This is our fourth Lord's Day here that we've had our focus of attention on these three verses. God willing, this will be the last. Paul begins in verse nine, but you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you. Amen. Let's once again ask God for His help in prayer. Let's pray. Father in Heaven, we thank you for your Word, and we thank you for the book of Romans, and we thank you for Romans chapter 8 and all the encouragements and good instruction and exhortations that are found in this chapter. Open our eyes to behold wondrous things once again from this chapter again today, and make us more like your Son, Jesus Christ, those of us who believe, as Paul said, those who are in the Spirit, not in the flesh. And we also ask that you would open the eyes of those who are still in the flesh, and that you might, by the work of the Spirit, Make them children of yourself, the living God, as well, even today. Send your Spirit to that end, and we ask all of this in Jesus, your Son's name. Amen. Pastor Carlson suggested that if I didn't finish what I have to say on these three verses this morning, that I could, or should, I think he might have even said, finish tonight. So I'm gonna try to discipline myself and not mention whether I finish or not. And I'll also fall back on the reality that Pastor Carlson isn't with us today and won't know. But I will make every effort to finish what I have. So, I'll just dive in and give the setting where we left off, lead up to where we left off. We're focusing on this section that I entitled, Life in the Spirit. That life of having the Spirit of God within us as Christians is described by Paul in verses 9 through 30. We're still on the first point, verses 9 to 11, that I entitled, Indwelt by the Spirit. And three weeks ago I started with what included a mini New Testament theology, as I called it, on the gift of the Spirit. Paul, I should say Peter, spoke in his sermon on Pentecost about the gift of the Spirit when he said in Acts 2.38, repent and be baptized and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. As the gift of God, the Holy Spirit is given to every believer to live with us and within us. And we saw that the gift of the Holy Spirit is Possessed by every genuine Christian. Verse 9 states that very clearly. It says it positively. But you, the believers in Rome to whom he's writing, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. And then he says, now if anyone does not have the Spirit, he is not his. So the gift of the Holy Spirit is possessed by every genuine Christian. And we also saw that the gift of the Holy Spirit is a unique new covenant blessing. A blessing that was initially given at Pentecost when Peter spoke those words that I just quoted a moment ago. And I emphasize this point in the messages that I've preached here on this text. And that is that this blessing and everything that the Spirit does in the life of a Christian, it's all based on what Christ has accomplished for His people in His work of redemption. We could say the very existence of what Peter called the gift of the Holy Spirit and his indwelling, every single believer is all the result of Christ's completed work. And then last time I added a second thought to that, and it's not only what Christ did or accomplished, but it's also what Christ has become as the Savior of His people, as the Messiah, or the Christ. And we focused on that to a degree last week. I made the point that for the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, there's no development, there's no maturation, there's no change. But for the Christ, the God-man, there was development, there was maturation, there was an achievement of an end that He was sent to accomplish. There was an accomplishment in that all of that was necessary. for Him to achieve, to undergo, to experience. And we looked at that from two angles. The first, that the Christ, when He came into the world, had an agenda, we could say, to accomplish. It was the Father's agenda. Luke 1.1, I pointed to that text. Luke said that what he was writing there in his Gospel account of Luke was an account of all that Christ had fulfilled. And I made this point as I was preaching through Luke repeatedly, that there was an agenda set for the Son of God as the God-man as He came into this world and took on human flesh. There was an agenda that He had to accomplish, and He did it. Luke started at the beginning of his Gospel account and said, this is all that He fulfilled. He had a certain plan, the plan of the Father. It was all laid out before Him, and He needed to fulfill it, and He did. He was required to do a number of things, and He did them all. He did them for His people. He did them in our place. And then the second thing we saw, the second angle we looked at it from was this, that the Christ had to be perfected for His role as our Savior. He had to suffer. He had to endure difficult things. He had to obey all the Father's commands. He had to grow, as we read in Luke 2, 52. He had to mature. He had to be perfected, not as the Son of God. He is perfect, the second person of the Trinity, not in his divine nature, Because as the Christ, he has a human nature and a divine nature. There's no improvement or advancement of the divine nature. But as a man, as the God-man, he did have to endure those things and grow and so on. Just let's simply note his maturation. I'll read Luke 2.52. Once again, This passage states this very well. It says, and Jesus, here he's the God-man, Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. So there was maturation of the Christ, the Messiah. And then his maturation, we could say, included the means by which He was matured and by which He did grow. And that was His suffering and His testing. Let's look at a text again. I think this is where we finished last week. Hebrews 5, verses 7 through 9. The writer here is speaking about Jesus Christ. It says in verse 6 that He is a priest forever. Quoting the Old Testament, Psalm 110, according to the order of Melchizedek. And then it says who, and that means Christ, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to him, who was able to save him from death, and was heard because of his godly fear, Though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. So he had to undergo these things. And then verse nine, and having been perfected through that suffering, through that obedience, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him. That's where we ended last week. So the Christ had an agenda to accomplish. It was the Father's agenda, if you will. The Christ had to be perfected for His role as our Savior. So He became, then, the perfect Savior. And as the perfect Savior, He achieved the perfect salvation. As we read in Hebrews chapter two, verse three, it is so great a salvation, as the author says there. Why is that salvation so great? Well, it's because our Savior was so great. But remember, as the God-man, he had to become that great Savior, and he did. So the conclusion we can draw from those two realities, that he accomplished the agenda set for him by the Father, and that he was perfected in and for his role as our Savior, the conclusion we can draw from those two realities is that Christ would only be glorified Christ could only be glorified once these goals were realized. Let's just look at a few texts that help us understand this and that help to make this point. First of all, John 17, verses 4-6. John 17, verses 4-6. You don't just look at it this way, because this isn't how the Scripture approaches the topic. that, well, of course he's going to be glorified and exalted because he's the Son of God. Well, he is the Son of God. But that's not how the Scriptures represent this point, that he had to endure these things, he had to achieve these things, so that then he would be glorified. We're breaking here into Jesus' prayer in John 17, his prayer in the garden on the night before he died. And here's what he's saying to the father starting in verse 4. He says, I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. Now in a way he's looking forward to some hours ahead when he will have finished the work. but he's just about to get into that work in a deep way, if you will, with his death on the cross. But he's looking ahead from that and saying, I've done everything up to this point, and I'm about, because I've come to my hour now, I'm about to finish it all. And in that light, he prays this. I've glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. And now, O Father, glorify me together with Yourself with the glory which I had with You before the world was. I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world, They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. So he's saying in verse six, I've revealed you to them by walking among them, showing forth your glory as the incarnate word of God. In all the things I taught them, I manifested your name to them. They've borne fruit, they've kept your word. That's part of the work he was to do. And then as he says, I'm about to be glorified in my death. And so he says, in light of the fact that I've finished everything you've given me to do, I've endured everything I've been called to endure, I've become the Savior that I needed to be as the God-man perfected, he says at the beginning of verse five, now then, O Father, glorify me. You see the point. He could only be glorified once these goals were realized. He did do all that He was charged to do. Now He will be glorified. Just a couple of chapters over, John 19, verse 30. As I said, back in John 17, Jesus was praying with this moment in mind, in part, when He said, I have finished everything you gave Me to do. He hadn't actually finished it yet, but that's what he had in his mind as he was praying. But here's the finish of it, at least so far as the death was concerned on the cross. It says, so when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. Now, his work, his redemptive work, wasn't completely finished, even after he gave up his spirit there, because we know he had to rise from the dead. But again, Jesus is speaking in this way as if everything is done, and arguably the greatest part of his work suffering the wrath of his Father on the cross is that, and so he says, it is finished, and then he dies. He's speaking, though, about his redemptive work with an emphasis on his death on the cross, his crucifixion, and he says, as his suffering is about to end, it is finished. Finished those are very pregnant words aren't there. It's not just that well. I'm glad that's over with It's I have done every single thing I have needed to accomplish In order to redeem my people and someone will say well, what about the resurrection? I mean that was a pretty great thing and a very mighty work and of the Messiah to come out of the grave and break the bands of death. Of course it was, but in Jesus' mind as He spoke again, it was a fait accompli. It was going to happen. He could speak as if it were done. And then one other passage, Philippians 2. With this whole thing in mind that Christ is only glorified once He accomplishes the goals set out for Him by God the Father. Philippians 2. We'll just read verses 8 and 9. These are passages you can come back to and read the broader context as you meditate on these things and let some of the things I'm saying today sink in. But it says about Jesus, it says, and being found in appearance as a man, he came into this world, he took on flesh, the likeness of sinful flesh as we read earlier in Romans 8. Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. There's the echo of what we have in Hebrews chapter 5 that we just read a few moments ago. He became obedient. And even the death on the cross was part of his obedience to the will of the Father. And then verse 9. Therefore, therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name. Now, you might say, well, he already had that name. He's the son of God. But that's why I keep saying I'm talking about not the second person of the Trinity in himself, because that's true. He was already as highly exalted as he could be as God. But I'm talking about the God-man, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. He had to do everything He did so that then He might be exalted. And that's exactly what these texts are saying. That exaltation is something that He has achieved. It's something that He attained that He did not have as He came into this world as a little baby. Crying little baby, if you will. He didn't, but now he did. Therefore, God has highly exalted him. It's as Jesus said in Matthew 28 and verse 18, after he rose from the dead. He met the disciples in Galilee, and what did he say to them? He said, now, well, I'm putting the word now in, but that's how you read it. He says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. In other words, things are different now, he says. That's his point. Now all authority has been given to him. And before we leave, or at least I leave, Philippians chapter 2 here, let me finish out the next two verses after verse 9. Therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name. that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's what we should do as Christians. We should be confessing that the Messiah is the Son of God incarnate. And we should be confessing that He has done everything that God has called Him to do. And that He has achieved salvation for us. And that He has become that perfect Savior. And that He also is the Judge of all mankind. And so we should confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Our knees should bow to Him. Our tongues should confess that He is all that. And we should sing His praises as we do every Lord's Day here, as we do in our homes, in our devotional exercises, in our family worship times. And that's what Christians do. But this text is not just saying what Christians should do, is it? If you read carefully, it's saying what every person in this world should do. Oh, you might say, but I'm not a Christian. Well, it doesn't matter. This is the Son of God here we're talking about. This is the one name by which anyone can ever be saved from the fires of hell. That's who he's talking about here. And so it says that at his name, verse 10, every knee should bow. And it's saying that every tongue, in verse 11, should confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And to fill out this statement a little bit, yeah, you should do it right now. We should do it where you're sitting. You should do it as part of the worship of God every Lord's Day in a Christian church like we do here. You should. But it's also going fast forward to the day of the second coming of Jesus Christ. He's coming at the end of the history of this world. There'll be a final day. The Bible calls it the day of judgment. And every single person in this world, every single person sitting here will stand before Him in the judgment one day. And whether you have bowed the knee here in this life or not, you will bow the knee then. Whether your tongue has confessed that He is the Lord to the glory of God the Father here in this life or not, you will confess it then. But if you don't confess it here in this life, You'll confess it then to your chagrin. You'll confess it to your pain and regret. But you will confess it. And I would spare you the pain. And I would spare you the sorrow and the regret. Because if you confess His name now in this life, if you repent of your sins and turn to Jesus Christ, the one Savior of sinners, who alone can deliver you from the coming wrath that every unbeliever will experience forever and ever, your sins will be washed away. God will have no controversy with you. As it says at the beginning of Romans chapter 5, you will have peace with God. You will have a good conscience. You will have joy in your heart. You will not have dread and fear as you face the coming judgment day. You will have joy and delight and anticipation. And that's what I want for you, everyone sitting here today. If you're not a Christian, that's what I want you to know. I want you to know the love of God shed abroad in your heart by the work of the Holy Spirit, and I urge you to consider these things seriously and repent now while you still have opportunity. None of us knows if we'll ever come into a building like this and hear the gospel again. None of us knows if we'll even make it to work tomorrow morning. We just don't. May God open your eyes, and may God convict your conscience, and may God bring you to saving faith in Jesus Christ, the King of kings, and Lord of lords. Alright, just that, I didn't want to pass by that text without saying that. Let's go back to the book of Romans. Let's go back to chapter 1, to picking up where I just left off here, where Jesus said in Matthew 28, on the mountain there in Galilee, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. And let's come to Romans chapter 1 for a moment. Still noticing this point that Christ would only be glorified once he accomplished the great salvation that he did. In Romans 1 verse 4, it makes this statement about Jesus Christ. Verse three tells us that Paul is writing concerning God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. There's his human nature that I've been emphasizing. And then it says, and he was declared to be the Son of God. There's his divine nature. But notice, he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. So there's the point again. It was the resurrection from the dead that was necessary for him to be exalted in the way that he was. And Paul describes the exaltation of Christ here with these words, he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness. So there's an echo again of Jesus' words. Now all authority or all power has been given to me, now that I've been raised from the dead. And it says he was raised from the dead by the Spirit of holiness, the Holy Spirit, and that the effect of that was that he was declared, or you could say even appointed, to be the Son of God with power. In other words, he has a new standing, if you will, as a result of his death and resurrection, as a result of doing all that God sent him into this world to do. As the second person of the Trinity, he was previously the Son of God. He was always the Son of God. But now, as the Messiah, he is duly recognized as the Savior of his people. As the Messiah who had to come into the world, obey the law of God, he was made under the law, Galatians 4.4, had to die, it was determined from before the foundation of the world that the Christ would come into the world, and he had to die on the cross, and that then he would rise from the dead, and that then He would be exalted. Let's go back to Acts 2 for a moment. Acts 2, verses 22-24. I think we've read these already. But I just want these things to get cemented into our minds because it helps us to understand so much of the life and ministry of Jesus, the work of Jesus, The teaching of the New Testament helps us to understand how we were saved, helps us to understand some of the great differences between the Old Covenant and the New, especially for us as Reformed Christians. We read a lot of theologians who are Reformed, but are not Baptists. And this is not meant to be a swipe at my dear Paedo-Baptist Reformed brethren, but there's a sense in which their theology on the covenants tends to just level the two covenants, the old and the new. And it makes us miss some of the strong statements that we've been looking at about how different the two covenants are, and how vastly superior the new covenant is to the old covenant. It's not like it's just a level, a level progression from the old covenant to the new, or even like there's just a little bit of a step, watch your step there. No, it's like this. Look forward or you're gonna run face flat into the wall, in a sense. I don't wanna overstate it. But it's true. So Acts 2, 22 to 24. Peter speaking still, or again. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loose the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it." So there's kind of a neat outline right there, isn't there? He did these miracles, signs, and wonders. Went around teaching, so he ministered. Then, verse 23, he was delivered by the foreknowledge of God. You took him and put him to death, so he ministered. He died. And then what? Verse 24, whom God raised up, he rose. And then what? Well, let's jump to verse 33. Therefore, in other words, in light of the fact that he did all that, that he had to do, that he was called to do, 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. And we saw that last week as well. So that's what I've been trying to get across. Let me summarize it here. We're in Romans 8. Like I said, some people entitle that, Life in the Spirit. They title the whole chapter that because the Spirit of God is mentioned 21 times. But what I've been trying to point out here is that we've seen that all that the Spirit does as the gift of the Holy Spirit in His work in the New Covenant since the death and resurrection of Christ, all that He does hinges on what Christ has done. Or to put it in terms of Romans 8 verse 10 here, we could ask, why does the Holy Spirit have such a powerful and life-giving impact on Christians? Well, it's because of what Christ has done. And that's how I explained that statement there in Romans 8 verse 10. If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. And I said, I think the best understanding is that when it says, because of righteousness, the best understanding is because of the righteousness of God that is given to Christians because of Christ's work. I think that's the best way to understand that very brief statement or phrase, because of righteousness. So the great result, or we could say a great result, of what Christ has done is what the Holy Spirit now is doing. Or I'll even state it this way, what the Holy Spirit is now able to do. I put able to do in quotes, because you have to understand that. It's not like the Holy Spirit was impotent before this. No, He was God. And He was in the world, and He was working, and He was enlivening true believers in Jesus Christ, even throughout the Old Covenant, even since the days of Adam and Eve. If they were believers, it was because of the Spirit of God granting them faith, working in them to believe. The Holy Spirit is Almighty God. He always has been. He always was. But the point we're noticing is this, that God ordained that He would not do all the mighty works He's now doing in His people in the Christian church until the death and the resurrection and the ascension of the Messiah. That's my point. Let's go back again to John 14. John 14 and verse 12. Here are words that Jesus spoke on the night before He died. And here he re-reads his words. He says, "...most assuredly..." He's talking to the 11 apostles. Judas was gone. Talking to the 11 apostles. And he says, "...most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also." And greater works than these he will do, because I go to my Father. So the apostles had already done some works that Jesus did. He did miracles, they did miracles, right? He sent them out on missions. They cast out demons, they healed the sick. But he uses the future tense here. The works that I do, he will do also. And then he says, and greater than these he will do, future tense, because I go to my father. In other words, you're going to be doing even greater work. You've done works that I've done already. You're going to do greater works. So he did miracles. They did many miracles. They went all over the place, all over the world, the known world, and did miracles. Not only that, after Jesus departed from this world, though he drew great crowds, There were only 120 serious disciples after he left this world, weren't there? Huddled in an upper room on Pentecost, upon whom the Spirit came. But then, Peter preached one sermon, and there were 3,000 plus serious believers. And it kept multiplying, and then churches sprang up all over Europe and Asia in the coming years. They did do greater works than he did. Why? Because he went to his father and poured out the Holy Spirit. That's the idea. Because of Pentecost. A great part of the reason for this, that all this happened, is that Christ fulfilled, Christ accomplished every bit of the Father's will. He accomplished the entirety of the assignment that was given to Him. John Owen said this, he said, some have said that one drop of the blood of Christ was sufficient for the salvation of the whole world. You ever heard that? I've heard that. I've probably said it at some point. And I do agree with it in terms of the point that it was meant to make. But Owen says this. He says, but the truth is, every drop of his blood, that is, all he did and all he suffered was indispensably necessary unto this end." In other words, if his people were going to be saved. For God did not afflict his only son without cause in anything. It is Christ's work. It is Christ's achievement that explains the Spirit's work in the New Covenant. It is Christ's work that we could say defines the Spirit's work in the New Covenant. That changes what the Spirit does now that we're in the New Covenant. That enables the Spirit's work in the New Covenant. That's the point I'm trying to get across. And it's not just a matter of timing, we could say. And it's more than just a matter of certain conditions being fulfilled, certain boxes checked. The Messiah had to do this, he had to do this, he had to do this. I mean, that's a long list. If we think about everything he had to do from the time he was conceived in the womb of his virgin mother, Mary. That's a long list of things. And it's not as if God is just having the angels in heaven look at that long list and come back with an accounting report. Was every single box checked? Is it done now? So we can pour out the Spirit? No, it's not just that. We can also say, and this is what I'm building toward and what I want to end with, is this, we can also say this, that the risen and ascended Christ, and we've been seeing this all along, the risen and ascended Christ is different from the Christ in his humiliation. Let's go back to that idea, no crying he makes, which I don't agree with anyway, but just as a reference point. The Messiah that stood on the mountain and bid farewell to the apostles as he was being carried into glory was not the same as the crying baby in the Bethlehem manger. He was not the same. And it's because he was not the same that he was carried into glory. that He ascended on high and was exalted in the way that He was. So let me summarize everything then in these three brief statements. What we've seen is this, Christ became the perfect Savior. As the perfect Savior, we could say then He accomplished the perfect salvation. And as a result of that, therefore, in the scriptures language, Christ became the exalted Savior. So then, now he's the exalted Savior now. So then, in terms of the Holy Spirit's role and the Holy Spirit's power that He now has to work in this world, the Holy Spirit, if we could say, and I have this last word in quotes again, is different. He hasn't changed, but my point is, the way He works, the way He is allowed to work, if you will, the way He does work is different than it was prior to the exaltation of Christ. And so now who is he? Well now he's the spirit of the risen and ascended Christ. He's the spirit of the exalted Christ and therefore he acts as the spirit of the risen and exalted Christ. Let's go back again to the gift of the Holy Spirit being poured out the day of Pentecost. There's a sense in which the Spirit of Christ did not exist prior to Christ's resurrection and ascension. Then it says, he received this which he has now poured out. That is the gift of the Holy Spirit. He always existed as the Spirit of God, but not as the Spirit of Christ. In fact, it's interesting, isn't it? In Romans 8, verse 9, it says, if you do not have the Spirit of Christ, you are not His. Why do I say that's a new thing, that He's the Spirit of Christ? Well, in the Old Testament, Christ was not yet born, was He? There wasn't a Messiah. Luke 2.11, the angels announced this, for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. The heretic Arius in, I think it was the third century, he had a saying, there was a time when he was not. He meant the Son of God. There was a time when he was not. That's heresy. This is not heresy to say there was a time when the Messiah was not. The Messiah is the second person of the Trinity become flesh. He had not become flesh before Mary was impregnated through the work of the Holy Spirit via a miracle. He was not. There became a Messiah at that time. Now the Holy Spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity, is the Spirit of Christ. So the Christ had to come into the world, but then he had to do what? He had to endure and accomplish everything determined by the Father, everything required by the Father, everything we've seen over the last two Sunday mornings here. And we had a wonderful illustration of that that at least can tie into this with one of the events of this past week. It's called an inauguration. We had a man installed as President of the United States. And maybe the nearest point to this would be to focus on the vice president, J.D. Vance. Now, this is not a political statement about the recent inauguration. It's a historical one. And it would be just as valid, and I probably would have used it if we had had a Democrat president or a woman president installed, all right? So don't get your mind sidetracked about politics. A man was inaugurated as president, and another one was inaugurated as vice president. They both took an oath for office, and then they went into that office. They won the election they needed to win, and this was the fruits of it. Now think of it this way. Again, focus on the vice president, because we have... Why was he getting inaugurated? In a sense, not because of anything he had done, but because of everything that the other man had done. But he is nevertheless being inaugurated. And now he has power in the sense of authority that he never had before in his life. In fact, as they get approved, that's also going to be true of a number of cabinet members, isn't it? And what's the change? It's not just a cosmetic change. It's not just a title that they have now, it's a real thing. Now they are listened to. Now they will get driven everywhere. Now what they do and what they say can affect, if not create, national policies. and even affect world events. And again, notice how Scripture presents this to us. Jesus did what He needed to do. Now He's exalted. Then, Acts 2.33, 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. We read in, well let's turn over there, Ephesians chapter four, verses seven and following. This is what is true because of the death, the resurrection and ascension of Christ, what we read about in Ephesians four, chapter four, verses seven and following. Paul writes, but to each one of us, every Christian, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Those are gifts given by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit himself is a gift, but then he has special individual gifts for every believer. Verse 9, now this, he ascended, what does it mean? But that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth. He became a man. He who descended is also the one who ascended now far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. Now all authority has been given to him in heaven and on earth. And He Himself then gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. It's all the work of the Holy Spirit going on now, but it's all because of what Christ did. You can read Romans 12 verses 4 and following, 1 Corinthians 12 verses 4 and following as well. Or we can put it in terms of Romans 8. In verse 10, the last part of the verse, the Spirit is life. Why is He engaging in all of this life-giving activity in the church of Christ and in Christian believers? Why? Because of righteousness. Because of what Christ has accomplished for His people. I have it in my notes to read 2 Corinthians 3 verses 1-11. I think I won't for the sake of time. But it's maybe the best passage in the Bible about the difference between the Old Covenant and the New. It focuses especially on the superiority of the New Covenant over the Old. It puts it in very strong language. And it almost speaks of it. It acknowledges. Paul acknowledges there was glory in the old covenant, but he speaks of it almost as if it's nothing compared to the glory of the new covenant. And why is that? Because this is the covenant in which the Spirit of God, in a sense, has been unleashed to work in marvelous ways that he was not before the coming of Christ, and the accomplishment of all the work of Christ, and therefore the exaltation of Christ, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit." You read about that. Just read the whole chapter. It's short, only 18 verses. I won't take the time to do it. I want to finish my message like I said. And I'll finish it with this, then. What is the significance of all of this for us, brethren? What is the significance? I just have two points. First of all, the significance for us concerning the age we live in, the here and now. What's the significance? Well, the first thing I think is this, that we should appreciate how blessed we are to live in this age. And we should appreciate how great a time it is. I really don't think we do enough. I think part of the reason is we don't understand these things. Because I think if you understand these things and you believe them, it's hard not to let them overshadow everything else in the world and everything else in our lives. I mean, no matter how bad my life gets, I'm going to look at it this way, that I am part of this much bigger picture. And however bad I think my life is, I am never going to be tempted to think, well, it sure would have been great to be back living during the days of Jesus when he was walking the face of the earth. That is not a biblical perspective. Sorry. It will be better to be alive in the days when Jesus is walking this earth again in the new heavens and the new earth. That is going to be the best. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 11 says this, Paul says, now all these things happened. He's talking about what happened in the desert under Moses with the Israelites. Now all these things happened to them, the Old Testament saints and non-saints, because that's what most of them were, the stiff-necked people. All these things happened to them as examples and they were written for our admonition. And don't forget the last clause of that verse. Paul says, "...upon whom the ends of the ages have come." In other words, this is the best time in the history of this world to live. Since the departure of Christ and the coming of the Spirit as the gift of God. I mean, that's the language we have, for instance, in the book of Hebrews, where the book of Hebrews starts out with those words. Let me read them from the very beginning of the book of Hebrews. It starts out, God who at various times and in different ways spoke, in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds." What is these last days? That's since the coming of Christ. It's different now. These are the greatest days that ever existed in the face of this earth and in the history of this world. It speaks about these last days in Hebrews 9.26 as well. It says, but now, once at the end of the ages, the greatest time ever, the time in which we're just on the precipice, of an even better time when Christ comes again. He says, now once at the end of the ages He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And then it talks about how He's going to come again. Let's look at one other passage here. James 5, verses 16 and 17. James 5, verses 16 and 17. James says something here about prayer. He says, confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed if you're sick. And then he says this, the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. In other words, you should look at it this way. Your prayer avails much if you're a righteous man. And I would say it's because of what we're studying and what we're reading about in Romans 8. We have the spirit of God. the gift of the Spirit given to us. Then he says in verse 17, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. In other words, it says there's a great man of God, a great man of prayer, and there had been a drought for three and a half years, And then that man got down on his knees, we're told, one day, and he prayed, and God sent rain. I mean, what wouldn't I give to be able to pray like that? And James is saying, you can. He's a man with a nature like ours. In other words, you're a sinner, he was a sinner. But you know how too many people take that statement? They take it like this. Well, of course God would hear Elijah's prayer. He was a great man, a great man of God. He was a prophet. Of course God would hear his prayer, meaning, I'm not gonna expect such great answers to prayer as Elijah did. As if James didn't know how to write scripture. Do you think James wrote this? to make his readers think that when they prayed they were making prayers in vain? No way! Why do we think that way? It's because we forget this truth that we're looking at. That we live in the greatest age. Turn with me to Matthew 16. I still have five minutes if I limit myself to an hour. Sorry about this. But I do want to finish. Matthew 16, verses 9-11. I don't think I have the verse I want. I think the verse I want, or one of the parts I want, is this. It's not about the baskets, and it's not about the Pharisees, that's for sure. I think it's one of the passages where Jesus talks about John the Baptist, and he says that a greater man has not been born since the beginning of the world, but then he says this, but every Christian, I'm paraphrasing it, is greater. Everyone in the kingdom of God is greater than John. This is why, brethren, because the Spirit of God has been poured out. May God help us to understand that truth and may God help us to believe it. And then the second thing is this. Not just considering the age we live in is this significant for us, but it's significant regarding the power of the Spirit that has been given to us. Or the power of the Spirit, we could say, that has been unleashed since Christ has been exalted. He gives us help. In John 14-16, Jesus had a special name for the Holy Spirit, didn't He? The Helper. He's coming to help us. That's how we should read 2 Peter 1.3. God's divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Well, the Holy Spirit is at the top of that list of all things, brethren. You have within you the Holy Spirit of God to sanctify you and make you holy as He is holy. You have within you the Comforter to encourage you and assure you and build you up in your most holy faith. You have within you the Spirit of Christ to conform you to His image. You have within you the Spirit of Truth to reveal God's truth to you, the truth of His Word. Or we could say it this way, you have all that is necessary for life and godliness because you have the Holy Spirit of God. So if we're weaker than we ought to be, we shouldn't blame it on God. We shouldn't say, well, He hasn't done enough for me in Christ to make me what I ought to be. We shouldn't say, well, God just hasn't sovereignly ordained that I would be a mature Christian. He has just sovereignly ordained that I would always be fearful. I would always be disobedient. I would always be relatively fruitless. I don't think so. You shouldn't look at it that way. Listen to Jesus' words here. Partly Jesus' words. We read in Matthew 17, "...then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, Why could we not cast the demon out from the man's son? So Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief, For assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. Brethren, that's how we should look at life. And I'm not talking about miracles. That's an age that's gone, it's past. But what I'm saying is may God help us to understand and believe all that he has done for us. in Christ and all that he has given to us in the Holy Spirit. Listen to these words of Jesus. Again, on the night before he died, John 16, verse 7. Nevertheless, he said to the apostles, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you." What's Jesus' point? Not simply that if I leave this world, you won't suffer loss. No! But that they will positively be benefited by his departure and by the gift that he sends. In other words, the end result Jesus is saying is that we are in a far better place than when Jesus walked among His apostles and rubbed shoulders with them every day. And I'm just going to end there because my time is done. But may God impart that perspective to us, brethren. And may He help us to believe it. Let's pray. Father, we do thank You for Your Word. And we do thank You for Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And we do thank You for the Holy Spirit. Help us to make it the part of the foundation of our lives as Christians, not just our confession, but the foundation of our lives that we will say, I believe in the Holy Spirit. Amen.