I was stunned when I went looking
on my computer yesterday to discover, much to my surprise, of all the books in the scriptures,
the one with the most number of references to the Spirit in
proportion to all the words in the letter is the book of Galatians. And the Spirit is not mentioned
in the first two chapters of Galatians. So if people want
to know about the Holy Spirit, and who he is and what he does,
then Galatians is a really good place to start. We don't go to
the scriptures looking for statistics to establish things. God's truth
is established by His simple word. In Galatians 3, We've had
this remarkable testimony from God, the Holy Spirit, who led
Paul to write these words. They aren't the words of a man. They are the words of God. He talks about the difference
between spiritual life and life in the flesh. But no man is justified by the
law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. And then these
verses that we looked at last week, but didn't quite get to
the end in any great detail. It says, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. that the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, without
Your Spirit's elimination, we just are reading words and speaking
words, but if you come and bless your words to our hearts, Heavenly
Father. We thank you that you have promised
to be the teacher of your people, to lead your people and guide
them into all the truth. And I pray that that might be
the case again here this morning, Heavenly Father, that you would
bless your word for your glory and for the good of the souls
of your people. I pray these things in Jesus'
name. Amen. So there's a progression
in these verses, isn't there? Christ hath not tried, not offered,
He hath, He's really redeemed, as Hebrews 9 says, He's obtained
eternal redemption, He has it in His hands and He has it for
a purpose, He has it for us, that He has redeemed us, that
the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive, not earn, not merit, that we,
the people of God, the bride of Christ, the elect of God,
we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. And last week we looked at the
fact that this is a wonderful description of the Gospel. If
someone wants you to show them a passage in Scripture that defines
the Gospel with great clarity, and these are a couple of verses,
just like 2 Corinthians 5, 21, and John 3, 16, correctly understood. And the verses prior to it give
us great simple declarations of the Gospel. There's one way
of salvation, it's by substitution. There's one way of blessing,
by substitutionary attainment. One way of receiving the promise. the promise of the Spirit through
faith. That's the topic I'd just like
us to spend a short time looking at this morning. He asked the
Galatians those questions earlier on, didn't he? In chapter 3 in
verse 2 he says, he wants to learn, did you receive the Spirit
by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Verse 3,
they began in the Spirit. Christian life begins by work
of the Spirit, and that Spirit ministers to you. Verse 5, supplies. There is the promise. God has
set forth for, verse 6, the Spirit of His Son. He sent the Spirit
of His Son into your hearts. What a remarkable activity of
God. He sent the Spirit of His Son
into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Children of God are
born for, verse 29, like Isaac, they're born after the Spirit. And Paul is encouraging these
Galatian believers, in chapter 5, verse 16, to walk in the Spirit. Verse 18, to be led by the Spirit. Those who are led by the Spirit
are not under the law. And he speaks in verse 22 of
chapter 5 of the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against
such there is no law. And finally in verse 25 says
for us to live in the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit. It's the most vital thing, isn't
it? We have been, like the rest of
the world, reminded that life is incredibly fragile and can
be taken from people in the most unlikely of situations. And people
pass from those circumstances, those tragic circumstances we
witnessed yesterday. They passed, as Norm said, into
the very presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, into the presence
of a holy God who is a consuming fire in an instant. They didn't disappear into nothingness. We go into the very presence
of God. It is such a vital thing. If any man, Romans 8, 9, if any
man have not the Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ, he is none
of His. He is none of His. So Paul is
bringing us a vital lesson, a vital lesson and a vital picture and
a glorious picture about the Holy Spirit. And I'd like us
to spend a little time this morning just thinking together about
the Holy Spirit, about who He is and about what He does and
about what it is to receive this promise of the Spirit. We're
introduced to the Holy Spirit and He is God, isn't He? Let's
not have any nonsense about Him being some sort of force or power.
He is God. He is a God. He is God. He is a person. He can be grieved. You only grieve someone who really
feels, you only grieve someone who loves. In Romans 8 he's called
the Spirit of Christ. He's the Spirit of your Father,
the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Truth. The Lord Jesus describes
him as the witness. Norm's just spoken about the
witness of the apostles, and the witness of the apostles is
the witness of the Holy Spirit, guiding and directing their words.
He's a witness to testify of Him. He is the Spirit of holiness,
the Holy Spirit of promise. And he has two wonderful other
names which I just love so much. He's called the Comforter. He
comforts his people. And he's called an advocate. Someone in court who stands beside. If you're like me, brothers and
sisters, I need the comfort of the Gospel continually because
I am continually aware of my sin and the accuser, Satan, the
accuser of the brethren, has plenty of ammunition from my
life to fire darts at me all day long. We have a comforter. We have an advocate. We have someone who brings consolation. And as Norm said, he brings communion
and fellowship to the church. And we have that famous benediction
at the end of 2 Corinthians, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you
all. Amen. He brings and reveals,
He is a great revealer as we'll see. He reveals the character
and the workings of God the Father and God the Son. That verse that
I quote so often, he takes the things of the Lord Jesus and
he reveals them, he shines a light on them. And we see in his words,
we see his description of the Son. We see the Holy Spirit illuminating
the character of God. What a remarkable character.
We just read something of the character of the love of the
Son for us in Song of Solomon. That love, which is an everlasting
love in Jeremiah 31, a love that's not only everlasting but a love
that's active and effective and it draws people to Him. We are drawn by His love. We
delight to know that He's absolutely sovereign, that He does sit on
a throne of this universe and this world is seemingly becoming
more and more chaotic. It's always been the same. But
someone in the midst of all that instability sits in perfect repose
on the throne of grace. The throne of this world is not
troubled by the things of this world. He's absolutely sovereign.
He's called the God of all grace. He's revealed as a God who is
gracious. He is revealed in 2 Corinthians
1 as a God who comforts. He comforts us. He is the God
of all comfort. a joy unspeakable and full of
glory. He is the Holy Spirit, the Blessed
Holy Spirit. He is the glorifier of the Lord
Jesus, John 16, 14. And He, in the previous verse,
is the guide. He guides His chosen people. And He brings to our remembrance
the Lord Jesus Christ. He brings to our remembrance
that eternal covenant of love that God the Father gave the
Church in electing love to the Son, and the Son redeemed the
Church. And in this verse we've just
read, He hath redeemed it. He didn't try. He hath redeemed
it. And God the Holy Spirit sanctifies
the Church. He renders effectual the whole
purpose of redemption. He makes it effectual in the
hearts of His people. All we experience of God the
Father is through the Holy Spirit. All we experience of God the
Son is through the Holy Spirit. Every good and perfect gift comes
down from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variableness
nor shadow of turning. He is a bestower of the most
extraordinary gifts that man could ever have in this time
and in eternity. He is the One, isn't He? that
brings life where there was nothing. He is a creator. You are, according to Galatians
5, a new creation, brothers and sisters in Christ, the only thing
that availeth. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision
availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature, a new creature
which has a desire, for Christ, a desire to live for God. Where does that come from? It
doesn't come out of this flesh and it doesn't come out of this
world. It comes as a blessing from God. Every sight, every time we are
made aware of sin, God the Holy Spirit has worked in our hearts. A desire for prayer, an urgency
in prayer, a passion for the Gospel, a love for our brothers
and sisters. Norm read about it in 1 John,
that fellowship, that partnership that God's children have. They
have a fellowship with the apostles and because of that they have
a fellowship with one another. It comes from us, people like
us, being indwelt by God. It is the most remarkable thing,
isn't it, of the Gospel. We are, according to Ephesians
2.22, we are a habitation of God through the Spirit. He gives faith, hope and love,
and He produces it in our hearts. In 1 Thessalonians we've read
again and again how the Holy Spirit came, didn't He? The word,
the gospel came not only unto you in word only, but in power
and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. Much assurance, much assurance
that the words spoken by the Apostle was the truth. Much assurance
in this letter of Galatians that this word from Paul was a word
from God. And to disagree with Paul, as
the false teachers did, and would continue to do so, was to disagree
with God Himself. It is just wicked, rebellious
unbelief. The Holy Spirit guides and teaches
and He reveals. And for His people, He takes
us to that place like the apostles were in John 6. Where else have
we to go? We are hedged in. We are hedged in to Jesus Christ. We're hedged in to look to God
to do everything for us. But in this verse before us we
have really fascinating Fascinating words, aren't they? Extraordinary. That the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. So the blessing of Abraham,
all God's children, anyone who is going to receive any spiritual
blessing of any note is going to receive it, verse 9 of chapter
3. blessed with faith for Abraham. They which are, which be of faith. Those whose origins are from
faith are blessed with faith for Abraham. And what did Abraham
do? What works did he do to receive
this blessing? He believed God. God came and
spoke to him. 3 verse 6, Abraham believed God
and it was accounted to him for righteousness. The Old Testament
saints had the Holy Spirit just as we have the Holy Spirit. They
were saved in exactly the same way, exactly by the same purpose,
for the glory of God. They were saved through the redeeming
sacrificial work of the Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder David
in that great psalm, cries out in Psalm 51, he says,
Have mercy on me, O God. And listen to the basis of his
plea for mercy. According to thy love the character of God as revealed
in the scriptures, and pleads for mercy on the basis of his
character. According to the multitude of
thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly
from my iniquities, and cleanse me from my sin. I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, and thee only,
have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou
might be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou
judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth
in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me
to know wisdom. purge me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice." hide thy
face from my sins, blot out all my iniquities, create in me a
clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast
me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit
from me." He would only cry that if he was a recipient of the
Holy Spirit. Restore unto me, verse 12, the
joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors
Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee. Deliver
me from blood guiltness, O God, Thou God of my salvation, and
my tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness. O Lord, open
Thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise. For Thou
desirest not sacrifice, else I would give it. Thou delightest
not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit. A broken and contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise." What a great promise from our
God. What a great work of the Spirit
in the life of David. We are so prone to think of David's
sins, we ought to look afresh again and again at the remarkable
faith, the remarkable words that God the Holy Spirit gave him
to write down for us. Do good in thy good pleasure
unto Zion, build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou
be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt
offering and whole burnt offering. They shall offer books upon thy
altar. Build the walls of Jerusalem. He doesn't just look for himself,
he looks for God to be glorified. in building a place for His redeemed. He has redeemed. He has brought
us out of what we are in Adam. He's brought us out of what we
are in this world by our nature and by desire. He's brought us
out. God's children have no sin before
God. Therefore they are a perfectly
fit habitation for God the Holy Spirit. They are a perfectly
fit habitation for the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is no reason
Nothing between my God and me. Nothing between. There is no
reason for God not to bless all of his children. But I want us
to see something else in these verses. which I trust will be
a comfort to your hearts. If we go down a few more verses,
just read on, we'll look at them more closely in the future. He
says, This is the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brethren,
I speak after the matter of men, though it be a man's covenant,
yet if it be confirmed, no man disanulth or addeth thereunto. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not unto seeds as of
many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ." The promise
was made to the Lord Jesus. Let's read on. And I say this,
that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the
law which was 430 years after, cannot disannul that it should
make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of
the Lord, it is no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by
promise. Wherefore serveth the law? It
was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come, to
whom the promise was made." Who was the promise made to? The
promise was made to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who
is the recipient of the promise. And all of God's children are
recipients like Him. Just turn over the page almost
in your Bibles to Ephesians. Chapter 1 we read Towards the end in verse 11 of
this remarkable opening sentence it is in Ephesians 1, in whom
we have also obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory
who first trusted in Christ. Who first trusted in the Lord
Jesus Christ? His Father trusted Him. His Father
entrusted into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ His name, His
people, His glory. He trusted Him. The Son is the
receiver of the promise, the first one that was promised. And so this promise of the Spirit,
the promise of the Spirit is to have a new life, isn't it? To be a new creation, to be born
above, to be like Abraham, the recipient of those remarkable
promises, to come out from your people, come out of that and
to walk with me." Abraham met God. Abraham had the Spirit of
God. Abraham was led by the Spirit
of God to believe God. Abraham had all the spiritual
blessings all the spiritual blessings that
any human being can ever have, and he received them simply by
faith. I love what Ephesians 1.3 says,
isn't it? Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings. If you have the Holy Spirit,
you have every spiritual blessing that God has to give. Isn't it remarkable? We have
new life from the Spirit. God's children are born, aren't
they? They're born from above. They're born of water. The water
there in John 3, 5, when the Lord Jesus is speaking in Nicodemus,
He's not speaking about baptism. He's speaking about the washing
of the water of the Word. We are born through the Gospel. This is what Paul is so shocked
at at the Galatians. They began by a simple person
simply declaring the glories of the Lord Jesus. They began
in the Spirit and the Spirit was ministered to them. supplied
to them, and now they're turning back to weak and miserable things,
to try and earn from God some blessing that He'd already bestowed
on all of His children in Christ Jesus perfectly and completely. We're born from above. We're
born from that Word of Life. As 2 Thessalonians says, we are
born He has reason to thank God for them, doesn't he? That the
word of the Lord have free course with. He thanks God, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, for God, because God has from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit,
made holy by the Holy Spirit, and belief of the truth, and
that Calling is a calling into the Gospel, whereunto He called
you by our Gospel to the attaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the promise of the blessing,
isn't it? There is a sovereign birthing
from above. In John 4 we have that well-known
passage, that we love so much to declare. The Lord Jesus with
that woman at Jacob's well. He must, verse 4 of chapter 4,
he must need to go through Samaria. He must go to where his bride
is. The Holy Spirit alone brings
worship of God. 24. God is Spirit, and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. They are now in spirit and truth. They must worship Him in spirit
and truth. But I love what the previous
verse says, the hour cometh and now is, right now. When the true
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth,
in the Spirit and in the truth, for the Father seeketh such to
worship Him." I reckon the Father finds what He's looking for all
the time. He doesn't have any problem finding
them. He has no problem causing them
to worship. They must worship Him. They must
worship Him. God's children worship Him. I
love quoting that verse in Philippians chapter 3. Paul describes the
us. We are the circumcision which
worship God in the Spirit. We cannot worship God without
the Holy Spirit. We worship God in the Spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh,
no confidence in any fleshly activity at all. As I said earlier,
the Holy Spirit's wonderful work is to be, as the Lord Jesus promised,
in John 14 to be a comfort. John 14, 16, I will pray the
Father, and he shall give you another comfort, that he may
abide with you forever. Who walked with Abraham up that
mountain? What an extraordinary journey
it must have been. And Abraham was told to go and
sacrifice his son in Genesis 22. He didn't dilly-dally around. The first thing it said is he
got up early the next morning. and he packed the fire and took
the knife and took Isaac and for three days he walked all
that way. There couldn't have been a moment
where he hadn't thought about what was coming before him, what
God had asked him to do, the most difficult and painful
thing possible. How do you live through that? Who comforts you? I don't know
what the trials are before you. I know something of the trials
that are behind you. I know something of the promise
of the trials that are before us. is a comforter, isn't he? I will pray the Father and He
shall give you another comforter that He may abide with you forever,
verse 17 of chapter 14, even the spirit of truth. So he comforts by telling the
truth. He doesn't comfort people by
telling them sugar-coated lies about who they are, sugar-coated
lies about who God is. Even the Spirit of Truth in the
world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him, but you know him. Why? For he dwelleth in you, and shall
be in you." And then remarkably the Lord
Jesus speaks again in verse 18. He says, I will not leave you
comfortless, I will come to you. Underneath our everlasting arms
we are carried by our God. Abraham was carried by his God. He just believed He believed
that even a slain Isaac as a burnt offering on an altar can be raised
to newness of life and produce multitudes. He got him back from
the dead. He was comforted by the truth,
the truth of the Gospel. Just a few verses on in John.
1426, it says, but the comforter which is the Holy Ghost, whom
the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things. I love that. I stand before people
and speak from the scriptures about the Lord Jesus, but I do
have a promise from God, isn't it? What a remarkable promise.
He's promised again and again to teach his people. He shall teach you all things. And what a great description
of proclaiming the Gospel. He shall bring all things to
your remembrance. I need things brought to my remembrance
continually because I'm continually forgetting. I'm continually forgetting
the promises of God. I'm continually forgetting in
my Adam fish. I'm continually forgetting the
character of God. I need to be reminded again and
again I need to be reminded of the glory of the Gospel, that
everything God requires of me He looks to His Son for, and
He finds in His Son complete and perfect satisfaction. You
are, according to Colossians 2.10 You are right now complete
in Him. Romans 8.1, there is now, right
now, no condemnation. Our glorious Husband has taken
upon Himself the task of presenting His Bride wholly spotless, unblameable
and unapprovable in His sight. That's what Galatians 3.13 is
saying, that He hath redeemed us. He's taken away all of the
sins of all His people. He's brought them out, but He's
brought them out to Himself. In closing I'd like us to look
at a very famous verse of the scripture and I'm so thankful
to some of our American brethren for shedding more and more light
on this verse because at first reading it's a verse that I had
struggled with years ago. John 16, Lord Jesus talks about
going away and He says in verse 7, Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth, it is expedient for you, it is good for you, necessary
for you, that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
him unto you. And when he is come, he will
reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment."
Of sin? because they believe not on me.
Of righteousness, because I go to my Father and you see me no
more. Of judgment, because the Prince
of this world is judged." He'll reprove the world. Obviously
our understanding of the scriptures, just the necessary way the word
world is used, it doesn't mean all people. There are multitudes
in this world who have lived and died and gone, as Judas did,
gone to their place without any work of the Holy Spirit in their
lives whatsoever. He is, our Lord Jesus, the Saviour
of the world. He is the Saviour of the world
of His elect. You call His name Jesus, He will
save His people from their sins. But the Lord Jesus will send
the Holy Spirit. I will send him, verse 7, unto
you. And when he is come, he will
reprove. The word reprove means to convince
or to convict or to bring to light, to expose, to correct. He will reprove the world of
sin. 9. Because they believe not on Me. When the Holy Spirit has come,
sent from the Lord Jesus to His Chosen Bride, you are convinced
of His work when you know that you are an unbeliever. You are convicted that you cannot
believe and it's beyond your capabilities and you don't even
know what faith is. Such was the state of Paul on
the Damascus Road. He had no idea Despite all of
his knowledge of Scripture, he had no idea of holiness, he had
no idea of sin, he had no idea of faith, because he had no idea
of who the Lord Jesus was. And without knowledge of Him,
you cannot know these things. there is the Holy Spirit approving,
people will believe that faith is something they can exercise
at their will and in their time. And such is the state of multitudes,
isn't it? They begin with a lie of their
own ability and they begin the so-called Christian life with
a lie about the character of God. And then religious people who
have fed them those two great lies spend the rest of their
days trying to make them look like believers. It's hard work, incessant work. We're talking about, and Paul's
one interest in the Galatians is has the Holy Spirit begun
to work in you. It had in the we that he is describing
himself and all the apostles with him and all the believers
throughout the world and time with him. The question for the
Galatians is, has the Spirit worked in them? They cannot believe
of their own volition. I like what Todd Nivatt said,
it's only when you know that you can't believe that you begin
to believe. It's only when you know that
God must do something for you that you cry out, Lord have mercy
on me the sinner. There is a conviction of the
sin of unbelief. God convicting us of the horribleness
of unbelief, how dishonouring it is to God, how profoundly
dangerous it is. There's conviction of sin when
the Holy Spirit comes. There's conviction of righteousness.
There is a convincing of righteousness. Because I go to the Father and
you see me no more. You're convicted. Just like the
Thessalonians. The word came with power and
assurance. You're convicted, you're convinced.
You've had it exposed to you that the only righteousness there
is, is the righteousness that the Lord Jesus brings to His
Father. I love Romans 4.25. Great verse, isn't it? He was put to
death, He was delivered for our offences, and He was raised for
our justification. He entered into Heaven's glory
with the emblems of His sacrificial death and He wears them right
now. But He was raised because of
our justification. The only righteousness The only
righteousness we have is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus.
It's one of the great liberties, one of the great freedoms of
being a believer, that I have no personal righteousness. I
have none to defend, I have none to establish, I have none to
show off to any others. I have, all believers have, the
very righteousness of God. A righteousness that's in heaven. Like Philippians 3 says, not
having my own righteousness, but having the righteousness
of God by works, having the righteousness of God by faith. Not having my own righteousness. There is a conviction from the
Holy Spirit that the Lord Jesus Christ is our righteousness and
all of our righteousness before Him. There is a convincing of
judgment because the Prince of this world is judged. The word judgment means that
the sentence has been handed out, yet it means that it's already
been done once and it never needs to be done again. I love Colossians
2, it says, and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, he hath quickened together with him, made us alive
together with him, having forgiven you all your trespasses. 14, blotting out the handwriting
of ordinance which was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross, and having spoiled
principalities and powers. He spoiled them. He made a show
of them openly, triumphing in it. there's a conviction, a convincing
judgment, all judgment was taken care of at the cross. The prince of this world is judged
and defeated and all that the Lord Jesus died for are perfectly
justified. There is no justification for
anyone through any acts of the law. In Acts 13, 39 Luke makes it very clear, and
by Him, by His activities, by His death, by His life, all that
believe are justified. Even their believing is by Him,
are justified from all things from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. There is at the judgment, The
judgment at the cross, there is the perfect acquittal of all
of God's children. They are crucified with Him. They are raised together to newness
of life with Him. They are convinced, they are
convicted that judgment has finished. Judgment is over. There is now
no condemnation. Judgment finished. That's what the Holy Spirit does
in the lives of all of His children. The Spirit of Truth is Come He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself,
but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak. And He will
show you the things to come. The Holy Spirit reveals the future
to us. And what a glorious future it
is for the children of God. The Holy Spirit glorifies the
Lord Jesus. He shall glorify me, for he shall
receive of mine and shall show it unto you. All things that
the Father hath are mine, therefore I said he shall take of mine. What does he have? He owns the
universe, brothers and sisters. He owns eternity. He owns heaven. It's all his, isn't it? He'll
take all things that the Father hath of mine, therefore I said
he shall take of mine and show it unto you." To go back to the law and to the
works is to turn your back on the promise. God's children God's
children are made by the Lord to call out and look to Him who
promises. I don't have time to look at
it now, but if you go home and read Luke chapter 11, there's
a wonderful picture given us of who we are. Verse 13, he speaks He says, if you then, being evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more
shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that
ask Him? Ask. We have from God's very
lips a command to ask. A command to ask and a command
to receive. That the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. That we might receive
the promise of the Spirit. the promise that all the Spirit
has to show us of the Lord Jesus and do for us in sanctifying
us and leading us into the truth. We have the promise through faith. Don't look to anything that we
have done, look to Him who alone can provide. Let's pray. Now
Heavenly Father we thank you. We thank you For your word of
truth, we thank you, Heavenly Father, that we are born again
through the word of truth, we are sanctified through that truth,
and that truth illuminates who you are, illuminates who we are
in Adam, and reveals who we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. O our
Father, we thank you for the promised Holy Spirit that's poured
out upon all of your people because of your Son's perfect and finished
work on behalf of all of them, that they, because of His work,
His promise in eternity, His work on the cross, they are all
perfect and fit recipients, habitations of God by the Spirit. Heavenly
Father, we pray that we would long for His work, that You would
work in our hearts, that we would not grieve Him, that we would
be just caused by You to look again and again to the finished
work of the Lord Jesus and find our peace and our rest and our
righteousness and all that we need for life and eternity perfectly
supplied in Him. We pray, Heavenly Father, that
You would bless us With remembrance of Him by your Spirit's work
in our lives as we take these emblems which remind us of what
it cost our dear Saviour to shed His precious blood and to have
that body broken. under the curse, under the very
wrath of God that we so richly deserve. We praise you, Heavenly
Father, for substitutionary atonement. We praise you for your dear and
precious son, that his work is finished and he now reigns in
heaven. And he will have all of his blood-born children brought
into communion and fellowship with him. We pray, Heavenly Father,
that You work in our hearts that we would find it precious, that
we would find Him and His blood precious to our souls, and find
His promises a comfort to our path in this wicked world. We pray Your blessing on us in
His name. Amen.