God the Holy Spirit

Good morning. A couple of things announcement wise in my discussion with Hal this week, too. We had a discussion about blood donation and his I think it was his former secretary called up down there and they said, oh, there we must have 50 units from people for. coming down here for Hal Malloy. And so Hal went and checked himself last week and they have 13 and he's used them all. So he could use some more. And I think go to Presbyterian St. Luke's and go into the blood donning, wherever department and just mention Malloy and they'll put the needle and drain you dry.

The other thing I want to make a comment about mothers, which is a thought that's sort of stuck with me. Years ago, I was in a Bible study with Miles Stanford, and some bright man in the group raised his hand and got to talking about the beam of judgment and said, boy, you know, Miles, at the beam of judgment, he said to Miles, you're going to be down there with all the giants of Christianity. Miles said, no, I don't think so. He said, I think all the moms are going to be in the first row. He said, I'll just be glad to be there. That's how important moms are. Today we're going to talk about the Holy Spirit. The scripture reading for today I took out of Ephesians chapter 1, verse 15 through 23. I'll read it and then we'll get on.

This is Paul's prayer. to the Lord for spiritual wisdom and understanding, and I think is appropriate for the work of the Spirit. Therefore, I also, after I heard your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him. the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him in His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come, and put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is the body, the fullness of him who fills all in all."

Now, when Verne's gone, just to make it easy on myself and others who pinch hit for him, what we do is we take the doctrinal statement, And we go down each one, and this topic this time happens to be the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is mentioned at the very beginning of the Word of God in Genesis 1-2, and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the earth. And He's mentioned in Revelation 22-17, and the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. So He's from first to last all through the Word of God. I don't have that little remote thing. And so the doctrinal statement says that the Holy Spirit, we believe in the deity and the personality or the personhood of the Holy Spirit. And certain ministries have been committed to Him in this age.

He convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He's responsible for the regeneration, the indwelling, the enlightening, and the sealing unto the day of redemption of each believer. He baptizes each believer into the body of Christ, the Church, and into the person and work of Christ, His death, burial, and resurrection. And He transforms each believer into the image of Christ as the believer beholds Christ in the Word of God.

So that's what our doctrinal statement says. So I thought, well, we'll just work right down from there. So what are the characteristics we'll discuss about the person and work of the Spirit? He's deity, personhood, he has ministries, he baptizes and he does the transforming.

Now, is there such a person as the Holy Spirit? Or is it just not a reference in the Bible simply to a striking way of saying that these are just the attributes of God? Or is it just not a divine influence that we know about this guy? Is he the force? I think a lot of believers think he is. So what are the characteristics if he is a person? If you are a person, what do you have?

I think you have an intellect, you have a mind, you probably have emotions, hopefully, and you also have a will. we have to ask ourselves, does scripture show the Holy Spirit to have these characteristics in his personhood, mind, emotion, and will? And I think you can prove it five ways. The first proof is that, from a technical standpoint, that the pronouns provided by the pronouns that are used of him and the teachings of Jesus and of Paul, the word spirit is neuter, which means it's neither male or female. And, you know, if you follow proper grammar, any antecedent or pronoun that referred to the Spirit should be neuter.

I'll give you an example. I could say, Vern went to the store and she bought shoes. The antecedent would be she, and it wouldn't fit with Vern, as we know. And so, if I said he bought shoes, it would make sense. But what you find is, is that whenever Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit, the antecedent that follows is always masculine. always masculine, it's never an it. And raise your hand if you've ever heard the Holy Spirit referred to as it. Only you? Yeah. We've referred to him as it and he's a person.

So in John 15, 26, the Lord said, when the Comforter is come, which is neuter, the one called by your side to help you, whom, the antecedent whom is masculine. I will send him to you, unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who, masculine, proceeds from the Father. He shall bear witness of me. With an OS ending, it's masculine ending. I hope I'm not being too technical there. In John 17, 6 and 7, all of the references to the Holy Spirit, the comforter is neuter Hymn is masculine, so it's a hymn, it's a person. Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, we don't have to... The second proof that I put together is the fact that he, get this out of the way, that the designation parakletos always refers to things that are done by persons and not by abstractions.

Even his title, he's the one called Beside. So as we go through these verses, see if you can insert where it should be him or he, that he's an influence. In some cases you can. But in John 14, I will pray in the comforter, I'll show the father and he shall send another comforter and he may be with you forever.

Is that an influence or is it a person? In John 16, 7 and 8, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I go, I will send him to you. And he, is he an influence or is he a person? In John 16, 13, he shall not speak of me, an influence doesn't speak, and we'll talk about that in a minute. He's the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name.

He shall teach you all things. So that's the second proof. The third proof is that he can do things or has capacities that only persons have. He can think or he has an intellect. He has the ability to choose. He has volition and he can feel. Now, you might think that the spirit doesn't feel, but he does.

He searches all things, yea, the deep things of God, for who among men know the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so, the things of God none knows except the Spirit of God. So, He knows things. He that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit.

He has a mind. Because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 1 Corinthians, but all these works the one and same Spirit dividing to each one severally as He wills. Romans 15, 30, Now I beseech you, brethren, by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. So he loves. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed. He can be grieved. The fourth proof is that he's susceptible to human treatment. You and I can do things to cause him problems. You don't lie to a rock.

But in Acts 5.3, Peter said to Ananias, Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the price of the land? So he was lied to. Not good for Ananias. But Peter said unto Ananias' wife Sapphira, he is, how is it that you have agreed together to try or to test the Spirit of the Lord?

Behold, the feet of them who have buried thy husband are at the door, and they shall carry thee out. So he can be tested or tried. In Acts 7.51, You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did, and so do you." So he can be resisted. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, he can be grieved. We talk about that. And in Matthew 12, 31, he can be blasphemed against, which means he can be spoken against. You can deny his work. The fifth and final proof is the fact that He has a relationship to men.

And involved in all of our experiences, in Zechariah 4.6, He answered and spoke, saying, This is the word of Jehovah to Zerubbabel, saying, Not by my might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, say Jehovah. So the Holy Spirit enables men to do things. An abstraction can't do that, and an it doesn't do that, neither does Yoda. John 14, 26, But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send by my name, he shall teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I have said unto you.

So he teaches. He also speaks. He said to The disciples who were ministering and fasted, and the Holy Spirit said, separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work that I have called them. So he's a communicator. And in John 16, 13, the Spirit of truth, he shall guide you into all truth. He shall speak and he shall declare. So he does the things that a person does. So he's not an it. Now, let's talk about the fact that he is God. He's omnipresent. It means he's everywhere. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you're there too.

The eternality of the Holy Spirit is quoted in Hebrews 9.14. How much more would the blood of Christ do through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish?

He has a lot of characteristics. He's ever-existing. It says, everlasting to everlasting thou art God. He's omniscient, which means that he knows everything. In terms of knowledge, I think you and I, we think sequentially. You know what I mean by that? We have this thought, the next thought, the next thought, and maybe we have an accumulation of thoughts that arrive at a conclusion. knows all things all the time right now. He doesn't think sequentially. All knowledge is present with him right now, all the time.

And he's omnipotent. The Spirit of God has made me and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. So he's powerful. So you can say that the Holy Spirit has all the characteristics of God and all the characteristics of a person. He's omnipresent, He's eternal, He's omniscient, He's omnipotent, and so therefore you have to conclude that He is, in fact, God.

Now, let's talk about the ministries that have been given to Him. The first one talked about in the doctrinal statement is that He's a convictor or a convincer, and He convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. And He's responsible for, within humankind, regeneration, He's responsible for indwelling each believer. He's responsible for enlightening and sealing of each believer. So let's deal with those. And He baptizes every believer into the body of Christ, the Church, and into the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, His death, burial, and resurrection. And the last thing He does, which He does with each one of us every day, is He's transforming each one of us into the very image of Christ. So we'll deal with those one at a time.

Conviction is one of those things that I doubt sometimes that we believe or get a hold of that the Spirit is actually doing this. Because He's convicting the world, in John 16, He's convicting the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. And when it comes to conviction of the world, it is in respect to sin, of righteousness, and judgment, those three things. And He says the reason He's convicting the world of sin, or the issue, is because they don't believe on me. And that's the Lord Jesus speaking.

Of righteousness, Christ said, because I go to the Father and you don't see me anymore, you don't behold me anymore. And he convicts the world of judgment because the prince of this world has been judged. What's interesting about this verse is this, you don't ever read about this in the paper. And as you look around in the circumstances of your life, you really don't see this going on or you don't think it's happening. But the Lord Jesus said, this is what I'm sending him to do, and this is what he will do.

So conviction is a convincing or a persuasion, and it usually suggests of putting the convicted person to shame, to making them pay attention, that this is really a problem. And so the first work and the effectual work for salvation with anybody is a conviction of sin. Is that not true? where he convinces you that sin is an issue in your life and you're separated from God.

I don't want to fall off of this thing. So the entire work of the Spirit, so far as the world is concerned, is pretty much conviction and reproof. That's all he does with the world. So is it wrong to think that the Spirit is an advocate or an agent here in the absence of Christ carrying out the work and fulfilling what Christ's will was?

Watch this. In relationship to the world, He does represent Christ, just like you and I do. And when the Lord Jesus was here, He represented the Father. John 7, 7, the Lord Jesus said, Me it hates, because I testify of it, and the works thereof are evil. Because God is here, just His very presence testifies of the evil of the world.

So the Spirit as the representative of Christ, because Christ sent Him and the Father sent Him, continues on with this work of conviction in the world at large and also in every individual. So there's a threefold conviction going on and it's a manifestation. The result of the conviction is to manifest man fully as he is. Now think about this for a second. If the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin as a non-believer and the issue is Christ, it puts you in a place where you can't escape because He does it with the truth. And the light that manifests to Him reproves Him showing that the present state of all guilty men and future judgment are looming dark in the background. The issue is sin because He doesn't believe on me. So we have discussions a lot, we've had discussions a lot around here about this very issue. Is the work of conviction by the Holy Spirit this one fact and does it bear out in man's conscience?

Is Christ the one who's presented and does every man have to face up to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ, what have you done with this man? What do you think of Christ? And what's great about this is that it creates a common ground for every human being, because human beings like to live this way, on this vertical ladder of goodness. Most of us are up here towards the top somewhere, and we look down and say, all these guys below me aren't as good as me, and there's only a few that are better than me. Well, if you take the ladder and lay it flat in the work of the Spirit, what has he done by convicting man about Christ? He took the lofty moralist, the guy up on the ladder, and the very delicate or refined person, or the gross person, and he treats them all the same because he concludes all of them under sin because they haven't believed in Christ.

Okay. But you're going to say to me, oh, wait a minute, there's a lot of people that have never heard of Christ. So the argument is this, that unbelief now is the only sin in which men are guilty before God, right? And the reason is that the argument is that Christ died and He bore and put away all sin, and that God doesn't look on sin anymore, and that the whole issue is the rejection of Christ. You've heard me teach that my friend that lives across the street in the White House over here, I use him all the time because I don't think he's a believer. But his sins have been paid for. Why is he lost? Because he doesn't believe on Christ.

Does the rejection of Christ obliterate the emphasis on the sins that that man or me have committed? What's really going on here, I think, is that if God offers the possibility of atonement and you don't take him up on it, the problem is that you've rejected his grace.

And so in the final judgment, when the books are open, you as a non-believer, your sins are going to be there. The issue is going to be Christ, but your sins are going to be there too because they're recorded. And the book of life will be open and thus men will be judged both on what they have committed and their unbelief. But the issue in today's time is whether you believe in Christ or not. That's the point. So you say, well, How about the guy that lives in Peoria, Illinois that never heard of the name of Christ? Or Peoria, China or someplace.

Every human being is responsible before God according to Romans 1, because God says, look, I've revealed myself to you in my creation and in your conscience. And you're responsible before me to honor me as God and to be thankful. I'm persuaded that if any man on this earth honors God as God and is thankful, God will get the message of Christ to him. It's God's responsibility to get that message to him.

But the issue is going to boil down to Christ. At the great right throne judgment, what's the issue going to be? Who's going to be there? All of them and Christ. And I'm convinced that they won't even want him then. He'll stand there in all his glory and they'll look at him and say, you know, It's probably a good thing you didn't choose me, because I wouldn't have wanted you then, I didn't want you then, and I don't want you now.

Where's the door to hell? And that's the way it's going to be. Even though the work of the Spirit is to convict men, I think that's the way it's going to be. Now, he convicts the world of righteousness. And the reason is because the Lord Jesus goes to the Father, and you don't see me anymore. Well, what does it mean to be convicted of righteousness? Does the world have any righteousness?

None. Not a single thing. They have no standing with God whatsoever. And so the sentence of God is, in Romans 3.10, is that there is none righteous, not a single one. Not a single one.

So the Spirit's job is to reveal where the righteousness is. And the righteousness is with the Lord Jesus who is now with the Father. So what is righteousness? You know, the easy definition is right standing. I like the word righteousness as a word of relationship. Do you have a relationship? Or do you have a standing? Or are you allowed to be in the presence of God? The world isn't.

They have no righteousness with God at all. And the world is convicted of that issue because the man Christ who is the righteous one and has this relationship, has gone to heaven to be with the Father. So the righteousness which the world doesn't have, God has received into heaven and He's enthroned it there. He convicts the world of judgment. Judgment concerning because the ruler of this world has been judged. So who is this ruler of the world?

It's Satan himself. We're on our Thursday night study, we're studying Hebrews, and it's interesting there how the emphasis the writer of Hebrews puts on the fact that man, that God's original design for the creation, was that man was to have dominion to be in charge of and rule over the creation. When our pal Adam sinned, and he sinned because of the temptation by an angel, who was Satan, Part of that consequence was the fact that now an angel got dominion over the creation, and a man didn't have it anymore. So Christ comes, dies on the cross, pays the penalty for the sins, and declares that because of that work, the judgment is on the world and Satan, and the controls of the world have been reclaimed by a man. That man is Jesus Christ.

See how that works? So, what does it mean for the world? Well, if you're in the world and your prince is judged, you aren't going to escape. So, does this conviction of judgment bring a promise of deliverance? The answer is yes, it does. If the ruler is judged and the power he had of death has been annulled, so then there is deliverance for me. If I don't accept the judgment of the cross and flee in faith, to the one who's smitten for me. What's interesting about this conviction of judgment, it gives those that are convicted a way out.

Acts 2.37 says, Now when they had heard this conviction, they were pierced to the heart, and the Holy Spirit is the only one that can do that. They said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? What am I going to do now? That's what conviction leads to. So, a full conviction of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

So man is without excuse. He stands, as it were, in eternity before Almighty God. God, the Holy Spirit, has brought him there, and the work of conviction is done. Like I said earlier, it doesn't appear like this is going on. But because the Word of God says it's going on, it is. It's going on all the time. And it's His responsibility to do it. And He does it. Now, the next thing he does, which is, we're going to turn to the good side of the coin now, is that he is responsible for regeneration.

Now this word means, Palin and Genesis, two words put together, it means new generation or new birth. And it means, in John 1.12 it says, But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in his name who were born. not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, but of God. So we're told that believe in Christ as new birth, souls are born again, they're born of God, they're born of water and the Spirit. So we understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is the object of a person's faith, but the actual rebirth is a power that the Holy Spirit does.

Now, regeneration, means what? New birth? Does it mean that something is added on to us? Does it mean that, like Nicodemus, great question, what does it mean? I have to go somehow find my way back into my mother's womb and be born again? That's not what it means at all. It means that you literally, by the Spirit, will add on to this as we move forward. You are placed into Christ at the point that He dies. You die. You're buried with Him. You're resurrected to newness of life. You are a new creation.

And only the Spirit of God could do that. So, the Lord teaches that new birth is essential for entering into the Kingdom of God, and that the birth is by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, and it's received only by faith. So what are the elements of regeneration? It's a sovereign act of God. He does it all. It's by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, and received by faith. That's how it works. He also indwells each believer.

Now, Romans 8, 9 says, But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man have not the Spirit of God, he's none of him. This word dwells comes from the word home, like, okay, I guess is how you'd say that, to take up home, a residence to dwell. And the Lord Jesus in John 14, 17 said, I will pray the Father and he'll give you another comforter and he'll abide, same word, dwell with you, even the spirit of truth. So what's interesting is here is that the spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity, comes and takes up his permanent home in a believer.

And you become a temple of the Holy Spirit himself, who is God. And you are sanctified or set apart just by the very fact that the presence of the Spirit is in you. Everybody in this room who believes in the personal work of Christ, the Holy Spirit indwells you right now. He's here now.

And it's a mark, an eternal mark, that you belong to God for all eternity, whether you see it or not. Permanent? Yeah, because in John 14, verse 8, He said that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth. Now, the Spirit, if you study the Old Testament, you'll see that the Spirit did come upon man for certain purposes. But in this dispensation, it's permanent. And one of the reasons is that if you're resurrected in Christ, the source of your new life is the resurrected life of Christ, who is the Spirit Himself.

So, if He could leave, let's say He could leave. Because, I don't know, give me a reason. It would mean that it would deny all the work of Christ. If he could leave, you would have to deny the work of Christ. And the work of Christ would stop being of any value before God. It would just stop. And you would have to drag Christ off of his throne in heaven. Or maybe put it another way.

If I'm identified with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, and that identity with Him is a permanent thing, then my future is Christ's future. So if I were to be lost, what would have to happen? Christ would have to come back to the earth, go back in the grave, come up, get uncrucified, and start walking around as the Jewish Messiah. That's how much chance I have of not having the Spirit and being lost.

So from first to last, the Spirit dwells within us because of the unchanging value of the work of Christ. The next thing he does is he enlightens us, or as John 16, 13 says, that he guides us into all truth. We know nothing without him. Nothing. For he shall speak, not speak of himself, but what things whoever he shall hear, those he shall speak, and he shall declare them unto you. The word guide is, I'm not very good at pronouncing the Greek word, but it means to show the way. He's the one that shows the way, not only for those that are lost through conviction, but in particular, believers, What's the truth? I think he explains it here by saying that the Lord Jesus himself is the truth and that's who he guides you into. The next word is declare, which is... I can't pronounce that one either. He'll declare or report or show and he'll speak or he'll tell. There's two words here.

There's inspiration, which is the divine authorship of the perfection of the Word, and there's the word enlightenment, which means the unfolding to our understanding. So there's the written Word that we all have, but the work of the Spirit inspired the men to write that. But from that, he uses that tool to enlighten each one of us, to lead us into the truth, or to put it a better way, that we might behold the glory of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the truth. He seals us.

Ephesians 4.30 says, And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption. And this word has to do with a stamp or a security or, we don't use it much anymore, but in older times there were stamps on the back of letters or scrolls or something that the seal couldn't be broken. It meant that it was authenticated.

Ephesians 1.13 and 14 says, in whom you also trusted, and after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of salvation, in whom also you believed you were sealed, by the Holy Spirit, and with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. And that is indicative, which means it's reality. Aristoteles means it's done, and it was done to you. So he gave believers the Holy Spirit as promise. And as a seal upon the work of Christ, the Spirit comes thus upon every believer, and he's the guarantee.

I'm in another life in the real estate business. And one of the things you discover is that you have to negotiate these things called contracts. And in all contracts, there's a little money that changes hands at the beginning. It's called the earnest money. And the earnest money is the guarantee on the performance of the contract, I agree that I'm going to buy X for X amount of dollars and I'm going to do it this way. And I'm going to give you 50 cents that guarantees that I'm going to complete the purchase.

Well, the entire salvation package that God has offered to believers, the guarantee of the whole thing is the Spirit of God. So it's pretty sure it's better than my check. So it turns out not to be a matter of our personal worthiness or of our personal faithfulness, but it's in the value of the work of Christ. Have you rested in that? Because that's the issue.

When we are sealed divinely authenticated as belonging to God, I'm sorry, then we were, we are sealed and divinely authenticated as belonging to God by his own spirit. So God himself has secured the completion of the salvation that he has given us. The next thing he does is he baptizes us, which means to place us into, never to be taken out.

There's two issues here. There's the baptism or the placing into the body of Christ, and there's also the placing into or the baptism into the work of Christ. So in 1 Corinthians 2, I'm sorry, 12.13, By one spirit, you're all baptized into the body of Christ. And look what happens when you get baptized into the body of Christ. All of your earthly designations go away. There's neither Jew nor Greek, bond or free, all were made to drink of one spirit. So, he puts you into the body of Christ, you're a member. So, if you take a good look at what baptizing really means, clearly says that it's nearly always, if not entirely, signifies the introduction into a place.

We were baptized in 1 Corinthians 10, 20. It says, they were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and the sea. The Jews were brought out fully into a relationship with Moses as their leader, and the cloud and sea marked their connection to him. It was in contrast to their previous servitude to Pharaoh, And all other baptisms are kind of like this.

Let's talk about John the Baptist. He had a baptism of repentance. Was it Christian baptism? No. It was the badge of the discipleship for those who heard and bowed to John's message. They repented of their sins, and they recognized their deserving of death. And as a token of their identity with him, they were baptized. They were marked out as John's disciples. They were not Christians, for they knew not Christ.

But their baptism with water set forth a discipleship to John as penitents who bowed to the sentence of death." Now watch this next part. In Acts 19, 1 through 5, which I think you're probably familiar with, there's a discussion there between Paul and some disciples. And it came to pass that while the Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper country from Ephesus, He found these certain disciples and he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?

And they said unto him, no, we didn't. We didn't even know that the Holy Spirit was even given. We don't know anything about that. And so he said to them, into what then were you baptized? And they said, into John's baptism. And Paul said, John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, change of mind about their sins, saying unto the people that they should believe on him that should come after him, that is on Jesus. And when they heard this, they were all baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

So there's a difference. There's a difference. and what baptism is. Now, let's talk about the baptism of the Spirit. What does it mean for us as believers? For by one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body. It means that the baptism of the Spirit marks out our introduction into the body of Christ. You've been placed into His body. This is not just a profession, it's a real body. And this is true of every believer. Every single one of them, or one of us, and it happens immediately when you believe. There's a baptism into the work of Christ.

Romans 6.3, which I mentioned before. Are you ignorant that all of you who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into what? Into His death, placed in an event. You were buried, therefore, with him through baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. We were placed into Christ at the point in which he died. Why is that important? Why didn't we get placed into him in the Garden of Gethsemane? Why weren't we placed into him when he was suffering at the hands of Pilate's guys? Why not?

Why death? Because death is the thing that separates us from all of the old creation. When Christ is dying, when He dies, what does He die to? The word death means separation. He dies to the entire old creation, to sin, to Satan, to law, to all that's not of Him. So we are placed in Him by the work of the Spirit at that point and at that work. And when he's buried, we're baptized into that too. Why buried? The simple answer is you only bury dead people. You don't bury live ones. So burial is really important because it has to do with death.

So you can say the baptism of the Spirit marks our introduction into the work of Christ. It's universal for all saints and it happened immediately when you believed. So we can say that baptism of the Spirit means it's putting us, when we believe, into the company of all saints, uniting us to Christ and His work, and giving us an individual place. This is a great statement. Do you, brethren... I stole this from one of the old brethren guys. Do you, brethren, desire any other church membership than that one? The answer is no. Who wouldn't?

And this is the work that he does now, and I think he loves to do. Transformation. Does God have a specific purpose as he works in grace for each of those who have been baptized in the body of Christ? Absolutely he does. Romans 8, 28 and 29 says that we know that all things work together for good to those who are called, to those who love God, and to those who are called according to his purpose. What's his purpose? For whom he foreknow he did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.

So every one of us who have been convicted, persuaded, regenerated, and baptized into the person and work of Christ, have a purpose. God has a purpose for every one of us. And you can't sit around in your little Bible study circles and say, gee, I wonder what God's purpose is for my life, because it's got to be different than it is for your life. No, it's the same purpose. And the purpose is that you get conformed to the image of Christ.

This word conform is one of Vern's favorite words. Son, that's a preposition, means by association or companionship and more faith to jointly form, conform to or fashioned like unto. How's he going to do it? If you know what the purpose is, if you know that God is working everything together in your life to conform you to the image of Christ, it might be good to know how he's going to do it.

But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are transformed or transfigured into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. This transformed is the word that we get metamorphosis from. It implies change of form. And it's a present continuous tense indicating it's going on all the time. The Holy Spirit is doing this all the time. So, He's transforming us from what we used to be positionally in Adam to what we are now positionally in Christ, or His moral excellency, as you might say. So, every one of us are being affected by the work of the Holy Spirit today.

And He does it by putting an object before us who is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. who has no veil on his face now, like Moses had, and in the face we see what? What do you see in the face of Christ? It's the glory of God. It is a glorified Christ whom we present, who the Spirit presents to us. We see Christ crowned with glory and honor.

Occupation by the Spirit with the glories of Christ in the Word has a transforming and sanctifying effect on every believer. That's why the Word of God is so important to us. We're changed into the same image, the same as Christ, from one state of glory to the next.

You notice that verse doesn't say, I'm going to transform you from being a dirty, rotten sinner to being a good guy. or from being less of a sinner today and less of a sinner tomorrow and less of a sinner the day after. It doesn't say that. The Word of God says that you right now, because of the work of the Spirit by placing you in Christ, conditionally in your life are in a state of glory because the Spirit is in you. And the work of the Spirit in conforming you to Christ is increasing you from one state of glory to the next, to the next, to the next.

It's a process that goes on all the time. So think of it. Do you desire the Holy Spirit's way of holiness? Do you want to grow? Well, you have to let the Spirit unfold before you the beauties of the risen Christ. So when the next time, tonight or tomorrow, or the next time you open up your Bible, just go in there to behold Him and recognize that the Spirit of God is there with you in your Bible to reveal the person of Christ to you, so that you can behold His glory, that you can be occupied with Him who is the chiefest among 10,000. And as you gaze, the image of that one will be taken into your heart and you will be transformed into the same image.

That's God's purpose and that's how He carries it out. So, in conclusion, the work of the Spirit and the person of the Spirit, He is God, He is a person, and He has ministries of conviction, regeneration, indwelling, enlightening, sealing. He baptizes and He transforms. So, let's close in prayer.

Our dear Father, how we thank You that You have, by Your own will, not only saved us, but placed us in Christ by the power of Your Spirit, and that You unceasingly and continually are in the process of conforming us to His very image. How we look forward to that, Father, every minute of every day. And we rest in the fact that that's what you're up to. We thank you. We pray in your son's precious name. Amen.