The Work of the Holy Spirit in Christ

Tonight we're on lesson number nine and it's the work of the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus. Last week Casey led us in studying the work of the Holy Spirit in creation and preservation and providence. That's God's work at the world at large, right? And that is work within us and even within the hearts of wicked people we read about last week. Next week we're going to be looking at the work of the Holy Spirit in redemption. But what we want to focus on today is one that you may not think about too much, and it's the work of the Holy Spirit in Christ. Christ lived a perfect life for 33 years here, right? He accomplished our redemption and He did that all in the power of the Holy Spirit. That was key to His, what we call His humiliation that we studied in Christology. And He continues in His exaltation to work with the Holy Spirit to accomplish redemption. So we'll be looking at that and then lastly what the import of that is for us today. So let's begin with Bible point number one.

This first point should be familiar if you remember from Christology. Christ means anointed — that's the first blank, anointed one. When we say Jesus Christ, Christ is not His last name. That is a divine title, which means anointed one. In the Old Testament, there were three mediatorial offices that were anointed with oil, those being the prophet, the priest, and the king. Some examples of that were Elisha the prophet — you can see that in 1 Kings 19:16. Aaron the high priest was anointed; we see that in Exodus 29:7. Then King David was anointed in 1 Samuel 16:13.

These three offices — prophet, priest, and king — were perfectly combined in Christ. He combined these mediatorial functions to accomplish our redemption. So Jesus is the perfect prophet. He's the one who speaks on God's behalf. He's the Word of God made flesh. He is the perfect priest, the one who would make intercession for us and who would make sacrifice for the people, because He was our sacrifice. And He is the king, the one who's delivered us from the domain of death and sin and darkness and into the domain of light.

Jesus Christ was anointed not with oil, not like a regular mediatorial office here on earth, but with the Holy Spirit. So the first blank is anointed, the second blank is oil, and the fourth blanks are the Holy Spirit. Christ was anointed by the Holy Spirit in all that He did as our prophet, as our priest, and as our king. John 3:34 through 35 — here we have John the Baptist speaking about Christ. And he says, "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God. For God does not give the Spirit by measure." In other words, he's saying that Christ speaks the word of God and He's anointed by the Spirit without measure. In other words, it's so poured out on Christ. Is not Christ infinite in His nature, right? And isn't the Holy Spirit infinite in His nature? Isn't the Father infinite in His nature? Because they're all three one God in three persons, right?

And in the Trinity, they experience the fullness of each other's persons. And Christ experienced the fullness of the Holy Spirit; it's poured on Him without measure.

Verse 35: "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand." The Spirit was an emblem, if you will, of the Father's love. He poured out the Spirit on the Son and gave the Son all authority, gave all things into His hand.

The application is this: was Christ's anointing limited, or held — held back, to redeem us? In other words, in accomplishing our redemption, did Christ hold anything back? Was any gift, anything held back from Him to accomplish our redemption?

No. God poured out His entire self, poured out the Holy Spirit on Christ to save you, right? That's how far He is willing to go, that He would hold nothing back but give us Himself in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus we find the fullness of God, and He poured out His life for us. And it was by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Bible point number two: the humiliation of Christ was His entire earthly ministry, from His conception to His crucifixion.

This was a voluntary submission of the eternal Son to the Father's will to accomplish the salvation of His people. In other words, for His 33-year life, Christ lived in perfect obedience to the Father. We were supposed to keep the law, weren't we?

Adam was put in the garden to obey the Lord and was made to tend the garden and to keep the garden, but he didn't. Adam and Eve failed, right? And so we owed a debt that we couldn't pay, a debt of holiness, a debt of righteousness. We are horrible at keeping the law, right? Because we're sinners. But Christ perfectly kept the law. He lived His life of humiliation for us to do what we failed to do.

In His humiliation, the Son's glory was veiled, obscured, and hidden so that it could be fully revealed on the cross. In humbling Himself to take upon human flesh, His divine glory that He had shared with the Father from the very beginning of all time was hidden. It was veiled.

And it was veiled so we could actually see it on the cross. At the cross, we see the fullness of God's glory, right? What greater love can you consider than that God would die for us? The Son of God, Christ, would die on behalf of wicked sinners like you and I. Would we die for someone that evil? Only Christ would, right? And so we see both the wrath of God and the love of God in the cross of Jesus Christ, this full glory revealed.

Christ communicated His divine — that's the first blank — His divine fullness to His human — that's the second blank — His human nature by the Holy Spirit. Spirit is the third blank. Christ communicated His divine fullness to His human nature by the Holy Spirit without mixing or confusing the two natures. Remember when we talked in Christology, we said that Christ was one person but with two natures. He was a divine person who took on a human nature in the incarnation, right? But those two natures are not mixed and they're not confused; they're forever separate, right? But the divine properties were passed over to the human properties by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowered Christ as a man to live faithfully, to keep the law, right? And is it not the same way that we are made to obey God? Can we obey God in and of our own strength? But by the Holy Spirit, can we not? Exactly right.

The God-man knew, taught, and performed only what the Spirit permitted and directed. So in His humiliation, He lived His perfect life — even in His teaching, in His actions — according to the will of the Father, right?

When permitted, Christ knew, taught, and performed not from without, like the prophets, but by virtue of His own — that's the fourth blank — His own inner divine power.

That means simply this: when we see in the Old Testament prophets, priests, and kings who acted on behalf of the people of God — say for example Elijah — and Elijah performed miracles, right? Did he do those by his own power?

No, he did those by the power of the Holy Spirit, right? He did those miracles. Christ, though, when permitted by the Holy Spirit, He used His own power, because Christ is God, right? And in His humiliation, He actually showed forth His glory in doing those miracles from His own power from within, because we can't deny that Christ is divine, right? There is an error sometimes in theology called Spirit Christology, where they attribute everything divine — every divine action of Christ — to the Holy Spirit, but that denies the divinity of Christ, right?

Let me show you what I mean by that. You have some reference verses there. I want to read to you a few of them from John. John chapter 2, verse 11 — this is speaking of the wedding at Cana, where He turned the water into wine. "This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him." They believed into Him is actually what it says in the Greek. But notice it connects His miracle there with the manifestation of His glory. When the Spirit permitted, His glory was revealed, right? His glory that was normally hidden, His glory that was veiled in His humiliation, broke forth, right? Broke forth from within. He was showing who He really was, that He was the divine Son of God.

We see the same thing in verses 24 and 25: "But Jesus did not commit Himself to them because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man." Christ Himself, as the divine Son of God, was omniscient. He knew what was in man. Power was His by divine right as the Son of God. And then in John 3:13, Jesus says, "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is the Son of Man who is in heaven." We see that Jesus, in a way that's inexplicable to us, had consciousness of being in heaven and on earth at the same time, right? Because He was omnipresent in His divine person.

So the point is that Christ did everything in His life in perfect obedience by the Holy Spirit. But He was divine. It wasn't just the Holy Spirit working. It was He Himself being the divine Son of God; when permitted by the Spirit, at the Spirit's direction, He revealed forth His own glory, right? And the same is with us as Christians. When the fruit of the Spirit is worked out through us, isn't that the very works of Christ, right? Isn't that the glory of Christ being revealed in you — Christ in you, the hope of glory, right?

The application is this: do we minister by our own power — that's the blank — or by the Spirit's power?

Do we minister by our own power or by the Spirit's power? The Spirit's power, right? We can do both, but there's nothing accomplished for the Lord's sake unless it's powered by the Spirit. Exactly right. The best of our works are wood, hay, and stubble, right? Ken is preaching this Sunday, and I'm looking forward to hearing him preach, but if Ken got behind a pulpit in his own power, unprayed up, and he was just trying to recite the lecture and trying to use his intellect — which would be great, and I'm sure he's a bright man and would be able to do it — (Audience Laughing) but the words would not have the effect, right? Because it's never the word without the Spirit, and never the Spirit without the word, right? So we minister in the Spirit's power.

Bible point number three: Christ's work of redemption was accomplished — that's the first blank — was accomplished in and with the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The Messiah's anointing was described long before His incarnation — incarnation is the second blank —

by the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah is the third blank. Long before Christ was incarnate in the flesh, His messianic work, His anointing by the Holy Spirit, was described over 700 years before by the prophet Isaiah. Flip over to the back; we're going to look at these. Isaiah 11:1 through 5 speaks of Christ 700 years before He's born.

It says, "There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse" — who was Jesse? David's dad, right?

"And a branch shall grow out of his roots.

"The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him" — shall rest upon the Messiah — this branch, this righteous branch that would come from the Davidic line. "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding." When He would speak, when He would teach the Sermon on the Mount, we see the work of the Holy Spirit, right? "The Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and all of His obedience when the devil tempted Him." Right? He was able to resist that temptation by the power of the Holy Spirit and the fear of the Lord. "The Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord; His delight is in the fear of the Lord. And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears, but with righteousness He shall judge the poor and decide with equity the meek of the earth. And He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth. And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins and faithfulness the belt of His waist." Describes Christ perfectly, right? This was a description that He would be working and be anointed in and with the Spirit throughout His whole ministry.

Isaiah 42, which is the first of five messianic songs in the book of Isaiah that we call the servant songs, speaks to the same thing. "Behold My servant." Originally, God's servant in the book of Isaiah is Israel, but Israel was a wicked servant, right? And so when we get to the latter part of Isaiah, we see the servant is referring to the Messiah, God's perfect servant, Christ. "Behold My servant whom I uphold, My elect one in whom My soul delights; I have put My Spirit on Him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He will not cry out nor raise His voice, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street." He would work meekly and humbly in His humiliation. "A bruised reed He will not break." Isn't that a wonderful promise? Are you a bruised reed? I am, right? "And a smoking flax He will not quench." He would show gentleness, right? "He will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail nor be discouraged till He has established justice in the earth, and the coastlines shall wait for His law. Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spreads forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people in it and spirit to those who walk in it. I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand," — He's speaking here of Christ — "I will keep you and will give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles." Christ is our covenant; He is the new covenant, right? The promise of God — all the promises of God find their yes and their amen in Christ. And He's a light to the Gentiles. He was meant from the very beginning not just for the Jews, but for the entire world, all the nations — "to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. I am Yahweh, that is My name. And My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images. Behold, the former things have come to pass and new things I declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them." Christ would be bringing in a new era, right? Ushered in with the Messiah. And it's the one whom God has put His Spirit on. We see that anointing. This was 700 years before Christ's incarnation.

Isaiah 61, which is the fifth and last of the servant songs in Isaiah,

says, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me." This is Messiah's own words, 700 years before He came to earth. He says, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord Yahweh has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to give them beauty for ashes, to console those in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." Isn't that a beautiful thing? That takes away our heaviness and gives us praise. "That they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, that He may be glorified." We're grafted into Christ, right?

And then lastly, Luke 4, which is actually in the New Testament. This was after Christ's incarnation. This is His very first sermon in Nazareth. What does He do? He reads from the servant songs. "So He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He opened the book, He found the place where it was written: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.' Then He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him, and He began to say to them, 'Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.'"

So before His incarnation,

it was predicted that He would be filled with the Spirit and He would do His entire ministry under the influence and the power of the Holy Spirit.

The application is this: trust that God has an eternally perfect plan for you.

If Christ's ministry, 700 years before His incarnation,

was already laid out,

that it would be done in the power of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit's anointing would be upon Him — do you not know, O Christian,

that you being filled with the Holy Spirit

was appointed from eternity past?

That's your salvation, right? Your regeneration is by the Holy Spirit.

Your union with Christ is made by the Holy Spirit. He spiritually made us one spirit with Him, right? So trust that He has a plan, an eternally perfect plan for you. We sometimes focus on the world around us and we think, "Where's God in all this?" Right? The very fact that you're here tonight tells you where God is in all this. He resides within you if you have trusted Christ, and His Spirit is within you, and He chose you in Him before the foundation of the world.

Bible point number four: the work of the Spirit in Christ's humiliation.

So during His humiliation — all the way from His conception to His crucifixion — it is described in several bullet points here. First of all, the prediction — that's the first blank — of Christ's coming. We're not going to read it, but 1 Peter 1 says that the prophets of old inquired as to what time the Messiah would be born. They knew that the Messiah was going to be born. Do you remember the wise men in Matthew's gospel,

how they looked to the stars and they looked into the Scriptures to try to ascertain when and where the Messiah would be born, right? That was by the Spirit. It says that through the Spirit they were able to ascertain this. You'll find that in 1 Peter 1:10.

The work of the Spirit in Christ's humiliation is described in the birth — that's the second one — the birth of Christ by the virgin. Let me read to you from Luke.

It's easy to look past this. Luke 1:35: "And the angel answered and said to her, 'Mary, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Highest will overshadow you. Therefore also that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.'" Christ's nativity, His conception, was by the Holy Spirit.

And Jesus's official consecration — consecration is the blank for bullet point number three — as Messiah.

Remember when Christ was baptized, we see the Holy Spirit descending on Him like a dove. You'll find that in all of the Gospels. I want to read to you from Luke 3 here.

This was for our benefit. It was to officially consecrate Christ in that role. "Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized. While He prayed, the heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him. And a voice came from heaven which said, 'You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.'" Then the very next verse — "Now Jesus Himself began His ministry," right? That was the kickoff, so to speak — of Him being our prophet, our priest, and our king — by the Holy Spirit lighting upon Him.

In Christ's wilderness temptation, we see the work of the Holy Spirit. We find that in Luke 4. Let me read to you verse 1.

"Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for 40 days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry. And the devil said to Him" — and of course we begin these temptations. Who led Christ into the wilderness? The Holy Spirit did, right?

Messiah had to be proved sinless, right? The Bible says that He learned obedience — He experienced obedience, right? And that was by the Spirit's working, right? Look what happens after His temptation.

We find in verse 14: "Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and news of Him went out throughout all the surrounding region." He went into the wilderness to be tempted in the power of the Spirit, and He left the wilderness also in the direction and influence, the power of the Holy Spirit. It was the Spirit's leading out of this temptation. That's our fifth bullet point: mission. The fourth bullet point is temptation; the fifth bullet point is mission.

Should you ever go on mission apart from the Spirit's leading?

No, right? There are lots of good things to be involved in in this world. Maybe you want to go collect money for UNICEF around Halloween time, like door to door some kids do. Maybe something that sounds good, but unless the Spirit's leading you to do it, don't do it, right? You want to be led by the Spirit in any mission that you are engaged in.

We also see, in Christ's ministry of preaching — this is for bullet point number six — in Christ's ministry of preaching and healing. In Luke 4:16: "So He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up. As His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read." And what does He read? "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me," right? So even His preaching ministry was by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In Christ ushering in the kingdom of God — that's next to the last bullet point there — where did He get that from? Look over at Matthew 12:28.

Remember Jesus cast out a demon and the Pharisees said, "You're casting him out by the power of the devil, by Beelzebub," right? Look what Jesus says: "But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you." See, the kingdom of God is now in your midst; it's breaking out by My authority being displayed even over the demons by the Spirit of God, right? He was ushering in His kingdom there in His ministry.

And then lastly, in Christ's death on the cross. I want to read to you from Hebrews 9:14.

"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" How did Christ accomplish our redemption? How did He offer Himself, but through the eternal Spirit of God, right?

The application is this: who enables you to serve the living God? That's the blank. Just as the eternal Spirit enabled Christ to offer Himself up to divine satisfaction, is that not the same for us? Will we ever be able to please God apart from the Holy Spirit? No, not at all.

Bible point number five.

In Christ's humiliation, the eternal Son of God set aside His divine glory with the Father. In Christ's exaltation, His glory with the Father is fully restored and made manifest — manifest is the blank here — to the universe. So in His humiliation, His glory was obscured, but in His exaltation, His glory is now on full display, right? It's no longer hidden; it's no longer obscure; it's made manifest. Manifest means to show forth, right. The exaltation of Christ is the resumption

of the eternal Son's independent exercise of His divine attributes and the restoration of the glory that He shares with the Father. No longer is His glory veiled. When you read Revelation 1, you see the description of Christ. His hair is white, eyes like fire, a sword protruding from His mouth — He's radiant in glory. That is who Christ is. His glory with the Father is no longer concealed. And when He returns, He's not going to come, as we sang this past Sunday, in lowly servant form. He's going to come as triumphant king, right? When He returns.

The exaltation of Christ was initiated at His quickening and resurrection. It was shown in His ascension and session. It will be fully displayed to all in judgment. In His exalted state, Christ is forever the one mediator — mediator is the second blank — mediator between God and man, anointed with the Spirit and working with Him to sanctify and perfect His beloved bride, the church. The church is the third blank.

Christ did everything in His humiliation in the power of the Holy Spirit. But you know what? In His exaltation, He also works with and through the Holy Spirit in all of His mediatorial offices, because He's forever our prophet, priest, and king, right?

How is the exalted Christ continually our prophet?

Does He not send the Holy Spirit? And does not the Holy Spirit lead us and guide us into all truth, quickening our understanding, giving us understanding, right?

How is He continually not only our prophet, but our priest?

Intercession, yes. Remember, we've talked about how Christ is at the right hand of God the Father interceding for us. And whenever He's interceding for us — which is continually, the Bible says — before the throne of God, the Holy Spirit is echoing that in our hearts, interceding in our hearts with groanings that cannot be uttered, right? So at the same time that Christ is interceding, thundering His voice before the Father, the Holy Spirit is interceding within our hearts, right?

And how is Christ continually our king?

Exactly right. Does He not lead us and direct us by His Holy Spirit, who lives within us, right?

Acts 2:30 through 33 says — he, speaking of David, this is the great sermon at Pentecost by Peter, speaks of David — "He, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ" — that's the anointed one — "that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.

"This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear." In His exalted state, He's received the Spirit that He then pours out on us. What affects Christ as the head affects us as the body, right? We talked a few weeks ago in the outpouring of the Spirit that Pentecost is proof of His enthronement, of His exaltation, because He takes the Spirit and He pours it out on His body, the church.

The application for number five is this: how is Christ continually our prophet, priest, and king? Continually is the blank. He's continually our prophet, priest, and king because that's His office forever, and He functions through His church by His Spirit, right? That He has poured out on us.

Christ can be universally present in each of our hearts because the Holy Spirit is in our hearts, right? Christ can lead us through His word and Spirit because the Spirit makes the word applicable to us. He takes the things of Christ and applies them to His body, His church.

Bible point number six: in Christ's exalted state,

the Spirit works with Christ as He forever is our anointed prophet, priest, and king. The work of the Spirit in Christ's exalted state is described in Christ's resurrection — that's the first blank. You'll see several verses here, Romans 1, Romans 8, 1 Timothy 3, that ascribe the resurrection of Christ to the Holy Spirit. The resurrection of Christ is actually ascribed to all three persons: it's ascribed to the Father; it's ascribed to the Son — He says, "No one takes My life; I'll lay it down and I'll take it again," right? But three times it's ascribed to the Holy Spirit, right? And that's so important because He says that just as the Spirit raised Christ from the dead, that same resurrection power will raise you from the dead, right?

We also see it in Christ's post — post is the blank — post-resurrection ministry.

When we read the book of Acts, we oftentimes miss the first two verses, and it shows us the work of the Spirit in Christ. It says, "The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen."

Post-resurrection, Christ walked this earth for 40 days, right? And He taught His disciples many things during those 40 days. And it says that He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles, right? So His teaching, even in His exalted state — because His exaltation begins at the resurrection — is still in and with the Holy Spirit.

In Christ's ascension — that's the third bullet point — we're not going to read it, but we've read Ephesians 4 before, which says that Christ ascended on high, led captivity captive, and He gave gifts to man, right? He poured out His Spirit on us.

In Christ's enthronement — enthronement is the fourth point — this is another way that we see the Spirit's work in Christ's exalted state. I want to read to you from Psalm 2 here.

This is, of course, a messianic psalm.

"Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed." That's the Messiah. The Spirit is poured out on the Messiah, saying, "Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath and distress them in His deep displeasure. Yet have I set My king on My holy hill of Zion." This is the enthronement of Christ. "I will declare the decree: the Lord has said to Me, 'You are My Son; today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.'" "Therefore be wise, O kings of the earth," He goes on to say, right?

So His enthronement was because He was the anointed one — He's Christ, the anointed one. We also see, in Christ's abiding presence, the work of the Holy Spirit in Christ's exalted state. Christ says, "I'm not going to leave you as orphans; I will come to you" — but how does He come to us? Through His Spirit. You'll find that in John 14:16 through 21.

In Christ's gospel proclamation, the Spirit is the witness of Jesus Christ. He's the one who empowers us to witness and He's the one who testifies of Christ. You'll find that in John 15:26 and 27, and also Hebrews 2:3 through 4.

In Christ's intercessory ministry, we know that Christ intercedes for us before the Father and in our hearts through His Spirit.

In Christ's glorifying the bride — I did make a typo here; I have 1 Corinthians, that should be 2 Corinthians — 2 Corinthians 3:17 through 18. Let me read that to you.

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is" — what?

"Liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."

We are beholding the face of Christ through faith,

and the Spirit is conforming us into His image. He's glorifying His bride. He's making the bride of Christ radiant. We, the church, are the bride of Christ. He's making us into His image. And then we see, of course, when you get to Revelation 19, that He gives her white robes, right? Because she'll be perfectly glorified. One day we'll leave behind our sin nature. One day we'll leave behind our proclivity to sin. One day we'll leave behind our imperfections. And in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall be changed, right? "This mortal shall put on immortality; this corruptible shall put on incorruption." And what a glorious state that's going to be. And that's done by His Spirit.

And then, of course, in Christ's coming judgment — Revelation 22 — we see the Spirit says, along with the church, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Exactly right.

What does the anointed one — that's the Messiah, anointed with the Spirit — live for? That's the blank. What does the anointed one live for? The answer is in Hebrews 7:24 through 25. I'm going to let you all look that up and see who can get the answer first. What does the anointed one live for?

You got it, Jimmy. Jimmy got it: to make intercession. It says — let me read this to you in verses 24 and 25 — "But He, Christ, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them." We have an anointed high priest who lives to make intercession for His bride.

This week we've had a lot of prayer requests going back and forth. Ken has a couple of families who have children who are dying and we've been praying for Miriam, right? Is it Andrew? Yeah, praying for Andrew and hoping for life there. And we don't even know these people. Ken knows them, but we don't. But because he's our brother in Christ, we agree with him, right? And so we share in prayer. It's good to know that people are praying for you. How much better is it to know that the Holy Spirit has anointed the Messiah, Christ, in His eternal work as our priest to make intercession for the saints? It's incredible.

Bible point number seven.

Through the working and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, God, in His person of Son, was fully incarnate — incarnate is a blank — in Christ, the God-man. Man is a second blank. I want you to read through this carefully, okay?

It may sound tricky at first. Through the working and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, God, in His person of Son, was fully incarnate in Christ, the God-man. Christ took on a human nature in His incarnation, right?

How could humanity perfectly obey the Father?

How could human flesh please the Father, but by the Spirit, right? He was fully able to show us who God is on the cross because of His anointing of the Holy Spirit, right? That's what we read in Hebrews — that He through the eternal Spirit offered Himself up on our behalf, right?

Acts 10:38 says this: "You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him." Isn't that a beautiful verse? He says that "God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and so He went about doing good. All of His works were done in the power of the Holy Spirit. His healings were done by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lifting the oppression — freeing people from the grips of Satan — was done by the Holy Spirit, for God was with Him." And how was God with Him? But through the Spirit, right?

How about us? Do we not have the Holy Spirit within us, right? And so can we go about freeing men through the gospel? Right? There's no greater ability that anyone has than to be able to share the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. That alone can change worlds, can change hearts; it can take people out of darkness and translate them into light. That's more powerful than curing cancer.

And we have that Holy Spirit, who have been anointed with Him, poured out on us in His power, right? So use that power to preach the gospel, right? To preach the Lord Jesus Christ.

Likewise, Christ is personally present in us and we are forever in Him through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Just as God was in Christ through the Holy Spirit that was poured out on Him, we are forever in Christ by the Holy Spirit. What unites us to Christ is His Holy Spirit. When we place our faith and our trust in Christ, the Holy Spirit comes in and makes a down payment of glory, right? Brings God into us, mediates the presence of the Father and the Son into our hearts forever, and we're sealed with the Holy Spirit.

Look at John 14:16 through 20. "And I will pray the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever." Is the Holy Spirit a fair-weather friend who just comes for a visit on occasion? No, He abides with us forever. "The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

"I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you." How does Christ come to you? But by the Spirit, right? "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also." How do we see Christ, but by the Spirit, right?

When I look out into this congregation, because I know your lives, I see Christ. I see Christ in you because the Holy Spirit is working out the fruit of Christ in your life, right? So I can see love, I can see compassion, I can see faithfulness, I can see gentleness, I can see self-control, because Christ dwells in you, right?

It says, "I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. And a little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. And that day you will know that I am in My Father and you in Me and I in you." So you are with Christ right now, by His Spirit.

The application is this: how should we then live? Live is the blank. There was a famous book that you probably have heard of called "How Should We Then Live?" — considering the work of God throughout all history. Considering the work of the Holy Spirit, how then should we live? I've referenced here 1 Corinthians 6:19 through 20. I want you to turn there — and that'll be the last passage we look at — 1 Corinthians 6:19 through 20.

Because the Spirit dwells within us, because the Holy Spirit mediates the presence of God the Father and God the Son within us, and God is always with us and He will never leave us as Christians — how should we then live?

Paul writes to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 6:19 and 20: "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's."

Been bought with a price. Let us live for His glory by His Spirit.