I would use as a scripture reading
to preface the presentation of this treatise. So, having found
the 64th chapter of Isaiah, the prophet is inspired of the Holy
Spirit to, with great passion, write from his heart, that Thou
wouldst rend the heavens, that Thou wouldst come down, that
the mountains might flow down at Thy presence." The word presence
there is literally the Hebrew word for face. I believe this
to be one of the revealing passages of what the consummation of the
age of sin and death is going to be like. what the unveiled
glory of the face of Christ will do to this place that we call
home in this fallen world, this earth. Verse 2, as with the melting
fire burneth, as when the melting fire burneth, the fire causes
the waters to boil to make thy name known to thine adversaries,
that the nations may tremble at thy face. Reminds us of Revelation
6, where at the end of that chapter it's describing the wicked fleeing. And they say, hide us from the
face of the one that sits on the throne for the great day
of the wrath. has come and they're calling
out to the rocks and the hills and crying out to the rocks and
the hills, fall on us and hide us. They're calling for their
own destruction. What shall it profit a man, Jesus
said, if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
This is what sin has reduced the wicked to. Verse 4, or from of old, literally. The word since reaches back not
to some point in time, but to eternity itself. Since the beginning
of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither
hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared. or literally what he will do
for him that waiteth for him. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth
and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways. Behold, thou art wrath, for we
have sinned. In those is continuance, and
we shall be saved. We are all as an unclean thing,
and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And we all do
fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us
away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth
up himself to take hold of thee. For thou hast hid thy face from
us, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities. But now, O
Lord, thou art our Father. We are the clay, and thou our
potter. And we are all the work of thy
hand. Be not wroth. Very sore, O Lord,
neither remember iniquity forever. Behold, see, we beseech Thee. We are all Thy people. I'll stop
there. Now turn to your treatise. The
eternal Word of God from 1 Corinthians 2, 9 and 10 declares, but as
it is written, And we just read the place where what the Apostle
Paul is going to bring forward. I has not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man the things which
God has prepared for them. Now he writes that love hymn
we saw in the text that he's quoting where it refers to waiting
for him. So I brought forward even from
Isaiah 64 that, "...Eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither has
it entered into the heart of man the things which God has
prepared for them that love and wait." Waiting on the Lord is
an expression of our love for Him. When we run ahead of Him,
when we become frustrated, When we transgress in rebellion against
the sovereignty of God over any issue because it's not happening
when we want it to happen, it's not turning out the way we want
it to turn out, we're showing how much we don't love Him. We
love Him when we wait for Him. And eye has not seen nor ear
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which
God has prepared. God hath prepared for them that
love and wait for Him. And then verse 10, but God has
revealed them unto us by His Spirit. So I have titled this
treatise, The Revelation of Christ by the Holy Spirit. It was the
Lord Jesus Himself that taught us from John 16, 14, and 15 concerning
the person and work of the Holy Spirit, that He said, He, the
Holy Spirit, shall glorify Me. For He shall take of Mine and
shall show it, shall reveal it unto you. Next, Jesus plainly
describes what it is that is his that the Holy Spirit will
take and reveal unto us. He said, verse 15, all things
that the Father has are mine. Therefore said I that he, the
Holy Spirit, shall take of mine and shall show it, shall reveal
it unto you. Once again, the Holy Spirit through
the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians commands us, each one, to examine
ourselves, to prove our own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in us. And whether or not we are genuinely
in the faith, Have you not ever examined yourself with close
and purely honest scrutiny in regards to the conversion experience
that you profess to have had with Jesus Christ? Was that experience
genuinely a revelation of Christ by the Holy Spirit? Or was it
simply an extraordinary emotional experience that directly involve
the traditionally taught tenets of Christianity that always centers
and depends upon some decisive action from you to be taken by
you. Oh, there may be no question
about it that this experience that you have had did indeed
dramatically move you from going in one direction in your life
into another. A direction that obviously is
a better one. than the one you were going before.
Or there may be no doubt that it was an experience that did
indeed dramatically change the perspective opinion that perhaps
you once held concerning religious propositions regarding life,
death, heaven and hell, or sin, Satan and Christ and God. And Jesus is now being
more highly regarded by you than ever before in your life. And
that's got to be a good thing. Doesn't it? My dear friends,
it's a well-known fact and reality that many of our present generation
have had just this sort of spiritual life experience, and they refer
to it as being when they, quote, got saved, unquote. When the
truth is, the Bible addresses true believing sinners in a very
profound, in a very pointed, in a very descriptive manner.
According to the Scriptures, the people of God, the true elect
children of God, are what they are solely and completely by
the grace of God. Such a gospel that the Word of
God descriptively declares that foster saving faith in fallen
sinners comes from heaven and will most certainly reveal that
they are indeed an elect child of God and will in the end of
their fallen experience here on earth take them to heaven.
And if it is true that you are a genuinely regenerated believing
sinner, then you should be able to honestly speak of becoming
convinced of your being a fallen sinner through convictions produced
in you because of a revelatory experience brought about by the
Holy Spirit. You should be able to honestly
speak of your having come into a true knowledge and understanding
of the Lord Jesus Christ as being your personal Savior and substitute,
again, by a revelatory experience that is only produced by the
Spirit of God. Ephesians 2, verse 22, very plainly
says, in whom, that's in Christ, You also are built together in
habitation of God through the Spirit. It is by the person and
work of the Holy Spirit that this building project is divinely
undertaken and accomplished. It is the sovereign grace of
God through His Holy Word that brings it all to pass. Acts 20.32
reveals a divine energy and power that is exclusive to the Word
of God. It says from there, And now,
brethren, I commend you to God and to the Word of His grace,
which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among
all them that are sanctified. That divine energy and power
that is described in this verse as being resident in God's Word,
making it indeed to be able to be the Word of His grace, is
none other than the Holy Spirit of God. It is the person and
work of the Holy Spirit that makes the difference between
our simply fulfilling the Bible description of someone having
the form of godliness or actually being someone that has been,
by grace, overcome and moved upon and affected by the power
of godliness. As far as the whole history of
fallen humanity is concerned, the mission and commission of
Christ's atonement is a particular atonement for a peculiar and
a particular people who by the Holy Spirit hold to a particular
doctrine having been truly regenerated by a particular experience and
having become led into and become engaged in living life in this
fallen world according to a particular practice that is entirely and
wholly by God's grace worked out through the person and work. of the Holy Spirit. There are so many in these dark
days that we are presently in who make the profession of faith,
who make a profession of truth, but who have, it is feared, only
the name of Christian without the real power of Christ. It is the power of the person
and work of the Holy Spirit of Christ in a sinner's personal
experience that truly makes all the difference. Therefore, for
our spiritual benefit, I pray that by God's grace I can bring
forward at least three ways that the Holy Spirit reveals the Lord
Jesus Christ to us as being our personal Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit bears testimony
to us of the glory of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ
in his having cleansed us, his cleansing us from our sins. And in his having called us,
his calling us as his children unto his eternal kingdom and
glory. And third, through his causing
us to walk by the grace of faith in Christ's cleansing blood, worthy of that holy calling,
it is the work of the Holy Spirit to show us these things. First
of all, The Holy Spirit shows us that Christ is our sovereign
Savior indeed, because He, with His own blood, has eternally
redeemed us from all of our sins. Hebrews 9, verses 11 and 12 tells
us that Christ being come and high priest of good things to
come, by greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
that is to say, not of this building or this creation, neither by
the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered
in once, once for all into the holy place, having obtained,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. Eternal redemption is
the only true and pure way of really understanding and referring
to this truth of the gospel of the glory of Christ and of God's
grace. It is to eternal redemption that
all the passages of Scripture actually refer whenever and wherever
the word redemption is used, when it refers to the person
and work of Christ. Or even whenever and wherever
what the word redemption means, when it refers to the person
and work of Christ, is used. Whenever Scripture describes
our having been cleansed, our having been washed, or our having
been purged from our sins, it is referring to an eternal reality
that the Holy Spirit causes us to realize that we have in Christ
the eternal Son of God. This sort of deep and thorough
cleansing is always declared to be an act that is truly performed
only by eternal God. And therefore, it can only be
accurately understood in a context of eternality. The blood of Christ
does not just temporarily cleanse us from all sin. What good would
that do? But it eternally cleanses us
from all sin. Scripture says from 1 John 1-7,
if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, literally,
continually cleanses us from all sin. And also it says from
1 Corinthians 6 verse 11, and such were some of you But, it
says, you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. And Solomon, of old, accurately
wrote from Proverbs 16.6, by mercy and truth, iniquity is
purged. God's mercy, my beloved, endures
forever. And the truth that the very name
of Jesus personifies, for He is the truth, is also an eternal
reality. And according to Jesus, it is
the Holy Spirit of truth. who leads all true Christians
into the eternal grace truth of his atonement and his having
cleansed us from all our sins. Secondly, the Holy Spirit shows
us that Jesus Christ is our sovereign Savior because of his calling
of us. Having cleansed us from our sins
eternally, He has, by his cleansing us, made us fit to truly be called
as his children into his eternal kingdom and glory. The gospel truth of our calling
is descriptively delivered within the framework of two distinct
yet divinely connected perspectives. First of all, 2 Timothy 1, 9
and 10 declares our calling to be a holy calling. It also declares it to have taken
place in eternity, before time even began. It says, who has
saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to
our works, But according to his own purpose
and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the
world, that is specifically before this age of sin and death began. Verse 10 tells us, but is now
made manifest, but is now revealed by the appearing, again by the
revelation of our Savior Jesus Christ who has abolished death. and has brought life and immortality
to light, the light that we walk in with Him as He is the light.
He's brought life and immortality to light, to reality by revelation
through the gospel. Understanding the eternality
of our calling is put within the context of pure gospel truth. That is, in turn, preach to us
during the time, that is, during this present time, my friends,
of our fallen existence. The eternality of our calling
is communicated through a pure presentation of gospel truth. And it is the Holy Spirit that
through the gospel reveals the Lord Jesus Christ to us as being
our Savior. It is the Holy Spirit that reveals
to us our personal, our personal holy calling in Christ. The eternality
of our holy calling is also alluded to from 1 John 3, verses 1 and
2, from where John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
is led to write, or take notice and look at what
manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should
be called the sons of God. Therefore, the world knows us
not because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. And it does not yet appear. It
is not yet revealed to us what we shall be. But we know that
when He shall appear, when He shall be ultimately and finally
revealed, we shall be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is. The Father's love is bestowed
upon us. It is not offered to us or proposed
to us. It is bestowed upon us. Praise His name. And His love
is bestowed, remember, not in the proposition of it toward
us, but in the demonstration of it toward us. By the way that
the Father so loved us that He gave His only begotten Son. His only begotten, eternal Son. the Lord Jesus Christ to be our
Savior substitute, the eternal sacrifice for our sins. This he did so that we may be
rightly, justly, and accurately called his sons, his children,
his family. The Holy Spirit is the one who
reveals this to us. We see here that our holy calling
is in essence our being divinely nominated or named by God the
Father through the person and work of God the Son as His children. And it is God the Holy Spirit
that reveals this gospel truth unto us. Romans 8, 16 and 17
says, the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that
we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs.
Heirs of God. And joint heirs with Christ. Romans 8.28 specifically refers
to those who are, quote, the called, unquote, according to
his eternal purpose as being the very ones that know that
all things work together for good. And remember that it was John
who wrote at the beginning of his gospel account, John 1, 12,
and 13. But as many as received him,
to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name, who were born not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Savior points out in
John 3, verse 5, that the born-from-above experience is performed by the
Holy Spirit. One more passage of Scripture
that declares this gospel truth is Galatians 4, verse 6, which
says, And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit
of His Son into your hearts, crying out. So then, these texts are scriptural
evidences once again of the eternality of our calling in Christ, simply
because of what it is that we are called, and who it is that
has called us, and when it was that we have been called. Eternal
God the Father has called us His children in His holy, eternal
Son from before time. Once again, it is the Holy Spirit
that enters into this scenario and bears witness to us, each
one of us, on a personal basis of this gospel of eternal God's
eternal grace, truth. These texts have described for
us our eternal calling in Christ. Then there is also the other
relevant perspective of our calling that is declared to be our calling
to Christ. Matthew 11, 28 is where it is
recorded that Jesus said, Come unto me, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. This statement of Christ is one
of the more graphic examples of this other aspect of our being
called. And it is also true about Matthew
11, 28 that as a verse, it is one that is most often referred
to as Christ's great and universal invitation unto any and all sinners
for them to come to him for their eternal salvation. A gross and an egregious error
of today's so-called evangelism presents this verse in a universal
way of understanding. However, the context of this
verse points out an entirely different, a much more particular
scenario. Matthew 11, 25 through 27 unfolds,
reveals to us a sovereign and particular contextual direction
from which Matthew 11, 28 is actually delivered. This portion
of Scripture says, At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank
thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hid
these things from, or not revealed these things to, the wise and
prudent, and have revealed them unto babes, newborns. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. Then Jesus made an utterly astounding
declaration. And in this declaration, He identifies
for all who have ears to hear and eyes to see just who He is and the power that He alone owns
and controls. He announces, verse 27, All things
are delivered unto me of my Father, or from my Father. And no man fully knows the Son, but the
Father. Neither, literally, fully knows
any man the Father, but the Son. And he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal Him. So we see here, from what is
plainly being pointed out by Christ, that it is completely
and totally up to the sovereignty of God the Father and God the
Son as to whom the regenerating revelatory experience will be
sent and performed by God the Holy Spirit. It is literally
to whomsoever the eternal Son of God is willing to reveal the
gospel of saving grace, truth. In addition, the grammar of the
word come that Christ heralds forth in verse 28 is not a part
of speech that offers any options unto those whom he is calling
to come unto him. It is an imperative part of speech
that he uses. This means that it is a command
that he is issuing here. That which Christ is issuing
here is particularly unto those who are the heavy laden and who
are the weary. And it is a divine and holy summons
for these particular ones to come to him and receive from
him rest. This is a summons not unlike
when Jesus called to dead and entombed Lazarus for him to come
out of the darkness and death of his grave unto him in his
resurrection back to life in this world. Jesus did not ask
Lazarus if he wanted to come to him, nor did he plead with
him. Wouldn't he please decide and choose to come to him? He
summoned him. He commanded him to come to him. And Lazarus, though all bound
up from head to foot in grave clothes, could not do anything
else but come to his sovereign Lord and Savior. Psalm 71 verse 3 plainly states
it. Thou hast given commandment to
save me. Peter describes us. In this same precise manner,
1 Peter 2, 9 and 10, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
he writes, But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
and holy nation, a peculiar people. Why? That you should show forth
the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. A revelatory experience. Which
in time past, he writes, were not a people, but are now the
people of God. Which had not obtained mercy,
but now have obtained mercy. So then, the Holy Spirit reveals
to us that the Lord Jesus Christ is indeed our personal Savior
in His having cleansed us from all our sins, in His having adopted
us and called us His family on the one side, and then having
called us when He summoned us to come out of our darkness unto
Himself for eternal salvation on the other. And now, also,
finally, in his causing us to be and to do all that his holy
cleansing and calling would have us to be and to do. The Word of God says from 1 Thessalonians
5, verse 24, faithful is he that calls you who also will do it. Where this particular aspect
of the revelation of Christ by the Holy Spirit is concerned,
we hope to show that the Holy Spirit reveals to us, indeed,
he causes us to see that Christ is our all and in all. He is
our all and in all in our believing in Him, in our behavior before
God in Him, and in our being victorious over all the battles
where true Christian living in Him in this fallen world is concerned. First of all, where our believing,
our truly believing is concerned, the Holy Spirit reveals that
we are true believers in God only by the faith of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Romans 3, 21 and 22 tells us. But now, the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested or revealed, being witnessed
by the law and the prophets. And then it says, the righteousness
of God by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all
them that believe, for there's no difference. And the same truth
is being conveyed from this same context when verses 25 and 26
also more literally and more accurately state whom God, that's
Christ of course, God set forth or whom God revealed to be a
propitiation through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness
for the remission of sins. To declare, I say, at this time,
His righteousness. that he might be just and the
justifier of him, literally, that is of the faith of Jesus. From the standpoint of our eternal
redemption having been ordained, having been purposed, and having
been plotted out by God, Peter writes, 1 Peter 1, verses 20
and 21, who verily, again the Lord Jesus
Christ is who he's referring to, who verily was foreordained
before the foundation of the world, but was manifest, that
is, was revealed in these last times for you, and then he clarifies
who the you is, who by him do believe in God, that raised him
up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope
might be in God." The text plainly declares that it is by him that
we believe in God. It is not by ourselves. Jesus
Himself makes it clear that genuine faith in Him is not something
that fallen man comes up with and then decides to exercise
toward Christ. No. He said plainly from John
6, verse 29, For this is the work of God, that men believe
on Him whom He has sent. Not only does the Holy Spirit
cause us to truly believe in Christ by virtue of the grace
of the faith of Christ, but He has also brought to pass an acceptable
behavior on our behalf by virtue of the obedience of Christ. Romans 5.19 clearly states it. It says, For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, So also by the obedience of one
shall many be made righteous." Is there no wonder that Romans
10, verses 3 and 4 says, for they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone. that believes. So, just how exactly
does this truth play out in the experience of the believer? It
plays out in the experience of the believer even as Philippians
2, verses 12 and 13 describes, which says, Work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in
you. both to will and to do of His
good pleasure. It is strictly speaking by His
working, His willing, and His doing that we experience what
the Apostle of Hebrews 12 verses 1 through 3 is inspired of the
Holy Spirit to exhort us with Himself to do. He writes, Let
us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets
us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. For
the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne
of God. For consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be
wearied and faint in your minds. Finally, the Holy Spirit bears
testimony to us of the glory of Christ and that he causes
us to see and to realize that in Christ, all the battles with
all the foes of our souls that are of the world, the flesh and
the devil, that come in full battle array against us, have
already been fought and won by Him. They have already been completely
vanquished by His great grace. Praise His name and His name
alone. His strength is, by the grace
of faith, our strength. Philippians 4 verse 13, I can
do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Ephesians
6, verses 10 through 18, very aptly states the whole matter.
It is recorded from there, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the
Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor
of God, that you may be able, not to fight, but to stand against
the wilds. of the devil. For we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, or consequently,
take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able
to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."
That is, beloved, Christ having done all. Now you stand. Contextually, we are to stand
in the Lord and in His strength and in His power on our behalf. That's why it goes on to describe,
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,
that is, the eternal truth concerning Christ, and having on the breastplate
of righteousness, that is, Christ's righteousness, and your feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, that is,
the gospel of the glory of Christ alone. Above all, literally,
It says, having taken up the shield of faith, that is, the
faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, wherewith you shall be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet
of salvation, that is, of eternal salvation in Christ, and the
sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And here we
are, verse 18. Praying always with all prayer
and supplication. By whom? Where? In the Spirit. The battle is fought through
us via the Holy Spirit and involves His expert use of the weapons
of God upon us. 2 Corinthians 10, verses 3-5
explains, It says, for though we walk in
the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal. That is to say, they are not
of the flesh. They are not pertaining to the
flesh. But mighty through God to the
pulling down, which literally means the demolition or the extinction
of strongholds. Which word projects the physical
image of castles, pulls down castles. Watch them crumble.
Watch them collapse. Watch them implode and turn into
nothing. Be nothing but raised to the
ground as a pile of rubble. Castles. And this pertains directly
to the strength of arguments that are brought forward against
the purity of the truth of the gospel. Casting down, it says,
imaginations. This pertains to fallen human
reasonings, computed out of fallen human conceit, pride. That's why it concludes, and
every high thing that exalts itself, that is all forms of
barriers that raise up themselves as being contrary to the knowledge
of God, which signifies the divinely imparted understanding and moral
wisdom that is reflected in right living and that is communicated
through the Word of God and the Holy Spirit alone. And bringing
into captivity every thought, all forms of intellectual perception
are taken prisoner for the purpose of being henceforth disposed
to what? to the obedience of Christ. It is Christ's holy and perfect
obedience, not our own, that we give any credence to or that
we put any focus upon for our acceptability with both God and
man while we are still here in the war zone of this fallen world. It is no wonder that the Word
of God descriptively declares of us that In all things, we
are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Romans 8,
37. The Lord Jesus Christ, the King
of kings and the Lord of lords, leads the army of His elect saints
in eternal conquering victory. Romans 19, 11-16 gloriously describes And I saw heaven opened, or it
could be said, I saw eternity revealed. And behold, a white
horse. And he that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True. And in righteousness he doth
judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire. And on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that
no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood. And his name is called the Word
of God. And the armies which were in
heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen,
white and clean, And out of his mouth goes forth a sharp sword,
and with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them
with a rod of iron. And he treads the winepress of
the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture
and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. And beloved, it is this leadership
of all the cleansed and of all the called that is caused by
none other than the almighty person and eternal work of the
Holy Spirit of God. For Romans 8.14 says, As many as are led by the Holy
Spirit, by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. Amen.