Intro to Pneumatology

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Well, good evening.
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We are returning again to our study of an overview of Christian theology and doctrine.
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We are on the continued subject of systematic theology.
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We have looked at theology proper, which was the study of God's nature and being and his attributes.
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We have looked at Christology, which was the study of Jesus Christ, both as his study of his divine nature and his human nature and how those divine and human natures are united in the one person of Christ.
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It's interesting when you think about the theology of Christianity, we have a very robust and articulate theology of God.
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We have a theology that says God is one in essence, but that he is three in person.
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And we have a Christology that says Christ is one in person, but two in nature.
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And that is our understanding of God in his nature and Christ in his person.
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But tonight we are going to move to a new study, a new section.
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If you look at the top of your handout, it says section.
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It used to say lesson number, but that wasn't really fair because I never get through one lesson.
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If we were really numbering these lessons, we'd be at about 25 right now, I think, or so.
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Because when you get a handout, you can feel fairly certain it's going to last.
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I ought to print these on cardstock because it's going to go more than a week.
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And so I will say this, for the subject of pneumatology, which is what we are starting tonight, you will be getting three handouts and each handout will probably take at least two or three weeks.
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So it's not a short section.
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In fact, it could go much longer than just six or eight weeks.
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It could go as long as we wanted to because, again, we're looking at a subject that is very, very important.
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And I want to begin simply by explaining the name because pneumatology is not a word that probably most people in most churches are familiar with.
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Now you've been in this church very long.
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You're familiar with it.
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If you've gone to churches that are reformed in the past, you've probably been exposed to it.
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But words like pneumatology and soteriology and ecclesiology are words that are typically confined to the academy, not to the church.
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It seems in the last hundred years, the desire to pursue the weightier things was pushed into the scholastic sphere and the desire to contain ourselves to the very simple things was put in the church.
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And it's unfair.
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It's unfair because, one, it makes us see the church as less than it should be.
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And two, it makes us see the academy as more than it should be.
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The church should be the institution of higher learning.
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That is, if one thing gets put on my headstone, maybe that'll be it, because I've said it many times and I believe it.
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The church is an institution that God has created for the purpose of teaching his people.
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We have that purpose of winning souls and then discipling them.
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Jesus said, go into all the world and make, not converts, but disciples.
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And discipleship doesn't end when somebody says, I believe in Jesus.
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That's where it begins when we say we believe in Jesus.
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And we make disciples by teaching them all that I have taught you.
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That's what Jesus said, teaching them to observe all the things that I have taught you.
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And so I put a very high value on teaching.
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And I hope you understand that.
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Well, tonight we're going to look at the subject of pneumatology and we're going to break down why we call it pneumatology.
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Well, as you probably have realized, the ology on the end of the word means the study of, or the discussion of, or talking about something.
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It comes from the word logos in the Greek, means a word.
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And so a word about something.
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And that's why when we talk about theology, theos means God and logos means a word.
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And so theology is words or a study of God.
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And Christology is a study of Christ.
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And so those are easy because we're familiar with the word God and we're familiar with the word Christ.
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But when we come to this word, we take off the ology portion, the pneumatology there.
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And we're left with this word, pneuma.
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And depending on who your Greek professor was, you might say pneuma.
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And the reason why I don't say pneuma is because I'm sort of transliterating the word.
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In Greek, when you learn koine, which is the biblical Greek, koine means common.
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And so the common Greek language of the first century, one of the ways that we pronounce those words is you pronounce every letter of the word.
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And so the word pneuma would be pronounced pneuma.
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You wouldn't say, but when we bring that into English, it's where we get the word like pneumatic, like an air driven tool or pneumonia is we don't say pneumonia and we don't say pneumatic.
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And so if I said we were doing pneumatology, it would sound a little funny.
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So for the sake of my English ears, I don't like to say pneuma.
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But if I were writing it in Greek, I probably would because it would have the P followed by the new and there wouldn't be a vowel between the two.
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And so it'd be pneuma in Greek.
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And like I said, depending on your Greek professor, he would probably make you say it because of the rule that you're going to pronounce every letter.
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So pneuma, what does it mean? Well, if you if you notice, I mentioned two words in the English that should help us understand what it means.
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I use the word pneumatic and pneumatic is something that is air driven.
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Right.
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And pneumatic or pneumonia is a disease of the lungs, which are the air sacs of our body.
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And so when you think of pneuma, you think of the word air.
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But air is the air is the limited meaning it really more so would deal with the idea of breath.
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All right, so you've got air and breath is where the word pneuma comes in.
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But in a biblical term, it's also where we get the word spirit.
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So we have air and breath is the is the literal spirit is the is the word that's used for that.
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And I want you to think in your mind about Genesis, where in Genesis there was the creation of man and he was made out of the dust of the ground and he was formed by God.
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The only thing formed by God was man.
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Everything else was spoken into existence.
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But he formed man from the dust of the ground.
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That was an interesting just little truth there that man is not spoken.
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He's formed.
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He's God's highest creation.
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He's made and he is breathed into his nostrils and he became a living soul.
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Right.
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That that word breathed into his nostrils that that made man alive.
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He was now a spirit being not spirit only because man is made up of body and soul or body and spirit, the spirit and soul there can be used interchangeably.
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But he is both body and soul.
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When you die, your body goes into the ground, your soul or your spirit goes to be with the Lord.
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And on the resurrection day, you will be reunited.
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But with a new glorified body, I do think that this body will be changed.
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I don't think this body just goes away.
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I think this body is part of the change.
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I think we get that from First Corinthians 15 says we will will be changed.
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And it was something that which is corruptible will put on the incorruptible and and and we will have a spirit and a body that goes on forever in a new heaven and a new earth.
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Amen.
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I'm excited about that because this body is getting very tiresome.
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It's getting rough.
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I'm almost 40.
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Aren't you excited? I started when I was in my 20s doing this.
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And now I'm almost 40.
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You know, John MacArthur just celebrated 50 years at his church.
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They just had his 50th anniversary celebration at Grace Community Church.
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What a wonderful testimony to the grace of God's faithfulness.
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And just just throwing that out there.
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So so what I got to complain about, you know, he's been doing 50 years and he still looks just like he did, you know, when he stayed just, you know, he's just just keeping on strong, still, still strong.
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So we are looking at pneumatology, which is the study of the spirit.
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But let me clarify when we say pneumatology in this context, because if we said we're going to study the spirit, we are talking about a distinct spirit, the Holy Spirit, because we're not studying our spirit.
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We're not studying the spirit of man, that which is breathed into the nostrils of man.
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And we're not we're studying the Holy Spirit in Greek would be the Hagios Pneuma, the Holy Spirit.
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Now, I don't know how many of you grew up on the King James Bible.
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But I still have friends that are very strong King James advocates, and some people still use King James Bible.
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And I don't have a problem with the King James.
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In fact, I love the way it sounds when it's read, especially by somebody who's used to reading it.
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When I read it, I often trip over my words because it's just not it's not the language I'm used to using.
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But those who are used to the King James Bible will call this word ghost because they will address the Holy Spirit as the Holy Ghost.
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Now, there is nothing wrong with that language, though most of your modern translations have abandoned the word ghost.
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And why do you think that is? Well, you're not wrong, Laura.
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You know, you say because it's spooky.
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I think that that really is a primary reason is that the word ghost has within it a connotation of negative.
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We think of a ghost as a specter or a spook or something that's ethereal and oftentimes negative.
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People say, I saw a ghost.
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They're normally not talking about the Holy Ghost.
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You know, people say, you know, and so that word ghost is not very popular anymore.
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But as I was thinking about this lesson, I actually thought about this today as I was I was thinking about what I wanted to.
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I mean, I've got my lesson all written out, but I was thinking how to introduce this idea of the Holy Spirit.
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I said, you know what? The one positive about Cody, if you would, the good, the one positive about Holy Ghost versus Holy Spirit is I do think that when people use the word Holy Ghost, it put into their minds more of a picture of a hymn rather than an it.
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Because since the since the advent of the word Holy Spirit as the more common used word in English versus the Holy Ghost, people are much more apt to say it rather than he.
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No, with spirit, they're more apt to say it.
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People will say, I was filled with the Holy Spirit and I felt it.
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They'll say, I felt it rather than I felt him.
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You see what I'm saying? So the language becomes less personal, I think.
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And again, this is me sharing an opinion.
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I think that since changing to the word spirit, I think it's become less of a he and more of an it.
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And that's not good.
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So what we must understand, however we translate, you'll hear me use both.
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Sometimes I'll say Holy Ghost.
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Sometimes I'll say Holy Spirit.
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Depends on if I'm just in the language wherever, just, you know, I might I might say the word Holy Ghost and it shouldn't bother anybody.
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But whether we're using the word ghost, whether we're using the word spirit, they both are relating the same word.
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The key that I'm trying to get across is this.
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When we talk about the Holy Spirit, it is essential that we understand that we are talking about a person.
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And that's what I want you to really get across tonight is the Holy Spirit is a person.
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Now, you think person, you think like Lee is a person and Ann is a person and Kara is a person.
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That's not what I mean.
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What I mean is the Holy Spirit has personality.
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And I don't just mean personality, you know, not that.
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What I mean is he is a he, not an it.
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And that is so, so important because remember, going back to our study of the Trinity, God is one in essence, but he's three in person and he's not two in person and one it, but he's three in person.
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And so it's vital that we consider the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit as personal.
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And so that's really what we're going to go through tonight when we get to that section.
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We're going to talk about things that make us know he is person and he is not it.
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That's that's what tonight is about.
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But before we get there, I want to make just a few more introductory statements.
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I think that the Holy Spirit is the most misunderstood and maligned person of the Trinity, followed up very closely by Jesus.
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He's misunderstood and maligned as well.
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But where I think the Holy Spirit is misunderstood is the Holy Spirit either receives all the focus or none of the focus.
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And there's a tremendous imbalance in many churches where everything is about the spirit and feeling the spirit and moving in the spirit and working in the spirit.
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And it's always spirit, spirit, spirit.
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Now, you don't get out there without hearing the word Holy Ghost 50 times, and it usually is Holy Ghost.
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And then there's other times where you go into a church and the word spirit is almost like a bad word.
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We don't want to do anything in the spirit.
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We want to stay very, very unspiritual.
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We want to stay very intellectual.
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And so the spirit becomes almost almost a synonym to the emotions and the emotions are bad.
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You know, I'm not saying they are, but I'm saying that's the way people treat the spirit.
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And so and so everything is scholastic, sort of like my sermon last week.
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It's either all scholastic or it's all emotion and neither are good, right? I think the Holy Spirit gets misunderstood as to his purpose and his place within the Trinity.
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And I think the Holy Spirit gets misunderstood as to what he's doing today in the churches.
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And I think he gets blamed for a lot of stuff.
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Oh, you know, the spirit told me and then it's wrong.
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And why are you going to blame that on the Holy Spirit? What did he do to you? You know, why do you want to make him the reason for your bad theology? You know, so he gets he gets a lot of bad.
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Something else to consider.
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And this is all just part of my introduction.
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The third person, the Trinity.
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And I know you're going to say, well, we know that.
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But I want to say it anyway.
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The third person is not mother.
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Listen to me.
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There are some that say there's father, son and mother.
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And they treat the Holy Spirit almost like the feminine person of the Trinity.
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Now, again, you all might say, I've never heard of anything so crazy.
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Just spend some time.
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You'll find crazy everywhere.
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But there are those who believe you have father, son and the spirit represents the feminine.
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Something important.
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We're going to talk about this a little later.
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The Holy Spirit receives a masculine pronoun the same way the son and the father do.
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In the Greek, it's masculine pronouns always for God.
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In fact, newer Bibles, there are these gender neutral Bibles that are starting to come out where even God is called it or they rather than he because they don't want to address God as man or masculine.
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But the masculine form is always used for God.
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It's always used for Christ.
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And it's always used of the spirit.
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In fact, that's an interesting little just tidbit on Islam.
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If you ever read the Koran, it seems as if Mohammed believed that the Trinity was Jesus, the father and Mary.
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And there's a certain portion in the Koran where he addresses, don't believe in three, don't believe it is father, mother and son.
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And he's addressing, of course, God, Mary and Jesus.
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Now, you can imagine if you let's say you're in the in the Arabian Peninsula and you've only met Roman Catholics who have a very unbalanced view of Mary, you could see falling into that trap of thinking Trinity is the father, the son and the mother.
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So, again, it's very important that we understand that the that the that the spirit of God is not the the nicer feminine side or the soft and cuddly or feminine side of God.
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Just just just keeping that in mind.
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Yes, ma'am.
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You you we've talked about this before.
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I was very young, but yeah, there you go.
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And I forgot all about that.
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But right there, a song that sings to the she the spirit.
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And so that's so again, like I said, I know probably none of you have ever even believed that or heard that.
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But it's important that we point it out as we're talking about the spirit.
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We're talking about a masculine pronouns he.
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So we should.
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It's not wrong to address the spirit as he.
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It is wrong to address the spirit as it.
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And I would say it's wrong to address it as she or address him as she.
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The outline of this is going to be very simple.
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Like I said, I've only got I'm only going to give you three handouts, but how long it takes us to get through each one, I'm not sure.
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But the three out the three fold outline is at the top of your sheet.
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We're going to look at the nature of the spirit.
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We're going to look at the work of the spirit and we're going to look at the distinctives of the spirit.
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Now, the nature we're going to look at his personality, his deity and the things that represent him.
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That's what you have on the sheet there that that helps us to understand his nature.
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The work we're going to look at a lot that that one I worked on that lesson today, actually.
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And there's so much going to be because it's revelation, inspiration, ministry, indwelling, sealing and filling all of the things that the spirit does.
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And that's going to take a little while.
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But then the last one, the distinctives, we're going to look at some of the things that you may have questions about, such as the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
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Right.
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Very distinct warning is given about blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
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We're going to look at the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
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A lot of confusion there.
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I'm not going to spend a ton of time on that because that could be a whole series in and of itself.
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But we are going to look at that and we're going to look at the baptism of the Holy Spirit, something of which I think a lot of people get confused about.
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So we are.
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So there's a lot that's going to go into this study, and I hope you're able to stick it out and don't don't get lost in the details and hang with me because there's a lot that we need to go through.
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So let's look first at the personality of the Holy Spirit.
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You've got that on your sheet here.
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And there are five subheadings under the personality of the Holy Spirit.
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And we're going to look at each of these and we'll start.
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We might get through might get through these five tonight.
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I think we can if we if we try.
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First is his identity confirms his personality.
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Remember what we talked about at the beginning? We want to say the Holy Spirit is he, not it.
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And so when we talk about he, he is person, he must have personality.
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And many people who believe in the Holy Spirit mistake him as a impersonal force.
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In fact, that's actually what's taught in Jehovah Witness theology, is that there is no Holy Spirit person.
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There's a Holy Spirit power.
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He's not person, he's power.
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And there are times where that language is used, the power of the Spirit and things like that.
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And so they'll so they try to eliminate the personality and replace it with that.
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And in doing so, they are robbing the spirit of a individual identity.
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If he is just the if he's the same kind of thing, like when I walk over to a light, there's power going to the switch.
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And if I flip the switch, the power continues on and it reaches the light that switches the on off switch for the power.
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And if the energy of the Holy Spirit is it's just that way, he's just traveling as an energy, but not personally making decisions or doing things, then we wouldn't call him personal.
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And so we begin with the word identity.
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I want to look at the I want to I want to quote from our handbook, the one we're using.
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The problem in the minds of many people is that the personality can only exist in human beings.
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And though personality can relate only to finite beings, but not to the or excuse me, as though personality can only relate to finite beings, but not to the infinite.
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And again, because the Holy Spirit is not a person, we tend to want to think of him as an it.
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Even people talk about God sometimes almost like he's it because he's not like us.
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And so, yes.
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Mm hmm.
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Well, that was that one that said the balancing act, right, is is is is those who tend to over focus do so, I think, to the detriment of the father and the son.
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And those who under focus just sort of just don't even think about the spirit.
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And so this is good.
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What is it that makes personality? That's it.
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That's a question I want to ask.
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What makes personality? That's part of it.
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Actually, it's not wrong.
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Let me give you the three things that are typically referred to as that which makes up something that's personal intellect, emotion.
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That's where you were talking about feelings, Laura.
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And there's a third one.
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I mean, third one is.
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Will.
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Will, when you talk about what's what makes man personal, he knows who he is.
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He feels who he is and he decides what he wants to do.
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He he wills himself.
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And so we know God is sovereign over that.
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But we do.
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We believe that man has an ability to to make choices.
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That's the will.
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And so we have intellect.
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We have emotion.
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We have will.
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In fact, we often say that's part of the imago dei or the image of God that is placed on the heart of man, that man's intellect is different.
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It's not even people say our intellect is greater than the animals.
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Our intellect isn't greater than the animals.
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Our intellect is different than the animals.
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It is absolutely different.
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It is functionally different.
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People say, well, look at there.
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The monkey's hitting stuff with sticks.
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He's using tools.
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I'm like, we've been to the moon.
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It's a different type of intellect.
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It's not the same emotion.
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Same thing.
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Well, well, animals, you know, what are the elephants are sad when their young ones die.
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So they have emotions.
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Yes, absolutely.
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They do.
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But the idea of understanding the feelings of others and empathy, those types of things are not seen in the animal kingdom.
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And will animals are driven by instinct? That's why we don't call animals rapists.
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But generally they are.
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They don't ask permission.
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They just do.
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That's right.
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They are not driven by morality.
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They're driven by an instinct.
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Man's will is governed by a conscience.
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Right.
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And so we talked about intellect, emotion and will.
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That's what makes person.
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Right.
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So now looking at that, do we know that the spirit has those things? Well, I think so.
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And it comes to the next part.
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So the identity is he is intellect, emotion and will.
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How do we know that? By looking at his attributes.
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And that brings us to letter B.
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His attributes are intellect, emotion and will.
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And we're going to see these.
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Let's look first at first Corinthians chapter two.
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If you have your Bibles, we're going to do a little bit in the next couple of weeks.
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We're going to do a lot of Bible reading.
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So have your fingers ready, your nimble fingers ready to run through the text.
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First, I need a wider base here.
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First Corinthians chapter two.
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I've been preaching through first Corinthians, so I preach through this text.
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This particular one is is is says this.
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It's referring to the spirit, knowing the mind of God, and it says these things God has revealed to us through the spirit for the spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
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That word searches there means investigate or examine.
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And so it requires intellect to conduct investigation.
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I am first first Corinthians chapter two, verse ten.
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First Corinthians chapter two, verse ten.
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God has revealed to us through the spirit for the spirit searches everything, even the depths of God, the spirit.
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I think this verse can be used to argue he has a mind of his own, an intellect that is able to to search out or to to examine the mind of the father.
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Anytime the word God is used in relation to the spirit or the son, it's always referring to the father.
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That's an important distinction because God, Theos, will be used of the father in the place of Patras or Pater, which is father.
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You'll see God referring to the father if the son is being mentioned or if the spirit is being mentioned, then it's referring to the father.
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And we and I don't think anybody has an issue that we talk about the mind of God.
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I don't think any of us would have a problem with that if I said the mind of Christ have this mind with you that is in Christ Jesus, who though being in the form of God did not consider the quality of God.
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Philippians chapter 2, we talk about the mind of the spirit.
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That's intellect, right? And so that describes personality.
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Another passage is one right next to it.
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Verse 11.
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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.
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Notice what the word is used there.
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Comprehend.
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Who's comprehending whom? In that passage, the spirit is comprehending the father.
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So that's mind comprehending mind in the divine.
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That was a rhyme.
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But that's the spirit.
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And the point that's being made here is Paul's talking about no one really knows a person except for that person.
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Your spirit knows who you really are.
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Even our closest friends, our closest loved ones, even my wife doesn't know me completely.
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She knows me as good as anyone can, but that's about as far as you can get.
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But I know me.
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And even I don't know me completely.
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God knows me completely.
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And that's the point of the text is the spirit knows God completely.
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We don't.
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But the spirit does.
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And he investigates and comprehends the father.
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He comprehends the divine.
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And we don't.
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That's the point.
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We think we understand ourselves.
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We really don't.
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But God understands us and understands himself.
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And the spirit is the mediator there.
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He's the one doing the understanding.
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And so this, I think, covers the subject of intellect.
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I think this covers the subject of the intellect.
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But just in case you wanted one more, because I like to be copious with my proof, go over, take a left turn, go over to Romans chapter 8.
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And look with me at verse 27.
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All right.
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Verse 27 says, And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit, because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
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What does the spirit say to have have in that passage? Mind.
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What is the mind of the spirit? That that's, again, just adding one more check plus to intellect.
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If we're wanting to argue that the spirit is just an impersonal force.
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Impersonal forces don't have a mind.
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Impersonal forces don't comprehend.
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Impersonal forces don't examine.
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You see the argument we're making.
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We're making an argument for the personality of the Holy Spirit, first based on the fact that he is shown in Scripture to be an intellectual being.
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He knows.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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In fact, in that sense, the spirit is the first of the three that is mentioned by name.
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Great.
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The spirit of the Lord hovered over the face of the waters, because the first word for God in Scripture, as you know, is not the typical word that we use for God.
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It was actually the plural in Hebrew Elohim, the word for gods.
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But we know it doesn't mean gods, plural, even though later it says, let us make man in our image and according to our likeness, because this is expressing the nature of God is not being confined, but expressed in its fullness.
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And so there's a lot in the Hebrew language.
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It's important to understand that as well.
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But the spirit is mentioned in verse two as, as, as, as, as being there and present.
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All right.
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So we've seen intellect.
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Now let's look at emotion.
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Is the spirit, does the spirit emote? How do we know? Somebody said, yes.
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How do we know? Yes.
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That's right.
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As you got me, you got where I was going.
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Ephesians chapter four and verse 30 simply says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit whereby you were sealed unto the day of redemption.
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Right? And so you cannot grieve that which is unemotional and impersonal forces are not emotional.
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Correct? You don't, you can't grieve electricity.
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Right.
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And you can't grieve energy or power, but you can grieve person.
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And so I would say Ephesians four 30 is plenty for me to, to believe the spirit is personal and emotional.
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And when, and by the way, when I say emotional, I don't mean emotional like us.
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We talked about that when we talked about the attributes of God, God does not emote like a man, but God is described as having emotions like a man.
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So as we are able to identify with him, it's called an anthropopathism.
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Anthropomorphism is when we use words to describe God in his form, such as hands, feet, eyes, ears, those kinds of things.
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That's an anthropomorphism.
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The form of man is described to God.
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That's anthropos means man.
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So the form of man is described to God.
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Anthropopathism is when you ascribe an emotion of a man to God, that's a pathos or emotion anthropopathic.
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And so we ascribe that showing that he's personal, but he doesn't emote like we do.
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God doesn't fly off the handle.
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And God is, God, you know, is, is not like us.
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He's not like man.
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All right.
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So the last one we have is will.
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This is my favorite one to show people whenever we're talking about the Holy spirit, because this actually covers several grounds.
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This covers the issue of the gifts of the spirit as well.
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First Corinthians chapter 12, I'll have you turn back to first Corinthians and look at verse 11.
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Now Paul is talking about the gifts of the Holy spirit here.
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He's talking about giving gifts.
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The spirit gives gifts and I'll let you get there.
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Cause I want you to see this.
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He's talking about the variety of gifts that starts in verse four, first Corinthians 12, he talks about a variety of gifts, but the same spirit.
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Then he goes through the different types of gifts.
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And then he gets down to verse 11 and he says, all these, that being the gifts are apportioned to each one individually as he wills.
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And the, he there actually, I misread it because I left out a whole section.
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Let me read it again.
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All these are empowered by one in the same spirit.
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There's your noun who appoints or rather apportions to each one individually as he there's your pronoun wills a pronoun requires an antecedent.
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An antecedent is a word that comes before that.
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You know, if I say it, it has a, it has a, has a noun that you're pointing back to him.
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It has a noun that you're pointing back to.
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Well, in this, he wills who is the, he it's the Holy spirit.
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This is important because this is proving he makes a decision.
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He wills.
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And so if we are using intellect, emotion, and will to define yes.
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First Corinthians 12, 11.
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Sorry.
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I didn't mean to leave you all hanging, but the key word there is the spirit gives gifts as he wills.
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So he has a mind.
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He comprehends, he investigates, examines, he has emotions.
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He grieves when he is sinned against and he wills.
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So here is just three passages or three sections.
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I think that prove by his attributes that he's personal.
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So now let's look at the next part of your list and that is the works.
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So we got letter C here.
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Now the works of the spirit the works of the spirit confirm his personality as well.
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So we've looked at his identity.
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We've looked at his attributes, which are all showing that now we're going to look at his works.
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The works of the spirit show his personality.
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The works of the spirit show his personality.
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What are some of the works that the spirit does that proves that he's personal? I love John 14.
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So why don't you turn there? We'll turn to John 14.
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And again, for those of you who are trying to keep up, I understand if it's hard to write this, read this, and think about this all at the same time.
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So I'm not just trying to run off with you.
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But again, thinking about the Holy Spirit, we have to think about him in a different way than most of the time we have.
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Most of us haven't thought about these things.
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John 14, we're going to be here a lot in the next few weeks, because this is where Jesus talks about the coming of the spirit.
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Verse 26, Jesus says, well let's start at verse 25.
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These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you, 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.
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So right there, the Holy Spirit, the first work of the spirit is that he teaches.
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Teaches is a personal action.
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He teaches.
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I always think about this when I'm preaching.
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When I'm preaching, I'm praying that the spirit is teaching.
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It's said that Charles Spurgeon, when he was walking up to the pulpit on Sundays, would say to himself, I need the spirit.
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I need the spirit.
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I need the spirit.
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That he would sort of say that to himself over and over because he knew that if he did not have the spirit there in the teaching, that it would not have any effect.
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The spirit is the one who teaches.
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He is the teacher.
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You know, he uses the pastor and the words and those things.
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Faith comes by hearing, so it's all part of the tool.
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But the spirit is the teacher.
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He is the one.
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And so he teaches.
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That's a personal action.
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Right, just right to the next chapter, just one whole chapter over.
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Chapter 15, verse 26, also verse 26, he testifies.
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Look at this, verse 26.
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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 about me.
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The spirit of God, and this is key, the spirit of God does not seek his own focus.
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He points to the Son.
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That is key because a lot of churches that spend so much focus on the spirit, they don't focus on the Son.
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That's the out of balance because if you are truly in the spirit, it's going to point you to Christ.
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He came to testify about Christ.
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He is the vicar of Christ.
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I'm going to talk about that in the weeks ahead.
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Vicar means the vicarious one or the one who's in the place of Christ.
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Jesus said, I must go.
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And if I go, there will become another who will be like me.
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This spirit, he is the vicar.
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He is the one, the vicarious one.
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It's not the Pope.
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The Pope is called vicar of Christ, and by calling himself that, he steals the name that is only deserved to the spirit.
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The spirit's the vicar of Christ, not any man.
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And so that's another, we're going to deal with that a few weeks down the road because we're going to talk about this word helper that we keep translating or saying, and you know in King James it's not helper, comforter.
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And even that's not really the best translation, but it's good.
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That actually is translated from the Latin comforte, which means with strength or with power.
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That's where that comes from.
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And it's not what we usually think of comfort as someone who holds us.
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It's not.
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It means giving power, forte, strength.
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And so that's just taken from the Latin.
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That's the translation.
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But the Greek is parakalētos, the one who comes alongside.
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The one who is your helper.
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He is your advocate.
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He stands with you.
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Yes.
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And then that's pretty awesome.
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I guess maybe it's clicking.
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He testifies about Jesus, and then you said he always takes you back to Jesus.
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That's right.
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If you read like 1 John, 2 John, little John, or you know, and then that, where you say test the spirit, I don't know.
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Little John, yeah.
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Anyway, where he tests the spirits and stuff.
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So then that way, that should even be come back to this one for more confirmation of what? That's right.
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If it's a true spirit, it's pointing to Christ.
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The true Christ.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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Absolutely.
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Absolutely.
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I like that.
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Yeah.
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So he teaches, he testifies.
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That's the next thing.
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He teaches, he testifies, he convicts.
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We can keep John 16.
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We just go right down the list.
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John 16, verse 8.
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And when he comes, this is again talking about the spirit, notice the personal pronoun he.
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When he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.
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Concerning sin because they do not believe in me.
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Who is he pointing to? Jesus.
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What's he pointing? Faith in Jesus.
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And what's he convicting the world over? Not having faith in Jesus.
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And so he not only teaches, testifies, but he also convicts.
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This is why I continue to say it cannot be just an impersonal force.
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This is personal action.
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The next one, and I got to go through these kind of quick, but I do want to get through them.
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He regenerates.
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We're going to get out of John for a second.
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Run over to Titus.
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Titus chapter 3 and verse 5.
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Titus 3, 5.
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This is talking about our salvation.
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This is a passage that we should be familiar with.
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It says in verse 5, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
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Regeneration.
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Regeneration is what that's the fancy word for born again.
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That's right.
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Jesus said, unless a man be born again, he will not see the kingdom of heaven.
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Unless he's born again, he will not even see the kingdom of heaven.
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Will not enter the kingdom of heaven unless he's born of water and the spirit.
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And that's where he ties in the connection there to being washed by the spirit.
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And this verse talks about that.
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The washing, the renewal of the spirit.
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That's the work of the Holy Spirit.
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And again, it's personal.
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He regenerates you.
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It's to me an amazing reality.
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He is active in your salvation.
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He's convicted you to believe, and he regenerates you so that you can.
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So regeneration.
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That's poorly written.
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Last two, and we'll, yeah, we got a lot more.
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So we'll just end here and we'll come back to it next week.
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The last two I want to look at tonight is that he intercedes.
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So turn with me back to Romans 8.
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Again, sorry to have you just jumping everywhere, but this is a good time to see where you know your Bible.
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I saw a funny little post this week.
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It was a guy standing with a girl and it was a little joke cartoon while you guys were turning.
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I'll tell you.
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He said, he said, I really thought we had something going, but I saw you looking for Proverbs in the New Testament and I knew it wasn't going to work.
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That's mean, but funny.
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I saw you looking for Proverbs in the New Testament.
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I said, nah, it's not going to work.
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Okay.
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So Romans 8, 26 and 27.
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Likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray as we ought, but the spirit himself, by the way, how can anybody read this and think it's just an impersonal force literally says himself, the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
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And he who searches the heart knows what is the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints, according to the will of God.
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So not only does he teach, not only does he testify of Christ, not only does he convict and regenerate, but he also intercedes in our prayers.
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You say, wait a minute.
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I thought there was one God and one intercessor between God, a man, the man, Christ Jesus.
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Yes, that is true.
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The intercession that the spirit is doing is in the act of prayer.
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When we don't know what to pray, the spirit prays on our behalf, prays sometimes through us and sometimes for us.
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This is why I don't believe we should have to pray to Mary or the saints or anyone else, because we have the spirit in us and we have the advocate for us.
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We don't need another.
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I mean, we have so much.
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We are a wealth of intercession in the spirit who intercedes in our prayers and the son who intercedes with the father on our behalf, an advocate.
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So there you go.
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You have the spirit intercede.
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Do you have? I'm sorry.
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I thought your hand went up.
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I'm sorry.
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Okay.
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Last one.
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The spirit commands.
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He commands.
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Look with me at Acts 13.
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Acts 13.
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Now, this one is more.
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This is just in the midst of a narrative.
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So when we see it, we have to sort of understand what's happening here.
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In the midst of this narrative, Barnabas and Saul are being sent off.
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This is the apostle Paul, still sometimes being called Saul at this point in Acts and in Acts chapter 13, verse two, it says, while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, oh, my mercy.
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Not only is he a person, not only is he called he and him, not only does he teach, convict and convert and do all those other things with the regeneration, but he speaks impersonal forces don't speak.
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Sorry, I got a little excited there, but you understand the point I'm making.
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I'm making a proof that I hope you understand is I'm building my case.
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And the case is that the spirit is not an it.
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See here, he says, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.
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Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
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I've called them to a work who's speaking in the Holy Spirit.
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That's amazing.
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And it says the same thing over in chapter 16.
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We'll end with this over in chapter 16, verse six, this time, and this is because we said commands, right? Sometimes commands are positive.
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And that's what we got in chapter 13, positive command.
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Now we get a negative command.
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Verse six, it says, and they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.
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Right there.
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So the spirit commands to go, and the spirit commands don't go.
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And he's telling them where to go.
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So we have here the works of the spirit clearly identifying him as person.
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All right, we've gone a little over time.
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So I'm going to draw to a close by simply saying we got more to say next week.
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I'll make a note on my sheet here.
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Next week, we're going to look at how his position and his designations confirm his personality.
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Then we're going to look at his deity, because here's the other side of it.
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He's personal.
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Yes, we've proven it.
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But is he divine? I mean, obviously, you know, I'm going to say yes.
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But see, we can argue Christ is personal.
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But some people don't believe Christ is divine.
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We can argue the spirit is personal, but somebody may think he's like a lesser God, not fully divine.
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That's the problem, right? You have to have a balance here.
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You have to say he's both personal and divine in the same way you say Christ is both God and man.
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And so we're going to look at not only the rest of the verses on his personality next week, but we'll also look at his divinity as part of next week's lesson.
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Let's pray.
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Father, thank you for this time to study.
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I pray that it's been fruitful for your people.
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And I pray that your Holy Spirit has truly been among us and that he would write the eternal truths of this lesson on our heart.
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And it's in Christ's name.
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Amen.