We read from the Word of God as it's found in John 14 and then part of 15 and 16. John, narrative of John's presentation of the gospel out of parts of 14, 15, and 16. These three chapters record what Jesus spoke to his disciples in the upper room after he had washed their feet and he's letting them know that he will be leaving them. That very night, of course, he will be betrayed and the next day crucified. Their hearts are troubled, the first verse says. And he encourages them not to be troubled. Part of that which he says to them in order to comfort them is found in verses 12 through 14. He says, John 14, 12 through 14. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also. And greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my father. and whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he will give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth. whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. And then again, look down to verses 25 and following. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto you. If ye love me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto my Father, for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, ye might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you. For the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me, but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. And then in chapter 15, beginning in the last, second to the last verse, 26, 15, 26, he continues. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues. Yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God's service. And these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me. But these things have I told you. that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you, but now I go my way to him that sent me, and none of you asketh me, whither goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not in me. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father and ye see me no more. Of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. All things that the father hath are mine. Therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you. We stop in our reading of the word of God at that point. We pray that he will bless our reading. We use many passages from this Word of God that we've read as the basis for the instruction that we receive from the Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 20. Lord's Day 20. In Article 8 of the High Apostles' Creed, we confess, I believe in the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit Here question and answer 53. What does thou believe concerning the Holy Ghost? First, that he is true and co-eternal God with the Father and the Son. Secondly, that he is also given me to make me, by a true faith, partaker of Christ and all his benefits that he may comfort me and abide with me forever. I understand that it's been a few weeks since you've had the Heidelberg Catechism treated as we look at the Heidelberg Catechism now, we find ourselves in that portion of the Catechism where we're being instructed concerning how the salvation that God earned for us in Jesus is given to us. The Apostles' Creed is divided into three as question and answer or Lord's Day Eight immediately mentions, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We consider here the first article that speaks of the work of God the Spirit. Third person of the Trinity. And in our consideration, we're going to see how he makes us partaker of that salvation that our Lord Jesus Christ has earned for us. Jesus did the work, and so in the Apostles' Creed, that treatment of his life covers all of that which he did for us. Now, we look at that work of God in us, in us. And that's this, that he makes us to be one with Jesus Christ. I'm gonna often speak of us, but you can't help when reading the Lord's Day 20, see how he speaks of me. And he puts those words in the mouths of every believer. Faith in you. enables you to say, He who is true and co-eternal God with the Father has been given to me to make me a partaker of Christ, to comfort me, and to abide with me forever. In our Reformed and Calvinistic perspective, we see that the work of God in giving salvation is an irresistible work. In the acronym TULIP, irresistible grace. is precisely a grace that we cannot resist because it's given by no one less than God, the Spirit. So this morning we consider, this is part of our confession of faith, our faith in the Holy Spirit. First, His identity. Second, his work. Third, our experience. His identity, his work, and our experience of him. We're gonna notice in this first point that the Bible uses the word spirit in three ways and we want to distinguish them. The first is the way that Jesus spoke about the triune Godhead, all three, the one God. When he was at Jacob's well, talking with the Samaritan woman, and she said, where can we worship God? Do we have to do it in Jerusalem or can we do it in this mount? And Jesus' answer was, God is spirit. And therefore, it doesn't make any difference where you worship Him, because God is Spirit. And now, that's a reference to the fact that the triune God is not made up of some material, something, not even some heavenly material. God is a spirit. He is above material things, earthly material things, and even heavenly material things. He condescends to see and know the things of heaven and earth below. He is invisible. That's what it means when we say He is a spirit. He's not made up of something material, and He is invisible. We will never, we who will always be created material, now earthly, human, in heaven, heavenly human material, we will never be able to see with human eyes, Whether they're humbled or exalted, earthly or heavenly human eyes, we will never be able to see God. He is a spirit. We will be able to see God in the glory and in the face of Jesus Christ. But all that is because God is spirit. Now when we talk about the third person of the Trinity, Not that he's less than the first or the second, but when we talk about the third person of the Trinity and we find that God himself gives a name to that third person and he calls him God the Spirit, then that is an indication, and we should see it right away that way, of what that person does inside the life of the Trinity. The names that God gives to his three persons tells us of the activity that they have within their life in the covenant of the Trinity. God the Father, Well, what does it mean to be a father? Even you children know. To be a father, you can be a man and not a father. But if you are a father, then you have begotten a child. Begotten one like to yourself. If you are a son, then you have been begotten by someone. And inside the Trinity, whereas in human life to beget or to be begotten is a one time, one moment thing, in the Godhead, it's an ongoing perfect activity of the Father begetting the Son, and the Son being begotten by the Father, or being generated by the Father. And the Spirit, the Spirit is that which proceeds from the Father to the Son, and from the Son to the Father. He unites. He is the love that unites those two. And he is that third, that third co-equal with the other two inside the economy of the Trinity. He proceeds, breath, spirit, that name means he proceeds from one to the other and from the second to the first. In the scriptures, the spirit is a person. In the history of the New Testament church, they had to come to moments when they took decisions by synodical or by council decree. uniting the church in its understanding of what the now the New Testament scriptures taught about the three persons of the Godhead. Never was there a question about whether the first person was a person and divine. There was never a question about whether the second person was a person, but they did have to determine whether that second person was divine. And with regard to the third person, that he was a person and not some vague it or power. And so it's important for us to join the ecumenical church in identifying God the Spirit as a person. always identified in the New Testament Greek scriptures with a masculine pronoun, he. In the Hebrew and the Greek scriptures rather, there is a neuter pronoun, it, or a feminine pronoun, she, and a masculine pronoun, he. The Holy Spirit is always identified, even in the passages that we just read. And the translation is correct. It's a he. He is a he. He's a person. You don't lie against an it. And you don't grieve an it. but you lie, as Ananias and Sapphira did, Acts 5, against a person. And as Ephesians 4, verse 30 teaches us, we are capable of grieving Him, the Spirit. Listen to the other activities. that scripture gives to him. I have the references if you would like them. I'll give them to you later. But he hears, speaks, witnesses, convinces, glorifies, leads, gives help, intercedes. Those are not activities of an it or of an animal or of a tree, but of a person. So scripture teaches that the Spirit of God is a person. Also, the scriptures teach that God the Spirit is, what the Catechism says, true and co-eternal. Or as the Athanasian Creed says, true and co-equal with the Father and the Son. When the church in the early New Testament age wanted to prove that Jesus was God, divine, then it looked into the scriptures and found that the scriptures ascribed to the second person of the Trinity, to Jesus, ascribed to him divine names, divine attributes, and divine works. And it concluded, when the Bible says, He has divine names, divine attributes, divine works, then that means He is divine. They did the same thing, and we with them, in looking at God the Spirit. He has given divine names. When you look at Acts 5 and you listen to the way Peter talks to Ananias and Sapphira about their sin, then in verse 3 he says, you've lied to God. In verse 4 he says, you've lied against the Holy Spirit. He identifies God and the Holy Spirit. He is given the attribute of omnipresence. We cannot escape thy presence, the Spirit's presence, Psalm 139 in its familiar words. Divine knowledge and the divine attribute of eternity are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Eternity is ascribed to Him in Acts 9 verse 14. The Spirit, was there doing the divine work of creating. Genesis 1 verse 2, but also Psalm 104 verse 30. The spirit is involved in the work of resurrection and life. John 3 verse 5, in Romans 8 verses 2 and 11. To be indwelt by the spirit, the scriptures say, is to be indwelt by God. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 16. God the Spirit is an individual person who is God, co-equal and eternal with the Father and the Son. Sometimes the simplest proof of His deity is found in the baptism formula that Jesus gives in Matthew 28, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or in the benediction that closes the second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians. The love of the Lord Jesus Christ, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, that they are paralleled, that he is paralleled with Father and the Son, teaches us his deity. Now, one other part to the identity of God the Spirit. When our Lord Jesus Christ was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary and then born, he was given the Spirit. We read that when he was baptized, the Spirit came upon him in the form of a dove. Acts chapter 10 verse 35 is the speech of Peter to Cornelius referring to that event. And in the course of Jesus' ministry, He says about Jesus, that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him. And now notice, even that verse implies God anointed him with the Holy Spirit, God was with him. To have the Spirit is to have God, another proof for the deity of Jesus Christ. But Jesus, we look at this text and find that in the course of his earthly life, he was anointed by the Spirit. And when God anointed Jesus by the Spirit, He equipped Him and He qualified Him for the different work that He had to do. But then, when Jesus ascended into heaven, having earned all of the salvation that He was sent to earn, earning forgiveness, earning righteousness in His perfect life, Jesus earned it all, and God ascended Him, raised Him to His right hand, and He's ascended into heaven. Then, when He was there, Peter tells us in Acts 2, verse 33, that this happened. An event took place in heaven. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and Second, having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He, Jesus, hath shed forth this which ye, on the day of Pentecost, now see and hear. When Jesus ascended, God gave to Jesus the triune God gave to the Son of God another measure of the Spirit. And just as the other times he gave him the Spirit that equipped and qualified Jesus to perform the work that he had to do, so this measure of the Spirit equipped him for the work that now, sitting at God's right hand, he had to do. And what was that work? Well, it's that which you now see and hear. Namely, the pouring out of the Spirit upon the church. When Jesus ascended, he received something that he gave. What was that? Let's look at it this way, but little simplistic, but there's a beauty in the simplicity of scripture. And that's this. Jesus had all of the salvation that he had worked for, but he had it with him in heaven. his disciples, his church, his body, his people were on earth. I will leave you. I will go to my father. I'm going to leave you, he said. But I will not leave you orphans. Comfortless means literally orphans. I will not leave you down here alone. I will come back to you. How? Not bodily. He's at God's right hand, and we'll be there until the time ends. But he came back in his spirit. And so from then on, the scriptures use a new name. And it's the name, this is the name, the Spirit of Christ, or the Spirit of Jesus. The Spirit who communicates the blessings of the anointed Christ, Savior Jesus, to us. To us. So that by means of the Spirit of Jesus, who now dwells in us. Well, what about the saints in the old dispensation? They were regenerated by the Spirit too. but the spirit of the Jesus to come. It wasn't yet, he was promised. But we have the spirit of the Jesus who came and he communicates to us the blessings that Jesus earned and has with him. In Catechism we say the Spirit is as it were the pipeline through whom all the blessings of salvation are given to us in the course of our life. The Spirit of Christ is that which now dwells in us. The person of the Spirit of Jesus is given to us. His work. His work. He gives us connection to Jesus. Jesus is there, we're here. But we're connected to Jesus because his spirit is in us. And by means of that spirit, you are united to him, a partaker. Now notice, the catechism is right. You are a partaker, not just of the benefits of Jesus, you are a partaker of Jesus. The apostle puts it this way in 1 Corinthians chapter three. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God? and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? You partake of Jesus and thus God. There's times in the course of the life of every child of God that we're troubled discouraged, dispirited, distressed, cast down, weary, frustrated. Our focus is on the things of this earth. We're looking horizontally very, very well. We're not looking up, but we're looking horizontally. Sometimes we're just looking down. Go by our feelings, go by our experience, and where's God? And with the psalmist, Psalm 77, Psalm 88, hath God forgotten to be kind? Is he gone? Did he leave us? The spirit has taken us, dead pieces of wood, two by fours if you will, and engrafted us into the tree of Jesus. And our connection with Jesus is such that the life, the sap, the life of Jesus is flowing into each one of us. I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. To relearn To be reminded, I carry Jesus. That's why that third commandment is so extremely important. It says, thou shalt not take. And that's not talk about lips. Oh yeah, it's implied. But that's not the first meaning of the word take, his name in vain. The first meaning of the word take is carry, to bear. God has put his revelation on us and we carry his name. Don't carry that name of God in an empty, vain way as if what he has given to you means nothing. You have Christ in you. I live, not I, but Christ lives in me. Me, me. And here we all are saying it. And if we all say it at the same time, we're all saying me together, together. That's why we're not only united to Christ and he with us, but that's why we're together. And so in Ephesians four, verse three, the very first application of all the doctrines that he's been teaching so beautifully, he says, you must put forth every effort endeavor to guard What? To guard what? The unity. The unity of what? The unity of the spirit. The spirit of Jesus. We all say me, he's in me. We say it together, then I look. And this is the only way faith must look. And I don't see a certain face and a certain personality and certain history. I see Jesus. And I must guard a unity that the Spirit made. My flesh, cut it, destroy, get rid of, speak evil. This unity of the Spirit. unites us with Christ and with each other. That generally, that's the umbrella. What does he do in us individually? One, he regenerates. It is the spirit who takes the heart of stone and he makes it a heart of flesh, Ezekiel 36 and 37. It is the spirit you must be born of, Jesus said to Dicodemus in John 3 verse 8. It is that spirit that so works in us that If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken, quicken, make alive your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Romans 8 11. The Spirit of Christ implants the life of the resurrected Jesus in our inmost being. And that's why when you look in a mirror, if you will, a spiritual mirror of the Word of God, and you ask the question, am I totally depraved? Then we have to answer that with care. We have to say, well, there is inside my inmost being, called and identified in the Scriptures, the heart, the perfect life of Jesus Christ. And that's not depraved. But as far as the rest of me is concerned, my soul and my body, my soul that is my mind and my emotions and my will, Conscience, that's all depraved, totally, can never do anything good, except that regenerated heart influence the mind, and influence the will, and influence the conscience. That regenerated heart, that's the life of Christ. And that's in us. He is the one who gives us faith. Two, he regenerates, but he also opens the scriptures. He opens the scriptures. John 17 verse 17, thy word is truth. Jesus three times in the passages that we read, verses that we read, is identified as the spirit of truth. Jesus says, I will give to you the spirit of truth and he will guide you into all truth. How? Because the spirit works with the word. The spirit and the word, the word and the spirit don't separate. And think, well the spirit will work apart from the word. I just feel. That's not the way the spirit works. The spirit teaches by opening truths, and then we feel. Oh yes, feelings are real, but they have to be guided by the truth, because they're not the source of truth. Thy word is truth, and the spirit opens truth. to us because it is possible not having the spirit to read the words, to memorize the words and go to hell. The devil knows very well, better than any human, anything in the scriptures. But we see and understand because the spirit of truth, the spirit of Jesus is in us. Thirdly, the Spirit of Christ works in us so that we confess Christ. John 12 verse three. Only by the Spirit are we able to confess that Jesus is Lord. Or 1 Corinthians 12 verse three. The Spirit performs a work within us. And we confess that we belong to Him. Because again, it is the Spirit of Christ, the Son, who works in us spiritual adoption. And when the Spirit of the Son works in us, then we say, Abba, Father, the Spirit of Jesus, the Son, is working in us. And we identify ourselves. And we are able to look at Him and say, God, is my father for Jesus sake. And as that spirit works, anytime the child of God in a moment of urgency and desperation, he cries to God in prayer, that's the work of the spirit of Jesus in us so that we cry out, Father, help. And notice in Galatians and in Romans eight, when you say Abba, you never say it, you cry it. Help! The spirit of Jesus also sanctifies. He not only regenerates, he sanctifies, conforming us increasingly to the image of Jesus Christ. Do you know that that's why you were predestinated? That familiar passage, Romans 8 verse 29. all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose for whom he did for know them he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of not Jesus not Christ but conformed to the image of the son that he the son might not be the only but might be the firstborn of many brethren and sister. We're conformed to the Son because the image of Jesus, the Son, is working in us. Adoption, working in us, child-like, Christ-like, Son-like attributes. He works in us the fruit of the Spirit. He is in us. So I can never say, I'm not very patient. I can't be patient. No, long suffering is one of the fruit of the spirit. And you have long suffering. You might not want to exercise it and may not feel like exercising it, but you have long suffering because you have the fruit of the spirit. I don't love somebody. the very first fruit of the Spirit, love. Joy. We're not mopey people. The Spirit in us gives us joy. We rejoice. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. And so on. Also, the Spirit is the pledge of our full inheritance in Christ. He seals us unto the day of redemption. In the essentials of Reformed doctrine, it is the Spirit who is the engagement ring, assuring us of the reality of the marriage. We're going to get married because the Spirit of Jesus has been given to us. He's the down payment of the fullness of the inheritance which is ours in Christ. Your sons and your heirs, co-heirs. Finally, it is the Spirit of Jesus Christ who takes care of our souls and our bodies when we die. He uses the angels as ministering spirits to take our souls into his presence and into his arms in glory. So immediately the soul of that deceased saint beholds the son in all his glory. And the glory of Jesus is this, he's loved of the father. And the soul of every believer sees it. But the spirit, who in 1 Corinthians 3 verse 16 is identified as the one who dwells in us, He sanctifies our bodies so that they are temples of the Holy Spirit. And that's why to cut or to destroy or to do anything to our bodies, even this earthly body that will become dust in the grave, is to touch the temple of the Holy Spirit, the temple of God. And so, whether I'm living or whether I'm dead, that body is gonna be treated with care because the Holy Spirit is watching over it. And though worms destroy it, yet that spirit guards that body, even when it's dust and preserves it until it's raised to be joined with that resurrected soul. We know his identity. We know something of his work. That spirit is what makes you beloved. He's in you. You partake of the work of the spirit. First, you're not aware. You're born again. But there's that spirit that works faith. And when you are able to say, I believe, I hold for truth what God has revealed in his word. I can't explain why I may be different than someone else who reads the same thing and doesn't get it. I get it in various degrees, but I am able to get, to understand what I read. And I see it to be true for me. I see it as a truth, but I see it as a personal truth. Works in us so that we confess. The greatest and most frequent work of every child of God is humility, arising from the insight that only the Spirit is able to give of the natural face that I have and still have and will always keep until I die. I see what I am. And that grace and mercy, I said this Thursday, is only given to those who are undeserving, miserable creatures. And I plead for mercy and for grace. When we do that, then we're identifying ourselves as those who belong to God, And that's something the Spirit has worked in us. The fruit of the Spirit. Love. Joy. Peace. Long-suffering. Gentleness. Goodness. Faith. Meekness. Self-control. Perfectly? No. No. That's not the question. That I've got to have them perfectly. But if I have them to any degree at all, That's evidence of the work of the Spirit in you, the Spirit of Jesus. That you, in the time of trouble, cry, Father! That's the fruit of the work of the Spirit. When you live in the consciousness of His presence in you, When you live in the awareness that I need not fear for He is with me, that is the fruit of the Spirit. When He works in us so that we over and over mortify our self-centeredness, our selfishness, and when we see the necessity of living for Him and to Him, that's the fruit of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Then we're warned, grieve not the Spirit. Or 1 Thessalonians 5, don't quench the Spirit of Christ. And the idea of that is this, just as God the Son in our flesh could suffer, Jesus suffered. So the spirit of Jesus in us suffers. As a parent is grieved by the actions of a child that they love so dearly, so the spirit of Christ in us believers suffers when we sin. Grieve not. It's only because he loves you so much that he's grieved. You don't grieve over somebody you don't know. but you grieve over somebody you love, the Spirit grieves over us and in us because He loves us. And we grieve that we grieve Him. That's the work of the Spirit. See Him work, but be assured that once given, He will never leave you, never. I believe in God, the Holy Spirit. Amen. Bless thy word, Father, to us, a word that is a source of great encouragement and strength in the midst of our weakness and frailty. We thank Thee and honor Thee as the giver of that spirit. And we pray that we may walk in the light of that spirit, enjoying Him and thanking Thee for Him. Bless this word to us now that our understanding and may grow and our faith may become stronger. For Jesus' sake, amen.