April 23, 2025 • 24 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So, who is the Holy Spirit in essence, God in person,
distinct from the Father and the Son. What is the
gift of the Holy Spirit, God's presence in you, working
in conjunction with the Word of God to teach, God,
counsel and encourage. However, what is the primary function of
the Holy Spirit?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Today? Today, Today, Today with Jeff Fines, pastor, apologist and
Bible teacher.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Hello and welcome. This is Today with Jeff Fines. We're
continuing in the Dirt Road discipleship series, and in this message,
Pastor Jeff is sharing about being transformed by the Holy Spirit.
He's preaching from John chapter fifteen.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
It's good to see you, John fifteen. I want to
read to you from John fifteen, verse five through eight.
John fifteen, Verse five through eight, one of my favorite
passages this weekend.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Verse five.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
I am the vine, not the vines. Although I am
the vines, I am the vine. You are the branches.
If you remain in me and I in you, you
will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing.
If you do not remain in me. You are like
a branch that is thrown away.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
In Withers.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Such branches are picked up thrown into the fire and burned.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you,
ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
This is to my Father's glory that you bear much
fruit showing yourselves to be my disciples. So I want
to talk to you this weekend about the Holy Spirit.
There are going to be two sermons on the Holy Spirit.
(01:58):
Because it's a lot of material. We're going to hit
the basics this week and then next week get into
the nitty gritty. But what I want to share with
you at the end of this message. But there's something
at the end of this message that's taken me a
lifetime to discover. This is the cool thing about being
old in ministry, that you discover things about at this
(02:18):
point in your life and you can share them with
the generation that's quite a bit younger.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
So hold on tight.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
First of all, a fully devoted disciple of Jesus Christ
comes to terms with the reality and the work of
the Holy Spirit in his or her life. If you
are a fully devoted follower, if you are the real
deal when it comes to following Jesus, You've got the
Holy Spirit in your life and you're coming to terms
with what that means. There is no such thing as
(02:46):
a Christian, a true Christian who does not have the
Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
The Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Comes into your life according to Ax two, at the
point of conversion, when you truly give your life over
to Jesus and your baptis in Christ, the Bible says,
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Now you may look around and say, man, if that's true,
there are some people. Man, they just don't look like
they look like they have the spirit. It's the Unholy Spirit.
(03:13):
Now I didn't say that, it's I didn't say that
there weren't people who were grieving the Holy Spirit and
quenching the fire of the Holy Spirit and suppressing the
work of the Holy Spirit. That's true. But make no mistake.
He saved you to sanctify you. He saved you to
sanctify you. So the Holy Spirit comes into you. So
here's what I want to discuss three sections. Number one,
who is the Holy Spirit? Number two? What is the
(03:35):
gift of the Holy Spirit? Number three, what is the
primary function of the Holy Spirit?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
First? Who's the Holy Spirit?
Speaker 1 (03:42):
National Geographic produced a series called The Story of God
and in the series, it featured God himself, Morgan Freeman,
and it only took it only took a few minutes
to hear various religious views referred to God as a force,
a power, or this kind of binding energy. There was
(04:04):
never a suggestion anywhere in what was produced that God
is a person with whom we could relate, enter into
friendship and connect intimately with.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Now, let me be clear. Now, how many.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Times have you heard a press secretary say that and
then give you a convoluted statement. How many times we
heard that it's a popular Let me be clear, But
then I'm not clear. Let me be really clear. The
Holy Spirit is not a force, energy.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Or power.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
The Holy Spirit is not an it. The Holy Spirit
is a person. He is someone, not some thing.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
The Holy Spirit is not a ghost.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
There's a reason that word was translated by the King
James version, and it's a bad reason.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
The Holy Spirit is not a ghost.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
It's not a spirit wandering around without personhood, and it's
not according to Hinduism, it is not a manifestation of God.
He is not a manifestation of God. The question is
not what is the Holy Spirit, but who is the
Holy Spirit? And the Holy Spirit according to scripture, is
a person with divine attributes, the all powerful, all knowing,
(05:10):
all present, third person of the Godhead. He is coequal, coexistent,
and coeternal with God the Father and God the Son.
So the Holy Spirit is a person teaching, speaking, interceding, grieving,
distinct from the Father and the Son. Now there is
no perfect illustration to illustrate the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
There's just not.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
And as I've said before, the more pastors talk about it,
the more they tend to go and move toward heresy,
because it is a difficult concept, but not an impossible one.
After all, of God is God, he can reveal himself
in three persons.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Right. If God is God, there's no limit. He can
do whatever he wants to do.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
But the thing that helped me when I was in
seminary was if you take a ball of Plato and
you divide it into three balls. All right, we have Plato.
You've got three distinct balls, but each ball is made
of the same substance. Right, it's still Plato. This is
different from this, but it's still Plato. This is different
from this, it's still Plato. The shape informs a little different,
(06:12):
it's all Plato. Now, in some respect it's lacking, But
the doctrine of the Trinity says that God is.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
One being in three persons. Now this is the only
difficult part of the sermant this week. Stay with me.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
What is being being is the quality of essence that
makes something what it is. The Holy Spirit, in essence,
is the same as God substance. You are made of
human substance. Therefore you're human. The Holy Spirit is a
God being because he's a God substance. That's the being
of the Holy Spirit. What is the person of the
(06:51):
Holy Spirit? Person refers to the quality of essence that
makes someone who they are, who he is, who she is.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
So you are a human being.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
That doesn't describe your personhood or your personality.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
The Holy Spirit is of God's stuff, but is also
the third person, uniquely the third person of the Trinity,
and has a distinct role from the Father and the Son.
So that's why we say God according to what Scripture teaches.
And people will say, well, the word trinity is not
in the Bible, No, but the definition concept is everywhere,
beginning with let us make man in our own image.
(07:27):
Who's God talking to the Triune God? Let us make
man in our own image? God is plural, Elohem is
plural because He again is one being in three persons,
and the Holy Spirit and Jesus the Son are equal
in essence to God because they are the God substance.
(07:47):
God reveals himself in three different ways. So who's the
Holy Spirit? God in essence, God in person. He is
distinct from the Father and the Son. And you were
saved the Holy Spirit came inside to dwell. Second question,
Now you notice we could have spent a whole sermon
(08:08):
on that, but we're moving. We can only do so
much in two weeks. What is the gift of the
Holy Spirit? I didn't say. What are the gifts from
the Holy Spirit?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
That's next week? What is the gift of the Holy Spirit?
Speaker 1 (08:19):
In Acts chapter two on the Damn Pentecous, when Peter
preaches the first sermon, he says, let all of Israel
be assured of this. God has made this Jesus whom
you crucified, both Lord and Messiah. When the people heard this,
they were cut to the heart and said to Peter
and the other apostles, brothers, what do we do?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Peter replied, repent and be baptized.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit. You're going to receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for
you and your children, and for all who are far off,
for all whom the Lord our God will call. So
the gift of the Holy Spirit is not the same
as gifts from the Holy Spirit. The gift of the
Holy Spirit is the presence of the Spirit inside you.
(09:00):
In you, he comes into you to live. He makes
his dwelling place in your life, in your soul, your heart,
your mind, emotions, whatever, he's there. He comes into your
life and conversion in baptism. All right, Now, the question
is why why does he come in? Yeah, so we
know there are great benefits.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
We're told that the Holy Spirit living in us.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Some of the benefits are number one, we are looked
at with filial favor. We are now in the family.
Everything Christ's accomplice is given to us. Forgiveness of sin,
conquering death, all the blessings associated with promised inheritance, all
Christ One belongs to us.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Look, this is good news.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
That alone should make you dance, That alone should make
you say it's Friday, but Sunday's coming.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
We have victory over sin, We have fellowship with the Father.
We can walk into the throne room of God with courage,
knowing that we will receive mercy and grace, which is amazing.
We're part of Guard's fam God family, were the sons
and daughters of God. And we get thinking about it,
we get the inheritance folks, Oh my goodness. Now, I
grew up in East Tennessee and we used to hear
about stories of inheritance. We never experienced them, but we
(10:12):
heard these stories about when somebody would die, they would
actually leave stuff for the people behind. But in my family,
when somebody dies it cost us about fifteen grand to
bury them. We'd never heard of this thing called inheritance.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Our family's poor. The only thing we got was an
expensive bill, and people come into our house that expected
you to feed them. It was expensive when a friend died.
But with Christ, all that he owns and all that
he possesses, the earth is the Lord's and everything in
it belongs to you and me. So when you're in
God's family, all that is his is yours. Now, before
(10:47):
I move on, let us sink in just a moment,
the oceans, you know, the stars and the galaxies, the
fruits and the vineyards, the mountain and the valleys. Peace, joy, vitality,
it's all yours now. You have hard time seeing that
because you're you're just facing life day to day and
(11:10):
there's so much tension in your life that you just
forget about that that you're gonna win in the end
and everything that your heart desires one day is going
to be yours because of what Christ has done. And
on days that you really think about that, you are
you had a gratitude of gratitude, you're thankful, and you
have a good prayer time. But most of the time
we're distracted by other things. Even now, we're told that
(11:31):
God gives us a deposit of what is yet to come,
and the deposit, the down payment we're given, is the
Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit right now gives us
wonderful things like divine comfort.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
In John fourteen, we're told that the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
By the way, the word is peracleitos, which if you've
studied scripts for any length.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Of time, you know that word.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
But it means what helper and counselor and advocate and
we've all experienced that, we just didn't attribute it to
the Holy Spirit. I guarantee you've had times in your
when suddenly you were overwhelmed with comfort, overwhelmed with guidance
and wisdom, you just forgot the You forgot about the
power that's in you. So I've used the example of
when my mom died and we're all at the tent
(12:11):
and it's the graveside service, and they're lowering my mom down,
and I was very close to my mom. The most
pain I've ever felt in my life up to this
point is at the death of my mom, and so
they're lowering her in the ground. I'm sitting there and
I am weeping, and suddenly just I am overwhelmed, overwhelmed
with the love of God, and suddenly these scriptures start
firing into my mind. He who believes in me, though
(12:34):
he will dies, yet shall he live to die is gain.
These scriptures just started pouring in And suddenly I started laughing,
and my brothers were mad at me. Why are you laughing, man,
Our mother's going down in the ground, And I said, no,
she's not.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Her body's going in the ground. She's been with Jesus
three days ago.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And so that's the power of the Holy Spirit taking
the Word that's in your life and using it as
ammunition to comfort you, to guide you, to lead you.
But all these are just deposits, they're down payments, a
fraction of what will one day be the reality where
the fullness of God is with us at all times.
That's why there's no sadness. That's why there's no dead
(13:15):
This deposit that shows us it's possible. God now is
fully present and we are fully known. It's going to
be a beautiful thing. But that's why we've said in
the human condition, the Spirit and the Word work together
to give you the major victories of your life. We
spend a lot of time on that Ephesian six. Once again,
in addition to all of this, take up the shield
of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming
(13:36):
errors of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word
of God. The sword of the Spirit, which is the
Word of God. So the Spirit uses the word of
God as an offensive weapon to defeat the enemies that
try to destroy you. And the more the Word you
have inside you, Oh my goodness, the more ammunition the
(13:57):
spirit can fire, and he whis that in times of difficulty,
he activates the right word at the right time of
the right place, and suddenly your countenance is raised.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
So who is the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
In essence, God in person, distinct from the Father and
the Son. What is the gift of the Holy Spirit,
God's presence in you, working in conjunction with the Word
of God to teach, God, counsel and encourage. However, okay, now,
what is the primary function of the Holy Spirit. I'm
gonna take you through a passage just quickly, and then
(14:31):
we're gonna get back to John fifteen with that that
life changing nugget. I know you've read Romans eight a lot.
I wanted I want to ask you to open your
open your mind. Not when I say open your mind,
I don't mean just open anything. Think about what I'm
gonna take you through right now. When we study scripture,
and I know there are many well meaning people, and
(14:51):
I know I don't have a monopoly on truth.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I get that.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
But there is there is a science to scripture, and
it's the science of hermeneutics. And it's called herman utics
because there is a science there is an approach to scripture,
and one of the primary rules of scripture is that
context is king.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
We've heard this all of our lives.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
So to understand what God is saying, it's very it's
very important to understand what is the context, What is
the what is the oh man, that sounds like something
somebody else was say in for a while, But context,
what is the context of Romans eight? Now, let me
read to you Romans eight twenty nine. Here's what it says.
For those God for knew, He also predestined to be
(15:31):
conformed to the image of his son, that he might
be first born among many brothers and sisters. So you
know what we're doing right now, right we are studying
scripture right now. I'm not meant to give you a
pep talk. We are studying scripture. And the Bible tells
us that those God fore knew, and you've heard me
say this before Prognosco, God knew something was gonna happen beforehand.
(15:56):
That's different than saying that God determines what's gonna happen beforehand,
because if he foreknows something's gonna happen beforehand, it's because
he's already there he's outside of time and space.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
He's not limited by time.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
So he knows the decisions you're gonna make, but he
does not predetermine the decisions you're gonna make. You still
have the freedom to make them. He just knows what
you're gonna do, Okay, But there is something that is predestined.
That's something that he decided that you have no say in.
And what he decided that you have no say in
is if you do come to him and call on
his name, he's gonna save to you, and he's gonna
(16:29):
put his Holy Spirit in you for what purpose? To
be conformed to the image of his son, that he
might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. What
does it mean that Jesus is the first born? Well,
he's our elder brother in a very real way. And
what do we see in Jesus Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, mercy, faithfulness, gentleness,
(16:52):
self control. Those are called the fruits of the spirit.
What spirit the Holy Spirit? However, if you look at
the preceding verse and you know that the whole of
chapter eight, starting with verse eighteen, is about suffering, right.
It starts with Paul saying that he compares the weight
(17:14):
of our sufferings with the weight of what we'll experience
in glory. So he says, if I compare the difficult
days I have to go through now with what God
is one day going to give me in my inheritance,
there's no comparison. Every verse after that, all the way
through the end of the chapters, in the context of pain, tension, suffering. Now,
in verse twenty eight, he says, and we know that
(17:37):
in all things God works for the good of those
who love Him, who've been called according to His purpose
that comes before the verse where he says, and those
God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the
image of his son.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I'll stay with me. Here's my point.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
There are statements that you hear at the gym all
the time, and they're on the walls. If you've been
going to the gym any length of time, you know
these statements. Okay, no pain, no gain hurts, so good.
Sweat is weakness leaving the body. The only bad workout
is the one you don't do. Embrace the burn.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Right.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
But if you're my wife, you don't like any of
those sayings. Your favorite saying is this unless you fall
off the treadmill. Nobody wants to hear about your workout. Okay,
now here's the point I'm making. All of these emphasize
the importance of discomfort when you're attempting to reach your goals.
(18:34):
If you don't have tension, there can be no growth.
If you don't break the muscle down, you're not gonna
build it up. Now back up a few more verses
to verse twenty six and twenty seven. In the same way,
the Spirit helps us in our weakness. Now, what is
our weakness? Our weakness is that we want to do
(18:57):
the good, but we struggle to do the good. We're centers, right.
It's the same word actually used in one Corinthians fifteen,
when it's talked about we are sown and weakness raised
in strength. We do not know what we ought to
pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through
wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the
(19:18):
mind of the spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's
people in accordance with.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
The will of God.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Now, what is the will of God? The will of
God is that we are conformed to the image of
His son. But we don't know what we need for
that to happen. The Spirit knows what we need for
that to happen. So he intercenes with us with the Father.
Because chances are high most of us are never going
to ask God to send us pain.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
But the Spirit will.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
The Spirit will look into our lives and say, Okay,
God is time for a little bit of potter and
clay work.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
He knows what we need, and that's why.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Later a few verses later, we're told, sin tight, now,
this is the goal of your life, that you are
conformed to the image of the Son of God. And
then we're told sit tight now, don't worry. Everything works
together for good, even though you may not feel like
everything's working together for good for those who love God,
who are called according.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
To his purpose. And what is his purpose to make
us like Jesus.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
The primary role, not the only role, but the primary
role of the Holy Spirit in us is to sanctify us,
to make us holy. Now, as a result of that,
just quickly, and I got to move quickly because we
want to give to this final part. As a result
of that, when the Holy Spirit comes in, you've heard
me say that he gives us three things Now he
gives us more than that, but in way to understand it.
(20:42):
He gives us the ability to see and be aware
of things we've never been aware of. He gives us
the ability to do things that we never thought we
could do. And he gives us, Oh I love this one,
of course I do.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
I'm a sanguine. He gives us the.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Ability to fill the presence of God, to fill as
if it's feelings on steroids. Okay, feeling so awareness, volition,
and the ability to sense the presence of God. Now,
let me go through these just quickly, but really quickly.
When I talk about a greater spiritual or sense of
spiritual awareness, you may not I mean, if you've been
(21:18):
a Christian for a long time, you may not realize this.
But you see things other people don't see. You do
You're aware of things that other people aren't aware of.
When you have a heightened sense of what needs to
go in your life, what needs to be added into
your life, what attitudes are not in harmony with Jesus,
what actions violate.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
His word, that's proof that he's in you. So that's
the good news.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Because listen what you learn as you live life and
the order you get is not everybody has that, not
everybody will have that. There are many who cannot see
these realities. They've been blinded by the God of this world,
the demonic trinity. They believe that money and possessions are everything,
that sex and power are the goals of light, and
humility is significantly overrated. See humility as a sign of weakness,
(22:02):
not strength. And it's not that they see these things
as sinful and futile but fight against them and fail. No,
they actually see that the way things are, that the
way you should live your life is if you're gonna
win the ultimate game, he who dies with the most
stuff wins. That's that's the attitude, that is the pride
(22:22):
in the arrogance. You've had your eyes opened by the
Holy Spirit, so you know, according to mark A, what
good is it for someone to gain the whole world
yet forfeit their soul? And the irony is that you're
the ones that are the happy ones. If you've got
the spirit of God in you, the joy you have
become central. Their joy is peripheral. There's moments of joy,
but they live with an awesome sense of what desperation.
(22:47):
If you have the Holy Spirit in you, and let
me just stop here for a second. If you don't
have a desiring you to pursue holiness, if there is
nothing in you, if you think like this, you know what.
I want to be saved, but I don't want to
be a disciple with me. I want to be saved,
(23:09):
but I don't want to be a disciple. Brother, sister, listen,
you're totally lost. There's no such thing as a saved
person who's not a disciple. He saved you for the
reason of sanctifying you, to make you holy.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
You've been listening to today with Jeff Fines. Thanks for
joining us. Next time we'll bring you the rest of
this message from Past to Jeff.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
The Puritans refer to the Holy Spirit as the expulsive
power of a new affection, which means that no addiction
has power over you. With the Spirit of God in you,
no sin is your master. You are freed from the
law of sin, and that you have the power of
new life. So the power of conviction is present, which
is good news. It means the Holy Spirit is in you.
You have the power to evict things from your life
(23:56):
because of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
You can listen to more messages like this just search
for Today with Jeff Fines. Wherever you get your podcasts.
You make me a Moneaday say with every single friends,
I won't bring this up. You You Today, Today, Today,
(24:26):
Today with Jeff Fines
So, who is the Holy Spirit in essence, God in person,
distinct from the Father and the Son. What is the
gift of the Holy Spirit, God's presence in you, working
in conjunction with the Word of God to teach, God,
counsel and encourage. However, what is the primary function of
the Holy Spirit?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Today? Today, Today, Today with Jeff Fines, pastor, apologist and
Bible teacher.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Hello and welcome. This is Today with Jeff Fines. We're
continuing in the Dirt Road discipleship series, and in this message,
Pastor Jeff is sharing about being transformed by the Holy Spirit.
He's preaching from John chapter fifteen.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
It's good to see you, John fifteen. I want to
read to you from John fifteen, verse five through eight.
John fifteen, Verse five through eight, one of my favorite
passages this weekend.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Verse five.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
I am the vine, not the vines. Although I am
the vines, I am the vine. You are the branches.
If you remain in me and I in you, you
will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing.
If you do not remain in me. You are like
a branch that is thrown away.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
In Withers.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Such branches are picked up thrown into the fire and burned.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you,
ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
This is to my Father's glory that you bear much
fruit showing yourselves to be my disciples. So I want
to talk to you this weekend about the Holy Spirit.
There are going to be two sermons on the Holy Spirit.
(01:58):
Because it's a lot of material. We're going to hit
the basics this week and then next week get into
the nitty gritty. But what I want to share with
you at the end of this message. But there's something
at the end of this message that's taken me a
lifetime to discover. This is the cool thing about being
old in ministry, that you discover things about at this
(02:18):
point in your life and you can share them with
the generation that's quite a bit younger.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
So hold on tight.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
First of all, a fully devoted disciple of Jesus Christ
comes to terms with the reality and the work of
the Holy Spirit in his or her life. If you
are a fully devoted follower, if you are the real
deal when it comes to following Jesus, You've got the
Holy Spirit in your life and you're coming to terms
with what that means. There is no such thing as
(02:46):
a Christian, a true Christian who does not have the
Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
The Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Comes into your life according to Ax two, at the
point of conversion, when you truly give your life over
to Jesus and your baptis in Christ, the Bible says,
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Now you may look around and say, man, if that's true,
there are some people. Man, they just don't look like
they look like they have the spirit. It's the Unholy Spirit.
(03:13):
Now I didn't say that, it's I didn't say that
there weren't people who were grieving the Holy Spirit and
quenching the fire of the Holy Spirit and suppressing the
work of the Holy Spirit. That's true. But make no mistake.
He saved you to sanctify you. He saved you to
sanctify you. So the Holy Spirit comes into you. So
here's what I want to discuss three sections. Number one,
who is the Holy Spirit? Number two? What is the
(03:35):
gift of the Holy Spirit? Number three, what is the
primary function of the Holy Spirit?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
First? Who's the Holy Spirit?
Speaker 1 (03:42):
National Geographic produced a series called The Story of God
and in the series, it featured God himself, Morgan Freeman,
and it only took it only took a few minutes
to hear various religious views referred to God as a force,
a power, or this kind of binding energy. There was
(04:04):
never a suggestion anywhere in what was produced that God
is a person with whom we could relate, enter into
friendship and connect intimately with.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Now, let me be clear. Now, how many.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Times have you heard a press secretary say that and
then give you a convoluted statement. How many times we
heard that it's a popular Let me be clear, But
then I'm not clear. Let me be really clear. The
Holy Spirit is not a force, energy.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Or power.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
The Holy Spirit is not an it. The Holy Spirit
is a person. He is someone, not some thing.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
The Holy Spirit is not a ghost.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
There's a reason that word was translated by the King
James version, and it's a bad reason.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
The Holy Spirit is not a ghost.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
It's not a spirit wandering around without personhood, and it's
not according to Hinduism, it is not a manifestation of God.
He is not a manifestation of God. The question is
not what is the Holy Spirit, but who is the
Holy Spirit? And the Holy Spirit according to scripture, is
a person with divine attributes, the all powerful, all knowing,
(05:10):
all present, third person of the Godhead. He is coequal, coexistent,
and coeternal with God the Father and God the Son.
So the Holy Spirit is a person teaching, speaking, interceding, grieving,
distinct from the Father and the Son. Now there is
no perfect illustration to illustrate the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
There's just not.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
And as I've said before, the more pastors talk about it,
the more they tend to go and move toward heresy,
because it is a difficult concept, but not an impossible one.
After all, of God is God, he can reveal himself
in three persons.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Right. If God is God, there's no limit. He can
do whatever he wants to do.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
But the thing that helped me when I was in
seminary was if you take a ball of Plato and
you divide it into three balls. All right, we have Plato.
You've got three distinct balls, but each ball is made
of the same substance. Right, it's still Plato. This is
different from this, but it's still Plato. This is different
from this, it's still Plato. The shape informs a little different,
(06:12):
it's all Plato. Now, in some respect it's lacking, But
the doctrine of the Trinity says that God is.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
One being in three persons. Now this is the only
difficult part of the sermant this week. Stay with me.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
What is being being is the quality of essence that
makes something what it is. The Holy Spirit, in essence,
is the same as God substance. You are made of
human substance. Therefore you're human. The Holy Spirit is a
God being because he's a God substance. That's the being
of the Holy Spirit. What is the person of the
(06:51):
Holy Spirit? Person refers to the quality of essence that
makes someone who they are, who he is, who she is.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
So you are a human being.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
That doesn't describe your personhood or your personality.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
The Holy Spirit is of God's stuff, but is also
the third person, uniquely the third person of the Trinity,
and has a distinct role from the Father and the Son.
So that's why we say God according to what Scripture teaches.
And people will say, well, the word trinity is not
in the Bible, No, but the definition concept is everywhere,
beginning with let us make man in our own image.
(07:27):
Who's God talking to the Triune God? Let us make
man in our own image? God is plural, Elohem is
plural because He again is one being in three persons,
and the Holy Spirit and Jesus the Son are equal
in essence to God because they are the God substance.
(07:47):
God reveals himself in three different ways. So who's the
Holy Spirit? God in essence, God in person. He is
distinct from the Father and the Son. And you were
saved the Holy Spirit came inside to dwell. Second question,
Now you notice we could have spent a whole sermon
(08:08):
on that, but we're moving. We can only do so
much in two weeks. What is the gift of the
Holy Spirit? I didn't say. What are the gifts from
the Holy Spirit?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
That's next week? What is the gift of the Holy Spirit?
Speaker 1 (08:19):
In Acts chapter two on the Damn Pentecous, when Peter
preaches the first sermon, he says, let all of Israel
be assured of this. God has made this Jesus whom
you crucified, both Lord and Messiah. When the people heard this,
they were cut to the heart and said to Peter
and the other apostles, brothers, what do we do?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Peter replied, repent and be baptized.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit. You're going to receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for
you and your children, and for all who are far off,
for all whom the Lord our God will call. So
the gift of the Holy Spirit is not the same
as gifts from the Holy Spirit. The gift of the
Holy Spirit is the presence of the Spirit inside you.
(09:00):
In you, he comes into you to live. He makes
his dwelling place in your life, in your soul, your heart,
your mind, emotions, whatever, he's there. He comes into your
life and conversion in baptism. All right, Now, the question
is why why does he come in? Yeah, so we
know there are great benefits.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
We're told that the Holy Spirit living in us.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Some of the benefits are number one, we are looked
at with filial favor. We are now in the family.
Everything Christ's accomplice is given to us. Forgiveness of sin,
conquering death, all the blessings associated with promised inheritance, all
Christ One belongs to us.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Look, this is good news.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
That alone should make you dance, That alone should make
you say it's Friday, but Sunday's coming.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
We have victory over sin, We have fellowship with the Father.
We can walk into the throne room of God with courage,
knowing that we will receive mercy and grace, which is amazing.
We're part of Guard's fam God family, were the sons
and daughters of God. And we get thinking about it,
we get the inheritance folks, Oh my goodness. Now, I
grew up in East Tennessee and we used to hear
about stories of inheritance. We never experienced them, but we
(10:12):
heard these stories about when somebody would die, they would
actually leave stuff for the people behind. But in my family,
when somebody dies it cost us about fifteen grand to
bury them. We'd never heard of this thing called inheritance.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Our family's poor. The only thing we got was an
expensive bill, and people come into our house that expected
you to feed them. It was expensive when a friend died.
But with Christ, all that he owns and all that
he possesses, the earth is the Lord's and everything in
it belongs to you and me. So when you're in
God's family, all that is his is yours. Now, before
(10:47):
I move on, let us sink in just a moment,
the oceans, you know, the stars and the galaxies, the
fruits and the vineyards, the mountain and the valleys. Peace, joy, vitality,
it's all yours now. You have hard time seeing that
because you're you're just facing life day to day and
(11:10):
there's so much tension in your life that you just
forget about that that you're gonna win in the end
and everything that your heart desires one day is going
to be yours because of what Christ has done. And
on days that you really think about that, you are
you had a gratitude of gratitude, you're thankful, and you
have a good prayer time. But most of the time
we're distracted by other things. Even now, we're told that
(11:31):
God gives us a deposit of what is yet to come,
and the deposit, the down payment we're given, is the
Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit right now gives us
wonderful things like divine comfort.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
In John fourteen, we're told that the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
By the way, the word is peracleitos, which if you've
studied scripts for any length.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Of time, you know that word.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
But it means what helper and counselor and advocate and
we've all experienced that, we just didn't attribute it to
the Holy Spirit. I guarantee you've had times in your
when suddenly you were overwhelmed with comfort, overwhelmed with guidance
and wisdom, you just forgot the You forgot about the
power that's in you. So I've used the example of
when my mom died and we're all at the tent
(12:11):
and it's the graveside service, and they're lowering my mom down,
and I was very close to my mom. The most
pain I've ever felt in my life up to this
point is at the death of my mom, and so
they're lowering her in the ground. I'm sitting there and
I am weeping, and suddenly just I am overwhelmed, overwhelmed
with the love of God, and suddenly these scriptures start
firing into my mind. He who believes in me, though
(12:34):
he will dies, yet shall he live to die is gain.
These scriptures just started pouring in And suddenly I started laughing,
and my brothers were mad at me. Why are you laughing, man,
Our mother's going down in the ground, And I said, no,
she's not.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Her body's going in the ground. She's been with Jesus
three days ago.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And so that's the power of the Holy Spirit taking
the Word that's in your life and using it as
ammunition to comfort you, to guide you, to lead you.
But all these are just deposits, they're down payments, a
fraction of what will one day be the reality where
the fullness of God is with us at all times.
That's why there's no sadness. That's why there's no dead
(13:15):
This deposit that shows us it's possible. God now is
fully present and we are fully known. It's going to
be a beautiful thing. But that's why we've said in
the human condition, the Spirit and the Word work together
to give you the major victories of your life. We
spend a lot of time on that Ephesian six. Once again,
in addition to all of this, take up the shield
of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming
(13:36):
errors of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word
of God. The sword of the Spirit, which is the
Word of God. So the Spirit uses the word of
God as an offensive weapon to defeat the enemies that
try to destroy you. And the more the Word you
have inside you, Oh my goodness, the more ammunition the
(13:57):
spirit can fire, and he whis that in times of difficulty,
he activates the right word at the right time of
the right place, and suddenly your countenance is raised.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
So who is the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
In essence, God in person, distinct from the Father and
the Son. What is the gift of the Holy Spirit,
God's presence in you, working in conjunction with the Word
of God to teach, God, counsel and encourage. However, okay, now,
what is the primary function of the Holy Spirit. I'm
gonna take you through a passage just quickly, and then
(14:31):
we're gonna get back to John fifteen with that that
life changing nugget. I know you've read Romans eight a lot.
I wanted I want to ask you to open your
open your mind. Not when I say open your mind,
I don't mean just open anything. Think about what I'm
gonna take you through right now. When we study scripture,
and I know there are many well meaning people, and
(14:51):
I know I don't have a monopoly on truth.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I get that.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
But there is there is a science to scripture, and
it's the science of hermeneutics. And it's called herman utics
because there is a science there is an approach to scripture,
and one of the primary rules of scripture is that
context is king.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
We've heard this all of our lives.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
So to understand what God is saying, it's very it's
very important to understand what is the context, What is
the what is the oh man, that sounds like something
somebody else was say in for a while, But context,
what is the context of Romans eight? Now, let me
read to you Romans eight twenty nine. Here's what it says.
For those God for knew, He also predestined to be
(15:31):
conformed to the image of his son, that he might
be first born among many brothers and sisters. So you
know what we're doing right now, right we are studying
scripture right now. I'm not meant to give you a
pep talk. We are studying scripture. And the Bible tells
us that those God fore knew, and you've heard me
say this before Prognosco, God knew something was gonna happen beforehand.
(15:56):
That's different than saying that God determines what's gonna happen beforehand,
because if he foreknows something's gonna happen beforehand, it's because
he's already there he's outside of time and space.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
He's not limited by time.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
So he knows the decisions you're gonna make, but he
does not predetermine the decisions you're gonna make. You still
have the freedom to make them. He just knows what
you're gonna do, Okay, But there is something that is predestined.
That's something that he decided that you have no say in.
And what he decided that you have no say in
is if you do come to him and call on
his name, he's gonna save to you, and he's gonna
(16:29):
put his Holy Spirit in you for what purpose? To
be conformed to the image of his son, that he
might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. What
does it mean that Jesus is the first born? Well,
he's our elder brother in a very real way. And
what do we see in Jesus Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, mercy, faithfulness, gentleness,
(16:52):
self control. Those are called the fruits of the spirit.
What spirit the Holy Spirit? However, if you look at
the preceding verse and you know that the whole of
chapter eight, starting with verse eighteen, is about suffering, right.
It starts with Paul saying that he compares the weight
(17:14):
of our sufferings with the weight of what we'll experience
in glory. So he says, if I compare the difficult
days I have to go through now with what God
is one day going to give me in my inheritance,
there's no comparison. Every verse after that, all the way
through the end of the chapters, in the context of pain, tension, suffering. Now,
in verse twenty eight, he says, and we know that
(17:37):
in all things God works for the good of those
who love Him, who've been called according to His purpose
that comes before the verse where he says, and those
God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the
image of his son.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I'll stay with me. Here's my point.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
There are statements that you hear at the gym all
the time, and they're on the walls. If you've been
going to the gym any length of time, you know
these statements. Okay, no pain, no gain hurts, so good.
Sweat is weakness leaving the body. The only bad workout
is the one you don't do. Embrace the burn.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Right.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
But if you're my wife, you don't like any of
those sayings. Your favorite saying is this unless you fall
off the treadmill. Nobody wants to hear about your workout. Okay,
now here's the point I'm making. All of these emphasize
the importance of discomfort when you're attempting to reach your goals.
(18:34):
If you don't have tension, there can be no growth.
If you don't break the muscle down, you're not gonna
build it up. Now back up a few more verses
to verse twenty six and twenty seven. In the same way,
the Spirit helps us in our weakness. Now, what is
our weakness? Our weakness is that we want to do
(18:57):
the good, but we struggle to do the good. We're centers, right.
It's the same word actually used in one Corinthians fifteen,
when it's talked about we are sown and weakness raised
in strength. We do not know what we ought to
pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through
wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the
(19:18):
mind of the spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's
people in accordance with.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
The will of God.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Now, what is the will of God? The will of
God is that we are conformed to the image of
His son. But we don't know what we need for
that to happen. The Spirit knows what we need for
that to happen. So he intercenes with us with the Father.
Because chances are high most of us are never going
to ask God to send us pain.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
But the Spirit will.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
The Spirit will look into our lives and say, Okay,
God is time for a little bit of potter and
clay work.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
He knows what we need, and that's why.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Later a few verses later, we're told, sin tight, now,
this is the goal of your life, that you are
conformed to the image of the Son of God. And
then we're told sit tight now, don't worry. Everything works
together for good, even though you may not feel like
everything's working together for good for those who love God,
who are called according.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
To his purpose. And what is his purpose to make
us like Jesus.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
The primary role, not the only role, but the primary
role of the Holy Spirit in us is to sanctify us,
to make us holy. Now, as a result of that,
just quickly, and I got to move quickly because we
want to give to this final part. As a result
of that, when the Holy Spirit comes in, you've heard
me say that he gives us three things Now he
gives us more than that, but in way to understand it.
(20:42):
He gives us the ability to see and be aware
of things we've never been aware of. He gives us
the ability to do things that we never thought we
could do. And he gives us, Oh I love this one,
of course I do.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
I'm a sanguine. He gives us the.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Ability to fill the presence of God, to fill as
if it's feelings on steroids. Okay, feeling so awareness, volition,
and the ability to sense the presence of God. Now,
let me go through these just quickly, but really quickly.
When I talk about a greater spiritual or sense of
spiritual awareness, you may not I mean, if you've been
(21:18):
a Christian for a long time, you may not realize this.
But you see things other people don't see. You do
You're aware of things that other people aren't aware of.
When you have a heightened sense of what needs to
go in your life, what needs to be added into
your life, what attitudes are not in harmony with Jesus,
what actions violate.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
His word, that's proof that he's in you. So that's
the good news.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Because listen what you learn as you live life and
the order you get is not everybody has that, not
everybody will have that. There are many who cannot see
these realities. They've been blinded by the God of this world,
the demonic trinity. They believe that money and possessions are everything,
that sex and power are the goals of light, and
humility is significantly overrated. See humility as a sign of weakness,
(22:02):
not strength. And it's not that they see these things
as sinful and futile but fight against them and fail. No,
they actually see that the way things are, that the
way you should live your life is if you're gonna
win the ultimate game, he who dies with the most
stuff wins. That's that's the attitude, that is the pride
(22:22):
in the arrogance. You've had your eyes opened by the
Holy Spirit, so you know, according to mark A, what
good is it for someone to gain the whole world
yet forfeit their soul? And the irony is that you're
the ones that are the happy ones. If you've got
the spirit of God in you, the joy you have
become central. Their joy is peripheral. There's moments of joy,
but they live with an awesome sense of what desperation.
(22:47):
If you have the Holy Spirit in you, and let
me just stop here for a second. If you don't
have a desiring you to pursue holiness, if there is
nothing in you, if you think like this, you know what.
I want to be saved, but I don't want to
be a disciple with me. I want to be saved,
(23:09):
but I don't want to be a disciple. Brother, sister, listen,
you're totally lost. There's no such thing as a saved
person who's not a disciple. He saved you for the
reason of sanctifying you, to make you holy.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
You've been listening to today with Jeff Fines. Thanks for
joining us. Next time we'll bring you the rest of
this message from Past to Jeff.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
The Puritans refer to the Holy Spirit as the expulsive
power of a new affection, which means that no addiction
has power over you. With the Spirit of God in you,
no sin is your master. You are freed from the
law of sin, and that you have the power of
new life. So the power of conviction is present, which
is good news. It means the Holy Spirit is in you.
You have the power to evict things from your life
(23:56):
because of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
You can listen to more messages like this just search
for Today with Jeff Fines. Wherever you get your podcasts.
You make me a Moneaday say with every single friends,
I won't bring this up. You You Today, Today, Today,
(24:26):
Today with Jeff Fines
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