The Witness Of Our Salvation
1 Peter 1:10-12 · Bob Eckel · Feb 2, 2020
1 & 2 Peter (2020-21), No. 05
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261917411901

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We're going to look at 1 Peter 10-12 today, and we're going to start and read from verse 3 down through 12. So who'd like to read for us this morning? Verse 3-12, 1 Peter. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith, of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine, and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. For you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.

Even angels long to look into these things." Isn't that an incredible scripture? What kind of theme comes out here that you think could summarize all this by one word? Grace, salvation, I'm thinking of a different word that's repeated multiple times in this section.

Roger alluded to it last week, but we've talked about it previously in this section, faith. Define faith. Margaret, define faith. Believing what the Lord has revealed. Thank you, C.I. Schofield. She's reporting on his behalf here. If you think about it, the faith is simply believing what God's revealed.

And we have an opportunity today very different than when Peter was writing. And think again the transition in Peter's life who walked with the Lord but then denied him and many other times fell short. And here we have a man that's matured through the years after Christ's death and resurrection to really write this epistle. And I think this is one of the highlights of Scripture, 1 Peter.

And we're building that verse by verse, week by week. So let's turn to verse 10 then. Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully who prophesied of the grace that would come to you. So I can see why some people listed grace. And salvation comes up here too in this verse. And Christ spoke of this truth. This history of the prophets revealing Him to come.

Matthew 11.13, for all the prophets, these are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. Which John is he talking about here?

Let's turn to Matthew 11.10-12 to put this in context. I usually like to put verses up here rather than have everybody turn to them, but today there are so many verses and sections that we could put here. The handout would be 15 pages long. So whoever gets Matthew 11, 10-12, it leads up to what Christ himself said at 13. Please read that. For this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger. Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.

Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women, there is not risen one greater than John the Baptist, but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. And then we see verse 13, for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. John, perhaps the greatest among the prophets of all, at least the last among them, ultimately Christ refers to in everything that preceded him. So that's our Lord speaking about the history of the prophecy that relates to his coming. How much do you think the prophets really understood the grace that was to come?

Margaret shakes her head no. Patty shakes her head no. Really low percentage shot because all the time from that point when sin was shown to be a sin they were still dealing with the sin issue from day to day, moment by moment, sacrifice by sacrifice and were not truly assured of positive results long term of any sort. They had to keep doing it. Okay, other thoughts? We're going to build on this a little bit in the next verse or two, but anyway. Other thoughts? How much of the principle of God's grace did the prophets understand?

It was so foreign to them. I mean, look at today. Nobody understands it today. How in the world would they have understood it back then? Okay, I'm going to build on the fact that maybe they understood a little bit more about it than we think here. Let's leave that to come. That way I can keep you poised in terms of what's to follow here. That's right. Are you falling asleep up here, Roger? Okay.

Their search is better described, this word in the Greek is diligence or persevering. of this salvation, the prophets have inquired and searched." That sounds kind of weak, doesn't it? But in the Greek, these are strong verbs. They really looked hard at what was to come and what they were prophesying.

Does Isaiah 61, 1-3, which in part relates to the sufferings of Peter states help? Let's turn to Isaiah 61, 1-3. Now remember, one of Peter's main themes is trials and tribulations. So let's just turn to one section of the Old Testament to reflect on maybe, keep in mind we're talking about the prophets now, and Isaiah was one of the great prophets.

Whoever gets that, please read it. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them the garland instead of ashes, and oil instead of gladness. and oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of the spirit of thanking, so they will be called Oaks of Righteousness, the gladdening of the Lord that He did build." Okay, thanks, you know you could look at that from a kingdom age perspective, there's no question, but was the nation of Israel undergoing happy times in terms of what Isaiah wrote? No, he's looking at all the trials and tribulations and the mournings and sufferings of the nation of Israel.

I think of interest that would come, there's a couple times in this section that this is very interesting to me getting into the Greeks and Roy may want to comment on it. That would come to you is not a verb. I mean would come, it isn't a come a verb, it's the Greek preposition ice. which means its meaning unto is what it means in context. And when is this all going to occur? Do the prophets really give us any clue about that?

Perhaps what Paul says in Ephesians 3, 1-5 helps. This is going to be the last request for a while to this class to read the scriptures. Anyway, somebody turn to Ephesians 3, 1-5 and see if Paul doesn't help us a little bit too. For this reason I call the prisoner of Jesus Christ for the sake of you Gentiles, surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, that is the mystery made known to me by revelation as I have already written briefly. In reading this then you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed Okay, so the last verse, read that again. Read the last verse. Which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets.

How about the virgin birth, the walk, the cross and everything relates to it, the crucifixion and ultimately resurrection to follow. Paul reflects on this, it's been written about repeatedly and ultimately I think that related to the church then, and I think it relates to the church now.

Let's look at a couple of other areas. I'm not going to have you read these, but I have just a series of verses among many. Notice that I say among many that relate to this prophecy, and you can see them listed here to some extent if you want to read those at your own time. There's just not time to do that today.

The question to the class then, did not the prophets themselves experience God's grace? I told you I'd promise we'd get back to this. What are your thoughts? Yes, Tom. It's actually started off pretty early. It didn't have to be the prophets, but the earliest occurrence would be Noah found grace. Okay, other thoughts?

Well, how did prophecy occur? I mean, if you think of God speaking to the prophets and this was a direct communication. In a sense, that prophecy for the future really wasn't law-based, was it? I mean, ultimately it could be in some circumstances interpreted as law, but I think we have some evidence there.

And I second Peter. Peter goes ahead and I think gives us a little bit more hint here. Prophecy never came by the will of man, but the holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Hmm. That's kind of neat, isn't it? To think that everything that was prophesied in terms of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ was led by the Holy Spirit.

Now, we know that in the Old Testament we don't have good evidence that this Holy Spirit was permanently indwelling like it was at Pentecost going forward. But yet the Lord manifested this principle of His great grace by giving messages to the prophets that would be forthcoming and ultimately fulfilled.

And more evidence comes from verse 11, which we're now going to turn to. Any other thoughts on verse 10 before we go ahead here? Alright, let's look at 11. Searching what, or what manner of time, this is New King James, so I apologize in part but not completely. Searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who is in them was indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. Boy, let's talk about a stacked verse. Lots of wisdom here.

The word for time is kairos, and there are two Greek terms for time, and this is best interpreted as seasons, whereas the other term, I don't remember exactly at this time, really relates to a more specific time. So this is a more broad term, meaning seasons. Here's what Weiss says. The seasons, or kairos, represent the critical, ethic-making periods when all that has been maturing through long ages comes to a head in grand, decisive events which constitute the close of one period and the beginning of another.

I couldn't have worded that even close to the way he did. That was beautiful grammar, don't you think? Let's read that again. The seasons, what we're talking about in verse 11, represent the critical epic making periods when all that has been maturing through long ages, think about the prophecies here, comes to a head in grand decisive events, the cross, the resurrection, which constitute the close of one period and the beginning of another, the church. So whether you're a dispensationalist or an ultra-dispensationalist, you've got to believe in at least two, law and grace, right? And I think we're talking about the end of the period of law. and the beginning of a period of grace. And we're seeing here a little bit of evidence that that grace principle is there in the prophecies of older times.

In fact, Christ's sufferings were clearly prophesied. His sufferings really come up in this verse. Isaiah 53.6, all like sheep we have gone astray and we have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of all. I'm not sure what the Orthodox Jews do with this verse. They totally ignore it.

Acts 3.18, But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled." The prophets knew of the suffering Savior, even though they probably didn't have a clear understanding about what that was about.

Here's an important question I think for us, and I puzzled over this for a while, not that I have a complete answer at this time. In whom was the Spirit of Christ? It says, in whom was the Spirit of Christ? Would that be speaking of the Holy Spirit? Okay, that's one thought. So isn't it relating to the prophets themselves? So if we think that they were Holy Spirit led, which we've provided some evidence for, in whom I think we're talking about the prophets.

John 5.39, you search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and these are they which testify of me. The scriptures. John related to the Old Testament scriptures.

Christ was yet on the cross, not yet on the cross. Macaulay, he could see God's gracious provision of salvation in dealing with the sin problem totally. This is certainly grace. Constable, Peter was stressing the Spirit's witness to Christ in the Old Testament rather than the pre-existence of Christ. Robertson, I kind of like this one best.

Peter deftly asserts here that the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, was in the Old Testament prophets. The Holy Spirit called the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God, Romans 8-9, who spoke to the prophets or he would speak to the apostles, John 16-14. We don't need to look at those verses. But I think the answer to the question is that in whom was the Spirit of Christ? It was in the Old Testament prophets. So these are spirit-led individuals that again you could translate and interpret it partly as God's great grace. When his message was given to the prophets there was no legal terms to those messages. There wasn't if you do this I will do this. The prophecy all related to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the price that would be paid in his sufferings. Any thoughts about that before we go ahead?

I'm just thinking the only mystery that was not revealed would have been the church. So everything else I assume was revealed. It's tough to go in the Old Testament and really define the church. The church is an entirely new entity. Do you think there were other examples in the Old Testament other than through the prophets where in fact the Spirit of God was operational?

We talk about Daniel, we talk about Ezekiel, we talk about Isaiah and Jeremiah. We see that it's spoken about that the Spirit enabled men to perform things, build things, make things. God's Spirit, especially like the tabernacle, if you look at those passages, it talks about the Spirit of God. was with whoever the guy was who was doing some part of the tabernacle. So God's third is mentioned in the sense that it enabled men to do things that maybe they couldn't normally do or give them some more physical ability to do things. So in general, how did God speak to the world?

Let's say the Jewish nation, but beyond the Jewish nation of the Old Testament. He did it in two ways. Number one, he did it through the prophets. Number two, he did it through the tabernacle and the sacrifices that were put forth annually or even more frequently for some sins of the Old Testament.

So we'll leave it at that, but I think the spirit of Christ was in the prophets and I think that's an important lesson that I learned and I hope you agree with going forward. Indicating or do means to signify. It's an imperfect tense and refers to a continuous action. This becomes important in the verses that follow. So would follow, again as in this verse, remember verse 11, it said that these, let me read it again, searching what or what manner of time the spirit of Christ who was in them did signify when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that would follow. This that would follow is another one of these Greek terms, here it's meta, it's a preposition not a verb. And that simply points to a past continuous action. So that means it's going to follow, but yet it's kind of unto again, and it relates to, and of course the tense means that it's going to be a past continuous action. So that comes up again, we'll look at it in the next verse. And this continuous action relates to the glories of Christ to follow.

So Macaulay says the word glory, remember the glory of the Lord is mentioned here in verse 11. The word glory, or doxa is plural here meaning glories, and Macaulay says after Christ's death he experienced a succession of glories, the resurrection, the ascension, the seating at the Father's right hand, and notice the suffering and glories come in a definite order, is the glory that should follow the suffering. So I think that's kind of a good interpretation of verse 11 in more colloquial terms. Any other thoughts now about verse 11, to whom the Spirit was applied, ultimately how prophesied the sufferings prior to the glories.

Just a thought, if we consider that the Holy Spirit and our Father of our Lord Jesus Christ are in time outside the time we live in, and they were communicating about what they were going to do by the Spirit through the prophets. Isn't that neat that because he's outside of time, in time and tell us about what's going to come. I think about that even today that he is at work for the future communicating through this written word as well as himself right now about what's going to happen next. And what you're pointing to, the written word, is a privilege we have that so many other believers, the many of us did not have. The thought just occurred to me too, that he spoke in ages past. In Romans, it says, through the things that he has made.

So that we're all without excellence because of that message. I mean that's one of the arguments we're all accountable for. Look around us in terms of the globe and the universe. And secondly the conscience which is I think a more difficult way, but Lord's put it in everyone, but our conscience can be influenced so much by the environment surrounding us. The Christ, the third C, and that's the final message and direction we have to become saved. Alright, good. Let's go to verse 12 then.

To them it was revealed that not to themselves, notice this, but to them was revealed that not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look unto. Isn't that profound? These prophets were reading to us today, even though they had no knowledge of the church age. All they could see was the prophecy related to the nation of Israel. But yet, remember, it's God's grace through the power of the Spirit that opened up really the prophecy to the Lord Jesus Christ, even though they could not define that, I think, in great detail. Thus, the prophets had enough spirit-led information from Christ and God to enlighten us by those who have reached us with the gospel, but without complete knowledge for them.

Amos 3.7 Surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his secret to his servants, the prophets.

Daniel, Lot's in Daniel, and I just picked a couple of verses, although I heard I did not understand. And then I said, My Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Now, again, that's probably Kingdom Age stuff. But remember, he talks about the 70 weeks. And ultimately, Daniel had no clear understanding. be revealed. In the time of the end, I think, is that the Great White Throne Judgment? I don't think so. That's not what this is pointing to. Anyway, I don't want to get bogged down with the idea right now.

Matthew 13, 16 and 17, But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your eyes, for they hear. For assuredly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it." Here Christ is speaking to the nation of Israel, to his disciples, and he relates to the prophets and righteous men who in fact desired to see what you see.

Hebrews 11.13, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, But having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Perfectly appropriate here. And another Hebrews verse, verses 39 and 40. And all these having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. Isn't that interesting? Reflect on that verse for a second. What does it mean that God having provided something better for us that they should not be made perfect apart from us? He's including us. Well, right. But haven't they been made perfect or complete as we have? I mean, they're not church age. Their ultimate future is different than ours. But yet the cross is still what they didn't know that they were looking forward to.

And through us, through what we have now in the resurrected Christ, the prophets are made perfect or complete. By faith, right? The principle of faith, we can't forget. Believing what God has revealed. In the Old Testament, they only had what God had revealed to them.

And today, as Roy pointed out, we have the written word, which allows us to have much more information about how our faith comes about and exists on a day-to-day basis. Macaulay, notice in the book of Acts how Old Testament prophecies are related to the person and work of Jesus Christ. Look at this.

Acts 2.16 relates to the day of Pentecost to the prophet Joel.

Acts 2.25 relates Christ to Psalm 16.

Acts 2.32 relates Christ to Psalm 110. 3.18 shows Christ's fulfillment of the prophets.

Acts 4.25 relates Christ to Psalm 2 and Stephen's entire sermon in Acts 7 is a survey of the Old Testament. Let's just turn to Psalm 2 right now and take a look at that. Who would like to read Psalm 2? Roger, would you read that? Do you have it there? Sure.

Why are the nations in an uproar, and the prophets devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. Let us tear their feathers apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them with his fury.

But as for me, I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decrees of the Lord. He said to me, Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will surely give you the nations, and the very ends of the earth as thy possessions.

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt shatter them like earthenware. Now therefore, O kings, show discernment. Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence, and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, lest ye become angry and ye perish in the way, for his wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in him.

How do you interpret the son that David is put in Psalm 2? Let's capitalize. Yeah, that's the biblical interpretation of the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, how much did David really believe that the son would be the Lord Jesus Christ and carry out what he did? Tom? There's one key verse, I forget where it's from, David said to me, you are my son. This day I am begotten to thee Christ. That's the real point there.

Okay, other thoughts on this section of scripture? Macaulay believes, as I do too, that clearly relates to the topic before us today in 1 Peter. Whether we overly interpret it, but you know, in a sense, David's relationship to God was a very special one. and ultimately David's prophecy would relate to the kingdom age too in major ways, but nevertheless I have to interpret that this relates to the Lord Jesus Christ directly. How do we interpret things which angels desire to look unto? Isn't that grace? No, we could have a whole quarter of discussions on angels.

But anyway, look into it as a diligent, passionate examination. And I think the other use of this is really one of the few in Scripture that's like Mary at the tomb. John 20.11, but Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. What kind of a look would that have been? Well, pretty passionate look I'm sure. So how do we interpret that here in terms of 1 Peter verse 12?

So the angels are looking with this same degree of passion at this whole kind of prophecy. Which means they don't know it. You know, keep in mind, how much understanding do the angels really have? Are these heavenly angels or these fallen angels or does it include all of the above? I doubt that the fallen angels would be part of this. Yeah, I don't think the fallen angels care.

They'll care. But aren't there several places that even refer to this about that angels are paying attention to our relationship with Christ and all that that encompasses? Yeah, and they're looking into it with great detail. I think there's several places that refer to this. Okay. Because they were left outside of this whole you know, relationship. And in Hebrews 1 we see kind of the position of the believer in respect to the angels. Clearly these are not entities that ultimately do anything but praise the Lord, but they don't, they're not the church, we have a higher position than them.

One of the things too in Daniel, that was revealed by God through angels. who came to speak to me and they declared these things had been hidden and would be revealed at the last time. In other words, don't worry about it Daniel, it's coming up. So even the messengers themselves proclaimed that things would be coming later on to add to this information. Isn't that neat?

When the angels came and spoke or saying whatever they did at the birth of the Lord Jesus, I wonder what they thought in regard to the Old Testament prophecy. And now, isn't everything suddenly changed? Were they able to understand that this is a new thing that God is doing now in the birth of His Son?

Yeah and again the Greek is a strong term this looking into this is just not say oh well I saw a blue car just pass by out here you know this is kind of a detailed examination like you know maybe in like our impeachment trial I don't want to go there but anyway we'll leave that as it is. One overview thought is that the angels themselves have had a warfare and out of that warfare came a distinction between good and bad angels and now we are in a story that they are reading about his grace and his goodness, his mercy and all of the attributes of God are being displayed to those angels, both good and bad. And how do the angels, and I'm kind of going down a rabbit hole here for a second, but let's do it anyway, how do the angels deal with this information? So everything that they learn about this, they ultimately praise God for it. That's a very probably appropriate answer.

Other thoughts? Not Satan. What's that? Not sick? No. That's why I can't read about angels. So angels exist today? Of course they do. Let's not get into that one in terms of what form they're in. Did Christ die for the angels? Your decision was locked in when he chose whether to stay in the heavenlies and continue to worship the Lord or otherwise.

Right, one way or the other, right? So when was that decision made? A long time ago, right? Does that happen currently? Are there some angels who are uncertain? I don't think so. I think we have fallen angels and we have heavenly angels, and I think it's a done deal. That probably occurred very early. Let's look at a verse that kind of cements this one.

1 Corinthians 4.9.

For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last as men, ultimately condemned to death. For we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. So angels are interpreting this, I think Roger's right, they're praising God for this, right? They're learning from what God had prophesied and ultimately accomplished and they're praising the Lord for this. How about to men in general, that's a general term. For we've been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.

Are we a spectacle to the world? Well, in a negative sense, people don't like the cross. They don't want to hear about the cross or someone dying. They don't like a bloody religion, right? Yes, we're all spectacles to the world system. And where's our citizenship? We're heavenly citizens, we're not earthly citizens. And again, you think of all the things that have occurred more recently here, and globally actually, it gives you comfort that our citizenship's in heaven and not here on earth.

And that's a good thought to kind of maintain as we deal with all the trials and tribulations that come our way. Peter's talked a lot about those. What I'd like to do then is let's just read these three verses again and see how we might surmise what we've learned today. Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them did signify when testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow. unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven which things the angels desire to look unto. In summary then, we have a furtherance of what Peter's theme is by the fact that this all didn't come about just carelessly or without certainty, that ultimately the prophecies that precluded the church age in which he's writing in fact was there from time eternal almost.

So let's open that up for a little discussion. Thoughts about the text here today? Did this enhance your understanding of really where the Holy Spirit has worked by the Lord? It did for me anyway. In the Prophets we tend to kind of, I think, maybe too casually think about how the Lord worked through the Prophets, but I think Peter's really outlined that. What else do you think reflects Peter's growth in grace and maturity in the Lord in this section of Scripture? Could Peter have written this twenty years earlier? In a sense that's really reflecting our own growth and grace. It doesn't happen quickly, it happens slowly. Ultimately the hungry heart reminds us almost every day. Any further thoughts about this section? Yes, Pat. It's kind of a question.

It talks about the spirit of Christ who was in them and then it talks about the Holy Spirit who was sent from heaven. I think the three persons of the Trinity So the Spirit of Christ, is that the same that was sent from heaven? Two different personalities? Well, let's think about the Lord Jesus Christ and his earthly existence.

When did the Spirit enliven him to carry out his mission? When did the Spirit enliven him? He was the perfect God-man, right? Without sin until he was 30. But when did his ministry start? Yeah, when the Spirit of Christ, when the Holy Spirit entered him, right? Roger? He had a picture where he's baptized in the Spirit. That was not the Holy Spirit coming into him. That was the Holy Spirit revealing who he is.

I agree. But I'm going to equate the Spirit of Christ and the Holy Spirit. Are those two different things? I don't think they're different things. But you talked about the through persons in the Trinity so it seems like the Holy Spirit is one entity and Christ is another entity and he was going to send the Holy Spirit after he was dead so when you talk about the spirit of Christ that's a different spirit isn't it? than the Holy Spirit I don't want to go there does anybody else want to say this is different? how about just thinking about the thing now we are in the war in the Gospel of John He says, I'm going to go away. I'm going to send you another comforter, the Holy Spirit, who will remind you of what I've taught you.

So the ministry of the Holy Spirit is one aspect, but the Holy Spirit is part of the Godhead. So their ministries are different. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is different than Christ's ministry is different than the Father's ministry. The Father sent the Son. mind-boggling, you have three persons and one god, but the father sent the son to be the saviour of the world. So don't confuse their ministry necessarily with their person. So you're thinking they're different then?

Obviously the ministry of the Holy Spirit we have declared in various places, right? He's to show us the things of Christ. But he also indwells men, right? To fulfill his ministry. Let's turn to Romans 6, 7, and 8 then. I'm not saying turn there scripturally, but let's just think about that text.

Paul realized that he was a new man in Christ Jesus, but yet not spirit-led, right? A wretched man that I am. Here the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, had not inactivated the person of the Lord Jesus Christ within him. So I think, in other words, back to Pat's question, is the Spirit of Christ not the Holy Spirit?

I mean, maybe this is too much detail, but that's a reasonable question. I never really thought that those would be distinguishable. Well, you can say the Spirit of God. He's also the Holy Spirit. I mean, you have different phrases for the Holy Spirit, right? The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. There's only one Spirit. There's only one Spirit of God. Well, there's that fleshly Spirit that we all have, and then there's the Holy Spirit, right? That's the Godhead's concern, right?

But what I'm saying, being born again, remember what Mike's lesson was last week about the maturity of the believer versus somebody who could be very mature and just be saved? In other words their walk would show signs of a mature belief but yet their maturity takes years to develop, right?

So in a sense we could use that as potentially a tangent to this question. Other thoughts here? It's a good question. Pat always ask good questions. I'm always concerned when Pat has a question because I know that there's likely not a simple answer to it. Tom, your thoughts on this one. I'm thinking that one time we had a discussion on the scene. So we'll call it a rabbit trail.

The thought crystallized in me that the Holy Spirit takes the things of Jesus and makes them real to the believer. It's as simple as that. that he is going to send the Holy Spirit to reveal the things that he has to us and to give them to us but by the same token he took upon himself the nature of man and the nature of man includes spirit and so Christ himself took upon himself a human spirit but without sin So there is that distinction that we want to go that far. But the prophets didn't have that. The Holy Spirit came upon them. Exactly. So that's just in terms of the interpretation of this section I would tend to say they're the same.

By the way, you know, all these outstanding commentators don't deal with that kind of question. So Pat, I think you ought to write a book here on all the difficult to answer questions. No, I mean, I'm serious. I mean, Pat always has good questions. That's a good question. So should we take a vote? No vote. OK. All right. Perfect timing. All right, Phil, could you close us in prayer, please? I thank the Lord for the insights today through Bob, and I thank you for your spirit in leading us as we go forward in the next service. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen, thank you.