We have considered the person and the work of the Holy Spirit, the great need of the person and work of the Holy Spirit, how utterly dependent all creation is upon the Holy Spirit, how utterly dependent the lost are on the Spirit to give common grace to restrain them from sin. To incite the lost, even to do good. To even equip the lost to do good. To advance any cultural attainments in our society. Brethren, the Holy Spirit is working. Not only through saving grace, acts of saving grace, but common grace, restraining grace. But specifically, we've also seen clearly how every Christian is completely dependent upon the Holy Spirit for regeneration, for sanctification and even for assurance. Some of our headline scriptures that we've attempted to highlight these truths with Jesus's upper room discourse in John 16 and verse 8. He says when he comes, that would be the comforter, he will convict or convince or reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. And that's absolutely needful for the people of God, for the world to be saved. The Spirit must come and do that. We went from there to establish the fact of every Christian Having the Holy Spirit, Romans 8, 9, if any man have not the Spirit of God, he's none of his. And then particularly Romans 8, 14, as many as are led by the Spirit, these are the sons of God. So every Christian is always being led by the Spirit of God. Always led. We went from there the following week to Ephesians 5 and verse 18 to establish our responsibility to be filled with the Spirit. In 5.18, he says, Be not drunk with wine, wearing its excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit. And then we followed that message with another message where we spoke about being strengthened in the Spirit. And John read the Scripture, 2 Timothy 1-7 this morning. God has not given us a spirit of fear. You say, well, I'm afraid of this and that. It's not the Spirit of God giving you a spirit of fear. He's not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. So that's spiritual strengthening. Second, Timothy one seven. And then we went from there to establish the truth of every Christian being sealed with the Holy Spirit. This this assurance that that should give us this authentication, identification as a genuine believer. God has given us his spirit and Ephesians one 14. Well, you are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest. of your inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of His glory. So every Christian is sealed with the Holy Spirit. And then last Lord's Day, I spoke about the comfort of the Holy Spirit, which is really a message on assurance, but I particularly focused in on comfort. And I used Romans 15, 13, and I hope you're maybe wanting to memorize that. Now, the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing and that you would abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. The comfort of the Holy Spirit. And I hope everyone at least got this from that message. The Holy Spirit is the comforter, but Jesus is the comfort. Christ is the comfort. The Spirit always takes the reality, the gospel, the person and work of Christ and sets that before His people. And that's how we're comforted. If you're not comforted today, it's because that's not in your heart and your mind. You're turned aside from him. You can always be comforted by the comforter with the comfort that we have in Christ. Well, my desire, I have one more message, but I don't think I'm going to get through it all today, so I'm probably going to stop about midway and we'll, Lord willing, finish it next week. This is a, to me, a more difficult, weighty, meaty subject when it comes to the Holy Spirit. It is the reality of the Holy Spirit in the person of Jesus Christ. And my desire in this message today and next week is that as you learn more about who Christ is and how He lived as a man, that you would, as Peter hoped at the end of his second epistle, you would grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just to know Him better and know Him more, that we might love Him more. So today we're going to begin This is not so much what I would call maybe a sermon as more of a teaching. So we're going to begin to consider this great work of the Holy Spirit in the life of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In order to do so, it's important for us to remember what the Bible teaches about our Lord. He's the second person of the Godhead. He is eternally begotten of the Father, and you need to You need to get that. He is eternally begotten of the Father. He's always been the Son. He's always been the Son of God. He is fully God. He is eternal, incomprehensible. He is all-powerful, and that's what we would call omnipotent. He is all-knowing, and we call that omniscient. And he is everywhere present. And we would call that omnipresent. This is the Lord Jesus. In the fullness of time, we know Jesus came and voluntarily assumed a human nature so that he could be called at the same time God and man. And while continuing to be God all this time, he then became man. Jesus, we can say, was different from anyone else who's ever lived on this earth, in that he was not only a complete man, but he was fully God. And because of this great truth, brethren, Christians have sometimes doubted the necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ. He was God. He didn't need the Spirit. Some have reasoned that if Christ is God Himself, and He is, then He doesn't need the Holy Spirit. He can do all things necessary because He's God. Therefore, one may be tempted to relegate the Holy Spirit to a very minimal role in the life of Christ. And that's a mistake. That's error. I believe it's error because it's caused by overemphasizing the divinity of Christ while minimizing the humanity of Christ. As far as his divine nature is concerned, brethren, his deity, as far as we can consider that, the Holy Spirit has little influence on the deity of Christ. The second person of the Trinity is co-equal with the third person of the Trinity. But when we consider the human nature of Jesus Christ, his humanity, he needed the constant presence of the Holy Spirit in his life. So that's what we're going to consider. We're going to begin to consider that today, the work of the Holy Spirit in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are considering a doctrine which the theologians call the hypostatic union of Christ. which is a union of his divine nature and his human nature, the hypostatic union of Christ. And it's in one person. I like and I can sympathize with what Martin Luther said about this doctrine of the hypostatic union of Christ. He said we should need, quote, new tongues. before we could properly set forth this doctrine of the hypostatic union of Christ. Brethren, this is meat, which I have a hard time chewing up. It is strong meat. It's solid food. But it helps us to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, to see Him fully as who He is, and to bring Him even more glory. This is something we'll all have to chew on. To receive understanding and the blessing from it, I like what the writer of Hebrews said in 514, he said, but strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who, by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So this is something we can use, brethren. This is something that will give us discernment and wisdom if we understand the Holy Spirit's work in the life of Jesus Christ. I'm going to read you something called The Symbol of Chalcedon. It was written in 451 A.D. It was an early document of the early church fathers that spoke to this understanding of this hypostatic union of Christ. It's kind of a lengthy paragraph, but I think it's very well written and worded and may help us to understand this a little better. So listen while I read this symbol of Chalcedon or Chalcedon. It begins, We then, following the holy fathers, all with one consent, Teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood, truly God and truly man, of a reasonable soul and body, consubstantial with the Father according to the Godhead and consubstantial with us according to the manhood, in all things like unto us, yet without sin. begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary according to His manhood, one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusably, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably, the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one person and one subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, the Only Begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning him and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us and the creed of the Holy Fathers has handed down to us." It's important for us to know, brethren, that the Lord Jesus remained completely at the same time He was completely God, He was completely man. And He remains so. Because His human nature was indivisible from His divine nature doesn't mean that His human nature changed and became fused with His divine nature. The union of these two natures doesn't mean that his divine nature gave divine qualities to his human nature, like omnipotence, omniscience. This would mean that Christ ceased to be truly man and that he was only God, and that's not so. The scriptures tell us that Jesus, while he was remaining to be God, was also so completely a man that he grew from a baby to a boy to a young man and to a man. It tells us that he was tempted in all points like as we are, Hebrews 4.15. It tells us he didn't even know the day of his second coming in Mark chapter 13 verse 32. And it even says he was forsaken of his father on the cross. The distinction of Christ's two natures always remain, being at the same time completely God and completely man, eternal yet finite. So it's not easy, is it, to understand this. But we must conclude, brethren. I'm going to kind of give you my summary at the beginning and then we'll reiterate that as we go along and then we'll make some closing remarks and conclusion application next time. Listen, since Jesus was completely a man, I mean, when you look at one of the men in here, Jesus was a man, just like you see a man here. Since he was completely a man, There was room and there was need for the Holy Spirit during his entire life. The Bible says this in many places and in many ways, and as you read your Bible, you will see that the Holy Spirit was operative in the life of our Lord Jesus from his incarnation to his resurrection to his death and resurrection and even his ascension ultimately to glory. The Holy Spirit working in him. So what do we conclude before we even begin here? Brethren, if we see his need and his dependence on the Holy Spirit as a perfect man, and he was a perfect man, how it ought to demonstrate to you and to me our utter need and our utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit to function, to live, to advance, to be sanctified, to glorify God, So we're going to consider the Holy Spirit in His incarnation. We're going to consider the Holy Spirit in His being indwelled by the Holy Spirit. We're going to consider the Holy Spirit in Jesus' growth as a young boy. We're going to consider it in His baptism, in His temptation, in His death, and in His resurrection. And then we'll make concluding application next time. So let's begin with the first topic here, His incarnation. And I hope you all understand when we speak of incarnation, the birth of Christ, Him becoming a human, God becoming a man, that act whereby the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, eternal Son of God, the Word, He became flesh and dwelt among us, as John 1.14 tells us. The Holy Spirit was needed at the very start of Jesus's life. His incarnation was effected by or accomplished by the Holy Spirit. We have some familiar scriptures. You can turn or you can just listen because these will be very familiar to you. Matthew 1.18. Matthew records, he says, the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise. This is how it came down, if you will. When his mother Mary was a spouse to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. In other words, Mary was found to be pregnant by or from the Holy Spirit. And then we know Luke 1.35, the angel comes to Mary and says to her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon you. And the power of the highest shall overshadow you. Therefore, that holy thing, it's really interesting, this word holy thing is an impersonal noun in the Greek. And what could that refer to? Because Jesus as a baby is not impersonal. He's a person. But this holy thing, the theologians and I agree with the commentators, this is talking about his human nature as a thing that was in Christ. Therefore, also that holy thing, that that human nature of Christ, which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. You see, brethren, the Holy Spirit was the efficient cause of the conception of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the one, not God the Father, not Jesus Christ the Son, certainly not Joseph, who planted the seed of life in a mysterious and miraculous way in Mary's womb. It was the Holy Spirit. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Now, this doesn't mean that the other persons of the Trinity aren't involved in the incarnation of Christ. Christ said of his own incarnation in Hebrews 10, verse 5, he says, Wherefore, when he comes into the world, he says, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me. And then he goes on, he says, in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou had no pleasure. Then said I, lo, in the volume of the book it's written of me, I come to do thy will, O God. So there he's talking about God has prepared him a body. There's a sense in which God did prepare him a body. In other words, the Father prepared Christ's human nature. Human nature indwells our body. But really, your body is a part of your human nature. It makes you a human. But the Son of God also was the co-author of His own incarnation. He was not passively born as you and I were. You and I were just there when we were born. That's about all you had to do with it. You were there. But not so with the Son of God. He was not passively born. He was actively a part of His own becoming flesh. He willingly and voluntarily chose to be conceived in Mary's womb. Listen to Philippians 2, you know this well as well. Philippians 2, 6, speaking of Christ, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but Christ made himself of no reputation and Christ took upon himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. So Paul reveals that Christ himself was actively involved in his own incarnation. So God, the Father, God the Son as well as God the Holy Spirit were active in His incarnation. But I think we can say it was especially the work of the Holy Spirit. That's how the Scripture is depicted. He was the efficient cause of Mary being found with child. He was the power of the Most High that overshadowed her and the efficient cause of Christ's conception. It is what the Apostle Creed says. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. and born of the Virgin Mary. It was the Holy Spirit that was the efficient cause. Let me ask you this, and this is very important. Why was it necessary that Christ be conceived by the Holy Spirit and not conceived by Joseph? Why is that important? Brethren, it is essential for Him to be our Savior that He were conceived by the Holy Spirit. He had to be sinless. He had to be different. His human nature had to be, in a sense, different in that it was sinless. When he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, it preserved him from original sin. And that is your lot and that's my lot. We weren't preserved from original sin when we came into this life, but Jesus was because he was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Through our conception and birth, we came forth unholy. full of blame and guilt. We came forth impure, and we came forth as one with all the other sinners that have ever been born into this world. But through Christ's conception by the Holy Spirit, He came forth holy, harmless, undefiled, and in a sense, separate from sinners. David says that he, along with every other person, was shapen in iniquity and in sin did his mother conceive him, Psalm 51 and 5. Every person that's ever been born into this world comes with two elements of original sin. The first element is guilt that you inherited from Adam. You came forth from your mother's womb already guilty. Already guilty. You inherited from Adam this original sin. He acted as our federal head, if you will, our representative in the Garden of Eden. So that's the first element of original sin that we came forth with. The second element was a corrupt nature. Not only guilt, but we had a corrupt nature. In other words, we were inclined to evil. We're inclined to do wrong when we're born. David said in Psalm 58-3, he came forth from his mother's womb speaking lies. Now, he doesn't mean a baby starts speaking. He means that's the inclination of a baby's heart, to deceive, to lie. You don't have to teach a child to tell a lie. It just comes natural. You have to teach them to tell the truth and to do right. So that's the second element of original sin, a corrupt nature. And this original sin is yours and it's mine before we're even capable of sinning. It's there. It comes by virtue of our birth. And if God doesn't intervene by a miraculous work of his saving grace, that corrupt nature that you and I were born with, and at first seems so innocent when you look at a little baby and a little child, but if God does not intervene miraculously by His grace, that corrupt nature will in time come out. And it's ugly, and it's selfish, and it's wicked, and it's destructive. But, when we think about our Lord Jesus, And his conception by the Holy Spirit, he was preserved from these two elements of original sin, preserved from guilt that comes from Adam. And he was preserved from a corrupt nature. He was that holy thing that was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Christ. And I don't think anybody here believes this, but Christ, not Mary, was immaculately conceived. There is a teaching by the Roman Catholic Church that Mary was kept from original sin. It's not true. Mary is just like any of you, born with a corrupt nature. Christ was immaculately conceived, no corrupt nature. He was a true and complete man, yet without sin. Hebrews 4.15 says, We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted Like as we are, yet without sin. He's just like you and I, yet without sin. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 1 Peter 2.22, speaking of Jesus said, Who did no sin. Neither was guile found in his mouth." Again, Hebrews 7.26, he was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. So Christ didn't inherit the guilt of Adam's sin as other men do, nor did he receive a human nature that was morally corrupt. His nature was spotless. It was beautiful. It was morally perfect. It was something the world has never seen before. And this spotless purity of Christ was due to the operation of the Holy Spirit, whereby Christ was miraculously and immaculately conceived without Joseph taking part. So we see that the Holy Spirit was necessary at the very beginning of the life of Christ, from its very inception, and that for two reasons. Again, first, in order for Him to be born at all, He was God and He had to have a body and a human nature prepared for Him. And that was the work of the Holy Spirit. But secondly, that His human nature would be preserved from the guilt and the corruption of Adam's sin. So He could be our Savior. He could be a spotless, sacrificial lamb to take away our sins. He had to be conceived and born of the Holy Spirit in order to be our Savior. As hard as it is to imagine, there are people out there teaching that He didn't have to be virgin born. That is heresy. It's terrible error. If he were not virgin born, conceived by the Holy Spirit, he is in no way able to save anyone. He must be as the scriptures depict him to be free from guilt and free from corruption of nature. And he was. So that's his incarnation, the necessity of the Holy Spirit and the reality of the Holy Spirit in His incarnation. And just as we said, Jesus had to be conceived and born of the Holy Spirit in order to be our Savior. We could turn that coin over. You and I must be born again of the Holy Spirit if we would ever know Him as our Savior. So it's required of us as well. Well, the second heading here, not only his incarnation by the Holy Spirit, but his indwelling by the Holy Spirit. Not only did the Holy Spirit keep Jesus from any taint of sin, but he was also the author of holiness in his nature. John the Baptist said of Jesus in John 334, For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God. For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him." In other words, Jesus had the Spirit without limit. He had the Spirit without measure, without limit. The truth is, beloved, the Holy Spirit is the source of any and all holiness in us. You don't have any holiness except that which the Spirit has worked in you. So if Christ had the Spirit without measure, and He did, if He had the Spirit without limit, He was always full of the Holy Spirit. This refers to Christ as a man, of course, and not as God. And this means that the Holy Spirit came and dwelt in Christ Jesus as a man. The Holy Spirit came and took up abode in Christ, much the same as He dwells in the Christian. Think of these scriptures, 1 Corinthians 3.16. Paul says, Know you not that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Or that's a reality for every Christian. You have to know you're the temple of God. And because you are the temple of God, there's another reality that goes along with that. The Holy Spirit resides in you without exception. 1 Corinthians 6 19 Paul says again what know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you and you have of God which you have of God and you are not your own same truth you're the temple and because you're the temple God resides by his spirit in you now think of something Jesus said and what we're trying to to proved by the Scriptures is, did Jesus have always the Holy Spirit dwelling in Him? Was it even needful? I think Jesus may have made reference to this in dwelling of the Spirit in John 2.19. Remember, Jesus answered, said unto them, He said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up. Then said the Jews, forty and six years was this temple, this building, being built. And how are you going to rear it in three days? And then Jesus clarifies what he meant. It says, but he spake of the temple of his body. So Jesus says, just like Paul said of us, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, my body is the temple and you're going to destroy it in three days, but I'm going to raise it up again. So in a sense, brethren, as Jesus referred to his body as a temple, so the Holy Spirit dwelt in him as a man. He was indwelt by the Spirit always. Always indwelt, always led by the Spirit as a man. Well, I'm going to look at one more heading here, and it's His growth. And this will take a little longer, and this is a little more difficult to understand. Even though it is true that the Holy Spirit dwelt in the Lord Jesus without measure as a man, it is also true that there was growth in His spiritual life. that may cause you to feel a little uncomfortable to think that Jesus grew in His spiritual life. So He was God. He had a spirit without measure. We don't need to deny this truth out of a reaction to some sort of modernism or out of our own desire to safeguard the deity of Christ. It's not necessary. If he was not a complete man in every way as we are, yet without sin, then he's not our Savior. And we know he is our Savior, and therefore he must be a kinsman redeemer for us. Listen to these scriptures, Luke 240. Speaking of the child, Jesus, it says, And the child grew. and wax strong in spirit." Your translation may say, increased in wisdom. So here's a child the Scriptures depict as growing and increasing in spirituality, increasing in wisdom. We're not talking worldly wisdom, we're talking about godly perspective. The wisdom of God, He increased in that. It says, He was filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon Him. The same chapter, Luke 2, verse 52, again says, Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Listen, He increased in wisdom and stature and He also increased in favor with God. Jesus increased in favor? He advanced in favor with His Heavenly Father? Stick with me. I'm just reading the Scriptures here. I understand it's difficult to understand. Luke is telling us that there was growth in Jesus' physical body. There was growth in His intellectual abilities to understand and communicate, of course. There was growth in his spiritual life as well. Jesus did not come into this world as an adult like Adam did. God created Adam a man, a mature man. Jesus came into this world as a baby. And he had to learn to crawl. He had to learn to walk. He had to learn to talk. As a boy, he learned from his father. He continued to grow and increase in wisdom until he finally became a mature man. It's amazing in this one chapter, Luke chapter 2, Luke calls the Lord a baby in verses 12 and 16. He calls Him a child in verse 40. And then the King James says again in verse calls him later a child, but other translations, a boy. It's a different word, child. It means a young boy. And then finally, he's called Jesus in verse 52. And you see this progression, this maturity in his life. And again, this teaches us that Jesus was truly a man. He was a person just like you and I are. And his human nature was not endowed Through his union with his divine nature, his human nature was not endowed with a divine attribute such as being all powerful. All knowing and everywhere present. But he was born as a baby, and as the Bible says, he grew and he increased in wisdom. He increased in spirituality. And because of this, he actually increased in favor with God and with man. The only way to understand this is to remember that all of this growth refers only to Jesus's humanity, only to his human nature. His Godhead could not grow in any sense. His divinity could not grow because that was complete. And the Bible even says in him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So there was no increase, there was no growth, there was no maturity in his Godhead. Remember that the Son of God humbled Himself. We read that in Philippians 2. He emptied Himself. He restricted His own glory. He made Himself dependent on the Holy Spirit for His own growth spiritually. Now brethren, you talk about humiliation and humility and humbling himself. He, as God, becoming a man, He emptied Himself and restricted His own glory. He restricted His omniscience, if you will. He laid aside much of His glory so He could identify with us. So He could be a real man, yet a perfect man. Completely dependent for His walk. and His growth and His spirituality and His communion with God completely dependent on the Holy Spirit. Doesn't it just baffle you that God manifests in the flesh, spent so much time in prayer? He's all-powerful. He's all-knowing. He's God. Why does He have to pray? He prayed because He was a man. And He was a Spirit-filled and Spirit-led man. And He was dependent upon the Holy Spirit. Because He had set aside, He had veiled much of His glory. And we have to know, brethren, all of the increase, all of the growth in the life of the Lord Jesus was due to the Holy Spirit. It was not automatic growth. It wasn't due to the fact that the man Christ Jesus was inseparably connected with his divine nature. If that were the case, it would deny and destroy the true humanity of Christ. And the Bible tells us that even as an adult in the midst of his full ministry, he didn't even know the exact date of his second coming. And again, we studied that and read it in Mark 13. He says, Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. So the spiritual and the intellectual growth in the Lord Jesus was due to the operation of the Holy Spirit in his life. The prophet Isaiah predicted this in chapter 11 of Isaiah. He begins that chapter, he said, There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. And this Spirit shall make him, and that's referring to Christ clearly, this Spirit shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. Can you understand there? The Scriptures are prophesying that the Holy Spirit is going to teach Jesus. It's going to give Him wisdom and spiritual understanding. And He goes on, He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears. In other words, He would be led by the Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit that came on the Lord Jesus Christ. And as far as His human nature is concerned, It caused him as a little baby to become a boy and to become stronger and to increase in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. And as a growing young man, Jesus needed the Holy Spirit. Here's Jesus full of the Holy Spirit from His birth, from His conception. And yet it took the very operation of the Spirit to reveal to Jesus who He was. You see, Jesus as a 3-year-old, I don't want to say what the Scriptures don't say, but I doubt Jesus knew He was the Messiah as a 3-year-old, as a 5-year-old. When He gets to be in the temple at 12 years old and He's there debating, He begins to have some understanding that, hey, these things I'm reading and hearing and teaching I must be about my father's business. This has got something to do with me. But even then, brethren, he continued to grow and increase in his understanding and learning. And we'll see next week at his baptism and this anointing of the Holy Spirit fully coming on him. And he was then ready to preach who he was and to declare to the world who he was. But this came in time. He increased. in favor with God. He entered into who He was in a much, much lesser degree. To a much lesser degree, brethren, you and I as Christians who have the Holy Spirit and have the resource of the fullness of God in us, the knowledge of the Gospel, the knowledge of Christ, we have all things needful for life in Godliness. The life of sanctification, the life of growth and grace as a Christian is entering into who we are and what's been done for us. And that's what the Spirit's doing in sanctification. He's leading us more and more and more in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. We just begin to understand this whole thing of who we are in Christ. And the more you identify with Him, if you're in Him, the holier and the happier you are, day in and day out. And so to a much greater degree, this happened with the Lord Jesus. The Spirit began to reveal more and more who you are and what the Scripture says about you. And He entered into who He was, that He was a Messiah. And then He declared it. It's just so amazing to think about His humanity. It's mind boggling. As again, Luther says, there are not words. We need new tongues. But think of this baby in a manger. Here is the very word of God who cannot speak a word. Just amazing paradoxes. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, even from his birth, yet he was completely unable to express or demonstrate that holiness because of this voluntary restriction that he placed upon himself, his human nature. The exercise of his holy nature would be seen only as his mind and his body grew and he increased in wisdom and stature. Hebrews 5.8 says, Though he were a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. How does someone that knows everything learn anything? He did as a human being in his humanity. He learned, he entered into the reality of his obedience by suffering. And it's not that he was ever disobedient. Don't ever get that thought. But he had to develop that innate holy disposition that the Holy Spirit had already planted in him. That which while he was a baby and a young boy, he couldn't express it. I know there are a couple of new Christians among us. There is something in you It's really in you, but you cannot yet fully understand it and you can't certainly express it. You can't even walk in it. Not in a way that an old saint can. A saint who's walked with the Lord for years and years and prayed and read and heard and suffered. They understand and they can express and they can more fully Glorify God. And be comforted, maybe in a way that you can't yet be. And we see this in the very life of Christ. He always had the spirit without measure. But as he grew and as he matured as a young man, the spirit would have him without measure. That's what we need to grasp in our own life. If you're a Christian, you have the presence, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But this thing of being filled with the Spirit, it's that the Spirit might have all of you. You always have all of Him. When we're exhorted to be filled with the Spirit, it's not like we would get more of the Spirit. You have the Spirit. But it's that He would have more of us and all of us. That's being filled with the fullness of God, the very love of Christ that we can't even really comprehend, being full of that. So we see that not only was the Spirit necessary for the conception and the birth of the Lord Jesus, it was necessary for the whole period of His growth. as a child and his maturing as a young man. Jesus made himself dependent on the leading and the filling of the Holy Spirit in order that he might be a perfect offering for our sin. Yes, he was very God, a very God, yet he was truly, truly the man, Christ Jesus. Amazing, a God man. What a Savior we have who was made like you and like me, yet without sin. He was born of the Holy Spirit. You and I must be born of the Holy Spirit. All his days he was indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and as a believer, so are you. He grew and he matured by the Holy Spirit, and you and I, that's the only way. We must walk in the Spirit. We must submit to the Spirit, to His leading. He must have all of us. I want to go on, but I'm going to stop because I can't go to the next topic. We've exhausted our time. Lord willing, we're going to continue. We're going to look at His baptism, the Spirit's part in His baptism, His temptation, of course, His death, and His resurrection. All these things that the Holy Spirit was intimately, actively involved in the life of Christ. And then we'll try to make some application for us next time to help us. Let's pray. Father, we thank You so much for Your Word. Lord, we thank You for the deep things of God. We thank You for the difficult things that humble us. Lord, Your ways are so high above our ways. They're in some sense even past finding out. Lord, they're almost too high for us, but Lord, You've declared them in Your Word, and so we too must declare them. Jesus Christ, Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a Virgin Mary, or Jesus Christ indwelt by the Holy Spirit, growing, increasing in favor with God and man. Lord, we thank you for this perfect man, this perfect God-man. Not just an example to us to walk in the Spirit, but Lord, a true kinsman redeemer, a Savior who was wholly harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners. We thank You for His fitness for us. We thank You that He even represents us now. There is a man seated at your right hand who represents us, who is reigning over all, who is interceding for us, presenting himself, his person, his work, his wounds. And Lord, that speaks peace to our soul. So Lord, I pray for any here who do not know much of this, Lord, that you would do what only you can do, that by your Spirit you would come and just begin to convict them of their sin. convince them of the righteousness that's required to be at peace with you. And Lord, convict them that there is a judgment coming. The prince of this world has been judged, and so will all be judged who are not in Christ. So Lord, we are shut up to Your Spirit, but Lord, we're thankful because Your Holy Spirit is free. Your Holy Spirit is all-powerful. It is a spirit of grace, of supplication, of mercy, of help. of comfort. We thank you so much for it. Would you bless the remainder of our day? Lord, may we rehearse some of these things across the table. May we encourage one another. Lord, may we be compassionate toward one another, truly loving one another, fulfilling your law in every way that we can. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.