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The Holy Spirit - Part 4

10/25/2015

Preached at Cornerstone Church in Cascade, IA on October 25, 2015

Today marks our last Sunday focusing on the Third Person of the Trinity. To be honest, I am a little sad, for there is still so much that could be said. In fact, because the Spirit is God, there is an infinite amount that could be said, for God is unsearchable.

For those who have found this sermon series on the Holy Spirit interesting and you want to go deeper, I encourage you to read “Forgotten God” by Francis Chan. You can find a link to it on our website. Also, for those who are reading through Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology, there are good sections on the Holy Spirit.. Lastly, I have been reading through the Holy Spirit by Sinclair Ferguson, and I have found it extremely helpful. It is a little heavy, but not to bad.

Before we get into today’s sermon, let us briefly review what we have learned up to this point. First we learned that God is One, in three persons. We call this mystery the Trinity. One of those persons of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is fully God, yet separate in personhood. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force, but instead is a personal God. Each person of God has a specific role. The general role of the Holy Spirit is the manifestation of all that God is, or to say it another way He is the proceeding power of the attributes of God. He proceeds originally from the Father, but also equally from the Son. Last week we examined this proceeding power in the lives of God’s elect at the time of regeneration. The power of God that blows into the life of God’s chosen, birthing them into spiritual life and giving them eyes to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Without the Spirit of God regenerating us, we would never have the capacity to trust in Jesus as our Lord and as our Savior.

Today we are going to take the next step and examine the working of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. We will begin where we left off last week. Turn in your Bibles to Ezekiel 36:22

Ezekiel 36:25-27 – “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

As I said, last week we saw that this outpouring of the Spirit described in Ezekiel is what we call regeneration. It is what Jesus was unpacking for Nicodemus in John 3. The description that Jesus used was being born again. As Jesus said, without this new spiritual birth you cannot see the Kingdom. Spiritual birth is a prerequisite to loving Jesus. This spiritual birth is caused by the Holy Spirit.

Put My Spirit within You

But, now let us ask, what happens next? Does the Holy Spirit blow out of our lives just as quickly as He blew into it? Is the new birth, the end of the story. This answer is an emphatic no. Babies are meant to grow into maturity. Look at verse 27, “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” In this verse there are two components, God putting his Spirit within you and causing us to walk. First, let us look at the first part, “I will put my Spirit within you.”

As we begin, let’s take a moment and dwell upon the immensity of this statement. “I will put my Spirit within you.” This statement is mind-blowing and is unfathomable. The Holy Spirit is fully God; meaning he lacks nothing of who God is. He is all powerful, all knowing, and all present. We on the other hand are merely created dust. We are clay in the hands of a omnipotent Potter. The distance between the glory of God and the humility of us is infinite, literally infinite. Not to mention that not only are we dust in God’s hands, but we are sinners. We have rejected God’s authority in our life and we deserve Hell, not the gift of the Holy Spirit. But yet, there it is, written in God’s unchanging Word, “I will put my Spirit within you.”

This is not the only place we see God reminding Christians that he has put his Spirit in us. It is a frequent reminder throughout the New Testament.

Galatians 4:6 – “Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father.”
1 Corinthians 6:19 – “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,”
2 Timothy 1:1 4 – “By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.”

The reality of the Christian life is that the Third Person of the Trinity takes up residence in your heart. This is what distinguishes Christians from non-Christians. Unbelievers are void of the Spirit of God. According to Ephesians 2:2, instead of the Spirit of God they have a spirit of disobedience.
For some of you with a Catholic background, this idea of the Spirit of God coming into your heart and giving you new life is foreign to you. The religion of Catholicism does not teach Biblical regeneration by the Spirit of God. Instead it teaches regeneration by the works of man, whether it is Baptism, Communion, Confession, or praying to dead people (otherwise known as necromancy). Catholicism wrongly teaches that these religious hoops are what keep you right with God, and therefore are necessary to obtain salvation. In this type of false religion, the Holy Spirit has no role, for it is not up to the Spirit of God, it is up to the individual. I cannot think of a more scary doctrine than my salvation depending upon me. That is a recipe for slavery to the law, slavery to guilt, and slavery to failure. The truth, as proclaimed by the Bible is that the Holy Spirit is the distinguishing factor between the spiritually dead and the spiritually alive.

Romans 8:9 – “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”

If the Spirit of God has not taken up residence in your heart, then you are not a Christian. It is as simple as that. It does not matter if you attend Church, or mass, every week. It does not matter if you say you believe in Jesus, for even the demons believe in God. It does not matter if you are a Pastor of Cornerstone or the Pope. The only thing that matters is if you have the Holy Spirit.
So why does God put his Spirit in us? Why not just forgive us in Christ and move on?

2 Corinthians 1:21-22 - “And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”

God, by his Grace wants to give us assurance. He wants us to know that we are saved. How does he do this? By the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God taking up residence in our heart is a seal. He is a guarantee. What is the purpose of a seal? It is to prove authorship. When a King would write a letter, he put hot wax on the latter and take his ring and press it into the wax. This would cause a royal seal. Anyone who received this letter would know it is from the King. This is one of the purposes of the Holy Spirit? God has pressed his sign upon our hearts by the power of his Spirit. The Spirit within us acts as a sign to us and to the world that we are God's and He is ours.
The second part is that the Holy Spirit, is not only a seal upon our hearts, but he is a guarantee of our future glorification with the Lord. He is a down-payment of a promise to be later paid in full. There may be decades between our new birth in Christ and our full reunion with God in Heaven. Those decades will consist of mountains and valleys; brokenness, confusion, uncertainty, and failure. There will be times that you will wonder if God is truly your Father. You will doubt his love for you, but your faith will never fail. Why? Because of the Holy Spirit. He is God's pledge to you that God will never leave you, nor forsake you. God reminds us of this wonderful reality in the book of Ephesians.

Ephesians 1:13-14 – “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is the guaranteed of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,e to the praise of his glory.”
Ephesians 4:30 – “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

Once the Holy Spirit comes into your heart, there is no getting him out. He is there to stay. Therefore, this is another reason why at Cornerstone we believe what is called eternal security, or perseverance of the saints. This is the understanding that once you are saved through Christ, you cannot lose your salvation. You cannot be born again, and then unborn. You cannot be adopted into God's family and then kicked out. You cannot be found then lost again. Why do we say this, for many Biblical reasons, but one of them is the guarantee of the Holy Spirit. Logically, if you could evict the Holy Spirit, he wouldn't be much of a guarantee would he?

Cause You to Obey

At this point, there may be some of you in this room who then say, “If you can't lose your salvation, does that mean you can sin all you want and still go to heaven?” The answer to that question is no, but for another reason.

The second part of Ezekiel 36:27 was that God would, “cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” This is another role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He not only seals us and guarantees our future glorification with the Lord in Heaven, but he changes our behavior.
When we are born again by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are given eyes to see. What we see is our wretched ways, our sin, and our need for forgiveness in Jesus Christ. This understanding causes us to repent, or turn, from our life of following the ways of the sinful world, and instead follow Jesus. This is an act of the supernatural. You go from caring less about Jesus, to being consumed by Him. If someone was to ask you, “What happened to you?” You would say, “I love Jesus.” They might respond, “How did that happen?” And you would answer, “I don't know. I can't explain it. Something inside of me just changed.” This change is the Holy Spirit being put in your heart.

And this love for Jesus causes you to, not only proclaim your love for Christ, but to live out your love for Christ. The fruit of the Spirit produces in you a love for the Lord that causes you to walk in God's statutes and obey all that he commands. Jesus says this same thing to the disciples in the upper room prior to his death.

John 14:21-23 - “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.”

Who will obey Christ? Those whom love Christ. Why does someone love Christ? The Holy Spirit. This is why you cannot have Jesus as your Savior, but not your Lord. You can't have one without the other, they are a package deal. If the Spirit has been put inside of you, that means that you are born again, sealed, guaranteed, and will obey Christ.

To be a Christian does mean that you say some magic prayer, it means that you recognize the Jesus is the Lord of your life. He is in charge of what you do, how you spend your money, what words you say, what movies you watch, what goals and dreams you have. And this Lordship of Christ over your life is not a burden, but a joy. For you love Jesus. You want to do all that he asks, for he is your greatest treasure and you delight to serve Him.

1 John 3:24 – “Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.”

This is something that the world does not get, especially our youth. They believe that you can claim to be a Christian, and then live any way you want. You can say what you want, watch want you want, buy what you want, live with who you want, have sex with who you want, marry who you want, live life the way you want. A life that is lived that is out of sync with God's unchanging Word, is proof that the Spirit of God does not live in a persons heart. I don't care if that person goes to their grave saying they are a Christian, if they make a practice of living independent of God's will, then they are walking proof of their damnation. This is why Jesus says in Matthew 7:21

Matthew 7:21-23 - “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

Why were these people sent away on judgment day? They were workers of lawlessness, not workers of righteousness. The Holy Spirit was never poured out on them, causing them to love Christ and obey his commands.

No, the life of a Christian is a life with the proceeding power of God, springing out of your heart like a fountain of living water. It is a life of radical transformation from the inside out. So what is our response to this wonderful reality?

Philippians 2:12-13 - “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

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The Holy Spirit - Part 3

10/18/2015

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Today marks our third Sunday on the sermon series topic of the Holy Spirit. Before we begin I do want to say that I have greatly enjoyed the last several weeks as I have dove into the Third Person of the Trinity. I have benefited greatly through this focused study of the Holy Spirit.

With that said, I want to take a moment to encourage all of you to do the same. Pick a topic and then mine the Word of God to seek truth related to the topic. It doesn’t have to be the Holy Spirit, it could be a variety of different things such as raising children, end times, love, Hell, money, you name it. Read the relevant passages, read the cross references, read the study notes, read commentaries about those passages and just soak in God’s Word. If you do this, you are guaranteed to bear fruit.

Today let us start by review. Two weeks ago we established that there is one God in three persons. One of those persons is the Holy Spirit. He is not an impersonal force, but a personal God. Last week we focused our attention on the proceeding power of the Holy Spirit. First we examined the Holy Spirit’s proceeding power as he exists within the Trinity and then we examined briefly His proceeding power as He is unleashed into the World, like a might rushing wind.

Today we are going to look at the Holy Spirit’s role in redemptive History as it relates to regeneration. Open your Bibles to Acts 2:1-21. As I stated last week, this is the point in history that the flood gates of the Holy Spirit are unleashed upon humanity.

Acts 2:1-21 – “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” 12And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” 14But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 15For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.b 16But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: 17“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;18even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. 19And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; 20the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. 21And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament

As I stated in my first sermon three weeks ago the Holy Spirit is mentioned 88 times in the Old Testament and 264 times in the New Testament. There is no doubt that 88 is far less than 264, but this may not seem like a great disparity, until you consider the length of the Old Testament, both in years and in words. The events of the Old Testament include 4000 years of history and it took 1000 years to write it, from Moses to Malachi. The New Testament on the other hand covers 100 years of history and was written over the course of 50 years. Also, there are approximately 620,000 words in the Old Testament, and approximately 180,000 words in the New Testament, therefore, the Old Testament makes up nearly 75% of the Bible. Today we are going to answer why there is such a disparity between the Old and New Testament regarding the presence of the Holy Spirit.
To begin, let us ask a question we have asked before, what is the Bible all about? There are several ways you could answer this, but the best answer is that the Bible is all about Jesus. Jesus himself says it in John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,” He says it again in Luke 24:25-27 on the road to Emmaus “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” So the Bible, Old Testament included, is all about Jesus. However, this is not readily apparent.

Now let’s ask a second question, who is responsible for the Bible being all about Jesus? The answer to this is the Holy Spirit.

2 Peter 1:20-21 - “no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

The Scriptures that bear witness about Jesus are written by the Holy Spirit. This is what we mean when we say that all scripture is inspired by God. The Holy Spirit carries them along.
Now take a moment and think about this. The Old Testament is all about Jesus, we have already established this; however, the witnessing of Jesus by the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament is one of mystery. The Holy Spirit is casting the shadow of Christ.

Colossians 2:16-17 – “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17These are a shadow of the things to come,”
Hebrews 10:1 – “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities,”

When thinking about the work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, this makes sense. Last week we briefly looked at the work of the Holy Spirit in a few people’s lives: Moses, Bezalel, Sampson, David. Each time the Spirit came upon them, they were becoming the paintbrush of God painting the shadow of Jesus Christ. But what happens when the Jesus comes, the floodgates of the Holy Spirit are unleashed.

The Promised Spirit

Turn back to Acts 2, our text for this morning. This event in human history is drastically underrated and misapplied. This event in Acts 2 is the beginning of God making all things new. If you recall Jesus said, just approximately 50 days earlier that upon his return to the Father he would send the Helper.

John 16:7 – “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 go, I will send him to you.”

As we discussed earlier, this helper is the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2, Jesus has just ascended and at this moment his followers numbered about 120 people. Three years of ministry and the size of Jesus' Church was just a little larger than Cornerstone. But then everything changed on the day of Pentecost. For on that day, the Holy Spirit was unleashed like a thoroughbred from the gates of Heaven and in one fell swoop comes pouring onto the scene in a way that the world had never seen before and 3,000 people gave their life to Jesus Christ as their Lord and their Savior.
And these people were from all over the world. According to verse 9 this group included: Parthia, Mede, Elamite, Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Rome, Crete, and Arabia. In the blink of an eye the Church increased by 2500%. What happened? The Holy Spirit happened.

Prior to this moment, the Holy Spirit, generally, had been spiritually hovering over the hearts of man. Just as he did in Genesis 1:2, but when God said let it be the Spirit came and breathed spiritual life into the lungs of the dead, and 3,000 of God's Children were born. How does Peter explain what is happening? He quotes from the book of Joel, written 600 years before this moment.

Acts 2:16-21- “But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: 17“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;18even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. 19And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; 20the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. 21And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

This moment was the beginng of the last days. Last days before what? Before God puts an end to all sin and death. And what is so special about these last days? The Spirit is poured out on all flesh, not just Israel.

Now don't get caught up in the prophesy, visions, dreams, smoke, blood moons, etc. If you focus on those things you are missing the point. The point that Peter is making is that God said that some day the power of God was going to proceed from Him in the form of the Holy Spirit on people other than the Jews. The end result, as we see in verse 21, was that people would call upon the name of the Lord and they will be saved. The Spirit was the Catalyst leading to salvation.
This was not the first time that a prophet spoke of this moment in time. We at Cornerstone have found ourselves in this text many, many times.

Ezekiel 36:24-27 - “I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

Perhaps the most prominent aspect to this text is that time that the Lord said, “I.” I will take you, I will sprinkle, I will cleanse you, I will give you, I will put within you, I will remove, I will put my Spirit within you and cause you. God is the supplier of the power. In the promise of this future day, it is God who is doing all the work and those who are recipients are merely passive. All they can do is receive the gift of his Spirit.

What was happening as prophesied by Joel and Ezekiel, and what was taking place in Acts 2 was exactly what Jesus spoke about in John 3 to Nicodemus.

John 3:3-6 - “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Jesus is saying that if you want to see the Kingdom. The first prerequisite is that you have to be spiritually born. If you are not spiritually born, then you have no hope is seeing the Kingdom of God. Or to say it another way, if you are not born again, then you will remain blind to Jesus as the Messiah.

How is one born again? Jesus says, you must be born of the water and the Spirit. Sound familiar? It should. We just read it in Ezekiel 36:25, “I will sprinkle clean water on you...I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.” Jesus, in his explanation of the new birth, is using terms that Nicodemus as the teacher of Israel should have been familiar with. He was pointing Nicodemus to Ezekiel 36 which points to the last days that begin in Acts 2.

And just like we saw in Ezekiel, Jesus wants Nicodemus to understand that being born again is entirely passive. Just as we played no role in your physical birth, we play no role in your spiritual birth. We are passive, all we can do is receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, just like the 3,000 people on the day of Pentecost.

The term we use to describe this event in a person's life when God's Spirit is poured out on them is regeneration. It means the same thing as rebirth, but what I like about regeneration, is that it parallels Genesis. It is a re-genesis, regenerates, those who are spiritually dead are made spiritually alive. Without the Holy Spirit regenerating us, we will never put our faith in Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:14 - “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. “

Until the Spirit of God comes into our life, we will not understand our spiritual depravity, and our need for Jesus Christ and his forgiveness and righteousness. Until we are swooped up into the trinity by proceeding power of the Holy Spirit, we will never love and delight in Jesus Christ. Until that Spirit of God is poured out upon us we will never call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So how important is the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit? He is vitally important, for without him all of us would walk blindly right into Hell. He is who gives us life. He is who births us into existence. He is who opens up our heart. He is who gives us eyes to see and ears to hear of the wondrous mystery of Jesus Christ. Without the Holy Spirit we have nothing.
It is only by the Grace of God that we have any hope. Jesus is the founder of our faith for by his blood he purchased for us the greatest gift we could ever hope for, the power of God manifested in the Holy Spirit.

1 Peter 1:3 - “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”

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The Holy Spirit - Part 2

10/11/2015

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Preached at Cornerstone Church in Cascade, IA On October 11, 2015

Last week we began our journey in unpacking the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Before we begin, I want to speak briefly about the preaching of a sermon series. As I prepare each sermon, I do so with the general assumption that all of you will hear all of the sermons within a series. That assumption allows me to build upon each sermon, without having to rehash things over and over again. So with that said, if you do miss a Sunday, I encourage you to go back and watch or read the sermon you missed so that you can have a fuller understanding of the topic. You can find these sermons, and all sermons, on our website www.cornerstonecascade.com.

The second thing I want to say briefly, is something I said before, but what to remind everyone. When I preach, I fully recognize that I am preaching to a wide range of people. My role as a Pastor is to edify the immature Christian and the mature Christian. My goal for all of you is that you will all grow in your knowledge of God. In light of that some sermons are not theologically difficult, but others are. Today may be one of those days that some of you really struggle with the sermon for you will see it as too deep. But I do want to remind you that someday it won't be, and you will be the ones in the seats longing for meat instead of milk

With that said, last Sunday, in the short time that we had we established two foundational truths 1) God is one, in three Persons and 2) the Holy Spirit is one of those persons. As I said last time, many of you have always believed this, but your belief was not because you discovered it in God’s Word, but because you were taught it through a song, or through a pastor or teacher. There is nothing wrong with listening to music or being taught, but we must always be mindful to hold everything up against the Bible, for it is our standard of truth. I want you to believe in the Holy Spirit as the Third Person of the Trinity because you see it on the pages of Scripture.

With that said, today we are going to examine the role of the Holy Spirit. Last Sunday I stated that we would be looking at the Holy Spirit as he is revealed in the Old Testament, and we will do that to some extent today, but I have chosen to be more intentional about understanding the general function of the Spirit.

Our Relational God

As I stated last time, the Holy Spirit makes his debut in scene 1 of God’s Story.

Genesis 1:2 – “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”

But this is not the beginning of the Holy Spirit. Before there was time, there was the Spirit. With this in mind, I want to discuss the role of the Holy Spirit within the Trinity. As we all know God is eternal. He has always existed, even before time began: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. They have always existed as the Trinity. And the Trinity before time, is the same Trinity that exists in this very moment. Malachi 3:6 tells us, ““For I the LORD do not change.” Therefore we can take the attributes of the Trinity and apply them to before time began.

The first thing I want us to be encouraged by this morning is that God is a relational God, not only in the sense of relational to things outside of himself, but also relational within himself. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have always existed in perfect harmony within themselves, as divine community.

Why should this truth encourage us? Because we have a God who at his core, longs for relationship, not that God needs us to fill a void in his life, for God is perfectly satisfied within himself, but that God's orientation is relational, therefore as he engages with us, it is not a distant engagement, but an intimate one. He longs to sweep us up into the perfect love of the Trinity, and how he sweeps us up and binds us into this heavenly relationship is largely the role of the Holy Spirit, and we will talk more about that next week.

Operation of the Trinity

But for now, how does this relationship of the Trinity operate? This is going to get heavy for a second. This is how John Piper explains it, “the Son is the eternal image that the Father has of his own perfections, and the Holy Spirit is the eternal love that flows between the Father and the Son as they delight in each other.”

So what does that mean? God the father, who is all knowing and all powerful, has a perfect and complete view of himself, and this view of himself is so perfect and so complete that his image stands forth as a second God, a duplicate. This is Jesus. In this image of God there is nothing lacking.

Hebrews 1:3 – “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature”

God has eternally radiated his glory so completely and perfectly that out of this radiance Jesus comes forth. There has never been a moment that God did not image forth His Son. This is why Jesus is eternal, and fully God, but this is one reason why we see Jesus as taking a submissive role. He is eternally and always has been begotten. Now I want to be careful here. I am not saying that Jesus is created. There was never a moment that Jesus didn't exist. Why? Because there is never a moment that the Father didn't exist, therefore as long as their has been a Father, which is forever, the Son has always existed as the radiance of himself.

Louis Berkhof, a renowned theologian in the early 20th century said this, “It is that eternal and necessary act of the first person in the Trinity, whereby He, within the divine Being, is the ground of a second personal subsistence like His own, and puts this second person in possession of the whole divine essence, without any division, alienation, or change. (Systematic Theology, pg. 94)

So where does the Holy Spirit fit in? Let me first say that words fail us in describing this, but words are all we have, so bare with me. The Holy Spirit is all that God is proceeding, or going forth, from the Father to the Son, and all that Jesus is proceeding, or going forth, from himself. The text that supports the procession of the Spirit is John 15:26.

John 15:26 – ““But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. ”

The Helper in this text is the Holy Spirit. Jesus states that he will send the Spirit to us. This Helper, the Spirit, proceeds originally from the Father. Within the Trinity this process of the Spirit flowing back and forth between Father and Son, is so pure and so strong, because of who the Father is and who the Son is, a third person of the Trinity is eternally manifested. Now, again, I am not saying that the Spirit of God is created, for as long as the Father exists he radiates the image of the Son, and as long as the Son exists the Spirit proceeds back and forth between the two of them.

This is how Jonathan Edwards explains the person of the Holy Spirit, “The Holy Ghost is the deity subsisting in act, or the divine essence flowing out and breathed forth in God's infinite love to and delight in Himself.”

Is this hard to understand? Absolutely. The Holy Spirit is “other.” But I think this discussion will help us in wrapping our heads around the Holy Spirit’s manifestation in the World, and role as it relates to our lives. I also think it will help us in illumine certain text regarding the work of the Spirit. For now, if I lost you during that explanation, I want you to think of the Holy Spirit's role as the bond that holds the Trinity together. The Holy Spirit is what unifies the Father and the Son in such supernatural way that God exists as one in three persons.

The Name of the Holy Spirit

With that under our belt, I want to get back to Genesis 1:2 and talk about the name that God chose to describe His Spirit.

Genesis 1:2 – “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”

The Hebrew word Spirit in this verse is ruwach (rü'·akh). This word can be translated to mean wind, breath, or spirit. This same word is used in Genesis 7:15, “They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath (ruwach) of life. “ And again in Genesis 8:1, “But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind (ruwach) blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.”

In the New Testament we also see the Spirit of God in scene 1.

Matthew 1:18, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. “

The Greek word for Spirit is pnneuma (pnyu-ma). This word, pnneuma, can also be translated as a current of air, breath, or spirit. Now flip a few books forward to Acts 2. Here we see the Holy Spirit coming onto the scene at the beginning of the New Covenant age, when Jesus had ascended to the Father and the Church was about to be unleashed into the World.

Acts 2:1-4 – “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…”

The coming of the Holy Spirit is associated with the sound of a mighty rushing wind.

What is interesting is this is exactly how Jesus describes the Spirit in John 3. If you will, turn with me there so you can see it for yourselves.

John 3:6-8 – “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

This wind we are told by Jesus in John 3 has a will. Look at verse 8, “the wind (pnneuma) blows where it wishes.” Who is this wind that has a will? It is the Holy Spirit.

So we see a consistency throughout Scripture of God using this idea, or understanding, of wind to reveal to us the Holy Spirit.

Every good bible student is equipped with one thing, curiosity. If you want to go deep in studying the Bible you should always be asking why? So let us take a moment and ask why. Why does God give the name of wind (ruwach and pnuema) to the third person of the trinity? What is God telling us about Himself?

What is wind? It is unseen force that comes from one place and pushes into another. It is power manifested, not in a tangible way, but in an effectual way. It is an invisible force moving from one place to the other. When we measure the velocity of wind we are not examining the wind, but we are measure the effect of wind upon an object. So what is God telling us about the role of the Holy Spirit? Wayne Grudem describes his role as the active manifestation of God’s power.

When you think about it, this fits into what we talked about earlier regarding the Trinity. The Father pushes forth all that he is, and likewise the Son pushes forth all that he is. This pushing forth is of their beings, which is omnipotent power. In between the Father and the Son, it takes no tangible form, but it exists, and when this power breaks forth into the world, you do not see it, but only its effect. Let's briefly look at some examples.

Exodus 31:2-5 - “The LORD said to Moses, 2“See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,3and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, 4to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, 5in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft.
Numbers 11:25 - “Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied.”
Judges 14:6 - “Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat.”
1 Samuel 16:13 - “Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward.”

Each one of these examples, and every example in the Bible show that when the Spirit of God comes upon a person there is a change in their life. How do you know that the Spirit of God is upon them, you can't see Him, but only His effects. For Bezalel he increased in intelligence, knowledge, craftsmanship. For Moses and the elders it was prophecy. For Sampson it was physical strength. For David it was the ability to lead a nation.

When we read stories like these it causes us to want these things, and I think this is one of the reasons God reveals these stories to us, to produce this longing for the presence of the Spirit of God in our lives. And for those who believe in Christ the presence of God does dwell in us. The same Spirit of the Trinity has been given to us. The same Spirit that came upon Bezalel, Moses, Sampson and David dwell ins us, and God wants us to depend, to live by this Spirit.

Luke 11:13 - “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

As I said earlier, God is a relational God, he desires for us to be caught up in more of Him. He wants us to abide in the Trinity. He wants to give us wisdom when facing difficult decisions, he wants to have the right words to say in the hardest of times, he wants us to have physical strength in the midst of our battle with cancer, he wants us to lead our families and our Churches well.

How do we do this? We must walk by the power of God, we must walk by the Holy Spirit. So let us do today what Jesus encouraged and pray for the Spirit of God to lavish us with his Spirit.

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The Holy Spirit

10/4/2015

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Preach at Cornerstone Church in Cascade, IA on October 4, 2015

Today we begin a four week series on the Holy Spirit. As we begin, I want to express to everyone how difficult it was to create a framework for this series. It is hard to box into four part sermon series the Sovereign God, for that is who the Holy Spirit is. He is in full measure of the infinite God.

Having said that, what I have chosen to do is to break down the sermon series in this manner: today I will be giving a general introduction of the Holy Spirit. Next week we will look at the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. In three weeks we will examine the Holy Spirit in the work of regeneration. And finally we will examine the Holy Spirit in the work of sanctification. For those who are squirming in your seat because you don’t know what those words mean, do not worry, we will unpack them when we get to them. But for today, let us orient ourselves with the third person of the trinity.

Oswald Chambers said this about the Holy Spirit, “The Spirit is the first power we practically experience, but the last power we come to understand.” In my opinion this is just another way of saying what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit in John 3:8, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” There is something divinely mysterious about the Holy Spirit. I think this mystery causes many people, perhaps some of you here, to shy away from pursuing a knowledge of the Holy Spirit. You find the Spirit too unpredictable, to wild, therefore you treat him like the third wheel in your relationship with God.

Why Should We Care about the Holy Spirit?

So before we get too far into the mystery of the Holy Spirit, let us start with a question: Why should we care? Why do we need to have a sermon series on the Holy Spirit? As I was preparing, I wondered how many of you are more excited about next month’s sermon series on marriage then you are on a sermon series on the Holy Spirit. Perhaps you can’t wait until this series is over so we can get to the stuff that really matters, stuff that will make your life more comfortable. If that is you, then perhaps we have discovered why your marriage is struggling. It appears that you may be self-centered and not God centered.

The first reason we should study the Holy Spirit, as I said before, is that a study of the Holy Spirit is a study of God himself. We will unpack some of this today. Pursuing the knowledge of the Spirit is pursuing the the knowledge of God. Ignoring the person of the Spirit is willfully refusing to see the beauty of God as He is manifested, or displayed, by the person-hood of the Holy Spirit.

Second, to study the Bible is to study the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament the Spirit of God is mentioned 88 times. 23 books in the Old Testament have passages that include the Spirit. In the New Testament the Holy Spirit is mentioned 264 times, and there are only 3 books in the New Testament that make no mention of the Holy Spirit: Philemon, 2 John, and 3 John. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” The revelation of the Holy Spirit in the Word of God belongs to us. They are a gift from God. To set the gift of God aside is to dishonor the Giver and cheats us out of His Grace. We should treasure every moment when God gives us a glimpse of himself. We should be like Moses on Mt. Sinai begging to see the glory of God, of which the Spirit is.

Third, the Holy Spirit, as we will see in the weeks to come, is the person of the Trinity that you and I as Christians are the most intimate with. Now I say this with a qualification. God is one and God is three persons, and we will unpack this some today. Therefore in one sense, we cannot have more of a relationship with one person over the other, for to have a relationship with one is to have a relationship with them all, and to have a relationship with them all is to have a relationship with one. However, as the roles of the Trinity are dispensed, or put forth in creation, the Holy Spirit's role comes into contact with us more readily. We will see this in week three and for when we discuss regeneration and sanctification in the Christians life.

Fourth, many of you in this room are struggling in your life. Day in and day out Satan is pummeling you with his fiery darts: anxiety, stress, sex, anger, pride, money, you name it. From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed you feel like you are in a war. Do you know what? YOU ARE! Existence is best described as a Spiritual War. How do we find victory in the battles of day to day life? The Spirit. The Spirit of God is a warrior. He is the one who helps us in our weakness. He is the one who counsels us in our confusion. He is the one who anchors us in God's truth. Without the Spirit of God we do not persevere. We lose.

I am sure there are infinitely more reason that we should pursue the knowledge of the Holy Spirit, but those are four that God laid on my heart.

The Holy Spirit is God

The first item I want to address is that the Holy Spirit is God. Some of you may think this is elementary. Perhaps you have spent your whole life singing songs like we sang today about the Trinity. You can't recall one moment in your life that you ever questioned the Godness of the Holy Spirit. Having said that, I am guessing that very few of you could point to scripture that would support this position.

First, let us start with this statement that most of you are familiar with. The word trinity is not in the Bible. Trinity is a theological word, meaning that it is a word that summarizes the Bibles teaching that God is one in three person. As Wayne Grudem says, “the doctrine of the Trinity is progressively revealed in Scripture.” Having said that there are a couple text that expressly state the reality of the trinity. Perhaps the most famous one is Matthew 28:19.

Matthew 28:19 - “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”

This text just won't work if the Holy Spirit isn't God. As God says in Isaiah 42:8, “I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other.” God is not going to share the limelight in the salvation of men with an entity that is not God. Once again, I like how Wayne Grudem puts it when he says that it would not make sense for verse 19 to read, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of Michael the Angel.” Adding in a non-God figure in the lineup undermines the point of verse 19. Another text we see the Holy Spirit as God is 2 Corinthians 13:14.

2 Corinthians 13:14 - “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

Once again, logically it would not make sense to say that the Holy Spirit is not God. Paul is placing the trinity on even footing and recognizing their distinct Godly roles as it relates to us. We see the same thing in the opening lines of 1 Peter.

1 Peter 1:1-2 - “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.”

Jude 1:20-21 - “But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.”

In addition to this direct evidence, there is ample circumstantial evidence that the Holy Spirit is a God. Probably the most prominent is the opening chapter of the Bible. In a way, God comes right out of the gate and declares that he is trinitarian.

Genesis 1:1 - “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

Not only does the Spirit of God make an explicit appearance in verse 2, but the Hebrew word for God in verse 1 is Elohim. Elohim is plural for God. It literally says, “In the beginning Gods created the heavens and the earth. Likewise, if you keep reading:

Genesis 1:26 -”Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

“Us” and “our” is a reference to the Trinity. Does this include Jesus? Absolutely, but it also includes the Holy Spirit who was already introduced to us in verse 2. There are more than this, and if you look you will find them.

Now before some of you start to wander down the path of polytheism, which is the belief in multiple gods. The Bible, in addition to these text says, also makes it abundantly clear that God is one.

Deuteronomy 6:4 - “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. “
Isaiah 45:5 - “I am the LORD, and there is no other,besides me there is no God; “
James 2:19 - “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

So is there one God, yes. Is the Father, Son, and Spirit God? Yes. The Holy Spirit is fully God in essence, yet distinct in his person-hood. Can we fully understand this? No, God's ways are above our ways. He is Holy, Holy, Holy. As David says in Psalm 139:6, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”

The Holy Spirit is a Divine Person

The next thing I would like to discuss is that the Holy Spirit is God, but he is also distinct in his role. They way we describe the distinction is person-hood. Does this mean that the Holy Spirit is a creature? No, we have already discussed this, He is God. Having said that he takes on certain characteristics that are unique to Him. Just like Jesus takes on the characteristic of flesh, and son-ship, the Spirit takes on a unique characteristic as the Spirit. The way, once again, theologically we define this is person-hood.

Once again, many of you may be thinking why should we care about the person-hood of the Holy Spirit. Let me ask, how many of you have heard of Jehovah Witnesses? My guess is that all of you have. Why? Because they are extremely aggressive in sharing their false religion with everyone. Most likely, some have knocked on your door. Did you know that they do not believe in the Trinity. They do not believe that Jesus is God and they believe the Holy Spirit is merely an impersonal force. The question is are you ready to defend the honor of the Holy Spirit? My guess is that they are more than ready to defend their position.

As we have already seen from some of the text that I have mentioned, Matthew 28:19, 1 Peter 1:2, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Jude 1:20-21, these passages just don't make sense if the Holy Spirit is not distinct. If the Holy Spirit is just an impersonal force, then you don't list him with two other persons. However in addition to this, there are many scriptures that speak to the personality of the Holy Spirit. Probably the most definitive are the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John.

John 14:16 - “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
John 15:26 - “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.”
John 16:7 - “Nevertheless, 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 go, I will send him to you.”

It is clear that Jesus sees the Holy Spirit as a divine person, not an impersonal force. He speaks about the Spirit just like you and I speak about a co-worker. Each time Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit he refers to Him as a Him. The pronouns are really in the Greek. Ekeinos and Auton. If Jesus sees the Holy Spirit as a Him, should not we do the same?

In addition, the scriptures speak of the Holy Spirit as one who searches (1 Corinthians 2:10), makes determinations and gives gifts (1 Corinthians 12:11), has a mind (Romans 8:27), loves (Romans 15:30), teaches (John 14:16), grieves (Ephesians 4:30), speaks (Acts 13:2, Hebrews 3:7, Revelation 2:7), cries out (Galatians 4:6), commands (Acts 16:7), appoints (Acts 20:28), becomes an enemy against the rebellious (Isaiah 63:10), creates (Job 33:4), can be outraged (Hebrews 10:29), and can be uniquely blasphemed against (Matthew 12:31).

These descriptions of the Holy Spirit are not descriptions given to an impersonal force, but to a personal and relational being. One that engages in a personal way with humanity. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is not only God, but he is a personal God

Conclusion

So where does this leave us at the end of the first week of this sermon series? First, I hope that after today you will approach the Holy Spirit differently. Not as a side show, but as a main attraction. Second, I hope that today has equipped you to not only sing songs like we did this morning, but to recognize that these songs are built upon the firm foundation that is God's word. Our confession is not one that is man made, it is rooted in scripture. Third, I hope it causes you to marvel at the complexity and depth of who our God is. I hope that this sermon, which is just the tip of the tip of the tip of an infinite iceberg has produced in your a sense of awe as you think of how OTHER our God is. He is not at all like the creature, he is the Divine Creator. The nature of his being is too great for us to even begin to grasp. Which I hope produces in you worship. Not just worship to worship, but worship that is based upon truth and compelled by the Spirit.

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The Holy Spirit - Part 4

The Holy Spirit - Part 3

The Holy Spirit - Part 2

The Holy Spirit

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