The Person of The Holy Spirit

Good evening. Tonight we're starting our 10-week study of pneumatology, which is about the study of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. We just finished Christology, which is the study of the person and work of Christ. So naturally, pneumatology follows that. Over the next 10 weeks, we'll be looking at the names of the Holy Spirit. We're going to be looking at the symbols of the Holy Spirit. We're looking at the deity of the Holy Spirit. We'll be looking at what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We'll look at what it means to sin against the Holy Spirit. We'll look at the work of the Holy Spirit. So we have a lot to cover over the next 10 weeks. Tonight we're going to begin with looking at the personhood of the Holy Spirit, the person of the Holy Spirit. On your handouts, let's look at Bible point number one.

Scripture presents the Holy Spirit as eternally existing. "Eternally" is the first blank.

The Holy Spirit was not some entity that was created, but He has eternally existed as a member of the Godhead — God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. That's the doctrine of the Trinity that we studied when we studied the doctrine of God. Of course, being God in one essence with three persons, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He's eternally existed.

The Holy Spirit as eternally existing as a third person — "person" is the second blank — of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is distinct — that's the third blank — He's distinct from both the Father and the Son. So He's not just the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son, but He's a third person distinct from them. We're going to look at some scriptures that show both His eternality and also His distinction from the Father and from the Son.

Let's look first of all at the very beginning, Genesis 1, verses 1 through 2. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." Here we see the third person of the Trinity, the Spirit of God hovering over the waters. The word "hovering," as we'll look at when we discuss the symbols of the Holy Spirit, means to incubate. It's picturing a hen over her eggs, bringing life, bringing order out of chaos. And that's what we see the Holy Spirit doing — He's completing the work of creation. We often see in the Trinity the Father as the originator, the Son as the mediator, and then the Holy Spirit as the completer of the works of God.

Now look in Hebrews chapter 9, verse 14. "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"

In this verse we see, first of all, that the Spirit is called the eternal Spirit. So just as we see Him before anything was created in Genesis chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, here we see Him in the New Testament likewise referred to as the eternal Spirit. So He has always existed and He's distinct from both the Father and the Son. We see that in this verse: "who through," speaking of Christ, "who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God." We see all three members of the Trinity, all three persons of the one true God, distinct from one another.

Flip over on the back. We see the same distinction in the Great Commission. Matthew 28:19, Jesus says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit." We see three distinctions within the Godhead. The writer of Jude does much the same thing in verses 20 and 21. "But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." Here again we see the distinction between the three persons of the Triune God.

We see Peter make the same distinction in 1 Peter chapter 1, the opening of this letter, verses 1 and 2. "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, and Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace be multiplied." Here we see all three persons again made distinct and referred to as distinct persons by Peter.

And then look at John — this John, the beloved disciple. He records in John chapter 15, verse 26, the words of Jesus Himself. And He says, "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father" — the Holy Spirit comes from the Father through the Son — "the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me." Even Jesus Himself referred to the Spirit and the Father as being distinct from Himself, but all three claiming divinity.

Flip back over on the front. The application of this is that because the Holy Spirit is eternal and because He's distinct from the Father and the Son, Spirit being distinct persons, "By the Spirit, the Creator comes not to, but into the creature." "Into" is the blank. Jesus says, "I'm going to send you another Advocate, another Helper, another Comforter, and He's going to be with you. He's going to live inside of us."

This is the incredible thing about the Holy Spirit — that God Himself in the person of His Spirit dwells within us, and it's because of that that it can be said that both the Father and the Son abide within us through the agency of the Holy Spirit.

Bible point number two: the Holy Spirit is a person. We studied what it means to be a person when we studied the doctrine of God. We looked at theology proper, and one of the attributes of God is that He's a personal being, and the Holy Spirit, being God, is also a person.

Many denominations currently deny this. They'll say that the Holy Spirit is a power, or the Holy Spirit is an aspect of God — an attribute of God, if you will — or an effect of God. This goes all the way back to the late 1700s, the early 1800s. There was a German theologian named Friedrich Schleiermacher, and Schleiermacher was a father of theological liberalism, and he denied the personhood of the Holy Spirit. He said the Holy Spirit was just another way of talking about the power of God, just a force. Well, we deny that. The Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force — "force" is the first blank — or a mere influence of God.

He is not an attribute — that's the second blank — not an attribute of God as God is love and God is holy. God is spirit, but that is not His mode of existence, that is not who He is as a person separate from the Holy Spirit. We have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are distinct persons. The Holy Spirit is someone, not something. "Something" is the third blank here. In other words, we don't refer to the Holy Spirit as an "it," because He's not like electricity, which is power but not a person. The Holy Spirit is a divine person who can be known, and who thinks, who relates, and who acts, and who wills, who knows His creation.

Look in Acts 10:38. "You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power."

Now here we see all three members of the Trinity. You know about Jesus, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power. If Schleiermacher was right and the Holy Spirit was just another way of referring to the power of God, this would make no sense. It would read, "how God anointed Him with the power and with power," but he doesn't say that. He says He anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, because the Holy Spirit is a person. "And how He, Jesus, went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with them." God was with them through the person of the Holy Spirit.

Flip back over on the back. Look in Luke 4:14 through 15. We can see the same principle being taught. "Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. And the news of Him went throughout all the surrounding region, and He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all." This is the account of Jesus returning out of the wilderness. He returned out of the wilderness in the power of the Spirit. It would make no sense if He returned out of the wilderness in the power of the power, but He returned out of the wilderness in the power of the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is a person.

We see the same distinction made by Paul. Look in Romans 15, verse 13. "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Again, Schleiermacher is wrong. It's not "abound in the power of the power," but "abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

He writes to the church of Corinth, 1 Corinthians 2, verses 3 through 5. "I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." Again, he's not saying "in demonstration of power and power," but "in demonstration of the Spirit." The definite article there — he's talking about a person. "That your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."

Now look in John. When John records the teaching of Jesus, it's very important to observe that when He speaks of the Holy Spirit, He uses a personal pronoun — "he" — in reference to the Holy Spirit. A stone is not a "he," right? Bladed grass is not a "he." Only a person is.

John chapter 14, verse 26 says, "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." He has all the attributes of personhood, so He's referred to as a "he." John 15, verse 26, Jesus says, "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." Only a person bears witness, right? Only a person teaches you all things and brings to remembrance all things as a teacher, because a teacher is a person. John 16:13, "When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come." He uses the personal pronoun four times here in reference to the Holy Spirit.

The application for number two is this: as a divine person, the Spirit is trustworthy. "Trustworthy" is the blank. Because He's a personal being, He's trustworthy because He's a divine person, and God is altogether perfect, altogether trustworthy. You may depend, for example, on your car to get you somewhere. Your car is not a person, it's a thing. But what happens when you run out of gas? What happens if your battery dies? It's not trustworthy in that sense — not totally trustworthy. But the Holy Spirit is totally trustworthy because He's very God of very God, and what He speaks, what He teaches, what He declares, what He reveals — you know it's the perfect truth of God.

Bible point number three: as a person, the Holy Spirit is rational. We talked about this when we discussed theology proper, the doctrine of God, that God thinks about Himself and about His creation. He's a rational being. The blade of grass outside does not know it's a blade of grass. It doesn't contemplate its place in this world or its environment. It just is. It just exists. But not so with a personal being. Personal beings reflect about themselves and about their place in this world.

As a person, the Holy Spirit is rational. He thinks — that's the first blank — and reflects about Himself. "Himself" is the second blank, and all of His creation. "Creation" is the third blank. We see this described in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 10 through 12. Paul writes, "But God has revealed them" — speaking about the hope of heaven, these wonderful things that are laid up for us — "But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God." He thinks about Himself. He knows and understands.

"For what man knows the things of man except the spirit of man which is in him?" You can't read my mind — only I know what's within me, right? In the same way, only God knows what's within God. He says, "Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God." Paul's telling the Corinthian church how blessed we are as Christians to have the Holy Spirit within us, who teaches us and reveals to us the very things of God because He is a personal being and He knows Himself and He knows us.

Flip over on the back. Exodus 31:3 talks about the knowledge of the Spirit in relation to the old covenant. God told Moses, instructed the nation of Israel to build a tabernacle and how to worship Him properly, and that He would endow these craftsmen with His Spirit, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of knowledge. Exodus 31:3 says, "And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill and ability and knowledge in all kinds of craftsmanship." Look at Isaiah 11:2, speaking of the Spirit of God who would be upon the Messiah, who would anoint the Messiah. "The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord."

Look at Isaiah 40, the great chapter that's one of the high points of the Old Testament. Verse 13 says, "Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has taught Him?" Does He need to be taught anything? No. He knows everything perfectly and immediately, just as God knows. He's omniscient because He is God. He's a divine person. "With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him and taught Him in the paths of justice, who taught Him knowledge and showed Him the way of understanding?" He's asking rhetorically. And the answer is no one, because He is the Spirit of God.

The application is this: seek illumination and guidance. "Guidance" is our blank, from the Spirit. We often don't know which way to turn. We often are stumped at the things of God. We often don't know how to pray, right? But the Holy Spirit is a wonderful teacher, for He's rational. He knows all things, and only a person is rational. He's the divine person who leads and guides us into all truth.

Bible point number four: as a person, the Holy Spirit is resolute. We talked about this again when we talked about the doctrine of God — that when we talked about God being a person, He's resolute, which means that He wills and acts freely from within. He has counsels. He has plans — what we call the decrees of God — and He puts them into effect. He wills and He acts. Others that are not persons do not do so. In other words, the blade of grass that you stepped on outside this evening coming into the church isn't scheming to get you back, because it is not aware of who it is. It cannot act. But a person can.

As a person, the Holy Spirit is resolute. This means the Holy Spirit freely wills — that's the first blank — and freely acts — that's the second blank — with purpose. "Purpose" is the third blank, from within. Indeed, some creatures do will and act, but they will and act out of instinct, right? They do something because they're hungry or they do something because it's in their nature. But they're not acting and willing freely from within, understanding with a rational soul who they are and their place in this world. They're acting simply as a reaction or out of instinct. Not so with the Holy Spirit.

Look at John 3:8. Look at the purpose here, the counsel of the Holy Spirit and His action. It says, "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." The Spirit acts according to the decrees of God, and He sovereignly saves those whom He wills. And when He does, you don't know where He comes from or where He goes, but it's all His work from start to last. Regeneration is by the Holy Spirit.

Look at Acts 13:2. We can see also the will of the Holy Spirit here when Paul and Barnabas are being set apart to go on their first missionary endeavor. It says, "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, 'Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul, for the work which I have called them.'" Here we see the Holy Spirit having a plan, having counsel — He has a work that He's called them to — and He acts in that He speaks to them. He says, "Set them aside for this work."

Look at 1 Corinthians 12:11. "But one and the same Spirit works all these things" — speaking of the gifts that God has given to the church. "They all are worked" — that's action by the Holy Spirit — "distributing to each one individually as He wills." Every member of the church has been given a gift by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has given them a gift that's unique to that individual, and it's all part of His plan to strengthen, to edify the church whom Christ died for. So we see both His will and His action there.

Flip over on the back. Look at Jesus in John chapter 6, verse 63. "It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life." We see the Spirit working with the Word to convert sinners.

The application for this comes from Galatians 5:16. It says, "I say then, walk" — "walk" is the first blank — "walk in the Spirit, and you shall not" — "not" is the second blank — "not fulfill the lust of the flesh."

"Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." If the Holy Spirit is One who freely wills and acts from within, don't we want to walk in His will? Don't we want to walk according to His actions that He has ordained for us? If we walk in the Spirit — which means to keep in step with the Spirit, to walk according to His will, to walk according to the acts that He has set aside for us to fulfill — then we're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. We're going to be fulfilling His will. Let our will, let our acts be conformed to that of the Holy Spirit.

Bible point number five: as a person, the Holy Spirit is relational. We talked about this again when we discussed the personhood of God — or the personality of God — when we discussed theology proper, that God as a person is relational. He's always related even before He created the earth. Before He created the earth, who did He relate to?

He related within the three persons of the Godhead — God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. There before all time there was perfect love, perfect self-revelation, perfect self-giving, perfect intimacy, perfect joy in the Godhead, right? As a person, the Holy Spirit is relational. The Holy Spirit relates within the divine Trinity. He also relates with creation, especially with His church. "Church" is the second blank. At the root of the Holy Spirit's personhood is the divine capacity of infinite love. "Love" is the third blank.

As God has perfect love in the Trinity, has perfect love for His creation — what is the fruit of the Spirit? What's the first one? But love, right? We know that we have the Holy Spirit in our hearts if we're marked by love. Romans 5:5 says, "Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." The moment that we place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is given to us and He sets about to pour out the love of God in our hearts. He's showing us the love of God, depositing the love of God into us. 2 Corinthians 13:14, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen." That "communion" means a sharing, a koinonia, a fellowship, a participation in the Holy Spirit, in the grace of the Lord Jesus, and in the love of God. The only way that we can know the grace of Jesus and the love of God is through the Holy Spirit who mediates the love of God to us.

Flip over on the back. Galatians 5:22 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control." Look at Titus 3, verses 4 and 7. "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. And having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." This is how we know the love of God our Savior — through Jesus Christ — because we've been washed and we've been set apart by the Holy Spirit. We've been cleansed by Him.

Look at Ephesians 3, chapter 14 through 19, again connecting the Holy Spirit with love. It says, "For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." You can know the very fullness of the love of God through the Holy Spirit — that you might be strengthened, is what Paul prays for them — by the might of the Holy Spirit.

Flip back over on the front. The application for number five is this: do you commune with the Holy Spirit? Since the Holy Spirit is the principle of love poured out into man's heart by God, do we commune with the Holy Spirit? And what does it mean to commune with the Holy Spirit?

Well, we commune with the Holy Spirit when we read His Word, right? Are not these words inspired by the Holy Spirit? So that's how we hear His counsel, how we understand His guidance.

How about when we pray? Does not the Holy Spirit lead us and guide us into all truth? Does He not direct our hearts in how to pray? Even when we don't even know the words to say, He's our Intercessor in our hearts. How about in fellowship with the saints? Do we not have the love of God shed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit? So when we come here to study God's Word and to worship and to fellowship, are we not sharing the love of God with one another? That's the communion of the Holy Spirit. When we praise the name of God, are we not praising His name through the Holy Spirit, expressing love back to God? We would have no love in our hearts for God if it were not for the Spirit pouring that love into our hearts.

Bible point number six: while the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of God — that's the first blank — and the Spirit of Christ — "God" is the first blank, "Christ" is the second blank — He is a distinct person. He's not just the Spirit of God and not just the Spirit of Christ. He is a distinct person. As a person, He comes from the Father and Son, both in manifestations and acts.

Let's look at Matthew 3:16 through 17. We see this in Matthew's account of the baptism of Christ. "When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him. And He saw the Spirit of God descending on Him like a dove and alighting upon Him." So we have Christ coming out of the waters, and He sees the Spirit of God — showing a distinction in person from Him. "And suddenly a voice from heaven saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'" We hear the voice of the Father. So we see all three persons of the Trinity here at the baptism of Jesus.

Was this for Jesus' benefit? No, this was for our benefit, right? To understand and see the love of God the Father for the Son. And then the Son comes, and the Holy Spirit is anointed — or put upon Him — so that all that He would do in obedience to the Father would be out of love for the Father. We see the Holy Spirit again as the personification of God's love on the Son from the Father, and then back to the Father from the Son.

Flip over on the back. We'll see the same account but in Luke. Luke chapter 3, verses 21 through 22. "When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized. And while He prayed, the heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him. And a voice came from heaven which said, 'You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.'" The Father is expressing His love to the Son through the Holy Spirit, right?

Flip back over on the front. The application for this is to rejoice. Take joy — "rejoice" is the first blank. Rejoice in the Holy Spirit. And I have a reference here of Luke 10:21.

Let me read this to you. This is when Christ had sent out the 70 disciples and they were able to cast out demons and work miracles and they returned with joy. It says, "Then the 70 returned with joy, saying, 'Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.'" And He said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven" — saying that His kingdom has broken forth on this earth. "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven."

"And in that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit. And He said, 'I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.'" Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit.

Let us rejoice in the Spirit, because He is the third person of the Godhead who lives within our hearts, who sheds the love of God within us.

Bible point number seven: the Holy Spirit performs actions — not just manifestations as we saw in point six, but here we see actions, actions that can only be ascribed to a person. The Holy Spirit is said to search. The Holy Spirit is said to know. The Holy Spirit is said to speak. Can rocks and trees do these things — search? No. Speak? No. Only a person. The Holy Spirit is said to testify. The Holy Spirit is said to reveal. The Holy Spirit is said to convince. The Holy Spirit is said to command. The Holy Spirit is said to strive. The Holy Spirit is said to move. The Holy Spirit is said to help. The Holy Spirit is said to guide. The Holy Spirit is said to create. The Holy Spirit is said to recreate. The Holy Spirit is said to sanctify. The Holy Spirit is said to inspire. The Holy Spirit is said to intercede. The Holy Spirit is said to order the affairs of the church. The Holy Spirit is said to work miracles. The Holy Spirit is said to resurrect the dead. These are not mere manifestations of power — that's the second blank — or influence, but these are actions that can only — that's the third blank — only be performed by a person.

Acts 8:29 says, "Then the Spirit said to Philip, 'Go near and overtake the chariot.'" You recall that Philip the evangelist saw a chariot and on that chariot there was an Ethiopian and he was reading the book of Isaiah, and the Holy Spirit said to him, "Go overtake that chariot." And he did, of course, and he was able to ask him, "Do you understand what you're reading?" And by the power of the Holy Spirit he was able to show him Christ from the book of Isaiah and the man became a Christian. The Holy Spirit is the principle of all movement toward God. Just as Christ is the revelation of God — all the outgoing revelation of God — the Holy Spirit is the organ of all internal revelation, of all movement toward God.

Flip over on the back. Luke 12:11 through 12 says — these are the words of Jesus — "Now when they bring you to the synagogues and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that hour what you ought to say." The Holy Spirit is a person.

The application is this: consider in Scripture the works of the Spirit. "Works" is our blank. I encourage you over the next 10 weeks, as you read through the Scriptures in your own devotional time — maybe your family worship time — and you see an action of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit said, or the Holy Spirit directed, or this person prayed in the Spirit, whatever it is that you see — an action that's being done in relation to the Spirit — underline it. Be shocked at how many actions you see, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, that are related to the Holy Spirit.

Bible point number eight: the Holy Spirit is affected as a person by the acts of others. Remember, a person relates, right? It's not just outgoing actions, but a person is acted upon, so to speak, and the Holy Spirit relates to people. He relates particularly to mankind, to His church. It says that which can be resisted — and we reference Isaiah 63. In fact, let me read that to you. 63:10 — it's important that you can see this here from the Scriptures.

Isaiah 63:10, "But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned Himself against them as an enemy and He fought against them."

The Holy Spirit can be resisted. He can be grieved. Ephesians 4:30 — He can be vexed. Acts 5:4 records when Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit. And blasphemed — Matthew 12:31-32. We're going to spend a whole lesson on what it means — what some call the unpardonable sin — to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. That which can be resisted, grieved, vexed, and blasphemed must be a person.

Can you blaspheme the devil? He's a person. Well, you can, and the reason why is that every wicked, miserable thing that you can say about a person in regards to the devil is true, right? But you can also blaspheme the Holy Spirit. You can speak ill of His character because He is God of God.

Graciously, we also read of the love of the Spirit. Not only can the Holy Spirit be grieved and vexed and rebelled against and blasphemed, but showing the grace and love of God, we also read of the love of the Spirit in Romans 15:30. And the Spirit's help — that's the first blank — and intercession. We see that in Romans 8:26-27. He intercedes for the needy. He intercedes for sinful man. This partially reveals the overflow of the infinite fountain of a divine love — "love" is the second blank — which the Holy Spirit unites us to. "Unites" is the third blank. Despite men resisting Him and grieving Him and vexing Him and even blaspheming Him, the Holy Spirit intercedes for man. The Holy Spirit works in men's hearts to turn men toward God, to convict them of sin, of righteousness, and judgment. And He's the one who must take the heart of stone and make it a heart of flesh, to give us the new birth that's only accomplished by the Holy Spirit.

1 John 4:12-13 says this: "No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us His Spirit." How do we know that we're united to Christ? How do we know that we have the love of God dwelling within us? It's by His Holy Spirit. When we're regenerated, His Holy Spirit is deposited into us. We're sealed in the Holy Spirit. We'll look at that in depth when we look at the symbols of the Holy Spirit, what it means to be sealed and have His guarantee upon us.

Flip over on the back. 1 Corinthians 3:16, Paul writes to the Corinthian church, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" We've been so blessed to have God Almighty dwelling within us in the person of the Holy Spirit.

The application is this: proclaim the good news of Christ. "Proclaim" is the blank. If the Holy Spirit dwells within you and you are His temple, what does a temple exist to do but to glorify God? To speak glad tidings of God and to praise His name.

In Isaiah 61, verses 1 through 3, it's the fifth servant song. These are a series of prophetic songs found in the book of Isaiah that speak about the Messiah. The Messiah means the anointed one, the one in whom the Spirit would rest, and this speaks of Christ. I want to read to you from the fifth servant song, Isaiah 61:1 through 3. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified."

Christ quotes from this in His very first sermon in Nazareth. We find this in Luke chapter 4. The idea behind this is the Messiah was anointed with the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel. How much more should we? We have the Holy Spirit deposited within our hearts. So let's proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Let's proclaim liberty to the captives. Let's proclaim that God has given us joy instead of mourning, that He has taken the light and has shone it in darkness in our hearts, and let our lips be filled with the words of God just as our hearts are filled with the Spirit of God. Thank you for coming out.