Beyond The Basics 6: The Work And Person Of The Holy Spirit

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Father, as we gather this morning, Thanksgiving weekend, so many things that we've had to celebrate over the last few days,
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Lord, I pray that this time as we gather together here to study your
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Word would be of benefit to those who are here, that we would have our eyes open, as it were, to the work of the
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Holy Spirit. Father, would you use your Word to sharpen us this morning? Would you bless this time?
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In Christ's name we pray, Amen. Well, interesting week this week.
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You know, if you watch the news, threats of attacks on Christians in India, every door open in here this morning, it's delightful, threats on Christians in India.
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And then by the Hindus, you know, that great world religion that is a religion of peace.
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And then the Muslims, the other religion of peace, attack in India.
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Just a really dynamic week and a lot of things going on, but we're not going to talk about that this morning.
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Instead, we are going to talk about the Holy Spirit. And I've got a lot to go through here this morning, so we're going to begin on that.
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First, I think it's important to note, and I did something on this a while back, but I have changed it and added quite a bit to it, and occasionally put some semicolons where there should be periods, like on the second line.
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But I digress. First, please note, we're going to cover several aspects of the
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Holy Spirit this morning. First, the Holy Spirit is not merely a force, but a person.
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I think we have a tendency sometimes to talk about,
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I know I do, to talk about the Holy Spirit improperly. A word like a pronoun, like it, is not appropriate.
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The Holy Spirit is not an it. He is a he. He takes action.
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That's something, a force cannot independently, or a force does not independently act.
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It is acted upon, or it moves, or whatever, but it is not the source of its own activity.
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And the Holy Spirit is a person. He takes action. And I want to invite you first to look at the book of Luke.
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We've talked about the Trinity. We've talked about the attributes of God. We've talked about the work, the person of Christ.
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Now this week, we will look at the Holy Spirit. And I think the next section
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I do will be, I'm going to actually, I said when I first started this class a long time ago, a couple of years ago, a year and a half ago, whenever it was, that I would answer a bunch of questions.
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And starting whenever the next section of this starts, I'm going to start answering some of those questions.
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Interesting, I wanted to talk last week, just while you're turning to Luke 1. I had a phone call.
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My wife goes, my wife is fascinated by the phone calls we get here at the office. She goes, why do people call and ask you these questions?
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I don't know. A person called me at random last week, completely random, says, why,
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I would like to have a Bible answer, a Bible question answered. I said, well, let me see if I can get somebody who can do that for you.
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Hold on. Yes, I'm available. Okay. He says, could you explain to me,
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Jesus says that he, that the only sound that would be given this generation was a sign of Jonah, that he would be in the ground three days and three nights, just like Jonah was.
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And he says, but Jesus wasn't in the ground three days and three nights. I said, well, that's a good question.
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And so I gave him the answer, which is, basically it's a colloquialism, a phrase that means, in the
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Jewish mindset, would mean any part of a day would represent a full day. So he was there part of Friday, part of Saturday, part of Sunday, and he says, well,
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I talked to an Orthodox rabbi, and I said, how old was the rabbi? And he said, excuse me? And I said, well, how old was he?
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He says, I don't know, 40, 45. And I said, so then he probably wasn't alive 2 ,000 years ago. And I said, one of the problems you have is that you're asking an
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Orthodox rabbi who doesn't believe in the New Testament to explain the New Testament to you. I said, the other problem you have is ultimately, and this is my point in this whole story, is that your issue isn't with the sign of Jonah.
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Because if I could give you 35 sources that would disprove your personal issue here, then what?
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And he goes, well, then I want you to answer a question for me about Josiah. He says, it's another contradiction of the
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Bible. I said, OK, and if I answer that one? And he goes, well, I don't know.
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I said, would you believe if I could answer that? He says, I might. And I said, no, you wouldn't. Why was
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I talking to him like that? No, you wouldn't, I said to him. Why?
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Peggy says, because I was giving him the truth. Charlie, his problem is not a lack of information.
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What's his problem? He doesn't believe. And so I gave him the gospel.
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And he says, I mean, I was on the phone with this guy for 50 minutes, and I never really answered his question.
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Thank you very much. And you say, well, what good is that? Well, you know what, if answering a question is not going to lead anywhere, then
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I don't want to answer that question. I gave him what he needed. I heard his felt need, and I completely ignored it.
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And I addressed his real need. That's, I mean, I can't say that, you know,
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I mean, talk about, everybody's like, well, you got a pretty easy job, you know, people come to you to get the gospel. Well, this isn't, you know, it's not the only time
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I've ever given the gospel in England. But it is a great opportunity to sit there and have the opportunity to do that.
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But he said to me, we'll get to the Holy Spirit here in a minute.
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He said, well, you know, I spend a lot of time thinking through this, and I've read through most of the
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Bible. I said, well, if you've read through most of the Bible, then there's no doubt that you, you know, know far,
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I didn't say, you know far more than I do. I mean, he was making himself out like an expert. He says, well, I've read most of the
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Bible. OK, you know, are you familiar with the Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew? No, you know, but I said,
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I said, well, do you have do you have a way that you can come to church? He said, no, you know,
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I don't drive. I don't have a vehicle. And I said, do you have a job?
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And he said, no. And I said, well, I can see what part of your problem is right now. He said, what's that?
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He goes, I'm you know, I am clinically depressed. I am incapable of working. I said, well, here's the problem.
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I said, part of the reason you're clinically depressed is because you sit around all day thinking about the meaning of the universe, you know, and you've not spent any time actually working, you know, dealing with the issues of life.
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And you're pondering things beyond your ability to grasp. You need to read the
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Bible. You need to go to church. You need to hear the truth. You need to believe. And I just gave him the gospel about three different ways.
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And he concluded with, I felt like not that I compare myself to Paul, but it was kind of like at the end of Acts 17, when the the crowd at Mars Hill is leaving and they say, you know, we might hear from you again because he says, you know,
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I might call you again. I said, OK, well, feel free, you know, kind of thing. And he hung up.
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But it's just the kind of thing where people need to hear the gospel. They have a lot of it.
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And if I could just encourage you during this holiday season, you know, people are out there and you'll hear the
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Salvation Army guys out there and all sorts of different things. What they really need, they want answers to their questions, but they don't have the right question a lot of times.
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And you really have to supply that question for them. The question isn't, was Jesus in the ground three days and three nights?
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The question is, who do you think Jesus was? And when
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I asked the man that, he said, well, he says, I believe he's God. I said, well,
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OK, you just told me that God can be wrong. And he says,
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I said, well, how do you believe? And the point of all this is I want you to understand some basics on evangelism.
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And here's what I did. He said, well, this is what I believe in. About God. God is love.
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We talked about a few weeks ago, people like that, God. God wants everybody to be saved.
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God is this. God is that. I said, where do you get your information? And he says, well, from the Bible and from some other sources.
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I said, well, you just told me you don't believe the Bible. And he said, well, I believe parts of it.
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And I said, well, who decides what parts of belief? Well, I do. And I said, so what you believe about God.
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Is based on your own understanding. What you think is right about the
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Bible and you discard what you don't like. I said, you put yourself in the place of God. You decide what is right and what is wrong.
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You set the standard and God has to live up to it. And people need to they need to understand that one simple truth.
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They are not God. It's more than one simple truth. They are not God. They need to know the
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God who exists. They think they're OK. He thought he was going to go to heaven. I even asked him, I said, do you believe that you have to be perfect to get to heaven?
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You know what he said? No. I said, then you don't agree with Jesus again. Jesus said you have to be perfect to get into heaven.
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Be perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect. He didn't like any of that. I didn't think he would.
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The gospel is offensive, but this is what people need anyway. All that to say, when we give the gospel to people, we are doing what?
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Beyond just meeting their actual need, we are trusting in the work of the
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Holy Spirit. We present the truth. We give them the confront confrontation of the gospel.
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Here's where they are. We say this is where you need to be. This is how you get there. It's by Christ alone and in faith alone in him.
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And we trust the spirit to convict if he will. And we don't know what's going to happen. Our job is just to be faithful stewards of what
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God has given us. All right. Luke one thirty five. All that. It just bugged me when he said, you know,
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I have a question. Oh, sure you do. You know, yeah, you have a question. But the question is the wrong question.
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Let me give you the real question. The Holy Spirit takes action.
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Luke one thirty five. The angel. This is, of course, when the announcement of the birth of Jesus is being made here by the angel, the angel answered and said to her, the
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Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you. And for that reason, the holy child shall be called the son of God.
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The Holy Spirit is not some all pervasive force that can be wielded by someone.
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He actually takes action. And as we're going to show later, it's not really independent action, but that's a whole different matter.
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Secondly, the Holy Spirit sanctifies believers, that is, makes them more holy.
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Now, is sanctification a matter of divine sovereignty or. Is it human responsibility?
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Yes, is the correct answer. Good answer. Good answer. OK. But the
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Holy Spirit is active in sanctifying. Let's look at First Peter one versus one and two. And who has that?
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Dr. Binney. OK. Now, it says there sanctification is the process by which we are made more holy.
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Where would we be without the Holy Spirit in that? Going to talk about this a little bit later, but where do you think we would be without the
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Holy Spirit sanctifying us? When we think about I mean, there are many passages that practically if we're practically applying them.
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We we get this a little bit. We get it thoroughly.
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Romans 828, God works all things together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose.
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And when things come into our lives that we don't count as good, what do we do? What do we do when things that we don't like come into our lives?
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We rejoice, we count them all joy. And we reflect upon the goodness of God and what do we do?
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We complain the promise of God in Romans 828 that he works all things together for good is,
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I believe, an application of this very points. God. The three persons, the
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Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and this case, the spirit sanctifies us by the things that come into our lives, even the things that we don't like, we don't want.
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You know, you got fired. Praise the Lord. You got demoted. Praise the
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Lord. Anybody ever had an experience like that? That was sanctifying. At the time where you just said it was terrible,
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I mean, I think I was maybe a new believer and I got demoted at work.
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For one of my infamous practical jokes, it was pretty humbling.
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It was pretty humbling. I mean, I spent quite a while in the penalty box is what we called it.
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You know, when you show up at work, you know, and it's a big I worked in the when it opened, it was the biggest jail in the free world.
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You had to go to the Soviet Union to find a bigger jail. And when I would come in and I had to look to figure out where I was working, because every, every day
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I was moving somewhere else. It was, you know, the infirmary, the bakery, this, that, the other place.
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And it was, it took two years. I mean, it was overkill, but I brought it on myself. It took two years for me to finally undo through procedure what
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I had done to myself, you know, basically. And it was a time to really reflect on how
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I presented myself at work. What I thought, I mean, it was just kind of like God just going, bam, you know, and when
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I first, when it first happened, I didn't think it was particularly good. Not at all. But a lot of good things came out of it, including, check this out.
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It was one of the events that led to my no longer being afraid of standing up in front of large crowds of people and talking.
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So who knew? All right. Sanctifies believers, makes them more holy.
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Everything that happens in life is with an eye. Everything that God brings into our lives is for our good, even if we can't see it.
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And sometimes those things are just sanctification. The Holy Spirit also seals believers, seals them.
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I mean, there are a few different passages we can look at. Ephesians 4 .30 here, but certainly Ephesians 1.
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I think it's maybe 11, 12, 13, something like that. So there are multiple places where it talks about the sealing of the
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Holy Spirit. And that's S -E -A -L -I -N -G, not
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C -E -I -L -I -N -G, just in case you're wondering. All right. Ephesians 4 .30.
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Who has that? Daniel. Okay.
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And what does it mean to be sealed? I like that.
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To put a mark of ownership. I mean, it is as if, you know, the picture would be, you know, the hot wax when you seal that envelope and so that it can be, so that it can't be opened.
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But more importantly, what happens when you put that seal, when the kings or whoever, they put the signet ring kind of seal on that hot wax?
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Joni. It was the official mark of the king and it identifies its final.
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Charlie? Okay. I like that.
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Shows that you have to have the proper authority to open it. I mean, it sure, it is
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God's seal that nothing can change that. The Holy Spirit also suffers grief.
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We just read that. So I won't read that again in Ephesians 4 .30, but you can also read it in Isaiah 63 .10.
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Same concept. You know, a force does not suffer grief. All right.
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Secondly, the Holy Spirit teaches, comforts, guides, and encourages us. Now notice, just before I even move on to the scriptures, the way that that's phrased there, teaches, comforts, guides, and encourages us.
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Who's the us? Believers. The Holy Spirit has one function when it comes to unbelievers, which is to do what?
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Convict, convict, convert of the, you know, convict them of sin, convert them. So, all right.
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The Holy Spirit teaches, all right, John 14 .26. You know, what's another word for the
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Holy Spirit? The comforter. And I think when we think of these things, we should be comforted.
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Almost everything we're going to talk about from here on out should be very comforting to believers. John 14 .26,
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who has that? Go ahead, Barbara. Okay.
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So he's going to teach us and call things to our memories, call things to our minds that we have learned.
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What's the value of that, of that action, Bruce? Okay.
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Well, I think in that immediate context, absolutely. Is there a greater application to us or, you know, a further application to us?
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I think so. In other words, was Jesus saying to the disciples, you and you alone are going to be the recipients of this?
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I don't think so. Was he saying that in a special way, and I think this is what you're getting at, that they would be used to write the
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New Testament and that the things, you know, years from then, I mean, the earliest gospel written maybe about 50 or so AD.
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So 20 years after that, we'll recall things. Yeah. I think that is definitely an application of that and probably the most direct one.
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Yes. Right. Paraclete means to come alongside.
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It's one who comes along the side of the helper. So parakaleo is to call alongside.
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That's the Greek verb. And it just means to, it would be, you know, someone, a helper, someone who comes alongside and assists.
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So that's the, that's the picture, Charlie. Well, and we were,
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I was talking with Steve in the hallway earlier. And it really is when we think about the sovereignty of God.
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And sometimes we forget that the Holy Spirit is sovereign as well. And that's exactly right.
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I mean, what, what comfort is there if the Holy Spirit or God himself is not sovereign, if he's not all powerful?
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Well, there is no comfort in that. We can rest in the spirit. Why? Because he's in control.
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He's in control. Let's look at Acts 9 .31. He comforts believers.
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And, you know, again, anytime we're looking at one of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, or we're looking at Acts, I mean, these are narrative books.
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So we're taking specific actions and then we're taking the application of them.
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These are just incidents. You know, can they be replicated other places? A lot of times, yes.
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Sometimes no. I'm, there's no indication that we should ever expect another day of, you know,
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Acts 2, the day of Pentecost, that sort of thing. But these are general actions, not specific actions that we can kind of draw from.
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Acts 9 .31. So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, this is what happens when you get
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Judea and Samaria, and then you have Galilee in the middle, you're just making an uh, Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and then you have
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Judea and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the
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Holy Spirit, it continued to increase. Now, can that happen in our churches today?
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Can churches experience being built up, existing in the fear of the
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Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit? I think so. As we work towards unity in the body, that sort of thing.
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Uh, let's look at 1 John 2 .27. And if you have the authorized version,
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I've copied the note right there. 1 John 2 .27.
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Uh, he guards and guides the true believer into truth. So again, you know, we could say that this is
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John's commentary on the verse that we read earlier that Bruce was commenting about, uh, John 14 .26.
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1 John 2 .27. Who has that? And again, uh, you know, the anointing,
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I've said this before. This is like one of the biggest buzzwords and charismatic circles.
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You know, that music is anointed. That teaching was anointed. This is anointed. Well, the anointing is not used massively in the new
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Testament or in the old Testament, you know, it usually applied to oil or so, you know, what are they trying to say? That teaching was really oily.
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That singing, you know, I, I don't know, I'm just going to get. What's that?
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But the idea is, uh, you know, in this case, the anointing, the Holy Spirit teaches, guides, guards, uh, interesting here in a point
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D discloses whatever can be known about the future. John 16, 13.
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I mean, again, was this specifically towards the disciples? I think so.
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Uh, does it have applications for us? Maybe this one, maybe not so much, but did the new
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Testament writers get a sense of sometimes of what was coming? Well, absolutely. All you have to do is look at the book of revelation.
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We can see different things throughout the new Testament that would indicate that they had some prophetic visions, nuances of what would come.
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Even the book of a second Peter talking about there would come a day when false teachers were coming.
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Verse 13, but when he, the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth for he will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will disclose to you what is to come.
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Interesting. He will disclose to you what is to come. Uh, he affirmed salvation point
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E Romans eight 16. I'll just briefly summarize that. Cooley summary is the
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Holy Spirit testifies to our spirit that we belong to him. You know,
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I've said on many occasions that there, there is an objective sense in which you can know that you are saved.
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And what is that objective sense? Oh, you obey the commandments, the word, the word of God, new creature in Christ.
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But I mean, you have a, if you were to look, you know, how can you objectively measure the fact that you're saved? Well, I think, you know, one sure way to do it is to think back to a time when, you know, you were not saved and say, am
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I the same person that I was when I wasn't saved? These are the same things. Do I have the same affections?
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Do I have the same desires? Do I look at life the same way? Do I look at God the same way? Do I look at fellow human beings the same way?
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And if the answer is yes, then you do have an issue. If the answer is no, then you can almost measure objectively again.
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Well, how do I view God? I love him. I used to be kind of, I know he exists for whatever reason.
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You know, how do I view the Bible? How do I view fellow believers? How do I view and just go down the list?
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And actually, if you just read through first John, you can see whether or not I, you know, people call it sometimes the book of assurance.
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And, you know, somebody says, well, I'm not sure if I'm a believer or not. I say read first John because it's not only the book of assurance.
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It's the book of non -assurance, the book of unassurance. If you think you're a believer and you read that book, you'll go, oh,
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I need to think about this more. It's a challenging book. Yes, Dan.
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Well, that's a good question. Jeremiah 17, nine, the heart is deceitful. Uh, sick above all else who could know it.
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Well, I think, I think it's always a balancing act. Um, you have to look at your life and then measure, you know, where you were before Christ to where you are now.
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And then keeping in mind that you can deceive yourself, that the things you think are so may not be so.
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Um, so I think it's, it is, uh, like Paul says in second Corinthians 13, that we need to constantly be examining ourselves to determine whether we're in the faith or not.
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Uh, can we deceive ourselves? I think so. Oh, absolutely.
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Well, and the best, the best counterweight there ever is, of course, is the word of God, you know, like talking to this man the other day.
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Well, are you going to go to heaven? Yes, I am. Why? Because I say I am. Well, that's all well and good.
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As long as God takes your advice on the matter. But what does he say? You know, people want to believe what they want to believe.
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But if you say to them, well, how can you objectively know whether you're going to heaven or not? Well, they have no objective.
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What's the difference between objective and subjective, Charlie? Thank you,
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Dr. Crane. Yes. Okay. So objective is outside of you. Okay.
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Objective is, uh, some measuring stick outside of yourself and subjective is basically your own opinion.
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And it's like, I've often said, if there are six and a half billion people on the planet and everybody subjectively thinks they're going to heaven, they have their own opinion that they're going to heaven.
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Well, that's all well and good. But if they all have different opinions or different standards, which they do, because the heart is deceitful above all else who can know it, then can six and a half billion different opinions all be right?
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The answer is no. Well, what's the solution? The solution is there must be an objective standard.
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God sets the standard. It's his world and we're living in it. He has given us the truth.
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We don't get to set the standard. He does. So where were we?
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Objective, subjective, the subjective witness of the spirit is objectively. We can measure salvation subjectively.
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We just kind of have a sense that we belong to God. And, you know,
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I think there is a caution that needs to be made about just having a feeling, but I think there is a feeling that goes with being a
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Christian. How do you measure that? You can't, you know, I, I just think that certainly the scripture speaks to that.
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Christianity is not, it is intellectual, by the way, that's another thing that, you know, when you're witnessing the people, they'll say, well, uh,
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I guess you just have to take the word of God as a leap of faith. You just have to blindly believe it.
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Is that true? Christianity is not a religion devoid of information.
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In fact, it is based on information. There are things that you have to know intellectually, but intellectually is not enough.
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It has to take root inside of you. Uh, how many know what it takes to convert to Islam?
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What do you have to do to convert to Islam? You have to say that's close.
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You have to, she said, you have to say Allah, Allah is God. Actually, what you have to say is there is no
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God, but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet. You say that three times, you're
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Muslim. I was just recently reading a story about a soldier who was captured and, uh, over the course of several days, he actually said it three times.
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And so all the kids in this village in which he was being held, uh, you know, were rejoicing because he'd become a
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Muslim, even though in his mind he was nowhere, you know, he was not a Muslim at all. But this is how, you know, people throughout the centuries have been able to be converted to Islam by the point of a sword, because all you have to do is say what
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I said, I'm not going to say it three times this morning. So can you convert people to Christianity at the point of a sword?
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No, no, because there has to be not just a, you know, a statement of fact, but there has to be, uh, an internal working of God.
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Does that mean Constantine's armies weren't Christian? Yes. Does it mean Constantine wasn't a
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Christian? I don't know, but I find it very doubtful. So anyway, the
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Holy spirit, Pam, she said there's a lot of historic, uh, evidence for Christianity.
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That's certainly true. And I'll tell you, I, I think the evidences, the historical evidences are great for Christianity.
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I think they're very encouraging for Christians. The only caution I ever give is, you know, never try to think that you are going to present enough evidence to sway the unbeliever that he should believe.
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Did you know that they found the Dead Sea Scrolls and that Isaiah is exactly the same as doesn't help them any more than, you know, disproving the problem with Jonah and disproving the
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Josiah thing, all that stuff they need to believe the gospel, uh, one friend who says they need a pill, the gospel, it's a bad joke, but it's true.
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It's true. They need the gospel. All right, moving on along, shuffling around along.
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All right. F he gives believers hope. The Holy spirit gives believers hope.
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Romans 15, 13, who has that?
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I do now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.
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Just ponder that for a moment, all joy and peace in believing.
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Do you have joy and peace? You ought to, so that here's the purpose so that you will abound in hope by the power of the
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Holy spirit. The Holy spirit is the power, the source of power for giving us hope.
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Okay. Third, the Holy spirit is holy. God is holy.
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God. I mean, there are many proofs that we could give here. And I think all of these things, everything that I'm going to talk about with regard to the
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Holy spirit points to this, but there are a few specifics, uh, acts five versus one to four,
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Peter talking to a certain man and a certain woman, the great example that the
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God of wrath of the God of wrath exists in the new
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Testament as well, by the way, thank you to whoever made me the bumper sticker that says God is, Oh, I haven't had the courage to put it on my car yet, but.
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All right. Acts five, one to four, Dave.
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Okay. So he lied to the Holy spirit, which is the same as lying to God. Therefore, Holy spirit is
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God. And you know, this is a, uh, people often wonder, well, gee, did they deserve to die? I was just reading this, you know?
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I was mentioned to pastor Dave this morning that I had a dream last night that I was still a police officer. This happens from time to time.
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And it's quite disturbing to me, but, uh, I, so I'm reading this and I'm just looking at it and I'm going, you know what, this is a conspiracy to defraud and a nice and his wife conspired, they conspired.
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They said, you know what? We're going to make ourselves look good. This is, you know, if I was writing the police report, this is basically it.
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They decided they were going to make themselves look good by doing this, but they knew that they were going to hold back some of the money and then they went forward and they actually did it.
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I mean, there was no penalty for talking about it. The penalty came after they actually carried it out. And that is a perfect example, by the way of a legal conspiracy.
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Yeah. Well, well, it's a good question.
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Um, I would say that, uh, we, uh, the Holy spirit points to, we're going to talk about the subordination of the spirit, not going to use that language, but, uh, the
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Holy spirit has a role. His role is to point to Christ and not to receive the glory for himself.
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So I would say that, uh, typically we would not pray to the spirit.
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We can certainly pray that the spirit would act, uh, in certain cases that he would, uh, descend on certain people, you know, open their eyes, that sort of thing.
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But I think our, uh, petitions per se are better directed toward the father.
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Any other thoughts on that one, Daniel? Right. But we, we don't, and I agree with that.
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Daniel says that he prays that the spirit would sanctify him. I think that's right. Um, but we don't open our prayers.
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You know, when Jesus said, pray in this manner, he didn't say, Oh, Holy spirits,
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Oh, blessed Trinity. Oh. So I think typically we open up our prayers to the father.
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I mean, there may be exceptions to that. None readily come to mind. Uh, let's see as a divine name.
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Secondly, he can be blasphemed against. And in a sense that there is no forgiveness for it.
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I mentioned some months ago, you know, that people, uh, unbelievers naturally take this blasphemy of the
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Holy spirit and they believe that it is simply denying that the Holy spirit exists. And that's really not the case at all.
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What is the blasphemy of the Holy spirit? What is that sin? Can anybody describe it for me? Attributing to the devil, the work of the spirit.
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I believe that is exactly correct. Give her an A plus on that theology exam. Matthew 12 verses 31 to 32.
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Who has that? Just so happens. I do. Therefore, I say to you, this is
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Jesus speaking, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people. But blasphemy against the spirit shall not be forgiven.
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Whoever speaks a word against the son of man, it shall be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the
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Holy spirit, it shall not be forgiven him either in this age or in the age to come.
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Pretty serious sin and one that I do not believe Christians can commit today because basically it was attributing the works of the
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Holy spirit through Christ during his ministry and saying that they were the works of the devil, whether it was healing or what have you.
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And when they did that, that was a sin for which there was no forgiveness.
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I see no questions. So moving on, the Holy spirit works, the works of God will naturally, if he is
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Holy God, this is what he does. He was active in creation. What did he do in Genesis one?
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What did the Holy spirit do? He hovered. Let's look at Job 33.
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I mean, he's present. We don't know exactly what. I think, uh, some translations have brooding or, or something of that nature, but he was there participating in some manner.
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It's like a Job 33 verse four.
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And who has that very interesting in the
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Hebrew because what's the, uh, Hebrew word for spirit, all the
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Hebrew scholars in here. What's that? What? No, that's
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Greek. That's good. Rook, which is the same as wind or something of that nature.
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And then we have the breath of life, but it's just interesting that, uh, you know, it's, it's almost poetic the way it is here because it could be the spirit or wind, and obviously it wouldn't be the wind of God, but the spirit of God has made me and the breath of Nefesh of the almighty gives me life really a very strong statement here of God's work via the
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Holy spirit in creation. Uh, he causes regeneration in John three, you know, everybody has 16 on their minds, but that's a whole big discourse between Jesus and Nicodemus.
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And what, what is often, I think, overlooked here in John three is just the, the description that Jesus gives of the work of the
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Holy spirit. And again, you know, when you think about it, uh, even when I was talking about how the
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Hebrew word for spirits is the same as for wind, then think about, uh, what
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Jesus says to Nicodemus here in John three, he says, uh,
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I'm going to read starting in verse four, Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old?
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He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born. Can he? Jesus answered, truly, truly,
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I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
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That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Verse seven, do not be amazed that I said to you, you must be born again.
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Now listen, verse eight, Ruach in the Hebrew now recognizing he was not speaking Hebrew here, but it's interesting.
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And nonetheless, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it is, uh, where it comes from and where it is going.
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So is everyone who is born of the spirits. So he makes this comparison between the wind and the
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Holy spirit. And he says, listen, just like you don't know where the wind comes from or where it's going, you can predict the work of the
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Holy spirit, but you must be born again. And it is by the power of the spirit that you are born again.
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The spirit goes where it wishes, where he wishes. See, I did it. The spirit goes where he wishes.
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He saves whom he wishes. He works on whom he wishes. He causes regeneration.
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He causes people to be born again. So it is everyone. So is everyone who is born of the spirits?
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Uh, he causes spiritual renewal. Titus three, five Bruce. Do you have that memorized? Titus three, five
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Bruce is gone. So no, he doesn't have it memorized. By the way, that clock in the back is five minutes fast.
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So I'm not really cutting into your doughnut time. Titus three, five.
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He saved us not on the basis of deeds, which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by their washing of regeneration and renewing by the
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Holy spirit, he renews us. He brings a spiritual renewal. And why would we need spiritual renewal spiritually dead?
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I mean, it's like you drive a, what's a horribly old car. A Pinto, you know, you drive a 1971
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Ford death trap known as a Pinto into the car wash, you know, in one end and what comes out the other end?
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Well, yeah, but the idea is we're going to see a transformation, you know, and instead of exploding and blowing up the entire carwash, what happens is you get out the other end and you have a perfect brand new, yeah,
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Ferrari, you know, whatever, uh, perfect, perfect.
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He renews us. Where's the carwash?
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Well, by the grace of God, you've already been through it. You were that Pinto and you are en route to becoming a
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Lamborghini. So, so to speak. All right, well, let's, uh, let's go some prayer.
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Our father, we rejoice in these truths about your spirit. Father, we're thankful for his work in our lives.
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Father, how he takes even things that are bad by our own standards, difficult, takes them and turns them into really moments of sanctification, times of purification.
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We're thankful for his work in conforming us into the image of your son, of, uh, changing lives.
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This is the work of a spirit changing, beat up, no good, useless items, making them of use to you.
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And even, uh, by his renewing work through the work of Christ, transforming us into that will, which will one day be perfect in your sight.
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We'll stand before you blameless. Father, the wonders of this, uh, we simply, uh, can only grasp at.
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We praise you for that and just pray that you would bless the rest of our day here as we worship you in Christ's name.