15 - The Ministry of the Holy Spirit, Part 1

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16 - The Ministry of the Holy Spirit, Part 2a

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Well, welcome to the

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Striving for Eternity Academy School of Systematic Theology. We are glad that you are with us today and today we are going to be looking into the ministry of the

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Holy Spirit and this will be a two -part lesson, okay?

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So if you have your syllabus, that means if you are a student of the Academy and you have one of the syllabuses, it is a very helpful thing to have with you.

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The syllabus will give you my notes and the syllabus has some fill -in -the -blanks for you.

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So we encourage you to get a syllabus. You can sign up at the website to get one.

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It comes with a yearly membership, which means you get all the syllabuses that we produce within the year, which would be about two, at least two per year.

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But we'll see, we may be doing more. So, this week we are in lesson number 11, which is the ministry of the

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Holy Spirit. Alright, the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now as we go through this, you're going to see that we will deal with, we're going to start dealing with some controversial issues.

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Maybe not so much in this lesson as the ones to follow, but when we do this, what

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I want to encourage you with is to, even if you disagree with me, if you could at least, if you could at least email us at academyatstrivingforeternity .org,

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if you could email us where you disagree, but support it with Scripture. Just don't tell us that you disagree because you feel a certain way, okay?

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Disagree based on the proper ways of interpretation, right? We've gone through those in the

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School of Biblical Harmonetics, which we will be redoing those in high definition very soon.

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But if you disagree, that's okay. We're not all going to agree on everything and actually we're all going to be wrong in some areas.

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There's going to be areas where each one of us are wrong and that's okay. That should be perfectly fine with us because we should be more concerned about with what

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God says and there's going to be areas that God will correct us, okay? So it's not going to hurt my feelings if you disagree with me, alright?

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But the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the lives of men throughout the ages is a vital study for today.

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Many groups have either de -emphasized or exaggerated the ministry of the

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Spirit. And so once again, our understanding of this doctrine is going to come through the study of the

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Scriptures and in this lesson what we're going to examine is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the

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Old Testament, during the life of Christ, and then in the future. And you say,

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Andrew, did you miss something in the middle there? Like shouldn't it go Old Testament, life of Christ, like the

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Church Age, New Testament time periods, and then the future? What's up with that? No, I didn't. It's just that we're going to pick up on the age that affects us the most, the

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Church Age, this time we live in. And we're going to deal with that next class, okay?

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But I want to say that there's really two extremes and I said this already but I want to emphasize it again.

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When it comes to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, many years ago, about a hundred some years ago, 108 years ago to be exact, in 1905, started a movement called the

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Pentecostal Movement. The Pentecostal Movement moved into the Charismatic Movement, moved into Word of Faith Movement, and now into anything goes kind of movement.

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And what you see in these movements is an exaggeration of the

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Holy Spirit's ministry. Actually, in some circles, it's way beyond just exaggeration and I would say even blasphemy.

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Blasphemy when they claim things done against God, things that God would say are wrong, and they claim that it's from the

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Holy Spirit, okay? This is stuff, some bizarre stuff that goes on.

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Now what has been the reaction to that? Well, coming from more of the fundamentalist circles, what ended up happening was moving so far away from the

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Charismatics and the Pentecostals that they almost de -emphasized the Holy Spirit altogether so that it's almost as if you don't hear anything at all about the

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Holy Spirit within some of those churches. So you have those two extremes, and they're extremes, and when you get to the extremes both have issues, alright?

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So, what do we have? We want to start by taking a look at the

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Holy Spirit's ministry and not ignoring the third person of the

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Godhead. He is very important, as we're going to see in our lives next week when we look at that.

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But when we examine this, the Holy Spirit is a vital study, and we're actually going to spend a couple weeks looking into the ministry that He has.

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Let's start by looking at the ministry of the

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Spirit in the Old Testament, and we're going to take a look at a couple of things that He did in the

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Old Testament. We're going to look at some of the ways

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He ministered, some of the things He did. Specifically, let's look at the first one, which is creation, creation.

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Now, when we think of creation, we think of Genesis, so let us turn to Genesis 1,

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Genesis 1, verse 2, and it says this, "...the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the

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Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." So what you see there is that the

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Spirit was active in the creation of the world. The Holy Spirit was active in the creation of the world, that's your blank there, world.

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So what you end up seeing is that the Spirit was part, was one of three people that were active in creation.

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This is something we see when we look at the fact of the creation, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the redemption of man, these are things that all three members have a ministry in and are active in.

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So the Holy Spirit was active in the creation of the world. Also, you see that the

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Spirit was active in the creation of man. This is in one of the earliest books of the

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Bible, Job 33, verse 4, "...the Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the

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Almighty gives me life." So the Spirit of God made Job.

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That's what He's saying. And so we see that this is one of the things, is that the

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Holy Spirit is active in creation. Not only is He active in creation, but He is also active in restraint.

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Restraint, what do we mean? Well let's look at Genesis 6 -3 and it says, "...then

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the Lord said, My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh, his days shall be a hundred and twenty years."

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This is dealing with the time of the flood where God is saying that He will give a hundred and twenty years before the judgment.

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And this was the fact that the Holy Spirit was restraining, and this is a good thing that the

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Holy Spirit restrains. Let's look at 1 Peter 3 and verse 20, it says, "...because they formally did not obey when

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God's patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, in which a few," that is eight persons, "...were

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brought safely through water." This is talking about some angels that were punished, or at least that's how some take it obviously, "...that

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were punished during the time of Noah." Now here's the interesting thing with that.

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We see that the Holy Spirit restrains God's justice and His wrath.

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That's actually a really good thing because if God did not constrain

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Himself, if God gave us justice right now, every single person that doesn't know

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Jesus Christ would be dead. If God would have given complete justice in the time of Noah, there would never have been a

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Jesus coming to earth in the first coming. This is the importance.

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The Holy Spirit restrains Himself and that is one of His ministries.

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There will be a time when the Holy Spirit will remove that restraint and that will be a scary time.

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Looking at the ministry in the Old Testament, we start with His creation. We then see that there is

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His restraint. Thirdly, we see that He is involved in revelation.

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The Holy Spirit was active in the guidance of God's message to man. Let's take a look at 2

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Peter 1 .21, "...for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the

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Holy Spirit." So you see, the Holy Spirit was involved in the revelation, in providing man with God's word.

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So, not only was He involved in creation, but He was involved in restraint,

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He was involved in revelation, and then letter D there in your syllabus,

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He was involved in service. He was involved in service.

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The first thing is that He enabled workmanship. He enabled workmanship.

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Let's take a look at that in Exodus 31. In Exodus 31,

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He says here, "...and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones, for setting and cutting wood, to work in every craft."

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So, it is the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament that gave people the gifts and talents to be able to make the tent of Tabernacle, and to create the

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Ark of the Covenant. That's what was in the context there in Exodus.

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And so, what you see there is that the Holy Spirit is the one who gives us our talents and our gifts.

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Now, I say that because when we get to the next lesson, next class, we're going to look at the giftings that the

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Holy Spirit gives to believers. So, we're going to see some differences there. But we can say that the

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Holy Spirit is the one who gives us all of the gifts or talents that we have.

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Some of us are born with certain talents. Some people can sing and play musical instruments, like my friend

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Carrie. I'm not the one you want to hear sing, and you definitely don't want to see me on a musical instrument.

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I used to play the trumpet. I think it was more a noise than a joyful.

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But there is a time coming when I'll sing with a glorified voice, and even I can sing then. But those of us who have talents, that is something that the

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Holy Spirit gives. He also, and this is how we most often see the Holy Spirit in the

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Old Testament, is that He enables for leadership. He enables for leadership.

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Okay? That's your blank there in letter D, the second blank is that He enables for leadership.

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And what we're going to do is take a look at several passages of Scripture and see different leaders.

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And if you have your syllabus, you can fill in the names of the leaders as I give them to you. But we're going to see different leaders that God had put

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His Holy Spirit in them to give them, to enable them toward leadership.

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Alright? Let's start with Joseph. Let's start with Joseph in Genesis 41.

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Genesis 41, 38, Now he's speaking of Joseph.

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Okay? And he's saying there's nobody that we can find that has the

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Spirit of God in him. Alright? And so we see that the Spirit enabled him for leadership.

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Let's look at another. Your second one there under Numbers 11 is Moses and the elders.

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Moses and the elders is your second blank. And this is Numbers 11, 16 -17.

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And bring them to the tent of meeting and let them take their stand there with you.

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And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the

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Spirit that is on you and I will put it on them and they shall bear witness, bear the burden of the people with you so that you do not have to bear it by yourself.

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So you see there the second group where we see the Holy Spirit enabling people for leadership is

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Moses. So we have Joseph is your first blank. Then Moses and the elders. Your third one under Deuteronomy 34 is,

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I'm drawing a blank. Pick up, bring up the pastor.

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Thank you. And Joshua. Joshua the son of Nun was full of the Spirit of wisdom.

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For Moses had laid his hands on him so the people of Israel obeyed him and he did as the

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Lord had commanded. So Joshua is our third one. Next we have the judges.

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And we're going to look at three passages here. I hope that's large enough for you to read. Actually for the sake of time

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I'm not going to read them. But it is Judges 3, 9 to 10.

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Judges 6, 24 and 11, 29. And you see Athanel, Gideon and Jephthah were all given the

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Spirit for the sake of leadership. Next in 1

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Samuel 10, 10 or 16, 13. Either one of those.

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I don't know that we're going to have time to read that. But in those you see David and Saul. Both David and Saul were, in those passages, had the

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Spirit upon them. Now this brings up an interesting thought. The Holy Spirit left

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Saul. And this is where we get into some of the differences. We've looked at this in some previous classes.

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But we saw that the Holy Spirit would come upon someone for leadership in the

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Old Testament. But in the New Testament we're actually indwelt with the Holy Spirit. He indwells us.

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And so it's a different relationship in the New Testament versus the Old Testament. That's the difference of the New Covenant.

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It's why we no longer need a high priest or a priesthood. So thus in the

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Old Testament economy there are similarities to the

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Spirit's ministry as in the New Testament. He's still active in bringing forth life.

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He still ministers and provides gifts and talents to people in serving and in leadership.

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The same Spirit that guided the writers of the Old Testament also guided the writers of the

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New Testament. The same Holy Spirit convicts of sin both in the Old and New Testament.

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The primary distinction of ministry of the Holy Spirit in the

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Two Testaments is that the Holy Spirit was not universal in ministry to all believers.

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And His abiding service could be temporary as we always saw.

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Indwelling and sanctification are also exclusively to the

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New Testament ministry. So we'll see that next class. But what you see there is the fact that there is similarities between the

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Old Testament and New Testament ministries. But there's also some distinctions. We're going to look into them a little bit more next class.

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But what we see there is the Holy Spirit's ministry was one of where He was active in the

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Old Testament in creation, in restraint, in revelation, in service.

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And when we looked at it in service we see the one that we most commonly talk about which is

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His enabling not just of craftsmanship or workmanship, of giving of talents, but also that of leadership, of enabling for leadership.

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And so we see that in the life of Saul. But Saul, the Holy Spirit departed from Saul when he sinned against God and came upon David.

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And then David was the one to be anointed king. Even Jonathan, Saul's son, recognized that David would reign as king after his father and in his own place.

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Because he saw the Spirit acting within David's life.

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So that is the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. Let us now turn to the ministry of the

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Holy Spirit in the life of Christ. So let us first start with prior to the incarnation.

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That is your blank there, incarnation. So prior to His incarnation we see that the ministry of the

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Holy Spirit in the life of Christ was prophesied in the Old Testament.

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And we have seen some of this before so we can look at many passages of the Old Testament where we see it.

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But let us just look at Isaiah 11, the first three verses there. And we see the prophecy there.

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This is speaking of Jesus. The stump of Jesse refers to King David and his offspring.

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He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear.

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So we see here that this is a prophecy. If you want you can cross reference this with John 3 verses 34 and Luke 4 verses 18 to 21.

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And you will see the references here that are mentioned. But prior to His incarnation, the incarnation just means when

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God became flesh. It means to be in flesh. So it is when

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God Himself became a man. So before He became a man there were prophecies.

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We see second letter B there. At His conception. The Spirit of God was involved in Christ's conception.

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Let's look at Luke 1 verse 35. And the angel answered her, the

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Holy Spirit, her being Mary, So we see that the

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Holy Spirit had a ministry that was prophesied before His incarnation.

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He had a ministry at His conception. And then we see thirdly, during His life.

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During His life. And we see the Holy Spirit was very active during the life of Christ.

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I'm not going to look up each of the verses that we have there in your syllabus. You can look each of them up.

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But let me just give you these ways that the Holy Spirit was ministering during the life of Christ.

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First we see in Luke 4 .18 that He was involved in anointing.

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We see that in Luke 4 .1 that the Holy Spirit filled believers.

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We see in John 6 .27 that the Holy Spirit was sealing people.

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He was involved in sealing which was part of an endowment or a guarantee.

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We see in Luke 4 .1 and also in John 8 .29 that the

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Holy Spirit led people. We also see in Luke 10 .21

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the Holy Spirit rejoices. So He would rejoice. And lastly I mentioned that He empowered people.

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In Matthew 12 and verse 28. Or in the first four verses of Luke 4.

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And so we note here that while Christ indeed was God. And I want to make a distinction here. Because this is something that those who deny the deity of Jesus Christ get hung up on.

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And we have to be careful how we word things. Okay. That while. And so if you look in your syllabus.

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Look at the note at the bottom there. But while Christ was indeed God. By the process of incarnation.

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He humbled Himself. And willingly surrendered the use of His divine attributes.

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Placing Himself into the care of the Father and the

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Holy Spirit. In order to become our Savior and sympathetic High Priest.

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This is very important to understand. Jesus Christ was still

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God. As God He could read people's minds. As God He can raise the dead.

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As God He could give life where there was none. As God He can multiply bread and fish.

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He can do all these things as God. But there are passages that also speak of the fact.

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That Jesus Christ while He walked the earth. Humbled Himself. Emptied Himself.

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To be a slave of man. Okay. He became a slave even unto death as Philippians 2 would say.

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But He did that submitting Himself to God the Father, God the Holy Spirit. They worked through Him.

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But it was still Him as God that had the authority. Okay.

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This is important to understand. Just because He submitted Himself to the

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Holy Spirit. Does not mean that He gave up His deity in any way, shape or form.

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So when some people look at Philippians 2. And they come up with this kenosis theory. That Jesus Christ somehow stopped being divine.

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That He gave up His divine nature. And only had a human nature.

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That would be an error. And this is why that would be such an error. That would be an error because if Jesus Christ was not

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God. Then He was not eternal. And if He is not eternal. Then He could not pay an eternal fine.

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This is why Jesus must be God. This is what makes Christianity unique.

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Is that Christianity is the only faith. The only religion that teaches that we can have forgiveness of the eternal debt.

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Because God paid it. An eternal being. That's what makes Christianity unique.

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Alright. And so this is the thing that we end up seeing. Is that when we look at the ministry of the

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Holy Spirit. We see some similarities. We also see some differences.

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But when we see the life of Christ. We see Christ having both a human nature.

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And a divine nature. Though He submitted Himself. And I fully admit that my human finite mind.

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Which cannot comprehend a vast number of things. Cannot comprehend how one member of the

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Holy Spirit. Submitted Himself to another member. But there is some headship.

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Even within the Trinity. Jesus Christ submits

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Himself. The Son submits Himself to the Father. And the Holy Spirit submits Himself to the Son. And so there is within the headship.

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Some sort of hierarchy that we see in the scriptures. Though I cannot comprehend that. Sorry. Just is.

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And so this is the thing. This is very important. I got into a discussion once on Facebook over this.

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Because someone was emphasizing so strongly. On the fact that Jesus Christ submitted

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Himself in everything. To the Holy Spirit. And the flaw in that is that He was still

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God. And this person was. The irony was this person was trying to argue with me.

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Saying that just because He was saying this. Did not deny His deity. And up popped a guy who totally denies the deity of Jesus Christ.

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And he was in total agreement with the brother who put the post. And I was like. Do you see?

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That's the point. So this is where we end up sometimes. We have to be careful.

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And I want to encourage you to be careful in your thinking. And in your language.

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Jesus did submit Himself to the Father and to the Spirit. But it does not mean that He gave up His deity.

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Okay. This is why if you sing the hymn. If you are actually in a church that sings hymns.

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You know I know many of you don't do that anymore. Alright. We'll skip that topic.

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But there's a hymn. I think it's And Can It Be. And I think it's the second stanza or second verse.

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That says that Jesus gave up all but love.

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That's theologically incorrect. And that's what we're discussing. It is the thought that when Jesus Christ was on the cross.

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He gave up His deity. Because deity. How could deity die? That's what the Muslims will always say.

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How could God die? Well God can't die. That's the whole importance of it. God is eternal.

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Man can die. So Jesus in His humanity could die. But He had to still be

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God. He didn't give up all but love. He didn't give up His deity.

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He couldn't have. Because if He did. Then you and I are in a desperate situation.

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Because if Jesus Christ gave up His deity. You and I will have to pay for our sin for all of eternity.

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That's how important it is. Okay. I'll get off my soapbox. Sorry. We got more of the class to do.

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Alright. So we see that we're in the life of Christ. We saw

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His Holy Spirit's ministry prior to incarnation. At conception.

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During the life of Christ. And letter D there. At His death. At His death.

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Let's take a quick look at Hebrews 9. We see the Holy Spirit was the personal agent involved in the death of Christ.

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How much more will the blood of Christ. Who through the eternal spirit offered

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Himself without blemish to God. Purify our conscience from the dead work to serve the living

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God. So here is again. We saw that if you look through the scriptures. You see. God the

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Father. God the Son. God the Holy Spirit. All involved in creation. They're all involved in the death of Christ.

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They're all involved in the resurrection of Christ. They're all involved in the giving of revelation.

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These are things that are all involved in. And so we see that who killed

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Christ? Was it the Romans? I mean. It was the

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Roman guards that physically put those nails through His hands. And put Him up there on that crucifix.

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Was it the Jews? I mean. The Jewish people. The Jewish leaders. They were the ones who brought

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Him to the Romans for judgment. Well Jesus made it really clear.

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No one would take His life but Himself. And the Holy Spirit was involved in that process of taking

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His life. So we see that He was involved prior to His incarnation.

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At His conception. During His life. At His death. And then lastly letter

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E there. In the resurrection. Which again all three members of the Trinity were involved in.

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Okay. So let us take a look at what. If you look in your syllabus.

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We're going to look at that to see this. We see all three members.

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Let's first look at the Father and the resurrection. The Father. This is your blank there. The Father and resurrection.

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Romans 8 11. If the Spirit of God who raised

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Jesus from the dead dwells in you. He who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies.

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Through His Spirit who dwells in you. So in this. Who does it say. Look at the passage.

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Who does it say. Raised Jesus from the dead. Well it says the Father. Okay. The Spirit.

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Actually it's the Spirit. Maybe I had that wrong. This may be a translation issue.

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I might have to look this up. But let's look at. The second is. John 2 19 -21.

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Where we see Jesus answered them. Destroy this temple. And in three days

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I will raise it up. The Jews then said. It is taken 46 years to build this temple.

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And will you raise it up in three days. But he was speaking of the temple of His body. This is Jesus. Or the

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Son and the resurrection. The Son and the resurrection. In 1 Peter 3 18.

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For Christ also suffered once for sins. The righteous for the unrighteous. That he might bring to us

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God. Being put to death in the flesh. And made alive in the

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Spirit. Okay. So we see. The Spirit and the resurrection. So all three members.

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Of the Trinity. Of the Godhead. Were involved in the resurrection.

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So we see the ministry of the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament. We saw the ministry of the

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Holy Spirit. In the life of Christ. What about briefly. We'll look at the future.

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We'll look at the future. Okay. Now I am saying here. That I'm going to tip my hat a little.

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And tell you. The right way to view the future. Okay. Some of you may think that's a little arrogant.

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But no I do believe. That this is my understanding of the scriptures. And this is how

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I understand the scriptures to teach. And we're going to get into it in much greater detail.

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So don't just tune me out. Just because of the fact. That you know.

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I'm giving my view. Because we can disagree. And we may actually have different times.

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Where during our summer schools. We're going to bring different people on. To discuss some areas we disagree.

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So you can see the differences. And we're going to actually look at the differing views that people have of end times. But I believe that the spirit will be active in the tribulation time period.

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To save some time. I'm not going to turn to 2 Thessalonians. Because I've got something very special I want to do at the end of class tonight.

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That might take a little bit more time. So it is important to realize. That the restraining.

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Remember that restraining work that we talked about with the Holy Spirit. That the restraining and convicting work of the spirit.

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Will be removed during this time. In the sense that the spiritual body of Christ.

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I .e. the church. Has its presence and its influence removed. So I believe during the tribulation period.

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That restraining ministry and convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit. Will be removed when he removes the church.

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From the earth. Okay that would be what's called the rapture. I believe in a rapture.

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And I believe obviously if you understand these terms. I believe that the church will be removed prior to the rapture.

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Making me pre -millennial and pre -tribulational. If you understand those terms.

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And if you don't understand those terms. Just stick with us in class. We're going to explain those.

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We're going to explain all the things. The amillennial, postmillennial, premillennial. We'll get into all that fun stuff.

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And your head will spin and yeah. It'll be good. But I also think that the ministry of the

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Holy Spirit during the millennium. What is the millennium? The millennium is the thousand year period.

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Mentioned in Revelation chapter 20. That talks about a thousand year rule of Christ.

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A physical literal rule of Christ. And so in relation to believers. If you look in your syllabus.

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The Spirit will indwell believers during this time. Okay Ezekiel 36 verses 25 to 28.

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Also the Holy Spirit will baptize believers during this time.

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Joel 2 verses 28 and 29. You can cross reference that with the passage in Ezekiel that we just mentioned.

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Now in relation to Christ in the future. The fullness of the Spirit will be evident in the life and ministry of the reigning

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Christ. Christ will physically reign. This is in Isaiah 11 verses 1 -3.

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He will physically reign I believe. And we will see that. That the

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Holy Spirit will be involved in that. Alright. So this is something that if you don't understand all the stuff of the end times.

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That's okay. What will really benefit you by us going through this.

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Is we're going to keep dropping little notes throughout. And this is why it's an advantage if you start this school from the beginning.

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And work your way through. Because when we do that. We're not only building these principles on top of each other.

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But we also are going to help so that we don't make the mistake that many do. Many people jump into theology at a study of prophecy and end times.

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Or the secondary one that most people jump in is salvation. How we got saved. And they jump into the Calvinism, Arminianism debate.

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And that's where it ends up. And that's a bad place to start. You want to start with the attributes of God. Actually you really want to start.

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We really started with the school of biblical hermeneutics. You first want to understand how to interpret the passage.

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And so we want to go through that. Now, so what we end up having is we want to look at this as we study these things.

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And build upon them. I'm going to drop terminology like premillennial, amillennial, postmillennial.

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And if you are dying to know what they mean. Well you can contact us and we'll go over it.

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You can look them up. Get a good study bible. Or a good systematic theology.

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And go over them. But what you want to be able to do is look at them throughout.

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So when we look at the end times. Again, we see that the spirit will be active in relation to believers.

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And in your first blank there the Holy Spirit will indwell believers. And will baptize believers is your second blank.

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So what we see is that when we build this up. We're building up to the end times.

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You don't want to jump right into that. So if you have any questions with this. Please email us at academyatstrivingforeternity .org

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You can also go to the Striving for Eternity Facebook group.

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You can join the group. Which is different than our page. But in the group there's a lot more discussion. And you can post questions there.

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You'll see that throughout the week. We do post questions for you to think about and answer.

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And I want as many students answering. What we've been noticing is that some students. As soon as someone gives an answer. Their students just say yeah

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I agree with it. And they don't answer. Give your answer as well. Because throughout the year.

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As some of you have already discovered. You well behaved. Students who attend the class.

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Are active online in the class. Get rewarded. We send things out to you guys.

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As some of you already found out. Some of you got a

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CD already. Some of you others are going to be receiving some other things. And some of you may be receiving

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CDs. But we want to reward those students. Who are putting in the extra time in class.

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And so we want to encourage you to email us. So we are going to next week.

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Look at the ministry of the Holy Spirit part 2. And we are going to see his ministry in the church age.

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In the time that we live. We are going to see how the Holy Spirit is active with us now.

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Alright. And so we want to encourage you to consider enrolling as a student.

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One of the things you get is the syllabus. We also send some other things throughout. But before we close.

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There are some announcements we always like to do. I know some people like to tune out at this point.

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And I encourage you. Do not tune out. Because you are about to see something. That is truly encouraging.

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One of the things that we realize. Is that many of us tend to not encourage other believers.

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As much as maybe we should. And so we here at Striving for Eternity. Always want to encourage you to encourage others.

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Even if you do not know the person personally. That we put out for you to encourage.

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I encourage you to get to know that person. Add them on Facebook if they are on Facebook. Contact them by email.

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But get to know them. I got to know someone that I met for the first time at the

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Super Bowl Outreach. And I have to say that I was so extremely touched by this individual.

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That I wanted all of you to go and encourage him. And I am going to make it easy.

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I am going to play a clip of him preaching at the Super Bowl. And I want you to make sure that you watch the full clip.

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Because you are going to see two brothers standing alongside this brother. That I am going to give you his name in a moment.

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They are going to stand alongside him while he preaches. And you may not understand why. Until you watch the end.

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And if you ever think that you can't get on a box and open air preach.

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I want you to watch Brother Richard's story. Now I give you there his blog site.

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Which is truewordsmatter .blogspot .com That's his blog site.

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Which I went to. And this brother is going to encourage you in what you are about to see.

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And I think that when you see this. You will be encouraged. And I encourage you to go and encourage him.

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We need to be men and women that encourage others.

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Not just after they are dead. They need to hear it now. So take a look at this video.

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And then we will be back with some more announcements. My friends, my question for you is.

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My question for you is. If you died tonight, where would you be tomorrow?

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One of the leading businessmen in your own city. Owns one of the largest restaurants in all of New Orleans.

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Last week said. Life is too short. Nobody knows what tomorrow holds.

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He is exactly right. My question for you is. If you died ten minutes from now.

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Where would you be when you died? Would you be in heaven or would you be in hell? There is one way to know for sure.

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Look to the word of God. Repent of your sins. Turn to Him and trust in Him.

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Because you are going to die one day. And when you die you are going to stand before God. And give an account for your life.

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Because God is good. He is going to judge you according to the perfect moral standard of His law.

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If you have ever slid, stolen, or taken His name in vain. He will find you guilty of breaking

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His law. And the punishment for all sin against God. Is in eternity in hell.

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But God is also merciful. Loving and kind. And that He provided one way to escape that punishment.

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And that was through the gift of His son Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was fully

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God and fully man. But without sin. He died on the cross of death.

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He did not deserve. In order to take upon Himself. The punishment you rightly deserve.

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And I rightly deserve. For our sins against God. And then three days later.

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He forever defeated sin and death. When He rose from the grave. What God requires of you.

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Is that you repent. Turn from your sin. And turn toward God. And by faith and faith alone.

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Receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And many of you have heard. Believe in Jesus. Believe in Jesus.

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My question is. Do you understand and know what the word believe means? Do you know how

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God in the Bible defines believe? I can look at that building and say I believe that building is there.

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I can look at that building and say I believe that building is purple. Is it purple? No. The thing is.

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I can define believe any way I want. But the word of God defines believe. It means trust.

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Put complete trust in Jesus Christ. Do it today.

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Please. Don't wait. You may not have it tomorrow. Please.

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Please turn from your sin and turn toward Christ. Please. Thank you for listening.

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We're about to see Wyatt. Those two men are on his side. Good job.

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That's Tony Miano and Brad Snow.

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On either side, that was his wife. Richard Story's wife, Susan. He was a wonderful woman.

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A wonderful sister in the world. But as you see there.

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Brother Richard Story. He couldn't stand on his own. He wanted to proclaim

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God's word and he looked in. But he could not do it on his own. He needed the assistance of his brothers.

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You see there Tony and Richard. What you see right there is the two of them embracing his son.

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Preaching for the first time ever. Being able to stand up on the bottoms.

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My understanding is that he had something on his arms there. That you saw that came out the arms.

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I believe he had something to hold his arms in straight. So that the brothers could hold him up while he preached.

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His story is online. Richard Story's story. But I want that to be an encouragement to you.

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This brother wanted to proclaim God's word in the open air. For all to hear. He wanted to step up on the box.

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But he doesn't have the use of his legs. So he had two brothers in Christ stand him up.

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And hold him up. And at the end of class. I'm probably going to play the full clip of his preaching.

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So that you can watch it. But what you'll see is that. That brother or you can look for it online.

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He wanted to proclaim God's word. And he had the help of his brothers to do that.

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And it was a great encouragement. And I was privileged to get to know him and his wife

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Suzanne. Or Susan. Or Suzanne. I think.

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And I encourage you guys to go out.

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Go to our Facebook page. And you'll see that he's already tagged in the Facebook page. And he's there for you to get to know.

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Talk to him. Find out about his accident that put him in the wheelchair. And then find out more about how you can encourage this brother.

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Maybe there's more you could do than just words. You know. It's good to have the good encouraging words for him.

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Because he will encourage you more than I think you can encourage him. He did at least for me.

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But we want to encourage you to encourage him. He is the Striving for Eternity Academy's Brother of the

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Week. For you to go out and encourage. Lastly. The last thing I want to say.

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We do have. I don't have a thing for it. But if you are available this Thursday.

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Valentine's Day. And you're in the New Jersey area. And you would like to go to Princeton University with us.

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We will be going out and handing out the DVDs. Some Gospel DVDs. A group of us.

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So if you're interested. Please contact me. You can email us at theacademyatstrivingforeternity .org

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If you are in the New Jersey area on a Sunday. And do not have a church of your own to go to.

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And visit. Myself and Pastor Will Costello. Are working with a restart.

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That is a church plant that is kind of being redone. Faith Bible Church. You can look at the website there.

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You can contact us. And you will be able to join us maybe for a

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Sunday service. Sunday evening service. If you live in New Jersey.

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And you have a church that you go to. We actually have Sunday evening services. So you can come at 6 o 'clock at night.

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Or come for a morning service at 11. But we'd love to have you there. Be praying for the church plant.

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It is a lot of work to do a church plant. So just be praying for us as we do that.

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So we encourage you to think about becoming a student of the academy. And until next week.

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You can look ahead in your syllabus if you are a student. And just want to encourage you.

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To remember to strive to make today an eternal day. For the glory of God. See you next week.