(2) The Holy Spirit Unveils the Face of God
The Holy Spirit • Sermon • Submitted
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God personally expresses Himself, His character, and His power to us through His Spirit.
God personally expresses Himself, His character, and His power to us through His Spirit.
The Holy Spirit, by forming and filling the shapeless, empty mass, is creating a temple, a meeting place, for God to have fellowship with His creation.
The Holy Spirit, by forming and filling the shapeless, empty mass, is creating a temple, a meeting place, for God to have fellowship with His creation.
The Spirit has brought order and fullness into the creation so that we might adore Him, worship Him, know Him.
The Spirit has brought order and fullness into the creation so that we might adore Him, worship Him, know Him.
He orders and re-orders our lives for the glory of God
The Spirit’s Role and Ministry in the Old Covenant
If you want to know someone, if you want to gain insight into who they are today, study their history. Their past actions and activities are a clue to their identity. What we will learn is that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit he reveals himself to be. If Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever, the Father is the same and the Spirit is the same.
Psalm 139, the Spirit is everywhere. The Spirit of God and the presence of God.
29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. 30 When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.
The parallelism: God hides his face, brings forth His Spirit. Not just the presence of God who brings us God in his fullness and unveils the face of God. Not just the attributes of God but the person of God.
29 And I will not hide my face anymore from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord God.”
- God is coming to his people. I will not hide my face when I pour out my Spirit. The hiding of God’s face and the unveiling of God’s face through the Spirit.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Hide your face from my sins, create a clean heart, cast me not away, take not your Spirit from me. Hide your face from my sins but don’t hide your face from me, send your Holy Spirit. When we approach God we speak of seeing the face of God. The Spirit unveils the face of God.
The attributes of God: holiness, faithfulness, truthfulness, power, wisdom, knowledge may be abstract. But the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to unveil the face of God so that we see God’s attributes in a personal way. This is who God really is. Like a child playing peekaboo. In the Scriptures the Holy Spirit reveals to us the face of God and ultimately, in the incarnation, the face of Jesus Christ.
The Spirit is working to reveal the face of God so that we might find security and grace in Him. Revelations of the face of the Father. The Spirit does in the Old Testament the kinds of things a father does for his children. He gives his old covenant people wisdom that they might think well, Joseph was known as one in whom the Spirit worked,
38 And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?”
Daniel, they did not have the right vocabulary, but they saw that the Lord had given his spirit of wisdom to Daniel.
The Father through the Spirit teaches us wisdom. Second the Father through the Spirit reveals his word.
David in
2 “The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me; his word is on my tongue.
These are David’s last words through the Spirit. His word is on my tongue. A father instructs through his words. And the Spirit does this. The hand of the Lord, the Spirit, is upon them.
21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit carries men moved by God to give us the scriptures. Unveils his faith, teaches us wisdom, instructs us in his word, gives gifts through the Spirit.
1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, 4 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, 5 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. 6 And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you: 7 the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furnishings of the tent, 8 the table and its utensils, and the pure lampstand with all its utensils, and the altar of incense, 9 and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin and its stand, 10 and the finely worked garments, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, for their service as priests, 11 and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense for the Holy Place. According to all that I have commanded you, they shall do.”
3 You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day.” 4 Moses said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “This is the thing that the Lord has commanded. 5 Take from among you a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the Lord’s contribution: gold, silver, and bronze; 6 blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen; goats’ hair, 7 tanned rams’ skins, and goatskins; acacia wood, 8 oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, 9 and onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. 10 “Let every skillful craftsman among you come and make all that the Lord has commanded: 11 the tabernacle, its tent and its covering, its hooks and its frames, its bars, its pillars, and its bases; 12 the ark with its poles, the mercy seat, and the veil of the screen; 13 the table with its poles and all its utensils, and the bread of the Presence; 14 the lampstand also for the light, with its utensils and its lamps, and the oil for the light; 15 and the altar of incense, with its poles, and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, and the screen for the door, at the door of the tabernacle; 16 the altar of burnt offering, with its grating of bronze, its poles, and all its utensils, the basin and its stand; 17 the hangings of the court, its pillars and its bases, and the screen for the gate of the court; 18 the pegs of the tabernacle and the pegs of the court, and their cords; 19 the finely worked garments for ministering in the Holy Place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, for their service as priests.” 20 Then all the congregation of the people of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. 21 And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the Lord’s contribution to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments. 22 So they came, both men and women. All who were of a willing heart brought brooches and earrings and signet rings and armlets, all sorts of gold objects, every man dedicating an offering of gold to the Lord. 23 And every one who possessed blue or purple or scarlet yarns or fine linen or goats’ hair or tanned rams’ skins or goatskins brought them. 24 Everyone who could make a contribution of silver or bronze brought it as the Lord’s contribution. And every one who possessed acacia wood of any use in the work brought it. 25 And every skillful woman spun with her hands, and they all brought what they had spun in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. 26 All the women whose hearts stirred them to use their skill spun the goats’ hair. 27 And the leaders brought onyx stones and stones to be set, for the ephod and for the breastpiece, 28 and spices and oil for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense. 29 All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done brought it as a freewill offering to the Lord. 30 Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, 32 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, 33 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. 34 And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. 35 He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.
God gives gifts to men for craftsmanship.
The exodus took place through the Spirit’s ministry.
9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. 10 But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them.
- they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. Don’t grieve the Spirit -
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Notice the personhood of the Spirit. You grieve a person, not a thing. Paul got this language from Is 63. The glory cloud, the pillar of fire was the person of the Holy Spirit leading them to a new land. The Holy Spirit is the intimate companion of the heavenly Father who has the privilege of unveiling the Father’s face so that we may see what the Father and the Spirit want to do for the children of God. To give them wisdom, to teach them the word, to equip them to serve the Lord, to lead them into freedom and into a personal relationship with the Lord. An intimate relationship. The expression, though negative, is wonderful. He is a Father walking through the wilderness with his child.
Notice three things:
1. He is a personal God, under the Old Covenant he points forward to the New Covenant to bring to God’s people an aspiring hope of the fullness of God. In the days of the OC there was a special blessing of the Spirit given to some but not to all. Revealing the face of God but for some it was secondhand. The illumination and revelation is not received by all with equal clarity or directness,
25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it.
29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”
Moses appoints elders and the Lord places some of Moses’ spirit upon the elders and they prophesied. Two men, still in the camp, prophecy and Moses wishes that all the Lord’s people were prophets and the Spirit would come upon them all. They all have an experience of the Holy Spirit but prophets came into the secret place (scripture ?) of the most High, they stood on behalf of God. In the New Testament all become prophets in the sense of sharing in the way an access to the Lord through Jesus Christ.
2. There is progress in the revelation of the Spirit, in intimacy with the Spirit. Moses prays that his intimacy may be experienced by all.
3. Finally (third), the ultimate goal of the Spirit’s work is to bring God’s people rest. The Fall caused restlessness.
15 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling,
Isaiah looks back at their rebellion and says the Spirit wanted to bring them to rest.
Noah’s name sounds like the word, rest. Perhaps this is the child who brings us rest. Gen 3:15? Will he be the one?
We only find rest in Jesus.
The Holy Spirit brings us rest and is pointing us to Jesus Christ. “I want to take you to Jesus to find rest for your souls.”
The kings and lords of foreign lands recognized the Spirit of the Lord in Joseph, Daniel, and others because they possessed wisdom.
The kings and lords of foreign lands recognized the Spirit of the Lord in Joseph, Daniel, and others because they possessed wisdom.
Under the old covenant, not all of God’s people experienced the fullness of His revelation through the Spirit, not all old covenant believers could aspire to be prophets of the Lord.
Under the old covenant, not all of God’s people experienced the fullness of His revelation through the Spirit, not all old covenant believers could aspire to be prophets of the Lord.
While still regenerated, not everyone experienced the direct intimacy with the Lord that we as believers have today.
The Spirit of God unveils not just the attributes of God but His person.
The Spirit of God unveils not just the attributes of God but His person.
The Spirit unveils the face of God