Published: February 22, 2026 | Speaker: Mark Freitag | Series: The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 2 - Part 6 | Scripture: Luke 11:9-12; John 14-16; Ephesians 1
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just makes me u and I'm shamelessly u plagiarizing a comic I saw yesterday, but that makes me a sore loser. Um, and so I can't turn sideways very
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easy. So I've given the outline and we're going to fill in between the lines hopefully this morning these things, but if I turn and try to write and turn back
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um I'll probably be down there. Um, so, uh, just bear with me. Uh, kind of clinging to this podium for support
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right now. But, uh, anyway, um, I do appreciate your prayers that I'd be, um, mobile again, but, uh, today for the
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first time in a week, been able to put my own shoes on. I was very happy. All right, we're looking at the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. And again kind of um
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preview of coming attractions. um kind of overview of things where where we meet the Holy Spirit in the New Testament and then um
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go back um perhaps uh next Sunday talking about the introduction of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is not
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what we'll see in John 14 and 16 but for example in in Luke uh at the even the conception of Christ.
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And so we we need to go back to where the Holy Spirit appears. But again, um I want to finish with some of these uh kind of overviews and hopefully wet your
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appetites somewhat to uh to search the scriptures some more um about where the Holy Spirit um appears and uh how u we
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ought to approach the understanding of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. So, um, kind of taking, uh, a cue from some of the commentaries, but putting
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them in the order that made sense to me, um, which may may not make sense to you, but, um, there was a promise, uh, for us
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in the words of of Christ. Um the examples uh that I'm going to use here are from uh John chapter 14 and 16 uh Jesus uh
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upper room discourse with his disciples. And um hopefully you'll see that um this is um
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integral to our understanding of the Holy Spirit's work in lives today. John 14 uh beginning at verse 16,
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Jesus says, "I will ask the father and he will give you another helper." Um
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just uh some of you know just again kind of to recall the the things you'll see in some of your versions uh will say comforter, advocate, uh intercessor. Uh
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the Greek is periclete which which is to call alongside. call alongside. Um I like Sinclair Ferguson's um
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uh word that he used for this. He called him the witness advocate um which again combines um things that we know from other parts of scripture.
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Uh the New American Standard calls him the another helper that he may be with you forever. you forever. That is the spirit of truth whom the
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world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him. But you know him because he abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans.
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I will come to you. After a little while, the world will no longer see me, but you will see me because I live, you will live also.
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Um, it's a promise. uh and we I I think the the operative uh thing that I want to point out here and again
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I won't kind of resist the temptation to to write on the board but the words I will come to you um he's he tells them in another place
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um it's it's important it's for your good that I go away and the disciples of course were, you know, that that that wasn't what they wanted
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to hear, that Jesus was going away. They were and at least many of them, I think, were thinking, "We're waiting for you to
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come in your kingdom in power and glory." And he's saying, "I'm going away." So when he says, "I will come to you,"
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uh the promise um is not a reference to his resurrection appearance
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resurrection appearance after his death, burial, then he's not referring to, well, I'm coming back in the resurrection. And he's not referring to the final
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appearance when he would come again in clouds of of glory and um to receive his own.
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He's speaking of coming to them in the gift of the Holy Spirit, the coming of Jesus himself in the
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spirit. And again, I I think we at least I do. Um I I don't haven't really focused on that. You know, I will
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come to you. What what does that mean? Um it's it's it's different than I think we we think. Uh again, not in the resurrection, not in the final coming,
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but I will come to you myself in the Holy Spirit.
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in John uh later in that same chapter, John 14, uh go down to verse 25, he says, "These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
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send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the
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world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor let that let it be fearful. You heard that I said to you, I go away and I will
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come to you. If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the father for the father is greater than I. He's again he's trying to to tell them
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there there's nothing to fear here. my going away is is going to be for your good. Do not let your hearts be
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troubled, neither let it be fearful. Um we we get a this double lesson I think uh from this um the the and and as he
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has said in uh earlier in John um the the world doesn't understand this stuff. the the world the unbelieving world
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doesn't get this but you need to get this but it's not to have you cower in fear when when he says he will teach you
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all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said um I think and again this is um picking up some things from Sinclair Ferguson but he says by
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the by the spirit They meaning the Christ disciples, they will be taught inwardly the nature of their relationship with Christ as well as
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Christ's relationship to the father. And so when he teaches all things, he kind of puts it together that you'll have a better understanding of who Christ is in
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relation to the father, but then you'll understand from that relation your relationship to Christ. And it's again
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there there's nothing to fear. I it opens up to us um the the things as we talked about in Peter,
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the things that that that angels, the things that the prophets long to look into to understand these things to what is this mystery of of the Christ of the
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Messiah and um his suffering and death. What what will this what is that all about? and and Jesus is saying when the spirit comes these things will be taught
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to you. These things will be unfolded to you. Um so he's trying to prepare them that on the one hand you know what I'm saying is
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saying is it's foreign to your brains right now but understand this this is important. This is what is about to take place.
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And then in John 16 he says, "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For ye will not speak on his own initiative,
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but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of mine, and will disclose it to
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you." um both what the prophets have said, the the prophetic aspect of the the Old Testament now being revealed in
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the New, but also the fullness of who Christ is. the fullness of of who the son of man, the son of God uh come in the flesh, the the uh the incarnate one,
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who he would he is and the fullness of his glory. Um and again, um
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we can't ignore this stuff. I mean, as this is what Jesus is saying, this is God's plan. This is how the spirit will be uh manifest to you uh
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through these things or how Christ will be manifest to you through the work of the spirit. Um it's it's a great promise um and we can't um that we can't ignore
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um because this is how he he has ordained it and designed it. Um, incredible, incredible words and hopefully as we go along and explore
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more uh the work of the spirit as we see him working in Christ and how he brings that uh to his disciples. um just uh
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again the the world and and sadly many of us as Christians kind of kind of ignore it or say I you know I don't
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understand it or it becomes something that is kind of an as we say kind of an embarrassment of you know a holy spirit what what is this about and yet um he is
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the spirit of truth truth. Uh as Jesus has said a couple of times in this passage, this the Holy Spirit of truth uh has come to you um and to teach you
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to guide you. Um a remarkable promise,
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but we're also taught by Jesus to pray that God would give us the Holy Spirit. Um I had forgotten the context of Luke 11. Um had to go back and and read the
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broader passage. Um but Luke 11 is uh Luke's gospel um reference to when the disciples come to Jesus. uh he's been on
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the mountain praying and uh they kind of come up to him as he's finishing praying and say saying Lord teach us to pray
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and in Luke 11 he responds by giving them the the believer's prayer teaching them how to pray but in verse 9 of Luke
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11 he goes on to say this so I say to You ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock
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and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds. And to him who knocks it will be open. Now suppose one of your fathers is
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asked by his son for a fish. He will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?
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If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
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I look again at look at the context. It's it's prayer. It's it's asking. It's seeking. It's knocking. And and again a reminder that in the Greek it's could be
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translated keep on asking. keep on seeking, keep on knocking. There there's a continual uh aspect to these things.
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There's there's a continual asking and we're asking for a great gift. We're we're asking for what what Jesus later in in his life is going to to lay down
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as that promise that we have already
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How much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? This is this is Jesus telling us, "Pray that you
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would receive the Holy Spirit. Pray that he would come. Pray that he would fill you with these things." um and do that that work of teaching, of revealing, of
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guiding that he's uh promising. Um
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Paul prays for these things from Ephesians chapter 1 part of his run-on sentence and which is basically Ephesians 1 the entire chapter
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but for beginning at verse 15 he says for this reason I too having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the
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saints. Do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a
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spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.
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my uh translation it uses the small s spirit that he would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation. Um, some of your translations, and I didn't look at others, uh, may have capitalized that.
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My understanding My understanding is that is that only the Holy Spirit can impart wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
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Christ. Uh, that's what he's come to do. As Jesus has already told us, he will take of mine and disclose it to you.
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There's so the spirit of wisdom and knowledge in Christ. Um,
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I I think as a prayer that that we'd have more of the spirit, more of the spirit as a spirit of wisdom, as a spirit of revelation to to men, opening our eyes to who Christ is and what he
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did, his accomplishments. Um John Calvin said, "For our eyes are worse than put out until he meaning the
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spirit enlightens them by or God enlightens them by his holy spirit." He he says we're blind. We're ignorant. We don't understand. We
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have a using Paul's um analogy in in Romans, we have a a veil, the scales over our eyes
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until and unless the Holy Spirit enlightens us. That seems to be the the spirit of wisdom that that Paul is is
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praying for here. that again that that God of of our Lord Jesus Christ, he says, the father of glory may give you this gift, may give you this uh spirit
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of promise, the spirit of truth, spirit of wisdom and understanding. Um in 1 Corinthians, Paul writes this this uh 1 Corinthians 1 verse 9.
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things which eye has not seen, an ear has not heard and which has not entered the heart of man. All that God has prepared for those who
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love him. For to us God revealed them through the spirit. For the spirit searches all things, even the depths of
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God. again reflecting what he's uh Calvin is is kind of taken from Ephesians 1 in 1 Corinthians 1 saying you know the eye
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doesn't naturally see these things. The ear doesn't naturally hear these things. The heart doesn't understand and comprehend. There's a blindness
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unless the Holy Spirit, the spirit of wisdom and revelation reveals them to us. But again, the
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I cannot um it's going to sound like a pun, but fathoming when when he says, "For to us
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God has revealed them through the spirit. For the spirit searches all things, even the depths of God." Um, again, without the Holy Spirit,
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um, we'd be we'd be nothing. We'd be hurting. We We would still be blind. Um, it it's God's plan
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that the Holy Spirit would reveal these
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Colossians 2 uh Paul seems to um in his own uh defense of of his ministry uh allude to these things. He says in a Colossians 2 beginning in verse one, for I want you to know how great a struggle
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I have on your behalf and for those who are at Leodysia and for all those who have not personally seen my face that their hearts may be encouraged having been
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knit together in love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery that
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is Christ himself. self in our in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and knowledge without the spirit of Christ
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and without the spirit taking of Christ and disclosing it to us. We don't have any of this that he just
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said. We don't have hearts that are encouraged. We don't have the ability to being being knit together in love. We we we don't have the attaining of all the
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wealth that he says that comes from the full assurance of understanding resulting in a true knowledge of God. Um we don't none of that comes to us. Um
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John Davinet in his commentary on Colossians says it is a fruit but it's also a condition. He says the unity of minds is truly the
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result of unity of faith for unity of faith is the firmst bond of unity of mind but it's it's a fruit. It's a it's
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something that is given as a gift by the Holy Spirit and then results in that unity of faith and unity of mind.
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But he says it's also a condition without which spiritual comfort is not obtained for comfort is not had out of
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Christ. So the spirit's job is to search the depths of God and to disclose the things of Christ to us. And so it it it comes
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as a gift. But it again as he says it's it's a condition without which we we can't be comforted. Um if it's not
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obtained, if it's not um given to us, then we can't say we have comfort because it
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can't be had unless we are enlightened of who Christ is. Um so again, the the promise how how great it is. And here's
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Paul kind of in the the practical vein saying, "Look at all these things. I'm seeing in the churches as the spirit works, I'm seeing this wealth. I'm
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seeing this comfort. I'm seeing this unity, this being knit together in love, the developing, the developing, but it doesn't come to us unless the
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spirit is taking of Christ and bestowing it upon us.
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questions, comments. Um I, you know, just again trying to give that overview and and preview of the greatness of the promise and the
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greatness of the re realization of, you know, Paul seeing it at work, seeing the spirit at work in the churches. Um it ought to be of great
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comfort to us and uh hope but also uh reality that the spirit of
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truth is in the believer. Uh yes.
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Yeah, I was thinking about this uh this week. Um week. Um just again the number of places where and how explicitly uh Jesus says this, you know, to pray
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for the Holy Spirit. Um,
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I think I I guess where I had had arrived and maybe not the end position, but perhaps along the line of that um, as in measure, but that we
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I think we don't see the depth of what the scriptures teach about the work of the Holy Spirit that in our minds we tend to either denigrate or ignore or
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kind of shy away from the work of the Holy Spirit or and and so perhaps to keep it in the forefront
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of their minds that in their daily lives, in their church function, in their relationships,
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uh without the Holy Spirit, these they're they're at a loss. Um one more and then
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you look at these passages, I find less
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Yeah. And I I I'll talk about that a little bit here because you know the number of passages where all three are mentioned together. So yeah, I I think that is and it's again yes in my
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experience. Yes. Um trying to get the hierarchy. I I remember uh one of my professors um very actively
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um wanting us to think about you know do do we pray we pray we pray to the father we pray to the son or through the son but
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we almost never in our prayers mention the holy spirit and in his prayers he always would and it just kind of made me think about what you're saying is do We kind of put the Holy Spirit aside. Yeah.
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Um I saw a hand here and one here. So Paul does mention that we're not to be drunk with rather fil
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unusually talking about influence. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but we're able to grieve him. We're able to resist him. And I think frankly, we're able to not
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pay attention to him at all. Yeah. Whereas what is intended is that he will fully influence our minds so that we actually have the mind of
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Christ. It's not a matter of not being well and asking for that every time you pray. It's more a matter of being more like him. Peter said
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without measure without measure we have the spirit with measure but we should see should see yeah that that help some yeah um
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yeah um similar veing similar veing that passage in Ephesians you did kind of answer the question already it seems
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on the one hand we often think of sort of one and done in Allah systematicology. But when when Paul says that he is the
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spirit of wisdom and revelation of the knowledge of Christ, both of which we know we grow in, yeah, from plenty of other places, then then we have to conclude that we grow in the
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Holy Spirit. Doesn't seem like maybe it's answered for us, how does it work, but rather just is it so? Yeah. Is where we have to.
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Yeah. And um we'll we'll have opportunity to examine it but it's that little enigmata yeah can say it enigmatic passage uh about Christ and he
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incre increased in wisdom and in stature and in wisdom and understanding that's Jesus but he was filled with the Holy Spirit
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and so um yeah there is um there There is growth, there is motion, I guess you would say. There is
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activity uh involved as we as we learn these things. Um Abe and then Abigail
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how he uses himself. given us more than others.
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Yeah. Right. Right. And yeah, he he he we think of it in the distri distribution of the gifts but also in the distribution of the wisdom and
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revelation to us. Uh he is sovereign. Yes. Thank you Abigail. I was just thinking
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Yeah. Okay. Anyone else before we Martha? I think it's interesting.
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Yeah. Yeah. And and that does go back to Jesus rebuking the disciples saying if if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children. Do you not understand that the heavenly
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father can give you a gift that is much much more appropriate? Yes. Should we do we consider this conversation that we're learning about
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to unlearn a lot of
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Well, yes. And then coupled with a thought of, you know, people saying if you pray like this or if you if you do this then the spirit will do this and the spirit is sovereign and
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gives different gifts to different people for different purposes. Yes. So yes, I think we have to unlearn a lot of things. But hopefully I I guess the approach is if we dig into the
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scriptures and what does the scripture actually say about these things, uh perhaps will let us drop some of those that baggage behind. Uh yes, but
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Um all right. Well, let's uh let's look at this last topic a little bit. I that's my attempt at alliteration this morning. Um I I just again as I said last week
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think of that that phrase the uh the unity of the trinity. The trinity in unity. Uh there there you know as a said there as God is sovereign the spirit is
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sovereign. The the the nature of of God is is not different in three persons. It's there there is this partnership.
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There is this fellowship. Um, and I I mentioned this one at the end and I was I was going to leave it to the end today, but um I came across a quote that
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I've seen before from David Brown and I I just I wanted to read that and we're going to look at another one as we end. But um 2 Corinthians 13 just um the
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benediction in that uh letter, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Um Paul wasn't
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conscious of trying to put God first and then Christ and then the Holy Spirit. He's he's thinking of this as um
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all together the grace that's of the Lord Jesus, the love of God, the fellowship of the spirit. Um David Brown wrote, "Remarkable it is that an
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epistle, this is again this is Corinthians, that an epistle written under a tempest of conflicting emotions, breathing in some places indignation,
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reproach, and sadness at being driven to self vindication against worthless detractors who should never have been listened to. that precisely this epistle
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is the one that closes with the richest and most comprehensive of all the benedictions in the New Testament. The one which the Christian church in every
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land and of every age has found and will find as long as the world lasts the most available for public use as a close to
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its worship. its worship. um just the comprehensiveness of this trinity as we saw the old testament did not
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state the trinity it did not um explain the trinity but the trinity is there and now with the with the new testament and
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the the the words of Christ and the promise of Christ and then the outpouring of the holy spirit becoming real. Then we start to see these kinds
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of things that how the works and we can part of it is just standing
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back and and marvel and rejoice. But what he's saying here is is that God's holiness does not allow him to
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overlook sin. overlook sin. So a apart from the love of God, we cannot know his marvelous grace in
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But apart from the cross of Christ, we cannot know the love of God. And apart from the spirit, we cannot know the application of that redemption to bring about the fellowship of
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redeemed sinners. redeemed sinners. So with the grace of Christ and the love of God, we can have fellowship with the Holy Spirit,
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Holy Spirit, which um I'm going to skip the second one and go to the third um because I was looking at some notes from last week uh
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last week's sermon in Romans 14. And I think um the things that we see here
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this the the fruit and the condition the the gift and without the gift then there can't be the things that follow. This is
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from last week Romans 14 beginning at verse 17. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness
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and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.
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Um from my notes I I wrote down these things. um right standing before right behavior that there there is no righteousness
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without being made righteous. And and so when when Paul puts uh these things in this string, righteousness and
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peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, we there must be the right standing. We must be born again.
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before we can be declared righteous. But having been made righteous,
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we can have peace with God. We can be reconciled. Without that righteousness imputed to us by Christ, we cannot have peace with God. And so there there's the
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gift and and then the things that come from the gift. Having been made righteous, we have peace with God. And then because
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we are made right, we have the right standing. And because we are declared at peace with God, then the joy
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comes as we come together. As our brother said, joy is done together in the body.
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Joy is not an isolated thing, but joy in the Holy Spirit is part of that fellowship in the spirit.
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Righteousness and peace and joy must first be received as blessings from above before they can be manifested as virtues among men. One commentator
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wrote, "They are grace gifts from the spirit."
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In Romans 15, Paul goes on to say, "But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again because of the grace that was given me from God to be a minister of Christ
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Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest, the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy
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Spirit." Paul knew that his ministry had come from God. It knew that he knew that his his gospel was the gospel of God in
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Christ. But he's addressing people who many of them thought his converts were unclean,
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were unclean, that they had not been circumcised, and that that Paul was
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saying to them that or they were he was opposed to share their gospel. their gospel. And Paul's saying, "No, they are clean
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because they are sanctified by the Holy Spirit because the spirit has indeed come to dwell in them." So in his defense of his ministry,
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he's not looking to his own wisdom, his own abilities. He's saying, "I know where my gospel
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comes from, comes from, but my offering of the Gentiles has become acceptable because it's sanctified by the Holy Spirit." They are set apart by him.
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in Philippians 3 just says simply, "For we are the true circumcision who worship in the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no
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confidence in the flesh." Um, again, Paul's standing in a in a place where he's seeing the spirit work. He's seeing
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the result of it, and he's not taking any credit for it at all. Um he's saying I I know where we stand
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because I've seen the spirit work and seeing the results of it. And this is what he says uh in 2
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Corinthians 1. Now he who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God who also sealed us and gave us gave
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us the spirit in our hearts as a pledge. God by his spirit marks out his
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for himself. He marks out his people and he secures them. And that's the idea here is that he has secured it them for the day of redemption. It goes back to the passages that we we
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read in the Old Testament where the the Holy Spirit um through the prophets reminds us of of of God constantly telling the children of Israel,
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"You shall be my people. I will be your God." To me, it's him saying, him saying, "I've redeemed you." And and the Holy
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Spirit is imprinting and and sealing in your your hearts, marking you out as my people as as a pledge as as a promise in your
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hearts. Um these are these are things that um they're real, they're truthful, and and they're astounding.
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And so I'll finish with Ephesians 3 and I'm just going to read it without commentary. This is Paul's prayer Paul's prayer and ought to be as I often think that
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if we just learn to pray as Paul prayed,
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Ephesians 3:14, for this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that he would grant you according to the
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riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And that you
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being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of
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Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Let us pray. Our
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heavenly father, we do rejoice in these things. We do ask that we might have this spirit of
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prayer along with Jesus, along with Paul, that we might be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit.
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A power that the world cannot know. A power that is is not ours to flaunt or to be arrogant about,
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but a power that allows us uh to live a life that pleases you. And to understand that because we are yours,
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because we are redeemed, because of the grace you've given us, we know your love. But we can also know that joy, that joy of the Holy Spirit, that joy of
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fellowship in the Holy Spirit and the building up of your church. We thank you for these things and we ask that you would do them. Do them in our church. In
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Christ's name we pray.