The Holy Spirit's Work in the Old Testament

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So we are continuing tonight in our study of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
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I had an interesting day today as I was working in my home office.
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I was working on some lectures for Sovereign Grace Academy, and my wife knocks on my office door and she sticks her head in and she says, Well, the Jehovah Witnesses just came by and I talked to them and they left.
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And I said, Well, why do you get to have all the fun? So actually, that's not exactly what I said.
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I simply said, Are they gone? And she says, Well, I think they're still outside.
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And I said, Well, let me let me run out there.
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And I'm not I'm not saying I could I would necessarily do a better job than my wife.
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She's certainly a wonderful person, knows the scripture and certainly could engage with them.
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But she she didn't engage with them much.
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And I knew they were next door with my neighbors.
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So I walked outside in my shorts and T-shirt and flip flops.
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So I certainly didn't look like much.
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And I just sort of waited my turn.
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And the two people, the two ladies, it was two women, one obviously more learned than the other.
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And whenever they finished, they started to walk away.
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And I just waved hi, you know, my turn.
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And they came over and we had our conversation.
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And I don't have the time tonight to go into everything we talked about.
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But certainly the subject of God being Trinity was part of the conversation, because that is a direct rebuttal from the Jehovah Witness.
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If you ever want to have a Jehovah Witness immediately seek to rebut what you're saying, just say the word Trinity.
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And so and I knew that was a hot button issue.
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And that's not where I go in the beginning, by the way, in case you're ever wondering where I go in the beginning is I asked for them to explain the gospel to me.
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And then I ask if you found me and I was dying and I had two minutes to live, how would you tell me how to be saved? I said, imagine you came to my house today and you found me laying on the ground and I had been stabbed and I was dying and I have two minutes to live.
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Do you have a gospel that can save me? And she says, well, there's there's so much you have to do.
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And I said, see, you don't have a gospel that you can preach to a dying man.
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You don't have a gospel that saves.
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You are here telling my neighbors about a gospel of works and those works will not save you.
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So anyway, I just I mentioned that only because we can learn a lot about the spirit.
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We can learn a lot about Trinitarian theology.
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All those things are necessary and certainly did the conversation, did make it there eventually before she finally wrapped up with me and said she didn't want to talk anymore and left.
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Oftentimes, the most important things are the most important things.
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The gospel is the most important thing.
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Do they even understand what it means to be saved? And oftentimes they don't.
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But anyhow, we did get to the subject of the Trinity and that was a obvious denial.
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And so it just reminded me of the importance of we do need to learn these things.
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We need to learn why we believe the Trinity is biblical truth, not not simply historical truth.
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If all I had to do was prove that Christians have always believed in the Trinity, that's easy.
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I mean, I can take you back to the first century.
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I can take you to the second century.
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I can take you to the third century.
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And I can show you how historic Orthodox Christendom has always been Trinitarian.
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That's not hard.
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It's where they will take a Bible verse here or a Bible verse there and take it out of context and make the argument.
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That's where the argument really is.
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If all I had to do is prove historically the church is Trinitarian, that's relatively easy.
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But the Bible itself is Trinitarian.
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The Bible teaches that God is one in essence and that he is three in person.
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And those three persons are the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit.
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And so we have been studying that third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, now for several weeks.
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And we've looked at the nature of the Holy Spirit.
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He is a he, not an it.
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We have looked at his personality as it is described in Scripture.
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We have looked at his nature.
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And now we're looking at his work.
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And last week we looked at the work of the Holy Spirit in relationship to revelation and inspiration.
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And I was surprised by something.
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Last week's message was downloaded over 250 times in just a couple of days, which is amazing for us because we usually don't get that at all.
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And why that surprised me is I didn't think it was just the simplest thing I've ever taught.
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In the sense that inspiration and revelation are works of the Spirit.
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To me, that's just what we all should know that.
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And to see that it was so quickly downloaded and people wanted to hear that and wanted to learn about it, it was exciting and I was happy.
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But at the same time I was like, this is 101 stuff.
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And tonight we're going to look at something that might be a little bit more difficult in the sense of it's going to cause maybe some questions.
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And I hope that it doesn't cause confusion because my goal is never to create confusion.
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But tonight we're going to look at the Spirit's ministry in the Old Testament.
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So we're going to look primarily tonight at what does the Holy Spirit do or what did the Holy Spirit do under the administration of the Old Testament? Or what is another word for testament? The word is covenant.
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This is an important thing people often miss.
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When you see the Bible, you will see New Testament, Old Testament.
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That's referencing the New Covenant and the Old Covenant.
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Now, we could go even further than that and talk about the fact that when you refer to the covenants, there are more than just the Old and the New.
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You can talk about, depending on your view of covenant theology, you could talk about the covenant of redemption, the covenant of grace and the covenant of works.
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You could talk about the covenant God made with Noah and he ratified that with the rainbow.
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You can talk about the covenant God made with Abraham and his seed and how that was ratified by the giving of the mark of circumcision.
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You could talk about the covenant God made with David and the throne and that his throne would be forever.
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And so we see these covenants through the Scripture.
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But in general, when you hear Old Covenant, the covenant you're referring to there is the Mosaic Covenant or the Law.
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When you hear the word Old Testament in general, you're thinking Mosaic Covenant, the Law, because the New Covenant is what? Grace.
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We have the Law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
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Now, was there grace in the Old Testament? You better believe there was, because there wouldn't be salvation without it.
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But when we refer to the covenantal workings, you know, the Law is the schoolmaster that leads us to Christ, says that in the book of Galatians.
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And so we understand how the Old Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant in general, when you see in the New Testament, it talks about the...
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In fact, when it talks about the covenant becoming obsolete, Hebrews chapter 8, that's referring to the Mosaic Covenant.
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And so we ask, well, why was it made obsolete? Because it was fulfilled.
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Jesus said, I didn't come to abolish the Law.
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I came to fulfill the Law.
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Well, in what way did He fulfill it? Well, every one of the sacrifices in the Old Testament pointed to Him.
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When His sacrifice was made, they no longer needed to make sacrifices.
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Every one of the feasts that were in the Old Covenant pointed to Christ.
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And so when Christ came, they no longer needed to keep the feasts.
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Could they keep the feasts? Yes.
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Romans 14 and Colossians chapter 2 says that those things are up to the conscience.
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And people certainly can do that, but they shouldn't judge others if they don't.
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Like this year, we're celebrating the Passover, and we're going to have a Passover Seder meal here at the church.
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A celebration of the Passover.
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So, is that wrong? No, it's certainly within our Christian liberty to do so.
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But the church up the street that's not doing it is not in any way wrong for not doing it.
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Because the Covenant itself has been fulfilled in Christ.
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Therefore, those shadows that were in the Old Testament have been fulfilled because the substance has come.
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We no longer worship in shadows and types.
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We worship in substance.
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We worship in Christ through the Spirit.
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And so, the question becomes, how did the Spirit operate? And what are some of the operations of the Spirit that we see in the Old Covenant or under the Old Testament? So, let's get real narrow right now.
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We're talking about before Pentecost.
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Because what is the promise fulfilled at Pentecost? The Holy Spirit would descend and He would fill men and women.
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Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
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There's this new administration of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
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If nothing else is new in the New Covenant, there is a new promise in the gift of the administration of how the Spirit was going to operate.
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So, what was the operation in the Old Covenant? I have four, and they're outlined on your sheet here.
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Four areas that we need to consider in regard to the Old Covenant.
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Four ministries of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament or the Old Covenant.
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Regeneration, selective indwelling, restraint of sin or restraining sin, and enablement or enabling for service.
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That's four things that we see the Holy Spirit do in the Old Testament.
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Let's look first at regeneration.
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Very few times am I still writing when I come in on Wednesday evening.
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But I sat down tonight and I had just like my mind went off on like its direction.
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And I was thinking about regeneration.
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So, I pulled out my tools and I began to search.
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And I was asking, I even asked Brother Andy a question.
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And we're sort of just, so like up until the moment that we're starting to pray, I was sitting here just sort of plugging in a few things because I got to thinking about this question.
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Before we even talk about regeneration from the sense of the Old Covenant, we need to understand we know what it means anyway.
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Because I would imagine if I went into a lot of churches and I simply said, tonight we're going to talk about regeneration, I might get some sort of like deer in the headlights looks.
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And I know our church is a little different because I expose you guys to language.
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I expose you to big words.
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I expose you to these concepts.
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So maybe, maybe not.
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But for a second, I want to just kind of just ask you, what is regeneration? Does anybody want to take a stab at what it means? Other than one of the elders.
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That's not Richard.
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I'll give you a second.
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Does anybody want to take a stab at what is regeneration? To make something new? Okay, that's true.
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But what is the, what is regeneration in regard to when we think of the doctrine of regeneration? What, what are we referring to? Okay, made alive.
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That's right.
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The new birth.
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Getting, that's getting, that's, that's really where I'm trying to get to.
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And you're, you're, you're right on it.
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Just the language is a little different, but you're right.
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When we talk about regeneration from the language of Christ, He says, unless a man be born again.
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Unless a man be born again.
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Turn to John chapter 3.
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Now, we all know John 3, because this is where we get the most famous verse in the Bible.
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At least in modern times, John chapter 3 and verse 16.
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For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
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But if we go back to the beginning, Jesus is talking to Nicodemus.
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It says in verse 1, Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
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This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
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Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
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Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? By the way, here's a good example of why crass literalism is oftentimes the wrong way to interpret things.
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Crass literalism would cause a man to hear Jesus say, You must be born again, and him say, Well, am I supposed to go back into my mother's womb? He's not being sarcastic, he's being crassly literal.
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He's using Jesus' words in a way that only makes sense spiritually, and yet he's using them in a literal sense.
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And this is a good example of why crass literalism is often the wrong way to understand something, because Jesus immediately says, Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
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So we see here in verse 3, He said, unless he is born again, he cannot see the kingdom.
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Now, he says, he cannot enter the kingdom.
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So, there are two statements.
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We could say they are parallel, and they certainly are.
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Parallel, to see something must happen before you can enter it.
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And certainly, if you do enter it, you will have seen it.
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And so Jesus is saying, you won't see it unless you're born again.
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And if you don't see it, then certainly you won't enter it.
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I think of the story in Luke 16, where it says there was a rich man who feasted sumptuously every day, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen.
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And there was a man who sat outside his house, who was poor and begged and wanted to be fed from the crumbs of the rich man's table.
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And they both died.
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And it says the poor man, when he died, was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom, or the place of comfort.
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We might call that paradise.
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It says, but the rich man closed his eyes in death, and he opened his eyes in hell.
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There was no intermediate state.
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There was no time of soul sleep.
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That was only the Jehovah Witnesses day, but we believe in sleep at death.
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No, you're going to go to hell immediately.
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If unless you are born again, you will not see the kingdom, you will close your eyes here, and you will open them in hell.
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You will not enter the kingdom.
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You will not even stand outside the gate.
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You must be born again, Jesus said.
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That is the doctrine of regeneration.
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That is regeneration.
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And here's something I want to point out.
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John 3 happened prior to Pentecost.
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And Jesus goes on to say in this passage, That which is born of flesh is flesh.
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That which is born of spirit is spirit.
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Do not marvel that I said you must be born again.
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The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
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So it is with everyone born of the spirit.
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Nicodemus said to Him, How can these things be? Jesus answered him, Are you not the teacher of Israel? And yet you know not these things.
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Which meant this.
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Nicodemus should have known that regeneration was necessary for entering the kingdom, because he knew the scriptures.
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Which tells me, in my very finite and limited mind, that there must be an understanding of the Spirit's work in regeneration prior to Pentecost.
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So I don't believe that the regenerative work of the Spirit is limited to the new covenant.
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Because unless any man be born again, he will not see and or enter the kingdom of heaven.
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So I can say with confidence, that the regeneration of the Holy Spirit is something that happened in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament.
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Now I want to add another thought to that.
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Because, again, when I came in tonight, this was on my mind.
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Because I said, I really want to explain this well.
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I don't want to leave it up for questions and argument and confusion.
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Because really, the word regeneration is not the word born again, right? The word born again is not the same word.
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But there is the word regeneration used in the New Testament.
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In Titus chapter 3.
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In fact, go there.
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Titus 3.
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We actually see this word.
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Well, actually, it's Titus 3.5.
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But if you'd like, we'll look at verses 4 and 5.
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Because it's one sentence in the ESV.
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Verse 4, it says, But when the goodness and lovingkindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
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By the washing of regeneration and the renewal by the Holy Spirit or renewal of the Holy Spirit.
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Now, consider for a moment, Titus is using a word that is elsewhere not used.
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In fact, this word that he uses, it's, And basically, is the word where we get the word for beginning.
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Or generate.
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Generate is where we get that word.
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And pollen, it means reciprocal or over and over.
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Or re, to repeat something.
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So the idea, it's repeat generation or regeneration.
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That's how you get that word out of that.
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It's only used one other time in the New Testament.
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When it talks about the new earth.
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So, we're talking about the regeneration of the world.
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So, it's a unique word in Scripture used here by Titus.
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And he's saying that this is how we're saved.
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He saved us by the washing of regeneration.
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Now, I will say this.
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Some people believe that regeneration happens in baptism.
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They believe that regeneration happens at the moment that you go in the water.
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In fact, some of them use this text.
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I think the King James Version, Do you have the King James with you? No, of course, when I need it.
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Brother Don, I'm just, I think it uses the word laver.
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Now, laver is, you know, the word for like a sink or a basin.
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And it uses the word laver of regeneration.
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It's not the King James that uses that word? What does the King James say, brother? I got the New King James, but I know the regular King James.
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It says through the washing.
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Washing, okay, all right.
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I've seen that word used, though.
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And I think it can be confusing.
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If you use laver, it makes you think of baptistry.
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Right? And so people connect baptism and the act of regeneration.
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You know those guys on TV that shoot all those ducks and have the big beards? Those guys go to the Church of Christ.
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And they believe in baptismal remission.
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Or the idea that you're not saved until you get baptized.
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That you have to be baptized in water.
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And that creates regeneration.
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And they would argue from this text.
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I would argue not.
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I would say the washing is an internal thing.
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I would say this is what's happening here.
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And I think when he says the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, I think that's a parallelism.
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It's what the Spirit does in us.
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The Spirit gives new life.
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Jesus mentioned something similar.
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He said, Blessed man, be born of water and the Spirit.
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I think the water there, again, is spiritual.
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It's not a physical thing.
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Again, if we take crass literalism to interpret things, I think we go off the rails.
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And it's a dangerous direction.
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Yes, sir? Yeah, that we'll be washed from water.
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And it's a spiritual washing.
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Absolutely.
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Absolutely, brother.
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Ezekiel 18 and Ezekiel 36, I think.
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Yeah, referring to the regeneration.
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Yes, sir, brother? Genesis.
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A lot of earth was made out of water.
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And I think that's where you could make a...
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I wanted to say, well, it's not...
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In other words, it's not talking about just the labor of water that's here.
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It's talking about the original idea of water and blood.
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You know, what you were saying, the two words.
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And I think that's something that a lot of people believe in.
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And, you know, there may be something to that.
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I don't know.
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I had to consider that.
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I hadn't thought about that.
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The connection between the water and Genesis 1.
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Creation.
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Kind of like, you know, then God started creating.
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And I think it might have something in that.
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Okay.
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When we think of regeneration in the New Testament...
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And again, I know we're supposed to be talking about Holy Spirit work in the Old Testament.
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But my mind came in tonight thinking about regeneration.
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So I was just...
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The sermon, it's all going to center on this.
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Because here's my question.
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Think about regeneration in the New Testament.
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I don't believe it happens at baptism.
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But I do believe baptism is a picture.
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Right? What does Romans tell us? We were buried with him.
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And we were raised with him.
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And the idea that there's a picture of what happens.
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This is why we do baptism in a particular way.
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We put somebody under the water.
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And we hold them there until they bubble.
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I do tell them when I baptize them.
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I say, okay, when I go to baptize you, I'm going to hold you down for a second.
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Because some people go down and up so quickly they don't get the forehead wet.
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It's like dry spot.
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And I don't want a dry spot.
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I'd do it again.
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I say, I'm going to hold you down for a second.
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Don't get scared.
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And so we do a baptism.
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The baptism symbol...
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I do believe it is very much a picture of the new birth.
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And I believe it's very much a picture of regeneration.
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And so that being said, what would be a picture in the Old Testament of that? Because remember, baptism is...
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Even though there were baptisms in the Old Covenant, they were not equated with the coming in part of the covenant community.
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There were washings in the Old Testament.
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It was...
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When John went out and was baptizing, he was using something that they understood, but in a new way.
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It was a cleansing.
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But what's the Old Covenant...
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What do we see in the Old Covenant that's similar? Not the same.
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And I'm going to make an argument for a minute.
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It's not absolutely a one-to-one thing.
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But what's the Old Covenant thing that we see that's a symbol of this regeneration? Okay, you're taking me back to...
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You're talking about the New Covenant? Yes.
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Yes, absolutely.
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Jeremiah and Ezekiel both point us to the New Covenant.
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But what's the Old Covenant symbol? I'll make it easy.
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What's the Old Covenant symbol that brought someone into the community of faith? Circumcision.
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Circumcision, thank you.
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Alright, so now I want to take you to a verse.
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Go to Colossians chapter 2.
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It's an interesting connection that Paul makes.
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And I want you to know I'm not Presbyterian.
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So I'm not going to make an absolute one-to-one connection between baptism and circumcision.
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And they don't really either.
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They make a connection, but it's not a direct one-to-one thing.
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But it is why they baptize babies.
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Because they say you circumcise babies, you baptize babies.
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There's a connection there.
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But look at Colossians 2 verse 11.
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It says, That is in Christ.
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So what does Paul do there in Colossians chapter 2 verses 11 and 12? He connects circumcision and he connects it to baptism.
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And he says both of these are pictures of what God's doing on the inside.
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That's the picture.
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Now circumcision was an interesting picture.
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Circumcision removed an inch of flesh as a sign of this is God's people.
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And it removed an inch of flesh only on the males.
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And on the portion of the body most associated with sexual indiscretion and sin.
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It was a very interesting picture that it gives.
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And then we come to the new covenant.
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No longer is circumcision the sign.
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Baptism is the sign of entrance into the covenant community.
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Now we have the sign of entrance.
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And what is the sign? Again, what is the picture? The picture is the change.
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The regeneration.
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It's not causing it.
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Circumcision doesn't cause it.
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Baptism doesn't cause it.
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It's the picture.
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And you say, well, how do you know circumcision is a picture? Well, Romans 2.29.
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If you've got a second, I'll jump to it and read it to you.
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Romans 2 and verse 29 says, verse 28.
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For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.
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But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart.
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By the spirit.
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Not by the letter.
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Notice that.
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Circumcision, real spiritual circumcision, was never outward.
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The outward was simply a picture of what should be happening on the inside.
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A circumcised heart.
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One Jewish Christian said, it's a bris of the heart.
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You know what a bris is? That's where the Jews gather together and have a circumcision.
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They have a mohel who comes.
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The mohel is a man who is trained to give a child circumcision on the eighth day.
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And he comes in and he cuts that little piece of flesh off in a ceremony.
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That's a bris.
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Christians believe in bris, but it's a bris of the heart.
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And it's not a ceremony done by men.
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It's a ceremony done by the Spirit of God.
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You understand? And I believe this ceremony was done in the Old Covenant.
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I believe that Moses' heart was regenerated.
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I believe David's heart was regenerated.
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I mean, just go down the list.
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You go to Hebrews chapter 11.
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By faith, this one.
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And by faith, that one.
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And by faith, the other.
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And you say, well why would you say they're regenerated? Because I don't believe that a person can exercise faith unless he be regenerated.
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Why not? Because Ephesians chapter 2 tells me this.
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You were dead in your trespasses and sins.
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And by the way, dead men don't exercise faith.
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Because that's what it means to be dead in your sins.
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It means to be without the ability to exercise your spiritual life because you're spiritually dead.
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That's what happened to Adam the moment he sinned.
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He became spiritually a corpse.
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That's why God could say to Adam, on the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.
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He didn't die physically, but he died spiritually.
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His children are born, D-O-A.
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Dead on arrival, they're born corpses.
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My babies, born spiritually dead.
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I pray that God will give them the gift of regeneration.
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I'm not giving them baptism until it happens, or at least until there's evidence that it has happened.
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That's the difference between me and a Presbyterian.
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They would give them the baptism in looking forward to the promise.
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I wait until the promise is at least exemplified by faith.
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But you see there how this operates.
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The gift of the Holy Spirit has to happen and circumcise the heart.
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And again, I'm going to tell you there were differences in how the Holy Spirit operated in the Old Covenant.
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But I don't think the difference is the changing of the heart.
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Because I don't think any man, prior to Jesus or after Jesus, could have exercised faith otherwise.
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And because we know people did exercise faith.
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Hebrews 11 tells us they exercised faith.
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Genesis 15, 6, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him unto righteousness.
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How did Abraham believe God? Because the Holy Spirit did a work in his heart.
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Abraham was a pagan.
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Abraham worshipped idols.
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You read later in the Old Testament, it talks about where he came from.
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And the fact that his family were idolaters.
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And it's likely that he grew up in that idolatry.
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God reached down to Abraham and He chose him out of his family.
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And He says, go to the land that I have told you.
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And I promise you a nation will come from you.
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And He did.
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And Abraham believed God.
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Faith is not something that we do ourselves.
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Amen? Amen to that.
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And if faith is something we don't do ourselves, then we need the gift of the Holy Spirit to do that.
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Now the question though is, what then becomes different about the New Testament? I would say this.
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In the New Covenant, the promise is not only will the Holy Spirit change our heart, but now He's going to indwell us and empower us.
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That's where I think the difference lies.
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And that's where we're going to move now because we've got three more things and I've got five minutes.
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But you understand, regeneration is the most important thing, right? If you understand the Spirit regenerates in the Old Testament, now we can say, okay, well what's the difference? If He's regenerating, what's the difference? I think one is I think His indwelling was selective.
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Because in the New Covenant, all believers are possessed by the Spirit forever.
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John 14, 16 says He will be with you forever.
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He doesn't come and go.
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But in the Old Testament, the Spirit did not indwell all of God's people and He did not make His abode with them forever.
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We know at least one person who God took His Spirit from.
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Who was that? King Saul.
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So there is at least an example.
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I think 1 Samuel 16, 14 is that reference.
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I didn't write it down.
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Let's look at it real quick.
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1 Samuel 16, verse 14.
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Now, yep, here it is.
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1 Samuel 16, 14.
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Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.
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So not only did he lose the Holy Spirit, but he was given a tormenting spirit.
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That's what it says.
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It says, Now the Spirit of the Lord departed him, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.
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So it's as if he had the gift of the Spirit.
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That gift is taken and now there's a spirit of torment that's in him.
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And again, I don't know how that operated.
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I might spend some time thinking about that.
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But the point of the matter is, he had the Spirit of God and then he didn't.
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In the New Covenant, I don't think that happens.
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I don't think the New Covenant believer receives the Spirit and then he leaves.
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David mentions in Psalm 51, 11, Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
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That seems to be a legitimate concern on behalf of David.
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But it's also a good reminder too, that just because David sinned, the Holy Spirit didn't automatically leave when he sinned, because he still had the Holy Spirit.
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Because he's saying in Psalm 51, which is his prayer of repentance, Take not, indicating he still was there.
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It isn't as if the Holy Spirit was just waiting for him to sin, so he could skedaddle and get out of there.
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He was still present with David, when David said, Take not your Holy Spirit from me.
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So the Holy Spirit is active in the Old Testament.
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He's regenerating hearts.
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He's indwelling selectively.
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Where is the Holy Spirit's presence in the Old Testament mainly? The temple.
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There's a sense in which the temple is a picture of the Spirit's presence among the people.
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What happened when Jesus died on the cross? The curtain of the temple, which was as thick as a man's hand, it was no thin piece of material, was rent from top to bottom, demonstrating that it was God himself who did it.
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Thus also demonstrating that the Holy Spirit was now no longer going to be selective.
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He would go into all believers.
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We also see the Spirit in the Old Covenant restraining sin.
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Restraining sin.
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I'll give you two examples.
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One is Abimelech, Genesis chapter 20, verses 2-4.
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Genesis 20, 2-4.
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Remember when Abraham would go to a new place, he would tell Sarah, Tell them you're my sister, because you're so beautiful that they'll kill me to have you.
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That was a good plan, wasn't it? No, because they still got her.
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And now they thought they did it with impunity, because it's just his sister.
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Abimelech took her, and God did not allow Abimelech to lay with her.
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And in verses 2-4 there in chapter 20 of Genesis, it refers to the fact that God kept him from her.
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God restrained.
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Do you think Abimelech wanted to lay with her? Yeah, he wouldn't have taken her otherwise.
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But he was restrained.
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The Holy Spirit restrains sin.
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Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad He restrains you from sinning as willingly as you would? God, restrain me more.
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That's my prayer, right? God, hold me back.
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Tie me to the post of your Word, and don't let me stray.
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That's what we should pray.
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And so we see the restraining of sin.
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Also, this is one of my favorite verses.
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Exodus 34-24.
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I'm going to read it to you real quick.
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Exodus 34-24.
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God is telling Israel what they ought to do.
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And He's telling them that they're going to be going three times a year.
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They're going to be leaving their children and their families, and the men are going to go off to worship three times a year.
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Now, you've got to remember, Israel was a place where people were always warring and battling and fighting.
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Three times a year, verse 23 says, shall all your males appear before the Lord, the God of Israel.
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Verse 24.
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For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders.
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No one shall covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord, your God, three times in the year.
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What does that tell us that the Holy Spirit is doing? The Holy Spirit is restraining the desire to covet in the hearts of wicked men.
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You tell me God's not sovereign.
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I listened to a pastor this week.
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He said, if you believe God's in control, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
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I don't know who he is, and I just heard a little bit of the sermon, and I turned my stomach.
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Yeah.
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But this text tells me that three times a year you're going to go worship the Lord, and during that time I'm going to restrain your enemies.
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They won't even covet your land.
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I love this passage when people tell me God's not in control.
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I say, right here, if He can control the coveting heart of an evil man, He can do whatever He wants.
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Finally, part four, and we're going to close.
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We've seen the Spirit's work in regeneration.
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We've seen the Spirit's work in indwelling selectively as He chooses.
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We see the Spirit's work in restraining sin.
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And finally, we see the Spirit's work in enabling for service.
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I always like to remind people, especially those who are artists, whether they be artists with a pen like Mike, or artists with a piano like Debbie, or whatever.
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The first people in Scripture that are ever said to be filled with the Holy Spirit were artisans.
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Exodus 31, verses 2-5.
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It's the first time we see the phrase, those who were enabled or filled with the Spirit for a purpose, and it was the artisans.
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God cares about beauty.
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God cares about symmetry.
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And order.
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That's why He spent so much of the books of Leviticus, and Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and even in Exodus, explaining how He was going to be worshipped.
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And what the people were going to wear, and what the people were going to do.
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And how they were going to present themselves.
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God cares about those things.
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Art, and order, and symmetry, and beauty.
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And so God enables the service of those people.
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And again, I could spend all night, text after text after text, showing people who were enabled for service.
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One of my favorites was, even though he turned out to be somewhat of a scoundrel, not, well, Samson, let me back up, not a scoundrel, a fool.
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He was a foolish man because of a woman.
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And, to defer, he's not the only one.
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But Samson, according to Judges 14, 19, his strength was a gift from the Spirit of God.
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And we see this throughout the Old Testament.
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God's Spirit enabling people for service.
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God enabled Moses.
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God enabled Aaron.
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God enabled, throughout the Old Testament, people for service.
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What's the difference than in the New Covenant? Well, I think in the New Covenant, it's just a wider, more expansive expression of that enablement.
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Because in the New Covenant, nobody is without a gift.
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Because nobody is without the Spirit.
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In the New Covenant, we have no excuse for not being participators in God's work.
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Because every one of us has been given the Holy Spirit to do that work.
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Whether you're God's hands or His feet.
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Whether you're the eyes or the ears of Christ.
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Or the mouth.
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Whatever you are in Christ, the Spirit has enabled you because you're in Him.
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And if you have not the Spirit of Christ, you do not belong to Him.
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Romans chapter 8, verse 9.
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So we have the gift of the Holy Spirit.
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If, in fact, we are His.
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If, in fact, we have been born again.
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So to finalize tonight, I would just go back to the very beginning.
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We know what regeneration is.
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Regeneration means to be born again.
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Have you been born again? If you've not been born again, you will not see the Kingdom of Heaven.
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If you've not been born again, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
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Have you been born again? Have you been born from the Spirit of God? Let's pray.
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Father, I pray for everyone under the sound of my voice.
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I pray, Lord, that they have been born again.
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But I know, Lord, that that is a work of the Spirit alone.
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It's not something that I can manipulate.
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It's not something that I can talk a man into.
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It's not something that I can do other than plead.
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And I do plead, Father.
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I plead with them and I plead with you.
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Father, save the ones who are here tonight.
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Lord, if there be any that are not, Lord, show them their desperate need of Christ.
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Show them that apart from being born again, they are lost.
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And, Lord, if they close their eyes in death, they will open them in hell.
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Lord, we want to see the Kingdom.
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But to see the Kingdom, we must be born in the Spirit.
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Father, I pray for the new birth for any who need it.
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And for those who have it, I pray, Lord, that they would be confident in Christ and live every day in service to Him.
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In His name we pray.
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Amen.