The Person of the Holy Spirit

[00:00:02] Speaker A: Okay, guys, we are kind of doing something that we've done before. So a lot of you have been here for these sort of topical theology studies, but a lot of you are new, so you haven't. So we'll try to catch you up to speed. This is what we were doing before we started Galatians, so I figured we could just go kind of back and forth a little bit with different books of the Bible, studying these categories. And so as. As you can tell from your handouts, if you don't have one, you should get one. And you'll need a physical Bible. I'm gonna ask some of you guys to read some verses for us so we can kind of see where these ideas are in Scripture. So in these types of studies, we jump around and try to see what does the whole Bible tell us about these topics. But to start to make sure we kind of understand what we're doing, you know, we're doing something called theology. Now, this is something that every Christian should do. This isn't just for scholars and academics or even for pastors. If you're a Christian, then you have ideas about God. And if you have ideas about God, then you have a theology. And so we want to make sure what we believe about God is, you know, in line with what the Bible teaches about Him. So to start, can someone define theology for us? Does anyone remember. Yeah. What's the study of God? Study of God. Okay. Yeah, that's part of it. Oh, yeah. Do you have something to add? Well, that's. That would be, you know, the way we primarily study God. But there's something a little bit more. If we are studying God and knowing God, what's going to happen? [00:01:54] Speaker B: Change. [00:01:55] Speaker A: Yeah, we change. You're right, Lincoln. Yeah. So it's knowing God and becoming more like Him. That's how I like to define theology. Knowing him and becoming more like Him. If we're not becoming like him, then we're not really getting to know Him. Theology is not just something that we learn and kind of put into our brains and have this knowledge. But if we are doing it rightly, then we should turn to be more like Him. We should be driven to worship Him. And that's the goal. So I want us to remember the goal is not just to know things, but to have our lives transformed by knowing these things about God. Now, the way we do this is we kind of do it systematically. Does anyone know what I mean by systematic, systematic theology? It's a type of theology. What is it? Anyone know what that means? Do you Have a guess. [00:03:06] Speaker B: Is it the type that you like? Put it into your brain. [00:03:10] Speaker A: That's a good guess. It's helping us to kind of organize it in our brain. To do anything systematically would be to do it kind of in an orderly and intentional way. And so the way we understand this is we're just going to study God to become more like him through different categories. So, you know, if you're going to study one part of God, so you're going to study about God, the Son and his works, well, you're going to study what the whole Bible has to say about that topic. And we kind of do that for different categories. So these are another way to think of this. If the theology and systematic. These words are confusing, just think of these as core truths of the Christian faith. That's what we're studying. I've, you know, been helped buy a book in these called 50 core truths of the Christian Faith. And so that's kind of what we're. We're doing. So we're studying by categories now. Does anyone remember any of the categories we studied last year? Just any of them. I know you don't. Do you have a guess? You weren't here, but you might know. Oh, you don't know. Okay. Yeah, I didn't think you did. What are some of even the broad categories? Not necessarily one particular lesson, but they're kind of all under these umbrellas. I'll give you the first. We studied the Word called it the doctrine or the teachings about the words we talked about the Bible is without error. It's inspired by God, does not fail in its purposes, those sorts of things. Yes, we did talk about the Trinity. The Trinity was one of those. That's right. Kind of. Yeah. We did talk about angels, so we talked about created things. So we talked about humans, human nature, human sinfulness, angels and demons, and just creation generally. So the creation and all of God's creatures, which includes angels. So we did talk about those. You have a guess. You weren't here, but you could guess. [00:05:30] Speaker B: The Word, the truth and the life? [00:05:33] Speaker A: Well, no, not exactly, but, you know, I applaud the guess. Yeah, there are a couple more. The other ones we had were. Was just God generally. So, you know, God's attributes and his nature that turned into the Trinity. And we also talked about Jesus Christ the Son. So we talked about who he is, his work of salvation and atonement and those sorts of things. And so today we're jumping back in. So, you know, we did kind of the Word. We did in Creation we did. God, his attributes, the Trinity. We talked about the Father, the Son, and now we're talking about the Holy Spirit. So we're going to be talking about the Holy Spirit for a few weeks, but we need to know, who exactly is this Holy Spirit? Or, you know, some of your Bibles may be a Holy Ghost. Who is it? So can anyone explain, you know, just in a simple way, what is the Trinity? Can someone just tell. Tell us what that means. We need that, Kellen. [00:06:33] Speaker B: God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. [00:06:35] Speaker A: Yeah, but what about them? Who are those people? Pass. Okay. Do you have a different answer? That's a good starting point. But there's. [00:06:44] Speaker B: God the Father is basically the Father of Jesus, and Jesus is like the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit is like the Spirit of Jesus. I think. [00:07:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I would say those things are true, but, you know. Yeah. Do you have another way to answer it? I don't know about the other ones, but I kind of know what the Holy Spirit does. Doesn't he, like, point people towards Jesus? He does do that. That's right. Yeah. He does do that. You know, there are some students in the room that have read a book on the Trinity in the last year that might know. Are you raising your hand to answer what? How many gods are there? [00:07:29] Speaker B: Three. [00:07:30] Speaker A: No. Wrong. There's one God. Deuteronomy 6. The Lord your God. The Lord is one. There's one God. How many persons are in the one God? 3. And who are they? Kellen knows them. Father, Son and Holy ghosts. Or holy spirits. That's right. Now, how you know who's the greatest of the three? [00:07:58] Speaker B: God the Father. [00:07:59] Speaker A: Wrong. There is no greatest. They are co. Equal. It was a trick question. I got you. They're equal in power and glory and authority. The works they do, they do. Together, they are distinct in how they're related to one another, but they are inseparable. So there is one God, three persons. And the reason we believe this? Just to review, I think we need to know this before we study the Holy Spirit, who's one of the persons of the Trinity, who is called the third Person. But that's not in rank. Kind of just in order of how they're revealed. The Bible tells us there's one God. We learn of the Father, who's God. We learn of a Son who is God. We learn of a Spirit who is God. And since the Bible we believe is true and without error, then that means there's one God. But there's three persons called God. So that's Kind of a short version of how the Bible builds that doctrine together. That's why we believe it. When we kind of tear them apart, we mess up how God works and who does what, and we kind of just destroy Christianity as a whole. So it's really important. And so that's kind of our overview. I wish I should have drawn the little diagram that some of you have seen before on the board. But alas. Let's talk about the Holy Spirit now. So the Holy Spirit. This is kind of the summary on your sheets. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, which again, is just kind of order of how they're revealed in the Bible. Not a rank equal in terms of nature, power and glory with the Father and the Son. So the Holy Spirit is equal in terms of nature, power and glory with the Father and the Son, and to be worshiped together with them. So we worship him too, because he is God, so he's not a third God. And, you know, there's lots of odd ideas about the Holy Spirit that you might encounter. For example, when I was in college, I went to this retreat, my fraternity, they had this Christian retreat that they were trying to promote. So they came to us and said, some of you brothers want to come to this retreat. So the chaplain, my friend, and he knew I was a Christian, so he said, you want to come to one? Other guy came with us who is not yet a Christian but is now. We went to this retreat in Colorado, and it was very odd. Lots of crazy things happening. I didn't really have a category for it. And so really, I was confused the whole time. In fact, at one point, this guy went on this long monologue while we were in this living room up on this ranch in northern Colorado. And he was saying that the Holy Spirit's name is Kevin, because he told him so. And I thought, this is ridiculous and irreverent, and I think I'm right to say that. So, you know, you might encounter weird ideas. Someone else told. Told everyone, oh, yeah, his favorite color is blue. You know, just crazy things. We don't want to rely on our own little experiences that we may or may not have. We want to, you know, dive into the Word and kind of stay focused on this summary. These are the core truths of the person of the Spirit. So he's not a third God. He's not separate from the other persons. He's not lesser than the other persons. And so the way we want to study these topics, what we'll do kind of every week, is we want to study things we must affirm and believe based on the Bible. We want to study, talk about errors that we need to avoid, and we want to talk about ways that we can apply this doctrine, because I do believe these are all applicable to our lives in different ways. But first, I want to ask the question, do you feel like you know the Holy Spirit? I want you to think about that for a second. Do you feel like you know him? Do you feel like you know him? Now? How can Christians know the Holy Spirit? You can answer this one. How can Christians know the Holy Spirit? [00:12:21] Speaker B: Listen to convictions. [00:12:23] Speaker A: Yeah, you can listen to your convictions. I think that can be helpful. There's something even more foundational, though, that I. I want us to hit on. Any guesses? Yeah. Believing in Christ, that's super important, right? You know, having true faith. We'll learn that when you have faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit then dwells in you. And so you would be. You could better follow your convictions. Someone who doesn't believe, following their convictions could come up with all sorts of weird ideas and really wouldn't necessarily know anything. Lincoln. [00:13:06] Speaker B: Like, if you know God and you know Jesus, not personally, I mean, not physically, but like. Like, yeah, you know, yeah, spiritual. Then you believe in them. Then you know the Holy Spirit sort of. [00:13:26] Speaker A: I think I understand what you're saying. What I'm trying to get at, though, is we want to start with this. I want to start with the Bible. Those are all true. You know, sometimes we kind of forget. We feel like. And there's less stuff about the Spirit. It's, you know, Old Testament. We get a lot about just God. I think that is about the triune God. Some people think more of the Father. And, you know, the New Testament is about Jesus, and so. And the Spirit. You know, it's hard to picture what is. How is a spirit a person. So I think there's some difficulties. So we don't want to rely on our own ideas or feelings too much. We want to start with what the Word tells us. And if our feelings, you know, confirm that, that's great. If they don't, we want to lean on what the Bible says. And so we, you know, want to know him through that. And we want to know him as a person, not just a force, because he is a person. And this is so important to us because no one can be a Christian without the Holy Spirit. A Christian without the Holy Spirit does not exist. So he's crucial for our lives. And if we want to have faith, he's crucial for that. So let's start with the major affirmations. So number one, the Bible progressively reveals the Holy Spirit. The Bible progressively reveals the Holy Spirit. So if you knew nothing of the Bible, this is a good general truth for studying things about God in the Bible. If you know nothing, you wouldn't have a full understanding of the Holy Spirit until you read and studied really the whole thing. There's not just one passage that teaches all that you need to know. You know, that's why we study theology in these categories, so we can kind of put all of it together at once. So let's kind of look at the Old and New Testament. So the Old Testament, you know, let's say you know nothing. You read Genesis, you get to Genesis 1, verse 2. So pretty early on you read the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Well, what do you know about the Holy Spirit based on that? Anything? He's always been in existence. Yeah, he's always been. That's good. [00:15:49] Speaker B: He's everywhere. [00:15:51] Speaker A: Yeah, like there's kind of this idea, you know, in some way he's involved in creation. We don't have this full doctrine of the Holy Spirit yet. Right. We don't understand the Trinity just based on this. So this is something that gets developed over time. Let's look at Isaiah 11:2. Isaiah 11:2 says, 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 the fear of the Lord. Is there anything we learn about the Spirit there? Maybe it would help to flip to Isaiah 11:2 in your Bibles. Isaiah 11:2. What do we learn about the Spirit there? Read it again while you guys are finding it. 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 the fear of the Lord. Anything. When I say learn, it doesn't have to be new to you. Just like if you knew nothing, you read that verse. What does this show us about Him? Yes. [00:17:35] Speaker B: Wisdom, understanding, counsel, My knowledge and the fear of the Lord. [00:17:38] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, and the fear of the Lord. You know, if you've been around when we studied Proverbs, the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. So there's this. There's something about the Spirit that involves the wisdom, knowledge, understanding, reverence of God. These are all attributed especially to him. We also see that the Spirit of the Lord can rest upon a person. At the very least, we See that in the first line, that is something that the Spirit can do, come upon a person, rest upon him, and therefore maybe grant this wisdom and understanding, this fear of the Lord. So kind of seeing this kind of early version of the Spirit coming to a person and granting understanding, knowledge, even faith. Okay, well, even later in the Old Testament. And Joel. So flip to Joel. Might have to use the table of contents, maybe you don't flip to Joel that much. He's one of the minor prophets. Joel, chapter two. Joel, Joel two, Right after Hosea. Right? Hosea, Joel, Amos. Right up in there. Joel 2, verses 28, 29. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit. So what's new here? What do we learn about the Spirit in this passage? Joel 2, 28, 29. Yeah. The spirit is being sent down, given from above, from the Father. The Spirit's being poured out. What else? You know, as a hand, what happens when the Spirit is poured out on all flesh? You guys could just read the verse. I mean, this is like a really easy question. What happens when the Spirit is poured out on all flesh? They're prophesying. What else happens? There are visions. Just shout them out. Dreams. Yeah. Who receives the spirit? Male. Yeah. Males, females, servants. There's this idea that nobody is excluded. Nobody is necessarily unable to receive the Spirit. And so there's the outpouring of a Spirit from God, from above. The reception of the Spirit leads to miraculous gifts. You know, knowledge prophesying, dreams, visions. And it doesn't matter if you're a king or a peasant, a slave or a blue collar worker, it doesn't matter. You are not excluded by who you are from the reception of this. So there's a lot there. But the New Testament tells us even more about the Holy Spirit. So Christ, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, which we learn in Luke 1:1 30 through 35, he's also said to baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. So the Holy Spirit conceives the Son. The Holy Spirit is active in baptism, in a baptism, right. So we learn more about the Holy Spirit there. Jesus also tells his disciples that he will send the Spirit to them after he's gone as a comforter, you know. So if you want to know this verse, John 14:26 says, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name. He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. So the Spirit is sent from the Father. He is a helper. He is sent in the name of the Son. He teaches the followers of Jesus all things, specifically the apostles, the ones who wrote the New Testament. He brings to remembrance the things that Jesus had taught them so that they can remember them as they're writing, you know, gospels and epistles. So our Bible's informed by the Holy Spirit. And so we kind of see this just continue to build. We get a greater and greater understanding of him as we read the Bible. So that was the first thing we want to affirm. The second truth we must affirm is the Holy Spirit is God. We learn this from the Bible. The Holy Spirit is God. Now, this point is often disputed. People say, you know, he's maybe the Spirit of God, but that doesn't mean he is. He is God. But I think most clearly, I think there's a lot of verses that imply that he is God. But Most clearly, Acts 5, 3, 4. That's a good one. Flip to Acts 5, Acts 5, 3, 4. So, but Peter said, 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? And 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 we see in these couple of verses, Ananias is accused of lying to the Holy Spirit and lying to God. This is clearly showing there's this connection, that the Holy Spirit is God. Even at the very beginning of the church, Peter understands this. And again, other other works of the Holy Spirit, like his involvement in salvation, I think, also prove that he's gone. But it seems to be the quickest and most clear third truth we must affirm. The Holy Spirit is a person of the Trinity, not a human, but a person. So in the Old Testament, kind of logic this out a little bit. In the Old Testament, where did God dwell? Yes, the temple. That's right. That was where the people could meet with him. Right. You know, he's omnipresent, but he put his glory and presence in the holy place, the most holy place, in the temple. Well. So if God dwells in the temple, well, the New Testament kind of using that imagery reveals something to us. Go to 1 Corinthians 3. That's not far from Acts, Acts, Romans 1 Corinthians 3. And look at verse 16. 1 Corinthians 3, 16. Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? So he's talking to Christians. He says, do you not know that you are God's temple? God's Spirit dwells in you. If God dwells in the temple, but now Christians are called temples, then that means God dwells in Christians, you know. But the text specifies not just that God dwells in persons, but that the Holy Spirit who dwells in Christian is the one who dwells in Christians. So we must conclude then that the Holy Spirit is God. He's the representative of God indwelling persons. Now the fourth truth we must affirm. The Holy Spirit proceeds proceeds from the Father and the Son. So the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Now bear with me. I think this might be a little difficult to grasp, but you can do it. I do think it's important. So let me ask this question. Does anybody know how do we distinguish between the persons of the Trinity? You know, they're all one God, they're co equal. The works of God are unified. They're not doing their own things. They are working together. So how do we distinguish them? Does anyone have a guess? Well, yeah, they kind of work in different ways, right? We see some works especially attributed to one over the other. We do believe that all of God is working in all of those things. So I think. But some things are maybe especially attributed to one person or another. But I think that the way that we've kind of done this historically is they're kind of how they're related to one another, their relations, how they. They don't. Orig they don't have an origin as their eternal, but kind of their origins and relations. So here's how it goes. This would be a good thing, I think, for you to remember and write down the Father initiates. So the Father initiates. That's why he's typically listed first. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the Father initiates. The Son is begotten. He is begotten of the Father. So the Father initiates. The Son is begotten of the Father and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son from both of them. Father initiates. Son is begotten of the Father, Spirit proceeds from Father and Son. This is really the way we distinguish them. Initiates, begotten, proceeds. Since they're one God, you know, we cannot totally separate them. But the Way they operate helps us to do this. Why is this important? Well, an entire schism in Church history occurred because of this question. Like the whole Church split in half because of this. The Eastern Orthodox Church has been wrong on the Holy Spirit for many generations now, claiming that the Spirit only comes from the Father. So that's why this is important, saying Spirit only comes from the Father, not from the Son. But let's look at the Bible and see what the Bible has to say. So flip to John, chapter 14, everybody. We're going to look at three verses in John that are all close together. John 14, verse 26 says, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father. So whom the Father will send in My name. He will teach you all things. So here we see the Father sending the Spirit, but not just sending the Spirit. The Father is sending the Spirit in the name of Jesus. But we see the Father sending the Spirit. So that is true. Now look at chapter 15, verse 26. But when the Helper comes, this is Jesus speaking. Whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father. He will bear witness about me. So we see the Son through the Father, sends the Spirit. The Father is still sending the Spirit, but the Son does as well. So we're seeing both of them in play here now, one chapter over again, chapter 16, verse 7. Nevertheless, Jesus speaking still, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. So again, the Son, speaking only of Himself, sends the Spirit. So what do we get when we put all of these together? This is kind of how we do a lot of theology. We read the Bible, put it all together, and see what we get. Well, we see that the Father and the Son send the Spirit. So that was the last one of our affirmations. Now, let's talk about errors to avoid. Major errors to avoid. So first, we must never deny that. Never deny the deity of the Holy Spirit. Why can we not? Why must we never deny the deity of the Holy Spirit? [00:31:11] Speaker B: What was the question? [00:31:13] Speaker A: Why must we never deny the deity of the Holy Spirit? Yes. Sorry, I didn't see your hand. Would it be like denying the deity of God? Yeah, it would. See, you know, passages where he's affirmed as God. To claim he's not God is at least that some of those things that are attributed to the Holy Spirit are not happening from God coming from someone else, some other sort of Force. So we want to remember this. This would kind of collapse a whole lot of what we believe. You know, just because he's the third person, again, doesn't make him third in rank. You know, if he's a lesser version of God, that's usually what people would turn to. He's not God. He's like a lesser God. If that's true, it would really just mean he's not God at all. And we would have to, you know, again, extend that same logic to the Son and say, the Son is less than God and the Son's less than God. Then again, we. We lose a whole lot. Indeed, we lose everything. Another error to avoid. Number two, we must never deny that the Spirit is distinct from the Father, the Son. Why do we need to do that? What would happen if the Spirit's not distinct in any way? Yeah, that's right. That's right. And these different operations of the Trinity would all collapse without these persons, we wouldn't be able to make sense of the incarnation of the Son. We wouldn't be able to make sense of the coming of the Holy Spirit if we collapse all of them into one. Now, there are many people in history that have taught such things. Even popular preachers today like Stephen Furtick teach some false teachings about the Trinity. One is called modalism. Does anyone remember modalism? What does that mean? Does anybody remember? I feel like somebody. Do you remember? Oh, sorry. Did you remember? Okay. I said his hand was first, but I called on you. Ezra, what is it? Isn't it God just enters different modes? Yes. Did you have something else to say? Did you have a different guess? Yeah. God is changing modes. He transforms or morphs into one person or the other at different times. This cannot be upheld in the Bible. If we believe this, we are collapsing the word of God because, you know, for example, just one example, when we see Jesus baptized, we see the Son baptized, we hear the Father's voice from heaven, we see the Spirit descend as a dove, we see all three persons operating. This makes no sense if God is morphing into these different modes at different points in time. So we must never distinct or deny that there's a distinction in these persons. The third thing we must not deny is that the Spirit is a divine person. He is not a he. He is not, or he is a he. He is not an it. You know, Jehovah's Witnesses and some very extreme charismatics believe that the Spirit is just a force. The Bible, however, paints a picture of a loving and caring and comforting God, not a mere force. A person who comes to people, regenerates their hearts, gives them new life, grants them wisdom and perseveres them in the faith. We see a loving God in the Spirit, not just the force. Now finally, before we end, I want us to talk about how we can enact this doctrine. So you know an old creed, the Nicene Creed, says we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son, he is worshiped and glorified. So based on this, what must we do? Well, we must worship and glorify him, not ignore him, not be afraid of the doctrine of the Spirit, not thinking. Well, I talk about the Spirit is thing that Pentecostals and Charismatics do. That's not true, you know. So think of the Spirit when appropriate, as you worship and sing and pray during church, even today, think of him. Think of the Spirit as you seek to obey and please God and ask for his help, as you seek to walk in a manner pleasing of God. And finally, thank God for the Spirit. We could not be saved without the Spirit. We would not persevere in the faith without the Spirit. We would not be able to do anything or have any wisdom without the Spirit. Or you can put your faith in Christ and receive the Spirit. If you haven't, he will be your helper, your comforter and your friend. Now to conclude, I want us to just answer real quick, why? Why this all matters? Well, all of this matters not just because I want to bore you. I think this is a great doctrine. This matters because if the Spirit is not a divine person, if these things aren't true, if he's not a force, or if he's just a force, if he isn't a divine person, then he cannot possibly do the works of the Spirit. And we need him to do these works. And that's what we're going to talk about next week, the works of the Holy Spirit. Now let's pray and then we can head over. Father, thank you for your word and how it teaches and reveals to us new things all the time. God, thank you for the Spirit that gives new life to dead sinners, that perseveres, Christians in the faith that gives us gifts, that we can have a thriving and healthy church together as we all practice our giftings. Lord, we pray that we would love and appreciate your Spirit even more today. And we pray this in your Son's name. Amen.