Session 4: John Reuther - A Biblical Theology of the Spirit's Work

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All right, our next session is a biblical theology of the Spirit's work. John Ruther is the pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in Lumberton, New Jersey, and he is the author of The Gift of the

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Holy Spirit, a hardback book that is on the table back there, if you're interested in sort of a far more comprehensive take on what he is going to be presenting here in this session.

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So John, welcome. Before we pray, let me tell you something amazing about our

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God. He is the God who gives his Holy Spirit to us. Paul said that in 1

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Thessalonians 4 and verse 8. And in this message, I would like to tell you who that Holy Spirit is and the story of how he gave his

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Holy Spirit to us, for that is what biblical theology is, the story of God's work, while systematic theology is the system of truth.

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So let's pray. Our God and Father, we thank you for the privilege of gathering here today to learn more about you, particularly your

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Holy Spirit, so that we might have a good response, a biblical response to the things that are happening all around us.

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So warm our hearts at this session, O Lord, as we speak positively of the

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Holy Spirit and focus on him and his work. In Jesus' name, amen. I have four points today, and the first one is that the

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Spirit is a triune person with a filial name. The Trinity is a knowable mystery.

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You can describe it, but you cannot fathom its depths. The fourth century church father,

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Gregory, left us this wonderful testimony. He said, No sooner do

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I conceive of the one than I am illumined by the splendor of the three.

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No sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the one. When I think of any one of the three,

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I think of him as the whole, and my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what

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I am thinking escapes me. I cannot grasp the greatness of any one person so as to attribute a greater greatness to the other two.

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When I contemplate the three together, I see but one torch. Now the clearest

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Old Testament statement of the Trinity is in the book of Isaiah, chapter 48 and verse 16, where Isaiah said,

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Come near to me, listen to this. From the first I have not spoken in secret, from the time it took place

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I was there, and now the Lord God has sent me and his spirit.

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Now here the son is the one speaking, the servant of the Lord. The Lord God is the father who sends the son, and the

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Lord God, the father, also sends the spirit. Now the Trinity was there at Jesus' baptism, as you know.

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Matthew 3, 16, After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water.

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And behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and resting on him.

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Now in this scene, the father is speaking from heaven, so he is present, although he is not visible.

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The son is on the earth, and the

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Holy Spirit comes down in the form of a dove and rests on the

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Son of God. I understand the dove imagery here at Jesus' baptism as pointing us back to the

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Spirit hovering or brooding over the creation in Genesis 1, verse 2, so that here the

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Spirit is coming down as a dove on Christ, God's new creation, pure and sinless.

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Now further, Jesus announced the Trinitarian name in the baptismal formula associated with the

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Great Commission, Matthew 28 and verse 19. We baptize in the single name of the

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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Benjamin Warfield called this a near -formal announcement of the

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Trinity. And it is indeed the New Testament Trinitarian name.

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But let's talk for a little bit about the persons of the Trinity. Millard Erickson calls the

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Trinity a society of persons, and I like that. He says,

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He says, the Godhead is a compound of persons. Love exists within the Godhead as a binding relationship of the persons to each of the others.

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God is love in 1 John requires that He be more than one person. Love, to be love, must have both a subject and an object, unquote.

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You know, the shorter catechism asks the question, what is God? And the answer comes back,

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God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

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But let's ask this question again, what is God? Well, God is a triunity of co -equal persons comprising the

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Godhead. Colossians 2 .9 refers to the Godhead as does Romans 1 and verse 21.

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Colossians 2 .9 says that in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

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The Godhead is the Trinity. The Trinity is revealed in Scripture. It's amazing to me that some modern writers deny that the

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Bible really says much about the Trinity. But the Trinity is revealed in Scripture and systematized in church history.

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The church fathers described the Godhead as one essence, one substance that is, in three persons.

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They called the persons subsistences or hypostases from the Greek word hypostasis in Hebrews 1 and verse 3.

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They distinguished between the persons and the essence. The Greek word hypostasis refers to, quote, the something with a concrete existence,

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Robert Lethem, a mode of existence by which a substance is individualized.

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You see what they're saying? One substance individualized in three persons.

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That's a great mystery. The one essence exists in three subsistences or persons.

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But the church fathers went further. They stated that the three subsistences were consubstantial, common substance.

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One substance individualized in three persons, common substance.

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Lethem writes, and I quote, the Son and Spirit are the same substance as the Father. All three persons are fully

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God and the whole God. That's what Gregory was referring to when he spoke about one torch.

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They are three divine persons, but they are not three personalities, because personality means differences.

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In the Trinity, it would mean differing perspectives. As divine persons of one essence, they do not look at things differently.

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They do not react independently. They possess the same attributes and a single purpose.

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The Trinitarian persons are one essence, and they are not divided. However, they are distinguished because they have individual properties, which is another subject which we don't have time to get into today.

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They have individual properties and distinct names, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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They also have fulfilled distinct roles, though their work is a unity. Let's talk about the names of the persons.

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Father and Son are filial names. That is, filial describes a family relationship.

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Have you ever thought about this question? Why do two persons of the Trinity have filial names and the third does not?

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We might have expected three filial names, like Father, Mother, and Son. David Marshall, in his book,

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Lost Gospels, writes, quote, some Gnostic texts speak of the Father, the Mother, and the

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Son, and continues to say, quote, perhaps it was that kind of theology that led

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Muhammad to think that the Christian Trinity consisted of Father, God, Mother, Mary, and Jesus, Son.

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Let's talk about John 1 for a minute. In the beginning was the Word, and the

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Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Now, John's prologue presents only two persons of the

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Trinity, yet scriptural truths about the Holy Spirit make him part of that passage in the same way that in Genesis 1, verses 1 and 2, where you only have

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God the Father and the Spirit, Jesus is also involved in that passage, and when you tie

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John 1, 1 through 3 with Genesis 1, 1 and 2, they are both Trinitarian in reality, although not in the texts themselves.

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In the texts themselves, they are called Binitarian or Binitarian passages. When a passage only speaks of two of the persons, it's a

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Binitarian or Binitarian passage, but the Bible does not teach Binitarianism, but it only refers to two persons, but those passages are not to be understood as excluding the other divine person.

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So, John 1, 1 portrays this face -to -face relationship of Father and Son by using the preposition pros.

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Now, the Greek preposition pros means to or toward. So when it says that Jesus is with God, it could be like, well, you're with the person sitting next to you right now, but you're not looking at that person, you're not face -to -face with that person.

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So, when the word was with God, pictures that Father and Son are in mutual relationship through the

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Spirit, the third person. Father and Son is an image -bearing relationship in the

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Trinity. It is not one that denotes superiority versus inferiority, Father and Son, as it is in human life, although when

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I was a child, my father was greater than I. When my father aged and had

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Alzheimer's, in a sense, I was greater than him. And so what is the significance of the relationship between me and my father is

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I'm in his image. In eternal sonship, the son is not inferior to the father, but he is the image of the father with no beginning.

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They are three co -equal, co -eternal persons. Now, commenting on John 1 .1,

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Leon Morris writes, I quote, The literal idea comes out well, face -to -face with God.

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Face -to -face converse is in mind. The preposition expresses nearness combined with the sense of movement toward God, and so indicates an active relationship.

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The Logos and God do not simply exist side by side, but are on terms of living interaction, and such fellowship implies separate personality.

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Where does the Spirit fit into this picture portrayed in John 1 .1? Well, the

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Trinity, as we see it in Scripture and as it was formulated in Christian history, is described as a father and son communion through the

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Holy Spirit. Because the Spirit, as we'll talk about in just a minute, is the

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Spirit of the Father. He's also the Spirit of the Son. So let's talk about those words, the

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Spirit of, that Spirit of construction, Spirit of.

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So the Spirit of is a genitive case construction, which indicates possession rather than derivation.

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So there's a verse in Job that says, Man is born of woman. So that's derivation.

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So if the Spirit is the Spirit of God, it does not signify derivation. It signifies possession.

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He is the Spirit who belongs to God. He is the Spirit of the Father, or He is the

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Spirit belonging to the Son. He belongs to the Father and Son because He proceeds from the

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Father and the Son. He is the Father's Spirit. He is the Son's Spirit, but God only has one

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Spirit. It's just like you and I. We have spirits. My spirit is what you see in me, what you hear of me, how

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I respond, how I project myself, how I communicate, whether you like me or not, whether I draw you to myself or I repel you from myself.

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Let's talk about these words for spirit in Hebrew and Greek. The word ruach and nishma in Hebrew and pneuma in Greek mean to breathe or to blow and are translated as breath and wind, often in Scripture referring to motion.

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Genesis 2 and verse 7 applies it to the creation of man. And then the Lord God formed man of dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living, that is, animated, moving being.

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So our spirits describe the inner man, or in 1 Corinthians 2 .11, the thoughts of a man.

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A man's thoughts represent the person. You know, Proverbs 23 and verse 7, For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

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Our spirits are like deep wells, according to Proverbs 18 and verse 4, and sometimes it takes a band of wisdom to draw out.

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If you try to draw out the thoughts of a person who maybe you think is troubled or needy, and you're trying to figure out what's inside,

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Proverbs 20 and verse 5. Some people have deep plans, and we try to draw them out.

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We're trying to draw it out of their spirits. We have unique backgrounds that have shaped us. Our spirits also interact with people and situations and make visible who we really are.

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Now, prior to conversion, our spirits are unholy, and some people even have demonic spirits in them.

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But after conversion or because of conversion, our spirits become holy, because we have the

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Holy Spirit of God in the human spirit. The Holy Spirit in the human spirit.

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We tend to think of spirit as invisible. We may think that we can hide what is inside, but we usually cannot.

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Someone can usually tell that something is wrong. Or you can see a person's spirit, and they can see yours.

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You can see when a person is crushed in spirit. You can see a person who has an angry spirit.

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You can see a person who has a jealous spirit. Have you ever seen the look of contentment on a person?

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A person with a peaceful countenance? I know some people in my life experience who are always smiling.

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I think they must be smiling when they sleep. They're always smiling. I'm sure you've met people like that.

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We tend to think of the Holy Spirit as the silent member of the Trinity, the elusive, mysterious, hidden person, and this is wrong.

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But we do not think of Father or Son that way. But the Holy Spirit is not hidden.

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He is not elusive, and He's not mysterious, as I'll show you. Now, the

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Holy Spirit in the Old Testament is just simply called the Spirit of God. But after Pentecost, when you come to the

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Acts and the Epistles, you read about the Spirit of Christ, or the

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Spirit of Jesus, or the Spirit of Jesus Christ. For example, Acts 16 and verse 7, the

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Spirit of Jesus did not permit them. Philippians 1 and verse 19,

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Paul said, I know that this shall turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the

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Spirit of Jesus Christ. And the greatest text of all is

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Romans 8 and verse 9, which mentions the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ in one verse. Paul says,

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If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, you would have expected him to say, If indeed the

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Spirit of God dwells in you, but if anyone does not have the Spirit of God, he does not belong to him. But that's not what he says.

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He says, If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you, but if anyone does not have the

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Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. So in the history of Revelation, the

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Spirit was known as the Spirit of God, but now after Pentecost, he is known as the Spirit of Christ.

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So let's summarize this non -filial name matter that I brought up. The reason why the

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Spirit is a non -filial or non -family name is because he is the Spirit belonging to the

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Father and the Spirit belonging to the Son. The creeds say that he proceeds from the

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Father and the Son. It's based on John 14, 26 and John 15, 26.

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The Spirit proceeds from the Father, he proceeds from the Son. It's a double procession, I believe in the double procession and the addition of the filioque clause in the creed.

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But that's speaking of a temporal procession, but there is an eternal procession as well because this is what

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Spirit signifies. Your Spirit proceeds from you, that's you. You can't hide yourself.

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You could put yourself, lock yourself up in isolation perhaps and then your Spirit is locked up with you in that place.

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But our spirits proceed. That's something we should think about, by the way, in practical terms.

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How do I come across to people? Theologians call this the mutual indwelling of Father, Son, and Spirit.

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Augustine, the theologian of the Holy Spirit, wrote, and I quote, Because the Holy Spirit is the

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Spirit both of the Father and of the Son, therefore the Holy Spirit is a communion of the

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Father and the Son, end quote. And he said a lot more than that. The nature of Spirit is that it is moving, extending like breath and wind, but also it is joining and uniting.

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And John 4 .24, God is Spirit, means that God is life, power, and presence.

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John 4 .24, God is Spirit. It's easy to think that in John 4 .24 that the

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Bible is just simply saying God does not have a body like men. But that is really not the point of John 4 .24.

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George Beasley Murray says, I quote, on John 4 .24, God is Spirit defines

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God not in His metaphysical being, but according to His work in the world. The clause is parallel to God is light or God is love.

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All these statements describe God's mode of action and working, end quote. God is

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Spirit means that He moves in the world. He fills, He extends,

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He works, He has power, He has life, He is the life -giving God. And as 1

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Thessalonians 4 and verse 8 said, He is the God who gives His Holy Spirit to us. Sinclair Ferguson wrote in his great book on the

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Holy Spirit, most Christians warmly respond to the description of Jesus as Son of God, not only because of Jesus' humanity, but also because the designation

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Son indicates a relationship that we are familiar with. But the name

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Holy Spirit, or worse, Holy Ghost, tends to convey a cold, even remote image.

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After all, what is Spirit, end quote. Yet we should be able to relate to God as Spirit, shouldn't we?

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Ferguson is saying we can relate to God as Father. We can relate to God as Son, easily. But why should we not be able to relate to God as Spirit?

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We think of our own spirits. We certainly think of other people's spirits. I don't like that person.

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I try to avoid that person. Because Spirit is a non -filial name, it doesn't mean that the

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Holy Spirit is just a force or an influence. He is a person. He is the divine person who joins the

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Trinity. I used to say in my classes earlier on, I used to say the Spirit is the bond of union between the

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Father and the Son. And the students reacted to that. They said, wait a minute. That doesn't sound right to me, bond of union.

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So I changed it. And I always say He is the person who binds the Father and the Son. He's the person who binds the

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Father and the Son. Here are a few examples of the personhood of the Spirit. The Spirit speaks and teaches.

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And I won't give you the verses for the sake of time. The Spirit strives with sinners. He forbids movements.

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He testifies. He is served. He is grieved. He is insulted.

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We speak with the personal pronoun him, it, not it. We don't say it. Let's talk about illustrations now.

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Still with me? Illustrations. For an illustration of the

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Trinity to be useful, it must show unity and diversity. And I'm convinced that marriage is the best illustration of the

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Trinity, not things like the three -leaf clover or the three states of water. Because those illustrations actually support modalism, which is a heresy.

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They imply that the Trinity is modal. So in marriage, a man and woman become one.

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Jesus quoted Genesis 2 .24, you remember, and said, So are, they are no longer two, but one flesh,

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Matthew 19 .6. So think about that for a minute. Jesus said, They are no longer two, but one flesh.

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What did he mean to say that there's still not two people? That there's still not individuals? Did he mean to say they don't have their distinctives still with them?

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When I brought the wedding message at our youngest son's wedding five years ago, the points of the sermon were point one was one, point two was two, and point three was three.

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Point one was one. Marriage joins a man and woman into one. Jesus said,

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They are no longer two, but one. Point two was two. They are still two.

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They are still themselves, and their individuality is not removed. In fact, that's why we get into problems in marriage.

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It's that two -ness, which is still there. They retain their backgrounds.

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They have distinct roles from God, an excellent wife, a nurturing and cherishing husband.

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But point three was three, because joining a man and a woman into one creates a third entity, if you will.

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I don't know what else to call it. A third entity, if you will. That's the marriage. The marriage is the third part. It's the something new.

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It's the new creation. And so marriage is an earthly triunity. The marriage itself is the third part, joining the two into one.

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When the two become one, they remain distinct, but they also become something new together, through the communion of their lives.

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Some couples exhibit this more than others, perhaps. You look at two people who have been married a long time, and you say, They're just like one person.

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Their lives merge, and their individuality is subjected, one to the other, in loving humility and self -denial.

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And they can accomplish great things together if they will just pray for more unity together, avoid arguments, fights, and do more together, use their individual gifts and distinctives together to make their marriage the most glorious thing, the third part.

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And so it is, as the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son, the Holy Spirit is the life of God extending into the world the manifestation of Father and Son with power throughout history.

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The Spirit carries out the work of Father and Son. I love the subtitle of Michael Horton's book on the

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Holy Spirit. The book's a little challenging for me. It's a lot of philosophical stuff in there, but it's still a very good book, 2017.

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But I love the subtitle the best. It is God's perfecting presence in creation, redemption, and everyday life.

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God's perfecting presence in creation, redemption, and everyday life. And that's a great way to say

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God is Spirit, John 4 .24. So that as we understand the work of the

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Spirit, we find that the Spirit is the one who completes. He completes the work. He brings things to fruition.

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That's why you have the fruit of the Spirit. The Spirit completes the work. He doesn't compete for a prominent place among the persons of the

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Trinity. And He is not to be given the prominent place among the persons of the Trinity. He would not want that place because He came to glorify the

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Son. He, by nature, does the work of the Father and the Son. Yet He is a person, and yet He is the

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Father's Spirit. He is the Son's Spirit. And that's where you're really getting into the mystery of the Trinity.

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You can only go that far, and God has put a fence around it. And New Covenant ministry is

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Trinitarian. Ephesians 3, verses 4 and 6, and there are so many

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Trinitarian passages in the New Testament. I count 35 of them. I deal with the 35 in my book there, chapter 5.

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That's an example of a verse that indicates that usually, when the Bible mentions

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God, it's mentioning the Father. Not always, but in a Trinitarian passage, it is.

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Now, let's move on then to the second point. In that first point, I've just tried to show you that the Holy Spirit is a divine person in the

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Trinity with a non -filial name to try to explain to you what that name means. And I hope

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I've accomplished my purpose. But moving on now, the points are a little shorter now, but to the Spirit is revealed progressively in history, point number two.

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The Spirit is revealed progressively in history. And all we mean by this is that the

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Spirit was revealed alongside of the revelation of God the Father and God the

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Son. And that's what biblical theology is. It explains the progressive aspect of Bible revelation.

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I like to think of it as the story and the system. The story and the system. Biblical theology and systematic.

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Biblical theology doesn't mean that it's from the Bible. It means that it's progressive.

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Now, the question is, is there an order in the historical aspect of the revelation of the triune persons?

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Was it the Father who was revealed first, then the Son, and then the Spirit? Well, actually, it was not that way. It was the

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Father and the Spirit who were revealed first. In the history of revelation, the

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Father and the Spirit are seen first in the Old Testament. The opening verses of Genesis introduce us to God and the

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Spirit. And the order of revealing was the Father and the Spirit in the Old Testament. What about Jesus then?

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Well, He was revealed in terms of promise, pictures, prophecies, as the coming

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Messiah, the second person. In the Gospel period, the Son and Spirit are manifest as they do the work of the

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Son, as they do the work the Son was sent to accomplish in the

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Spirit. The Holy Spirit brought about His virgin conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

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Luke 135, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

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Gerald Hawthorne, his doctoral thesis was on the work of the Spirit and the life of Jesus, and it was published in book form, republished in 1991,

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The Presence and the Power. It's a wonderful book. He writes in this book, I quote,

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The Holy Spirit was that divine creative element by which the fashioning of Jesus' humanity was begun, so carefully and uniquely generated by the

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Holy Spirit was the very humanness that the eternal Son made His own and within which

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He became incarnate. That's why Jesus was virgin conceived, because His life is attributed directly, not as our lives are attributed to the second cause of procreation, but His life was attributed directly to the

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Holy Spirit of God. He is the creation of God, directly, not by second causes.

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We are created by God too, but His was different. It was not immediate, it was immediate.

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And the Holy Spirit was with Him throughout His life. He was with Him on the cross when it says in Hebrews 9 .14

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that through the eternal Spirit, He offered Himself without blemish to God. And throughout His life,

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He manifested His communion with the Father in heaven, and in the Spirit. He was filled with the

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Spirit in His ministry, in His sinless humanity. And again, I quote from Hawthorne. He said it so beautifully,

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I quote, One might say that the Holy Spirit was continually with Him in His silence and His speech, in His haste and in His leisure, in company and in solitude, in His play and in His work, in the freshness of the morning and in the weariness of the evening, throughout all the hours and days of those early years of His life, end quote, and naturally throughout

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His entire life. And this is something that we find as we understand the Holy Spirit.

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We have the same experience, the same comforts. Jesus possessed the

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Spirit throughout His entire life. John 3 .34, He gives the Spirit without measure, which means without limits.

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He gives all of His Holy Spirit to Jesus and to us. 1

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Thessalonians 4 .8 In the apostolic and post -Pentecost period, which is the age of the

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Spirit, this is the fullness of Trinitarian activity. Now let's move on to the second point to talk about John 7 for a little bit.

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If you have your Bible there, you might want to turn to John 7. 37 -39 Because one of Jesus' most important statements about the

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Holy Spirit came at the Feast of Tabernacles in John 7. And you're familiar with the announcement.

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It was a great interruption in the proceedings of the festival and it turned out to be a gospel invitation as well.

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But it says in verse 37, Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying,

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If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the

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Scriptures said, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. And that's all Jesus said, by the way.

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Stop. And amazingly, the next verse, John 7 -39, came 50 years later.

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Do you realize there's a 50 -year gap between verse 38 and verse 39? Verse 37 and 38 is the announcement that Jesus made.

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Verse 39 is part of John's theological reflection. That's what the gospel of John is all about. It's the most theological gospel because it represents

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John's mature reflection on Christ and His work. So John explains what he meant at the feast.

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Verse 39, This he spoke of the Spirit whom those who believed in Him were to receive at that time they were to receive for the

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Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. The Spirit of Christ promised to come at Pentecost was not yet.

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Now, the literal Greek says just that. The Spirit was not yet. That translation would give the idea that either the

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Spirit didn't exist in the Old Testament or that He wasn't working. So you have to include the word given because this is a reference to Pentecost.

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We have many evidences of the work of the Holy Spirit. I'll just go over them quickly in the interest of time.

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The Holy Spirit was at work in the creation week, Genesis 1, verses 1 and 2. In fact, it is the Spirit who brought the creation to its fullness during those seven days.

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The Spirit breathed life into man, Genesis 2, 7. Psalm 51 describes the intimacy of life in the

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Spirit. The works of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament actually are very similar to His works in the

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New Testament. The only difference is that now we have the Spirit of the exalted Christ. In the

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Old Testament, you see the Spirit granting salvation, creating, sustaining life, filling

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His people to fullness, giving gifts to God's people, leading God's people, illuminating them in their understanding of the

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Scripture. He also convicts of sin and He dwells in the hearts of His people. He is intimate with His chosen people in Israel.

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And these are ministries that He continues today as the Spirit of Christ. Yet Pentecost inaugurated the age of the

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Spirit. Jesus is the last Adam who became a life -giving Spirit, 1

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Corinthians 15, verse 45. It's the age of the fullest revelation of the Trinity.

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Warfield wrote, I quote, that our New Testament is not a record of the development of the doctrine.

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It shows that the doctrine is the fixed possession of the Christian community, end quote. Have you ever noticed that in the

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New Testament, the writers are not trying to prove the Trinity. They're not even trying to explain it. They just speak of it.

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They believe it fully. People frequently ask, what is the main difference in the

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Holy Spirit from the Old Testament to the New Testament? Is it that the Spirit came and went in the

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Old Testament people, is that what it is? Is it that the Spirit didn't indwell the believers of the

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New Testament, is that what it is? Is it perhaps just a matter of extent?

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Well, again, the main difference between the Spirit and the old economy and the new economy is that after Pentecost, He is the

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Spirit of the exalted Christ. God only has one Spirit, of course, but He is the

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Spirit of the Christ who walked on this earth, Jesus the Nazarene. He has become a life -giving

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Spirit. His presence has been extended geographically, universally, and in all ages to all those who know

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Him. Christ is in us. You might ask, why was the

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Spirit promised in the Old Testament if He's already working? Well, and the answer is simple, that the promises of the

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Holy Spirit in the Old Testament have to do, first of all, with Him anointing the Messiah. Turn to Isaiah 11, verses 1 through 3.

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The promises of the Holy Spirit concern His anointing the Messiah.

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Isaiah 11 is such an important passage. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

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The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him. That's capital S, uppercase, that's the

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Holy Spirit. Now, the spirits that follow here in these next three lines are a lowercase spirit.

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The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him. That is, in His human spirit, He will have the spirit of wisdom.

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His spirit will be one of understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the

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Lord. And further on, it goes on to speak about His righteous judgments. This is the anointing of the

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Messiah. The Lord says, I have put My Spirit upon him, Isaiah 42 .1.

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The Messiah says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Isaiah 61 .1. Acts 10 .38,

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God anointed him with the Spirit and with power. But we also have an anointing of the Spirit.

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2 Corinthians 1, 20 and 21. Now, He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is

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God, who also sealed us and gave us

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His Holy Spirit as a pledge. John 1, 20.

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1 John 2, 20. But you have an anointing from the Holy One and you all know. 1 John 2, 27.

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As for you, the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you. And so, the

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Isaiah passage speaks of the Spirit resting upon Him. That's the anointing for ministry.

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This is the human spirit that Jesus had. This makes the

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Messiah the pattern for His New Testament people. Turn over to Colossians 1, 9 -12.

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Colossians 1, 9 -12. I actually did a study years ago on the relationship of Proverbs 1, 1 -12.

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Isaiah 11, 1 -6. And Colossians 1, 9 -12. And I think they all tie together.

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Colossians 1, 9 -12. For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the

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Lord to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power according to His glorious might for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the

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Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. You could also add to this the two prayers in Ephesians 1, starting at verse 15, and Ephesians 3, starting at verse 14, where you see that the anointing that we have is similar to the anointing that the

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Messiah had. But the second reason for the promise of the Spirit in the Old Testament was that the

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Spirit, when He came after Pentecost, would advance the covenant. You have the classic passages on the

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New Covenant in Ezekiel 11, Ezekiel 18, 31, a new heart and a new spirit,

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Ezekiel 36, Jeremiah 31. But the classic passage here is Joel, Joel, the passage that Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost.

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Because in the Pentecost sermon, Peter said, this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel, Acts 2 .16.

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And then he quotes the prediction found in Joel 2, which is that the widespread gift of prophecy and other spiritual gifts or manifestations was to be part of the

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New Testament age to demonstrate not only those gifts, but that there would be sweeping changes in the covenant, such as the change in the administration from the nation of Israel to the

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New Testament church. The New Testament church looks different, doesn't it, than what you see in the

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Old Testament and the worship of the nation of Israel. Sweeping changes, that's what Joel was talking about.

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Hodge shows the connection in his commentary on 1 Corinthians. He says, The distinctiveness of the new covenant predicted by Joel consisted in the general diffusion of these gifts, which were not confined to any one class of people.

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Under circumstances so extraordinary, it was unavoidable that many disorders should arise. And Paul corrected those in 1

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Corinthians 12 -14. But Joel 2 is not only referring to the gift of prophecy, it is referring to the sweeping changes which began to appear in the book of Acts.

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And that leads us to our third point, which is that the Spirit came at Pentecost. The Spirit came at Pentecost.

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Pentecost is the crowning event in the history of Christ. It is the end of a series begun at His conception,

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His birth then, His life, His atoning death, His resurrection and His ascension and His exaltation.

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And when He was exalted to the right hand of God, He poured forth of His Spirit. He had come forth from God and was going back to God, John 13 and verse 3.

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Peter preached, On that day, having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the

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Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.

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It takes us back to Sinai, doesn't it? Where there were mighty manifestations, remember? Fire, smoke, earthquake, trumpet blasts,

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Exodus 19. At Pentecost, it was just as dramatic, but a different character.

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A noise like a violent rushing wind. Tongues of fire resting on their heads.

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Language utterances, Acts 2 verse 4. Amazement, 2 verse 7. Perplexed questioning, 2 verses 7 and 8.

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Even mocking, Acts 2 verse 13. At Sinai, there was a drawing back.

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At Pentecost, there was a drawing near. Indicating the new age of the

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Spirit and gospel power. I want to turn now, just now, to four continuing manifestations of the

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Holy Spirit which began on the day of Pentecost. Four things that happened on the day of Pentecost which continue today.

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The first was the coming of Christ Himself in His Spirit. You can turn to the upper room for some of the verses there running out of time.

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John Owen wrote, quote, It is the Holy Spirit who replaces Christ's bodily absence and who brings to fulfillment all the promises made to the church.

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Christ is with us. Christ, Christ is with us by His Spirit.

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The one He poured out at Pentecost. Chadwick said, I quote, It is indeed the difference between, Pentecost, is the difference between the personal, physical presence of Christ with His disciples and what

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His spiritual, inward, abiding presence through the person of the Holy Spirit would be.

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Christ came on the day of Pentecost. You know how Peter talks about how we have a better word in 2

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Peter 1? Well, what would you rather have? Would you rather have been in Palestine and seen the

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Lord Jesus for those few years or be living today when

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Christ is with us by His Spirit? Well, to ask the question is to answer it.

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Christ in you, the hope of glory, Colossians 1, 27. The second manifestation was spirit -empowered communication.

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These are called languages at the first in Acts 2 and verse 4, which drew the attention of the people groups so that Peter could address the crowd, interestingly, in one single language.

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So it's not that those languages were really needed except to point to what was going to happen.

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They were signs. And when you read that expression, they began to speak with other languages.

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Two things are certain. First, they were known human languages. And second, the Spirit's gift of communication at Pentecost was much bigger than that.

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It was for thrusting forth the gospel throughout the world and still it is today. It was the gift, let's settle on this, it was the gift of gospel communication through evangelism, edification, and encouragement of God's people.

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And also for apologetics. The third manifestation of the Spirit is the triangle of conviction, conversion, and confession.

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They were converted. Well, first of all, they were convicted. What shall we do? Acts 2, 37.

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They were converted when they had received His word. Acts 2, 41. And they confessed, they were baptized. Acts 2, 41.

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And fourthly, the fourth manifestation of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost is the constitution of churches and communion of saints.

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This is the crowning blessing of the day of Pentecost. The inauguration of the Christian church, the creation of churches.

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The first church was in Jerusalem. That was a mega church, by the way. 3 ,000, 5 ,000.

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They met in the Temple Mount. Very spacious. You could fit that many people in there. The portico of Solomon. Their preachers were the apostles.

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Their pastors were the apostles. They continually devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer.

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And you can remember these four manifestations easily. Christ, communication, conversion, and constitution.

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That is, constitution of churches. Christ, communication, conversion, and constitution of churches.

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Now, let's tie this all together in the few minutes remaining. Number four, the Spirit's completed works commence

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His continuing works. And, well, this is a conference on cessationism.

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And it's certainly no accident that when you look at the story of the Holy Spirit, that this is what you're going to find, that some things cease and some things continue.

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But I'm stating it in this way, that the Spirit's completed works commence His continuing works.

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Which is just what we see throughout redemptive history. Some things change and some things remain the same.

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You have changes, you have developments. Some things reach their goal and thus are completed. Other things remain the same. There's always continuity and discontinuity, continuation and cessation.

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So the first thing that the Holy Spirit completed was the baptism of the

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Spirit. First, the baptism of the Spirit was an accomplishment of history which can never be repeated.

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You can't repeat Pentecost. Because this is an accomplishment of history.

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The Pentecost baptism is like Christ's death on the cross. He died once for all. He's never to die again.

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And the Spirit came on Pentecost and He poured Himself, He was poured out. And that baptism is completed.

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It's not that we don't participate in the cross of Christ, an accomplished event, we do. And it's not that we don't participate in the

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Pentecost baptism, which is a completed event. For we do. The completed baptism commences a continuing work in individuals who are converted and baptized in the

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Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12, 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one

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Spirit. Conversion is the sinner's Pentecost. Let's turn to Titus 3, verses 4 -7.

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And as you're turning to that passage, keep in mind that in the few verses in the

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New Testament where you see this language of pouring out or poured out, these are references to Pentecost.

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Titus 3, verse 4 When the kindness of God and our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the

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Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our

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Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

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That's Pentecost. In a person's life. The sinner's

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Pentecost. His conversion. I was going to talk about subsequence, but I'm going to pass that up.

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Others have addressed that. I will go to the second accomplishment of the Holy Spirit of Christ on the day of Pentecost, which was the inauguration of the church.

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This is an accomplishment of Pentecost. Not only Christ sending His Spirit permanently with us, but also the inauguration of the church.

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Some groups say that Pentecost was the birthday of the church, and thus disassociated from Israel.

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But the reality is that God only has one people, and I know there are some differences, of course, but it's more precise to speak of the inauguration or dedication of the church, because it is connected to kingdom building in the

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Old Testament. But the completed work of inaugurating the church on the day of Pentecost commences

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His continuing work, which is the building of the church. And edifying the body, 1

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Corinthians 12 -14, means to build up the body. So that is the Spirit's continuing work.

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And thirdly and finally, the third accomplishment of the Holy Spirit is the completion of the canon of Scripture.

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Baptism of the Spirit, completed. Continues through the sinner's Pentecost and His experience of the

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Holy Spirit throughout His life. Completed work, the inauguration of the church. Continuing work,

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I will build my church. Thirdly, completed work of the Holy Spirit, the canon of Scripture, which of course took place over the apostolic age.

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You know that one of His names is Spirit of Truth. In the Old Testament, the canon was attributed to the

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Spirit of God. David said on his deathbed, the Spirit of the Lord spoke by me. His word was on my tongue.

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And David was a writer of Scripture. 2 Peter 1, verse 21, men moved by the

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Holy Spirit spoke by God. The classic text, 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, which

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Andrew put up behind us, all Scripture is God breathed. So inscripturation is a completed work of the

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Holy Spirit. What is the continuing work of the Holy Spirit? Illumination. Illumination is the continuing work of the

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Holy Spirit. Not prophecy, but illumination. Without the illumination of the

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Spirit, none of us can rightly understand. Nor can we adequately apply as the word is needed by us, either for reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness.

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Because the Holy Spirit is the paraclete. The paraclete. You know,

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Jesus was a paraclete. A paraclete means He comes alongside of us to help us. And He helps us in so many different ways.

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And Raymond Brown in his commentary on John suggests that we just retain the

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Greek word paraclete. Because words like comforter, counselor, they're just one part of His word.

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So paraclete, that's His official name. I call it His Pentecost name. And in illumination,

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He's just functioning as the paraclete to reveal Scripture to us.

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And so, I close with the verse with which I started. With which I began.

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I thought, how do I land this sermon? And I landed on one of the great Holy Spirit texts which sums it up beautifully.

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God has many glorious attributes, doesn't He? Love, justice, mercy, grace.

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So many attributes. The Puritans just wrote volumes on the attributes of God.

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But He has this other attribute that we may lose sight of. What is

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God like? What kind of God do we have? Well, it's this.

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He is the God who gives His Holy Spirit to us. We give gifts to people.

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And we even love giving gifts. Birthdays, Christmas, and all the occasions for us to give gifts.

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But we all know that as wonderful as gifts are, the best gift is to give yourself.

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Give yourself a listening ear, a helping hand, financial benevolence.

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Give yourself love, mercy, compassion. And that's what

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God does by giving us His Holy Spirit. Let's pray. We thank you,

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Lord, for the story of the Holy Spirit's person and work throughout history. And, Lord, we are humbled that you have given us your

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Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the exalted Christ. Forgive us, Lord, for the many times in which we have grieved and even quenched the

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Spirit, where we have hurt Him personally who indwells us, and where we may have also hindered

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His work by quenching His activity in the church. Help us, Lord, to commune with you through the

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Spirit so that the Trinitarian presence in our lives will be manifested always.

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In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If somebody has the gift of miraculous healing, surely all he needs to do is to prove it.

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But let's face it. We've been battling with COVID and the so -called miracle workers went into hiding together with us.

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Cessationism is the view that certain miraculous gifts that stood as signs of an apostle, speaking in tongues, healing, prophecies, interpretation of tongues, gifts like that, ceased with the apostles.

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Cessationism has fallen out of favor because commitment to the authority of Scripture has fallen out of When you turn on Christian TV, you don't see expositors of Scripture.

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John MacArthur or Steve Lawson. You see Joel Osteen, Joseph Prince, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, Paula White.

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That's who you see because that's the mainstream. Speaking in tongues. You're going to speak out of your spirit.

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Don't worry about what it sounds like. Our understanding of speaking in tongues must be guided by the

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Scriptures, not our feelings. They were known languages that were capable of interpretation, and not everybody speaks in tongues.

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If God speaks, it must be infallible, inerrant, and authoritative. And the Lord said to me, will you howl for me?

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I said, don't ask me to do that, Lord. There's no longer the need for the gift of prophecy speaking forth divine revelation from God.

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We have now the whole counsel of God. This word is the final word.

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The apostolic gifts have gone. They were never intended for our generation. We have everything that we need from the

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Holy Spirit today. It's hard to get anyone who's gone through that to come back and take a serious look at faith in Christ focused on the

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Gospel rather than focused on these phony miracles.