The Wonderous Cross Pt.4

Hear me. Ready? OK. All right, good morning, Cornerstone.

It's 9:30, so we're going to go ahead and get ourselves started here. I get to do the Sunday school lesson today. As you all know, the focus primarily has been on the gospel as Pastor Mike Berry said a few weeks ago that we, we're, we're, we're like the football coach who throws the football to his players and says this is a football and we're back to the basics, right? And it's the basics of the gospel and so that's what we're focusing on today.

We're looking at, The, the role that the Holy Spirit plays in the revealing of the gospel. in short, today's lesson is gonna focus our attention on the fact that the Spirit of God directs our attention to the gospel of Jesus. OK, that's what the Spirit does. He directs our attention to the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, his person, his work.

The Spirit directed the attention of Old Testament prophets, as well as the saints of the Old Testament to the gospel of Jesus before he came into this world, and the Spirit of God directs New Testament apostles and prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. the Spirit of God directs these New Testament proclaimers of the gospel, to the gospel of Jesus, looking backwards. At his death and then looking forward. To his return again.

the gospel that the spirit of Christ directs our attention to includes, this is, we all know this, right? the, the focus of the gospel is, is the coming of Christ, His death on the cross for our sins, being laid to rest in the tomb, raised up bodily from the dead, ascended onto the right hand of the Father, where right now he reigns. He is our advocate, and he will return again someday. this is the gospel, if you will.

And so what I want to do if I can in an attempt to integrate, well, I'm looking and I'm not really seeing that many kids here. let's see, integrating the kids. I, I see one there and I see that Sam's got his hand up. OK, let's see.

I think this will help the kids though, so I need, Sam, come on up. and I'm sorry, yeah, I'm forgetting your name. Leila, can you, would you mind coming up here, please? Put your mask on if you have it, OK?

And then I don't see any more kids, so I, I think I'm gonna call for 3 grown-ups and, and you'll help the kids to understand what we're doing. Sam, come and stand right there, please, at that cone. Leila, if you would stand at this cone, please, that would be helpful. OK.

And so I need like 3 more willing volunteers who will come and stand up front. Please, I need this, this will take a long time. Yeah, come on, you can stand here, Rick. At that cone and I'll have you stand here.

What was your name? Rod, fishing rod. I got, I gotta try to. OK.

And so, oh, yeah, so, I need 1/5 1, I guess. So, You, Sherry, if you don't mind, you can stand. You're standing by the cross, OK. And so we got person number 1, person number 2, person number 3, person number 4, and we've got person number 5.

Person number 1. Guess who you are? You're a prophet. And what prophet you are?

You don't. And let's say, let's pretend that you are the prophet Moses. OK, you are Moses. And let's say that you are the prophet David, King David of Israel, the great king of Israel during its golden period.

You are that king, King David, the man after God's own heart, that's who you are. And by the way, Moses, Moses, you were alive, you were around, during about 1550 BC. Guess what, you are 1500 more years before the time of Christ, and you, David, you are about 1000 years before the time of Christ, about 550 after him, but 1000 before the time of Christ, OK? And then, so we've got, we've got our Moses, we've got our David, we've got our Isaiah.

you are around 740, 700, years before Christ, and you guys aren't living at the same time. Hopefully you kids understand this. You are not living at the same time. Prophet 1, prophet 2, prophet 3, we've got Prophet 4 over here.

You are, why am I forgetting? John the Baptist. That's who you are. You are John the Baptist, OK.

And then, and then over here what we have, this almost feels blasphemous, but just roll with it. we have Jesus, OK? I wanna be Jesus. And so here's what happens, OK, this is especially to help you young people understand, Sam.

You are the guy. You are Moses. the story about Moses leads the people of God out of captivity, right? Take, taking them into the promised land.

But during that time, during the wilderness, in all likelihood, he is going to write the Pentateuch, 1st 5 books of the Old Testament. He writes these books. And how in the world is he able to write these books? That's a big question to answer, right?

How is he able to write these books? Because these books eventually become the 1st 5 books in the Bible. They are the word of God and contained in these books, the Spirit of God reveals to you things that he wants God's people to know. And one example would be found in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15.

Do what it says there? Genesis 3:15, it is there where we are told that the seed of the serpent is going to be crushed by the seed of the woman. Well, who is that seed of the woman? That's Jesus.

So a prediction is made that a day will come, Jesus will come. And he will crush the head of the serpent. That's just one example of a prediction made. You also wrote the Book of Leviticus, and in the Book of Leviticus what we have is a sacrificial system that points to the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God.

who will someday die on the cross for his people. OK? And so this is you, you're Moses, you are a great prophet. And then we've got prophet number 2 here, we've got David.

David, you are a person after God's own heart. You were one of the great kings of Israel. You started off as a shepherd, you became a king. And one of the things that you did, you love to do is write songs.

You wrote a lot of psalms, music. And, and, and while you were writing some of these psalms, there were times where the spirit would just fill you and give you pictures of what would happen in the future. OK? You were able to look into the future day and as a result, you wrote what we call some Messianic Psalms.

These are psalms that point to Jesus. One example is Psalm 22. Can you remember that? Psalm 22?

what it says in that Psalm? David, right? He's envisioning Jesus somehow, some way, and David is writhing about how the hands and the feet of Jesus are pierced. What does that sound like?

It sounds a lot like crucifixion to me. But in that day, in the day of David, no one had even heard of death by way of a crucifixion. But somehow, some way you were able to make this prediction that a day would come where the Messiah's hands and his feet would be pierced. think about that.

You, you are alive hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years before Jesus, but you can make such a prediction. That's just one of many predictions that you were able to make. How were you able to do that? By the Holy Spirit speaking through you under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, you're able to write the word of God, OK?

So we got prophet number 1, Moses, prophet. David, we've got prophet number 3, Isaiah, and similarly, Isaiah, you looked into the future. a popular passage in Isaiah is Isaiah 53 where it talks about how they led him like a sheep to the slaughter. And if you read through Isaiah 53, there's so much there that points directly to Christ.

How did that would happen? How were you able to make those types of predictions? That's amazing. And then we've got John the Baptist.

He comes around much later. Temporary of Jesus, he paves the way for Jesus, and John the Baptist says something to the effect of, I baptize you with water, but there's one coming after me more powerful than I, who is going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. You remember that day when that day came, and I, I think under the inspiration of the Spirit, you said, to the people standing by, Behold, The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. How did that?

How are you able, I, I, I would submit to you that you knew that under the inspiration of the spirit, God revealed these things to you, and guess what guys, kids, Lila, Sam, you guys, what was predicted eventually came true. Because when Jesus came, he came as the Old Testament said he would come. He lived, born of a virgin, lived a perfect life. He would die on the cross by way of crucifixion, pierce my hands and my feet.

He is the seed who's going to destroy the devil. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. Behold the Lamb of God who takes. The sins of the world, they were under the inspiration of the spirit to predict that Christ would come and die on the cross for the sins of humanity.

Think about that young people. How could they make such predictions? Did they just come up with it on their own? Did they make lucky guesses?

There's no way they could have made those types of guesses. that had anything to do with it. They were writing under the inspiration of the spirit. God revealed it to them so that what they wrote in the Old Testament of the Bible would come true in Christ.

Not all of the promises have come true. We're still waiting for some to come true. He's gonna come again someday, and there's promises that describe that, but the promise of his first coming came into fruition. OK.

It's a good reason to believe in and to trust in the Lord, right? Because when he says something will happen, it will happen. You can take him at his word. You can believe what he says to you.

He's trustworthy, he's truthful, he's faithful, and he is able to do what he says he will do. He is powerful and he is wise. OK, I want you to remember those things about the Lord. OK, thank you so much, guys.

You can sit down. This illustration. I believe, helps us to understand in part what Peter is talking about in 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 10 to 12. So let us go ahead and read those verses.

First Peter chapter 1 verses 10 to 12. It reads, as to this salvation, as to this salvation, He has already been talking to his readers about this salvation, their salvation, and regarding this salvation, he says the prophets who prophesized of the grace that would come to you. Made careful search and Seeking to know what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted, what did the spirit of Christ predict the sufferings of Christ, just like our illustration shows, and the glories to follow.

Verse 12, it was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you.

Right? The readers that Peter is writing to, not serving themselves, but you, the readers there, he says, and these things which now have been announced to you through those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit and again, we're, we're underscoring the importance of the spirit, the role of the spirit. In bringing forth the word of God and proclaiming the word of God, and also in, in people getting saved through the word of God. The Holy Spirit which was sent from heaven and he ends by saying things into which angels long to look.

Angels are in G It underscores spirit's role in motivating us to dwell on the good news. 5 references given by Peter that underscore the spirit's role in motivating us to dwell on the good news of salvation. This is what Peter wants. He wants us to dwell on salvation.

He wants his readers who are going through difficult days to dwell on their salvation. OK, so let us go ahead and look at these references. Number 1, Peter's reference to the salvation of his readers. He begins by saying in verse 10A, as to this salvation, referring back to the salvation of his readers that he was describing, in chapter 1, verses 1 all the way through verse 10.

And again, Peter clearly wants his readers going through difficult days to focus on the theme of their salvation. OK. And so from this as to this salvation, if we backtrack, we, we understand in verse one that Peter acknowledges their suffering, right? he acknowledges the fact that they're suffering, they've been scattered.

OK, they're suffering. And then in verse two, Peter affirms God's choice of them. He wants them to know that they have been chosen by God. He affirms God's choice.

And it Them. Now foreknowledge is not that God was looking into the He would know them intimately, relationally, lovingly, that God ahead of time decided they would be his own. So this is what we mean. This is what we're talking about with this use of the word foreknowledge.

And then he said. right, affirming God's choice, God's foreknowledge, and the sanctifying work of God's spirit in their lives. Again, we see this in verses 1 and 2. I want to underscore the fact that the Holy Spirit plays a role in sanctifying, the readers here, sanctifying all believers.

The sanctify means to set apart, right, for God's glory, for his exaltation, and for the good of those who have been set apart. OK, so sanctifying work of God's spirit. Verses 3 through 4, Peter affirms God's mercy in their lives. God has been merciful to you guys, he has been merciful to you in this and that he has caused you to be born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, right?

They have been caused To be born again to this living hope through the resurrections, talking about the good news, wanting to impress the good news into their hearts and minds. And then in verse 5, Peter declares, and how encouraging is this in the midst of their trials, declaring, you are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed. You are protected. OK, again, I am submitting to you, he wants them to focus on their salvation that has been wrought by the Spirit of God, and Peter in verses 6 through 9 now describes their joy in their salvation despite their trials.

They are rejoicing, overflowing with joy in the midst of their trials, which actually serves as a proof of their salvation. And so the bottom line is that the genuine salvation of Peter's readers is by the sanctifying work of God's spirit as they trust in the gospel, and their salvation is proven by the fact that they are rejoicing in the Lord in the midst of their suffering, they are saved. What a blessed thought to know. That you are saved and your circumstances cannot get in the way of your salvation.

What a blessed thought to know that at the end of the day, I may be going through difficult times, but I've got Christ and in him I am complete. I am saved. OK, and Peter wants to impress upon his readers their salvation. Right, he begins as to this salvation.

He then directs the attention of his readers to the prophets, and this brings us to Peter's reference to the prophets, Peter's reference to the prophets. Right, Salvation. Is the theme, or it was the theme that Peter wanted the readers to think about. salvation is the theme of the prophet's study, as we will see as we read in verse 10B.

He says the prophets regarding the salvation, right? The prophets who prophesized of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry. OK, so the first thing we note is that the prophets prophesized. They spoke for God.

They sought to explain, they predicted. This is part of what the prophets did. OK. We also note the fact that the prophets prophesized of grace, of the grace, and grace is a gift.

It speaks of good favor, gracious care and help. this is clearly a reference to the gospel of Jesus, who came, lived a perfect life, died on the cross for the sins of his people. And so the prophets, Peter is saying, prophesized of the grace, and what else can we say about this grace? the prophets prophesized of the grace that would come, it would come.

You can take it to the bank. You can believe it without question. It was going to come. God said it would come through the prophets.

He spoke as they were writhing under the inspiration of the Spirit. And so the grace of God, in fact, we look backwards and we know it without question came. OK, there was never any question that the grace would come. It was God's intended plan to send His Son into this world to save sinners, and it was his plan since before time began.

In the eternal decree of God in his mind, he already knew, given all of what was going to happen, that Christ would be sent into this world to die on the cross for sinners. His mind was made up, and nothing was going to change God's mind on that score. OK, these prophets. A made careful search and inquiry.

Just think about that. They, they, they, they, they searched carefully. They inquired deeply of the grace that would come. they, they, they were, at the edge of their seat in full attention focused on this grace that was going to come.

They wanted to know about it, they wanted to understand it. They gave their hearts and their lives to trying to understand these things. OK, they made careful search and inquiry of the grace that would come as revealed by the spirit of Christ. And so we can say that the prophets evidently knew of our fallen condition.

There were things that they knew about. They knew we lived in a fallen world. They knew these things. they knew that sin had entered into this world.

They knew of our fallen condition. They knew of our need for a savior. They knew that we needed grace, and, and it doesn't take, much to figure that out as you read. Through the Old Testament as you read through the prophets, there were these truths that they just simply knew and they embraced.

OK. These prophets made predictions as the illustration earlier showed. They predicted and we didn't just have 4 or 5 prophets, we had dozens of prophets making predictions from different seasons of life, different periods in history, all making these predictions again under the inspiration of the Spirit. OK, we made reference earlier to Genesis 3:15.

we made reference to the Levitical system, we made reference to Isaiah. these are just, David, these are just examples of how Old Testament prophets foretold what was going to happen. Incidentally, On a personal note, As many of, I was a history major at Cal State University San Bernardino. I entered the university a nonbeliever.

bound in sin. Addicted to drugs, drinking, partying. So on and so forth. But as a history major, I was forced To have to think about the historical reality of Christ.

And part of what my journey took me to was the study of the Old Testament prophecies. As a nonbeliever, I could not shake the Old Testament prophecies. I could not get around the fact That these predictions were made and they came to fruition. I'm not here trying to say that I believed because intellectually I was able to figure it out.

I'm not saying that at all, but what I am saying is that God by His grace allowed me in my thinking it through to come to the place where I believed that the Bible was the word of God based upon the fact. That predictions were made and there's no way that can be explained apart from the fact that God spoke through the writers to accomplish His word and then they would come true in Christ. That's just a piece of the puzzle on my path. To becoming an intellectual believer in Christ, and I underscore intellectual because I was an intellectual believer before I was born again by the grace of God and through the power of the gospel, OK?

But that, that, that intellectual step actually was pretty important. Once I believed Then I was accountable. And that's when I began to feel the shaking in my boots. That's when I began to feel afraid for my soul.

That's when I began to know that I was headed on a highway to hell and that if I were to die, I would die and perish in my sins and spend eternity in the lake of fire. I knew that without, without any question. I knew that was my fate. And when I heard the gospel for the first time, And by the grace of God and through the spirit of God, when my eyes were opened to the truth of the gospel, it was refreshing, it was, it was liberating.

It was freeing. It resulted in transformation. That's what the Bible says, right? It is the power of God unto salvation.

And you all know what I'm talking about because you guys, I assume for all intents and purposes, the vast majority of, you've experienced the transforming power of the gospel in your life to one degree or the other. And what I am saying resonates with you. OK. And so, let me say this, like the prophets, we do well to make careful search and inquiry of God's grace.

We do very well. To set our gaze upon. The gospel of God's grace as has been revealed to us by His Spirit through the word and through the preaching. Of those called to preach the word of God.

We do well to make careful search and inquiry. Of the Lord's future plans. And for the Old Testament prophets, part of what they meant is focusing in on the cross, but it wasn't limited to that. They, they, they sought to try to understand the end times as well, and so we do well by following their example.

Number 3, Peter's reference to the spirit. Right, salvation was the theme of the Spirit's revelation. Let us read beginning in verse 11. It says seeking to know what person or time the spirit of Christ within them.

Right? These are the prophets diligently inquiring, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you. Just a few things to note here, the spirit of Christ indwelt the prophets.

OK, this was not necessarily a permanent indwelling. Remember David prayed after his gross immoral sin and after being confront confronted by the prophet, David prayed in Psalm 51:11, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. The Spirit would indwell Old Testament saints, prophets to reveal truth that they might write under the inspiration of the Spirit, right? We are told that men spoke as the Holy Spirit moved.

We see, for example, in First Peter 1:21, no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. They did not speak on their own accord. They spoke, having been moved by the Holy Spirit under the inspiration of the Spirit. They spoke so that the net effect is they gave to us the word of God.

We are dependent on the spirit to reveal truth to us. As they were, so also we are, and we see this confirmed in the New Testament. Jesus says in John 16:7, but I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper shall not come to you. We need the helper, we need the spirit to come to us.

He says, but if I go, I will send him to you, and he, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. What does the spirit do? He convicts us, right? That's how we came to faith in Christ by being convicted of the reality of sin, righteous, our own unrighteousness and the righteousness of Christ, the righteousness of God, and the judgment that would come our way apart from the savior.

The Spirit of God came into this world. and helps us to understand these things as the word of God, the word that the Spirit is being delivered, the Spirit of God is working in us, causing us to feel this conviction and in the process regenerating us so that we might turn to Christ and believe and become new creatures in Christ. OK, so the spirit of Christ indwelt the prophets that they might write under the inspiration of the Spirit giving to us the word of God. the spirit of Christ predicted the sufferings of Christ, and we've talked about the, the bottom line, Christ would die on the cross for the sins of humanity.

That's been revealed. It's been foretold, and we'd be foolish not to embrace it. And, and, and, and take that message to the world. Take that message to your family member.

to your neighbor, to your co-worker. Help them to understand because they're ignorant of these things. Like I didn't understand these things until I got to college. I'm like 21 years old, and things are beginning to click.

No one had ever told me until then. There's a ton of people out there, no one has ever told them, and God would have for you to go to those people and to tell them things like, do that Christ was predicted? Do that God through the prophets under the inspiration of the Spirit wrote out the Old Testament, so that they ended up writing the word of God and these things came true in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you realize that?

Let me show you and take them to some of the Psalms, to some of the prophets, take them to, to these predictions and show them and ask them, pray tell me, how do you explain that? How do you explain that? This is God revealing truth to us. The spirit of Christ.

predicted the sufferings of Christ. And the spirit of Christ also predicted the glories of Christ that would follow his death. He would be raised up from the dead. He would ascend onto the right hand of the Father.

He would sit on his throne. And he would be our advocate, our defender. And he will at some point, yet in the future, rise up from that throne, and he will return again someday. Psalm 16:8, I have set the Lord continually before me because He is at my right hand.

I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad, my, my glory rejoices. My flesh also will dwell securely, for thou wilt not abandon my soul to shield. Neither wilt thou allow Thy holy one to undergo decay.

You're not going to allow your Holy One to undergo decay. Christ will not die on a cross, be laid to rest in a tomb, and they're rots. Neither wilt thou allow thy holy one to undergo decay. This was foretold hundreds of years before Christ.

Thou wilt make known to me the path of life in thy presence as fullness of joy. In thy right hand, there are pleasures forever, forever. How can that be if he wasn't raised up from the dead and ascended, seated at the right hand of the Father? Psalm 16 or 68:18 and you can cross reference this with the New Testament passage in Ephesians 4:8-10, but back in the Psalms, thou hast ascended on high.

He ascended. Thou hast led captive thy captives. Thou hast received gifts among men, even among the rebellious also, that the Lord God may dwell there. Psalm 110:1 to 5, we won't read the whole, but just parts of it.

Psalm said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet. A few verses later, verse 5, the Lord is at thy right hand. He will shatter kings in the day of his wrath. Do you believe that?

He is trustworthy. What he says comes to pass. In his predictions, they are all yes, in due time, many of which have come to fruition, some of which have yet to come to fruition. The spirit of Christ revealed to the prophets that they were not serving themselves.

The spirit of Christ revealed to the prophets that they were serving those who would believe. Is that not a blessed thought to be used by God, not for the sake of self-exaltation, but for the sake of showing others the way? You cannot get much better than that. The Lord graciously used the prophets to minister to others.

And the Lord desires, I'm falling apart here, and the Lord desires to use us, you and me, to minister to others who will believe. Well, let us forward ourselves to number 4, Peter's reference to the New Testament, apostles, New Testament prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, Salvation was the theme. Of the apostles preaching. The prophets, New Testament evangelists, pastor teachers.

First Peter 1:12B we read, and these things which now have been announced to you. Announced to you how through those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Peter is saying there were those that came alongside and they proclaim to you the gospel, and they did so under the influence of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, not in the arm of their own flesh, but by the power of the Spirit. God, through his apostles, prophets, so on and so forth, God spoke the word of God to you.

And so we just want to underscore a few things. We're getting closer to the end. The New Testament preachers preach the gospel. And they did it by the spirit.

It was the intent of the spirit for the preachers to preach the gospel. It's the intent of the spirit for us to be those that would preach the gospel, share the gospel. That's what the spirit does. The New Testament preachers preach the gospel by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.

I think this is a reference to Pentecost when on the day of Pentecost the spirit fell upon the church. What a day. And what a blessing to think that we do not have to pray the prayer of David. Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

The Bible tells us that the Spirit is given as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. Once in dwelt by the Spirit, the Spirit is not going to leave us. We may quench the spirit. We may walk by the flesh, and there may be the sense of grieving, this battle between the spirit and the flesh that we feel within us, this conviction, right, that we can't shake.

The spirit ain't going to leave. He's just going to make us feel bad. He's not going to let us be happy in our sin. And if you can live and grow sin, guess what?

The question is raised does the Spirit indwell you? Because if the Spirit indwells you, he will in due time get the better of you. You're going to repent. You're going to feel bad.

You're going to feel the convicting work of the Spirit when you're sinning and when that you're sinning. Sometimes when you're sinning and you don't know you're sinning, the Spirit is still faithful enough to convict and to reveal to us that we've done something wrong, right? He guides us morally, internally. and then number 5, Peter's reference to the angels.

To the angels. Salvation was the theme of the angels' interest. First Peter 1:12C. He says things into which angels long to look.

They're just completely astounded. By this gospel. This good news of the grace of God. The angels will never experience what we've experienced.

It is an absolute wonder to them that we who have rebelled against Almighty God would discover grace from God, that He would send His Son to die on the cross, and that we in due time might come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and become new creatures in Christ. They, they, they, they peek in on these things and they're astounded. They, they are amazed. They are blown away.

You see, they long to look into these things, they're interested in these things. And when, when one sinner repents, what does the Bible say? There is rejoicing in heaven. There is rejoicing and the angels are rejoicing.

They get excited. They have emotion. Right? And they get excited along with God who himself gets excited to see when we come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Part of the angels is how God by the Spirit reveals and accomplishes his plan of salvation and to see it coming to fruition when a sinner comes to the savior. Part of what it is that provokes And so let us conclude. Let us conclude. Just a few, a few thoughts in closing based upon our study today.

Number one, we must embrace the Spirit's role in manifesting to us the truth of the gospel. If it were not for the spirit, we would be in the darkness. God by the Spirit spoke through the prophets. God by the Spirit speaks through the preachers.

God by the Spirit uses his word to cause us to come to life. It's the spirit that helps us to see. Number 2, we must embrace the Spirit's tools and manifesting to us the truth of the gospel. a couple of the tools that the Spirit uses is, first is the word of God, the word of the Spirit, sword of the Spirit, it's his tool, his instrument, his device.

He authored it and he uses it. It's necessary. Faith comes through hearing the word of God, the word of the Spirit. We must embrace the Spirit's tools, the word of God, as well as the people of God.

God will use His people to minister to us, right? God uses Pastor Milton. He uses Pastor Mike. He uses the Sunday school teachers.

He uses the care group leaders. He uses brothers and sisters in the care group. He uses people to minister the truth of His word, so that by His truth we are sanctified, we are encouraged, we are built up, we are strengthened and edified. Number 3, we must embrace the spirit's purpose in manifesting to us the truth of the gospel.

What is his purpose? He desires our sanctification. That's what he did for Peter's readers, as we saw earlier in that first chapter. He sanctifies them.

He sets them apart. The spirit desires our sanctification. He indwells us, and he cries out and groanings too deep for words. He is forever fighting on our behalf.

He is, he is seeking to draw us to the things of the Lord. And the Spirit does not just desire our own growth, our own sanctification, but the Spirit desires our proclamation. He wants for us to speak gospel, not just to one another who are saved, but to those who are not saved as well. The spirit who indwells desires the proclamation.

And as we do these things, I believe this in part is what it means to walk by the Spirit. To allow the spirit to have control. That we're just gospelizing. One another Under the inspiration of the Spirit and utilizing the tool of the Spirit, the word of God, ministering one to another.

All the way to glory. So with that being said, I'm going to ask if you would just join with me as we close this time in prayer. Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much. That you sent prophets.

who under the inspiration of the spirit. wrote the word And through your word gave us reason to believe, to trust, revealing to us what was necessary for our salvation. We would be in the darkness. Apart from the ministry of the Spirit, speaking through the prophets, proclaiming the gospel.

Thank you, Lord. Prepare our hearts to receive the word when it is preached. Be with Milton, speak through him, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.