The Gospel of Luke (49) - The Gift of the Holy Spirit 12/17/2023

First Baptist Church Leominster

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Normally, Pastor Jason reads our New Testament reading. He's, again, home ill, so we've asked

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Leo. He'll come and read for us this morning and then pray for us.

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I actually have my Bible open here to 2 John, so come on up. The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom

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I love in truth. And not only I, but also all those who have known the truth, because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever.

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Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the

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Son of the Father, in truth and love. I rejoice greatly that I have found some of your children walking in the truth, as we have received commandment from the

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Father. And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have heard from the beginning, that we love one another.

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This is love, that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment that, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.

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For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess

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Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

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Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things which we have worked for, but that we have received a full reward.

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Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the

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Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him.

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For he who greets him shares in his evil deeds. Having many things to write to you,

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I do not wish to do so with paper and ink. But I hope to come to you and speak to you face to face, that our joy may be full.

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The children of your elect sister greet you. Amen. Amen. Lord God, Heavenly Father, I come before you this morning feeling very unworthy to stand in your pulpit where the gospel of God's grace in your

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Son, Jesus Christ, is faithfully proclaimed. I beg that you look not upon my sin, but upon my faith that I have in your

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Son. And may you enable our faithful pastor to show us the gospel, the life, death, burial, and resurrection of your

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Son, Jesus Christ. And it's in his name do we pray. Amen. Well, amen.

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To embarrass him, but a year ago when you were in prison, couldn't you envision reading the scriptures in front of the people of God?

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Amen. The gospel is the need of the world, isn't it? And it provides a glorious answer to the fallen condition of mankind.

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It's wonderful. And God gets great glory from it. Well, you probably have notes in front of you.

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And today we wanna deal more fully with the gift of the Holy Spirit. I mentioned last week we could probably do an entire series on this subject, the

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Holy Spirit, but I thought it was appropriate that we take at least one Sunday and address this.

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For in the last three weeks, of course, we've been addressing our Lord's teaching to his disciples regarding prayer recorded in Luke 11, one through 13.

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And the concluding verse of that passage, Luke 11, 13, the Lord Jesus told his disciples that our heavenly

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Father is very willing to give them the Holy Spirit if they but ask him to do so.

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And so we read our Lord's words in verse 13. If you then being evil, that is you earthly fathers being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly

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Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. And last

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Lord's Day, we explained that through the 20th century, many, if not most evangelicals had wrongly dismissed this teaching as not applicable for Christians in this church age.

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They were taught by influential people that this promise was only for Jews before the event of Pentecost.

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They taught that after the day of Pentecost had taken place, when the Holy Spirit was given to every true believer, thereafter,

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Christians are not to ask the Father for the Holy Spirit, for he's already been given to indwell every believer.

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But the dismissal of this promise to pray to God the Father that he give us the Holy Spirit is a very aberrant view.

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Renders the people of God powerless. And it's misled many sincere

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Christians. And so we take the words of Charles Spurgeon to heart, as true and relevant, we should all pray throughout the day and onward that God will give to his churches more and more of his

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Holy Spirit. And moreover, every disciple of Jesus Christ should pray throughout the day and every subsequent day that God the

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Father will give us the Holy Spirit to enable us to live before him in faithful obedience.

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A Lord's Day doesn't go by, I don't pray, God, give me the Holy Spirit, I just gotta stand before your people and present your word to them.

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We can't do this apart from your grace. Well, I would like us to consider this matter in more detail.

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And doing so, we intend to exalt the person and role of the Holy Spirit as the blessed third person of the

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Holy Trinity. And to be firmly and thoroughly convinced he is our most needful and blessed gift of the

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Father. The Holy Spirit alone can enable us to live before our

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Lord in holiness and faithfulness. You cannot live the Christian life apart from the

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Holy Spirit. And so today we'll first consider the biblical teaching regarding the

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Holy Spirit as the third person of the blessed Holy Trinity. And then secondly, we'll set forth what the scriptures reveal to us of the

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Holy Spirit, bringing us to experience salvation. And then thirdly, we want to explain the blessing of the new covenant in Christ that we have available to us the gift of the

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Holy Spirit to sanctify us in our daily life. This was a new word to these disciples to ask for the

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Holy Spirit. And so let's first consider the deity and personal subsistence.

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And subsistence is a word that our Reformed Baptist forefathers used to substitute the word persons,

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I believe, in the Westminster Confession. They used, I think, the more accurate term, subsistence of the

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Holy Spirit, which means his independent existence, as it were, as a person.

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So let's affirm this cardinal and essential doctrine of the Christian faith. The one true

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God is the blessed Holy Trinity set forth throughout the Bible, the word of God. Clearly not as fully disclosed in the

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Old Testament, but it's there, if you look. And so regarding the definition of the

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Trinity, our Baptist Confession sets forth the biblical teaching rightly and forthrightly.

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And so of the one true God, we read that in this divine and infinite being, there are three subsistences, persons.

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The Father, the Word, or Son, and the Holy Spirit. Of one substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided, one

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God. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding.

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The Son is eternally begotten of the Father. The Holy Spirit proceeding from the

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Father and the Son, all infinite, without beginning, therefore but one

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God, who is not to be divided in nature and being, but distinguished by several peculiar relative, in other words, the way they relate to one another, properties and personal relations, which doctrine of the

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Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God and comfortable dependence upon him.

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That is a, if we can use the word, pregnant statement that is filled with truth and tremendous implications for us.

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And so the Word of God sets forth both the personhood and the deity of the Holy Spirit. And we want to address these two, the deity and the personhood.

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And so first, let's consider the qualities of the Holy Spirit that set forth his personhood. This understanding corrects the heretical belief that the

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Holy Spirit is not a person, but just a spiritual force of God.

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And in the footnote, I mentioned several cults and false religions that teach that.

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And so the personhood of the Holy Spirit. And considering these distinctions of the

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Holy Spirit, we may say, see that the person of the Holy Spirit is distinguishable from the

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Father and the Son. The personhood of the Holy Spirit may be affirmed biblically in the following ways.

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First, there are personal pronouns used of the Holy Spirit. These personal pronouns distinguish the

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Holy Spirit as a person from the Father and the Son. Jesus said to his disciples, but when the helper comes, whom

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I shall send to you, clearly Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit as a person, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the

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Father, he will testify of me, personal pronoun. In Acts 13, one, we read of the

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Holy Spirit speaking, referring to himself. We read that the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me, personal pronoun,

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Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I've called them. And that was beginning of the Gentile mission, of course, from Antioch.

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And so personal pronouns indicate the Holy Spirit is a person. But also there are personal properties ascribed to the

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Holy Spirit. Just as the personal pronouns distinguish the personhood of the

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Holy Spirit, so these personal properties or characteristics demonstrates the same truth.

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First, we read in the scriptures that the Holy Spirit has understanding. People have understanding, persons have understanding or wisdom.

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Isaiah 11 too, the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, being the Messiah, of course, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the

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Lord. And then in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 2, 10 and 11, for the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God, for what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?

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Even so, no one knows the things of God. No one can truly know the things of God.

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Except the spirit of God, he knows the things of God because he is God. And then second, the

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Holy Spirit expresses his will, which again is the capability of a person. Not only does he have understanding, but he has will.

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1 Corinthians 12, but one and the same spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as he wills.

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The Holy Spirit wills because he is a person. And third, the Holy Spirit has the quality of power or might which is true of persons.

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And so Isaiah 11, two, the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, speaking of the Messiah Christ, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might.

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And that, of course, carries the idea of power. The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, that kind of capsulates all of them, doesn't it?

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Acts 10, 38, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth the Holy Spirit and with power. Lord Jesus had power because the

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Holy Spirit was upon him without limitation. Jesus went about doing good, healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

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That shows the deity of the Holy Spirit, doesn't it? Holy Spirit was with him, power with him, and God was with him, one and the same.

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Romans 15, 13, now may the God of hope fill you with all joy, peace, and believing that you may abound in hope in the power of the

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Holy Spirit. Infinite power, he's God. Ephesians 3, 16, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being.

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You feel weak at times and you don't have moral, personal strength and faith.

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The Holy Spirit has the power available for you to strengthen you. And then aside from personal pronouns and personal properties there are personal activities, things that the

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Holy Spirit does. Activities ascribed to the Holy Spirit. So we read in the word of God that the

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Holy Spirit speaks. I won't refer to the references. He reveals, he guides into all truth, he teaches, he comforts, counsels, helps, loves the believer, he encourages, he warns, he appoints to office, he may be grieved, he may be lied to, and he may be resisted.

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Those are personal qualities that you can only do toward a person. And so the personhood of the

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Holy Spirit. And of course, the scriptures teach the deity of the

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Holy Spirit, he is God. The titles ascribed to the Holy Spirit reveal that the

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Holy Spirit is God. First, the Old Testament. He is identified in numerous places as the

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Spirit of God. He's called the Spirit of Yahweh, which is actually the Hebrew personal name of God.

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It's commonly translated as Jehovah. That's really a combination of two Hebrew words,

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Yahweh and Adonai, comes up with Jehovah, but it actually is Yahweh, would have been the Hebrew personal name of God.

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He is the Spirit of the Lord God. He is God's good spirit. He is God's Holy Spirit.

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And then if we look at, and that's just a sampling. And then if we look into the New Testament, the

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Holy Spirit's referred to in numerous places as the Spirit of God. He's the Spirit of the living

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God. He's the sevenfold Spirit of God, speaking of his fullness. He's called the

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Spirit of your father. He's the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead. He is the

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Spirit of God's Son, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the

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Holy Spirit, the eternal Spirit, the Spirit of life, Spirit of grace, the Spirit of glory and of God.

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And he is another comforter. Jesus was the comforter, but he would send another comforter, that being the

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Holy Spirit. And so these titles speak of the Holy Spirit as divine.

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But aside from these titles, the scriptures refer directly to the deity of the Holy Spirit. He's identified as God.

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Peter spoke of Ananias, the liar, having lied to the Holy Spirit. And then in doing so,

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Peter says that he had lied, was lied to God. There clearly the deity of the Holy Spirit is set forth.

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The lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God. Secondly, the Holy Spirit is identified as Yahweh of the

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Old Testament. Yahweh is the name of the triune God, actually, not just God the

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Father. What Isaiah recorded as God saying in Isaiah 6, 9 -10, the passage where Isaiah was caught up into heaven, saw the glory of God.

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And so what Isaiah recorded as God saying in Isaiah 6, Paul asserted it was the

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Holy Spirit had spoken these words in the New Testament. What the psalmist declared were the words of Yahweh in Psalm 95, the writer of Hebrews declares these were words told by the

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Holy Spirit. Where Leviticus 26 foretells Yahweh is dwelling with his people,

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Paul cites this same Levitical passage, speaks of the church at 2 Corinthians as the antitypical temple of the living

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God. The Old Testament temple, the type, New Testament antitype is the church.

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How does Yahweh dwell in his church? In the person of the Holy Spirit, who according to Romans 8 and 9 is also both the

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Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. And then third, also, he's referred to directly as God, even though he's distinguished from the

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Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is presented as equal to the Father and Son in the clearly stated

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Trinitarian passages found in the New Testament. Matthew 3 .16

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at the baptism of Jesus. You have the Great Commission, Matthew 28 .19.

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1 Corinthians 12, the Holy Spirit distributes spiritual gifts. Ephesians 2, 1

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Peter 1. Matthew 8 .19, the Holy Spirit included with the Father and the Son in the singular name of God.

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Name one God, each of the persons are in that name.

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One God, three persons. And then fourth, the Holy Spirit, his divine attribute set forth in the scriptures.

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He's described as eternal in Hebrews 9 .14. Only God is eternal. He's omnipresent everywhere.

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Only God can be omnipresent. Not even the devil is omnipresent. He's omnipotent, that is infinite in power.

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Only God is infinite in power. He's omniscient, he's all -knowing. That's a quality of God alone.

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And he is sovereign. He is a sovereign Holy Spirit. That's an attribute of God.

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And fifth, he comes from the Father and is sent by the Father and the Son. And so this also would be indicative of the fact that he is

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God. And then sixth, last, the Holy Spirit performs works that can only be done by God.

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Robert Raymond, who's with the Lord now, wrote a wonderful systematic theology. He calls it a new theology of the

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Christian faith, I think it is. And these are his words of the Holy Spirit.

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Accordingly, he does divine works. He creates, regenerates, resurrects, exercises divine authority in Christ's church.

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More specifically, he effected Mary's virginal conception. He anointed and empowered

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Christ throughout his earthly ministry and in the hour of his death. He glorifies

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Christ. He inspired the scriptures. Convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

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Invites men to come to Christ. He builds the church. Comes upon and dwells believers as the seal, the noun payment, and firstfruits of their full inheritance.

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He baptizes, that is regenerates, which leads to faith in Christ. Dominion over sin.

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Works of righteousness. Love for others. Induces believers to their perception of Jesus as Lord.

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To their filial or family consciousness of God as their father. Empowers believers to boldness, love, self -discipline, sanctifies.

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Produces holy fruit in the believer. Gives gifts to the believer. And intercedes for them in their ignorance.

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And raises them to glory from the dead. Only God does those things. The Holy Spirit is

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God. And so the Holy Scriptures clearly and demonstrably set forth the

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Holy Spirit to be God. He's the third person of the blessed Holy Trinity. And therefore the

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Holy Spirit is to be regarded and worshiped as eternal

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God. And this is important. Oftentimes we give emphasis to God the father and his son.

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And that's understandable. And even the Holy Spirit doesn't call attention to himself or directs everyone and everything to Jesus Christ.

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But in no way should we have any disregard or less emphasis to the

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Holy Spirit because he is eternal God. He's to be regarded and worshiped as eternal

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God. There's even an instance or two where the Holy Spirit is prayed to. We are to reverence the

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Holy Spirit because he is God. Thomas Watson, my favorite Puritan writer, wrote of this in his classic book,

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A Body of Divinity. Top 10 Christian books, A Body of Divinity is one of them. He wrote, if there be one

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God subsisting in three persons and let us give equal reverence to all persons in the

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Trinity. There's not more or less in the Trinity. The father is not more God than the son and the

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Holy Ghost. There is an order in the Godhead, but no degrees.

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One person has not a majority or super eminence above another. Therefore, we must give equal worship to all the persons that all men should honor the son even as they honor the father.

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Adore unity in Trinity. Important to have balance there.

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Be reminded of this reality. And then Watson wrote with respect to obedience to all the persons of the

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Trinity. Obey all the persons in the blessed Trinity for all of them are

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God. Obey God the father. Christ himself as man obeyed

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God the father. Much more must we. Obey God the son, kiss the son lest he be angry.

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Psalm two. Kiss him with a kiss of obedience. Christ commands are not grievous.

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Whatever he commands is for our interest and benefit. Oh, then kiss the son.

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Why do the elders throw down their crowns at the feet of Christ and fall down before the lamb to testify their subjection and to profess their readiness to serve and obey him?

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And then obey the God the Holy Spirit, Watson wrote. Our souls are breathed into us by the glorious spirit.

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The spirit of God has made me, Job. Our souls are adorned by the blessed spirit.

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Every grace is a divine spark lighted in the soul by the Holy Ghost. Name more, the spirit of God sanctified

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Christ's human nature. He united it with the divine.

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The Holy Spirit did that in the incarnation and fitted the man Christ to be our mediator.

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Well then does this third person in the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, deserve to be obeyed for he is

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God and this attribute of homage and obedience is due to him from us.

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Amen. Thomas Watson. Now when the persons of the

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Holy Trinity are mentioned together in the scriptures, the Holy Spirit is normally in the third place.

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Usually it is God the Father first, followed by God the Son, then the Holy Spirit. Who is the

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Holy Spirit? He's the third person of the Holy Trinity. And this truth had been held and promoted since the earliest days of the

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Christian era. The ancient apostles creed dating perhaps to the fourth century

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A .D., maybe before, states the matter, I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

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I believe in Jesus Christ, his Son, our Lord, who is conceived by the Holy Spirit. I believe in the

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Holy Spirit. There's the blessed Holy Trinity. And so this understanding of the identity of the

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Holy Spirit as the third person of the Godhead may be seen as far back as when our Lord Jesus first spoke of him in terms that could only be understood as setting forth our

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Christian understanding of him as the third person in the blessed Holy Trinity. Jesus said this, remember this.

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Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.

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Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, and is his human display as the

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Messiah, of course, it will be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come, in eternity.

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Blasphemy is a crime that can only be committed against God. I cannot blaspheme you, you cannot blaspheme me.

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Only God can be blasphemed. And here the Lord Jesus speaks of blasphemy against the

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Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is God. And so the Holy Spirit is the third person of the blessed

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Holy Trinity. Well, let's secondly give consideration of how the

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Holy Spirit applies to the people of God, the salvation secured for them by Jesus Christ.

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In consideration of this biblical teaching regarding salvation, it's critically important to understand first the nature of salvation from sin.

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It's really not understood very clearly by many. Secondly, the purpose of God to bring salvation to his people, there we'll be talking about the everlasting covenant.

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And then thirdly, the process by which the Holy Spirit applies salvation to his people. And so let's consider each of these.

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First, the nature of salvation from sin. What is salvation? A word of God declares throughout its pages that all humanity are guilty sinners before God who are in need of salvation, you and I.

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Our salvation could only be brought to us by our God, he must act to save us or we would be eternally banished from his presence and subject to his eternal wrath.

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He has to act or it's not gonna happen. We needed

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God to bring us out of our fallen condition to impart to a spiritual life so that we might experience and enjoy a saving relationship with God.

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Salvation is of the Lord. We needed God to forgive our sins.

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And so as Christians, we affirm that Jesus Christ, of course, is the only savior available to fallen man.

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The Christian faith set forth in the word of God is the only true religion of mankind. All other religions are false religions.

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He alone could deliver us from our alienation from God and restore us to a relationship with God lost to us because of our sin.

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And so we confess as the apostle and we have seen and testified that the father has sent the son as a savior of the world.

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He's the only savior. And just that paragraph, that declaration will get you in trouble in today's world.

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But it's a truism that we can broke no compromise. Jesus Christ is a savior of sinners.

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Through his death upon the cross, he bore the penalty that sinners owe to God for their sin.

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As the scriptures declare, Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. He died as a shepherd laid down his life for his sheep.

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Through his death, Christ paid the debt his people owed to God for their sin. But it was through his life of sinless perfection and obedience that Christ wrought a life of righteousness that would enable his people to stand holy without blame before him on judgment day.

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We won't stand in our own righteousness, thankfully, because it's not there, but we'll stand in the righteousness of Christ.

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We'll stand as perfect and holy as Jesus Christ himself on the day of judgment. That's the promise of the gospel.

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When the sinner places faith solely in Jesus Christ for his salvation, God then pardons him of all his sin.

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But in addition, at that moment of initial saving faith, God also confers the gift of righteousness.

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We needed two things in order to be saved from sin, forgiveness of sins, and then the reckoning of the righteousness of Christ to us.

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We needed more than just forgiveness. We've got to stand holy on the day of judgment, righteous.

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And the only righteousness that will enable a sinner to stand on that day is the righteousness of Christ, not what you do or don't do in this life.

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And so, at that moment of initial saving faith, God confers the gift of righteousness, even the righteousness of Jesus Christ himself, to the believer's account.

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This is the glorious truth of the sinner's justification by the grace of God alone through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

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And so, the believing sinner is both pardoned and is regarded and treated as righteous as Jesus Christ himself.

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With the initial act of believing Christ as Lord and Savior. But please recognize the salvation that God bestows upon his people involves more than the believer's justification before God.

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That is, his deliverance from the penalty of sin. That's what justification deals with.

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When God saves a sinner, he delivers him from the power of sin as well. Justification doesn't speak about the power of sin except to condemn.

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It speaks about the penalty of sin that's satisfied by Christ. And so,

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God delivers the believer from the power of sin that had characterized and dominated his life when he was an unbeliever.

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This aspect of salvation through Jesus Christ involves the sinner's regeneration, regenerate, new birth, second birth.

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When God imparts new life to the dead soul of the sinner, the sinner's regeneration by God is essential as the sinner's justification before God.

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Jesus said, unless you're born again, you cannot even see, let alone enter the kingdom of God. But actually, regeneration precedes justification.

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And this is a teaching only reformed people advocate. You don't believe and then become born again.

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You're born again and as a result, you believe. Faith can't come forth from an unregenerate soul.

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Jesus said, you can't even understand, you can't enter, you can't even perceive the kingdom of God until you're born again.

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And so, the sinner's regeneration is as essential as justification. For until and unless a person is born again, he could never nor would he ever repent of his sin and put his faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

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Again, Jesus told Nicodemus most assuredly, verily, verily, I say unto you, unless one is born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

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See, that's more than just forgiveness of sin, isn't it? You need to be a new creature. That which is born of flesh is flesh and nothing will ever change that.

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You're born a sinner, you'll remain a sinner. But that which is born of the spirit, the Holy Spirit is spirit.

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Do not marvel, I said to you. Again, the foremost teacher in Israel, Nicodemus, you must be born again.

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The wind blows where it wishes, you hear the sound of it, you cannot tell where it comes from, where it goes, so is everyone who's born of the spirit.

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The Holy Spirit is sovereign. You can't control the wind, you can't control the Holy Spirit. He creates life where he purposes to do so.

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He is sovereign God. Now, whereas the believer's justification takes place outside of him, when you're forgiven of sin and your righteousness is reckoned to you, that's outside of you, that's what

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God is declaring in heaven. You're forgiven, you're righteous. Doesn't have anything to do with inside of you.

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It has to do with your state, your condition before God. You're pardoned and you're righteous.

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You were once a guilty sinner before God, now the next moment, God declares him to be justified.

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And that's why sometimes it's called a forensic righteousness, a legal righteousness. However, regeneration is a work of God's grace within the sinner.

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Justification is outside the sinner. Regeneration is when he actually changes you inside, within the sinner, in which

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God imparts new spiritual life to him who was formerly spiritually dead. Paul wrote of this work of God's grace in Ephesians 2.

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You he made alive. When? You made alive who are dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.

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The devil is your God, your ruler. He rules you by enticing you to do your own will.

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That's how God's kingdom or the devil's kingdom works. You do your will.

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Eve, eat of this fruit and you will be as God. When you're doing your will instead of God's will, you're doing the bidding of the devil.

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You think you're serving yourself? No, you're serving the devil by serving yourself. According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desire to the flesh of the mind were by nature children of wrath, just as others.

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We were sinners like everybody else, going along as we always had, always would continue.

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But God at that point took the initiative who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you've been saved.

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And so he took the initiative and created life when you had no desire, no thought, no ability to live before God.

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He did something to you. He created a new heart in you, gave you a new spirit. And so the believer's justification involves what

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God does outside of him on behalf of him. It deals with the man's legal standing or state before God, but the sinner's regeneration involves what

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God does inside him. God gives him a new heart, one which desires and loves

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God, hates sin, loves righteousness, loves God's people. That's the evidence.

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One of the evidences of true salvation, you love God's people. This work of grace performed by the

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Holy Spirit is a spiritual work through which he transforms the sinner into a saint. He declares the sinner a saint upon initial faith, and then he makes him to become like he is.

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He makes him to become saint -like. In other words, Christ -like. And so this work of grace performed by the

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Holy Spirit is a spiritual work through which he transformed the sinner into a saint. Here's a good description of this spiritual work of sovereign grace in the soul of the sinner.

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And I dug out this old book published from 1800s called The Office and Work of the

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Holy Spirit by James Buchanan, a classic reprinted by Banner Truth, but I've got an older edition.

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In regard to the nature of that change, which must be wrought on a sinner before he can see the kingdom of God, Nicodemus, you gotta be born again or you can't see it,

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I shall only observe at present that it is a spiritual one, spiritual in respect alike to its subject, its author, in other words, like God, and the means by which it's accomplished is wrought on the soul of man by the word and the spirit of God.

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The soul is the subject of this change. It's not an external reform, merely. But an internal and spiritual renovation, a change of mind and heart, take an effect on the understanding when it is enlightened, on the conscience when it's convinced, on the will when it's subdued, on the affections when they are refined and purified, on the whole man when he's transformed by the renewing of his mind and created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works.

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So that he is said to be a new creature in whom old things have passed away and all things have become new.

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The spirit of God is the author of this change. The soul is born again only when it's born of the spirit.

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For that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. It belongs to him to enlighten the darkened understanding by shining into it and giving it the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, to awaken the slumbering conscience by convincing it of sin, to subdue our rebellious wills by making us a willing people in the day of his power, to take away the hardened stony hearts out of our flesh and give us hearts of flesh, to refine and sanctify our affections and to work in us all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power.

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And this spiritual change is wrought by spiritual means. For the word of God or the truth contained in the word is the instrument by which the spirit acts.

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We are born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible even by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever and we are saved through the sanctification or the setting apart of the spirit and belief in the truth.

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That's regeneration. Well, let's consider the purpose of God to bring salvation to his people.

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God has to do it and it would have never happened unless God purposed to do it. And so the imparting of spiritual life by God is an act of sovereign grace.

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God decreed an eternity. He would save a people for himself from fallen humanity before creation.

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He purposed it and this has been historically set forth as the everlasting covenant entered by the three persons of the blessed holy trinity before creation.

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It's an eternal covenant, not a historical covenant that is found in the

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Bible, the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the New Covenant, the Davidic covenant. This is the eternal covenant not between God and us but between God the

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Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It says though they covenant together purposing to bring salvation to a people and it's referenced in Hebrews 13, 20 and 21.

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Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you complete in every good work to do his will working in you what is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever.

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Amen. Let's consider the terms of the everlasting covenant of grace and as we do this, we're doing this as human beings.

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God is infinite, he's outside of time, history. You know, there was no, you know, sitting down and talking with one another about this.

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It was all in the will and purpose of God but the terms of the covenant between the persons of the trinity can be expressed or described for us and Charles Spurgeon did about the best job

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I've ever read and he depicted the teaching of scripture of the everlasting covenant in this way.

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By terms of God the father, terms committed to by the son and terms committed to by the

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Holy Spirit. Regarding the father, it was as if God said, I the most high

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Jehovah do promise to give to you my dear son a people countless in number drawn from every nation on earth.

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This is before creation. I will on account of you cease my warfare with them and become to them a

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God of peace for I will pardon and wash them from their sin, deliver them from the power of sin and thereby the wrath which is upon them due to their sin.

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I will give them unto you and will deliver each and every one of them into your kingdom which

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I will cause you to establish. I covenant by oath and swear by myself that I will do this thing.

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This people whom I've chosen will be given to you. Every one of them, not one will be lost.

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Them I will forgive through the merit of your life and the payment of your blood on their behalf. But I too do swear that upon your death on their behalf due to your righteousness that I will raise you from death to reign forevermore, giving you a name above every name.

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And all these whom I have given you will be with you and me for I will give eternal life so that they will ever be with you and myself, dwelling and reigning with us through eternity.

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And so that is what God the father has for purpose to do in his decree.

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Well, what about the terms of God the son in the everlasting covenant? It says though God the son said my father,

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I will become one of them, incarnation. I will take upon myself the form and nature of the fallen race.

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I will live in their wretched world and for my people will I keep your law perfectly. I will be obedient to you even to death as I work out a spotless righteousness which will be acceptable to the demands of thy just and holy law.

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And when that time comes, I will suffer and die on behalf of these you have given me. On behalf of my sheep,

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I will be the good shepherd and lay down my life. And now the point that we wanted to come to, what about the terms of God the

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Holy Spirit in the everlasting covenant? All the benefits of Christ are applied to his people through the

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Holy Spirit. I the Holy Spirit will in time, in history ensure to you,

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God's son, that these given to you by the father will come to you. I will make them alive and give them a heart to seek you, put faith in their minds and hearts to believe you.

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I will work in them every grace, sanctifying them, preserving them onto your kingdom.

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And that describes the work of the Holy Spirit in history. And so having decreed this eternal covenant,

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God decreed creation, has ordered all the events of history. The father has been true to his word.

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The Lord Jesus has been true to his word. And the Holy Spirit has been true to his word. And if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, trusting in the merits of his life and death, if you're numbered among his sheep, hearing

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Jesus's voice, following him, this God is a God of peace to you through the blood of the eternal covenant that God has brought to pass,

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Hebrews 13, 20 and 21. This work that we've just described of saving his people has set forth in the opening of 1

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Peter 1, verses one and two, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the dispersion.

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Now he's writing to Gentile Christians and they're living up around the southern end of the Black Sea.

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He's writing to Gentiles, but he's using terminology that described Jews in the Old Testament who were scattered throughout the nations, the exile.

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Here, he's addressing Gentile Christians as the true Israel of God. Okay, the dispersion, where are they?

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Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the

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Father. God the Father elected them, chose them. Foreknowledge here does not mean simply

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God knew ahead of time he would choose of his own free will. Foreknowledge here means that God knew you and me before creation.

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You and I came to know him when we believed on Christ, but he foreknew you. He knew you when he chose you.

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And in sanctification of the spirit, there's the work of the Holy Spirit, setting us apart, sanctifying us, applying salvation to us for obedience.

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See, this is what the Holy Spirit does, for or unto obedience and sprinkling or the application of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace be multiplied.

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And so there we have Peter setting forth really the work of the blessed Holy Trinity in the everlasting covenant.

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Now, let's consider the process by which the Holy Spirit applies salvation to his people.

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There is a process which is reflected in the Holy Scriptures and experienced by the true people of God, through which the

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Holy Spirit applies the benefits of redemption secured by Jesus Christ to the chosen people of God.

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The Holy Spirit applies salvation to sinners through a work of saving grace, of course, in the lives of sinners.

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First, the Holy Spirit enlightens the mind of the sinner to his sinful condition and his need of salvation.

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This is the beginning of a work of saving grace in the soul. I cited Buchanan up above, hear more of his words.

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The illuminating work of the Holy Spirit may be said to be the groundwork of all his other operations.

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You have to begin here. For it is by the truth known and believed that the spirit fills all the functions of his glorious offices.

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He's the spirit of truth. By enlightening the mind and the knowledge of sin, he lays the groundwork for the conviction of conscience.

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He's setting the stage. You gotta understand some things before you start realizing them and feeling them.

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By enabling us to see the importance and meaning of the gospel, he proposes motives for conversion.

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By teaching us right views of God and of ourselves, our privileges and prospects, he supplies us with means of comfort by showing us the nature and necessity of gospel holiness.

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He carries forward the work of sanctification by disclosing us scriptural views of our spiritual necessities or needs.

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He calls forth the spirit of prayer and generally he does whatever he is want to do. Or needs to do.

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By the knowledge of the truth. Hence it's important to give due consideration to this part of the spirit's work.

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In other words, the work of illumination. That we may be prepared to understand and rightly improve whatever we shall find revealed, respecting his other operations on the soul.

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But it begins here. God turns on the lights and gives you an understanding.

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And not just an intellectual understanding but an understanding with a sense of its relevance. Its impact.

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Its importance. Its implications. And so illumination is performed by the

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Holy Spirit. Paul wrote of the Holy Spirit revealing the truth of salvation to sinners who are unable to understand apart from grace.

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He wrote, but as it's written, I have not seen nor ear heard nor entered, neither have entered the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love him.

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He's not talking about heaven, he's talking about salvation. As a sinner, as a fallen person, it never entered your mind, never entered your heart, never entered your thinking about the way that God brings salvation to sinners.

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It was impossible for you even comprehend it to really understand its importance and relevance.

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But then he writes, but God has revealed them unto us by his Holy Spirit. First Corinthians 2 .9.

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God took the initiative. Secondly, the Holy Spirit convicts the conscience of the sinner of his guilt and condemnation before God and of his inability to recover himself from his condition.

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God has given every human being a conscience by which he passes judgment on himself, respecting right and wrong, and that he's deserving of self -condemnation.

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Everyone has a conscience. Yes, there are psychopaths who have no conscience, but it's usually after a life of degradation and sin where they've so hardened themselves that they no longer have a conscience, a human conscience.

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Psychopaths are around, but they're not all that common. Everyone has a conscience.

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But the conscience of an unregenerate man is not sufficient to bring a sinner to true salvation because the sinner, of course, will take his conscience and modify it.

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And so what he once felt guilty for, he excuses, and to the point, he justifies himself.

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And so he can begin to view evil as good and good evil.

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And so the human conscience is subject to change. The fallen state of a man will move him to change the standards by which his conscience operates.

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He will come to justify himself in his sin if it were not for the Holy Spirit convicting the sinner's conscience before God.

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And so the Holy Spirit uses the conscience or works upon the conscience with the truth.

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The principle means the Holy Spirit uses to convict the conscience of the unbeliever. He purposes to save us the law of God.

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Paul wrote, by the laws and knowledge of sin. To the churches of Galatia, Paul wrote, the law is our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.

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The law of God is important and relevant. And to argue the law of God is no more after the cross, that was before the cross.

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It's grace, grace, grace. And no word of law is given. You're gonna have antinomian people.

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You're gonna have people who don't feel guilty for their sin. After all, I'm under the blood of Jesus. And they're rushing headlong onto judgment.

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The Holy Spirit uses the law of God to bring conviction to the sinner's conscience that he is guilty and condemned by God for his sin.

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And he needs God himself to bestow upon him salvation. Lord, unless you intervene and do something for me,

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I'm a goner. I'm damned. You have to save me. And then thirdly, the

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Holy Spirit inwardly calls the sinner through the gospel to repent of his sin and to believe on Jesus Christ the

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Lord for his salvation. He comes to understand the gospel. And this gospel, this calling goes out to specific individuals.

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It's not the general call that we offer to every creature in the world. We can tell any sinner anywhere, if you come to Christ, you can be forgiven of your sin and have eternal life.

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We can tell anyone sincerely that, that we are offering them Christ. But this call is of the

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Holy Spirit, and it's an inward call. It comes with power and understanding.

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And so this call to the gospel goes out to specific individuals, the elect of God. This is the call of God that's heard by them who have ears to hear, who gave them those ears to hear.

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The seeing eye and the hearing ear is all of the Lord. The Holy Spirit issues this effectual call to the elect through the call of the gospel.

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We preach the gospel, and you've got people ignoring it, don't understand it, they fall asleep, they don't care.

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And there's a person that is awakened and alarmed and perhaps delighted because the

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Holy Spirit is calling that person inwardly, not just with the outward ear, but the heart is being summoned by God.

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And so the call is set forth in Romans 8, moreover whom he predestinated, these he also called.

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We read of this inward call in 2 Thessalonians, we're bound to thank God, give thanks to God always for you.

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Whenever Paul thought about the church at Thessalonica, he thanked God because he knew that their salvation was due to God's work, not their own.

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We're bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, why? Because God from the beginning, everlasting covenant, chose you for salvation, how?

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Through the sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which he called you by our gospel.

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We proclaim the gospel and the Holy Spirit will use that gospel to create life in dead sinners.

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Think about the Valley of Bones, you know, Ezekiel was commanded to preach to, you know,

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God says to the prophet, can this Valley of Bones, dry bones live? You know,

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Lord, prophesy to them. And he began to preach to them, and then the bones began to rattle, began to come together, and then flesh came upon them, stood up a great and mighty army, but there was no life in them.

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And Ezekiel made that comment to God, so God said, well, prophesy to them. Ezekiel began to continue to preach to them, and as he did, the

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Spirit of God came in them, and they were living a great and mighty army. Now, that's an illustration of what

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God's saving his people, okay, ultimately, but that's what God does with individuals, through the word of God.

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That's why the word of God is a means of grace. God, if I didn't believe that,

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I'd quit this, doing this. I believe that as to the degree we present the word of God accurately and clearly,

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God is speaking, and through this flawed, you know, weak and failing person,

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God speaks forth his word through called individuals whom he equips with the

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Spirit. It's a calling of God, and God blesses that word if we pray and depend upon him to do so.

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Otherwise, they're just empty words going out into the air, and so Paul thanked God, was bound to thank

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God for their salvation, because God had chosen them. The Holy Spirit had applied the truth of the gospel to them, and so he thanked

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God for them, and then Paul spoke about himself. When it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal his son in me, not to me, in me.

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Paul was on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians, imprison them, kill them, and God said, no,

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I'm gonna save Paul, and even as he's halfway or on his way to Damascus, the

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Lord revealed himself to Paul savingly there on the road to Damascus and purposed to reveal his son in Paul.

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For what purpose? That I might preach him among the Gentiles, and he said, immediately I didn't confer flesh and blood.

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I mean, it so upended him, he had to rethink his whole life.

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Everything he had ever believed and valued was cast off when he saw Christ, and that's what the

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Holy Spirit does, and then upon conviction and upon this, calling the sinner by the gospel to repent and believe, of course, the

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Holy Spirit renews the heart. This is the grace of regeneration. The evidence of this inward work of saving grace is seen in the fruit of salvation.

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Through the inward effectual call of the gospel, God causes the sinner to be born again. This new birth is the end or aim of the effectual call of God unto salvation.

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It was effected through the gospel, through the word of God. Peter wrote, since you have purified your souls and obeyed the truth through the

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Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart.

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Do we follow that command? Love one another fervently with a pure heart, and then he describes why it is we should do this.

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Having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.

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Through the preaching of the word of God, the Holy Spirit creates life in sinners and develops and fosters life in Christians.

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The word of God enlivens. So the result of the grace of regeneration of the new birth is new life in Christ.

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The Holy Spirit regeneration gives the sinner a new heart. He repents of his sin, turns in faith, submission to Jesus Christ as Lord.

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Now he might be clueless at all that's happening. He just sees this taking place in his life, but it's all a work of God's grace and all a work directly of the

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Holy Spirit. Sometimes, and I wish we'd get back to this language, sometimes the act of conversion has been referred to as a sinner closing with Christ.

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Buchanan, again, described it this way. The decisive act of closing with Christ, complying with God's revealed will in the matter of our salvation, although it may at first sight appear a very simple and easy process, includes in it,

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I apprehend, everything that is essential to saving conversion, the need to close with Christ, or that is declared in scripture to accompany or flow from it.

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Let the sinner close with Christ in his scriptural character. In other words, let him have a correct apprehension of Christ as he revealed in the gospel.

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Cordially believe on him. Choose him as his own savior in all the fullness of his offices, prophet, priest, and king.

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And he is really from that time a converted man.

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However defective his knowledge and his experience in many other respects he may be, he's already experienced all that is essentially involved in that great change and every other consequence which properly flows from conversion will take place or ensue.

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And so when the sinner repents of his sin, embraces Christ in faith as Lord and Savior, he's immediately justified, pardoned, and declared righteous.

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He's adopted into the family of God, and from that moment onward the converted sinner experiences the sanctified work of the

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Holy Spirit, who over the course of his lifetime brings a converted man to become more like his savior and Lord, like Christ.

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With regard to the work of grace and our sanctification, we have to understand, and we're gonna close with this, we have to understand the blessing of the present and the power of the

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Holy Spirit that's available to Christians. And this brings us back to Luke 11, 13.

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How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

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And so let's consider just briefly the new covenant promise of the Holy Spirit. One of the premier blessings of the new covenant in Christ, established through his life, death, and resurrection was

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God's promise of empowering, the empowering of the Holy Spirit to enable his people to live in righteousness before God.

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It's a new covenant promise. This is foretold in the Old Testament as the great work of God and his people to enable them by the

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Holy Spirit to live lives of obedience to God's law. God had formed, of course, and constituted

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Israel as a nation. When he brought them out of Egypt, there at Mount Sinai, they became a nation.

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God gave to Israel this old covenant, his law at Mount Sinai, told them to live according to that law.

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The people were afraid to hear from God directly. They said to Moses, you go to God, hear what he has to say.

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When you come down, you tell us what he said, and whatever he told you, we will do.

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And that stated in Deuteronomy 5. They commented, who is there of all flesh who's heard the voice of the living

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God speaking from the midst of the fire as we have lived? You go near Moses, hear all that the

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Lord our God may say. Tell us all that the Lord our God says to you, and we will hear and do it.

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That was their commitment. But we then read Moses telling them of God's reaction to their claim to keep his law.

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Deuteronomy 5, 28. The Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the

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Lord said to me, I've heard the voice of the word of this people which they've spoken to you. They are right in all that they said.

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They should have committed to obey my law. And then he expresses this word of exclamation.

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Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep my commandments.

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They didn't have. They knew what they should do, but they had no power to do it.

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There was no provision in the old covenant to enable them to obey God's law. And that's why their whole history is one of rebellion and failure.

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And so the Jewish people had this external possession of God's law in two tablets of stone, but they had no heart.

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That is, they had no desire or ability to keep that law because of their sin. They did not possess the

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Holy Spirit in his sanctifying power. Now, true believers at that time were certainly regenerated by the

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Holy Spirit, but they didn't have the sanctifying power, the gift of the Holy Spirit to enable them to live before God.

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And so later, when they were judged and condemned and exiled, of course, the prophets began to foretell of a new covenant, when

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God would fix his problem. And in the new covenant, he promised to give them the

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Holy Spirit to enable them to love him and keep his law always and preserve them in their going.

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And if we had time, we could go to Ezekiel 36 or Jeremiah 31 and cite those.

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But it was a promise of the new covenant in Jesus Christ. And this is the promise of God realized for his people through Jesus Christ.

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You and I, as Christians, have ability and the access to the Holy Spirit to empower us and enable us to live holy lives, lives patterned after Jesus Christ himself, a power that was not available to them.

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I'm of the opinion that God kept them and preserved them primarily through their external environment.

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He preserved them and protected them. But now God has given you the Holy Spirit and he can put you anywhere, anywhere in the world, in the most miserable places, and you can live for him because you have the power of the indwelling

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Holy Spirit to enable you to do so. God promised in the new covenant,

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I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes or laws. You will keep my judgments to do them.

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And that's what's true of every Christian. We seek to love the Lord and live according to the law of God.

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And we're frustrated when we don't do it as we want to. That's the great difficulty.

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We used to fight against God in order to live for our sin. Now we fight against sin in order to live for our

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God. I mean, it's a whole different life. We love God, we love his word, we love his law.

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This was the supreme gift that was offered to Abraham, the promise of life, and that life is in the

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Holy Spirit. And that's why Paul argues in the book of Romans that we have the promise given to Abraham, even the promise of the spirit.

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Paul declared that, that we have this gift, the gift of the spirit, because we are the children of Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ.

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To live lives of holiness is essential to salvation. It's not the grounds of our salvation, thankfully.

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Jesus Christ alone is the ground of our salvation and his righteousness. But true Christians are to live in reliance upon the

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Holy Spirit for our daily lives before God. And the presence and power of the Holy Spirit is the only way that we can achieve this desire and design of God.

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Paul wrote, if you live according to the flesh, you will die. He's writing to professing

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Christians. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

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You can only live for Christ by the spirit. You need the Holy Spirit to enliven you, to renew your desires, to give you the ability, the power to resist temptation, overcome the devil, and live for Christ.

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And so we need the blessing of the Holy Spirit and we need him daily. And that brings us back to the promise.

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If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the

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Holy Spirit to those who ask him? We need the Holy Spirit. It's not a denial of the fact that he regenerated you.

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Yes, he did. It's not a denial that he indwells you. Yes, he does. Not a denial that he sealed you.

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He did seal you. But you're in need of the ongoing presence and power of the Holy Spirit and that comes to you through praying to the

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Father through Jesus Christ. May the Lord help us to do so faithfully. Otherwise, you're gonna live a frustrated and failing

01:07:10

Christian life. It's not gonna work for you. Because although in regeneration he gave you the desire to live for him, he didn't give you the power to do so.

01:07:19

Christ said, without me, you can do nothing. And he also said, without the Holy Spirit, you can do nothing.

01:07:25

Because God gives the Holy Spirit, the Father gives the Holy Spirit to the blessing secured to us through Jesus Christ, life, death, and resurrection.

01:07:36

Amen? Amen. May the Lord help us in these matters. Thank you, Father, for your word, for your grace.

01:07:43

Help us, our God, to live accordingly. Never to presume or assume that because we have the desire to love you and live for you that we have the ability.

01:07:53

We are helpless and weak, our God. We need strength. We need grace. We need the Holy Spirit.

01:07:59

And so, Father, give him to us fully and freely. Fill us, our God, with the blessed Holy Spirit.