The Spirit's Work in the New Covenant

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If you have your Bibles, please open them with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 3, and we're going to seek to finish the chapter today by looking at verses 17 and 18.
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And the title of today's message is, The Lord is the Spirit. I'm sorry, excuse me, that's the title on my page, apparently it's different on the screen.
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I changed the title and I forgot to change it on my notes. The title is, The Work of the
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Spirit in the New Covenant. The original title was, The Lord is the
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Spirit. Several years ago I wrote a book entitled, God in Three Persons.
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It was a book outlining the basic principles of the doctrine of the
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Trinity. And this is how the book began. This is the first sentence, it's a run -on sentence for my
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English majors out there who are going to give me a hard time afterwards and say, that's not a great sentence to begin a book. I know, I was young.
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But this is how I began the book. It amazes me as I watch and listen and teach as a pastor in our modern world, how much is not said in reference to the fact that the
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God of the Bible is Trinitarian in nature. Whether it be that people do not mention the
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Trinity, or when they do, they mention it in an improper and sometimes heretical way, I notice that this once foundational doctrine is now not really a vital part of worship and the understanding of God for most
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Christians today. Now, I said it may be a poor sentence, but it's true.
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If there's one essential doctrine, and I do believe the Trinity is an essential doctrine.
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If there is one essential doctrine, which is most maligned, which is most misunderstood, which is most misrepresented, it is the doctrine of the
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Trinity. And I am convinced that a failure to properly define the
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Trinity leads to many, if not most, of the doctrinal errors that are going on in the church today.
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We don't know who God is. We don't know who Christ is. We don't know who the Spirit is. And because we don't know and we don't seek to know, we end up with a church that is without the power of God.
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So today as we examine 2 Corinthians, we're going to examine the work of the
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Spirit in the New Covenant. Paul describes the
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Spirit in this passage as the Lord, which reminds us of the importance of a robust Trinitarian theology.
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He also says that the Spirit is the one who frees us from the blindness that we have before Christ and transforms us into the image of Christ.
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I hope that by the end of today's message, when we proclaim God in three persons, we will have our hearts, have in our hearts a better understanding of that precious truth.
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So let's stand together. It says in 2
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Corinthians 3, verse 17, Now the Lord is the
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Spirit, and where the Spirit of the
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Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the
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Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another.
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For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. Father in heaven,
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I thank you again for your word. I pray even now that as I begin to seek to preach your word, that you would keep me from error.
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Not because I deserve it, but because your glory, Lord, deserves it. That you deserve to be preached properly.
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So I pray for this, according to my conscience, that you would keep me from error. For the sake of my conscience, for the sake of your name, and for the sake of my hearers.
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And Lord, I pray that the work of the Spirit would be done today. As Spurgeon would often ascend the pulpit and would say,
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I need the Spirit, I need the Spirit, I need the Spirit. Lord, I need the Spirit today. For without the
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Holy Spirit, this sermon will have no effect. I pray,
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Lord, that the Spirit would be here among us today. That he would apply this message today, and that he would be the teacher.
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That I would decrease, that Christ would increase, and that you would receive all the glory.
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In Jesus' name, Amen. Over the past four weeks, we have been in a series within a series looking at the subject of the
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New Covenant. When I say a series within a series, we have been in the book of 2 Corinthians now for several months, and as we began to go into chapter 3,
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I said that chapter 3 revolves around this idea of the New Covenant.
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Paul says he's a member of the New Covenant. Verse 6, he contrasts the transient nature of the
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Old Covenant with the permanent nature of the New Covenant throughout this chapter. He describes the glory of the
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New Covenant to be much greater than the glory of the Old Covenant. We see that throughout the chapter.
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And so throughout this chapter, I've preached now five sermons. Today is the fifth on the subject of the
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New Covenant. We look first at the promise of the New Covenant. The promise of the New Covenant came in the
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Old Covenant when it said through the prophet Jeremiah that I am going to bring a new covenant with the house of Judah and the house of Israel.
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And I preached about that last week, what it means to be a covenant made with the house of Judah and the house of Israel.
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We looked at the inauguration of the New Covenant, which came in the blood of Christ. We looked at the exposition of the
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New Covenant, understanding the greater glory, moving from one glory to the next. We looked at the members of the
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New Covenant, and we said that we who are in Christ are made members of the
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New Covenant because he is the mediator of the New Covenant. And therefore, being in him, we are in this covenant.
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And today we are looking at the work of the Spirit in the New Covenant. And it's important to recognize that really that's been the point all along.
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Paul has been expressing this idea of the work of the Spirit all throughout this chapter because to describe the work of the
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New Covenant would be impossible without the work of the Spirit because the New Covenant work is applied by and empowered through the
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Spirit. In fact, if you go back through chapter 3, if you look at verse 3, he says that the
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Old Covenant was written in ink, but the New is written by the Spirit. The Old Covenant was by the letter, verse 6, but the
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New is by the Spirit. He calls the Old Covenant the ministry of death, but he calls the
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New Covenant the ministry of what? The ministry of the Spirit, verse 8. You would think he would say death and life, but he doesn't.
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He says the Old Covenant is the ministry of death, but the New Covenant is the ministry of the Spirit. Why? Because the Spirit gives life.
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So really when we consider the New Covenant, we are considering the ministry of the
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Holy Spirit. And why? Because the
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New Covenant comes with a new administration of the
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Spirit's work. Now, I've said that a few times, but I really want to reinforce that idea today that when we consider the
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New Covenant, we are considering a new administration of the Spirit's work. We are not saying that the
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Spirit hasn't been at work in the Old Covenant, but what we are saying is that when the New Covenant came, there was a new administration of that work.
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And I want to show you just a few verses. If you have your Bibles open, which I hope you do, turn with me back to John 14.
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Now in the Gospel of John, we have some of the most explicit references from the
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Lord Jesus Christ to the work of the Holy Spirit and the work that he would do that would be new in the
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New Covenant. So in John 14, beginning at verse 15, we read
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Jesus' words where he says, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Do you remember that right there?
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All right, now go to verse 16. It says, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another
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Helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.
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You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
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I'm going to have a hard time not stopping and just preaching this. Because what
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Jesus just said, if you break it down, one, he says, I'm going to send you alas perikaletos, alas perikaletos in the
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Greek, another helper or another, as the King James Bible says, comforter. The word alas there is different than the word heteros.
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Heteros means different. Like if I said, hand me another, and I mean something different.
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If you hand me, if I'm working on a car and I have a wrench and the wrench doesn't fit the bolt that I'm trying to turn,
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I'll say, hand me another. That would mean a different one, because that was not the right one. But if I needed another that was the same in the
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Greek, I would use the word alas, rather than heteros. Heteros means another of a different kind.
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Alas means another of the same kind. And so when Jesus says, I pray the
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Father that he will send you alas perikaletos, another comforter, what he's saying is another like me.
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Because Christ, when he was in the world, he walked alongside his brethren. He walked alongside the disciples, and he says, and when
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I go away, there will be one who comes. And the word perikaletos means the one who stands by your side.
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Para means alongside, kaletos means to call. And to put the words together means to call to one side, like one who would come along and stand beside you and give you strength.
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This is why the King James says comforter, because the word in the Latin forte means strength. Comforte means with strength.
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So the Spirit would come, he would stand beside you, and he would be your strength. Said I wasn't going to preach it,
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I'm here preaching it. I can't help it. This is the promise that Paul says is coming or has come, right?
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See, Jesus is speaking before the cross, before the renting of the veil of the temple. He's speaking before that.
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He's saying he's with you, but he's going to be in you. You see the prophecy there.
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Jesus says he's with you, but he's going to be in you. And that's the promise of the new covenant, that the
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Spirit is going to come and he's going to indwell you. He's going to make his home in you.
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This is why the apostle Paul can say you are the temple of the living
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God. We call this the house of the Lord, and what we mean by that is this building is dedicated to the service of God, but this building is not a temple.
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I mean it's our church building. It's important. We are thankful to God for it, but all of us, we could go to a field and we'd still be the church.
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We could go and meet in a banquet hall and we'd still be the church. We could be in prison in chains and we'd still be the church.
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Because the Spirit of God doesn't reside in this building. The Spirit of God resides in us.
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You see, that's the blessing of this new covenant. No temple, yes temple, you are the temple.
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Turn over to John 16, just look right, one chapter over.
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Verse 7, Jesus says this, he says,
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Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper, again the comforter, the
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Holy Spirit will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
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Again, consider what Jesus is saying. Is the Spirit not in the world? The Spirit's always in the world.
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The Spirit is like the Father and like the Son, is omnipresent in His divinity.
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But in His administration, He's not been sent at that point. In the administration of the new covenant,
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He has not been sent. And so Jesus says, It behooves you that I go away, because when
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I go away, I will send Him and He will be in you. When did the sending come?
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Acts chapter 2. Do you remember what happened in Acts chapter 2? The people of God, the small band of apostles there in the upper room, wasn't really that small, more than here, 120, about what we have, maybe about this size.
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And they're all praying. And what happened? I'll stop.
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That's funny. No, what happened? The Holy Spirit of God fell.
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And it was as divided tongues of fire rested upon each of the people. And they began to speak in languages they did not know.
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For what purpose? To show that the gospel, the good news, the promise of the new covenant, would not be only for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah.
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It would not only be held within the Hebrew people, but it would now be a message which would be cross -cultural and intercontinental.
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It would go to all the world because God was seeking to save men and women of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.
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The Spirit of God falls on the people of God, empowers them for the proclamation of the
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Word of God. That's the ministry of the Spirit in the new covenant.
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As I said, not to say that in the old covenant the Spirit was inactive, no, in no way.
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The Spirit was present at creation. He was present in the tabernacle. He came upon individuals for empowerment, for service.
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He did works in the hearts and lives of the believers. But the indwelling and abiding presence of the
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Spirit, the permanent indwelling of the
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Spirit is a new covenant promise. Turn over to 2
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Corinthians chapter 1, and I want to remind you what we've already read. Remember, we have already read this.
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We've been through 2 Corinthians 1 already, but turn back to 2 Corinthians 1 and look at what verse 21 says.
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It says in 2 Corinthians 1 verse 21, and it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, verse 22, and has also put his seal on us and given us his
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Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. Woo!
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I was just preaching about Pentecost, I might get a little Pentecostal. The Spirit of God rests in the heart of God's people and functions in that way as the seal of our salvation.
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He is the promissory note that we who have him within us will not perish, but will have everlasting life.
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He gives us life here, he gives us life there. You don't have to turn there, but Ephesians also says the same thing.
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In Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30, it says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
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You've been sealed by the Holy Spirit of God. This is the work of the Spirit in the new covenant.
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And with all that as simply a precursor to the text, let us go back now to 2 Corinthians 3 verse 17 and look at verses 17 and 18 and I'll give you the outline that we're going to see.
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We're going to see first in this text that Paul shows us the nature of the Spirit, then we're going to see the liberty from the
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Spirit, not from him in the sense that we're free from him, but free by him, maybe that would have been a better way of saying that freedom that the
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Spirit gives us, and then finally the transforming work of the Spirit.
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So let's look first at the nature of the Spirit, the nature of the
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Spirit of God. Notice what it says in verse 17. It says, now the
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Lord is the Spirit. Now the Lord is the
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Spirit. As I said, that was the original title of today's message, because when I read that I said, oh,
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I'm going to stop and preach a whole message on the Trinity. And my intention honestly was to simply just focus on just those few words.
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Because I think oftentimes when we consider the doctrine of the Trinity, the one person of the
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Trinity that sometimes is less the focus of our attention and study and thought is the person of the
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Spirit. In fact, I think sometimes we become functional Jehovah's Witnesses.
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Oh, now I got your attention. You see, the Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe the Spirit is a person.
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They do not believe the Spirit of God is personal. They believe that the Spirit of God is simply a force that emanates from God or a power that exudes from God.
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They do not believe the Spirit is personal. And oftentimes
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I think we are the same. We end up applying the neuter pronoun to the
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Spirit. How does the Bible always use for the Spirit? His, him, he.
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Always personal, always masculine. Him, he, his.
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But we say it because it's natural. Because we think of what the
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Spirit does as like a power and we don't usually personalize power so we use the impersonal pronoun.
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But the Bible doesn't. The Bible uses the personal pronoun. He is the
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Lord. He is the Spirit. And so that's one thing that we need to consider.
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When it says here the Lord is the Spirit, the Spirit there is referring to the
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Holy Spirit of God. And when it uses the word Lord, it is referring to that word which points to the divine, the word that is used of the
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Father. The Father is called Lord throughout the Old and New Testament. And it is used of Christ who is called
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Lord throughout the New Testament. And now it is applied to the Spirit. Time does not allow me to take you through the entire history of the use of the word koreos which is the
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Greek word for Lord. But it is an important study. Because in the old covenant scriptures, the word
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Lord is sometimes translating the word Yahweh which is the sacred name of God.
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And sometimes the word Lord is translating the word Adonai which means the sovereign one or the king, the ruler.
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And so when you are reading your Old Testament, you will see capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. That means it is translating the sacred name.
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And when it is a capital L, lower case o, lower case r, lower case d, that means it is translating Adonai which means the sovereign one.
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It is more of a title than a name. But in the New Covenant we don't have that. We only have this one word koreos and the word koreos is the word from the
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Greek that translates those two words into the Greek and it simply means
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Lord. And it can have a general function. You can call a person Lord. There are lords and kings and masters.
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But it can also have a divine purpose, a divine label and that is how it is being used here of the spirit.
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The Lord, the divine one, the God of heaven and earth is the spirit.
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And you say, but wait a minute. The context seems to be indicating that Christ is in view in regard to the
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Lord. And you say, well what are you talking about? Well look back up with me at verse 14 very quickly.
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If you look at verse 14, it says, might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.
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Excuse me, I'm in the wrong verse here and I do apologize. The context here of Lord, sorry
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I need a bigger pulpit to spread things out here. Here it is, verse 60,
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I'm sorry. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. When one turns to the Lord, who's in view there?
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I believe that's in view of Christ. And the reason why is because right before that it was talking about the fact that they can't see
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Christ. But when one turns to the Lord, right, the one who turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
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So that there, the Lord is Christ. And then in verse 17 he says, now the Lord is the spirit.
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And so the question comes, is Paul mixing the Trinity? Is he saying the spirit is
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Christ and Christ is the spirit? All right, well, here's where we have to get into a little bit of Trinitarian theology.
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And if you didn't come today to do theology, you came to the wrong church. So just so you know, this is what we do here.
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We have an unofficial motto, theology matters. Let me ask you a question, go off subjectively.
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Do you, if I asked you to come out there, if I said, can you define the doctrine of the Trinity? You should be able to.
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Oh, that's too hard, that's too complicated. It really isn't. God is one in essence, God is three in persons. These three persons are co -equal, co -eternal, and distinct.
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I know Jackie can do it because she's been in my classes long enough, and she smiled when I said it. I almost asked her to stand up and say it, but she'd have been embarrassed.
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Say it with me. God is one in essence. God is three in person.
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These three persons are co -equal, co -eternal, and distinct.
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That is the historic, no you can stop. That is the historic doctrine of the
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Trinity stated in three sentences. And honestly,
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I can take you back to Nicaea, to Chalcedon, to the Athanasian Creed, and I can show you all of those things can be boiled down to three simple sentences.
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God is one in essence. What is essence? Essence is His being. That which is God is one.
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That which is God is undivided. It cannot be mixed, it cannot be lessened, and it cannot be greatened.
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Greatened is not a word, made greater. God's being,
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His essence is one. Hear all Israel, the Lord thy God, the Lord is one. Isaiah says, before me there was no
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God formed, and so after me will no God be formed. By the way, greatest verse when you're talking to a
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Mormon, because Mormons believe that not only was God once a man, but they believe you can become a God.
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Isaiah says that's not so. Before me there was no God formed, and neither will there be one after me.
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There is one God. God is one in His essence.
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The word that is used in some of the higher literature is the word substance. You say that doesn't sound like higher literature.
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Well, it will in a moment when I explain what it means, but the word substance means that which God is. In His substance
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He is one, but in His subsistence
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He is three. He subsists, or exists, in three persons.
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And the word person indicates identity. You see, God the
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Father indicates Himself as God, but guess what? Jesus is also indicated as God.
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You know why we believe the Trinity? Not because in the fourth century a group of theologians got together and said we should.
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Not because in the fifth century there was an athanasian creed that was established that says that we should, but because the scripture defines
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God as one, and yet it calls three persons God. And the three persons it calls
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God is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And all three of those persons are defined as God.
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We just read the Lord is the Spirit. We see it right here in the text. We see it in John 1 when it says,
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In the beginning was the Word. Who is the Word? It's Jesus. John 1 .14. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld
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His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We know who the Word is. In the beginning was the
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Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
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Nothing was made that was not made through Him, for Him, and by Him. Jesus Christ is
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God in the flesh. By the way, if you don't affirm that, you're not a
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Christian. You say, how do you judge me? I don't judge you. The Word of God judges you. If you don't affirm the divinity of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, you are outside of the historic Christian faith. And I don't get to define that, neither do you.
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Somebody says, well, I think it's what it means. Who cares? You don't get to define 2 ,000 years of history.
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And you don't get to change it either. The doctrine of the
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Trinity is the most foundational truth that we stand upon. It is one of the few things that unifies all believers.
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We have so many ways in which we divide on so many other things. Who should be baptized? How should they be baptized?
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When should they be baptized? Yeah, all that's important, and we can debate it until the cows come home. But the thing we're not going to debate is whether or not
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Jesus is God and whether or not the Spirit is a person who is also God. And these three persons share the nature of God.
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And I can't, I can't, I tell you what, I remember when that word hit me, again,
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I said I wasn't going to do this, but I'm doing it, because this is it. I have departed the notes, because this is my heart, guys, this, again, this subject is so dear to my heart.
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And I remember when that word, share, sort of came into my lexicon, sort of just hit me.
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And the reason why it hit me was because I was sort of struggling with the idea of God being one in essence, three in person, and yet those three persons are not mixed, they're distinct, but there is no division.
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You say, oh, that sounds like a contradiction, it doesn't make sense. The Father, the Son, and the
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Spirit share the essence of God perfectly, without division and without mixture.
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You say, how can that be? Well, in the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus is praying to the
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Father. By the way, that should right away remind us why the
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Trinity is important, right? Because people say, Jesus wasn't God, he prayed. No, no, no, he was God in the flesh, and in the flesh he prayed to the
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Father. You see, you can't, you have to be able to distinguish the persons of the Trinity to be able to understand passages like that.
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But when he was praying to the Father, he said this one phrase in John chapter 17. He said,
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Father, glorify me again with the glory that we shared before the world was.
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I'm like a ping pong ball today, going back and forth, but hear it again.
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Glorify me again with the glory that we had before the world was.
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First of all, Isaiah says that the God of heaven says, I share my glory with no one.
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And yet, Jesus says that God shares the glory with him. Why? Because he too is
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God. You see, that's why God can say, I share my glory with no one, because there is no essential division between the
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Father and the Son when it comes to their essence, but there is a distinction when it comes to their person, see?
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And therefore, when the Son says, glorify me with that glory that we had before the world was, that tells us something about the nature of the
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Son and the incarnation. In Philippians chapter two, it says, have this mind in you, which is yours in Christ Jesus, that though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be held on to, but he emptied himself.
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Did he empty himself of his divinity? No, that's called a canonic heresy. We do not believe
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Christ ceased to be divine. By the way, the word kenosis is where the word empty comes from.
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They call that a canonic heresy. If you believe Jesus gave up his divinity, that is a canonic heresy.
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But what he did do is he divested himself of glory, coming as a servant.
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See, when he came as a servant, he laid aside his crown and he came in a manger.
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And he did so, why? So that he could die for us.
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In fact, let's look, just real quick, turn over to Philippians two, just for a moment. I want to show you this. This is sometimes known as the
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Carmen Christi or the song of Christ. It's believed by some scholars that Paul is actually quoting a already existing theological song or poem that had been in the belief system of the people.
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They were already saying this, because it comes across lyrical. And he says this, have this mind, this verse five, have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
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See that's why he came. That's why he came. He came to humble himself and be obedient for you, that's called the active righteousness of Christ, which is applied to you, and the passive righteousness of Christ, where he goes to the cross and dies.
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Verse nine, therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to the glory of God the Father. You see he comes down in humility and he is exalted in victory, and it is through that exaltation that he again takes his seat at the right hand of God, demonstrating his sovereignty, his authority, his adoniness over all things.
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See this is Christ and who he is and what he's done.
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And beloved, as I said, I ran away from my message, but I wanted simply to remind you of the importance of the doctrine of the
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Trinity. If we do not have a robust doctrine of the Trinity, we will be subject to all kinds of theological error.
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So do you remember it? God is one in essence,
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God is three in person, and these persons are co -equal, that means they share the nature of God, they are co -eternal, that means one did not come before the other in time, and they are distinct.
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That means one can relate to the other even before time existed.
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There has been a relationship within the Trinity for eternity. The Father, the
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Son, and the Spirit have always existed. This is why when we open
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Genesis 1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless and void.
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And what, no, who was hovering over the face of the deep?
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The Spirit of God. Trinitarian theology is veiled in the
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Old Testament, but it's there. But it is a New Testament revelation.
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That which is veiled in the Old Testament is released for us to see in the
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New Testament. This is why on the day Jesus was baptized, we see all three persons of the
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Trinity in His baptism. Remember that? Jesus is there, obviously, in His person.
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He is being baptized by John when He comes up out of the water, having been baptized by John.
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What do we hear from heaven but the voice of the Father who says, this is my beloved
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Son in whom I am well pleased? And what do we see descend upon Jesus but a dove?
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And in that we see the person of the Spirit descending upon Christ. Anointing Him for ministry.
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You realize Jesus' ministry began at His baptism. He lived for 30 years -ish.
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But it was at His baptism. The Trinity is present.
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God the Father with a voice of commission. God the
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Son in His position of humiliation. And God the Spirit descending in power to anoint
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Him for the work. Beloved, you can't be a
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Christian and not be a Trinitarian. You just can't do it. Even our own baptism in Matthew chapter 28 when we are given the commission, the great commission is to go and make disciples of all nations.
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Doing what? How do you make disciples, beloved? It begins by baptizing them in the name of the
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Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Understand this, in the old covenant, the name
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Yahweh was the reverential name. The name that many would not even dare to speak because they were so afraid that they would break the third commandment.
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Even today you will sometimes read the writings of those who are so fearful of breaking the third commandment that they won't even write the word
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God, but they will write a G, a dash and a D so as to not completely write the name of God.
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Understand this, and this is important. I think it was B .B. Warfield who pointed this out. B .B.
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Warfield was seminary president, professor, genius of the faith.
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And I think it was him, and if I'm wrong I'll correct myself, but he said in the old covenant the name of God, Yahweh, in the new covenant that name is the
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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Anima in Greek. Baptizing them in the name, not the name
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Yahweh, but Yahweh is now known by the triune name of the
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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You ever wonder why we don't come up and baptize in the name of Yahweh?
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We are! Because when we say I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the
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Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we are referring to Yahweh! That's who the trinity is.
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The trinity is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, which is Yahweh God. Jesus is
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Yahweh. The Spirit is Yahweh. The Lord is the Spirit. The Spirit is Yahweh. Beloved, this is the heart of what we believe.
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This is the heart of who we are, and we must not be those who would simply say that you can take it or leave it.
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He's not here today, but I know he would not mind me sharing this story because we've talked about it before, and I've shared this story before, but I'm going to tell a short story about someone, and that's
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Matthew David. Love Matt. He's a good friend of mine, member of this church now for a while, married him and his wife
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Kayla. He came to our church having received
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Christ through online ministry. He had heard the gospel preached through men who were preaching it through the online avenues of YouTube, TikTok, stuff like that.
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But amazingly enough, people do get saved from TikTok, as crazy and bad as it can be. God is still working, and he called me one day.
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He called the church, left his number, and I called him back, and if y 'all know
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Matt, you don't have a short conversation with Matt. Matt loves to have a conversation, and I had a great conversation when we talked for over an hour the first time we ever talked, and Matt said this.
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He said, I believe in Christ, I died for my sins, but I'm having difficulty with the doctrine of the
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Trinity. He didn't say he didn't believe it, he just said, I'm having trouble with it, I don't know if I believe it.
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Now a softer -handed man might have said, that's okay, but when it comes to the doctrine of the
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Trinity, that ain't me. I said, my friend,
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I love you, I don't even know you yet, I said, I love you, but I'm going to tell you this, the doctrine of the
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Trinity is not an option, and if you come to our church, we will welcome you. I said, but understand this, if you do not affirm the full deity of Christ and the full person of the
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Holy Spirit, we do not believe you're a Christian. And he stopped, and he listened, and he goes, really?
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I said, yes. I said, because those things are not optional. You see, the problem with theology today is we have a cafeteria -style
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Christianity, because when you go to the cafeteria, you can go and you can take the steak and you can leave the
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Brussels sprouts. You can take the chicken and you can leave the green beans. But when it comes to the
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Christian faith, there are certain doctrines which you do not have the right to simply leave on the table, because they are foundational to what it means to be a
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Christian. And this is what divides denominations from cults. See, I look at my brothers in the
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Presbyterian faith, I say, hey, we're different denominations, but we serve the same Lord, because we affirm the essentials.
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I can look at my brothers in the other Baptist denominations that are out there, I can look at my brothers in various other denominations, even the
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Methodists. And if they affirm the same Lord, and they affirm the same justification by faith alone in Christ alone, we can say we are brothers in Christ.
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But when somebody comes to your door on that ten -speed, and he's telling you that God was once a man who lived on a planet that surrounds a star called
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Kolob, and because of his obedience to Mormon teachings, he himself became God, and he flourished in the celestial kingdom and produced a world out of his own loins through celestial marriage with his many wives, and that's the children that you are, and Jesus is his celestial spirit child.
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There's a Greek word for that. Baloney, that's what it is. That's baloney.
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That does not line up with Scripture, and it does not comport with historic Christian truth.
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And if we can't say, this is right, and that's wrong, then we don't have a faith anymore.
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You see, it's just like Mike said, day of prayer. I didn't see it, but I'm sure there was all these people up there who just, locking arms.
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I mean, you'll see the Pope next to an imam and all these different things, all of them locking arms. Oh, yes, we're all praying to the same
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God. Yes, you are, because you're all praying to the false God. You're not praying to the true, one, and living
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God who exists in three persons. Well I did it. I didn't finish. There's no way
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I'm going to try it, because the next, let me tell you something, the liberty of the spirit and the transforming work of the spirit, I was really hoping to get there today.
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We'll get there next week. Understand this, we not only need to understand that the
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Trinity is a truth, we need to understand that the Trinity is vital in how we understand worship.
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Because as we worship God, we worship Him through the work of Christ by the power of the spirit.
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The transforming power of the spirit, which took you from death to life, gave you life, and now empowers you to move from one degree of glory to another.
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Y 'all got another hour? We can do it now, because that's, understand that blessing. We are in the process.
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We are in the process. We are being glorified. We always think of glory as something we look forward to, and there is a sense in which we look forward to the glory of removing the sinful flesh and having a glorified body that no longer desires sin, and amen.
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But we are now seated in heavenly places with Christ, because we are in Him, and being moved from one degree of glory to another, because of the work of the spirit.
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Beloved, I look forward to next week, as we continue. But I hope today that you have heard something important, and let me finish with these words.
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If something I have said today you found confusing, if something
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I said today has hurt you in some way, or maybe confused you in some way, or even angered you in some way,
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I want you to know that was not my intention. My intention was to tell you the truth.
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And if you have a question, or a concern, or a desire to learn more,
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I ain't going home. I'm going to be right here. Any one of our elders would love to sit down and talk with you, would love to pray with you.
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If you don't know Christ, there is nothing we would love more than to sit down and tell you what it means to have a
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Savior, and to love Him, and know that He loves you. So please don't leave this place today, if you have questions or concerns, without talking to someone, because we love you, and we want to have that conversation.
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Now we're going to move into our time for the table. And this time of the table, as you'll hear in just a moment, is for believers.
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If you're a believer today, let's be reminded of what this gives to us. Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for this opportunity to exalt again the blessed work of Christ, and the blessed work of the
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Spirit, and the blessed power of God, and how the Trinity is to us a mystery, but yet is still something that we can identify with truth.
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Lord, I pray that we have learned today. Pray that we have been enlightened today. I pray that we have been instructed today, not by me, but by the
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Spirit of God. For He is the one that not only can teach our hearts truth, but He can apply those truths to our life.
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I pray now that you would work through this time of participating in the table to remind us of our union with Christ, and the work that the