Spiritual Counsels III: The Holy Spirit Revealing Christ | Behold Your God Podcast

Welcome to another episode of the Behold Your God podcast. I'm Matthew Robinson, director of Media Grantiae, and I'm here again with Dr. John Snyder, pastor of Christ Church New Albany and author and host of the Behold Your God study series by Media Grantiae.

We've been in a series getting some practical helps from Thomas Charles, which we've been taking from essays he wrote and have been published in Thomas Charles Spiritual Councils from our friends at The Banner of Truth.

The Spirit Reveals Sin and Then Reveals Christ

And these are practical helps and just walking with the Lord, which we hope will be especially helpful to you here in this new year. We're in the second part on where we've we're getting some help in looking at the operations of the spirit from Charles.

Yeah. In the first part, we looked at kind of some of the darker colors in this portrait. They are essential and we don't want to kind of rush past them or try to skip them in the thought that that it would be more pleasant and it would be a happier life if we could just go right to the good news of what Christ provides for us.

Because we do need this. We need the spirit to work in us, making the conscience and the law as we are, as our souls are exposed to God's word, making those effective in showing us the real existence of sin, even in those hard to reach under the surface places and showing us the real nature of sin, not just its existence, but how wicked it is, how poisonous, how heinous it is as we are living against our God.

And having shown us that and stripped us of everything that we thought made us worth anything and removing everything from us that we thought, well, well, at least I have this. And if I work harder here, I can fix myself.

Having removed all those false hopes out of the purest and most undeserved expression of love, he then does what we're going to talk about today. He takes us and it reveals Christ to us. And how he says it there is in this essay is he reveals the fullness of Christ's merits and the sufficiency of his grace.

Well, he explains something of what this revealing Christ to us includes here. He says those things which the father's love have prepared and which Christ by his condescension and death have procured, the spirit receiveth, taketh and showeth unto us.

He first shows unto us our own things, our sins. He bringeth to light the hidden things of darkness and maketh manifest the counsels of the heart. Then he taketh the things of God and of Christ and shows them to us in all their glory and excellency and enables us by faith to receive them.

The scriptures are express on this point that without the spirit, we can neither know nor receive the things of God. No more know them than we can know each other's thoughts without communicating them.

For no man, saith the apostle, knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him. Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. Even when they are proposed to us and we have an intellectual knowledge of them, they cannot be received but they will ever be foolishness to us till the spirit shows them in their own glory and true light and opens the heart to receive them.

So right at that opening statement, we have something that perhaps we haven't thought of before, that the work of the spirit could be described as two things here. He shows us. He shows us the things of ourselves.

He shows us our things, our shame, our weakness, our need. But He also then shows us the things of God. And we're talking, of course, about the work of the Son, what the Father has prepared and the Son has procured, He says.

So He shows us what is available in this unexpected expression of love from the God that we've offended and in all the fullness of His great work that we call the gospel. So He takes us and He shows us those things.

But He mentions, He shows them to us in a way that so that we see them in the right light for the very first time. I mean, we get it. I mean, you know, we often hear that from people like, well, I mean, I heard about Jesus a lot.

I just didn't get it. But now I get it. And He shows them to us in a way that we really get it. But He also shows them to us in a way that we really do receive. We reach out and we appropriate, we grab hold by faith of the things that He's given us.

And consequently, He gets us. And so what a wonderful work of the love of the Spirit. And that leads us to where He talks about how the person of Christ is central to God's expression of His love toward us.

Charles writes,.

He showeth pardon, reconciliation and grace as they are in Jesus. These are the things of Christ which He takes and He shows and teaches them as they are in Him in all their infinite fullness and glory.

Thus, the believer has a regular and complete view of divine things given him as they are revealed in Scripture. There is no deficiency in any material part, no disorder, no confusion, but a beautiful connection and regularity.

He sees them in their source, in the channel through which they are conveyed, in their dependence and influence. And when the Spirit thus shows them, they are sure to have the desired effect and carry full conviction to the mind.

It is the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. It is as if the sun shone at midnight with the meridian splendor. The objects before unseen become visible as they are in all their glory.

So what does the Spirit do to sanctify us, to bring solid comfort to us? He leads us, He says, to two things, the source and the channel of all that we need. The source being the divine love, the channel being the finished work of Christ.

And all of this, you know, He makes that wonderful list, all of this is now seen in a new light. And the new light is, the new vantage point is, it's in Christ. And, you know, we talk a lot about that.

It's by union with this Christ, this second Adam, the final Adam. It's the union with the One who has done everything on our behalf to keep faith with the Father, to fulfill all the covenant obligations and then turns and shares all the privileges with His people.

United to Him, placed in Him by the Spirit, everything for the Christian is now viewed in Christ. And I think this is a great test when we talk about the work of the Spirit in a Christian's life. It is just so easy to get caught up with, you know, kind of phenomenon that people want to talk about and say, well, now that's the real work of the Spirit, these extraordinary gifts.

Well, is it? What Charles says here, and Charles saw times of extraordinary work of the Lord, but he continues to take us back and says, this is the heart of it. Christ is all in all now. And if you say you have the work of the Spirit, one of the evidences will be that you see everything in religion through the lens of being in Christ.

And that's, everything is changed now.

You know, sometimes it's a little counterintuitive. But if you come into a church where you hear about the Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit all the time, that's not to me any proof that the Spirit is at work.

But if you come into a church where you hear about Christ, Christ, Christ, and everything is, as you said, through the lens of being in Christ, you can be assured that you're in a place where the Spirit is at work, showing us the glory of the Father and the source of divine love as it comes to us through Christ.

Yeah, and I think another evidence of that would be that not only are you understanding the doctrines of the gospel and you're receiving them and enjoying them, living on them, but each one that comes to you causes you to love Christ, you know, in a greater way because the Spirit has shown you not just what Christ has provided, but Christ is the channel.

And this leads to what he says next about the demonstration of the Spirit and the power, taking what Paul writes about in 1 Thessalonians 1 .5 where Paul says, Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

In other words, it's the Spirit that makes these things effective. And that's what he says in our next quote. He says,.

In this case, sin and Satan pleading against us are overpowered and conscience and the law are silenced, being satisfied.

Yeah, so by the work of the Spirit. These things which to us without the work of the Spirit are simply words on the biblical pages. Now they have come alive to us and we are in the grip of an unshakable confidence in God because the Spirit has applied these things to our soul.

Another effect of that is what he says next. And that is, it changes our view of the beauty and the worth of Christ. He says it like this,.

The person of Christ, though before without form or comeliness, is now altogether lovely. The believer sees him to be such a Savior as he wants, one of infinite dignity, majesty and power. So the word want there, not just meaning that he has a desire for, but this is exactly the kind of Savior that I lack.

I have no dignity or majesty or power. But in Christ, that's all that I need. It's all there.

Yeah, so such a sight of Christ that transforms because the Spirit is at work in it. The next thing Charles talks about there is that the Spirit is in charge of convincing us of the fullness of the grace that is found in the person and work of Christ.

He says, Now at this point in the essay, Charles is going to kind of shift gears and he's going to focus on a number of specific things that the Spirit does in bringing the fullness of Christ to bear upon the Christian's life.

The Spirit Comforts the Believer with Christ

And one of them is comfort. I think that as a younger believer, I would have thought that the Spirit of all comfort, I would have thought that that would be a weak word, comfort. So there were other words that I thought were more attractive in religion.

And I think as we grow as believers, certainly as we age and hopefully are growing, the word comfort is a pretty precious word. And how does the Spirit comfort us? Because if we're not aware of that, we might devote a lot of time to some good things, but in the end, they're not really comforting.

I mean, you can give yourself to the empty distractions of the world to avoid pain, or you can give yourself to some good things in religion. But how is it that the Spirit brings comfort to the believer?

"...before intolerable, though innumerable evils had come past him about, and his iniquities had taken such hold of him that he was not able to look up, and his heart failed him. The things of Jesus thus seen bring him effectual relief, so that he is surprised and astonished at so unexpected, so suitable, and so full a deliverance.

The gloom of despair and the cloud of God's wrath disappear, and he has beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.".

So, wonderful description there. That the Spirit works in such a way, applying Christ to us, that we are surprised by the joy that He brings. He mentions the unexpectedness of it. And the suitableness, the perfectly suited comfort to my present need, which is Christ, applied by the Spirit.

Now, what he goes on to mention next in the essay, is that while there are many people that would try to comfort us, and, you know, as believers we are required by the Lord, we are part of bringing comfort to each other.

So, we go to other believers and we point them to Christ, but he makes the point that no matter what person tries to comfort you, ultimately it is by the work of the Spirit that this comfort becomes so effective.

Right.

Yeah, he says,. Others also may try to comfort us with the things of Jesus, but alas, they cannot show them to us, they cannot cause them to shine in their glory in our hearts, any more than they can cause the sun to shine at midnight.

But when the Spirit showeth them, and beareth witness with our spirit, the dispute is at once at an end, peace is restored, and joy in the Holy Ghost abounds.

The Spirit Seals the Believer

So, that brings us to the end of the comfort section. What follows then is, he's going to talk about the work of the Holy Spirit in sealing us, and then sanctifying, and then being our earnest. So, talking about the sealing of the believer, a present sealing and a future sealing.

They, speaking of the believer, are sealed now, whereby, says the Apostle, ye are sealed. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 30. The things of Christ, the blessings of pardon, reconciliation, and grace, are made sure and certain to them in particular, the free grant of them having the seal of heaven annexed to it.

And they are sealed also to the day of redemption, whereby the promises and blessings included in them are irrevocably confirmed, and the accomplishment of them is made certain and infallible, till they are in the full enjoyment of the purchase made for them by Christ, when He obtained for them eternal redemption.

Again, two things he mentions there with the sealing. One is that all the promised blessings of the covenant are sealed unto us by the Spirit. And so, there is a certainty that the gifts that have been promised will actually be enjoyed.

But there is also the sealing of the believer, in the sense that we are certainly His. And no one has a right to tamper with this. In a very simplistic picture, we can think of a seal on a letter or a document.

And so, there is an official seal. And it's not to be broken by anybody, but the person it's destined for. We belong to a King now. We've been bought with a price. And regardless of the warfare that we pass through, regardless of all the ups and downs, and the stumbling pace of our own steps, and our weak faith, and our easily distracted hearts, ultimately, we will make it.

How do we know? Because there's a seal over us, that we belong to Him, and we cannot be given to anyone else. Next, Charles explains the manner in which the Holy Spirit sanctifies the believer. And this, he says, is beautifully expressed through a word that we find in Scripture, the anointing or the unction of the Spirit.

And we find this in 1 John. Let me read just two passages that he's going to call our attention to. In 1 John 2 .20, we read,. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. That is, you know the things that I'm talking about.

In 1 John 2 .27, we read,. As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as He has taught you, you abide in Him.

The Spirit Sanctifies by Teaching, Comforting, and Producing Holiness

So, the work of the Spirit in giving the Christian a complete understanding of everything we need for sanctification, and that's what he talks about in that next passage.

Yeah, and it's important, I think, to listen to what he says, because there's some controversy about, well, okay, so we believe in our justification, it's good for justification, but what about sanctification?

How do we grow? Well, Charles writes, Yeah, some really important things here,.

Kind of like, I think of them as like a fence row along a path that gets treacherously close to some of the attacks of the enemy. And when we discuss holiness, it's just so easy to get a wrong view, but he simplifies it.

There is the same source, there is the same person, so it's the work of the Spirit. And then there is the same means, taking the fullness of Christ and applying it to us. And he warns us, it's inseparable.

The comforting of the Spirit. We think of justification being applied, of our being granted an awareness that we have a right to call God Father. So the comfort of the Spirit, the assuring work of the Spirit is never separable from the sanctifying work of the Spirit.

So the fear that, well, if I say it's all of grace, will it produce this kind of lazy, self-indulgent lifestyle? No, not if it's really all of grace. Because the undeserved, gracious work of the Spirit that brought you comfort is the same work of the Spirit which will produce in you this energy of soul, this yearning to show our gratitude to God in obedience.

He picks up with the same thought here. As the unction, therefore, from the Holy One, He teaches, comforts, and sanctifies His people. And those things which He teaches them are the means of their comfort and of their sanctification.

The things of Jesus are still the materials with which He works to produce every holy and desirable effect within the soul, for He is made to us of God, wisdom, righteousness, and also sanctification.

This will at once appear abundantly evident if we consider the different parts of holiness enumerated by the Apostle as the fruits of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit, He says, is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

The fruit of the Spirit, He says in another place, is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. All these are the different constituent parts of holiness, the different liniments of the image of God restored on the soul.

But they are nowhere to be found but where the Spirit dwells and abides. We may as well expect fruit without a tree to bear it, as look for these graces where the Spirit is not. Without the Spirit changing the inward man and abiding within us, no waterings, no skill or application can ever produce these fruits.

The Spirit Reveals the Father's Love and the Son's Grace

Right, so the work of the Spirit within. What he follows that with then is, what is it exactly that the Spirit is revealing to us that is so effective in transforming the life, and that is the divine love, and that comes in our next quote.

He says, But how does the Spirit within us produce these fruits? Is it not by taking of the things of the Father and Son and showing them to us? How is love to God produced but by His love being shed abroad in our hearts?

We love Him because He first loved us. The brightness of His love shining by the Spirit upon our dark and barren hearts can alone produce this heavenly fruit. And without the things of Christ being shown, what peace, what joy can there be for a guilty sinner?

Without the righteousness, merits, and grace of Christ being revealed, we may as well expect to hear the voice of melody in the mansions of eternal misery as to find spiritual peace and joy inside of the sinner's heart.

But when the love of the Father and the grace of the Son are shown to us, then, and not till then, love, joy, and peace are produced.

If we consider what the Scriptures say about the engine, the mode of obedience in the believer's life, we remember that Christ told His disciples, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. So love is the thing that moves us to obey.

But John tells us we love Him because He first loved us. So I think Charles is right on target when he says to us that the Spirit's job in sanctifying is primarily to show us the love of God in all of these provisions because as the believer is aware of the love of God in each of these, it's not just gratitude.

There is such a love that's created within us in response that we want to obey Him because we're aware again and again, day after day, that He has first loved us and continued to love us in a way that really conquers all indifference.

You know, in 2 Corinthians 3, Paul talks some about looking at the person of Christ and how that has a transforming impact upon the believer. In verse 18, we read this,. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit.

And Charles talks about that in our next quote. He says,.

If we have seen by the light of the Spirit the glory of the Lord, we must be proportionally changed into the same image, and by no other means can the change be produced.

The Spirit as the Earnest of Future Glory

So an earnest is like a down payment, but with two particular applications. One is the earnest given is a guarantee that the full amount will be ultimately paid. So the earnest is a guarantee that more is to come.

But also the earnest is part of the payment. And so the earnest is a beginning of the enjoyment of the full. And so the Holy Spirit, He's going to explain here, is not only a guarantee of the greater joys to come, but He's a foretaste of that.

And even today in our very fallen world, we can begin to live on the privileges that Christ has bought us.

You have to give a plug here for John Yerbe's cover of the hymn, Earnest of His Love, that's on the Behold Your God soundtrack. It's just so it illustrates this. Charles writes,. And as the fruits produced by this divine agent are a proof and a pledge, so they are also a part of the harvest which is to follow, and as they are a part, so also they must precede the harvest.

He who hath not the firstfruits can have no ground to expect that a harvest will ensue. Where these firstfruits of the Spirit are not, there the Spirit Himself cannot be as an earnest of our heavenly inheritance.

And if God hath not given us an earnest of future glory, our expectations are certainly groundless and will in the end be disappointed. Those who have the firstfruits of the Spirit are feeding here in the wilderness on the grapes of yonder Canaan, the land of their inheritance.

And by the taste they have here, they know the excellency of the country to which they are traveling. What a great illustration.

Yeah, yeah. So both joy there and a warning. If you're not presently enjoying something of the work of the Spirit in the ways that He's talked about biblically, then you have no right to expect that eternity is going to be full of these things.

Puritan Film Screening and Listener Reactions

Now that the Puritan film is out and shipping after two years of working together with Reformation Heritage Books and Puritan Reform Theological Seminary, we're here in Tupelo, Mississippi, where we've gathered some friends and family together just to screen the film as a way to celebrate.

A recently married couple, Jade and Lamar, came out to see the film, and this is what they had to say.

Tomorrow morning, what I'm going to remember is their love of God, I guess their full orb of theology as far as how God encompasses every aspect inside of their life. It wasn't just, you know, like they spoke about their towering minds, but their towering minds came down to the practical level of everyday life.

And so it wasn't just intellectual theology. It was very practical as well.

For me, I actually enjoyed the part when John Piper was talking about how they, their shortcomings. I loved that part because what it showed was, because in the beginning I was like, well, these men are on a whole nother level that I'm not on.

But when that part was brought up, it reminded me that they were humans and that we all need the help of the Holy Spirit to help us as we move from glory to glory in Christ Jesus. And so that was the part that stood out to me, is coming to Christ, coming to the foot of the cross and asking, Lord, Lord, help me.

For more information about Puritan All of Life to the Glory of God, visit themeansofgrace .org.

Going on to Greater Glory in Christ

He closes his whole description of the work of the Spirit in this way with one last quote we want to read before we finish our podcast. Charles writes,.

They still go on to greater glory. They dig deeper and deeper into the unsearchable riches of Christ and would comprehend more fully what they find still passeth knowledge, the love of the Father and the grace of the Son in their greatness and infinity.

They find an excellency in the knowledge of Christ in comparison with which all other things are but loss and dung. And this excellency is what they daily study to make progress in, to go on from glory to glory.

This knowledge of Christ with them never grows old or stale but is still new, refreshing and more glorious.

Well, I suppose it would be good to end with a personal prayer that we would not rest but do just as he said, to go on and on to greater glory, to dig deeper and deeper into the unsearchable riches of Christ.

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