Baptism of the Holy Spirit - Part 2

Tonight we want to continue our study on the subject of the Holy Spirit. The purpose of these studies is to bring each of us into a deep personal relationship with the Holy Spirit, that we might experience the power of God's Spirit in our lives. Jesus said, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and we each of us need that power. And we desire that as the result of the study and our understanding of the Holy Spirit and His work in the church and in the world and in the life of the believer, that we will each one, as the result of these classes, be able to appropriate the power of God's Holy Spirit in our lives and in every area of our lives. Not just in a static kind of utterances, but that we might have that real dynamic and power in our life to help us in our total Christian experience. Because some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are rather unique, the gift of tongues and things of this nature, quite often this becomes the emphasis of a study on the Holy Spirit. We do not plan to make that an emphasis of this study. The steam in a locomotive is the thing that gives it its power. But if you let all of the steam out through the whistle, you'll never go down the track. And we want the power to get us down the road, that power of the Spirit to really help us in our whole total Christian experience. Now, last week we studied the personality of the Holy Spirit, showing that the Holy Spirit is not just an essence, but is a person indeed, having all of the characteristics of person and personality. So that we're not essence with a force, but we're getting acquainted with a person. The Holy Spirit is often referred to as the third person of the Godhead. There is one God. He has been manifested in three persons, and so you have the compound unity of God. I have one fist, but it is comprised of four fingers and a thumb. But when it's doubled up like this, it's a compound unity into one fist. So there are the three persons of the Godhead united together in a compound unity, so you have the one God. And yet the three distinct persons of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And we seek tonight by the Scriptures to show to you the deity of the Holy Spirit, so that in understanding that the Spirit is God, He is then to be honored, He is to be worshiped, and He is to be reverenced by us. There are certain characteristics that God possesses that makes Him God and separates Him from man. The first of these characteristics is that God is eternal. By that, we mean God has no beginning. He has always existed. Now, here we are, our narrow little finite minds bound to this little finite earth, and we cannot comprehend infinity. All we can do is comprehend that infinity can exist, though we can never comprehend infinity. So it is impossible for me, in my mind, to intellectually grasp the fact that God has always existed. You see, with everything I know, everything I touch, it all had a beginning. And we look down to the road when it all comes to an end. This Bible that I have had a beginning, but it's coming to an ending. You see, part of its beginning was probably in a tree, and then they took the pulp and made the paper, and then they, you know, printed it and assembled it. And everything we know, everything we see, we think of as the beginning of it, the beginning of our lives, the day that we were born. But God is eternal. He has always existed. There was never a time when God wasn't. God will always exist. There will never be a time when God isn't. So that is what is referred to, and that is what is meant when we say that God is eternal. He has always been, He will always be. And of course, that's the characteristic that puts Him above us. We do have everlasting life in Jesus Christ. That is, life that will never end, and that is difficult for us to comprehend. But God has life that always was. Human life began at a point and at a time. When God breathed into Adam and he became a living soul, there was the beginning of man. But God has always existed. In Hebrews, the ninth chapter and the 14th verse, the writer to the Hebrews is talking about Jesus Christ and the work of Jesus Christ. And he's contrasting it with the sacrifices of the, well, the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer would sanctify the things of the Old Testament. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit, so here that eternal attribute is attributed now to the Holy Spirit. He coexisted with the Father in the beginning through the eternal spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purged your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Interestingly enough, you see the three persons of the Godhead in this particular verse. The blood of Christ, which was offered through the eternal spirit, offering himself without spot to God. So the three persons of the Godhead here in Hebrews 9:14. God is present now at the Andromeda galaxy, throughout the entire Milky Way galaxy. He's present here with us in the sanctuary, but he was present with you in your car as you were driving to the sanctuary. And he was present with you while you were eating dinner before you got in your car to drive to the sanctuary. There is no place that you can go and escape the presence of God because he is not localized. He is everywhere present at once. Now, this same characteristic is expressed also of the Spirit of God. He also is everywhere present at once. In Psalm 139, in verse 7, David asked the question, Where shall I go from thy spirit? Or how can I flee from your presence? If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, you are 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. If I say surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. And so he speaks about the impossibility of escaping the Spirit of God. Where shall I go from thy spirit? You can't escape the Spirit of God any more than you can escape the presence of God. That, of course, should alter our actions, realizing that whatever we do, wherever we do it, we're doing it right in the presence of God. Not only was he there when you were eating dinner, but he was also there when you were blowing it. You never escape God's presence. Everything that we do, we do in his presence. Nothing is hid from him. And I think that we need to be more aware of the presence of God in our homes. We so often say, Oh, Lord, we're so glad to come into your presence tonight in your sanctuary here. So good, Lord, to come into your presence. Well, listen, when you were screaming at the kids before you came, you were in his presence, you know. And it is important to realize when you leave this place tonight, you're not leaving the presence of God. God is with you. He goes with you. When you get in your car, when you drive down the street, when you crawl into bed tonight, the presence of the Lord is surrounding you. The presence of his spirit. And then there is one other characteristic of God that is called his omnipotence. By this is meant that God is all powerful. Now, many times we think of Satan as an opposite of God. And that is always wrong to think of Satan in that light. Satan is not an opposite of God. Satan is opposed to God, but he's not an opposite of God. Satan does not possess the same characteristics that God possesses. Satan is a created being. God is an eternal being. Satan has limited knowledge. God has all knowledge. Satan has limited powers and they are limited by God. You remember that Satan in talking to God about Job said, you've put a hedge around him. You won't let me get to him. He was complaining of his limited powers, the restrictions that God had placed upon him. Now, if Satan is an opposite to anything, he would be an opposite to the angels who remain faithful to God. Maybe an opposite to Michael or an opposite to Gabriel. Angels who remain true and faithful to God would be more an opposite of Satan than Satan being an opposite of God. So Satan's powers are definitely limited, limited by God where God has all power. Now, this same characteristic is also attributed to the Holy Spirit. In the first chapter of Luke, when the angel Gabriel had come to Mary and informed her that she had found favor with God and was chosen by God to bring his son into the world, Mary questioned the procedure by which this might take place in as much as she was a virgin. And answering her in verse 35, the angel said, the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. So that power of God resident in the Holy Spirit will overshadow thee. Therefore, also that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. So the Holy Spirit, the power of the highest. Now, the works of God are also attributed to the Holy Spirit. When we think of the work of God, basic and primary is the creation of the universe. That is God's beginning work. God continues to work. He's doing a work in our lives tonight. But we think of the work of God in creation. Now, in the Hebrew, there are a couple of words for create. One is bara, which means to create out of non-existing materials. The other is asa, which means to create by assembling existing materials. So somebody asa this piano. That is, they assembled existing materials. And so we say, well, they created a marvelous piano here. Now, we don't mean that they said, woof, piano appear, you know. And suddenly out of nothing, here was a piano all ready to be played. But we mean that they took materials and they designed and they put them together and they stretched the strings out on the pegs and so forth. And they put the little hammers in there and glued everything together. And they assembled from existing materials. So the piano was created. But not in the primary sense of creation, that is being able to create out of nothing. Only God has that capacity of creating from nothing. So that is a divine capacity. Out of nothing to make something. Now, we've met a lot of people that can make something out of nothing, but we're talking about a mess. God has, God said, let there be light. And there was light. And by his divine word, by just speaking, he spoke things into existence. There's a interesting passage in the book of Hebrews that in the 11th chapter there, verse 3, through faith we understand that the worlds, the universe was framed by the word of God. So that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith, the author of the book of Hebrews believed that the observable world around you was made of invisible things by the word of God. You say, well, that doesn't take faith anymore. We've got science that has proved that. Our whole observable universe is made out of invisible atoms. Well, the men of faith knew that a long time before the men of science. Out of nothing, God is created. So this capacity of creation, a divine capacity. In Job chapter 33 and verse 4, Job said, the spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the almighty has given me life. So Job attributes creation to the spirit of God. In Psalm 104, verse 30, the psalmist here declares, thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created and thou renewest the face of the earth. So the spirit was a creative force or agency of God. A second characteristic, interesting characteristic of God is that of being able to foretell future events with 100% accuracy. Now, I can tell you that there's going to be an earthquake here in Southern California in the future. And I'll bet I'm right. As long as I don't go any further than that, you know, I can be a real prophet. Where I get into trouble is if I start to tell you when it's going to happen, where it's going to happen, and what intensity and, you know, what hour it will take place then is when I can prove myself to be a false prophet. If I would, you know, get up here and say, I'm speaking to you of God and, you know, and telling you all this kind of stuff. We experienced that, what was it, back in 1968 or so when a lot of churches and a lot of groups were getting prophecies that California was going to be inundated by a great flood and was going to slough off into the Pacific, you know, and a lot of people moved from California. Because of these prophecies. In fact, there were some people over here in the area around Victorville that got a lot of boats and long ropes and everything else. Because according to the prophecies, the thing was going to cut off right about the San Bernardino Mountains and all. And so they got a lot of ropes and everything where people, you know, floated up there. They could lift them up and they were putting supplies in over in Wrightwood area and all. And they had a big cult thing going on that. You know, and California is going to, and all of these prophecies and confirmations and everything else. And a lot of stuff written back in 1968 about that stuff. Of course, if you remember 1968 is when a lot of people were taking LSD too. And you could see all kinds of weird things. So that being able to foretell events before they take place, characteristic capacity of God. In fact, in the book of Isaiah, God said, now, if you say that you are God's, prove it. Tell us something before it takes place so that after it happens, we can stand in awe and know that you know what you're talking about. That would be tell it with some detail, you know, really, really spell it out for us. There are always those who after the fact say, well, you know, I predicted that. You know, this gal who said that she predicted the attempted assassination on Reagan, you know, a psychic supposed to have seen all this stuff. And, you know, after it happened, she suddenly, you know, came up. And then the whole thing was pointed out to be a phony, which is so oftentimes the case. God, though, speaks of events before they take place, speaks of them with intricate detail, spells things out so that when these things do happen, you will know that God is speaking. So the capacity of speaking prophetically is a divine capacity. Now, in 2 Peter chapter one, as Peter is talking about prophecy, verse 19, we have also a more sure word of prophecy where unto you do well that you take heed as unto a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation, but for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. And so it was the Holy Spirit that led these men to speak these words of prophecy that have all of them come to pass up until this point with 100% accuracy. The Holy Spirit speaking of the future, a divine capacity and characteristic. Now, in the New Testament, we find the Holy Spirit coupled with the Father and with the Son. In the 28th chapter of Matthew's gospel, verse 19, where Jesus commanded his disciples to go and to teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now, would it in any wise be correct to say baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of Moses? No, immediately you recognize that you're putting Moses in a place that he doesn't belong. He's not at all on a par with the Father and with the Son. To put any man with that would be totally wrong because no man is equal with God or could be placed on an equal footing with God. Therefore, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Even so, to say the Father and the Son and the wind or the Father and the Son and an essence. The Holy Spirit is a person like the Father and the Son, but he is also God, thus the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And the three of them are coupled together in the baptismal formula that Jesus gave. Now, in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, as Paul here is talking to the Corinthians about the gifts of the Spirit. Beginning with verse four, he said, now there are diversities or there are different gifts. They are diverse. But the same Spirit, there's only one Spirit, but there are diverse gifts. There are differences of administrations, but the same Lord, that would be Jesus Christ. And there are diversities of operations, but the same God, which worketh all and in all. So you find the Spirit, you find Christ, you find God. As he's talking about these gifts, the diversities of the gifts and the differences of the administrations and the diversities of the operations of the gifts, still you have the one Spirit, the one Lord, the one God, the Father. So the three of them, again, used synonymously. In 2 Corinthians, of course, 13, 14, where Paul gives this apostolic benediction, he declares the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the wind be with you all, amen. No, it wouldn't make sense, would it? What fellowship do you have with the wind or with an essence? But the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, a person, a person of the Godhead. So the love of God, the grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. The three of them, again, coupled together. Now, all of this is really unnecessary because of one scripture in Acts chapter five, where the Holy Spirit is said to be God. Ananias and Sapphira were in the early church and they had sold some property and they decided to put away a little bit for themselves in case in the future they had some needs. And there was nothing wrong with that, but it became wrong because they pretended that they were giving everything that they got for their property. They were trying to deceive the leaders in the early church and the people, the church itself, making a pretense of giving everything and yet holding back for themselves. So Ananias came in and he brought a certain part of the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. And Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? While it was yours, was it not your own? And after it was sold, wasn't it all in your own power? Why did you conceive this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but unto God. Now notice he said, why did you try to lie to the Holy Spirit? He said, you haven't lied to man, you've lied to God. And so Peter, putting the two together, is declaring that the Holy Spirit is God. You've not lied to man, you've lied to God. Then there are scriptures in the Old Testament that are said to be Jehovah speaking. In Jeremiah 31, verse 31. Jeremiah 31, 31. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them out by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband unto them, saith Jehovah. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith Jehovah, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people. Now, three times in this short passage, it is attributed to Jehovah, saith Jehovah. Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah. And so if we turn now to Hebrews 10, 15, he is quoting this passage of scripture from Jeremiah 31. And he declares, whereof the Holy Spirit also is a witness to us for after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws in their hearts and in their minds will I write them and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now, in the Old Testament, it was declaring that Jehovah had said these things. In the New Testament, it declares it was the Holy Spirit that said these things, which again makes the Holy Spirit God. There's certain rules in geometry that we used to have on equal sides and equal angles and so forth, you know, mean they're the same. It comes out, I forget the theorems anymore, but that was a long time ago, you forgive me. Isaiah chapter eight and verse six. Yeah, six, eight. Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, here am I, send me. Isaiah had just had this vision of God and the vision of God pretty much wiped him out. I think that in the scripture, every time a person really saw God, they were pretty totally personally devastated because for the first time they really saw themselves. Now you see a person walking around all proud and everything else. He's a person who has never really seen God. If you ever see God, it's a wipe out. He said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up sitting upon the throne, his train did fill the temple and all. His glory filled the temple, then said I, woe is me. And that's always the response of a man who really, you know, comes into a real apprehension of God. Oh, woe is me. You know, he sees everything. He knows everything. Woe is me. For I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell amongst a people of unclean lips. And then he saw a cherubim that took a coal from the altar and he touched the lips of Isaiah and he said, now you are clean, you know. And then he heard the voice of the Lord saying, who will go for us? Who will we send? And Isaiah responded, I am here. I'll go, send me, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, go and tell these people, hear indeed, you do hear indeed, but you don't understand. You do see indeed, but you don't perceive. Make the heart of the people fat. Make their ears heavy. Shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed. So the Lord is saying this to Isaiah as he is responding to the call of the Lord, whom will go for us? Who shall we send? In Acts chapter 28, verse 25, Paul is in Rome. He is in prison, but he does have certain liberties. That is, as far as guests, they can come and visit him. While he is in Rome, he's busy witnessing to a lot of people and there are a lot of conversions, even those of Caesar's household. But Paul's heart was always to win the Jews because he had been such a zealous Jew. He figured that he could relate to them, though he never was able to do successfully. So he called together some Jews to his prison and he began to share Jesus Christ with them, the scriptures and how that Christ was the fulfillment of the promises of the Old Testament. Persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets from morning till evening. I mean, he was really going for it. And some believed the things that he was telling them and others didn't. And when they did not agree among themselves, started arguing among themselves, they departed. After that, Paul had spoken one word. He said, Well spake the Holy Spirit by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers saying, Go unto this people and say, Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand and seeing ye shall see and not perceive. So he attributes again to the Holy Spirit these very things that were attributed to the Lord in Isaiah. Again, just declaring that the Holy Spirit is the Lord. He is God. He is a part of that compound unity of the Godhead. The three persons in one. Therefore, in coming into a relationship with the Holy Spirit, you are coming into a vital relationship with God. Now, it is important in having a relationship with each other to have a total relationship. You've got to relate on every level. And especially if you're coming into a marriage relationship. Now, so often relationships begin on the physical level. You see another person and you're attracted to them physically. And because you're attracted to them physically, you then seek to relate to them on a mental level. And sometimes this is successful and sometimes it's chaotic. They're very pretty, but they're dumb. And so you can't relate on a mental level. But there are times when you can relate on a mental level. And you find that, say, we're pretty compatible. We like the, you know, pizza and we country western music, you know. And you find that you have similar likes. And you're attracted physically to each other. And you find that there is a certain amount of compatibility. And you say, would you marry me? Oh, yes, yes, you know. All right. You know, let's set the date. And you get married. They go, oh, this is glorious. Boy, we both like pizza. And we're going to live happily ever after. And on your honeymoon, you eat pizza every night. And things are going great. But then you begin to discover there are some differences. And these differences begin to crop up. And you try to ignore them to begin with. And pretty soon it begins to irritate you and bug you. And so you finally say, will you quit chewing with your mouth open? I don't like to see the pepperonis in your mouth when you're chewing them, you know. And, you know, you've been bugged by it. And now difference is, well, yeah, you may not like that. But what you're doing makes me sick too, you know. And here we go. I'm going to go home to mama. Go ahead, you know. And good riddance. Well, it is extremely difficult to hold a relationship together. Well, let me say, first of all, a lot of times relationships break down in the emotional or mental area, but they continue to try to hold them together in the physical area. It doesn't work. It's hard enough to hold them together with both the physical and emotional. But there is a third dimension of relationship that really cements and creates relationship. And that's the dimension of the spiritual. And a lot of times when the other two are just really blown, the spiritual is still there to hold together until the other two levels can be healed. And you cannot have a total relationship with another person without the spiritual dimension. Because man is a threefold being. He is body, he is mind, and he is spirit. And you can relate physically and you can relate mentally, but there must also, to have a total relationship, be a spiritual relationship. And this is the dimension that sadly so many marriages are missing. And missing this vital spiritual relationship, there is never a total relationship between the two persons. Now, the same if I am to totally relate to God, I must come into this spiritual relationship with the Spirit of God. I relate to Jesus, I relate to the Father, but I do not have a total relationship with God until I am also relating to the Holy Spirit. And thus, it is important that I understand that the Holy Spirit does exist as a person, that He is a part of the Godhead in order that I might relate to the Spirit, in order that I might have a total relationship with God. And many of you, your lives and your relationship with God has been lacking because you have not yet come into a full relationship with the Holy Spirit. And that, of course, is what we seek to help you with in this series of Monday Night Studies as we learn more about the Holy Spirit and as we go into the how of relationship with the Holy Spirit. Now, you can't relate to something you don't even know exists, and that's why we wanted to lay the foundation of the personality of the Holy Spirit and the deity of the Holy Spirit. And now we want to enter into the relating to the Holy Spirit and all as we move on into these studies in order that we might each of us come into a total relationship with God. As I relate to the Father, as I relate to the Son as sort of my elder brother, and as I relate to the Spirit, that source of dynamic and power in my Christian life, that source from which God's power flows unto me and ultimately through me to the needy world around me. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you for thy word whereby we learn of you. We thank you, Father, for the Holy Spirit whom you have sent and for that power that he has given to us for his work in our lives. O Lord, we pray that we might come into a complete relationship with him, a fuller understanding of his work within us, that we might yield to that power, and that we might experience all of the benefits and all of the capabilities that are ours through the anointing of the Spirit upon our lives. Lord, we thank you that your Holy Spirit is willing to come and take residence within us, that our bodies can become the temples, the dwelling place of thy Spirit. Let it be, Father. Come dwell in our lives by your Holy Spirit, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.