the Church, that through the Church might be made known unto
the principalities and powers the manifold wisdom of God. And
if we are concerned that we be immunized against error, then
we must be concerned with developing an intelligent, biblically framed
conception of the work of the Holy Spirit. one that is not
only clear in its judgment, but warm and practical in its experience
of that truth. Then I began last night to trace
out five principles relative to the person and work of the
Spirit, principles which must always be present in all of our
thinking concerning His ministry. And we only had time to deal
with the first, which was this, we must remember the divinity
and the personality of the Holy Spirit. Whenever we speak of
the Holy Spirit, we are speaking of Him who is God, and we are
speaking of Him who is a person. And the implications of this
fact are many. I will not review several of
those that we touched on last night. Thus far, our review. Now I want to proceed and attempt
to cover the other four principles. I don't know how far we'll get.
I'm going to attempt to get through them. If we don't, well, we'll
pick up again tomorrow evening. The second fundamental principle
relative to the work of the Holy Spirit, particularly in our salvation,
is what I'm calling, very simply, the absolute necessity of the
Spirit's work and ministry. We must not only constantly remind
ourselves of his divinity and his personality, that he is God
and that he is person, but the absolute necessity of his work
and of his ministry. In his excellent treatise on
the Office and Work of the Holy Spirit by James Buchanan, a book
which treats of his office and work particularly in the matter
of conversion, Buchanan says, and I now quote, The first thought
that will occur to every reflecting mind in perusing our Lord's address
to his disciples immediately before his departure, that is,
John chapters 14, 15, and 16, is that the work of the Spirit
in its own place is as needful and as important as the work
of Christ himself. We are too apt in modern times
to overlook the necessity or to underrate the value of the
Spirit's grace. We talk much of the Savior, but
little of the sanctified. Yet a consideration of the words
which Christ addressed to his disciples in the immediate prospect
of leaving them should teach us that the agency of the Spirit
is so essential and so important that His advent, that is, the
advent of the Spirit, would more than compensate for the departure
of the Savior. Look particularly, if you will
please, at John chapter 16 and verse 7. John 16 and verse 7. In the context of these final
words of our Lord to His disciples prior to His crucifixion, He
says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for
you that I go away. Now if you were to come to one
of the disciples, and in particular to one of the apostolic band,
and say to them, tell me, what is the greatest tragedy that
could possibly occur in your life? I am confident that all,
with the exception of Judas, upon serious reflection on that
question would answer, the most terrible tragedy that could occur
in my life is that I should be severed from the Lord Jesus Christ,
the one who had been to them the source of all light and all
truth and all grace. The one who, when he asked them
the question, will ye also go away, they answered, Peter speaking
on behalf of the others, Lord, to whom else can we go? Thou
hast the words of eternal life. What in their eyes would be life's
greatest tragedy, Jesus is now telling them will be the opening
up of life's greatest blessing. It is expedient for you that
I go away, for, he says, the coming of the Comforter is contingent
upon my departure. If I go not away, he will not
come. If I go away, he will come. And
in his coming, Jesus said, instead of your blessings shriveling
up, Your blessings will expand and enlarge and overflow and
spread out and inundate a whole world. And in this discourse,
our Lord then lays before the disciples the necessity of the
Spirit's work and ministry, giving them to understand that just
as there could be no fulfillment of the Father's purpose without
His incarnation, His own crucifixion, His own resurrection and subsequent
ascension and session at the right hand of the Father, so
He gives them to understand, without His going back away from
them and the Holy Spirit coming to them, the purposes of God
in salvation cannot be realized. And so again and again, in these
three chapters, our Lord underscores the principle that the vital,
present, personal activity of the Holy Spirit is just as essential
to the economy of grace as was the temporal presence and death
and resurrection of Christ, the anointed Messiah. And so then
whenever we talk and think and pray over and preach upon and
seek to work out biblical concepts relative to the work of the Spirit,
we're not dealing with some extra in the Christian life. We are
dealing with that which is absolutely essential in the whole economy
or plan of God's redemptive purposes. Now the scripture makes this
very clear with reference to every one of us as individuals.
The Holy Spirit is not luxury to you. Just as much as we may
say of a man who dies outside of Christ, he died a Christless
death, and he will go on to a Christless eternity. We may say with equal
conviction and awful horror, he died a spiritless death. and will go to a spiritless eternity. For does not the Scripture say
in Romans 8 in verse 9, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ,
he is none of his? What frightening words! If any
man have not the Spirit, this One who is God and who is person,
if he does not have Him, In His gracious, powerful, inward workings,
He is as loft as though Christ never was incarnate, as though
Christ never died, as though Christ never rose, as though
He never had any dealings with Him. For it is only in that personal,
inward, and powerful work of the Spirit that we are brought
into living relationship with all the virtue and grace that
is bound up in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not only absolutely
necessary for the individual and his salvation, he is absolutely
necessary in his living presence for the Church. What is the Church? Well, that's a very broad question,
but I would like to answer it by directing your attention to
Ephesians chapter 2, in which we see that the presence of the
Holy Spirit is not luxury. And we may say in the light of
this passage that it is His presence which constitutes the Church,
the Church of the Living God. Verse 18 of Ephesians 2, For
through Him, that is, through Jesus Christ, we both, Jews and
Gentiles, have our access in one Spirit unto the Father. What is it? That, as it were,
places the bridge between the Christ revealed in Scripture
as the only mediator and living, active relationship with the
God who is revealed as the Father of all who trust in Christ. Paul
says, in the one Spirit that we have access through Christ
unto the Father. So then ye are no more strangers
and sojourners, but ye are fellow citizens with the saints in the
household of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone.
Where there is no apostolic doctrine, there is no church. That's clear
in the passage. Where there is no apostolic doctrine,
there is no church. There may be building, there
may be pastor, there may be consistory, there may be session, there may
be board of elders, board of deacons, services, sermons, choirs,
prayers, but if there is no apostolic doctrine, there is no church.
There is synagogue of Satan. Relinquishment of apostolic doctrine
negates the presence of the Church. He says you are built into that
Church which has as its foundation the doctrine of the apostles
and prophets. Secondly, where Christ Jesus
as the anointed Messiah the incarnate Son of God, in the glory of His
person and the perfection of His work, where He is not present,
where all you have is Christ, the sum total of all the religious
aspirations of men, where all you have is Christ, the symbol
of what is good and lovely and pure and nice and kind, and there
is no longer the Christ of God. The eternal Word made flesh,
anointed by the Father, to be the only prophet, priest, and
king of His people. You have no church! May I say
to any of you who are dabbling with any kind of religious institution
that does not have apostolic doctrine and the revealed truth
of Christ, get out of it! Your very presence compromise and contradiction
of your professed love to Him. But there's another ingredient.
Listen. In whom each several buildings
fitly framed together groweth into a holy temple in the Lord,
this is a living thing, in whom ye are built together for a habitation
of God in the Spirit. So there is not only There's
access to the Father through the Son. Apostolic doctrine. Christ as revealed in Scripture. But there is the living presence
of the Spirit of God. We are built together to be what?
to the inhabitation of God in the Spirit. The temple in Israel
was just a very fancy, beautiful collection of stones and other
ornamental things until the glory of God came and filled it. That's
what set it apart from all the heathen temples. Until that dedication of the
temple and the living presence came and everyone was awed, that
was qualitatively no different from any temple made by the heathen. Any old heathen can cut out stones
and build a building. The heathen could not bring the
Shekinah into that building. And it's when God Himself came
and filled that temple with His glory and His presence that He
was bearing witness, this is My covenant people, not because
they can build a beautiful building, but because I make My presence
known amongst them. What is true in type in the Old
Testament is true in the reality of the New. That which sets us
apart is not that we can organize. Not that we can incorporate ourselves
and raise money and build buildings and build bigger ones and support
missionaries and have a good, full church program. You can
have all of those things without the Holy Ghost. If you don't
believe me, go to the nearest Mormon church and see what they're
doing. Go to the nearest Kingdom Hall and see what they're doing.
Those things are in and of themselves no evidence of a true church. What is the evidence? They turn
to 1 Corinthians 14, and Paul says, if the unbeliever comes
amongst you, and all prophesy, that is, they speak the words
of God, the thoughts of his heart are laid bare, and he, falling
down upon his face, will cry out, God is of the truth among
you. You are the people of the presence. This is what makes you different.
Yeah, your hands were a little different. And your form of worship
was different. And there were a lot of things
different. But this is the thing that makes you different about
anything else I've known in any heathen temple, in any pagan
place of worship. The living God is in your midst. And all my dear fellow Christians,
without that, you're something less than true churches. Let
me press the question to your conscience. When's the last time
the unconverted who happen to come into the midst of your prayer
meeting, into the midst of your Sunday morning worship or Sunday
evening worship? When was the last time someone
Perhaps not immediately, but in subsequent unfolding of his
spiritual history, said, you know the thing that gripped me
when I came within your doors? Oh, sure, I was struck by the
simplicity of your buildings. I was used to more ornate buildings. I was struck by the fact that
the preacher didn't have on clerical garb and didn't talk with somnolence,
ministerial terms, and all the other business. But the thing
that gripped me was that these people seemed to be in vital
communion with someone. And I couldn't see him, but I
knew he was there. And when the preacher preached,
sure it was the Bible I had seen, and sure there were words I had
heard. But somehow, between the opening of His mouth and the
reading and exposition of the Word, there was a divine energy
that sat upon those words, and I felt like someone split my
heart open, and that the judgment day had been brought near. God
was in your midst. I say, my dear brothers and sisters,
until it grips us, that that kind of living presence of the
living God is an essential factor of the true Church, we'll not
be desperate to know it. We'll be content to grind out
our services, and listen to our sermons, and say our prayers,
and pay the mortgage, and pay the rent, and pay the utility
bills, and up the pastor's salary with a cost of living increase,
and everything will go on as usual. But when a period of weeks and
months passes and there have not been those blessed surprises,
those outbreakings of the presence of God amongst us, we'll begin
to be desperate and we'll begin to cry and plead, O Lord, come
with grace and with power amongst your people. I say then, we must
recognize the absolute necessity of the Spirit's work and ministry,
not only to us individually, if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of His, not only with reference to the
Church, builded together to be a habitation of God by the Spirit,
but with reference to our ministry to the world. Jesus said in John
chapter 16, And when He, the Spirit, is come, John 16 and
verse 8, And He, when He is come, will
reprove or convince the world in respect of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. Now, to whom was He coming? He
was coming to His own. He was coming to those within
the framework of covenant relationship with the living God through Jesus
Christ. And our Lord is telling them
in this passage All of your effective ministry to the world is contingent
upon His coming to you. Parallel that with Acts 1.8,
ye shall receive power, the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and ye
shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria,
and the uttermost parts of the earth. Oh, may God fill us all
not just with new, notional ideas about the necessity of the Spirit's
work and ministry, but an inward, personal, experimental awareness
of the absolute necessity of His work in the whole economy
of redemption. Let me close this point by quoting
again very briefly from Buchanan. The Holy Spirit, no less than
the Father and the Son, has an important office in the work
of our salvation, and it belongs to Him to apply to individuals
the redemption that was purchased by the Savior. It is equally
true that but for Christ's death, the Spirit would not have been
given And that for the Spirit's, but for the Spirit's work, Christ's
death would have been in vain. Christ does not die, the Spirit
is not given. Christ dies, the Spirit must
be given. Or Buchanan says, and it almost
sounds blasphemous to say it, Christ had died in vain. This was the view entertained
by the divines. And you young people, when you
hear people talk about divines, that's just an old word for the
theologians, the serious Bible students of the Reformation. And accordingly, you will mark
a singular beauty in the arrangement of the shorter catechism, where
after a full account is given of Christ's work as a mediator,
both in the state of his humiliation and exaltation, The Spirit's
agency in the application of redemption to individuals is
interposed betwixt the work of Christ and the saving benefits
which flow from Christ to his people. You have of Christ the
mediator, and before you treat the subjects of justification,
sanctification, glorification, and adoption, You have the work
of the Spirit in taking all the benefits procured by Christ the
Mediator to apply them and make them effectual to the hearts
of men. It is the Spirit's work which
connects the two, which forms the link between the purchase
of salvation on the part of the Redeemer and the enjoyment of
salvation on the part of His people, and never till this great
article of our faith is duly understood and acknowledged shall
we either feel as we ought how absolutely we are dependent upon
free grace from first to last, nor how admirably at every stage
God has provided for us the grace which we need. So then, in all
our thinking concerning this divine being who is person, we
must consider the absolute necessity of his work. Now then, let us
move on to a consideration of a third principle. Having looked
at the necessity of remembering he is divine, he is person, having
looked at the principle of the absolute necessity of his work,
consider in the third place the identity of his work or the unity
of his work with that of the Father and of the Son. That there is an absolute unity
between the work of the Spirit and that of the Father and of
the Son. One of the great problems that
many people in our day face when they try to understand the work
of Christ is that they separate the work of Christ from the purpose
of the Father. I often have people, but not
often, but enough that I've seen it form a pattern. who when they
begin to be aware of historic Christianity, the thinking of
the people of God in past ages as embodied in their confessions,
such as the Westminster Standards, or the Heidelberg Catechism,
and the canons of the Synod of Dort, and the London Confession,
one of the questions they begin to have when they consider what
God's people have confessed to be their understanding of the
Scriptures in bygone days is they say, well, I can't understand
this about Christ dying for his sheep, dying for his people with
a purpose to redeem and save only his own. And so they come
up with a few texts of scripture, which on the surface seem to
contradict that confession. And they'll say, well, what do
you do with 1 John 2.2? Or what do you do with John 3.16?
Well, I do nothing. But I hope, believe them. And
I hope understand them. But my answer to them is this,
before we discuss any given text relative to the extent of the
intent of God in the death of his son, let me ask you a question.
Did Jesus Christ die as a private individual? Or did what he do
in his death have some reference to the Father who sent him? Well,
if they know the most rudimentary facets of biblical truth, they
will answer, why, of course, Jesus came to do the will of
the Father. He said, I came down from heaven
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
In the book of Hebrews we read, Lo, I come, in the volume of
the book it is written of me, to do thy will. Jesus said, I
do always the things that please my Father. As he's about to go
back to heaven in John 17, he says, Father, I've finished the
work you gave me to do. Well, when they confess to me
then that they say, oh yes, there's a relationship between what Jesus
did on earth and what the Father sent him to do, then I ask the
next question. What did the Father send him
to do? What was the purpose of the Father? And generally they'll
say, well, I'm not quite too sure. And then it's my joy to
turn them to passages such as John 6, in which Jesus says,
I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will
of him that sent me. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that of all that he hath given me I should lose none,
but raise it at the last day. I turn them to John 17, where
Jesus lifts up his eyes to heaven and says, I sanctify thee, I
have glorified thee on the earth, having accomplished the work
which thou gavest me to do. What was that work? Verse 6,
I manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest me out of
the world. Thine they were, thou gavest
them to me, they have kept thy word. He came to save the people
that were given to him. Now why am I saying all of this?
simply to establish this principle. Just as the work of the Son cannot
be understood when wrenched loose from the purpose of the Father,
so the work of the Spirit must never be viewed apart from the
same purpose of the Father and added to that the intention of
the purchase of the Son. Hence the third great principle. relative to the work of the Holy
Spirit is what I'm calling the essential unity of His work with
that of the Father and the Son. Now I did not say identity. I mistakenly used that word at
the beginning, but I did not mean it. Now you kids, you know
the difference between unity and identity, and you listen
as I use an illustration. Tomorrow, the Lord willing, we
have a nice day. Some of us are going to go out
and play some ball. And if the team has a proper number on it,
there'll be nine men or boys, or a mixture of both, or some
men who think they are boys, and something in between, who
go out to play ball. Now, if you're playing ball the
way you ought to, there's absolute unity of purpose in each seat,
each side. If we're playing hardball, real
baseball, and you're the pitcher, you have one ball in mind when
that batter comes up. Your goal is not to give your
catcher some exercise, not to impress the batter that you've
got a nice motion, you have one goal, you want to get him out.
And the catcher's got one goal, he wants to get him out. There's
unity of purpose. And third baseman's got one goal,
get him out. And the shortstop, get him out.
Second baseman, get him out. First baseman, get him out. Center
fielder, left fielder, right fielder, get him out. That's
your one unifying purpose. Now you don't go about that purpose
the same way. If you're a pitcher, how do you go about your purpose?
Well, you try to throw strikes, but not right over the heart
of the plate, because if the guys can hit, they're going to
get some. No, you're going to try to cut the corners of the plate. Pitch
him on the low inside corner, just above the knees, a little
bit high and outside. You've got one objective, get
him out. Now the catcher's got the same objective. But can you
imagine what happened if he tried to do it the same way you did?
No, no, his job is to catch the balls you're throwing in. The
third baseman is unified in his purpose. He's to get the ground
balls and get them to first before the batter gets there. If it's
a line drive, he's to catch it before it hits the ground. There
is unity of purpose, but there is not identity of function. Third baseman has his particular
job. Catcher has his. Pitcher has his. And though there
is a breakdown, because in this case you have nine distinct persons,
In the Godhead there is but one divine essence, one divine being. But in the mystery of the Trinity,
there is, as it were, an assignment of responsibility. And in the
one God, there is perfect unity of purpose. Octavius Winslow,
in his excellent treatise on the work of the Holy Spirit,
says on this very point, No truth shines with clearer luster in
the divine word than that salvation from first to last is of God. It is convincingly and beautifully
shown to be the work of the glorious Trinity in unity, each person
of the Godhead occupying a distinct and peculiar office, and yet
all engaged upon and, as it were, coalescing, that means flowing
together, in this mighty undertaking. The Father is represented as
giving His elect in the covenant engagement to His Son, John 17,
2. The Son is represented as assuming
in eternity the office of a surety, that is, a substitute and a representative,
and in the fullness of time appearing in human form and suffering for
their sins upon the cross. Romans 8.3. The Holy Ghost is
represented as convincing of sin, working faith in the heart,
and leading to the atoning blood. John 16, 8. Thus is salvation
shown to be the entire work of the triune God, distinct in office,
yet one in purpose. Now is that just some kind of
a nice logical deduction from the doctrine of the Trinity?
No! It is the explicit statement of passage after passage in the
Word of God, and it is the implicit, underlying, unifying factor of
the whole Word of God. And it's like getting a new Bible.
When you see that the unifying factor of Scripture is the one
God, administering the one covenant of grace to save His one people
out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue, and nation, and the
purpose of the Father, and the purchase of the Son, and the
powerful application of the Spirit, all flowing together, coalescing
in the accomplishment of that work in which the Father will
not be disappointed, the Son shall see of the travail of His
soul and be satisfied, and the Spirit shall be an omnipotent
conqueror in the work of applying God's grace. We saw this last
night in Ephesians 1, did we not? When Paul blesses God for
that great salvation, that is stored up in Jesus Christ. He not only traces its source,
and I direct your attention to that passage again. He directs
our attention to the work of the Father. Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus, who has blessed us, believers,
those who are in Christ. He has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. even as he chose us
in him before the foundation of the world. Away with all of
this drivel, that election and the concepts are for theologians,
but the common people only get confused and churches get split. Who was Paul writing to? Was
he writing to the theological society at Ephesus? Was he writing
to those who had their PhD in philosophy and doctors of divinity? He's writing to former pagan
idol worshippers who practiced the occult arts and had to burn
their books of witchcraft. People who were utterly ignorant,
many of them, of even the Old Testament scriptures. He says,
you were those Gentiles without hope, without God, in the stinging
blackness of pagan light. Here they are, most of them just
about five years old in the Lord, if they were saved at the beginning
of Paul's ministry. And he writes to them with a
heart bursting with the joy of God's salvation. Blessed be the
God who chose us, who foreordained to make us his very sons. And he moves in the whole sweep
of this panoramic view from eternity, God's electing and for-ordinating
purposes, down to the work of the Son and the application of
that work by the Holy Spirit. And the vision that the Apostle
has is that there is essential unity in the work of the Spirit
with that of the Father and of the Son. Just as there is no division
of essence where the Son is, the Spirit, and the Father are,
so there is no division of purpose and of work. Turn to John chapter
14 for a moment, please. This is a passage that used to
trouble me, but now it thrills me. And I hope the list of those
passages that trouble me but thrill me gets larger with each
passing day. If you have no passages that
trouble you, you won't have many that thrill you when God opens
them up to you. In John chapter 14, verses 17
and 18, Jesus says, back up to verse 16, And I will pray the
Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may
be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world
cannot receive, for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him.
But ye know him, for he abideth with you, and shall be in you."
He says the spirit of truth is going to come. And I'm going
to pray the Father and He will give you this comforter. So He
is distinct from the Son who prays and from the Father who
gives. That's clear, isn't it? I think even you youngsters can
see that if you're listening. See it? He says, I, Jesus, will
pray to the Father and He will give, not me, but the comforter.
And yet Jesus goes on to say in verse 18, I will not leave
you desolate. I come to you. in a little while
in the world beholdeth me no more. But ye behold me, because
I live, ye shall live also. In that day ye shall know that
I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. I'm going to
send the comforter, but I'm going to come." And he adds to that
in verse 23, Jesus answered and said, If a man love me, he will
keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto
him. and make our abode with him."
Well, who comes? The Comforter, the Son, or the
Father? Well, where one person of the
Triune God is, all of the persons are there, for there is an indivisibility
in the essence of God. Where the Spirit is, the Father
and the Son And though in the work of our salvation, in its
application, the ministry of the Spirit is dominant, and He
has, I use these terms for I don't know any better to use, distinct
responsibility and function, there is not any division in
the essence of the Godhead. I am dwelt by the living God. Father, Son, and Spirit, so that
I may say, God dwells in me. And I have biblical warrant for
that. Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost,
which ye have of God? The passage read this morning,
the living God says, I will dwell in them and walk in them. Yet
the scripture says, Christ dwells in my heart by faith. And yet,
wonder of wonders, I may say, the Spirit dwells within. Well,
most evangelicals have no problem with confessing this. There is
no division of essence in the work of the Godhead, but just
as certainly there is no division of purpose and of accomplishment. So on the day of Pentecost, when
the Spirit is poured forth, how does Peter tie it all together?
Turn to Acts chapter 2, and you see, he's explaining what has
happened. Something so stupendous has happened
that it's caused a disruption in the normal religious life
of Israel. Some unexpected intrusions have come. And Peter stands to
explain this phenomena, and he does so in the light of the Old
Testament Scriptures, and then what has recently transpired.
And he says in verse 32 of Acts 2, This Jesus did God raise up,
whereof we are all witnesses. Being therefore by the right
hand of God exalted, here's the activity of the Father in raising
up His Son, in giving Him a place of exaltation and power. He being
by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father
the Lord Jesus as the mediator, having received of the Father
the promise of the Holy Spirit, He hath poured forth this which
ye now see and hear. You see this unity of purpose? The Son dies, the Father raises
Him, the Spirit is given, the Spirit is poured forth. There
is no division in the purpose and work of the Triune Godhead. So when you read through the
Scriptures, you see this beautiful unity. Well, someone says again,
yeah, well, that's all right and well, but what are the practical
implications? Perhaps some of you serving here
this week so graciously and attending upon our needs You say, look,
I've got to go back to serving tables in the morning. What's
all that have to say to me? Many of you men who've got to
go back to a shop. of ungodly men, and you women
back into neighborhoods with ungodly neighbors where you're
seeking to bear a witness, and some of you young people back
into pagan neighborhoods in the Sodom-like existence of the summer,
which is a source of unusual temptation. And you say, all
right, that's all right and well for the subject matter of a Sunday
night study, the essential unity of the work of the Spirit with
that of the Father and the Son. But what's that all say to me?
It says an awful lot to you. has great practical implications.
I'll only trace out one or two. Since there is no ministry of
the Spirit unrelated to the Father's purpose in election and the Son's
purchase in redemption, we can understand the ministry of the
Spirit only in relationship to those two things. Now, what is
dominant in the Father's purpose in election? Well, if you turn
to two key texts in the New Testament, you have your answer. One we've
already read, Ephesians chapter 1. According as He chose us in
Him, now listen carefully, that we should be happy and without
sorrow before Him in exuberant joy? That isn't what the Holy
Ghost says. The text says, according as He
has chosen us in Him, that we should be holy and without blemish
before Him, in love having predestined us under the adoption of sons. What is central in the Father's
electing purpose is to take fallen, depraved, vile, hell-deserving
sons of Adam and to so move upon them and in them in a way of
grace that they will stand before his own burning eye, and he will
find no spot or no wrinkle in them whatsoever. The other key
text is Romans 8 and verse 29, in which the apostle says, whom
he foreknew, that is, those whom God regarded with distinguishing
love and affection, he predestined or predetermined or marked out
beforehand to be conformed to the image of his Son. when the
whole scheme of redemption was laid in the vast recesses of
the womb of eternity long before they spilled out in the gracious
designs that we now know. What was God's purpose? His purpose
was to have a great multitude of redeemed ones who will be
so renovated by grace that Jesus Christ will be the elder brother
amidst the family of God and the family resemblance will be
so complete, so complete, that no lesser term than this is warranted,
conformed to the image of His Son. That's the Father's purpose
in election. Well, if that's true, what's
the purpose of the Son in the work of redemption? Both as He
dies, offering Himself up in oblation, Now as he intercedes,
well the scripture answers it. Two key texts again. Ephesians
5. Christ loved the church and gave
himself for the church. Why? What does it say? That he
might make it happy? That he might make it wealthy?
That he might make it successful? All of this presentation of the
Gospel that puts the essential emphasis upon man's happiness,
man's well-being, is a deflection from the truth of the Word of
God. That is not what the text says. The text says that he loved
the Church and gave himself for it, that he might present it
to himself, a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle for any
such thing. That's his purpose. It had to
be. Why? Because what Jesus did in
his purchase is linked inseparably to the purpose of the Father
in election. Second key text, Titus chapter
2. Who gave himself for us? Verse
14. that he might redeem us from
all iniquity and purify to himself a people his distinct possession,
zealous of good works. Jesus died to have a people whom
he can call his own, who will gladly acknowledge that they
are his own possession, and who out of love to him will be zealous
to please him. That's why he died. No lesser
vision was in His mind and heart when He travailed, as it were,
in birth upon the cross with the birth pangs of bringing forth
all that is elect. The joy that was set before Him
was the knowledge that He would not die in vain, but in His death
there would come forth that multitude of the redeemed ones who would
be zealous to please Him and to walk in His ways. Now if that's
the purpose of the Father in election, the purpose of the
Son in sacrifice and obeisance, what then is the purpose of the
Spirit in applying redemption? Is it to come and make people
primarily happy, happy, happy all the time? make them just
well-integrated personalities with a constant 32-toother to
go around and impress people that Christians aren't such a
bad lot at all, and try to, as it were, win the world by the
world's estimation of what Christianity ought to be? No, no. The Holy Ghost has come. in essential
unity with the purpose of the Father and of the Son. So when
the Spirit comes with power to lay hold of a man, how does He
do it? Well, I direct you again to two texts in the New Testament,
and only two in each case, because there are so many and I must
be selective. Turn please to 2 Thessalonians 2. 2 Thessalonians
2. And verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks
to God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, for that
God chose you from the beginning unto salvation. Now notice the
next phrase. In sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth, Whereunto he called you through our gospel
to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do
you see the sweeping expanse of this statement? It takes us
from eternity to eternity. Notice, he says we give thanks
to God. We don't give thanks to you that
you were smart enough to decide you ought to get saved. He says
we give thanks to God. The fact that you're in grace
is the evidence that God's done something. I heard a man say
the other day, in giving a gospel invitation, and he was well-meaning. He said, now I'm here to tell
you that Jesus Christ is a perfect gentleman. He'll never intrude
upon your life. He'll just stand in door and knock and wait till
you comply. And I sat there and said, oh
Lord, thank you that you were no gentleman with me. Thank you
for your blessed intrusion, that you knocked down the door of
my rebellion, and you came in and invaded my life, and made
me your own. Hallelujah. For the intrusions
of grace. Thank God he didn't act very
gentlemanly with the apostle Paul. Knocked him off a horse
and blinded him. Now the next person you see riding a horse,
you knock him off and blind him and then say, now I've done what
a gentleman does. But that's what the Lord did, did he not?
Knocked him off his horse, left him groveling in the dust and
blind. But blessed be God, out of that
blindness came the cry, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
Now when the Holy Ghost does that, how does he do it? Look
at the text. He hath chosen you from the beginning
unto salvation, and what's the first evidence that that salvation
is come with its blessed intrusion? In sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth. There is never any genuine belief
of the truth unless it is joined by the inward, powerful, sanctifying
operation of the Spirit. And in conversion, not some subsequent
dedication, rededication, baptism of the Spirit, consecration,
full surrender, any other term you want, but at the threshold
of life, when the truth of Christ is believed, there is consummate
with it the mighty sanctifying work of the Spirit, breaking
the dominion of sin. subduing the rebel will and leading
the sinner captive to Jesus Christ. Now he does not immediately purge
away all the remains of sin. Sin remains, but it no longer
reigns. Sin is present, but it is no
longer president. Sin is there to defile, but it
no longer has dominion. Now, why is that so? Well, how
could it be other? If that was the Father's purpose
when he chose us, that we should be holy, and Jesus died that
we should be holy, what else can the Spirit do when he comes
to apply what the Father purposed and the Son purchased, but do
it in a way of making us holy? That's the pervasive teaching
of the Word of the Living God. Hence, when we think about the
Holy Spirit in our day, there's all this furor about the gifts
of the Spirit. And I have neophytes who've been
supposedly converted for a matter of months and have had the privilege,
and I say that in quotes, of reading two or three little pamphlets
on 1 Corinthians 12 or 14, occasionally show up at our church and come
to me with a very accommodating look and say, do you preach about
the gifts of the Spirit? My friend, the scripture makes
very, very clear that it's possible to have gifts, but no saving
grace. But the Bible says it's impossible
to have graces without grace. You can have gifts without grace.
Read Matthew 7, 21 to 23. Many will say in that day, Lord,
Lord, did we not preach? Did we not perform miracles,
cast out demons? The Lord says, I'll give you
your case. But you knew nothing of inward sanctifying grace.
Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. First Corinthians 13
says, If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, assuming
the possibility, but have not love, profiteth me nothing. Give
my body to be burned. Have all wisdom, all knowledge,
not love. But you can't have graces without
grace. For Jesus said, You make the
tree good and its fruit good, or the tree corrupt and its fruit
corrupt. For the tree is known by its fruits. Jesus said, a
corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit. A corrupt tree can
have even miraculous gifts. The Bible and Church history
make that abundantly clear, that supernatural gifts are no evidence
of inward grace. And inward grace has flourished
in the most powerful periods of the history of the Church
without supernatural gifts. And that's a fact of church history.
And so all this preoccupation with the charismatic gifts, whatever
our particular views may be, this much we know, it's out of
balance with the Word of God. The great, dominant ministry
of the Spirit is to apply with power what Jesus purchased, and
what Jesus purchased was in keeping with the Father's purpose, and
stamped over it all are these words, Holiness unto the Lord. So may God burn into our hearts
this most vital aspect of His truth, And then I have time to
touch on just one more, and we'll leave the other one for a full
treatment, God willing, tomorrow night. And I've already suggested
this and hinted at it, so I hope it will be rather easy to move
into it very naturally. The fourth great principle relative
to the work of the Spirit is that the primary focus of the
Spirit's work in salvation is that of glorifying Christ. We
turn, please, to John, chapter 16. John, chapter 16, beginning with
verse 7. Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth. It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not
away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I go, I
will send him unto you. And it's as though the disciples
say, Lord, when you send this one called the Comforter, what
can we expect? In what ways can we anticipate
his activity? How will we recognize him? Jesus
goes on to, as it were, answer that question. And he, when he
has come, will convict the world in respect of sin. and of righteousness
and of judgment. Notice the objectivity of the
Spirit's ministry. He comes not to give people some
nebulous idea of fulfillment. In some vague way, He comes to
underscore, you're a sinner. God is your Creator, you're His
creature, you've offended Him, you're liable to judgment. The
Holy Ghost has come to do that work, not to just inject, bypassing
the mind, some warm, gushy feeling about love and God and the people
of God. No, no, that's not the work of
the Holy Ghost. He's come to bring conviction
in respect of sin and of righteousness. the objective standard of God
that's been violated, which demands our damnation, which can only
be silenced by our payment or the payment of an adequate substitute,
and of judgment, of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness
because I go to the Father and ye behold me no more, of judgment
because the prince of the world hath been judged, I have many
things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. How be
it when he, the Spirit of truth, is come? He shall guide you into
all the truth, for he shall not speak from himself, but what
things to ever he shall hear, these shall he speak. He shall
declare unto you the things that are to come. Now notice. He shall
glorify Me, for He shall take of Mine and shall declare it
unto you. All things whatsoever the Father
hath are Mine. Therefore I said, He taketh of
Mine and shall declare it unto you. You see what He's saying?
He's saying, now you've lived with Me for some three years. You think you know Me, who I
am and what I've done. But there's so much I want to
tell you, but you can't take it now. You can't take it. You've been in kindergarten.
But the Spirit's going to come and lead you through grammar
school and up into high school and on into graduate school.
And all along the way, He's going to have one great theme. He's
going to take the fullness that is in me, and in ever-increasing
measures, He's going to open it up before you. so that the
great theme of the work of the Spirit, the primary focus of
His work, is to glorify Christ. Now, how does He do that? Let
me very quickly suggest three ways. He glorifies Christ by
revealing the truth about Him. That is, the truth about Him
who is incarnate, crucified, resurrected, exalted Lord and
Messiah. The Holy Spirit comes to take
the objective truth of the objective Christ and reveal that truth
to men. He glorifies Christ, secondly,
by drawing the hearts of men to trust Him, to love Him, and
to obey Him. And thirdly, He glorifies Christ
by producing moral likeness to Him. But we all, with open face,
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed
into that same image from one stage of glory to another. How?
Even by the Lord, the Spirit. So the work of glorifying Christ
is done as the Holy Ghost reveals the truth about Him, draws the
hearts of men to trust, to love and obey Him, and then produces
likeness to Him. Now let me spend some time on
applying this principle. Why is it vital to grasp it that
the primary focus of the Spirit's work in salvation is to glorify
Christ? Let me give you three reasons.
Number one, this principle must guide us in all our assessments
of supposed or apparent workings of the Holy Spirit. You are commanded
to try the Spirit's There are times when some of us who have
a concern about doctrinal accuracy are looked upon as the killjoys
of Christian experience. I would not be surprised if there
would be some here tonight who probably say, well, you know,
somebody poured a little acid into that fellow's spirit. Why
can't he rejoice if people are coming to love Jesus? Why does
it matter how? My friend, listen. You and I
are commanded to prove the Spirits, to put them to the test, 1 John
4, 1. We're commanded in Thessalonians
to prove all things and to hold fast that which is good. Well,
how do you prove a thing? One of these kids comes up to
me and says, hey, Mr. Martin, I'm six feet tall. I look down
at him and I say, you're what? He says, I'm six feet tall. I
say, no, you're not. He says, yes, I am. I say, all right,
let's prove whether or not you are. And how do we prove it?
Not by standing there having an argument, or because I say,
look, I'm going to beat you up, and when you're lying in the
dust, then you say I'm not six feet tall. He could lie there
with welts all over him saying, I'm six feet tall. There's one way. Put it to the
test. How do we do it? We go get a
yardstick. We go to Mr. Oldham, we say,
Mr. Oldham, do you have a yardstick? He says, yes, I do. We go, we
make a mark on the wall at three feet, and then we turn it up
once and make another one. And I say, now look, buddy, you
go out over there and stand. Guys, I'm going to put a mark right
where the top of your head is, and I'm even going to give you two inches
extra. I put a little mark, and then you walk away. And I said,
now how tall are you? Well, I ain't six feet tall. And I said, that's
right, you aren't. You know why you aren't? Because
you have not proven yourself to be so. You prove something
by putting it to an objective standard. Prove! Try the Spirit. Prove all things. What is the
great line on the wall by which we evaluate, profess movements,
manifestations of the Spirit in our own lives, in our own
churches, in the world? How? Here's the test. Is the
primary focus of that apparent work the glorification of Christ? Now put those three things in
this context. How much of the truth about Christ
in his person and work is being made known, loved, and believed? And at this point I want to speak
very pointedly to a live issue. I received the magazine called
Logos. It's one of the official organs
of the so-called neo-Pentecostal movement. In it there have been
appearing some articles on the Catholic Pentecostal movement.
I've had in my home some dear friends of mine who've become
enmeshed in this. I have a long letter by the woman
involved, telling me of the great things that have happened since
she's been listening to a Catholic nun expound the doctrine of the
Holy Spirit. In these articles, there are
testimonies to the effect that since they've had the baptism
in the Spirit, the Mass has become more precious and more meaningful.
Now listen, what is the central doctrine of Christ in the Scriptures? The central doctrine of Christ
is His sacrifice upon the cross in the room instead of sinners.
And if we may use the term, the center of that central doctrine
is the once-for-all accomplishment of His death. He cried, is finished. The book of Hebrews says, by
one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And then he goes on to say, Christ
dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. And though
the liturgy has been changed from Latin to English, When the
priest does his magic hocus-pocus over the cup and the wafer, my
Lord is offered up again on their altars, and that blasphemous
theology has not changed one bit in official Catholic dogma.
Now you tell me that the Holy Ghost makes blasphemy more precious? I say no. And when I read in
the Logos magazine that priests are becoming obedient to the
faith, and weeping that they have perpetrated this blasphemous,
idolatrous lie for years and years, I will clap my hands and
dance a holy jig around my study that the Holy Ghost of Truth
has broken into the midst of error and bringing men out of
error into the truth of the glorious doctrine of Christ crucified. How much of the truth about Christ
in His person and work is known, loved, and believed? Apply the second part of that
to this essential application. To what extent are people being
drawn into submissive, loving obedience and attachment to the
Christ of Scripture? The Spirit's work is to glorify
Christ. How does He do it? Not only making
known the truth about Him, but by drawing men into loving attachment
to Him. When we behold the glory of God
in the face of Christ, it does for us what it did for Paul.
It causes us to capitulate and cry out, Lord, what wilt thou
have me to do? So you put this test to it. To
what extent is there this loving, deep attachment in love? and in obedience to Jesus Christ. You ask the third question, to
what extent is the moral image of Christ being reproduced? Meekness,
gentleness, holy boldness, zeal in the Father's work. That's
the test. Not to what extent are people
saying, I feel wonderful, I feel great. That happens in every
religion. I've met people who've been converted
through the message of Christian science and have become totally
different people. All of their frustrations, their
fears that bound them, are gone. You read any Black Panther literature?
You read of dope addicts who, when they got consumed with establishing
black supremacy and independency, quit their dope. and are now
leading purposeful, integrated lives. This has happened with hundreds
in the black Muslim movement. These are facts that cannot be
denied. Ah, but the issue is, is there
moral conformity and ethical conformity to Jesus Christ? That's quite another thing. And
where the Holy Ghost is present, he glorifies Christ by bringing
that moral lightness. Fourth question under this general
idea of this is how you evaluate a work of the Spirit. To what
extent is Christ central in the preaching? Where the Holy Ghost
is most powerfully operative, Christ will be most beautifully
displayed. not magically or sentimentally,
just talking about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, but Christ displayed doctrinally,
biblically, practically, experimentally. Where there is much of the Holy
Ghost, there will be much of Christ. Secondary, I would apply
this. This great principle has tremendous
implications with reference to all our prayer for the Spirit's
assistance. in our lives and ministries.
When you ask God to send his spirit, what do you want him
for? Do you want him to do what he's come to do? To make people
forget you and get so preoccupied with the Christ of Scripture
that you're lost in the dazzling brilliance of
his glory? Or do you want a church that's
full, so when you get in a group and people say, nothing's going
to your church, instead of saying, well, we're being faithful, you
know, being faithful, the Lord asks you to be faithful. That's
a cute little comeback we have, isn't it, preachers? Maybe your
motive for praying is you want to be able to say, praise God,
we're seeing Him. What's your motive? Is it that
you have a jealous regard that Jesus Christ will see of the
travail of His soul and be satisfied? Is it you long Him that He shall
be glorified and His power and might be manifested to men? Does it pain you that they live
in ignorance of His glory? Does it fill you with a sense
of holy frustration that they cannot see what you see and know
what you know when you commune with this One who loved you and
gave Himself for you? Ah, you see, if we have grasped
this truth that the primary focus of the Spirit's work in salvation
is to glorify Christ, it will not only help us in evaluating
supposed ministries of the Spirit, it will greatly govern our prayers. For the Spirit's work, and then
last of all, and I direct this word to my preacher brethren,
this has great implications with reference to powerful preaching. It is no accident that 1 Corinthians
2.2 moves and merges, as it were, very quickly into verse 3. And
I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ
and Him as crucified. And though I was with you in
weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my speech and
my preaching were not in persuasive words of man's wisdom, they were
in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And there is an
inseparable blood relationship between that scene and that enablement. Why is the Holy Ghost not breathed
with greater unction upon your ministry, with greater freshness
to descend to change the figure as due upon the hearts, the parched
hearts of the people of God in your assembly? Why do they go
away? Not without an outline, not without
an illustration, not without a text, But without the sweet
fragrance of a new sight of Christ, ravishing their hearts and flaming
them with zeal, could it be the Holy Ghost is not present with
power because you have some other dominant theme? And you are not
with Paul determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ, and
Him as crucified. I intended to bring along the
forgotten Spurgeon. the book The Forgotten Spurgeon,
and there's a classic section in there in pages 48 to 50, and
I'll just summarize it from memory. When Spurgeon preached that sermon
at age 20, on the name of Christ, And coming to the conclusion,
he said, let his name be extolled, let the name of Spurgeon be forgotten,
and every other name, but his name alone live on and on forever
and ever. And his wife, after his death,
recalled that she remembered that day, and it was vivid in
her memory as though it were yesterday, that upon mentioning
the name of Jesus and extolling that name, so drawn out of himself
was the young preacher of twenty that he fell back, hoarse, almost
voiceless, slumped into the seat, and there before the eyes and
the minds of men and women was an exalted Savior. Oh, my dear
preacher brothers, how long has it been since you've been so
ravished with the sight of Christ that you have, as it were, felt
that the narrow, shriveled wineskin of your own heart were burst,
and God gave you an bold that the Holy Ghost would come with
power upon our ministries. And He is most likely to come
upon that ministry, which has as its conscious focus the declaration
of the glory and the beauty and the grandeur of Jesus Christ. You say, that's a pretty limited
theme, is it? No, no. That's the comprehensive theme
of the Word of God. Paul wasn't saying, well, I'll
just stick by home base. Because of peculiar problems
there at Corinth, when he said, I determine an all-nothing among
you, St. Jesus Christ, in Him crucified, he was saying, that's
my comprehensive, my all-embracing thing. So when he preached the
law, how did he preach it? He preached it as that law which
was only fulfilled perfectly in Christ. That law, the penalty
of which Christ bore, that law, the Spirit of Christ coming within
me, now enables me to keep in evangelical love and obedience. So His law-preaching led to Christ,
drew men back to Christ. It was Christ in Him crucified,
standing over, beneath and outside all His preaching of the law.
Must we preach the law? Yes! but preach it with Christ
and Him crucified at the center. Must we preach gospel duties? Yes, we must. Tell wise. All the women's lived notwithstanding. They have a creative distinction
from man. They were made to be submissive,
made to follow. Man was made to rule in love. But when you teach evangelical
duties, teach them as Paul did. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the Church. Wives, be subject to your husbands
as the Church is subject to Christ. Everywhere he turns, Christ is
inclusified. You got to deal with the issues
of the day? Sure you do. Paul had to. Fornication. What more mundane, earthy subject
than that? And yet Christ and Him crucified
is planted right in the middle. What, he says? Don't you know
that you've been purchased? Your body is a temple of the
Holy Ghost. Would you have a God? You're
not your own. Christ and Him crucified in the
midst of dealing with fornication. And wherever Paul ranges in all
of his epistles, it's but a short track back to Christ and Him
crucified. No wonder. The Holy Ghost breathed
upon him and through him with such power. O dear fellow preachers,
if God does anything for us in these days, I hope it will not
only be the sharpening of our perception, and I am confident
under God it will be that. As Dr. DeWitt leads us in our
doctrinal studies in the mornings, as I trust the Lord will use
my ministry in the evenings and the ministry of the other brethren.
But oh, if it falls short of this, to bring back to that church
where you labor, A fresh fragrance of Christ! It's all been aborted,
and it's come to naught. And with that fresh fragrance,
God being pleased, there will be fresh unction. And may God
grant that with fresh unction will be deep conviction. And
with deep conviction, earnest seeking, and with earnest seeking,
joyful finding, and with joyful finding, the Lord adding daily
to the church, such as should be saved." Ah, but you say, what
will happen to my deep, mature believers who need to need to
the Word? Is there any greater meat to
set before them than the glory of Christ? When your appetite
gets so you can't stand that meat anymore, I'd say you're
looking after carrion, not good, stable meat. So may God help
us, as we think of the work of the Spirit, to remember not only
His divinity and personality, the absolute necessity of His
work, the essential unity of His work with that of the Father
and the Son, but the primary focus of His work, the glorification
of our blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If you're here
tonight, a lost man or woman, fellow or girl, what a joy it
is to know that even though this has been primarily a teaching
message to the people of God, if the Holy Ghost is pleased
to take some phrase about Christ and open your blinded eyes, you'll
see a glory in Christ sitting right there tonight that will
radically and pervasively transform you for eternity. May God grant
that you lay hold of Christ. even as He is set before you
in His own blessed gospel. Let us pray. O God, our Heavenly Father, we
thank You for the spirit of adoption whereby we are enabled to cry,
Abba, that is, Father. We address You as our Father.
humbled in the knowledge that you had your mind and heart set
upon us from eternity. Humbled, Lord Jesus, that you
had us in your heart when you died, that you ever have us upon
your heart and your lips as you live to intercede. We come, Holy
Spirit, humbled that you would come to indwell the likes of
us, to be grieved hundreds of times over by our stubbornness,
by our uncleanness, by our indifference. O, we thank you, triune God,
for these great blessings of grace. O, confer them powerfully
upon those who yet know nothing of their sweetness, and enlarge
the hearts of your people to drink deeply of the wells of
salvation. Hear us, our Father, and accept
our thanks for Your presence with us, and for Your infallible
Word, that certain guide in the knowledge of Yourself and of
Your ways. Hear us as we come, in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.