is on the baptism of Jesus, and we'll be looking at Matthew chapter three, verses 13 through 17. So if you have your copy of the scriptures, feel free to turn there. And follow along with me as I read these words out loud. This is the holy word of God. Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? But Jesus answered him, let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. And then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son. with whom I am well pleased. Thus far, the reading of God's holy word. May the Holy Spirit that inspired these words bless them to our hearts. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. We bless your name, almighty and everlasting God. For who is a God like you? who is awesome in praises, working wonders, the God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere present, the one who sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, the one who looks down upon the earth below and how the inhabitants are all as grasshoppers before you. For you are the one true and living God, and we pray this evening that you would come and meet with us, that you would come, Almighty King, that you, Father, all-glorious, would come and reign and work your will in our lives and our hearts. We pray to the incarnate Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, that you would come and encourage your people, and may your word continue to increase in our hearts, our lives, throughout this world. We pray to the Holy Comforter that you would be pleased to encourage and strengthen us in the faith. that you would rule in our hearts, that the will of God would have its way in each of our lives. And we thank you for the men who have agreed to come and to speak. at this conference. And we ask for the favor of God, for the mighty power of the Lord, for the presence of the Lord to be with each of them as they open the scriptures, as they encourage, inform us about the Holy Spirit, about the Lord Jesus Christ, about God the Father, the one God, in three persons, from whom, and through whom, and to whom are all things. We give praise to you, almighty God, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and all God's people said, amen. Amen. It's always a dangerous thing to lecture after there have been mass quantities of great-tasting food, because that's when the coma sets in. But let's hope that we can nevertheless give our attention here to the person of the Holy Spirit as we continue studying this all-important doctrine. And I want to begin with an anecdote to hopefully kind of frame up everything that we want to look at here during this particular hour. And that when the wife and I were first getting to know each other, we met, and she was living in one city, I was living in another. And so it was, you know, I guess the, I don't know what we call them these days, but it was the early aughts. It was 2002. And so we, you know, I didn't have a lot of money at the time. I still don't. But, you know, you had to get a nickel line, you know, because long-distance calls cost money. And so I couldn't quite afford always to talk to her on the phone. So the wife and I at the time, we exchanged a lot of emails. You know, a lot of e-mails. And in fact, I remember we had a collection of them, and it was over 300 e-mails over the course of, say, three months. And so sadly, you know, a computer crash, we lost all the e-mails. But of the many things that we talked about in those emails, spent a lot of time asking a lot of questions and getting a lot of facts. You know, what's your favorite color? You know, what's your favorite kind of car? What's your favorite movie? What's your favorite food? You know, there were just all kinds of questions that I would ask her. I do research for a living, and so I was doing my research. And so then, in turn, she, of course, would ask me a series of questions. Are you really that nerdy? Do you buy those clothes, or are they given to you? Just the kind of standard stuff. And so, I got to know my wife quite well by asking all of those questions, getting all of those facts. But as many of you know, getting to know someone is more than just collecting facts. And where my wife and I have obviously got to know one another so much better is within our covenant, the covenant of marriage. Granted, it's been nearly 22 years, and so in the course of living in the context of that covenant, we have found out even more things than the many things that we discovered about each other by gathering all of those facts. And so that's how I want to frame up this lecture, by saying that we want to rehearse a number of facts and pieces of information about the Holy Spirit. But at the end of the day, we also want to remember that in getting to know the Holy Spirit, We need to go beyond the facts and just beyond the gathered data and recognize that the only way that we can truly get to know who the Holy Spirit is, is by being in covenant with our triune God. And it's in the course of that relationship, that covenantal relationship, where we can put, if you will, the flesh of covenant on the bones of truth, so that we can get to know the Holy Spirit and our triune God all the better. So let's keep that in mind. And going forward, we can say this about the Holy Spirit is that the Nicene Creed says this, I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. Now, what we can do is we can say that the creed here gives us three key affirmations, three key statements about the Holy Spirit. First, it says that the Holy Spirit is God because it gives to the Holy Spirit or it recognizes that the Holy Spirit is Lord. Okay? So we want to recognize that the Holy Spirit is God. because the creed says that he is called Lord, and that is a title that we reserve exclusively for God. But then secondly, the creed here also indicates that the Holy Spirit is a distinct person within the Godhead because he's not merely an impersonal power or force, but rather he's distinguished from the Father and from the Son. So he is God because he's called Lord, but he's also a distinct person, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But then the third thing that we want to keep in mind here is that the creed attributes two chief works to the spirit in that one, he is the giver of life, but then two, he's also the one who has inspired the prophets, he's inspired the scriptures. So what this does for us is we can give a good overview of the person and a little bit of the work of the spirit, but more specifically the person of the spirit, because we'll be looking at the work over the next series of lectures that follow tomorrow and Saturday, is that we first want to give thought to what the scriptures have to say about the Holy Spirit being God. Secondly, we want to understand what the scriptures say about the Holy Spirit being a distinct person within the Godhead. And then third and finally, we want to give thought to what the scriptures say about the various names of the Holy Spirit. And one of the things that I ask my wife is, is what is your middle name? What does your name mean? Because think about it in terms of biblical names. We know that biblical names reveal something about the person. You know, we know that Jacob, for example, means supplanter or deceiver. That tells us something about Jacob's character, or at least before the grace of God gets a hold of him. One of my favorite names in all of the Bible, which set me to wonder, is when David encounters Nabal and Abigail. And Nabal upbraids David's men so much so that David wants to go out and kill him in vengeance. Abigail speaks wise words and keeps him from doing that. And she says, he is as his name is. His name is Nabal. Nabal in Hebrew means fool, which got me to thinking that had to be a nickname. I can't imagine the parents going, look at our darling son. What do you want to name him? I know, let's name him Nitwit. That'll be a name that'll go far. He'll go far in this world. You know, let's name him fool. Now, maybe that's what they did. Maybe that's what they named him. But I happen to think it's a nickname. But nevertheless, it was a nickname that told us something about his character. And so when we consider the names of the Holy Spirit, this is going to tell us something concrete about who the Holy Spirit is and, to a certain degree, what the Holy Spirit does. in terms of his work, but just to alleviate the fears of Jason and Steve, we're not going to go deep there because they're going to go deep on that work aspect tomorrow, okay? I've sat there in conferences before where I'm like, oh, please don't say what I'm going to say. Please don't say what I'm going to say. Oh, thank goodness he didn't say what I was going to say. Because otherwise you're thinking, what, am I going to have to go back to the hotel and rewrite this thing all tonight? This is terrible. Alright, so let's give thought first to what we read here, or what the creed says about the Holy Spirit being God, and look at the scriptural data on this particular point regarding the person of the Holy Spirit. We can say that there are a number of key statements in the scriptures that reveal that the Spirit is fully equal with God. The spirit is fully equal with God. And one of the most direct statements to this fact is when in the book of Acts, Ananias and Sapphira conspired to sell all that they had and then to give the money to the church, but in the process they lied and they said, yes, this is all the money, when in fact it was not. And so when Peter confronted Ananias, he says in Acts chapter 5 verses 3 and 4, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? After it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man, but to God." So here, in lying to the Holy Spirit, which Peter very clearly says, he then says, you have not lied to man, but to God. And so here, Peter equates the Holy Spirit with God. Again, Acts chapter 5 verse 9, but Peter said to her, to Sapphira, how is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord? Now that is an important phrase and it may not strike us as much, but we have to note its importance. I think that if you want to become a better student of the scriptures, one of the things that you need to do is you need to become intimately familiar with the Old Testament. Because for all of the scriptures of the New Testament, for all of the authors of the New Testament, the human authors, at the time that they were writing the New Testament, their Bible was the Old Testament. And they regularly make quotations from the Old Testament, they regularly allude to passages, to phrases from statements from the Old Testament. You know, we can say that the New Testament is the inerrant, infallible, and divinely authored commentary on the Old Testament. And so you really need to see how often does the New Testament use the Old Testament, and what is it doing with the Old Testament? How is it explaining the Old Testament? For many of us, we have study Bibles, and maybe there's a column down the center of the page, and it has cross-references, or those cross-references can be at the bottom of the page. Well, typically, those cross-references are saying, This is a quotation from the Old Testament. Or this alludes to another Old Testament passage. And so when Peter says, how is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? That's an Old Testament phrase. That's an Old Testament phrase. You find it in Exodus 17 too, among other passages. Why do you test the Lord? Why do you test Yahweh? And so here, Peter is connecting the Holy Spirit not only with God, but with the Lord, Yahweh of the Old Testament. Beyond this, we can say that there are a number of passages that showcase the fact that the Holy Spirit possesses the same divine attributes as God. For example, the attribute of omnipresence, that the Holy Spirit is everywhere and in every place. Psalm 139, verses 7 and 8. Where shall I go from your Spirit, or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there." So the Holy Spirit is omnipresent. We know, of course, from the last lecture that the Holy Spirit anoints Christ and gives to him or equips him with the gifts necessary to carry out his high priestly work. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, Isaiah 11, 2. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. If these are the things that characterize the Lord Jesus, then they are also the things that characterize the Holy Spirit because the Spirit gives them to the mediator, the God-man, Jesus Christ. We know that the Holy Spirit is omniscient, that He knows all things as God knows all things. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2.11, For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now here is something to keep in mind. It's like as I was sitting on the plane, I was reading Stephen Sharnock's book, The Existence and Attributes of God. It's in two hefty volumes. And one of the things that Sharnock stresses in there is he stresses that God is infinite in his being. He is infinite in his being. And if he is infinite in his being, then that means that we as finite creatures, we cannot possibly know not only as much as God knows, because he is infinite and we are finite, but we cannot know to the degree or quality of knowledge that he knows. He knows things to far greater depth than we do. Why? He's infinite. We're finite. He's God. We're the creature. And so it would be for us as if we were to say, we want to know, as God knows. It's like telling somebody, I want you to take a thimble, and I want you to go to the Atlantic Ocean, and I want you to scoop up the whole of the Atlantic Ocean in a tiny thimble. And you'd say, well, that's not possible. And I would say, well, why not? Well, because the thimble is too tiny. It can't hold all of the Atlantic Ocean. Now, even that analogy doesn't work. It breaks down because the Atlantic Ocean is a finite body of water. God is infinite. And yet, what does Paul say of the Spirit? No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God, which means that the Spirit is infinite as God is infinite. We know that the Spirit is immense. In other words, we can say that this is a lot like omnipresence, but Isaiah chapter 40 verse 13, who has measured the Spirit of the Lord? The Spirit of the Lord is immeasurable, as God is immeasurable. So we have a direct connection in the scriptures saying that the Holy Spirit is equal to God. We have the scriptures revealing that the Holy Spirit possesses a lot of the same attributes that God does. And so omniscience, omnipresence, the anointing that he gives to the Messiah, the immensity of God, but we also see that the Bible presents the Holy Spirit as a member of the Godhead. So for example, you have the creation of everything that we see in the heavens and in the earth. In Genesis 1-2, a passage that we read earlier this evening, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. So there is the Spirit of God, there at the outset of the creation, creating. We also know, of course, that the triune God creates human beings. Genesis 1, 26, then God said, let us make man in our image and after our likeness. That is a conversation, if you will, that unfolds among the members of the Godhead. As they said, let us make man in our image and our likeness. And where you see the fruition of this is in the creation of man in Genesis 2-7, where Adam becomes a living being and God breathes out Breath, which in the Hebrew text is also the same word for the spirit, he breathes out life into the assembled pile of dust, if you will, that was Adam's body. And it's through the Holy Spirit that God gives Adam life. Where we see a lot of this crescendo is, of course, in the baptism of Jesus, which we read a little while ago. Matthew 3, verses 16 and 17, and when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. And then a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit appearing together in this key passage of scripture. But note, I want to just note here briefly how that event finds antecedents earlier in the scriptures going all the way back to the Genesis narrative. This is an event with which we should say, I think I've seen this somewhere before. I don't know about you, but maybe it's that, I don't know, I used to be able to be entertained in watching movies with the dumbest of movies. You know, if it had action in it, I was like, all right, I'm in. Now, maybe it's because I'm getting older. Maybe it's because I'm getting grouchier. Maybe it's because I have children. I don't know. But either way, I've set my bar higher. So now it's kind of like, no, I'm not going to watch some of this stuff. There's a movie or two, though, that I thoroughly enjoy where my kids will walk in and say, oh, Dad, you're not watching that again, are you? I'm like, well, yes. Well, why are you watching it again, Dad? Because maybe the first 10 times I didn't see everything and all the little details. But one of the things I love, especially about some of the sequels that have come out these days, whether it's, you know, you pick your poison, Lord of the Rings, whether it's Star Wars, or whatever the movie franchise is, is that there will always be callbacks to earlier movies. They want you to feel familiar, but they want to still tell you a new story. They want you to be able to pick up on these small little details. Well, think about it. Here's the unfolding story. You have the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters. as Adam and the creation comes out of the waters, and it's the Holy Spirit hovering, not like a helicopter, but the wording there for hovering, it's hovering like a bird. Then you have, you fast forward to the Exodus, and in Exodus 4.22, God calls Israel his firstborn son. And his firstborn son goes down into the waters of the Red Sea, and Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, that's a baptism. And in Haggai 2.5, Isaiah 63, God says, I put my spirit in their midst. And in Deuteronomy 32.11, God says, there I was hovering over you like an eagle over its nest. It's the only, Deuteronomy 32, 11, Genesis 1, 2, the only two places in all of the Bible where you have hovering. That word only occurs in two passages. So note, God's son coming out of the waters, superintended by a bird hovering over the waters. We can throw in there, Noah throws out a dove over the waters of the flood. God's Son, Israel, comes out of the waters of the Red Sea as He puts His Holy Spirit in their midst, as the Holy Spirit is described as a hovering bird. And now you've come to Christ's baptism. where at Christ's baptism, the Son of God comes up out of the water and the Holy Spirit descends like a dove, like the Holy Spirit hovering over Israel, like the dove hovering over the floodwaters, like the Holy Spirit hovering over the face of the deep. This isn't the first time that this has happened and that what God has been doing is throughout redemptive history, He's been whispering, this is how we as the triune God will act. And this is how we will bring about the new creation. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father sending and anointing the Son. The Son working and pouring out the Spirit to bring about the first creation, but ultimately the new heavens and earth. And so you see this, of course, come to its fruition in the Great Commission, which we read earlier this evening. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. So here you see Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the scriptures telling us the Holy Spirit is a distinct person within the Godhead. We also see there are, in the New Testament, Trinitarian blessings, Trinitarian benedictions. 2 Corinthians 13, 14, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We can put it this way. in the words of the Athanasian Creed, the Athanasian Creed written around the fifth, sixth century, it's called the Athanasian Creed, not because Athanasius wrote it, Athanasius was dead long before it was written, but it's called the Athanasian Creed, and you've got the book on the incarnation back there in the book table, but it's called the Athanasian Creed because it summarizes Athanasius' teaching on the Trinity. And it says this, what quality the Father has, the Son has, and the Holy Spirit has. The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, the Holy Spirit is uncreated. The Father is immeasurable, the Son is immeasurable, the Holy Spirit is immeasurable. The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, the Holy Spirit is eternal. And yet there are not three eternal beings, there is but one eternal being, So too there are not three uncreated or immeasurable beings, there is but one uncreated and immeasurable being. Or as we said earlier, one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So as we're rehearsing these facts, if you will, about the Holy Spirit, we want to recognize the cradle for the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is the doctrine of the Trinity. We got to keep that in mind. Now secondly, what we want to do is we want to flesh out here, or at least I guess I should say that flesh out if we were talking about Jesus, We want to explain, we want to explore, we want to expound, those are all better, like my three E's. We want to examine the Holy Spirit as a distinct person within the Godhead. And that given the fact that the scriptures reveal that the spirit is one person within the Godhead, the church throughout the ages has sought to defend the claim that the spirit is not an impersonal force or energy, but rather a distinct person within the Godhead. Now this is important. You know, if you've ever watched the Star Wars movies, which are some of my favorite, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that, you know, I say this, yes, Tolkien is theologically deeper, and it's much better in terms of it being written. But I was seven years old when I saw my first Star Destroyer cruising across the movie screen in 1977. So that left an impression on me. So in my personal ranking, Star Wars comes first. I just have to say, in the love of the Lord, deal with it. But what happens when we're talking about Star Wars is we know about the Force. That is not what we're talking about when we talk about the Holy Spirit. It's not some sort of impersonal force. I love Star Wars, but it is warmed over Buddhism, okay? Just to be clear, okay? I pick Jesus, all right? But that being said, what we want to do is we want to note that the Holy Spirit is a person within the Godhead. And so the Westminster Confession, and we can also say the Second London Confession, gives us a good brief statement on this. In Westminster Confession 2.3, the unity of the Godhead, in the unity of the Godhead, there'd be three persons. 2nd London says subsistences, a self-existing thing, if you will. But in the unity of the Godhead, there'd be three persons of one substance, power and eternity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father. The Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son. So we can simplify this to say this, and this is not in any way intended to be flippant. It's just a good way for us to grasp the concept as best as we can. The stuff of God. What makes God, God. Okay? More technical terms, the substance. The being of God. There is one of those. The stuff of God. He's one in substance. Okay? But conversely, he is three in person. Or you can say subsistences, or the Greek term that Jason quoted earlier this evening, or this afternoon, was hypostasis. A hypostasis is a Greek term that we typically translate as person. So one in substance, three in person. Now let me say this briefly. is that a lot of people say, well, that is contradictory. How can you have something that is one in substance, three in person? A lot of people over the years have tried to come up with analogies, okay? And virtually, if not entirely, all of the analogies are in one way heretical. So we don't use them. They're problematic. So I won't even give them to you. You just, you know, don't Google them either. Don't Google them. You know, I could just see everybody start whipping out their phones. I'm going to go find me. I'm going to go find it. I know I'm going to find it. But let me say this. It is nothing unique to the Christian faith or to existence in general for us to affirm something that is true, even if we cannot explain it. We do this all the time. We do this at the simplest of levels. If you were to say, Dr. Fesco, can you explain how the computer in the car that you're driving works. I'd be like, nope, can't do it. I mean, I've got my phone here. I'm using it as a stopwatch to make sure that I don't go over. I do that one time because my son said, Dad, that was a long sermon. I was like, it was not. And so now I prove it. I'm like, it wasn't long. It was only 31 minutes. Stop counting the minutes and listen. But I get impressed with the phone. I don't know how this thing works. I don't know the technology behind it, but I understand it and I affirm it and I use it. Let me get a little bit more technical. Now I'm starting to get on dangerous ground here. What is the dangerous ground? Let me talk physics for a quick second. Now I warn you, most of my scientific knowledge comes from Star Wars. So I don't know what I'm about to say, but I know that it's true. Trust me, I'm a doctor. At the turn of the 20th century, there was a debate among physicists. Is light a wave? Or is it particles? According to physics, it's impossible for it to be both. Something is either a wave or it's a particle, but it cannot be both. And there was debates in physics over this. And they finally determined that as unlikely as it may be, light exhibits the characteristics of both. So much so that they want to say it's not a wave, it's not a particle, it's a wavicle. Now according to the rules of science, this is impossible. And yet physicists do not go and say, oh, that's impossible. We're setting that aside. No. They say, you know what? We don't know how that is, but we know that it is. So we as Christians should not in the least bit be ashamed or embarrassed to say, yes, we don't know how it is, but we know that God is one in substance and three in person. And we need not be ashamed in the least bit over that. So we want to understand this about the doctrine of the Trinity. What theologians of the past would say is they would say we want to stress the unity of the Godhead. as much as possible, because in stressing the unity of the Godhead, we're affirming that each person in the Godhead is fully and equally God, as we explained from the Athanasian Creed. The Father is fully God, the Son is fully God, the Spirit is fully God. But where a lot of theologians then take a step and they say, okay, however, we stress the unity unless we encounter what's called a relational opposition. Now, by a relational opposition, we do not mean that one member of the Trinity is somehow opposed or in conflict with the other. But rather, imagine if you are that you're standing opposite of someone else. That's what they mean by a relational opposition. And so here, Saint Anselm, who was in the 11th century, says this, the unity should never lose its consequences except when a relational opposition stands in the way. Let me state that in much simpler terms. We can put it this way. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all God, but the Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Father. The Father and the Son are not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not the Father and not the Son. That's what we mean by relational opposition. They are distinct persons within the Godhead. Okay, they are distinct persons within the Godhead. And we know that they are distinct persons within the Godhead because of the names that the scriptures reveal to us about each person within the Godhead. So for example, we know that the Father is the father and is not the son because the scriptures reveal to us that the first person of the Godhead is the father. And what we say of the father is he is unbegotten. Okay? But conversely, we say that the second person of the Godhead is the son. And to be son is another way of saying he is begotten. Okay? Or the way that the creeds say it is, He is eternally begotten. Because there was never a time when the Son did not exist. Because He is fully God. And as God is eternal, He is eternal. But to say He is eternally begotten is another way of saying He is eternally the Son. But at the same time, you've seen this, and I've seen the quotation up there from John 14, 26, that Jesus says the Father would send the Spirit But in addition to that, you also have 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, he will bear witness from me, about me. So here the Son is saying, I will send the Spirit, but the Father sends the Spirit. So in this sense, we say that the Spirit uniquely proceeds not as begotten, because the Son is begotten, but the Spirit proceeds from the Father, and He proceeds from the Son. So the Spirit eternally proceeds, the Son is eternally begotten, and the Father is eternally unbegotten, because the Son and the Spirit proceed from Him. Again, in the words of the Athanasian Creed, the Father was neither made, nor created, nor begotten from anyone. Or in the words of the Confession, the Father is of none, neither begotten, nor proceeding. The Athanasian Creed, the Son was neither made nor created, He was begotten from the Father alone. The Confession, the Son is eternally begotten of the Father. And then the Athanasian Creed. The Holy Spirit was neither made nor created nor begotten. He proceeds from the Father and the Son. The Confession, the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son. So it's important that we see what these creeds and confessions do as they trace the teaching of Scripture, and they echo, if you will, what the Scripture says about Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching that the Holy Spirit is a unique or a person within the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So we've looked at so far the Holy Spirit as God. Secondly, the Holy Spirit as a distinct person within the Godhead. But then third and finally, we want to consider the names of the Holy Spirit. Because as we know from the Bible, it's when you look at the name of a person that it says a lot about them, especially within the pages of Scripture. Now the Scriptures clearly attribute specific names to the persons of the Godhead. The Father is the Father, the Son is the Son. But the Scriptures, believe it or not, give a number of different names for the Holy Spirit. We know that the Holy Spirit is called, in a number of texts, the Holy Spirit. John 1.33, John 14.26, just to name a couple. But the Holy Spirit is also called Love. That is one of the distinct names of the Holy Spirit. In 1 John 4, 8 we know, of course, that John says there, God is Love. God is Love. But when we look more closely at what John says there about God is love, we can say, okay, yes, God is love. We can apply that name to the whole of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, they are love. But notice what John goes on to say in 1 John 4, 7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. So here, he says, our ability to love one another, it comes from God. God gives us love. How does he give us love? 1 John 4, 13. This moves by way of progression in the passage. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us his Holy Spirit. So this is why we would say that the proper name for the Holy Spirit is love. And even the Apostle Paul says as much when he says this in Romans 5.5, God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. So Paul explicitly says that the Holy Spirit is love and he's been poured into our hearts. He's been given to us. A second name for the Holy Spirit is the gift. In his Pentecost sermon, the Apostle Peter says in Acts chapter 2 verse 38, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So here, it is the gift of the Triune God as the Triune God gives unto us the gift of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And we'll of course look in greater detail tomorrow and on Saturday as to the nature of what that gift of the Holy Spirit does in and for us. But a third name that we have for the Holy Spirit, and a number of people have used this throughout the afternoon and evening in John 14, 26, but the helper or the comforter The advocate, or in Greek, the paraclete. But the helper, the paraclete, the comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I have said to you. The Holy Spirit is our comforter because he brings the very presence of God into our hearts. And when you think of words like comforter, don't think of the big fluffy blanket. I don't think of that, for which I have great discontent. I love my wife. The pillow to people ratio in our house is so out of whack. It's like I stand by the bedside and I'm like, it's like 10 minutes of dumping pillows. And by the time I get them all off, she's like, hey, I need all of those. And I'm like, what? And then she's got this big old poofy thing, and I'm like, man, I'm sweating. I'm dying here. I don't want you to think that comforter. The original derivation of the word comforter means cum forte, to bring strength. So don't think of a comforter as something that's warm and fluffy. Rather, think of the Holy Spirit as the helper, the one who gives you strength when you are weak. That's the name of the Holy Spirit, the comforter, gift, love, as well as Holy Spirit. This hopefully gives us a better idea as to the person of the Holy Spirit. We'll take a look, of course, at the work of the Spirit in much greater detail in the next two days. Now, as I said at the outset, remember, all of those facts that I collected about my wife, those were important. but that where those facts come home is within the covenant of marriage. And we can say something very similar about the Holy Spirit is that all of the information, all of these facts that we have just surveyed, these are vital and important. Don't set them aside. You need to know them. You know, with my wife, I need to know when her birthday is. I need to know when it's our anniversary. I need to know that I better not buy her flowers on Valentine's Day. She's like, don't you dare bring me flowers on Valentine's Day. I was like, why not? Because they are triple the cost of what they would be. You buy them any other day of the year for me, but not on that day. So it's like. Yes, ma'am, will do. So we have to take all of these facts and we have to situate them in covenant in Christ. And this, as I said, adds the flesh of covenant to the bones of truth and together it constitutes, if you will, the living body of the truth. So that when we are in covenant with God, the triune God, we have to remember that when we study these things, remember this, we are not merely studying facts, but rather you are getting to know the person of the Spirit. You are getting to know the triune God. Moreover, it's not merely an intellectual knowledge, but rather it is a transformative knowledge. Remember, as Moses is at the top of Sinai, simply by being in the presence of God, his face is aglow with the glory of God. He was transformed. When you enter into the presence of God by studying the scriptures, by praying, by meditating upon the truths of God's revelation, it's supposed to be a transformative experience. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, 17 and 18, now the Lord is spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the spirit. The spirit brings all of this truth to transform us. There are no neutral encounters with the triune God. We either enter into his presence unto judgment, or we enter into his presence unto transformation, unto glorification. So that all of the scriptural knowledge that you study, all of it, is preparation for you to see the triune God face to face in the face of Jesus Christ. All of it is preparation for that. All of it. We receive the Spirit through Christ, the last Adam, who Paul calls in 1 Corinthians 15, 45, he calls Christ the life-giving Spirit, because he pours out the Spirit. So remember this. And so remember, as you are living the Christian life in the midst of covenant, through your union with Christ, in communion with the triune God, You can remember everything that we've discussed here this evening about the Holy Spirit being fully God, participating in the creation, the Holy Spirit being omnipresent, the Holy Spirit being the Lord and giver of life, the Holy Spirit being a distinct person within the Godhead. And remember that when you look upon the beauty of the sunrise, that you are beholding the work of the Triune God. You are beholding the work of the Holy Spirit as He upholds the very sunrise that you see. When you acknowledge that you have existence, that you breathe, that you live, you are encountering the work of the Holy Spirit. When you study the word of God and all of a sudden you are driven to your knees because of its convicting power, when you are overwhelmed with a sense of joy because you recognize that your sins are forgiven, when you see that Jesus Christ is the only savior and you place your trust in him, when you are given comfort because you read the words of the scriptures, you have come into the presence of the Holy Spirit. When you receive and sense the love of God in your life and in your heart, not only through faith, but even through the ministry of the church, you are encountering the Holy Spirit. Wherever you see the name of Christ exalted and glorified, you are watching with your very own eyes the work of the Holy Spirit unfold because it's the Spirit's responsibility to glorify the name and person of Christ. When you see unbelievers turning from their sin and embracing the gospel of Jesus Christ, you are observing firsthand the work of the Spirit. You know, how many of us can say that we cannot see the wind? But we can see its effects. We can see the leaves on the trees blowing back and forth. And we can say, I can't see the wind, but I can see its action. I can see its effects. When you see sinners repent, you may not be able to see the Holy Spirit, but you can see the Spirit's effects in the lives of people around you. In all of these things, you encounter the Holy Spirit and all of those facts that you know about the Holy Spirit come home in the midst of your life in covenant with the triune God. So beloved in Christ, do not cease to therefore marvel and to give thanks for the Holy Spirit, the giver of life. I want to close with the words of a 9th century hymn. written by a German monk, Veni Creator Spiritus, Come Creator Spirit. And it says this, and it's a fitting, I think, summary of everything that we've spoken of this evening. Come Holy Ghost, Creator blessed, vouchsafe within our souls to rest. Come with thy grace and heavenly aid and fill the hearts which thou hast made. To thee the comforter we cry, to thee the gift of God most high, the fount of life, the fire of love, the soul's anointing from above, the sevenfold gifts of grace are thine, finger of the hand divine, true promise of the Father thou who dost the tongue with speech endow thy light to every thought impart and shed thy love in every heart the weakness of our mortal state with deathless might invigorate drive far away our wily foe and thine abiding peace bestow if thou our protecting guide if thou be our protecting guide no evil can our steps be tied Make thou to us the Father known, teach us the eternal Son to own, and thee whose name we ever bless, of both the Spirit to confess. Praise we the Father and the Son, and Holy Spirit with them one, and may the Son on us bestow the gifts that from the Spirit flow. Amen.