This morning I should like to direct your attention to some things that the Bible tells us concerning the work of the Holy Spirit in God incarnate our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that the Lord Jesus, in contrast to Adam the first, is referred to as the last Adam. the federal head of the new creation. That he is the pattern of that new order of beings that God is bringing into existence for the praise of his glory. When we speak of the Lord Jesus Christ, we speak of mystery. There's so much we do not understand, we shall understand, by God's grace in the future. God's Word tells us that He's finished with the old creation. He's finished with this world in the final things. That He is in the process by the Holy Spirit of calling out a people from the nations of the world to the praise of his glory, to his name. When he saw the Lord Jesus, God incarnate the man Christ Jesus, he could say, My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And God the Father was so delighted with his Son that he is ordained that he will populate heaven with people made like unto the Son of Man. So the Lord Jesus Christ is the pattern, as he is the head of the new creation. He the Son of God became the Son of man, that we the sons of men might be made sons of God, that we the sons of ignorance and night might dwell in the eternal light through the eternal love. And so in many, many respects the Lord Jesus Christ is the pattern and the example to the believer. And so we read in the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel according to John and verse sixteen. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. A similar thought is expressed in John seventeen verse eighteen. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. This in petition, which is commissioned in John twenty, twenty-one, as my Father hath sent me, even so, even so, send I you. Again the thought is expressed in First Peter, Two-twenty-one, for even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow in his steps, or follow his steps. There are various applications of this, of this principle, but I want us to think this morning of the strange and mysterious work of God the Holy Spirit, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. I introduce this subject with a good deal of diffidence because one can so easily misunderstand so many questions are raised for which we do not have the answer this side of glory. But first of all, may I make abundantly plain that I believe with all my heart the teaching of God's words that our Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal Son, eternally the second person of the Triune God. That He became man for us men and for our salvation while continuing fully one hundred percent God, so that the Lord Jesus Christ as the babe at His mother's breast was the same person, with the same attributes as the one who spoke. and this world came into existence. The Lord Jesus was fully God and is fully God. At the same time, He became man, and His manhood was a real manhood. And I believe the principle of Scripture in the life of the Lord Jesus is that He did not call upon His deity in terms of His divine attributes to sustain him as a man. But he lived fully as a man, a man without the paint of sin, a man with all that the original man had before the fall. But he was a man in the weakness of humanity, in this world, and the totality of his life as the servant of Jehovah was a life lived independent upon God, though He Himself was and is and evermore shall be God overall, blessed forevermore. Why was it necessary that the Holy Spirit was operative in the life of the Lord Jesus? I don't know that I have the answer altogether. He was truly man. God has willed that we as redeemed ones should be dependent upon the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus is our example in this. He lived a life sustained by God the Holy Spirit, and He has sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts, the one who is to sustain and maintain and enable us during our earthly pilgrimage. Humanity was not sustained by inherent deity, but in the Lord Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, which does not mean in any respect that the Lord Jesus was less than fully God in the totality of His existence. May I use a crude illustration? Supposing I were a millionaire, I'm not. Supposing I were a millionaire and for some reason or other I wanted to work among some destitute sharecroppers in some rural section of California. I leave my million dollars in the bank and I come and take a job. I live as these people live. I work as they work. I eat as they eat. I dress as they dress. My life is the same as their life. At any time I could call upon my million dollar reserve in the bank. to sustain my life, to buy a Cadillac or a sirloin steak. I never do so. In reality, I am as they are, but I have not ceased to be a millionaire. I don't know whether that is suggested to you in any way. The Lord Jesus on earth was fully God. But he did not command those angels to come to his defense. He did not command those stones to be made bread. He was shut up to the will of God the Father, to the enablement of God the Holy Spirit. Now let us turn to the word of God and see various ways in which this was true. And we shall have to move fairly rapidly in the time that we have at our disposal. The first thing we notice is this. that when the Lord Jesus stepped from the throne room of heaven into this world, he was dependent upon the Holy Spirit so far as his birth was concerned. We read in Matthew one, eighteen, now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. She was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Again in Luke chapter one and verse thirty-five. And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. The incarnation of the Lord Jesus, it would seem, therefore, was a creative act of God the Holy Spirit, not ex nihilo, for Christ was not, as it were, God incarnate, made out of nothing, but out of the substance of Mary, the seed of the woman. Christ could say, A body hast thou prepared me. as the children were made partakers of flesh and blood, he himself also took part of the same. Apparently, as far as we can tell, it would seem, that God the Holy Ghost conceived and formed the body and nature of Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Then Christ, the second person of the Triune God, The eternal Trinity, the eternal Son, in ineffable love and wisdom, stepped out of heaven and possessed that body and that nature that God the Holy Ghost had formed in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He took it for his own. And this was not for a limited time, merely of thirty years or so on earth. But for all eternity he is the man Christ Jesus. all the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in becoming man. One could conceive that for us men and for our salvation, he would take this human body and nature in order to fulfill an atoning work. And then lay that thing aside and ascend into heaven as pure spirit, the second person of the triune God. But that is not the teaching of the Word of God. but rather at that moment out of eternity into time when He stepped into this world and possessed that body and possessed that human nature. He, if it were, became flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone for all eternity. And let us remember that it is as the man Christ Jesus with that mysterious but still true resurrection body He rose from the dead. As the man Christ Jesus, He ascended into heaven. He is the man Christ Jesus in the glory, and He shall return this same Jesus as you have seen Him go, bearing in His body the marks of Calvary. For all eternity the eternal Son has identified Himself with us. And as He partook of a human body and nature, we read that in the mystery of regeneration we are made partakers of divine nature. That does not mean that we become God. What we need to understand in what is called the hypostatic union, the mystery of God becoming man and the union of God with deity with humanity. The person, the personality, the ego, the self was God. Jesus Christ is God and always will be God and He partook of a human body and a human nature. When we are born again, we do not become God. I continue to be Stacey Woods. The ego continues. But in the mystery of regeneration, we are made partakers of divine nature. That doesn't mean we say we become God. The self continues. The ego, the personality, the self-conscious self. But we are made partakers of divine nature, as He partook of a human body and a human nature. So in the conception and birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, we find that he was conceived of the Holy Ghost. Then it would seem that God the Holy Spirit sanctified this human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ from conception, and he carried on the work that was begun. For we read that of course the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, grew in wisdom and in stature. And so we read in Isaiah chapter eleven. and they shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and shall make him a quick understanding in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither it prove after the hearing of his ears. This obviously refers to the Lord Jesus and to the mysterious work of God the Holy Spirit in and through the Lord Jesus as he grew and developed. Then will you please turn to Luke chapter two. And again I want to read three strange verses there. And I cannot explain them. One must just believe them. Luke chapter two, verse forty. And the child, the Lord Jesus, grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. Here is God. And yet we read, the grace of God was upon him. Verse forty-seven, And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. Verse fifty-two, and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. How could He, the omniscient one, increase in wisdom? I can understand how the baby boy could grow up into boyhood and youth and adolescence and manhood. The physical development is comprehensible. But all I can do is to say, I don't understand, but I must accept and believe the fact that He, who is wisdom, increased in wisdom. as he increased physically. And then we read again a strange thing, that as the Lord Jesus commenced his public ministry, God the Holy Spirit, sent by God the Father, came upon him and induced him at his baptism for his public ministry, for the discharge of his office as the suffering Messiah, the servant of Jehovah. And again we read this same strange reference in Isaiah that our Lord himself quoted. We read in Isaiah sixty-one verses one and two, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that abound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn. And then as we turn to the New Testament, and again notice the reference and what is said, as our Lord commences his public ministry, recorded in Matthew chapter three, verse sixteen, and Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him, and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son. in whom I am well pleased. Again the reference in the Gospel according to John chapter three, verse thirty four. Another reference to the Spirit of God in relation to the Lord Jesus. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. In other words, as the Lord Jesus commenced his public ministry, To fulfill the will of God the Father, in a unique and real way he was imbued with power of the Holy Ghost for his ministry. From this time forth he was fully declaring, fully revealing, fully manifesting God in all his fullness. He was completely subject to God. He could say, I can do nothing of myself. The words I speak are not my words. The things I do are not what I want to do. My will is to do the will of him that sent me. My meat, my existence is to do the will of him that sent me. And to fulfill his work. The Son can do nothing of himself. What strange words. He the eternal God saying, I can't do anything of myself. This, of course, in relation. to the ministry that God had given to him, that he had accepted as the servant of Jehovah. And then as we carry on and understand something of the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus, it would appear that all the Lord Jesus did, even his miracles, were done not by the exercise of his deity which he had and could have exercised. but in weakness he depended upon the leading and the enablement of the Holy Spirit. And it would appear he fulfilled God's will and performed those miracles attesting to his deity in the power of God, the Holy Spirit. Now I did not say he ceased to be God. I did not say he ceased to have divine attributes. I merely suggested that it would appear from God's Word that he was filled with the Holy Spirit, he was dependent upon the Holy Spirit, and he did the will of God the Father by the enablement of the Holy Spirit. He, eternal God, very God of very God, very man of very man, one hundred percent God, one hundred percent man. May we turn to two references in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter two, verse twenty-two. where Peter is speaking, ye men of Israel hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. He was God, and yet we read that God did these miracles by him. And that amazing verse in Acts ten, verse thirty eight, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. But I think the conclusive evidence as to this is found in the Gospel according to Matthew chapter twelve. You remember this has to do with those who rejected the Lord Jesus and rejected His works. In Matthew chapter twelve verse twenty eight we read, But if I cast out devil by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. And then verse thirty-one, wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto them. In other words, the Jewish leaders were saying that what Christ was doing, he was doing by the power of Satan. And Christ said, no, no, what I'm doing, I'm doing by the power of the Holy Ghost. And if you attribute the work of the Holy Ghost to the work of Satan, that is unforgivable. And that very reference indicates that the Lord Jesus is claiming that what he is doing is not doing by virtue of his inherent power, but is the servant of Jehovah, the man Christ Jesus, he is dependent upon the Holy Spirit, and those who attributed his work to Satan were not merely calling him Satan in that sense, but were actually attributing the work of the Holy Ghost, not his own work, to Satan. The Son can do nothing of himself, nothing on his own authority. And then very briefly we read that he was sustained by the Holy Spirit, and after that moment of temptation in the wilderness, He was strengthened as we read in Luke, verse four, fourteen. But I want us to move on to the death of the Lord Jesus and to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And here again, it's mysterious and wonderful, but the Word of God indicates that even as the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, was offering himself up to God as that one perfect and full and foolish and complete offering and sacrifice and oblation for the sins of the whole world. The Lord Jesus was actually offering Himself up to God by the Holy Ghost. Turn to Hebrews chapter nine. Hebrews chapter nine, verse fourteen. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." You see, the outward work of physical suffering was seen by men, but the inner work of atonement for the sins of the whole world, the sacrifice, the atonement was seen by God. And in some strange way it is by the eternal Spirit of God that Christ offered himself up to God as the sacrifice for the sin of the whole world. And then we find the Holy Spirit operative in the Lord Jesus Christ when it comes to His resurrection. For we read in first Peter three eighteen, He was put to death in the flesh. But he was quickened, he was quickened in the Spirit. Turn to Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight and verse eleven. And if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, bodies by his Spirit which dwelleth in you. And again in the first chapter of Romans and verse four, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. In other words it would seem, and with this we must close, that right from the time of his coming up, coming from heaven into this world, to be born as that helpless little baby of Mary in Bethlehem, until the time he was raised from the dead, the victor, over the world, the flesh and the devil. He, the eternal Son, he, the second person of the triune God, was dependent upon God the Holy Spirit. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and he was raised from the dead by the eternal Spirit. And I think as we shall see as we go on, by God's help with our studies, that the servant is not greater than his Lord. And as God the Holy Spirit was the one complete enabler of the Lord Jesus Christ in the days of his weakness when on earth, so that same Holy Spirit is our enabler day by day. And the whole thing is summed up In the words of the Lord Jesus that we've already read, when he could say in his high priestly prayer in John seventeen, and as he repeated in commission in John twenty one, as thou hast sent me, in like manner as I was sent into the world by God the Father, so I send you into the world. And as God the Father gave to God the Son, God the Holy Spirit for his entire earthly ministry, so God the Son has sent into your heart and life and my heart and life that same spirit of holiness, that same spirit of power to enable us to live to the praise of the glory of the Lord Jesus. our Redeemer. There is a marvelous relationship between the earthly life of the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit in and through the Lord Jesus and the life He calls you and me to live on earth as representing the Lord Jesus with the same enabler and comforter God the Holy Spirit who indwells you and me. Tomorrow morning we shall move on to see more of its application in our lives day by day.