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Welcome again to the Final Word.
We started last time a series on the Holy Spirit.
This subject is very, very important.
Today's world has completely missed many important ideas
from God's Word, on who the Holy Spirit really is.
Glenn Colley spoke to us about
the personality of the Holy Spirit.
Remember the question that was presented is,
exactly what is the Holy Spirit?
Is he a shared feeling between God and Jesus
as one of my Bible instructors once told me?
Is he similar to God the Father and God the Son?
And Brother Glenn was in the middle of answering
that question when our time ended last time.
And so, just to give a small recap of his lesson.
Brother Colley mentioned a couple things
that we will make note of.
First he mentioned that the Holy Spirit has a Mind,
that he is a thinking being.
If he thinks, obviously he is not just a shared feeling.
He is not a sort of 'ghost' that flies around the skies.
Also, he has a will, that will can be accepted or rejected,
but he has a will.
And we learned that it is by the Holy Spirit
that we today have a knowledge of God.
If it were not for the actions of the Holy Spirit,
we would have no real knowledge of God today.
There are really two ways that people receive information,
and that is by reason, or by revelation.
We might walk outside, and look up into the skies,
and we might reason that there is a God.
But the only way that we can know what pleases God
is not at all by "reason" but rather by revelation.
It had to be revealed to us.
And so, because of the Holy Spirit,
we can say that we know who God is,
because the Holy Spirit has revealed it to us,
through the writings of inspired men.
Also, brother Glenn helped us to see
that the Holy Spirit is a Teacher.
Just like God the Father and God the Son.
Not only was God a teacher, not only was Jesus a teacher,
but the Holy Spirit was also a teacher.
And if you recall, the Holy Spirit, is a wonderful teacher,
his teachings are comforting.
Part of his job was to give comfort.
That is what Jesus said in John 14:26,
that he would send the Holy Spirit to the Apostles
as a Comforter to them, and secondly,
he was to show them the things that they needed to know.
We still get comfort from the Holy Spirit,
we are encouraged and comforted when we read the Holy Bible
as it was written by men, who were inspired to write
by the Holy Spirit of God.
But also, the Holy Spirit's teachings are clear .
His teachings are not confusing.
And that He teaches us by words.
By verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, as he mentioned,
that it is the Holy Spirit that shows us a true picture of God.
That is how we learn of God today,
by what the Holy Spirit moved men to write.
Well, we have already learned a lot
about the personality of the Holy Spirit.
But let us listen closely as Brother Glenn,
tells us even more about the personality of the Holy Spirit.
I'm telling you the Holy Spirit is a personality.
He has the attributes of personality.
Number one: he's got a mind.
Number two: he is a teacher.
And here's number three:
the Holy Spirit is God, who loves me.
Did you ever think about the Holy Spirit loving you?
Why not?
Let's open, swing open the door to this room of thought,
and let's ponder this.
Because I know that God the Father loves me.
I've thought about this, and enjoyed this all of my life.
"For God so loved the world."
There's the golden text of the Bible, John 3:16.
"That He gave his only begotten son."
That there's the love.
What about John 3:1?
"Behold what manner of love," Stand back and look at it.
"Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,
that we should be called sons of God."
Oh, how he loves us. Oh, how he loves us.
And you think about the Son.
How would you describe the love of the Son of God?
Oh, where would you go? There are so many passages.
What about John 13:34, he says "Now I want you Christians,
I want you to love one another."
And then he wants to draw an illustration so we'll know
just the degree to which we are to love each other.
Ok, what are you going to pull out to say "here's what I mean."
Folks, what will Jesus say to illustrate this?
He said, "I want you to love each other", watch,
"As I have loved you".
Don't you enjoy thinking about
the way that Jesus loves you?
How many times have you been troubled of soul so deeply
you just didn't know which direction you were going to go.
And you, you've recieved comfort,
solace in the reality that God the Father loves you.
That Jesus loves you.
But did you ever think about the love of the Holy Spirit?
In Romans 15:30, the Bible says,
Paul says "I beseech you, for the sake of Jesus Christ,
"and for the love of the Spirit, that you pray for me.
I want you to pray for me."
But he based this, he said, "I beg you,
"based on the sake of Jesus Christ,
and the love of the Spirit. You've got to pray for me."
In how many ways has the Spirit evidenced his love
for you and me?
Well, by the very fact that you've got a Bible on your lap
demonstrates the love of the Spirit.
Can I just narrow that down, though, and show you one,
one pinpoint illustration of the love of the Spirit?
Bear in mind, that it's the Spirit who saw to it
that the Messiah came into the womb of a girl named Mary.
Why did he do that?
Why did he, why did he bring the Son to the place,
to walk these dusty streets of this earth?
To suffer one day on a Roman cross.
And why, what's the answer to that?
The answer is of course, the Spirit knew as the Father did,
that redemption couldn't be accomplished
without Jesus doing this.
It couldn't be accomplished.
And he loves you, you hear me? The Spirit loves you.
How many ways can you think about this?
In Matthew 4:1, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit led Jesus
into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil.
He led the Messiah to the womb of Mary and now
here it is that the Spirit is leading the Son
into the presence of the Devil at the wilderness,
in order to be tempted of-- Why would he do this?
Why would he put the Son of God under this kind
of difficult circumstance?
And you know the answer to that.
He didn't leave him, by the way, he didn't leave him alone.
There's so many things I like to think about.
What about the angels? Angels were present there.
But they were held at bay until the temptation was finished.
I wonder if it wasn't the Holy Spirit holding them back.
He's God, you know.
I wonder if the Holy Spirit himself wasn't holding back
those angels. "Not yet, not yet.
You can't minister to him yet. Hold back. Wait."
Why is that important?
That the angels didn't minister to Jesus until
after the temptation was over.
It's because of this; had the angels ministered to Jesus
during the temptation, it would not be an example for us.
We could say it was so very interesting that Jesus was able
to overcome temptation.
But I couldn't go to that passage and say, "See there,
"I can do that the way he did," because I don't have
those angels ministering to me that way.
But they waited.
They didn't minister to him until it was finished.
So I can go, and you know what, I can resist.
That with which I resist temptation
is the same thing with which Jesus resisted the temptation.
And you know what that was?
It was the word of God which was brought by the Holy Spirit,
that's what it was.
"Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
And every time Jesus said, "It is written. It is written.
It is written." And who took him there?
Ladies and gentlemen, the Holy Spirit took him there.
And why did he take him to be tempted of the devil?
The answer is Hebrews 4.
See, we need the Messiah, we needed a savior "who was tempted
"in all points such as we are, yet without sin."
We needed that.
And he knew that, and the Holy Spirit led him to that point.
And I'm asserting this - that that is an expression
of the love of the Holy Spirit for your soul.
Number next.
We're talking about the attributes of personality
in the Holy Spirit.
I submit to you that He is God, who is good. He's good.
I know this is closely associated to love,
but I want to make a separate point of it.
See, the Holy Spirit is good.
You like to think about the goodness of God the Father?
I know the answer to that.
You could just ponder this for a long time.
But it will strengthen you.
Think about passages which reflect the goodness of God.
"Or despises thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance,
"and longsuffering.
"And don't you know that the goodness of God leadeth thee
to repentance?" Romans 2:4.
You think about the psalmist, and all the times
he made reference to the goodness of God.
How about 23:6, "Surely goodness shall follow me all the days
of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
Or 25:7, "Remember not the sins of my youth,
"or my transgressions according to your mercy.
Remember me for thy goodness' sake."
Or how about 31:19, "How great is thy goodness?"
Or how about 33:5, where the Bible speaks
of the wonderful goodness of God, or says
the whole earth is filled with his goodness.
Or how about 52:1, where the Bible says his goodness
is everlasting.
Or Psalm 107, three different times in that psalm
where the Bible says, "O, that men would praise the Lord
for his goodness."
For his goodness!
Ladies and gentlemen, God is good.
God is so good.
And you think about the Son, God the Son is good.
You remember what the Bible says about him, Acts 10:38,
"He went about doing good."
Now here is where it's echoing in my ears, "Come unto me,
"all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
"Take my yoke upon you and learn of me,
"for I am meek and lowly in heart
"and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, my burden is light."
But ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you,
the Spirit is good.
In Nehemiah 9:20, specific reference is made to this
when the Bible says, "Thy good Spirit."
He's good.
You know what happens, if you live your life
following the Holy Spirit?
I mean, the Bible would reference it in this way,
when you walk after the Spirit, do you know what happens to you?
You could make a list, I suppose.
Let me throw a couple out at you.
When you walk after the Spirit, you get sweet.
I mean, your character turns sweet.
You know, Galatians 5:22, you want to walk after the Spirit,
what happens then?
The fruit of the Spirit will accompany such a person.
The fruit of the Spirit is love,
and joy, and peace, longsuffering,
and gentleness and goodness, and temperance, meekness, faith.
But why?
Because that's what follows when you follow the teaching,
the truth of the Holy Spirit.
You know what else?
You want to walk after the Spirit?
Well, you can just forget about going to hell.
Have you ever thought about the fact that there is no hell
created for faithful Christians?
I mean, it doesn't exist.
It's just a terrible tragedy, that faithful Christians
live their lives in fear of going to hell.
Isn't that something?
It occurs to me that the devil does a great deal
to make lost people believe they're saved
and the flip side must also be true,
that he works to make saved people
believe that they're lost.
What a terrible tragedy, because there is no hell prepared
for faithful Christians.
Romans 8:1, listen to these words and enjoy them with me,
because we are talking about walking with the Spirit.
"There's now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
The Holy Spirit has the attributes of personality.
He is good.
Here's the last one. Number five.
The Holy Spirit is God, who has a heart that can be broken.
The Holy Spirit is God, who has a heart that can be broken.
We know this about the Father and the Son.
In Genesis 6:6, there's a tidal wave of emotion in these words,
"And it repented God that he had made man."
What does that mean?
What does it tell you about the heart of God?
Or the words?
And you know, it just goes right through a Christian.
You read John 11:35, "Jesus wept."
What does it mean?
Think of the significance of that.
But what about the Holy Spirit?
Ephesians 4:30 says, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit."
The word "grieve" there means heaviness, and sorrow,
and the expression is, the idea is, that people
who are his people, that they can live
in such a way to walk away from the truth,
walk away from the Holy Spirit,
walk away from the Father, and the Son,
live in such a way to bring on this disappointment,
called grieving the Holy Spirit,
and the Greek word means heaviness and sorrow,
and that's something which this person, the Holy Spirit, feels.
But not only that, in Isaiah 63:10,
the Bible says the Holy Spirit can be vexed.
You and I don't use the word "vexed" very much
or maybe not at all, but the reference has to do
with the people of Israel and how that they,
here's the word in the King James,
they rebelled against the Father,
they rebelled against God.
And you know about that, about the Israelites
and how fickle they were.
But the Bible makes reference here to how when they rebelled
against God, it vexed the Holy Spirit.
Now that's an interesting word in the Hebrew.
What it means, according to Strong's,
is to fabricate or to fashion.
In other words, that stimuli, that occurrence of rebellion
had an effect on the Holy Spirit
and it had a way of sort of symbolically molding his heart.
It hurt him.
It fabricated or fashioned his attitude, and it hurt him.
But what about Hebrews 10:28?
We're talking about the heart of the Holy Spirit,
"Of how much sorer punishment suppose you,
"shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot
"the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the covenant,
"wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing,
"hath done" (now this is King James)
"despite unto the Spirit of grace."
Now this word "despite" in the Greek language,
according to Strong's, means to insult him.
Another translation says, "to outrage him."
Another one says, "to insult him."
But the Greek word means to insult him.
Can we do this today?
Do you reckon that Christians today can live in such a way
in rebellion to the Lord, that they grieve him?
Do you think that today it's possible to vex the Holy Spirit?
You think it's possible to insult him
or to do as the King James says, to despite him?
I submit to you that if it's possible to commit the blasphemy
of the Holy Spirit against the Holy Spirit,
that it's certainly possible to grieve him.
What's the sin, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?
I can't spend time on this a lot,
but perhaps it will be brought up - I know it will later today.
Isn't there a speech on this?
The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?
Well, I'll go ahead and tell you this,
the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit has to be the refusal
to repent of my sins and dying in my condition.
I know that has to be true, because I John 1:9 says that,
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
That word "all" is universal and all-inclusive.
Thus, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit must be
to leave this world in an impenitent situation.
I refuse to repent of my sins.
If that is possible, if it is possible then
to commit the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit,
surely it's also possible for me to live in such a way
as to grieve him and to vex him and to insult him.
Ladies and gentlemen, the point of this speech is that
we need to be working on our own hearts,
I think, in reference to how we view the Holy Spirit.
I can't wait to go to Heaven and be with God the Father.
I love to think about that.
I love to think about going to heaven and being with the Son,
but I'm going to tell you this, I love the Holy Spirit.
Is it ok with you if I say that again?
I love the Holy Spirit.
And I can't wait to go to Heaven and be with him, too.
You see, there was a day on which I was baptized
and I was baptized into the Father, and the Son,
and into the name of the Holy Spirit.
I want to leave you with Romans 8:1.
I mentioned it a while ago, I want to close with this verse.
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them
"which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit."
Thank you very much for your attention.
Isn't it great to be able to learn so much about our God
and specifically today, about the Holy Spirit?
I am thankful that I have been here today
to learn even more about my God.
And so, as we think about and consider some things
that we learned, remember, we had already learned that
the Holy Spirit has a Mind, that he is a thinking being.
He has a will, and that it is only by the Holy Spirit
that today we even have a knowledge of God.
Also, Glenn, helped us to see that the Holy Spirit
is a Teacher.
And what kind of teacher was he?
Well, He's a wonderful teacher, his teachings are comforting.
But also, the Holy Spirit's teachings are clear .
His teachings are not confusing.
Remember, God is not the author of confusion,
and so his teachings are clear.
We also learned that he teaches us by words.
By the verbal inspiration of the Holy Scriptures.
But, today we also learned that the Holy Spirit loves me.
John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son"
and so we can clearly see that God loves us.
1 John 3:1 tell us that God the Father loves us.
We also know Jesus loves us, John 13 says that.
We can see the Love of Christ for us,
as he hangs on the cross, willing to bear our sins,
based upon his love for each one of us.
But also we saw in Romans 15:30
that the Holy Spirit loves us as well.
In fact he loves us so much he gave the Bible to help us.
It is by His word that we receive
the help we need in times of trouble.
He not only gave us the Bible, but he also loved us so much,
that he even led our Lord to do things that would help us out.
For instance, it was the Spirit that led Jesus to be tempted.
So that we could learn how we are to act when we are tempted.
So that we could see how the Lord reacted to the temptation,
and we could look to him as our example to follow.
We see Jesus' actions that day, and because of his actions
now you and I know how we ought to be.
But it was the Spirit that led the Lord there for us-
for our sakes.
And many other like things that brother Glenn mentioned.
He also told us that the Holy Spirit is "Good."
That might seem obvious, but I know that the Father is Good,
many passages tell us that.
I also know that Jesus,
or the second person of the Godhead, is good.
We hear him say, "Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
- so we know that Jesus is Good.
But the Holy Spirit is good as well.
Didn't we learn, that by adding the fruits of the Spirit
into our lives, we become "sweet."
That is, we become individuals who follow after the Spirit,
and as we follow after the Spirit, we become "good."
we become people who will be pleasing to our Lord.
And we know if we will walk after the Spirit,
Romans 8 says we will not go to Hell.
So we owe so much to God, so much to Christ,
and to the Holy Spirit, for all that they have done for us.
But then also, Brother Glenn showed us,
that the Holy Spirit can have a broken heart.
What a very sad thought.
That God loved us so much that he gave himself,
he gave his life, he gave everything for us.
The Holy Spirit has done so much for us, and yet,
there are times, that we might even break the Spirit's heart.
Ephesians 4 says that the Holy Spirit can be grieved,
or made to grieve.
How? How is it that you can make God sad?
It is to go against Him.
To disobey what God wants us to do.
Just as he mentioned those men in the Old Testament,
who walked against God, and it vexed the Holy Spirit-
it hurt him.
And so it is today that we can by our actions grieve or hurt
the Holy Spirit of God.
Well, I have learned a lot today,
and I hope that you have too.
I am so glad that you were able to join us on The Final Word
as we have begun a series of lessons on the Holy Spirit.
We have more exciting and thought-provoking lessons
in store for you.
So join us next time as Glenn's father, Gary Colley,
shows us the Holy Spirit's role in inspiration.
He will ask us plenty of questions and will help us find
the answer in God's Word to those questions.
Now I know that not every time on the Final Word
can we present God's Plan of Salvation.
But, when we have time, we like to present that
so we can see what God says for us to do to be saved.
The Holy Spirit has been very clear in his teaching
on Salvation.
He has not confused anyone on how a person is to be saved.
The Scriptures are clear.
A person must do these simple steps
if he expects to go to Heaven.
First, a person must believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
John 3:16, "For God so loved the world,
"that he gave his only begotten Son,
"whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life."
Secondly- The Holy Spirit wrote for us in Acts 2:37-38-
that we need to repent of our sins.
"Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart,
"and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles,
"Men and brethren, what shall we do?
"Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized
"every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
"for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost."
Then, third, Romans 10:10 - Paul writes by inspiration,
"For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness;
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
And so we must confess that Jesus is the son of God.
Then upon that confession, the Spirit teaches that we are
to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.
"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world,
"and preach the gospel to every creature.
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;
but he that believeth not shall be damned."
You must be baptized.
But, then it is clear - that we must be baptized in order
for our sins to be washed away.
Folks, these are the steps
that you and I need to do to be saved.