The Dispensation of the Holy Spirit

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this morning.

I pray that you would bless our time in your word and that you would help us to understand your spirit.

In Jesus' name, amen.

All right, so yes, today we are talking about the spirit of God.

Particularly, a question which comes up or an answer that's assumed, which is,

did the Holy Spirit dwell within believers in the Old Testament?

Yeah, yeah, that is a good question.

Now, in Reformed theology, there's an answer to this, and the answer is yes, yes, he did.

Outside of Reformed theology, you'll pretty frequently get people saying, no, he didn't.

Because if you look at scripture, it does look like, well, this statement about the Holy Spirit being in people

seems to be New Testament thing.

It even talks about the spirit being given as though he wasn't given before.

And you do see the Holy Spirit working in the Old Testament, but not necessarily with the same language.

So this being in people seems to be exclusive to the New Testament.

And so they would have the people of old be, without the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is on, or without the

Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is on them or something else.

But let's dive in, see what to think about this.

So let me give you a couple of the, or at least one of the problem texts here.

And John 739, John 739, it

says, now he said about the spirit, whom those who

believed in him were to receive, for as yet the spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified.

So talk about the spirit not being given.

So this is why a lot of people think, okay, well, people in the Old Testament just didn't have the spirit because he hadn't been given yet.

But yeah, when we're talking about the spirit of God, we're talking about someone who is omnipresent, who is everywhere,

just as God is everywhere.

And when you look at the Old Testament and we're talking about God's presence,

and it talks about him being absent or him being present or him being in the temple or him not being able to be contained

by the temple.

You know, if you take any of these too literalistically, as though they are all describing

presence in the same way, you'll end up in a bad position where you're not able to understand really

much of any of it.

And you have to understand that each passage is, it has a right to

speak in the way that it deems fit, and whatever anthropomorphic way it would like.

Because even to speak of location, a limited location of God is some kind of

analogy, because he's not limited by location.

In fact, he transcends location altogether.

I've talked about this before, but he's not, I'm not even that big of a fan of the term omnipresent

because it suggests that he is in space at every point.

You know, and if you ever hear a theologian talk about God being omnitemporal, that's a really bad sign because he's trying to tell you that God is in

time everywhere.

But the truth is, God is eternal.

He is outside of time.

He transcends time.

He's not contained by this dimension.

And the same is true with space.

He is immense, immense being without measure.

He is not contained by the dimension of space.

All right, so

there is one particular book that is the most sensitive to the Reformed view that

tries to advocate for a lack of indwelling in the Old Testament.

I'm gonna quote from that occasionally.

That book is called God's Indwelling Presence by James Hamilton, Jr., and so

he denies that there was any indwelling in the Old Testament.

So I'll go ahead and read what he wrote so you can get a sense of what he's saying.

It will be argued here that prior to Jesus' glorification, God sanctified believers by his presence

with them rather than in them.

Often the Old Testament described God as with select persons.

God declared to his Old Covenant people, I am Yahweh who sanctifies you.

God made his people holy as he indwelt the tabernacle and later the temple,

and thereby he remained near his people on an individual and corporate level.

After Jesus' glorification, in keeping with the coming of that day, God

brought about new birth and obedience by regenerating individuals and indwelling them by his spirit.

So regeneration and indwelling remain distinct works of the spirit, but they are

simultaneously received by all who believe.

All right, so yeah, he's making a distinction between in and with, but you know, I've

read this book and he never really explains to any degree that I was

satisfied what the distinction between in and with is for him.

So yeah, like I said, because the Holy Spirit is omnipresent, indwelling is only an analogy and it needs some kind of definition

because it's not referring to a limited location.

So he says, I will use indwelling, on the other hand, to refer to God's abiding positive covenant presence

in believers through the spirit.

So abiding positive covenant presence.

You have to ask yourself, did that not exist in the Old Testament?

The indwelling of the spirit is God's favorable presence abiding with those who enjoy his merciful establishment of a

covenant relationship.

So yeah, let me just go ahead and read my own notes here and this is reflecting on what Hamilton said.

It is not clear what distinction he is trying to imply by these prepositions.

By in, does he refer to a continual work?

Does he refer to a permanent work?

You know, I'm not really sure what he's talking about.

Proposed clarifications only tend to make the proposition more objectionable because they make it clear what is being denied regarding the

spirit's work in the Old Testament.

Because the second you attribute something to in, okay, in means this, well then if he's denying that in the Old

Testament, that seems like a problem because the spirit was giving them such grace in the Old Testament.

Otherwise, how was salvation possible?

Yeah, was the spirit not merciful towards God's people in the Old Testament?

Was he not favorable toward them?

Was he, yeah, he's talking about positive, you know, a positive presence.

Was the spirit not positive towards God's people?

And then covenant presence, you know, there's a way that the new covenant is inaugurated

in the New Testament.

However, the fact is still that there was a promise given and God is true to his

promises.

And I see no reason to think that, that it wasn't even a covenant presence, you know, one that's

guaranteed.

So yeah, you inspect any of those or you try to make up new ones and I don't know how that any of those could be denied

for Old Testament believers.

So yeah, any who reject the spirit's permanent indwelling in Old Testament believers are forced to propose a definition of indwelling that does not

leave Old Testament believers with the spirit's continual aid.

And that's a problem.

So it kind of has to remain vague if you're going to propose that they weren't indwelt.

It has to remain vague or else, you know, suddenly you're denying something specific that they had.

Yes.

So yeah, last time I taught, which I guess was two weeks ago, we talked about the Proto -Evangelium and how

the first people, you know, Adam, Eve, et cetera, you have them

in the naming that's happening in the first few chapters of Genesis, demonstrating a faith in God that he was going to

send a messiah.

You know, Noah is named Noah because he's going to be the one who gives God's people rest.

And so that verse in Genesis 3 .15 that says, that says one will

come from the woman who crushed the serpent's head, that is the first giving of the gospel.

And so one who is a believer in the Old Testament, someone who is not believing in a messiah that has already been given, but

believing in a messiah that is to come.

So yeah, we're talking about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.

All right, so let's talk about the temple.

So the thing that Hamilton does in this book is he ends up saying that in the Old Testament, you

had God's presence in the temple.

In the New Testament, you have it in believers.

And so whatever was happening in the temple is now happening in believers.

And it was relegated to the temple in the Old Testament and not happening in believers before.

So I'll go ahead and read what he wrote.

In John 20, 21 through 23, Jesus communicates the authority to mediate the blessings of

the temple by sending the disciples just as the Father sent him.

The temple blessings that the disciples thereby mediate are the presence of God and the means for sins to be

forgiven.

When the Spirit was received by the disciples in John 20, 22 Jesus conferred on

them the power to mediate blessings formally mediated by the temple, the presence of God and the forgiveness of sins.

All right, so yeah, certainly the temple has symbolic significance regarding forgiveness of sins, but

it was symbolic only.

You know, the blood of bulls and goats do not take away sins as it says in Hebrews 10, four.

And then on top of that, what does that mean about the time prior to Moses?

You know, did they not have forgiveness then?

What does that mean about the time in between Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus, you know, when the temple was ransacked?

Did they not have forgiveness then?

Did they not have these blessings then?

I think there's something to this that there is a, especially when you

look at things like the priesthood that is relegated to the temple and then the priesthood that is

expansive throughout all the believers in the New Testament.

There is something to be said about that, but I think in the way that he puts this forward, it's just a little, it

says too much.

And yeah, reserves too much to the temple.

All right, and so John 7, 39, which we just read, I'll read it again.

Now this he said about the spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the spirit had not been

given because Jesus was not yet glorified.

So how are we to understand this if we're not to understand it as?

There was no spirit in believers before, and then there is spirit after they receive, after they receive the

Holy Spirit.

All right, so yeah, there is some new work being done, and in the second half of this, we'll look at what

this is, and I would refer to it as an outpouring rather than an indwelling.

The indwelling being both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, but an outpouring being special in the New

Testament.

And if we're going to really be nitpicky about these words like indwelling, you know, to

take a passage like this and then apply it, I think is misguided again, because it's not saying, oh,

before I did not indwell you, now you will be indwelled, you know?

Yes,

yeah, the spirit's presence.

Right.

It doesn't necessarily happen.

Right, yes.

Yeah, given refers to some kind of new work, but to identify that new

work as being the indwelling, yeah, I think that's a

problem.

Yeah, there's some special way that he will be received that it is exclusive to the New Testament, but that does not

have to be indwelling.

All right.

All right.

So the second reference that people look at is John 14, 16 through 17.

14, 16 through 17.

Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who

sent him.

If you know these things.

John 14, 16 through 17.

Sorry, I was looking at 13, no wonder.

All right, let me try that again.

14, 16 through 17.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever.

Even the spirit of truth in the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.

You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

So here you, first of all, you have in here like a mitigation to the idea that there was no sense in which he was present with

believers before, because Jesus is saying he actually already is with you.

And then when he says, and he will be in you, now, it's understandable why someone would say, oh, look, before he was with, and

now he'll be in.

But once again, if we are to take in, and indwelling is always referring to the same thing,

it's assuming a lot.

It's really assuming a lot.

Because, yeah, the Bible is not always working that way, where it only uses one word in a particular sense.

You know, a good example is justification.

Paul talks about justification as being right with God.

But then James talks about it as being, as more of a statement before men that

your faith is true, right?

So the Bible doesn't use these words, and especially not prepositions in such a textbook.

This is the only thing it could possibly mean, fashion.

All right, so, yeah, these prepositions, with, or para, and in, which is

n in Greek.

So para and in.

Let me go ahead and read something from a paper a guy named McCabe wrote.

He says, it is safe to say that this preposition para, the one that means with, rather than being restricted

to a spatial sense, has something of a figurative sense in unifying that the spirit has been

permanently abiding in spiritual relationship with the 11 disciples.

Thus the point of this clause in 1417, he abides with you, is that the spirit was already

intimately and permanently residing with each of the 11 disciples.

As such, this part of verse 17 reflects the spirit's pre -Pentecost indwelling

ministry with the disciples.

With the exceptions of verse two and verse 20, there are 13 uses of in, which is the word for in,

that correlate better with the nuance of personal relationship.

So to think that the Greek word in, which is often translated as in, just

always means inside of, these prepositions can mean a lot of different things, and

it is reasonable to translate it as in a lot of times, but to assume that that's the limitation of

its meaning, like the way we use the word in to really mean inside of something, that's not how the word is used.

And so if you look throughout this chapter, you see lots of examples of in that

speak of personal relationship.

Therefore, the contextual usage of in suggests its use in 1417, rather than emphasizing the location

where the spirit would reside, emphasizes an intimate relationship the spirit would have in the near future

with Christ's disciples.

So in this passage, given, and I regret not looking up a bunch of examples that I

could list off for you, but you can use a Bible tool yourself and look for examples of this word, and

you'll see that it's referring not to indwelling or being inside of something, but to a

closeness, a presence with something.

And so it's not talking about indwelling, but intimacy, right?

That's the distinction that's being made here when it says he's with you and then will be in you.

It's not, oh, he's outside you, near you, and now he's going to be inside you, like the English prepositions might suggest.

Rather, it is he is already residing with you, and he is going to even closer in the future, right?

So there is a newness to the work, but that newness is not that, oh, he's outside, now he's inside.

Okay, that's not the nature of the newness.

All right.

Now, let me read something else.

Hamilton, who's denying the Old Testament indwelling, he said, I will argue that indwelling is not to be equated with

regeneration, right?

And he seems to think that this is the novel approach that will make it so

that we don't need the Old Testament indwelling.

The problem is, I don't know if anyone equates regeneration and indwelling.

Yes, when someone is regenerated, the spirit begins indwelling them, but what he's trying to say is, okay,

let's say we still acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is needed to regenerate someone, but then after that, he's outside them,

you know, and he's not in them.

Yeah, so this is, I think this is a problem once again.

Yeah, to affirm the Holy Spirit's work in regeneration and then to deny the necessity of his work, this is my own writing, and indwelling

as akin to affirming Jesus' work in procuring justification and then to deny the necessity of his continual intercession.

You know, Hebrews 7 talks about him being able to stay forever because he lives forever to make

intercession for his people.

It wasn't enough for him to make the sacrifice.

He needs to, as high priest, continually intercede for us.

And the same is true with the spirit.

The spirit, he regenerates us, but then it's not like, oh, we're good to go now.

You know, we still need the spirit.

Galatians 3 .3, and once you get to these verses that talk about the need for the spirit, I think it becomes really clear

that a lot of this, these proposed theologies are problematic.

Are you so foolish, having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Galatians 3 .3.

Right, so the idea that, okay, we need the spirit for regeneration, but we don't need his special presence for the rest of the

Christian life.

Or, well, Old Testament, whatever you call the equivalent of Old Testament Christian Jewish, the Jewish life.

Yeah, Galatians 3 .3 makes it clear that's not the case.

We can't just begin by the spirit and then be perfected by the flesh.

We have to continue by the power of the spirit.

And then in Romans 8, 9 through 11, it says, you, however,

are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if, in fact, the spirit of God dwells in you.

And now we've got a statement that really does use the physical analogy of being inside, right?

Because you've got the word dwell, right?

So that's the thing, is when you just have the preposition, it doesn't necessarily mean inside of.

When you have dwell, well, yeah, that's talking about someone in a house, right?

And so now we are using that analogy.

You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if, in fact, the spirit of God dwells in you.

Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.

If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will

also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you,

right?

So those who don't have the spirit don't belong to Christ.

There's just so much that hinges on the spirit dwelling in you that, you know, if they didn't have this

blessing in the Old Testament, you know, how could they be saved?

How could they be saved if they were operating by the power of the flesh and they're not able to, in Romans 8 terms,

obey the law of God or, you know, and they're slaves to their own sin,

right?

So as one who does not remain in the vine does not have life, one who does not have the Holy Spirit remaining in them cannot have life either.

Also 1 Corinthians 2, 12 through 16.

So beginning in verse 12.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by

God.

And skipping verse 13.

The natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God for they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they

are spiritually discerned.

The spiritual person judges all things but is himself judged by no one for who has

understood the mind of the Lord so as to extract him?

But we have the mind of Christ.

So what is the mind of Christ here?

Y 'all know?

I think it's stated more clearly elsewhere in the passage.

1 Corinthians 2.

Okay, so it says, yeah.

For the spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of the person which is in him?

So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, et cetera.

Right, like I just read.

And so we having the mind of Christ means that we have the spirit in order to think spiritual

thoughts.

And while this is not using, this does not have a word like dwell to suggest an

internal presence, it is talking about us having this mind.

Like the spirit not just being outside and occasionally giving us help here or there but continually

affecting our mind that we might be able to spiritually appreciate the truth of God

that otherwise we wouldn't.

You know, you look at this and you ask yourself, now if you didn't have the mind of Christ, how could you survive as

someone who was wanting to serve God and believe the right things, et cetera?

It's impossible to do that without the mind of Christ, without the spirit of God who is able to understand the things of God.

If you just have the mind of the flesh, you're incapable of appreciating these truths that God has given.

And so the analogy that Hamilton's trying to make when

he's talking about like in versus outside versus with, I don't think there's room for saying that the

spirit could be outside someone and still be the mind of Christ within them.

You know, once again, I think these, it's just putting too much burden on some of those prepositions when you have these other

passages, making it real clear we need God's indwelling presence in the spirit in order to even think as we

ought.

All right, now here's a couple of arguments of my own.

Luke 11, 13, yes,

Luke 11, 13.

Luke 11, 13 says, if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children,

how much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

All right, the father loves his children.

He gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.

Were there any people in the Old Testament who asked for the spirit?

There were, there were.

David asked for the spirit.

David asked for the spirit in Psalm 51, 11.

He says, cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

You know, he's praying for the spirit of God.

Praying the spirit of God be with him and, you know, to use the analogy, no reason to not say in him.

Now, I know that someone like Hamilton would say, oh, but it didn't say in.

But, you know, if someone is praying for the spirit and God, would God withhold the spirit,

right, and only give him an external presence and not an internal presence?

You know, if we're going to call that internal presence as he did the favorable, abiding, positive

presence of the spirit, well, no, it's still favorable, it's still abiding, it's still positive.

Yes.

Right.

Right. Right.

Right.

Yeah, and if we're going to make a distinction between in and with, you know, what is that distinction?

It's not abiding favorable, et cetera, right?

These words that Hamilton's trying to use to distinguish them.

No, no.

Yeah, but you can, if you want.

Yeah.

Right.

Right.

Yeah.

So someone that has this position that Hamilton has is going to really capitalize on a lot of those pronouns.

Like, for example, you know, well, the spirit is on Saul, right, and that's how he was able to prophesy and stuff, but the spirit was not

in Saul.

You know, and I think that's true that there is a distinction in the way the spirit is dwelling with Saul, because I don't believe Saul,

you know, really had the mind of Christ.

He was just, you know, being forced to prophesy by the spirit.

And then, later on in the same chapter, Luke 11, 24, it says, when the unclean spirit has

gone out of a person, it passes through the waterless places, seeking rest and finding none.

It says, I will return to my own house from which I came.

So now we're back to these house analogies, which really are, you know, now it's reasonable to talk about indwelling,

right?

And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order.

Then it goes and brings seven other spirits, more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there.

And the last state of that person is worse than the first.

Okay.

Yeah, Matthew talks about, you know, the house being empty and swept and put in order.

So, many people read this and they recognize, ah, the spirit, one of the spirit's roles is to ward off demonic possession.

But it's not just demonic possession.

It's all falsehood, and so the parallel passage that we have in Matthew

says in 12 .45,

then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits, more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there.

And the last state of that person is worse than the first.

So also, will it be with this evil generation?

And so what is Jesus pointing out here?

That basically, this generation is empty and swept and put in order, so that, you know, anything

can take it over.

If you are willing to apply to this passage, ah, yes, the spirit of God is necessary in order to ward off demonic possession.

You know that you're open to demonic possession otherwise.

I think it's, what Matthew goes on to say is basically all falsehood.

You're open to all falsehood if you don't have the spirit of God.

And so, yeah, the spirit is truly needed to ward off falsehood.

Yet, that if he's not, then that, if he's not, if he wasn't in the Old Testament, believers, I don't know

how they made it.

Yeah.

All right, James 4 -5 is a very interesting passage that has puzzled many

people and still continues to, I think, just always will, including me.

But if we just take it at its word and work with it, I think

it tells us something pretty interesting.

So James 4 -5 says, or do you suppose it is to no

purpose that scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us?

Okay, so what scripture is James talking about?

There have been some proposals for what verse he is quoting.

And this is a, so in English, you know, you've got the quote marks.

This is, in Greek, a direct quote.

It's not said as an indirect quote to explain the difference.

If I say, you know, my daughter said that she went to the park, right?

That's an indirect quote because I'm describing something she said, right?

But if I say, my daughter said I went to the park, right?

That's a direct quote.

And so this does seem to be, in Greek, a direct quote.

He yearns jealously over the spirit that he made to dwell in us.

Now, to what degree it's trying to quote exactly, you know, isn't necessarily going by

our modern standards of exact quotations.

But it's not very clear which passage this is referring to, and honestly, most of the proposals

are not very satisfying.

However, if we just take it at its word that it is speaking of scripture, James

is most likely the first New Testament book that was written.

So it's not talking about New Testament scripture.

You know, sometimes the New Testament refers to the New Testament as scripture.

You know, Peter speaks of Paul and talks about his words as scripture.

This is not talking about a New Testament book.

This is talking, if this is the first New Testament book being written, it's talking about the Old Testament.

And so it's attributing this quote to the Old Testament, that the spirit, he has made the spirit to dwell

in us.

Now, yeah, what does that,

yeah, let's talk about that.

Also, he is, the way he is phrasing this is, do you suppose it is to no purpose?

Like, he's basically saying, you are obligated to already understand this quote, you know, the way he's addressing people.

This is not, let me take this Old Testament phrase and imbue it with some new apostolic meaning.

You know, he's saying, this is what you should already be believing, that the spirit, that this passage says the spirit dwells in us.

Yeah, and then one other thing, you might notice the ESV chooses to leave spirit

uncapitalized to make it ambiguous, whether it's talking about the spirit of God.

I do believe this is talking about the Holy Spirit.

To quote Calvin, "'They, however, think better who regard the spirit of God as intended, for it is

he that is given to dwell in us.

I then take the spirit as that of God and read the sentence as a question, for it was

his object to prove that because they envied, they were not ruled by the spirit of God, because

he teaches the faithful otherwise, and this he confirms in the next verse by adding that he gives more grace.".

Yeah, speaking of the spirit, giving more grace.

All right, so, yeah, I think this passage gives us a pretty clear

statement that even the Old Testament testifies to

the spirit's indwelling presence.

So to summarize this first, all right, yeah, that's good.

All right, to summarize this first half of this Sunday school, the spirit

indwelt believers, even in the Old Testament.

We have a lot of evidence to prove that.

And more particularly, if you wanna say, no, he didn't, he was just with them or on them or outside them in some way, you've

gotta give that some kind of definition and then explain how believers were able to survive without the spirit's presence in that way

in the Old Testament.

And no one who takes this position that I've seen, they attribute, they

grant too much to indwelling so that if you took it away from someone, they would no longer have the mind of Christ.

They'd no longer be able to continue in the power of the spirit as Galatians 3 says we need to be able to do.

All right, but now about that discontinuity.

There is some special way the spirit is given that he was not before, right?

So in what sense is he given in John 739 or the new intimacy implied by

John 1417?

Like I said, the word I would use is outpouring.

So there was an indwelling in the Old Testament and New Testament, there's an outpouring in the New Testament.

And the word outpouring coming from the prophet Joel that is quoted in Acts 2.

In Acts 2, it speaks about the spirit being poured out from on high.

And in that last day, in the last days, it shall be God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.

And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions.

Your old men shall dream dreams.

And there are other words and analogies that could be used to

describe this special presence of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.

Bible also talks about baptism of the Holy Spirit.

You know, I do think that that is a New Testament reality that's referring to this same thing.

The image being of someone being fully immersed in the spirit as of the spirit who is frequently

described as water.

Now, if you want to apply extra meaning to that and then say, you know, oh, well, that's a favorable presence that

they didn't have in the Old Testament, I, you know, then we've got problems.

But these are the analogies that the New Testament more strictly uses to distinguish

the experience of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament versus the Old Testament.

It uses the word outpouring to describe the difference.

It uses the word baptism of the spirit to describe the difference.

And I think those are the words that we should be using to describe the difference as opposed to assuming that

just the frequency of the word in and indwelling in the New Testament implies that there wasn't that in

the Old Testament.

I don't think that the frequency of the term in the New Testament means that that's the word that we should glob onto to,

yeah, in order to describe the difference.

All right.

And this is more than just an increasing work in the New Testament.

It does have slightly different character.

To quote B .B. Warfield, it is not that his work is more real in the New Dispensation than in the Old.

It is not merely that it is more universal.

It is that it is directed to a different end, that it is no longer for the mere preserving of the seed until the day of

planting, but for the perfecting and the fruitage of the gathering of the harvest.

So in other words, you know, he's imagining the Old Testament, you know, Israel as being the seed, and then finally

it's planted and it's sprouting into the church, and so now it has a new purpose.

You know, the presence of the Spirit has a new purpose.

The church, to use a figure of Isaiah's,

was then like a pent -end stream and is now like that pent -end stream with the barriers broken

down and the Spirit of the Lord driving it.

You know, imagine a dam with, you know, just a little hole in it and now it's burst open.

Okay, so what are these differences?

All right, the first one can be seen here in this quotation from Joel in Acts 2.

My spirit will be poured out on all flesh.

So an impartiality towards nationality is the first difference that exists in this outpouring

that wasn't there before the outpouring.

John 16, 8 says, and when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.

You know, the world.

He was convicting people of sin and righteousness and judgment before, but now he's going to convict the world of sin and

righteousness and judgment.

All right, also a liberality of gifting.

So it says, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.

Even all my male servants and my female servants.

You know, this is for everybody, the high and the low.

This is not just for a couple of special people.

You look at the Old Testament and you see people who are gifted for, gifted for

special tasks and offices, you know, are especially anointed.

You know, you even have people like Bezalel, who are, you know, the craftsman who designs the

tabernacle, or not designs, but ends up implementing the design given to Moses for the tabernacle.

You know, he's specially gifted by the spirit.

And yes, it's still the case in the New Testament.

You know, Ephesians 4, 7 talks about the Holy Spirit being given in different measures to different people, and several passages talk about that.

So I'm not suggesting that it's perfectly equal, you know, across the board or anything,

but there is a measure that the spirit has been given to each person that was

particularly just for certain office holders in the Old Testament, like a king, a priest, and a

craftsman, who was, you know, especially gifted for a particular task.

1 Corinthians 12, 11 through 14 says, all these are empowered by

one and the same spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

So there you have a statement about individuality.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are

one body, so it is with Christ.

For in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink

of one spirit.

For the one body does not consist of one member, but of many.

But it does talk about this baptism of the spirit being for all, you know, and there is a,

yeah, there's a special way that the spirit is given that wasn't in the Old Testament that is for everyone, not just for particular

office holders.

Also, there is something new in the clarity of teaching that is available.

So, for example, in the Old Testament, you know, how did teaching happen?

You needed a prophet.

You know, the prophet had to be there giving fresh visions.

You couldn't just sit there.

It was not considered a healthy condition in Israel just to have the word of God, right?

If all you had was Moses' law, I mean, that's good, but that was not

enough.

Proverbs 29, 18 says, without vision, speaking of prophetic vision, the people perish.

All right, the people, when they didn't have a prophet, they were, that was not a good condition for them.

Like, the scripture was not enough.

Now the scripture is enough, and why is the scripture enough?

Not just because it's complete, but because we have the spirit in order that we don't need

someone who especially has the spirit.

Each of us has the spirit in a way where before it was just a prophet who had the spirit in order to be able to communicate what truth

was necessary at that moment.

John 16, 13 says, when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak

on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

And then in 1 John 2, 26 or 27, it says, I write these things to

you about those who are trying to deceive you, but the anointing that you have received from him abides in you.

That's talking about the spirit, the anointing of God in you, abides in you, dwelling in you,

once again, that analogy of him.

But now in a special way, and you have no need that anyone should teach you,

but as his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie, just as it has

taught you, abide in him.

Okay, so in the past, they're relying really heavily on external aids in order to understand the

word of God.

You know, they really need these prophets to lead them.

But in the New Testament, well, yes, we have teachers, and that's important, you know.

The one who thinks they don't need the church has not read the New Testament.

But you and your Bible, you know, and the spirit

are powerful in a way now that someone with their Bible and the spirit and the way that he dwelt in

believers before was not in the Old Testament, and they needed the assistance of

special prophets back then.

Now we have something more with the spirit leading us into all truth with his word,

right?

And Hebrews 8, 10 through 11 says, for this covenant, this is talking about the new covenant.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.

I will put my laws into their minds.

I will write them on their hearts.

I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the

greatest.

Now, these benefits have been, you know, available in all ages and that the spirit, you know, is dwelling in people,

allowing them to know God truly, et cetera.

But there is a special way that this is happening in the New Testament, given what scripture tells us.

All right.

And then ministerial office.

So in the Old Testament, you have these few select people anointed to be prophets, priests, and kings.

But in the New Testament, it talks about us being a royal priesthood, right?

First Peter 2 .9, Revelation 1 .6, you know, we're a nation of, yeah,

prophets, priests, and kings.

Under Christ, the only, you know, who ultimately is the only prophet, priest, and

king in one sense, but then in him, by his spirit, we have, we are

priests and kings, and then the word prophet, if you just take that to be one who speaks the word of God, you know, we have this in a special

way that did not exist in the Old Testament.

That New Testament priesthood is here now.

Acts 1 .8 says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem

and in all Judea and in Samaria and to the end of the earth.

And this is not just a statement to the apostles, right?

This is true of, I mean, they didn't go to the ends of the earth, right?

The apostles didn't.

Rather, those who follow after them end up finishing this task, or will end up finishing it, still not finished.

And this office is now enjoyed by many.

It's not just for a few.

And the other thing is, how were these offices selected before?

They were selected before by the special,

you know, supernatural signs of the Spirit.

As we've been going through 1 Chronicles, we talked about how, you know, they're casting lots in order to determine

who ends up being, you know, who ends up having what priestly role, et cetera.

And so they're relying, this is how they rely on the Spirit.

The Spirit has not been outpoured.

They do not have his direction in the same way, and so they, you know, are casting lots to determine what

he would have.

But now that we have the Spirit, when we're determining who's gonna take what priestly office, you know, if we can call the

pastor at that, or the deacon at that, we're doing it by our own deliberations as

the Spirit is leading us.

You know, we're not to rely on things like casting lots, not because the Spirit couldn't work

through that, but because now that he is outpoured, it would be a sin not to rely on him in this way, that he has been

specially given to us that wasn't given in the Old Testament.

Right, so that's interesting, because that's coming right before Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit is outpoured.

Yeah.

Oh no, I think that was fine.

But I was talking about 1 Chronicles, so this is when David is deciding which priests are going to be, you know, taking

which months, yeah.

To close all this, John 14, 18 says, I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.

So, I hope that's given a little bit of clarity.

This is a question that comes up occasionally.

It's just the Holy Spirit dwelling people in the Old Testament.

You know, I think it's first important to step back and realize, well, even the notion of in is an analogy,

and so we have to know what we're saying when we say something like that, and then try to use the words the

Bible is using to describe the difference, which I believe is the word outpouring, not the word indwelling.

Any questions about any of this?

We've got a good bit of time for Q &A here.

Yes.

Yeah, he is, well, like I said, I believe that even in the Old Testament, they were filled with the Spirit, right?

But then he is specially anointed as a prophet, right?

Yeah, it's a special, special office that's not for everybody.

No, so he's, so if you imagine the disparities of the gifting of the Spirit in the Old Testament,

you have like this, you know, this minimal work of the Spirit, and then like these major works

of the Spirit for like prophet, priest, and king, right?

And so there's this huge disparity.

Now we live in a, you know, the church that God has made is this society

where there's far less disparities.

You know, people are especially gifted to be pastors and stuff, but we're talking about,

yeah, not this incredible gifting that John had that then, you know, others have

nothing, right, or close to nothing, but something where there's just a lot less disparity.

Does that make sense?

Okay, well, yeah, I guess just to say it again, not

everybody has the gifting of John the Baptist.

The reason why you need specially gifted prophets, priests, and kings to lead the

people who have this incredible measure of the Spirit's work in their life is because nobody else

did, right?

And they just had this, I don't wanna disparage it too much, but this minimal work of the Spirit in them.

And now that we live in a society where God's people all have a great

measure of the Spirit's work in their life, when he specially gifts people, it's not, yeah,

it's not to make up for such an incredible lack elsewhere.

So that's why you, that's why you see with, you know, the prophets, you know, them doing all these signs and wonders, et

cetera, is because that was really needed.

And then even during that intermediate time as we're transitioning.

Anything else?

All right, well, I can just wrap it up there with prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Spirit.

We thank you for leaving us, not leaving us alone as orphans, but

sending us your Spirit.

We pray that he would guide us and that he would fill our hearts with joy as we worship you this day.

In Jesus' name, amen.