DO YOU KNOW THE HOLY SPIRIT?

 

637-2 DO YOU KNOW THE HOLY SPIRIT?

October 18, 1981

Pastor Henry F. Kulp

 

 

I Corinthians 2: 10, 11 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

In the past weeks we have been studying the Trinity. We started by looking at Jesus Christ, and we have found very clearly from the Bible that Jesus Christ is God. But, also, Jesus Christ is true Man, a real Man, and anyone who says he believes in Jesus Christ, but doesn't believe in the deity and humanity of Jesus Christ is not saved.

1/  But if I were to ask you, Is Jesus Christ a Person, and are you conscious of personal fellowship with Him? Without doubt, or hesitation you would reply, Of course, He is, He is very real to me. Then if I were to ask you, is God the Father a Person and are you conscious of personal relationship with Him? Again, you would say, “Yes, I know God the Father as a Person and I have fellowship with Him, I pray to Him.”

2/  If I were to ask you, is the Holy Spirit a Person and are you conscious of a personal relationship with Him, you would probably say, I have never been conscious of any personal fellowship with the Holy Spirit. You might say, How can I have fellowship with the Holy Spirit?

3/  Therefore, this morning, I want you to see that the Holy Spirit is a Person just as much a person as God the Father or God the Son. The Holy Spirit is just as much a Person as you are or I am. 

4/  It is not my desire just to teach you doctrine for doctrine’s sake, but this morning I want you to see the Holy Spirit is a Person, and that you should have fellowship with Him. You should enjoy this fellowship with Him.

5/  So, the first thing I want you to see is that the Holy Spirit is a Person, and you can only have fellowship with another Person.

6/  Several centuries after the death of Christ, there lived a man who became known for his heretical views. His name was ARIUS. He said the Holy Spirit was only exerted energy of God, and that the Holy Spirit is not a Person. Therefore he denied the Trinity. While his teaching was condemned by the Council of Nicea in AD 325, the teaching did not cease to exist.

7/  Following the Reformation SOCINUS (Soss in us) took up this heresy of Arius. He denied the Personality of the Holy Spirit and this doctrine has become the foundation of Unitarianism, and many others who deny the Trinity.

8/  Let’s see what the Bible teaches us about the Holy Spirit being a Person, then secondly, we will see that the Holy Spirit is God.

9/  We usually divide personality into three realms, INTELLECT, EMOTION, AND WILL. With the Intellect a person can know and think and understand. With emotional capacity a person can feel and love. With the will a person can decide and act. You can prove you are a person because you think, because you love, because you will certain things into action. And now, if we can see from the Word of God that the Holy Spirit has these same capacities, we can naturally conclude that He is a Person.

10/  I Corinthians 2: 10, 11 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

 

Here we have the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and it reveals His capacity of intellect, and Paul tells us in this Scripture, God hath revealed Him unto us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God, for what man knoweth the things of man save the Spirit of man which is in him.

Notice, this Scripture, Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God knoweth. Let me ask you, what does the Spirit of God know? He knows the deep things of God. It is very difficult for a man to teach something he doesn’t know himself. One of the first requisites of a good teacher is, that he must know his subject. It is clear that the Holy Spirit knows because He possesses the capacity of intellect, the ability to know—One of the necessary components of a true personality.

11/  Ephesians 4: 30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 

Here we can see the emotional capacity of the Holy Spirit. We are told here “grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” 

Grief is a manifestation of emotion. A person must have the ability to love before he can be grieved. The fact that the Holy Spirit can be grieved shows us that the Holy Spirit possesses an emotional capacity. He can be wounded. He can be sinned against.

12/  I Corinthians 12: 11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.  

Here Paul reveals to us the nine spiritual gifts. And he says the distribution of these nine spiritual gifts is the result of the act of the will of the Holy Spirit. So Paul clearly says the Holy Spirit has the capacity of will. When we put these three passages together, we are able to see the Holy Spirit possesses intellect—He can know.  He has emotion—He can love and He can be sinned against, and He has the capacity of will so that He can decide and bring action into being.

13/  Because of this we would say the Holy Spirit is not an influence, not a power, but He is a personality. The Holy Spirit is a Person.

14/  Now we have to ask the question, is the Holy Spirit God? Is the Holy Spirit deity? The only place where we will find out whether He is or not is in the Bible, the Word of God. If He is, He must possess the same attributes as God the Father and God the Son possess.

15/  Hebrews 9:14 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? 

There can be no question that the Eternal Spirit refers to the Third Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. Just as God the Father and God the Son are eternal, so is the Spirit of God. He is equal with God and possesses full deity.

16/  Romans 8: 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 

Here Paul refers to life possessed by the Spirit—for the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. God does not possess created life. God possesses uncreated life. Created life had its beginning in time. Uncreated life is eternal life. When the Holy Sprit is referred to as the Spirit of Life, it is not only a reference to the fact that He gives life, but that He is life.

17/  Romans 1: 4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: 

Here, Paul refers to the Spirit as the Spirit of holiness. The Spirit of God, no less than God the Father and God the Son, possesses unchangeable, unalterable holiness. Holiness belongs to God the Father and God the Son, and here we read it belongs to the Holy Spirit. No one else but the Godhead can ever really be holy. 

18/  Notice, He is referred to all through the Word of God, as the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost.

19/  Romans 5: 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.

Here, we read that the Holy Ghost sheds abroad in our hearts the love of God. Then notice, Ephesians 1: 13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, Sealed with that Holy Spirit of Promise. If He is the Holy Spirit, He is God.

20/  Being Holy says more than that the Spirit does not commit any sin, or that He has never sinned. It means it is impossible for Him to sin. He is utter holiness. He is absolute holiness, the same as God the Father and God the Son.

21/  John 14: 17 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. 

Here we read that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. That says more than the fact that the Holy Spirit tells us true things. Rather it tells us the Holy Spirit in His being is Truth. 

You remember in John 14: 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 

Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And so here the Holy Spirit is Truth as well. He is Truth so He can reveal truth to man. And it shows His Equality with God the Father and God the Son.

22/  God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. We can find all three of these attributes as far as the Holy Spirit is concerned. Let us look at just one this morning.

23/  Psalms 139: 7 - 10 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. 

We know God is omnipresent. This is why we have been telling you over and over again, you cannot pray to Mary, you cannot pray to any saint, because they are not omnipresent—they will not know you are praying. They have to be everywhere present to hear your prayer and to take it to God. That’s why God says there is only On Mediator, the Man Christ Jesus, because He is everywhere.

24/  Notice what David penned—whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? if I ascend up into Heaven, Thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.

 

Notice, whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is no less than the Father in being omnipresent—He is equal with God the Father and God the Son.

25/  He is called God in the Bible. This is as clear as words can make it. 

Acts 5: 3, 4 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles 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.

Here we have a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession and kept back part of the price, his wife also knowing of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostle’s feet. They were to sell what they had and bring everything. Then the 3rd verse says, “But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thy heart to lie unto the Holy Spirit?” 

Notice, Peter said, you have lied unto the Holy Spirit. In the 4th verse he says, “thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.” You will notice, the Holy Spirit and God are used interchangeably in this portion of Scripture. So, there is no question that the Holy Spirit is God.

26/  I Corinthians 2: 9 - 14 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 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 the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

As we have ascertained that the Holy Spirit is a Person and He is God. The Holy Spirit is the agent in divine revelation. Man cannot find these things out by his own ingenuity. Man, by his own philosophy, by his own science cannot find them out. Empiricism and rationalism will not help him to find out the things of God. He can study the universe. He can study all the books of man, and he will never know anything about God other than that He exists. The Holy Spirit is the One how teaches about God.

27/  I Corinthians 2: 13, 14 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Here the Holy Spirit teaches. So the Holy Spirit has to be a Person, and has to be God. Then the 14th verse tells us “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.” 

When we put this together with Romans 10: 17 “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God,” we find very clearly that the Bible cannot be understood apart from the Holy Spirit. Man with all his ingenuity, man with all his brilliance cannot understand the Bible if the Holy Spirit does not teach him.

28/  The last thing we would like you to see is that the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal influence, or force. He is a Person Who lives in you and in me. Therefore, intimate fellowship is possible between the believer and the Holy Spirit, as a Person He wants to be known. And He wants you to know Him. He wants to love and He wants to be loved. He has a will, and He wants His will to be followed by you, or obeyed by you. So you can see you must recognize this Wonderful One and understand Him.

AMEN

Ref. 10/18/1981/ 637-2 DO YOU KNOW THE HOLY SPIRIT? 08/06/2020