March 8, 2023
Ephesians 1:13
Beyond The Covenants Of The Promise
Broadlands Bible Church
(Download Audio)
These notes are the same as the previous study, but the audio message is a continuation.
Thesis: The Holy Spirit was given to rachet up the level of our experience of the promise: i.e., relational interaction between the believer and God.
Introduction: We have spent several months attempting to lay down a foundation for the development of a Biblical Perspective. We have seen that
the promise is identified in
1 John 2:25 as
eternal life. Because John said it this way, we conclude that he is bringing
all of the promises down to their single essential identity: the experience by men of eternal life is the objective of all of the verbal revelation that God has given to men through all of the ages. This objective is
the reason God has spoken. There is no other reason.
In our studies over the past several months, we focused our attention on Paul's phrase in Ephesians 2:12: "...strangers to the covenants of the promise...". Under that phrase we considered three major issues: A) We were created as body, spirit, and (resultant) soul as Genesis 2:7 says; B) We, as a race, capitulated to sin (through the temptation recorded in Genesis 3) that was aimed at us as body (good for food), soul (desire of the eyes), and spirit (desirable to make one wise); and C) Abraham, as the father of those who believe, was given three covenant promises to fortify him against temptation and death -- a promise of a land for the concerns of the body, a promise of a seed for the concerns of the soul, and a promise of a great name for the concerns of the spirit.
However, it should go without saying that just because we have a covenant of life revealed to us in words from God does not automatically signal our participation in the life that the particular covenant was designed to produce. There has to be another aspect to God's process that goes beyond highly significant covenant promises. There are too many folks who have heard the words and do not have the life.
Now, at this point -- the realization that words from God are not enough -- most people go looking for the culprit. Why, ask they, are the words insufficient? Is it not, say they, that men simply refuse to accept those words? Well, it is certainly true that men do refuse to accept those words. But is this the reason the words are not enough? The legalist, who lives by the letter (the words), says yes, this is the reason. But, at this point, let's ask another question: what would happen in a man's life if he accepted the words, but nothing else was involved? The answer? Nothing would happen. Paul pointedly says in Romans 7 that he joyfully concurred with the words of God, but that didn't make those words produce life for him (Romans 7:22-23). He said that there was a significant problem that ran roughshod over his joyful concurrence and brought him to a wretched condition! (7:24).
So, beginning this evening, we are going to look into another of Paul's Ephesian phrases. It is the one found in Ephesians 1:13. There Paul writes of "...the Holy Spirit of the Promise...".
- I. The More Obvious Significance of the Holy Spirit of the Promise.
- A. Let's begin with the concept of spirit...
- 1. From the beginning, spirit is introduced to us as "the agent of effective power".
- a. In Genesis One, God speaks and the Spirit of God acts to accomplish the words.
- b. In Genesis Two, man is nothing more than a well-formed body of dust until the spirit of life is breathed into his nose.
- c. In Genesis 6:17 and 7:22, as soon as the spirit of life is rendered incapable, man dies [it is rendered incapable by the limitations of the physical body's ability to keep the breath of life flowing into its nose].
- 2. All through the rest of biblical revelation, spirit is identified as "the agent of effective power".
- a. Man's body is rendered incapable if man's spirit is removed from it.
- b. God's activities are accomplished by God's Spirit as He works to empower the intermediate agents of God's works.
- c. The Holy Spirit is identified both by promise [Acts 1:7] and by work [Romans 1:4] as the Agent of Power for the accomplishment of the works of God.
- 3. The conclusion we draw from the general reality is that the Spirit is absolutely necessary for God's words to have any real impact [Note 1 Thessalonians 1:5].
- B. Let's go from there to the concept of promise...
- 1. There is no need for a promise where there is no need.
- a. Our argument regarding "the covenants of the promise" was that because man is susceptible to temptation, he has a need for covenant promises.
- b. If the promises were sufficient, the need would have been met; thereby reducing the need to no-need.
- c. That there was, in addition to the covenants, an additional attachment to the promise indicates that the covenants were not sufficient of themselves.
- 2. "The Holy Spirit of the Promise", then, means that the promise will not be fulfilled on the basis of the covenants alone: there must be a capable Spirit to bring the covenants into the effective production of the essence of the Promise: Life.
- II. The Doubted Reality of Jesus' Pointed Statement About the Coming of the Spirit.
- A. The doubted statement: John 16:7.
- 1. Jesus pointedly said that the coming reality was superior to the present one.
- a. The present reality was the personally present Jesus Who could be accessed in verbal communication at any time.
- b. The future reality was an indwelling presence of "the Spirit of the Promise".
- 2. The doubts arise from two directions...
- a. First, there is a very strong commitment by mankind to the notion that he has the capacity to do the will of God if he has a sufficiently clear grasp of what it is...so if Jesus is around to quiz on the details, we can get about the business of doing the will of God.
- b. Second, there is a very strong insecurity in mankind that makes the imperceptible presence of the Spirit of Jesus significantly indeterminate...i.e., I will never be able to determine the will of God if Jesus is removed to the level of spirit.
- B. The major point.
- 1. The problem is not, and has never been, fundamentally a knowledge issue.
- 2. The problem is, and always has been, fundamentally a capacity issue.
- 3. The promise is fundamentally a capacity promise "...you shall receive power...and you shall be...".
- 4. There is not one single command given by God that is beyond the capacity of every true believer if we go down to the roots of capacity...which is the Spirit of God..."...I can do all things through Christ...".
- C. The major issue.
- 1. Man's penchant for satisfaction, security, and status is always front and center in a major conflict over method.
- a. The method of the flesh is reductionism to personal capacity without any regard to the availability of capacity beyond what is "mine".
- b. The method of the Spirit is faith in present illumination with dependence upon an unbounded capacity.
- 2. Man's penchant for fleshliness tends toward falling back on past illumination...i.e., yesterday's words from God.
- 3. The Spirit's method is temporally immediate.
- a. Only the Spirit of God knows from one day to the next what actually needs to be done in any given moment.
- b. His leading into life by illumination is a current and immediate reality for those who are aware of the tensions between flesh and spirit and deal with the flesh by faith.
- c. He does not sanction any kind of distance that creates any kind of falling back... onto personal ability or onto past illumination.
- d. This is why the requirements exist for searching the Scriptures daily and praying without ceasing...these requirements are nothing more or less than the practice of the immediate presence of Jesus.
- III. The Big Problem: Jesus' transition to the level of spirit out of the physical realm.
- IV. The Only Given Solution: being made perfect by the Spirit through the hearing of faith...taking each day, one day at a time, and expecting each day to have something to believe. Spiritual circumcision was accomplished to make us more sensitive to God and the shedding abroad of God's love in us is done to provide the necessary motivation to do the will of God.
