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Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's Word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find [email protected] be sure to also check out our Bible Study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: See everyone here today.
Grateful for the invitation to be with you and to share this day together Talking about a subject that is so important, the Holy Spirit. You know, one of the things about this subject is that for a lot of years a lot of Christian traditions.
[00:00:57] Speaker C: Sort of avoid talking about it.
And that was because it's such a complicated subject to discuss.
And even though the Bible has a lot to say about the subject, maybe because we could not always be certain of everything that could be said, we decided it would be a good idea simply to say nothing.
Now, I don't necessarily think that it's.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: A good response to confusion to remain silent.
[00:01:27] Speaker C: We ought to be able to at least say whatever it is that the Bible says on any subject because our faith is based on what is affirmed in Scripture. And so whatever we want to say about the Holy Spirit, as long as we make sure there is a biblical text to back it up, we ought to speak and speak boldly about what the Bible says.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: But of course, there are a lot of things that we can't understand about this subject.
CS Lewis once said this whenever he was talking about the nature of the Holy Spirit. He said, in the first place, it would be ridiculous for me to speak about the nature of the Holy Ghost or the modes of his operation.
That would be to teach, where I have nearly all to learn.
There are a lot of things that I do not understand about the Holy Spirit.
[00:02:19] Speaker C: There are ways that people claim the Spirit works.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: There are that cannot be substantiated in Scripture.
[00:02:25] Speaker C: There are people who claim to feel a certain thing and they ascribe that feeling to the Spirit. That is a feeling they cannot verify.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: The Spirit gave them.
[00:02:33] Speaker C: There is a lot said in the name of the Spirit that Scripture doesn't.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: Say, but that does not excuse us from saying what Scripture does say. And that's what we're going to try to do today.
[00:02:47] Speaker C: But before we do that, I want.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: To point out that it is a dangerous thing to ascribe to God things that we cannot know that God is doing. You know, in the book of Exodus, chapter 20 and verse number seven, the.
[00:02:59] Speaker C: Bible says to the children of Israel.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: That they shall not take the name of the Lord their God in vain. You remember this passage?
[00:03:08] Speaker C: And when I was younger, I was taught, I think that what that meant is if you hit your thumb with a hammer, you can't say God. Okay, that's probably not what that passage actually means. What it means instead is you shall not bring up the name of God for no reason.
Do not ascribe to God things that you cannot know God is doing.
And we have a tendency to want.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: To do this, to assign responsibility to.
[00:03:36] Speaker C: God for things that we cannot be sure that God is actually doing.
And when it comes to the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit is God.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: Which, as we will see in a few moments, the Bible does affirm that.
[00:03:49] Speaker C: If the Spirit is God, then that.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: Means we ought to be careful not to go beyond what is written in the Scriptures and what is said about the Spirit.
[00:03:59] Speaker C: So let's open our Bibles and hopefully.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: Our hearts this morning and explore what the Bible has to say.
[00:04:07] Speaker C: If, in fact it is the case.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: That the Spirit is God, then there needs to be a little bit of humility as we approach this subject.
[00:04:15] Speaker C: Because after all, none of us is.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: Capable of understanding the mind of Almighty God, the Church. Father Augustine once said it like this.
[00:04:24] Speaker C: Let us not form our conceptions of.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: Spiritual things by analogy to the flesh. We are speaking of God.
[00:04:33] Speaker C: Is it any wonder if you do not understand it? For if you do understand it, it is not God.
Let there be a pious confession of.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: Ignorance rather than a rash profession of knowledge.
I think that's probably a pretty good place for us to begin and maybe a good place for us to end. When it comes to contemplating the depths of the nature of God, there is always going to be mystery.
There's always going to be uncertainty.
[00:05:05] Speaker C: In fact, it's that uncertainty that leaves room for faith. And in fact, we walk by faith. Our entire lives are built around faith. What is faith? Faith is trusting in God where we cannot know. It's trusting in God to act where we cannot control what happens. It is allowing God to fill our lives and drive us forward, not knowing where we're going.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: That's what the work of the Spirit is really all about.
Scripture. So let's look at it together.
[00:05:33] Speaker C: The first thing that I want to.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: Say, just two points this morning.
[00:05:36] Speaker C: The first one is that the Holy.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: Spirit is a person.
[00:05:39] Speaker C: And what I mean by that is the Holy Spirit is a distinct being.
He is a distinct being. He is not just part of God or an actionable arm of God. The Holy Spirit is a distinct being.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: But then the second thing is that the Holy Spirit is God. Let's talk about what the Bible says today. The first thing that we see in.
[00:06:02] Speaker C: John chapter 14 as Jesus is announcing.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: To his disciples that he's about to leave this earth and go to be with the Father.
[00:06:09] Speaker C: And they're confused about this, like, how could you leave us, Jesus? We've spent all this time with you. We love you. We depend upon you for everything. How could you abandon us like this? And Jesus says, don't worry, you're not.
[00:06:23] Speaker B: Going to be left alone. And in John 14:16, he says this.
[00:06:28] Speaker C: I will ask the Father and He will give you.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: Depending on what Bible version you have, you have a different word here.
[00:06:36] Speaker C: He will give you.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: English Standard Version says another helper.
[00:06:41] Speaker C: Some versions of the Bible say comforter. The word in the original language refers to someone who has been called to.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: To come to the side.
[00:06:50] Speaker C: And so the idea is that God knows that I'm leaving you, and he knows that.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: I mean, God knows you guys are.
[00:06:55] Speaker C: Gonna struggle when I'm gone, and you are going to need some help. And so God is going to send.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Someone to be beside you. I don't know if you've ever been in a difficult situation in life where maybe you've gotten some tragic news and you are just in shock and maybe a family member or maybe a kind brother or sister in Christ came and just put their arm around you and stood beside you. They didn't say anything. They didn't do anything. They were just present.
That's how Jesus describes the Holy Spirit.
This is going to be a force that's going to come alongside of you, and he's going to take my place so that even though I am gone, you will still have a divine presence with you to help you and to comfort you and to guide you. That's what the Holy Spirit is. In John 14:26, we see just a little bit later that Jesus explains what the Holy Spirit is going to do for these disciples. In verse 26, Jesus says, But the helper. There's that same word again, Counselor. Comforter. Maybe your version says, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name.
[00:08:10] Speaker C: He will teach you all things and.
[00:08:13] Speaker B: And bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you, you know, Jesus did a lot of things.
[00:08:20] Speaker C: The Bible says if all those things were to be recorded, the world could.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: Not contain the books.
[00:08:25] Speaker C: And so it would be difficult for the apostles to remember every single word.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: That Jesus spoke or every occasion on which he helped somebody or healed somebody.
[00:08:34] Speaker C: And so what he says here is, this comforter is going to come and he's going to teach you what all that stuff actually means.
One of the things that we could for sure say about the apostles of.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: Jesus in the Gospels is that they are routinely confused. Maybe that's not unlike some of us. Sometimes we're confused about what's going on.
[00:08:51] Speaker C: In life and how the Lord is working and why things are happening.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: That's true of Jesus apostles.
[00:08:57] Speaker C: And Jesus says that the Spirit is.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: Going to help you understand all of that. Then he's going to teach you the.
[00:09:03] Speaker C: Kinds of things that need to be said, the things that the world needs to hear.
And so one of the reasons we know that Scripture is from God and that it is verified as being from God, is because the Holy Spirit is responsible for its production.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: And Jesus prophesied that very existence here, that the Spirit would come into the.
[00:09:22] Speaker C: Hearts of those apostles so that everything.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: They said was exactly what God wanted them to say. Now, here's the point.
A person can teach, a person can remind this inanimate object cannot.
The spirit is a discrete being.
But not only that, the Spirit has desires. In Galatians, chapter 5, in verse number 17, the Bible says, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit.
[00:09:52] Speaker C: And the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other.
[00:09:59] Speaker B: To keep you from doing the things you want to do.
[00:10:02] Speaker C: What Paul is describing is that classic.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: Spiritual battle that takes place in the hearts of every human being.
[00:10:10] Speaker C: There is a force of good and a force of evil, and your soul.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: Is the battleground for that to take place.
[00:10:18] Speaker C: And what the Bible says here is that the Spirit actually wants for you what you may not want for yourself, that we're so often tempted to fall into temptation, to be drawn to the flesh, to be drawn to, to the world. And the Spirit grabs ahold of us and it tries to pull us closer to God. In fact, if we keep reading, that's what verse 18 says. Verse 18 says, if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. In other words, the Spirit is trying to pull you away from this system of righteousness that says, it's all about me. It's all about what I do. It's all about the things that I can say and do to honor God so that God kind of owes me something. The Spirit says, don't you start thinking like that.
The Spirit keeps me from saying, I am unworthy. I'll never be good enough.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right.
But Jesus Christ is good enough for all of us.
[00:11:10] Speaker C: And it's his blood that is applied to us that makes us as though we've never sinned. And so the Spirit draws us closer to God and says, come over here and be with the Lord and sanctify.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: Yourself so that you can know what a spiritual life is really like.
The way I'll explain this is. I grew up in the 1980s, and that's when the original Nintendo came out.
And one of the classic games, in fact, one of the first games for the original Nintendo was Super Mario Brothers.
There's probably not a whole lot of people who haven't at least seen Super Mario Brothers. And on the first level, when you hit that brick and that mushroom came out and Mario gets the mushroom, remember what happens to him?
I mean, I can do the sound effect if y' all want, but he grows.
[00:11:53] Speaker C: He gets bigger and more powerful. And all of a sudden he can jump higher and run faster.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: And that's kind of what the Spirit is described as doing here in Galatians 5.
[00:12:02] Speaker C: That whenever we become Christians, God gives us this power that is beyond anything we would be capable of on our own. We could never do the things that the Spirit enables us to do. Not in a miraculous way, but. But it gives us the focus and the intensity to say, I'm going to say no to the world, and I'm going to say yes to God, and.
[00:12:20] Speaker B: I'm going to do it every day of my life.
[00:12:23] Speaker C: And if you see somebody who is conflicted, they're always falling back into sin. They're always falling into temptation. Those are people who have not allowed.
[00:12:31] Speaker B: Themselves to be led by the Spirit of God.
We have a brilliant, amazing power that God provides to. To be with us, to comfort us and to keep us, and to lead us toward Himself.
What an amazing blessing that is.
But of course, the Spirit has feelings.
Being a personal being, the Spirit can feel.
The Spirit has desires for us sometimes desires we may not have for ourselves, but he also has feelings. Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4, and this is verse 30, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
You know what it means to grieve someone?
It means that you hurt their feelings.
[00:13:20] Speaker C: It means that you break Their heart. You say something to offend them.
[00:13:25] Speaker B: The Holy Spirit can be offended whenever we choose a lifestyle that is contrary to the will of God.
Do you remember in Ezekiel, chapter 10, where the glory of the Lord rises from the Holy of Holies, and it goes up above the threshold of the Temple, and it stays there for just a moment before it goes off to the east, abandoning Jerusalem, abandoning the Temple.
[00:13:51] Speaker C: Ezekiel shares that story so that the.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: Children of Israel would understand that because their sins had become so great, that.
[00:13:58] Speaker C: Because they had corrupted God's holy place, that God had no other choice but to abandon his people, allowing the Babylonians.
[00:14:05] Speaker B: To destroy Jerusalem and to destroy the Temple known as the House of God. The same is true today.
That God's Holy Spirit cannot dwell in an unholy place.
[00:14:18] Speaker C: And whenever I allow unholiness to seize my life, whenever I allow sin and temptation to take hold of me and draw me away from God, it is.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: Impossible for the Spirit of God to remain there.
It's something we have to think about constantly as we're looking at our lives, to do that spiritual maintenance that we so often do, to know that we are making in our souls an abode for the Spirit of God so that we can continue to be comforted, continue to be strengthened, so that we have the will to overpower sin and temptation when it comes in our lives.
The Holy Spirit is a person and a personal force that lives in and with us according to the Scriptures. But the second thing that I want to share with you this morning is.
[00:15:07] Speaker C: That the Holy Spirit is also God.
That a lot of passages of the.
[00:15:11] Speaker B: Bible speak of God and the Spirit as though they are the same in First Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 11. Although this is difficult to understand how it works, for who knows, Paul says.
[00:15:23] Speaker C: A person's thoughts except the Spirit of.
[00:15:25] Speaker B: That person which is in him.
[00:15:28] Speaker C: So also no one comprehends the thoughts.
[00:15:31] Speaker B: Of God except the Spirit of God.
[00:15:34] Speaker C: God possesses a Spirit, and the Spirit is capable of reading and interpreting the mind of God. I suspect that's how inspiration takes place.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: In the Bible, that the mind of.
[00:15:46] Speaker C: God is transported into the mind of the human author by means of the Spirit. Now, I don't understand exactly how that happens.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: You know, I've read John chapter one. You have two. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was what with God. And the Word was God.
Can anybody else figure that out? I mean, I can't.
[00:16:09] Speaker C: How can the Word be with God and be God at the same time? That's really hard to figure out from A logical perspective.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: And how can God have the Spirit.
[00:16:19] Speaker C: And at the same time God be the Spirit? I don't know.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: It's kind of like how Jesus can be God and also be with God. But here's the point.
Anytime we try to reduce God to terms that we can explain and understand, we have violated the fundamental nature of his transcendence.
There are some things that are said that are true that we ought to teach and affirm, but we need to acknowledge. We may not be able fully to comprehend, but there are a lot of passages where the word Spirit and God are interchangeable in the Bible. In Second Corinthians, chapter three, this is verses 17 and 18. I want to look at the beginning and ends of these verses.
[00:17:01] Speaker C: So 2 Corinthians, chapter 3. This is verse 17.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and.
[00:17:07] Speaker C: The where the Spirit of the Lord.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: Is, there is freedom.
[00:17:11] Speaker C: So Paul says, the Lord is the Spirit.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: Seems to say that the Spirit and the Lord are the same thing. You look at the end of verse number 18.
[00:17:25] Speaker C: For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. Just in case we missed it the first time, Paul says it again, the Lord is the Spirit.
[00:17:36] Speaker B: Now that seems to suggest that the Spirit and God are the same thing.
[00:17:41] Speaker C: Or what about in Acts, chapter 5.
[00:17:42] Speaker B: In verses 3 and 4?
[00:17:43] Speaker C: This is where Ananias and Sapphira bring.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: A contribution to the apostles.
[00:17:48] Speaker C: But they lie about the amount that.
[00:17:50] Speaker B: They give and what is said in that text. Peter in verse 3 of Acts 5 says Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart with to lie to the Holy Spirit.
[00:18:06] Speaker C: Who made you think it was a good idea to lie to the Holy Spirit?
[00:18:10] Speaker B: But if you skip down to the very end of verse number four, he says again to Ananias, you have not lied to man, but to God.
[00:18:22] Speaker C: So did Ananias lie to the Holy Spirit, or did he lie to God?
[00:18:26] Speaker B: Yes, the Bible seems to interchange the two.
[00:18:32] Speaker C: Now, if you are familiar with what.
[00:18:34] Speaker B: The Bible teaches about the nature of the Trinity, this should come as no surprise.
[00:18:38] Speaker C: After all, we have God the Father.
[00:18:40] Speaker B: God the Son, and God the Spirit.
[00:18:42] Speaker C: What I'm saying to you is that the Bible affirms that truth. It is not some church tradition. It is not some council of men. The Bible actually says that God is.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: The Spirit and the Spirit is God. The two can be used interchangeably.
And so because of that, the Spirit has the authority of God.
Remember what Jesus says in Matthew 28:18. This church is so good at fulfilling these verses. We call them the Great Commission and.
[00:19:12] Speaker C: The work that we're all involved in.
[00:19:14] Speaker B: In sharing the gospel is a fulfillment of these words.
[00:19:18] Speaker C: But Jesus says, go, therefore, and make.
[00:19:19] Speaker B: Disciples of all nations. Baptizing them How?
In the name of the you can talk to me. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
[00:19:32] Speaker C: Now, why all three?
[00:19:34] Speaker B: You know, there are some church traditions.
[00:19:35] Speaker C: In the early church, we actually have.
[00:19:37] Speaker B: Testimony about this, that they actually had the custom of baptizing people three times in the name of the Father, number.
[00:19:44] Speaker C: One, in the name of the Son.
[00:19:45] Speaker B: Number two, and in the name of the Holy Spirit, number three.
Why did they do that? To signify that the nature of the Trinity, the Godhead, Father, Son and Spirit, was active in working in the salvation of God's people, just like it was active and working in the baptism of Jesus himself.
The Spirit has the Authority of In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul says, after enumerating a list of sins, and we look at that list today and we say, whew. And then we read in verse 11, and such were some of you.
He says, you used to be involved in these kinds of sins. These used to characterize your life. But you were washed, you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and Spirit of our God.
You were saved, you were purified, you.
[00:20:43] Speaker C: Had your sins washed away, and now you are justified to stand before God as though you are perfect. How did that happen?
[00:20:49] Speaker B: It happened because Jesus gave his life for you and his blood covers your sins. But it also happened by the work of the Spirit of God, which we encounter also at baptism. Acts 2:38.
And so if it's the case that the Spirit is a distinct entity and it's personal, it has feelings and desires, it wants what's best for us, and it comforts us and teaches us and helps us.
And also if the Spirit is God and works and speaks with the authority of God, then there are three conclusions.
Feel like we can draw.
Number one, if the Spirit is God, then we must allow a certain measure of ignorance.
There just has to be some mystery.
[00:21:41] Speaker C: Because God is greater than any of.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: Us can ever fathom, as Isaiah declares in Isaiah chapter 55, verses 8 and 9.
[00:21:48] Speaker C: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, declares the Lord.
So as the heavens are higher than.
[00:21:55] Speaker B: The earth, so my ways than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. In other words, what God is saying.
[00:22:02] Speaker C: Is, don't think about me too hard.
[00:22:04] Speaker B: You're going to end up believing in some sort of heretical doctrine if you.
[00:22:08] Speaker C: Try to Figure out God, you're almost.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: Certainly going to be wrong. And there have been a lot of people through the years who have tried and they have reached false conclusions contrary to Scripture because they tried to logic out the nature and activity of God. If the Spirit is God, we need to allow some room for humility. We should not speak where the Bible has not spoken. Number two.
If the Spirit is God, then we must approach him with reverence.
The answer to our ignorance before Almighty God is reverence.
You know, we know John chapter 14 and verse 6 where Jesus says, no one comes to the Father except through me. You remember that.
[00:22:53] Speaker C: That's how we know that Christianity is the only authorized, divinely authorized religion, because you cannot access God without going through Jesus. And we preach that and we quote that, and it's the reason why we go into all the world to spread the Gospel. But the Bible says the same thing.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: About the Holy spirit in Ephesians 2:18.
[00:23:14] Speaker C: Although this verse is not quite as.
[00:23:16] Speaker B: Well known as John 14:6, here's what the Bible says. Through him, we're talking about Jesus in the context. Through him that is Jesus, we have.
[00:23:27] Speaker C: Access.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: By one Spirit to the Father.
[00:23:34] Speaker C: How do we have access to God.
[00:23:36] Speaker B: The Father, in or by the Spirit?
If the Spirit is God, then we acknowledge the only way we can get.
[00:23:45] Speaker C: To the Father is through the Spirit.
[00:23:46] Speaker B: And the Spirit's work, which includes Scripture.
[00:23:49] Speaker C: But it's also the faith that we.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: Are enabled to have in such a remarkable way. If the Spirit is God, then we must reverence Him. But then three, and finally, if the Spirit is God, we must approach him with celebration.
We must be thrilled to know that.
[00:24:07] Speaker C: God has not only loved us historically.
[00:24:11] Speaker B: By giving Jesus to die on the.
[00:24:12] Speaker C: Cross, he's not only loved us by making it possible for us to have the ready access to His Word so.
[00:24:19] Speaker B: That we can know his will, but he has also provided the abiding presence of His Spirit to help us and guide us along the way. In Ephesians 5, the Bible says verses 18 and 19 do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.
[00:24:38] Speaker C: How do I do that?
[00:24:39] Speaker B: By addressing one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.
How do I engage the Spirit? By gathering together with God's people in worship, by reverencing him together, by experiencing.
[00:24:55] Speaker C: The presence of God in the the.
[00:24:57] Speaker B: Lives of one another.
And boy, what a celebration it is when God's people get together. And what a celebration it will be when the Time is complete and judgment is finished, and all of us enter into our heavenly home.
A modern theologian, Christopher hall, once said this actually our inability to grasp the Spirit is a sign that the Spirit is to be honored in and worshiped with the Father and the Son.
If we honor God the Father, as we've done today, if we honor God the Son, as we have done today, we also ought to honor God the Spirit and acknowledge the place that Scripture assigns to him in our lives.
But here's the bad news.
If you are not a child of God today, you cannot claim to have access to the Spirit of God, because we know the Spirit comes upon God's people at the point of repenting of sin and surrendering in humility to the blood of Jesus in baptism. Acts, chapter 2 and verse 38.
If you haven't made that decision, what's holding you back?
Why would you deny God to work in your life in such a special way? To bring you closer to him so that you can know him and the power that he provides?
Maybe it's the case that you're here today and you're just going through a difficult time in life.
You've gotten some bad news recently and you just feel inadequate.
You not only can trust in God and go to him in prayer, but you can trust in God's people.
One of the reasons why God establishes a church is so that we would have a support group to depend upon when things are too hard for us to handle on our own.
We want you to know that the Lord's invitation is open to you at this time. If you have need of anything, we invite you to come forward now as we stand and sing.
