The Theology of the Holy Spirit Explained and Defended

i have been waiting a long time uh to do this particular study and basically in my schedule i had like a week where i could study sort of anything i wanted i wasn't going to be teaching the mark series and i wanted to get into the doctrine of the holy spirit like the actual theology of the holy spirit proving who the holy spirit is according to scripture and responding to challenges so we're going to talk about whether the holy spirit is personal whether the holy spirit is god and more than that our relationship with the spirit which is deep wonderful and a huge blessing waiting for us to pay attention to believe it or not the holy spirit is in my opinion i think a lot of people would agree the most ignored person of the trinity the least discussed and when you as a christian are challenged to say defend the the deity of christ or something like that like you can do that a lot better probably then you can defend the doctrine of the holy spirit so we're getting into this in detail right because he is ignored false teachers tend to focus on the holy spirit like jehovah's witnesses say the holy spirit is merely an active force is not personal it's not god it's just god's sort of active force they actually translate their bad new world translation to to adjust or change who the holy spirit is they um will say things like the holy spirit is not masculine like in the greek holy spirit that phrase is not masculine it's neuter and so they suggest that this means that the the spirit is non-personal and again we're ill-equipped to respond so it's good to do the work to re-establish basic christian theology simple christian theology and to go through the process of digging into the scriptures and asking is that really a good proof text does that scripture really demonstrate the thing that i wanted to demonstrate can i really say with confidence the bible supports this theology that i hold because we don't want to fall into the trap of holding traditions because we've always held traditions or danger fall into the trap of thinking that our theology is right because it comes from our authoritative group of christians that's dangerous and anybody can fall into this trap you might be thinking i mean catholics or something but and there's a connection there but that can happen to you too you just assume that if your pastor says it it must be biblically true there's two major dangers in this one is you might be believing things that aren't biblical and two even if you are believing biblical truth you don't know why it's biblical so when someone challenges you or your kids on their faith they can't prove it except to point to their pastor and say he said so and i want to be able to point to scripture and show that god has really revealed this so um every generation in my opinion has to do this has to get back into the word of god back into scripture re-establish those old always-believed doctrines so we won't become victim of false teachings so the first thing we'll ask is this in today's study first thing we'll ask is is the holy spirit a person according to scripture is he personal right does he have those qualities of being a person not just sort of like a power against this i'll offer three points and respond to them quickly and then we'll dig into a ton of scriptures first you get this from some like say jehovah's witnesses they'll say the holy spirit is in neuter in greek i mentioned this before let me just say this is a silly argument i don't mean that to be insulting to anybody but you know words are masculine feminine neuter in greek all the time it doesn't make them personal so love is a feminine word in greek that doesn't mean that love is a female like person love is now a person going around because neuter doesn't mean non-person masculine or feminine doesn't mean person that's just not how it works it's this is like bad bad greek um there's others who would say this and i wouldn't even bring up this argument if they didn't say it but they say if you're baptized in the spirit therefore the spirit's not a person because you can't be baptized into a person that doesn't make sense they say i think it makes perfect sense personally but also scripture seems to prove that wrong when it says that we are baptized into christ if we're baptized into christ you're not going to tell me jesus is not a person i don't know how you can sustain that others would say and and this is probably what you're going to hear if you listen to someone who is opposed to the doctrine of the holy spirit the biblical doctrine they're going to say the holy spirit has all these verses in the bible where he's associated with power and so they'll talk about how power came upon them in the spirit how they went out in in in filled with power through the holy spirit or how often the holy spirit comes upon like say samson and samson does these powerful acts and deeds okay this is this is true and if you pull all these scriptures together that relate the holy spirit to power you're going to see there is a connection the problem with this logic is that it's irrational to think that if the holy s because here's what's behind it right let's find the assumption behind it if the holy spirit is related to power then the holy spirit is not personal but that's irrational god himself is related to being powerful all the time he has all the power in the world in the universe he's he's um he's omnipotent but this doesn't mean he's non-personal it's not as though the stronger you get the less personal you become that's irrational and so um god being associated with power doesn't eliminate his personhood the way that these people tend to attack the doctrine of the holy spirit is sharing a list of scriptures showing the holy spirit being associated with power and ignoring all of the verses that show he's personal we're going to go through those verses now we're going to show that not only is he powerful he's also personal so let's start with john 16 7. here we are and and just for anybody who wants to know i'm i'm mike winger and i'm a pastor in southern california i do verse by verse teaching theology and apologetics defending the christian faith i want to bring you thoughtful explanations and defenses of christian truth i really believe it's intellectually demonstrably proven true and i want to equip others to see that as well um also i'm in the mark series right now but today i'm doing this doctrine of the holy spirit thing i'll continue my gospel of mark series next week we'll get back into that it's gonna be a little bit on off for the next couple months but i'll explain later on so john 16 7 jesus speaking and let's start with jesus let's start with the red letters about the holy spirit jesus says 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 and that would be the holy spirit in john 16 and 17. but if i go i will send him to you the first thing we're going to see in this is jesus thinks the holy spirit is and he's right obviously but he's saying the holy spirit is the one who comes when jesus leaves so that he will come and be with them there's a relational quality that is in there in the holy spirit we'll get this in the next passage as well and um i go he arrives let me just make a soft claim about this text it's more consistent with the idea that the holy spirit is personal than impersonal otherwise it doesn't really comfort the disciples all that much that when jesus leaves them the holy spirit arrives if all he is is power there and you got to remember these are humans right their hearts are breaking that jesus who they love and trust and and they rely on he's leaving and he's his comfort to them is he's bringing them the comforter the holy spirit it makes more sense that he's personal but we can make this a whole lot stronger in john 14 16 he says and i will ask the father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you this is a beautiful passage speaking about jesus giving us another helper now in the greek this is interesting you wouldn't see this in english because we have one word for another but in the greek there's two words for another alas and these two words one alas represents another of the same kind right or another of like the same kind of category of thing and heteros is another of a different kind now we get this in galatians one in galatians one he says i marvel that you are so quickly turning from the gospel to another and then he says which is not another which in english sounds weird right but he says the the other it's it's heteros it's an other different kind false gospel it's not an alas another of the same kind i say all that to tell you the holy spirit is like jesus he's another helper well jesus is a personal helper present with them he is god with them helping them guiding them directing them teaching them and then he says the holy spirit will be just like that he will be with you forever that's relational that's relational so jesus teaches that the holy spirit is relational and to be relational you have to be a person now you might have had a pet rock when you were a kid but you didn't really have a relationship with the rock this was fabricated this was pretend if you have a relationship with someone that's a someone not a some thing and he's going to be with you and just as as jesus was with the disciples very relational and this is deep deep in the theology of the new testament we should not just think it's for our brains only the holy spirit is is god's deep personal relationship with us is through the holy spirit the third person of the trinity let's look at more i'm going to give you so many scriptures today i i hope that this is a lesson you could send to somebody else that they could think these things through we're just asking like we want to believe the bible what does the bible teach us about who the holy spirit is 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 this is an action that the holy spirit is doing he's going to bear witness about me um this is something typically done by humans or persons i should say probably not just humans because angels also can bear witness but by persons you generally be personal to bear witness it's true that like um in the old testament we have times where say rocks are said to be witness of an event it really there in that sense the rocks sit there and when you see the rock you remember you set it up you set that pillar up when this event happened so the rock is a reminder in a sense so there you can have an impersonal thing that's like a witness in a sense this is probably not that because just as the holy spirit bears witness we also bear witness so it's the same kind of witness bearing that's taking place here we don't have any sort of physical pillar set up that we can look at rather the holy spirit is going to bear witness this is beautiful he bears witness to the church of jesus so that she that the church can be a witness of jesus to the world the holy spirit is is um basically pushing the glory of christ out of you into the world so that you might tell them about the goodness of christ as the holy spirit is revealing these things to you so this is an informational bearing witness this underscores the personal nature of the holy spirit another verse we'll get to this is another section where jesus speaks of the holy spirit john 16 verses 8 through 15. and i'm going to read this and i'm going to highlight a few things you might not know a couple greek things most of it's all english you get it just fine but when he comes he will convict the world concerning sin righteousness and judgment so here the holy spirit's bringing conviction um that seems to be a behavior of a person in fact this shows okay when you know earlier we see how the holy spirit interacts with the church he he speaks to us of christ that we might speak to the world of christ to the world like we're speaking of christ but to the world the holy spirit is is externally pressing on them so to speak telling them that they have sin and that they need jesus that they need the savior and sin is a driving factor to bring people to christ that's part of the very gospel message what's beautiful about this is as the gospel goes out the holy spirit is also individually working in the hearts of our hearts of men i think that's amazing that that seems to require a person but let me read on this it's way more detailed than that concerning sin because they do not believe in me concerning righteousness because i go to the father and you will see me no longer concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged i still have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now okay you've got to get this it's this is great jesus has a lot of things he wants to tell the disciples at this point but they don't get it yet this is consistent in the gospels there's this like theme of the disciples they're they're so inundated with traditions and mixed some biblical some unbiblical beliefs about the messiah that it takes jesus his whole ministry to try to re-teach them the meaning of the messiah show who he truly is and so he's like there's lots of things i want to tell you but you can't bear them now so how will they learn the things jesus wants to tell them well when the spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all truth he's going to he's going to be our guide so here you know guides our persons here you know there's no gps system at the time right there's no guide other than personal guides at the time and so he'll guide you in all truth for he will not speak on his own authority but whatever he hears he will speak so the holy spirit hears and the holy spirit speaks the you have to be a person to do this to hear and then communicate and guide others and he will declare to you things that are to come he will glorify me for he will take what is mine and declare it to you all that the father has his mind therefore i said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you and here we have the trinity the father the son and the spirit and their inner relationship as they relate with us it it's yeah because the trinity's from the bible it's kind of how it works but check this out this is the greek part he will guide you that is a masculine uh pronoun being used to talk about the spirit even though the spirit's neuter he will guide you this is a masculine pronoun then we have it again on his own authority in the greek right this is a masculine pronoun again to talk so this is very personal to speak of him with that terminology it shows he's personal jesus also says he will glorify me now i know in the english you have lots of he's here but in the greek it's these three spaces three spots that really matter he will glorify me again masking masculine personal pronoun so he's a personal agent doing personal agent things now we've only talked about jesus here and we have a lot more to discuss but we'll do one more um from luke 12 12 where jesus talks about the holy spirit and then we'll talk about the rest of the new testament and then the old testament the deity of the holy spirit will respond to islamic claims that the holy spirit is gabriel we'll get there in a few minutes all right so luke 12 12 for the holy spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say understand what he's saying about the holy spirit he's like look they're going to bring you for before rulers and you're going to be persecuted but don't worry about what you're going to say when that happens why because the holy spirit's going to teach you in that very hour what you ought to say now power can like okay elijah say he he he runs a long distance right but when when uh when the when the rain is going to start coming and he runs a great distance by the power of the spirit samson he pushes pillars down by the power of the spirit you could say that that's impersonal let me get i mean the holy spirit's not impersonal but those verses i wouldn't use to prove the holy spirit's personal however while power can come from an impersonal source at least potentially it can also come from a personal one teaching does not come from an impersonal source the holy spirit is going to teach you in that hour what you ought to say this isn't even pre-scripted content this is rather here's the disciples on trial before governors kings whoever and in that moment when they're asked questions and they're interrogated the holy spirit gives them information to speak so that they will have divine utterance when they're when they're witnessing during their persecution this is the the work of a person it's the work of a person um in romans 8 26 let's move on to other texts in the scripture likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what what to pray for as we ought you ever feel that way i feel that way a lot but the spirit helps himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and he who searches the heart knows what is the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of god there are a few hugely important things now often you might read the bible looking for devotional content and this is chock full of it devotional content but the devotional content is based on theological content that we're supposed to to learn and know and when we know theology it creates i think that what what theology does is it creates a consistent solid devotional life in a christian because you don't have to wait for god to like speak something fresh to you to make you feel good at the moment you know who he is you know what he's done and you're standing in faith upon the promises of god at all times so i think studying theology makes stable christians that's that's definitely what it's done for me right i was much more unstable before i understood some of these some of the theology of uh of scripture all right verse 26 right likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness okay so he's helping in our weakness this is very much what jesus said the holy spirit's gonna help you for we do not know what to pray for as we ought but the spirit himself intercedes for us this means that the holy spirit prays this is one of the hugely important things here theologically the holy spirit prays now he's not praying the way that jesus did when he was on the earth praying to the father rather he is he is one who um is like our our method of prayer is through the holy spirit is in the holy spirit in fact scripture even says we pray in the spirit but he accesses your mind your heart knows you deeply he knows the mind and will of the father and he prays accordingly so meaning that yes a christian can simply posture themselves in prayer groan to god saying i don't know what to pray lord i'm just reaching out to you and the holy spirit is interceding for us and our prayers are perfected in him that just transforms your prayer life when you realize the role of the spirit in your when i don't know how to pray moments i think it's beautiful but it requires a person you you know trees don't pray people pray persons pray right it doesn't have to be a human here but but this activity requires personhood he himself intercedes your prayers come to the heart of god through god ultimately but also he has a mind look at look at the next verse 27 he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of god the holy spirit has a mind only persons have minds you may have passed over this verse and not noticed it before the holy spirit has a mind there is a mind there and yeah only persons have minds energy forces do not electricity does not have a mind behind it ephesians 4 30 is another verse we could look at and do not grieve the holy spirit of god by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption now you know we don't want to grieve the spirit but let's just talk about the fact that we can you can't grieve electricity it's not like i ever let down electricity you know when i turn off the light switch in the room it's not like electricity lets out a sigh oh he doesn't like me anymore like this is that's just weird you know obviously to be grieved requires a person who who has emotions who is able to respond to the things that are going on in the world and so don't grieve the holy spirit you can't make a force sabb you can resist a force your scripture says you can resist the spirit but i'm not quoting that verse in today's like theology study because you could resist a non-person i could resist gravity but i can't resist um i can't excuse me grieve gravity i can't let gravity down pun intended but this is not just new testament because some people will say i'll mention this again later some people will think that the doctrines that we have in the new testament are kind of new and while there are many things which are revealed in far greater detail in the new testament there is nothing inconsistent with the old it's all there in the old testament to some degree and then revealed much more fully in the new this is an example isaiah 63 10 they being the israelites they rebelled and grieved his holy spirit therefore he turned to be their enemy and himself fought against them okay here the holy spirit of god is spoken of in in in there's two sides to this coin in personal terms of being grieved but as being a different person than the father his holy spirit that's interesting the way that it's worded is interesting and therefore he turns to be their enemy and fights against them and that would be the father i i'm i'm suggesting here so that's that's interesting but it does speak of the holy spirit having the ability to be grieved even in the old testament even in isaiah a very old text like isaiah now the application of this though back to ephesians about don't grieve i don't want to pass this up because what's the point in the theology if we don't apply it the holy spirit is grieved in in ephesians here when we speak corrupting talk out of our mouths right when we lie to one another when we um have anger when we have malice we we have these theft right we basically as you read ephesians chapter four the last like you know half of the chapter we have all of these behaviors we treat each other poorly as christians we we might be deceitful to one another we might gossip poorly about one another we might be inconsiderate to others and those are things that this this blows my mind those are things that grieve the holy spirit because he is the one who indwells all of us and binds us together according to the will of god and for the glory of christ and here we are letting our flesh tear that up that grieves the holy spirit and you as a christian when you are motivated not just by the knowledge that something is right and wrong but when you're motivated by love for god and by love for the holy spirit who you don't want to grieve to treat your brethren well that is huge that is beautiful that is like to me the bottom the bottom rung level of morality is this is okay this is my own view here i'll just share it give something to think about my the bottom rung level of morality is i i don't do stuff that gets me in trouble okay so this is why we have laws we have laws for people who are on the bottom rung of morality that they don't do stuff that gets them in trouble then there's the next level up which is maybe just a little more forward thinking is like i don't do stuff um that maybe just just doesn't just get me in trouble but in the long run it won't really have good impacts okay so now i'm really forward thinking but both of these are pretty selfish aren't they so then you can go to the next level up and you can say i do stuff because it's right and i don't do that stuff because it's wrong so there's at least a love for what's good but it still feels kind of impersonal doesn't it then the next level up and i'll just skip to the highest level for this for the sake of this is love i do what's right because i love god and i love people and that is my motive and then love becomes holiness love leads to holiness love is always consistent with holiness love does does no harm right love is does not rejoice in iniquity there's no wickedness there and so that's what the holy spirit's driving us to and that shows his heart to us that when we when we infight it brings grief that should be hugely motivational for us to love each other if any christian has anything against you that you would go and fix that if you have anything against them that you forgive them and bless bless god by doing that let's talk about spiritual gifts okay i'm actually not gonna spend a lot of time on spiritual gifts it deserves a lot of time but i'm talking about the doctrine of the holy spirit not the spiritual gifts in the church so i'll just mention it the holy spirit we know gives spiritual gifts the gifts come from the holy spirit but look at the wording of first corinthians 1 11 it says all these are empowered by one and the same spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills that's powerful we've heard earlier the holy spirit has a mind the holy spirit has these relational qualities he's with us um he he can be grieved all these types of things but here we have the holy spirit has a will now you can't have a will unless you are a person there's personhood there the holy spirit does these things as he wills now side note hebrews talks about the gifts of the spirit as well but it gives it gives a credit to god it simply says that it's we're given the gifts as god wills so let me just mention briefly that that's because the holy spirit's god all right um we'll look at another passage acts 10 verses 19 and 20. then this is if you're if you're wondering if somebody would listen long enough that this is this is the case i would make for them understanding who th who the holy spirit is according to scripture and to know that he's not impersonal as the jehovah's witnesses would say he's he's not sort of like a new testament invention as some liberals might promote he is not um the angel gabriel as a billion muslims would be taught around the world no no no this is this is who he is acts 10 19 and while peter was pondering the vision the spirit said to him the spirit said to him and now what we're going to see is the holy spirit speaking and he's going to be speaking in first person and when you say i you're a person if you can say i genuinely then you're a person and here he says behold three men are looking for you rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation for i have sent them that's of course consistent with the spirit governing the gifts of god and the callings that we receive being governed by the holy spirit that seems to be a special role of the spirit and peter went down to the men and said i'm the one you're looking for and then he goes on but in acts 13 2 we have another example of this it happens twice in this passage while they were worshiping the lord and fasting the holy spirit said set apart for me barnabas and saul for the work to which i have called them isn't that interesting so again the holy spirit's the one who's who's governing the callings of individual christians in the body of christ and the giftings that they have and here he speaks and says set apart to me right for me the them to the work which i have called them so again the holy spirit is obviously not a force in acts 5 we have what is one of the um unforgettable passages of scripture that's for sure ananias and sapphira i know a lot of people have questions about this passage i don't want to get distracted by those questions so i'm trying to stay focused maybe some other time i could do a separate teaching on it but here we have a man named ananias with his wife sapphire they sell a piece of property now they're the first hypocrites in the early church and generally speaking god consistently throughout the scripture the first rebels the first rebels of of a new movement of god receive strict punishment this happens over and over again in the bible and it's to demonstrate god's god's desire for purity in the move of the spirit in our lives and he really doesn't like religious hypocrisy but a man named ananias with his voice to fire they sell a piece of property and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds now he's allowed to do that but he lies about it that's the part he gets in trouble for and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles feet but peter said ananias why has satan filled your heart to lie to the holy spirit and they keep back part of the proceeds so he lies to the holy spirit you can lie about a force an energy force but you can't lie to an energy force you can't lie i can't i can't lie to this this camera lin's cover like i can't lie to it it's no matter what i say i could lie about it right this is a giant banana right there's a lie but for demonstration purposes don't anybody believe me but um but yeah you can't lie to an impersonal thing the holy spirit can also be blasphemed and you guys know this this is in matthew 12 there's actually in multiple gospels but in matthew 12 28 he says um jesus speaking here he says the holy spirit can be blasphemed against and um here we go 31 uh whoever every sin and blasphemy would be forgiven the people but blasphemy against the holy spirit against the spirit will not be forgiven so it's parallel to speaking a word against the sun you'll be forgiven speak speak against the holy spirit it will not be forgiven now i know this is another one those passages that takes us down a rabbit trail because the next question that's in your mind and i'm not answering it today is what is the blasphemy of the holy spirit i actually have a long teaching on that and it's linked in the video description down below you're welcome to check it out you could you could watch it and in the first couple of minutes i summarized the whole teaching so you don't even have to watch the whole video look how nice i am i'm just shooting myself in the foot killing my youtube watch time and uh i don't really care so uh but that video is there the point here is that the spirit can be blasphemed in a way that's similar to the way the sun can be blasphemed this of course implies that he's personal it also hints at his deity we'll cover that real soon here though so i'll wait on that the the holy spirit is also in the bible is the person behind the message of the bible this is why in hebrews 3 7 it's about to quote psalm 95 that's this quote portion here it's quoting psalm 95 but before it quotes it introduces it as therefore as the holy spirit says it's just given for granted taken for granted assumed and even taught clearly that in the new testament that the holy spirit is the person behind the message of scripture now let me walk you through this reasoning a little so you can see why this is like a case for the personhood see the holy spirit's not the human author right we know that they knew that that's not there to be a great deal of ignorance to think the holy spirit is being referred to as like a human author here um so that's the psalmist right the holy spirit's also not the words on the page this is not a this is not a christian view this is not a new testament old testament view of scripture that the scripture is actually a person that's weird and i know some people actually get confused about this and i'm sorry it's not that's not the christian view the scripture is not a person there isn't personhood in the actual written words of god and it's not like islam where they believe that the quran has existed for all eternity and it was like dictated by god that kind of thing rather the holy spirit is therefore the by process of elimination he's the mind behind the scriptures he is the one who is guiding and directing the authors of the bible so that what we got from them while it had human quirks and vocabulary and all that kind of thing it still had god's message for us so they could say the holy spirit said this now that means he's personal if he's the mind behind the text of scripture inspiring it through the authors then he's yeah then he's personal there's a beautiful symmetry here we'll talk more about symmetry in a minute but actually several quite a few minutes but there's this beautiful symmetry here in the nature of the holy spirit when you look at um how he's the mess he's he's the mind behind the scripture and the scripture the message of the scripture is christ so when you when you look at the layers you have the holy spirit inspires the scripture the scripture speaks of jesus now we see the holy spirit and his role in the church how he fills us and he teaches us of christ that we might proclaim christ to the world i'm not suggesting this makes us us the bible okay the bible has its own role that's different than the church we're not replacing scripture with our things that we think or utter or anything like that but there's this beautiful symmetry that's there that we are then filled that we might proclaim you know he bears witness to us that we might bear witness to the world and i think that that's beautiful we see more of this as we continue looking later on when i talk about some of this symmetry of the holy spirit in the scriptures um romans chapter 15 verse 30. and this text says i appeal to you brothers by our lord jesus christ and by the love of the spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to god on my behalf the idea here that i want to highlight is that this text seems to be indicating that the spirit loves loving is a personal quality right my camera lens i held up earlier does not love anybody it doesn't love anything it just doesn't it doesn't have that capacity but the holy spirit loves he loves that's a big deal in fact when you look at the rest of scriptures that talk about this like 1st john that talks about how we love because we're born of god and of course we know we're born of the spirit i love others because the holy spirit is love he loves so much that his love comes through my life and i love others as a result my personally when i got saved that was one of the things that that shifted with me is that like just less bitterness less less animosity towards people more love more grace more kindness more hopefulness towards towards those that maybe i wouldn't externally have a reason to love and i remember finding it easy to forgive as a christian and i'm this is not a pat me on the back moment at all i think this is the holy spirit's work in our lives i think as a christian generally if you're a healthy christian it's not that hard to forgive generally speaking you may have hard times and that may be a time to devote to prayer or even fasting and to really die to yourself and that i'm not saying it's always easy to obey god that's definitely not the case not even for jesus was it always easy right looking at him in the garden but there is something of the inspiration of the spirit and causing us to love others now i want to highlight something real quick that is so beautiful and i could spend far more time on it and that is this idea that god is love this is a christian thing okay the the doctrine the belief that god is love um that's very uniquely christian it doesn't really come from any other religion now others sometimes like say new age modern new age people might want to borrow from that they like to sort of borrow from christianity in some areas but it's a very it's a very christian belief but here's where it's a problem in monotheism where there's only one god and he exists when nothing else exists he exists eternally just he's just there it's hard to say that that god is love because you have to ask the question well who is he loving who is god loving from eternity past who does he love it's difficult to say that let me give an example let's say that you used you'd come to me and you tell me mike i am so loving i am such a hugely loving person i just love everybody i love everything i'm a very loving person and i'm like wow so tell me about who you love like tell me about the relationships you have oh i don't have any relationships i don't know anybody i never see anybody i never talk to anybody but i am just i'm big on love i'm like well no like you're not really unless there's a way to express love how are you loving and this is where the doctrine of the trinity comes in because the father the son and the holy spirit this means that god is tri-personal which means while there's one god one being who is god there are three persons right persons in the being that is god which means that the father can love the son as jesus says the father loves the son and the son loves the father and the holy spirit obviously loves the son because jesus says he will glorify me right the holy spirit loves our fellow believers because he's inspiring us to love each other as well but this means that god from eternity past has always been love which means one of the most beautiful attributes of god god being love is consistent with trinitarian christian theology whereas it's very difficult to substantiate with other views but you might ask why three and not just two why can't it just be the father and son loving each other and there are some philosophers who've like sort of put their minds to this to try to figure so let me throw some philosophy here i'm not quoting scripture for this scripture proves the doctrine of the trinity it shows that god is love this is a philosophical sidebar um suggesting why three and not two perhaps one reason and this could be that with two people they might love each other but when they have a third there's a new kind of love that can be expressed see because the father can love the son the son can love the father but if there were no holy spirit then the two of them cannot work together to love a third and that is a different kind of love and you see this with parents parents you know when they are married and they're just concerned with loving one another that's a beautiful thing but there's something else that happens when they have a baby and now they're able to love a third and the two of them sacrifice their sleep their their their date night or whatever they sacrifice in order to love the third and that has a different kind of love quality to it doesn't it and with three there's always the ability for two of the of the members of the trinity to love the third and there's like a selflessness in god that can can be exhibited because of the trinity i think this is beautiful so the holy spirit loves there's another uh another thing so i i think that um the last thing i'll mention on the dot the idea that the holy spirit's a person before we go to the deity of the holy spirit and that is an issue we do need to cover but it's not so hard to cover once you see the scriptures um i want to mention one thing that nobody else says okay maybe this is me being weird it's possible okay i've never heard someone make this argument right no i don't i haven't read every theology book but i haven't heard the argument so i want to say that whenever i give you something that is original to me i want you to know it's original to me not for a pat on the back but so that you might go i'll just consider that mike you might be on your own there maybe you're being weird so here's my conjecture it goes like this it's pretty simple you might think it's pretty obvious too and agree with me in the bible spirits are personal this is this is consistent like spirits are personal in the bible where in the bible are spirits non-personal right when uh when spirits are there in scripture you know the spirit of the deceased a an angelic spirit type thing they're always personal it's weird to think that god's going to use the term spirit to speak of the holy spirit and now it's impersonal it's an impersonal description that seemed very strange to me so i think just the weight of scripture always using spirit to talk about a personal entity something that's personal it's weird that say jws or others would would be taught sadly taught because i love jws i just want them to not be jw's anymore and just be christians it's sad that they're taught that the word spirit somehow means something like an active force so let's talk now about the deity of the holy spirit now it is islam that teaches that the holy spirit is actually the angel gabriel that's actually the teaching there islam seems as though when it started muhammad was very confused about the doctrine of the trinity he seems to think as you read the quran he seems to think the trinity is the father of the son and mary might show you the kind of christians he was interacting with that maybe weren't representing it well um but he thinks that it's the father son and mary and islam is rejecting that but then you're like well then what do they do with the holy spirit well they say the holy spirit is gabriel um and so let's talk about that in acts chapter 5 verse 3 back to ananias and sapphira peter says to ananias why has satan filled your heart to lie to the holy spirit and keep back part of the proceeds for yourself part of the proceeds of the land so he lies to the holy spirit now keep that in mind peter's big issue is you're not just you're not just deceiving men you're lying to the holy spirit you're lying to the whole church you're you're breaking the beautiful sincerity that there is in christian brotherhood with your hypocrisy or spiritual hypocrisy and let's keep going while it remained unsold did it not remain your own and after it was sold was it not at your disposal why is it that you've contrived this deed in your heart you have not lied to man but to god boom i'm sorry that's a boom right because he goes you lied to the holy spirit and then he says you lied to god you might be like well maybe peter's talking about two different lies two different things one of them was a lie of the holy spirit the one was the light of god but he talks about it like it's a deed singular that he has done ananias you did one thing you lied to the holy spirit you lied to god because that's the same thing because the holy spirit is god i think that's a pretty neat passage for that well we can also go to psalm 139 now for those who are my theology geeks or maybe you're becoming am i making you a theology geek i hope so i hope so i hope i'm making you get excited as i am about this stuff but psalm 139 for the theology geeks out there or or soon to be theology geeks is uh a beautiful passage about the omniscience and omnipresence of god and it's a passage that theologians often go to psalm 139 to demonstrate that god is omnipresent that he transcends space and that god knows all things he's omniscient so let's look at the passage briefly um i could read a lot of it but i'll read some of it oh lord you've searched me and known me so god you know me fully right you know when i sit down and when i rise up you discern my thoughts from afar that's interesting god knows what you're thinking uh seems before you even think it you search out my path and my lying down and all are acquainted with all my ways even before a word is on my tongue behold oh lord you know it all together so he he can predict the stuff that you're going to say he knows the future that's that's a side issue for another video but yeah god knows the future you hem me in behind and before and you lay and lay your hand upon me such knowledge is too wonderful for me it is high i cannot attain it so this first section is about the omniscience of god god knows all things then he talks about god's omni presence where shall i go from your spirit or where shall i flee from your presence if i ascend to heaven you are there if i make my bed in sheol you are there i go up go down you're there if i take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there your hand shall lead me your right hand shall hold me anyway god is in all places he knows all things and he's in all places omniscient omnipresent now here's what we sometimes miss even theologians sometimes skip over this this is a description of the spirit where shall i go from your spirit the spirit is omnipresent that's interesting isn't it not just god is i mean obviously god is but specifically the spirit is the holy spirit is omnipresent that means that of course this glorious high lofty theology passage on the omni presence of god is specifically applied to the holy spirit also the holy spirit is personal in this old testament passage where shall i go from your spirit where shall i flee from your presence you could say oh well that's his impersonal force except he then relates this to him it being god if i sin to heaven you are there if i make my bed in shield you are there because god's presence is god being present right this is god's spirit so this is personhood and deity in this glorious theologically weighty psalm let's look at first corinthians 12 verses 10 and 11. this is again speaking of the gifts of the holy spirit it says to another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another the ability to distinguish spirits to another various kinds of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues so these are just different gifts of the spirit that are given all these are empowered by the one in the same spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills now earlier i said this as a way of pointing out that um that god has a will right that the holy spirit has a will but but notice this that this is what the holy spirit's will is controlling is the gifts of god that's pretty significant he's not just distribu see if he was just a power and if he was impersonal or if he was just an angel he'd be distributing the gifts of god according to instructions that come from god but here the holy spirit gives the gifts out as he wills his will controls the gifts of god why because he's god that would be the reason why let me go to another extremely beautiful theologically packed passage that i think most of us miss two verses in first corinthians 2 verses 10 and 11. these things god has revealed to us through the spirit and look at the description of the spirit for the spirit searches everything even the depths of god now i'm going to suggest that this this shows the holy spirit is god but it gives us more than that it gives us some details about this that are i think exciting to hear for who knows a person's thoughts here's an analogy to explain what paul means who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him now what paul is talking about is your your self-knowledge self-knowledge is something no one else has you have your self-knowledge nobody else has your self-knowledge and this kind of trips me out to think about it we have like over a thousand people watching right now that are that are watching during the live stream and each one of you is in a different place you're in a different life situation even as i say these things you have thoughts going on in your mind and nobody knows this stuff but you even your closest loved ones don't know you as well as you know you you know you the most which is of course why you know you need jesus but but your self knowledge is pretty impressive right but it's something that only you possess paul is saying the holy spirit possesses the self-knowledge of god which is because the holy spirit is god he knows the deep things of god because he is god why is that so important to you as a christian this is amazing because the spirit is revealing things to you that are from the the deep things of god we receive in the spirit we receive an intimate connection with god knowledge from god information from god and yes like the scripture trumps anything you think the spirit's leading you in because what we know god says always trumps what we think god's saying that seems pretty pretty simplistic my my whole theology there but the holy spirit knows the mind of god because he is he is he is a demonstration there of god's self-knowledge i think that's beautiful so the holy spirit is god also he shares a name with the father and the son matthew 28 i could also go to like a hundred verses that say the holy spirit is god's spirit which of course means he's not gabriel and you could go to a hundred of those verses but just mentioning that matthew 28 19 jesus gives the commission to spread the gospel around the world and tells us to baptize in the name singular of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit now the theology geeks you already know this it's a singular name yet there are three persons mentioned father son spirit but only one name well who else has the same name as the father well only if you're god do you have the same name as the father so the son he has the same name as the father in in this context obviously name can be used in different ways his name's jesus the father's name is not jesus i'm not saying that but uh but the holy spirit here if you're gonna just take the verse in context he must also be god because it would be weird for him to be an angel baptize him in the name of the father the son and you know the angel gabriel who has the same name as the father and the son it just doesn't make any sense it's obviously forced upon scripture let me talk about some more old testament stuff there are those who would think that um we we don't have as much information about the holy spirit in the old testament and i partly agree um there are definitely there's more clarity and more details about the holy spirit in the new testament than the old that's true but it's not new in the sense of novel it never was the case before new rather i think it's like this the this analogy i heard was great maybe it'll help you guys too when you look at the old testament it's as though you're looking at a room that is dimly lit and you you definitely see things some stuff you can make out pretty clearly okay you can make god's monotheism very clearly um his calling of israel uh the promises of a messiah like there are certain things but certain elements of the messiah are pretty fuzzy and so this is kind of like you're looking into this room that's poorly lit and and you do you see some objects clearly but a lot of objects you know they're there but you can't tell quite what they are and then somebody comes in and flips the light on and this is like the new testament the new testament's like shining the light turning the light on so you can look at the old and see what was always there and so the light goes on and you look in the room and you go oh i mean i knew there was a messiah but i didn't realize he looked quite like that he was always there all the shadows and the nuances and the contours are consistent with what i saw in the dimly lit room the old testament but there's more detail and more clarity so that's what we see and we can see this with the holy spirit not just with jesus this i get i love this stuff because the consistency the unity of the bible it's somehow it's just rewarding to even just know that god has been working this way in the text of scripture there's just something i don't know life-giving about it genesis 1 verses 1 and 2 the creation story right in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth and the 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 now this passage seems to be referring to the holy spirit now some would suggest that this is just this is just the hebrew word ruach and there's an interesting dynamic here in hebrew and in greek the word for spirit wind and breath are all the same word so in hebrew it's ruach and ruach can be can be used to speak of my breath or it can be used to speak of the wind or it can be used to speak of that spiritual sort of like um immaterial aspect of of persons so that's that's ruach and in greek it's numa and it can be used in all those same ways and so here some rarely but some translators will try to say and the breath of god or the wind of god was hovering over the face of the waters but it seems to me that when you look at the rest of scripture you can confirm this is definitely rightly translated spirit and it's speaking here here's my application for us it's speaking of the role of the holy spirit in creation and when we look at some other passages in scripture that also comment on the creation of the world and the creation of mankind we're going to see that there is there's um a lesson here for us okay let's let's look at psalm 33 6. this is this is one of those creation passages you know the bible talks about creation in more than just genesis it's in psalms it's in job it's in various places here it says by the word of the lord the heavens were made and by the breath of his mouth all their hosts now is where i want to like turn the new testament light on and i want to shine that light to get even more clarity on this very passage because we know that in john 1 1 the word of the lord through whom the heavens were made is jesus right john 1 tells us in the beginning was the word the word was without form and void um and then there's the word the word i just mixed genesis 1 and john 1. i don't know what that was in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god and then it says that all things were made through him all things were made through him so everything was made through the word john would say i'm flicking the light on this is jesus the trinity is active in creation and here the breath of the lord of his mouth creates the hosts that's super interesting because what we're getting here is the father the son and the holy spirit all in psalm 33 6 active in creation so that's not gabriel guys that's not gabriel in genesis 2 7 we can do this again when i compare genesis 2 to job 33 then the lord god formed the man of the dust from the ground of dust from the ground and breathed into his he breathes into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living creature now that you you could say well that's breath okay but it that would be a little strange to think it's only talking about breath it's probably using breath to speak of the holy spirit here and i can support this with job 33 4. the spirit of god has made me and the breath of the almighty gives me life now this is a hebrew parallelism the spirit of god has made me is going to say something is basically being repeated this phrase is repeated the idea is repeated again differently the breath of the almighty gives me life so in job 33 4 you know scripture commenting on scripture what we have is a an example of the fact that when god breathes on adam he's giving him life by the holy spirit this doesn't mean adam is indwelt by the spirit i'm not saying he he's indwelt by the spirit here that's not the idea rather that the spirit the holy spirit is the source of life for humankind that people all people need the holy spirit to be alive not indwelling them but sustaining them this is the spirit's work in keeping us going so to speak bringing us to life and keeping us alive you need god every moment of every day to be alive every second you need him to be alive for the universe to even continue to exist so we have father son and spirit all active in those things now some would say but mike this is job and you you know good students of the bible know that job has some pretty sketchy content right job and his friends they have many many chapters of stuff they say and at the end of the book god rebukes them all they all get rebuked and they all have to repent that's interesting so how seriously am i supposed to take this well in job 33 we actually have elihu speaking and eli who was the only friend of job that didn't get rebuked so as you read job you got to take some things with a bit of a grain of salt there's a mixture of things in there sometimes what you're really getting is the emoting of mankind the feelings of mankind the thoughts of mankind they're not always accurate sometimes they are sometimes they're not you use other scriptures to try to determine that but eli who's never rebuked so i think that he has proper commentary on the creation of mankind here and let's see um second samuel 23 let's go to another text uh the holy spirit's active i mentioned this before that the holy spirit's active in giving scripture but here's an example from the old testament that says as much right hebrews says that psalms are the holy spirit speaking but look at this here's the last words of david in psalm second samuel 23 the oracle of david meaning it's like prophetic the son of jesse the oracle of the man who was raised on high the anointed of the god of jacob the sweet psalmist of israel the spirit of the lord speaks by me his word is on my tongue the god of israel has spoken the rock of israel has said to me and then he goes on and gives his his final like poem this is significant because not only is he confirming even from old testament perspective that the holy spirit is inspiring the things that are being written here but the spirit of the lord is also the god of israel yeah because there's that parallelism again the spirit of the lord speaks by me his word is on my tongue the god of israel has spoken the rock of israel has said to me so this is another thing for the the deity of the holy spirit and his um inspiration of scripture now some would accuse again some would accuse the new testament of making this stuff i see this all the time skeptics will do this and no offense skeptics like i'm not mad at you or nothing but when you're skeptical of the bible and you're trying to say christianity's wrong i think your data is wrong and i i like to show you that and that i consider a kindness because i'm trying to point you to the truth of christ because i want you to have the hope that i have and this is one of those areas where sometimes skeptics they um they become overly cynical about scripture and so the the tendency i see on internet skeptics is they'll very quickly believe something negative about the bible without much sort of confirmation or research and then they'll spread those things and then gullible people tend to pick them up and spread them as well one of the things they'll spread occasionally is the idea that of course this theology of the bible our bibliology our view that the bible's inspired of god is is a new thing well i just shared you with you one scripture that says that david knowingly thought he was speaking by the holy spirit so that's not a new thing at all but also in zechariah 7 12. wait am i already there i'm already there um oh no i'm not there hold on all right i'll oh you're not there okay zechariah 7 12. in this verse it says they made their hearts diamond hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the lord of hosts had sent by the spirit through the former prophets this is interesting because this implies that now the law the pentateuch is all clearly clearly from god like the theology of the old testament the old testament is convinced of this but here zechariah an old testament prophet says that basically all the prophets they've got all the former prophets these would be the the big ones ezekiel those guys that they were speaking by the word of this of the lord through the spirit so that's and you could just you could go through scripture after scripture how many times they say the word the lord came to me the spirit of god spoke to me and then they and they speak this happens all the time okay now i'm gonna do something real fun which is we're gonna look at um sort of i don't know what to call this you could say it's like typology of the holy spirit but it might be a little different than that it's more like um the progressive theology of the holy spirit in in longing and fulfillment does anybody understand what i just said i don't know but jesus to give an illustration of what i'm about to do jesus gives us um or i should say the old testament gives us the longing for jesus like there's this such longing for him and there's types and pictures of him and there's prophecies of him and there's all this stuff and the new testament provides the fulfillment of all of those things and it's my favorite study in the world is to study the connection between the old and new testaments through the lens of who christ is but the holy spirit is also like this in the bible i'll give you some examples um isaiah 63 11 these are just some examples i could do this all day then he remembered the days of old of moses and his people where he where is he who brought them up out of the sea who shepherds with the shepherds of his flock where is he who put in them in the midst of them his holy spirit sorry for my stuttering there on that verse uh but god put his spirit in the midst of them this is speaking of the time when moses led the people of israel so it's the tabernacle and the holy spirit's in their midst now those who know their bibles know this the holy spirit wasn't in them in the new testament sense the holy spirit was with them or in the midst of them in the tabernacle but even then in the tabernacle there's this separation and here's the picture i want you to think of god's old testament picture of the holy spirit being with people is it's it's like partially with them he's kind of with them he's with them in the sense that he's there in the tabernacle he might even lead and guide them through the cloud or the pillar of fire but he's not accessible right in that tabernacle nobody can go in there the high priest goes once a year and he better come right or else he's in trouble right remember nadab and bai who the sons of aaron these two original high priests they were going to inherit the high priest job after aaron and they go into the temple in the tabernacle and they do it wrong and they have the wrong attitude they're not observing you know they're honoring god right and they're stricken dead on the spot so god's with his people but this is like a partial with his people and this is this is a consistent message of the old testament the holy spirit is like there but not not in the ideal way there's something missing this is the longing for the holy spirit we get this in numbers chapter 11 29 where moses speaks of his longing that all the lord's people were prophets and that the lord would put his spirit on them the idea is that man i just wish i wish that this thing the holy spirit would become a moses came on some of the elders of israel but he came on saul but these are individuals this isn't the whole nation and there's just this longing like oh moses echoes it i wish i wish that god could just put his spirit on everybody but instead there's this separation there's the layers there's all these differences even those who have the spirit are under threat of losing it like as like uh david did at the time with psalm 51 and and this is beautiful because when you look at this in the lens of old and new testament you realize the holy spirit's not accessible through moses moses longs for it but can't achieve it moses represents the law through the law you you can see god's spirit you you have like you get close but not there you find out when you get close that you're a sinner who needs forgiveness and that you're kind of hopeless and you'll never make it jesus comes he becomes a sacrifice for you he fulfills the law and then when he dies the veil is ripped in the temple from top to bottom though the idea of saying the access to the holy spirit is now granted and then pentecost the holy spirit comes and fills the church but it's not just present in the old testament through longing it's present in the old testament through specific prophecy let's look at ezekiel 36 this is this is awesome and 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 and i will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules this is a statement to israel that there's a future time coming where i'm not just going to give you the temple where the holy spirit dwells i'm going to put my spirit in you personally all of you you will all receive the spirit and that will become your motive for transformation this will become the thing that internally changes you because you're never going to be good enough until it's me changing and transforming you from the inside out this is new testament theology but it's right here in the old testament why because it's the same it's the same theology through it all now what's also cool is in ezekiel 36 this is the valley of dry bones passage some of you would know ezekiel comes and he sees a valley of dry bones he has some kind of vision right and it's a valley full of deadman's bones and then god tells him prophesied to the bones and he prophesies and the bones come together so he speaks and the bones come together then he says you know breathe on them and and then he breathes on them and the bones come to life and then god interprets the vision i'm going to put my spirit in you now here's what i think is also really neat ezekiel and forgive me for not taking all day to explain each of these points i'm just kind of racing through to give you a lot of details but ezekiel is i think a great type of christ ezekiel is a prophet who is also he's a priest who's also coming out to do all the prophecy so the let me see how do i explain this quickly the priests in israel had a very special role that they were to bear the sin of the people in that they pictured christ the prophets in israel have a different role ezekiel is a marriage of those roles and ezekiel pictures christ in a very special way he's the one prophet who is said to be bearing the sin of the people and when ezekiel does weird things in the book of ezekiel like he has to lie down naked right because he's showing the shame of israel and god shows israel their shame by shaming ezekiel or he has to eat unclean food to show that israel will be eating unclean food because they're going to be delivered to their enemies and so he has to eat unclean food ezekiel keeps going through the shame that israel deserves and he's the guy in the bible who more than other than jesus he's the one who's called son of man more than anyone else because he pictures christ who comes in his high priestly role to bear our sin bear our shame and then at the end of all that he's the one who will speak to the bones and they'll come together and then he breathes and gives them the holy spirit ezekiel stands here to represent christ jesus shows up he gives us the gospel he creates the gospel through his death and resurrection and then when we hear the word of christ and we believe it through jesus we have access to the holy spirit we're given new life this is the theology of the new testament lived out in the old testament in great detail i think it's beautiful beautiful stuff and finally uh we have revelation 21 where if you want to take i'm just going to skip right to the end here the final goal the final longing of god to be with his people is fulfilled right and i heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling place of god is with man this speaks of of the the new heaven and new earth he will dwell with them and they will be his people and god himself will be with them as their god our intim this is you know in all the secular movies and tv shows when they talk about heaven they always blow it it's just inevitably they blow it first they they tend to have these weird shallow views of heaven but what's missing from heaven and what's missing from what we're really looking for is not just my temporary location in heaven but of the new heaven and new earth that are created but what they miss from those things is god's presence the intimate personal pervasive presence of god the joy that we will constantly feel being that close to god who is love who is holy and being united to him with no barriers and no boundaries that is the longing of the bible and that is accomplished in the holy spirit i think we have neglected the doctrine of the holy spirit we have neglected now there's more there's more in the in the old testament let me give you one isaiah 63 verse 13 and 14. um oh wait did i i think i already covered that one i think i covered that one already i might be rethinking this because i taught the same thing yesterday and sometimes like my brain gets a little confused on it but nehemiah 9 20. let's go to this passage you gave your good spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst this is the role of the holy spirit in the wanderings of israel and it said he gave the spirit to instruct them this would not have come individually this would have come through moses moses was the one speaking with god getting the words from god and sharing with the people okay so this is instruction but again instruction at a distance because it's old covenant not new covenant he didn't withhold their manna from their mouth that that obviously that's typology of jesus right the man of jesus comes he says i'm the bread of life and gave them water for their thirst now jesus taps into this typology to talk about our new testament experience and that's in john 7. keep in mind this god gave them his spirit to instruct manna from heaven and water for their thirst now let's look at what jesus says in john chapter 7 verse 37 on the last day of the feast the great day jesus stood up now this is a feast that commemorates the giving of water to the people of israel which seems to be connected to the spirit somehow if anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink jesus being our access to the spirit whoever believes in me as a scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water now this he's this he said about the spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive just as in the old testament god guided them by his spirit from a distance though when you come to jesus in the new he will individually give you the holy spirit you will be filled you will know god you will be with god god will be with you beautiful okay let me give you another one another parallel between old and new testament this is exodus 31 i remember first reading this when i was a kid just reading my bible for the first time through when i was a teenager and being really excited when i found this out this is where god inspires by his spirit craftsmen who build the temple they're doing practical like artwork and and building skills but they're given gifts by the spirit to do it really unique but it totally relates to new testament theology is exodus 31 1 the lord said to moses see i've called by name bezalel the son of yuri son of her of the tribe of judah and i filled him with the spirit of god with ability and intelligence with knowledge and all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs to work in gold and silver and bronze in cutting stones for setting and in carving wood to work in every craft then he talks about others he's anointed and appointed to do buildings now these aren't just normal buildings it's not just random they're probably like hey so-and-so is going to build stuff and god helped him this is to build the tabernacle this is to build god's the place of god's the dwelling of god's spirit keep that in mind because this is where it connects to the new testament in the new testament we're taught clearly that the gifts of the spirit are to help us that we might build the body of christ which is the temple of the holy spirit this is a picture how the anointing of the spirit came on a few people to build the tabernacle so the spirit comes upon all of us that we might all build the body of christ you have gifts given to you by the spirit that you might be a blessing to other people in the body that's the intention that we might grow up into him who is the head this again this is what i mean about typology old and new testament is not just about jesus it also speaks of the holy spirit jesus is related to the holy spirit deeply throughout his whole ministry the holy spirit's the one who prophesied jesus the holy spirit miraculously made mary pregnant she was the holy spirit came upon her and miraculously made her pregnant the holy spirit initiates jesus's public ministry when the holy spirit descends upon christ like a dove then the holy spirit leads jesus into the wilderness to be tempted then he comes out of the wilderness empowered by the holy spirit scripture says the holy spirit's how jesus cast out demons although i think he also used his own power i don't think it was one of the other i think it's like the creation account it's father son and spirit all active in different ways and the holy spirit raised jesus here's an interesting verse romans 1 4 the holy spirit's active in the resurrection of christ and jesus was declared to be the son of god in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead this seems to speak of the holy spirit being active in the resurrection of jesus there's a couple other verses that speak of this as well in the scriptures but what i would want to highlight for you is that here we have a beautiful parallel so we found in the old testament that the holy spirit's active in creation just like the father and son are we also see in the new testament the holy spirit is active in redemption just like the father and son are right the father sends his son the son dies on the cross for our sin and we hear the preaching of the gospel and the holy spirit regenerates us so we see all three active in our salvation we also see all three active in the resurrection so there's verses that speak of the father raising the son there's verses that speak of the sun raising himself and there's verses that speak of the holy spirit raising him now if you're one of those who thinks well which one is it then you're not understanding the doctrine of the holy spirit because the three are one three are one the three persons are one god so you can easily overlap in those in those descriptions all right finally um two last things to share with you guys then we're all done one is this we should not overlook no doctrine of the holy spirit no study of the holy spirit is is sufficient if we overlook the selflessness of the spirit now when we look at the sun we see the submission of the sun that would be the the primary like thing we see in the relationship of the sun and the father the submission of the son he chooses to submit to the father submit to his guidance submit to his direction only doing the things the father tells him to do obeying the father even to the cross so we see obedience and submission in the holy spirit obedience and submission are not the right terms selflessness seems to be the right term because jesus says the holy spirit will come and he will speak of me he will glorify me the holy spirit is drawing attention to jesus not to himself now some have complained let me bring a practical view on this some have complained like why you know god being for his own glory that's kind of selfish isn't it being for your own glory and you know when i was younger i would push back on this and i think this is proper pushback and i say well it's not when he really does have that glory i mean that's not inappropriate i mean for instance a parent telling a child like no you will respect me that doesn't have to be you could be selfish and arrogant or you could just be like no no it's proper that you respect me i am your parent you should respect me that's right you don't have to be arrogant or selfish to do that so god could be for his own glory simply because he really is glorious but there's another sense in which because god's tri-personal jesus can selflessly be for the glory of christ right the son can selflessly be for the glory of the father there's there's a sense of selflessness in god's own glory seeking that doesn't exist with you it's one thing if the wife says to the husband wow you've done such a good job i'm so proud of you it's something else if the husband turns his wife and says i've done such a good job i'm so proud of me like there's it's just different again the doctrine of the trinity seems to make more sense of this in my opinion but the selflessness of the spirit is one of the highlighted things we have in the scripture and i think it may be because of this my theory on this and i know i'm not alone in this but i just want to say i don't i don't have clear teaching of scripture making this connection i'm making this connection and the connection is to say the spirit is selfless speaking of the son because he's the one who fills the church and the church is to be selflessly speaking of the son you and me our lives don't matter as much as the name and glory of christ the purpose of my life being to glorify his name and make his name known in the world that's worth it because i want to glorify him just as the holy spirit i mean you ever wonder why as a christian when you got saved you just want to bring glory to the name of jesus like you just you want to it's not just something you're religiously supposed to do like you just want to bring glory to god this is the work of the spirit in your life because he's he is selfless and he's producing that selflessness and you he is love and he's producing that love in your life so i think it's i think it's a beautiful beautiful thing all right the final thing i'll mention the second and final thing for today is some application um so we're the temple of the holy spirit as i've mentioned a half dozen times now but in first corinthians we get a new perspective on that i mentioned that the work of the spirit in our life and and the knowledge of god who god is that is supposed to be our motive that highest rung of obedience to god which is love and appreciation and joy these these motives driving us towards holiness and kindness towards others forgiving all that that that's where we want to be this is where i think the holy spirit's driving us and pulling us and drawing us i think that this is consistent with the new testament as well so not only is the holy spirit my deep relational connection with god right god the father and son make their home in me through the holy spirit not only that not only by the spirit do i crowd abba father and i have this deep personal connection and relationship with god not only by the spirit do i can i pray from the deepest place of my heart into god and he knows all that i'm going through and not only is the holy spirit working in me to love others but also to be holy the holy spirit he's holy and he's in me and he is both of us he is driving us towards holiness he wants you to be holy and this is something that paul taps into look at what he says to corinth now first corinthians is the letter of the church that is written to a church with two major issues if you read the whole book of first corinthians you see everything he says relates to one of two issues unity and holiness or on the on the flip side of it to say disunity in the body people mistreating each other and unholy behavior or sin in the body of christ everything he says is relating to those two things and at one point in 1st corinthians 6 paul seems almost exasperated with how they don't get it and so he finally asks them 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 for you were bought with a price so glorify god in your body i encourage you to meditate on this like today tomorrow for as long as it takes just meditate on the fact that you if you're in christ you are the temple of the spirit and paul the apostle thought to see a church with such disunity with such sin in their lives are they not getting what it means to be filled with the spirit in the first place and so he hits them up he's like don't you don't you guys know i mean they knew it theologically but did they get it did they really get it and this is the encouragement for the rest of us your motive to love and serve god on the highest rung of morality is the love of god manifested in you through the holy spirit and his work in you and as you think about committing a sin as you think about compromising as you think about holding onto bitterness you need to think about the unity and love of the holy spirit that has been bestowed upon you by whom you are children of god let's pray lord we ask that we would be more aware of the holy spirit it seems like in corinth there are issues of disunity and sin were connected to their lack of genuine awareness of the spirit of the calling of the spirit the work of the spirit i mean they were hugely into spiritual gifts but the gifts aren't the giver and they weren't thinking about the giver we pray that we would think about you we would be mindful of the fact that we're the temple of the spirit and it would be transformative for our lives sins that we found a hard time struggling with would suddenly everything would shift and change because now it's like lord this is about love this isn't just about not doing what i want to do it's about who i who i am and who i know and who i'm filled with and we pray lord that we would know we're bought with a price we would know where the temple of the spirit and we would glorify you with all that we are in jesus name amen amen thank you all very much for joining um let's see next uh next week well this yeah this wednesday you'll get a video from me this friday will be the q a next monday i'm going to do another study in the mark series for the next two weeks we'll be in the mark series on mondays and then we're going to take a little break for a few weeks just to have a little time off and i'll still be doing the friday stuff but um but not the monday videos the monday videos will be having a break for a couple weeks at least unless i pull interviews together we'll see i don't know i don't know what i'm doing i just make it up as i go along so thank you all lord bless you i appreciate the the honor and privilege of being able to speak into your lives about the truth of god and minister to you in any way it's a blessing to you give all the credit and glory to god and that's about it take care

Channel: Mike Winger

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Keywords: mike winger, how to find Jesus in the old testament, part 26, how to find Jesus in the old testament part 26, pt 26, is Jesus in proverbs, Jesus in proverbs, Proverbs 30:1-4, agur, what is his son's name, prophecy of Jesus

Id: 28HVFJttJiQ

Length: 78min 15sec (4695 seconds)

Published: Mon May 31 2021