We finished First Corinthians last week and actually for the
next six weeks, we'll just be focusing in on who the Holy
Spirit is, what the Holy Spirit's role is in our lives,
and get to really know and enjoy and experience the Holy Spirit
more in our lives. I'd ask you to turn to John 14
and and then we'll just flick ahead to chapter 16 and then if
you're apartment and able to park a finger in Romans chapter
8. We're going to read just a few
scriptures to begin with tonight.
The title of the message is the divine person of the Holy
Spirit. John 14, verse 16.
Jesus was talking to his disciples, he said, and I will
pray the Father, and he will give you another helper, capital
H, that he may abide with you forever.
The Spirit of truth, verse 17 whom the world cannot receive
because it neither sees him nor knows him.
But you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you, then move
ahead. Sorry, I will read 19 and 20 as
well. A little while longer and the
world will see me no more. But you will see me because I
live. You will live also at that day
you will know that I am in my Father and you and me and I and
you. Now move ahead to verse 25.
These things I've spoken to you while being present with you,
but the help of the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my
name. He will teach you all things and
bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
Then over into chapter 16 of John's Gospel, verse 5.
But now I go away to him who sent me.
None of you asked me where are you going?
But because I've said these things to you, sorrow has filled
your heart. Nevertheless, listen to this.
I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I
go away. For if I do not go away, the
helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him
to you, and when he has come, he will convict the world of sin
and of righteousness and of judgement of sin, because they
not do not believe in Me. Verse 9.
Verse 10. Of righteousness, because I go
to my Father and you see me no more of judgement.
Verse 11. Because the ruler of this world
is judged. I still have many things to say
to you, but you cannot bear them Now.
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, verse 13 has come, He
will guide you into all truth, but He will not speak on His own
authority. But whatever He hears, He will
speak, and He will tell you things to come.
He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is mine and declare
it to you. All things that the Father has
are mine. Therefore I said that He will
take of mine and declare it to you.
Now move ahead, please, to the book of Romans chapter 8 and
verses 1 to 6. Again, reading from the new King
James, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in
Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh, but
according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and
death. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin.
He condemns sin in the flesh. That verse 4, the righteous
requirement of the law might be fulfilled in US who do not walk
according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the
things of the flesh. For those who live according to
the Spirit, things of the Spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. So I just wanted to read those
scriptures there. And, and that'll just kind of, I
think sit as a blanket for us and we'll come back to some of
them throughout the course of tonight's message.
But what we deduce through that is that the Holy Spirit is given
to us. So much so that Jesus said it's
actually beneficial that I go so that you can receive the Holy
Spirit and that he will indwell the disciples and he will
indwell us as followers of Jesus, disciples of Jesus now
and Romans tells us that the Christian life that it is
absolutely necessary for us to because it's the life in the
spirit to have the Holy Spirit. It's an essential thing.
So today we're going to talk about the divine person of the
Holy Spirit. That's that's The Who next week
we'll have a look at what the Holy Spirit does about the work
of the Holy Spirit. But I think it's important to
begin with who the Holy Spirit is in our study in this series,
not just what he does because that that's the temptation is to
go straight to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Now think of yourself and and our culture and this is often
how we operate. We have a tendency to value what
over who You know. When you meet someone you know,
you'll say nice to meet you. And then what's the next
question we'll ask? What do you do?
All right, we do that in the way that we interact with one
another. What we do is certainly
important. It's a part of who we are, but
it's not the revelation of our entire being.
Our whole identity ought not to be wrapped up in what we do.
It's not the whole story. I scan groceries.
What do you do? I scan groceries.
So is that the end of the story? No, there is more to an
individual than than that. What we do is important and may
reveal much about us, but it's not the whole story of who we
are. And so, given that's not the end
of the story of who we are, it's important that we look at who
the Holy Spirit is and afford that same liberty that we would
like to afford to each other. Now who you are as a person is
more there's there's hopes, there's dreams, there's
ambitions, there's passions, there's fears, there's loves,
you know, gifts receive things to give, wounds and and sort of
grace abounding in our lives. So which tells the truest story?
I scan groceries. Well, the deeper revelation of
who you are, who you love and who you are loved by, what
you're passionate about, what drives you, what holds you back.
You know, we're, we're, I think the often the reason we ask that
is that we're, we're kind of painfully self oriented in our
culture. And so often that question, what
do you do is because we're seeking to, to know how that
person can help us in what they do.
Typically, what can you do for me?
And that's often times the approach that we take to the
Holy Spirit. What does the Holy Spirit do?
So then therefore, what can the Holy Spirit do for me?
We need to appreciate, we need to understand the divine person
of the Holy Spirit aside from that.
And so we first look at who the Holy Spirit is.
Individualism, consumerism is, is the wrong approach to God.
Now, it's, I think probably much easier to talk about what the
Holy Spirit does than who he is because that's a little bit more
difficult for us to get AT. And so hopefully tonight as we
study, we'll have a greater understanding because after all,
who really understands what spirit is, you know, And if if I
say the word spirit, all sorts of things come to our minds.
And then the old King James Version talks of the Holy Spirit
and uses the terminology the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost.
What does that even mean? And so we're, we're a little
confused maybe sometimes who even understands terms like
ghost and and spirit, These are ethereal terms for us, sometimes
mysterious, hard to pin down a little bit.
We don't really even know what our spirits are, let alone the
Holy Spirit. So we need help to understand,
to comprehend the Spirit of God, and that's what we're we're
looking at and why we're studying this series to aid us
in that. But you know, when we think of
the other other members of the Trinity for whom we have kind of
reference or points of analogy, we're a little bit more probably
secure in our understanding of Father God.
I mean, we know the term father. We can at least even in our
broken world, have some semblance of what a a father is
and, and to function like and to be like.
We can understand that and, and son as well.
And, and Jesus, obviously with the gospels and we read of his
humanity and all of his experiences.
But you know, compared to these familiar and and familial terms,
father and son, spirit, you know, we're a little vague or
unsure about that kind of seems remote, removed, maybe even cold
or distant in our understanding of that, at least on an
emotional or psychological level with us, maybe even a little
intimidating, especially when you factor in the old King James
Version, Holy Ghost. And what I think also adds to
this mystery is the adjective holy.
It's difficult enough enough for us with spirit and with ghost,
but then holy at the beginning in reference of God.
What does holy mean? The root significance of the
word holy in Scripture has to do with God's otherness of him
being separate in his morality, in his righteousness, kind of
placed at a distance, set apart, altogether different and unique,
special, particular, out of the ordinary for us.
And it's spatial language that again has otherness in mind.
And at the core of that otherness is morality.
God has moral distance where because of His Holiness, there's
this essential separation that must be there between sinful,
depraved humanity and a holy righteous God.
And this is language that we're we're very familiar with
throughout the Scripture. But one example I wish to give
to you in reference to God the Father particularly is in the
book of Isaiah. Turn with me to the Old
Testament book of Isaiah in chapter 6.
And the prophet Isaiah has this revelation of God the Father and
the holy God of Israel as he understands it in Isaiah chapter
6 verses 1 to 5. And you see this language that
describes God in His Holiness, God the Father, God the Son, and
in application also in reference to the the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 6 verse one it says in the year that King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up and
the train of his robe filled the temple.
Above it stood Seraphim. Each one had 6 wings.
With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet,
and with two he flew. So already there's this language
in this, this imagery of things that are all together foreign
and and complex for our human minds to to grapple with and
understand. Verse 31 cried to another and
said Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
Now in Hebrew, to say something three times was like our
exclamation mark, and it was the fullness.
So in other words, when it comes to holy and holiness, to say it
three times means that that God is the epitome of all that is
holy. Everything holy is wrapped up in
Him. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of
hosts. The whole earth is full of His
glory. Excuse me and look at this verse
4. The post of the door was shaken
by the voice of him who cried out.
The house was filled with smoke, so I said, woe is me.
The new Living Translation, I think, puts it, I am doomed.
Woe is me, it says, for I am undone because I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. For my eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. Wow, God is high and exalted.
We just read. He's lifted up.
Isaiah, in contrast, is pictured as being low and thrust down.
The contrast, God's presence, the train of his robe, fills the
temple, it says with glory. While Isaiah, it's like he's
shrinking back in a corner, carrying, overwhelmed.
God has been declared by the Seraphim to be holy, holy, holy,
and the prophet discovers himself in comparison to be
sinful, unclean, and undone. Woe is me, I am doomed. 1
theologian puts it this way when Speaking of God's holiness.
God's holy holiness is the searing purity of his eternal
infinite being, the searing purity of his eternal infinite
being. And so the Holy Spirit of God in
this searing, pure, morally distant, high and exalted
otherness above anything else, holy, holy, holy.
It's who he is, Father and the Son.
Such is God. And so when it comes to the Holy
Spirit, we go, well, if, if God is holy, if the Son is holy, the
Holy Spirit, what makes him unique in that holiness?
How is there some differentiation?
You know, when we think of spirit or ghost, the sense that
comes to mind most quickly is perhaps that of immaterialism,
some sort of cosmic life force, some entity just sort of
floating out there in some vagueness.
But that is not what the biblical words are getting at
when we explore this. Spirit, many of you may know in
Hebrew is the term ruach, and it helps if you get that little at
the end of it too. And actually both of these
terms, the Hebrew and the Greek are onomatopoeic in their
pronunciation, in fact, and and it helps to to kind of
understand what what the language is getting at Ruach in
the Hebrew and it it looks like we would say Numa, but it's
actually you say it in this S and in the Greek here Numa.
It's kind of, it sounds odd for us to do so, but these terms
onomatopoeic, you know, onomatopoeia where words that
are spelt that sounds right sizzle and on snap and bat and
on through. So Ruach and and panema kind of
had this expulsion of wind, ruch and breath, you know, that are
connected with them. The idea is of air in motion.
So, so it kind of helps, I think in that way.
So spirit as a referent to God expresses in his most
fundamental form like the the breath of life, power, energy,
life, like I say, and the point of of spirit is not
immateriality, but rather the presence of energy and of
activity. Energy rather than immateriality
is in view here action not absence, power not
impersonality, And so therefore to say Holy Spirit is not to say
morally removed immaterial, but rather to say the searing purity
and active power of God. We must remember, though, that
the Holy Spirit is not merely energy or an impersonal it.
Just as I don't come up to you, or you don't come up to me and
ask what does it think about this thing that is happening
tomorrow? Though some in today's language
do, right? What does it think about what
you get going to do tomorrow? We don't say that Scripture
teaches that the Holy Spirit is a person, a who?
Not an it. Not in the way that you are, you
or I are persons, but in the way that the Father and the Son are
persons, divine persons. So we must not say that the Holy
Spirit is merely the exerted energy of God.
And some err in that way, you know, manifested in the world or
the eternally preceding energy of God, as some might declare.
In fact, that's classic heresy when it comes to the Holy
Spirit. And it's not historic Christian
orthodoxy to say that. To believe that the Holy Spirit
isn't it is to deny Scripture is to malign God and to be guilty
of heresy. That's in fact what the
Jehovah's Witness do. So a denial of his personhood is
a denial of the Trinity and tantamount to, like I say,
heretical thought when it comes to distinct Christian doctrine.
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity.
Let me give you an excerpt from the Athanasian Creed, which had
its origins around the 4th, 5th centuries AD.
Listen to this. We worship one God in Trinity,
and Trinity in unity, neither confounding the persons nor
dividing the substance. For there is one Person of the
Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.
But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty Co eternal.
Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy
Spirit. The Father uncreated, the Son
uncreated and the Holy Spirit uncreated, the Father
incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy
Spirit incomprehensible, the Father eternal, the Son eternal,
and the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet there are not 3
eternals, but one eternal, as also there are not 3 uncreated
nor 3 incomprehensible, but one uncreated and one
incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is
Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Spirit Almighty.
And yet there are not 3 Almighty's, but one Almighty.
So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God.
And yet they are not three gods, but one God.
So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy
Spirit Lord. And yet they are not 3 Lords,
but one Lord. It's awesome, isn't it?
So the Holy Spirit is presented in Scripture to have the same
essential deity as the Father and the Son, and therefore is to
be worshipped and adored, loved and obeyed as God.
Now the idea of what's called Ruach Kadesh is not simply
energy from God, but rather it describes God extending himself
in active engagement with his creation in a personal way.
It is the holy extending of the power and love of God to
creation in himself. And one of the things we
understand about God from Scripture is, is that God is
omnipresent. You know, he, he exists, he's
present, he's everywhere at all times.
That's what that that word means, omnipresent.
We also realise that there is a difference between the
omnipresence of God and the manifest presence of God.
Think of the following examples. Moses God exists everywhere at
all times. But Moses encountered A
manifestation and manifest presence of God when he came
across holy ground in the burning Bush.
Think of what we just read out of Isaiah.
A manifest presence of God. God is present everywhere,
omnipresent at all times and yet he he saw the train of his Rd
filled the temple and the voice. Think of Daniel the prophet on
the river and and the manifest presence of God.
Again, God present ever at all times.
But there are manifestations, revelations of God, where the
power of God is, as I say, powerful and real in ways very
tangible and known. And so it is the Holy Spirit who
seems to be the member of the Trinity, that manifests the
presence of God in creation. Ezekiel 39 verse 29 says I will
no longer hide my face from them.
My face is terminology about presence in the Bible.
For I will pour out my spirit on the House of Israel, declares
the sovereign Lord. Psalm 139, verse 7.
Where can I go from thy spirit, or where can I flee from thy
presence? And so the person of the Holy
Spirit is the extending of God's holy presence into creation, but
also of His loving presence. For God is holy.
Yes, we've been looking at that, but God is love. 1 John 4, verse
8. And there is a deep and unique
connection of love with the Holy Spirit even in this very in his
very essence as the third person of the Trinity.
Listen to what Saint Bernard of Clavo called the Spirit.
He said the Spirit is the kiss of the Father and the Son.
When great theologians have tried to describe the Holy
Spirit, they often resort to this kind of language and
imagery of, of trinitarian love and and delight in eternal
relationship. God the Father, Son, Holy
Spirit. Jonathan Edwards, He said the
Holy Spirit is the delight that the Father and the Son have in
each other and he carries in himself.
So sorry, I have to take this jacket off, but I'm kind of
pinned here. Sorry about that.
Let me read that again. Jonathan Edwards said that the
Holy Spirit is the delight that the Father and the Son have in
each other, and he carries in himself so fully the essence of
the Father and the Son that he himself stands forth as a third
person in his own right. Heard the name CS Lewis,
Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity.
He said Christians believe that the living, dynamic activity of
love between Father, Son and Holy Spirit has been going in
God forever and has created everything else.
In Christianity, God is not a static thing, but a dynamic
pulsating activity, a life almost, a kind of drama almost.
He goes on, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of
dance. The union between the Father and
the Son is such a a live, concrete thing that this union
itself is also a person. Now to know who someone loves
and who loves them is actually a great way to get to know them,
isn't it? You know, we start to see who
the Spirit is as we begin to see whom he loves and who loves him.
The Bible tells us that the Spirit loves the Father.
The Bible tells us that the Spirit loves the Son.
The Bible tells us that the Father and the Son love the
Spirit. And we do this naturally in our
interactions. If any of you are employers or,
or maybe even as an employee, you've, you've had to submit
references and people will ring around and, and they'll ask and
they'll enquire about people who know you to get a sense of who
you are through their knowing of you.
And so we can do the same of the Holy Spirit by by looking at the
attributes and characteristics of those that know the Holy
Spirit and to enquire of what they say also about the Holy
Spirit. And so of the Holy Spirit ask
those who are closest to him, who are closest to the Holy
Spirit, God the Father and God the Son.
How does the Father feel and think about the Spirit?
Luke 24 verse 49. He is the promised gift of the
Father. In other words, when when the
Father looks at the Holy Spirit, he, he thinks of the Holy Spirit
being a precious gift to His people.
How does the Son feel about the Spirit?
As I read out of John 16 verse seven that he said it's actually
advantageous. It's better that I go so that
the Holy Spirit could come because he's going to be a
blessing to you. It's going to be beneficial for
you, an advantage. So the Father and the Son see
the person of the Holy Spirit as a tremendous love gift then to
humanity. And there's also a sense of
protection that they have about the Holy Spirit.
You know, what did Jesus say in Luke 12?
That all sins would be forgiven even against him?
But what would not be forgiven? Blasphemy against who?
The Holy Spirit. And so there's this this element
of protection that is towards the Holy Spirit in this way.
So both the Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit to us as a
gift is the language that they use.
And it's almost as if there's this beautiful loving Co
claiming of who it is. It's giving the Holy Spirit by
the Father and the Son. John 14 verse 26, the Helper,
the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name.
He will teach you all things. And then Jesus later and John
15, verse 26, when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you
from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, man.
I get to send him. Well, the Father's sending him,
but I get to send him too. Oh no.
And there's almost like you could argue kind of like a holy
argument over who gets to give the Holy Spirit.
Andrew Murray says that the most precious gift of the Father's
love in Christ is the gift of the Holy Spirit to dwell in US
and lead us. So there's this again, wonderful
Trinitarian love that exists, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, some
sort of special endearing quality going on here.
And look at the sweetness that the Scripture uses to describe
the Holy Spirit. And 2nd Corinthians chapter 3,
verse 17, wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Romans 8 verse 6 The mindset on the Spirit is life and peace.
Romans 1513 You will overflow with confident hope through the
power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 1417 For the Kingdom of
God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a
life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
On Thessalonians chapter 1, verses 5 and 6, the Holy Spirit
gave you full assurance that what we said was true.
So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit.
Rooms 815 You have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by
which we cry out, ABBA Father. In other words, when the Holy
Spirit is enjoyed and experienced, we can't help but
say Thank you, Father, God, ABBA, Father.
Acts 9, verse 31. So the church throughout all
Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace being built up,
going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy
Spirit. It continued to increase
freedom, hope, goodness, joy, love, full assurance, comfort,
life, all of those those terms there that that hint at this,
this sweetness that is connected with the Holy Spirit, associated
with the person of the Holy Spirit, his attributes, his
characteristics. So far from there being some
remote sort of distant, mysterious cold connotations and
feelings, there is when we go to Scripture, an incredible sense
of warmth and tender care for the believer that is enjoyed and
to be known and the Church in and through the Divine person of
the Holy Spirit. Jesus used the term Paracletus
to describe or name the Holy Spirit, and translated that
means Helper, Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor.
And that tells us so much about who the Holy Spirit is.
The Holy Spirit is the one who's always ready to help, always
ready to bring comfort and support and advocate and
intercede for the Christian, for the church.
It's his nature, it's his qualities, it's it's his
attributes. They're all declared in this,
but there's more. Now this sweetness is combined
with tremendous holiness, hence holy, and this tells us more
about the Spirit. You see, again, just as is the
case with humanity, knowing someone's dislikes, what bothers
them, what annoys them, what irritates them, what what wounds
or what hurts them, tells us a lot about them and helps us to
get to know them more. And the same is true of the Holy
Spirit when we look into the Scripture.
The Holy Spirit can be wounded per SE, as we are, but not in
the way that we are. Scripture doesn't tell us this,
that the Holy Spirit can be grieved.
Ephesians 4, verse 31, Thessalonians 5, verse 19, and
that the Holy Spirit has a tremendous sensitivity towards
sin, to lies and untruths. He's called the Spirit of truth.
John 15, verse 26 And remember in the early days of the church
in the book of Acts, when Ananias and Sapphira came and
they conjured up their scheme over having sold some property
and they together in cahoots with one another said, well,
let's tell this story to the church, that we've sold it for
this amount and here it all is. But they held back some for
themselves and lied. And what did Peter say?
He said, why have you lied? Not to us, to the church, but he
said, why have you lied to the Holy Spirit as if it would have
been affront to his personage, to his attributes, to his
characteristics. Honesty is one of the best
qualities in a friend, isn't it? You know, Proverbs 27 verse 6 is
how faithful are the wounds of a friend.
Jesus calls us his friends in John 15.
Abraham was called the friend of God.
And so too, we're able to think of the Holy Spirit in this way.
If we press into the Holy Spirit, we'll discover him to be
a very good friend because the Holy Spirit will always tell us
the truth about ourselves, about God, about our sin.
John 16, verse 9, Sin, righteousness and judgement we
read is is what he would be focusing on.
And the Spirit will, though sweet and tender, never make you
feel OK about sin. Haven't you noticed that to be
true? John 16, verse 8.
The Holy Spirit will also be a faithful friend and true in that
way where he will never lie about life's harsh realities.
Think of the example of Paul when giving his farewell address
to the Ephesian elders in the book of Acts in chapter 20.
And the church has gathered there and the elders and he's
declaring that he would be making his way to a particular
destination and that the Holy Spirit had warned him what that
in going there that it would not go well for Paul.
And the Holy Spirit wasn't holding back on on giving that
revelation of truth because the Holy Spirit is a friend.
And we'll reveal that about life's harsh realities and did
so for the apostle Paul. You know, every, any friend that
tells you everything's going to be OK, you'll be right.
How do I look? Fine.
It's not a real friend. It's not a true friend.
A great friend who truly loves you will tell you, you know,
things are going to get hard. It'll be difficult, but take
heart. And that's the Holy Spirit.
You know, when you or I want to really get past what someone
merely does and get down to who they are, you know, sometimes
we'll ask some some deeper questions of them.
You know, what are you passionate about?
What drives you, what motivates you?
What, what gets you out of bed in the morning?
Three things that the Holy Spirit is passionate about, as
we understand through the scriptures #1 the Holy Spirit is
passionate about Jesus, is Christ centred.
He's humble. It's never about himself.
The Holy Spirit is always pointing to Jesus Christ, to
magnifying Jesus. What the Holy Spirit is
passionate about #2 is holiness. He is pure and undefiled.
And thirdly, what the Holy Spirit is passionate about is
the mission of Jesus Christ. And he is active and
compassionate and working in that and dedicated and devoted
to that. You know, so if you or I, we are
seeking the Holy Spirit, really wanting to pursue him and to get
to know him more, He will always be introducing us to and pushing
us toward and taking us deeper into Jesus.
Introducing us to, pushing us toward, and taking us deeper
into holiness. Introducing us to, pushing us
toward, and taking us deeper into the mission that we're
called to as believers. And where these three things are
valued and practise, I can guarantee you that the Holy
Spirit will be found. The Spirit is most present where
Jesus is most central. The Spirit is most present where
holiness is being pursued. The Spirit is most present where
mission is being accomplished. And now all of this is an
attempt to sort of bring things down to our level without
understanding and the guidance of Scripture to help us grasp
the person of the Holy Spirit, the The Who of the Holy Spirit.
Tonight we can only go so far. For at the end of the day,
there's a tremendous amount of mystery surrounding the Holy
Spirit. Even even the scriptures begin
to lose language, you know, in in human form when describing
the Holy Spirit and and employs imagery by telling us that he is
like fire, he is like water, he's like oil and wind.
And so brings our understanding of those things and somehow
tries to help flesh out and grow our understanding of the Holy
Spirit in that way. Listen to another theologian,
Ferguson, how he puts it. When the Holy Spirit comes on
individuals, they are caught up in the thrust of an alien energy
and exercise unusual powers. The faint are raised into
action. Exceptional human abilities are
demonstrated. Ecstasy may be experienced.
Yahweh's Ruach is, as it were, the blast of God, the
irresistible power by which He accomplishes His purposes.
Those who are the subject to the activity of the divine Ruach act
in supernatural ways, with supernatural energy and powers.
And yet there's the gentleness, the fruits of the spirit, the
control. Think of all of those combining
together. It's like Jesus who could calm
the raging sea and cradle the little child.
It's like Jesus who could expel a legion of demons and embrace
the suffering leper. He could fiercely overturn the
tables of the money changers in the House of God and mercifully
pardon the woman caught in the act of adultery.
So what does all this mean for the Christian?
It means this God has made himself available to you.
His Spirit is in you. Andrew Murray put it this way.
He said the Spirit displaces our life and replaces it with the
life of Christ in power to make the Son of God divinely and
consciously present with us always.
So here we are over the next six weeks attempting to gain a
little more understanding of who the divine Person of the Holy
Spirit is. And with this in mind, we, we
want to know more of God, don't we?
That's why that's why we're studying this.
That's what this is all about. Psalm 73, verse 25 to 26 says,
besides the I desire nothing on earth, my flesh and my heart may
fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
And so let's begin over the the next six weeks to to really
immerse ourselves in well, what does the Bible say about the
Holy Spirit be students be studies of God's word.
Let me throw out rapid fire a number of scriptures for you
with the Holy Spirit. That would be a great poet of
call in you if your desirous to know God more and to know the
person of the Holy Spirit more, have that be a goal and get to
know the divine person of the Holy Spirit because there's so
much to him. He is the Spirit of God, One
Corinthians 316 the Spirit of Christ Romans 8-9 the Spirit of
Jesus, Acts 16, seven the Spirit of the Lord 2 Corinthians 317
The Holy 1 the eternal Spirit, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit
of grace, the Spirit of glory, Spirit of faith, of life, of
wisdom and revelation, of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of
counsel and might. The spirit of knowledge and the
fear of the Lord. The Spirit of grace and
supplication. He is the comforter, advocate,
counsellor, and helper. He is the witness.
Romans 816. The intercessor.
Romans 826 to 27. The dove.
Luke 322. The promised gift of the Father.
The living water. The spirit of adoption.
The Spirit of holiness. The Author of Scripture.
The convictor of sin. The seal and guarantee of our
salvation. The Teacher of all things, The
power of God. The fire of God.
The rushing wind of God. The outpouring of God.
The oil of God. The anointing of God.
The Divine Person of the Holy Spirit.