Address—C. Hendricks
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Last week.
We had the Trinity before us.
And.
I'd like to look at the.
The subject of the Holy Spirit tonight.
Often referred to as the third Person of the Trinity.
We might ask the question to start with.
Who is he?
Who is the?
Holy Spirit? Well, I've already answered the question by saying that he's the third person of the Trinity, meaning that he is God.
He is God we have in Acts chapter 5. Let's turn to it.
Sometimes you may get into a discussion with someone.
That does not believe in the Trinity, does not believe in the.
Person of the Holy Spirit that looks upon the Spirit of God is merely a force or an influence.
And not a real person. And so we'd like to look at scriptures tonight to see.
That he is a person and that he is God in in Acts chapter 5.
We have an interesting account I'll read from verse one, but a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira his wife sold a possession.
And kept back part of the price, his wife also being Privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles feet.
But Peter said Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land, whiles 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 thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men.
But unto God.
Now to whom had they lied? They had lied to the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit?
I want to just make this comment. In our King James translation, the translators used the word spirit sometimes and ghost other times. It's the same word in the original languages, whether whether you say Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost, it's the same person here. They lied to the Holy Ghost and that was tantamount to lying to God because.
The Holy Spirit is God.
One of the persons of the Trinity. We were looking last week at Matthew 28. I don't have to turn to it again, but I'll quote it again. The Lord said that they should go forth and teach all nations, or make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 3 Persons, one God.
So the Holy Spirit is God.
And he is a person. Well, before we come to that, let me mention that.
Those that that say he's, he's an it. The Holy Spirit is an it. They have a scripture or two to back that up and let's look at it. Romans 8.
Romans 8.
You may get confronted with this and not know how to answer the question or how to answer their their point.
In Romans 8.
And I'll read from verse 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA. Father, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
And so they will bring forth the Scripture like this and say, you see, the Spirit is in it.
The Spirit itself, he is not a real person, He is a force or a power. The Lord also said in Acts One that they would be endued with power from on high. Well, the Spirit of God does endue with power, all right. He is the most powerful force in the universe, the Spirit of God.
He is that one by whom God does all things, and here he's called.
And it the Spirit itself? And why is that?
It's interesting that in the Hebrew language.
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In some languages, it's not really true in English, but in some languages every noun has a gender.
We have it a little bit in English, like we will talk about a ship and we'll call the ship she. She's a beautiful ship, we will say. And so we're giving the gender to the ship of feminine.
Well, in the Hebrew they only have two genders. They have feminine and masculine.
And the word Spirit.
In the Hebrew rock, and it means breath or wind. It's in the feminine gender in the Old Testament. So when the when the spirit occurs, the modifying noun would be in the feminine. I mean the pronoun would be in the feminine.
Well, in the Greek, the New Testament language.
The word spirit is in the neuter gender. In the neuter gender, and the appropriate pronoun for that is it.
That doesn't touch the fact that the Spirit of God is a person.
And whenever the Spirit is referred to in the New Testament by a pronoun, it's always he, never she.
Are never it except where it says here like it says itself. Occasionally we'll get that expression. So we have all three genders that are used to refer to the Holy Spirit.
Feminine. Feminine in the Old Testament, neuter in the New, and.
Then there are a number of passages and let's just look at.
Some of them John 14.
John 14.
Verse 16.
The Lord is speaking and he says, and I will pray the Father.
And he shall give you another comforter that he.
May abide with you forever. So there this other comforter is referred to as he. That's the masculine.
Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not again the masculine.
Neither knoweth him.
But ye know him.
For he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. So in that one verse we have, He and Him are referring to the Spirit of God.
Again, a little farther down.
Verse 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
So when we refer to the Spirit of God, though it's feminine in the Old Testament and neuter in the New, when we refer to Him as Him and He, that's exactly what the Lord Jesus does when He speaks of Him. He is a person. Look at the 15th chapter.
15th Chapter, verse 26. But when the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you?
From the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He.
Shall testify of me.
Again, he's referred to as he again in the 16th chapter.
Verse 7. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.
It is expedient for you that I go away.
For if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him.
Unto you.
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment of sin, because they believe not on me, of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you see me no more of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged.
How I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when He the Spirit of Truth has come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me.
For he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.
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Well I read enough scriptures to show how that though even even though it the word spirit in the Old Testament which means Brett which is sometimes translated breath or wind the same in the new I.
The gender is feminine in Hebrew, and in the New Testament it is neuter, neither feminine nor masculine. But whenever the spirit is referred to by a pronoun, I say whenever 99% of the time he's referred to in the masculine gender, a person, a real person. Does he have the attributes of a person?
Does he bear the characteristics of the person?
Well, yes he does. He has the qualities of a person. Look at Romans 8.
And verse 27.
Well, I'll read verse 26. Likewise, the spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself. There you have the the pronoun modifying the word spirit according to its gender. In the Greek. The spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind.
Of the Spirit. The Spirit has a mind.
A force.
Or an itch, or a thing that does not have a mind. The Spirit has a mind, and God knows what is the mind of the Spirit.
He is a person.
Because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God. The Spirit prays for the Saints. He intercedes for the Saints. He is our advocate. It's exactly the same word. That word comforter is the same word in the original as advocate. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So we have two advocates. We have the Lord Jesus on high with the Father.
Pleading our cause, and we have the Holy Spirit here below within us, pleading our cause, interceding for us. Wonderful is it not? 2 Divine persons interceding to the third Divine Persons, the Father on our behalf?
Wonderful comfort to know that God is very interested in each of us and He is for us and He has provided for our every need as we go through this scene.
So he has a mind.
He has a will. First Corinthians, chapter 12.
First Corinthians chapter 12 and verse.
11.
This chapter is all about the Spirit of God empowering us with gifts and so on and it says in verse chapter 1211. But all these workers that one and the self same spirit dividing to every man severally as he will.
As he will and later down it speaks of.
Verse 28. God hath set some in the church.
And so on.
As he will.
But here we have the Spirit of God willing.
He has a mind, he has a will.
He forbids. I don't have the reference. You can look it up. It's in the book of Acts. It says the spirit forbade them to go to a certain place and directed them somewhere else.
And he permits just like a person does. I don't have the reference for that. I have to look it up.
Put down all these things that I could think of.
In connection with the Spirit of God, He permits.
He speaks.
Look at Acts chapter 8. A person speaks and it does not speak.
A force does not speak, an influence does not speak, but a person speaks in chapter 8 and verse.
Let's start at verse.
26 And the Angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the South, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. Now it says, the Angel of the Lord spake to Philip. Certainly the Angel of the Lord is a person. He spake to Philip. If someone speaks to you, it has to be a person.
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With intelligence and the ability to speak.
And verse 27 He arose and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, and eunuch of great authority, under Candacy, queen of The Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning and sitting in his chariot read Isaias the prophet. Then the spirit said unto Philip, Go near.
And join myself chariot.
So the Spirit of God spoke to Philip and he told him. He gave him instruction. He gave him direction.
And told him whom to speak, to whom he should speak. Go and join thyself to this chariot.
Acts chapter 10 is another instance in connection with Peter.
Connection with Peter.
It says in verse 19 we know the account. While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold three men seek thee.
Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing.
For I.
Have sent them, and that's the Spirit of God speaking to Peter. Then Peter went down to the men and so on. So he has all the qualities and the attributes of a real person.
The Spirit of God loves.
Romans. Romans 15.
We know the Son loves. We know the Father loves.
But I believe the.
This passage is very nice.
Romans 15 and verse 30 Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that she strive together with me, and your prayers to God for me.
All of all three persons of the Trinity have these attributes, these qualities, every one of them, because each one is indeed a person. God is love. So the Father loves, the Son loves, the Spirit loves, because each is God, part of the Godhead.
And then we have.
The Ephesians, chapter 4.
That we can grieve the Spirit of God.
You can't grieve and influence. You can't grieve an itch.
You can't grieve a force, but you can grieve a person. And we know this scripture very well. I'll read from verse 29 of Ephesians chapter 4.
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
And then he lists a number of things by which we can grieve him. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.
And be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake.
Hath forgiven you.
So we can grieve him. We cannot grieve him away.
Because he has, because of the work of Christ, he has been pleased to take up his dwelling in US forever.
He will never leave us.
Never leave us. The Lord Jesus left his disciples, He went back to heaven, but when he was about to do that, he told them, I will give you another comforter. He was their comforter when he was here. He cared for all their needs. But now he says, I'm going away, I'm going to the Father, but I won't leave you orphans. I won't leave you comfortless. I will come to you and the person of the Holy Spirit, and he shall be that other comforter.
And he'll never leave you. He'll be with you forever.
And more than that, he shall be in you. The Lord Jesus was not in the disciples. He was with them. He was among them. But here now he says, I'm going to give you that other comforter, as we often say, the third person in the Trinity who will be with you forever.
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Never leave you. And more than that, he will be in you. That's John 14.
And while we're on this of grieving, let's look at First Thessalonians 5, where we have we can quench.
The Holy Spirit, I think the grieving is more on the part of us as individuals. We can individually grieve Him by doing our own will and disobeying Him and displeasing Him.
And doing those things that he has told us.
Not to do allowing the flesh to act, but in First Thessalonians 5.
He says in verse 16, Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In everything, give thanks.
For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.
Concerning you.
Quench not the spirit. Quench not the spirit.
Despise, not prophesying.
Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.
Notice how the quench, not the Spirit, is right before despising, not prophesying.
Prophesying are utterances that the Spirit of God prompts one to give.
For the good and blessing of the Saints.
And he tells them, don't despise those prophesying because they are, they are energized by the Spirit of God. If the Lord gives you something to say, say in a reading meeting or in an open meeting.
Or in a prayer meeting.
If he urges you to pray.
And you don't pray, you quench the Holy Spirit, you quench.
The action of the Spirit of God as He would use you to pray.
You know, one thing that disturbs me, and I must mention it, it disturbs me, is that.
Many will pray in the gospel for the gospel to get together, for the gospel and justice. About everyone prays.
When we come to the prayer meeting.
I've been in some meetings and the brother says, well, we just remain on our knees until everyone is prayed.
That's nice, I like that. Until everyone is prayed and they won't get up until everyone is prayed.
That's not common.
Usually it's just a few that do the praying.
But if we would pray shorter prayers.
And leave a little room for someone else to mention another person. We don't have to mention the mall ourselves, you know, we can mention one or two or three and then leave room for another to pray for another. Not that you've forgotten them, but I.
It's encouraging. Sometimes a brother says, well, I'd like to pray for so and so, and another prays for them and then you say, well, they've already been prayed for, so no need for me to pray. And I think read Mr. Mcintosh's pamphlet on prayer in the prayer meeting. It's excellent.
It's excellent.
But the what? What discourage what disturbs me. Not discourages, but what disturbs me the most is the lack of worship and praise at the breaking of bread.
You see, it's just one or two or three.
That opened their mouths to pray. You don't have to be gifted. That's not a gift. That's a that's an exercise of your priestly function to praise him, to worship him, to thank him. You don't have to be eloquent in it. Just a short word, thank you, Lord Jesus.
For saving my soul or something simple like that.
For dying for me, forgiving thy life's blood. Thank thee, Father, for sending thy son.
And the Holy Spirit as well to thank Him, to praise him. I think that the the remembrance meeting ought to be the fullest.
It ought to be the fullest expression of the praise and the worship of our hearts. And when the Spirit of God would prompt you to do it, and you don't do it, you are quenching the Holy Spirit. Quench, not the Spirit.
Quench not the Spirit.
So he's a person you. We can grieve him. We can quench him. When we grieve him, we do what is displeasing to him. When we quench him, we don't do what He wants us to do. He wants us to pray or give out of Him.
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Certainly that doesn't require any great gift to give out to him. What it does require is a familiarity with the hymn book.
I don't know if I've mentioned it here, but I'm going to. I don't mind if I've mentioned it before. I think it's a, it's a good, a good thing. Many places that I've gone, the homes I've stayed in, they sing a hymn along with their reading every day. And I thought, well, that's going to take a long time to get through the hymn book, just singing one hymn a day.
So when I got home, I said to Laverne, my wife. I said let's try something new. We'll follow the calendar and on the first day of the of the month, we'll sing him 1101201301 and one in the appendix. That's five hymns.
On the second day, we'll sing him 210-220-2302 and two in the appendix. And we went through the hymn book that way. I think it took about a month and a half to get through the hymn book. And it was such a delight to do that. The first thing we did in the morning as we sang. And we sang these hymns, and it was a challenge to come up with tunes.
And I noticed that any hymn book that was that has been printed by Bible Truth Publishers after they located in Addison, IL has a metrical index in the back of the hymn book which is a great help to enable us to find a tune for him. Those that were published in Oak Park or way back in Saint Louis, they don't have the metrical index but.
So I started turning to the back and I don't have one of those that are published that recently, but I've bought a separate I've been.
Provided a separate metrical index in the back of my in book and I was looking it up. It's not as good as the one that was printed later that after they moved to Addison. But anyway I started doing that and my wife says where are you getting these tunes from? And I said, well I have this metrical index in the back. So then she looked in the back of hers and she happened to have a hymn book that was printed after they moved to Addison. So he had she had the good index and from then on I asked.
For the tomb, because she could find it and give it. I think we need to sing more.
I think we need to sing more. These hymns have such precious truth in them. They they've been indicted by the Spirit of God. We don't say they're inspired by the Spirit. Some of them have some faulty expressions, poetic license and so on, but by and large, wonderful truth.
And I found that one who talks a lot like I do is challenged to be able to come up with a hymn.
That's suitable for the ministry that he's giving, and sometimes I have to.
Confess I failed to do that, but it's wonderful to be a singing people, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. How wonderful to sing these wonderful hymns indicted by the Spirit of God.
Well.
I've cited a number of things that are characteristic of the Spirit as a person.
Uh, he was active.
In creation, let's look at Genesis 1.
Genesis 1.
In fact, every.
Every major.
Activity of God involves all three persons.
All three persons.
Some have objected to the fact that the Apostles Creed says we believe in God the Father, creator of heaven and earth, or I don't object to that because, and it says in the beginning God Elohim created the heavens and the earth. That's the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That's all three persons. All three persons are involved in the creation.
When the When a single person is spoken of in the New Testament, it's usually the Son that's spoken of as the Creator, but not to the exclusion of the Father and the Spirit. All are involved. Genesis 1.
Without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water. So there we have the Spirit of God mentioned. In fact, he's the first person of the three in the Trinity that is mentioned in our Bible, singled out in connection with the creation.
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How about inspiration? The inspiration?
Comes from the Spirit of God.
This book is inspired of God, First Corinthians 2.
Corinthians.
Chapter 2.
We will see that all activities of the deity involve.
The Spirit of God in First Corinthians chapter 2 and verse.
Now let me start from verse.
10 but God.
Hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.
For the Spirit searcheth all things ye 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. So here you have the Spirit of God knowing, and in the previous verse the Spirit of God searching the deep things of God, clearly a person. Now verse 13, which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the holy.
Ghost Teacheth.
Comparing spiritual things with spiritual or communicating spiritual things by spiritual means. New Translation. The Holy Ghost teacheth. He indicted the very words of Scripture. They come from Him. That's what we mean when we talk about inspiration.
Revelation is when God reveals it to an individual, and then inspiration is when God controls that individual to write it down in the very words that.
He chooses the Spirit of God. The very words of Scripture are inspired of God.
Sometimes you will read a writing by human author and you'll say that's inspired. It's not inspired. It may be inspiring.
It may be an inspiring thing that you're reading, but that which is inspired comes from God. There's a difference between something being inspiring and something inspired. There might be passages in the scriptures that are not at all inspiring. You read the the genealogies and you read.
Some of the passages in the Old Testament counting the numbers of so many in each tribe. That's not very inspiring.
Doesn't move you, but it's inspired. It's inspired of God.
And so there's that difference between something being inspiring to us and something being inspired.
And not everything that is inspired of God is true.
Satan said.
All that a man hath would he give for his life.
Is that true?
It's not true of a Christian. He would rather die than.
Renounce Christ, and many have died rather than renounce Christ.
But Satan said that, and God inspired the writer of Job to record it.
And so it's accurate. That's what we mean by inspired. Doesn't mean it's necessarily a true statement, but he was inspired to write down exactly what Job, what the Satan said, and he used Job to do it. All that a man hath will he give for his life. I remember when there was a trial going on once and one of the lawyers brought that scripture out to show that the man was lying.
On the stand all that a man hath would a gift for his life. He will lie, he just despair his own skin.
And the other lawyer happened to know the passage as well, and so he read it to the jury and he said.
The authority for that statement is none other than the devil himself.
And.
It fell flat.
The man was not.
The first lawyer did not achieve his devious.
Desires.
Let's see, what else do we have in connection with we have the birth of Christ. That's a beautiful subject. Look at Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1.
The Spirit of God had much to do with the birth of Christ.
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He was the begetting power instead of man.
And in Luke chapter one, verse 35, one of my most favorite passages of Scripture, the Angel answered and said unto Mary, Mary had just said, how shall this be? She was told she was going to bear a son. And she says in verse 34, how shall this be? Seeing I know not a man, she was a virgin.
She had no relations with another man, with a man.
She said. How can this be?
And the Angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over shadow thee.
Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. The Holy Ghost shall come.
Upon thee.
The birth of Christ.
Begotten look at Matthew 1. Matthew one. I'll just give you that other this other scripture.
Matthew 1.
And verse.
20.
But while he Joseph, thought on these things, behold, the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, Thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee, Marry thy wife, for that which is conceived in hers of the Holy Ghost. And that word conceived, the margin reads it correctly, is the word begotten.
That which is begotten in hers of the Holy Ghost. In the case of the Lorde birth, the Holy Ghost was the begetter. Mary conceived the Holy Ghost begat in all other on all other births that have ever happened, everyone that's in this room, man begat you, a man begat you. Your father and your mother conceived you.
Man is the beginner and the woman is the conceiver, but with the Lord.
There was number man, she was a virgin. The seed of the woman shall crush the serpent's head. So the Holy Ghost replaces the man in that, in that begetting. And the Spirit of God was the beginner, so that ought to read. That which is begotten in her is of the Holy Ghost.
So the Spirit of God was involved in the creation. He is involved in the inspiration of the Scriptures. He is involved in the birth of Christ.
Look at John 3, John's Gospel chapter 3. I think there are.
Something like 600.
References to the Spirit of God in the New Testament and 400 in the Old. That's fairly close if it's not precisely accurate. So there's no way I can touch them all tonight.
But we'll just look at some that come to mind.
In John chapter 3.
The Lord is speaking.
And.
Verse 31.
He that cometh from above is above all. He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is above all. And what he had seen and heard that he testifieth, and no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.
For he whom God hath sent.
Speaketh the words of God.
For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. When the Spirit of God was given in the Old Testament, he was given by measure. He came upon a prophet for an occasion, and caused him to utter what he wanted him to utter. Most of the time he used a child of God, a St. Sometimes he used a false prophet like Balaam.
And God controlled his mouth.
And gave him to utter some of the most profound and wonderful prophecies we have in all of Scripture. But he was a wicked, wicked prophet.
But God the Spirit controlled him, but he just came upon him for for the occasion. But with the Lord Jesus, God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
He was.
Filled with the Spirit, He was full of the Holy Ghost. I shouldn't say filled with. I think it's more proper to say He was always full of the Holy Ghost. He had the Spirit not by measure. And you'll notice the words unto him are in italics. And it's certainly true with respect to the Lord Jesus, but it's also true with respect to us. The Spirit has not been given to us by measure as in the Old Testament, but He's been given to us to abide with.
Forever and to dwell within us based upon the work of Christ. I love to think of it this way. The Spirit was given to the blessed Lord because of the perfection of His person. The Spirit is given to us because of the perfection of His work.
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But it's all himself, is it not? So He can never be taken from us. He's not given to us even as He was not given to him by measure. He's given to us as He was given to him, to remain with us forever.
The Spirit was involved in the resurrection of Christ. Of course he was. Look at one Peter 3.
We know that the Father was. It says in Romans 6 that he was raised by the glory of the Father. We know that the Son himself said in John two, he said, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
But the Spirit of God was also active in the resurrection in the first Peter 3.
And verse.
18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the justice for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened, made alive by the Spirit.
Made alive in resurrection by the Spirit. All three persons involved in his birth. All three persons involved in his resurrection. All three persons involved in His atonement. Look at Hebrews Chapter 9 in connection with the atonement.
Hebrews, Chapter 9.
Verse 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats in the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Spirit offered himself without spot to God? So there we have the whole Trinity, we have the Son offering himself without spot to God through the eternal Spirit.
How much more shall that blood purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? So all three persons were involved, and the Spirit was involved. Of course He was at the creation, at the birth of Christ, at the death of Christ, at the resurrection of Christ.
In fact, as you trace the scriptures out and search it out yourself, you will see that.
All three persons are involved in all that God does, because that's who God is. He is the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. That should not surprise us. In fact, we would be surprised if any one of those 3 was missing in any activity of the Godhead.
Because all three persons work together in absolute perfect oneness and harmony.
To accomplish the will of God.
When did he come?
When did he come here as a person to dwell upon the earth?
Well, we know when the Lord Jesus came, He came at his birth.
There have been two divine persons here in this world.
The Lord Jesus, the first one who came as a babe, a little baby.
Born in a stable, late in a Manger, we read the verse.
But after he had accomplished redemption.
And died, and rose again, and ascended to the Father. He sent down the Holy Spirit.
Acts chapter 2. On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God came.
As a person, not an influence merely.
Or a power, though there was great power there, but as a person.
And when the day Chapter 2 Acts. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with 1 accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind.
Remember I said the word wind and.
Is a.
Sometimes the rendering of that word that is sometimes rendered spirit.
And it filled all the house where they were sitting, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit.
Gave them utterance.
00:45:02
So here you have the Spirit of God enabling them to speak a language which they had never learned before.
This happened earlier.
At the Tower of Babel.
And there it was a judgment. There was a judgment of God, where God confounded their languages and they were building. And then they started to talk to their fellow builder, and they couldn't understand them one another anymore. They were speaking another language and they got together according to the languages that they spoke and could understand. And that's how the nations began. Before that, the whole earth was of one language.
And after that?
There was the confounding of the languages, beautiful to think of Adam as he came from the hand of God, equipped with a full vocabulary, able to speak, able to write, able to communicate not only with his beloved wife, whom the Lord brought to him and whom he named.
And described her This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. But he gave names to every animal.
Man has man is not getting better.
He's not involving upwards, he is going down. The most perfect man that was ever here, outside of the Lord Jesus of course.
From the hand of God, fresh from the hand of God, no sin, perfect creation, created in the image and likeness of God, What a man he must have been. And Eve, his beloved beautiful wife, what a woman she must have been. Well, the enemy spoiled that very soon. So here let's go a little bit farther in Acts chapter 2.
Peter is now explaining what has happened.
And he says in verse 32, well that's let me back up a little more than that.
Verse.
29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchers with us under this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He's seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades.
Neither did his flesh seek corruption.
This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear.
So he tells what had happened. The Spirit of God had come. A person promised of the Father to indwell him the church.
And to indwell each individual believer and to endow them with the ability to communicate to these people roundabout.
In their own language.
In their own language. Wonderful, wonderful gift.
Well.
I think this might be a good place to stop. The subject is so vast.
That we can't possibly cover it all in one evening, but if you ever get into a discussion with someone from one of these false cults that deny the personality of the Holy Spirit, or deny the Trinity or deny the deity of Christ or the deity of the Spirit of God.
You have an abundance of scriptures in the Bible, Old and New Testament, to refute them and to show that He is indeed.
God and a person with feelings with a will.
With a mind who gives directions, he is our teacher. The unction which ye have received of him abideth in you, and you need not that any man teach you.
But as the same Unction teacheth you in His truth, even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in Him.
The unction. He is the seal. He dwells in us as the seal of all that God has done. A rancher buys What's the force of the seal? A rancher buys some cattle.
They're his by purchase. He's purchased them. They belong to him. But then he takes his brand, his seal, and he's.
Puts it on the cattle. Marks the cattle as his. They now have his seal. So the seal of the spirit is that we are marked out as belonging to him.
00:50:06
That's the characteristic feature of a Christian is that he can cry ABBA father.
That he knows the Father and he has the seal of the Holy Spirit who gives us, who gives us to know God as our Father, the Spirit of God. And it's by the Spirit of God that we have the spirit of adoption. We know we're children of God. We know God as our Father. That's the seal. He dwells in us as the seal. We also have him as the anointing, the unction anointing for power and for intelligence.
In the things of God.
He is our teacher.
And He is the earnest of the inheritance, the pledge of what is to come. He has given us His spirit.
As the.
Proof that we are his. Let's just look at that verse in Second Corinthians chapter 5 before we close. We still have a little time. Second Corinthians chapter 5 we know.
Verse one that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle, that's our body.
We have a building of God and house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. We have a resurrection body.
Eternal in the heavens, this body is just a tent.
It's a Tabernacle.
We're not going to live in this body forever. It's not equipped for that. Flesh and blood will not, cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.
So he has to give us a resurrection body. That's this house, which is.
In heaven, eternal in the heavens. We're going to put that house on shortly.
For in this body we groan.
Earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven. That's the resurrection body. If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked.
For we that are in this Tabernacle groan. We groan just like the world does. We have our sorrows. We have our pains. We have our aches. We have our setbacks. We feel the effects of sin all around us. We groan.
Being burdened.
Not for that. We would be unclothed. We're not looking to die. The unclothed state is the state that all the Saints are in who have died. They don't have a body. Their spirit and soul is with Christ.
Their body is sleeping. The soul isn't sleeping. The spirit's not sleeping. It's enjoying the presence of the Lord.
But they have no body. The only one that is a man, a full man in heaven tonight is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He has a body.
And we'll all have it.
All these departed Saints who are in the unclothed state will have a body when when the Lord comes for his own.
The dead in Christ shall be raised first.
And then we, the living, shall be changed.
Not for that we would be unclothed. We're not looking upon our hope is not death, but clothed upon. That's the resurrection body, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now how do we know that he's going to do this the next verse now he that hath wrought us.
For this very thing, the self, same thing is God. God's the worker. He's going to accomplish it. What is the proof, What is the pledge that He has given to us that He's going to accomplish it? Who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit, The earnest of the Spirit?
Therefore.
We are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.
We walk by faith, not by sight. We enter into these things. We enjoy these precious things by faith.
Faith lays hold upon them. Faith is the hand which reaches out and lays hold upon what a God of love has provided for us.
Faith makes faith gives substance to the things that we believe and that we hope for, and it makes them real to our soul. And we can live in the enjoyment of them right now because we have the earnest of the Spirit that takes us out of this world and puts us into God's world where we're going to spend eternity. It's given us the Holy Spirit to lead us into the enjoyment of all these things.
Well, we've just touched on the subject.
But it's it thrills my soul. Having spoken on it, it thrills my soul.
That God has provided us all this these wonderful things through His Son, and by the Spirit we can enjoy them and worship the Father.
00:55:05
Well, let's.
Let's sing.
154 The songs thy spirit raises.
Can there want melody?
The fire thy love hath kindled shall never be put out. The spirit keeps it burning.
Though dimmed by things without 154.