But we're going to review again, and then today we're going to talk about the commitments of the Holy Spirit, and then we're going to see how this whole covenant of redemption applies to us. So first off, remember, what is a covenant? It's good to define this. And we defined it, just a very basic definition. It is an agreement or commitment between parties with sanctions and stipulations. Usually there's a law given. And then there's a reward based on the completion of that command. And we see that Jesus has fulfilled the command that was given to him to redeem us. And we're gonna look at the aspects of the Holy Spirit. This time so with that definition we think of you know a contract of a house. It's very similar right Basically you sign a deed you get to live in the house, and you make your payments if you miss your payment. There's penalties and for missing payments. You can pay higher interest, you can pay fees, or they'll even kick you out. But if you live out your contract, if you go through it, you get to stay in your house, you eventually hopefully own the house. That's just kind of a modern example. So, defining the covenant of redemption. We talked about that in the Latin, this is called the pactum salutis. The covenant redemption defined by Brown and Keele in the book Sacred Bond is a covenant established in eternity between the father who gives the son to be the redeemer of the elect and requires of him the conditions for their redemption. And the son who voluntarily agrees to fulfill these conditions and the spirit who voluntarily applies the work of the son to the elect. And so that's our definition we're going to be working off of. We talked about two aspects that make the Covenant of Redemption unique to all the other covenants in Scripture. First off, it's between the persons of the Trinity. In Scripture, we see a lot of covenants between God and man, but this Covenant of Redemption is between the persons of the Trinity. Also, the Covenant of Redemption is unique because it was established before time. So before the creation of the world, we have this agreement between the persons of the Trinity to redeem us. We talked about in our confession, the covenant of redemption is talked about there. Chapter seven, paragraph three says, this covenant of grace, this covenant referring to the covenant of grace, is revealed in the gospel first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman and afterwards by farther steps until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament. And it is founded in the eternal covenant transaction, covenant of redemption, that was between the father and the son about the redemption of the elect. And then we also reviewed why this is important. We ourselves are sinners. We cannot earn God's favor. We cannot earn God's, we cannot earn merit in order to approach God. And so God makes a plan to redeem us. Also, the Covenant of Redemption helps us understand the whole purpose plan of God in Scripture. We see how he acts in certain times and spaces within Scripture. It kind of unifies Scripture for us. The covenant of grace is the accomplishment of the covenant of redemption in time and space. The covenant of grace, that's what we're saved by, by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone, right? And it's this covenant of redemption that set that plan up and Christ goes and accomplishes it. And then we learn about how each person is actively involved in our redemption. We also talked about what motivated this covenant. We're not going to get too much in this since we've covered it already, but the glory of God. God does all things for his glory. And in the covenant of redemption, he saw this would be the best way to give him the most glory. Also, we know, you know, in John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he what? Gave his only son. And so it's the love of God that motivates this covenant as well. Now there's conditions for the covenant. So we know what it is. We know it's between the parties or the persons of the Trinity. The conditions are God commissioned the son to earn the redemption of the elect. And then Christ willingly, voluntarily agrees to do that, to be our surety, to earn the righteousness God demands. And then because we break God's law, He has to pay for our sin. And He does this willingly. And then the Spirit, He applies the benefits to us which Christ earned. And as we'll see today, He actually also assists Christ and helps Christ throughout His earthly work. And then upon obedience, the father would reward the son with an inheritance. We talked about some biblical support. Now here's Luke 22. So if you want to look at verse 28 and 29, this is Jesus talking to his disciples here. And he says, you are those who have stayed with me in my trials. And I assigned to you as my father assigned to me a kingdom. And so this begs the question, when did God assign to the son a kingdom? And so this kind of sparked the interest about this covenant. The actual word here for assign in the Greek can also be translated as covenant. And so you can read it, and I covenanted to you as my father covenanted to me a kingdom. And then we have all this other scripture, Psalm 40, six through eight, Hebrews 10, five through 10, where the Hebrew actually applies Psalm 40 and says, this is about Christ. Isaiah 53, the suffering servant, we see the son suffering on our behalf, and then the father gives him a reward at the end of that passage for the accomplishment of his work. And then in Isaiah 42, we see this beautiful dialogue between the father and the son. So the first time we met, we talked about the commitments of the father. So just to review this, the father chose and elected those to whom the son would redeem. So we consider Ephesians 1. Right? Paul is praising God, and he praises the Father because he chose us before the foundation of the world. He elected us. Also, the Father sent the Son into the world to accomplish an assignment. This assignment is our redemption, to redeem us, to obtain eternal life. He's also to be a prophet, priest, and king. Today in our sermon, we're gonna actually see this priestly aspect of Christ. Also, the father committed to support the son in his work. And we're also gonna see today in our Bible study here that his commitment to support the son is he's gonna give him the Holy Spirit to strengthen him and empower him in his work. And then the father promised a reward to the son upon completion. And so we went through all that, we went through Bible verses showing this to be the case. Then we saw last week the commitments of the son. And the son voluntarily or willingly accepts the conditions the father gives him of the covenant. Some of these conditions we talked about was to become truly human. So in order to redeem us, he had to be fully man. In order to pay the price on the cross, he had to be man. He is truly man, but yet also truly God. Then to be our covenant surety, this is like a guarantee. and he's going to obey the law as our representative. So we've seen Adam, our first representative or federal head, he failed the obedience of the law. Well, Christ comes as a second Adam, this is Romans 5, and he perfectly fulfills the law. He obeys where Adam failed. And this righteousness is credited to us. So he's our representative. And then he pays for our punishment we deserve. He redeems his elect as a penal substitute. This means a legal substitute, a legal. And then he's also our mediator. He's our prophet, priest, and king. And then the son perfectly fulfilled the conditions of the covenant. And how do we know this? Because he was risen from the dead. That was his reward. He's seated at the right hand of the father. So with this in mind, let's just consider the Holy Spirit and the covenant of redemption. Now, first off, I want to say the Holy Spirit, when you think about it, it has often not been stressed, His work within the covenant of redemption. Some theologians have, some theologians haven't, but the reason for this is We don't see much of him because his job is to make much of Christ. Not himself, he's the pointer to Christ. As he inspires scripture, it's inspired to make much of Christ. Yet, that doesn't mean the Holy Spirit is not active. As we know this covenant of redemption, as we look in scripture to see this, we're gonna see he is actually heavily involved. Jesus talks about this helper who he would send in John 15, 26. So we're gonna begin our sword drill again, going through scripture, seeing how these aspects of the commitments of the Holy Spirit are in fact scriptural. So John 15, 26, but when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, what does he do? He will bear witness about me. So the spirit is to testify to Christ, not himself. So this is why we don't see it as prominent, but it's definitely there, and we're gonna see that now. So here's a preview of what we're gonna look at for the remainder of our time. The commitments of the Holy Spirit. His first commitment that we're gonna see is to help the Son accomplish His task. So the Father commissioned the Son to redeem us, and the Spirit is gonna help the Son. How does He help Him? We're gonna see in becoming incarnate. He's gonna help Him to lead, sustain, and help Him overcome temptation. He's gonna anoint the Son for His work, He's gonna enable him to perform miracles. He's gonna help him endure the cross. And he's gonna raise Jesus from the dead. And then we're also gonna see that he applies the benefits of Christ's work to the elect. He's going to dwell in the elect. He's going to seal the elect and be their guarantee of a future inheritance that will come, a down payment. He's going to regenerate and renew the elect. He's going to sanctify the elect to make them more into the image of Christ. And he's going to sanctify the elect. So that's a repeat there. So the Holy Spirit, we're going to see his work is prominent within scripture. We just need to be looking for it. So let's consider the first commitment of the Holy Spirit to help the son accomplish his task. Turn to Isaiah 42. And we see here that the father is speaking. And Isaiah 42 states, behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit Upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice on earth. and the coastlands wait for his law. Now notice earlier in that he says he's gonna put the Spirit upon him. And then in light of that, Christ does his work. Isaiah 61, we see the Son speaking this time. Isaiah 61, one through two. This is the Son speaking and he says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the openings of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. So notice first he says, it's the spirit that God has given me and he anointed me with him. So the father gives the spirit to the son, the spirit strengthens and enables him to perform his work. All that the son did was with the help of the spirit as we will see. So one way he helped, the son accomplished his task, is the son had to become incarnate. He had to become a man. So turn with me to Luke 1. Luke 1, 34 through 35. We know this is the birth of Christ. And an angel comes and announces to Mary that she will have a son. And this is what Mary says in verse 34. And Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child will be born, will be called Holy, the Son of God. So it's by the power of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1.20 says it's similar. Matthew 1 20, but as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit helps the son be incarnate, to be truly human. He also helps the son to lead, sustain, and help him overcome temptation. Now there's a ton of different verses we can look at, but let's just look at a few. Luke 4, one through two. says this, So in order for Jesus to be tempted in the wilderness, He is led by the Spirit. And if you look through the book of Luke, he's often led by the Spirit when he goes and does certain things. Luke 4.14, and Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. And a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. One passage I didn't mention, which is important to consider, is his baptism. That's when the Holy Spirit comes down. We see the Trinity at work, the Father saying, this is my Son in whom I'm well pleased, the Son being baptized, and the Holy Spirit comes down as a dove and rests on the Son, right? The Holy Spirit anointed the son there to go and do his work. So he leads, sustains, strengthens the son. And then he anoints the son for his work. So Acts 10.38, let's look at Acts 10.38. And then it says, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth, how? With the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. So the Holy Spirit is with Jesus. God anointed Jesus to do his work with the Holy Spirit. Luke 4, 17 through 18, this is quoting Isaiah, Isaiah 17, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him, and he unrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. That's the text we read earlier there from Isaiah. And Jesus opens it, and he says this to them, and then after that, what does he say? It's fulfilled. So, let's also see how the Spirit enabled him to perform miracles. Matthew 1.28. 12.28, sorry. Thank you. 12.28. But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, it is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this man cast out demons. Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." This is why Jesus goes, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. because he does it by the power of the Spirit. Implication is, in fact, he does it by the Spirit. He also helped the Son endure the cross. Turn to Hebrews 9, 13 through 14. And we've read this text many times in this study, but let's just consider Hebrews 9, 13 through 14. It says, for if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God. purifier conscience from dead works to serve the living God. So he went to the cross, he offered himself through the eternal spirit, through the Holy Spirit. And then, because the Son goes and accomplishes all his work, he obtains our righteousness perfectly, he obeys the law all the way to the point of death, Because he obeyed the covenant of redemption that God set before him, he was risen from the dead. And this is according to the power of the Holy Spirit. Look at Acts 1.3, 3 and 4 actually. Concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. And then if that wasn't as clear, Romans 8.11 really clarifies that. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So he's saying, look, if he raised Jesus from the dead, which in fact he sure did, then he's gonna give life to your mortal bodies. So if you believe in Christ, you're gonna have life through the spirit. So the spirit raised Jesus from the dead upon completion and accomplishment of his work. So now, so we've seen how the Spirit assisted Christ to accomplish his work. Now let's consider how he applies the benefits of Christ's work to the elect. So first, he commits to dwell in the elect. 1 Corinthians 6.19 says, So he says, look, the Holy Spirit dwells in you. You are a temple. Just like the presence of God dwelt in the temple or tabernacle in the Old Testament, now he dwells within you. John 14, six through 17, we read this, something similar to this a little earlier. Jesus says, I will ask the father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever. Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. So the Holy Spirit dwells in the believer. He also is the seal and our guarantee. In Ephesians 1, 13 through 14, we have that magnificent praise that Paul gives. And so he's encouraging these persecuted Christians And the first thing he does is he breaks into praise of the Trinitarian redemption. He praises the Father. Then he praises the Son. And then in 13 through 14, he praises the Holy Spirit. He says, in him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. So he goes, when you believe, that moment when you believed you were, and dwelt with the Holy Spirit, you were sealed with this spirit, the seal is guarantee, It's secure, and it's the guarantee of our inheritance. So Christ earned an inheritance for us, which we, by faith, get to participate in, which we will one day be in a new heavens, new earth. We'll have new bodies. There'll be no more sin, no more death, no more tears. And the down payment, like the promise ring that we're given, that that's gonna happen, is the Holy Spirit. Also, the Holy Spirit agrees to regenerate and renew the elect. Titus 3, 5, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. So it is the Spirit that washes us of our sin. He applies the work that Christ did. Christ earned our righteousness, then he went to the cross, paid for our sins, by His blood, and the Holy Spirit applies that washing of regeneration, renews us, and it's by the Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3.6 says, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant? Not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit, what? Gives life. He renews, He gives life. So these are the commitments of the Holy Spirit. We've seen that he helps the Son accomplish his task by helping him become incarnate. He leads, sustains, and helps him overcome and endure temptation. He anoints the Son for his work. He enables him to perform miracles, verifying he in fact is sent by God. He helps him endure the cross and he raises Jesus from the dead as Jesus' reward for the accomplishment of keeping his part of the covenant of redemption. And then he applies the benefits of Christ's work to the elect. This also is by no means exhaustive. There's way more that can be said. but he dwells in the elect, he seals the elect, he's their guarantee for an inheritance or a down payment for the inheritance we will have, not because we've earned it, not because we're such good people, but because Christ, Christ has earned it on our behalf. And then he regenerates and renews the elect, he gives us new life, he washes us of our sins, He sanctifies the elect throughout his life to the image of Christ. So these are the commitments of the Holy Spirit. Now briefly, let's just consider the application to us and then we'll open it up for discussion or questions. So why is this important to us? We've gone over a little bit of this earlier. But this gives us great comfort. If you consider the covenant of redemption in scripture, you can know that God knows what he's doing. This gives us comfort that God knows exactly what he's doing. It's not that he created the world, he put it in motion, walked away, and then Adam failed. He's like, oh man, I gotta make up for that now. No, that's not the case. This was not plan B. God's in complete control. So this was his plan all along, to redeem sinners, to redeem and elect people. And then we are given as an inheritance to Christ. We are part of Christ's reward. So when you're tempted to doubt your salvation, or when you're struggling in your faith, remember that Christ said, it is finished. It has been done. The Father has been satisfied because of the Son's work, and the Spirit has helped Christ do that throughout his life on earth, and he applied the benefits to us. There's great security in that. So our inheritance is secure, and we have a down payment of that. As you see the Spirit in the churches through the preaching of the Word, prayer, He intercedes for us, we can have comfort that we have that down payment. If you are a believer here today, you have that Spirit dwelling in you. It's a guarantee that He will sanctify you to the end, more to the image of Christ. And then if you think about it, this covenant of redemption has been accomplished. It's not breakable. Something's not going to come up that's going to surprise God and be like, oh man, there goes my plan. No, it's all been accomplished. This also gives us purpose as we realize that we are mixed up in this plan of redemption, that we are given as this love gift to the son, that we're not just here by chance. And then it also helps us know the love of God, how much God truly loves that he will send his son into the world to show his love, to show how much deserving of glory he is to have. So we know something of the love of the Trinity because it's all working for our good. It also helps us better understand Scripture. As we see this covenant redemption and we are reminded of it, as we read through Scripture, we see it kind of outworking of it. It makes us make sense of how God is working in time and space in Scripture. As we read, it brings the big picture that God created, He redeems, and He's gonna glorify. It brings unity to all scripture. And then it helps us to be reminded to rely on Christ and not ourselves. We cannot do anything to earn God's favor. We cannot do anything to merit obedience, but to look and see that the Trinity accomplished it. The persons of the Trinity accomplished our redemption. They all worked. but it is through Christ's perfect life, his sacrificial death on the cross, rising from the dead, showing he was eternally triumphant, that he achieved his commitment. He followed through all the way to the point of death and he was risen from the dead as a return, as a reward. So it helps us rely on him. This also should give you great comfort. Because as we read the law, as we're going to see today, as we read the law, we're convicted of sin. We are shown that we are sinners, yet Christ's work is what we rely on, not ourselves. So this is the covenant of redemption. We've seen how the Father has commitments, how the Spirit has commitments, and also how the Son has commitments. All three persons of the Trinity are at work here. And we've seen scripture all over that it testifies of this. So I know some people were asking for more reading and different things on that. These are some resources that assisted me in this presentation, this study. And I really want to commend to you a very simple read is Sacred Bond, Covenant Theology Explored. On the Covenant of Redemption, they do a great job just simply explaining it and showing how it applies to us. They go through different scriptures as well. For this talk, if you really want to see even more in-depth, the person and work of the Holy Spirit, by Torrey was a really helpful resource as well. J.V. Feskos, he's one of my professors at my school, he wrote the Trinity and the Covenant of Redemption. He does a fabulous job showing the history behind it, showing how it was formulated, that it's not some spectacle thing that people just thought of, that it's all founded in scripture. And then A.W. Pink, he's one of my favorites. The Divine Covenants also. And there's some other resources too. So let's open it up. Any questions, comments? Was this clear? Okay, great. And as you see, a lot of scripture speaks of this. And so now with us knowing about it, now we can read kind of with these covenant of redemption lenses on and see how much more is in there about this accomplishment of our redemption and how each person of the Trinity is at work. Any questions? Talking to my friend when I was in Iraq, the Muslim religion and other Christian religions are very religious in the sense that they need to do work to get right with God. This covenant Yeah. Yeah. And all religions out there are that, salvation by works. Our religion, our Christianity, is by faith. It's by faith alone, in Christ alone, and it's all by grace alone. Grace is that we didn't deserve it. But it was works for Christ. Christ merited everything we deserve. But for us, we can't earn it. Christ did. So we rest in what Christ has done. So yes, good point. And they were surprised because every time, many times I tell them, oh no, you're religious people. And I was talking about the Bible at the time, and that he's not religious and he's talking about the Bible. It didn't fit in their mind. And to many people here, Right. The covenant of redemption helps us protect us from that, from that kind of mentality and show that it's the accomplishment of what Christ has done, the accomplishment of the Trinity. And what we do is we're just part of that. And we rest in the work of another, not our own. And that's Christ. Any other questions? Yes, I had never realized that there was an element between the two. I thought the element was God and man. And this is really opened my eyes to see each one had a commitment, each one had a purpose. And because of the three, Yeah, this is something that was new to me. I heard about it before I went to seminary, but they just brought it out more. And in my opinion, it makes the Trinity all the more glorifying. Any other comments, questions? The comment you made about how the covenant of redemption unifies all of scripture because it's the eternal covenant. In other words, it never did exist in what we think of time and space. But it's so true because it gives us the hope and the faith in God that as we read through scripture, there's nothing that's segmented, there's nothing that's on its own. always has and always will be this plan. It's a real comfort because, like Ephesians says in verse 10, God has created us in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared beforehand that we should walk in. Not just in the earning of our salvation, but oftentimes when we look at ourselves and we compare ourselves to the law, we see that even as Christians, we're so far short of that, that we can trust in God's covenant of redemption because the Holy Spirit has given us that. Right. Yeah, and as we realize the works that He's done on our behalf, then out of love and thankfulness, then we're motivated to do these good works. So, yes. Any other questions, concerns, comments? Well, let's pray and we'll be done. Heavenly Father, we praise you for this magnificent doctrine of the covenant of redemption. We praise the Son for his accomplishment of redeeming us and going willingly to do that. And he did do that and we thank you and we know this because of the resurrection. We praise the Holy Spirit because he has helped Christ through his whole life to do this, and then he applies the benefits of Christ's work to us. What a magnificent doctrine, what a magnificent covenant, what a magnificent God to redeem us like this. May you have all the glory for it. We praise you in Christ's holy name, amen.