Now, it is possible for us to hold doctrines without fully believing them. That might sound strange. I've used an example in the past. Preachers will tell you, if you ask them, they will tell you that they believe the doctrine of the resurrection. of the body to eternal life. They say that, but the language they use, as I've noticed, reveals that their true understanding about those things is different, which is why they use language about, say, the immortal soul going to heaven and so on. They use that language, which gives away the fact that that's how they picture our end time, our future. And they rarely, in sermons that I've heard, talk about the resurrection of the body, which is the big deal. And so, in other words, our language sometimes doesn't reflect what we claim to believe. So you put someone on the spot, they might be able to give you a precise doctrine. but it's whether they feel it inside. And so in the same way then, Christians will tell you that they believe that the Holy Spirit is God Almighty, but how they picture Him, how they feel about Him is often less than that. And so in looking at a few of the Scriptures concerning the Holy Spirit today, we'll go some way to remedying any faulty views that we might have of the Spirit of God. And so I want to present Him to you again today as God. And in the same way that I've treated the Father and the Son in the past few weeks, I intend to talk about the Holy Spirit as a person within the Godhead. He's not superior or inferior to them. And of course, we'll consider His operations in this world. especially among his people in our lives. So the first thing we'll think about then is his personhood. His personhood, that he is a person. We've talked about three persons in the Godhead and we've also spoke about God being one. And we shouldn't think about God being one as more important. than God being three persons. We need them both. God would not be God if he were one person. That might sound unusual, that might surprise you for me to say that, but he would not be God if he was one person, because the communication and the love which is exchanged within the Godhead could not take place unless there were more than one person. And the factors 3 makes us conclude that this is a being who is absolute perfection. The Holy Spirit, strangely, is the only person in the Godhead whose personhood has been brought into question. Some ancient heresies declared the Holy Spirit to be nothing more than an impersonal force. you will have all come across the Russellites, as I call them. They call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses. Russellites. Very mad keen, mad keen on what they do, but the doctrine is up the wall. So they prefer to be called Jehovah's Witnesses and they hold this view about the spirit. God's active force that they call the Holy Spirit, not a person. So we should start then by looking at several scriptures as evidence of His personhood. And the first one shows how the Holy Spirit, as an example, the Holy Spirit is someone who can be lied to. Acts 5 and verse 3. Now we've looked at this, haven't we? You may remember it. Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? So we saw a number of weeks ago, In our Acts study, Ananias had tried to claim credit for his generosity to the church, but he was lying about how much he'd given. And in those 10 seconds before Ananias was killed by God, Peter makes it clear to him, and to the people listening as well, that to lie to the church is effectively to lie to God the Holy Spirit. So not only does Peter make it clear the Holy Spirit is God, but he confirms the Spirit's personhood by announcing that He can be lied to. You can't lie to a force. You see? Isaiah 63 and verse 10. Speaking about people who were in rebellion against God, it says, but they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. Grieved. So when people are in a state of rebellion against God, the Holy Spirit is grieved. And to feel a sense of sadness or grief means that you must be a self-conscious being. Here's one more, John 14 and verse 26. Jesus says, the helper, the Holy Spirit, who 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. So Jesus tells his followers that the Holy Spirit will come as a teacher. Now to be a teacher, You must be a person who possesses information and communicates it to another person. Maybe the easiest way to be persuaded of the Holy Spirit's personhood is to see that He is God. Surely that would be enough. And I've given you an example already, but here's one more. Very clear. 2 Corinthians 3 17-18 Now, This is Paul writing to God's people. Now, the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of God, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. So the statement ends as it began. So who is the Lord? Who is God, Almighty Creator and Savior of the world? He is the Holy Spirit. And of course those things are ascribed to father and son at various times as well. So we've hopefully made a good case there from the scriptures that the Holy Spirit is not just a force like of Star Wars. He's actually a person. So let's think about now his presence. Where has he been? Where is he now? Well, as God, the Holy Spirit has always lived, you would agree with that. He has forever existed within the harmony of the Godhead. Now, in my two last messages on the Trinity, I introduced a theological term to you, procession. No need to remember it, but we'll mention it. So you perhaps remember that I described the Son of God as proceeding from the Father. He wasn't created by the Father. There wasn't any inferiority to the Father. But we said that the Son continually has continually received truth from the Father. And He is eternally the embodiment of God's Word as a result. embodiment of God's Word, that's why he's even called the Word of God. The Word became flesh, and so on. The Holy Spirit, however, is described differently. The Holy Spirit is said to be sent by Christ, but also sent by the Father. Now we don't mean sent like a master commanding his servant, but because this language of being sent is in the Bible, we speak of the Holy Spirit proceeding from both the Son and the Father. It's just God's order, that's how He functions. We should just, when we think about this procession, we should appreciate the beauty of it, and the wonder of it, and we just need to beware we don't draw any wrong conclusions from the doctrine, as if there's a hierarchy, you know, within the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You might be interested to know that although that phrase is ingrained in our minds, isn't it? It's been in the church's liturgy for hundreds and hundreds of years. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And that order is found in the scripture. But you should be aware that the order is changed in other scriptures. There's no time to go into them today, but the order is changed and you find spirit and father and son and other variations used. So we shouldn't read anything into it. Bible students say often wonder, In what way did the Holy Spirit work? You know, in people in ancient times, and we read, don't we, in the Old Testament about the Spirit and about the Holy Spirit. He's all over the Old Testament. But the thing is, if Jesus sent him at Pentecost, or requested the Father send him at Pentecost, it suggests that The Holy Spirit was coming in a way which hadn't been seen before. It must be. It must be new. So the theologians have had a great old time discussing this and they've come up with their different ideas and made their case for each of them. I am the least of all theologians who have existed and I'm not bothered by that. But I will in any case tell you what I think. The Holy Spirit has always been working in the hearts of men, of people. He's worked in special ways in the hearts of God's people and among God's people he's worked in a variety of ways. Now we can't escape the fact that Pentecost, that time in Acts when we saw the Holy Spirit came and all kinds of things were happening. People were speaking in these foreign languages by way of a miraculous gift. It was certainly a turning point in how the Holy Spirit was functioning among people. We've already looked at this coming of the Spirit when we went through the first few books of Acts. We went in detail and I worked hard to try and emphasize to you just how significant these changes were in the history of God's people. Because the coming of the spirit was a marker. It was one of the markers showing that this glorious new era or dispensation was coming into being. And so we must conclude, if this is a new work of the spirit over here, then the way he dealt with people in the Old Testament must have been different. Well, you might find it helpful to think of the difference in this way. It might help you to think of the change in this way. In those days, God was said to live in the temple before that tabernacle. God lived in the temple and people would go to the temple to meet God. They would go to him. God was still with those people by His Spirit. Definitely. He led them. He gave them wisdom. He used some of them as special mouthpieces. That's the prophets, of course. That's all true. But in this new age of the gospel that we live in, God no longer lives in a temple. He no longer lives there. He certainly doesn't inhabit any church building, no matter how posh. He stopped manifesting himself in that way a long time ago. And I know the Jews are dreaming about building a new temple in Jerusalem. But I promise you, friends, that the Lord will not reverse the fulfillment of His prophecy and go back to dealing with us according to those old ways. something's changed and it's far better than going to visit God in a temple. I can tell you, the Lord Jesus showed the people that the days of the temple were numbered and he even told them that the building itself was going to be wrecked and by armies sent by God himself. So an old prophecy was to be fulfilled. Through that prophet, God said that in the future, He would live in his people. He would live in his people. And the Apostle Paul understood this, and he taught that the new temple, friends, is made up of the entire congregation of God's people. Because God the Holy Spirit lives in us, we are together the temple of God now. We are the temple of God. And friends, you are greatly privileged in receiving the gift of the Spirit in a way unknown to God's people in those old days. He is not just with you, he is within you. It's far superior. Well, we've considered that the Spirit is a person, and we've looked at His presence, how He presences Himself in different ages. And now we'll look at His power. We probably should start at the beginning. Time-wise, we'll start at the beginning. Who created the world? Was it Father, Son, or Holy Spirit? Who created? Full marks if you said the Father. Full marks if you said Christ. Extra marks if you said the Holy Spirit. Right. God created the world. God. And we believe the Father, Son and Holy Spirit can each be described as God so it's fair to ascribe the creation to all three. Is it not? So the Holy Spirit is mentioned very early on in verses 1 and 2 of the first chapter of the Bible as the creator. You see him in his creation role. Genesis 1 and verse 1 and verse 2. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Well, it doesn't say much, does it? It doesn't give much away. We only have our imagination to help us to visualize how God created, but whatever form the earth was in at that stage, it's God, the Holy Spirit, who was mentioned as the one who is about to bring the world into being as we know it. He's there in that state of readiness, about to begin his creation. As I said, the Father and Son are also described as Creator. And we mention the Holy Spirit now just to rectify that imbalance and give Him the credit for His almighty nature. The Holy Spirit is also said to be the one who not only creates things, but He gives life to people. Animals as well, to be fair. He gives life to animals, but let's think about people. Job 33 and verse 4, it says, The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. So stitching those two things together, the Holy Spirit, Almighty God, that is, made Job just like he made us. And then a bit further on in the next chapter in Job, in Job 34, verse 14, If he, that's God, if he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together and man would return to dust. Not only is it the Holy Spirit who gives life, but he sustains it too. Friends, People and creatures are kept alive second by second by the power of the Holy Spirit. And when their allotted time in this world comes to an end, the Spirit leaves them. They drop down dead and return to dust, the scriptures say. So, the Holy Spirit gives life to all. But almost all people on this planet today that are alive in that sense are dead in a spiritual sense. They are dead. The fact that men and women are made in the image of God and are preserved by the Holy Spirit of God does not make them sons and daughters of God. People are by nature spiritually dead. They live according to the principles, the great principles of lust and pride. If there's anything remotely good about them, then even that is a gift from God. But you know, even those good things they do, good things in our eyes, Even the good things that they do are contaminated by sin. For any action to be acceptable to God as genuinely good, it has to be done in faith. That means that the person doing the action must have faith in God. and their greatest motive for doing it is the glory of God. That must be the case. Think about friends and family for a moment. It pains us that they won't trust in Christ. And the love that we've been able to enjoy giving to them and receiving from them, the love alone, it's an incredible gift. But the truth is that it's unacceptable to God. Anything good about them is unacceptable to God. Think about the charity work that goes on around the globe. Think about all them people who dedicate their lives to helping the poor and disabled, helping animals in distress, whatever it might be. It really helps men. Let's not pretend it doesn't. It helps people genuinely. We're not disputing that. But when those things are not done in faith, then all those efforts, I'm afraid to say, are like a pile of dung in the eyes of God. Now, in His mercy, God ordained that some people would be plucked out of this rotten multitude and changed. and I'm describing the Christian, of course. What happens is the Holy Spirit would begin to reveal things to them and he'd give them an awareness of God, which they didn't have before. They'd start to see that this gulf between them and God is far bigger than they imagined. They start to see him as altogether righteous and themselves as altogether unrighteous. They understand the terrible and eternal consequences that their unrighteousness must result in. But then the Spirit reveals to them Through a preacher, through reading the scriptures, they're presented with the lovely Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. And so these people would approach God with repentance and saving faith, all made possible by the Holy Spirit. And so we see the Holy Spirit as the one who both gives what we call animal life, animates us but he also gives spiritual life. He credits our account with the infinite value of Jesus's blood and by doing this he thereby cancels the infinite overdraft caused by a lifetime of sin. Out of the red and into the black I'll also say this, we should understand when God gives His Spirit to us, He gives Himself. He's not giving a gift and remaining where He is, so to speak, He's giving Himself. Since the Lord is the Spirit, the gift of the Holy Spirit to us and the giver of the Holy Spirit are the same, they are one. Just a short while ago, in John 14, I said to you that Jesus had made this request to the Father for the gift of the Holy Spirit. And of course, the Father graciously agreed to that and sent the Spirit. And Jesus described the Spirit as a helper for them, a helper. Now I've spent much of my Christian life using one Bible, the King James Version of the Bible, and it uses the word comforter. You'll sometimes hear preachers some very good preachers who use those versions and they frequently therefore describe the Holy Spirit as comforter, but with the modern understanding of the word. So they limit the description of what that is. They limit the description of the Spirit's work as consoling people who are troubled in some way. Now, when Wycliffe made his old, his Middle English Bible, he uses the word comforter. Tyndale, later on, medieval, medieval, post-medieval time, he uses comforter. And then by the time we get to the King James Bible, the translators retained it as comforter. And they were good choices at the time. That was a good choice of word because the original meaning of the word, which is now obsolete, is something broader and more powerful. So the word describes someone who comes to be with you and strengthens you. The comforter, the comforter, comes with fortitude, if you like. He comes with fortitude, yeah? And he gives that strength to us to empower us in our warfare. The comforter, the helper, the strength giver, you might say. Strength giver. So, we've said, not only does the Holy Spirit animate us, like give us life, He keeps us alive, and for we who are saints, He not only keeps us alive in that basic way, but He's given us spiritual life as well. And having given us this life-giving faith, He then shows Himself as our great Strengthener. And as well as doing all this in us, He affects us and directs us in numerous other ways, like say, guiding us day by day. One of the most intimate, perhaps, of these ways He works in us is how He prays with us, how He prays with us and prays for us. In Jude chapter 20, in Jude verse 20, there's only one chapter, I knew that. In Jude verse 20, we're told to summon faith and go to God in prayer, but praying in the Holy Spirit, he said. Pray in the Holy Spirit. Now friends, to pray in the Holy Spirit is to pray with a heart which is filled with and greatly influenced by the Holy Spirit. I've heard evangelists on the street tell unbelievers to go and pray to God. Why don't you go to pray to God about your problems, you say? Trying to imagine what they would go home and do. Lord, you know I'm going to bingo tonight. We could do with the money. I'd love to know what they pray for, all kinds of mad things. How much God listens to the prayers from the lips of those who hate Him is difficult to say. I can't say. But I'd never tell an unbeliever to pray to God to help them with their problems. Whether it's financial difficulties or a sick child, I wouldn't do that. Because I want them to understand that no matter how bad your problems are, the biggest problem you have is the condemnation that you are under. The condemnation of God which hangs over you. That's far more important. So really I'd suggest they should only ever be told to pray about that one thing and not stop praying about that one thing until they get peace with God. But God's workings are various and in his wisdom he might take note of an unbeliever's prayer about some lesser matter. He might do that. But the pure prayer before God is done from a heart which has the Spirit of God. And here's another element to our prayers which perfect them. Romans 8 and 26 says this. Romans 8 and 26. So here's a type of weakness in the saint. Our ability needs to be changed from weak to strong. If only there was someone who could strengthen us. Well, the Spirit helps us and this is all about a weakness in our ability to pray. It could be we can't find the right words. I find that especially the case when I'm tired, when I haven't had enough sleep. Sometimes I feel I can't bring myself to construct a single sentence. The weakness, though, this weakness in prayer, it could instead be ignorance of what God's will is. We might not know what his will is. So we might be all bright and bushy-tailed and able to speak to God fluently, but we don't know what we should or shouldn't be asking for. And it says here, and this is quite marvelous, that the Spirit prays for us. And so, so there you are struggling to know what to pray for and how to pray for it. And the Holy Spirit steps in and prays to the God of heaven on your behalf. And I suspect that prayer will be very good. It'd be a very good prayer. I don't know about you, but I've sometimes, I used to think it was strange that Jesus Christ prays to God. I mean, there I am making a case that Jesus Christ is God, the Son. So, He's God. So then, you know, it may strike some people as confusing to think of God speaking to Himself. But this is what happens in the perfect trinity of persons. God is communicating with Himself. So when the Spirit prays on our behalf, God is hearing His own voice. spoken back to him from within the Christian. I just have one more scripture, 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 10. These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thought except the spirit of that person which is in him? So, also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. So if you're in that place where there's a barrier to your praying to God, you can trust the Holy Spirit will help you out in that special way. But he also helps you when you can pray, when you're able to pray, when you are praying, you already started praying. He helps you to know what to pray for. It's a powerful scripture that the Holy Spirit, it says, The Holy Spirit as God can plumb the very depths of the mind of God and we have Him living inside us. It means that we can know something of the mind of God. That's amazing. We can't know God fully. I don't mean that by the Spirit we can fully comprehend God. I mean that according to the measure of God's Spirit which we enjoy, we can know God's will. The more we're influenced by the Spirit of God within us, the more our prayers will be aligned with the will of God. And of course, the more we pray according to His will, the more acceptable they are and the more confidence we can have that He'll give us exactly what we ask for. This is what the promise of Jesus is about when He said, ask the Father and He will give it to you. He means pray in His will and you will receive what you ask for. No exceptions. So pray friends in the Spirit, for the Spirit. Say to God, fill me with your Spirit. Drown me in the Spirit. Pray to the Father through the authority of the Son and in the power of the Spirit. and you'll enjoy a good relationship with God, friends, and you'll have an exciting prayer life too, I trust. So, we have come to the end of our mini-series on the Trinity, now with this overview of the Holy Spirit, and I hope it's been of some interest to you. So, we conclude, who are counted as perfect in the eyes of God and fit to spend eternity with Him, the one who has God as their Father, the one who has saving faith in the Son, and the one who is filled with the Holy Spirit. And so I pray, friends, that every one of you will be found as such in the great day of God Almighty. The God of peace be with you all. Amen.