Address—C. Hendricks
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Let's sing 155 What was it blessed God led thee to give thy Son.
What led thy Son, O God, to leave thy throne on high?
What moves thee to impart by spirit from above?
What love to thee we owe our God for all thy grace. 150 has all three persons of the Trinity involved in it.
The Father, the Son and the Spirit. And tonight I'd like to talk on the one we often refer to as the third person.
The Holy Spirit. Not third in rank or importance, but we just say it that way. First person, the Father, the second person is the Son, and the third person is the Holy Spirit.
All cults.
And those that do not hold to the.
The faith of the Bible.
Do not believe in the.
Spirit of God being a person.
He is, to some, just an influence.
Or a power.
And it's true that there is no power in the universe greater than that of the Spirit of God. That's true. But he's not the power. He has the power, but he is a person.
One of the Persons of the Trinity.
We can see that in Matthew 28. Very well known verse.
To to very formula that we use in Christian baptism.
The Lord here in resurrection he says in verse 19, Go ye therefore and teach all nations.
Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
I was talking to.
Some Jehovah's Witnesses in North Carolina, where I was staying at the meeting room.
So I was about to leave 2 ladies and approached and we engaged in a conversation and in the course of the conversation the one said the Trinity is not in the Bible and I said oh.
The very names of the persons constituting the Trinity are in the Bible. And then I read her this verse. The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit doesn't say names. It says name for God is 1. And yet there are three distinct persons.
And it's the third person that I want to talk about tonight.
There are those that say that the Holy Spirit is an IT.
Not a person.
An influence, a force, a power, or whatever you want to call it.
But not a person.
Well, let's look at Acts chapter 5, where we'll look at a number of scriptures tonight in connection with this.
And see what the teaching of the Word of God is.
With respect to the person of the Holy Spirit, in Acts chapter 5 we have a passage that proves that he is God as well as indicating that he is a person. But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession and kept back part of the price, his wife also being Privy to it.
And brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles feet. What Peter said Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?
You don't lie to an it or a thing, but to a person. And to keep back part of the price of the land whilst it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. To whom had they lied? The Holy Spirit. And I want to make this comment too. This was asked me recently by a young believer. Is there any difference between?
Holy Spirit in the Holy Ghost. And the answer is no. It just happens to be that the King James instructed the translators of the King James Bible not to translate the same words in the original the same way in English. So sometimes they translated it Holy Spirit and sometimes Holy Ghost. It's the same person that's referred to.
I believe in most other translations, Holy Spirit has been the translation used. I believe that's true in the new translation, Mr. Darby's.
They lied to the Holy Spirit. They lied to God.
They lied to a person, but you know there are some passages in scripture that might support. It would seem to support.
The Holy Spirit being an IT.
And let's look at those and see the reason for it. Romans chapter 8.
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Romans, chapter 8.
Verse 14 For as many as are led.
By the Spirit of God they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA, Father, the Spirit itself.
Beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
Again, you have in verse 26. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Why does it say it that way?
Not himself.
Well, it's a very simple answer. It's a grammatical answer. Grammatical reason. In the Greek language, there are three numbers.
There's the singular 1.
And the dual 2 and the plural.
3.
It's not the numbers that I'm looking under.
In the Hebrew.
There is.
There are two genders.
Only two.
And they are feminine.
And they are.
Masculine and every noun.
In that language has a gender.
It so happens that in the Hebrew.
The spirit is in the feminine gender.
And we will see that the Spirit of God is referred to in all three genders.
In the Old Testament, spirit is in the.
Feminine gender. They don't have a neuter gender in Hebrew, but in Greek they have a feminine.
A masculine and a neuter gender, and the word spirit is in the neutered gender.
And that's why it says it, because it's a pronoun modifying the noun.
Which is.
In the neuter gender, the Spirit itself, but whenever the Lord himself.
Refers to the Holy Spirit. He always refers to Him in the masculine gender. Now let's turn to John 14 for that.
John's Gospel chapter 14 verse 16 and I will pray the Father.
And he shall give you another comforter.
That he may abide with you forever.
Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him.
But ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you.
Again in verse 26, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name.
He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever.
I have said unto you, so it's interesting that, and I could refer to, let me refer to a few more in the 15th chapter, verse 26. When the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. The Lord never says she, and He doesn't say it.
The reason it says it in Romans is because it's modifying the neuter noun spirit.
And its spirit in the Greek, and its feminine in the Hebrew, and its masculine when the Lord speaks of Him showing.
That he is a person. So the argument that itself is used for the Spirit in some passages showing that that he is in it is fallacious. He is a person, and we will see that as we go through the Scriptures on this wonderful subject.
The word spirit is also translated and means wind or breath, and that's true in both Hebrew and in Greek.
Wind or breath. Sometimes you don't know. They don't know exactly how to translate it. Translate it like in John three, you have the spirit.
Born of the Spirit. And then it says the wind bloweth where it will, and so on. It's the same word, the wind.
The Spirit.
He is a person.
And if you look at the 16th chapter.
Verse 7.
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Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, that is expedient for you, that I go away.
For if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you.
But if I depart, I will send him unto you, and when he has come.
He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment.
And so on verse 12. I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he.
The spirit of truth is come. He will guide you into all truth.
For he shall not speak of himself.
But whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify.
Me for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.
Well, that's enough. We could multiply the scriptures where the Spirit of God is referred to in the masculine gender.
And as I say in the Old Testament, spirit is feminine.
In the New Testament, spirit is neuter.
But he's always referred to as a person in the masculine gender.
Or most of the 10 put it that way.
A person has.
A mind again turned back to Romans 8.
Romans 8.
And it doesn't have a mind.
Verse 27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit.
Because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God.
He is a person who has a mind. He is a person who intercedes for the Saints, just as the Lord Jesus makes intercession for us on high, verse 34, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. We have a divine person on high and the person of the sun interceding for us, and we have a divine person within interceding for us. He has a mind.
He also has a will.
And it doesn't have a mind, nor does it have a will. Turn to 1St Corinthians 12 where we have the chapter that is filled with the Holy Spirit as the the one who empowers the spiritual gifts in Christianity. First Corinthians 12 and verse 11. But all these worketh that one and the self same Spirit dividing to every man severally as.
He will.
As He will, so He is sovereign in His distribution of the gifts, and He does it as He will. He is God, one with the Father and the Son, and He is there distributing the manifestations of the Spirit, the gifts.
As he will.
He forbid Acts 16.
Acts 16 and verse 4.
And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep that was.
That were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.
And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily.
Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the regions of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not.
Again, the characteristics, the qualities of a person.
A person has a mind, a person has a will, a person forbids, and a person speaks and it does not speak.
Acts Chapter 8. Acts Chapter 8.
And we'll start with verse 26. And the Angel of the Lord spake unto Philip. Certainly the Angel of the Lord is a person.
Saying, Arise and go toward the South, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.
Then he arose and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia and eunuch of great authority, under Candacy, queen of The Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning and sitting in his Chariots read Asias the prophet. Then the spirit said to Philip.
Go near and join thyself to this chariot.
And Philip ran thither to him.
And heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Understand us what thou readest. The Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join myself.
To this chariot again in chapter 8 and chapter 10. Excuse me in chapter 10.
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Verse 17.
Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold the men which were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry of Simon's house, and stood before the gate, and called and asked whether Simon, which was surname Peter, were lodged there. While Peter thought on this the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold three men seek thee. Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them.
Doubting nothing for I have sent them.
Then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him from Cornelius, and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek. What is the cause wherefore ye are come?
The Spirit gave him specific instruction. The Spirit forbade them going to a place at one time. Now the Spirit tells Peter to go with these men.
The Spirit loves.
The Spirit loves.
Everyone of the persons of the Trinity, since God is love.
Loves.
Because each one is God.
Each one is all of God.
Not a part of God, but all of God the Father is all of God.
The Son is all of God.
All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily.
The Spirit is all of God. They have different functions.
They are three distinct persons, but one God.
In Acts in Romans 15.
Romans 15. Now let me read before I read that Romans 5.
Romans 5.
Verse 5.
And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.
By the Holy Ghost which is given unto us, who could shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, but one who is himself God?
And who loves, and he sheds abroad in our hearts the love of God again in Romans 15.
We have a beautiful statement.
Verse 30 Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that she strived together with me in your prayers to God for me the love.
Of the Spirit.
It must be so each person loving the Father loveth the Son.
Showeth him all things that himself doeth, but that the world may know that I love the Father.
Even as the Father is said unto me, so I do. God so loved the world, and there it is, God.
All persons involved in that love Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
In fact, everything that God does, the Spirit of God is involved in it.
Because he is.
One of the persons of the Godhead.
A divine.
Person indwelling us.
The Spirit of God interceding for us.
And the Sun interceding on our behalf both to the Father.
On our behalf.
Spirit of God is a person. He can be grieved.
Ephesians 4.
Ephesians 4.
We cannot grieve him away.
We cannot.
'Cause Him to depart from us, for He has sealed us until the day of redemption.
But we can grieve him. Verse 29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers, and grieve not.
The Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. How do we do that?
Well, the next verse tells us some of the things we can do to grieve Him. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.
Having malice in the heart.
And be a kind one to another. This is how we can please him.
Be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ sake hath forgiven you, so you have in that passage how we can please Him. We don't please in it or grieve in it, but a person, spirit of God dwelling in us. I think that has to do more with our individual path. As individual Christians we can give rise to an I'll temper.
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Bad words.
Evil thoughts.
Bitterness harboring I'll feelings towards another.
All of these things are self-destructive and grieve.
The divine person that dwells within us. Tremendous.
Truth of Christianity. You could not, I could not preach this in the Old Testament, that the Spirit of God dwells in you. That wasn't true. Then he came upon them for an occasion and used them, and the prophets uttered prophecies under the leading of the Spirit of God, but then he withdrew from them. Sometimes he even used wicked men like Balaam.
He even used an animal once. A **** ***.
Speaking.
For bad the folly, the madness of the prophet.
Spirit of God, wonderful to realize who he is and that He has been given here to glorify Christ.
If you find someone that is constantly talking about the Spirit of God and what he is doing in his life.
And how he is working in his life. He's probably not filled with the Holy Spirit at all.
Because when we're filled with the Spirit, we will be talking about Christ and exalting Him.
The Father and the Son both are spoken of as giving the Holy Spirit.
Well, not only can we grieve him.
But we can quench him. Let's just look at that passage.
In First Thessalonians chapter 5.
And I wonder how many times we have done that.
In the assembly and not realized it quenched him.
It says in verse 17 pray without ceasing.
And everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Quench not the Spirit.
Despise not prophesying. Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good.
The Spirit of God wants to use you.
To give out a hymn.
To pray.
To give thanks.
To give a prophetic utterance to the assembly.
And you don't allow him to do that.
You can be guilty of quenching the spirit. Quenching the spirit. That's not allowing him to lead.
This is so common.
In Christendom the Spirit of God is quenched because all that he is here to do in the in the assembly collectively as well as in us individually, is to glorify the Son.
And when we turn that function over to a man, which is done in many places, the Spirit of God is quenched.
He is sometimes just ignored. His presence isn't there.
So His presence is there. That's what makes it so serious. The Spirit of God inhabits the house. He dwells in the house.
And he's not just amongst the gathered Saints.
He is everywhere in Christendom where the name of the name of the Lord is named.
If he wasn't with other Christians when they are together collectively, then you couldn't fault them for not allowing him to lead.
You fault them because He's there and they're not allowing him to leave. He wasn't there. How could you fault them for not allowing him to leave? Now that's a different truth than the presence of the Lord Himself in the midst. That's a different truth.
There he is, there where the twos and threes are gathered to his name, but the presence of the Spirit.
Is that the church is the habitation of God by the Spirit.
The last verse of Ephesians 2.
Well, we can quench him.
If we do not allow Him to have His way in our midst.
In the Ministry of the Word.
In prayer.
In praise, One of the things that grieves me so much is how few take part.
In praises to the Lord on Lord's Day morning.
Sometimes you sit there the whole meeting.
And week after week, and certain brethren who?
Take part in the prayer meeting and maybe in the reading meeting, but not in the.
In the worship.
We ought to come with our baskets full.
We worship by the Spirit of God.
Rejoice in Christ Jesus, have no confidence in the flesh.
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We don't worship by musical instruments like they did in the Old Testament. We have something infinitely better than that. A musical instrument has no soul. It has no spirit, has no heart, has no feeling. You're going to have an unsaved man that has great talent and can play the instrument beautifully.
And yet a person doing so may not be the Lord's at all. That's not Christian worship at all.
Christian worship is by the Spirit of God.
As he leads.
In the assembly drawing out hearts.
We ought to be overflowing when we come into His presence to remember Him in His death, the Lord Jesus.
The Spirit of God is there.
And He is there to use whomsoever He wills.
He is sovereign there, He is God.
And he uses whomsoever he will, as he chooses, as he pleases, for the glory of the Lord Jesus.
Well, we can quench the spirit collectively.
And sad to say, that is.
Done quite often in Christian circles, the Spirit of God is quenched.
We can grieve him personally, individually as well.
Well, these are all distinctive traits of personality that we've been looking at.
He is a person.
He doesn't have a distinctive name like father and son.
He's called the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and praying to the Father, he said. Holy Father.
And.
The demons even said of the Lord Jesus, thou art the Holy one of God.
The Holy One of God.
All three persons holy.
The Spirit of God, holy.
He's given in the In Christianity, look at John chapter 3.
He is not given by measure. John's Gospel, chapter 3.
Verse 33 He that hath received his testimony have said to his seal, that God is true.
For he whom God hath sent.
Speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
Most assuredly, when the Spirit of God came upon him, that blessed One at the River Jordan came upon him as a dove. Father's voice was heard from heaven. Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
He was not given by measure, was given in all fullness to that Blessed One.
The Old Testament, the Spirit came upon them in measure just for the occasion. They uttered their prophecy, and then he was withdrawn. The characteristic truth of Christianity is that a divine person, the Holy Spirit of God, dwells on earth in the assembly.
In the house.
Habitation of God by the Spirit. Each one of us is indwelt of the Holy Spirit. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
And the house, viewed collectively, is where he dwells.
Where he dwells, He doesn't dwell in the Muslim countries, he doesn't dwell in the Hindu countries and these false religions. He dwells in Christendom.
Where the name of Christ is named.
It's become like a great house, but he hasn't left it.
Because there are those there that aren't real. He's still there.
And our responsibility is to seek out a clean place in that house.
To honor him. But he hasn't left it yet. He's still here. He's still restraining. He is the restraining power for the full outbreak of evil which will take place at the rapture when we, when we're taken home and the Spirit of God will leave as a person dwelling here, constituting the Christian testimony.
Doesn't mean he won't work in the tribulation period or in the Millennium. He will.
Seven Spirits of God which are before his throne. The seven spirits of God which are sent forth into all the earth. The Spirit of God has always been the act of aging in the Godhead.
He always works. He's worked in the Old Testament. In fact, he's the first person mentioned in connection with the creation.
In the beginning, Genesis 11, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, let there be light. That very word God Elohim is in the plural, and it means the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all three persons. All right, we're involved in the creation, and the one that is singled out and mentioned first is the Spirit of God.
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And he is mentioned in the last chapter of the Bible. The Spirit and the Bride say come.
Energizing the bride to call for the Lord Jesus to come and take us home. Spirit joins us in that.
Wonderful.
The Spirit of God, he's found some 5 or 600 times in the New Testament and 400 times or so in the Old Testament. So there's no way we can.
Cover the vast subject of the Holy Spirit in one address.
But just to touch upon some of these wonderful points, he's involved in inspiration. Oh, I want to make another comment on this verse 34 before we leave it. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God. For God giveth not the Spirit by measure. And you'll notice unto him as in italics. And it certainly applies to him, but it also applies to you and me.
In Christianity, God does not give the Spirit by measure like he did in the Old Testament.
He has given to us. He will never be taken from us. We may grieve him, we may quench him, but He will not leave us. He has given to us forever, not by measure as in the previous dispensation.
And that is indeed wonderful.
That's another truth. That's another beautiful argument, if you can put it that way, in favor of eternal security, the Spirit of God. If you've been sealed with the Spirit, you'll never lose him. You'll never withdraw from you.
He has sealed you, marking you out as his, that you belong to Him.
Values involved in inspiration. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 2.
One Corinthians 2 in fact. He's involved in everything that God does. It must be so because he is God.
And the son is too.
And the Father is to some object to, you know, I've heard an objection being raised when it says the Apostles Creed, it says we believe in God the Father, the creator of heaven and earth.
And some object to that. I don't object to that. He's the Creator, so is the Son, so is the Holy Spirit. All three persons involved in the creation in the beginning, God, Elohim.
God in the plural Father, Son, and Spirit created the heavens and the earth. In fact, everything that God does, all three persons are involved in.
And it must be so. Notice inspiration in one Corinthians 2, verse 12. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, or communicating spiritual things by spiritual means.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, their folly to him.
He cannot know them, they are spiritually discerned, but he that is spiritual, he that has the spirit of God.
Discerneth all things, yet he is discerned of no one.
Who hath known the mind of the Lord, that we should instruct him?
He may instruct him we have the mind of Christ.
The Spirit of God-given to us.
So that we can know all things that are freely given to us of God. The very words of Scripture.
Are inspired of the Spirit of God.
Turn to 1 John 2.
First John, chapter 2.
Verse 20.
But ye have an unction.
From the Holy One.
And ye know all things. And it's interesting the family here is divided into fathers.
Young man and children babes, and this is addressed to the children, verse 18, little children.
It is the last time. This is the last group he's talked to about the to the fathers, he's talked to the young men, and now he addresses the children or the babes in the family.
He says ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. The Spirit of God has not been given to some mature Christians only.
Those that have grown and matured in the faith he's been given to the simplest.
To the babe in the family, and he enables that babe to cry out ABBA father, just like the baby cries out Daddy. You have an ocean, an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
Who was the liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ, He is Antichrist, that denieth a Father and the Son.
Whosoever denieth the Son, the sameth not the Father, but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father.
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Also let that therefore abide in you, which was from the beginning.
The that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you.
Ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father, for this is the promise that He hath promised us even.
Eternal life.
These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. Now here were those that were trying to seduce these young believers, and to lead them astray, and to turn them away from the truth that he says. But the anointing, that's the same word translated unction earlier. The anointing which you have received of Him abideth in you, that's the Holy Spirit.
And you need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and his truth, and is no lie in even as it hath taught you, he shall abide in him. Now that's the last word to the children in the family.
And then in the next verse.
It's you don't see it clearly in the King James. It says now, little children, it should read now children. He's addressing all three, Father, the Son and the Spirit.
It's a different word.
But the little children are the babes in the family are comforted in that the Spirit of God, the anointing which they have received as well as anyone else more mature in their pathway in the Christian life, they've received the Spirit of God. That's what marks one out as belonging to God in this dispensation. He cries, ABBA, Father, he has the Holy Spirit.
Now let's turn back to John 14.
In John 14 we have the son.
Giving the Holy Spirit verse 16 again.
You have the Trinity in that verse the Son says, I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another comforter, that He may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you.
Dwells with us in a collective sense, and He is in US individually.
And he will never leave us.
Be with us forever.
Wonderful truth. And that's because of the work of Christ. That's because of the person of Christ you remember with the leper.
The blood was sprinkled on his right ear, the thumb of his right hand, the great toe of his right foot.
And on top of the blood was sprinkled the oil. That's the spirit. That's typical of the Holy Spirit.
So the Spirit of God seals the soul that is under the blood. Now we hear, we act, we walk for Him.
Under the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit.
Being secure before God by the precious blood of Christ.
The Spirit of God was not given to the Lord Jesus based upon any blood.
It was based upon the perfection of his person. Spirit of God came upon him as a dove.
But on the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of God was poured out, he came as tongues of fire.
I think the fire significant of the fact that there is that in us which needs to be judged. Not so with him.
The tongue significant of the fact that this new thing, Christianity, was for every nation on the face of the earth, every tongue and people and language and nation.
Judaism was not It was to be confined to Israel alone.
But not so Christianity 1.
He says the other comforter now that word translated comforter is the same word that is translated elsewhere. Advocate. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So we have an advocate on high. We have an advocate here below the Spirit of God who enters into all the affairs of our life and is the the guide and the leader connection with each one.
Just think of it, if God be for us, who is God the Father?
The Son, the Holy Spirit, all three persons are for us and actively engaged in our blessing.
The Spirit intercedes for us here below the Lord Jesus on high.
The Father's ears open and receptive to those intercessions on behalf of his redeemed ones.
God is for us.
He could not have proved it more fully than the gift of His Son and the gift of His Spirit.
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The gift of his Spirit.
John 15.
John, 15, the son gives him.
Verse 26 When the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.
The son sent him.
The father sent him.
And then in the 16th chapter, verse 13. Howbeit, when he, the spirit of truth is come.
He comes himself.
Because he is indeed a divine person as a beautiful touch on that in Isaiah chapter 6, if we back up a minute.
Isaiah chapter 6. We know the story so I'll pick it up in verse.
8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send?
I believe that's the voice of the Father.
And who will go for us?
It's it's a council between among the persons of the Trinity, counseling among themselves and the Father says, whom shall I send? Who will go for us? And then we have the Son responding.
Then said I here am I send me.
And a little bit later, after the sun had gone back to heaven.
The Spirit of God says here am I, send me.
Both of them were sent.
The Spirit was sent by the Father and the Son, and He came himself. Wonderful gift.
The gift of the Holy Ghost.
We often dwell upon the wonderful gift. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift of His Son.
And we cannot dwell upon that too much wonderful, tremendous truth.
But there's more.
It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Spirit will not come unto you.
But if I go away, I will send him unto you, and when he has come.
He will bring demonstration to the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
Wonderful.
His presence here. This is what characterizes and constitutes the Christian testimony.
Is the presence of the Holy Spirit. The sad, sad thing is that Christians even today in the 20th century, are still praying that He might come.
He has been here for 20 centuries.
It's been here for nearly 2000 years now and.
In most places, his presence as leader, as sovereign guide in all that transpires in the Assembly.
Is pretty much ignored.
That's as one has said it, the dispensationally.
The sin against the Holy Spirit.
Dispensationally, because in this dispensation what characterizes it is the presence of a divine person on earth.
Person of the Holy Spirit, to ignore Him, to ignore him in our own lives.
As indwelling us, making these bodies His temple is a grave sin.
Far worse than the sin of other Saints, because the Spirit of God dwells there. But to ignore him collectively, or not to allow him the liberty to use whomsoever he will, when he will, and as he will, and how he will in the assembly.
Is a grave slight upon the Spirit of God.
When man takes it upon himself to do the appointing, and to direct, and to lead, and to.
Make the decisions of how things should be done in His assembly where the Spirit of God is. It is a grave slight upon the Spirit of God, and it's a slight upon Christ as the head of the church who directs everything through the Spirit down here.
Let's look at.
The Resurrection.
We'll see how all three persons are were involved in it.
In Romans chapter 6 we have the Father.
Romans, chapter 6.
And verse 4.
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory.
Of the Father. Even so, we also should walk in newness of life.
The glory of the Father raised him from the dead.
Go back to John chapter 2.
John's Gospel, chapter 2.
Here we have a tremendous statement.
Probably as strong a statement as any in all of the Bible proving the deity of the Son.
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John 2.
In verse 18 Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, What signs showest thou unto us, seeing thou doest these things?
Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple.
And in three days I will raise it up.
They didn't understand his words at all. They said 46 years was this temple in building and that reared up in three days.
But he spake of the temple of his body. Just think of that. Just think of that statement. You kill me, and in three days I will raise myself from the dead. Not only a divine person could say that.
Well, there we have the Spirit of God telling us.
In John's gospel that he raised himself, the Father raised him, and then look at first Peter 3.
One Peter Three, we have the Spirit of God engaged in the resurrection as well as must each person be engaged in all of these functions?
In first Peter chapter 3.
And.
18 But Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh. But quickened, made alive, that's what the Word means by the Spirit, quickened by the Spirit. So the Father raised him, the Son raised himself, the Spirit quickened that dead body and was active in the resurrection.
All three persons were active in the atonement. In his death. Turn to Hebrews Chapter 9.
Hebrews, Chapter 9.
And verse.
I'll read from verse 13. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit.
Offered himself without spot to God. Purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Here you have.
Christ by the eternal Spirit, offering himself without spot to God the Father.
Three persons, but it's all done by the Eternal Spirit.
It's interesting that the word eternal applies to him.
Showing that he is.
A person.
Who carries out all the will of God?
All the activities.
He came as a person down here.
On the day of Pentecost, and we'll just look at that. Acts chapter 2 it begins. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come.
They were all with 1 accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind.
And it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Notice in verse 2 it says it filled all the house where they were sitting. I think a picture of the House of God collectively being filled by the presence of the Holy Spirit. That's what characterizes Christianity. And then they were all filled with the Holy Ghost as the Spirit and began to speak with tongues as a spirit gave them utterance.
The significance of tongues is that this new thing.
That was now begun by the coming of the Holy Spirit was for every nation.
On the face of the earth, every tongue, people, every nation, it was not to be limited.
No matter what your ethnic background is the Spirit of God who is sent here.
Is sent to indwell you and to bring you into this unity which He formed by His presence.
Down here on earth, the unity of the Spirit was formed. On the day of Pentecost. He united.
Into one body every believer.
Two tremendous truths. Both are by the Spirit of God. The body of Christ exists by the Spirit of God.
We are baptized into one body by the Holy Spirit. That's a collective truth that took place once in the history of the church. And every believer from now on is brought into that baptized body and it becomes a member of Christ, and he's brought into the house where the Spirit dwells, Spirit of God inhabits.
The House of God, we might just we might just look at that verse and so you'll have it before us and then we have to close. Time is up. Ephesians 2. I want to read that last verse that is so important.
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Verse 22 of Ephesians 2IN whom?
In Christ ye also are builded together for inhabitation of God.
Through the Spirit.
This is what characterizes the Christian testimony the Spirit of God dwells.
In among the Saints, wherever they are.
The Spirit of God is there and.
That's what makes that's what makes it so serious when his presence is not realized and acted upon and he given the place that is his.
Among the Saints, we have to be careful that we do that.
And not just be pointing or thinking of others that don't do that. Do we do it too? Do we do it? Do we give him his place or do we quench him? Do we grieve him? All these things to be avoided. What a person it is that dwells down here in this present day. And he is holding back.
And restraining the full outbreak of evil. We think it's bad now, and it is, but it'll be 10 times worse after he is gone and we're gone and the restraining power is removed.
And then?
The uh.
The Antichrist will.
Be revealed the son of Perdition.
And.
The final scenes will be enacted, but we'll be gone. We'll be in heaven. We'll be with him.
Like him?
For all eternity.