The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
Spirit of Truth: Discovering the Personhood of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit often receives the least attention among the persons of the Trinity, yet understanding His divine personhood is crucial for every believer. Far from being an impersonal force, energy, or "it," the Holy Spirit is a divine being with intellect, will, and emotions – co-equal with the Father and Son.
This episode explores the unique role the Holy Spirit plays in our salvation. While the Father's role is election (choosing before the foundation of the world those who would be saved) and the Son's role is redemption (dying for those the Father elected), the Holy Spirit's role is regeneration – bringing about the new birth in believers. These distinct yet harmonious functions highlight the perfect unity and diversity within the Godhead.
Perhaps most striking is Jesus' declaration that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the only unforgivable sin. This profound statement from Matthew 12:31-32 underscores the divine personhood of the Spirit. As Christ Himself said, one can speak against the Father or the Son and be forgiven, but speaking against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, "neither in this world, nor in the world to come."
Modern Christianity has often trivialized the Holy Spirit, treating Him as a power to be harnessed rather than a divine person to be reverenced and obeyed. This episode challenges that misconception, reminding us that the Holy Spirit is not to be trifled with but honored as God equally with the Father and Son. As Zechariah 4:6 tells us, victories in God's kingdom come "not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit."
Join this enlightening discussion that includes powerful insights from panel members and historical quotations from Charles Spurgeon on why a gospel without the Trinity is "a pyramid built upside down." Discover afresh the Holy Spirit's essential role in your spiritual life and how understanding His personhood transforms your relationship with the triune God.
Christians, good evening. Tonight, I'm going to be discussing the Holy Spirit. In particular, I'm going to be discussing the personhood of the Holy Spirit, the personhood of the Holy Spirit, the personhood of the Holy Spirit. There are a lot of folks who have an opinion when it comes to the Holy Spirit, and it is unfortunate. It's unfortunate how so many people are misguided when it comes to the personhood of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been referred to as a force. It has been described as energy, it has been described as an impersonal it, but it has been primarily described by many people as something that it is or that he is not. And I'm beginning today a series on the Holy Spirit that I intend to go through thoroughly to eliminate any confusion as to what the Bible says and how the Bible treats the person of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead. Now, that being said, we need to understand a couple of things. One, in fact, for everybody who's on the panel so far. Can you everybody? Can you mute, because there's somebody who's had a lot of noise coming through? Thank you, I appreciate that. So now, those of us who understand the triunal nature of God. The triunal nature of God, we understand that the Holy Spirit, the father and the Son, they are all one and they combine, make up what we refer to, or the Godhead, the three persons in one. It is important to understand that the nature of God is Father, son and Holy Spirit, son and Holy Spirit. The nature of God is Father, son and Holy Spirit. That is the nature of God, or the nature of the Godhead, which means that if the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, if all three of them as co-equal persons in the Godhead, if one of them is missing or is not believed to be part of the Godhead, then what we understand about the Godhead is not God. Can you please mute somebody, please, thank you is not God. Can you please mute somebody, please, thank you. So the Godhead is triunal in his nature, triunal in nature, and not only that. Each person of the Godhead Father, son, holy Spirit they all perform a particular role in our salvation and in the economy of the ages, from the time of creation until the time that the Lord Jesus Christ returns.
Speaker 1:And before I get done, before I'm done with this whole message, not just tonight, but several going on in this upcoming weeks. The intention will be to make sure that we dispel and dispense with all of those false notions of the Godhead, particularly those as it pertained to the oneness gospel folks, those people who say that Jesus is the father, that Jesus is the son, that Jesus is the Holy Spirit. Before I'm done with this series, it will be easily to understand. It will be easily understood that that teaching oneness or modalism is a lie. And a primary person who is most known today, or is among the most known today of holding that position, is a pastor by the name of Geno Jennings, a man who talks loud and who talks a lot, but he doesn't tell the truth. So we're going to deal with that. So we're going to deal with that. So now it is important to understand that there is there are significant, there are.
Speaker 1:There is a significant difference in the, in the administration of each. You have the Holy Spirit, and here's what each of their offices and their administrations are in the role of our salvation and in the administration of the economy of the Christian church, both in the Old Testament and in the New, the Father and I've said this many times in the past the role of the Father is election. The role of the Father in our salvation is election. What does this mean? This means that the Father has determined, predetermined, foreordained, predestined all of those who are saved to salvation. This is what the Father has done elected all of those who are saved to salvation, and his election of them to salvation for them to be the recipients of his compassion, to be the recipients of his mercy. This was determined by the Father before the foundation of the world.
Speaker 1:And before the foundation of the world has also been described as having our names, those of us who believe, written down in the Lamb's book of life. Your name doesn't get written into the Lamb's book of life when you come to faith. It doesn't get written in the Lamb's book of life before God, before or after you choose Christ. But your, your names, if you are saved, is written in the Lamb's book of life before creation, before the creation of time, which is what we live in today. So the father's role in our salvation is election.
Speaker 1:Now the son. The role of the son in our salvation is redemption. The role of the son is in our redemption. Redemption is the fact that Christ would come to earth in the form of a man, form of a man and his goal is to do exactly what he did do, which was to redeem those, or to buy back those of whom the father gave him from election. The father elects those who are saved, and the Son came to earth to redeem those whom the Father elected, and them only, and them only. So who it is that the Father elects to salvation before the foundation of the world, the Son came to redeem those souls, and those souls only. The father election, the son redemption. Many people will not argue about what the function of both of those persons in the Godhead do, even though there are many people who call themselves Christians who deny that the father elects but now we come to the third person of the Godhead who deny that the father elects. But now we come to the third person of the Godhead.
Speaker 2:The third person of the Godhead, who gets very little attention in our discussions in a theological sense, when it comes to the Godhead.
Speaker 1:So here we have the Holy Spirit, as we said, the Father. His role in our salvation is election. The role of our salvation by the Son is redemption. And now we come to the role of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's role in our salvation is regeneration. Another way of talking about regeneration is what we refer to when we say the new birth, or to be born again. Or, more specifically and more precise, to be born from above as opposed to be born from below, born from above. The Holy Spirit's role in our salvation is to be regenerated. And tonight, what I'm going to begin this series on with regard to the Holy Spirit is going to be about the role, the works, the operation, the administration and the personhood of the Holy Spirit. We want to make sure we dispense with all foolishness when it comes to understanding who the Holy Spirit is, when it comes to understanding who the Holy Spirit is, understanding that the Holy Spirit is a who and not an impersonal it or an inanimate source or power or energy. The Holy Spirit is not a power that can be akin to crystals. The Holy Spirit is not an it. The Holy Spirit is not an it. The Holy Spirit is a who, an intelligent being that is divine and that is co-equal with the Father and the Son and between the three that make up God. One is not superior to the other in terms of what they do and the attributes that one has All share the same attributes. God, the father, is omnipotent, omniscient, and he is I forget what I missed omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. The same goes for the Son and the same goes for the Holy Spirit. Equally, equally. They all equally share the attributes of God and without one, without one of those persons, and without one of those persons being a person, you don't have God, it would not be the God of the Bible. Now, these are the roles of the three persons of the Godhead Election, regeneration and redemption. Election, regeneration and redemption. Father, son and Holy Spirit. And, as I stated, they are equal, they are co-equals in what we call God or what we refer to as the Godhead. Now here's something else that is important to understand Father, son and Holy Spirit, they share in their influence upon the objects of their influence. In other words, they equally have one interest in mind when it comes to humanity to save all of those whom the father has predetermined to be saved. What do I mean by the shared objects of the godhead are influenced by each person. This you have Father, son and Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:As I stated already, the Father is the one who elects a finite number of souls to be saved. So when I say that the interest of the Son and the interest of the Holy Spirit, when I say what their interest is, it is tied to the objects of whom the Father has elected to salvation. And what that means is when the Father elects, when he elected, from before the foundation of the world, those individuals who were to be saved, those finite number of individuals who he ordained to be saved, the son came to earth to atone for them by his death. When I say for them, the question you should be asking is for who? Those for whom the Father elected? And to make it clear for those who don't get it, what I'm saying, which is what the Bible clearly teaches, is that God has chosen, from the masses of humanity and through every age, he has chosen a select number of souls before the foundation of the world to be saved. But when Jesus Christ came, his only interest, his only interest in terms of the salvation of souls, was to save only those, to redeem, only those whom the father elected to salvation before the foundation of the world. So the father chooses and elects a finite number of people from among the mass of humanity, a finite number of people from among the mass of humanity. Then the Son comes in time, dies to save those individuals that the Father elected, no more, no less. But then the Holy Spirit, he comes after the Son and he regenerates and gives the new birth to those whom Christ died for, who are those whom the Father elected to salvation.
Speaker 1:None of them are concerned about the salvation of anyone else other than those whom the father elected to salvation before the foundation of the world, and this is something that a great many Christians hate to hear. A great many Christians hate to hear this, and it's sad because it will do much benefit to your soul to lay hold of, to grasp, to understand and to believe. Whether you believe it now does it matter? You will believe it later, but it matters now if you would have a better understanding of who our God is Now. God the Father, god the Son, god the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:But we're going to be dealing with in this next few messages, dealing with the Holy Spirit who he is, what he does now, dealing with the Holy Spirit, who he is, what he does. Now we know with certainty most Christians know with certainty that there is no spiritual good that is communicated to anyone. There is nothing spiritually good communicated to anyone except by the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit which communicates to the soul anything that is good that comes from God, the only one. Whatever God, in his grace, works in us, it is by the Holy Spirit. But here's something else I want to say again we have God the Father, we have God the Son and we have God the Holy Spirit. But here's the thing we are told in the scriptures that the only sin for which there is no forgiveness is committed against the Holy Spirit. Now we're not going to get into tonight what the sin of sinning against the Holy Spirit is. I'm not going to deal with that tonight. I'll deal with that later.
Speaker 1:However, I want to make it clear that we understand that the blasphemy, or the unforgiving sin that Jesus tells us about, is only committed against the Holy Spirit, not the Father and not the Son, but the Holy Spirit. This should mean something to every Christian soul that the only unforgivable sin, whatever it may be, whatever the blasphemy, is against, whatever it is. You have to understand something that it is only committed against the Holy Spirit, not the Father, not the Son, but the Holy Spirit. Not the Father, not the Son, but the Holy Spirit. And this is one of the first things that I want to make clear, because it is a crime, a spiritual crime, to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, and the only way that that could be so is if the Holy Spirit is a person, an intellectual being, and this is something that a lot of people have a hard time grasping.
Speaker 1:In Matthew 12, verse 31, jesus says wherefore I say unto you all manner of sin and blasphemy, notice all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men. And this is Jesus saying this. This is Jesus saying this Verse 32,. Jesus says and whosoever speaks a word against the son of man, it shall be given, it shall be forgiven him, but whosoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, not in this world, neither in the world or the age to come. Notice what Jesus is saying, because Jesus is the one saying this in Matthew 12, 31 and 32. Notice what he says again in verse 32. He says that you can speak a word against no-transcript. You can speak against the Father, you can speak against the Son, and it will be forgiven you. You will be forgiven for speaking against the Father and for speaking against the Son. But he says this but whosoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, not in this world nor in the world to come.
Speaker 1:Do you still think so far, the Holy Spirit is an impersonal, it an inanimate, it a energy or a force, a power that has no personality, that has no intellect? You would be sadly mistaken to come to that awful conclusion. But Jesus says you can say what you want about the Father. You can say what you want about the Father, you can say what you want about me, and in those two instances you can be forgiven. But to speak against the Holy Spirit, you cannot be forgiven. I hope that you could understand the weight that that's saying by our Lord and Savior, what it means.
Speaker 1:The Holy Spirit is nothing to be trifled with. He is not to be trifled with. He is not to be trifled with. And we have turned the church has turned the Holy Spirit into a cartoon character. If you don't believe me, watch any service online at a charismatic or a Pentecostal church, and you will see a caricature of who the Holy Spirit really is A cartoon character, a joke, something to be toyed with. This is modern Christianity today. The Holy Spirit is a joke, but mankind will find out soon enough what it means to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, because to blaspheme him means no forgiveness.
Speaker 1:Say what you want to say about the father, say what you want to say about Christ, and you can be forgiven, but you speak against the Holy Spirit and you will can be forgiven, but you speak against the Holy Spirit and you will not be forgiven. Not be forgiven, but we'll deal with that later. In Luke 12, 10, we see this again from Luke's perspective and he says that Jesus says that whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him, but unto him that blasphemes against the Holy of man, it shall be forgiven him, but unto him that blasphemes against the Holy Ghost, it will not be forgiven. You can blaspheme the Father and be forgiven. You can blaspheme the Son and be forgiven, but you cannot blaspheme the Holy Spirit and be forgiven. That will not happen. Blaspheme him, there is no forgiveness. And one last time we'll deal with that and what the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is, not today but later on in this series that I'm going to deal with on the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:Lastly, I want to point something out before I start asking people on the panel their opening remarks and perspective on what we've talked about so far. I want to point out something that is said in zechariah 4 6, which a lot of christians are quite familiar with this passage, whether or not they know the verse by number. It's in zechchariah 4, 6, where it says then he answered and spoke to me, saying this is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. What is he saying when he says not by might? He is saying not by trained soldiers or trained workers. It is not by the power of those who have been trained to fight that you will win and that you will win a war, that you will win a battle, that you will accomplish a victory. It won't be by might of trained people, trained souls, trained workers, whatever they may be, whoever they may be.
Speaker 1:He says also it is not by power, meaning by intellectual arguments or by persuasive appeal or by persuasive appeal. That is not how you gain with the Holy Spirit. Not by power, not by intellectual arguments, not by persuasive appeal, Meaning that no matter what I say, no matter how much I've been trained or somebody else has been trained as a minister of the gospel, this will not be what gives you the victory in terms of salvation and being a conqueror in Christ. I can speak till my brains fall out of my ears and no matter how intellectual I may try to appeal to you or no matter how persuasive an argument I can make, it will not be the argument or the persuasion that brings a person to faith, or the persuasion that brings a person to faith.
Speaker 1:But he says but it will be by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. It is the spirit of God who brings you to salvation. It is the spirit of God that makes you a conqueror in Christ, and believe it or not, what most Christians don't understand is that being made a conqueror is to be made part of the family of the spiritual Israel, which means what those who have conquered God. Israel means people who prevail with God. Israel means people who prevail with God, people who have overcome God, and it's a beautiful thing, but coming to him and being reconciled to him, it happens not by, not by might, not by power, but by his spirit. Those being my opening remarks. Before we get into the broader discussion, I now want to ask people on the panel for their opening remarks. I will start with my brother, todd Todd. What do you think so far, brother?
Speaker 4:Todd, are you there? I'm in the middle of Stairmaster but it's an interval so I got time. All right, I think you're right on the money. I think the point that I was thinking of when you started was the blasphemy and the Holy Spirit and that Jesus projects onto the people at Pentecost the Holy Spirit, with the power to live in us, with with the power to live in us, and ultimately, I was kind of going through the thing of the Holy spirit existed in the old Testament and I'm very curious as to how that that applies to what we're going to go through, to the next couple of nights. So I'm excited to hear it.
Speaker 1:All right, brother, get back to the treadmill, keep working Candy. You there, sister, you there Opening remarks. Sister, what do you think so far?
Speaker 2:I mean, without the Holy Spirit, there's no transformation to be, even again, sanctified. He's our spiritual guidance. He's sanctified. He's our guy. He's our spiritual guidance, he's our counselor, he's our comforter. In him, he's the one that helps us be more Christlike with the transformation to fulfill the fruits of Jesus's character.
Speaker 1:Amen, amen, amen, sister, banana pancakes, banana pancake, you there, sister.
Speaker 3:Banana pancakes.
Speaker 1:Banana pancake. You there, sister. Yes, I'm here. I've got to tell you something. I started following you and I've been entertained by a lot of your posts, so keep it up. It's cute, I like it.
Speaker 3:Aw, thank you. Something to wrap your life, thank you. I joined a little bit late, so I'm not quite sure what we're talking about yet, but I did quickly accept to be on the panel because when I came in you were kind of indicating to the fact, and I could be wrong, but I felt like you were saying you know, it's the Holy Spirit that does the work. And that's pretty relevant to what's going on in my life right now, because I I'm not quite sure what it means to be an evangelist, but I feel it in my heart because I just, you know, bring Christ everywhere I go and I share it. You know, it's like if you've been to a good restaurant, you want to tell everyone about it. So that's kind of what I'm living.
Speaker 1:But I do have a quote that I don't know where it came from, but I stand by it, and it says it's not my job to bring everyone to christ, but it's my job to bring christ to everyone yes so I think that's what we might be talking about, but I'm excited to see what the night holds for us we're gonna get into that and if I and if I miss something, you can certainly bring it up when I give you the opportunity to come up again, okay, okay, so you stay, you hang in there as long as you can and, god willing you, you, you know you will have an opportunity for you to expand on that, because I really appreciate what you have to say. And, uh, like I said, I saw, saw some of your posts and I was really moved by a lot of them. I watched a lot of them actually.
Speaker 3:All right, thanks for inviting me.
Speaker 1:Yep Brother Greg, what's your thoughts so far, brother?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I like that passage about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit because it demonstrates a couple of things One, that the Holy Spirit. Because it demonstrates a couple of things One, that the Holy Spirit is divine, because blasphemy can only be committed against God. So if you can blaspheme the Holy Spirit, he has to be God. And secondly, that he's not the Son. So your there goes oneness right there yep, and that's.
Speaker 1:That's something that we're gonna. We're gonna expand on more and I and I tell you right now I definitely because I know you have a good grasp a lot of these things and not to say that other people don't, but amongst the people that I know on this on this platform, I know you're one of the ones that has a good grasp on it. So I may be appealing to you more often than I usually do to help expand on it, to help people understand the truth about it. Canaan, next point what's your thoughts? Brother, glad to have you.
Speaker 6:Thank you for having me again. And first I want to say amen. And there is a. Actually it's funny that you're talking about this subject, because when I hear oneness and when I hear people deny the trinity it breaks my heart because they don't understand the reality of the personhood of not only christ and the father but of the holy spirit. And I was listening to a sermon and I just wanted to give you just a brief little part of this sermon. It's from Charles Spurgeon, if that's okay. It's not super long, but it hits it home.
Speaker 6:I knew a man he is now a good minister of Jesus Christ and I believe he was before he turned his eyes to heresy. He began to doubt the glorious divinity of our blessed Lord. He began to doubt the glorious divinity of our blessed Lord and for years he preached the heretical doctrine. Until one day he happened to hear a very eccentric old minister preaching from the text there the Lord will be our mighty one. It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams. No galley with oars will ride them, no mighty ship will sail them. Your rigging hangs loose, the mast is not held secure, the sail is not spread Isaiah 33, verse 21 and 23.
Speaker 6:Now, said the old minister, you give up the Trinity and your riggings hang loose. You cannot secure your masts. Once you give up the doctrine of the Trinity, then your riggings are completely gone. Your mast, which ought to be a support to your vessel, is a rickety one and shakes.
Speaker 6:A gospel without the Trinity, it is a pyramid built upside down. A gospel without the Trinity, it is a rope of sand that cannot hold together. A gospel without the Trinity, then clearly Satan can overturn it. But give me a gospel with the Trinity, and all the power of hell cannot prevail against it. A gospel with the Trinity and all the power of hell cannot prevail against it. No man can any more overthrow it than a bubble could split a rock or a feather. Break a mountain into. Gain an understanding of the Trinity and you have discovered the heart of all divinity. Understand that the three distinct persons, the father, the son and the Holy spirit, are one, then all things will appear clear. This is the golden key to the secrets of nature, and he who understands this will soon understand as much as mortals can ever know.
Speaker 1:Listen, let me tell you something about that. First of all. When you read Spurgeon or you hear something like that, you almost know who is from. And when you read, and you read something like that and you hear something like that, this is one of those kinds. This is the first time I'm ever going to break into a middle of a message and say be provoked and be persuaded, because that is beautiful. And nobody speaks like Spurgeon no one. And that was beautiful, because I don't remember ever reading that and I thought I read just about everything he's read. I don't recall that, not that I can remember everything that I read, but that's beautiful man. So I thank you, canaan, for that. Really appreciate it. Lisa. Opening remarks, sister.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone. As you know, I got here a little bit late, so when I came in you were speaking of the Holy Spirit. So are we speaking of the Trinity or the Holy Spirit in general?
Speaker 1:We're speaking of the Holy Spirit, specifically dealing with his personhood and his divinity. So the primary aspect of what we're dealing with is pointing out that the Holy Spirit is a third person of the Godhead.