I would ask your prayers for Mark Kramer and Dave Sulak, two of our pastors who are in training this week in Columbus, Ohio, for Evangelism Explosion. The course is quite intense. Yesterday they started at 8 o'clock in the morning and went till 8 o'clock at night with breaks for two meals in there. Other than that, they were being taught. It was very draining, and they will be in that training through Wednesday of this week. So would you remember them in prayer?
This is a part of our preparation for the Evangelism Explosion ministry that will take place this fall. Probably no area of doctrine is more controversial in the age in which we live than the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
There are people who, alike, love our Lord Jesus Christ, who are committed to Him and to His cause in the world, who have the same convictions about the inerrancy of Scripture, who believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming again personally and visibly, who share many of the same basic doctrines, but who, when it comes to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, find differences.
I think that was illustrated even this last week, or yesterday actually, when I heard that there was a group of people who are now bringing complaint against Jerry Falwell because he is not of the Pentecostal camp or the Charismatic camp and has been given charge of PTL. They believe that he should be removed by some kind of action as chairman of the board of PTL so that another camp, the Charismatic or Pentecostal camp of believers, can take over that ministry once more.
But without going into the right or wrong of that, it simply illustrates for you what I'm trying to say that this doctrine of the Holy Spirit is one that creates a lot of controversy and sometimes even division among God's people. That is not why the Holy Spirit came. He did not come to divide. When there is division, it certainly is not of the Holy Spirit, is it? We as a local church have conviction regarding the Holy Spirit. It is stated in our doctrinal statement. It goes like this.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, who came forth from the Father and Son to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and to regenerate, sanctify, empower all who believe in Jesus Christ. We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Christ and that he is an abiding helper, teacher, and guide. That is a good statement regarding the Holy Spirit.
It probably could be more explicit and more complete, but it's a good place to begin at least regarding what we as a church believe about the Holy Spirit, and here is where we stand on it. In the first place, we believe with everything that is in us that the Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit is not an it or a thing, but the Holy Spirit is a person. That is, he has personality. You say, why do we believe that?
Well, open your Bible to several texts with me, and I want to show you why we know from the revelation of God's Word that the Holy Spirit is a person. First the Gospel of John and the fifteenth chapter. I'm simply going to select here a couple of texts that will illustrate the same point. In John 15 and verse 26, Jesus says, When the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, and by the way, I would have you notice there that Jesus says, whom I will send to you.
Look back in chapter 14 and verse 26. Here he says, But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name. And so in chapter 14, Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will come forth or proceed from the Father, and here in chapter 15, he tells us that the Holy Spirit will proceed from himself. You say, what difference does that make? Well, our doctrinal statement makes that point. It begins by saying, we believe in the Holy Spirit who came forth from the Father and the Son.
Did you know that there's a major division in Christendom over this matter of whether the Holy Spirit came forth only from the Father or from the Father and the Son? Evangelicals, Protestants in general, have followed the teaching, we believe, of the Word of God, which in this case the Roman Catholic Church adheres to, and that is that the Holy Spirit proceeded forth from God the Father and God the Son, whereas the Orthodox churches believe that only the Father sent the Son.
And hundreds of years ago, there was a division about that, a division that still remains today in Christendom. Now let me get to the major point here in chapter 15, verse 26. He says, when the Helper comes, that is, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness of me. You notice here that he says that the Spirit is he. Now the word Spirit in the original language is neutered. That is, there is no gender connected with it.
But when the pronoun is used regarding the Holy Spirit, the pronoun is masculine in gender. That does not mean that the Holy Spirit is male. But that difference in gender, grammatically, points to the fact that the Holy Spirit is a person. What is the significance of it? Now we see this repeated several times in the next chapter, in chapter 16, verses 13 and 14. And here, at least eight times in these two verses, the Holy Spirit is called he, and the word his is used of him.
It says, but when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak of his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will disclose to you what is to come, he shall glorify me, for he shall take of mine and shall disclose it to you. So you notice here again and again and again that masculine pronoun, he, being used to emphasize the point that the Spirit of God, though the word Spirit is neutered, that the Spirit of God is a person.
I was a teenager before I knew that. I had heard of the Holy Spirit. I sang about him in the doxology and in some hymns that we sang in our church, but I did not know until I was a teenager that the Holy Spirit was actually a person and that he had a relationship with me. That's why I emphasize it for all of us tonight, young and old. We believe the Holy Spirit is a person. Secondly, we believe he is a person because there is personality expressed with regard to the Holy Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 10 through 13, it says there in essence, who knows the spirit of a man but that man's spirit? Who knows the things of God but the Spirit of God? I want you to notice there it says that the Holy Spirit knows the things of God. That is, he has intellect, one of the basic essential ingredients of personality. The Holy Spirit possesses intellect. He knows.
Secondly, again in 1 Corinthians, this time the 12th chapter and 11th verse, it speaks in the context of the spiritual gifts that he divides those gifts, he gives them out as he wills or as he chooses, as he decides. Here we see an example of a second essential element of personality and that is will. The Holy Spirit possesses will. His will is never in contrast to the will of the Father or the will of the Son.
The will of the Father, the will of the Son, the will of the Spirit always perfectly coincide and coexist. The point I'm making is that just as God the Father has will and God the Son has will, so the Holy Spirit possesses the ability to will and to choose and does, only a personality can do that. And thirdly, the Holy Spirit has sensibility or emotions. Ephesians 4.30, most of you can quote that verse. It says, and grieve not the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of God.
In other words, the Spirit of God has sensibility. He can sense grief. He feels. He has emotion. He can be grieved. So how do we know that the Holy Spirit is a person and not merely an influence? Because in the first place, personal pronouns are used of him in Scripture. And secondly, because he has personality expressed. All of the essential elements of personality, intellect, will, emotion, are a part of the Spirit's being.
Let me just quickly remind you of some of the actions of the Holy Spirit. Actions which no emanation can have. No influence can do these things. For example, in Acts 8.29, and if you're taking notes, just write these down because we don't have time to look them all up. Acts 8.29, Acts 13.2, both tell us that the Holy Spirit speaks. In the one case it was to Philip, go down there to the road to Giza. In the other case it was to the elders of the church in Antioch, set aside these men.
The Holy Spirit speaks. Now whether you understand those verses, to be talking about an audible voice of the Holy Spirit or an inaudible voice, the point is this, that the Holy Spirit communicates. And he does so still today. The Holy Spirit has the ability to speak to us. And then in Genesis 6.3 it says that the Spirit of God strives with men. We're speaking of those days before the flood, Genesis 6.3. He strives with man. No thing will strive, but a person strives.
He strives with man in his wickedness. First Corinthians 2, verses 10 to 13 again, where we said the Holy Spirit knows, it also says there that the Holy Spirit searches the things of God. Romans 8.26, the Holy Spirit intercedes, or he prays. A thing does not pray, only a person can pray. Galatians 5.12, the Holy Spirit sets his desire against the flesh, just as the flesh within it sets its desire against the Holy Spirit.
A thing cannot set its desire, but the Holy Spirit sets its desire against the flesh within us. And then Romans 8.14, Acts 16, verse 7, illustrations of the Holy Spirit guiding. Now my point in going through that list of things is simply to give you some actions that are specifically given of the Holy Spirit in the Word of God. Things which no emanation, no thing can have. Only a person can do such things as these. So we believe as a church that the Holy Spirit is a person.
Secondly, we believe he is God. We believe that he is full deity. We teach that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, eternal, underived, that is, he has no beginning, possessing all the divine excellencies, and that in these he is co-equal with the Father and the Son, and that he is consubstantial with them. What that means is he is of the same essence as God the Father and God the Son.
That sentence that I just read to you is a sentence that is found in many doctrinal statements to express the fact that the Holy Spirit is God. Well you say, so what, if doctrinal statements say that, does the Bible teach that? Well of course it does. And many of you could point to some of the texts that I'm going to share tonight. Some of these will be new to you, others of you will find them but review.
But think with me first of all regarding one text in Scripture where the Holy Spirit is specifically said to be God. And I'm thinking of Acts chapter 5. It's always good to hear the pages of Bible's turning. Acts chapter 5 verses 3 and 4, but Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? Why did it remain unsold? Did it not remain your own? And after it was sold was it not under your control?
Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? Now notice in verse 3 he said, you have lied to the Holy Spirit. Notice how he concludes verse 4, you have not lied to men but to whom? To God. And so here it is clearly stated that to lie to the Holy Spirit as Ananias did is to lie to God. The Holy Spirit is God. Now there are other statements that we can draw from in Scripture that also tell us of the deity of the Spirit of God.
Let me just turn to one of them found in Jeremiah chapter 31. In verse 31 of this 31st chapter of Jeremiah we have a word regarding God's new covenant. Now my point is not to talk about the new covenant but rather to point out to you who makes this statement regarding the new covenant. It says, behold, days are coming, declares the Lord. Notice it's all in caps. This is Jehovah or Yahweh who is speaking. This name of God is used here, this covenant keeping name of God, Yahweh.
Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Now as you note there who makes this statement, turn into the New Testament and compare a quotation of this text in Hebrews chapter 10. The writer of Hebrews is led here to speak about this new covenant, a covenant that has been established through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And notice what he says in verse 15 as he prepares to quote from Jeremiah 31, and the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us. And then he quotes from Jeremiah 31. You say what's the point? Well obviously what is said in Jeremiah 31 to be what the Lord, Yahweh, declares is what is here attributed to the Holy Spirit. The point being that Yahweh is the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is Yahweh. The Holy Spirit is God. He is deity. That's the point.
Another example of that would be Isaiah 6 verses 8 and 9 if you wanted to just jot that down for your own reference. Isaiah 6, 8 and 9 compared with Acts 28 verses 25 and following. The very same thing is done there. Now there's a statement in the New Testament that we can turn to as we think about the fact that the Holy Spirit is co-equal with the Father and the Son. And that is the familiar statement in Matthew chapter 28, a statement that was quoted this morning when we baptized.
Sometimes it's called the baptismal formula. Matthew 28 and verse 19. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, our Lord speaking, baptizing them in the name – by the way, notice the singularity of that word, the name, not the names, but the name – of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Now this passage along with 2 Corinthians 13, 14 where another Trinitarian formula is given along with numerous other passages tell us that the Holy Spirit clearly is co-equal with the Father and with the Son. He is God. And then I could list here at least 10 attributes of deity which are specifically said to belong to the Holy Spirit. He is eternal. Hebrews 9, 14. The eternal Spirit there is mentioned. Psalm 139 verses 7 through 10. He is omnipresent. Isaiah 40 verses 13 and 14.
He is omniscient. He knows all. The Holy Spirit is spoken of in that way. First Corinthians 12, 11. He is omnipotent. Now these are attributes of deity ascribed to the Holy Spirit. John 16, 13. The Spirit of truth. Romans 8, 2. He is the Spirit of life. Romans 1, 4. The Spirit of holiness. Ephesians 1, 17. The Spirit of wisdom. Another attribute of God. Hebrews 10, 29. The Spirit of grace. First Peter 4, 14. The Spirit of glory.
You see all of those attributes describing God are specifically applied in those texts that I gave you to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God. Now a third thing that we believe about the Holy Spirit is that he is active in this age. Think with me in the first place how he is active in our world. Our doctrinal statement points out the familiar verse in John 16 verses 7 through 9 which says that the Spirit of God is in the world to convict it of sin and righteousness and judgment.
So the Holy Spirit is here as a convictor of sin. Now how does the Spirit of God do that? Does he convict people for example in tribes who have never heard the preaching of the gospel? No. They have a conscience that bears them witness. A conscience that may convict them or may excuse them. But it seems to me that the Spirit of God convicts in the world as he uses the word of God proclaimed through the church. That is how he is enabled to bring conviction to unsaved people.
It is as you and I, the representatives or the ambassadors of Christ declare the word of God, the Holy Spirit then performs his ministry of conviction. You know don't you that you are not the convictor. You don't have to do the work of the Spirit of God. All you have to do is share the truth and then get out of the way and let the Spirit of God bring the conviction. And he will.
But the Holy Spirit has a second ministry in the world and that is a ministry that is described in 2 Thessalonians 2 and I would like to turn to that one because it is less spoken of. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Now it says in verse 3, let no one in any way deceive you for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first. Now what is it? Well it is the day of the Lord mentioned in the previous two verses.
And he says, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God displaying himself as being God. What is he talking about? He is talking about the man of lawlessness or the antichrist who is to appear at the end of this age. And he says he will come in connection with the apostasy, that is the falling away from the truth of the professing church.
And now in verse 6 it says, and you know what restrains him now so that in his time he may be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, says Paul 2,000 years ago. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way, and then that lawless one will be revealed. What is happening in our world tonight is that the Spirit of God is restraining evil. He is performing a particular ministry, my fellow Christian, which is very much to your benefit in mind.
The Holy Spirit is this night, at this very second, in the world restraining evil. Now not completely, obviously. But he is there keeping Satan from bringing to culmination at this point what he would like to. At some time Satan will bring forth this culmination of his work in his great masterpiece, his puppet, the antichrist. But now Satan is being restrained, evil is being held back by the Spirit of God. The result of that is that you and I are able to live.
I believe that the Holy Spirit is restraining evil so that you and I are shielded and protected from what evil would like to do to us. What you and I believe as evangelical Christians is more and more becoming public knowledge in our nation. A good deal of it has not been public knowledge up to this point. Not that we've kept it a secret, it just hasn't been a part of the media. It just hasn't been exposed that much in our world.
But those things that you and I hold dear, that we believe with all of our hearts, are now beginning to appear in printed form on talk shows and other places. And what is the result? Is there an attraction to those things? No. The result is very often mocking, ridicule, jeering. If you have a hard time waking up some morning, turn on Phil Donahue. You'll wake up in a hurry, especially if there's a guest on there who is an evangelical Christian.
If you do not become indignant with the way that Mr. Donahue normally treats such people, people like you and I, like you and me, something's wrong with you. It is a shame, but inevitably such people are mocked. They are not allowed to say what they want to say. And what they believe is held up for jeering and ridicule. Now the same thing is true in newspapers. There was a religion page writer in the Twin Cities a few weeks ago that I will not name.
He talked about some of the things that I've just mentioned to you from 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and mocked it. And the essence of the article was, and maybe some of you read it, the essence of the article was if you believe stuff like this, you've got a screw loose somewhere. There's something wrong with you. Now why am I saying this?
Because I believe that as people in our society become more and more aware of what we believe, as they become aware of the fact that we truly are committed to the fact that one must be born again through faith in Jesus Christ to be right with God, that there is no other way to God but through Jesus Christ.
As they understand that we believe this to be the singular revelation from God and that there is no other revelation, there is no other way to God, no other way to know God, that there is no other God but the God of the Bible. As they begin to understand that you and I truly believe that, I want you to know that the floodgates of persecution are going to be unleashed against us. I'm not going to predict when that will be. It may be sooner than we might like to think.
I'm convinced that the only thing that has held that back up to this point has been the restraining ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now it's interesting that the word that is used of the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4 is the word snatch away, catch away. It means to seize quickly, to rescue from danger.
I wonder if the word doesn't suggest that when the rapture of the church occurs, it is going to be a time of unparalleled persecution of the church and hatred for the gospel of Jesus Christ in our world, and not just in the United States, but in many other parts of the world as well. I believe that suggestion is at least there. I want you to know that a pluralistic society, which we are supposed to have as a country, which is a farce, it never has been pluralistic.
I'd like to talk about that, but I won't. A pluralistic society is a society that is in transition. And our society is in transition from a Christian, a quote Christian culture, a Judeo-Christian culture, to a culture that will be partly humanistic and partly demonic. There are those religion writers, cult experts today who are telling us that our society is no longer going toward humanism, but having found that empty, it is now going toward demonism.
The worship of the occult, and we see this in the Oriental religions and in various other exposures of that kind of thought. Our society is going to turn on evangelical Christianity, and it will be in that time, I believe, when there is persecution against us, that the church will be purified, and how much of that God will let us experience, who can know? But I believe that that will precede the rapture of the church. Now I'm convinced that the rapture can occur at any moment.
The coming of our Lord is imminent, but I believe that times are going to be very difficult. And isn't that what the New Testament says? It says that these days will be hard to deal with, hard to live in, difficult times. The only thing that has shielded us and protected us to this point is the Spirit of God in His restraining ministry in the world. What I'm suggesting to you is that He is beginning now to loose that restraining ministry. It is not happening all at once.
But He is beginning to release Himself from this ministry as He must do, as must take place so that Antichrist can come forward and the tribulation period be upon us. So the Holy Spirit is active in this age, in the world. Now we will take up on next Sunday evening the Holy Spirit and His work in us, in the church. But let us thank God tonight for the ministry of His Holy Spirit. We sang the song that I was really going to close with earlier. We'll not sing it again.
But greater is He that is in you than He who is in the world. You and I tonight are shielded from what evil would like to do to us. We are protected by the power of God. We don't have to be afraid as we see these difficult times on the horizon. We need not become anxious and fearful as we might, humanly speaking, knowing that our Lord sovereignly is in control and there will nothing happen to us that is outside of what He permits and allows for His own purposes.
Let us rejoice tonight in this blessed person who is God, the Spirit, and who is bringing conviction to the world and restraining the world and at the same time protecting and shielding the Church of Jesus Christ from the powers of evil. Would you stand with me and let's pray together as we close. Let's bow together. Father in heaven, I thank you for the ministry of protection that you give to us. I thank you that the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear you and delivers them.
We rejoice in that which the Spirit of God is doing in our world tonight so that we may be protected and so that we may at the same time be free to proclaim the Word of God, which then the Spirit uses to bring conviction. I pray that we will be a people who are aware of the Holy Spirit, not just as an influence or for that matter more evangelical, just as one who is in us. But may we see the Spirit of God at work in our world today and rejoice.
Lord teach us of your Spirit and how we may walk in the power of the Spirit and be fruitful. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.