Doctrine of the Holy Spirit

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Alright, take out your Bibles with me, and who do I have, my hand or outer? Alright.
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Hand out these for everyone please.
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Yes sir.
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Now you all know this is our theology class.
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Twelve weeks in theology and doctrine.
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So far we have gotten through four weeks, so we're almost halfway through.
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The whole class, the whole course.
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And then when we finish this course, it will be around Christmas time.
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We're going to take a few weeks off and do some lessons on the incarnation of Christ and the virgin birth and stuff.
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So that will be a nice change.
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But as you're getting your sheet, you'll notice that today we're going to be looking at the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
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We have so far looked at the doctrine of Revelation.
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We have looked at the doctrine of God, theology proper.
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That was the second week.
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We looked at the doctrine of the Trinity.
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Last week we looked at the doctrine of Christ.
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This week we're looking at the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
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Can I erase this or am I going to hurt somebody? Alright.
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Thank you.
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That's good.
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Alright.
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So right away, I want to, by virtue of the name, talk a little bit about this word, Spirit.
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When I was a kid, people would often talk about the Holy Ghost.
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You guys remember that language? And that was akin to the fact that a lot of people at that time were used to using the old King James Bible.
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And rather than using the word Spirit, the word was Ghost.
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And so I remember as a kid saying, I don't believe in ghosts.
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You know, because I watched Scooby Doo.
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I knew the deal.
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Every ghost was just somebody with a mask on.
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There was no such thing as ghosts.
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So then I'd go to church with my mom, who was in a Pentecostal church, and I would hear about the Holy Ghost.
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And it was always the Holy Ghost.
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It was almost like it was one word.
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It wasn't the Holy Ghost, it was the Holy Ghost.
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And that was the language.
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And so it was an odd experience to hear that type of language.
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And then, in the other translations, you don't use the word Holy Ghost anymore.
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Typically, the word Ghost is translated as Holy Spirit.
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And the word there is important, so I'm going to put it on the board.
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The Greek word is, depending on whether or not you pronounce the P, it's either pneuma or panuma.
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And that just depends on your particular Greek professor.
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When I teach it, I tell people that, in general, we use Erasmian pronunciation.
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And the Erasmian pronunciation means you pronounce every letter, so it would be panuma.
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But in English, words that come from this, like pneumatic, a pneumatic tool, or pneumonia, it has the P in it.
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Like, pneumonia starts with a P.
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Pneumatic starts with a P.
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But we don't say the P.
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We don't say you have pneumonia.
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We just say you have pneumonia or whatever.
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But the reason why I bring that up is because if you know those words, pneumonia, pneumatic, you know the root idea of where this word comes from.
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Because what is a pneumatic tool? It's an air tool.
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What's pneumonia? It's a respiratory illness.
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It deals with the air, right? So, right away, the word panuma refers to air.
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However, it's not just air.
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It also refers to spirit.
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And so, it becomes a...
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Like when we think about the phrase breath of life.
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You know, what does it mean when the Bible says, God breathed into Adam the breath of life? It means He gave him a spirit.
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He gave him a soul, right? So, breath, air, and spirit in the Bible are all synonymous depending on the context.
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You know, I'll give you an example.
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When Adam and Eve were in the garden in Genesis chapter 3, it says that God walked with them in the cool of the day.
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Remember that? Genesis chapter 3.
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Well, the word cool there is actually not what we typically think of as, like, cool.
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But the word cool there is actually the Hebrew word ruach, which means spirit or wind.
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So, it could mean God came to them in the windy part of the day, right? Maybe that was just a part of the day that God liked to come.
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But it could also mean that they had a day, a part of the day that was their time of spiritual interaction with God.
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It could be their time of meditation, their time in the Spirit.
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So, it could be that God had a part of every day that He came and fellowshiped with Adam and Eve.
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And that's how they knew it was Him when they heard Him in the garden because this is the time He comes.
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So, it's in the ruach of the day.
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And that's the Hebrew word for wind, air, or spirit.
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Yes, sir? Honestly, because it's a Hebrew word, in English, I think it's R-U-A-C-H.
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But I could be in error there because, again, it would have a Hebrew spelling.
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So, the point of the matter is when we talk about the Holy Spirit, we are referring first and foremost to a spiritual being.
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And this can get confusing because God the Father is Spirit.
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God the Son is Spirit.
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So, in that sense, thank you, thank you, thank you, and may God bless you.
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God the Son is Spirit.
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God the Father is Spirit.
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And God the Holy Spirit is Spirit.
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So what makes the Holy Spirit different? Well, some people think that the Holy Spirit is the feminine side of God.
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Now, I don't think that.
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I want to just clarify.
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I'm giving you a positional, like an antithesis.
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I'm not giving you my position.
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I'm giving you the antithesis, which is the opposite.
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Some people say the Holy Spirit is like the mother.
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Right? You've got the Father, the Son, and the Mother.
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That is not something that is in the Bible.
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That is a very, I think, incorrect because the Holy Spirit has never given feminine pronouns.
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You know what a feminine pronoun is? If I said he, he, if I said she, you might want to hit me in the head, right? Because you're not a she, you're a he, right? All of you guys are he's.
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So we understand, and today it's a little offensive.
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People don't want you to use pronouns because of the transgender movement and all that.
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People don't want you to say he or she.
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They want you to say they or them or Z is the new popular one.
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I don't know if you know that.
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On college campuses and stuff, rather than saying he or she, they say Z or Zer.
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Yeah, and it's a very...
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We've reached the pinnacle of stupidity.
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We really have in regard to things like that.
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But one of the things that's interesting, if you read the Koran, it seems as if Muhammad who wrote the Koran dictated it because he was illiterate.
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And that's not an insult.
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Muhammad was illiterate, so he couldn't write.
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So he had someone else write what he spoke.
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And that's a fact of history.
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That's not taking a shot.
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The point is, when he was talking about the Trinity, he said the father, the son, and the mother.
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And so one, it shows that he didn't understand the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
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And two, it shows that he was probably connecting Mary with the Holy Spirit.
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Because think about Roman Catholic theology.
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What's one of the very common things in Roman Catholic theology? A veneration of Mary.
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So you can understand then how some people would see Christianity from a distance as Muhammad would have.
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He wasn't a Christian, so he would have seen it from a distance.
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And he sees the Christians, they're worshiping God, right? And they're worshiping Jesus.
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He's on the cross.
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So I understand father and son, but there's this third person that I don't understand, but some of them are praying to Mary.
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So maybe she's the third person.
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Maybe she's the third one that I keep hearing about.
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So it's father, son, mother.
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That's not the biblical teaching.
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You say, why are you talking about it? Because I want to make sure that's not what you think.
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Because a lot of people have crazy ideas.
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And some of you may have come out of places with crazy ideas.
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And so the first thing we need to understand is that the Holy Spirit is not feminine.
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He is always given masculine pronouns.
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And what's interesting is, and this is going to be a language thing, you guys understand masculine, feminine.
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He, she.
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But there's also what we refer to neuter, which is it.
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So if I say he, he, he.
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If there was a woman, I'd say she.
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But if I said it, right? This pen is not a he or a she.
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But this pen is still a thing.
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It's a noun.
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It receives pronouns.
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Because if I throw the pen at you, you'll say it hit me, right? So that's it.
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So it is a neuter pronoun.
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Does that make sense? It doesn't have masculine or feminine.
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Pneuma is neuter.
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But every time the Holy Spirit is identified in Scripture, it's always, and I just said it, and I shouldn't have.
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He is always given the masculine pronoun.
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The Holy Spirit is always given the masculine pronoun.
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He is never called it.
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This is very important.
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Because a lot of people will talk about the Holy Spirit and they'll say it this or it that.
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The Bible never does that.
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The Bible always refers to the Holy Spirit as he.
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That is a very important point because if you've ever studied Jehovah Witness theology, Jehovah Witness theology do not believe the Holy Spirit is a person.
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They believe the Holy Spirit is a power.
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They don't believe the Holy Spirit is personal.
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They believe that the Holy Spirit is energetic or a type of force like electricity.
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And I've even heard Jehovah Witness teachers say it's like electricity, right? Electricity isn't he or she.
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Electricity is it.
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It's neuter.
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It just is.
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But the Bible does not use that language.
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The Bible uses the language of the Holy Spirit as the language of person.
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And the language of person is the language of the masculine.
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So the Holy Spirit is not the feminine part of God.
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It's not God the Mother.
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Like God the Father, God the Son, God the Mother, that's not correct.
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Oh, that's good.
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Alright, thank you.
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So, what we're going to look at today in our study of pneumatology, and by the way, that's the study of the Holy Spirit, Pneuma, right? Pneumatology is the study.
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We're going to look at two main parts.
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We're going to look at first His personality and work.
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And then we're going to look second at three distinctives about the Holy Spirit.
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I want to get to the second part quickly because it's going to take the longer part of class.
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You'll notice the three things we're going to look at.
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Blasphemy of the Spirit, Baptism of the Spirit, and Gifts of the Spirit.
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Each one of those could require several weeks of study.
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We're going to try and do it in 20-30 minutes.
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So, it's a lot, and I'm going to be force-feeding you pretty quick a lot of information.
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But to get through the top, let's go through the top first.
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When we talk about the Holy Spirit, there are some who say the Holy Spirit is just a force.
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I believe the Holy Spirit is personal.
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That is the orthodox position of the historic Christian church, that the Holy Spirit is personal.
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And so with that, how do we define personality? Somebody answer.
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How do we define personality? It has certain traits.
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What are the primary traits of personhood? Humor.
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Humor.
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That is a quality, but that's not one of the ones I'm thinking of.
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That's not bad though.
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Okay.
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Morality.
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Okay.
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Anything else? Who said that? Who said feelings, emotions? Okay.
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Did you come up with that? Okay.
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Because the three primary distinctives of personality are intellect, emotion, and volition.
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Volition or will.
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You can just say intellect, emotion, and will.
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If you want to write, that's easier to write.
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Intellect is the ability to think.
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Emotion is the ability to feel.
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Volition is the ability to will.
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So intellect, emotion, and will are the three primary distinctives of personality.
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What makes you different than him? You think different.
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You feel different.
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You act different.
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So you are personal, and you're a personal being.
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So if we wanted to prove that the Holy Spirit is personal and not just an impersonal force, then we would have to show that He, in fact, does possess intellect.
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He does, in fact, possess emotion.
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And He does, in fact, possess will.
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And we have to be careful on the second one because when we talk about God's emotions, God does not emote like we emote.
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God doesn't think like we think either.
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God doesn't act like we act either.
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But primarily emotions, that one we have to be a little bit careful with.
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But I'll show you what I'm referring to.
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Let's look first at the intellect.
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I'll give you some verses to write down.
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1 Corinthians 2.10 and 2.11 refer to the Spirit searching things out and knowing things.
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And Romans 8.27 talks about the mind of the Spirit of God.
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Romans 8.27 Under emotion, we have Ephesians 4.30 which refers to grieving the Spirit.
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Ephesians 4.30 refers to grieving the Spirit.
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That's an important one, right? Because how can you grieve a force? How can you grieve an impersonal force? You can't.
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Grief refers to personality, right? So we talk about grieving the Spirit, the Spirit knowing things, investigating things.
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And then of course, the will.
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One of my favorite passages, 1 Corinthians 12.11 says that the Spirit gives gifts as He wills.
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That's important because one, it uses the personal pronoun He.
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It says that He gives gifts as He wills.
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1 Corinthians 12.11 Volition, V-O-L Yeah, volition is will.
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1 Corinthians 12.11 And if you're writing these on your handout, these would all be under His attributes.
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His attributes are intellect, emotion, and will.
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And He is distinct in His intellect, emotion, and will, which identifies personality.
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So that's His attributes.
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Now the second thing is His works.
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What does He do that confirms His personality? Well, I'm going to give you a list.
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I know a lot of you guys are writing these and you can try if you want.
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But the list goes like this.
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Here are the works of the Spirit.
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He teaches.
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John 14.26 He testifies.
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John 15.26 He convicts.
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John 16.8 He regenerates.
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Titus 3.5 He intercedes.
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Romans 8.26-27 And He commands.
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And there's a whole list of those from the book of Acts.
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Paul would go here because he was commanded by the Spirit.
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Acts 13.2-4 are examples.
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I know that was a lot.
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If you didn't get it all afterwards, my notes are here.
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You can come up and write it down if you're interested.
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But I have to keep going.
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But for the sake of it, not only does He have the attributes of intellect, emotion, and will, but He has works.
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And His works are, again, teaching, testifying, convicting, regenerating, interceding, and commanding.
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Number three, His position confirms His personality.
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When you say His position, I'm referring to the fact that He's referred to as God.
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And you cannot...
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Well, let me just read my notes here.
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Certain acts are performed toward the Holy Spirit which would be incongruous if He did not possess true personality.
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The Spirit can be grieved, blasphemed, resisted, lied to, and obeyed.
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All of those are examples of someone who is a person, not a force.
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I'm just building a case.
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I'm just trying to remind you guys that we have every reason to believe the Holy Spirit is personal.
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And then finally, under where it says His designations confirm His personality, that actually is referring to His pronouns that He has designated He.
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Where do we see this? John 15, 26.
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He will bear witness about me, Jesus says.
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John 16, 13, and 14.
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He will glorify Me and He will take what is Mine and declare it to you.
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If you have a New American Standard Bible, which I don't know how many of you do.
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That one's not as common.
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It's a great Bible, but a lot of people don't use it much.
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The ESV has kind of become the new popular one for a lot of people.
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But the New American Standard Bible capitalizes pronouns that refer to God.
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We call that...
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There's a term for it.
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I forget.
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But there's a specific term to why they capitalize the pronouns.
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And it's a way for the translator to point the pronoun back to whoever the...
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What? No.
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We'll go get it.
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So the pronoun having the capital letter points it back to the Divine Being.
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So every time Jesus is mentioned and then it says He, it's got a capital H.
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Anytime God the Father is mentioned, He has a capital H.
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Anytime the Spirit is mentioned in the New American Standard Bible, they translate the capital H.
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Because the He is referring back to Him.
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And we see this in John 15, 26, John 16, 13, and 14.
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He is the focus.
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Now, I do want to show you a Scripture passage which sort of brings all this together.
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If you go to Acts chapter 5, you know where you're going there? Well, some of y'all have probably heard these things.
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A lot of this is what's called a reminder.
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I just want to remind you of things.
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Acts 5, verse 1, But a man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet.
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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.
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Alright, we'll stop there at verse 4 and just ask this question.
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Who did Ananias lie to according to verse 3? Who did Ananias lie to? According to verse 4, who did he lie to? So in verse 3 it says you have lied to the Holy Spirit.
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In verse 4 it says you have lied to God.
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This is why in letter B on your sheet, the deity of the Spirit is inextricably bound to the doctrine of the Trinity.
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And this is a Trinitarian verse because the Holy Spirit is called God.
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He said you lied to the Holy Spirit.
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You have not lied to man, but to God.
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So in that, the Holy Spirit is referred to in that sense as God and we believe that because two weeks ago we did the doctrine of the Trinity.
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We said God is Father, God is Son, God is Holy Spirit.
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And so, when we refer to God the Holy Spirit in this particular passage, or rather when we refer to the Holy Spirit in this passage, He is referred to as God.
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And this again is confirming His personality.
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That's Acts 5, 1-4.
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And again, this confirms His personality because you can't lie to an impersonal force.
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So not only is the Holy Spirit in Acts 5 referred to as a person, He's referred to as a person of the Godhead.
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God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
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So we have every reason to believe that the Holy Spirit is both divine and personal.
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Now, that was the first half of the lesson.
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Now we're going to get into the nitty gritty.
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You excited about the nitty gritty? Okay, good.
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Because the second half of the lesson, we are going to look at three distinctives about the Holy Spirit that are unique to this Person of the Trinity.
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Take us back to the Trinity for a moment in your mind.
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Remember what I said, the three Trinitarian rules, the three pillars of Trinitarian theology.
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There's one God.
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There are three Persons who are called God.
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All three Persons are co-equal, co-eternal, and distinct.
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That's the three pillars of Trinitarian theology.
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The last one, the three Persons are co-equal, co-eternal, and distinct.
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The last clause there, distinct, is important because the Father and the Son and the Spirit are all God ontologically, meaning in their being, but they are not all the same economically in that they don't all do the same thing.
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The Father didn't die on the cross.
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The Son did.
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The Son didn't send the Father.
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The Father sent the Son.
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Right? Yes? Well, the hypostatic union refers to Christ's fully divine nature.
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He had a fully divine and fully human nature united in one Person.
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That's the hypostatic union.
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What I'm referring to is the Father and the Son and the Spirit have a relationship.
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They are able to communicate with one another because they are distinct.
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Though they share the same being, they are able to relate to one another interpersonally.
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This is why when people say God created man because he was lonely, God's never been lonely because He's always been three in one.
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God's never been without interaction because the Trinity has always existed.
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That's sort of a philosophically important thing.
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God didn't make you because He needed a friend.
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That's sort of just an important reality.
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So when we get to the issue of the Holy Spirit being distinct, what is it that distinguishes the Holy Spirit? As we said earlier, the Father is Spirit.
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The Son is Spirit.
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The Holy Spirit is Spirit.
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The Father is holy.
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The Son is holy.
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The Spirit is holy.
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So the name doesn't really distinguish.
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Holy Spirit.
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What is it that distinguishes the Holy Spirit? And I want to give you three passages that are used to refer to the Holy Spirit that distinguish the Holy Spirit in a unique way.
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These are not the only things.
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These are just the three things that often create a lot of questions.
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The first one is the blasphemy of the Spirit.
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The second is the baptism.
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And the third is the gifts.
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Gifts? Yeah, gifts.
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Should be in your handout, right? Yeah, yeah.
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Well, we're going to talk about that in a moment, but we're going to look first at the blasphemy of the Spirit.
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Everybody turn to Matthew 12, 31 and 32.
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Matthew 12, 31.
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It says pretty much the same thing in Mark 3.
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These are parallel passages.
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Alright.
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Jesus is speaking.
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Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, or rather just the Spirit here it says, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
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Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks a word against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
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Let me tell you something.
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That passage has kept a lot of folks up at night.
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I mean, for real.
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I'd have to look at that.
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I haven't looked at the King James there, but it says they'll be condemned.
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Yeah.
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Well, that's the idea of not being forgiven, right? I just want to ask somebody real quick.
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How do you take the Lord's name, God's name, and claim GD, but if you condemn and say, GD the Holy Spirit, that's automatically a death sentence? See, I don't think that that's the right way to understand it.
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And that's why I brought it up because this passage I think has been widely misunderstood and widely misapplied.
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And one of the ways is people think that, well, blasphemy means to speak badly about something.
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I'll answer your question in just a second.
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Blasphemy means to speak badly about something, so if I speak badly against God, I'm okay.
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If I speak badly against Jesus, I'm okay.
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But if I say something bad about the Holy Spirit, I'm going to hell, right? That's the way it's often understood.
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I want to hopefully show today that's not what it means in the context of what it is saying.
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But brother here has a question.
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What was your question? I was just saying it wouldn't be safe to say that blasphemy doesn't express the Resurrection.
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Yes, and that's actually a very nice way of putting it.
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And that's where we're going to go because that's what we see in the text.
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If we look at the text, when it refers to blasphemy of the Spirit, all we read was verses 31 and 32.
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But if you go back up in the text, what you see is you see Jesus performing a work of miracle.
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Let's begin reading at verse 22.
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It says, Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to Him, and He healed him, so that the man spoke and saw.
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And all the people were amazed and said, Can this be the son of David? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, It is only by Beelzebul, that's a word for the devil, the prince of demons, that this man cast out demons.
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Knowing their thoughts, He said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.
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If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself, how then will this kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges.
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But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
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Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder the house.
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Whoever is not with me is against me.
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Whoever does not gather with me scatters.
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Therefore I tell you, and this is where it goes in, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
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Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or the age to come.
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Okay, so what do we have here? We have Jesus has performed a miracle whereby He has given a man who is possessed by the devil or possessed by a demon, He has exorcised the demon and He has given this man healing.
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And the Pharisees see this.
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They can't deny the miracle.
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I mean, it would be like somebody looking at Moses part in the Red Sea and somebody goes, nah, never happened.
35:09
No, you're looking at it.
35:10
You're seeing it happen.
35:12
They're seeing this happen.
35:13
They can't deny that this happened.
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So what they have to do is they have to give an explanation as to where the power is coming from.
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Because they know it happened.
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So the explanation is, He is doing it, but He's doing it by the power of the devil.
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He's got the power, but it's not God's power.
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It's the devil's power.
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And so Jesus' response is, listen, the devil doesn't cast out the devil.
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That's right.
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The devil loves demons, and that's what he does.
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He's not going to come casting out demons.
35:52
I have come by the power of the Holy Spirit of God, not by the power of the devil.
35:58
And when you attribute what I'm doing to the works of the devil, you are saying that the Holy Spirit is the devil.
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That's pretty dangerous.
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And that's the initial context.
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When somebody sees the works of Christ, where He is doing them empowered by the Spirit of God and the Spirit of God is working, and someone says, that is the devil's work, Jesus is saying, in effect, you are in a very dangerous place because you have called the work of God the work of the devil.
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So that's the initial context.
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You have your hand up.
36:48
Yes, go ahead.
36:48
This is speaking of Jesus using the power of the Spirit.
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So blasphemy can't be performed today because Jesus isn't here.
36:59
That is a...
37:00
I would agree with that in the most literal of senses that this is a unique sin that would have happened at a unique point in time because we no longer have Jesus walking with us and we no longer have Him performing miracles whereby we can say, you're doing it of the devil and ultimately have that kind of sin...
37:28
Huh? Yeah, yeah.
37:32
So that's why I say, within the context, I don't think that this is something that is really something we have to worry about today in that regard.
37:42
However, my brother here made a good point earlier.
37:46
Another way that we reject the Spirit is when we see Christ and we reject Him because the Spirit, the Bible says, is supposed to...
37:57
has the purpose to convict us and draw us to Christ.
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So by rejecting Christ, there is a sense where we're rejecting what the Spirit is here to do to convict the world of righteousness, right? That's the role of the Spirit.
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So in that sense, there is a danger, but it's not the same type of thing as the blasphemy that's here.
38:17
This is a unique time in history.
38:20
Yes? So would this be like...
38:28
But see, we have to be...
38:29
That might be that Christ is here in the room.
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I don't think so, only because it's no longer Christ doing it.
38:44
You know, if a man comes in and says, I have the power to expel demons...
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But Christ threw a man.
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Yes, but...
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Men, we know, especially today, there are many charlatans.
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And so I'll give you an example.
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A lot of these guys who are faith healers, they go around, be healed, and they hit people and they fall down, right? But they have been demonstrated to be false.
39:14
There have been a lot of them that have been exposed, that they are greedy and money hungry and things like that.
39:22
Well, I would say the Pope is a heretic and a false.
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I don't know if you're Roman Catholic, but...
39:28
The Pope himself is...
39:31
This is a whole other conversation.
39:37
Oh, well, in Roman Catholic, I would say, one, I don't believe Rome has the Gospel anymore because I think during the Middle Ages they rejected the Gospel for a form of sacerdotalism and sacramentalism that was false.
39:49
That would take us down another road, though, to talk about.
39:52
But the issue of today is the modern exorcisms that are happening by priests I don't believe are true.
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And I don't think I'm blaspheming the Spirit by saying I don't think that's true because they're using a false Gospel.
40:06
They're using a false set of incantations.
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They're not using the biblical method.
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So I would say there are many issues I would have with that.
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But if Jesus were here and He were doing it and I said, that's of the devil, then I'd be in a lot of trouble.
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That's the point of the passage.
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When Jesus was here, they saw Jesus and they rejected Jesus who was doing what He was doing and He said, listen, say what you want about Me.
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But what's happening here is the work of the Spirit and when you speak against the Spirit, you're on dangerous ground.
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That's the context of the passage.
40:41
Yes? I'm just trying to say in support of that, it can't be reflected on like...
40:50
Exactly, that's a good point.
40:51
Matthew 7.
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Many will come and say, did we not cast out demons in Your name and do mighty works in Your name and what do you say? I never knew you.
41:00
Right? So there are people who claim to have that power who don't.
41:03
So we have to be careful.
41:05
Yes? If you say that you don't believe in the Bible and the words of it, would that be in the same context as this right here? I think you're on dangerous ground.
41:14
I don't...
41:14
Again, the whole issue here is the lack of ability to be forgiven.
41:20
Right? Jesus said, you'll not be forgiven.
41:22
Yeah, no.
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He's not entering the kingdom of heaven.
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Yes.
41:25
And so I think that's the...
41:28
A few years ago on YouTube, there was something called The Blasphemy Challenge.
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A group of atheists started a video series where they encouraged young kids to go on to YouTube and record themselves saying, I don't believe in the Holy Spirit.
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And it was called The Blasphemy Challenge.
41:53
And they used this verse as their verse.
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And they said, if you'll go on and you'll say, I don't believe in the Holy Spirit, then you will be forever condemned by God.
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And that's funny, ha, ha, ha, because God doesn't exist.
42:07
It was a bunch of atheists who started it.
42:09
And we're all going to mock God by going on and saying, I don't believe in the Holy Spirit.
42:17
So there's thousands of videos.
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If you look up Blasphemy Challenge on YouTube, thousands of videos of young people saying, I don't believe in the Holy Spirit.
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I don't believe in the Holy Spirit.
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That's not me.
42:30
So, I would ask you this.
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Do you think that if one of those young people today looked back on what they did and said, I was so foolish.
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And God, I repent.
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And I was wrong.
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Do you think God would accept them? I think He would.
42:48
And that's why I say the expression unforgivable sin I think is unique to the time of Christ.
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Because it was a unique time in history and a unique circumstance.
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I think someone...
43:05
The Bible says all our iniquities will be forgiven us.
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What do you say? I would say they could be forgiven.
43:12
Yeah, absolutely.
43:14
But again, because I think this passage refers to a unique point in time.
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I think there was a unique point in time where rejecting the works of Christ was blasphemy against the Spirit because it was so obvious the Spirit was working in Christ.
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And that created a deadly and irredeemable situation.
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So, you say...
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I mean, what field and seal would measure the power of God in the Spirit? So, you would agree with laying on the hands and casting out oppressed demons? Well, we're going to get to that in the second part because that's a different conversation because you're now moving into the idea of the gifts of the Spirit.
43:56
Right now, I'm just talking about this first concept of the blasphemy of the Spirit.
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I think the blasphemy of the Spirit in that regard is specific to the issue of Christ when He was here.
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You'll hear people say, and you maybe have heard this, people will say, you should never challenge a man of God.
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Touch not God's anointed.
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You know, people say that.
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I don't think that that is...
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I don't think I'm above somebody questioning me.
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And I don't think any pastor today is above somebody questioning them.
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And people use that as their thing.
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They'll say, if you say something against me, you're blaspheming the Spirit.
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And I'll be like, no, that ain't how it works.
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You're not Jesus.
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So that's where I would be very careful.
44:36
Alright, so that's number one, the blasphemy of the Spirit.
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That's a unique thing, right? It's never said of the Father.
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It's never said of the Son.
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Even Jesus said, you can say what you want about me, but when you blaspheme the Spirit, and we see the context of it.
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Alright, spend a little more time on that.
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Let's go now to the baptism of the Spirit.
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When John the Baptist was baptizing, what did he say? He said, I baptize you with water, but one is coming after me who will baptize you with the Spirit.
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And with fire, right? Who will baptize you with the Spirit.
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In 1 Corinthians 12.13, it says, for by one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body.
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Jews and Greeks, slaves and free, we've all been made to drink of one Spirit.
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I don't know how many of you have been physically baptized.
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I imagine a lot of you have.
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A lot of you come here to set free.
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You receive Christ.
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You get baptized.
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The physical baptism in water, though, does not change your legal standing before God.
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What changes your legal standing before God is the declaration of righteousness that He makes when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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The Bible says you receive the Spirit when you believe.
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That's important.
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In Romans 8, it says if you do not have the Spirit, you do not belong to Christ.
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Well, let's look at it.
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It's Romans 8.
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So there are some people who would say some Christians have the Spirit and some don't.
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Paul would disagree with that.
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Paul would say in Romans 8, beginning at verse 9.
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I'll let everybody get there.
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I'll take a sip of my coffee.
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Romans 8, verse 9.
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It says you, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit.
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If, in fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.
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Right there.
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That was just 9.
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So he says you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit.
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If the Spirit dwells in you and if the Spirit doesn't dwell in you, you do not belong to Him.
47:00
Now, you will notice it uses the terms Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ.
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That is all synonymous with the Holy Spirit because people always talk about Jesus comes to live inside me.
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This again, going back to distinctives, right? The Bible says Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father and He sends the Spirit to live within us.
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But that Spirit is sometimes referred to as the Spirit of Christ because they are all one ontologically.
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They share the being of God.
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So we have the same Spirit of God within us that was accompanying Jesus and working through Him.
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And by the way, this should be an encouragement to you.
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You have the same Holy Spirit in you that Paul had in him.
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You have the same Holy Spirit in you that Peter had in him.
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It's not like you have a different spirit.
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So that's an important reality.
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And baptism, the water side of it, is the picture of dying with Christ, being raised to new life.
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But Spirit baptism is when the Spirit immerses into you.
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And the two don't always happen at the same time.
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You can be filled with the Spirit before you're baptized.
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We know that because of Cornelius in Acts 10.
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It says he was filled with the Spirit and Peter says, where's the water? Right? We know they're filled with the Spirit.
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We've got to baptize them now because they were filled with the Spirit then they were baptized.
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And I think in Acts 8, if I remember correctly, there were those who were baptized and then filled with the Spirit.
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Acts kind of shows a mixture of things.
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But in general, what we say today is if you're a believer, you're filled with the Spirit.
48:57
And so, some people believe in something called a second blessing.
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And if you've come out of a Pentecostal background or a charismatic background, or a Methodist background even, because most people don't know this, Pentecostal churches grew out of the Methodist church.
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It was the Wesleyan Methodism that gave birth to the charismatic movements, which actually started with the Pentecostal church in the Azusa Street revival which happened in the early part of the 1900's.
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And that grew out of Wesleyan Methodism.
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So, the reason why I bring that up is Wesley believed in something called a second blessing.
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But his idea of the second blessing was at some point you can become sinless if you live disciplined enough.
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You can receive a second blessing whereby you will not sin in thought or deed anymore.
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See, I believe that doesn't happen until we are in our new bodies.
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We're in the new heaven and the new earth.
50:04
But Wesley believed that second blessing can happen here.
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Now, later, the Pentecostal movement adopted the idea of the second blessing and their idea now of the second blessing is usually that at some point in your Christian life, you will receive what they call the baptism of the Spirit, which is evidenced by speaking in tongues.
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And so, they'll say, you're a Christian, right? But you haven't spoken in tongues yet.
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I don't know if you have or not.
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But they'll say you haven't.
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So, you're a Christian, but you're not yet baptized in the Spirit.
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Because that's the second blessing and that comes whenever God chooses to give it to you.
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But when it comes, you'll know it because it will be accompanied by the expression of the tongues.
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So, that's the Pentecostal view of the second blessing.
50:53
Yeah, put your hand up.
51:01
Yeah, but I wouldn't connect this with him because this is more about what happened in Acts.
51:10
Because this is talking about...
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Think about when Paul went around preaching, right? When Paul went around preaching, they would lay hands on people and they'd receive the Spirit.
51:19
How did they know they received the Spirit? Sometimes, there would be tongues.
51:27
Not every time, but sometimes there would be tongues and so they used that as the...
51:31
The Pentecostal church says, see, that's how we know.
51:34
In fact, some Pentecostals will even go as far as to say, if you've not spoken with tongues, you're not really saved.
51:43
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
51:44
I know that because I grew up going to two churches.
51:47
The church I'm in now, which is I'm the pastor, but I would also go with my mom who was part of the Holiness Church, which is a form of Pentecostal churches.
51:57
And I have heard very specifically, if you do not speak with tongues, you are not saved.
52:04
How about non-denominational? Well, non-denominational is kind of broad.
52:10
Who asked that? Was that you, brother? I'm sorry.
52:12
There are non-denominational Pentecostals or non-denominational non-Pentecostals.
52:16
So I would say Pentecostal as a group, within that group, there are those who would say you have to speak with tongues.
52:24
Yes? You know, people talk about the Acts and what it just says.
52:29
I mean, it's on the day of Pentecost so that they can get their message across to people in other nations.
52:33
Yeah.
52:34
It says it's spoken in tongues but it's really in a tone that they could all understand.
52:38
Yeah, well, again, each one of these, as I said, could be its own lesson.
52:44
And talking about the subject of tongues, I don't want to get into an argument.
52:49
I hold to a position called cessationism which means I believe that there were certain gifts given to the early church that were meant to accompany the apostles.
52:59
The Bible calls it the signs of the apostles.
53:01
And I don't believe those were meant for all time.
53:04
But that's not a hill I'm going to die on today.
53:06
That's my position, the position I hold to.
53:08
I believe it's a biblical one.
53:10
But the point I'm making is the Spirit baptizes every believer when He believes.
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It's not something that happens later.
53:23
It's not something that we have to look for some outward expression.
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How do you know you've been baptized? In the Spirit.
53:29
You have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
53:31
That's how you know.
53:32
The faith that is in you is evidence of the baptism that has happened to you.
53:39
It's not that you're looking for something else.
53:41
You're not looking for tongues or a gift or something.
53:43
The faith in Christ is the evidence of your having been baptized.
53:48
He had his hand up first.
53:49
I knew this was going to be a lot of questions today.
53:51
Go ahead.
53:51
Just real quick, that's just the Pentecostal view? I would say that is a minority view within the Pentecostal church that everybody has to speak with tongues to be saved.
54:00
So that's just one of the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit? Yes, but they would say the tongues is the initial gift that everybody has to have.
54:08
I'm talking about that subset would say everybody has to do it at least once.
54:12
I know a guy who made himself do it because his church told him if you don't do it, you're not saved.
54:19
So he made himself have an eruption of what I call monosyllabic ecstatic speech.
54:26
Because that's what modern tongue speaking is.
54:28
It's monosyllabic speech.
54:30
Or it's not even speech.
54:31
It's monosyllabic noise.
54:33
Monosyllabic meaning single syllable noise.
54:36
Ba-da-da-da, ba-da-da-da.
54:37
And I'm not making fun.
54:38
That's what it sounds like.
54:40
It's not words.
54:41
It's monosyllabic noise.
54:44
And they call that tongues.
54:45
So he made himself do it so that he could be accepted as a believer.
54:50
Because they said if you don't do it, you're not real.
54:53
But he believed it himself.
54:55
Nah, he knew he was faking it.
54:56
He just wanted to be part of the group.
54:59
Would that be considered blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? I don't think so.
55:03
I think that's just dumb.
55:09
I would say at that moment he was desperate to feel saved.
55:15
I think that's a moment of desperation.
55:17
I don't think he was doing it to blaspheme the Spirit.
55:20
I would say this.
55:21
There are churches that teach people how to speak with tongues.
55:25
I've seen the curriculum.
55:27
Curriculum for kids.
55:29
I have it on my computer.
55:32
Curriculum that is written.
55:34
Okay, do this.
55:35
Think real hard about God.
55:38
Close your eyes.
55:39
Think real hard about God.
55:42
Now, listen internally for the noise that God is giving you.
55:46
Now make that noise out loud.
55:51
Does that sound anything like the biblical model? No, it's not.
55:55
And that's the point.
55:56
Brother, you had your hand up.
55:57
Yeah, when you believe and you're filled with the Spirit, isn't the Spirit the One who gives you your faith? Yes, but now we have to make a distinction between regeneration and baptism.
56:10
Regeneration is the Spirit giving you the ability to believe because before that you would not believe.
56:15
Your desires were opposed to God.
56:17
The Spirit gives you the ability to believe.
56:20
But baptism or Spirit filling is unique to the New Covenant.
56:26
I think regeneration is cross-covenantal, meaning I think the old covenant saints, because they wouldn't have believed unless God regenerated their hearts.
56:33
But the Spirit baptism where He came and lived within us is this side of the cross because in the old covenant, where was the abode of God? The tabernacle.
56:45
But what is the difference in the New Covenant? The Spirit makes us His tabernacle.
56:52
You are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
56:55
That's why we have, I would say, a greater empowerment than even the old covenant saints because we have the Holy Spirit who Jesus said literally within us versus among us.
57:13
And that's the distinction between the New Covenant and the old covenant.
57:15
In the old covenant, the Spirit was among His people.
57:17
In the New Covenant, the Spirit is within His people.
57:21
That's a huge distinction.
57:22
A major important distinction.
57:23
We're out of time.
57:24
Let me just say this last thing about the gifts of the Spirit.
57:26
I've already kind of alluded to this.
57:27
The Spirit gives gifts as He wills.
57:30
Now whether or not you believe that certain gifts have ceased, that's called cessationism, or not, understand this.
57:38
Any gift you have is because God chose to give it to you.
57:43
I believe there are seven specific qualities or gifts that the Spirit gives and they are found in the book of 1 Corinthians and the book of Romans.
57:59
And I don't have them listed here.
58:03
I'll turn to Romans 12 because that's where they are.
58:09
I'll read this.
58:10
This will be the last thing we read.
58:15
Romans 12 3-8.
58:17
And I'll read this.
58:19
For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
58:28
That's huge because that goes with what you just said, brother.
58:31
God gave us this faith, right? God assigned it to us.
58:34
Now, verse 4.
58:36
For as in one body we all have many members and the members do not all serve the same function, so we, though many, are one in Christ and individually members one of another.
58:44
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.
58:50
And here are the gifts.
58:52
Prophecy, and according to our faith.
58:54
Service, and our serving.
58:56
Teaching, and our teaching.
58:59
Exhortation, and our exhortation.
59:01
Contribution, and our contributions.
59:04
Our generosity.
59:05
Leading with zeal, and mercy with cheerfulness.
59:11
So, if you follow that, I said there are seven.
59:13
Seven here listed by Paul.
59:15
It is prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, contribution, or generosity, leading, and mercy.
59:23
Now, yes.
59:26
No, no, please.
59:27
I was going to say four.
59:33
Yeah, when we're done I'll give it to you.
59:35
So, one more time, just on that list of seven.
59:38
Anything that God gives us, I call these the seven motivators.
59:42
Like me.
59:43
I know what my gift is.
59:45
It's real easy.
59:46
My gift is the gift of prophecy.
59:47
Not meaning I can speak the future.
59:49
God has given me the gift to proclaim His Word.
59:52
That's my gift.
59:54
And so, before I was saved, I didn't want to do that.
59:57
But when I got saved, God put something in my heart that now, like Jeremiah, if I didn't preach His Word, and I preach three or four or five times a week.
01:00:06
I go stand on the street.
01:00:08
Because it's like a fire in my bones.
01:00:10
Right? That's what Jeremiah said.
01:00:11
And so, that is, I think, the gift of prophecy because it's a motivator.
01:00:15
Right? My wife is very motivated by mercy.
01:00:18
She sees somebody hurting.
01:00:20
She wants to help them.
01:00:21
And so, I would say her gift, her spiritual gift, her spiritual motivator, is mercy.
01:00:27
That's unique to her.
01:00:28
So, I would ask you, what motivates you? Are you motivated to lead? Are you motivated to serve? Are you motivated to be generous? Maybe you have a special gift in regard to stewardship.
01:00:41
You handle money well, and therefore, you can benefit the church by helping the church use its money properly.
01:00:47
That's a gift of stewardship or generosity, right? You have a certain gift of God.
01:00:52
We're all called to be generous, right? But certain people are gifted specifically to that.
01:00:58
You got your hand up.
01:01:05
That's in Corinthians 12.
01:01:06
But like I said, I do think some of those gifts would...
01:01:10
I do think some of those ceased in the first century.
01:01:12
Again, I don't have time to go into that today.
01:01:13
But even if not, each of those could still fall under the seven categories of what I would say motivators.
01:01:21
Right? Because let's say somebody today did have the gift of tongues or whatever.
01:01:28
That would fall under prophecy.
01:01:31
Right? That would fall under proclamation.
01:01:33
So there are gifts.
01:01:35
Even would fall under those seven...
01:01:37
I think those seven things create categories.
01:01:40
And that's like I said, a longer lesson to deal with how these things work out.
01:01:43
But ultimately, again, the Spirit has these unique distinctives.
01:01:48
Blasphemy, baptism, and gifts that are unique to Him.
01:01:52
So I know it's like trying to shove...
01:01:54
It's like one of those burritos at Chipotle.
01:01:56
They put too much in it and they try to put it in and everything squishes out the sides.
01:01:59
That's what this lesson feels like.
01:02:01
We have so much.
01:02:02
So can we end with prayer and all that? Go ahead.
01:02:04
Can you name somebody today that would be a prophet? No.
01:02:08
That's why I say the idea of prophecy today I believe is proclamation of the Word, but not speaking the future.
01:02:16
And that's the two ways prophecy is used in Scripture.
01:02:19
It's not always speaking the future.
01:02:22
Especially in Deuteronomy when it says if the prophet says something that is against the doctrine of God, he's a false teacher.
01:02:28
So it's not that he was speaking the future, he was teaching.
01:02:32
I know, Ross, we've got to finish.
01:02:33
Let's pray.
01:02:34
Father, thank You for this time, for Your Word, and for all that You give us.
01:02:39
May we take this lesson and grow from it.
01:02:42
In Christ's name, amen.