Pneumatology 101

Father we praise you this morning for all that you have blessed us with for all that you have given us for this opportunity we have to Study your word to gather together

To be reminded of your goodness to us Lord, we would pray that this morning would be a time of Blessing for us a time of a time of reinvigoration for us a time of just reflecting upon Everything that you have done through your word through your son through your spirit in Christ name.

We pray amen well Have a few odds and ends here.

I thought about doing a quiz, but I really kind of ran out of quiz time but Pradeep is not here as you'll find out later

Pradeep is actually was scheduled to be here to teach Sunday school, but is actually in West Hartford because Ted Bigelow Pastor of Grace Church Hartford had a heart attack on Thursday night, so Things shuffle around and Pradeep is down there teaching today, and we're thankful for that How many of you are familiar with Wikipedia All You netheads

You you know what Wikipedia is Wikipedia is an interesting thing because it is a free encyclopedia

Available to everyone on the internet the problem with Wikipedia is what? Anybody can adjust it

In fact, I've suggested we make a few corrections to pastor

Mike's Entry, but I won't get into that right now but I looked up in the we're gonna be talking about the

Holy Spirit this morning and You know as a complete coincidence,

I'll also be talking about the Holy Spirit this morning during the sermon it is a coincidence sure anyway

Wikipedia says in the belief of many non trinitarian religions Which would include

Christ Adelphians Unitarians and Jehovah's Witnesses The Holy Spirit is

God's Spirit small s or Active force and not an actual person

Ugg is right these beliefs may be drawn from passages, and then they enlist the passages

But here's one Let's turn to Luke 1 35 Well I mean there are many and we're going to talk about some a

Few wrong views here before we get to the right view Luke 1 35 effect.

I've entitled this morning Pardon me for turning my back on you. This is a public no -no in public speaking

You're never supposed to do this, but I just stepped on my shoelace Pardon me why? Because I figure if I don't retie it

I'll step on it again, and then it'll just be worse because I'll fall down which is the cardinal rule of Yeah, no,

I'll fall backwards Yeah, and then you guys go whoa, it's pneumatology 202

Luke 135 Benny Hinn has come the angel answered and said to her

The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you and for that reason the

Holy Child Should be called the Son of God now you read that and You know we think okay the

Holy Spirit is going to work in Mary the power of God will work in Mary and therefore

The sinless Son of God will be born. You know is there a little bit of mystery there sure and when there ever there's any kind of Mystery involved that's where the cults plunge in and explain things perfectly and make a total abomination out of it

Here the phrase Holy Spirit is taken by this is Wikipedia again. It's taken by non -trinitarians to be synonymous parallelism

Who can explain that for us synonymous parallelism because I sure can't explain that Nobody Well, okay,

I will explain it. It just means exactly the same thing in other words They're gonna say this is one idea, and if I say that something else is synonymously

Parallel with it another idea, then I'm equating the two Synonymous parallelism okay, so this is what they're saying

Here the phrase Holy Spirit in Luke 135 the Holy Spirit is The same as the power of the

Most High so he's not a person According to these people he is the power of God does that make sense

I'm not saying is it right, but does it make sense sort of kind of that's how they take things

And as we will see later on there are a lot of problems with this, but I want to give you another one

This is from Theopedia how many of you are familiar with Theopedia? See you not only have to be a net head you have to be you know theological scholar.

Thank you It's a it's a pretty good site.

It's not complete enough But that's because I don't think they just let any goofball get on there, and you know like Wikipedia Theopedia says one of the two most distinguishing beliefs and practices within oneness

Pentecostal and Brother Bruce mentioned oneness he mentioned TD Jake's which is he is the most famous oneness

Pentecostal Leader and one of the top -selling Christian authors

Christian authors Oneness Pentecostal ism One of the two most distinguishing beliefs of oneness

Pentecostal ism is something called modalism the other distinguishing belief by the way is

Oneness Pentecostal ism. I'm sure you've all been there is They they pat they baptized they or they baptized they baptized in the name of Jesus only

Jesus only Modalism who can explain modalism

Dallas Okay, the three persons of the

Holy Spirit will appear sometimes as the father sometimes as a son sometimes those spirit depending on the need and that's

Really close the only change. I would make to that is they don't really we would say persons.

They wouldn't say persons, so Oneness Pentecostals deny the

Trinity and that's why when I say TD Jake's You know Christian author Christian and quotes is because generally speaking you know to the world.

What is a Christian? Christian is anybody who says I'm a Christian. You know we have people running for president who belong to You know religions that are inherently not

Christian. They don't believe that Jesus died for all their sins. They don't believe that They believe they have to work their way to heaven.

They don't believe in the Trinity and yet. They say they're Christians TD Jake says he's a

Christian so people say okay. You're a Christian, but one this Pentecostals deny the Trinity Believing instead that monotheistic

God in other words one God manifests himself in the offices or roles exactly what

Dallas was saying of the members of the Trinity And this is one of their statements statement of oneness belief

God is absolutely one with no distinction of persons

None and in order to save sinful humanity

God provided, and this is by the way a statement from the United Pentecostal Church International which you know most of us know as the

UPCI Anyway in order to save sinful humanity

God provided a sinless man as a sacrifice of atonement Jesus Christ the

Son of God Now what's wrong with that? Right that's exactly right because he was was

Jesus sinless. Yes, was he a man yes So what's missing exactly what

Peggy said you know that he was God also You know could a sinless well a could just a man be sinless no

And if a man could be sinless What would the advantage of that be to us? none

He'd save himself, and this is a you know this is exactly

This is a Mormon thing actually Since I can speak to that with some authority

Jesus according to Mormonism existed just like all of us did in a pre -existence This would be somewhere about Genesis negative 14 and We all exist as spirit beings

Jesus being the firstborn of the spirit beings Which you know when you start pulling things out of Colossians 1 and other places you can come to that erroneous conclusion if you don't really know what you're talking about and That that's the essence of that but anyway they then

Mormonism says that Jesus stepped forward and said I'll go and live a perfect life and I will die a sacrificial death and on that basis people can be brought back to neutral with you and You know that they can seek forgiveness and so that is in essence

Mormonism, but anyway moving on with oneness Pentecostal ism says here God provided a sinless man as a sacrifice of atonement and Then in beginning the

Son and in relating to humanity God is the Father in other words

God takes on the mode or the I don't you want to call him the person but just kind of Plays the role of the father

But in working to transform and empower human lives God is the

Holy Spirit So thus for our salvation God has revealed himself as father in parental unit relationship to humanity in his son in human flesh and As the

Holy Spirit in spiritual action and they have various proof texts for that So we know that's not right.

We know that's not historically correct And so now I want to talk about who the

Holy Spirit actually is that he is not a force That he is not a mode of God, but that he is in fact the third person of the

Trinity, you know And this is something I'm going to mention in the sermon and maybe perhaps Lord willing with a little more depth, but it is

Important to understand the role of the Holy Spirit in our salvation And it's important to kind of wrestle with the whole idea of the

Trinity period. I think You know, we tend to think that things run like this father son

Spirit You know that the father is super important Jesus Maybe really even is very close to importance and then the

Holy Spirit the Bible doesn't present things that way You know, it's kind of like what do we say?

Husband Wife Well depends on who you're listening to I listen this

I listen to some women's group and they say hey, that's what Christians say husband wife Truth is what they're both equal.

They have different roles and in the Trinity. They're all three equal They have different roles

But the Holy Spirit is not a force. He is a person How do we know that because he takes action in Luke 135, which we just looked at What's the action that he takes?

I'm sorry He comes upon Mary. He is involved in Again, you know a little shrouded in mystery.

How does a Virgin conceive a child Well, the Holy Spirit the power of God comes upon that egg and fertilizes it in a way so that it's not tainted by sin

Sin comes from Adam. She obviously doesn't have that. You know was

Mary sinless by the way Just checking Okay, she needed a

Savior. She tells us that But He takes action. The Holy Spirit does he also works he does things

Let's look at first Peter 1 1 & 2 Passage we should be remotely familiar with I'm remotely familiar with it first Peter 1 1 & 2

Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who reside as aliens Scattered through Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the

Father By the sanctifying work of the Spirit to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood

May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. What is the Holy Spirit doing here?

Sanctifying he's doing a sanctifying work setting apart the saints of God so again, we see that This isn't a force this is the third person of the

Trinity actually doing something The Holy Spirit also suffers grief.

We won't go to Ephesians 430 instead I thought it'd be interesting to go to the Old Testament and look at Isaiah 63 10

Isaiah 63 10 but they rebelled and grieved his

Holy Spirit Therefore he turned himself to become their enemy and he fought against them

Okay, interesting, I I mean it's really it is Intriguing to find references to the

Holy Spirit in the Old Testament because we tend to think of Holy Spirit as You know some kind of New Testament phenomenon and that is far from the case

But he suffers grief. He also makes decisions He makes decisions can a force make a decision

Can a force suffer grief no 1st Corinthians 12 11

I'm gonna go ahead and read that so we can move on 1st Corinthians 12 11 talking about Spiritual gifts but one and the same spirit talking about the

Holy Spirit works all these things Distributing to each one meaning every believer

Individually just as he wills and that word wills means desires just as he wants to a

A Force doesn't have desires a force doesn't have a decision -making process

What else is the Holy Spirit do? He teaches he comforts he guides he encourages us

Let's look at John 14 26 John 14 26 and Some of this is going to be like You know,

I'm going to be some doing some scripture scripture audible ising John 14 26

X 931, you know all that kind of stuff. It's football season.

So, you know, why not? John 14 26, but the helper and Here's a synonymous parallelism for you, but the helper gee who would the helper be the

Holy Spirit? Whom the Father will send in my name. He will teach you all things

Bringing to your remembrance all that I said to you now, what does it mean? That he's going to well, first of all, who's he talking to?

He's talking to the disciples And so when we read this, what does it really tell us about the disciples and about their future activity?

Why is it? I well, I mean, I guess what I'm what I'm wondering about is when we think about scripture

What does this tell us about scripture anything? The importance of scripture, okay, what's that Steve?

That's right. So when we think about it, you know again, we we I know Pradeep's Teaching about the

Gospels right now in IBS and when we think about you read scholars and what they say about Especially the

Gospels how they relied upon one another how they copied from one another how you know There are these conflicts and everything like that.

I'm just like well, okay. All I know is that Jesus said That the

Holy Spirit was going to bring to their remembrance all that he said to them

All and everything so that when they wrote the scripture, what were they doing? They were recalling those things that Jesus told them by the power of the

Holy Spirit in that same way I mean we could look at 1st

Corinthians 2 14 Which you don't have to turn there But basically the idea is that how do we understand what the

Bible says now? How do we do it by the power of the Holy Spirit? So the Holy Spirit was active in Helping the disciples to remember the

Apostles later on to remember what they should write what Jesus taught them and He's active now and helping us to understand what they wrote.

He also comforts Acts 9 31 Acts 9 31 says so the church throughout all

Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace. I like that Being built up and going on in the fear of the

Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit It continued to increase

The comfort of the Holy Spirit and that's you know, what what I've been talking about from first Peter when we have that That sense of salvation when we understand rightly what

God has done. We have peace. That's what Peter wished for his Audiences he was writing them was peace grace and peace

So he gives us comfort He also guides us

Let's look at or I'll read first John 2 27 as for you the anointing now

I once had a woman asked me and then I think it was my first fundamentals of the faith class when I was teaching

You know, I and I basically knew she was coming from a charismatic background. She said what's the anointing? So I I was like Because it's it's just a scary thing if you

I used to watch a lot more TV and then I do now when you hear You know, oh that song was anointed that suit is anointed.

I you know, everything is anointed You know, the set is anointed I don't even know you know, so she's like well, what is the anointing?

The anointing is the work of the Spirit But the anointing which you receive from him abides in you and you have no need for anyone to teach you

This is John talking to believers But as his anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie

Just as it has taught you you abide in him MacArthur says here God's Holy Spirit guards and guides the true believer into the truth

It's just the same thought as in 1st Corinthians 2 14 See Romans 8 16 because he also encourages us.

How does the Holy Spirit encourage us? Romans 8 16 would tell us that the

Holy Spirit is our internal witness The Spirit talking about the Holy Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God and I love this verse

You know, you want to know if you're a Christian there are two ways to know and I've said this on many occasions there

There is the external Witness in other words, we can examine ourselves. We can see our own lives

We can determine whether or not we're in the faith by our desires by our actions What we want to do what we do do and Then there's the internal witness where we just know that we know that we know and how is that because the

Spirit the Holy Spirit Testifies to our spirit that we are children of God There's a subjective

Sense that we have that we belong to him. So that's what some of the activities that he does

It's also important to note that He is fully God and I won't even read the whole thing, but He is fully

God comes that becomes clear in Acts 5 the story of Ananias and Sapphira And what does

Peter say to Ananias? You have lied not to men, but to God and using synonymous parallelism.

I'm going to flog that today Using synonymous parallelism. What does he tell him that the

Holy Spirit is? God now

What does it mean to commit blasphemy? What is blasphemy? I mean

I started looking it up, you know different places and you know Some people were saying blasphemy against Peter and I thought this blasphemy against Peter.

What is it? What is it? What sense does that make? blasphemy defined in the dictionary is

The act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God. I Think that's an okay definition

But Jesus gave a much better definition. Let's look at Matthew 12 Matthew 12, please turn there because I'm going to read a bit of a passage

Not a bit of a passage but a passage Matthew 12 verses 22 through 32

Then a demon -possessed man who was blind and mute Was brought to Jesus and He healed him so that the mute man spoke and saw in other words

What was wrong with him was no longer wrong with him. All the crowds were amazed and were saying this man

Jesus Cannot be the son of David Kenny, but when the

Pharisees heard this in other words, could he be the fulfillment of prophecy? when the Pharisees heard this they said

Hold on ease up this man

Casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons

The Pharisees said no. No, he's not the son of David He can only do this cast out these demons which they were saying

And rightfully so that this man was demon possessed He was blind and mute but they were saying that he can only do that because he was acting on the power of the ruler of demons and Knowing their thoughts

Jesus said to them any kingdom divided against itself. I'll thank you Knowing their thoughts

Jesus said to them any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste in any city or house divided itself

Against itself will not stand if Satan casts out Satan. He is divided against himself

How then will his kingdom stand? Same Analogy if I cast or if I buy

Beelzebul cast out demons That's what they're saying by whom do your cat your sons cast them out

For this reason they will be your judges But if I cast out demons by the

Spirit of God Then the kingdom of God has come upon you or how can anyone enter the strongman's house and carry off his property?

unless he first binds the strongman and Then he will plunder his house He who is not with me is against me and he who does not gather with me scatters therefore

I say to you any sin and Blasphemy shall be forgiven people but blasphemy against the

Spirit shall not be forgiven Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him

But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven him either in this age or in the age to come

So, how does Jesus define blasphemy? Okay, says it's the unforgivable sin.

What else does he say about it? It's directed against the

Holy Spirit, which means that if it's speaking against God it is it's equating

God with the Holy Spirit Whoever speaks against God the

Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven in and what he was really saying is it was Jesus was casting out these demons by what?

By the power of Satan No By the power of the Holy Spirit So what he's saying is you guys are saying you have seen the works of the

Holy Spirit and you are attributing those works to Satan That is a blasphemy that cannot be forgiven not in this age or the age to come

So can somebody commit the you know blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? I talked about this months ago about the stupid thing online that they're encouraging

Especially young people to go online and take the blasphemy challenge where you can say I renounce the

Holy Spirit and you know that's supposed to Send you to Hell and these people are quite proud of that The problem with that is

The way Jesus has defined it for us here blasphemy against the Spirit would be seeing the work of God and attributing it to Satan so I suppose if the

Lord were to come down here and perform some kind of miracle and I were to say That was by the power of Satan. Then that would be the blasphemy against the

Holy Spirit, but I don't believe we can do that Bruce, did you have something? Okay, well good point then.

All right number four the Holy Spirit I Haven't been doing a great job of telling you about the outline, but the

Holy Spirit performs acts only God can perform Acts only

God can perform. I mentioned the virgin birth who else could do that who else could Ensure that Jesus would be born sinless

No one else could do that. He also anointed Jesus at the beginning of Jesus ministry, let's look at Mark 1 verses 10 to 12

Immediately, this is well start on verse 9 in those days. Jesus came from Nazareth and Galilee and was baptized by John in the

Jordan Immediately coming up out of the water He saw the heavens opening and the spirit like a dove

Descending upon him and a voice came out of the heavens. You are my beloved son in you

I am well, please now, you know, I read that whole passage and to me that just Would give motorless all kinds of problems because here you have

The father being the voice out of the heavens, right? You are my beloved son You have the spirit like a dove descending upon him and the son

Being baptized so how does that work for three modes when all modes are there, you know, I'm sure they have some spiffy explanation of that and like I said,

I think most cults do if you can Make a shambles out of the clear verses. Imagine what you can do with other ones

So he's right there at the beginning of Jesus ministry and that is in essence the kind of symbol

That the spirit was upon him and that he was going to be Doing the works of the father that really inaugurated his ministry

The Holy Spirit was also involved in the resurrection of Christ no It had to be a power of God of God to do that.

Let's look at Romans 8 11 But if the spirit of him who raised

Jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you

Interesting because what does that say there to will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit

So he's involved in regeneration. We would know that from other places as well The baptizing of the

Holy Spirit who else would do the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit I want to move on because I want to make sure where are we here time -wise.

I want to make sure we get to the the final few points here indwelling of the

Holy Spirit You know true or false

The Holy Spirit comes and goes in the lives of believers Anybody want to give me a true before the cross?

Yeah, somebody gave me a true Bernard Okay in the

Old Testament. Yeah in terms of the indwelling of the

Holy Spirit, you know, the spirit doesn't leave now when I think of my first assignment at seminary

Ephesians 518, which was a travesty and a sham and a mockery but Ephesians 518 not the verse my assignment

It Says be filled with the Holy Spirit Why would it say be filled with the Holy Spirit?

You have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So why would there be a command there in Ephesians 518 to Lewis?

That's right. That's right

Lewis said for purposes of the tape That that that the

Holy Spirit has come in a whole new way and that happened And Began on the day of Pentecost and in the lives of believers

We are called to yield to him to be filled with him in the sense that we obey we don't go our own way

But we yield to the Spirit. We are obedient to the Spirit. We seek to obey God. We seek to obey

Christ We seek to obey the Trinity Jesus or the

Holy Spirit distributes spiritual gifts talked about that. He was also present in creation Genesis 1 2 is hovering over the waters

Job 26 13 and 33 4 give us some other indications that the

Spirit was involved in creation Holy Spirit is also involved in salvation and regeneration

John 3 Jesus says it himself, you know when he's talking about you must be born again

He talks about the Spirit comes and goes where he wills and that he works as he wills. Let's look at Titus 3 5

In fact,

I'm gonna read for as well but when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared he saved us not on the basis of deeds

Which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy By the washing of regeneration and renewing by the

Holy Spirit again. It's not one person of the Trinity doing all the work the

Trinity works together and here we see how The Spirit is involved in the regeneration of us

Regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. He causes us to be born again He intercedes on our behalf we looked at Romans 8 26 and 27

We would understand that even when we don't know what to say We don't know how to pray that the

Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf He's involved in Scripture And we could look at Acts 4 25

Psalm 2 verses 1 and 2 2nd Peter 1 20 and 21 also involved in our sanctification as I said in 1st

Peter 1 Galatians 3 3 2nd Thessalonians 2 13 I want to get to point number 5 here

Which was the Holy Spirit has all the attributes of God The Holy Spirit has all the attributes of God just as Lewis said, but I think

I think it's so key for us to understand again, we tend to think of there being some kind of rank structure and a

I Just don't know how to say it because they do function differently for example

And again, I'll say some of this a little bit later on, you know, who sent the Sun to Earth The father okay who sent the

Spirit to the earth the father and the son, okay

So, you know does that mean the Spirit is less no he has all the power all

The knowledge he has all the attributes of God. Let's look at Romans 15 19 Yes Okay, I'm gonna read that later on this morning, but I think

It's Christ talking at Isaiah 48 16 and he

Pre -existent Christ talking in case those of you are wondering. Well, how could Jesus be talking in Isaiah? 48 pre -existent

Christ speaking And he says that Talking about the father has sent me and his spirit.

I think it says but we'll talk about that later Omnipotence Romans 5 or 15 19 as I turn to Romans 16 never do that 15 19

In the power of signs and wonders in the power of the Spirit so that from Jerusalem and round as far as a lyricum

I have fully preached the gospel of Christ so we see that Paul was able

By the power of the Spirit to do what I mean he did this on many occasions

He was able to preach and he did so in the power of signs and wonders. I Mean the

Spirit is Powerfully as all the power of the Godhead. There's nothing That he can't do

Omniscience Which means what you know omnipotence means he's all -powerful Omniscience means that he knows everything

I Think the easiest one to see that is 1st Corinthians 2 verses 10 and 11 just a few pages over For to us

God revealed them Through the Spirit for the Spirit searches all things even the depths of God For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him

Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God What more knowledge could there be than knowing the thoughts of God on my presence which just means that the

Holy Spirit is what Everywhere let's look at Isaiah, or I'm sorry Psalm 139 we could look at Isaiah 139

But that would just take a very long time. So I don't want to turn there Psalm 139 7 to 10

Where can I go from your spirits? What's the answer to that? No, we're or where can

I flee from your presence if I ascend to heaven you are there if I make my bed in Sheol Which is where?

hell Old Testament style Behold you are there if I take the wings of the dawn if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea

Even there your hand will lead me and your right hand will lay hold of me

Listen, you know, we might be able to think that we can flee for the presence of God. We can't

We might think that the Holy Spirit isn't everywhere because we might not feel him Sometimes we none might not feel filled with the

Holy Spirit and getting back to Ephesians 5 18 What does it mean if we don't feel? filled

You have to say that carefully if we don't feel filled with the

Holy Spirit. What does that mean? We have a problem

The problem isn't with the Holy Spirit he hasn't run out of power The problem is with us.

We have set some obstruction between us and the Holy Spirit and what would that obstruction be? sin

So what Paul says? Well, and basically what does he say in Ephesians 5 18 who has that memorized?

Do not be Yeah filled with wine drunk with wine but be filled with the

Holy Spirit Which would right away tell us what that being drunk with wine is not a good thing.

It's a sin Why would we not want to be drunk with wine I Mean think think about that just that contrast there.

What does it mean to be drunk with wine if you're drunk? What happens? You lose control you have no control.

What are the fruits of the Spirit self -control? So when Paul says don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the

Holy Spirit, what's he really saying don't be out of control Don't be drunk and out of control and doing all that like the

Ephesians are given to do the not the Ephesian Believers, but the Ephesian unbelievers, but instead be filled with the

Spirit be self -controlled be obedient to God the

Holy Spirit is also worthy of divine honor, you know when we see

That the oneness Pentecostals only want to baptize in the name of Jesus, you know, what what comes to our minds right away?

the Great Commission Matthew 28 Verses 19 and 20 something that we hear every time a missionary comes here for some reason.

I don't know exactly why that is It's like they all have one text Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the

Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit When we baptize we baptize them in the name of the

Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Why? That's no reason number one because we're commanded to I mean, it's black and white right?

What's the other one? What would be the other not? Entirely there but implied reason that we would baptize in them in the name of the

Father and Son and the Holy Spirit Right because we believe in the

Trinity we want to honor all three persons of the Trinity When you say, you know and this this is something maybe a lot of you didn't stumble with but I sure did because when

I came to Christ as I said I came I mean Eventually if I trace it back

I came out of a Mormon background. I went from Mormonism to you know, Psychologize paganism to Christianity, but in Mormonism they would baptize in the name of the

Father Son and Holy Spirit But it had or Holy Ghost but it had an entirely different meaning the reason we would do that is because we want to honor all three of them and you must believe in the

Trinity and I did not And it was a stumbling block for me because when I first understood who Jesus was

I still didn't get the Trinity because I'd spent My whole life not believing in it But the Holy Spirit is worthy of divine honor.

Let's look at Romans 9. I mean if it's blasphemy

To attribute the thing of the works of the Holy Spirit to Satan then certainly he's worthy of all honor

Listen to Paul in Romans 9. I am telling the truth in Christ. I am NOT lying. My conscience testifies with me in the

Holy Spirit That I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart What does he mean when he says my conscience testifies with me in the

Holy Spirit? Now if you have the MacArthur study notes, you can just quickly scan down there and see what it says What does it mean?

Nobody's read those notes yet Okay, only when the conscience or this conscience is controlled by the

Spirit can it be trusted? Listen, we can think that what we're doing is right. But what do we know from the

Bible? Jeremiah 17 9 says the heart is that desperately wicked deceitful it's when we're filled with the

Spirit when we're being led by the Spirit when our conscience and The Spirit are the same thing.

We are so spirit controlled spirit filled that our conscience is clear not because we're deceiving ourselves

But because the Spirit's really in control He is worthy of divine honor because we obey

God when we obey the Spirit When we are filled with the

Spirit we obey God Well 2nd

Corinthians one more Scripture 2nd Corinthians 13 14 The grace of the

Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all Why would Paul close a letter like that?

why would he do that if he wasn't equating a Holy Spirit with God if he saw the

Holy Spirit as a force Would he say you know? What do you say the grace of the

Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy of that force

Be with you all What is that? Yeah I'm not even gonna do my

Darth Vader thing right now Listen, it is important It is important to rightly understand who the

Holy Spirit is To have an appreciation for who he is. We don't

Sing songs about the Holy Spirit We don't do a lot of things with the

Holy Spirit But that's because of his role and his role is not a lesser role. It is a different role. He points to Christ He points to the

Father he Inspires the Word of God he controls us as we yield ourselves to him

The Holy Spirit indwells us the Holy Spirit has a special role to play

He is fully and Holy God as all the attributes of God performs actions only

God can perform and When we come across people like Jehovah Witnesses like oneness

Pentecostals like Mormons anybody who wants to call themselves a Christian and they have a faulty idea of who the

Holy Spirit is We need to correct them on one at least one thing They at least need to understand that they can't be a

Christian and have that view of the Holy Spirit Let's pray father.

Thank you again for this time in your word Thank you for this reminder of the

Holy Spirit's work in our lives of his equality with you of his

Holiness of his attributes the father we just praise you for him