HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD
HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD
Sunday, April 26, 2015, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Lord Jesus Christ please so fill us with Your Holy Spirit that you will lead Your people in these days to make Yourself a glorious name.
Isaiah 63:7-14 is known as the prayer of the remnant, and one of the greatest prayers of the Bible! In verse 10-14, the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit is recognized in and amongst all the dealings of God.
The prayer in verse 14, confirms the Holy Spirit causes us to rest and in the leading of His people, He made for Himself a glorious name.
The Psalm opens with a confession of faith recalling God’s loyalty to His covenant with Israel at Sinai. The Babylonian exiles praise God for his loving kindness with thanksgiving and confession of their many failings. They pray for deliverance from sin and suffering. Not content with praying for God’s favor, in chapter 64: 1-5, they also ask for a manifestation of His Divine presence.
63: 10: “But they rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit; therefore He was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.”
We don’t hear a lot of preaching about the vexing of the Holy Spirit. From this verse, it is a fact that rebellion against the angel of His presence, and Jesus’ love and pity, is a dangerous place to be.
This reveals the emotional nature of the person of the Holy Spirit in that He can be “grieved”, “provoked” or “vexed” by the sins of God’s people.
Since one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to bring sinners to believe in the blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sin, if in carrying out this work he is despised, rejected and blasphemed, then there can be no forgiveness of sins and no salvation.
The person who despises Christ’s sacrifice has no other sacrifice in which to turn (Heb. 10: 27, 29). God has no other Holy Spirit to enable us to receive that sacrifice and be saved. So he who despises and rejects the Holy Spirit has no other Spirit given him to enable him to receive Christ and be saved.
It is vital that we preach and teach about the Holy Spirit and His work.
All Jesus Christ’s concerns are now committed to the Holy Spirit.
John 16: 7-11: “…If I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. When He comes, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin, because they do not believe on me.”
It is God’s will that the Holy Spirit be exalted in the church and the church is not ignorant of him.
In Acts 19:2-6, Paul came across the disciples of John the Baptist. Paul asked them if they had received the Holy Ghost since they believed. Their reply was that they had never heard of the Holy Ghost. Paul, “To what then were you baptized?” They replied, “to John’s baptism”. Right away, Paul and John baptized them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Paul laid hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came upon them and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.
The sin of despising the Person and work of the Holy Spirit is as wicked as both the idolatry of old and the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. There was forgiveness for these sins because a greater grace was still to come. There is now no further stage of grace to come. God has no other person to give and no other way of salvation.
The Holy Spirit has many names and titles. This past Tuesday in our study of Isaiah 63, verses 11-14, reveal some of the personality of the Holy Spirit.
63: 11-14: “Then He remembered the days of old, Moses, and His people, saying, Where is He that brought them up out of the sea, with the shepherd of His flock? Where is He that put His Holy Spirit with him? Who led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name? He who led them through the deep, as a horse in the wilderness that they should not stumble? As a beast goes down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest; so did You lead Your people, to make Yourself a glorious name.”
The people were led by the Holy Spirit from the time they came out of Egypt ( a type of conversion) until they came into the land of their rest ( a type of perfection – Eph. 4:13). The Spirit of the Lord leads us to make His name glorious.
He has personal attributes such as all the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the seven-fold Spirit of wisdom, revelation, knowledge, understanding, counsel, might and the fear of God. (1 Cor. 2:10-12, Isa. 40:28, 11:2). Seven is the number of perfection.
The Holy Spirit gives to every man the manifestation of the gifts dividing as He wills. (1. Cor. 12:11) He has power and the church needs to cry out for more power. He teaches. He calls men and women to special work ---an act of authority, choice and wisdom. He called Barnabas and Saul. He commanded them to be set apart. He sent them out.
All this shows his authority and personality. He appointed men and women to positions of authority in the church. He was tested by Ananias when Ananias lied to him (Acts 5:3-4). Peter tells Ananias that he had lied to God.
“God is Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (Jn. 4:24)
The Holy Spirit is not merely a quality to be found in the divine nature. He is not our servant to send forth to do our bidding. He is a holy, intelligent Person.
He is the breath of the Lord. (Psa. 18:15; Jn. 20:22; Gen. 2:7). “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” (Ps. 33:6)
Divine Characteristics are attributed to him: eternity, immensity, omnipotence, foreknowledge, omniscience, sovereign authority over the church. He is the third person of the God head.
God created all things out of nothing. The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The Hebrew word “ruach” means the ‘wind” of God. “hovering” signifies an easy, gentle movement like birds hovering over their nests. There is no information in Genesis 1: 1-2 about the creation of the wind. It can only be the Spirit of God and his work.
God created man from the “dust of the earth”. The life-giving principle which made man a living soul was “the breath of God”. The Holy Ghost was imparted to the disciples by the breath of Jesus. We must be born of the water and the Holy Spirit to be born again and enter into the Kingdom of God. With the breath of God (the Holy Spirit), man became a living soul. With the breath of God (the Holy Spirit) we are born-again out of the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God.
Job 33:4: “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty has given me life.”
The Scripture is God breathed. These inspired to write the Word of God were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21). “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
God alone gives the Holy Spirit to us
(Lk. 11:13). The giving is an act of authority and freedom and it
proceeds from the riches of God’s grace.
God sends him to us.
God continually gives additional supplies of his grace to us by his
Spirit.
Another great work of the Holy Spirit is to convince sinners that the gospel preached to them is true and from God. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to make those who believe the gospel holy.
2 Cor. 3:18: “We all, with open face behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord.”
If the Holy Spirit does not work with the gospel, then the gospel becomes a dead letter.
Isa. 59:21: “As for Me, this is My covenant with them, says the Lord; My Spirit that is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed’s seed, says the Lord, from hereafter and forever.”
All that is done in us and all that we are enabled to do that is holy and acceptable to God is by the Holy Spirit working in us and with us. Without him, we can do nothing.
John 15:5-6: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit; but without Me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”
God is said to pour out the Holy Spirit frequently. This out pouring is with a condition. Proverbs 1:23: “Repent at my reproof; behold I will pour out my Spirit to you. I will make known my words to you.”
In gospel times, a much larger measure of the Holy Spirit has been given. “The living God gives us richly all things to enjoy (1 Tim. 6:17b).
The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. He is personally related to the Father and the Son from eternity, so he eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son. He is said to come.
John 15:26: “When the Comforter is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, He shall testify of Me.”
We should pray for him to come to us. He is also said to fall on men. We should also pray that He fall on us.
Acts 10:44: “While Peter spoke these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.”
Acts 11:15: “As I (Peter) began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.”
He also rests on people to whom he is sent. Jn. 1:32: “John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode upon Him…Upon whom (Jesus) you shall see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him the same is He which baptized with the Holy Ghost.”
1 Pet. 4:14: “If you are reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you; for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you; on their part He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is glorified.”
He is well pleased in his work on which he rests; and abides where he rests.
Zeph. 3:17: “The Lord your God in the midst of you is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will rest in His love. He will joy over you with singing.”
John 14:16: “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.”
Man was given a mind and a soul in order that he might obey God, have fellowship with him, enjoy him and reveal His glory. There were three things necessary to fit man for life with God. He must be able to know the mind and will of God so that he may obey and please him. He must have a heart that gladly and freely loves God and his law. He must be able to carry out all that God requires of him and stay the course. All these are the works of the Holy Spirit in man. All these abilities were and are lost in sin. These can be restored only by the Holy Spirit’s work of regeneration through the power of the Blood of Jesus Christ.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture form K.J.V. – I entered into the labors and gleaned from the wisdom of John Owen – The Holy Spirit. (1616-1683). However, He would not agree with my belief that the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit are as active and available to Christians as they were in the Book of Acts.