5: God the Holy Spirit

Bookmarks & Needs:

B: 1 Cor. 2:10-14

N:

Welcome

Thank the band and Alvin. Good morning, and thank you for being here today both online and in person to worship the Lord with and as the church family of Eastern Hills. Last week, I was out ill, and I really appreciate Pastor Joe stepping up on such short notice to preach on God the Son, and for all the encouragement, well wishes, and prayers that have gone up on my behalf this last week. I’m feeling just fine, and I’m glad to be back here to worship with the church family. I have a couple of announcements before we jump into the Scripture this morning.

Announcements

Adrianna Salazar and Jonathan Salido are getting married here in the sanctuary next weekend, and they wanted to invite the church family to come to the ceremony to worship and celebrate with them. Their wedding ceremony will be on Saturday, February 5, at 1pm.

Today is the last day that you can give to our LMCO goal for this year, and our total right now stands at an incredible ($42,780). Thank you so much for giving to support our missionaries overseas throughout the world. This offering goes directly to the field to support these missionaries, including missionaries that this church has sent overseas. Remember that the LMCO accounts for 61% of the support our missionaries receive every year. Thank you for being a generous church body! We’ll let you know the final total next Sunday morning.

Opening

This is also the last week of Part 1 of our series covering our Statement of Faith, which we are calling “We Believe.” Part 1 has consisted of looking at the Bible itself as the ultimate authority for our lives and then at God Himself in His triunity: One God in essence and nature, revealed to us in Three divine Persons: Father, Son, and today we will consider God the Holy Spirit. Let’s stand in honor of God’s Word to us and read our setup verses this morning, which come from John chapter 14:

John 14:16–17 CSB

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. 17 He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.

John 14:26 CSB

26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.

PRAYER

Remember that throughout this series, we’re going to be looking at and “doing” theology, considering the foundational doctrines that we stand upon that make up what we think or say (-logy) about God (theos). When we looked at the doctrine of the Trinity a few weeks ago, we saw that we must affirm the biblical witness of God as triune, or Trinity:

God the Father is God, God the Son is God, and God the Holy Spirit is God, and that there are not three gods, but one living and true God.

The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is more than just something that we agree on. We don’t say, “hey, we believe in the Holy Spirit,” as some statement of dogma, but rather, when we affirm that we believe in the Holy Spirit, we are affirming that He, the Holy Spirit (never “it”) is indeed God. This is where our Statement of Faith begins, and so must we:

EHBC’s Statement of Faith, Article 5: God the Holy Spirit

“The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. … He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. … He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.”

In reading this week in preparation for this morning’s message, I read a great passage in the textbook that I had for my systematic theology classes in seminary. The chapter on the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit was actually written by my Systematic Theology professor, Malcolm Yarnell. He quoted the 19th century theologian John Leadley Dagg (1794-1884), by summarizing his points of argument that show that the deity of the Holy Spirit is a biblically accurate doctrine:

Malcolm Yarnell, III, A Theology for the Church, “The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit”

Dagg provides seven biblical reasons we can affirm the Holy Spirit is God. First, he is equally included with the Father and the Son in the baptismal commission (Matt 28:19–20). Second, he is equally offered prayer with the Father and the Son in the benediction (2 Cor 13:14). Third, the temple of God is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16). Fourth, sin against the Holy Spirit is sin against God (Acts 5:3–4). Fifth, Old Testament passages concerning Yahweh are applied to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament (cf. Exod 17:7 with Heb 3:9; Isa 6:8 with Acts 28:25; Jer 31:31–34 with Heb 10:15–17). Sixth, the divine attributes of eternity, omnipresence, and omnipotence are applied to him. And seventh, the divine works of creation, providence, miracles, and resurrection are ascribed to the Spirit.

So we can and should affirm the fact that Scripture shows that the Holy Spirit is fully divine, the third member of the Trinity. He is not more God nor less God than the Father or the Son. Remember that this was what I explained when I preached on the Father, that there is no ontological subordination in the Godhead. The Trinity is who God is.

However, we did also see that there is a voluntary economic subordination within the Godhead, as each Person has a particular work to do or role to fill in the overall activity of God. There is no separation of the Persons, only distinction between them. This is what we see in our opening passage this morning: The Son will ask of the Father, and He will send the Spirit in the name of the Son, and the Spirit will teach us everything that the Son has said. Consider also John 16:

John 16:7 CSB

7 Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you.

The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, came in a special way and with great evidence and power following Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. We won’t be looking at Acts 2 this morning, but I would recommend that you read it to see how the Spirit came on the believers in the first church. We actually spoke about this at Pastor’s study a couple of weeks ago.

On Sunday, January 24 of last year (2021), I preached on the Holy Spirit during our Heresies series. In that message, I primarily spoke on the qualities of the Holy Spirit: that He is personal, present, and empowering. I won’t be reiterating those aspects this morning. Instead, we will look at the work of the Spirit both in the world and in the life of the believer and the church. We definitely don’t have time for a fully comprehensive look at the work of the Spirit, so we will be looking at three aspects of His work this morning, and I pray that as we do so, you will come away with a better understanding and a greater appreciate of God the Holy Spirit.

1: We are convicted by the work of the Spirit.

Even though the Holy Spirit is personal both as a divine Person and in the fact that He lives and works within the life of the believer, that doesn’t preclude Him from acting in the world itself. He is, after all, God Almighty, and He may do whatever He pleases, wherever He pleases, whenever He pleases. He’s not like, say, a VIRUS that needs a living host to be effective. So the first work of the Holy Spirit that I want us to consider is one that happens in the lives of both believers AND unbelievers, albeit in different ways. In John 16, Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit’s work in the world, so among unbelievers:

John 16:8–11 CSB

8 When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: 9 About sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; 11 and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

The Holy Spirit is the One who convicts those in the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Think of it in terms of a courtroom drama: the Spirit convicts about our sinfulness, as if we were being indicted for a crime we have committed against God. He convicts us about God’s righteousness, the standard by which our sins will be measured, which is seen in Jesus who is the only One who has the right to go to the Father. And He convicts us about God’s judgment, which has already been declared against the “ruler of the world,” the devil: “Guilty!” And that judgment will be declared against the whole unbelieving world who follows after Satan in opposition to God.

If you have come to faith in Christ, it’s because the Holy Spirit worked in your life to bring about this conviction before you were saved. Without His work, you would not have been saved, because you would not have seen any need to be saved.

And if you are hearing me right now and you have never trusted in the sacrifice of Jesus for your salvation, the fact that you are hearing this is no accident. Have you ever felt conviction about your choices: that you knew they were wrong or harmful or evil, even? Have you ever felt conviction that there is something just “more” to life than what you are living, that there is some path you’re missing that will provide purpose and meaning? Then take heart! I believe that these things are the Holy Spirit at work in your life! But He’s not at work so that you would feel badly about your choices—He’s at work so that you would understand that you are separated from God because of your sin; so that you would come to understand how much God loves you because of what Jesus has done for you, paying the penalty for that sin by dying in your place, rising again so that you might have eternal life. He’s working so that you would turn God in faith, surrendering your life to His grace, trusting in the sacrifice of Christ for your forgiveness and salvation. Listen to the work of the Spirit in your life! Surrender to Christ and be saved!

Those who are in Christ, the church, the bride of Christ, call to you along with the Spirit:

Revelation 22:17 CSB

17 Both the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Let anyone who hears, say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life freely.

But while the role of the Spirit in the world is to convict people of their sin, their lack of righteousness, and the coming judgment of God, that doesn’t mean that the world is somehow in a relationship with the Spirit. That work of the Spirit in the world is external. The work of conviction of the Spirit for those who belong to Christ is internal.

John 14:17 CSB

17 He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.

The Scriptures tell us that the Holy Spirit will be constantly with those who believe, and that He will actually be closer than the clothes we’re wearing, because He will be in us. This is one of the mind-blowing things about our relationship with God through faith in Christ—God Himself, in the Person of His Holy Spirit, lives within the believer. This means that the relationship that we have with the Holy Spirit is always on, always available, always active. There is never a time when we do not have access to God Himself in faith, because He lives within us. And as He lives within us, the Holy Spirit does a special work for the believer of teaching and reminding of what Jesus has said:

John 14:26 CSB

26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.

This necessarily would include conviction, but not necessarily always in the same way as the unbeliever. Certainly conviction of our giving in to our flesh in sin is something that the Spirit does in the life of the believer. But more than that, the Spirit convicts of what we should do, what we ought to be about, of where He is at work and how He would have us be a part of His kingdom purposes. Our responsibility in this relationship is one of response and obedience in those convictions.

So the Holy Spirit works in the lives of both the lost through conviction, and in the lives of believers and the church as a whole through conviction as well, but not in exactly the same way. His work in the world is really the beginning of His work in an individual’s life, should the individual respond to that work in trusting faith. This is because of our second point:

2: We are saved by the work of the Spirit.

This is one of those points that merits a little explaining at the front end, because some of you are thinking, “Bill, I thought that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in the work of Jesus Christ.” This is true. However, this goes back to our reflection on the distinctiveness of the three divine Persons of our triune Godhead. Each is integrally involved in the work of God, whatever that work is. This includes our salvation. At the appropriate time, the Father sent the Son, initiating the means of salvation, if you will. The Son, not the Father, dies on the cross as our representative, providing the means of salvation. The Son sends the Spirit, who according to Scripture performs certain works in our hearts and lives that apply salvation. The works of each Person are both a part of salvation: each part is distinct from the others; and the sum of salvation: without the whole work, it’s not truly salvation. This is part of the wonderful beauty of Trinity. The Father saves by His gracious initiation. The Son saves by His gracious provision. The Spirit saves by His gracious application. Or, to put it more succinctly, God saves by grace. Aren’t you just amazed at how God loves us?

However, since we are looking at the doctrine of the Holy Spirit this morning, we’re going to look in particular at the application of salvation by Him. Again, Dr. Yarnell in A Theology for the Church wrote a great paragraph on the work of the application of salvation by the Spirit, which I would like to share with you, just to give you a taste of how deep this concept goes:

Malcolm Yarnell, III, A Theology for the Church, “The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit”

Emotionally, the Spirit creates love in Christians (Rom 5:5), enriches them (1 Cor 15:7), gives them joy (1 Thess 1:6), and brings conviction (1 Thess 1:5). Intellectually, he illumines them with wisdom and understanding (1 Cor 2:12–3:1; 2 Cor 3:12–16; Col 1:9). Relationally, he enables prayer to, communion with, and worship of God, setting the Christian free from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:2, 26–27; 2 Cor 13:14; Eph 5:13–21; Phil 3:2; Col 3:16). Morally, he sets the Christian mind on life and peace, engendering the fruit of the Spirit in his walk and enabling obedience (Rom 7:6; 8:4–6; Gal 5:22–25). He also sets the Christian against the flesh and its deeds, putting them to death (Rom 8:4–6, 13–14; Gal 5:16–21).

We do not have the time to cover each of these aspects this morning, so instead, we will cover just three: regeneration, justification, and sanctification.

2A: We are regenerated by the work of the Spirit.

First, we find that the work of regeneration belongs to the Holy Spirit. What is regeneration? Well, the work of regeneration is bringing that which is dead to life again. Life “generates” life. If something alive dies, then to come back to life it must be “regenerated.” According to Romans 7, our sin put us to death in a spiritual sense, and the only way for us to live is to be regenerated, or to put regeneration another way, we must be born again. This is what we mean when we say that the lost must be born again in order to be saved: it means that they need to be brought back to life through faith in Jesus by the power of the Spirit.

But no one can do the work of spiritual regeneration in a person’s life, including the person who is being regenerated. A dead thing cannot bring itself to life, so you can’t just “save yourself.” No, we need the Holy Spirit to do this work: He applies this regenerative work to us at the moment of belief. In one of the ellipsis parts of our Statement of Faith article on the Holy Spirit, the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 says this:

BF&M 2000, Article 2C: God the Holy Spirit

“…He calls men to the Saviour, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ...”

The Holy Spirit effects our regeneration. It’s through His work that we are born again. We get that terminology, “born again,” from Jesus Himself, as He speaks about the work of the Spirit in salvation:

John 3:3–6 CSB

3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Let this be a warning, though: Regeneration is a given in salvation. When we are truly saved, we are given a new spiritual life. It may take some time for us to grasp that or to understand what God has done and to walk in that new life, but if we never do, if we never live differently or start to look more like Jesus following our conversion experience, then we should be concerned that we have never truly been regenerated. If we have not been regenerated, then we have not been born again, and we aren’t saved. I say this out of concern. I wonder how many people think they are Christians who actually aren’t?

Paul clearly wrote about the fact of the work of the Spirit in regenerating those who come to faith in Jesus, bringing the dead to life again by His power in Romans 8, one of the greatest chapters on the work of the Spirit in all of Scripture:

Romans 8:10–11 CSB

10 Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you.

Notice that Paul says that our spiritual regeneration in salvation will have a physical result as well: that our bodies will be raised to life, just as Christ was raised to life. This is what we have to look forward to as believers! More on that in a moment.

Paul also spoke of the Holy Spirit’s work of regeneration in his letter to Titus:

Titus 3:4–7 CSB

4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, 5 he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6 He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life.

This was our focal passage for our message on the doctrine of the Trinity for seeing the threefold formula in Scripture, a place where the Trinity is put on full and glorious display. But notice the work of the Spirit in the believer’s life: washing of regeneration and renewal, poured out abundantly so that we might be justified, become heirs, and have the hope of eternal life. This brings us to our second point, because they overlap in this passage:

2B: We are justified by the work of the Spirit.

Did you see that word in the passage in Titus: justified? For us to be justified is for us to have a right standing before God: in a legal sense, it is to be viewed as not guilty of our sins because they are no longer counted against us because of what Christ has done. While Jesus is that provision that makes our justification possible, the application of our justification is again by the work of the Spirit.

Paul shows this legal perspective argument in Romans 8, just before the passage we just saw on regeneration:

Romans 8:1–9 CSB

1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, 2 because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, 4 in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. 6 Now the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it is unable to do so. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.

Since we are justified, we are no longer condemned. We stood condemned because of the law of sin and death, which all of us lived under in the flesh. But because the believer is in Christ, we find that we are now justified because we are under a new law: the law of the Spirit of life. When we were under the law of the flesh, it was not possible to be pleasing to God, and we were bound for death. But now, we are shown to be justified—we have right standing before God—because the Spirit of God lives in us!

Paul makes a great summary statement of this to the church at Corinth in chapter 6 of his first epistle to them:

1 Corinthians 6:11 CSB

11 And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

This justification is a work that is applied to us at the moment of our salvation, just like regeneration. Again, if we are not regenerated, then we are not justified, either. But if we are born again, then our justification is a fact, along with our sanctification, which is our next aspect of salvation that the Spirit accomplishes:

2C: We are sanctified by the work of the Spirit.

Sanctification has two aspects for the believer: it is a moment-in-time occurrence (that the believer is made holy, set apart for God’s special purposes), that is thereafter an ongoing process (that the believer is in a constant state of being made holier, more like Jesus). This process is declared to be commenced through the work of the Spirit at the moment of salvation, and then continues throughout the believer’s life. Paul wrote about this to the church at Thessalonica:

2 Thessalonians 2:13 CSB

13 But we ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God has chosen you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

Salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth (i.e. faith). Because of the work of the Spirit, we are in fact sanctified, set apart and made holy for God’s special purposes in our lives. This isn’t a question of how we feel or see ourselves, because I don’t know about you, but I often don’t feel particularly holy or see myself as such. But it’s a statement of what God has done, not what we have done. He sanctifies the believer by His Spirit. If you have been regenerated by the Spirit, you have been justified by the Spirit, and thus you have been declared to be set apart and are in the process of being made to look more like Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit.

This is something for us to celebrate! We can’t make ourselves holy and useful for God’s purposes. That’s a work that He must do in us. But He does at the same time call us to be a part of that work through our faithful submission and obedience to His sanctifying process, even if that means we have to walk through difficult on the journey.

Romans 8:14–18 CSB

14 For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” 16 The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, 17 and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.

Another place of overlap, we see our final point in our look at the work of the Spirit this morning:

3: We will be glorified through the work the Spirit.

Finally, as I mentioned that we would come back to this, we find that because of the work of the Spirit in our lives, we will receive a new body at the consummation of God’s glorious kingdom. The convicting work of the Spirit in the world which calls people out of darkness and into light, from death to life, the application of salvation through regeneration, justification, and the process of sanctification find their ultimate fulfillment in our glorification: being made to look like Jesus, bearing the image of God both spiritually and physically the way that we were created to.

When we are glorified, we will be changed and completely set free from all that binds us because of the brokenness of the world and because of our sin. We will no longer suffer illness or death. We will no longer struggle to resist temptation or wrestle with any form of pain. We will be given a new body like body Jesus had after His resurrection. This transformation is a work of the Spirit as well.

2 Corinthians 3:17–18 CSB

17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Again, this transformation by the Spirit is only going to be applied to those who belong to God through faith in Jesus. It is not a promise for everyone. Not everyone will experience God’s glorious Kingdom.

Closing

Which brings us full circle this morning. Do you belong to Jesus? Have you trusted in His finished work for your salvation, and has the Holy Spirit come and lived within you as proof? Is the Spirit at work in your life right now in an external fashion, convicting you this morning of sin and righteousness and judgment, calling you to respond in faith, surrendering yourself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ?

Turn to Christ and trust Him for your salvation.

Invitation

PRAYER

Lord’s Supper

As our last act of worship this morning, we will take the Lord’s Supper together. One last consideration of the work of the Spirit as we come to the family table today. This Supper is for those who are saved, those who belong to Christ through faith, and who have the Holy Spirit within them. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth about the work of the Spirit in revealing the truth:

1 Corinthians 2:10–14 CSB

10 Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. 13 We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. 14 But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.

When we take the Lord’s Supper, we do what the world might look at as an empty religious ritual or pointless, meaningless exercise. And Scriptures says that we should expect that, because these things are to be evaluated spiritually. But it is so much more than a ritual or an exercise. It’s a remembrance of what Christ has done for us, and a joining together in our affirmation of that sacrifice, identifying with one another that we belong to God the Father through faith in His Son and by the power of the Holy Spirit. This time is our family meal.

If you are a born again believer, you may take part in the Supper with the church family this morning. If you are not born again, please do not take the Supper. I do not say this to condemn you nor to convict you. I say it because I love you. The Bible says that to take the Supper in an unworthy manner is to take guilt upon yourself.

Let us take a moment for reflection and confession, listening to the Spirit of God within us as we prepare to take the Supper together.

Reflection time

The Bible says that Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples.

Ask the Lord to bless the bread.

Scripture says that Jesus said, “Take and eat it; this is my body.” (Matt. 26:26)

Scripture also read that, “Then He took a cup, and after giving thanks, He gave it to them.”

Ask the Lord to bless the cup.

The Bible says that Jesus told them, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matt. 26:27-28)

Thank you for participating in our time around the family table this morning.

Closing Remarks

Lord willing, going to Israel. Please pray.

New three-week series starting next week on Philemon.

pastor’s study tonight and guys Over next three weeks.

Bible reading plan: Hosea 8 today, finishing Hosea, then reading Philemon (one day), and then Leviticus.

Instructions for guests

Benediction

Ephesians 1:17–19 CSB

17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength.