Holy Spirit 1 — William MacDonald

The Holy Spirit as a Person

I thought in our times together this week, I'd like to talk with you about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. It's going to be a first for me. I've never given a series on this before. But I think it's very timely, what with the charismatic movement.

Actually, it opens up vast areas of the Scriptures to us. And I just have a few things here on the overhead projector. First of all, we're going to be thinking about the personality of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is a person. What is a person? When we think of a person, we instinctively think of someone with a body. But you don't have to have a body to be a person. God is a person, but he doesn't have a body.

Jesus was a person before he came down to the world, but he didn't have a body. If those of us who are believers should die, we're still persons, but we don't have a body. We're disembodied persons, absent from the body, at home with the Lord.

This is hard for people. It's hard for people to conceive of the Holy Spirit as a person when he doesn't have a body. It shouldn't be any problem at all, should it? He is a person. One of the problems, of course, is that in the King James Version, he's sometimes spoken of as it.

That's too bad, isn't it? We love our King James Version of the Bible, but that's an unfortunate thing. The reason, of course, was because Spirit is neuter, you know, or as the King James says, Holy Ghost.

Ghost is neuter, and so the translators translated it instead of he in some places. Why did they use that word ghost? That's awful, isn't it? Well, it isn't awful. In the days when the King James Version of the Bible was translated, ghost was just another word for spirit.

I think it still is in German. Does anybody here know German? I think it's Geist in German. Is that right? Geist. And I would think our word ghost comes from Geist. And it means spirit. So you can see why they translated it ghost.

But today, we say Holy Spirit, and we refer to him as he, not as it. Well, what is a person? Well, a person has intellect, emotions, and will. Those are the three ingredients of personhood. Intellect, emotions, and will.

And what we want to do is go to the Word of God and see how all of these things are attributed to the Holy Spirit. Does he have intellect? I'll say he has intellect. 1 Corinthians 2, verses 10 through 12.

1 Corinthians 2. This is a lovely, lovely passage of Scripture. I think I'll go back to verse 9. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9. It says,. But as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.

Now we receive not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Just a few comments on the passage before we leave it. Verse 9, we often attribute to the heavenly state, don't we?

I hath not seen, neither hath not heard, neither has entered into the heart. We say that's heaven. Well, it really isn't heaven in the primary interpretation. What this is saying is that God has revealed things in the New Testament which the world never knew before.

He goes back and quotes from the Old Testament and says,. This is fulfilled in the New Testament. In other words, the great truths which the Apostles and Prophets of the New Testament have revealed to us are the things that are referred to in this passage of Scripture in Isaiah 64.

But notice what it says in the following verses about the Spirit of God. Even so, verse 11 at the end of the verse,. Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God, he knows them. And that teaches us the very fact that he knows shows that he has intellect, doesn't it?

An influence can't know. Some people think of the Holy Spirit as an influence that comes out from God. More than an influence, he has knowledge, intellect. He has emotions as well. The Holy Spirit has emotions.

The Spirit's Grief and Quenching

And we're going to look at some verses that clearly teach that he has emotions. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30, it says,. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

The Holy Spirit can be grieved. How can he be grieved? The whole passage tells you how he can be grieved. If you go back over this, verse 25, he is grieved by lying. Verse 26, he is grieved by anger that overflows into sin.

Verse 27, he is grieved by us when we give place to the devil. What does that mean? Well, when we give the devil a beachhead in our lives, that's really what it means. The Spirit of God is grieved by that.

Verse 28, he's grieved by stealing. When we steal, this grieves the Spirit of God. Verse 29, he's grieved by corrupt or worthless communications. By speech that isn't edifying. Verse 31, he's grieved by bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking.

In other words, if you want to know what grieves the Spirit of God, just go to the context where the verse is found, and it tells you what grieves him. And once again, you can't grieve an influence. You can grieve a person.

Why does it grieve him? Why do these things grieve him? Well, for the same reason that your children oftentimes grieve you. You love them. Incidentally, you can only grieve someone you love. Your neighbor's children don't grieve you, the brats.

But your children grieve you because they love them. And the reason that these things grieve the Holy Spirit of God is because he has to turn from the ministry that he loves, occupying you with Christ, to a restorative ministry, to bringing you back into fellowship.

And I believe that. I believe that the Spirit of God has a ministry that he really loves, and he likes to concentrate on that ministry. And when we sin, he has to turn away from that ministry and get us back into fellowship with the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 5 .19. 1 Thessalonians 5 .19. The Spirit of God can not only be grieved, he can be quenched. It says, quench not the Spirit, despise not prophesying. What's the difference between grieving the Spirit and quenching the Spirit?

I believe we quench the Spirit, for instance, when we make a man ashamed of his testimony for Christ. Here's a young fellow that gets up in the meeting, and he thanks God the Father for dying on the cross of Calvary.

Well, of course, theologically it's not right, is it? God the Father didn't die on the cross of Calvary. But somebody comes along and jumps on that young fellow with both feet, just rakes him over the coals for saying such an absurd monstrosity.

I think that quenches the Spirit, because you've made that fellow ashamed of his testimony for Christ. Actually, if we could see ourselves in the light of God's holiness, in the light of God's purity, we all say enough things like that to sink a battleship.

Do you believe that? I do. And I'd like to suggest to you tonight that we want assemblies that have a non-threatening atmosphere for our young people. And I really mean that. I was in an assembly back east, and a brother got up and he gave a tirade, you must never address Jesus as Jesus.

And I began to think about that. You know, the traditions of the elders, you must never address Jesus as Jesus. Just Lord Jesus, or Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that's nice, Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus Christ.

But I went to him graciously and quietly afterwards and said, Brother, what about that hymn, Jesus, the very thought of thee with sweetness fills my breast? He said, I know, I wondered about that. Yeah, but in the meantime he had quenched the Spirit, I think, by putting these rules on young people.

Maybe some of you solidly disagree with me, and I'll hear about it afterwards. That's all right. No, that's all right. To me, Jesus is a lovely name. It's the name that's above every name, isn't it? God has given him a name that's above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow.

And every tongue confess him, Lord, to the glory of God the Father. I think we should, we should be very careful about coming out with these rules and regulations that stifle spontaneous worship. I really do.

I like to tell the story of a young fellow, newly saved. I think he was a hippie before he was saved. And one night, right after he was saved, he came to the breaking of bread in one of the assemblies out west.

He came in bare feet. He didn't have any shoes on. Isn't that terrible? And one of the sisters, one of the older sisters, got a hold of him afterwards, and she just laid him out in lavender and lace. But one of the elders saw what was happening.

You know what he did? He went over and he put his armor around that young fellow. And he said, never mind, I think they're beautiful. And the kid said, well, they're original. Now, he wears shoes now.

You know what I mean? He didn't know any better. But I want to tell you, if you go to that breaking of bread service, you'll find 250 people, wall to wall, mostly young people, remembering the Lord. Why?

Because it's a non-threatening atmosphere. The Spirit of God isn't quenched. And I think there's a link here between quench not the Spirit, despise not prophesying. They're linked together in the verse.

Quench not the Spirit, despise not prophesying. But the main point is, of course, the Holy Spirit has intellect, the Holy Spirit has emotion. He can be grieved. He can be quenched. And there are other things that can be done to him, too.

The Spirit's Will and Spiritual Gifts

And then the Holy Spirit has will.

1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 11. He has will. And this is speaking about how he distributes gifts. We'll be talking about the gifts later on. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 11. Let's see. Yes, it says in verse 11, but all these, he's just been listing the different gifts of the Spirit.

He says, but all these work at that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. That means as he wishes. The Holy Spirit has will. And he divides to every man. If you're saved here tonight, you have a gift or you have gifts.

How'd you get them? Pray for them? You didn't get them by praying for them. You got them when you were saved. And they were given to you as a sovereign bestowment of the Spirit of God. Nothing you can do about it.

You can develop it, I mean, after you get it. You can stir it up after you get it. But as far as getting a gift, and we're going to go into this more in detail later on, but this business of praying for individuals, praying for a gift, there's no scripture in the world for that.

When it says later on, earnestly desire the greater gifts, it's not speaking to individuals, it's speaking to an assembly. An assembly can... You might, in your assembly, you might feel the need for pastoral gifts.

You can pray for that. You can pray that somebody with pastoral gifts will come along, you know. God will lead them. But there's no use for an individual praying for gifts. If he's saved, he's got the gifts.

Whatever gifts he's going to have, he's got them. And from then on, it's just a matter of growth and development of the use of the gifts. But once again, the main point here is the Holy Spirit has will.

He gives to every man severally as he wishes. And he shows his will in this regard. So much for the personality of the Holy Spirit of God. We also want to think about his deity. His deity, the Holy Spirit, is called God.

The Deity and Divine Attributes of the Holy Spirit

There are three persons in the Godhead. One God. God the Father is God. God the Son is God. God the Holy Spirit is God. Acts chapter 5, verses 3 and 4, the story of Ananias and Sapphira. Acts chapter 5, verses 3 and 4.

Let me just go back to the beginning. But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession and kept back part of the price, his wife being also privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet.

But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart to lie? To whom? To the Holy Spirit. Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? And to keep back part of the price of the land.

And while it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thy heart? Thou hast not lied unto man, but unto God. Verse 3. You lied to the Holy Ghost.

Verse 4. You lied to God. The Holy Spirit is God. Things equal to the same thing are equal to each other. Aren't they? Things equal to the same thing are equal to each other. And this shows that in lying, they didn't lie to man, they lied to the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit.

They lied to God. A clear statement, I think, that the Holy Spirit is God. But also, the Holy Spirit has the attributes of God. The same attributes that God the Father has, and God the Son has. The Holy Spirit has omnipotence.

What does that mean? It means he has all power. First mention of the Holy Spirit in Genesis chapter 1, verse 2. What's he doing? Brooding over the face of the deep. It says, And the earth was without form, and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And then Job chapter 26, verse 13. Job 26, verse 13. It's a beautiful verse, isn't it? By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens. I think that's lovely. I tell you, it took power to garnish the heavens, didn't it?

What does that mean, garnish the heavens? Well, when the hostess is serving a nice platter of filet mignon steaks, she puts some parsley around it. She garnishes it with parsley, doesn't she? Well, that's what the Holy Spirit did in the creation.

He garnished the heavens with stars. Stars. Why did he make so many? Did you ever wonder? You can see about 2 ,000 with the naked eye, but nobody knows how many stars there are. You and I would have been satisfied with a few less, wouldn't we?

Why did he make so many? Well, in Revelation we found he made them for his own pleasure, didn't he? That's wonderful. And not only that, but he made them to show us what a great God he is. What a great God he is.

I tell you, it's really wonderful when you think about it. Man can't see the limits of the universe, even with telescopic vision. I think it's marvelous. Think of those stars, so many of them. And he calls them all by name, too.

You couldn't do that. You couldn't even give them numbers. But he calls them all by name. Isn't that a beautiful verse? By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens. His hand hath formed the crooked serpent.

It says in Genesis he made the stars also. I want to tell you, that's really omnipotence, garnishing the heavens with the stars. And then Psalm 104, verse 30. Psalm 104, verse 30. It says, Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, and they are created, and thou renewest the face of the earth.

So oftentimes the Spirit of God is used in connection with creation. It shows us that he is an all-powerful person. But he's not only all-powerful, he's all-knowing as well. And we had that already in 1 Corinthians 2, verses 10 -12.

We could also look to this passage in Isaiah 11, verses 1 and 2. Isaiah 11, verses 1 and 2. It says, And there shall come forth a root out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his root, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.

Notice, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

And not only that, but the Holy Spirit is omnipresent, another attribute of God. And there we turn to Psalm 139, which incidentally deals very largely with the attributes of God. And here it assigns omnipresence to the Holy Spirit.

No matter where you go, you can't get away from Him. Psalm 139, verses 7 -12. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there.

If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the outermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me.

Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day. Wonderful, isn't it? And that's attributed to the Spirit. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? The rest of the psalm speaks of the omniscience and omnipotence of God.

But here it's the Spirit of God. You can't get away from Him. I've known people who leave the old country to get away. You know, they were under the influence of the gospel in Europe, and they come and they meet the Lord in New York.

The Spirit of God was there waiting for them all the time. And then not only is the Spirit of God omnipresent, He's the eternal one. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 14. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead work to serve the living God?

He is without beginning, and He is without ending, the eternal Spirit of God. And then He's sovereign, and I think this is beautiful. What do we mean? We use that word sovereign. I wonder if it conveys a clear image to your mind.

When we say that God is sovereign, when we say that the Holy Spirit is sovereign, we mean that He can do whatever He wills. And what He wills is always just, perfect, righteous, fair. That's wonderful, isn't it?

The Sovereignty of the Spirit

The Holy Spirit is sovereign. John 3, 8, 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth. Listeth. It's an old-fashioned word. What does it say in your new version? John 3, 8, 8. The wind bloweth where it what?

Willeth. That's what it means. Where it willeth. And thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. He's sovereign.

And we're going to be saying more about that in a minute. 1 Corinthians 12, 11 we've already had, where He distributes the gifts as He wills. The way He wants to. Not the way man wants it. Now, this raises a problem, especially His omniscience.

The problem is this. The Holy Spirit has always been in the world. He's everywhere. And yet Jesus said that the Father was going to send the Holy Spirit. And that raises a real problem, because how can He send the Holy Spirit if He's always been in the world?

And the answer is, on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God came in a way He had never been here before. That's how He sent Him. He came as the permanent indweller of the individual believer, and of the Church.

And that's the way He's going to go at the rapture. Now let me go over that a little bit more carefully. Acts chapter 2, verses 3 and 4. Acts chapter 2, verses 3 and 4. You have the coming of the Holy Spirit there.

The coming of the Holy Spirit. Well, the Holy Spirit was in the world in Genesis 1 too, wasn't He? We already read that. Where He brooded over the face of the deep. But now He's coming. Now how is He coming?

Well, that's the answer. Just let me read Acts 2, 3 and 4 first, and then we'll go on. There appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Okay. Now, on the day of Pentecost, He came as the permanent indweller of the individual believer, John 14, 16. And this is a very crucial verse. John 14, 16. It says, And I will pray the Comforter, the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.

Dear friends, that is the distinctive feature of the dispensation in which we live. Never happened before. It never happened before. That is the distinctive feature of the age in which we live. The Holy Spirit came to abide in the individual believer forever.

And never leave. Very important to see that. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19. It says, What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own.

The Holy Spirit comes in, He dwells in us, in our bodies, and He dwells in us forever. But He's not only the permanent indweller of the individual believer, He's also the permanent indweller of the church.

And that is really what's referred to in 1 Corinthians 3 .16. If you'd like to turn to that. 1 Corinthians 3 .16 says, What? It says, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.

Now this is not speaking about the individual believer. This is speaking about the local church. So how do you know? This is one place where the King James is better than the modern version. See, in the modern English, you can be either singular or plural.

If I use you, you can't tell whether I mean one or many. But in the King James, ye is plural. And you is singular. In the King James version, here's ye. What? Know ye not that ye are a temple of God. You Corinthians, plural, are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.

And that's true. He comes to indwell the church permanently. And that's why I say here it's in this sense only that He will be removed at the time of the rapture. What's going to happen at the time of the rapture?

The church is going to go out. All believers are going to go out. In that sense, the Spirit of God is going to go out, but He'll still be here. He'll still be here convicting and converting sinners, for instance.

He's omnipresent all the time. This is a problem because those of us who believe in the pre-tribulation rapture, which I do, those who don't believe in it make fun of it. They say,.

Oh, you believe the Holy Spirit's going to be taken out? The Holy Spirit's omnipresent.

He can't be taken out of this. He can. He can be taken out in this special way. He can be taken out in this special way as the permanent indweller of the individual believer and of the church. And His ministry will somewhat revert to the way it was in the Old Testament period.

Biblical Types of the Holy Spirit

Now, just let's think for a little while, and I think it's very prosperous. Let's think for a little while about some of the types of the Holy Spirit of God. There are types. They're not all destiny types, but I believe they are types.

For instance, the Holy Spirit is likened to wind. We already quoted it, didn't we? John 3, 8, Is the Holy Spirit like that? He really is like that. You can get up and preach the same message that Peter preached at Pentecost, and it doesn't mean anybody's going to be saved, does it?

It doesn't mean that. Why? Because the Spirit of God is sovereign. He's absolutely sovereign. He works like the wind. And then you heard that He had the great, rushing, mighty wind on the day of Pentecost, didn't you?

The operation of the Spirit. This is very important, and I'm going to mention something about it after we look at these various types. He's likened to water. To water. I think that passage in John 7 is especially illuminating there.

John 7, verses 38 and 39. John 7, verses 38 and 39. I should read 37. Let me just begin at verse 37. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink.

He that believeth on me, as the Scripture has said, out of his inward parts shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. John says, When Jesus said, living water, He meant the Holy Spirit.

Water is a type of the Holy Spirit. John chapter 4, verse 14. The Lord Jesus dealing with the Samaritan woman. Whoso drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.

The Spirit of God coming into a person's life, bringing eternal life, salvation, and then that life flowing out from the person to others. You see that in John chapter 4. The woman got saved and the water flowed out to others through her.

She went back into the village and told them, Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did. And then dew, Psalm 133, verse 8. It's like the dew coming down from Hermon, from Mount Hermon. I think it's the Spirit of God, the ministry of the Spirit of God there.

Also lighten the fire, of course you have that in chapter 2 of Acts. The cloven tongues of fire. And lighten the oil, anointing oil. Let's just look at those verses. Luke chapter 4, verse 18. Luke 4, 18.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me. Anointed. That has the idea of the anointing oil. And the Spirit of God was upon Christ in abundant measure. He gave the Spirit to him without measure.

Acts 10, verse 38. Acts 10, verse 38. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Who went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil. God was with him.

Anointing speaks of oil. And the Lord Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. And then just one more type of the Holy Spirit here. And that is the cloud, of course, in the Old Testament period.

The pillar cloud that guided the children of Israel through the wilderness. Now I'd like you to look at all of those types of the Holy Spirit. Can you think of anything that they all have in common? Well, they're all fluid in a sense, aren't they?

They're all kind of hard to hold in your hand. It's hard for the human hand to control them. Handful of wind. Handful of water. Handful of fire. Oil. And that seems to me, all of those types of the Holy Spirit seem to me to speak of the sovereign moving of the Holy Spirit.

Rejoicing in the Spirit's Sovereign Work

He does what he wants, not what you want. People read the book of Acts and they think that they can find a definite strategy in the book of Acts. In Paul's missionary labors, they think they can find a definite strategy.

This is the way it worked out. This is the way it's going to work out. I don't find that. I find the Spirit of God moving in the book of Acts in a sovereign way. Just whatever way he wants to move, that's the way he moves.

Without consulting any man. You know, there you are in your little assembly and you're trying to maintain the truth of God, you know. You're trying to be loyal to the truth of God. And down the street, there are people and their doctrine is appalling.

And God seems to be working there. Any of you have that problem? I've been traveling since June 7th and I get that brought up to me all the time. What's the matter? Here we're trying to be loyal to the Lord.

We're trying to be faithful to the Lord. And we don't see blessings.

And here down there, and they name the churches. It's happening all the time. A place is just like popcorn, you know. I can't control the wind and neither can you. And in the Christian life, you just have to be satisfied to let the Holy Spirit of God work the way he wants to work.

And rejoice whenever anything happens that's glorifying the Christ. That's what Paul did, didn't he, when he was in prison. He said, rejoice that Christ was preached. Even if some were preaching him out of contention, supposing to add affliction, that Paul would rejoice.